Running NFL offseason thread

I figured with free agency coming soon enough (next week) and with Corey Dillon's request to be cut (it's about time Laurence Maroney gets the starting nod there), we might as well start up a thread to discuss all things offseason.

Draft, free agency, Pacman Jones, you name it. Personally, I'm just curious to see what the Steelers do in Tomlin's first months.

 

Which highly-touted QB will wind up being the biggest bust -- Russell or Quinn?

And which will the Raiders choose?

 

No offense, oz, but i think this is a silly idea. Once this gets to 4-5 pages, and another Bengals player gets arrested ... a bunch of us who dont want to wade through long threads may miss it.

Especially if the big papers/websites treat it like Pacman Jones.

I can see the NFL draft having it's own thread ... but these catch-all threads are pretty dumb if you ask me. Granted im not here nearly as often ...

 

I say they go with Russell b/c Davis will fall in love with his arm and he just has that "Raider" swagger about him. I'm not sold on Quinn. Was OK his first two years, very good as a junior and seemed to tail off this year. Is that what happens when you start for four years and teams know you so well? Probably, but if you're that good with that much talent around you you should be able to overcome that. I like the kid Stanton from Michigan State. If he can stay healthy I think he's the best QB in the draft, but that's a big if.

 

Just read on ESPN.com that they may release Porter b/c he's due $1M on March 6 and has a cap figure of $4M this year. Also seems like Tomlin is thinking about going Cover 2 and to a 4-3 in the next year or two. What happens to Casey Hampton then? Can he play DT after being a NT for so long? That would be a shame b/c that guy is superb.

 

Not saying there's a topic that doesn't merit its own thread. Certainly Pacman Jones does, certainly the Bengals' legal woes do. Just saying if you've got a random offseason thought that might not be a great thread in itself, feel free to post here.

melock, I heard that about Porter, too, and I hope those reports are wrong. They missed him when he sat out last year, the defense just wasn't the same. I can't see them shifting from the 3-4 to the 4-3 in only eight months. Two seasons, maybe.

 

I don't think the defense was broke, so don't try and fix it. Sure, there was a decline, mostly due to injury and whatnot, but the Steelers still boast a solid defense.

 

That's exactly the crap I was afraid of when I heard they were hiring Tomlin. And before anybody goes ahead and cuts Joey Porter, they need to watch how pathetic that defense was without him against the Falcons.

If he goes, that looks like full-on rebuilding mode. And that team is too good to go into full-on rebuilding mode.

 

Will anyone explain to me why release this bullshit now? It's another reason why the Jets won't win in 2007.



INDIANAPOLIS -- Chad Pennington, the 2006 NFL Comeback Player of the Year, earned an even more meaningful honor on Friday -- his coach declared him to be the New York Jets' starting quarterback entering next season.
"Chad did an outstanding job for us as the starter and he is the starter," coach Eric Mangini told reporters at the NFL Scouting Combine.
At the start of the 2006 season, the Jets tried out four quarterbacks -- including Pennington. There were questions about whether Pennington would bounce back from a second major shoulder surgery, and even rookie Kellen Clemens was eyed as a potential starter.
Pennington put an end to all that, earning the job as the season began and leading the Jets back to the playoffs. He completed 64.5 percent of his passes last season, throwing for 3,352 yards and 17 touchdowns with 16 interceptions.
Now Clemens will be Pennignton's understudy as the Jets' backup QB.
"[Clemens] has a better understanding of what it takes to be a starter in the NFL after spending a year in the system," Mangini told reporters.
"As with every position we have, each week you have an opportunity to move forward and each year you have an opportunity to move forward. That is going to take a lot of hard work," he added. "Chad has done an outstanding job and he'll be the starter going into camp."
Last season was the first time Pennington, an oft-injured, seven-year veteran, played an entire 16-game schedule.

 

Petrino doesn't want 1,000-yard (rushing) seasons out of Vick anymore. Queue people like Chuck Taylor crying about how the mean coach is trying to turn a scatsinger into the Gregorian chant.

 

Fine by me. It'll be fun to watch the Jets try to somehow match their lightning-in-a-bottle 10-6 season with a thoroughly mediocre QB who has fooled much of NY into thinking he's the heir apparent to Joe Namath.

 

The heir apparent to the most overrated QB in NFL history? No way!