Some tidbits from around the league. A lot of this is from a lengthy IM session I had with a football writer y'all are familiar with. I'm in Cleveland for the HOF festivities and I also have run into a lot of the same people I see at the Combine--Browns camp yesterday was like a field trip for lower-level front office people and agents.
--Steelers: look out for Lamarr Woodley, he's for real. If you talk to anyone who's been at their camp, he's the first thing anyone talks about and it's glowing praise. He's got the full package of pass rush moves and is much more powerful than anyone expected, plus he has the playbook down. Alas, the other rookie they're really counting on, LB Lawrence Timmons, is really in a hole. His groin is injured a lot worse than they're letting on and he might start the season on the PUP list (out first 6 games). Even before he tweaked it they were disappointed at how slowly he was learning the defense.
--Browns: I'll give you two quotes about Joe Thomas, one I got during a brief talk with Kamerion Wimbley, the other should be in the papers today or tomorrow. Wimbley said, "Wow, man. Joe Thomas is a monster. I beat him with an up and under move once. Now every time I try to go low into him he just swallows me up. It's like going up against Jonathan Ogden every play." And McGinest said Thomas is as good as Orlando Pace was when he came into the league and is "probably going to be the best rookie tackle you've ever seen". Willie's been around a long time and knows his great tackles. FYI--Wimbley is a real bright dude.
--Giants: The writer I talked with believes Strahan will be playing for the team but won't show up until the last preseason game week. In short, nobody believes the retirement talk, not the Giants org, not his teammates, not any of the media who cover them. And he will not get a new deal because the Giants don't want to set that precedent of caving in for stunts like this.
--Raiders: I'll give you the quote..."Someone really needs to take control away from Al Davis because he has lost it. This signing of Culpepper is completely pointless. It's showering over-market money at a guy you hope doesn't make your team. If he thinks Culpepper can come in and mentor Russell he clearly doesn't know either guy very well. Now all Al has done is make the negotiating with Russell's people even more acrimonious and torpedoed all fo Lane Kiffin's great work with McCown. Josh McCown has looked great so far. It just lends further credence that the Raiders are still going to be the worst team in the league." That's cut/pasted from an IM chat, slightly edited for typos and clarity.
--Panthers: the acquisition of Chris Harris might not seem that big, but this should pay off real nicely for them. He's not great but he's also almost never in the wrong spot and he's a very good run blitzer, something they've wanted but lacked. Also, Jon Beason's holdout should end either today or Monday--they're just trading on-field benchmarks for voidable years and up-front $$. This holdout has probably cost him a chance to start before their bye week though and has him already in John Fox's doghouse.
--Bucs: More from my IM session, slightly paraphrased..."The fact that Jon Gruden hasn't already declared Jeff Garcia as his man should be read as 'Jeff Garcia is not his man'. That QB clusterf*** is depressing. They have one of the best deep threats in the game in Joey Galloway and they don't have a QB who can throw the ball 30 yards without hitting the clouds. Chris Simms really looks done to me. He's scared about getting hurt and it shows in everything he does. They should unload him now and let him try to regroup somewhere else."
--Bears: Their offense has been dominating their defense so far. Really. They've got two legit deep threats in Bradley and Berrian and Rex throws the ball deep better than he does short and with better mechanics. Greg Olsen is drawing Todd Heap comparisons. Hester is making his move to offense look genius. The only negatives I've heard from their camp are that they're not as good at DE as anyone thinks they are (read: expect regression from Anderson and little from Ogunleye) and their OL is already looking old and not fresh, and none of their backups are NFL-caliber players.
Random tidbits 8-3
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Random tidbits 8-3
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JoeyH wrote:If the Saints get homefield, I expect a trip to the SB with no chance of beating the Patriots.
The division will probably suck. The question is will it be as bad as NFC North.
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NurbekIL wrote:-= original quote snipped =-
The division will probably suck. The question is will it be as bad as NFC North.
Doesn't matter, NFC south games always are dogfights, I mean look at the Bucs, they almost beat us with Gradkowski
Icness, let us know ASAP if you get some Saint's info, I need to know how Usama Young is performing
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Stuff I gleaned from HOF weekend...
--the Colts are semi-desperate to find anyone who can plug the hole with the loss of Booger McFarland. They're not just looking waiver-wire but are seeing what the trade market is like. They have no qualms about trading any draft pick next year to get them a legit DT. One speculation I heard: Shaun Rogers, but that would cost them, at minimum, a 1st rounder and one of their young CBs.
--Eagles: rookie LB Stewart Bradley has significantly outplayed Chris Gocong, who has not shown the requisite ability to get off blocks to be effective. Bradley will almost certainly be the starter and don't be surprised if he winds up being an impact LB pretty quickly. They love his toughness and blitzing ability.
--Saints: Roman Harper will play in the next preseason game and should be fine for the regular season. He will start over Kaesviharn but expect a lot of rotation amongst the safeties. They're thrilled with Eric Johnson at TE, enough that Billy Miller probably won't make the team. Jahri Evans is noticeably lighter on his feet in pass protection, looks great. Usama Young is the nickel back right now, but they like him better against outside WRs than the slot because he doesn't play very physical. After Jason David on the right side all the CB jobs are up in the air. The competition is going to be fierce. Dhani Jones is in very real danger of being cut. The Saints carry themselves with the same matter-of-fact, quiet but confident manner that Belichick teams have, just a real impressive team.
--Chiefs: they finally got a deal done with Dwayne Bowe, which is real imperative because he's clearly the best WR on the team. A guy real close to the Chiefs told me they're not overly impressed with either Croyle or Huard at QB and also that they're not going to cave to LJ and would rather use 2007 to suffer a rebuild year than give in, let LJ run wild and wind up 8-8. There's a feeling around the Chiefs that they're either going to start real fast and be in the playoffs or else bottom out and wind up like 5-11 and draft a QB real high. IMO they're much closer to the latter than the former, their OL is a real problem.
Holdouts:
Russell is nowhere close to being done. The Raiders have not budged on their initial pre-draft offer, which Russell's agents told them don't bother to draft me if that's your offer. It's less guaranteed $$ than Alex Smith got 2 years ago and less bonus $$ than Joe Thomas or Levi Brown got this year. This is also holding up Brady Quinn's deal, because his agent wants to base the voidables and incentives off Russell's deal as a QB.
Quinn and the Browns aren't as far off as it's been lead, but they're not close to resolution either. This one is all about the agent and not Quinn--his agent (rightfully) believes that if he doesn't milk a deal that puts Quinn as one of the top 5 rookies in guaranteed $$, he'll never get another prominent QB to sign with him and he'll lose bargaining power with other teams. The holdout as all but guaranteed Quinn won't have any shot at playing before about Week 10 unless the Browns are like 1-6. Quinn's agent is angling for more $$ than Leinart got last year, which IMO is just ridiculous, under the argument that he's the Browns 1st rounder in 2008. That argument has been tried and failed so many times that he's an utter moron for trying. Another case where a bad choice in agents winds up potentially ruining a career before it even starts.
Revis and the Jets are feuding over incentives and voidables, so it's not major issues. The Jets have actually offered him more guaranteed $$ than Carriker got from the Rams, but the incentives (primarily % of snaps and forced turnovers) are way out of line with similar picks. Without knowing much more than that about either side, I would expect this to end pretty soon. And Revis will walk onto that practice field as their best CB by a wide margin--Mangini has not been happy at all with his CBs.
--the Colts are semi-desperate to find anyone who can plug the hole with the loss of Booger McFarland. They're not just looking waiver-wire but are seeing what the trade market is like. They have no qualms about trading any draft pick next year to get them a legit DT. One speculation I heard: Shaun Rogers, but that would cost them, at minimum, a 1st rounder and one of their young CBs.
--Eagles: rookie LB Stewart Bradley has significantly outplayed Chris Gocong, who has not shown the requisite ability to get off blocks to be effective. Bradley will almost certainly be the starter and don't be surprised if he winds up being an impact LB pretty quickly. They love his toughness and blitzing ability.
--Saints: Roman Harper will play in the next preseason game and should be fine for the regular season. He will start over Kaesviharn but expect a lot of rotation amongst the safeties. They're thrilled with Eric Johnson at TE, enough that Billy Miller probably won't make the team. Jahri Evans is noticeably lighter on his feet in pass protection, looks great. Usama Young is the nickel back right now, but they like him better against outside WRs than the slot because he doesn't play very physical. After Jason David on the right side all the CB jobs are up in the air. The competition is going to be fierce. Dhani Jones is in very real danger of being cut. The Saints carry themselves with the same matter-of-fact, quiet but confident manner that Belichick teams have, just a real impressive team.
--Chiefs: they finally got a deal done with Dwayne Bowe, which is real imperative because he's clearly the best WR on the team. A guy real close to the Chiefs told me they're not overly impressed with either Croyle or Huard at QB and also that they're not going to cave to LJ and would rather use 2007 to suffer a rebuild year than give in, let LJ run wild and wind up 8-8. There's a feeling around the Chiefs that they're either going to start real fast and be in the playoffs or else bottom out and wind up like 5-11 and draft a QB real high. IMO they're much closer to the latter than the former, their OL is a real problem.
Holdouts:
Russell is nowhere close to being done. The Raiders have not budged on their initial pre-draft offer, which Russell's agents told them don't bother to draft me if that's your offer. It's less guaranteed $$ than Alex Smith got 2 years ago and less bonus $$ than Joe Thomas or Levi Brown got this year. This is also holding up Brady Quinn's deal, because his agent wants to base the voidables and incentives off Russell's deal as a QB.
Quinn and the Browns aren't as far off as it's been lead, but they're not close to resolution either. This one is all about the agent and not Quinn--his agent (rightfully) believes that if he doesn't milk a deal that puts Quinn as one of the top 5 rookies in guaranteed $$, he'll never get another prominent QB to sign with him and he'll lose bargaining power with other teams. The holdout as all but guaranteed Quinn won't have any shot at playing before about Week 10 unless the Browns are like 1-6. Quinn's agent is angling for more $$ than Leinart got last year, which IMO is just ridiculous, under the argument that he's the Browns 1st rounder in 2008. That argument has been tried and failed so many times that he's an utter moron for trying. Another case where a bad choice in agents winds up potentially ruining a career before it even starts.
Revis and the Jets are feuding over incentives and voidables, so it's not major issues. The Jets have actually offered him more guaranteed $$ than Carriker got from the Rams, but the incentives (primarily % of snaps and forced turnovers) are way out of line with similar picks. Without knowing much more than that about either side, I would expect this to end pretty soon. And Revis will walk onto that practice field as their best CB by a wide margin--Mangini has not been happy at all with his CBs.
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Quinn and the Browns aren't as far off as it's been lead, but they're not close to resolution either. This one is all about the agent and not Quinn--his agent (rightfully) believes that if he doesn't milk a deal that puts Quinn as one of the top 5 rookies in guaranteed $$, he'll never get another prominent QB to sign with him and he'll lose bargaining power with other teams. The holdout as all but guaranteed Quinn won't have any shot at playing before about Week 10 unless the Browns are like 1-6. Quinn's agent is angling for more $$ than Leinart got last year, which IMO is just ridiculous, under the argument that he's the Browns 1st rounder in 2008. That argument has been tried and failed so many times that he's an utter moron for trying. Another case where a bad choice in agents winds up potentially ruining a career before it even starts.
How much leverage does Quinn have in this situation? If this is true (which, being you, I assume it to be), can
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hey icness any cowboys news? did u enjoy the influx of cowboys fandom at the HOF weekend?
how serious is terry glenn's knee that he just got scoped? all ive heard is he'll try to play in 1 pre season game and hopefully be ready togo.
thats about all the questions i can think of for now but if you got anything else id love it.
also how do u think brodie croyle will do? i remember watching him in college thinking he had a cannon for an arm.
how serious is terry glenn's knee that he just got scoped? all ive heard is he'll try to play in 1 pre season game and hopefully be ready togo.
thats about all the questions i can think of for now but if you got anything else id love it.
also how do u think brodie croyle will do? i remember watching him in college thinking he had a cannon for an arm.
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Good stuff Ic, I'm glad to hear that about Roman, because I thought he sat and it would be an issue....
He's vital to the defense, and was a big reason we were good early on.
I expect young to move to the #2 cornerback spot if he has already won the nickel slot.
He's vital to the defense, and was a big reason we were good early on.
I expect young to move to the #2 cornerback spot if he has already won the nickel slot.
Doctor MJ wrote:I don't understand why people jump in a thread and say basically, "This thing you're all talking about. I'm too ignorant to know anything about it. Lollerskates!"
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