Two days after the Carroll County Times reported the two sides were not close on a new deal, the Baltimore Sun is now reporting that the Ravens are unlikely to extend Joe Flacco before the season. Flacco is heading into the final year of his 5 year rookie deal and the Ravens would obviously love to lock up the quarterback who has won a playoff game in each of his first 4 seasons in the league. However, Flacco is reportedly seeking top-5 quarterback money after proclaiming himself the best quarterback in the league.

He wins a lot, but he’s had a ton of help and has never had a 4000 yard season so he’s simply not worth that much. The Ravens are giving Ray Rice, who has yet to sign his franchise tender, precedence over Flacco, who making unreasonable demands and is no threat to hold out. The Ravens will have the franchise tag available next offseason to use on Flacco and it seems like they’ll deal with him then. He’ll need to do what Eli Manning did this year to earn a top-5 contract.

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Reigning Defensive Player of the Year Terrell Suggs tore his Achilles last month. A lot of the news surrounding the situation has pertained to Suggs’ strong optimism that he will be back by November, which would be an amazing recovery just 6 months after the injury. However, ESPN’s Adam Schefter stirred up some talk about another story pertaining to the injury, which was how exactly he got hurt.

Schefter reports that Suggs tore his Achilles playing basketball, a report he says is confirmed by several sources around the situation, including an eyewitness. Suggs is vehemently denying this and saying that he hurt it doing his conditioning test. The reason for the injury would be significant if the Ravens were planning on potentially putting him on the non-football injury list. If he hurt himself playing basketball, the Ravens would be entitled to do so and get back most or all of his 2012 salary, which is something the Eagles are planning to do with Jason Peters. However, the Ravens have no such plans to do that, so the reason for his injury is basically irrelevant except for reasons of pure curiosity.

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When Lions 2^nd year receiver Titus Young was last making headlines, it was for being suspended from practice, allegedly for getting into a fight with defensive back Louis Delmas, though the Lions denied that was the reason. Now Young is making headlines for positive reasons as MLive.com’s Anwar Richardson has been praising him consistently for his outstanding play in OTAs.

Young is competing for the starting job opposite Calvin Johnson this year. This may only be OTAs, but he will leap veteran Nate Burleson on the depth chart if he continues to play this well. Young was a 2^nd round rookie last year and has a lot of fantasy upside on Detroit’s explosive passing offense. Young managed 48 catches for 607 yards and 6 touchdowns as the #3 receiver last year. In his 2^nd year in the league, that’s probably his statistical floor. Richardson believes he’s talented enough to approach 1000 yards if inserted into the starting lineup.

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The Bengals used the 17^th overall pick in the 2012 NFL Draft on Alabama’s Dre Kirkpatrick, but if you ask the Cincinnati Enquirer’s Joe Reedy, Kirkpatrick won’t open the season as the starter. The Bengals have plenty of veteran cornerbacks, including Leon Hall, Nate Clements, Jason Allen, Pacman Jones, and Terence Newman, but needed Kirkpatrick to provide youth.

Reedy predicts Hall and Clements as the starters, which, of course, is only possibly if Hall is able to play week 1 after tearing his Achilles last November. He’s no sure thing for week 1 and if he can’t go, Kirkpatrick may be forced to start. As for Clements, this report is good news as there was some speculation that the 32 year old would be released so the Bengals could avoid paying him 4.3 million this season. The Bengals still almost have to cut one or two veteran cornerbacks to make room for their two rookies, Kirkpatrick and 5^th rounder Shaun Prater, who will be purely a special teamer as a rookie.

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The Panthers were given a scare last week when Jeff Otah injured his left knee in OTAs, the same left knee that caused him to miss 28 games over the past 2 seasons. However, the MRI today came back negative. Still, the Panthers could rest him for the rest of OTAs and even minicamp later this month as a precautionary measure, according to the Charlotte Observer. If they do that, it certainly won’t help Otah beat out Byron Bell for his old job back at right tackle.

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After playing in the 250-255 range as a rookie in 2011, Kelvin Sheppard has slimmed down to 240 pounds this offseason in attempt to play on every down  and stay in for sub packages in his 2^nd season in the league. Sheppard weighed in at 244 at The Combine before the 2011 NFL Draft and played most of last season overweight after being drafted in the 3rd round in the 2011 NFL Draft out of LSU.

Sheppard played very well as a rookie in 2011, ranking 19^th among middle linebackers against the run on ProFootballFocus, but was one of the worst middle linebackers in coverage (38^th out of 50). Now that he’s back in shape, he could emerge as one of the better young linebackers in the league in 2012. He had 70 tackles, including 59 his last 9 games, in a situational role in 2011 and could easily have 100-120 tackles or more in 2012.

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2011 defensive player of the year Terrell Suggs tore his Achilles last month, an injury that normally ends a season. However, Suggs said today that he’ll be back in November at “the latest” and that he’s going to “shock a lot of people” when he comes out of the tunnel. Suggs has been incredibly optimistic to this point, but so far in his recovery, there is nothing to back up the optimistic. Achilles injuries almost always end seasons and while Suggs is an exceptional physical specimen, my point is still on him missing the entire season. A November return would be a mere 6 month recovery.

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Mikel Leshoure was noticeably absent from Detroit Lions OTAs today and, according to the Oakland Press, the absence was due to a sore right ankle. It’s not anything major, but this is the last thing the Lions want to hear. Leshoure was their 2^nd round pick in 2011, but didn’t play a snap last season due to a torn Achilles. Achilles injuries can lead to other types of lower leg injuries due to compensation. They may rest Leshoure for the rest of the OTAs just to be safe. The Lions still have a very uncertain situation at running back. Jahvid Best, who is supposed to split carries with Leshoure, is still not cleared to practice after concussions ended his 2011 season.

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A source tells foxsports.com that the Cowboys have not just denied the Lions and Colts, but 4 teams total who have called about Mike Jenkins. Jenkins is disgruntled because the Cowboys added two new starting cornerbacks this offseason, Brandon Carr and Morris Claiborne, and Jenkins is now 4^th on the depth chart behind those two and Orlando Scandrick, who remains in the slot as a nickel cornerback.

The Cowboys have said publicly on several occasions that they are not interested in moving Jenkins, this coming from both Head Coach Jason Garrett as Owner/GM Jerry Jones. Nonetheless, there is still some speculation that Jenkins could be moved in Training Camp. All that is just speculation and the signs do point to the Cowboys keeping Jenkins for now. We’ll just have to see what happens in the future.

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