Your Mondays are going to get a little more familiar when football season kicks off.
ESPN is reportedly bringing back Hank Williams Jr. and that all-too-familiar “All My Rowdy Friends Are Here For Monday Night” tune after a six-year hiatus, according to The Tennesseean.
If you’ll recall, Williams was dropped by ESPN after controversial comments he made about then-President Barack Obama back in 2011 on a television news show. As for the song, it will feature tailor-made lyrics for each matchup and a new video intro for the song was recently shot.
The song’s return will take place September 11 before the New Orleans Saints take on the Minnesota Vikings.
The Chicago Bears have several players on one-year “prove-it” deals with veterans looking to re-capture some of the magic that made them quality professionals at their respective positions. But according to Dave Hogg of FanRagSports, no player on the Bears’ roster has more to prove than quarterback Mike Glennon. Glennon will be in a unique, pressure-filled situation as he will attempt to prove his worth on the field, while also keeping rookie Mitch Trubisky off it. If Glennon does well, it opens up a number of possibilities for he and the Bears in 2018, but we’ll cross that particular bridge if (or when) we get there.
Over at NFL.com, analyst Elliot Harrison dove into an interesting project in which he attempted to compare modern starting quarterbacks to their counterparts from 25 years ago. Using a calculation called Quarterback Era Adjustment, Harrison goes about explaining what signal callers of yesteryear would look like today. To that end, Glennon drew a comparison to former Bears quarterback Jim Harbaugh. Glennon’s statistics might be viewed as better than Harbaugh’s, but Glennon is working with a smaller sample size and Harbaugh did lead the Bears to two playoff berths, while also making a Pro Bowl with the Indianapolis Colts. Advantage: Harbaugh.
According to Bleacher Report’s Brad Gagnon, the Bears’ maneuvering to draft Trubisky – Glennon’s eventual replacement – was the team’s biggest offseason mistake. Gagnon rolls through every team’s biggest perceived misstep, and there are some interesting ones. But, if it’s any consolation, the Bears weren’t the only team making eyebrow-raising moves this offseason.
Two of the Buffalo Bills’ best offensive players are on the recruiting trail in hopes of snagging free agent wide receiver Jeremy Maclin. Jay Skurski of The Buffalo News writes that running back LeSean McCoy (who was Maclin’s teammate with the Philadelphia Eagles) and quarterback Tyrod Taylor have already extended an olive branch to the recently released Maclin. The Bears are a team that could be in the mix for Maclin because of injuries at a position that was already lacking in the talent department.
Alex Smith, who was Maclin’s quarterback in two season with the Kansas City Chiefs, was “shocked” to lose Maclin. He wasn’t alone, of course. The Chiefs owned the AFC’s second-best record in 2016, but two of the team’s biggest offseason moves were trading up to draft Smith’s potential replacement in Patrick Mahomes and releasing one of Smith’s top targets (Maclin) a few months later.
Pro Football Focus started to reveal its list of top 50 players for 2017, which already features one former Chicago Bears player: Carolina Panthers tight end Greg Olsen checks in at No. 44. I’m curious to see if Bears running back Jordan Howard makes the cut, and where he would land among running backs.
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