nfl offseason transactions, fired coaches, general nonsense 2012

reggie bush is set for a monster 2012 if so

Mike Silver's article about Mark Davis today is like ... unfair.

has anybody ever asked Mark why he sports the haircut of an 80s tennis player

Falx lose O and D coordinators. shake up maybe not such a bad thing for a team that needs to do something different to get to the next level. altho seems like problems might be more personnel related than anything else.

― Roberto Spiralli, Wednesday, January 11, 2012 12:38 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

O-line

It sounds like the Falx want to speak to Billick about OC and the Bucs want to speak to him about HC. TAKE THE BUCS, MANG!

jimmy clausen was so bad, dude still looked like a high schooler out there (literally)

I've been getting that feeling from Christian Ponder lately

ponder was drafted too high but he's not clausen level bad

i also wouldn't feel that great about having him locked in as my franchise qb

hes definitely looked clausen-level bad starting with that game at Lambeau. just no awareness whatsoever. though I guess part of that may have to do with his injury (or injuries?)

kind of a hilarious subplot brewing in Minnesota now because Joe Webb looks way better than Ponder does now and could potentially fit really well with their gameplan

I'll take Ponder over Gabbert or Clausen.

what about andy dalton

Dalton is the best of that bunch but I wouldn't feel superconfident if he was my QB. They could use a better RB and more line help.

exactly. having A.J. Green (who looks destined to be in the megaelite class with Fitz and Megatron) certainly doesn't hurt but IMO Dalton's ceiling is Chad Pennington, and in you could probably win a lot of games with him as long as you don't expect him to be like Rodgers and Brady.

no way would i lump dalton in with the rest of those jokers. he had a pretty damn good rookie season.

naw, with those jokers is exactly where dalton belongs. he was bad at least as often as he was good, he just had an unbelievable rookie wr to hurl the ball in the general vicinity of, an underrated tight end safety valve, and a generous early season schedule.

right, I think A.J. Green makes him look better than he actually is. Dalton's deep ball tends to be pretty terrible

dalton's showed more arm strength this year than i ever would've guessed when he came out. he's got potential, to be sure

Not every rookie who is thrust into a starting role from game 1 is Cam Newton, you know? I see a lot of positive things, and maybe after a full training camp the dude can be pretty good. Pennington seems like a fair comparison.

But Gabbert and Clausen, I mean... Gabbert looks terrified out there, and Clausen was such a disaster.

The fact that Gabbert got drafted ahead of Dalton shows that the art of drafting QBs is still a total crapshoot.

yeah check out the QB comedy draft of 2007:

JaMarcus Russell Raiders Louisiana State
Brady Quinn Browns Notre Dame
Kevin Kolb Eagles Houston
John Beck Dolphins Brigham Young
Drew Stanton Lions Michigan State
Trent Edwards Bills Stanford
Isaiah Stanback Cowboys Washington
Jeff Rowe Bengals Nevada
Troy Smith Ravens Ohio State
Jordan Palmer Redskins Texas-El Paso
Tyler Thigpen Vikings Coastal Carolina

wooah

Whitlock on the Mike Silver column:

My takeaway is that within the Raiders organization there are a lot of beaten-down, worthless Al Davis flunkies who are scared McKenzie has been given the autonomy to scrub the place clean of beaten-down, worthless Al Davis flunkies. The Al Davis-Oakland gravy train has run out of gravy and starving, beaten-down, worthless Al Davis flunkies are crying on the laptop of the media member Al Davis despised the most, Mike Silver.

Yep, Silver established his reputation as arguably the best NFL writer in the country (Silver is far superior to Peter the King) by repeatedly going toe-to-toe with Al Davis. It’s comical watching Hue-bris feign undying loyalty and respect for Al Davis while collaborating with Davis’ top media enemy on stories that paint Al’s son as inept.

Which leads me back to my main point: The city of Oakland should throw a parade for whoever — Mark Davis or Reggie McKenzie — was responsible for kicking Hue-bris Jackson to the curb.

http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/hue-jackson-hubris-not-racism-got-him-fired-by-oakland-raiders-011211

uhhhh

as ever, jason whitlock makes a salient point while still managing to be an ass

rmde @ "Hue-bris"

mike sliver (intentionally misspelled) of talent

if you're an editor and you let someone make a "Hue-bris" joke over 20 times in a column you should be fired immediately

The Hue-bris thing is genius.

fisher to the rams apparently

lol @ brian schottenheimer 2 rams

im just glad the falcons dodged that bullet

Alabama, too.

gregg williams leaves saints, joins rams as DC. pushed or jumped?

there were rumors from a few weeks ago saying he was gonna follow fisher wherever

colts keeping caldwell. also: http://www.theonion.com/articles/bucs-to-talk-with-marty-schottenheimer-about-how-l,27031/

fuck are the colts doing

judging by the state of the roster, irsay made the right decision saying 'bye to the polians first and foremost. i'm 99% sure caldwell is no good but i guess the colts figured they would give him a chance to coach a team with players on it. one less team to worry about in the afc next year imo.

really wonder if this is a prelude to bringing peyton back

cuz otherwise it makes zero sense

unless for some reason they just feel like there will be better HC candidates available after next season

wow so weird

I think they wisely realize that they will not be any good next year either, so give Peyton a victory lap with his coach before they cut the cord completely.

lol if peyton is actually that invested in keeping caldwell around they should fire one and trade the other

yeah i didn't realize caldwell was "peyton's coach"?

Not sure they can trade him until he demonstrates that he can play. His contract is enormous.

Caldwell is the closest thing to continuity that Peyton has now that Polian, Moore, and Dungy are all gone.

but there is something they can do this very second, and that is fire jim caldwell

i think it's less that caldwell is peyton's coach and more that if caldwell is there peyton is the coach

i think it would be very hard to bring someone from the outside into "peyton's colts" -- the entire offense is basically "peyton walks to the line of scrimmage and decides what everyone is going to do"

yeah i still don't totally get that--it would be so hard to find someone who could coach up the defense and had the ability to speak while the game was taking place?