Fisher upshot + this weekend's picks

More dominoes falling into place, or getting ready to, in the wake of Jeff Fisher coming to the Rams:

- Peter King's reporting that Gregg Williams, who first became a defensive coordinator under Jeff Fisher, will join the Rams in that role after the Saints' season is over. (Hope y'all like blitzing. In fact, hearing this news, Darian Stewart has already started blitzing the Cardinals.)

Williams' contract in New Orleans is up after the season, making him fair game. Still, I don't know how King can be so sure he's coming to St. Louis. Would you want your defensive coordinator talking to another team's coach about making a lateral move when he's supposed to be game-planning for your playoff game that weekend? Fisher can't have actually talked to Williams enough for an actual leak to occur; that would be tampering of the highest order. But King's assertion makes Williams the actual clubhouse leader for next Rams' DC, though Dave McGinniss still sounds like a top candidate for the staff.

- Brandon Lloyd sounded nothing but positive about working for Fisher in an interview on NFL Network tonight. He'd even talked to former Fisher players like Jacob Bell (who I just realized is now a lock to be back next season) to learn about Fisher's style and rapport with players.

Wait a minute, wasn't Brandon Lloyd just going to go wherever Josh McDaniels ended up, i.e. New England? Sounds to me like he's got an open mind about staying in St. Louis, giving the Rams an infinitely better chance of keeping him than it seemed like a couple of weeks ago.

Cracked crystal ball time:
So, St. Louis is probably rooting double hard for the Saints tomorrow. We dislike the 49ers anyway, and we'd certainly like to see our prospective new defensive coordinator shut them down tomorrow and twice every season after. Make that triple hard, since the RAMS were the last team the Saints lost to, which is always a hilarious stat to hear during their games. But we've seen it before, most recently just last weekend with Mike Mularkey: there's nothing worse for a team in the playoffs than a distracted coordinator. Except, maybe, having to stop Drew Brees. I'll pick a high-scoring game where the 49ers pay for bogging down in the red zone once too often, their M.O. all season. New Orleans 28, San Francisco 26

Having beaten the Steelers last week, the Broncos are essentially playing them again this week. Like last week's Steelers, New England has an immobile quarterback, not much of a running game, and a brutal secondary. That's why I think Denver can stay reasonably close. New England's D will be stronger up the middle than the depleted Steelers were last week, though, and though I like Heath Miller, he's no Rob Gronkowski. New England 31, Denver 21

I know, I know, any given Sunday, but we can probably all sleep in if we want to with the Texans leading off against the Ravens. Baltimore's undefeated at home, and with T.J. Yates' fifteen minutes just about up before he has to get to his deer-in-the-headlights audition, Houston's best chance of hanging with the Ravens is a big day from Arian Foster. Guess who has the #2 run defense in the NFL... Baltimore 27, Houston 10

If you haven't already bookmarked this to come back to on Monday for a good laugh, now's your last chance. Because seriously, the Giants are this weekend's chic upset pick? Really? People are picking against the Packers? At home? 15-1? MVP of the league? Just destroyed a playoff team two weeks ago with their second string? Yeah, sure, pick against the Packers. Good luck with that. The Giant pass rush is fully capable of giving Aaron Rodgers trouble, but Mike McCarthy didn't win a Super Bowl last year not being able to game-plan around that kind of thing. Green Bay 38, Giants 24

I will be much more surprised if I go 4-0 than if I go 0-4.

-$-