The Redskins lost 2 former starters at safety this offseason in LaRon Landry and OJ Atogwe and they have brought in several safeties in the offseason to try to fill the two starting spots. They brought in Madieu Williams, Tanard Jackson, and Brandon Meriweather. Meriweather is a two time former Pro Bowler who has struggled mightily over the last 2 seasons with New England and Chicago. Tanard Jackson used to be one of the most promising young safeties in the league before missing an entire season with a substance related suspension. Madieu Williams was a starter in Minnesota as recently as 2010, but playing sparingly as a reserve last season in San Francisco.

According to the Washington Post, Brandon Meriweather is locked in at strong safety, while Madieu Williams is the favorite to start at free safety. Other safeties in the mix for the two spots are Reed Doughty, who struggled last season in a few spot starts, and DeJon Gomes, their top reserve at the position last year. Whatever happens, the Redskins will have one of the weakest safety corps in the NFL. Madieu Williams was absolutely awful the last time he was a starter, ranking 2^nd worst on ProFootballFocus at safety that year, while Meriweather hasn’t been much better. He was cut by New England and benched by Chicago last year and was overrated the two times he made the Pro Bowl.

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Josh Norman may be just a 5^th round rookie, but he’s reportedly impressing in practice and, according to ESPN’s Pat Yasinskas, the Panthers believe he could start as a rookie. Earlier this offseason, the Panthers said they wanted to move Captain Munnerlyn, who started most of the season at cornerback opposite Chris Gamble last year, into the sub packages. Munnerlyn struggled mightily in 2012, allowing 45 completions on 61 attempts (73.8%) for 607 yards (10.0 YPA), 4 touchdowns, no interceptions, 4 deflections, and 8 penalties. The 5-8 cornerback is much better suited for the slot. His struggles were a big part of the reason why the Panthers ranked dead last in YPA allowed.

Norman’s competition for the starting job, aside from Munnerlyn, is Darius Butler and Brandon Hogan. Butler struggled almost as much as Munnerlyn in a few starts last season and Brandon Hogan is a 2011 4^th round pick who is reportedly still not 100% after tearing his ACL in his final season at West Virginia. Out of desperation, the Panthers may have to start Norman, who fell all the way to the 5^th round. Rookie cornerbacks tend to struggle regardless so while Norman might have been a bit of a steal in the 5^th round, I wouldn’t expect him to have a strong season. He could be better in the future.

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Santana Moss is coming off his worst season since 2000, catching 46 passes for 584 yards and 4 touchdowns in 12 games and, on top of that, he just turned 33, which is around the age when wide receivers see their abilities fall off a cliff. This led some to speculation that the Redskins, after bringing in Pierre Garcon and Josh Morgan, would be cutting Moss and his 2.65 million dollar salary.

They may have had plans to potentially do that for a while, but after the Redskins cut Jabar Gaffney, their leading receiving last year, there opened up a spot for Moss to stay on the roster and he has done nothing but impress since in offseason practices. The receiver has lost 15 pounds in order to “streamline” his body and today Redskins offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan said Moss has been “possessed” this offseason.

Earlier this week, Shanahan called Moss one of the league’s “premier slot receivers” and there’s even been some speculation that Moss could start opposite Pierre Garcon, and move into the slot in 3 wide receiver sets, as he’s done for years. Moss will compete with offseason acquisition Josh Morgan and 2011 3^rd round pick Leonard Hankerson for the starting job in Training Camp opposite Pierre Garcon. At the very least, it looks like Moss will be their slot receiver and be 3^rd on the depth chart.

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A report by ESPN’s Pat Yasinskas confirmed what many believed for a while, that the Falcons would be reducing Michael Turner’s carries this season. In fact, Yasinskas says that they have told him “repeatedly” that they’d be reducing Turner’s carries. This makes a lot of sense. Turner is 30 and has carried the ball 300 times in 3 of the last 4 seasons. The Falcons will be going more pass heavy and no huddle this season, which is where Turner is a liability because of his inability to catch passes.

His backups, Jason Snelling and Jacquizz Rodgers, are much better in passing situations and the Falcons are reportedly very high on Rodgers, a 2011 5^th round pick. It’s unknown exactly how much Turner’s carries will be reduced, but given all of those factors, I would stay away from Turner in fantasy leagues and make him someone else’s problem, especially at his current ADP, which is in the 3^rd round.

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Robert Quinn was a 1^st round pick of the St. Louis Rams in the 2011 NFL Draft and he was viewed as such a steal at 14 that the Rams took him even though they didn’t have an immediate need at the position. Quinn played in a situational role last season as a rookie, with 6 sacks, 9 quarterback hits, and 21 quarterback pressures, though he graded out negatively against the run on ProFootballFocus. With starter James Hall gone, Quinn is expected to have a much bigger role in 2012 as the starting defensive end opposite Chris Long, another former 1^st round pick.

ESPN Draft Guru Mel Kiper stated earlier this offseason that Quinn was a potential breakout star for the Rams with the potential to have double digit sacks in 2012. Quinn has reportedly been impressing throughout the offseason in practice and the Rams have “sky high” expectations for Quinn in 2012, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Defensive line coach Mike Waufle calls Quinn “God-gifted” and praises Quinn’s ability to play the run. Quinn definitely has the natural ability to get double digit sacks this season and flashed his talent last year. He’ll need to improve against the run from last season, but between him and Chris Long, the Rams might have league’s best 4-3 defensive end pass rushing duo.

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Kenny Britt, who missed 13 and ½ games last season with a torn ACL, caused some concern this offseason when he needed another, albeit minor, procedure on that same knee to alleviate what he called a “clicking sound.” That injury put him in a race to play week 1, but the good news is that he’s ahead of schedule so he appears to be winning the race to play week 1.

On the final day of minicamp, Britt ran cutting drills, nearly a week ahead of schedule. He says he did it without a brace and that the coaching staff “surprised the heck out of him” with their revised schedule but that he “felt good” and was able to go “all out.” Britt earlier this month said that he was “praying” he’d be able to play week 1, but now it looks like he might be back before that. There’s legitimate fantasy upside with a player who has caught 56 passes for 1046 yards and 12 touchdowns in his last 14 full games. At an ADP in the 6^th round, he’s a good value.

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With Brandon Weeden impressing in offseason practices, speculation has picked up once again about the Browns possibly trading Colt McCoy. The Browns tried to move McCoy on draft day, after using a 1^st round pick on Brandon Weeden, but could not find a suitor. According to ESPN Cleveland’s Tony Grossi, the Browns are not only interested in moving McCoy, but won’t ask much in return for him, which suggests that they may have had their asking price too high the last time they traded him.

ESPN’s John Clayton mentioned Green Bay as a potential landing spot for McCoy and he’s not the only one with that opinion. The drop off from Aaron Rodgers to Graham Harrell if something were to happen to Rodgers would be a significant one and McCoy is an experienced starter who is still young and he’d come cheap. The Packers might be able to get him for a mere 7^th rounder and his salary for the 2012 season is only 540 thousand.

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Jermaine Cunningham was a 2^nd round pick of the New England Patriots in the 2010 NFL Draft, but he has barely done anything in his first 2 years in the league. He’s been too much of a defensive end/linebacker tweener and has yet to establish himself anywhere with the Patriots switching schemes from a 3-4 to a 4-3. In 2010, he was solid with 1 sack, 4 quarterback hits, and 24 pressures as a part time player at linebacker, but last year, after high expectations in the offseason, he played just 48 snaps at defensive end and did not manage a sack, hit, or pressure on the quarterback.

He doesn’t appear to be in any position to change that in his 3^rd year in the league as he is now buried on the depth chart at defensive end behind Chandler Jones, Jake Bequette, Trevor Scott, Brandon Deaderick, Jonathan Fanene, and even Rob Ninkovich and Dont’a Hightower, linebackers who can play defensive end. The Patriots have also talked about bringing back Andre Carter, who would also likely be ahead of him on the depth chart.

That being said, the Patriots still praised the 3^rd year player out of Florida for his performance this offseason. Belichick was quoted as saying about Cunningham “a player’s physical improvement, overall mental grasp of what we’re doing and what we can see on the field which is non-contact but reactions and technique.” Still, he is buried on the depth chart and is no lock to make the final 53 man roster. Cunningham looks like he could end up being a wasted 2^nd round pick, but maybe Belichick will end up being right.

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Mike Sims Walker worked out with the Texans late last month as they need veteran receiver help with their #3 through #5 wide receivers having a combined 0 career catches. He was not signed, but they remained interested. This week MSW participated in the Texans’ minicamp, giving the Texans more of a chance to see what the 27 year old receiver had. He caught 63 passes for 869 yards and 7 touchdowns in 2009, but injuries have limited him to just 55 catches in the last 2 seasons, including just 11 last year with St. Louis and Jacksonville.

If he doesn’t get a contract offer from the Texans in the next few days, it’s a pretty good sign that they’re not interested. The Texans have been impressed with their young receivers, particularly 2011 undrafted free agent Lestar Jean, this offseason and they’ve also been linked to the Packers’ James Jones should he become available through trade, so the Texans don’t have to settle for Mike Sims Walker if they feel he doesn’t have anything left to offer. Other free agent options include Braylon Edwards, Mark Clayton, and Plaxico Burress. The Texans are one of the league’s receiver neediest teams so if he can’t catch on with them, he might not play in 2012.

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Seneca Wallace is currently the Browns’ 3^rd string quarterback and when asked about staying the 3^rd string quarterback, Seneca Wallace said today, in an interview with the Cleveland Plain Dealer, that he might request a trade if that continues to be the case. Wallace will almost definitely be the Browns’ #3 quarterback unless the Browns lower their asking price on Colt McCoy and find a suitor for him.

It might seem kind of ridiculous for a player like Seneca Wallace to request a trade, but Drew Stanton did it earlier this offseason and a trade was actually able to be made as he ended up in Indianapolis. Wallace is a similar caliber player to Stanton and could be the primary backup for a few teams out there. He might even be fine with being the #3 quarterback somewhere else, as long as it would get him away from being the #3 quarterback on what figures to once again be a last place team in Cleveland. It’s worth noting that in the interview Wallace hinted he sees himself as a starting caliber quarterback.

If Wallace requests a trade and the Browns can’t deal him, he’ll probably be cut. Wallace is owed 2.85 million this season so that’s the more likely outcome. Trading McCoy and keeping Wallace would make more sense though for the Browns. McCoy would bring back more value in a trade, as a 25 year old with starting experience and a 540 thousand dollar salary, while Wallace would serve as a better veteran mentor to Brandon Weeden in his age 32 season and he would be seen as less of a threat to his job.

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