Bucs hire Mike Sullivan to run offense

Reuters

Rebuffed on multiple occasions by teams who did to the Bucs what the Bucs historically have done to other teams (i.e., refuse to let position coaches who are under contract interview for coordinator jobs), new coach Greg Schiano finally has found someone to run his offense.

Giants quarterbacks coach Mike Sullivan will get the job of offensive coordinator, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN.

Sullivan has coached Eli Manning for the last two seasons.  Before that, he coached the team’s wideouts for six years.

As a result, Sullivan brings a pair of Super Bowl wins to Tampa, where his job will be to do with Josh Freeman what he has helped do with Eli.

AP

Temperatures are cooler in Seattle than in most of the cities with NFL teams having Organized Team Activities this week, but things are getting heated between the Seahawks’ wide receivers and defensive backs.

The Tacoma News Tribune reports that a skirmish broke out including several players in the two position groups.

It started when receiver Ben Obomanu and cornerback Jeremy Lane were tussling after the whistle blew on a play and had to be separated. Then safety Earl Thomas jumped in to help Lane, taking a swing at Obomanu. That led to receivers Doug Baldwin and Mike Williams jumping in to help Obomanu. (In the picture, wide receiver Deon Butler is pulling Thomas away from the fight.)

A few plays later, according to the News Tribune, safety DeShawn Shead “almost took Baldwin’s head off” on a pass over the middle.

Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said he used the fight as an opportunity to talk to his players about competing hard without crossing the line.

“We’re asking these guys to work really hard, and it really matters to them and they really care,” Carroll said. “And they want to make their plays and their statements, and I don’t blame them one bit. But there is a line that you can cross, and that’s what we talked about afterward.”

And as much as Carroll likes competition, he draws the line at taking a swing at a teammate.

Getty Images

As HBO gets closer to the June 1 date by which it wants to choose a team to appear on Hard Knocks this summer, and as NFL teams seem increasingly uninterested in participating, there’s another theory about why teams might be reluctant: Having a documentary filmmaker around didn’t work out too well for the Saints last season.

The most damning piece of information that has publicly surfaced in the Saints’ bounty scandal was the audiotape of Gregg Williams encouraging his players to injure players on the 49ers, and that audiotape only exists because the Saints agreed to give filmmaker Sean Pamphilon access to the team. ESPN’s Chris Mortensen reported today that at least one team has mentioned the Williams audio as a reason not to do Hard Knocks, and some teams are “paranoid” about Hard Knocks because they’re concerned that giving access to a reality show could lead to something damaging to their reputations being revealed.

Even if those coaches aren’t running a bounty program or in any other way violating any rules, they still might worry that a piece of audio or video from training camp could be misconstrued, and could cast the team or the coaches in a bad light. The last Hard Knocks revealed that Rex Ryan has a potty mouth, but some coaches could be concerned about something more serious than that.

Those concerns may be unfounded, however, because Hard Knocks has always been a partnership involving not just HBO but also NFL Films and the team involved, and HBO has granted the teams the ability to remove content they’d prefer not to get out. For instance, in August of 2001, when the Ravens were on Hard Knocks, HBO allowed team president David Modell and G.M. Ozzie Newsome to see the shows in advance. When then-Ravens coach Brian Billick had an exchange with Eagles coach Andy Reid over the poor quality of the turf at Veterans Stadium, which led to a Ravens-Eagles preseason game being canceled, HBO agreed not to show that exchange, at the Ravens’ request.

But even though coaches on Hard Knocks are told they’ll have the ability to prevent anything they say in training camp from becoming public, that doesn’t necessarily mean coaches have nothing to worry about. After all, Williams never thought his comments would become public, either. And that’s just one more thing going through the minds of coaches who are reluctant to appear on Hard Knocks.

Getty Images

As Brian Urlacher prepares for his 13th NFL season, it also could be his final one with the Bears.

Urlacher, who turned 34 on Friday, celebrated his birthday by proclaiming in a radio interview that he may give free agency a whirl in 2013.

“I think [Bears president] Ted Phillips said when they had the owners meeting they’re gonna wait until the season is over, Urlacher said Friday on WMVP-AM 1000, via the Sports Xchange. “See what happens, how I play.  It’s kind of exciting.  I’ve never been a free agent.  So if I can get to free agency we’ll see what happens.

“I no doubt want to finish my career here.  There’s no doubt about that.  But you bring in free agency and all that you just never know what’s gonna happen.”

What’s going to happen, if Urlacher becomes a free agent, is that he’ll learn the veteran market for linebackers won’t support the $7.5 million base salary he’s due to earn from the Bears in 2012, especially as he closes in on his 35th birthday.  And when Urlacher realizes that a 35-year-old middle linebacker won’t attract the same interest as a 35-year-old franchise quarterback, he’ll likewise realize that the Bears will pay him more than anyone else.

That may be precisely what needs to happen before Urlacher feels as good as he can about the next contract the Bears will put on the table.

If, of course, the Bears decide to even do that.

AP

Last August, the NFL and NFLPA agreed that HGH testing will be conducted under the new CBA.  Since then, HGH testing has not been conducted.

The parties initially disagreed regarding whether a population study should be performed, in order to ensure the acceptable HGH thresholds for NFL players would be based not on the HGH naturally present in the bodies of Olympic athletes (like figure skaters and skiers) but NFL players.  Finally, they agreed to conduct a population study.

Since then, the doctor who agreed to preside over the population study resigned.  And now the NFL and NFLPA disagree on why the doctor left.

As explained by Mark Maske of the Washington Post, the league believes “the union’s actions caused the scientist who had agreed to do the population study to withdraw.”  Maske writes that the league believes the doctor “became convinced the study was scientifically unnecessary and thought the union’s actions indicated the study was more about politics than science.”  Maske also reports that “other scientists have declined to be involved for similar reasons.”

The union denies this contention, strongly.  NFLPA spokesman George Atallah tells PFT via email that the perception is not accurate.

What is accurate is that the NFL and NFLPA are having an increasingly difficult time getting along.  And we’ve got a feeling it’s going to get worse before it gets better.

Getty Images

A long-term deal that pays quarterback Drew Brees more over the first three years than the Saints would pay by using the franchise tag for three straight seasons makes no business sense for the team.  And so the three-year breakeven point is (or at least appears to be) $64.305 million, which is the sum of $16.371 million for 2012 plus $19.645 million for 2012 (i.e., 120 percent of his 2012 salary) plus $28.289 million for 2014 (i.e., 144 percent of his 2013 salary).

In other words, if Brees wants more than $21.435 million per year over the next three years, the Saints would be wise to go year-to-year under the franchise tag.

Jason Cole of Yahoo! Sports reports that Brees’ camp believes his multi-year take under the franchise tag would be even higher, by forcing the Saints to give Brees a 44-percent raise not in 2014 but in 2013, given that Brees already has played a full season under the franchise tag as a member of the Chargers, in 2005.  This argument arises from the basic notion that, in a player’s second franchise-tag season, he gets a 20-percent raise over his prior season’s salary and, in his third franchise-tag season, he receives a 44-percent bump.

This argument, however, doesn’t mesh with a commonsensical reading of the key language of the Collective Bargaining Agreement.  Article 10, Section 2(b) sets forth the formula arising from a thirdfranchise-tag designations, starting with the following language:  “Any Club that designates a player as a Franchise Player for the third time. . . .”

It doesn’t say “if a player is designated as a Franchise Player for the third time.”  It says “any Club that designates a player as a Franchise Player for the third time.”  This strongly implies that the Club that is designating the player as a franchise player for the third time has designated the player as a franchise player twice before.

This alternative interpretation of the CBA puts only an extra $3.929 million in play, pushing the two-year take from $36.016 million to $39.945 million.  So if Brees wants more than $39.945 million over the first two years, it still makes more sense for the Saints to use the tag twice.

There’s another aggressive argument Brees’ camp could advance under Article 10 of the CBA, but no reference to this possibility appears in Cole’s article.  Brees and the NFLPA could claim that the CBA contemplates that a player will be subject to the franchise tag only three times, since it contains no language or formula contemplating the use of a franchise tag a fourth time.  Thus, if the Saints use the tag on Brees this year and next year, and if using the tag this year and next year amounts to using a tag three total times on Brees, Brees could argue that he can’t be tagged in 2014, and this would be an unrestricted free agent.

Perhaps the best news for the 2012 edition of the Saints is that any discussion about what Brees would earn under the franchise tag in 2013 means that he is in fact willing to play under the franchise tag in 2012, despite multiple reports that he won’t.  If he doesn’t play under the franchise tag in 2012, his salary for 2013 once again would be $16.371 million.

Getty Images

Giants receiver Hakeem Nicks is having surgery today after he fractured the fifth metatarsal in his right foot, and there’s some room for optimism that Nicks will recover not just before the start of the regular season, but before the start of training camp.

Despite Giants coach Tom Coughlin saying that Nicks’ recovery time will make playing in Week One a close call, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports that one person familiar with Nicks’ injury said it was more likely to sideline him for just four to six weeks.

If that’s the case, Nicks would be good to go for the start of training camp. A 4-6 week injury would make Nicks miss Organized Team Activities and minicamp, but nothing more than that.

Even at the more pessimistic reports of a 12-week recovery time, Nicks should be good to go for the start of the regular season, which is 15 weeks away. At this point, unless Nicks has a serious setback, he appears to be in good shape to start the season.

Getty Images

The Cowboys said this week that they won’t trade cornerback Mike Jenkins, but the Colts seem to be hoping that was just a bluff.

Adam Schefter of ESPN reports that the Colts have made multiple trade offers for Jenkins, including one that remains on the table. According to Schefter’s source, the Colts believe their offer is one that “many teams would think is compelling.”

That doesn’t mean much if the Cowboys don’t find it compelling, of course, and, as of now, they haven’t been shaken from their plan to hold onto Jenkins. Cowboys coach Jason Garrett said Wednesday that Jenkins’ absence from offseason work isn’t going to force the Cowboys to make a deal involving a player who has been forced out of the starting lineup by the additions of Brandon Carr and Morris Claiborne. According to Schefter’s report, though, there’s a feeling a deal could be worked out for the right price.

Jenkins has been up and down in his first three NFL seasons, but he’d be an upgrade from the Jerraud Powers-Kevin Thomas combo that currently looks like the starting cornerback tandem in Indy. At $1.052 million for the 2012 season, the price is right as well although that’s also part of the reason why the Cowboys are content to hold onto him. Jenkins could play himself into an extension with the Colts if all goes well in the final year of his rookie contract, something that’s a lot less likely to happen in Dallas.

AP

As further proof that the market for veteran running backs has dried up like a seedless grape in the Sahara, once-promising Seahawks tailback Justin Forsett continues to be available, with not much interest demonstrated for his services.

Per a league source, Forsett will visit the Texans on Wednesday.

The Texans’ depth chart currently is topped by Arian Foster and Ben Tate.  Also on the roster are Javarris Williams and rookies Davin Meggett and Jonathan Grimes.

Forsett, 26, has five years of service, including four with Seattle.  He rushed for 619 yards in 2009 (5.4 per carry), 523 in 2010 (4.4 per carry), and only 145 in 2011 (3.2 per carry).  Twenty-two of those yards came on his only touchdown of the season, a play on which he also lost his shoe.

Getty Images

Santana Moss has caught passes from a lot of different quarterbacks since coming to the Redskins.

From John Beck to Jason Campbell to Donovan McNabb, plenty of those quarterbacks have been put forth as the solution to the long-term problem under center in D.C. None of them have actually solved that problem, though, and that’s why the team ponied up a king’s ransom to draft Robert Griffin III with the second overall pick. Expectations are high for the rookie, but Moss doesn’t want the expectations to be unrealistic on him this season.

“It’s one of those situations where he is a young guy and at the end of the day regardless how much his skill level is better than other young guys like himself he still has to learn a lot day by day, so that’s one thing I want everyone to understand that he comes here with the big hope of turning everything around. We are all hoping that,” Moss said in an interview with ESPN 980, via SportsRadioInterviews.com. “We all want that, but I don’t want that pressure on him as if he has to be the one. Together we have to be a team around him to help him bring us to where we have to be at. I feel like everyday we are out there all we can do is get better together and he can get better as a whole just knowing what this offense is going to bring to him.”

The recent success of rookie quarterbacks makes it seem like no sweat to make the transition from college to the pros, but things aren’t always that easy. As Moss points out, Griffin is much more likely to succeed if his teammates are playing well around him. Moss also thinks one of those previous Redskins quarterbacks can help the new kid out.

“I’m still a big supporter of Rex Grossman. Rex is a guy you can always count on. I think most definitely he can be a great attribute to RGIII. I feel like both of them are RGIII-I and RGIII-2.”

That’s nice of Moss to say, but you can be sure that there will be a lot of disappointment in the nation’s capital if that turns out to be true.

AP

The decision of the NFLPA to sue the NFL for collusion has raised questions regarding the NFLPA’s failure to realize that salary cap penalties the union agreed to imposed n the Cowboys and Redskins earlier this year amounted to evidence of collusion.  The NFLPA contends that it didn’t believe that the cap penalties suggested collusion.  Moreover, the NFLPA claims it had no choice but to agree to the removal of $10 million in cap space from the Cowboys and $36 million from the Redskins.

“What was agreed to was worth hundreds of millions of dollars to the players, collectively,” NFLPA outside counsel Jeffrey Kessler said earlier this week, during a conference call with the media.  “When held with a gun of either agreeing to reallocate, move [salary cap space] from two teams to other teams to get those hundreds of millions of dollars, the players felt they did what was in the best interest of the players.”

Kessler was referring to “hundreds of millions of dollars” that pushed the per-team salary cap in 2012 to $120.6 million per team.  Some reports have suggested that the salary cap otherwise would have been as low as $113 million per team, more than $7 million per team less than the 2011 cap of $120.375 million.

Given that the 2012 cap was determined in early March and NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith’s contract was set to expire later that month, there has been ample speculation that the NFLPA feared that a drop in the salary cap less than a year after execution of the new CBA would prompt NFLPA leadership to elect a new executive director.  NFLPA spokesman George Atallah addressed that speculation during the same conference call.

“I’ll answer that by not answering it,” Atallah said, “because he obviously was elected unanimously and there were no issues whatsoever at the rep meetings.  And, you know, it’s interesting that people have speculated or had speculated at the time about De’s future and, you know, you’ve written on the terms of the deal and how good the deal has been, frankly, for players and owners and the league.

“And at this point, you know — there has been a lot of speculation about De’s future in the months after the CBA, and there was a lot of speculation about even De becoming executive director back in 2009 if people remember.  You know, neither he nor I nor Jeff nor David on the call can really worry about that kind of stuff.

“We have an obligation to our members. We have an obligation to every NFL player to make sure that terms of any agreement are complied with and rules are enforced. And that’s what we focus on every day. We, you know, we’ll leave the rest to you guys.”

And so the speculation has persisted.  As Ross Tucker of NBC Sports Network and elsewhere observed on Twitter, “Feels like NFLPA forfeited their rights to a legit collusion case to get 2012 cap [number] higher so De Smith would get re-elected.”  Asked for a reaction to Tucker’s tweet during a Friday morning appearance on ESPN Radio’s Mike & Mike in the Morning, here’s what Smith had to say:  “Well, I hadn’t heard that.  My reaction isn’t to spend too much time debating with people outside of football about issues that purely relate to my job and the Executive Committee and the players of the National Football League.  Everybody is entitled to their own opinion, but nobody’s entitled to their own facts.  So, you know, with respect to what he thinks, let him think it and wish him a good day.”

We agree with Smith regarding his belief as to the facts, but we don’t know what the facts are.  And even though we’d like to know what the facts are, it’s unlikely the media will get anything other than a flat denial.

Still, the circumstantial evidence is fairly compelling.  The NFLPA felt so strongly about getting the salary cap north of $120.375 million that they believed, as Kessler explained it, that they had a “gun” to their heads when the time came to determine whether to accept the proposed cap penalties against the Cowboys and Redskins.  Why did they feel that way?

More importantly, why did they need an infusion of “hundreds of millions” to get the salary cap higher than it was in 2012?

These are questions that the media can ask, but that the NFLPA probably won’t answer.  Whether and to what extent those questions are or have been or will be asked by the NFLPA Executive Committee or the Board of Player Representatives is an entirely different issue.

Getty Images

Bengals undrafted rookie linebacker Brandon Joiner has been sentenced to three years in prison for two counts of aggravated robbery and one count of felony drug possession, but the team says it stands by Joiner and still wants him to play in Cincinnati some day.

Shortly after word came out about Joiner’s sentence — which stems from an incident that took place five years ago, when Joiner played at Texas A&M — the Bengals sent PFT a statement backing Joiner.

“Brandon Joiner remains on the Bengals’ offseason roster,” the statement says. “Though it is unlikely he will have any chance to play this season, his contract extends beyond 2012, and the Club is choosing to retain his NFL rights at this time. Brandon must serve a sentence for a crime he was convicted of in 2007 — when he was 18. But his positive actions during the past five years, including significant community service work, graduation from Arkansas State University and an unblemished subsequent behavior record, have generated a group of active supporters that includes Mike Beebe, the Governor of Arkansas, and Hugh Freeze, Brandon’s head coach at Arkansas State and now head coach at Mississippi. In kind, the Bengals support Brandon’s future opportunity for a career in the NFL.”

Joiner was convicted of working with another man to break into an apartment, assault the people inside, bind them with duct tape and steal their belongings. Despite the three-year sentence, Joiner’s lawyer says he’s optimistic he will be released on parole in as little as six months.

AP

When Warrick Dunn was 18, his single mother, a police officer moonlighting as a security guard, was murdered during an armed robbery. That left Dunn and his five younger siblings without a parent, and he considered quitting football and skipping college to get a job and care for his family. But members of the Dunns’ Baton Rouge community banded together to take care of his siblings while he continued with his plans to attend Florida State, and he vowed that if he ever had the means, he would repay that help by taking care of not just his own family, but also other struggling families.

Dunn has come through on that vow, and then some.

Warrick Dunn Charities, which Dunn founded when he got into the NFL, has just donated its 115th home to a needy family of a single parent. The latest recipient is a woman in Hall County, Georgia, who had been struggling to get by with her three sons but has now been given a fully furnished home by Dunn’s organization.

“One of the key things she said is that, ‘I had one bed.’ We supplied her with everything that she needs,” Dunn told WDUN. “When she pulled up she was excited to see me, but I think the joy was when we walked through the home and she got to see everything in the house was hers. I feel like we changed a life.”

AP

The Cincinnati Bengals have their second first-round pick signed.

Kevin Zeitler, a guard from Wisconsin whom the Bengals selected with the 27th overall pick in the NFL draft, has signed his rookie contract, the team announced. The Bengals had already signed their other first-round pick, cornerback Dre Kirkpatrick.

The Bengals traded down in the first round and ended up taking Zeitler with the 27th overall pick, which they acquired from the Patriots. But they said they liked him enough that they would have taken him at No. 21 if the Patriots hadn’t made the trade offer.

When the Bengals got Organized Team Activities underway, Zeitler was working with the first-string offense as the starting right guard.

“It’s cool to be up there getting some reps, but I have a long way to go,” Zeitler said. “If they did put me with the first unit – great. If they didn’t, I would have just tried to work my way up. I just try to do my job and try to get better.”

The Bengals’ two third-round picks, wide receiver Mohammed Sanu and defensive tackle Brandon Thompson, are the only draft picks they haven’t signed.

Getty Images

After months of premature cork-popping and unhatched-chicken-counting, it’s now official.  The Minnesota Vikings will be getting a new stadium.  In Minnesota.

The Minneapolis City Council voted Friday to ratify a Thursday vote to accept the deal that went from bill to law in the Minnesota Legislature earlier this month.

The project reached the finish line five weeks to the day after a trip by Commissioner Roger Goodell and Steelers owner Art Rooney II to the Land of 10,000 Lakes created sufficient concern that the Vikings, absent a new stadium, could soon join the Lakers in Los Angeles.

Once again, the measure passed City Council by a vote of 7-6.  Which is sort of fitting because it’s a reminder of the low scores of Vikings games played outdoors at Metropolitan Stadium, the pre-Metrodome home of the Vikings.

Speaking of outdoors, the only remaining question is whether the Wilfs will kick in enough extra money to put a retractable roof on the new venue.  You know, for those two games per year when it would make sense to slide it open.

Even then, sliding open the lid would sacrifice some of the sound that the Vikings so famously generated at the Metrodome.

Regardless of the amount of noise, the best news the franchise and its fans in Minnesota is that the team will be staying put, at least for another generation or so.  When the time will come to squeeze the public coffers for enough money to build the next new stadium.

AP

Jets linebacker Bart Scott put out word through his agent in February that he was “extremely frustrated” with his role in the Jets’ defense. But after talking to Jets coach Rex Ryan, Scott says everything is good.

Scott told the Star-Ledger that he told Ryan he wants to be on the field for every snap, and that he and Ryan have come to an understanding about how he’ll be used this season.

“It’s cool, it was just something Rex and I needed to be on the same page about,” Scott said. “[I wanted him] to know where I stood and what the plans were and once we hashed that out it was fine. I’ve never been afraid to speak my mind or bet on myself so that was a conversation that needed to be had, we had it and we moved on. Hopefully I can be back to what I’ve always done, which never included leaving the field a lot.”

Scott has always been one of Ryan’s favorite players, dating back to their time together in Baltimore, and signing Scott as a free agent was one of Ryan’s top priorities when he became the head coach of the Jets. After Organized Team Activities on Thursday, Ryan made a point of mentioning that Scott had looked good on the practice field.

“I think Bart, Bart is ready to be Bart Scott, the guy that we brought in here,” Ryan said. “When you look at it, Bart will tell you he had a disappointing year last year, just like I’ll tell you I had a disappointing year last year. And this whole football team — Bart and myself — want to have a great year this year.”

Ryan said he was impressed with Scott’s attention to detail, and liked seeing Scott taking notes during defensive meetings, even though Scott has played in Ryan’s defense longer than anyone else on the Jets.

Scott’s attention to detail apparently does not extend, however, to the quarterbacks he’s facing on the practice field. Scott had an interception during 7-on-7 drills, and he mentioned to reporters afterward that he had picked off “McCoy.” The Jets don’t have a quarterback named McCoy; Scott apparently thought he had intercepted third-stringer Greg McElroy. Scott had actually intercepted Tim Tebow.

At least there was one person at the Jets’ OTAs who wasn’t obsessing over Tebow.