Category — NFL News and Takes

Jon Ogden isn’t reporting to minicamp, but there’s still no word as to whether or not he’ll retire. But at least he’s made a timeline: next month, before the draft. “If I can’t play football the way I’m used to playing, then I’m not going to return,” Ogden, 33, said yesterday. “If I think I can, I want to give it a shot.” The loss of the future hall of fame tackle will be detrimental to the Baltimore Ravens, who have already struggled to establish themselves on offense. And it’s definitely not going to be good for new head coach John Harbaugh, who enters a system where former head coach Brian Billick was fired this season after years of failed attempts to build an offense.

The past several seasons it’s been a question whether or not Tony Dungy will continue coaching. Dungy, someone who has never considered himself a football “lifer” and expected himself to be retired at age 50 (he’s currently 53), seriously pondered retirement after coaching the Indianapolis Colts to a Super Bowl win last year. But after meeting with owner Jim Irsay and talking the entire situation through with his wife, Dungy decided to instead coach another season before re-evaluating the situation.

Rumors of his retirement heated up this week when it was learned that Dungy’s children have transferred schools from Indianapolis to the Tampa area.

The Colts, however, are doing whatever is necessary to sway Dungy’s decision towards continuing the legacy he has built in Indianapolis. Recent reports from ESPN indicate that the team has offered him “tremendous options” and “flexibility.”

Despite initial reports stating Bill Parcells will be joining the Atlanta Falcons franchise to aid in finding a head coach, the latest from ESPN is that he will instead be on his way to Miami in a similar capacity. The deal with Atlanta fell through when Parcells noted that the Dolphins were interested in him.

“We gave it our best shot, and it didn’t work out. We will continue down the same overall path, proceeding with plans to hire a general manager and a head coach. We will identify and consider every strongly viable candidate for these positions, with the goal of hiring the best,” Atlanta’s Arthur Blank said, according to a statement.

According to reports from ESPN and now the AP, Bill Parcells is considering a position with the Atlanta Falcons which would basically give him the power to hire a new head coach for the Atlanta Falcons after Bobby Petrino walked out on the team last week. Parcells would likely be a fine candidate because of his experience and his network of resources is fairly widespread.

Interestingly, Parcells could, if he wanted, name himself the head coach. But given the nature of the team — its talent — it would be surprising if he did so. Besides, being let go by the Dallas Cowboys probably left a bitter taste in his mouth and, while coaching there, he didn’t appear to enjoy the work. At his age, rebuilding a team from scratch — which is about where the Falcons are at this point — may not be the best idea.

According to report in the New York Post, Eric Mangini was presented with opportunity after opportunity to clarify the quarterback situation in New York. Five times, in fact. But Man-genius (sure, I’ll still call him that) isn’t going to say.

“We’ve got to see where Kellen is in terms of the injury,” Mangini said. “I think Kellen has done a lot of good things and there’s a lot of things that he’s still growing into and learning about with experience.

“On the other side, I thought Chad did a really nice job in the role that he has, to have limited reps and come in and execute all the different things we asked him to execute. That to me is classic Chad.”

Kyle Boller will reportedly be starting at quarterback for the Ravens in this weekend’s game against the Seattle Seahawks. This despite rumors Troy Smith may have earned the start after his performance against the Miami Dolphins that nearly led to a victory.

The idea behind it is clear: start a veteran who has more experience in these kinds of games to put the Ravens in the best position to win. Will it work? Who knows. But after eight consecutive losses, it makes sense that Brian Billick would want to win this game more than most.

And Boller hasn’t been bad this season. He’s had some rough patches, but he’s also shown a lot of maturity from his earlier years in the league and, in my opinion, earned the right to keep his spot as the starter through the end of the season. It seems Billick has similar feelings.

Vince Young has been nursing a sore quad for some time now, since mid-October, in fact. And during last night’s game against the Denver Broncos, he apparently bruised that same quad on a play that technically didn’t happen.

In a game in which Jay Cutler played near-perfect, Denver rediscovered its offense. All the team’s scores were from 40+ yards out, two of which were passes where the receiver shed his tackler and picked up the final 20 with his feet.

And it came at a crucial time in the season. If Denver would have lost last night, they would have fallen to 4-6 and playoff hopes would have begun to slip even further away, perhaps from sight.

Instead the team is now 5-5 and tied with San Diego at the top of the AFC West, which is important because it looks very doubtful we’ll see a Wild Card team emerge from the division weakened by injuries and questionable coaching.

In a bit of an odd investigation, the NFL is set to prove that Green Bay’s defensive backs offered their linemen teammates $500 each if they could hold Minnesota’s Adrian Peterson under 100 yard and another $500 if they could hold Carolina’s team total to under 60 yards on the ground.

Personally, I think it’s funny that Green Bay’s players recognized the vast difference in talent between Carolina’s ball carriers and Adrian Peterson.

It’s a rule I wasn’t aware of, though I can’t say for certain Green Bay’s defensive backs can say the same thing. But who knew teammates couldn’t offer bonuses to each other for good play? It doesn’t seem much different from buying a round of beers after a team victory, though according to NFL rules it is punishable. This, from ESPN.com, spews out the league lingo:

At this point in the New England-Buffalo game, you’ve probably already changed the channel if you’re a Bills’ fan. Or you’ve clubbed your television set with a baseball bat. Both are very therapeutic.

But on a more serious note — and one that goes beyond the realm of football — there was some fantastic news coming from Kevin Everett himself. Everett, in a statement broadcast on the Jumbotron in Buffalo just before kickoff, thanked the fans and his teammates for the support he has received and noted that his condition is improving.

Everitt suffered a life-threatening spinal cord injury in the first game of the season. But while the injury will keep Everett from every stepping foot on a playing field again, it won’t keep him from doing most anything else: he’s expected to make a full recovery.