No undrafted free agent has gotten more buzz so far than Josh Cooper, who is a wide receiver, currently of the Cleveland Browns. This is because the Browns have been praising him and his ability to get open underneath endlessly this offseason. Cooper is expected to not only make the Browns, but to compete for a slot receiver job with Jordan Norwood, Travis Benjamin, and Josh Cribbs, which shows just how thin the Browns are at receiver.

Greg Little and Mohamed Massaquoi will start outside, but Cooper is really impressing and he has past experience with quarterback Brandon Weeden from Oklahoma State, catching 71 passes for 715 yards and 3 touchdowns, playing off of Justin Blackmon last season. The 5-9 180 pound Cooper could start the season 4^th on the depth chart behind Little, Massaquoi, and 4^th round rookie Travis Benjamin. Josh Cribbs will make the roster because of his special teams ability, but Norwood and Carlton Mitchell are going to be squarely on the roster bubble with Mitchell as the less likely one to stay.

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With 3^rd round rookie TJ Graham expected to focus on the slot in his 1^st year in the league, Donald Jones has emerged as the favorite to start outside opposite Steve Johnson, but Derek Hagan also expects to compete for that starting job, according to buffalobills.com. David Nelson, who was actually the starter there for most of last season, is seen as a dark horse right now in that competition.

Nelson caught a good amount of passes last sseason, 61, but didn’t do much with them, going for 658 yards and not showing much after the catch ability. The Bills #2 receiver spot was pretty unproductive on the whole last season, but if Ryan Fitzpatrick can find his early season form from last year and keep it all season, whoever wins the #2 job might have some fantasy football upside in deep leagues.

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The Ravens signed veteran Bobbie Williams earlier this week and a report from Ravens inside Aaron Wilson today explains why. Wilson says that the Ravens’ Kelechi Osemele has yet to practice with a quadriceps injury, though he says he should be fine by Training Camp. Osemele was their 2^nd round pick in the 2012 NFL Draft, but he’s missing valuable practice time so the Ravens might go with the veteran Williams, at least early on.

Williams was given an 800 thousand dollar signing bonus, despite turning 36 in September, and is currently getting the 1^st team reps in minicamp. He played well in 9 games for the Bengals last season, but injuries and age might cause his abilities to decline significantly in 2012. There’s a reason why he was still available into June.

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Despite tearing his ACL in January, Casey Hampton says he’s confident that he’ll be able to play week 1, which would be a mere 8 month recovery. Players have made recoveries in that short of time from torn ACLs in the past. Wes Welker comes to mind and Adrian Peterson might be able to do a similar thing this year. Neither of those guys weigh the 340 pounds that Hampton does, but both have to do a whole lot more moving around than Hampton, who plays nose tackle for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

I still wouldn’t be so certain. Hampton is no spring chicken, turning 35 right before the Steelers’ season opener. The Steelers have also drafted a nose tackle, Alameda Ta’amu, in the 4^th round of the 2012 NFL Draft, and have talked up career backup Scott McClendon. I say it’s at least a 50/50 chance that Hamton starts the season on the PUP even though Hampton says he “can’t see that happening.”

This could be Hampton’s last season with the Steelers. He’s a free agent after the season and might not be welcomed back as the Steelers go to a youth movement on defense. He might not find another taker on the open market next offseason either so this could be his last year in the NFL period. If so, it’ll be 13 years in the league for Hampton, which is still a very impressive career.

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According to Pro Football Talk, extension discussions between the Saints and Drew Brees could go down to the wire, with the wire being the July 16^th deadline for franchise players to sign long term deals. If Brees does not sign his tender by that date, he’ll have to play out this season under the 1 year franchise tag and or not play at all, though I can’t see Brees choosing the latter.

This report is essentially the exact opposite of what we were hearing at this time last week, when there was a report that Brees was close to signing a deal in time to be present at his team’s minicamp. He did not sign a deal and has not attended minicamp. Brees is currently seeking a deal upwards of 20 million per year, while the Saints are offering 18-19 million.

It sounds like Brees wants to be paid like Peyton Manning (96 million over 5 years) and the Saints want to pay him like Tom Brady (72 million over 4 years). There’s also a dispute over guaranteed money. The two sides will come to an agreement and Brees will likely end up as the highest paid player in the league, but I agree it could take another month or so and go right up until the deadline. He’ll be at Training Camp either way, but I think I speak for many, many people when I say, pay the man. He’s earned it. This is ridiculous.

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Restricted free agent Mike Wallace is absent from the Steelers’ mandatory minicamp. The word “mandatory” is a little misleading because it’s only mandatory if a player is under contract, which Wallace, who has yet to sign his restricted free agent tender, is not currently, so the Steelers can’t fine him. However, they can reduce his tender value from 2.742 million to 577 thousand on Friday, but multiple sources believe that the Steelers will not do that as an act of good faith as they try to get Wallace signed long term.

However, the two sides are still not close on a long term deal, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Wallace said earlier this offseason that he wanted Larry Fitzgerald money. Fitzgerald got 120 million over 8 years last offseason and since Wallace’s statements, Calvin Johnson actually surpassed Wallace’s deal with 136 million over 7 years, which couldn’t have lowered Wallace’s contract demands. While they want him signed long term, the Steelers don’t have the cap space, nor the desire to pay Wallace that kind of money and frankly he’s not quite worth that kind of cash.

The Steelers have all the leverage in these negotiations and should eventually be able to get Wallace to either sign his tender, in which case they could franchise him next offseason for around 9.5-10 million, or agree to a smaller long term deal, one in the neighborhood of the 55.5 million over 5 that Vincent Jackson got from the Buccaneers this offseason. For now though, the two sides are having little to no discussion.

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Coby Fleener was a 2^nd round pick of the Indianapolis Colts in the 2012 NFL Draft, but it’s 3^rd round pick Dwayne Allen, not Fleener, who is getting the 1^st team reps at tight end. This is likely because Allen is the better blocker, which means he’ll play on base packages, but Fleener is the better pass catcher and athlete and should be the more productive of the two. He’ll see plenty of the field this season as the Colts plan to use a lot of two-tight end sets, which makes sense given their lack of depth at wide receiver.

He could have an Aaron Hernandez esque rookie year. I know Andrew Luck isn’t Tom Brady, but he has familiarity with Fleener from their time at Stanford and Fleener was a higher draft pick and has less competition for balls than Hernandez did as a rookie. Hernandez caught 45 passes for 563 yards and 6 touchdowns as a rookie in 2010 and then caught 79 passes for 910 yards and 7 touchdowns last year. I’ve got Fleener at 45 catches for 720 yards and 7 touchdowns in my fantasy rankings and recommend him as a low end TE1 with upside.

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Lions’ GM Martin Mayhew named 3 standouts from offseason practices so far, naming running back Jahvid Best, defensive tackle Nick Fairley, and defensive end Willie Young. Best is reportedly 100% healthy, or as close to 100% as he’s going to be and when he is 100%, he’s a very impressive running back. He was actually a top-10 running back in fantasy points per game last year, though he only played 6 games. He’s got some fantasy football upside, but he’s one concussion away from potentially being knocked out for the season and he’ll likely have to split carries with Mikel Leshoure, even if healthy, and Leshoure would likely get the goal line carries. I’d let someone else take a chance on his upside.

As for Nick Fairley, he’s been arrested this offseason for marijuana possession and then a DUI/eluding police double charge and is facing at least a 2 game suspension. However, on the field, Fairley, their 2011 1^st round pick, has been nothing but impressive this offseason and should have a big impact when he can play this season as the likely starter next to Ndamukong Suh.

Willie Young, meanwhile, played very well in 2011 in limited action last season with 4 sacks, 4 quarterback hits, and 19 quarterback pressures on 274 snaps. He could be in line for a bigger role in 2012 with Kyle Vanden Bosch aging. If the Lions trade franchise player Cliff Avril, he could have a major breakout season. ProFootballFocus actually graded Young as a more efficient pass rusher than Avril.

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The Lions used a 2^nd round pick on Mikel Leshoure in the 2011 NFL Draft, hoping he’d help shore up a running game that had been struggling for years. To their misfortune, however, Leshoure tore his Achilles before he could ever get onto the field and missed the entirety of his rookie season. He’s close to healthy now, participating in positional drills at Lions’ minicamp, but he will have to wait 2 more games to make his NFL debut.

The NFL handed down punishment today for Leshoure’s two offseason arrests for marijuana possession, giving him a 2 game suspension, which is actually pretty lenient. Leshoure may have gotten himself out of a larger suspension by enrolling in the league’s substance abuse program and routinely passing drug tests since his 2^nd arrest. Leshoure will, barring further injury, be on the field for 14 games this season, which will go a long way towards helping the Lions run the football. A healthy Jahvid Best would also help. If the Lions can figure something out on the ground, their already explosive, but one dimensional, offense will be that much tougher to stop.

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Speculation started today that the Packers could trade wide receiver James Jones, according to the Houston Chronicle, who named the receiver needy Texans as a potential destination. James Jones caught 38 passes for 635 yards and 7 touchdowns last season as the Packers’ #3 receiver, but the Packers have 2011 2^nd round pick Randall Cobb, who is having a strong offseason, ready to move into the #3 receiver role, so it makes sense that Jones would be expendable, if, in fact, the Packers view him as such.

Jones would also be pretty inexpensive for a team acquiring him. He’s owed just 2.3 million this season. For the Texans, Jones would represent a much needed veteran receiver for a team whose #3-#5 receivers have 0 career catches. They’re so desperate for veteran help at the position that they’ve invited Mike Sims-Walker to participate in their minicamp. Jones would be an obvious improvement and might even be able to challenge the pedestrian Kevin Walter for the #2 receiver job. To this point, any talks of Jones being moved is pure speculation, but it makes sense.

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