The Daily Dose: 1/11/22

January 11, 2022January 20, 2022 9 min read

Happy Tuesday folks. It’s a brisk nine degrees up here on the mountain this morning, and naturally I can’t figure out what’s wrong with my pellet stove. NFL regular season came to an end this weekend as did college football. NFL playoffs are set and say it ain’t so Joe, Alabama did not raise the trophy this year. Bunch of new job openings in the NFL which we’ll get to in a few. Speaking of playoffs, the Power 5 conferences couldn’t agree on an expanded playoff this week so they’re headed back to the drawing board at a later date.

After a week off, 1883 came back as strong as it has been in its first season. Mayor of Kingstown had their finale Sunday in fashion with the prison riot coming to a close. So far it looks extremely promising and although they haven’t said it’s being renewed for a second season I can’t imagine it wouldn’t. The Expanse has one more episode to go before we say goodbye to potentially the best Syfy series ever made. Rumors has it, it may return with a trilogy of movies to finish off the written material. The Book Of Boba gave us some backstory this week explaining exactly how Boba escaped the Pitt of Sarlacc, and where he went afterward. And Jesus Christ man did the season finale of Dexter: New Blood suck. One might have thought they learned something by how the previous series ended… nope. One can only hope they bring back the series with Dexter being Harrison’s dark passenger.

BLACK MONDAY RESULTS: WHO’S OUT?

Jacksonville Jaguars

Head Coach: Urban Meyer

Core players to work around:

Player	Position	Age	Years Left
Shaquill Griffin	CB	26	2
Myles Jack	MLB	26	2
Trevor Lawrence	QB	22	3
Josh Allen	OLB	24	1
Travis Etienne	HB	22	3

They need pieces all across the board and probably a new GM. It would be nice to see Byron Leftwich get the job as it would bring his NFL career full circle. We shall see.

Las Vegas Raiders

Head Coach: Jon Gruden

Core players to work around:

Player	Position	Age	Years Left
Kolton Miller	LT	26	4
Darren Waller	TE	29	2
Maxx Crosby	DE	25	1
Alex Leatherwood	RT	23	3
Hunter Renfrow	WR	26	1

Perfect storm of off field drama this season. Somehow they still made it to the playoffs. The team has some weapons, but whoever gets this job has a tough division to compete against.

Chicago Bears

General Manager: Ryan Pace

Head Coach: Matt Nagy

Core players to work around:

Player	Position	Age	Years Left
Roquan Smith	MLB	25	1
Eddie Jackson	S	28	3
Justin Fields	QB	23	3
David Montgomery	HB	25	1
Trevis Gibson	OLB	25	3

Font seven isn’t getting any younger. If the new regime sticks with Fields they’ll need to get him some weapons.The quarterback by committee just isn’t working.

Miami Dolphins

Head Coach: Brian Flores

Core players to work around:

Player	Position	Age	Years Left
Xavien Howard	CB	28	3
DeVante Parker	WR	28	2
Jaylen Waddle	WR	23	3
Jaelen Phillips	DE	22	3
Brandon Jones	S	23	2

A plethora of skilled position guys with talent, but as we all know… you have to win in the trenches. With Too being a big question mark all year long in trade speculations I left him off the list.

Minnesota Vikings

General Manager: Rick Spielman

Head Coach: Mike Zimmer

Core players to work around:

Player	Position	Age	Years Left
Dalvin Cook	HB	26	4
Justin Jefferson	WR	22	2
Danielle Hunter	DE	27	2
Brian O’Neill	RT	25	5
Christian Darrisaw	LT	22	3

The team is in salary cap purgatory so the new GM and Head Coach will have their hands full day one. Between that and the decision on whether or not to keep Cousins will make this an interesting offseason in Minneapolis.

Denver Broncos

Head Coach: Vic Fangio

Offensive Coordinator: Pat Shurmer

Core players to work around:

Player	Position	Age	Years Left
Justin Simmons	S	28	3
Cortland Sutton	WR	26	4
Patrick Surtain Jr	CB	22	3
Noah Fant	TE	24	1
Jerry Jeudy	WR	23	2

Lots of youth all over the field. Lock is probably no lock to be the guy a new coach wants as his starter. Might be looking at another year of a veteran arm grooming the next hopeful. Aaron Rodgers?

New York Giants

General Manager: David Gettleman

Head Coach: Joe Judge

Core players to work around:

Player	Position	Age	Years Left
Saquan Barkley	HB	24	1
Xavier McKinney	S	24	2
Dexter Lawrence	DT	25	1
James Bradberry	CB	29	1
Andrew Thomas	LT	22	2

It was difficult actually coming up with five players for this. This is a complete rebuild of a team that has their best players on the tail end of their deals. The guys with the biggest deals seem to be the most inconsistent.

Carolina Panthers

Offensive Coordinator: Joe Brady

Core players to work around:

Player	Position	Age	Years Left
Robby Anderson	WR	28	2
DJ Moore	WR	25	1
Christian McCaffrey	HB	25	4
Taylor Moton	RT	27	4
Chuba Hubbard	HB	23	3

The right offensive scheme could make next year’s Panthers look like this year’s Cardinals. They need to figure out what they want to do at quarterback, but outside of that it’s a pretty solid offense to take over.

Pittsburgh Steelers

General Manager: Kevin Colbert

Core players to work around:

Player	Position	Age	Years Left
TJ Watt	OLB	27	4
Minkah Fitzpatrick	S	25	1
Cameron Sutton	CB	26	1
Najee Harris	HB	23	3
Pat Freiermuth	TE	23	3

This job is likely to go to Omar Khan and his replacement is likely to come from within. This is the Steelers folks, it’s the way they do business. Obviously the first task at hand is find a starting quarterback that fits the standard.

Detroit Lions

Offensive Coordinator: Anthony Lynn

Core players to work around:

Player	Position	Age	Years Left
Taylor Decker	LT	28	3
TJ Hockenson	TE	25	1
Frank Ragnow	C	25	5
Penei Sewell	RT	21	3
D’Andre Swift	HB	22	2

Jared Goff will likely return and hopefully improve. A new OC could use another receiver opposite of Amon-Ra St. Brown. Other than that this could be an explosive offense if Goff can be coached up. Big ask, I know.

TODAY IN HISTORY

The prophet Muhammad and his forces conquer Bakkah and assume control under the name of Mecca in 630 AD.

In 1973 MLB owners voted on and approved the position of the Designated Hitter in the American League.

Aaaaaaaand two years ago today Municipal health officials in Wuhan, China record the first death from Covid-19.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Alexander Hamilton

Gory Guerrero

Manny Acta

Mary J Blige

Kevin Boss

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“I’ll tolerate you until I can replace you.” – Mike Tomlin

THE NATTY

My thoughts are pretty simple. Alabama was in position to score late and gave up a turnover for a score to seal it. These were definitely the two best teams in college football this year and beyond them we see that between the transfer portal and NIL teams 3-24 are much closer than they used to be. Congrats to Kirby Smart for getting the monkey off his back and congrats to Saban for making his sixth Championship appearance in the last eight years. Hopefully we can see some sort of cap on scholarships per school soon to allow a little more parity but time will tell. As of now one could chalk up two more SEC teams to be in the big game next year.

That’s it for now. It’s A Football World, we’re all just passing through. Later!

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Feature photo: Marca