Great Hire 2: Trestman to Chicago

Lovie Smith was fired by the Bears for not making the playoffs this season. Smith was more of a defensive specialist than anything and it showed. Every year he was the HC the Bears were among the top of the NFC in many defensive stats. But after getting to a Super Bowl and losing to the Peyton Manning led Colts, and then watching the offensively strong Packers go out and get a title. The Bears front office made what I think was a great decision and hired a great offensive mind in Marc Trestman.

Trestman has been involved in football at the collegiate and pro level. He's mostly known for his success as a HC in the CFL, where he coached the Montreal Allouhette's to back to back Grey Cup Titles in 2009 and 2010. He's also enjoyed sometime as a OC in the NFL over his career. And regardless of where he coached he had an impact on the teams passing game. He coached the likes of Jake Plummer, Scott Mitchell, and Rich Gannon to the best seasons of their careers. In 1995 as the 49ers OC he helped lead the league in points scored, passing attempts, and passing yards that season. While he was the OC in Oakland Rich Gannon won an MVP award and the Raiders made it to the Super Bowl. Trestman has proven over and over again he knows offense, and that's what the Bears are hoping he'll bring to help Jay Cutler and this offense.

The Bears have been competitive for years now. But there is a difference in being competitive and being a contender. That's what the Bears hope Trestman can do for them with the weapons they have in place. One major advantage he'll have will be Matt Forte. Forte's been an all around back for years and Trestman knows how to use those types of RB's.  The biggest challenge will be getting that O line better, and keeping them healthy this year. If the O line play improves I'm looking for a vast improvement in the passing game of the Bears this season under the new HC. 

Schaub Taking Fire for Texans Playoff Collapse

After suffering a bad loss to the hands of Tom Brady and the Patriots the Texans are now back in a familiar place, out of the playoffs and wondering what went wrong. The Texans set their expectations for the season pretty high this year basically saying it was a Super Bowl or bust team. Now after falling short of the goal of the Lombardi trophy the Texans must look to learn from this years disappointments, and turn that into success. Many fans are blaming Texans QB Matt Schaub for the loss, saying he's just not good enough. Schaub had a good year by anyone's standards, and though he did struggle at times he was able to guide the Texans to the league's second best record at 12-4 in the regular season.

Playing defense and running the ball get you to the Super Bowl, and the Texans are very close to being the league at both. The coaching staff in place in Houston have confidence that their players can get them there. That would include QB Matt Schaub. Schaub's one of the the best play action QB's in the league from under center. Hard to argue that, and he compliments this offense. They just need to keep at it, and play their style of football because it's been proven to win games. The Texans owned the best best average time of possession per game in the league. They were also 8th in the league in rushing yards per game. The Texans offense is predicated on running the ball effectively and using Schaub's ability to play action and bootleg outside the pocket. In 13 of the 18 games that the Texans played this year it worked, and if they could've found their stride at the right point of the season, and secure the #1 seed they might be in the Super Bowl. The key to the getting to the Super Bowl is hitting the playoffs in stride, and match ups. The Patriots defense is built to beat us, their LB's are really smart and maintain their lanes. That's why the Texans offense had a hard time getting going against them in both games. The zone scheme only works of the defense gets flowing one way, and the Patriots LB's never were. That was the biggest issue in both games against the Patriots, not the play of Matt Schaub.

Schaub said this about the critics who blame him for the Texans loss: "It comes with the territory, you just look to get better and improve and next year." After sitting out the Texans first playoff run do to injury and this years ending so  bitterly I'd say Schaub will be more than motivated to take this team back to the playoffs and hopefully to a Super Bowl. This was Schaub's first time playing in the post season and he made mistakes. Until he takes the Texans to the Super Bowl he will get the majority of the blame along with HC Gary, that's the nature of the beast in the NFL. The honest truth of it is that there isn't another QB in football more suited to be in this offense.

Why Schaub CAN be successful in Houston

After suffering a bad loss to the hands of Tom Brady and the Patriots the Texans are now back in a familiar place, out of the playoffs and wondering what went wrong. The Texans set their expectations for the season pretty high this year basically saying it was a Super Bowl or bust team. Now after falling short of the goal of the Lombardi trophy the Texans must look to learn from this years disappointments, and turn that into success. Many fans are blaming Texans QB Matt Schaub for the loss, saying he's just not good enough. Schaub had a good year by anyone's standards, and though he did struggle at times he was able to guide the Texans to the league's second best record at 12-4 in the regular season.

Playing defense and running the ball should get you to the Super Bowl, the Texans are extremely blessed to be close to being near #1 in the league at both. The coaching staff in place in Houston know there ware things to fix. Like special teams, or a bigger more physical NT. But Schaub isn't on the list. I think Schaub's the best play action QB in the league from under center. Hard to argue that, and he compliments this offense. They just need to keep at it, and play their style of football because it's been proven to win games.

Schaub said this about the critics who blame him for the Texans loss: "It comes with the territory, you just look to get better and improve and next year." After sitting out the Texans first playoff run do to injury and this years ending so bitterly I'd say Schaub will be more than motivated to take this team back to the playoffs and hopefully to a Super Bowl.

Bad Decision 2: Raiders hire Sporano as OC

After hiring and firing Gregg Knapp from the Houston Texans in a single season, and attempting to implement the zone running scheme, the Raiders have chosen Tony Sporano as their new offensive coordinator and assistant HC. Sporano is coming off another rough year with the Jets, a year that actually included seeing QB Mark Sanchez lose his starting job. Now with 2nd year HC Dennis Allen in Oakland Sporano will attempt to revamp an offense with weapons like Carson Palmer and Darren McFadden to a competitive level in the AFC West.

The last place that Sporano was an effective play caller was in Miami where the Wildcat offense was used with Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams. And honestly besides 1 10-6 season I'd say that it was almost a complete failure. Since the 07 season when the Dolphins had that 10-6 record Sporano hasn't been apart of anything productive in the NFL. As the Raiders OC Sporano will have many tough decisions to make, 1st being who's the starting QB? Me personally I'd say Carson Palmer's a no brainer here but, I've already heard rumors of Terrell Pryor competing for that starting job. The next big question is what's the Raiders identity on offense? Last season they had trouble really figuring that out. McFadden hasn't shown he can stay healthy, and if the Raiders are to succeed they'll need him or another back to carry the load at the end of games. My last question, will the Raiders seriously think of running the wildcat or zone read offense with Pryor and McFadden? That would be a even worse decision than the Sporano hire in my opinion. The zone read offense takes time to learn especially at the pro level, if the Raiders O line can't block in a traditional scheme good luck in one that they'll have to learn on quickly. Much like the zone scheme they're now ditching.

Nothing seems bright about the future of the Raiders. They need a lot of help on both sides of the ball, and if they keep making bad hires they'll never get back to a competitive team. In a division now in the clutches of Peyton Manning every hire is key. Believe me as Texans fan I watched Manning control the AFC South for years. Raiders and the AFC West may be his next victims if hires like this keep happening.

Great Hire 1: America's team gets defensive

The Dallas Cowboys defense was supposed to be much improved under then DC Rob Ryan. After actually having a great start to the season the defense started to get gashed on big plays. Given they did lose their starting MLB Sean Lee, and the offense didn't give them any help consistently. The firing of Rob Ryan, and hiring of Tampa 2 guru Monte Kiffin this defense should really improve with the personnel they have in place.

Unlike Kiffin's former NFL gig with the Bucs, the Cowboys don't have a great presence inside on the D line like a Warren Sapp. What he does have is a dominant edge rusher and aggressive CB's to challenge any pass happy team in football. The real key to this defense will be forcing the opposing QB to throw the ball into small windows and let these defensive back's make plays, and with Ware and Anthony Spencer controlling the edges they should get it done.

The LB's are going to be put together with athleticism and awareness as key attributes. Both Sean Lee and Bruce Carter will more than likely start. Carter is a perfect fit as a OLB in a 4-3 scheme. Finding another versatile OLB with the ability to do what's needed in the Tampa 2 might be the only problem Monte Kiffin will have. But with players like Demarcus Ware and Sean Lee already known as leaders of this defense Kiffin should be able to get this team back to the playoffs, and beyond by improving this young talented unit.

Bad Decision 1: Enter the Browns

So after firing Pat Shurmer, a coach that underachieved with basically no talent. The Cleveland Browns hired Carolina Panthers OC Rob Chudzinski. Now this may sound like a great move, but let's look at it for what it really is. In my opinion, a really bad decision.

Chudzinski did bring the Panthers offense around towards the end of last season. But unfortunately the offense looked bad again this season until the end of this season, and on more than 1 occasion the Panthers had game's won. But couldn't grind out the wins. Even with 2 physical RB's and a good offensive line. Chudzinski should take a lot of blame for that.

There's the argument that Chudzinski turned around the Browns offense in 07. He also led the Miami Hurricanes offense to a national title and a record setting season in 01. One thing to remember about those years is that he had the best talent in football on his teams while coaching at Miami. And the 1 year in Cleveland he had talented players like Jamal Lewis, Kellen Winslow, and Braylan Edwards. Talent is a luxury that Chudzinski will not have in Cleveland this season.  He probably won't have that for a long time. Well, not in Cleveland.

The best part about all of this for the Browns is that if and when Chud fails, Norv Turner can be step into the HC spot. Turner who was fired will now be the OC for a team with less overall talent than he had in San Diego. Let's see hoe this all plays out, but you heard it here first folks. It was a BAD decision.

The Astro's best, Isn't good enough?

Craig Biggio was once a catcher, he changed positions after the team realized he wouldn't last long there. His move to 2B was obviously one of the best things to happen to him. The Astros would agree, they got maybe the best player in franchise history and in my opinion the best all around second baseman ever.

There were many arguments about why he didn't get the votes. Maybe because he was on the ballot with known PED users, maybe some agree with Colin Cowherd and think he was ordinary but played a long time, maybe people think because the teams he played on weren't good enough. I don't know what happened, but I do know he deserves to be enshrined with the greats in Cooperstown.

Biggio has 3060 hits all time, putting him at 21st all time and 5 hits ahead of the greatest lead off hitter ever in Rickey Henderson. Knowing take into account Biggio also led off in the lineup most of his career as well. Biggio also has 1844 runs ranking him 15th all time. On both list's everyone above Biggio is already in the hall of fame, Barry Bonds being the only exception.  Along with the stats I just mentioned the "Killer B" is 2nd all time in hit pitches at 285. Period point blank Biggio is one of the games best of all time.

I do know and understand how the vote goes sometimes, and also acknowledge Biggio will more than likely make it next year. But the fact is he should've made it 1st ballot. With talkin the uncertainty in baseball's past and suspected PED's it should be more certain than ever for players like Biggio. He played for 1 team his whole career and played 3 different positions for that franchise. If he doesn't deserve it who really does?