1641

The Jaguars cut David Garrard. This is quite the shock since he still looked decent in preseason and had already been named the week 1 starter. Luke McCown will now be starting on Sunday.

1642

Was this done for cap reasons?

Edit: I also think this signals that Gabbert will be starting before the season is over.

1643

There’s still very little info other than the fact that he was definitely cut. It looks like the Jags will have a press conference at 4:15 EST and there will be more info then.

1644

The Jags save money because contracts become guaranteed for the year at a certain point this week, but they were under the cap already.

Seems to me like an admission that they don’t think they can contend this year.

1645

Garrard sucks. Always has. But this is still a bad move, because they have no one to replace him. If they trade for Tebow (who would bring fans in Florida), they will be the ultimate failure as a team.

1646

My god, if the Texans don’t make the playoffs this year, I don’t know what it’s going to take.

BTW, it looks like Luke McCown is your week 1 starter in JAX. Gabbert better keep his chin strap buckled.

1647

Florio’s take on the Garrard move is interesting. He points out that Del Rio did the same thing four years ago, cutting Byron Leftwich at the last second while facing a “playoff or else” season. It worked and Del Rio got an extension. Now he’s facing the same possibility, of losing his job during or after this season if the Jaguars don’t compete. The difference, of course, is that at least with Garrard there was some evidence that he could play. It’s not at all clear that is the case with McCown and Gabbert at this point.

1648

They save $9M I read, so that’s not insignificant.

To me this would mean that the plan is to go ahead and have Gabbert start at some point this season.

I was a bit surprised last year that the Jags didn’t try to draft Tebow. Maybe they would have in the second round if McDaniels hadn’t traded up to get him. Jacksonville has had trouble selling out even when they are in the playoff hunt. Tebow would have energized the fans for a season or two at least.

1649

Del Rio claims the cut of Garrard wasn’t about the money, it was because McCown was the better training camp QB. Good luck with that, Jack. Clayton says the top teams that will have an interest in Garrard will be Baltimore, Miami, and San Francisco.

And crazy Bill B. is at it again in New England: the Pats just cut CB Darius Butler. I guess we can talk about it likely being another smart move on his part, but Bellichick did draft this guy.

1650

No matter what the reason, it was a dumb move by the Jags. If McCown really did outplay Garrard in camp, then he should’ve gotten some or all of the first team reps to get him ready for the season. Instead, they basically wasted those reps on a guy they ended up cutting, and now they’re going into the regular season with a quy who hasn’t practiced or played with his own first string, and hasn’t played against a first string defense.

1651

I’m enjoying the race to the bottom this year. The Redskins, Jaguars and Bengals are making it really interesting. I’d throw the Bills in there too but they don’t make it interesting, they just suck.

1652

Cutting Garrard this late is kind of a dick move. He has no chance of joining another team that needed a QB, which he may have if he was cut earlier…

1653

He’ll get signed, but after week one, once a team doesn’t have to guarantee his salary this year.

1654

Yeah, and why cut Garrard? You can start McCown and have Garrard on the bench and if McCown doesn’t play well, go back to Garrard.

1655

I humbly suggest a feature leading up to the new season: Scout Your Team!

I think I follow football pretty closely, but there’s just no way to scrutinize every last aspect of all 32 teams. So with the 2011 season starting this week, I’d be curious to hear what everyone thinks of their favorite teams. I think if we got 20 or so team previews, it would make for some interesting reading leading up to opening kickoff.

I’ll start with the Dolphins below. I wouldn’t say everyone needs to use the same format, but this one seems like an easy one to follow.

MIAMI DOLPHINS
2010 Result: 7-9, 3rd place, AFC East

Offense: The Dolphins were 30/32 in terms of scoring offense in 2010, and arguably got worse in the offseason. Chad Henne has been inconsistent at best, and the RB tandem of Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams have departed for the Eagles and Ravens, replaced by free agent Reggie Bush and rookie Daniel Thomas, who had a wholly unimpressive preseason. But the biggest problem is with the receiving corps, where the Dolphins have Brandon Marshall and little else to scare defenses. Devone Bess and Anthony Fasano are solid posession receivers, but unless one of their young receivers emerges as a speed threat, defenses will simply double Marshall and dare Henne to squeeze the ball in anywhere else.

Defense: The Dolphins defense isn’t terrible, although at times they’re prone to giving up giant pass plays and sometimes do an awful job of tackling. They don’t have a ferocious pass rush, but play a decent bend-but-don’t-break style, so if they can hold teams under 20, they should at least be competitive in the fourth quarter of many games.

Overall: The Dolphins will try to follow the same model as the last few years: hold teams to 13-17 points on defense and hope the offense can score a TD or two. This a team that actually beat the Packers last year and would have beat the Steelers short of a bizarre fumble replay call, so they’re capable of staying close with the league’s best. Still, if can’t consistently score two TDs a week – they scored 23 offensive TDs in 16 weeks in 2010 – they’re going to have trouble staying away from double digit losses.

2011 prediction: 6-10.

1656

Great idea sluggo, Here’s my take on the Browns, though I haven’t been keeping up with all the gossip, I can still give a general idea.

Cleveland Browns,

2010 stuff: 5-11, 3rd place, AFC North.

Overall: The Browns have simply been a cursed team since Art Modell took the original Browns to Baltimore in 1996. While they have had time to rebuild from the ground up, they have only managed to make it to the playoffs once in 12 years. They’ve constantly been switching coaches and quarterbacks only to keep on losing. In 2011 their biggest hurdle remains being in the same division as the Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens. In the past the Bengals fielded a very good team as well, but the loss of some key receivers and Carson Palmer means the Browns will finally have a punching bag.

Offense: The biggest franchise player for the Browns right now is running back Peyton Hillis. You might have seen him on the cover of Madden '12. Beyond being a pretty good running back who carried the Browns offense in wins against New Orleans and New England last season, he is a lot of fun to watch. However, once opponents got wise to how much the Browns offense depended on him, he became less effective. The Browns seek to give Hillis more breathing space by switching to a West Coast offense under new head coach Pat Shurmur. Colt McCoy will be the starting quarterback, though the jury is still out on him. He has shown great accuracy in the past, but also lacks a physical presence (he’s relatively short and doesn’t have great speed or arm strength). The good news for McCoy is he has a pretty good offensive line keeping him safe, including left tackle Joe Thomas, who was recently resigned as the highest paid player at his position in the NFL. The bad news for McCoy is the Browns probably have the worst corp of receivers in the NFL. Look for him to make short, high percentage passes to set up short runs for Hillis.

Defense: Honestly, I could not recall a single Browns defensive player off the top of my head, which is odds since former head coach Eric Mangini emphasized defense. Look for the Browns to have an above average defense that creates a lot of turn overs for no explainable reason.

2011 Outlook: The Browns have been slowly improving over the last few years. Last season they lost a lot of close games early on and scored surprising victories against New Orleans and the Patriots before collapsing and losing big down the stretch. This year they should have an easier schedule (they play the atrocious NFC West), but simply don’t have the talent to compete with Pittsburgh and Baltimore. Still, hope spring eternal. If they can take both from Cincinatti, take advantage of playing the Colts in Week 2 without Peyton Manning, split with Baltimore and Pittsburgh, sweep the atrocious NFC West, the team could go 10-6.

Realistically, I say 8-8, still only good for third in the AFC North, but a clear improvement from last season.

1657

Houston Texans

2010 Result: 6-10, 3rd place, AFC South

Offense: Arian Foster went from being an undrafted free agent in 2009 to leading the NFL in rushing in 2010. Houston’s zone blocking schemes are a great fit for Foster and he should have a great year in 2011, though one suspects it will be hard to recreate his breakout season from a year ago. If Foster’s early hamstring issues continue to be problematic, Ben Tate could be the kind of back that comes out of nowhere and turns into the next Houston back that surprises everyone. Tate has a physical running style and deceptive speed for a back his size. He too fits the “one-cut” style of running that meshes well with the zone blocking scheme. Andre Johnson remains, arguably, the best receiver in the game today and has Owens Daniels back to essentially serve as the second option in a passing attack that was missing one last year. Matt Schaub has managed to avoid the injury bug since 2008 and has benefited greatly from a running game that takes pressure off him to carry the offense with his arm. The Texans are easily a top 5 team in offense and appear poised to have a similar year this year.

Defense: Uh, well, the defense sucks. But seriously folks, Wade Phillips has ridden into town and converted the Texans into a 3-4 scheme. They are trying to transition Mario Williams into an outside linebacker role in a two-point stance with mixed results so far. Williams can’t cover and will take a while to find his rhythm with the pass rush. Fortunately, Demeco Ryans has returned from injury and looks to anchor a surprisingly decent linebacker corps. Everybody is waiting for Brian Cushing to return to his crushing 2009 level of performance but one has to wonder how much of that came from PEDs (allegedly). Johnathan Joseph (yes, I spelled that correctly) was a great FA acquisition this off-season and is a serious upgrade to a woeful secondary from last year. The Texans drafted well this past year and I expect J.J Watt to have a good rookie season at DE. Also, keep an eye out for another rookie, Brooks Reed, to rotate in at outside linebacker. Both of these rookies are a great fit for the scheme and play with great energy.

Overall: If the Texans have even a statistically average defense this year they will lose the distinction of being the only team in the NFL to have never made the playoffs. With the AFC South seemingly falling apart around them, this is the year to seize the moment. They are 2-16 against the Colts! (This includes last year’s win when Arian Foster ran wild over the Colts in the first game.) Let’s just say that while everyone respects Peyton Manning, Texan fans think he should rest for a good long while and take care of his health.

2011 prediction: 10-6.

1658

Seattle Seahawks

2010 Results: 7-9, 1st place, NFC West. Home playoff victory over the Saints.

Overall: Nobody expected a playoff appearance in Pete Carroll’s first year, so even though it was under less then glorious circumstances, it was still a good year. But the lack of an offseason has hurt the overall plan with this team and they have a tough schedule on top of that. A repeat of the record would be a pleasant surprise, a repeat of the playoffs an absolute shock.

Offense: The plan is for this team to run the ball with Marshawn Lynch and Leon Washington. Other skill positions are solid, with receivers like Mike Williams, Sidney Rice to stretch the field, and Zach Miller as a outlet. But all that depends on how well the offensive line comes together, a line that will rely on second year left tackle Russell Okung and rookies on the right side. Which brings us to Tavaris Jackson, the surprise pick to replace Matt Hasselbeck. The lack of an offseason seems to have largely driven this move, with the hope being that the more mobile Jackson can survive expected early line issues and that his knowledge of the new offense will make the transition easier for everyone else.

Defense: The defense Pete Carroll inherited in 2010 was already largely following his preferred template. Which is why he has retained the same defensive coordinator that served Jim Mora for yet another year. The success Seattle had early last season was largely the result of the success of the defense, particularly the defensive line. Once injuries decimated the line starters, the team struggled. Most of the starters in 2011 played the same role in 2010, with free agency focused on improving depth along the line. The outside linebackers are the same, and while Lofa Tatupu is gone, his skills were decreasing and new starter David Hawthorne has filled in for him very well the last few years. The secondary remains young, but the only real change is arrival of a couple of athletic options opposite CB Marcus Trufant. On the whole this is a solid, average unit as long as they aren’t left on the field too much by the offense.

2011 Outlook: 6-10. The offensive line will struggle early and build a hole the team can’t get out of given their tougher schedule. At some point Charlie Whitehurst will get some starts so the team can see what they have in him. The Seahawks will look better late in the season as the offensive linemen gain experience.

1659

San Francisco 49ers
2010: 6-10, 3rd in NFC West

Overall: The Niners fired Mike Singletary with one game to go in the season, and promptly won that game 38-7, suggesting that the team would have done better with no head coach at all for the season. This year they have a coach in Jim Harbaugh with the pedigree and the college resume to be better than nothing. Unfortunately the lack of minicamps hurts teams with new coaches most, and the team did not look ready to play in the first preseason game.

Offense: They locked up Frank Gore past the age of 30, so likely the rest of his career, and the newly drafted Kendall Hunter looks like he has “it”, so the running game is solid. They also added Braylon Edwards who should prevent defenses from continually double-teaming Vernon Davis. The big question mark remains the offensive line, which looked terrible in two of the preseason games and adequate in the other two. The line was a weakness of the team last season and lost David Baas to free agency, so any hope of improvement rests on the development of last year’s first round picks Anthony Davis and Mike Iupati.

Defense: Gone are nose tackle Abrayu Franklin, underachieving $80 million CB Nate Clements and veteran LB Takeo Spikes, stepping up are Isaac Sopoaga, sophomore Navarro Bowman and the newly signed Carlos Rogers. Bowman had a sack-fumble-recovery all by himself in the last preseason game, so he at least has some play-making potential, and the first team defense generally looked stout against the run. Patrick Willis is still the best linebacker in the league and the entire front seven is solid. Pass defense is more questionable. First round pick Aldus Smith looks a long way from NFL ready, so it’s unlikely the team will suddenly discover a pass rush, which it hasn’t had since Chris Doleman and Roy Barker book-ended Bryant Young and Dana Stubblefield 15 years ago. Undrafted rookie Demarcus Dobbs looked like a beast in preseason, tossing the second- and third-string offensive linemen around like tackling dummies, but it remains to be seen how he’ll fair against starters. Quite likely this is a defense that will play tough and keep games close, but will have trouble putting teams away.

Outlook: 7-9 Alex Smith is still on the team, so the only reason this could be a playoff team is that they play in the worst division in pro football, possibly weaker than the PAC 12. But Pete Carroll made the playoffs in his first year, and Harbaugh has made a career out of beating Carroll, so you never know.

1660

Oakland Raiders

Al Davis

End of report.

(kidding, I’ll have something up later)