NFL - Are You Ready For Some Football?! - Off Season

[Zopperoni]

Dave Dameshek on NFL Network had some great movie posters starring Cutler: "Sprain Man" and "The Jay Cutler Stood Still"

[MRT144]

I am actually glad to see people standing up for Cutler.

[ColdWizard]

The Ravens fired quarterbacks coach Jim Zorn on Thursday, reports The Baltimore Sun, citing a league source.

Zorn was released after a seven-hour meeting with offensive coordinator Cam Cameron and coach John Harbaugh. The coaches questioned quarterback Joe Flacco's development this season, according to the source.

Zorn was hired by the Ravens in 2010, shortly after being fired as head coach of the Washington Redskins.

Flacco, a third-year pro, completed his best year statistically in 2010, finishing with 3,622 yards, 25 touchdowns and 10 interceptions.

[SlowwHand]

So Zorn took a royal screwing, in other words.

[MRT144]

Flacco isn't a top 4 QB in the NFL. WTF

[Jonny]

Jeff Fisher, the longest tenured coach in the NFL, is out in Tennessee.
The Titans released a statement Thursday evening saying: "The Tennessee Titans and Jeff Fisher have agreed to part ways and Fisher will no longer be the head coach of the team."
The move comes as a surprise because Titans owner Bud Adams released a statement Jan. 7 which confirmed Fisher would return to the team.
"I have informed our senior management that Jeff Fisher will be our head coach next season," Adams said at the time. "The results of his leadership have been some very good football teams and I believe he will get us back to an elite level."
A news conference will be held either later Thursday night or Friday to discuss the first coaching change since the franchise relocated to Tennessee from Houston in 1997.
Fisher was 36 when he was promoted from Oilers defensive coordinator to interim head coach in November 1994. He was named the head coach in January 1995, and went 142-120 (.542) in his 16-plus regular seasons with the Oilers/Titans. Fisher is 5-6 in the playoffs, with one Super Bowl trip after the 1999 season, four division titles and six postseason bids.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=6066144

I'm not sure how I feel about this yet, but I think it's a good thing.

[SlowwHand]

So they're releasing both Vince Young and Fisher?

[Al B. Sure!]

Wow Jim Zorn can't catch a break. Flacco was up and down, sure, but he had his best year and as I pointed out a month ago at the end of the regular season:

Joe Flacco threw nearly 100 less passes yet Flacco and Ryan had virtually the same season statistically (Flacco: 3622 yards 25 TDs 10 INTs; Ryan: 3705 28 TDs 9 INTs)?

Think about that. Flacco had roughly the same year as Ryan statistically but did it on 100 less passes! That is impressive. As much as Matt Ryan has been praised this year, it could be argued Flacco was even better because he was more effective on fewer passes and stretched the field more.

Of course, Flacco has Boldin, Mason, Housh, Heap, and Rice, but I'm not so sure that is better than Roddy White and Tony Gonzalez and whoever trots out there as the #2 WR (Jenkins/Douglas/Finneran).


As for VY AND Fisher being released. That is completely out of left field. I think everybody assumed it was an either or situation, not that both of them would be sent packing!

[-Jrabbit]

Interesting times. Jeff Fisher should take a year off, then pick a good situation. He's a pretty strong coach. God, he would be great in Dallas.

What a classless move with Zorn. Presumably there's some personal or philosophical conflict there, cuz he sure as hell did nothing wrong with Flacco. He should land another spot somewhere, easily.

[Al B. Sure!]

Sigh... This is the start of the worst time of the year... 1 more game of football left

[ColdWizard]

Apparently not about Flacco's development.

Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco expressed sharp disappointment over the firing of his position coach, Jim Zorn, and labeled the move an "attack" on him after his solid 2010 performance.

"I also feel like a little bit like I'm being attacked," Flacco told the Carroll County Times on Saturday. "You fire the quarterback coach. Usually when your fire a position coach, it's because you're not really happy with how that position did. And when I look back on my season and our season as a team, I mean, we won 13 games. I felt like I had a pretty good year and you're firing the quarterback coach? It's kind of an attack on me, I feel like."

Flacco threw for 3,622 yards and 26 touchdowns with 10 interceptions -- good enough for a career-best 93.6 passer rating that ranked seventh in the NFL -- in 16 regular-season starts for the Ravens.

"I'm not happy about it," Flacco added. "They know that I'm not happy about it. It's not news to them. ... I'm not going to be happy about it, for a long time. This year will be what it is. We're going to be successful this year. I would have just liked him to be a part of it. He would have liked to be a part of it. And I think it would have been good for him to be a part of it."

The Ravens announced Thursday that Zorn "is leaving the team."

The Baltimore Sun reported Thursday that Zorn was fired following a seven-hour meeting with offensive coordinator Cam Cameron and coach John Harbaugh. The coaches questioned Flacco's development this season, according to the newspaper's source.

Harbaugh on Friday called The Sun's report "inaccurate and unfair to Jim Zorn ... in no way does it describe Jim's relationship with the Ravens, and that includes with his fellow coaches while here and our players.

"Jim's departure from the Ravens will remain as private as these matters can be," Harbaugh told The Sun, "but we feel it's necessary to at least point out that this report is inaccurate. It is not true in any way, shape or form."

According to the Ravens' official website, Cameron and offensive assistant Craig Ver Steeg will handle the duties previously assigned to Zorn, who's out after only one season in Baltimore.

"I'm disappointed and they know I'm disappointed," Flacco told the Times. "I don't think it was a good decision, and they know that. I expressed that throughout the whole time it was going on, I expressed how much I didn't think it would be good for us. My opinion isn't going to change.

"I think Jim was a great coach, I think he was great for our team. I think he was great for me. That's how I feel about it."

[Al B. Sure!]

http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Herschel-could-put-aside-MMA-for-a-return-to-the?urn=mma-312349

Don't tell Herschel Walker he's being ridiculous. The former NFL running back probably won't be swayed. He put together a borderline Hall of Fame career in the NFL without lifting a weight. Then he turned to an Olympic quest at age 29 and made a U.S. two-man bobsled team in the 1992 Olympics. His latest endeavor is a career in mixed martial arts. Now in typical Walker fashion, he said he's not done. His next dream is to return to the NFL when he's 50.

"I tell people I may even try out for football again and show people I can do that. I'd be the George Foreman of football and come back and do that one more time," Walker, 48, said on a conference call.

As he preps for his second career pro MMA fight, this weekend in San Jose against Scott Carson, Walker still believes he could clash helmets with athletes who may be 25 years younger than him.

"There is a 100 percent guarantee that today I could help a football team out," said Walker.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal pointed out that Walker claims he can still run with the best athletes in the world:

Walker said he was clocked at a mind-boggling 4.38 in the 40-yard dash after his MMA debut last year and that his time right now would certainly be sub-4.5.

The 1982 Heisman Trophy winner said it's just a matter of fitting a football comeback into his schedule.

"If I can fit it in my schedule, yes I would do it," he said. "I 100 percent guarantee today I could help a football team out."

If the union goes on strike, could we actually see Herschel Walker suit up? I could see some team doing it for publicity reason during a scab season.

[SlowwHand]

I don't know for sure, but I can't remember a bigger ass kicking in the Pro Bowl as this is looking to be.

[-Jrabbit]

I couldn't muster any enthusiasm for it.

[-Jrabbit]

Tim McCaskey has passed away. RIP.

Bears VP Tim McCaskey dies
January 30, 2011 7:58 PM | BREAKING STORY
Staff report

In a press release, the Bears announced the passing of team Vice President Tim McCaskey, who had been battling cancer for the past 17 months.

"Tim, first and foremost , was a fan -- as passionate, loyal, critical, analytical, committed and devoted a Bears fan as there ever was," said the McCaskey family. "The tenacity and dignity with which he fought this dreaded disease is an inspiration to all of us."

Tim was the second oldest of Ed and Virginia McCaskey's 11 children. He was named to his vice president position in 1993 after a four-year, part-time affiliation with the club.

He is a graduate of Notre Dame High School and Notre Dame University. Tim is survived by his four children, eight grandchildren, 10 siblings and mother.

http://www.chicagobreakingsports.com/2011/01/bears-vp-tim-mccaskey-dies.html

Wasn't sure whether to post here or in the dead pool thread...