Yes, according to The Athletic things were going well at beginning of the day with Harbaugh and the Vikings, things started to take a bit of a turn in the afternoon, and the Vikings decided not to offer him the job. They were trying to prioritize leadership, inclusivity and collaboration after the Zimmer era, as well as some innovation. I guess there were doubts that Harbaugh could create that, so they went with O'Connell.

Not a great look for Harbaugh. He essentially said his goodbyes in Michigan, think the job was his, and didn't even get an offer. So, I guess he's back now.

Kwesi is a smart man, Princeton educated. I was hoping the Vikings would hire Harbaugh, because I think it would be a disaster and that's what I wish upon all of the other NFC North teams that constantly beat up on the Lions.

So you're to blame for Pace and Nagy?

Good scouting, player development, coaching hires, and smart signings seems to do it most years for the Patriots, Steelers, Ravens, and Packers. Baker Mayfield, Sam Darnold, Josh Rosen, and Lamar Jackson were all first round QBs in 2018. Baker was #1 and Jackson was #32. Sometimes you get an Andrew Luck or Burrow and sometimes you get Jamarcus Russell or Sam Bradford. I don't even really care or feel that strongly about it, but if tanking is a problem (and it appears to be if at least two owners were willing to incentivize it) and the integrity of the game is called into question, think it would be all that much of a competitive advantage difference.

It was an intense ritual, but, yes.

I just finished reading the Athletic story. Combine that with Harbaugh's statement about remaining at Michigan as long as they will have him and IMO the best case scenario is Harbaugh learned yesterday that the NFL coaching game has left him behind.

A lot has been written and will be written about the Harbaugh/Vikings interaction/flirtation. Not sure we'll ever know everything about yesterday - I tend to trust what John U. Bacon writes, because I knew him when we were at The Ann Arbor News. He's pretty quiet and careful, approaches this like a historian. He cites internal conflict among Vikings ownership over Harbaugh. O'Connell was a decent choice no one felt strongly against.

I'm not sure how I feel. There's something about growing up in the same neighborhood and even being on a couple of teams with a guy who has gone on to greatness. But I didn't really know the guy and all I care about is a football team that can challenge Ohio State every year. If he were 0-6 against the Buckeyes rather than 1-5, maybe I'd welcome his return to the NFL. I like continuity, I prefer schemes that have NFL relevance because I think that attracts better prospects long-term and it's more fun to watch. So the idea of a "lifer" home-town guy appeals to me.

He accepted a revised contract for the past season that showed some integrity. He seems to try to run a clean program (though with NIL, what's clean these days)? On the whole, I'm glad with the resolution. And it seems he's put himself in a spot where he can't flirt with the NFL again without losing credibility.

Good to see the Jaguars aren't going to be a worry for the Colts for a little while yet....

We’ve hired Doug Pederson as head coach.#DUUUVAL pic.twitter.com/CE58SjM3o1

— Jacksonville Jaguars (@Jaguars) February 4, 2022

Big time coordinator hiring with LV stealing Patrick Graham from NYG.

No fooling, if McDaniels has turned the corner (possible?) then they have a shot to make some noise. Need to get over some awful Mayock contracts and draft picks, but the front office there is strong and they have some pieces to work with.

Interesting read on differing approaches to NFL contracts by various front offices:

Read here

Cincy has two more years before the big contracts hit, but when they do, it's going to be tough. Right now it looks like they have at least three players that will sign for the most ever at their position, Burrow, Chase, and McPherson

Fascinating article, thanks for sharing Quik.

I was hearing someone say that for as weird as Mark Davis is, he's actually a pretty good "stay out of the way" owner. And the team has a ton of spare cash now that it's in Vegas.

So a blank checkbook and an owner that isn't going to be micro-managing you based on a guy who looked good on TV at the Fiesta Bowl? That's a good foundation for success.

Mahomes and Herbert likely being in that division for the next 10+ years is the only real downside to the LV job.

I believe Gruden had a degree of control over the personnel. I think someone else may have mentioned this as well, but I like to imagine that Gruden was the one responsible for the first round picks, got bored after that and then let Mayock take over the remainder of the draft. The Raiders drafting track record beyond the first round was actually pretty decent.

I guess Tom Brady was the QB Ross wanted Flores to "bump into" at the marina, not Watson as speculated.

The owner said gruden had 51% say. One of the reasons I think he didn't go after Harbaugh. All the goofiness aside Davis did seem to learn from thr mistakes he made last time.

Sounding like the Dolphins will lock up Mike McDaniel soon. I have mixed feelings... I like the "smartest guy in the room" theory after whiffing on multiple bad fits, but I also do worry a bit about him being such a stark contrast with Flores in the "leader of men" metric.

Former players saying a lot of sky high things about MMcD, and he's the darling of the analytics crew... so let's hope they at least show up smart with their approach to running an offense.

I have almost no hope this pans out well.

Mike McDaniel is the 4th minority coach in the NFL

At least the Dolphins aren’t hiring Lovie Smith. The Texans feel like an exercise in how badly you can run a franchise before nobody shows up to watch any more.

I have no clue what the Texans are doing. McCown has never coached and while Lovie is a really nice guy, this is 2022. What a disaster.

Why not just keep Culley if that's the best you can do?

I still have the phrase, "Rex Grossman is our quarterback" burned into my skull in Lovie's southern drawl.

FYI: I live in Houston and I'll coach the Texans for a 5yr/$5M contract. Just sayin'. I'm cheaper and I can still get the team the losses that I guess it desires.

SI

We don't talk enough about how Kyle Orton and Rex Grossman wasted one of the best defenses of its generation.

Even an Andy-Dalton-level guy would have probably gotten y'all a Super Bowl or 2.

dola: Y'all probably talk about this all the time in Chicago. I'm more thinking nationally how we kind of just memory-holed that whole era.

The Bears came close to a Super Bowl with Jim Miller and Shane Matthews at QB, and went to a Super Bowl with Sexy Rexy at QB. It's just sad how completely inept this team is at finding even an okay quarterback.

What I think doesn't get talked about isn't the defense as much as Lovie and friends neutering one of the most devastating weapons in modern NFL history - Devin Hester. Their attempts to turn him into a wide receiver utterly destroyed his return game.

Mike McDaniel immediately raises the standard for head coach press conferences.

Blast from the Past!!!

One. The answer was one. Good foreshadowing flere.

Nice to see a flere reboot :)

Love the flere comics!

I wish imgur had existed back in the day. Would have made hosting those comics a lot easier.

Kyler Murray has apparently made a strong statement entering his "pay me, I've earned it" season. At least strong by today's "Twitter is the window to my soul" standards.

Doesn't anyone use agents for this kind of stuff anymore? Scott Boras would have the Cardinals pleading for an audience with the Pope by now.

Still think Bears have a shot to win that game if Tommie Harris doesn't get hurt at the end of the year.

Kyler Murray unfollows Cardinals on social media, deletes all franchise-related pictures on Instagram

What's going on between Murray and the Cardinals? Is this all about his contract? Does he have a beef against someone?

The Browns, Steelers, and Colts all need to be willing to mortgage the future for a QB in trade. If they aren't willing to do that, they need to think about tearing it all apart and trying to get a draft pick that could get them a franchise QB.

The Titans should probably also do this, but my understanding is that the Tannehil contract won't really let them until next year.

Looking like Kamara should be in jail and suspended at least a season

Don't commit crimes in Vegas dummies. There are cameras EVERYWHERE.

Ron Turner and Mike Martz getting their resumes ready for that OC position.

If the Texans play their cards right Jeff Fisher might still be available next year

Real failure there by Kamara's crew. Kamara is the meal ticket. When shit goes down, your #1 job is to make sure he does not punch or get punched. You pull him the hell out of there.

It is the NFL. There should be a uniform standard of discipline. But it is instead all PR driven.

If the video makes him look bad, then major suspension coming. If it does not have a great angle and there's a lot of bodies and confusion and you can't really tell much, then minor suspension coming.

Remember that the Ray Rice thing was going to go away until a video surfaced that showed exactly what he had said happened. And then they quickly changed their tune and were shocked to find gambling going on there.

final dola: According to the police report, by his own admission, he chased the guy down and started punching him. Unless there is more to the story, that's really bad. A lot of "self defense" and "mutual aggressors" stuff starts to go away when you chase down someone trying to get away.

But will it be more or less punishment than one gets for allegedly suggesting to someone that they potentially slightly deflate game balls? The public needs to know. :D

I think he gets a slap on the wrist. Maybe a 4 game suspension and probably some kind of payday for the victim.

Just thinking short term... the general consensus is that this QB class doesn't possess any prospects who merit that "go up and get him" attention. Mock drafts, thus far, are widely scattered on who will even be the first QB selected, and whether that happens with picks 5-10 or 20-30... but at the moment hardly anyone is seeing either a top-tier pick being used by its owner on a QB, nor a team so hungry for a specific guy that they make the move here.

We'll see. Guys like Cam Newton and Kyler Murray didn't rate super high on draft boards until things started getting real, so maybe that can happen this year. I'm seeing the Steelers (who have a habit of telling the world who they love in an upcoming draft) mocked to take Malik Willis, a very athletic QB out of Liberty... but the consensus seems to be he's a high-upside high-risk selection, and that pick 20 is maybe about right for him. I'd be interested in props on what QB gets selected first, though, with him in mind ahead of the less juicy options out there.

The Athletic Football Show had a podcast where they talked about the QB situation. The easy advice is to get a franchise QB. But that's really obvious and not always possible.

So then what? And I thought that they had a good insight into that situation: If you are not in a position to get a franchise QB, then there is nothing wrong with going with a temporary/stopgap guy. But what you absolutely cannot do is commit long term to that guy. You just cannot throw a stopgap a ton of guaranteed money.

So like with the Browns. If you don't like any of the guys in the draft, and you aren't able to trade for Russ or Rodgers, then there is nothing wrong with keeping Baker on that $19,000,000 5th year option for a year. But you do not want to sign him to a deal that marries you together for the next 3+ years.