The Daily Briefing Monday, July 26, 2021

On Friday, the NFL was rocked when two coaches were summarily fired for refusing to take one of the experimental vaccines.  The most senior was veteran coach Rick Dennison of the Vikings.  Courtney Cronin of ESPN.com:

After refusing to receive a vaccine for COVID-19, Rick Dennison is out as a Minnesota Vikings assistant coach, sources told ESPN on Friday.

Dennison had served as the Vikings’ offensive line coach/run game coordinator the past two seasons. In a statement Friday, the Vikings said they were still in discussions with Dennison about the league’s COVID-19 protocols.

Another coach in the league, New England Patriots co-offensive line coach Cole Popovich, also won’t be with his team in 2021 in a decision related to the COVID-19 vaccine and NFL guidelines, league sources confirmed to ESPN.

The vaccine is required for all Tier 1 staff, including coaches, front-office executives, equipment managers and scouts. Players are not required to receive the COVID-19 vaccine but will face strict protocols during training camp and throughout the season that vaccinated players will be able to forgo.

In a memo released by the league this summer, the NFL said any unvaccinated Tier 1 staff member must provide a valid religious or medical reason for not receiving the vaccine. Losing Tier 1 status prohibits coaches from being on the field and in meeting rooms and having direct interactions with players.

The Vikings noted in their statement that Dennison does not have a vaccination exemption.

Phil Rauscher has been promoted from assistant offensive line coach to fill Dennison’s position, sources told ESPN. The Vikings also hired Ben Steele, who had recently been hired by Auburn as a special teams analyst, to fill the position Rauscher had held since 2019.

Dennison’s departure comes at a time of transition for the Vikings’ offense, which will be guided by first-year offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak. Kubiak, 34, was promoted to fill the role his father, Gary, held in Minnesota during the 2020 season.

With 27 years of NFL coaching experience, Dennison was considered a vital piece in helping bridge the gap for the younger Kubiak, given his experience calling run plays and knowledge of the scheme the Vikings have used since the 2019 season.

The Vikings were one of the league’s prominent running teams in 2020 behind Dalvin Cook, who became the first Minnesota player to rush for at least 1,500 yards and 15 touchdowns in a season. Cook was responsible for 30.5% of the Vikings’ scrimmage yards, the second-highest rate in the NFL behind Tennessee’s Derrick Henry (33.8), according to ESPN Stats & Information data.

In New England, Popovich coached with the Patriots through the spring, and his on-field presence stood out, in part, as he was one of the only staffers to wear a mask during practice.

Popovich, who is distantly related to longtime San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich but said in September that he has never met him, was set to enter his seventh season with the Patriots. In 2020, he had shared the offensive line duties with longtime former Youngstown State offensive line coach Carmen Bricillo, who is now expected to take on more of a leading role.

The Boston Globe first reported that Popovich wouldn’t be coaching with the Patriots in 2021.

That was on Friday, but over the weekend the Vikings (and presumably the NFL) began to relent or perhaps Dennison buckled.  Will Ragatz of FanNation:

Contrary to the ESPN report that went viral on Friday, Vikings offensive line coach and run game coordinator Rick Dennison has not been fired by the team at this point. The organization released a statement saying that they “continue to hold discussions” with Dennison.

“The Vikings continue to hold discussions with Offensive Line Coach Rick Dennison regarding the NFL-NFLPA COVID-19 Protocols for training camp and preseason games,” the statement reads. “At this time, Coach Dennison does not have an exemption to the vaccination requirements of those protocols. We will adhere to the requirements of the protocols and of applicable law.”

Dennison is also still listed as the Vikings’ OL coach on the team’s website. However, unless he gets fully vaccinated — or receives an exemption — he will not regain his status as a Tier 1 staff member and will be unable to work directly with players on the field, in meeting rooms, or anywhere else. Essentially, it would be impossible for him to do his job as the team’s O-line coach. The Vikings presumably don’t want to have a virtual O-line coach if they don’t have to.

It seems like there are three possibilities here. One is that Dennison continues refusing to receive a COVID-19 vaccine and ends up being fired after all. Another is that he refuses the vaccine and transitions into an advisory role where he stays with the team but doesn’t work directly with players. The last option would be that he changes course and decides to get vaccinated. If he did make that decision, he still wouldn’t be able to get back to normal coaching until he is considered fully vaccinated, which could take six weeks with a two-dose vaccine of Pfizer or Moderna.

So we’ll see what happens. But one thing is for sure: unless Dennison gets vaccinated, he won’t be able to handle the duties of a position coach. The only way for him to remain with the team will be for him to move into a hands-off role. Dennison has coached the same way in the NFL for 27 years, so it’s unclear if he would be open to that kind of transition if the Vikings want to keep him around.

Lindsay Jones of The Athletic has this update.  Note the big change that a Covid surivivor can be deemed compliant with one jab, not two.  And it is after the second jab that most adverse reactions (which have killed at least 6,000 people in the U.S. that we know of) occur.

Can teams legally fire coaches who don’t get vaccinated?

The NFL hasn’t required vaccinations outright, but the policies for Tier 1 and Tier 2 employees are in essence making them a job necessity. The NFL clearly believes it is within its legal rights to do so by allowing for religious or medical exemptions.

“I think it’s perfectly legal,” Peter Ginsberg, a lawyer who represents athletes, told The Athletic’s Dan Kaplan. “It’s a rational condition of employment in order to safeguard your workplace and other employees.”

And there is precedent for private companies to enact and enforce such policies. Last month, a federal judge threw out a lawsuit filed by more than 100 employees of a Houston hospital system who did not want to comply with the vaccine requirements.

NFL coaches who are fired for not complying might not have much recourse. Unlike players, who are unionized as part of the NFL Players Association, there is no coaches union to fight for workplace protections. Nor do coaches have a seat at the table for any of the negotiations about COVID-19 protocols.

Could players lose their jobs if they do not get vaccinated?

Potentially, yes, though teams won’t say that’s the sole reason.

The NFLPA has been fighting for protections for unvaccinated players, and the league has told teams they cannot cut players strictly based on vaccination status. The reality, though, is that vaccination status will be part of the overall calculus for players in the middle or bottom part of the roster.

It’s reasonable to expect that teams will want to keep players who have a better chance of being available. Unvaccinated players are subject to mandatory quarantines if they are deemed a high-risk close contact to someone who is infected, and unvaccinated players will be required to isolate for at least 10 days if they test positive. Vaccinated players won’t be required to quarantine after an exposure, and if a vaccinated player tests positive, he can return to work after posting two negative tests 24 hours apart, provided he is asymptomatic.

We should expect that at some point this year, an unvaccinated player who is cut will file a grievance over this issue.

What is new with the protocols?

There is one notable update to the NFL’s vaccine policy. Teams and players were told this week that the NFL will consider an individual who had a previous confirmed case of COVID-19 and one dose of a Pfizer or Moderna vaccine to be fully vaccinated.

Sills said the NFL’s medical staff came to this decision after discussions with infectious disease experts and officials at the Centers for Disease Control, and following consultation with the NFLPA.

“This has been driven by science,” Sills said. “We believe this is a positive step forward to hopefully encourage some of those individuals to start the vaccination process. We will still encourage them to take two shots, but we will consider them fully protected if they had the previous documented infection plus the one injection.”

One player who could benefit from this change is Bills wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders, who posted a picture of his vaccination card showing he had received his first dose of the Pfizer vaccine on Friday. He captioned the photo with the words “accountability,” “availability” and wrote, “Don’t have time to deal with no bs during the season.” Sanders tested positive for the coronavirus last season while he was with the New Orleans Saints and missed two games while on the COVID/reserve list. Because of that previous case, he’ll be considered fully vaccinated and have restrictions lifted in two weeks.

A number of unvaccinated free agents are finding clear evidence that many NFL teams view them as unhireable.  Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com:

Although certain unvaccinated players will be able to keep their roster spots due to skill, guaranteed pay, or potential cap hit, unvaccinated players who lack the skill and ability to be critical to one or more teams will have a hard time keeping their jobs and/or getting jobs.

For free agents who are currently looking for work, that’s the problem. No one will give them the time of day unless and until they take the time to get vaccinated.

Case in point — veteran receiver Terrelle Pryor currently is looking for an opportunity, and it’s been made to clear to him that he won’t get the opportunity unless he gets vaccinated.

“Had a try out lined up,” Pryor tweeted on Saturday night. “Said I can’t visit unless . . . I’m vaccinated! Now I’m torn between, tough decision.”

The reality is that, if Pryor won’t get vaccinated, the interested team will direct their interest toward someone who is vaccinated. That’s how it goes for every street free agent. With so many available and interested players who realize that they need to get vaccinated to have a chance, the free agents who won’t get vaccinated have no change.

The Buccaneers are using wristbands so folks will know whether or not a player has complied with the NFL vaccine edict or whether they are in defiance.  The NFLPA is not happy.  Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com:

The NFL wants teams to come up with a way to distinguish vaccinated from unvaccinated players on the practice field. Some teams are doing it. The NFL Players Association wants none to do it.

“We did not agree to them and think they are unnecessary,” NFLPA president and Browns center JC Tretter said in a column posted Monday on the union’s website.

The NFLPA, as explained over the weekend, wants to minimize the potential for players lashing out about vaccines, fearful that those outbursts will potentially influence others to not get vaccinated. The wristband approach could prompt unvaccinated players to sound off, since it prevents them from keeping their vaccination status private (even though HIPAA has nothing to do with it).

Tretter closes his column with an aspirational message — but also with a clear slap at last Thursday’s memo from the NFL, which NFLPA spokesman George Atallah previously called “classically tactless.”

“The NFL wants every game to be played,” Tretter wrote. “The players want every game to be played. The fans and media want every game to be played. It will take all of us to accomplish our goal of playing a full season and crowning a Super Bowl champion. We have the same goal. Every stunt like that memo only makes our success less likely. We need each other to accomplish it. The NFL has to be better, and we need to stick together as players and as a union to make this work again.”

In other words, the league needs to use honey not vinegar to persuade the remaining vaccine-hesitant players to change their tune. And the entire league needs to have a broader spirit of commitment and cooperation. Although last week’s memo creates a clear incentive to cut unvaccinated players, plenty of them are too good to be cut. (As we noted last week, one team has seven unvaccinated players who won’t be cut due to their skill level.) The goal should be to find a way to prevail on those who resist being vaccinated with reason, logic, facts, and common sense. Threats won’t work. Yelling at them won’t work.

In the end, nothing may work. But at least the unvaccinated players may feel less inclined to run to social media and post anti-vaccine sentiments.

NFC NORTH

GREEN BAY

Is QB AARON RODGERS planning a tactical retirement?  That’s what the Wise Guys in Vegas are hearing.  Bill Huber of SI.com:

Las Vegas sportsbooks are preparing for Aaron Rodgers to retire and not return to the Green Bay Packers.

Because of the importance of the reigning NFL MVP, Westgate SuperBook recently closed all its NFC North markets, including projected wins, playoff odds, divisional odds and weekly lines for the four division teams, one oddsmaker at the sportsbook said via a Twitter direct message.

Two other sportsbooks contacted after that initial message said the expectation is Rodgers is going to announce his retirement sometime before the first practice on Wednesday. In response, one of those sportsbooks pushed out its prices on the Packers to win the NFC North and shortened the odds for the other teams. It also shortened the odds of Patrick Mahomes winning NFL MVP.

The Packers, in some form or fashion, are open for business at most sportsbooks. At FanDuel, Green Bay’s over/under win total is 9.5 and is a considerable favorite to win the NFC North. Considering the Packers won 13 games during a 16-game season in 2019 and 2020, the 9.5 for a 17-game season reflects the uncertainty, if not the expectation that Rodgers will not return for the 2021 NFL season.

The Packers are the favorite to win the NFC North at DraftKings, too, but their win total is not on the board. At PointsBet, the Packers are +1600 to win the Super Bowl, tied for the seventh-shortest odds, and Rodgers (+1000) is behind only Mahomes (+450) for MVP. However, neither their season win total nor the make/miss playoff bet is available.

Bovada has over/under touchdown and passing yardage totals for the projected starting quarterbacks but no line for Rodgers. At another offshore sportsbook, Bet Online, Rodgers is a distant eighth on the MVP board and the Packers are not available on the yes/no playoff bet.

Circa Sports posted updated NFC North odds on Friday night. The Vikings are the favorite, with the Packers second, Bears third and Lions fourth.

– – –

As usual, nothing direct from Rodgers.  But signals, yes:

Late Friday night Pacific time, Green Bay Packers receiver Davante Adams and then quarterback Aaron Rodgers posted to their Instagram accounts a photo of former Chicago Bulls stars Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen bumping fists.

That photo was used as part of the promotional materials for ESPN’s “The Last Dance” documentary, which chronicled the final year of the Jordan-led Bulls dynasty.

Those sense-deleted posts beg one obvious question: Has Rodgers, unhappy with the direction of the franchise, decided to return to Green Bay for one more season to team up with his close friend Adams, who is entering his final season under contract?

Or did their last dance end with the loss in the NFC Championship Game against Tampa Bay in January?

Whatever, it perhaps signals that Rodgers has made a decision on whether he’ll report to training camp on Tuesday and be on the practice field for the first practice on Wednesday.

Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com hears Rodgers happiness can be bought – but not cheaply:

The recent non-news news that the Packers offered quarterback Aaron Rodgers a five-year contract that would make him the highest-paid player in football omitted (as did the original reporting on the topic) key information regarding guarantees and structure. Rodgers wants to be paid in a way that breaks the team’s current one-year-at-a-time flexibility as to whether it will keep him around. The offer the team made presumably doesn’t do that; if it did, whoever leaked the information about the total average would have included some facts about the structure.

So what does (or at least did) Rodgers specifically want? To get a true commitment that prevents the team from releasing him or trading him after 2021 or 2022, he needs a lot. So much that the team wouldn’t be able to move on without blowing up its salary cap.

Per a league source, it’s believed by at least one team that has (or had) interest in Rodgers that he wants $90 million guaranteed over two years. That would get him to the Patricks Mahomes $45 million high-water mark. With the $45 million average applying to only the first two years and with all of it guaranteed, the structure necessary to pay that kind of money would as a practical matter tie Green Bay’s hands through 2022 and potentially into 2023.

Although some have said it’s not about the money, the money becomes a way to fix a problem that former teammates continue to call fixable. By giving Rodgers the kind of contract that gives the Packers no choice but to (1) keep Rodgers, and (2) keep Jordan Love on the bench, the team necessarily resets the clock to pre-2020 draft, before the moment that the team clumsily traded up to get Love without telling first Rodgers. (Telling him first probably wouldn’t have made it much better.)

That gesture told Rodgers in one fell swoop that he’s no longer untouchable. This gesture — a $90 million guarantee over two years — would reinstate his untouchable status, for several seasons.

The fact that the team hasn’t given him that kind of offer yet strongly suggests that the team won’t be doing so. Which further sets the stage for whatever is going to happen this week, when the Packers report for training camp.

Peter King returned from vacation today and this is what he thinks:

On Aaron Rodgers. Rodgers and his agent, David Dunn, have been good at shutting up, as (recently) have been the Packers. One friend of Rodgers told me over the weekend he didn’t know what the calculating QB will do, but that money won’t be the key to the deal. “He knows he’ll make up whatever he loses this year on the back end, in future years,” the friend said. Regarding the retirement rumors that started out of Vegas last week when the books took Green Bay’s over/under win total off the board, I called Brent Musburger, the sportscasting legend and Las Vegas-based managing editor of Vegas Stats and Information Network. “The bookmakers felt there was credibility to the report, and so they took the Packers number down, and the odds on Green Bay winning the division. When you see the books do that, they’re just protecting themselves.”

“You buy any of it?” I said.

“I think there’s a shred of truth, because there was no denial. He definitely, definitely is trying to blow his way out of Green Bay,” Musburger said.

We know that. I haven’t changed my stance in two ways. One: The smartest thing here would be a compromise—Green Bay getting one more year out of Rodgers then guaranteeing him a trade next March, Rodgers buying his freedom by working in Green Bay for six more months. Rodgers doesn’t want to do that, but if the alternative is the Pack freezing him out of football in 2021, maybe he considers it. Two: The only way I see Green Bay trading him is by getting significant 2021 value. Otherwise, why wouldn’t GM Brian Gutekunst sit on Rodgers and say he’ll play only for Green Bay this year? When I say “significant 2021 value,” I mean for example a deal like this with Denver:

Denver gets Rodgers.

Green Bay gets:

• First-round picks in 2022 and 2023.

• Quarterback Drew Lock (two years and a potential option year left on his rookie deal).

• Wide receiver Jerry Jeudy (three years and a potential option year left on his rookie deal).

In essence, Green Bay would get the value of three first-round picks and a second-rounder (Lock) for—gut feeling here—about four years of a 38-year-old (in December) reigning MVP. Denver still gets the better of the deal because Rodgers puts the Broncos in the Super Bowl conversation immediately—and Denver could sign free-agent Kenny Stills, 29, if it wanted a veteran receiver to replace Jeudy and team with Courtland Sutton and K.J. Hamler. If the Packers are convinced the divorce must happen (and I don’t think the Pack is, yet), Jeudy is insurance for the likely departure of Rodgers BFF Davante Adams.

Food for thought. Now we wait to see if Rodgers reports with the Packer veterans Tuesday. That’s when mandatory fines of $50,000 per day would start for players under control who don’t report to camp.

And then, as we go to press for Monday, this confounding newsflash from Ian Rapoport of NFL.com:

@RapSheet

#Packers QB Aaron Rodgers has indicated to people close to him that he does plan to play for GB this season, sources say. That is the expectation. Many factors at play, but with GM Brian Gutekunst saying he is “hopeful” for a positive outcome, there is a glimmer of optimism.

NFC EAST

WASHINGTON

In looking up QBs who have beaten all 32 teams, we found this from Michael David Smith of ProFootballTalk.com on QBs who have lost to the most teams:

No quarterback has accomplished the feat of losing to all 32 teams.

Washington quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick can come the closest this season.

Fitzpatrick has lost to 28 different teams as a starting quarterback, according to Pro Football Reference. Of the four teams he hasn’t lost to, three are on Washington’s schedule this season: The Packers, Saints and Buccaneers. If Fitzpatrick loses to those three teams, he’ll have lost to an all-time record 31 NFL teams. (The Lions are the one team Fitzpatrick hasn’t lost to and won’t play this season.)

Although no starting quarterback has lost to 31 or 32 different teams, seven have lost to 30: Drew Bledsoe, Drew Brees, Brett Favre, Matt Hasselbeck, Jon Kitna, Carson Palmer and Alex Smith. One quarterback, Kerry Collins, has lost to 29 teams. But all of those quarterbacks are retired, so they can’t reach 31 losses like Fitzpatrick.

In addition to Fitzpatrick, the other quarterbacks who have lost to 28 different teams in their careers are Derek Carr, Jay Cutler, Joe Flacco, Jeff George, Eli Manning, Warren Moon, Philip Rivers, Ben Roethlisberger, Matt Ryan and Vinny Testaverde. Carr, Flacco, Roethlisberger and Ryan can still add to their totals, but none can reach 31 different teams this season like Fitzpatrick can: Ryan’s Falcons only play two of the four teams he hasn’t lost to, while Carr’s Raiders and Roethlisberger’s Steelers play one each. Flacco’s Eagles play two of the teams he hasn’t lost to, but he’s not expected to start this season, so Flacco is unlikely to add to his total.

Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers and Matthew Stafford have each lost to 27 different teams, but none of them can add more than three new losses this season, so none can catch Fitzpatrick.

In a strange way, losing to all 32 teams is a more difficult accomplishment than beating all 32 teams: Quarterbacks who lose a lot of games usually get benched or cut and don’t last long enough to lose to all 32 teams. It’s hard to keep a starting job for a long time while losing a lot of games. But Fitzpatrick has been a starter for eight different franchises, and Washington will be his ninth. He’s had an unusual career, and this year he can do something unprecedented in NFL history.

– – –

Back from vacation, Peter King weighs in on the NFL’s quasi-suspension for owner Dan Snyder:

The Washington Football Team was fined $10 million but there is no suspension of owner Daniel Snyder or further discipline for the rampant sexual harassment in the organization for years. Per Forbes’ recent NFL team valuations, the sanction is one-third-of-one-percent of the franchise worth ($3.5 billion), and less than 3 percent of WFT’s projected 2021 revenues. Roger Goodell called the work environment “for many years” in Washington “highly unprofessional.” He found evidence of bullying, intimidation and repeated sexual harassment, and said Snyder and his management team “paid little or no attention” to the behavior. Goodell has made some curious decisions in his 15-year tenure, but allowing Snyder to skate without anything but monetary sanction, to simply “step back” from owner duties for an undetermined period, is absurd.

Since there is no written report, the DB isn’t really sure about that.  We get it that Snyder and his team let some bad apples linger in employment – but so far we haven’t seen any direct evidence of Snyder being personally involved in untoward behavior.  And we don’t specifically know how many times he was made aware of what was going on.  Goodell may have had that evidence, but with a lack of a public report, we can only suspect that the decision is “absurd.”

Just like we have never known exactly what the Patriots were up to in Spygate.

NFC SOUTH

CAROLINA

Is Bank of America Stadium a safety hazard?  This from Peter King:

“At some point that building will fall down.”

—Carolina owner David Tepper on Bank of America Stadium in downtown Charlotte, pressuring locals to help him build a new stadium.

Bank of America Stadium is 26 years old. I guess they don’t make stadia like they used to.

NEW ORLEANS

Peter King with more on the timeline that led to late surgery for WR MICHAEL THOMAS:

I think the Michael Thomas ankle surgery timeline would make me furious if I were coach Sean Payton or GM Mickey Loomis. Thomas injured the ankle in the 2020 season-opener, causing him to miss nine games last year and to struggle when he did play. The ankle wasn’t right after the season, and per Nick Underhill of the website New Orleans Football, Thomas saw a specialist after the season who told him to rehab for a while and come back for another exam in the spring. Thomas, Underhill said, didn’t go back till after minicamp in June, at which point he was told to get surgery that would put him out, likely, till October. So this cornerstone player to the post-Brees now will have a truncated season that likely could have been avoided with earlier surgery. For a player who averages $19.25 million a year on one of the richest receiver contracts in history, having two straight incomplete seasons is a huge blow to a team with enough question marks already.

And if that doesn’t get a Saints fan’s blood boiling, King has this:

I always enjoy the job Aaron Schatz and his staff do on the Football Outside Almanac, and this year’s edition had a few things that caught my eye. Some really interesting bits from the ’21 tome:

• The Saints and penalties. This will get the conspiracy theorists going, and maybe it should. Last year, the Saints were first in penalty yards (1,005), while their foes had the fewest penalty yards in the league (517). In 2019, the Saints were seventh in penalty yards (1,023), while foes had the fewest again (713). It wasn’t as stark in the previous three seasons, but in each one, foes had fewer penalty yards. Opponents were 24th, 26th and 26th from 2016 to 2018. That’s something that will drive a coach nuts. Is everyone we play so pristine?

TAMPA BAY

QB TOM BRADY can cement his standing as GOAT in Week 4 at New England.  Peter King:

Variations of this have been widely noted, but if Brady averages 300 passing yards a game in his first three games, he’ll need 255 in game four—at New England, and what do you know about that—to break the NFL’s all-time passing-yardage record held by Drew Brees. Not saying it’s unbreakable, because it isn’t. But I am saying that Aaron Rodgers, for instance, enters the season 27,960 yards behind Brady. So if the record’s going to be broken, I’m guessing it’ll be by one of the very young turks in a very good offense with very good genes that allow him to play into his forties.

He can also join the small list of QBs who have beaten all 32 NFL franchises that night.

Three starting quarterbacks in NFL history have wins over all 32 NFL teams: Drew Brees, Brett Favre and Peyton Manning. Tom Brady will join that list if his Buccaneers beat the Patriots this season. And Aaron Rodgers could join the list too if he ends up on another team, and that team beats the Packers.

AFC NORTH

CLEVELAND

A tidbit from Peter King:

I do not remember a time when Lake Erie football was this anticipated, coming off the combined Buffalo-Cleveland record of 27-10 last year, coming off playoff victories for both. Did you know the last time the Bills and Browns entered training camp coming off playoff seasons was in 1990? Did you know the last time the Bills and Browns won a playoff game in the same season was in 1964?

– – –

I start with Cleveland/Buffalo. It occurred to me this spring that never in my life covering football had the Bills and Browns been really good at the same time. So I looked it up. Before January, when the Bills beat the Colts and Ravens and the Browns beat the Steelers, the last time they won playoff games in the same season happened a day apart, 57 years ago:

Saturday, Dec. 26, 1964, AFL Championship Game, at Buffalo: Bills 20, Chargers 7.

Sunday, Dec. 27, 1964, NFL Championship Game, at Cleveland: Browns 27, Colts 0.

When I ranked teams 1 to 32 after all the spring movement, I had the Bills three and Browns four. Crazy to think a 10-win season with an early playoff out would be disappointing, but that’s where these teams are. They’re not better than the best team in the AFC, Kansas City, but they’re close.

“Fairly incredible,” veteran Browns guard Joel Bitonio told me. “It wasn’t that long ago that I went three years without winning a football game.”

Let’s see. With Bitonio starting at guard on Oct. 11, 2015, Cleveland beat Baltimore. In the next 26 games he played over 2015, 2016 and 2017, he never played in a winning game. Zero and 26. In his last 26 games, Bitonio is 15-11. “Football should be fun,” Bitonio said, “and even though it’s your job and you’re making good money, losing every week isn’t what sports should be like. The NFL is built for parity, and now it feels like we’ve got the coaches and front office who have a plan behind every move they make.”

AFC SOUTH

HOUSTON

Peter King on the QB DESHAUN WATSON mess:

On Deshaun Watson. Multiple reports Sunday said Watson will report to Texans camp, evading the $50,000-a-day fine. The Texans would have the distraction-avoiding option of not having Watson on the practice field or in the public view. Welcome to head-coaching, David Culley. For the legal cases involving 22 accusations of sexual impropriety to not be adjudicated or settled by now, it figures that Watson and the accusers must both think they’ve got good cases.

Gut feeling here: It makes no sense for GM Nick Caserio to trade Watson when his value is diminished today; he needs to wait till whatever happens legally with Watson, and when the likely NFL sanction of Watson is meted out. When Watson’s fate is known, that’s when a team should trade for him. Which is why I’d guess (and that’s all it is) that Watson gets moved early in 2022, when presumably his legal issues are finished, and league discipline will be done too.

I’m sure Watson doesn’t see it this way, but this year is looking more and more like a washout for him. If it is, what would a team be trading for next winter? A quarterback who will turn 27 at the start of the ’22 season, chastened and tarnished, but coming off a 70-percent season in 2020 with a league-leading 4,823 passing yards.

Philadelphia’s the most logical target—and I’d argue that acquiring their next quarterback would be smarter next March than it is now. Maybe Jalen Hurts has a stunningly great year and the Eagles think they’ve got their quarterback of the future. Maybe the Eagles will be in position with three first-round picks to sit and take their next quarterback in the draft or trade up for him. Or maybe they’re in the best position of any team in the league to deal for Watson. So the best thing for Philadelphia here is to play the long game—and hope that Carson Wentz plays three-quarters of the snaps in Indianapolis this year, ensuring that third first-round pick 2022.

TENNESSEE

Peter King passively aggressively lobbies for a raise for Coach Mike Vrabel:

Jon Gruden and Mike Vrabel were introduced as AFC coaches 11 days apart in January 2018.

Gruden’s contract with the Raiders: an estimated $10-million per year. Vrabel’s contract in Tennessee: an estimated $3.2 million per.

Regular-season records since then: Gruden 19-29, Vrabel 29-19.

AFC EAST

MIAMI

Fifteen years after he left Miami, Nick Saban opens up about the main reason he took off.  Peter King:

I think there’s still some meat left on the bone regarding Nick Saban’s decision to leave the Miami Dolphins after just two coaching seasons in 2006. Per Sam Khan Jr. of The Athletic, Saban explained why he did (including some stuff I’d never heard) to the high school coaches in San Antonio:

“Drew Brees was coming to Miami when I was the coach there. He was going to be the quarterback, and that’s all we needed. We had built the team up, we went from 4-12 the year before I got there to 9-7, and all we needed was a quarterback and we’d be a playoff team. And we were going to sign Drew Brees as a free agent.

“Dr. (James) Andrews operated on him. I went to Birmingham to see Dr. Andrews. He said, ‘It’ll be fine.’ Our doctors [in Miami] failed him on a physical when he was there to sign with us. I actually made a deal with his agent we wouldn’t tell anybody for 72 hours that he failed a physical, until New Orleans signed him. That’s how he ended up in New Orleans.

“So I decided right then, when that happened, we don’t have a quarterback, we’re not going to win, I’m getting out of here. I’m not staying here. I’m not going to be responsible for this. The doctor obviously didn’t know his ass from a handful of sand.

“Drew Brees plays 15 more years, wins the Super Bowl, goes to nine Pro Bowls. And we didn’t take him in Miami, where he wanted to go. So, some things you can’t control. When we left there, I never threw the doctors under the bus. Nobody understood why, but that was why.”

No one questions Saban’s greatness as a football coach. But I’m not so sure about his word. I have vivid memories late in the 2006 season of Saban telling me he was staying in Miami. So either he wasn’t telling the truth then, or he isn’t telling the truth now.

NEW YORK JETS

Peter King on what the death of QB coach Greg Knapp could mean to QB ZACH WILSON:

(Brock) Osweiler said, “I really feel for the kid in New York, not being able to get coached by Greg.” The kid: Zach Wilson. There was some video on social media from Jets’ spring drills, with Knapp rushing against his new student on a hot Jersey practice field. No pressure on Wilson. Fans in the biggest NFL market just want him to be the greatest Jet quarterback since Namath.

(Steve) Young, a former BYU quarterback like Wilson, has been an adviser to the QB and his family. Knapp and Young talked to Wilson a lot. “He told me before the draft Zach was the number one quarterback in the draft in his book. After working with him for a while, Knapper loved Zach. He was a grinder. He wanted all the information. I can tell you Knapper was so excited—he was going to take a young kid and give him every chance to be a great player. As a coach, that was his dream. That was his calling.”

Wilson and Knapp talked not long before the accident, when Wilson was planning to meet Jets receivers in Florida for some summer throwing practices. Knapp gave Wilson some drills to use for the sessions.

“Run it yourself,” Knapp told Wilson.

Coaching till the end.

THIS AND THAT

MARK YOUR CALENDAR

Soon to be a National Holiday! (you would have laughed five years ago if you were told we’d have an Official National Holiday called “Juneteenth”).  Peter King:

The NFL can’t own every day of the calendar, but it can try. The latest effort: “Back Together Saturday,” a 13-hour effort on July 31, with all 32 teams going through drills and lights workouts, and 40 or more NFL Network and NFL.com reporters bringing live look-ins at 32 training camps around the league. ESPN and ABC will also have coverage during the day, just not wall-to-wall coverage.

The day will start in Tampa and Detroit at 9 a.m. and stretch to the Vikings walking off the camp field for an evening practice in Eagan, Minn., just after 9:30 p.m. ET. In between, a crowd of 37,000 will give a real-life feel at Ravens’ camp in downtown Baltimore; the Panthers will work out in front of 15,000 in Spartanburg, S.C.; the Texans will work out with teams of local youth footballers on the sidelines; and New England, New Orleans and Indianapolis will have free COVID vaccination stations on-site during their practices.

“We’ve wanted to do this for a while,” said NFL director of special events Peter O’Reilly. “It’s a festival of football, and we think it will get all our fans back into football. The teams have really embraced it.”

It won’t look much like football, because the first few practices for teams will be light workouts due to the agreement with the Players Association to have players phase into more physical work in the summer. But it’s a 13-hour promotional vehicle for the NFL. Will it draw viewers? Who knows. Pete Rozelle once scoffed at ESPN for wanting to televise the draft, and people laughed at the early mega-coverage of the NFL Scouting Combine. Look at those events now.

GREG KNAPP

Peter King collects a bunch of anecdotes about the beloved coach who died last week.  Here are a few:

Jim Mora (They coached together for 12 seasons): “We drove to work together every day for years. Right after 9/11, with the Niners, he was offensive coordinator and I was defensive coordinator, and we went to New York to play a Monday night game [against the Jets]. We won 19-17, something like that, and after the game someone took a picture of us that’s on my phone right now. He was infectious. He was loud. He was goofy. He’d play Barry Manilow in his office and if anyone complained, he’d turn it up and then you’d hear I WRITE THE SONG THAT MAKES THE WHOLE WORLD SING! Before every game we were together, we’d be down on the field, running four laps of the field, then 16 110s and then the stadium steps—every stadium in the country. Then we’d go high in the stadium, sit there and just talk—about life, about family, maybe about football. He just reached out and grabbed you. What a great life he lived.”

Matt Ryan (Knapp was his QB coach from 2018-20): “The day I passed Joe Montana [on the all-time list for touchdown passes, in 2018], I didn’t know it. But that night, I went out to dinner and happened to be in the same restaurant as Greg. Bones, in Atlanta. He sent me over a napkin with some really nice words. Like, ‘Congrats on passing one of the all-time greats. You are in that company.’ You are in that company. Joe Montana. Wow. Two other things I remember. He made our lives a part of the job. One day, he says at the start of our meeting, ‘Guys, you gotta see this.’ His daughter, Jordan, was an actress, and he showed us a commercial she was in. He was so proud. And he loved to ride his bike. Every Friday afternoon, his bike was left outside the meeting room, with his helmet on it, ready to go. Some people do meditation. Greg rode his bike.”

Eric Studesville (They coached together in Denver from 2013-16): “There was never a time I left a conversation with him frustrated, mad, upset. When I left him, I was always better off, more positive. We had a mutual interest in cycling, and Colorado was the perfect place for that. We’d go out at lunch lots of times, 18.1 miles in an hour, about an hour, mostly on these beautiful bike trails. I had one daughter, he had three, and so many times on those rides he’d be prepping me for what raising a daughter was going to be like. So many life lessons.”

Zander Ellis (A ballboy at Broncos camp in high school, Ellis got tutored by Knapp before quarterbacking his Kent Denver High School team to a 12-1 record in 2014): “He knew I played quarterback, and so he offered his help. During the day, like 15-hour days or longer, he’s coaching the greatest of all time [Manning] and then, after walk-through in the evening, he’d work with me. Maybe 30, 45 minutes, then he’d go back in and watch tape. I remember the first time we did it. I was so nervous that my first throw was straight into the dirt. It was a slant route. He looked and me and was like, ‘A little nervous?’ I got over that quickly. We were in the moment. He was just so responsive and so helpful when he was talking with me.”

“Then the next training camp—I wasn’t a ballboy, that was going into my freshman year of college—he sent me a text. I actually looked last night. And it was dated the first day of training camp, before the Super Bowl 50 season, 2015. It said, ‘QBs were asking for you today. We missed you. Hope all is well. Coach Knapp.’ “

Steve Young (Knapp’s first QB coaching job, in 1998, was in San Francisco): “He played at Sac State [Sacramento State] and his dream job was to coach for the Niners. He heard Bill Walsh speak, and Bill said, ‘You don’t have to coach with a big stick.’ That’s Knapper. He wanted to coach with tools, not weapons. When he got to the Niners, he told us it was a dream come true for him. I told him, ‘I hope we don’t disappoint you.’ He was a coach, but he was a student too. He was there to learn. One day he said to me, ‘I love this job. This job is amazing!’ “

And this from a friend of the DB:

Knew Coach Knapp pretty well in Denver.   Nicest man you ever want to know.   Played golf with him and helped him with cars. Loved Osweiler, seems wrong about that, but not about life.  Will be missed.