FanHouse AbramElam

It was nearly a year ago that then-Browns lost cornerback Daven Holly blew out his knee in organized team activities. He missed the 2008 season, and his absence, along with Gary Baxter never working out in Cleveland, meant the team had to rely on Brandon McDonald and Eric Wright.

Both were second-year players, and although Wright showed promise, McDonald was out his depth from the start. I wouldn't argue that losing Holly opened the flood gates on a four-win season -- Derek Anderson misfiring balls all over the yard gets the blue ribbon for that -- but it didn't help, either.

Who moved to the head of the NFL class during the draft? Find out with FanHouse's team-by-team 2009 Draft Grades.

One of the most common criticisms of draft grades is that you can't possibly judge a draft until the players selected have spent some time playing in the NFL. It's a common criticism, because it's absolutely true and it may never be more true of any team than it is of the 2009 New York Jets.

Whatever winds up at the bottom of this post, the Jets draft grade will either be an A+ or F. There's no middle ground when you do something as gutsy, as fraught with risk as trading up to the fifth pick to take a quarterback.

The Cleveland Browns entered Saturday's NFL draft with the fifth pick. They'll exit the draft having used that pick to acquire seven players.

Every Play Counts is Michael David Smith's weekly look at one specific player or one aspect of a team on every single play of the previous game.

In an installment of Every Play Counts last month, I wrote about how the New York Jets' defense had dominated the Buffalo Bills' offense, and specifically how defensive tackle Kris Jenkins was a practically unstoppable presence in the middle of the line. The Bills finished that November game with just 30 rushing yards on 17 carries, and the Jets' defense looked like it could lead them deep into the postseason.

And then in Sunday's Jets-Bills rematch, Buffalo ran 32 times for 187 yards and two touchdowns, and the Jets' defense looked like it had no business playing in the postseason at all. Although Bills quarterback J.P. Losman ended up giving the game to the Jets with five turnovers, including three in the final 2:06 of the fourth quarter, the Jets' run defense was a mess.

So what's gone wrong? And can the Jets count on their run defense to lead them in the playoffs? We explore in this week's installment of Every Play Counts.

Right after J.P. Losman fumbled away a Bills win with just over two minutes left in a game they were winning 27-24, FanHouser Shane Bacon emailed to remind that a cardinal rule of quarterbacking was to throw the ball away when you've got nothing.

It was a sound point. Losman was scrambling when Abram Elam hit him from behind, causing a fumble that Shaun Ellis returned for a touchdown, but there was another rule that loomed large. Somewhere in the big book of coaching rules, it states that one shall not let J.P. Losman try to win a game unless there's absolutely no other hope.

Dick Jauron will likely have plenty of time to review that rule when the Bills fire him in a couple of weeks. His team finally showed up to play, no small thing given their recent efforts, on Sunday, but Jauron removed all hope of a win by calling for a pass. It was second-and-five, the two minute warning would follow the play and the Jets had just two timeouts. And the Bills had run for 187 yards to that point in the game!

To his credit, Jauron took full responsibility after the game.


It's nice to hear that honesty. We'll see if it's enough to quiet the swirling rumors about the status of his job.

It would have been easy for the Jets to fall into a trap today against the Rams. The game was against a weak opponent, sandwiched between two divisional road games and the second of those is Thursday in New England. Someone forgot to let the Rams know they should set one.

There wasn't much that went wrong for the Jets today. They cruised down the field and scored on the opening drive, forced a three-and-out and then added a field goal. The game wasn't in doubt after the next Rams possession. Abram Elam came like a cannonball on a safety blitz to force a Marc Bulger fumble, Calvin Pace recovered and returned it for a touchdown. It was 17-0, just 10 minutes were off the clock and things only went downhill from there for the Rams.

It was a complete effort for the Rams as well, completely inept. They turned the ball over five times, gained 200 yards and looked about as happy to be in New Jersey as a low-level mafioso who insulted Tony Soprano's goomah. During the game, I got a text from a friend suggesting that Alabama would beat the Rams. My reply, "So would Michigan," should let anyone familiar with college football know how pathetic the visitors' effort was this afternoon.

Pathetic may seem like a strong word, but, really, based on the way the Rams played, effort is the stretch in that last sentence.

Donald Elam Jr., the brother of New York Jets defensive back Abram Elam, was murdered Friday. It was the third an Elam sibling was shot and killed.

"We're handling it, thanks to the Lord," Elam's father, the Rev. Donald Elam Sr., told the New York Daily News Saturday.

Abram Elam previously had a 12-year-old sister and an 18-year-old brother shot and killed, with all three murders taking place within a mile of the family's home in Riviera Beach, Florida.

There have been no arrests in the death of Donald Elam Jr., who was in and out of prison for much of his life and at age 14 was the youngest person ever charged with murder in Palm Beach. He was acquitted of that charge but was convicted at other times of assault, robbery and weapons charges.

Abram Elam knows the experience of having a sibling die all too well. His half-brother Donald Runner was shot and killed in 1987. His sister Christina Elam was shot and killed in 1999; the Daily News reports that he ran to the park and cradled her blood-soaked body afterward.

When the Jets moved Abram Elam into the starting lineup earlier this season not much was known about the second year player from Kent State. He only played one year at Kent, wasn't drafted and played special teams for Dallas in 2006. It turns out, though, that his story is much longer and much less Horatio Alger than it would seem on the surface.

A fuller picture of Elam's past was published by Rich Cimini in today's Daily News. Elam was once a member of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. He was a sophomore in 2002, expected to be a big contributor to the football team in the fall but his career took a major turn for the worse. After a night out in South Bend, Elam returned to a former teammate's house and everything changed.

In April 2002, a Notre Dame junior named Lindsay Charles accused three football players of raping her at an off-campus house. A fourth, Elam, wasn't charged with rape, but was in the bedroom. Elam fondled her and wound up being convicted of sexual battery, a felony. The others walked away, no convictions.

Elam could have avoided any sentence whatsoever if he testified against the other three players. He didn't and was the only one convicted of any crime. He didn't serve any time, however. The article details the sex acts in graphic detail, as does another article written when Elam was at Kent State. If Elam did what he's accused of he got off easy.

Every week, NFL FanHouse hits the lowlights from Sunday's action, looking at those players who did the most to move their head coaches that much closer to returning to the Bed and Breakfast business.

Chargers Defense
Heading into this game, San Diego's defense ranked 17th against the run, and Minnesota's offense was 8th. That'll likely change. The 2008 Rookie of the Year (they might as well hand out the award), Adrian Peterson, rushed for 296 yards on 30 carries. Two. Nine. Six. He also scored three touchdowns, and nine of his carries went for more than 10 yards. I believe that's called dominating an opponent.

Before Purple Jesus happened, the Chargers had only allowed one rusher to break the century mark -- the Chiefs' Larry Johnson went for 123 in Week 4. And the best back in the league? He gained just 40 yards on 16 carries. One Chargers defender did have a good day, though. Too bad it happened on special teams.

Sorry, No Photos

Every week, NFL FanHouse hits the lowlights from Sunday's action, looking at those players who did the most to move their head coaches that much closer to returning to the Bed and Breakfast business.

Mike Williams, Raiders
I'm starting to think Williams is the problem, not the teams he plays for. The former top-10 pick ate his way out of Detroit (and that's no easy task), landed in Oakland ... and he's still not very good. Quarterback Daunte Culpepper, who is holding down the job until Josh McCown can get healthy or JaMarcus Russell is ready to take over, had another uneven performance against Tennessee. He finished the day 15 of 32 for 167 yards and an interception.

But on the Raiders' last drive of the game, down by four points, Culpepper moved the ball to the Titans' 30-yard line. Facing a fourth-and-14, He hit Williams in stride -- 14 yards downfield -- only to watch Williams muff the pass. Two Vince Young kneel downs later, game over. For the year, Williams has played in five games, hauled in seven passes for 90 yards, and no touchdowns. You know, basically what Randy Moss does in an an average quarter of work.