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More fallout from â??Flopgateâ?? â?? players say itâ??s just part of the gameThe Shutdown Scouting Report, Week 3: Houston Texans at New Orleans SaintsPolice arrest man suspected of impersonating Vince YoungPete Carroll angrily refutes report of friction in Seahawksâ?? front officeTony Romoâ??s vest will stop bullets, linebackers and baseball batsFormer offensive tackle Orlando Brown found dead at 40Get ready for a lot of Indianapolis in primetimeBrett Favre is coming back â?¦ as a college football announcerNFL players: Tom Bradyâ??s the guy to build aroundKevin Boss on teammate Denarius Moore: â??Might be the best rookie player Iâ??ve ever seenâ??
More fallout from â??Flopgateâ?? â?? players say itâ??s just part of the gameThe Shutdown Scouting Report, Week 3: Houston Texans at New Orleans SaintsPolice arrest man suspected of impersonating Vince YoungPete Carroll angrily refutes report of friction in Seahawksâ?? front officeTony Romoâ??s vest will stop bullets, linebackers and baseball batsFormer offensive tackle Orlando Brown found dead at 40Get ready for a lot of Indianapolis in primetimeBrett Favre is coming back â?¦ as a college football announcerNFL players: Tom Bradyâ??s the guy to build aroundKevin Boss on teammate Denarius Moore: â??Might be the best rookie player Iâ??ve ever seenâ??
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The acting of two Giants players this past Monday night might not get them an Academy Award, but it has put the team and defensive coordinator Perry Fewell under scrutiny for unsportsmanlike conduct.
Both Jacquian Williams (notes) and Deon Grant (notes) were seen on television in the fourth quarter of the Giants Monday night win over the Rams, apparently faking injuries in an effort to stop the Rams hurry-up offense from gaining any momentum. Both Williams and Grant deny any wrongdoing or faking on their part but former Giants linebacker Bryan Kehl (notes) confirmed the suspicion of many that the tactic was frequently employed and encouraged by Fewell to take the offense out of their rhythm. Both Williams and Grant's fakes were bad and probably should have been a red card .
Kehl said he was coached by Fewell to fake injuries, something the Giants defensive coordinator isn't exactly doing a good job of denying.
"I can't say I've ever done that and I can't say that I haven't done that," Fewell said. "If the guy can't play to his full potential and he was hurt, then he was hurt. But I can't say I did and I can't say I've never done that. I'm not going to go back and forth about what I have coached or what I haven't coached."
The "Flopgate" controversy is now opening up the discussion around the league of faking injuries. The NFL sent a memo to all teams condemning the practice of faking injuries to slow down or stop an offense from driving down the field. Washington Redskins linebacker London Fletcher (notes) told the NFL Network that he has never faked an injury but he can understand it as a strategy.
In fact, Fletcher seemed more upset that Kehl was a snitch than he was about any underhanded tactics by the Giants.
"I have problem with the former Giants linebacker telling what Perry Fewell's strategy was. As a defensive player, you're looking for different edges and things like that. My issue is the Giants have to get better coordinated because two guys falling at one time, that was terrible acting," Fletcher said. "And then one guy gets back up, that just makes it even worse. He looks to the sideline and says, 'oh no, let me decide to get up.' Whether Deon Grant was really hurt or not, that's yet to be proven; he says he was but I don't know about that one."
It is a practice though that seems fairly commonplace in the NFL and that offensive players, though there is a general disdain for it, seem to have accepted. In fact, Jaguars running back Maurice Jones-Drew (notes) thinks it is just part of the game.
"I've heard of it as being a strategy, I've seen it in college a couple of times; I think last year Cal pulled that against Oregon and a couple of other teams that run that no-huddle offense. But it's part of the game. This is a chess match you're playing; you're trying to figure out a strategy," Jones-Drew said. "If a guy or a team gets ahead of you, you have to find a way to get your composure back. I don't see anything wrong with it. It's just part of the game. It's been a part of it since the beginning so it's something you have to deal with."
Kristian R. Dyer can be followed at twitter.com/KristianRDyer
When: Sunday, September 25, 1:00 PM ET
Where: The Superdome, New Orleans
In this marquee matchup, the 2-0 Houston Texans take on their first real challenge of the season after beating up on the hapless Colts and the overmatched Dolphins. while the 1-1 Saints look to get their record on the positive side at home against an offense as explosive as theirs. The difference from Texans teams in past seasons and this one is a pass defense that appears to be very much for real. Can that new defense handle what Drew Brees has in store for it?
Houston'sÂ defense vs. New Orleans' offense
Much has been made of Houston's switch to a 3-4 defense under new defensive coordinator Wade Phillips, but as with most pure designations of defensive fronts, that's a bit of a misnomer â?? Phillips implements defenses with 4-3 (single-gap) principles more than he does with the traditional 3-4 two-gap defenses you might see in Pittsburgh or Green Bay. He will alternate between 5-2 fronts and what looks like four-front defenses â?? much of the time, those switch-up defenses are based on coverage concepts (when they go to nickel defense), and at least one player on the line will frequently have his hand off the ground.
In this case, that guy is generally Mario Williams, who is gradually making the difficult transition from sometimes-dominant 4-3 end to moveable chess piece. Phillips will use Williams as an outside linebacker coming off the edge (a role I'm still not sure about, simply due to Williams' difficulties in winning leverage battles outside with his 6-foot-7 frame), as a weakside edge piece in certain four-man fronts, and as a hybrid LEO end in ways similar to what Dom Capers does with Clay Matthews in Green Bay. It's an interesting experiment.
Of course, the primary challenge the Texans have is in trying to stop Drew Brees and the Saints' passing attack. Last season, Houston finishedÂ dead last in the league in Football Outsiders' pass defense metrics, but that was as much about the vanilla zone schemes the Texans trotted out as it was about personnel. Now, with Phillips on board, the idea is to mix a batter pass rush, more complex coverage ideas, and free agent pickups cornerback Johnathan Joseph and free safety Danieal Manning. Gone is the straight cover zone seen play after play in 2010. Now, you'll see the Texans run coverages in which nickel defenses go tight man with three-wide sets, corner-safety combos will box in different playside route combinations, and unexpected defenders (like linebacker Connor Barwin) will drop into coverage at certain times. Phillips is known as a "set-'em-and-forget-'em" scheme-builder, but that's a discredit to the interesting coverages he's putting out there.
How should the Saints counter this? Well, Sean Payton and Drew Brees are always going to throw the ball, but they may want to pay special attention to the vulnerability that is Houston's run defense â?? the Texans rank 24 th in that category in Football Outsiders' defensive metrics . Getting Mark Ingram and Pierre Thomas involved is crucial, because it also keeps Houston's high-flying offense off the field. Thomas is the wild-card here â?? while Ingram is an excellent power back with three-down potential, Thomas sets blitz-happy defenses on edge with his ability to find gaps and get free on draws and delays. The Saints' offensive line will run some zone and second-level stuff â?? right guard Jahri Evans is on e of the NFL's finest seam blockers â?? but Evans and left guard Carl Nicks love to blast defensive fronts away with hat-on-hat blocking as well.Â
Defenses playing the Saints also have to contend with the ways in which the tight ends go in motion pre-snap. Payton will call plays where both primary tight ends â?? David Thomas and Jimmy Graham â?? will move inline from one side to another, and Thomas will set back in the backfield as a fullback. He's more the puree blocker, while Graham has taken some of Marques' Colston's role as the Saints' #1 receiver recovers from a broken collarbone. Devery Henderson is the deep threat, and Danieal Manning will be seriously challenged by that. If the Saints can establish the pass with their infinite route combinations and then pound the run against an overly reactive Texans defense, Houston is in big trouble. They have to attack intelligently and mix their coverages, because Brees is a brilliant quarterback who will murder a defense that shows him the same thing too often. Look for the Texans to run a lot of nickel, and look for the Saints to try and run them right back out of it.
New Orleans'Â defense vs. Houston's ofense
And now, for the "no-duh" section of our game preview: Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams loves to blitz. Last season, New Orleans sent six or more defenders against the quarterback on 25.2 percent of their plays, by far the most in the league. What makes Williams' schemes so dangerous is that he'll run his pressure from all sorts of different angles. The primary constant in those pressure packages seems to be safety Roman Harper. Harper is a liability in coverage, but he's very adept at coming up to one edge or the other and beating the tackle or blocking back around the edge. Houston's offensive line is far, far better than the nightmarish line the Bears put up against Williams' defense last week, but the way Williams set his guys against that line was still instructive.
The Saints will move linebackers Jonathan Vilma and Jonathan Casillas around a lot pre-snap; the idea there is to create read confusion and force offenses to wait to make their pressure calls. It's very effective, especially when cornerbacks and safeties are either blitzing or bringing blitz looks off the edge. Like Phillips, Williams likes to run multiple fronts, but he's even more diverse â?? he'll run straight 3-4 or 4-3, 5-2 or 4-2 nickel, and he may run more 3-3-5 stack than anyone else in the league. You never know who's coming after the quarterback and who's dropping into coverage, and that's what makes the Saints' defense so dangerous. However, that same defense has proven to be vulnerable against outside and cutback runners, and that's where the Texans can kick down the door. This will be especially None if Vilma's knee prevents him from playing.
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A man suspected of running around Washington, D.C., impersonating Vince Young has been arrested. Young tweeted four days ago that a man named Stephan Pittman was impersonating him, and police arrested a man by the same name on Friday afternoon .
How has he been fooling people? Well, not by any kind of striking resemblance. Here's a side-by-side of Young and Pittman:
That's almost as bad as the Ben Roethlisberger impersonator of 2005 .
The Young impersonator has been making personal appearances as "Vince Young," accepting money for The Vince Young Foundation . According to the real Vince Young (notes) , in a sick little twist, the guy's also been taking pictures with kids at hospitals.
The suspect is in the hands of the justice system now, thankfully. Meanwhile, the real Vince Young tries to heal from a hamstring injury and get back on the field for the Eagles.
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A Friday morning report from Pro Football Weekly publisher Hub Arkush and senior editor Eric Edholm has caused quite the ripple effect in the Pacific Northwest. Arkush and Edholm reported that Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll and general manager John Schneider "could be on rocky ground."
"Carroll is very unhappy with a lot of the moves that Schneider has made," Arkush said in the report, referring to the acquisitions of former Minnesota Vikings quarterback Tarvaris Jackson (notes) and receiver Sidney Rice (notes) , and former Oakland Raiders guard Robert Gallery (notes) and tight end [Zach Miller]e|/nfl/players/8292 . The 0-2 Seahawks have a terrible offense, Gallery is out 4-6 weeks with a groin injury, Rice hasn't played in the regular season because he's recovering from a shoulder injury, and the team's poor offensive line play has greatly affected the roles of Jackson and Miller.
That said, the license taken by Arkush and Edholm is a bit much. "Pretty much everything Schneider's tried to do hasn't worked," Arkush said, "and I guess there's some stuff going on behind the scenes that Carroll's not too happy about either."
"I can tell you that these two are not on the same page," Edholm added. "I talked to one agent who had one of his free-agent clients shipped into Seattle, and when he got there, Pete Carroll said, 'What is he doing here? We don't need him for a football team.' That's just one example of personnel not matching up to what the coach wants to put on the field."
The problem is, Edholm gave just the one example, and it's far from definitive. Asked about the report after the Seahawks' Friday practice, Carroll left no doubt as to his feelings on the matter.
"There was some report or something that John and I don't get along, and I think that's extraordinarily irresponsible. It's inaccurate, and it's lazy, and I wouldn't believe a word they said. That's so far from the truth -- John and I are as close as we can get, and I've never been any closer to anyone I've ever worked with. Every decision we make, we make together, and they don't even understand. I don't know who those guys were, or where they came from, but they're just dead wrong.
"It's just weak that somebody would say something like that. They know nothing â?? they've never talked to us or seen us. They know nothing about what we're all about. But it does show that the media can say whatever they want to say! That's what just happened â?? those guys said whatever they wanted to say. They have no backing and no truth."
As much as I respect Pro Football Weekly as a publication, the background I have from covering the Seahawks for multiple outlets over the last two years has me wondering exactly how Arkush and Edholm came up with their information, because it certainly doesn't jibe with what I've seen and heard and experienced at Seahawks HQ. Carroll will sometimes bend the truth as all coaches do, but there's simply no basis in fact for the idea that Schneider is on the hook for the personnel missteps taken by this front office.
First of all, one has to understand that Carroll and Schneider have a very different relationship than most coaches and general managers. Carroll has full control over the ship; Schneider is in charge of personnel, but that is as much from a scouting standpoint as anything else. He doesn't oversee personnel; it's a collaborative process. That's the main point PFW misses here.
When the Seahawks got back together following the lockout and looked at the abbreviated timeframe to get everything together, and multiplied that complexity by the number of personnel holes they had, they decided to lean very heavily on their position coaches when it came to personnel.
The decisions to strike on Tarvaris Jackson and Sidney Rice were sourced from new offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell, who worked with both players as the Minnesota Vikings' offensive coordinator from 2007 through 2010. The decisions to sign Robert Gallery and [Zach Miller]e|/nfl/players/8292 were unquestionably vetted through offensive line coach Tom Cable, who resuscitated Gallery's career by moving him from right tackle to left guard, and turned Miller into the Oakland Raiders' most targeted receiver when Cable was the Oakland Raiders' head coach. Cable is also the main man on the hook for the underperformance of the team's offensive line â?? Carroll and Schneider basically handed Cable the top of their 2011 draft from which two starting offensive linemen were plucked, and Cable was the one who signed off on the Seahawks going so young on the line, Gallery excepted. Cable's also the one who laid off on installing some of his protection calls in the preseason.
Schneider was undoubtedly a major part of those decisions, but to imply that he was the one behind all of them is to betray a complete lack of understanding about how this front office works. And going on the word of one anonymous and possibly disgruntled agent … well, to be honest, I'd expect more and better from such a respected publication.
I'm not sure where this whole thing came from, but from everything I've seen, it's as off-base as it can possibly be.
This is a shameless marketing tactic from a company called Impact Gel , but you know, we only get so many opportunities here to post videos of people getting hit in the ribs with baseball bats.
The Kevlar vest Tony Romo (notes) will be wearing on Monday night to protect his factured ribs will be made by Unequal Technologies , but the Impact Gel people feel like they have a similar product that could protect Romo pretty well, too. It's got, according to the guy below, one layer of gel between two layers of carbon fiber.
Watch some other dude whale on his ribs with a baseball bat.
Admittedly, that is pretty impressive, and he mentions Tony Romo, so it's relevant. This guy says he's worn the Unequal vest and been hit by shovels, cricket bats, aluminum bats and nightsticks and been just fine.
I love all the new technology. It seems like if we can do this, we ought to be able to make something to keep guys from being concussed.
Gracias, Total Pro Sports .
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Orlando "Zeus" Brown, aÂ 6-foot-7 offensive tackleÂ who played for the Cleveland Browns and Baltimore Ravens in a career that lasted from 1994 through 2005, was recently found dead in his Baltimore condominium. The Ravens confirmed the news on Friday. The cause of death has not been announced.
"We send our condolences to the family of Orlando Brown," Ravens coach John Harbaugh said after Friday practice. "Everybody knew what he meant to this organization. We're forever grateful for what he did for the present team. We can't express enough sorrow for his loss."
"Zeus was just one of those characters," linebacker Jarret Johnson (notes) told the Carroll County Times . "Huge to this organization. He came over with this team from the Browns, so a lot of people in the facility know him. Just devastating news. Zeus was one of the guys who came around a lot. He'd just come hang out in the training room, come hang out back in the equipment room. Just can't say enough about the guy. Just such a terrible loss."
Brown's football career came with one notable hiccup in the middle. In 1999, he was hit in the eye with a penalty flag thrown by official Jeff Triplette during a Browns game. Brown left the field, came back on the field, and shoved Triplette. He was suspended by the league until it was discovered that the thrown flag caused Brown to suffer temporary blindness in one eye.
Brown filed a $200 million lawsuit against the NFL, claiming that his career was prematurely shortened. He eventually came to a settlement in 2002 that brought him at least $15 million. That settlement was based on the contingency that if he ever came back to the NFL, the league would receive half of his after-tax football income up to $1 million per season.
Brown did come back, signing with the Baltimore Ravens in 2003 and starting 34 games before his retirement in 2005. The NFL sued Brown in 2004 with the claim that he ignored requests to pay back the money.
Ravens director of player development Harry Swayne, who played with Brown, was particularly affected. "We just found out before the end of practice," Swayne said on Friday. "We were close friends. It's tough, it's tough. I talked to him a month ago and told him, 'Zeus, you didn't have to block half the people you played against because they were scared of you.'
"He was a puppy dog, a big old puppy dog with a little bit of a bark. He had a lot of friends around the league. He was one of the best guys. It's a tough loss."
"This is a sad day,"Â said safety Ed Reed (notes) . "Zeus was a fire-starter. He would get us going [with his energy] at practices, in training campÂ and inÂ games."
"He was the original Raven," added linebacker Ray Lewis (notes) . "He set the tone for how we were going to play -- tough and physical, backing down from no opponent."
Bill Belichick, who drafted Brown as Cleveland's head coach in 1994 and coached him for two seasons, had this to say :
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A public service announcement: The Peyton Manning (notes) -less Indianapolis Colts will be invading your primetime television screens three times in the next five weeks. Meanwhile, one of the league's most intriguing stories, Cam Newton (notes) and the Carolina Panthers are scheduled to play all of their remaining 14 games at 1 p.m. ET. Such are the dangers of scheduling games four months in advance.
Not that you can blame the NFL. Peyton Manning is as good in primetime as Jerry Seinfeld in the '90s. His injury was unforeseen, as was Newton and the Panthers turning into a must-see attraction. It's just too bad we're stuck with the Colts in primetime while most of the country may not get a glimpse of the (so-far) rookie sensation.
The best recent example of an injury ruining a primetime schedule was when Michael Vick (notes) got hurt in the preseason a few years back and a woeful Atlanta Falcons flutters the primetime schedule.
Indy hosts Pittsburgh this Sunday in NBC's primetime game. The week after, the team travels to Tampa on Monday night. Three weeks later, it's another Sunday nighter, this time in New Orleans. Thank goodness for flex scheduling. It should spare us a Week 13 matchup with the Patriots, although, who knows, maybe NBC likes the ratings Tom Brady's (notes) dimples bring in.
Screwing up the Monday sked isn't so bad, as ESPN's slate is rough enough without Kerry Collins (notes) and crew. From Week 7 to 15, with the exception of two decent games sandwiched in the middle, one of these teams will appear on MNF each week: Jacksonville, Kansas City, Minnesota, Kansas City, Jacksonville, Seattle and San Francisco.
At least the booth is fun to listen to.
With WeekÂ 3 of the 2011 season approaching, you knew it wouldn't be long before our old buddy Brett Lorenzo Favre got himself back in the news. He did so on Friday, but not quite in the way you might expect. The oft retired and unretired Favre is not coming back to the NFL in any sort of quarterbacking capacity â?? instead, he's leaving the comforts of his Hattiesburg, Miss., compound to help with the television broadcast of the Oct. 1 game featuring Southern Mississippi and Rice.
The game is set to be broadcast exclusively on Comcast Sports Southeast, though we suspect there might be a way to get it into a few more hou$ehold$.
According to College Football Talk , Favre may try to sneak in another tear-filled retirement press conference when his next broadcasting assignment is announced. Favre left the Minnesota Vikings after a 2010 season that saw him frequently hurt and trying to run an ineffective offense. We're just hoping he doesn't get confused and accidentally retires from broadcasting by mistake…
"I'm excited to be back at Southern Miss with the Golden Eagles," Favre told the Hattiesburg American . "I'm not committing to a new career in broadcasting, but just wanted to support Southern Miss and check out the view from the press box. It should be fun and I hope the fans enjoy it."
Of course, Favre set all kinds of records for Southern Miss when he played for them from 1988 through 1990.
"This is a great opportunity for Southern Miss to welcome back one of its favorite sons," said Southern Miss president Dr. Martha D. Saunders . "Brett is a popular guy at our university. I know our students and alumni will enjoy having him associated with this game."
Yeah, it's fairly safe to say that the older Favre is a "popular guy" at the university. In his first year there, Southern Miss went 10-2 and beat Texas-El Paso in the Independence Bowl. After a disappointing 1989 campaign, the team came back for an 8-4 record in 1990 and a trip to the All-American Bowl, where they lost to North Carolina State.
(Side note: Remember when bowl games didn't have 25 corporate sponsors you had to name? Yeah, me neither.)
Anyway, Favre completed 55.4 percent of his passes in college for 6,772 yards, 39 touchdowns and 22 picks. And that got him picked in the second round of the 1991 draft by the Atlanta Falcons . The Green Bay Packers traded for him the next year, and the rest is well-documented history.
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Just as Favre isn't committing to a career in the broadcast booth (of course), he most certainly hasn't made much noise about a return to football on the field. This might just be a little break in the tedium for him, but as much as Favre's on-again/off-again relationship with the game and ceaseless need for drama has been annoying at the best of times, I always thought he'd be a dynamite color analyst. He's very smart, quick on his feet, he knows the game, and he's a funny guy full of football anecdotes.
If he decides to do that more full time, it could be interesting and fun for him ... and for us..
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Sports Illustrated asked 272 NFL players who they'd pick first if they were building a team from scratch, and their answers will not surprise you in the least. Tom Brady (notes) was the runaway winner, with 24 percent of players saying he'd be their guy. More from SI:
It doesn't sound that much different from a list that a fan might make. There's no mention of whether or not age or health should be factored into the decision -- in that case, I'd move Aaron Rodgers to number one, and Peyton Manning to number 323.
It doesn't surprise me either that seven of the top 10 are quarterbacks. If I made a top 10, it'd be 10 out of 10, and the only other guys I'd even consider for top spots would be dominant defensive tackles (Suh, Haloti Ngata (notes) ) or shutdown corners ( Darrelle Revis (notes) , Charles Woodson (notes) ).
Running back? It'd be pretty far down the list. The Vikings and Patriots are a nice case-study here: The Vikings have Adrian Peterson and Donovan McNabb (notes) . The Patriots have BenJarvus Green-Ellis (notes) and Tom Brady.
What about you? You're building a franchise from scratch and can pick any one player in the NFL to build around. Who do you go with?
See more in this week's issue of SI .
It may be too late to pick up Oakland Raiders rookie receiver Denarius Moore (notes) in your fantasy league … but if it isn't, get the guy now . It's been a while since we've seen a fifth-round draft pick make this kind of impression in his first two games, but the buzz on the Tennessee alum goes back to the preseason and even to draft day. Moore's amazing 50-yard touchdown grab in the fourth quarter of a game the Raiders eventually lost to the Buffalo Bills was a perfect example of why everyone's talking about him .
It's not often you see a receiver with the combination of sheer speed to beat two defenders on a footrace downfield and body control to leap up from full speed to bring in the catch. Cornerback Leodis McKelvin (notes) and safety George Wilson (notes) didn't have a chance â?? Moore simply blew them up on a stutter-go over Buffalo's Cover-2, and that was all she wrote.
It wasn't a fluke play, either â?? Moore caught five passes for 147 yards in the game. The Raiders were without their three allegedly "best" receivers in Jacoby Ford (notes) , Louis Murphy (notes) and Darrius Heyward-Bey (notes) , but it didn't matter.
This led Moore's teammate, former New York Giants tight end Kevin Boss (notes) (who was also out of the game), to opine this weekÂ when he went on Bay Area sports talk station 95.7 The Game Â that Moore was pretty special:
"Oh, man â?? he's been doing it since training camp, really. I said early on, when I got to training camp and saw some of the plays he was making … I said, 'This might be the best rookie player I've ever seen.' The plays he makes are pretty incredible. He's a really special player â?? we've found a very good wide receiver in Denarius Moore."
Hosts "The Rise Guys" then asked Boss to clarify â?? Moore might be the best rookie he's ever seen?
"Yes. I've been saying it since training camp, and he proved it again in that Buffalo game."
"He's one of those guys you pick up late in the draft and wonder, `How did this guy fall?'" quarterback Jason Campbell (notes) said in August. "He's so talented, so athletic."
In this week's episode of the Greg Cosell podcast , our buddy from NFL Films and ESPN's "NFL Matchup" added his voice to the choir. "I really loved Denarius Moore coming out, and when I watched him on film, I think I tweeted right away how much I liked him. When Tennessee played LSU, he ran by Patrick Peterson (notes) a number of times on balls that were not thrown to him. But that's the great thing about watching tape and seeing every play â?? you see him running by Peterson as if Peterson was standing still. I'm surprised he wasn't drafted higher, and what I really like about him is that he goes and gets the ball. I think he's going to be a really good player."
Greg also said that Moore might be limited by Jason Campbell, which is something he'd be used to. One of the reasons Moore didn't get more play in draft circles was that Tennessee's quarterback situation was so bad through his time there. Â He also had three different head coaches in his last three years with the Vols, which doesn't really engender continuity. Then again, the way Al Davis goes through coaches, Moore might be singularly well-prepared for that, as well.
In all possible ways, Denarius Moore is the perfect fit for the Raiders.
