The NFL Draft is simply a very drawn out interview for each player. And from my experience, teams are more concerned with finding reasons NOT to take players, especially early. The more potential and the less concerns, the better. Football is an obviously violent sport, and in the NFL, any hit could be a player’s […]

Peyton Manning prepares to seek a new home via free agency (hello, South Beach) after amassing a hall-of-fame career and missing the entire 2011 season to spinal problem. In doing so, he joins a trio of generation-defining quarterbacks who simply couldn’t stop playing, even if they had to stop playing for their own team.  Johnny […]

In 2011: Charlie Sheen, Jersey Shore (the show, not the place), Angry Birds and many other things became trendy. Now in 2012, franchising kickers has become trendy. With the franchise deadline coming to an end today at 4pm, looking back at some players that got slapped with a tag there is a usually high amount […]

Remember those crushing, retirement-making playoff hits by Saints defenders on Kurt Warner and Brett Favre? It turns out there were dollar signs attached. According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, an NFL investigation revealed that the New Orleans Saints maintained a “bounty” program, openly paying their defensive players for injuring and/or knocking key players on opposing offenses […]

Tarvaris Jackson knows nothing about job security. But he played well enough in 2011, leading the team to all seven of their wins, to put his team in a very dicey position when it comes to finding his replacement. With USC’s Matt Barkley and Oklahoma’s Landry Jones dropping out of this year’s draft class, Seattle […]

The Saint Louis Rams and New Orleans Saints went in two different directions last season – one to the gutter, the other a few seconds (and a Vernon Davis catch) away from the NFC Championship game. In response, the Rams poached Gregg Williams from the Saints to improve their defense … to which the Saints […]

With as much change as there has been for the St Louis Rams this offseason – cleaning house top to bottom and dealing with constant speculation about leaving town – there are more questions than answers. But the biggest one of all right now centers on the bounty that Jeff Fisher and company might reap […]

We aren’t supposed to take too much stock in what happens at the NFL Combine, which Peter King once named the “underwear olympics.” But there are winners and losers each year nonetheless, and nowhere is that more apparent than in this year’s mixed-up class of wide receivers.  Unlike last year, where AJ Green and Julio […]

It’s shocking to think that a single player can make so much difference to a team, but the Carolina Panthers leaped from dead last in the league in points scored to 5th – a staggering increase of 30 touchdowns from the previous year. And that was in year one of Cam Newton. What’s possible in […]

Since the Patriots acquired Wes Welker in a trade from the Miami Dolphins, he has been nothing short of outstanding. Of Welker’s 5 seasons in New England, he has posted over 1,100 yards receiving in four of them, and recovered from last year’s injury-hampered season to lead the NFL in receptions. While Welker’s production will […]

Dominos fall quickly in the NFL. The Green Bay Packers were widely assumed to be using their franchise player tag on TE Jermichael Finley, and let in-demand backup quarterback Matt Flynn walk. Those circumstances changed dramatically when Ted Thompson came to a two-year agreement with Finley. Within minutes of the announcement of that news, Packers […]

Alex Smith has worn a San Francisco 49ers uniform for seven years now. 2011 marks the first time his team has finished above 18th in the league in points. And while he was called upon to manage games for most of the regular season, the playoffs provided a revelation.  Alex Smith, a former bust who […]