Courtesy of Seahawks Insider is this utterly ridiculous picture.

Posted by Gregg Rosenthal at 10:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

From John McClain's entertaining Texans blog comes this nugget: Houston was forced to include an extra second-round pick in the Matt Schaub deal because Oakland was also bidding for him.

The news makes sense. Schaub played for Oakland coordinator Greg Knapp in Atlanta. Oakland seems willing to adjust their usual vertical offense, as shown by their interest in Jeff Garcia earlier in the offseason.

I don't know what Oakland will do with the number one pick. But I know that they weren't going to draft JaMarcus Russell if they had acquired Schaub.

Continue reading "Why the Raiders won't draft JaMarcus Russell" »

Posted by Gregg Rosenthal at 11:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I completed my first draft of tight end outlooks, rankings, and projections for our magazine this week. I've said this the last two years, but it's still true: The position is deeper than ever.

Solid veterans with some upside like Desmond Clark, Dallas Clark, and Daniel Graham had trouble cracking the top-15. High-upside sleepers like Eric Johnson, David Martin, and Alex Smith were around No. 20.

One player who I had a hard time projecting was Jags second-year TE Marcedes Lewis. He was a first-round pick with good hands and tight ends often experience serious improvement in their second year.

Continue reading "Lagging Lewis" »

Posted by Gregg Rosenthal at 10:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I found this article about Byron Leftwich to be very telling. He hasn't asked for a trade, but it sure sounds like he wouldn't mind one. Leftwich is entering the final year of his contract and when asked if Leftwich wanted to remain a Jaguar, his agent said, "This is all really subjective stuff that you'd have to talk to him about."

Yikes. Jack Del Rio has some fence-mending to do, and perhaps that's why he named Leftwich the starter so early in the off-season. Jaguars.com followed up with an article Thursday saying Leftwich won't attend the team's off-season training program, but will be at all of Jacksonville's OTA practices and minicamps.

Continue reading "Leftwich doesn't want to be like Carr" »

Posted by Gregg Rosenthal at 01:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The imminent acquisition of Matt Schaub by the Texans makes sense, but it's still a huge risk for Houston.

They are betting big money and draft picks that Schaub is significantly better than David Carr. Don't forget that Houston will ultimately have to eat a huge cap hit to trade Carr only a year after paying him a large option bonus.

Schaub is a great-looking prospect, but he's thrown only 161 career passes. He has a 6.4 yards-per-attempt average in those appearances, with six scores and six interceptions. He's a prototypical West Coast offense quarterback with more mobility than you'd expect. Schaub is an unknown quantity, but Gary Kubiak may have felt he didn't have time to develop a rookie.

I was impressed that Atlanta extracted two second-round picks (one in '07 and '08) from Houston, plus moved up from the tenth to the eighth pick in the draft. It was a homerun deal for a team that is committed to Michael Vick and would have lost Schaub in a year anyway.

Continue reading "The Schaub era begins" »

Posted by Gregg Rosenthal at 02:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (134)

My first reaction to Brandon Stokley's signing with Denver was that he and Rod Smith may be battling this August to keep their careers alive. That's life in the NFL.

Stokley is coming off a torn Achilles. He may be ahead of schedule, but that's a devastating injury for a slot receiver in his 30's. It's a fine low-risk signing for Denver. Mike Shanahan loves seeing if he can invigorate veterans receivers (David Terrell, anyone?).

Smith is out at least four months after surgery on his hip. A true warrior for the Broncos, he deserves a roster spot just for sticking around so long. But in the NFL, there may only be room for either him or Stokley. Either way, the days of Stokley or Smith being drafted in fantasy leagues are over.

Posted by Gregg Rosenthal at 09:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The trade of Adam Archuleta to the Bears for a sixth-round pick nicely sums up Washington's problems the last few years. Last off-season, they made Archuletta the highest paid safety in league history. The coaches couldn't fit him into their system, he was scapegoated and barely played, and now they are paying $4 million in cap space this season just for the priviledge to not have him on the team. He would have cost less this season to keep.

Jason LaConfora has the situation covered better than I could in his Washington Post blog.

The Bears, meanwhile, come out looking golden. They refused to overpay Double Arch last year and now got him at a bargain rate. Jerry Angelo has his detractors, but it's hard to argue with the overall job he's done the last three years.

Continue reading "More Redskins Follies" »

Posted by Gregg Rosenthal at 09:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Bill Belichick says free agency isn't really so different this off-season. I think he's trying to say that the rise in guaranteed money is just a reflection of the salary cap and partly semantics. The first three years of most deals have always been 'guaranteed', but the variety of roster bonuses now are included in the "guaranteed" figures that most media quote.

Perhaps Belichick was also talking about deals like Donte' Stallworth and Kelley Washington's, which aren't nearly as big as they appear because of phony years.

The Dolphins are still interested in Trent Green. This is either agent-fueled talk or the Dolphins simply aren't betting on Daunte Culpepper.

Mike Tomlin spoke to the Steelers for the first time. Ben Roethlisberger's attendance and talk with his receivers could be a good sign that he's motivated for a big comeback season.

Doubleheader from FootballOutsiders. Mike Tanier breaks down the moves in the NFC South. Bill Barnwell has some useful stats supporting the tendency to play the matchups in fantasy football. Elite quarterbacks are pretty average against top competition.

My new column is up. It's about players who saw their value rise this month without moving anywhere.

Posted by Gregg Rosenthal at 09:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Okay, so it's not exactly like the day pitchers and catchers report. Or even the day the equipment truck leaves town.

But Monday marks the unofficial start of the 2007 NFL season. Offseason conditioning has opened up in Washington, Atlanta, Buffalo, St. Louis and many other exotic locales. That's right, men are lifting weights.

Continue reading "The 2007 season begins! sorta" »

Posted by Gregg Rosenthal at 10:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Media and fan perception of a player is often very far removed from how the NFL community thinks. The NFL has the advantage of watching tape, truly understanding schemes, and talking to colleagues. The rest of us piece together what we can.

Cato June is a perfect example. June made the Pro Bowl in 2005 and was thought to be a quality starter in the NFL at worst. His size (listed at 227 pounds) is a problem in most defenses, but he's a perfect fit for the cover two. June was expected to be one of the top free agents available on the market this off-season, and was listed as such by most media.

Continue reading "What's wrong with Cato June?" »

Posted by Gregg Rosenthal at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)