Last week, DJ Williams lost the appeal of his 6 game suspension for providing a “non-human specimen” in a drug test. Since then, there has been speculation that Williams could be released. Williams has a history of off the field issues and is owed 11 million dollars over the final 2 years of his contract in 2012-2013. Being suspended for 6 games is not helping his case.

The Broncos could give Wesley Woodyard, a talented young linebacker, an every down role. They also have 2011 3^rd round pick Nate Livings, to go with middle linebacker Joe Mays and outside linebacker Von Miller. On top of that, 6^th round rookie Danny Trevathan is impressing in camp. They would be fine without Williams, who is not the player he used to be. He was ProFootballFocus’ 35^th ranked 4-3 outside linebacker last year, including playoffs.

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Adrian Peterson is doing extremely well in his recovery from a torn ACL suffered in December and while he may begin Training Camp on the PUP, he is now expected to be ready to go for week 1. However, according to Tom Pelissero of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities, it is “a given” that the Vikings will limit Peterson’s early season workload and goes as far as to say that backup Toby Gerhart will carry the load early on.

Gerhart is certainly a capable back. He was a 2^nd round pick in 2010 and he rushed for 431 yards and 1 touchdown on 85 carries in 5 starts last season. The Vikings would be smart to ease Peterson back into action, especially since they’re probably not going anywhere this year regardless. They still owe Peterson a lot of money over the next few years and, when healthy, he’s one of the most dynamic playmakers in the game. The last thing this troubled franchise needs is something to happen to him to effect him into 2013 and beyond. Stay away from Peterson in the first 2 rounds of fantasy drafts and if you do draft him at any point, make sure to handcuff him to Gerhart. Gerhart, meanwhile, is the definition of a mid round upside pick at his current ADP in the 9^th round.

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Jairus Byrd is arguably the Bills’ 2^nd best defensive player (after 100 million dollar man Mario Williams) and he was ProFootballFocus’ 3^rd rated safety last year, ahead of notables like Ed Reed and franchise players Michael Griffin, Dashon Goldson, and Tyvon Branch. Only Troy Polamalu and Adrian Wilson rated higher than him. However, the 2009 2^nd round pick is unsigned after the 2012 season. The Bills are working on changing that.

According to BuffaloBills.com, GM Buddy Nix is hopeful of signing Byrd to a long term contract and the two sides are currently in talks. You’d have to figure that the contracts of Eric Weddle (5 years, 40 million, 19 million guaranteed), Michael Huff (4 years, 32 million, 16 million guaranteed), and Michael Griffin (5 years, 35 million, 15 million guaranteed), as well as whatever Dashon Goldson and Tyvon Branch get, will be the starting points for negotiations.

That means Byrd can reasonably expect something like 7-8 million per year over 4-5 years with 15-19 million guaranteed. If Byrd remains unsigned going into the season, the Bills will likely franchise him after next season, though that might be dependent on them resigning Andy Levitre and Kraig Urbik first. The Bills are also reportedly in talks with those two, who are also heading into contract years. For reference, the franchise tag value for this season was 6.2 million, but that number could be significantly higher in 2013 with all of these new contracts being factored in.

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The Cowboys use a lot of rotation on their defense, with 4 players all playing more than 243 snaps at 3-4 defensive end. Those 4 players were Jason Hatcher, Kenyon Coleman, Marcus Spears, and Sean Lissemore. Lissemore only played 243 snaps, but he played the best of the four last year according to ProFootballFocus, as he had a 13.4 rating. In fact, he might be one of the league’s best kept secrets, an very underrated and underutilized player.

According to the Dallas Morning News, it “seems certain” that Lissemore, a 2010 7^th round pick out of William & Mary, will have an expanded role in 2012. Lissemore isn’t that great of a pass rusher, but he graded out 3^rd at his position against the run, behind only Ray McDonald and Glenn Dorsey, on the strength of 18 solo tackles, 8 assists and 16 stops on just 119 run defense snaps, while missing only 2 tackles. He also played all over the line, both end spots and another 40 snaps at nose tackle.

We’ll see if the added playing time will help or hurt him, but he’s definitely a potential breakout star. With Lissemore having an expanded role and the Cowboys using a 3^rd round pick on Tyrone Crawford, another 3-4 defensive end, it is really starting to look like the rumors that Kenyon Coleman will be cut will become validated. Coleman is a marginal player, especially at 33 years of age, and owed 1.9 million this year. He seems like the odd man out.

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It’s become well known that Percy Harvin is upset with several situations in Minnesota, including his contract status and his playing time. However, the Vikings say they fully expect him to attend Training Camp. Even though he originally demanded to be traded, it sounds like Harvin has backed off and that he will return for Training Camp. The Vikings will certainly not be trading him as he’s their only good receiver and they may play him in more than just the rotational role he was in last year (621 snaps, 2^nd on the team at his position behind Devin Aromashodu).

Harvin has real fantasy value early in drafts. He was the #8 scoring fantasy football receiver last year and in his last 11 games, he had 69 catches for 784 yards and 6 touchdowns, good for 100 catches for 1140 yards and 9 touchdowns over 9 games. He could even exceed those numbers if he plays more and with Christian Ponder playing his 1^st full season as a starter. On top of that, he rushed for 345 yards and 2 touchdowns on 52 carries. He could easily be a top-5 fantasy football wide receiver this year. He’s currently the 19th receiver off the board based on average draft position because people don’t pay attention to his rushing ability.

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49ers fans got some troubling news about their 2011 leader in sacks today when they found out that Aldon Smith, who had 14 sacks last year, was stabbed during a house party in nearby Santa Clara last night. This was originally reported by Matt Barrows of the Sacramento Bee and confirmed by several other sources. Meanwhile, the 49ers have confirmed that Smith was injured, but will not confirm that he was stabbed. Smith was said to have escaped with only “minor injuries.”

Smith is an incredibly talented pass rusher. As only a part time player in 2011, Smith had 17 sacks, 17 quarterback hits, and 43 quarterback pressures on 441 pass rush snaps, including playoffs, good for a 17.5% rate. He’ll have a full time role in 2012 and the 7^th pick of the 2011 NFL Draft has an incredibly bright future, but he’ll need to start making better decisions off the field and not putting himself in so many dangerous situations. Earlier this offseason, he was arrested for DUI and now this incident, as the result of his off the field lifestyle. He needs to focus more.

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Giants’ defensive coordinator Perry Fewell confirmed today what many in the know suspected, that Chase Blackburn would open Training Camp as their starting middle linebacker. The Giants essentially signed Blackburn, a veteran career journeyman, off the streets late in the regular season, but he played very well for them down the stretch, including what might have been a game saving interception of Tom Brady in the Super Bowl. Fewell was very direct in his assessment of Blackburn. He said “I can’t say he’ll stay there permanently, but right now Chase is our guy and no one’s clearly beaten him out for the position.”

However, as Fewell suggests, Blackburn won’t be unchallenged. His primary competition will be Keith Rivers. Rivers has spent his entire career in Cincinnati on the outside and when the Giants traded a 5^th round pick for Rivers, who missed all of last season with a wrist injury, many took it as a sign that Rivers would start outside and Michael Boley would move to middle linebacker. However, that proved not to be true and Rivers will be Blackburn’s primary challenger for the middle linebacker job. Being fully healthy would definitely help so we’ll see if that’s the case. Two 2^nd year players, Greg Jones and Mark Herzlich, will also be in the mix.

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The Buccaneers traded back up into the end of the 1^st round of the 2012 NFL Draft to select Doug Martin, but according to the Tampa Bay Times, there’s still “clearly going to be a role” for incumbent starter LeGarrette Blount. This makes a lot of sense and confirms what I’ve already been thinking for a while.

Blount is currently working with the 1^st team in OTAs and while he might not be the 1^st team back during the season, he’s still a talented runner and Martin is still just a rookie and the Buccaneers are going to run a ton under new Head Coach Greg Schiano. Blount may be completely useless on passing downs, but he could still see close to a 50/50 split on running downs in 2012 and given the offensive philosophy Schiano wants to execute, that could be a fairly significant amount of carries.

Besides, Look at Joseph Addai (2009), Chris Wells (2011), DeAngelo Williams (2008), Marion Barber (2008), Fred Jackson (2010). All of those guys arguably had career years the season after their teams spent early picks on a running back. Meanwhile, backs drafted in the 1st round since 2007 have averaged 165 carries as rookies. I am projecting 810 yards and 6 touchdowns on 180 carries with 8 catches for 60 yards for Blount this season.

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Mike Wallace has yet to sign his 2.757 million dollar restricted free agent tender in search of a long term deal and while the Steelers have agreed not to slash his tender down to 577 thousand, which they now have to right to do because Wallace skipped minicamp, it’s still unknown when the two sides will come to terms on a long term deal. Wallace wants Larry Fitzgerald money and the Steelers don’t have the cap nor the desire to pay him that more.

Holding most of the leverage with Wallace essentially under contract inexpensively in 2012 and with the franchise tender reserved for him next offseason, the Steelers want Wallace to sign a deal more in the range of Vincent Jackson’s 55.5 million dollar deal over 5 years rather than the 8 year, 120 million dollar deal Larry Fitzgerald got.

According to the Pittsburgh-Post Gazette, Wallace’s holdout will end later rather than sooner as they feel he could be prepared to sit out into Training Camp. If he does that, he could be fined a good amount of money and he would risk getting out of shape and having a down year like Chris Johnson and Darrelle Revis did in the last 2 seasons, but in search of a long term deal, it might be worth it for him. Unlike franchise tagged players, Wallace can still be signed to a long term deal after Training Camp starts.

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Aqib Talib has to be breathing a lot easier today now that the assault with a deadly weapons charges against him have been dropped. They were reportedly dropped because the defense felt their primary witness would not be seen as credible. Talib was scheduled to stand trial in a week and faced up to 5 years in prison if found guilty. The Buccaneers will now definitely have their #1 cornerback in 2012, though he should still face a suspension from the commissioner’s office even though there was no conviction. Talib is heading into a key contract year and will need to regain his 2010 form after struggling in 2011.

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