Lewand wants new contract for Stafford, but not for cap relief

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Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford enters the fifth year of his rookie deal with a $20.8 million cap number.  And while it’s important for the team to knock that number down in order to transact business, the franchise’s primary objective is to ensure that their franchise quarterback will remain with the team over the long haul.

“Matthew Stafford is our quarterback, and we hope is our quarterback for a long time,” Lions president Tom Lewand said. via Anwar Richardson of MLive.com.  “The reason to explore a contract extension with Matthew is to fulfill that goal of having him be our quarterback for a long time.  It’s not a short-term look at the salary cap.  That’s the wrong way to look at that.  When you look at extending somebody like Matthew, he’s not going to take less money to extend.  That’s a very short-term focus to look at.”

Lewand is right, but there’s a win-win that comes from a long-term deal that drives down the current cap number.

“The reason to have an extension with Matthew, just like the reason to have the extension with Calvin [Johnson] last year, was to secure their services for a long period of time,” Lewand said.  “In Calvin’s case last year, the timing was a little bit different because we knew that there was an opportunity to get something done.  But in Matthew’s case, Matthew’s got two years left on his deal.  Calvin didn’t.  It’s a different set of circumstances.”

The one primary similarity is that both players were drafted in the top two picks, prior to the arrival of the rookie wage scale.  The cap numbers from the latter years of their big-money rookie contracts necessarily create leverage to do a long-term deal.  Indeed, Johnson’s extension dropped his cap number for 2012 from $21 million to $11.5 million.

So while the main goal was to get Johnson last year and now Stafford this year locked up for the long haul, the reality is that their long-term deals have been inflated by the amounts they were already due to earn under trumped-up rookie contracts.

They still have one more player who falls into that category.  Defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh was the second overall pick in 2010, the last year before the rookie wage scale.  It could be that, after committing major cap dollars in the present and future to Johnson and Stafford, Suh will become an erratic luxury the Lions can’t afford.

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The process for nominating players, coaches, etc. to each team’s Mt. Rushmore has made its way back to Broadway, with the Jets officially on the clock.

For Fireman Ed and company, the challenge is to show us your nominees for the four greatest contributors in franchise history.

The problem is that there likely won’t be many players or others from recent years.  Those back-to-back AFC title game appearances are looking more and more like aberrations, and the best player from those teams (Darrelle Revis) only played five years and a slice of a sixth.

But nominate whoever/whomever/whatever you want.  From Joe Namath to Tim Tebow, everyone is eligible at this stage of the process.  Eventually, we’ll trim the field to a dozen or so finalists for official voting.

At least, as official as online poll voting ever gets.

Reuters

The Jets lost a quarterback this week when David Garrard said “no mas” because of a knee injury and a report from Tony Grossi of ESPNCleveland.com indicates they were interested in replacing him.

Grossi reports that the Jets “really wanted” to sign Brian Hoyer after Hoyer was released by the Cardinals. They weren’t able to close a deal, though, and Hoyer agreed to terms with the Browns on a two-year deal.

It probably comes as no surprise that the Jets were interested in the quarterback since they’ve shown some level of interest in just about every quarterback with recent NFL experience. It would also come as no surprise to see the team look elsewhere for another body to add to their current four-man mix at the position since it is clear that no one from that group has a stranglehold on the starting job.

Hoyer’s probably about as good as it is going to get on the free agent market until team start making cuts during camp this summer, however, and adding a player who can learn the offense quickly enough to win the job at that point is, to put it mildly, a long shot. It’s probably going to be Mark Sanchez or Geno Smith at quarterback come the start of the season for the Jets.

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NFL owners will be gathering in Boston this week for a meeting that has one primary item on the agenda:  Awarding two Super Bowls.

First, it’s Miami versus San Francisco for Super Bowl L.  Then, the loser takes on Houston for Super Bowl LI.  The votes will happen on Tuesday.

Via Mike Rosenberg of the San Jose Mercury News, supporters of the South Florida Super Bowl raised $36.5 million to support their bid, which is more than twice the amount previously believed and $6.5 million more than Bay Area supporters raised.

For the powers-that-be in San Francisco (yes, we know the stadium is in Santa Clara), the broader goal has becomes cracking the Super Bowl rotation, which would put games periodically in the new venue instead of making a title game a one-shot, quid pro quo for building it.

“Owners remember successful Super Bowls,” NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy told Rosenberg.

The bar will be higher for Super Bowl L.  “It’s a bigger deal,” NFL senior V.P. for events Frank Supovitz told Rosenberg.  “Super Bowl L has to be above and beyond even that curve of improvement.”

That could make it even harder for Miami to win Super Bowl L, given the failure of an effort to secure public funds to upgrade Sun Life Stadium.  After hinging future Super Bowls to renovations at the place where the game is played, the not-so-subtle threat will come off as hollow, especially if Miami gets the 50th edition of America’s premier sporting event.

Miami could still finagle Super Bowl LI.  At times, the game is as much about the events preceding it as the game itself, and South Florida remains an ideal location for the seven days of events that come before kickoff.

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Linebacker Rolando McClain’s decision to retire from the NFL in an attempt to get his personal life in order seems like a wise thing for a player who has not been able to stay out of trouble since entering the professional ranks.

According to McClain’s college coach, it’s also a decision that’s fair to a Ravens team that signed McClain to a one-year, non-guaranteed deal after he was released by the Ravens. Alabama coach Nick Saban said he thinks McClain needs to get himself into a place where he can concentrate on football and that it was the right move to announce his retirement rather than go forward at less than full speed.

“For the Ravens, Ro’s being fair to them,” Saban said, via Don Kausler Jr. of the Birmingham News. “What he’s saying is that he’s not ready to play rather than them having to release him, where someone else can claim him. They can retain his rights. I think he likes the Ravens organization. I think he likes John [Harbaugh]. I think he likes Ozzie [Newsome]. He appreciates the fact that they gave him an opportunity, so I think he’s doing the right thing.”

In a statement, McClain said that “God willing” he’ll play for the Ravens one day and the Ravens will hold onto his rights as long as McClain remains on the Reserve/Retired list. It’s not the great favor that Saban makes it out to be, but Baltimore would certainly stand to benefit down the road if the former eighth overall pick is able to get back to a place where he’s focused on the football field instead of the courtroom.

AP

New Jets General Manager John Idzik hasn’t even gotten his team to training camp yet, but folks around the league are already poking at his 0-for-2 start to free agency.

Idzik’s first two moves were to sign veteran quarterback David Garrard and running back Mike Goodson.

Garrard’s retiring because of a bad knee which the world knew about, and Goodson was arrested on gun and drug charges, pointing to his reputation for poor decision-making and immaturity.

“Do these guys do background checks?” an opposing scout said of the Jets’ acquisition of Goodson specifically, via Rich Cimini of ESPNNewYork.com.

Signing Garrard was great in theory, but few thought he’d hold up physically for long enough to win the starting job (since the same thing happened in Miami last year).

And while Goodson hasn’t pocketed all of the $1 million bonus which was part of his three-year, $6.9 million deal, that’s looking more like a sunk cost as well.

It’s not quite the start the Jets were looking out of their new G.M., who better hope some of his other decisions (namely the future of quarterback Geno Smith and how he handles Mark Sanchez) work out better.

AP

After two women sued Browns running back Trent Richardson for allegations that he instigated their assault outside his home in December 2012, some pointed to the absence of criminal charges as proof that Richardson is blameless.

At the time, a representative of the Lorain County Sheriff’s Office explained that the alleged victims had not cooperated with the investigation.  (Their lawyer disagreed.)  Now, a prosecutor has confirmed that there will be no charges, absent additional information.

According to the Morning Journal, Elyria City Prosecutor Matt Mishak said that, due to conflicting statements, there was no probable cause to arrest Richardson.  Mishak added that, absent new evidence, charges are unlikely.

Meanwhile, the lawsuit against Richardson was transferred from Cuyahoga County to Lorain County, a move that presumably occurred at the request of Richardson’s lawyers.  It’s part of the games lawyers play as they try to position cases so they’ll be heard by judges and/or juries deemed to be more favorable.

The absence of criminal charges has no impact on a civil lawsuit, which is subject to a far lower standard of proof and can be filed without meeting any initial burdens like probable cause.

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The Dolphins are getting closer to signing all of their draft picks.

Aaron Wilson of the Baltimore Sun reports that running back Mike Gillislee, a fifth-round pick in April, has signed his contract with the team. According to the report, Gillislee’s four-year deal is worth $2.322 million and he received a signing bonus of $162,800.

Gillislee will fight Daniel Thomas for snaps behind projected starter Lamar Miller in 2013. After the draft, Dolphins General Manager Jeff Ireland said (via the Miami Herald) that he thought Gillislee could handle himself in pass protection. If that proves to be true, that skill could help push him into a third-down role on the offense this season. He ran for 1,152 yards and 10 touchdowns at Florida in 2012.

With Gillislee in the fold, the Dolphins have now signed five of their nine draft picks from last month.

AP

As we learned last week, some teams are more willing than others to work with players with certain medical conditions.

But the Giants had no such qualms about drafting safety Cooper Taylor in the fifth round, even though he had a lengthy medical report including a heart condition which was diagnosed in 2009.

During a game his sophomore season at Georgia Tech, his heart began racing, he felt dizzy and blacked out. He was diagnosed with Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome, a rare issue with the electrical pathways in the heart. He had a procedure the next day, and was assured it wouldn’t prevent him from playing again.

“When it comes to heart conditions,” he told Ralph Vacchiano of the New York Daily News, “it’s a good one to have because they can fix it 100 percent.”

Of course, he had plenty of other health issues as well, during a college caerer that included a transfer to Richmond. He had the usual assortment of knee sprains and broken bones, and also missed most of 2010 with a “heat-related illness,” which he said was unrelated to the WPW.

But the heart problem was the one teams were careful to check out, causing him to travel with a full file of documents.

“A lot of teams wanted to make sure that I had all the doctors’ records,” Taylor said. “So I was travelling with a stack of notes and papers that I had from the best doctors in Atlanta and whoever I was seeing up in Richmond when I transferred that said the heart pathways have been fixed and there should be no other problems. So any team that needed it, I had that information right there for them.”

The Giants said they didn’t consider him a medical risk after checking his file, giving Taylor a chance to fulfill a dream he thought was taken away from him years ago.

AP

Bills DE Mario Williams graduated from the Lone Star College Law Enforcement Academy on Friday, which makes him a licensed peace officer in the state of Texas.

The Dolphins went fishing for charity this weekend.

Members of the Patriots recently played in a charity basketball game with the Tewksbury Police Association.

Jets RB Mike Goodson’s recent arrest could land him in prison, which is where his father is currently serving a 20-year sentence.

Ravens CB Marc Anthony gets asked about Jennifer Lopez and Cleopatra more than he’d like.

Former Steeler Greg Lloyd paid a visit to Bengals coach Marvin Lewis’ charity golf outing.

Is CB Leon McFadden destined for a starting role with the Browns?

Former Steelers QB Charlie Batch gave the commencement address at Washington & Jefferson College, alma mater of NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.

Five things to watch when the Texans gather for OTAs.

Colts coach Chuck Pagano caught a ride around the Indianapolis 500 track with Mario Andretti.

Playing time at receiver is there for the taking with the Jaguars.

Playing for former offensive linemen Mike Munchak and Bruce Matthews helped convince Robert Turner to sign with the Titans.

There will be a lot of competition at wide receiver and linebacker for the Broncos.

Members of the Chiefs staff spent Friday touring the site of this year’s training camp.

Eight members of the Raiders visited Facebook headquarters to learn about the company.

LB Larry English could be in line for an expanded role with the Chargers.

Brandon George of the Dallas Morning News thinks rookie CB B.W. Webb and rookie WR Terrance Williams could have an impact for the Cowboys this year.

Giants S Cooper Taylor has long looked up to former Giants CB Jason Sehorn.

The Eagles are planning shorter, more efficient practices this season.

A look at who’s in the mix for the right tackle job with the Redskins.

Mike Ditka shares some thoughts on QB Jay Cutler and other Bears.

Lions QB Shaun Hill had a walking boot on his foot after what he called a “very minor” procedure.

Versatility is one of the things Packers DL Datone Jones brings to the table.

It’s going to be a big season for Vikings QB Christian Ponder.

The Falcons are set to have their largest offensive line in years.

LB Jon Beason hasn’t joined his teammates in restructuring his contract with the Panthers.

Said Saints T Charles Brown of his bid for a starting job, “I feel like my time has come, and I’m trying to get ready for it.”

Buccaneers G Davin Joseph’s charitable foundation is helping schools in Tampa.

Cardinals tight ends coach Rich Christophel hasn’t found it too difficult making the jump from college to the pros.

The Rams will host a 5K run the day before the start of the regular season.

49ers WR Ricardo Lockette is getting help with the playbook from QB Colin Kaepernick.

A call for Seahawks coach Pete Carroll to address the team’s performance-enhancing drug suspensions.

AP

Plenty of players test positive for performance enhancing drugs.  But the Seahawks definitely are in the midst of a troubling trend.

As pointed out by Eric D. Williams of the Tacoma News Tribune, defensive end Bruce Irvin has become the sixth Seahawks player to test positive for performance enhancing drugs since 2011.

The others are cornerback Brandon Browner, safety Winston Guy, offensive lineman John Moffitt, offensive lineman Allen Barbre, and cornerback Richard Sherman.

Sherman’s suspension was overturned on appeal, based on irregularities with the sample-collection process.  Officially, then, he tested positive but the league determined that he did not violate the PED policy.

Irvin’s suspension also proves that, no matter how good a team looks on paper in May, plenty of things can happen to derail what appears to be a certain Super Bowl run.

AP

Lions linebacker Stephen Tulloch recently landed on NFL Network’s Top 100 list.  Four spots higher than Darrelle Revis.

Which prompted a candid reaction from MDS.

And so Tulloch has found a way to find extra motivation, based on the response to his placement ahead of Revis.

“Trust me, I’ve been [a] fourth-round pick, undersized, this and that.  I’ve heard it all,” Tulloch said, via Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press.  “I’ve came to the league, I’ve played a long time, I’ve made good money, I’ve done it all.  At this point, you can keep throwing stones at me but I’m going to keep breaking them up and keep doing what I do.  That’s just another one.  It’s all good.”

Still, Tulloch believes the players who vote on the top 100 players (actually, the players who vote merely pick their top 20) got it right.

“People don’t realize that when you play the game of football you endure a lot and you go through a lot and the players, they understand that,” Tulloch said.  “So for the players to vote [me in the top 100] and leave the writers out of it, it speaks volumes because we know what it is to go week in and week out and play against one another.”

Tulloch was more direct in response to MDS’s assessment of the wisdom of Tulloch’s placement ahead of Revis.  “Lol I love it when people hate @ProFootballTalk Michael D Smith!” Tulloch said on Twitter.  “He can sit behind a computer & write about something he wish [he] could play!”

Tulloch has a right to his opinions.  And so do we.  On the question of whether Tulloch is actually a better player than Revis, we’ve got a feeling that most people would agree with our opinion.

AP

The Panthers launch their Organized Team Activities this week, the first official practice with Mike Shula in charge of the offense.

But coach Ron Rivera says it won’t be Shula’s offense, per se.

“It’s not necessarily his offense as much as the Panthers’ offense, what we’re going to do,” Rivera recently said, via Joseph Person of the Charlotte Observer.

Shula was bumped up from quarterbacks coach after former offensive coordinator Rob Chudzinski became head coach of the Browns.  Rivera picked Shula in part because of the continuity he brings.  Shula also is expected to rely extensively on input from the rest of the offensive staff.

Though Shula has a reputation for being conservative when it comes to calling plays, Rivera sees it differently.  “I think what I like about him is his aggressive nature.  I like that,” Rivera said.  “I think the thing that he and I have talked about is doing things that will maximize each individual’s abilities.”

That’s the key to good coaching.  Too many coaches try to force players into a predetermined system.  The best coaches take the talent they have and draw up plays that highlight their strengths and hide their weaknesses.

The Vikings’ new stadium has a large glass roof.  Which raises a fair question.

Who will clean the bird droppings and stuff that could land on the roof?

“The [ethylene tetrafluoroethylene] product is self-cleaning,” Vikings V.P. of public affairs/stadium development Lester Bagley recently told Bob Sansavere of the St. Paul Pioneer Press.  “It’s the largest clear roof in the world and the first on a stadium in the U.S.  There are some in Europe.”

Bagley explained that the self-cleaning will be accomplished by “rain and moisture.”  Which makes the roof “self-cleaning” in the same way parking a car in the rain makes the vehicle “self-washing.”

The sloped roof also should cause snow to slide off; then again, the roof of my house is sloped, but the snow doesn’t slide off.  Then again, given what happened at Cowboys Stadium during Super Bowl week in early 2011, maybe the Vikings don’t want the snow or ice to slide off.

“There’s a basin that catches the snow and prevents it from going down to the street,” Bagley said.  “It slides off the roof into a gutter, essentially, and it breaks up from there.  It will be very safe.”

Regardless of the details, designers surely engineered the building to withstand and manage the elements.  After what happened in Minnesota late in the 2010 season, no one reasonably can claim that they didn’t know the roof of the football stadium could be self-opening.

AP

At a time when the Jaguars aren’t interested in bringing Tim Tebow home to Jacksonville, he went there anyway.

Via the Florida Times-Union, Tebow was in town Friday night to speak at New Life Christian Fellowship.  As he did earlier this month in Michigan, he said nothing about his NFL future.

Tebow did offer one funny, self-deprecating jab at his NFL past.

“One of my favorite stories, ironically, was against the New York Jets,” Tebow said, referring to the game-winning touchdown run for the Broncos, in a 2011 Thursday night game.  “And probably my greatest Jets highlight, I guess.”

The Jaguars remain uninterested in allowing Tebow to create similar highlights for them, even though in 2012 the Jags tried to trade for Tebow.  Jaguars legend Tony Boselli recently suggested that Tebow possibly could be a “franchise quarterback,” but Boselli agreed with the Jaguars’ decision to steer clear of Tebowmania.

“What team wants to bring a guy who’s a developing player onto their roster when he’s going to be a complete distraction — through no fault of his own — and become a disruption in the locker room?” Boselli said.  “It becomes all about that — whether he is going to play, whether it’s going to work — and the rest of the team is saying, ‘We’re trying to win ballgames.’  I feel bad for Tim because I don’t think it’s all his fault.  It’s outside circumstances and people who are making it tough on him.”

Still, Tebow’s image feels partially scripted and contrived.  Though he seems to be a good person, there’s a too-good-to-be-completely-true element that Tebow and/or those close to him possibly have helped perpetuate.  Many casual fans have bought it completely, prompting them to skew their view of his football abilities.

Unless a team is willing to embrace Tebow and Tebowmania, making him the starting quarterback no matter how bad he is in practice or the first 3.75 quarters of a close game, it won’t work.  With no team willing to do that for 2013, the question becomes whether a team that stinks this season will decide that, for 2014, it can stink again without Tebow — or it can stink with him.

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As Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski prepares for a fourth surgery on his forearm and a probable back surgery, we’ve been reminded of the concerns that caused Gronkowski, a potential first-round pick in the 2010 draft, to slide to round two.

While a stellar performance in 2011 blew the red flags away, Gronkowski has had multiple injuries during his time in the NFL.  His career fairly can be characterized as being at a crossroads.

Plenty of league insiders and observers aren’t surprised.  In 2010, several teams had him off the draft board due to his health.  He had missed three games in 2008, and all of the 2009 season after injuring his back while lifting weights.  As late as February 2010, he wasn’t able to run.

Even after the 2009 surgery, Gronkowski had a significant bulging disc in two different areas of his back.  As a result, many believed he would have chronic back issues, and that his NFL career would be short.

After three seasons, it’s unclear when Gronkowski will be ready for his fourth.  And given the injuries he has sustained during those three years, it’s hard not to wonder how many more he has left.

While it makes him look even smarter for signing a long-term contract when he did, the Pats may never have to decide whether to fork over a $10 million option bonus in 2016, because he has to make it through three more seasons before that question even becomes pertinent.