There's Football Inside

[Iowanian]

Too many topics to combine to a single thread and too many worthy topics get lost.

This thread will contain facts, notes, topics and comments that deserve mention and discussion. Feel free to contribute in any meaningful way.

[Bufkin]

I'm always down for a lil football talk.

[Iowanian]

Jamal Charles
247 yards short of Chiefs all time rushing
278 attempts shy of all time record

THE YEAR OF JAMAAL
In 2013, Jamaal Charles was 3rd in the NFL in rushing yards, first in both rushing touchdowns and total touchdowns, and 2nd in yards from scrimmage. He did everything for a Chiefs offense that for most of the season was pedestrian but sound. He accounted for 33% of the offense’s total production and did so while getting “Priest-Holmesian” touches of the football. He WAS the offense. That’s the way Andy Reid wants it, so don’t expect it to change.

Charles is also only 247 yards shy of becoming the all-time career rushing leader in Chiefs franchise history. He may surpass that mark week 2 against the Denver Broncos, in Denver. He’s also only 278 attempts shy of becoming the all-time carries leader in franchise history as well. He had 259 carries (though significantly more touches) in his first year under coach Reid.

http://www.810whb.com/common/more.php?m=49&r=38

[Bufkin]

Shoulder ready: Former top pick Eric Fisher ready to get back to LT.
http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com...o-left-tackle/

When the Chiefs made Eric Fisher the No. 1 overall pick in the 2013 draft, they didn’t intend for Fisher to be the team’s long-term right tackle. Now that Branden Albert has exited via free agency, Fisher can flip back to his natural position.

“It’s like riding a bike,” Fisher told reporters on Tuesday regarding the change. “I felt good out there today. It’s a lot more natural for me. I’m really excited about it.”

Fisher has been permitted to show up early for camp because of the shoulder injury that resulted in surgery. His weight is at 315 pounds, he’s been lifting again since before OTAs, and he’s ready for his second NFL season.

“I’ve been working my butt of and am just glad to be out here,” Fisher said. “I never really lost strength. I’ve been in there working and when you can’t bench there’s other things you can do and that’s what I was doing.”

Fisher said his shoulder is healed and he’s “ready to go.” Fisher believes he’ll take part in the first padded practice of the year, on Saturday.

Apart from the injury, Fisher struggled at times as a rookie, creating real concerns as to whether he’s ready to play left tackle for the Chiefs.

[Bufkin]

Fisher showing up early for camp
http://www.newspressnow.com/sports/p...2729f911c.html

Eric Fisher took his first steps to become Kansas City’s next left tackle.
Last year’s No. 1 overall draft pick became the 37th player to arrive for the Chiefs rookies and quarterbacks practice on Tuesday.
Donning a red No. 72 jersey, Fisher took part in offensive line drills and seven-on-seven drills during Day 2 of practice at Missouri Western.
Fisher is coming off a pair of offseason surgeries that have slowed his transition from the starting right tackle to starting at left tackle, where he takes over for Branden Albert after he signed with Miami.
“I had the surgery, so I need to get out here and get situated before the vets get here,” said Fisher, who underwent shoulder surgery and sports hernia surgery recently. “I’m glad to be here early. It felt good. You know, just back to football like I’ve been doing my whole life.”
The Central Michigan product has added weight to his 6-foot-8 frame, now checking in at 315 pounds – a bump of about 20 pounds from his first season.
Tuesday marked his first rookies drills as he sat out the first three days last summer before agreeing to a four-year deal on the eve of the first day of practice.
Fisher had what many members of the national media called an inconsistent first year. He allowed seven sacks and 35 quarterback hurries from the right side and played in only 13 of the team’s 17 games.
Fisher missed the playoff game against Indianapolis, with the sports hernia injury the underlying issue. That turned out to be the final nick for Fisher, who also suffered injuries to knee, shoulder, groin and back and, finally, a concussion.
The second-year starter could only do individual drills during the team’s organized team activities in May. The shoulder surgery limited the chance to work on his upper-body strength, perhaps what would’ve been an area of focus after getting beat inside by bigger defensive linemen throughout his rookie campaign.
“As soon as I could do what I could do, I was in there working and took care of business,” said Fisher, now the fourth offensive linemen in rookies and quarterbacks practice. “I never really lost strength. I’ve been in there working, and when you can’t bench, there’s other things you can do and that’s what I was doing.”
Fisher will have one more day of drills with the other three offensive linemen — rookie draft picks Zach Fulton (Tennessee) and Larry Duvernay-Tardif (McGill) and rookie free agent Ben Gottschalk, who has served as the center during all of the passing drills.
The Chiefs passing game showed marked improvement in terms of the number of drops from the first to second day.
Alex Smith had the lion’s share of snaps on what was a rather up-and-down day for the backups.
Chase Daniel’s first set of plays resulted in a bad snap and then a fumble after a collision with Charcandrick West, a rookie running back from Abilene Christian.
First-year pro Tyler Bray completed 9-of-10 passes, which included a touchdown pass to Kyle Williams in a goal-line situation. Fifth-round draft pick Aaron Murray saw his snaps under center dwindle to seven — one less than on Monday — including a long completion to fellow rookie Albert Wilson.
“It is a day-to-day improvement to knock that rust off (Monday), but we’ve got to get better and keep improving,” said wide receiver Frank Hammond, who had a catch but missed and couldn’t haul in a pass behind him on a slant route.
One of the more unique sites in camp thus far is the limited ability of rookie linebacker Dee Ford to showcase his calling card.
The first-round draft pick from Auburn is known for his pass-rushing skills but during seven-on-seven drills he started on the left side and took a step or two toward the quarterback and then just watched the quarterback throw — an odd situation for a guy that recorded 13½ sacks as a senior for the national champion runners-up.
With veterans set to report today, Ford will have a chance to catch up with his fellow rushing specialist — Tamba Hali and Justin Houston.
“I think about it all the time,” Ford said talking about the other two pass rushers. “This is pass-rush city. I’m very excited. It’s going to be very fun. I can’t wait to see them. I’m going to give them a big hug when I see them — all of them.”
On person he may not be able to hug? Jamaal Charles, according to various media reports. A Kansas City television station and NFL.com reporter Ian Rapoport tweeted out the Chiefs star running back may be a no-show when veterans are slated to report at noon today.
Other media outlets disputed the claim, stating the Charles is expected to show up in St. Joseph.

[Iowanian]

People are whining about Gaine's hamstring issue, but other teams and top picks around the league are also having issues.

the Giants are upset with their top pick Beckham for hamstring issues

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap200...eckhams-injury

The New York Giants believe first-round pick Odell Beckham is exactly the type of talent who can help Eli Manning put last year's struggles in the rearview.


Beckham has to be on the field to make a difference, of course. The rookie wide receiver missed his fourth straight training camp practice on Sunday with a hamstring injury. Afterwards, Giants coach Tom Coughlin was asked about being disappointed.

"It's more than that," Coughlin said, according to ESPN.com. "We're trying to put a team together. We saw too much of that in the spring."

Beckham was held out of several practices during OTAs and minicamp because of the same hamstring injury. Coughlin called out Beckham last week after he stopped short on a deep route, leading to a Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie interception.

"He's got some work to do, just like they all do," Coughlin said after that practice, via the Sporting News.


On Sunday, Coughlin made it clear his frustration is not with Beckham, but the lingering nature of the hamstring injury. There are just six weeks to go before the New York Giants begin the regular season against the Detroit Lions.

"We're not going to let him go if he's in danger of hurting himself. That's all there is to it," Coughlin said. "I can stand here and fight all I want. It's not going to matter."

[Iowanian]

The Cardinals are pretty impressed with Pitt State's John Brown

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap200...kie-john-brown

The John Brown hype train barrels on.

After a springtime's worth of reports alerting us to Arizona's rookie receiver "blowing everyone away" and drawing "favorable" comparisons to Colts burner T.Y. Hilton, Brown is off to a hot start at training camp.

"I can tell you so far we haven't been able to cover him," said Cardinals general manager Steve Keim on Monday, per ESPN.com's Josh Weinfuss.

The third-round pick out of Pittsburg State has drawn parallels to Hilton because of their similar size and identical 4.34 speed. The 5-foot-11, 179-pound Brown is a candidate to leapfrog Ted Ginn as a deep threat alongside Larry Fitzgerald and Michael Floyd in three-receiver sets.

[Iowanian]

The Lions tabled contract negotiations with Suh until after the season. There will be people on both sides of this issue but personally I think they're doing the right thing. Before investing a huge contract on Suh, I think they need to see him stay out of trouble and perform at a high level for another season. If he kills it this season, he'll still get paid. If he doesn't, the Cowboys or Raiders will probably toss a boat full of dollar bills his way.

http://espn.go.com/blog/detroit-lion...for-both-sides

ALLEN PARK, Mich. -- The Detroit Lions were still talking a good game Monday, even as they were announcing what felt like a bad scenario for the franchise when it came to one of its cornerstone players.

The team is tabling contract talks with polarizing defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh until after the season -- a sign that, at the very least, the club and the player are somewhat far from being able to reach a deal that would benefit both sides.

[+] EnlargeNdamukong Suh
Andrew Weber/USA TODAY Sports
The Lions announced they will table any contract discussions with defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh until after the 2014 season.
Considering how confident the Lions have been in the past with getting deals done and how confident they still acted Monday -- both team president Tom Lewand and general manager Martin Mayhew expressed optimism they would sign Suh eventually -- this is a big moment for the two of them.

The two often have said they were confident Suh wanted to be here and the team wanted him here. Mayhew went further, saying Monday that he continually felt at different points that a contract extension for Suh would happen soon. Then the combine passed. The start of the new league year passed. The draft passed.

Training camp arrived and the Lions still had no deal in place, leading them to decide to table the talks once camp began. That brings the Lions to this point, and to a risk for both sides.

For the Lions, another massive season from Suh could push his asking price beyond what he and agent Jimmy Sexton are likely asking for now, making it a very tough decision to try to re-sign him. For Suh, it’s a gamble because if he suffers a significant injury, his asking price could plummet. While there would still be suitors for his services, he would be a question mark for the first time in his career.

There is the school of thought that if Suh wanted to stay in Detroit, he would have reached a deal before the season started, as quarterback Matthew Stafford did prior to the 2013 season. But different contracts and different agents require different time frames, so this is the Lions’ hope now: that the latest snag is just a blip instead of a major sign that Suh will end up somewhere other than Detroit in 2015. He has indicated he would like to return, although often talk is just talk until pen and paper meet.

But Suh needs to do what’s best for him -- and that goes beyond a money angle, because he will be paid well no matter where he ends up. Detroit has a new coaching staff, one he is unfamiliar with. The Lions are a franchise that has never really shown the ability to win consistently -- hence the one winning season and one playoff appearance this century.

So if winning is important to Suh as he enters the prime of his career, it behooves him to see how he interacts with this coaching staff and how he will be used throughout the course of a season. It’s something that could be explained to him by coaches, but until he sees it, he won’t know for sure.

[scho63]

[Hydrae]

Originally Posted by Iowanian

The Lions tabled contract negotiations with Suh until after the season. There will be people on both sides of this issue but personally I think they're doing the right thing. Before investing a huge contract on Suh, I think they need to see him stay out of trouble and perform at a high level for another season. If he kills it this season, he'll still get paid. If he doesn't, the Cowboys or Raiders will probably toss a boat full of dollar bills his way.

I am surprised the team didn't push harder. He is counting $22+ Mill against the cap this year and I would think a new deal to lower that would be very helpful to the team as a whole.

[Iowanian]

My assumption is his asking price is all of the cheese on the moon and they're more concerned about long term financial risk and cap damage.

[Easy 6]

This would make a nice Demetrius Harris news thread, every time he burns a defensive starter, bring the news here.

[John Dope]

Good thread. What about Geno Smith saying he will be a top five quarterback this year?

[In58men]

Just going throw out my prediction

Denver 10-6

Chargers 9-7

Chiefs 8-8

Raiders 6-10

[Direckshun]

Balls.

Oblong balls.