FanHouse RodWoodson

When Rod Woodson takes his place among other revered Pro Football Hall of Fame members during the August 8 Enshrinement Ceremony in Canton, Ohio as part of the Class of 2009, the 11-time Pro Bowler says he won't be thinking about his special status: the 63rd player among 253 members to be elected in his first year of eligibility.

"Just think about how long pro football has been going on -- it's over a hundred years old!'' Woodson marveled during a lengthy one-on-one interview with FanHouse on Monday. "And to think I'm one of the 200-some-odd guys to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame ... I think it's just so surreal."

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

For the fourth straight year, the Miami Dolphins used a second-round pick on a quarterback, selecting West Virginia's Pat White with the 44th overall pick. White, a record-setting player in college, joined John Beck (recently released) and Chad Henne as recent selections, to go along with the trade that brought Daunte Culpepper to Miami prior to the 2006 season.

While there is still some debate as to what type of future White will have in the NFL, the Dolphins view him as a quarterback, while one scout recently told Omar Kelly of the Sun Sentinel that Miami is trying to "revolutionize pro football by bringing the spread to the NFL."

No one disputes that Vontae Davis has the athletic ability to be a great NFL cornerback. But some observers were surprised that the Miami Dolphins chose Davis in the first round of Saturday's draft, because there were concerns about Davis's attitude and work ethic, and because Dophins front office boss Bill Parcells has made clear that he values character in assembling a roster.

Davis's college coach, however, insists that there's absolutely no reason at all to be concerned about Davis -- and even compares his abilities to those of the Hall of Famer Rod Woodson.

Larry Fitzgerald isn't just the league's best wide receiver, he's also a swell guy. Apparently, he might be wiling to take a pay cut to keep Anquan Boldin in Arizona after Sunday. Such a move, while noble, has all sorts of labor-agreement/salary-cap ramifications. Not only that but Drew Rosenhaus, Boldin's agent, made it clear prior to the season that his client wasn't "interested in doing a new contract with the team."

Time heals all wounds and whatnot, but if Boldin does decide that his Cardinals career is over, he'll surely have plenty of suitors. Like, say, the Ravens.

On Tuesday, the NFL announced the finalists for the 2009 Hall of Fame class, a list that contains the NFL's all-time sack leader, a current owner, a former commissioner, and six first-time finalists.

The voters will select a minimum of four and a maximum of seven new members on January 31. The complete list of finalists after the jump.

Despite DeAngelo Hall telling ESPN that the Raiders now have the bestest cornerback tandem in all of professional football, evidently, not everybody's on that bandwagon. CBSSports.com's Clark Judge does the heavy lifting, talking to various NFL types who are in a better position to intelligently comment on such things.

"He's the Chad Johnson of defense," said one NFL assistant. "He's too far gone to know he's gone."...

"The only way the Raiders are the best pair of cornerbacks," said an AFC defensive coordinator, "is when Hall is doing the evaluating. It's like he's a self-proclaimed Muhammad Ali..."

I'm pretty sure the Ocho Cinco quip wasn't meant to be complimentary. That said, someone did point out that the Raiders' corners primarily are in man-coverage, something so other team does with such frequency. As a consequence, they're more likely to give up big plays based solely on the laws of probability. But they should also be in position to break up more passes and register interceptions. In theory, anyway.

Soon-to-be Hall of Famer Rod Woodson thinks Hall, along with Nnamdi Asomugha, will be just fine in Oakland, even if everybody doesn't agree that they're the best CB duo in the league.

Top-6 ain't bad, however, considering the Raiders' recent history.

After it seemed like DeAngelo Hall was destined for Oakland, Mr. Hall himself pointed out that he knew nothing of the matter. And today, NFL Network's Adam Schefter reports that as the Falcons and Raiders talked earlier today, both sides weren't all that optimistic about pulling off the trade.

As MDS at PFT notes, the deal would send a second- and sixth-round pick to Atlanta for Hall, the 2004 eighth-overall pick, "but the Raiders are only interested in consummating the trade if they've worked out a contract that will keep Hall happy, and right now no such contract is in place."

Of course, as Schefter points out, Al Davis could change everything by saying "get this deal done at any cost."

While we wait for that mini-drama to play itself out, Schefter's colleague at NFLN, Rod Woodson, shared some thoughts on what Hall would mean for the Raiders, and where he might be a good fit if things in Oakland fall apart.

This is pretty funny: Marshall Faulk, former Indianapolis Colt, takes Peyton Manning over Tom Brady, which isn't a completely insane idea. But he proceeds to take every other Indy offensive player over their New England counterparts. Offensive line, running backs, tight ends, and yes, even wide receivers.

Props to Rod Woodson for basically calling Faulk a homer, Also, I fully expect Bill Belichick to have Faulk killed.

At the end of this little Joey Porter blurb in today's Miami Herald -- primarily discussing J. Peezy's chances of keeping his job into 2008 even though he's having a dreadful year ... which raises more questions about what, exactly, GM Randy Mueller is doing -- Barry Jackson includes this throwaway line:

The Steelers can't be surprised by his play -- one club official said the team thought he didn't have much left.

I'll admit to being not so much surprised ... just saddened that the Steelers let Porter hit the bricks. Yeah, after a great 2005 season, his 2006 productivity fell off a cliff. He was still underrated in pass coverage -- in a 3-4 blitzing scheme, that's something you can never have enough of: outside linebackers who can play the pass -- but he struggled to get to the quarterback, even when facing just one blocker.

Pittsburgh has a knack for knowing when it's time to cut the chord, although they've had a few missteps over the years. Rod Woodson immediately comes to mind, and while I hate to admit it, Mike Vrabel turned out to be a pretty good player. Of course, I'm still not sure if Vrabel fits into the Steelers' version of the 3-4 defense, but he's fared pretty well in New England. And as Mike Tomlin loves to say, players aren't defined by schemes.

Rod Woodson is probably best known for his years with the Steelers, but he won a Super Bowl with the 2000 Ravens. Now he works on NFL Network, and recently appeared on Doc Walker's Washington, DC-area radio show.

When asked about the five best teams in the league, predictably he led with New England and Indianapolis, followed by Pittsburgh and Jacksonville, and then ... well, I'll let him tell it:

"I would say the Ravens,'' Woodson said of his old team, "but the offense is worse than it was during the Super Bowl year.''

Wow. That's a pretty serious charge. Not only is Woodson implying that this year's offense is dreadful, he's indirectly calling Steve McNair + Kyle Boller worse than Trent Dilfer. But is Woodson right when he says the '07 Ravens' offense is worse than the unit that won a Super Bowl?

According to Football Outsiders, he couldn't be righter. The '00 Ravens ranked 21st in offense (25th passing, 7th running); the '07 version currently ranks 25th (23rd passing, 25th rushing).

This year's team has also suffered some debilitating injuries along the offensive line, and McNair -- unlike Dilfer, or, hell, Boller -- can't throw the ball more than 20 yards downfield. So basically, it's all on Willis McGahee and the defense. During the Super Bowl run, Baltimore's defense was the best in the league; this year's team is 5th. One thing that hasn't changed: the head coach and the Knight Rider haircut.