Category: NFL (Page 176 of 1282)

Kevin Kolb would welcome trade to Cardinals

After Pro Bowl receiver Larry Fitzgerald mentioned his name as someone he hopes the Cardinals will trade for this offseason, Eagles’ quarterback Kevin Kolb said he wouldn’t mind if Arizona was brought up as a potenital landing spot if he were dealt.

From the Philadelphia Daily News:

“If he’s not the best than he’s one of the best WRs in the NFL, a superstar, for a guy like that to say something about me it means a lot. Awful flattering and if something happens I hope their name comes up.”

Frank Ward warns that the Eagles can’t afford to move Kolb right now.

First, there is no CBA going forward. Therefore, you don’t know what the rules will be. You do not know if the franchise tag will absolutely exist. Basically, you don’t know for a fact that Michael Vick is guaranteed to be an Eagle.

Second, even if he is, you need a solid backup in the NFL and especially if a guy like Vick is your starter. Dude is small and gets hit too much. We all saw injuries catch up to him this year.

As a result, you need to make sure you have a guy with some NFL experience who is comfortable and capable of performing in your system. Without a CBA, the Eagles can’t find someone to replace Kolb. Say a new deal isn’t struck until June or July. Then, you would have a few weeks to find someone and train him in your offense. Unless Koy Detmer comes out of retirement, forget about that.

Even if the Eagles were offered a first round pick straight up for Kolb, the chances of them making the deal are not as great as some think they would or should be.

He’s right. This isn’t Madden where you trade spare parts in order to pick up first and second round picks because you know the chances of your starter being injured isn’t very high. (And even if your little digital starter did go down, you could always just hit the reset button and make that injury vanish.)

As Ward noted, even if the Eagles were offered a first round pick at this time, they can’t do anything until the new CBA deal is in place. In fact, no team will. Everyone is in a holding pattern until the owners and NFLPA gets their heads out of their rear ends and start talking.

Is Blaine Gabbert’s stock dropping?

Missouri Tigers quarterback Blaine Gabbert throws the football in the fourth quarter against the Oklahoma Sooners at Faurot Field in Columbia, Missouri on October 23, 2010. Missouri defeated Oklahoma 36-27. UPI/Bill Greenblatt

Almost right on cue, the supposed No. 1 quarterback’s stock is starting to fall.

Every year the media crowns someone the best quarterback prospect in the draft and every year that top signal caller’s stock starts to fall right around the combine. This year, the QB atop most pundits’ rankings is Missouri’s Blaine Gabbert, whose draft stock has begun “slipping” according to ESPN’s Mel Kiper.

Rotoworld has the details:

According to Kiper, Gabbert’s fall has occurred after NFL teams did “more film work” on the underclassman’s junior year. It’s true that Gabbert did not dominate his competition in 2010, throwing for 16 touchdowns compared to nine picks and averaging an unimpressive 6.71 yards per attempt. Gabbert was much better as a sophomore.

I always find reports like these humorous because they’re so vague. How many teams are we talking about? Because there are five teams in the top-10 that could use a quarterback (Carolina, Buffalo, Arizona, San Francisco and Tennessee), seven if you believe the Bengals will trade Carson Palmer and the Redskins will dump Donovan McNabb.

Have all those teams soured on Gabbert after watching more film? Have three? Have two? Have one?

Or were these not the teams that Kiper was referring to? If they weren’t, then I wonder why Gabbert’s stock would fall just because teams that draft in the middle or bottom half of the first round didn’t like what they saw on film.

I’m not trying to discredit Kiper’s report but without knowing what teams have soured on Gabbert, this news means very little. Plus, he’s a junior so he didn’t perform at the Senior Bowl, the combine is still over a week away and he hasn’t had his Pro Day yet. There’s still a lot of time before the draft, so I would take reports like these with a grain of salt.

Saturday Morning Headlines: LeBron, Tiger & a lot of penalty minutes

Tiger Woods battled some rough conditions to shoot an even-par 72 in Dubai. (Golf.com)

– The labor agreement delay may cancel any free agency movement in the NFL and force free agents to stay with their current teams. (SI.com)

– Packers give general manager Ted Thompson a well-deserved contract extension. (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)

– Is Matt Holliday willing to take a paycut to help the Cardinals re-sign Albert Pujols? (St. Louis Post Dispatch)

LeBron James gets into it with a fan after said fan mentioned LeBron’s momma. (ESPN)

– Hey, the Cavs finally won a game! (Cleveland Plain Dealer)

– The Penguins and Islanders racked up 351 penalty minutes in one game last night. Yikes. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

Mike Mayock top-5 prospects at each position

Arkansas quarterback Ryan Mallett (15) is chased from the pocket by Ohio State defensive lineman Cameron Hayward (97) during first half action of the 77th Annual Allstate Sugar Bowl at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana January 4, 2011. UPI/A.J. Sisco

Mike Mayock is one of the more respected NFL draft analysts in the business. Rotoworld does a great job following his rankings and they recently compiled his top-5 prospects at every position.

Quarterbacks
1. Blaine Gabbert, Missouri
2. Jake Locker, Washington
3. Cam Newton, Auburn
4. Ryan Mallett, Arkansas
5. Andy Dalton, TCU

Comments: Mayock says he’s not done with his quarterback evaluation, but he’s made some changes since January. He’s now got Dalton alone in the five spot after the Horned Frogs’ four-year starter previously shared the position with Ricky Stanzi, Colin Kaepernick, and Pat Devlin. Devlin’s stock appears to have plummeted since a poor showing at the East-West Shrine Game. Senior Bowl MVP Christian Ponder remains absent from the list.

Check out the rest of his positional rankings.

It’ll be interesting to see if Newton eventually moves past Locker (or even Gabbert, for that matter) the closer we get to the draft. Locker was unimpressive during Senior Bowl week and Newton’s personal media workout on Thursday was reportedly “phenomenal.”

Of course, the quarterback in this year’s class that intrigues me the most is Mallett. At 6’6” and 238 pounds, he certainly has the size to be a NFL quarterback. He also has great arm strength and he’s coming off a year in which he threw for 3,869 yards and 32 touchdowns.

Continue reading »

« Older posts Newer posts »