Warren Sapp will stay on with NFL Network

Posted by Michael David Smith on May 30, 2012, 7:16 PM EDT

AP

Despite reports that he was on the outs, Warren Sapp will remain on NFL Network.

Eric Weinberger, executive producer at NFL Network, told USA Today that “this is probably going to be news to some blogs and articles out there who’ve said his time is up here, but we picked up an option year on his contract.”

Sapp was reminded by the league-owned network that he’s supposed to be an analyst, not a reporter, when he said an unnamed source had told him that Jeremy Shockey had “snitched” on the Saints in the bounty scandal. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell later called Sapp’s report inaccurate. There was much speculation after that flap that Sapp was done.

But while Sapp has been removed from his spot on Showtime’s Inside the NFL, he’s not losing his job at NFL Network. According to the network, Sapp will remain in the same on-air role, offering the same analysis. Just no more reporting from anonymous sources.

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Kolb and Skelton alternate reps in Arizona

Posted by Josh Alper on May 30, 2012, 5:42 PM EDT

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Cardinals coach Ken Whisenhunt said earlier this month that the quarterback competition between Kevin Kolb and John Skeltonwould “start out as even as it possibly can.”

Whisenhunt has proven to be a man of his word. Skelton took the snaps with the first team at Tuesday’s OTA and Kolb led the offense on Wednesday. You can’t read much into performance from OTAs, but you can see a lot about a team’s intentions and the Cardinals clearly intend to have that open competition for the starting quarterback job.

That’s certainly not what anyone expected when the Cardinals traded for Kolb and gave him a big new contract, including a $7 million roster bonus this year. Whether or not it is also a bad sign for Kolb’s future with the team is a matter open for discussion, but Kolb isn’t balking at having to win the job this summer.

“I’ve said it a hundred times: ‘Look, if you are afraid to compete in this league, go home,’” Kolb said, via Darren Urban of the Cardinals web site. “There is a lot of time between now and (the season) and a lot of time to prove yourself.”

From the looks of it, you can settle in for a while on this one. Kolb and Skelton will be dueling well into training camp for the job.

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Mularkey: Justin Blackmon flashes brilliance and incompetence

Posted by Michael David Smith on May 30, 2012, 11:57 AM EDT

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Jaguars coach Mike Mularkey says first-round receiver Justin Blackmon looks about the way you’d expect a Top 5 rookie draft pick to look at the start of Organized Team Activities: Flashes of talent mixed with flashes of incompetence.

“When he knows what he’s doing, he’s very good,” Mularkey said. “When he doesn’t, he’s lost.”

Those times when Blackmon is lost are to be expected, and Mularkey said he’s confident Blackmon will know the offense by the time training camp starts.

Which means that the very good Blackmon should be the one we see on the field when the regular season starts. If Mularkey is doing his job.

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Jonathan Baldwin getting rave reviews in K.C.

Posted by Josh Alper on May 30, 2012, 12:13 PM EDT

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Dwayne Bowe’s absence from Chiefs workouts has left a void at the top of the wide receiver depth chart.

Jonathan Baldwin is doing his best to fill that void as he goes through the offseason program for the first time as a professional. Baldwin, a first-round pick last year, missed out on this stage of the work because of the lockout, but he is earning raves around Chiefs camp for his deeper understanding of the playbook. That has led to Baldwin getting ample opportunities to show off his ability to make plays against single coverage.

“He’s a guy that likes to go up and compete and there’s not a lot of corners in the league that can go up vertically with him,” ” quarterback Matt Cassel said, via Adam Teicher of the Kansas City Star. “Guys like that, you have to give them an opportunity to make a play. He’s such a big target, and he’s so physical that you just kind of have to put it in the vicinity and try not to overthrow him. Just give him an opportunity to go up and outbattle somebody for the ball.”

Baldwin’s rookie year got off to a slow start thanks to a training camp fight withThomas Jones and he ended the year with just 21 catches. A full offseason of work should benefit him a great deal, especially since his size (6’4″, 230 pounds) gives him a clear advantage over cornerbacks every week of the season.

If Bowe gets back and Baldwin keeps progressing, defenses will have tough choices to make while defending the Kansas City passing game.

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Vernon Davis: he looks like the Moss I watched in college

Posted by Michael David Smith on May 30, 2012, 10:42 AM EDT

AP

Before he ever got to the NFL, 49ers tight end Vernon Davis was a Randy Moss fan. Now Davis is a Randy Moss teammate, and he says the guy he sees on the field at Organized Team Activities shows off all the same athletic talent as the guy he watched — and tried to emulate — while he was developing as a football player.

Davis told Trey Wingo on ESPN that he’s seen Moss make the same kinds of jaw-dropping plays on the 49ers’ practice field that he used to make when he was in his prime.

“Randy caught a pass the other day, I mean — man, come on,” Davis said. “He caught a pass, there were three guys on him in practice, and he went up with two hands, and he looked like the old Randy Moss that I used to watch when I was in high school and college.”

Moss didn’t play at all last year and wasn’t any good the year before that, but if he’s even close to the player he was during his best seasons with the Vikings and Patriots, then Davis will have a teammate who can transform the 49ers’ passing game.

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Mario Williams "the fastest guy" at Bills OTAs

Posted by Michael David Smith on May 30, 2012, 9:21 AM EDT

AP

Mario Williams took to the Bills’ practice field for the first time on Tuesday when Buffalo opened Organized Team Activities, and his teammates were amazed by what they saw.

Everyone knows Williams is a freakish athlete who at 6-foot-6 and 292 pounds is big even by the standards of a defensive end, but Bills quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick said the way Williams moves is like nothing he had ever seen before.

“He looks like a Madden character you create when you sit there and up-up the strength, and the guy keeps growing,” Fitzpatrick said. “And then he’s the fastest guy on the field, too.”

That may be a bit of hyperbole — I would certainly hope the Bills have a few receivers and cornerbacks who can outrun Williams — but all indications are that Williams looked on the first day of OTAs like a guy who’s worth every penny of a six-year, $100 million contract.

For his part, Williams said he’s trying to lead by example as a guy who works just as hard as he would if he had to prove himself to make the team.

“Honestly,” he said, “I don’t think of anything else but going out and working.”

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Ike Taylor offers Mike Wallace advice

Posted by Josh Alper on May 30, 2012, 9:18 AM EDT

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We’ve been talking about Mike Wallace’s desire for a new long-term contract for so long that it has been hard to remember that there’s actually a deadline of some note rapidly approaching in the wide receiver’s impasse with the Steelers.

If Wallace doesn’t sign his restricted free agent tender by June 15th, the Steelers can slash his salary from $2.742 million to $577,000. That’s suddenly right around the corner, although there hasn’t been much movement on either side with deadline day rapidly approaching. Wallace is skipping OTAs, he isn’t expected to be at the June minicamp and who knows what could transpire from there.

Cornerback Ike Taylor has been in Wallace’s position of looking for a new deal from the Steelers in the past, which gives him the ability to offer some advice to his teammate. Taylor said, via the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, he’s told Wallace he’d like to see him at practice to learn the new offense and cautioned that the Steelers “are not going to let you dictate to them on how you feel.” He also sent Wallace a message about leverage.

“Mike is going to be a Pittsburgh Steeler for years to come,” Taylor said. “(But I told him), at the end of the day: Football doesn’t need you; you need football.”

Assuming the Steelers don’t suddenly and completely reverse course by throwing a contract at his feet, Wallace’s choices at this point are pretty clear. He can sign the tender before it gets slashed, he could sign the deflated version in November so that he accrues a season toward free agency or he can sit out the whole season. Wallace might not like the first of those options, but it certainly seems like the most likely way to get what he wants out of this season.

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Gabe Carimi back on the practice field

Posted by Mike Florio on May 29, 2012, 11:09 PM EDT

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The Chicago Bears got some good news during their Organized Team Activities on Tuesday.  Via Jeff Dickerson of ESPNChicago.com, Carimi said Tuesday night that he practiced with the team.

“First day back at practice went great,” Carimi disclosed via Twitter. “Just need to keep up the hard work to get back to where I want to be.”

Tuesday’s session was closed.  Thus, the extent of Carimi’s participation isn’t known.  Wednesday’s session will be open to the media.

The team’s first-round pick in 2011, Carimi opened the season as the starting right tackle.  He suffered a knee injury in Week Two and didn’t play again during his rookie year.

If Carimi stays healthy, he’ll likely return to the starting lineup, as the right tackle.

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Samuel already injecting energy into Falcons

Posted by Mike Florio on May 29, 2012, 8:47 PM EDT

AP

In an effort to improve their secondary, the Atlanta Falcons shipped merely a seventh-round pick to the Eagles for cornerbackAsante Samuel.  So far, it looks like the Falcons pulled off the kind of steal for which the Eagles had become notorious.

According to Dave Campbell of the Associated Press, Samuel made a real impression in the Falcons’ first full-squad practice of the 2012 offseason.

“Asante I thought did about the same thing he has done to me for four years,” quarterback Matt Ryan said. “He made a good pick.  He’s going to make us better.  Specifically I think he’ll make myself and our wide receivers better going against him and Dunta [Robinson] and [Brent] Grimes every day as corners.  It’s going to be good work for us.”

Harvin still sidelined with mending shoulder

Posted by Mike Florio on May 29, 2012, 8:14 PM EDT

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When Vikings receiver Percy Harvin disclosed last month on Twitter that he needs shoulder surgery, he added that the recovery will be quick and that he’ll be ready for Organized Team Activities.

The Vikings started Organized Team Activities on Tuesday, and Harvin wasn’t ready.

Jeremy Fowler of the St. Paul Pioneer Pressreports that, while Harvin was present for the first day of OTAs, he isn’t yet able to participate in drills after having bone spurs removed from his shoulder.  Fowler writes that Harvin isn’t expected to miss much time.

Harvin, the 2009 offensive rookie of the year, generated career highs in receptions, receiving yardage, rushing attempts, and rushing yardage in 2011.  He gained 1,312 yards from scrimmage, averaging 9.4 yards every time he touched the ball as a runner or receiver.  Harvin added 520 yards on 16 kickoff returns, an average of 32.5 yards per return.

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Tom Brady inspires man to donate kidney

Posted by Mike Florio on May 29, 2012, 11:47 PM EDT

Patriots quarterback Tom Brady tried unsuccessfully to find a kidney for his mentor Tom Martinez, who died earlier this year while awaiting an organ donation.  Thanks to Brady’s efforts, however, at least one other person will not perish.

According to NECN.com, 48-year-old Peter Hughes has donated a kidney to a woman he didn’t know.

Hughes used the Matching Donors website, promoted by Brady.  And Hughes was found to be a match for Asja Bethiel, a mother of two.

“Had it not been for that particular article,” Hughes said in reference to Brady’s effort to find a kidney for Martinez, “I probably wouldn’t have done it.”

It’s an amazingly selfless act.  Few would happily give a kidney to a family member; the idea that Hughes would give one to a complete stranger sends a powerful message that, even if it doesn’t prompt many others to do the same, should at least inspire the rest of us to treat each other a little better.

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