My original bracket was a hit, so I thought I’d update it after the Wild Card weekend. If you click on the picture, you’ll see a larger version.

ESPN.com is reporting that the Redskins have reached a 5-year contract agreement with Mike Shanahan to become their next head coach.

Under the terms of the new deal, Shanahan will team with Redskins executive vice president and general manager Bruce Allen, but Shanahan will have the ultimate authority on football decisions. Shanahan will be introduced as the Redskins head coach at a 2 p.m. ET news conference Wednesday.

As the contract was being signed at the Redskins’ training complex, Shanahan and owner Dan Snyder posed together for a picture. Then, with the deal signed, Shanahan, his agent Sandy Montag, Allen and Snyder headed out for a celebration dinner in Washington, D.C.

The contract is worth approximately $7 million a year, the Denver Post reported on its Web site. Now that Shanahan has been hired elsewhere, the Denver Broncos, who fired Shanahan one year ago, will recoup $7 million in offset money over the next two seasons under the terms of the agreement they had with the coach.

Finally, Daniel Snyder made a good football decision for his franchise. Shanahan is absolutely the right fit for an organization that is in desperate need for a leader that can give them direction and build a solid foundation.

But the key now is that Snyder needs to get the hell out of the way. He’s meddling has cost his team before, so if he continues to play the role of owner-knows-best, then this will be a wasted hire.

You found the right guy Dan, now sit in the back and let Shanahan drive the ship.

Bill Belichick is blaming Wes Welker’s torn MCL and ACL on the poor field conditions at Houston’s Reliant Stadium.

From Yahoo! Sports:

Welker, who led the NFL with 123 receptions, suffered a serious left knee injury in a 34-27 loss to the Texans on Sunday on what Belichick called “one of the worst fields I’ve seen.”

He did not elaborate Tuesday on remarks he made a day earlier during his weekly appearance on WEEI radio. Belichick said the field was inconsistent— spongy in parts and hard in others—causing players to get a different feel with each step.
Belichick said a lot of non-contact injuries like Welker’s occur on such surfaces.

Asked several times about the field on Tuesday, Belichick said he is focusing on Sunday’s home playoff game against the Baltimore Ravens.

Come on Bill, you can do better than that. Just say something clichéd like, “Injuries happen in football,” and move on. Don’t blame it on the field to deflect some of the blame off yourself for having Welker playing in a semi-meaningless game in the first place.

Photo from fOTOGLIF

Texans’ linebacker Brian Cushing was named the 2009 NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year.

From ESPN.com:

Brian Cushing has become the second Houston Texans linebacker in four seasons to win The Associated Press NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year award.

The tackling machine from USC, drafted 15th overall last April, is a runaway winner in balloting by a nationwide panel of 50 sportswriters and broadcasters who cover the league. Cushing received 39 votes, easily beating Buffalo safety Jairus Byrd, who had six.

Cushing was all over the field this year, racking up 134 tackles, four interceptions and two forced fumbles. He made an impact the moment he got to Houston and he seemingly has a very bright future ahead of him.

I do wonder though, had Byrd finished the season with a couple more picks (he missed the final two games of the season due to an injury) if the voting would have been closer. He tied Darren Sharper, Charles Woodson and Asante Samuel for the league-lead in interceptions this season with nine; would he have closed the gap between he and Cushing had he led the league in picks?

Either way, both rookies (as well as the Redskins’ Brian Orakpo) had outstanding seasons.

Bear fans won’t be receiving a belated Christmas gift this year as the Chicago Tribune is reporting that Lovie Smith is expected to return to the sidelines in 2010.

Smith met with team president Ted Phillips and general manager Jerry Angelo on Monday, and the sweeping changes that many fans have been hoping to see are not expected to happen. There may be changes, and Smith noted in his postgame news conference Sunday at Detroit that change comes every year, but it will be far from a housecleaning.

Smith could be given a win-or-else mandate from management. He is signed through 2011 and with $11 million remaining on his contract, the McCaskeys were thought to be unlikely to part with the coach who took them to Super Bowl XLI three years ago. It will be interesting to see what type of role Phillips has taken in what are football decisions.

This isn’t the news Bear fans were hoping for when black Monday rolled around. Smith is just 23-25 as a head coach since he led the team to the Super Bowl a few years ago and the Bears have missed the playoffs the last three seasons. One would have thought that his Super Bowl credit has been used up by now.

The Bears’ immediate future doesn’t looking promising. They’re without a first round pick in each of the next two drafts after trading for Jay Cutler, and they don’t have a second round pick in 2010 because they traded it to the Bucs for Gaines Adams. The offensive line is a complete mess, the defense is aging and outside of Cutler and Lance Briggs, there isn’t a ton of marquee talent on the roster.

Is Smith a strong enough personality to overcome these disadvantages and lead the Bears back to the playoffs? After what the Bears showed this season, I highly doubt it.

The Bills fired their entire coaching staff on black Monday, this according to Jay Glazer via his Twitter account.

I heard on ESPN Radio that Fewell is welcomed to interview for the head coaching position, which I thought was kind of interesting. “You’re fired Perry, but if you want to stop by Ralph Wilson’s office on the way out and interview for the head coaching position you held for the past couple weeks, then be our guest.”

Considering the Bills’ overall lack of talent, I thought Fewell did a nice job filling in after Bill Jauron was fired. He’s a solid defensive coordinator, so losing him hurts the Bills in the end. He will certainly get a look elsewhere and I think he’d be a nice fit for a team like the Bears.

It’ll be interesting to see who the Bills wind up with, because it probably won’t be Bill Cowher. ESPN.com reported earlier today that Cowher is unlikely to coach in 2010 and even if he were, why would he go to Buffalo outside of it being the ultimate reclamation project. I just don’t see it.

According to a report by ESPN.com’s Adam Schefter and Chris Mortensen, former Steelers’ head coach Bill Cowher is unlikely to return to the sidelines in 2010.

Despite being part of a meeting with the Buffalo Bills last week, it does not appear as if Bill Cowher will coach in the NFL next season, a source close to the situation told ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter.

Sources recently told ESPN’s Chris Mortensen it is believed that owner Ralph Wilson Jr. and team president Russ Brandon met last week with Cowher to gauge his potential interest in returning to coaching.

Cowher reiterated on CBS’ “The NFL Today” on Sunday that he is “not going to talk about any jobs during the regular season.”

The Bills also met with Mike Shanahan after Dick Jauron was fired in November.

I wonder how much this has to do with the job openings that are immediately available to Cowher. It appears that Mike Shanahan is headed for Washington, so with that job off the market Cowher is left with Buffalo and maybe Tampa Bay as choices. He’s been linked to the Panthers in years past, but Carolina has already publicly stated that John Fox and his staff will be back in 2010.

Who knows though – things could change quickly. It’s the first day after the regular season, so more firings could be coming soon. I wonder if the Bears’ job could entice Cowher if Chicago decides to part ways with Lovie Smith (and the McCaskeys open up their wallets, of course).

Looking for a 2011 NFL Playoff Bracket? Click here.

Chad Ochocinco couldn’t extend his knee this morning after suffering an injury before the Bengals’ game against the Jets on Sunday night. He’s scheduled to have an MRI today, but is still expected to play against the Jets this Sunday in Cincinnati’s Wild Card game against the Jets.

Via his Twitter account, Ochocinco blamed Giants Stadium for his injury:

@Lizz_Lockeroom-its fat, it was a mini ice skiating rink outside the hashes during warm ups-I bust my ass-MRI at noon-can’t extend my knee

It sounds like Ochocinco will play, but who knows how the injury will respond throughout the week. If for some reason he can’t go, the Bengals would be without their top receiver for their most important game of the year. That said, the Jets have the best secondary in the league and Ochocinco would likely be shutdown by Darrelle Revis anyway.

Would Cincinnati be better off with Ochocinco in the lineup? Of course, but they’ll have to beat the Jets by establishing the run and playing good defense. Ochocinco won’t/isn’t going to be the X-factor come Sunday.

According to the San Jose Mercury News, “all signs point to” the Raiders firing Tom Cable this offseason.

In the Raiders’ case, that means parting ways with coach Tom Cable and hitching their floundering franchise to another coach who has a fresh set of ideas and the patience to put up with quarterback JaMarcus Russell.

Managing general partner Al Davis has yet to weigh in publicly on the matter.

However, several people close to Davis say he is inclined to fire Cable and hire a new coach for the sixth time since Jon Gruden was jettisoned after the 2001 season.

When asked if he is expecting to be the coach next season, Cable said: “I am, because I see, and you all see, too, where this team is going, and what we’ve been able to accomplish in proving some things.

If Davis fires Cable and keeps Russell, that would be yet another horrendous decision in a long line of horrendous decisions by Al Davis. I’m not necessarily suggesting that Cable should be retained, but what has Russell shown in four years that would make Davis (or any owner, coach or water boy for that matter) want to keep him? Russell is absolutely abysmal and shows zero signs of ever becoming a professional quarterback.

At the very least, Cable should be credited for benching Russell and having a little success with castaways like Bruce Gradkowski and Charlie Frye. The Raiders were actually competitive with Gradkowski and Frye under center, not so much with the biggest bust in NFL history. Personally, that merits Cable keeping his job for at least another year. He’s not the Raiders’ biggest problem – Davis is, with a little aid from Russell.

We’ll see if Cable is inevitably gets the boot, although if I were a Raider fan I’d currently have that horrible, Al-Davis-is-about-to-screw-us feeling in the pit of my stomach.