Aaaand then they trade Chase Young to San Francisco for a 3rd round pick. LOL
Stockpiling picks to trade up for first overall to pick up a quarterback next year?
They acquired Josh Dobbs from Arizona, according to the local sports peeps. Apparently they did a pick swap, trading a 6th round pick for a 7th round pick.
Josh McDaniels and GM Dave Ziegler have been fired from the Raiders. Turns out that, again, what should have been obvious to everyone but somehow wasn’t: it was Brady who was “brilliant,” not you.
Raiders are benching Jimmy G.
Falcons benching Ridder.
Taylor won’t win games by himself, but he won’t lose them either. They’d probably be 6-2 or at least 5-3 if he had just started from Week 1 and they didn’t have all of Ridder’s turnovers.
The number of former Patriot assistant coaches from the Brady era who have flamed out elsewhere (Charlie Weis, Romeo Crennel, Matt Patricia, Josh McDaniels, Eric Mangini) is absolutely astonishing.
The reverse of this is the 2012 Washington Redskins, who had Sean McVay, Kyle Shanahan and Matt LaFleur all as assistant coaches. Of course, none of them ended up as the coach of Washington; heckuva job there, Danny Snyder.
Also Joe Judge.
Along the same lines, albeit a bit off-topic…Eric Bienemy is also realizing that being an OC isn’t nearly as easy when your QB isn’t named Mahomes, and your head coach isn’t Andy Reid.
Although, to be fair, the Chiefs offense is certainly struggling this year, without Bienemy.
I’m not a big fan of McDaniels, but this Boston Globe article has it right, I think. (probably paywalled)
But make no mistake, McDaniels’s firing is really a massive failure by Davis. The owner is butchering his own franchise because he can’t choose a lane.
If Davis wanted immediate results, he should have hired Rich Bisaccia in 2022. He was the Raiders’ wildly popular interim coach in 2021 who went 7-5 after Jon Gruden was fired, and he led the Raiders to their second playoff berth in 19 years. The players loved Bisaccia, and the fans loved the team he had built.
Instead, Davis cleaned house, bringing in McDaniels and Ziegler to run the team and allowing them to overhaul the coaching staff and front office. Davis cited the success McDaniels had with other quarterbacks in New England besides Tom Brady — including Matt Cassel, Mac Jones, and Cam Newton — and wanted him to find and develop the next Raiders quarterback. And Davis liked that McDaniels and Ziegler had a 25-year relationship going back to college.
It was a decent plan as long as Davis allowed them to see it through. Instead, Davis pulled the plug abruptly, axing McDaniels and Ziegler after just 25 games.
It’s not that the Raiders were thriving under McDaniels. [snip]
But what, exactly, did Davis expect?
He gave McDaniels a locker room that was squarely aligned against him, save for the ex-Patriots players Ziegler imported. Davis gave McDaniels a roster that was fit for Gruden’s offense and needed to be retooled. He let Ziegler dump quarterback Derek Carr — doing Davis a massive favor by getting out from Carr’s contract — and sign Jimmy Garoppolo, who had to learn a new offensive system this offseason and didn’t participate in the offseason program because of a broken foot.
No NFL coach would succeed under those conditions, and it was foolish to expect otherwise.
Building a culture and a winning roster takes time with a new regime.
The Bears fired assistant coach David Walker today. Walker, who was in his second year with the team as their running backs coach, was fired for inappropriate workplace behavior. As per ESPN:
Walker is the second Bears assistant to leave the team during this season; both he and defensive coordinator Alan Williams (who resigned in September) parted ways with the team due to off-field issues.
Thanks for reopening that wound.
Refs have been favoring the Browns for several weeks now. It’s quite baffling. They’re calling the sort of bullshit they usually call against the Browns in their favor instead.
Daniel Jones probable ACL tear. Wasn’t exactly lighting the league on fire anyways. Good for him he signed that extension last spring. Probably the last NFL contract he’ll see.
This is last week’s thread.