Dec

31

AFC Wild Card Breakdown: Colts at Chargers

Filed Under Indianapolis Colts, San Diego Chargers | Leave a Comment

By Josh Satler - www.profootball101.org
The nightcap on Wild Card Saturday features two teams that provided a classic in last year’s post season: the 12-4 Indianapolis Colts vs. the 8-8 San Diego Chargers. And both teams took drastically different paths to get here.

The Colts, perennial playoff participants, shook off an uncharacteristic 3-4 start to win its final nine games. A lot of their early struggles can be attributed to an assortment of injuries which hurt team continuity, but once they got all of their pieces back in place, the machine began to work as expected.

The Chargers, left for dead just four weeks ago at 4-8, put together a furious four game winning streak and received a lot of help from Denver who was putting together an equally impressive three game losing streak to blow the division.

As we head into this huge matchup on Saturday night, it’s important to note that of the few teams that have had Indy’s number over the past few years, San Diego has been one of them.

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Dec

31

Countdown Daily 12/31: AFC Playoff Picture

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Dec

31

NFC Wild Card Breakdown: Falcons at Cardinals

Filed Under Arizona Cardinals, Atlanta Falcons | 1 Comment

By Josh Satler - www.profootball101.org

So we’ve finally come to the point in the season when things really begin to count: the playoffs. And to kick off our coverage, we’ll start with a game that has two unexpected visitors who decided to crash the party in the 9-7 Arizona Cardinals and 11-5 Atlanta Falcons.

The Cardinals come in as the NFC West Champs after winning their first division title since 1975 while the Falcons, the No. 5 seed, reversed fortunes quickly and went from a four-win team in ‘07 to an 11-win team in ‘08.

An amazing turnaround considering this franchise was only a year removed from the Michael Vick dog fighting fiasco and the failed Bobby Petrino experiment as head coach.

So as this four seed vs. five seed NFC game kicks off Wild Card Weekend, let’s see how it will play out.

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Dec

31

Steelers QB Roethlisberger Should Be Ready for First Playoff Game

Filed Under Injuries, Pittsburgh Steelers | Leave a Comment


The Steelers haven’t been saying much about the concussion suffered by QB Ben Roethlisberger last weekend vs the Browns, but the good news is today it appears there is no doubt that the Super Bowl winning QB is going to start the teams first playoff game next Sunday at home.

The news came out in today’s Post-Gazette:

Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger also is likely to start the next game when the Steelers open the playoffs at home. Sources yesterday described his concussion as “mild” or “low grade,” and coach Mike Tomlin would not rule out him practicing this week. Roethlisberger watched Steelers practice yesterday, then left quickly afterward without speaking to the news media. Tomlin said his quarterback will continue to undergo tests but sounded optimistic Roethlisberger will play Jan. 11th.

“He’s doing better,” Tomlin said. “He’s starting the process of taking the battery of tests that come after one sustains a concussion. I don’t know where we are in regards to those tests. We have less urgency this time around because we don’t play on Sunday, quite honestly.

“We will proceed slowly with him because we have that luxury. But we feel comfortable with where he is relative to Sunday and where he’s capable of being next week in preparation for our game.”

Roethlisberger was at the team’s practice session on Tuesday, but didn’t take part in any drills. The team will have more practices this week, but it wouldn’t be a shock if he sat them out. He should be ready to take part in next weeks practice sessions as they get set for the Colts, Chargers or Dolphins.

Dec

31

Pioli and Ferentz to be the Browns Dream Team?

Filed Under Cleveland Browns, College Football, Detroit Lions, Kansas City Chiefs, New England Patriots, Off The Field News, Rumors | Leave a Comment

If your a Cleveland Browns fan the idea of landing Scott Pioli has to make you feel the owner gets “it”.

While it is no secret that Browns owner Randy Lerner’s first choice to be his new GM and Team President is Scott Pioli, you may be suprised who Pioli wants to help him “save” the franchise. If you guessed Eric Mangini, Josh McDaniels or Steve Spagnuolo you would be WRONG.

According to reports out of Boston the young exec would like to make Kirk Ferentz his Head Coach.  The report says that Browns owner Randy Lerner was not very happy to be shot down so quickly by Bill Cowher and that he is ready to make a “huge” financial offer to Pioli that would include not only millions, but more importantly full control of the organization and the funds necessary to bring in Pioli’s first choice as head coach, Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz.

Let’s see six degrees of Bill Belichick….Pioli and Ferentz both worked under Bill 15 years ago while he was the Head Coach in Cleveland.

So it appears that Pioli really only has two choices Cleveland or Foxboro. With promotions from inside the organization in Detroit and  Clark Hunt in Kansas City looking for a young unknown like a Thomas Dimitroff it appears that Pioli has a big choice to make.

Dec

31

Shanahan Maybe Heading to the Chargers?!

Filed Under Cleveland Browns, Denver Broncos, New York Jets, San Diego Chargers | Leave a Comment


Ah yes, the rumor mill is in full motion now that Mike Shanahan is a “free agent” on the coaching market. The first thought is the Jets, who need a coach with Eric Mangini being fired on Monday, and now that Bill Cowher has told them “no thanks,” they will need to make a splash with someone else.

Cleveland is an option, but they are a team with a lot of issues, and you have to wonder if Shanahan would want to walk into that mess in 2009. One thing about the Browns though is they are willing to spend money on a coach, and that could make Shanahan a rich man.

Then there is this rumor, which is going to sound crazy, but coming for ProFootballTalk.com there could be some merit to it. Here it is as it reads from their site:

Believe it or not, there’s speculation that Shanahan is trying to position himself for the Chargers job.

What’s that, you say? The Chargers are in the playoffs and they’ve made it clear that Norv Turner is coming back as head coach?

That was our reaction, too. But a highly-placed league source suspects that something is happening with Shanahan and San Diego.

In our book, it’s almost as unlikely as Shanahan coaching the Raiders. But we’ll continue to keep our eyes peeled on this one.

You can forget about the Raiders, that is a for sure. But San Diego?! That is interesting. We may find out how true it is if the Colts bounce the 8-8 Chargers out of the playoffs on Saturday night in San Diego.

Dec

31

Cowher Not Going to the Jets; Spagnuolo Next on Their List

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After going back and forth over the last 24 hours, the Jets can officially forget about even a meeting with former Steelers head coach Bill Cowher. “After reaching out to Coach Cowher’s representatives, we were informed tonight that he is not a candidate for the position,” Jets spokesman Bruce Speight said Tuesday night.

There was thought that Cowher had interest in the position, but instead the “talks” never even made their way to having a formal meeting with Cowher, who was also approached by Browns owner Randy Lerner, but he told them he was not interested in their open job. The 51-year-old Cowher was 161-99-1 in 15 seasons with the Steelers, including a Super Bowl victory in 2006.

The Jets will now turn their attention to Giants defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo, who’ll meet with the team Saturday, according to another person familiar with the coaching search. There is talk that Spagnuolo will be the hottest candidate for a head coaching position.

Now of course there is a new option for any open head coaching job, and that is former Broncos coach Mike Shanahan, who was let go by Denver in a surprise move on Tuesday. There is no word as of yet if the Jets may have an interest in him coming aboard for an interview.

Dec

30

Players Reactaion to Shanahan Firing

Filed Under Denver Broncos, Off The Field News | Leave a Comment

Apparently the move to fire Mike Shanahan came from left field as some of his players were shocked to say the least when they heard the news.

Rookie Fullback/Linebacker Spencer Larsen:

“I’m very shocked, extremely shocked.”  “I don’t think any of us saw this coming.”

Quarterback Jay Cutler:

“I’m disappointed, I’m shocked, I’m not happy about it, I’m not pleased with it at all,” Cutler said by phone Tuesday. “We had zero inkling this was going to happen. I didn’t have a clue.” …

“I think with the offensive staff we had, we were moving ahead,” Cutler said. “I had just met with Mike to go over everything, talk about the things we wanted to do, make sure we were going the right way on offense.”

“I hope it all works out. But I know I’m disappointed, I’m not happy, and it’s a lot to think about. I just want to continue the things were able to do this year on offense and get better all the time.”

Former Broncos Linebacker Bill Romanowski:

“I don’t know if necessarily they’ll find a better football coach.”  “Mike is an outstanding football coach, one of the better coaches I had, if not the best. But players start to get tired of the same routines, the same kind of play calling. A new fresh coat of paint sometimes does a whole lot of good.”

Dec

30

Shanahan Out in Denver

Filed Under NFL | 1 Comment

The NFL’s second longest tenured coach was fired by the Denver Broncos today.  Mike Shanahan had been the Broncos coach since 1995.

HIs record as the coach in Denver was 146-89. He seemed to fall out of favor after his team lost a three game lead in the AFC’s Western Division. The most recent a 52-21 embarassing loss to the San Diego Chargers in the teams final game of the season.

Coach Shanahan did lead the Broncos to consecutive Super Bowl victories in 1998 and 1989.

“After giving this careful consideration, I have concluded that a change in our football operations is in the best interests of the Denver Broncos. This is certainly a difficult decision, but one that I feel must be made and which will ultimately be in the best interests of all concerned.” Owner Pat Bowlen said in a statement released by the team.

Shanahan was also relieved of his football operations job. He had a contract left with 3 years and about $20 million dollars left on it.

“I appreciate the 21 years that Mike Shanahan has given to the organization as an assistant and head coach, and the two Super Bowl wins in that time,” Bowlen said in the statement

The Broncos will hold a news conference Wednesday morning to make the official announcement. Shortly after that Mike Shanahan will speak to the media.

With his firing today Shanahan will probably become a major player to coach in Cleveland, New York and Detroit.

Dec

30

Pro Bowl To Move To Miami In 2010

Filed Under NFL, Off The Field News, Pro Bowl | Leave a Comment


Honolulu’s stranglehold on the NFL Pro Bowl postseason game is about to come to an end as the Associated Press is reporting that the game will be moved to the site of the Super Bowl beginning in 2010; apparently, the effort is being made in order to reinvigorate a game that rarely gets publicity with hardcore NFL fans, let alone the general public.

Maybe with this move of the Pro Bowl to one week before the Super Bowl, the contest may garber more interest - although that is highly specualtive at this point. Also factor in that a lot of the players, because of injuries and other obligations (real or imagined), tend to decline the coveted invites to play in the game. Perhaps that will change now.

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