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.

Now with 50% more roster spots!

– Well, Atlanta’s bad breaks continue. The best player the Falcons have left, tight end Alge Crumpler, has been slowed by a bothersome left knee. Not much is known about this injury, but according to Bobby Petrino, Crumpler has yet to be seen at full strength this summer.

For the Falcons, this could be the straw that broke the camel’s back. New starter Joey Harrington would be relying heavily on Crumpler as a safety blanket, and if the Pro Bowl tight end’s status is up in the air throughout the year, the offense would struggle significantly as it learns a new system.

Cornerbacks? Who needs ‘em?

For the second time in two weeks, the Chicago Bears have traded away a reserve defensive back. Cornerback Dante Wesley, who had been the teams’ projected dime back, has been moved to the New England Patriots. For the Pats, it’s a clear sign that they’re bracing for the Asante Samuel holdout to last well into the season.  For the Bears, who knows what the hell they are doing.

It’s gettin’ hot in hurr.

– The Arizona Cardinals offensive line woes may become a thing of the past if the first week of camp is any indication. Of course, this could be the product of a defensive front seven still learning the nuances of a new defense.

– With Michael Vick presumably done for the year and Warrick Dunn scheduled to miss all of the preseason after offseason back surgery, Bobby Petrino will look to throw the ball more.

All injuries, all the time…

– Chester Taylor looked like he could be done for the year after being carted off the practice field in writhing pain, the result of a blow delivered as Taylor attempted to catch a pass that was strung out in front of him.  Childress, though, downplayed the injury, calling it a right arm “contusion.” This, of course, is during a time when Adrian Peterson obviously needed a better opportunity to win the starting job.

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.

Hold out news from around the NFL

With many NFL camps in full swing, it’s time to look at some players who were hold out possibilities. 

Larry Johnson, Marc Bulger, Lance Briggs, Asante Samuel, Michael Strahan, and Pete Kendall. 

Well let’s first look over who did end up reporting to camp. 

Lance Briggs of the Bears decided, along with his agent Drew Rosenhaus, that it would be in the best interest for the linebacker to be in camp on time, and be able to perform well enough to try again for a new contract next year.  Briggs signed his $7.2 million tender well in advance of Chicago’s first practice.

Tampa trims the fat

In a downright surprising move today, Simeon Rice was released by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.  Finishing second on Tampa’s all-time sack list, Rice only managed to play half the season in ‘06. Despite his career low season sack total, it came as an astonishing move, just a day before the first Bucs’ practice of training camp.

After failing his physical, Rice’s $10.45 million cap figure for ‘07 became too expensive for the team to keep aboard. A player sure to garner Hall of Fame attention, Rice will enter his 12th season if he finds an interested team. The talk around the league is that after having played at such a high level for so many years, he might have lost that spark for the game once his shoulder started slowing him down.

– Much maligned second round pick Alan Branch has signed, leaving the Arizona Cardinals with just one draft choice left unsigned (first-rounder Levi Brown).

– Unsurprisingly, Michael Vick’s welcome seems to be worn out in the ATL.

– In other Vick news, the court house he attended today turned into a full blown nightmare. Good thing Vick has the support of three morons from Boston.

– Jonathan Ogden is being placed on the PUP list due to a lingering toe injury, meaning he probably won’t be seeing much action until week one of the regular season.  He will then play all 16 games.  Duh.

It blows when you have to settle for $7.2 million

Updating our previous story, Lance Briggs has signed his one year, $7.2 million franchise offer.  July 16th, as a reminder, was the deadline for a long term deal to get done between NFL teams and their franchised player.

Lance Briggs’ signing now leaves Asante Samuel as the only player to not have signed the tender.

After a lengthy offseason of bitter feelings and foreboding words, Briggs will indeed play another down for the Bears. After the loss of Tank Johnson, that serves as great news for the front seven, the unquestioned strength of Chicago.

Kansas City just got a lot more interesting (the team, not the city)

As we touched on in our Short Slants earlier today, Priest Holmes is now expected to report to training camp on Saturday. When we first heard about the possibility of this, we’ll admit, we didn’t take it very seriously.

After letting our brains digest the news, we contemplated what all this could mean.

– In an obvious direct response to our write-up two days ago, the Bears are now making headway with Lance Briggs.

– Priest Holmes is ready to resume his career with Kansas City. (We’ll see how that goes)

– Curtis Martin, however, is ready for retirement. (We feel 5% more confident that this is final)

– Bills’ second rounder Paul Posluszny signs his deal just in time for camp.

– The Eagles’ first pick, Kevin Kolb, is signed and ready to make Donovan McNabb’s life miserable.

– Tarik Glenn has officially called it quits, and with that, the Colts’ chance of repeating takes a major hit. Peyton Manning’s blindside will now be protected by rookie second rounder Tony Ugoh. Little Trouble for Big Country.

– Dolphin’s rookie quarterback John Beck(also known as Not-Brady Quinn) was impressive in camp sessions today, and Ted Ginn was at home without a contract.

– Arthur Blank was allegedly on the verge of suspending Michael Vick for four games this season.

Doing my normal NFL-obsessive wire-reading, I caught a piece on KFFL regarding Adewale Ogunleye being shopped here lately.

Maybe they have some master plan that the world is not privy to, but we at NGPF are basically baffled as to their recent self-destructive ways.  As we recall, the end of their 2006 season was punctuated by a porous run defense.  Now, with the departure of Tank, their falling out with Briggs (who still is not to report to camp), defensive end Alex Brown demanding a trade, and this quiet shopping of Wally, we have to ask one question:

It’s alright, everybody’s doing it…

With the salary cap having gone through the roof and many agents around the league clamoring in the ears of their talented clients, next week could see an abundance of holdouts and salary demands.

Agents for Asante Samuel and Lance Briggs have both come out and threatened to have their clients sit out not only training camp, but most of the regular season as well. These messy events take place every offseason thanks to the franchise tag, a tool used by teams to keep their star players from flying the coop. Of course, there’s a new salary cap in town now, and with it, a slew of new problems, disagreements, and ultimately greed.

Wrapping up today’s major stories…

–  Nike has decided to pull the plug on a new shoe line named after Michael Vick.  Another Vick related product being nixed by the athletic apparel giant…the Nike Rape Stand 7000.  Sorry, kids.

–  One of the more interesting stories of the day not involving federal charges, was Daunte Culpepper’s first visit with a NFL team.  That team?  The Tampa Bay Buccaneers.  No, really. 

We don’t think there’s any chance of this actually going down, but considering that Culpepper played at Central Florida and Jon Gruden’s affinity for quarterbacks, it does kind of make sense to at least touch base. 

Brett Favre Continues His Slow Assault on the NFL Record Book…. 

It’s been a little over a week now since we first looked at some milestones that were on the horizon for running backs.  This time its the quarterbacks and two guys who are mentioned way too much by the mainstream media. 

Brett Favre is either first or second in just about every category there is for a quarterback, and is within striking range of owning every major NFL passing record.  He also leads the league in getting his ass kissed by T.V. commentators.(Look it up)

– Can the Lions get Calvin Johnson into camp on time? If not, Jon Kitna might only throw for 40 touchdowns this year.

– The Vikings are dropping subtle hints about acquiring a veteran quarterback. We’re going to go ahead and drop subtle hints that the Vikings’ passing game will be horrendous.

– The Boston Globe lays out the Patriots’ options at cornerback. Maybe Bill Belichick should call up Deion Sanders.

– Football player Will Smith may soon be as rich as movie star Will Smith. The timing of Dwight Freeney’s mega deal couldn’t have come at a worse time for New Orleans.

If you’re new to NGPF, then you probably are unaware that we are involved in a mock draft involving 12 sports blogging sites. The idea behind us joining was to A) do a little fantasy football warm-up, and B) demonstrate to all our vast, expansive, and often intimidating NFL knowledge.

Again, as a reminder, we were left with the #7 pick in the draft and ended up being “forced” to take a QB in the first round. This league in particular values touchdowns, both passing and rushing, as six points. Most leagues denote rushing touchdowns as six and passing TD’s as four points, so being “forced” in this situation was actually a bit of a windfall, in our ever-so-humble opinion.

Daunte Culpepper has finally been released by the Miami Dolphins, closing the chapter on a largely unsuccessful and frustrating comeback attempt from a significant 2005 season knee injury.

The Dolphins held onto him for as long as possible, hoping to get something out of a player who cost them a 2nd rounder and around seven million dollars a year. Instead, they were left with little interest in a disgruntled former Pro Bowler who refused to accept any trade and got feisty, taking them to court for said grievances.

So what’s next for Daunte “Small Hands” Culpepper?