QUOTE: “I am a kind of paranoiac in reverse. I suspect people of plotting to make me happy.” -- J. D. Salinger
Make sure you listen to our podcast with Saints quarterback Drew Brees, who discusses his relationship with Peyton Manning going back to his time at Purdue.
Mike Holmgren dislikes quarterback battles
Don’t expect the Browns to bring back Derek Anderson to compete for a job, but the other real issue for the Browns now that Mike Holmgren has proclaimed he doesn’t like quarterback competitions is who will get the position? No one has come out to endorse Brady Quinn, leaving all Browns fans to ask, who will be the guy? Will they draft one? Will they sign a free agent or make a trade for a QB (Matt Hasselbeck of Seattle or Kevin Kolb of Philadelphia)? Holmgren said in a radio interview that he hasn’t had time to sit down and review the quarterbacks closely to make a final decision.
Where will Holmgren find his solution? Is Michael Vick a possibility? I would doubt that Holmgren will bring in Vick, but who does he go after? Seattle doesn’t have anyone on its roster to allow it to trade Hasselbeck, and the main concern with him besides injuries is that he’s a west coast quarterback and the Browns don’t run the west coast right now. All the talk about the Eagles trading Donovan McNabb is really just talk, and trading Kolb this year wouldn’t be prudent. If the league goes uncapped, the Eagles would own Kolb’s rights for two more years, so it makes no sense to trade him away, especially with McNabb unsigned beyond 2010.
One thing that’s certain now that Holmgren is in charge is that the Browns will place a premium on finding a long-term solution at quarterback. Could you imagine if Jon Gruden, now that he’s no longer coaching and can act as an adviser to his close friend Holmgren, could convince him to draft Tim Tebow of Florida? Gruden loves Tebow, and if Holmgren makes a change in coaches next year, having Tebow might entice Gruden to come back to the sidelines. Food for thought….
Gholston will be back with the Jets (you have to love that, Yahoo Dave)
Jets GM Mike Tannenbaum spoke to the media and gave some indication of his plans for the offseason, which include Vernon Gholston.
“This is going to be an important offseason for him,” Tannenbaum said. “I have no objective information to say that this guy doesn’t love football.”
What have you been watching? This quote reminds me of a scene in “The Godfather” when Michael nails Carlo for killing Sonny. He tells Carlo to not to insult his intelligence, and Tannenbaum is insulting all Jets fans with his comments. What more can Gholston do this offseason to help him become a better player? He got drafted because he can lift the moon, run fast and tested incredibly well. The offseason is not the problem; playing football is.
Tannenbaum also indicated that safety Kerry Rhodes will be back but did not say the same for corner Lito Sheppard or even running back Thomas Jones. The Jets have many players with roster bonus money due in March (Alan Faneca is due $7.5 million) and will have to rework deals in order to keep this team intact — not because of the cap but because of internal budgets. The uncapped year will force teams to place an internal budget on player costs, and those numbers might not be as high as with a cap.
Lions coaching the Senior Bowl
I really feel the Lions made a smart move deciding to coach in the Senior Bowl this week. They have so many needs that they need to get as much information as possible on every player. The core of their team is small, and to realistically make a jump to the seven- or eight-win area, they must have another great draft.
This game will not provide the clues they need to decide who will be the No. 2 pick overall, but it will help them make a decision on who will be their second-round pick. If they’re going to show progress, the Lions must make sure they get three starters next year out of this draft and two more potential starters. Free agency will be weak this year if we go uncapped, so the draft -- especially for the Lions -- must provide starters.
Keep following our draft coverage from Wes Bunting and Joe Fortenbaugh, who have done a great job covering the Senior Bowl.
Follow me on Twitter: michaelombardi
For more on offseason questions at the QB position for some teams, check out this article from Bleacher Report.
Great observation, Patrick!
I think Thomas Jones would be a good fit in Seattle, along with Forsett.
The Lions coaching the Senior Bowl is a good move. I know that the previous coach, Rod Marinelli skipped it once, perhaps twice. And no wonder the Lions couldn't find studs in the mid-to-late rounds. Who am I fooling, find studs in "any" round.
What about Daunte Culpepper in Cleveland? He could be gotten pretty cheaply, and he gives the Browns an actual arm. I'm not a Culpepper fan, but he might serve as a temporary fill-in, if the Browns do draft a QB.
Gruden likes Tebow?....Gruden changes qbs every other week, what makes that such a good idea? Gruden will destroy any chance Tebow has at being good. I dont think McNabb is going anywhere, however if sometime makes AReid a tempting offer, will he bite? Would Cleveland's 2nd and 3rd round picks this year get it done?
Pep is no upgrade...if you're going to do that, may as well stick with Quinn or D.A. and hope that other personnel moves will get you winning in the short term.
So, Cleveland needs a QB? After giving Anderson a lucrative multi-year deal, and drafting Brady Quinn. Surprise, surprise. To everyone even aware of football outside of the Cleveland "brain trust" (a word I use in this case rather loosely), this is not a surprise.
Anderson had a great year (one) because he was a surprise. Once teams had tape on him, he shriveled and died. There were many sportscasters who predicted this.
Next, we have the case of Brady. He was not an accurate passer at ND; he's not an accurate passer in Cleveland. I guess I should be surprised, but I'm not. And the people in Cleveland get paid big bucks to make these mistakes? Sign me up. I'll be more than willing to make boneheaded decisions for big bucks (no pun intended).
[For those of you who didn't get the unintended pun- it was "boneheaded" and the Cleveland "dog pound".]
Thanks for the Salinger quote, that's an all time line.
Holmgren wants to trade for a QB? Quick, someone give him Bruce Allen's cell number.
Help me out here... in one paragraph you say that because of the uncapped year, teams are going to be slashing player costs, but in the next year you say it's going to be a weak year for free agency because it's an uncapped year.
Are you suggesting that, knowing they're going to be locked out next year, players are nonetheless going to be lining up to voluntarily take pay cuts? That's the only way both those statements can be true.
I get that the FA class is reduced a little because of UFA's (the majority of whom historically re-sign with their team) staying RFA's without a CBA, but cutting costs means cutting players -- big ticket players. I think it's going to be the most interesting free agent class since 1993.
What can the Eagles realistically expect in terms of a pick for Vick? His salary jumps next year and they clearly don't need him, McNabb and Kolb.
Possible Vick destinations? Arizona, Minneapolis, Buffalo, Seattle, SF, St. L, Cleveland, Denver, Washington?
Mike, thanks for the timely homage to JD. Well done. Time to re-read "The Catcher in the Rye."
Jon Gruden absolutely loved Rex Grossman.
Too many cooks in Cleveland.
Holmgren has a new VP of football ops, a new GM and the existing coach.......yet Holmgren seems to be making all the football decisions. So when all goes wrong, who walks the plank? If Holmgren is making these player decisions then the blame should not be shunted on to the others.
The problem is that he is the president of the Browns and that is a very different job description that does not include day to day football operations. He is not Jerry Jones who also owns the team and has built up some knowledge over twenty years of owning the Cowboys.
If Holmgren does not let his football people run the draft and personnell , this can all go horribly wrong for him personally. If it blows up then he is the guy who should get fired.
Holmgren has already proven that he is no Ron Wolf when it comes to personnel. Lets just hope that he can be a Bob Harlen and put the right people in the right jobs - then get out of the way
Luke McCown should be a starter in this league, without question. He can probably steal him from JAX.
Gruden and Grossman deserve each other.
Could not agree more w/the take by Mack.
Holmgren is creating so many layers, he will be insulated from any possible blame if things don't go well.
He already bought himself a year by keeping Mangenius.
Grossman could have been a good QB if he had ANY coaching or offense to run in Chicago. Look at his winning percentage as a starter (the thing everyone references when talking about how great Kyle Orton is). Grossman was ruined the same way David Carr was.
Everyone needs to go to www.investigatethenfl.com and sign the electronic petition to have Congress investigate the NFL for fraud and game fixing.
Hey Fixed...didn't I see you posting the same conspiracy BS on nfl.com? At least you spelled everything correctly this time. Now run along, your tinfoil hat is beginning to come loose.
Hear, hear, NFLISFIXED, you da man! This is definitely how congress should be spending their time, what with the economy having been fixed and there being no major contentious legislation packages currently working their way through the legislative process. (I can hear the tune of "I'm Just a Bill" as I type....)
Tell me, are you as ignorant about football as you are about civics?
"Lets just hope that he can be a Bob Harlen and put the right people in the right jobs - then get out of the way"
hey mack.. that is what he is doing! holmgren has already made it clear that he hasnt spent his year off evaluating college personnel, so he already knows that the smart decision is to let his new personnel guys do their jobs.
Mike Holmgren has not even gotten his entire staff in place yet.
The Cleveland Browns are an operation that has been in business for 11 years now, and up until the day Mike showed up, had nothing resembling a professional NFL organization.
And now he 's getting killed after less then a month because he hasn't traded for Peyton Manning or Drew Brese? At least give him till after the Super Bowl next week. I'm sure both those teams will be offering him their QB's for Porkchop Womack, John St. Clair, and a few of the Jets that Mangini brought in.
For the record - the hiring of Mike Holmgren is the best thing to happen to the Cleveland Browns since Blanton Collier and the rest of Paul Browns staff retired after the 1970 season. This is now a professional operation and is on its way to building a top-flite NFL organization. They will be getting the players. if Mangini can coach them, that's fine. If he can't, then Mike can take the whistle. Either way, the Browns are finally back in the NFL!
Yeah Bob, Holmgren has been evaluating talent all year. He has been going to schools and visiting practices and doing what a personnel chief does - doubt it. He knows people and likely has been keeping track of talent but until he was hired by the Browns, he was retired.
Mike is a sharp guy, no doubt about it but now that he has Heckert at GM and Schiefelbein as his Football Ops VP, its time to let go. Should he give advise on evaluating techniques - sure but he should not be hiring coaches or drafting players. Now he his hiring Gil Haskell as an advisor so you just know that mangini is on borrowed time
We have seen Mike in action as a talent evaluator with the Sea Hawks and the results were mixed. His teams played in a weak division so they should have been good most of the time.
Look I'm not anti Holmgren. As a Packer fan of 43 years I am thankful for his stewardship of the team in the 90's. Great coach but Wolf built that team. Holmgren is intelligent and practical but both Heckert and Schiefelbein have strong scouting and personnel backgrounds. Let them run the show.
My point about Bob Harlen is that he identified the right guy (Wolf) brought him in, supported him and then let him do his job. Harlen as president worked on league matters, getting a new stadium approved and promoting the club. That is what a president does - not hiring the strength coach
you need to remember Holmgren had an embarrassment of coaching talent on the sideline with him. Watch the Pats superbowl, you can see 15 NFL head coaches on that sideline...
you need to remember Holmgren had an embarrassment of coaching talent on the sideline with him. Watch the Pats superbowl, you can see 15 NFL head coaches on that sideline...
A list of thank yous and a final...
Even if you called me an idiot,...
Their success will depend on QB...
Titans coach wants Chris Johnson...
Now is the QB’s chance to show...
Jan 29, 2010
11:25 AM
Vick in DawgPound too much irony