Who Sucks for Luck in 2011?

Editorial Board

With seven weeks gone in the 2011 NFL season, the Suck for Luck Competition is starting to come into clear focus.

It’s clear that three of the bottom four teams in the league — the Minnesota Vikings (1-6), Miami Dolphins (0-6) and Indianapolis Colts (0-7) — are each doing their best to play as awful as possible in order to secure the No. 1 pick in the 2012 NFL Draft, thereby securing Andrew Luck as their pick.

There clearly can be no other explanation as to why these teams have put the product they have on the field.

How else can you explain signing (and planning to start) Sage Rosenfels?

Or losing to a team led by Tim Tebow after leading 15-0 with under 3:00 to play?

Or having your NFL quarterback (Donovan McNabb) tally 39 total passing yards in a game?

Or losing three games after leading by 17 or more points at the half?

Or signing Kerry Collins at all, then having the audacity to put him on the field?

Or losing 62-7 on national television?

These are truly new levels of awful, not seen since the 2008 Detriot Lions set the new bar of sucking.

We’ll give the 0-6 St. Louis Rams a pass on the Suck for Luck Competition, as the team has been hit with a myriad of injuries and clearly have their quarterback of the future in Sam Bradford.

But the rest? The other three teams are in one of the tightest races in NFL history.

There is a definite possibility that two professional football teams will not win a game this season.

The Colts and Dolphins face daunting schedules on paper.

Miami plays in a division with the New York Jets, New England Patriots and the upstart Buffalo Bills. The Dolphins face the Bills twice, and the Jets and Patriots each once the rest of the way.

That’s 10 losses, and the only other remaining games we see them having a chance at winning would be at home against the Oakland Raiders and Washington Redskins.

As for the Colts, they have a less difficult strength of schedule the rest of the way but have shown themselves to be far more inept on both sides of the ball.

Unless Peyton Manning makes a miraculous recovery, wins against Jacksonville or Tennessee at home are the only wins we see possible.

The Vikings are the least likely of the three to win the competition, as they’ve been close in several games, and the Redskins and Broncos are very beatable with Adrian Peterson in the backfield.

So that leaves the Dolphins and Colts as the two most likely to finish last in the NFL.

Miami just has fewer weapons for their inept quarterbacks to throw or hand off too.

We think the Dolphins Suck for Luck, and finally get Dan Marino’s replacement after years of searching and toiling through the Daunte Culpepper and Jay Fielder years.

And for you, Andrew Luck? We just hope you’re Luck-y enough to survive like Peyton Manning once did in Indianapolis.