April 2009 Archives

With the draft having come and gone, now it's time for teams to clean out their rosters for mini-camps. That brought on a flurry of moves today. The notable ones.

* Alex Smith, taken in the third round by the Bucs in the 2005 draft, was traded from Tampa to the Patriots. The 6-4, 258-pound tight end became expendable with the trade for Kellen Winslow. He's played in 58 games, started 43 and has caught 129 passes, 11 for touchdowns. Going back to Tampa is an undisclosed selection in the 2010 draft. It could be a conditional pick based on performance. Smith turns 27 this month.

* Selvin Young, who played very well for the Broncos in spot running back duty, was cut by Denver. The first round selection of Knowshon Moreno with the 12th overall pick in th draft gave Denver an full house and then some at the running back position. Young, an undrafted rookie out of Texas in 2007, ran for 1,032 yards on 201 carries in two seasons in Denver (5.1 average).

* The Lions released corner Travis Fisher who, last offseason, signed a three-year $9 million deal.

Matt Russell, a former All-Rookie linebacker with the Detroit Lions, was hired as the Denver Broncos Director of College Scouting today.

Russell, who went to Colorado and was a fourth-round pick by Detroit in 1997, got started in scouting in late 2000 after an injury-shortened NFL career. He spent four seasons with the Patriots before spending the last two in Philadelphia. Russell's link with Denver would be his connection with Broncos head coach Josh McDaniels. They were in New England together.

Another Patriots link led to Marvin Allen joining the Atlanta Falcons. Allen, who'd been with New England for 16 years as a player and in the personnel department, becomes the Falcons Eastern Regional Scout.

The Falcons also hired Mark Olson as their Western Regional Scout and hired Bob Kronenberg as an Area Scout.

Western Illinois linebacker Jason Williams, taken with the 69th overall pick by the Cowboys last week, has never seen a player quite like...himself.

"I've been underrated for so long, I have a chip on my shoulder," Williams said in the San Antonio Express-News. Nobody realizes what a great player I am. Now that I'm on a national scale, playing with the best players, everyone is going to see what a great player I am."

Yeah, the world is watching.

Western Illinois has had more than a few players drafted including Bryan Cox and Rodney Harrison, a pair of players who played with a whole bag of chips on their shoulders. And confidence, especially for a player from a smaller school, is important.

But Williams words go zooming past the exit marked "Confident" and are headed straight for "Insufferable Blowhard." He'll need to work on that a little.

 

Everyone's least favorite running summer drama may be coming back for another season.

In an oddly timed move, the Jets announced Tuesday night that they have released Brett Favre from the reserve/retirement list. 

Favre says it doesn't mean a thing:

"Bus (Cook) and Mike (Tannenbaun) have been talking about this for a while. Nothing has changed. At this time, I am retired and have no intention of returning to football."

"At this time" doesn't last long, especially in Favre's world.   The release has to mean something, no?

Favre is now a free agent, able to sign with whomever he chooses without an interested team giving up compensation to the Jets.  Here are the only possibilities to why Favre would request the release:

1. He wants the freedom to sign with another team, presumably the Vikings.
2. He wants to sign a ceremonial one-day contract to "retire a Packer."  (Highly unlikely considering his contentious relationship with GM Ted Thompson.
3. He wants the freedom to do what he wants ... just in case.
4. His agent, Bus Cook, is attempting to keep all avenues open for Favre ... just in case.

The final two options are the only ones that make sense.  No one sure of Favre's intentions, Favre probably included, but this surely just cracked open another summer of speculation.  Lucky us. 

ESPN's John Clayton reports that veteran Cardinals running back Edgerrin James has been released.

Not a surprise. The move comes three days after Arizona made Ohio State's Beanie Wells was drafted with the 31st overall pick in the first round of the draft.

James, who signed a four-year $30 million free agent deal with the Cards after the 2005 season, lost his starting job midway through last season. He wasn't happy about it and began quietly agitating for his release.

Even though the 30-year-old resurrected his game in the playoffs and was not much of a distaction (to his credit), he's not the Edge he was when he was a force for the Indianapolis Colts.

James may yet find a team willing to take a chance on him but if he's hoping to be paid as he's accustomed to, he'll be out of luck. A one or two-year "show me" deal would be likely.

Whether James has much left to show remains to be seen.

 

The NFL Draft ratings were up 11% this year, with a later start time on Saturday.  They may skyrocket next season.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said Monday that the league is considering moving the draft to Thursday during primetime, holding the second and third rounds on Friday evening, and the last four rounds on Saturday afternoon.

NFL VP of Corporate Communications Brian McCarthy tested the waters on Tuesday morning, asking fans and media alike on his Twitter account what they thought about the possibility. 

The media will predictably has mixed feelings, because it is going to make our jobs more difficult.  But it seems the idea is a home run.  The first round now moves quickly enough (shorter than a Red Sox-Yankees game!) to make it happen. 

By moving the draft from Saturday, you will get higher ratings, web traffic, and attention.  I'd be surprised if this doesn't happen.

UPDATE: NFL Network's Rich Eisen expects the draft to move to Thursday at this point.

Fear not, angry Broncos fans still pining for Jay Cutler: You may have missed out on Mark Sanchez, but you've got Tom Brandsteter! 

Denver traded up into the sixth-round to take the Fresno State product, but any expectations that he will be the "quarterback of the future" in Denver is unfair. 

Brandsteter is a late-round developmental prospect, just like Matt Cassel once was.  He's got great size, athleticism, and is very intelligent, but there are a lot of questions about his deep ball.  Again, this sounds just like Cassel.

Brandsteter is coming off a season where he threw more interceptions than touchdowns, and also suffered a torn muscle in his back during the Combine.  He's talented, but there's a reason 173 players were taken before him.

Denver had no other choice but to draft a quarterback.  They only had two on their roster, Kyle Orton and Chris Simms, and needed a third for summer practices.  Brandsteter will likely spend the year as Denver's emergency quarterback or on the practice squad..

Perhaps McDaniels will use some of the same magic pixie dust on Brandstetter that once worked on Tom Brady and Cassel, but we won't know for a few years. Josh McDaniels just hopes that he's around long enough to find out. In the meantime, Broncos fans, Kyle Orton is your quarterback.

The Eagles sent two fifth-round picks to New England. Did they get one 5-foot-8 headache in return.

During a press conference with the Eagles media Sunday, new Eagles corner Ellis Hobbs was asked whether he is happy with his contract.

"Not at all," said Hobbs, a third-rounder for the Patriots in 2005. "It is definitely frustrating when you see guys getting certain amounts of money that you know you can get just as much that (and) you deserve. Especially, some of the situations that I've been in as far as playing through injuries, a torn shoulder, a torn groin all of the way throughout the season, and this and that. To take some of the blows that I did from the area and the community and to put it on the line day in and day out when I know some other guys were not doing that and to get the money you get, you are definitely not happy with it. That is what it is and I am getting paid more than a lot of people in this world are and that will come."

 

Hobbs' deal is up at the end of this season. However, if the players and owners can't reach accord on a new collective bargaining agreement and 2010 becomes an uncapped year, Hobbs will not be a free agent since free agency is available only to players who've been in the league six seasons in the uncapped year.

 

Hobbs predicted the Pats will have some contract struggles in this offseason with some of their big-name players who are up.

 

"There are a lot of guys that are coming up that are going to need to be paid. I think it has kind of moved from that echelon where there is a lot of guys out there who are not going to take the (bottom) dollar for the win. Guys really want to get what they deserve and each one of those guys that are coming up in the next year or so deserve every dollar they are going to get. I think that with the roster like we had, there were so many guys that needed to be paid, somebody has to move out of the way. Unfortunately and fortunately it was me and like I said I am looking forward to the future."

 

Former West Virginia QB Pat White might be the most exciting and talked about No. 44 pick in NFL Draft history.  His selection by Miami, home of the Wildcat offense, started a round of questioning.  Here are some answers.

1. Let's call it the WildPat, shall we?  And uh, yeah, the Dolphins are going to use White heavily in their gadget offense.  It's going to be a lot tougher to defend with a true passing threat.

2. White is a quarterback; he's not going to work at wide receiver.  In fact, Dolphins GM Jeff Ireland says that White will compete with Chad Henne to be Miami's quarterback of the future. 

This isn't as crazy as you'd think.  Analysts such as Mike Mayock and Ron Jaworski thought White was a top-four quarterback in this draft.  Jaws said no quarterback had better anticipation than White.  He can throw it. And he can run it. 

This is going to be a lot of fun, unless you are an opposing coach. 

Hope Mike Leach has his facts straight.

The Texas Tech head coach ripped into Cleveland Browns head coach Eric Mangini during a conference call Saturday. The source of Leach's irritation? A report out of Cleveland that the Browns considered Crabtree to be a prima donna during his predraft visit with the Browns.

Whether Mangini spread that word - or even believed Crabtree to be a diva - hasn't been publicly established. But Leach seems pretty sure of it.

Of Mangini, Leach said, "How about that guy? There's a bunch of things that I've heard that guy described as that I might start sharing publicly. Let's just put it this way: Michael Crabtree has been more successful as a receiver than that guy's been as a coach up to this point, so I think we'll just go ahead at the end and let the record speak for itself.

"There's no diva in it. Part of that is that he's too shy to do that. He's got some people around him that want to share in his experience and share in this moment for him and stuff like that, but then when all that's over, Michael knows that it's a whole lot of time in the film room by himself or with a few selected people. A whole lot of time in the weight room or on the field, and that's personified by what he's doing here and so any divas out there - we'll just see how they do this season."

After a few other questions, Leach was led back to Mangini. And he took another bite.

"He took it upon himself to figure that in a few minutes he had all the expertise on the subject of Michael Crabtree that he needed," said Leach. "And so we'll see how those non-divas up there in Cleveland do this year. Here's the other thing: what's interesting to me, a guy that really has not accomplished a great deal there at Cleveland or the Jets for that matter to publicly comment on a) someone he doesn't even know and b) someone who's accomplishments speak for themselves and, within the specific field that Michael Crabtree's in, Michael's accomplishments speak louder than Mangini's do."

 

Leach went on to say how shy and self-effacing Crabtree is and how he'd scurry away when national media outlets came to interview him. Apparently, he got over that shyness since he was a feature player in the draft-u-mentary "Path To The Draft" on NFL Network, counseled by the diva whisperer himself, Deion Sanders.

1. The Jets gave up too much to trade up for Iowa running back Shonn Green, but he's going to be a major factor for the Jets.

He's a goal-line monster waiting to happen, and can also block and catch passes. He really diminishes Thomas Jones' negotiating power.  (Jones wants more money, and won't get it now.) It may take a year or two for Green to take over the Jets starting job, but the day is coming.

He's the Jets' answer to Brandon Jacobs, and his receiving value could make him better.

2. San Francisco's selection of Alabama RB Glenn Coffee was perplexing. I know they wanted another back, but Andre Brown and Rashad Jennings had a lot more potential. Coffee seems like a true backup type.

The Giants, who know a thing about finding running back talent, took Brown in the fourth round.  Nice value. 

3. Four straight receivers were taken in the middle of the third round - Derrick Williams, Brandon Tate, Mike Wallace, and Ramses Barden. It's hard to imagine any of them making a huge contribution in the short-term, but Tate actually has the highest long-term ceiling in New England, even if he doesn't play a snap this year.

He was a first-round talent, rightly knocked for concerns about a torn ACL and a failed drug test.  But the Patriots have the luxury to "redshirt" him for a year.

4. Titans third-round pick TE Jared Cook could allow the Titans to wave goodbye to franchise player Bo Scaife in 2010. 

5. As late third-round picks go, Oklahoma WR Juaquin Iglesias has a lot of potential to carve out a big role for the Bears. It may take a little while to develop, but he has the right skill set to be a Jay Cutler favorite.

6. Ellis Hobbs to the Eagles! A little sad, but I understand. Pats are very deep at corner and weren't going to pay Hobbs in '10. We'll always have Media Day in Glendale.

Keep tracking all the picks on NBCSports.com's draft tracker, at Rotoworld, and of course with Mr. Curran. 

The Patriots just sent cornerback Ellis Hobbs to the Eagles in exchange for the 137th and 141st overall picks. Hobbs, a staple of the Patriots secondary since 2005, was originally a third-round pick out of Iowa State. Hobbs, an excellent kickoff returner for the Pats (he holds the NFL record for longest kickoff return, 108 yards in 2007) gets boxed out from a secondary that has had six players added to it in this offseason.

New England added Leigh Bodden and Shawn Springs in free agency. They also took corner Darius Butler from UConn in the second round and took a safety, Patrick Chung, in the second round as well. The Pats also took Terrence Wheatley and Jonathan Wilhite, another pair of corners, in last year's draft.

Hobbs joins former Pats secondary mate Asante Samuel in Philly and good be insurance if Sheldon Brown continues to agitate  (or escalates) about his contract.

Hobbs is not a good matchup on the outside because he's very short but his speed makes him an excellent nickel guy who can match up very well on slot receivers.  

 

Lawrence Sidbury Jr., who CNBC's Darren Rovell wrote about last week, just went off the board to the Falcons with the 125th overall pick. Sidbury, a defensive end from Richmond, had the fastest 40 among defensive linemen at the draft (4.7) and, after an 11.5 sack season as a senior, went from being on nobody's board to fourth-round pick.

After running around the bar buying drinks for every pretty quarterback they saw this offseason, the house lights have come on and the Redskins are eyeball-to-eyeball with the guy they've been stepping out on, Jason Campbell.  

Their approach to assuaging any hurt feelings with Campbell? Pretend it never happened.

Redskins coach Jim Zorn was just on ESPN saying the team is "very confident," in Campbell. "I've watched Jason work out daily," added Zorn. "We're looking forward to him being our starter, improving and leading our football team."

So the dalliances with Denver for Jay Cutler and their interest in Mark Sanchez...what, they were coming in to back up? 

If a team wants to make a move, fine, it's their perogative to do so. But use the "always interested in exploring everything that will help our football team" line instead of insulting everyone's intelligence - mostly Campbell's - by saying he's The Man, no questions asked.   

They are the NFL's pack rats. Compulsive hoarders. The New England Patriots are forever dropping out of their draft positions and collecting more picks for ... well, someday. Might be today. Might be next year. Might get traded again the next year for a better deal in the following year. 

The time is coming (and maybe it already has) where Bill Belichick is going to flip a seventh-rounder into a first-rounder by just trading ahead and ahead and ahead.

Why don't they just take the players?

1) They don't have enough holes. All the stockpiling from previous years puts them in a spot where they simply can't bring in 11 rookies and have them make the team. In this draft, they have three compensatory picks in the third, fifth and sixth rounds. Those picks can't be dealt so that's three guys they had to bring in.

2) The "value" of the best player on the board when their turn comes doesn't match with the spot. For instance, if they have the 20th pick and, after research, they establish the player they like will probably be on the board for the next 15 picks, they find the team urgent to get that 20th pick and clean up a little bit with an extra pick.

One key to this, the Patriots are an established "program." Even though the Patriots have plenty of misses on the books from the past few years, they've had enough draft success to gain the benefit of the doubt. Love him or loathe him, you have to defer to Bill Belichick's football acumen if you're a fan, media member or rival coach or organization.  

Beginning with the Cowboys taking Derrick Williams out of Penn State, five out of six wide receivers went of the board from 82 through 87.  

After Williams, the Patriots took Brandon Tate from North Carolina, Pittsburgh took Mike Wallace from Mississippi, the Giants took giant Ramses Barden (6-6) from Cal-Poly and the Dolphins took Patrick Turner, a 6-5 wideout from USC that Mel Kiper and Todd McShay on ESPN both ripped into as being a stiff.

Kiper went on to say he's seen more "reaches" in the third round today than he has in 20 years.

Everyone, of course, remembers the great "Third Round Reachapalooza" back in 1989.

Brandon Tate, the North Carolina wide receiver who tested positive for marijuana at the NFL Combine, was taken by the Patriots with the 19th pick in the third round, 83rd overall.

And while it's a given that smoking weed is prevalent in society and doesn't carry the stigma it did 20 or even 10 years ago, the fact that a kid knows a test is coming at the Combine and smokes anyway makes a team wonder two things. Is he stupid? Or does he not care?

Apparently, the Patriots were able to get their heads around that and take a chance on Tate. Tate will have a couple of things in common with two of his new teammates.

He blew out his ACL and MCL during his senior season at North Carolina, just like Tom Brady. And fellow receiver Randy Moss hasn't been shy about saying he might spark it up himself "once in a blue moon."

Well, they turned off the lights and kicked us out of Radio City.  Seriously.  Tom Curran and I were just filing our stories for the main site when we got booted.  I didn't have time for one final feature: The best players still available.  So here goes:

1. Jarron Gilbert, San Jose State DL: He can play a variety of roles on the defensive line and has rare pass-rushing skills for a player available this late.

2. Shonn Greene, Iowa RB: He can catch, he can block, and he can pick up tough yards near the goal.  Green could be the next mid-round running back steal. 

3. Jasper Brinkley, South Carolina LB: Now fully recovered from a torn ACL from 2007, he could be a leader at inside linebacker.

4. Michael Johnson, Georgia Tech DE: The second day is the time to take a gamble on a workout wonder like Johnson.
 
5. Shawn Nelson, Southern Miss TE: A pass-catching tight end to bust seams for you.

6. Andre Brown, N.C. State: Like Steve Slaton and Matt Forte last year, Brown is a versatile back who slipped in the draft because he lacks a wow factor.  But he can help a team right away.

***
Check back throughout day for pick-by-pick analysis on Rotoworld and NBCSports.com's Draft Headquarters. 

The Steelers are going to put Hood at defensive end in their 3-4 scheme and give a nice little influx of youth to an aging group. Hood can expect to spend some time chasing down kickoffs and playing sparingly in his first year. Pittsburgh maybe could have looked to address the center position here with Justin Hartwig entering the final year of his deal but, again, the bottom of the first round you get the best player you can.

Did the balloon of hype around Beanie get pricked on Saturday as he sits on the board and watches Knowshon Moreno and Donald Brown go ahead of him? Mebbe. But the Cardinals can't care about that. Wells is a great pickup for them on the brink of the second round. With J.J. Arrington having gone to Denver, Edgerrin James wanting to get the hell out of town and a yawning need at running back, the 235-pound Wells adds some ground punch to a terrific aerial attack. Can't do much better than that, Zona.

The 6-3, 218-pound Britt is about the biggest of the top-tier wideouts in this draft. In Tennessee's attack, which is a vertical attack (as opposed to the West Coast underneath stuff) Britt could be a good "go up and get it" receiver. He has to improve in terms of using his size to his advantage and he's not going to be a big numbers guy but the Titans don't look to get into shootouts. They need guys who can move the chains and be targets in the red zone and this is a good pick for them. Plus, with a dearth of defensive tackles in this draft, it would have been hard for them to address that need sufficiently.

Well, they couldn't extract either Braylon Edwards from the Browns or Anquan Boldin from Arizona, so the Giants go about trying to give themselves a true No. 1 wideout by taking Nicks, a 6-1, 212 pounder who is not exactly a burner but is a tremendously acrobatic player. The Giants have had an excellent offseason so far (other than the wideout who shot himself in the thigh and had to be cut), so this is gravy. Kinda necessary gravy, but gravy nonetheless for a team that will be a bear on defense.

From the Panthers through the Eagles this pick landed with the Bills and they took a center from Louisville. The 6-4, 310-pounder gives the Bills the help they needed in the general area of offensive line but not the specific spot of left tackle where they are currently trotting out either Langston Walker or last year's seventh-rounder Demetrius Bell. The Bills come back in the second round with Andy Levitre, a guard-tackle from Oregon State. So that dog may swim, as they say.

The UConn running back becomes a nice complement to Joseph Addai in the backfield for Indy. The Colts have had an excellent track record of getting early returns from their skill players so expect Brown to be an early component of the Indy attack. With Marvin Harrison out of the mix, a receiver at this spot would have made some sense. Help along the front-seven probably was a consideration as well but Bill Polian's track record in the draft is good enough to just shrug and say, "He knows what he's doing."

 

A solid contributor in the regular defense and on special teams, Matthews is the second of the USC linebackers to go off the board. He'll be a part of the Packers 3-4 scheme under Dom Capers. Green Bay clearly is emphasizing defense in this first round after going with defensive tackle B.J. Raji at No. 9. With the defensive switch their undergoing, they have to feel pretty good about getting two well-regarded players from high level programs.

Good size, great, great closing speed. In a division with Terrell Owens and Randy Moss that's a wise pick. Now there are questions about his consistency on and off the field but he is now part of a franchise with precious little patience for guys who don't "get it." The 5-11 corner from Illinois is the younger brother of Niners tight end Vernon Davis.

The 6-2, 299-pound Jerry is added to a defensive line that's old and not that effective (28th in the league last year in rushing yards per play). Jerry, from Mississippi, isn't exactly a load up front but he is quick and active. The Falcons could definitely do with some help in their secondary. They just don't have any real playmakers back there. And there are few if any remaining on the board for them to take a flyer on now.

Baltimore makes a deal with New England to moved up from 26 and take Michael Oher the offensive tackle from Mississippi. That's a smart and aggressive move by the Ravens to get a guy who is ready to go physically. At 6-5, 318, he's a beast. And he's extremely athletic. The knock on him was whether he comes to play every down. With the right coaching he should be a monster. Good pick.

 

Apparently, Harvin's visit with the Vikings late in the draft process cleared up any concerns about off-field issues. Harvin has unbelievable speed, especially off the line. Putting a 4.42 guy on the turf in Minnesota in an offense with Adrian Peterson in the backfield and Bernard Berrian on the other side gives Brad Childress some offensive toys to play with. The concern is the track record for Florida receivers is spotty. Consider guys like Reche Caldwell, Ike Hilliard, Darrell Jackson, Travis Taylor and Chad Jackson. Some have been OK. None have been really, really good.

Probably not the pick Browns fans thought they'd be celebrating since Cleveland was originally slated to pick fifth. But it's a shrewd one. With the best teams in the division - Pittsburgh and Baltimore - running three-man fronts with massive nose tackles in the middle, the Browns need a player with some size, smarts and nastiness to match. Mack, from Cal, should fit the bill there. He's 6-4, 311 and is seen as being a sharp and consistent player.

Interestingly, the Browns are sitting on Braylon Edwards still and teams like the Giants - would be trade partners for Edwards - are filling their wideout slots.

Mr. Stafford, meet Mr. Pettigrew. Grow to love him, Mr. Stafford. The big tight end from Oklahoma State goes 6-5, 263 and will be a very nice underneath complement to wideout Calvin Johnson. Apparently, the Lions are going to be content with outscoring teams at some point. But that ain't going to happen this year. Given the defensive players on the board - corners Vontae Davis and Alphonso Smith, linebackers Clay Matthews, James Laurainaitis and Rey Muauluga - you can armchair on this pick with very little problem.

The Eagles moved up from 21, sending their first pick to the Browns (acquired from Tampa) and a sixth-rounder to grab the wide receiver that everybody in the league seemed to kick the tires on during the predraft process. Maclin, from Missouri, will be paired with DeSean Jackson to form a very dangerous deep threat duo. Given the persistent lobbying for and from Donovan McNabb about getting more playmakers, this pick fits nicely. There's really nothing to not like about this move from Andy Reid and Joe Banner.

This is a pick acquired from the Bears in the Jay Cutler trade and the Broncos take a player who is 6-3, 272 and will be an edge player in the Denver 3-4 scheme. How will the kid from Tennessee perform given it took him some time to grow into his role with the Volunteers? Mike Nolan, the former Niners head coach who made his bones as a defensive coach in Baltimore's 3-4 alignment, will be the man in charge of bringing Ayers up to speed. The Broncos definitely needed defensive help, though, so it's hard to quibble with Ayers.

The Bucs moved up two spots, doing a deal with the Browns, to get Freeman. The Bucs wound up giving up that 19th pick to Cleveland and a sixth-round pick to be certain they get their project. Now Freeman joins a team that signed Byron Leftwich and already has Josh McCown in line ahead of Freeman. This allows the 6-6, 248-pound Freeman the chance to watch and learn while Raheem Morris and offensive coordinator Jeff Jagodzinski install the Bucs new offense. Despite the coaching change, the Bucs are not a team on the rise, however. Freeman joins a team that could be getting worse as he enters the lineup. Tough deal for him.

The 6-2, 273-pound English didn't play at a football power - Northern Illinois - but he's an explosive and stout player who should fit nicely in the Chargers 3-4. He'll have a lot to learn about playing outside linebacker at the NFL level under defensive coordinator Ron Rivera since covering in the flat will be part of his responsibilities but with the talent around him - Shawne Merriman, Shaun Phillips - he needn't feel too rushed.

The first of the USC linebackers off the board, he goes to Houston which continues to load up with strong young talent. Coupling Cushing with middle linebacker DeMeco Ryans, DT Amobi Okoye and DE Mario Williams gives Houston a nasty group who can (provided they can keep the slightly contractually disgruntled Ryans happy) together for a while. The Texans will likely be looking for a running back later in the draft.

The Saints are working to spruce up that reeling pass defense which is a good idea with players like Matt Ryan, Tony Gonzalez and Steve Smith in the division. Jenkins, a hybrid defensive back from Ohio State, is one of the best DBs to come out of a school that grows them like dandelions. At 6-feet, 204 pounds, he's a corner/safety big enough to deal with tight ends, quick enough to deal with wideouts. Good pick for New Orleans.

This is a terrific pick for the Redskins. They get an extreme talent who will not have to be a linchpin of the defense. The 6-3, 263-pounder out of Texas becomes that much more terrifying setting up next to defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth. He could be a Defensive Rookie of the Year with the number of sacks he's going to roll up on sheer speed and explosiveness.

Wellllll...as much as I like Moreno and think he's going to be an excellent NFL back, it's kind of a logjam at the position now for Denver which picked up Correll Buckhalter, JJ Arrington and LaMont Jordan in this offseason and already had Peyton Hillis, Selvin Young and Ryan Torain. On one hand, it doesn't make sense based on the number of guys. On the other hand, if those guys weren't better than Moreno - and none do what he may be capable of - it's a good pick. Still, Denver is horrible defensively. They take care of that at 18 (somewhat) which we'll get to.

The Bills reached, taking a terrific pass rushing defensive end from Penn State who may only be able to play against the pass. In college, the 6-4, 249 pound Maybin played at the weight of 235 and often got caught in the wash when run at directly. Maybin also has very limited experience - just one year as a starter. This is a bad pick for a front office that hasn't been impressive in recent years.

Well, they have their running back, Frank Gore. And now they have their wideout - the consensus best one in this draft, Texas Tech's Michael Crabtree. Is there a quarterback in the house.

This selection smacks of BPA (best player available). With Mike Singletary proclaiming this is going to be an offense concerned with controlling the football and staying conservative, it's going to be interesting to see how many balls Crabtree gets from the quarterbacking combination of Shaun Hill and Alex Smith.

The Niners had to love the chance to take Crabtree since they passed up greater needs - Brian Orakpo at DE and Michael Oher at OT - still on the board.

Newly appointed defensive coordinator Dom Capers is putting in a 3-4 defense and now he has his anchor in the middle, the massive defensive tackle Raji from Boston College. Raji had weed allegations flying during the predraft runup which were dispelled when the NFL Combine results came out. In the end, they probably wouldn't have made much difference. He interviewed well according to sources and his presence helps a defense that was 26th in the league against the run in 2008.

The Jaguars had a real need at left tackle. They picked up Tra Thomas, who is past is his prime in the offseason, but Monroe - a tackle from Virginia - comes in now and becomes the LT of the future. The knock on Monroe is he's not a special run blocker. Jacksonville could be second-guessed for passing on Michael Crabtree. They cut Matt Jones and added aging Torry Holt so wideout was a real need as well. But it's always better to build from the inside out so it's not an unreasonable choice. Unless, of course, Monroe faceplants. Which he shouldn't.

OK, so it's a true Raiders pick. The fastest available field-stretcher goes to Oakland. Heyward-Bey ran a 4.25 in the 40. That's rapid. And nobody will ever be able to say the Raiders didn't surround JaMarcus Russell with enough weapons. Last year, they took Darren McFadden No. 4, they have one of the best tight ends, Zach Miller, and now they have a speed merchant on the outside. Nobody but the Raiders would have called Heyward-Bey the best wideout in this draft, though. And the level he plays at will be forever compared to the work of Michael Crabtree who was on the board and ignored by Oakland.

Good for both of them. Andre Smith, the Alabama offensive tackle who went through a hellish predraft runup, goes to the Bengals who were desperately in need of offensive line help since Stacy Andrews has gone to the Eagles.

Smith goes to a team that allowed 51 sacks last year. Levi Jones, the left tackle last season, has injury concerns so Smith becomes another guy to plug in from the start. The Bengals have to deal with some nasty pass rushers in the AFC North so Smith was an easy pick here.

And his missteps in the predraft process - leaving the Combine early because of a plausible miscommunication, working out shirtless (as many better sculpted players do) and then switching agents late - are hardly sins.

Now, about Chad Ocho Cinco.

Wow. The Jets showed just how much they wanted the kid out of USC swinging an aggressive trade with Cleveland. GM Mike Tannenbaum sends the 17th overall pick, the 52nd overall pick, QB Brett Ratliff, DE Kenyon Coleman and CB Abram Elam to Cleveland in exchange for the shot at Sanchez. When the college season ended, Sanchez really wasn't viewed this high but the buzz about him was unmistakeable over the past few weeks and the buzz here in New York is a roar.

With Sanchez in the fold, Kellen Clemens is now just keeping the seat warm. And given how "NFL ready" people have proclaimed Sanchez to be, could he win the job coming out of camp? He will certainly show the work ethic and mindset to win the position. If Rex Ryan can get the production to meet the talent on the Jets defense, look out.

Meanwhile, going against the Bills, Patriots and Dolphins in the AFC East, Sanchez is going to need to do some looking out himself.

The Jets did so much in free agency last year, this is an interesting mesh of old and new coming around in New York.

 

The Seahawks said during the week they weren't going after a quarterback and they did not. Aaron Curry now should be a plug-and-play linebacker for the Seattle Seahawks defense that, after the loss of Julian Peterson, needs him.

The big LSU defensive end will help in the transition from 4-3 to 3-4 under new head coach Todd Haley and defensive coordinator Clancy Pendergast. Obviously, speculation stuck to Aaron Curry at this point for a long time but in the end, the philosophy the Patriots - GM Scott Pioli's old team - won out. Build on the D-line first. Kansas City desperately needs wideout assistance.

Despite trying to parachute out of this pick, the Rams wind up staying put and taking Baylor tackle Jason Smith. Tough, polished, smart a very intelligent replacement for Orlando Pace who left this offseason. The needs remain at wide receiver for new head coach Steve Spagnuolo. Linebacker as well.

Eric Mangini makes a deal with his old team.  Here comes ... Mark Sanchez?

This place is going nuts.   

Well, this was an easy one. Now, Stafford and his massive deal are under the tutelage of offensive coordinator Scott Linehan.

The question once Stafford gets out of that monkey suit is, "How long before he can take over for Daunte Culpepper."

The pressure is on him and now, we'll see what the Lions do at 20. Best tackle available or do they try and fix their historically bad defense which managed nine interceptions all season.

Matt Cassel just texted me this message after I looked for confirmation on the deal he was said to have signed.

"Thank you, but I haven't signed a deal. I don't know where they are getting their info."

The report originated on the National Football Post.

The Steelers haven't been active in free agency, like usual.  Because they are making sure they keep their best players, as usual.

Hines Ward has reportedly signed a four-year, $22 million contract extension through 2013, according to ESPN's John Clayton.  Ward was entering the final year of his current contract, and this will free up some salary cap space for the Steelers. 

Ward could barely walk when I saw him right after the Super Bowl, but the Steelers clearly aren't concerned with his history of knee troubles.  He will start opposite Santonio Holmes again next year for a very stable Steelers offense. 

The Cardinals continue to say that they expect to have Anquan Boldin back next season, but all the trade rumors surrounding him indicate otherwise.

The Eagles and Ravens have reportedly showed the most serious interest in Boldin since the Cardinals reportedly dropped their pricetag to a second-round pick and "other considerations.

Boldin would already probably be elsewhere if not for his contract demands.  It's believed he wants $10 million-per-season, which limits the field of interested teams.  The Jets, Titans, and Giants have also been tied to Boldin.  

The Jets are now trying to cut the line by making a deal with the Rams at No. 2 for - presumably - a shot at taking Mark Sanchez. Sanchez didn't even emerge on the Rams radar until Friday and - again, presumably - that's when they realized they could basically raffle off that pick between the Redskins and Jets. Neither team has ownership that could be called...cautious (or bright).

1. Rams Ruse?

The Rams have suddenly entered the mumblings and rumblings about perhaps taking Mark Sanchez with the No. 2 overall pick. Legit? Or ploy to force those teams interested in Sanchez (Jets and Redskins) to swing a trade with them in order to change their mind.

2. Flowering Crabtree?

Will Michael Crabtree, the best receiver in the draft by most accounts, go in the top five? And where does he go, Cleveland? Oakland? Bengals? Jacksonville if he's still on the board?  Or could his bum wheel that prevented him from running in predraft workouts and an alleged diva attitude cause him to plummet?

3. Patriots Rising?

With three picks in the second round and the 23rd overall, the Patriots have been trying to find out if anyone wants to make a deal that will get them into the top 10. But for whom? And at what cost? Bet on a tackle. Offensive style. (Actually, Belichick said his chances to get into the top 10 are, in the words of Elvis Costello, Less Than Zero) And as for wideouts, Bill Belichick historically believes they come cheap and good in Round 2.

4. 'SC Linebackers, Fact/Fiction?

A lot of blah, blah about how dominant this crew was and how Brian Cushing, Clay Matthews 3 and Rey Maualuga will all go in the first round. We. Shall. See.

5. Harvin and Smith, Did It Hurt?

Percy Harvin reportedly had a positive drug test at the NFL Combine. Andre Smith left the Combine, peeled off his shirt to run the sloppy 40 and then fired hjs agent. Will this impact these players to a compelling extent? Hmmmm.

Tom Curran and I have arrived.  We are parked about feet from center stage  where Commissioner Goodell will start announcing picks; 10 feet from the Patriots and Falcons tables where their picks will be called into.  The Patriots are rocking two helmets at their table to represent the 50th anniversary of the AFL. 

The top of this draft continues to be a mystery, although the Rams still seemed to be focusing on tackles Jason Smith and Eugene Monroe with their number two overall selection, despite the Mark Sanchez rumors.

The first big news doesn't have much to do with the draft.  The National Football Post reports that Matt Cassel has reportedly received a six-year deal with $36 million guaranteed from the Chiefs.  Nothing like going all in.  The Chiefs really didn't have much choice but to make the deal because he was owed $14.65 million this season as their franchise player.

Update: Peter King reports through two sources that the Cassel deal is not done. 

Update: Congrats to everyone that had 2:58 for the first J-E-T-S, Jets, Jets, Jets chant. 

With the draft starting later than ever this year (4PM), expect the pregame speculation to be cranked up this year.  Tom Curran and I will be at Radio City telling you everything we hear.  It's a beautiful morning in New York City, but there are few better ones to be parked in front of your computer.  And television. 

Here's a quick rundown of some of the Saturday morning news.

1. Michael Crabtree is atop the Packers' draft board, so he apparently won't slip any further than the ninth pick, no matter how great their receiver group is.  They also like B.J. Raji better than the suddenly hot Tyson Jackson.

2. The Giants are planning to make one final phone call regarding Braylon Edwards when they are on the click.  Despite reports to the contrary, this deal is not dead.  A lot of times it takes the deadline of a clock to get something done.  New York is willing to give up a second- and fifth-round pick, which is pretty fair if the Browns are so desperate to trade him.

3. The Panthers have received no trade offers for Julius Peppers.  Considering an interested team will likely need to come up with a new contract, it's really unlikely we will see a deal involving Peppers.

4. The Rams may want to trade Marc Bulger.  I'd be shocked if anyone wanted him.  Watch some of his games from the last two years and you'll realize it was no all the offensive line's fault.  They desperately need a quarterback, and that's why the Sanchez rumors make some sense.

5. Daunte Culpepper is expected to be Detroit's starter in Week 1, even after Matthew Stafford received the highest guaranteed money for any player in NFL history.  Look for Stafford to take over around Detroit's Week 7 bye.

6. After the Eagles lost out on Tony Gonzalez, they may try to trade for Denver's Tony Scheffler.     

7. The NFL has caught Twitter fever.  Commissioner Roger Goodell is on board, and Rich Eisen is updating like a madman from the NFL Network set.  The Patriots are going to announce their picks Via Twitter, possibly before we hear it in New York.  I'm even cautiously dipping my toe in the water.  I'll keep it to football, not how my morning run was. 

8. ESPN and NFL Network kicked off 13 hours of coverage (13!) at 11AM.  Deion Sanders just said 30% of the NFL smokes weed - bet the suits loved that.  That's what you get with a five-hour "pregame."  The rumors and smokescreens figure to heat up with them on the air.

Well, they pulled the trigger.The Lions and Georgia quarterback Matthew Stafford have agreed on a six-year deal worth as much as $78 million according to Peter King of SI and NBC's Sunday Night Football in America. The guaranteed money is $41.7 million.

It's all over but the crying now.

And there will be crying before rejoicing. It's the way of the world when you take a quarterback with the first overall pick in the draft. And it is a certainty when said quarterback joins an 0-16 team.

It is only the very rare, almost unanimous "can't miss" prospect - John Elway, Peyton Manning and Troy Aikman - that ever fulfills the promise. The record books are littered with young men drafted into bad situations that never make it out the other side with their legacy intact. David Carr, Tim Couch, Jeff George, Alex Smith - we're all pretty familiar by now with their names.

The fascinating aspect of the Stafford deal is...it's big.

By comparison, the last quarterback taken No. 1 - JaMarcus Russell in 2007 - got six years and $60 million with $31 million guaranteed.

And, by further comparison, the current contract Tom Brady - a three-time Super Bowl champion, author of the greatest statistical season in quarterbacking history in 2007 - is working under a six-year, $60 million deal that paid him about $25 million up front. And that was after he'd won a pair of Super Bowls.

That rookie salary cap? Might make some sense, don't you think?

And that kind of deal only ratchets up the pressure on the Lions to push Stafford onto the field - come hell or high incompletion rate - ASAFP.

 

In order for there to ever be rejoicing in Detroit with Stafford at the center of it, he'll have to be one of the toughest hombres in the league.

As we approach Draft eve, USC quarterback Mark Sanchez feels like the most compelling story.  And it's not just because Madison Avenue has already taken a liking to the kid.

It seems like the half of the league's future is tied to Sanchez.  Decision makers don't want to pass on a franchise-changing player, but they are also wary of being saddled with a high profile quarterback bust.

The week before the draft is notoriously filled with misinformation.  That's why it's hard to completely trust top-five drafting teams like Seattle and St. Louis, who are reportedly interested in Sanchez.  They may be setting up smokescreens in an effort to coax a trading partner out of the woodwork. 

Washington's owner Dan Snyder could be a target.  He's a man who usually gets what he wants, and he reportedly wants Sanchez badly.  Denver is another possibility.  They have extra ammunition after trading away Jay Cutler and they need to calm their angry fanbase.

When the Sanchez mystery is solved Saturday, it will set off a chain reaction throughout the league.  Let's look at some of his possible landing spots.

Rams (No. 2 pick): There was a report early in the week that St. Louis was deciding between Sanchez and Eugene Monroe with the No. 2 pick.  This notion is beginning to pick up steam.  The Rams need a quarterback badly, but I don't think they believe it. This looks like an apparent smokescreen designed to get others to trade up for St. Louis' pick.  Former GM Mike Lombardi agrees.

Seahawks (No. 4): Seattle has a lot of prominent mock drafters, including the ones at ESPN, convinced the Seahawks will take Sanchez as Matt Hasselbeck's eventual replacement.  Seahawks GM Tim Ruskell says they won't take a quarterback at No. 4.

For once, I trust a GM speaking during draft week.  Forget Hasselbeck; replacing left tackle Walter Jones looks like the safer bet.    

Mark Sanchez hasn't played a game since January 4. His measurables have long since been measured. Yet here we are, less than 24 hours before the 2009 NFL Draft and Sanchez is rising like yeast.

Why?

1) To be blunt, he's charmed the hell out of the teams he's visited. His huge personality, passion for the game and "intangibles" are winning the fight for him. He's left the Broncos, Redskins and Jets, wondering if they just sat down with Adrian Grenier from Entourage or Mark Sanchez from USC. By the time he leaves, those teams are whispering about how impressed they are and we in the media run with those.  

2) The waffling over whether or not Matthew Stafford is worthy of the No. 1 pick has diffused into the conversation about Sanchez' bona fides. Mike Mayock of the NFL Network, who forms opinions in the media as much (if not more) than Mel Kiper ever did, has been telling anyone who will listen that Sanchez is a better prospect than Stafford.

3) The uncertainty all over the top of the draft - not just at quarterback - has created a perfect storm for "throw it against the wall and see if it sticks" speculation. Every team from No. 2 through No. 7 has been looking to move down. To create urgency among possible trade partners to move up, there has to be a "riser" - someone that teams in the teens figured would be there but now are worried will not be. Sanchez is the riser.

And the misinformation - which has a purpose - muddies the waters.

So now, for instance, we hear the Rams may take him at No. 2.

Chances are, the Rams don't want him but the let it leak that "might" so that teams that REALLY, REALLY want him feel compelled to trade up with them.

Or, for instance, there's the Seahawks. They may well want him at No. 4. Sanchez himself feels he'll be gone by then. But this week, GM Tim Ruskell publicly said they don't want Sanchez. The reverse purpose? Teams feel comfortable that they can trade up to No. 5 (Cleveland) and be safe instead of going up past Seattle and taking Sanchez.

In short, the combo of Mayock's take, Sanchez' personality and the lack of elite, can't miss players at the top of this draft.have created a massive wave that the USC quarterback is riding high on. Right now.

Jason Campbell's out of favor in Washington. Kellen Clemens, a once-upon-a-time quarterback of the future in New York, found out that future was shorter than an eye blink.

Where were they drafted? Campbell went 25th overall in 2006. Clemens went 49th overall in 2006.

And yet both are about to be scrap-heaped? Campbell's team is trying hard to move up for a shot at Mark Sanchez, the USC quarterback with one college season under his belt. The Jets are doing the same thing and also are considering drafting Josh Freeman out of Kansas State.

What's Campbell's great sin been in Washington? Let's see, he's 16-20 in 36 starts. He's gone 2-5, 6-7 and 8-8 in successive seasons. He's thrown 35 touchdowns and 23 interceptions. He's completed almost 60 percent of his passes. So you tell me what his sin is. You tell me what makes Sanchez so much more palatable than a guy who's lived and honed an NFL career for three years non-stop.

So the Redskins can start over again with a three-year grooming process to make the kid a starter? God bless Washington fans who have to sit through six years of quarterback nurturing and never get to see the final product.

Clemens doesn't have as strong a case for feeling jilted as Campbell, mainly because he's only had eight career starts in which he's gone 3-5. And that's enough to move on from? Again, not with an established veteran but with a kid who was getting off a school bus three years ago? 

And we're not even getting into the fact that Alex Smith (No. 1 in 2005) is growing cobwebs on his career in San Fran. Matt Leinart and Vince Young (Nos. 10 and 3 in 2006) are idling behind old-timers.Brady Quinn (22nd in 2007) has never really been in favor in Cleveland.

The point? Here comes another crop of young men with promising futures as NFL quarterbacks. They better get good fast because that future turns into their past real quick.

Receiver Michael Crabtree, who allegedly peeved the Browns so much they pulled him off their draft board, had another supposed misstep Thursday.

But this one - like the Browns' reported irritation with Crabtree - is not cut and dried.

During a chat on NFL.com, a question (from one Bigjayboogie) was posed to Crabtree thusly: "You're going to look good in silver and black ... what do you say to those who say you're cocky?"

Crabtree's reply: "I'm not cocky at all, bigjayboogie! People talk, man, but I'm a cool guy.  as for playing for the Raiders, no comment."

Now could Crabtree's response be a dismissive poke at Oakland, as the folks who first brought the exchange to light believed? Sure.

But could it also have been a point where the kid didn't want to seem presumptuous and was staying away from talking specifically about who he believed he'd be going to or what would be the best fit? Absolutely.

In fact, that's more likely than Crabtree - two days before the draft - saying something that would indicate he didn't want to play for the team holding the seventh overall pick.

That this too-much-time-on-your-hands speculation about a two-word, throwaway "no comment" might affect the overall perception of Crabtree or hurt his draft stock is a sad reality of the breathless run-up to the annual player selection process.

 

1. Just a Second Rounder? In 2010?

Kneejerk reaction is the Chiefs got smoked on this deal with Scott Pioli gift-wrapping a Hall of Fame tight end to his former protege Tom Dimitroff. Ironically, the same thing was alleged when the Patriots and Bill Belichick sent Pioli (Belichick's GM with the Pats) Matt Cassel and Mike Vrabel and got just a second-rounder in return earlier this offseason. Trying to make a case for the move from a Chiefs perspective, we point out that while Gonzalez hasn't outlived his usefulness, he is 33 years old and - at the outside - has maybe five years left. And he also could have become a verbal agitator in the locker room. Yeah, that still doesn't make more sense. Gonzo's caught 96, 99, 73, 78 and 102 in his last five seasons and has missed a grand total of two games in 12 years. If you're talking about "value" Gonzalez' figures to be  superior to that of whoever they ultimately select with that pick in 2010. With all that in mind, it's hard to see how this makes Kansas City better.

2. How's This Help Matt Cassel?

If you believe that most of Cassel's success in New England was largely attributable to the receivers he was throwing to, you are no doubt wondering now how Cassel - behind an inferior offensive line and throwing to lesser wideouts - can expect to find success now that his would-be security blanket is gone. Dwayne Bowe can certainly play but how much of his 2008 production (86 catches, 1,022 yards) was helped by defenses splitting time worrying about both he and Gonzalez. The rest of them? Average, workaday NFL players. Or worse.

3. How's Atlanta Feeling Now?
Really good. The most important skill positions when it comes to helping a young quarterback are running back and tight end. The Falcons already had the running back (Michael Turner) and didn't pretty well in 2008. Now they add a 95-catch guy to a position that last year generated just 18 catches? The Falcons offense is - provided Matt Ryan doesn't go through a sophomore slump of epic proportions - daunting.  

4. Now What's KC Do At 3?
There's speculation that Michael Crabtree may become the Chiefs target at No. 3 on Saturday. Hard to believe that Pioli, who showed little inclination toward taking wideouts in the first round with the Patriots, would suddenly change his spots on that and move away from some of the talented trench players in this draft. Expect it to still be Aaron Curry (if he's there) or one the tackle they have most highly-rated on their board.

 

Last week, a source said that, while the Falcons might daydream about tight end Tony Gonzalez, conversations aimed at extracting him from Kansas City hadn't happened.

This week, they did. And Gonzalez, a source confirms, is heading to Atlanta in exchange for a second-round pick in the 2010 (repeat, 2010) draft.

(UPDATE)

The Chiefs have sent out a release on the deal with quotes from team chairman Clark Hunt and GM Scott Pioli

Said Hunt: "On behalf of my family and the Chiefs, I want to thank Tony for his time in Kansas City. Over the last 12 seasons, Tony has been one of the finest players in Chiefs history, and he will always be remembered as a member of the Chiefs. His play on the field speaks for itself - he holds almost every major NFL record for tight ends, and he is arguably the best to ever play his position. We wish him the best in Atlanta."

From Pioli: "From an organizational as well as personal standpoint there are mixed emotions. I have the highest personal and professional respect for Tony and consider him to be a future Pro Football Hall of Famer."

So, then. Why just a second rounder, hmmmm?

 

Aaron Curry, amid reports that he's got a deal in place to go to Detroit if negotiations with Matthew Stafford fall apart, is certainly killing it in the P.R. battle.

Speaking to Pat Kirwan on SIRIUS NFL Radio, Curry said he'd take less than Jake Long, the No. 1 pick in last year's draft, if the Lions were to sign him.

Long signed with the Dolphins last year for five year and $57.5 million with $30 million guaranteed.

What's the fallout from such an assertion? Well, it throws a mild wrench into the ongoing negotiations with quarterback Matthew Stafford.

Stafford's agent, Tom Condon, is going to try to get a six-year deal done that be considerably richer than the one given JaMarcus Russell, the No. 1 overall pick by the Raiders in 2007 and the last QB taken No. 1. Russell got 6 years and $60 million with $31 million guaranteed. Six years and $70 million with $35 mil guaranteed trumps Russell in signing bonus and Long in average money per season.

And Curry - the people's choice in Detroit, by the way - is out there saying he'll take almost $15 million less over the life of the deal than that projected $70 million?

Asked about his client's comment, Curry's agent, Andy Ross from Octagon, said via e-mail, "Aaron is a unique and special person."

Ross declined comment when asked if a deal with the Lions is already done.

 

An NFC GM tells us that the "for sale" signs are out and calls are being made by the Rams, Chiefs, Seahawks, Browns, Bengals and Raiders.

All of these teams are still hoping to move down, add picks and get away from the wallet-busting price of doing business in the top 10.

Our source also tells us that Mark Sanchez, the USC quarterback, will be gone at either four (the Seahawks) or eight (Jacksonville).

Sanchez, we hear, believes he's going to be gone before the fifth overall pick. To which we say, so did Brady Quinn and Aaron Rodgers.

Last week, the Arizona Cardinals made it known that they were willing to listen to offers for receiver Anquan Boldin.  G.M. Rod Graves strongly implied that they already had been listening to such offers.

Graves is now claiming that no offers have been received.

"Quite a few teams have called but we have no offers," Graves said Tuesday, according to Kent Somers of the Arizona Republic.

Translation?  We don't like the offers we've received, so now we're going to try to scoop up the toothpaste and put it back in the tube in the hopes that we can keep Boldin on the team.

Yeah, that Super Bowl appearance meant nothing.  They're still the Cardinals.

If the run-up to the draft weren't crazy enough, word is now emerging that the St. Louis Rams are considering two candidates with the second overall pick:  tackle Eugene Monroe, and quarterback Mark Sanchez.

The shocker is Sanchez.  The Rams have Marc Bulger under contract.  (Then again, I've recently suggested that now might be the time to trade him.)

It could be that the Rams are merely hoping to cajole one of the teams in the teens who supposedly are interested in Sanchez (Broncos, Redskins, Jets) into believing that the only way to be sure that they'll get the former USC signal-caller is to move all the way to No. 2.

Currently, the thinking is that moving to No. 4 will be high enough to get Sanchez, if the team that wants Sanchez makes the move when the fourth pick is on the clock.  If the Rams can move the target up two spots, they can trade down -- and also pick up some extra selections, in the hopes of filling more holes on a very bad roster.

Your eyes are not deceiving you.  Yes, this is Profootballtalk.com.  Yes, this is also the home of the NBCSports.com blogs.

For now, it's both.

We had a relatively minor outage at PFT on Tuesday.  (OK, it was actually a five-alarm fart-fest.)  And our friends at NBC (yes, we actually have friends) hooked us up with some bandwidth and rolling papers (I've got glaucoma). 

We're posting here until roughly 11:30 p.m. EDT Tuesday, at which time our primary residence will be ready to receive the PFT traffic.

So thanks again to our friends at NBC.  And we hope that Curran likes the package we left in his office.  Right on the carpet.

Titans running back Chris Johnson recently raised some offseason eyebrows by following a stellar rookie season with a decision not to show up for voluntary offseason workouts.

According to Jim Wyatt of the Tennessean, Johnson showed up on Tuesday, for the first time this offseason.

"I've said all along I expected Chris to come back and join the offseason program and he is here,'' coach Jeff Fisher said.  "Everybody else is here and I just assume he now is here and he is going to work.''

Technically, Fisher's comments run afoul of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, because they suggest that the voluntary workouts aren't optional.  But since the union currently is struggling to negotiate a contract with an Executive Director who should have been required to agree to terms before he was elected for the job, the union probably will let Fisher slide on this one.

With the draft less than four days away, the Detroit Lions still plan to have the No. 1 overall pick signed, sealed, and delivered discouraged before the picking process commences.

During a Tuesday press conference, G.M. Martin Mayhew said there's a very good chance that a deal will be done.

As we've heard it, the Lions have multiple tentative agreements lined up with potential first overall picks, with the Lions having to only pull the trigger as to the player in question.

In our view, it's all aimed at leveraging Georgia quarterback Matthew Stafford into taking an acceptable deal.

The problem for the Lions is that the first quarterback drafted last year with the third overall pick (Matt Ryan) arguably did better at the bargaining table than the first overall selection.

At No. 1, tackle Jake Long received a five-year, $57.5 million deal, with $30 million guaranteed.  At No. 3, quarterback Matt Ryan got a six-year, $72 million deal, with $34.75 million guaranteed.

So Stafford might be looking for a six-year deal worth more than $75 million, with more than $40 million guaranteed.

Meanwhile, there's talk that the Lions also are interested in working out a potential deal with Baylor tackle Jason Smith, which could create an awkward situation for agent Tom Condon, who represents both Stafford and Smith (and who represented both Long and Ryan a year ago).

One league insider has predicted that, if Stafford ends up being the pick, Condon will try to placate Smith by doing a monster deal for him in light of the slot in which he's eventually drafted.

In theory, this could cause some teams to shy away from Smith, if by picking him they could end up facing a moonshot that leads to a holdout.

There's a chance, however, that Condon will use Stafford's demands to maximize the contract given to Smith, and then attempt to finagle for Stafford at a lower spot a better deal that what Smith received -- just like Condon did in 2008 for Long and Ryan.

Regardless, Condon is mired in a clear conflict of interest.  Though the term sounds ominous, the concept is simple; the interests of Stafford presently conflict with the interests of Smith, as it relates to their prospects for being the first overall pick.

So Condon should be representing one or the other, or neither.  While the NFLPA allows such situation to exist, one thing is clear to us:  If Condon were a lawyer in this circumstance and continued to represent both clients, he wouldn't be a lawyer for much longer.

In response to the revelation that the NFLPA "hired" Executive Director DeMaurice Smith without obtaining his advance agreement to contractual terms, a NFLPA-certified veteran contract advisor has asked this simple question:  "I'm paying dues for this?"

The agent said more, including some colorful language that we'd at least quote with dashes if we were in our own home tonight.

But the point is a valid one.  At a time when plenty of folks employed by the NFLPA were worried about keeping their jobs, one or more people clearly weren't doing their jobs.

Of all the teams that have been eyeballing former West Virginia quarterback Pat White, most already have established and entrenched options under center.

Not so in Minnesota, where Sage Rosenfels recently has joined a revolving door of mediocrity that recently has feature non-future Hall of Famers like Gus Frerotte, Tarvaris Jackson, Kelly Holcomb, and Brooks Bollinger.

According to Alex Marvez of FOXSports.com, the Vikings worked out White on Tuesday.

Though he's regarded as a potential Wildcat-style presence, taking some snaps and fielding some punts and catching some passes, the smarter move (in our view) would be to focus on giving him a chance to develop as a passer.  Quarterbacks who can run effectively often find themselves relying on their legs as a crutch, and thus they never completely develop all of the skills needed to play the position.

So by plugging White into the lineup from time to time for the purposes of sometimes running and sometimes passing, a team might be blowing the opportunity to find out whether he can become a drop-back passer with the elusiveness that allows a guy like Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger to keep plays alive long enough not to tuck it and run north-south, but to find an open receiver by moving east-west.

So let's see if we understand this. 

The NFL Players Association engaged in an elaborate process of identifying potential candidates to replace long-time Executive Director Gene Upshaw, weathering controversies and allegations relating to multiple candidates.  The ultimate hire was made at a time when the union needs unity more than it ever has during its existence.

And unity was the sole talking point in the aftermath of the process.  The union was unifired under a unanimous unification of unity.

But the union didn't determine in advance of the election process the contract terms that each of the finalists would accept.

Wow.

According to Len Pasquarelli of ESPN.com, new Executive Director DeMaurice Smith and the union are up to $5.6 million apart in their respective positions.

The two sides also are at odds regarding contract duration; Smith want's a five-year deal, and the union wants a three-year contract.  (The fact that Smith was elected to a three-year term makes his position in this regard a tad, well, goofy.)

We'll defer to Len as to the rest of the conflict.  The bigger point here is that someone screwed up royally when not determining the terms Smith and the other candidates would accept before a single ballot was cast.

It's a fairly important issue, don't you think?  And each finalist's financial expectations should have been factored into the selection process.

If, for example, Smith wanted $3.7 million per year and David Cornwell would have done it for $1.2 million, maybe Cornwell would have won the job on the first ballot.  Unanimously.  With unity.

Though we're not suggesting that the finalists should have been required to undercut each other in a reverse auction,-style process the financial terms should have been set before the election, and each of the finalists should have been required to sign the paperwork, with the contract being made expressly contingent on actually getting the job via the election process.

So, regardless of how this all turns out, whoever designed the haphazard procedure should be fired -- not only because Smith has acquired ample leverage by not being required to sign a contract at a time when the union held all the cards, but also because this dispute plays directly into management's hands by perpetuating the notion that the NFLPA can't get out of its own way.

Chad Ochocinco may be "crying" to get out Cincinnati, but coach Marvin Lewis isn't sympathetic.

"I don't know why people continue with the speculation of moving Chad," Lewis said at his pre-draft presser Tuesday. "Many times we've reiterated, I don't know if we're keeping count on this, Chad's not getting moved."

Well, then.  Lewis went on to say that the team would probably draft a receiver for depth at some point, like most teams.  "I don't think we're going to pick a guy that's going to be better than Chad. I haven't seen that guy yet."

Lewis' strong words support a Cincinnati Enquirer report that no team has even offered a third-round pick for Ocho.  With his stock so low and the market flooded with younger options (Anquan Boldin, Braylon Edwards), the Bengals may have realized they won't get value by selling low on number 85, no matter how much he's crying. 

Or maybe it's all a smokescreen.  That's why this week is so fun. 

Yep, PFT is crashing on the couch again.  Check out Florio's post below for an explanation.  Or the post I did back in February when all you folks last visited.

As much as we like helping out, everyone here at NBCSports.com hopes the real PFT is back up and running soon, hopefully tonight.  For Mike's sanity and those poor little hamsters, who may be in big trouble.

In the meantime, get comfortable.  Just try to clean up after yourselves when you leave. 

A league source tells us that first-round prospect Andre Smith, who has more red flags than Milton Bradley (because they make the game Stratego . . . feel free to roll your eyes and groan now), will sign a representation agreement with Rick Smith of Priority Sports.

Published reports indicated that Andre Smith would sign with Ian Greengross after expiration of the five-day waiting period following Andre Smith's separation from Alvin Keels.  We also heard that Greengross was the first choice of Andre's mother.

Rick Smith has his work cut out for him.  In four days, he needs to try to reverse a series of blunders that began with a suspension from the Sugar Bowl, a horrendous set of Combine interviews, an unexpected departure from Indianapolis on the day that offensive linemen were due to work out for scouts, a Pro Day that featured a watch-it-wiggle/see-it-jiggle shirtless 40-yard dash, and the termination of his agent less than two weeks before the draft.

Without any of these issues, Andre Smith could have been the first overall pick.  We still see him falling to the Bengals at No. 6.

Linebacker Pierre Woods, a restricted free agent who found no takers prior to the expiration of the period for signing an offer sheet with a new team, has opted to stay with the Patriots, the team announced today.

Though the Pats didn't disclose the terms of the deal, Mike Reiss of the Boston Globe previously reported that Woods has signed his one-year, $1.54-million tender offer.

The fourth-year player previously played primarily on special teams.  As Reiss points out, Woods is a candidate to replace Mike Vrabel, who was traded to the Chiefs.

The man who captured the imagination of the football-watching world 24 years ago as a rookie defensive tackle and part-time fullback for the '85 Bears is facing one of the biggest challenges of his life.

According to Kevin Allen of the Chicago Sun-Times, former NFL defensive tackle William "Refrigerator" Perry has been hospitalized in South Carolina due to symptoms of Guillian-Barre syndrome.

Last year, Perry spent five months in a hospital after being diagnosed with the condition.  This time around, he has been hospitalized for over a week.

The 46-year-old, who spent ten years in the NFL, is expected to make a full recovery.

Best wishes, Fridge.  The league was a different place when he was in it, in a very good way.

FOXBORO - At the close of his annual predraft press conference, Patriots head coach Bill Belichick said that quarterback Tom Brady has no physical restrictions placed on him as he takes part in offseason workouts with the team.

Brady's left knee was famously blown out during the first game of the 2008 regular season. After surgery to repair the ACL and MCL in early October, an infection set in and the knee had to be irrigated and antibiotics were administered for the next six weeks.

The infection resulted in a buildup of scar tissue and caused some looseness in the MCL but Brady has powered through his rehab, far exceeding expectations.

In late December, sources familiar with Brady's situation told us his rehab was significantly behind schedule. That fact would likely lead to backup Matt Cassel being franchised and Brady being limited at least into the summer.

Yet the progress Brady made from that point through early March made Cassel expendable (he was franchised, but dealt to Kansas City). And the limitations expected have conquered.

And while the risk of swelling or soreness certainly can't be ruled out as Brady ramps up his preparation for 2009 (sources have said Brady will have to wear a knee brace for the remainder of his career), that he's at this point in April is excellent news for New England. ,

When news first broke last year of smoking-gun evidence that the NFL Players Association advised Electronic Arts to scramble the likenesses of retired players as part of the popular Madden video game series, our first thought was that EA would be joined to the pending litigation filed by a class of former players against the NFLPA.

Apparently, the players have opted instead to take a second bite at the legal apple.

According an entry from former NFL player Bernie Parrish on former NFL player Dave Pear's official blog, suit will be filed against Electronic Arts, and possibly John Madden personally, for the efforts to use historical players without properly compensating them for their names and likenesses.  (Toupee tips to SportsBusiness Daily and Cleveland.com.)

Parrish was the initial named plaintiff in the class action against the union, but the judge removed Parrish based on evidence that he has a vendetta against the union.

Parrish apparently is now focusing his "get off my lawn"-style ire toward Madden.

"Madden knows that the ugly truthful litigation is coming and is probably factoring that into his retirement," Parrish writes. "I doubt he wants to answer all those fans who will be asking, 'Why, John Madden? Why did you screw all those retired players over, you seemed like such a friendly, good-natured buffoon?'"

So Madden retired from broadcasting because he fears he's going to be sued by former players who don't like the fact that they didn't get paid for the presence of their digitized selves in a video game?

(Man, and I thought I came up with some crazy-ass theories.)

Parrish also claims that the players likely will use different lawyers than those who handled the case against the NFLPA, a strong hint as to the existence of a disagreement between the lawyers and the class members as to the question of whether EA and/or Madden should have been joined to the first lawsuit, which resulted in a $28.1 million verdict against the players' union.

Parrish specifically wants each of the retired players who'll eventually receive $13,000 each (if the verdict against the NFLPA survives on appeal) to contribute $1,000 to the war chest for potential litigation against EA and Madden.

Though we seriously doubt that Madden has any personal responsibility to the former players, EA could be in some trouble. Given the potential allegation that EA, on the advice of the NFLPA, intentionally made basic superficial changes to the data regarding former players in an effort to avoid compensating them, EA could be on the hook for the money that arguably should have been paid to the players on the historical teams.

That said, the available damages could be an issue. Theoretically, the players will be "made whole" via the award received from the NFLPA, if the verdict is upheld. So anything obtained from EA would potentially be a windfall.

And with no award of compensatory damages, it will be impossible to recover punitive damages against EA.

So, yeah, if the players were going to pursue EA or Madden at all, they should have added them to the NFLPA lawsuit.

That said, it's possible that the trial lawyers hired by EA would have helped to dilute whatever combination of evidence and witness testimony and attorney demeanor that contributed to the runaway verdict imposed against the union.

There's also another potential problem with an attack on EA and Madden - the statue of limitations.  We'll delve into that issue if/when a suit is ever filed.

An astute reader who read the item regarding the Cardinals' cap space of only $1.29 million has raised an excellent point.

If/when they decide to part ways with running back Edgerrin James, they'll clear $5 million in additional cap space.

Because James is in the final year of a four-season deal, there would be no further acceleration if/when James is released.

He also possibly could be traded, but there's likely no other team that would pay him $5 million in base salary, given his age and the mileage on his tires.

But if/when James is given his freedom, he'll likely find further work.  And it would be fitting, given the recent departure of Dominic Rhodes for Buffalo, for James to return to Indianapolis, where he would share touches with Joseph Addai, the man who was drafted three years ago to take Edge's place.

A day after word broke that Boston College defensive tackle B.J. Raji didn't test positive for marijuana at the Scouting Combine, SI.com has retracted it's report to the contrary.

"An SI.com report posted earlier this month incorrectly stated that Boston College defensive tackle B.J. Raji's name would appear on the NFL's list of players who tested positive for drugs at the NFL Scouting Combine in February," the "Correction" reads. "We regret the error."

SI.com initially removed the report from draft expert Tony Pauline, but opted not to retract it, presumably pending publication of the official list of players who tested positive. Pauline publicly said that he stands by what his sources told him.

Though legal action by Raji remains possible, it likely won't trigger a big-money outcome.  A defamation claim puts a person's entire life under a microscope, since the measure of damages is the ultimate injury to his pre-existing reputation.

Moreover, the fact that he didn't appear on the list of players who tested positive means that, in theory, the report didn't affect his draft stock.

But with the NFL delaying the dissemination of the drug test report until this week, it's possible that one or more teams who were inclined to kick Raji's tires via a pre-draft visit removed him from the board before knowing for sure whether the report was accurate. The fact that he has been cleared doesn't change the fact that it's too late to bring him to town for further due diligence.

Still, with no feasible way of defending against liability without disclosing Pauline's sources, SI.com would be in a bind, if Raji chooses to file suit.

Our guess is that Raji's people will at a minimum give SI.com a chance to resolve the case cleanly and quietly with a confidential payment to Raji's favorite charity.

You know, the charity that begins at home.

Earlier this year, Cardinals receiver Larry Fitzgerald said he'd be willing to renegotiate his contract if it meant keeping receiver Anquan Boldin.

At the time, though, cap room wasn't an issue. The question was whether the Cardinals wanted to spend the money on Boldin.

Fitzgerald recently reiterated his willingness to re-do his deal in order to keep Boldin around.

And, this time, the Cardinals might have to take him up on it.

Per a league source, the Cardinals have only $1.29 million in cap room. That's roughly one percent of the total available 2009 payroll of $127 million.

So, yeah, they'll need to clear some space if they're going to give Boldin a significant raise.

And Fitzgerald's willingness to restructure his contract won't be as simple as taking the bulk of his 2009 base pay as a guaranteed amount, given the rules that apply in the last year under the Collective Bargaining Agreement with a salary cap.

A separate question is whether Fitzgerald would take less money, or whether his willingness to cooperate applies only if he still gets his full $40 million over four years.

Participating in an accounting game that doesn't reduce the player's bottom line isn't exactly a sacrifice.  So if Fitzgerald and/or quarterback Kurt Warner are serious about giving up some of their own pizza in order to feed Anquan, now's the time to do it.

At a time when rumors continue to make the rounds that Mike Shanahan could end up being the next coach of the Redskins, another rumor has wound its way to our doorstep.

There's talk that, during the Redskins' conversations with quarterback Jay Cutler regarding a potential trade that would have brought Cutler to D.C., Cutler was informed that the Redskins would next be targeting Shanahan.

We assume that the pursuit of Shanahan would have commenced after the 2009 season. But, when it comes to the Redskins, we rule out nothing.

If they'd gotten Cutler, we have a feeling that the very next order of business would have been to get Shanahan.

We're back, biatches.

It's PFT at NBC once again, if only temporarily.

We had another technical incident today, and we think/hope/pray it'll be solved by tonight.

It started when a plug-in saw that a file was missing.  The plug-in logged the issue to the database a couple million times, crashing the database.

Then, as the readers who couldn't get to the site migrated from ringing the bell to politely knocking on the frame to pounding and kicking the door while cursing like a sailor with a kidney stone problem, a separate issue arose.

Our tech guys are working to clean it all up, and in the interim our friends at NBC have invited us over to dirty and smelly the place up.

It's fairly well known that Bears quarterback Jay Cutler likes to frequent during the evening hours establishments that sell alcoholic beverages.

And perhaps, from time to time, he'll bend his elbow to do something other than throw a football.

G.M. Jerry Angelo was asked about Cutler's lifestyle during a Tuesday pre-draft press conference.

"When we did our research, we know he goes out, we know he does those things,'' Angelo said, per Brad Biggs of the Chicago Sun-Times.  "We talked to our medical people, we talked to the Denver medical people. It comes with the territory.  We're comfortable with it.  I really can't answer it beyond that.

"I'm not going to micro-manage a person," Angelo added.  "If we have to do that, that's not a good sign.  Some lessons, they have to see and learn for themselves.  I don't think that's a big thing at this point.  It's what he does on Sunday is how we're going to evaluate him.  That's the bottom line.  He's got a good foundation coming in here. He's a young quarterback, he's played in this league, he's shown what he can do.  He gets it.  That's the biggest concern. He gets it.''

But does he really get it?  Though alcohol affects people with Type 1 diabetes differently, it's surprising to us that he'd even risk compromising his health, especially when he earns his living based on the ability of his body to function at a high level.

In response to receiver Michael Crabtree's attempts to sell himself as a speed demon, a league source tells us that Crabtree shouldn't bother.

"I love Crabtree," the source said. "He's my highest rated receiver, but there is no way he can run a 4.4. He plays to 4.5 at best and that is good speed."

So why is Crabtree trying so hard to make himself seem faster than he really is?

Though he'll likely never be timed in a 40-yard dash once he's in the league, his stubborn insistence that he has blazing speed makes him come off as a guy who doesn't get it. Our advice?

Quit talking about what you think you could run. You didn't run, and none of the teams that might draft you are going to be swayed by hollow boasts.

Except the Lions.

At the public unveiling of the team's new logo Monday, Lions fans chanted for Detroit's brass to take Wake Forest linebacker Aaron Curry with the first overall pick.

And they chanted for the team to not draft Georgia quarterback Matthew Stafford.

This is probably a tribute to how hardened Lions fans are to their team selecting in the top 10. And screwing it up. Seriously, don't most fans reflexively prefer their team draft a glamour position? Even if the team remains horrible, watching the development of a player at the most pressure-packed position in sports is fascinating.

There's no way to gauge whether the people who were in Dunham's Sporting Goods in Madison Heights, Michigan Monday share a brain with those Lions fans who will travel to Radio City Music Hall on Saturday (people who, I might add, deserve either free tickets to a Lions game of their choice or intervention). But if Stafford's the choice, prepare yourselves for one of those endlessly entertaining awkward draft moments.

Jamison Hensley in the Baltimore Sun says that the Arizona Cardinals' asking price for disgruntled wide receiver Anquan Boldin is probably too rich for the Ravens blood.

Citing a source with the Ravens, Hensley said the Cardinals presumed asking price of a first and third-round draft choice for the 28-year-old Boldin is too much to give up for a team with just six picks in the draft as it is.

The Roy Williams-to-Dallas deal mucked up the market last season, Hensley writes. Williams went to the Cowboys in exchange for first, third and fifth round picks.

Look at what Jay Cutler's going to be missing out on. Enhanced feedbags team-wide.

Mike Klis of the Denver Post reports that head coach Josh McDaniels plans to make the team's meal offerings more exhaustive in 2009. In 2008, Klis reports, the Broncos as a team lost a combined 450 pounds from the start of training camp to the end of the season.

"We addressed the nutrition end of it," McDaniels at the end of the team's mini-camp on Sunday. "We want to make sure our players are as healthy and fed as well as we can feed them. We don't want to end up with a different team in December as what we put together in September."

Apparently, a hungry team is a good thing. Unless they're too hungry.  

Longtime NFL exec and current NFL Network analyst Charlie Casserley said today on a conference call that B.J. Raji should be a top-10 selection if, as Pro Football Talk reported today, Raji he didn't test positive for marijuana at the NFL Combine.

"I'll be surprised if he does not go in the top 10," said Casserley. "If he had tested positive I would have been surprised if he had gone in the top 10. There are still some questions in his history and I think there will be some teams who shy away from this player."

In an April 2 report, SI.com said NFL team sources indicated that Raji - a 6-1, 337-pound defensive tackle from Boston College - tested positive for drugs at the NFL Combine. Raji and his agents denied the allegation and SI.com pulled the report while also saying in a statement that it had "several credible sources for the report."

Former Ravens coach Brian Billick, who was also on the conference call, said, "It sounds like there's been some misinformation that's been put out there and that's a terrible thing for this young man if indeed he has not tested positive. There's no way to regulate (the reports) ...short of the league coming out saying, 'We'll publish the names of those that failed to protect those that didn't."

Our take? Well, during this draft season, teams have seemed particularly dismissive of marijuana use as a major red flag issue. Yet this Raji issue has shown that, at the very top of the draft, it's still an issue.

It's also worth nothing that a guy not testing positive doesn't mean he's never smoked weed. It only means that, if he flops or runs into trouble in the league, fans and the media won't have the smoking gun (heh, heh) to point at them that a positive test would provide.

Over the weekend, Detroit met with the agents for Aaron Curry (Andy Ross and Michael Sullivan of Octagon) and are expected to meet this week with agents for Matthew Stafford and Jason Smith (both men are repped by CAA - Tom Condon has Stafford; Ben Dogra has Smith).

If the Lions sign Curry, the Wake Forest linebacker who's been labelled the "safest" pick at the top of the draft, it would be a major surprise. Talented, mature and well-adjusted as Curry is, he doesn't play a "cornerstone" position. Left tackle, quarterback and defensive line are overwhelmingly the positions that go first overall.

The last linebacker selected with the first overall pick was Aundray Bruce from Auburn back in 1988. He went to the Falcons. Tom Cousineau was the only other linebacker to go first (Bills, 1979).

Could head coach Jim Schwartz buck a trend and move away from "cornerstone" options like the quarterback Stafford or the tackle Smith? Not likely. Even though Schwartz made his bones as a defensive coordinator with the Titans, you'd have to think in his first season as head coach in an organization well-known for blundering top-10 picks (usually at wideout), he'll lean toward the sensible positional pick even if it isn't the so-called "safest guy".

 

Newly acquired Eagles left tackle Jason Peters was asked today at a press conference about the 11.5 sacks he supposedly allowed while a member of the Bills last season.

"That's the first time I've heard that stat," said Peters. "I don't recall giving up that many. If they charged me with that many, so what? I'm an Eagle now. If I give up 11.5 sacks, I'm only human. I'm going to give 100 percent on every play."

Where the stat originally came from - a pro personnel department, a diligent fan, the National Department of Sack Responsibility - is unclear. But it's been out there throughout this offseason as Peters' standoff with the Bills (ultimately resolved with this deal) dragged on.

So is the number legit? DK Turtle did the legwork. With a terrific post on buffalobills.com, Mr. DK Turtle broke down what he believed to the 11.5 sacks in question. It clearly took a lot of time and there's plenty of evidence there to determine how well Peters blocked. Sometimes, it wasn't so good.

But the sack stat - who gets them and who gets blamed for them - is one of the most bogus in football since they can be the by-product of so many things. They can be attributed to excellent coverage, a skittish quarterback, miscommunication, a teammate's pressure. Sacks are like snowflakes, people. Each one different.

As for Peters, I'd be more concerned with how well he plays now that he's gotten paid rather than worrying about who was to blame while trying to protect Trent Edwards and JP Losman. The guy is good. Now, will he stay that way? 

 

Friday night, the Bills dealt left tackle Jason Peters to the Eagles in exchange for the Eagles first-round pick this year (28 overall), a fourth-rounder next week and a sixth-rounder in 2010

1. What Do the Bills Do at LT?

You can see Buffalo's point in trading arguably the best left tackle in football. Peters was terminally unhappy with the way he'd been treated and wasn't going to improve his mood. The Bills have enough going on with player arrests, the addition of T.O. and a head coach on the hot seat. They didn't need a Peters distraction on top of it. They needed to move forward on 2009. So now they turn the position over to Langston Walker. Walker, who has filled in previously for Peters, moves from right tackle to fill in. He'll be there unless (until) Buffalo gets a stud LT in the draft. With the 11th and 28th overall picks, it's not absurd to think the Bills could try to get into the top five for a chance at Jason Smith. Considering they had a fat offer on the table for Peters who was entering his sixth season, why not extend a more lucrative offer to a player who may be just as good and is younger?  Or they can try to wait and see if Andre Smith falls to them at 11.

2. How Good Is the Eagles OL Now?

Shawn Andrews is quite possibly the best guard in football (when healthy). His brother Stacy Andrews, acquired from Cincinnati, will now line up next to Shawn at right tackle. And Peters is on the left with Todd Herremans next to him. That is a tremendous offensive line on paper. It should be noted that Both Andrews boys suffered injuries in 2008 and that, if Peters doesn't perform to the level folks have become accustomed, it won't be the first time a player was handed a stack of dough and spent the next couple of years counting it instead of playing to the level he established.

 

Donovan McNabb went into the offseason wanting roster upgrades.  On Friday, he got a whopper.

The Philadelphia Eagles have pulled off the coup of the NFL offseason by accquiring two-time Pro Bowl tackle Jason Peters from Buffalo.  The Eagles have confirmed the move and have given Peters a six-year contract.  The National Football Post reports that Peters will get $24 million guaranteed.

The Bills will reportedly receive the No. 28 overall pick, a fourth-rounder, and a sixth-round pick in 2010.  Buffalo felt they had to move Peters his monetary demands were a distraction, but they got fleeced. 

If Jason Peters was in the current draft, how high would he go? 

My guess is that Peters would be a top five pick, possibly possibly first.  Teams are hoping that prospects Jason Smith and Eugene Monroe will become Pro Bowlers.  Peters, 27, already is one.  Why not take the sure thing? 

We don't know how much a tackle like Peters would even get on the open market because they never get there.  There's a reason for that. 

I don't want to hear from Bills fans that Peters' 2008 play was uneven after he held out last offseason.  While his second Pro Bowl nod was undeserved, Peters was probably the most dominant left tackle in the AFC in 2007. That came at the age of 26, with Peters playing a relatively new position.  He originally signed with Buffalo as undrafted free agent tight end! 

This was a game-changing move by Philadelphia, who has impressively upgraded both of their tackle spots with players entering their prime.  And they still have a first-round pick (No. 24) to use.  

This likely takes Philly out of the running for Anquan Boldin, but Donovan McNabb should realize that he has all the weapons he needs to make another deep playoff run.  Flashy wideouts are nice, but extra time in the pocket is better. 

This is a story that doesn't figure to go away quietly.

Mike Florio at Pro Football Talk got a tip from his legion of readers about a Facebook account started by USC linebacker Clay Matthews - a likely first-rounder in next week's draft - in 2007.

The name of the Facebook group? "White Nation."

See Florio's post on the story here. And the resulting story written in the Daily Trojan by Elizabeth Geli is here.

Matthews described his group this way, according to Geli.

"This group is not for the faint of heart. All members are athletes of Caucasion (sic) descent. DISCLAIMER: In no way are the following memebers (sic) intolerant of others, we are just doing our duty of protecting the Arian (sic) brotherhood."

Some of Matthews USC teammates, including Brian Cushing, another linebacker and projected first-round pick, joined the group.

When challenged by outraged classmates, Matthews explained it was a joke that arose from a black teammate dubbing the group of white players as "white nation."

Matthews went on to apologize for creating the group, according to the Daily Trojan story.

Think that's going to make everyone shrug and move along? The stupidity of creating an account with a name and content that offensive is staggering.

The web - as you probably heard - is world wide. And the towel-snapping jocularity of the locker room where such joking may be accepted doesn't translate when it enters the public domain.

An inside joke is meant to be kept inside. Morons.

And now the aggrieved public will take up for Matthews, rushing to defend against the "PC police."

Sorry, this isn't a question of being "politically correct" and overly-tender sensitivities.If a group of black USC players had started a Black Nation group on Facebook and used the same charged language, they'd need to do the same amount of explaining.  

Matthews and Cushing are going to have the heat turned up on them because of this in these days before the draft.  

Woody Johnson's appealing to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to get his team's Week 3 game against the Titans switched to a 1 p.m. start.

The Jets owner wrote a letter to Goodell, which can be seen here on the Newark Star-Ledger website, lamenting the fact that the Jets play back-to-back games in Weeks 2 and 3 during the two holiest days on the Jewish calendar.

Johnson wrote: "I am extremely disappointed with the League's decision to schedule us to play at home on consecutive Sundays that are in direct conflict with the Jewish High Holy Days.

"There has long been an understanding that neither the Jets nor Gints fans should have to bear completely the brunt of this issue since we are in the largest Jewish market in the country.

"We were not contacted prior to this decision. We are flexible and would have been more than happy to work with the League to accommodate as many of our fans as possible. We feel the best solution is to change the time of our game with the Titans on 27 September from 4:15 p.m. to 1 p.m. This would give our Jewish fans the opportunity to arrive at home before sundown for Yom Kuppur."

Aside from the fact that "Giants" is spelled "Gints" and "Kippur" is spelled "Kuppur" (not sure if it read that way in the original or if the person who typed it in had a couple finger slips), the request isn't unreasonable.

(And the typos on the website have since been fixed).

The Jets' Week 2 game against New England is at 1 p.m. on September 20. Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, is observed from sundown Friday until sundown Sunday. Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement, begins at sundown on Sunday, September 27. The Jets game with the Titans that day begins at 4:15 p.m. which means it will end after sundown.

On behalf of his Jewish fans (and Johnson notes that greater New York has the largest Jewish population in the country), Johnson is asking for one break. Seems pretty doable.

My bet is they'll get it done.

 

Mike Mayock loves him some Mark Sanchez. The indefatigable NFL Network analyst opined on a conference call Wednesday that the Broncos would be whack-jobs if they don't take the USC quarterback.

"If they don't try to get Mark Sanchez, I think they're crazy.The bottom line to me is if their head coach goes 4-12 with Kyle Orton, he probably gets fired this year. If he goes 4-12 with Mark Sanchez, he's rebuilding."

Mayock was a huge proponent of Jay Cutler in 2006, opining that the former Broncos QB was superior to either Vince Young or Matt Leinart. This year, Mayock insists Sanchez is superior to Matt Stafford, believed by most (like me) to be superior to Sanchez.

Denver drafts 12th.

Bills COO/GM Russ Brandon addressed the issue of discontented left tackle Jason Peters today.

Speaking at a predraft press conference, Brandon said, "We talked about this to nausea (ed. note: he could have said "ad nauseum" and it was misinterpreted but I don't have the audio) and I'll talk about it one more time. We value Jason greatly as a player and he's a guy that we signed as a college free agent, a player that we developed, a player that we signed to a contract early in his career. Obviously Jason's done a great job and played very well. At the conclusion of the year we talked to Jason and we're in a situation where we value him a great deal. We'd like to have him on this team and we'll see where it goes from there."

Brandon later added, "We want him on this football team, we expect him to be on this football team and we will continue to work with he and his representatives."

Peters, a Pro Bowler each of the past two seasons, has reportedly been offered a deal that - on paper - would average more than $11.5 million per year. Mark Gaughan in the Buffalo News wrote last month that the offer to Peters was higher in value than the deal done with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2008 draft, Jake Long. That was a five-year, $57.5 million ditty.

Peters, predictably, is on wildcat strike until he gets what he's looking for.

So during the NFL Network's exhaustive coverage of the 2009 NFL schedule release, Rich Eisen interviewed Howard Katz, the NFL's Senior VP of Media Operations and COO of NFL Films.

Katz, who puts together the schedule for every team along with Michael North, is a longtime TV executive. How long? Well, toward the end of the interview, Eisen was talking with Katz about teams having issues with their schedules and said something about Katz mediating a spat between Telly Savalas and Robert Conrad on Battle of the Network Stars back in 1976.

If you were a conscious person with a television in the 70s, you were probably watching Battle of the Network Stars. It was like the first reality show - an Olympic-styled competition between the stars of network TV - Kojak. Mr. Kotter. Wonder Woman. And the Conrad-Savalas dustup was the seminal moment in the series.

I remember Conrad saying, "Hay-ull" instead of "hell" during the brouhaha and I mocked him two or three times before my mother told me it didn't matter how I said it or why, it was still a swear and cut it out. (I was 18...actually, 8).

The clip of the battle is here. Be careful. You may get lost in the links for a while.

Meanwhile, Katz didn't seem too happy about Eisen referencing the moment but he shouldn't feel badly. It's not like he behaved like Robert Conrad or something.

Bruce Snyder, who took the Arizona State Sun Devils to the brink of the 1996 National Championship, died Monday.

I only spoke to Snyder once. It was in December when I was working on a story about Lions coach Rod Marinelli, a former Snyder assistant.

When I contacted ASU, their media relations department promised to pass my request along but couldn't promise anything. Snyder was quite sick, they said.

Within 24 hours, a robust sounding Snyder was on the phone recalling how Marinelli did whatever he could to get a job on Snyder's Utah State staff. Snyder hired him.

His recollections of Marinelli are vivid. His delivery and humanity in discussing the historically bad season Marinelli had in 2008 are telling. Give it a read.

 

 

Brady Quinn spent the 2007 draft with his girlfriend at his side, sweating bullets as he slipped down the board.

Meanwhile, Joe Thomas - the third overall pick - spent the day fishing.

Wake Forest linebacker Aaron Curry has gone a different route.

Curry will spend the 2009 draft with a 12-year-old boy named Bryson, a cancer patient at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.

Curry, who met Bryson during a visit to the hospital, will have the boy in New York with him for predraft festivities and also in the "green room" at Radio City Music Hall on April 25.

"I just wanted to do something special for a kid that has been through some major struggles and hard times," Curry said in a statement released by Octagon, the firm that represents him. "I've been through hard times, none of which compare to Bryson's, but we have a common theme, and that is hope. And that's really what St. Jude is all about.  Everyone can do their part to give hope to kids like Bryson when they support St. Jude."

Curry is expected to be a top five pick and could go as high as No. 1 if the Detroit Lions opt to play it that way.  

 

The Falcons and Chiefs haven't talked about a deal that would send tight end Tony Gonzalez to Atlanta, according to two sources.

That's not to say that Atlanta wouldn't be happy to have a player of Gonzalez' ilk but that's been nothing more than a daydream to this point.

Michael Lombardi of the National Football Post reported Monday that this is a deal Atlanta is "seriously considering." And while they may be considering it, it hasn't - as of Tuesday afternoon - progressed past that.

We'll be keeping an eye and ear on this and will let you know if anything shakes out.

* The Cowboys will work out about 30 players in the next few days, according to the Dallas Morning News. Among those whose tires they kicked Monday was Missouri quarterback Chase Daniel, writes Todd Archer.

* Lions president Tom Lewand threw a bucket of water on the notion that Detroit might pass on the first pick in order to avoid the $50 to $60 million in bonus and salaries Mr. No. 1 likely will receive. "We don't want to comment on any specifics whether they're logical or illogical," Lewand said at Ford Field Monday according to the Detroit Free Press. (Note: Any team can pass on a pick, allowing the next team to select. The team that passed would then be on the clock again).

* The Texans would like a bigger back in this draft who can complement Steve Slaton, writes John McClain in the Houston Chronicle.

* They're getting edgy in Cleveland as the Browns are looking to move both Brady Quinn and Braylon Edwards this week, according to the National Football Post's Michael Lombardi.

* A good column in the Green Bay Press Gazette on reconsidering the real value of first-round choices by Mike Vandermause.

* The schedule comes out tonight at 7 p.m. so you can gather the whole family around the box and watch it with a big bowl of popcorn on NFL Network. Here's the strength of schedule for each team. It's based on the 2008 records of 2009's opponents, it has nothing to do with how much each schedule can bench.

* Missouri receiver Jeremy Maclin has been all over the countryside with predraft visits but one stop he won't be making is Radio City Music Hall on April 25, according to the Kansas City Star.

What's going on up in Buffalo? A relatively sleepy burgh by NFL standards is becoming pockmarked with misbehaving players and off-field drama

Marshawn Lynch just got handed a three-game suspension for his pair of arrests in less than a year. Donte Whitner got himself tasered and pinched over the weekend. Terrell Owens (who's never been in legal trouble, it should be noted) was recruited and signed despite his perfect record of clashing with quarterbacks and damaging team chemistry everywhere he's gone. Left tackle Jason Peters is embroiled in a contract squabble that ESPN's AFC East chronicler Tim Graham did a nice job breaking down on Friday.

For a rabid fanbase that eats, sleeps and breathes Bills, this is a tough plate to have pushed in front of them. Over at the Bills most active fan website, Two Bills Drive, debates about Whitner, Lynch, Peters and what constitutes a "thug" are ongoing.

Is it just a run of bad luck for the Bills or is it more than that? Certainly, it's all bad timing for Bills head coach Dick Jauron.

Jauron's posted three straight 7-9 seasons at the helm in Western New York and is 33-52 in his last six seasons at Chicago, Detroit and Buffalo. In fact, aside from one 13-3 season in Chicago, Jauron's never coached a team to a winning season. He is squarely on the hot seat in 2009.   

Sage Rosenfels is happy to be liberated from the vocal stylings of Texans coach Gary Kubiak.

Rosenfels, sent to the Vikings this offseason in exchange for a fourth-rounder, told the Pioneer Press that he didn't warm to the hollering of Kubiak in Houston.

"A lot of head coaches don't yell at the quarterbacks or whatever in front of the team or during a game, but coach Kubiak does that. It can be hard on quarterbacks. You can ask any quarterback that's played for him - they respect the heck out of him. You're always going to have your issues. But I was battling, and he was battling. I respect him, and I think he respects me."

Rosenfels says Kubiak unloaded on him last season for calling a timeout before a fourth-and-1 play in the first quarter of a game against the Browns. The next day, he and Kubiak talked it out.  

"I said, 'You know, you yelling at me on the sideline is not going to make me a better player. I'm doing the best I can.I'm one of those guys that you don't have to worry about not putting in enough effort both physically and mentally.' It wasn't helping me become a better player. If anything, it was just getting me more frustrated."

 

Which dominoes have fallen and which are merely wobbling now that Byron Leftwich's taking his act to Tampa Bay? We play true and false on this one.

Tampa Won't Go QB at 19

False. You just can't make that assumption. What if both Mark Sanchez and Josh Freeman are sitting there when the Bucs are on the clock? You can't declare the position locked down just because Leftwich, Luke McCown, Josh Johnson and Brian Griese are on the depth chart. None of the above are anything more than band-aid answers (if that). Tampa's shown interest in Freeman, the 6-6, 248-pounder from K-State. And while Sanchez is expected to be off the board by 19, if he's there, the Bucs would likely leap.

Leftwich Becomes Bucs Starter  

False. In February, Tampa signed McCown to a two-year deal that pays him base salaries of $2.5 million each season and included a bonus of $2.5 million. That $5 million payout in 2009 is pretty steep to a clipboard holder. Leftwich, meanwhile, signed for $7.5 million as well but is getting $2 million in base this year according to John Clayton of ESPN. Looks like an old-fashioned QB competition.

The Bucs Are Better Than They Were Friday 

True. Competition is good. You don't want to shatter the confidence of McCown and have him looking over his shoulder but it's best he earns the spot through a little bit of a battle. And it's not like Leftwich is a latter-day Marino. If McCown's cowed by trying to beat out Byron, the Bucs have bigger issues. With Jeff Garcia - who's better than both Leftwich and McCown - allowed to leave via free agency, this signing improves the position.   

Leftwich's Star Shines Again In TB

False. Slow of foot, long of delivery, heavy of stomach, Byron Leftwich - one of my former favorites - is a good reliever/spot starter but you don't want to run him out there every seven days. He just doesn't have enough tools in his belt to make an 8-8 team a 12-4 team.

 

There was no question that Marshawn Lynch would be suspended to start the year after his recent arrest; the only question was how long.

We have an answer.

ESPN's Michael Smith reports that Lynch will be suspended three games by the league, pending appeal.  An official announcement could come as early as Thursday. 

While Lynch won't be going "Beast Mode" for a while, he welcomed his most famous teammate to the Bills facility this week.

Much was made about Terrell Owens skipping initial offseason conditioning work, but it was a non-story.  Now that he's showed up and is working working out, it's a non-non story.

If the Bills can add some firepower in the draft, their offense has potential to sneak up on some teams.  As long as they don't do anything crazy like trading their Pro Bowl tackle to the Eagles. 

There's a fear out there Jason Taylor might be going "Hollywood." Maybe he is. But the free agent defensive end/OLB sure isn't going New York.

Taylor, speaking to the Miami Herald said (via the New York Post), said, "It'd be very, very, very difficult (to sign with the Jets). At the end of the day, if I couldn't find a job anywhere else and the Jets called, I guess I'd have to retire or go play.

"The Jets are the Jets. I've had a lot of history saying bad things about Jets fans. The fireman hat guy and all of those people in New York that are Jets fans aren't the ones working on Wall Street. I've said all of those things, so I've got to leave it at that."

Wednesday was the first day of Taylor's football camp in Fort Lauderdale and he told reporters there he's been in contact with the Dolphins already.

Jeff Darlington, Dolphins beat writer for the Miami Herald, says Miami wants to first see if can draft a player capable of making an immediate impact at the spot before signing Taylor.

Meanwhile, the Patriots are also in the mix with Pats owner Robert Kraft playing verbal footsie with Taylor.  

* It will be interesting to see if the impact of Jason Taylor is ultimately as profound as the curiosity about where he'll land in the AFC East.

* Bills wide receiver Terrell Owens said last month, "I've never gone to a voluntary workout," Owens said. "I have a personal trainer. I take very good care of myself. I take pride in coming into camp in shape." Wednesday, T.O. showed up at offseason workouts. Whether he's in it for the long haul or just stopping by (Owens also said last month, "If I'm in the area, I tend to stop by the facilities and work out with the guys.") remains to be learned.

* The Bears are shopping for wideouts and their two new high-profile acquisitions - Jay Cutler and Orlando Pace - are reportedly on the recruiting trail. Pace, according to the Chicago Tribune, is courting Torry Holt. WSCR radio in Chicago says Cutler reached out to Plaxico Burress. The whole jail thing for Burress may prove to be a deterrent.

* Speaking of legal issues, Bengals corner Leon Hall is due in court Friday to face a DUI charge after getting arrested at 3:11 a.m. last Sunday morning in Union Township, Ohio.

* Speaking of legal issues, Bills running back Marshawn Lynch will be suspended for three games after his pair of arrests in the past year.

When Terrell Owens was released, the most logical player to emerge with more playing time was fourth-year receiver Miles Austin.  So what happens if Austin leaves too?

The relative unknown Cowboys reserve will visit the Jets Friday on a restricted free agent visit.  If the Jets extend an offer sheet, the Cowboys will have one week to match the deal.

Expect Dallas to do everything possible to keep Austin.  He's a Jerry Jones favorite, and was slated for a possible starting role.  If Dallas lets Austin get away, there will be more pressure than ever for Roy Williams to avoid being one of the, "biggest busts in the history of the league."

Tony Romo is not having a good week.   

The Lions - owners of the first choice in this year's draft - "plan" to take Georgia quarterback Matthew Stafford, according to Mike Florio at Pro Football Talk.

Florio couches the assertion by saying that it may still be a smokescreen, but he sounds pretty sold on the fact it isn't.

While Florio may be dead-on today, there are myriad things that can pop up between now and April 25 that could submarine that plan.

The cost to get Stafford under contract before Halloween 2009 would be the most obvious one.

An agent with experience repping top 10 players says negotiations between prospects and the team at No. 1 normally begin "10 to 12 days" before the draft. Last year, the Dolphins and Michigan tackle Jake Long struck the deal to make Long the No. 1 on the Tuesday before the draft. Long, represented by Tom Condon, signed for five years and $57 million with $30 million guaranteed.  

Stafford's represented by Condon as well and the cost to do a deal with a quarterback is going to be greater than it was for an offensive tackle, regardless of them both going at No. 1.

Since 2000, six quarterbacks have been the No. 1 overall pick - Michael Vick (2001), David Carr (2002), Carson Palmer (2003), Eli Manning (2004), Alex Smith (2005) and JaMarcus Russell (2007).  

Meanwhile, Jason Smith, a tackle from Baylor and Wake Forest linebacker Aaron Curry are presumed to be the other players Detroit is considering.

Bills running back Fred Jackson's not going to work out with his teammates in Western New York this offseason. Or at least he hasn't yet and likely won't until he signs his "exclusive rights free agent" tender. And Seahawks linebacker LeRoy Hill is staying away from the Seahawks' voluntary mini-camp because he's been franchised.

Are these news items? Items of note? Irrelevancies bereft of context? How 'bout a little of each. 

That the absences of bit players like Jackson (24 games, 871 yards rushing and three touchdowns) and Hill get attention because chronicling which players stay away from workouts has become an annual spring rite around the league.

With franchises emphasizing team-building during this part of the year, players who opt not to attend the voluntary workouts risk being labeled as selfish malcontents.

Players can opt not to participate. Teams, fans and we in the media can opt to use that decision against them.

But really, how many blocks are missed because you didn't do legs with your position group in April?

Is less pleasure derived from a win in December if your wide receiver wasn't running gassers shoulder-to-shoulder with you in May?

And if this is an affront to team unity, isn't the lineman that doesn't go out with the other guys on Thursday night for weekly barbeque and bowling guilty of the same act?

Here's a list of guys who have reportedly opted not to participate in voluntary workouts this offseason. Titans tight end Bo Scaife, BIlls tackle Jason Peters, Texans Dunta Robinson and DeMeco Ryans, Jets running back Thomas Jones, Cardinals Anquan Boldin, Darnell Dockett and Edgerrin James, Bills wideout Terrell Owens, Vikings defensive end Jared Allen, Bengals wideout Chad Johnson and Jags running back Maurice Jones-Drew.

There are no doubt scads more than these guys, but these are the ones we've heard about.

And while coaching staffs are no doubt giddy about the impact this implied pressure has on players, it's still a situation that's out of whack. For instance, Bucs tight end Kellen Winslow was present for a workout in Tampa last week but didn't participate and that bit of news smacked of Winslow, a new acquisition, being out of line. He wasn't. And say what you want about Terrell Owens game and attitude, the guy is never out of game-shape.

What will be really interesting is when players adopt a "work-to-rule" stance. With CBA negotiations promising to become even more contentious in the coming months, it would be a logical move by the NFLPA to recommend that the rank-and-file give their teams what they're contractually obligated to give. And that may mean staying away from offseason workouts. While some players would be forgoing significant bonus money they earn by participating (Jay Cutler had a $100,000 bonus he was forfeiting by staying away from Broncos workouts), it's the kind of thing that unions do to send a message of solidarity.

And help remind everyone the meaning of voluntary.

 

Seahawks quarterback Matt Hasselbeck has no problem with his team drafting a quarterback like, say, Georgia's Matt Stafford with the fourth overall pick. As long as Stafford's OK with spectatin'.

Asked about the possibility during a Monday interview on KIRO 710-AM, Hasselbeck said, I'm a little biased here, right? We could draft him, but it would kind of stink for him, because he would have to sit on the bench for awhile."

That quote was in a longer story from Eric D. Williams in the Tacoma News Tribune talking about the soon-to-be-34-year-old's return from an injury-marred 2008.

Hasselbeck played in just nine games for the Seahawks as a bulging disk in his back caused pain in his leg. Williams reports that an offseason weight program fixed that.

Hasselbeck, who has been a monster in odd-numbered years since 2003, also made the very valid point during his KIRO stint that teams stand just as good a chance of plucking a capable quarterback after the first round as they do in the first. Hasselbeck himself was a sixth-round pick. So was Tom Brady.

The Bucs took a major gamble when they acquired Kellen Winslow for two draft picks.  On Monday, they doubled down by handing him a huge contract. 

Don't buy the hype that the six-year deal was the largest ever for a tight end.  While that looks good in an agent's brochure, it's essentially a three-year, $20.185 contract, with the first two years fully guaranteed.  The third year is guaranteed for injury.  Now Winslow's fortune will match his impressive tally in the wife department. 

The Bucs know that Winslow's knees, surgically repaired countless times, make him old  for a 26-year-old player.  He's only topped 10 yards-per-catch once since getting drafted in 2004. 

After dumping franchise legend Derrick Brooks, Winslow was the first big move of the Raheem Morris/Mark Domenik era.  They are clearly comfortable with Winslow as a symbol for their new regime.  They are paying Winslow to be a top-five player at his position now, and he must stay healthy to live up to his end of the bargain.

In discussing personnel with the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Dolphins GM Jeff Ireland turned up the heat on third-year wideout Ted Ginn, saying, "Teddy is going into his third year and I think it's time for him to really show what he was drafted here to do."

Not exactly what one would call a subtle prod. But Ginn, the ninth overall pick in the 2007 draft, may be up to the challenge.

After a dismal first year in 2007 for that one-win Dolphins edition, Ginn had a 56-catch, 790-yard 2008. Still, he only had two receiving touchdowns bringing his career total to four.

The problem for Ginn? He was drafted too high. His speed is his No. 1 attribute, not his pass-catching, route-running or understanding of the passing game. Even though he made his greatest mark at Ohio State as a kick returner, the last Dolphins regime used the ninth overall pick on him, which is where you would draft and true, No. 1 receiver, not a 5-11, 178-pound gadget guy.

Ginn may play well for the Dolphins in 2009 but he's never going to have the impact on the passing game that, say, Lee Evans does in Buffalo. He's 5-10 and fast like Ginn, but he's also 202 pounds and a much more polished and savvy wideout.  

Falcons GM Tom Dimitroff made an interesting deal today. Dimitroff moved up 22 spots in the fifth round and 20 in the sixth round by sending wide receiver Laurent Robinson to the Rams.

On the surface, it's not a move you call a press conference to announce. And under the surface, it may not make a bit of difference down the road.

But one thing scouting and personnel departments hate on draft day is watching players of value fly off the shelves while they're stuck waiting to get to the front of the line.

Tim Hightower, for instance, went between 138 and 160 last year. Kevin Boss and Steve Breaston were in that span in 2007. Dawan Landry was in there in 2006. You get the picture.

Or those spots become currency on draft day if another team gets itchy for a prospect and the Falcons are coming up. Those picks are important to a team that, despite a pretty good 2008, isn't exactly without needs.  

Robinson caught 42 passes for 489 yards and a touchdown in Atlanta.

It's debatable whether Jeff Garcia is still a quality NFL quarterback.  His numbers last year would indicate he is.  Anyone who watched his performance against the Raiders in Week 17 last year would say he isn't.

Anyone except the Raiders, that is.

Oakland signed Garcia Monday to an undisclosed contract in one of the strangest moves of the offseason.

The Raiders are going back to their traditional vertical offense that relies on throwing bombs.  Jeff Garcia may have the weakest arm of any quarterback in the league.

The Raiders are doing everything possible to nurture JaMarcus Russell, who could use a veteran hand to mentor him.  Garcia, though, has never been happy as a backup. He's often often made waves with teammates and coaching staffs.

This is a big year for Russell's development.  He's only 24 years old, but needs to show more signs he was worth the number one overall pick.  Now he'll have to do it with a likely fan favorite as his backup, just dying get on the field. 

Football's Opening Day may be five long months away, but the NFL has plenty of action going on Monday. 

Recently deposed Giants wideout Plaxico Burress has won a grievance against the Giants after they withheld $1 million in bonus money after Burress shot himself in the leg.  Burress' dogged pursuit of the money may have contributed to his release.  New reports that Plaxico swore at police during a recent traffic stop may have also informed New York's decision.

While the union fought and won for Burress, Larry Johnson was not so lucky.  "Special Master" Stephen Burbank ruled that LJ breached his contract when he was suspended last year.  That means his salary is not guaranteed for 2009 if the Chiefs cut him. 

Plaxico and L.J. received different results Monday, but look for them to have something in common soon enough: they will both be looking for a job.

Mario Reyes was walking to the bus on March 14 after working overnight as a crane operator at the Port of Miami.

He was struck and killed by Donte Stallworth's Bentley at 7 in the morning. Whatever Stallworth did all night to produce a blood-alchohol level of .126, one can be assured it was more interesting than operating a crane.

Two lives that couldn't have been more different intersected that Saturday morning.

Bus. Bentley. Work all night and then past dawn of the next day. Party all night, burying drinks until the sun comes up, then drive home to sleep it off. Cuban immigrant who never went to college and couldn't afford a car. Sacramento, California schoolboy star beloved in his home city, a college scholarship bestowed on him. 

A 59-year-old too poor to afford a car. A 28-year-old in possession of a $35 million contract to play a game.  

One life's ended. The other is ruined. Yet even though all the elements designed to bring reflexive indignance are there - poor vs. rich, hard-working vs. game-playing, work weary vs. drunk - it's ok to feel badly for the guy who's still alive. Doing so doesn't besmirch the memory of Mario Reyes.

Donte Stallworth is not an irredeemable human being. Some of his Browns teammates acknowledge that in a story by Mary Kay Cabot in the Cleveland Plain-Dealer.

"Of course, Donte made a poor choice, and you can never get back a life," said Browns linebacker D'Qwell Jackson. "No one knows that more than Donte. But people should know that Donte is a great person who made a terrible mistake, not a terrible person."

That's not excusing what Stallworth did. That's not asking for leniency or the benefit of the doubt. There is no doubt about what happened and who bears responsibility.

Mario Reyes' and Donte Stallworth's life situations couldn't have been more different. Right and wrong in this case is as clear as black and white. But Stallworth's life - privileged though it may have been - can be mourned as well.

Last offseason, the Bengals reportedly turned down an offer of two first-round picks from Washington for Chad Johnson.  Refusing that monster deal indicated that Ocho Cinco was essentially not on the market.  That may not be the case anymore.

Yahoo's Jason Cole is getting mixed messages, but he has sources that believe the Bengals are willing to trade Johnson. 

T.J. Housmandzadeh says Johnson wants out, and that is supported by the wideout's absence at Cincy's offseason conditioning program.  Johnson will forgo a $250,000 workout bonus if he doesn't show up soon.

Despite Johnson's terrible '08 season, there should be a market for a receiver who led the AFC in receiving four straight years.  Profootballtalk writes there "is some belief" the Raiders have interest, which makes a lot of sense on paper.  They need weapons. 

Johnson has mostly kept his mouth shut this offseason, but his desire to leave the Bengals for riches elsewhere hasn't changed.  This year, he might get his wish.

Denver Broncos head coach Josh McDaniels met with the media in Denver today to discuss the massive Cutler to Chicago deal. Thanks to the Broncos media relations staff for sending along the transcript.

The full text is below but here are a couple things that jumped out at me.

Asked if there was anything he would have done differently, McDaniels said, "That's frustrating to me because the situation as it played out, there was communication that morning and I think there has been this speculation that everybody is withholding information. There was a conversation earlier that morning and then no communication for quite a long time. In terms of being forthcoming, I don' t know what else we would do. We called the player, we spoke to him and his agent before anything had ever happened and that's kind of where it stood from our point. We couldn't go forward from it because there was no communication from that point forward. I would never use that word that we would do anything over because we tried to do that and we never could get to the point where there was effective communication.

"Like I said, we were doing something at that point in time--35 days ago or whatever it is--to try to take a look at something that may or may not improve the team. There was no decision made, so we didn't get to a point where we were doing anything. We didn't get to a point where we were going to take anything to Pat Bowlen and say 'here is what we think we should do.' At that point everything obviously went forward with Kansas City and it's done, so like I said, that's the end of all of it."

Also, McDaniels was asked about communications with Cutler and the involvement of his agent, Bus Cook. He said, "Like I said, it's a two-way commitment. If you're going to do something then it has to be done where both people are trying to get to the same resolution. For the majority of this process that is not the way it was."

On whether he had an opportunity to meet one-on-one with Cutler

"Impossible. Bus Cook (Cutler's agent) was going to be there. We would have loved to do it."

On whether Bus Cook was the problem

"No idea. This wasn't about a contract, so I have no idea if Bus Cook was the problem or not."

On his relationship with Cutler up until the point where it went wrong

"We had multiple meetings. The player is very smart, very bright. I could see that right away. There was never any reason to think otherwise. We met on a number of occasions and he was coming in here and working with [Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks] Coach [Matt] McCoy. Again, he is going to be a good player. He is going to be a good player in Chicago now. There were no reservations about anything that I had noticed or I had witnessed in our conversations. We had good conversations and good meetings."

The full transcript can be found on the jump, here...

Speaking about Plaxico Burress' release Friday, Giants GM Jerry Reese said, "We hung in there as long as we could."

He wasn't kidding.  The Giants wanted the Burress situation to work out, showing surprising patience.  Play-by-play announcer Bob Papa, speaking on the NFL Network Friday, said the team was willing to wait out Burress' legal issues and likely suspension if he proved to the team that his behavior had changed.  

Burress' recent interactions with the organization apparently convinced them otherwise. 

There is a reason the Giants held on so long: Burress is a difference-maker.  Speaking to our own Tom Curran at the NFL Owner's Meetings, Reese said that there aren't many true number one receivers in the league.  And Reese considers Burress one of them.   I agree.  

The offseason of 2009 will be remembered either as a) the period when teams threw the baby out with the bathwater or b) the time in which they finally came to their senses.

In a one-month span, the Cowboys released Terrell Owens, the Broncos dealt Jay Cutler and the Giants have now released Plaxico Burress.

Three very different personalities, each situation unique but all with an unmistakeable common thread - their teams weren't putting up with their act anymore.

Clubs yammer about team building during this part of the season. With all the emphasis placed on attendance at offseason workouts and starting the year in mental lockstep, it's not a surprise that these moves are made now. 

"It's the end of one year and the beginning of another and you are building your team for 2009," said one GM this afternoon. "You contemplate how your team is going to be and we know why each of these decisions was made. Look at Plaxico. He's going to jail. He's probably going to be suspended. He doesn't help you."

So you take the potato peeler to any potential problems and carve them from the roster. 

Often, these decisions are met with unchecked outrage and prophesies of doom by fanbases and the media. And sometimes, the team shares blame in the need to get rid of the guy. The Cowboys and Broncos both let their situations with T.O. and Cutler get out of hand.

But it's never as dire as predicted. The whole - as we've seen over and over again - is greater than the sum of its parts especially in the NFL. Take a bad guy or a pain in the posterior off a team and watch the negligible impact his departure has. Put a good guy on a team - a consensus builder, a player with a track record as a winner and a leader - and watch the results. Exhibit A would be Chad Pennington in Miami last year.

The Giants mismanaged the Burress situation, to be sure. What, they thought catching the winning touchdown in the Super Bowl was going to make him suddenly a tremendous teammate? So they gave him a new deal before last season and what did he do? Acted more incorrigibly than he ever did.

This is the offseason in which a few teams decided they weren't going to hold their nose and put up with the stink caused by a talented turd. So they flushed them.

And now, they become someone else's headache - the Bears or the Bills or whatever desperate team signs Burress, feeling that they're a player away and that they can steal a season of good behavior from a guy and save everyone's job.

Sometimes it works. See Corey Dillon in New England who waited a season-and-a-half before becoming an irritant again.

The Broncos, Cowboys and Giants aren't assured great seasons now that they've moved on from their headaches. But at least they can enter the season without having to hold their noses.

The dust is settling after yesterday's Jay Cutler trade.  I was planning to write a slew of blog posts about it, but decided to compile all the questions for a column on the main site.  The short version: The Bears aren't guaranteed anything in a tough NFC North, and the deal will make a lot more sense for the Broncos if they wind up with Mark Sanchez. 

Other links from the fallout ...

• Touchdown Tom Curran is impressed with Denver's haul.
• Jay Cutler once had his feelings hurt by Bears OC Ron Turner.  Maybe he'll ask for a trade.
• The Redskins now have to kiss and make up with Jason Campbell.  The Broncos clearly liked Kyle Orton better than Campbell.  Washington couldn't get a second-round pick for Campbell to move to Denver, along with two first round picks. 
  
• The real losers Thursday: the fantasy owners!  And, uh, the jersey salesmen.  
• The Browns are denying that they tried to trade Brady Quinn.  But what else are they going to say. 
  
• Last year's first round pick for Chicago, Chris Williams, will fight to play on the right side after the signing of Orlando Pace. 
  

Wondering what to watch August 30? How's Jay Cutler's return to Denver as quarterback of the Bears sound?

The Bears and Broncos are on NBC's Sunday Night Football that night in what should be an absolutely fascinating game. Provided the Bears don't try to hide Sweet Baby Jay that night. The chances of that are remote. It's the all-important third preseason game so Cutler and his counterpart, newly minted Broncos quarterback Kyle Orton should get plenty of work.

NBC also has Cutler's regular-season debut on September 13 against the Packers.

It's never a good time to fail a drug test, but Boston College defensive tackle B.J. Raji picked an exceptionally bad time.

SI.com is reporting that Raji failed an undisclosed drug test at the NFL Scouting Combine.  The drug is unknown, but NFL teams were reportedly aware that Raji had tested positive for marijuana previously during his time at Boston College.

Reports of failed drug tests seem to crop up every year, and often they don't change someone's draft status that much.  But those tests are usually not the one given out at the Combine.  Failing a drug test at the biggest job interview of your life allows for teams to call a player's judgment into question. 

Warren Sapp famously slid after a failed test.  Raji, who was projected to be a top-ten pick, could face the same fate. 

Well, at least Jay Cutler now knows the people he's dealing with are wearing big boy pants.

Talking to Foxsports.com at a UFC event, Cutler shows just how immature and accustomed to getting his way he is, saying, "I was surprised they decided to trade me this soon. I didn't want to get traded. This wasn't me. (The Broncos) had been going back and forth saying things, wanting me to be their quarterback and then they didn't. I really didn't want this. I love Denver. I really like my teammates. I didn't want it to get this far."

Cutler, of course, wore out the patience of the Broncos, especially owner Pat Bowlen who released a statement Tuesday night announcing that Cutler's agent Bus Cook, "clearly communicated and confirmed to us that Jay no longer has any desire to play for the Broncos. We will begin discussions with other teams in an effort to accommodate his request to be traded."

So after more than a month of staying in his room with the door locked and the Broncos laying on their stomachs whispering soothing words to coax him out, Cutler's surprised they've had enough, that Bowlen's had enough?

He "didn't want it to get this far"? That a 25-year-old could be so infantile as to think ignoring completely his head coach and owner may be the most shocking aspect of all of this.

Moronic as Cutler appears to be, life would be easier for the Broncos if they didn't have to deal him and a resolution could be reached to keep him there. Hey, maybe he grows up quickly from all this. Cutler's at least opened the door to his room and is peeking out 

Meanwhile, the Washington Post is stoking the notion that the Redskins are hot after Cutler with this post from writer Jason LaConfora that says the Skins are "actively pursuing a trade" for Cutler.

I spoke with former Redskins quarterback and ESPN analyst Joe Theismann on Wednesday and he expressed dismay that the Redskins would move away from starter Jason Campbell saying, "The problems that offense has are not related to Jason Campbell. He played last year behind an offensive line that was beat up. He is not the problem."

Now that owner Pat Bowlen's decided enough is enough, two big questions arise. 1) Where will Denver send its Pro Bowl headache (Gregg Rosenthal broke it down nicely)? 2) What can they get in return?

Answering the second part of the question first: they probably won't get enough.

With Denver having pledged to move Cutler, the urgency to make a deal would appear to be theirs. Even if you're a team without an established quarterback - like Detroit or Tampa - you can make a take it or leave it offer and if Denver doesn't like it, the offering team can shrug and say, "Suit yourself." The buyers know the sellers are desperate.

The only way for Denver to regain the upper hand in trade negotiations is if multiple teams are legitimately bidding and not just murmuring about it. Then they can play the offers off each other. If they have the patience to do so.

It's on head coach Josh McDaniels and GM Brian Zanders to play this hand well (and their brief track record on trade talks is, ahem, not good). How involved Bowlen gets in any trade talks will also be interesting to see. His Tuesday statement shows he's taking the reins to some extent. Has he lost any faith in the youthful Xanders-McDaniels pairing? Will Bowlen want to perform a quick Cutler-ectomy on his organization and just move on.

On the other side of things, how do the quarterbacks in place at the rumored destinations - specifically Washington and Jason Campbell - react to the news that their team might prefer Cutler? As we've come to see, these young QBs can get a little touchy.

Given the enormity of this decision for both Denver and any team looking to take on Cutler, this could take a while. My guess? April 20 is when it gets down to the real nitty-gritty. That's the Monday before the draft and teams might not show with their best offer until then.

Now that Jay Cutler really looks out in Denver, let's size up the field of teams who will be going after him.

The Frontrunners

Detroit Lions: Talk about solving the curse of Bobby Layne!  Detroit has shown interest in Cutler before, and has the picks to get it done.  Denver probably doesn't want the first overall pick because of the huge contract, so perhaps the 20th pick and next year's first could turn the trick. 

Tampa Bay Bucs: The Broncos would prefer to send Cutler to the NFC, and Tampa was in on the Cutler sweepstakes when Matt Cassel was involved.  They have the money to get it done, and didn't mind sending draft picks away in the Kellen Winslow deal.

New York Jets: They have a huge need to sell season tickets for their new stadium, not to mention Brett freaking Ratliff as the in-house favorite to start at quarterback.  And they love those diva clients of Bus Cook!