Mike Williams had an incredibly impressive rookie year in 2010, as a mere 4^th round rookie, catching 65 passes for 964 yards and 11 touchdowns, but struggled last year, catching 65 passes for 771 yards and 3 touchdowns. He was out of shape for most of, if not all of the season, not an uncommon thing for a Buccaneer last year as Head Coach Raheem Morris completely lost the locker room. Morris is now gone, but the Buccaneers brought in another receiver, Vincent Jackson, moving Mike Williams to 2^nd on the depth chart, where he’s a better fit. However, Williams might not be done being demoted on the depth chart.

According to ESPN.com’s Pat Yasinskas, Mike Williams could lose his starting job to slot receiver Preston Parker. Parker, who caught 40 passes for 554 yards and 3 touchdowns last season, is having a great offseason and earned the praise of quarterback Josh Freeman, while Williams is reportedly in the new coaching staff’s doghouse. If Parker does leapfrog Williams on the depth chart, he’d play outside opposite Jackson in 2-wide receiver sets and move inside on 3-wide receiver sets, with Williams playing outside. There’s definitely some fantasy football upside with Parker late. At the very least, he should exceed his 2011 production with Kellen Winslow gone and Josh Freeman likely to bounce back.

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Peyton Manning is participating in the Broncos’ minicamp, giving outsiders a chance to see him throw the ball in person, after 4 neck surgeries. The Broncos obviously weren’t too worried about Manning’s neck, nor his age, 36, as they made him the highest paid player in the league, despite the fact that he didn’t play a down of football last season.

Manning’s public performance was met with mixed reviews and highly differing opinions. Pete Prisco of CBSSports.com said there was “little difference” between Manning now and Manning in 2010, when he was last healthy. Meanwhile, both USA Today’s Nate Davis and Denver Post’s Woody Paige said that his deep throws were not the same as old, with Davis going as far as to say that Manning doesn’t even have the liveliest arm on the team.

Manning is still in the rehab phase, which he admits, but if he isn’t starting to at least resemble his former self by Training Camp and the Preseason, Broncos fans should be worried. Fortunately, they’ll be able to see him firsthand in the preseason and determine if he’s his old self or not for themselves. If he’s not right, he won’t be able to hide it. For now, I’ll trust Denver’s assessment of him before they signed him, which was that he was still a more than capable quarterback.

That being said, I am projecting a down season for Peyton Manning for several reasons. For one, he’s going to a new team, in a new division, with a new system, and new players, new coaches, new surroundings, everything new. The continuity is gone for Peyton Manning, which is never a good thing. Two, he’s got inferior players around him, at least in comparison to the 2000s Colts or even the 2010 Colts, which had two receivers, Reggie Wayne and Pierre Garcon, who almost had 1000 yard seasons last year with Curtis Painter and Dan Orlovsky.

Three, he was out of football all last year. In 2010, he struggled by his standards for half a season after just missing training camp. Four, he’s coming off of 4 neck surgeries in 2 years. Enough said. Five, he’s 36 and a declining player. He was a declining player even in 2010 and that was 3 neck surgeries and almost 2 years ago. His arm strength wasn’t what it used to be and I can’t imagine it’s any better now. I expect him to have a season worse than 2010, when his 6.9 YPA was his lowest since 1998 and his 17 interceptions were his highest since 2002.

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Jordan Shipley had a strong rookie year in 2010 out of the slot, catching 52 passes for 600 yards and 3 touchdowns, but he tore his ACL early last season and only managed 4 catches for 14 yards. Shipley had a laundry list of injury problems in college at Texas, so much so that he was granted a 6^th year of eligibility (it’s why he’s already heading into his age 27 season). The Bengals took a chance on his talent in the 3^rd round in spite of his injuries, but, even with his strong 2010, it might not end up paying off.

Shipley admitted today that his surgically repaired knee is still stiff and that he’ll be limited in minicamp, though the team still asserts that he’ll be good to go for Training Camp. This is still obviously not good news for someone with his history of injuries. If Shipley is healthy, he’ll be the team’s slot receiver. That’s almost a certainty or as close as you can get to a certainty on a young and unsorted receiving corps.

However, if Shipley can’t go in the regular season, the Bengals would likely move projected #2 receiver Mohamed Sanu, who played the slot at Rutgers, into the slot in 3 wide receiver sets and whoever is 4^th on the depth chart (Marvin Jones? Armon Binns?), would then move outside opposite AJ Green. The Bengals have a lot to sort out at receiver after AJ Green so they would obviously like to get Shipley back healthy. It’s worth noting that Shipley’s admission came on the same day as a report that the Bengals were no longer interested in a veteran receiver.

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Earlier this week, when the New York Giants released Jake Ballard, their starting tight end last season, for injury reasons, there was immediate speculation, fueled by comments by Ballard’s agent himself, that Ballard would be resigned by the Giants in 2013 when he was fully healthy. However, that is no longer going to happen because the Patriots put in a waiver claim for him and claimed him today, the only team to do so. Ironically, the Patriots are the team that the Giants beat in the Super Bowl in February, the game during which Ballard tore his ACL.

Ballard is still highly unlikely to contribute at all in 2012 and the Patriots will probably stash him on IR after he starts the season on the PUP. They have a ton of tight ends anyway, having signed Daniel Fells, Bo Sciafe, and now Jake Ballard behind Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez this offseason. This move was probably made with 2013 in mind, when Ballard will be an exclusive right free agent.

Ballard is a massive tight end at 6-6 275 and a great blocker, but contributed a good amount in the passing game for the Giants last year, catching 38 passes for 604 yards and 5 touchdowns. He’d still be nothing more than the #3 tight end for the Patriots for the foreseeable future, but Alge Crumpler saw a good amount of the field in 2010 as a #3 tight end. Like Crumpler, the Patriots may see Ballard as purely a blocker.

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Despite being arrested over the weekend for DUI, with a BAC of .18, David Diehl is reportedly unlikely to face suspension, according to the New York Daily News. This makes a lot of sense because it was his first offense and because Justin Blackmon, who had a previous offense and a higher BAC, is also unlikely to get a suspension. Like Blackmon, Diehl will probably have to enter a league program for alcohol. Diehl is 32 this season and coming off an awful season at both left tackle and left guard. He’ll compete with 2011 4^th round pick James Brewer to start at right tackle, a competition he could easily lose. His DUI obviously doesn’t help, though it might not hurt either, depending on how the organization views it.

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The Texans drafted Brandon Brooks in the 3^rd round of the 2012 NFL Draft with the intention of having him compete with career backup Antoine Caldwell to replace Mike Brisiel at right guard. Brooks is not the prototypical zone offensive lineman because of his large size (340 pounds or so), but he ran a sub 5 40 at his Pro Day and the Texans took him anyway, acknowledging that they’re never had an offensive lineman as big as him in their zone blocking scheme.

Brooks impressed in OTAs and rookie minicamp, but Gary Kubiak said today that he was disappointed with Brooks’ weight at the team’s minicamp today, though his weight was not disclosed. This is obviously a setback as he competes for the starting job. It’s starting to look like Caldwell, also a former 3^rd round pick, from the 2009 NFL Draft, will be the starter at least to start the season. It’s not over though, but Brooks will have to get his weight back in check.

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A week after having a meltdown in OTAs, the Jets’ mercurial wide receiver Santonio Holmes will miss the Jets’ minicamp this week with a hamstring problem. Holmes’ meltdown last week was because he felt he was being overworked by the coaching staff, despite only taking 25 reps. Holmes did not mention anything about a hamstring problem in his public explanation of the situation. The past week or so has undone a lot of the good that Holmes had done to get back on good terms with the organization this offseason. He was almost cut at the end of last season because the headaches were outweighing his production.

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Despite tearing his Achilles last November, Leon Hall says his recovery is going very well and that he expects to be ready for the 1^st day of Training Camp next month. A return for Training Camp seems very optimistic since he’ll be only 8 months removed from an injury that normally takes 10-12 months, but some players do heal better than others.

Joe Reedy, one of the Bengals’ top beat writers, believes that Hall will be ready for the start of the regular season, which would be about 9 ½ months after the injury. If he can’t go, rookie Dre Kirkpatrick will likely start opposite veteran Nate Clements. If Hall recovers for Training Camp and Kirkpatrick impressed in camp, the Bengals may cut Clements rather than pay him 4.3 million this year. The Bengals don’t want to rush Kirkpatrick into action too quickly though.

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In an interview with Bengals.com, Cincinnati offensive coordinator Jay Gruden said he sees no reason to add a veteran receiver and that he’d be surprised if someone didn’t pan out from the current group. The Bengals currently have a young group of receivers, Brandon Tate, Marvin Jones, Armon Binns, Mohamed Sanu, Jordan Shipley, and Ryan Whalen behind clear #1 receiver AJ Green. One veteran they were linked to earlier this offseason was Braylon Edwards, but it appears the Bengals are yet another team that will not be offering him a contract.

Shipley is pretty solidified in the slot, assuming he’s healthy. Meanwhile, the Bengals are hoping one of the rest of the bunch can step up as a starter opposite Green. The favorite right now, based off of comments made by the Bengals coaching staff in the past, would seem to be Mohamed Sanu, their 3^rd round pick in this past NFL Draft. Armon Binns, a 2011 undrafted free agent, and Jones, a 5^th rounder this year, would then compete for the #4 receiver spot. Tate and Whalen are on the roster bubble. There’s still a lot up in the air though, but it doesn’t look like the Bengals will be adding a veteran either way.

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In an interview with the Associated Press today, Steve Smith said that he wants to play “3 or 4 more years” before retiring. This is very consistent with the contract he just signed, so it makes sense. Smith is signed through the 2015 season, 4 seasons from now, for a total of 37.75 million. Smith had a major bounce back season in 2011, catching 79 passes for 1394 yards and 7 touchdowns, after just 46 catches for 554 yards and 2 touchdowns in 2010.

However, his age, 33, is a major issue. If you take a look at the 11 receivers who have played in the last decade and rank in the top 20 all time in receiving, you’d see that even the average top 20 all-time receiver has his last 1000 yard season at age 34-35, averages 48 catches for 594 yards and 3 touchdowns for 2 more seasons after age 34-35, and is done playing by age 36-37. Smith currently ranks 32^nd on this list, but will likely finish top-20. The point is that Smith would have to defy a lot of history to continue to be a #1 receiver for more than 2 years.

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