2. Jacksonville Jaguars – Dion Jordan, DE/Oregon – Dion is an anomaly. Most prospects unable to compete at either the combine or their pro day typically fall on draft boards. Instead, all this kid has done is run a 40 and he’s being considered as one of the best defensive players available this year. Jordan was unable to help his draft stock at the Oregon Pro day because he is recovering from a recent surgery to repair a torn labrum. He ran a 4.53 unofficial time at the combine, which is amazing. GM David Caldwell recently said, “We’re pretty close – It’s down to two people.” Most people believe the two he referenced are Oregon DE Dion Jordan and West Virginia QB Gen Smith.

3. Oakland Raiders – Geno Smith, QB/West Virginia – I jokingly put “the ghost of All Davis lives” when I first put Geno to the Raiders in late January. The truth is Davis would have been drooling at the opportunity to grab a mobile QB, especially if he had been alive to see RGIII the year before. Raiders GM Reggie McKenzie will be left with making a franchise changing decision, as QB’s taken in the top 5 can cost a GM their job if they don’t pan out. Just ask Mike Tannenbaum. The Raiders released Carson Palmer due to salary cap issues, and have only have Matt Flynn & Terrelle Pryor on staff at QB. This pick is easy.

In this scenario, Leinart will backup Carson Palmer and Terrelle Pryor will become the third string QB. There is some history to go along with this story.  At the University of Southern California, Carson Palmer was preplaced by Matt Leinart and Leinart worked with Raiders offensive coordinator Greg Knapp while Leinart was a QB at the Houston Texans last year.

Leinart suffered a fractured collarbone last year less than two quarters into his first start of the season. He was starting in place of the injured Matt Schaub.

Nov 8, 2009; East Rutherford, NJ, USA; New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning (left) and San Diego Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers talk prior to game at Giants Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jim O

Take a look at this brief off-season quarterback carousel just so that you can understand where I’m coming from:

• The Indianapolis Colts cut Peyton Manning so they can draft Andrew Luck.
• Peyton Manning signs with the Denver Broncos after putting the NFL on a three year waiting list. Wait, what? It wasn’t three years? Sure seemed like it.
• The St. Louis Rams got a fortune in return from the Washington Redskins so they can take RG3 right after the Colts select Luck.
• Matt Flynn signs with the Seattle Seahawks after being Aaron Rodgers’ backup.
• Jason Campbell leaves Oakland after having his starting job taken away and signs with the Chicago Bears to become Jay Cutler’s backup.
• Kyle Orton does the same thing and goes to backup Tony Romo in Dallas after starting for two teams last year: the Kansas City Chiefs and the Denver Broncos.
• Denver Broncos’ third string QB Brady Quinn moves to Kansas City to become that team’s newest backup QB.
• Chad Henne left the Dolphins to challenge for the starting QB job with the Jacksonville Jaguars.
• The New York Jets brought in Drew Stanton to be Mark Sanchez’s new body double.
• David Garrard comes back to the league after a one year absence to join the Miami Dolphins.

We have backups becoming starters, starters becoming backups, rookies being drafted presumably to start from day, guys out of the league for a year and one of the greatest QBs to ever play in the NFL cut for a player to have never played a down of professional football before. Confused yet? That’s because it is confusing to keep track of which quarterback is on which team now in the new quarterback driven NFL.

With the signing of Manning to the Broncos there is now another starting quarterback that could be had for the right price: Tim Tebow for a 5th round pick, presumably. The two teams with a most glaring need at a QB, if the 49ers don’t bring back Alex Smith, that is, are the Cleveland Browns and Miami Dolphins. You have to include Miami because a Matt Moore/David Garrard combo doesn’t scare anyone.

The Browns were never in the hunt for Manning but aren’t enamored with incumbent QB Colt McCoy and lost out on the RG3 sweepstakes. The Dolphins went all in on Manning but came back empty handed; then their second choice Flynn spurned them for the Seahawks. That leaves the potential of either one of those two teams signing Alex Smith, he of the 49ers, who has no idea of his job status thanks to the Peyton Derby, and the aforementioned Tebow.

Plus there are other potential first round quarterbacks besides Luck and RG3 that could be taken by the Browns or Dolphins like Ryan Tannehill or Brandon Weeden, both of whom, if you ask me aren’t worthy of being selected in the top ten of the draft but might be taken that early because the Dolphins (picking 8^th overall) and the Browns (picking 4^th overall) won’t have any choice other than dangling a future first round draft pick in order to trade back into the latter part of the upcoming 2012 NFL Draft.

By my calculations we might have a total of 11 teams with a new starting QB/quarterback question marks entering next season:

-Redskins – RG3, Vikings – Ponder/Webb?, Jaguars – Gabbert/Henne? Or maybe even Tebow?, San Fran – Smith/Kaepernick/Josh Johnson?, Arizona – Kolb/Skelton? Cleveland – McCoy?, Seattle – Flynn/T-Jax? Titans – Locker/Hasselbeck?, Indy – Luck, Miami – Moore/Garrard? and Denver – Peyton Manning.

11! That is a ridiculous amount of turnover at the most important position in football.

Now you can see why I’m pretty happy that the Giants have Eli Manning and we didn’t have to put up with the Peyton circus and the revolving game of quarterback musical chairs that teams like the Redskins and Dolphins plus players like Tebow and Smith have had to put up with this offseason. Heck, the Giants are even keeping their back-up QB David Carr.

Raiders owner Al Davis, whose NFL legend as a pioneering rebel began 60 years ago as an assistant with the Baltimore Colts and was punctuated with a 1992 Pro Football Hall of Fame induction in Canton, has died at 82.

The team’s website released the news, posting a simple tribute with his name in large silver letters above “July 4, 1929-October 8, 2011.”

For the full story, please click here.

The Jim Tressel/Terrelle Pryor/Ohio State saga.

We all know the sweater-vest wearing Tressel as the man who headed up The Ohio State university football program and led them to one NCAA college football national championship. In addition to that one national championship his other many accolades at Ohio State includes an undefeated season, a 106-22 win-loss record, six Big Ten Conference trophies, 5 bowl victories, 4 BCS bowl wins, and three national championship appearances.

There’s no doubt that the man can coach. He can. And there’s a reason why he got himself a gig in the NFL even though he had to resign as head coach of the Buckeyes due to the Ohio State football program being investigated for rules violations.

Everybody makes mistakes and everybody is allowed a second, third, fourth, etc., chance in life. It’s the way the world works. If the Indianapolis Colts feel like hiring Tressel to be a game day consultant for them then that’s their prerogative.

All I think is that if Roger Goodell can suspend former Ohio State starting quarterback and current Oakland Raiders supplemental draft pick Terrelle Pryor for something that had nothing to do with the NFL then the man in charge of the program while Pryor was there should be getting the same treatment.

(more…)

Former Giants WR Derek Hagan had a stellar preseason game with his new team, the Oakland Raiders.

Photo: Paul Sakuma / AP

Hagan caught 6 passes for 120 yards and 1 35 yard TD from QB Jason Campbell in a very impressive preseason display, and perhaps the lone bright spot from the Raider offense in a 40-20 blowout by the New Orleans Saints.

Here’s a great quote about via the San Francisco Chronicle:

“It definitely comes down to film study,” said Hagan, who is playing for his third NFL team in six seasons. “We knew coming into the game the Saints were going to be in single man coverage. We knew if you just give ‘em one move and break the tackle, there was nobody left. Just a simple hitch route, Jason threw it out there, I made the guy miss, that’s all she wrote.”

Now, I’m actually kind of surprised that the Giants didn’t try and get Hagan to stick around this year. You may remember in 2009, Hagan was signed due to a lack of depth at WR and shined in special teams, and made a great 4th option at WR when asked. In 2010, he was cut and then re-signed off his couch midway through the season when the Giants WR core was depleted by injuries. Hagan had a slow start to shake off the rust, admittedly, but he looked good by season’s end. Particularly against the Redskins when he was the starting #2 in a must win game.

Somehow, I thought the Giants would appreciate his contribution last year when the organization was between a rock and a hard place and figure out a way to keep him on the roster… or even better utilize him going forward. Looks like Oakland is going to be reaping the benefits from all the prep work the Giants were involved with.

*** In Other News ***

Rhett Bomar, who hasn’t played a preseason game for Minnesota, was waived by the Vikings today.