Former Notre Dame running back Julius Jones signed a free agent contract with the Seattle Seahawks Friday. The signing could mean the end of the Shaun Alexander era in Seattle and could mean more playing time for Jones who had his worst season as a pro in 2007.
Jones’ agent did not return phone messages today and the Seahawks’ policy is not to comment before contracts are signed and approved. ESPN.com reported it is a four-year agreement that will average about $3 million per season.
Jones is the second running back Seattle has signed this week. Seattle agreed to terms with T.J. Duckett on a multiyear contract earlier.
The immediate question is what this move means for Shaun Alexander, the franchise’s leading rusher who was the league MVP in 2005. Alexander has seen his rushing average decline in consecutive years and he is scheduled to make $4 million next season. (Seattle Times)
And a little more on the signing:
The obvious thought is that this signals the release of Shaun Alexander, who is coming off two injury-interrupted seasons and will turn 31 in August. But that is not necessarily the case. Not yet anyway.
Jones has been told that he will compete for the starting job, and the size of his contract does not indicate that the Seahawks are giving him the starting job. (Seattle PI)
After breaking 1,000 yards for the first time in 2006, Jones saw his role reduced with the emergence of Marion Barber in Dallas. Jones tallied just 588 yards in 2007 and found the end zone a career low 2 times.
Here’s a little YouTube fun of one of Jones’ more memorable plays in a Notre Dame uniform.
Center Jeff Faine, who once was discarded by Cleveland when the Browns signed free agent center LeCharles Bentley, surpassed Bentley as the highest-paid center in NFL history when he agreed to a six-year, $37.5 million contract with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, agent Ben Dogra confirmed.
Faine receives $15 million in guaranteed money as part of the deal and will get $20 million in the first three years of the contract. Faine, who has spent the past two seasons with New Orleans, was a first-round pick by Cleveland in 2003.
In 2006, Faine was traded to New Orleans after the Browns signed Bentley, who coincidentally had started his career with the Saints. Bentley hasn’t played a down with Cleveland since signing after tearing the patellar tendon in his right knee.
Faine has played in all but two games the past two seasons, drastically improving his durability after missing 12 games in his first three seasons with Cleveland.
The Tennessee Titans cut ties with wide receiver David Givens and tendered one-year contracts to seven restricted agents including All-Pro kicker Rob Bironas, tight end Bo Scaife and starting right tackle David Stewart.
The Titans signed Givens to a $24 million, five-year deal in 2006, but the former Patriots receiver played in only five games that season before tearing his left ACL.
Givens was the poster child for under developed by talent by the Bob Davie coaching regime, but found a home in the NFL with the Patriots before cashing in with Tennessee in 2006. Unfortunately for Givens, injuries have really derailed his career and there is a good chance his career could possibly be over.
Kick returner Allen Rossum signed with the San Francisco 49ers on Friday, joining his fifth NFL team.
Rossum, a 10-year veteran who also plays cornerback, is second in NFL history with 13,269 career return yards and 10,520 kickoff return yards. He ranks first among active players with 2,749 career punt return yards, and has seven career touchdowns, all on kick returns.
Rossum has made a very nice career for himself just by being one of the best return men in the NFL over the last decade.
The Bills re-signed a young prospect who performed admirably in last year’s preseason as punter D.J. Fitzpatrick was brought back into the fold Tuesday.
Signed last offseason as a bonus NFL Europa roster exemption, Fitzpatrick appeared in Buffalo’s first three preseason games in 2007 before he was one of three cuts to reduce Buffalo’s roster to the necessary 75 by Aug. 28 last summer.
Bills punter Brian Moorman believes Fitzpatrick has NFL ability.
“D.J. definitely has the potential to play in this league and more importantly, I think he has the mental ability and drive,” said Moorman. “I see a lot of myself in him in that he is in a very similar situation that I was in back in 1999 and 2000 with Jeff Feagles in Seattle.”
Fitzpatrick punted in Buffalo’s first three preseason games with seven kicks for 342 yards for a gross average of 48.9 and a net of 37.4. The 25-year old has a strong leg as he had at least one punt of 50 yards or more in all three games with his longest covering 58 yards against Atlanta.
Fitzpatrick punted and kicked field goals for 3 seasons for Notre Dame compiling an average of 39.9 yards/punt and connecting on 34 of 50 field goals with a career long of 50 yards. He also connected on 101 of 104 career extra point attempts. It’s nice to see DJ sign with the Bills and hopefully he can find a home in the NFL.
Former Litchfield, Minn., and Notre Dame star tight end John Carlson did well in positional drills at the NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis, as expected. Not expected, though, were 40-yard dash speeds clocked at about 4.9 seconds. Scouts figured the 6-foot-6, 250-pounder to run 4.7s. Carlson, who a year ago was projected as a first-round pick in April’s draft, now is projected as a third-round pick.
Carlson had to pull out of last month’s Senior Bowl due to an illness and its possible he was still suffering from lingering affects. The illness had caused him to drop almost 20 pounds in a little over a week, but his 40 time was still surprising.
Mike Mayock, of NFL Network, still had Carlson listed as his #1 tight end on Sunday during the telecast of the NFL Combine, but it’s likely that will change if he doesn’t run a better 40 at Notre Dame’s Pro Day. Todd McShay, however, listed Carlson, along with fellow tight end Fred Davis, as two prospects who are dropping after the combine.
Notre Dame’s Pro Day is March 12, so Carlson will have a couple weeks to work on his 40 time and hopefully run a little better for the Scouts then. Should Carlson fall to the 3rd round as the Pioneer Press reported, some NFL team is going to get a hell of a bargain.
John Carlson and John Sullivan both participated in their respective drills at the NFL Combine today and both put up some sub par numbers and could very likely have seen their draft stock drop. Both prospects stats are to the right and below are some notes on their performances compared to others at their positions.
Carlson, considered by some as the best tight end in the draft prior to the combine, could see his draft stock fall after running a 4.89 and a 4.96 in the 40 yard dash. Both times are not very impressive and even though he had an illness this off-season that resulted in him losing 20 pounds, those numbers could cause him to fall. He will need to improve on his 40 and runs something in the 4.7 range to reclaim his spot as the top tight end in the draft.
Carlson will need to run a time like that because of some impressive performances by Dustin Keller (4.53), Brad Cottam (4.68 at 270 lbs), and Kellen Davis (4.58 at 262 lbs).
Carlson did help himself out with a vertical jump of 30.5″ but Keller owned this event as well with an impressive 38″.
Both Carlson and Sullivan were in the bottom halves of their groups in the bench press drill. Carlson’s 20 was 10th best among TE’s while Sullivan’s 21 was 34th best. Last year Notre Dame’s big guys put up low numbers in the bench press as well which could say something about the strength and conditioning program at Notre Dame.
Sullivan’s vertical was 2nd best among the OL, but most of his other performances were towards the bottom of the offensive line group. His performance Saturday, combined with concerns over his snapping out of the shot gun could make a big impact on where he is selected. The talking heads on NFL Network were still high on Sullivan though and praised his athleticism.
Last year just 3 tight ends were taken on the first day of the draft, so some of these scouts fall in love with the raw athleticism of someone like Davis or Keller, it could mean a longer wait than originally expected for Carlson. Of course, that could become a moot point if Carlson performs better at Notre Dame’s Pro Day.
One thing Carlson did show Saturday, however, were some of the best hands of anyone there. While Fred Davis dropped a couple easy passes, Carlson was perfect in catching the ball and looked very smooth.
Tomorrow QBs and RBs go at the combine so there won’t be much ND related news. Trevor Laws and the other defensive linemen go Monday and Zibby and defensive backs go Tuesday.
Note: the numbers in parenthesis in the table to the right are where those numbers ranked among the other prospects at each position. All results were found at FFLiveWire.com.
Here we are, less than 24 hours from National Signing Day. Coach Charlie Weis is on the verge of landing arguably Notre Dame’s best recruiting class since 1991. Meanwhile, the Urban Meyers of the world are still hustling to blow that last bit of smoke up some kid’s ass about how ND is irrelevant and doesn’t prepare him for the next level.
I’m assuming most high school recruits have televisions. I’m also assuming most high school recruits watched the NFL playoffs this past month. But for those who might have missed it, allow me to recap…
AFC Wild Card Round, Jacksonville Jaguars vs. Pittsburgh Steelers:
Two-time Jaguars’ Pro Bowler John Henderson is knocked out of the game on the first series. Derek Landri, a 4th-round pick out of Notre Dame, replaces Henderson at defensive tackle. After throwing the critical block on special teams that sets up a 96-yard kickoff return by Maurice Jones-Drew, Landri goes on to register a sack, an interception, and the game-winning fumble recovery
NFC Divisional Round, Seattle Seahawks vs. Green Bay Packers:
Notre Dame alum Ryan Grant rushes for 201 yards and 3 touchdowns, both of which set franchise records for Packers’ post-season games. In a driving snowstorm, with the ghosts of Lambeau looking down upon him, Grant manages a near-superhuman 7.4 yards-per-carry. Grant’s playoff effort caps a 3-month/11-game stretch in which he averages 114 yards from the line of scrimmage per-game, second in the league to only LaDainian Tomlinson.
Super Bowl XLII, New York Giants vs. New England Patriots:
Former ND defensive end Justin Tuck, recently re-signed by the Giants to a 5-year/$30 million deal, makes his case for Super Bowl MVP. Facing the greatest offense in NFL history and a Patriots o-line that’s sending three of its five starters to the Pro Bowl, Tuck accounts for two sacks, two hurries, and a fumble. His performance inspires a Giants defense that will eventually sack, knock down, or hurry Tom Brady an almost obscene 23 times.
Three Notre Dame players.
Three Notre Dame graduates.
Three MVP-caliber performances on the biggest stage in all of professional sports.
Notre Dame isn’t relevant? Justin Tuck has a Super Bowl ring and a college degree that can get him in the door with most Fortune 500 companies. How much more relevant can a university be to a high school student-athlete’s future?
Julius Jones had just run wild on the 15th-ranked Pitt Panthers defense, calling to mind the earlier game in September when he had almost singlehandedly orchestrated a comeback win against Washington State. I turned to a friend who was watching the game with me and said, “Why the hell is Ryan Grant even on scholarship, let alone starting over Julius?”
Truth be told, Ryan Grant didn’t have the greatest career at Notre Dame. Yes, he was the consummate team player and had to deal with some nagging injuries. But there always seemed to be something lacking with his game. He didn’t have breakaway speed, he ran with his head down, he was a little on the lanky side, etc.
The NFL Scouts agreed with this assessment. Although Grant graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a double major in Sociology and Computer Science, a notable accomplishment in its own right, his not-quite-heralded entree into the NFL began as a member of the New York Giants’ practice squad.
In a freak accident, Grant slipped on a wet nightclub floor during a party in early 2006, his left arm crashing though a glass table. Grant almost bled to death. According to his agent, Alan Herman, Grant made it to the hospital just in the nick of time. Herman said that first there was some doubt about whether Grant would live, then came the worry that he would never play football again because he would lose feeling in his hand.
“I was bleeding profusely,” Grant said. “I severed my artery, nerve and tendon. For a while after my injury, I could not move my hand. The bleeding was so bad that stitches were not enough. I needed surgery.”
Grant was placed on injured reserve for the duration of the 2006 season. In the span of less than three years he had gone from starting tailback for the University of Notre Dame to a one-armed assistant coach for a high school football team in Jersey.
By the end of the 2006 season the Giants had seen enough. They traded Ryan Grant to the Packers for a future 6th-round draft pick.
That’s when things got interesting.
By the middle of the 2007 season injuries had depleted the Packers’ depth at tailback. On October 29, in front of a “Monday Night Football” national television audience, Ryan Grant would play his first game as the starting tailback for Green Bay. 104 yards later, ESPN was saying, “Who is Ryan Grant?”
They would soon have their answer, as Grant ran for 100 or more yards in five of his ten NFL starts and produced more yards rushing in the second half of the season than everyone but San Diego’s LaDainian Tomlinson. Just how good was Grant’s stretch run? Sports Illustrated currently has Ryant Grant projected as its #10 pick in the 2008 Fantasy Draft.
But on Saturday, January 12, 2008, the doubters were back. The breakout player of the year’s magical regular season had just been erased in the span of 69 seconds. Make that 69 seconds, two touches, two fumbles, two Seahawks’ touchdowns. The Packers were down 14-0 early in the first quarter, and Ryan Gra
As the 2007-08 college football season concluded earlier this week, heads now turn to the Senior Bowl and Shrine Bowl as college seniors prepare for the 2008 NFL Draft. A quick look over to the index of NFL rosters, there are a handful of teams in the NCAA who consistently recruit, develop and produce the type of athletes good enough to play in the league.
The Elite Nine
The following are the elite nine (number of players in the league): Miami (50), Ohio State (48), Georgia (47), Florida State (44), Michigan (43), Tennessee (40), Notre Dame (39), Florida (38) and LSU (35).
Note: To be clear, in no way am I trying to make or prove a point. The data contained within is for informative purposes only. Why did I pick 35 as the base number to be considered part of the elite? No particular reason other than it is a nice, round number and to help keep the number of teams in the elite below ten. And for full disclosure, there were five teams who barely missed the cut: Auburn (34), Texas (33), Southern Cal (31), Cal (30) and Penn State (30).
More than 20% of all NFL rosters
The Elite Nine football programs account for 20% of the entire NFL roster. In the Elite Nine, affiliation includes four SEC teams, two Big Ten, two ACC and one Independent.
BCS Conference Supremacy
Taking a look and including every team from every BCS conference, the breakdown is predictably dominated by the SEC (313), followed by the Big Ten (280), ACC (281), Pacific Ten (220), Big 12 (208) and finally the Big East (107). The Big Ten was listed before the ACC because they have one fewer team in the conference and only one fewer player in the league. Advantage Big Ten.
The Weakest Links
The weakest conferences are clearly the Big 12 and the Big East. Even with fewer conference teams than the Big 12, the Big Ten and Pacific Ten have a decided advantage in NFL players. As for the eight team Big East, they send less than three players to the league for every one that Notre Dame sends.
Team & Conference Notes of Interest
Historic Big 12 superpowers Oklahoma and Nebraska both have fewer than 30 players in the NFL.The SEC’s big four (Georgia, Tennessee, Florida, LSU) have more players in the NFL (160) than the rest of the eight conference members combined (153).
The Big 10 and Pacific 10 are the only conferences with every member sending double digit products to the NFL.
Duke, Connecticut, South Florida, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa State, Kentucky and Vanderbilt all have fewer than ten players each in the league.
Completely Unacceptable
Navy has two players in the pros. Air Force has one. Army has zero. There is absolutely no excuse for the Irish to ever lose to Navy. Air Force and Army should remain off Notre Dame’s schedule…forever.
And finally, a piece of useless trivia encountered while conducting research. Brady Quinn is the only player in the NFL who shares the first letter of his last name with nobody.
Well that is the data and with very little opinion contributed. I encourage everybody to use the comments section so you can take the data and form your own opinions in a discussion with other fans.
After the breakout performance of his very young NFL career last weekend, former Notre Dame DT Derek Landri has been getting some serious props in the national media. Against the Steelers last weekend, Landri recorded a sack, an interception, and the game clinching fumble recovery while filling in for the injured John Henderson.
The playoffs also are about instant heroes. Most of the time, though, we spend so much energy examining every titillating angle of failure — who blew what call, who choked, who cheated, who got busted, who got burned, who’s about to get fired — that we don’t leave time to celebrate the subtle, cool stuff. Like a 288-pound surfing kid from California who double-majored in history and computer applications at Notre Dame snagging his first interception since high school.
No, seriously, I really want you to stop and think about it. Close your office door. Stop Googling Angelina-Jolie-in-training-Rachel Bilson. Put that stupid robotic thing in your ear in your desk drawer. Now, consider this: In a physical matchup in the cold and mud of Heinz Field, the visiting team’s two-time Pro Bowl defensive lineman goes down with a strained hammy in the first quarter, and the rook who replaces him gets the first sack, the first pick and the first fumble recovery of his career (to end the game, no less). And for the icing on the cake, he draws the holding call that ruins the Steelers’ first crucial two-point conversion attempt. Oh wait, I also forgot: he was in the middle of the kickoff return wedge that sprung Maurice Jones-Drew’s team record 96-yard return. That’s what Big Black would call just doing some work, son. “Derek’s doing a great job,” Jags coach Jack Del Rio said in December. “He’s not real big like the other guys we have, and we have some real monsters in there. [But] he is active, super intelligent, very disruptive and a nice change-of-pace guy for us.”
Landri’s biggest fan on the Jags, former high school teammate Maurice Jones-Drew, also had some great things to say about his former and now current teammate.
The real work always begins once your dreams actually come true. And this time, Landri made it only about 9 feet with the ball. There to greet him at the end of the play was Jones-Drew, Landri’s buddy and teammate since their days at national prep powerhouse De La Salle High School in Concord, Cali. Landri started on the offensive and defensive lines and was a Parade All-American, but Jones-Drew mostly remembers the big left tackle who always was begging to get his hand on the ball.
I’ll just let MJD pick it up from here: “At the end of my junior year, he kept coming up to me going, ‘If you break a long run, I’ll be right behind you, right behind you, I promise, and I want you to pitch me the ball so I can take it into the end zone.’
“So, I do break a run, and it’s the longest one of the year, 80-95 yards, and I’m thinking, ‘No way he’ll be back there,’ but there he is, running and chugging along as hard as he can. Now I’m in a bind because I don’t want to give away the longest run in school history. So I ended up keeping it. Boy, he cussed me out and pushed me around pretty good after that. So the next game, I kinda purposefully fumbled the ball to him, and he picked it up, and I really thought he might score with it. But he got tackled at the 1-yard line.
Brady Quinn entered to a standing ovation from the home crowd and made his debut for the Cleveland Browns Sunday, playing one series while Derek Anderson was sidelined with a hand injury. Quinn played for only one series, the Browns final possession of the first half. He was 3-8, for 45 yards.
Quinn’s first pass was tipped at the line and fell short of his intended receiver. His second pass was also short, but could have been caught if the running back was able to make a good play. Quinn then completed his next three passes for 15, 12 and 18 - all for first downs. With first and goal from the 49ers six yard line, Quinn passed three times. His first was thrown away to the right corner after good coverage negated a fade route. He threw a strike to Braylon Edwards in the back of the endzone. The pass went through Edwards hands as the combination of excellent coverage with a possible drop negated Quinn’s first opportunity at a touchdown. On third and goal, Quinn found Kellen Winslow Jr. wide open in the short center of the endzone, but his pass bounced off Winslow’s chest as Brady’s final chance at his first career touchdown pass, instead lead to a field goal by Phil Dawson.
In a postgame interview that can be viewed on the Browns multimedia site, Quinn was asked if he was disappointed only being in for one series. Quinn again showed the maturity of a team player that has been raved about by Cleveland teammates and columnists alike.
I’ve said this all year long. Every quarterback wants to be in there as much as possible until the end of a game. Of course going in there for one series was a little bit of a tease, but it was great just to get in there and have the experience. It keeps you hungry.
The Browns defeated the 49ers 20-7 to finish a 10-6 season. They missed the playoffs when the Titans beat the Colts late Sunday.
After the game, CBS cameras caught a midfield embrace between former Irish players Quinn (Browns QB), Arnaz Battle (49ers WR) and Bryant Young (49ers DT). Young had played the final game of his 14 year career.
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