Wellness

[Sweetbay magnolia]

The Redskins need to find a Vinny Testosterone type QB (my affectionate name for Testeverde). Let's get back to blood and guts football. I'm old. Even Billy Kilmer could win, and call plays, and manage a game.

Cousins gets my vote. Bolster that line and get some decent coaches in, tighten up the ranks, keep Danny-o out of things, and it could be interesting.

i know the game has changed since those days. But really? Aside from eavesdropping on the opposing locker room, isn't it just about marching up and down the field? Skills have to be applied to THE GAME. Elite athletes are everywhere. Smarts are inherent.

[gardenman]

And Richie Incognito signs with the Bills. That's an interesting signing. Incognito wasn't especially effective as a guard in Miami (typically graded out in the twenties among 64 offensive guards.) Add in the bullying charges and a year out of the game and you have to wonder why he'd be a priority signing. Rex Ryan may be trying to toughen up the line, but he might do better by going younger.

[Spurt]

On 2/7/2015 Sweetbay magnolia said:

The Redskins need to find a Vinny Testosterone type QB (my affectionate name for Testeverde). Let's get back to blood and guts football. I'm old. Even Billy Kilmer could win, and call plays, and manage a game.

Cousins gets my vote. Bolster that line and get some decent coaches in, tighten up the ranks, keep Danny-o out of things, and it could be interesting.

i know the game has changed since those days. But really? Aside from eavesdropping on the opposing locker room, isn't it just about marching up and down the field? Skills have to be applied to THE GAME. Elite athletes are everywhere. Smarts are inherent.

Hi Sweetbay...I hope the new GM gets back to basics...Oline and Dline...Why even Jerrah Jones figured it out the right way by boosting their oline the last couple of years instead of going with the flashy and dashy draft picks....oh how I wish they had picked Johnny Manziel instead of OT Zack Martin......

[Sweetbay magnolia]

Ha ha! I think this year will show promise for the 'Skins. In the mean time i anticipate many summer days watching the Nats. Bring Spring!

[gardenman]

The big key for the Redskins is finding a QB. They can't keep playing quarterback roulette. They've got to find/get a guy and build around him. I think RGIII is just too fragile. We'll have to see if they try to resign Colt McCoy. I think Kurt Cousins is gone since they kept him third string no matter what. They need a QB and right now they don't really have one.

[gardenman]

And wacky rumor season is now in full swing. The latest rumor is that the Rams want Nick Foles as their new quarterback taking over for Sam Bradford who they'd trade to the Eagles for Foles. And the Eagles would then trade Bradford to the Bucs who want Bradford as their quarterback and somehow end up with the first overall pick which the Eagles would use for Marcus Mariota. I'm pretty sure none of that is likely to happen (Bradford is seriously damaged goods at this point, Foles is on the last year of his contract and no one would trade for him without getting an extension worked out beforehand) but that's just one of many, many rumors we'll be hearing over the next few weeks/months as reporters start listening to anyone remotely connected to a team and reporting whatever they hear.

The Eagles will figure heavily in wacky rumor season this year with Marcus Mariota out there and the press all convinced Chip Kelly will give up anything/everything to get him. Me, I'm not so sure Chip will make a move to grab Mariota. If Mariota falls down past tenth, Chip might go up to get him, but I just don't see the Eagles being that desperate to make a move. They've been winning with what they've got at quarterback and Nick Foles (when healthy) has performed very well and has the team behind him. I just don't see the Eagles paying the price necessary to go way up to get Mariota. If he falls down past ten, then yeah, I could see them move up, but if he falls past ten he might just drop into their lap at twenty anyway.

The combine's coming up next week and you're apt to hear all kinds of crazy rumors come out of there as lesser kids excel and some of the more highly rated guys stumble a bit. One of the quarterbacks at the combine was another Chip Kelly recruit who lost the starting job at Oregon to Mariota and then transferred. Expect to hear his name linked to the Eagles once the combine starts. The press is desperate to combine Chip Kelly and a running quarterback, but they forget that the offense ran better with Nick Foles than it did with Mike Vick. That's why Foles won the job over Vick. If all it took was a running quarterback to run Chip Kelly's system, then Vick would still be here. He's not and Foles is which should tell the press something.

[teganslaw]

It's already started: the Colts cut Safety LaRon Landry, Linebacker Andrew Jackson and Tackle Xavier Nixon. Landry never lived up to expectations, missing four games because of a PED violation. His best year was in 2012 before being traded to the Colts.

Jackson was arrested late last month for DUI. Nixon didn't play that much ,but was in trouble with the team because he missed the flight to New England for the AFC Championship game. (Maybe he knew something about that game others didn't LOL.)

Tampa Bay also cut QB Josh McGown. (sp?) It will be interesting to see if any other teams pick up these players.

[gardenman]

It's nice for the players when a team cuts them early. If the team absolutely knows they aren't keeping the guy, cut him loose and let him try to hook on elsewhere. The interesting name missing from the Colts cuts was Trent Richardson. I've got to think he doesn't figure in their plans but they paid such a high price for him they may just try to hold onto him and see if they can't squeeze some production out of him.

Expect to see lots of players getting cut/released in the near future as teams clear cap space and purge unwanted players.

Lots of rumors still circulating around the Philly area about Chip Kelly trading anyone and everyone to move up to get Marcus Mariota. (I think the trade of the William Penn statue from the top of city hall though is a no go though.) The latest rumor has Chip trading Nick Foles to the Rams along with the twenty pick to get the Rams tenth pick. Then he'd bundle the tenth pick and a future pick (or picks) along with LeSean McCoy to the Titans to move up to the second overall pick. There's some logic there. Going from twenty to ten makes moving up further easier. If the Titans aren't madly in love with a guy at two and still have lots to choose from at ten then getting a pro-bowl running back and future pick/picks to slide back to ten isn't a bad idea.

Jerry Jones is apparently trying to decide if he wants to go all in and bet the team on winning this year or next by signing both Dez Bryant and DeMarco Murray to big contracts. That'll cripple the team cap-wise in future years, but gives them their best shot at winning this coming year. I wouldn't do it, but I'm not Jerry Jones. When you shove all of your chips in to win now, you seldom win. The Broncos are the latest example of that. They bet it all on winning this year and now they've got to rebuild and start over with younger, cheaper players and likely suffer through a few losing seasons before they're back ready to compete full time.

[gardenman]

And word is that Josh McCown may be signing with the Bills later today/this week. That would make the Bills one of the more active early players this off-season. McCown is a guy who could do very well in Buffalo. They've got some good weapons and he's shown flashes of being a very good quarterback. The Bills earlier signed Richie Incognito, so if they sign McCown they can cross offensive guard and quarterback off their shopping list. That's not bad considering we're still several weeks away from free agency starting. If they've filled those two holes before free agency and the draft, it frees them up to cherry pick the more talented players in areas of less desperate need.

[teganslaw]

Josh McCown and the Bills didn't come to any deal, yet. Have to wait and see if anything happens there.

The Colts released OLB Shaun Phillips. He didn't contribute as much as was expected. I wouldn't be surprised to see sign with another team. The Redskins already signed Xavier Nixon, who was released by Indy. I don't have news on Nixon for SPURT. Nixon was mostly on the practice squad, and only played a couple games. As long as Nixon doesn't miss any plane flights, he should be OK.

Brandon Bostick was released by Green Bay. That move doesn't really surprise, but it's unfortunate that this happened. I think that he would have a good chance to go another team. He has awhile to go in his career.