MJD: I'll take New Orleans, 37-6. Seattle's only hope here is that they get some kind of supernatural boost from the home crowd. It's possible, and I think, despite being 7-9, they will have a tremendous, eardrum-punishing crowd. For 10 minutes or so.

Even home field hasn't helped Seattle much recently. They won their last home game against St. Louis, but before that? Rolled by Atlanta. Rolled by Kansas City. Rolled by the Giants. When a 10-win team comes into Seattle, they stomp a mudhole in Pete Carroll.

DOUG FARRAR: I’ll take the Saints in a 27-24 game that will be a lot closer than anybody expects. At the Superdome earlier this season, the Seahawks had as many red zone opportunities as the Saints – they just traded touchdowns for field goals.

That may still be the case once or twice, but with lead running backs Chris Ivory and Pierre Thomas(notes) on IR and tight end Jimmy Graham(notes) a gametime decision, I’d look for Seattle to foil New Orleans’ protections and blitz heavily.

In the time of year when head coaches are supposed to be getting whacked, somehow, a pretty good quarterback got whacked Wednesday.

Tennessee Titans owner Bud Adams decided that his team is better off without Vince Young, despite the fact that his remaining quarterbacks are named Kerry Collins(notes) and Rusty Smith(notes). We've been over this before: I'm in the minority, but I'd have sided with Vince Young over Jeff Fisher, for a lot of reasons.

[Read more: Young says he 'never felt trusted']

Doesn't matter. The decision has been made, and Young will be either traded or released before next season. The question now becomes, "Where will Vince Young(notes) ply his trade in 2011?"

Before we get to that, though, let's take a look at exactly what's on the market here. In nine games this season, Vince Young had a quarterback rating of 98.6 and threw for 10 touchdowns against three interceptions. His yardage per game was very low at 139.4, but his yards per attempt was a solid 8.0. If

The Cincinnati Bengals have agreed to bring back head coach Marvin Lewis next season, and it's looking more and more like he'll be returning without Chad Ochocinco(notes).

Via the good people at Sports Radio Interviews, The Ocho talked to Sporting News Radio about the prospect of playing for Lewis again in 2011.

“I have nothing to say about that. I’m not the owner of the team. My hands are out of that situation. The only thing I can remember, as of right now, about Coach Lewis, is Coach Lewis throwing me under the bus. When it was time to play the Chargers, knowing that I was hurt. That’s the only thing I can remember at this point.”

Can he play for coach Lewis next year?

“I don’t know. Honestly, I don’t know. To say some of the things that have been said in the past, for some reason, when I was especially down. When you look for support, it’s always got to come from the one higher up. For the one higher up to say the things he said, it really hurt. I don’t see myself really feeling

Tom Cable was indeed let go as head coach of the Raiders, just days after finishing the season at 8-8. It looks more and more like offensive coordinator Hue Jackson will take his place. We'll get back to Hue in a minute.

First, let's hear from punter Shane Lechler(notes), who has been with the Raiders for 11 years and made the Pro Bowl in six of them. He talked to Kate Longworth of CSN Bay Area on Tuesday, and he's not happy with recent developments.

"I just looked at my wife and said, 'I can't go through another head coach.' This will be six now in 12 years, and it's not fun. [...] I think this is going to be a huge setback for us, to tell you the truth.

"Tom was good at how he handled the whole 'dealing with Al' and all that situation. He was one of the better coaches I had at handling that part of it, and not letting that part of it bother the football team.

"I seriously have a hard time believing that we're not going to now lose some very key free agent guys. I think now you'll

There are still a few coaches around the league waiting to see if an axe will fall on their neck. For reasons I don't understand, Oakland Raiders head man Tom Cable is one of them.

Michael Lombardi of the NFL Network reported that Cable is likely history. A day later, his status remains unclear.

The Raiders went .500 this year, something they haven't done since 2002. In fact, in that time, they've never had a record better than 5-11. They had the league's second-best rushing game. They finished sixth in the league in scoring offense. They swept everyone in their own division. They had playoff hopes right up until the end of the season.

For the first time in a long time, opposing teams couldn't look at the Raiders game on their schedule and say, "That one's a win." The Raiders are no longer the sweet game.

These are all different ways of saying that the Raiders made huge, huge strides this year. Not only were they a good team, but they're young and improving, too. That they wouldn't

Ricky Williams'(notes) long and weird tenure as a Miami Dolphin has evidently come to an end. Monday night, Williams got honest with WQAM-560 in Miami, with his most stinging criticism revolving around the team's season-ending 38-7 loss to the Patriots.

From Ben Volin at The Daily Dolphin:

"Usually after a rough season there's a sense of relief when it's over with, but I didn't feel like that," he said. "It's the contrast with what they have going on in New England and what we have going on here, and it's a very stark contrast.

"They had less to play for than we did ... and they played harder than any team we played all year, and I just expect that from my team. [...] I'm not angry at my teammates. I'm angry at the situation. That's the coaches, myself, teammates, that's everyone. That's the whole environment that we have there, and I'm just frustrated that it's not better."

[...]

"It's like we weren't prepared, we didn't show up," he said. "I had a little bit of a sense during the

If you've already put together a list of your favorite inappropriate quotes of 2010, I'm sorry, but you're going to have to make room at the top. Broncos wide receiver Brandon Lloyd has chimed in with a late entry.

Speaking to the media on a conference call, Lloyd was asked if he'd like to say "I told you so" to the 49ers, Redskins, and Bears, his three former teams.

His answer? No, of course not! Because saying "I told you so" would mean that Lloyd is living in the past; that he's petty and vindictive. He's not like that at all! Unless, of course, he said something else ...

"No, I want to say, '[expletive] you.' And I mean that in the most professional way."

Oh, OK then. As long as it's professional.

Here's more from Mike Klis of the Denver Post.

After about 3 seconds of stunned silence, Broncos media relations director Patrick Smyth jumped into the call: “Anything else for Brandon, guys? I have receivers coach Adam Gase here … ”

I'm going to guess that the assembled media members

Brett Favre(notes) is $50,000 poorer for not cooperating with the NFL in its investigation of inappropriate text messages and photos he allegedly sent to Jenn Sterger in 2008.

No suspension will accompany the fine, which is meager by NFL standards. As a result, there are those who will think that Favre is getting off easy. Agreeing with that sentiment, unsurprisingly, is Sterger's lawyer.

Here's part of a press release he sent out to the media Wednesday, via Pro Football Talk:

“My client and I are extremely disappointed, but not surprised, at today’s NFL announcement that Brett Favre did not violate the NFL ‘workplace conduct’ policy. While I am not privy to how Mr. Goodell reached such a finding, we strongly disagree with his conclusion that there was insufficient evidence to support a violation of the policy. To the contrary, our evidence and the personal testimony of Ms. Sterger clearly showed a pattern of lewd and offensive behavior by Mr. Favre that lasted all of the 2008 season.