Don Dokken

I don't totally understand all this "the league has passed him by" talk re: Cowher. Sure, passing yardage totals are as high as ever, but aren't teams still winning by running the football? In 2013 the Eagles and the consensus most innovative coach in the league ranked 4th in rushing attempts. In passing attempts, only 27th. The Seahawks were 2nd in rush attempts and 31st in pass attempts. They were both fine! He also was more aggressive than I think people give him credit for. Here's where the Steelers ranked league-wide in 4th down conversion attempts during the years he was there: 2006 - 4 2005 - 22 2004 - 20 2003 - 5 2002 - 4 2001 - 23 2000 - 26 1999 - 3 1998 - 15 1997 - 12 1996 - 24 1995 - 7 1994 - 25 1993 - 7 1992 - 10 That's in the top half of the league 9 out of 15 years. Maybe most importantly, top-5 in three of his last five seasons (except for the two years, '04 and '05, they were trying not to let a young quarterback do too much.) The guy made his bones in large part by putting together a good staff and putting players in a position to succeed, sometimes in outside-the-box ways (most famously, Kordell Stewart, Hines Ward and Antwaan Randle-El). If he's TP's dream guy - and he very well could be, given his esteem for Pittsburgh sports - I don't see why he can't still be successful.

http://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/S/SmitLe00/gamelog/ 88 yards in penalties and only 107 career receiving yards!? Yikes.

Are there any places in Rochester that get good crowds for away games? I used to love going to the Bills Backers bar when I lived in DC, but I don't know whether anything like that exists around here, since people can pretty much always watch from home.

Wow. Mike Francesa morphed into Kathleen Sebelius so gradually I hardly even noticed

I guess people still like Jake Locker up there?

Thanks for posting. Whaley with the "it's hard to win in the NFL" and "it's hard to win in this league" exacta!

The Wade Phillips Memorial suit?

Would be interesting if it finished up that way. It's been a while since both the OROY and DROY were not first round picks (2001, I think - Anthony Thomas and Kendrell Bell). Go Kiko.

I love TMQ and wholly agree that explosive offense is the way to go, but I couldn't help but laugh when I read this stat. Of course the five highest-scoring teams would be successful! It is almost as though the team with the most points wins the game.

Yeah, strange. Darren McFadden, maybe?

Why not, right? He's only about four months removed from ACL surgery. I don't see any way this could end badly.

The NFL is snake drafting this year. Should increase viewership some more.

They showed the Bills when I lived in DC, but it's been a couple of years. Not sure if they still do!

DC Bills Backers! My link

I'm all for the change in theory, but how does it make sense to apply different rules to the playoffs than to the regular season? What the NFL passed today makes a game in late January qualitatively different from a game in late October. The new OT rules ought to be applied to every game equally or not at all.

51/59. I'm actually a little depressed that I remembered Jim Druckenmiller.

I believe Reeves actually signed on as a consultant in Dallas last winter, though he left after a few days because the Cowboys wanted him to work a specified number of hours each week, which he wasn't too happy about. He was willing to come back in a lesser role to help his friend Wade and apparently is willing to do the same for Gailey.

I hear Rod Rust is available.

i'm not your buddy, guy

Murray? Present.