As a Dynasty League owner of Antonio Bryant, I was very happy to read the news that the Bucs are considering placing the franchise tag on him this off-season. Whether he stays in Tampa through a long-term extension or the one-year tag, Bryant's value would sink anywhere away from Jon Gruden's system.
Gruden always maximizes receiver talent, and there isn't much competition for targets in Tampa. With Jeff Garcia and Luke McCown set to be free agents, it's anyone's guess who will be throwing passes to Bryant. That doesn't really worry me; Gruden always finds yards out of unlikely places.
Bryant received a $4 million signing bonus from San Francisco in 2006, but hasn't made much money in the last two years. He may be willing to accept a below-market long-term deal for security. As a Bryant owner, I would be plenty happy if he was on a one-year deal again in 2009. It worked pretty well this year.
Romeo Crennel declared Brady Quinn Cleveland's starter for 2009 in December, which is sorta like George Bush choosing the next Supreme Court justice. Now that Eric Mangini has taken over, the Browns are back to square one at quarterback. For now, Mangini is saying he will evaluate Derek Anderson and Brady Quinn and go from there. There is nothing else he can really say on day one. Bang the link above for a pic of Mangini's wife, another victim of the incestuous Parcells/Pioli/Shapiro/Mangini love square.
By March, Mangini and the incoming Browns GM must decide what to do with Derek Anderson's $5 million roster bonus. My gut says they will try to re-negotiate it (unlikely Anderson will go for that) or they will place their faith in Brady Quinn. Anderson is due a total of $6.45 million in 2009, and his 2008 play was proof that he isn't worth that much. A trade of Anderson is also possible in the meantime, although his market value is far lower than it was a year ago.
Update: Lombardi "knows" that Derek Anderson will get dealt or cut. He also thinks Kellen Winslow will get dealt. So there you go.
News that won't make Jets fans happy from Mike Lombardi: "Everyone I talk to in and around the NFL feel this job is Schottenheimer’s. He is bright, he is young and he will work with GM Mike Tannenbaum. In the end, the Jets (i.e., Tannenbaum) are more interested in finding someone who will not challenge Mike T.’s power rather than getting the best coach."
I agree with Lombardi that it's not that attractive of a job. The expectations are high, there is no quarterback, and the roster doesn't have a lot of young talent.
Also in that Lombardi article: News that the Cowboys wouldn't seem to mind if Jason Garrett left. How can so much change in a year? Either Jerry Jones misevaluated him them or is misevaluating him now?
Chad Pennington is Miami's starter, but I think he will be in a similar situation to Derek Anderson this season. If Miami is more than two games under .500 at any point after midseason, a change will probably be made. It may not be fair, but life's not fair, as Tom Rosenthal always told me.
Troy Aikman would take Eli Manning over Tony Romo. In fantasy, that's an easy call. In reality, to win a game this weekend, I can't believe I'm hesitating. But I'd still take Romo. What say you?
The Saints want to call Reggie Bush's microfracture surgery "minor," but it's a serious concern. It wasn't long ago that similar procedures altered careers. The procedure is easier to recover from now, but this has become a chronic problem for Bush. Surgery begets more surgery, and this is one more reason to believe Pierre Thomas will lead the Saints in rushes next season.
A lot of readers think I'm a Bush hater, which isn't true. I'm a hater of the word hater. Bush is a highly useful NFL player, and there have been far worse top-five picks over the last few years, including at running back. Through the first seven weeks of last season, we saw Bush's potential. He was a top-ten fantasy back in any format, and was a PPR stud, as usual. He's always going to be a top-15 overall PPR pick.
Bush's problem is that he doesn't hold up well to a heavy workload. He couldn't finish the 2007 season after Deuce McAllister was hurt because the worload was too great. Bush was not the same after a Week 7 knee injury in 2008. The only time Bush stayed healthy was his rookie season, the only one of his career he topped 1,000 yards-from-scrimmage. Not coincidentally, that was the year he saw the fewest touches-per-game (15) of his career.
Following this surgery, I expect the Saints to be more judicious with Bush's workload next season in an effort to keep him healthy. Bush can do a lot with 15 touches-per-game, but he won't rival similar players like Chris Johnson, Steve Slaton, and Matt Forte.
Well, I know how Tom Curran would vote in the poll below. Touchdown Tommy said he believes the Patriots will franchise Cassel with the intention of keeping him for 2009. Curran's contacts within the organization rival anyone, so we should take this bit of informed speculation seriously.
Curran doesn't believe that the Patriots will really be able to wait to see how Brady's recovery is going. He thinks Cassel will play next year, and that "most likely" Brady will start the year on the PUP list. Wow. We have a looong way to go with this story, but there appears to be a better chance of a Brady/Cassel combo for '09 than imagined.
Brad Childress is not committing to Tarvaris Jackson for 2009. Good idea. Has a division winning coach ever looked worse than Childress this year? Mike Lombardi was cracking up just talking about his game management on Simmons' podcast. They need to fix the quarterback situation this off-season while their line play on both sides of the ball are still championship-caliber. Pacifist Viking agrees.
Mike Lombardi broke the story about Matt Cassel getting the franchise tag. I don't think it says much about Tom Brady's status yet. The Patriots have the cap room to franchise Cassel regardless and they would be crazy not to. A.J. Feeley was worth a second-round pick in a trade. Matt Schaub was worth two. What's Cassel worth to say, Minnesota?
Unless Brady's recovery will prevent him from playing next season, I would expect Cassel to get dealt around the NFL Draft. Teams that would make sense as destinations: Minnesota, New York Jets, Kansas City, and San Francisco, Detroit.
I've spent way too much of my day preparing my annual two-part Top-50 keepers column, so let's waste more time here with players that didn't make the cut. Since I'm also including ten players who just missed in the column, these guys are outside of the top 60. The first part of the column will post tonight.
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Santana Moss, Redskins: Even his rebound season was unsatisfying because it was so uneven.
Kurt Warner, Cardinals: He will be a much better keeper once we know if he's returning to Arizona. Beware Warner at 41 years old if he changes team.
The Natives are seriously restless in Indianapolis: Bob Kravitz breaks out the big words: paper tigers, one and Dungy, folding, underachievers. That was yesterday. Today, he's asking for Dungy to leave. As an impartial observer, I'm surprised the Super Bowl win didn't earn more affection. Do the Colts fans out there agree? Kravitz does point out one damning stat: Dungy and Manning are under .500 in the playoffs.
I may write more about this later in the week, but anyone notice how 5 of the 8 teams left have 3-4 defenses. And none of the teams use the Tampa 2 as their base defense. This is a year of massive linemen on both sides of the ball rather than speedy ones. Bill Parcells must be proud.
The dean of San Diego sportswriters, Nick Canepa, calls Saturday night's Chargers-Colts tilt the greatest ever played in the city. (The Chargers/Dolphins OT game in 1981 was at Miami). I can't disagree. Just a stirring contest filled with so many storylines.
I think this article was joking when it said that the Colts were unlucky that LaDainian Tomlinson was hurt. But I agree. I'm not sure the Chargers win that game with the regular season Tomlinson getting most of the carries.
“I don't think it had much of an impact, really,” Chargers T Jeromey Clary said. Just more proof that running back is the most fungible position in football. More on this later.
It looks like LT2 will miss this week, and probably the rest of the playoffs. I was already going to bury him in the late second or third round of my rankings next year, and groin surgery won't help his case. Now I suspect my low ranking of him won't be too out of the norm.
Reporter catfight between Jerry McDonald and Chris Mortensen! I'll take McDonald in this battle every time.
Interesting numbers about what teams were the most effective running behind which offensive line spot. More proof that Leonard Davis and Jeff Otah were awesome acquisitions over the last two years.
My vote would have been for Jeff Fisher, with Tony Sparano second, Smith third, Bill Belichick fourth, and Mike Tomlin fifth. Fisher always gets the most out of his talent; The Titans are a number one seed when few people expected them to make the playoffs. Are the Titans really that much more talented than the Falcons and Dolphins?
I don't think it's so bad to reward consistent great coaching. Picking the one-year turnaround coach is how we got Ray Rhodes, Dick Jauron, and Jim Haslett as Coaches of the Year. Two other recent COY winners (Sean Payton, Lovie Smith) haven't been back to the playoffs since. It's like voting for MLB All Stars based on half a season, while leaving out great players who produce annually. Tie goes to coach who has proven he isn't just having a lucky year.
