Happy Birthday to me

To start with today, technically it's my birthday now (January 5th) so Happy Birthday to me. Now to truly begin, it occurred to me that the other day I praised Michael Lombardi for the greatly improved quality of his articles on NFL.com, but I never mentioned who I thought was the best, most consistent writer over the course of the year. That award would go to Jason Whitlock of FOXsports.com. Whitlock may not be every body's cup of tea so to speak, but personally I find his articles and attitude very engaging. I like the fact that he doesn't pull any punches and unlike many who write for the major networks, he has no problem blowing up the leagues official line on various subjects, especially when they're trying to curry favour with the fans. So if Whitlock is the best and Lombardi is the most improved, who might be an upcoming face to look out for next year? That would fall to Albert Breer, also of NFL.com. For an example of his work, check out this recent article. Next, coaching news. To go along with the firing's of Mike Singletary, Wade Phillips, Brad Childress & Josh McDaniels, as well as the end of John Fox's tenure in Carolina, we now have the release of Eric Mangini by Cleveland and most recently the surprise (at least to me) firing of Tom Cable by the Raiders. Next in line could be Coach Tony Sporano of the Dolphins, with multiple news outlets suggesting that the Dolphins are extending feelers towards Stanford Head Coach Jim Harbaugh. Apparently Dolphins owner Stephen Ross was present at the Orange Bowl to watch Stanford put down Virginia Tech. If Sporano goes that would make eight teams with new Head Coaches for 2011. What was that we've told for the last month or more by the networks about a lack of coaching changes being made due to CBA uncertainty? Busted. Marvin Lewis of the Bengals will be keeping his spot though, with a two year extension apparently signed. To be honest, the Singletary, Childress and Philips firings I could see coming, but I'm not sure about some of the others. Josh McDaniels had his difficulties but he was putting together quite the offense I thought. Certainly no worse than the Texans under Gary Kubiak, and with more promise for the future in their roster. John Fox leaving was practically a gimme, but Eric Mangini? I know I'm not a huge Mangini fan, which makes this all the more surprising, but I kind of got the impression that in his second year Mangini was just starting to get his head around this whole head coaching thing. His demeanour, the way he spoke in interviews, the changes made to the team. I was shocked that Mangini wasn't allowed to come back for another crack of the whip in 2011. And I never thought I'd say this but.... I think Mangini might be a hot candidate for making a Super Bowl in the 20-teens. There, I said it. But now we really get down to it with Tom Cable. Are you kidding me? Tom Cable?! The same Tom Cable who looked to be turning the corner with the Raiders (finally)? The same Tom Cable who was just starting to figure out where his team was at on offense? The Tom Cable who was getting Jacoby Ford more and more involved? The same Tom Cable who was fashioning a strong ground game around Darren McFadden and Michael Bush? I feel sorry for Tom and I hope he gets a good gig for 2011. He, like Mangini, appeared to have finally found his feet and style as a Head Coach, which is the first step towards big things. Cable could be another hot shot for a Super Bowl coach in the coming 20-teens.

Trawling the net for Football gems.

So today I've been browsing around the web etc and checking out what's generally going on in the football world and so here I present to you some of my humble observations: 1) I read an article about Quarterbacking, which to cut a long story short, bemoaned the lack of quality teaching today regarding a QB's arm position during the throw. The writer included a piece by a well known QB coach (who advertises on his site. Just thought I'd mention that). In the way that seems all to typical of college coaches now (which both the writer and his sponsor, sorry, contributor are), he levelled the lofty finger of criticism at the pros. It was the usual, "they don't really understand football, not like we do in Division 3...." type of thing. The most severe critique was saved for the way pro coaches obsess over footwork. And to be honest, the pro coaches have this one in the bag. Stand in the middle of a field, feet shoulder with apart and facing forward, and throw a ball to a friend using nothing more than your arm motion. Good luck with that by the way. It probably didn't travel very far. Now introduce the hips. And now finally the legs and feet, allowing yourself to coil back and throw. The power in the proverbial "Big arm" comes from using the whole body as a sling. Generating power begins in the legs and the hips. To do this properly, to allow yourself to follow through completely, you must first plant your feet properly. Hence the seemingly inordinate amount of time that top QB coaches devote to footwork. 2) Talking of QB's, Brett Favre comes to mind. The stats are good. He's completing about 68% of his passes (174/256), for 1,925 yds total and an average of 7.5 yds per completion. But what really sticks out is the business end of the numbers. 16 TD's, matched only by Matt Schaub and Drew Brees. But what he has that they don't is just 3 INT's, (compared to 6 & 7 for Brees and Schaub respectively). This is what is marking him out for possibly his greatest season yet. The old gunslinger from the south has tempered his game a little, reducing turnovers to help a team that features a fantastic RB and a great D. All the while, still finding time to put points on the board. Watching him in action, he really does look superb this season. If he and the Vikings were to win the Superbowl this year, it would be thoroughly, thoroughly, deserved. 3) Lot of talk around about firing head coaches. Eric Mangini should top that list. The Redskins, the Rams, the Lions, the Titans and the Raiders have all hardly set the world alight this year, but at least they've tried. At least they've gone about their business with a bit of guts in some places. Meanwhile the Browns trot out week on week and seem to dissolve in front of our very eyes each week. Complaints among the players about their coach are rife. God knows how he acquired the title 'Man-genius', but I wish people would stop giving him that much credit. The argument currently in vogue is that firing Mangini now would serve no purpose, and that the Browns would not really progress at all as a club. Well hey, newsflash, this season the Browns have, somehow, regressed since last season. Mangini has made this team worse. A new coach may not fix all the problems now, but at least you'd be solving the franchises biggest problem, i.e. Mangini. 4) The consensus opinion among the great and the good of football analysis and commentary seems to be that the New Orleans Saints are the best team in football right now. And it's simply not true. There seems to be no other evidence for this decision that's been made than the fact that they're 7-0. Which on the surface seems fantastic. Except that the Colts are also 7-0, and they're a much better team. And lets not forget about the Denver Broncos, who at 6-0 were being touted as the previous best team in the NFL, the team that everyone now had to beat etc... until the Ravens torched them 30-7. Remember the Saints vs Dolphins a couple of weeks ago? You should, because were it not for some shocking play calling the Dolphins would have utterly embarrassed the "best team in the NFL right now". Then this week, they scrape past the Falcons. Yes people, the Falcons. Looking at some of the quality sides in the NFL who year on year produce great results, it's hard to get to excited about the Saints just yet. 5) In an interesting addition to the above, I thought it was quite amusing to see Darren Sharper lauded for his pick in last weeks game. This is the kind of thing I'm talking about with misplaced praise. It was a jump ball. There were at least 5 or 6 Saints just clamouring for a piece of that ball. Sharper was the one under it. Suddenly that's the mark of a great player, with the so often quoted phrase "ball hawk" being rolled out. If catching a last second desperation jump ball on the 20 yard line makes you great, then there's still hope for many a rubbish defensive player in the league. And all the while no-one is talking about the Saints combo of cornerbacks, Jabari Greer, Randall Gay and most importantly, Tracy Porter. 6) The praise so far for Vince Young has been overflowing from pretty much every orifice that the Internet has to offer. People saying how well he controlled the game, made no mistakes and just did enough to help the Titans win. Well I hate to point this out, but that's exactly what Kerry Collins did last year, except Collins is going to be a ton cheaper next year. Being a game manager is pretty easy for most quarterbacks, especially ones in Tennessee right now. Hand the ball off and let Johnson and White do all the damage. All you have to do is limit (read: eliminate) turnovers. Young can do that. Collins can do that. Hell, I could probably do that. What the Titans need to see from Young is this; if we get ourselves in a situation where we cant run the ball, can you lead us to victory? Flacco is starting to do it in Baltimore. Roethlisberger did it for Pittsburgh last year. That's the question that needs to be answered of Vince Young. Not, "if we play our normal style of running football, can we trust you to hand the ball off correctly?". 7) Everyone is crying about the recent slump of Giants Quarterback Eli Manning. Now, this deserves a reality check. No, that's not quite sufficient. It deserves a hard slap in the face. Eli is not his brother. He's not Philip Rivers, he's not Tom Brady, he's not Drew Brees, he's none of these people. What he is, is the brother of one of the best quarterbacks in the league, who happened to be the guy that was asked in Superbowl 42, to chuck what was for all intended purposes a 'hail mary' pass into the endzone, which was caught for a game winning touchdown. No more, no less. He's an average QB. He's ok, he's better than Brady Quinn or Derek Anderson. He's better than JaMarcus Russell. But he's still not good enough to take the game out of the hands of Brandon Jacobs and Ahmad Bradshaw, who would probably very much appreciate the ball not being constantly turned over at the QB position. That's just the facts. Manning is good. But he's no Manning. 8) The Packers defence is drawing a lot of heat lately, with a lot of talk about whether one of the defensive ends should line up on the LOS or 1 yard off it. Yes people, it's the old 4-3/3-4, let's-all-pretend-it-makes-a-huge-amount-of-difference debate once more this season. I'm always told in the greatest of confidence and without any hint of shame by people that it's to do with getting the right personnel in the right spot. Because of course, if you had a 330-pound nose tackle, you wouldn't dare put him in a 4-3 defence. God no!! Only a 3-4, etc, etc, the arguments go on. What the Packers might want to do is focus a bit more on their appalling O-line and their abysmal rushing attack. 9) Maurice Jones-Drew. So the story goes, he chose 32 as his Jersey number to remind him (and doubtless the world) that 32 teams passed on him first time around. It is widely believed that most teams considered him too small to succeed (approximately 5ft 7in). Only in the NFL could a short player like Jones-Drew be considered unsuitable for a position that requires a quick burst of speed, the ability to change directions rapidly and the ability to get your pads low on a tackler. That is all.