Jim Zorn Back In Seattle? Notes From The Professor

The NFL Regular season has come to an end – putting the 12th man out if his misery for the most part – but continues for the teams who actually made the post-season this year.

Naturally, I touched base with the professor, John Clayton, to take a look at the season that was and the post-season yet to come.

In a bit of breaking (yet expected) news, Jim Zorn was finally fired from the Washington Redskins. So where does he go next?

“I think he could end up in at least three places. I think if there’s an opportunity here, he’d love to get back to this area. Certainly there’s going to be a spot for him in Cleveland with Mike Holmgren – even if they keep Mangini. I’m hearing rumblings that there might be something with the New York Jets too.”

When asked whether Zorn would want to continue head coaching, John replied, “Oh, absolutely. He enjoyed being the head coach…let’s put it this way – he just loves to coach. The guy loves being around football and he’s great for football.”

Turning our attention to teams that are actually still in contention, there were a couple of games that caught my attention this weekend – one of them being the Eagles vs. Cowboys, if you can count the fact that the Eagles even showed up.

“Very dangerous game for the Eagles,” John said. “They came in trying to do everything they could to win and they couldn’t even score a point.”

According to the professor, Dallas looks quite the opposite. “The Cowboys are peaking at the right time. In a lot of ways, what I see the Cowboys doing is what I saw a couple years ago when the Giants got hot. Everybody had given up on the Giants – they got hot, went to the playoffs, made it to the Super Bowl and beat an undefeated Patriot team. In a lot of ways the Cowboys are doing it the same way – they’re dangerous.”

We’ll see a rematch between those two teams on Saturday, as well as two other rematches from yesterday: Jets @ Bengals and Packers @ Cardinals. By all accounts, it seemed as though Cincinnati and Arizona didn’t even come to play – but does that actually say anything for teams that had already clinched?

“I think they’re writing it off, but I think you have to be concerned if you’re both in Cincinnati and Arizona. They came away just blowing those teams out.”

On top of that, Ken Whisenhunt kept Larry Fitzgerald on the field late into the game, apparently to pad some stats – a topic of great debate in the NFL over the past few weeks – at what point do you pull your starters to prevent injuries? John weighed in on that one as well.

“Now you have so many examples of successes and failures – Anquan Boldin gets hurt, Dominique Cromartie gets hurt. Fitzgerald gets his numbers, but also, he was at risk of getting hurt too. I think Commissioner Roger Goodell wants them to play, but that’s what they did with the Patriots, but the Patriots just watched a big tire blow out on their Super Bowl express, because they lose Wes Welker for the season with a double-ligament knee tear that will probably carry over into next year’s training camp. We’ll see the right way to go as far as who gets to the Super Bowl.”

Indeed we shall – who’s your NFL dark horse this post-season? With the Seahawks out of it – who are you rooting for? Please feel free to leave your thoughts below.