NFL - Are You Ready For Some Football?! - The Offseason

[rah]

They may want to upgrade the defense which looked fairly poor last year.

Some of the poor play can be attributed to time of possession. I assume we have helped ourselves there.

[snoopy369]

They may want to upgrade the defense which looked fairly poor last year.

The defense wasn't up to the superbowl quality, but it wasn't totally lousy either - still a top 10 defense, even with some key injuries. If Vasher/Tillman play the full season, and Harris does as well, we will probably see about the same performance as last year, or slightly better; and with a GOOD offense, that defense will be more than good enough.

[Ming]

The NFL has to fix it? Why the NFL? It's the league's fault that some doofus is making bad picks?

True enough... but I think he was talking about the contracts they get. These unproven players are being paid more than some of the stars. A rookie salary cap would be a good thing

[snoopy369]

Yeah, it's not the quality of the players or the selections, it's the monster contract a #1, #2, #3, etc. pick is basically guaranteed - way more than any rookie's worth.

[-Jrabbit]

The NBA got it right. Capped rookie contracts, earlier free agency. Maintains a reasonable salary structure that rewards veterans while removing the massive leverage that agents have in negotiating for rookies.

This will be a huge part of the upcoming CBA negotiations.

[Ming]

Now I know the average "life span" of an NFL player is a lot less than ANY other sport, and due to injuries, this could be the only contract they are going to get... but I think it's really time to start thinking about putting a cap on what these guys can make. It's to the point where some teams are afraid of getting one the early picks in the draft because of the size of the contract they are going to have to give to some kid who hasn't proven themselves yet.

[SlowwHand]

I think the NFL has more correct than MLB. At least there's a cap. If a team goes into years of debt over a rookie, that their choice. Can't sign the rookie? Then don't sign him. Let the Redskins of the world put the team on the rocks.

[Tuberski]

Someone in Chicago is realistic!!!

Don't try to confuse the issue with half-truths and gorilla dust!

[-Jrabbit]

Only a year ago, we were reading the same thing about Orton's maturity level.

[Zopperoni]

Apparently, Cutler and OC Ron Turner have a history:

Jay Cutler's exit from Denver is easily traceable.

He felt he could not trust Josh McDaniels after he got on board with the new coach, bought into the program McDaniels was selling, and then the new coach tried to trade him. The nearly five weeks of banter back-and-forth, a teleconference, a face-to-face sitdown, text messages, he said, she said produced nothing but drama, a riveting offseason story the NFL probably cherished.

And it ultimately led to Cutler becoming a Bear, the 12th starting quarterback of the Jerry Angelo regime, Thursday afternoon in a blockbuster deal that will define the general manager's career one way or another.

Now we'll see where Cutler can pick things up with another coach he feels has jilted him, or at least did at one point--Bears offensive coordinator Ron Turner.

Yep. Add Turner to the list of coaches that might not be high on Cutler's list. Those close to Cutler have said so, any way. It ought to make for some interesting questions when Cutler is introduced at a 5 p.m. press conference at Halas Hall. Here's betting the Bears work to smooth this one over before he fields any of those queries if they already haven't. We'll see if in the passage of time this one has blown over.

Jay Burch, the athletic director at Heritage Hills High School where Cutler prepped in southern Indiana, described it to Denver Post columnist Woody Paige back in December.

``[Denver coach Mike] Shanahan is a very wise man,'' Burch said. ``I wonder if Ron Turner now would have wanted Jay at Illinois and in Chicago.''

As the story goes--and it's unfolded in the Denver Post, on ESPN.com and in the Post-Tribune in Merrillville, Ind., among other places--Cutler accepted a scholarship to Illinois without having visited the campus. Turner, of course, was the head coach at the time. Cutler's high school football season led straight into basketball season (he was a three-sport star who reportedly had the talent as a switch-hitting shortstop to play professionally) and he didn't get to Champaign, Ill., to check out the campus until the end of December. When he got there, things weren't all ``Oskee Wow-Wow.'' Try ``what the hell?!?''

``When Jay went for his official visit, the coach told him they were rescinding the offer because they had some hot-shot quarterback from California,'' Burch told Paige.

That hot shot turned out to be Mike Dlugolecki, who quickly transferred away from Illinois to San Diego State where he made his mark, if you can call it that, passing for 2,597 yards with 10 touchdowns and 16 interceptions.

``It's not right,'' Cutler's father, Jack Cutler, told ESPN.com's Pat Forde in an April 24, 2006 column. ``I still have a bitter taste in my mouth over that.''

Cutler had turned down interest from Purdue, Duke and Maryland to commit to Illinois. When he was left empty-handed in Champaign, he was forced to scramble.

``That was dirty,'' Jack Cutler said in Mike Hutton's May 3, 2006 story in the Post-Tribune. ``But that's what happened.''

Michael Smith at The Louisville (Ky.) Courier-Journal attributed the same word ``dirty'' to Jack Cutler in a Nov. 12, 2005 article.

The Bears were ecstatic Thursday with the addition of Cutler and should be. Sid Luckman's last season was 1950. The Bears have traded away Bobby Layne, lost a coin flip for Terry Bradshaw, traded away a first-round pick for another quarterback from Indiana, Rick Mirer, and wasted precious time waiting for non-prospects to become prospects. Landing at Vanderbilt certainly worked out for Cutler. He became a first-round draft pick. The rest is history.

Angelo just better hope Cutler can get on board with Turner, who told the Tribune in the past that Illinois never rescinded a scholarship because it never offered one to Cutler. Maybe they should get together on this one.

Source: http://blogs.suntimes.com/bears/2009...rned_by_m.html

This just keeps getting better and better!

[Imran Siddiqui]

Awesome!

[-Jrabbit]

Pretty amusing.

This is why Ron Turner is not head coaching material. His time at Illinois was basically one disaster after another.

[Zopperoni]

O look, a WR for the Bears!

EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ - The Giants today announced they have released veteran wide receiver Plaxico Burress, who played for the team the previous four seasons.

The status of Burress, 31, has been the subject of much conjecture since last Nov. 29, when he was wounded in an accidental shooting in a Manhattan nightclub. He was inactive for the Giants’ victory in Washington the following day, then placed on the reserve/non-football injury list for the remainder of the season. The team also fined Burress and suspended him for four games for conduct detrimental to the team.

“I am an optimist, and I believe most situations can be worked out,” said General Manager Jerry Reese. “We hung in there as long as we could in hopes that there could be a resolution to this situation other than the decision we made today to release Plaxico. It wasn’t to be, so now we have to move on. Like everybody else here, we want nothing but the best for Plaxico, and we are appreciative of the contributions he made to this franchise.”

Burress is perhaps best known for catching the game-winning touchdown pass in the Giants’ upset victory over the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLII. He eluded Patriots cornerback Ellis Hobbs with an inside move, then ran to the outside, where he caught Eli Manning’s 13-yard throw with 35 seconds remaining in the game. Burress had two receptions in the Super Bowl, catching Manning’s first and last passes of the game.

In his four years with the Giants Burress caught 344 passes, which places him 12th on the franchise’s career list, one catch ahead of Earnest Gray and three behind Aaron Thomas. Burress had 3,681 receiving yards and caught 33 touchdown passes for the Giants.

“Plaxico’s contribution to our championship season in 2007 can never be underestimated or undervalued,” said Head Coach Tom Coughlin. “He displayed tremendous determination throughout that season. Having said that, I have always been as concerned about Plaxico as a man as I have been about him as a player, and my hope is that everything that has happened over the past several months represents a turning point. He is a young man with a family who has a whole lifetime ahead of him, and I personally wish him and his family well.”

Burress had caught a pass in 115 consecutive games in which he played – including 56 with the Giants – until he was shutout at Arizona on Nov. 23, the game before the shooting incident. Burress started but left the Arizona game after one series with a hamstring injury and did not return.

Burress’ 23 postseason catches with the Giants leave him fifth on the team’s career list and his 310 postseason yards place him third.

Last year, Burress played in 10 games with nine starts and caught 35 passes for 454 yards and four touchdowns. He played his best game on opening night, when he had 10 receptions for 133 yards in a victory over Washington. His last Giants reception was an 11-yarder late in the second quarter in a victory over Baltimore on Nov. 16.

Burress joined the Giants as an unrestricted free agent on March 17, 2005. The date of his arrival is what prompted him to wear uniform No. 17. In his first season with the team, Burress played in all 16 games, plus the NFC Wild Card Game, and led the team with 76 receptions (the fifth-highest total in Giants history) and 1,214 yards (second-highest). He also tied for the team lead with seven touchdown catches.

Burress was selected NFC Offensive Player of the Week for his Week 4 performance against St. Louis, when he caught 10 passes for 204 yards and two touchdowns. In the regular season finale at Oakland, he caught a 78-yard touchdown pass from Manning, the longest thrown by the Giants quarterback in his NFL career. Burress has caught each of Manning’s seven-longest touchdown passes.

In 2006, Burress started all 15 regular season games in which he played, as well as the NFC Wild Card Game. He led the Giants with 988 receiving yards and 10 touchdown catches. Burress was the first Giant with double-digit touchdown receptions since Gray had 10 in 1980. His 63 receptions were second on the team, trailing only Jeremy Shockey (66).

Burress started all 20 regular season and postseason games in the 2007 championship season despite an ankle injury that kept him out of practice virtually the entire season. He led the Giants with 70 receptions, 1,025 yards and 12 touchdowns. The 12 touchdown receptions were a career high and left him tied in second place on the Giants’ single-season list with Del Shofner, who had 12 scoring catches in 1962. The team record of 13 was set by Homer Jones in 1967. Burress became the first Giant since Shofner in 1961-62 to post back-to-back seasons with 10 or more scoring catches.

In 2007, Burress caught at least one touchdown pass in each of the Giants’ first six games (he had eight overall in that span) to become the second player since 1970 with a touchdown reception in each of his first six games of a season. The other was Jerry Rice, who had at least one touchdown reception in 12 straight games in 1987.

Burress opened the year at Dallas with a season-high eight receptions for 144 yards (his second-highest total as a Giant) and a career-high three touchdowns. His 60-yard touchdown reception on the Giants’ first procession of the season was his longest of the year. Burress set a Giants postseason record with 11 receptions in the NFC Championship Game in Green Bay, one more than Ike Hilliard had in the 2000 Championship Game victory over Minnesota. Burress’ 151 yards in the title game were the third-highest one-game total in team playoff history.

Burress joined the Giants after playing his first five NFL seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers, for whom he played 71 games and caught 261 passes for 4,164 yards and 22 touchdowns. The Steelers selected Burress with the eighth overall selection of the 2000 NFL Draft.

His career totals are 505 receptions for 7,845 yards and 55 touchdowns. With three catches last Nov. 2 against Dallas, Burress became the 101st player in NFL history with at least 500 receptions.

Source: http://www.giants.com/news/headlines...story_id=36356

[Zopperoni]

[dp]

[SlowwHand]

He's facing serious jail time.