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…)

King wants more “contributors” enshrined in the Hall of Fame

by | Dec 20, 2010 | Hall of Fame, NFL History, NFL Media, NFL Random Thoughts

We’ve had some spirited debates over the past couple years about who should and shouldn’t be enshrined in the Hall of Fame, many of them relating to senior nominees who in some cases were surprisingly overlooked years ago.

Sports Illustrated’s Peter King devoted a good chunk of his Monday Morning Quarterback today to finding a way to get more “contributors” to the game enshrined in Canton, Ohio as well. He makes a compelling case that many non-players deserve to be enshrined. I think he’s probably right — I particularly agree with the case he made for the Ed Sabol, who founded NFL Films.

I’m not sure, however, if the three alternatives he proposes for making the change to ensure more contributor honorees make the most sense to me (though at first glance I don’t have an obviously better answer, either).

Stolen directly from his column, King’s three proposed options include:

1. Take one of the two Seniors slots and give it annually to a non-head coaching contributor to the game, which wouldn’t mean a contributor wouldn’t get in every year, but rather that one contributor’s case would be heard every year.
2. Take one of the two Seniors slots every other year and give it annually to a contributor.
3. Take the two non-modern-era-candidate slots and make them fit for all other candidates — seniors, scouts, etc.

I admit, I’m not an expert on how the voters would go about changing the process. I do know that the limit on modern era candidates is five and the  limit on senior committee candidates is two, for a maximum of seven inductees to the Hall in any given year. To me, as the NFL Hall of Fame prepares to expand its physical footprint anyway, it seems like you could simply add one more slot each year for a “contributor” and make the maximum number of entrants each year eight – with no requirement that number be voted in, of course.

But as I said, I don’t know for sure what the procedure is for making a change like this. So, I’m asking our readers for thoughts. Should more contributors be recognized? If so, how would you suggest changing the voting process? If not, why?

And while you’re sharing your thoughts on this topic I’ll see if I can’t find some clarity to the process under which such a change to the voting could be made.

Mole & Meares Show hits big time at least for a week

by | Dec 19, 2010 | NFL Fans, NFL Media, NFL Random Thoughts

Those of us who start blogs, podcasts and video shows, I think, do so dreaming of hitting the big time, though most of us also realize it’s quite a long shot.

“The Mole and Meares Show,” however, hit the jackpot recently, if only for a week. The duo was contacted  by a producer at NFL Films for a piece Showtime’s “Inside the NFL” show is doing on social media and its influence on sports.

Showtime sent correspondent Susannah Collins to the basement studio where Christopher Meares Greg Molyneaux, have filmed “The Mole & Meares Show” since 2008.

The site includes weekly video, where Mole and Meares pick winners for their four games of the week. They then refer viewers to their website, www.moleandmeares.com, where they unveil the rest of their picks, publish their power rankings and host a contest where visitors can pick games and win prizes.

NFL Films shot footage of “The Mole & Meares Show” and Collins did a guest spot. In exchange, Mole and Meares shed their jerseys for suits for a week and used the NFL Films studios to tape their Week 15 show.

“They wanted to show the transformation of a basement show to a professionally created show,” Meares writes, adding that Showtime’s staff filmed the makeup process, the suiting up and the meetings with a director.  Showtime also did all the editing for the show.

When Meares, who also blogs on CBS Sports, contacted me about the segment, which he says is scheduled to air Wednesday, December 22, I told him he could consider me jealous. He indicated that I shouldn’t be, that the opportunity likely arose more from the duos’ proximity to the studios — they’re 20 minutes away.

Doesn’t matter. I’m jealous anyway. Congratulations to Mole & Meares. I hope your segment leads to big things. Best of luck.

Randy “Woody” Moss? Weird season getting weirder

by | Dec 17, 2010 | 2010 season, NFL Random Thoughts

Let’s see, Randy Moss allegedly was run out of New England this season because he wasn’t getting along with teammates and/or coaches.

He was run out of Minnesota, after Bill Belichick stole a third round pick from the Vikings for him, when he allegedly tried to get then-coach Brad Childress fird and berated a catering company serving lunch to team players and officials.

And he’s been nearly invisible, even getting benched, in five games with the Tennessee Titans.

Has he sunk to calling a radio show under the pseudonym “Woody” and ripping another coach, Jeff Fisher?

The recording isn’t entirely conclusive to my ears. But Clay Travis from Fanhouse believes it probably was Moss who called a show co-hosted by Travis ripping Fisher for a multitude of perceived sins (There’s a recording of the show linked to the story linked above that contains the audio in question).

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