The NFL Roundup Week 17 - What We Learned

Written by John Edward Betancourt

(Justin Edmonds/Getty Images)

It should have been a relatively quiet weekend when it comes to the NFL. With most of the playoff picture set, the games should have come and gone with minimal fuss but that simply wasn't the case. Week 17 was a weekend that featured some incredible surprises. Because in many ways, Black Monday came early as several coaches were relieved of their duties and one simply said goodbye to the game and he wasn't the only to walk away, since a pair of star players hung up their cleats as well, making this final week of the regular season one filled to the brim with fascinating stories and here are the top ones from Week 17 in the NFL.

​Denver Broncos Head Coach Gary Kubiak has said goodbye to life in the NFL. 
It's no secret that Gary Kubiak is a coach who is incredibly dedicated to his craft, so much in fact that his health has suffered for it. He collapsed midfield from a mini stroke in 2013 when he was the coach of the Houston Texans and he was taken to the hospital after the Falcons game this year due to a complex migraine condition and it's clear that the risk of causing further harm to his health from the daily grind has become too great to ignore and earlier today, Coach Kubiak called it a career with the team that gave him his start in the league so long ago and that makes yesterday's victory over the Raiders all the more special because the team did it for their coach, did it for the man who brought the Lombardi Trophy back home to Denver and hopefully Coach Kubiak gets healthy and he will definitely be missed here in the Mile High City.

The Mike McCoy era has come to an end in San Diego. 
A few years ago, Mike McCoy was considered to be quite the offensive genius. As the Offensive Coordinator for the Denver Broncos, he managed to get the most out of journeyman QB Kyle Orton and found a way to adapt his offensive scheme to allow for Tim Tebow to thrive and heck, he even got to game plan for future Hall of Famer Peyton Manning. That string of successes intruiged the San Diego Chargers enough to give him the Head Coaching job and alas...that's where the feel good part of Mike McCoy's story comes to an end, because despite making the playoffs once and seeing some limited success, his tenure in San Diego went from decent to disaster and the front office decided the free fall simply needed to come to an end and relieved Coach McCoy of his duties. He leaves behind a 28-38 record in San Diego and hopefully McCoy will land on his feet and find another gig as an Offensive Coordinator in a league starving for talented offensive minds such as his. 

The San Francisco 49ers cleaned house on Sunday. 
For the second straight year in a row, the San Francisco 49ers are heading into the offseason without a head coach in place because shortly after the 49ers lost to the Seattle Seahawks, Chip Kelly was fired and well...this is one I think everyone saw coming. At no point this season did the 49ers show any sense of competitive fire or improvement for that matter, which always falls upon the head coach but the Niners weren't done making personnel changes, they also fired General Manager Trent Baalke, another decision that makes perfect sense seeing as to how Trent had the chance to hire a sound football mind in Mike Shanahan, but instead chose Chip, a coach that had plenty of question marks surrounding his skill set as a head coach following his dismissal from Philadelphia. Either way, San Francisco has hit the reset button once again and hopefully this time around they find the right people for the job because while fans are a forgiving bunch...it's only a matter of time before they have enough of the constant turmoil...and turn their backs on the team...

The Houston Texans might be in big trouble come Wild Card Weekend. 
Injuries are a part of life in the NFL, but they become costly for a team when a talented player is hurt...and the person taking their place pales in comparison talent wise and that's precisely the situation the Houston Texans are in right now with Tom Savage currently in concussion protocol. He was injured early in the game against Jacksonville, forcing Brock Osweiler into service and clearly his time on the bench did nothing for him because yet again he was unable to guide the team to the end zone when it mattered most and considering how important concussion protocol is at this point, and the fact that there is no solid timetable in recovering from one...the Texans may be in big time trouble if Osweiler has to start against the Raiders this weekend so don't be surprised if Brandon Weeden gets extra reps in practice this week, all in the hopes of having a solid backup plan in case Tom Savage isn't ready to go.

The league said goodbye to a pair of incredible players on Sunday.
Normally when a big time player retires, there's a waiting period at the end of the NFL season where they take their time to make sure that they are ready to walk away from the game and all it has to offer, but yesterday...a pair of players already knew it was time to go and Steve Smith Sr. and Robert Mathis said their goodbyes shortly after their games came to an end and well...both of these fine men contributed plenty to the game during their tenure in the league. Mathis was a powerhouse defensive end and one that quarterbacks feared because he had a knack to strip the ball from their hands as he pulled them to the turf, something he accomplished once again in his final game and Steve Smith Sr. was simply a terror on the field for opposing defenses. With his deceptive speed and solid hands he made one big play after another and despite the fact that Father Time finds all players as he did with Robert and Steve, these two men inspired a generation of players with their incredible play...and the game simply won't be the same without them on the field come next season.

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