Aaron Rodgers

Comparing Tony Romo's New Deal To Matt Schaub's: The QB Contract Conundrum

Quarterback problems. They're like everyday relationships.They take on different flavors and magnitudes, but pretty much every NFL city has them. Some are theoretically good problems to have: New England's restructuring Tom Brady's contract to open up more salary cap space, Green Bay's commencing ... More >>

Joe Flacco Has A New Contract: Next Big Thing Or Next Cautionary Tale?

On December 16, the Baltimore Ravens lost their third game in a row, 34-17 to the Denver Broncos in Baltimore to drop to 9-5 on the season and virtually clinch a relatively ho-hum four seed in the AFC. On that day, their starting quarterback, Joe Flacco, completed 20 passes on 40 attempts for 254 l ... More >>

Football! NFC and AFC Title Game Best Bets

Last weekend, when we were down to eight teams left standing in the NFL playoffs, on my radio show I placed the remaining starting quarterbacks into three distinct "buckets": ELITE (3): Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, Peyton Manning These three all were secure in their legacies regardless of the outcome ... More >>

Good, Not Great: Why Texans Need A Daryl Morey Approach To QB Position

If good is the enemy of great, the Texans are in a lot of trouble as they map out a plan to break through their second-round ceiling. Owner Bob McNair and head coach Gary Kubiak are publically saying the happy, feel-good things. "We're very close," McNair said after the loss in New England, while K ... More >>

As A Quarterback, Matt Schaub Is The Worst Kind Of High Maintenance Chick

"What if this is the best I'll ever look, the best I'll ever be, the best I'll ever do-and it's not very good?" -- Mitch Robbins in City Slickers For the Houston Texans, 2012 was supposed to be better than 2011. I suppose if you want to take the term "better" to its ultra-literal core, the team's r ... More >>

Football! This Weekend's Best Bets, NFL Divisional Round Nut Cuttin' Time!

This past Monday night, I had the privilege of attending the BCS Title Game in person in Miami. I say "privilege" because, despite my Notre Dame background, the trip itself and the magnitude of the event were amazing. Yes, my team lost, but it the vibe in the building before kickoff was surreal. As ... More >>

Colts 28, Texans 16: Gary Kubiak-Led Collapse Reaches Fitting Conclusion

Dumbfounding special teams miscues. A 70-yard touchdown over the top on 3rd-and-23. Two inexplicable Matt Schaub interceptions with the offense rolling. Four offsides penalties. Two timeouts wasted on a baffling challenge and an indecisive fourth down. These are Gary Kubiak's Houston Texans. In the ... More >>

NFL Playoff Scenarios: A Guide To This Sunday

Week 17 of the NFL season is upon us this weekend, and while there are still plenty of moving (or potentially moving) parts left to be slotted, the one thing we are sure of is that in the NFC the Atlanta Falcons will have a first round bye and home field throughout the playoffs. The Texans have to ... More >>

Gary Kubiak Won't Be Coaching for His Job Next Week, But He Should Be

The narratives for the first two Texan losses wrote themselves, even if they weren't completely accurate. Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady are Hall of Fame quarterbacks and played extremely well. The Texans (12-3) had a few unlucky bounces on offense. The team didn't desperately need either game. None a ... More >>

Texans 29, Colts 17: Back-to-Basics Approach Nets AFC South Title, Renews Playoff Hopes

It seems evident that Matt Schaub isn't going to win a shootout with the likes of Tom Brady or Aaron Rodgers. Perhaps not with Andrew Luck. But if the team's other components execute the way they're designed to, he shouldn't have to. On Sunday, the Texans (12-2) finally returned to their core princ ... More >>

Monday Night Meltdown: Texans Crushed in New England 42-14

It was, to quote Yogi Berra, "Like deja vu all over again." In this case, the Texans' loss to Tom Brady and the New England Patriots on the road in prime time was eerily similar to week six when they were dismantled by Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers. In what was being billed as the most ant ... More >>

How Should You Spend Your Houston Texans Bye Week?

Folks, we have reached the first bye week of the Houston Texans 2012 season. Our band of heroes will not be seeing action. Not on Thursday, Sunday or even Monday. No, they will be taking a well-deserved few days away from their usual schedules to relax and store up energy for the next few weeks of g ... More >>

Texans -- Ravens: 4 Winners, 4 Losers (Including J.J. Watt, Arian Foster & Connor Barwin)

"It's just one game." "Nobody would have beaten Aaron Rodgers tonight." "Hey, if someone had told you before the season they'd be 5-1 going into the Ravens game, you'd have taken it, right?" Those are just a few of the dozens of different ways Texans fans and media rationalized last weekend's 42- ... More >>

Texans 43, Ravens 13: Adjustments Spark Beatdown of Long-Time Nemesis; Five Reasons Why

Check out our slideshow of the Texans beating the Ravens for the first time in franchise history. The final score doesn't come close to showing it, but there were tense moments Sunday. Three early possessions resulted in three Houston punts, with only a single first down to show for it. Receivers ... More >>

Texans-Ravens: NEW BATTLE-DRINK Bingo Drinking Card (a/k/a "Jacoby's Revenge")

I think you probably realize that when I put this Battle-Drink card together each week that many of the entries are done with tongue firmly planted in cheek. I don't expect B.J. Raji to eat Toro, or for Toro to crash his four-wheeler, or for Jon Weeks to get a tackle. That's why I put these in the r ... More >>

Packers 42, Texans 24: Troubling Trends Continue in First Loss; The 5 Biggest Holes to Fill

It may be only one loss, but the trend lines are concerning. For a second straight week, the Texans (5-1) were outplayed in a handful of key areas, most notably within the once-vaunted line play as well as individual battles of receivers vs. cornerbacks. But unlike this past Monday, when the Texans ... More >>

Reality Lands At Reliant As Aaron Rodgers & Packers Roll Over Texans 42-24

It was, to put it lightly, an inauspicious to the often-talked-about Tough Stretch of the Texans' 2012 schedule. While the team was sparking Super Bowl champion talk as they beat up on the likes of the Jets, Jags and Titans, looming ahead was this stretch -- which includes Green Bay, Baltimore and ... More >>

2012: Year of the Texans

Assessing all their strengths and weaknesses, we could be looking at a repeat or better.

Breathe Easy, Texan Fans, Arian Foster Saved from the Madden Curse

In general, I think Texan fans are excited for the upcoming 2012 season, but that has more to do with how strong the team looked in 2011 than the collective offseason efforts of the front office. In fact, the offseason has been littered with far more bad news than good, highlighted (or lowlighted, a ... More >>

Who Needs Tim Tebow When You Have T.J. Yates (Or Just About Any Other NFL Quarterback)?

The only proper usage of Tebowing.​Vince Young was not who Jeff Fisher wanted to draft in 2006. His choice for the future quarterback of the Tennessee Titans was Jay Cutler. Bud Adams wanted Young, so Young became a Titan. Young was the 2006 NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year as the Titans we ... More >>

Pau Gasol Thoughts, My Texans Prediction and Other Weekend Best Bets

Pau Gasol: The closest he'll get to Rocket red.​On November 23, the Texans signed quarterback Kellen Clemens to take over third-string duties. On December 4, the Texans signed Jake Delhomme and two days later they cut Clemens. I never thought there would be a less satisfying era for a Houston ... More >>

Jerry Rice Doesn't Really Grasp the Whole "Stock Market" Concept (w/ VIDEO)

Not read by Jerry Rice.​It seems like every retired NFL player with any small modicum of celebrity over the last decade has found his way onto television, either on the NFL Network or ESPN. The amount of money that is spent on salaries for largely repetitive, and oftentimes useless, opinions h ... More >>

Packers 16-0, Colts 0-16: A Wagering Public Service Announcement

All aboard!​It's Christmas shopping season, and as someone who has to had to "overbuy" presents for years now, I understand the phenomenon of those Christmas bills showing up a couple weeks after December 25, and your asking yourself "How in the sparkly, tinsel hell am I going to pay these?" ... More >>

Some Perspective on Ndamukong Suh's Cheap Shot (w/ VIDEO)

In what was easily the most significant Thanksgiving Day game played in Detroit in the last ten years, the Green Bay Packers ran their record to 11-0 by beating the Lions pretty soundly 27-15. After the game, the big story had nothing to do with the Packers' chasing history, nor did people want to ... More >>

Saints 40, Texans 33: Five Plays That Got Away

The Texans found out Sunday.​The latest chapter in the long-running series of Texan near misses might have been the most painful. Sure, there were plenty of positives. The Texans (2-1) proved they were capable of hanging with the NFL's elite on the road. They weren't outclassed. Looking for ... More >>

2011 NFL Preview, Spoken In Wagering-ese

The betting window is open​I hope everyone who has had a chance to check out our Texans 2011 preview "The New Normal" has enjoyed it. Big ups to Monica Fuentes for coming up with the season-long interactive game card tracking Texans' results. You need to go check it out. If you haven't read ... More >>

My Madden 2012 Cover Ballot

What do you think should go on the cover of Madden 12?​I've said it before, I'm a total sucker for lists. "5 Best This." "8 Worst That." "9 Reasons So-and-so Boned Such-and-such." List it and I'm in. Some will criticize this, and call it a sign of a lazy mind, that I need my world assembled ... More >>

My Advice for NFL Players

Don't take these magic moments away, Players Union​In the battle for NFL labor supremacy, I'm rooting for football. I'm rooting for order in my world, and my entertainment to remain untouched. However, forced to choose a side, I am rooting for the players. I don't know if I represent Joe NFL ... More >>

From Bad to Worse: Dallas Gives Michael Vick a Key to the City

Dallas honors Michael Vick, for some unfathomable reason​It has not been an easy week for the city of Dallas. It started with a "once in twenty years"-ish, weeklong snow and ice storm during the one week that Dallas could least afford a snow and ice storm. It continued with sheets of said ... More >>

Super Bowl XLV -- At Least It Was A Good Game

This means sonething different when Ben Roethlisberger does it​Okay, so now we can put the whole Brett Favre/Aaron Rodgers thing to bed, right? While Aaron Rodgers still has a ton of work to do to build the overall resume of the Ol' Dongslinger, yesterday's win over the Steelers, and just as ... More >>

Christina Aguilera's National Anthem: Better Than Carl Lewis', Anyway

​Today, Super Bowl MVP Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers are presumably on their way to Disney World, the Pittsburgh Steelers are praying Ben Roethlisberger did not do anything in the many, many strip clubs of the greater Metroplex to bring on a repeat of his season-opening four-game sus ... More >>

Jerry's Time to Shine

Speaking truth about Super Bowl XXXVIII.

25 Super Bowl Pregame Observations

Brooklyn Decker, Super Bowl media correspondent​The weather outside might suck really, really bad right now. But it's time to be reminded that more important things are going on this week. It's Super Bowl week, and we're lucky to have the NFL visiting the Metroplex which, on Sunday, at Jerry ... More >>

Super Bowl & Rolling Blackouts: Start Panicking NOW (Five Doomsday Scenarios)

What's the worst that can happen? Plenty​Sure, the rolling blackouts appear to be coming to an end....for the moment. No one is saying for sure they won't happen again, especially as Houston digs out from what might be three entire inches of snow Friday. No one really predicted this morning' ... More >>

Wait. They Still Play the Pro Bowl? (25 Things to Ponder About It)

The Lingerie Football League Pro Bowl would be a Pro Bowl actually worth watching​One of the most useless events in sports takes place this weekend. No, I'm not talking about a World Cup soccer game. I'm talking about the Pro Bowl. And before the game comes up, there are a few observations ... More >>

State of the Union Preview: Five Things You're Guaranteed to See

No Nancy Pelosi on the screen tonight​President Obama addresses the Congress and the nation tonight in the annual State of the Union, which has become a rite as ossified and rigid as any. You've got the humble heroes sitting with the First Lady, the various standing o's, the predictable post-s ... More >>

NFL Conference Title Games: Douche-apalooza 2011!

This is not Roger Staubach​Ben Roethlisberger, Mark Sanchez, Jay Cutler, Aaron Rodgers. In an era where success in the NFL has never been more tied to quarterback play, those are your last four quarterbacks standing in the 2011 Playoffs. Most NFL fans see the elimination and subsequent absen ... More >>

NFL -- Bob McNair's Delusion, Twitter Madness And The Weekend's Best Bets

Orange slices for the Texans!​"I wanted the team to know not only how close we think they are but how close our competitors think they are to being an outstanding team." -- Texans owner Bob McNair, presumably not being held at gunpoint nor under the influence of any drugs or alcohol What Bob ... More >>

USC Trojans: They're Different From 1980s SMU How, Exactly?

Snoop & Pete: BFFs​The Southern Methodist University football team was hit with NCAA sanctions on February 26, 1987 because of a slush-fund created to pay players. Seeing as how the Mustangs were a repeat offender -- they were already on probation for recruiting violations -- the NCAA le ... More >>

Texans-Packers: Run, Slaton, Run

If you're like me, you're sick of hearing "frozen tundra" every time there is a game played in Green Bay. But with the temps for Green Bay this weekend set to be below freezing, you just know someone's going to let loose with the term, probably multiple times - hell, John McClain has already writte ... More >>

John Royal's NFL Power Rankings

John Royal's NFL Power Rankings

John Royal's NFL Power Rankings

NFL Review, Week Two: Another Call for the Texans to Play in the Dome

John Royal's NFL Power Rankings

John Royal’s NFL Season Picks

Enough with This Brett Favre Business Already

John Royal's NFL Picks, Week 14: Longest. Season. Ever.

Jason Friedman’s NFL Picks, Week Four: Salma Hayek, the Green Bay Packers, Anna Kournikova and the Baltimore Ravens