FanHouse PaulSpicer

The longest rookie holdout in team history has finally ended, and Derrick Harvey is officially a member of the Jacksonville Jaguars, at least if you believe what John Clayton is reporting at the WWL (via PFT).

A month of stalled negotiations came to an end when Harvey and the Jaguars found creative ways to get around the differences between the seventh pick and the ninth picks in the draft. According to a source, Harvey will receive guarantees of $17,177,500.

His base package will be $23.8 million over the five years. The key tradeoff that ended the holdout was the ability to get $6.2 million of incentives and escalators based on playing time. A source said those escalators and incentives have less of a trigger than the picks above and below him.

Ironic isn't it? Sitting out to get bigger incentives? Or maybe it's not ironic, I can't even really tell anymore. What it is is "too little too late" in terms of Harvey making a timely appearance on the team. He'll still play some, but Paul Spicer is clearly locked and Reggie Hayward has been playing well.

Bear in mind though that Clayton is saying Harvey's contract can get as high as $ 33.4 mil if he makes the Pro Bowl, which means that he should at the very least push the veteran for playing time, assuming he can get caught up. Still, though, missing all of camp and enraging a pretty tranquil fan base just in the name of boosting incentives seems a little ridiculous.

Training camps are underway, the NFL season is right around the corner, and to get you ready for 2008, FanHouse previews all 32 teams, "heat index" style. We'll rate each club in 10 categories on a scale of 1 to 10, high score wins.

Quarterback: David Garrard threw all of three interceptions last year. Three. Three. Despite his questionable pedigree from the Eastern part of my fair state, his incredibly efficient performance earned him a pimped out $60 million deal. If the Jags new-old wideouts can ever get healthy, Garrard might actually live up to the lofty expectations he'll be staring down this season. Heat Index: 8

Running Back: When will Fred Taylor stop? Ever? And will Maurice Jones-Drew be ready for a full time gig when he does? Why is Greg Jones getting paid so much to be a glorified quasi goalline fullback? Why do I have so many friggin' questions about a team that finished second in the NFL in rushing yards per game last year at 149.4? Heat Index: 10

Receivers: Guh. The Jags went out and got Jerry Porter in the offseason to give Garrard a "legit" first option and he immediately got hurt. They also added Troy Williamson who has shown a penchant for dropping the ball, but like Mittens in Carolina, we probably have to reserve judgment until we find out if his greasy mitts in Minny were a result of Tavaris Jackson cooties. Heat Index: 3

The signing of defensive end Bo Schobel by the Jaguars might pass as inauspicious under normal circumstances, simply being the by product of James Wyche going down for the season in the middle of training camp (Achilles).

However, it's kind of tough to ignore the large pink alligator in the room on this one, meaning that first round draft pick defensive end Derrick Harvey is still holding out of camp.

Now, the Jags aren't completely finished by Wyche's injury in terms of personnel, but as RCR at BCC notes, it was a nice point of leverage in the whole Harvey situation.

James, as you might have heard, was having a fantastic camp. His performance is one of the many factors that makes the Jaguars hold such a strong position over Derrick Harvey as the DE corps was holding its own. Wyche would have probably been the 5th DE on the depth chart behind Spicer, Hayward, Groves, and Harvey, but his performance was starting to turn some heads.

And now the only heads that GMs awkwardly watching him fall past them on the waiver list. Oh, and Harvey's as he shakes it back and forth in jubilant, millionaire glee, given that the Jaguars now have nearly zero leverage to hold over him in contract negotiations.

After the Jacksonville Jaguars spent most of their draft on two SEC pass rushers, Paul Spicer wanted to make sure he still had a place on this team. Turns out he had nothing to worry about.

Spicer signed a three-year $10.5 million deal with the Jaguars yesterday. The veteran defensive end had skipped voluntary workouts for a couple of weeks to express his displeasure with the lack of a new deal, but it's all worked out for him -- and just in time, too, since he's getting married in a couple of weeks.

Of course, with Derrick Harvey and Quentin Groves waiting in the wings, the question now is how long Spicer remains a starter. He's recorded 18 sacks in the last three seasons, so it's unlikely that the rookies will replace him immediately. Still, the Jags seem eager to add some youth to their pass rush, and Spicer is 32, which means this will very likely be his last NFL contract. The team might have him tutoring his replacements more than playing by the end of it.

Still, that's not a terrible way to go. How many teachers do you know that make $3.5 million a year?

NFL Offseason Roadmap is a series focused on the needs of NFL teams as they begin the offseason.

1. Offensive Tackle. The Rams have been lucky to have an incredible franchise left tackle for the last 11 seasons, and his play did as much for The Greatest Show on Turf as anyone else. But Orlando Pace has been ludicrously brittle the last two years and, at 32, can't really be depended on anymore. The drop-off in production without Pace has been glaring. On the other side, Alex Barron has been disappointing as a first-round pick; there's so much yellow cloth at Barron's feet on gameday that you'd think he stuffed his jersey with Terrible Towels. In the last four years, Barron ranks behind just Robert Gallery in penalties. On top of the starters, after all of the injuries the Rams endured on the line last year, depth should be considered critical. The easy and obvious answer is Jake Long, who should be available when the Rams pick second. Long can play both sides, which certainly helps, and he can immediately take over for Pace should something happen. If the team needs further depth, Kwame Harris or Damien Woody could be affordable options, and Woody triples as a possible guard and center.

Give Paul Spicer points for honesty. Here's what the Jags' defensive end said in September, after Jets head coach Eric Mangini ratted out his former team blew the lid off PatriotGate:

"Do like the NCAA and kick them out of the playoffs or something ... Put them on probation; they can't go to no playoff games. Roger Goodell has definitely enforced some new rules. He's been hard on players. Now let's see how hard he's going to be with a team ...

This ain't news. I've heard it in the past. They finally got caught. The Patriots got caught. They're busted..."

I'm pretty sure most people outside of New England wouldn't have any problem with the NFL banning the Patriots from the postseason. Commissar Goodell did hand down a punishment, but depending on who you ask, it was just a slap on the wrist. Whatever, four months later, Spicer, appearing on ESPN2's First Take, hasn't changed his mind:

Like most games in the Northeastern United States today, the Jaguars-Steelers matchup will be played in some pretty bad weather. The conditions have to favor Pittsburgh, who have already been part of two Mud Bowls earlier this season.

The Jaguars (9-4) have not played with a game-time temperature below 62 this year, but a temperature of 34 -- with a wind chill of 18 -- is being predicted for Sunday's 1 p.m. kickoff.

Forecasters are calling for at least several inches of snow to fall beginning Sunday morning and carrying into the afternoon, with the snow possibly changing to rain if the temperature climbs slightly.

Featuring the running game won't be a problem for Jacksonville. In fact, that's probably how they prefer it. The ageless Fred Taylor is coming off three straight 100-yard games, and Maurice Jones-Drew is one of the toughest backs in the league to bring down.

Still, running game or not, the Jags aren't used to cold weather. Bob Holtzman just reported on ESPN's Sunday NFL Countdown that according to defensive end Paul Spicer, when the team plane landed yesterday, there were several players staring out the window because they'd never seen snow.

Oh, by the way: Taylor will be looking for Steelers defensive backs to run over. Holtzman also reports that Taylor has taken to watching film to identify defenders he can tread. When asked about today's opponents, Taylor offered this: "With the Pittsburgh secondary, they're all candidates." Somebody alert Anthony Smith.

Jacksonville Jaguars defensive end Paul Spicer is from Indianapolis, so you'd think he would enjoy heading back there for some home-cooked grub once every season. This time, though, he felt the home cookin' was not meant for him.

"We are in Indianapolis. [Bill] Polian give them a little extra in the check. ...

"I felt we did enough to win. We could have done more, but there were some things going on out there that were definitely against us. I don't have to say it. You know what it is. You watched the game. We felt we had a good crew. They're the worst. I bet people at home were wondering what is going on out there. I'm ticked off right now."

Spicer clearly felt that Dallas Clark's fumble was not an incomplete pass, which is what the officials ruled after Tony Dungy challenged the play. The Colts do have a history of using replay to turn turnovers into incompletions, but is that a result of bribery? That's kind of a big accusation.

However, CBS cameras showed Spicer clearly had some ire for Jaguars' receiver Reggie Williams, too. Williams' personal foul penalty in the fourth quarter hurt the team's comeback hopes. Fans in particular are letting Williams have it. Would things be different if rookie Mike Walker hadn't busted up his knee during training camp and ended up on IR? We won't know unless he comes back healthy and makes Williams expendable next year.

That Paul Spicer is a funny dude. The Jaguars defensive lineman called Peyton Manning a "below average quarterback" with "happy feet" in the days leading up to yesterday's Jacksonville-Indy game. And now, after the Colts eked out a 28-25 win, including a 20 of 29, 288, 4 TDs, 1 INT performance from Manning, Spicer has changed his tune.

Spicer couldn't resist taking a jab or two at Colts president Bill Polian after the Jaguars were penalized eight times for 64 yards in Sunday's 28-25 loss at the RCA Dome.

After alluding to one-sided officiating -- the Colts had two penalties for 15 yards -- Spicer boiled over about a key personal-foul penalty assessed to wide receiver Reggie Williams on the second play of the fourth quarter... "That guy was doing stuff after the whistle and Reggie retaliated by pushing the guy away from him and the referee threw a flag which, nine times out of 10, it don't normally get called ... But we are in Indianapolis and Polian gave (the referees) a little extra in the check."

Ah, yes, sour grapes. Look, I won't defend the officiating because, frankly, it's been inconsistent ... well, forever. But to blame a loss solely on penalties is just taking the easy way out. How about not letting Reggie Wayne torch the secondary for 158 yards, or covering Dallas Clark before he catches two more touchdown passes, or here's an idea: put some pressure on that below-average, happy-footed egghead, Peyton Manning?

And if none of that works, just blame the officials. Either way, the Jags are 8-4, have no shot at winning the AFC South, and will have to battle for a wild-card spot.