Just read today that Chad Clifton has been released. We're going to be hard up for Offensive Line players.

Here's hoping it's a roster move and they resign him on a new contract. Still, he's getting long in the tooth.

Although having him and Saturday at 35 and 36 respectively is quite old, that's the ideal amount of experience to help develop the likes of Sherrod, Dietrich-Smith and TJ Lang. It's easy to forget that this is only Bulaga's third season and Josh Sitton's on his 4th.

Another big blow today, Nick Collins won't be back for us this season and has been released. I'm thinking that he'll be kept around on the training roster and it's a cap move. But that definitely means we'll be taking a Safety in the second round of the draft.

Did his neck not heal?

I'm not sure. From Packers.com:

That to me sounds like it hasn't healed the way they expected and his career is over. One can only hope we keep him around as he, Woodson and Matthews are the heart and soul of the defence.

But that more or less rules out any possible moves for a RB in the early rounds of the draft.

My draft thoughts before tomorrow

Anti-climactic. We know who is going to be 1 and 2 and that's the big 2 QB's out of the draft.

Honestly, I'd love to see the Colts jump on RG3. I think that he's the better athlete and has greater potential...I think the Colts are in a better position to take advantage of that too. But it seems they're pretty set on Luck.

Sadly, I think the first 6 picks are pretty much set in stone...after that I'm guessing...
1. Colts - Luck
2. Redskins - RG3
3. Vikings - Kalil
4. Browns - Richardson
5. Bucs - Claiborne
6. Rams - Blackmon
7. Jags - Martin
8. Fins - Tannehill
9. Panthers - Kuechly
10. Bills - Kirkpatrick
11. Chiefs - Damaris Johnson
12. Seahawks - Poe

After that the waters get kinda muddied. and I'm not sure what a few teams (like the Bengals and Texans) are looking to address first.

I'm just hoping that one of Cox, Ingram or Upshaw falls to pick 28...but I think they're all going to be snapped up by the likes of Philly, Jets and Arizona.

There's talk of the Vikings trying to trade out of the 3 spot or taking Claiborne at 3.
Richardson is a lock at 4. If Claiborne does go 3 I can see the Bucs taking Kuechly and Kalil falling to the Rams at 6. Which means Blackmon would fall to 7 at the Jags.
I reckon the Bills might take Michael Floyd (WR) with the 10th pick

I think giving Ponder more protection is more integral than bringing in a defensive back and hoping to plug a defence that's going to take years to fix. Ponder needs protection so he can develop, there's no point in having a young QB that's giving up 49 sacks a season and whose body is exhausted by week 10.

Claiborne, I don't know why people rate, and it'll take a brave man to draft him, which is why I see him falling to the Bucs.

The Rams know they need an elite WR to replace Brandon Lloyd. Protection for Bradford will wait until the second round. If Blackmon is gone by pick 6 then they'll jump on another WR like Floyd or Johnson.

I don't think the Bills will take a WR. They'll be looking at Guards to cover their running play and Defensive Backs to shut things down, they gave away the third most TD's in the air last season (Behind Vikings and Raiders).

Been spending the night watching tape and I have to say, Shea McClellin looks like a really good option at DE for us. His main job is going to be to block the path across so Matthews can chase 'em down, and he's perfect at 6'6", a 4.60 in the 40 and good footwork mean he'll fit in right away.

Wondering whether Harrison Smith will drop down the board to our second round pick or not... :-k

Packers take Nick Perry from USC with first pick.

We traded up twice. Chandler Jones from Syracuse will join the pass rush and then we moved up for Dont'a Hightower from Alabama, solid pickup at OLB. Hope fully we can nab a DB in the scond round, lord knows we need one.

I'm not sure what to make of that pick. He's strong and aggressive but he has a tendency to go missing and doesn't have the footwork to beat a strong blocking TE or FB. That's definitely something we'll have to work on, but he's definitely got potential to be our Pierre-Paul.

I'm not entirely sure why we took him with Upshaw still on the board, but when there's a guy who can do a 4.62 40 and 4.66 shuttle, he obviously has impressive direction changes. And 35 reps on the bench is more like a Nose Tackle kind of number. He out-scored the two best DE's in the comp (Allen and P-P) in the combine results, so we'll see what McCarthy can do with him. I definitely feel better about this pick than last season's selection of Sherrod.

The big talking point from the draft is 10 defeinsive line (7 DE's) and 2 LB's going in the first round. So 12 of 32 picks were on the pass rush. Not a single TE was taken in the first round.

1. Colts - Andrew Luck
2. Redskins - Robert Griffin III (from Rams)
3. Browns - Trent Richardson (from Vikings)
4. Vikings - Matt Kalil (from Browns)
5. Jaguars - Justin Blackmon (from Bucs)
6. Cowboys - Morris Claiborne (from Redskins via Rams)
7. Bucs - Mark Barron (from Jaguars)
8. Fins - Ryan Tannehill
9. Panthers - Kuechly
10. Bills - Stephon Gilmore
11. Chiefs - Dontari Poe
12. Eagles - Fletcher Cox (from Seahawks)
13. Cardinals - Michael Floyd
14. Rams - Michael Brockers (from Cowboys)
15. Seahawks - Bruce Irvin (from Eagles)
16. Jets - Quinton Coples
17. Bengals - Dre Kirkpatrick (from Raiders)
18. Chargers - Melvin Ingram
19. Bears - Shea McClellin
20. Titans - Kendall Wright
21. Patriots - Chandler Jones (from Bengals)
22. Browns - Brandon Weeden (from Falcons)
23. Lions - Riley Reiff
24. Steelers - David Castro
25. Patriots - Dont'a Hightower (from Broncos)
26. Texans - Whitney Mercilus
27. Bengals - Kevin Zieler (from saints via Patriots)
28. Packers - Nick Perry
29. Vikings - Harrison Smith (from Ravens)
30. Niners - AJ Jenkins
31. Bucs - Doug Martin (from Patriots via Broncos)
32. Giants - David Wilson

Is anyone else wondering what the FUCK the browns are doing?

They traded later round picks to go up 1 spot to ensure they get a player they probably would have got.

Needless to say it's not a surprise the Browns do so poorly ALL THE TIME

The only reason I can think of is if there were other teams (The Bucs and Giants) attempting to trade up with the Vikings to steal Richardson. Then it makes sense for them, but I can't imagine that the Giants would have had anything to offer. There's no way that the Browns would take a second round and pick 32 for pick 4 and the Bucs were always going to take Doug Martin, otherwise they wouldn't have traded down.

http://www.draftcountdown.com/forum/showthread.php?t=52641

That. Is. Brilliant.

Yeah, nice.

Not sure what to make of the Packers trading up to get 2 second round picks. I guess it don't matter too much that we don't have another pick until late in the 4th round now that we've taken care of the D-line and picked up a CB-cum-safety, but there's 70 players off the board between our picks. Jerel Worthy is a beast and will be a great addition next to BJ Raji in a 4-3 defence and Casey Hayward is sensational at reading the ball and will come up with a LOT of picks a'la Tramon Williams.

I'm stunned and confused as to why Lamar Miller and Chris Polk are still on the board. I'd take either in a heartbeat. Are they complete jerks or something?

So the NFL have handed down their bounty penalties to the players.

The players have been given three days to appeal and are expected to do so.

I'm just curious as to whether Ted Thompson knew that Hargrove was implicated when he signed him.

RIP Junior Seau

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/7882750/junior-seau-former-san-diego-charger-found-dead-cops-probe-suicide

RIP. Such sad news.

Such a shame. That's the third former player committing suicide in 12 months. What are the chances it gets blamed on concussions?

Even money.

Didn't even take as long as I thought:
http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/7886162/report-boston-university-seeking-study-junior-seau-brain

What's to say that the depression had anything to do with sustained head injuries? Honestly, when you devote your entire life to something for 10 hours a day, 6 days a week...and then give that up and your life just kind of stalls post-football, it's easy to understand why a player would be depressed.

"If half a sack is when two players reach the quarterback at the same time, what happens when three players get to him at the same time?"

"The offensive line coach gets fired."

NFL's list of top 100 players has been fully revealed. Not surprised to see Rodgers at number 1. Would have had Brady ahead of Calvin Johnson at #3 personally. And Gronkowski should surely be higher than Jimmy Graham? Also wondering how Eli is lower than Roethlisberger.

Eli is twice the QB that Roethlisberger is.

The thing with Gronkowski is that he's a physical mis-match for just about any defensive player, Graham has to work harder for his receptions and it makes him a better player as a whole.

Rodgers is rightly number 1. Peterson was too high up as was Smith, Ngata and Newton. Matthews, Rice, Wallace and Nelson were all underrated.

Right lads, who's in for fantasy NFL this year?

awwwwww yeah