NFL GridIron Gab Daily Digest

Wildcard weekend is here in the NFL, and with it it’s time to give the picks for the four games this weekend:

NY Jets (9-7) at Cincinnati (10-6) – The Jets witewashed the Bengals last week 37-0, but this is a whole different ballgame. First off, the game is in Cincy, and the Bengals are going to actually show up and play this time. The Jets played well last week, they ran the ball well, and never allowed the Bengals in the game. The Jets can run the football as well as anyone in the league, and their defense is going to try and pressure Carson Palmer. Look for them to make sure they don’t have to have Mark Sanchez win the game, and they will control the tempo with the run game. Look for the Jets to move on to Indy next weekend. NY Jets 24 Cincinnati 14

Philadelphia (11-5) at Dallas (11-5) - The Cowboys have put the stigma of being a choker in the month of December behind them. They beat the Eagles last week to win the division, and shut down a team that had won six in a row and was playing very well on offense. This week is a huge over the hump week for Tony Romo, who needs to come out and exercise the demons of playoffs past. I think it will happen. The game is going to be a slugfest, and the two defenses will dominate. Look for lower scoring game that the Cowboys eek out for their third win over the Eagles in the 09 season. Dallas 13 Philadelphia 7

Baltimore (9-7) at New England (10-6) – It’s not the Pats of old going into the playoffs. They lost WR Wes Welker last week, and will need more from the running game and Randy Moss. The defense is going to need to stop Ray Rice, and make sure to cover Derrick Mason, the best pass catcher on the Ravens. Look for New England to come out right away throwing, and make sure they build a lead to take away the Ravens run game. New England 24 Baltimore 10

Green Bay (11-5) at Arizona (10-6) – Another rematch from the week ago, as the Pack dominated the Cards in Arizona. Look for Green Bay to win this one as well, as they will use their defense to pressure Kurt Warner and force some mistakes. The Cards also come in banged up, as Anquan Boldin is not going to be 100 percent, meaning the Pack will shift plenty of coverage to Larry Fitzgerald. Ryan Grant and Aaron Rodgers will control the game, and the Pack will walk away from Arizona with a win. Green Bay 27 Arizona 14

New York Giants director of college scouting Marc Ross is scheduled to interview for the Seattle Seahawks general manager position next week, according to ESPN's Adam Schefter.

Ross, 35, is another young up-and-comer with a strong background in scouting, in the same mold as previously identified candidates Eric DeCosta of the Baltimore Ravens, Steve Keim of the Arizona Cardinals, John Schneider of the Green Bay Packers and Tom Heckert of the Philadelphia Eagles.

He worked as a scout for the Buffalo Bills for three years before joining the Giants in 2007 as their director of college scouting and leader in their past two draft efforts.

The Giants have had very productive drafts despite having late first-round picks. This past season, Ross hit on standout wide receiver Hakeem Nicks with the 29th pick and starting right tackle William Beatty in the second.

The 2008 draft brought safety Kenny Phillips, the 31st pick in the first round. Phillips has missed most of this season with an arthritic knee problem, but the Giants selected starting corner Terrell Thomas in the second round and wide receiver Mario Manningham in the third.

Ross became the NFL's youngest college scouting director in 2000 when he took over that role for the Philadelphia Eagles at age 27, where he was responsible for drafting such standouts as Brian Westbrook, Lito Sheppard and Derrick Burgess.

He moved to the Buffalo Bills in 2004 as a national college scout and then the Giants in 2007.

Ross was an All-Ivy League wide receiver in 1993 and 1994 at Princeton, where he graduated with a sociology degree. He earned a Master's in sports management from the University of Massachusetts in 1997.

For the past two weeks now there has been an ongoing battle between Cowboys corner Mike Jenkins and Eagles wide receiver DeSean Jackson. Before the Week 17 matchup, Jenkins instigated the talks by saying they weren't worried by Jackson's deep threat ability. Personally, I was surprised when Jackson didn't shoot back at Jenkins. Rather, he played it off and would let it be settled on the field. Words were exchanged on the field, and I'm sure Jackson couldn't make a very good stand much of the game as his offense was shutout.

This week Jackson came out and made the now infamous "sting they ass" comment. The Cowboys secondary heard about this and has said they will be ready. If all this wasn't enough, Jackson hopped on UStream and commented on how the Cowboys put multiple defenders on him and were essentially scared. Jenkins fired back after hearing this saying they ran man coverage the whole game.

So the words have been exchanged and may continue to be up until Saturday night is over. However, words don't mean anything. At the end of Saturday night, the winner of this little Jenkins-Jackson battle will show on the scoreboard. It doesn't matter if either one of them play. One of them will be able to say they're still in the playoffs and the other will not.

With all that he has said this week, I hope Jackson comes out on Saturday and plays the game of his life. The Eagles are going to need him to make plays and I think he owes it to himself to step up.

Like it or not, Eric Mangini will get another shot with the Browns in 2010, as today new GM Mike Holmgren announced that the coach and his entire staff will be getting a shot to build on the four-game win streak which ended the season.

"I'm happy to announce that Eric Mangini will return as head coach of the Cleveland Browns in 2010. Over the past few weeks Eric and I have had a chance to talk on a number of occasions including our meetings over the last two days,” Holmgren said in a statement. “I was able to gain some tremendous insight into his thought process and philosophies, and came away from our meetings very impressed. In my opinion, Eric has gained the respect and admiration of players, coaches and others in the organization, and with him continuing to lead the team I feel that we are headed in the right direction. Working together, our goal is to build on the strong tradition of this franchise and help get the Browns back to the playoffs."

Mangini won over Holmgren with the final month of the season, as following a loss to the Chargers on December 6th, the team beat the Steelers four days later, then topped the Chiefs on the road December 20th, followed by a home win over the Raiders December 27th then wrapped up the year with their fourth straight win, a beating of the Jags last Sunday.

"I want to thank Mike for the opportunity to not only meet with him and share my thoughts and vision on what it takes to lead a team, but also to continue what we started here,” Mangini said in a statement. “I believe we made some real, tangible progress throughout the course of the season, culminating with wins in our final four games. I feel as though the culture and mindset that we established this year have laid the foundation for success in 2010 and beyond, and I'm looking forward to working with Mike and a general manager in making this happen."

Mangini was granted a second season one day shy of his first anniversary with the Browns, who hired him on Jan. 8 last year. He avoided joining an infamous club with Ray Rhodes, who was fired by two teams after two full consecutive seasons.

The team also will be bringing in a new GM, and that appears to be Seattle pro personnel director Will Lewis. He’ll be here tomorrow for an interview. Lewis has a strong background with Holmgren, working with him in Green Bay and Seattle. After his playing career ended, Lewis was a scout with the Packers before following Holmgren to Seattle, where he joined the team's pro personnel department.

The Cowboys have been stellar when the team is facing criticism. When Tony Dungy said the Cowboys had no chance against the Saints, they used that to hand the Saints their first loss of the season. When everyone reminded the Cowboys how badly they were beaten last December by the Eagles, the very team they will have to face for a third time this season, they used that and swept the Eagles in the regular season, including a season finale crushing last week.

This Cowboys team seems to be unstoppable when the experts are betting against them. Now, what happens when the experts start believing what a lot of fans have been saying all along, that this Cowboys team is actually a pretty damn good team?

This week against the Eagles, the Cowboys can't afford to get a big head. This is still the same Eagles team that beat the Cowboys 44-6 last year. They still have the weapons on their team to beat the Cowboys deep if the front doesn't provide the necessary pass rush to throw McNabb of his rhythm. The Cowboys have proven that they can play when they need to, now it is time for them to prove they can win a playoff game.

The talk this week has been that the Cowboys are the hottest NFC team going into the playoffs, but if we look at how long it's been since their last win in the playoffs, they are the coldest team in the playoffs for well over a decade now. This Cowboys team can change all of that this year, and once and for all silence the critics. However, they can't allow the few bandwagon jumpers to give them a big head or past failures will continue to haunt them along with a new one.

Question of the Day

Everyone is talking about how the Eagles didn't look themselves this past week against the Cowboys, and ultimately as it has been for many other Cowboys win, it's been about where the Eagles messed up and not where the Cowboys did good. Just curious but hasn't anyone noticed that the Cowboys have allowed fewer points than any other team in the NFC this season? In fact only the Jets have allowed fewer with 236 than the Cowboys' 250 points allowed. There are 16 games in a season, surely the Cowboys did something right in a few of those games to allow so few points to be scored.

The Raider Nation has been weighing in since Sunday, should Tom Cable be the coach next year or JaMarcus Russell the starting QB. The decision is slated to be either or, but what is 100% confirmed is both cannot come back together. So who is coming back and who is not?

Most likely Russell is going to come back and Cable will be gone, because Al will not want to admit his mistake.

The right answer, though? Don't bring either back.

This era, starting with the hiring of Lane Kiffin and drafting of JaMarcus Russell, has been 3 football years of waste. Not to say the previous 4 were any better, but a coach who was more interested in his next job, an owner who was more worried about making a spectacle to convince others why he shouldn't pay fired coach, and a QB that is in the pantheon of Ryan Leaf/Tony Mandarich type of bust is by far an era the Raiders need to distance themselves away from.

As well the Raiders played in their 5 wins, including big wins against Philadelphia, Cincinnati and Pittsburgh, the fact is they didn't show up for 7 games. Those games were decided by more than 14 points including 3 at home. That lack of consistency goes right to the head coach, which has been a trend for Cable's tenure.

3 TD's, 11 INT, 50.0 QB Rating, out of shape, not endorsed by players on your own team…yeah, you can't bring that back either.

Let them both go Al. Hire a GM, bring in a HEAD COACH (not an offense coordinator or a re-tread coach), and start over knowing that the team has the players to compete with other playoff teams and can be .500 next year. Or ensure that the seats remain empty next year.

According to reports Mike Holmgren has decided to keep Eric Mangini as the head coach of the Cleveland Browns. It is also being reported that Mangini’s entire staff will return in 2010. No official word has come from the Browns as of yet. Keep checking back on nflgridirongab.com as more details are available.

With the season in the books, we begin our watch and speculation as to what will happen at Seahawks headquarters in Renton, Wash.

In the front office, the team needs to hire a president as well as a general manager.  From there, it is not clear whether or not Jim Mora Jr. will be retained as Seattle's head coach after going 5-12 in his first season in command and dropping his last four regular-season games, something that a Seattle head coach hadn't done since 1992.

On the player personnel front, there are numerous questions that need to be figured out prior to the start of next season.

Left tackle Walter Jones might be able to return to play after missing 20 games over the past two seasons due to knee issues, but nobody knows if he'll be successful at a comeback and, if he is, how effective he would be considering he will be 36 years old next season.

With Jones on the shelf, the Seahawks tried to plug the hole by turning the offensive line into a game of musical chairs.  The team used inexperienced players and was forced to sign a veteran off the street.  The result?  A line that couldn't hold up and keep quarterback Matt Hasselbeck off the turf.

While on the subject of Hasselbeck, the signal caller is 34, was injured for much of the season and has one year left on his contract.  He finished off the 2009-2010 campaign tossing 10 interceptions in the team's final four games, rounding out his season total at 17, the same number of touchdowns he had this season.

When you look at wide receiver you would, at least on the surface, think that it's a position of strength for the Seahawks.  That's where you'd be wrong.  Aside for TJ Houshmandzadeh, the team has a lot of uncertainty at the position.  Nate Burleson is an unrestricted free agent and Deion Branch has most likely played his last game in the Pacific Northwest, as I wrote about earlier this season.  This leaves two players on the Seattle roster that saw significant playing time this season, Houshmandzadeh and Deon Butler.  While I love Butler, Seattle can't run on the two alone.

Something has to happen at running back.  Neither Julius Jones nor Justin Forsett cut it as a feature back in a Seahawks uniform.  Granted Forsett had some respectable games hear and there this season, he isn't built to carry the load day in and day out at the highest level of his sport.  Forsett is better suited as a third-down back or solely as a return specialist on special teams.

Diving deeper into special teams, the Seahawks head into the offseason with a 39-year-old long snapper and without a kicker.

Jeff Robinson was brought in to play the final two games of the season after Kevin Houser was put on Injured Reserve.  The long snapper position has been an enigma for Seattle over the past few seasons and the team will have to shore that up soon because Robinson cannot be called on in a relief-type roll for much longer.

Kicker Olindo Mare's contract is up and I wouldn't be surprised if he Seattle doesn't bring him back.  While he was successful on each extra point and made 24 of 26 field goal attempts, the two field goals he missed cost the Seahawks an opportunity to come out victorious at home in Week Three against Chicago.  Had Seattle won that game, they would have been 2-1 and, while one game that early in the season might seem trivial, it could have spurred some momentum going into the following weeks, a time when they would go 1-3.  Factor in the Chicago loss and Seattle's record was 2-5.

Defensively, key players in the secondary are growing long in the tooth.  Both cornerback Ken Lucas and strong safety Deon Grant are 30.  Lawyer Milloy came in as a backup but saw more time as the season wore on.  He's 36.

While Seattle's younger players in the secondary have significant experience, they've had more than there fair share of breakdowns in coverage over the past few seasons.

The defensive line is pretty good for the most part heading into next season.  Defensive tackle Cory Redding is an unrestricted free agent and veteran defensive end Patrick Kearney is 33 and had just five sacks this season.  It was his second consecutive season with five sacks.  These totals come on the heels of his first season with the team in the 2007-2008 season when he brought down opposing quarterbacks 14.5 times behind the line of scrimmage.  If Seattle addresses these two roster spots, things should be fine with the line.

A combination of free agent signings and rookies selected in April's draft is the only way to fix the current state of the team.  Seattle doesn't have enough draft picks to deal with all the aforementioned issues, but they can strategically use the draft to compliment their free agent signings by focusing on a few of these weak spots, mainly: the offensive line, quarterback, running back, defensive back and kicker.  Whether they are able to execute is what we all will be watching for.