Amen.
Rumor is that the Lions will draft Stafford at no.1. The first choice gets a ton of money and they thing tossing it at a tackle will skew their salary structure. If they do. it means a few more years of darkness. Stafford and Sanchez are big ,and that seems to be soooo important nowadays. May as well take a wide receiver and dog paddle another couple years.
I don’t understand this mentality at all. What good is having a shiny new face for your franchise if he’s going to get the tar beaten out of him for three years while you retool the offensive line?
Ask David Carr how that works out.
My biggest fear with him is that he’s simply playing for a contract, and that, once he’s signed for $100+, he’ll go back to being the unmotivated, lazy, unproductive player he was for his first 4 years in Tennessee. He’s never been the most mentally stable guy, and I’d be worried he’ll simply quit trying so hard.
That’s what I was thinking, too, but on some level that’s a chance you take with anyone. My one worry is that all the veteran leadership we have on defense (ie., Ronde Barber and Derrick Brooks) will be gone in two years.
So, Marvin Harrison may or may not be released by the Colts. Hmmmm… a talented, veteran player with a high price tag and legal and/or character issues? I guess I know who Jerry Jones is adding to speed dial this week 
Character issues? Really? Marvin Harrison?
If you’re referring to the gun thing from last offseason, all charges were dropped and his accuser has been charged with filing a false police report.
ETA: Looks like his release is no longer a “may not” scenario: http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slug=ap-colts-harrison&prov=ap&type=lgns
As HongKongFooey doubtless noticed last season, the Ravens are in a position to become a formidable team. Nobody would argue for someone from Oakland being best defender in the league when Polamalu and Reed are making the highlight reels every week. Unfortunately, Reed’s getting old and the Ravens have a bizarre planetary alignment coming up: three excellent LBs (Lewis, Suggs, Scott) are all at the end of their contracts. Suggs is our franchise player for the year and is safe. Scott is (IMHO) the weakest and has serious discipline problems. Lewis has a giant ego that he has almost earned; I’d love to see him retire as a Raven.
Assuming – or hoping desperately – that we can keep the linebacker corps intact is not a strategy, however. I think the Ravens need to add some passing offense to give Joe Flacco room to grow, while focusing on building depth in the defense as the famous Ravens’ D ages.
WR - Move (backup QB) Troy Smith to WR / TE several plays per game to threaten the opposing defense with razzle-dazzle gadget plays? Actually use him as a WR for six or seven receptions each game? Maybe - but only if you’ve got other credible receivers lined up at the same time. I’d love to grab Anquan Boldin, but I’m always terrified of primadonna players at this position. The Ravens are not a team that suffers big egos*, so you can keep Houshmanzadeh and T.O. (or better yet, send their team-killing morale issues to the Steelers). We need two receivers, but I’d settle for one good one on the assumption that Mason & Clayton will be around a little longer yet. Speaking of the Steelers, we’re going to be playing their killer blitz packages twice a season for the foreseeable future, so why not pick up…
TE - a tight end to replace the aging Todd Heap? Go ahead and get a blocking tight end who happens to have good hands, and use him in a variety of bump-and-run screen passes. Use him to block for Smith on a Wildcat-formation vanilla run. Maybe grab a receiving TE as well to give Flacco the option of sending four guys down the field, but beware of spending too much for a specialist whose presence on the line gives away the play.
S and/or CB - pick up someone who can do one of those jobs well, and start cross-training him immediately. Ed Reed won’t live forever, and with McAlister gone we’ve lost some defensive depth. Find a skilled player who can grow into one or both roles and give him some snaps.
LB - we can’t spend any more money on LBs this year, which is a shame because we really do need an insurance policy for when Ray-Ray finally burns out or skips town.
P - If you’ve got any money left at the end of the whole mess, give Koch a raise, especially if (NFL all-time 3rd scorer) Stover retires or transfers. He buried our opponents behind their own 5 all the time, then handed them over to the Ravens’ defense.
- (Ray Lewis is the exception to pretty much every rule)
Indeed I did, the Ravens D was great last year. The offense looks the way I wish Pittsburgh’s did, I think you’re really fortunate to have Cam Cameron calling the shots. The Steelers 3-0 record against them couldn’t be more misleading, all three games were tight, tight, tight, with Balt. imploding on the last drive in one and the others being toss-ups. One area I wasn’t impressed with was the Offensive Tackles, Gaither and Anderson didn’t look very good to me, big yes, but not very good esp. against the pass. I love Haloti Ngata, trade him to us anytime 
Sure… we’ll give him to you for Polamalu, Harrison, and Holmes. 
In a past life, my job was to assess the capability of an adversary’s weapons and doctrine, so I tend to “go native” and fall in love with the opposing team in any situation (we call this “admiring the problem” in the military). But this season, the Steelers really were the best team in the NFL. If you guys have weaknesses I don’t think they’re in the personnel – I think they’re in a few leadership and morale weak spots – but if I were drafting for the Steelers, I’d build depth in your offense. It’s going to be hard to sell Roethlisberger’s backup spot to a really talented kid, but you need someone to start learning your offense now… you’re one bad sack (and/or one motorcycle wreck) away from a 3rd-place-finish in the division.
Well, sure they’re bogus issues, but they are the best Jerry will do to meet his usual FA criteria until Plax comes available. 
The Bucs dumped most of their old-time players today, releasing Derrick Brooks, Joey Galloway, Ike Hilliard, Warrick Dunn and Cato June. Not sure how coveted these guys will be in free agency, Dunn, Brooks and Galloway will certain get jobs if they want them, but it’s a notable day for the Bucs. Morris is cleaning house and the team is clearly in transition.
The Jets are supposedly dumping Laverneous Coles. He’s still productive and will probably be wanted by any team looking for experience at WR. Wouldn’t mind seeing him in Chicago replacing Booker.
The Giants locked up Brandon Jacobs for 4 years, $25 million today. No surprise really and it’s a pretty fair contract it seems.
The Rams released Trent Green and Drew Bennett. Green might find a home with a team looking for a veteran backup behind a young starter, but the concussions are still an issue. Maybe he should hang it up. Bennett was a stupid signing but I think someone will get a steal if they bring him in and don’t ask him to be the #1 (or pay him like one).
Supposedly Shaun Rogers wants out of Cleveland and is demanding a release. The Browns probably won’t do that considering what they gave up to get him, but he’d be an extremely popular guy in FA if he got there. I’d love to see the Bears make the Browns a decent offer for him, maybe Vasher and Alex Brown.
I can’t believe they cut Brooks. Cato June will be sought after in FA; he’s only 28ish. Ike, Dunn and Galloway are just about done.
I really hope they re-sign Brooks at a lower price. I would hate to see him in somebody else’s uniform- he’s Mr. Buccaneer.
They are getting away from the Tampa 2. Brooks doesn’t fit their new scheme, Bates like fast attacking, blitzing LBs not lateral coverage guys the Tampa 2 needs. Plenty of teams are playing the Tampa 2 and he’ll be in demand for a 1 or 2 year deal elsewhere. Maybe New England (not Tampa 2 but they like fast, versatile, elderly LBs), Seattle, Green Bay and even the Colts.
The minute they hired Bates the dice was cast for Brooks and June. I’d love to see June in Chicago filling in at SAM.
The clock struck midnight and Free Agency opened. Surprisingly only one deal was struck right out of the gates and that was DeAngelo Hall’s $45 Million deal to stay with the Redskins.
Jeff Saturday, one of the biggest O-Line names on the market, signed a 3-year deal to stay with the Colts.
Shocker, the Redskins are like a 5 year old with money burning a hole in their pocket. Still, Hall will be an improvement over Shawn Springs if only because he isn’t usually injured for half the season.
And now I see that the Skins have gone and signed Albert Haynesworth too.
God, they are getting to be as bad as the friggin’ Yankees. And I LIKE the Redskins
I can’t understand why the 'Skins aren’t in perpetual salary cap hell. The Titans got into it just trying to keep their own players.
That is perpetually one of my biggest questions. The only thing I can think of is that the organization uses Federal government accountants.
I mean, going by what other teams have had to do in the past, we should have had to blow up this team a half a dozen times in the past 10 years. But we just keep on adding free agents, trading away draft picks and finishing in the 8-8 ballpark every year. And yet there is still a waiting list for season tickets, the stadium lot is overfull, and we pay some of the highest ticket/concession prices in the league. I don’t pretend to understand it. I just root for my Skins. Que sera sera.
Haynesworth’s contract is insane. Something like 32 million in guaranteed money over the next 13 months, I heard.