ProFootballTalk: Who can turn Saints’ defense around?

Sean Payton wasted no time when firing defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo. Who’s next up in New Orleans?

AP

The Patriots gave LeGarrette Blount a clean slate, and now he has a clean record to go with it.

According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Blount completed his court-ordered 50 hours of community service in Boston, and the marijuana possession charges were dropped by local prosecutors.

Blount and then-Steelers teammate Le’Veon Bell were arrested on their way to the airport for a preseason game in August, and the DUI charges Bell had in addition to the possession could lead to a two-game suspension next year.

But after bailing out on the Steelers in midseason, Blount was released and quickly signed by the Patriots, who will be counting on him Sunday.

AP

It’s finally here. And I still have no clear idea who will win. Even though a blowout could be brewing (especially if the Patriots can duplicate what the Packers did in the NFC title game before opting not to play to win but playing not to lose), I don’t have a really strong feeling.

But enough of that. This is the part where I write a few paragraphs to set up the picks.

And then I say the MDS and I were both accurate with our conference title picks, and that he’s 9-1 for the postseason, and I’m 7-3.

MDS’s take: Moving past #Deflategate and Marshawn Lynch sparring with reporters and all of the off-field issues of the last two weeks, I keep thinking it comes down to this: Seattle’s defense is just too good.

Last year the Seahawks’ defense made Peyton Manning look bad in the Super Bowl, and this year I think the Seahawks’ defense is going to make Tom Brady look bad in the Super Bowl. Richard Sherman, Byron Maxwell, Kam Chancellor and Earl Thomas are about as good as it gets in the NFL, and I don’t think Brady is going to find many open receivers on Sunday. If there’s one weakness to Seattle’s defense it’s that a good tight end can beat them, and as a result I can see Rob Gronkowski having a big day. But even if Gronk gets 100 yards and a touchdown, that won’t be enough on a day when I don’t expect any of the Patriots’ wide receivers to play well.

The reason this game will be a lot closer than last year’s Super Bowl is that I don’t see Seattle putting a lot of points on the board. Bill Belichick will have a good game plan to neutralize Russell Wilson’s running, and the Patriots’ secondary should be able to shut down Seattle’s wide receivers. This looks like a fairly low-scoring game.

But in the end, it’s a game that sees Seattle coming out on top. The Seahawks will repeat.

MDS’s pick: Seahawks 21, Patriots 17.

Florio’s take: Back in September, I picked the Seahawks and Patriots to make it to the Super Bowl. And I picked the Seahawks to win. And I can’t in good conscience abandon that selection.

I could be wrong. Very wrong. The Patriots may finish the job the Packers started. The Patriots may give Russell Wilson the Tim Tebow treatment, blowing the Seahawks out in the first half so that there’s no chance for a rabbit-from-hat finish. Or maybe it will be a close, down-to-the-wire, three-point margin with Stephen Gotskowski playing the role of Adam Vinatieri.

Coach Bill Belichick has the uncanny ability to develop a game plan that is unique to each opponent, figuring out how to move the ball against any defense he faces — and how to take away what any offense does best. Throw in the #DeflateGate disrespect, and Belichick may be able to press enough buttons to overcome the Seahawks.

But it’s the Seahawks in the Super Bowl, not Cincinnati in Week Five. Sometimes, no amount of Xs and Os and “us against them” and “win one for the Gipper” matters. G.M. John Schneider has put together an excellent roster, and Pete Carroll has coached them up to the point where they believe they can beat anyone.

This year, they didn’t beat everyone, but all that matters on Sunday is whether the can score more points than the Patriots. I believed they could in September, so I’ve got no choice but to stick with that now.

Florio’s pick: Seahawks 27, Patriots 24.

AP

Tom Brady’s football accomplishments are certainly impressive, but if the Montreal Expos had their way, he might have never made it to the Super Bowl.

Like Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson, Brady was once a baseball prospect as well, and the Expos used an 18th-round pick on the left-handed-hitting catcher in 1995, hoping to steer him away from Michigan.

Instead, he went to college, was drafted 12 rounds earlier in the NFL Draft by the Patriots, and the rest is history.

But the scout who encouraged the Expos to try to lure him to the diamond is convinced the same qualities that enabled him to lead six teams to Super Bowls would have translated well.

“I think he would have been a pro,” veteran scout John Hughes said, via Joe Frisaro of MLB.com. “He had all the intangibles. He could throw, left-handed power. There is no reason to think this guy couldn’t have been a big league catcher.”

Brady was a promising baseball player at Serra High School, which also produced Barry Bonds and Gregg Jefferies.

“I could have ruined NFL history if I signed this guy,” Hughes said. “To this day, in all my years of scouting, Tom is still the most impressive high school kid I’ve ever been around. Just the person, the way he carries himself. What you’re seeing now, obviously, he is more mature. But it’s not a drastic change. He just had this presence.

“He’s a good guy. His family are great people. I always say, it was the most fun summer I tried to sign a guy I didn’t sign.”

Bill Belichick’s certainly glad he didn’t.

AP

The Patriots have confused both of their playoff opponents by switching offensive players back and forth from eligible to ineligible receivers. But neither coach Bill Belichick nor his opponent on Sunday, Pete Carroll, thinks that’s going to be an issue in the Super Bowl.

At the coaches’ final media appearance today, PFT asked both coaches about the issue, and they both said they’re confident that the officials will handle any such plays properly, with no problems.

“That’s not my job, so whatever the officials do, that’s their protocol and their mechanics, so whatever that is, you should direct that concern to the league,” Belichick said.

Carroll said that he is confident the officials will handle the Patriots’ formations correctly. And although there have been some suggestions that Belichick is pushing the bounds of the rules when he tries those formations, Carroll said he admires the Patriots for constantly finding new ways to play.

“I don’t have any problem with the way it’s been handled,” Carroll said. “Bill has done a good job of challenging us with really unique and innovative ideas in how to move people around. . . . I don’t think there’s going to be any issue.”

Here’s hoping that Carroll is right. It would be nice to see the NFL get through a game without an officiating issue.

It’s been a great week in Arizona getting ready for the Super Bowl and we’re just about ready to stop talking about the game and start playing it.

There’s still some time left before “just about ready” flips over to “ready,” though, and that moment won’t come before the end of Friday’s edition of PFT Live. Mike Florio will be coming to you once again from Radio Row with everything you need to know about the Super Bowl and the rest of the football world.

It all gets started at noon ET and you can listen live via the various NBC Sports Radio affiliates, through the links at PFT, or with the NBC Sports Radio app. And, as has been the case all week, you can also watch a simulcast of all three hours of the show by clicking right here.

AP

The NFLPA wants to make sure teams are spending enough money on players, and they’re going to release their own set of numbers to try to encourage just that.

Via Tom Pelissero of USA Today, union boss DeMaurice Smith said they would release their own salary cap projection next month, since they feel the league has tried to deflate the market with low-ball estimates.

Last year, the salary cap rose from $123 million to $133 million, and the league’s management council told teams to expect next year’s to fall between $138.6 million to $141.8 million. But Smith said he thinks the final figure will be higher than that.

“Look, I’m thrilled when the salary cap goes up 10 million dollars,” Smith said. “I’m ecstatic when they’re paying 8.5 (million) of that. . . .

“The last few years, you have seen various stories reported by some of you in the room … where you have reported things about the salary cap from ownership that has turned out to not be true. We believe that that not only misrepresents the economic reality of how the salary cap works, but our concern is that those inaccurate projections may have a negative consequence on some players who are trying to negotiate new contracts.”

Smith also pointed to 10 teams that didn’t spend required the 89 percent cash spending minimum in 2013, the Browns, Texans, Jaguars, Patriots, Saints, Giants, Jets, Raiders, Steelers and Washington.

“Let’s be blunt: it’s not overly titillating,” Smith said. “But the reason why I think it’s interesting to look at those 10 teams that were under the 89 percent — and there were a couple that were hovering around the 80 percent – (is) they’re going to be in a situation where hypothetically, if the cap continues to rise as we expect, on the back end of this deal, they’ve got to spend 110 and 120 percent of a salary cap that’s 20 million dollars higher than it was three years ago. To that, I say, ‘Fantastic.'”

While Smith’s right that the math won’t grab headlines, the fact that the salary cap is rising at a rate higher than expected will force teams to spend more, which is what he’s after.

AP

Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman is set to become a father soon enough that there’s a possibility that the baby could come before the end of the Super Bowl on Sunday, which led to questions for Sherman about what he’d do if his son decided to arrive before the Lombardi Trophy.

Sherman said he hopes his son is a “disciplined young man” who waits until his father and the rest of the Seahawks have finished the game on Sunday, but, as any father knows, even the best laid plans are meaningless in the face of a baby’s schedule. Sherman won’t say whether he’d miss the game if the little one decided to make his appearance on Sunday and coach Pete Carroll said Friday that the team is behind Sherman in any choice he makes.

“It’s about family first and we will support his decision,” Carroll said before adding that he “can’t wait to see little Petey.”

We’ve got no insight into what Sherman will be naming his son, although if we were forced to guess we’d say Carroll’s only a slightly likelier namesake than Michael Crabtree.

AP

The Patriots’ use of offensive linemen as eligible receivers and running back Shane Vereen as an ineligible receiver has created confusion for defenses and officials in the playoffs.

That confusion led to a touchdown that shouldn’t have counted in the AFC Championship game. Tom Brady threw a touchdown pass to tackle Nate Solder during that game on a play that NFL vice president of officiating Dean Blandino should have been flagged as an illegal substitution.

“There was an issue on that play where on the previous play, [Cameron] Fleming had reported as an eligible player,” Blandino said, via CSNNE.com. “And on the Solder touchdown he went back to playing an ineligible position. That’€™s illegal. That’€™s an illegal substitution. So that’€™s something we discussed with the crew. Bill [Belichick] was made aware of it. So we’€™re going to be looking for that, make sure we follow the proper mechanics so that doesn’€™t happen again.”

Jim Miller of Sirius XM NFL Radio picked up on the missed call last week and pointed it out, but there was no confirmation from the league until Blandino’s press conference on Thursday. Plenty of other people probably would have picked up on it as well had the score not been 45-7 and another issue having to do with the air pressure of footballs not taken hold of the United States for the last two weeks.

AP

Things went south quickly for Marc Trestman and the Bears in 2014, leading to a 5-11 record and the team’s decision to fire both Trestman and General Manager Phil Emery when the year came to an end.

Trestman’s leadership abilities have come under fire in the wake of his two-year stint in Chicago, something that tight end Martellus Bennett didn’t do much to argue against in an appearance on NFL Network on Friday. Bennett did say that he thinks a move to the offensive coordinator role with the Ravens will work out well for coach and team.

“Trestman, I think, first off, the issue that he had, probably, was managing us all, all the different personalities,” Bennett said. “There’s a lot of big personalities. And I think, for a first-time head coach in the NFL, dealing with all the personalities that you have, I think that’s hard when you got guys like me, you know, [Brandon] Marshall …  Lance Briggs on defense, (Charles) Tillman … Calling plays, he was excellent. I think he’s going to be an excellent coordinator for the Ravens. Strategically, he was great. But on the field, guys just weren’t executing.”

Trestman’s issues dealing with those big personalities likely played a role in the Bears’ decision to install an experienced NFL head coach for the first time since George Halas’s second stint on the sideline. If John Fox can get a grip on the locker room, a reprise of the rapid turnarounds he pulled off in Carolina and Denver could be within reach.

AP

The first Aaron Hernandez murder trial got rolling on Thursday, with opening statements in the case arising from the June 2013 shooting death of Odin Lloyd.

Via the Boston Herald, prosecutors revealed during their overview of the evidence to be introduced two intriguing pieces of information. A marijuana joint was found near Lloyd’s body, and the joint had DNA evidence that matches Hernandez’s. Likewise, a bullet casing found in a rental car used by Hernandez contained DNA matching Hernandez’s.

Of course, this wouldn’t be the first time a jury disregarded overwhelming DNA evidence in a murder case involving a former NFL player. But Hernandez’s lawyer, Michael Fee, possibly will need something on the level of an “if-it-doesn’t-fit-you-must-acquit” moment to overcome the DNA evidence.

AP

The 49ers’ regular season was a disappointment and plenty of people have registered the same reaction to the early part of their offseason, which saw the team part ways with head coach Jim Harbaugh and promote defensive line coach Jim Tomsula as his replacement.

It’s been widely viewed as an underwhelming hire motivated by the desires of General Manager Trent Baalke and CEO Jed York more than what might be best for the football team. Quarterback Colin Kaepernick expressed a different point of view during an interview with FOX Sports, however.

“Jim Tomsula’s gonna be a great coach for us. Players coach, always around the guys,” Kaepernick said. “Someone that’s willing to listen to what players say and has their intake. And I think that’s something that will help this team move forward. We have a lot of veteran players that know what they’re seeing on the field and know what they’re doing, so I think that will help us.”

Kaepernick’s point about the continuity on the roster is sound and should get a boost with the expected returns of linebackers Patrick Willis and Navorro Bowman from injury. By promoting Geep Chryst and Eric Mangini to offensive and defensive coordinator guarantee that carryover will extend to the coaching staff as well. Should that lead to a rebound in 2015, concerns about Tomsula should dissipate quickly but anything else will likely lead to even louder calls that the 49ers stepped off a good path for all of the wrong reasons.

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On Friday, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell will face a collection of media far more extensive than he usually does at his annual pre-Super Bowl press conference. Although his September 19 emergence-from-hiding event attracted non-NFL media who would be far more inclined to ask unexpected, unusual, and/or utterly hostile questions, the midtown Manhattan gathering occurred with limited advance notice.

Everyone who has been paying attention to the NFL knows that the Friday before the Super Bowl always consists of a no-holds-barred (in theory) session, which like most press conferences becomes a shotgun approach that depends largely on which of the collected credentialed get an opportunity to introduce themselves and then to formulate a query. Inevitably, there will be far more potential questioners than there will be time to pose questions.

And so it becomes important for the league office employees who have custody of the microphones used to ask questions to the Commissioner to exercise extreme discretion when determining who gets one of them. It’s been part of the reality of the pre-Super Bowl press conference for years now; those walking around with the wireless talking sticks need to make good decisions about who gets the chance to hear themselves talking while spending way too many words formulating a question, dumbstruck by the power of finally getting a chance to be the one to speak.

So who will get the chance to ask questions? Will it be restricted to the familiar faces of folks who cover the NFL on a regular basis and who have an inherent desire not to alienate the Commissioner or the office over which he presides? Will the persons employed by NFL Media, whose paychecks the Commissioner signs, get two or three (or more) bites at the apple? And will anyone who looks like a potentially reckless agitator who may ask tough questions about #DeflateGate or the unexplored nuances of the Ray Rice case (such as the discrepancies between the memo the Commissioner sent to the owners after the in-elevator video emerged and the findings made by Robert Mueller) or anything else that may force the Commissioner to wade through waters he’d rather avoid altogether?

It’s a drama that won’t play out on camera. But the handling of the microphones will be a very real aspect of this and every pre-Super Bowl Commissioner press conference. The event will be only as informative (and compelling) as the questions allow, and the folks with the keys to the questioning castle likely will be inclined to allow only those questioners who will permit the Commissioner to dispense information he’s comfortable sharing.

AP

Leah Still is still fighting cancer and will start a new round of chemotherapy on Friday, but that’s not stopping her from finding a way to offer some help to other kids in the same position.

Bengals defensive tackle and Leah’s father Devon Still got a lot of questions from other parents with kids fighting cancer about how their family has approached Leah’s treatment and he asked his daughter for her thoughts. That led the four-year-old and her dad to write an animated book called I Am Leah Strong that will be available online next month.

“I talked to my daughter and asked her if she wanted to do a children’s book to help kids who are fighting pediatric cancer now and kids who will be diagnosed in the future to help them with the transition from normal life to being in the hospital all the time,” Still said, via USA Today. “That book was written by her. I just had an outline of questions I wanted to ask her. Whatever answers she had I wrote in book form.”

Leah Still was diagnosed with neuroblastoma in June and the hope is that her next round of chemotherapy does enough damage to the disease that she’s able to begin stem cell therapy.

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Former NFL quarterback Jeff Blake can’t figure out what the big deal is with Deflategate.

Blake spent time with seven different teams, and he says he always instructed ball boys to take air out of footballs to improve his grip.

“I’m just going to let the cat of the bag, every team does it, every game, it has been since I played,” Blake said on 104.5 The Zone in Nashville, via NJ.com. “Cause when you take the balls out of the bag, they are rock hard. And you can’t feel the ball as well. It’s too hard. Everybody puts the pin in and takes just enough air out of the ball that you can feel it a little better. But it’s not the point to where it’s flat. So I don’t know what the big deal is. It’s not something that’s not been done for 20 years.”

Blake said his pre-game ritual always included checking footballs and taking some air out if they were too hard to grip.

“Well, I would say [to a ball boy], ‘Take a little bit of air out of it. It’s a little bit hard,'” Blake said. “And then he’d take a little bit out and I’d squeeze it and I’d be like, ‘OK, it’s perfect.’ That’s it.”

With the Patriots now facing scrutiny for using under-inflated footballs in the AFC Championship Game, Blake is wondering why this is suddenly an issue.

“I guess it wasn’t a big deal back then, but it is now,” he said.

It’s a very big deal in the media. It may not be a big deal to NFL players, some of whom say deflating footballs is just part of the business.

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Looking ahead to Bills S Da’Norris Searcy’s free agency.

Is there a chance that DT Ndamukong Suh could wind up with the Dolphins?

Tom Brady thinks James Develin gives the Patriots the best fullback in the league.

Todd Bowles continues to add coaches he knows from Arizona to the Jets’ coaching staff.

Ray Lewis thinks the window for the current Ravens team is closing.

T Eric Winston hopes to stick with the Bengals for another year.

The Browns may not make a decision about their training camp home for a while.

Former Steelers LB Jack Ham is a big fan of Richard Sherman.

The Texans website breaks down Nebraska RB Ameer Abdullah.

The case for former Colts WR Marvin Harrison to make the Hall of Fame.

The Jaguars added K/P Kasey Redfern to their roster.

Said Titans TE Delanie Walker, “If that don’t make you angry, to go 2-14, I don’t know what would make you angry. It’s kind of sad when your own fans don’t believe in you. It should make you mad. It’s embarrassing to only win two games at any level. But that’s what we did, and now we have to make sure nothing like that ever happens again.”

Broncos S T.J. Ward will be playing for his fifth head coach in six seasons.

Does being a guard hurt former Chiefs star Will Shields’ Hall of Fame chances?

The Raiders need more out of their tight ends.

Jeremiah Sirles recaps his rookie year on the Chargers offensive line.

How can the Cowboys be more like the Seahawks and Patriots?

Giants WR Odell Beckham’s knack for one-handed catches landed him a world record.

The Eagles have found their personnel man.

Predictions of a fruitful relationship for Redskins QB Robert Griffin III and quarterbacks coach Matt Cavanaugh.

CB Charles Tillman has good feelings about the Bears after speaking to coach John Fox.

Barry Sanders thinks the Lions have pieces to contend for a Super Bowl spot in 2015.

Can the Packers hit in free agency for the second straight year?

A look at the new Vikings stadium.

Running backs coach Gerald Brown could stick with the Falcons for another year.

Panthers fans score well on the niceness scale.

CB Delvin Breaux got a partial guarantee in his contract with the Saints.

Super Bowl weekend brings back the memories for former Buccaneers DB and Super Bowl MVP Dexter Jackson.

The Cardinals practice facility has held up well for the Patriots this week.

The Rams looking for an offensive coordinator leads at least one person to think about Mike Martz.

S Antonine Bethea looks back on his first season with the 49ers.

CB Jeremy Lane closed Thursday’s Seahawks practice by knocking the ball away from WR Bryan Walters.