NFL News & Rumors Digest

New Baltimore Ravens quarterbacks coach Jim Caldwell is generating it a point to set the bar low for Joe Flacco. At least, lower than exactly where it would be if Flacco were Peyton Manning.

Caldwell coached Manning, a 4-time league MVP, for a full decade. Even though he sees a lot in Flacco that tends to make him “dangerous,” he’s not trying to make the Ravens’ starter the next Manning.

“Everybody’s different,” Caldwell told the team’s official internet site. “[Flacco] has his personal strengths, and what we want to try to do is accentuate those.

“I’m not right here to try to make him like any other quarterback in this league, like Peyton Manning or Brad Johnson or the other guys I’ve coached. That’s not my aim. He is who he is. What we want to do is just aid him perfect what he does well.”

Flacco, 27, has carried out plenty for his own resume, top the Ravens to the playoffs in each of his very first four seasons. Caldwell told the web site he’s seen growth in Flacco although preparing for him as an opponent, but the development of an NFL quarterback takes time and consistency.

“Joe’s been in a position to show it for four years. He’s continued to get greater and lead his team to the playoffs. That’s consistency,” Caldwell mentioned.

“Every when in a while you will find a quarterback that will have a single outstanding year and that’s it. Each as soon as in a although you’ll find one that has two quite great years. And that’s it for their entire profession. The folks that can string them back to back to back to back and continue, that’s what you look for in terms of consistency and performing at a extremely high level.”

Caldwell really should know. He witnessed it for ten seasons.

(About:) This write-up was distributed by Syndicated Sports news wire and aggregation service, For far more NFL news see: Ravens’ Caldwell not intent on creating Flacco the subsequent Manning.

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Nicely, the NFL nonetheless doesn’t fine for flopping.

While Jerome Simpson of the Cincinnati Bengals supplied perhaps the ideal example to date of trigger for punishment in this past Sunday’s game against the Cleveland Browns, the league confirmed Saturday to NFL.com the wide receiver was not fined.

The infamous flop took location after Simpson pulled Browns linebacker Scott Fujita, feet initial, out of a scrum during the second quarter. When Fujita got up and created slight make contact with with Simpson, the receiver launched himself backward and to the turf.

A flag was thrown and a personal foul penalty was referred to as on Fujita. That penalty, nevertheless, was offset by the private foul on Simpson for pulling Fujita from the pile of players.

(About:) This post was distributed by Syndicated Sports news wire and aggregation service, For more NFL news see: Bengals WR Simpson flops at creating punishment history.

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When I left Hilton Head Saturday morning, it had been suggested that virtually absolutely nothing could derail a new labor deal.

That attitude possibly has jinked the entire method.

Now that I’m back at PFT headquarters and catching up on the stuff I missed while driving 600 miles and stopping for a couple of meals (Florio Jr. strongly objected to waiting 35 minutes for a table at Cracker Barrel), it looks like the players opted — by way of their lawyers — to make a energy play on Saturday, some thing that the owners had feared.

As ESPN’s Chris Mortensen reported earlier today, the players want $ 320 million in advantages that weren’t paid during the uncapped year, as properly as a 1-year limit on the use of the franchise tag.  Also, if the “lockout insurance” case must be settled separately and apart from the monetary package negotiated by the league and the players, it’s probable that yet another nine-figure sum could be demanded.  And to the extent that the Brady antitrust lawsuit needs to be resolved via something much more than the contents of a new CBA, the players still could demand even more money and/or unique treatment for the named plaintiffs, such as an agreement never to use the franchise tag on any of them.

With a deal now regarded by the media and fans and players and fairly much everybody else as a foregone conclusion, the NFLPA* has by all appearances opted to go for one last residence run, possibly buoyed by the league’s choice to cave on the “right of first refusal” idea and the league’s important concession on the rookie wage scale.

In theory, if the league calls the players’ bluff — and if it ends up not getting a bluff — the whole thing could still blow up.

Given the dramatic progress that has been produced on far thornier and difficult problems, we can’t envision the talks crumbling now.  Instead, the players likely decided to roll the dice in the hopes of producing the deal a little (or, as the case may be, a lot) sweeter, and if the parties can’t function out these remaining problems on their own, then U.S. Magistrate Judge Arthur Boylan will go Alton Benes on anybody and everyone in the room.

Positive, there’s a chance that the NFLPA* lawyers are hoping that cooler heads won’t prevail, but the failure to wrap this factor up now would develop a important backlash for everyone involved.  Roger Goodell and DeMaurice Smith are in the property stretch of the ultimate three-legged race, and they’re smart enough to figure out what it takes to get to the finish line.

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The quotes seemed to be created with tongue at least partially in cheek.  But considering that we weren’t there to observe his demeanor or scrutinize his facial expressions, we deferred to the published report indicating that linebacker Willie McGinest’s comments after a lockout workout with the Lions suggested a genuine desire to make a comeback — specially since the comments appeared under a headline that proclaimed, “McGinest eyeing return to NFL.”

“We’re going to see if I get provided a contract now,” McGinest stated Friday.  “After I send this tape out to a couple of teams, we’re going to see.”

As we suspected, McGinest wasn’t serious about really returning to the NFL after two full seasons out of the game.

“Even although I looked as excellent as I did, this number 55 has been retired for three years and plans to remain retired,” McGinest said in a statement forwarded on Saturday night to PFT.  “The only factor that will bring me back is a 1-day contract with New England to retire as a Patriot.”

So there you have it.  McGinest, 39, who retired a year after Brett Favre initially did will continue to honor that retirement.  Which Brett Favre to date still hasn’t been able to do.

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Danny Woodhead successfully replaced Kevin Faulk throughout the 2010 season.  The Patriots have considering that drafted Shane Vereen and Stevan Ridley to bolster a position that also includes BenJarvus Green-Ellis.

That makes Faulk’s future with the team uncertain, but it appears he’ll get 1 more chance to make the team. Mike Reiss of ESPNBoston.com writes that “it’s challenging to imagine” Faulk won’t be re-signed when free of charge agency opens.

Bolstering Faulk’s hopes: He appeared to be recovering nicely from ACL surgery at Patriots player-only workouts this week.  Asked about his future, Faulk was succinct.

“I’m a no cost agent, but I’m a Patriot for life,” Faulk said.

Generating the team’s regular season roster may well still be a challenge, but it is hard to bet against 1 of the signature players of the Bill Belichick era in Foxborough.

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For most of the past two years, the financial divide between the NFL and the players association consisted of the NFL wanting to double its current off-the-top expense credit from billion per year to billion annually, with the players continuing to get 59.6 percent of everything beyond the first billion. At one…

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The Colts have applied the franchise tag to quarterback Peyton Manning, which based on his 2010 salary guarantees him a whopping million in 2011.  Though he’s unlikely to accept the tender offer, the amount provides the baseline for a long-term deal. Agent Tom Condon told the Associated Press at the Scouting Combine that progress…

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Colts President Bill Polian
says the team is making progress on a long-term deal with Peyton Manning before
the March 3 labor pact expires.

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