Always an interesting and intriguing day in the NFL. Feel free to add your thoughts, and any moves I may have missed

Head Coaches
Hue Jackson staying with the Browns - much to everyone's surprise
Vance Joseph staying with the Broncos
Todd Bowles staying with the Jets
Bruce Arians retiring from the Cardinals
John Fox fired by the Bears
Chuck Pagano fired by the Colts
Jack Del Rio fired by the Raiders - replaced by Jon Gruden(?)
Jim Caldwell fired by Lions

Assistants
DC Dom Capers fired by Packers - Teflon Dom finally gone!
DC Dean Pees retiring from the Ravens
All Giants assistants told by new GM Dave Gettleman that they are free to look for other jobs
Patriots coordinators Josh McDaniels and Matt Patricia interviewing at basically every team with a HC vacancy

So a lot of moves, but perhaps not quite as many as we thought with Hue and (apparently) Marvin Lewis sticking around.

It blows my mind that Marvin Lewis is hanging around. What does he have on the Bengals brass that keeps him around?! Dude sucks. He could’ve left on the highnote of eliminating the Ravens from the playoffs, but he’s going to stick around for more mediocre Bengals football. Insane.

I’m so pumped up about John Gruden coaching the Raiders. Do the Raiders face the Redskins at all next season?

Honestly even though I throught Gruden retired waaaaaaaaaaaay to early from coaching and I hope he does well...I'm going to miss the man on Monday Night Football commentary. I might actually have to start liking the Raiders now. I hope the Giants can get Mcdaniels. I never liked Macadoo as a head coach, it always felt weird. Sure it was time for Coughlin to go but some guys just aren't head coaches and are better serving under one, Macadoo is one of those guys. He'll land some coordinator gig somewhere i'm sure.

Well there's not a lot of evidence that McDaniels is head coach material either...

I hope Gruden doesn't miss a step in coming back to coaching. For every Marty Schottenheimer, there's also a George Seifert.

DC Dom Capers fired by Packers - Teflon Dom finally gone!

A sign of the apocalypse?

Jan 1, 2018 23:50:37 GMT thereallt said:

DC Dom Capers fired by Packers - Teflon Dom finally gone!

A sign of the apocalypse?

This was the silver lining to losing one of the league's most entertaining players for the majority of the season. Between this and resigning Davante Adams, Green Bay's offseason is off to a great start.

I love Gruden as an announcer. One of the best parody twitter accounts was @faux_Gruden.

Also shocked at Marvin Lewis sticking around. Just bonkers to me. Talk about wearing out your welcome...

With Arians retiring, wonder what that means for Palmer and Larry Fitz. Obviously Fitzgerald proved that he was still an elite WR in the league with 109 receptions, 1100+ yards and 6 tds. Hope he comes back, he can pass TO for receiving yards to be in 2nd all time, with another 90+ catch season, pass Tony Gonzalez for #2 on the all-time receptions list. Plus, he's one of the good guys in the league.

Jan 1, 2018 23:32:59 GMT CM Punk'd said:

I hope Gruden doesn't miss a step in coming back to coaching. For every Marty Schottenheimer, there's also a George Seifert.

Even though his stint in Carolina didn't end well he did pull a pretty good season out of an aging cast of mostly washed up veterans in that 1999 campaign, even though they barely missed the playoffs(tiebreakers came down to point differential). I actually think that was one of his best years as a coach considering what they accomplished with the roster they had(4th ranked offense in points scored, 6th ranked in total yards, with Steve Beuerlien at QB and Tim Biakabatuka at RB, and a no-name offensive line, they had the 2nd ranked passing offense in the league that year behind only the Greatest Show On Turf Rams if I'm not mistaken).  

It's not like Gruden's last years in the league were overwhelmingly successful either. He didn't pick up a playoff win after his Super Bowl win (and everyone gives Dungy a lot of credit for building that team) and his career win percentage is .540 - lower than Caldwell and Pagano who just got fired.

I'm definitely not saying he's a bad coach, but I think his personality tends to have people remembering him more fondly than his actual record perhaps deserves.

Gruden had a pretty big hand in developing Brett Favre as an assistant in Green Bay, also got some great production out of Rich Gannon who sucked before he hooked up with Gruden. He never was able to work that magic in Tampa(whatever happened to Chris Simms anyway?) but I think he could be great for Derek Carr.

Just imagine a Gruden vs Belichick/Brady rematch Raiders vs Patriots...

Jan 2, 2018 2:57:18 GMT shinobimusashi said:

Gruden had a pretty big hand in developing Brett Favre as an assistant in Green Bay, also got some great production out of Rich Gannon who sucked before he hooked up with Gruden. He never was able to work that magic in Tampa(whatever happened to Chris Simms anyway?) but I think he could be great for Derek Carr.

Hard to give him a ton of credit for Favre considering that he relied on a lot of natural gifts and there were several offensive guys around him. Gannon makes sense as an argument, but the signs were there the year prior when he was backing up Grbac despite everyone in KC knowing he was better.

Always felt like Gruden was kind of a perfect example of how QB’s make the guru, not the other way around.

Gruden is the single most overrated coach of all-time. His Super Bowl win came with a team Tony Dungy built and what was essentially insider knowledge of the Raiders offense. Gruden was supposed to be an offensive guru yet the Bucs offense never really went beyond mediocre during his tenure there.

Who does Marvin Lewis have naked pictures of?

Jan 3, 2018 7:00:35 GMT thereallt said:

Gruden is the single most overrated coach of all-time. His Super Bowl win came with a team Tony Dungy built and what was essentially insider knowledge of the Raiders offense. Gruden was supposed to be an offensive guru yet the Bucs offense never really went beyond mediocre during his tenure there.

That's bending the narrative quite a bit , I mean one could argue that Bill Callahan took Jon Gruden's team to the Super Bowl the very same year. Also Gruden should have been in another Super Bowl without the worst rule in NFL history keeping the Raiders out. 

I'm not saying he is a great coach , he wasn't nearly as important to Favre's success as the narrative now suggests. As mikec said - most often is the case that the QB makes the guru and not the other way around. 

Gruden is a perfectly good coach though , he is certainly better than Del Rio and should be better for Carr in the long run. At the very least it will be entertaining having him back on the sidelines - and even more importantly , out of the fucking booth. 

I said it last year on old PW that Marvin Lewis is like your typical slasher horror movie antagonist like Freddy or Jason or Michael. You think you have him dead, you have done everything in your power to get rid of him....but just when you think its over, they somehow either get resurrected or somehow managed to live the fall or blast or bullet. He's immortal. His teams are undisciplined messes, he has a competitive squad half of his years and they bomb in January. Always. They have mr average QB Andy Dalton but they have great weapons on offense like Green, Hill, Bernard, Mixon and a decent enough OLine. They can franchise McCarron is they really want to though I don't think that'd be smart if they think they can get a deal for him. They have pieces on defense, it's just the jerks like PacMan and Burfict overshadow em.

You know how the storybook ends with Marvin Lewis, the guy will never win the big one ever. Heck if it isn't entertaining and you sorta root for the guy to win even if you know the results. Like any good horror slasher antagonist.

The sad part is I think Cincy's next coach is in Cleveland because I think Hue Jackson is going to get the job, maybe as early as 2019(Though again I keep underestimating Brown's love for Marvin Lewis time and time again). Or Maybe Jay Gruden once he's tossed out of DC. I'd take Gruden when Todd Bowles bombs in 2018 as we all expect.

The Bengals had one of the worst offensive lines in the NFL , Dalton can be solid but he needs everything working around him and that offensive line held the entire team back this year.

Jan 3, 2018 17:15:54 GMT UT said:

The Bengals had one of the worst offensive lines in the NFL , Dalton can be solid but he needs everything working around him and that offensive line held the entire team back this year.

This year yeah but when they had a prime Whitworth and Zietler and when Andre Smith gave a damn, that was one of their strengths.

Unit underperformed and they were collectively utter trash the 1st few weeks on offense, when Bill Lazor who bombed in Miami with Philbin is viewed as some sort of offensive guru, there are clear problems. Lazor thought Ryan Tannehill was some sort of big arm QB and refused to adjust for him.

Jan 3, 2018 17:05:08 GMT Blindy said:

The sad part is I think Cincy's next coach is in Cleveland because I think Hue Jackson is going to get the job, maybe as early as 2019(Though again I keep underestimating Brown's love for Marvin Lewis time and time again).

This is my favourite part of the whole story - the idea that the Bengals kept Lewis only because Hue didn't get fired by the Browns. Why the fuck would a guy who has gone 1-31 even be considered for another HC job, let alone remain employed with his current team? :lol:

Listened to Adam Schefter yesterday and he made the point that made the most sense to me about Lewis. He was the coach that brought the Bengals back to being relevant. He wins just enough and gets close enough to the playoffs each year (though he doesn't win) to be adequate for them. The Bengals franchise doesn't want to go all in by giving him those couple of players that might really turn the franchise around. It's almost like he overachieves with mediocre talent, nearly every year, but often needs things to bounce the right way...it just hasn't the past couple of seasons. I don't know...I wouldn't be happy if I was fan personally.

There were rumors popping up a week or so ago about Marvin Lewis taking the Texans job. That doesn't excite me at all but I'm not just completely against it either, Marvin Lewis has been coaching a team that reportedly has the worst owner and GM in the league as far as trying to put a competitive team on the field, before he came along they were just absolutely terrible, you would have to be kind of old to remember just exactly how bad they were. The fact that Lewis had them in the playoffs at all is quite an accomplishment. I think he may be better than a lot of the candidates out there this year.

What was the story on Carson Palmer wanting out of Cincy? I think the Bengals best chance at some playoff wins was the 2005 season when he got injured against Pittsburgh. I never did hear the story on why Palmer demanded out of Cincy, was it beef with Lewis?

Jan 4, 2018 2:39:15 GMT shinobimusashi said:

What was the story on Carson Palmer wanting out of Cincy? I think the Bengals best chance at some playoff wins was the 2005 season when he got injured against Pittsburgh. I never did hear the story on why Palmer demanded out of Cincy, was it beef with Lewis?

The ins and outs of it ever really came out, but the comments that Palmer made tended to point the finger at ownership rather than Marvin Lewis (although that may mean he wanted a new coach). I think he just wanted to go somewhere else and have a chance to win, and in the end his decision worked out pretty well even if he did fall short of getting a ring.

Palmer got pissed off at guys like Chris Henry, among other Bengals routinely breaking the law and getting themselves suspended and putting a black eye on the franchise. Felt there was zero accountability for trouble maker after trouble maker getting away with a slap on the wrist and when you bring in guys like Cedric Benson fresh off lousy decision making back in CHI, you start to get annoyed and find it hard to lead a group of guys who can't get out of their own way.

Guys like OchoCinco and Atkins careers were thrown in irrelevant games because of the misfortunes this team routinely puts on year after year, shame because they were two reliable, dependable role models for the organization. AJ Green might soon be falling into this category too.

Hue Jackson who was with Oakland gave up a fortune to get Palmer, two high 1st round picks so Cincy didn't want to give into Palmer's demands but a deal that sweet made it happen. Without that deal, Palmer would have been on the couch much longer. Also think there was posturizing to have Palmer one of the best paid QBs in the game in Palmer's court but Brown and his guys thinking he isn't worth the cash he was looking for.

I have no problem with Lewis coming back. People forget the doldrums he drug them out from to be a consistently ok team. Management isn’t going to support building a Super Bowl contender, but I generally think he makes the best of what he’s given.

I also don’t blame Hue Jackson for the woeful state of the Browns though so I’m not a great judge.

Pats DC Matt Patricia is being reported in Boston to be named Lions HC, he will still finish the season with the Patriots. Not official, but either is Gruden technically.