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.

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.

– 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.

– 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.

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.

– Troy Brown has re-signed with the New England Patriots to another one year contract. It’s pretty amazing how a guy who can do that much for one organization continues to receive one and done deals late into the offseason.– Ex-Eagle linebacker Dhani Jones is now a New Orleans Saint, providing a possible starter and definite depth to an already solid linebacking corp. Now if only they can turn down their suck in the secondary.

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.

Defending the Division:  Part One

Every year eight teams step up to the plate to defend their hard earned division title from the previous season.  While it seems that most in the national media will proclaim the current champ still the best in the division, that may only be the case in a few divisions. 

While it isn’t comparable to a Superbowl or Conference Championship, a division championship can be a springboard to a title run.

Since 2004 there have been 24 opportunities for teams to successfully defend the crown.  Eleven times we have seen a team repeat in the previous three seasons, a 46% clip.