BRADFORD'S HANDICAP, REVIS' HOLDOUT, KNOWSHON'S HAMSTRING, SNEAD'S OUT & A CORRECTION
So I'm looking at the St. Louis Post Dispatch website yesterday & I saw something that sent off alarm bells. There was a photo & caption of "rookie quarterback Sam Bradford & his coach Richard Curl". Since when did Dick Curl go by Richard? This guy might be the lamest QB coach in the last 20-years, Kansas City fans probably remember him from his 3 seasons confusing Chiefs' quarterbacks. I can't believe Steve Spagnolo & the Ram front office would place their $78 million quarterback in the hands of Dick freakin' Curl. Spagnolo is primarily a defensive coach, so it looks like Curl will be the one to mentor this talented prospect & mold him into an NFL quarterback. Good luck Rams' fans.
Viking rookie running back Toby Gerhart was welcomed to the NFL yesterday by the "Williams' Wall". Pat & Kevin Williams, Minnesota defensive tackles put several big licks on the Stanford rookie. When asked about the hits, Pat Williams went on a rant about rookies being paid "too much money when they ain't done nothin' to prove they deserve it." He wanted Gerhart to understand "this ain't college football kid, this is a man's league." Gerhart bounced up after each of the big hits & said after practice "it's football & I'm glad to be playing it." After watching Gerhart the past two seasons more than a dozen times, I don't see the "Williams' Wall" intimidating him, he's a very tough kid.
Bengal offensive tackle Andre Smith, winner of the coveted "2009 Man Boobs Award" better start pushing away from the dinner table & avoid any fast food drive thru. I told you on Friday about his contract de-escalators that trigger when he weighs in at more than 350 pounds before the season starts. For every week he doesn't make weight, he can lose 50% of his weekly game check. With a base salary of $1.08 million, that's $63,400 per week. Forfeiting half would shrink those 17 checks to $31,700, quite a drastic difference. Right now he's on the shelf again with foot problems for the next 2-3 weeks. Sources in Cincinnati put his weight at over 370 right now. During his hiatus, he ought to sincerely contemplate just how badly he wants to play professional football. I doubt the Bengals are going to allow this to go on much longer before they pull the plug & start going after a large portion of his signing bonus. So far, they haven't seen too much production or dedication from Smith. Thirty million dollars doesn't buy what it used to.
Darrelle Revis, Jets' cornerback, has officially launched his holdout from New York's training camp in a contract dispute. He wants a lot more & the Jets are willing to pay him, but not like Revis believes he deserves. The Jets gave offensive tackle D'Brickashaw Ferguson a huge contract extension, just like Revis is expecting. But New York also needs to satisfy all-pro center Nick Mangold & Pro Bowl linebacker David Harris. Plus, both starting wideouts, Braylon Edwards & Santonio Holmes are in their contract years, is there going to be enough to go around? Revis wants to be not only the highest paid cornerback in the league, but the highest paid defensive player in the league. Revis is a great player, maybe the best at his position but I could make a case for Raider cornerback Nmandi Asomugha being the best. Is Revis the best defender in the league? No, he's not, but he's certainly in the conversation. The holdout is a distraction, one this Jet team doesn't need. With the HBO cameras on property shooting "Hard Knocks", an attention-grabbing head coach in Rex Ryan, a slew of other inflated egos wearing green & white plus Revis needs to remember one thing. The Jets signed their number one draft pick, Kyle Wilson, on Friday. Wilson has shown himself to be a terrific man-for-man shutdown corner in college, making the immediate return of Revis not priority #1.
I've gotten a few emails asking why I haven't talked about that quarterback, you know, the selfish one who can't make up his mind if he wants to play another year(the one that wants to skip all the hard work of training camp), you know, that guy? I'm so sick of hearing & reading about this guy, I refuse to write anything about him until I can report something factual.
Whoever gave Ole Miss junior quarterback Jevan Snead the advice to jump to the NFL last January ought to be taken out back & let the Snead family kick their ass. After a sparkling sophomore season & Cotton Bowl, Snead looked like he was on his way to a promising professional career. In many preseason publications, Snead was ranked as a 1st or 2nd round prospect. But last season he regressed, completing only 54% of his passes & throwing as many interceptions(20) as touchdowns. In the 2010 Cotton Bowl against Oklahoma State, he threw 3 more picks against a Cowboy secondary missing 2 suspended starters. He needed to return to Oxford & get his game back on track. But instead, he jumped the gun, declaring for the NFL draft. Unfortunately, after a miserable combine performance, he went undrafted. Tampa Bay signed him as a free agent after the draft but Saturday, his hopes of holding a clipboard as an NFL 3rd string QB, ended when the Bucs released him. This will go down as one of the worst decisions regarding an early exit to the pros I can remember. Often, kids make this move to help their families financially, in fact the rule allowing underclassmen to jump to the NFL was created for these 'hardships'. But the Snead family is quite comfortable, money wasn't an issue. So who gave him this awful advice? There's no going back now & his skill set doesn't translate well to Arena football or the CFL. Can he work with a QB tutor for 6-8 months & possibly remake himself into an NFL QB prospect? Maybe, if the Snead family can afford such a tutor, they don't come cheap.
Albert Haynesworth is sidelined from training camp practice until he can pass Mike Shanahan's conditioning test. He can't take the test again, he's failed twice, until the swelling in his knee goes down. Team doctors have told him to take it easy until the knee shows improvement. Defensive coordinator Jim Haslett has said haynesworth will be tried at right end instead of the dreaded nose tackle, the position Haynesworth has refused to play.
Denver running back Knowshon Moreno was carted off the Bronco practice field Sunday morning after injuring his leg. After an MRI tonight, a club spokesman said he had "sustained a strained hamstring, but nothing was torn." Moreno is expected to miss three weeks of practice.
We're down to just 6 unsigned first round draft picks. Detroit's Ndamakong Suh, Seattle's Russell Okung, Buffalo's C.J. Spiller, Jacksonville's Tyson Alualu, Cincinnati's Jermaine Gresham, Arizona's Dan Williams & Indianapolis' Jerry Hughes have yet to come to terms. Suh is said to be very close as is Alualu, but the rest don't seem even in the ballpark.
I need to make a correction to a post I wrote late last week regarding the suspension of Detroit Lions' President Tom Lewand. I stated he was suspended during training camp & couldn't be in on any of the personnel decisions regarding the Lions' roster. That was incorrect, his suspension doesn't begin until August 25th & it is for 30-days. He will not be able to communicate with the team in any fashion during this period. Lewand was also fined $100,000 for his recent DUI by NFL Commisioner Roger Goodell.
After reading Todd Haley's remarks after practice today, I thought to myself "hey no sh*t Todd, this has been my complaint for 3 years." He talked in great detail about the defensive front-7 & how "if this team is going to improve, they have to make major improvement." He talked about Tyson Jackson & Glenn Dorsey making major strides in their second & third years respectively, "Jackson's in his second season & he has to show marked improvement. I think he knows better what we expect this season than he did last year." We'll see how much better the same guys will be this season.
Have you caught any of these website slide shows from the Kansas City Star? They had a beautiful 64-photo slide show last Monday after the media's tour of the newly renovated Arrowhead Stadium. It really gave you a feel of how the place looks now. Friday, they had a 7-shot piece after the dedication of the Lamar Hunt bronze statue in the stadium's new Founder's Plaza, complete with a speech from NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. So they featured 64-photos from the stadium tour & 7 more from the statue's dedication right? Then the paper also offered a 128-photo slide show from the Chiefs' cheerleaders kickoff party for their bikini calender, that's right 128-photos. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a prude, I like pretty girls in bikinis just like the next guy, but I'm thinkin' 128 photos might have been overkill. The newly renovated stadium, which cost upwards of $350 million, rates 64 photos. Then the NFL Commissioner stood outside sweatin' up a storm with Clark Hunt to give the statue of the Chiefs' beloved founder a proper dedication which received just 7 pictures. Oh, did I forget to mention several cheerleaders wore bikinis to the kickoff party at the 810 Zone in Leawood? Maybe that had something to do with it? I'm just sayin'.
Mike Alvarado/The Kansas City Star
Viking rookie running back Toby Gerhart was welcomed to the NFL yesterday by the "Williams' Wall". Pat & Kevin Williams, Minnesota defensive tackles put several big licks on the Stanford rookie. When asked about the hits, Pat Williams went on a rant about rookies being paid "too much money when they ain't done nothin' to prove they deserve it." He wanted Gerhart to understand "this ain't college football kid, this is a man's league." Gerhart bounced up after each of the big hits & said after practice "it's football & I'm glad to be playing it." After watching Gerhart the past two seasons more than a dozen times, I don't see the "Williams' Wall" intimidating him, he's a very tough kid.
Bengal offensive tackle Andre Smith, winner of the coveted "2009 Man Boobs Award" better start pushing away from the dinner table & avoid any fast food drive thru. I told you on Friday about his contract de-escalators that trigger when he weighs in at more than 350 pounds before the season starts. For every week he doesn't make weight, he can lose 50% of his weekly game check. With a base salary of $1.08 million, that's $63,400 per week. Forfeiting half would shrink those 17 checks to $31,700, quite a drastic difference. Right now he's on the shelf again with foot problems for the next 2-3 weeks. Sources in Cincinnati put his weight at over 370 right now. During his hiatus, he ought to sincerely contemplate just how badly he wants to play professional football. I doubt the Bengals are going to allow this to go on much longer before they pull the plug & start going after a large portion of his signing bonus. So far, they haven't seen too much production or dedication from Smith. Thirty million dollars doesn't buy what it used to.
Darrelle Revis, Jets' cornerback, has officially launched his holdout from New York's training camp in a contract dispute. He wants a lot more & the Jets are willing to pay him, but not like Revis believes he deserves. The Jets gave offensive tackle D'Brickashaw Ferguson a huge contract extension, just like Revis is expecting. But New York also needs to satisfy all-pro center Nick Mangold & Pro Bowl linebacker David Harris. Plus, both starting wideouts, Braylon Edwards & Santonio Holmes are in their contract years, is there going to be enough to go around? Revis wants to be not only the highest paid cornerback in the league, but the highest paid defensive player in the league. Revis is a great player, maybe the best at his position but I could make a case for Raider cornerback Nmandi Asomugha being the best. Is Revis the best defender in the league? No, he's not, but he's certainly in the conversation. The holdout is a distraction, one this Jet team doesn't need. With the HBO cameras on property shooting "Hard Knocks", an attention-grabbing head coach in Rex Ryan, a slew of other inflated egos wearing green & white plus Revis needs to remember one thing. The Jets signed their number one draft pick, Kyle Wilson, on Friday. Wilson has shown himself to be a terrific man-for-man shutdown corner in college, making the immediate return of Revis not priority #1.
I've gotten a few emails asking why I haven't talked about that quarterback, you know, the selfish one who can't make up his mind if he wants to play another year(the one that wants to skip all the hard work of training camp), you know, that guy? I'm so sick of hearing & reading about this guy, I refuse to write anything about him until I can report something factual.
Whoever gave Ole Miss junior quarterback Jevan Snead the advice to jump to the NFL last January ought to be taken out back & let the Snead family kick their ass. After a sparkling sophomore season & Cotton Bowl, Snead looked like he was on his way to a promising professional career. In many preseason publications, Snead was ranked as a 1st or 2nd round prospect. But last season he regressed, completing only 54% of his passes & throwing as many interceptions(20) as touchdowns. In the 2010 Cotton Bowl against Oklahoma State, he threw 3 more picks against a Cowboy secondary missing 2 suspended starters. He needed to return to Oxford & get his game back on track. But instead, he jumped the gun, declaring for the NFL draft. Unfortunately, after a miserable combine performance, he went undrafted. Tampa Bay signed him as a free agent after the draft but Saturday, his hopes of holding a clipboard as an NFL 3rd string QB, ended when the Bucs released him. This will go down as one of the worst decisions regarding an early exit to the pros I can remember. Often, kids make this move to help their families financially, in fact the rule allowing underclassmen to jump to the NFL was created for these 'hardships'. But the Snead family is quite comfortable, money wasn't an issue. So who gave him this awful advice? There's no going back now & his skill set doesn't translate well to Arena football or the CFL. Can he work with a QB tutor for 6-8 months & possibly remake himself into an NFL QB prospect? Maybe, if the Snead family can afford such a tutor, they don't come cheap.
Albert Haynesworth is sidelined from training camp practice until he can pass Mike Shanahan's conditioning test. He can't take the test again, he's failed twice, until the swelling in his knee goes down. Team doctors have told him to take it easy until the knee shows improvement. Defensive coordinator Jim Haslett has said haynesworth will be tried at right end instead of the dreaded nose tackle, the position Haynesworth has refused to play.
Denver running back Knowshon Moreno was carted off the Bronco practice field Sunday morning after injuring his leg. After an MRI tonight, a club spokesman said he had "sustained a strained hamstring, but nothing was torn." Moreno is expected to miss three weeks of practice.
We're down to just 6 unsigned first round draft picks. Detroit's Ndamakong Suh, Seattle's Russell Okung, Buffalo's C.J. Spiller, Jacksonville's Tyson Alualu, Cincinnati's Jermaine Gresham, Arizona's Dan Williams & Indianapolis' Jerry Hughes have yet to come to terms. Suh is said to be very close as is Alualu, but the rest don't seem even in the ballpark.
I need to make a correction to a post I wrote late last week regarding the suspension of Detroit Lions' President Tom Lewand. I stated he was suspended during training camp & couldn't be in on any of the personnel decisions regarding the Lions' roster. That was incorrect, his suspension doesn't begin until August 25th & it is for 30-days. He will not be able to communicate with the team in any fashion during this period. Lewand was also fined $100,000 for his recent DUI by NFL Commisioner Roger Goodell.
After reading Todd Haley's remarks after practice today, I thought to myself "hey no sh*t Todd, this has been my complaint for 3 years." He talked in great detail about the defensive front-7 & how "if this team is going to improve, they have to make major improvement." He talked about Tyson Jackson & Glenn Dorsey making major strides in their second & third years respectively, "Jackson's in his second season & he has to show marked improvement. I think he knows better what we expect this season than he did last year." We'll see how much better the same guys will be this season.
Have you caught any of these website slide shows from the Kansas City Star? They had a beautiful 64-photo slide show last Monday after the media's tour of the newly renovated Arrowhead Stadium. It really gave you a feel of how the place looks now. Friday, they had a 7-shot piece after the dedication of the Lamar Hunt bronze statue in the stadium's new Founder's Plaza, complete with a speech from NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. So they featured 64-photos from the stadium tour & 7 more from the statue's dedication right? Then the paper also offered a 128-photo slide show from the Chiefs' cheerleaders kickoff party for their bikini calender, that's right 128-photos. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a prude, I like pretty girls in bikinis just like the next guy, but I'm thinkin' 128 photos might have been overkill. The newly renovated stadium, which cost upwards of $350 million, rates 64 photos. Then the NFL Commissioner stood outside sweatin' up a storm with Clark Hunt to give the statue of the Chiefs' beloved founder a proper dedication which received just 7 pictures. Oh, did I forget to mention several cheerleaders wore bikinis to the kickoff party at the 810 Zone in Leawood? Maybe that had something to do with it? I'm just sayin'.
Mike Alvarado/The Kansas City Star
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