Surely you’ve heard the saying, “an idle mind is the devil’s playground.”  Well when you add a microphone to offseason bravado, combined with a little boredom, we get ridiculous statements by NFL players.

“I think we can be the best defense ever, to be honest.”

Those were the words of fantastic Tampa Bay Buccaneers linebacker Lavonte David.  If any defense had 11 players of the talent, natural instincts and will of David, they could very well challenge for that crown.

With that said, even if the Bucs or anyone else was that talented, you just don’t go out and set the bar quite that high into the atmosphere.

“I think we can be the best defense ever, to be honest. I’m going to go out there and say it,” David stated.

“Yeah, I’m going to say it. Put it on me. I’m going to say it,” he said. “NFL history, Bucs history, anything. That’s just the type of attitude we have.”

It’s great to have that attitude, but it would be miraculous if they were the best defense in Tampa Bay history, as the 2002 squad was one of the most dominant ever.

“With Gerald (McCoy), you’ve got Kwon (Alexander), you’ve got Bradley McDougald, you’ve got Alterraun (Verner), Brent (Grimes), Robert Ayers, Clint (McDonald), that’s the attitude we want to have,” he said. “We’re trying to challenge ourselves.”

How about you work on finishing in the top HALF of the league in scoring defense first before you make those grand proclamations, Lavonte?  Last season Tampa Bay finished 26th in the NFL in scoring defense, allowing 26.1 points per game.

“It’s going to be, I think, tougher for defenses in a certain way…”

Detroit Lions quarterback Matt Stafford doesn’t appear to be overly concerned about not having his best receiver and one of the greatest in his generation, Calvin Johnson, who retired in the offseason.

“I think we’re going to do it a little bit differently than we have the in the past,” Stafford said during an interview Tuesday with SiriusXM Radio. “Obviously we used to feature Calvin, and everybody kind of got theirs after that. It’s going to be, I think, tougher for defenses in a certain way in that they don’t know who we’re going to. There’s no guy to key in on.

“We’re probably just going to spread the ball around a bunch, and a bunch of guys will get a ton of catches and we’ll be all right.”

Apparently Stafford is leaning pretty heavily on the addition by subtraction argument.

It’s tough to imagine any team that lost a sure-fire Hall of Famer who was still at the top of his game being better with….Marvin Jones?

Don’t get me wrong, Jones is a talented player, and the Lions may be a little more unpredictable on offense (we don’t know if drives will end with punts or interceptions), but usually the best offenses in NFL history have been the most predictable.  Why?  Because those plays and players are mostly unstoppable and why wouldn’t you want to utilize that?

It was pretty predictable that when the Lions got in the red zone they would throw a jump ball to Megatron.  He’s 6-foot-5 with a 40-plus inch vertical leap and great hands and it equated to many touchdowns and inflated stats by their mediocre former No. 1 overall quarterback which helped him receive an inflated paycheck.

At least now Stafford can keep everyone guessing.

“We think that, you know, we’re the best in the league.”

To be a professional athlete you have to have confidence in the face of criticism.  Washington Redskins wide receiver Jamison Crowder’s confidence cannot be questioned.

“Yeah, yeah, we do,” Crowder told ESPN 980, via the Washington Post when asked if the ‘Skins had the best receiving corps in the NFL. “We think that, you know, we’re the best in the league. Knowing that we’ve got guys like (DeSean Jackson), Pierre Garcon, like you said, Jordan Reed, he had a great season last year. We even added Vernon Davis at the tight end, but he’s still another weapon that can really help us out in the passing game, and Niles Paul and myself, so we feel like we have a really talented group of receivers. We just have to go out there every day at practice and work on our game — it starts on the practice field — and make sure we’re on the same page with Kirk or Colt (McCoy) or whoever is playing quarterback, so we’ll be ready when the season comes around. The coaches know that we have a really talented group, we know that we have a really talented group, and I really can’t wait to get out there and show the world how talented we are.”

Washington has some names on the outside, but right now they’re a mediocre group until proven otherwise.  Jackson has great speed combined with a tendency to make bone-headed plays, Garcon is a nice possession receiver when healthy, Reed is a solid, up and coming tight end and Vernon Davis hasn’t been good in at least three years.  It’s nice that they added rookie Josh Doctson to the mix, but are they the best in the league?

Off the top of my head, here are the squads that are better than the Redskins:

Jacksonville- Allen Robinson, Allen Hurns, Julius Thomas, Marqise Lee, Rashad Greene

Pittsburgh- Antonio Brown, Markus Wheaton, Ladarius Green, Sammie Coates

Denver- Demaryius Thomas, Emmanuel Sanders, Jordan Norwood, Virgil Green

Arizona- Larry Fitzgerald, Michael Floyd, John Brown, J.J. Nelson

New York Jets- Brandon Marshall, Eric Decker, Devin Smith, Jace Amaro

Indianapolis- T.Y. Hilton, Donte Moncrief, Phillip Dorsett, Dwayne Allen

There are probably more, but you get the point.

This is the season for random players to sound like Rex Ryan with bold proclamations that don’t ever pan out.  Training camp can’t come soon enough.