John Fox to Cleveland. And soon. Book it. I think Harbaugh winds up at Michigan. I live in Denver, and they're convinced they'll land Harbaugh here. Not so sure. Though I do enjoy antagonizing my roommate, who adamantly believes the Broncos will get Harbaugh and Luck via a trade. His current "done deal" is Tebow + DEN No. 1 pick for No. 1 overall. The Panthers have made some questionable personnel moves, but they're not THAT stupid. Hearing the Panthers will interview five candidates: Ron Rivera, Russ Grimm, Rob Ryan (oh God please no please no), and two more. I assume one will be Harbaugh, as he's kind of the Belle of the Ball right now. Rivera satisfies the Rooney rule. Early leans for this weekend's games: Colts over Jets Ravens over Chiefs Saints over Seahawks (though this will be closer than a lot of people think) Packers over Eagles By far, the game I'm most excited to watch, from purely a fan's standpoint, is Green Bay-Philly. Indy-NYJ will be good too.
I am admitting to my loss of faith in the Packers. I was wrong but in my defense, as I said in an earlier post, they really have looked sloppy this season but they eeked it out. Whew. The topper to winning was shutting up the 3 loudass Bears fans at the bar. It was glorious.
Agreed, although unless the Saints are remarkably jet-lagged or ill-prepared for a loud stadium, I think they'll win handily. The Rams were two or three dropped passes from winning that game.
Raiders release Tom Cable. The timing of this seems a bit odd since it's the first time in almost a decade the raiders have been relevant. I suppose management credited most of the success to Jackson for the offensive play calling, and then Cable and Davis always did have a strained relationship. I'm not buying the talk about Harbaugh being a candidate. I think he either stays at Stanford, or if he does decide to come to the nfl he'll look for a team that won't have an owner breathing down his neck.
I can't see Harbaugh taking this job (Oakland). He's in position to command a much more "hands-off" ownership, even if he did have a decent relationship with Davis back in the day. My money is on San Fran, it's time to move on from Stanford to a new challenge.
Harbaugh is the top dog in terms of coaching recruits, there is no way he'd go to Oakland. You'd have to be insane to want to go to Oakland after they fired Tom Cable. The guy brings them back to respectability, and he gets fired? When was the last time teams in the AFC west couldn't look at a schedule and say that they looked forward to facing Oakland, because more often than not it meant a win? Al Davis is flat out batshit insane, and any coach would be a moron to deal with the Raiders before that old coot leaves. Harbaugh is going to have to choose between Denver and San Francisco. Denver is more of a mess right now, what with all the insane changes that Josh McDaniels made before he got fired. It was like the Broncos organization gave McDaniels two years and millions of dollars and said "do your best to completely destroy the franchise," and McDaniels obliged. Trading Brandon Marshall and Jay Cutler? Really? San Francisco is probably Harbaugh's best hope if he wants to start winning right away. They play in the worst division in football, and even moderate improvements could make the 49ers easily the best team in that division. For example: finally finding a QB that is actually worth starting every single week. If Harbaugh can find himself a franchise QB for the 49ers, they've got a pretty decent little team built already, and I could easily see San Francisco winning that division next year. Then again, I could see a PeeWee team winning that division next year if they don't all improve. Seriously, a 7-9 team made the fucking playoffs?
Harbaugh is going to San Fran, easily. They have the best players to go. Everyone was expecting San Fran to be at least respectable, and perform around what Tampa Bay did this year if not better. They have solid receivers, a killer RB, and a really fucking good TE. Their defense is pretty solid with the front 7. No reason for them to be that shitty and unfortunately most of the problem actually with the coach. Also, I know on this board I've made a few jokes about Trent Dilfer, but if you go and listen to the B.S. Report he was on, he definitely will improve your opinion of him. He's pretty hard on himself when discussing his career. Oh and by the way...Jeff Fisher wins. And D26, how dare you speak of Al Davis like that. How can you call him crazy? How can you say all those means things about him? That honestly is the worst thing I've ever seen anyone do. You should feel ashamed speaking of the deceased like that. Have some respect.
The only explanation I can come up with that makes any sense is that they fired Cable so that they could take a shot at getting Harbaugh. I mean under Cable, the team completely turned around and went 6-0 in the division. Obviously 2-8 against the rest of the league is pretty dismal it at least seemed like Zombie Al Davis had started to string some competent moves together to rebuild the team. Considering Harbaugh would have to be insane to want to coach under him, I get the feeling that the same old Al is rearing his ugly head again.
Tom Cable would've been due $5 million over the next two seasons if the Raiders had decided to hold on to him. I thought he earned it with a season that exceeded my expectations, and even managed to keep the Patriots out of the top 15 in this year's draft. Al Davis seems to disagree. I'm not a bad person, but I really wish that whatever needs to happen for Al to no longer be making decisions would hurry up and just happen. We're looking at 7 coaches in ten years.
I'm a Cowboys fan and have been for a long time. I will be amazed if this actually happens. I don't think Jerry can keep from meddling.
It's official: Jim Harbaugh to the 49ers for five years, $25 million. Apparently, he told Stanford last night he was coming back, and just wanted to sleep on it. What a circus.
I am very happy and excited as a 49er fan, and disappointed as a college football fan with a passing interest in Stanford. Umm that means I go to a Stanford game every year or two.
I'm no Harbaugh expert, but I'm pretty sure the 49ers a going to explode like the Hindenburg. All of the local sports DJ's are talking about how he is similar to Singletary in terms of being a complete loon. They are basing this off of their time covering the Bears as reporters and being around Halas Hall, so I'm not disregarding it all as hyperbole. Now he may be more of a game planner than Samurai Mike, but unless he ups the medication he will not make it...and he also has to get a franchise QB
A franchise quarterback is no problem for the 49ers. They have an entire year to figure out how to go 0-16 and grab Andrew Luck. In all seriousness, it will be interesting next year to see if there is a real lets lose one for the first pick mentality among the last place teams next year. Maybe starting around week 13.
Why do people think that an acerbic, borderline insane coach is a bad fit for a sports team? Last I checked, that description fits most of the great coaches in pro football and basketball, including most of the current ones.
So. We're all thinking it, what if the unthinkable happens and NO loses. Does this legitimize having a sub .500 team in the playoffs?
I doubt this, they have too many good pieces. Now, I know they can't do this, but if SF did something like what NE does for offense using their TE and WRs only going deep once every 20-30 plays they'd be golden. I don't think Mike had big picture game planning or could adjust for shit. I am pretty sure most games with Mike started with this conversation. Pretty sure Harbaugh can do much better in that shitty conference even with Alex Smith and all his pieces. Maltob, let's close our eyes and pray none of this actually comes to fruition. There is no way they're going to get past the Bears or Eagles if they beat the Saints, it just can't happen.
Yeah but you just can't help but wonder. And John Madden (yeah I know...) brought up a good point. In the last 5-6 years, that division has sent 2 teams to the Super Bowl. Maybe that division isn't as hopeless as we thought. Or maybe I shouldn't be listening to Madden.