NFL Offseason '16

[TheRicSlick]

Eagles were interested in Koetter. Bucs would rather fire Lovie and upgrade him to head coach than lose him.

If it's to promote Koetter, I'm fine with that. I don't want Winston to stunt his growth trying to adjust to a new system.

[Cujo]

I happen to think Tampa waited to know if Tom Coughlin would be fired by New York and interested in coaching next year. All signs point to "yes" on a return to the sidelines. I think Coughlin flies south to Florida.

[TheRicSlick]

No to Coughlin.

Lavonte David is ranting on twitter, hope he doesn't say something that causes a rift between him and the new coach.

[FiddySicks]

I'd be stunned if it was anyone other than Koetter. They just had the most prolific season on offense in franchise history despite a few pretty big injuries.

Lovie was a lame duck. He came in, immediately torched a defense that was promising despite the 4-12 record, and they actually ended up being worse. They won those 4 extra games on the back of Koetter's system and the fact that Jameis Winston was mostly freaking awesome this season. They lost as many as SIX games because of just how dogcrap that defense had become.

This was the right move, and the Koetter move would be the right move, too. Coughlin feels like it could be a bit of a Lovie retread in some ways.

[dfwabel]

The firing also takes the Bucs out of being on "Hard Knocks" and any possible remaining negative coverage of Jameis.

[Cujo]

In other news, Jeff Fisher STILL has a job.

[HedleyLamarr]

In other news, Jeff Fisher STILL has a job.

Heard some fact the other day about Fisher...something along the lines of his 21 seasons as head coach, his teams have had a winning record in only six of those seasons. Yet, he's got an overall record of over .500 as head coach. Must be a bunch of 8-8 records in there.

Wasn't there some story about the Rams saying Fisher was safe? And that they were focusing their efforts on something else....can't imagine what.

[Cujo]

Fisher has just 2 winning seasons in his last 11, and has finished below .500 in each of his four years in St. Louis. Somehow, he's STILL riding the coattails of that close Super Bowl loss from sixteen years ago.

Some say Fisher is safe with because the Rams won 3 of their last four games, or because he's got experience with teams relocating cities. Both reasons are total crap and he should be held to the same standards as other coaches, but whatever.

[2001mark]

Seems like the game has passed by Lovie's style some. It was more shocking that he actually had a job.

[CS85]

Stephen A. Smith wasted no time in playing the race card, I see. The guy needs a new gimmick.

[BBTV]

Conflicting reports state that

1. The Eagles have a second interview with Scott Gase this weekend

2. The Eagles fast-forwarded and offered him the job to avoid him possibly going somewhere else and gave him a deadline to decide by.

I simply don't understand this move. I've read a lot of great things about him, and heard some Chicago beat guys praise him for his ability to work with players, motivate them, relate to them, etc. which is exactly what is needed after having a total weirdo in charge, but I just don't see how he's qualified to be a head football coach and represent an entire organization. I also don't see how players in their 30s (not that the Eagles have too many right now) are going to respond to being yelled at by a guy who's only a couple of years older than them and has never played the game, not even in college.

Seems like a typical Howie Roseman move. He's intimidated by "football people" since he's essentially an accountant, and has been disrespected constantly by "football people", so he wants to hire someone who's not really a "football guy" to run a football team.

[CS85]

Hope you guys like not scoring in the red zone.

[TheOldRoman]

Stephen A. Smith wasted no time in playing the race card, I see. The guy needs a new gimmick.

We all knew that was coming, from him or others in the media. The national media loved Lovie Smith. They thought he was just the greatest coach, and nothing was ever his fault. The Bears started going downhill after the Super Bowl when Lovie got more control over personnel and drafting decisions. Still, despite the fact that they were trending down and missed the playoffs the two years after the Super Bowl, all of Lovie's failures became Cutler's fault, as the media hates Jay for 3-4 legitimate criticisms and about a thousand bull ones. It didn't matter that Lovie was a one-trick pony and his defense was getting old, that the Bears couldn't find a decent offensive mind to be coordinator because Lovie's tenure was circling the drain. It was all Cutler's fault. The media was irate and couldn't understand how they could fire a conference winning coach coming off a 10-win season. They didn't understand that 2012 was his defense's last stand, and that there has been five non-playoff seasons since Lovie lead them to that Super Bowl. Hell, the national media probably forgets that Rex Grossman and not Jay lead them to that Super Bowl. Even that loss was Jay's fault!

Now, the Chicago sports media is as sleazy as they come, and they over all have been far from cheerleading of Culter. But they understood that Lovie was a dope. The national sports media raged about it while the Chicago media said "It took them this long?" Even among the various race-baiters and buffoons in Chicago sports, nobody stood up for Lovie and claimed he was wrongfully fired. I think that shows all you need to know.

Anyway, I'm reminded of a Chris Rock line. He said he was asked if he thought the NFL was equal opportunity now that there were more black coaches. He said, "I always used to root for the black quarterbacks. Now there are enough black quarterbacks that there are black quarterbacks I hate. When we get a black Dave Wannstedt, a losing coach who's still being considered for the top football jobs? Then we'll have equality." Well, Rock will soon get his black Dave Wannstedt. Jerry Jones has long had a Lovie boner. I'm sure Lovie will find his way onto the Cowboys staff and eventually replace Jason Garrett when he's fired in a year or two.

[DCarp1231]

Redskins are moving forward in their plan to have a new stadium built.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/digger/wp/2016/01/06/source-redskins-advance-plans-to-relocate-hire-googles-architect-for-new-stadium/

[The_Admiral]

I still would have taken a tenth year of Lovie and his cronies over the Marc Trestman experience.

[2001mark]

Redskins are moving forward in their plan to have a new stadium built.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/digger/wp/2016/01/06/source-redskins-advance-plans-to-relocate-hire-googles-architect-for-new-stadium/

Their plans to replace that one in 20yrs must be still under wraps.

[Gothamite]

Yeah, this came up last year or so. That's pretty proactive, considering that their lease isn't up until 2027. But in the Disrtrict, seems to be a good idea to plan ahead.

I wonder if they're hoping to get in on the conversation about what to do with the RFK land before it's committed to another project.

[TheOldRoman]

It's interesting to think what would have happened with the Expos had the Redskins built FedEx adjacent to RFK. They would have bulldozed RFK after the new stadium was ready, and presumably the soccer team would have played in FedEx. So, would the Expos/Nationals have ended up in Northern Virginia instead? Would they have gone elsewhere? Would Selig not have sent Loria to Montreal to napalm it without having the DC market with a ready-to-play stadium?

[The_Admiral]

Northern Virginia, I'm sure. The Twins and Astros explored relocating to the NoVA sprawl in the '90s, with the Twins also wtfedly considering Winston-Salem. Montreal was getting napalmed one way or the other.

[BBTV]

Conflicting reports state that

1. The Eagles have a second interview with Scott Gase this weekend

2. The Eagles fast-forwarded and offered him the job to avoid him possibly going somewhere else and gave him a deadline to decide by.

I simply don't understand this move. I've read a lot of great things about him, and heard some Chicago beat guys praise him for his ability to work with players, motivate them, relate to them, etc. which is exactly what is needed after having a total weirdo in charge, but I just don't see how he's qualified to be a head football coach and represent an entire organization. I also don't see how players in their 30s (not that the Eagles have too many right now) are going to respond to being yelled at by a guy who's only a couple of years older than them and has never played the game, not even in college.

Seems like a typical Howie Roseman move. He's intimidated by "football people" since he's essentially an accountant, and has been disrespected constantly by "football people", so he wants to hire someone who's not really a "football guy" to run a football team.

Hope you guys like not scoring in the red zone.

Wouldn't be any different than the last 17 years of Tweedle Dumb and Tweedle Dumber.

Now, reports (from probably the best or second-most trust-worthy local reporter) are that there's not another interview scheduled with Gase, and that they're still planning to interview the following:

Bob McAdoo (today)

Doug Pederson (Sunday) (seriously?)

Bengals DC Paul Guenther (prob after they lose to Pgh.)

The Gase non-second-interview thing might be because they did offer it to him, and these other interviews are just incase. Or it might mean they don't want him. Or... who the f knows.