Ten Thoughts on the NFL: Chicago Bears and beyond

1) I know it's not exactly an NFL related thought, but how great is it we finally have an NCAA College Football Playoff?

To tie it back into the NFL, who are some players you've watched this college football season that you are excited to see at the next level?

2) So the Detroit Lions got hosed huh? I have a feeling that most of our readers won't care.

3) Lost with the controversy of that game is the Dallas Cowboys coming back from 14 down to win. Tony Romo was sacked 6 times, but he maintained his composure and made enough plays to get his team the victory.

4) One more Dallas thought; It appears they took a page out of the past in building their current team. The 3 Super Bowl titles the Cowboys won in the 90s wasn't solely because of the Triplets in my opinion, and their current success isn't because of the New Triplets, both teams had outstanding offensive line play. Dallas' o-line back in the 90s was the best in the league and the current group is arguably the best today.

Even though the Cowboy o-line had a tough day at the office against the Lions, they have three Pro Bowlers on the unit. Rookie and 1st team All Pro guard Zach Martin, 2nd year center and 2nd team All Pro Travis Frederick and fourth year tackle Tyron Smith, who was also named 1st team All Pro.

5) Was anyone else waiting for Arizona Cardinals head coach Bruce Arians to pull his quarterback? Ryan Lindley was awful against the Carolina Panthers in their wildcard game after being bad in the regular season. Rookie backup Logan Thomas, who was originally slated to start until a bad practice, must have had one of the worst practices of all time.

6) The Baltimore Ravens look like a scary team. I would not be surprised to see them beat the Patriots in New England this week, but I'm still picking the Pats.

The other AFC game features the Indianapolis Colts visiting the Denver Broncos and I'm going with Denver.

Dallas travels to Green Bay and as long as Aaron Rodgers is healthy, I'm taking the Packers. And finally there's no way the Panthers are winning in Seattle against the defending champs.

What are your picks this round?

7) So now that head coach Chip Kelly finagled his way into having total control over the Philadelphia Eagles, I wonder what he's going to offer the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for the right to draft Oregon Ducks quarterback Marcus Mariota #1 overall?

8) Former Buffalo Bills head coach Doug Marrone had an opt out clause in his contract if Buffalo had an ownership change. They did, and he opted out last week. The crazy part of the story is the contract itself. The opt out clause is nothing groundbreaking, but the fact he was allowed to keep his $4 million salary for 2015 after opting out is really good for him, but it's not even the best part of the contract. He gets to keep the $4 million even if he takes a new job.

Usually if a coach that's being paid by one team takes a job with another team, the new team would assume part of, if not all of the salary. In Marrone's case, if he's hired at another base of $4 million for 2015, he'll still get the cash from the Bills in addition to his new deal. I hope Marrone took care of his agent this Christmas.

9) The NFL in Los Angeles rumor is really heating up now. The owner of the St. Louis Rams, Stan Kronke, is building a stadium in L.A. County. He could just be using the new stadium as leverage to get St. Louis to work on a new stadium deal for his Rams.

In the event the city of St. Louis gives in, I'm not sure how the NFL would feel about Kronke owing the Rams and owning the L.A. stadium of one of the other teams rumored (Raiders and Chargers) to make the move there.

10) If the Chicago Bears decide to go with a head coach that has previous NFL head coaching experience, I'd like to see that guy be current Baltimore offensive coordinator Gary Kubiak. I've always liked Kubiak's offensive style and his defenses always seemed to play with an edge.

But since they've never hired a guy that has done it before, my pick if they go the "hot assistant" route is Seattle Seahawks defensive coordinator Dan Quinn. I'm a fan of his hybrid style 4-3 defense and if you want to talk about a D that plays with an edge, look no further than his team the last two years.

For the record, Arizona defensive coordinator Todd Bowles is probably 1b among the assistants.

Whom would you like to see coaching the Bears and what are your NFL thoughts this week?