Earlier this week, EA Sports released the player ratings for Madden 10. And now, with the NFL Draft in the rearview, and nothing else to do between now and training camps, we'll ponder the important questions. Like: How is [Player who is obviously rated too high] rated above [Player who is obviously rated too low]?
Who moved to the head of the NFL class during the draft? Find out with FanHouse's team-by-team 2009 Draft Grades.
Jonathan Ogden retired last summer, leaving the Ravens with a young but deep group of offensive linemen to protect rookie quarterback Joe Flacco. Not surprisingly, Ogden's replacement, Jared Gaither (a former supplementary draft pick) was inconsistent, but occasionally flashed glimpses of big-play potential.
Everyone makes mistakes. But when those mistakes are magnified by intense scrutiny of the NFL draft, well, they become much more embarrassing than, say, my typical Friday morning, mustard-stain-on-khakis incident.
Which is why the NFL FanHouse braintrust got together to determine who is the biggest bust for each NFL team. They're not listed in terms of stupidity -- they're all stupid relative to a team's total draft performance. Meaning, of course, some teams "bust" is much different than another organization's; we did it this way to avoid just linking you to DetroitLions.com.
Instead, we're putting it in current draft order, sans trades, and allowing this list to serve as a reminder of each's team's ability to properly execute a fail. The "bust factor" was based primarily on three things: statistical production (or lack thereof), position in the draft and other available options during that year's draft.
There will be no retired player on the cover of EA Sports' Madden NFL 10. Instead, EA Sports will return to its custom of jinxing an active player picking one of the NFL's biggest stars for the cover of their best-selling annual game.
The game itself won't be released until August, but the process of choosing this year's cover boy is well underway. The company has narrowed its choices down to nine finalists. If you think we're due for a defensive player on the cover, this may be your year.
On Friday, the Oakland Raiders released safety Gibril Wilson, defensive end Kalimba Edwards and wide receiver Ronald Curry, saving the team about $6 million against the 2009 salary cap.
Think back to last offseason when owner Al Davis, in an effort to return his once proud franchise to glory, was signing blank checks with a stamp and passing them out to second-tier free agents like it was the fashionable thing to do. A year later, it's becoming obvious as to how much of a total failure the offseason was.
Because the NFL season never ends, we present our 2009 Offseason Roadmaps for front offices to navigate through the summer.
It was improbable. The Baltimore Ravens made another playoff run in 2008 based on a defense that used the art of suffocation (oh, and Ed Reed) and an offense that improved dramatically over the previous years. John Harbaugh was impressive as coach, putting a rookie quarterback out to toss the ball around and sticking with him through thick (17-29, 248 yards, 2 TDs in Week 9) and thin (11-28, 115 yards, 2 INTs in Week 15).
Now the team has to figure out what to do about a superstar in Ray Lewis, and how they should handle other important positional players (hello Mr. Stover) in order to return to (and move past) the AFC Championship game without their defensive coordinator.
In the months and days leading up to the 2006 NFL Draft, most folks who know about such things figured Texas safety Michael Huff to be a top-10 pick. In looking back through the '06 draft mags, Pro Football Weekly and ESPN had Huff going seventh to the 49ers, and The Sporting News had the Lions taking him with the ninth selection.
In the end, the Raiders -- a team with needs, well, at just about every position -- drafted Huff seventh overall. And that, in all likelihood, was the highlight of his professional career. Huff started every game in '06 and '07, but only managed seven starts last season. In three years, he has 191 tackles and 17 passes defended but just one interception.
Unless the "Suggs Is an Unmitigated Bust" bandwagon got rolling between the time Baltimore drafted him in April and just prior to the start of the 2003 season, I'm not getting the parallel. But as the coaching bromide goes, "it is what it is." The Eric Mangini Jets selected Gholston with the sixth-overall pick in April and now Ryan and new defensive coordinator Mike Pettine have to find a way to make this work.
I've been trying to figure out how the Baltimore Ravens, a team that is usually run with a great deal of efficiency, could allow themselves to be in a position where three of their most important players on defense are all eligible for free agency in the same offseason. As it stands, linebackers Ray Lewis, Terrell Suggs and Bart Scott will all be available to the highest-bidder in late February, assuming, of course, the Ravens don't find a way to keep them.
They won't be able to keep all three, and assuming they use their franchise tag, they might be able to keep two for at least one more season. There's also the possibility that somebody could take one for the team and sign a deal for less than market value.
Each week in the NFL, there are players that impress and players that distress. One week a certain quarterback might toss four touchdowns and run around with his finger in the air while the next he's laying on his back, holding his facemask as the other team returns one of his three interceptions for the game-winning score. With that in mind, here's Studs and Duds.
Who moved to the head of the NFL class during the draft? Find out with FanHouse's team-by-team 2009 Draft Grades.
There will be no retired player on the cover of EA Sports' Madden NFL 10. Instead, EA Sports will return to its custom of jinxing an active player picking one of the NFL's biggest stars for the cover of their best-selling annual game.
On Friday, the Oakland Raiders released safety Gibril Wilson, defensive end Kalimba Edwards and wide receiver Ronald Curry, saving the team about $6 million against the 2009 salary cap.
Because the NFL season never ends, we present our 2009 Offseason Roadmaps for front offices to navigate through the summer. 
In the months and days leading up to the 2006 NFL Draft, most folks who know about such things figured Texas safety Michael Huff to be a top-10 pick. In looking back through the '06 draft mags, Pro Football Weekly and ESPN had Huff going seventh to the 49ers, and The Sporting News had the Lions taking him with the ninth selection. 
During his introductory press conference Wednesday, new Jets head coach Rex Ryan compared rookie linebacker Vernon Gholston to Ravens Pro Bowler Terrell Suggs, suggesting that Suggs had been considered a bust early in his career before the Power of Ryan saved him from himself. 
I've been trying to figure out how the Baltimore Ravens, a team that is usually run with a great deal of efficiency, could allow themselves to be in a position where three of their most important players on defense are all eligible for free agency in the same offseason. As it stands, linebackers Ray Lewis, Terrell Suggs and Bart Scott will all be available to the highest-bidder in late February, assuming, of course, the Ravens don't find a way to keep them.
