Latest News Updates

Madden ’13 will include ‘Tebowing’ (Shutdown Corner)

Forget the new schemes and routes, the advanced player modeling, and the always-impressive realism of the Madden game. The question you've all been asking has now officially been answered: Will we be able to "Tebow" as we're playing Madden '13, which will be released on August 28? The answer, apparently, is an affirmative "yes." If you choose to celebrate a great play by getting on one knee as the Jets' quarterback does, you'll be able to do so in a virtual sense. Michael Young, the Creative Director and Sports Photographer for the Madden game franchise, let the cat out on Twitter: That's all well and good, but here's our question: Where are the other celebrations? Where's Steve Smith's little rowboat end zone thing, or Chad Ochocinco's Riverdance? Moreover, why doesn't the NFL have a problem with this, as paranoid as they are about their players expressing themselves no matter the circumstances? What we do not know is if other players will be Tebowing in the game, or whether the gesture will be the sole province of the man himself. As the Denver Broncos' starting quarterback over the second half of the 2011 season, Tebow got to run that namesake move quite often as he helped the Broncos to an unexpected playoff win over the Pittsburgh Steelers. The move then caught on across the country, in some truly bizarre ways.

 

AFC East players in the crosshairs (Pro Football Weekly)

As training camp approaches, we take a look at the players on each team who will be most heavily scrutinized. The list contains a fair amount of quarterbacks — no stunner there — but we tried to highlight as many non-QBs as we could. The players highlighted range from rookies to veterans with 10 or more years of experience.

 

Deep Posts: Winslow not wanted in Tampa Bay? (Shutdown Corner)

Winslow not wanted in Tampa Bay? Ross Tucker of SIRIUS NFL Radio broke the news on his Twitter account this morning -- while hosting his show and talking to guest Kellen Winslow, Jr., it was revealed that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers under new head coach Greg Schiano want to go in a different direction, and are looking to trade the veteran tight end. Winslow said that he got the news Saturday night -- the Bucs will look to trade him to the right team, and if that doesn't work out (which it won't now ... public knowledge tends to kill trade value), he may be released. Winslow had one of his best seasons in 2010 , but declined along with the rest of Tampa Bay's offense in 2011. Schiano may prefer more traditional blocking tight ends in what projects to be a run-heavy offense. He also said that the team was unhappy about his choice to work away from the facility this offseason. Oh, look! It's the curl/flat again... Our buddy Chris Brown over at the indispensable Smart Football site has a brilliant article up today on the relatively simple passing concepts put together by the Indianapolis Colts of the Peyton Manning/Tom Moore era, and why they were so tough to stop despite the fact that the playbook was relatively simple and predictable (especially from a formation concept; the Colts were the ultimate three-WR/one-back team through most of the 2000s). Great read, as is most of Chris' stuff. If you want to get more into the schematic aspects of the game, check out his new book here . The real value of minicamps. Matt Bowen at the National Football Post writes about the true meaning of OTAs -- despite what many think, it's less about finding sleeper prospects and more about getting back in shape and up to speed. For rookies, the real secret to those first "voluntary/mandatory" sessions is the ability to start real playbook install. In my opinion, it will be interesting to see if any second-year players will see ancillary benefits from this, as they were prevented from early install by the 2011 lockout.

 

Wallace, DeCastro, Adams to miss Steelers' OTAs (Pro Football Weekly)

Three key Steelers will be missing when the team kicks off its offseason team activities on Tuesday, according to a report in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Sunday.

 

Mike Wallace: Likely to Skip OTA's (Rotowire.com)

Update: Wallace is not expected to be in attendance when Steelers' OTAs start on Tuesday, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports.

 

Denver Broncos Should Sign Ryan Clady to Long-Term Deal: Fan's Take (Yahoo! Contributor Network)

The Denver Broncos are looking to sign starting left tackle Ryan Clady to a long-term contract extension. Negotiations have just begun, and I would expect Clady to ultimately get paid like a top-10 left tackle. I believe he's worth it, and the Broncos need him to protect Peyton Manning's blind side for the next few years (and hopefully more).

 

Pasquarelli: Pittsburgh completes overdue overhaul of O-line (The SportsXchange)

With quarterback Ben Roethlisberger now 30, and the team's most valuable player sacked an average of 43.5 times over the last six seasons -- including 40 or more sacks in all but one of those campaigns, and coming off an ankle injury last year -- Pittsburgh has drastically retooled its blocking unit.

 

The Shutdown Corner Podcast: Greg Cosell on the 2012 AFC North Draft (Shutdown Corner)

With the draft over and all wrapped up, we thought it would be a good idea to get back on the phone with our buddy Greg Cosell of NFL Films and ESPN's "NFL Matchup," and talk about the NFL by division. Who did themselves the most favors in the draft, and who came up short when addressing their roster deficits? The Shutdown Corner Podcast Greg Cosell on the NFC West draft We started off with the NFC West last week , and we now move to the hyper-competitive AFC North. Appropriate, given Greg's recent post on the NFL Films Blog praising the Cincinnati Bengals' draft strategy . With that in mind, we asked Greg what he thought the Bengals, Baltimore Ravens, Cleveland Browns and Pittsburgh Steelers did to bolster their teams. Related: [Cosell on  quarterbacks ,  running backs/wide receivers ,  tight ends/offensive line ,  OLB/DE/DT stars , the ILB/DB class , and overall draft review ] Baltimore Ravens OLB Courtney Upshaw, and how he'll be tasked to replace Terrell Suggs: "The Ravens are very versatile with their fronts. Suggs would line up in two-point and three-point stances. He played a number of different positions and alignments -- that's what the Ravens do, and Upshaw fits that role. I don't think anybody's going to say that he's going to do what Suggs has done for a number of years -- Suggs is a pretty damned good player -- but the way Upshaw plays, I think he could eventually become similar to that guy." Cincinnati Bengals OG Kevin Zeitler: "I seem to be in the minority here, and we'll never know how the Bengals felt because David DeCastro was gone when they picked, but I thought Zeitler was a little more complete than DeCastro -- I thought he was a better athlete. I thought he had more scheme-versatility, and he fits very well in a zone run game. I'm not sure DeCastro does. Now, DeCastro fits in the power run game better; that's what he did at Stanford. But given what the Bengals want their guards to do, I think Zeitler was the better choice, and would have been the better choice had DeCastro been available." The Shutdown Corner Podcast: Greg Cosell on the 2012 AFC North Draft The Cleveland Browns' first-round selections of Trent Richardson and Brandon Weeden: "Theoretically, you could look at it this way -- they ended up with Richardson and Weeden instead of Ryan Tannehill and Doug Martin. And I think Richardson/Weeden is the better combination ... in fact, I don't think, I know. Richardson, we don't need to discuss ... I thought he was the best player in this draft. Weeden has some concerns. He was the best pure pocket passer in this draft, but he's got meaningful and troublesome issues with pressure. That's a serious red flag when you transition to the NFL."

 

Steelers' Dwyer trying to break through (Pro Football Weekly)

In the 2010 draft, the Steelers liked Jonathan Dwyer enough to take him seven picks before Antonio Brown. Brown, a sixth-rounder like Dwyer, has become one of the keys to the Steelers’ offense, a formidable receiving threat opposite Mike Wallace. He’s also a Pro Bowl kick returner.

 

Cowher joins campaign to educate about melanoma (The Associated Press)

NEW YORK (AP) Bill Cowher wants to teach men about melanoma, a disease whose ravages he knows all too well.