The Buccaneers traded back up into the end of the 1^st round of the 2012 NFL Draft to select Doug Martin, but according to the Tampa Bay Times, there’s still “clearly going to be a role” for incumbent starter LeGarrette Blount. This makes a lot of sense and confirms what I’ve already been thinking for a while.

Blount is currently working with the 1^st team in OTAs and while he might not be the 1^st team back during the season, he’s still a talented runner and Martin is still just a rookie and the Buccaneers are going to run a ton under new Head Coach Greg Schiano. Blount may be completely useless on passing downs, but he could still see close to a 50/50 split on running downs in 2012 and given the offensive philosophy Schiano wants to execute, that could be a fairly significant amount of carries.

Besides, Look at Joseph Addai (2009), Chris Wells (2011), DeAngelo Williams (2008), Marion Barber (2008), Fred Jackson (2010). All of those guys arguably had career years the season after their teams spent early picks on a running back. Meanwhile, backs drafted in the 1st round since 2007 have averaged 165 carries as rookies. I am projecting 810 yards and 6 touchdowns on 180 carries with 8 catches for 60 yards for Blount this season.

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Mike Wallace has yet to sign his 2.757 million dollar restricted free agent tender in search of a long term deal and while the Steelers have agreed not to slash his tender down to 577 thousand, which they now have to right to do because Wallace skipped minicamp, it’s still unknown when the two sides will come to terms on a long term deal. Wallace wants Larry Fitzgerald money and the Steelers don’t have the cap nor the desire to pay him that more.

Holding most of the leverage with Wallace essentially under contract inexpensively in 2012 and with the franchise tender reserved for him next offseason, the Steelers want Wallace to sign a deal more in the range of Vincent Jackson’s 55.5 million dollar deal over 5 years rather than the 8 year, 120 million dollar deal Larry Fitzgerald got.

According to the Pittsburgh-Post Gazette, Wallace’s holdout will end later rather than sooner as they feel he could be prepared to sit out into Training Camp. If he does that, he could be fined a good amount of money and he would risk getting out of shape and having a down year like Chris Johnson and Darrelle Revis did in the last 2 seasons, but in search of a long term deal, it might be worth it for him. Unlike franchise tagged players, Wallace can still be signed to a long term deal after Training Camp starts.

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Aqib Talib has to be breathing a lot easier today now that the assault with a deadly weapons charges against him have been dropped. They were reportedly dropped because the defense felt their primary witness would not be seen as credible. Talib was scheduled to stand trial in a week and faced up to 5 years in prison if found guilty. The Buccaneers will now definitely have their #1 cornerback in 2012, though he should still face a suspension from the commissioner’s office even though there was no conviction. Talib is heading into a key contract year and will need to regain his 2010 form after struggling in 2011.

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Bryant McKinnie is a talented left tackle, but he has had highly public struggles with his weight in his career, especially in the past couple years as he’s now in his 30s. He was cut for being out of shape out of the lockout by the Vikings last year and then still struggled with his weight with the Ravens, who picked him up after he was released, though he still played pretty well.

McKinnie sat out last week’s minicamp on the team’s orders to work on his conditioning, and according to BaltimoreRavens.com, they want him at 345 pounds. McKinnie reportedly weighed in at 354 at the start of minicamp and 365 in May. There’s also been some reports that they threatened to cut him if he didn’t meet their goal for him.

However, that would leave them with a Michael Oher/Jah Reid duo at offensive tackle, which they used during minicamp. Oher has been much better on the right side than the left in his career, while Reid is unproven and lacks the foot speed to play on the blindside. I still think it’s highly unlikely that McKinnie ends up getting cut, especially after they already paid him a 500 thousand dollar roster bonus in May. However, McKinnie will be a free agent heading into his age 34 season next offseason so they’ll need to find a long term answer at the position pretty soon.

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Logan Mankins tore his ACL in the Patriots’ Super Bowl loss to the New York Giants in February and needed surgery. However, since it wasn’t a full tear, most believed that he would be back in time for Training Camp or the start of the season at the very latest. A report from ESPN.com’s James Walker today was in contrast to that expectation, saying that Mankins was a candidate to start the season on the PUP, which would shut him down for at least 6 games.

If that happens, the Patriots internal replacement options would be veteran Robert Gallery, 2011 5^th round pick Marcus Cannon, or Dan Connolly, a versatile interior offensive lineman expected to start at center. Connolly started at left guard in Mankins’ absence in 2010. Dan Koppen, who is currently competing with Connolly at center, would then be the starting center.

All that being said, at the same time, there is a contrasting report from Comcast Sports New England’s Tom Curran that he is “told” Mankins will be back for week 1. It really just seems like no one knows anything about the situation and that’s exactly how the tight lipped Bill Belichick likes it. In fact, no one outside of the organization knew he even had the surgery until a month after it happened. Don’t expect Belichick to provide any insight on the situation going forward. We’ll just have to believe Mankins is healthy when we see it. My money is still on him being back for week 1.

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Chris Clemons is one of only a few official holdouts right now, after missing the entirety of last week’s minicamp in protest of his contract. Clemons is owed 4.5 million in the final year of a 5 year deal in 2012, which makes him underpaid considering the 24 sacks, 18 quarterback hits, and 97 quarterback pressures he’s produced over the last 2 seasons.

According to Pro Football Weekly, Clemons is looking for Cameron Wake type money from the Seahawks. Wake received a 4 year extension worth max of 49 million from the Dolphins earlier this offseason, which is significantly more than the 18 million over 3 years that the Seahawks reportedly offered Clemons earlier this week.

Given that, this could be a lengthy holdout as the Seahawks feel Clemons is an aging player and a product of their system, while Clemons feels he’s one of the league’s elite at his position. The Seahawks used a 1^st round pick on Bruce Irvin, but would really miss Clemons if he were to hold out into the season or get out of shape because of a lengthy holdout. His 11 sacks were a third of the 33 sacks that the Seahawks managed last season.

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It’s no secret that Colt McCoy, the incumbent starter for the Cleveland Browns, can be had in a trade. The Browns drafted Brandon Weeden in the 1^st round of the 2012 NFL Draft to replace the mediocre McCoy and immediately shopped him on draft day with no results. They have reportedly lowered their asking price and will accept “minimal compensation” in order to give McCoy “new team, a new opportunity, to spare him the ignominy of being released,” according to both ESPN Cleveland and NFL.com.

Colt McCoy’s younger brother Case, currently a quarterback at Colt’s alma mater The University of Texas, fell victim to a fake Twitter report that Colt had been traded to the Philadelphia Eagles and tweeted “Good luck Brandon (Weeden)! Fan of you, but my brother’s pulling the lucky straw on this one! Cleveland is only going downhill” before realizing that it was fake and apologizing. It’s definitely possible that tweet is also the sentiment being felt by McCoy as he hears his name in trade talks, that the Browns are “only going downhill.”

Even if McCoy hasn’t actually been traded yet, it’s looking more and more likely that he will be by Training Camp. The Browns already have a veteran backup in Seneca Wallace, who has a lot more experience than McCoy, while McCoy might make Weeden feel uneasy, even if only a little, about his job security if he struggles as a rookie and would fetch more in a trade.

One name that keeps coming up is the Green Bay Packers, which makes sense since the drop off from Aaron Rodgers to Graham Harrell is incredibly significant. McCoy might not be a starting caliber quarterback, but he can be a solid backup. He’s still young, experienced, and cheap and would be an obvious upgrade over Harrell.

That being said, the team from the fake report also makes a ton of sense, the Philadelphia Eagles. Michael Vick is one of the most injury prone quarterbacks in the league, if not the most injury prone and while Mike Kafka has earned praise for his performance this offseason, McCoy is significantly more experienced and has more talent. It might be worth a 7^th round pick for the Eagles to acquire someone like McCoy since Vick figures to miss another 2-4+ games this season again. McCoy is a good fit for Andy Reid’s scheme as well, so my money is on McCoy wearing an Eagles uniform by the start of the 2012 NFL season.

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Amari Spievey was one of the worst starting safeties in the league last year, ranking 76^th out of 86 on ProFootballFocus. The Lions didn’t bring in any competition for him this offseason, but according to DetroitLions.com, veteran Erik Coleman, who missed most of last season with a knee injury, will compete with Spievey for the starting job now that he is healthy. Coleman, 30, is a marginal player at best, but Spievey was so bad last year that he could give him a run for his money in a competition for the starting job. Both are splitting 1^st team reps. Whoever wins the competition, strong safety figures to be a position of major weakness for the Lions again in 2012.

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A 2^nd round pick of the Patriots in 2011, Ras-I Dowling missed most of his rookie year with injuries after missing most of his senior season at Virginia with injuries. However, he is incredibly talented and Pro Football Weekly reports that they are hearing that Dowling will start opposite Devin McCourty if healthy. That would put Kyle Arrington, who was arguably their best cornerback last year, 3^rd on the depth chart and focusing on the slot.

If healthy is the key part. Reports earlier this offseason said that Dowling was not healthy, calling him “very stiff” and “working his way back from the ground floor.” McCourty and Arrington have each had strong years in the past 2 years, though unfortunately not concurrently. In 2010, McCourty allowing 55 completions on 99 attempts (55.6%) for 586 yards (5.9 YPA), 4 touchdowns, 7 interceptions, 12 deflections, and 5 penalties, making the Pro Bowl in the process, while Arrington allowed 48 completions on 73 attempts (65.8%) for 735 yards (10.1 YPA), 4 touchdowns, 1 interceptions, 5 deflections, and 1 penalty.

Last season, the two basically flipped. Arrington was the league’s leader in interceptions and allowed 55 completions on 101 attempts (54.5%) for 817 yards (8.1 YPA), 5 touchdowns, 7 interceptions, 6 deflections, and 3 penalties, while McCourty allowed 62 completions on 101 attempts (61.4%) for 1004 yards (9.9 YPA), 6 touchdowns, 2 interceptions, 8 deflections, and 5 penalties.

McCourty has played slightly better over the past 2 years combined and has more upside for the future as a 2010 1^st round pick. My money would still be on both starting at cornerback to begin the season with Dowling working his way back into shape in the sub packages before possibly supplanting Arrington in the starting lineup later in the season.

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Josh Cribbs is a dynamic return man who has returned 8 kickoffs and 3 punts to the house in his career, but because they’ve been so thin at wide receiver recently, the Browns have been working on turning Cribbs into someone who can produce offensively as a receiver as well. Cribbs had decent production last year with 41 catches for 528 yards and 4 touchdowns.

However, the Browns have been focusing on upgrading their receiving corps this offseason and appear to be phasing Cribbs out of the offense, according to ESPN Cleveland’s Tony Grossi, who says he’ll be used in a “more limited capacity” offensively because he is “invaluable” as a special teamer. The Browns brought in Travis Benjamin through the draft, with a 4^th round pick, and feel they’ve unearthed a gem in undrafted free agent Josh Cooper, and are also expecting breakout years from Greg Little and Mohamed Massaquoi. That doesn’t leave a lot of room for Cribbs in their plans offensively.

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