I Guess This Means David Carr is Out of a Job

Showing a remarkable (remarkably foolish or prescient is the question) amount of faith in a man who has started all of 2 regular season NFL games, the Houston Texans completed their trade for erstwhile Falcons backup Matt Schaub by signing him to a 6 year, $48 million deal to be the starter.

The details of the contract only bind the Texans to the first three years of the contract at $20 million overall. But that's still quite a bit of faith in a QB that has limited real-time game experience. My initial thought was that the Texans overpaid for him and that may yet prove to be true. But I can understand the rationale. They're trying to lay a stable groundwork for their offense for years down the line and this contract is an indisputable statement that Schaub is the guy who they believe will provide them with that stability. It's just that they're just taking a calculated gamble on a man with much to prove. My guess though is that he'll struggle this year for the same reason that Carr did during his time at the helm, which is the Texans' porous offensive line.

As for Carr, where does this trade leave him? Well, the former #1 overall pick is certainly out of Houston, a fact punctuated by Schaub's fat contract. But he will certainly have more than enough suitors in this QB hungry league. Minnesota comes to mind immediately as a place where one would think he'd be able to compete for a starting job right away. Even if he's not starting immediately, with the dependence on backup QBs we've seen of late in the NFL, my guess is that we'll see him leading the offense for some soon-to-be-determined team before too long.

matt schaub
david carr
houston texans

Just Keep Your Mouth Shut

Jim Mora Jr. made some headlines yeseterday when he said in a radio interview that he would leave the Falcons head coaching job in a second if the University of Washington spot became open, even if it was during the course of the playoffs. Mora, a Huskies alum, then had to go back in an official press conference, and clarify that he was kidding, apologizing to and reassuring those who might have questioned his desire to the club.

It seems pretty clear to me that Mora was indeed joking when he made the statement - logic dictates that because:

-Current U-Dub coach Ty Willingham isn't going anywhere anytime soon.
-He has already turned down the Huskies position once before.
-No NFL coach in his right mind would play with his job security like that (and not to mention his chances of ever getting another NFL head coaching job if there were actually legitimate doubts about his commitment).

Nontheless, it was an error in judgment for Mora, who forgot one of the cardinal rules of sports PR: if you say something ambiguous that can be construed the wrong way, it probably will be. An NFL head coach is in the public eye unlike 99% of people in this country, and the fans hang on his every word. Whether that's right or wrong, that's a fact of life in today's NFL, and Mora should have thought it through a little more before he opened his mouth.

I guess the foot-in-mouth tendencies run in the family though, as Jim Mora Sr, his father, made headlines a few weeks ago, when he called Falcons QB Michael Vick a "coach killer." Mora resigned from his job at Fox Sports Radio shortly thereafter, presumably due to the media firestorm that ensued.