Kaspers Korner

Many notable people were at the Pittsburgh Steelers final practice before the Superbowl.  It is good that they did that, but if they lose they will get some flack for that.

The Hall of Fame selected Bruce Smith, Rod Woodson, Randall McDaniel, Derrick Thomas, Bob Hayes, and Ralph Wilson Jr.  The passing of wide receivers Chris Carter and Andre Reed shows that the selectors have a serious issue with recognizing their stats for the periods of time they were in.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers cornerback Rhonde Barber is glad that former defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin moved on, because they can now change things up a little.

Philadelphia Eagle quarterback Donovan McNabb wants to retire as a Eagle.  That is a very long shot to happen, since they have quarterback Kevin Kolb waiting in the wings.

Denver Broncos quarterback Jay Cutler confirms owner Pat Bowlen decision to fire former head coach Mike Shanahan saying that it was time to move on.

It is confirmed in the New York Times that current leadership of the NFLPA is looking out for their interests instead of what is the best for the Union.  Someone in congress is going to have to step up and hand the process over to an independent board, or the next leader is going to be overthrown eventually.

Arizona Cardinal quarterback Kurt Warner in an interview with Yahoo Sport’s Michael Silver said that he wonders if the Patriots cheated in Superbowl XXXVI.  That confirms that the New England Patriots legacy will always be tainted.

Tennessee Titans defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth had a great year this past season.  However, as good as he is his asking price may be too high for the Titans.

The Baltimore Ravens linebacker trio of Bart Scott, Ray Lewis, and Terrell Suggs have stated that they are all willing to take less, so they can still play together.  Haynesworth on the other hand has stated that he wants as much as he can get, because of the possibility of a career ending injury.

Haynesworth is looking to be the highest paid defensive player in the league.  That designation however goes to one of the best defensive ends of the National Football League.

Defensive tackles have less of an impact on the outcome of a game rather than a defensive end.  The reason being that teams are running the ball less.

Defensive tackles have a harder time getting to the quarterback on a pass play for three reasons.  First, they are much fatter and slower than defensive ends.  Secondly, there is less space to work with in the middle of the line of scrimmage.  Finally, offenses most of the time will double team the better defensive tackle to keep him out of the backfield.

Minnesota Vikings defensive end Jared Allen is the current highest paid defensive player.  This past season Allen recorded 54 tackles with 41 being solo and 14.5 sacks.  His all time season high for tackles is 77 with 65 being the high for solos and 15.5 sacks being the most he has recorded in a season.

Haynesworth on the other hand this past season recorded 51 tackles with 41 being solo and eight and a half sacks.  His all time season high for tackles is 52 with 41 for solo and eight and a half is all time season high for sacks.

Any team that makes Haynesworth the highest paid defensive player in the league needs to be addmitted to a insane asylum.

Michael Vick will be released to a half way house soon.  He is lucky considering that no additional state chargers was brought up.

National Football League commissioner Roger Goodell stated that he like to see the NFL return to Mexico for the 2010 season.  Great another team gets to lose a home game.

Virginia House of Representative Jim Moran has outed Troy Vincent as the person asking Congress to oversee the NFLPA executive director search.  Considering what the NFLPA Executive committee has stated that if the person that asked congress to get involved is a candidate will be disqualified they need to be involved.

The Philadelphia Eagles filled the voids on their coaching staff.  The most noteable is former Eagle quarterback Doug Pederson is now the offensive assistant/ quality control coach.  Head coach Andy Reid stated that Pederson played a big role in mentoring quarterback Donovan McNabb when he was a rookie and most likely will do the same to backup second year man Kevin Kolb.

The competition committee is looking into the overtime rule, which will result in tweaking most likely.

Franchise and transition tag numbers are out and as expected they went up.

ESPN confirms that Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger had an X-ray and of course tried to pawn it as they broke the news in typical form, which just shows they got their head up their rear.

Tennessee Titan defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth wants to be the highest defensive player in the league.  I was in favor of signing him, but at that price he is not worth it, because defensive ends are more important.

Former Denver Broncos quarterback Jake Plummer revealed that former Bronco head coach Mike Shanahan was more interested in stats than winning.  That pretty much means that Shanahan should stay retired unless he gets his head on right again.

Chula Vista Mayor Cheryl Cox sent a letter to the San Diego Chargers ripping them for not keeping them in the loop when they have already met January 16th, which means that Cox is trying to make them look like the bad guy when they move, eventhough it is her.

Arizona Cardinals @ Pittsburgh Steelers:

Cardinals:  Offensively, run the ball, protect quarterback Kurt Warner, and get wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald in the game.  The defense needs to stop the Steelers running game, and get pressure on the quarterback.

Steelers:  Offensively, establish the run with running back Willie Parker, then protect quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.  Defensively, get pressure on Warner, stop the run, and don’t let Fitzgerald in the game.

Many draft experts are already starting their mock drafts and have the Buffalo Bills taking a tight end with their pick in the first round.  However, they are forgetting one thing and that is the Bills drafted a tight end in last years draft.

The Bills in the fourth round of the 2008 National Football League draft tooke Derek Fine.  The Bills thought highly of him to the point that when Fine was injured in the preseason and missed the first six games of the season the Bills kept him on the active roster instead of putting him on injured reserve or the physically unable to perform list.

According to Scout.com Fine was a solid pass catching tight end in his senior year of college as he caught 46 passes for 394 yards.  He showed a flash of that last year in his second game in week nine against the New York Jets catching four passes for 43 yards with one of those passes being for his only touchdown of the year.

Also, Fine showed that the scouting report of him being a well rounded tight end was true.  He showed that in the running game as he was an integral part to it with his excellent blocking.

What the Bills think of Fine will affect the upcoming draft.  If they think that he is becoming what they thought he was going to be out of college, then they will most likely give him the starting tight end position.

That most likely will mean the Bills will go defense at either linebacker or defenive line.  The need of linebacker depends on whether they bring back outside linebacker Angelo Crowell, which is a possibility as Crowell stated in an interview of no hard feelings, and wanting to stay with the team.

In the end the only way the Bills are going to get a better tight end than fine is if they trade for Kansas City tight end Tony Gonzalez.

The Houston Texans have finally found another weapon to complement wide receiver Andre Johnson.  However, the Texans were fools to not lock him up to a long term contract.

That player would be tight end Owen Daniels who caught 63 passes for 768 yards receiving with three touchdowns in 2007.  Then in 2008 he did even better as he caught 70 passes for 862 yards with two touchdowns.

Daniels was selected in the fourth round of the 2006 draft and signed a three year contract.  That means with only three years accumulated Daniels was a restricted free agent.

The Texans did tender him to the highest level possible, which would be a first and third round draft picks if the Texans choose not to match anyone teams offer to him.

Fortunately for the Texans no team extended an offer sheet to Daniels.

The fact of the matter is that the Texans were stupid not to lockup Daniels to a long term deal.  For tight end that can stretch the field and are that good are hard to find.

The problem for the Texans is that if the National Football League and NFLPA reach a deal by start of the free agency for 2010 then Daniels will be a unrestricted free agent.

Even if the Texans tag Daniels, which is $4.371 million for 2009, it is not going to be close to the top deal in Kellen Winslow contract, which smallest per a year number is $5.17 million.

If a deal cannot be reached by that time then Daniels will be a restricted free agent, but if he has not received a new long term deal by that time Daniels will most likely request to be traded.  The Texans would have to do it, because he would not be under contract, and the Texans have no leverage to bring him in.

If the Texans do not wise up soon then they are going to be without a big weapon.

New England Patriots defensive end Richard Seymour’s wife was arrested for beat up another woman who allegedly had an affair with Seymour.  Holy crap a woman that did not take their husband immediately to the cleaners.  Seymour better be more careful or he is going to be on the receiving end of some haymakers.

Another New York Giant has sworn for wide receiver Plaxico Burress to stay witht the team if he avoids jail time.  Really this is just getting silly.  Enough already with reporting this we all get the freakin drift already.

On a sad note Philadelphia Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Johnson has learned that he has cancer again as a metastasized tumor was found in his back.  I personally know about this as my father was diagnosed with Prostate cancer that spread to his lymphnods.  Hopefully, Johnson will beat the odds, but at this point with his cancer having traveled the odds are not good.

Current National Football League Players Association president Kevin Mawae stated that they are going forward with an uncapped year in 2010.  That is probably one of the dumbest things the NFLPA could have done.  The Lions have lost money and with all the different rules to an uncapped NFL the players will lose money as the owners will not have to spend as much.

Former Kansas City Cheifs head coach Herm Edwards will reportedly be the replacement for Emmitt Smith who did about a good of a job in the English language as a five year old could on ESPN.

New Jacksonville Jaguars general manage Gene Smith has the ultimate say over the roster, thus leaving head coach Jack Del Rio with only the ability of input to Smith.  That is the way it should be as head coaches are too busy.

Eagles safety Brian Dawkins will apparently play his 14th season with the Eagles as both sides mutually agree to wanting him back.  Hopefully he will finish his career there.

A couple of decades ago Buffalo Bills defensive end Bruce Smith had a tremendous pass rushing move.  The move since then has been amongst National Football League defensive ends.

Smith made the spin move famous as against single team blocking it was almost impossible to stop.

Smith became so effective at using this move that offenses had to double team him just to stop him.

In today’s NFL defensive ends are all about speed rushing past offensive tackles to get to the quarterback as offensive linemen are simply to fat and slow to handle this.

Eventually, teams will catch up to this by directing their offensive linemen to lose weight, wich will make them faster and more able to neutralize defensive end speed rushes.

The thing is that this is happening right now as there has been a tremendous influx of offensive tackle talent, especially left tackles.

In the end defensive ends need to start learning this move as forgotten moves like the spin move will be the difference down the road.

The Cincinnati Bengals were an awful team last year, which was mostly due to the fact that starting quarterback Carson Palmer was out for most of the season.  The Bengals have a lot of work to do as 10 players are unrestricted free agents.

The most important of them are wide receiver TJ Houshmandzadeh, tackle Stacey Andrews, running back Cedric Benson, and kicker Shayne Graham.  The next question is will the Bengals franchise tag anyone?

Most likely the Bengals will not tag anyone of them.  The reason is simply that the Bengals are cheap and with it being the last year of the salary cap salaries are through the roof.

According to Cincinnati.com the salary for a a kicker is $2.5, wide receiver is $9.9 million, and will most likely cost just as much for a offensive lineman and running back.

If the Bengals can pull it off and resign everyone then the Bengals will only have to improve on defense.  That is if the offense can stay healthy.

Former National Football League head coach Lou Saban died Sunday morning, according to the Associated Press.

According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, former Atlanta Falcon quarterback Michael Vick is confident he will return to the National Football League and plans on to make as much as $10 million a year.  I have a better chance at winning the lottery than Vick does at making $10 million a year.

The Baltimor Sun takes a look back at the anniversary of the Colts leaving Baltimore for Indianapolis.

According to the Kansas City Star, the Kansas City Chiefs top draft pick will depend on what the Detroit Lions do first overall.

According to the Star Tribune, former Vikings offensive line coach Steve Loney thinks quarterback Sage Rosenfelds will be the starter for the Vikings in 2009.

Saint Louis Rams owner Chip Rosenbloom goes through a question and answer session with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.  Kudos to both Rosenbloom and the Post-Dispatch to make something like that happen is tremendous, because owners teams have become so secretive.