Pro Football Hall of Fame 2011 finalists announced

by | Jan 9, 2011 | Hall of Fame, NFL News

The list of candidates for the 2011 Pro Football Hall of Fame class has been narrowed to 15 and it includes three running backs making the cut in their first years of eligibility.

Marshall Faulk, Jerome Bettis and Curtis Martin all survived the winnowing if the list. So did multi-time finalist wide receivers Tim Brown, Cris Carter and Andre Reed, as well as tight end Shannon Sharpe.

First ballot tackle Willie Roaf and multi-time finalist center Dermontti Dawson represent offensive linemen on the list while defenders still under consideration include linemen Richard Dent, Chris Doleman, Charles Haley and Cortez Kennedy. Defensive back Deion Sanders, another first ballot candidate, rounds out the players.

Ed Sabol, founder of NFL Films, is also a finalist as a contributor.
(more…)

Raiders fire Cable? Really?

by | Jan 4, 2011 | NFL Random Thoughts

The Oakland Raiders have broken ties with Tom Cable, sending the head coach careening to the unemployment line.

Really, Al Davis? Really

You’re going to hire the guy even though he goes just 4-8 after replacing Lane Kiffin five games into the 2008 season?

You’re not going to fire the guy in August 2009 when he allegedly punched assistant coach Randy Hanson?

Or after he leads the team to another inept 5-11 record during that 2009 season?

But you’re going to fire him now? After the team had eight wins for the first time since the 2002 Super Bowl season? After Darren McFadden finally displayed some semblance of the talent that caused the team to draft him in the first round three years ago?

The reports indicate that the leading candidate to replace Cable is Hue Jackson. Jackson has a good resume and I’m sure he contributed a lot to the team’s turnaround this year.

But that’s just it – the team made a ton of progress this year. Instead of winning four or five games, the team improved to eight wins, including going undefeated in the AFC West division with sweeps over rivals Kansas City, Denver and San Diego.

The team looked far more competent than it has in nearly a decade and, though it does not yet have playoff talent, looked as though it was on the way toward again competing for the postseason with a couple of tweaks.

And the players looked like they wanted to play for the guy. Hue Jackson might end up being a great coach. That’s not the point. The point is that this is a team that appears to be on the upswing and now the owner has inserted a major, dramatic unknown. You know what you have in Cable. He’s not perfect. But for all the stuff Cable could have been fired for over the last couple years, he wasn’t. And, again, he appeared to have the Raiders going in the right direction.

Is this a shrewd move? Or is it Al Davis making one more mistake upon dozens of mistakes he’s made in running this team in recent years?

Based on the recent past, Raiders fans, I’d be less than anxious to find out.

Surprise Buccaneers young and poised for 2011

by | Jan 3, 2011 | NFL Random Thoughts

Really only one team ends the NFL season happy. We’ll know who that is in a month or so when Roger Goodell hands the Vince Lombardi Trophy to whoever wins the Super Bowl in Dallas.

But despite missing the playoffs, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers certainly have to feel good about the direction this franchise is heading.

The folks at FanHouse beat me to the punch on this topic, but it bears repeating: Tampa has a young nucleus of skill players on offense they can build around. They are young. And they are going to be good for a while.

Watching the Bucs manhandle the Saints on Sunday I was struck, again, by the poise shown by Josh Freeman, a second year quarterback who has developed — yes, he is still young and there may be fine tuning to be done, but his play and his numbers indicate he has already developed — into a top-notch player already. His nearly 3500 yards passing and 25 touchdowns against just six interceptions should have fans giddy.

Rookie receivers Mike Williams and Arrelious Benn both showed signs of stardom. And who would have figured LeGarrette Blount would find regular playing time as a rookie, coming off the transgressions of his final season at Oregon. Instead, the Bucs claim him off the Titans’ practice squad and the guy immediately repays the team by busting off a 1,000 yard season. (more…)

Webb, Skelton, others show some teams still lack QB answers

by | Jan 3, 2011 | NFL Random Thoughts

A week and change ago, Joe Webb and John Skelton were leading their teams, the Vikings and the Cardinals, to upset wins over Philadelphia and Arizona. Both played well, minimized mistakes and had some local and national pundits announcing their teams had solved their searches for quarterbacks of the future.

One radio host – I didn’t catch his name and I don’t know if he was a local guy at ESPN-1500 AM in Minnesota or national guy for ESPN Radio – told listeners this morning that Webb should be awarded the position because he is athletic and because he has the “it” factor. Terry Bradshaw on Fox this morning also seemed to indicate that he was a believer.

I enjoyed watching Webb and Skelton last week in nationally televised games. And both have a chance to be decent quarterbacks. But their respective performances today in losses for both of their teams were illustrative that A) rookie quarterbacks have their ups and downs and B) one game is not enough to anoint them as their franchise saviors. (more…)