NFL 2012 Draft: Teh Mega Thread!

[katmai]

Junior Seau's death further saddens his 1994 Chargers teammates
By Les Carpenter | Yahoo! Sports – 1 hour 11 minutes ago

Once again the phones started to ring, former San Diego Chargers from the franchise's lone Super Bowl team calling each other and digesting the news that another one of them was gone. With word that Junior Seau died Wednesday, the number of Chargers who played in the Super Bowl on Jan. 29, 1995, and are now dead, is eight.

Eight in 18 years; too many in too little time.

The subject is one I discussed, somewhat uncomfortably, with several of the former Chargers in 2008. This wasn't long after Chris Mims, their gregarious defensive end, was found dead in his Los Angeles apartment. Five had died back then. And that seemed like a lot.

I called a professor of actuarial science at the University of Wisconsin to see if she could put number on five men from a 53-man roster – all in their 20s and 30s – dying in so short a time. She said the odds were less than 1 percent.

"Is this a curse or something?" center Courtney Hall said then. "I just hope I'm not next."

On Wednesday, Hall sounded drained. Hours of phone calls with teammates had tired him. And there lingered that sense of confusion over how so many men who would be in their 40s, who seemed so vibrant, are no longer alive.

"I'm still kind of processing everything right now," Hall said. "I had more to say back [in 2008] than I do now. I really am at a loss for words."

The unsettling thing about the Chargers' deaths is their randomness. Five months after the Super Bowl, running back David Griggs died in a car accident on an off-ramp of the Florida Turnpike that was no more than 10 minutes from where the game had been played at Joe Robbie Stadium. The next year, running back Rodney Culver and his wife died on a ValuJet crash in the Florida Everglades, also not far from Miami. In 1998 linebacker Doug Miller was struck twice by lightning while camping in Colorado. Backup center Curtis Whitley died of a drug overdose in 2008 only months before Mims died from an enlarged heart and heart disease. Linebacker Lew Bush and defensive tackle Shawn Lee had fatal heart attacks last year.

And now Seau. The irony is that as a player he might have been the liveliest of them all – the first one to laugh, the one with the biggest smile, the biggest star – and to hear reports he had killed himself? It didn't make sense.

"The thing I related to everybody is that we are a brotherhood of those of us who played football," Hall said Wednesday. "We developed bonds and dealt with the same issues and the same ups and downs. For me, I've gotten to the point where I wish we as a group of elite athletes are able to reach out to each other more and are able to talk about what's going on in our lives."

Back in 2008, Hall talked about looking for some of his Chargers teammates. He found tight end Deems May on LinkedIn and asked the team for the phone numbers of other former players. Some of those may have been the same men he spoke with Wednesday.

Perhaps there's nothing anyone can do about a plane crash or someone getting hit by lightning twice, but so many of the other deaths seemed preventable. Tackle Stan Brock wondered in 2008 how Whitley could die alone in a trailer. "Where were his friends?" he asked. Mims suffered from weight problems and became depressed before his death. Lee was reported to have had weight and other health issues when he died.

Could phone calls have helped? Should they have been calling Seau and checking on him? Hall wonders. He said several of his teammates did too.

"In general we talked about getting together and reaching out to one another," he said. "I woke up this morning in pain [from old football injuries]. Everyone deals with everything differently."

He seemed to hope this latest bad news would bring them closer together.

Whenever players from the Super Bowl team talk about that season they always marvel at the magic they felt. They describe the locker-room camaraderie as the best they were ever around. Players stayed late at the practice facility. They ordered food. They arrived at the stadium early on home game days, throwing on their uniform pants and pads, then sitting in a room just off the stadium locker room playing Mortal Kombat and Madden NFL until they had to go onto the field for warmups.

It was a happy time. It was a wonderful time. It was the best time many of them ever had.

Then Wednesday they mourned another of them, the biggest name of them all.

And like with the others, it's too soon.

[sbr]

Wow.

[Admiral Yi]

RIP Junior.

[CountDeMoney]

Well, shit.

Terrell Suggs tears Achilles

Baltimore Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs tore his Achilles tendon and likely will miss the 2012 season.

In texts to ESPN, Suggs said he suffered the injury Saturday, "running my condition test." He denied that the injury happened playing basketball, as some sources had told ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter. Other sources had told Schefter that the injury happened during the conditioning test, as Suggs maintains.

Surgery is scheduled for next week, the sources said. The Ravens do not know if Suggs' Achilles tendon is partially or fully torn as their doctors have not seen the results of Suggs' MRI yet. The team is sending Suggs to see a specialist early next week to help make that determination.

Also, one source who has spoken with Suggs said he thinks he will be able to come back in October. However, the average return to the field by NFL players who have torn their Achilles is 11 months, according to a study presented at the American Academy Orthopedic Surgeons in 2006.

Suggs was named the NFL's Defensive Player of the Year after last season, in which he had 70 tackles, including 14 sacks, and was a threat all over the field from his hybrid linebacker-end position. He also forced seven fumbles and had two interceptions, helping the Ravens, which boasted the No. 3 overall defense, win the AFC North and advance to the AFC Championship Game.

Suggs was the only player last season to record at least five sacks, five passes defensed and five forced fumbles.

Ravens general manager Ozzie Newsome told ESPN's Josina Anderson that the team found out about Suggs' injury earlier this week.

"We found out about it on Monday. He (Suggs) said he would be visiting with a specialist early next week," Newsome told ESPN.

A statement released by the Ravens said: "We are in contact with Terrell. He will see a specialist early next week and we'll know more at that time."

In his nine-year career, Suggs had only missed three games.

Replacing Suggs will be a challenge. The Ravens drafted former Alabama linebacker Courtney Upshaw but he is expected to replace outside linebacker Jarret Johnson, who signed with the San Diego Chargers. Candidates to take over Suggs' spot are Paul Kruger, Sergio Kindle and Michael McAdoo.

[derspiess]

Yowch.  Nothing wrong if it had occurred while playing basketball IMO.  Gotta stay in shape during the off-season somehow. 

The Bengals have their own basketball court in Paul Brown Stadium, though I've only seen it used for cheerleader practice and as a meeting place for all the cops on duty before home games.

[Neil]

Fuck.  There is definitely going to be some adversity to overcome this year.

[CountDeMoney]

Fuck.  There is definitely going to be some adversity to overcome this year.

Yup.  Their last, best shot was last season, falling right out of Lee Evans' mitts.   
This year, the whole program's gonna take a step back.

Unless Flacco and the new offense goes total Curtis LeMay ape-shit and starts racking up 5 touchdowns a game, I simply don't see anything beyond a Wild Card one-and-done.

[Neil]

Fuck.  There is definitely going to be some adversity to overcome this year.

Yup.  Their last, best shot was last season, falling right out of Lee Evans' mitts.   
This year, the whole program's gonna take a step back.

Unless Flacco and the new offense goes total Curtis LeMay ape-shit and starts racking up 5 touchdowns a game, I simply don't see anything beyond a Wild Card one-and-done.

Do you think that Cam would permit that sort of thing?  That guy's always looking for an excuse to pump the brakes.

[PRC]

Sad to hear about Seau.  Even though he played for teams I hated, he seemed like a decent enough guy, especially early in his career with all of his charity work.  The suspensions are silly and waaaay too long, but I'm not surprised at all.  Goodell continues his quest to be the biggest douche GM in the major sports in America, a tough battle to win.  Also, awesome on Bruce's little big bro hitting the pros.

Unless Goodell manages to demolish the popularity of the NFL, I think that Bettman's crown is secure.

Yeah, the suspensions seem a little bit over the top, especially Vilma's.  They're framing this as a player safety issue, but it's really a league rule issue with non-contract bonuses.

This isn't a league rules issue.  It's a "what is the greatest financial threat to the NFL" issue and the greatest financial threat to the NFL is lawsuits from former players suing the NFL for not doing enough to keep them safe, within reason, while playing.  There are currently more than 1,500 players who are suing the NFL in multiple lawsuits (http://www.wmur.com/sports/30997944/detail.html).  If those lawsuits are successful the NFL is going to be on the hook for a lot of dollars.  Team bounty programs fly in the face of all proper due diligence towards safety that the NFL could provide its players and Goodell is right to drop the hammer on them hard.

[Neil]

Meh.  The players knew what they were getting into.  It's a violent sport.

Every single lawyer must fucking hang.

[CountDeMoney]

Do you think that Cam would permit that sort of thing?  That guy's always looking for an excuse to pump the brakes.

I think Cam is on double-secret probation with Biscotti, similar to the way he put Billick on probation going into his 2nd to last season. 
But there's a new card in the mix:  Jim Caldwell as Assistant Coach/QB Coach.  I think he's going to have a lot more swag with the offense than people think;  particularly when it comes to Flacco, who is no Cam fan.

Ravens can absorb loss of Terrell Suggs
By Jamison Hensley | ESPN.com

As soon as word spread about Terrell Suggs tearing his Achilles tendon, you could hear the collective cries from Ravens Nation. It's very easy to tear up the playoff tickets right now or want to hand over the AFC North title to the Steelers. But losing Suggs doesn't mean the Ravens should lose hope on the season.

There's no question that it will be difficult to replace Suggs, the reigning NFL Defensive Player of the Year and career franchise leader in sacks, whether it's for the entire season or a good chunk of it. He was all over the field in 2011, becoming the only player last season to record at least five sacks, five passes defensed and five forced fumbles.

The Ravens, though, can overcome Suggs' absence. Why? Because they've done this before.

In 2010, safety Ed Reed spent the first six weeks on the physically unable to perform (PUP) list after offseason hip surgery. Baltimore went 4-2 without him.

Last season, linebacker Ray Lewis was sidelined for four games with a toe injury. The Ravens were 4-0 without Lewis, including victories over San Francisco and Cincinnati.

That's 8-2 when the Ravens didn't have two future Hall of Fame defenders in the lineup. There is an argument that playing without Suggs is different. Lewis and Reed aren't in the prime of their careers, and Suggs is just hitting his stride at age 29.

But there's another argument that Suggs wasn't the most valuable player on the Ravens last season, just the most timely one. Suggs recorded nine sacks and five forced fumbles in three games (season opener against Pittsburgh, Thanksgiving night against San Francisco and Dec. 11 game against Indianapolis). For the other 13 games, he managed the rather ordinary numbers of five sacks and two forced fumbles.

This isn't to minimize Suggs' talent. He always draws the most attention from offenses, which frees up his teammates to make plays. He's a tone-setter in terms of his emotional play. He's up there with the best pass-rushers in the game right now. Left tackles will sleep a lot better knowing Suggs won't be on the field for an extended period. But the statistics from last season show that the Ravens don't need Suggs to make plays in order for them to win.

The challenge is replacing Suggs' presence in the pass rush, especially this season. Look at the quarterbacks on Baltimore's schedule: Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Ben Roethlisberger, Eli Manning, Philip Rivers, Michael Vick, Tony Romo, Carson Palmer and Matt Schaub. This is the season when the Ravens needed Suggs the most.

The Ravens need Paul Kruger (career-high five sacks last season) to continue his progression. They need Haloti Ngata (five sacks) to collapse the middle of the line. They need Pernell McPhee (six sacks) to avoid a sophomore slump. They need Sergio Kindle to get on the field. And they need first-round pick Courtney Upshaw (15.5 sacks past two seasons at Alabama) to make an immediate impact.

Baltimore is a stronger and more fearsome defense with Suggs chasing down quarterbacks. But the Ravens' defense won't flinch without him.

Amen.  And as long as Ray Ray treads upon this earth, this team's defense will improvise, adapt and overcome.  It's what they do.

[derspiess]

Meh.  The players knew what they were getting into.  It's a violent sport.

If the defensive players would stop leading with their fucking heads, a lot of these concussions would never have happened.  That used to not be such a big issue.  The league needs to step up fines for spearing and/or find other ways to discourage it.

Back in my glory days of junior high football, the 15 yard penalty was enough to make us too afraid to spear someone.

[Ed Anger]

Stillers signed Troy Smith. I'm sorta shocked he got a backup job after the way he treated Singletary.

[Neil]

Stillers signed Troy Smith. I'm sorta shocked he got a backup job after the way he treated Singletary.

I'm sure he'll get cut in camp.  Batch is still a better player, and even then it doesn't matter since Roethlisberger will play no matter how crippled he is.

[derspiess]

I'm sure he'll get cut in camp.  Batch is still a better player, and even then it doesn't matter since Roethlisberger will play no matter how crippled he is start limping and/or holding his arm whenever he has a bad game, and then proceed to whine to the media about how hurt he is.

FIXED