Holt to Jags is uninspiring fantasy play

by | Apr 21, 2009 | 2009 NFL Free Agency, Fantasy Football

Last year Torry Holt was the number one wide receiver on a team with a decent quarterback being protected by a bad offensive line led by an aging left tackle who some suspect might be running out of gas.

Holt signed a three-year deal Monday with Jacksonville, making him the number one wide receiver on a team that in 2008 had … a decent quarterback being protected by a bad offensive line. The Jaguars have added William Tra Thomas, an aging left tackle whose better days are behind him.

Sound familiar?

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Madden hanging it up

by | Apr 16, 2009 | NFL Media, NFL Random Thoughts

Somewhere kicking around my basement I have a videotape of the 1981-82 Super Bowl between San Francisco and Cincinnati. John Madden and Pat Summerall called that game from the Silverdome in Detroit.

Both were quite a bit younger then … 27 years younger, I guess, as I do the math. And I believe it was their first Super Bowl as the announcing tandem – the first one I had seen them do, anyway.

While broadcasting teams come and go, Madden and Summerall from their early days remain the best duo I can recall. Summerall had this quiet, understated approach to play-by-play that perfectly complemented Madden’s enthusiastic color, which was often accompanied by a “BOOM!!!” or a telestrator pen marking up the screen in 32 different directions.

Summerall mostly hung up his microphone several years ago. Madden, 73, announced today, according to USA Today, that he’s now retiring as well.

Madden, a Super Bowl winning coach and Hall of Famer for both his commentary and his coaching, had slipped in recent years. He wasn’t as sharp and he sometimes seemed to be seeing different things than I was seeing on the television (not that he hasn’t forgotten more about the sport than I will ever know). But his legendary enthusiasm for the sport and for telling stories about the players and the coaches who partook in the NFL never disappeared.

Troy Aikman, Phil Simms, Cris Collinsworth – all of them have good points as analysts on NFL broadcasts and all will likely do credible work into the distant future. But even in the end Madden remained my favorite broadcaster.

I wish him a happy retirement.

Some people just shouldn’t be blogging

by | Apr 8, 2009 | NFL Random Thoughts

No, the headline doesn’t refer to us, though there might be a couple people out there that don’t think Zoneblitz.com is pure gold.

I learned this morning via profootballtalk.com that the Dallas Morning News gave Cowboys backup tight end Martellus (or better yet, Don’t Tell Us) Bennett space on the Web site for a blog. And Bennett immediately provided evidence for why not everyone should have such an outlet for their innermost thoughts.

Bennett regaled readers with  the tale of one of his friends going to a movie with a woman he met in a club a couple nights earlier, only to realize he didn’t find her as attractive as he remembered.

So … well, perhaps read it for yourself. Bennett certainly got a kick out of that anecdote. He adds another item later about when women fart.

Check it out. It’s a gas.

Bucs reward oft-injured tight end

by | Apr 6, 2009 | 2009 Trades

Kellen Winslow Jr. missed 36 of the 80 games Cleveland played while he was on the team. He shredded his knee in a motorcycle accident, missing the entire 2005 season.

He was suspended once this past season for conduct detrimental to the team when he spouted off to the media about the Browns’ issues with staph infection, after having been shushed by the public relations staff.

He has two 80-plus catch seasons and one 1,000-yard season out of five, but has caught just 11 touchdowns and has done nothing – nothing at all – to resemble the player the Browns thought they were getting when they drafted him sixth overall in 2004.

So, what does Tampa Bay do? They give up a 2nd round pick in 2009 and a 5th in 2010 in February to acquire him – and then this week sign him six-year, $36 million contract with $20 million guaranteed.

There are few tight ends I’d consider giving that kind of money. Jason Witten in Dallas is probably worth it. Antonio Gates has been the best in the game for most of the last half-decade. Tony Gonzalez was probably worth it at one point during his career.

But Kellen Winslow?

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Cutler helps but Bears pay steep price

by | Apr 2, 2009 | 2009 Trades, NFL News, NFL Random Thoughts

Jay Cutler will immediately be the best quarterback the Chicago Bears have lined up under center since … Jim McMahon? Sid Luckman?

The team is unproven, at best, and more than likely more like putrid at wide receiver with Devin Hester, Rashied Davis, Earl Bennett and possibly Marty Booker competing for playing time. Cutler will make them a little better, but expecting too much from him in that regard, to borrow a bad cliche, is expecting him to put lipstick on a pig.

The Bears are also less than stellar at offensive tackle. John Tait retired. John St. Clair moved onto Cleveland as a free agent. Last year’s top pick Chris Williams will likely fill one spot. The Bears signed Frank Omiyale and Kevin Shaffer and are rumored to be interested in aging and oft-injured tackle Orlando Pace. But Williams is coming off a back injury and the other three potential options, well, nobody is going to be immortalizing them in bronze in Canton anytime soon.

Chicago certainly upgraded the quarterback position and Cutler is young enough where he is the equivalent of a first rounder – and possibly the equivalent of a first and third rounder. But wow – they gave up two firsts, a third and Kyle Orton. That’s a steep price to pay.

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