Kyle Shanahan: Interview With Jags
The Falcons earned a bye week in the playoffs by virtue of their prolific offense.
And that also gives offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan a chance to interview for jobs.
Via Albert Breer of TheMMQB.com, Shanahan is tentatively scheduled to interview for the Jaguars opening Friday.
The Jaguars have already interviewed former coach Tom Coughlin, and figure to make a lap through the usual suspects of young, offensive-minded coaches.
The Falcons led the league with 540 points scored this season (33.8 per game), and Shanahan has clearly been a big part of that, which will make him an in-demand name this week while the Falcons wait to see who they’ll play in the divisional round.
Report: Rams To Talk To Both Patriots Coordinators
According to Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network, among their likely targets are Patriots coordinators Josh McDaniels and Matt Patricia and Washington offensive coordinator Sean McVay.
They’ve also been linked to Bills interim head coach Anthony Lynn, and their own interim coach John Fassel is interviewing today.
The Rams are requesting permission from the Jaguars to interview Marrone, Adam Schefter of ESPN reports.
Redskins OC Sean McVay will interview also with the Rams this week, source says.
Albert Breer:
Tentative plan is for Patriots OC Josh McDaniels to do his interviews with the Rams, Niners and Jags during the bye weekend.
Payton To LA Rams?
Sean Payton to Rams chatter continues to grow.
Eventually, the annual “Sean Payton may leave the Saints” rumor is going to be right. That year could be this year.
With multiple national reporters connecting Payton to the Rams, Larry Holder of the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports that the Rams plan to seek permission to speak to Payton this week, and that Saints G.M. Mickey Loomis would be open to trading Payton.
Technically, the Saints and Rams would work out the terms of compensation before the Rams speak to Payton about a contract to coach the Rams. It’s not a trade in the classic sense; the Saints don’t send the remaining contract to the Rams. Instead, the Rams work out a deal with Payton. And the Rams work out a deal with the Saints.
For 12 teams, the NFL season now enters its most exciting month.
For the other 20, plans can now be made for the 2017 NFL Draft, with the selection order set for non-playoff teams.
By virtue of their 1-15 record, the Browns will pick first if the season ended today.
(Oh my God, the season actually did end today, and we’ve been making this joke for six weeks. Now what will we do?)
They’ll be followed by the 49ers, Bears, Jaguars and Titans, as Tennessee nets a top-five pick from dealing with the Rams for Jared Goff.
The Jets, Chargers, Panthers, Bengals and Bills round out the top 10. There will have to be a coin toss at the combine for the 14th and 15th spots since the Colts and Vikings (who owe their pick to the Eagles) have identical records and strength of schedule numbers, since that’s used as the tiebreaker for draft order.
Here’s a look at the complete top 20, with the rest of the order to be filled in as playoff teams fall by the wayside.
1. Cleveland 1-15
2. San Francisco 2-14
3 .Chicago 3-13
4. Jacksonville 3-13
5. Tennessee (from Los Angeles) 4-12
6. New York Jets 5-11
7. San Diego 5-11
8. Carolina 6-10
9. Cincinnati 6-9-1
10. Buffalo 7-9
11. New Orleans 7-9
12. Cleveland (from Philadelphia) 7-9
13. Arizona 7-8-1
t14. Indianapolis 8-8
t14. Philadelphia (from Minnesota) 8-8
16. Baltimore 8-8
17. Washington 8-7-1
18. Tennessee 9-7
19. Tampa Bay 9-7
20. Denver 9-7
The 2016 NFL LEAST Valuable Player
We will see who wins the NFL MVP but we already know who this seasons LVP was….
CAM NEWTON WAS A DISASTER IN 2016
The reining MVP was a huge disappointment. Last season, Cam Newton was the NFL’s Most Valuable Player. This season he was a disaster. After throwing 35 touchdown passes and 10 interceptions in 2015, Newton managed just 19 touchdown passes and 14 interceptions in 2016. Newton’s stats also included:
— A career-low 75.8 passer rating.
— A career-low 52.9 percent completion rate.
— A career-low 6.88 yards per pass.
— A career-low 359 rushing yards
— A career-low 3.99 yards per carry.
As we saw Brady play his best football, we saw Newton play his worst.
Writer ejected from Eagles’ pressbox
It seems like the real drama in Sunday’s Cowboys-Eagles game was in the pressbox.
The Eagles’ public relations department had Jeff McLane of the Philadelphia Inquirer ejected in the third quarter. 
Per various tweets, McLane objected to several writers being asked to be quiet in the press box after they were trying to get clarification on a penalty call, and soon after stadium security escorted McLane out.
It was reported that McLane was ejected for a violation of “fan conduct,” which is strange considering he’s at the game in a working capacity, not as a fan.
As seen above, Les Bowen of the Philadelphia Daily News reported that other reporters were told they would be ejected if they interfered with McLane’s ejection.
There have been some classic stories involving Eagles’ writers before, but this is probably the strangest of the bunch. The Eagles finished their season with a 27-13 win.
College Football Playoff Ratings Up Slightly, BUT...
ESPN has released the overnight ratings for yesterday’s College Football Playoff Semifinal games. That release is very glass half-full, touting the year-over-year increases compared to last year’s woeful ratings.
A slight bump, however, was not unexpected. The results still show that New Year’s Eve games are probably a bad idea if getting the product to be seen by the most people is the goal. When it comes to likelihood of viewers, a weekday New Year’s Eve is worse than a weekend one, when it comes to that early game. Both are worse than other options.
The Peach Bowl did a 11.5 overnight rating across both ESPN and ESPN2’s alternate broadcast. It did a 10.9 on ESPN alone. The Fiesta Bowl did a 10.5 on both channels and a 10.0 on ESPN alone.
Limiting it to just the ESPN broadcasts the last two years, the first semifinal’s 10.9 was better than the 9.7 of last year’s Clemson-Oklahoma game, and the second semifinal’s 10.0 was virtually similar to the 9.9 of Alabama-Michigan State last year in roughly the same time slot heading into the late night of New Year’s Eve.
Meanwhile, two years ago, with the games not on New Year’s Eve, the two games had ratings of 15.5 (Rose) and 15.3 (Sugar).
So while yesterday was a relative success compared to last year for the network, it’s still about two-thirds of what it was on New Year’s Day. Next year, we’ll see if that initial number was a function of the newness of the format, or as we suspect, an indictment of the decision to put the games on in the evening of New Year’s Eve.
Dick Clark Productions: "Mariah Carey’s ‘Rockin’ Eve’ Sabotage Claim ‘Absurd’
Dick Clark Productions has fired back at Mariah Carey, blasting the singer’s accusation that the production company was to blame for her performance problems on Saturday’s “New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” telecast on ABC.
Carey spokeswoman Nicole Perna was quoted by Billboard magazine on Sunday saying that producers “set her up to fail.” She asserted that the singer complained of problems with her earpiece before she went live on the show. Carey has blamed technical issues and her inability to hear the music for her failure to complete a planned three-song set on the telecast.
Dick Clark Productions late Sunday issued a lengthy statement challenging Carey’s claims.
“As the premier producer of live television events for nearly 50 years, we pride ourselves on our reputation and long-standing relationships with artists. To suggest that DCP, as producer of music shows including the American Music Awards, Billboard Music Awards, New Year’s Rockin’ Eve and Academy of Country Music Awards, would ever intentionally compromise the success of any artist is defamatory, outrageous and frankly absurd,” the statement said.
“In very rare instances there are of course technical errors that can occur with live television, however, an initial investigation has indicated that (Dick Clark Productions) had no involvement in the challenges associated with Ms. Carey’s New Year’s Eve performance. We want to be clear that we have the utmost respect for Ms. Carey as an artist and acknowledge her tremendous accomplishments in the industry,” the statement said.
Carey’s awkward appearance on the telecast that drew more than 8 million viewers became a New Year’s Day viral video sensation. The incident fueled speculation that Carey had intended to lip-synch the performance, a claim that Perna told Billboard was “adding insult to injury.”
Carey has been in the spotlight in the past few weeks since the November premiere of the E! reality series “Mariah’s World,” chronicling her “Sweet Sweet Fantasy” tour of Europe, the U.K. and Australia. She previously had a rocky run as a judge on Fox’s “American Idol” in 2013. She later described the experience of working on the talent competition show as “abusive.”
