Kevin Faulk says Patriots made him an offer

In yesterday’s one-liners, we passed along a report that the Patriots hadn’t extended a contract offer to running back Kevin Faulk, a free agent who has spent his entire 11-year career with New England.

Faulk saw that report, and disputed it.

“They have made me an offer, for the record,” Faulk said in a text message to a Boston Herald reporter.

But Faulk wouldn’t say any more than that. It’s possible that all the Patriots are offering Faulk is a contract with a league-minimum salary and nothing guaranteed, which would be an indication that the team thinks the 33-year-old Faulk is done, and all they’re willing to give him is a chance to prove them wrong between now and the start of the regular season.

On the other hand, although most 33-year-old running backs are done, Faulk played well enough in 2009 that there’s every reason to believe he can contribute in 2010. Faulk played in 15 games last season, started seven, carried 62 times for 335 yards and caught 37 passes for 301 yards.

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What separates the Cowboys from the NFL’s elite teams? One player on the roster thinks it’s leadership.

Dallas defensive end Jason Hatcher said in an interview with Deion Sanders on ESPN Dallas 103.3 FM that he isn’t sure who the leader in the locker room is.

“Dude, I’ve got to be honest with you: That’s a good question,” Hatcher said, via the Star Telegram. “I really don’t know. It’s just another thing we really need. . . . We don’t have that. We’ve got the talent. We’ve got everything we need [except] a Ray Lewis. When Ray Lewis speaks, everybody listens to him. A guy like that, we really don’t got that. I think we definitely need somebody like that.”

Hatcher, who has spent his entire six-year career with the Cowboys, said he believes there’s a lot to like about the future of the franchise. Just as soon as someone steps up and starts leading the team.

“So once you have that, you’ll be good,” Hatcher said. “We’re still looking for it.”

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One of the last links to the Patriots’ Super Bowl wins could be leaving the team.

Or maybe not.

Center Dan Koppen, who missed all of the 2011 season after breaking an ankle in Week One against the Dolphins, will be a free agent on March 13.  And even though he has spent all nine of his NFL seasons with the Patriots, he’s not foreclosing the possibility of skedaddling.

“I’ve enjoyed my time here and I’ve enjoyed playing here,” Koppen tells Ian Rapoport of the Boston Herald.  “Do I want to stay here and play?  Yeah, absolutely, I’d love to come back here and play.  But I’m not shut off to the idea of going other places or seeing the opportunities that may present themselves when the free agency period comes.  It’s a uneasy time, but it’s an exciting time.  Because things can change or things can not change.  It’s one of those things where, I’m not closing any options.  I’ve been around this league a long time, I know it’s a business.  I know the  business, I know the business side of it.  I’ve seen things that happen in the past and some things just work out and some things just don’t work out.  I understand that the Patriots have gotta do what’s best for them and I gotta do what’s best for my family.  So, in the next couple weeks, if decisions have to be made, then I’m gonna make my decisions based on what I feel is right for my family.”

Koppen earned a base salary of $2.9 million in 2011.  He joined the Patriots as a fifth-round pick from Boston College in 2003.  Before 2011, he had missed only one game in five full seasons.

More importantly, he looks like a really large version of Louis C.K.

Former Seahawks and Cardinals center Ed Cunningham spent five years in the NFL. 

Only 42, he’s quickly carved out a role in the movie business that will keep him working in film for a lot longer than five years.

Cunningham produced the documentary Undefeated which is nominated for an Oscar in the documentary film category. The story follows an Memphis inner city football team through the 2009 season and opens this weekend in L.A. and New York.

“Because of my day job, I’ve kind of shied away from direct sports material as a producer,” Cunningham told Sam Farmer of the Los Angeles Times. “But I just kind of had a sense, along with my partners, that this would see beyond the field and really dive into the lives of these young men and the volunteer coach profiled in the film.”

Cunningham has produced three documentaries, including the fantastic “King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters.”

I’m a huge dork for sports documentaries and Oscar-nominated documentaries, so I couldn’t be much more excited about this movie.

Now I just need to convince my wife it’s a good idea for me to leave her alone with our baby so I can see it this weekend.

AP

Greg Schiano is slowly but surely assembling his coaching staff, with two more coaches coming for the defensive side of the ball.

Bill Sheridan, who just weeks ago accepted a job on the Ohio State coaching staff, is leaving to become the Buccaneers’ defensive coordinator, according to Ohio State’s campus newspaper. Sheridan is a former Giants defensive coordinator and Dolphins linebackers coach.

And Bryan Cox, the former NFL linebacker, is expected to become a defensive assistant in Tampa Bay, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports. Cox spent 12 years in the NFL and was, like Sheridan, most recently on the Dolphins’ staff.

As the last team to hire its head coach, the Bucs were behind the curve in getting a staff together. But Schiano (who is also bringing aboard some of his former Rutgers assistants) is getting close to having his staff assembled.

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Browns linebacker D’Qwell Jackson won’t be going anywhere.

The Browns have already decided that they’ll place the franchise tag on Jackson if they’re unable to sign him to a long-term contract, Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports.

That’s a sign of just how important Jackson was to the Browns’ defense last season, and that’s an extraordinary accomplishment: In 2009, Jackson suffered a torn left pectoral muscle, causing him to miss the final 10 games of the season, and in training camp in 2010, Jackson suffered a torn right pectoral muscle, causing him to miss the entire season. At that point, people didn’t know if Jackson would be able to make it back in 2012 at all, let alone make it back and be one of the best linebackers in the league.

Jackson came in second to Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford in comeback player of the year voting.

AP

Apparently, the trade that sent Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer to the Raiders also included a coach to be named later.

The Bengals have announced that former Raiders head coach Hue Jackson has been hired.  He’ll serve as an assistant coach helping the secondary and special teams.

“Hue is a tremendous addition to our staff,” Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis said in a team-issued release. “I relied on Hue greatly when he was with us, and his success overall in the NFL, including being selected for a head coaching position, is well documented.  He has expertise in all aspects of the game, and we are fortunate to have obtained his services.”

It looks a little like make-work for Jackson, whose past experiences primarily focused on the offensive side of the ball.  According to his bio from his time at USC, Jackson worked with special teams in 1988 and 1989 at Pacific, in 1991 with the London Monarchs, and in 1991 at Cal State-Fullerton.

Jackson previously spent three years with the Bengals, from 2004 through 2006, as receivers coach.

As Colts owner Jim Irsay tries to lay the foundation for absorbing minimal blame if/when (when) the team releases quarterback Peyton Manning, Irsay needs to take into account one key issue.

What impact, if any, will the final days of the Manning era in Indy have on the franchise’s presumed quarterback of the future?

Andrew Luck could still try to make a power play, even if Peyton no longer is sitting atop the depth chart.  And if Luck doesn’t like the looks or sounds of the things Irsay is doing or saying when it comes to Peyton Manning, Luck could make it known that, like the last great Stanford quarterback, he doesn’t want to play for the Colts.

For more, here’s a little something from Friday’s PFT Live.

Two years into the Mike Shanahan era, the Redskins defense is in decent shape.

While the team isn’t exactly brimming with young talent, the roster’s overall youth and depth have improved since Shanahan took over. There are some pieces in place.

The offense — which should be Shanahan’s strength — remains mostly a mess. The team finished 26th in points scored. Only two teams turned the ball over more. Quarterback is unsettled, wide receiver includes no explosive players, and the offensive line still has plenty of questions.

Washington’s to do list is up next.

AP

When Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton said Wednesday night that a stadium deal was close, he wasn’t kidding.

A deal reportedly is imminent.

According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, significant progress was made Thursday on an agreement between the team, the state, and the city.

“I’m hopeful that they’ll get something resolved in the next couple days, but there is no guarantee of that,” Dayton told WCCO radio.  “Of course, that’s the beginning of the process.  It has to get the support of the Minneapolis City Council.  It has to get the support of the Legislature.”

And that’s the key.  The deal doesn’t become a deal until the Legislature passes a bill and Minneapolis approves a plan to come up with its share of the total financial burden.

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Colts fans aren’t too discouraged by last year’s 2-14 season. The potential loss of Peyton Manning doesn’t seem to scare them either, at least not yet.

Season tickets are being renewed like it was any other year.

“You can only speculate because there’s still a few weeks remaining before the deadline, but we’re tracking similar to last year and the year before,” said Pete Ward, the team’s COO via the Indianapolis Star.

The Colts have a season ticket waiting list of about 9,000. They have sold out every game since 1999. Losing Manning should theoretically be a drain on the team’s bottom line, but perhaps it won’t matter if the team has a new shiny No. 1 overall pick quarterback in Andrew Luck to sell to the masses.

“It doesn’t seem like [the uncertainty] has impacted us in a negative way in terms of ticket sales,” Ward said.

AP

In response to our item from this morning regarding Mike Tirico’s take on the prodemotion of Ron Jaworski from Monday Night Football, a reader recommended that we fashion a poll that gives PFT Planet a chance to sound off on the sounds that will be emanating from their televisions while watching ESPN games this season.

And so, since there isn’t a whole lot else going on today, we decided to give it a whirl.

Cast your vote below on whether you agree with the move.  Since “yes” and “no” seemed to be too simplistic, we added a couple of additional options.

“Bring back Joe Theismann” almost made the cut.

By the way, that’s Charles Haley in the photo with Gruden.  Feel free to suggest a caption in the comments.

It’s Friday afternoon.  What the hell else are you doing?  Working?

AP

The Eagles are expected to use the franchise tag to keep free agent receiver DeSean Jackson, but they’re talking publicly about getting a long-term deal done with Jackson, not just locking him up via the franchise tender.

Eagles General Manager Howie Roseman told Philly.com that everyone in the organization is on board with keeping Jackson around for years to come.

“We feel very fortunate to have him as part of our team,” Roseman said. “We all have a relationship with him. Anything other than that, like any player, we’ll try to keep it between us.”

Jackson’s numbers last season — 58 catches for 916 yards and four touchdowns — weren’t bad, but he wasn’t quite the big-play threat he had been the past couple of years. There was also talk in Philadelphia that Jackson wasn’t the most popular man within the franchise. And around the league, there’s been talk that a glut of available wide receivers could make it tough for any one of them to break the bank in free agency.

But Roseman said the Eagles believe in Jackson and want to get a deal done.

“I don’t think this is about leverage; this is about a relationship we have with a player that we drafted and that we feel strongly about,” Roseman said. “We feel fortunate to have a player of DeSean Jackson’s magnitude on our football team and I think the future is bright for DeSean Jackson.”

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Vikings running back Adrian Peterson says he’s making significant progress after having surgery on December 30 to repair a torn ACL.

Peterson said he expects to start running on February 28 and is satisfied with how far he has come.

“I’m definitely making improvement. I’m starting to get my muscle tone and strength back into the legs,” Peterson told Paul Allen on KFAN, via Scout.com. “I’m happy with the progress I’ve made so far. I’m extremely happy.”

Peterson said he is working hard — but not too hard — with his physical therapist in Houston.

“He’s making sure I’m doing the right things. It feels strong, but he doesn’t want me to push it too much,” Peterson said.

Peterson is hoping to be ready for the start of the season, which would mean a recovery time of a little more than eight months.

Reuters

The journalism world is mourning Anthony Shadid, the Pulitzer Prize-winning foreign correspondent who died in Syria Thursday of an apparent asthma attack at the age of 43. Shadid devoted his life to covering war-torn areas of the globe, but no matter where he roamed, he remained a loyal fan of his beloved Green Bay Packers.

Last year, just before the Packers won the Super Bowl, Shadid penned a piece for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about the lengths he had gone to to remain in touch with his favorite team in all corners of the world.

“In 1995, I was sent to Cairo as a foreign correspondent,” Shadid wrote. “The only satellite phones then were the size of steamer trunks, and I couldn’t manage to take that home with me. So any time the Packers played a night game – those games, for some reason, broadcast on expensive satellite channels available in five-star hotels in the Middle East – I plopped down a few hundred dollars for a room at the Marriott. It was still too little Packers for me.”

Shadid, whose book Night Draws Near is the best thing I’ve read about the Iraq war, was resourceful enough to stay on top of NFL news in any situation, and he called tickets to a game the best perk of being a Pulitzer Prize winner.

“Budgetary constraints aside, I listened to every game in Baghdad,” Shadid wrote. “When I won the Pulitzer Prize in 2004, my editor at the Post, Phil Bennett, gave me front-row tickets to a game with the Washington Redskins. Forget the Pulitzer! I’m going to the game! I could have written another book if I had somehow managed not to spend countless hours reading about the Packers online.”

Shadid is survived by his foreign-born wife, Nada, who had never heard of the Packers before meeting him but became a fan, and their two children.

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Cardinals G.M. Rod Graves spoke about Kevin Kolb’s future on Thursday. Let’s see what he had to say, and then offer up a few interpretations.

“There’s no reason to think at this particular point that we wouldn’t proceed with . . . seeing [Kolb's] contract through, but things change as we go down the road,” Graves said on KTAR via NFL.com.

ESPN.com interpreted that as the Cardinals “expect” to retain Kevin Kolb. NFL.com said that Kolb is “likely” to remain in Arizona.

Both of those translations are true, but here’s another: Graves left the door wide open to change course and go after Peyton Manning.

The Cardinals gave Kolb a contract worthy of a franchise quarterback. That’s what they expected out of him. There was no talk of quarterback competition (with John Skelton) or things changing as “we go down the road” a year ago. Kolb was The Guy.

One year later, Graves admitted that he’s keeping his options open. That’s the sensible approach.

Kolb remains the most likely starting quarterback in Arizona next year, but the team’s commitment level has clearly changed. They are open to other possibilities.