News

Steelers, Mike Wallace “continue to make headway” in extension talks

stevenlourie News, Steelers

Now that the deadline for franchise players to sign long term deals has come and past, only one high profile player remains unsigned, Steelers’ restricted free agent Mike Wallace. Wallace has yet to sign his restricted free agent tender and there is no deadline for him to do so, as he and the Steelers work on a long term deal. The only “deadline” for the two sides is probably Training Camp, which is in about a week. Wallace might not report without a long term deal and with new offensive coordinator Todd Haley coming in, the Steelers want him there at every practice after he’s already missed OTAs and minicamp.

According to the NFL Network’s Jason La Canfora, Wallace and the Steelers “continue to make headway” in extension talks, no surprise as the extension talks have hardly been heated as some other ones have been. Wallace wants to be a Steeler long term and the Steelers want him to be a Steeler long term. They just have to find a contract that both satisfies Wallace’s desire and pays him fairly and works under the cap that the Steelers are backed up against, and presumably will be next offseason as well.

In an act of good faith, the Steelers did not reduce Wallace’s tender value last month when they had a chance to. I expect the two sides to agree to a deal worth 10-12 million per year over 5 years with about half of that guaranteed sometime in the next two weeks. A 2009 3rd round pick, Wallace doesn’t turn 26 until August 1st and has caught 171 passes for 3206 yards and 24 touchdowns already in his 3 year career and might be the league’s fastest player.

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Lions’ Aaron Berry arrested for 2nd time this month

stevenlourie Lions, News

This is just getting ridiculous. This is the NFL’s slowest month of the season, which means all of the players are running around with nothing to do. And what have a large chunk done? Get arrested. 30 different players have been arrested since January, with over half of those arrests coming this month. Aaron Berry apparently decided to one up everyone, getting arrested for the 2nd time this month over the weekend.

After getting arrested for DUI earlier this month, Berry was arrested Saturday night on 3 counts of simple assault after pointing his gun at 3 different people (THUGLIFE?). He’ll undoubtedly be subject to some sort of league discipline, assuming he’s escaping jail time. For a player expected to get his first crack at a starting job this season, this could not have come at a worse time. The Lions are much more likely to give the starting job to rookie 3rd round pick Dwight Bentley or veteran Jacob Lacey now, neither of whom is qualified. For the Lions, this is their 7th arrest of the offseason and further weakens their secondary, already their weakest unit.

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Darrelle Revis expected to report to Jets’ Training Camp on time

stevenlourie Jets, News

Darrelle Revis has been in the news again this offseason with “will he, won’t he” holdout speculation as Revis, who is vastly underpaid over the next 2 seasons, 13.5 million over 2 years, has refused to commit to Training Camp. However, the Associated Press cites a source close with the situation that Revis will be there for day 1 of Training Camp and that the two sides have agreed to discuss a new contract next offseason.

It’s always been a possibility that Revis’ noncommittal attitude was just to see if the Jets would get nervous and budge and that Revis never had any legitimate plans to skip Training Camp. Revis held out two off-seasons ago and got a 4 year, 46 million dollar deal that paid him 32.5 million over the first 2 years, which made him the league’s highest paid defensive player. He’ll be underpaid this season at 7.5 million, but if he keeps up his strong play, he should get upwards of 15 million per year over a longer period of time next offseason. It looks like a win, win all around.

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Maurice Jones-Drew won’t be present for start of Jaguars’ Training Camp?

stevenlourie Jaguars, News

Jaguars’ running back Maurice Jones-Drew skipped the team’s mandatory minicamp last month in June in a protest of his contract and now, with Training Camp on the near horizon, speculation is picking up that he could skip that as well. Right now, the two sides are as far apart as can be. Maurice Jones Drew wants a new contract as he is underpaid at 9.4 million over the next 2 seasons, while the front office won’t even talk contract with him as they want him to honor his commitment, even though they frequently cut underperforming players (just like everyone else) rather than honoring their commitment.

MJD has two options of how to respond. He could just assume they won’t change their mind, see a holdout as pointless and decide to put his crappy team above his finances, or he could hold out until they budge, which would likely mean a very extended holdout. If you ask Fred Taylor, a former teammate and close friend of Jones-Drew’s, MJD will be holding out. Considering how close the two are, I’d bet on him being right. It just remains to be seen how long Jones-Drew will continue his hold out if the front office continues not to budge.

This situation has all the makings of the Chris Johnson holdout last offseason. The Titans eventually paid Chris Johnson right before the start of the season, but, after missing all of the offseason practices and Preseason games, he failed to stay in shape on his own and missed out on valuable practice with a new coaching staff and struggled mightily in 2011.

The only difference here is that Johnson was actually offered a reasonable contract and still kept up his holdout for even more money. The Jaguars won’t even talk to MJD. Considering that MJD accounted for 47.7% of his team’s yards last season, the Jaguars can’t afford to have him miss games or risk getting out of shape. For fantasy football purposes, I’d stay away from him early in drafts and target backup Rashad Jennings late as a high upside sleeper.

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Titans’ Kenny Britt has surgery on other knee, gets arrested

stevenlourie News, Titans

Titans’ receiver Kenny Britt did not have a good week. First, he underwent knee surgery on his left knee, after previously having 2 knee surgeries on his right knee in a 10 month period. The knee surgery was minor as shouldn’t cause him to miss any time, though another procedure like that is hardly good news. What could cause him to miss time is the fact that he was also arrested this week for DUI.

That arrest brings his total up to 8 since entering the league in 2009. Though he’s never been suspended, he easily could have been last season, after getting arrested 3 times last offseason. However, Roger Goodell decided to not to punish players for what happened during the lockout. This time around, he won’t be so likely and if Goodell takes his whole history into account, including what happened during the lockout, it could be a lengthy suspension, up to 4 games even.

Britt is an incredibly talented player who has caught 56 passes for 1146 yards and 12 touchdowns over his last 14 full games. However, the other numbers, 3 and 8, are just are important, with 3 obviously being the amount of knee surgeries he’s had in the last 10 months and 8 being the amount of times he’s been arrested since entering the league. His fantasy stock is trending down right now, while the stock of Nate Washington, who had a 1000 yard season in Britt’s absence last year, and Kendall Wright, a rookie who would move into the starting lineup if Britt missed time, is trending up.

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Broncos offer Ryan Clady 5 years, 50 million

stevenlourie Broncos, News

As he heads into the final year of his rookie contract, the Broncos have reportedly offered left tackle Ryan Clady a 5 year, 50 million dollar deal extension with 28 million guaranteed, according to the Denver Post. The same source said that Clady, the 12th overall pick in the 2008 NFL Draft, would likely reject the deal as he seeks a deal equal to or exceeding the 8 year, 92 million dollar deal that Joe Thomas got last offseason.

Clady is definitely not worth that based on his play over the past few years. Clady played pretty well as a rookie in 2008 in Mike Shanahan’s zone blocking scheme, not allowing a sack, though he did allow 7 quarterback hits, and 37 quarterback pressures, while committing 5 penalties. In the 3 years since, he’s allowed a combined 20 sacks, 11 quarterback hits, and 83 quarterback pressures, while getting penalized 27 times. Last year was his worst year, as he rated 61st out of 73 offensive tackles on ProFootballFocus.

He’s probably not even worth the 50 million the Broncos offered him, let alone Joe Thomas money. 50 million is top-5 offensive tackle money. Still, teams rarely let their left tackles hit the open market. Good offensive tackles are almost as rare on the open market as quarterbacks and switch teams more rarely than any position other than quarterback. If they can’t come to an agreement before the season, which seems unlikely unless one side caves big time, they’ll probably franchise tag him next offseason. As for this season, Clady gets a gift as he gets to protect the blindside of Peyton Manning, who is notoriously easy to protect.

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Jets’ receiver Santonio Holmes is not a believer in two-quarterback systems

stevenlourie Jets, News

According to a report by Pro Football Talk, Jets receiver Santonio Holmes does not believe a two-quarterback system can work in the NFL. This is noteworthy because the Jets are planning on running the closest thing we have in the NFL to a two-quarterback system with Mark Sanchez and Tim Tebow. Holmes is essentially saying he doesn’t believe in what the coaching staff is trying.

This might not be as big of news if Holmes didn’t have his already negative history in New York. Holmes was a real locker room cancer last season and disrupter of team chemistry on a Jets team that disappointed and missed the playoffs after back-to-back AFC Championship game appearances and an 8-5 start. Former teammate LaDainian Tomlinson said last week that Holmes will likely check out mentally (at best) in a run heavy offense, which is what the Jets are planning on using. Anyway you add it together, it doesn’t look like things are going to end well for Holmes in New York.

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Seahawks’ Marshawn Lynch arrested for drunk driving

stevenlourie News, Seahawks

Marshawn Lynch was arrested today for drunk driving. This is major news because this is hardly Lynch’s first run in with the law. Lynch was accused of sexual assault in 2007. In 2008, he pleaded guilty to failure to exercise due care to avoid striking a pedestrian during a hit and run with a pedestrian. And in 2009 he was pulled over, and the cops smelled marijuana and found a loaded gun. He was eventually charged with 3 counts, avoided drug related charges, and pled guilty to a single misdemeanor weapons charge. Lynch was suspended for the first 3 games of the 2009 season.

Since then, Lynch had done a great job turning his career and his life around. He was traded from Buffalo to Seattle to get a fresh start and rushed for 1204 yards and 12 touchdowns on 285 carries last year, becoming a fan favorite in the process. This offseason, he earned a 4 year, 31 million dollar deal from the Seahawks, who can’t be happy about the recent news. Now he faces more legal discipline and could be given another suspension from the NFL. It’s painful to see someone be so stupid and risk ruining something so great that it took him so long to get back.

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Jets’ Darrelle Revis to skip start of Training Camp?

stevenlourie Jets, News

Darrelle Revis did not skip the Jets’ mandatory minicamp last month, but it does not appear the Jets are in the clear with him as he could still skip at least the start of Training Camp. Count ESPN’s Chris Mortensen in the group of people who believe Revis will skip the start of Training Camp as he said on Mike and Mike in the Morning that he would be “surprised” if Revis showed up for the start of camp.

Revis has been paid like the top cornerback in the league he is over the past 2 seasons, making 32.5 million, but is owed just 13.5 million over the next 2 seasons and probably wants to be paid that 16.25 million dollar rate into the future. In fact, I’m guessing Revis’ understanding when he signed the heavily frontloaded deal was that the Jets would pay him as the top cornerback in the league for 2 years and if he continued to be the best cornerback in the league over those 2 years, they’d give him a long term deal in the 2012 NFL offseason.

It’s now the 2012 offseason and Revis held up his end of the deal. At the very least, he’ll want more than the 60 million over 5 years that Nnamdi Asomugha got from the Eagles last offseason when he was almost 4 years older. The Jets should want to avoid a hold out at all costs with Revis because he is their best player and a bright star on a team does not appear to be in a good position. Also, the last time he held out (2010, for his current deal), he got out of shape like Chris Johnson did last year and was not quite his normal dominant self.

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Raiders in “no rush” to sign Cedric Benson

stevenlourie News, Raiders

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the Oakland Raiders are in “no rush” to sign Cedric Benson. Benson to the Raiders would seem like an obvious fit because, while the Raiders do have running backs, Darren McFadden, Taiwan Jones, and Mike Goodson, none are power backs like Benson is. Benson to the Raiders has been speculated for weeks, but they appear to not be in any rush to sign him, which would explain why such an obvious fit hasn’t happened yet. That could change once Training Camp starts. Benson, who has been among the league’s top-10 in carries for 3 straight years, figures to sign somewhere eventually as teams assess their running back depth in Training Camp, even as he heads into his age 30 season.

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