Re: 2NFL - ESPN Insider Writeups, etc. 9 New Article Added 9/29/06)
Re: 2NFL - ESPN Insider Writeups, etc. 9 New Article Added 9/29/06)
Updated: Sep. 29, 2006
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Bengals not exactly broken up over Thurman ruling
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By
Len Pasquarelli
ESPN.com
Archive
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<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD style="PADDING-TOP: 10px" vAlign=top><!-- begin leftcol --><!-- template inline -->Team officials will never admit it, but when the league extended the four-game substance abuse suspension of Cincinnati second-year middle linebacker
Odell Thurman to a full season this week, after his Monday morning arrest for drunken driving, there were definitely more quiet cheers than tears among top Bengals executives and coaches.
In fact, league sources strongly suggested to ESPN.com that Bengals officials appealed to the league, and hard, for an expeditious resolution of Thurman's case.
How come? Well, frankly, the Bengals had written off Thurman for the 2006 season anyway. And quite possibly, for good, although that remains to be seen. They didn't want him around anymore. At least not anymore this year. And since his four-game suspension was scheduled to expire this Sunday night, after the Bengals played host to the
New England Patriots, Thurman would have been eligible to return to the Bengals and to the practice field the first thing Monday morning.
Which is the last thing owner Mike Brown and coach Marvin Lewis wanted to happen.
Of all the troubled souls populating the Cincinnati roster, and there are many this year given the spate of off-field woes that have beset the talented but tainted Bengals, Thurman seems to be the one that Lewis most views as a pariah of sorts. Lewis did the former Georgia star a favor in the 2005 draft, rescuing him in the second round after Thurman, who might have been a first-round choice were it not for a series of indiscretions in college, plummeted in the lottery. And Lewis feels that Thurman, who started 15 games as a rookie in 2005, but suffered more mental lapses than Bengals coaches publicly admitted, betrayed him by not staying out of trouble.
Thurman drew the four-game suspension through sheer irresponsibility. He had turned off his cell phone for several days, essentially because of problems with multiple girlfriends, and thus missed a drug test. In the NFL substance abuse policy, failure to appear for a test is the equivalent of a positive test, and Lewis read Thurman the riot act after the incident. Thurman was on a short leash already and his Monday arrest, with teammates
Chris Henry and
Reggie McNeal in the car with him, snapped the tether.
That the league responded so quickly to the drunken driving incident -- Thurman's four-game suspension grew to a full-season banishment in just two days, a relatively quick turnaround, particularly in a league that so values the concept of due process -- raised a few eyebrows. But the league was well within its rights to act quickly on Thurman, since the Monday incident blatantly violated the conditions of his aftercare plan to which he had agreed. There was nothing untoward, even NFL Players Association watchdogs agree, in the speedy manner in which his case was internally adjudicated.
But don't discount the role of Bengals executives, especially Brown, in nudging the league to act with such alacrity in the matter.
Cincinnati brass truly believes, especially in light of the team's victory at Heinz Field last Sunday, that it has assembled a viable Super Bowl contender. And after a turbulent and embarrassing offseason, the Bengals are now trying to limit the in-season tumult and eliminate as many distractions as possible. All but lost in the news of Thurman's season-long suspension was that the Bengals squirreled rookie defensive end
Frostee Rucker, a player with more than his share of off-field issues, onto injured reserve this week. There is the potential for one of Rucker's past cases to get uglier in coming weeks and by placing him on injured reserve, the Bengals create a kind of out-of-sight-out-of-mind fa?ade.
There also might be, in the case of Thurman, an intriguing political dynamic at work here.
It's no secret that the Bengals have not been happy with the manner in which the NFL pushed through the extension to the collective bargaining agreement in March, given the failures of the new deal to adequately address the increasing disparity between the high- and low-revenue franchises. And there is a pretty strong suspicion that Brown, not exactly an owner held in the highest regard in the league's Park Avenue offices despite his tenure and common sense approach, voted for Gregg Levy, and not Roger Goodell, on at least the first few ballots in the August election to choose Paul Tagliabue's successor.
Goodell is a smart guy and, having served as Tagliabue's top lieutenant, is keenly aware of all Brown's grievances. And so Goodell, being a good politician but new to the job, did a little fence-mending during his visit to the Bengals' facility last week. Word is that he welcomed Brown to stay in touch with him, and to reach out to the commissioner when necessary. That's not to suggest Brown contacted Goodell and asked him to fast-track the resolution of the Thurman case. The league and its new commissioner, in truth, did what it had a right to do.
But the Bengals are emerging as a powerhouse franchise, a good, young team that figures to contend for a title for several more seasons. While that might not have played a role in the expeditious handling of the Thurman matter, the NFL is nothing if not expedient and Cincinnati, despite its mostly miserable past, has suddenly become an "in" team, even with Odell Thurman now a guy on the outs.
Around the league
<!--------------------------START PLAYER CARD------------------><TABLE class=tableheadFixWidth cellSpacing=1 cellPadding=3 width=200 align=right><TBODY><TR class=stathead><TD class=whitelink colSpan=2>
Chris Henry</TD></TR><TR class=evenrow align=right><TD align=left>
Wide receiver
Cincinnati Bengals
Profile</TD></TR><TR class=evenrow><TD align=middle><TABLE cellSpacing=1 cellPadding=1 width=190 bgColor=#ffffff border=0><TBODY><TR class=stathead align=middle><TD align=middle colSpan=5>
2006 SEASON STATISTICS</TD></TR><TR style="BACKGROUND: #bcbcb4" align=right><TD width="17%">Rec</TD><TD width="17%">Yds</TD><TD width="17%">TD</TD><TD width="17%">Avg</TD><TD width="17%">Long</TD></TR><TR align=right bgColor=#999999><TD>11</TD><TD>177</TD><TD>2</TD><TD>16.1</TD><TD>43</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><!---------------------INLINE MINI-PLAYER CARD ENDS HERE--------------------->
? The suspension of Thurman might not be the last league-imposed sanction, or forced absence, with which the Bengals are forced to deal. Authorities in Florida and in Kenton (Ken.) County are parsing through the reports of Thurman's arrest on Monday and are interested in the presence of wide receiver
Chris Henry in the vehicle. There are rumors that Henry was drinking -- Thurman reportedly told police he was driving because his passengers were even more inebriated than him, and witnesses claim to have seen Henry vomit out the window of the car -- and, if that's the case, he could be in trouble with the NFL and legal authorities. Henry might have violated terms of his probation in a Florida gun-related case and could possibly have his bond revoked in the Kentucky case, in which he was charged with supplying liquor to three under-aged women. Arrested four times in a six-month stretch of the offseason, Henry is already under league scrutiny for those incidents and could face a potential suspension. Losing Henry, a terrific playmaker with a huge role in the Bengals' three-wide receiver formations, would be a blow to the potent Cincinnati offense.
? It's pretty fashionable, given the pathetic production of the
Oakland Raiders' offense, to bash head coach Art Shell and coordinator Tom Walsh for the team's struggles. And some of the jabs certainly seem to be justifiable. But much of the criticism is rooted in the perception that, because Shell had not been a head coach since Raiders owner Al Davis fired him following the 1994 season, and Walsh has been out of the league since that same year and most recently was operating a bed-and-breakfast, the offensive design is Neanderthal and out of touch with the modern game. At first blush, with the Raiders not having a single completion to a running back in two games, and seemingly continuing to embrace the mad, bombs-away approach of a bygone era, the assessments appear on point. But ESPN.com this week spoke with an NFL insider who has seen the Oakland offensive playbook first-hand, studied it in-depth and who discussed philosophies with Walsh in detail. And that person, who has been much closer to the Oakland situation in recent weeks than any media person ever will be, said the bashing is knee-jerk stuff and off-base.
"It's true that the [pass] progressions read vertical first, that the first read is to look deep, and that they want to take advantage of the speed of their wide receivers," said the insider. "But to suggest it's a playbook that might have come from the '60s, well, that's just [garbage]. It's no different than most offensive designs. The backs are in pass routes. The tight ends are in pass routes. It's pretty complete stuff. There are things in there that would be in a [Jon] Gruden playbook, for instance, or a Denny Green or Al Saunders playbook. To just say it's one-dimensional, with just deep pass plays, no check-downs to the backs, things like that, it just isn't true. Now, whether they have the players or not, that's another story. But the design isn't just something they pulled out of mothballs."
The insider also insisted that Walsh, a stunning choice by Shell as coordinator, given his time away from the game, has paid more attention to the NFL during his 12-year hiatus than critics believe he has. He said Walsh is able to point out subtle changes in defensive styles and in coaching methodologies. "He'll say something like, 'Well, Dick LeBeau (Pittsburgh defensive coordinator) used to run this zone-blitz this way, but he's tweaked it a little.' He's paid attention. I'm not saying they're going to get it done with this [staff], but it's not all their fault, even if the [critics] are having a field day with them right now."
? Even privately, Tampa Bay officials concede they have no idea of the exact play on which quarterback
Chris Simms suffered a ruptured spleen, an injury that, despite all the optimistic rhetoric, will sideline the fourth-year veteran for the rest of the season. But there are some suspicions the injury occurred on a fourth-quarter play in which Carolina defensive end
Al Wallace jacked up Simms after the quarterback released the ball on a bootleg pass to fullback
Mike Alstott, and drove him to the ground. In fact, as part of their weekly report to the league office, the Bucs forwarded video of the Wallace hit. Wallace didn't draw a penalty on the play, but NFL officials are scrutinizing the hit, and he might still be fined. It should be noted that Wallace was arguably the most distraught of the Carolina players when he learned of the severity of Simms' injury.
? Money matters are probably the last thing on the minds of the Bucs, or Simms, or his agent, the powerful Tom Condon, right now. But it's notable, even if the timing isn't particularly exquisite, to point out that the injury to Simms will force the Bucs, and perhaps the young quarterback as well, to think long and hard about how they will handle the future. As a restricted free agent this spring, Simms signed just a one-year contract for $2.1 million, and both sides agreed they would continue to pursue a long-term deal during the season. But there is no more season now for Simms, who will be eligible for unrestricted free agency in the spring, and Tampa Bay officials have only his first three games as the fresh body of evidence on which to evaluate his long-term viability. That's going to make it difficult for the Bucs' brass, or for any other team that might be interested in signing Simms (like the Raiders) to make a truly informed analysis of the market for the 26-year-old quarterback. The surgery to remove Simms' spleen, and the ensuing period of idleness, only complicates the issue. It might be insensitive to refer to Simms, a terrific kid with huge potential, as "damaged goods." But until he demonstrates that he is whole again, that's how some people in the league, maybe even some Tampa Bay officials, will regard him. So do the Bucs, or anyone else, roll the dice and sign Simms to a long-term contract? Or will he be forced to sign another one-year deal, or perhaps a neatly constructed multiyear contract that rewards Simms if he recovers and regains his starter's status, and also protects the Bucs financially if he doesn't? Obviously, the priority is for Simms to get well after a pretty scary incident. But at some point not too far down the road, both the Bucs and Simms are going to be confronted by the reality of his contract situation.
? One of the most important things
any head coach must do, but particularly a rookie head coach, is surround himself with solid and like-minded assistants. It certainly appears, with a 3-0 start and emotional upset victory over Atlanta last Monday, that New Orleans coach Sean Payton has done that. Doug Marrone (offense) and Gary Gibbs (defense) have never been coordinators before at the NFL level, but both men have done superb jobs. Payton is ostensibly his own offensive coordinator, of course, and calls the plays. But Marrone, whose primary area of expertise is the offensive line, has worked a small miracle in cobbling together a unit that has played well so far, even with a wholesale offseason overhaul. Want to see how good a job Marrone has done? Watch the play of right tackle
Jon Stinchcomb, who didn't start a single game in his first three seasons and who missed the entire 2005 campaign after rupturing a patellar tendon in camp last summer. The performance of Stinchcomb pretty much typifies the play of the five linemen. In the Monday night victory, Gibbs did what more experienced coordinators like Mike Trgovac of Carolina and Tampa Bay guru Monte Kiffin couldn't in the first two games, devising a game plan for controlling Falcons quarterback
Michael Vick and for stuffing the "spread option" package Atlanta had used so effectively in overwhelming wins over the Panthers and Bucs.
A lot of people credit Gibbs' college background, and familiarity with option-type offenses, for helping him conjure up a game-plan that Atlanta opponents will be mimicking all season now. Truth be told, it was Gibbs' ability to understand the ways in which the option game is limited at the NFL level that led to the strategies that undid Vick and the potent Falcons' running attack. The Saints did a lot of things well up front, with tackle
Brian Young having a great game and ends
Charles Grant and
Will Smith playing nearly flawless containment against the usually mercurial Vick on the outside. But one key Gibbs used to his advantage was his understanding that, when Vick faked the ball to tailback
Warrick Dunn and held it in his belly to try to freeze the linebackers, it all but eliminated the pass as an option. The use of rookie safety
Roman Harper in those situations, and the youngster's ability to penetrate and to make sure tackles, was outstanding. A scheme is only as good as the manner in which it is executed by the players, and the New Orleans defenders applied the game plan well on the field. But credit the Saints' staff for coaching a heck of a game. And credit Payton for making excellent choices when he was assembling his staff.
? Through three games,
New York Jets rookie left offensive tackle
D'Brickashaw Ferguson has played well, surrendering only one sack. And that came on a so-called "coverage sack," when the New York receivers were blanketed and quarterback
Chad Pennington was forced to hold the ball for an inordinate amount of time. And the former University of Virginia star has been flagged for just two holding penalties. But Ferguson, who so far has weathered matchups against noted pass rushers such as
Kyle Vanden Bosch (Tennessee),
Aaron Schobel (Buffalo) and
Richard Seymour (New England), will be tested big-time in Sunday's game. The fourth overall prospect chosen in this year's draft, Ferguson will draw
Indianapolis Colts star
Dwight Freeney on Sunday afternoon. As if it weren't a difficult enough matchup, Freeney is certainly overdue for a breakout game. The relentless pass rusher has been shut out so far in three games and, for a guy who averaged 12.8 sacks in his first four NFL seasons, the drought doesn't figure to last much longer. In fact, Freeney has never gone
more than three games without at least one quarterback takedown, and such a streak occurred just once previously, in the final three contests of the 2003 season. Freeney never before has started a season by going more than two games without a sack. Of course, the fifth-year veteran has been slowed some by a strained gluteus muscle, but that didn't seem to hamper him much in last Sunday's victory over Jacksonville. By unofficial count, Freeney participated in 51 snaps in that game, much more than Colts coaches felt they could get from him when assessing his injury early in the week.
<!--------------------------START PLAYER CARD------------------><TABLE class=tableheadFixWidth cellSpacing=1 cellPadding=3 width=200 align=right><TBODY><TR class=stathead><TD class=whitelink colSpan=2>
T.J. Duckett</TD></TR><TR class=evenrow align=right><TD align=left>
Running back
Washington Redskins
Profile</TD></TR><TR class=evenrow><TD align=middle><TABLE cellSpacing=1 cellPadding=1 width=190 bgColor=#ffffff border=0><TBODY><TR class=stathead align=middle><TD align=middle colSpan=5>
2006 SEASON STATISTICS</TD></TR><TR style="BACKGROUND: #bcbcb4" align=right><TD width="17%">Attc</TD><TD width="17%">Yds</TD><TD width="17%">TD</TD><TD width="17%">Avg</TD><TD width="17%">Long</TD></TR><TR align=right bgColor=#999999><TD>5</TD><TD>24</TD><TD>0</TD><TD>4.8</TD><TD>15</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><!---------------------INLINE MINI-PLAYER CARD ENDS HERE--------------------->
? In the three-team trade in which Washington acquired former Atlanta tailback and first-round draft pick
T.J. Duckett, the Redskins surrendered at least a third-round pick in 2007 and a fourth-round choice in 2008. The stakes, based on where the Redskins finish in the standings, actuallycould be a bit higher. But in three contests, Duckett has dressed for only one game. The Washington tailbacks have logged 70 carries and he has accounted for only five of them. Wide receiver
Santana Moss has as many carries and fellow wideout
Antwaan Randle El has only one fewer. Duckett is eligible for unrestricted free agency next spring and, desperate to get to a franchise where he has an opportunity to contribute, it's all but a given that he is gone. Which means that, unless Duckett suddenly makes an unanticipated ascent up the depth chart, the Redskins, who seem to have absolutely no use for the draft at all, will have squandered two middle-round picks and have nothing to show for it.
? Arizona coach Dennis Green might have sent a fuzzy message this week with his flip-flop on starting quarterbacks. But the Cardinals' boss drove him a pretty clear message to his charges, with the release of backup defensive tackle
Langston Moore, that silly mistakes will not be tolerated. Praised only a few weeks ago as one of the club's most improved players, Moore was jettisoned after being flagged for three offsides penalties in the first three games, even though he was playing pretty well as the No. 3 tackle. The Cards signed journeyman tackle
Chris Cooper, who has played with three teams in five seasons, to replace Moore on the roster. Warning to Cooper: Don't jump the snap.
The list: There are 11 "hometowns" listed by players on opening day rosters that contributed more than 10 players each to the league for the 2006 season. Here is the list of those 11 cities: Miami (35 players), Houston (29), Detroit (16), Los Angeles (13), New Orleans (13), Atlanta (12), Dallas (12), Jacksonville (12), Fort Lauderdale (11), Tampa (11) and Washington, D.C. (11).
Stat of the week: When Baltimore wideout
Derrick Mason had seven receptions for 132 yards in last Sunday's victory over the
Cleveland Browns, it marked the sixth straight 100-yard outing in which the 10th-year veteran reached triple digits despite not having a catch of 40 yards. In fact, Mason hasn't had a reception of 40 yards since snagging a 46-yarder on the fourth play of a Nov. 9, 2003 game against Miami, when he was still playing for the
Tennessee Titans. That was 42 regular-season games ago and, in that stretch, Mason's longest reception is for 39 yards. Since catching the 46-yarder against the Dolphins, he has 243 receptions for 3,134 yards and 14 touchdowns.
Punts: There might have been nothing stranger during the day-long coverage of
Terrell Owens' alleged suicide attempt than the efforts of publicist Kim Etheredge, who came off looking
really bad, to explain the incident. But the most curious element of the day: Where was Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, who is never far from the cameras in any news-conference setting? ? Credit first-year Minnesota coach Brad Childress for laying down some strident rules and for adhering to them. Childress benched
Dwight Smith for the Vikings' season opener after the starting safety was nabbed by Minneapolis police naked in a stairwell. Last week, Childress held
Fred Smoot out of the starting lineup and kept him on the bench for the first defensive series because the cornerback was late to a team meeting. ? Wonder why the
Detroit Lions continue to be a mess? The Lions signed wide receiver
Corey Bradford in the offseason, and gave him a $2 million signing bonus. Three weeks into the season, and despite starting the opening game, Bradford was released. The Lions are on the hook for the $2 million signing bonus and, because Bradford is a vested veteran, for his entire $800,000 salary. Given the state of the automobile industry, the Ford family has plenty of bigger priorities. But at some point, someone in ownership has to question the direction of the Lions, don't they? ? Opponents are throwing at
New York Giants cornerback
Sam Madison as if he's got a bull's-eye painted on his uniform jersey. New York officials felt they might get a good year or two out of the four-time Pro Bowl performer, signing him after he was released by Miami, but Madison is really struggling right now. ? Denver punter
Todd Sauerbrun is eligible to return to the team on Monday following his four-game suspension for a violation of the league's steroid policy. But it will be interesting, given the outstanding performance of the younger (and cheaper)
Paul Ernster as the fill-in for Sauerbrun, to see how the Broncos handle the veteran's return. ? Colts quarterback
Peyton Manning needs just one more touchdown pass to hit the 250-mark for his career. If he gets it against the Jets on Sunday, it will have come in his 131st appearance. Dan Marino is the only player to reach 250 touchdown passes faster, accomplishing the feat in 128 games. ? After auditioning a half-dozen quarterbacks this week, the Bucs decided to sign none of them. At least for now, Tampa Bay might go with two healthy quarterbacks, rookie starter
Bruce Gradkowski and backup
Tim Rattay, when it resumes play next Sunday after a bye this week. The Bucs are guardedly confident that
Luke McCown, who underwent surgery to repair a partially torn anterior cruciate ligament in the spring, will be able to return when he is eligible to come off the physically unable to perform list after the sixth game of the season.
The last word: "Right now, I really couldn't care less about China, or anyplace else. Cincinnati, that's the only destination I'm really concerned with right now. That stuff is so far in the future. I don't even know if China will be there a year from now. I don't know if I'll be there a year from now. Right now, all I care about is Cincinnati, and that's plenty." -- New England coach Bill Belichick, whose team visits the Bengals on Sunday, on his sentiments about having the Patriots selected by the league to play a preseason game in Beijing in August 2007.
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Quarterback
Cornerback
Defensive tackle
