Here’s something you don’t see everyday:
Author: Anthony Stalter (Page 915 of 1503)
SI.com’s Peter King believes that Anquan Boldin won’t be a Cardinal next season and that the Giants and Eagles are possible trade partners with Arizona.
The Eagles and Giants, two receiver-needy teams, are in position to deal for Anquan Boldin, who I continue to say will not be a Cardinal by July. Philly has 21, 28 and 53, the Giants 29, 45 and 60. I find it hard to believe the Eagles won’t trade for Boldin. Very hard. He’s a perfect fit, and they’ve got the cap room to sign him.
Less than a month ago, Philly GM Tom Heckert said that the Eagles were set at receiver with DeSean Jackson and that’s why the team didn’t pursue free agent T.J. Houshmandzadeh. But Housh is also three years older than Boldin and if the Eagles have had their sights on Anquan this entire time, then Heckert’s comments could have been a smokescreen. As King notes, Philadelphia is certainly in position to offer Arizona decent compensation for Boldin, who could team with Jackson to give Donovan McNabb a quality receiving corps.
Peter King of SI.com believes that the Rams will likely select an offensive tackle with the No. 2 overall pick in next month’s NFL draft.
Now that St. Louis has released Orlando Pace, there’s very little doubt the Rams will use either pick number three or pick 35 at the top of the second round to pick into the teeth of a tackle-rich draft.
Well, King’s notion certainly makes sense considering the Rams now have a Grand Canyon-sized hole at left tackle. And this is certainly the draft to take a tackle with Baylor’s Jason Smith and Virginia’s Eugene Monroe both being viewed as top 10 picks, if not top 5.
But the wild card in this situation is Wake Forest linebacker Aaron Curry, who would also fill a need for the Rams and appears to be the best prospect in the entire draft. If the Lions don’t take him, St. Louis could pull the trigger and make a solid, safe selection in the versatile linebacker.
So I’m watching ESPN News the other day and this scrolls at the bottom of the screen: Falcons sign LB Mike Peterson.
Not a bad move.
Considering they lost Keith Brooking and Michael Boley to other teams in free agency, the Falcons were in desperate need of linebackers and Peterson is familiar with head coach Mike Smith and defensive coordinator Brian VanGorder from their days in Jacksonville. Plus, Peterson surely came cheaper than Brooking, which was part of the reason Atlanta GM Thomas Dimitroff allowed him to walk when he became a free agent last week. (Brooking wanted to re-sign with Atlanta, but eventually signed a three-year, $6 million contract with the Cowboys when it was clear the Falcons wanted to go in another direction.)
Then I read the details of Peterson’s contract: Two years, $6.5 million.
So the Falcons didn’t want Brooking back because he’s a 33-year old linebacker with deteriorating skills and is weak in coverage. Yet they signed Peterson (for more money mind you), who is a 32-year old linebacker with deteriorating skills, is weak in coverage and was suspended one game for pissing off his head coach (Jack Del Rio) last season?
Ooooookay.
I’m not criticizing the Falcons for allowing Brooking to walk. His best days are clearly in the rear view mirror (see the Falcons’ playoff game against the Cardinals last year as proof) and he wasn’t going to be part of the long-term picture in Atlanta even if the team did re-sign him. But he would have given his left testicle to the Falcons at the drop of a hat and throughout his entire career he never complained once despite being asked to play multiple linebacker positions in multiple schemes.
Nothing against Peterson, but he’s probably only a small upgrade over Brooking at this stage of his career, yet the Falcons were willing to hand him more money (not a lot more money, but more money nevertheless). I get that Peterson has ties to Smith and maybe he’ll be rejuvenated after reuniting with a familiar face, but were those ties greater than the ones that Brooking had with the Falcons? (Brooking played 11 seasons in Atlanta, led the team in tackles for most of those years and was the last member of the 1998 Super Bowl team.)
In the end, this won’t be an issue. Brooking would never say the Falcons snubbed him (they did hold a fair-well presser for him after all) and truth be told, both linebackers will probably be backups in 2010 anyway. But I just found it a little interesting that Atlanta wanted to revamp the defense (and maybe they still will by adding young linebackers via the draft), so they let Brooking walk and give more money to a similar player to take his spot.
One source tells ESPN.com that the Jay Cutler/Josh McDaniels situation has gone from bad to worse after the two had a meeting yesterday to air out any hurt feelings stemming from the Broncos attempt to trade the quarterback a week ago.
The call was supposed to be a meeting of the minds between Cutler and the Broncos’ brass, in particular new head coach Josh McDaniels. The two got sideways Feb. 28 when word broke that McDaniels, the former New England offensive coordinator who replaced Mike Shanahan after 14 seasons, engaged in discussions about acquiring Matt Cassel from the Patriots in a three-way trade. Cutler had maintained the Broncos initiated the talks. McDaniels publicly said he was approached about a deal.
The conference call was anything but genial and the two sides are now further apart than prior to it, the source said. The source added that the Broncos’ tone of the conference call was as if Cutler created the situation by asking for the trade and not the other way around.
A Broncos source with knowledge of the discussions said that two sides did not grow further apart in Monday’s conference call and that issues were discussed openly and it was re-emphasized to Cutler he will not be traded.
Okay, so one source said the call was a disaster while the other one said it went fine. Great…
Not to kick a horse (pardon the pun) while it’s down, but none of this would have happened if the Broncos kept Mike Shanahan. Pat Bowlen wanted change and he got it. Now he has an inexperienced coach mucking up everything he touches, a pissed-off young quarterback and a franchise in a bit of disarray. The good thing is that it’s only March, so things could definitely straighten out by the time the season starts. But so far, McDaniels’ first couple months on the job have been a disaster.
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