Sources out of Philadelphia report that former Falcons quarterback Micheal Vick has signed a one-year contract with the Eagles with a team option for a second year.
This move is an interesting one, since the Eagles already have a proven starting quarterback in Donovan McNabb.
Perhaps the Eagles are looking to use Vick as a situational player to step in and make a big play, or in their utilization of the “wildcat” formation.
Vick is expected to play in the final two preseason games.
NFL.com writer Steve Wyche caught up with former Broncos head coach Mike Shanahan last week, and Shanahan made public his intentions to return to the NFL as early as the 2010 season.
Most notably, Mike said “I probably spent more time studying football the last offseason than I have the last 10 years. I watch a lot of film and do the same thing I do during the season. I’ll see if there are any opportunities out there at the end of the year that will work out for the club and myself.”
The Denver Broncos opened mandatory minicamps on Friday, and with that came the assignment of uniform numbers to the newly acquired rookies. While some players will select new numbers upon making the depth chart, many will keep their numbers and make them part of their NFL identity.
In order of Draft, the numbers go:
Moreno, #27
Ayers, # 56
Smith, #33
McBath, #34
Quinn, #81
Bruton, #30
Olsen, #70
McKinley, #11
Brandstater, #3
Schlueter, #63
For a list of undrafted college free agents and their assigned numbers, visit denverbroncos.com
An interesting sidenote, Jay Cutler’s old number 6 is still vacant, one of the only numbers between 1-99 that are still available.
The Broncos opened their first official Mini-Camp on Friday, and now two days in there has been nothing but positive feedback from the players.
Coach McDaniels decided to begin Mini-Camps earlier than most teams because he wanted to allow the players ample time to jell with each other as well as get used to their entirely new coaching staff.
According to LaMont Jordan, the process has already begun, “”I will say this — we are a tight group in that backfield…You wouldn’t know that we’re all fighting for a starting job because we’re that tight. When it’s all said in done, the bottom line is winning.”
This positive attitude was reinforced by Peyton Hillis in his own interview, “Coach McDaniels keeps telling us we’re going to use different things each week to win games…Whatever that is, whether it’s running the ball, passing, it doesn’t matter…whatever it takes to win the game. I’m just going to play where they put me and be happy.”
Jordan capped off the day with this statement, ”
If you’re a fan of this team, then be a fan of this team…When it’s all said and done, winning heals all.”
The Broncos are scheduled to practice again around 11 AM MDT on Sunday.
There will be an interesting twist in the third week of preseason this year, when the Chicago Bears travel to Denver to play the Broncos. If only for the first quarter, we will see Jay Cutler wearing a Bears uniform, throwing to his unimpressive wide receivers who are being covered by the new Bronco secondary.
On the other side, Kyle Orton will get a chance to play against his former team as well, and stare Brian Urlacher down for the first time outside of practice.
As a follow-up to Sayre’s post earlier today, I have added the official schedule for 2009.
It will be as follows:
1 Sun. Sept. 13 at Cincinnati Paul Brown Stadium 1 p.m. EDT CBS
2 Sun. Sept. 20 CLEVELAND INVESCO Field at Mile High 2:15 p.m. MDT CBS
3 Sun. Sept. 27 at Oakland McAfee Coliseum 1:15 p.m. PDT CBS
4 Sun. Oct. 4 DALLAS INVESCO Field at Mile High 2:15 p.m. PDT FOX
5 Sun. Oct. 11 NEW ENGLAND INVESCO Field at Mile High 2:15 p.m. MDT CBS
6 Mon. Oct. 19 at San Diego Qualcomm Stadium 5:30 p.m. PDT ESPN (National)
7 BYE
8 Sun. Nov. 1 at Baltimore M&T Bank Stadium 1 p.m. EST CBS
9 Mon. Nov. 9 PITTSBURGH INVESCO Field at Mile High 6:30 p.m. MST ESPN (National)
10 Sun. Nov. 15 at Washington FedEx Field 1:15 p.m. EST CBS
11 Sun. Nov. 22 SAN DIEGO INVESCO Field at Mile High 2:15 p.m. MST CBS*
12 Thu. Nov. 26 N.Y. GIANTS INVESCO Field at Mile High 6:20 p.m. MST NFL Network (National)
13 Sun. Dec. 6 at Kansas City Arrowhead Stadium 12 p.m. CST CBS*
14 Sun. Dec. 13 at Indianapolis Lucas Oil Stadium 1 p.m. EST CBS*
15 Sun. Dec. 20 OAKLAND INVESCO Field at Mile High 2:05 p.m. EST CBS*
16 Sun. Dec. 27 at Philadelphia Lincoln Financial Field 1 p.m. EST CBS*
17 Sun. Jan. 3 KANSAS CITY INVESCO Field at Mile High 2:15 p.m. MST CBS*
As most fans are aware of, during the Jay Cutler trade talks, there were many teams interested. Most of the interested teams had a starting quarterback already in place from the 2008 season, obviously of varying ability levels.
The Washington Redskins were especially active in their negotiations for Cutler. This would have included trading away current starter Jason Campbell.
The Redskins could have found themselves in a dilemma eerily similar to the Jay Cutler situation. Try to trade the current quarterback away for another one, miss on the deal, and be stuck with the old quarterback who now knows he’s expendable.
However, Campbell had “the right” reaction to the news. He expressed in several interviews that he had confidence in his abilities, that he wanted to continue to help the Redskins win and that he would use the trade talk as extra motivation for the upcoming season.
If only Cutler had taken that approach. As I see it, it has become HIS loss, not so much the Broncos’ loss.
As if the Broncos need another distraction amid the “worst case scenario” that has transpired with outgoing quarterback Jay Cutler, the team will now be without star receiver Brandon Marshall for the rest of the offseason.
Marshall’s hip started bothering him last season, and he began having difficulty getting good separation from opposing defenders.
Marshall is expected to make a full recovery, and his surgery was performed by the renowned sports physician Dr. Marc Philippon, who practices in Vail, Colorado.
Philippon has operated on big-name athletes such as Alex Rodriguez and Kurt Warner.
This is all in addition to the expectation that Marshall will be punished by the league regarding an arrest in March. The suspension could be as large as eight games.
Some of the most important games in the 2009 NFL schedule were announced on Monday, and the Broncos will once again be featured on NFL Network’s Thursday Night Football.
This year, they will appear on Thanksgiving Night, at home against the New York Giants.
The Broncos have been a favorite of the TNF lineup, appearing on it every year since its debut on NFL Network in 2006. The Broncos played in the first ever live game on NFLN, when they lost to the Chiefs in Jake Plummer’s final start.
Aside from that, it can be inferred that the Broncos will face the Dallas Cowboys at home in Week one. Since FOX is the primary network for NFC teams, the Broncos only have two home games against NFC teams (the Giants and Cowboys), and the Giants are already scheduled for Thanksgiving, the Cowboys are the only option for the Broncos season-opener.
The remainder of the schedules will be released in the coming weeks.
As the Jay Cutler situation continues to boil, more and more high-profile people around the NFL are speaking out. One of them was Denver hero, John Elway.
The man who Cutler once compared himself to has taken a dim view of the current quarterback’s decisions, saying “I understand Jay’s feelings got hurt, but it’s too bad it has got to where it is. I wish Jay would have got some better advice from whoever he was getting advice from.”
“Obviously, there was a lack of communication somewhere to where it blew this thing up to where it has got to now…I’m sad for both sides.”
