Banks' Shots (cont.)

Former All-Pro safety John Lynch, who played for the Patriots in the preseason before being cut, is not currently with a team. Chris Livingston/Icon SMI

• With San Francisco's Mike Nolan now joining Oakland's Lane Kiffin and St. Louis's Scott Linehan in the ranks of fired head coaches, there goes the guy that just last week I had elevated to the top spot on my forthcoming monthly installment of the coaches on the hot seat report. Coaching in the NFL wasteland that is the Bay Area is obviously no easy gig these days, with neither the Raiders nor 49ers having made the playoffs since 2002.

• Is there some kind of new league rule that a team can't have more than one Roy Williams on the active roster at the same time for longer than a week? Almost as soon the Cowboys traded for receiver Roy Williams, they lost safety Roy Williams for the season after he re-broke the same arm he had injured earlier this year. And I was just getting used to referring to the ex-Lions receiver as Roy E. Williams.

• I realize a trip overseas must be a huge disruption for the Chargers and Saints about now, but all I know is every year the NFL has played a midseason game in London, the eventual Super Bowl champion has come out of the game. Thanks to the Giants, that streak is for all of one year in a row.

(Disclaimer: Since Chargers-Saints was my preseason Super Bowl pick, I'm hoping the trend continues).

• The more I hear about Larry Johnson, the more I wonder why any woman in any Kansas City nightclub would go anywhere near the Chiefs lout of a running back.

• The Patriots ran over Denver on Monday night to the tune of 257 rushing yards, their highest one-game total since December 1985. That makes it official. The 4-3 Broncos are defenseless, unable to stop either the pass or the run. The Chargers might still be playing sub-.500 ball, but they're going to win the AFC West by default.

• With Rodney Harrison lost for the season with a torn quad that very well might end his 15-year NFL career, I'd be surprised if the Patriots don't show interest in re-signing veteran safety John Lynch, who spent the preseason with New England.

• When the 49ers elevated Mike Singletary to replace Mike Nolan, it was intended to provide a sense of continuity. It did. Mike is still far and away the most popular first name among NFL head coaches, with six of them currently dotting the league landscape: Atlanta's Mike Smith, Denver's Mike Shanahan, Green Bay's Mike McCarthy, Pittsburgh's Mike Tomlin, Seattle's Mike Holmgren, and Singletary.

• It does make you wonder how the NFL can consider a move to 18 regular season games with such a dearth of quarterbacking talent currently within the league. Just check out how teams did on Sunday playing guys who were or are their team's No. 2 QBs: Detroit lost with Dan Orlovsky, Seattle lost with Seneca Wallace, Dallas lost with Brad Johnson, Cincinnati lost with Ryan Fitzpatrick and Kansas City lost with its whole mediocre collection of passers on display.

• If Brady Quinn can't get into the game when Browns starter Derek Anderson has a 14 of 37 passing day for 136 yards, as Anderson did in a 14-11 loss at Washington, what's it going to take to see Cleveland's 2007 first-round pick get his shot?