NFL News

[ghandi]

The 49ers were supposed to be good anyway, but getting to the NFC championship game with Mr Irrellevant at QB is pretty impressive.....it supports those who say someone like Goff can win if the supporting cast is strong.

[chemiclord]

The supporting cast has to be strong regardless. A dynamic playmaker at QB can certainly make building a team easier, but he's not a substitute for building a team.

[jaadam4]

Holy hell, it sounds like the Colts might stick with Saturday. Personally I think they’re stupid for firing Frank Reich but doubling up with Saturday isn’t the way I’d go. There’s some decent coaches out there at the moment.

Sat isn’t good for business IMO.

[Trickalicious]

Sat isn’t good for business IMO.

You must own the Korean BBQ place I crave on the weekends and can never catch open. Asshole.

[jaadam4]

Next time give us a better review and call the soda by it’s real name

Pessi

[Cody_Russell]

The 5 NFL HC openings still haven’t been filled.
I anticipate we’ll start to hear news of these jobs being filled very soon. Maybe 1 today? The date range last year was late January/ early February. Certainly this will pick up steam in the next week or so.

Holy hell, it sounds like the Colts might stick with Saturday. Personally I think they’re stupid for firing Frank Reich but doubling up with Saturday isn’t the way I’d go. There’s some decent coaches out there at the moment.

Sat isn’t good for business IMO.

I’ve heard this too. Colts naming Jeff Saturday as HC is realistic.

[Futureshock]

Oh my goodness FFS. This has Jeruh's whining decrepid hands all over it. It's football FFS. You get tackled. You may get hurt. Nothing in either situation was dirty. It just is.

Competition Committee is expected to look at mechanics of tackle that injured Tony Pollard

Posted by Josh Alper on January 26, 2023, 10:21 AM EST

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Cowboys running back Tony Pollard injured his ankle during the divisional round of the playoffs and the NFL is expected to look into the mechanics of the tackle that led to the injuries this offseason.

49ers cornerback Jimmie Ward grabbed Pollard from behind and then pulled the back down while dropping his own body to the turf. Pollard’s leg got trapped underneath, resulting in a high ankle sprain and fractured fibula. Pollard had surgery this week.

Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes also suffered a high ankle sprain on a similar tackle last weekend. Both plays were legal, but there’s a similarity to the “hip drop” tackle that the National Rugby League in Australia has banned because of the injury risk it carries and the Washington Post reports that the NFL Competition Committee is expected to discuss the “mechanics of the tackle in Pollard’s case” when they meet this offseason.

The NFL has made rule changes to ban things like low hits on quarterbacks and horse collar tackles in the past because of the injuries that they can cause. Any discussion this offseason does not mean they will follow the same path, but it looks like it could be under consideration for the future.

[Futureshock]

They're going to make some stupid rule that makes everything infinitely worse. Stupid

[Futureshock]

Tampering in advance of free agency is already happening

Posted by Mike Florio on January 26, 2023, 9:50 AM EST

Getty Images

The recent decision by Buccaneers (for now) quarterback Tom Brady to get testy on his own podcast in response to a question he wasn’t even asked seemed to be, if nothing else, an effort to keep prying eyes away from the inevitable tampering with Brady that will happen in the coming weeks.

Per a source with knowledge of the current dynamics, tampering already is happening.

Not as to Brady, as far as we know. But at least one impending unrestricted free agent already has been hearing from a team interested in signing him. Presumably, it’s happening with others.

It happens through the players’ agents. The agents constantly speak to General Managers, executives, and coaches. As long as folks are discreet about it, no one ever knows.

And while the tampering process reaches a fever pitch every year at the Scouting Combine, the upcoming Senior Bowl week provides the first opportunity to get everyone in the same place at the same time. Sooner than later, agents for players due to become free agents will know the teams that have interest, in the event the player doesn’t sign a new deal with his current team.

That makes it easier for the agent to map out negotiations with the current team. And even though it’s a violation of the rules for other teams to be talking to the agent, it’s smart for the agent to gather as much information as possible regarding the client’s options.

Tampering happens all the time. Teams rarely complain about it, because they all do it. Trouble arises only when a team is too blatant about it, or when the league decides to make an example of someone.

The league generally doesn’t like to do it. Because the league doesn’t like to broadcast to the world that the sport is rife with cheating. If enough people outside the sport figure that out, the NFL suddenly will have to worry about legislators, regulators, and/or prosecutors poking around in the NFL’s business.

[Cody_Russell]

They're going to make some stupid rule that makes everything infinitely worse. Stupid

I’m speculating that Jerry Jones is very salty about his team choking again and is trying to push some buttons there.

Running out of body parts to make a “proper tackle!”

Flag football is definitely the way to go… can’t wait to see this spectacle in the Pro Bowl 🙄 (I’m actually not going to watch…)

[Nick Pappageorgio]

And they just fired 5 assistant coaches…

But the guys who decided to give Dak a contract that paid him like he walks on water (or he’s a great QB) don’t look in the mirror.

[Futureshock]

Seahawks players not happy that Pete Carroll is not a coach of the year finalist

Posted by Michael David Smith on January 26, 2023, 4:38 AM EST

USA Today

Heading into the 2022 season, the Seahawks were expected to be one of the worst teams in the NFL. Trading Russell Wilson away suggested that they were beginning a rebuild, and the betting odds put their over/under win total at just 5.5 games, third-worst in the NFL.

So when the Seahawks went 9-8 and made the playoffs, head coach Pete Carroll deserved a lot of credit. And many of his players weren’t happy that Carroll wasn’t named a coach of the year finalist on Wednesday.

Responding to a tweet from the NFL that listed five coaches — Nick Sirianni, Kyle Shanahan, Brian Daboll, Sean McDermott and Doug Pederson — as coach of the year finalists, Seahawks safety Quandre Diggs spoke up for Carroll.

“Man I don’t understand how Pete isn’t a finalist!” Diggs wrote. “Not a top 5 coaching job with a team everybody expected to be sorry? Y’all killed me last year when I said “Pete told me we’re not rebuilding we’re trying to win now!” once i re-signed!”

Multiple teammates retweeted Diggs’ post in support.

Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith, who was named on Wednesday as one of the finalists for the NFL’s comeback player of the year award, was more succinct in making the same point. Smith replied to the tweet listing the coach of the year finalists with the words, “Peter Clay Carroll.” Multiple teammates approvingly retweeted that tweet as well.

Carroll has never won the NFL’s coach of the year award and has never even come close in the voting. He was named college football coach of the year in 2003 at USC.

[Futureshock]

Aaron Rodgers links his current villain status to Big Pharma

Posted by Mike Florio on January 25, 2023, 8:56 PM EST

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As it turns out, the argument that Damar Hamlin secretly died and was replaced by a double on Sunday wasn’t the craziest shit I heard today.

Thanks to Jimmy Traina of SI.com, who listened to Tuesday’s musings from Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers so that others (like me) wouldn’t have to, Rodgers suggested at one point that the negative coverage he has received in recent months flows directly from Big Pharma.

Specifically, Rodgers tied negativity directed to him to media sponsored by the three providers of the COVID vaccine, given that Rodgers refused to get one — and then lied about it.

“If you take the right sound bite from the right thing and it’s a station that may or may not have in the past been brought to you by Pfizer they gotta make sure their villain gets cast in the correct light,” Rodgers told Pat McAfee and A.J. Hawk on Tuesday. “And whether or not they’re sponsored by Pfizer, Moderna or Johnson & Johnson, whatever it might be, when you go up against some of those powers that be, put yourself in the crosshairs, they’re gonna paint you a certain way. And that’s what the media did to me a couple of years ago. That’s fine. That’s their prerogative. That’s what they wanted to do.”

If Big Pharma was giving out big (or small) checks for calling out Rodgers for playing a Greg Brady “exact words” game with reporters so that he could enjoy the benefits of being vaccinated in 2021 without actually being vaccinated, mine must have gotten lost in the mail. For me, the criticism was about the decision to lie about his status, and then to show up in the press room without a mask, in direct violation of league rules.

The rules were the rules. The NFL and the NFL Players Association negotiated them. If Rodgers didn’t like the rules, he shouldn’t have played. Instead, he defied them until he tested positive.

I didn’t like what he did. I didn’t appreciate the blatant dishonesty. I didn’t agree with the juvenile game of “gotcha” he played with reporters by saying “yeah, I’ve been immunized” when asked whether he’d gotten the vaccine.

For people who are really smart (like Rodgers), there’s an obligation to be intellectually honest. In 2021, Rodgers used his smarts in a failed effort to outsmart others.

I don’t need a check from Big Pharma to say that. I’ll do it for free. He lied. He knows he lied. And now he’s trying to obfuscate his lie by pushing a stupid-ass conspiracy theory that anyone who speaks ill of him isn’t doing it because they genuinely believe he lied but because they’re getting paid to do it.

[Futureshock]

Jets hire Nathaniel Hackett as offensive coordinator

Posted by Josh Alper on January 26, 2023, 10:55 AM EST

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The Jets have found their new offensive coordinator.

The team announced the hiring of Nathaniel Hackett on Thursday morning. Hackett replaces Mike LaFleur, who left the team after the end of the regular season.

Hackett spent the first 15 games of the 2022 season as the head coach of the Broncos, but he was fired with two weeks left in the season after he made a series of in-game blunders and was unable to put together a capable offense after the offseason trade for Russell Wilson.

The Jets had their own disappointing Wilson at quarterback in 2022, but the Hackett hiring is likely to lead to speculation about the team moving on from Zach Wilson this offseason. Hackett was the offensive coordinator in Green Bay before taking the Broncos job and his arrival with the Jets will have some people thinking about the AFC East team trying to make a trade for Aaron Rodgers this offseason.

There were similar thoughts in Denver when Hackett was hired, but that obviously didn’t come to fruition. Whether Rodgers comes to New Jersey or not, the Jets will be hoping that Hackett avoids a repeat of his on-field results with the Broncos.

[Futureshock]

Saleh: Jets Plan To Add Veteran QB


January 26th, 2023 at 11:28am CST by Sam Robinson

The Jets are not making any secret of their desire to make a specific upgrade at the quarterback spot. Not long after Woody Johnson said he was willing to pay up for a veteran quarterback, Robert Saleh said informed prospective offensive coordinators of this plan.

Saleh ended up going with Nathaniel Hackett, a rather controversial choice considering his rapid Denver unraveling, but he informed Hackett and others the team plans on acquiring a veteran quarterback, Rich Cimini of ESPN.com tweets. Saleh, understandably so, said Thursday the quarterback position was his top concern when discussing the state of the offense with candidates.

Saleh added he and Hackett did not discuss specific options, though this hire will point to one. Aaron Rodgers‘ praise of his former OC will connect the four-time MVP to the Jets, especially as a third round of Rodgers trade rumors are circulating. The Broncos’ Hackett hire, however, did not lead to a trade. And Hackett’s spectacular failure with Russell Wilson led him to become just the third first-year head coach in the past 53 years to be fired before the season ended.

With 2020s quarterback markets more action-packed than those of the previous decade, more options will be available in the event the Jets cannot pry Rodgers from Green Bay. Derek Carr and Jimmy Garoppolo are the two names that immediately come to mind, though teams will certainly monitor the Ravens’ situation with Lamar Jackson. The Giants sound like they are now likelier to franchise Daniel Jones over Saquon Barkley, while the Seahawks have opened talks with Geno Smith. Both Pete Carroll and John Schneider said the team wants to retain the nine-year veteran. Tom Brady also could be available, though it remains to be seen if the legendary passer will play a 24th season. If he does, clearer connections exist with other teams (Raiders, Titans) compared to the Jets. Gang Green, however, does boast weaponry and a solid defense — similar to what the Buccaneers presented in 2020.

Carr and Garoppolo are set to be available at different points on the calendar. Carr’s contract stipulates his trade market will close Feb. 15, when his $40.4MM guarantee vests. Unless Carr and the Raiders change that date, the team must move the quarterback off its roster before that point to avoid paying him that money. The Jets are one of the teams expected to pursue Carr, joining the Commanders, Saints and potentially others in doing so. Garoppolo will be available in mid-March, when free agency opens. Rodgers’ $58.3MM option bonus can be paid at any point this offseason, and with a post-June 1 trade better for the Packers’ books, it may be a while before the 39-year-old star is dealt — if, in fact, Green Bay actually decides to move on this year.

The Jets have Zach Wilson under contract through 2024, but the former No. 2 overall pick has not shown much to indicate he can be a starter-caliber QB. Mike White is set for free agency, and injuries in back-to-back seasons cut the popular Jet’s time as a starter short. While the Jets could keep White and have continued to insist Wilson remains part of their future, a proven passer will assuredly be the team’s target this offseason.