Football Picks

It seems that Eric Mangini might be cleaning house since the only thing we keep hearing out of Cleveland is trade rumors and primetime players going elsewhere.

First it was tight end Kellen Winslow Jr going to Tampa Bay. There goes one of the best tight ends in the league. Second was all the trade rumors involving Jay Cutler. They missed out on the Pro Bowler. Now we are hearing that Braylon Edwards is headed to the New York Giants and Brady Quinn could be a San Francisco 49er.

First of all, both these players would fit perfectly in San Francisco and New York. The problem is I don't see anything going back to Cleveland. Brady Quinn would look good in San Fran and Edwards would be a good replacement for Plaxico Burress for Eli Manning, but what will the Browns get in return?

Who knows, but it looks like both these moves are very possible and on the verge of happening.

Not sure the reasoning behind it, but it seems that Matt Stafford, the quarterback every team seems to want in the upcoming NFL Draft, has fallen out of favor with some of the teams in the draft that are looking at getting a quarterback.

There are only really three teams with high picks in the NFL draft this season that would like to grab a quarterback. One is the San Francisco 49ers who would like California boy Mark Sanchez, another is the Seattle Seahawks who would also like Sanchez and finall there is the Detroit Lions who will take anyone at quarterback.

The first team to lose interest was the 49ers and now the Seahawks, so who knows where the kid will land, but he will go somewhere.

No one would argue that Terrell Owens is one of the best wide receivers in the NFL today. TO might not be the player he was say even two years ago, but even a TO with declining skills is better than 80% of the receivers in the league.

The big question now after TO was released from the Dallas Cowboys and quickly signed with the Buffalo Bills is if the risk is worth the reward?

In my opinion, probably not. There is no doubt that if the loud mouth receiver is happy in Buffalo then yes he will drastically improve the Bills on offense, but the second he starts whinning like a little girl on the sidelines because he isn't the getting the football then things could turn out just like it has in San Francisco, Philadelphia and Dallas.

One thing that we have learned in history is that it tends to repeat itself and the TO situation is no different. He isn't a team player and he is only out for himself. TO definitely improved the 49ers, helped the Eagles get to the Super Bowl and helped make the Dallas offense into one of the best in the league, but it always ends the same way with bad blood.

Trent Edwards is a great up and coming quarterback, Marshawn Lynch is a solid running back and Lee Evans is a great compliment to TO, but he isn't work the risk in my opinion.

Kurt Warner may have landed a big deal to return to the Arizona Cardinals and Jon Kitna decided to back up Tony Romo in Dallas, but there are still quite a few good free agent quarterbacks out there looking to find a job.

The best of the rest would have to be Byron Leftwich who won a Super Bowl with the Steelers last season and is trying to get a starting job instead of backing up Big Ben in Pittsburgh. Next quarterback on the list is Jeff Garcia who has played well over the past couple of seasons with Philadelphia and Tampa Bay, but just can't manage to stay with a team for longer than a single season.

After Garcia the talent drops considerably, but there are some quarterbacks in there that could revitalize their career with a new team.

One player that I think sticks out amongst the rest is Kyle Boller from the Baltimore Ravens. While with the Ravens for the past six seasons Boller has had the opportunity to be the franchise quarterback, but he never really had the line or receivers to make it happen and pretty much to the blame for the Ravens lack of offense.

All three of these quarterbacks could drastically change the look of a struggling offense next season.

It is no surprise that after LaDainian Tomlinson sat out the majority of yet another playoff game last season due to another injury and back up Darren Sproles turned into a feature back virtually overnight that the San Diego Chargers had second thoughts about their franchise running back.

It was only a couple of seasons ago when LT was basically crowned the best running back all time, but after two disappointing seasons with injury, LT no longer seems like the same player.

Rumor has it that LT might take the high road and decide to play with a another team if Sproles becomes the feature back in San Diego.

Unlike former MVP running back Shaun Alexander, LT would be a hot commodity on the open market. The one team that keeps getting mentioned in trying to get LT has been the New Orleans Saints.

It has been no secret over the last few years that the Saints have had some major problems at the running back position. Both Reggie Bush and Deuce McAllister have been great backs when they are healthy, but they are just never heathly on a consistent basis. LT has had his share of injury problems as well, but the Saints would be crazy to pass on LT if they get the chance.

Who would have ever thought this would have been considered after Jay Cutler had his best season as a pro?

The answer: NOBODY!

The only reason this was even a possibility was because of new Denver Broncos head coach Josh McDaniels relationship with quarterback Matt Cassel. The backup quarterback who did a pretty damn good job of taking over the position for the entire season in place of arguably the best quareterback to ever play the game in Tom Brady was just recently shipped to Kansas City, but there were some deals flying around before the move was ultimately made.

The one deal that is causing a real problem in Denver is Jay Cutler going to the Tampa Bay Bucs in a three way deal which would send Cassel to the Broncos.

Once Cutler heard about this deal that was in the works he felt betrayed by the Broncos franchise and has already expressed interest to be traded elsewhere because of it.

At only 25 years old, Cutler is one of the most promising young quarterbacks in this league today. The Broncos may have had a disappointing season in terms of expectations because of their hot start and poor finish, but besides the defense the team was going in the right direction due mainly to Cutler's success in the offense.

First Mike Shanahan got the boot, which may have been warranted, but getting rid of Cutler just seemed like a stupid move by a new head coach trying replace a Denver legend in Shanahan.

Who knows what will come about because of this, but one thing is for certain, McDaniels career in Denver has already gotten off to a very rocky start.

Although the season has begun and the NFL Draft is still a ways down the road people are already talking about who will be Super Bowl champions next season.

Obviously the Pittsburgh Steelers will be in the top three teams in the running for a repeat title, they are not the team favored to go the distance.

The NFC is wide open with a lot of possibilities and changes going into next season. The Cowboys future is up in the air with TO's future unknown and the possibility of adding defensive heavyweights Juluis Peppers and Ray Lewis. The New York Giants showed that they really struggled without Plaxico Burress and the Philadelphia Eagles might make some changes at quarterback and head coach.

The AFC on the other hand has some teams like the San Diego Chargers looking to make some big changes by cutting ties with LaDainian Tomlinson and the Denver Broncos giving Mike Shanahan the boot. Even the Oakland Raiders could be a playoff team next season with the right draft pick.

The team people are saying the will be the Super Bowl champs next season is the New England Patriots. Big Surprise right? With Tom Brady at a 100% and a Pro Bowl back up like Matt Cassell the Patriots have never looked better. Will they do it? Maybe, depending on Brady's recovery, but I would say things look promising.

 It is becoming more and more apparent that Anquan Boldin will not be in a Arizona Cardinals jersey next season. Things just don't seem to be working out and honestly, I think he wants to be the number one go to guy and not live in Larry Fitzgerald's shadow.

In a way, I can't blame him. He is as talented as they come at wide receiver and does deserve to be paid and get the recognition. If he does stay in Arizona, the Cards will have a chance to be contenders for quite some time, but he will never be as big as Fitzgerald.

With a lot of NFL teams on the look out for a big time wide receiver like Boldin he will have plenty of teams knocking down his door begging him to sign with them this off season. The question is where will he go?

Here are a list of teams that he be perfect for: Oakland Raiders, San Diego Chargers, New York Jets, New York Giants, Kansas City Chiefs, 49ers, etc...

List goes on and on, but he will definitely find a home and a big contract.

After the big game all sorts of questions start to get asked, usually it is about key players futures on the two teams played in the Super Bowl.

This season the Arizona Cardinals will be getting the bulk of the questions with some players future in doubt. The first question will be whether or not Kurt Warner will be back for another season. If you saw the Super Bowl then you know that Warner is still one of the best quarterbacks in this league and was arguably the real MVP this season. The problem is that Warner is father to seven kids, yeah, seven kids. With that many kids to take care of an absent father does not go unnoticed no matter how much money he is bringing in.

The Cardinals are prepared to offer Warner a two year contract worth about $9 million a year which would be very tempting for the future hall of fame quarterback. Not only are the Cardinals interested, but there are plenty of other teams in the league that would like to have Warner playing for them like the Chicago Bears, Detroit Lions and any other team dying for a MVP type quarterback.

Another big question will be the future of wide receiver Anquan Boldin. With Boldin and Larry Fitzgerald as the Cardinals wide outs Arizona will have the best young receiving core for quite some time, but since Fitzgerald has gotten the bulk of the credit and the money for Arizona's success Boldin may be looking to move on. Fitzgerald has said he was willing to restructure his $40 million dollar contract to keep Boldin, but I get the feeling that Anquan wants to be the number one guy like all wide receivers seem to.

So from here on out the Cardinals have a lot to do to keep this team in tact. Will Kurt Warner stay? Who knows, but with the way he is still playing and the money he will get it will be pretty damn hard to pass it up.

Picking a winner in the Super Bowl is never easy. Sometimes there are heavy favorites and sometimes there dead even match ups, but with two weeks for media to completely disect what will happen on Super Bowl Sunday the outcome never seems clear cut.

The Pittsburgh Steelers are a seven point favorite as of right now to beat the Arizona Cardinals. Will the spread change before kick off? Probably, but not by much. One of the deciding factors in a spread change could be the health of two premiere wide receivers in Anquan Boldin of the Cardinals and Hines Ward for the Steelers.

Although Hines Ward isn't the caliber of receiver that Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin are he can still be a game changer. In fact, if it weren't for Ward's touchdown in the Steelers Super Bowl win a few years ago the Seahawks may have gotten the best of Pittsburgh.

At any given moment Anquan Boldin can change a game, he is still as strong they come at the position and can go deep anytime during the football game like he did against the Carolina Panthers for 71 yards and a touchdown. Larry Fitzgerald on the other hand will be key for the Cardinals.

When you think of all-time greats at wide receiver only  few names come to mind like Randy Moss, Steve Largent and at the top of the list Jerry Rice. Even in today's game there are receivers that when it is all said and done could be considered some of the best of all-time like the Cowboys Terrell Owens, Houston's Andre Johnson and Steve Smith from Carolina, but only one can say he is the all-time leading wide receiver for receiving yards in a post season and that is Larry Fitzgerald.

Not even playing in the Super Bowl yet Larry Fitzgerald has already passed the all-time receiving yards mark with 419 yards in just three games passing Jerry Rice's previous record. Now that is saying something!

The Steelers may have the most dominant defense in the league, but the Cardinals definitely have the offensive weapons to compete. With Kurt Warner playing at his level maybe ever and Larry Fitzgerald virtually rewriting the history books with every game he plays, Arizona has a fighting chance going into Super Bowl XLIII.