Kaspers Korner

With the Seattle Seahawks season already over the transition from former head coach Mike Holmgren to new head coac Jim Mora Jr. has already begun.  The question is can he get back to the playoffs.

The task will be tough for Mora for the Seahawks are an aging team that will need some tweaking for the 2009 season.  That already has begun in changes to the coaching staff.

Mora has already installed a new offensive coordinator in Greg Knapp.   Knapp was Mora’s offensive coordinator when he was the head coach of the Falcons.

The hiring of Knapp is good for the Seahawks current offense, since Knapp also employs a West Coast offense.  The West Coast offense was a staple of former head coach Mike Holmgren.

The next question will be what players is he going to keep around, and which players is he going to show the door.  The most leading candidate for the is quarterback Matt Hasselbeck who was horrible this season.

Hasselbeck started only seven games this season.  In those seven games he threw for 1,216 yards passing, with five touchdowns, and ten interceptions.

Back up quarerback Seneca Wallace clearly out played Hasselbeck.  Wallace threw for 1,532 yards passing, with 11 touchdowns, and only three interceptions.  His performance should prompt the trading of Hasselbeck, thus making him the starter for the 2009 season. 

Another likely candidate might be defensive end Patrick Kerney.  Kerney hurt the same shoulder that he had sugery on previously this year.

However, Kerney was a with the Atlanta Falcons when Mora was the Falcons head coach.  So, he might be more inclined to keep Kerney, since he knows all about him, and what he brings to the table.

After them it is anybody’s guess what Mora is going to do.  All anyone can do at this point is sit back, and wait for some news on players.

San Francisco 49ers fired head coach Mike Nolan after its seventh game of the season, which led Mike Singletary taking over the team, and leading it to a 5-4 record in its remaining games.  Looking back on the season the front office did the right thing.

The 49ers have some hope for the first time in years in Singletary.  There is one obstacle that remains for the 49ers to get back to the playoffs, and that is a stud quarterback.

Shaun Hill took over for the 49ers after JT O’Sullivan was benched after performing horribly as the starting quarterback.  After taking over Hill threw for 2,046 yards passing for 13 touchdowns, and eight interceptions.

Hill is obviously the short term answer at quarterback, and will go into next season as the starter.  However, the tougher decision for the 49ers will be what to do with quarterback Alex Smith.

Smith was the first pick overall in the 2005 National Football League draft.  His career with the 49ers have been plagued with injuries, which was made worst by former head coach Mike Nolan.

What Singletary needs to do is allow Hill to have the job outright, and keep Smith on board in case he falters.  That way they can get a look at Smith. 

What they need to also do is draft a quarterback that can sit in the background for a year, or two,  and then be adequately ready when he steps on the field.

Even without the best quarterback in the world Singletary is a good coach that can motivate his players, and get the most out of them.  That usually translates into success.

The Arizona Cardinals have been in control of their division for most of the year, and that is without a running game.  Sunday is the last chance for the Cardinals to get it going before the playoffs.

The Arizona Cardinals running attack is the worst in the league averaging barely over 71 yards a game.  Thanks to the performance of quarterback Kurt Warner they are in the playoffs. 

There is one common theme when it comes to the playoffs.  That being teams that make it to the Superbowl are able to run the ball, and stop the run.  The exception is when a team with such a great offense comes along like the Patriots last year.

The Cardinals are out of that mold as their running game is week, solid defense, and a great passing attack. 

However, there are two other teams with great running attacks, and great defenses in the New York Giants, and the Carolina Panthers. 

So, if they are going to get the running game going consistently it needs to be this weekend, because the playoffs start next week.  When they start it is win and go on, or lose and go home.  If they do not find it this week it will be most likely lose, and go home next week.

The Seattle Seahawks for the first time after many years will miss the playoffs.  To get back there the team will have to make decisions on some key players.

The Seahawks have stumbled their way to a 3-11 record.  The main reasong being that their have been so many injuries.

Age is part of the reason for so many injuries.  Also, the Seahawks have played a lot of post season games in recent years that is starting to take a toll on older players.

The main problem offensively is that starting quarterback Matt Hasselbeck has missed half of the season so far with injuries.  Also, in the time he has played he has not performed that well as he has  five touchdowns 10 interceptions wit 1,278 yards passing for a 57.8 passer rating.

It did not help Hasselbeck that his top two receivers were missing from the lineup from the earlier part of the season.

The defense had its own injuries with the biggest one being to defensive end Patrick Kerney as he was lost for the season after the seventh game when he hurt his surgically repaired shoulder again. 

Losing someone of the magnitude of Kerney has hurted the defense a lot.  The passing defense is now one of the worst in the league.  Last year they were allowing a little under 220 passing yards per a game, and this year it is 260.

Simply, the Seahawks are going to have to get younger.  They have a lot of players that are going to turn 30, or is above that, especially on offense.

The decisions are going to be hard, but it is those choices that can make a team much better when choose to face them.

The Saint Louis Rams have become one of the worst teams in the league, and the choice of head coach was just a glaring example of the Rams problems in the past.  Today’s news has shown that the Rams are no heading in the right direction.

The Saint Louis Post Dispatch is reporting that owner Chip Rosenbloom will conduct a broad search for the Rams next head coach.  They are also reporting that executive vice president of player personnel Billy Devaney will head up the search, and make a recomendation to the Rams owners.

This is the best news possible for Rams fans the reason being that general manager, and president of football operations Jay Zygmunt was never a football guy.  Zygmunt came up the ranks in the Rams as the Salary Cap manager, which is nothing more than a glorified accountant.

Zygmunt does not understand the little nuiances in what it takes to make a football team be successful.  That was obvious when he hired Scott Linehan to be the head coach of the Rams.

Linehan before becoming the head coach of the Rams was the offensive coordinator of the Miami Dolphins.  The Dolphins before this year have been a disaster, and to hire someone from a mess of a team is just plain stupidity.

Player look up to their head coach for guidance, and to lead them in the right direction just like any parent would do for their children.  When you hire someone that has never been successful before players will not respect it, becuase soon as they step in leaders of the team that have been successful can just smell that the guy is not good.

Devaney on the other hand has a magnitude of experience going back  more than a decade as he was part of the front office of the San Deigo Chargers franchise that went to the Superbowl.

Whoever Devaney chooses should be way more qualified than Linehan ever was, which should give hope to Rams fans.

San Francisco 49er interim head coach Mike Singletary has won more games in less time this season than his predecessor Mike Nolan did.  If the 49ers know better than they would keep him on as head coach.

In just six weeks Singletary has led the team to three wins.  His predecessor Nolan led the 49ers to only two wins in seven weeks.

So, what is the difference between the two?  The answer is how things are handled when things go wrong.

Nolan was laid back, and let people get away with things.  That is not the case with Singletary, and that was proven right off the bat with tightend Vernon Davis when he was sent to the showers after he received a 15 yard penalty for slapping an opponent.

The fact is that coaches that do not put up with crap get the most out of players.  The reason being that they know if they screw up even once the coach is going to be all over them like fly on poop, and Singletary is just that.

Singletary lead a team to the Superbowl before as the starting middle linebacker for the Chicago Bears for their monstrous year during the 1985 season.  He just simply has what it takes to be a head coach.

If the 49ers do not lock him up, then someone will.  If that happens then it will surely come back to bight them in the rear.

The Arizona Cardinals have found a starting quarterback for the short term in Kurt Warner.  The question is what will the Cardinals do after Warner retires.

Warner will be 38 when the season starts next year, and most likely has only a year, or two, left in the gas tank.  Warner even thought of retiring after the hit wide receiver Anquan Boldin took earlier in the year.

So, what will the team do once Warner decides to hang them up.  That decision will most likely be made after this season.

The team will first have to talk to Warner.  The reason for that is to see if he is going to come back next season.  If he doesn’t, then Leinart will be the starter next season, and the same goes for the 2010 season.

After that things will get a lot more complicated, because of Leinarts contract.

After the 2010 season Leinart will have completed his fifth year in the league.  That means his contract will most likely be up, since first round draft choices, like Leinart, get six year deals, but usually have the option to buy out the last year, thus making it five years.

What will happen is that most likely the same one in Green Bay.  After the 2009 season the team will force out Warner, because Leinart will be in his last season, and they need to see what they have in him after sitting on the bench for two years behind Warner.

As in Green Bay, once Leinart becomes the starter, after two years on the bench, he should be fine.

Hopefully the next time head coach Ken Wisenhunt will not be so quick to yank Leinart.

The Saint Louis Rams are in rebuilding mode.  However, Rams fans are looking at the wrong position for what is wrong with the team.

While reading through the Saint Louis Post Dispatch’s Jim Thomas chat I learned that many Rams fans are looking to quarterback Marc Bulger to rectify the offense in Saint Louis.  The real people that they should be looking to is the offensive line of the Rams.

The offensive line is critical to any team.  For instance the Bills, many teams have taken away the running game of the Bills, thus forcing quarterback Trent Edwards to make costly mistakes.

There are even times where the Bills cannot even pickup one yard.  The reason being is that they are horrible run blockers.

So, when it is an obvious long distance passing situation many teams then only rush four, and drop back everyone else.  That makes it almost impossible to make a play.

Simply, if a offense is to thrive a offense must have a running game.  Then be able to protect its quarterback. 

Without either a team is doomed to failure.  Just ask the Bills, because they are on their way to the basement of the AFC East thanks to their offensive line.

The Seattle Seahawks came into training camp as a team that was already wounded with two of its starting wide receivers injured for an extended period of time.  You can now add defensive end Patrick Kerney to the list.

To make matters worst it is the left shoulder that Kerney had surgery on to repair a torn labrum in the offseason.

The injury being to the same shoulder, along with his age, has to leave Seahawks fans wondering if he will ever be the same.

Mobility of the shoulder is an important part to the play of a defensive end.  If Kerney does not have the same quickness, and mobility, as previously it could mean the end of his career.

There is a bright light though for people, and that being Dr. James Andrews.  According to Pro Football Talk.com, Kerney is flying this weekend to see Dr. Andrews, who did the previous shoulder surgery.

Andrews is one of the best in the game.  When something goes wrong it is him that you want to go see.  Even doctors go to him when something with an athlete goes wrong, which was the case with New England Patriots Tom Brady’s staph infection in his surgically repaired knee.

In any case if it is anything else than a torn labrum again, then it is most likely the end of Kerney’s season. 

The draft has long been over for months now.  However, the comments of interim San Francisco 49ers head coach Mike Singletary has brought up the problems with the draft again.

Singletary blasted the 49ers after their last game.  “We’ve got guys in here that are cancers. The thing about cancer cells is, they multiply. We’ve got to cut them out,” stated Singletary to his team according to Michael Silver of Yahoo Sports.

The biggest indicator of problems with the draft came later in Silver’s article with this apparent exchange between Davis and Singletary, according to Silver.  

“You don’t need to be sayin’ nothin’ to me right now,” Davis barked at the coach, according to witnesses. Singletary ordered Davis to take a seat on the bench, and shortly thereafter the coach approached and stressed the importance of avoiding stupid penalties.

“I said I don’t need to hear it,” Davis snapped, cutting him off.   Then Singletary told Davis to hit the shower.

That is what happens when you give a immature person a boat load of money.  They think that they can do whatever they want, and the head coach has to put up with it, because of the amount of money that is tied into the player.

According to Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk.com, “Time and again we’ve heard rumblings that players who waltz into the locker room as multi-multi-millionaires often can’t be coached or mentored, because they simply refuse to listen.”

The problem is always going to be the same untill there is a rookie wage system.   Simply, why should a rookie be paid a boat load of money when he has not proven a darn thing yet.

For now, more head coaches of the likes of Mike Singletary will do.