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.

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.

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.

– 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.

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.

49ers Sign First of Two First Round Picks……

According to ProFootballTalk.com’s sources, the 28th pick of this year’s NFL draft has joined tight end Greg Olsen as one of two first rounders to have signed on the dotted line.  Offensive tackle Joe Staley was selected by San Francisco after they had traded their 2008 first rounder to the New England Patriots to get back into the first round.  The official announcement is expected soon.

– Marc Bulger is prepared to hold out if the Saint Louis Rams do not work on signing him to a new extension before training camp.  Putting that into perspective, camp is only a couple weeks away, and they don’t seem to be going anywhere in negotiations. Were I a Rams fan, though, I wouldn’t panic just yet that they won’t get it done.  Says Bulger in regards to the possibility: “I don’t think it’s going to happen, but you never know. I don’t want to rule anything out,” he said. “The Rams have been good to me. I’ve been there my whole career, and I think everything’s going to get worked out.

Short Slants

– Anthony Waters, the Chargers rookie inside linebacker who will be looking to start this year, has officially been charged with assault. Someone threw a rock at his car and he proceeded to make the gentleman a bit bloody. NGPF advocates this. If you throw a rock at our car, we will beat your ass, too. Free Anthony Waters!

– The Falcons seem to have insurance against more rotting animal corpses being found on Michael Vick owned properties.

– Ravens’ quarterback Steve McNair triumphs over a stupid law.

NGPF Keeps On Truckin’ With “Fantasy” Impact #6 - NFC North

Welcome back to the NFC North installment of the Fantasy Impact series for 2007.

The players featured in the Norris division aren’t as flashy as their Eastern brethren but there are some diamonds in the rough to be found here yet, young chap.
You can find three of the top fantasy rookies here: the Vikings’ Adrian Peterson, the Lions’ Calvin Johnson, and the Bears’ Greg Olsen. You can also find plenty of young offenses struggling to gain footing.

Call me lazy, but I love articles that write themselves.

And this one is a gem.

Apparently Brian Urlacher has had a bit of a falling out with his two-year-old son’s mother, Tyna Robertson. And it has been documented in the form of a bit of a “text message audit trail” that… well, how about I just show you?

Kudos to the Chicago Sun-Times for this hot-off-the press wonderment:

Jan. 1, 1:57 p.m.: “I haven’t even left you tell them to turn around”

The Chicago Bears announced on Tuesday that they have come to terms with their first round choice, tight end Greg Olsen. In doing so it gives us an opportunity to introduce a new feature to go along with our brand new (.net) surroundings that we’re still getting acclimated to.

Each time a first round choice signs, we’ll tell you a little about his immediate future along with any fantasy implications his rookie season might hold.

Top 10 Non-First Round Second Year Players

We all know the names of the superstars to come out of last year’s first round. Vince Young. Reggie Bush. AJ Hawk. Vernon Davis. Matt Leinart.

Instead, today we’re going to look at the best players not drafted in the first round of the 2006 NFL Draft.

So here it is…the top 10 second year players not drafted in the first round…….

10. Cedric Griffin CB Minnesota 2nd Round — 41 Tackles 2 Interceptions

Extra, Extra! “Vasher Signing Signals End of High Priced Cornerbacks,” Screams Mainstream Media

The Boston Globe joins the parade now forming to proclaim the cornerback market crash after the Chicago Bears inked Nathan Vasher to a five-year, $28 million deal.  Suddenly because of the less lucrative contract extensions signed by Broncos’ corner Dre Bly and Vasher, people are proclaiming Asante Samuel, well, cornered. 

Contract extensions traditionally are worth a lot less than deals signed with new teams on the open market as profootballtalk.com touches on.  Extensions are usually a goodwill gesture on the part of the team to ensure that a talented player will never see the deadly auction block that is free agency in the NFL. 

Tony Romo’s Next Destination?

The contract extension talks between the Dallas Cowboys and their young quarterback Tony Romo seem to be over, at least for the time being.  In all likelihood, as the Dallas Morning News points out, Romo will probably receive a large contract at some point during the 2007 season. 

Depending on how the first month of the season goes for Romo, however, the leverage of either side could swing widely.  The downside for the Cowboys is if Romo has a great start to the ‘07 campaign he could start to think about opting for free agency in the spring.  The price tag to lock him up would certainly rise significantly.

Bears Decommission Tank

The Chicago Bears’ website is reporting that DT Tank Johnson has been waived.  The latest incident involving the Ex-Bear was, apparently, the straw that broke the camel’s back. 

And like so many teams this offseason, they seem to have no problem letting a player go who’s embarrassed their organization one too many times.  Anthony Adams, whom the Bears picked up this offseason from the San Francisco 49ers, will slide into the starting spot opposite Tommie Harris. 

Tank still has eight games to serve on his suspension, and after the most recent run-in with the law in Arizona on suspicion of DUI, that could balloon into a full year or more (i.e. Bye-Bye-Tankie).