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Tipsheet: NFL quarterback market looks bleak
• By Jeff Gordon
http://www.stltoday.com/sports/colu...cle_caa26bfc-2a5d-5bba-b4bc-a75609442060.html
This 2014 NFL season reminded us just difficult it is to find a consistently good quarterback at this level.
About half the teams in the league could use an upgrade and pickings will be slim in the free agent marketplace. Fans inevitably demand quarterback change, but they should be careful what they wish for this winter.
NFL.com's Gregg Rosenthal ranked the top five:
Mark Sanchez: Will playing so-so in Chip Kelly's system really rehabilitate his value that much? It would be a surprise if any free agent available got starter money. Sanchez is a 1B option.
Brian Hoyer: The more he played this season, the more he looked like a high quality backup.
Ryan Mallett: It sounds like the Texans want Mallett back, and there probably won't be a ton of competition for him.
Jake Locker: He's genuinely shown flashes of quality starter play, but his durability concerns make him a flier free-agent pickup.
Michael Vick: We're nearing the end of the line here, but he should still be able to get work.
Rams quarterback Shaun Hill made Rosenthal's "others" list, along with former Mizzou standout Blaine Gabbert and the likes of Colt McCoy, Christian Ponder, Matt Moore, Jimmy Clausen and Tavaris Jackson.
Rams quarterback Sam Bradford did not make Rosenthal's "trade" list, given the current Rams' claim that Sam is still the man here.
Players who did make that list include Jay Cutler, Geno Smith, Mike Glennon, Robert Griffin III and E.J, Manuel. Glennon and Manuel seem likely to be traded -- if anybody cares -- and the other three could get another shot where they are, perhaps with new coaches.
The Rams appear unlikely to draft their starting quarterback for 2015, since the franchise is overdue to actually produce a winning season. So those demanding change could be sorely disappointed with Jeff Fisher, Les Snead and Co.
MYSTERIES OF THE UNIVERSE
Questions to ponder while the Rams prepare to get hammered in Seattle:
Will we ever see anything crazier than the Bahamas Bowl finish?
What were the funniest sports world tweets in 2014?
What is your favorite defunct college bowl game?
QUIPS 'R US
Here is what some of America's leading sports pundits have been writing:
Don Banks, SI.com: "Those seasonal winds of change are getting ready to blow on the coaching staffs and front offices of the NFL, but from all indications, there isn’t going to be quite as much activity in the league’s firing/hiring season as we first anticipated. Believe it or not, Black Monday -- the day of bloodletting after the close of the NFL’s regular season -- might not be quite so bleak this year, with several undecided team owners showing signs that they are starting to lean toward a sense of patience and continuity in regard to their staffing. Fancy that. With seven or eight coaching changes made in the NFL in each of the past four seasons, this year’s coaching carousel has a chance to feature the least amount of turnover since only three teams changed coaches in 2010. Look around the league as we approach Week 17 and you’ll see several teams where coaching or general manager changes were once projected, but now look much more unlikely: Miami owner Stephen Ross has come out in recent days and assured the continued employment of both coach Joe Philbin and general manager Dennis Hickey. Washington’s uptick in performance the past two weeks has removed whatever doubt there might have been regarding coach Jay Gruden’s status for next season. The Giants are finishing strong offensively, with three consecutive victories, and that has buoyed the chances that New York will not feel forced to move on from either coach Tom Coughlin or GM Jerry Reese. The signs point toward stability in Jacksonville with coach Gus Bradley getting a third season in that massive rebuilding job, and Carolina miraculously being in position to defend its NFC South title this Sunday in Atlanta probably means coach Ron Rivera survives into a fourth season in Charlotte. In Buffalo, though there’s the unpredictability of new ownership with Terry and Lee Pegula, head coach Doug Marrone is thought to have secured his job for next year by getting the Bills to the eight-win mark, their best record in 10 years. And in St. Louis, while the record is again last-place material at 6-9, Jeff Fisher’s club has posted several impressive upsets from midseason on, and has the makings of one of the league’s best defenses. In short, no changes are expected in St. Louis."
Jerry Brewer, Seattle Times: Just six weeks ago, it was trendy to question Russell Wilson. He was enduring a midseason slump, with four subpar performances in a five-game span, the longest rough patch of his young NFL career. The infamous 'not black enough' Bleacher Report story was published. The Seahawks were playing mediocre football, defying Wilson’s status as one of the greatest winners in the sport. For the first time since he emerged as a big-time NFL player, Wilson was experiencing the other side of stardom. The story line wasn’t all about his Houdini act and how he’s underpaid as a former third-round draft pick still playing under his rookie contract. For the first time, we saw Wilson sweat. We saw him as human.And that only makes his 2014 evolution a better tale. The straight-A student finally got a D on a test. And then he responded by showing you just how smart he really is. This has been the most erratic of Wilson’s three NFL seasons. His efficiency has been his defining characteristic (besides elusiveness), but in five games this season, he has failed to achieve at least an 80 passer rating. He didn’t even have that many poor games as a rookie. But Wilson has adjusted. He has fixed his mistakes, and he has learned to transcend the problems that weren’t his fault. The offensive line has often been a mess, but Wilson has managed once again. The Seahawks traded their No. 1 receiver, Percy Harvin, five games into the season, but Wilson has overcome the loss. He also has become a more engaged teammate off the field, quieting the locker-room whispers about his aloofness that arose when the Seahawks were struggling."
Mike Tanier, Bleacher Report: "For two eliminated teams that rarely face each other in critical games, the Rams and Giants sure had some bad blood on Sunday. Kicker Josh Brown stuck his nose in a post-kickoff scrum in the first quarter and got cantilevered into the pile, his feet lifting into the air. Cody Davis figured he could grab himself a handful of kicker foot, but he did not anticipate that Brown would just haul off and kick him in the face. Brown drew a roughness foul, but really, what would you do if someone started grabbing at your leg? Brown-Davis was just the undercard for everybody vs. everybody. Alec Ogletree delivered a late hit on Odell Beckham on the Giants sideline, giving Beckham a chance to prove that he is one of the world's most interesting football players and MMA fighters right now. Beckham did not get to show off his pugilism chops, however, as half the Giants roster came to his defense. Receivers Preston Parker and Kevin Ogletree acted as Beckham's stunt doubles; Ogletree cleverly slipped into Beckham's place, figuring that both opponents and referees would get No. 15 and No. 13 mixed up or would just assume that there was no way one fight could involve two men named Ogletree. Watch any clip of the brawl, and you will be hard-pressed to figure out when Beckham disappears and Kevin Ogletree appears in the thick of the action. Parker was one of three non-Beckhams ejected from the game. That's taking one for the team. There is a lot of cool cinema verite footage of the scrum, because cameramen are never far from Beckham and several found themselves embedded in the battle. If Beckham falls out of a tree, three videographers are likely to break his fall."
Richard Justice, Sports on Earth: "This Spring Training will be different from most others. In previous years, we would focus on one team or perhaps a couple of teams. Or maybe we'd look hard at the defending champions. But this offseason has changed everything. And so, the 2015 season offers countless possibilities. We might begin with the Chicago Cubs. Theo Epstein has methodically built a great talent base. He was patient, too, biding his time for the right moment to spend big money and send a message -- first by hiring Joe Maddon. If Maddon is not the best manager in the game, he's on the very, very short list. For a franchise that has more high-ceiling major league-ready young guys than any other, he's exactly the right guy. He will create the right environment for Kris Bryant and Jorge Soler and all the others. No manager on earth is better at helping a kid deal with the inevitable successes and failures of adjusting to the big leagues. When Epstein introduced Maddon to Chicago, it was his way of saying, 'We're ready to win.' He then followed up the hiring of Maddon by signing arguably baseball's top free agent -- left-hander Jon Lester, a tough-as-nails, no-nonsense veteran who is absolutely a perfect fit both in terms of production and demeanor. It'll be fascinating to watch the young players the Cubs have developed try to figure things out. Obviously, not all of them will make it. But Epstein acquired such a deep base of talent that it seems inevitable that the Cubs will be in contention very quickly, perhaps in 2015."
Ken Berger, CBSSports.com: "It's tempting to read too much into this, and we really shouldn't. OK, we should. And we will. Did anyone else think it was odd that LeBron James had more camaraderie, more genuine interactions with the former teammates that were all around him on Thursday than with his current ones? Think about that for a minute . . . Now, when you're the most prominent player in the game and you spend four years with people and make four trips to the NBA Finals with them and win two championships, those bonds "last forever," as James said before his return to Miami on Christmas Day. This is especially true when one of those players, Dwyane Wade, has been your friend and rival -- like a brother to you -- for virtually your entire basketball career. Those kind of bonds can't be formed in a new city (not even if it's your old city, and not even if it's your hometown) over the course of 28 regular season games. But man, oh, man, James and his new teammates in the burgundy and gold uniforms look a lot more like strangers than teammates. They're all lost, and nobody has directions. That's a problem. It's a problem that cuts much deeper than the inconsequential 101-91 loss that James and the Cavs suffered at the hands of Wade and the Heat on Thursday. And it speaks to something very interesting about the dynamic that James left behind in Miami and the one that he voluntarily rejoined in Cleveland."
MEGAPHONE
"I open up my thing and I see Google and it's Jim Harbaugh. It's perfect ... it's all Jim. But I will say this: I'm proud of him and I think he's handled it well. He's been a giant through all of this uncalled-for type of media onslaught that he faces. Not anyone's fault, just the nature of the business. I think he's handled it just perfectly."
Ravens coach John Harbaugh, on being the Other Harbaugh as the NFL season winds down.