According to the Green Bay Press-Gazette, it’s  “a given” that the Packers will keep 6 wide receivers on their 53 man roster this season. That’s very good news for the largely unknown Diondre Borel, a collegiate quarterback who drew rave reviews from both Aaron Rodgers and Mike McCarthy this week for his work as a wide receiver in his 2^nd season after going undrafted out of Utah State in the 2011 NFL Draft.

Aside from a trade involving one of the guys ahead of him on the depth chart, the only way Borel would have been able to make the roster would be if they carried 6 receivers as Greg Jennings, Jordy Nelson, Randall Cobb, James Jones, and Donald Driver are all locks to make the roster. This report also makes it seem less likely that Jones will be traded. Jones had his name in trade rumors involving the Houston Texans earlier this week. They could still trade Jones and keep 6 wide receivers if they feel that another largely unknown receiver, Tori Gurley, is ready for the active roster.

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LaDainian Tomlinson confirmed today what many had expected all offseason, that the future Hall of Famer would be hanging them up. Tomlinson will officially retire with the Chargers on Monday, after signing a 1 day contract with the team. Tomlinson spent 9 years with the Chargers after being selected with the 5^th overall pick in the 2001 NFL Draft and had all of his best years with the team. Even though he didn’t go out on the best terms in San Diego, it still makes a lot of sense that he’d retire with them. When he goes into the Hall of Fame, likely after waiting only 5 years, it will be wearing a Chargers helmet.

Tomlinson, who turns 33 next week, spent the last 2 seasons with the New York Jets, but was a shell of his former self, managing just 914 yards and 6 touchdowns on 219 carries in 2010 and 280 yards and 1 touchdown on 75 carries last season. Tomlinson holds the single season record for touchdowns and ranks behind only Jerry Rice and Emmitt Smith all-time in touchdowns. His 13684 rushing yards rank 5^th all-time behind Smith, Walter Payton, Barry Sanders, and Curtis Martin, while his 18456 all purpose yards rank 7^th. He is definitely the best back of the past decade and deserves entrance to Canton on his 1^st try.

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Joe Banner was let go as the Eagles’ President earlier this month, after many successful years with the team. According to Boston Globe reported Greg Bedard, Banner is “having a good laugh” at the DeSean Jackson deal. This suggests that the phasing out of Banner and takeover of complete control by Head Coach Andy Reid and GM Howie Roseman began before this offseason, when Jackson was extended. Bedard says that Banner “never would have done that deal.”

It certainly was peculiar when the Eagles signed Jackson to a 47 million dollar deal over 5 years after a down season, even though he was completely fine playing out the season under the 9.515 million dollar franchise tender. That being said, the stress relief that comes with a new deal might be just what the doctor ordered for Jackson, if you believe his struggles last year were due to him feeling snubbed by the Eagles by not getting a long term deal. We’ll have to see if he bounces back this season.

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The Jaguars signed Clint Sessions to a large deal last offseason, giving him 29 million over 5 years with 11.5 million guaranteed and stealing a starter away from division rival Indianapolis. However, Session barely played in his first season in Jacksonville thanks to 3 concussions and didn’t play all that well when he was healthy. In fact, backup Russell Allen not only played more snaps (293 to 258), but also graded out better on ProFootballFocus.

Session is supposedly healthy now, but the Jaguars aren’t in any rush to give him his starting job back. According to the Florida Times Union, the Jaguars will make Session compete with Allen for his starting job and he’s not necessarily a lock to win that competition. At the very least, Allen will be their top reserve linebacker and a big part of their special teams this season. If he wins the starting job, it’ll make Session that much more of a free agency bust. He’s still owed a good amount of guaranteed money so the cap hit would likely be too much for the Jaguars to release Session now.

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Rob Gronkowski just got a record extension for a tight end, 54 million over 6 years, but don’t expect the same to happen for Jimmy Graham. Graham essentially matched Gronkowski in production last season and is also heading into his 3^rd year after being taken in the 3^rd round in the 2010 NFL Draft, the same draft where Gronkowski went in the 2^nd round.

Like Gronkowski did, Graham still has 2 years left on his current deal, but unlike the Patriots, the Saints are not in a hurry to get him extended. In fact, according to Pro Football Weekly, it is “difficult to envision” the Saints extending Graham this offseason, citing their limited cap space and the fact that they’re still tied up in ongoing and more important negotiations with Drew Brees.

That’s totally reasonable, but if Graham continues to play this well, they may regret not signing Graham to a Gronkowski like deal this offseason. If Graham leads the team in receiving in 2012 and 2013, like he did by a wide margin in 2011, he’ll point to Marques Colston, who is making 40 million over 5 years, in negotiations, say that he has outproduced Colston on the same offense for 3 years, and possibly demand upwards of 50 million over 5 years. All of a sudden, the Patriots’ deal for Gronkowski, who is a significantly better blocker, will look like a steal.

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The Vikings used the 4^th overall selection on Matt Kalil in the 2012 NFL Draft and will plug him in at left tackle, where he will be a major upgrade. However, that doesn’t solve all of their offensive line problems. Guard is still a major position of weakness for them. The Vikings started Steve Hutchinson and Anthony Herrera there last offseason and now both are gone. Hutchinson signed in Tennessee, while Herrera remains available on the open market, which shows just how much he struggled last season.

At one guard spot, the Vikings have moved Charlie Johnson, who struggled mightily at left tackle last season, inside to play left guard. We’ll see how that works out. At the other guard spot, the Vikings signed Geoff Schwartz, who was once a solid starter, but missed all of last season with injuries. According to ESPN Twin Cities, however, Schwartz is not a lock to start there as Brandon Fusco will be given “every opportunity” to win the job. Fusco, a 6^th round pick in the 2011 NFL Draft, was a collegiate center and played just 26 snaps last season.

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After losing incumbent right guard Vernon Carey this offseason, the Dolphins look poised to head forward with unproven John Jerry, a 2010 3^rd round pick, as the starter at that position. However, the Dolphins might not be too confident in him because they brought in Jake Scott for a visit twice, with the most recent time being this week, a sign that they could be close to signing him.

Scott was a starter for the Titans last year, playing every snap for the team at right guard, but has yet to find a new team because he was a large part of a Titans’ offensive line that couldn’t open up any holes for Chris Johnson last season. That being said, he’s still only 31 and would provide a good veteran backup for Jerry so it makes a lot of since for the Dolphins to sign him. While he struggled in run blocking, he was phenomenal in pass protection, allowing just 2 sacks, a 1 quarterback hit, and 11 quarterback pressures, while committing just 3 penalties.

He might be the best interior lineman still on the market, even over Carey, who played decent last year but is still without a contract at the same age as Scott. A return for Carey to Miami was ruled out earlier this offseason. Scott (6-5 280) would fit better with the Dolphins’ new finesse style up front, over the power blocking style of old which Carey (6-5 340) fit better.

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When the 49ers used a 1^st round pick on AJ Jenkins in the 2012 NFL Draft, it caught a lot of people by surprise as no one had him going in the 1^st round. Even Mel Kiper, who was seemingly higher on Jenkins than anyone was, didn’t have him in the 1^st round. Kiper also had bigger name receivers Stephen Hill and Rueben Randle going ahead of him.

49ers fans still had plenty of reason to be confident. The dynamic duo of Jim Harbaugh and Trent Baalke made similarly surprising picks of Aldon Smith and Chris Culliver in the 1^st and 3^rd round respectively last year and both exceeded expectations, Smith doing so drastically. Besides, Harbaugh has done no wrong since being hired last offseason, taking the team from 6-10 to 13-3 and the NFC Championship game, turning former #1 pick bust Alex Smith into a legitimate starting quarterback, and coaching breakout years out of Ray McDonald, Ahmad Brooks, Navorro Bowman, Dashon Goldson, and Carlos Rogers defensively.

However, 49ers fans can’t be encouraged by reports out of 49ers’ camp about Jenkins so far. First, it was reported that he showed up out of shape and was really struggling and now a report from the Santa Rosa Press Democrat is saying that Jenkins “looked like one of the worst receivers” at minicamp. The Santa Rose Press Democrat also mentions that Jenkins barely saw any work with the 2^nd team, which puts him at best 5^th on the depth chart.

Jenkins will start the season 4^th on the depth chart at best, behind Michael Crabtree, Randy Moss, and Mario Manningham and may be even lower if this continues. Kyle Williams, who the same report said looked like the 49ers’ 3^rd best receiver, might end up 4^th on the depth chart if Jenkins can’t leapfrog him, leaving Jenkins in a position to make essentially zero impact as a rookie.

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Chris Ivory is a talented running back with experience, 1090 yards and 6 touchdowns on 216 yards (5.0 YPC), but he’s buried on the depth chart in New Orleans’ deep running back group, behind Mark Ingram, Darren Sproles, and Pierre Thomas, and SportsNOLA’s Brian Allee-Walsh believes he’s on the roster bubble as the Saints may not want to carry 4 running backs in 2012. Allee-Walsh also mentions Ivory’s history of injury problems as an obstacle to him making the roster. If he is cut, don’t expect him to last long on the open market. He’s too talented not to make someone’s final  53 and he only recently turned 24. The Saints might actually be able to get something for him in a trade. They should at least explore the possibility.

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The Cardinals have never been ones to focus on the tight end in their offense, but times are changing. The tight end has become a focal point of offenses all across the league and the Cardinals no longer have quite the outside wide receiver talent that they had in years past when they had Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin in their primes. They used a 3^rd round pick on a tight end, Rob Housler, in 2011 and he played sparingly as a rookie behind two veterans Todd Heap and Jeff King, but according to the Arizona Republic, the Cardinals will be focusing more on the tight end in their offense in 2012.

They also said that Housler would likely open the season as the 1^st string tight end, but that they would use a lot of two-tight end sets with either one of the two veterans, Todd Heap and Jeff King. Housler rarely came off the field in OTAs and minicamp and even Larry Fitzgerald says that the “tight ends are probably their strongest position on the field.”

Even if that’s not true, Housler would figure to be involved quite a bit in the offense this season, but with inconsistencies at quarterback and still good depth at wide receiver with Larry Fitzgerald, Michael Floyd, Early Doucet, and Andre Roberts, as well as their depth at tight end, I don’t think Housler is worth owning in fantasy leagues. However, he’s a name to know. He’s a fantastic athlete with 4.4-4.5 speed at 6-5 248.

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