Cards did finish 8-8 with 9 games of Gabbert & Stanton. Pythag was bad tho.

Doesn't really seem like a full rebuild situation.

That wasn't a very complete thought.

I mostly mean they should be good enough with a QB + DJ that tearing it down seems silly.

I think it's weird when teams with successful defenses that run one scheme hire a coach who runs a totally different scheme (e.g. Bills & Rex Ryan), though. They've been top 6 each of the last 3 seasons in yards allowed with Bettcher. Do they bring him back & keep their 3-4?

& who is going to run the offense? Defillipo? Looks like he might be OC there or Tennessee, but I'm guessing he'd choose Tennessee cuz Mariota.

I don't know. I know nothing about Wilks really, but it just seems like the wrong hire based on team needs.

If Wilks wants to switch to a 4-3 & they hire some crappy retread OC like Bevell or McCoy, maybe they should just tear the whole thing down after all.

Well, I didn't say they need to tear it down, but they need to think for the long term. I don't think they're an Alex Smith away from being a Super Bowl contender, especially not with Seattle still pretty much being Seattle and the 49ers and Rams both on the rise. As you said, their actual point differential was pretty poor, worst in the division, and they don't even have a handsome young QB they can pin their hopes on. It's more important for them to lay a strong foundation for a couple of years with good drafting while they look for their next franchise QB. Maybe if they do that, they'll be in a position where they can win with a stopgap option even if they don't find a franchise QB in that time.

I guess we're kind of getting into construction semantics when we're discussing whether one needs to tear something down to rebuild it.

I do agree that Alex Smith isn't a good fit there. They're better off taking some YOLO flyers. Hard to say exactly what they should be doing without knowing what their offensive plan/who their OC is, though.

All of arizona's good players are starting the back side of their prime though or are coming off injury essentially.

So, they either have to make a one last gasp at it before rebuilding or just say **** it and rebuild now. That rebuild word is not a thing a GM wants to do because he wants to stay employed so find the next Carson Palmer and hope to just stay competitive and hit a draft.

That said, if I was arizona I'd go for it, sign some vet QB and #YOLO. Rams have a lot of free agents, so they could easily pull back a bit and Seattle also has to make some decisions roster wise, they're starting to get old defensively. SF's roster still needs work. I think it won't work most of the time but I think it's the best one for them. Sure it might Giants but doing nothing puts that you're fired scenario a higher % anyway so *shrugs*.

Does NORV have like a 2nd cousin or anything who can coach the Panthers defense?

Why is Smith a bad fit? Cardinals’ biggest receiving weapons as of rn are a RB and a slot WR.

Smith showed off a pretty decent deep ball when given the chance earlier this season, too. Really hoping the guy can end up somewhere competitive before he has to hang it up.

It would be like Favre/Rodgers all over again!

If not, perhaps his wife has attended a lot of football games over the years and can shout at big men a lot?

He doesn't seem to fit with the offensive they ran under Arians, but I guess they are bringing in someone new, so maybe it could work out? Dunno, I just think this season from Smith was kind of fluky & they're better off with a guy who can get Nelson/Brown deep & open up bigger windows for DJ/Fitz.

I feel like Norv's wife...



...would have a more difficult time getting through to the players than his daughter...

is it possible his daughter has gone through a few players already?

This guy is her husband...



...so probably a lot.

pfft, what does this guy know anyway?

https://www.si.com/nfl/2018/01/23/cl...son-head-coach

Interesting tale from Mike Freeman today; thread starts here:



Cliffs notes: There's a rumor going around that the league office had a handshake deal with the Raiders: If the NFL certified that the Raiders complied with the Rooney Rule in their hiring of Gruden (despite the fact that Gruden was obviously their only target for some time), the Raiders would then sign Colin Kaepernick to bail the league out of his collusion lawsuit against them.

Hahahahahaha what?

Oh good. Let’s post some stupid rumors some jerk off from bleacher report makes up about Krap.

Maybe the league just gave the Raiders a pass on the Rooney rule since they've been hiring minority head coaches since the 70's. It's the other 31 franchises who need the rule.

Not the Cards!



Buried the lead. Consummate internet journalist.

Some random news/rumors/blah blah blah:

* Mike McCoy new OC of the Cards. Seems like an uninspired, if safe, hire.
* Bills C Eric Wood suffered a career-ending neck injury, discovered at season ending physical. He's no longer cleared to play football, even if he has surgery. He's 31 & had recently signed a 2/$23m extension through 2019.
* DE Greg Hardy has signed with the Richmond Roughriders of the American Arena League. Their season starts March 17th. Shame he'll never get to play in the XFL...
* I forget if it was mentioned, but the Giants hired former Cards DC Steve Bettcher as their DC. Seems like a good hire. Shurmur recently confirmed that he would be calling the offensive plays himself. & Gettleman gave some dumb quotes about hiring Shurmur because he's an "adult" & that was the note he wrote in his notebook when he met him. Exciting stuff.
* & finally, for BOIDS: “It’s hard to talk timetables because these are always fluid injuries and timetables always adjust depending upon where you’re at. But I feel very confident. I truly believe my goal is to be ready for Week 1.” Seems unlikely tho. 9 to 12 month injury, but could be close.

No reason to rush Wentz back from a super late season ACL+LCL for week 1. Learn from RG3.

Re Eric Wood, anyone know what the $$ implications are for him with a contract he can’t fulfill for injury purposes?

Assume the team is on the hook for the guaranteed part and then he would only pick up the rest/additional loss of future income stuff if he has his own insurance policy?

$10.39 million if Wood is placed on the reserve/retired list before June 1, accounting for the portion of his signing bonus that was to count against the 2019 salary cap. If Wood is placed on the reserve/retired list after June 1, he would count $8.225 million against the 2018 cap and $2.166 million against it in 2019.

that's from buffalonews.com He was going to count for 8 something M under buffalo's cap so it's gonna hurt, still have to allocate the cap space and don't have the player.

Not gonna bother speculating on what he'll actually get other than the signing it bonus and definitely not anything that wasn't guaranteed.

At least they did catch his injury, NFL man.

I'm sure no one is watching highlights of the Pro Bowl skills competition, but "Kick Tac Toe" is a genius idea.

Yeah I heard about it today. Sad I missed it.