There’s only one week left in the NFL regular season; so that means there’s only one week left for us to make picks. Well I guess that’s not totally true as we will try to pick the winners in the playoff games. Anyway Mr. Fantasy won Week 16 with a record of 12-4. Schaumburg Stu was 2nd with a record of 11-5 while I was 3rd at 10-6. Dan the Man picked a bad time t go into a slump as he finished with an 8-8 record for the week. Overall I am hanging onto 1st place with a record of 148-91. Dan the Man is holding on to 2nd with a record of 139-100, but Mr. Fantasy is gaining ground with a record of 137-102 and Schaumburg Stu is still in the running with a record of 135-102. There’s no Thursday night or Monday night games; so the Sunday night game the Minnesota Vikings at the Green Bay Packers will end the regular season.
The playoff picture in the NFC has taken shape for the most part except the NFC Central. The reason that Vikings/Packers game was moved to Sunday night is because the winner goes int the playoffs as the #3 seed and NFC North champion while the loser of the game goes into one of the wild card spot. If Minnesota loses they would actually fall to the 6th seed; I’m not sure where the Packers go as a wild card, but I believe they would be the 5th seed. All the NFC teams are set it’s just which seeds will they end up in. Over in the AFC there are still two playoff spots open. The Houston Texans hold a 1 game lead in the AFC South over the Indianapolis Colts. So for Houston it’s simply win and there in. If the Colts win and the Texans lose it will come down t to a tiebreaker. The teams split the season series 1-1 and I have no clue what the next tiebreaker the NFL might use is. They have quite a few to choose from. The New York Jets also have a win and your in set up. The Jet have a 1 game lead over the Pittsburgh Steelers for the last AFC wild card spot. The Steelers where in control of that last wild card spot until they choked last week against the Baltimore Ravens. The AFC will also have to shake out their seeding after this week, but the teams are narrowed down.
One game short of 3 seasons and the Philadelphia Eagles decided to relieve Chip Kelly of his coaching and player personnel duties. In 2013 Kelly’s Eagles went 10-6 and won the NFC East. They did lose in the wild card round to the New Orleans Saints. In 2014 the Eagles again finished 10-6, but didn’t make the playoffs. Through 15 games this season the Eagles are 6-9 behind Kelly and while they are in 2nd place in their division, but nowhere close to being a playoff team. Kelly took over all player personnel decisions last off season and made whole sale changes to the team. Judging from this years 6-9 record maybe Kelly the player personnel director should of been let go, but Kelly the coach might’ve been alright to keep. I’m not going to go through all the moves Kelly made as personnel director, but what I’m interested in is how tough will he be to replace. Kelly and the Eagles play a style that no one else does in the NFL on a full time basis. Whoever ends up with this head coaching job will have to have a completely new system in and will they have the personnel to fit it. You’ll hear a lot of the same names that you always hear when a head coaching job opens up. I’d bet money that someone has already said Jon Gruden’s name. I’d be shocked if this is the team that brings Gruden back to the NFL sideline. Maybe this is a landing spot for Sean Payton. There’s a lot of talk that this may be Payton’s last season in New Orleans and if wants to continue to coach this could be the place. Maybe Josh McDaniels would like to take another shot at being a head coach. You’d have to figure he’s the coach in waiting in New England, but this job is open now; so maybe. There will be a ton of other names that will come up for this job, but look out for Chicago Bears offensive coordinator Adam Gase. Gase was a pretty hot name last off season and after having success with Jay Cutler this season Gas’s stock has to have went even higher. Whoever gets the job will have some talent to work with, but that question will be can the new system fit the players Kelly has brought in.
How long after the New Year do you think it will take for one of the top free agent outfielders to sign? Yoenis Cespedes and Alex Gordon seem to be the most talked about, but don’t forget about Justin Upton. Upton is the youngest of the 3 at 28 while Cespedes is 30 and Gordon is 32. While Cespedes has played the other outfield positions they are all at their best defensively in left field. It seems as though just about every team has been linked to these guys; so it will be interesting to see who ends up where and how much money they end up getting. Once these 3 players find homes it should open up the market for players like Dexter Fowler, Gerardo Parra and Dan the Man’s guy Denard Span to find teams. Besides the big outfielders 1st baseman Chris Davis is still out on the free agent market. Davis got the big money long term deal from the Baltimore Orioles that he turned down or was taken off the table depending on who you believe. If your favorite tams starting 8 are all set and it’s starting pitching you’re looking for there’s still a couple of I guess you’d call them second tier free agents out there. Scott Kazmir, Wei-Yin Chen and Japanese free agent Kenta Maeda are all still available. There always seems to be a bit of a break in signings between Christmas and New Year’s; so maybe next week things will heat up on some of these players as we’re just a couple of months away from spring training opening.
Have a safe and Happy New Year.
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