If it’ll help, We can get a Cleveland Browns jersey with “SUH 90” on the back.
I say that because Rogers was on the Lions and traded to the Browns, and I also went through a grieving process. Take two Ndamakongs and call me in the morning.
Meh, Rogers was getting paid way too much money to be the backup. His injuries have really slowed him down.
If he gets a 1 year deal from someone, he’ll play his ass off for another contract, but beyond that…well, I wouldn’t want my team to give him a big payday.
On the other hand, if he actually ended up on his first good team, we might see a different guy.
I heard the Redskins were looking at him. They are rather familiar with over paid, under motivated DTs.
To clean up a few news stories here’s some links.
The Raiders have inked Richard Seymour to a FAT but short contract, 2 years $30M with $22.5M guaranteed. That makes him the highest paid defensive player in football, surpassing last years Julius Peppers deal. I think that’s a pretty shrewd move by the Raiders. Seymour is overpaid, but he’s essential to the Raiders and I suspect that the extra coin was needed to keep him happy on that mismanaged club. Plus they lost this years 1st round draft choice because of the trade to get him so keeping him in house was a PR necessity, not that Al Davis cares about such trivialities.
The Bills released Marcus Stroud, who could be a desirable get for teams around the league looking for a 1-technique DT in a 4-3. He’s getting long in the tooth, but he was still a very productive player in Jacksonville and DTs can last into their mid thirties better than most. If the Bears lose Anthony Adams and Tommie Harris, Stroud could be an option to settle the rotation at a fair price though I suspect Stroud wouldn’t be a fit for the 3-technique spot.
A shit ton of guys got hit with the franchise tag this week. Who knows if it will end up having any teeth, but it’s worth noting. Some of the names are big ones, Peyton Manning, Michael Vick, Haloti Ngata, Tamba Hali, Vincent Jackson, Logan Mankins. Some of the others are lesser names, but still important, David Harris and David Akers. There’s a strong chance that there’s a few more guys will get tagged before the deadline, Lamarr Woodley, Heath Miller, Olindo Mare, Doug Free, Mercedes Lewis are a few I’ve heard rumored.
For most, especially those guys at the head of this class, will get new contracts before the franchise tender kicks in. Manning and Vick almost certainly and Ngata and Hali very likely. Jackson and Mankins are going to probably get real ugly, since their got tagged last year and both held out, you have to imagine they’ll both hold out again this year and in both cases it seems unlikely they’ll be eager to sign an extension if the bad blood is too high.
Adam Schefter is saying that Carson Palmer is dug in and determined to get out of Cincy, he’s put his house up for sale and and he and new OC Jay Gruden have not spoken. We’ll see, but after the Bengals stupidly turned down 2 first round picks for Ochocinco last offseason they damn well better starting shopping him around. Palmer has been a mostly silent soldier for this team and that he’s being vocal now indicates to me that he’s not screwing around.
Anyways, that’s all I got, anyone have anything to discuss? I’m dying for some football here.
Please dear lord, let the Steelers beef up their o-line!
As a Raiders fan, that was pretty much how I felt about it. Possibly overpaying, but worth it (and Davis needed to keep him to avoid bad PR). And it’s nice that it’s a short, 2 year deal, since that’s probably about how much he has in the tank. He really did make everyone else around him better though (by season’s end, Tommy Kelly was the better player statistically).
RE: the draft entirely, it’s interesting how one of the weakest drafts in memory lines up with a year where the draft is so much more important… It’s important to the fans because the CBA problems means the draft may well be the only pro football-related event for awhile. And it’s important to the teams because those same CBA problems create a freeze in free agency and make the draft the only real way to add new players. But of course, it’s a weak draft, thanks partially to that new CBA uncertainty… (lots of players foreseeing a rookie salary cap jumped last year; some possible jumpers this year stayed possibly for the same CBA uncertainty reasons). I bet I’ll be sitting there this year with a lot more "who?"s than usual.
I don’t get the impression that this draft is particularly weak. It’s somewhat thin at the high profile skill positions, QB, RB and WR notably, but the defense and lines are relatively stacked.
Agreed. I think that we’re going to see more unappreciated skilled players bubbling up from the draft boards pretty soon, too.