Well, what do you know, it's baseball season again. The Red Sox will be basically fielding a brand new team, which means that it will take my wife until the middle of June to learn all the new names. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Heading into spring training, here's all you need to know: (1) Kevin Millar is now in Baltimore; and (2) Manny Ramirez hasn't reported to camp.(1) makes me extremely happy. (2) doesn't make me happy, but it doesn't really bother me either. At this point, anything short of showing up to work in a Martian space ship is par for the course with Manny.
Still, I thought this story was pretty funny. (Well, it was funny on Tuesday; on Wednesday that changed it a bit. Originally Papi Ortiz was under the impression that Manny would not only miss the start of training camp, but that he would be in Italy. Let's see, four months off, and Ramirez plans his vacation the day he's supposed to go back to school. Yep, that sounds about right. Actually, Manny's "working out at home" in Florida which I take to mean "doing bong hits with Ricky Williams." (Yeah, I know, two Ricky Williams bong hit jokes in a week, but what can you do?)
***
I was all set to talk about the Tar Heels whipping up on the Wolfpack, but for some inane reason, they didn't show the game in D.C. Instead I got to follow the score on gametracker. (By the way, if ESPN's college basketball gametracker site was an ESPN on-air personality, it would be Skip Bayless. It's that bad. CBS Sportsline, on the other hand, was pretty good.) Nothing quite like reading in real-time about your team donkey punching NC State. Would've been nice to actually watch Wes Miller go for 15, however (and oh yeah, David Noel score 25).
***
Apparently, I can't type fast enough to keep up with all the suggestions flying around in the comments. I was all set to mention a few guys who could be the Next Great Slash-like Player to Follow in the Footsteps of Randle El and Kordell (NGSPFFREK; I know, it needs work), but people started re-discussing Michael Robinson without me. No worries, as is usually the case, I'm not afraid to rehash stuff, plus I've got a couple of other guys, in addition to Robinson, that could be intriguing by the time the draft rolls around.
Yesterday Jim mentioned that the Steelers like Robinson primarily as a RB. Eric likes Robinson because he went to Penn State, but is realistic about how his abilities might translate to the NFL. All I know about Robinson is what I saw in the Senior Bowl practices and in the actual game. He looked great running the ball, but he's no Tee Martin as a passer (and that's a bad thing). He's a big kid, but I have no idea how fast he is, or if he can consistently catch passes -- especially in traffic or across the middle of the field. And I really don't like the idea of him as a running back. And that's only because guys like Chris Brown (and Eddie George late in his career) routinely get the crap knocked out of them because they're tall and run so upright. It's one thing to be an effective scrambler, it a whole other situation to have to run between the tackles and worry about 350 lbs. linemen belly flopping you. But like I said yesterday, some of these questions will be addressed this week in Indy.
Still, he's not the only guy coming out of college who
On Tuesday's NFL Total Access, Mike Mayock and Corey Chavous went back and forth on a few positions.
(Yes, the Vikings safety, Corey Chavous, who comes across as one of the smartest guys in the NFL; he covered the draft with Mayock last year and did a pretty good job, and if you compare the NFL Network's coverage to the numbnuts from ESPN, it was embarrassing. Honestly, Torry Holt was the most interesting guy on ESPN's set last year, unless you think Chris Mortensen pouting because he has to share the set with Mel Kiper is interesting.)
I thought Mayock was off his rocker when he still had Jay Cutler listed as his top QB (he had Cutler #1 prior to the Senior Bowl, but I thought he might reshuffle the list after his lukewarm showing. Nope.), but Chavous did him one better when he listed Texas A&M's Reggie McNeal. This will be extremely unoriginal, but McNeal is a lot like Michael Vick: throw BBs, unbelievably fast, small for a QB, but a super athlete. And also like Vick, McNeal sometimes struggles with accuracy and decision making. Apparently scouts like McNeal better at a position other than QB, and if WR is that position, things could get interesting. He's listed at 6'2" 200 lbs. and runs a 4.32 - forty. Of course, he's never played wideout, I have no idea if he can catch or run routes, and most importantly, if he's of the opinion that he'll only play QB at the next level, he could be the newest member of the Seneca Wallace Support Group. But like I've said a million times: It's February and there's not a whole lot else to talk about.
Missouri QB Brad Smith is the other guy who might be interesting as a late round project. He's basically the same size as McNeal, a little slower, but with the same issues. And he's willing to try a new position if that means it'll increase his draft stock. One sentence that stuck out as I was reading his scouting report was this:
"There are concerns about his ability to learn the nuances of running routes and recognizing NFL coverages because he struggled to read college defenses from the quarterback position."Yeah, I'm not sure what to make of this, since a lot of these so-called "scouting reports" aren't really more than some guy trying to scribble something down about every available player. Still, I suppose it's worth noting that this is why the Ravens haven't moved Boller to wideout. Just kidding. Maybe.
***
Things are so slow around here that we're now debating the merits of keeping Chris Hope around. OK, we've actually been debating that for the last few months, but up until the past week or so, the conversation has been some variation of, "He's Pittsburgh's most important free agent and he should be the top priority if he doesn't ask for a ridiculous contract." Given the Steelers' scheme, Jim thinks Hope is overrated. And the story about Hope blaming Foote for getting treaded against the Browns causes me a lot of cognitive dissonance, primarily because I've been a Hope supporter this season. (I do agree, however, that Hope doesn't wrap up on tackles, and have said as much in the past. I too get the impression he's more interested in knocking people silly than actually tackling them. Off the top of my head, I can only remember the Browns game as an example, though. Well, that and he missed a tackle on Rudi Johnson in the Wild Card game that resulted in a Bengals TD. But that's it. I think.) Anyway, that story did remind me of a scene from the NFL Network's Game of the Week: The Super Bowl.
After Seattle scored their first touchdown (the pass from Hasselbeck to Stevens in the end zone where Troy looked like he got caught looking inside, and he got picked), the Steelers defense was on the sidelines and the camera showed Joey Porter talking to the defensive backs.
Porter: The touchdown with the tight end, that's wide open -- we're better than that.I can only assume Hope was talking about Farrior blowing a coverage, but I really have no way of knowing for sure. Still, two things stuck out to me as I watched this the first time.
Hope: The touchdown with the tight end? That's James!
Porter: Whoever it is, I'm saying, 'We're better than that.' Make them earn it.
First, I was really surprised to see Hope blame somebody else. One of the great things about watching the Steelers is that you seldom see a lot of histrionics on the sidelines. Even when this team was 6-10, nobody -- at least publicly -- made a peep, and there were never any Willie McGinest bitch-slapping Larry Izzo moments on the field. Just a bunch of guys playing hard. Even when Tim Lewis was the defensive coordinator, I don't remember any players complaining in the papers about his schemes. It was only after Lewis was fired did some people question what he was doing, and how he went about doing it.
Second, of all the Steelers I would expect to be "leading", Joey Porter wouldn't be in my top 10. The fact that he was more concerned with everybody doing their jobs and less concerned (or not concerned at all) with laying blame says a lot about what he thinks is important. Even after Hope made his "Blame James!" comment, Porter was more interested in the defense playing together as a unit than pointing fingers. Interesting.
So like I said, Chris Hope bashing = Ryan's cognitive dissonance. Plus, with Israel making the point that Hope always thought of himself as a first rounder even though he was taken in the third, my head starts to hurt even more. And Eric's link to ProFootballTalk.com raises even more questions about Hope's future in Pittsburgh. In the end, I think we're basically all on the same page (although this page is about the size of one of those fake checks they give you for winning a golf tournament, but with a bunch of different set-ups leading to the same punchline): If Hope's affordable, the Steelers should re-sign him. He doesn't make a lot of big plays, but more importantly, he doesn't give up a lot of big plays either. If he's not happy playing in Troy's shadow, then that's a problem. If he's content to play on a team that makes the playoff virtually every season, then all the better. Plus, as Henigin mentions, the thought of Flowers, Alexander, Scott and Washington is enough to make you want to forget the whole thing and watch women's curling.
And one more thing before I leave this subject (at least until tomorrow, I'm suspect), no one's mentioned it, but there has been absolutely no talk coming from the Steelers that they might be interested in franchising Hope. At least a year ago, you heard rumors of Plax getting tagged. Hope? Bupkus. Which again seems to reinforce Jim's contention and Eric's PFT link.
OK, I lied, there's "one more" one more thing. Although we haven't really discussed free agent replacements in the event Hope leaves, here's an interesting suggestion: Ty Law. This article makes the case for Law, all but ignoring the fact that Law says he wants something like $10 million in his next deal. Couple that with the fact that at his current pace, he's more likely to be the next Casey Hampton than Rod Woodson (not to mention that he doesn't seem like the type of person to take a paycut in order to have another shot at winning a championship; and given that he currently has three, I guess that's understandable), and I don't really see this happening. But hey, like I've said countless times before, what do I know?
OK, now I just seem mendacious, because there's still more Chris Hope Stuff. We can add Charles Robinson to the list of people now publishing their mock draft. He has Pittsburgh taking safety Darnell Bing out of USC, but more importantly, he makes the following observation:
" ... the situation with Chris Hope is troubling and he could command too much to retain in free agency. Some scouts think Bing is versatile enough to play either safety position. He has a great combination of speed and athleticism. There are personnel people who think he would be a top-15 pick if injuries hadn't slowed him down at various points in college."This talk of Hope being a difficult re-sign seems to be a recurring theme these last few days. We'll know soon enough what to make of it (like on March 3rd).
***
A while back -- maybe last week, I can't remember -- somebody left a comment about the ESPN football crew listing their top teams heading into 2006. Tom Jackson, maybe the most Underrated Really Crappy Football Television Personality (URCFTP), had the Steelers third, followed by the Colts and then the Patriots. Honestly, I could give a rats' ass about these rankings. They're almost as ridiculous as looking to mock drafts for insight into what your favorite team will do in late April. What's particularly galling is that Tom Jackson has devolved from a gritty NFL linebacker into some dude who craps his pants whenever he hears the name, "Bill Belichick." After the Cincy Wild Card game I rehashed the whole sordid tale here (OK, it's not at all sordid, but it's definitely embarrassing in much the same way that getting caught playing with G.I. Joe dolls might be at Jackson's age).
Anyway, I only wish I could've seen Jackson's face when one of the ABC higher-ups told him that Belichick would be doing the Super Bowl, but before they also informed him that Tirico and Belichick would be on the field while the Peanut Gallery (Irvin, Berman, Young and Jackson) would be, well, in the Peanut Gallery. There aren't many certainies in football, but you can always count on Bill Cowher sporting a moustache, David Carr getting sacked 200 times a season, and Tom Jackson picking the Patriots to win while quietly pining for Belichick's forgiveness. It's pretty sad actually, but in a really funny way.
***
I came across this little bit in Dulac's latest Sporting News column:
YOUTH MOVEMENT: CB Ricardo Colclough has never developed the way the team envisioned after he was a No. 2 draft choice in 2004 and will need a good training camp if he wants more playing time next season. Colclough will battle Bryant McFadden for one of the starting corner spots, though McFadden already has the upper hand after playing as the nickel back in 2005. More likely, Colclough will battle veteran Deshea Townsend for the nickel spot if Townsend doesn't leave as a free agent.I think somebody left a comment a few days ago about Colclough's (lack of) progress. I hope the guy comes out like gangbusters in training camp, because to date, he's been pretty tentative.
***
A couple of people have mentioned the impending doom associated with the CBA, and in all honesty, I haven't really followed it all that closely. And this is for one simple reason: if I don't acknowledge it, then it doesn't exist. You know, the same strategy used countless times by unsuspsecting victims in horror movies right before they end up having their head roll across the room. (OK, so I'm not the smartest guy in the world.) Anyway, for those of you who prefer not to stick your head in the sand on such issues, here's a really good explanation of what's going on, who's mad at whom, who's getting stabbed in the back, and who Ken Matthew's might take to the prom (and yes, that was a Sweet Valley High reference there).
OK, big day tomorrow -- round two of the Offseason Round File: Weeks 1-4 of the 2005 season. And this time with reader comments.
|