The Ruling On The Field Stands: A Tuck Rule Timeline

[Curtain Jerker]

Yeah, I was sort of thinking Dez Bryant- type monitoring when it came to him, but I had forgotten those allegations were in the offseason so that wouldn't really come into play. I would say if you want him to stick around, one thing you could do is have some incident happen that's close to that but where he doesn't go that far (maybe he starts making lewd comments and a teammate wisely escorts him away in a nightclub during the season) and that causes the team to watch him more and him to have be start to behave better.

Hey, you could even have some great fodder for the news cycles and jokes about how now, Jerry Jones doesn't just have a problem with his coach being bigger than him, his QB also grabs more headlines a la Joe Namath.

That's a solid idea, thanks. I can also have him pull a Shawn Michaels - have him hit on some women at a bar and have their boyfriends beat the piss out of him, that could be enough to scare him straight so to speak. I got a few options percolating now, thanks again.

 

[Curtain Jerker]

Note: Happy Friday all! Had a little bit of fun putting this one together, I hope you like it. Thanks as always for reading/liking/commenting!

2005 Off-Season/Draft

Ever since Chicago fired Dick Jauron the day after Thanksgiving rumor had it that they would look to bring in Dallas offensive coordinator (and former Bears quarterback) Jim Harbaugh in to be their next head coach. The two sides had agreed in principle for Harbaugh to take the job early in the playoff cycle but with Dallas making it to the Super Bowl Chicago was forced to hold off on officially hiring him until the week after the big game.

Harbaugh was formally hired and he set to work right away fixing Chicago’s culture and team. The Bears had talent – Brian Urlacher was one of the best linebackers in the game and Rodney Harrison and Mike Brown were perhaps the best safety duo in football. The main issue was at quarterback. The 2003 and 2004 Bears featured a revolving door of has-beens and never-wases under center and while they made the playoffs in 2003 in 2004 the bottom fell out.

Harbaugh fixed that by March. The Rams, running into cap issues when they paid Marc Bulger a market-value contract extension, finally cut bait on Kurt Warner and traded him for a 5th rounder in the upcoming draft. Chicago extended him til the end of the 2006 season and hoped that Warner had a little bit of magic left in his right arm. To coach Warner Harbaugh brought in an old friend. Rich Gannon was pulled from a comfy retirement and brought on to Chicago’s staff to be the quarterbacks coach.

I was shocked when Jim came to my house unannounced and offered me the job but I guess I shouldn’t have been. Jim was a strange bird and flying out to Northern California on a whim instead of calling like normal people do was what made him different – and successful. “Know When To Walk Away” by Rich Gannon.

Chicago wasn’t the only team with a coaching change. After losing in a heartbreaker in the AFC Championship Game Chargers head coach Marty Schottenheimer announced his retirement effective immediately. San Diego was left scrambling as their vacancy was pretty late in the cycle and the choice candidates (like Harbaugh) were snatched up by other teams.

Maybe it was the last-minute nature of the job opening or maybe it was the fact that Chargers general manager John Butler’s[1] son played under him at Michigan State but San Diego surprised the NFL by hiring LSU’s Nick Saban and giving him a five-year deal to leave Baton Rouge for Southern California.

Saban did have NFL experience – he was Bill Belichick’s defensive coordinator for four years in Cleveland but he really made his name at Michigan State and especially LSU where he won the 2003 BCS Championship Game over the top-ranked Oklahoma Sooners.

San Diego was banking that the defensive-minded Saban would help the Chargers defense rebound while keeping their high-flying offense well, high-flying.

2005 NFL Draft

The Niners won the rights to the first overall pick via coinflip over their neighbors from Oakland. San Francisco stayed close to home and took Aaron Rodgers from Cal-Berkeley. The Raiders took consensus top running back Ronnie Brown. Tennessee reached a bit and took Carlos Rogers, Miami took Adam Jones, and the Jets took Braylon Edwards. Chicago, picking six, took their quarterback of the future in Alex Smith. Green Bay traded up eight spots and took pass rusher DeMarcus Ware from Troy.

Smith was projected to be a top pick and him falling to six was good value for Chicago. The plan was that Warner would play for 2005 and possibly 2006 and Smith would take the reins from there. Whether that’s what would actually happen would, as always, remain to be seen.

[1] He died in OTL in 2003 of lymphoma. He survives here obviously.

 

[OriiGiins]

Chicago certainly hit the jackpot, still feeling like Warner will be like his OTL Giant days, also very surprised to see Ganon come back around. You certainly do know how to make the off-season interesting.

 

[Curtain Jerker]

Chicago certainly hit the jackpot, still feeling like Warner will be like his OTL Giant days, also very surprised to see Ganon come back around. You certainly do know how to make the off-season interesting.

One of the things I'm trying to do is branch out from Oakland and Tampa (who are on the backburner for now) and New England (who, just like OTL, will be good as long as Belichick and Brady are there) to different teams. I'm probably going to around 2010 or so in this timeline and I want to make each season about different teams as much as possible. So I'm focusing a bit on Chicago, Dallas, and San Diego for now. A few seasons from now I'll focus on different teams and put Chicago/San Diego/Dallas on the back burner. I don't want to have to write about every team every season - I think that would be long and frankly kinda boring. I'd rather just do what I'm doing - shorter entries where I can flesh out a few teams at a time.

Anyway, thanks as always for reading and the kind words. I really do appreciate it!

 

[Curtain Jerker]

Update time! As always, thanks for reading/liking/commenting!

2005 Regular Season

Nothing is easy in the NFL. Chicago, perhaps wilting under sky-high expectations from an off-season where they added the league’s most highly-touted coaching candidate and an eventual Hall Of Fame quarterback, started off 1-3 with their only win being a squeaker over the hapless Detroit Lions. Warner looked old, Harbaugh looked lost. and the line couldn't block at all. Sports talk radio callers were already begging for Alex Smith to take the reins from Kurt Warner.

Look, this will take time. We'll get this right, just give us a little bit of time. Any further questions? No. Good. Jim Harbaugh, cutting short a post-game press conference after losing to Minnesota 20-10 in Week 4.

The bad times didn’t last. After the bye week coach Jim Harbaugh revamped his offense to feature more Andre Johnson (never a bad thing) and Chicago’s defense stepped up to the plate, not allowing a touchdown in three straight games in November. The Bears would finish the season on a 10-2 run and won the NFC North for the first time since the 2001 season.

Chasing them all season was Green Bay. Brett Favre was still going strong under center and rookie DeMarcus Ware took the league by storm, leading all rookies with an impressive 11.0 sacks and three forced fumbles to his credit. The Bears won the division on the last day of the season when they beat Green Bay in Chicago 21-17. Warner had two touchdowns and Ware had a sack and countless pressures.

Over in San Diego all eyes were on Nick Saban. Could he pick up where newly-retired Marty Schottenheimer left off? Much like his counterpart in Chicago Saban had growing pains of his own but his were on the defensive side as opposed to the offensive side. He eventually righted the ship and San Diego won the AFC West with a 10-6 record. The Chargers were winners of four of their last five games. LaDainian Tomlinson had 27 total touchdowns and nearly 1,900 total yards from scrimmage.

Those would be MVP numbers in most other years. Not in 2005. Tom Brady came into his own this year. It was as if winning the Super Bowl lifted a great burden off his shoulders and he was allowed to be his own man, free of the “choker” label. Brady had 41 touchdowns and 4,600 yards passing to lead the league in each category. Going 13-3 didn’t hurt his MVP cause either.

Miami found themselves a gem in rookie wideout Braylon Edwards. He was a game-changer on offense, every bit as good in South Florida as he was in Ann Arbor.

The Cowboys avoided the hangover that can come from losing a Super Bowl and won the NFC East at 11-5, earning a bye in the process. Much like in the NFC North the NFC East was a two team race until Philly lost two of three in early December (one of those at home to Dallas to essentially give the division to the ‘Boys from Texas). Philly would snag the last NFC wild card spot and a trip to Chicago in the first round.

The best team in the NFC wasn't Chicago, but Carolina. Julius Peppers was a superstar from the get-go. He finished with an astonishing 17.5 sacks, four forced fumbles and God only knows how many sleepless nights among opposing quarterbacks and offensive coordinators.

AFC Playoff Teams

1. New England Patriots
2. Indianapolis Colts
3. San Diego Chargers
4. Cincinnati Bengals
5. Denver Broncos
6. Pittsburgh Steelers

NFC Playoff Teams

1. Carolina Panthers
2. Dallas Cowboys
3. Chicago Bears
4. Seattle Seahawks
5. Green Bay Packers
6. Philadelphia Eagles

MVP --> Tom Brady, Patriots
Offensive Player of the Year --> LaDainian Tomlinson, Chargers
Defensive Player of the Year --> Julius Peppers, Panthers
Coach of the Year --> Jim Harbaugh, Bears
Offensive Rookie of the Year --> Braylon Edwards, Dolphins
Defensive Rookie of the Year --> DeMarcus Ware, Packers

 

[OriiGiins]

Good stuff as always, and I have a feeling a Harbaugh-Gruden showdown will end up happening in the postseason. Also, hoping someone can stop three straight Pat Super Bowls lmao.

 

[Nivek]

Nice season all teams are brewings and bears got some chemistry...Mine...well...