Detroit Lions

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, and congratulations to the New Orleans Saints on their impressive victory in Super Bowl XLIV.  It was a total team effort, and I'll have a lot of observations to share to that effect.  I had planned for this to be short-ish, but the party I was planning to attend got canceled, due to a sick kid.  I had another invitation, by a friend who lives in the trendy Warehouse District in downtown Cleveland, but I decided to just make some shrimp jambalaya (which was awesome), watch the game from home, take good notes, and write a robust edition of The Mothership.  Let's get this thing underway, then.  Ready..... BEGIN!!!!

1.  Drew Brees won the MVP award for the Super Bowl, and he played a great game, and deserved it.  The real star, though, was Head Coach Sean Payton.  The Saints got behind in this game pretty quickly, 10-0, and the team's poise improved a great deal after a shaky start.  That's not what usually happens when you go down 10-0 to the Colts; most teams get that "here we go" feeling, and the rout is on.  The Saints got their act together, and played the way they can play.

A key moment in the game was when Payton elected to go for it on 4th and goal from about 1.5 yards away.  There were just under 2 minutes to go, and both teams had all three timeouts.  I loved the call, and judging from my Twitter feed, I was about the only one.  Of course, I understand clock and situation management very well, and most people don't.  It was the right call, without question, and I am going to explain why.

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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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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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