Random thoughts from some of Week Two’s games

The second week showed the continued dominance of some units, while weaknesses became more glaring than the hot August sun for others:

Joey Harrington is still struggling, Vikings’ Adrian Peterson has some insane moves, Chad Pennington has Kellen Clemons hot on his tail, Vince Young still needs some work, Brady Quinn can throw touchdowns against the Lions’ 3rd string defense, the Panthers’ offense was completely inept against Philly, and the Jags have some wild running backs.

And now for some more organized thoughts on some of this week’s games.

Browns employ new strategy for arranging depth chart

It was announced today, via the Cleveland Plain Dealer, that head coach Romeo Crennel will decide his starting quarterback for tonight’s preseason opener by - you ready? - a coin flip.

For a team that’s expected by most to finish near the bottom of the league record-wise, it might not be the most intelligent idea for Crennel to openly voice his plans of picking a starter via this technique. Crennel is very much on the hot seat in Cleveland this year, and with Brady Quinn already rubbing fans the wrong way, this current regime isn’t winning anyone over.

So now we can stop bitching about how immature he is and focus on how much he sucks.

We’d write more but we’re saving our Quinn hate-juice for another day.

Actual Editorial Cleveland Browns

 Around the league in less than two minutes…

– The Pittsburgh Steelers laid a whooping on the New Orleans Saints from start to finish in the first preseason game of 2007, with the big surprise coming from Mike Tomlin’s passing game absolutely torching the Big Easy secondary. Ben Roethlisberger was perfect on his ceremonious one drive, connecting two times to Cedrick Wilson for a total of 73 yards.

The other story of note? The Saints’ passing game was rusty, with Drew Brees finishing 1/6 for 6 yards & backup Jamie Martin rounding out the first half with a 3/8 and 26 yard outing. Painful to watch, frankly. But I’m sure the ship will right itself.

All the major AFC news of the day.  Yes, all of it.  Don’t argue with me.

Can I make a suggestion?  Click the links.  They take you to the story we are referring to.  You will learn things.

– The biggest news of the day would have to be Denver Broncos’ linebacker Warrick Holdman going down with what NFL Live reported as a spinal cord concussion. The injury shook the teams and fans, which eventually led to Mike Shanahan cutting the day short.

Back to business

It’s been a few days since our last post, and both of us here at NGPF are either going through a move, or getting ready for one, so it’s made it a bit of a challenge to maintain the site. We still have big plans for Next Gen Pro Football, so we ask for everybody’s patience.

Now that we have that over with, let’s talk about some football.

There are seven rookies left who as of today are still yet unsigned.

First round signing extravaganza

Normally we’d give each first rounder his own piece, but considering it’s late and it’s two players that, truthfully, I don’t know a whole lot about, we’re gonna give the NGPF nation a two-fer.

First up, John Clayton of ESPN is reporting that the third pick in the draft, offensive lineman Joe Thomas out of Wisconsin, has come to an agreement with the Cleveland Browns. The terms are said to be for essentially five years with a total payout of $42.5 million dollars and up to $23 million being guaranteed.

Browns “Staph” Up

LeCharles Bentley has been cleared by his doctor to return to the playing field today, a positive step in a somewhat tragic story.  We’ve neglected this story over the past couple of weeks because, well, we didn’t think that this would happen.

But it did.

And so now here we are, covering it.

Bentley has stated that he plans on being at the start of the Browns’ training camp this Thursday.  Hopefully he doesn’t injure himself on the first drill again (see: last year).

Every year numerous milestones and records are reached in the NFL.  Last year, for example, LaDainian Tomlinson shattered the single season record for rushing touchdowns with 28.  Of course, there’s no way we can forecast individual season accolades, but we can explore career accomplishments.

Over the course of the rest of the summer we’ll get caught up on what possible milestones players will be working on in 2007.  Today we will take a look at the rock carriers — running backs.

Megatron Terrorizes the World, but Football Fans Know Better

After hours of deliberation, three masterful NFL owners and upper management legions came together to take a final stand against their demanding battle of more dominant opponents.  The only way to salvage any value out of their functional, yet incomplete, components was to come together and become a complete entity (both concepts seem to have eluded the organizations as of late), capable of pillaging many a village.

Packer Trade Rumors

Rumors continue to circulate around the net that the Green Bay Packers will make a move before training camp opens July 28th. None of their draft picks seem to be inspiring awe, and they did next to nothing in free agency. While most of the talk circulates around current free agents still looking for a job, we find it hard to believe that making a move on one of them would help the team let alone make Brett Favre happy.

Packing it In for ‘07

The Green Bay Press-Gazette has just put up a piece about rookie DT Justin Harrell. It seems their first round prize may make little to no impact this coming season. Exactly what Brett Favre wants to hear…

Is there anything that hasn’t gone wrong this offseason for the Pack? Sooner or later GM Ted Thompson is going to have to make a move or this team will fall by the wayside before October is over. Their first eight games involve FIVE playoff teams from a year ago, and that doesn’t include trips to the Metrodome and Invesco.

– With the Seahawks, Broncos, Dolphins and Cardinals all needing help on the interior of their lines, it will be interesting to see if any of these teams pull off a trade for one of the league’s many disgruntled guards.  Alan Faneca of the Steelers, Pete Kendall of the Jets, and the Niners Justin Smiley round out a talented bunch of guards looking for a (significant) pay increase….

The question will ultimately be if there are teams out there willing to part with a 2nd round pick and pay upwards of $18-20 million in guaranteed money.  To a guard.  Minnesota, Dallas, Cleveland, and Buffalo say hell yes.

Oh how I hate thee, Brady Quinn.

While this is an NFL-focused blog site, I must admit that I have watched more than a fair share of college football, and 2006 was no exception.  Thanks to the glory of NBC loving Notre Dame more than The Tonight Show, I also managed to catch way too many games with Brady Quinn in them [Thank God that era is over.  Move him to Cleveland where I will never see him on TV again].