Cutler’s comments undermine Forte’s leverage

AP

When it comes to a player talking about another player’s contractual situation, the smartest move is not to.

Bears quarterback Jay Cutler opted for something less than smart on Friday, when Cutler said he’d be “shocked” (and possibly perplexed) if running back Matt Forte doesn’t sign his $7.7 million franchise tender by the middle of next month.

“I would be shocked if he doesn’t sign his tender by July 15, or whenever it is, and he shows up.  It would really be a surprise to me,” Cutler said on ESPN 1000 in Chicago.  “At the end of the day, I think Matt knows it’s business.  He’s still getting seven-whatever-million dollars to play this year.  So he’s gonna show up.”

For starters, Cutler doesn’t understand how the franchise tag business works.  July 15 (this year, July 16 because July 15 falls on a Sunday) is the deadline for signing a franchise-tagged player to a long-term deal.  Forte can still sign his franchise tender after July 16 and still get his “seven-whatever million dollars” from the Bears.

Actually, Forte can stay away from all of training camp and all of the preseason and sign the franchise tender days before the start of the regular season and get his full “seven-whatever million dollars.”  And if the Bears don’t give him the long-term deal that he wants by July 16, staying away until the last minute is the smart play, because it keeps Forte from being exposed to injury during training camp or the preseason.

Even if Cutler knew what he was talking about, he shouldn’t be talking.  Forte is trying to use the leverage of withheld services to get a long-term deal.  Cutler’s comments undermine Forte’s leverage.

And in turn Cutler’s comments possibly undermine the relationship between Cutler and Forte.

Given Forte’s uncanny ability to speak candidly without being disrespectful, don’t be shocked (or perplexed) if someone asks Forte about Cutler’s comments.  And don’t be shocked (or perplexed) if Forte expresses his disappointment, bluntly yet tactfully.

Reuters

San Francisco 49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh has been involved with the sport of IndyCar Racing ever since his playing days for the Indianapolis Colts in the late 1990′s. Now he gets a chance to play a part in one of motor racing’s greatest spectacles.

According to Curt Cavin of the Indianapolis Star, Harbaugh will drive the pace car to lead the 33-car field to the green flag Sunday morning for the 97th running of the Indianapolis 500. Harbaugh will be in front of the field in a 2014 Corvette Stingray leading the way to the green flag.

“I know my heart is going to be beating out of my chest,” Harbaugh said.

Harbaugh played for the Indianapolis Colts from 1994-1997. During his time in Indianapolis, Harbaugh became a co-owner of Panther Racing and has been involved with the sport ever since. The team has used Harbaugh’s No. 4 from his playing days with the Colts as the number for their car. J.R. Hildebrand starts 10th Sunday for the team in the No. 4 National Guard car. Panther racing is also providing rides for Oriol Servia (13th) and Townsend Bell (22nd) in the race.

AP

Arizona Cardinals tight end Jeff King has yet to make it onto the practice field with the team this offseason.

According to Kent Somers of the Arizona Republic, King has been unable to participate in OTAs after having surgery on his knee this offseason.

The Cardinals are hopeful he can begin practicing again with the team in June. King dealt with a knee injury last season for the Cardinals. He appeared in 12 of 16 games for Arizona and caught 17 passes for 129 yards on the year.

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As we launch into the last of the eight division’s Mt. Rushmore nomination process, we’ll start with the franchise whose best days could be coming up very soon.

As in, this year.

For now, though, you’ll have to draw on the past when coming up with the nominees who’ll eventually be carved down to four figures from the team with the helmet that looks like a funky Jack-o-Lantern.

Possibilities include Ken Anderson, Boomer Esiason, James Brooks, Corey Dillon, Chad Johnson, Cris Collinsworth, Isaac Curtis, Anthony Muñoz (who else remembers Madden pronouncing it without the tilde?), Reggie Williams, and others.

So have at it, with any of the above or others.

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On a day where NFL owners picked two Super Bowl sites and left one out in the cold, the Raiders and Chargers made moves to secure two of the better remaining free agents — moves that could help both clubs avoid getting caught short at positions of need.

The Raiders, who have done well to rework their secondary, brought back safety / cornerback Charles Woodson for another stint. He gives the Raiders a little more playmaking ability and experience on the back end of their defense.

The Chargers, meanwhile, finally added another veteran left tackle, signing Max Starks. Perhaps Starks ends up the starter, or maybe King Dunlap wins the job. The point is, the Chargers have more options now, and that’s not a bad thing.

The same can be said about the Raiders. At the beginning of April, their secondary was not in good shape. Since then, the Raiders have drafted cornerback D.J. Hayden in the first round and signed veteran cornerbacks Mike Jenkins and Tracy Porter. And now, Woodson strengthens their hand at safety.

With Woodson employed, ex-Cardinal Kerry Rhodes and ex-Ram Quintin Mikell are the two most accomplished safeties left on the market. Mikell, for the record, replaces Woodson on PFT’s All-Unemployed Team, which was updated Tuesday night.

Starks’ signing further thins the left tackle market, with ex-Eagle Demetress Bell taking his place on the All-Unemployed squad.

The Chargers had a need, and they made a reasonable attempt at filling it Tuesday. The same can be said for the Raiders.

As summer nears, this is getting tougher and tougher to do around the league.

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Count Seattle Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch among the group of players exercising their right to not attend voluntary offseason workouts across the league.

Lynch was the only healthy member of the Seahawks not to be in attendance for the team’s first OTA practice on Monday. Defensive end Chris Clemons and defensive tackle Greg Scruggs were also not on hand but both are recovering from ACL surgeries.

Lynch is instead electing to adhere to his own workout program. He made an appearance by the team’s facility within the past two weeks and head coach Pete Carroll said he’s in great shape.

“He’s working in a very intense program in his area and he’s benefiting from it,” Carroll said.

That being said, Carroll still wishes his Pro Bowl running back would choose to be in the building working out with the rest of the team.

“We miss him and we’d like him to be here. This is a lot of fun and there is a lot of good stuff happening here,” Carroll said. “…We’d love to see everyone here.”

Being fresh for the start of the season ultimately will be the biggest desire for Lynch and Carroll. Lynch has carried the ball 600 times over the last two seasons and takes a beating due to his physical running style. He’s dealt with back issues the last two years as well. If sticking to his own workout plan keeps him on the field in the fall, don’t expect Carroll to be complaining too much about Lynch missing some offseason work with the team.

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When agent Carl Poston told ESPN’s Josina Anderson that cornerback Charles Woodson’s contract with the Raiders had a “max” value of $4.3 million, I had a feeling the base value would be far lower than that.

And it is.

Poston now tells Anderson that the deal has a base value of $1.8 million.

Incentives make up the $2.5 million balance, and it’s unclear unknown what Woodson has to do to earn any, some, or all of that amount.

Incentives are tied to individual or team performance, from playing time to wins to playoffs appearances to qualifying for the AFC title game if Woodson were to hit Tom Brady like Woodson did a dozen years ago, since the Tuck Rule finally has been scuttled.

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Even before the Chargers added long-time Steelers left tackle Max Starks on Tuesday, San Diego’s NFL team had been giving us plenty to talk about after a humdrum offseason.

So we talked about some of it on PFT Live, with Kevin Acee of U-T San Diego.

Acee explains the issues arising from the team’s unusual decision to shield rookie linebacker Manti Te’o from the media, which are unrelated to the question of whether anyone truly wants to continue to ask Te’o about his fake dead girlfriend.  (We don’t, Acee doesn’t, and we don’t know of anyone who does.)

Acee also addresses the impact of linebacker Dwight Freeney, the status of quarterback Philip Rivers, and whatever else came up during however long we spent talking to Acee.

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Yes, Charles Woodson has returned to the Raiders.  The next question becomes how many million reasons they gave him to do it.

According to Josina Anderson of ESPN, Woodson’s agent, Carl Poston, said that the 1997 Heisman winner’s one-year deal is worth a “max” of $4.3 million, which includes a $700,000 signing bonus.

The maximum value, while significant, isn’t nearly as important as the base deal.  And when Poston told Anderson that the deal is worth up to $4.3 million, Poston didn’t mention the base value.

It’s somewhere between $700,000 and $4.299999 million.  Unless Poston opts to disclose the amount, we’ll all have to wait until the contract officially is filed.

Woodson’s decision to sign on the same day he visited the Raiders suggests that they made an offer that met his demands.  Over the weekend, Woodson said he’d be interested in the Lions “[i]f I make it out of my visit with Oakland, like I just made it out of the visit with Denver.”

In other words, he had a number, and the Raiders met it.  The Broncos, 49ers, and anyone else clearly didn’t.

AP

Charles Woodson is heading back to the team that drafted him.

Woodson and the Raiders have agreed to terms on a one-year contract, Jay Glazer of FOX Sports first reported and the Raiders later confirmed.

The move comes as no surprise, as Woodson had visited Oakland and the Raiders were one of the few teams known to be interested. The 36-year-old Woodson has acknowledged that he didn’t have a lot of options after the Packers released him, although there was talk in recent days that interest was picking up from the Broncos.

The Raiders selected Woodson with the fourth overall pick in the 1998 NFL draft, and he was selected to the Pro Bowl in each of his first four seasons in Oakland. Woodson left for the Packers in free agency in 2006. Now he’s returning to his original team for another season, nearing the end of his NFL career in the place where it began.

AP

Commissioner Roger Goodell says the NFL needs to move the draft from late April to May because of potential scheduling conflict at Radio City Music Hall, where the draft has been held every year since 2006.

According to Don Banks of SI.com, multiple team execs are opposed to the move.

“You’d be hard-pressed to find any football-side person in the league in favor of it,” an unnamed AFC G.M. told Banks.  “Unless you consider having more time for draft preparation a benefit, more time for paralysis by analysis, there’s nothing to like. I’ve tried to think of one [positive], but I haven’t yet.”

One unnamed NFC executive doesn’t buy the excuse for the move.

“The league coming out and saying this is because of the Easter Bunny and the [Radio City Spring Spectacular] is almost embarrassing,” the unnamed executive told Banks.  “This is the NFL.  You think we couldn’t get those dates or make something work if we really wanted to?  This is about moving the draft into May for [TV network] sweeps month.  I’d rather somebody be honest and come out and just admit that it’s about ratings and TV issues.  But I get it.  I suppose we all should be thankful in that everybody in the league benefits financially when the league has success from a TV perspective.”

The root of the consternation comes from the stubborn resistance to change demonstrated by coaches and football executives.

“We’re all creatures of habit in this league, and we like things the way they are,” the unnamed NFC club executive told Banks.  “Anything new is not going to be popular.  We already have too much time to do draft analysis as is, and now maybe we’re going to have another three weeks of it?  Next week we actually start working on next year’s draft, but if the draft isn’t held until mid-May, that work doesn’t even begin until June.  And then it’s only late June or early July when things finally slow down.”

An unnamed NFL executive knows the fight is coming.

“The football ops people will raise hell,” the unnamed NFL exec said.  “There are bunch of issues in play here, so don’t think that it’s done.  Coaches and front office executives aren’t going to like not having their hands on their new players for another two or three weeks.

“They’ll say, ‘Hey, we need to get our hands on them and we need to coach them.’ So this could wind up having an effect on some integrity of the game issues, and we need to listen to that. There’s a lot of ground to cover on this and there’s a long way to go.  This isn’t over at all.”

Still, it’s clear the NFL wants to nudge the draft into May.  Next year, it will happen; the only question is whether the draft starts on May 8 or May 15.  After the draft moves to May and the pro football world continues to spin, it’ll be easier for the league office to sell the teams on change moving forward.

Or, if need be, to force change upon them.

AP

The man who would have loved to host Super Bowl L or LI in Cowboys Stadium has shown grace and class in response to the news that one of the two games will be played down the road in Houston.

“The presentation was one of the best I’ve ever seen,” Jones tells FOX 26 of the Houston presentation.  “So professionally done. They talked about what football meant in Texas.”

Jones also had great things to say about Texans owner Bob McNair.

“Bob McNair came into the league as maybe one of the top four or five owners and has probably elevated himself up to the best one,” Jones said.

It’s a far cry from a dismissive crack Jones made in 2008 about Houston and the Texans.

“The Cowboys have never been about checkered tablecloths and boots and hats,” Jones said at the time.  “They’ve been about glitz and glitter.  Leave the other stuff to the Houston Texans.”

McNair had no problem with the things Jerry said nearly five years ago.

“I’m not offended by what Jerry said,” McNair said at the time. “I’m glad he knows we’re the Texans.  I’m proud to be a Texan and a Houstonian. . . .  Houston’s a hardworking city, and the Texans are a hardworking team.  I don’t see anything wrong with checkered tablecloths, hats and boots.”

He also doesn’t see anything wrong with Super Bowls.  After all, Houston will be hosting its third in 2017.  Dallas is stuck at one.

AP

The wisdom of Tampa Bay’s trade for cornerback Darrelle Revis ultimately will be determined by the player’s performance in 2013 and beyond.  His performance in 2013 hinges on the performance of his surgically-repaired knee.

The good news for Revis and the Bucs (and the bad news for everyone they play) is that Revis now has clearance to cut and change directions.

“I feel very confident,” Revis tells Andrea Kremer of NFL Network in the latest installment of Health of the Game:  Project Revis.  “If Todd tells me to cut, I am cutting.  I am not trying to think about [it].”

Revis remains confident that he’ll return to the form that made him the best cornerback in the league.

“The first time I step out there, I’ll be fine,” Revis said.

Coach Greg Schiano hopes he’ll get Revis at 100 percent, but Schiano will settle for less.

“That’s how we’re planning. I mean, we have faith that he’s going to recover,” Schiano said.  “If it isn’t exactly that way right away, then we’ll adapt.  Eighty-five or 90 percent of Darrelle Revis is still better than most 100 percent other corners, right?”

He’s right.  But the 13th overall pick in the 2013 draft and a third-round pick (unless Revis is cut before next March) in 2014 will be hard to justify if he’s many percentage points below the maximum.

AP

With NFL owners voting to put a Super Bowl in MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, it’s logical to wonder if more outdoor title games in cold-weather locales are possible.

So, how about the Boston area getting a game?

The subject came up at NFL commissioner Roger Goodell’s press conference at the conclusion of the league meetings Tuesday in Boston, and Goodell’s answer shed some light on the various issues that would go into such a decision.

“It is a great city,” Goodell said, according to a transcript provided by the league. “We stress this over and over again. We are holding our first northern site Super Bowl at the end of this season. We want to see what that experience is like.

“It is more than just a game now. I keep emphasizing that. This is a week-long event. We have multiple events that need multiple facilitates. We are at [a need for] well over 25,000 hotel rooms now.

“. . . If there is an interest at some point in time and we decide to look at open-air northern site Super Bowl cities, I assume the Patriots will look at that.”

Gillette Stadium, home of the Patriots, opened in 2002. All Super Bowls through 2017 are spoken for with owners selecting San Francisco and Houston as host cities in 2016 and 2017, respectively, on Tuesday.

A New York-New Jersey Super Bowl that leaves teams, corporate sponsors and fans pleased could open up some intriguing possibilities for the league. But Goodell’s response was telling. The league looks to be taking a wait-and-see approach on expanding the pool of host cities with outdoor stadiums in cooler climates.

AP

The Broncos continue to deal with the aftermath of a special season that went awry during a divisional-round double-overtime playoff loss to the Ravens, fueled by a 70-yard touchdown pass allowed by the Denver defense in the final minute of regulation.

Defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio was sorry for what happened.  But then he got sick of being sorry.

“I got tired of apologizing to our fans that I would see out in the community,” Del Rio told reporters on Tuesday, via quotes distributed by the team.  “I finally said, ‘Hey, you know, it’s time to move on.’   That’s kind of how I look at it.  I was apologizing.  I was like, ‘Golly, I’m really sorry that we let you down.  I know how you were there with us.’   It was a tough one.  Anywhere, wherever you see fans and we have interactions.  I really felt like we let them down.  Obviously we let ourselves down first.”

But Del Rio is done with feeling sorry for himself, or to anyone else.

“That’s way in the past now,” Del Rio said.  “At this point, it’s in our rear-view mirror.  You learn what you can about anything that you experience in life and go forward.  That’s where we are.  We’re going forward.”

As the Broncos go forward, they’ll continue to be regarded as an elite team with a real chance of going to Super Bowl XLVIII.  Still, they’ll have to emerge from the valley of 0-0 to get there.

After seeing last season’s regular-season success evaporate so quickly, that could be hard to do.

AP

On the off chance the Cowboys have any idea who’s calling plays this year, or how they’ll be called, they’re not in the mood to talk about.

For some reason, Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett still won’t say who is taking over the responsibility that by all appearances was snatched away from him by owner Jerry Jones this offseason.

“I think we have a pretty good plan, and we’ll execute it as the offseason progresses,” Garrett said, via Calvin Watkins of ESPNDallas.com.

No reason to be in a rush fellas, it’s only May.

The usual suspect is offensive line coach/coordinator Bill Callahan, but he ducked for cover when asked about what ought to be a fairly conventional process Tuesday.

“Whatever coach wants me to do, whatever role he wants me to fill, I’m more than happy to do that,” Callahan said. “We’re working through a lot of things right now. . . .

“When that play goes in, they’re all types of options that we build into the play itself. They can be checks with me, they can be packaged with another run, run-to-run, pass-to-pass. A lot of that [goes] on when the play goes in. You have to, from the people that I’ve spoken with around the NFL. There’s a lot of teams that use that mechanism, use that procedure. That’s one way of doing it.”

That points to the added influence quarterback Tony Romo will have. But no one knows whether to think quarterbacks coach Wade Wilson might have a hand in it, or another coach, or Jones himself.

But the latest simple thing-made-complicated can’t possibly help the Cowboys on the field.