Peter King - MMQB
Excerpts:
This is not the second coming of JaMarcus Russell
ST. CHARLES, Mo. -- On the Rams sideline Saturday night, during the club's first scrimmage of the summer, at woody Lindenwood University, all eyes were, of course, on rookie quarterback Sam Bradford, the first pick of the 2010 draft. "What's uncanny,'' said GM Billy Devaney, "is how he doesn't just complete the pass. He completes the pass most often where his guy can get it and the defender can't. Drives the corners crazy.'' On cue, Bradford took one of his 34 snaps of the evening, dropped back, and threw a spiral high and outside to 6-foot-4 wideout Jordan Kent at the goal line. Kent and the covering corner both jumped for it, but Kent had half a foot on him and won the ball easily.
A few minutes later, pressured, Bradford let one fly 45 yards downfield on a corner route to wideout Danny Amendola, in tight coverage. The ball floated perfectly into his arms before he got pushed out. Gain of 50. "The boy can throw that football!'' corner Ron Bartell exulted next to me. "You see that?!!'' Now that's a corner exulting when one of his brethren in the secondary got beat. Not a common thing for training camp. But when you've lost 42 of your last 48 games, and your passing game is probably the biggest reason why, you want any hope you can find. And in St. Louis, hope is spelled B-R-A-D-F-O-R-D.
You have to have a little perspective over what happened here Saturday night. On the first throw of third-string quarterback Keith Null's night, he rainbowed a bomb over corner Kevin Dockery to an undrafted free agent, Brandon McRae. The cornerback group, other than Bartell (Larry Fitzgerald calls playing Bartell his tough Sunday in the division), is a weak one, with injuries sidelining a couple of the presumptive members of the final roster. But I soon saw what my SI.com teammate Don "Donnie Brasco'' Banks was writing about when he watched Bradford at camp Friday. Bradford went nine of 12 with a couple of touchdowns and two drops in live periods, for something around 120 yards.
What I'd thought about Bradford in draft prep was that he was highly accurate, but a robo-QB. Watching him at Oklahoma, you'd see Bradford and his receivers and backs stare at the sidelines for the formation and play-call. Once they got it, they'd all jump to the line and snap the ball. Bradford didn't have to read much, if anything. He'd have a prescribed 1-2 progression to read and usually go to his first option. How would that translate to the NFL?
I still worry. A scrimmage where the quarterback is untouched and knows he's not going to get rapped around is no time to find out if a college phenom is the long-term answer. "I don't think the fact he's done it differently in college is setting him back,'' coach Steve Spagnuolo said on the bus on the way to the scrimmage. "From what I've seen of him so far, I'll be surprised if he's not able to grasp it.''
SAN DIEGO -- The most efficient kicker in NFL history is consulting with a sports psychologist for his failings. Nate Kaeding, who had previously seen a mental-health professional to help with his mindset and found it helpful, has seen the guy "about six'' times this offseason, he told me, to help him deal with the aftermath of a head-case performance in the Chargers' three-point divisional playoff loss to the Jets at home Jan. 17.
Kaeding went 0-for-3, missing from 36 (wide left), 57 (short), and 40 (wide right). The last kick was almost embarrassing. He punched the ball, instead of swinging his leg through it naturally, and it sailed way to the right. It was the classic kick of a man pressing too hard instead of naturally doing what he's been trained to do.
The psychologist didn't give any deep dark advice. "Keep the game in perspective,'' Kaeding said the message was. "Don't make it bigger than it is. There's going to be peaks and valleys, and just accept them.''
Six sessions, though. That's not the garden-variety pat on the back accompanied by a you'll-be-fine message. Kaeding is bugged by this, and my guess is the team, with one more disastrous January, could look elsewhere for a kicker.
Last season wasn't the first time Kaeding had gotten tight in the playoffs. In a wild-card game in 2004, he missed a 40-yard field goal in overtime that would have beaten the Jets; the Jets won, 20-17. He missed 45- and 48-yarders in the 2007 playoffs. Not easy kicks, but good kickers in the league have to make them.
TAMPA -- I always got the impression that the Jon Gruden Bucs were trying to scrub clean all Tony Dungy influences on the organization. Now Raheem Morris is trying to embrace what Dungy brought here.
Morris and GM Mark Dominik are trying the same thing. Tampa Bay had a decent base on the offensive line when Dominik and Morris took over for Gruden and Bruce Allen. They got the presumptive quarterback of the future last year in Josh Freeman, and they could play as many as five rookies from this year's draft class in starting or prominent roles, and not just special-team roles.
Six hundred pounds of defensive linemen -- Gerald McCoy and Brian Price -- could start opening day on the line. Fourth-round pick Mike Williams, barring injury, is favored to start at one receiver (last year's surprising seventh-round pick, Sammie Stroughter, could start alongside him), with this year's second-rounder, Arrelious Benn, possibly starting or playing 35 snaps a game as the third receiver. Rookie cornerback Myron Lewis eventually could start alongside third-year corner Aqib Talib, and next year might push Barber to safety if Barber still is able and willing to make play and make that move. The punting job is rookie Brent Bowden's to lose.
Mike Singletary just might have saved Vernon Davis.
SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Always wanted to ask one of the best young tight ends in the game how he felt about being shown up/embarrassed/clapped in the face by his new coach, Mike Singletary, a coupe of years ago. You remember Singletary banishing Vernon Davis from the sidelines during a game after a thoughtless Davis penalty, ordering him to the locker room and not to return.
"Best thing that ever happened to me in my life,'' Davis told me. "Woke me up. I was all about Vernon, not about the team.''
Davis also revealed Singletary told him if he wanted to fight, that was fine with him. They'd fight. "He pushed me to the edge,'' said Davis. "I needed that. When you're a first-round pick, and everyone's telling you how great you are, sometimes you need a guy to tell you that football's a team game. Here he is, one of the greatest players ever. So I had to change. Now, I'm all in.''
Davis caught 103 balls in his first three seasons, including that troubled third year, with nine touchdowns. Last year, he caught 78 passes with 13 touchdowns, most in the league for a tight end. When I asked Singletary about Davis, he smiled. "One of the most misconstrued guys in the league,'' Singletary said. "He raises the level in practice every day. He raises the work ethic. He's done everything I've asked.''
Is Matt The Man?
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. -- All off-season, since Kurt Warner retired, the Cardinals have given off a yeah-but vibe about their quarterback situation. Matt Leinart's our guy, but we're signing Derek Anderson for insurance. We're behind Matt all the way, but he's got to play well early to keep the job.
Watching Leinart practice, the one thing that's apparent is he doesn't have the accuracy Warner did. Warner was a 65-percent passer in his five Arizona seasons; Leinart, in 29 career games, has completed 57 percent. Watching him last Thursday, he threw a couple in a row slightly behind Steve Breaston, then a low fastball to the ground to Early Doucet. But he also made two nice deep throws to Larry Fitzgerald. (Better than Anderson, at least on this day. Anderson was all over the place with his throws, continuing the bugaboo that prevented from taking the permanent job in Cleveland.)
You forget about the intensity of the Bear fan sometimes.
"Big year, Tice!'' one fan yells as the team stretches.
Mike Tice knows, too. The line was abysmal last year. Chicago, always a good running team, was 29th in the league in rushing with just 93 rush yards a game. The Bears allowed 35 sacks, middle of the NFL pack, but some of Cutler's 27 interceptions had to be attributed to being under the pressure that comes with an under-performing line. So the Bears went looking for some new offensive staffers. Martz came in as offensive coordinator. "This is what I probably should be doing,'' he told me last night, smiling. "I'm probably too much of a knucklehead to do the other thing (head-coaching).'' And Jack Del Rio let his good friend Tice out of his Jacksonville contract -- he was the Jags' tight ends coach -- to come to Chicago, where he could do the thing he probably did the best in his coaching career, which is coach the offensive line.
There's only one guy on the line no one has to worry about -- Kreutz, returning from an Achilles injury that robbed him of strength last year. Chris Williams takes over for an over-the-hill Orlando Pace at left tackle, Williams returning to his natural college position. He should benefit from going against Peppers in practice every day. Untested journeyman Frank Omiyale should win the right tackle job, with another unproven kid, Lance Louis, a seventh-round pick last year, likely to win the job at right guard. Veteran Roberto Garza moves to left guard after making 64 straight starts on the right side.
How Tice brings this group together, and how he fixes their errors weekly, will go a long way toward determining whether the Bears can contend. On this night, Williams looked feisty going after Peppers, with good quickness pushing him wide. But the group, obviously, is a work in progress.
Well, I missed the Sunday night preseason opener because of Bears practice. But reading about it and watching the highlights, there's one headline, and it has nothing to do with Terrell Owens. Dallas tight end John Phillips, who has played better that presumptive number two tight end Martellus Bennett, may have been lost for the year with a major knee injury. The organization (read: Jerry Jones) is in love with Bennett, but Phillips is the better player. That's a huge blow if he's lost. Tony Romo likes and trusts Phillips. It would put a premium on Jason Witten staying healthy for 16 games.
I think, if you're in a 12-team fantasy league, Ryan Mathews should be a first-round pick. I stink at those things, of course, so take that advice with a shaker of salt. But if the question is whether Mathews will be one of the most productive 12 backs in the NFL this year (the first round is almost exclusively running backs in most leagues), I say he will be, barring injury.
I think I think one of the most improved position groups in the league could be the Kansas City backfield. Jamaal Charles made his case to be an every-down back with a 968-yard rushing performance in the last eight games. But the Chiefs didn't draft the 198-pound Charles to be an every-down guy, and they don't want to burn him out the way Larry Johnson got burned out by overuse in Kansas City.
The Chiefs were interested in San Diego restricted free agent Darren Sproles last winter, but Sproles re-signed with San Diego. So K.C. used an early-second-round pick on the Sproles-like Dexter McCluster. And the Chiefs signed the league's second-most productive back over the last five years, Thomas Jones, to share time in the backfield with Charles.
McCluster has been fabulous in early Chiefs practices, lining up in the backfield, in the slot and at receiver. Jones has been the strong-work ethic guy the Chiefs knew they were buying and will be a good model for Charles. It's not unusual to see Jones, after a two-hour-long practice in the western Missouri heat, going to the Chiefs' weight room and lift for an hour. I don't know what this all will translate to come opening night against San Diego Sept. 13 -- coach Todd Haley is on record as saying he'll play the hot guy between Charles and Jones -- but I do know that Matt Cassel is a lot happier with his backfield options.
I think I saw an awful lot of wobbly throws by Alex Smith when I watched the 49ers the other day. The attitude around the 49ers is basically this: We don't need Alex Smith to be a great quarterback, we just need him to execute the offense. Understood. But the 49ers led the NFL last year in a long-yardage category (third down and eight yards or more), which says to me that the 49ers quarterback is going to need to make a lot of accurate throws down the field. That's going to be the real test for Alex Smith: Can he throw an 18-yard out to Michael Crabtree on a line? Or a deep throw?
