2019 NFL

[eagle eye]

5 NFL coaching positions were open, 1 remains. It’s no coincidence that 3 of those coaching positions were in the NFC East given how bad, top to miserable bottom, this division was in 2019. The Carolina Panthers signed the best coach in college not named Lincoln Riley or Urban Meyer or Dabo Swinney. His name is Matt Rhule late of the Baylor Bears. The Redskins hired former Panthers head man, Ron Rivera. The Giants hired Patriots WR coach Joe Judge and the Cowboys just hired former Packers head coach Mike McCarthy. All that is left is Cleveland. The Browns are the antithesis of a stable job environment. The Browns hire coaches and GMs about as often as people change their underwear. They just fired their first year head coach, Freddie Kitchens and their 2nd year GM, John Dorsey. The same John Dorsey who assembled one of the most talented rosters in football. A roster that includes Baker Mayfield, Odell Beckham, Jarvis Landry, Nick Chubb, Akeem Hunt, and Olivier Vernon - all Dorsey acquisitions. The reason Dorsey was fired was because owner Jimmy Haslam loves analytics more than he loves talent acquisition, or that’s the perception. Haslam’s love of analytics likely means Jason Garrett won’t be going to Cleveland. Garrett is old school in that he has never embraced analytics in games enough to call plays based on them. Unlike the Rams head man, Sean McVay, who totally embraces analytics and his in-game strategies include analytic analysis of given situations, Garrett poo-poos analytics in fact, Garrett doesn’t give a squat about analytics so I believe the Browns and Garrett will be a bad fit. Not when the Browns have a whole staff of people who do nothing but analytics.

Speaking of the Rams, one year after going to the Super Bowl the team has fired DC Wade Phillips. No reason was given for the firing but it likely had something to do with the defense giving up a bushel basket of points in the final 3 games of the season. Allowing all those points cost the Rams 3 potential wins and ultimately cost them a return trip to the playoffs.

The four games this weekend are interesting and the playoff picture is weird without the Patriots in the mix. The Titans, who beat the Pats last week will face the mighty juggernaut that is the Baltimore Ravens. The Titans and Ravens are similar. Strong run game and so-so passing game with strong defenses. I’m picking the Titans in an upset.

The Texans are going to Kansas City to play the Chiefs. Houston has already beaten KC this year and being a straight up homer I am going with the Texans.

On the NFC side you will have Seattle playing Green Bay. Seattle has Marshawn Lynch back but he wasn’t that much of a factor in the win over Philly last week. In fact Seattle did not dominate like you would have figured give how many injuries the Eagles had to deal with. I’m glad Seattle won but I have to go with the Packers on the frozen tundra of Lambeau Field.

Lastly, you have the Vikings playing the 49ers. It should be a good game and the Vikings should have a lot of momentum going into the game on the strength of their win over New Orleans in what suprisingly turned out to be defensive struggle. The Niners had a week off which gave them a chance to heal up which was very beneficial for TE George Kittle. I am picking road teams in the AFC and I’m sticking with the home teams in the NFC.

[eagle eye]

My predictions for last week's divisional games were spot on except for the Texans-Chiefs game and it's the only game I used my heart instead of my head. Being a homer isn't bad most of the time but when you've got money on the game you can't afford to be a fanboy.

This week's games will decide the Super Bowl participants. KC vs Tennessee and San Fran against Green Bay. I don't really have a dog in the hunt in these games. I would prefer the Packers to beat the 49ers but I think San Fran wins at home. I would prefer KC beat the Titans but this game is a bit scary because the Titans are a power running team that may be the hottest team left in the playoffs. I'm going with KC even though the weather will be clear but extremely cold which favors the Titans. I think the Super Bowl will feature the Chiefs and the 49ers. They both should be good games.

LB Luke Kuechly, the best player on the Carolina Panthers defense has decided to retire from the NFL. It was shocking to say the least, shocking in the same vein as Andrew Luck's retirement after the conclusion of the 2018 season. Like Luck, Kuechly is still a young man even by NFL standards and at 28 years of age this has to come to a blow to the Panther's future plans. It's really surprising given that Carolina just hired a new coach, Matt Rhule who was formally Baylor's head coach. Then again, that may have factored into Kuechly's decision. He may have not wanted to play through the growing pains of a first time NFL head coach which will likely happen. Looking back on his career he has suffered several concussions in his years in the NFL and although he didn't specifically say why he was going to retire but, there were subtle inferences that his future health was a concern. Kuechly was a certified badass and he is -- was one of the best players in the NFL.

[eagle eye]

There is a phrase in sports that mainly applies to baseball. “Dead Red” refers to a batter that isn’t worried about a pitcher’s secondary pitches, he is looking strictly for a fastball. If a batter is looking ‘dead red’ he expects the fastball, he’s waiting for the fastball and won’t swing at anything but a fastball. In this context Dead Red refers to the fact that the two teams playing in this upcoming Super Bowl both sport the color red as one of the primary colors of their uniforms. The 49ers and the Chiefs will be painting the town red when the Super Bowl LIV is played in Miami in two weeks.
There are a lot of high profile free agents this year including 6 quarterbacks. These are not just your run of the mill QB’s. Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Dak Prescott, Ryan Tannehill, Jameis Winston and Phillip Rivers. When you talk about Brady and Brees you can’t imagine them ending their careers with anyone else but the Patriots and Saints but, I thought that about Joe Montana back in the day but, he was traded to the Chiefs by the 49ers because of the emergence of Steve Young.
The duo of Payton and Brees is just as iconic as the pairing of Belichick and Brady. Although the former duo didn’t have the success that the latter duo had, what Payton and Brees mean to New Orleans is undeniable. For their entire history when the franchise began in 1967 they were a joke, a punchline, for the quip about who was the worst team in the NFL year in and year out. They had some limited success and they did have some great players through the years but until Sean Payton was hired in 2006 the Saints had never really done anything to speak of. The other significant arrival in NOLA in 2006 was Drew Brees who, together with Payton took the Saints to the playoffs for the first time in 6 years and just 3 years later the pair was hoisting the Super Bowl trophy. Payton won NFL Coach of the Year in ’06 and Brees won SB MVP. Even deeper in meaning was what that Saints team meant to the city of New Orleans coming off the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. The ’06 Saints gave the people of the city a ray of hope, a beam of sunshine, to help them recover from having their city flooded. Payton and Brees are beloved in NOLA and it would be a huge PR hit to the team if they let Brees go via free agency.
To a lesser extent Phillip Rivers is the face of the Chargers franchise. Rivers is actually the reason Brees made it to New Orleans as injuries plagued Brees in San Diego and Rivers was drafted making Brees expendable. Rivers has had a good career but he has never been able to lead the Chargers over the hump to winning a championship. I would not find it weird if Rivers were to change teams. Certainly less weird than having to refer to the team as the Los Angeles Chargers. After 50+ years in San Diego that is totally weird.
Ryan Tannehill was stuck in the mud in Miami. A franchise that seemed to be in constant rebuilding mode had an ongoing fire sale during the 2019 season. The Dolphins were getting rid of their best players accumulating draft picks and the list of players who would be jettisoned included Tannehill. Tennessee made the deal for him to back up Marcus Mariota but it was Mariota’s poor play that got him benched in favor of Tannehill. Tannehill made the most of his opportunity by turning around a losing season and leading the Titans all the way to the AFC Championship game. The Titans actually had two different 10 point leads in the first half of the AFC Championship game until the Chiefs rallied to run away with the game. Tannehill will stay in Tennessee because Mariota is also a free agent and he will be gone.
When you talk about Jameis Winston you have to talk about the problems he had in college, the issues he’s had since becoming a pro coupled with inconsistent play and you wonder if Tampa won’t just let him walk. Bucs head coach Bruce Arians seems to like Winston but I’m sure he’s not happy with a QB who throws as many INT’s as he does TD’s. Winston reminds me of Vince Young, a really talented player who is his own worst enemy. Of the free agent QB’s discussed here he’s the only one I have no confidence in long term. I would not pay this dude a multi-year mega bucks deal based on his mediocre play.

[eagle eye]

First of all, I am glad the team I was rooting for won the Super Bowl even though it didn’t look like it with nearly 9 minutes left in the game and the Chiefs down 10 points. On a 2nd and 15 Patrick Mahomes apparently hit Tyreek Hill for a 1st down but replay showed Hill trapped the ball setting up a 3rd and 15. It didn’t look good. Stats show a 3rd and 15 in the 4th quarter of the Super Bowl made it look like that was a mountain that was an impossible to climb. Up to that point in the game Mahomes was not sharp. He was short hopping his throws, he was behind his receivers but with that 3rd down he found his mojo and the Chiefs never looked back. The Chiefs took a shot down field with Mahomes finding Tyreek Hill wide open inside the 49ers 20 and that first down set up the first of 3 unanswered touchdowns in about a 7 minute span.

Now, the 49ers will be criticized because they abandoned the run and the Chiefs pass rush pinned their ears back and pressured Jimmy Garoppolo unmercifully. Chiefs DC Steve Spagnuolo used to torment opposing offenses when he was with Andy Reid in Philadelphia. As a Cowboys fan I grew to hate Spagnuolo because of how his defenses played against the Cowboys. The pairing has brought success to the Chiefs. The biggest non-player acquisition in prior to last season was the hire of Spagnuolo. The Chiefs lost to the Patriots in the AFC Championship game last year without Spagnuolo and they are Super Bowl champs with him. Heading into the Super Bowl the Chiefs were near the bottom of the league in run defense but KC was able to make several big stops in the game to stop the 49ers cold or, at least hold them to field goals.

I told my son earlier in the day that I didn’t really care who won but I was going to root for the Chiefs. It had been 50 years since they won a championship when they beat the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl IV and my daughter goes to Texas Tech which is Mahomes alma mater. This was my reasoning in who I decided to root for.

In the first half the Chiefs pulled a play straight out of the 1930’ or 1940’s NFL. Mahomes was in the backfield with 3 other Chiefs including RB Damien Williams. At one point all four players shifted in unison into a single wing formation. Williams took a direct snap from center and ran for a first down to the 49ers one yard line. I was a gutsy call considering the Chiefs were down 3 at the time and it was 4th down at the Niner’s 4. It was a fun call too. It is a testament to Andy Reid’s moxie and imagination. As for Williams, he could easily have been the MVP because he had a heckuva game. He had 133 total yards from scrimmage including 101 yards rushing with 2 TD’s, one rushing and one receiving. The rushing TD came with less than 2 minutes left in the game as he took a handoff off tackle and he turned it up field for a 38 yard TD. It’s hard to deny that Mahomes deserved the MVP though. He was 26 of 42 passing for 286 yards and 2 TDs plus he added another score with a run 2 plays after that 4th and 1 play got them that 1st and goal. Despite struggling through the first 3 quarters and nearly 7 minutes of the 4th he put together a 3 TD run to give the Chiefs the win.

I’m happy for the Chiefs and a co-worker of mine pointed out that had the 49ers won they would have passed the Cowboys in SB wins. Both are tied with 5 in their franchise’s history. The Chiefs win prevented the Niners from passing the Cowboys and it gave the Chiefs a long overdue championship. Win-win in my book. Not only that, I got what I wanted, a good game that wasn’t a blowout. The halftime show was pretty good and it proves a 43 year old (Shakira) and a 50 year old (Jennifer Lopez) woman can look damn good in a skimpy costume. I’ll leave the debate over who has the best tushy to you. Both women showed plenty of butt to make a solid case for either one. How can you go wrong when you do about 2 bars of Led Zeppelin’s Kashmir? You can’t. Case Closed. All in all, it was a great Super Bowl and LIV will go down as one of the best.

This wraps up the 2019 season. It also closes out the 2010’s decade and the 100th year of the NFL. Who was the team of the decade? It has to be the Patriots. Again. Cue up the music, Sting’s “A Brand New Day” seems appropriate.