Daily Briefing

AROUND THE NFL Daily Briefing Both conference championship games feature an upstart versus a team that has been at or near the top in recent years. Major markets are not represented in the Final Four, with Tampa Bay the largest. METROPOLITAN AREA SIZE Tampa Bay                   18 Kansas City                  31 Buffalo                          49 Green Bay                   158  (Milwaukee)…

AROUND THE NFL Daily Briefing We aren’t that excited about going 3-3 with last week’s playoff picks – missing on the Ravens, Browns and Rams. For the Divisionals – we will go with Kansas City (convincingly) over Cleveland and Buffalo (flip a coin) over Baltimore in the AFC.  Green Bay wins on Saturday over the…

AROUND THE NFL Daily Briefing Things are starting to shake loose on the GM/Coach Carousel, with George Paton kicking things off by signing a six-year deal to be Broncos GM. NFC NORTH CHICAGO Bears GM Ryan Pace, who made the defining move of his reign by lusting after QB MITCH TRUBISKY, sounds ready to move…

AROUND THE NFL Daily Briefing NFC NORTH CHICAGO The Bears are going to let DC Chuck Pagano retire while GM Ryan Pace and Coach Matt Nagy will be back.  Jeff Dickerson of ESPN.com: Chicago Bears defensive coordinator and former Indianapolis Colts head coach Chuck Pagano has decided to retire, league sources told ESPN, confirming multiple…

AROUND THE NFL Daily Briefing NFC NORTH   GREEN BAY T JARED VELHEER could make history. Jared Veldheer saved the Green Bay Packers in the playoffs last year, and he could do it again this year — and would make NFL history in the process.   The veteran offensive tackle will sign with the Packers,…

AROUND THE NFL Daily Briefing So, we’ve had a pair of 7th seeds in the playoffs for the first time since the strike-shortened 1982 season. In terms of respectability, they went 1-for-2 with Indianapolis extending Buffalo while Chicago was a punching bag for the Saints. Peter King with thoughts from veteran scribe Howard Balzer on…

AROUND THE NFL Daily Briefing We will go ahead with our tradition of picking playoff games, not that we’ve been very good at it. AFC (7) Colts at (2) Bills – Bills favored to 6.5 points Sat., 1:05 p.m. ET, CBS We think emotion will carry the Bills to a fairly overwhelming win. (5) Ravens…

AROUND THE NFL Daily Briefing NFC NORTH DETROIT Here are some Lions GM interviews from John Maakaron of SI.com: On Wednesday, the Detroit Lions continued their expansive search for their next general manager.   After interviewing Terry Fontenot, the assistant GM and vice president of pro personnel for the New Orleans Saints, earlier this week,…

AROUND THE NFL Daily Briefing NFC EAST PHILADELPHIA C JASON KELCE doesn’t think “confrontational” is the right word for his reaction to the Eagles seeming to quit with QB NATE SUDFELD.  Myles Simmons ofProFootballTalk.com: Jason Kelce made headlines a few weeks ago when he made an impassioned statement against the idea of tanking in the…

AROUND THE NFL Daily Briefing For those keeping score at home, the NFL kicked out five of the 12 teams from last year’s playoff club.  In the AFC, New England and Houston, and in the NFC, San Francisco, Philadelphia and Minnesota. With 14 teams in this year’s club, seven new teams were added, including the…

AROUND THE NFL Daily Briefing The new 14-team playoff ended up putting Chicago (8-8) and Indianapolis (11-5) into the playoffs with the 12-4 Saints and 13-3 Bills losing byes. So, Chicago at New Orleans and Indianapolis at Buffalo are the creations to the playoff schedule. – – – Here, from ProFootballTalk.com, are the coaching and…

AROUND THE NFL Daily Briefing Here is some stuff from this week’s owners meeting that didn’t involve Covid and 2020 from ESPN.com: NFL owners have delayed a decision on implementing a 17-game regular season for 2021.   During a teleconference call Wednesday that replaced the usual December gathering of owners in Dallas, they opted to…