Favre you too!!!

Ok, I know that this post is not going to measure up to my normal "introspective" posts but I am feeling a need to be a "homer" and defend my man Brett Favre.

There has been talk swirling around, mostly by the the liberal media, that Favre is going to retire, which just puts even more pressure on a team that is struggling with identity and injuries this year. I want to put this thing to rest because Favre is NOT going to retire this year and probably not for the next 2 or 3 years. Let's take a look the facts and stats:

FAVRE'S 2005 STATS vs. 1996 (MVP YEAR & WON SUPERBOWL)

In '96 Favre threw for 3899 yards, 39 TD's, 13 Int's, and had a QB rating of 95.8.
In '05 Favre has thrown for 2991 yards, 19 TD's, 21 Int's, and has a QB rating of 75.9.

Now, while he is on a similar pace in yards, the TD's, Int's, and therefore, QB rating could be a result of all of the injuries and inexperienced receivers that Favre has had to work with but let's take a second to compare Favre with other QB's this year to see if he still has value in the NFL or if he really does need to retire.

According to the Fantasy point totals on Yahoo!.com, Favre is the 10th ranked QB in terms of overall Fantasy Points earned to this point in the season behind Carson Palmer, Brady, P. Manning, E. Manning, Brees, Collins, Bledsoe, Hasselbeck, and Plummer.

The final, and most important point, is that who other than these teams WOULDN'T WANT FAVRE?!? I mean, even Dallas would have to admit that they would want Favre over the statue of Bledsoe. Anyway, I have selected 5 teams that could use Favre to improve their offense. I did not select teams that had established starters, even if those starters are struggling (see Jake Delhomme!).

Here are the leading contenders in order from 5 to 1:

5) The Baltimore Ravens-Who wouldn't love to get rid of Kyle Boller and pair Favre's gunslinging ability with Ray Lewis and that great defense? Favre handing off to Jamal Lewis to establish the running game which then opens up the field to throw to quality receivers in Derrick Mason (11.9 per catch w/o Favre?!?) and Mark Clayton? Baltimore is currently4-8 and 4 games out of the playoff race but with Favre, who doesn't think that he could erase at least two of those losses-like maybe the loss to the Jets in Week 4, the Detroit game in Week 5, or maybe even the Week 7 loss to the Bears when Baltimore could only manage 6 points and lost 10-6? I think Favre makes up for at least 5 points a game which makes the Ravens 7-5 and in the thick of the AFC Wild Card race.

4) The Miami Dolphins- Favre hands off to Ricky Williams or Ronnie Brown-NO WAIT!-He's got Chris Chambers/Marty Booker open on a fly pattern down the sidelines for 6!!! Ok, play-by-play machine I am not, but the Dolphins have NOTHING at QB right now (See Gus Frerotte/Sage Rosenfels) and are still only 3 games out of playoff contenders. If they win in Week 2 against the Jets, or pick up 7 points against the Bills in Week 5-they are now 7-5 and with their remaining schedule of games against San Diego (struggling), NY Jets, Tennessee, and New England=the Dolphins are a playoff contender at 9-7 and Favre would give them that.

3) The Washington Redskins-The presence of Joe Gibbs gives this team a chance each week and with Clinton Portis, Santana Moss, and James Thrash on offense-Favre would have some weapons. Washington also has a decent, if aging, defense led by LaVar Arrington. Now, I may have broken the rules here because Mark Brunell has had a good year in stretches but even with his league-leading 21 interceptions, Favre is still having a better year than Brunell. Sticking to formula, if Wash picks up 2 points against Denver in Week 5, 1 POINT against Tampa in Week 10, 3 points against Oakland in Week 11, and even 6 points against San Diego in Week 12, and the Redskins are 10-2 and challenging for the #1 seed in the NFC=TAKE THAT PARCELLS!

2) The Tampa Bay Buccaneers-Tampa is a very interesting situation since they currently sit 5th in the NFC at 8-4 and are winning with Chris Simms. It's hard to look at this team and see where they could be better but compare Simms to Favre:

In '05 Favre has thrown for 2991 yards, 19 TD's, 21 Int's, and has a QB rating of 75.9.
In '05 Sims has thrown for 1781 yards, 7 TD's, 8 Int's, and has a QB rating of 80.3 in the 7 games that he has played in this year.
Projected over 13 games, like Favre, Sims' stats would be:
3302 yards, 13 TD's, and 15 Int's-not bad, but Tampa Bay is pretty much healthy with Michael Clayton, Joel Galloway, and promising Rookie tight end Alex Smith-Favre would have more talent and depth and therefore would improve his numbers and help Tampa to improve on its standings in the conference and actually help the Bucs overcome the current 1 game lead that Carolina has in its division.

And coming in at the #1 team that could use Brett Favre at QB:

1) The Chicago Bears-Now, since everyone knows that I am a Packers Fan this may seem like a crazy pick but it totally makes sense from a purely football perspective.

The Bears defense is the best defense to march out on to the field in the NFL since the last great Bears team was doin' the "SuperBowl Shuffle". (We are the Bears, Shuffling Crew-Shufflin' on down, doin' it for you-We're so BAD, we know we're good-Blowin' your mind that you knew we would-We're not here to start no trouble, we're just here to do the Super Bowl Shuffle) Ahem-sorry about that!

The Bears defense is so impressive that they have won 9 games with KYLE ORTON at Quarterback! Do I even need to say more? These Monsters of the Midway could bring back Jim Harbaugh at quarterback and go to the NFC Championship game but once they get there, they will have to beat Seattle and to do that, you have to have an offense that can score and a QB that can get the ball down the field and stretch the defense with Muhsin Muhammad, Justin Gage, and TE Desmond Clarke. The Bears even have a decent running back in Thomas Jones to keep the defense honest.

OK, so this was a really long post but the point is that there are numerous, CONTENDING teams that could use the services of Favre, not only this year, but for many more years to come.

Thank you and GOODNIGHT!!!