2006 NFL Off-season (FA, Draft, etc.)

Unless there's something on the medical side we don't know about, the Chargers are monumentally stupid to let Brees go. And Miami is equally stupid if they don't grab him the second he's available.

If Miami can get Culpepper I will be a happy man. Failing that I would be allright with Brees. He is an upgrade over Frerotte but not the answer everyone thinks he is.

Culpepper won't be ready to play until the middle of the season at the earliest. You really want to get him and hope the Dolphins can hang around with Frerotte for eight games until he's ready? Plus the consensus is that Brees's injury is less severe and more recoverable than Culpepper's.

Chargers shouldn't pay Brees max money but they should commit to him. Sad.

If the Dolphins can get him, they should grab Brees. Of course, they should have drafted Brees when they had the chance 5 years ago.

Reports on when he will be ready vary. Last I read from Miami Herald said that Culpeper would be ready to practice in late July. Even if he isn't read to come back until the middle of the season I would take him over Brees (with a reasonable contract of course). Culpepper is a playmaker with game changing ability. Brees is a good quarterback in the right system. He'll get you in the playoffs. Culpepper will get you in the Superbowl.

I hope A.J. fucking Smith spontaneously combusts.

What scares me about Culpepper can be seen from his first few games last year. His playmaking included throwing to Nate Burleson in quadruple coverage on a regular basis. Just tried to do too much and made awful decision.

Brees on the other hand basically would have the same weapons in Miami as he had in San Diego, (pass catching TE, above average receivers and very good running back). Plus, his injury is has a high probability of recovery and he can start in week 2. Culpepper, week 8, maybe.

Not to get off the Brees San Diego, Miami Culpepper topic, but.........as far as bone head moves in the offseason go, the Indy Colts are making the biggest by letting RB Edgerrin James go....the work horse of the Manning show....hell the colts can't win the big game when teams have to worry about a passing game and running game, now they're offically screwed without the running....Manning won't be worth shit next year....good bye playoffs, but come to think of it that really shouldn't bug me to much seeing how whenever they got into the damn playoffs they choked their asses off

Why would you want Culpepper? He hasn't been the same since Robert Smith left Minn for medicine and had Chris Carter. He could kill you with short passes to those guys and then bomb you with Moss. He never developed to a good QB without talent.

It depends what they replace Edge with. Manning can make a decent back better but I'm not sure it will matter because the Colts just fold in the playoffs as said. Who are the other FA backs out there? Is there a list?

Randel EZl to the Bears is a big rumor. Though he wants big money. I'd dump Mushin and take El in a heartbeat.

Randle El is a number 2 receiver. Mushin and Randle El would be a great combo, especially for an up and coming Grossman.

If the Vikings are so intent on trading Culpepper they better get more than a 2nd round pick. Goddammit, they are the dumbest franchise in sports sometimes.

Culpepper is good and all, but his first year without out Moss, really showed some of his flaws. Randy was his failsafe. Daunte can kill you with the short passing game and then go up top when he needed to. But when he lost his deep threat, he was a sitting duck.

I hope the Vikings hang onto him though. He's still potentially a top 5 QB when healthy.

there's no way they can keep him. tagging him will cost them over $9 mil for one season. you know they can't keep everybody. if manning wasn't so greedy then maybe they would've had a shot at keeping him. they already have huge money invested in manning, wayne, harrison, simon and i think saturday got a big payday not too long ago. they still have to sign freeney to an extention. so it's either keep edge and let freeney play out his rookie contract and then leave or keep just freeney. they're better of keeping freeney. you can find a running back a lot easier then an elite pass rusher.

i continue to be amazed by the sudden culpepper backlash he's been receiving lately. do people somehow forget that not so long ago in the '04 season he had arguably one of the greatest seasons ever produced by a qb? he threw for even more yards then manning. where was robert smith? long gone. it wasn't like moss helped out either. he was gimping it out that season too.

the bears would be better off making a play for david givens who will come cheaper and is a better receiver on top of it. randel el is more style then substance.

rich gannon was in san diego this week praising drew brees and he also mentioned he talks to him a bit. maybe brees can take a cue from rich and jump ship to a division rival, the raiders!, and stick the football up the chargers fucking asses like gannon did to the chiefs.

so what are the bucs going to do with rice and brooks? both have huge cap numbers and the bucs are run by bruce allen. this basically means, being way over the cap but restructuring about 30 guys contracts and chopping a few more to get under the cap and sign a few key free agents. rice has bitched in the past about gruden and his contract so maybe he's going to be the odd man out.

Anya his best season as a pro Carter was gone and so was Smith. Oh and actually Moss was playing injured for well over half the season. Its pretty funny how people have dropped of this guys bandwagon after 5 or 6 bad games. Yes he was horrible last year however I would be worried about his injury when signing him or trading for him than his talent.

I tend to label Culpepper a loser because he only won when he had Robert Smith. I did forget his 39 td season but Minn had to pass alot, they only ended up 8-8 and got in the playoffs because GB couldn't beat Ariz.

Minn record the last 5 years 9-7(2-5 with Dante), 8-8, 9-7, 6-10, 5-11.

It's not all his fault but it's not like the NFC Central has been world beaters the last few years. Det and Chi sucked and GB had no D.

Minn has more problems than Culpepper but the guy is nothing special.

I'm gonna back Anya up here. Culpepper hasn't gotten to the Superbowl (Steve McNair did though) and he folded when it came down to crunch time. That show he put on against Green Bay last year doesn't count either. That Packer secondary has gotten torched by just about everyone since.

Culpepper is not an awful QB or a great one. A talented good QB but as last season clearly proved without Randy Moss he's suspect. Mix in his ability to fumble and that last game where he (and his team) choked against the Cards and i'd say that magical year 2 years ago was a fluke. I'd be happy to eat my words if the man can change his fortunes but I highly doubt he will.

Who was the offensive specialist who went to Miami btw? I heard it labeled that Culpepper wasn't the same because this guy left. Not sure I buy it.

daunte culpepper can't apology for the vikings pathetic defenses over the years.

sure minny threw a bit in '04 but there were many teams that threw even more then them and they all had lower TD's total compared to culpepper. so let's not use that as some kind of excuse for why he threw for a bundle of 'em.

you're also confusing the game against the cards. the vikings were the team that lost to them which gave the division title to the packers and the vikes missed out on the playoffs but let's solely blame culpepper for allowing that last second TD. i guess you're also forgetting his entire '03 season. he played pretty great that season as well but all you seem to remember is his crappy 7 games this year. culpepper may not be "that special" but before his injury he was easily a top 5 qb in the nfl.

in the '04 season moss only played about half of the time. culpepper did the same ole shit when he wasn't in.

fumbling is probably his biggest fault but i'd really like to know when he was covering the guy who caught the TD in zona. magical year? people are lucky to have one of them, he's already had 2 and he also had another great year along with that and he's still only 29.

scott linehan, the rams new coach. he wasn't their o-coordinator for 7 years either.

All indications are that Brooks will re-do his deal so that he can retire as a Buc. He said as much at the Pro Bowl. Griese is most likely gone, regardless of the Simms situation, since he's unwilling to do any adjusting. Some of the older linemen (like Steussie and Stinchcomb) are probably on the way out, and Kenyatta Walker may be also. As for Rice, I'd hate to lose the 12+ sacks a season he's given us, but he's probably the one guy off that D-line I could stomach losing.

yeah i'm thinking brooks is the more likely to stay too but restructuring his deal by no means guarantees he'll retire a buc. in my opinion he's always been the heart of their defense. between himself and rice he's definitely going to be the more willing of the two in restructuring their contract. he won't cost quite as much either. the bucs could still be able to keep rice but it's going to be pretty damn hard to retain the both of em.

Thats why I said it was a fluke about Culpepper that year Randy was hurt. As far as Scott Linehan goes I was hearing left and right when Minni started off horribly that he was the main reason Daunte looked so bad. I don't buy it.

Before Daunte got injured he had his chance without Randy to perform. It didn't happen. An MVP (or MVP like season the year before) doesn't just dissapear the next year. Its in the pudding. Granted Mike Tice is an awful coach. However as someone said before that doesn't change Daunte throwing into 4 defenders trying to hit Nate Burleson.

vince young scored a 6 on wonderlic test this week (out of 50 questions). in my opinion he must be mentally retarded. page 2 over at espn had 15 sample questions that you could see on a wonderlic test. a fucking monkey could get 6 of these right but not vince young.

http://espn.go.com/page2/s/closer/020228test.html

What do you expect Vince Young went to Texas and is coached by Mack Brown. Sorry had to do it.

Anyone have any idea what the Raiders salary cap looks like? If they can somehow get hold of a QB like Culpepper or Brees, they can seriously make a move despite that horseshit offensive line. They already replaced that idiot coach. Having a mobile QB with some balls to deal with Moss, Porter and Jordan should make a big enough impact to move them into the playoffs, at least.

I haven't seen any of the major sports sites report that score for Young, so I'd take it with a huge grain of salt.

oh what like espn? half the shit they spit out is lies to get in good with agents.

$27 mil over the cap. it's really not as bad as it sounds though. here are 4 players they can cut and how much they'll save.
derrick gibson $9.4
kerry collins $9.2 mil
denard walker $4.3
ron stone $2.7

that right there saves them $25.6 mil. bobby hamilton has a cap number of $4 mil. i say he'll restructure his contract. ronald curry has a cap charge of $5 mil. he'll either restructure or get cut. the raiders usually re-do about a dozen or so contracts every offseason. barry sims has done it about 5 times the past 3 years. tim brown did it about 2 times a season for about a decade. they should be able to sign a couple of big free agents this offseason. hopefully they can land brees, lecharles bentley or will witherspoon. the o-line should be better next season as well. they dumped jim colletto who's zone blitz scheme was a fucking joke and made gallery regress. they just brought over irv eatman from KC and jackie slater to coach the line. then there's art shell who's strength is obviously the o-line. hopefully they can fix the mess colletto created.

wow, i just saw vernon davis (TE, maryland) on the nfl network weighing in at the combine. the dude is 6"3 3/4, 254lb and he's ripped the fuck up. he runs a 4.4 40. his 2005 stats were 51 rec, 871 yds, 6 tds. what a total beast this guy could turn out to be.

ESPN, CNNSI, CBS Sportsline, Fox Sports, NFL.com, The Red Zone, Pro Football Weekly, need I go on?

The only site I've seen with the story is this one, and it doesn't strike me as the bastion of responsible journalism. No sources, no names, nothing.

Until I see it somewhere reputable, I ain't buying it.

most of the shit they report is true. they broke losman's pathetic wonderlic score 2 years ago, the moss trade to the raiders, and they were the site that broke tom benson's drive to leave new orleans. i guess you don't understand journalism anyways. it's an occupation that isn't known for revealing names.

Ooh, Benson wanting to leave New Orleans, there's a monumental scoop.

if it was such a scoop why were espn days behind it?

Maybe because they took the time to verify with more than some guy who heard something from someone else?

no they had a forwarded email from saints executive arnold fielkow saying that benson wanted to anger louisiana legislature by refusing to issue refunds to season-ticket holders so that they wouldn't make any more payments to him. this would be a breach of contract. guess who got fired a month later?

you really shouldn't doubt PFT. they're easily the best source of football on the internet. they're not 100% accurate but who is? espn was reporting the raiders hired sean payton 2 years ago when they never even offered him the deal. 5 years before that they said jon gruden left town and never got offered the raiders head coaching job. guess who signed the deal and was in a hotel watching this news in alameda? PFT are actually gaining a lot of respect within the media in the past year or so. unlike many sites such as the redzone they just don't only use links from other sites as their news. they also report a lot of shit on their own.

don banks has just reported the same vince young news.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/200...dgments/1.html

Okay, if Don Banks is willing to run with it, I'm willing to give the story a little more credence.

after all the hoopla about houston guaranteeing bush the number one pick, they are now shopping it around. That is the smarter move for a team like houston, but you know in 10 years people maybe looking back and laughing that the texans passed up the chance to pickup a guy who COULD be the next tomlinson.

That Texan O-line is crap. If Reggie is smart he's thanking his lucky stars. I have a hardtime seeing things changing in Houston in the short term.

Chad Jackson from Florida has the fastest 40 time overall -- 4.29.

On the Marcus Vick front, evidently he ran well (4.54 40) and threw well, but King's MMQB had an interesting quote where he compared himself to his brother:

I don't think he's wrong, necessarily, not factually speaking, but man, throwing your brother under the bus like that, when he's been supporting you in a life of luxury for a few years? Kinda reminds me of Aries Spears in JERRY MAGUIRE.

Hey he is the only guy to consistently beat Mike Vick at madden, so I guess he has earned the right to trash talk his older somewhat proven brother.

vince young retook his wonderlic test and scored a 16. way to go buddy!

i continue to be amazed by vernon davis. his 40 time's were 4.38 and 4.39. totally insane for a TE. he also had a vertical jump of 42 inches.

manny lawson a DE from nc state who's projected as a linebacker in the nfl ran 40's of 4.41 and 4.45. these kid's can fly nowadays.

ingle martin looked like he was the messiah out there. too bad the combine isn't the nfl.

The purge for cap reasons has started for some teams already. I'm scared to see how many people the Skins will have to release today

wanna see a team that could get totally fucked over because of the cba breakdown.

from kffl.com
2 players counting for over 1/3 of a teams payroll is insane. manning's greed has potentially fucked indy over big time.

if the uncapped year occur's it won't be the free spend that most people assume it'll be. there's many restrictions in place. here are some of the rules:

1. There will be no limit on what teams can spend on players, but there also will be no minimum, either. Currently, teams are required annually to spend at least 54 percent of the projected Defined Gross Revenues on player costs. In an uncapped year, teams can spend as little as they choose.

2. Only players with six or more accrued seasons will be eligible for unrestricted free agency. Players with three, four, or five accrued seasons will be restricted free agents. In other words, Bucs quarterback Chris Simms (who signed a one-year restricted free agent tender on Wednesday), will be a restricted free agent again in 2007. Under normal circumstances, he would be eligible for unrestricted free agency in 2007.

3. All teams will have an extra transition tag in 2007. Currently, teams can use either a franchise tag or a transition tag. So next year the teams will be able to restrict two otherwise unrestricted free agents.

4. The final four playoff teams from 2006 will be permitted to sign only their own unrestricted free agents. For each of their unrestricted free agents signed by someone else, they can replace them with an unrestricted free agent signed from another team.

5. The next four playoff teams will be subject to the same rules as the final four. They also will be able to sign one unrestricted free agent at a first-year salary of $1.5 million or more, and one at a first-year salary of less than $1 million (not including signing bonus), with increases of no more than 30 percent of the player's first-year salary.

Those teams that already made cuts have to be a little ticked off right now.

Brees maintains he is four weeks ahead of schedule in his recovery. Andrews' letter confirmed Brees is “ahead of schedule” but did not specify how far ahead. The letter said Brees has “regained full range of motion.” Andrews also said, as Brees has, that Brees will begin throwing the first week of May.

But throwing does not mean passing at full strength, and that timing is what concerns Smith and what has at least factored into the team and player being far apart on the guaranteed dollar amount of a contract.

Brees has played well, but there were many years of average play in there also. If you keep Brees, you still have Rivers with guaranteed money.

L.T. and Gates are who the team is looking at. They figure Rivers is good enough to get them the ball and let 'em do the work.

Plus, there was work done on the Rotator Cuff that was not brought up until well after the operation. 'Good faith' is becoming an issue as well.

Sounds corny, but teams win Super Bowls not single players.

Look at Dilfer and Manning. Even Big Ben goes a long way to proving the point.

Too much team money on one or two players will end badly.

Teams are allowed to rescind the moves because of the extension.