Mohamed Sanu (AP)

The first two days of the NFL draft have come and gone, which means that there’s two more rounds of transactions to sort through. Now that the dust has settled, we take a look at the winners and losers of Day 2.

Winners:

Small school prospects: The trend of small-school prospects getting their names called started right away Friday, as St. Louis took FCS Appalachian St. receiver Brian Quick over higher profile receiving prospects. This pick was followed up shortly by two Division II players: North Alabama cornerback Janoris Jenkins and Midwestern St. guard Amini Silatolu. Yes, Jenkins was a Florida transfer, but he still has the boom-bust risk of any small-school selection. The third round was just as productive for smaller programs, with FCS Montana cornerback Trumaine Johnson selected with the second pick of the day. Then, with their first pick of the draft, the Saints picked up defensive lineman Akiem Hicks, out of Regina, a Canadian college program, at No. 89 overall.

Baltimore Ravens: The Patriots may have snatched linebacker Dont’a Hightower from them by trading up to No. 25, but the Ravens got another quality Alabama linebacker — Courtney Upshaw — to fall into their laps in the second round. One of the surprise fallers of Day 1, Upshaw didn’t have to wait too long in the New York green room on Day 2. He comes into a perfect situation for the Ravens, who were in dire need of an outside linebacker. He could work his way into a starting job very quickly.

Bryan Anger, P, Jacksonville Jaguars: Anger’s selection was a major shakeup, as its been some time since a punter was drafted this high. The last punter to be drafted in the third round was Dustin Colquitt at No. 99 out of Tennessee. However, at No. 70 overall, Anger is the highest drafted punter overall since Todd Sauerbrun went 56th overall to the Bears in 1995.

Mohamed Sanu, WR, Bengals: Sanu thought he was drafted by the Bengals with the 27th overall pick Thursday night. However, the phone call from the “Bengals” turned out to be a New Jersey prankster who happened to get Sanu’s number. Fortunately for Sanu, the actual Bengals eventually came calling on Day 2, drafting the Big East all-time receptions leader with the 20th pick of the third round.

Rams: In a continuation of their ability to pick up second round picks yesterday, the Rams addressed three of their major needs on Day 2. The Rams needed a receiver and got a potentially dynamic one in Quick. They also needed help in the secondary, taking a risk on a first round talent in Jenkins in the mid-second round and getting a good value with Johnson in round three to help solidify the secondary. Finally, the Rams needed an insurance policy for their quickly-aging workhorse, Steven Jackson, and got first pick on backs on Day 2: Cincinnati’s Isaiah Pead.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tim Tebow rushed for 660 yards in 2011. (AP)

There’s a line in “All the President’s Men” that captures the Jets perfectly. Bob Woodward is running dry on sources. It looks like he and Carl Bernstein aren’t going to crack the Watergate story after all. He’s worn out, pissed off and finally ready to give up, surrender to Mitchell and Nixon and Hunt and Haldeman and Erlichman.

Woodward meets up with Deep Throat — the source, not the film Tim Tebow would never watch — and tells him exactly that. It’s basically over.

Deep Throat — we now know is Mark Felt, who comes to think of it looked a hell of a lot like Hal Holbrook — gives the closest version of a pep talk you’ll ever get from a CIA operative in the basement of a garage. And it ends with this:

“Look, forget the myths the media’s created about the White House- the truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand. ”

Change “White House” to “NFL” and you’ve got the Jets and the addition of Tim Tebow.

I thought Tebow to the Patriots made sense. I didn’t think it was going to happen but I thought it made sound football sense. Terrific athlete, a head coach willing to look at a player and see something else, all that stuff. Almost as important, the Patriots were one of three or four franchises in the NFL where Tebow would be zero distraction to the day-to-day operations of a football team.

Put it another way: For the Tim Tebow experiment to really succeed, he needed to go to a place where the quarterback was an untouchable, the coach had unimpeachable job security and the motivation to bring Tebow in was as football player only, not some ploy to steal headlines or sell tickets.

And that’s why the Jets and Tim Tebow will be an absolute disaster, a train wreck that will end with Tebow either a) being released or b) traded to Jacksonville for even less value in a year or two.

This is how a clueless organization does things. They botch any real shot at Peyton Manning and scramble to save face. Instead of taking a step back, just pause for minute and look at things from a big picture perspective, the Jets dive in and make a deal for a quarterback that isn’t as good as the guy they have. And that guy — Mark Sanchez — isn’t good enough in their eyes, or else there is no way they deal for Tebow. Desperation meets stupidity meets a desire to monopolize the front page of the New York Post for a couple of weeks in March.

(Helps when you have a Hall of Fame QB, but you would never see the Patriots do this the way the Jets are. The courtship, the huge press conference, putting his jersey on the front of the team web page. It’s just reeks of minor leagues. The Patriots would have had a conference call the day after the trade and that’s it.)

This is a pissed off little brother, plain and simple. The Jets have watched the Giants win two Super Bowls the last five years — against the team that was supposed to be their rival — and this was the best answer they could come up with. And when you start making organizational decisions based on desire to be relevant off the field you are basically screwed. There’s a reason why they don’t hand out rings or raise banners in March.

Mark Sanchez isn’t a franchise quarterback, not by the longest shot. Is there a chance he could develop into a top 10-15 guy over the next couple of years? It’s possible, sure, this is a QB with four road playoff wins, including one that saw him outplay Tom Brady. Point is, you could do worse.

Read the rest of this entry »

Five thoughts on an absolutely crazy afternoon in the NFL:

1. From a football perspective, the Jets’ decision to acquire Tim Tebow makes very little sense. (In truth, it’s one borne out of a desperate front office, hoping to retake the back pages of the New York tabloids after seeing the crosstown Giants win two Super Bowls in five years.) The Jets recently gave starting quarterback Mark Sanchez a three-year extension after losing out on Peyton Manning, a move designed to provide Sanchez with some sort of comfort — a confidence booster designed to tell the world that come hell or high water, No. 6 was their man. And they follow it up by creating an absolutely no-win situation for him — the first time Sanchez stumbles, the cries for Tebow will start. The Jets have guaranteed themselves a quarterback controversy even before training camp starts.

2. So you have Tim Tebow — what exactly do you do with him? New Jets offensive coordinator Tony Sparano was the man who helped bring the Wildcat to South Florida when he was head coach of the Dolphins, and you have to figure that’s what he has in store with the acquisition of Tebow. It’s also not like the Jets and Rex Ryan aren’t familiar with the Wildcat package, as they used it extensively in 2010 with Brad Smith. According to Pro Football Focus, Smith was the best Wildcat quarterback in the NFL that year, as Smith ran the ball from the wildcat 30 times for 212 yards and a touchdown, an average of 7.1 yards per run. (Half the time he handed the ball off, and the Jets other rushers had 4.0 yards per carry and a touchdown.) Per PFF, in Week 17 of the 2010 season against the Bills, when the Jets had their playoff spot secured, they used him at QB 13 times, and in those plays he managed runs of 20 and 40 yards.

3. What does this mean for the Patriots? Wildcat package or not, with the exception of one quarter — the first quarter of the regular-season game where Tebow and the Broncos ran up 224 yards and 16 points the first three times they had the ball — the Patriots have done a very good job of defending Tebow over the course of his relatively brief professional career. In two games against New England (one regular-season start and one playoff start, both last year), Tebow is 20-for-48 for 338 yards, with no touchdowns and no interceptions. In addition, he has 17 carries for 106 yards and two touchdowns. As for big picture analysis on what this might mean for the Jets’ offense as a whole, while they will still throw the ball with regularity, expect New York to use more gadget plays on the ground, and that includes the Wildcat. (One think to remember — the Patriots were occasionally vulnerable to gadget plays last season, as both the Broncos and Redskins used them against New England, with varied levels of success.)

Read the rest of this entry »

Peyton Manning holds all the cards in free agency. (AP)

With free agency set to start at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, here’s a look at the 10 most important questions, with an eye toward what the Patriots might do:

1. Where’s Peyton going to end up? The quarterback is the biggest name in the free agent class, and will almost certainly command the biggest deal on the open market. Manning and agent Tom Condon are playing their cards close to the vest to this point, but it sounds like Arizona, Miami, Denver and Seattle are in the mix to this point. In addition, Tennessee is also reportedly poised to make a full-court press for Manning’s services.

2. What sort of impact is Peyton going to have on the rest of the free agent market? A lot of his former Indianapolis teammates are also now available, including wide receivers Reggie Wayne and Pierre Garcon, running back Joseph Addai and tight end Dallas Clark. Chances are good that whoever will land Manning probably has a very good shot at landing at least one of his former mates, and subsequently, revamping a sizable portion of their offensive scheme.

3. How will Peyton affect the market for quarterbacks? It’s not just the free agent signal callers like Matt Flynn who stand to be affected by Manning’s decision. Incumbents like Kevin Kolb (Arizona) and Tim Tebow (Denver) could find themselves on the street if Manning ends up in their respective area codes. That could ultimately create a secondary series of ripples for a handful of quarterbacks.

4. What’s going to be the course of action for the Patriots? In New England last year, it was either a boom-or-bust with last year’s free agents: the big names (Albert Haynesworth and Chad Ochocinco) were busts, while the middle of the road guys (Andre Carter, Mark Anderson and Brian Waters) were some of the best free-agent signings of the Bill Belichick Era. This year? There are some intriguing fits for this team that wouldn’t break the bank, including Brandon Lloyd and Richard Marshall, while Mike Wallace remains a big-ticket possibility that would also cost them a draft pick.

5. Who will the Patriots lose? New England isn’t necessarily on danger of losing any of its elite players, but there are some intriguing UFA’s on the roster, including wide receiver Deion Branch, running back BenJarvus Green-Ellis, offensive linemen Dan Koppen and Dan Connolly and Anderson and Carter, all of whom have been important pieces of the puzzle over the last few seasons with the Patriots. Anderson figures to be a sought-after commodity: a 28-year-old who finished with 10 sacks, he could be in line for a decent-sized payday.
Read the rest of this entry »

Gerard Warren and Vince Wilfork. (AP)

With the Patriots off this weekend and the postseason ready to begin, we’ve got the Patriots Positional Playoff Preview, a weeklong, position-by-position look at the Patriots and how they look heading into the postseason. We’ve already looked at the offensive side of the ball. Now, we take a look at the defense, starting with the defensive line.

Depth chart: Shaun Ellis, Vince Wilfork, Kyle Love, Gerard Warren, Mark Anderson, Brandon Deaderick. (Myron Pryor, Andre Carter and Mike Wright have all landed on season-ending injured reserve.)

Overview: It’s been an eventful season for the New England defensive line, which has run several new bodies through the system. Some have worked (Carter), while some haven’t (Albert Haynesworth).

In the end, even though the numbers may not suggest it, the New England defensive line was able to have a relatively productive season in 2011, thanks in large part to the work of Wilfork. The 30-year-old had one of the finest seasons of his already impressive career, finishing with a career-high in total snaps played and doing his best to hold together an occasionally unsteady defensive line that spent most of the first half of the season learning how to play together. His Pro Bowl nod — the fourth of his career — was well deserved. (In addition to his traditional work in the trenches, he’s added a pair of interceptions this season.)

As for the rest of the defensive line, Ellis has struggled with age and injury, while Warren has been a relatively solid presence as a rotational player along the interior of the defensive line. When it comes to the young guys, Love has flashed some talent (he appears to be a very good complementary piece at defensive tackle next to Wilfork). It also appears that Deaderick (who has some good positional versatility) will bear watching over the course of the next year.

Carter suffered a quad injury in a win last month over the Broncos, and with him on injured reserve, the Patriots have struggled to get consistent pressure on opposing quarterbacks. Anderson (who finished tied with Carter in quarterback sacks with 10 and second to Carter in quarterback hits, 22 to 14) continues to get lots of reps as a situational pass rusher, but those pass-rushing numbers must improve if the New England defense wants to slow down opposing offenses in the postseason.

An opposing scout’s take on the New England defensive line heading into the postseason: “Big and hard to move inside, which may bode well in cold weather games against running teams. Don’t create a lot of pressure on the passer, but can push the pocket inside. Will miss the steady play of Andre Carter against the run and pass. Mark Anderson will flash some ability to create some pressure. They struggle to get pressure when rushing four, and will leave secondary on an island.”
Read the rest of this entry »

Boomer Esiason

CBS Sports NFL analyst Boomer Esiason made his weekly appearance on the Dennis & Callahan show Wednesday morning to discuss a wide range of topics, including the New York Jets and their quarterback situation. Boomer has come under fire in New York for his comments on Jets QB Mark Sanchez.

When asked about the the possibility of Peyton Manning being traded to the Jets, Esiason responded, “Everywhere you look, that’s what they’re saying. But first of all, we don’t even know if Peyton’s able to play. If Peyton is able to play and the new general manager and whoever they hire to run that team out there decides to go without Peyton Manning, then I’m sure that the Jets will be sniffing around. Because that’s what the Jets do. They’re trying to find their Tom Brady. They’re trying to find their Aaron Rodgers. And I don’t think in their mind they think that they feel like they’ve found the kid. If you watched Mark Sanchez the last month of the season, he was like a chihuahua standing on Madison Avenue and 36th Street entering the Midtown Tunnel, eyes bigger than you-know-what, and just so shaky.”

Hear the entire conversation by clicking right here. Esiason’s comments on Sanchez begin at the 10-minute mark.

 Loading ...

Jets coach Rex Ryan. (AP)

With the Patriots securely in the postseason, it’s time to start sizing up their possible postseason opponents. This is part of a weeklong series of features on the rest of the AFC playoff teams. We’ve already profiled the Baltimore Ravens, Houston Texans, Pittsburgh Steelers and Cincinnati Bengals. Today, it’s the New York Jets:

The skinny: Ah, yes. The Jets. Over the last three years, no team has talked more trash — and yielded fewer results comparatively — than the Jets. Currently, New York needs some help to get into the postseason. With an 8-7 record, they would need to beat the Dolphins this weekend and hope the Bengals, Titans and either the Broncos or Raiders lose to make the postseason. However, they’ve lost their last two and four of their last seven, so even if they do beat the rapidly surging Dolphins and get some help on Sunday, it’s not like they’re heading into the playoffs on a roll.

Offense: The offense has been wobbly over the second half of the season in large part because of the ineffective play of third-year quarterback Mark Sanchez (287-for-511 for 3,267 yards, 24 touchdowns and 15 interceptions). When Sanchez has looked to throw, it’s been Dustin Keller (58 catches, 770 yards, four touchdowns), Santonio Holmes (51 catches for 654 yards and eight touchdowns) and Plaxico Burress (41 catches, 555 yards and eight touchdowns). When it comes to running the ball, LaDainian Tomlinson (64 carries, 224 rushing yards, one touchdown) has been pretty much an afterthought this season, as the Jets have leaned almost exclusively on Shonn Greene (239 carries, 999 rushing yards, six TDs entering Sunday’s contest). Overall, the Jets are 21st in the league in passing (203.5 yards per game), 22nd in rushing (104.2 yards per game) and ninth in average points (24 per game). And the offensive line is in miserable shape — as the New York Daily News has pointed out, four players since Week 10 have won Defensive Player of the Week honors after facing the Jets.

Read the rest of this entry »