NFL regular season wrap
Been a crazy year for the NFL, right?
Numbers are down everywhere and Monday night football is a shadow of the must-watch franchise it was in previous generations. (According to Sports Media Watch, this was the fourth consecutive year of dwindling numbers – something that at least tempers some of the notion that this is all about the protests – and this years numbers of an average 6.4 rating and 10.8 million viewers – make it the least-watched and lowest-rated in the history of the franchise.
Ouch-standing.
That’s the bad news.
The good news is the playoffs are here, and what better way to kickoff our playoff views than with the final power poll of the season. Deal? Deal.
The powerful:
1. New England. OK, there are a lot of levels to the Patriots success. From defensive coordinator Matt Patricia having a pencil behind his ear even though he has a laminated play sheet to Bill Belichick to Gronk being a match-up nightmare. But let’s ponder Tom Brady for a moment. Dude is 40. Yes, 40. He was 13-3 as a starter this year (and is now 196-55 career as the Pats starting QB). He led the league in passing yards (4,577) and yards per game (286.1) and finished with 32 TDs and eight picks. Did we mention he’s 40 bleepin’ years old.
2. Pittsburgh. Interesting sideline here for Steelers fans. This weekend they will be watching what that young and dynamic Jags defense does in a home playoff game. If the Jags win, they head to Pittsburgh, where the Jags completely man-handled the Steelers during a 30-9 regular-season beatdown in which they made Ben Roethlisberger look awful while being sacked twice and picked five times. And if Antonio Brown is not back, that would make a date with Jacksonville even more difficult.
3. New Orleans. Yes, the Saints are the No. 4 seed in the NFC, meaning they likely will only get one home game and may have to take their show to frigid Philly in a couple of weeks. Still, after the Steelers and the Patriots – clearly the two best teams in the league who also have tested QBs – which quarterback do you trust in these playoffs more than Drew Brees? Exactly.
4. Minnesota. And then that leaves us with rest of the NFC, and the Vikings are the most complete and balanced team on each side – and with a salty and underrated offensive line, mind you – with myriad of weapons offensively to help Case Keenum. Side question: After this run and with this chance, if Sam Bradford is completely healthy, would you consider making the change at quarterback at this late juncture? Discuss.
5. Los Angeles. We may be higher on the Rams than most. Yes we were tempted to put the Jags here because the Jacksonville defense is the more dominant group, man it’s hard to trust Blake Bortles compared to a Rams offense with coach Sean McVay pushing all the right buttons to make Todd Gurley an MVP candidate. That said, the Rams have to be right there on the list of Wildcard upset candidates. Here are the lines for the opening weekend of the playoffs, according to VegasInsider.com: Kansas City minus-8 over Tennessee (over/under 44.5); L.A. Rams minus-6.5 over Atlanta (over/under 48.5); Jacksonville minus-8 over Buffalo (over/under 39.5); New Orleans minus-6.5 (over/under 48.5).
Powerless
Well, how about the shock waves the various coaching decisions and lack of various coaching decisions made this year.
Hue Jackson is back leading the Browns after going 1-31 the last two years. Marvin Lewis signed an extension with the Bengals. So it goes.
As for ranking the powerless, well, that no longer seems all the pertinent. What we will do is list the NFL draft order as it is listed on NFL.com for the teams that did not make the playoffs as well as our view of what may be their biggest need and potential target:
1. Cleveland (QB, CB).
2. New York Giants (OT, QB).
3. Indianapolis (LBs, OLs).
4. Cleveland (CB, RB after taking a QB first).
5. Denver (OL, QB).
6. New York Jets (QB, RB, OL).
7. Tampa Bay (DE, RB, DB).
8. Chicago (WR, OL).
9. San Fran (WR, OL -tie to be determined by coin flip with Oakland).
9. Oakland (ILB, CB -tie to be determined by coin flip with San Fran).
11. Miami (OL, RB).
12. Cincy (OL, LB).
13. Washington (QB, if Cousins leaves, S).
14. Green Bay (CB, WR).
15. Arizona (QB, OL).
16. Baltimore (WR, TE).
17. San Diego (OL. LB and potentially Philip Rivers long-term answer).
18. Seattle (OL and OL).
19. Dallas (TE, DL).
20. Detroit (DE, LB).
That means as many as seven teams – if the Giants and Chargers are looking for replacements – in the top 20 could be looking at quarterbacks in the early rounds. And that’s not counting New England, who likely will spend a second-rounder on a quarterback as well.
Crazy, right?
College football coaching details
We’ll start with Alabama coach Nick Saban.
Fact: Saban is the best in the business. He is looking for his sixth career natty Monday night, and that would be his fifth in the last nine seasons with the Tide. We believe he’s the best ever, and that it’s not close, but there simply is no denying that he’s the best roaming a sideline on Saturdays right now.
Fact: Saban’s not really happy unless he has something to bellyache about.
This time, Saban is upset about the schedule of the college football playoff. Yes, one of the two guys in position to win the game’s ultimate prize is upset with the semantics of reaching those historic and life-changing heights.
To be fair, no one would know the ins and outs and the good and bad of those semantics of the college football playoff. He’s been in all of them and now has advanced to the last three title games.
But here’s Saban’s complaint about the tight scheduling. His quote: “Someone has to think about the players, and not what’s convenient for the media or TV.”
Couple of things here: First, this makes us think of the old movie North Dallas Forty, when John Matuszak rants about “Every time I call it game you call it a business and every time I call it a business you say it’s a game.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6mpHW3SMcc(Side note: That movie ages very well, especially considering the periphery things it deals with in the NFL. Wow.) Coaches making $10 million a year saying to think about the players who are making $3,000 stipends plus a scholarship, well, that’s a discussion for another time. (Especially when most coaches bemoan the 20-hour practice rule, too.)
And one more quick thing: Do you think this is about the schedule rant is about players or preparation?
More importantly though, Saban’s angst is pointed in the wrong direction. OK, even if his pursuit is purely about players and safety, great. None of this convenient for the media either way, and to be honest, when has that ever mattered. If the media covering college football was ever asked about convenience, games would start between 1 and 4 p.m. on Saturdays, players and coaches would be available like they used to be rather than selected canned-quote seniors and head coaches only after the season started and we would get to watch more than 10 minutes of stretching at practice like the old days.
Simply put there’s nothing – especially from Saban, other than his preseason SEC media day obligatory “I respect the jobs you guys have to do” – that has anything in mind about more convenience for the media. And that’s OK, but to now use it as a boogeyman for some sort of blame to something you don’t like is silly.
As for the other “culprit” in Saban’s view, TV would expand the schedule. ESPN paid through the nose for these bowls, especially the playoff games, and in their perfect world and dream scenario, they would gladly push one semifinal to Jan. 2 another to Jan. 3 and play each in prime time. The ratings this year were decidedly up, thanks in large part to the move back to New Year’s Day rather than New Year’s Eve, but imagine the Rose numbers with an 8 p.m. prime time start and that fourth quarter hitting around 11 p.m. on the West Coast of that thriller, rather than starting around 8 p.m. in L.A.
Heck, we’d also assume ESPN would be completely happy to have the title game next Tuesday or Wednesday or whatever day. The longer the delay means more and more meaningful pregame coverage rather than college hoops studio shows.
The reason the schedule is as tight as it is, especially with the title game, is it is paramount to the schools and especially the presidents that football does everything in its power to be a one-semester sport in terms of game action. Pushing it back would push it beyond the start of winter semester.
And then of course, if Tailback Y or Defensive Tackle Z had not handled his fall studies as well as he may have should have – knowing the NFL was on the horizon of course – and was ineligible for the title game, we’re willing to bet Nick Saban or whomever was coaching in the title game would not be super happy with that schedule either.
Speaking of college coaches
It’s hard not to think that Rich Rodriguez’ career is over at this point, right?
A meteoric rise at West Virginia was followed by a flirtation with Alabama. (Man, how different would the SEC be if Rich Rod had said yes and Saban had not come to Alabama? Discuss.) He went to Michigan and flopped and landed in the desert with Arizona.
An up-and-down year on the field was capped with a crazy 38-35 bowl loss to Purdue. The Wildcats finished 7-6 and while the seat was hot for Rich Rod, he had found the perfect quarterback for his system in Khalil Tate, who rushed and passed for more than 1,400 yards and accounted for 26 TDs in nine games as the starter.
But Rodriguez was fired Tuesday after the school investigated a charge of sexual harassment within the athletic department. It said its findings were inconclusive but decided to go another direction with the program and will honor Rodriguez’ buyout.
(That, of course, brings the total buyouts for eight state-funded universities to $75 million for Bret Bielema, Todd Graham, Mike Riley, Kevin Sumlin, Jim Mora, Jim McElwain, Rodriguez and of course our man Butch Jones not to work. Good gig if you can find one, right?)
Speaking of Butch, Bruce Feldman, a college football ace for a variety of media outlets, had some very interesting Tweets after news of Rich Rod start to circulate:
This one: Just talked to one of #Arizona’s assistant coaches. How’d you find out that Rich Rodriguez got fired? “Twitter.”
Then there is this one: “Another name to keep in mind for #Arizona is Kevin Sumlin. I would expect Zona to reach out to him. Also Sumlin a few connections there esp DC Marcel Yates (his old assistant) who has brought in some much-needed size and athleticism there on defense.”
And of course this one: “Would not be surprised if #Arizona AD Dave Heeke gives strong consideration to Butch Jones for the Zona HC vacancy. Heeke worked closely with him at CMU and have heard he loves Jones.”
That last one could be interesting for a lot of reasons, including financially for Tennessee. Whatever Jones earns in his future endeavors until his UT buyout is completed in February 2021 would be deducted from his monthly $100,000 check.
This and that
– Speaking of the Arizona fall out, and we hope the powers that be in college football have a sit down to review the pros and cons of the early signing day, this certainly has to be one of the cons. Here’s the social media response to one of the Arizona early signees: “I feel played (with a couple of frustrated-looking face things).” Man, if you need to fire a dude after Dec. 20 when those kids sign, there needs to be serious consideration about releasing those kids from their letters of intent.
– There’s a potentially fun NBA game on the docket tonight as the Cavs face the Celtics in what almost assuredly will be the Eastern Conference finals matchup. While he is not scheduled to play tonight, the season debut of Cavs guard Isaiah Thomas last night was a pretty resounding success. Know this: Thomas filled a monster void as a bona fide go-to offensive option when LeBron James rests. Cleveland was +18 in point differential last night against Portland in the nine minutes that Thomas was on the floor without James. Thomas helped the Cavs bench outscore the Trail Blazers bench 61-23.
– Details have emerged about some family turmoil after the passing of Craig Sager, according to the will. Tough deal for all involved, as Sager’s kids form his first marriage were left out of the will.
– As an Auburn fan we held out hope that Kerryon Johnson would come back for more year on the Plains. He chose to enter the draft and there’s no way any AU fan can saying anything but thank you for all that dude did this year to help this bunch overachieve in November.
– Thought this was an interesting look at the top remaining baseball free agents and where they may go. It’s quite a different market when the Yankees and the Dodgers are sitting things out to stay under the maximum luxury tax threshold.
– Enjoyed this historic look at what ended the Alabama-Georgia annual rivalry – and the Saturday Evening Post for that matter – from TFP SEC ace David Paschall. Side note, and we may be a little biased, but there is no one in the media anywhere that knows more about these two title-game participants than Paschall. Not Barnhart, Finebaum or any of the others. NO-body.
– And while we’re at it, we’re going to add another chapter to the sound basic belief that when TFP ace sports columnist Mark Wiedmer writes on college hoops, it is required reading. Here’s his take from last night’s Auburn win over Tennessee. Nice game. Good win for Bruce Pearl’s bunch, and yes Chas, there will be a weekly head-scratcher or three in the SEC this year. (And this week may already be handled when you factor in what Florida did to Texas A&M. Florida’s good so a Gators win is not a total shocker, but beating the No. 11 team in the country by 17 there is worth scratching your head.)
– Speaking of college hoops, how about this stat: Kansas is 0-3 this season vs. major conference foes; Kansas was 101-3 at home in the previous 10 seasons combined. Tuesday’s home loss to Texas Tech was the Jayhawks second in their last three games at Allen Fieldhouse; Kansas had lost twice in its previous 71 home games before that stretch.
Today’s questions
Carson Palmer retired Tuesday, ending an NFL career in which he is 12th all-time in passing yards and passing TDs.
Is Carson Palmer a Hall of Famer?
Who are your top three college quarterbacks in regard to NFL prospects?
As for today, Jan. 3, 41 years ago Apple Inc. incorporates. Something tells me they are going to be OK in the end.
The rock and roll Hall of Fame inducted Aretha Franklin as the first female artist 31 years ago today.
Mel Gibson is 32 today.
Rushmore of Gibson movies. Go.