The holder of the NFL’s single season touchdown record, LaDainian Tomlinson, confirmed today what many had expected since the season ended. That he was done playing football. Or at least “pretty much done.” LT stopped short of an official retirement, but after early this offseason saying he was “95% retired” and that it would take the “right situation” for him to retire, you can basically connect the dots and assume that Tomlinson is done playing football. It’s very possible that Tomlinson, who turns 33 in June, didn’t get any takers after averaging 3.7 YPC last season over 75 carries with the Jets.

If he does, indeed, retire officially this season, he’ll do it as the NFL’s 5^th all-time leader in career rushing yards, with 13,684, and 3^rd all-time leader in career touchdowns with 162, which puts him only behind Jerry Rice and Emmitt Smith. Tomlinson played 9 seasons with the Chargers and 2 with the Jets, with his best coming in 2006, when he set the all-time mark with 31 touchdowns in a season. If he does, in fact, retire this offseason, we can expect to see him entering the Hall of Fame in Canton in 5 years.

The Panthers used the 9^th overall pick on linebacker Luke Kuechly back in April’s 2012 NFL draft after they lost both Jon Beason and Thomas Davis to injury in 2011. Beason’s injury was the first major one of his career, but Davis has torn his ACL 3 times. The Panthers, however, do expect both to be healthy for the start of the season. Beason will keep his starting job in the middle, but Kuechly has been penciled in at weak side linebacker, Davis’ old spot. Davis will likely need an injury to either Kuechly or strong side linebacker James Anderson to earn a starting job, assuming he, in fact, can even still play after 3 ACL tears. That doesn’t happen very often.

The Browns used the 22^nd pick in the 2012 NFL Draft on Brandon Weeden, quarterback out of Oklahoma State, making the 28-year-old the oldest player ever to be drafted in the 1^st round. The Browns are counting on Weeden, who spent 5 years playing minor league baseball before attending Oklahoma State for football, to have an immediate impact for a team that hasn’t made the playoffs in seemingly forever.

However, according to the Akron-Beacon Journal, Weeden is reportedly struggling with a fundamental part of the quarterback position, taking snaps under center. This makes some sense as he spent most of his college career in the shotgun, rather than under center. This shouldn’t be a huge deal for the Browns as it’s a fairly easy skill to learn with practice. Weeden is still expected to be their week 1 starter over incumbent Colt McCoy.

Eagles’ starting tight end Brent Celek had both shoulder and hernia surgeries this offseason, but Andy Reid doesn’t seem too worried about his status for the start of the regular season. Celek is fully expected to be out there week 1, but Andy Reid would not commit to saying Celek would be ready for the start of OTAs. Reid is normally very secretive with the media so I wouldn’t read much into this, but it’s a situation to monitor.

Fletcher Cox ran a 4.79 40 at The Combine at 6-4 298, displaying tremendous mobility for a man of his size. This, among other reasons, was part of why the Eagles traded up 3 spots to the 12^th overall pick to grab Cox. Cox filled a need for them at defensive tackle, but creative defensive line coach Jim Washburn plans to use him in various ways this season. At rookie camp, Cox has seen some snaps at defensive end. He certainly has the athleticism to play there, but with Trent Cole, Jason Babin, Brandon Graham, and fellow rookie Vinny Curry in the mix at the position, it remains to be seen how many snaps there actually are for Cox on the outside.

The Rams made the surprise selection of Brian Quick at 33rd overall bigger names like Rueben Randle and Stephen Hill still available to mixed reviews. Depending on who you ask, Quick either has more raw talent than any wide receiver in this draft class or is a major project from a small school who may never develop the ability to play major NFL football.

The Rams, obviously, agree with the former. They had him ranked higher on their board than Michael Floyd, who went 13^th overall, and have been singing his praises frequently this offseason, saying they see him contributing in a big way early and that they are “insanely excited” by his progress in minicamp.

The Rams have plenty of depth at wide receiver, but don’t have any proven receivers to man the two starting jobs for them. Brian Quick and fellow rookie Chris Givens seem like the early favorites to be Sam Bradford’s starting receivers. The Rams obviously think higher of Quick than Givens, a 4^th round pick, and Sam Bradford would be thrilled if he were as good as advertised given the lack of receiving help he’s had so far in his short career. Whether or not he is as good as advertised remains to be seen, but he definitely has plenty of upside in fantasy circles. He’s a nice late round sleeper, if you can get him there, but I wouldn’t reach for him. He’s no sure thing, obviously.

Last season, Alex Smith finally had a season where he showed why he was worthy of the #1 overall pick in 2005. He wasn’t flashy, but he throw a mere 5 interceptions, far fewest among starting quarterbacks, and led a 49ers team built on defense and running the football to 13 wins and 2 plays away from a Super Bowl appearance. The 49ers seem to think he can improve even more in his 2^nd season in Jim Harbaugh’s system.

Harbaugh commented on Smith saying that he has made “dramatic improvements” to his delivery, working out two mechanical flaws with “motion specialist” Tom House. Whether this will translate to improved play on the football field remains to be seen, as quarterbacks tend to revert to their old habits under pressure. It’s something we’ll have to wait and see on.

When healthy, the Raiders’ Darren McFadden is one of the most dynamic running backs in the NFL, but, for the 4^th overall pick in the 2008 draft, healthy seasons have been hard to come by. In fact, he’s only surpassed 113 carries in 1 of his 4 career seasons. The Raiders have always had a solid backup for him, with the most recent being Michael Bush.

However, Bush signed in Chicago this offseason to provide insurance for Matt Forte, leaving the Raiders with undersized 2011 4^th round pick Taiwan Jones and Mike Goodson, who the Raiders traded for this offseason, behind McFadden. Goodson didn’t get a carry in 2011. Some expected they’d go after a veteran running back like Cedric Benson, most recently of the Cincinnati Bengals, but the Contra Costa Times disagrees, reporting that they “don’t see” Benson signing with the Raiders.

Benson has had 3 straight seasons of 1000 yards as the lead back in Cincinnati’s offense, but he has been one of the worst starting running backs in the league over that time period. At age 30 in December, with a history of off the field troubles, the league seems to think he’s not worth the trouble anymore. He has yet to go on a single team visit and the Raiders were the most obvious landing spot remaining for him.

The Raiders’ selection of Terrelle Pryor in the 3^rd round of the 2011 NFL compensatory draft was the last official pick made by the late Al Davis and it was the exact type of player Al Davis liked, big, strong, athletic. However, Pryor didn’t see a snap at quarterback at all in 2011 and with Davis gone and a completely new regime in, it’s unclear where Pryor fits, especially after the Raiders signed Matt Leinart to be the primary backup to Carson Palmer. The Contra Costa Times suggests that his role could be somewhere other than quarterback, as an athlete wildcat/tight end/wide receiver type. Whatever his role, it’s expected to be limited at best once again in 2012.

When Rueben Randle, who some mocks had going in the first round, fell to the Giants with the 63^rd overall pick, the last pick of the 2^nd round, many felt the defending Super Bowl champs got a steal. The Giants have to be feeling the same right now as Randle is reportedly dominating in rookie camp. GM Jerry Reese compared Randle to Hakeem Nicks and Head Coach Tom Coughlin said of Randle that he was “very impressed.” Randle obviously won’t start behind Hakeem Nicks and Victor Cruz on the depth chart, but they run a lot of 3-wide receiver sets and needed a #3 receiver with Mario Manningham signing in San Francisco. Randle seems like the obvious choice to be the #3 receiver. He’d line up outside in 3-wide receiver sets with Victor Cruz moving to the slot, where he’s most dangerous.