Because the NFL season never ends, we present our 2009 Offseason Roadmaps for front offices to navigate through the summer.
The 2008 season was an unmitigated disaster for the Rams. They had their star running back hold out, only to be re-signed and get injured -- an injury which lingered far too long. They fired their coach after four embarrassing games, won two straight under his replacement, but then dropped their final 10.
It was hard to find a strength on this team. The offense ranked 27th in the league, while the defense was 28th. Then again, Donnie Jones was one of the best punters in the league. So there's that.
Even though one went to Miami and the other to Florida State, Devin Hester and Deion Sanders have forged a friendship based on the bond only elite kick returners can understand. So that's why you've got to take what Sanders said on the NFL Network Tuesday with a slightly smaller grain of salt than many of his rantings and ravings.
"They're looking for tremendous things from this guy, Devin Hester, but Devin Hester isn't happy with his contract and he deserves to be paid amongst the league's best."
There's no player in the NFL with a murkier financial value than Hester. He's the league's best kick returner, by miles, but he hasn't proven to be an every-down, or even every other down, player on offense and that makes it hard to figure out exactly how much he should get paid.
This season will be quite telling. Is he a Sanders-type who contributes on more than just special teams or is he a Dante Hall, whose returns diminish outside of returns? The Bears need to know that before they sink a lot of money into Hester because one is worth a helluva lot more than the other. With two years left on his original deal, the team has time to figure out which and should use it.
Chicago Bears return man Devin Hester has played 32 weeks in the NFL. Seven of those weeks, he's won the NFC Special Teams Player of the Week award.
The seventh was announced Wednesday, honoring Hester for his 64-yard punt return touchdown on Sunday against the Saints. That gave Hester the NFL record for combined kick return touchdowns in a season, with six. The old record was five, set by Hester last year. No one else has ever had more than four kick return touchdowns in a season.
And no one else has ever had more than seven Special Teams Player of the Week awards. Dante Hall also has had seven in his career, and the two of them are tied for the most ever. It really is amazing how Hester, in just two NFL seasons, is doing things that no other return man has ever done. If the 25-year-old Hester plays at even close to this level until he's 30, he'll completely re-write the kick return section of the NFL record book.
Every week, NFL FanHouse hits the lowlights from Sunday's action, looking at those players who did the most to move their head coaches that much closer to returning to the Bed and Breakfast business.
James Butler, Giants You know, I was a little hard on Manning the Younger last night. I accused him of playing great football for 30 minutes, and then turning into an interception-throwing pumpkin, while the Patriots did what they do: mount a second-half comeback and win in handsome Tom Brady fashion.
But after some soul-searching, I've come to the realization that the Patriots-Giants game didn't turn on Manning's fourth-quarter pick, but on what transpired three plays prior. You can see the birds-eye view here, but all you need to know is this: safety James Butler must've blacked out because when the cameras finally caught up with him, he was about 15 yards behind Randy Moss. Moss was making his way to the end zone after hauling in a 65-yard bomb from Brady.
That was the game-changer. To that point, the Giants' offense was moving the ball without much trouble, and the defense was like Plexiglas Burress: bend but don't break.
On the bright side, Manning played probably his best game as a professional, and the timing couldn't be better. Sorry, No Photos
Rams return man Dante Hall is out for the season with an ankle injury, and it feels like a long, long time ago that Hall was the best return man in football. In fact, seeing as he'll be 30 in September, you'd have to think maybe his career is just about over.
But that's not how Hall sees it. In fact, Hall has his eyes on a big target: He wants to be better than Bears return man Devin Hester.
"I've got very high standards for myself," Hall said. "I'm not the best in the league right now. That's Mr. Hester. Until I'm better than him, it's not good enough."
Hall has 12 career touchdown returns, six on punts and six on kickoffs. That's the second-most in NFL history, but it's only two ahead of Hester, who's played six fewer seasons than Hall. Considering that Hester is younger and healthier than Hall, I don't think Hall is ever going to be better than Hester.
It's taken Herm Edwards a few games to figure things out, but maybe just playing the cellar-dwelling Chargers has that effect on every team, and we shouldn't make too much of Kansas City's win last Sunday.
Or maybe not. Despite all the head-scratching decisions (or non-decisions, as it were), the Chiefs are in a three-way tie for first place in the division, and Edwards thinks he knows why:
In all four games they've played this year, his Kansas City Chiefs have fallen immediately behind. The last two -- against Minnesota and San Diego -- they faced double-digit deficits at halftime only to rally in the third and fourth quarters and pull out a win.
"We're minus-27 in points scored in the first half," Edwards said Tuesday. "And in the second half we're plus-27. So obviously, my pregame speech going out is not very good. My halftime speech is probably a little bit better."
The solution: quit giving pregame speeches. Or, maybe improve the special teams, which has been abysmal during the first month of the season.
Kansas City traded Dante Hall to the Rams, and hoped Eddie Drummond could pick up the slack. So far, no go, but Edwards isn't going to make a change. The problem is the 10 guys in front of Drummond -- they're not really blocking anybody. "Every time I turned around, it seemed like San Diego was hitting us on the 15-yard line. You've got to get more than that," Edwards told the AP.
I've given Edwards the business for some of his questionable coaching decisions, but you have to give the guy credit: Kansas City is 2-2 and has yet to really get things going on offense and special teams. Just imagine how good this team would be if they were average in two of the three phases of the game.
To get you ready for the season, FanHouse is previewing all 32 NFL teams. Here's the outlook for the Chiefs.
2006 record: 9-7
2006 Offense: The Chiefs lost quarterback Trent Green for the first half of the season, but were 5-3 behind Damon Huard. Running back Larry Johnson was the bigger story, rushing for 1,789 yards on 416 carries. Everybody -- including head coach Herm Edwards -- seems a little worried about the long-term effects of such a heavy workload, and the prospects aren't good. Tight end Tony Gonzalez turned in another Pro Bowl effort -- he had 73 receptions for 900 yards and five touchdowns -- but the club lacked another legit pass-catching threat after him.
2006 Defense: The Chiefs' defense was decidedly mediocre, ranking 20th against the pass and 18th against the run, according to Football Outsiders. Interestingly, Kansas City was 4th in the league against opposing teams' No. 1 wide receiver, but 25th against Nos. 2, and dead last against all other wideouts. The defensive line was solid in short-yardage situations, but the unit ranked 28th in Adjusted Sack Rate, just behind the Browns.
2006 Special teams:Dante Hall is now in St. Louis and the Kansas City spent much of the preseason trying to find his replacement. Rookie free agent Ean Randolph didn't do enough to win the job, so the club signed Eddie Drummond. Dustin Colquitt averaged 44 yards a pop and is a good directional punter, but kicker Lawrence Tynes did just enough to get sent packing in the off-season.
Over at Arrowhead Pride, Chris is running a series of his five most disappointing Chiefs in 2006. #4 on his list is Dante Hall, who only a few years ago was perhaps the biggest hero in Kansas City.
Loyal readers of this blog know that I don't put all the blame for his struggles on Hall himself. As I have maintained, Hall is someone who is at his very best running at full speed in open space. When he has to juke the initial tackler, Hall has trouble accelerating again, allowing defenders to catch up to him easily.
In many ways, the questions surrounding Hall are the same as those surrounding Trent Green. Do you gamble that Hall can be an impact player again because the circumstances surrounding his decline in 2006 can be fixed, or do you let him go and start anew? With Green, his main problems are age and the after-effects of the concussion. With Hall, his problem is his inability to adjust to the blocking scheme and personnel.
Plenty of blame has to go to the special teams unit, since kick and punt returners should not be confronted by would-be tacklers immediately after catching the ball, but Hall's style is about the worst fit for the Chiefs' current special teams unit. It is easier to replace one returner than to fix a whole unit of blockers. As much as I root for the guy, it might be time to let Dante Hall go to a team that can take full advantage of his skills.
This is Part II of a multi-part series examining the Chiefs' failures on Saturday against the Colts. We previously discussed the media's role in the Chiefs' loss.
Eddie Kennison, Samie Parker, and Jordan Black owe Trent Green a Rolex. It seems that the fans and media are so intent on blaming Green for Saturday's loss to the Colts that they are completely ignoring the three players that were easily the biggest goats of Saturday's football game. It was not about Trent Green. It was not about Damon Huard. Plain and simple: Trent Green was kept from doing his job because his teammates didn't do theirs.
I know everyone wants to blame the quarterback for the Chiefs' offensive failures on Saturday. The Chiefs didn't get a first down in an entire half of play. Of course, that's pathetic. Of course, the first person to blame for these problems is the quarterback. But you have to look past pure numbers and look at the facts behind the figures. What I saw was not poor play by the quarterback; rather, I witnessed what might have been the absolute worst performance by a wide receiver corps in NFL playoff history. On the rare occasion that the Chiefs chose to pass in the first half, Green threw the ball in the right spot and the receivers dropped it. I'm not talking about tough passes that were dropped; I'm talking about easy catches that, as Madden would probably say, doinked off his receivers.
What are you supposed to do when you run 8 first-half pass plays and half of them go for drops? Is it the quarterback's fault if half of his third down passes went into his receivers' hands or between their numbers, then were dropped? Is it the quarterback's fault if, on two 3rd down pass plays in the first half, the linemen completely failed on him (Jordan Black let Freeney come in untouched for one third down sack, and Brian Waters was so far back after another snap that Green tripped over his feet). Even his interception in the second half should be blamed on atrocious blocking by the offensive line that got their quarterback clobbered in mid-throw.
I suppose it's been a while since I rambled on with my little tidbits about the Chiefs. Without further adieu, here's my newest edition of Chief Shots:
Herm Edwards denies clock management problems in the game against the Browns. He later discovered that his watch was accidentally set for Pacific Time.
Okay, but on a more serious note, there was nothing wrong with Herm's clock management to end the game. If the defense actually kept Cleveland out of the end zone, there is no clock management issue. If Kyle Turley doesn't blow his block, the Chiefs have a great opportunity to score. Herm can't do his job if his players don't do theirs.
Before any of you Huard supporters start ranting about how Huard would've won the game against Cleveland, realize this: Damon Huard is 2-3 on the road and has only once thrown over 200 yards in those 5 games (well, twice, if you want to count his stunning 201 yard performance).
I don't think I was the only Chiefs' fan intently watching the Browns vs. Steelers game hoping, praying, wishing that the Browns would dominate the Steelers. I hoped that Derek Anderson would come out with a gutsy 400-yard performance to validate that the Chiefs lost to a team that was on the verge of a late-season hot streak. I found the exact opposite: the Browns looked like complete crap. And not just crap, but the worst kind of crap that you have to shovel off the pavement.
Because the NFL season never ends, we present our 2009 Offseason Roadmaps for front offices to navigate through the summer.
Even though one went to Miami and the other to Florida State, 
Chicago Bears return man 
Rams return man 
Over at 
This is Part II of a multi-part series examining the Chiefs' failures on Saturday against the Colts. We previously discussed 
I suppose it's been a while since I rambled on with my little tidbits about the Chiefs. Without further adieu, here's my newest edition of Chief Shots:
