true. that was the mother of all meth hits for dolphin fans.

Chris Landry was talking about this on The First Team this morning. Pioli apparently isn't a personnel guy, but more of an administrative type. The opinion was that whoever is brought in as coach would need to assist with the evaluation of talent (and that job was still mainly Belichick's in NE).

So we've had rksmurf return, as well as appearances by The Afoci and DataKing so far in the past few days? Is it FOFC reunion week? And who's next?

Jim Schwartz is going to be named the Detroit Lions coach.

Sweet Jesus, thank you.

Cue all the "Schwartz" soundbites from Spaceballs. :D

And there was much rejoicing...

First thought that came to mind when hearing the name. :D

Remember Pizza the Hut?

Who is Jim Schwartz and how much better will he be than the last 3-5 lackeys?

Titans DC since 2000. Real bright guy.

Ahh thanks. He's got a tall task ahead then, that detroit defense was nonexistant.

May God have mercy on your soul Jim Schwartz. :)

I might be wrong, but is it the same Jim Schwartz that was a special teams player for the Bears also?

Not bright enough to stay the hell outta Detroit. :lol:

No kidding there, although between them and the Raiders I would take the Lions.

So I guess this means Greg Williams will end up the Titans DC, unless the Saints lock him up first somehow.

Saints already signed Williams.

About as good as the Lions could hope for. Read an article on him and came away feeling fairly good about him if he got hired. Avid chess player since he gets into tactics so much. If the Lions just pull off a B rated draft with all of those picks, it will help a lot in turning things around.

Adam Schefter is reporting Jason Garrett is on his way to STL and all signs point to him as the favorite for the Rams job.

Sorry Rams fans.

The same Shefter just broke the story (they said on NFL Network anyways) that Jon Gruden has been fired.

Bruce Allen gone too ... wow

dola- Bruce Allen fired as well.

ESPN is slow on this one, they must not have been watching NFL Network. NFL Network already has guys on the phone talking about it.

Jon Gruden has been fired.

Wow.

My thought is that the Bucs already Cowher or Shanahan lined up, that can be the only explanation for firing both.

I'm smelling a big Rooney rule violation in Tampa. Hopefully no minorities want to interview. It almost has to be shanahan or cowher.

Triple dola.

There will be a freaking rush to get Gruden for any team with an HC job still open.

Dump Lovie.

Hire Gruden.

Thanks.

I'd think so.

Wow. Gruden? Really?

Teams that lost to the Oakland Raiders in 2008

NY Jets - fired HC
Denver - fired HC
TB Bucs - fired HC and GM
Houston - fired Def. Coordinator and 2 other defensive coaches
KC Chiefs - Fired GM and everyone is still waiting for the axe fall on Edwards

Crazy. My two favorite coaches, Gruden and Shanahan, both fired after barely missing division titles. My pipe dream, which has no basis in reality, is that Gruden becomes the coach at Indiana University. But that would never happen in a billion years.

Schefter is reporting Raheem Morris is the favorite to take over the Bucs job.

Makes no sense.

I just saw that. Wow. Gruden always have been one of my favorites.

Nope. Morris makes no sense.

His name got hot almost immediately. He's got the same pedigree as Mike Tomlin and Tomlin worked down there when Dungy was still around, it's where he got his start.

I think that the Bucs are trying to strike gold by giving him a shot, too soon and make sure that he won't end up leaving them and going to someone in a year or two and pulling a Tomlin. Worse case, they fire him after a year or two.

I don't think it had anything to do with why they fired Chucky, I think that had more to do with Shanahan getting fired. I mean, if the Broncos can fire him, than who can't get canned?

I almost thought immediately when I heard it, that this is what they were gonna do.

I'd like to see Gruden return to the Raiders just to see what he could do with that group of underachievers. He's always been pretty good with getting the most out of his talent.

This was my first thought.

I dunno, I like chucky and all but he's always seemed like an opportunist to me. he landed a raiders team loaded with talent and got them one step from a super bowl. He then inherited a tampa team that should have won 3-4 super bowls and won one.

Not sure on chucy's overall skills yet. Lets see him turn around the Lions or browns or 49ers.

I don't think they were set to win 3 or 4, they never had the offense to do it.
He inherited a inept offense in Tampa and a great defense that was aging.

Besides, I think it's not really fair saying anyone should of won X amount of Super Bowls with a team, Dungy only won one with the Colts, he couldn't win a playoff game with Tampa, and yet he still is a great coach. Take away the Pats, maybe the Colts win 2 or 3 but how do you say he could of won X amount when the competition is always getting better too.

Is the Jets situation 100% set in stone with Rex Ryan? Don't Gruden and Favre get along pretty well?

They were saying something along those lines on NFL Network.

I somewhat wonder if he'd be better off pulling a Pete Carroll and going to coach college. He's an authoritarian coach, and in college, you have a lot more power over your players than you do in the NFL.

I thought of that, but what college jobs are open? I thought most of that shuffling already happened.

Mark dominick (sp?) as GM. Morris as coach. According to Steve Deumig of WDAE

Gruden's teams have always seemed, to me, to underachieve and lack direction (the first year notwithstanding). I'm sure he'll be a hot commodity, but I don't think he deserves to be so.

I also think there's a very good chance the Bucs pick 1st overall in 2010. They aren't very talented and their better players are old. They have a ton of space but they need almost a complete overhaul. Knock chucky for the collapse but they really weren't much more than a 6 win team on paper

The more I think about it, the more I think this firing should not be suprising at all. Jon Gruden's tenure after his Super Bowl win is almost exactly the same as Brian Billick's tenure with the Ravens after his Super Bowl.

copycat league. success of rookie coaches in Atlanta and Baltimore has everyone jumping in the rookie coach bandwagon. i wouldn't dump Gruden for a rookie coach. the guy won a SB in this decade. what have you done for me lately has never proven to be an effective way to run a team. Tampa Bay is setting back a playoff contending team numerous years.

any coach that has won a SB within the previous 10 years should be a hot commodity.

Only ones holding jobs right now are Belichick and Coughlin, yes?

Did Lane Kiffin sign his contract yet?;)

Too bad Rich Rodriguez signed his the other day...

Tomlin had five years as a position coach and a year at DC before getting the Steelers job. Morris was with the Bucs the first time four four seasons, one as quality control coach (really?), one as a defensive assistant (no, not assistant coach or even an assistant position coach, just an assistant) and two years as assistant DB coach (I didn't even realize the NFL had assistant position coaches). He has a total of two years of NFL experience as a position coach.

I hear the argument that rookie coaches are hot (Mike Smith is 49, however). Mike Tomlin is young but is much more experienced than Morris is. Lane Kiffen had slightly more experience than Morris and we saw how well that went down. Josh McDaniels is young too but has vast more experience that Morris. While young rookie coaches are a bit of a trend, it's usually teams looking outside the organization for a fresh take.

Tampa just seemed to randomly promote whoever happened to be standing there when they fired the GM and coach.