http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2016/12/19/larry-fitzgerald-hints-at-playing-elsewhere-in-2017/

Larry Fitzgerald hints at playing elsewhere in 2017
Posted by Mike Florio on December 19, 2016

Getty Images

When Cardinals receiver Larry Fitzgerald signed a one-year extension with the team, it was sold by some in the media as a conclusive indication that Fitzgerald will spend at least two more years with the Cardinals. And it now sounds as if Fitzgerald has only two more games with the Cardinals.

Appearing on Westwood One with Jim Gray, Fitzgerald, who will be 34 next August, seemed to create the impression that he’ll play in 2017 — if he’s playing for a contender.

“No, I wouldn’t say that I’m contemplating [retirement] right now,” Fitzgerald told Gray. “But I’m uncertain what I’m going to do moving forward. But I still love the game, I love the competition. I love being around the guys and competing for a championship. That’s a lot of fun to me, and that’s kind of where I’m at right now.”

Where’s he’s at right now is with a team that isn’t competing, and that may be replacing quarterback Carson Palmer in 2017. It seems that Fitzgerald still wants to play if playing means winning. The real question is whether he thinks winning will happen in Arizona.

Fitzgerald’s father, a Minnesota sports writer, has said that Larry, a ball boy for the Vikings as a youth, “always wanted to be a Viking because he is a Viking.” Despite a 2-7 slide since starting 5-0, the Vikings could be contender if/when quarterback Teddy Bridgewater and if/when the offensive manages to periodically block someone.

Sources: Jon Gruden a focal point in L.A. Rams' coaching search

Charles Robinson
NFL columnist


Jon Gruden last coached in the NFL in 2008. (AP

The Los Angeles Rams are moving toward a meeting with ESPN analyst Jon Gruden about the team’s head coaching vacancy, multiple sources with knowledge of the Rams’ coaching search have told Yahoo Sports. The sources indicated Gruden has become a focal point on the Rams’ list of candidates, but that other candidates could also come into play – notably Stanford Cardinal head coach David Shaw and New Orleans Saints coach Asshole Face.

It’s not known whether Shaw or Payton have any level of interest in the Rams job, but multiple sources said Gruden would be inclined to listen if the Rams were willing to grant him full personnel authority. One source said such a concession would be a “must” for Gruden to even consider taking a meeting with franchise leadership in the coming days. The Rams will consider granting personnel authority to at least some of the candidates in their search and that Gruden is among that group, a source told Yahoo Sports.

Gruden, Shaw and Payton are three names that continue to fit the theme of the early list of Rams candidates who would make a big splash in the market. The team also had initial interest in Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll and University of Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh but both quickly brushed off any consideration for the opening. If Shaw is interested, the Rams could quickly set a meeting with his representatives. Seeking Payton would be more complicated, as he signed a five-year contract extension with the Saints last offseason and the Rams would first need to reach some level of agreement on potential draft-pick compensation with New Orleans.

A meeting with Gruden would be far less burdensome, particularly considering there is already some high-level familiarity with the former Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Oakland Raiders coach. Rams chief operating officer Kevin Demoff previously spent four years with the Buccaneers from 2005-09, overlapping with the final four years of Gruden’s tenure as head coach of the Buccaneers. During that time, Demoff was a senior assistant to then-general manager Bruce Allen. Essentially, he had a front-row seat to see how Gruden ran his coaching staff and interacted with the personnel department. It’s that experience which is believed to be elevating Gruden on the list – along with Gruden’s high profile.

Those who have spent time with Gruden say he has continued to believe he could again coach at a championship level in the NFL, particularly with rule changes that have given more leeway to offenses in recent years. But they’ve also said he has viewed his options for a return very selectively and largely predicated on a team’s quarterback situation. In that respect, Gruden’s belief in Jared Goff would be key.

It’s notable that he gushed about Goff in one of his “QB Camp” features on ESPN and also in some other interviews. While such public praise is taken with a grain of salt in many corners of the NFL, one source close to Gruden said he has also privately expressed that he believes Goff is a franchise quarterback.

“He does believe in him – that’s not just for TV,” one source familiar with Gruden said. “He thinks [Goff] has the stuff to be a franchise quarterback. I don’t know if Jon would have traded the farm to get him, but he sees him as a guy that was worthy of building a team around him. He sees leadership and star power there.”

Interestingly, those are two traits the Rams might value most in Gruden, too. Not just that he has been to a pair of Super Bowls and won a ring, but also because he has the type of high profile that will resonate with the Rams’ fan base. For financial reasons, that is expected to play a factor in the next head coaching hire.

While other names have been raised in the Rams’ search, sources have told Yahoo Sports there is a business component that will also factor – specifically, the plan of Rams owner Stan Kroenke to sell hundreds of millions of dollars in personal seat licenses for the new Inglewood stadium. The Rams are expected to begin that effort in force in early 2017 – not exactly an ideal launching point with the Los Angeles fan base already seeming to have grown frustrated with the team.

[sports.yahoo.com]

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This may not bode well for Goff but it makes all the send in the world to have him active. We have seen Keenum.

So this makes me laugh...

View attachment 18145

What say you ROD members.Let us know why.

I have purposely left off Harbaugh for the time being
because most people are believing he is not interested in the
NFL at the moment.

I know I have left off someones favorite candidate.Just list
who you would like in the comments.I would like to post another
poll at seasons end to see how the results may have changed.
If we have not hired the new HC by then.

Winners Receive a FREE Trent Balke For President T-shirt.
Members located outside the lower 48 not eligible.Members
inside the lower 48 must pay 129.99 for shipping and handling.
Except in Alabama and Arkansas where additional 63.00 state tax may apply
T-shirts may or may not read Trent Balke for president.t-shirts may or may not be
actual t-shirts.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/rams/la-sp-rams-coach-wolf-20161218-story.html

Rams coaching search: Hall of Famer Ron Wolf explains how experience on both sides of the ball is important
Sam FarmerContact Reporter

What should the Rams keep in mind when hiring their next coach? NFL legends Tony Dungy, Ron Wolf, and Jimmy Johnson weigh in with their first-person perspective in this three-part series on finding a coach who best fits a franchise. Today: Ron Wolf. Monday: Jimmy Johnson. Here’s Saturday’s: Tony Dungy.

Today, Ron Wolf. a Hall of Fame personnel executive, Wolf was integral in building the Oakland and then Los Angeles Raiders from the mid-1960s through the 1980s (with some intermittent breaks), then served as the Green Bay Packers’ general manager from 1991 to 2001. In between he was briefly general manager of the expansion Tampa Bay Buccaneers, where he laid the foundation that would help them reach the NFC championship game in their fourth year of existence.

Among his many accomplishments, he hired Mike Holmgren as coach of the Packers and traded a first-round pick to Atlanta for a player who at the time had some health and character concerns, a young quarterback named Brett Favre.

When you’re hiring a coach, too much emphasis is put on whether you’re looking for an offensive guy or a defensive guy. If a coach is good, he’s good no matter which side of the ball he comes from. Just look at Bill Belichick. Before the Patriots hired him, everybody was saying they needed an offensive guy. Well, he’s a defensive guy, and he’s been a dominant force for a long time, and he’s had the best team in the league for a long time.

The first thing you have to establish is: Who’s in charge? That’s very important. Is it going to be a joint venture where it’s the GM and the head coach, or is the head coach going to lead everything? If you’re really good, you’re probably going to want to run your own show as a head coach.

So much of hiring a coach depends on who’s doing the interviewing. I come from a belief that you have to have a football guy making those decisions. I don’t think you can overemphasize the importance of that.

I don’t think you can hire someone as an NFL head coach who only has college experience. The NFL is a different game. Pete Carroll is someone who came from the college ranks, but he had a lot of NFL experience before he was at USC. I worked with him for two years with the New York Jets, when I was their personnel director and he was their defensive coordinator. He’s an example of someone who knows both worlds.

There’s obviously a guy at the University of Michigan who could coach in either college football or the NFL, but you’d have to spend an awful lot of money to get Jim Harbaugh, even if you could.

San Francisco 49ers went 10-5-1 and made the playoffs in his first year as quarterbacks coach, even though they had to mostly use Jeff Kemp and Mike Moroski because Joe Montana was hurt.

Right away, you knew that Mike had an ability and a talent. Then he comes in and I interview him, and you could see why he was successful. He liked and had a real knowledge of the history of the game.

You’d be surprised by how many people come in for interviews without doing their homework. There are so many people that come in and eliminate themselves just from their lack of preparedness.

If somebody wants that job, they had better know your team. Guys will just give you what their pro scouts give them about your players. You’ll say, “How are you going to handle this situation?” and they’ll say, “Well, I’ll coach ‘em up.”

You’ll coach ‘em up? I don’t want to hear that. I want to hear how you’re going to take a team and mold it, how you’re going to make it work.

You’re given a tremendous responsibility here. You’re talking about a billion-dollar industry, and you’re the focal point of it. You want to be paid like an executive of a prime corporation, you’d better be one.

Los Angeles Times

https://theringer.com/nfl-san-franc...trent-baalke-jed-york-6f31eb4da112#.aigoiojar

After the Gold Rush
The once-proud San Francisco 49ers have been one of the worst teams in the NFL this season. Unfortunately for fans, the franchise’s problems run far deeper than this year’s coach, roster, or record.
By Katie Baker


San Francisco 49ers head coach Chip Kelly (Getty Images/Ringer illustration)

Outside of the San Francisco 49ers’ Levi’s Stadium on Sunday morning, a man glanced skyward and cackled. He wore a red “FIRE BAALKE” T-shirt and had taped two handmade “FIRE BAALKE” signs to the side and rear windows of his Honda, and as he pointed up at a plane tugging a “JED, YOU REAP WHAT YOU SOW #FIREBAALKE”banner over the tailgate lots, he said, “I can’t take credit for that one!”

Ricky Helton is a longtime season-ticket holder who owns a NINERZ1 license plate, and in Week 14, he appeared delighted not to be alone in requesting that San Francisco CEO Jed York relieve general manager Trent Baalke of his duties. These days, with only the winless, hapless Cleveland Browns sporting a worse record, rooting for the one-win Niners mostly means rooting for massive organizational change.

It was only four seasons ago that the Niners lost by three points in Super Bowl XLVII, and advancing deep into the postseason was no one-season fluke: San Francisco also played in the NFC championship game the year before and after. Since then, however, the organization has parted with two head coaches, including Jim Harbaugh, who went 44–19–1 during his tenure.

The team’s current coach, Chip Kelly, has yet to deliver the fireworks he was hired to bring. Lately, he has spent more time fielding press conference questions about his job security than he’s ever spent picking out visors.

Colin Kaepernick, once an exciting, scrambling quarterback and one of the NFL’s rising stars, now attracts more attention for pregame protests than in-game prowess. The team has allowed 30.2 points per game, worst in the NFL. Levi’s Stadium, the billion-dollar-plus facility that hosted the most recent Super Bowl, is increasingly empty. (It’s a good thing the seats are a festive Niners red.)

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And many of the fans who are still showing up share a common refrain: This isn’t just about Kelly, or the underperforming one-two punch of Kaepernick and Blaine Gabbert, or that one particularly embarrassing 45–16 loss to the Buffalo Bills in Week 6.

This Niners season betrays front-office egos and ownership meddling; exposes a player-development process that does not seem to have developed many players; and illustrates the distinction between running a profitable, splashy business and running a winning team.

On weekends, the Silicon Valley office parks and hotel clusters around Santa Clara tend to loom conspicuously empty, like shiny, abandoned Olympic venues. Nearby, Levi’s Stadium sits next to an amusement park, some hotels, and not much else. The facility is 40 miles south of the 49ers’ famous former venue, Candlestick Park, but the disconnect between the team’s past and present isn’t only physical. These 49ers are a team with no clear identity.

During a bad season, there’s a logical progression of people to blame. There are the players, who drop balls and miss blocks, and there is the head coach, who calls dumb plays and smacks his gum in hi-def TV in an increasingly bothersome manner.

There’s the general manager, who is theoretically responsible for having hired all the guys mentioned above, and there’s ownership, which can range from a shadowy Wizard of Oz entity to a controversial, omnipresent face. The worse the franchise, the further the blame needs to reach.

The 49ers, at 1–12, do not have a good roster. Kaepernick was pulled in the fourth quarter of an early December game against the Bears, having thrown for 4 yards on the day, and yet he continues to start because the team’s original 2016 starter, Gabbert, is worse. (You know things are bad when there are calls to take a look at young journeyman Christian Ponder, who is on his fourth team in six seasons.)

Some of the top offensive talents who led the team during its deep playoff runs a few years back — receiver Michael Crabtree, running back Frank Gore — have since left via free agency. (Crabtree now plays for the Bay Area’s good team, the resurgent Oakland Raiders.)

These Niners rank in the bottom five in yards per game, and because that impotent offense forces the already mediocre defense to take the field much more than it ought to, many losses have devolved into blowouts. The team’s only win came in Week 1, against a laughingstock Los Angeles Rams team that has since fired its coach.

The grim offensive output is particularly frustrating considering Kelly’s background. At the University of Oregon, Kelly was known for his freewheeling style, innovative schemes, and swagger. (He was frequently hailed as Big Balls Chip.) His three-season tenure with the Eagles was a mixed bag that included an NFC East title but also a power struggle over personnel decisions and control.

But the high-octane play-calling on which he built his reputation has not been present this season. If it weren’t for the weakness of the roster, and the fact that this is only his first year with the team, there’s a good chance that his seat would be even hotter than it already is.

But Kelly hasn’t yet been in San Francisco long enough for the critiques to turn truly bitter and personal, the way they have toward Baalke and York. Baalke has been with the team since joining as a scout in 2005, has overseen the 49ers drafts since 2010, and was promoted to general manager in 2011 just before the Niners hired Harbaugh. In his first year as GM he won PFWA Executive of the Year honors as the 49ers broke an eight-season playoff drought.

But as the team has struggled over the past few seasons, the GM’s stock has fallen precipitously, and his departure is starting to feel like a real possibility. A Sunday report from CBS’s Jason La Canfora painted a bleak picture of Baalke’s future with the team, and on Wednesday, CSN Bay Area’s Matt Maiocco suggested that Baalke may already have a landing spot lined up in Denver.

Even Baalke’s defenders, like former 49ers quarterback Trent Dilfer, have managed to make things somehow worse: On Tuesday, Dilfer compared players to “groceries” and said it was the responsibility of the coaching staff, and not Baalke, to “develop, you know, to make the dinner and get the most out of the flavor of those players.” Now Baalke’s name has made its way onto a derisive plane banner, a dishonor that until this season was typically reserved for York.

York is in his seventh season as team CEO and is the scion of a family that has owned the club since 1977. He has established himself as the face of the franchise on the business side through his dogged involvement with the fundraising and development of Levi’s Stadium.

And while his parents, the team’s co-chairmen, remain mostly behind the scenes when it comes to the football side of things, York’s job involves being present day-to-day. As a result, he has become the target of criticism in all sorts of forms: from “fatherly advice” to derisive inflatable dongs. And then there are the planes.


A 49ers fan (Getty Images)

Sunday wasn’t the first time that fed-up fans had chartered a snarky flyby over Levi’s Stadium. Last November, a plane bearing the message “JED & 49ERS SHOULD MUTUALLY PART WAYS” did loops above Santa Clara. A month later there was a new sign: “HOLD JED ACCOUNTABLE.”

Both slogans were ostensibly in reference to one of the more memorable press conferences in 49ers history, the December 29, 2014, gathering in which York and Baalke addressed the prior day’s breakup with Harbaugh. York and Baalke variously described what happened as “a mutual parting of the ways,” “a mutual parting,” “a mutual decision,” and “fairly mutual.” Between the two of them, they said the words “accountable” and “accountability” some 20 times.

This fall, when Mercury News columnist Tim Kawakami characterized the atmosphere around the Niners as “a frothy mix of Monty Python farce, ‘Big Brother’ plotting, Stalin-era revisionist history, and of course, the patented Jed York/Trent Baalke spin-machine leak-o’-rama,” he was referring in large part to Harbaugh’s final season. In the four years he coached the 49ers, Harbaugh made it to three conference finals and a Super Bowl.

He earned AP Coach of the Year honors for the 2011 season. Early in his tenure, he supposedly jogged and played racquetball with Baalke. But his relationship with team management grew increasingly strained, and nearly a full year before his departure reports unflattering to Harbaugh began leaking out of the organization.

In February 2014, just weeks after the Niners went to their third straight NFC championship game, news broke that San Francisco had nearly traded Harbaugh to the Cleveland Browns, and CBS Sports reported that Harbaugh and Baalke were barely on speaking terms. Early in the 2014 season, Deion Sanders said on the NFL Network that the players wanted Harbaugh out. (“Personally, I feel that’s a bunch of crap,” Harbaugh replied.) And Harbaugh’s reported issues with management weren’t limited to Baalke.

The juiciest unconfirmed nugget of the whole affair didn’t make its way into the public sphere until the following summer, but it involved York walking into the room during a team meeting and Harbaugh telling him it was for “men only.” The team finished 8–8 that season and missed the playoffs, giving the front office a perceived opening to make the move.

“We don’t raise division championships banners,” York said at the December 2014 press conference. “We don’t raise NFC championship banners. We raise Super Bowl banners. And whenever we don’t deliver that, I hope that you will hold me directly responsible and accountable for it.” The team’s record since he said that is 6–23. The URL for the GoFundMe account that raised money for the latest plane flyby this past Sunday included the phrase “MoreBannersThanJed.”

And once again, the phrasing — YOU REAP WHAT YOU SOW — appeared to be inspired by real-world events. Two months after his ouster, Harbaugh deniedthat the parting was mutual, and when after just one season the Niners fired Harbaugh’s replacement, longtime team assistant Jim Tomsula, announced via terse written statement, Harbaugh tweeted: “Do not be deceived. You will reap what you sow.”

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San Francisco quarterback Colin Kaepernick (Getty Images)

If ever a game underlined the way this season has gone for San Francisco, it was Sunday’s clash of the titans against the Jets. This one actually seemed winnable: Like the Niners’, the Jets’ recent history is littered with the smoldering wreckage of discarded quarterbacks, cast-aside coaches, embattled GMs (one even got the plane banner treatment!), and a new stadium.

Under Rex Ryan, the Jets went to, and lost, consecutive AFC championship games in the 2009 and 2010 seasons, a memory that seems so long ago. New York entered the Niners game with as many wins on the season — three — as quarterbacks it had started.

A Jets fan in a Namath jersey tried to bring a DRAFT BOWL sign into the stadium, but security deemed it a prohibited item. Earlier in the morning, as a tailgater waiting for the parking lot gates to open stood spread-legged on the back of his pickup truck spraying lighter fluid onto a big black industrial grill, the Mad Max: Fury Road vibe seemed appropriate for this sort of dystopia.

A few feet away, a woman in a knit 49ers dress and a Santa hat discussed the latest rumor du jour — that the Yorks were thinking of bringing in someone like Mike Shanahan to oversee football operations — with a friend in a gold Starter jacket.

The 49ers, who rank in the bottom third of the league in interceptions, picked off Jets whatever-string quarterback Bryce Petty on his very first throw. They led 14–0 just a few minutes in. San Francisco running back Carlos Hyde scored a touchdown and ran for 141 yards in the first half. At halftime, cute little dogs did Frisbee tricks on the field. Rain threatened but never came. For a couple of hours, life was good. Then, bit by bit, everything crumbled, just as this whole season has.

It’s hard to say what was worse: that Kaepernick threw for 4 yards in the second half, or that when Jets coach Todd Bowles was asked postgame what his team had done to shut down the Niners offense, he began with: “Well, we didn’t do much.” A Jets drive in the fourth quarter lasted more than eight minutes and culminated in a touchdown and a successful two-point conversion. In the final minute, New York tied the game with a 50-yard Nick Folk field goal.

There’s no cheering allowed in a press box, but at this point there were a whole lot of snickers and groans. Many fans began filing up the stadium steps toward the exit before overtime even began, knowing how it was likely to end. They were right.

When Kelly opted to go for it in overtime on fourth-and-two from the Jets’ 37 yard line, it seemed like he might be up to his old Big Balls Chip tricks. But then he sent Hyde straight up the middle, a dud Red Rover attempt that ended with the running back, and the Niners’ slim hopes of some small celebration, totally stuffed.

“It doesn’t really matter,” Hyde said after the game when asked about his performance. “I’d take the win over the stats any day. I really wanted to win that one. I wanted to win all of them.”


49ers GM Trent Baalke (Getty Images)

Hyde has rushed for 879 yards this season and is one of the few positives in Baalke’s draft history, which began when GM Scot McCloughan left the organization a month before the 2010 draft in what York termed a “mutual parting.” (Now the Redskins general manager, McCloughan opened up in late 2014 to ESPN The Magazine’s Seth Wickersham about the struggles with alcohol that led to his departure from both the Niners and from the Seahawks after that.)

McCloughan remains widely respected as a keen assessor of prospective talent, and many of his San Francisco draft picks, like Crabtree, Gore, and Vernon Davis, were crucial parts of the 49ers’ deep runs from 2011 to 2013. But by then, Baalke was the one reaping the benefits of positive association.

This season, however, has provided ample evidence that Baalke has struggled to make franchise-improving decisions. Baalke has characterized the 49ers as a “draft and develop” team rather than one that seeks to be aggressive in free agency. But his draft history has mostly ranged from unexceptional to, as in 2012, downright bad.

He has been at the helm for long enough that the Niners roster now reflects his player personnel choices — and that Niners roster scares no one. Meanwhile, his skill set beyond the draft appears equally limited. Two of the most important decisions an NFL GM makes is who should be coach, and who should be quarterback. Tomsula’s one-year tenure and Kelly’s inauspicious start do not make for a good recent track record, and the team’s situation at quarterback is no better.

And even situations that might be bright(er) spots, like the season Hyde is having, or the recent five-year contract extension for Vance McDonald, have dark linings. In Hyde’s draft, Baalke considered trading up to pick Odell Beckham Jr., but deemed the price too high.

Two days after McDonald signed, the tight end suffered a season-ending shoulder injury in the Jets game. It’s unfair to cherry-pick these bits of hindsight and ascribe blame for an injury, but few San Francisco supporters are looking to give Baalke the benefit of the doubt. Instead, they’re left wondering why York has.


49ers CEO Jed York (Getty Images)

The Niners haven’t won a Super Bowl since the 1994 season, when York’s uncle and godfather, Eddie DeBartolo Jr., still owned the team. DeBartolo presided over five Super Bowl wins; he also pleaded guilty to a felony charge related to a riverboat gambling license. (The plea deal, which was part of a larger case against corrupt former Louisiana governor Edwin Edwards, prompted Edwards to deem DeBartolo“the Linda Tripp of Louisiana.”) And though his legal troubles did not prevent DeBartolo from being named to the NFL Hall of Fame earlier this year, they did cause something of a family schism back in the late ’90s.

In 1997, during the course of his legal issues, DeBartolo transferred the team’s majority ownership to his sister, Denise DeBartolo York, who had previously been a part owner and president of the Pittsburgh Penguins, and who has her name engraved on the Stanley Cup. But by 1999, the siblings were locked in a legal dispute involving tax attorneys, debts, a couple hundred million dollars, real estate holdings, and the 49ers. An angry DeBartolo said then that he hadn’t chosen York as his sister: “Genes did that.”

The team remained in the hands of York and her husband, John. In 2000, in a rare public interview, York lashed back in the pages of the San Francisco Chronicle. “You know what I resent the most from all of this?” she said. “I didn’t ask for any of this to happen. It fell into my lap: the 49ers, the accusations, the scrutiny, all of it.”

In late 2008, the Yorks appointed their oldest son Jed, then 27 years old, to be team president. “I am here by six every morning and stay until late at night,” he toldHaute Living magazine the following summer. “Because it’s not my team. It’s not my family’s team. It’s our fans’ team. Because if they are not supporting us, if they don’t believe in what we are doing, then our team doesn’t exist.”

But it is his team. The radio report suggesting that York might lose some of his football operations control was refuted days later by NBC’s Mike Florio. The question with York probably isn’t about his level of influence and control, but how he will learn from and use it.

York is still a young executive who has spent the majority of his career working closely with Baalke, who publicly supported his ownership earlier this season, and who has, in turn, benefited from York opting to maintain the status quo at GM. But York is running out of football justifications for continuing to do so.

In October, after the brutal Buffalo loss, York’s cousin Lisa sent and later deleted a pair of tweets critical of the team and of York specifically. And DeBartolo’s recent Hall of Fame speech, which was more than 3,000 words long, went into great depth about the importance of family, but did not include his godson and nephew by name. All he said was, “I’m also privileged to be joined by my sister, Denise, and her wonderful family today.”



As the team has gotten worse, the discrepancy between its profitability and its product has widened. Season-ticket holders have seen the value of their personal seat licenses sink. And on Wednesday, 49ers great Steve Young brought up these tensions on the radio, remarking that while the York family had undoubtedly boosted the price of their franchise, they have done so at the expense of the things that should really be valued.

“[The Yorks’] equity value in the team is their A game. It’s what drives them,” Young said. “It’s what drives most of the owners. It’s what matters. It’s what they think about. It’s what they talk about. And the B game is whether we win some games. … That’s the biggest issue with the NFL, is that success doesn’t track to success on the field. So you’re not held accountable.”

There’s that word again: accountable. In a testy exchange during the December 2014 no-more-Harbaugh press conference, several reporters had pushed back on York’s continued lip service to that idea. The implication was that York might be holding Baalke to a different standard.


(Katie Baker)

So Jed, you have a coach that just averaged over 12 wins a year in four years. What will the expectation be for a coach coming in?

Jed York: “To win the Super Bowl.”

Right away? In Year 1?

J.Y.: “We expect to win the Super Bowl every year. That is our goal.”

And is that a reasonable expectation? So, what if that coach doesn’t win the Super Bowl in the first couple of years?

J.Y.: “Then we’re going to have to figure out if that’s the right fit.”

Jed, is Trent accountable for that then? He hasn’t won a Super Bowl.

J.Y.: “Absolutely. Absolutely he’s accountable.”

So when does that start coming into play?

J.Y.: “Do you have a stopwatch?”

Niners fans have been watching the clock ever since, waiting to see when those words will be backed up by action. Jesse Mendez, a season-ticket holder who is part of the die-hard “Empire Row” tailgate consortium, is the type of supporter who faithfully arrives at the stadium around 7:15 a.m. on a game day. “If they’re doing good, you gotta get here earlier,” he said.

But even he is reaching a breaking point. “If it’s the same GM,” he said, “I’ll probably not come out to the games next year. I’ll still have my season tickets, because I’ll never let those go, but I’m not going to support this with money inside the stadium.”

Helton, the man with all the FIRE BAALKE paraphernalia, said he didn’t think he could go that far. “Hey, I’m not a boycotter,” he said. “I show up for the players.” The open question among 49ers fans is when, or whether, the organization’s leadership will get back to giving those players the same support.

These are excerpts from this article. To read the whole thing click the link below.
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http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2016/12/19/nfl-playoff-possibilities-titans-packers-week-15-peter-king

Endless Playoff Possibilities and the Kick of a Lifetime
Week 15 helped solve part of the postseason puzzle, but there are still several pieces hoping to fit. Here’s a look at some stretch-run scenarios. Plus the Titans’ ice-cold game-winner, Green Bay’s good guy and more
By Peter King

Photo: Peter G. Aiken/Getty Images

Imagine you’re Tennessee kicker Ryan Succop, and you’re back in Kansas City, where you kicked for the first five seasons of your career before being fired, and your team’s playoff fate rests on something that feels impossible. The wind-chill temperature is -9º, impossible conditions for kicking because the ball doesn’t travel well and feels like a rock.

It really does; it’s so hard it doesn’t compress a millimeter no matter how hard you grip. You just hit the ball perfectly, but came five yards short on a 53-yard field-goal try. Luckily, you got saved by the Chiefs’ timeout at the last second. The mis-kick didn’t count on the scoreboard, but it did count in your head.

Now you’ve got the sickest feeling in your gut. Athletes are not supposed to ever say what you’re thinking right now.

“I don’t think I can reach it,” Succop thought.

He took a deep breath. A cloud of white vapor came out of Succop’s mouth as snapper Beau Brinkley took his grip on the frozen ball.

“If I had 10 kicks from here,” Succop thought, “I don’t think I could make one. Not on a day like this.”

No more time for negativity. Brinkley fired the ball back, punter Brett Kern put it down, and that noise you may have heard was a stadium full of people inhaling.

* * *


Photo: Denis Poroy/AP

Sunday was the kind of day that was a roller coaster with a touch of heartbreak, and an inevitable coach-firing. (What took the Jags so long with 14-48 Gus Bradley?) But not a lot of significant dreams died. We have 14 days left in the season, and 33 games to play, and all we learned over the weekend is:

• New England, 12-2, clinched a first-round bye for an NFL-record seventh straight year.

• Oakland, 11-3, clinched a playoff berth for the first time since 2002.

• We were all shoveling dirt on the Packers a month ago, but Green Bay wins the NFC North with victories over Minnesota (at Lambeau) and Detroit (at Ford Field) in the last two weeks. Watching Green Bay win four straight by an average of 13 points, it’s pretty conceivable that Aaron Rodgers’ run-the-table call will come true.

• Washington’s an NFC wild card by winning out. Miami’s an AFC wild card by winning out.

• There’s one potential wild-card weekend matchup that stands above all. Say Green Bay wins the North and is the fourth NFC seed. Say the Giants have the best record of the wild cards and is the fifth NFC seed. Pardon the Packers if very bad memories arise right now. 2007: At Lambeau … Last game of Brett Favre’s Green Bay career … NFC Championship Game … Historically cold day … Favre throws game-losing OT pick …

Eli Manning quarterbacks Giants to 23-20 win on way to Super Bowl triumph over Patriots. 2011: At Lambeau … Packers go 15-1 in regular season, rest players in meaningless regular-season finale, look stale in opening divisional game versus Giants … Manning quarterbacks Giants to 37-20 win on way to Super Bowl triumph over Patriots. History can’t repeat itself. Can it?

You know what’s interesting? The bevy of possibilities for the final game of the season. The NFL has to announce game number 256, the Sunday night finale on NBC Jan. 1, no later than a week from today. Two games seem natural if form holds and all four teams exit next weekend 9-6: Green Bay at Detroit for the NFC North title, or Houston at Tennessee for the AFC South title.

Oakland-Denver could have playoff implications for both teams. The Pats and Dolphins play in south Florida; New England has lost three straight at Miami, and the top seed in the AFC and Miami being in or out could ride on that game.

Most seasons around Christmas, we’re fairly clear about the teams we like heading into the postseason. Not this year. The only sure thing is New England. The Patriots have won 12 games or more in every season since 2010, and after a 16-3 win at Denver, there’s no disputing that the Patriots are football’s best team, with the kind of defense that can carry the load on the rare day when Tom Brady is just meh.

After that? Kansas City has lost at home to Tampa Bay and Tennessee in the past month. Oakland lost to Kansas City by 16 and eight points. Dallas had a good rebound game Sunday night, but the Giants may be the Cowboys’ NFC kryptonite. No one, not even Pete Carroll, knows if the embattled Russell Wilson will stay upright through the postseason behind a bad offensive line.

Do the Giants have enough offense? Atlanta’s promising, but it’s hard to say if the Falcons’ D will hold up. Green Bay and Pittsburgh and Tennessee all could win a couple of playoff games (yes, the Titans), but they aren’t assured of even making the playoffs.

That’s the way we should like it down the stretch. It’s a blur. If New England stumbles in January, none of 20 possible Super Bowl scenarios would surprise me.

* * *

Tennessee-Kansas City had some other drama. The Chiefs, up 14-7 in the second quarter, had two shots from the Titans’ one to make it 21-7. But Tennessee’s defense rose up against two straight Spencer Ware runs over the right side—linebacker Wesley Woodyard led the charge on both plays, with old man river Dick LeBeau cheering from the sideline.

Tennessee held. In the last 40 minutes of the game, the Chiefs managed just one field goal in eight possessions. That gave Tennessee a chance to come back, and with 3:14 left, Derrick Henry scored on a one-yard run. Pre-PAT, that made it Kansas City 17, Tennessee 16.

Tennessee had no timeouts left. If it remained a one-point game, one Chiefs first down on the ensuing drive would most likely end it. But Titans coach Mike Mularkey decided to try to win right then and there. He went for two. Marcus Mariota rolled right, got pressured, and didn’t get off a good throw. K.C. kept the lead, and Football Pundit America screamed: You blew it Mularkey! Too big a risk there, to go for two with no timeouts left.

“I wasn’t thinking that way at all,” Mularkey said from Arrowhead afterward. “I was thinking we were going to win the game in one of two ways. We get the two-point conversion, then we hold them and we win. Or we don’t make the two-point conversion, we hold them and our kicker makes the field goal to win before going to overtime. That’s the kind of confidence I have in my team. I wanted them to know it. They knew the plan on the sideline before we got to that point. They knew we were going for the win.”

“But it did leave you in position to be second-guessed from coast to coast,” I said.

“Then you can second-guess me all you want,” he said. “I don’t care. I believe in these guys, and I think they believe in what we’re doing too.”

Of course the Titans made Kansas City go three-and-out. Of course the Hawaiian quarterback who played in the Pac-12 drove the Titans to the Chiefs’ 35 with time ticking down, and spiked the ball to stop the clock with five seconds left. Here came Succop, Mr. Irrelevant, the 256th and final overall pick in 2009, in Scott Pioli’s first draft as Kansas City’s GM.

And of course Kansas City coach Andy Reid called the timeout to freeze the freezing kicker, and his practice kick landed in the end zone, a good five yards short, leading to the aforementioned severe doubts by Succop.

“I heard the whistle before the snap,” Succop told me after the game, “so I knew they called time. I figured they would. But you’ve just got to kick it, which I did. The second one, I knew after that first kick that I just had to throw technique out the window. I just had to kick that thing as hard as I could, regardless of the right technique. I was kicking a frozen football in the worst conditions you could imagine.”

The snap was perfect. Kern’s hold was good. Succop’s technique didn’t look like a cleanup hitter swinging for the fences at all. He hit is square, and it flew, and traveled farther than the kick a minute earlier. And it barely made it over the crossbar. Good.

“Kick of a lifetime,” he said over the phone, choking up.

“I gotta be honest. The conditions, this team, these guys, the way we’re fighting for the division … I was crying like a baby after this one. I could not do this. No question in my mind it was the Lord’s will. That’s the one explanation for it. Glory to God.”

And so here’s the weirdest division in football, the AFC South, with two weeks to go:

1. Houston (8-6). Still to play: Cincinnati, at Tennessee. Holds the tiebreaker by virtue of a 5-0 AFC South record, but it’s the shakiest lead of any division leader. Coach Bill O’Brien, rightfully, benched Brock Osweiler, his $72 million quarterback, Sunday as the Texans needed every break to beat the moribund Jags, 21-20.

He’s likely to keep unknown former Rutgers/Arizona/Pitt quarterback Tom Savage his quarterback. What should have been an energizing comeback over the Jags seemed almost maudlin because of the Osweiler wake. No time for that now.

2. Tennessee (8-6). Still to play: at Jacksonville, Houston. Big schedule edge, and the Titans have beaten Green Bay, Denver and Kansas City in the last five weeks, and the defense is coming on, and Marcus Mariota is one fun quarterback to watch.

3. Indianapolis (7-7). Still to play: at Oakland, Jacksonville. Everything has to fall right for the Colts—who had a ridiculously unlikely 34-6 victory at Minnesota on Sunday—to win the division at 9-7. Colts go 2-0. Titans lose to Jags, beat Texans. Texans go 0-2. That’d leave Indy and Tennessee 9-7, with the Colts division champs by virtue of a season sweep of Tennessee.

Of course, this means the Colts winning the possible final game in the history of the Black Hole next Sunday, against the 11-3 AFC West leaders. And it means Tennessee losing at Jacksonville. Stranger things have happened. I just can’t think of many right now.

4. Jacksonville (2-12). Still to play: Tennessee, at Indianapolis. This is a talented team, but Gus Bradley could never get the car out of second gear. He finally got some impact defensive pieces this year—Dante Fowler, Malik Jackson, Jalen Ramsey—but Jacksonville still stunk on defense, and Bradley was fired Sunday night with the worst record in NFL history (14-48) for a coach with at least 60 games.

“I thought it would be best to do it immediately after today’s result so Gus can step away, relax and regroup with his family during the Christmas and holiday season,” Khan said in a statement. Bradley is such a nice guy, and owner Shad Khan’s such a nice guy, that though Bradley got fired after the game, Khan let him return to Jacksonville on the team charter. That’s a pretty strange deal.

But the players let Bradley down, particularly quarterback Blake Bortles. Most disappointing QBs in football this year: 1. Brock Osweiler; 2. Blake Bortles; 3. Cam Newton. But if you wanted to put Bortles first I wouldn’t argue. Where do the Jags turn now? I doubt to Tom Coughlin for Act II—Khan and GM Dave Caldwell were not in Jacksonville for Coughlin I, but we’ll see.

* * *

Chargers: Hello, L.A.


Photo: Denis Poroy/AP

Bad signs for the future of the NFL in San Diego: The crowd for the Raiders’ playoff-clinching game at Qualcomm Stadium was at least 70 percent Silver and Black. There were times when the home quarterback, Philip Rivers, had to use a silent snap count because Raiders fans were so loud.

Afterward, Chargers chairman Dean Spanos did not dispute a CBS-TV report that said the Chargers were close to making a deal to move to Los Angeles to be the second team at Rams owner Stan Kroenke’s new stadium project in Inglewood.

Spanos told Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union Tribune that a CBS reporter asked him if he was closer to leaving than staying. “I said, ‘That would probably be an accurate statement,’” Spanos said. “I also said I’m not going to make up my mind until after the season.”

Spanos likely has a talk or two left with San Diego city fathers, but this thing’s gone on too long, with too little substantive progress toward a real solution. Most NFL owners seem resigned to losing the San Diego market. Though it makes fiscal sense for Los Angeles, the practical side of it seems ill-fated at best.

Los Angeles didn’t have an NFL team for a generation. Now it’s going to have two? With a combined 2016 record of 9-19? L.A. doesn’t like losers. No one does, but look at the history of Los Angeles. How were the Clippers treated while they lost year after year? Poorly.

I still will never figure out why Spanos wouldn’t make the best deal he could in a city that worships the Chargers—or, rather, worshiped them until the end seemed inevitable—around the Qualcomm site. Even if the stadium were a C-plus place, it’d be in the home of your rabid fans, in a passable venue. No doubt the Chargers have a chance to be a big player in Los Angeles one day. But that day won’t come until the Chargers win, and maybe years after that.

And with Philip Rivers 35 and very lukewarm on uprooting his family for this scotch-tape job of two years before the new L.A. stadium opens in 2019, the Chargers could be a terrible draw, wherever they play in 2017 and ’18. So GM Tom Telesco has to find a quarterback of the future, and he has to find free agents willing to be in a temporary place for a couple of years, and he has to try to win enough games to save his job and those of his players and staff on the team solidly fourth right now in a four-team division. Good luck with that.

* * *

Get to know David Shaw a bit


Photo: David Madison/Getty Images
David Shaw has led Stanford to a 63-17 record in six seasons as head coach.

There’s little doubt in my mind that the college coach who piques the interest of NFL teams the most right now (except for Nick Saban and Jim Harbaugh) is Stanford’s David Shaw. I was in Palo Alto two weeks ago and recorded a conversation with Shaw for my Dec. 28 podcast, and I recommend it highly. (Subscribe to my podcast on iTunes to have it download automatically to your feed when it posts.) Shaw’s an intelligent guy, players love playing for him, and he’ll have his chance one day to run an NFL program.

But I doubt it will be soon. Never say never, but he sounds very comfortable at Stanford.

Shaw, 44, was an NFL assistant for 10 seasons before moving to Stanford in 2007.

I asked Shaw: What’s the biggest difference between the NFL and college?

“Everything,” Shaw said, sitting his office at Stanford. “Absolutely everything. When you are in college, the essential thing for being a good college football coach, in my opinion, is to never, ever forget that someone just dropped their most important possession in my lap. I can’t ever forget that, no matter what I do, no matter what I say, no matter if we win or lose or if I yell at a young man or put my arm around him.

I can’t ever forget that that is somebody else’s baby and they gave them to me. Now, in the NFL, when a guy walks in the door, he works for me. He has a job to do or I’m cutting him. That’s it. That is everything. The essentials of both are completely different.

That 17-year-old kid who walks in the door, I am going to take care of him and get the best out of him and teach him to push himself and expect a lot of himself in the classroom, on the football field and the community. In the NFL, we are trying to win football games. Nothing else matters.”

I asked him if it’d be tough to turn down some rich man offering him $8 million a year to coach his team.

“Not at all,” Shaw said. “What is more money? Especially when it is temporary. I am different because I grew up in this business. My dad was a football coach. I watched it happen over and over again. That first press conference for an NFL head coach that just got hired … as soon as that press conference starts, you start the clock for how long he is going to be there. It’s just a fact of the business, I’m not saying it is good or bad. It just is.

It's three to five years, that's what you have, if you're lucky. It's not a permanent job. You are a temp. Every NFL head coach outside of Bill Belichick is a temp. To not understand that is folly, to be one of those guys that just takes the money, just because it is the money, doesn't understand it.

If I get myself into that washing machine at some point—because that's what it is, it churns you up and the timer goes off and you get out—then I am doing it with my eyes wide open. For me right now, my daily life at Stanford University, I can't imagine there is a better job in America.”

So there. Shaw would be a great get, but it’ll take something really special to get him off The Farm.

* * *


Photo: Adam Glanzman/Getty Images

“I want a chance to play the Rams.”

—Jeff Fisher, to reporter Charissa Thompson on “FOX NFL Kickoff.”

He’ll have to get a job first. I am probably in the minority: I think Fisher will get another chance—somewhere, someday. But I’d be exceedingly surprised if that chance is next year, after seven consecutive non-winning seasons with the Titans and Rams.

* * *

The Award Section

OFFENSIVE PLAYERS OF THE WEEK

Marcus Mariota, quarterback, Tennessee. I don’t care about stats—19 of 33, 241 yards, no TDs, one pick, 67.9 rating—because most of Mariota’s professional games have been better numerically. I care about Mariota’s three fourth-quarter drives, in ungodly cold (-9 wind chill in Kansas City). The quarter started with the Chiefs leading 17-7.

Then Mariota led the Titans 51 yards on 11 plays to a field goal; 68 yards on 12 plays to a touchdown; and 40 yards on six plays in the last minute with no timeouts to the winning field goal. That’s a game very few quarterbacks could have won. Mariota did.

Matt Moore, quarterback, Miami. In nine years as an NFL backup (mostly), in 46 games, Moore had never had four touchdown passes in a game—until Saturday night. And this was his first start in almost five years. “There was some nerves,” he said. Not for long.

Moore hit tight end Dion Sims twice from a yard out, and threw one lovely deep ball in stride to the streaking Kenny Stills (52 yards) and another tight throw to Jarvis Landry (66 yards), all in the first 40 minutes of Miami’s surprisingly easy 34-13 win over the Jets. For the game, Moore was 12 of 18 for 236 yards and a rating of 126.2. Not bad for a guy who’d been in mothballs behind Ryan Tannnehill.


Ty Montgomery, running back/wide receiver, Green Bay. Two months ago the player whom David Shaw, his former coach at Stanford, called “one of the most versatile players I’ve ever seen” was forced into duty at running back because of injuries in the Green Bay backfield. The Packers intended for Montgomery to continue to climb the ladder at receiver and become one of Aaron Rodgers’ trusted targets for the next few years. But need is need.

And Sunday, at frigid Soldier Field, Mike McCarthy’s running-back gambit paid off. Montgomery, in the Packers’ biggest game of the season, rushed 16 times for a Week 15-best 162 yards. Noted Packers fan Lil Wayne noticed. “I may very well name my next kid or album Ty Montgomery!!” he tweeted.

DEFENSIVE PLAYERS OF THE WEEK

Wesley Woodyard, linebacker, Tennessee. Pretty pedestrian stat line—four tackles, one for loss, no sacks. But with the Chiefs up 14-7 midway through the second quarter, Kansas City had the chance to take a two-touchdown lead on a day with -9 wind chill and the quarterback on the other team from Hawaii. Third-and-one, Kansas City, at the Titans’ one. Power formation. K.C.’s 230-pound running back hit the hole between right guard and tackle, and boom! There was Woodyard, stoning Spencer Ware for a half-yard loss.

Next play: Ware again, on fourth-and-goal from the one, and four Titans, led by Woodyard, stoned him again. No gain. Looking back, those were the two biggest defensive players of the game for the 8-6 Titans.

David Irving, defensive end, Dallas. Undrafted out of Iowa State in 2015 and signed off the Chiefs’ practice squad 15 months ago, Irving has become a relentless part-time rusher. His two fourth-quarter sacks of Jameis Winston put the Bucs in big holes—second-and-16 with 13 minutes left in a tie game, and second-and-18 with three minutes left with the Bucs down six. Irving also had three more quarterback hits and a pass-defensed in Dallas’ 26-20 victory.

SPECIAL TEAMS PLAYER OF THE WEEK

Ryan Succop, kicker, Tennessee. His 39-yard field goal in the Arrowhead igloo brought the Titans to within one score early in the fourth quarter, and his 53-yarder at the final gun won a game that looked very lost. Tennessee 19, Kansas City 17, keeping the Titans alive in the AFC South title hunt. “I don’t get very emotional after games,” the ex-Chief told me. “But after this, how could I not? Kick of a lifetime.”

Marqise Lee, wide receiver/kick returner, Jacksonville. The Jaguars never should have lost at Houston—not after Lee’s masterful 100-yard sprint up the right sideline against the Texans’ kickoff team, the first Jacksonville kickoff return for a touchdown since 2007. It was an amazing return, partly because Lee was not touched by a Houston defender until he reached the goal line, 100 yards after he started his jaunt.

Walt Aikens, safety, Miami. In the third quarter Saturday night, Miami up only 13-10, Aikens, a third-year special-teams ace from Liberty, burst past a feeble matador block by the Jets’ Brandon Wilds, protecting the right wing. Wilds, playing his second game in the NFL as an undrafted free agent running back from South Carolina, is not going to have a long career in the league if he takes his job as cavalierly as he did on this play.

Aikens suffocated Lachlan Edwards’ punt as much as he blocked it at the New York 41. “Scoop and score, that’s what we’re taught,” Aikens said. The force of the block sent the ball careening backward toward the Jets’ goal line. Aikens nabbed it around the 11-yard line and ran it in for the game-turning touchdown. Five minutes later, the Dolphins had a 34-10 lead and sent the crowd heading for the exits in New Jersey a quarter early.

COACH OF THE WEEK

Jack Del Rio, head coach, Oakland. When in 2015 Del Rio got the Raiders’ job—his dream; he went to Raiders games as a kid and grew up 25 minutes away—the team was coming off 4-12, 4-12 and 3-13 seasons. On Sunday in San Diego, Oakland’s hard-fought 19-16 win ensured a playoff spot for the Raiders, their first after a 13-year drought.

And Del Rio, coaching sometimes with guts he didn’t have in Jacksonville, has managed to wipe away the stink that stayed on him for years from an unimpressive run coaching the Jaguars. Now he’s got the Raiders in position to be the second seed if they take care of business the next two weeks (Indy at home, at Denver). The Raiders are 11-3. Never thought I’d type that sentence again.

Steve Spagnuolo, defensive coordinator, New York Giants. In the past two weeks the Giants have faced division leaders (Dallas, Detroit) with MVP candidates at quarterback (Dak Prescott, Matthew Stafford). The Cowboys and Lions had the ball for 26 possessions in those two games … and scored one touchdown.

In the span of one off-season, with defensive players GM Jerry Reese bought, Spagnuolo has constructed a defense rounding into the kind of form eerily reminiscent of the D he built into a Super Bowl winner in 2007 in the Meadowlands. The Giants are a very interesting team right now. The defense is why.

GOAT OF THE WEEK

Blake Bortles, quarterback, Jacksonville. There’s no player who let Gus Bradley down more this year than Bortles—and that’s saying something on a 2-14 team. Bradley got fired after the disgraceful 21-20 loss to Houston (Jacksonville blew a 20-8 lead late with some of the most feeble offense of the year), and it was just a matter of time before it happened.

Bortles needed to make just two or three plays down the stretch to clinch this game, and he couldn’t make one. In the last 20 minutes, which started with that 20-8 Jacksonville lead, Bortles had the ball five times. Jacksonville went 11, 8, minus-10, 15 and zero yards, respectively, on those five drives, and the last one ended with an interception that wasn’t close to being a smart risk.

* * *

Things I Think I Think

1. I think these are my quick notes of analysis from Week 15:

a. Anyone want to bench Dak (32 of 36) Prescott now?

b. It’s bad enough that Jacksonville owner Shad Khan had to fired his head coach a week before Christmas. But now Khan also has to strongly consider getting a new quarterback after another dreadful performance by Blake Bortles in a game that Jacksonville never should have lost.

c. Speaking of bad quarterbacks in the Houston-Jacksonville game: I’m sure Bill O’Brien knows this, but Brock Osweiler has to be the backup quarterback to Tom Savage for however long this season lasts.

d. I think Jordy Nelson (82 catches, 1,037 yards, 12 TDs, coming off ACL surgery in 2015) might have earned the Comeback Player of the Year award with that bomb from Aaron Rodgers to beat the Bears.

e. We knew the Cardinals needed a new kicker, and we know they need a developmental quarterback, but the speed-burning of the secondary by Drew Brees and his receivers Sunday showed they also need at least one burner at cornerback.

f. The definition of a good backup quarterback: laying a ball thrown 46 yards in the air right into the hands of a wide receiver for a touchdown, which is what Matt Moore did for the Dolphins late in the first half Saturday night against the Jets.

g. No one talks about Giants nose tackle Damon Harrison much, but look at how the Giants’ run defense has improved: from 4.4 yards per rush by foes in 2015 to 3.6 this year.

h. The first two coach openings—Rams and Jags—will be very good news for the offensive coaches of America, particularly the coordinators in New England and Atlanta, and the head coach at Stanford, though David Shaw’s likely not ready to make the NFL move.

i. The Jets shouldn’t fire Todd Bowles for one major reason: It’s not his fault.

j. I cannot say the same thing about Rex Ryan, who just might be facing a must-win Saturday in a lost season against Miami at home.

2. I think I will not be remotely surprised if Tom Coughlin gets involved in the Buffalo job derby should Rex Ryan gets fired after his second Buffalo season. (Adam Schefter reported Sunday that it was possible.) Coughlin is the disciplinarian the Bills could use.

3. I think I am generally not a fan of referees being too wordy on replay reviews, but I really liked John Parry’s explanation on a call in the blue-painted San Diego end zone that was originally ruled an incomplete pass but was reversed on review on a very close boundary call. Said Parry: “After reviewing the play, the right foot was down with clear possession. Then the foot, the left foot, was down with a slice of blue between the heel and out of bounds. Touchdown.” Perfectly clear and perfectly explained.

4. I think the Giants deserve a significant fine for head coach Ben McAdoo using walkie-talkies during the game against Dallas to communicate (walkie-talkies are illegal because they can’t be shut off at the 15-second mark of the play clock, as the helmet-to-helmet communication is). But this isn’t a suspendable offense. It’s a move McAdoo should have known was a mistake, but using the device on four plays is not enough of a competitive advantage to suspend McAdoo, or to dock the Giants a draft choice or choices.

5. I think one of the notes of the week, one I hadn't thought of, came from Greg Auman of the Tampa Bay Times: Five heads of personnel entering the weekend on teams leading their divisions were products of the New England pipeline. Each of the franchise leaders got training from former Patriots head of personnel Scott Pioli before he left to be Kansas City’s GM in 2009—and, of course, from Bill Belichick. The five: Atlanta GM Thomas Dimitroff, Tampa Bay GM Jason Licht, Tennessee GM Jon Robinson, Detroit GM Bob Quinn, and the Patriots director of player personnel, Nick Caserio. That is downright amazing.

Licht picked Jameis Winston. Robinson’s 2016 draft might have four cornerstone players, led by tackle Jack Conklin. Dimitroff nearly walked the plank after last season, but recent decisions—drafting Vic Beasley, signing Alex Mack in free agency—have stabilized the team. Quinn inherited a team losing a great receiver, Calvin Johnson, and signed a replacement, Marvin Jones, and drafted a very good tackle, Taylor Decker. Caserio’s a good lieutenant for Belichick, as Pioli was, and learned the business from the ground up in his early New England years. Pretty telling that half the division leaders in football got bred in one organization.

6. I think this is this week’s sign that Nobody Knows Nothin’ About the NFL: Philadelphia and Minnesota, on the morning of Oct. 15, were legitimate Super Bowl contenders. Combined record: 8-1. Since then, they’re 4-15.

7. I think I read the words “dodgeball” and “Pro Bowl” in a headline the other day, and I refused to read further. Now, had it been the headline in The Onion,I’d have devoured it.

8. I think I wonder why oh why oh why the players and the league continue to desperately try to make marketable an unwatchable event—the Pro Bowl. I know why: Because more fans would watch football players pretend to play than would watch Kansas and Kentucky play basketball on a winter Sunday evening.

9. I think I can’t indict the Jets for their Christian Hackenberg redshirt season, but he’s not even a candidate to play right now. I suppose I just have to have faith that Jets offensive coordinator Chan Gailey and coach Todd Bowles know what they’re doing, and that the patient GM, Mike Maccagnan, does too. But if the Jets use another high pick on a quarterback this year, it would be the fourth time in five years they used a pick in the top four rounds on a quarterback.

Vote

We all know Jeff Fisher rarely fields good offenses so the obvious is out of the way, but my greatest criticism of his Ram legacy will surprisingly be his choice of defensive coordinators. He intended and ended with Gregg Williams and in the meantime installed Tim Walton to hold serve.

The Rams have very good defensive talent and sometimes look dominant on that side of the ball but I believe the coaching philosophy held them back. Coaches like Rob Ryan (Fisher tried to get him), Williams, and Jim Haslett are the types who gamble and win but frequently gamble and lose. This year, this "smart gambler" coach has been exposed as I predicted many times on this forum.

I support my argument by mentioning Rod Marinelli in Dallas. Snead has drafted studs like Donald and Ogletree but Marinelli has very average talent (Sean Lee and Brandon Carr are their best) and coordinates a better defense because he gambles less and teaches more. Let's consider how the 2000 Ravens played defense. They didn't need exotic blitzes. The scheme was simple but disciplined and violent. Fisher and Williams coach teams who take chances and lead the league in penalties.

I say this because the few times the Rams have shown competence offensively this year, the defense laid down. Consider the performances against the Niners, Bucs, Lions, Saints, Pats, Falcons, and Bills. Williams was thoroughly out coached (win or lose) in each game. If the Dline can't dominate the game (Hawks, Cards, Giants, Panthers, Jets, Dolphins) Haslett, oops...Williams has NO idea what to do to stop the bleeding.

I feel compelled now to further comment. As boring and unimaginative as John Robinson and Chuck Knox were, the Fisher Era was far more painful. If your philosophy is to run the football and play great defense...I can get behind it. But if that's the case (and the current personnel was built for it), here is what needs to happen going forward. Stan, I hope you're reading:

1. OLine OLine OLine!!!! Havenstein and maybe Brown are the only men I want to see starting in the future. IF Robinson can effectively be moved to guard...well, maybe. (Saffold is a temporary stopgap who can't stay healthy). Goff, Gurley, Austin, and Britt are all capable enough skill players but without blocking, their talents are completely wasted. It's almost like watching a painful pee wee football game where the QB and RB get hit every play before they ever get to do anything athletically other than hold on to the football and escape 3 of the four players who have clear shots at them.

2. Get receivers who can actually CATCH the F'ing football.

3. I want creative thinkers like Martz and Gase coordinating the offense and teachers like Dungy and Lovie leading the talent laden D.

4. Keep Bones!!!! This IS the BEST special teams the Rams EVER fielded...bar none.

5. Keep Snead... his process and staff are sound. I feel like Snead tried to pull Fisher into this century and was limited by Fisher's outdated mindset.

6. If you're going blue and white for horns, go all the way with the uniforms too. Hermaphrodites rarely make good football players.

Tampa(8-5) comes in hot winning 5 straight and a half game behind Atlanta in the division.
Dallas(11-2) lost to the Giants last week and has rolled over just about everyone else.

Could be interesting.

Las Vegas isn't looking like such a great idea now.

I'm happy for that franchise. I'll be rooting for them throughout the playoffs. I think they can make a run. Derek Carr could have been had for a second round pick. I still like Goff though.

Well, the coaching jobs are starting to open up...

Man, these guys find ways to win. Their offense might be as bad as ours yet they're 8-6 and leading the division. Shows how much coaching helps. I like Bill Obrien a lot. He puts that team in a position to win every week.

It also helps that they're in the worst division in the NFL.

Might as well start a new thread so the other remains open for comments on the early games.

http://www.draftutopia.com/cornerbackrankings.html

2017 NFL Draft: Cornerback Rankings






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Chris Ransom follow @DraftUtopia Last Updated: November 27, 2016


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Desmond King, CB, Iowa
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Projected Round Top 5 Pick

2016 Season Recap The 5-11 200 lb Desmond King lined up at both field cornerback and boundary cornerback in 2015. I see King as a field cornerback that can cover any opponents best receiver in the NFL.


Desmond King had 4 solo tackles, 1 assisted tackles, and 5 total tackles. King needs to do more moving forward, but he's still my top ranked cornerback.


King did not have a deflection in his first three games. He dominated on tape against Rutgers, Northwestern, Minnesota with Mitch Leidner at quarterback, and Purdue. King did okay against Wisconsin in coverage, but he did get knocked down on a running play. I'm looking past that at this point since I honestly believe Desmond King is the top cornerback in the draft with his man coverage, zone coverage, and press coverage with 6 deflections from pass breakups in 2016.


Desmond King now has 7 deflections from pass breakups in 2016. King did a good job stopping the run against Michigan while dominating in coverage against the Wolverines.




Before 2016

Desmond King had 46 solo tackles, 26 assisted tackles, 72 total tackles, 13 deflections from pass breakups, 8 interceptions, and 949 total yards on special teams returning both kickoffs and punts.


Desmond King can play man coverage, zone coverage, or press coverage effectively. King knows the cover 0, cover 1, cover 2, cover 3, and cover 4 schemes.




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Sidney Jones, CB, Washington
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Projected Round 1st Round

2016 Season Recap The 6-0 191 lb Sidney Jones was awesome on tape against JuJu Smith-Schuster in 2015. Washington is great at developing NFL cornerbacks.


Sidney Jones was solid against Rutgers. He wasn't spectacular though. I don't think it will affect his draft stock much at this point.


Sidney Jones was spectacular against Stanford. Jones has anchored Washington's defense only being targeted 9 times in Washington's first seven games thanks to superb man coverage, zone coverage, and press coverage on tape. Jones may not have a deflection yet, but he's so lethal in coverage on tape that opposing quarterbacks are throwing towards his teammate Kevin King. Jones has a big game on National TV against Utah this weekend and Jones can solidify his status as the #2 cornerback in this draft if Washington wins.


Sidney Jones locked down JuJu Smith-Schuster once again. Jones has done enough on tape to convince me he is the #2 cornerback in this draft after strong games against Utah, California, and USC. Jones did a superb job covering Chad Hansen and JuJu Smith-Schuster on tape.


Not only did Jones dominate at at cornerback in coverage. He also showed he can stop the run on tape. That is going to get a lot more teams interested in drafting Sidney Jones.


Washington State receiver Gabe Marks dominated had some success against Sidney Jones. Jones didn't struggle since he did a good job blanketing Marks, but he has to play better in the PAC 12 Championship game.




Before 2016

Sidney Jones played boundary cornerback next to Marcus Peters in 2014 as a true freshman. Jones 48 solo tackles, 13 assisted tackles, 61 total tackles, 5 deflections from pass breakups, and 2 interceptions in 2014.


In 2015, Jones took over as the field cornerback where Marcus Peters played covering #1 wide receivers. Peters had 31 solo tackles, 15 assisted tackles, 46 total tackles, 10 deflections from pass breakups, and 4 interceptions.

The Washington Huskies have a good track record for developing first round cornerbacks. I expect Sidney Jones to make a huge splash during either his junior or senior season at Washington to put himself in position to be a first round pick as Jones enters his junior season.


If Jones struggles against JuJu Smith-Schuster this year, I will move him down, but right now I like him slightly more than JuJu Smith-Schuster based on what I've seen on tape.


Sidney Jones can play man coverage, zone coverage, or press coverage effectively. Jones knows the cover 0, cover 1, cover 2, cover 3, and cover 4 schemes.




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Teez Tabor, CB, Florida
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Projected Round 1st Round

2016 Season Recap The 6-0 191 lb Jalen Tabor complimented Vernon Hargreaves in 2015 as a boundary cornerback. Tabor will be Florida's field cornerback in 2016.


Jalen Tabor nicknamed "Teez" Tabor has had excellent tape in 2016. Tabor missed Florida's opener, but having 4 interceptions against all 4 SEC opponents Florida has faced does make Tabor stand out on tape. Tabor continues to showcase the man coverage, zone coverage, and press coverage needed to start in the NFL. Tabor has dominated against #1 flanker receivers after facing #2 wide receivers in 2015.


Tabor did not have an interception against North Texas. His only deflection of the season did take place against the North Texas Mean Green though.


Tabor dominated in coverage against LSU. Tabor has made the adjustment from boundary cornerback to field cornerback while being more physical in 2016. Tabor can stop the run as well as drop back into coverage.


Tabor dominated in coverage against Florida State. Tabor had 3 deflections from pass breakups despite the loss to Florida State.




Before 2016

Jalen Tabor had 21 solo tackles, 19 assisted tackles, 40 total tackles, 14 deflections from pass breakups, and 4 interceptions in 2015. Jalen Tabor may not have the same success without Vernon Hargreaves, but if he does have the same success without Hargreaves he could be the first cornerback drafted in 2017.


Tabor can play man coverage, zone coverage, or press coverage. Florida lined Tabor up at field cornerback, boundary cornerback, nickel cornerback, dime cornerback, quarter cornerback, strong safety, and free safety. Tabor is more versatile than Hargreaves on tape, but unlike Hargreaves, Tabor faced #2 receivers rather than #1 targets. Tabor never missed tackles on tape which was something Hargreaves did at times.


Tabor isn't as physical as Hargreaves though. One thing Tabor struggles with is adjusting when a quarterback is throwing the deep ball on the run. This was highlighted in Florida's game on tape against LSU.


Tabor can have all the talent in the world heading into this season. If he does not show up to play well against a teams best receiver, then it will affect his stock in a negative way. That's just common sense. The secondary stops the passing game as a team and with three starters gone, we could easily see Tabor's play decline even though some have him as a top 10 pick.


Jalen Tabor can play man coverage, zone coverage, or press coverage effectively. Tabor knows the cover 0, cover 1, cover 2, cover 3, and cover 4 schemes.




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Marlon Humphrey, CB, Alabama
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Projected Round 1st Round

2016 Season Recap The 6-1 196 lb Marlon Humphrey was awesome on tape in 2015 as a field cornerback at Alabama. The only question is will the sophomore redshirt play well enough to declare for the 2017 NFL Draft.


Marlon Humphrey dominated against JuJu Smith-Schuster showcasing the man coverage, zone coverage, and press coverage to be a lockdown cornerback in the NFL. Humphrey showed the same coverage against Texas A&M receiver Christian Kirk. This sophomore redshirt is talented enough to get picked in the top half of the first round if he declares.


Humphrey had 3 of his 4 deflections from pass breakups against Western Kentucky and Ole Miss. He finally got his 4th deflection against Texas A&M this past weekend. Humphrey is also excellent at picking up on running plays and blitzing corners. Even if Humphrey is not the best cover corner you could easily argue he's the most complete cornerback against the pass and run on tape despite having fewer deflections than Desmond King.


Marlon Humphrey got injured in the Iron Bowl against Auburn. Humphrey did not return to the game.




Before 2016

Marlon Humphrey is the son of former NFL player Bob Humphrey. Marlon Humphrey was a 5 star recruit in high school before committing to Alabama. Marlon had 8 deflections from pass breakups along with 3 interceptions after taking the field cornerback job as a freshman redshirt in 2015.


Marlon Humphrey can play man coverage, zone coverage, and press coverage effectively. Humphrey knows the cover 0, cover 1, cover 2, cover 3, and cover 4 schemes.




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Quincy Wilson, CB, Florida
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Projected Round 1st Round

2016 Season Recap The 6-1 213 lb Quincy Wilson was a nickel cornerback to Jalen Tabor and Vernon Hargreaves in 2015. Wilson is moving up to boundary cornerback in 2016.


Quincy Wilson faces mostly #2 receivers on tape. Despite facing weaker competition, Wilson has excellent size and can play man, zone, or press coverage. Wilson struggles against the run.


Some mocks have Wilson in the top 10. Even though I disagree with that assessment, I can understand why people feel that way with Wilson having the best speed and size among the cornerbacks along with excellent coverage.


Quincy Wilson dominated in coverage against Missouri, LSU, and Florida State. Wilson plays like a first round cornerback the more I watch him on tape.


Wilson may not have a lot of experience. He has the football IQ to play cover 0, cover 1, cover 2, cover 3, or cover 4 though. Having that immense football IQ despite, the best size, and speed among the 2017 NFL Draft cornerbacks makes you a first round pick even with limited experience.


Wilson is expected to declare for the 2017 NFL Draft along with Tabor. Both Florida cornerbacks should be first round picks.




Before 2016

Quincy Wilson was a dime cornerback in 2014 as a true freshman. Wilson started two games in 2014.


Wilson got promoted from dime cornerback to nickel cornerback in 2015. Wilson started 9 games showcasing excellent speed on tape. Wilson showed the versatility to play nickel cornerback, free safety, strong safety, 4-3 right outside linebacker, or 4-3 left outside linebacker.


Wilson showcased excellent speed and versatility on tape with 5 deflections in 2015. One thing Wilson needs to correct is his ability to stop the run.


Quincy Wilson is getting promoted from nickel cornerback to boundary cornerback in 2016. Can Wilson play man coverage, zone coverage, or press coverage effectively? Wilson can be a huge riser if he answers that question on tape in 2016.




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Tre'Davious White, CB, LSU
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Projected Round 1st Round

2016 Season Recap The 6-0 197 lb Tre'Davious White was awesome on tape in 2015. White should have declared for the 2016 NFL Draft, he had a lot less competition at cornerback and now will have a lot more competition at cornerback in 2016.


Tre'Davious White was a turnover machine against Wisconsin. He had an interception and a fumble recovery for LSU.


White has been a guy that SEC quarterbacks have been actively trying to avoid throwing to. White had 1 deflection against Auburn, Missouri, and Ole Miss on tape. White deserves a lot of credit for the success he is having in 2016 despite the departure of Les Miles.


White stepped up in the second half of the season. White has 13 deflections from pass breakups in 2016, but still has issues with press coverage and stopping the run.




Before 2016

Tre'Davious White lined up at field cornerback and boundary cornerback for LSU in 2015. He could be a solid boundary cornerback as he had 30 solo tackles, 14 assisted tackles, 44 total tackles, and 7 deflections from pass breakups in 2015. White needs double digit deflections in 2016 if he wants to be a first round pick in the 2017 NFL Draft.


Tre'Davious White can play man coverage and zone coverage effectively. White knows the cover 0, cover 1, cover 2, cover 3, and cover 4 schemes.


White has the speed and coverage to cover effectively. He's not physical enough to have an impact in press coverage and also looked very obsolete when trying to stop the run on tape against Alabama. White got constantly pushed on the ground by Alabama's fullbacks and tight ends. He has to play much better against Alabama in Death Valley during his senior year at LSU if he wants to be a first round pick.




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Cameron Sutton, CB, Tennessee
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Projected Round 1st Round

2016 Season Recap The 6-1 181 lb Cameron Sutton dominated in 2014 as a field cornerback. When Justin Coleman left, Sutton moved to the nickel and struggled in 2015. Sutton should be a field cornerback again in 2016.


Cameron Sutton fumbled a punt return in the first quarter. After that he bounced back with 2 solo tackles, 2 assisted tackles, 4 total tackles, 1 deflection from a pass breakup on the final play of the game, 1 interception, and 1 tackle for a loss which kept Appalachian State from winning in regulation.


Cameron Sutton dominated on tape against Virginia Tech receiver Isaiah Ford. Sutton got injured against Ohio. It is not a season ending injury and with Sutton's injury progressing he will return later in the season. I still think Sutton is a fringe first round prospect when watching his tape.


Sutton returned for Tennessee against Kentucky. Sutton dominated on tape against Kentucky and Missouri. Tennessee has lined Sutton up at field cornerback, boundary cornerback, or nickel cornerback. Sutton has done a much better job stopping the run at this point and should be a first round pick.




Before 2016

Cameron Sutton began his freshman career as a boundary cornerback in 2013. In that role he had 34 solo tackles, 5 assisted tackles, 39 total tackles, 7 deflections from pass breakups, and 2 interceptions.


The following season, Sutton became a #1 field cornerback. Sutton had 31 solo tackles, 6 assisted tackles, 37 total tackles, 13 deflections from pass breakups, and 3 interceptions.


Cameron Sutton had 27 solo tackles, 1 assisted tackle, 28 total tackles, and 6 deflections from pass breakups in 2015 when moving to nickel cornerback. Sutton has the ability to play field cornerback, boundary cornerback, or nickel cornerback.


Cameron Sutton saw a huge drop off in deflections in 2015. Despite that, he still looks like the best press coverage cornerback on tape at times.


Cameron Sutton can play man coverage, zone coverage, or press coverage effectively. Sutton knows the cover 0, cover 1, cover 2, cover 3, and cover 4 schemes.




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Cordrea Tankersley, CB, Clemson
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Projected Round 2nd Round

2016 Season Recap The 6-1 191 lb Cordrea Tankersley was a boundary cornerback next to Mackensie Alexander in 2015. Mackensie Alexander, T.J. Green, and Jayron Kearse are all gone meaning that Tankersley will be the new leader of Clemson's secondary.


Cordrea Tankersley did an awesome job against Auburn. Tankersley had 2 tackles for a loss and 1 deflection for a pass breakup in Clemson's win over Auburn.


Tankersley had 3 deflections for pass breakups against Troy. Lamar Jackson threw away from Tankersley when Louisville faced Clemson's defense. Tankersley has 6 deflections on the season with his deflections coming against Auburn, Troy, Louisville, and North Carolina State.


Tankersley dominated on tape against both Florida State and Wake Forest. Tankerlsey has 9 deflections from pass breakups. Tankersley got called for pass interference against Pittsburgh and can unleash dirty hits which is his only concern.


Tankersley can play against the run well. I've seen Tankersley in the first round of a lot of mocks. The more I watch Tankersley's tape, the more I can buy into the notion of Tankersley being a first round pick despite giving him a third round grade at the beginning of the year.


Right now I have Tankersley as my top second round cornerback prospect. If he finishes the year on a strong note for Clemson, I will move Tankersley into my first round.




Before 2016

Cordrea Tankersley was a boundary cornerback next to Mackensie Alexander who had 9 deflections from pass breakups as well as 5 interceptions as a junior in 2015. He is expected to be a field cornerback in 2016 and did line up at field cornerback when Mackensie Alexander played boundary cornerback.


Cordrea Tankersley can play man coverage, zone coverage, or press coverage effectively. Tankersley knows the cover 0, cover 1, cover 2, cover 3, and cover 4 schemes.




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Adoree Jackson, CB, USC
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Projected Round 2nd Round

2016 Season Recap The 5-11 185 lb Adoree Jackson is USC's #1 field cornerback. Jackson also plays boundary cornerback too.


Adoree Jackson did a great job in coverage against Calvin Ridley. Jackson showcased the man coverage, zone coverage, and press coverage that you want to see from a first round cornerback. Jackson has the speed and hands that NFL teams rave about.


Jackson didn't do as well against Utah State, but he's impressed on tape against Stanford, had 2 deflections against Utah, did well against Arizona State, before locking down Colorado, and Arizona's wide receivers on tape.


Adoree Jackson has addressed and corrected his concerns with coverage. My biggest question with Adoree Jackson is does he have the football IQ to recognize cover 0, cover 1, cover 2, cover 3, and cover 4 schemes. This isn't a knock on Jackson. It's just something I'd like to see Jackson show me at some point in the draft process.


Adoree Jackson missed 4 tackles against Washington wide receiver John Ross. Jackson also gave up a touchdown to Ross. Jackson had 2 interceptions against Washington's other receiver along with a blocked field goal.




Before 2016

Adoree Jackson does not have first round coverage, but I love his speed and hands on tape. Jackson can be used as a cornerback and a return specialist here. Jackson had 1,453 total yards on offense, defense, and special teams in 2016.




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Gareon Conley, CB, Ohio State
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Projected Round 2nd Round

2016 Season Recap The 6-0 195 lb Gareon Conley is Ohio State's field cornerback. He played that role last year and created opportunities for top 10 pick Eli Apple. The junior redshirt cornerback could declare with a strong junior season.


Gareon Conley had 1 deflection for Ohio State against Bowling Green. Conley is showing more leadership on this defense though and that's a good thing after Ohio State lost 3 starters on their secondary.


Conley has 6 deflections so far in 2016. His only games without a deflection came against Tulsa and Indiana. Conley's 2 interceptions on the season came against Tulsa and Wisconsin.


Gareon Conley struggled agaisnt Northwestern receiver Austin Carr. Carr has done enough to jump JuJu Smith-Schuster for second round consideration and Conley dominated at field cornerback, boundary cornerback, and nickel cornerback against Michigan State. Conley had the game-winning interception against Michigan State.


Conley can play man coverage and zone coverage effectively. Conley pressed against Michigan. Conley gave up two third downs to a Michigan receiver, but he also had 1 deflection from a pass breakup. Conley was still more consistent in coverage than teammate Marshaun Lattimore a sophomore redshirt at cornerback.




Before 2016

Gareon Conley had 33 solo tackles, 16 assisted tackles, 49 total tackles, 5 deflections from pass breakups, and 2 interceptions in 2015. Eli Apple, Von Bell, and Tyvis Powell complimented Conley at Ohio State last season. With those three defensive backs in the NFL, Conley becomes the leader of Ohio State's secondary.




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Ezra Robinson, CB, Tennessee State
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Projected Round 3rd Round

2016 Season Recap The 6-1 180 lb Ezra Robinson enters his senior season as a great cornerback that can domiate in man and press coverage. Robinson struggled in zone though.


Robinson dominated in 2016 with 11 deflections from pass breakups and 5 interceptions. Robinson got an invite to the 2017 Senior Bowl which is why he is moving up to my third round until I see what he can do against superior competition in Mobile. If Robinson fails to impress in Mobile, I will move him back down since this draft is loaded with cornerbacks.


Robinson dominated against Arkansas Pine Bluff, but was inconsistent against Jackson State. Robinson had some moments against Vanderbilt in 2016.




Before 2016

Ezra Robinson transferred from Michigan State to Tennessee State. Robinson can play man and press coverage. Robinson struggles with zone coverage though as well as the run which limits him to cover 0, cover 1, and cover 2 schemes.


Robinson had 7 deflections from pass breakups in 2015. Robinson can jump in the air though and is effective in the red zone in coverage.




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Brendan Langley, CB, Lamar
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Projected Round 3rd Round

2016 Season Recap The 6-1 190 lb Brendan Langley is Lamar's #1 field cornerback. There are as many as five FCS cornerbacks that could get drafted in 2017, and Lamar cornerback Brendan Langley is the best of those FCS cornerbacks.


Langley had a deflection in his 2016 opener. Langley also had 5 total tackles in that game and showed why he's the top FCS cornerback.


Langley corrected his issue with dropping passes in 2015. Langley had 6 interceptions and 7 deflections in 2016 and one of the reasons he is so successful is because he is mainly focusing on playing defense.


Brendan Langley can play man coverage, zone coverage, or press coverage. Does Langley have the football IQ to understand cover 0, cover 1, cover 2, cover 3, and cover 4. Langley had an interception against Houston when playing the FBS opponent in Houston.




Before 2016

Brendan Langley transferred from Georgia to Lamar in 2015. Langley played both wide receiver and cornerback at Lamar. Langley drops a lot of passes on offense though and would be better as a defensive back getting deflections rather than a wide receiver that catches passes. Langley had 11 deflections from pass breakups in 2015 in his first season at Lamar and if he can match that, he could shoot up draft boards.




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Jeremy Cutrer, CB, Middle Tennessee State
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Projected Round 3rd Round

2016 Season Recap The 6-2 170 lb Jeremy Cutrer did not become a starting cornerback on Middle Tennessee State until 2015. Cutrer had 13 deflections from pass breakups in 2015 and needs to show NFL scouts he's not a one-year wonder.


Jeremy Cutrer has 6 deflections from pass breakups in 2016. Half of those deflections came against Northern Alabama. The other three deflections came against Louisiana Tech, North Texas, and Missouri. Cutrer had his worse game in 2016 against Vanderbilt.


Cutrer now has 10 deflections from pass breakups in 2016. Cutrer still runs fast on tape, but now he's harnessed how fast is fast enough and how fast is too fast. Mastering that can make a huge difference in how he performs in the NFL.




Before 2016

Jeremy Cutrer showed the versatility to play field cornerback, boundary cornerback, strong safety, or free safety in 2015. Cutrer has great speed and hands. He stands out with that speed if you watch his tape against Alabama.


Cutrer has great man coverage, zone coverage, and press coverage on tape. Cutrer has the football IQ to play cover 0, cover 1, cover 2, cover 3, or cover 4 schemes. Cutrer is amazing in the red zone.


Cutrer's biggest problem on tape is that sometimes he runs too fast to the point where he misses tackles. Cutrer can become a day 2 pick if he corrects that flaw on tape in 2016.




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Brad Watson, CB, Wake Forest
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Projected Round 3rd Round

2016 Season Recap The 6-0 190 lb Brad Watson can be used as a field or a boundary cornerback. He gave Jameis Winston problems in 2014 and Deshaun Watson problems in both of his seasons as Clemson's starter. Watson enters 2016 as one of the top cornerbacks in the nation.


Brad Watson had 4 solo tackles, 3 assisted tackles, and 7 total tackles. Watson was third on Wake Forest in tackles during their 7-3 win over Tulane. Tulane's quarterback threw away from #25, Brad Watson at all times.


Watson did a good job with a deflection against Indiana. Watson really impressed me on tape against Florida State. Watson showed the versatility to play field cornerback, boundary cornerback, strong safety, or free safety. Watson also gave up a touchdown to the 6-5 225 lb Auden Tate. Watson did a good job covering him, but had trouble containing him due to only being 6-0 190 lbs. Watson has the football IQ to be a starting NFL corner on tape, but he may struggle against bigger receivers in the red zone. Watson also got knocked down on a running play against Dalvin Cook so Watson may struggle against the run.


Watson added 10 lbs of muscle during Wake Forest's bye week. Watson dominated against James Quick when Wake Forest played Louisville. Lamar Jackson was held to 10 points in the first three quarters and had to play keep away from Brad Watson.


Brad Watson did an awesome job blanketing Artivis Scott. Watson wasn't as consistent against Clemson wide receiver Mike Williams who made Watson miss two tackles with his speed on tape. Watson did have some plays where he covered Williams effectively, and probably gave Williams the most problems on tape among any cornerback I've watched facing Williams. Williams still got the better of Watson on running plays, showing off his blocking pushing Watson backwards on tape.


I like Watson in coverage. Watson has problems against the run though and bigger receivers will abuse Watson on tape in running situations if those receivers can block.




Before 2016

Brad Watson had 47 solo tackles, 25 assisted tackles, 72 total tackles, 16 deflections from pass breakups, and 2 interceptions in 2015. Watson is a guy that can shoot up draft boards if he matches his 2015 numbers in 2016.


Brad Watson can play man coverage, zone coverage, or press coverage effectively. Watson knows the cover 0, cover 1, cover 2, cover 3, and cover 4 schemes.




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Chidobe Awuzie, CB, Colorado
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Projected Round 3rd Round

2016 Season Recap The 6-0 195 lb Chidobe Awuzie can play field cornerback, boundary cornerback, strong safety, or free safety with his versatility. Awuzie is the top NFL draft prospect for Colorado in the 2017 NFL Draft.


Chidobe Awuzie began the season on a very high note against Colorado State. Awuzie had 8 solo tackles, 1 deflection from a pass breakup, 1 interception, and 1 tackle for a loss against Colorado State. Awuzie kept Jehu Chesson to 0 receptions for 0 receiving yards. Awuzie did well against USC even though he was not on JuJu Smith-Schuster who dominated in that game.


Awuzie had a season best 2 deflections for pass breakups in a 10-5 win VS Stanford showcasing the same man coverage, zone coverage, and press coverage that Sidney Jones showed on tape. Awuzie already matched his 7 deflections from pass breakups from 2015 so far in 2016.


Awuzie has stepped up without Ken Crawley. Awuzie looks like a cornerback that can play cover 0, cover 1, cover 2, cover 3, or cover 4 on tape.


Awuzie contained JuJu Smith-Schuster. Awuzie had his worst game of the season against Washington State getting burned in coverage on plays. Awuzie had the same problem against Utah. Awuzie still has way too much talent to fall out of the third round and would be a steal on day 3 if he fell to the fourth round. Awuzie's size and speed are the two things keeping him from being a first round cornerback despite being incredibly versatile on tape.




Before 2016

Chidobe Awuzie had 78 solo tackles, 12 assisted tackles, 90 total tackles, 12 tackles for a loss, 4 sacks, 4 quarterback hurries, and 7 deflections from pass breakups.


Chidobe Awuzie played with Kevin Crawley last year. Now he has to anchor Colorado's secondary while improving his coverage. This guy has the size of a cornerback and the skills of a linebacker which lead me to believe he's going to be a nickel corner that blitzes and plays very aggressive in the NFL.




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Jourdan Lewis, CB, Michigan
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Projected Round 3rd Round

2016 Season Recap The 5-10 170 lb Jourdan Lewis is undersized. He makes plays though and has moments that really stand out on tape.


Lewis missed the first three games of the season. Lewis added 16 lbs of muscle in the offseason to improve to 5-10 186 lbs. Lewis improved in zone coverage in 2016 after dominating in man and press coverage while struggling in zone in 2015. Lewis had a deflection in every game he started except the game against Illinois this past weekend. Lewis made an excellent one-handed interception against Wisconsin on tape.


Jourdan Lewis now has 10 deflections in 2016. I think he's done enough on tape to be drafted in the first three rounds despite being undersized.




Before 2016

Jourdan Lewis is undersized, but he had 20 deflections from pass breakups in 2015. Lewis lined up at field cornerback, boundary cornerback, nickel cornerback, dime cornerback, and quarter cornerback.


Lewis can play man and press well. He struggles in zone. That will limit him to cover 0, cover 1, and cover 2 schemes. If Lewis has to line up in the nickel due to his size, teams will have to use him as a man coverage corner in the slot.




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Jordan Thomas, CB, Oklahoma
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Projected Round 3rd Round

2016 Season Recap The 6-0 190 lb Jordan Thomas is Oklahoma's #1 field cornerback. Thomas needs a huge junior year to get scouts attention.


Jordan Thomas has 11 deflections from pass breakups in 2016 after taking over for Zack Sanchez at field cornerback. He had 0 deflections against both Houston and Texas Tech playing like a borderline day 2 pick on tape against Greg Ward Jr. and Patrick Mahomes.


Jordan Thomas now has 15 deflections. He struggled against the run at West Virginia and got beat deep on some throws that West Virginia's receiver dropped in the red zone. Thomas is still a third round pick, but he's on the brink of falling to the fourth round.




Before 2016

Jordan Thomas had 4 deflections from pass breakups in 2015. Thomas is going to over to field cornerback with Zack Sanchez now in the NFL.




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Damontae Kazee, CB, San Diego State
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Projected Round 3rd Round

2016 Season Recap The 5-11 190 lb Damontae Kazee nearly declared for the 2016 NFL Draft. Kazee wisely returned to school though for his senior season.


Damontae Kazee had 3 solo tackles, 1 assisted tackle, and 4 total tackles in San Diego State's season opener. He needs to do more in week 2 if he wants to impress NFL scouts.


Damontae Kazee had 3 deflections from pass breakups against California. Kazee did give up a passing play in zone coverage. He seems more like a hard hitting man coverage corner. Kazee did not cover Chad Hansen when watching the tape. Kazee looks like a third to fourth round pick at best when watching his tape against California.




Before 2016

Damontae Kazee had 58 solo tackles, 17 assisted tackles, 75 total tackles, 7 deflections from pass breakups, and 8 interceptions in 2015. Kazee also won Mountain West Defensive Player Of The Year in 2015.


Damontae Kazee flies after the ball like a wrecking ball. He's a hard hitter that is as fast as a bullet when it comes to delivering hits. Kazee is great in man and zone coverage, he's not the best press corner and does need to improve his understanding of coverage schemes. Kazee makes up for this with his incredible vision and hard hitting.




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Treston Decoud, CB, Oregon State
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Projected Round 3rd Round

2016 Season Recap The 6-3 208 lb Treston Decoud is an excellent field cornerback with amazing size. Decoud could shoot up boards if he stays healthy in 2016.


Treston Decoud 11 solo tackles, 2 assisted tackles, 13 total tackles, 6 deflection from pass breakups, and 2 interceptions so far in 2016. Decoud had strong games against Minnesota, Idaho State, California blanketing Chad Hansen, and Utah. Decoud got picked apart by John Ross.


Decoud did well in man and press coverage against Washington. John Ross picked Decoud apart in zone coverage and made Decoud miss two tackles. Decoud will do well in cover 0, cover 1, and cover 2 schemes, but could struggle in cover 3 and cover 4 schemes.


Before 2016

Treston Decoud had 31 solo tackles, 19 assisted tackles, and 50 total tackles in 2015. Decoud did great against the run and could be a sleeper at cornerback if he can become more consistent in coverage in 2016 after having only 5 deflections in 2015.




http://www.draftutopia.com/2017NFLDraft/CB/rdouglas13.jpg


Rasul Douglas, CB, West Virginia
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Projected Round 3rd Round

2016 Season Recap The 6-2 203 lb cornerback will transition from nickel cornerback to field cornerback in 2016. Rasul Douglas has dominated with 8 interceptions and 7 deflections from pass breakups in 2016.




Before 2016

Rasul Douglas was a JUCO transfer before finally seeing the field as a nickel cornerback in 2015. Douglas will get promoted to field cornerback in 2016 so we will get to see what Douglas can do this upcoming season despite a lack of experience.




http://www.draftutopia.com/2017NFLDraft/CB/bfacyson31.jpg


Brandon Facyson, CB, Virginia Tech
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Projected Round 4th Round

2016 Season Recap The 6-2 197 lb Brandon Facyson is one of the best cornerbacks in the 2017 NFL Draft. He became Virginia Tech's field cornerback as a sophomore redshirt after Kendall Fuller suffered a season ending injury.


Brandon Facyson had 2 deflections from pass breakups in Virginia Tech's season opener. I'm interested to see if Facyson can duplicate that performance when facing Tennessee at Bristol Motor Speedway.


Facyson has 7 deflections in 2016. His only deflections came against Liberty, Boston College, and Syracuse. Facyson struggled aganst Tennessee. Facyson struggled against East Carolina receiver Zay Jones. Facyson struggled against Ryan Switzer on North Carolina, and Facyson struggled against Miami FL quarterback Brad Kaaya and wide receiver Stacy Coley. Facyson needs to return to school, but if he declares he will be a day 3 pick.


Brandon Facyson hasn't impressed me without Kendall Fuller. Facyson has one chance to redeem himself if he can shut down Mike Williams in the 2016 ACC Championship. Right now Facyson has to beat Virginia in order for Virginia Tech to make the ACC Championship.




Before 2016

Brandon Facyson had 20 solo tackles, 7 assisted tackles, 27 total tackles, and 10 deflections from pass breakups in 2015. Facyson will have to maintain those numbers without Kendall Fuller in 2016.




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Breon Borders, CB, Duke
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Projected Round 4th Round

2016 Season Recap The 6-0 180 lb Breon Borders is Duke's field cornerback. He played that role last year and did well in man coverage, zone coverage, and press coverage. Borders was overshadowed by strong safety Jeremy Cash.


Breon Borders had 4 deflections from pass breakups against Northwestern. Borders had 3 more deflections from pass breakups in a win over Notre Dame. Borders did so well in coverage that Kizer threw away from Borders.


Borders has 10 deflections in 2016. Borders had a mixed outing against Virginia Tech with 2 deflections on Isaiah Ford. Borders limited Ford to 4 receptions for 62 receiving yards, but one of those receptions was a 50 yard passing play plus Borders got called for pass interference in that game.


Borders got injured and missed Duke's games against North Carolina and Pittsburgh. Borders has impressed on tape, but has also been inconsistent. The injury Borders suffered kept him from moving into day 2 territory despite having impressive moments on tape at times in 2016.




Before 2016

Breon Borders began his career as a boundary cornerback next to Ross Cockrell in 2013 having 8 deflections from pass breakups in 2013. He didn't do as well with only 6 deflections from pass breakups in 2014. When Cockrell left, Borders had his best season transitioning to field cornerback having 9 deflections from pass breakups.


Borders dominated on tape against North Carolina showing the man coverage, zone coverage, and press coverage that you look for in a starting cornerback. Borders has the football IQ to play in a cover 0, cover 1, cover 2, cover 3, or cover 4 scheme.






Kevin King, CB, Washington
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Projected Round 4th Round

2016 Season Recap The 6-3 192 lb Kevin King was a nickel cornerback in 2015. King will move to a boundary cornerback role next to Sidney Jones in 2016.


Kevin King had 5 solo tackles, 2 assisted tackles, 7 total tackles, and 2 tackles for a loss in 2016. King needs to do more for Washington in week 2 even though he impressed against Rutgers.


Kevin King has 5 deflections from pass breakups in 2016. Kevin King is getting a lot of deflections mainly due to teams throwing away from the cornerback across from him in Sidney Jones.


Kevin King has dominated in coverage in 2016. King has 10 deflections from pass breakups in 2016. King has stepped up at boundary cornerback after being a safety in 2014 and a nickel cornerback in 2015. Kevin King's fantastic tape has earned him a fourth round grade assuming he declares for the 2017 NFL Draft.




Before 2016

Kevin King started 12 games at safety in 2014. King moved over to nickel cornerback in 2015.


Kevin King started eight games in 2015 playing in eleven of the teams thirteen games. King had an interception in each of Washington's first three games.


Kevin King now has the versatility to play nickel cornerback, strong safety, or free safety. He will get his chance to be a boundary cornerback across from Sidney Jones in 2016.






Demetrious Cox, CB, Michigan State
image: http://www.draftutopia.com/michiganstatespartans.gif

Projected Round 4th Round

2016 Season Recap The 6-0 200 lb Demetrious Cox took over for Trae Waynes as Michigan State as a field cornerback in 2015. Cox will enter this season as the #1 cornerback on Michigan State's depth chart.


Demetrious Cox had 2 solo tackles, 5 assisted tackles, 7 total tackles, and 1 deflection from a pass breakup against Furman. Cox is a player to keep an eye on for Michigan State in 2016.


Demetrious Cox struggled against Notre Dame. He bounced back with at least 1 deflection in three of his last five games. Cox had 4 solo tackles, 10 assisted tackles, 14 total tackles, 0.5 tackle for a loss, and 1 deflection for a pass breakup against Wisconsin. Demetrious Cox is a guy I will watch against Michigan this weekend.


Demetrious Cox moved over from field cornerback to free safety. Cox struggled against Northwestern, Michigan, and Ohio State. Cox has lost a step and is not as effective as he was in 2015.




Before 2016

Demetrious Cox played boundary cornerback next to Trae Waynes in 2014. Cox had 48 solo tackles, 31 assisted tackles, 79 total tackles, 7 deflections from pass breakups, and 3 interceptions in 2015. Cox will continue to develop as a #1 field cornerback at Michigan State in 2016.


Demetrious Cox specializes in zone coverage. He is best used in cover 3 and cover 4 schemes.






Jamar Summers, CB, Connecticut
image: http://www.draftutopia.com/connecticuthuskies.gif

Projected Round 5th Round

2016 Season Recap The 6-0 190 lb Jamar Summers enters his junior season. Summers may declare with a strong junior season in 2016.


Jamar Summers did a great job tackling. He had some problems in coverage against Maine so I think it would be in his best interest to return for his senior season in 2017 since Summers is still a work in progress.


Jamar Summers had 3 deflections from pass breakups as well as 10 total tackles against Syracuse. He also got torched by Amba Etta-Tawo at wide receiver for Syracuse. Summers has talent to break up passes, but he gets torched a lot in coverage as teams like Maine, Navy, Syracuse, Houston, and South Florida all picked apart Summers on tape.




Before 2016

Jamar Summers was a boundary cornerback next to Byron Jones in 2014. Summers had 16 solo tackles, 6 assisted tackles, 22 total tackles, 2 deflections from pass breakups, and 1 interception as a true freshman in 2014.


Jamar Summers became a field cornerback after Byron Jones went to the NFL in 2015. Summers had 26 solo tackles, 13 assisted tackles, 39 total tackles, 3 deflections from pass breakups, and 8 interceptions in 2015.


Jamar Summers can play man coverage and zone coverage effectively. Summers knows the cover 0, cover 1, cover 2, cover 3, and cover 4 schemes.






Dwayne Thomas, CB, LSU
image: http://www.draftutopia.com/lsutigers.gif

Projected Round 5th Round

2016 Season Recap The 6-0 201 lb Dwayne Thomas started five games at boundary cornerback and four games at nickel cornerback. Thomas has the versatility to play field cornerback, boundary cornerback, nickel cornerback, strong safety, or free safety.


Dwayne Thomas had 2 solo tackles against Wisconsin. He struggled at times in LSU's season opener.


Dwayne Thomas is extremely versatile on tape. He's had moments though where he has been inconsistent for LSU in 2016.


Dwayne Thomas is the nickel cornerback for LSU. Thomas has incredible speed of the edge and has been lined up at 4-3 right outsdie linebacker, 4-3 middle linebacker, and 4-3 left outside linebacker as someone who thrives in blitzing situations that goes straight for the quarterback.


Thomas can be effective on tape in coverage, but he's more of a hybrid player than a cover corner. Thomas had some moments on tape in LSU's loss to Florida.




Before 2016

Dwayne Thomas had durability concerns in his first two seasons at LSU. Thomas had 6 deflections from pass breakups in 2015. Thomas has a lot of potential, but at the same time he needs a lot more experience as well.






Jalen Myrick, CB, Minnesota
image: http://www.draftutopia.com/minnesotagoldengophers.gif

Projected Round 5th Round

2016 Season Recap The 5-10 205 lb Jalen Myrick was a nickel cornerback to Eric Murray and Briean Boddy-Calhoun in 2015. In 2016, Jalen Myrick will be Minnesota's #1 field cornerback with those two corners in the NFL now.


Jalen Myrick had 5 solo tackles, 1 deflection from a pass breakup, and 1 tackle for a loss in his first game as Minnesota's field cornerback. Myrick did well against Oregon State, but will have more competition moving forward.


Jalen Myrick had 2 of his 4 deflections against Iowa. Myrick will be a huge project for any team in the market for a cornerback.


Jalen Myrick shut down Austin Carr on tape. Carr left the game against Minnesota injured at wide receiver for Northwestern.




Before 2016

Jalen Myrick saw limited action in 2015. He will get more action as a #1 field cornerback in 2016.




image: http://www.draftutopia.com/2017NFLDraft/CB/dlawrence2.jpg


Des Lawrence, CB, North Carolina
image: http://www.draftutopia.com/northcarolinatarheels.gif

Projected Round 6th Round

2016 Season Recap The 6-1 185 lb Des Lawrence enters his senior season at North Carolina. Lawrence really stepped up in 2015 with a breakout junior season.


Des Lawrence got a sack on Georgia. Lawrence did a great job blitzing for North Carolina in a nickel cornerback role.


Des Lawrence had 3 deflections from pass breakups against James Madison. Lawrence struggled in coverage after that, but had 4 deflections in the past three weeks against Virginia Tech, Miami FL, and Virginia. Lawrence looked better in coverage against guys like Virginia Tech wide receiver Isaiah Ford and Miami FL wide receiver Stacy Coley. Lawrence is a late round gem that can move up boards if he continues to play well on tape.


Des Lawrence now has 8 deflections from pass breakups in 2016. Lawrence is a late round pick that has improved from a seventh round pick to a sixth round pick.




Before 2016

Des Lawrence had 43 solo tackles, 16 assisted tackles, 59 total tackles, and 14 deflections from pass breakups in 2015. If he can match those numbers during his senior year his stock will improve and if he can get at least 10 deflections again he should get drafted.


Des Lawrence is awesome in man coverage. Lawrence isn't that good in zone or press which is why he should be limited to cover 0, cover 1, and cover 2 schemes.






Taylor Reynolds, CB, James Madison

Projected Round 6th Round

2016 Season Recap The 6-0 195 lb Taylor Reynolds is the final FCS cornerback that we believe gets drafted. Taylor Reynolds is one of the most durable cornerbacks despite playing in the FCS.


Taylor Reynolds leads James Madison with 8 deflections in 2016. Reynolds is still a project at cornerback despite his success in 2016 in the FCS. Reynolds struggled on tape against Ryan Switzer making him a late round pick at best.




Before 2016

Taylor Reynolds became a full-time starting cornerback in 2014. Reynolds had 43 solo tackles, 28 assisted tackles, 71 total tackles, 4 deflections from pass breakups, and 4 interceptions as a field cornerback in 2014. Reynolds had 30 solo tackles, 16 assisted tackles, 46 total tackles, and 16 deflections from pass breakups in 2015 during his junior redshirt season. Reynolds has a chance to get drafted if he can match those numbers in 2016.






Brandon Wilson, CB, Houston
image: http://www.draftutopia.com/houstoncougars.gif

Projected Round 7th Round

2016 Season Recap The 5-11 200 lb Brandon Wilson will become Houston's field cornerback in 2016. Wilson was a boundary cornerback on Houston in 2015.


Brandon Wilson had no problem replacing William Jackson III. Wilson had 5 solo tackles, 5 assisted tackles, 10 total tackles, 1 deflection from a pass breakup, and a 100 yard field goal return for a touchdown against Oklahoma.


Wilson has been impressive when healthy. Wilson has missed a few games with injuries which makes you wonder if he has durability concerns.




Before 2016

Brandon Wilson was a good complimentary cornerback to William Jackson III in 2015. Wilson had 51 solo tackles, 7 assisted tackles, 58 total tackles, 8 deflections from pass breakups, and 1 interception in 2015. Wilson has to step up as Houston's field cornerback in 2016 with William Jackson III gone.





Any comments or questions....put 'em in print on the bottom. Strong CB class....I think we need 2 cause Tru is gone. Hill can't get 'er done....And Mike Jordan is playing like Jordan's sons.

Sensabaugh replaces him and immediately gives up first down!

Hello my Rams On Demand brothers!

I was just wondering what Rams forums you have been a member of or still might actively post at?

I cut my teeth at the clanram for a few years before finding realramsfans and eventually finding rod. Like many former clanram users I left because of the boys club attitude and drama filled mods.Anyone who had frequented the sight should remember their most famous and prominent members Avenger Ram and Nick. I have nothing bad to say about the site or the members from there, but let's just say I never went back to that place once finding rod.

I know from my time lurking on realramsfans that many of the members have migrated to rod and for good reason.So, what I want to know is where did you used to call home before finding rod?

btw
my name was mikhal5569 @clanram
never signed up @realramsfans

Little help needed ROD. Please post some websites that I can watch todays football games. I used to go to atdhe.net, but it comes up as being "seized by US customs". I saw some sites posted here early this year by ROD posters, I couldn't find the thread though.

Thx

Yup, and this is gonna be kinda tricky. Especially the timing of everything.

My perfect offseason? Hire the best possible GM first. I mean, the man that has demonstrated the most exec abilities in addition to superior talent evaluation skills. This is absolutely Job One for me. No question.

Then give HIM complete authority over football matters, other than contract negotiations. He should report only to Kroenke. I can't overemphasize this. The GM makes the final decision on picks, trades, and FA matters (after consultation with his HC on "type" preferences, of course).

Then let the new GM conduct the HC search and hire.

I would keep Demoff for contract management and any other "projects" that Kroenke comes up with. But not anything directly related to player personnel type decisions.

BTW, I like Snead, but I'm afraid he's gonna be collateral damage after the Fisher firing. I now think that we need more than just a good talent evaluator at the helm, and that's all that we know Snead to be.

The new HC should be allowed to hire any assistants that he wants and to install any schemes that he likes. He would have final say on the 53, the starters, the cuts, etc.

Now, that's my perfect sequence for a successful Ram offseason. Not sure if the Rams see it that way, though. Lol.


Here's my current list of preferred candidates for interviews and in their proper order.

Chris Petersen (yeah, he's the one that checks every box for me)
John Harbaugh (if he becomes available)
David Shaw (if he's at all interested)
Nick Saban (all he does is win)
Urban Meyer (another consistent winner)

I would be VERY happy with any of the above. All are consistent winners with proven exec type HC skills. All 5 are masters of all phases of the game. Unfortunately, 3 of them are unlikely to be interested in leaving their college gigs. And John Harbaugh might not even be available, either.

Then, and only then would I be scheduling the "whiz kid" coordinators for interviews.

Shanahan
McDaniels
McVay
Anybody else they want to talk to.

These guys all have that boom or bust risk associated with their hire. Yet, they would need to be given at least 3 years to prove themselves. That would include the inaugural season at the new palace. I don't like that kinda risk. Do you?

I much prefer the proven successful HC from my original 5 above.

Note: I didn't list Gruden, did I? Heck, I wouldn't even interview him, TBH. Out of the coaching ranks for too long, plus I consider him a diva. Then there's his overall coaching record. That's 3 boxes that I have to leave unchecked, right there. But that's just me.

Oh, one last thing. Yeah, I would interview them all. But once I fell in love with a superior candidate, I would offer him the danged job. I would NOT drag this out any further than necessary. Time is gonna be short enough as it is for the new man to get his ducks in a row. Why add another couple of weeks to the hiring process? Besides, why allow another team to tempt the man the Rams most prefer with some ridiculous and desperate offer?

Welcome one, welcome all to another exciting mock offseason. Let's get started, shall we?

HC - Sean McVay.
OC - Bill Callahan.
DC - Mike Singletary.
ST - John Fassel.

(I realize that McVay is rather young, but the kid can coach, and he's respected by all of the offensive players on the Redskins. Best case scenario, he's our head coach for the next decade or so. Callahan knows offensive linemen better than most, is close to McVay, and he'd be an immediate upgrade. I'd keep Singletary, Fassel, Dennard Wilson, Groh (as wide receivers coach), and Waufle.)

Cut:

Rodger Saffold
Eugene Sims
Tre Mason
Tim Barnes

(All obvious.)

Release:

T.J. McDonald
Brian Quick
Kenny Britt
Case Keenum
Chase Reynolds
Cam Thomas

(I think that it's time for new blood in the wide receiver position, so Quick and Britt are let go. McDonald is talented, but Mo is younger and plays the same position. Keenum is replaced by Mannion, Reynolds is purely special teams and replaceable, and Thomas is JAG.)

Re-sign:

Greg Zuerlein
Benny Cunningham
Dominique Easley
Ethan Westbrooks
Matt Longacre
Louis Trinca-Pasat

(Zuerlein has bounced back. Cunningham is our second best back. Easley, Westbrooks, Longacre, and LPT are under our control, so we should re-sign them.)

Convert:

Lamarcus Joyner (CB - FS)

(Joyner can join Alexander on the backend to make a feared duo. He fits at free safety better than nickel cornerback, in my honest opinion.)

Free Agency:

Alshon Jeffery
Ronald Leary
Andrew Whitworth.

(Leary immediately replaces Saffold at left guard, Whitworth gives us a stud left tackle for a few years, and Jeffery gives us a bona-fide number one receiver.)

Trade:

Lance Kendricks to New York Jets for their 2017 fourth round pick.

(I believe that the Jets absolutely need a tight end. They are starting Kellen Davis, who is a blocking tight end on the decline and Austin Seferian-Jenkins, who is inconsistent and has off-the-field problems. Kendricks is easily an upgrade over both of them and opens the door for Higbee and Hemingway to shine. A fourth round pick should be sufficient.)

Robert Quinn to the Dallas Cowboys for their first round pick.

(Dallas may have an excellent offensive line, but their defensive line leaves a lot to be desired. Quinn will immediately help them. Meanwhile, we get a first round pick to put more young talent into our defensive line.)

William Hayes to the New York Giants for 2017 sixth round pick.

(Stealing from Jrry. If we can get anything for Hayes, that's great.)

Greg Robinson to the Clevaland Browns for 2017 fifth round pick.)

(I understand that this might not be realistic, but we might as well get something for G-Rob. Cleveland's offensive line - Joe Thomas aside - is probably a bigger mess than ours.)

4th round compensatory pick, Cleveland fifth, Giants sixth, and our sixth to the Buffalo Bills for 2017 third round pick.

(Buffalo needs to rebuild, and the extra picks go to helping that.)

Draft:

1 (Cowboys) - Charles Harris, DE, Missouri.

2 - Ethan Pocic, C, LSU.

3 - Ahkello Witherspoon, CB, Colorado.

3 - (Bills) Chidobe Awuzie, CB, Colorado

4 (Jets) - Amara Darboh, WR, Michigan.

4 - Nico Siragusa, OG, San Diego State.

5 - Tanoh Kpassagnon, DE, Villanova.

7 - Elijah McGuire, RB, UL Lafayette.

Roster:

QB - Jared Goff.
RB - Todd Gurley.
WR - Alshon Jeffery
WR - Tavon Austin
WR - Amara Darboh
TE - Tyler Higbee.
LT - Andrew Whitworth
LG - Ronald Leary
C - Ethan Pocic
RG - Nico Siragusa/Jamon Brown.
RT - Rob Havenstein.
RE - Charles Harris
DT - Michael Brockers
DT - Aaron Donald.
LE - Tanoh Kpassagnon.
MLB - Alec Ogletree
OLB - Mark Barron
CB - Chidobe Awuzie.
CB - Akhello Witherspoon.
CB - E.J. Gaines.
FS - Lamarcus Joyner
SS - Maurice Alexander.
K - Greg Zuerlein.
P - Johnny Hekker.
LS - Jake McQuaide.

Thoughts, comments, critiques are all welcome.

L.A. could be the perfect NFL spot for Stanford coach David Shaw, and should be the Rams' first priority. (Photo by Otto Greule Jr/Getty Images)


Prioritizing Rams' coaching candidates

By RYAN KARTJE / STAFF WRITER

On Monday morning, weeks before the annual firing spree of Black Monday, the NFL coaching carousel suffered its first casualty. Jeff Fisher became the first coach fired this season, cut loose a few days before he could take his rightful place as the losingest coach in league history.

As the Rams spiraled into a lost season, Fisher’s firing was inevitable. The timing of his firing certainly isn’t ideal for the on-field product. But as far as the future is concerned, the organization has plenty of time to find the right fit and frame itself as the best job available. No team is better positioned to get the coach it wants.

Barring some major surprise, here are the other teams that could have a coaching opening: Jacksonville, San Diego, Indianapolis, Cincinnati and Buffalo. Of those, only the hapless Jaguars’ gig is guaranteed to be open. Outside of the lure of working with Andrew Luck, none of those other jobs has much on the potential of being the Rams coach.

Which means the Rams should have their pick of available candidates. It’s a powerful position to be in, one the franchise, with its multi-billion dollar stadium/palace on the way, can’t afford to screw up. So how should the Rams prioritize their available candidates?

(Note: This is not a wish list, and thus, won’t include the likes of Jim Harbaugh and Pete Carroll, who both have categorically denied any interest and, face it, are never going to take the Rams job.)

• David Shaw, Stanford head coach: A widely respected college coach who has kept up Jim Harbaugh’s success at Stanford, Shaw’s name has been bandied about for a while as an NFL candidate, but he has always rebuffed any advances. Los Angeles may be the perfect opportunity, and if he doesn’t take it, he may never leave the college ranks. It’s a long shot, but I’d make the first call to him.

• Kyle Shanahan, Falcons offensive coordinator: The best of the available hot-shot coordinators, Shanahan has revamped the Falcons’ offense to cater to the strengths of Matt Ryan and Julio Jones. Ryan’s similarities to Jared Goff would make Shanahan the best possible option to groom the Rams’ young quarterback, which should be a top priority. Perhaps he’d bring his dad, Mike, and his Super Bowl ring along, too.

• Josh McDaniels, Patriots offensive coordinator: He may be the most likely coach to be intrigued by the Rams’ job, given his year as the Rams’ offensive coordinator following his firing as Broncos coach. McDaniels is a great offensive mind, having trained under Bill Belichick, but in his first go-round in Denver, he rubbed some players the wrong way. In Los Angeles, that might not fly. But he should most definitely get an interview.

• Darrell Bevell, Seahawks offensive coordinator: Kind of surprised by the lack of love for Bevell, who has interviewed for basically every available job the last two years. He was a quarterbacks coach in Green Bay, which has worked out pretty well for other assistants across the league. Working under Pete Carroll, he could bring a Carroll-esque approach to whatever job he could take this offseason.

• Teryl Austin, Lions defensive coordinator: Of the available defensive coaches, Austin may be the most likely to get a job this offseason, after interviewing for a handful of jobs last year. Detroit has dealt with injuries this season and the defense has taken a hit, but Austin is well regarded as a motivator and leader. His defensive scheme could also fit the Rams’ personnel well.

[www.ocregister.com]

http://www.espn.com/blog/arizona-ca...ne-100-yard-game-away-from-making-nfl-history

TEMPE, Ariz. -- If Arizona Cardinals running back David Johnson has another game with 100 yards from scrimmage Sunday against the New Orleans Saints, he’ll be in rare air, coach Bruce Arians pointed out Friday.

Johnson needs one more 100-yard outing to be the first player in the NFL history to start a season with 14 straight games with 100 yards from scrimmage.

“That’s elite company -- nobody,” Arians said with a chuckle.

After his 121 yards from scrimmage against the Dolphins, Johnson joined former Cardinals running back Edgerrin James as the only two players in NFL history to start a season with 13 straight 100-yard games. One more, and Johnson will sit alone.

“That’s a dream come true for sure,” Johnson said. “To be the first player to ever to do that is very good, and I definitely hope I’m able to do that.”

Johnson has kept streak his alive with balance.

In eight of his 13 games, Johnson eclipsed 100 yards without going over 100 in either category. His season high is 185 in Week 5 against San Francisco, of which a season-high 157 came from rushing. Johnson had a season-high 103 receiving yards against Atlanta in Week 12.

“I don’t know if anybody in the league can say they’ve had a better year than David Johnson,” wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald said. “I know the team hasn’t had the success we wanted but David Johnson has been the bell cow from the opening game to last week.”

Only two other players have streaks of 100-yard games longer than Johnson’s and James’ 13. Barry Sanders did it in 15 straight games in 1997 and Marcus Allen in 1985 with 14 -- whom Johnson could tie Sunday. The difference Is Sanders and Allen didn’t begin their streaks in Week 1 of their respective seasons.

“The people he’s being mentioned with are Hall of Fame guys, so for a second-year player, I think it’s outstanding,” Arians said.

Lots of good matchups...

Detroit at NY Giants

Indy at Minn

Pittsburgh at Cincinnati

Tenn at KC

Eagles at Ravens

I'm probably switching between Det/NYG and Indy/Minn at least early.

It may not take much to get him. Cali guy may jump to head of list.

===

A year after the Colts considered acquiring Saints coach Asshole Face, and a year after Payton signed a lucrative extension in New Orleans, a change of scenery is still possible.

League sources said the Saints -- adrift in another lost season and with veteran quarterback Drew Brees spiraling in recent weeks -- would consider moving the coach should there be suitors, and it would not likely require hefty trade compensation.

The Saints are dealing with several issues regarding ownership and the possible structure of football operations moving forward. Brees, who turns 38 on Jan. 15, has one year left on his contract, and doing another one-year extension may be tricky given his struggles after a strong start. He has thrown nine touchdowns to nine interceptions in New Orleans' last five games, four of them losses; only Philip Rivers has more interceptions in that span.

Moving Payton's contract would free up about $40 million at a time when owner Tom Benson's health and the future of ownership is in question, and that money, along with the $25 million in cash/cap savings that would occur whenever Brees departs, would go a long way to providing an influx of means to rebuild this team. Benson has also struggled with his NBAfranchise, both in the standings and at the box office.

"I don't think it would take all that much to get him, actually," said one source with knowledge of the situation. "I don't think [GM] Mickey [Loomis] would hold him back or ask for all that much in return at this point."

Payton has had a long and successful stint in New Orleans, taking the formerly moribund franchise to a Super Bowl title, but the idea of a new challenge wouldn't be without attraction. The Saints may be undergoing a front office restructuring of sorts, and, mired in salary cap hell in recent years, adding young, cheap draft picks would appeal to them.


Asshole Face could be on the move in the offseason. USATSI
Landing Payton would qualify as an immediate impact move during a year in which there is not a preponderance of hot coaching candidates, and with other options somewhat limited. The Colts, for instance, could make a move for a coach again a year after deciding to extend Chuck Pagano. The Ramswould be an appealing job. The Chargers have a lot of strong young individual talent, and Rivers is a few years younger than Brees.

Payton is a California native with family there and previously coached at San Diego State, so the Southern California jobs could have a particular appeal.

@Billy Baroo - please include a link when posting an article.