Jean Fugett: Around the NFL
By Jean Fugett; thanks to Charlie Campbell – @draftcampbell
WalterFootball.com is proud to partner with former Redskins and Cowboys tight end Jean Fugett, Jr. Esq. Fugett grew up in Baltimore, Maryland and attended Amherst College. He was the last pick of the 13th round in the 1972 NFL Draft. Fugett made the Cowboys as a backup to future Hall of Famer Mike Ditka. Fugett eventually became a starter for Tom Landry’s Cowboys and started in Super Bowl X. He made the Pro Bowl in 1977.
As a free agent, Fugett went from being the lowest-paid starting tight end to the highest-paid with the Washington Redskins. While playing for legendary Redskins coach George Allen, Fugett attended law school at George Washington University at night.
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During and after his playing days, Fugett worked with CBS, the Washington Post and other media. He went on to serve as Director and Vice-Chair of the McCall Pattern Company Management Committee, founded a Baltimore law firm and partnered with Fanfone in Europe. After the death of his brother Reginald F. Lewis in 1993, Fugett took over TLC Beatrice International Foods, the largest black-owned and black-managed business in the world at the time. Fugett has served on committees with the NFL Players Association and on the Leadership Council for the American Diabetes Association Maryland Chapter. |
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WalterFootball.com would like to thank Redskins president Bruce Allen and senior vice president/executive producer of media Larry Michael for connecting us to Fugett. Now, let’s let Jean take over.
Offensive Players of the Week: Kirk Cousins, QB, Washington Redskins and Ben Roethlisberger, QB, Pittsburgh Steelers
Defensive Player of the Week: Terrence Newman, CB, Minnesota Vikings
Goat of the Week: Rob Ryan, (former) defensive coordinator, New Orleans Saints
Coach of the Week: Norv Turner, offensive coordinator, Minnesota Vikings
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Elimination List (Four or more losses except NFC East) Chicago Bears Detroit Lions New Orleans Saints Tampa Bay Buccaneers Dallas Cowboys San Francisco 49ers Baltimore Ravens Cleveland Browns Kansas City Chiefs San Diego Chargers Buffalo Bills Miami Dolphins Tennessee Titans Jacksonville Jaguars Houston Texans We are at the midpoint of the season – time flies. In the first half, we were looking at teams falling on their own sword and getting eliminated. Now, inspired by college football’s Final Four rankings, our NFL Final Four rankings! If the NFL had a NCAA type playoff, this is how I would rank teams today with eight games left. Here is my NFC:
Charlie Campbell says his top four are:
In the AFC, this is how I would seed it.
Looking at the rest of the AFC, I think the Steelers and Raiders are right there with the Colts for the fourth seed. The Jets are also a candidate. Charlie has his top four:
Is This the Worst NFL Ever? People say the quality of play in the NFL this year may be the worst ever seen. I know it certainly is the worst I have ever seen. The officiating has not been consistent, and maybe it is impossible to get it right the way we are doing it now. Last year, we talked about how a better job of officiating could be done by the league office watching on monitors in the league office. As for the game, start with the quarterback play this season. Poor quarterbacking is a big reason for the quality of play being down, and that reflects in so many bad teams and this season many teams have losing records. Charlie Campbell thinks that limited practice time from the new CBA has been the bigger part. You have to look at that, but you also have to look at the coaching. The coaches we have today compared to the coaches we had in the past. The teams with winning records, most of them have really good coaches. There are some good coaches who are with teams that have losing records, but there are some coaches who have been acclaimed to be good but aren’t as good as thought and have losing records. I think coaching has a lot to do with it. I think there are a lot of teams that are not disciplined. How can you explain the inconsistency of most teams this season? Look at Tampa Bay wide receiver Mike Evans with six drops one week, and then he gets targeted the next week 13 times and has a game with over 100 yards! I guess the coaches believe in their top pick, but he is not consistent week to week, and the team’s play is the same way. I don’t have the answer. Charlie Campbell thinks NFL play has declined due to the lack of practice. He talks about how in my day you didn’t have a lot of early entries in the NFL Draft and the players practiced a lot more and a lot harder than what they do now. Back in my day, the Chicago Bears had live goal-line every Friday. How crazy is that? Back in 1974 with the Cowboys, we were one of the only teams to go pads-only on Friday. Certainly in the past, NFL teams were on the field longer for practice. |
Former Redskin and Cowboy tight end Jean Fugett was a Pro Bowler in 1977 and a starter in Super Bowl X. |
AFC
The AFC has only one division race now, and that is in the AFC South. The Colts and Texas are not looking very strong at the moment and the Jaguars are on the rise, so it will be fun to watch this division, but the Super Bowl representative from the AFC will not come from the AFC South.
It could come from the AFC West, and maybe with Denver resting Peyton Manning, there is still a possibility for him to recover from the injuries. If he does, he will not recover from his age and the Broncos even at 7-2 are a longshot to go all the way. The Kansas City Chiefs have a chance to get in the playoffs as a wild card because now the Steelers in AFC North have four losses along with the Bills and the Jets in AFC East; the Patriots and the Bengals are a lock to win their divisions. The Broncos have a three-game lead out West.
As for the AFC South, like we said, we are not sure. Now in this conference, the race will be for the wildcard spots between the Bills, the Jets and the Steelers – all with four losses – and the Chiefs and the Raiders with five losses. The Raiders have had a slump of late; the schedule may help them rebound if they can avoid injuries. Injuries continue to take a toll, but then again, this is the NFL.
NFC
Kirk Cousins had a perfect game according to the quarterback-rating statistic, and for that, he is the Offensive Player of the Week. He did it in front of and for his father battling cancer, and he never said a word about it before this game. The more you hear about Cousins the more you have to like him as a man.
The people in Washington are thinking the Redskins can win the division. The other teams in the NFC East are adding to that belief with the Giants losing late to the Patriots, the Eagles doing the same with the Dolphins and now without Bradford, and the Cowboys losing to Tampa Bay. I know the purists don’t want to hear about it, but the Super Bowl team could still come from the NFC East. Whoever wins that division will probably be playing well in January and be as healthy as they’ve been all season.
Charlie Campbell and I disagree on Minnesota being a Super Bowl contender. He says that they are at a disadvantage at the quarterback position and come January, they will have to go through the Panthers, Packers and Cardinals. He says that Bridgewater is a limited game manager who won’t be able to beat all three or at least two of the three quarterbacks of Cam Newton, Aaron Rodgers or Carson Palmer.
I say that’s the beauty of it in Minnesota. Bridgewater has an offensive coordinator who knows he is limited. The coaching that is going on with the Vikings with Norv Turner and Mike Zimmer is solid. Consider what Turner had in Dallas with the triplets, and now look at what he has in Minnesota with two fast receivers, Bridgewater, who is very smart and plays within himself, and Adrian Peterson. If you have Peterson, you don’t have to have a great quarterback. So I think the Vikings are Super Bowl contender. We’ll see.
LOADING COMMENTS.
Jean Fugett: Around the NFL - 12/17
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Jean Fugett: Jean Fugett's Around the NFL Week 8 Recap - 11/5
Jean Fugett: Jean Fugett's Around the NFL Week 7 Recap - 10/29
Jean Fugett: Jean Fugett's Around the NFL Week 5 Recap - 10/15
Jean Fugett: Jean Fugett's Around the NFL Week 4 Recap - 10/8
Jean Fugett: Jean Fugett's Around the NFL Week 3 Recap - 9/30
Jean Fugett: Jean Fugett's Around the NFL Week 2 Recap - 9/23
Jean Fugett: Jean Fugett's Around the NFL Week 1 Recap - 9/16
Jean Fugett's 2015 NFL Season Preview - 9/10
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