| The DB and Chris Myers look at the four Divisional Playoffs match-ups in our latest piece at FoxSports.com. – – -A longtime in the making, the 18-game regular season keeps getting closer to reality. Michael David Smith of ProFootballTalk.com: NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is continuing to push for extending the regular season to 18 games. Goodell said the league is pleased with the results after changing from 16 regular-season games and four preseason games to 17 regular-season games and three preseason games. So up next would be 18 regular-season games and two preseason games. “We would keep within that 20-game framework,” Goodell said on Bloomberg TV. “We went to 16 and four, and now 17 and three. So 18 and two is a logical step.” Goodell said NFL Players Association would need to approve the extension of the regular season. The union could object on the basis that more games will mean more injuries, although Goodell says the 17-game season has not increased the number of injuries, thanks to improved training and rules changes. The NFL played 16-game seasons for 43 years (counting two strike-shortened seasons) before expanding to 17 games in 2021. Suffice to say the NFL is looking to expand to 18 games in a lot less than 43 years. |
| NFC NORTH |
| CHICAGOKalyn Kahler of ESPN.com has a long, long take on the role that agents may or not play in getting jobs for coaches – with particular note on the Bears’ past affinity for clients of former Bears player Trace Armstrong. You can read the whole thing here, but we’ve winnowed it down to the parts that most pertain to the Bears dreadful history with Armstrong’s clients and the final paragraph reveal of whom is his guy in this year’s Bears Coaching Derby. On Dec. 26, less than a month after the team fired coach Matt Eberflus, fans took it further. “Sell the team! Sell the team!” they yelled during Chicago’s home finale, continuing the chant as the Prime Video postgame panel rehashed the Bears’ unsightly 6-3 loss to the Seahawks. The fans knew George McCaskey and the Bears would soon hire Eberflus’ replacement, and they had seen enough to dread the implications of the next move. In the 14-year span since McCaskey took over as chairman in 2011, the Bears have had four general managers and six head coaches (including interim coach Thomas Brown). Most recently, McCaskey fired Eberflus one day after an epic Thanksgiving Day meltdown against the Lions, the first time the traditionally conservative franchise replaced a head coach during the season. Whatever the timing, Eberflus’ firing followed a trend of failed Bears coaches. But his 2022 hiring was part of another pattern, too, one that both the Bears’ fan base and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell have now clocked — with concern. Since 2018, agent and ex-Chicago defensive end Trace Armstrong and his agency, Athletes First, have represented two fired Bears head coaches, Matt Nagy and Eberflus; three fired offensive coordinators, Mark Helfrich, Luke Getsy and Shane Waldron; as well as current general manager Ryan Poles. “I’ve never seen one agent have so much influence on one team and had so little success, but they keep going back and taking his guys,” said one coaching agent, who requested anonymity to speak freely on the topic. “And we all kind of shake our heads like, have they not figured this out yet?” The influence of agents on team hiring has become a talking point not just among fans or within the agent community but at the NFL level. The appearance of “package deals,” whereby an agent places multiple clients in coaching or front office roles with the same team, has made its way to Goodell’s office and into cautionary literature distributed by the league office to its clubs. THE BEARS’ PAST two hiring search committees included two constants, both of whom have long-standing relationships with Armstrong: McCaskey, the team’s chairman, and former team president Ted Phillips, who began his 41-year career in Chicago as an accountant and rose to team president in 1999. Although he didn’t have a coaching or scouting background, as team president, Phillips oversaw football operations until Poles and Eberflus were hired in 2022. At the end of the 2021 season, just before the Bears fired GM Ryan Pace and head coach Matt Nagy, CBS reported that Armstrong had discussed “a top management position” with the Bears. Armstrong denied the report via Twitter. “Armstrong has had more influence with the Bears than any other team,” a coaching agent said. “That’s because he was dealing with an accountant that really didn’t know football people, and he took advantage of that, and I give him credit for that.” Phillips did not return multiple calls or a text, and Armstrong declined to comment. The Bears declined to make McCaskey available for this story. In 1989, when Armstrong was drafted by the Bears out of the University of Florida with the 12th overall pick, Phillips was in his third season negotiating player contracts, and Armstrong’s rookie holdout was one of the early disputes Phillips resolved. After retiring from a 15-year NFL career, Armstrong started working for CAA Sports in 2007 to help the agency develop a coaches’ representation arm. He then joined the agency Athletes First in 2016 to lead their coaching and broadcasting division. When Ron Rivera was looking for new representation at the end of his tenure as coach of the Commanders in 2023, he said he hired his former Bears teammate Armstrong because it seemed like every time he’d interview assistants for a position, most of them were represented by Armstrong. “The guy had a lot of connections, and that’s what you look for, is a guy that can get you in front of other people,” said the two-time NFL head coach, who interviewed for the Jets job in December and the Bears job Jan. 12. “The guy’s a hustler. The guy works really hard.”– – –In 2015, and again in 2022, when the Bears needed to hire both a general manager and a head coach, McCaskey relied on outside football experts — former Giants general manager Ernie Accorsi and former Colts general manager Bill Polian — to advise the simultaneous searches for both positions. Accorsi declined to comment for this story. Polian keeps his own lists of candidates and updates them annually, as he is often called to consult on hiring processes. Although he was a featured speaker at an Athletes First coaches summit in 2021, in Orlando, Florida, that was attended by Poles and Eberflus as well as the firm’s agents, Polian told ESPN he never spoke to an agent at any point during the Bears’ search process in 2022. “And that was absolutely purposeful,” he said. “They add nothing to the process. They’re advocates.” “Please make very clear that my position is I never have involved agents in any coaching search I’ve ever been involved with, including the Bears. Unequivocal statement, full stop.” No one interviewed for this story suggested any duplicitous or conspiratorial intent on the part of Armstrong, Polian or any agent or consultant in a position to make hiring recommendations to owners. An agent’s role is to get their client a job. A hiring consultant’s role is to identify candidates who can perform and help burnish the consultant’s track record. But honorable intentions don’t shield those figures from outside or league office perception that some qualified candidates aren’t getting fair looks. “Owners are not as in touch with some of the candidates and the candidate pools, and so what they try to do is go to their network of people who have potentially done it successfully when they were in the seats or people who can talk them through what they’re looking for,” said a front office executive who has interviewed for general manager jobs. “A lot of times, these are older former-GM-type guys. The problem with that is there are older former GM guys that aren’t connected as much as well. So what they do is they pull from their network and who they’re comfortable with, and so you end up cutting the pool to the comfort level of the person that the owner chose.” “It’s a very unsophisticated system, especially for a billion-dollar business,” said Rod Graves, who leads the Fritz Pollard Alliance. “There should be more of a measure of merit based on criteria, based on information from those who actually are in the position of evaluating. Head coaches and coordinators should be evaluating their staff, and that information should be made available to the league. “I think the agents are just filling that void,” he said. The league has designed plenty of programming aimed at expanding the candidates owners consider for jobs. It sends a “ready list” of coaching and general manager candidates to clubs every season and seeks club recommendations for diverse coaching and front office staff to participate in its accelerator program, where participants network with NFL owners. But Graves doesn’t think those measures are sufficient to override the human instinct that leads decision-makers to hire people they are familiar with. “We don’t have a system that adequately identifies, nurtures and positions our top people for recognition,” Graves said. “We don’t have a system that is based on criteria we can measure and criteria that’s credible.”– – –Just two days after the 36-year-old Poles was hired by the Bears in 2022 for his first general manager job, he chose Eberflus as his head coach. Poles also interviewed veteran head coaches Dan Quinn and Jim Caldwell but he felt most comfortable with the first-time head coach, who was represented by Poles’ own agent, a similar setup to the successful leadership and pattern of representation he’d been around in the Kansas City front office. Chiefs coach Andy Reid, general manager Brett Veach and defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo are all represented by Lamonte. At Poles and Eberflus’ introductory news conference in January 2022, a reporter asked if sharing the same agent had anything to do with them knowing each other prior or throughout the hiring process. Eberflus turned to Poles, and Poles paused before answering. “I mean, I’m sure in terms of just getting a hold of each other and in contact with each other, that plays a part.” “Yeah, it was an easy transition, or easier, I should say,” Eberflus added. About a year before Eberflus got the Bears job, he met Getsy, who was Green Bay’s quarterbacks coach and passing game coordinator, also at an Athletes First summit. The two never made any official agreement or pact to work together, but they talked about their football philosophies and kept in touch, according to a source who was present. When Eberflus got his chance to hire his own staff, he chose Getsy, also an Armstrong client. Just like Poles and Eberflus, the two had never worked together. Eberflus did not return calls for this story. Getsy declined to comment, and the Bears declined to make Poles available. In addition to Poles, Eberflus and Getsy, Armstrong represented the previous Bears head coach, Nagy, who was fired after four seasons, and Nagy’s first offensive coordinator Helfrich, who was fired after two seasons. Waldron, fired as OC midway through his only season in Chicago, is represented by another Athletes First agent, as is Bears special teams coordinator Richard Hightower and quarterbacks coach Kerry Joseph. “Trace Armstrong basically sells that he’s got all these clients, and he’s got a whole pool of people to choose from,” said another coaching agent, who has represented clients who have previously worked with Armstrong. “And he’ll help you put your staff together. And a lot of these coaches don’t know people in the league. They’re very insulated, and they don’t have their own network, and so they rely on agents.” “During the season, we’re all pretty introverted guys,” one former Athletes First coaching client said. “We’re all bad at getting out there and meeting people. Most of us are very bad marketers of ourselves. … So for a young head coach that maybe doesn’t know a lot of people, [agents] can be pretty persuasive.” One former NFL general manager said that when he interviewed coaches for jobs, he’d ask them to explain why they wanted to hire each coach on their dream staff list. Sometimes, the coach’s answer to the question was simply a shared agent. “It was a little bit of a red flag,” the former general manager said. “Is his agent putting his staff together, or is he putting his staff together? “[Arranging your coach’s staff is] a way to absolutely bury your coach,” one coaching agent said. “This [Chicago situation] is proof positive of it. … Believe me, we’re not in the building every day. We don’t know, really, how good or bad our guys really are. They all talk a good game, but we don’t know.” One front office executive who has interviewed for general manager jobs said he thinks he hasn’t gotten the top job yet because he hasn’t been open to being paired with a head coach candidate. He said he wants to do it his way without having to enter into a strategic alliance, and he thinks that has hurt him in the process. Another front office executive who doesn’t have representation said that this season, agents have been wearing him out “because they want to tie their coaching candidates with someone.” Some coaching agents intentionally avoid representing general managers and coaches because they don’t feel comfortable with the potential conflict of the closely intertwined roles. One agent said he represented one general manager and then immediately stopped because several of his coaching clients fired him when he didn’t push his GM client to interview the coaching clients. Because of the agent connection, the coaches expected to get interviews. Another agent said he lost a front office client after a head coaching client recently landed a job and didn’t hire that front office client. Armstrong told the “All 4 Gators” podcast that as of November 2023, Athletes First represented about 300 NFL players and “quite a few” NFL head coaches, general managers and NCAA head coaches. “Still connected to the game, still helping the players out,” one of the hosts said. “As I say,” Armstrong said on the podcast. “We’re all robbing the same train.”– – –ARMSTRONG’S RUN ON Chicago hiring might end at two consecutive head coaches. There’s a new team president who replaced Phillips and has assumed control over football operations. Kevin Warren joined the Bears in the 2023 offseason, primarily to run point on building a new stadium. But Warren has yet to make his mark on football hiring in Chicago. The Bears declined to make Warren available for this story. In early December, Warren and Poles held a joint news conference where Warren did most of the talking and said Poles will be running the search, but when reporters pressed Warren on who would have final say over the coach hire if there were conflicting opinions, he didn’t give a clear answer and said they would work together to come to an agreement. In January, following the regular season, Poles appeared solo at the podium to take his own questions first. McCaskey told reporters in an off-podium scrum after Poles’ news conference: “With guidance from Kevin, Ryan is going to make the best decision going forward.” Still, the perception of Armstrong’s influence on Poles and the extent of Warren’s control over Poles, as well as Poles’ own job security (he declined to comment about his contract situation when asked in his January news conference) means head coaching candidates who have options, such as Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson, are going to have questions about this job. On the Tuesday following the regular season, Poles said the Bears’ hiring committee includes McCaskey; Warren; director of football administration Matt Feinstein; senior director of player personnel Jeff King; executive vice president of people and culture and chief HR officer Liz Geist; and several business-side executives he did not mention by name. ESPN later reported that chief administrative officer Ted Crews will be part of the process, as will assistant general manager Ian Cunningham as he seeks general manager opportunities. When asked if he would be using any “outside help,” Poles said: “Background yes, just to do some background work.” He did not say who the outside help would be, and when McCaskey was asked specifically about that he said, “Whatever Ryan picks, that’s entirely up to him.” Among the candidates with whom the Bears requested interviews was Bills offensive coordinator Joe Brady, who has won praise for his work in Buffalo and has a longstanding connection to Bears quarterback Caleb Williams. He’s represented by Armstrong. |
| MINNESOTAWhether or not QB SAM DARNOLD is a Viking in August, Coach Kevin O’Connell says the preseason will belong to QB J.J. McCARTHY. Josh Alper of ProFootballTalk.com: The quarterback position was central to the conversation at the end of season press conferences that the Vikings held on Thursday. Sam Darnold’s future with the organization was one significant issue and 2024 first-round pick J.J. McCarthy’s return from the torn meniscus that kept him from playing as a rookie was another one. Decisions about re-signing or franchise-tagging Darnold will have to come before the team gets a chance to see McCarthy on the field and head coach Kevin O’Connell called it “way too early” to know just how things are going to look in Minnesota. Even without going through practices, the team will have to have some kind of feeling about whether McCarthy will be ready for the fall and O’Connell was asked if he will feel comfortable going into the year with McCarthy as the starter. “I’m very excited about where J.J.’s at. . . . He’s returned to on-field training, he’s returned to being able to be right where we hoped he would be at this point to have the type of offseason to answer that question,” O’Connell said. “I think he maximized what this year was for him, I think he has a level of comfort in our offensive system.” Heading into Week 18, it seemed like there was little chance that the Vikings would let Darnold get away but his performance in back-to-back losses scrambled the picture for 2025. How the Vikings rearrange it will be one of the big storylines of the offseason. |
| NFC EAST |
| DALLASBesides Deion, the Cowboys are exploring the return of Kellen Moore. Garrett Podell ofCBSSports.com is among those who see him filling the role previously played by Jason Garrett: The Dallas Cowboys have made an interview request for a candidate everyone saw coming on Thursday: Philadelphia Eagles offensive coordinator Kellen Moore, per NFL Media. According to ESPN, Moore will interview virtually with Dallas on Friday prior to the Eagles’ NFC divisional round home game vs. the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday, per ESPN. Moore, 35, has coordinated the Eagles to the NFL’s No. 7 scoring offense (27.2 points per game ) and No. 8 total offense (367.2 total yards per game) in 2024, his first season in Philadelphia following one year as the Los Angeles Chargers offensive coordinator in 2023. Outside of Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones interviewing Jason Garrett again, no candidate for the current Dallas head coaching vacancy has more familiarity with working for Jones than Moore. He first joined the Cowboys in 2015 as a backup quarterback after spending his first three NFL seasons (2012-2014) with the Detroit Lions after going undrafted following a record-setting college career at Boise State. Moore than went from being both Tony Romo’s and Dak Prescott’s backup to being Prescott’s quarterbacks coach upon his NFL playing career retirement in 2018. Garrett promoted Moore to be his offensive coordinator in his final season as the Cowboys head coach, and Moore remained on the Dallas coaching staff as the offensive coordinator upon the hiring of Mike McCarthy to be the team’s head coach in 2020. McCarthy famously allowed Moore to retain offensive play-calling duties despite McCarthy himself doing that throughout his head coaching career with the Green Bay Packers. Moore’s Cowboys scoring offenses were top 10 in the NFL in three of his four seasons in Dallas, with the lone exception being 2020 when Prescott fractured his ankle five games into that year. Once McCarthy decided to take play-calling duties back for the 2023 season, Moore departed for the Chargers offensive coordinator gig. Prescott threw a career-high 37 touchdown passes in the 2021 season, a year Dallas led the NFL in scoring offense (31.2 points per game) with Moore calling the plays. The chief complaints in Dallas near the tail end of Moore’s time as offensive coordinator were a predictable route tree, particularly when it came to the usage of hitches and comeback routes, and a lack of coordination with the receivers’ route development and offensive line’s blocking scheme not being in synch with Prescott’s footwork. Both All-Pro wide receiver CeeDee Lamb and Prescott praised the shift from Moore’s offense to McCarthy’s “Texas Coast” offense in which they said there was greater detail and a better connection between Prescott’s footwork and the blocking scheme. Should the Cowboys hire Moore, he would essentially be Jones’ new Jason Garrett — someone ownership has a high familiarity with from developing Moore as a player, assistant coach, offensive coordinator and head coach. Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com notes there are those making big bets that the choice will be Moore. The DraftKings list of candidates for the Cowboys’ coaching job included pretty much everyone. As of now, the options have been greatly reduced. To none. DraftKings has removed the Cowboys’ coaching job from the menu of things on which wagers can be placed. As we understand it, the betting ended because some sharps were wagering on one specific candidate. We assume, based on the way the odds were going yesterday, that it was Eagles offensive coordinator Kellen Moore. He surged into the top spot on Thursday, after Colorado coach Deion Sanders had been the favorite. The expectation is that it will return on Friday. When it does, chances are the odds will say plenty about the guy who drew enough action to shut the betting down, albeit temporarily. |
| WASHINGTONNate Tice of YahooSports.com says the Commanders are good at the no huddle offense, and the Lions aren’t. Is that the path to an upset? The Lions have suffered injuries, mainly on the defensive side, but have still managed to put together strong performances in the back half of the season. There are still things to pick at for the Commanders, namely keeping their tempo at a high level to hopefully create explosive plays for their offense. The Commanders under offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury have, unsurprisingly, run more no-huddle plays than any other offense in the NFL this season. One of the best aspects of their offense is their ability to get to a (relatively) large menu of plays while using high tempo to get on the ball, catching defenses in bad personnel groupings or unable to get to their more exotic play calls. The Lions have overwhelmed offenses with their stout front seven on early downs and physical man coverage on late downs, and have continued to rank as one of the league’s better defenses despite facing injury after injury (and now getting players like linebacker Alex Anzalone and corner Ennis Rakestraw Jr. back). But they actually have a weakness: defending offenses that use an up-tempo attack. Removing plays inside the two-minute warning of each half, when offenses are generally looking to stay out of huddling and cranking their tempo up, the Lions are one of the worst defenses in the NFL against no-huddle plays, ranking 31st in success rate allowed and 26th in EPA per play, and ranking equally poor against both the run and pass. Going against an offense that will use no-huddle for nearly half of its “normal” plays, this is something the Commanders can keep pressing, or even use the threat of going up-tempo to prevent the Lions from huddling and keeping their calls simplistic for quarterback Jayden Daniels and the offensive line to sort through and attack. This is what I like to call a “natural” path for the Commanders. They don’t have to change up how they play, just crank up the no-huddle dial a little bit more against the Lions (who had a bye week to prepare for this game, which has to be emphasized). The Commanders don’t have the most explosive offense in the world, ranking more middle of the pack, but they can put together methodical drives and keep moving the chains. Leaning even more into no-huddle can help keep those drives clean for Daniels on early downs. When Daniels throws, it’s really a game of beating man coverage and blitzes. Daniels has been one of the league’s better QBs against the blitz. His awareness, quick throwing motion and scrambling ability help him find consistent answers. But the Lions have tweaked their man coverage to take away primary options, like shading Justin Jefferson with a safety here … … and they’ve won more battles than they lost, despite allowing explosive passes at a fairly high rate (fifth-worst in the league since Week 11). The Lions have generally been good in coverage this season. But there are a couple of areas that Daniels can attack when he sees the Lions in man coverage. First, there are his running backs. The Lions are one of the worst defenses this season against RB targets (the Bills had a lot of fun using Ty Johnson against this weakness), ranking 28th in dropback success rate allowed, 32nd in yards per play (8.1), 30th in EPA per dropback allowed and 32nd in explosive pass rate allowed. The Commanders have just the player to take advantage of that. Austin Ekeler has always been a well-rounded player and an upper-echelon receiving back. And the rejuvenated Ekeler in 2024 is no different. Among the 37 NFL running backs with 200 or more routes this season, Ekeler ranks second in yards per route, second in yards per target, and first in explosive receptions per route. The other area where Daniels could channel his targets is toward the slot. The Lions have shifted Brian Branch back to the slot since the return of safety Ifeatu Melifonwu. Branch is a dynamic player wherever he lines up, with his blitzing ability being a real game-changing aspect of his play. But in man coverage against WRs in the slot, he’s been a bit up and down. Branch ranks 19th out of 25 qualifying DBs in coverage success rate against slot targets while in man coverage this season. It’s not to say he gets outright burned; he consistently makes it tough on the receivers at the catch point, and he seldom allows real yards after the catch because he’s so close to the ball. But he has been picked on a bit in recent weeks. Overall, on slot targets the Lions allowed the most yards per game (101.6), receiving first downs, and ranked 30th in explosive passes allowed and 21st in success rates. So even if it isn’t Branch there, it’s still an area for Daniels to look at. While the Commanders don’t usually put wide receiver Terry McLaurin in the slot (only a 17% of his snaps are in the slot this season), Daniels still targeted the slot at the fifth-highest rate among qualifying QBs this season. And perhaps the playoffs is when Kingsbury shows off a gameplan twist and moves McLaurin to the inside and gets him matched up against Branch on late downs or the Lions’ quarters-based coverages on early downs. Daniels will also have to look to use his legs as a scrambler against the man coverage looks and feisty Lions pass rush (Detroit ranks first in pressure rate on four-man rushes or fewer since adding Za’Darius Smith in Week 11). The Lions are below-average defending QB scrambles this season and have allowed the second-most explosive passes on extended QB dropbacks (four or more seconds), so there will be chances for Daniels. I’m sure the Lions will be locked in on keeping Daniels in the pocket, but there will be lanes to exploit if the Lions decide to heat him up. On the other side of the ball, the Commanders’ defense is going to have its hands full. Jared Goff shredded man coverage this season. Goff generated 100 passing EPA against man coverage this season while Jalen Hurts was in second at 62.7 and no other QB was above 50. Washington’s best position group is its defensive tackles, and with Kevin Zeitler most likely out at guard for the Lions, the Commanders are going to have to step up against the run and create pressure against the pass for them to have a puncher’s chance. Either way, I think this game is a fun stylistic battle between the two offenses. The Commanders are 9-point underdogs for a reason, but there’s an up-tempo path for them to keep up with the Lions juggernaut. |
| NFC WEST |
| LOS ANGELES RAMSThe Rams once had a receiver named Jack Snow. Now they are likely to play in snow. Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com: Matthew Stafford has experienced it. The rest of the Rams have not. In 2013, Stafford’s Lions and Eagles played a snow game in Philadelphia. Based on the current forecast, Stafford’s Rams will play a snow game in Philadelphia. As of now, temperatures will be dropping through the day from an overnight high of 36. The snow will be the strongest before and during the game. The total prediction is four to five inches. The shifting forecast was a topic for Stafford and others who spoke to reporters on Thursday. And Stafford was typically low key about the growing possibility that snow and cold will be a factor. “We’ll see when we get there,” Stafford said. “Every weather situation I’ve been a part of is kind of different. You go out there and see what you can do and what you can’t do. I’m sure that Sunday will be no different.” “I haven’t played in a true snow game,” receiver Cooper Kupp said. “I played at Eastern Washington. We played in very cold games, but never anything with actual snow on the ground. We’ll see what ends up happening, but you just handle it. You handle whatever it’s going to be. A couple weeks ago we were watching the old famous snow game that Matthew played in and [Lions receiver] Calvin [Johnson Jr.] was hyperventilating with the snow. I was telling Matthew that’d be so cool. That’s such a unique thing to play in. All the games and all the stuff that goes into it comes down to who wants it or who’s going to find a way to get it done. That’d be cool. Who knows what’s going to happen. I’m excited whatever the conditions are. I know we’ll handle it the right way.” For receiver Puka Nacua, snow will be a new thing, too. “I can’t really think of how it’s going to affect me,” Nacua said. “We have the ability to wear your seven stud cleats out there. We’re going to be prepared in the ways that we can. It’s exciting. I think the game of football is meant to be played physically. I think that’s what Sunday will permit.” The worst conditions he’s seen came just last month, in New Jersey against the Jets. “Honestly, I don’t think I had feeling in my feet until halftime,” he said. “We went in for halftime and I was like, ‘Oh, there are my toes.’ I felt like I was running on four by fours the whole game. That one was pretty cool. Maybe some in youth football back in Utah where we played in a little bit of snow. They have the heat warmers and stuff that they were putting their seven studs in. We’ll be ready to run the ball and do whatever needs [to be done] to win.” Coach Sean McVay has been monitoring the situation, and he’s confident the team will be ready. “The weather [forecast] has changed in the last couple of days,” McVay said. “We’ll see what it is, but we are aware of that. I think the biggest thing is just being mindful of, if the surface is affected, that our cleats aren’t an issue. That’s a big part of it. [Senior director of equipment] Brendan Burger does a great job with that. Matthew has had experience handling that ball. I know this, if it does snow or if it does rain, we have to be mindful of what we need to do to adjust and adapt, but there’s no way it can be as cold as it was at the Jets game.” Cold is one thing. Snow is another. And it’s just another challenge for the Rams, who have found a way to deal with all sorts of adversity in 2024. If the snow is falling and sticking, however, it could become the biggest challenge they’ve faced this season — especially with the season riding on the outcome. |
| SAN FRANCISCOQuarterbacks coach Brian Griese would rather be in Silicon Valley as an assistant than New Jersey as the head coach. The New York Post is reporting he turned down an interview request from Gang Green. For more on how things are going with finding Robert Saleh/Jeff Ulbricht’s replacement got to JETS below. |
| AFC WEST |
| DENVERThis may be more about adding Sean Payton’s longtime guy, Darren Rizzi, than any deficiencies in the Broncos special teams under Ben Kotwica. The Broncos have made a change to head coach Sean Payton’s staff. NFL Media reports that they have fired special teams coach Ben Kotwica days after their season ended with a loss to the Bills. Kotwica spent the last two seasons with the Broncos. Marvin Mims was voted a first-team All-Pro as a punt returner and they converted a fake punt in that loss in Buffalo, but the move suggests that the Broncos weren’t happy with the overall performance of their special teams units during Kotwica’s tenure. |
| AFC NORTH |
| BALTIMOREZac Keifer of The Athletic on what is at stake in Buffalo on Sunday night: Jackson and Allen have seemingly been on a collision course for months as the NFL’s two leading MVP candidates. Their credentials for the award have been dissected and debated on TV and in the media, with talking heads looking for differentiators on season resumes without blemishes. The dialogue has been a daily source of conflict between the Ravens’ and Bills’ fan bases. Yet, the MVP award won’t be decided Sunday night at Highmark Stadium, even if some will use the result as a referendum on why their preferred candidate should win. It’s a regular-season award. The votes have already been cast and the winner will be revealed Feb. 6 at the NFL Honors show days before Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans. The ramifications of the game, however, figure to be immense both for the two quarterbacks and the franchises they represent. “Both of them, for their legacy, have to win a Super Bowl,” said ESPN analyst Dan Orlovsky, a former NFL quarterback. “It would elevate them into a different group than they are in right now. I think that’s an accurate depiction of it.” Jackson, who turned 28 this month, already has two MVPs and three first-team All-Pro selections. What he hasn’t done is lead the Ravens to the NFL mountaintop and knock off an elite veteran quarterback amid a postseason run. Jackson is the lone two-time MVP not to win a Super Bowl, although he should get plenty of opportunities to rectify that. The Ravens have been to the playoffs in six of Jackson’s seven years as a starter, but they’ve advanced past the divisional round just once — and that postseason run ended last January, when they were beaten at home by the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC title game. The Bills and Allen know the feeling. The 28-year-old quarterback is a three-time Pro Bowler who is having the best year of his career after an offseason where the Bills traded star wide receiver Stefon Diggs, leaving many pundits to predict a Buffalo regression. Instead, the Bills, riding the arm and legs of Allen, won 13 games, beat the top seed in both the AFC (Chiefs) and NFC (Detroit Lions), and then dominated the upstart Denver Broncos in their playoff opener. Allen has put up strong postseason numbers in the Bills’ six consecutive trips to the playoffs, but it hasn’t translated to extended January success. The Bills have lost in the divisional round in three straight years and have been to the conference championship just once since 1993, losing to the Chiefs following the 2020 regular season. Sunday night’s winner could get another shot at the Chiefs, who play the Houston Texans in the other divisional-round game. The loser will face the same old questions about its inability to get over the hump in January. In the NFL, the “can’t win the big one” criticism tends to collect on the shoulders of the quarterback. For Jackson and Allen, the presumed first- and second-place finishers for MVP, that talk will only get louder if their tour de force regular seasons is followed by early postseason elimination. “That’s how people, certainly the media, kind of perceive these guys,” Orlovsky said. “I don’t, I hate it. But I’m also aware, that’s the ultimate goal, right? It’s the ultimate position that leads the ultimate team game. “The ability to win championships, because of the role, because of the financial commitment, that’s just one of those things that gets attached to it. I don’t think that not winning one diminishes the player’s impressive accomplishments, but I do think it’s OK for us to be very aware that these guys play this game to win a title. These greats don’t play just because they get a ton of money. They play to win a title. I just don’t like when we negatively have the conversation about them if they don’t get it done.”– – –Make no mistake, Jackson and Allen will always be linked as members of the NFL’s 2018 first-round quarterback class, which also yielded Baker Mayfield, Sam Darnold and Josh Rosen. Jackson and Allen were polarizing prospects in a lot of ways. Yet, both played extensively as rookies and have added to their games just about every year since. They’ve never been better than this season. Jackson became the first player in NFL history to throw for over 4,000 yards and run for over 900. He totaled 45 touchdowns, threw just four interceptions and led all quarterbacks in passer rating. Allen accounted for 4,269 total yards and 41 touchdowns. A year after throwing 18 interceptions, Allen was picked off just six times while spreading the ball around to an unheralded group of pass catchers. “Me and some of the guys were talking about quarterbacks we hate playing the most, based off of who would be closest to Lamar and how (Allen’s) able to keep a play going,” Ravens cornerback Marlon Humphrey said. “The play is really never over, and then, when he runs, he is a big dude. He can juke you, but he can run you over and keep running very easily. Just a super tough quarterback to go against.” Jackson and Allen have become the most prominent examples of the dual-threat quarterbacks, which are all the rage in the NFL. Patrick Mahomes, who has led the Chiefs to four Super Bowls in the previous five seasons and won three of them, is widely considered the gold standard at the position. With two regular-season MVPs and three Super Bowl MVPs, he is who Jackson and Allen, along with Cincinnati’s Joe Burrow, are chasing. But potentially earning another shot at Mahomes or at least accomplishing something he’s already done three times starts with finding a way to win on Sunday. “I don’t think either of these guys sits there and goes, ‘Well, I can only win the MVP and not the Super Bowl,’ or ‘I can only win the Super Bowl and not the MVP.’ One of the reasons they are who they are and they are so great is because they (have a) want their cake and eat it too type of mindset,” Orlovsky said. “I think they both believe they can accomplish both of those things, but make no mistake, they both 100 percent want the championship at an exponentially higher rate than they want the MVP. If they had to pick, there wouldn’t even be a hesitation.” The story has been told before. Jackson’s insatiable desire to win a championship was fueled by some of his earliest football memories while growing up in South Florida. Jackson led the Northwest Broward Raiders to a South Florida Youth Football League Super Bowl victory. The experience stuck with him, and he yearns to recapture that feeling and the camaraderie that comes with celebrating a championship with teammates. Jackson vowed on the night he was drafted that the Ravens were going to get a Super Bowl out of him. After several years of playoff disappointment, he remains more resolute than ever. “I’ve never heard Lamar talk about a single stat since I’ve been here. I’ve only heard him talk about a win or loss,” said Ravens fourth-year wide receiver Rashod Bateman. “I’m not joking. As a receiver, we’re going to go to each other and be like, ‘Bro, I just went for a 100 (yards).’ Lamar has never went to a player and said, ‘I just threw for this many yards. I just won MVP.’ It’s just not him. It’s not ever been him. He’s made it clear to us what his agenda is.” The Ravens have been using the expression “locked in” to describe their playoff mentality this year. It’s just the latest example of the team following the quarterback’s lead. “He never cares about personal agendas, personal stats,” said Baltimore tight end Isaiah Likely. “He’s only focused on the win column. I feel like that’s exactly what you need from a quarterback this time of year. At this point, nothing else matters but the W.” White was a teammate of Allen’s in Buffalo from 2018 to 2023. A pre-trade deadline addition by the Ravens, White has only been around Jackson for a few months. However, he sees clear similarities with the approach and competitiveness of the two quarterbacks. “Josh has had plenty of years where he’s had great years and he felt like he deserved (the accolades) but didn’t get them,” White said. “But that was something that was never brought up. His attitude didn’t change. The ultimate goal was winning the Super Bowl. It’s always been team success over individual success, for sure. As the quarterback of your team, you want guys like that with that type of attitude. If the quarterback cares, it galvanizes everybody around him.” Ravens wide receiver/return specialist Deonte Harty was a member of the Bills last year. He immediately smiled and chuckled Thursday when he was asked how much Jackson and Allen have in common. “Both of them have the same focus, which is getting a championship,” Harty said. “The personal stuff is whatever to them. I’m sure they take pride in it, but both of them, their main goal is winning the Super Bowl. Watching both of them go to work every day, not worry about the outside news or whatever everybody is talking about — MVP this, MVP that — both of them just lock in on the main goal.” On Sunday, they’ll be in each other’s way. There has been plenty of talk this week about who needs the game more to augment their growing body of work. Jackson is 3-4 as a playoff quarterback and hasn’t particularly played well in many of those games. This year, however, feels different. He entered the postseason playing at such a high level, and that level didn’t drop a bit in the wild-card win over the Steelers. Jackson has a worthy sidekick in running back Derrick Henry now, too. If you believed much of the summer talk, the Bills weren’t supposed to be in this position. Allen’s regular-season numbers didn’t match Jackson’s in myriad categories, but his MVP candidacy is backed strongly by the belief that no player in 2024 did more to elevate his teammates. What matters now, particularly for a proud franchise desperate for Super Bowl glory, is whether Allen can continue doing it for at least three games. He understands the stakes. So does Jackson. “That’s why you play this game,” Allen said, “to be in moments like these.”– – -OC Todd Monken on negotiating the interview process for a head coaching job while preparing for the biggest game of the year. Jamison Hensley of ESPN.com: In what has been a very important and busy week for Baltimore Ravens offensive coordinator Todd Monken, he described the timing of the NFL head coach interview process as less than optimal. Monken, who led the Ravens’ offense to its first No. 1 ranking this season, has two interviews for head coach vacancies just days before Baltimore’s AFC divisional playoff game in Buffalo on Sunday. Monken interviewed with the Jacksonville Jaguars on Thursday and will speak with the Chicago Bears on Friday, sources told ESPN’s Adam Schefter. “The way the system is set up is unfortunate, but it is what it is,” Monken said Thursday. “But I’m excited to play the Bills — that’s where my mind’s at.” This time of year can be challenging one for coaches who are trying to balance getting a head coaching job with helping their current team win a championship. Under NFL rules, coaches who are with playoff teams can interview for head coach openings days after the wild-card game and must occur before the end of the divisional round games. These interviews are conducted virtually. Monken, 58, didn’t have an answer on how to change the process. “I don’t think there’s any easy way, or they’d already be doing it,” Monken said. “It is what it is. It’s like trying to figure out things. … They’ve been trying to figure it out. There’s no easy way. There’s no easy solution, so it is what it is.” Monken said the interviews did not affect his preparation time in game-planning for the Bills. He pointed out that the work he needed to do for any head coach interviews was done in the offseason. “So, all of my focus last week was on the Steelers, and all of my focus this week is on the Bills,” Monken said. “I love the job I have — I really do, and I have a great job here.” |
| AFC SOUTH |
| HOUSTONPro Bowl RB JOE MIXON is iffy for Saturday in Kansas City. DJ Bien-Aime atESPN.com: The Texans on Thursday listed running back Joe Mixon as questionable with an ankle injury ahead of their divisional-round playoff matchup Saturday against the Chiefs. Mixon did not practice Thursday after being limited in Wednesday’s practice. This isn’t the first time he has had ankle issues. Earlier in the season he missed Week 3 through 5 after suffering an ankle injury in Week 2 against the Bears. He returned for a matchup against the Patriots in Week 6. In the Texans’ 32-12 wild-card round win over the Chargers, Mixon rushed for 106 yards on 25 carries and scored the game-sealing touchdown in the fourth quarter. On the season, Mixon earned Pro Bowl honors by rushing for 1,016 yards (15th in the NFL) with 11 touchdowns (T-11th). If Mixon can’t play, the Texans will lean on backup running back Dameon Pierce who rushed for 176 yards and one touchdown against the Titans in Week 18. The Texans were 2-1 without Mixon this season including a win over the Buffalo Bills in Week 5. |
| AFC EAST |
| MIAMIMiami’s role as the host next fall in Madrid, previously assumed, is now official. The National Football League today announced that the Miami Dolphins will play as the designated team in the historic first-ever regular-season game in Spain, as part of the 2025 International Games. The 2025 NFL Madrid game will take place at the iconic Bernabéu Stadium, home to Spanish soccer team Real Madrid C.F, in partnership with the city of Madrid and Comunidad de Madrid. The Dolphins’ opponent, along with game date and kickoff time, will be announced when the full 2025 NFL schedule is revealed this spring. |
| NEW YORK JETSAt a time when you would think a team would be narrowing its search (after all one reason Robert Saleh was jettisoned was to get started on finding a replacement), Brian Costello of the New York Post goes through the dizzying list of people the Jets have come up with to talk to: As the number of coaching candidates the Jets interview seems to grow by the hour, you have to wonder if Mike Tannenbaum and Rick Spielman are getting paid hourly. I joke, but the Jets have interviewed 12 people for the job with five others expected to interview. That is not even getting into the 15 general manager candidates they have interviewed. You can’t say the Jets have not been thorough. They interviewed their first coaching candidate two weeks ago. They seem to still be at least a week or two away from hiring a coach. It felt like a good time to recap the coaching search. The people’s choiceLions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn feels like the candidate who has the most support from fans. Glenn checks a lot of boxes. He is not afraid to get on players and hold them accountable, something the Jets felt was lacking under Robert Saleh. Glenn’s defense with the Lions ranked seventh in points allowed this season despite suffering numerous injuries. Glenn, 52, has ties to the organization as the team’s first-round pick in 1994. Jets owner Woody Johnson can’t worry about winning the press conference, but it feels like Glenn would give Johnson a head coach who would bring more excitement and optimism than any other candidate. The one that got awayWhoever ends up as the Jets coach is going to have to deal with the shadow of Mike Vrabel hanging over them. Vrabel felt like the slam-dunk hire of this coaching cycle. That may end up being proven wrong, but that is what it feels like now. The Jets interviewed Vrabel on Jan. 3 in Florham Park, and the interview went well, by all accounts. The Patriots then swooped in, firing Jerod Mayo and bringing Vrabel back to Foxborough. Now, the Jets will face him twice a year, and the new coach is going to have to live with comparisons to the new Patriots coach. Are you experienced?The Jets have interviewed or will interview eight candidates who have been full-time head coaches in the NFL and two who were interim coaches. There has been a thought that the team would like to have at least one of the two open jobs filled by someone who has been in the job before. Vrabel, Ron Rivera, Rex Ryan, Matt Nagy, Steve Spagnuolo, Vance Joseph and Arthur Smith have already interviewed, with Brian Flores scheduled to interview Friday. Of that group, it does not feel like Rivera or Ryan has a real shot at the job. The others all have questions about what happened in their first stint as coaches. That is the rub of hiring someone who has been a head coach before — there is a reason they were fired. The Jets also interviewed Jeff Ulbrich and Darren Rizzi — who both were interim head coaches this season, Ulbrich with the Jets and Rizzi with the Saints. Ulbrich went 3-9 after replacing Robert Saleh, and he is not expected to get the job. Going on the offensiveThere is some thought that the Jets should hire an offensive coach after the struggles of Saleh, Todd Bowles and Ryan with the Jets. But Adam Gase was an offensive coach, and how did that work out? Nagy and Smith are offensive minds who have also been head coaches before. The Jets also talked with Texans offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik and have requested an interview with Bills offensive coordinator Joe Brady. The Jets have not requested interviews with Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson, Commanders offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury, Buccaneers offensive coordinator Liam Coen or Ravens offensive coordinator Todd Monken, who are hot names in this cycle. There is debate about whether it is smart to just hire the hot offensive coordinator. It worked out for Kyle Shanahan in San Francisco, Matt LaFleur in Green Bay and Sean McVay in Los Angeles, but there are many other examples of the offensive genius not translating into a good head coach. The Jets have also asked to interview Vikings quarterbacks coach Josh McCown, who played for the Jets in 2017-18. McCown has not been a coordinator in the NFL yet but is seen as a coach on the rise. One coach the Jets requested who declined the request was 49ers quarterbacks coach Brian Griese. They interviewed who?The biggest head-scratcher in this whole process has been Maryland coach Mike Locksley getting an interview. He is 35-67 in 10 years as a college coach. This had to be a favor to someone. The latecomersThe Jets requested interviews with Commanders defensive coordinator Joe Whitt Jr. and Packers DC Jeff Hafley this week. Both have extensive experience, and Hafley was a head coach at Boston College for four years. |
| THIS AND THAT |
| DIVISIONAL PLAYOFFS PICKSWe went 4-2 last week, getting the Commanders but missing the Texans strong at home and the Rams strong at “home”: (4) Texans at (1) ChiefsSaturday, 4:30 p.m. ET | ESPN/ABC/ESPN+ | FOX BET: KC -8,5 (41.5 O/U)FPI prediction: KC, 62.7% (by an average of 4.6 points) Did Andy Reid rest the Chiefs too much? You might think so, but we just can’t see Kansas City seeing its quest for a three-peat ending at the hands of a team from the AFC South. We’re surprised the ESPN’s FPI is only at 62.7%. The Texans may muddle things up for a while, but Kansas City will prevail, much as the Ravens and Bills did last week DB Pick – Chiefs by 14 (6) Commanders at (1) LionsSaturday, 8 p.m. ET | Fox | FOX BET: DET -9.5 (55.5 O/U)FPI prediction: DET, 73.0% (by an average of 9.0 points) Against the elite, the feisty Commanders have held up well with a competitive split with the Eagles and a one-score loss at Baltimore. We have a feeling they will keep it close and their record in close games is enviable. Still, we can’t see the Lions date with destiny ending at home in their first game. DB Pick – Lions by 6 (4) Rams at (2) EaglesSunday, 3 p.m. ET | NBC/Peacock | FOX BET: PHI -6 (44 O/U)FPI prediction: PHI, 65.4% (by an average of 6.0 points) We have a lot of respect for the way this Rams team has developed and their mature quarterback Matthew Stafford. But the elements are likely to play into the Eagles style of play. DB Pick – Eagles by 7 (3) Ravens at (2) BillsSunday, 6:30 p.m. ET | CBS/Paramount+ | FOX BET: BAL -1.5 (51.5 O/U)FPI prediction: BUF, 50.3% (by an average of 0.3 points) We really will be disappointed if we don’t get an epic out of this one. Each team at least in the 20s, maybe the 30s, Orchard Park on fire, a final drive for posterity – it’s got to be one of those games, right? DB Pick – Bills by 1 So there you have it, all four home teams and top seeds advance. Not that we’d mind being wrong, especially if the NFC Championship Game was either the Stafford Bowl (Rams-Lions) or the NFC East match (Commanders-Eagles). |
| JACK DEL RIOHe’s now Jacques de Riviere. Former Jacksonville Jaguars and Raiders head coach Jack Del Rio has been named the head coach of the Paris Musketeers of the European League of Football. Del Rio, 61, went 93-94 in 12 seasons as an NFL head coach and made two postseason appearances with the Jags and one with the Raiders. His last NFL job was as defensive coordinator of the Washington Commanders from 2020 to ’23. He previously held coordinator roles with the Carolina Panthers and Denver Broncos. Del Rio’s move to Paris comes after a brief tenure as a senior assistant for the Wisconsin Badgers. Hired in August 2024, he resigned from the position in November after he was arrested following a car crash in Madison, Wisconsin, and cited for operating a vehicle while intoxicated. The Paris Musketeers are part of the 17-team European League of Football, which played its inaugural season in 2021. The league runs from May until September and features teams from Austria, Czechia, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Spain and Switzerland. Paris went 10-2 last season before losing in the playoff semifinals. The Musketeers’ former head coach, American Marc Mattioli, stepped down and is now the defensive coordinator at Kennesaw State. |
