Jay Cutler could be making many fans of some other lucky team smile sometime soon.

Yesterday it was reported that the Pro Bowl Quarterback of the Denver Broncos, Jay Cutler, had officially requested a trade. Today, we the people, began contemplating where he might end up if his request is honored. I’m sure there are many fans out there whose team could use a guy in Jay Cutler who played like the potential franchise-type quarterback that many analysts foresaw. The scoop is that new head coach Josh McDaniels, who was offensive coordinator for the Patriots, wanted to trade Cutler for Matt Cassel since he was familiar with his system already. This has since angered the young Cutler and he now wants to go… but where?!

To start off an easy process of elimination, every team in the AFC is out since teams don’t usually like to send star players away to in-conference franchises. And although Cassel was finally traded to another AFC team, like his former Patriots, in the Chiefs, that was more of an “I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine” deal.

This was the widespread thought when that deal went down, because Scott Pioli, the former general manager of the Patriots moved onto Kansas City to try and resurrect that ball club.

So the AFC is out!

In the NFC East, Dallas has Tony Romo, NY has Eli Manning, and Philadelphia has Donovan McNabb. So far, Jason Campbell of the Washington Redskins still has a lot to prove, while Cutler seems way more promising than him thus far when both their careers are compared.

In the NFC North, the Packers have Aaron Rodgers, and the Vikings made moves to throw their young QB Tarvaris Jackson into a competition with newly acquired Sage Rosenfels from Houston. I don’t think that the Lions could attract an odor, so the Bears are definitely a hot spot. They’ve had no success with Rex Grossman, and minimal with Kyle Orton.

In the NFC South, the Saints boast Drew Brees, and the Falcons have a young star in rookie of the year Matt Ryan. The Panthers would have looked to have some great trade bait with the disgruntled Julius Peppers, but now it looks like he may be a Patriot soon. However, with Jake Delhomme being their current signal caller you still can’t count them out. Then there’s the Buccaneers who got rid of veteran Jeff Garcia.

After that, in the NFC West, the Seahawks have Matt Hasselbeck who is not past his better days yet, and Kurt Warner is obviously safe as the Cardinals QB. Cross those two teams out and you have the 49ers with the disappointing results of Alex Smith’s progress, and the St. Louis Rams, who should have started thinking about dropping Marc Bulger quite some time ago.

So there you have it. The top candidates to have Jay Cutler for President!

Hold the Popcorn the Movie hasn’t started yet!!!

Well T.O. has been cut from the Cowboys and many people are asking why not trade him instead of cutting him.  The Cowboys gave up a lot to get Roy Williams and the possible could have gotten some of that back by trading T.O..  In this situation you have to weigh the pros and cons of this move, whenever you have a player like T.O. you can get a second round pick or proven vet in a trade but the trading block process is long and tedious (almost like litigation).   It could take all the way into the next season for them to get what they want from a trade and they might not even get what they want from trading T.O..  This would then bring the media circus back to Dallas again and put a lot of stress on the team.   The Cowboys decided to get rid of T.O. now,  just for the later reason.  By cutting T.O. he is no longer a part of the time and the organization can move on in new direction.   The main reason he was cut was because of the growing sentiment in the locker room and organization, with numerous people who are a part of the team both players and staff, that T.O. needed to go.  Also by doing this it is easy for the coaches to begin work on the plays and routes that they will focus on in the off-season if T.O. was on the trade block, they would still have to factor him in, just in case he was coming back next year.  Despite the value T.O. has as a trade the Cowboys made the right decision in cutting him.

Mike Tomlin Coach of the 2009 Pittsburgh Steelers

On February 1st, the Arizona Cardinals will do battle against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Aside from the surprising appearance by Arizona to get to their first Super Bowl, there is a very surprising trend beginning to surmise… that is if the Steelers win the game.

In the Steelers last four Super Bowl appearances they have faced off against the L.A. Rams in 1979, winning 31-19, the Dallas Cowboys in 1995 losing 27-17, the Seattle Seahawks, winning 21-10, and now the Arizona Cardinals. If the Steelers win, that will mean that their last three titles will have come against present NFC West teams.

Back in 1979, the now St. Louis Rams, still were a part of the NFC West, but that division consisted of the San Francisco 49ers, New Orleans Saints, and Atlanta Falcons. Since the arrival of the Houston Texans, that division now includes the St. Louis Rams, Arizona Cardinals, Seattle Seahawks, and the 49ers.

Another interesting tidbit, like this year’s Cardinals, the only other 9-7 team to ever make a Super Bowl were those same aforementioned L.A. Rams.

However, the most striking piece of trivia has to be that all three team’s Super Bowl appearances against the Steelers were their first ever. Could this mean that the Cardinals, although a great story, are doomed to drop the ball in the non-literal sense of the phrase? Who knows, and if the world is what it is, and the Cards do lose, it shouldn’t be viewed as much more than a wild coincidence. Either way, it’s pretty damn cool… especially if you’re a Steeler fan.

Rex Ryan Takes Center Stage On

Will the New York Jets ever get it right? That remains to be seen. For now I will let you chew on this. The only two defensive coordinators to win a Superbowl in their first head coaching job with new organizations are Tom Landry and Bill Cowher. Landry went to the Dallas Cowboys in 1960 after spending the previous six seasons as the defensive coordinator for the New York Giants. Bill Cowher took over for the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1992 after having spent the previous three seasons with the Kansas City Chiefs as their D.C. Landry spent 29 seasons in Big D having won and lost two Superbowls. Cowher spent 15 seasons in the Steel City yielding one Superbowl victory and one loss. It took Landry 11 years to win a Superbowl and it took Cowher his entire coaching career to accomplish the same. Mike Tomlin could very well add his name to this very short and elite list. Making him the quickest to do so in that small class. 

Many of you are going to point out that everyone is an assistant at some point and that they cant all win Superbowls. Surely names like Bill Parcells and Bill Belichick will surface as well. Of course I am sure you will not forget Lovie Smith and John Fox. How much longer are you willing to wait Jets fans?

Don Shula + David Shula = 2 Superbowls

Bum Phillips + Wade Phillips = 0 Superbowls

Jim Mora + Jim Mora Jr = PLAYOFFS!?!? 0 Superbowls

Dick Nolan + Mike Nolan = FIRED 0 no Superbowls

Buddy Ryan + Rex Ryan = ? Superbowls

On Sunday, January 4th, at 1:00pm eastern, the Miami Dolphins and Baltimore Ravens will line up against each other one last time in Miami in a Wild-Card Weekend matchup.

Game number three of Wild-Card weekend will feature two teams that had surprise turnarounds from last season. But of the two teams, the biggest surprise was last season’s hapless 1-15 Miami Dolphins doing a complete 180 with an 11-5 record this season while also earning the AFC East title. The Ravens, although always strong defensively, are nothing short of surprising either as they went from 5-11 last year to 11-5 this year. What makes their turnaround so remarkable was that they did it with rookie quarterback Joe Flacco, and if it weren’t for injuries to both Kyle Boller and Troy Smith before week one, Joe Flacco may not have gotten his first start until later in the season and who knows what happens. With that being said, let’s take a look at the key phases of each team’s game.

Ravens’ Advantage

Both team’s offenses seem to even one another out. The Dolphins score 21.6 points per game and the Ravens 24.1 points per game. Although the Dolphins average only 118.6 yards on the ground to the Ravens 148.5, Miami out-throws Baltimore by a tune of 227 yards per game to 175.5. This shows that the Ravens outrun the Dolphins by 29.9 yards per game, and the Dolphins pass for 51.5 yards more than the Ravens.

Even with that being said, conventional wisdom shows that the team with the better running game will win. And that should be the case here. What’s even more is that the Ravens are 3^rd defensively against the run at 81.4ypg, and a whopping 2^nd versus the pass giving up 179.7ypg. The problem the Dolphins have, even though they get to play in the confines of their home stadium, is that they are 25^th against the pass at 227.8ypg, and 10^th versus the run at 101.2ypg. In all respects, giving up 101.2 yards a game on the ground is not that bad, but when the duo of Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams is good for a great total of 1,575 yards, and the Ravens trio of Willis McGahee, Le’Ron McClain, and Ray Rice combined for an outstanding number like 2,028, then not only are the Ravens defending the run better, but they are carrying the ball better as well.

Dolphins’ Advantage

Even though the Ravens outweigh the Dolphins in some key statistical categories necessary for playoff success, they have not been very good on the road playing against the projected playoff teams in the pre-season; at Indianapolis they lost 3-31, at the Giants they lost 10-30. Their only strong points against what were considered playoff teams were at Pittsburgh when they lost in OT 20-23, at the Dolphins when they won 27-13, and finally, when they beat Dallas 33-24.

Allow me to downplay. The Steelers and Ravens are diehard division rivals and always play each other tough. The Cowboys game had two aberration type plays on the Ravens final two drives; an 82 yard scoring run followed by a 77 yard scoring run. Any team would be lucky to get a run of either of those lengths all season long. Last but not least, when the Ravens beat the Dolphins in Miami in week 7, it dropped the Dolphins’ record to 2-4. Since then, Miami has gone 9-1 and are playing at a slightly different level than that period of time.

The other thing the Dolphins have going for them is that they had the fewest turnovers in the league with only 13. Chad Pennington had arguably his best season since his first ever rotator-cuff injury with a career-high 3,653 yards, 19 touchdowns and just 7 interceptions while completing 67.4 percent of his passes. Rookie QB Joe Flacco, although he had a great season for a rookie, 2,971 yards, 14 TDs, 12 INTs (not to mention his eleven fumbles) and completed 60.0 percent of his passes, he is still a rookie and is definitely mistake-prone.

Like one analyst put it… “What the Ravens thrive on, the Dolphins simply don’t do”… turn the ball over!

Conclusion

Although the Dolphins play at home, and are riding the emotional high an unprecedented successful season and comeback year of Chad Pennington, I have to go with the Ravens. They can negate their opponent’s run, and kill them with their own. Furthermore, Joe Flacco is quickly being molded into the confident game manager who can make a few plays here and there that Baltimore has been looking for. I only see Joe Flacco having, at the most, one turnover, and with their 2^nd ranked total defense (261.1ypg) and 3^rd ranked defense in points given up per game (15.2), the Ravens can easily overcome it. I cannot see a team who beat squads like Seattle without QB Matt Hasselbeck by two points, Oakland by two points as well, San Francisco by five, all at home, and Saint Louis by four on the road beating this gritty Ravens team.

Ravens will move on to play the one-seeded Tennessee Titans next week.

With just two weeks of play left in the regular season of the 2008-2009 year, a few teams have locked up a spot in the playoffs while others are still fighting to make it. What is about to unfold in this article is, what are in my mind, the teams that will make it.

We already know the Steelers and Titans have locked up spots and first round byes in the AFC. In the NFC the Giants have clinched their division while the Cardinals have as well. First I will go over the locks to get in.

In the AFC the only sure-fire lock I have is the Indianapolis Colts. If they beat Jacksonville this Thursday in Florida, they’re in. With the way the Jags have disappointed, I do not even see them using the rivalry bug as added motivation to beat Indianapolis.

In the NFC, surprisingly, the Carolina Panthers have not clinched even with an 11-3 record, which is a testament to the competitiveness of the NFC. However, one more win or one more loss from another team or two would put them in. The Cowboys have been hot lately. I don’t care about Romo’s performance in Pittsburgh. The game was still close, and it has been their only slip up since his return from injury. They face the Ravens at home, and Eagles in Philadelphia. The Eagle game should be tough and they easily can lose, but to me, I think all of the air got sucked out of the Raven team with their last minute loss to Pittsburgh last weekend.

The Vikings should clinch their division as the Bears face the Packers on Monday Night at home, but then travel to Houston the last week. Houston is on pace to finish up 9-7 and Andre Johnson should be able to shred their weak pass defense.

After that I don’t think Tampa will get in as they have slipped up and their weaknesses are beginning to be exposed. The Falcons and Eagles to me will be the ones to fighting for the 6th seed in the NFL as they have both been consistent as of late.

Back in the AFC, I’ll take the Patriots to win their division. They are at home against the Cardinals who have clinched, and then at a bum Buffalo team. That would put them at 11-5. The reason I see this happening is because the as-of-late inconsistent Jets should lose in Seattle this weekend, and the Dolphins will beat the Kansas City Chiefs. But when they play each other in New York, I’ll take a last-ditch effort by Favre to even their records at 10-6, giving one of them the 6th seed.

The only seed I am unsure of is the 4th seed in the AFC as the Broncos are 8-6 and Chargers 6-8. If the Chargers beat Tampa Bay in Tampa this weekend, which is not an oversight, and the Broncos lose at home to the Bills, which is still a bit of a stretch even if the Broncos aren’t so consistent, then they will be playing in San Diego for the division in week 17. If that happens, I’ll take the Chargers.

So that’s how I believe the “tournament” brackets will be set up come January.

The cowboys may have to play the remainder of the season without Adam Jones in the defensive backfield, which is a huge deal considering they don’t have any depth at DB. This week THE BOYS will start their swiss cheese secondary against the Giants. I expect Eli to have a big game. The Pacman news may seem like small news, but when you take into account their laundry list of injuries, its not hard to jump to grasp it’s severity. Jerry Jones may have been better suited to have picked up some free agents DB’s rather than wasting 3 draft picks on Odessa’s #1 WR Roy Williams. Just look at the secondary for this week’s Giants game, I am starting to think they will have no one to actually play Safety. Hamlin (Ankle) probably won’t be ready and Keith Davis (MCL) is not likely to play and remember that Roy Williams is on IR. So who is going to start? That is a question that I don’t think Wade Phillips knows the answer to either. Right now it looks like Tra Battle and Courtney Brown will get the start, at the Safety spots. Yet again because of this you should expect a big game for Eli and Giants second year TE Kevin Boss for several reasons. The First reason is that Tra Battle, who was cut earlier this season by the Chargers, is severely undersized and will be expected to cover the TE during certain man packages during this game. In the Red Zone this will really kill the boys. Also Courtney Brown is a ex-corner who just wasn’t agile enough to play CB at the NFL level. He is not a reliable player and in this big game he could be exploited. This duo just won’t match up against Big Blue’s crew of Wide-Outs.

Sorry Boy’s fans, your season is already over, finito!

The Cowboys have a pretty rough upcoming schedule, in which they will face the New York Giants (11-2), Baltimore Ravens (9-4) and Philadelphia Eagles (7-5-1). These are teams that I don’t know if they could beat even when they were healthy. So now with the cowboys all banged up, I have to say is, “Stick a fork in it. Good job for beating Seattle and San Francisco, but the reality is your still not making the playoffs! SO STOP TALKING ABOUT IT!!!!!”

The NFL has hit its third quarter mark, and after twelve of the most up-and-down weeks of football in recent history, it is still a bit of a stretch to call anybody a true lock for the Super Bowl save for the New York Giants. However, there are still a few teams that are definitely pulling away from most others as viable Super Bowl contenders.

The first team, resoundingly, is the Giants. This is the best team in the league as far as everyone being on the same page. They have shown great depth to overcome almost all injuries, and even self-imposed gunshot wounds. Their one loss to the Browns in Cleveland where they went down by a score of 14 to 35 was a true head-scratcher. However, that game can definitely hold an asterisk for being an aberration since the Brownies have been terrible for the most part. The Giants have gone from a team with potential who plays on emotion, to a team that just flat out knows how to win. They are a well-oiled machine and are unphased by whatever distractions, whatever home field advantages their opponents have, and whichever fallen soldier opponents might be playing for.

The second team that comes to mind in my view is the Pittsburgh Steelers. Their loss to the Eagles was just one of those days where nothing goes good offensively. They had a slump against the two Manning led teams but seem to have their act together as they have won convincingly for the most part ever since.

A team like the Jets had their slumps early on against teams like Oakland where they lost 16-13, and only scored ten points at home against the Patriots, then rip off a five game winning streak, blow out the previously undefeated Titans in Tennessee, and suffer another inexcusable slump to the no-defense Broncos at home losing 34-17. That is not the stuff of a contender, but rather a team with potential but a little too inconsistent to have faith in.

My next team is the Baltimore Ravens. Say what you want about their rookie quarterback. They are playing lights out and beating opponents they are supposed to beat the way the good teams are supposed to… big. They have had their share of slumps, namely a 30-10 loss to the Giants, and a 31-3 loss to the Colts. However, they already took Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania to OT and lost 20-23, but that was in just the fourth week of young Joe Flacco’s already budding career. If the Ravens get into the playoffs and meet up with the Colts or Giants again, it should be a lot closer as typically, second meetings between two teams in the same season are rarely ever a duplicate of the first meeting. Oh, and don’t count them out to win the AFC North as they still get Pittsburgh one last time for sure at home in two weeks and trail the Steelers by just one game.

After the Ravens, the Colts should not be overlooked. They keep finding ways to win, and a handful of those wins were handed to them. However, that kind of luck coupled with their post season experience can be a bad omen for their opponents come playoff time if they get in. And yes, I am counting luck as a factor. They have shown the kind of luck that is too good to be true, i.e. Titans, Steelers, and Browns games.

After that, I would say the Cowboys are the sleeper. They slumped big time early on. They did not have their act together as they seemed to display the heir of a team who already saw themselves in the Super Bowl. Now with their backs against the wall, they are looking like that kind of team again.

As for other squads like the Panthers and Bucs, their efforts are certainly admirable, but their quarterbacks, Jake Delhomme and Jeff Garcia respectively, are just too inconsistent. The Arizona Cardinals are like the Saints… great passing attack and not much more. The only difference is their division stinks. The one team that could be close to a contender is the Atlanta Falcons. They are moving milestones ahead in their rebuilding process at 8-4, and are perhaps one or two more productive seasons, and a good losing post season experience away from becoming a perennial contender.

Other than that, all of the other teams are just a little too consistent for my blood.

Roy Williams SS Dallas Cowboys

Roy Williams has broken his forearm in his first game back today. Jerry Jones has told the media that he will be out for the remainder of the season. Roy Williams was a large piece of the cowboys secondary. Earlier this season, Roy had stated he was uncomfortable with the teams defensive scheme. He said, “I don’t fit this system” Roy’s morale is at an all time low, and he is upset with his situation and the way this team has decided to use him. Considering that Dallas is very thin at the DB position and this injury could prove all too costly for the team. After being embarrassed in St. Louis the Dallas Cowboys must regroup and figure out what they are going to do about their secondary. Roy Williams in out, Pacman is out, Newman goes out often. Do not be surprised if you hear Jerry Jones searching for a new DB on the free agent market. Ty Law the assassin, is getting looked at by the Dolphins so don’t think Jones might not get in that mix. Jerry knows for Dallas to get to and win a Superbowl they will need more depth in the defensive skill positions.

Roy Williams Cowboys Wide Receiver

Also, Dallas’s top acquisition, WR Roy E. Williams was held without a catch today. Do not expect this to happen often, but do realize he is learning a new offense, so it could take some time to see the fantasy numbers poeple expect. Dallas has dropped 3 of the last 4 games.