4 comments MMQB Review: NFC West is the Best Edition

Last week in MMQB Peter King again seemed somewhat confused about exactly what constitutes a haiku. In much more disappointing news, he is still doing haikus at the end of his columns. I think that's the big story here. Peter also warned Eddie Lacy that he could suffer the fate of Arian Foster and be undrafted if NFL teams don't see him run soon. How horrifying for Lacy would it be to end up being able to choose the team he signs with and eventually get a lucrative long-term deal? What a nightmare. Peter also kept going on and on and on and on about Darrelle Revis and how the Jets shouldn't trade him no matter the circumstances. It's getting a bit old at this point. This week Peter talks up the Rams (again...except this time he has a reason) and the rest of the NFC West, because we all know whatever teams win free agency will obviously win the Super Bowl. Peter also lists his best free agent signings so far and it won't take a genius to figure out which one Peter will place first. There is no travel note for Peter this week, so he cedes his travel note to his partner-in-synergy, Mike Florio. Well, he doesn't let Mike write the travel note, but writes the travel note about Mike. I'm a little confused too.

Lord, the NFC West is going to be a bear of a division in 2013.

On paper. It could very well be true in action as well, but right now it looks like a strong division on paper. For some reason Peter doesn't seem to remember that parity is king in the NFL and one or two injuries can set an entire team's season back or a certain team may just not play well during the season. But yes, on paper it looks like a strong division.

It's a signing fraught with uncertainty. We -- most of us in the media, and fans, and teams -- overrate free agency as a tool to improve teams. How many times (including recently, in 2009) has Washington won free agency, then stunk the joint up when real football began? We yell at the Giants, Steelers and Packers for doing nothing in the free market except bleed players -- more about that in my Tuesday column, with some startlingly honest admissions from Packers GM Ted Thompson -- but tell me: How can you be critical of Thompson or Jerry Reese of the Giants or Kevin Colbert of the Steelers right now?

This is a clusterfuck of thoughts. Peter starts off saying the NFC West is going to be a tough division in 2013 because of all the trades and free agent signings that have brought good players into the division. Then Peter says the media overrates free agency and uses the Giants/Packers/Steelers as an example of teams who don't do much in free agency and still thrive. This despite the fact he just (potentially) overrated the NFC West for the free agent signings and trades that were made to bring new players into the division. So Peter is guilty of what he is saying the media tends to be guilty of. Then Peter asks,

"How can you be critical of Thompson or Jerry Reese of the Giants or Kevin Colbert of the Steelers right now," 

when I'm not sure who is being critical of them. Is Peter being critical of these GM's? I know Peter is rating the NFC West highly for the 2013 season because of the offseason moves they have made, so he seems to be guilty of doing exactly what he says the media is guilty of doing.

Back to the (sometimes false) hope of free agency. For a franchise that had been trying to compete with one competent tackle, Rodger Saffold, and a Ringling Brothers arrangement on the other side, the Rams getting Long is a big add. Very big.

I mock Peter for pumping up the Rams and Jeff Fisher because he shares an agent with Fisher, but I think at this point in the offseason the addition of Jake Long has been the biggest acquisition for an NFL team (that includes Harvin and everyone the Dolphins have signed). The Rams have what they see as a franchise quarterback and they just signed a guy who has shown himself to be one of the best tackles in the NFL. It's the biggest addition in my mind.

Miami was in on Long aggressively, and one Dolphins official Sunday seemed confident Long would return for a sixth year. But no. And the Rams Sunday night were giving the credit for the migration to coach Jeff Fisher. "One of our players texted Jake and told him he'd retire if he had to play for any other coach besides Jeff,'' Rams GM Les Snead texted me late Sunday night. "Jeff gets veterans to Sunday ready to play ... Gets them to December ready to play ... So yes, he knows how to keep vets fresh physically, mentally and spiritually as good as anyone in the NFL."

I do wonder if Peter's agent knocks his typical fee by 0.5% if Peter pushes enough of his clients in MMQB. We all know players tend to like Jeff Fisher, but I look at Peter's endorsement of Fisher always through the prism that Peter and Fisher share an agent. It ruins a lot of the positive stuff Peter says about Fisher for me.

Arizona: Hired a new coach, Bruce Arians, who will implement a deep passing game,

A deep passing game with no quarterback and a shaky offensive line. Think that could end up being an issue? I know, I know, these are just minor details. Who is to say Brian Hoyer or Drew Stanton isn't the answer?

(Me. I'm to say. They aren't the answer unless the question is, "Who are two NFL quarterbacks that played at Michigan State?")

St. Louis: Lost three valuable offensive pieces (Steven Jackson, Danny Amendola and Brandon Gibson) who won't be easily replaced. They'll ask Saffold to move to the right side, which he hasn't played.

St. Louis lost their most productive receiver, their best deep threat, and their starting running back. But it's okay because Peter says the Rams are on the rise. Everything is fine.

The Rams are the only team with three picks in the top 50 of the draft (16, 22, 46), and they'll need a receiver upgrade after losing two in the first five days of free agency. Tight end signee Jared Cook is an expensive question mark, though Fisher had him in Tennessee and loves him.

Stop it Peter! Is Jared Cook's agent paying you to say nice things about him? If not, focus more on Jeff Fisher.

Whatever, San Francisco has to be markedly better in the back of the defense to have a chance to win the Super Bowl in 2014. Clutch physical receiver Anquan Boldin will help Colin Kaepernick make plays downfield.

Boldin better be clutch to make those catches downfield because he certainly isn't going to speed by anyone in an effort to make those catches. I realize I sound like Pete Prisco.

I've mentioned this before, but don't go handing the division to the Niners or Seahawks yet.

No one is handing any team in the NFC West the division quite yet other than you, Peter. You are the one writing MMQB.

St. Louis was 4-1-1 in the division last year. What if the Rams can keep Sam Bradford (sacked 71 times in his last 26 games) significantly cleaner?

Pump up the Rams more Peter! Just don't bring up the fact they could have had Robert Griffin last year, that would ruin the point you are wanting to prove.

And what if Arians can invent a quarterback? That's a huge what-if, and it's doubtful, but this is March. We major in what-ifs in March.

If Bruce Arians can invent a quarterback and all of the teams in the NFC West are good then it won't potentially mean much. These NFC West teams all play each other six times, so if every team is good then there is a chance there won't be one outstanding team in the division because they will end up beating each other.

The death of the tuck rule. This playing rule, expected to pass, will change the tuck rule -- 12 years late for Raiders fans -- so that a fumble will be ruled if the passer loses possession as he attempts to bring the ball back to his body. The officials will rule a fumble on such a play, and it will be eligible for replay review. "We are going to change this to clean this up and eliminate the tuck rule, so to speak,'' said Competition Committee co-chair Jeff Fisher.

Jeff Fisher then added, "No, really, we are happy having Sam Bradford rather than drafting Robert Griffin and seeing Griffin play half of his games every year on a faster artificial surface. It's no big deal we didn't draft Griffin. We got more draft picks! Those are great!"

More steps to take helmet hits out of the game. In his Super Bowl press conference, Roger Goodell said the top safety issue in the NFL was to "take the head out of the game."

DeAngelo Hall was very happy to learn about this new rule change because, "Honestly, my head has never ever really been in the game at any point."

Emmitt Smith told 105.3 The Fan in Dallas if he didn't lower his head when a linebacker came his way, the linebacker could bust him in the head and he -- the runner -- would be defenseless. "It [the rule] sounds like it's been made up by people who have never played the game of football,'' Smith said. Well, the Competition Committee doesn't have active players, but it does have a Hall of Fame tight end, Ozzie Newsome, and two former NFL defensive backs, Mark Murphy and Fisher.

Then Emmitt added, "Plus, I would have appreciated some more strategification on the dismissal of this new rule from the brains of those alike," and followed it up with, "I'm just benevolently upset right now and can't speak of clearness in the words my mouth just made up. It's probably best to turn your head away from me."

Said Anderson: "If a player is caught not wearing the thigh and knee pads or is not wearing appropriate thigh and knee pads, he will be given an opportunity to comply. He will not be permitted in the game until he does comply. If there is a continual refusal to comply, he simply will not be allowed in the game.''

James Harrison thinks it sounds like the NFL wants it's players to wear a different kind of pad during the game...if you get what he is saying.

The best signings in the first six days of NFL free agency:

Come on, you know what #1 is. It's the wonderful combination of a white slot receiver that Peter King loves with a quarterback Peter loves.

1. Denver: WR Wes Welker, two years, $12 million.

(Bengoodfella is so surprised he stops breathing for 10 full minutes)

And he'll be used by a quarterback, Peyton Manning, who absolutely loves the slot receiver. If Welker breaks down, which he's shown no sign of doing, the grade will have to be revised here. But if Welker plays 16 games and doesn't catch 100 balls, my name's Joe Don Looney.

It is a pretty good signing for the Broncos. That's for sure. And don't worry, Peter updates us all on how Brandon Stokley is handling this news. If Stokley were Michael Young then he would immediately demand a trade, but we get Stokley's reaction to Welker's signing and he took it much better. In fact, Peter calls him the class guy of the week. Don't worry, I will be getting to Stokley's reaction when the Broncos signed Welker very soon. I know you are all on the edge of your seat right now. 

3. New England: CB Aqib Talib, one year, $5 million. Patriots fans would want it to be a longer deal, because Talib could play himself into a bigger money deal elsewhere if he plays the way he can this year. But the Patriots weren't going to overpay for a player who could blow up in their faces. The best overall cornerback on the market was a must-keep for New England.

I like this signing, but the 3rd best signing in free agency so far? Not so sure about that one.

4. New Orleans: CB Keenan Lewis, five years, $26 million. The worst defense in history (by yardage, anyway) was desperate for a cover corner, and I'd say any corner who allows 52.7 percent completions with a league-high 16 passes defensed (according to Pro Football Focus) is a marked upgrade for the Saints.

I can handle the completion percentage against him, but the fact Keenan Lewis led the league in passes defensed could also mean he was targeted a lot by the opposing team.

I hated the Saints losing their left tackle, but if you ask me if I'd have lost an adequate left tackle (and Jermon Bushrod is that, or just a little better) for the Steelers' best corner in 2012, I'd say sure.

Peter and I are not compatible in terms of how we would put together an NFL team. I don't know if the Saints losing their left tackle is a wash in terms of adding a good cornerback. I'm a huge fan of a strong offensive line and I think corners can look good or bad based on how strong of a pass rush the front seven gets. It seems to me losing a decent left tackle is a big loss, but the Saints did need help in the secondary. I mostly feel like Peter consistently overrates corners.

8. San Diego: RB/returner Danny Woodhead: two years, undisclosed.

Really? How is this one of the best signings of the offseason (so far) when Peter has no clue how much money the Chargers gave Woodhead? What if they gave Woodhead $4 million per year? I realize I will never understand the intangibles Woodhead provides to a team, but I do realize Woodhead has 2828 all-purpose yards for his entire four year NFL career. To put that in perspective, Jacoby Jones didn't get signed by the Ravens until last May and he had 5051 all-purpose yards for his five year NFL career at that point.

Without knowing how much Woodhead signed for, I think it is impossible to say he was a good signing. I know Woodhead is beloved in certain corners, but his production doesn't seem like it has quite matched up with his belovedness (is that a word?).

OK, I don't know the dough, so I can't pass judgment on the wisdom. But I'm sure it's not a huge deal,

Peter is sure it was a good deal. The point is that a team signed Danny Woodhead and that is only a good thing.

Woodhead, in the running, receiving and return game, didn't lose a fumble over the past two seasons in 233 New England touches. Great insurance for the disappointing Ryan Mathews.

The fact Woodhead doesn't fumble doesn't mean he was great insurance for Mathews. If Mathews got injured could Woodhead really carry the load or would Philip Rivers be stuck with very little running game again? I don't hate the signing, but the 8th best signing of the offseason so far? Not really.

Class Guy of the Week.

Brandon Stokley, slot receiver, Denver.

Think of those last three words -- "slot receiver, Denver'' -- and what do you think of?

(Drawing a blank)

Wes Welker, obviously.

Considering Welker wasn't signed until a week ago and hasn't played a snap for the Broncos, he isn't at all what I think about when I hear "slot receiver, Denver."

But think of Stokley for a moment. A year ago tomorrow, Peyton Manning signed with the Denver Broncos. During his brief free-agent fling, Manning used the home of one of his best friends, Stokley, as a refuge. Stokley lives in the Denver suburb of Castle Pines. A year ago, he was unsigned. Maybe he'd be signed by the Broncos, maybe he wouldn't. But he helped his buddy, Manning, hide out -- and decide what to do.

So when it came time to sign Welker to a two-year, $12 million deal last week, a decision that took the Broncos about 10 seconds to make because Welker's the most productive slot man in football, coach John Fox picked up the phone to inform Stokley. "Heartbreaking,'' Fox said here Sunday, "because Stokley'd been such a great guy and important player for us.''

That's why Brandon Stokley, who may have had his career ended by the acquisition of Welker, is the Class Guy of the Week.

I just hope Stokley is able to find a job after his career ends with the Broncos. It is heartbreaking when an NFL player who is near to retirement is replaced by a better NFL player. You just hope Stokley can find some work out there to support his family. Devastating. Heartbreaking. Shocking. Welcome to the real world Brandon Stokley. Just try to keep 6 months of savings on hand to get past these hard times.

So Mr. Pro Football Talk, Mike Florio of Bridgeport, W. Va., had gone 15 1/2 years without flying until Sunday.

Well, he is from West Virginia so he also probably isn't aware there is a civilization outside of the state, because otherwise he would have fled the state years ago.

(I'm kidding West Virginians, my mom's side of the family is from West Virginia and they are fine people. They are all dead, but they were great people when they were alive)

For him, it wasn't a fear of flying so much as a loss of control. When he drove, or was being driven, he could see the road and the other drivers if he wasn't the one driving, and he felt secure knowing that whatever the statistics about the relative safety of flying versus driving said, to him, driving just felt safer.

Plus, he did have one of those extra-large trucks with mud on the side that I am constantly seeing whenever I drive in West Virginia. Even if those things are murder for everyone else, they are safe for him to drive shoudl an accident occur.

Florio wanted to go to this week's league meetings, and Phoenix was going to be too far to drive. So he finally decided to get back on a plane, flying here nonstop Sunday afternoon from Pittsburgh with his wife, Jill.

"It was uneventful,'' he said once in the Valley of the Sun. "I wish I could tell you some great story about getting all claustrophobic once they closed the door, or something like that. But I can't. I was hoping for a better story. The only thing I can tell you is when we were turning the corner to get out on the runway, my wife said to me, 'Does someone know where our wills are?' And I said, 'I really don't want to think about that right now.' ''

It's always interesting to here a second-hand account of a person's traveling experience. It's like being there, except for wishing the person who was telling you the story would just stop telling you the story.

What has changed since he last flew: the fact that visitors can't go to the gate with flyers. "The whole security thing is so different,'' he said. "First, you practically disrobe going through security -- your shoes, your belt, your jacket, and then all your electronics in different bins. Then you get through security, and it's like a ghost town in there.''

It's important for everyone to be aware that air travel security has changed over the last decade. Otherwise, without Mike Florio's account of how air travel security has changed we would have no idea.

Ten Things I Think I Think

3.I think, speaking of free agency, the tackle market sure has some good leftovers: Super Bowl left tackle Bryant McKinnie, Sebastian Vollmer, Eric Winston, Andre Smith (likely to stay in Cincinnati), and, if some team wants to trade for him, Kansas City's Branden Albert. The Chiefs will listen to offers for him.

Yes, but it is more important that players at skill positions get signed first. After all, what does it matter if a team has a good set of tackles or not? It's not like the offensive line does anything. The sexy positions go first, then the positions that aren't as sexy but very crucial will get paid sometime down the road.

5.I think the cutest thing I saw on the weekend before the NFL Meetings began here at the Arizona Biltmore hotel is the Harbaugh brothers, and families, playing with kids in the hotel pool. Number two: The Harbaugh brothers, out for a 6 a.m. walk together on the jogging path outside the hotel.

These are grown men who are brothers. Please don't call it "cute" when they spend time together. They aren't children, but grown men. I don't know what Peter's fascination with calling adults "cute" or "precocious" but it has gone from weird to a little creepy.

8.I think when I see headlines about the Jets keeping an open mind on whether or not to trade Darrell Revis, I am heartened that they have not lost their minds.

I continuously find it interesting that Peter spends time (like he did in this one) talking about how the 49ers are in good shape to build their team because they have a lot of draft picks, but Peter doesn't think the Jets should trade Revis in order to rebuild their team through the draft. So draft picks are great, but only if you aren't a rebuilding team like the 49ers. Got it. I've repeated myself 100 times on this issue, but if there is ever a market for Revis then the Jets need to explore the market and see what Revis can bring back in a trade.

There's far too much smoke out there, and far too little whispering to sources off the record that Revis is going nowhere, for me to believe they aren't desperate to move him. Mistakenly, of course.

I don't know if the Jets should be desperate to move Revis, but they have a lot of holes on that roster and he is such an asset. What sense does it make to have a team with holes and then choosing to give a cornerback a new contract (which is what Revis wants)? It doesn't make much sense to me.

9.I think it was nice to speak to you again Sunday night, Sean Payton.

Please tell him in person and not through MMQB. I don't need a reminder Sean Payton is going to be coaching in the NFL next year and every writer is going to cuddle up to him and preach about his brilliance all year.

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

b. Ohio at Denver in the NIT Tuesday night. Bobcat fever, baby.

It's going to be very cute to watch these teams play. These coaches are going to be so precocious during this game.

e. And, though I have absolutely no idea who is any good in college basketball,

There are no good college basketball teams and parity is all around us. That's why two nights ago many experts on ESPN and CBS were putting all of the #1 and #2 seeds in the Final Four...because there are no good teams and the field is wide open. That's what I've been hearing all year.

f. My bracket philosophy? Simple -- since the days when I followed the game. I pick the favorite in every game, put my $20 in the mail to my good buddy Ron Fisch in Montclair, N.J., and hope for the best. I never have won a dime in Ron's pool, so he loves to see my $20 arrive in the mail.

Peter would be the kind of guy I wouldn't want in my pool. At least try to pick upsets and don't just write down the favored team and call it a day.

h. Hey Pope Francis: The more you talk, the more I love hearing you talk about the poor. Keep it up.

Also Pope Francis: Pray for this week's class guy, Brandon Stokley, and see if you can do something about the coffee at hotels. But do keep talking about the poor. Peter loves it when you remind him he isn't poor. Maybe you could set up a tournament where poor people fight to the death for cash prizes. Peter would heartily love to see that while he sipped on a wheat beer.

j. Coffeenerdness: Yes, the Arizona Biltmore is fabulously overpriced. But it has the best hotel coffee I've had in forever.

And really, what is paying $30 more for a room if the cup of coffee you get is delicious? I wish Pope Francis would talk more about the poor. Peter loves it when he does that. Someone needs to talk about the poor more often. Anyway, let's get back to Peter talking about how he pays for an overpriced hotel room because that hotel has good coffee.

The Adieu Haiku

Belichick. Smart coach.
That doesn't mean he can't err.
Wes Welker: E-Bill.

I'm pretty sure the fact each line has the correct amount of syllables doesn't make this a haiku.

3 comments MMQB Review: Nobody Puts Peter in a Dimly Lit Room Edition

Peter King detailed in last week's MMQB how the Rams are making it easier for Janoris Jenkins to adjust to life in the NFL by helping him take care of his personal life. We also re-learned that Peter isn't going to overreact about what happens in the preseason, but (as Peter stated in his Tuesday mailbag) he thinks Andrew Luck will be a Top-3 quarterback in a few years. It's quite possible this could happen, but that's a lot of praise for a guy who hasn't taken an NFL snap yet. This week, Peter talks about the Russell Wilson phenomenon, gives his thoughts on the Red Sox-Dodgers trade as only he could, and still manages to find time to bitch about hotel he stayed at. You didn't think last week's complaint-free MMQB was going to be the new trend did you?

Now on with the show, the NFL show, in a busy week during which we've found out a few things -- that Pete Carroll was serious when he said the best man would win the quarterback job in Seattle

It helps a head coach look good when one of the guys in the QB competition clearly looks like the guy who should start. Otherwise, it would look like Carroll was just churning quarterbacks trying to eventually find someone who could run the team. If Carroll was coaching in New York I can only imagine how the media would have criticized him for trading for Charlie Whitehurst, Tarvaris Jackson, and then signing Matt Flynn only to have him lose the starting job in Training Camp. It helps that Russell Wilson looks like an NFL starter is what I am saying.

that Jim Irsay was not crying (Ron) wolf with all his trade tweets,

Not really. Irsay made it sound like the trade was a much bigger deal than just Vontae Davis coming to Indianapolis. Irsay made it sound like it was a blockbuster of a trade, not a trade for a underachieving cornerback.

The naysayers said to just wait until Wilson had to play against someone's starting defense; that would expose him. Uh, not so much.

Um yes, still so much. Wilson has looked great in the preseason, but if Peter King thinks the preseason is equivalent to what a defense looks like in Week 1 of the regular season than he should stop writing about the NFL. Wilson looks great, but teams don't generally game plan in the preseason, so Wilson won't be non-exposed until after Week 1 (or probably a few weeks after that, no matter if Wilson struggles or doesn't struggle) of the regular season. Simmer down. There is still plenty of time for Wilson to be exposed or not exposed in the regular season.

Wilson started and had seven possessions in Kansas City Friday night. The drives: 41 yards and a field goal, 41 yards and a field goal, 37 yards and a field goal, 62 yards and a touchdown, 59 yards and a touchdown, 55 yards and a touchdown, 54 yards and a missed field goal. By the time Seattle inserted Tarvaris Jackson to replace Wilson, the Seahawks led 44-7.

The Chiefs were fresh off giving up 31 points to the St. Louis Rams in the previous preseason game and the Rams scored 3 points in the previous preseason game against the Colts. So it doesn't look so impressive knowing all of that. So maybe that Chiefs defense isn't so great.

My point? That you can pretty much prove whatever you want to prove using preseason numbers. I know it makes it hard to write a weekly NFL column doing this, but it is best to wait until the regular season before saying Wilson will or will not be exposed. Plus, he's a rookie. He's going to struggle in some games anyway. I feel like there is always a rush to make a pronouncement that Player X is a bust or Player Y is for real. Give it time. Michael Clayton looked like a perennial Pro Bowl player in his first year with Tampa Bay, while it took Drew Brees a few years to become the quarterback he has become.

In the aggressive, rush-heavy defense new Indy coach Chuck Pagano plays, the Colts need cover corners. Now they have one after Sunday's trade with the Miami Dolphins for Davis. Though the fourth-year veteran had fallen out of favor with the new staff in Miami, Pagano is likely to make him a poor man's Darrelle Revis, putting him on an island against the Andre Johnsons and Justin Blackmons on the Colts' schedule.

After watching Vontae Davis work on an island against Steve Smith in the second preseason game this season should be fun to watch if you are a fan of a team with an outstanding receiver and that team is playing the Colts. Davis is talented, but a poor man's Revis is going to have a tough time covering Andre Johnson on an island.

So, if Davis is Indy thinks he is and his playing time requires the Colts to give up a sixth-rounder, Indy will have just three picks in the top 200 next year. But Davis is 24, has started for three years, and the Colts simply had no other potential cover corners like him.

My fear for Indianapolis is they are going the whole "find a franchise quarterback and let his talent cover up for the holes in the roster" way of building a team. Everything looks better when a team has a franchise quarterback, but I feel like the Colts put themselves in a position in the past to where it all depended on Manning. This formula worked for a long period of time, but I would hope the Colts learned something from last year outside of the fact they need a franchise quarterback on the roster. I feel like they still have rebuilding to do and they are trading draft picks, so it concerns me.

5. Tarvaris Jackson is headed to Buffalo ... for pretty meager compensation. Seattle will get a seventh-round pick that could improve to a sixth- if Jackson is active for six games this year; the Seahawks couldn't get more because the rest of the league knew Seattle wasn't going to keep Jackson and his $4 million salary to be a third-string quarterback.

I didn't understand this deal. While I am far from being on the Vince Young bandwagon I don't see how Tarvaris Jackson is worth trading any draft pick to acquire. He's like Vince Young, except he's had less time in the Buffalo offense.

8. Want the good news in Tampa? Or the bad? Let's start with the bad. Pro Bowl guard Davin Joseph went down against the Patriots, reportedly with a broken kneecap, and will be out about three months. For a team trying to play a pounding running game this year, losing a road-grading guard for the majority of the season is going to put more pressure on Josh Freeman to carry a suspect offense.

It's a good thing the Bucs spent $55 million on Vincent Jackson when the loss of one offensive linemen could dramatically affect the Bucs offense. Maybe they should have saved some of the $7.5 million they gave Eric Wright to sign a backup offensive guard.

The Cowboys aren't just a little worried about Bryant's maturity level, they're petrified. According to Calvin Watkins of ESPNDallas.com, Bryant will not drink alcohol nor visit strip clubs this season, and he'll have a midnight curfew. He'll also have a three-man security crew, including one security man with him at all times, with rides from security to and from practice.

Is this really worth it? The Cowboys are treating Dez Bryant like a child in order to ensure he behaves and avoids getting in more trouble. It seems like overkill to me. At a certain point they have to either trust he will not get into more trouble or know he isn't going to stay out of trouble. I just don't think treating a grown man like a child is a permanent solution. For now, treating Dez Bryant like a teenager is going to work, but this solution seems only temporary. At some point the Cowboys will have to make a decision on whether they trust Dez Bryant to interact with the world on his own or not.

As I walked away from a 20-minute conversation with Wilson, I could see why people in Wisconsin loved him so much.

N.C. State fans start to kick a puppy because the three years he played in Raleigh are seemingly all forgotten at this point.

And so, like his four draft-mates (Andrew Luck, Robert Griffin III, Ryan Tannehill and Brandon Weeden), Wilson went out and earned the job.

What makes Wilson more impressive to me is that Luck/Griffin/Weeden were essentially handed the starting job. These three earned it, but they were the leaders in the clubhouse to be the starting quarterback going into Training Camp. They earned the job that was essentially theirs to earn. Only Wilson, and to a lesser extent (because you can't convince me Matt Moore isn't a better quarterback than Tannehill at this point) Tannehill, went out and earned the starting quarterback job after going against a veteran who could conceivably be a safer choice.

Not to mention, I wonder how Matt Flynn feels about picking the Seahawks as his destination now? How do the Dolphins feel about this too? Would they rather have Ryan Tannehill or Matt Flynn?

What's the best body type for a strongside defensive end in the 3-4 defense? About 6-5 and 290? Meet J.J. Watt, 6-5 and 288. The size for a good 3-4 outside linebacker? Maybe 6-4 and 255, DeMarcus Ware size.

While this may be true in some ways, it sounds like Peter sort of made up these measurements as the "best" body type in order to provide a narrative on how the Texans have "perfect" defensive players for their respective position.

In two December meetings, Dallas gave up 68 points to the Giants and 746 yards passing by Manning. The Cowboys went out and got two new cornerbacks -- Carr and first-round pick Morris Claiborne from LSU, the consensus best corner in the draft.

A great pass rush is still the best way, in my opinion, to prevent a team from hanging a bunch of points and yardage on a defense. I think Claiborne and Carr are fine, but it won't mean much if the Cowboys can't get to the quarterback.

"Every defense needs two like that, and nobody's got 'em,'' said Rob Ryan, the defensive coordinator.

Rob "If my last name was 'Smith' I wouldn't have near the trust in my defensive coordinating skills" Ryan has to know the Cowboys need a great pass rush. I think the Jets have two corners that are like Carr and Claiborne in Cromartie and Revis. So I wouldn't say "nobody" has corners like the Cowboys have.

Then Peter interviews Ohio University's quarterback to discuss this weekend's game against Penn State. Let's look at some of the hardball questions/light flirting from Peter:

"It'll be a pretty emotional atmosphere there, probably. The fans at Penn State will be all fired up to defend their program after so many people have been critical of it."

That's not really a question.

"But 107,000 people. It'll be intense."

This is the next question, and again, this is more of a statement than a question. This is starting to sound like the "Chris Farley Show" skit when he was interviewing Paul McCartney.

"How do you like your chances?''

Don't pry too deep, Peter. Leave the kid with some dignity.

"Why not baseball for you?''

"Why you not make game of baseball play you?"

"How tall are you?''

You aren't supposed to ask this on the first date, Peter.

"You watch Drew Brees and Russell Wilson?''

"You make watch of quarterbacks in NFL? How you like not tall of height quarterbacks in NFL? You use eyes of face to see play football on field?"

Coming in Tuesday's column: Some big offensive changes in Baltimore ... and why Tony Romo was up very late one night in San Diego. (Hint: It's all very innocent, and has everything to do with football.).

So Romo wasn't up until 5am trying to break the Cowboys record (set by Michael Irvin) of trying to sleep with eight hookers in one night? Thanks for the major tease and then clarifying what the major tease didn't entail. I'm on the edge of my seat for the answer in tomorrow's mailbag.

Seattle QB Russell Wilson. After his 13-of-19 night at Kansas City Friday, Wilson's three-game stat line puts GM John Schneider, decried for picking Wilson too high at 75th overall last April, in the early running for Exec of the Year:

Yep, it is late August and Peter is already deciding who should be in the running for Executive of the Year. I seem to recall Peter warning us a few weeks ago what we see in the preseason may mean something or it may mean nothing. Either way, Peter knows Russell Wilson is at the top of his MVP Watch for right now.

"Do you want to punch me in the face?''

-- Boomer Esiason, former Jets quarterback and current morning drive radio host on WFAN in New York, upon welcoming Jets quarterback Tim Tebow to the set during a Thursday morning broadcast live from Jets camp in New Jersey.

Esiason has said the Jets should cut Tebow because his presence is a distraction, and Esiason doesn't think he's a quality NFL quarterback.
Tebow said no, followed not long after by "God bless you."

"God bless you" is Ex-backup QB Punt Protector Jets speak for "I hate you and hope you die."

Not to mention, based on his preseason performance, if Ex-backup QB Punt Protector Jets tried to punch Esiason in the face he would either one-hop his punch or throw his punch a foot over Esiason's head.

Atlanta wide receiver Julio Jones in 5.5 quarters of play this summer: 13 catches, 240 receiving yards, 18.5 yards per catch.

Yeah, but he is a diva who doesn't want to block for his teammates and he is the total reason why the Falcons didn't win their playoff game against the Giants last year...at least that's Gregg Easterbrook's point of view.

Derrick Mason retired in June with more receptions, 943, than any of the 21 wide receivers in the Pro Football Hall of Fame except Jerry Rice.

I think this speaks more to how much the NFL has opened up in the passing game over the last two decades and how consistent of a career Derrick Mason had more than anything else.

On my final camp stop, in San Diego to see the Cowboys on Tuesday, I stayed at a hotel I'd never heard of: the Andaz. "What's Andaz?'' I asked our SI travel agent. It's the boutique-y Hyatt hotel, I was told. "Like a W,'' the travel agent said. And because it was significantly cheaper than any of the other brand hotels downtown, I took it.

So Peter willingly took a cheaper hotel and now will proceed to bitch about how this hotel isn't up to his standards. That's pretty typical Peter King. He doesn't want to pay as much as he would pay for other brand hotels, but he wants the service at the cheaper hotel to be on the level as a $200/night hotel.

I'm not a fan of dark hotels. I don't understand them, first of all. Who favors dimly lit rooms?

I like dimly lit rooms, especially when I am trying to sleep.

I looked all around the desk. Couldn't find a light. No light on the desk. "#$%^&*@#$!!!'' I said, or something like that, and then turned on every 40-watt-bulb lamp in the place (exaggerating, but it wasn't too bright in there). So I finished my work by candlelight, shut the computer, and accidently

Accidently misspelled the word "accidentally?"

touched what I'd thought was some silver sculpture or piece of curved art on the desk. And a light went on. The silver thing was a light, and I officially was a dufus.

Right, I can see how Peter got confused. Because you know hotels are always putting sculptures and pieces of art in each hotel room. I will check into a hotel and be amazed at the number of sculptures each individual room has. I saw a Van Gogh painting over my bed one time when I stayed at the "W" in Atlanta. It didn't strike me as odd because I know hotels are always putting sculptures and art around their hotel rooms.

I'm probably more a Marriott TownePlace Suites or Spring Hill Suites guy on the training camp road. There, I know how to turn on the lights.

Oh sure, Marriott is good enough for Peter now, but just wait until the coffee is watered down or they don't serve the specific cereal that Peter wants at the free continental breakfast. A cereal which Peter asked if they served at the free continental breakfast when he called to make the reservation. Yeah, we'll see how much Peter likes the Marriott or Spring Hill Suites once they disappoint him by asking for proof of identification when he uses his credit card.

"If u don't like it buy ur own team and try to make the playoffs 9 season n a row n put together 7 straight 12 win seasons n a row as Owner!"

-- @JimIrsay, the owner of Colts, indignant that some fans were ripping him for tweeting several times that the Colts were engaged in trade talks, implying that he sounds like the boy who cried wolf for the tweets and no trade happening. It finally did on Sunday.

Nothing like Jim Irsay taking credit for having Peyton Manning as his quarterback. When the team was without Peyton Manning, Irsay led them (as owner) to a 2-14 record and the #1 overall draft pick. Before Manning showed up, Irsay led them (as owner) to the #1 overall draft pick in 1998.

"Apparently the Dodgers front office doesn't get NESN."

-- @AndrewCatalon, a sports anchor at WNYT-TV in Albany, N.Y.
Meaning: The Dodgers dealt with the Red Sox to acquire, among others, the tremendously disappointing Josh Beckett and just-regular disappointing Carl Crawford, and NESN telecasts most of the Red Sox games.

Your audience isn't stupid Peter. There is no need to explain this to us. Most people know what NESN is and that the Dodgers just traded for players from the Red Sox team.

1. I think I've banged on the replacements, and the inability of the league to make a bridge with the regular officials in the negotiating process, so much in the past few weeks that I thought I'd give it a rest this week. Mostly. But it doesn't diminish the fact that it's incumbent on Roger Goodell and the NFL's negotiators to attack the process anew this week, and make sure there are real officials in place when a game vital to the playoff race is played nine day from now -- Cowboys at Giants -- in New Jersey.

The NFL needs to bring the regular officials back if for no other reason than to make sure no NFC East games are affected by bad officiating. Who really cares if the other games that aren't vital to the NFC playoff race are affected during Week 1? It doesn't matter. Every other NFL game can be terribly officiated. Let's just make sure this vital Week 1 game being broadcast on NBC (a company Peter not-so-coincidentally works for) has good officiating. That's all that really matters.

Peter has managed to show an East Coast bias, stated a game is vital to the playoff race in Week 1 of the NFL season (which is a bit premature) AND shamelessly plugged for NBC. That's a triumvirate that's hard to achieve, but Peter managed to do it flawlessly.

4. I think my wish-I'd-written-that line of the week belong to Mike Florio, of ProFootballTalk.com,

Ah yes, it is the weekly kiss-ass dance that Peter King and Mike Florio perform. Peter King reminds us in MMQB how brilliant Florio is and Mike Florio posts Peter King articles from MMQB in the "Rumor Mill" as if they are fresh rumors and not the product of integrating one part of the NBC family with another.

b. As far as the deal goes, I like it as a Red Sox partisan -- particularly the part about the Dodgers taking $250 million or so (96 percent) of the remaining salary of the four Red Sox vets. Adrian Gonzalez is a big loss. Carl Crawford might be, but he also might be a player who isn't suited for the big-headline places, and who won't be able to play until next April or May because of elbow surgery.

Oh yes, it is the old puffed-out-chest standby that Crawford just wasn't tough enough to play in such a demanding baseball town like Boston. Obviously Crawford won't have any issues in a small city like Los Angeles where the locals don't care nearly as much about their team.

And Josh Beckett, well, you can have him. Never met him; don't know any of these guys. But he strikes me as one of the most miserable people ever to put on a Sox uniform -- and that encompasses a lot of miserable people.

"I have absolutely no first-hand knowledge of the situation, but I'll give my opinion anyway."

The Sox have paid $46 million for Beckett to go 24-24 over the past three years. Maybe he'll be good in the spacious parks of the National League West,

Only true Red Sox can handle playing in the small stadium that is Fenway Park. Beckett was never a true Red Sox player.

He's spent the last 12 months helping drag down a franchise that was paying him like a king.

This has never happened to any other major league team in the history of baseball. Only the Red Sox have ever paid a lot of money for a pitcher who never gave them a return on this investment.

c. Gonzalez's first at-bat for the Dodgers: three-run homer. James Loney's first at-bat for the Red Sox: double play. And so it goes.

We're so cursed! We're more cursed than your team is cursed! Our curse is worse than your curse! Players are playing better when away from the Red Sox locker room and fans, but this is in no way a reflection on the fans or Red Sox management.

d. This is no little slump Boston's in. Red Sox in last 162 games: 73-89.
e. Pirates in last 162: 80-82.

No, a bad record over a 162 game span is actually a fairly small slump. It's one bad year. Get over it and quit acting like your team is too special to suffer through a bad year. You aren't special and the Red Sox aren't special. A playoff spot isn't guaranteed and there will be bad years. The Pirates have struggled for nearly a decade and the Red Sox have one bad year, which is causing Peter to flip out, and remind us of what a spoiled fan he can sound like.

f. The Pittsburgh Pirates are seven full games better than the Red Sox in the last full season.

Your readers are not stupid. They can do basic math and see 80 minus 73 is equal to 7.

i. While I'm on the topic of baseball box scores, is it too much, USA Today, to wake up in my hotel in San Diego and see the results of the East Coast games that end around 7:30 p.m. Pacific time?

Is it too much to log-on to the Internet and see the scores for the East Coast games, specifically since Peter works for a sports website and a sports network?

1 comments MMQB Review: Hard Knocks, Peter King Edition: Volume 1

Before I get to MMQB for this week, I have created Yahoo Fantasy Football and Fantasy College Football Pick 'Em leagues. We need a few more teams in the Fantasy Football league and need quite a few more teams in the College Football Pick 'Em league. Feel free to join up if you care to. The ID and password for the Fantasy Football league is "211530" and the password is "eckstein." The ID and password for the College Football Pick 'Em league is "1724" and the password is "asu." I am very clever with my passwords obviously.

I figure since there wasn't "Hard Knocks" this year on HBO, we can call Peter King's training camp tour "Hard Knocks, Peter King Edition" despite the fact it is 1/100th as interesting as an episode of the real "Hard Knocks." Peter is on a training camp tour and I am not sure, but I think he proposes to Mike Florio at least once in his MMQB. Let's just say Peter likes Mike Florio, and not just because he is a co-worker, but mostly because he is a co-worker. Also, because Peter hasn't told us anything this week, we do get a Nnamdi Asomugha update. I know he has signed with the Eagles, but I am betting Peter probably still thinks he will go to the Jets.

IN THE USO-MOBILE, ON I-81 IN CENTRAL VIRGINIA -- Camps are open. Football's back. I'm on the road, writing Monday Morning Quarterback in the cab of a big rig near the Blue Ridge Mountains.

For those who don't recall, Peter bitched long enough about having to drive to the training camps that he got his own bus to use during his training camp tours. Peter's personal automobile or a rental is apparently out of the question now that Peter is feuding with Hertz because they overcharged him to fill up the tank in the rental car he was too lazy to fill up himself. Peter doesn't have to fill up the tank in his USO-Mobile nor does he seem to have to drive the entire time, that's what the team of migrant workers he brought along his tour are for.

First, the headlines of the morning:

Quit with the bullshit! Does Nnamdi Asomugha still want to sign with the Jets? I have to know.

The Eagles wouldn't have signed Nnamdi Asomugha without a simultaneous middle-of-the-night exchange of text messages between GM Howie Roseman and the agent for Asomugha, Ben Dogra, 15 hours before he agreed to terms with Philadelphia.

(Howie Roseman texting Ben Dogra) "Its Howie. We want 2 make Nnamdi a very high paid cornerback in the NFL? Thoughts."

(Ben Dogra texting back) "Really? What u thinkin?"

(Howie Roseman) "$60 million 4 5 years? Good, bad, u tell me."

(Ben Dogra) "Good. Jets have offered 6 years $80 mil. Beat that?"

(Howie Roseman) "No the Jets haven't. I don't read MMQB. PK on your payroll. Don't lie. $60 mil 5 years. Done?"

(Ben Dogra) "Got me. I give PK Starbucks gift cards 4 Xmas. He thought it wld drive up price tlking a/b NA in MMQB. Fail! Deal done."

(Howie Roseman) "Do u know of any more scrambling QBs that can't throw we could sign."

(Ben Dogra) "Vince Young? hahaha...u wld never do---"

(Howie Roseman) "We just signed him."

Peyton Manning on Sunday found three different ways to say he'll never play outside of Indiana.

Meanwhile Tom Brady is still practicing in California to be with his kid, just like the selfish jerk he is. Gisele has ruined him! Brady will never have the work ethic of Peyton Manning, who will not leave the state of Indiana, even to play away games. Teams have to come to Indiana to play Peyton Manning and Colts. That's how much he loves Indiana.

The Asomugha story's the most interesting of the first week back.

If anyone read last week's MMQB, this should come as no shock Peter believes this is the most interesting story.

How'd we all miss Nnamdi to the Eagles?

Because Peter was too busy linking him repeatedly to the Jets. It's ok. It's not like Peter gets paid to know this information or anything.

Then, at precisely 12:38 a.m. Friday, Dogra pressed the button on a text message to Roseman that said: "Are u sure ..... be bold. Best deal in history.''

At almost the split second that Dogra sent the message, one time-stamped 12:38 a.m. popped into his phone from Roseman, sent obviously before Roseman had read Dogra's text. "Thanks for taking the time today. I appreciate the process. We need more of ur guys here.''

Well, clearly this means the Eagles should invest $60 million dollars in Asomugha since it just so happened their General Manager and Asomugha's agent texted each other at nearly the same time. It's simply fate.

Dogra thought it was eerie that their texts passed in the ether. And he wanted Roseman to not think it was over, because he knew how much Asomugha wanted to play in Philadelphia.

This isn't just eerie. This is the football gods proclaiming that, yes, Nnamdi Asomugha should play in Philadelphia.

This scene was probably like a bad romantic comedy movie set in a high school where the leading lady drops her books and bumps heads with the studly, yet insecure and completely available jock who tries to bend down and help her pick them up. Simply put, an eventual marriage is the only reasonable conclusion for why these two people bumped heads.

Dogra picked up the phone. No sooner did Roseman say hello than Dogra's cell phone beeped in his ear. Call-waiting. Asomugha.

Lifetime has just snatched up the movie rights to this story. It has everything in it. Drama, romance, a little action...and it gives Nnamdi Asomugha the big acting gig he has always wanted. Who needs New York now, bitches?

Dogra let it ring to voicemail because he had a message to deliver to Roseman first. "Don't you think it's strange we haven't communicated in five or six hours, and all of sudden we send each other texts at exactly the same time? Are you sure we don't want to explore this one last time?''

(Using the voice often heard in a soap opera during a lover's quarrel) "Let's explore this one more time. We owe to ourselves to see if this can work out. Don't give up on us. I haven't!"

Dogra's no mystic, but he'll always believe there was something eerie going on when two texts were sent simultaneously, and two phone calls made within 10 seconds of each other, all by the three people involved in making a deal happen.

I think the one thing we can really learn this from this story is that Peter King was wrong, again, about where a free agent may end up. Peter completely had Asomugha pegged for the Jets.

This I knew: Jerry Richardson had his heart transplant on Super Bowl Sunday between the Steelers and Cardinals. He got the phone call to hustle into the hospital in Charlotte for the surgery late that afternoon. This I didn't know: It was an NBC game that day, and when Richardson was being prepped for surgery, he had one request before being put under. "I wanted to hear that Faith Hill song,'' he said. The NBC theme song for the football game was the last thing, other than some personal words from his wife, he heard before the transplant.

(Jerry Richardson's wife) "I love you honey. You'll be fine."

(Jerry Richardson) "I can't wait to see you after this is done...(starts to fade off)"

(Richardson's wife) "Oh yes, I forgot to mention you may want to refuse to sign your head coach to a contract extension in a few seasons, make him a lame duck, sign Jake Delhomme to a contract extension and then release him a year later, and then alienate your entire fan base with vague promises to spend money once the impending lockout is over. That's the best course of action."

(Richardson) "Sounds great. I will do that...(falls asleep)"

Drew Brees didn't back down and was on the front line of those who told Smith if he had to miss a paycheck or three from his $10-million annual salary, he was willing.

What a guy. Drew Brees, who could quit playing in the NFL today and be set for life without having to work ever again, said he would not collect one or even three of the paychecks he doesn't really need in order to live comfortably for the rest of his life if that is what it took. He was willing to forgo a paycheck(s) he doesn't really need in order to get the deal done. He is not only a New Orleans Saint. He is also a human saint.

In all seriousness, I am sure Drew Brees is a great guy. Still, this is an instance where Peter King writes and doesn't seem to quite understand his audience. For us, missing one or three paychecks and still pocketing $7-$8 million dollars isn't quite a huge sacrifice for the cause. It shows a willingness to make the lockout last from the player's perspective, but to the reader of MMQB it also makes he/she realize a guy like Drew Brees is set for life regardless.

Last December, Richardson told me if Goodell was in office for 25 years, this would be the most important decision (or series of them) he ever made. I asked him last night how he felt Goodell did.

These are the softball-ass questions I like for my reporters to ask.

"Hey Peyton, do you like it when your receivers catch the football as you throw it?"

"Tom...be real with me. Randy Moss, did you like having him on your team?

What did Peter expect Jerry Richardson to say? Did he expect him to say Goodell was useless? Or that Goodell did nothing to drive the process? A deal got done, both sides got what they wanted...there's back-patting to go all around.

"He was by far the driving force to getting this deal done,'' Richardson said. "when we picked this man five years ago, what a decision we made.

Yes, you owners are such geniuses for choosing Roger Goodell as the commissioner. Great job. Pop the bubbly. Whores for everyone.

"I played the game when Bert Bell was commissioner. Pete Rozelle was a major help to us when we tried to get the franchise for the Carolinas, and, of course, I owned the team when Paul Tagliabue was commissioner. Now Roger. I think he will stand up when it's all done to be the equal of all of them -- and, with his vision for the game, he could exceed them.''

Of course 10 years from now when a labor deal can't get done or Goodell has done something to piss off Jerry Richardson, he will be a moron. But for now, "goodwill to all men" is the motto.

even though I find it ridiculous to consider that half of the players in the league, as of this morning, haven't voted to approve the deal. But the one group that I feel for the most is the exclusive-rights free-agents group.

What? So half of the players haven't approved the deal? So what would happen if this group didn't approve the deal or is this a foregone conclusion they will?

Watching Cam Newton Sunday night in Spartanburg, S.C., three things were evident:

Before we get to the things that were evident, Peter King threw up a Tweet about how Cam Newton shunned him after camp. Cam should know well enough that if he wants to get into Peter's inner circle of favored quarterbacks he has to kiss some major ass.

The Big Lead had a good post about this and also some interesting commentary. I have no issue with Peter Tweeting that and I think Cam Newton should have at least said something to Peter, but it does seem like Peter is partly putting himself into a dramatic story, doesn't it? Did he expect Newton to love him, regardless of whether what Newton said was smart or stupid to say?

And though his accuracy is very much a work in progress (he missed six or eight open receivers Sunday),

Probably because the play had more than one word! Because see, Cam Newton is too stupid to know NFL plays!

It is training camp, nearly all of the receivers on the field seem to be open.

he does throw a beautiful deep ball -- as he did to wideout David Gettis late in practice, a 45-yard throw that landed in Gettis' arms perfectly.

Then after seeing how well his son was throwing the deep ball, Cam Newton's father tried to send the Panthers a $4,500 invoice for Cam's time with the team during training camp. Cam, of course, knew nothing about this.

One more reason why all teams should go to small college campuses,

The college-age ladies!

On Sunday, one of the Panther players went to the piano in the corner and began playing a Mozart sonata.

It was Cam Newton who did this. Then Cam Newton's father invoiced Wofford College (where the camp was held) $5,000 for Newton's "entertainer/icon" performance. Cam Newton, of course, knew nothing about this.

There's nothing wrong with that.

Don't worry unnamed Carolina Panther player who played a Mozart sonata, Peter King doesn't think your a homosexual! (wink, wink)

"WOW''

-- Atlanta cornerback Dunta Robinson, upon getting a text Friday evening that Nnamdi Asomugha had signed with the Philadelphia Eagles, not the New York Jets.

I like how Peter is making it seem like EVERYONE thought Asomugha was definitely going to the Jets. Maybe Robinson was Tweeting "WOW" because the Eagles got Asomugha or the amount of money that was involved. It doesn't necessarily mean he Tweeted "WOW" because Asomugha didn't sign with the Jets.

We're not likely to see many of these for a while -- Ocho sounds like he's going to be either cloistered up there in Foxboro or shutting up so as not to rub the Hoodie the wrong way, or both -- but I liked these four Chadisms from his interview session Saturday:

You know Peter King is very excited that Chad Johnson is playing in New England this next season. It's his favorite team and Johnson is a quote machine.

Then Peter talks about ESPN's new QB evaluation statistic. Which is scares the hell out of me because I have a feeling "grittiness" or "ability to make a highlight play" will end up being highly judged in the formula. You know, because it is ESPN and all.

It's be interesting to see if the Total QBR gets traction and usurps passer rating. I think we're ready for a system that scores on a scale of 1 to 100, takes more factors into account than passer rating, and involves the measurement of so-called clutch play. Like OPS (on-base plus slugging) and WAR (wins above replacement value) in baseball, it's time for a more thoughtful number to judge how quarterbacks play. Is this the one? I don't know. But I like rethinking passer rating.

Me too. Can we get someone else to do it though and not an entertainment network? The thought of this just scares me.

Wednesday -- The Jets, in Florham Park, N.J. Very seldom have the Jets been bridesmaids in player-chasing. We'll see how they feel.

Nnamdi! There is still time to change your mind! Go to the place you belong, with the Jets.

Monday, Aug. 8 -- The Lions, in Allen Park, Mich. Looking forward to talking to Jim Schwartz about his music tastes and his heavy-metal-loving tweets.

Because this is the type of information an NFL sportswriter needs to be giving his readers. God forbid Peter looks forward to actually providing information on the Lions season. I just want to know about Jim Schwartz's Tweets and what music he listens to.

Wednesday, Aug. 10 -- The Bears, in Bourbonnais, Ill. Memo to the drive-thru Starbucks about two miles from the Bears practice fields: We'll be stopping by for a couple of ventis that morning. I'll need a transfusion.

This just in: The Starbucks two miles from the Bears practice fields has been closed for "renovations" over the next month. The last time Peter was there he probably took 22 minutes to select what he wanted to drink and then got in an argument with a guy who "jumped in line" ahead of him...just like always happens in that Hell on Earth we call "Europe."

Then Peter talks about the Twitter fight between Mike Florio and Jay Feely, which may be the worst Twitter fight ever.

2:29 p.m., @ProFootballTalk: "It's a four-year, $12 million contract with $4 million signing bonus for Mare. A kicker.''

2:46 p.m., @ProFootballTalk: "Of course, Mare hasn't actually 'signed.' He agreed to terms. Which gives Panthers two days to come to their senses.''

2:52 p.m., @jayfeely: "NBC gave a lawyer w/no football experience a big contract.''

2:58 p.m., @ProFootballTalk: "@jayfeely ... At least we have something in common. Neither of us has actually played in an NFL game.''

3:52 p.m., @jayfeely: "now you sound like Skip Bayless. Come to camp, see if they can find shoulder pads small enough for you & we can find out''

All that's missing from this exchange is a "yo mama" joke.

2. I think you're all going to jump up and say, "Oh, you work with Florio, so you're pumping him up'' after this item. I guess I am.

"You know that thing you are accusing me of doing? Well yeah, I am doing that, but still listen to what I have to say because it means something coming from a non-neutral observer like me."

But if you want one sign that profootballtalk.com and czar founder Mike Florio have become power brokers in football, consider this. Falcons GM Thomas Dimitroff has a big-screen TV monitor with touch-screen capability in his office, and he has loaded with a few things. There's his roster (with detailed bio and scouting information on each player), the Weather Channel and The Rumor Mill on profootballtalk.com. Dimitroff walks up to the screen a few times a day and clicks his fingernail on the PFT logo, and up it comes.

I think we all know General Managers read Pro Football Talk and I have read it for years and years. Still, there are plenty of other sites football executives read daily and beginning this sentence basically admitting he is just pumping up Florio because he works with him, doesn't do much for Peter's credibility in my book. I just like criticizing Peter King a little too much probably.

5. I think my British friend Neil Hornsby has done the fans of the hidden game of football a good service with his deep analysis of players on profootballfocus.com. The site tracks every player's plays in the league, and its finding of who actually is playing well and who isn't is often a surprise. On Sunday, after the Eagles signed an invisible guard named Evan Mathis, Neil came out with this gem: Mathis has played 724 snaps over the past two years and allowed zero sacks. I asked Neil to give me his best deals of free agency so far. Here are his top five:

Let's look at a couple of these under-the-radar signings where teams signed valuable players that we may not have known where valuable. I'm pumped!

Nnamdi Asomugha, Eagles (5 years, $60 million)

Ok. He is a great player...but also the best available free agent. I'll give this one a pass.

Ray Edwards, Falcons (5 years, $27.5 million).

Oh...the second best defensive end in free agency.

6. I think I'm really looking forward to seeing the Sabols and others in Canton Friday night. Interesting to note that most of you who tweet me and email me -- I'd say the vast majority -- are more interested in the Sabol family drama (and I mean that in an affectionate way) than anything else at the Hall of Fame induction.

Who are those people who Tweet and email Peter about the Sabol family drama they are looking forward to? The Sabol extended family.

I, for one, am not even sure Sabol should have made the Hall of Fame with quality actual NFL players available to be inducted, but weren't. Of course I never really look forward to Hall of Fame inductions, so there's that.

8. I think the Kyle Orton-to-Miami deal isn't dead, though it seems to be a long shot. If I were Orton, I'd be pushing for it. Hard. Tim Tebow might not keep the job, but he's certainly going to have a good shot to win it this year at some point, and maybe very soon. I don't care what Orton would have to do to his contract to make it happen. Five years down the road, if he doesn't end up in Miami, he'll be saying to himself, "I should have redone my contract back in 2011. I should have figured how much they wanted to go with Tebow, and how I could have started from day one in Miami.''

I think Woody Paige has already established Kyle Orton is a terrible person, a complete moron, a bad teammates and probably had something to do with the Ebola virus outbreak in Africa.

9. I think I wonder why the Bears ever drafted Greg Olsen in the first place. Since Mike Ditka roamed Soldier Field as a player, have the Bears ever had a great offensive tight end? Ever used a tight end as a downfield offensive threat? That's a near-waste of a pick if you ask me. Interesting watching Olsen catching fastballs off the JUGS machine at Panthers camp Sunday night. One-handed.

Which is always a useful drill in case you are trying to piss of the fan base of your team by catching passes one-handed in actual games.

a. The Phillies must have the greatest minor league system of all time. It's brought them Hunter Pence, Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee and Roy Oswalt in the last two years.

If only they had rankings of farm systems so Peter could figure this out. If only. Alas, this is just a pipe dream.

b. Ubaldo Jimenez looked too risky to trade major prospects for.

Jimenez has the following statistics in road games this year:

3-4 record, 3.38 ERA, 1.076 WHIP, .183 BAA, and 2 complete games. Doesn't look so risky away from Coors Field this year.

c. On the other hand, I kind of like the Erik Bedard deal for the Red Sox, because they didn't have to give up anybody good, and Bedard's been good in four of his last five starts.

So let me get this straight: Peter King doesn't like a player the Red Sox didn't trade for, who has #1 starter potential, because he says the pitcher looks "risky," but Erik Bedard who has had a ton of injuries, and appears to have #3 starter potential, and did get traded to the Red Sox, Peter really likes him. There's a shock.

f. Coffeenerdness: You do not want to get the coffee I tried at the CITGO in some small town off I-85 in South Carolina around 10 last night. Trust me. When you walked in the place, you smelled the burners. I think my coffee was brewed last April.

So everyone avoid the CITGO in a small town in South Carolina that is located on the major highway that runs through the entire state. Shouldn't be hard to find it. Just wade through the 100 other CITGO's in small towns in South Carolina.

g. Beernerdness: Not many to discuss, honestly. Did have a nice Paulaner Hefeweizen Saturday at my hotel in South Carolina. The nice waitress even put a lemon on the rim of the glass for me. That's the hotel where the USO crew and I discussed first names with the waitress, who changed hers from "Lindsay'' to "Linzy'' at age 13. We didn't ask many questions.

Naturally, anyone who changes the spelling of their name is crazy! If she had changed her name to "Lindsay Trece" then that would have been much more normal. See? Poor people are "crazy," wealthy people are "quirky."

i. I'm having a great time visiting America. Hope to see you. Feel free to say hello if our paths cross.

I will run away instead.

9 comments I'm Not 100% Sure Mike Florio Thought This List Through

Mike Florio lists the five quarterbacks who need to be benched. That is what this column is about, or at least what I think it is about. I am actually not sure because the only thing these five quarterbacks have in common is there really isn't a more viable option available as the backup quarterback behind them on their team. So benching these quarterbacks would do very little good to help the team win games this year. There is one quarterback who I think should be possibly benched out of this group, but I still don't like Florio's reasoning for benching him.

Florio runs ProFootballTalk, which is one of my favorite NFL sites, so I sort of feel like I am critiquing another blogger. Of course when you write columns for NBCSports I guess the status of a person as a "blogger" goes out the window.

Regardless, let's see why Mike Florio thinks these quarterbacks should be benched.

As training camp approaches and with every team in the valley of 0-0 and having a one-in-four chance (in theory) of winning the division and hosting a playoff game, optimism causes many fans to believe that their quarterback can -- and will -- not only survive but even thrive.

Mike Florio is here to crush this optimism by demanding your starting quarterback be benched and replaced with a potentially more underwhelming backup quarterback. Mediocrity can be yours!

Remember, this article is about which quarterbacks need to be benched, not which quarterbacks shouldn't even be starting quarterbacks in the NFL. If a person writes a quarterback needs to get benched, then there sure as hell better be a backup on the roster who can take over and be successful. After all, if this isn't the case then why bench your quarterback?

In some cities, the handwriting is already on the wall, plain to see for anyone who cares to notice.

Is it possible to bench a quarterback before he has even officially played a game as the starter? I would argue this is not possible. So this is a list of quarterbacks who shouldn't start for their team in the first game of the season. Oh, semantics. Anyway, I am getting sidetracked...

Jake Delhomme, Browns

Coach Eric Mangini recently said the starting job in Cleveland is Delhomme's to lose.

Don't tempt Jake Delhomme to lose the starting job. He will lose that starting job quicker than you can say, "he still owes me $150 for the 2009 playoff game debacle against the Cardinals."

I actually agree with this choice, but Delhomme should probably never have been signed in the first place. Of course he already has been signed, so there is nothing the Browns can do about that now. Since he has been signed he may be, may be, the best quarterback on the roster. Seneca Wallace probably isn't the answer, Colt McCoy isn't ready, and Brett Ratliff doesn't appear to be ready either. That leaves Jake Delhomme.

Delhomme lost his fastball at some point during the 13 days between Week 17 of the 2008 regular season and the divisional round of the playoffs. Though the Browns regard it as an aberration, it's unlikely that a guy would simply fall off the horse at an advanced stage of his career then find the stirrups again.

Delhomme actually played shitty from the January 2009 playoff game to the day that he "hurt" his thumb and finally pulled from the field by John Fox this past year. After he got hurt, the Panthers team started playing better, but I am sure that is a coincidence. So the aberration of a bad performance on the field the Browns saw lasted a total of 12 games...or as it is better known, nearly the entire amount of games Brady Quinn was given a chance to be the starting quarterback for the Browns.

David Garrard, Jaguars

The coach doesn't really believe in him. The owner doesn't really believe in him. So why in the heck is Garrard the Jaguars' starting quarterback?

Because the two quarterbacks behind Garrard are Luke McCown and Trevor Harris. Still think it is a good idea to bench Garrard? I don't.

In turn, the Jaguars should have found a better option in the offseason. They clearly don't love the guy. It makes no sense to keep him around.

So the Jaguars shouldn't bench Garrard, but should have found a better quarterback in the offseason. If only they had a time machine and could go back in time and sign a better quarterback than David Garrard and then go back further in time and not sign Garrard to a contract extension. "They should have signed another quarterback" was the same thing Florio said for the Browns about how they should not have signed Jake Delhomme. Perhaps this article could have been called, "5 Teams Who Should Have Signed Better Quarterbacks This Offseason," rather than the article being about quarterbacks getting benched.

Kyle Orton, Broncos

Like Orton wasn't on this list...we all know what's on the other side of Orton being bench....Tebow!

The decision to trade for Brady Quinn and to draft Tim Tebow hardly represents a vote of confidence for Orton, whose contract-year performance was rewarded with only a first-round restricted free-agent tender.

Thinking the decision to trade for Brady Quinn and draft Tim Tebow doesn't represent a vote of confidence for Kyle Orton also presupposes that Josh McDaniels has a master plan at all. I don't know if that is an assumption I am willing to make at this point. The Broncos got Brady Quinn for next-to-nothing and then McDaniels got lost in Tebow's eyes and the thickness of his biceps and felt the need to draft him. I don't know if there is a plan at the quarterback position in Denver to be honest. I need more information at this time.

So why do the Broncos insist on keeping him at the top of the depth chart? If, somehow, he plays well in 2010, it'll be harder to move on in 2011.

It won't be harder to move on in 2011 because the Broncos have Tim Tebow on the roster. Everyone loves Tebow! He's a future Hall of Fame quarterback! Haven't we already determined this?

The fact a quarterback may play well during the season and make it tough on the team to trade him or not be able to re-sign him isn't a good reason to get rid of that quarterback. That's just crazy talk. The fear of success by a quarterback is a poor reason to bench that quarterback. Kyle Orton playing so well that the Broncos have to re-sign him is a problem they would most likely like to have...especially since there may not be NFL games in 2011 due to a lockout.

The better move would be to get Tebow ready and get him on the field.

Great idea! Here's how to get Tim Tebow ready and get him on the field: Find a way to move time ahead one year and make it July 2011 and then hope that Tebow has improved enough in a year to be a starter in the NFL at that point. This shouldn't be hard, other than the whole scientific argument that time-travel isn't possible.

If the Broncos thought enough of Tebow to trade back into Round 1 to draft him, they simply should get him on the field.

They will get him on the field, but because a team chose a quarterback isn't the first round doesn't necessarily mean that quarterback has to be the starter for the upcoming year.

I am pretty sure there is a stiff debate on whether a quarterback is better served sitting on the bench or starting in his rookie year, so it isn't a given that a first round quarterback should automatically start in his rookie year. Mike Florio may have had heard something previously about this debate in the past, but I guess we know which side of the discussion he lands on.

Matt Moore, Panthers

After cutting Delhomme, the Panthers handed the ball to Moore.

They actually handed the ball to Matt Moore while Delhomme was still injured and there is a pretty good chance Moore would have started this year even with Delhomme on the roster...or at least he deserved to start.

Then the Panthers drafted a QB in Round 2 prepared to step in and play right away.

Mike Florio's vast experience at evaluating quarterbacks he has gained while writing an NFL blog and being an attorney tells him something every team that passed on Clausen did not know how NFL ready he was. That's what it seems since he is VERY confident Clausen can play right now.

What makes Florio think Clausen is prepared to play right away? He was considered "the most NFL-ready" quarterback in the draft? That means nothing.

So why not just give Jimmy Clausen the ball right now?

Maybe because he hasn't yet beat out the #2 guy on the depth chart, Hunter Cantwell, out for the job yet. Not to mention Matt Moore has a 6-2 career record as a starter, so he deserves a shot to be the #1 quarterback on the depth chart and try to win the job as the #1 quarterback on the depth chart.

If coach John Fox wants to stick around after 2010, he must show that Clausen can be the long-term answer at quarterback.

For a guy who runs a site that deals with NFL rumors and fact, Mike Florio sure has a poor grip on the John Fox coaching situation in Charlotte. Fox isn't a threat to be fired, he would be given a new contract if Jerry Richardson wasn't holding the line for the owners and cutting payroll in preparation for a strike. At this point, Fox is more inclined to go to another team on his own accord because he feels disrespected rather than from any threat the Panthers may not re-sign him. This is just lazy analysis of the situation.

I don't see how it makes sense to give the starting quarterback job to a rookie rather than a guy who has proven at the tail-end of last year he can win games. Why waste an offense that has a great running game, a good offensive line and one great receiver with a rookie at the helm if another guy has shown he deserves a shot to run the offense?

Matt Leinart, Cardinals

A top-10 pick in '06, Leinart hasn't been able to win and hold the job.

It doesn't help of course that Leinart has had Kurt Warner in front of him on the depth chart. Not to excuse Leinart's underachieving play, but it is not like the Cardinals should replace Leinart with Warner over the last two years while Warner is playing very well.

Injured in '07 after routinely being yanked for Kurt Warner when the going got tough, Leinart surprisingly landed on the bench shortly before the '08 season. He then watched Warner cement his Hall of Fame credentials.

Leinart may be a bust at the quarterback position, but he also probably deserves a chance to try and win the quarterback job in training camp, not just get benched before training camp.

Plus, who else is going to quarterback the Cardinals that is better than Leinart? Jake Delhomme-lite? (Derek Anderson) John Skelton or Max Hall, both guys who are rookies and not even close to being ready to start in the NFL? There aren't better options available at this point. Good quarterbacks just aren't laying around waiting to be signed.

So it's unclear why the team still has faith in Leinart. The best argument for keeping him on the field flows from the fact that the only other viable option is Derek Anderson.

So Leinart shouldn't be benched then? I love the idea that Mike Florio is writing a column about quarterbacks who should be benched before training camp, but three of the quarterbacks he writes about don't have a viable backup quarterback on the roster to play in place of the benched quarterback.

So why should Leinart get benched if there is a guy who is worse that would step in for him? In a perfect world, the Cardinals would have a replacement in the wings, but that isn't the case.

The Cardinals should have aggressively pursued other options in the offseason, whether Donovan McNabb or Marc Bulger.

So this is another situation where this article isn't really about quarterbacks who should have been benched and instead is about quarterbacks who should have been replaced in the offseason with a better quarterback. Is Marc Bulger really even a better option? He is 32 years old, injury-prone, and had his last good season in 2006. He's a great backup, but I don't know how I feel about him as a starter at this point.

Whatever the hell the Cardinals should have, could have or would have done doesn't matter at this point. They didn't sign a better quarterback, and because they don't have a better option to play the quarterback position doesn't mean their starting quarterback should be benched. You only bench a quarterback is there is a better option available and from his time in Cleveland over the last two years, Derek Anderson doesn't seem to qualify as a better option.

-Someone in the media, Ross Tucker, finally calls out Brett Favre for his diva-behavior and his blatant attempt to miss training camp. The title is "Brett Doesn't Deserve To Be Treated Like a Leader."

It is not super-harsh, but I will take whatever I can get. Here are some of my favorite parts for those who don't want to read it...

Unlike guys who may hold out in an attempt to get more money, he seems fine with the $13 million the Vikings are offering him in 2010. And even though Favre is supposedly still deciding whether he wants to play a 20th season in the NFL, the prevailing school of thought is that he'll be back. So what's the deal with possibly skipping training camp?

Because he can and Brad Childress lets him get away with it.

The Favre apologists are quick to point out that he has earned this type of special treatment based upon his status and longevity in the league. If that's the case, didn't Jerry Rice earn it as well? Or Emmitt Smith? Not to mention offensive linemen who played into their 40s, like Bruce Matthews and Jackie Slater. I'm pretty sure they all earned the right not to attend the worst three or four weeks of the year without facing the possibility of being fined, but I don't remember them skipping out on their teammates.

He can do this because he is Brett Favre. Haven't you seen the articles written about him? He is gritty, plays like a child and is the epitome of what every parent should want their child to grow up to be if they want their child to grow up to be a Vicodin-guzzling (that was old-school Favre), drama-queen, interception throwing quarterback who gets a pass because he is just so damn fun to watch play.

Is he worried about the intense practices? Sorry, but as a former offensive lineman I am not going to let a quarterback who wears a red jersey in practice attempt to get away with that excuse. That red jersey he wears means he is not allowed to even be touched, so Favre's gotta come up with something better than that.

See, he doesn't have to come up with something better than that. He's Brett-fucking-Favre and he can do whatever the hell he wants and will manipulate the media and fans into believing he is always right.

Does anyone honestly think head coach Brad Childress would ask Favre to throw one more football than he wants to? Didn't think so. Favre could easily be on a pitch count if he wanted. Heck, it could be the exact same number of throws he makes every day at Oak Grove High in Mississippi.

He just doesn't want to be subjected to the harsh conditions that training camp imposes on him. He doesn't have to be a good teammate because his coach doesn't force him to be. Brett Favre wins football games and he gets to play by a different set of rules.

My point is not that Favre's desire to skip training camp will have an adverse effect on the Vikings season, because clearly, based on their success last year, that isn't the concern. My point is that Favre is not deserving of being a team leader if he misses training camp this year. There doesn't appear to be any good reason for him to not be there, other than he can get away with it. But that means it's all about him again, as, sadly, it usually is.

This is the first column of many I want to see written like this. Some major columnist somewhere has to take Brett Favre to task for pretending he doesn't know he is coming back to the NFL just so he can skip training camp. Adrian Peterson got fined for missing a mini-camp earlier this summer and just because Favre is "undecided" doesn't mean he should get a free pass. He isn't retired and is under contract so he should be in training camp or be fined for his absence.

2 comments If I Just Stop Talking About It, Will It Go Away?

This is a reminder to make your College Football Picks before Friday night and to set your Fantasy Football lineups before Sunday. I am making a slow comeback in each league, I can feel it. This has really been a brutal fantasy year for me…or maybe I just suck at fantasy sports.

This weekend the single most important event in the history of United States athletics is going to occur. It’s an event that has been built up and we are all probably very annoyed and tired of talking about it, but we can’t ignore it. This is the week before the Monday Brett Favre returns to Green Bay for his first game since being the victim of the Packers inability to treat a football legend well when they kicked him out the door by not guaranteeing him the starting quarterback job after he had retired and then decided to come back. I am tired of talking about this, I truly am, so I am going to present one piece of inaccurate journalism and inaccurate quotes from Favre himself and then we can all move on to a different article.

I am hoping if I stop talking about Brett Favre, he will just go away, but considering I tried that already with the media's blanket coverage of Michael Jackson and it didn't work, I am not terribly confident it will happen.

-I have read Pro Football Talk for as long as I can remember. I have enjoyed the site because it is one of the few sites where I can get accurate football rumors and analysis of a player/team situation from someone who knows enough to not be an outsider and the information is accurate but he is enough of an outsider to be able to say what he believes. Mike Florio has seemed to always do that, even as he went corporate and partnered up with NBC Sports and started shelling for Sprint to get keep the site free, it was obvious he did these things to keep the site free and didn’t lose any goodwill from me. These comments about Brett Favre could lose my goodwill though. I don’t know what Mike Florio was thinking when he typed this.

Faced with his quote from February 2009 that he was hoping last year to "stick it" to the Packers, Favre admitted that he wants to show them that he can still play.

That’s a quote that came from a Peter King article to be honest and I really doubt Peter would have written that down, because (a) I don’t know of a time when he has misquoted an athlete or been accused of doing such and (b) if there is EVER an athlete he would never misquote it is Brett Favre, his one true love.

The Packers pushed Favre to make a decision about playing football in 2008 at a time when they knew he wouldn't be able to make the commitment.

No, no, no. Brett Favre didn’t WANT to make the commitment, but he was perfectly capable of doing so. He just refused to make a decision in a punctual manner, just like he had done the season before. I will argue this until I am blue in the face, and I am getting there, but the Packers had an absolute right to force Brett Favre to make up his mind about whether he wanted to play or not. Sure, he is a legend and they owe him a little bit for playing so well over such a long period of time, but he also wasn’t working for free and they paid him well and worshipped him, even when the time came where his numbers didn’t always reflect he was as good as everyone thought he was.

Then, they bolted the door shut and pushed furniture in front of it.

Otherwise known to the 99% of America who is sane as “moved on without him because he retired.”

Not to pull a Bill Simmons but if your girlfriend /loved/unloved one says that she doesn’t know if she wants to be with you anymore and you say in response, “well make a decision so we can both move on with our lives, I don’t want to be dragged along,” and both of you agree that the relationship is finished, it’s over. That’s what happened here in a way. What Brett Favre did was the equivalent of your ex- girlfriend /loved/unloved one showing up on your front door saying, “dump your current girlfriend, I want to be back with you.”

At no point should you feel obligated to do so and if she insists on sitting on your front porch and terrorizing you by not allowing you to move on, (or constantly talking to the press and making veiled threats in regard to making the Packers life miserable about it like Brett Favre did) then police officials should soon get involved in the dispute. No matter how long you dated this girl, it was over when you both agreed it was over, and you pressuring her to make a decision about the relationship/non-relationship doesn’t mean she can get a do-over several months later. Life doesn’t work that way and that’s why I have no sympathy for Brett Favre or have a clue why Mike Florio is taking pity upon him here.

So when he decided to come back, it was too late. But then they dicked him around, hoping to keep him from playing for anyone,

Now my example doesn’t really hold as well because you can’t contractually have a hold of another person, like the Packers did Favre.

Regardless, there was no dicking around that went on and they didn’t want him to just come back and play without compensation. The Packers were willing to trade him but then Favre decided the entire situation wasn’t complicated enough and wanted to be able to choose the team he got traded to. Again, it was the Packers’ right to prevent him from playing football for just anyone, since he had signed a contract with them previously.

even after (by all appearances) they had engineered his First Annual Retirement.

This is some of the worst pro-Favre propaganda I have read. Even Peter King is embarrassed for Mike Florio right now. They wanted him to make a freaking decision so they would know whether to draft or trade for a quarterback in case Aaron Rodgers wasn’t up to the task of starting. They needed a decision before mid-June, which if I am not wrong is about the time Favre gave his decision to come back in 2007.

If Favre didn’t want to retire, he shouldn’t have. He could have stayed with the Packers and then retired later that year in training camp still a Packers hero if he was absolutely sure he was done, but Brett Favre wanted to retire, at least he wanted to for that week, so he retired. The decision was done and it would have been pointless for the Packers to stand around and wait for Favre to change his mind before deciding who would be the quarterback for the upcoming season.

Should he be pissed? Hell yes. Should he want revenge? Damn straight.

Pissed about what? The Packers didn’t share Favre’s view that ever single decision he encounters should be given months to make? The fact the Packers were more concerned with the future direction of the team rather than the future direction of Brett Favre?

And if there's any doubt that he wants to stick it to the Packers for what they did to him last year, just watch how he plays on Monday night.

I hope for his sake he does play well but really there is no reason to get revenge because he is as much at fault for this situation as the Packers are…probably more so in my mind.

-Since everyone is not tired of Brett Favre quite yet, let’s read some quotes he has made before the epic, world changing game against the Packers this Monday and then I will get to the article for the day. First Brett Favre will do his normal lying and double speak and then and I will translate what he said into English and write what he really meant by his quote.

"I didn't say it was about revenge. It wasn't about revenge to begin with. The fact that I had a torn biceps had an affect on how we finished up. I really wasn't willing to have the surgery...I felt like I could play. I think I proved that last year. Being released by New York, I still had to have the surgery to play at a high enough level. I eventually decided to have it."

“I did not play well at the end of last year because I was injured and didn’t want to have surgery to continue playing in New York where everyone hated me. I could still play football and I think I proved that until the very end of last year when I sunk my team with my performance. When I got released by New York, which happened because I had deceived them and said I wanted to retire, I knew I would have to have the surgery to play football this year for the Vikings. When the Vikings showed interest after my repeated phone calls asking them if they were interested, I decided to complete my ultimate plan to stick it to the Packers and had the surgery.”

"What I said with Peter (King) was that it was human nature -- I didn't use the word revenge -- to prove to someone that I could play. That's not motivation enough, never would be for me. It's too long a season."

“Peter King is my incredibly loyal friend who would never misquote me, but he did misquote me here. I am not afraid to throw anyone under the bus or lie to make myself look like a good person. I don’t want revenge, I just want to show the Packers I can still play football…oh, and I want everyone in the organization to die. In lieu of actual death, I wouldn’t mind if Ted Thompson, Mike McCarthy and anyone else involved with the decision to not hand me the starting quarterback position had their careers ruined.”

"There were numerous, numerous throws last year...Not only was their pain, but there was (inaccuracy). It seemed like it was more and more frequent."

“I am a team player because I played through increasing pain last year and sunk my team’s chances of making the playoffs.”

On whether he wanted to play in Green Bay in '08: "Yes, it was. Why wouldn't it be? I had just had, in my opinion, the best year in my career."

“Of course I wanted to play for Green Bay, that’s why I retired! They have to chase and beg me to soothe my ego a little bit. If they didn’t know that by then, I don’t know what to say.”

Why Minnesota? Why not stay with the Jets? "Um...Well, I wasn't willing to have surgery at that time. That's first and foremost."

“If I stayed with the Jets how the hell was I supposed to stick it to the Packers by playing them twice a year like I could do if I was with the Vikings? Do I have to spell out my diabolical plan in a fucking Power Point presentation to you guys? Do you want me to say ‘I only played in New York for a year so I could get my release and eventually sign with the Vikings? This was my plan all along.’ I can’t say that. You have to get this and not force me to say it. You can’t be that dumb.”

On his release from the Jets: "None of that matters now anyways. The only thing that matters in the game on Monday night. I'm having a good time."

“I lied by saying I was going to retire in an effort to get what I wanted, which was a contract with the Vikings. Let’s not focus on my lies, let’s focus on me and this game I am playing against the Packers…I have waited two years to get to this point and I don’t want the focus to be on my lies, but on how much I mean to the Packers and their fans.”

(Favre sneaks a glance at himself in the mirror)

On why not talk to Aaron Rodgers: "For what? I think Aaron has not only done well, but I think he'll have a great career. I said that from Day One. That's why they drafted him. No one's called me. I've talked to Drive...I don't know what to tell you."

“So why would I talk to the guy who took my job as quarterback of the Green Bay Packers again? He is an asshole. If he wants to talk to me, he has to call me, otherwise I don’t give a shit if I ever see him again…unless he is lying face down paralyzed from the neck down after Jared Allen blindsides him for a sack. Even then I will go to shake his hand while he is in the neck brace and when everyone thinks I am consoling him, I will actually be telling him he is lucky I don’t punch him in the face right then and there.”

“Guess what shitheads? I haven’t called Mark Sanchez either. Do you know why? He’s an asshole who tried to take the focus off how much the Jets miss me. Has anyone ever thought about how I feel? I bitch and moan to get out of Green Bay and then Aaron Rodgers has a better season than I do and then I leave the Jets and they end up starting this year off really well with a rookie quarterback leading the way. Has anyone thought that I could be concerned people might start to see through me and start asking questions as to why the two quarterbacks who took over for me over the past two years have done as well, if not better than I have? My apologists in the sportswriting world can only blame my age for so long concerning any mistakes I may make when I continue to play in the NFL at a high enough level to start for NFL teams.”

“It’s bad enough the media has started to turn on me, especially when those assholes who write columns about me bring up my all-time NFL interception record. So I threw a lot of interceptions and am personally responsible for throwing an interception that prevented the Packers from going to the Super Bowl in 2007 and also torpedoed the Jets season last year. So what? I did it all in the name of having fun and did it with a smile on my face because I love this game and am lucky to still be able to play it. Write that comment down dammit. Write ‘Brett Favre says he still loves this game and he smiled when he said it.’”

On whether the damage can be repaired: "I'm sure it can but no one's concerned about that now. We'll deal with that later."

“Packers fans are schmucks. They will retire my number in a few years and it will all be forgotten. I am not shaking Ted Thompson’s hand and will probably pitch a fit if he is present at the ceremony, but I will get my way then, just like I did here. I always win, don’t write that down, but I always get my damn way. My jersey will be retired and I am may cry at the ceremony to try and gain more sympathy for how I got kicked out of town. I will always turn the tables on the Packers, they can’t beat me. I may actually force them to retire Edgar Bennett’s number as well as mine, just to show much power I truly have.”

-Jay Mariotti thinks this is going to be a crazy year in college football as evidenced by Tim Tebow getting injured, which of course makes no sense.

My approach every college football season is to root for confusion, chaos, relentless mumbo-jumbo. That way, maybe the goofs in charge someday will realize why the absence of a postseason tournament is the biggest void in sports.

Jay Mariotti’s approach to nearly everything is to want full chaos that way he can stand in his ivory press box (wait, he doesn’t go to games…) and take cheap shots at whoever he wants. Some men may dream of vacations or success in whatever vocation they choose, Jay Mariotti wants someone to screw up so he can roast that person in print.

(On a side note, I am actually not completely for a postseason tournament in college football. I don’t think it could match the excitement of the NCAA Tournament in college basketball, which would be the intent. I sort of like college football the way it is. If we could think of a good way to set up a tournament I may be open to it, but I am not THAT upset with the current format to change to a playoff format I am not sold on...just to have a playoff format.)

The season's most dramatic scene to date was the sight of Tebow, the indestructible tank of a quarterback often described as god-like and too special to be a mere human being, cracked so wickedly by a clean but vicious hit that his helmet whiplashed against a teammate's leg and left him crumpled like a blown-out tire.

Four weeks and less than an entire month into the season, this is the indelible image. Some may say the image of Sam Bradford, a better pro prospect and also a National Championship Game participant from last year, lying on the turf could also be an indelible image…but those people would not understand the power of Tebow. The Power of Tebow makes sportswriters forget anything else that has happened and causes them to focus solely on him and what he has done lately. He’s like Brett Favre except for being in love with himself, he loves God.

a concussion that will keep him out of practice this week and throws into question how effective and durable he'll be beginning Oct. 10, when the Gators face a difficult test against fourth-ranked LSU and its monster defense.

Yes, that monster defense that gave up 26 points to the powerhouse Mississippi State last week.

That's easy for him to say. Like all of Gator Nation, Meyer knows the ultimate legacy of the Florida program is at stake, with a third national championship in four years and Tebow's second Heisman Trophy still looming as possibilities.

The “ultimate legacy of the Florida program is at stake?” They have won 2 National Championships in the last 3 years and I really doubt anyone will be writing the program off if they don’t make it 3 championships in 4 years. Another Heisman and National Championship are possibilities but if they don’t happen the future of the Florida program is not at stake.

It’s not like Florida will struggle after this year with John Brantley as the quarterback. He is either the 3rd best or 7th best quarterback in the 2007 recruiting class, depending on who you believe more. The loss of Tim Tebow at the end of his senior season isn’t the end of the Florida Gator football program.

He must be cautious because Tebow, who has an NFL future ahead of him, doesn't want to rush back too soon and do something he'll regret later.

I find it interesting that Jay Mariotti this entire article about Tim Tebow when Sam Bradford has also sustained an injury and he is actually expected to be chosen higher in the 2010 NFL Draft. I know we must talk about all things that are Tebow-related, but I don’t think anyone really knows how Tebow will fit in at the NFL level or even if he will play quarterback. Besides if he is such a big, strong guy who can take a hit, we can’t panic every time he takes a big hit and gets taken off the field. The way he plays he is going to be hit hard a lot at the next level. I would just think if we were talking about NFL quarterback prospects and how their 2009 college football injuries affect their draft stock for the NFL, the conversation with start with Sam Bradford.

"I love these guys," Meyer said. "They're there for each other. They pray for each other, it's really cool. With all the negativity in college athletics, it's really neat."

When Urban Meyer is referring to “all the negativity in college athletics” does he mean 24 arrests for Florida football players since 2005? That is only the times the “negativity” brought on by Florida football players has been caught and been made public, it doesn’t include any arrests or anything of the like pushed under the rug. Urban Meyer complaining about the abundance of negativity in college athletics is like Osama Bin Laden picketing for peace in the Middle East.

The sudden vulnerability of Tebow adds to my suspicions that this will be a season of madness, not unlike the mess two years ago that allowed LSU to capture a national title with two losses.

Really every season of college football is a season of madness, which piques interest in the sport, and is also the reason those in charge are afraid of changing to a playoff format. This year will just be another brick in the wall of college football season craziness, so just because Tim Tebow got injured doesn’t mean this year is crazier than any other year.

Maybe Florida and Texas end up running the table and creating a legitimate BCS title game in Pasadena.

Yeah, a legitimate BCS Title unless Boise State runs the table as well…in which case it is not a legitimate BCS title game. Just because pollsters ranked Texas and Florida #1 and #2 respectively in the country doesn’t mean they actually are that good. Remember these are the same people who have put California, Mississippi and Penn State in the Top 10 this year simply because they looked like good teams on paper and hadn’t lost any football games at the point they were ranked in the Top 10.

And if that were to happen, imagine Boise State -- the little team that symbolizes the plight of have-nots in the BCS political system -- moving into the top three.

And be shut out of a BCS title game much like what happened to Utah last year? See, Mariotti’s “super crazy” situation already happened last year. This BCS buster situation has already happened and it was actually worse because Florida and Oklahoma had already lost last year and Utah was undefeated and STILL did not get a shot at the National Championship. See, every year is crazy in college football. Does it shock me Jay can’t remember this? Not at all.

For now, all eyes are on Tebow and his wounded skull.

“All eyes” being defined as “the mainstream media and Florida Gator football fans,” while the rest of the world is cheering for their own favorite team and not giving a crap about whether Tim Tebow starts against LSU or not. I would guess most college football fans are focused on their own team and their fortunes at this point.

I don’t hate Tim Tebow but he isn’t the focal point of my college football viewing experience as many in the media would have you believe. The insatiable need to have everything involving Tim Tebow shoved down the public’s throat hasn’t affected everyone as of yet.

So as they say on campuses everywhere, put that in your pipe and smoke it.

I am not 100% sure they actually say that.

When it comes to college football, the tobacco always is wacky.

Right, every year is wacky. The year that Tim Tebow gets a concussion from a hard hit is not a wackier college football year than any other simply because it involves Tim Tebow getting injured.