MMQB Review: Peter King Stalks Women on Running Trails Now Edition

Peter talked about Tim Tebow getting signed by the Eagles last week in MMQB, not because he wanted to of course, but because one anonymous coach said Tebow could make the Eagles' roster. So obviously if Tebow is going to be a third-string quarterback then Peter has an obligation to report on Tebow being signed by the Eagles with as much in-depth analysis as he would any other third-string quarterback that was signed by an NFL team. So that's what he did. When any third-string quarterback signs with an NFL team, Peter puts that quarterback's name in the title of MMQB, and discusses the signing. He totally didn't do this just because the words "Tim Tebow" in the title piques interest and increases pageviews/discussion. This week Peter talks about the Philip Rivers to Tennessee trade being dead/alive/who knows really, has (lack of) insight from Mike Mayock, and can't even run without listening to other people's conversations.

Three days before the 2015 draft, one thing is clear: The drama starts with the second pick.

Such dramaaaaaaa! Peter loves himself some drama. Every draft/NFL season/offseason is even more dramatic than the last. 

With Tampa Bay very likely to take quarterback Jameis Winston number one, Tennessee is in command with quarterback Marcus Mariota the likely target if anyone wants to come up.

Lots can happen, including Philip Rivers being in play, and Chip Kelly getting an itchy trigger finger,

An itchy trigger finger? How many people have you killed Chip? You can tell Peter. He wants to know.

the Jets moving up for their quarterback of the long-term,

Put on repeat over the past few years.

Nothing is clear this morning, but this is what I’m hearing, and what I believe three days from round one:

Nothing is clear! No one knows how the NFL Draft will exactly shake out at this point. There's drama everywhere!

I don’t think the Chargers will trade Philip Rivers. Just a gut feeling after lots of time calling around over the weekend. Now, I do think the Titans and Chargers will talk this week, but I don’t see a smart match; moreover, as I’ve written all along, San Diego definitely does not want to trade Rivers, and I believe the Chargers have never been told Rivers won’t sign a contract in San Diego beyond this year—though he does not want to currently.

It's a smart move by the Chargers to not trade Rivers. Knowing Rivers doesn't currently want to sign a contract beyond this year, when would he like to do this? It's unfair to the Chargers, but if Rivers wanted it would be grand if he could give the Chargers a target date for when he may want to sign another contract or he could end up being traded...unless that is Rivers' intention, to get out of San Diego without ever actually demanding a trade.

I believe Tennessee would want more than the 33-year-old quarterback for the second pick in the draft,

(Bengoodfella spits coffee all over his desk) Look, I hate older players as much as the next guy does, probably more. I'm not interested in a hot take, but if the Titans aren't looking to take a quarterback in the draft (and there isn't much else in free agency), want to count on Zach Mettenberger, then they are going to end up with a lot of disappointment this upcoming year regarding the performance of their quarterback. I don't believe Mettenberger is "the guy." So holding out for more than Rivers in exchange for the #2 overall pick doesn't sound smart to them now, until it's Week 5 and the Titans are ending the day with a record of 1-4.

If the Titans like Mariota, then great, they shouldn't be dangling the #2 pick to Chargers for Rivers anyway. Yeah, the Rams got a haul for the #2 pick a few years ago, but NFL teams learned from that and the Redskins weren't getting a proven veteran in return for all of those picks. San Diego feels like they can get more than one draft pick for Rivers, while the Titans want more than one player for the #2 overall pick. I can't imagine a deal goes down.

If the Titans don’t get a good offer, I think they pick Mariota. Tennessee wants an offer; the Titans aren’t married to picking anyone at number two. I do not believe Tennessee has gotten a golden offer yet.

I don't know anything about anything, but if the Titans are going to pick Mariota because they need a quarterback and he seems like as good of an option available without a better trade option in place, then I would probably trade for Rivers (if possible). Taking a quarterback at #2 isn't something an NFL team should just go because they need a quarterback. That team has to like the guy and know how they will build the offense around his strengths. I don't know, maybe the Titans can do this, but they seem to be using Mariota as a backup option at #2 unless they find a better option. There's no harm in getting offers for the pick, but what would it take for the Titans to pass up on what they perceive as an elite player at the most important position on the field? Why would they pass up on a quarterback they like if given a great trade offer? Quarterback is the most valuable position and the bottom drops out of the quarterback market after Mariota and Winston are off the board. All this talk about the Titans wanting to trade is probably a smokescreen that I'm not smart enough to understand.

The Titans were all over Mariota all through the college season, and beyond. One Oregon source told me the Tennessee scouts were the most fervent of all teams during and after the season investigating Mariota. The one thing the Titans feel very good about: Though Mariota has a reputation of being a running quarterback who would have a tough time adjusting to life as an NFL pocket passer, they saw that the majority of his throws this year came from the pocket, without a lot of movement before the throw.

Or maybe the Titans do like Mariota. It's that time of the season where, as Peter would say, NOTHING IS SET!

The idea that some "draft experts" are furthering that Mariota can't pass from the pocket is just ridiculous though. These "experts" seem to have watched Mariota play for one quarter of one game and based their evaluation on that.

My gut feeling three days out? (Dangerous in a year like this, because nothing looks certain but the top pick.) The Titans don’t get that pot of gold for the pick, and they take Mariota.

Or they could trade this pick and get Philip Rivers. I think I know which option I would choose if I wasn't absolutely sold on Mariota. My gut tells me the Titans are absolutely sold on Mariota and are simply feeling the market out.

With Jacksonville picking third, I asked 12 people I talk to fairly often to tell me if they heard anything they trust about the Jaguars at three. Eight answered the question with a name. Amari Cooper, Dante Fowler and Leonard Williams all got mentioned as names they heard reliably.

Well, Bleacher Report is always suggesting in slideshows while grading each team's draft that a team should have filled all of their needs, even though a team doesn't have enough draft picks to do this. If the Jags have cap room, maybe they should draft all three of these players. No one can stop them once they land in London to play all their home games there.

Very little consensus about the order of the top players this year. Have you noticed? It’s been that way consistently since the end of the college season. There’s not an Andrew Luck, or even a Jadeveon Clowney, this year—a player who would be rated the best on the board of most teams or most analysts.

THIS IS THE CRAZIEST NFL DRAFT SINCE AT LEAST LAST YEAR'S NFL DRAFT!

Let's talk what Peter had to say about the 2014 NFL Draft. Let's talk about what Peter King wrote on April 30 of last year when trying to pick the Top 10 picks of the draft. Guess who he doesn't pick, on April 30, as the first pick of the draft? I'll give you a hint, it's not the consensus first guy on every team's board whose last name is "Clowney." Here's Peter's Top 10 from last year:

1. Houston: Blake Bortles, QB, Central Florida.
2. St. Louis: Greg Robinson, T, Auburn.
3. Jacksonville: Jadeveon Clowney, DE, South Carolina.
4. Cleveland: Teddy Bridgewater, QB, Louisville.
5. Oakland: Johnny Manziel, QB, Texas A&M.
6. Atlanta: Jake Matthews, T, Texas A&M.
7. Tampa Bay: Khalil Mack, OLB, Buffalo.
8. Minnesota: Anthony Barr, OLB, UCLA.
9. Buffalo: Sammy Watkins, WR, Clemson.
10. Detroit: Taylor Lewan, T, Michigan.

Not awful, but not quite. It's interesting how Peter remembers Clowney as being the top guy on most teams' board, but on April 30 of last year Peter didn't have Clowney going to the Texans. It's almost like Peter writes, "THERE'S NO CONSENSUS THIS YEAR UNLIKE PREVIOUS YEARS!," nearly every single year prior to the draft. In fact, here is another King nugget from that MMQB:

I think the difference between this year and many recent ones is that we know which players to place at the top of the draft, but we have no idea whom to match where. 

Last year was such a different year too with all the lack of consensus in the Top 10 of the draft. It's almost like this happens every year.

Want more of Peter King misremembering and overstating Clowney as the first pick in last year's draft? Great, here it is. From the May 3 MMQB, which was written three days before the draft:

From the top of the first round to the bottom, here’s what I’m hearing:

No. 1, Houston. The buzz about a trade-down or Khalil Mack to Houston instead of Jadeveon Clowney won’t die.

Peter just wishes there was a consensus top guy on the board like there was last year with Clowney. If only...

There is also a picture of Peter King with Brian Williams in that MMQB. It's notable because Brian Williams is disgraced now for making things up that he experienced as a reporter, while Peter King can't remember what he experienced just last year as a reporter.

The book on this draft, essentially, is that there is no book.

Which happens to occur what seems like every single year prior to the draft.

The big calls from each analyst: 

I'm not going to print all of these because they are all guesses. I pretty much believe nothing that Mike Mayock writes/says/indicates though, so I'm glad he wasn't a part of this sample of "big calls" (again, "big guesses") from these "analysts" (professional guessers).

The moral of the draft this year is that it’s a beauty-in-the-eye-of-the-beholder draft. It should be fun Thursday night, just because most of what happens will have a surprise element to it.

Every single year the moral of the draft is that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and there are always surprises. Nothing has changed. 

Having said that, I’ve heard from several agents that their clients want the draft in New York. It’s perhaps a coincidence that the potential top three picks Thursday night—Jameis Winston, Marcus Mariota and Amari Cooper—all chose to skip the trip to Chicago. Perhaps it’s the start of a trend. Players should be free to make their own decisions about attending or not attending, but it’s been a long time since three of the top picks in the draft skipped it. So that bears watching.

I get it, Peter! The draft is in Chicago, so something "bears" watching. If the draft were in New York, would these three players have "jetted" out of there or made the "giant" decision to attend the draft? What if the draft is in Green Bay? Would so many potential draftees attend that they can't "pack" them all in? Hilarious (not really) and great stuff (not really) that Peter didn't even realize he did.

Thursday’s and Friday’s picks (rounds one through three) will be made inside the Auditorium Theatre. All Saturday picks (rounds four through seven) will be made outside, in Selection Square. Day three picks will have some interesting venues:

The Jaguars, trying to pump up their London partnership, will be making their sixth- and seventh-round selections late Saturday night (England time) from London.

The Jaguars, realizing they are quickly alienating all of their fans in the states, will hope they can trick some unsuspecting foreigners into cheering for them.

Other local markets will have different places where picks will be made as well. The Vikings will announce day three selections from the construction site of their new stadium in Minneapolis … the Falcons from a fan event at the new College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta … the Cardinals from the Big Red Rib & Music Festival at their stadium, where local flag football players will announce the picks.

The Rams will be making their picks from Los Angeles at the site of their new practice facility that is being built, not because they are moving to Los Angeles, but because...uh...it's more convenient? Jeff Fisher specifically is going to be making the Rams' fourth round pick from the deck of the new house he built in Los Angeles after receiving a contract extension from the team. Then the entire organization will flip off the city of St. Louis and thank them for being so patient by burning a pile of the 2017 season tickets that would have been issued had the team stayed in St. Louis.

How well the league and the fans and the players adapt to the new setting will determine whether the league continues to go on the road—though from what I hear, Chicago would have to be a significant failure for the league to revert reflexively to New York next year. “We love the move so far,” O’Reilly said Friday. “It’s allowed us to re-imagine what the draft can be.”

The NFL just asks that you bear with them on this Chicago draft idea.

Collinsworth, the Emmy-winning NBC color man on “Sunday Night Football,” usually disappears from the football consciousness in the offseason.

I personally ignore him during the regular season as much as possible too, so his disappearance becomes more of a year-round thing for me.

Not this year. Collinsworth in 2014 bought a majority interest in the football analytics website Pro Football Focus, and PFF will have a draft special today, “Pro Football Focus: Grading the 2015 Draft,” at 5:30 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Network.

Last year the site began to do the same work for major-college teams. NBC says PFF analysts graded all plays for each draft-eligible player in the 2014 season and graded the players the way they’d grade NFL players. On this show the PFF analysts will compare the pass-releases of Marcus Mariota and Jameis Winston to established NFL stars like Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers.

That will be interesting, especially when factoring in who actually catches the pass that is released from the hand of Winston, Mariota, Brady, and Rodgers.

Two interesting Collinsworth observations after some draft study. One: “When I started watching tape on the quarterbacks, I was 100 percent convinced Winston was the better player. As every day goes by, in my mind, Mariota gets a little closer.” 

"A little closer"? So Collinsworth was 100 percent convinced Winston was the better quarterback, but now that Mariota is getting a little closer, Collinsworth is only 95% convinced Winston is the better player? That still seems like he is very convinced, no? So this observation doesn't mean a hell of a lot in the end, because "a little closer" isn't close at all coming from 100 percent certainty.

Two: “The best player in the draft, to me, is Dante Fowler.

Mike Mayock liked Dante Fowler as the best player in the draft too, until he saw Fowler had a bad personal workout and now he's moved Fowler to a late fourth round pick.

The Hardy case certainly is not over, after the Dallas defensive end was suspended last week for the first 10 games of the 2015 season. If the suspension holds, it means Hardy would be sidelined for playing football for 25 games, longer than any other player for an off-field issue ever.

I'm not going to waste my time finding a .gif for this so just pretend I put a .gif up of a person pretending to cry out of mock sympathy. Hardy was sidelined during the 2014 season while not losing a dime he was supposed to be paid for the season. So he got paid to do nothing. I wish I would get suspended like that by my employer.

1. Hardy’s case on appeal will be simple: I shouldn’t be kept from playing football for 25 games for what I did. Hardy’s side will add the 10 games this year to the 15 games last year. The NFL will argue, as league counsel Jeff Pash did with me Friday, that the 15 games was mutually agreed to, in essence, when Hardy agreed to go on paid leave without discipline last year.

And let's be honest. This isn't a 25 game suspension. Hardy got paid for 15 of those games. That's not a punishment, but a chance for him to ply his trade as a rapper and whatever else he did during that time while earning his full contract, and having the time to Retweet idiots who supported him.

But it’ll be interesting to see, assuming he files suit against the NFL for an excessive suspension, if a court views last year’s 15 games as time served.

Hardy will file that suit against the NFL. He's refused to even admit guilt for putting himself in the situation he was in and has been defiant through everything. That's his deal, good for him, but a little self-awareness about putting himself in the situation would be nice. Best of luck, Dallas. You got the best bi-polar defensive end who only wants a new contract in the NFL. Once he gets that contract, we'll see how dominant he continues to be.

“In terms of what’s different about the NFL’s approach and what different about how the NFL’s approaching these kinds of issues, is the fact that we took a case where the prosecutors dismissed the charges, sent the guy home, and we said, ‘We’re not done,’ ” said Pash. “We spent quite a bit of time, at no small expense, to hire investigators to get the facts as best we could.

I see the NFL is wanting a pat on the back for taking domestic violence seriously. I hope the NFL, a billion dollar non-profit organization, didn't have to spend too much money getting the facts as best they could. I wouldn't want them to spend money they can't afford to spend, which is better served going in the pockets of the already-wealthy owners. Great job, NFL! You take domestic violence seriously...now.

Even if Greg Hardy’s suspension gets sharply reduced on appeal, even if the judge throws out the suspension for some technical reason, the facts are clear. It’s clear what happened. It’s clear what he did. It’s clear what he did because we did the kind of thorough, competent, professional investigation that deserved to be done, and that honored the suffering of this woman, and respected the significance of this issue. And that’s what we weren’t doing the right way a year ago.”

Here's a gold star for you, NFL!

The key part of Brody’s ruling, I believe, comes on page 71 of her decision, and it has to do with the fact that players would have to prove that all or a great majority of any head-trauma issues were caused by playing in the NFL. As pro careers on average last less than four years, many NFL players played more tackle football before reaching the NFL than they did in the pros, a fact that Brody addresses midway through her ruling.

Which is a point I have made repeatedly when Gregg Easterbrook has written about concussions. There is a causation issue where it's impossible to tell when a NFL player actually received the concussion(s) that affected him through out his life. 

Not in any way to minimize what happened to players in the NFL, but there is no question in my mind that if the case ever went to trial, the NFL would have taken some of the big-name plaintiffs in the case, found some old video of college collisions, and asked at trial: Which ones of the big hits caused Player X to have significant post-concussion syndrome today? If one single hit didn’t, how much of his condition can be attributed to his six years in the NFL, and how much to the 10 years of tackle football before entering the NFL?

Considering brain trauma can be caused by what may seem like an insignificant hit to the head, it wouldn't be hard to prove there is a causation issue. Maybe the hits to the head built up over time, that's possible I guess, but the NFL will be paying the burden of an NFL player's entire football career in the settlement. So I see the NFL's point and it's a point I would make as well.

“The main one is Randy Gregory. And trust me, I’ve had a bunch of teams in the bottom half of the first round going, ‘Uh-oh, we’ve got to be all over this guy from our owner, because you might have to bring him into this conversation, from our owner down to our coaching staff.’ And what I think it really becomes, it’s an organizational call. You’ve got top-10 talent in Gregory. And if you’re going to pull the string with him at 16 or 32 or 48, I don’t care where, because of the well-known off-the-field issues, you’ve got to get ownership to buy in and you’ve got to have a coaching staff that understands what they’re going to have to do to provide an infrastructure to help this kid succeed.”

You gotta love Mike Mayock quotes about the NFL Draft. Actually, no one has to love them, and if they didn't, maybe he would go away.

—NFL Network’s Mike Mayock on one big hurdle facing Nebraska pass-rusher Randy Gregory, who admitted testing positive for marijuana at the NFL scouting combine—and whose off-field life at Nebraska has been the subject of much investigating by NFL teams in advance of Thursday’s first round.

I'd worry much more about Gregory's size if I were an NFL team, but I guess a positive drug test is a red flag. If he fell to #25, I wouldn't mind at all if the Panthers took him. He's stupid and had/has an issue with smoking pot. It's not like he was kicked off the Huskers team or has a history of violence. Of course I probably would have said the same thing about Charles Rogers in regard to having an issue with smoking pot. And yes, I bash Greg Hardy while wanting a pot smoking pass rusher on my favorite team. It's not the same thing and Gregory actually sounds contrite, which can't be said for Hardy.

“We tried to move up last year with a team, and they wanted my first three grandchildren. I said, ‘No, I’m not going to do that.’ ”

—Denver GM John Elway, on trading up in the draft.

Elway initially threatened to go play baseball if the other teams didn't let him get his way and do the deal which would help the Broncos trade up, but then realized that won't work in this situation.

Factoids of the Week That May Interest Only Me

For the first three months of his NFL career, Todd Gurley will not be able to drink a beer legally. He turns 21 on Aug. 3.

I'm not a fan of drafting running backs in the first round as a general rule, but Gurley is the exception for me. I would take him in the first round if I were a team that needed a running back and Gurley was the best player on the board. I think he's going to be a stud.

“The Greatest Catch Ever,” Spike Lee’s 30-minute documentary on David Tyree’s Velcro-helmet reception in the Super Bowl (and on a few other catches), has this note of interest that I never knew:

Stop it. Why do I feel like this wouldn't be the last note of interest about this documentary?

The ball Plaxico Burress caught for the winning touchdown in Super Bowl XLII is the same ball Tyree caught four plays earlier against his helmet as Rodney Harrison mugged Tyree to the ground.

That is interesting. It's at the point now that I don't have to watch the documentary because Peter has told me all the information in the documentary that would have caused me to watch it on NFL Network while I was bored one night. 

NFL Draft Quiz:

The third quarterback picked in the 1998 NFL Draft (after Peyton Manning and Ryan Leaf) gave the commencement address at his alma mater Sunday. Who was it, and where did he speak?

Answer in Ten Things I Think I Think.

Because giving the answer right now would make too much sense. Plus, Peter has to trick his readers into accidentally moving closer and closer to viewing the Adieu Haiku.

Mr. Starwood Preferred Member Travel Note of the Week

So I ran the 6.2-mile Central Park loop Saturday morning (58:33—hey, anyone ever notice it’s different running on a windy 47-degree morning, with real hills, than it is on a flat treadmill in the basement of a health club?), and for nearly a mile I found myself trailing  a woman having a great time running and chatting away on her cell phone.

Oh no, this woman wasn't following the strict rules that Peter sets out which state how every single person on the planet should behave while in public. The only exception to these rules is Peter King himself, of course. He makes the rules, he doesn't follow them. So this woman is minding her own fucking business and running as Peter trails behind her like a stalker, except Peter isn't stalking her, but only listening to her entire conversation as it occurs. He's not stalker, more eavesdropping for a longer period of time. It's a totally different thing.

We were both running about the same pace, about 9.5-minute miles, up and down the slight grades of the beautiful park, and I was interested in her conversation with—I believe—a girlfriend on the other end of the conversation.

You should have tried to----I believe---mind your own business and fall further behind this lady or pass her on the trail. That's fine, it's a free country. You could have---I believe---just done your best to ignore the conversation and not have memorized the whole thing so you can dictate it in your football column later in the weekend. See, that's creepy when you make a point to listen to a person's entire conversation.

(When I run, I have nothing in my ears. I struggle, and think, and watch the surroundings, and then struggle some more. But I certainly do not converse more than is absolutely necessary. I can’t.)

Eavesdrop. Don't forget you do that too.

Oh, and I would be remiss if I didn't state Peter has nothing between his ears sometimes when he isn't running. 

I did find out, though, that this 30ish woman was going to a baby shower later that afternoon, hadn’t bought a gift yet but was thinking about a gift card from Bloomingdales, wondered how much would be appropriate, settled on $50, then asked if the person on the other end wanted to meet for a margarita beforehand, and then she drifted behind me on a bit of a decline.

See, this could all have been avoided. I run and I pass people talking and doing weird shit I wouldn't imagine doing while exercising (okay, mostly talking). Peter didn't have to keep the same speed as this lady for nearly an entire mile. He caught up to her somehow, didn't he? So why didn't he just pass her on the trail so as to avoid being the creepy guy who is trailing behind some poor lady while she runs? I ask when I know the answer. Peter got stuck behind her and wanted to know what she was talking about so he could tell everyone in MMQB about this crazy lady who is talking on the phone while running. He made a conscious decision to stay behind her, which is creepy.

In general, when not running in a race where there are runners everywhere, it is common courtesy to not just drift behind someone for nearly a mile. You make an effort to let the person in front of you go further ahead or try to pass that person. Why? Because it's really fucking weird to be running and have some dude hanging out behind you for an entire mile. If I were the lady (and I would not have been on my phone, so Peter would have either let me go ahead or passed me due to having no creepy story to tell in MMQB), I would have eventually turned around and asked what his problem was or just accelerated as fast as I could to get away this creepy guy. There are so many issues here, but either this lady was talking really loudly or Peter was really close to her. I say this because Peter had to have been breathing hard to hear the conversation, yet she either talked loudly enough or he was close enough to hear over his own breathing.

There is a distinct possibility this woman was continuing to talk on the phone just in case the weird guy hanging out behind her running attacked her there would be someone who knows and could call the police. If Peter is going to trail behind her, at least don't listen to her conversation. It's weird.

It’s a free country and cool if you can use all this technology wherever, and I know I’m a 57-year-old dinosaur, and I get that just running and thinking and pondering life is probably passé, and I understand no one gets hurt when someone is on the phone while jogging in one of the great parks in the world.

Well, part of the reason the woman stayed on the phone with her girlfriend is that she didn't know no one was going to get hurt while on the phone. There was a guy right behind her for nearly a mile and he seemed very interested in what she was saying. That's creepy.

But I do not want to be on the phone when I am running through Central Park. I’m just not going to understand that.

You don't have to understand it, you just don't need to stay behind the lady so you can hear her conversation purely for the purposes of relating the conversation in your weekly football column. 

Ten Things I Think I Think

1. I think there is a cottage industry out there saying the Bengals are nuts for extending Marvin Lewis and asking what Marvin Lewis has won that would merit him getting a contract extension through 2016. Idiocy, in my opinion.

It's all Andy Dalton's fault anyway. He's the one who got his receivers injured this past year against the Bengals, which prevented the Bengals from beating the Colts.

Does he need to win in the playoffs? Absolutely. Losing in the playoff opener four years in a row isn’t good, nor should it be something anyone with the franchise accepts. If Mike Brown were a Steinbrenner, Lewis would have been gone after last season. But I refuse to blame this all or even mostly on Lewis. The Steelers and Ravens start first-round quarterbacks who have played great in multiple playoff games, and both have won Super Bowls. Andy Dalton hasn’t—yet. I’m not putting the blame for that on Marvin Lewis. Now, I would put the blame on him for so solidly standing behind Dalton, without any consequence for his lousy January play. The Bengals need to draft a challenger to Dalton, not necessarily to hand him the job

I’m not absolving Lewis of blame for never getting past the first playoff game. But I’m putting more of that blame on the quarterback than on the head coach.

Actually Peter, it sounds like you are putting most of the blame on the Bengals GM. Peter states the Bengals need to draft a challenger for Dalton and show him consequences for his lousy play in the playoffs. If he doesn't blame Lewis for the Bengals not drafting a challenger to Dalton, then he certainly can't blame Dalton for refusing to bench himself. Dalton has no way to draft another quarterback to compete with him, so it seems like Peter is actually putting most of the blame on the Bengals GM. So Peter is blaming Mike Brown for Marvin Lewis not having won a playoff game.

3. I think it wouldn’t shock me if the Saints used the Jimmy Graham pick from the Seahawks, the 31st pick of the first round, on Dorial Green-Beckham. But I can’t see him going much earlier than 31. With the great group of wideouts in this draft, what sense would it make to take a great prospect with the most checkered history of any player in this draft in the first round?

Peter King is just absolutely so predictable. Here is something I wrote last week when Peter said that Green-Beckham was one of the great mysteries of the draft:

Just write it Peter. You know you want to. List the same teams you always list that could draft a player like Green-Beckham and surround him with veteran players who will show him the right way. The Patriots, Seahawks, etc.

When it comes to talented but troubled players or players that an NFL team may not know how to utilize effectively, it's always easy to know which teams Peter will suggest will draft these players. Funny, these teams rarely do draft these players. I knew Peter would link Green-Beckham to the Seahawks. It makes sense for their needs, but it's also something lazy that Peter would write...and he did.

4. I think it probably wasn’t the best idea for Greg Hardy, or someone Tweeting for him,

Oh no, it's completely Greg Hardy Tweeting for himself. There's very little doubt about that.

to re-tweet the day of his 10-game suspension this wish from an apparent fan of his: “F— Goddell.” [Sic.] That’s the kind of thing that’ll really help him win a reduction in his suspension.

He doesn't care and he hasn't cared. More power to him. Hardy has consistently Retweeted things such as this over the last few months. It's who he is.

5. I think I was glad to see Mike Mayock admit his mistake before the draft last year in being convinced

that Teddy Bridgewater wasn't the best quarterback in the upcoming 2014 NFL Draft based on one individual workout? That he regrets coming to this conclusion based upon ignoring all the tape Mayock saw which showed him Bridgewater was the best quarterback in the 2014 draft and believing this one workout showed Bridgewater's true abilities?

Johnny Manziel was growing up. I bought it too. And that’s one of the reasons why you should be skeptical of every guy in this draft with some pockmarks in his past, such as Jameis Winston and Marcus Peters and Randy Gregory. 

There has been one incident with Randy Gregory so far. He's the outlier here because there's been ONE incident of him failing a drug test, just like Warren Sapp failed a pre-draft drug test. I think there is a difference in a guy having multiple red flags and what happened with Randy Gregory. I could end up being wrong of course.

When you get a repeated pattern of bad decisions, you might be on your best behavior leading up to the draft—you’ve got all kinds of people around you telling you what to say and how to act—but once you get comfortable, whether it’s one year in, two years in, three years in, once you get comfortable again in the NFL and you get paid, typically that kid goes back to being who he always was.”

Which is what I believe any smart person would have thought about Manziel prior to the draft last year. Money and the chance to be a pro isn't going to make him change his actions, it will only exacerbate his actions.

7. I think, if you want to know the value of Peyton Manning to the league, you should know that the Broncos in 12 of 16 regular-season games this year will either be a prime-time game or a doubleheader game in the late-Sunday-afternoon time slot.

Ratings are what matter.

Matt Ryan’s a pretty good quarterback, right? He and the Falcons have only two prime-time/late-Sunday-doubleheader slots.

I guess Matt Ryan is a pretty good quarterback. His team hasn't exactly been very good lately and that seems to have caused the opinion of Ryan to decline. He just needs more help. How can a guy be expected to play well when he only has two quality wide receivers? Without a Hall of Fame tight end Ryan shouldn't be expected to carry the Falcons team.

10. I think these are my non-football thoughts of the week:

a. Good for you, Bruce Jenner. Really good for you.

Peter can't wait until you fully transition into becoming a woman so that he can follow you on a running trail for a mile, listen to your conversations and then tell the general public the details of your conversation.

b. Seventh pick in the 2009 NBA Draft: Stephen Curry.

c. Second pick: Hasheem Thabeet. Sixth pick: Jonny Flynn.

I'm not sure anyone but the Grizzlies talked themselves into Hasheem Thabust as a real NBA-quality center. He was a tall guy in college who could block shots and had no offensive game to speak of, plus he was a year older than everyone else in his class. I wonder if Peter watches a lot of basketball? He's never made it entirely clear whether he likes basketball or not.

d. As you all know, I am not basketball guy.

What? No way? I had forgotten Peter wasn't a basketball guy since he had not mentioned something about it in the past week.

But Steph Curry is such a marvelous athlete and competitor and player. I think he’s the most compelling player in sports today.

He's the most compelling player in sports over Peter's lifetime. By his "lifetime" Peter King means, "over the last year."

e. How does a human being make the kind of shot he made getting mugged and falling out of bounds that Curry made against New Orleans Thursday night? In front of Sean Payton, by the way … according to Jeff Duncan of the New Orleans Times-Picayune.

Adding this shot was made in front of Sean Payton probably doesn't add to this story like Peter thinks it does.

g. If it hasn’t happened already, someone with the Kansas City Royals whom Yordano Ventura respects needs to take him out to dinner and bring the conversation around to behavior during competition. And this person needs to say to Ventura: “You’re 23 years old. You won’t make it to 25 as a baseball player if you get in fights every time you pitch. Either someone’s going to maim you, or you’ll continually get thrown out of games.”

While Peter may have a point, I wonder if this same conversation would have been had with Don Drysdale or any other pitcher from Peter's childhood that prided themselves on pitching batters inside?

i. There have been many bad contracts in baseball history, but the Josh Hamilton deal has to be in the top five.

j. This is what Angels owner Arte Moreno will get, in the end, for about $110 million: 240 games, 31 homers, 123 RBI.

It's not great, but I don't know if I would put Hamilton on the list of the top five contracts in baseball history. The money was great, but Hamilton didn't play terribly. There are probably contracts worth less where the player receiving the contract didn't perform to the level where he could come as close to earning that contract as Hamilton came to earning his contract with the Angels.

n. Coffeenerdness: Very glad to have discovered walking through Grand Central Station the other day Joe, a tiny to-go coffee shop with tremendous care taken in making good espresso drinks. The smell in there: heaven.

And what does heaven smell like to Peter? Heaven smells like the sweat hopping off a 30-something old female runner's body, while Peter is stalking this woman around a running trail. 

q. NFL Draft Quiz answer: Charlie Batch, picked in the second round by the Detroit Lions in 1998, gave the graduation speech at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, Mich., on Sunday.

Here is the answer to the question Peter posed earlier. My life is now more complete knowing this and the wait was absolutely worth it.

The Adieu Haiku

Ted Wells probe of Pats:
Day 94. Please end it.
Publish the report.

I think it is Year 2 of the Adieu Haiku. Please end it as well.