My number one draft prediction

This is going to be a little bit different this year as the players and owners will be duking it out over the collective bargaining agreement, but lately it has been set in stone.  A quarterback will be the number one draft pick, regardless if he deserves to be or not.  There is too much money on the line to take a gamble on any position other than quarterback.  Charlie Casserly, made a great move taking Mario Williams a few years back ahead of Reggie Bush and Vince Young, only to be destroyed by analysts.  Eventually he turned out to be the much better choice and Casserly was never really given credit for standing tall  with his choice.
Even though the last couple of years, it is always reported that some other freak of nature will take over if there is no clear cut quarterback, the number one spot always comes back to quarterback.  Last  year, every mock draft had Ndamukong Suh, which in my eyes deserved to be there but the finances don't justify taking a gamble on anything other than the QB spot.  So far it worked out as Sam Bradford will most likely be rookie of the year after taking a 1-15 team a year earlier to within a game of a division championship.  So get ready for everybody talking about Nick Fairley, defensive tackle from Auburn or Patrick Peterson, a defensive back from LSU as the number one pick.  These poor schmucks will have their ego stroked only to fall to number 2 or 3 or wherever so as to allow some quarterback most likely Blaine Gabbert from Missouri to eventually take the number one spot.  People will make cases for Cam Newton I am sure, even though in my opinion he should be a late first round if not second round choice.  I don't like his mechanics and he reminds of Vince Young too much.  Young is not bad, but not good enough to take anybody to the promised land.  So bring on the herd to tout whatever quarterback everybody else is talking about and Mel Kiper's perfectly coiffed hair and let's all enjoy the ride as mark it down a quarterback that most people have probably not heard of will become the number one draft pick.

Has Jason Garrett sent Jeff Fisher a Fruit Basket Yet?

Former Tennessee Titan
coach Jeff Fisher

I know I am always picking on Jason Garrett, but I do think he is a decent coach.  I would like him to get a few more years and a little bit more success before he gets a job like the Dallas Cowboys.  We saw this before as Wade Phillips was great until he wasn't about a year later.  Really look into see what Garrett has done and you will realize he is not ready for that job.  Anyway, the point of the blog is that he should send Jeff Fisher a fruit basket, since he decided to wait until there were no jobs left before finally leaving the Titans head coaching position.  Fisher is a top five coach and would have easily landed a job, but maybe that was the point and he wanted to take a year off.  It was very strange to watch the Fisher saga unfold as the only way to explain it, is that he did want the time off.  Well, good luck to Gary Kubiak who will be on the hot seat as I can see Fisher going back where he started if Kubes doesn't pick it up this time around.

I am beginning to Respect Wes Welker again

You broke my heart Wes

Let me clarify a couple of things because I know this might sound strange.  When New England signed Wes Welker in 2007, they also signed another wide receiver you might have heard of him, Randy Moss.  Living in Boston, I was often criticized for stating that an unknown guy name Wes Welker was the bigger pickup for us.  Welker was my type of guy as he was a tough little guy that had great hands and made the big guys look stupid, which for the most part describes my playing style except I am fifty levels below him as I do it playing flag football and have him beat by 5 knee surgeries to 1.    You could say I had a mancrush and after a few years in New England people how great he was.  Wouldn't you know it I didn't look that crazy for saying what I said a few years earlier.  Anyway, me and Wes broke up as we were both at Shrine for the MGM grand opening at Mohegan Sun and dude acted like a total d-bag.  Don't get me wrong, I am not a star f***er and it wasn't like everybody was all over him and in fact I don't think anybody even noticed him as he wore jeans, boots and a John Deere hat to a formal event, which was probably the only thing that got him noticed.  He was pissed that I had asked to get a picture, which didn't even come out good and we never asked for the second.  I was done with him forever.
Here we are after he stated a couple of funny foot references, which I thought was dumb, at a press conference.  He goes out and drops a couple of key throws in the playoff game against the Jets.  Now he does something I was pretty surprised about, he admitted what he did in public and didn't try to hide it, which he probably could have.  He is also in the news stating that he doesn't deserve an extension after a pretty good year for most receivers.  This is a breath of fresh air, maybe not for the agent, but for the rest of us.  At any rate, Welker could be climbing back into my heart.

Chad Henne to Remain Starter?

What will this upcoming
season bring for Henne

Here is one of those instances where I have been wrong, but I hope to still be right eventually.  I was a big fan of the Miami Dolphins quarterback, Chad Henne when he was a Michigan Wolverine.  He was my favorite quarterback coming out of the draft and when he finally was given the chance to start I thought the stars would align.  Since he has become the starter, he has not been consistent enough even though he has a great defense behind him as well as a great left tackle in Jake long, who also was his tackle in college.  This year he was given a great wide receiver in Brandon Marshall along with some solid ones in Brian Hartline and Davone Bess.  To top it off he has Ricky Williams and Ronnie Brown as his running backs as well a solid tight end in Anthony Fasano.  The Dolphins have acquired Brian Daboll as the new offensive coordinator and at this point will give Henne another chance.  I hope that I am wrong as I don't see anything to make me think he can get it done as his decision making has been terrible, which later in the season made him gun shy.  Good luck to you Chad Henne because if not you could be on the Matt Leinart train to backup for life duty.  Hope you are listening Jimmy Clausen, I liked you a lot too.

Uconn Booster more of a Control Freak

Although, most of the time I write about pro football, there is an article about a Uconn booster that is upset because he was not asked to help in the process of choosing a head coach.  If anybody cares they have chose Paul Pasqualoni, who has been a long time head coach in college and has spent the last 5 years as a defensive assistant with the Dolphins and Cowboys.   Anyway,  the guy has wrote a letter demanding the money he has given the program, will not advertise, not pay for the luxury box and so on and so on.  Does anybody else find this to be a problem?  This guy was probably given access at some point because he gives money, which has led to this predicament.  He states how bad of an athletic director Jeff Hathaway is, which has been part of the problem.  Now, I don't really know much about the guy, but we are talking about Uconn, which is in the boondocks.  They just had a women's basketball team that broke the record for consecutive wins, the men's team has won a championship and the football team that was started about a decade ago just won the big east for the first time.  It seems that this guys knows what he is doing despite crybaby booster is spewing out to the media.  Just saying.

Woodson not as Good as Advertised

This obviously sounds a little bit ludicrous, but is Charles Woodson really as good as the media leads us to believe.  Full disclosure, Woodson was a great and still a good player.  He is a borderline hall of famer as he was hit with the injury bug early on and had some great years and then some unnoticeable ones.  He did a very good job last year, but giving him the defensive player of the year over Darrelle Revis of the Jets was an egregious mistake.  Revis constantly shut down whoever was put in front of him where Woodson, who had a great last year statistically, was able to play a lot more flat coverage and was not following receivers all over the place.  He still makes some plays as he is very smart, but I wouldn't put him on a number one receiver and apparently the Packers agree with me as they leave the big boy coverage to Rookie Sam Shields and newcomer Tramon Williams who are playing as good as anybody right now.  The truth is depending on what they decide to do with Al Harris, a move to safety might be a good move for Woodson who can lengthen his career and instantly be one of the better ones in the league.  Woodson is incredibly intelligent when it comes to the game and they could use that back there to help out these young guys.

Mendenhall in Big Trouble if Pouncey can't go

Will Rodgers be celebrating in
two weeks, we wonder

Rashard Mendenhall, coming off one of the biggest games of his career could be in a world of hurt if his center Maurkice Pouncey can't go in the Super Bowl.  BJ Raji is a monster that will eat up any backup center in the NFL.  This will now lead to spending one of your guards on an every down double team to stop Raji, which will leave a very good Green Bay Packer defense with a huge advantage.  This makes the Packers a clear favorite in this game.  The x factor will be Aaron Rodgers, who in my eyes historically does not win these big games and even with a good size lead he comes out with a flat second half, leaving his defense to do the dirty work, which have been more than up to the task.  Problem is you have Ben Roethlisberger on the other side, who has a lot of experience in big games and is a proven winner.  It should be a good game nonetheless.