There is just one more actual game left this football season, and then all 32 teams will be on to the business of football season. Thirty already are. Here are my thoughts on a few recent topics around the NFL.

Late in the AFC championship game, there was a key play on fourth down when Josh Allen pushed ahead. One side judge ran in with foot placement indicating a first down. The other side judge ran in with foot placement indicating he was short of a first down. The latter seemed to overrule the former and the replay, now favoring the ruling on the field, confirmed it. The Buffalo Bills turned the ball over on downs; the Kansas City Chiefs took the ball to score the go-ahead points.

Why, in the year 2025, in a business with annual revenues approaching $25 billion, are we still determining first downs with line judges guessing on ball placement from 25 yards away? And, if needed, we then bring out two sticks and a chain? We are officiating first downs now the same as it was done in 1975.

I am a tennis fan, and all tennis matches I watch are now being officiated without linesmen, with precise calls down to the millimeter. Soccer has VAR technology, as do other high-motion sports.

I get it; a football field is different from a tennis court or a soccer field, and the nature of the game and shape of the ball present challenges. But, please, the NFL has resources to access technology that would eliminate, or at least ameliorate, the human error we have in officiating. Why are they not accessing those resources for “the integrity of the game?”

In a number of years, we will look back on this time in NFL history and laugh about its archaic quaintness. For now, though, this viewer continues to be frustrated by it.

The conference championship games featured a Cinderella run from the Washington Commanders and some almost-heroics from Allen, but, from my business of football perspective, the two best-managed teams will now meet in the Super Bowl.

The Chiefs have allocated lesser resources to their offensive personnel at certain positions due to the magnificence of Patrick Mahomes. They have below-average offensive tackles and skill positions with several players discarded by previous teams—Kareem Hunt, JuJu Smith-Schuster, DeAndre Hopkins, Marquise “Hollywood” Brown, etc. They allocate most of their draft capital to defense, having built a talented and opportunistic group developed through elite coaching.

The Philadelphia Eagles have the most talented roster in the NFL and, I believe, it’s not close. In watching that Commanders game, it struck me that there may have been no player on the Commanders, besides perhaps Jayden Daniels, who would have cracked the starting lineup for the Eagles. They truly have no personnel weaknesses. Yes, they sometimes sleepwalk through games (before winning them), fodder for negative comments from pundits (and even Eagles fans), but they are a talent juggernaut.

And both teams have competitive edges. The marriage of Andy Reid with Mahomes is one made in heaven. I know Andy from his time in Green Bay and Philadelphia; his “happy place” is designing plays for talented quarterbacks. As for the Eagles, general manager Howie Roseman not only excels at drafting and free agency, but he consistently “wins” in trade negotiations with other teams while also wrangling team-friendly contracts with agents. It is uncanny how other general managers are continually taken advantage of by Roseman; they should not even answer the phone when he calls. And when his negotiating skill causes an imbalanced contract and dissension, as it did with Haason Reddick, he simply removes the problem—netting a third-round pick from the New York Jets in that case.

The best teams, and the best-run teams, are in the Super Bowl. Elite talent, elite coaching, elite management.

Bears

Ben Johnson chose the Chicago Bears over other suitors for what I sense are two reasons. First, follow the money. He will reportedly earn an average of $13 million per year, putting him just below the top echelon of head coaches without having been one before. The Bears were willing to spend. The other reason is their quarterback: Caleb Williams. Johnson preferred working with Williams more than any quarterback option the Las Vegas Raiders would have had in the draft or free agency.

When I worked for the Green Bay Packers, we quietly smirked when a division rival kept or hired a general manager or coach that, well, was not exactly a game-changer. To the contrary, this hire should cause some angst in Green Bay, Detroit and Minnesota; the Bears got better.

Raiders

With Johnson choosing the Bears, the Raiders pivoted in a way I certainly did not expect, choosing the 73-year old Pete Carroll to lead them. I had thought Carroll had coached his last game in the NFL in 2023, seen, like Bill Belichick, to be too old or too inflexible to lead another team. But in the ultimate irony, Tom Brady did choose a 70-something-year-old, just not the one he played for for 20 years.

As an older guy myself who is always cognizant of health and longevity, I am quite a fan of Carroll. He certainly doesn’t fit the mold of what people “should” look like or act like in their 70s. One can be chronologically “old” without being old. We all fight the inevitable consequences of aging; but some do so better than most. And Carroll being around young people all the time certainly helps.

Age is just a number; Pete Carroll is a testament to that.

Jaguars

There are some people in the NFL who seem to survive regime changes, coaching changes, staff changes, etc. Trent Baalke, the now-former general manager of the Jacksonville Jaguars, was one of these people until this week, when he and the team separated by “mutual” agreement.

The decision came on the heels of Liam Coen deciding to pass on the Jaguars’ head coaching position and re-up with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as coordinator. Yet as soon as Baalke was shown the door, Coen magically reappeared and became head coach in Jacksonville. It was not a well-kept secret around the NFL that Baalke’s presence was a limiting factor in attracting top head coaching candidates. But no longer; Jaguars owner Shad Khan got the message, so Baalke is out and Coen is in.

Jets and Cowboys

To both I say: Good luck with that.

The New York Jets have been putting the “fun” in dysfunction over the past couple years, firing coaches and general managers, ceding leverage to Aaron Rodgers, leaking information right and left, etc. Now Aaron Glenn, a well-respected defensive coach, will take a turn at this challenge. He’ll have to first figure out what to do with Rodgers—I think they’ll part ways after a challenging two-year relationship—and go from there.

Similarly, Brian Schottenheimer represents a typical Jerry Jones hire. It is one of the last hires of the cycle, true to Jones’s mode of operations of waiting and waiting for no apparent reason. It is a name—like Dave Campo or Wade Phillips or Jason Garrett—that will be loyal to Jones while uninspiring to fans, media and, perhaps, players. And it will keep the focus on Jones as the most important nonplayer in the franchise.

Again, good luck to these guys.

One game left, and then the business of football truly takes center stage for six months. On to the Super Bowl.