Not sure if it’s a big deal or not but several upper-echelon players are skipping out on their teams’ off-season workouts this spring. While the workouts are voluntary there’s always been a sort of unspoken less-than-voluntary-ness to the way coaches talk about these gatherings. Despite the possibility of angering coaches, in all likelihood only a couple of them will have much impact.
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***UPDATE*** ZoneBlitz.com’s take on 2008 NFL Draft Needs have started going live–check them out here.
I’m sure all of you readers (both of you) have been wondering why it’s been all Andy as of late, and no Tony. Well, truth be told, I’ve been busy working my real job, working behind the scenes here at ZoneBlitz (you have no idea how much time went into making all of the links on the page red), and actually taking a trip down to Florida to catch a little spring training action.
That’s right, the guys at ZoneBlitz are actually baseball fans too. Kind of.
Anyway, the week before I left, I finally swung into my local bookstore, and grabbed a few draft publications. Why? Even though I know they are outdated before they even go to print, and largely useless when it comes to team needs and mock drafts, I do it every year, because I’m a sucker.
But this year, they actually serve another purpose…
The San Francisco 49ers have lost a 5th round draft pick in this year’s draft, and will exchange 3rd round picks with the Chicago Bears after being found guilty of tampering with Bears LB Lance Briggs last season.
Briggs, who was designated as the Bears franchise player last season and initially held out over the issue, eventually signed his one year tender and reported to the team. Sometime during the season, the Bears filed charges that the 49ers had made contact with Briggs’s agent, Drew Rosenhaus.
Despite making threats of leaving last year, Briggs signed a 6-year, $36 million contract with the Bears early in free agency this year, meaning the 49ers lose a draft pick, and give the Bears a better pick in the third for…doing nothing that resulted in them getting an advantage over another NFL team.
At the same time, I wonder if the penalty would have been tougher had they actually landed Briggs–the Patriots did have to give up a first round pick (but only one of theirs, not the one they got from the 49ers) for Spygate.
Oh, and by the way, if you want to read about how great Drew Rosenhaus is, I highly recommend his book A Shark Never Sleeps. He’ll fill you in on how smart he is, how great he is with women, and how important he is. It definitely is an…interesting read.
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