Peter King MMQB
Excerpts:
Pacman, from one practice, looked a lot more mortal than he used to. He got singed two or three times by Chad Ochocinco in drills I saw, and then worked with Ocho one-on-one after practice -- at Chad's prompting. Pacman looks older than 26, that's for sure. He hasn't started a game in 21 months, and if he's going to win the starting nickel job, he'll have to re-adapt to the speed of the game.
Andre Smith should never, ever, ever have been the sixth pick in the draft in 2009. The sixth pick overall didn't work hard to rehab his foot after February surgery, not even being a stickler about keeping the foot in a protective boot at times in the offseason.
Still don't know how the Bengals are going to have enough balls for everyone on offense. Last year, Cincinnati had 1,011 offensive snaps. Half --505 -- were run plays, and Lewis told me the offense was still going to be centered around the run. Ochocinco, Owens and Bryant, if I had to guess, will get 350 chances, collectively, if they're healthy most of the year. But what of Gresham? Shipley? Andre Caldwell, who caught 51 balls last year? And the forgotten 2008 draftee, Jerome Simpson of Coastal Carolina, who, according to personnel man Jim Lippincott, "is the receiver on our team with the most God-given talent?'' We'll see.
The Panthers rarely have a really down season, but I'm not sure that streak is going to continue (suffice to say I'm wavering on my May pick of Carolina for the playoffs). Steve Smith, the only household name left in camp, is out until late August with the broken arm suffered in a flag-football game this offseason, and when I saw him, I asked: "You sure you'll be back for the opener against the Giants?''
"Positive,'' he said. "I'd bet my game check on it.'' Smith also said he plans to make a beeline for Giants safety Michael Johnson early in that game. Johnson's the guy who laid the vicious hit on Smith that broke his arm -- and ended his season in Week 16 last December. "I'm going after him,'' said Smith, and he walked away.
The Merriman squabble is not difficult to understand, in my opinion, because the Chargers can't be sure what kind of player he is anymore. (He had four sacks in the past two years, over 15 total games.) But I find it odd and counterproductive -- as do many Charger fans -- that Smith hasn't negotiated long-term deals with two players I would consider cornerstones, McNeill and Jackson. Not only does he apparently not consider them vital players, but in lowering their one-year contract offers from $3.2 million to around $600,000 in June, he slapped two very good players in the face and made it nearly impossible for them to accept offers they certainly consider insulting.
Smith told me he does not plan to change the offers on McNeill or Jackson, nor will he enter into long-term contract discussions for them.
"We have a priority list of players we want to get signed, and that began 11 months ago with Philip Rivers,'' he said. "Then we got Antonio Gates done. We have a priority list still, which I'm not going to discuss.''
Rivers and Gates are cornerstones. McNeill and Jackson aren't in the same category to Smith. That's got to be a bitter pill for two important players -- particularly McNeill, I would think. Jackson has had some off-field problems, and his recent violation of the league's personal conduct policy resulted in a suspension for the first three games of the 2010 season. Said Smith: "Disappointment lurks around every corner. You'd love to have everyone on your roster happy, but that's not the world of the NFL. It is disappointing, but I have to run the team and build the roster the way I see fit.''
Understood. But I wouldn't want to alienate two of my top six or seven players -- perhaps losing them for the season -- on the verge of a year when the Chargers are a legitimate Super Bowl contender. Figuring his team can survive this distraction is a big gamble by Smith.
On the first pass play of Dolphins training camp Friday, Brandon Marshall had run one of the common routes in the Miami playbook, a slant and go. Some teams call it "sluggo.'' Whatever, the Dolphins called it a touchdown, because Chad Henne threw it long downfield, perfectly, for a score. "I got chills,'' said quarterbacks coach David Lee. "I don't know how it's possible to get chills in 95-degree weather with 90-percent humidity, but I did. What a beautiful thing that was to see.''
I remember going to Denver last summer and interviewing Marshall, who I've known for three or four years. Every answer was forced, clipped. He was ticked at the world then, a combination of being labeled a malingerer and feeling like he was lied to about getting a new contract. In the players' cafeteria Sunday, he grinned like a madman ... even when I asked him what he would have done differently in Denver before finally getting his wish via a pre-draft trade and new contract in Miami last April.
He paused, and I said: "Would you have punted the ball in practice that day?'' You remember the infamous tape, when he was a disruptive force in practice.
"I wouldn't have punted the football,'' he said. "There were a few things last year I didn't handle well. But what I've learned is that sometimes the more powerful lessons are the most painful lessons.''
Marshall doesn't want to return to the nightmare that was last year. He's married now -- to a different woman than the one he says caused "90 to 95 percent'' of his problems in the past. But he realizes talk is cheap, and no matter what he says now about being a different person in a different place, he's got to show it, day after day, week after week.
He has a five-year, $47-million contract extension, and he's on a team that he thinks is more suited to his physical style. "I've always had the attitude that I'm going to impose my will on the defense,'' he said. "So I fit in well with the philosophy of this team. Everyone in the building, everyone in the organization, has a toughness here. I like that. It's all football. We don't play games here. I see Bill Parcells, and he always says one word to me: 'Stamina.' I know I'm going to be happy here.
I think Ricky Williams is the best running back on the Dolphins. Think about how amazing that is. He's 33. He's carried the ball 401 times the last two years. And watching practice Sunday at Dolphins camp, I saw a spry, still-explosive back working as hard as rookies. It'll be very interesting to see if Miami tries to re-sign him after this year. Both he and Ronnie Brown are set to be free agents next winter.