POSTED
11:17 p.m. EDT, March 11, 2008
DELICATE SITUATION IN
SEATTLE
One of the things that we
do here at PFT is keep a keen eye on the intriguing business issues that
can arise in the business of the sport we love. And one of the
more compelling twists and turns that can come up relates to the concept
of conflict of interest.
With agencies merging and
combining and agents representing players and coaches and front-office
people, there are plenty of eyebrow-raising circumstances that come up
from time to time.
Here's one to ponder.
Many league observers believe that the signing of running back Julius
Jones by the Seahawks means that Shaun Alexander will be traded or
released. (Given his high salary and declining production, the
more likely outcome is that he'll be cut.)
Alexander is represented
by CAA. And Jones is represented by (you guessed it) CAA.
So, basically, one CAA
agent was recently negotiating a free-agent contract for one firm client
under circumstances that any reasonable person with basic knowledge of
the NFL business should have realized would result in the inability of
another CAA client to continue to get paid.
We're not sure what if
anything the NFLPA should do to protect players from this type of a
situation. At a minimum, Alexander should
consider
advice that recently appeared on the union's web site regarding
knowing when the time has come to make a change.
WILSON TO VISIT THE
BROWNS
After more than a year out
of football, veteran linebacker Al Wilson continues to explores
opportunities for a comeback.
Last month, he visited the
Lions. Now, we're told that he's getting a look from the Browns.
The Browns are in the
process of upgrading a defense that was mediocre (at best) in 2007.
Wilson last played during the 2006 season, and due to a neck injury
didn't play at all last season.
POSTED
10:30 p.m. EDT, March 11, 2008
ANQUAN BOLTIN'?
Now that the Cardinals
have locked up receiver Larry Fitzgerald at a more affordable (or, as
the case may be, less unaffordable) price over the next four seasons,
they might have to deal with another thorny issue at the position.
According to Adam Schefter
of NFL Network, Anquan Boldin could want more money and/or a trade in
the wake of Fitzgerald's $10 million-per-year contract.
Per Schefter, some in the
Cardinals organization actually regard Boldin as the better wideout.
But Boldin will make far, far less than Fitzgerald over the next three
seasons -- he's due to earn base salaries of $2.5 million, $2.75
million, $3 million.
In our view, Fitzgerald
and Boldin together is a luxury that the Cardinals don't need,
especially with coach Ken Whisenhunt presumably trying to bring a
Pittsburgh-style power running vibe to the desert.
Assuming that the
Cardinals have a plan (which could be a dangerous assumption because
we're talking about, you know, the Cardinals), the huge deal given to
Fitzgerald should be regarded as evidence that they've opted to keep
Fitzgerald over the long haul, and to get what they can for Boldin.
Throw in the fact that
Boldin is represented by Drew Rosenhaus, and the stage is set for Boldin
to start making noise about moving on.
Possible destinations are
Philly, Dallas, and the Redskins.
POSTED
10:05 p.m. EDT, March 11, 2008
CARTER TO RAIDERS?
At a time when many league
observers presume that defensive lineman Kevin Carter eventually will
re-sign with the Buccaneers, Carter is throwing the folks in Tampa a
curve ball by
visiting the Raiders on Wednesday, according to the St.
Petersburg Times.
Carter was cut late last
month, prior to earning a $2 million roster bonus.
The 13-year veteran has
spent 2007 with the Bucs. He also has played with the Dolphins,
Titans, and Rams. He perhaps is best known by football junkies for
taking himself out of Super Bowl XXXIV during a last-minute, potential
game-tying drive by the Titans -- to the amazement of Rams coach Dick
Vermeil.
POSTED
6:04 p.m. EDT, March 11, 2008
FALCONS SIGN NEW
CENTER, OLD QUARTERBACK
The Atlanta Falcons has
announced the addition of
free-agent center Alex Stepanovich. He was a fourth-round
draft pick of the Cardinals in 2004, and he signed with the Bengals in
2007. He has 34 career starts.
According to Adam Schefter
of NFL Network, the Falcons also has brought back quarterback Joey
Harrington, whom the team dumped last week.
Harrington was the third
overall pick of the Lions in the 2002 draft. He was traded after
four mediocre seasons to the Dolphins, and he signed with the Falcons as
a free agent in 2007.
POSTED
5:55 p.m. EDT, March 11, 2008
PANTHERS HACK HARTWIG
The Carolina Panthers have
continued to move toward a dramatically revamped offensive line in 2008
with the release of starting center Justin Hartwig.
The move was first
reported by
Steve Reed of CarolinaGrowl.com and confirmed by
Charles Chandler of the Charlotte Observer.
The Panthers had signed
Hartwig to a five-year, $17 million contract in 2006, after he spent the
first four seasons of his NFL career with the Titans. The move
creates more than $2.15 million in 2008 cap room.
Hartwig most likely will
be replaced in the starting lineup by Ryan Kalil, a second-round draft
pick in 2007.
POSTED
5:42 p.m. EDT, March 11, 2008
SPYGATE II CASE WASN'T
SETTLED
We've heard from a few
readers and friends of the site today speculation that the Spygate II
lawsuit was dismissed on Monday because it was confidentially settled
out of court. (We're getting even more inquiries along these lines
in the wake of our own speculation that Randy Moss might have paid a
settlement to the woman who dropped a restraining order against him.)
Because the case was filed
as a class action, it couldn't have been settled without approval of the
court. In cases like this, where the rights of individual persons
are resolved without their active involvement in the case, the judge
must give his or her blessing to any proposed resolution in order to
effectively extinguish the rights of the class members.
And even if a deal is
reached between the Patriots and the named plaintiffs following the
dismissal, the other members of the class could still sue on their own,
either with the same lawyers or other counsel.
POSTED
4:40 p.m. EDT, March 11, 2008
MOSS RESTRAINING ORDER
DISSOLVED
One of the rare off-field
issues involving a Patriots player disappeared for good on Monday, when
a restraining order previously entered against receiver Randy Moss was
dropped.
According to various media
reports, Rachelle Washington, 35, requested that the
order be dissolved and the case dismissed.
The reason for the move is
unclear. It's possible that Moss and Washington entered into a
financial settlement of her potential battery/negligence claims against
him. In his public comments on the matter, Moss suggested that
something happened, but characterized it as an accident. Under
the law, Moss would be legally responsible for any accidental injury
resulting from his own negligence. Absent a settlement of the
potential civil claims, Washington could still sue Moss in court for
monetary damages.
Coincidentally, Moss
signed a three-year, $27 million contract with the Patriots last week.
After the papers were
initially filed in January, agent/lawyer Tim DiPiero said that
Washington's lawyer
had demanded a $500,000 payment prior to filing for the restraining
order.
POSTED
4:28 p.m. EDT, March 11, 2008
FITZGERALD DEAL CREATES
$8.8 MILLION IN CAP ROOM
The good needs for the
Arizona Cardinals? Their contract extension with receiver Larry
Fitzgerald has
created
roughly $8.8 million in 2008 cap room, according to John Clayton of
ESPN.com.
The bad news? His
cap number for 2008 is still $7.6 million.
In all, Fitzgerald has $30
million in guaranteed payments over four years, which equates to an
average amount of cap space of $7.5 million per season, just for the
guaranteed money. There's another $10 million in non-guaranteed
money, and Fitzgerald is likely to earn every penny, barring a
career-limiting injury or an unexpected plunge in performance.
And in four years or less
he'll get another crack at a new contract. At the ripe old age of
27.
POSTED
2:16 p.m. EDT, March 11, 2008
KEITH DAVIS
SIGNS WITH DOLPHINS
The Dolphins
have added another former Cowboy.
Free-agent
safety Keith Davis, a six-year veteran who
has played his entire career in Dallas, has
agreed to terms with the Dolphins.
The move reunites him with, among others,
Dolphins secondary coach Todd Bowles, who
coached the secondary in Dallas the last
three years, and Dolphins front office boss
Bill Parcells, who was Davis’ head coach for
three seasons in Dallas.
Davis has
started 22 games at safety in his NFL
career, including 15 starts for Parcells in
2005. But he will likely make his
greatest contribution to the Dolphins'
special teams. He was the Cowboys'
special teams captain last year.
Other
former Cowboys the Dolphins have acquired
include nose tackle Jason Ferguson,
cornerback Joey Thomas, and center Trey
Darilek.
POSTED
11:58 a.m. EDT, March 11, 2008
FITZGERALD EXTENDS HIS
DEAL
According to an
announcement posted on what appears to be his personal web site,
Cardinals receiver Larry Fitzgerald has agreed to a
four-year, $40 million contract with the team.
Fitzgerald's site says
that he'll get $30 million guaranteed, and $33 million over the next
three years.
He had been scheduled to
earn more than $14 million in salary in 2008 and more than $17 million
in salary in 2009 based on eight-figure escalators for which he
qualified based on his performance during the first four years of his
career.
The deal also supposedly
contains a clause that permits Fitzgerald to block any trade without his
consent (which protects him from being traded to one of the really bad
franchises . . . like the one he currently plays for).
POSTED
11:36 a.m. EDT, March 11, 2008
ALL'S NOT WELL FOR
OSGOOD
Chargers special-teams ace
Kassim Osgood wants to play receiver. And he's ready to make a
statement to that effect.
According to the San
Diego Union-Tribune, Osgood
plans to boycott the team's offseason workouts in protest of the
fact that he's not getting a shot to play offense.
"There is
no reason to come to the [offseason coaching sessions] and run routes
all day and run my body down and not be a receiver," Osgood said.
Osgood is signed through
2009, but doesn't want to wait until March 2010 to look for a new team.
He reportedly has asked for a trade in the past year.
But G.M. A.J. Smith
claims that he wasn't aware that Osgood is unhappy. "This
is a total surprise," Smith said, adding that no one previously has
indicated to him that Osgood wants out.
The problem was compounded
a year ago, when the Chargers drafted Buster Davis and Legedu Naanee.
During the season, the Chargers acquired Chris Chambers via a trade.
"I'm
getting typecast into being a special-teams guy,” Osgood said.
"That's not what I am. I'm a receiver who plays special teams.
People are starting to doubt I can play. They're believing I play
special teams because I'm not good enough."
Actually, Osgood got a
chance to play receiver at this year's Pro Bowl. But
only two balls were thrown his way, neither was caught, and one was
intercepted.
POSTED
10:42 a.m. EDT, March 11, 2008
DWAYNE JARRETT ARRESTED
FOR DWI
As a rookie, Panthers
receiver Dwayne Jarrett was a bust. And now he's been busted.
According to the web site
of the Mecklenburg County, North Carolina Sheriff's Office,
Jarrett was arrested on Tuesday for driving while impaired.
Widely expected to be a
first-rounder out of USC, Jarrett was a second-round pick of the
Panthers in 2007. His arrival made Keyshawn Johnson expendable.
POSTED
10:11 a.m. EDT, March 11, 2008
DECISION TO DROP
SPYGATE II SUIT SEEMS ODD
We've had a chance to
ponder the curious decision of lawyer Eric "We
Have a 90 Percent Chance of Winning" Deters to drop the lawsuit that
he brought against the New England Patriots based on allegations that
the team videotaped the final walk-through practice of the St. Louis
Rams prior to Super Bowl XXXVI, and we're officially confused.
The Monday filing that
abandoned the case (for now, supposedly) was based on a contention by
Deters that Matt Walsh, the key witness in the lawsuit, is expected to
invoke his Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination.
But if the key question is
"Did you videotape the Rams' walk-through?", would Walsh be admitting to
committing a crime if he says, "Yes I did"? The closest we could
come to finding a potential law that possibly was violated is the
Economic Espionage Act of 1996. But if there were to be a
criminal investigation in this regard, Walsh would surely secure
immunity in exchange for cooperation aimed at allowing the Department of
Justice to nail whoever higher on the totem pole might have told him to
do it.
Besides, why abandon the
case based simply on the belief that one of the key witnesses will try
to invoke his constitutional rights against self-incrimination in a
civil lawsuit (where, generally speaking, such protections aren't
available)? If we were handling the case, we'd force Walsh to take
the Fifth and then try to compel him to answer the question or force a
finding of contempt of Court. Even if Walsh eventually doesn't
talk, the fact that Walsh would essentially be admitting that he
videotaped the practice likely would cast enough of a dark cloud over
the Patriots' case to persuade the presiding judicial officer to allow
the action to proceed long enough for Deters and company to turn every
stone in search of evidence -- including putting John Tomase of the
Boston Herald in the position of possibly having to choose between
disclosing the source(s) for the February 2 article that spawned the
lawsuit or eating his bread from a tin plate and drinking his water from
a tin cup until he decides to do so.
In our view, there are two
possible explanations for this development. First, the Patriots
might have made it known to Deters that if he proceeds with the lawsuit
absent some evidence to support the allegations, the Patriots will
unleash its team of lawyers against Deters personally. Though what
we've seen and heard about Deters suggests to us that such tactics
wouldn't work on him, it's possible that he decided that the smarter
course of action would be to take a wait-and-see approach as to what
Walsh might say.
The other possibility is
that Deters and Walsh lawyer Michael Levy agreed among themselves to put
more pressure on the league to finalize an arrangement that will allow
Walsh to tell his story by including in the dismissal notice an
eye-opening suggestion that Walsh would invoke the Fifth Amendment,
which strongly implies that Walsh will tell Commissioner Roger Goodell
and/or Sentator Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) that Walsh taped the walk-through.
Rule 41 dismissals of lawsuits don't usually set forth the reason for
the action; the gratuitous inclusion of a reference to Walsh taking the
Fifth could have been done to further the mutual goals of Deters and
Levy to put Walsh in a position where he can talk.
And that's what it all
comes back to. This thing isn't going away until Walsh talk.
TUESDAY MORNING
ONE-LINERS by Michael David Smith
Cowboys executive vice
president Stephen Jones says the team has focused on keeping its own
players because "[w]e feel like our resources are better spent keeping
those young players than
going out and overpaying for what at best is a good player on the
market."
If Titans CB Pacman Jones
is reinstated and traded to another team, the
new team would be on the hook for base salaries of $1.29 million in
2008, $1.74 million in 2009, and $2.19 million in 2010.
The Jets are
taking a look at free agent TE Ben Utecht, who is unlikely to
re-sign with the Colts.
Ravens CB Samari Rolle
says his epilepsy is under control and "[t]his
is the best I've felt in a long time."
Free agent WR D.J. Hackett
is
scheduled to meet with the Redskins on Thursday.
The Bengals
apparently are not interested in re-signing free agent LB Caleb
Miller or LB Lemar Marshall.
Lions owner William Clay
Ford is 82, and the Detroit News is
examining the team's succession plans.
A 27-year-old man
pleaded no contest to five counts of forgery Monday for selling
counterfeit Packers tickets.
The special issue of
Sports Illustrated on Brett Favre's retirement is
flying off the shelves in Green Bay. [Editor's note:
And John Madden is buying 28 percent of them.]
The Texans re-signed TE
Mark Bruener and S Glenn Earl to
one-year contracts.
Vikings WR Bernard Berrian
will receive a $5 million signing bonus, an $8 million roster bonus, and
a
$605,000 base salary in 2008.
The Colts have to account
for
$6 million in dead money for DT Corey Simon on their 2008 salary
cap. [Editor's note: The good news is that the
team will save $6 million in food costs buy not having to feed him.]
The Falcons
have re-signed DT Tim Anderson and C Alex Stepanovich.
Most of the big-name free
agents have already signed, but the Panthers
still have
their eyes on several potential signings.
New Titans running backs
coach Earnest Byner has talked to RB LenDale White but
hasn't been able to reach RB Chris Henry.
Free agent QB Mark Brunell
is
scheduled for a visit with the Saints today.
If any team signs Broncos
restricted free agents Chris Myers or Hamza Abdullah to offer sheets,
the Broncos are
likely to match the offer.
Buccaneers RB Warrick Dunn
said coach Jon Gruden "told me to just go out and play my game and have
fun.
That's what he wants me to do."
Despite concerns that
stalled contract negotiations would keep him away, DE Jared Allen
showed up to a ceremony to receive the team's most valuable player
award. [Editor's note: In the end, free beer
always trumps principle.]
The Seahawks seem likely
to designate RB Shaun Alexander a post-June 1 cut, which would make his
cap hit $2.3 million this year and
$4.6
million next year.
POSTED
9:01 a.m. EDT, March 11, 2008
GIANTS TAKING A LOOK AT
CARR
With the No. 1 overall
pick in the 2004 draft fulfilling his potential by winning the Super
Bowl for New York Giants, the team could soon be giving the No. 1
overall selection from two years earlier a chance to make something out
of his train wreck of an NFL career.
According to Ralph
Vacchiano of the New York Daily News, former Texans and Panthers
quarterback
David Carr will visit the Giants, and could be signed to be the
primary backup to Eli Manning.
It would be bad news for
Jared Lorenzen, who would then have to try to fend off Carr during
offseason workouts, training camp, and the preseason.
In New York, Carr would be
reunited with Giants quarterbacks coach Chris Palmer, who was the
offensive coordinator in Houston for the first four years of Carr's
career.
Lost in the sudden decline
of Carr's career is that the Texans decided in 2006 to pick up an option
on his rookie contract, taking them out of the running to select Houston
native Vince Young with the No. 1 overall pick in the draft that year.
Only the continued development of defensive end Mario Williams into a
modern-day Reggie White will save the Texans from a revolt, especially
if Vince Young becomes one of the top quarterbacks in the league.
POSTED
8:42 a.m. EDT, March 11, 2008
COMPETITION COMMITTEE
BRACES FOR WALSH FALLOUT
With the NFL and former
Patriots employee Matt Walsh closing in on a deal that will allow Walsh
to talk comfortably about what he knows (or what he thinks he
knows) about cheating allegations involving the Patriots, a source tells
us that one or more members of the NFL's Competition Committee are
bracing for the potential consequences of Walsh's evidence.
Although there's a growing
belief/suspicion in some circles that Walsh doesn't have a videotape of
the final walk-through practice of the St. Louis Rams prior to Super
Bowl XXXVI, the concern is that if Walsh has any credible evidence of
activities to which Patriots coach Bill Belichick hasn't previously
confessed, Commissioner Roger Goodell will take swift and decisive
action against him.
The problem at that point
would become bigger than cheating. Belichick would separately be
in trouble for not coming fully clean when the Commissioner demanded in
September 2007 that he do so.
Per the source, the
thinking is that it would be a one-year suspension. Whether
Patriots owner Robert Kraft would welcome Belichick back after a year
out of the game remains to be seen.
As we understand it, mere
evidence that Walsh taped defensive coaching signals of opposing teams
would not constitute evidence of activities to which Belichick hasn't
already admitted. For Belichick to be in jeopardy, Walsh would
need to have something more.
As to the team's apparent
intention to claim that Walsh was acting on his own as to anything he
did beyond taping defensive coaching signals, the term making the rounds
at the upper reaches of the league is "institutional control." Put
simply, it might not be enough for the Patriots to contend that Walsh
was a rogue agent who cheated on his own while the powers-that-be
maintained plausible deniability.
In the end, everything
hinges on what Walsh can show and/or tell the Commissioner, and whether
Walsh is credible.
POSTED
9:39 p.m. EDT, March 10, 2008
RUMOR OF RUSSELL WEIGHT
GAIN DISPUTED
In response to our posting
of a rumor from Don Banks of SI.com that Raiders quarterback JaMarcus
Russell is closing in on 300 pounds, a league source says that Russell
isn't close to 300 pounds, and that his weight is south of 275.
Russell's listed weight is
255.
Last year, Russell caused
a mini-stir at the Scouting Combine when he weighed in at
a flabby 265 pounds.
POSTED
9:23 p.m. EDT, March 10, 2008
LAYOFFS STRIKE NFL
FILMS
The autumn wind, as it
turns out, is a pink slip.
Layoffs have struck NFL
Films, with
21 of 283 employees recently let go. Steve Sabol, who founded
the company with his father, Ed, in the 1960s, personally delivered the
news to the affected employees.
"It was very difficult,"
Sabol said. "One of the most difficult things I've ever had to do.
These people were like family."
Sabol says that the recent
cancellation of Inside the NFL was a big reason for the move.
An unnamed NFL General Manager told the Philadelphia Daily News
that the "ongoing struggles" of NFL Network played a role as well.
"The network is making
money, but not nearly as much as the owners want," the G.M. told the
Daily News. "And that's primarily because of this standoff
with Comcast and Time Warner. The subscription number [for NFLN]
is nowhere near what they expected at this point."
NFL spokesman Brian
McCarthy denied that issues with NFL Network influenced the move.
"Films is facing economic challenges just like
any other media company, including the newspaper
industry," McCarthy said. "Ongoing
technological changes also forced us to
re-evaluate the way we operate to remain
competitive."
POSTED
8:52 p.m. EDT, March 10, 2008
ANTONIO RETURNS
After one year and two
games out of the NFL, receiver Antonio Bryant is returning to the NFL.
Per various media reports,
Bryant has agreed to terms with the Buccaneers. According to a
league source, it's a one-year deal worth a little more than the
minimum, and Bryant is not currently subject to any suspensions.
The last we heard from
Bryant, he had filed suit against the league, challenging the
prohibition against alcohol use on personal time under the federal
Americans with Disabilities Act. Though the facts aren't clear,
our guess is that Bryant's eligibility to return to the NFL was part of
a negotiated settlement of the claim.
Bryant has played for the
Cowboys, Browns, and 49ers. The Buccaneers have shown over the
years a willingness to give guys with past suspension/legal troubles a
second chance -- e.g., David Boston, Jerramy Stevens.
Hopefully, Bryant will
finally get some game pants that will stay up during games.
POSTED
8:34 p.m. EDT, March 10, 2008
SPYGATE LAWSUIT
DISMISSED
A reader has tipped us off
to a strange development in the so-called (by us) Spygate II lawsuit,
which was filed by a loose-cannon (in our opinion) Kentucky lawyer on
behalf of former Rams employee Willie Gary and others who allegedly were
damaged by supposed cheating by the Patriots in conjunction with Super
Bowl XXXVI.
The lawsuit has been dismissed.
But the decision didn't
come on the merits. Instead, the plaintiffs voluntarily have
dismissed the action.
"Plaintiffs filed this
action in part on the basis of the public reports that the St. Louis
Rams walk through the day before the 2002 Super Bowl was videotaped by
the New England Patriots," the filing states. "These reports
included Matt Walsh's own public comments."
Um, that statement is just
wrong. The only public report of videotaping of the walk-through
practice was in the February 2 Boston Herald, and Walsh was not
quoted in the item -- even though he widely is believed to be the source
of the story.
"These allegations came to
light on February 2, 2008, the day before the 2008 Super Bowl," the
document reads. "Bill Belichick did not publicly deny the
allegations after the Super Bowl. . . . [T]hree days after the
lawsuit was filed, on February 18, 2008, Bill Belichick publicly denied
the allegations. In addition, the Patriots publicized that Matt
Walsh was fired for taping conversations."
Here's the kicker -- the
plaintiffs are under the impression that Walsh plans to plead the Fifth
Amendment if/when he is deposed.
The dismissal has been
made without prejudice, and the plaintiffs suggest that they will
re-file the lawsuit if/when Walsh's knowledge comes to light.
POSTED
7:22 p.m. EDT, March 10, 2008
DUNN RETURNS TO TAMPA
Veteran running back
Warrick Dunn will finish his career where it started.
According to Adam Schefter
of NFL Network, Dunn has agreed to terms with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers,
the team that made him a first-round draft pick out of Florida State
back in 1997.
It's a two-year, $6
million deal, and it pays $2 million in guaranteed money. Dunn is
scheduled to earn $3 million in the first year of the deal.
He joins a backfield that
includes Earnest Graham, Michael Bennett, and Cadillac Williams.
But Williams, a top-five pick in 2005, is rehabilitating from a ruptured
patellar tendon and there are rumors that he might not be able to play
in 2008, if ever. The arrival of Dunn will do nothing to quell
those rumors.
Dunn spent five seasons
with the Bucs before signing with the Falcons.
The Texans were
interested, and Dunn reached out to the Cowboys since he was released
last Monday, a day after the Falcons signed running back Michael Turner
to a long-term, big-money deal.
POSTED
5:22 p.m. EDT, March 10, 2008
BENGALS BAG BLACKSTOCK
With a 2007 linebacker
corps that couldn't stay healthy and Landon Johnson defecting for
Carolina, the Cincinnati Bengals have
agreed to
terms with free-agent linebacker Darryl Blackstock, according to
Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com.
Blackstock was a
third-round draft pick of the Arizona Cardinals in 2005. The
Cardinals opted not to utilize the one-year restricted free agency
tender on Blackstock, making him an unrestricted free agent even though
he has only three years of service.
He played college football
at Virginia with Ahmad Brooks, who was selected by the Bengals in the
third round of the 2006 supplemental draft.
POSTED
5:03 p.m. EDT; UPDATED 5:10 p.m. EDT, March 10, 2008
TRENT RETURNS TO ST.
LOUIS
Seven seasons after
leaving St. Louis, quarterback Trent Green is returning to town.
According to Adam Schefter
of NFL Network, Green has agreed to terms with the Rams. Jay
Glazer of FOXSports.com reports that it is a three-year, $9 million
contract.
Green was a
high-profile signing of the Rams in 1999. But Rodney Harrison,
then of the Chargers, hit Green low during the preseason, setting the
stage for the unlikely ascension of Kurt Warner. Green, who missed
all of 1999 with a torn ACL, stayed with the Rams through the 2000
season. He started five games that year as an injury replacement
for Warner.
In 2001, Green landed with
the Chiefs, where he was reunited with former Rams coach Dick Vermeil.
Green stayed in Kansas City until last year, when he was traded late in
the offseason to the Dolphins.
In St. Louis, Green will
be reunited with Al Saunders, the former offensive coordinator in Kansas
City who then moved to Washington and now has the same gig with the
Rams.
With Marc Bulger
entrenched as the starter, Green likely won't be higher than No. 2 on
the roster. The only other quarterback currently on the team is
Brock Berlin.
POSTED
4:36 p.m. EDT, March 10, 2008
JAMARCUS NEARING THREE
BILLS?
Kudos to the reader who
pointed out to us a riveting nugget buried in a free-agency review from
Don Banks of SI.com.
Per Banks, there are
rumors that Raiders quarterback JaMarcus Russell is
closing in on 300 pounds.
Three. Hundred.
Pounds.
He's officially listed on
the team's web site
at 255.
If Russell is indeed up to
300 pounds, he'd take over the crown of heaviest NFL quarterback from
Giants backup Jared Lorenzen,
who is listed at
285.
Then again, if the Lord of
the Ring Dings is officially listed at 285, our guess is that he's
already north of 300.
POSTED
3:44 p.m. EDT, March 10, 2008
MORE VETERANS LOOKING
TO RESTRUCTURE? by Michael David Smith
Even after the flurry of
free agent spending that has taken place in the first week and a half of
the league year, most NFL teams are under the salary cap by more than
$10 million.
But with few high-profile
free agents still available, it raises the question of how that
remaining salary cap space will be spent. And Jason Cole of Yahoo!
Sports reports that some agents believe that more veteran players will
seek to renegotiate their contracts.
"There's
nothing left to buy in free agency," Cole quotes one unnamed agent
as saying. "The market is just about dead now."
Most teams have
significantly more money available under the 2008 salary cap than
they'll need to use to sign the rookies they draft next month, and that
means still more salary cap space will be available. Veteran players and
their agents will certainly take note.
Specifically, Cole
mentions Giants wide receiver Plaxico Burress, who is making $3 million
a year for the next three seasons, as a player who could seek a new
deal. If he does, it could be the second straight year that a
high-profile Giants veteran skips training camp, after defensive end
Michael Strahan sat out camp last year.
Ultimately, though,
players don't have much leverage in such negotiations. Just because
teams are under the cap doesn't mean they have to tear up deals they've
already agreed to and give more money to players who are already under
contract.
