2013 Offseason Update, Week 2

Titus Young certainly has an interesting way of showing how
'unselfish' he is. Screen Capture taken by Black Sports Online.

Every Monday during the offseason, I will be recapping some of the biggest stories of the previous week that I did not cover individually. The second week of the offseason was quite a bit busier than the first week but I will just focus on the top four or five stories.

Titus Young Out then In then Out Again

The Titans released Young a couple weeks ago and the only team to claim him off the waiver wire was the St. Louis Rams. Perhaps his ego was too big for them because he was released just ten days later. I figured they had picked him up so they would have a fallback if they can’t get a new contract with Danny Amendola, so something must have gone seriously wrong.

Remember that during the latter part of the season, Young intentionally lined up incorrectly for a play and was suspended by the team for it. He also said he is a better receiver than Calvin Johnson. With these kinds of issues, he might not get another chance in this league.

Eagles to Trade Foles?

No, they won’t. A few days ago a report came out that the Eagles want a high draft pick in exchange for their young quarterback. That report mislead many people into thinking the Eagles are preparing to part ways with Nick Foles.

The Eagles have said that if a team was interested in Foles, the offer would have to be substantial, such as a high draft pick, for them to even consider it. I can’t picture Foles starting in Philadelphia this year, though. You don’t give a guy – Vick – a contract worth around $7 million minimum and sit him on the bench.

Gronk’s Cast Off

No, Gronk isn’t going anywhere Patriots fans. But his cast is off as of a couple days ago. His broken forearm was repaired over a month ago and though it didn’t keep him from dancing the night away after the Ravens won the Super Bowl, he hasn’t been doing much as far as working out.

He has the full offseason to make sure it is fully recovered, and he said he still has around a month to six weeks before his forearm is fully recovered. Fans just don’t want to see him do anything stupid to jeopardize his heath. When he’s at 100%, he is the best tight end in the NFL.

Austin Collie Coming Back

Not long ago, the Colts released Austin Collie after he lost this season due to a fourth concussion in three seasons. After so many concussions in such a short time, you usually expect doctors to treat you like they did Jahvid Best, where nobody wants to be the one to clear him because they know the risks.

But Collie has been cleared and seems set on continuing his career, even if he has to take a year off. “Right now, it would take a doctor to tell me, ‘You can’t play anymore.’ I feel like this is a gift that I’ve been given, and personally I feel I should still be doing it,” Collie said, according to The Indianapolis Star. Of course, everybody wants to think he could be reunited with Peyton Manning in Denver, but what about a reunion with Pierre Garçon in Washington?

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.

Thursday Night Football Afterword: Eagles vs Bengals

With five turnovers, the Eagles demonstrated on national
television why their season has gone so poorly.
Photo credit to NFL Network.

Next week we will have a Saturday Night Football game, so I will spend the next morning writing my Afterword for that before the Sunday games begin. Last night was the final Thursday game of the 2012 season.

The Bengals jumped out to an early 10-0 lead after two takeaways but struggled in the second quarter as Andy Dalton was stripped twice in the pocket. Philadelphia took a 13-10 halftime lead but would not score again.

During one 72-second stretch in the second half, the Eagles turned the ball over three times, reminiscent of another Thursday game this season – New York Jets on Thanksgiving, anyone?

The 34-13 final score was not at all telling of how Philadelphia played. Their defense easily played well enough to win the game, but poor offensive play in the first quarter and second half led to too many short fields for the Cincinnati offense.

Andy Dalton only threw for 127 yards in the win, throwing one touchdown on a completion percentage below 50%. He also made a couple nice moves on the way to a rushing touchdown.

Cincinnati was much more affective in on the ground as BenJarvus Green-Ellis topped 100 yards and Dalton picked up another 22 before taking three knees to run out the clock.

After two consecutive eye-popping games, Bryce Brown has been limited in rushing. With 34 yards last night, he topped his Week 14 total by 28 yards, but it certainly has his fantasy owners, myself included, a little frustrated. With the Redskins and Giants left on the schedule, it doesn’t get much easier.

Nick Foles looked solid at times, but he is still a shaky, inconsistent rookie. He made some terrific passes, one of which unfortunately was subsequently fumbled away, and he made some terrible throws. He finished with one interception, but two more passes should have been picked off late in the fourth quarter.

I think Foles is the future at quarterback for Philadelphia, but it is going to take a lot of offseason work to clean up his game.

Thanks for reading everyone and enjoy the rest of Week 15. I’ll be back Monday with my Sunday Afterwords!

Monday Night Football Afterword: Eagles vs Panthers

Cam Newton initially missed the end zone on this dive, but
a second effort pushed the football across the goal line.
Photo credit to Northwest Herald.

Bryce Brown was not the only bright spot for the Eagles, but it certainly felt like it. With LeSean McCoy inactive due to a concussion suffered last week against the Redskins, Brown recorded an Eagles’ rookie record 178 rushing yards in the 30-22 home loss to Carolina. He scored twice, including on a 65-yard blast, but he also fumbled twice and will have to learn to hold the ball more securely moving forward.

But Nick Foles was also a bright spot. He struggled mightily in the red zone, and he threw some shaky passes early on, but he threw only five incompletions. He only threw for 119 yards and failed to record a scoring throw, but, more importantly, he also did not throw any interceptions, a week after throwing two against Washington.

Injuries are the story for the Eagles. They have only one offensive lineman that has started every game. In addition to Michael Vick and McCoy sitting out, DeSean Jackson went down with an injury early on and did not return, leaving Foles limited in his offensive weapons and completely crippling Philadelphia’s ability to stretch the field.

Philadelphia looked terrible on defense early, giving up two big touchdown passes to Cam Newton. They settled down some as the game progressed but consistently failed to contain Newton, who threw for 306 yards and two scores on 18/28 passing in addition to carrying 14 times for 52 yards and another two touchdowns.

Andy Reid’s record losing streak now continues at seven games, as the Eagles still have not won since the last time the Phillies notched a win. The Philadelphia baseball club notched its last win on October 1, the day after the most recent Eagles victory.

Carolina defeated the Eagles for just the second time since 2001. Their other victory was in the playoffs en route to their narrow Super Bowl XXXVIII loss to the New England Patriots.

Before I wrap this up, I want to briefly pay my respects to Sean Taylor, the Redskins safety who died five years ago, today. Gone but never forgotten. Rest In Peace, #21.

Pre-Season Week 2 Look-back

We have reached the halfway point of the 2012 Pre-Season, but the Regular Season could not feel further away. Everybody loves the first couple games of the Pre-Season. But by this time we’ve seen all our teams’ players and are ready for the games to start counting. Maybe if the season ever expands to 18 games that will happen, but for now we have two more weeks to hunker down for before the chase for Super Bowl XLVII begins.

We had plenty of action this week, and the AFC North did well, winning three of their four games. It started on Thursday when both the Bengals and Browns won against teams that I have winning their respective divisions in the NFC. Cincinnati beat Atlanta by less than a touchdown, but the surprise was Cleveland’s 35-10 blowout win over Green Bay. Brandon Weeden did well, though he was fortunate to leave with no picks thrown after making a couple very poor decisions. The Packers’ biggest concern should probably be that their two leading rushers in the game were Aaron Rodgers (2 carries, 24 yards) and backup Quarterback Graham Harrell (3 carries, 23 yards).

All six games on Friday featured an NFC team taking on an AFC team, five of those games with the NFC team hosting. The NFC won four of the games, and three of their home games. Tennessee blew out the Buccaneers in Tampa and the Jaguars squeaked by the Saints in the Superdome for the only two AFC wins of the day.

Detroit played a great game in Baltimore, scoring 17 points in the second quarter behind a pair of touchdown passes by Matthew Stafford who went 12-17 for 184 yards. Five of those completions went to Calvin Johnson, who turned them into 111 yards and a score. The final in that game was 27-12 as Baltimore fell in the AFC’s only home game of the evening.

Carolina beat Miami at home and Minnesota got a home win against the Bills, but it was the late game that drew most of my attention on Friday. The Raiders didn’t have a very memorable game, though undrafted Wide Receiver Rod Streater did have a pretty good game. He only had 43 receiving yards, but they were on seven receptions. With Oakland’s other receivers struggling massively, he could be a fantasy dark horse. On the Cardinals’ side, Kevin Kolb looked terrible. John Skelton looked good, but he only threw three passes. He completed all three of them, one of them going for a touchdown, but Ken Whisenhunt pulled him out immediately after his third completion like he was scared something would happen that would ruin it, so it’s a bit early to jump on his fantasy bandwagon.

The Jets couldn’t wait to play the Giants, and they got that chance, and wasted it, on Saturday as the defending Super Bowl Champions got a 26-3 win as the Jets played as the home team. The Jets had been trying to make a case for being New York’s team over the past few seasons, and though this is only the Pre-Season, last year’s regular season win by the Giants, and of course the Giants Super Bowl XLVI win have pretty much skewered that notion.

The Redskins came back with a very impressive fourth quarter by Kirk Cousins, who you have to think has proven that he should move past Rex Grossman to #2 on Washington’s depth chart. It wasn’t quite enough as the Bears still got a 33-31 win at home, but it was something positive after RGIII struggled for most of the first half.

Houston won at home against San Francisco, but the 49ers shouldn’t be too worried yet. Only playing in one half, we can’t expect too much out of Alex Smith in the Pre-Season. The 49ers will be fine once their first team is playing entire games. Sam Bradford looked good in St. Louis’ win over Kansas City. He only threw nine passes but completed six of them for over 100 yards and two touchdowns.

Denver backed up their 31-3 week 1 win in Chicago with a 30-10 loss at home against the Seahawks, showing severe inconsistency. Manning looked good in his second outing, but did throw a pair of picks. His accuracy is mostly there, but he is still not 100% when trying to stretch the defense with downfield throws. Dallas’ first team offense still didn’t look very good this week. They scored 10 points in the first half, which isn’t terrible, but you hope for more. Their first team defense, however, looked great. After the team shut out the Raiders last week, the Cowboys’ first team defense blanked San Diego’s first team offense. The Chargers won the game thanks to 21 fourth quarter points.

Andrew Luck didn’t do great, but he didn’t do badly either. It is all a learning experience for the rookie quarterback. He threw his first interception and was sacked for the first time in his team’s visit to Pittsburgh, but there was plenty to like, too. He completed 16 of 25 passes for 175 yards. He also scored a touchdown on a triple option run.

Last night was the final game of the week as the Patriots hosted the Eagles. Tom Brady didn’t play at all – Belichick rested him and a few other players as last night’s game marked the start of a 3-game-in-10-day stretch. Michael Vick sustained a hit on his ribs that knocked him out of the game. It was the second week in a row he left with an injury, though the X-rays came back negative for the second straight time. The good news for the Eagles is that Nick Foles did well in backing up Vick, going 18-28 for 217 yards and a pair of scoring throws against the Patriots’ first team defense. The Eagles went on to win 27-17.

This week action begins on Thursday again, but the last games will be played on Sunday, so my next look-back will be next Monday. Tomorrow I will post this week’s Things You Need to Know, so keep a lookout for that. Thanks for reading everyone!