2013 Offseason Update, Week 3

Marquise Goodwin, a wide receiver out of Texas, posted the combine's fastest
40-yard dash and second best broad jump. Photo credit to Yahoo! Sports via NFL Network.

Every Monday during the offseason, I will be recapping some of the biggest stories of the previous week that I did not cover individually. There wasn’t too much big news in the third week of the offseason that I didn’t cover last week, but there are two things worth mentioning.

Chris Johnson Keeps Combine Record

In the offseason before his rookie season, Chris Johnson posted a 4.24 40-yard dash, the fastest recorded in the NFL rookie combine up to that point. Five years later, he is still the record holder.

This year’s fastest 40 was posted by Marquise Goodwin, a wide receiver out of Texas, who ran it in 4.27 seconds.

One combine record was broken this year, as Justin Hunter, a receiver from Tennessee, set the combine record in the broad jump with a leap of 11’ 4”.

Redskins Name Change a League Affair

I read a Washington Post article that brought some insight I had never considered concerning this topic. In fact, it wasn’t even something I was aware of.

Let’s say the Redskins were to bow to public opinion and they decided to change their name. They couldn’t. Or at least, they are not allowed to make that decision by themselves. Dan Snyder cannot just decide that he agrees that the name is offensive and choose to change the name.

A name change would have to be approved by the NFL and other owners in the league, and such an approval would be unlikely, and probably for more than just financial reasons.

Tomorrow I will begin my look at what each team needs to address this season, division by division, starting with the AFC. Next week I will do the same for the NFC divisions.

If you would like to hear my thoughts on any other offseason news from the past week, feel free to contact me via my blog’s Facebook page or my Twitter account, @cpuffnfl.

Monday Night Football Afterword: Titans vs Jets

Chris Johnson hand-wrote the names of all the Sandy Hook
victims and had a 94-yard TD run, a franchise record, in them.
Photo credit to Yahoo! Sports.

For once, I actually find myself offering some defense to Mark Sanchez after a 14-10 loss to Tennessee in which he threw four interceptions.

Tim Tebow was given a possession to run for the first time all season. It came in the middle of the second quarter, the play calling on the drive was bad, and it just was not the time to do something like that. Mark Sanchez came back in and was completely out of rhythm, which is what happens when you come out in the middle of the game.

Later interceptions seemed to be more a product of frustration, but it all comes back to poor coaching decisions by the Jets.

Chris Johnson hit a home run with a 94-yard touchdown run in the second quarter as he has quietly rushed for over 1,100 yards with two games left in the season.

The Jets, meanwhile, were eliminated from playoff contention with their narrow loss in the Music City. After the game, Rex Ryan said he was not ready at the time to say who would be the starting quarterback next week or the week after. I think it needs to be Mark Sanchez. I don’t like him, I don’t believe in him, but he’s the quarterback until they make a decisive move for someone more able, whether it’s in the draft or free agency. So unless they actually think Tim Tebow could be their full-time starter in 2013, he should not be starting the rest of the way this year.

Jake Locker was less of a factor than I thought he would be in last night’s game. He threw for less than 150 yards and no scores, but he did run the ball several times for nearly 50 yards and a touchdown to compliment Johnson’s 122 yards and a touchdown of his own.

Sunday Football Afterword: Week 7 Early Games

There were eight 1:00 games on Sunday, eight!! That’s a lot, especially when there were only 2 in the early evening slot. But let’s get too all the early action.

Some games just plain were not exciting. Baltimore played a lousy game, continued to ignore their all-pro running back by only giving Ray Rice nine carries in the game, and got blown out by Houston 43-13. On the new Total Quarterback Rating system, which rates everything a quarterback does on a scale of 0-100, Flacco scored 0.3, the lowest for any quarterback since 2008. The bright side was that Terrell Suggs was not only back but also phenomenal, but it did little to slow down the Texans attack.

Dallas and Carolina played a close game, but it was also boring. Cam Newton continues to show that he struggles with adversity, and the Panthers ought to just be called the Steve Smiths, because he seems to be the only one out there who knows what he’s doing. The Panthers should have won the game.

New Orleans and Tampa Bay played a very strange game. Drew Brees was rolling in the first half with over 300 passing yards, 4 touchdown passes and one interception on a tipped ball. He had 32 fantasy points in my league at halftime! He totaled 3 more fantasy points in the second half as the Saints went insanely conservative and the Buccaneers led a furious comeback that almost sent the game into overtime if it hadn’t been for illegal touching being called on a Tampa Bay touchdown pass on the last play of the game. I know it’s typically frowned upon to run up the score, but that’s when you’re winning by three scored in the last 5 minutes of the game. When it’s halftime, no lead is safe; we saw that last Monday Night.

I didn’t get a chance to see much footage from the Packers win over the Rams or Minnesota’s 21-14 win over Arizona. Generally I can watch a bit from everything, but eight games at once was a bit much.

The Bills played much better than I anticipated, which seems to be a common trend. They are very streaky. There are teams that do really well one week and then very poorly the next and I learn quickly not to jump on the bandwagon after a good week. Then there is Buffalo. They’ll play very well for a few weeks and I’ll start thinking they’ve gotten things figured out, then they back into irrelevance for a while and we overlook them. They showed up against Tennessee, but, just their luck, Chris Johnson decided to have his second good game of the season and Matt Hasselbeck showed that he isn’t as washed up as many people seem to think.

The Colts played a pretty good game, but so too did the Browns. I can’t sit here and say that Cleveland will be an AFC North title contender in a few years time, because the Browns have an uncanny knack for screwing up their team in the offseason and starting right where they did the year before every year. But Brandon Weeden is playing very well, maybe even better than Andrew Luck the past two weeks. But the Colts have a couple more pieces than Cleveland and were able to pull out an important win.

I don’t think anybody would argue about the most exciting game of the day. The Giants and Redskins squared off in East Rutherford and it was quite a battle. The first half saw the Redskins score on all three possessions (a touchdown and two field goals). The Giants scored three times on four possessions and it was tied at 13 at halftime. The second half was entirely different, but both teams still scored plenty.

Eli Manning threw two uncharacteristic interceptions in the second half, but the Redskins turned the ball over four times in the last 30 minutes, three of them on fumbles. Griffin III’s only interception was on a double clutch that he normally would not have released. The turnovers were enough to doom Washington. RGIII led a drive late in the fourth quarter to give the Redskins the lead, but it was too soon as Manning quickly found Victor Cruz for a long touchdown play. There was still plenty of time for Washington, and they were driving nicely, but Santana Moss fumbled near midfield with about 45 seconds left to play and that was it.

Check back later for my Sunday Football Afterword for the three late games. Thanks for reading everyone!

10 Things You Need to Know: NFL Regular Season Week 4

The Texans have dethroned the 49ers as the #1 team in the NFL
according to the NFL.com Power Rankings.

Don’t forget to listen to an all-new broadcast of The All-Sports Crew tonight at 7 p.m. on WMUC Sports. We had a special show last night, the podcast of which is currently on iTunes. The WMUC Sports server is currently back up and running, so we should not run into the same issues we did last week, not getting a show in or a podcast on iTunes.

10.         ‘Monday Night Fiasco’

I already wrote more than enough about this train wreck, but it was so horrendous that it’s worth me linking to it in this post. You can read my semi-rant here and check out our discussion on the topic by subscribing to The All-Sports Crew’s podcasts on iTunes.

9.            CJ”No”K

Tennessee Titans running back Chris Johnson is one of the fastest players in the NFL today. After running for 45 yards in 3 games he is on pace to gain only 240 rushing yards in 2012. Keep in mind that this is the same Chris Johnson who broke Marshall Faulk’s single-season yards from scrimmage record in 2009, rushing for 2006 yards and gaining another 503 yards through the air.

8.            Coaches Fined for Conduct

Denver Broncos head coach John Fox and defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio have both been fined by the NFL for how they dealt with replacement officials in their Week 2 matchup with the Atlanta Falcons.

This week, Patriots head coach Bill Belichick and Redskins offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan are both being reviewed by the league for their actions toward replacement refs. I’m sure we can expect some fines to be handed to some coaches and players from Monday Night’s game, too. In my own opinion, all of these fines are unwarranted.

7.            Major Injuries

Yet again, the Colts will be without Austin Collie for the remainder of the season. After having concussion issues the past few seasons, this year it is Collie’s knee that will keep him out for the final 14 weeks of the season.

Darrelle Revis tore his left ACL and will also be gone for the rest of the season, leaving the Jets playoff hopes all but shattered.

Darrius Heyward-Bey took a vicious hit in the end zone on Sunday. He was unconscious before he hit the ground but gave a thumbs-up to the crowd as he was carted off the field. He was released from the hospital on Monday. He sustained a concussion and a strained neck.

Fantasy standout running backs Reggie Bush and C.J. Spiller both went down with injuries this week. There was no structural damage to Bush’s knee, but the team has not definitively said how much time he may miss.

Spiller’s injury may be more severe. It was a shoulder injury, but the severity isn’t so much with the injury itself, which the Bills have said may not keep him out for too much time. The severity is with Fred Jackson scheduled to be back from his injury in the next week or two. With his injury, Spiller stepped into the starting role and had many people thinking he would keep it even when Jackson returned. Now, the future isn’t nearly so clear for C.J. Spiller.

6.            Fantasy Disappointments

Saints RB Darren Sproles had only 6 fantasy points in my PPR league.

Packers WR Jordy Nelson had only 2 fantasy points.

Patritos TE Rob Gronkowski laid a rare egg, scoring only 3 points despite Aaron Hernandez not being an option for Brady.

This one isn’t so much a disappointment because he played poorly, but because he wasn’t rewarded for how well he played. Eli Manning played a brilliant game against the Panthers, but only scored 16 fantasy points.

5.            Fantasy Surprises

Ravens WR Torrey Smith scored 27 fantasy points, playing hours after learning of his younger brother’s death in a motorcycle accident.

Chiefs RB Jamaal Charles scored 39 fantasy points! He said he finally felt like himself again after suffering a season-ending injury last year. He looked like himself, too.

Texans QB Matt Schaub scored 33 fantasy points.

Jaguars RB Maurice Jones-Drew scored 27 points as he finally hit his stride after his holdout.

Giants K Laurence Tynes scored 20 points, quite a high sum for a kicker.

4.            Games to Watch

Like last week, I’ll be more specific on why these are the biggest games to watch in my predictions post tomorrow.

• San Francisco 49ers at New York Jets (Sunday, 1:00 p.m.)
• Minnesota Vikings at Detroit Lions (Sunday, 1:00 p.m.)
• Tennessee Titans at Houston Texans (Sunday, 1:00 p.m.)
• Washington Redskins at Tampa Bay Buccaneers (Sunday, 4:25 p.m.)
• New Orleans Saints at Green Bay Packers (Sunday, 4:25 p.m.)
• New York Giants at Philadelphia Eagles (Sunday, 8:20 p.m.)

3.            Power Rankings

For the sake of space, I will list just the top 6 and the bottom 6 here. You can see the rest on NFL.com.

1. Houston Texans	27. Indianapolis Colts
2. San Francisco 49ers	28. Miami Dolphins
3. Atlanta Falcons	29. Oakland Raiders
4. Green Bay Packers	30. Washington Redskins
5. Baltimore Ravens	31. New Orleans Saints
6. New York Giants	32. Cleveland Browns

The Vikings made the biggest jump, ten spots from 26^th to 16^th. The Cardinals jumped eight spots from 15^th to 7^th. The biggest fall goes to the Redskins and the Saints, who each dropped eight spots from into the bottom six. The Steelers dropped seven spots from 7^th to 14^th.

2.            Arizona Cardinals

When John Skelton was announced the starter over Kevin Kolb and then went down with an injury in Week 1 against the Seahawks, I’m sure most people felt that any chance of winning games was gone for Arizona. Three weeks later, they’re sitting at 3-0, one of just three teams with that mark this season. Kolb has stepped in and, though he has not played like a phenomenal quarterback, he has not been a liability to his team.

“Not a liability” isn’t much of a vote of confidence, but when you have a defense like the Cardinals have put on display the last three weeks, not a liability is all you really need from your quarterback. Anything more is gravy.

The Cardinals backed up their comeback victory against the Seahawks with a win against the Patriots (granted, they needed a missed field goal as time expired to get that win) and a decisive victory against the Eagles.

I am not yet buying into this team completely, but with the 49ers a strong team, and the Seahawks with possibly the best defense in the National Football League, the Cardinals make the case for the NFC West being the best football division.

1.            Houston Texans

After a rough loss to the Minnesota Vikings, the San Francisco 49ers have fallen from the top spot in the NFL.com power poll for the first time this season. I was a little surprised that the voters weren’t more split between the Texans and Falcons, but the Texans were the unanimous #1 team. Matt Schaub is back from last season’s injury, and he had a huge game against Denver.

Arian Foster is a fantastic running back, Andre Johnson had a great game and appears to have regained his position as a top-5 NFL wide receiver, and the defense has picked up right where it left off last year.

Houston plays Tennessee this week, and Jake Locker had a huge game this past week. Listen to The All-Sports Crew tonight at 7 p.m. on WMUC Sports to find out who my co-hosts and I believe will win that game, and the other 14 games in Week 4.

Pre-Season Time!

Never before in my life have I been so excited for pre-season action in the NFL. I spent my afternoon watching last year’s episodes of Hard Knocks, focused on the New York Jets training camp, and realized just how badly I am craving some pro football.

I had planned to post as soon as the lockout ended. But the moment it ended, I knew that each post would only end in me turning around and posting something else on the now-most-recent acquisition.

Players were flying from one team to another so quickly it left my head swimming, so I chose to wait until the trades and signings slowed down to write my first post-lockout post; this one.

Probably the biggest acquisition was the Eagles’ signing of cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha, who’s career in Oakland began in 2003. He started 99 of the 122 games he played in and has 11 career interceptions. His best games as far as being a shutdown corner go came back in 2005 and 2006. In 2005 he had 14 knockdowns and a career high 60 tackles, 55 of them solo tackles. 2006 was his best year overall; he made his first career interception (and then 7 more that season), had a career high 19 knockdowns, and he had 50 tackles (48 solo). Projections had him landing either in Dallas or with the Jets, but he shocked everyone and chose Philadelphia. With him, Asanté Samuel, and Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie in their secondary, their defense is going to be very tough to penetrate.

Before I move onto another topic, and since I’ve already brought up Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, I may as well stay on the subject and explain how he got to Philadelphia. He arrived as part of the imminent Kevin Kolb trade. Kolb is now in Arizona, to whom he was traded for Rodgers-Cromartie and a 2nd round pick in next year’s draft.

The Eagles stayed busy by picking up recently-cut Vince Young, who has had a lot of ups and downs with the Titans. His past two years have probably been his best, but he has only played in 24 games over the past three seasons. He will take Kolb’s vacated spot, backing up Michael Vick on Philadelphia’s depth chart.

To replace Young, the Titans signed Matt Hasselbeck who led Pete Carroll’s Seahawks to a divisional playoff appearance last year, knocking off the defending Super Bowl champs in the wild-card round.

New England was also rather busy, bringing in Chad Ochocinco and Albert Haynesworth. Assuming he doesn’t step off the field every third play as he did in Washington, the addition of Haynesworth on the defensive line will make their run defense even tougher than it already was, in addition to greatly bettering their pass rush (they were in the middle of the league in sacks last season). The Patriots already have several proven receivers, including Wes Welker and Deion Branch, and younger players who proved their worth last season, like tight ends Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez, so adding Ochocinco will simply add extra depth to an already solid receiving corps.

In addition to trading Albert Haynesworth to New England, the Redskins also traded away quarterback Donovan McNabb. He will be in Minnesota this year, and the Redskins will get a 6th round pick in next year’s draft and a potential pick in 2013.

The Cowboys recently cut wide receiver Roy Williams, among other players. Williams has had a pretty good career overall if you look at his year-to-year numbers. In fact, he did so well in four years in Detroit (five if you include his 2007 season greatly shortened by a knee injury) that the Cowboys traded 1st, 3rd, and 6th round picks in the 2009 draft and a 7th round pick in 2010 to Detroit for him. He has played decently in Dallas for the past two seasons, but never reached the level of productivity that they needed from him. He has been picked up by Minnesota, with whom he has signed a one-year contract.

Another former Cowboy will also be in the NFC North this season as Chicago picked up running back Marion Barber.

The Dolphins picked up Reggie Bush in a trade with New Orleans, sending away safety Jonathan Amaya. There were also draft pick(s) involved, but they are so far undisclosed.

All of this was done (not necessarily in order) over the first few days after the lockout ended and free agency began. There are still several transactions being made every day, but so far not as many big names have been involved. DeSean Jackson is expected to end his holdout and report to camp with the Eagles tomorrow. There still is no word on when or if the Chris Johnson holdout might end in Tennessee. And despite his tweets, it looks as if the Titans will also have to deal with Cortland Finnegan holding out as well.

With the preseason fast approaching, I am working on a season outlook and playoff prediction for the coming season. Hopefully I will be able to publish it sometime on Wednesday, the day before the first five preseason games of 2011, including Seattle in San Diego, scheduled for an 8:00pm start time on ESPN.

Remember to check back weekly for new posts. I’ll probably be more active on the blog than I was last season, but I can’t really give any guarantees since I’ll also have a busy schedule between classes and athletics.

As always, I appreciate any feedback, including criticism. Nobody is a perfect writer, and I am bound to make mistakes like anyone else, so please be considerate with how to criticize on grammar/spelling issues, but certainly don’t hesitate to correct any facts if I have made errors concerning them.