The Morning After (Day One)
Rochester Democrat & Chronicle
"He [Posluszny] played them both and played them pretty well," said Jauron. "He's athletic and he's a smart guy, so we'll let him compete and see how it falls. We won't slot him to start out."
Meaning he could fit as London Fletcher's replacement in the middle, or Takeo Spikes' replacement on the outside.
"He's a terrific athlete who has really good instincts for the ball," said assistant general manager Tom Modrak. "He has a great nose for the ball, his drops in coverage are very good. We're very excited that he has a whole lot of talent and the intangibles that we talk about."
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Telling comment by Mike Tomlin on Lawrence Timmons (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
"He has some Derrick Brooks qualities," Tomlin said, referring to Tampa Bay's 10-time Pro Bowl linebacker who also played at Florida State. "You don't necessarily want to put that on anyone because Brooks is a legendary player, but he runs around and strikes people. He is relentless and he loves the game."
Kevin Colbert, the team's director of football operations, and Tomlin insisted Timmons was the player they wanted over others they thought they had a reasonable chance of drafting. They entertained one inquiry from another team before their pick, but quickly moved to send Timmons' name on a card to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell in New York.
Tomlin also said firmly "we're a 3-4 team" and "he's a right outside linebacker."
As such, Timmons will compete with Harrison, who had moved into Porter's vacated spot at right outside linebacker this spring. Tomlin said Timmons also can play right rush end in a dime defensive scheme, a position Porter also played.
Tomlin praised Timmons' special teams play as well and said he also can play inside in a 3-4 defense if needed. If the Steelers ever move to a 4-3, they feel confident Timmons can play on the outside as well in that scheme.
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Titans obviously see Michael Griffin as an above average cover guy (The Tennessean)
Coach Jeff Fisher said Griffin’s versatility will be explored and exploited by the Titans as quickly as possible. Initial plans were for him to work at nickel cornerback, safety and cornerback.
“Our plans with Michael are to play him at a number of different positions,” Fisher said. “He’s a football player and we’re very excited to have had an opportunity to draft him.”
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Jarvis Moss to be a situational pass rusher (Denver Post)
With the Broncos, Moss will play on second-and-long and third-down passing situations. Considering Elvis Dumervil, a fourth-round pick last year, got 8 1/2 sacks for the Broncos as a rookie, is it unreasonable to expect 10 sacks from Moss next season?
"I expect to make an impact my rookie season," Moss said.
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Tom Kowalski (mlive.com blog)
The Lions did a fair amount of wheeling and dealing today, but they still failed to get a pass-rushing defensive end with some speed off the edge or a cornerback who could upgrade the starting position.
Having said that, Ikaika Alama-Francis is expected to give the Lions -- and this is one of your favorite terms -- position flexibility. He's not a great pass rusher at this point, but he's only been playing football for four years. The Lions believe he can play left end and also move inside in nickel situations. The coaches likened him to a young Cory Redding and that'll be fine if he develops into an experienced Cory Redding.
Alexander will be put in the mix at safety with Kennedy and Bullocks and the best two safeties will be named the starters. Alexander played corner for a couple of seasons before moving to safety last year so he has some coverage skills and could play some corner in zone coverage in a pinch.
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Looks like Jimmy Williams is moving to FS after all (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
The Falcons are hoping that Houston can start at right cornerback. He'll have to hold off free-agent signee Lewis Sanders and incumbent Jason Webster. Jimmy Williams, who lined up at right cornerback during the April minicamp, will move to free safety and compete with Chris Crocker for the starting job.
Houston, who started to attract national attention after shutting down Southern California's Dwayne Jarrett last season, thinks he can start immediately opposite DeAngelo Hall.
"I know that DeAngelo Hall is a hard worker," Houston said. "I don't want to let him down or my teammates down by being anything less than he is. I'm just going to get in there and try to learn what he's doing, and I'm going to go as hard as he's going so we can be two of the best corners on the same team. Just locking people down."
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