Titans owner/quarterback coordinator Bud Adams doesn't often speak to the media, but he certainly doesn't hold back when he does. 

After reports surfaced that coach Jeff Fisher's job would be evaluated at the end of the year, Adams appeared to soften his stance after Tennessee's first win of the season.

"He's under contract here for several years. We just don't let guys go earlier than their contracts [when it comes to] coaches," Adams said.

Well, then.  Perhaps Adams wouldn't consider firing Fisher, but ESPN's Adam Schefter raised the scenario of another team taking Fisher's contract off Adams' hands.  It wouldn't be a trade, just a chance for the Titans to start over without any financial responsibilities.

The Titans also have to decide what to do with Vince Young's contract.

"That's what I came up here for, to get that big tall guy named Vince Young to show what he can do.  You know he hasn't played that much, his contract is coming up pretty soon for renewal," Adams said.  "We need to see what he can do and he kind of proved today that he can do it. That's the main thing I wanted to see."

Young clearly has to win over his head coach and the rest of the organization, but Adams sounds like he's open-minded to Young's future in Tennessee based on how he plays the rest of this season. 

"We've got to find out how he has developed over the last two years, he hasn't played that much. We've got to get him in and find out what he can do because otherwise, we're going to have a high draft choice and we better be looking for another new quarterback," Adams continued.

"I'm not saying [Jeff Fisher] did or didn't wait too long, I just go by the scores. The scores looked not too good when you're 0-6."

And even though Young was only a small part of the team's victory Sunday, he enjoyed a remarkably clean first start of the season.  Nine to go. 

The good news for the Texans is that their 31-10 win at Buffalo moved Houston's record to 5-3.

It's the first time the Texans are two games over .500 since Week Two of the 2007 season.

The bad news is that they'll have to continue their push for the first playoff appearance in franchise history without star tight end Owen Daniels.

Per Adam Schefter of ESPN, Daniels is out for the rest of the year with a knee injury.

Daniels, a restricted free agent in 2009, will be eligible for restricted free agency again in 2010, absent a new labor deal.  The Texans are likely to again apply the highest possible RFA tender, forcing Daniels to prove that he is 100 percent before considering a long-term deal.

We've seen scattered reports with bits and pieces of the contract signed Monday by Cowboys defensive end DeMarcus Ware.  Much of what we've seen elsewhere doesn't mesh with the actual numbers.

So here they are.

Per a source with knowledge of the contract, Ware received a signing bonus of $20 million.  The balance of his guaranteed money comes from guaranteed base salaries in the first three seasons.

The reality is that, in contracts with non-guaranteed base salaries, the base salaries for the first three years typically are guaranteed as a practical matter.  So the "guaranteed" money comes from other devices, with the base salaries counting separately. 

In Ware's case, he gets a 2009 base salary of $6.005 million, a 2010 base salary of $7.8 million, and a 2011 base salary of $6.7 million.  All guaranteed.

In 2012, Ware gets a $4.5 million base salary with a $500,000 workout bonus.  In 2013, the salary moves to $5.5 million, with another $500,000 workout bonus.

The final two seasons potentially are bogus, with base salaries of $12.25 million and $13.75 million.

So the six-year, $78 million contract is in reality a seven-year, $79 million deal with a practical value of five years, $53 million.

Ware will pocket $33.8 million the first two years, and $40.5 million in the first three.

It's hardly chump change, but as usual the deal isn't as good for the player as advertised by those with an incentive to advertise the fact that a blockbuster deal has been negotiated.

The San Francisco 49ers gave a bunch of money several weeks ago to get rookie receiver Michael Crabtree under contract.

They've now spent considerably less to lock up one of their defensive backs.

Per Adam Schefter of ESPN, the 49ers have inked cornerback Tarell Brown to a three-year, $7.125 million contract.  The deal includes a $2.5 million signing bonus, and it will pay Brown $800,000 in 2011, $850,000 in 2012, and $925,000 in 2013.

Brown, a fifth-round draft pick from Texas in 2007, has been under contract through 2010 at base salaries of $460,000 this year and $550,000 next season.

In two-plus seasons, he has appeared in 30 games, with one start.

Though it's not quite as tricky as the challenge created by keeping the identity of a starting quarterback under wraps, the Ravens are staying mum when it comes to the manner in which their starting tackles will line up on Sunday.

Left tackle Jared Gaither has missed two full games with a neck injury.  Right tackle Michael Oher, a rookie first-round draft pick, flipped over to the left side during Gaither's absence.

Oher generally has done well in that spot, especially against Vikings defensive end Jared Allen.  And Oher wasn't bashful about saying so.

So now that Gaither is healthy after the bye week, coach John Harbaugh isn't saying whether Gaither will return to the left side -- or whether he'll take Oher's spot on the right side.

Regardless of how they align, the primary challenge for Gaither and Oher will be to keep Elvis Dumervil from knocking quarterback Joe Flacco out of the building.  Dumervil has 10 sacks in six games, and he lines up at various different positions.

Still, if Gaither gets partially Pipped, he'll surely be upset.  Left tackles make a lot more money than right tackles, and Gaither hired Drew Rosenhaus earlier this year for reasons other than personal amusement.  ("Drew, hey it's Jared.  Say 'next question' one more time for me.")

So if the Ravens think their first-round rookie can get it done on the left side, it makes long-time financial sense to shift Gaither to right tackle, and to pay him accordingly.

FOX's Jay Glazer was wrong on Monday when reporting that Cowboys defensive end DeMarcus Ware had signed a $78 million deal.  

The much-discussed contract extension for Cowboys linebacker DeMarcus Ware has finally arrived.

Fox's Jay Glazer reports that Ware will receive nearly $40 million guaranteed on a six year deal that can be worth up to $13 million per season.

The Cowboys weren't under the gun to extend Ware because the absence of a new labor deal in 2010 would have potentially prevented Ware from being an unrestricted free agent next year.

But Ware has been one of the league's premier defenders since the Cowboys drafted him, and they were smart enough not to risk letting him get away.

The guaranteed money dwarfs the $31.5 million guaranteed Dwight Freeney received two years ago, but comes in just under Albert Haynesworth's $41 million guaranteed. The structure of Ware's contract, however, may give him a better chance of nearing the end of his contract.  We'll have to wait for those details.

Glazer reports that the deal has been verbally agreed to, but still needs league approval. 

Jay Cutler's rookie contract included a $12 million roster bonus due and payable on the first day of the 2011 regular season.

With the possibility looming that there will be no 2011 season (or, at a minimum, that the first game will be delayed), Cutler's new deal from his new team moved the $12 million roster bonus into 2009, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN.

So the $20 million in guaranteed money includes the $12 million that he would have earned in 2011.  Which means that the $30 million in new money includes only $8 million of the guaranteed money.

We still need to see the full deal before concluding whether the contract reflects the value of a franchise quarterback for whom the Bears gave up two first-round picks and Kyle Orton.

The Green Bay Packers have welcomed back to town an old friend.

No, not the one who'll be arriving on November 1 wearing a magic purple helmet that shaves 15 years off his age. 

Running back Ahman Green is back, after being available and unwanted by anyone for all of the 2009 season.

Green played for the Packers from 2000 through 2006, before joining the Texans as an unrestricted free agent.  The emergence of Steve Slaton last year made Green, who has been  injured often, an unneeded luxury. 

He fills the roster spot occupied by DeShawn Wynn, who has been placed on injured reserve.

With 46 more yards, Green will become the Packers' all-time leading rusher.

The general perception regarding the decision of receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh to jump from the Bengals to the Seahawks was that the Bengals behaved like, well, the Bengals, and that the Seahawks offered Houshmandzadeh a much larger financial package.

Not so, says Houshmandzadeh.

Appearing on 1530 Homer's Two Deep Zone with Artrell Hawkins and Charles Fisher, Houshmandzadeh admitted that the Bengals' bottom-line offer was "very, very close" to the deal he accepted in Seattle.

He admitted that he allowed personal feelings to overcome the business realities.  "I didn't really step back and separate the two. . . .  It wasn't a big difference at all, to be honest with you," Houshmandzadeh said.

So Houshmandzadeh is on a 2-4 team and the Bengals are 4-2, and Houshmandzadeh said that, if he were still in Cincinnati, the team would be 6-0.

Over the weekend, Charley Walters of the St. Paul Pioneer Press suggested that Vikings coach Brad Childress might not get a new contract until the franchise has secured a new stadium.

So, to the delight of those of you who think that Walters is never right, there's now a report that Childress could soon be getting a new contract.

Word of the possible deal comes from Clark Judge of CBSSports.com, who writes that the new contract could be announced in November.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune throws a handful of water on that notion, however, citing an unnamed source who says that nothing is "imminent."

We think it would be a mistake to extend Childress too soon.  Keep that carrot in front of him until after the season, and then assess his value based on the outcome of the current campaign.

Ownership could be concerned that, if the Vikings make it to the Super Bowl or win the thing, Childress could acquire more leverage for a new deal, since his current one expires after the 2010 season.  But one good (or maybe great) year fueled by a 40-year-old quarterback who already has saved Chilly's chestnuts twice won't prompt the other 31 franchises to confuse Childress with Bill Walsh. 

Absent Favre, the Vikings would still be playing Chillyball -- an attack premised on keeping it close for 3.5 quarters and hoping for a late break.  And so it could be back to Chillyball as soon as 2010.

While Childress deserves credit for recognizing that Favre's presence would help unlock that long-promised "kick ass offense," the Vikings could be getting their asses kicked after Favre leaves.

Thus, maybe the Vikings should wait a little bit longer before rewarding Childress for Favre's efforts.  Given that the last Minnesota team to start 6-0 didn't even make it to the playoffs, January might be the right time to seriously consider whether to keep Childress beyond 2010.

During a weekly visit with our good friend Todd Wright of Sporting News Radio, the light bulb finally began to flicker.

And, after subjecting Todd's audience to my stream-of-consciousness attempt to comprehend the decision to cut and re-sign linebackers Tully Banta-Cain and Eric Alexander, I finally figured it out.  (I could have spared Todd's audience the agony by merely reading what Shalise Manza Young of the Providence Journal had to say about the situation.)

Banta-Cain and Alexander previously had been signed to one-year deals for the veteran minimum.  By rule, neither player could have been signed for 2010 by the Patriots until the first day of the 2010 league year.

So the Pats cut them on the eve of the trading deadline, after which they would have been required to pass through waivers.  And then the Pats re-signed them (or, in Alexander's case, will re-sign him) to multi-year contracts covering 2010, and possibly beyond.

But this maneuver requires even more advance collusion than the 54-man roster trick, which entails a vested veteran being cut on Saturday and re-signed on Monday.  It's possible, if not likely, that the Patriots negotiated the long-term deals with the players' agents before cutting them -- and that the players agreed on a wink-nod basis not to sign elsewhere.

While the tactic might not violate the letter of any league rules, the Competition Committee should find a way to close this loophole, either by preventing such players from being re-signed by the team that cut them or by requiring them to pass through waivers.

As to Alexander, the effort of coach Bill Belichick to explain that he hadn't been cut makes even more sense.  Belichick knew he was taking a slight risk that either or both players would decline to honor their handshake commitments to re-sign.  So why acknowledge publicly that Alexander was available to a higher bidder?

Though the terms, as usual, have not been disclosed, the Chicago Bears officially have announced that quarterback Jay Cutler's contract has been extended by two years.

Cutler is now under contract through 2013.

Full terms likely will be leaked or reported in the coming days.  So stay tuned.

Though it's hardly an Eli Manning/Philip Rivers blockbuster, quarterback Jay Cutler has landed a new deal after only five games as a member of the Chicago Bears.

News of the new contract comes from Jason La Canfora of NFL Network.

Per La Canfora, it's a two-year extension of Cutler's existing deal, which ran through 2011.  The deal includes roughly $30 million in new money, and $20 million in guarantees.

We need to see the full deal before comparing it properly to other quarterback contracts.  On the surface, however, it doesn't seem like the kind of big-money package that should be paid to a guy who cost the Bears two first-round draft picks and, as it turns out, one of the best young quarterbacks in the league.

Patriots linebacker Junior Seau, just signed for his fourth tour of duty with the team, will get $1.145 million in base salary for his one-year deal, according to the Boston Herald.

The veteran's minimum for a player with at least ten years of service is $845,000, so the Patriots were relatively generous with the offer.

There is no veteran's minimum for 20-year veterans.

Browns quarterback Brady Quinn will meet with the media on Wednesday.  He'll surely be asked about the fact that his house is for sale.

A league source tells us that Quinn will say that his plan to sell the home is unrelated to any desire to be traded.

That said, we're told that, in a "perfect world," Quinn would prefer a fresh start elsewhere. 

The problem is that he lives not in a perfect world, but in Cleveland.

And Browns coach Eric Mangini says that Quinn will not be traded from Cleveland. 

More accurately, Mangini says that the team is "not looking to move" Quinn.  Which could mean that, if the right offer comes along from a team that is looking to land him, the Browns might listen.

Besides, when it comes to possible trades, teams lie all the time.  Last year, for example, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones repeatedly said that there would be no trade for a veteran receiver. 

And then the Cowboys traded for a veteran receiver.

Quinn's desire to get out makes sense, for various reasons.  First, he's never gotten a fair shot in Cleveland.  (That said, he bears part of the blame for holding out in 2007, at a time when he might have been in position to take over after Charlie Frye was traded following the regular-season opener.)  Second, of the $10.9 million in total escalators tied to taking 70 percent of the snaps in 2009, he can still trigger a $5.9 million escalator for 2011 by taking 70 percent of the snaps in 2010.

In Cleveland, that possibility is looking less and less likely with each snap that Derek Anderson takes. 

In little more than a month, Broncos receiver Brandon Marshall has transformed his career in stunning fashion.  The injuries have healed and, more importantly, the stick has been removed from his hind quarters.

After a suspension for conduct detrimental to the team, Marshall returned in early September with a new attitude.  He has since flourished in coach Josh McDaniels' new offense, and owner Pat Bowlen has noticed.

"Brandon understands that he's got a year left on his present deal, but if he keeps playing the way he is, he's going to get a very significant raise -- a much better contract," Bowlen said Tuesday, according to Steve Wyche of NFL.com.  "That's the way it goes, and Brandon has accepted that."

Marshall's rookie deal expires after the 2009 season.  Absent a new labor agreement, he'll be eligible for restricted free agency only, so he'll necessarily have less leverage than if he were poised to be unrestricted.

Then again, the Broncos might not want to risk another team grabbing Marshall and gladly surrendering a first-round and a third-round draft pick, which is the maximum compensation for a restricted free agent who changes teams.  So the Broncos could still chose to apply the franchise tag to Marshall, which would increase the compensation to two first-round picks, if the Broncos were to choose not to match an offer sheet that Marshall signs with another franchise.

The difference between the highest restricted free agency tender and the one-year franchise salary for receivers will be dramatic -- likely more than $7 million.  In the end, however, Marshall will likely come away with a multi-year deal in the neighborhood currently occupied by the likes of Larry Fitzgerald and Randy Moss, with an average payout of $9 million or $10 million per year.

The smart move for the Broncos could be to try to get Marshall locked up for the long haul during the 2009 season, given the air of excitement and man hugs in the Rocky Mountains.  Indeed, he might be willing to take less money now, when he's in the middle of an unexpectedly magical run of team and individual success, than when he's away from the team and thinking about market value and whether his contract is sufficient large in comparison to the deals given to other high-end wideouts.   

As the storm of dust continues to settle regarding the decision of Michael Crabtree to show up unannounced in San Fran to work out a new deal, a source with knowledge of the situation believes that the wideout's holdout ended suddenly not because Crabtree was ready to play football but because of the pending tampering case that the 49ers have filed against the Jets.

The source firmly believes that the investigation was beginning to uncover evidence that the Jets had indeed tampered with Crabtree through his agent, Eugene Parker.  Indeed, it was Parker and G.M. Mike Tannenbaum who once worked together on an offer sheet that the Patriots would not be able to match when the Jets lured running back Curtis Martin from New England to New York.  Per the source, Parker and Tannenbaum continue to have a close and productive working relationship 

Moreover, 49ers owner Jed York recently told KNBR in San Francisco (via ESPN.com) that "it was clear there was some evidence that the Jets talked to [Crabtree]," which in and of itself would be proof of tampering.

The thinking is that, as Tannenbaum (and possibly Deion Sanders) began to feel the heat increasing, Tannenbaum (and possibly Deion Sanders) urged Parker to get a deal done.

Though we've been told repeatedly that the 49ers still intend to press the matter (after all, the league made an example out of the Niners for talking to agent Drew Rosenhaus about a long-term contract for linebacker Lance Briggs at a time when the Bears were talking to the Niners about a trade for Briggs), the source predicts that the league office will now nudge the 49ers to let it go.

The argument, the source believes, will be that it's in the best interests of the league for the tampering allegation to go away, since a finding of such dirty deeds accomplished relatively inexpensively hurts the image of the entire league.  The fact that this is all happening only a few weeks after the Jets were busted for cheating on the injury report makes an exoneration of the Jets this time around even more important.

So the real question is whether that effort to talk the 49ers into simply being happy that they got their player signed already has begun, and whether such efforts will be successful.  In this regard, it's interesting that York already has used the phrase "there was evidence," since this implies that the case either is or will soon be formally closed.

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello declined comment via e-mail on Saturday regarding whether the tampering case is still pending.

Regardless of the precise reason, the evidence suggests that the Crabtree deal was done very quickly, with less attention to detail.  Last night, we pointed out several aspects of the contract indicating that it possibly was a rush job.

Even if the deal got done because Crabtree decided he was ready to play football, Parker surely would have urged Crabtree to give Parker enough time to ensure that the written document contains all the necessary bells and whistles.  That fact that some deficiencies appear in the contract seems to bolster the belief that there was a separate motivation to get Crabtree under contract ASAFP, and that it possibly was related more to killing the tampering case than to getting Crabtree on a football field.

More details are emerging regarding the contract signed on Wednesday by 49ers receiver Michael Crabtree.

Adam Schefter of ESPN has reported that Crabtree's contract represents over the first five years a 72-percent increase over the deal signed in 2008 by the tenth overall pick in the draft, Patriots linebacker Jerod Mayo (which, frankly, says more about the quality of Mayo's deal than it does about the quality of Crabtree's).

And Jason Cole of Yahoo! Sports, who mercilessly criticized agent Alvin Keels for the contract signed by tackle Andre Smith, characterizes the Crabtree deal as "not terrible."  (I tried that phrase once in describing the quality of a meal that my wife cooked.  The scar looks a little bit like Weeb Ewbank.)

Certain aspects of the deal arguably are terrible.  Schefter and Cole's analysis focuses only on raw numbers.  There are other terms of the deal that have left multiple league insiders scratching their heads.

We've previously discussed the sixth year of the deal, and the very high bar that Crabtree must reach in order to reduce the term from six years to five.  As Cole points out, of the 19 receivers picked in round one from 2002 through 2005, only Andre Johnson and Larry Fitzgerald have achieved in the first four years of their careers the triggers that Crabtree must reach in order to transform the contract from a six-year, $32 million deal into a five-year, $28 million package. 

In this regard, Crabtree is at a built-in disadvantage because, unlike the rest of the first-round wideouts, he has missed all of the offseason workouts due to injury, and all of training camp, the preseason, and four regular-season games due to his holdout.

Also, another source pointed out that the "superstar" incentive package, which would push the contract to a six-year, $40 million deal, is essentially a phony term.  Though the performance trigger for the extra $8 million to be paid out in the sixth year of the contract is different than the performance trigger that would void the contract from six years to five, it's highly unlikely -- as a practical matter -- that Crabtree would earn the "superstar" package without also successfully voiding the sixth year of the deal.

So, in other words, it will be a six-year, $32 million deal or a five-year, $28 million deal, but it most likely will never be a six-year, $40 million deal.

Another problem arises from the guaranteed money.  The $17 million figure fits the slot as long as Crabtree is able to void the sixth year.  If that sixth year doesn't void, the guaranteed money actually falls below the slot, based on the per-year average.  To fit the slot on a six-year deal, the guaranteed money would need to be in the range of $20 million.

We've previously explained that, in lieu of an option bonus, the 49ers used the "discretionary salary advance" concept, which funnels money to the player in a way that allows the team to pursue reimbursement in the event of a suspension, holdout, or other default.  (Option bonuses and roster bonuses cannot be recovered.)  But the major, glaring problem with the salary advance device used in Crabtree's contract is that it contains no language that would penalize the 49ers for choosing not to make the salary advance. 

As two different sources have explained, that's a major omission in the deal.

The deal also contains what one source is calling the "diva clause."  Per the source, millions in base salary escalators factored are tied to full participation in all mandatory functions and 90 percent attendance in all voluntary activities.  If Crabtree fails to comply, the escalators can be wiped out by the team. 

The thinking in some circles is that the 49ers pushed for this language because of Crabtree's protracted holdout and other activities that prompted some to regard him as, yes, a diva.  So why did agent Eugene Parker agree to it?  By all appearances, Parker wanted to get the deal done quickly, and either he missed the significance of the term or he opted to agree in order to expedite the process.  (As we'll explain in a subsequent posting, we think it's the latter.)

So while some think that Crabtree essentially got the same financial package he would have obtained in July if Parker and Crabtree had opted not to wait for the 49ers to jump the slotting process by three levels, it could be that the deal is actually worse, given the inclusion of a sixth year, the high bar to void it, the guarantee based on a five-year deal, the absence of a language compelling the 49ers to pay the discretionary salary advance, and the diva clause.

Jason Cole called the contract Alvin Keels negotiated on behalf of Andre Smith a potential "career stopper."  One national media source similarly described the contract Parker negotiated for Crabtree as a "career killer." 

One league source with whom we spoke was more realistic.  "Parker will be fine," the source said.  "Nothing ever sticks to him, and this contract won't stick to him, either."

But Crabtree is now stuck with the deal, probably for six full years.

With the performance of Redskins running back Clinton Portis moving toward "just a guy" territory and his involvement in various squabbles and pissing matches quickly becoming tiresome, many will begin to speculate that Portis won't be back with the Redskins in 2010.

Whether he's there or not next year, Portis will get paid.  A lot.

Per a league source, a whopping $6.43 million of his $7.195 million base salary for 2010 is guaranteed.

So if owner Dan Snyder decides to move on, Portis will have one hell of a parting gift.

The source says that Portis also is due to earn a $500,000 roster bonus, pushing his total compensation for next year to $7.695 million.

Thus, while the Redskins can save more than $1.2 million by moving on, they'll still be paying Portis nearly $6.5 million, regardless of whether he's on the team.