12 aiming for 1st Super Bowl win
Title-starved NFL teams, take heed – I’m talking to you.
Tom Brady is under contract with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for one more season. So if you’re tired of that Super Bowl doughnut after what will be 56 fruitless seasons a year from now, it should be pretty obvious what you need to do next: Engage in a bidding war for TB12, who will be 45 in 2022 ... and maybe sign his buddies Rob Gronkowski, Julian Edelman and James White to ensure the deal gets closed.
It’s that simple. Reel in Brady, who owns more Super Bowl rings (7) than any NFL franchise, and you’ll surely be hoisting your own Lombardi Trophy in no time.
Unfortunately, he’s not able to play for 12 teams simultaneously – or any of the championship-devoid dozen in 2021. So, in the interim, let’s rank the chances (worst to best) of who might enjoy a Super Bowl breakthrough sans Brady in 2021:
12. Houston Texans (never appeared in a Super Bowl): QB Deshaun Watson wants out. J.J. Watt is already out. There’s no cap space for free agents. There’s no first- or second-round pick in this year’s draft. And executive vice president of football operations Jack Easterby continues to be a source of controversy. Yikes.
11. Detroit Lions (never appeared in a Super Bowl): New coach Dan Campbell recently told the Detroit Free Press, “We are looking two years out, three years out. And so everything to me starts two years out, and it doesn’t start right now.” The recent trade of QB Matthew Stafford to the Rams for QB Jared Goff and a bundle of draft picks, including two first-rounders, suggests the longterm plan is already unfolding ... and probably won’t offer a whole lot of hope in 2021.
10. Cincinnati Bengals
Bowl record): They appear set under center, QB Joe Burrow in the midst of a solid rookie season in 2020 before an ACL injury ended it after 10 games. The Bengals have a solid group of offensive skill players and more than a few able bodies on defense. But will they break from tradition and aggressively pursue more talent – particularly blocking help in front of Burrow – via the draft and free
(0-2 Super
agency? And can coach Zac Taylor, heading into his third season, definitively prove he’s the right guy to get this organization its first playoff win in more than three decades?
9. Carolina Panthers (0-2 Super Bowl record): They were the only team in the league last season with a new head coach, two new coordinators and a new quarterback. Given those circumstances, fairly impressive Matt Rhule won five games while jumping from Baylor to the NFL, though his team now appears intent on replacing QB Teddy Bridgewater. A young club has a steep hill to climb in the deep NFC, but there is plenty of talent on this roster – one likely to perform even better when 2019 All-Pro Christian McCaffrey is available for more than three games.
8. Jacksonville Jaguars (never appeared in a Super Bowl): Head coach Urban Meyer and his highly impressive college résumé are in the building. Clemson QB Trevor Lawrence is almost certain to follow when the draft rolls around. Aside from the No. 1 overall pick
presumably earmarked for Lawrence, the Jags have an additional first-rounder this year and two selections in Round 2. Throw in nearly $80 million of available cap space, most in the league according to Over The Cap, and a team that already has a solid core of talented young players could quickly take off.
7. Atlanta Falcons (0-2 Super Bowl record): New coach Arthur Smith has enough star power on offense (QB Matt Ryan, WRs Julio Jones and Calvin Ridley) to catch lightning in a bottle this year. But if Atlanta’s championship window isn’t quite shut, it’s barely cracked – and there isn’t available cap space this year to wedge it open. A full-on rebuild doesn’t seem far off.
6. Minnesota Vikings (0-4 Super Bowl record): (Recent) playoff history suggests they’re in good shape, Mike Zimmer’s team reaching postseason in every odd year since he became head coach in 2014. And the Vikes, who reached the divisional round in 2019, should rebound in 2021 if DT Michael Pierce opts back in, key defenders like
DE Danielle Hunter (neck surgery) and LB Anthony Barr (torn pectoral) come back healthy, and a young group of corners develops.
5. Arizona Cardinals (0-1
Bowl record): They appear to have an MVP-caliber quarterback in Kyler Murray. They’ve also got a defensive player of the year candidate on defense, OLB Chandler Jones, when he’s healthy. Pro Bowlers DeAndre Hopkins and Budda Baker augment an enviable nucleus. But his team needs to get deeper, especially in the trenches, and coach Kliff Kingsbury must prove he’s the guy to take Murray and Co. to the next level – read: postseason – after the quarterback and the rest of the team tailed off to a .500 finish after a 6-3 start in 2020.
4. Los Angeles Chargers (0-1 Super Bowl record): Newly hired coach Brandon Staley, fresh off overseeing the league’s No. 1 defense for the cross-town Rams, inherits a roster teeming with talent and headlined by offensive rookie of the year Justin Herbert. If the Bolts can stay healthy for a change , there’s really no reason they shouldn’t be playoff regulars for years to come.
3. Cleveland Browns (never appeared in a Super Bowl): It won’t be easy fending off so many capable AFC North foes year in and year out. But if coach Kevin Stefanski can build on the continuity, maybe figure out how to effectively incorporate WR Odell Beckham, help QB Baker Mayfield continue to progress, and identify where the Browns need to reinvest, then this franchise might soon be primed to take that longawaited Super Bowl trip.
2. Tennessee Titans (0-1 Super Bowl record): An attack spearheaded by offensive player of the year Derrick Henry, QB Ryan Tannehill and WR A.J. Brown – Tennessee averaged 31 points a game in the regular season – might even improve in 2021 with the return of Pro Bowl LT Taylor Lewan. But a defense that ranked 28th in 2020 and managed just 19 sacks must improve.
1. Buffalo Bills (0-4 Super Bowl record): A year after the Chiefs vanquished Tennessee on the cusp of the Super Bowl, it was the Bills who fell a game short at Arrowhead Stadium. But given the quantum leap Buffalo QB Josh Allen took in 2020, becoming a surprise contender for league MVP, his team should be a contender for years to come if he continues to ascend.
Super
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – The grind will continue.
For the second consecutive Sunday, Jordan Spieth deflated golf fans’ hopes with a less-than-stellar final round. His winless stretch will extend another week.
The former world No. 1 and threetime major champion took a two-stroke lead into the final round of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and in the process pumped some much-needed juice into a tournament lacking star power.
But in an ideal position to win for the first time since the 2017 British Open, the winner of 11 PGA Tour titles from 2013 through 2017 lost his lead 40 minutes after teeing off and couldn’t produce momentum nor his heralded magic the rest of the overcast day.
Spieth came home with a 2-underpar 70 and finished in a tie for third, three shots behind winner Daniel Berger.
It was Spieth’s second consecutive top-5; just last week he fired a 10-underpar 61 at TPC Scottsdale in the third round of the Waste Management Phoenix Open, a round that blew up social media and placed Spieth into a share of the 54-hole lead. But a final-round 72 dropped him into a tie for fourth; his first top-10 in nearly a year.
“I’m as confident as I’ve been in a long time,” Spieth said. “Not only the current outlook but also looking forward. So it’s still mechanics. It’s still dragging on. It’s still going too long and therefore getting late into the ball and I made some really, really good swings this week under pressure and I made some not so good swings under pressure and there were more good ones than there were last week.”
So Spieth will head south to Los Angeles for the Genesis Invitational hosted by Tiger Woods at Riviera Country Club. He’ll do so with some extra confidence in his luggage, especially after missing the cut at Torrey Pines in the Farmers Insurance Open three weeks ago.
“So as I go into next week at arguably my favorite golf course in the world, at Riviera, I look to have more swings that I know are getting into position, hitting the spots I know that I can kind of turn and burn from than I had this week,” Spieth said.
In Sunday’s final round, Spieth didn’t take advantage of the scoreable first seven holes at Pebble Beach, playing them in even par. The stretch deflated Spieth.
“I got off to the exact kind of start I wanted to as far as where I was on the green on 1 and 2 and I hit two just great putts that could very easily have dropped and didn’t,” Spieth said. “Then I hit a decent drive on 3, kind of hit it in the corner of the bunker and shot up into where I didn’t have much of a stance, and I just, it was (tough to take). I got some really good breaks the first few days and it just felt like it kind of started to even out over the first five holes for me.
“It was tough from there. Once you knew you had lost the lead, then you’re playing a different game out here. Really it was just a really poor first six holes. And out here, that’s where you can score.”
Still, Spieth is in a whole lot better place these days than he was three weeks ago.
“If I look back at Friday night of San Diego and you tell me I was going to share the 54 and have the 54-hole lead two weeks in a row and really just fight, finish strong to both weeks, I would have said you’re crazy, to be honest,” Spieth said. “I was not in a great head space following that missed cut there and just did some really phenomenal work from Sunday through Wednesday of last week that was probably the best period of a few days of work that I’ve put in in a long time.
“It just got me believing in what I was doing and progressing forward. That’s really what I continue to say is just progressing forward and if I put myself in the position of leading after 54 holes enough times, especially with how I know I’m going to fight even if it’s not going my way, I’ll end up on top one of these days.”