News, Notes and Rumors

By
Bill Smith

News:

The Eagles were one of my Golden 5 picks against the
Seahawks—to lose of course.  They did and
the team is in shambles.  With just 4
wins the entire organization is on the hot seat.  But right now it does not look like HC Reid
will lose his job.  However, he may opt
to quit to take one of the jobs that will be open.

The Bengals are not ready to challenge either the
Ravens or the Steelers yet.  But they are
much better and are the odds on favorite to take over when age finally takes
the other two down.

While the Colts have not yet won, they are not
giving up.  They scored 24 against the
Pats.  That is a good sign for them but a
very bad sign for the Pats D.  The Pats
cannot win in the playoffs with a pass D that bad.

The Tebow effect is alive and well.  He brought the team back against the Vikes to
win 35-32.  The Broncos may even make the
playoffs but the run first O will not go far against the top teams in the AFC.

The Cowgirls are struggling.  The loss to the weak Cards showed flaws in
the team on both sides of the ball.  Too
much has been made of the timeout called by HC Garrett.  The problems go a lot deeper.  Garrett will probably be the HC in 2012 but
he better get the Girls playing better or else…

The Packers got by the Giants in what may have been
the biggest risk to a perfect season left on their schedule.  While the team would love to be perfect, they
are much more interested in winning back to back Super Bowls.

The Dolphins have now won 4 of their last 5 games
and the win over the Raiders was impressive.
The coaching staff has done a nice job in getting as much from a very
average roster as possible.  QB Moore has
played well competing 64% of his throws with 8 TDs and just 1 pick in that
period.  The D is playing better than
expected.  The team is winning enough to
take them out of the draft spot to get one of the top QBs.

Both the Lions and Bills started out the season
fast.  But the problem with newbies on
the big boy playground is they do not have the depth to win with the injuries
that always happen.  The Bengals won the
AFC North a couple of years ago because they suffered very few injuries.  Both the Lions and Bills are better but need
to get deeper to overcome injuries.

 

 

Notes:

The Pack has clinched the NFC North.  The Bears lost their last 2 games and are in
a tailspin.  The O generated just 3
points against the Chiefs who lost another QB (Orton) during the game.  The Bears O scheme has struggled even when QB
Cutler was healthy.  There are no
legitimate WRs on the roster.  Now that
RB Forte is hurt, things will get worse.

The Sports Economist is reporting that the Security and Exchange Commission is investigating the financing of the Marlins stadium.  The issue is that county
commissioners financed the project without ever seeing the team’s
financials.

Browns fans need to have a lot of antacids on hand
prior to their game against the Steelers on Thursday and for the rest of the
season.  The team is not playing well and
both the Steelers and the Ravens will take their games against the Brownies
very seriously.  Thursday night will not
be pretty.

 

 

Rumors:

There will be a lot of NFL jobs available on Black
Monday January 3, 2012.

The
Jaguars have already fired their HC Del Rio.
Don’t be surprised if the GM goes as well.  The new owner will want his own guys.

The Colts
will replace their staff because they have a real shot at a perfect 0-16
record.  The team has not drafted well
and was totally unprepared for the injury to QB Manning.

The Chargers
will not make the playoffs and both GM Smith and the coaching staff will be
gone.

The Vikes will
likely replace their staff unless they win 3 of the 4 games remaining.

The
Dolphins have already been looking to replace their head coach.  So far no name brand has jumped at the
position.

The
Texans are likely to replace their coach unless they not only make the playoffs
but win a game or 2.  While they might
stumble into the playoffs, the QB situation will prevent any chance of
advancing.

The Rams
are struggling with 2 broken QBs.  But
the problems run to the selection of players and the lack of depth on the
roster.  Changes will come to the Rams.

The Bucs
coaching staff is in serious trouble.
While QB Freeman has not played well, the D has broken down and the
running game has struggled as well.  HC
Morris was expected to take this team to challenge for the playoffs.  Instead, the Bucs are in the running for a
top draft pick.

Even HC
Shanahan in Washington is in trouble.
That makes a total of 9 potential openings.  The Skins O have been a disaster.  Shanahan has changed QBs faster than most
people change underwear.  The running
game has disappeared.  And the coach was
supposed to be an O genius.

Bill Smith is a
former coach of several semi-pro teams, has officiated both football and
basketball, done color on radio for college football and basketball and has
scouted talent. He edits
https://fryingpansports.com and hosts the
Internet version of News, Notes and Rumors on
http://mooheadradio.com/2.0/  Monday
–Thursday 6-7:30 PM EST.  He has also published several novels on

and a non-fiction work at http://www.merriam-press.com/.

 

 

 

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