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Whispers
Nov. 10, 2007
Nov. 10, 2007
- According to a pair of scouts who spoke with PFW recently, Raiders QB Daunte Culpepper has done little in his time with the Raiders this season to give other teams much confidence in his value on the free-agent market next spring. “Culpepper was never the most mobile guy,” said one AFC scout. “But to me, he looks more stiff and robotic and mechanical moving around the pocket. He just looks tight moving around, and I don’t think he’s all the way back from that knee yet. He was never Michael Vick, but at least he could move around a little more. He can’t even make the subtle shifts in the pocket. You just don’t see it.”
- Raiders sources say there is little to no chance the team will allow CB Nnamdi Asomugha, considered a rising star at the position, to leave as a free agent next offseason, and that they would consider the idea of using the franchise tag, if necessary. He is the team’s top priority for the offseason.
- The Raiders saw the return of Gerard Warren at practice this week from a thigh injury he suffered during the team’s bye in Week Five, and it couldn’t have come as a better time with Tommy Kelly’s season-ending injury. Warren, acquired in a preseason trade with Denver, was surprisingly the team’s most disruptive defensive lineman before getting hurt.
- Brett Favre and Green Bay WRs Donald Driver, Greg Jennings and James Jones made Chiefs veteran CBs Ty Law and Patrick Surtain look old in Week Nine, according to sources, and we hear Law rarely lowers the boom on backs or receivers like he once did.
- If Chargers CB Quentin Jammer continues to bounce in and out of the lineup with a tender hamstring, Antonio Cromartie will become an every-down performer and Cletis Gordon will assume the nickel role. Outside of Cromartie, Gordon has the best speed on the team but remains quite raw in his second year out of Jackson State.
- After getting off to a solid start the previous two weeks, Broncos C Chris Myers and OLG Chris Kuper, both injury replacements, had all kinds of trouble handling the power of the Lions’ front in Week Nine, especially DT Shaun Rogers, even when he was double-teamed.
- Despite orchestrating the league’s 23rd-ranked defense, Dolphins defensive coordinator Dom Capers refuses to accept any blame for his unit’s shortcomings. Capers meets with the South Florida media every two weeks, and we hear that in each session he comes up with a new excuse for his unit’s ineptitude without ever pointing the finger at himself.
- Team sources see this week’s dismissal of S Rashad Washington as a sign of head coach Eric Mangini’s growing intolerance for mental breakdowns. Primarily a special-teams performer, Washington committed two costly penalties in a 23-20 loss to the Commanders last Sunday and had accrued a total of five penalties in the last three games.
- Despite boasting the league’s best receiving corps, it appears as though the Patriots are willing to give second-year WR Chad Jackson a chance to show what he can do. Activated this week after beginning the season on the physically-unable-to-perform list, the Pats are not about to give up on their 2006 second-round pick, whose brief career has been marred by injury.
- For as well as New England’s linebackers have played in the base 3-4 defense, their lack of prototypical speed has exposed them when they move to the nickel alignment. Head coach Bill Belichick has toyed around with several nickel ’backer tandems in search of a good fit, and it appears that he’s warming up to the idea of playing SS Rodney Harrison in one of the spots. In that scenario, Randall Gay and Eugene Wilson — if healthy — would join James Sanders, Ellis Hobbs and Asante Samuel as the five defensive backs.
- Though not the most physically imposing player, we hear Bills C Melvin Fowler’s effervescence has made him a natural leader for the offense, and one of the most underrated cogs in the Bills’ resurgence.
- In the case of Jaguars FS Reggie Nelson, numbers can be misleading. Despite racking up very respectable numbers with 39 tackles and two interceptions, the rookie first-round pick is out of position far too often. Head coach Jack Del Rio is said to be tolerating his spotty play as he works out the rookie kinks, hoping that his feel for the game will soon approach his physical ability.
- Colts TE Dallas Clark has regressed recently, catching just four passes for 37 yards in the last two games. The team’s not too concerned, however, as both the Panthers and Patriots made Clark a focus of their defensive game plan with WR Marvin Harrison out nursing a bruised knee. However, it is a sign of the gap between Clark and elite TE talents like San Diego’s Antonio Gates and Kansas City’s Tony Gonzalez, both whom repeatedly dominate games despite their teams’ lack of upper-crust wide receivers.
- Don’t be surprised if the Texans let DE Mario Williams stand up more after experimenting with the strategy in Week Nine. Both the Texans and Williams liked the strategy, which got Williams out of the traditional three-point stance and certainly gives opponents something to think about in the weeks to come.
- Texans head coach Gary Kubiak will not consider the Texas A&M head-coaching opening should the school replace Dennis Franchione. “Texas A&M taught me about loyalty, and I’m loyal to this situation here, these players, this football team, this organization, and to the man that gave me my chance to be a head coach, and that’s Bob McNair,” said Kubiak, who played at Texas A&M.
- The Titans worked out ex-USC star WR Mike Williams Nov. 6, but it should be noted that the Titans regularly work out a group of players at a particular position on Tuesdays, and Williams was working out with five other receivers. Williams, who played in Norm Chow’s offense at USC, was recently released by the Raiders. One source close to the Titans suggests Williams’ position with the Titans, if he were to be signed, might be at tight end.
- The Ravens are likely to address the CB position in the offseason. The lack of depth at the position was exposed in the Week Nine loss at Pittsburgh, with Corey Ivy, David Pittman and Derrick Martin, all reserves, struggling when pressed into action with starters Chris McAlister and Samari Rolle out of the lineup. Pittman, a 2006 third-round pick, has been a major disappointment, and he doesn’t appear to have a future with the club on defense, the way we hear it.
- The Steelers have to be pleased with the recent play of C Sean Mahan, who’s playing with good power in the running game, and ORT Willie Colon, who has continued to improve in his first season as a starter.
- Ravens DT Trevor Pryce is playing with a cast on his broken left wrist. That’s not hampering him from getting off the ball quickly — he played about as well as any Ravens defensive player in the Week Nine loss at Pittsburgh — but it could hamper his ability to sack the quarterback. Ben Roethlisberger escaped from Pryce’s clutches and threw a TD pass in Pittsburgh’s rout.
- Getting FB Oliver Hoyte back is huge for the Cowboys. Rookie Deon Anderson, who had replaced Hoyte (stinger) for the past six games, was doing a nice job but will miss the rest of the season with a torn rotator cuff. Hoyte says he has full feeling back in his arm after losing it completely immediately after suffering the injury.
- The Giants have had success moving TE Jeremy Shockey around more than they had previously, and even though his production is right about in line with his earlier production, the team feels better about the way he’s playing and might even utilize him more going forward since he has managed to stay healthy.
- Eagles ORT Jon Runyan is hurting. He injured his tailbone a few weeks ago after slipping getting out of the cold tub, and team sources say he hasn’t been the same since. Runyan’s consecutive-starts streak is at 168 right now, and he’s a tough guy who likely will play through the pain. But the fact that Winston Justice struggled in his one true test this season at left tackle has to give the Eagles pause when they think about replacing Runyan.
- Don’t read anything into Commanders head coach Joe Gibbs’ empty statement recently that the team still has plans for WR Brandon Lloyd. Nothing could be further from the truth. Though Lloyd might find himself active on a given game day, our sources say that the team already has written him off past this season and will enter the offseason with a big need at wideout.
- Word is Cardinals head coach Ken Whisenhunt isn’t real happy with the contributions his offense has received from the No. 4 WR spot behind Larry Fitzgerald, Anquan Boldin and Bryant Johnson. With free-agent addition Sean Morey proving incapable of sufficiently filling the bill, ex-Seahawk Jerheme Urban has tried and mostly failed to pick up the slack, showing a disturbing tendency to drop catchable passes in tight spaces.
- Don’t be surprised if Cardinals second-round DT Alan Branch gradually works his way into a 50-50 playing-time split at the NT position in the next month with fellow Michigan alum Gabe Watson, who daily team observers believe is starting to show signs of wearing down. The Cards sacrificed a fourth-round pick to move up in the second round to draft Branch, and word is they are anxious to start getting more of a contribution from him.
- One encouraging sign, according to our Rams sources, is the play in recent weeks of LBs Will Witherspoon and Pisa Tinoisamoa. Witherspoon, in particular, has silenced close observers who believed at the start of the season he was better-suited on the weak side, where he had played in Carolina, than in the middle. In addition to being extremely quick to the ball against both the run and pass in the past month, Witherspoon has also been displaying a more physical presence. It was his hit on Matt Leinart vs. Arizona in Week Five — a game in which he registered a season-high 14 tackles — that ended Leinart’s ’07 campaign.
- Looking for yet another injury victim on the Rams? We hear starting DRE James Hall has been quietly gutting out a pectoral injury much of this season.
- Considering the paper-thin state of the Rams’ offensive line, it will hardly be a shock if fifth-round draft pick Dustin Fry, who was promoted to the 53-man active roster early in the week, is thrown into the fire at one of the OG spots in the coming weeks. Fry was drafted as a center, but we’re told head coach Scott Linehan likes the 6-foot-3, 314-pounder better as a guard, where he feels his size and bulk could come in handy.
- While OT Todd Steussie will be eligible to return to action in time for the Rams’ Week 12 game vs. Seattle after having been released in an injury settlement earlier this season, few people close to the team know anything at the moment about his state of readiness after such a lengthy layoff.
- It appears Niners veteran LB Jeff Ulbrich, who up until the team’s Week Nine game vs. the Falcons had performed primarily on special teams, might see more action the rest of the season as the team’s nickel pass rusher after doing a decent job in that capacity vs. Atlanta, in addition to seeing more action as the strong-side inside linebacker in place of Derek Smith. Team insiders believe Ulbrich’s coverage skills are a lot better than he’s given credit for.
- Even if RB Frank Gore’s ankle gets back to 100 percent — we hear the ankle could continue to bother him all season — word is the Niners will probably give second-year RB Michael Robinson more playing time at Gore’s expense the rest of the season.
- The cracked bone in Seahawks RB Shaun Alexander’s left wrist is healing, but team sources tell us it’s likely he will continue to wear a protective cast the rest of the season.
- We hear the Seahawks have been more than a little disappointed with rookie CB-RS Josh Wilson. The team’s second-round pick was being counted on as the third corner entering the season, but Wilson has been totally ineffective in that role and has given way to veteran Jordan Babineaux. In addition, Wilson’s efforts as a kick returner have been just so-so.
- Team insiders believe Bears DT Tommie Harris is as responsible as anybody for the defense’s shaky play against the run so far this season. Some close observers believe he has been overly concerned about padding his sack numbers and needs to become a much more willing run defender.
- Our sources believe one of the Packers’ unsung contributors this season has been P Jon Ryan, a CFL signee in ’06 whose kicking has been much improved this season. In addition, Ryan has more than earned his keep as the team’s holder; he looked like former shortstop Ozzie Smith fielding a pair of low snaps on FG attempts vs. the Chiefs in Week Nine, which helped salvage six points.
- The Lions expect to face more of the cover-2 defense that their passing offense demands, and team sources insist they’ll continue to run the ball as they have in recent weeks as long as opposing defenses keep their safeties as deep as they tend to do.
- Vikings defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier brought a lot more pressure against the Chargers in Week Nine than he had all season, and the positive results — the Vikings had by far their best game vs. the pass all season — almost certainly will lead to more blitzing, perhaps of the zone-dogs variety, going forward.
- We hear Buccaneers coach Jon Gruden may be realizing the benefits of taking it easier in his sixth year in Tampa Bay. For the first time ever, he gave his team three days off during the bye week.
- After losing WR Mark Jones and CB Torrie Cox to season-ending injuries, the Bucs are running out of kickoff and punt returners. The glaring hole at those positions further proves how important versatile RB Michael Pittman is to the team. He will assume some return duties when he gets back from a severe ankle sprain in Week 11.
- Saints CB Jason David is building a reputation as a boom-or-bust type of player. He either makes a big play or gives up a deep pass when the ball is thrown his way.
- We hear many in Charlotte thought Panthers special-teams coach Danny Crossman would either resign or be fired after last year, but he was kept on the staff. With Carolina near the bottom of the league in both kickoff- and punt-return average, he may finally be let go after this season.
- This could be the last year in Atlanta for Falcons SS Lawyer Milloy. We hear the 12th-year veteran has made it public that he intends to play another season to finish out his contract, which expires after 2008, but coaches are high on his backup, rookie Daren Stone, who has freakish athletic ability.
