Season 2: Off-season Stories

AP Release --

Halas Hall;
Julius Peppers was seen flying out of Chicago on a flight tracking for his home town North Carolina.  Chicago Bears brass have come to release the veteran Pro Bowler, saving the team nearly $15 million in cap space this coming season. The move will allow Shea McLellin to move to his more natural right side, and the Bears can use the space to lock up Eben Britton, a young OLinemen, and James Anderson, a starting caliber OLB to keep any other holes from appearing. Peppers has refused to comment on the story.

Randy Moss retired from the Redskins...who signed him after the trade deadline to try and trade him off based on name only after Moss was dropped by the Lions for not being good enough. hahahaha that sentence structure is as messed up as Moss' career. (And nice try jumpman)

Despite earlier fears of the glitch, the Texans are able to franchise tag Brian Cushing. Also resign beast receiving TE Dickerson and 2 good MCV OLB's. I think I cut everyone else.

My draft will be terrible. I don't think I found anyone I like.

The New York Jets have released/lost out on the following players:
MLB David Harris STARTER
SS Dawan Landry STARTER
K Nick Folk STARTER
LG Nate Livings STARTER
RG Vladimir Ducasse STARTER
FS Kenny Phillips STARTER
RB Bilal Powell
DT Sione Pouha
TE Jeff Cumberland
TE Matthew Mulligan
Tagged:
TE Derrek Carrier

****The Jets are actively shopping the Trade Block for players message Coach Davis with offers.****

The Bears tagged FB Tony Fiammetta who went from in the 70s to 94 Overall this season. Heyyyy big spender.

Lost starters RT Eben Britton (contrary to my prior report that I signed him), 
LG Matt Slauson, 
C Roberto Garza, 
DE Julius Peppers, 
DT Marvin Austin, 
MLB DJ Williams, 
OLB Howard, 
CB Kelvin Hayden, 
K Robbie Gould.

Bears move RT Eben Britton to LG replacing Slauson and allowing Mills to start.
Move LE Shea McLellin from LE to RE.
Move ROLB Khaseem Greene from ROLB to LOLB to start.
Move LOLB Blake Constanzo from LOLB to ROLB to back up Briggs.

Only hole to fill is Center and backup positions. Strong position to be in now.

Rams franchise tab Fullback Jacob Hester
Move Barret Jones to LG

Further plans to pursue FA to fill in the following spots will be made as several former Rams players are leaving the organization.

LG
C
WR
QB

There are rumors swirling around the league that there were secret meetings right after thanksgiving, on black friday to be exact that might see jacquito come back to the NFL. The retired coach was part of a great charity even with quite a few owners that he stayed in touch with over the years. It seems the time could be right for a comeback, he took a few seasons off to clear his head, pursued some other ventures and was able to handle a lot of family business. Only question really is in what capacity would he come back and what positions are currently open?
Will negotiations progress fast enough so that he can make an immediate impact during the current offseason?

...

jacquito69 wrote:There are rumors swirling around the league that there were secret meetings right after thanksgiving, on black friday to be exact that might see jacquito come back to the NFL. The retired coach was part of a great charity even with quite a few owners that he stayed in touch with over the years. It seems the time could be right for a comeback, he took a few seasons off to clear his head, pursued some other ventures and was able to handle a lot of family business. Only question really is in what capacity would he come back and what positions are currently open?
Will negotiations progress fast enough so that he can make an immediate impact during the current offseason?

...

If these rumors are true Coach Jacq needs to get back and sign Josh Freeman if he wants him!(I think no one is the Bucs lol)

The Raiders won the Vontae Davis sweepstakes. Damn.

Steelers Dish Out Money To Revamp Thru Free Agency

The long tried and true methods of building a team for the Steelers and the Rooney family has been to do so thru the draft.  However, in the first year under new owner Steel Rooney he decided to go another route.  When asked about the team's venture into free agency he said that he didn't want to be blinded by the fact that the team made it to the AFC Championship as this was still an aging team that was 8-8 in the regular season.  With that said the Steelers went our and acquired the following players in free agency:

WR Jeremy Maclin (86 OVR) - The Steelers decided not to re-sign Emanuel Sanders and instead signed Maclin who will team with Antonio Brown to form a very potent 1-2 punch at WR for Big Ben.

FS Kenny Phillips (86 OVR) - With Ryan Clark moving on the Steelers signed Kenny Phillips to protect the back end of the defense and team with Troy Polamalu as one of the better safety duos in the league.

CB Aqib Talib (90 OVR) - In a pass happy league you can't have too many good cover guys and Talib falls into that category.  Talib, Ike Taylor and Cortz Allen give the Steelers 3 very capable defenders in the secondary.

MLB DJ Williams (82 OVR) - Williams will join Lawrence Timmons in the middle of the defense and help improve the Steelers run defense.

With the major holes filled, let's see how the Steelers attack the upcoming NFL Draft.

MeanMrMustard wrote:

COWBOYS TAKE QB FOR NO APPARENT REASON

Facing dire needs at FS, HB and along the offensive line, the Dallas Cowboys drafted a scrambling quarterback in the first round, just one year after the team signed Tony Romo to a lucrative long-term deal.

"Well, yeah, why wouldn't we?" said John Madden, who was appointed as interim GM to handle the team's draft, with Owner/GM Mr. Mustard out of town. "You can never have too many quarterbacks, and this dude's really fast."

With the pick, the Cowboys are now under contract to pay three quarterbacks $124M combined over the next five seasons.

"Yeah, he's an idiot," said team owner Mr. Mustard by phone from Oxford, Miss. "I'm not sure what else to tell you."

Madden has been fired.

LMAO

I thought it was pretty cool to draft players we know from college football and many that I actually watched play on Saturday afternoon before drafting on Saturday night. On the flip side, the Giants picked up a couple of 80+ NFL offensive linemen that I was not too familiar with prior to free agency. But in perhaps the most notable move, the Giants picked up Devin Hester uncontested as they attempted to make a real impact to their special teams. The team also imitated real life by picking up Peyton Hillis. And in a move that was very controversial locally, they picked up 2 players from the Wisconsin Badgers who were affiliated with Cougars79 in the AALOA NCAA franchise from 2 years ago - Jared Abbrederis and James White will both be fighting for see any playing time on the team this season.

Rumor has it that the Giants missed out on a player they really wanted during the off-season, and they are expected to attempt some activity in the trade market over the next couple of days.