This was a rollercoaster week in football news. There was the good, the bad, and the pathetic — cough! — NFL playoffs — cough! Here are the top five football stories for this week:

What a terrible weekend for the Denver Broncos. Forget that they were bumped from the playoffs by the San Francisco 49ers (which, by the way, begs the question: what the hell is Mike Shanahan doing?). While the news isn't fresh, it should be noted that Williams' death is going to leave a large hole in the Broncos' secondary. Williams and fellow All-Pro cornerback Champ Bailey were one of the league’s best tandems. Finding someone to step in for Williams, however, is just the beginning of the Broncos' problems. The Broncos' defense, heralded earlier in the season as the league's best, gave up nearly 150 rushing yards per game over their last seven contests (which would have ranked as the league's second-worst average had it lasted the entire season). Some of these problems can be attributed to the injury to Pro-Bowl linebacker Al Wilson, but Shanahan will have to seriously consider replacing at least two starters on his defensive line of Kenard Lang, Ebenezer Ekuban, Gerard Warren, and Mike Myers. Their starting line was a who's who of has-beens. Don't forget the team also has John Engelberger and Courtney Brown, who didn't play a down this season. It's safe to say that a few of those guys are going to be gone before the preseason. Expect the Broncos to address this glaring need in this April's NFL Draft. They'd love to see Clemson's Gaines Adams, Georgia's Quentin Moses or Michigan's Alan Branch fall to them, but that isn't going to happen. More likely possibilities include Michigan’s Lamarr Woodley or Ohio State’s Quinn Pitcock.

The NFL postseason awards went largely as expected with San Diego Chargers running back LaDainian Tomlinson taking two awards (MVP, Offensive POY) and Miami Dolphins defensive end Jason Taylor grabbing the Defensive POY. New Orleans Saints' Sean Payton deservedly ran away with the Coach of the Year award. It was nice to see Brian Billick go without a vote; he has had little to do with the building of this year's Ravens. It’s easy to make the playoffs when a franchise essentially buys another playoff team's Pro-Bowlers (former Titans starting for the Ravens: Derrick Mason, Samari Rolle, and Steve McNair). The only surprise was the extent to which rookie Vince Young won the Offensive ROY. Young was great, but there was a plethora of rookies playing significant roles on their clubs. Jay Cutler, Maurice Jones-Drew, Marcus McNeill, Joseph Addai, Laurence Maroney, Marques Colston, Reggie Bush, Jerious Norwood, Devin Hester and Leon Washington were impact players on teams in or near the playoffs. It's likely that the voters only saw one of these rookies (obviously, Young) visibly winning games for his club, but there is no denying that next year's fantasy drafts are going to be exceedingly difficult to project. Which of these players were flukes? Which of these players need another year to break out? How many are ready to be All-Pros right now? For now, your guess is as good as mine. Good luck.

Two of this year's top NFL prospects — Notre Dame quarterback Brady Quinn and LSU quarterback JaMarcus Russell — faced off in the Sugar Bowl, and the game went just as everybody expected: a blowout. Coming out of the SEC bayous, the Tigers were too tough and too fast for the Irish, beating Notre Dame like the red-headed stepchild the University so proudly parades as its mascot. Anybody who thought that Notre Dame could hang was kidding themselves; while the Irish went into halftime down by just a field goal, all indications pointed to an LSU rout in the second half. Doughboy genius Charlie Weis and his team of perpetually self-proclaimed underdogs should stop fooling themselves. They can't hang with the BCS conference heavyweights yet. It's important to remember, however, that Weis is still playing with a team led largely by Ty Willingham's players. Weis is going to get the players that he needs to compete, and Notre Dame is going to be a legitimate contender within two or three seasons. Meanwhile, draft pundits who so strongly endorsed Quinn as the consensus top pick in the coming NFL draft should question themselves. Against top competition this season (Michigan, USC, LSU), Quinn completed just 61 of 128 attempts for 656 yards with 8 TDs and 5 INTs. He can beat up on Air Force, UNC and Purdue all he wants, but he's still going to look like Tim Couch once he steps into an NFL pocket. Russell, on the other hand, looked like the real deal. He’s a project, but drafting Russell will make some team — probably the Oakland Raiders — very happy.

So far, five teams will have new coaches next season. Of course, the most desirable of the vacated positions is the one formerly held by Bill Cowher of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Cowher resigned, and his spot is likely to be filled by one of his former assistants, offensive line coach Russ Grimm or offensive coordinator Ken Whisenhunt. Either of those men would be a good fit; both of them are well-schooled in the Steelers' old-school mentality. Other teams searching for new coaches now are the Atlanta Falcons, Oakland Raiders, Arizona Cardinals and Miami Dolphins. Both the Raiders and the Dolphins jobs look like tough situations to enter. The Raiders and Dolphins are offensively challenged. Whoever accepts the Dolphins' job would be faced with an injured Daunte Culpepper, an incumbent Joey Harrington (or maybe Cleo Lemon?), an offensive line that needs some help and an aging defense. Those factors were certainly influential in Nick Saban's decision to go to the University of Alabama. The Falcons and the Cardinals, however, are very appealing. Expect someone like Mike Martz to be considered for the Cardinals' job. Given a second chance at head coaching, Martz's offensive mind would be really exciting with the Cardinals' young offensive power. The Falcons search is pivotal; this is a playoff-ready team that just needs some focus and some direction on offense. Pity the man who takes this job, though. The Michael Vick question is the toughest decision any coach will have to make next season.

The NFL playoffs began Saturday with two of the least entertaining games of the entire season. Seriously, the Ravens' 19-7 win over Buffalo in Week 17 was more exciting than these two games. In the early game, Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning threw three interceptions and was saved by the utter ineptitude of Kansas City's offense. I'm not sure why this was such a big surprise. Remember that Herm Edwards coaches that team. This is a guy who needed a time-management coach with the New York Jets (seriously). The late game between the Seattle Seahawks and Dallas Cowboys gave the early contest a lesson in futility. It reinforced everything that is absolutely terrible about the NFL. The starting QBs were a combined 35 for 65, the starting tailbacks ran for only 181 yards on 46 carries (and it seemed about 41 of them were for 2 yards or less, which actually might be true), and the outcome was decided by a botched hold on a field goal. Is this parity? I am now entirely convinced that fantasy football saved the NFL. Sunday's games were marginally more entertaining. The New York Jets-New England Patriots contest was never really as close as it seemed going into the third quarter. The Pats outscored Jets in every quarter, completely shut down the running game and daring quarterback Chad Pennington to beat them. Of course, Pennington couldn’t. The final game of the weekend, Philadelphia Eagles-New York Giants, was the best — though I hesitate to use any form of positive adjective to describe the Wild Card playoff round. Neither team could stop the run and neither team was effective passing. Altogether, it was a hugely disappointing weekend of football. Here's hoping the BCS Championship is a good one.