Sports

[gardenman]

And the last week of pre-preseason activity is now in full swing. Chip Kelly has been thoroughly interrogated by the local press over how the Eagles can possibly survive without Evan Mathis. (They'll survive just fine thank you very much.) Sam Bradford is being watched nonstop by the press and his every move (or lack of move) is being debated for hours. (Sam says his knee feels fine by the way.) DeMarco Murray is continuing to set the perfect example of how to be the perfect teammate. (Remind me again, why did the Cowboys let him go?)

After this week we enter the great lull of the NFL season. That last week of June and the first three weeks of July are typically the vacation time for NFL teams, coaches, scouting departments, etc. Everyone packs up and heads out for a few weeks of R&R before the madness resumes. This is something of a maddening time for sports editors around the country. Hockey's done. Basketball will be done. Football stories are all on vacaton someplace and out of reach. The only real sport they have left is baseball and if the local team is playing poorly (like the Phillies) then there's not much they can do to fill out the sports sections of papers/news. We've got about a four week lull in NFL activity coming up where all you can do is hope your players stay out of trouble (and some won't) and then training camp starts and things get very lively.

[gardenman]

Dez Bryant has now gone from threatening to sit out the first game or two this year, to sitting out five years if that's what it takes to get the contract he wants. Apparently Dez and the Cowboys are still pretty far apart in terms of the new contract and Dez is turning up the heat.

Dez wants to be paid on a par with Calvin 'Megatron' Johnson and get a lot of guaranteed money too. He doesn't want to risk getting a serious injury that could cost him tens of millions, and plans to avoid football related activities (things like practice and games) until he's gotten a new contract that provides him the security he's looking for.

It's starting to look like the Cowboys may have made the wrong decision in which superstar player to let go. DeMarco Murray would have been a cheaper guy and a better person by most accounts. The next month or so in Dallas will be pretty darn interesting to watch. Jerry Jones is still saying there's no trouble and all of it will be worked out, but Dez is pretty much holding a gun to Jerry's head now.

The smartest move for the Cowboys would have been to use Murray and Bryant against one another back before free agency and make it clear they could only afford to sign one. The guy who most wanted to stay there could have gotten paid, been grateful and the team could adjust to the lost of the other guy. Instead they made it clear they wanted Dez Bryant over DeMarco and he's now using that against the Cowboys. He knows it'll kill Jerry Jones to start the season without either star in the lineup. If Dez does sit out, that Cowboy offense starts to look pretty pedestrian. Dez is in control right now and he knows it.

[gardenman]

And most league activities have now wrapped up and for the next 5-6 weeks pretty much nothing happens. The Eagles came out of the mini-camps and OTA's with no new injuries which is always nice. You know a few guys will get dinged up in training camp, but losing players in the OTA's/mini-camps before training camp is always a bad sign. 

Reports indicate the Eagles are still trying to work out a new contract with Sam Bradford. That makes sense for the Eagles, but not so much for Sam. If he's confident he can stay healthy (a huge if) then playing out this year on his current contract makes the most sense for him. He's likely to put up big numbers with the players around him and be able to get pretty much anything he asks for next year. Of course, if he does get injured again then his value drops like a rock and he could find himself out of football next year if he doesn't sign something while still healthy. He does have the slight advantage of having already made something like $76 million, so money shouldn't be a huge concern for him which lets him gamble a bit more than some players.

We're now entering the doldrums of the NFL year. Pretty much everyone but a few trainers and conditioning guys will now drift off on vacations and there will be no real news to report. In about four weeks the first coaches/players will start drifitng back onto the scene and then when training camps open there will be a flood of news, but in the meantime things should stay pretty darn quiet.

[teganslaw]

The latest news out of Indy is that Trent Cole feels "rejuvenated" (his words) being with the Colts. He feels that he has a lot to give that team. Since Mathis might not be 100 percent, Cole will need to take his place, if necessary. I'm thinking that this was a good signing. Cole is 32, but he still has talent and a few years in him.

WR Da'Rick Rogers, who was with the Colts for awhile, has been released by Kansas City. Rogers had talent and so much potential, but had off the field issues with drugs and arrests. The Chiefs badly needed a wide receiver, so something must have happened to make them waive Rogers. It's too bad; I was hoping that Rogers would turn things around and make use of his talent. Now it seems that he just squandered his chances.

[gardenman]

Hi teganslaw! I'm glad to see you found the thread. Trent Cole is a good pickup for the Colts. He can still get after the quarterback on occasion, but he's not overly consistent He's good short term help however.

Guys like Da'Rick Rogers can make coaches feel very old. They have all of the talent in the world, but just fritter it away. Andy's got the Chiefs heading in a good direction right now and the last thing he needs is a disruption. I wouldn't be shocked to see the Chiefs edge out the Broncos for the AFC west title.

[Sheltie Mom]

Just wanted to check in, glad to find the NFL thread still kicking as my mom used to say! I'm not even going to know my Bills this year without the program, lol!

[gardenman]

Hi Sheltie Mom! Yeah, the Bills have a lot of new pieces. It should be an interesting season for them if they can get any kind of consistent play from the offensive line and quarterback. That whole AFC East will be interesting to watch this year. The Patriots have gutted their secondary and it will be interesting to see if Bill Belichick can keep that unit functioning at a high level. (I have my doubts.)

I suspect the Pats will go from being a tight man-to-man defense to a one or two deep zone defense. They've also lost Wilfork, so they could be vulnerable to the run game. It looks like the Patriots will have to outscore the opponents more than they can count on that defense to stop anyone.

The Dolphins have also improved and even the Jets could be better. You could have all four of those teams competing for a playoff spot over those last couple of weeks.

[Spurt]

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@Sheltie Mom wrote:
Just wanted to check in, glad to find the NFL thread still kicking as my mom used to say! I'm not even going to know my Bills this year without the program, lol!

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@Sheltie Mom   Hey SHELTIE MOM---good to see you!!!!  I think your Bills have great potential this year, especially your defense, and we will have to see what Rex does with the team and his ground and pound offense---should be very interesting....

[Spurt]

HI GARDENMAN---- except for Dez Bryant, and JJ Watt taking his team to the movies, there has been no NFL news.....  .....Only 48 days until the first preseason game!!!

[gardenman]

SPURT. Yeah, we're in the doldrums now. This is the time of year you don't want to hear news about your team as only bad things tend to happen between now and the start of training camp. Once camp opens everyone breathes a sigh of relief.