I bet Ricky Proehl’s still on somebody’s roster.
The dude is 41 years old, although he did play last in 2006 and caught a whopping 3 catches for them for his second Super Bowl ring.
49ers officially name Shaun Hill as the starter for the season.
Superbowl.
…and nobody is even slightly surprised.
Meanwhile, the Buccaneers still have yet to pick between Luke McCown and Byron Leftwich.
I was a huge fan of Leftwich coming out of Marshall (as anyone who watched him engineer an astonishing comeback against Akron despite having broken his leg in the first quarter was almost forced to be), but his giant-windup delivery just doesn’t work in the NFL.
McCown will shock a lot of people if he wins the job. He’s got phenomenal accuracy, a strong enough arm, and can move in the pocket and throw on the run.
ETA: Nobody is surprised at Shaun Hill winning the job, I mean. I think a few people might be slightly surprised if the Niners make it to the Superbowl.
Damn right.
The Buccaneers are dangling quarterbacks as trade bait. Stories vary as to who- most people think Byron Leftwich has the inside track on the starting job, and McCown will be the one to get traded, but more credible sources are saying they’re shopping both of them and they’ll keep whichever one has less trade value (as their starter).
Not a bad plan, really; neither has distinguished himself in the preseason (though McCown had two phenomenal performances in 2007 in relief of Jeff Garcia) so letting somebody else make the decision for you seems quite sensible.
Tell me about the Brothers Josh. I think selecting Josh Freeman at 17 was catastrophically stupid, even more so because I really liked Josh Johnson (not enough to give a mid round draft pick right now though). I gotta think that Leftwhich and McCown are both castoffs and have very little trade value right now. I think most teams will do what they always do around this time of year… wait until September 1st and then 5th and pick through the cuts. The Bucs aren’t going to keep 4, and something has got to give. The Packers are kinda in the same boat with RBs, especially with Tyrell Sutton having such a good preseason.
Hard Knocks is a really cool show. Yeah, it’s the Bengals, but it’s worth a watch. Lots of entertaining moments.
I’d never take Leftwich.
He’s already started his windup for his first pass attempt against Miami.
I was terrified that we were going to take Freeman in the first round, because nobody else graded him that high. He was like 4-9 as a senior or something. He has looked pretty good against scrubs, and demonstrated some impressive quicks against Jacksonville.
Johnson is a bit more mysterious. Nobody has seen him play in a meaningful game, but the coaches love him and I doubt the team will part with him for less than a third-rounder (which nobody will offer sight unseen anyway).
Which is weird to me because they’ve put themselves in a position of having two developmental QBs and two vets vying for the starting job. When cut day comes, and they insist on keeping their developmental QBs, they’ll have to cut a guy who they thought could start in the NFL. It seems to me they’ve kinda sabotaged themselves.
I think they’re quite happy to have the Joshes as our quarterbacks going forward. Johnson has apparently come along much quicker than anyone thought he would- Gruden referred to a “four-year-plan” for him, but the coaches are hinting that he could start tomorrow if need be.
Remember, neither Leftwich nor McCown cost us anything; Leftwich was signed as a free agent off the street, for minimal guaranteed money. If we cut him tomorrow, all he’s cost us is a roster spot. If we trade him, we essentially got a draft pick for nothing.
We would take a bit of a cap hit by trading McCown, since he was signed to a 2-year extension in the offseason that will pay him $5 mil this year.
ETA: Optimizing our quarterback situation for the future makes even more sense when you look at our schedule. All but two of our opponents were .500+ last season, and those two were the Packers and Bills.
Hmm, they redesigned nfl.com’s gamecenter page.
I’m not sure if I like it so far. The highlights video is higher res which is definitely nice.
By the way, the NFL.com highlight videos that they put up immediately after the game are probably the best highlight videos available. Within a day, they replace them with the NFL total access version of the highlight, which has less actual gameplay video and more announcers yakking away with their shallow analysis. I recommend watching those highlights immediately after the game before they get replaced.
He ran the slant routes and caught the ball in traffic. He should not have been cut until they found someone to do his job better or cheaper.
Unless you are playing against them, then it is a party a minute!
Furrey’s deal is he has great hands but is too small for TE and too slow to be effective as a WR except in certain pass situations. He worked in Martz’s system cause the speedy receivers pulled the DBs deep and he would catch over the middle defended by an LB or Dimeback, usually.
Buccaneers name Byron Leftwich starting QB. Let the sacking commence!
Is he that bad? I liked him last year when he played for the Steelers. I don’t remember him getting sacked often. Of course, as I say often, my memory is for shit.
So the NFL has ruled that the video board in the Cowboy’s stadium doesn’t have to be moved this year, and if it’s hit by a punt then the play is a do-over.
I hope this backfires on them. Imagine a team’s defense is really worn out, but their offense quickly goes 3 and out, threatning to put that defense right back on the field. If you ding the ball on the video screen 5 times (woops!) then your defense can get some rest.
On the other hand, since Dallas plays there more than anyone else, they could turn that into a homefield advantage thing.