Kaspers Korner

The Saint Louis Rams saw the quarterback Marc Bulger step up his rehab on Monday as it has been two weeks since he broke his pinky finger.

With only the preseason finale left before the season opener the Rams were smart to not give into temptation.

According to the Saint Louis Post Dispatch, Bulger could play today if there was a regular season game, but decided that he will not play in the regular season finale.

Rams head coach Steve Spagnuolo is being overly cautious as they have not even put Bulger under center yet to take a snap, which is the smart move.

So, when will the Rams let Bulger practice fully?

That will most likely be the Monday following the preseason finale as teams will start preparing for the season opener.

Some people might say that he needs to see some work as he has missed the last two preseason games.

That might be true in the sense that the timing might be off a little, but as long as Bulger takes a couple extra minutes to work with receivers after practice he should be fine.

In the end it is better safe than sorry as quarterbacks are too important to lose to injury.

The Buffalo Bills offense was a disaster last in their week three preseason game against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

With wide receiver Terrell Owens returning fully to practice today it is time for the offense to walk the walk.

After their week two preseason game against the Green Bay Packers starting quarterback Trent Edwards downplayed the bad outing agains the Packers to getting looks that they would normally not see with Owens in the lineup.

To me that is unadulterated pure crap as if Owens get injured in the preseason the thing that they have seeing in the preseason will be used against them in the regular season.

Fortunately, for the Bills offense they do have one more preseason game Thursday against the Detroit Lions to show some signs of life.

In the end with one preseason game left against the Detroit Lions and their season opener agains the New England Patriots only two weeks away they better start getting their act together.

With Steve Spagnuolo to take the Saint Louis Rams head coaching job the New York Giants head coach Tom Coughlin elevated linebackers coach Bill Sheridan to defensive coordiantor.

Already Sheridan has most likely learned a valuable lesson.

According to reports, Sheridan Monday morning criticized defensive end Osi Umenyiora for a mistake that he made in the Giants week three preseason game.

That upset Umenyiora as he thought that contradicted a statement that he made earlier on the topic.

There is one rule when dealing with superstars and that is do not tick them off as they can hold your team hostage.

That means that when you talk to a player you have to learn what you can say and what you cannot.

The one thing that you can never do is straight out criticize a superstar for his play as thy are always tough on themselves as that is what it usually takes to get there.

The last thing they want to hear from their coaches humiliating talk like a drill seargant.

Fortunately, for the team Umenyiora did come back to the facilities to talk to Sheridan and Coughlin about it.

In the end Sheridan better tread lightly as if he doesn’t learn from this incident it will happen again and that time it will not blow over in a day.

Kansas City Chief fans are holding thier breath as starting quarterback Matt Cassel went down with an injury in their preseason game against the Seattle Seahawks.

There is some hope for Cheif fans as their schedule favors them.

According to ProFootballTalk.com, the rumour going around is that Cassel has a sprained Medial Collateral Ligament and ankle.

If that is the case then Cassel will most likely miss a month of football.

If Cassel does miss more than that the Chiefs do catch a break as after week two of the regular season they play thier four NFC games in weeks three through six.

That means the Chiefs could lose all four of those games and still be in the playoff hunt as those games are not conference games, which is part of the tie breaker system for the playoffs.

In the end as long as the Chiefs win one of their first two games the Chiefs will be in good shape.

The Buffalo Bills are exiting the preseason with the same question as they entered training camp with.

Simply, the Bills missed opportunities to test a couple of players against first stringers.

The Bills missed a golden opportunity the last two weeks to start wide receiver Steve Johnson and tackle Demetrius Bell against the Green Bay Packers and Pittsburgh Steelers to see if they can handle starting.

With ESPN’s Tim Graham reporting that some coaches on the Bills believe that Bell starting at left tackle would give them the best chance to win.

Unfortunately, Bell missed the Steelers game as he was hurt earlier in the week.

The Bills did insert Bell with the starters for a couple of downs in the Green Bay game, which is most likely the reason for the report.

As for Johnson he has not gotten any looks with the startes even though wide receiver Terrell Owens has been out the last three games.

With the offense doing nothing this past Saturday against the Steelers the Bills would be foolish to not give Johnson a look at even though the Bills starters will at most play two series against the Detroit Lions.

The Bills did give defensive end Chris Ellis and Copeland Bryan, along with defensive tackle John McCargo a look at with the starters.

Both did relatively well, especially Ellis who did get near the quarterback a couple of times.

In the end the preseason is a time where you get to experiment with plays and personnel and the Bills simply missed a golden opportunity.

The San Francisco 49ers have a real big problem on thier hands with the hold out of first round draft pick wide receiver Michael Crabtree.

With no sign of Crabtree caving the 49ers are going to have to get creative in order to get him signed.

Crabtree fell to the 10th spot as wide receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey was taken by the Raiders, which was a surprise since Crabtree was rated by most experts as better.

Crabtree himself knows that, which is the very reason why he is holding out as he thinks he deserves to get paid more.

There are only a couple options for the 49ers at this point and they are either cave to Crabtree, offer a insentive laced contract that could earn him what he wants, wait till he caves, or not sign him, which would allow him to reenter the draft.

In the end the only way the 49ers are going to sign Crabtree is giving him what he wants.

The Buffalo Bills took the field against the Pittsburgh Steelers in hopes of getting into the endzone, which never happened.

The first thing that sticks out in my mind is the playcalling.  I kept notes on this game and about 90 percent of the time the Steelers there was at least one cornerback six yards off the wide receiver he was lined across.

That clearly tells me that Schonert is the problem as according to Steve Tasker they are simply relying upon the excuse that when wide receiver Terrell Owens comes back they will be getting different looks.

That clearly is bull crap as Schonert should be instructing him to either audible it to take advantage of the cushion or pick a wide receiver and gun it into him.

If Edwards fails to do either then it is on him to call plays that will take advantage of this, which he is not doing.

Simply, Bills owner Ralph Wilson should fire Schonert if this trend continues after three weeks in the regular season.

On the defensive side you got to like the defense giving up only 10 points in a half to the Steelers when the offense was bad.

It looks like offensive coordinator Perry Fewell has realized that he needs defensive tackle Marcus Stroud on the field all the time as neither defensive tackles Kyle Williams or Spencer Johnson can handle double teams.

Got to love the fact that rookie defensive end Aaron Maybin in limited time got a sack in his first action.

Besides the forced fumble Williams got dominated by left guard Chris Kemoeatu.

It appears to be the end of the road for defensive end Ryan Denney as he was outplayed by defensive end Chris Ellis.

Also, the Bills should take a look at wide receiver Steve Johnson at the starting wide receiver spot opposite of Lee Evans in their preseason finale against the Detroit Lions if wide receiver Terrell Owens doesn’t play.

In the end if the Bills coaching staff fails to realize that there are no excuses in football and you take what the defense gives you it will be a long season for the Bills.

Before training camp started the thinking was that offensive tackle Demetrius Bell would eventually take over the starting left tackle spot.

Well that might be a lot sooner than many fans may have anticipated as according to ESPN’s Tim Graham word is that many on the Bills coaching staff feel that Bell should be the starter at left tackle come opening day.

For those who have read my site before I called on the Bills to give Bell a look with the first team offense, which they did as Bell got a couple of downs in their week two preseason game against the Green Bay Packers.

This development is actually surprising as they seem to not have a brain at times like when opposing defenses play their cornerbacks six yards off wide receivers and no short passes are thrown to take advantage of this.

Some of those include offensive coordinator Turk Schonert who believes that Bell would give them the best chance to win.

He is right as Bell’s athleticism is vastly superior to Walker as Walker struggles with linebackers rushing the passer.

In the end the move would be a step in the right direction, but the reality is that the coaching staff still has a long ways to go to prove themselves.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers promised that they would decide the starting quarterback before the third preseason game.

With the third preseason game already being played and still no starter has been decided the Buccaneers are in trouble.

According to the Tampa Tribune, head coach Raheem Morris stated that he will meet with his coaching staff, the team, and then finally the owner before announcing who the starter is going to be.

As the saying goes if you have to have a competition to decide your starter you have nothing.

However, what the situation says more importantly is that Morris is not a man of his words.

If this keeps happening then Morris will lose his team and then eventually his job as his players will not perform for him anymore.

In the end the Buccaneers better get their act together quick or it is going to be a long season for Buccaneer fans.

There was one glaring thing that stood out to me as I watched highlights of the Buffalo Bills game against the Green Bay Packers was that the cornerbacks were always lined up six yards off the wide receivers.

That leaves me wondering if Edwards has the freedom to change up the play when he wants.

Most quarterbacks are allowed at first to change a route in order to counter blitzes that are coming from the defense.

Eventually, a quarterback gains the ability to change the plays when a offensive coordinator is fully comfortable with a quarterback’s ability to read a defense.

If Bills offensive coordinator Turk Schonert is not allowing Edwards to take advantage of that kind of a cushion then Schonert needs to be fired.

If Edwards has the freedom to change plays then Schonert needs to hammer home that he needs to take advantage of this.

In the end if Schonert does not do something about his play calling the Bills are not going to win many football games as teams are already aware of his tendencies.