Can’t say I am a fan of Schottenheimer, but I do think that if the Jets could secure a top 10 franchise back a lot of their problems would be over. Also they need a better pass rush, which on paper it looks like they should have - but they don’t.
I figure Reid stays and so does Shady. Desean might leave depending on whether or not San Fran^H^H^Washing^H^H^Hanyone is dumb or desperate enough to overpay for him. A new DC is probably in order, but also in order is bolstering both lines. I mean this is the problem with this team. They overdid on skill players and passed on O line and front 7 defensive players outside of Jason Babin. They should hire Spags if St. Louis fires him. Or Jack del Rio.
Mike Mularkey? Russ Grimm? Jeff Fisher? JIM TRESSEL? (lol) Beats me but Morris needs to go.
Assuming Cowher has the pick of any available coaching gig, he really should take this one in terms of easiest club to turn around.
That wouldn’t be the most shocking development given KC’s “Hay let’s just do what the Patriots did!” approach to coaching and front office.
Honestly I don’t see a pressing need to clean house here. The Bears were a solid playoff contender with the tools to go deep in the playoffs before losing Cutler. Hell I’d say that was the best team they’ve fielded since or maybe even before their (non-winning) Superbowl team. Losing Forte sure didn’t help - I figure they franchise him for a year and draft his replacement in the offseason, kind of like what they did with thomas Jones and then Cedric Benson. The Bears have no trouble shipping off RBs while they are still productive.
Contrai
5842
Congrats to Drew Brees on the record! Oh how I wish he was in a Phins uniform.
jeffd
5843
Ryan is safe IMO. I think it’s pretty clear that the Jets will never win a Super Bowl with Sanchez under center though. The guy got worse this year.
I’m starting to be skeptical about a Cowher return to the NFL. How many coaches have had success after about five years away from the game?
Sarkus
5844
Thinking about Brees history, I noticed something that is pretty crazy. Look at the top 5 QBs this season (based on passer rating), and then look at where they were drafted:
Rodgers - 24th pick (1st round)
Brees - 32nd pick (2nd round)
Brady - 199th pick (6th round)
Romo - undrafted
Schaub - 90th pick (3rd round)
I’m not saying top of the first round QBs are a mistake, but damn, I wonder if they are worth it when you look at something like this.
The Eagles front four is actually pretty decent, especially at DE. Between Babin and Cole, they have 28 sacks. And behind them they have Daryl Tapp and their 1st round pick from 2 years ago, Graham. It’s sick, but they overprioritized at that position. Where the Eagles need a lot of help is at safety and linebacker. I’m not sure there’s even one quality NFL starter at those positions.
Jackson is gone. He’s insulted by what the Eagles did this year; they refused to pay him any additional money; guy is severely underpaid as he’s making like $650k this year. What’s worse from his standpoint is while the team refused to renegotiate, they signed broken down Steve Smith to a $2 million contract. Pretty much showed what they thought of him right there. I’m not sure he’s worth what he thinks he is, but he’s certainly worth more than $650k.
However, they have to pay McCoy; it’s not even up for debate. Guy was the MVP of their team, by far.
What this seaon has done is reinforced to me how arrogant Andy Reid is. Not only in skimping on linebacker and safety, but in shifting resources to acquiring superfluous talent (Nnamdi, DRC and Samuels at corner is a joke when you field chumps at safety). He also the job of DC to a guy who had never coached defense (aside from in HS about a century ago), assuming it’d work because Reid is just smarter than everyone else. It failed miserably, so the DC may be canned. Reid will be retained, however.
Sarkus
5847
PFT has rumblings of an AJ Smith/Gruden combo either in San Diego (if Smith survives there) or in St. Louis. Good luck Rams fans!
Well Brady and Romo really throw that off. Brees and Rodgers were actually the second QBs taken in their respective drafts and many were surprised they weren’t drafted sooner. Plus the next five QBs in passer rating this year were all drafted early in the first round. While there’s going to be Andy Daltons in the draft, you’ll still have Cam Newtons at the top.
The flip side of that, though, is how many highly drafted quarterbacks bust. Admittedly, as a Browns follower my experience may be biased. Quarterback strikes me as one of the hardest positions to evaluate, and the one position almost no team can afford to develop over time (though the Browns certainly stuck with Tim Couch). Furthermore, while a great system (teammates, coaching, play calling, etc.) can’t make a bad quarterback look good, I think the reverse is true: that a bad system (no offensive line, etc.) will make a good quarterback look bad.
Sarkus
5850
There are plenty of lower round busts as well though.
I just think its an interesting factoid to note just how wrong the people making the decisions can be and how you don’t have to draft high to have a chance at a top QB. Which is a particularly relevant thought in Seattle right now where a lot of people assume the Seahawks will have to trade up in the draft to get a long-term answer at the position next time around. Assuming they don’t sign Flynn from GB or something, anyway.
Yeah I don’t see that as much of a trend. For total yards the list switches to include Eli Manning and Matt Stafford. For 2010 you get names like Vick, Peyton Manning, and Phillip Rivers.
If anything, it seems top tier QB picks are becoming more reliable recently.
Actually outside of linemen, I think QBs are one of the most accurately evaluated positions in the draft. Most of the notable QBs were drafted early rather than late. There are plenty that emerge from the lower end of the draft but this might have more to do with coach-ability and the competition at the position. The busts that do happen are just higher profile. Some years, their just isn’t much to pick from. For instance JaMarcus Russell is now an infamous bust, but out of his 2007 class, Kevin Kolb is only QB with a starting job. If a team is in desperate need of a QB, the ones evaluated at the top of the list are their best bets. There usually is a late rounder that emerges each year, but good luck picking who it will be.
Zuwadza
5853
Man, what happened to the Falcons tonight? What an awful game for them (not that I’m complaining). 39 rushing yards, averaging 2.5 yards per rush while the Saints rushed for 164 yards. Atlanta had the ball longer, passed for more yards, forced more turnovers and still couldn’t do anything. New Orleans’ offensive line looked practically invincible.
Nawid_A
5854
They are not a good team. Them being in the playoffs surprised the hell out of me.
Here’s the kind of hard-hitting stuff we’ve come to expect from the Washington Post. In today’s paper, Mike Shanahan admits that improving the Redskins is taking longer than he thought.
Well, there ya go. Now we know!
How the hell are the Jets still in the playoff hunt? They’re like cockroaches, impossible to kill off.
Lorini
5857
And you know Rex loves it that way :)
Seriously I feel like Jets have lost to every team, but they will still make the playoffs. All the guys that need to lose to help the Jets this week have a good chance of losing and wtf is Miami going to do, blitz Sanchez? Lol. They should rush 1 guy and encourage Sanchez to throw, that’s the winning strategy.
Zuwadza
5859
They have a lot of talent and they can win games, but damn they’re inconsistent. The spread on last night’s game was 6.5 and recent games between the two teams have been decided by 3. Nobody expected an outright blowout.
Another rumor is Fisher for the Rams.
One thing is certain in my mind, after experimenting over the last six years with two head coaches who were rookie head coaches (Linehan and Spags), I’d like to see a proven HC get the job. I’d be fine with Fisher. If he could get the team to 8-8 in a couple of years that would be glorious.
Gruden I would worry about. He sort of destroyed the Bucs. He was supposed to be an offensive genius QB coach and he kept running different QBs out there and never showed a lot. They won the Superbowl with the defense Dungy built more than anything Gruden did.
I like Spags but the team slipping back to 2-14 after going 7-9 is hard to stomach. They probably have had more than their share of injuries but still that’s a terrible record. And McDaniels hasn’t shown anything as the OC. It looks like Bradford may have a third offense to learn in three years next season if they clean house.
