Aaron Schatz's blog

Big news out of Baltimore, where Steve McNair will be announcing his retirement at 1pm Eastern. A little bit of a surprise, I suppose, but only because McNair has not been the subject of non-stop Hamlet-like "will he or won't he" debate for years like Brett Favre has been. The guy is 35, has loads of injuries, and is coming off his worst year, so this is a good time. I don't think McNair has Hall of Fame credentials, but I hope that he is remembered as a player who worked hard to make himself better.

Reggie Bush is a unique player, but one running back of the last 30 years had a similar start to his career. A hint? Think orange creamsicles. (Click link to read more.)

Here is part II of my look at quarterback hits. This time, I look at defenses, including a weird little trend involving Tennessee and what that might mean for the 2008 Bengals. Because I needed to focus this more on one story for ESPN, we cut out the table that would have shown the ten defenses with the FEWEST knockdowns, so here is that list for the benefit of FO readers:

Houston: 7.6% (18 adjusted hits, 28 sacks with hit)
Carolina: 8.3% (29 hits/20 sacks)
Atlanta: 8.9% (33 hits/18 sacks)
San Francisco: 9.3% (27 hits/29 sacks)
Buffalo: 9.9% (38 hits/22 sacks)

This week's ESPN.com column looks at which quarterbacks were knocked to the ground most often in 2007, and which offenses protected quarterbacks the best when we count both sacks and hits. I know, I know, people will complain that this is yet another Patriots-centric article, but I was wracking my brain trying to figure out a good anchor for the piece, and it was the only thing I could come up with. We'll look at defenses (and defenders) with the most hits next week.

Here's John Clayton with a look forward to the owner's meetings in West Palm Beach this weekend. Mark me down as being against the playoff seeding change -- we constantly talk about how much it means to win your division, so it should really mean something to win your division. I'm also in favor of allowing a radio in one defensive helmet, and increasing roster size to make up for not having NFL Europe exemptions. As you already know, I think the hair length rule is possibly the dumbest rule change proposal in the history of professional sports.

Aaaarrrrggghhhh. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. NO.

We know the good (2007 Patriots, 1996 Packers) and we know the bad (2005 49ers, 2000 Browns). Which teams in the 13-year DVOA Era were the most average?

This week's ESPN column talks about how Jonathan Vilma and Dan Morgan won't do much to fix the New Orleans defense, even if both manage to actually stay healthy. Unfortunately, the WWL cut my joke about the Saints replacing the fleur-de-lis on Jason David's helmet with the logo for "Smuckers."

Just a reminder to all our readers that this Sunday, NFL Network begins re-runs of NFL Replay from during the regular season, one week at a time. If the end of the season left a big football-shaped hole in your life, consider it filled.

Anyone have a couple bucks to loan these guys some money? Honestly, it's a pretty good idea: a springtime minor league playing by college rules and employing a number of players who didn't make it in the NFL because their skills or size were far more suited to college football.