NFL 2016: Playoffs: Divisional

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This week's commercial comes from Jayhawker. Posted for copious amounts of Derrick Thomas, and a little blast of Christian Okoye there at the end.

So, let's meet the newest NFL head coaches:

Jacksonville Jaguars: Doug Marrone

IMAGE(http://prod.static.jaguars.clubs.nfl.com/assets/images/imported/JAC/photos/2015-Centerpieces/06-Jun/20150611-Marrone.jpg)

As mentioned before, I've suspected this move for over a year now. What I didn't expect was the complimentary move of hiring Tom Coughlin to run football operations. Coughlin's track record at team building is strong, both in the early success of the Jaguars franchise as coach/GM combo, and with his Super Bowl winning Giants teams, in which he had significant input with GM Jerry Reese. Marrone made the 2016 Jaguars instantly play better in his interim role, though I still don't understand not giving him more than 2 games in 2016 to work with. That said, Marrone is a talented coach, and when looking at coaches expected to improve upon their first gigs, I'd prefer going with Marrone over McDaniels.

Denver Broncos: Vance Joseph

IMAGE(http://www.houstontexans.com/assets/images/imported/HOU/photos/In_Story_Photos_400_190/vance_sideline400.jpg)

Joseph is an interesting hire, given that he only has 1 year of experience as a coordinator. It's not unlike the rise of Mike Tomlin, although Joseph's rise wasn't quite so fast (at 44 years old, he's the same age as Tomlin right now). A big part of the draw of Joseph is that he coached on Wade Phillips' defensive staff in Houston, and with Denver letting Phillips go, Joseph represents continuity. On the offensive side, he's pegged Mike McCoy as offensive coordinator, and Bill Musgrave as QB coach.

Buffalo Bills: Sean McDermott

IMAGE(http://www.charlotteobserver.com/sports/nfl/carolina-panthers/fyy4c7/picture124483124/ALTERNATES/FREE_640/Sean-McDermott)

Initially thought to be locked in to promoting running backs coach Anthony Lynn, the Bills made a sharp right turn and instead brought in Panthers defensive coordinator Sean McDermott. McDermott spent the 2000s rising through the defensive coaching ranks in Philadelphia, and he was largely successful there - so much so that when the Eagles fired him in 2011, Carolina had him signed only two days later. McDermott is a flexible coach who would have done great things with the Bills defense that Rex Ryan inherited (and then dismantled). He should be able to do good things with the pieces that are still left. His career has been entirely on the defensive side, though, so what offense will look like is a big question.

Los Angeles Rams: Sean McVay

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This f*cker is only 30 years old! Way to make the rest of us feel unaccomplished. That actually makes him the youngest head coach in NFL history. See that's what you need in LA., a coach young enough to Snapchat. His work in DC speaks for itself, as he helped make Kirk Cousins quietly one of the most productive QBs in the league for the past two years. He's the grandson of John McVay, who was the 49ers executive of football ops during the Bill Walsh and George Seifert eras, including all 5 Super Bowl wins. Helping McVay's chances is the fact that he hired Wade Phillips to run the defense, so he can focus on the offensive side, where all his limited experience is.

San Diego Los Angeles Chargers: Anthony Lynn

IMAGE(http://www.buffalobills.com/assets/images/imported/BUF/photos/article-assets/Story-Photos/2016-09/lynn-9-19-story.jpg)

This is the hiring that I like the least. He's well respected, and has been given head coaching interviews steadily for the past couple of years, but he strikes me as one of those guys that will be well-liked but not so successful. Hey, like Gus Bradley. Hey, guess who he just hired to be his defensive coordinator. Gus Bradley. They've got the "player's coach" market cornered at least, but I wonder if there's a strong enough hand here to manage the team, especially with the disarray of being uprooted and moving to a town that still won't have its permanent stadium facility for another couple years.

San Francisco 49ers: ?

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No hire yet. They're just interviewing everyone who could potentially be interested in the general manager spot. I have an interview with them next Wednesday. Also, in keeping with the ass-backwards way the team has been run of late, the plan seems to be to hire a coach and let the coach have input on who they hire as GM. Which means my dream of hiring a real football ops exec to run things is probably off the table. Oh well, at least one of my teams got it right. I think Jed is imagining hiring his own Belichick, who basically runs everything from the head coach's office, even if there have been a number of personnel execs technically above him on the org chart. There are still good coaches and good GM candidates to choose from, so the 49ers could potentially make the right hires even while doing so completely backwards. The only positive thing I can say here is that they're not rushing.

Other stuff:

* At the end of the latest Jaguars media advisory: "Thursday's 10:00 am press conference is scheduled to begin at 9:55 am". Coughlin Time is back:

IMAGE(https://i.redd.it/kmwl16jw159y.png)

* Johnny Manziel will be at the Super Bowl in Houston, selling autographs and selfie picture opportunities. $99 will get you an autograph, extra if you want him to write something other than his name. Professional pictures will go for $99, but if you just want to snap a selfie, that's only $50.

* The temporary facility that the Chargers will use in 2017 - the StubHub Center in Carson - holds only 30,000, and that's including an additional 3,000 seats added to its normal 27,000 capacity. That's not even enough to hold all the people that have un-Liked the team's Facebook page since the announcement.

* That said, the team's value is projected by Forbes to increase by over $1 billion from the move.

* The Senior Bowl has extended an invitation to Clemson QB Deshaun Watson to participate in the game. Watson is only a junior, but he graduated from Clemson in December, making him eligible. Watson's performance in the championship game has helped catapult his stock upward, but he remains a polarizing prospect due to inconsistency. Still, this year he took a big step away from the "run first" QB he was (fairly) critiqued as being in past seasons.

* Wade Phillips passed on the Washington job due to concerns over a lack of talent on defense. Hard to argue with, when his other option was the Rams and Aaron Donald.

This Week's Games
Saturday
Seattle Seahawks at Atlanta Falcons, 4:35pm EST
Houston Texans at New England Patriots, 8:15pm EST

Sunday
Green Bay Packers at Dallas Cowboys, 4:40pm EST
Pittsburgh Steelers at Kansas City Chiefs, 1:05pm 8:20pm EST

Curious how Wade Phillips adapts to a team with two really prototypical 4-3 guys in Quinn and Donald. I suspect he'll be able to do it, but will be interesting.

I think McDermott is going to wind up on a team with the least talent he's really dealt with in any significant capacity, so it's going to be interesting for him. Also, it's Buffalo; I looked something up yesterday while posting on Football Outsiders, and IIRC the Bills have finished with 6, 7, or 8 wins 11 of the last 15 years, which is the kind of mediocrity Jeff Fisher envies.

Also:

Atlanta
New England by 700 points
Dallas
Pittsburgh

Ugh. Need so many teams to lose

Seattle at Atlanta: On the one hand, the Seahawks aren't the same team they had in seasons past. On the other hand, the Falcons. I shall probably regret this, but Falcons.

New England. As if I had to say anything further.

Green Bay at Dallas: Battered Packers versus youthful Cowboys. This is a tough call, but Cowboys.

Pittsburgh at Kansas City: And thanks to the delay you have your whole morning free. Ordinarily I'd give the edge to a home team with that type of home crowd, but I won't this time. Steelers.

My picks prior to the WC round:

ATL
NE
GB
KC

That said, Go Hawks.

There's some sort of weird Williamsburg, Va.-to-Buffalo pipeline thing going.

There's McDermott (player at William & Mary; now head coach). There's Steve Christie (kicker for both) and Mark Kelso (safety who played on the four Bills SB teams). And ... Marv Levy, who coached at W&M in the 60s.

Enix wrote:

There's some sort of weird Williamsburg, Va.-to-Buffalo pipeline thing going.

There's McDermott (player at William & Mary; now head coach). There's Steve Christie (kicker for both) and Mark Kelso (safety who played on the four Bills SB teams). And ... Marv Levy, who coached at W&M in the 60s.

Also, the McDermott hire means there are two W&M grads coaching NFL teams. (Mike Tomlin is the other.)

Does Vance Joseph look like pissed-off Tiger Woods, or am I just being racist?

MilkmanDanimal wrote:

Curious how Wade Phillips adapts to a team with two really prototypical 4-3 guys in Quinn and Donald. I suspect he'll be able to do it, but will be interesting.

I think Donald will end up like Watt, where he's lined up all over the place.

Wade's 3-4 is a hybrid front and a 1-gap system, so it's not very far removed from what the players are used to. It's not a 2-gap system like a lot of other 3-4s, which would be a much less obvious fit.

Robert Quinn probably stands up at OLB but spends much of his time pass rushing from the line of scrimmage, as both Von Miller and Demarcus Ware were used.

The Rams hiring Phillips really spoiled my day. Competent coaching for that organization could mean a contender in a few years.

*Legion* wrote:

What I didn't expect was the complimentary move of hiring Tom Coughlin to run football operations.

I have no idea if you meant to say "complementary", as in the two hires were intended to mesh complement each other, or if you actually meant complimentary as in "hire Doug Marrone and we'll throw in Tom Coughlin!"

#pedant

Bubs14 wrote:
*Legion* wrote:

What I didn't expect was the complimentary move of hiring Tom Coughlin to run football operations.

I have no idea if you meant to say "complementary", as in the two hires were intended to mesh complement each other, or if you actually meant complimentary as in "hire Doug Marrone and we'll throw in Tom Coughlin!"

#pedant

I choose to retcon it to the latter.

Seahawks
Texans (hey one can dream)
Packers
Steelers

Sitting for two weeks makes Brock have an epiphany, Clowney sacks Brady 50 times. it could happen.

bighoppa wrote:

Sitting for two weeks makes Brock have an epiphany,

"I am not spending all this money in one place."

*Legion* wrote:

Christian Okoye

I was in KC for something back in 89 and Okoye got on an elevator I was on. I was terrified that we were going to go into freefall, as that was literally one of the largest people (if not the largest) I had ever seen in my life (in person).

Picks:
Atlanta
New England
Dallas
Steelers

Spoiler:

I may or may not be hoping for a Cowboys / Steelers Super Bowl. Go Old School y'all!

Packers/Chiefs would be even more old school.

All the home teams win.

I think the Chiefs take Pittsburgh tomorrow night, but it is going to be tough game for both teams.

Super bowl? Hell, even if the Chiefs win, they still have to go to Foxboro. I'm not predicting anything for KC. I'll just say they can in these two games. But they aren't blowing anyone out.

Minase wrote:

The Rams hiring Phillips really spoiled my day. Competent coaching for that organization could mean a contender in a few years.

Don't worry, the offense still has, oh, one player on it and paper cutouts for an offensive line.

*Legion* wrote:

Packers/Chiefs would be even more old school. :D

Well, that wasn't even a Super Bowl though...

(At the time)

NE I guess its more of a question will the game actually be under/over 44 and if Houston will cover 15.

ATL. The Falcon is a superior bird. I don't think the SEA D can keep ATL out of the endzone. Vegas seems to agree as the points total is 52. 28-21 Sea? I don't know if Wilson has 4 TDS in him. Sure maybe if Sea goes +2 on Turnovers and nothing happens on ST.

KC Kinda torn as I think PITT is the team that can beat NE and we get a 2010 repeat GB PITT Big Ben is going to give up 3 Turnovers. I think Alex Smith has a safe game (kinda like his managing it).

GB Duh. Peppers/Mathews will get to Dak and force a key turnover. Is the Dallas D even any good? I ask seriously because its not like I watch much football outside of the Packers. If the Rooks have a hiccup and Rodgers does Rodgers things this will be a great game.

NE - Something very extraordinary has to happen for the Texans to even be in this at the half.
PIT - very shaky on this one and almost completely depends on which Roethlisberger shows up: if it's Big Interceptions Ben, this will go the other way
ATL - I don't think Seattle's D can stop Atlanta's O more than Atlanta's D can stop Seattle from scoring.
GB - like the SEA-ATL game, Dallas' D cannot stop Rodgers & Co. enough times to come up with the win

The Raiders are reportedly on the verge on filing papers for the Vegas move, but this jumped out at me:

Davis has said publicly that even if the team moves, he plans on playing for the next couple seasons in Oakland while his new stadium is built.

If you thought the crowds in the Coliseum were ugly before...

Honestly, they would be better off sharing the LA Coliseum for two years. I bet they would outdraw the Rams and Chargers combined.

First play, flag. Please don't be that sort of game.

Guess I should put up my predictions (went 4-0 last "weak").

I'm worried Atlanta's D isn't very good and the Atlanta O versus the Seattle D is going to falter in the playoffs, again. Atlanta's at home though. Screw it, I'm taking Seattle. (And Seattle took it down the field for 7 with a 9 min drive. That's a bad spot for Atlanta's D which is better when other teams are throwing a lot.)

New England. Come on, I'm probably not even tuning into this one.

Green Bay Packers at Dallas Cowboys. Gotta think the Pack isn't going to repeat last week on offense again. Dallas.

Pittsburgh is gonna get eaten alive due to injuries. KC.

Devin Hester spin move was sick.

garion333 wrote:

First play, flag. Please don't be that sort of game.

Devin Hester 70+ yard return negated by hold.

Well, it's not walking out of the back of the endzone, but it's the same number of points.

Great wrap-up tackle to hold Seattle short on 3rd. Don't see that nearly often enough.

Well, getting the feeling that my pick of Seattle isn't going to hold. Atlanta is running the ball well atm, which is likely the death knell of Seattle. Injuries piling up for Seattle. Yikes.

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