Arizona Cardinals

Happy Monday, friends, as we come off a mostly slow opening weekend of free agency.  Of course, I have some thoughts, and I'd be happy to read your thoughts.  Let's get right to it, without further ado.  Ready.... BEGIN!!!!

1.  First things first, I have a myth to dispel.  The world did not end for the Arizona Cardinals this weekend.  They're probably going to take a step back, but it will be due to the one difference-making loss they have absorbed, in Kurt Warner.  Karlos Dansby is not a difference-making player, and neither are Antrel Rolle, or Anquan Boldin.  They're all pretty good players, who can help a team win, but none is top of the NFL dollars, and I commend the Cardinals' brass for knowing that, and being wise.  Let's break it down.

First, there's Rolle, who was a slower CB, who turned into a faster FS.  I like his ability to cover, and if you scheme him right, he can make some plays.  I like what Bill Davis did with him in Arizona this past season, but I think the scheme was very instrumental in making him look good.  Rolle's signing with the Giants is interesting, because with Perry Fewell running that defense now, I have to wonder what they're going to be doing.  Fewell is a Tampa-2 guy, and if you're going to have Rolle just dropping into a deep half or third most of the time, I don't see how he's worth the money.  For one thing, that's not something he's natural at, and for another, lots of guys can do that.  I liked the play of Kenny Phillips before he got hurt in 2009, so I wonder what this signing says about his health.

With Dansby, I see a guy who makes a lot of tackles downfield.  He runs well, and he's a good tackler, with good coverage skills.  You can find those guys in the second round of the Draft, though, which you know, because that's where you got Dansby.  A player like that, you make it a priority to draft one, and you have the guy cheap for awhile, before he walks, and you hopefully get a good compensatory pick for him a year later.  Dansby helps the Dolphins get a little faster at LB, but I don't like the huge cash outlay for a guy who isn't sacking the QB.  I think it's something a sucker team does, and I'm surprised at Bill Parcells' regime doing it.

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Happy Monday, friends.  I'm writing from vacation, in lovely southern California.  It's been a quiet week for the site, because at my company, the price of going on vacation is doing two weeks worth of work in the week before you leave.  I remember a conversation I had with our VP of Operations, and I was expressing some concern that our revenue was going to tank during the last month of our fiscal year, because people would be taking vacation, so they didn't lose it.  Since our business sells billable hours, more vacation time seemed to me to correlate with lower billable hours.

The VP kind of laughed, and asked me what I do when I go on vacation.  Did my work just go unfinished for a week?  No, not me.  I'm a high initiative guy, you know?  I work hard before and after the vacation.  The VP gave me an important lesson in business that day, and that was that throughput expectations remained constant, even when there was a lot of vacation expected.  The workers could go on vacation, but the work needed to get done anyway.  In other words, vacation is a nice theoretical concept for employees to feel good about, but at the end of the day, we're doing jobs which take 52 weeks per year of work to effectively do.

That kind of reminded me of the NFL offseason.  It seems like not much is going on, but really, it's the best time of year to get better.  Players who want to improve are working hard on their skills and conditioning.  Coaches are working on their schemes, and scouts are figuring out which players can best help their teams.  

Welcome to the best part of the NFL year, friends.  I plan to work hard to improve this site, and really grow the readership.  And this week, while I am on "vacation" the work really starts in earnest.  I hope, if you enjoy the site, that you'll tell your friends to check us out.  For now, it's on to business.  Ready..... BEGIN!!!!

1.  They're still partying in New Orleans, and they should be.  After a week to reflect on the accomplishment of the Saints, I'm even more impressed.  If you remember back to 2005, (the end of the Jim Haslett/Aaron Brooks era), the team was as much of a disaster area as the New Orleans area was.  

Haslett, a good coordinator, never seemed to find the right approach as a head coach.  Brooks had a million dollar arm and a ten cent head.  The roster was talent-poor, and the psyche of the fan base was damaged.  No discernible program was in place, and remember, this was a team which had never known real sustained success in its history.

When Sean Payton came in in 2006, he established a program which ultimately led to the victory in Super Bowl XLIV.  They got lucky in landing Drew Brees, who wanted to go to Miami.  Their choice of Reggie Bush with the second pick in 2006 hasn't turned out to be a great value, in terms of statistical production for the money, but he opens up their offense in a lot of important ways.

The Saints have done a great job in identifying their type of players, finding them, and coaching them up.  If you think of guys like Jahri Evans, Carl Nicks, Marques Colston, Lance Moore, and Roman Harper, none of them was chosen with a premium draft pick.  Players like Scott Fujita, Scott Shanle, Jonathan Vilma, and Bobby McCray came through trades or free agency.

The success of the Saints should give all fans hope that a new program can deliver a championship, especially if you give it time to be effective.  As a Broncos fan, I know a lot of our fan base has tended toward taking every speed bump as a sign that the program is wrong.  I credit the Saints owner and fan base for having the patience to let a good plan work.

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Happy Monday, friends, and welcome to The Mothership.  We've got a couple more teams going fishing, and we'll explore their situations.  We'll also devote some early thought to the Super Bowl matchup.  Finally, since the Senior Bowl is this week, we'll get into that a little bit, and possibly also consider the less important Pro Bowl.  The NFC Championship game isn't over yet, as I start writing this, but I want to get a couple thousand words written before midnight.  Ready..... BEGIN!!!

1.  Both championship games were very interesting on Sunday, after the first two weekends had a lot of blowouts, and a few uninteresting close games.  I would venture to say that the only entertaining game in the first two weeks was Arizona vs. Green Bay.  It was a good Football Sunday, and we'll start by thinking about the losers.

a.  New York Jets - First of all, let me reiterate that anybody who made it to their conference championship game had a good season.  That said, this was not the year New York planned to be in Super Bowl contention, so I think they were already playing with house money on Sunday.  They wanted to win, and I know they believed that they could, but they're still developing into what they ultimately want to become.

First things first, since the MSM will always focus on the QB position first.  Mark Sanchez generally has a ways to go as a decision maker, but he showed a lot of poise during the recent run, and it has to make Jets fans very excited for the future.  He had a good day on Sunday, and the two TD passes he threw each showed a quality that the elite QBs possess.  He showed outstanding touch on the deep ball on the first, and impressive toughness and accuracy under pressure on the second.  My concerns about his ability to play in bad weather aside, it's pretty clear that the Jets have their guy of the future.

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It's Tuesday, and I have to go a bit abbreviated on you, I'm afraid.  I got stuck at the office a lot later than planned, and it's 9:30 PM as I start writing this.  I'll try to give you the most bang for the buck, in transcribing the notes I took over the weekend, and some brief video reviewing tonight.

1.  Arizona Cardinals at New Orleans Saints

a.  I mentioned this yesterday, but Carl Nicks has really turned into an outstanding LG for the Saints, and Jahri Evans has been the best RG for in the NFL for 2 years now.  The job those two do anchoring inside for the Saints is a huge key to the success of the offense.  Since Drew Brees is short, he's prone to being bothered by inside pressure, but those two make great pockets for him.  Nicks was a fifth round pick, and Evans was a fourth rounder, so you have to credit Mickey Loomis for picking them, and Aaron Kromer for coaching them up.  The average Jon Stinchcomb undeservedly made the Pro Bowl, but Nicks should have gone in his place.

b.  A guy for the Saints who I was really high on a year ago was Lance Moore, but he doesn't show much this year.  I wonder if he's still hurt, because the quickness he showed in the past was Welker-like, and he looks like just another guy now.  I was watching him not get open a bit, as Fox's camera work allowed, because I have to wonder what his story is.

c.  This hasn't gotten a lot of mention in the MSM (which is just shocking) but the Saints defensive backs did a fantastic job of re-routing the Cardinals WRs on Saturday.  That's how you beat the Saints, so they realize that it's also how you also beat the Cardinals.  You cannot let them get a free release, or Kurt Warner is going to hit them in rhythm, and kill you.  Add that CB success to the quick pressure the Saints were often getting from Will Smith, and the Cardinals never had a chance on offense.

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Happy Monday, friends, and welcome to The Mothership. After a pretty uninspiring Divisional Playoff round, we can only hope for more interesting games next week. I am incidentally re-writing about the first 1000 words because I clicked wrong button, and lost my work. CKEditor needs a save feature.

Anyway, let’s get to getting this big red ship underway. Somebody give me a push away from the pier in the port of Echo Chamber. Ready…. BEGIN!!!!

Happy Tuesday, friends. We're getting down to having fewer games, obviously, so I am getting less "call it like I see it" opportunities. On top of that, I had to re-allocate some time to snow removal tonight. That was a hoot. We'll see where we come out against the backdrop of "Ted was 90 minutes late to work today, and is aiming to get enough sleep tonight to ensure a reasonable expectation of timeliness tomorrow."

Wild Card Weekend -

1. New York Jets at Cincinnati Bengals

a. First things first. Michael Lombardi evidently agrees with me, but I have been saying this in various forms for two years. Carson Palmer cannot be considered a franchise QB anymore. He was on his way to being one before the knee and elbow injuries, but he's never going to get there. The velocity on his throws outside the numbers is way, way down. He can still be a solid starter, but he isn't what he's made out to be. It's no accident that the Bengals finally started having success when they decided to rely heavily on the running game.

b. Cedric Benson is a great player, and he's just hitting the prime of his career. I've beaten on the Bengals for ignoring character red flags before, and for liking bargains, but they sure came up with gold in taking a chance on Benson. The Bengals ought to get a reliable #2 RB, split the carries 75-25, and run the hell out of the ball, from a variety of personnel groupings and formations. Benson is one of the few contemporary backs in the NFL whom I'd want to use like a true workhorse.

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Happy Monday, friends, and welcome the Mothership. We’re getting underway after an interesting week, and there’s lots to talk about. We’ll get into some coaching matters, and talk about the Wildcard weekend that was, and the Divisional weekend that will be.

I’m happy, because we’re done closing December at my day job, so I’ll have more time to devote to this site for the next few weeks. I’m working on some video stuff, as I’ve previously mentioned, and I want to write a couple more articles this week than I was able to last week.

No time to waste, so let’s not waste any time. The lines are cast off, we’re pulling away from the Echo Chamber pier, and heading for the open ocean. Ready….. BEGIN!!!!

1. Black Monday wasn’t so black this season, and I didn’t really expect it to be. With a better than (Bill Williamson Memorial) decent chance of a chance of a lockout in 2011, owners have to be planning for expense minimization, based on the risk of the major reduction to their revenue streams that would go with a lockout.

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Happy Tuesday, friends, and welcome to Information From My Eyes. MHR people will recognize that title as something I used for sections in my old Shallow Thoughts & Nearsighted Observations posts. The title refers to a phone survey about sports blogging I participated in with a Penn State journalism student last year. The guy asked me where I get my information, meaning what websites. I guess in his mind, bloggers find information from “professional” writers, and repost it. I got a little annoyed with the poor kid, and told him my information came from my eyes.

I think Information From My Eyes is apropos of my whole Tuesday article though, particularly in the regular season, because this is going to revolve around games I watch on Monday nights. Normally, I come home and watch 5-6 recorded Sunday afternoon games, and then the Monday night game live. That’s what I did tonight. Of course, as we get into the offseason, there will be less to watch, so I will probably go back to regular season game video for that analysis.

For now, I’m going to get moving with this. I’m downing a Five Hour Energy, which is the best friend of people who spend 35 hours working between Sunday and Monday, like I typically do during the regular season. I ought to see if I can sell them ad space, once I get going with this. Anyway, here goes.

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I'm back again with some more of the same, analyzing the NFC coaching trees.  Check out this piece from a couple days ago, if you're interested in the AFC trees.  Again, this primarily is filling a need I have to test some query programming on the team pages I'm creating, but I hope it's a value-adding read for you.

Dallas Cowboys -- Wade Phillips

Phillips is definitely descended from his father Bum.  Not so many Head Coaches come from Bum, but he is responsible for a distinct school of thought in the 3--4 defense, and that's very significant.  Wade's worked for Dan Reeves and Marty Schottenheimer, but it's fair to say that he was a practitioner for them, more than a learner in development.  We'll say Wade is part of the Bum Phillips Tree.

New York Giants -- Tom Coughlin

Coughlin goes way back to the Parcells Tree, having worked for him in New York during the late 80s and early 90s.  In terms of his approach to discipline and player procurement (size-speed), he's very similar to Parcells.

Philadelphia Eagles -- Andy Reid

Reid is definitely part of the Walsh Tree, having done all of his assistant work in the NFL under Mike Holmgren in Green Bay.  Reid played and briefly coached under LaVell Edwards at Brigham Young University, and there's more verticality to Reid's version of the West Coast offense than most others, which seems to probably be somewhat attributable to Edwards' influence.  Some of it is also undoubtedly attributable to the skill-set of Donovan McNabb, too, though.

Washington Redskins -- Jim Zorn

Zorn is part of the Walsh Tree, having come up under Mike Holmgren in Seattle.  His zealous adherence to the West Coast principles have been part of his problem, because Jason Campbell needs to be in a vertical offense where timing is less of an issue.  Zorn's about to be fired, and probably replaced by Mike Shanahan, who has his own tree. 

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