Four Downs with Stock & Doc
by Ben Stockwell and Paul Hopkins
30/5/2009
This week, Stock and Doc react to Peyton Manning's outburst in Indianapolis, mull over who'll be the top receiver in Buffalo next year, consider which coach is going into the new season with much to prove. And finally they look at whether Mike Leach is right and Graham Harrell did deserve having his name called in the Draft.
 Peyton Manning's obvious dissatisfaction at the regime in change in Indianapolis will have a detrimental impact on the Colts in 2009.
DOC – FACT ! – Yes, I think they will. For the first time in his career, Peyton has had the musical chairs syndrome affect the coaches he works most closely with. And he doesn't like it. I'm sure, heck; I know that he'll still be Peyton Manning the great. This isn't me saying that they're going to nose dive now as they are simply too good for that. But the one thing the Colts have always enjoyed in continuity. This is now gone, and they're having to learn a new style with new coaches. With the personnel they have and the QB they have under centre, I am positive this transition won't affect them too much but at first I believe it will. The Colts wobbled at bits last year, and I think it will be the same in 2009.
STOCK – FICTION ! – Right now things aren't all hunky dory in Indianapolis, but all that's happening right now is that both parties are feeling out the new lie of the land. Howard Mudd and Tom Moore will be back around; heck Peyton Manning can pretty much coach this offence himself as well. Right now he's not getting the comments back from the new coaching staff that he wants, but in the long term I can see the benefit in this. Manning knows this offence inside out and back to front; Moore won't be around forever so who better to learn this offence from for the new coaches than Manning? This dissatisfaction will blow over, Manning is too professional, too good and too good a leader to allow his dissatisfaction to affect the team. However, the regime change is an underappreciated factor that will come in to play for the Colts this year. There simply cannot be a seamless shift from a hall of fame coach. The Colts will slip this year to an extent, how much will be an early measure of Jim Caldwell as a head coach.
 Despite adding Terrell Owens, Lee Evans will remain the Bills' top receiver in 2009.
DOC – FICTION ! – You don't add Terrell Owens and everything that that brings and have him play second fiddle to Lee Evans. Evans may well flourish if Owens draws double coverage but as someone who has watched T.O. closely for the past three years, I don't think teams will automatically bring two men to cover Owens. But, despite this the guy can still play. 36 TD's in the past three years, granted that was in a pass-happy offence that allowed him to shine, shows he is still very productive. Whilst I think there will be a fairly significant tail-off in 2009 in Buffalo, with the weaker offence and the inclement weather they'll have to contend with, I still take T.O. to outperform Evans.
STOCK – FICTION ! – They're both very similar WRs, they both excel on deep routes and have issues with their consistency taking short routes and working over the middle of the defence. However, TO has a better track record (albeit with better QBs) and is far more vocal in demanding the football than Evans. Evans is a very good receiver but he's not quite at TO's level, though if coverages are rolled to Owens' side then Evans could really emerge to a level that the offence in Buffalo hasn't previously allowed him to with no-one else to give him favourable coverages.
 The coach with the most to prove in 2009 is:
DOC – SEAN PAYTON – There's a lot of coaches with a fair bit to prove but for me, it's about time Sean Payton actually lived up to the hype. The offence may be explosive but the defence remains abysmal on a yearly basis, no matter who they add. We saw last year what happens when a coach who knows what he is doing offensively (despite no end of injury problems) can't sort out his defence in Mike Shanahan. And Shanahan had won Super Bowls in his career. He did well and took the Saints to the NFC Championship game in his first year and whilst there is the argument that this set the bar too high, they still have not got anywhere near to that since then. He has acquired players good enough to get them there but still he has to bear ultimate responsibility for the Saints not achieving anything despite having the most prolific QB in the NFL.
STOCK – Dick Jauron – How does this guy continue to survive as an NFL head coach? He's coached 134 games in the NFL, a mere 57-77 record, he's coached one winning season, a 13-3 record in 2001 with the Bears where his team promptly flopped in the playoffs against Chicago native Donovan McNabb and his Eagles. He got a job in Buffalo after leading the Lions to a closing record of 1-4 as interim head coach in Detroit and has since led the Bills to three consecutive 7-9 seasons. Has such a mediocre head coach (proven countless times to be exactly that) ever got this many chances to prove he can become a winner? The Bills missed an opportunity to rid themselves of mediocrity by giving Jauron an extension after a 4-0 start this season, his team promptly capitulated to a 3-9 finish and last place in the AFC East. Dick Jauron is the epitome of mediocrity, with the addition of the volatile Terrell Owens this has to be the final chance to prove he can take a step forwards. Owens will either lead the Bills forwards or take the blame with Jauron for an even bigger failure than the '08 Bills. Surely a 9th losing season out of 10 as a coach will see Jauron never get another gig as an HC in the NFL? How can there be anything more to prove than that?
 Mike Leach has a valid point in his gripe that Graham Harrell was not taken in the Draft.
DOC – FICTION ! – Who the hell is Mike Leach to critique 32 NFL front offices and the numerous personnel within each one? I'm getting sick of Leach opening his mouth and sprinkling his pearls of wisdom on us all. Harrell had a sensational college career at Texas Tech and his stats stand up against anything in the NCAA. But this is the NFL and not having had virtually any snaps under the centre is going to hurt you. Living out of the shotgun is going to hurt you. NFL teams don't care about your college stats, they care about the attributes needed to play in the NFL. And Harrell clearly must not have done enough to show, either in college or in scouting/combines/workouts etc to demonstrate he has. There's an argument that the NFL may move towards a more college style of game but that has not fully happened yet to the extent that Harrell would get drafted. Yes, his stats may be phenomenal Mr Leach but other QB's have been taken over him because they are more suited to the professional game right now. Harrell may simply be a bit ahead of his time, and he likely won't be the last.
STOCK – FICTION ! – And as with you last week I'm going to take a lazy way out on 4th down and say that you've said it all. NFL Scouting departments aren't perfect but they've done their due diligence and for whatever reason don't see Harrell as a pro prospect or able to run a pro system, if he turns out to be the next undrafted QB to prove the college scouts wrong then fair enough, but that doesn't seem likely. Leach's rants and raves are completely mad at times, he's a great designer of an offence but at times you question whether he engages his brain before he opens his yap.
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