NFL GridIron Gab Daily Digest

After interviewing with the Bears for their open offensive coordinator position, head coach Marvin Lewis indicated that QB coach Ken Zampese will remain with the team in his current capacity.

Zampese was the first candidate to interview for the position that opened up shortly after the regular season with the firing of Ron Turner. However, indications are that Lewis put a one-week limit on the Bears to make a decision to hire Zampese, and apparently that time limit has expired.

The Bears are still without an offensive coordinator as of this post.

The retention of Zampese indicates that the Bengals coaching staff will remain largely unchanged in 2010. The Bengals are still in need of an offensive line assistant to replace Bob Surace, who left to take the head coaching job at his alma mater, Princeton.

In related news, former Bengals WR coach Hue Jackson, a favorite of Lewis and many Bengals players took the offensive coordinator’s position in Oakland today. Many Bengal observers, including former OT Willie Anderson, had openly lobbied for Jackson as a replacement for current OC Bob Bratkowski. Jackson spent 2009 as QB Coach in Baltimore.

Joey Porter was recently on a radio based in his hometown of Bakersfield, California and flat out said that he was not happy with his role on the team in the 2009 season. He also said that he hopes that he does not have to come back to the Dolphins next season.

This could be for several reasons. Porter was often subbed out on passing downs, was in somewhat of the coaches doghouse mid-way through the season, ended up getting suspended for one game, and all in all, had a terrible year for the Dolphins compared to his 2008 season.

With Porter's agent set to meet with the Dolphins sometime this week, I can imagine that Porter will be long gone, and most likely will be the deadweight that the Trifecta will be looking to cut this off-season.

Thanks for the great 2008 season, but mosty likely we will be saying the same thing to you as we will to Chad Pennington. "Thanks for the memories, but good luck elsewhere."

The Jaguars made a move in their coaching ranks today, as they have fired defensive line coach Ted Monachino and replaced him with Joe Cullen. Monachino, who had been with the team the last four seasons, essentially became the scapegoat for a defense that ranked last in the NFL in sacks. The Jaguars finished with a franchise-low 14 sacks in 2009 and got picked apart by experienced quarterbacks.

Cullen takes over a line that includes former first-round draft pick Derrick Harvey(notes) and second-rounder Quentin Groves, both of whom struggled in their first two seasons.

Cullen coached at Idaho State last season after spending the previous three years with the Detroit Lions. His NFL tenure was marred by two arrests in a week in 2006.

Cullen was charged with indecent and obscene conduct after going through a fast-food restaurant's drive-through lane naked. He was charged with DUI a week later. He was suspended for a game and fined $20,000 by the league.

Jaguars owner Wayne Weaver, who vowed last year to avoid players with questionable character and off-field problems, backed the hiring after communicating with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.

Goodell said Cullen, a recovering alcoholic who has been sober for three and a half years, has done enough to deserve a second chance.

"Joe paid a heavy price, and rightly so," Goodell wrote in a letter to Weaver. "But to his credit, throughout this process he has always accepted responsibility and has willingly embraced the result as an opportunity to become a better person and role model. Not only has he fully complied with the obligations that were imposed on him, but he has undertaken several others on his own."

The end appears to have come for Cards QB Kurt Warner, who according to sources will have a press conference tomorrow to announce the end of his Hall of Fame career.

Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner will announce his retirement at a news conference Friday, according to a report by David Kaplan of the Tribune and WGN.

Citing a source close to the situation, Kaplan reports that the 38-year-old quarterback will call it a career despite having led the Cardinals to the Super Bowl last season and back to the playoffs again this season.

The four-time Pro Bowler has passed for 32,344 yards and 208 touchdowns in a 12-year career with the Rams, Giants and Cardinals.

Warner’s career ended with the Cardinals winning two straight NFC West titles, and of course last season they were just seconds away from a Super Bowl before the Steelers came back to beat Arizona 27-23.

Arizona Pro Bowl cornerback Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie reported to the Cardinals facility in Tempe on Tuesday to rehab his surgically repaired left knee and leg. He suffered a tear of the MCL ligament and fractured his left tibia in a Divisional Round loss to the New Orleans Saints.

Needless to say, the final three weeks of the 2009 season were not kind to DRC. First, he severely bruised his knee on the third play of a meaningless game against the Green Bay Packers in week 17. At the time, it was unknown whether Rodgers-Cromartie would play in the Wild Card game against the Packers the next week. Of course, he did play through the pain, managing to record an interception on the first play of the game after Karlos Dansby tipped an Aaron Rogers pass attempt.

The next week, however, the season ended for DRC a little earlier than for his teammates. The injury occurred when teammate Gabe Watson accidentally hit DRC while both were attempting to make a play.

The Cardinals training staff was relieved to learn that the injury was not an ACL tear, which would have been significantly more drastic. While the trainers were relieved, DRC lamented that he "still had to have surgery" and "[he] wasn't happy."

Despite his understandable frustration, Rodgers-Cromartie is optimistic that he will only be out "three to four months max." In addition, he hopes the injuries will make him stronger when he returns. "They say you come back bigger and stronger and better," DRC added, "so if I come back bigger and stronger and better, that's a plus." If his projected recovery time is correct, he will be able to participate in organized team activities this summer.

Brad Childress said all the things regarding the Favre situation that Favre wished Mike McCarthy and Ted Thompson had said after 2007.

"I don't have an expectation," Childress said in regards to Favre's retirement status. "I know he had a great experience here. I know it too well to know that emotions are a little bit raw right now. We're still too close to it. He's earned his time to be able to step away from it and talk to his family and figure out what he wants to do. But I don't have a strong expectation one way or the other. It would not surprise me one way or the other."

In other words, whatever happens… happens.

And why not?  Given that there are no free agent options that would be an upgrade over Tarvaris Jackson, and given that picking at #30 means no instant starter will be available, there is no harm in letting Favre take whatever time he needs.

"I think you can plan both ways," Childress said. "It's not a deal where I need to put a gun to his head and say, 'I need to know in a week, two weeks, two months.'"

That's exactly right.  Unless the Vikings plan on making a blockbuster trade, they are not going to land somebody at quarterback that would make the Vikings refuse his return, should he decide to.

"No question and eventually you would like to be able to do that," Childress said. "But by the same token you don't want a round peg in a square hole. And I am too far away from it right now to tell you what the quarterback class this year looks like. I know we're picking down there at 30^th [in first round]. We'll just see what's there and I'm sure that we will ably man that position one way or the other."

Again, Childress probably knows the Vikings have run out of real options at quarterback.  He says there are "two plans" for dealing with Favre's decision, but both those plans are essentially the same thing.  If Favre retires, then Sage Rosenfels and Tarvaris Jackson will battle for the starting spot while a late-round rookie watches and learns.  If Favre does not retire, then Sage Rosenfels and Tarvaris Jackson battle for the #2 spot while a late round rookie watches and learns.

I don't see how much differently this could go down.  The Vikings are backed into a corner with VERY limited options at quarterback.

I have long loathed this regime for their decision to not pursue Drew Brees after trading away Daunte Culpepper.  Brees was a free agent at the time.  I felt better knowing that had they acquired Brees, they probably wouldn't have been in a position to draft Adrian Peterson.  After Sunday's game, I'm starting to revert back to my "what could have been" thinking when it comes to the lack of interest in Brees.  But I digress.

On the plus side, with no options comes a certain feeling of freedom.  By that I mean Brett Favre will not be holding this franchise "hostage" if he takes a while to decide.  There is probably not going to be a salary cap in 2010, so his $13 million is not a concern in that respect.  And with the Vikings having no real options outside of Sage Rosenfels and Tarvaris Jackson, Favre deciding to come back in August again would simply be a bonus.

Tarvaris Jackson may not be a bad option though.  I'm always hearing that Brad Childress deserved his contract extension because he has improved this team by two wins each season since coming on board.  Here is Tarvaris Jackson's quarterback rating in each of those same seasons:

2006:  62.5

2007:  70.8

2008:  95.4

2009:  113.4

2010:  Contract extension?

NFLGridironGab.com reader Ron Lispman sent me the following, which I felt was a good enough piece to share with our fans – enjoy!

This past Sunday's NFC championship game contained a poignant lesson for more than just football fans. The game featured the New Orleans Saints versus the Minnesota Vikings. With my pathetic Redskins having left the ranks of the contenders long ago, I was free to root with my head rather than my heart.

And like many in America, I was pulling for the Saints. The people of New Orleans have suffered greatly because of Hurricane Katrina and a Super Bowl victory by their beloved Saints is an incipient feel good story that would help the residents of that city to recover from their nightmare.

But there was a complication. The Vikings were led by a crusty old veteran quarterback, Brett Favre, who at age 40 performed as well during the season as at any point in his storied nineteen year career. It was difficult to root against him. And wouldn't you know it, his magical performance continued—under difficult circumstances.

For it was clear immediately that New Orleans' defensive strategy was literally to beat Favre up. Which they did! As relentlessly recounted by the TV announcers, Favre was repeatedly hit by New Orleans defensemen, nearly 20 times by my count; yet every time, he would arise wincing, grimacing, limping or otherwise clutching the latest part of his body to which the Saints' defensemen had administered a shellacking.

Despite the beating, Favre performed fantastically. The game was deadlocked at 28, when Favre had his offense poised for a game winning field goal. There was little time left, but the ball was just at the limit of the Vikings' place kicker's range. The Vikings had an extra down and an extra time-out in which to move the ball closer in.

The announcers speculated that Favre would hand off and a run of 3-5 yards would substantially increase the likelihood of a successful field goal on the game's final play. But some idiot in the Vikings' coaching staff tried to confuse the Saints and wound up sending an extra player into the huddle. The resulting 5-yard penalty meant that Favre, as the announcers astutely indicated, would need to throw in order to gain about 10 yards and thereby make the field goal more attainable.

At which point, human fallibility took over. Favre dropped back, was flushed out of the pocket, rolled right and had room to run for the requisite yardage. But at that moment, who knows what evil demon took possession of his mind?

Violating a cardinal rule that is drummed into the heads of every rookie quarterback, and in spite of 19 years of experience, and despite the fact that the last pass he ever attempted as a Green Bay Packer—under remarkably similar circumstances—ended in an interception that deprived him of another Super Bowl appearance, Favre wheeled and threw across his body back toward the center of the field—where the ball was easily intercepted by a Saint defender. The Saints went on to win in an overtime in which Favre never touched the ball.

Thus, against all rationality, in defiance of every good football practice, in the face of an excellent chance to win the game by playing it safe, and despite the fact that life had offered him the same choice previously on which he had made the wrong decision, Favre again played gunslinger and brought disaster upon himself and his teammates. It is almost certain that the errant pass will be the last he ever attempts in his life. He will be haunted by his reckless decision for the rest of that life.

The lesson is that human beings are prone to mistakes—even when the correct path is clear before them. Favre’s fatal toss is a graphic illustration that humans are, regrettably, flawed and in need of forgiveness by their fellow man and redemption from a benevolent God. I pray that Brett Favre receives both.