MMQB (cont.)

Ten Things I Think I Think

DeSean Jackson caught four passes for 71 yards against the Giants on Sunday. Getty Images

1. I think you voracious Eagles fans can be happy about the present this morning, obviously, but also about next April. Think back to draft day last April. Your team loved DeSean Jackson, and some would argue that with his explosive return and receiving ability, he'd have been worth the 19th overall pick in the draft. But no. The Eagles traded the 19th pick to Carolina for second- and fourth-round picks in '08 and the Panthers' first-round pick in '09 ... and then still got Jackson with the 49th overall pick, in the second round.

Jackson, obviously, has given the Eagles first-round value, producing more offense in 18 games so far than Freddie Mitchell produced in a career. Now the Eagles will have two picks in the second half of round one ... three overall in the first two rounds. Not bad for a team playing in its fifth NFC Championship in the last eight seasons.

2. I think these are my quick-hit thoughts of Week 19:

a. I know why Cleveland owner Randy Lerner made the call to hire Eric Mangini. He's a smart, young guy who will do well with in his second chance and who didn't deserve to get fired from the Jets. If I were Lerner, I'd have taken the time to meet Jim Schwartz and Rex Ryan, particularly since Mangini wasn't going anywhere.

b. Detroit looks like it's coming down to Schwartz or Minnesota defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier.

c. Around the Titans over the weekend, they were already thinking of Schwartz as a goner.

d. If Frazier is interviewing with the top Rams brass in Los Angeles today, he must be pretty far down the road with them.

e. I don't care about the Pacman Jones story on ESPN over the weekend, because it's a previously vetted story. But if the worst thing Jones has done in the last year -- since he landed in Dallas -- is joust with his bodyguard in a men's room, I don't think he should be banned for life.

f. The 9-7 Cards or the 9-6-1 Eagles in the Super Bowl. What a country.

g. Adam Schefter says Mike Nolan is going to run Denver's defense under Josh McDaniels. Good fit.

h. John McDonough's photo of Larry Fitzgerald's touchdown against the Falcons in this week's Leading Off section of Sports Illustrated is one of the coolest football photos you'll ever see. While Fitzgerald is catching the ball between two Falcons, you can see the image on the JumboTron. The old and the new, right there.

i. How amazing is it that Fitzgerald made the exact same catch, minus the looming JumboTron, at Charlotte on Saturday night?

3. I think it's not oversimplifying the Denver decision to hire Josh McDaniels to say that Pat Bowlen sees McDaniels as Mike Shanahan redux. Bowlen got to know Shanahan, a former small-college quarterback and defensive back, as a 32-year-old offensive assistant for the Broncos in 1984. McDaniels, 32, is a former small-college quarterback and wide receiver. Shanahan helped John Elway and Steve Young become great NFL players. McDaniels has had the same hands-on influence with Tom Brady and Matt Cassel. In his last year in the NFL, Elway called Shanahan "brilliant.'' In November, Cassel told me that McDaniels was "brilliant.'' Starting to see a trend?

4. I think this is what I liked about Week 19:

a. Keith Bulluck burst through the line on the last play of the third quarter and tripped up Willis McGahee for a loss of three. Seems like he's been doing that ever since Jeff Fisher coached this team.

b. Titans played a needlessly chippy game in the first quarter and a valiant one for the last three.

c. Mark Clayton is a tougher receiver than I thought. Must be learning from Derrick Mason.

d. Here's how long Matt Stover has been kicking clutch field goals for the Browns/Ravens: The man came into Cleveland in 1991, the same year Bill Belichick did. Eighteen years with the same franchise!

e. Something got into that Arizona run defense. It's really, really good, and Darnell Dockett is playing like a light Ted Washington.

f. Justin Tuck at 78 percent, or whatever he is, is better than 95 percent of the other defensive linemen in football.

g. Most underrated Eagle: Quentin Mikell.

h. Brilliant, brilliant third-and-20 conversion by Donovan McNabb, moving well in the pocket, down 11-10 in the third quarter, until he found Jason Avant for a 21-yard gain. I have been critical of McNabb for not coming up big in some big games, but that was the definition of clutch.

i. Free-agent the Eagles absolutely should not lose: Brian Dawkins. That was his 200th game Sunday, and he played like it was his 20th.

j. The Pittsburgh offensive line was as under-fire as any position group in football in August. It's turning into an asset in January. Congratulations, Larry Zierlein. As the line coach, you've never wavered in how you've coached this group.

k. Darren Sproles, 11 carries, 15 yards. That sends a chill or two up the spine of the Ravens' backs.

5. I think this is what I didn't like about Week 19:

a. The Titans benefited from a Ravens offside on their first PAT attempt of the day Saturday, putting the ball at the Baltimore 1. Why not go for two?

b. Saturday was not a day for the plodding LenDale White. Titans used him too much, and I say that knowing Chris Johnson got hurt.

c. Third quarter, third-and-10, Baltimore ball at its 20. Tied, 7-7. Joe Flacco fits a bullet into a tight hole, right into Todd Heap's gut, with two defenders around him. Huge play. And Heap drops it. Very, very big play in the game. Good thing for the Ravens it didn't cost them later.

d. There's no way Jake Delhomme will get over that game 'til March. April, maybe.

e. Teams need to bump Larry Fitzgerald in the five-yard bump zone. Too many free-releases for him Saturday night in Charlotte.

f. In the last month, Eli Manning has looked a lot like the November 2007 Eli, not the January 2008 Eli.

6. I think the Pro Football Hall of Fame Final-17 announcement the other day was as interesting for who didn't make the cut as who did. If you don't follow the minutiae of the Hall selection process, the 44 voters had to cut the list of 25 semifinalists (plus Senior Committee candidates Bob Hayes and Claude Humphrey, who are automatically in the finals) to 15. So 10 men had to go. In order, here are the most notable losers in the process:

a. Punter Ray Guy. Surprising that Guy, who has a lot of support in the room, didn't beat out Cortez Kennedy, an interesting pick for the Final 17.

b. Defensive end Chris Doleman. Doesn't bode well for Michael Strahan. Look at their numbers. They're twins, and you could argue that minus the Super Bowl ring, they're historically the same.

c. Owner Art Modell. With Ralph Wilson and Paul Tagliabue getting on the final list but still being longshots for the Hall, it bodes ill for Modell's chances in the next few years.

d. Running back Terrell Davis. Obviously his short career is working against him. I'd be surprised if he ever gets in.

e. Defensive end Charles Haley. In line behind Richard Dent and Derrick Thomas.

f. Cornerback Lester Hayes. I still think he's got a decent shot one of these years.

g. Linebacker Kevin Greene. If Dick LeBeau ever gets in, which he should, obviously, he'll speak highly of Greene, who rushed the quarterback well in several different defenses.

h. Special-teamer Steve Tasker. No surprise he didn't make the finals. Just sad. We have to realize sometime that special teams is a major part of the game (not a third, the way some people say, but a significant fifth), and Tasker was the best ever to play them.

i. Quarterback Ken Stabler. No surprise here.

j. Running back Roger Craig. Ditto. Probably belongs in the Hall of Very Good.

7. I think Florida quarterback Tim Tebow made the right decision to stay in school, only because so many college players leave early and later regret it. But I think it's nuts to hear the speculation that he might not have been picked until the third or fourth round had he entered the draft. That's where Mel Kiper put him the other day. I'm not blaming Mel; there's lots of that talk out there. But to suggest he's some sort of maladroit (there's your PKWOTW) and marginal prospect is demeaning and downright wrong. I will bet a lot of money that when Tebow comes out, he won't get past New England in the second round; as much as Bill Belichick is around Urban Meyer and that program, I bet he's become a huge Tebow fan as a football player -- quarterback, goal-line back, something.

I agree with Meyer's assessment: "When I hear people say, 'I wonder if he can play in the first round,' then I don't know what football is. I don't have any idea what happens in the NFL.'' You tell 'em, Urban. We've got Dan Orlovsky and Shaun Hill and Tyler Thigpen starting in the NFL, and we're debating if a 6-2, 240-pound determined winner should be picked among the top 64 picks in the draft? Interesting.

8. I think I need to make a few comments/clarifications about the All-Pro team I ran in the mag and online last week, and the one I filed as one of 50 voters for the Associated Press' annual All-Pro team. I'll run an e-mail from a Philadelphia reader, Scott Clayton, to get us started.

"Peter, if I wasn't a huge fan of your reporting skills you could never inspire so much frustration from me. Let me first state the facts, which I am sure you well know. Four players (Ryan Harris, Harvey Dahl, Stewart Bradley and Fred Robbins) received their only All-Pro vote on your ballot. Five others (Wes Welker, Madison Hedgecock, Dallas Clark, Terrell Suggs and Josh Cribbs) received less than six votes overall, one of which came from you. The AP results show that one voter chose only one running back, when two were allowed. We can only assume this was you. Also, since the votes for Suggs were listed in the outside linebacker column, we can assume that your votes were for a 3-5 alignment.

"I understand the interest in every sportswriter (I used to be one) to make a splash and promote discussion. That's fine when it's reserved for picks and preseason awards and informal polls and such. When the same thinking creeps into voting come awards time, it is called irresponsible. I may have wanted to vote for Bill Murray in the presidential election, but I didn't. You are essentially saying with your vote that you feel you know something that 49 of your peers do not. If that is what you truly believe, that's cool, but since you admittedly cringed when Harvey Dahl got blown up repeatedly [against Arizona], it shows a lack of faith in your own selections. I can't begin to break down individual offensive line play from what I get in a TV broadcast, but I imagine that if Chris Snee suffers through a bad game on Sunday, the 32 people that voted him an All-Pro will be able to confidently chalk it up to just that, a bad game, rather than realizing their gambit was exposed.''

Fair enough. Let's go over a point or two, and then Scott's issues one by one.

a. In my AP ballot, there are two differences from the team I used for SI. I reluctantly filed a ballot with two running backs -- Adrian Peterson and DeAngelo Williams -- to the AP, and used only Peterson on the team I ran in SI and on SI.com. I say "reluctantly,'' because I think it's foolish that the AP asks us for two running backs and a fullback, seeing that no team ever plays two running backs and a fullback in the lineup at once, unless it's some freaky formation.

There are other spots on the AP team that ask for more than the normal number of players; the AP wants four defensive linemen and four linebackers, but that's understandable because some teams use a 4-3 base defense and others a 3-4 base defense. So I wasn't the one voter who picked only one running back.

Secondly: I voted for Peppers on the AP ballot at defensive end and Suggs on the SI team. This vote semi-tormented me. Suggs split time between three positions on the front seven -- defensive end, outside linebacker and inside linebackers; Baltimore coach John Harbaugh told me he didn't know the spot Suggs actually played the most snaps. I filed the AP team on the day after the regular season ended, with Peppers as a starting end and Suggs not on the team. But this bothered me because I thought Suggs was one of the best four outside rushers, and one of the most versatile defensive players, by far, in the league. So I made a few calls that week, asking people I trusted about Suggs versus Peppers, and when I filed my team for SI four days later, I gave the defensive end slot to Suggs, figuring he was a man without a position, but figuring he played a significant amount at defensive end.

b. I haven't done this forever, but I've changed to now voting as much as I can (except in cases like Suggs') for right and left, free and strong. I'll vote for a right and left tackle, right and left guard, etc. The AP suggests that, and I think it's smart. It seems that most of the AP voters don't feel the same way, which is their prerogative. Of the 100 possible votes for offensive tackles, for instance, the top three vote-getters --Jordan Gross (34), Michael Roos (32) and Ryan Clady (14) -- combined for 80 votes, and all three are left tackles.

c. I vote primarily on what I see, supplemented by strong opinions from people I've trusted on pro personnel over the years -- mostly on offensive linemen. One of the things I've respected over the years on Paul Zimmerman's teams is he might have been the lone wolf out there on a few guys (Brian Blados at guard in Cincinnati in 1984 and Jason Brown at guard in 2007 both stand out), but he went with his feeling after watching a lot of football. I have no problem being the only voter to tab three or four guys.

d. Now for some of Scott's specific points on players. I don't consult the other voters to see who they're voting for, so my vote has nothing to do with anything other than the guy at the position who I thought was best in 2008. Ryan Harris at right tackle? I'd make the pick 100 more times. When you allow one sack per 274 pass-drops for your quarterback, which Harris did, that's an All-Pro season.

Harvey Dahl did make me cringe against Arizona, but the definition of cringing is not "I want that pick back," and Dahl gave the Falcons a mean, brutish attitude up front, leading the way for one of the best rushing seasons by a back in the NFL this year.

There are a bunch of great defensive tackles, but Robbins is long overdue to be recognized for his versatility (5.5 sacks three straight years, excellent run-stopping). The Eagles now don't have one quarterback -- Brian Dawkins -- on defense; with Bradley, now they have two, and his athleticism has really made the Eagle D better, as he showed catching a speedier Derrick Ward from behind on a little swing pass early in Sunday's game, preventing a Giants' TD. I thought he had a better year than Jon Beason.

Wes Welker's caught more balls than anyone in football over the last two years, and he's done it playing with two quarterbacks when everyone on defense knows he's going to be the target 10 to 12 times every game. Dallas Clark is Peyton Manning's security blanket; his number aren't as good as Tony Gonzalez's, but to me his value is higher, partially because the Colts win and the Chiefs don't.

Hedgecock is a better blocker than La'Ron McClain, and fullback is almost exclusively a blocking position. There are lots of great return men, and Cribbs is both a stellar returner and incredible all-around special-teamer. That may not be what you wanted to hear, Scott, but that's how I saw it.

e. The All-Pro team is not scientific. It can't be. It turns out this year that mine differs a lot from my peers'. There were some players who got votes -- Walter Jones, Jason Peters, Terence Newman -- who I felt had bad years because of injuries or performance. But other voters saw it differently. Who's to say who's right? Makes the world go round.

9. I think you probably all saw, late in the third quarter at Pittsburgh, the weird call on the muffed punt that Pittsburgh was able to advance for a touchdown. It's an archaic rule, but it was officiated properly. The rule is that on a kickoff or punt, the ball has to be possessed by the receiving team in order for a turnover to be possible. So if the receiving team touches the ball without gaining possession, the kicking team can recover it and take possession -- but the ball can't be advanced. I inquired about the rule Sunday and was told there's never been much of a movement to have it changed.

10. I think these are my non-football thoughts of the week:

a. Mitch Albom, you wrote a tremendous, moving, stirring story about Detroit in Sports Illustrated this week. The end, with the reaction of the theater crowd to Clint Eastwood's "Gran Torino,'' fit the story so well. Congratulations. That's a must-read for fans of the teams of your city -- and for fans of the American city. Any city.

b. Speaking of American cities, read Jim Dwyer's "About New York'' column in Saturday's New York Times about the Yankees' request to the city for $370-million in additional taxpayer financing, on the heels of already getting $942 in prior financing; in addition, the city has committed $660 million to replace the open spaces used by the next stadium and for parking improvements. On the heels of a superb ESPN report last summer on the vanishing play spaces for Bronx youth because of the stadium, this is more of the same. For improvements to the video and sound systems in the stadium, the Yankees want $34 million. This is a team that just spent $423 million on three players? What unmitigated gall.

c. Isn't Hollywood nice. Finally letting "Gran Torino'' in a theater near you. And me.

d. Coffeenerdness: Hard by the campus of Vanderbilt is a Starbucks on West End Avenue, and if you went in there over the weekend, you saw (presumably) Vanderbilt students come in by the dozens, looking like they just got out of bed, some in pajama pants, and I think about half the girls in Uggs boots. Starbucks has it figured out -- or did, until they started building stores across the street from each other. Get kids hooked on tasty caffeine early, and it'll last a lifetime.

e. These Uggs are everywhere.

f. My one and only piece of wisdom for the week: Go to the Grand Ole Opry before you die. Preferably in downtown Nashville. It is a slice of Americana that there's far too little of in our lives.

g. We were talking in the press box before the game Saturday about the decline of newspapers, with the news that the Rocky Mountain News and Seattle Post-Intelligencer are on their deathbeds. And one of my peers -- I forget whom -- said, "It's amazing. I thought what's happened to the business in the last year would have taken about 10 years.''

h. If you're an aspiring journalist, learn to love the web.