NFL 2017: The Injury Report Is The Best Team In the League

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

44 minutes ago, sperry said:

I just don't get it with Teddy Bridgewater. He's a guy who was thoroughly mediocre before he got hurt, returning from a catastrophic knee injury. Why on earth do we think this is going to be a success story?

His stats aren’t eye popping, but he did exactly what the team wanted him to do. He took care of the ball, had the best accuracy ever for a young QB and when they needed a score he’d take over. Last season was the year where they were going to turn over the team to him and let him air it out, and during the preseason before he got hurt he was airing out bombs. People seem to forget that for nearly two years he was considered the consensus number one pick before he had a bad pro day.

[Jace, Extat]

1 minute ago, Tywin et al. said:

His stats aren’t eye popping, but he did exactly what the team wanted him to do. He took care of the ball, had the best accuracy ever for a young QB and when they needed a score he’d take over. Last season was the year where they were going to turn over the team to him and let him air it out, and during the preseason before he got hurt he was airing out bombs. People seem to forget that for nearly two years he was considered the consensus number one pick before he had a bad pro day.

Yeah, I've always liked him. That second season where he had like 12 TD's was because they just kept feeding AP and it was working like a dream. It's worth noting that when the Vikings needed a drive against the Legion of Boom in a -120 degree playoff game, Teddy gave the team the drive. He didn't miss that field goal.

[Rockroi]

Okay, let’s play my favorite game: When Will Your Head Coach Get Fired (Now with 100% less Jeff Fisher).  
We are over half-way dome with the season: lets discuss which head coach will definitely get fired at the end of this season OR maybe sooner. Here we go:

Guys Who Are Untouchable/Won't Be Fired (16):

Belichick, Mike Tomlin, Jason Garrett, Dan Quinn, Mike McCarthy, John Harbaugh, Sean McVay, Doug Peterson, Jim Caldwell, Ron Rivera, Mike Zimmer, Mike Mularkey, Doug Marrone, Sean Peyton, Del Rio, Billy O’Brien.

I could break this down into different sub-sections etc, but nobody from this group is getting fired. Most of these guys are going to playoffs or have turned around struggling organizations.  McCarthy, O’Brien and Garrett get a pass because of injuries/multiple-game suspensions and still have the team being competitive.  The most vulnerable on this list would be Rivera but I think he's safe because his team is in the playoff hunt.

Too Soon (4):

Jay Gruden, Kyle Shanahan, Sean McDermott, Anthony Lynn.  

These are guys are very new to the job and its too soon to fire them.  

The Strangely Vulnerable (2):

Pete Carroll and Andy Reid. 

This one is a stretch, and I know it’s a stretch but hear me out (from the guy who, three seasons ago, said Peyton should be fired, so, yes, I’m an idiot).  These guys are perennial playoff coaches and have been for years.  But both have raised expectations and, as usual, seem to be failing to deliver.  Carroll has a ring and Reid has a playoff pedigree but both MAY not live up to expectations.  Carroll is also – possibly – HATED by his D and Reid may have started off great but has lost 3 of the last 4.  If he does not right the ship, would it be THAT surprising to see him fired?  In baseball, both Giardi and Ferrell made the playoffs, both were fired (Giardi was simply not rehired).  Would it be THAT strange to see either or both of these guys fired under the same circumstances?  I say “No”, but I get that it would be really strange.  

Guys who Could Get Fired But Probably Will Not Be But Jesus Maybe They Should Be Fired (4): 

Dirk Koetter (TB): If he was fired I would not be too surprised, but I think if ownership believes in him and sees this season as growing pains, then this will be a no-brianer.  But at the same time, Mike Evans and Jameis Winston have displayed horrid behavior and an utter lack of leadership on a team where they are supposed to be clear leaders.  That’s a coaching problem.  And so he could easily be fired, I just think he’s liked by ownership and will be kept around.  

Vance Joseph (Denver): HE’S HAVING THE TIME OF HIS LIFE!!!!!  Actually, no he’s not.  Joseph’s major boon is that he’s new.  Brand new and he needs time to grow in the job.  But his major problem is that the defense has supposedly given up on him and it showed in spades last night.  This team is not playing hard and that’s a MAJOR coaching problem.  I think Vance keeps his job because you don’t want to fire a guy after one season- unless that guy is Chip Kelly.  But fuck… I think he’s a bad coach.  And worse; I think his D thinks the same thing. 

Adam Gase (Miami): What a chode. I am fairly certain this guy doesn’t know a fucking thing about how to build a team.  The Dolphin are sputtering and- SURPRISE -Jay Cutler was not the answer!  I am shocked, I say, shocked!  But, Gase will get a pass because Tannehill missed the season with an injury so he could not have his 4th consecutive “disappointing” season.  

Todd Bowles (Jets): It would be really hard for the Jets to fire a guy for “Failing to Properly Tank the Season.”  The Jets are a bad team, but they are playing MUCH MUCH MUCH better than they have any right to be.  4-6 seems like 15-1 given the front office’s dire need to blow the season.  Bowles all but willed the team to 4 victories.  If he is fired, I totally get it, but if that’s what they wanted they would have fired him prior to the start of the season.

The Fired (7):

These people must be fired.  Like Now.  In the case of the first guy, three weeks ago:

Ben McADoo, 12-13, (Giants): The team quit on this guy some time last year.  He seems like he knows nothing about the sport, how to lead, how to game plan or motivate,.  But he holds a clip-board like a god.  They just lost to a team that has been rebuilding for 3 straight seasons.  I think the Giants will fire McAdoo AND get rid of the Manning.  The team will be blown up and that will be that.   And Don’t let that 11-win 2016 season fool you; Giants have not won a meaningful football game since the 2011 Superbowl.  

Bruce Arians, 45-26-1, 1-2 in playoffs (Zona):  This is the Fired Sleeper-pick.  Bruce Arians is a guy who seems like he’s had a great coaching run but then you look up and you see that he’s not done a God Damn thing in 3 seasons.  Arizona has a losing record since getting bumped from the 2015 NFC Championship game (in a one-sided drubbing).  Arizona does have an injury problem – Johnson and Palmer, but when you employ a 62-year old QB, you have to expect some of these things.  Arians may not get fired, but I think he definitely should be.  Largely because he’s living off the reputation of spelling, well… 

Chuck Pegano, 52-38, Colts: First of all, you made it so that Andrew Luck hates football now; second, you ran, quite possibly, the worst single play in NFL History… on purpose.  Third, since losing to the Pats in back-to-back playoff seasons in 2013 and 2014, Pegano has, miraculously, gone 19-23 and has not made the playoffs in what feels like a generation.  Teams have to  sometimes make a decision between their head coach and their GM and between their HC and their QB.  Well, the Colts went with their HC last season over their GM; they will not do the same thing with their QB.  

John Fox, 12-27, Bears: Mortal Lock to get fired.  You moron.  How do you challenge a play that results in you losing possession as a result of YOUR OWN CHALLENGE?!?!  Unbelievable.  Un-freakin’-believable. The Bears have been so bad for so long, but John Fox has been exceptional in eradicating any shred of hope from Chicago.  No winning seasons and no chance this season will be any different.  They are on pace to finishing dead last in the division for the third straight season.  

Hue Jackson, 1-24, Browns: What’s crazy is that this is not the guy who I think has to be fired the most (See below).  Jackson is yet another coach who has been thrown into the Browns Thresher.  The Browns have had 19 head coaches (Paul Brown to Hue Jackson).  Of those 19… FOUR have had winning records.  Guess who the last one was?  Hint: It wasn’t Belichick (36-44).  No… MARTY SHOTTENHEIMER!!!  44-27.  And that was 1988!!!!  And what a list it is after that: Teddy Robiskie, Butch Davis, Eric Mangini, Rome Crennel, Chris Palmer,. Mike Pettine and now, yes, Hue Jackson.  Jackson is not as bad as 1-24, but how much better than that could he be?  He’ll be fired so yet another assistant coach can have his life ruined.   

Marvin Lewis, 121-111-3 (Seems like it should be better than 10 games over 500), 0-7 in the playoffs, Bengals: Just stop.  You have to stop.  There should have been an intervention 4 years ago when you were only being humiliated by the Colts in the playoffs.  Since losing to the Steelers in the 2015 playoffs, setting back football by 2 generations, the Bengals are 9-15-1 and show no signs of reversing course.  Andy Dalton is all sorts of wrong and Lewis has shown a complete inability to control the team.  And then there is the playoffs.  Lewis's record of futility in the playoffs is unprecedented.  Lewis should have been fired last season, but plays for an overly loyal idiot. None of that is any good for Bengals fans who have probably suffered enough but will need to suffer more before this team begins to succeed.  

My guess: Arians PROBABLY does not get fired: everyone else above is gone.  
 

[briantw]

37 minutes ago, Rockroi said:

Hue Jackson, 1-24, Browns: What’s crazy is that this is not the guy who I think has to be fired the most (See below).  Jackson is yet another coach who has been thrown into the Browns Thresher.  The Browns have had 19 head coaches (Paul Brown to Hue Jackson).  Of those 19… FOUR have had winning records.  Guess who the last one was?  Hint: It wasn’t Belichick (36-44).  No… MARTY SHOTTENHEIMER!!!  44-27.  And that was 1988!!!!  And what a list it is after that: Teddy Robiskie, Butch Davis, Eric Mangini, Rome Crennel, Chris Palmer,. Mike Pettine and now, yes, Hue Jackson.  Jackson is not as bad as 1-24, but how much better than that could he be?  He’ll be fired so yet another assistant coach can have his life ruined.  

I tend to think the opposite here.  I think any halfway competent coach would have at least two or three wins out of this Browns team this year.  This is not a team that is lacking in talent.  The defense has improved significantly from last year from godawful to about average (good run defense, bad pass defense).  The offense has a handful of weapons, and will have more with Coleman coming back next week and Gordon potentially returning, although who knows what he'll look like.  They've lost a lot of close, winnable games this year, and games like that tend to come down to coaching.  

Hue constantly mismanages his timeouts.  He calls absolutely baffling plays with little regard to game script.  He has a player in Duke Johnson that basically does positive things every time he gets the ball, so naturally Hue gave him the ball less and less each week until this one.  He threw Kizer into the deep end rather than building an offense around his strengths and weaknesses.  Hue Jackson is just a bad head coach.  He's either a case of a guy who is a good coordinator but isn't mentally capable of tackling the duties of head coach as well, or the game has just passed him by entirely.  Either way, he absolutely deserves to be fired.  

[Rockroi]

3 minutes ago, briantw said:

Hue constantly mismanages his timeouts.  He calls absolutely baffling plays with little regard to game script.  He has a player in Duke Johnson that basically does positive things every time he gets the ball, so naturally Hue gave him the ball less and less each week until this one.  He threw Kizer into the deep end rather than building an offense around his strengths and weaknesses.  Hue Jackson is just a bad head coach.  He's either a case of a guy who is a good coordinator but isn't mentally capable of tackling the duties of head coach as well, or the game has just passed him by entirely.  Either way, he absolutely deserves to be fired.  

I can't believe it, but you somehow made a 1-24 coach seems WORSE than his record. I can't argue with anything you said.  

 

[briantw]

29 minutes ago, Rockroi said:

I can't believe it, but you somehow made a 1-24 coach seems WORSE than his record. I can't argue with anything you said.  

I thought Hue was a great hire when they made it, but he has just been a massive disappointment.  I'm willing to give him a pass for last year since the Browns basically tore the team down completely, but this year this team should have at least two wins, and could have more than that.  No excuse to be 0-9 this year, especially when most of their games have been competitive. 

Also, Hue has this reputation as a "QB whisperer," but he has thrown Kizer under the bus repeatedly despite not tailoring the offense to what he can and can't do, and Kessler somehow looks ten times worse this year than last.  I'm starting to think that reputation is bull shit.

I think Hue is like another failed Cleveland coach: Mike Brown.  I think both guys are very likable and interview incredibly well, but ultimately neither is worth a shit as a head coach.

[Manhole Eunuchsbane]

I can't believe that McAdoo still has a job this morning.

[Kalbear]

There is no way short of a long stretch of losses that Carroll gets fired this season. Tom Cable might get fired, and there might be some other shifts, but there's no sign around here that he's going to get fired.

[Rockroi]

Just now, Kalbear said:

There is no way short of a long stretch of losses that Carroll gets fired this season. Tom Cable might get fired, and there might be some other shifts, but there's no sign around here that he's going to get fired.

Very true.  But the defense may seriously hate him.  If he loses 6 of their last 8 (and I agree that's a stretch) that could happen.  

Let me put it another way: thi sis the first time since the Superbowl that I think Pete is anything but "mortal lock" to stick around.  

[Manhole Eunuchsbane]

Owners Discuss Nuclear Option Regarding Jerrah

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/report-owners-discussing-unlikely-nuclear-option-for-taking-cowboys-from-jerry-jones/

 

/HOW BOUT DEM COWBOYS!

[Maithanet]

It seems very strange that you would put Jay Gruden as "too soon".  This is his fourth season, which is a pretty good sample size.  The Redskins were very bad in 2014, and have been very average since then (9-7, 8-7-1, probably going 8-8 this year).  If the Redskins finish 8-8 or worse, there is a very real chance that Gruden gets fired. 

The wild card in this is the Kirk Cousins debacle.  If Snyder thinks that COusins is more likely to stay with or without Gruden, then that could make a big difference.  Which is definitely what you want in a well run organization, is the qb picking the head coach. 

[Kalbear]

The other thing with Carroll is that the Seahawks are increasingly relying on the offense to carry them, especially with Sherman being out. I suspect the next couple of years is going to focus a lot more on that, for better or worse. 

[Rockroi]

1 hour ago, Maithanet said:

It seems very strange that you would put Jay Gruden as "too soon".  This is his fourth season, which is a pretty good sample size.  The Redskins were very bad in 2014, and have been very average since then (9-7, 8-7-1, probably going 8-8 this year).  If the Redskins finish 8-8 or worse, there is a very real chance that Gruden gets fired. 

The wild card in this is the Kirk Cousins debacle.  If Snyder thinks that COusins is more likely to stay with or without Gruden, then that could make a big difference.  Which is definitely what you want in a well run organization, is the qb picking the head coach. 

I did not realize Gruden had been a head coach that long.  My take is that Gruiden will not get fired and its because of this Cousins thing; that is the real issue here.  

[Jace, Extat]

Good list, LoveRock. No beef, except that you didn't spend nearly long enough talking about how awful the Browns are.

Seriously, if anyone's gonna be around until the game is over, I'd love to spend all five minutes talking shit about the Browns.

[Jace, Extat]

I'm finally ready to speak publicly on the matter my colleague Mooch ( @Manhole Eunuchsbane   ) brought up earlier. It would be a certain delicious gifts from the gods of the underdark if Jerry Jones is seriously punished by the league for being the only one calling attention to the fact that Goodell is a moron who needs to be sent away forever. And the fact that Jones is right, absolutely right, for once in his life but will be shunned and hated by the only people he cares about (billionaires) just makes it all the sweeter.

As Mike Florio has been alleging for a few weeks now, Jerry fucked with the money truck during that Papa Johns stunt. Rich people don't like it when their dump trucks of cash aren't delivered on time and with appropriate record of inconvenienced peasants.

This could be good!

@DanteGabriel @Jaime L  @Rockroi

And any other lawyers, sorry, can they actually force him out of the league? I know that the league's rules allow for such things, but how would that hold up to an anti-trust lawsuit? Am I using that right? I seem to remember Brady, Manning v NFL was an anti-trust suit.

[Kalbear]

I don't believe that they can force Jerry Jones out of the league; doing so would seriously harm their antitrust status. 

[Jace, Extat]

6 minutes ago, Kalbear said:

I don't believe that they can force Jerry Jones out of the league; doing so would seriously harm their antitrust status. 

You're a sharp guy, Kal. So if they can't remove the team from his legal ownership, is there a way for them to fire him as the CEO and install someone they like to be the de facto owner while Jerry collects his billion dollar paychecks?

 

I've been watching a lot of Silicon Valley.

[Ramsay B.]

7 hours ago, Manhole Eunuchsbane said:

I can't believe that McAdoo still has a job this morning.

I can. I wouldn't be surprised if he lasts until the season ends. That's just how the Giants roll. Although the NY media is crucifying him on a daily basis so the brass may be forced into doing this before they want to. If it is done during the season then I think it will be after a home game when Mara sees empty seats and can't take it anymore.

Either way I hope they fire McAdoo, Reece and Spags. Keep losing and get a top 3 pick and draft Rosen or some young QB. Trade a defensive guy or two to open up cap space and just start this thing over.

[DanteGabriel]

I'm not a lawyer, but I suppose if the other owners tried to activate the Double Secret Probation clause of the by-laws and turf out Jones, then it'd be an incredible legal knife fight with no certain conclusion and a whole lot of pain for all involved. Because if there's one thing that tweaks a billionaire worse than slowing down the money trucks, it's trying to take away their $2 billion binkie.

But I doubt the other owners would really want to go nuclear that way. I assume this threat is just to scare Jones. Jacking one guy's team just makes it plausible to do it to someone else. It's like how Senators are so jealous of the privilege and exclusivity of their little club that they'll defend the institution.

[Kalbear]

Jerry Jones isn't the CEO, he's the owner. The distinction is that the Cowboys (like 30 other teams; the only exception is Green Bay) is a private business. Jerry Jones isn't answerable to anyone and can't be fired in that way.

There are some weird things, like his entire team being kicked out of the NFL, but I suspect that this would violate a number of agreements that the NFL organization has made with other groups (licensing, marketing, and especially TV rights) and so could not be done lightly. 

What they can probably actually do that would work is make Goodell the main person in the NFL and then Goodell proceeds to completely fuck with Jones, over and over and over again, until Jones decides to sell or he dies.