The following quotes are from NFL scouts, coaches and front-office personnel, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
• “If you think back to all the New England teams that won Super Bowls, the trademark was vigilante leadership. It was Mike Vrabel, Tom Brady, Rodney Harrison, Larry Izzo, Richard Seymour. They did not have the most talented teams when they were winning Super Bowls early on — but if there were any issues or problems that came up in the locker room, they were policed on their own. It is such a key ingredient to winning football.”
• “If you listen to all the reports coming out of Dallas right now, you would think they just won the Super Bowl. Did people not watch what just happened at USC last year? (Former USC defensive coordinator) Monte Kiffin was run out of there. It was the same story at the end of his tenure in Tampa Bay. The defense collapsed down the stretch. The guy is 70-some years old. He is done. … I didn’t think the defense was broken in Dallas. They are not addressing the real issues. This was just window dressing. You’ll see. Give it another year and watch what happens.”
• “A lot of good coaches have dropped down to college and are not coming back. I don’t think Nick Saban will ever return (to the NFL). It’s not just the big names. There are a lot of good, veteran assistants too. The resources are better. They’re building their own networks. The players are more open to coaching. When a lot of teams took away (the coaches’) NFL pensions, college became a lot more attractive. I hear it all the time. There’s a reason the quality of play has fallen in the NFL. I’m watching some of the coaching going on, and I’m just amazed how bad it is. This dive-option crap should not be working the way it is. It’s easy to stop. This league is all cyclical. (A Hall of Fame coach) once told me — remember what you are seeing now, because it will all come back. This stuff was around 20 years ago, and it got shut down. It’s only a matter of time before it happens again. … The NFL is and always will be a pocket-passing league. If you want to win, you better have a quarterback who can do it.”