NFL Notes: HC Hot Seat, Free Agents, Cardinals & Vikings

HC Hot Seat

Nate Davis of USA Today has updated his hot seat rankings for NFL coaches following Week 8’s slate of games. According to Davis, the coaches to watch moving forward include:

1. Jaguars HC Gus Bradley
2. Bears HC John Fox
3. Chargers HC Mike McCoy
4. Bengals HC Marvin Lewis
5. Bills HC Rex Ryan

Free Agents

Joel Corry of CBS Sports takes a look at 10 free agents who have helped their stock this season. Some of the players including in Corry’s list include:

• Browns LB Jamie Collins
• Cardinals OLB Chandler Jones
• Patriots LB Dont’a Hightower
• Browns WR Terrelle Pryor
• Bills LB Zach Brown
• Texans CB A.J. Bouye
• Packers OLB Nick Perry

Corry’s article is worth a read, as it includes comparable contracts for each player to target next year and a breakdown of their current situation.

Cardinals

Cardinals DB Tyrann Mathieu said his shoulder injury shouldn’t keep him out much longer than a few weeks

“It’s not something that’s going to keep me out for the rest of the season,” Mathieu said, via AzCardinals.com.

Mathieu explained that his shoulder seemed to pop out and back into the socket after a Panthers’ player fell on him this past Sunday.

“I kind of popped it back in, and then it felt like I lost some strength in it,” Mathieu said. “I played one more play and then I was like, ‘This doesn’t feel right.’ ”

Vikings

Vikings HC Mike Zimmer told reporters Wednesday that he still considers Norv Turner to be Turner “a very, very good friend of mine” and his right-hand man.

According to Zimmer, Turner resigned due to personal reasons. Although, Zimmer did say he was “very, very surprised” by the decision.

Interestingly enough, Zimmer says that Turner never mentioned retirement to him, but just he was resigning.

• Ed Werder reports that Turner, who resigned as the Vikings offensive coordinator Wednesday, believes he and HC Zimmer will remain friends.
• However, Werder says that Turner considered his options for weeks after differences emerged over solutions regarding the best way to fix the team’s offense.
• A source tells Josina Anderson regarding Turner’s resignation: “He just quit.“
• Anderson’s source added that Turner did not feel undermined by Zimmer: “No way. He let Norv run the offense all the way. Never told him what to call.“
• When asked why Turner may have resigned, Anderson’s source said: “You will have to ask him, but we have not been good on offense for 3 years.”