Less than a month after he had a 2^nd surgery on his knee, after missing most of last season with a torn ACL, Kenny Britt has begun running and cutting on the side at OTAs. The Titans will definitely hope he’s back and 100% by week 1 as he has had 56 catches for 1046 yards and 12 touchdowns in his last 14 games and is supposed to be part of an explosive receiving corps consisting of him, Kendall Wright, Nate Washington, and Jared Cook. Britt is in a race to play week 1 and when asked about it he said that he is “praying for it.” It’ll definitely be a situation to monitor, especially for fantasy football players.

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When the Texans drafted DeVier Posey in the 3^rd round despite work ethic and character concerns, it was a surprise pick. Posey has all the physical talent, but has never lived up to it on the field and has had some off the field issues. He was also underwhelming in the Senior Bowl, frustrating coaches in practice. It appears Posey is not done frustrating coaches as his new Head Coach, Gary Kubiak, has reportedly been “hollering at” Posey more than any player, according to houstontexans.com.

This is notable because Kubiak has gone out of his way to praise 4^th round rookie Keshawn Martin, as well as 2011 undrafted free agent Lester Jean. It appears that both of those guys are ahead of Posey on the depth chart, as are veterans Andre Johnson and Kevin Walter. He still has upside, but I’d bet against Posey having any sort of impact as a rookie. He appears to be having trouble getting his head back in the game after missing 10 games last season with suspension.

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Mike Goodson didn’t get a carry last season, but he has some experience and he’s still young, so the Raiders traded a reserve offensive lineman to get him from the Carolina Panthers. Now he is getting the bulk of the 1^st team reps in OTAs at running back. This is not an indictment on Darren McFadden, who is simply absent while leading a youth football camp, but it is something worth taking note of. Darren McFadden has a long injury history and has only once gone over 113 carries in a season. If and when he gets hurt, it appears that Mike Goodson, not Taiwan Jones, would get the bulk of the carries. He has fantasy value for that reason.

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Ty Warren has missed the entirety of the last 2 seasons with two separate injuries so there was no chance he was seeing the 4 million he was owed this season. After taking a while to decide, Warren has agreed to restructure his deal, in exchange for not being cut. Warren must have realized that the Broncos were the neediest team in the league at defensive tackle and that he wouldn’t have gotten more money or playing time elsewhere.

It was not immediately released how much Warren agreed to lower his salary to, but the Broncos wanted him to restructure down to 1-1.5 million. If healthy, he could still make an impact in a situational role in 2012 for the Broncos, who are incredibly thin at defensive tackle after losing both Brodrick Bunkley and Marcus Thomas this offseason.

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A 2^nd round pick in 2011, Stefen Wisniewski didn’t have the best rookie year for the Oakland Raiders in 2011, but he had an excuse. According to a report by the Oakland Tribune this season, Wisniewski played the entirety of last season with a torn labrum. Moving to his natural position, center, and with new offensive coordinator Greg Knapp installing a zone blocking scheme he fits better, all signs point to Wisniewski having a strong season in 2012 for the Raiders, barring another injury.

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Justin Blackmon was arrested over the weekend for driving with blood alcohol levels of .24 and .26 on separate measures. He had a press conference today to address the situation. He appeared apologetic, but possibly in a staged manner. He said he was done drinking, but added “for now” and did not admit that he had a drinking problem. For something he had days to script, he really didn’t do a great job of winning over the public. The good news for Blackmon is that ESPN’s Chris Mortensen is “very unlikely” to be suspended. He also had his charges dropped to a misdemeanor and doesn’t face any jail time.

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It may sound weird now that he’s won his 2^nd Super Bowl in 5 seasons, but if Miles Austin hadn’t dropped a touchdown pass week 17, Tom Coughlin could have easily been fired as the Giants would have lost to the Cowboys and missed the playoffs. However, with his 2^nd ring, Coughlin, the league’s oldest coach, essentially has job security for the rest of his life and can coach as long as he wants. Heading into the final year of his contract, the Giants gave him a new deal today, paying him 20 million dollars total over the next 3 seasons and keeping him as the Head Coach through the 2014 season, when Coughlin will be 68. The deal makes him one of the highest paid coaches in the NFL.

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Brandon Weeden was a 1^st round pick of the Cleveland Browns in the 2012 NFL Draft, but, as the Browns are doing with all of their rookies, they’re making Weeden earn the starting job from incumbent Colt McCoy. However, Weeden is impressing in OTAs and may not have to wait much longer to be named the starter.

Head Coach Pat Shurmur said today that he’d like to name starters “sooner rather than later” and compared the quarterback competition to the one between Sam Bradford and AJ Feeley in St. Louis in 2010 where Shurmur was the offensive coordinator. Feeley was the veteran and they made Bradford earn his starting job as a rookie, but he was still named the starter before Training Camp over the inferior veteran. We could definitely see the same thing happen in Cleveland this year, especially since the Browns tried to trade Colt McCoy during the draft.

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According to ESPN Cleveland’s Tony Grossi, the Browns were never actually interested in Matt Flynn or Ryan Tannehill and that their interest in Robert Griffin was never serious. This report reeks of the Browns trying to sell to their fan base the fact that they had to “settle” for the oldest 1^st round pick ever, Brandon Weeden. The Browns did a similar thing earlier this offseason, saying that they had no interest in adding any free agents only after they desperately tried and eventually failed to sign Pierre Garcon.

I can buy that the Browns didn’t view Matt Flynn as a starter and weren’t sold on Ryan Tannehill being worth the 4^th overall pick, but reports earlier this offseason said the Browns desperately tried to match the Redskins offer for the Rams pick, to grab Robert Griffin, with no luck. The Browns are now left with Brandon Weeden, who is impressing in OTAs, but he was far from a polished prospect coming out of Oklahoma State and turns 29 this season.

The Browns didn’t even originally plan on drafting Weeden 22^nd overall, instead desiring Kendall Wright, who went two picks earlier. The Browns are counting on Weeden, Trent Richardson, and breakout season from Greg Little to add life to an offense that ranked 30^th in the league with 13.6 points per game, despite nailing 7 50+ yard field goals and turning the ball over a mere 19 times.

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According to ESPN’s Chris Mortensen, unsigned franchise player Drew Brees is seeking 20.3 million yearly from the Saints in his new contract. This report comes one day after ProFootballTalk reported that the Saints were offering 18-19 million per year. It’s good news that the two sides are closer now than they were earlier in the offseason, but guaranteed money is still a sticking point Brees will still not be attending mandatory minicamp next week. The two sides have until July 16^th to come to an agreement on a deal. I expect them to get a deal done that pays Brees somewhere between 95-100 million over 5 years with about half of that guaranteed. That would make him the highest paid player in the league.

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