NFL Quick Hits

By:  Bobby Shores

Welcome to the weekly (until I get bored, or busy, whichever comes first) column giving my opinion (which should be read as fact) on the stories around the NFL the last week (or however long I decide to go back, it's mine and I will do with it what I please....that's what she said....too old? Never!).

Only pic I could find w/both MJD & Revis

--Players Unhappy With Contracts - This is the same old story every single year, Player "X" (Typically Darrell Revis or formerly Greg Ellis) talks to media about withholding his services because he is unhappy with his contract, team talks to media and says they expect all players to honor the contract they signed. Neither party talks to each other, which is problem #1.

Problem #2 is that the current state of NFL contracts are so far slanted in one direction (teams), and fans seem to pile on the players for not honoring their contracts, that players end up looking like the bad guy they aren't. I don't have a whole lot to say on this subject (actually I do and may write an entire article on it), but the problem is due to players having no choice but to withhold services when they have outperformed a contract they signed as they have no other recourse. Teams on the other hand can cut a player if they feel the player is under performing, even though they signed the same contract that they expect the player to uphold.

NFL owners and General Manager's are ruthless, they regularly squeeze TV Networks for new MAX deals,  taxpayers for MAX money when it comes to stadium deals, and they use every bit of leverage they can in seemingly every situation where they can stand to make a dollar or two. With all that said, I enjoy watching a couple of high profile players use the leverage they have against the team. MJD is without a doubt the most valuable member of the Jaguars (both on and off field) and it seems that he has the most leverage and needs to use it to his full advantage. Revis on the other hand is arguably the most valuable player on the Jets, and his leverage comes from the fact that he WILL withhold services and I think he would sit out an entire season if need be. There are only a few players in the league that have this sort of leverage, and it's kind of nice to see them turn the tables on the teams every now and then because we know that the teams regularly "put the squeeze" on the players.

--Chad OchoCinco Joins the Dolphins - While most "analysts" talk about how OchoCinco is washed up and not worth a 90-man roster spot as he only had 15 catches for like 260 yards (it's close....I'm just to lazy to look it up), no story has gotten more traction this week than that. So if he isn't even a lock to make it through training camp, why is it the top story on NFL shows everyday? Because as fans, we love us some Ocho!! I was listening to NFL Total Access yesterday (or was it Tuesday, who cares) when they were going over the most popular stories on NFL.com, and guess what was #1.....by a LARGE margin...."OchoCinco lands in Miami". In fact the poll they did showed that 57% of fans were most interested in the Ocho, and only 9% cared about Tebow QB battle in New York. (I hope that by mentioning both Teblow and OchoCinco in the same column blows up this site!!!!!)

--Mike Jenkins shows up for Mandatory MiniCamp in Dallas(DUH!) - Really I don't know how this is a story at all, the guy is making a paltry (really?) $1 million salary in a contract year. Did anybody really think that he was going to risk getting fined like $60,000 for missing a mandatory camp, especially since he can't participate because of his recovery from shoulder surgery? Of course not, he is basically getting paid to show up and sit around. While Jenkins is in a bad spot, after he played his heart out last year for the team while injured and then watched them bring in two high profile players to replace him, it's in the Cowboys best interest to keep him around. The bad part is that he will be the 3rd corner at best, and probably the 4th corner (Has never played slot in his career so probably won't start now) which means he will have less opportunities to showcase his skills to the other teams for that big contract he wants. Of course, if he wins the battle for no worse than 3rd corner he will play the majority of snaps since teams usually run 3+ receiver sets. Look for Jenkins to sign a 1-year "prove it" deal next year and then cash in the year after, because I believe that he is a top 15 corner in this league.

--OTA's....Who Cares? - There I said it, nobody cares about practices in shorts and t-shirts, it tells us absolutely nothing about how good the rookies or free agents are looking. Notice how ALL the reports out of these things are about players "looking good", cause guess what? I would look good out there running routes in shorts. There is no hitting (at least not much), the only thing you can tell is if players are jogging to the right spot at the snap of the ball. Nobody cares about these things, yea I read the reports and listen to the podcasts though too....It's the NFL, I need my fix....no matter how I get it.

--Texans HC Gary Kubiak gets Contract Extension - This is how the NFL should work, it seems too often nowadays that coaches do not get long enough to prove themselves, in this league of "win now", new coaches are often on the "hot seat" after only their second season. Some of the greatest coaches in the history of the NFL would've been fired if they coached today. It took Tom Landry 6 years to get his first .500 season and Chuck Noll's first winning season wasn't until his 4th year. I think Bob McNair has done this the right way, give the coach plenty of time to make the roster and coaching staff entirely his, now there is no excuse for him not to perform. The organizations that constantly change (Raiders) are also the teams that are constantly rebuilding and starting over, because every time you change the coach you change the culture, system, players, staff, etc.

Now the bad part about the Texans is the core that Kubiak built might be near the end, in fact, it has already started. Andre Johnson and Owen Daniels are breaking down, they were forced to replace much of their offensive line, Matt Schaub is in the final year of his deal and still cannot stay healthy for a full season. On defense they lost their on and off field leader in Demeco Ryans, arguably their biggest impact player and #1 overall draft pick in 2006, Mario Williams (overrated in my opinion) left via free agency,  their 2007 1st rounder (10th overall) didn't pan out for them, their 2004 1st rounder (also 10th overall) left. Filling these holes largely with free agents is why they are in the salary cap hole they are currently in.....(I think I can do a whole article on this...I have to many article ideas and not enough time!)

--NFL Monitoring Contact at OTA's - I think this is the biggest crock I have seen in a while (ok now that I think about "BountyGate", Lockout, Concussions, maybe not), but the NFL randomly reading some tweets and deciding to review tapes of some OTA workouts for "too much contact" is stupid. You have to either look at every team's practices or none of them, none of this "playing favorites" that the league tends to do. Mainly though, why should the team lose practices if the players are having to much contact? If the coaches are constantly telling the players, "Don't hit", "Slow Down", etc and yet the 88th player on the roster is trying to make an impression and blows up a receiver against the coach's wishes, how is that the fault of the team?

You know what? Sometimes it just can't be helped! When you have a bunch of young testosterone filled guys battling it out for 1 of only 53 spots on a team, you are not going to be able to stop them from getting physical or going to hard. Much like the stupid NCAA rules that punish people for the sins of years past, don't punish the entire team because a couple guys who probably aren't gonna be in the NFL 3 months from now are trying to make a name for themselves!

--Timeout Cause TO Needs a Tryout - (See what I did there with all the "TO" references? Clever I know) Why can't Terrell Owens get even a tryout with an NFL team? Not only is he going to be in shape because...well TO is ALWAYS in shape, and before his knee injury he was having a great year for the Bengals with 72 catches for over 900 yards and 9 touchdowns. Heck, even with the Bills (whose offense sucked then) he had 55 catches for over 800 yards and 5 touchdowns!

Now he surely hasn't helped himself lately with appearances on Dr. Phil and the publicity surrounding his money problems (Allen Wranglers appears to be on them using his reputation against him). While he does have a history of locker room problems, by all accounts he was not a distraction with the Bengals or Bills (why is Carson Palmer still working out with him). I believe that he can be a solid player on a team with a strong locker room like the Ravens (I know he burned his bridges there most likely when he forced a trade to them not to happen). But the Ravens have been bringing in veterans for years that haven't worked out, one thing TO always does is put up the numbers that help you win games!

--Rob Gronkowski Cashes In - After only 2 years in the NFL, Gronkowski has cashed in with a what amounts to an 8-year $54 million extension, and from what PFT says it is basically a 4-year deal with 4 1-year options after that (I am not getting into anymore details). Here is how I see this playing out:  I think Gronk is happy now because of his back injury history that threatens to derail his career IF it goes out again. But when/if he continues to put these amazing/record breaking numbers he will be wanting to renegotiate (ala Darrell Revis & the majority of Eagles players) this deal in just a few years, and with all his off-field antics I could really see him becoming a distraction.....

--Tim Tebow - I really have nothing to say about him, but since it seems that not a day can go by without some report about how he went 1-2 and "walked on water" at Jets OTA, I figured I better mention him also....If I want to be a "real sports journalist", so here it goes. He sucks as a quarterback, is one of the worst teammates I have ever seen (even worse than Owens), is a media whore, and owes his success to a Marion Barber III fumble, a great kicker in Matt Prater, a defense that played well during his time starting and some dumb luck....not The Man upstairs or "divine" power/intervention. If the Jets use him as a personal protector and maybe a lead blocker, than he could have a somewhat successful run, nothing more, and maybe a lot less.

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Ocho Nexto?

by Matt Prendergast


With the unsurprising well-wishes in his future endeavors bestowed from the New England Patriots unto the Artist Formerly Known As Chad Johnson, many unanswered questions linger. Among the bigger ones:

1) Is this the end of the line for a one-time highlight reel regular?
2) And if so, with the fresh and ugly end of Terrell Owens' career combined with the last-ditch, may-not-have-a-roster-spot-in-the-end, probable-role-player-at-best final run of Randy Moss on the 9ers, does this release signal an end to the most flagrant 'Me Generation' of diva receivers the NFL has ever seen?

It was at this exact moment the Bengals decided to give
Bo Scaife one million dollars to sit on their IR for 2011

3) Did they really just cut that guy and sign Bo Scaife?
4) Does Bo Scaife honestly believe he's of the same caliber as Gronk and Hernandez and might sniff the field this year?
5) He does realize that Gronk alone scored 5 more touchdowns last season than Bo has had his entire 7 year career, right?
6) Bo Scaife?

Well, thankfully, of all the glory-engulfing wide receivers to grace the league the last decade or so (and I haven't forgotten you, Joe Horn, even though the rest of the planet did three minutes after you left N'awlins), 85 has always been pretty damn palatable. Aside from the 2008 Owensesque threatened hold-out which never came to be, by and large The Chad may have always loved the spotlight, but he generally seemed to want to share it with the fans. He's a fun dude, in a league where that's increasingly frowned upon, and I've always appreciated that about the guy.

And that, in turn, is why I think the Ocho Cinco Story still has a couple chapters left in it....but where and when? Well, let's take a look at six plausible scenarios, ranked in order of probability.

There's 5 kinds of money here

6) His own sitcom, called 'OCHO LOCO!' on Fox - And they'll say it translates to 'Crazy Eights!' even though it translates to 'Eight Crazy', because nobody at Fox cares about truth. This isn't even really a joke idea; lest you forget, this happened three years ago. You just know Eight-Five saw that thang and locked in his long-range scope. Let's break down the game tape: The Fox Network gave Mike Strahan his own show based pretty much exclusively on his touching performances in such productions as 'A Subway Commercial' and 'This Record-Breaking Sack of Brett Favre'. Doesn't sound so implausible anymore, does it? At the very least CJ ends up on The CW.

5) The San Diego Chargers - Currently, the Chargers are stacked deep at the ends with Malcolm Floyd, Robert Meachem and Eddie Royal, so all they need are two starters at wide receiver. Chad can certainly be one of them. Hell, they should go get Housh off the street as well: if you combine the dynamic duo's loss of speed and trouble with timing over the last couple years with the 2011 Limited Edition Phil Rivers with Erratic Throwing Arm, you've got a three-way marriage made in football heaven!

''So you're saying because I can
use consonants, I'm on at 5 am?
Your logic eludes me.'

4) The NFL Today/The NFL Network - this man was born to be part of a pregame show, and if that means Shannon Sharpe has to begin his deserved rocky tumble down to eventually join his brother Sterling on the NFLN's pre-pre-pre-game show, well then god bless you Cinco! But on the off chance that CBS won't budge The Mumbler out of his seemingly permanent spot there, well, maybe Warren Sapp's warm welcome back to the chair where he somehow impossibly came out looking like a bigger lunkhead than Jeremy Shockey will get nice and chilly quick. This also wouldn't be the worst thing ever, historically speaking.

3)The Washington Redskins - See# 5 above, but substitute 'Pierre Garcon, Josh Morgan and Santana Moss' for those other three guys. And then also please remember that Dan Snyder is still a mental patient who must have won a lottery or invented the Slap-Chop by accident or something, so this makes total sense on all sides of the deal. Except Shanny will probably use Ocho in the backfield, so stay away in your fantasy drafts.

Block. Buster.

2) 'Hard To Catch' with Steven Seagal - The Chad feels destined for Direct-to-DVD slow motion martial arts movies, and no better way to start that off than with an immediate alliance with the king of them all, The Fat Sherpa. Now granted, Ocho will need to come to terms with his character's obvious former gang ties/prison term backstory, but like a modern day 48 Hrs, his wise cracking tough guy with a heart of gold is sure to please the dozens who tune in the day it's released on Netflix Instant Watch.

1) The Miami Dolphins - So the Hard Knockers Aught-Twelve are rolling out the new year with either  David Garrard, or a Rookie-Level QB With-Occassional-Flashes-of-Adequacy, or Ryan Tannehill at the helm. Already promising. And to aid whichever one of those guys picks the ace of diamonds out of a hat before game one, they've provided the lethal receiving multi-combo of Anthony Fasano, Brian Hartline, Davone Bess and Legedu Nanee. Look, I love Bess as a number three, or even number two guy, and Hartline shows promise....but this team needs a proven set of hands that can also draw some needed attention from all the slapping and crying that's going to be going on in the quarterback meetings and in their individual cars after practice. Miami Dolphins, meet Ocho Cinco; Ocho Cinco, meet your Miami Dolphins. Let's do this!



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