Bennett was a 2^nd round pick in 2008 by the Cowboys, but with Jason Witten in town he was largely underutilized, except as a run blocker, where he was a fantastic one. He’s been a top 5 run blocker at the tight end position according to ProFootballFocus in each of the last 2 seasons, including 2^nd in 2010 and 1^st in 2011. That alone is worth the 2.5 million dollars the Giants paid him, especially since they need tight end help with Travis Beckum and Jake Ballard suffering torn ACLs in the Super Bowl.

However, Bennett does have some natural pass catching abilities as well (49 catches during his final season year at Texas A&M), though he was underutilized in this aspect in Dallas. He’s got great upside to become a legitimate starting tight end in this league. I love this deal for the Giants. The only bad part is that it’s a one year deal so if he breaks out as a legitimate top-15 tight end, they will have to pay after the season to keep him.

Grade: A

Based on the season Marshawn Lynch just had, I’d say 8 million per year is a reasonable value for him. Based on his age (26 in April) and his usage (1157 career carries), 4 years is also reasonable for him. However, I’d be nervous to commit 18 million guaranteed to someone like Lynch, a career disappointment with character issues after being drafted 11^th overall in 2007, who had his best season in a contract year. The Seahawks didn’t use their franchise tag on anyone, so I think using it on him and making him prove himself for another year would have been the smarter move.

Grade: C 

Wide Receiver 

Cincinnati

6-0 187

40 time: 4.56

Draft board overall prospect rank: #80

Draft board wide receiver rank: #9

Overall rating: 74*

2/28/10: I have a feeling Gilyard was just having a bad day, he looked WAY faster this season than the 4.56 he ran today. However, I’m moving him down my board a little until he runs a faster time at his Pro Day.

1/30/10: He was the North’s leading receiver with 5 catches for 102 yards and a score and made some very impressive catches against tough coverage. These catches were ones where the defender didn’t give him a ton of room, but he either was able to create just enough separation to get the ball, or able to make an acrobatic catch away from his body. He also was one of the better kick returners in this game as well. I think he dispelled the concerns about his size from earlier this week (weighing in at 8-10 lighter and 2 inches shorter than he was listed), and actually got a comparison to DeSean Jackson by the commentators. I wouldn’t quite say that, but he certainly has the look of an NFL wide receiver and also a kick returner.

1/26/10: Measuring 2 inches shorter than what you were listed at is never a good thing. 

1/17/10: Needs to bulk up, but he projects as a nice slot receiver at the next level. He has very good agility and would be a welcome addition to a team as a punt returner as well and he runs fast straight line like a gazelle, but he comes from a spread offense so he may be a system player that doesn’t translate well to the NFL. 

            9/6/09: Marshawn Gilyard is a long lanky wide receiver with excellent quickness and elusiveness. While he needs to work some on his route running, as do most wide receivers his age, and he needs to lower the amount of passes he drops and the amount of balls he fumbles, he still has an extremely bright future in NFL scouts’ eyes. He put up amazing numbers last year at Cincinnati with almost 100 yards per game played despite playing without his starting quarterback for several games. He also caught 11 touchdowns and, with his combination of long arms and height, established himself somewhat as an endzone threat. He has extremely long legs and gets faster the long he runs, which is why is 40 time is not a great indication of his speed. He’s elusive in the open field and on kick/punt returns, where he was one of the best in the country. His only issue on kick/punt returns is the same issue he has at wide receiver, his hands. He fumbled too many punt returns and kickoffs last season, but when he did maintain control of the ball, which was still a good percentage of the time, he made the most of it. He has an extremely wiry frame and is not a good blocker. He can get out muscled by a lot of cornerbacks. He’s a great jumper and wins a lot of jump balls with jumping ability, long arms, and height. He has shown amazing endurance in the past, living out of his car in 2006 because he got his scholarship taken away from cheating during his freshman year. He has built tremendous character and emerged in 2007, after getting his scholarship back as a better man and a more gracious football player. He’s not the diva wide receiver that is so common in the NFL. Unless he bulks up some he’s not going to be a star in the NFL, but he has great quickness and can be an asset to a team on special teams and as a slot receiver. His ceiling appears to be a #2 receiver and that’s enough to earn him some looks in the middle of the 2^nd round in a draft thin at wide receiver.

NFL Comparison: Steve Breaston

*=For a breakdown of what this means, click here

Baltimore Ravens sign Marshal Yanda

Yanda is a valuable offensive lineman for the Ravens. He can play right tackle or move inside to guard depending on what happens with Jared Gaither’s health at right tackle. The Ravens focused on areas other than the line in the draft so they almost had to resign Yanda. 32 million over 5 years is reasonable considering he’s still only 26.

Grade: A

This is a 5 year, 40 million dollar contract with 19 million guaranteed. If any other team had signed Colston to this kind of deal, I probably would have given it a bad grade because he’s unproven out of New Orleans’ system, but in New Orleans’ system, he’s a legitimate #1 wide receiver. Dating back to his rookie year in 2006, he’s had 70 catches for 1000 yards and 7 touchdowns in every season except for 2008 when he missed 5 games. Those are #1 receiver stats. I have no problem with New Orleans paying him as such. This move likely means they won’t be able to resign Carl Nicks, but they wouldn’t be able to resign both anyway so credit them for getting at least one locked up long term.

Grade: A

I forgot to give a grade for this one. The Jets didn’t expect that Tebow would become available when they made this extension, so I won’t take that into consideration. This is partly a restructuring of Sanchez’ old deal because the last 3 years are team options, but what if Sanchez proves by then to still be a middle of the road quarterback. They’ll have to choose between cutting loose a serviceable starter and overpaying an average talent (3 years 40.5 million).

This deal also guarantees Sanchez 20.5 million over the next 2 years, fully guaranteed. That’s a huge guarantee for a guy who played so poorly at times last year that he might not even warrant a starting job. The deal does free up 6.4 million of cap space for the 2012 season for the Jets, but I don’t think that was the reason they did this. This was an apology extension and I don’t agree with it.

Grade: C

Running Back

Alabama

5-9 215

Draft Board Overall Prospect Rank: #20

Draft Board Overall Running Back Rank: #1

Rating: 85 (mid 1st)

40 time: 4.53

4/16/11: His knee problems are worse than previously though and his knee is being described as arthritic. Running backs have a short “life expectancy” anyway and a potential chronic knee problem like this one could make his career even shorter. It’s a shame because he’s such a talented player, but I’m moving him down some. 

3/1/11: Left over from yesterday, I don’t know how I didn’t include him. Ingram’s 40 was decent, 4.58, but he did great in the drills and had the best first 10 yard split of any running back.

2/19/11: Mark Ingram’s career at Alabama started with him as Glen Coffee’s backup. You might remember Coffee as the running back who went in the 3^rd round to San Francisco, retired after 1 year to follow a “higher calling” and then was later arrested for possession of a concealed weapon. Anyway, Ingram rushed for 728 yards on 143 carries in 2008 as Coffee’s backup, and rushed for 12 touchdowns, 2 more than Coffee.

After Coffee went on to the NFL, Ingram jumped into the limelight, with 1992 total yards (1658 rushing, 334 receiving) and 20 total touchdowns (17 rushing, 3 receiving), winning the Heisman as a true sophomore and becoming the first Alabama player to ever win the Heisman, pretty impressive considering their storied history.

Ingram stumbled out of the gate in 2010, missing two games with an injury and ceding more carries to talented young backup Trent Richardson. Ingram rushed for 875 yards and 13 touchdowns on 158 carries in 2010, an impressive 5.5 average and of course those 13 touchdowns were impressive. He caught 53 passes in his final 2 years at Alabama, showing he can help in that facet of the game as well.

In fact, there isn’t really anything he doesn’t badly as a running back. He can run between the tackles, outside the tackles, catch passes, pound it into the end zone. He pass blocks extremely well for his age, which will help him earn early playing time. The one thing that costs rookie running backs playing time early is pass protection.

He’s really a jack of all trades, though a master of none. He doesn’t have breakaway speed, or elite size, but that’s just being nitpicky, because he can be a true 3 down back in the NFL, something that’s really rare in this day in age. 5-10 years ago, he would have been a top 5 or 10 pick. Now he slips because of the lack of need for elite 3 down running backs.

NFL Comparison: Terrell Davis

By Vince Vitale 

With the 2010 NFL season only 6 days away the St. Louis Rams have traded for Mark Clayton from the Baltimore Ravens in exchange for “late round” considerations. Mark Clayton was selected 22nd overall in the 2005 NFL Draft by the Baltimore Ravens, and has caught 234 passes for 3,116 yards and 12 touchdowns in his NFL career. This is a great pickup for the St. Louis Rams who have the least experienced group of receivers in the NFL. Mark Clayton has 64 more receptions than the entire group of St. Louis Rams receivers currently on the roster. Earlier the Baltimore Ravens picked up T.J. Housmanzadah which made Clayton expendable. The Rams will look to get the Oklahoma connection of Bradford to Clayton out on the field together as soon as possible. Mark Clayton should replace Donnie Avery on the outside. Mark Clayton is a pure speed burner with 4.45 speed, he has averaged 13.3 yards per catch in the NFL. While at Oklahoma Clayton set the record for career receiving yards with 3,241, many of those coming after the catch. This is a huge pickup for the Rams and at just the right time. The St. Louis Rams need to continue to surround Sam Bradford with more and more weapons.

http://www.stlouisramfan.com/

Mark Anderson was actually one of the league’s better pass rushers last season, accumulating 15 sacks and 36 pressures over 19 games as a part time player on the Patriots run to the Super Bowl. Even though he only played 640 snaps in those 19 games (419 were rushing the passer), he made the most of them. In the regular season, he was ProFootballFocus’ 13^th ranked defensive end.

For the Bills, he is expected to see more playing time, though he could still be taken out on obvious running downs for Chris Kelsay. The Bills now theoretically have one of the best defensive lines in the league with Mario Williams, Anderson, Kyle Williams, and Marcell Dareus. Anderson could have trouble transitioning to a bigger role, but that’s not my main concern with him.

Anderson is no sure thing. He’s been very inconsistent in his career. He had 12 sacks as a rookie in 2006 in Chicago, before managing just 13.5 sacks over the next 4 years in Chicago and Houston, before a resurrection season last year. How will he do outside of Belichick’s scheme? Was he just trying hard for the money last season? Besides, the fact that Belichick and the Patriots made little to no effort to resign him is a bad sign.

However, if Anderson repeats what he did last season or even comes close, he’ll well worth the 7 million per year he’ll be paid (4 years, 27.5 million) and if he doesn’t (strong possibility), there’s only 8 million guaranteed so the Bills have an out after every season. He might not pan out, but for so little guaranteed money, he was worth the risk.

Update: This deal is actually 19.5 million max so now I love this deal. 

Grade: A

Mario Williams gets the richest deal in NFL history, 6 years, 100 million, with 50 million guaranteed, which dwarfs Julius Peppers’ 6 year, 84 million dollar deal with 42 million guaranteed from 2 offseasons ago. However, at the time of his signing, Peppers was a 30 year old with 81 career sacks. Williams is only 27, with fewer sacks, 53, but this contract will only take him until he’s 32, rather than 35 like Peppers’.

Elite pass rushers in their prime don’t hit the open market very often. In fact, Mario Williams is probably a once in a decade free agent. Did the Bills overpay a little? Maybe, but this move will both solidify their once weak pass rush and energize a franchise that hasn’t made the playoffs since 1999. Besides, the Bills probably had to overpay. How else would they get a free agent?

I’m not worried about Williams slacking off now that he has 50 million guaranteed. He was the #1 overall pick in 2006 and thus has played under a huge contract before. The Bills are likely getting a top tier pass rusher for the next 6 seasons. My only concern is that he’s coming off an injury plagued season, but that shouldn’t be a recurring problem as Williams had never been seriously injured before last season.

Grade: A