Category: NFL (Page 730 of 1282)

      Dolphins revisiting the idea of signing Taylor

      May 12, 2009 /

      Jason Taylor might wind up getting his wish of re-joining the Dolphins after all.

      During a radio interview this morning on Miami’s 790 AM, Dolphins head coach Tony Sparano admitted the team was re-considering the possibility of bringing back free agent defensive end Jason Taylor, who is also on the Patriots radar.

      ”Yeah, we’re talking. When I say ‘we,’ it’s myself, Jeff (Ireland, GM), and Bill (Parcells, head of football operations) have talked about Jason and had several conversations about it,” Sparano said. “We’ll revisit it now that the draft is over and we’re getting ready to look down the road at OTAs here pretty soon, so we’ll revisit it again and see where we are.”

      When asked if the Pat’s interest in the veteran free agent would influence Miami’s decision, Sparano answered, “It doesn’t affect us one way or another. I think that at the end of this process it’s going to be about – from our end – our interest in Jason and how we see him fitting into our plans. If at that point he ends up in another place, that’s nothing I can control.”

      Previously, the Dolphins stance on Taylor was that his re-signing might stunt the growth of some of their younger players, particularly Matt Roth.

      As long as Taylor doesn’t hold the Dolphins over the coals in terms of a contract (and why would he at this stage of his career?), signing him seems like a no-brainer. Teams are always in need of quality pass-rushers and Taylor could instill some leadership for a young Miami defense. The Dolphins could sign him to a one-year deal and if he’s ineffective, they can move on next year.

      NFL

      Quinn to be Browns starter in Week 1?

      May 12, 2009 /

      According to a report by Tony Grossi of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Brady Quinn is expected to beat out Derek Anderson this summer and emerge as the Browns’ starting quarterback for Week 1 next season.

      I recently spoke with someone I will identify as a league source. This person does not work for an NFL team but works with NFL teams and has a prominent name.

      I asked, “Whom do you think will wind up starting at quarterback for the Browns?”

      Without hesitation, the answer was, “Brady Quinn.”

      The person went on to say that the Browns had two “very subtantial” trade offers for Quinn — each involved a No. 1 draft pick — and declined to trade him.

      The source would not speculate on whether a trade of Quinn might have been blocked by owner Randy Lerner. The source believes that there will be a true “open competition” between Quinn and Derek Anderson and that Quinn will prevail.

      The source does not believe that newly acquired ex-Jet Brett Ratliff will be thrown into the open competition. The source’s take on Ratliff: “Eric Mangini likes having him around because he feels comfortable with him and he knows the offense.”

      I don’t doubt that the Browns could be leaning towards Quinn, but you’re not going to hear Mangini say it. All coaches like to breed competition and Quinn won’t be handed the job, especially not with Anderson already being paid a $5 million roster bonus plus his $1.45 million base salary. Chances are the Browns are going to have both QBs on the roster next year and although Quinn might be the front-runner at this point, he’s going to have to earn the starting gig.

      NFL

      Peter King loves himself some Jay Cutler, Bears

      May 12, 2009 /

      Peter King of SI.com ranked all 32 teams in the NFL based on how they look after minicamps wrapped up and he had a bit of a surprise in his top 5.

      4. Chicago
      I may not like how Jay Cutler babied his way out of Denver, but by Labor Day, the football world will have forgotten, and by Thanksgiving, the most popular baby name in Chicagoland will be Jay. (Unless it’s Jerry, as in Angelo, the man who stuck his neck out and made this deal.) Cutler’s a big-time player, and I suspect we’ll find out over the next few years if he has nerves of steel and can win the big game.

      Now, there’s two things we don’t know about Cutler and this offense. There’s not a great receiver in the house and no promise of one on the way (Angelo should have guaranteed Torry Holt more money to get him to come to the Windy City). So Cutler’s going to have to make do with the Devin Hesters and Rashied Davises, apparently. (Not that there’s anything wrong with Hester. But he should be a third receiver, using his speed to game-break.)

      Two: How good of a leader can Cutler be, coming in with the knock that he chafes on some teammates. It’ll be interesting to see if he meshes well with Brian Urlacher; I don’t take for granted that he will. Because of the Cutler factor and because I don’t love the defense the way I did two or three years ago, I didn’t want to leap the Bears over so many other teams. But then I went back and looked at their 2008 numbers. The bedrock stats for a good defense, I’ve always thought, are opponents yards per rush, turnovers forced and opponents’ yards per pass. The yards per rush, 3.4, was excellent, third-best in the league. Turnovers forced, 32, was very good, second in the league. And yards per pass play by foes, 6.20, was eighth in the league. All good. If Cutler can lead an offense that puts up 400 points, only a point and a fraction more than a year ago, the Bears should win 12.

      People seem to forget to mention Greg Olsen when they crap on the Bears’ receiving corps. Olsen wasn’t drafted a couple years ago to block – he’s the best receiver Chicago has on its roster. He has outstanding hands, great athletic ability and is fast enough to line up in the slot. Offensive coordinator Ron Turner just needs to find more ways to use Olsen in the passing game.

      Another thing to remember is that Earl Bennett played with Cutler at Vanderbilt and the Bears are extremely high on the second year wideout, despite him going o’fer in the catch department last year. The knock on Bennett is that he struggled learning the offense as a rookie and the Bears just couldn’t get him onto the field. If Cutler can help his old Vandy teammate pick up the offense, Bennett could be a wild card for the Bears.

      I wouldn’t put the Bears ahead of the Colts or Eagles as King did, but there’s a ton of optimism in Chicago these days.

      NFL

      Vikings’ president says team is still interested in Favre

      May 11, 2009 /

      Team president Mark Wilf reiterated that Minnesota is still interested in signing Brett Favre, although he won’t confirm if any meeting has been established between the Vikings and the grizzled vet.

      “Certainly a player of Brett Favre’s (credentials), a Hall of Fame quarterback, with the competitive he has, that is a player that we would have interest as we would have other players,” Wilf said. “But, again, its process of evaluation and a variety of factors that go into it and that has to play itself out and I defer to our coach and our personnel people to really evaluate those issues.”

      Wilf said he and the ownership group entrusted such decisions to head coach Brad Childress and player personnel vice president Rick Spielman and their respective staffs.
      Asked directly if anyone from the organization has met with Favre in the last week, Wilf said, “I’m not aware of any meeting.

      “But, the fact is, like I say, any football personnel matters, medical matters ,those types of issues, are really issues that we don’t typically discuss publicly,” Wilf said. “. And I hope the fans and the media can appreciate that. Because that’s the right way, we feel, to get the best product on the field and get our ultimate goal of a Super Bowl championship.”

      Since ESPN reported last Tuesday that Childress was planning to meet with Favre, the Vikings have been mum on the matter, which has become the central NFL story in a usually quiet period of the offseason.

      The Vikings don’t need to rush into any decision regarding Favre because they seem to be the only team competing for his services. By all accounts, Favre only wants to play for the Vikings, which means the team can take its time analyzing his health and whether or not pursuing him is the right move for the 2009 season. (Any consideration past 2009 wouldn’t be worth discussing since Favre changes his mind more than a 16-year old girl in possession of her father’s credit card while at the mall.)

      NFL

      The Super Bowl in London?

      May 10, 2009 /

      http://en.ce.cn/sports/others/200802/05/W020080205557866161143.jpg

      Ross Tucker at Sports Illustrated has a new column up about the rumors going around about a London Super Bowl in the near future. He writes:

      For the loyal hometown fans, a regular season game is one of the eight glorious days that they look forward to and pay good money for every year. The Super Bowl, on the other hand, is already an outrageously expensive neutral site game. It is pretty much mainly high rollers paying top dollar for the tickets at this point anyway. How many true fans of the teams playing in the game really go to the Super Bowl? The vast majority watch it on TV and wouldn’t be affected at all by a move abroad, assuming issues like weather, field conditions and kickoff time can be worked out.

      I suppose it makes a lot of sense to try and create a more international market for the sport of American football. Mr. Tucker writes elsewhere in his article that basketball and baseball have had “exponential” increases in popularity overseas, and of course the NFL would want to cash in too. A few regular season games have already been held across the pond and the attendance has been pretty high, more than 83,000 for the Saints/Chargers game last year at Wembley Stadium, but the Super Bowl is another beast entirely.

      Having the Super Bowl in London give a lot of people a knee-jerk “the NFL is screwing me again!” reaction, but the truth is that this is capitalism straight up. Just because the NFL is on top in terms of popularity in America, that popularity does not extend to other countries in the least. In fact the London games thus far have seemed more like freak shows for people interested in seeing giant Yanks smashing each other for a few hours rather than opening people up to a new and intricate sport.

      Speaking from personal experience as an English teacher in Los Angeles, even those people living a few miles from any given USC game or a remote click’s distance from watching the sport have no interest in it. The reasons I’ve been given from my mainly Korean students (with some Japanese, Russians, Chinese, and Bulgarians as well) is that American football is not a sport that can be picked up from simple observation. The penalties can be very frustrating for them and the point values really throw people off too.

      I’m not saying it’d be impossible for them to learn the rules (I’ve taught classes proving the exact opposite), but it does show the inability to learn the game passively, or casually. Especially for people whose grasp of the English language is tenuous at best, the rules and intricacies of football seem nonexistent or indecipherable. It’d take one heck of a push by the NFL to break through that barrier. But if any league can become insinuated into a culture, I think the NFL can.

      In fact, they may want to start with video games (that’s how I learned hockey). It’s easy to figure out a sport when you can repeat a specific action as many times as you want. Considering the popularity of gaming systems in Europe, it’d be an obvious step to get the next Madden game out there as prominently as possible. Just an idea…

      Bullz-Eye Sports Channel, General Sports, NFL, Rumors & Gossip, Super Bowl

      « Older posts Newer posts »

      © 2026 The Scores Report – The National Sports Blog

      Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑