dpberr

No deals to anybody in the AFC.

+1. Couldn't agree more.

I'd love to root for the Jets. They only have one SB appearance, ever. However, Rex Ryan and this particularly obnoxious team negates my sense of Super Bowl history. Go Steelers.

Only way he goes to Cleveland is to snipe the head coach position when and if Shurmur fails. Shurmur is a complete unknown. Gailey is not. The Bills are the best option if Wannstedt's desire is to be a head coach in the NFL again. Turn the Bills around, beat the Jets and/or Patriots, and you are all of a sudden "hot" name once again. The Browns have even less talent on defense than the Bills. All that being said, while I'd love Wannstedt as a hire, I'm intrigued by Mangini as our resident Jets/Patriots killer.

The playoffs show that anything is possible when you have 1)an elite defense and 2)you have a competent to outstanding TE. For the Bills, neither is impossible to fix this coming draft and FA. I think FAs on defense have more impact than on the offense.

My guess is that Jauron told the Eagles he only interviews for "open" positions out of respect for SM. The Eagles made the position open.

Let's not hit the panic button. I think Philly made the move to keep Jauron from taking the DC job for the Browns. All that being said, having watched the Eagles this year, being trapped in their market, the team needs defensive help, especially at linebacker. Regardless of who is coordinating it, good teams knew how to exploit that. The Eagles could not run the blitz packages you are accustomed to seeing due to the dearth of talent at the position. I feel Wannstedt will be with the Bills for 2011. I have a better feeling about it after SD filled their position internally.

I'd nominate Jeff Fisher. You don't stick around for nearly two decades as coach by being really bad at it.

GG: Outstanding point. I think that Edwards would go the college route and find a gig pretty quickly if Wannstedt was brought in. I don't see Wannstedt taking any job but the DC if he's hired by the Bills.

I think Fox is a good coach. He was undermined by the worst front office in the league with the worst GM in the league in Marty Hurney. The draft misses, missed free agent opportunities and the worst, not signing Peppers to an extension gave Fox a bunch of either bad or inconsistent teams. Carolina won't improve until they clean out their front office.

I wonder if SI assumes there's a lockout, and therefore no free agents that Carolina could pick up at QB. Gabbert is a big stretch at #1.

I'd hate that pick. (Green at #3) It's all about defense this year. Everything else is just conversation.

This makes zero sense, and I call shenanigans. Wannstedt is strictly a 4-3 guy.

Question is...what defense will he run? He's run the 3-4 and the Tampa 2. I think that affects which defensive player gets taken. I only see the Panthers going for Green if they say, get Vince Young for QB, or otherwise address that position to their satisfaction in free agency.

Isn't Quinn a one-year wonder? I only ask because of our outstanding track record with such selections. I agree he looks good, but did he only have one good year? I'd be happy with Dareus, Bowers or Fairley. I was impressed by Fairley's play last night.

They need healthy playmakers on defense. Bob Sanders is quite a talent, but he's only on the field for five minutes every season. Further, their run defense is their biggest liability. That Tampa 2 defense is soft, with a light, but weak linebacking corps. When your safeties are your leading tacklers, you know you have a big problem.

This story = history, revisionist

Smith's downfall was that he spent a laughable amount of time *not* in training camp or with the team. He sabotaged his own career.

You can't coach leadership and mental toughness, essential skills for a QB and a player in general. The way I see it is if Jeff Fisher can't do it, in years of trying, another old school guy like Chan won't either.

I think ESPN needs to do more stories of the "good" NFL players do. The good men, who happen to be NFL players, get crowded out by the media's obsession for controversy and scandal. I'm thinking of players like Warrick Dunn. It could be argued he's had more of an impact on the NFL and its fans for his off the field work than his on-the field performance.

I saw it and thought it was a well-made show. As a fan, I appreciated his openness (and patience) with the fans that wanted photographs, pictures, etc.

No amount of coaching can correct his deficiencies in leadership. This is a very easy pass.

No way does Cowher come to the AFC East. He'll be under tremendous pressure to produce a division championship and playoff run quickly. That's just not going to happen in the most competitive division in football in 2012. He'll go for the division with the lowest hanging fruit like the NFC West or a team that's close but not over the hump. A good, but not great team.

Cornell Green and Tom Cable met the same fate. Green was not resigned after his domestic charge. Sure he's an awful player, but the guilty domestic charge sealed his fate. He wasn't going to release Green and end up paying him money. In Davis's mind, his money would be rewarding undisciplined behavior. My insight is from my uncle's involvement with the Raiders franchise during the mid-80s. He worked for the security subcontractor for the team. There was a guard that was involved in a domestic dispute and it made the paper. Apparently Davis read about it or was informed about the situation, called up the company, and demanded that the guard was no longer welcomed to protect or work security for the Raiders franchise. This happened all in the span of one afternoon. From that point on, security personnel for the Raiders were always vetted for any domestic charges. Al Davis doted over his wife, Carol, and he was not the same after her death. She, for the most part, was the very definition of being somebody's rock. I don't think the death of somebody like that in your life doesn't change a man. Davis gets a ton of well deserved hatred for the management of his franchise. However, what is largely lost in the discussion of the "team" is the mix of discipline and generosity of the human being that goes unreported. That would dilute the fun the media and fans have in seeing Davis as an enemy of the NFL and the sole reason for the dysfunction of the Raiders. I'm not a fan of Al Davis, just a fan who appreciates that the man has two sides to him. I have little doubt that the decision to not extend Cable was 10% business decision and 90% values. It's true, Davis has no problem with lawsuits and paying fired coaches, but for Davis to give a guy accused of beating up women cash for doing nothing, was an impossible move. You've never seen Davis give a player a second chance that was accused of a domestic...or worse. He's very much a mixed bag of the bad and good.

Ironically, and perhaps it's not ironic that it's the Raiders, but I don't think Cable's contract wasn't renewed for football reasons. You don't get fired for going 8-8 in Raider land. I think Davis's decision is more rooted in Cable's off the field troubles, very specifically the allegations that he beat his ex-wives, months after Davis named him head coach. Cable was hired in February 2009, the allegations came out in late November of that year. Al Davis is a lot of things, but one thing he did, especially while his wife was alive, was donate generously to battered women shelters, etc. in the Southern California area. He has respect for a woman's capabilities in the professional world, as he made Amy Trask CEO of the Raiders in 1997, the only female CEO in the league, and probably has one of the more diverse (female and minority) organizations in the entire league. Davis wasn't going to fire him. In doing so, the Raiders would have owed Cable money. He let him play out the 2010 season and said goodbye.