NFL Columns

"The black hat fit Bill Belichick so well. Of course, anyone who wins as much and as easily as he does has to be cheating, right? Cheating more than he would admit... With the way it's starting to look, that black hat fits Specter, Walsh and the Herald better than it fits Belichick. On Wednesday the NFL revealed Walsh has sent eight tapes to the league that had been in his possession. They were tapes of the Dolphins, Bills and Browns sending in sideline signals in 2001, and the Steelers and Chargers sending in sideline signals in 2002."

"There's a strong belief among those in the Giants New York Giants front office and coaching staff that first-round draft pick Kenny Phillips will challenge for playing time sooner rather than later. His first chance to make an impression comes today during the start of the two-day Giants rookie mini-camp at Giants Stadium."

"The Dallas Cowboys have not tried to hide the fact they were looking for a big-name, highly productive veteran wide receiver this off-season. They were interested in Javon Walker before Oakland guaranteed him $16 million. They have been linked to Chad Johnson, Roy Williams and Anquan Boldin even though their teams have repeatedly said none would be dealt. And if something were to happen now, executive vice president Stephen Jones admits it would likely be a player-for-player deal. "

"In an age where the value of the contract often precedes the name, it behooves a professional sports organization to provide a healthy, supportive and stable environment for its people. The greater the investment in the employees, the greater the need for protection. It may be as simple as having a "big brother" or "big sister" on the payroll. Someone willing to handle details and capable of advising or listening. "

"During the next three days, a lot of the Ravens' attention will be focused on quarterback Joe Flacco, the team's top draft pick out of Delaware. But the sleeper of the Ravens' draft is a safety of Japanese heritage out of the University of Cincinnati named Haruki Nakamura. Nakamura was a sixth-round pick, and general manager Ozzie Newsome and secondary coach Mark Carrier love the guy."

"I noticed it on TV. Mike Holmgren walked into a news conference last week looking like he'd lost weight. His face looked slimmer and his stomach flatter. So I asked him about it after a mini-camp practice. "I'm trying," Holmgren said. "It's hard. I'm hungry all the time." He was motivated by his wife, Kathy, and those NutriSystem commercials featuring former NFL players and coaches. Ten weeks ago, he got serious about dieting. "I've never been little, but at the same time, I've kind of set my mind on trying to do this," Holmgren said."

"I'm not suggesting he hide in his house, coil into a ball and not come out until training camp. But sometimes, when life is running you down and the karma isn't fair, the smarter option is to find a means of entertainment that doesn't involve beer, boating and watchful cops. If the Lower Colorado River Authority had been cracking down on boaters of all sorts, why would Benson, with his NFL career at a crossroads and the Bears sending a message with the second-round drafting of Matt Forte, allow beer on his 30-foot boat and turn himself into a target? How dumb can you be, Ced? Where's your better judgment? Just as you don't run straight ahead into a swarm of five Green Bay Packers, you don't tempt fate in a lively part of the lake -- Devil's Cove -- where you obviously aren't liked and you thought the boat police were picking on you."

"The millions of dollars doled out to professional athletes, including some native Chicagoans, doesn't shield them from the perils ofstreet violence and brazen home invasions. When it comes to targeted armed attacks or random assaults, the list of victims in the last 10 months with local ties includes Antoine Walker, Eddy Curry and, most recently, Rashard Mendenhall. "As an athlete, I think it is a concern because you are dealing with people being robbed in general," said Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb, who graduated from Mt. Carmel High School and was a teammate of Walker's on the Caravan basketball team."

"Seven different teams have represented the NFC in the past seven Super Bowls, which suggests how markedly matters can change from year to year in the NFL. With this in mind, a first look at the league's power structure for 2008: "

" Here's what we know after the Cowboys' first rookie minicamp last week: If Danny Amendola makes it, he should remember Wes Welker in his will; Jerry Jones offers more second chances than a tent revival; and the Steelers may wish Dallas had drafted Rashard Mendenhall, too. Hope you took the daily updates from minicamp in the spirit offered. Figuring out if a guy can play from watching these affairs is like picking a wife from a swimsuit catalogue. Everyone looks good, but it's probably not grounds for a long-term relationship. Consider Felix Jones. No doubt you hoped for confirmation that the Cowboys made the right choice when they selected him ahead of Mendenhall, who was rated higher on most draft boards."

"Monte Kiffin, the former Vikings defensive coordinator who is defensive coordinator for the Tampa Bay Buccaners, used to be an assistant coach at the University of Nebraska. "We used to recruit Minnesota in those days, and we won a lot of those battles with the Gophers," Kiffin said Tuesday. "But," he added, "we lost this one." That loss is Jared Allen, the pass rusher the Vikings signed for $31 million guaranteed on April 23. Allen, traded by Kansas City, also considered Tampa Bay — but not after visiting Minnesota. "We never got him on campus, and that hurts," Kiffin said."

"The last conversation I had with Walter Payton happened to be the most poignant. The Bears' Hall of Fame running back, who died Nov. 1, 1999, at the age of 45, was emphasizing the importance of always being a professional, giving your best effort and "not mailing it in." Several months before he died, Payton talked about how he prepared rigorously throughout the off-season out of respect for the opportunity to perform in the NFL. Fast-forward to 2008, and we are witnessing the likely career unraveling of underachieving Bears running back Cedric Benson."

"During the three days of minicamp just concluded by the Eagles, cornerback Lito Sheppard deftly avoided two things as if they were downfield blockers coming to drive him out of bounds. He showed up, thereby avoiding a substantial fine for missing the mandatory sessions, and he also avoided sharing his true feelings about the current starting lineup, which, you might have heard, does not include him. "I just play football," Sheppard said yesterday. "I don't have any expectations." And with that, and a few other non-answers, he was out of the locker room unscathed. When he will come back - if he will ever come back - is fodder for another time."

" What was missing from the Eagles' red-zone equation last year was production from the tight end position, particularly from starter L.J. Smith. Smith was hurt almost the entire season. Hampered by groin and knee injuries, he missed six games, wasn't anywhere close to 100 percent in the other 10 and caught a career-low 22 passes and one touchdown. "I basically played half a season last year," Smith said. "The year before [in '06] all [five] of my touchdowns were in the red zone. The red zone is a chance for offensive coordinators to find that [coverage] mismatch when the defense brings in that extra linebacker or that extra defensive lineman in goal-line situations."

"Head coach Andy Reid -- in the middle of one of his more boring, even for him, press conferences -- took time to scold the media for being too negative about his 8-8 team that missed the playoffs for the second time in three years. "I thought you guys struggled to find a positive story," Reid said when asked what the atmosphere was like at this year's minicamp compared to last year's when he was in the middle of a family crisis and quarterback Donovan McNabb was in the middle of rehabbing a torn ACL. "You did a good job finding the negative ones, but there are plenty of positive ones that you could find out there." Hey, this time it wasn't even me. Yesterday was my first appearance at this year's minicamp. But if Reid wants positive, let's give him positive. "

"Have you noticed? Those signs are starting to come down. All over South Florida, on roads and highways leading to our stadiums and arenas, those signs that read ''Welcome to Loserville'' are being replaced with new ones that read ``Welcome to Thingsarelookinguptown.'' Everywhere you look now it's all you see: Positive signs. It's as if we've been locked in some sort of civic dungeon but have finally begun to see small shafts of light and hear distant, approaching voices. Hints of hope. An indication of release."

"And now for one of the most common questions I get from frustrated fans in the Rocky Mountain region: Why don't you call for more coaches to be fired? The answer is simple. Because the owners who employ those coaches wouldn't listen to me if I did. Or maybe you haven't noticed the local landscape, the only dot on the pro sports map where coaches aren't hired to be fired. Denver has become the exception to the rule in pro sports. For whatever reason, local coaches are immune from the pressure felt by their contemporaries in other markets. They say they're under pressure to win, but are they?"

"Steve Young figures he was part of the true odd couple. "Here am I this Mormon kid," Young reminded, and "I'm running around with this Jewish kid." The Jewish kid in this instance was John Frank, once Young's teammate and target on the 49ers and on Sunday night an inductee in the Jewish Sports Hall of Fame of Northern California. On an evening less sectarian than fascinating — Carmen Policy was the master of ceremonies, Joe Kapp and John Ralston were part of the program — Al Rosen, Benny Lom, Wendy Paskin-Jordan and Tad Taube also were installed. "

"University of Arkansas guard Robert Felton waited for a telephone call that never came during the NFL draft. He had the resume: first-team All-Southeastern Conference and second-team All-America. What he didn’t have was an NFL team that believed he was worth spending a draft pick on. So Felton comes to the Buffalo Bills humbled, but not discouraged. “Obviously the draft didn’t go the way I wanted it, but in a way it did because I’m where I wanted to be — in the NFL,” Felton said during the Bills’ weekend rookie minicamp. “This is my chance. I’m here and I’m trying to make the best of it.” "

"The image of a blind, inebriated Cedric Benson is not a shock to the system, not if you saw him attempt to run the football last season. For the Bears, his arrest Saturday night for boating while intoxicated and resisting arrest pales in comparison to his shortcomings as a running back. So this should make for a very interesting case study, which we'll call "3.4 Yards and a Cloud of Pepper Spray." If his bosses are consistent in their attitude toward off-field problems, Benson can expect second chances galore. That's if they're still going by the Tank Johnson Rules, in which a man is innocent until proven guilty by a jury of his Bears."

"It is even logical to suggest that if Benson ever carries the ball again for the Bears, maybe the team has learned even less than the running back in the last three years. But take a deep breath, Windy City cynics. Just because Benson has done nothing to earn the benefit of the doubt during his tumultuous Bears career doesn't mean he should be deprived it. Fairness dictates being deliberate when deciding whether the Bears should get rid of Benson after he was arrested Saturday night near Austin, Texas, on charges of boating while intoxicated and resisting arrest. Knowing the Bears and Lovie Smith, don't be surprised if that ship doesn't sail after all — at least not because of this incident."

"Bears general manager Jerry Angelo was conveniently out of town and did not return phone calls. No doubt he needs to gather more information, as well. Sadly, it's a bit late for that. There's a big enough pile of evidence for the Bears to cut ties with Benson without another thought. Maybe that's the real positive of his water-logged weekend. Benson has one leg out the door and another on a banana peel anyway after the draft last weekend, when the Bears effectively replaced him by using a second-round pick on Matt Forte."

"The big white bus with ''COACH USA'' sat in front of Halas Hall on Sunday afternoon, and I kept waiting for Cedric Benson to get on. That was silly. The bus was for rookies leaving Lake Forest after the just-completed minicamp, taking them to O'Hare, some never to return. Benson, presumably, was still in Texas after being arrested Saturday night for drunken boat operation and resisting arrest before being pepper-sprayed into submission."

"The sound was down on the TV, but the shot of Cedric Benson blared loudly. Nothing good could come of this, could it? Some athletes, you see their pictures on ESPN and assume they completed work on a PhD, visited kids in a hospital, or rescued a dog from drowning. This athlete … uh-oh, hope for the best and expect the worst. Remember, we're talking about a football player who already plunged from the fourth overall selection in the 2005 draft to a burgeoning bust by 2008."

"Here's one example of why Miami Dolphins defensive end Jason Taylor literally doesn't have time for the fascinating tension gurgling atop the Dolphins organization between Miami's star boss and Miami's star employee: The other day, Taylor rushed late to a lunch with Denzel Washington. Taylor's Dancing With the Stars partner kept texting him during that two-hour meal to remind Taylor he was late for rehearsal. So Taylor told Washington that, sorry, he couldn't go over to a nearby hotel to meet a waiting friend of Washington's who also wanted an audience with Taylor. That friend was Al Pacino."

"DONOVAN McNABB could have responded the way former Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre did when he blasted management for not pursuing Pro Bowl receiver Randy Moss to help him in his swan-song campaign. McNabb isn't Favre and Philadelphia isn't Green Bay. After nearly a decade as the lightning rod of Philly's most popular team, McNabb is smart enough to know how publicly lamenting the Eagles' "oh, well" approach to upgrading the offense would play out. Few would understand his point, even fewer would want to hear it, and virtually none would sympathize with him."

"Nobody was more thrilled with the Eagles' offseason moves than Jim Johnson, who got more presents than a rich kid on Christmas morning. The biggest present, gift-wrapped with a $57 million contract, was All-Pro cornerback Asante Samuel. Next was defensive end Chris Clemons, who should help a weak pass rush. Also placed under Johnson's tree were most of the Eagles' top draft picks. Ho, ho, ho! No wonder Johnson, the Eagles' defensive coordinator, had a big smile on his face on Sunday while discussing his side of the ball."

"The Lions should just shut up when it comes to Mike Martz. Let the doomed experiment die and move on. But the Lions cannot do that because when protecting the incompetent it’s imperative to offer the gullible a public scapegoat that can serve as a dumping ground for all the previous mistakes. Matt Millen told yahoo.com last week that although Martz was a good coach, he needed to be controlled more during games. Well, duh! Didn’t you know that before you hired him, Matt?"

"Steelers defensive back Ike Taylor insists that it's no big deal -- a move that's less than meets the eye. Taylor's switch from left cornerback to right cornerback in last year's playoff game against Jacksonville -- a position change that has continued through the Steelers' first organized team activity and recently completed minicamp -- is as dramatic as if Marvel Smith was switched from left tackle to right tackle. Now try telling that to Taylor. "You can't look too deep into it. We're not even in the season yet," Taylor said. "

"This does change things about Jay Cutler. It has to. Courage means something else now. Victory and defeat are amended, the one not so great and the other not so awful. As much as Cutler would like for us to ignore his condition, it cannot be done. Don't stare at the elephant. What identity Cutler had in football was that he was young, with a strong arm, and the Broncos had turned their future over to him. This is no small chore and would, in the best of circumstances, still be uncertain. Cutler is now identified by his disease, and will be until success reorders things."

"An elaborate tattoo stretches from the top of Marcus Dixon's left shoulder nearly to his elbow and contains a passage from Revelation 20:1-3. On the inside of Dixon's left forearm, Psalms 91 is tattooed in cursive. If you had been to hell and back like Dixon, you'd understand why he's permanently engraved religious passages on his body. "

"It's an unfortunate byproduct of sports these days that the longer one remains a fan of any team, the better the odds this question will be asked: How much is too much? In a day and age when police-blotter activity, drug-testing queries and paternity suits seem to capture almost as much attention as actual athletic exploits, should fans feel a need to respond to their own moral compass? Should supporters blindly continue to cheer a favorite team, regardless of what questionable characters that means backing? Or is there a line that can be crossed, one where the most diehard booster at long last turns his back on school ties or professional colors?"

"One day after practice during the 2006 season, Tony Dungy was telling me how little he knew about Marvin Harrison, a man he had coached in Indianapolis since 2002. It wasn't a negative, and it wasn't for lack of trying on Dungy's part. Harrison simply is relentlessly private, a man few know or understand outside of his family and close circle of friends. "I think I know his mother better than I know him," Dungy said at the time, "and I've talked to his mom probably four times. . . . I respect his privacy because that's the way he wants it.""

"Chris Simms no longer conjures the image of a valiant fallen warrior. With his spleen injury now nearly two years into his past, he seems more like a wounded deer aimlessly wandering the woods. It's gotten to the point where you sort of wish someone would just come along and put the poor thing out of his misery. Finally, mercifully, the Bucs may get around to doing that this week. There are plans for the Bucs brass to gather early this week at One Buc Place, perhaps as soon as Monday and most likely with Simms' agent on hand, and discuss Simms' future. For Simms' sake, let's hope the Bucs pull the trigger and move him."

"Track a legend long enough, and there will be times when his footprints seem too deep to match. Follow him far enough, and there will be days when it seems his shadow is too wide to allow anyone else to shine. And so it is with Geno Hayes, the linebacker who has been chasing after Derrick Brooks since he learned how to run. Yes, it can be an unfair game, this comparison of a kid to a captain, of an apprentice to a master, of potential to production. After all, Brooks has stardom behind him, and who knows if Hayes has it in front? At this point, mentioning the two of them in the same breath is premature, presumptuous and preposterous. Also, it is inevitable."

"The free-agent market is just about barren, the draft is over, but there are still many issues on the table with almost three months until training camp and exactly four months until the Giants open the season against the Redskins. So, here are my predictions and how they will be resolved. 1. It Would Be Shocking If Jeremy Is Traded The Saints last called the Giants on Saturday morning before the draft and stuck with their final offer: A second-round pick last week and a fifth-rounder in 2009. New Orleans did not call when it was on the clock in the second round before taking DB Tracy Porter from Indiana."

"By the time Marcus Harrison got up from the spot on the street curb where a Fayetteville policeman had ordered him to sit that night last August, he knew what direction he was headed. First Harrison was going to the Washington County (Ark.) Detention Center in handcuffs. And when the sun rose on his second chance the following morning, he vowed to straighten out a life that had suddenly, stunningly gone crooked. "I realized I had made a stupid mistake and decided then to do whatever was necessary to make it right again," Harrison said. "Maybe God had to shoot me down for me to eventually do what I had to do.""

"When NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell ruled the 49ers had tampered with Bears linebacker Lance Briggs, he decided to punish the 49ers and reward the Bears. He did so by taking away the 49ers' fifth-round draft pick and forcing the 49ers to switch third-round picks with the Bears. So the Bears subsequently moved up five spots in the round, going from the 12th pick in the round to the seventh. As it turned out, the "reward" wasn't a reward at all, because if the Bears had been picking 12th instead of seventh, they would have ended up with the same player they chose with the seventh pick—Vanderbilt wide receiver Earl Bennett."

"Moms and dads out there: Do you really want your kids to grow up to be professional athletes? Some of you see it as the ultimate accomplishment. This is obvious from the amount of time, money and obsessiveness you devote to your budding LeBron James and your soon-to-be Derek Jeter. You like the idea of your talented child competing at the highest level. You see it as the culmination of a dream, yours and your kid's. And maybe, just maybe, you see it as hitting the jackpot. I see Roger Clemens."

"Ralph Wilson knows what you’re thinking: Last week, financial statements revealed that Rogers Communications will pay the Bills $78 million for the right to host eight games in Canada over the next five years. That averages out to a tidy $9.75 million a game, or roughly twice what the Bills collect in gross revenues for a typical home game at Ralph Wilson Stadium. Naturally, this means the Bills will have more money to invest in players, right? “Uh, no it won’t,’ ” Wilson said Friday afternoon from his home in Detroit. “That $78 million doesn’t go into our pocket. You’ve got to pay the players out of that. We’ve got the cap. We always spend up to the cap. So I don’t know where people get the idea we have more money to spend."

"Who was it that first said “it all starts with defense?” George Allen Sr.? Buddy Ryan? Donald Rumsfeld? Whomever it was, the Buffalo Bills finally agree with him. If they were hesitant, they received constant reminders on ESPN during college draft weekend: “The Bills are 19-33 against the AFC East, their own division, during this decade”; “Randy Moss scored more touchdowns than the entire Bills’ offense last season”; “The New England Patriots defeated the Bills in 14 of their last 15 meetings.” Buffalo draft selectors then picked a cornerback and a pass rusher on two of their first three picks. "

"Before he became the NFL Defensive Player of the Year, the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year, one of People magazine's 100 Most Beautiful People and Sir-Dance-A-Lot, Jason Taylor was just a skinny third-round pick from Akron. "I knew that," rookie defensive lineman Kendall Langford said Saturday, moments after his second minicamp practice. South Florida didn't know what it was getting in Taylor back in 1997. Yatil Green, taken No. 15 overall, was the local obsession, the big, strong receiver the Dolphins desperately needed. Sam Madison, taken No. 44 overall, not only talked a good game but quickly showed signs of playing one. The training camp revelation was not Taylor but, rather, fellow third-round choice Derrick Rodgers. Yet look what Taylor became. "

"Today on "As the Dolphins Turn," the dashing Jason Taylor cries in his leg warmers after getting snubbed by callous boss man Bill Parcells on a recent visit to Miami. Will Taylor ever go into Dolphins headquarters again? Or will Parcells make the hot-footed Taylor cha cha cha somewhere else? Stay tuned. The soap opera relationship between Taylor and Parcells has hit a ridiculous point. There are enough he-said, he-said, trade requests, lies and hard feelings to fill a Hallmark Hall of Fame movie. The childish behavior must stop, and Parcells must be the one to start acting like a man and send his franchise player an olive branch."

"Just think, Broncoland, what Jay Cutler can do with proper blood-sugar levels! There's always a first time for every- thing in sports, typing that first sentence being the latest. "It's all about control," said Wade Wilson, the Cowboys' offensive coordinator. "That's keeping your blood sugars at a certain level, and if you do that there's no reason why he shouldn't have as good a career as he wants to have." Like Cutler, Wilson was 25 when he was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes."

"Like a kid on Christmas Day, Jon Gruden immediately latched on to his new toy, rookie quarterback Josh Johnson, for Tampa Bay's minicamp this weekend. So what about the old toy? While Gruden was watching Johnson spin spirals all over the club's immaculate grounds, the Buccaneers' version of a discarded G.I. Joe was gathering dust as he sat ignored in the corner of the closet. Time to do the right thing, Bucs. Donate Chris Simms to the Salvation Army."

"If drafting is an inexact science, then draft analysis is quackery. Declaring winners and losers just a day or two after the NFL draft is an exercise in serious guesswork. In 2005, for instance, ESPN’s Mel Kiper gave the Patriots a grade of C for reaching for Logan Mankins and noted, curiously, that Ellis Hobbs, “has good size, but not enough skill to be more than a nickel back.” Mankins became a Pro Bowler and the undersized Hobbs has started practically since Day 1. That’s not a knock on Kiper, who’s a well-respected draft guru, but an illustration of how difficult it is to assess any draft this quickly."

"Kevin Rogers has been a football coach for 33 years, 28 in college. Among the players the Vikings quarterbacks coach has guided was Syracuse's Donovan McNabb, one of the NFL's top quarterbacks with the Philadelphia Eagles. Rogers also coached at Ohio State, William & Mary, Navy, Notre Dame and Virginia Tech. He said the Vikings' quarterback situation right now is a lot better than when he joined Brad Childress' staff in 2006. And Rogers is a big backer of Tarvaris Jackson, the Vikings starting quarterback. The veterans backing him up currently are Gus Frerotte and Brooks Bollinger."

"Imagine if some day, in the not-too-distant future, we wake up here in town to the harsh realization that ... it wasn't Brian Billick's fault after all. That nightmarish vision could become a reality if Joe Flacco flops - and Kyle Boller and Troy Smith flop right along with him - and the Ravens stay on the same quarterback treadmill Billick had them on for years. Of course, it's way too early to believe one way or another in what the Ravens have at the historically cursed position. The draft that brought in Flacco, in the first round, was all of one week ago."

"Dangerous flashback: Darren McFadden supposedly reminds Al Davis of Marcus Allen. Does that mean McFadden is doomed to be exiled mysteriously to the bench, with no explanation from the coach or from Davis? -- It's a strange comparison. Allen had nothing like McFadden's warp speed. Bo Jackson was the man with the golden wheels. All Allen had was moves, instinct, vision and a kind of man-up football toughness that most Raiders of the last five years wouldn't recognize if they bumped into it."

"The toughest tests are best taken in a comfortable place, where the floor is firm, the walls are solid and the voices consistent. Even better if it's the place you know best. Alex Smith has spent three years searching for that place and has not found it. The floor keeps moving. The walls bend and start closing in. The voices keep changing pitch, tone, cadence and even language. "

"The NFL has crowed this week about its success in "streamlining" the annual college draft by shortening the time allotted for picks in the first and second rounds. In 2007, it took the 32 teams 18 hours, five minutes to draft. This year the proceedings finished in a neat 14 hours, 26 minutes. What's wrong with this picture? Fourteen and one-half hours. What could you do in 14 1/2 hours? You could sleep. When was the last time you sacked out for 14 1/2 continuous hours? You could watch "Gone with the Wind," four times with enough time left over for a trip to the store to buy more popcorn. "

"The other rookies came to Charlotte in an airplane. Tight end Chris Conklin arrived in a Jeep Grand Cherokee with about 62,000 miles on the odometer, few of them from the drive to Bank of America Stadium. Conklin is from Snow Camp, played three sports at Southern Alamance High in Graham and starred at Wingate. "I knew where to go," he says after Carolina's Saturday morning practice. Wingate to the NFL is not as long a trip as you would think. Last season cornerback David Jones became the first Wingate player selected in the NFL draft when New Orleans took him in the fifth round. The Saints cut him but he played two games for Cincinnati."

" The reviews are in, and as usual, they are mixed. Here are what several different scouts had to say about the players the Eagles selected dur ing last weekend's draft. Keep in mind these quotes were compiled in the weeks before the draft before anyone knew who was being selected by any team. Trevor Laws, DT, Notre Dame: According to one scout he was probably Notre Dame's best performer in 2007 and followed it up with a superb week at the Senior Bowl. "

" From the minute the first conference call to Quintin Demps was placed, everyone knew the Eagles' newest safety could talk the talk. What he said minutes after the Eagles selected him out of Texas El-Paso in the fourth round of last weekend's draft made him an instant favorite to watch and find out if he can walk the walk. "

"It was all rolled eyes, shrugged shoulders and sideways glances at Eagles minicamp Saturday. There's plainly a level of discomfort around the Eagles these days. A good number of high-profile players are walking around unhappy -- from Lito Sheppard losing his job, to Brian Westbrook and his contract, to Donovan McNabb's plea for more playmakers going more or less unheeded. It's there. There's no denying it. Unless, of course, you are the people who run the Eagles -- in which case, everything is fine."

"Coming off of a 14-4 season, losing their Hall of Fame quarterback to retirement and facing a tougher schedule, the Green Bay Packers can't possibly improve in 2008, can they? Maybe a second look is merited before leaping to that conclusion. It's a reach to assume Aaron Rodgers can pick up where Brett Favre left off at quarterback. But General Manager Ted Thompson and coach Mike McCarthy have expressed supreme confidence in their new starting signal caller. Who are we to doubt Thompson and McCarthy?"

"For about two months, it looked as though DeAngelo Williams would be the Carolina Panthers' featured back this season. Not so much now. When Carolina selected Jonathan Stewart from Oregon with the 13th pick in the NFL draft, it changed the complexion of the team's running game. We all knew they were going to get a running back to replace DeShaun Foster, we just didn’t know when. We didn’t know if it would be in the first round or the fourth. So when Stewart’s name was called early, Williams’ carries quickly shrunk. Hey, the reality is teams don’t pick a player that high and not expect to play him. Williams knows that."

"When Mike Viti arrived at the United States Military Academy four years ago, the idea of him or any of his classmates playing in the National Football League immediately after graduation seemed about as preposterous as male Cadets being allowed to stroll across campus in tie-dye shirts and shoulder-length hair. Just wasn't going to happen. But even stalwart places like West Point occasionally call audibles, and while military uniforms and buzz cuts remain mandatory, restrictions on Army athletes pursuing professional careers before fulfilling active-duty requirements have changed. So, thanks to the Academy's Alternative Service Option program and the Buffalo Bills' interest in him as a run-blocking, pass-catching fullback, Viti will be allowed to experience life as both a professional soldier and professional football player."