EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- So you miss a whole year with an injury. You make goofy headlines for storming out of a team meeting two weeks before the start of the season. You're Osi Umenyiora, and for months all you could think about was getting back on a football field, in a real game.
Umenyiora finally did that Sunday night in the Giants' 23-17 victory over the Redskins, and it went about as well as it possibly could have gone. The Giants' star defensive end made the play of the game, stripping Redskins quarterback Jason Campbell of the ball, recovering the fumble and running it back 37 yards for a touchdown to put the Giants up 17-0 in the second quarter.
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- The easy conclusion, if you like jumping to those, is that Albert Haynesworth didn't do much in his Redskins debut. The stat sheet says four tackles -- one for a loss. The Giants put 23 points on the board and won the game. And Haynesworth didn't feel a whole lot like talking about it when it was over.
But with Haynesworth, the easy conclusion misses the point. The numbers to look at are on New York's side, where Brandon Jacobs came up with just 46 yards on 16 carries and the Giants, who led the whole way, were unable to grind out the clock in the second half. The Redskins' defensive line, with their massive free-agent acquisition in the middle, smothered Jacobs and the Giants' running game all night. Not that you'd have known it from the big fella's mood in the locker room.
Amid all these NFL predictions flooding the web this week there are few certainties. But if recent history is any indication, we know for sure that at least one of this year's division winners will be a team that finished in last place a year ago. At least one team has turned the trick every year since the NFL went to the current eight-division format -- 10 teams total in six seasons. The Dolphins did it last year, the Buccaneers the year before, and the Eagles and Saints the year before that.
The reasons for this phenomenon are obvious -- overall parity, four-team divisions, a scheduling system that (basically) makes life easier for the teams at the bottom and tougher for the teams at the top. The only question as the 2009 season dawns is which of last year's last-place finishers will be among this year's division winners. We ranked all eight of them in order of their chances to continue the trend:
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- The Giants didn't like quarterback Andre Woodson enough to keep him on their team when final roster cuts were made Saturday. It's unlikely that the Redskins like him much better. Yet the Redskins signed Woodson on Sunday. Why? Giants coach Tom Coughlin thinks he knows exactly why -- so the Redskins can ask Woodson everything he learned in Giants training camp in advance of Sunday's regular-season opener between...yup, the Giants and the Redskins.
"Why is he in Washington right now? That's pretty obvious, why he's there," Coughlin said with a wide grin after Giants practice Monday. "We'll see. There's no question that's what's going on, but we'll see what transpires. It works both ways a little bit."
It's July, the slowest month of the year for the NFL, and it's driving you nuts. You need a fix. A hit. Anything NFL to pull you through the dog days. FanHouse is here to help with an in-depth look at each division that should have you plenty prepared for training camp. We're calling it the Summer Scramble, and today we take a look at some burning questions in the NFC East. As a bonus, we also predict the order of finish (though we admit it's ridiculously early).
Well, not really, but it felt that way during a two-hour conference call that NFL.com draft guru Mike Mayock held with members of the media this afternoon. I'm pretty sure every NFL writer and every college writer in the country was on the call, and that everyone got to ask a question. Mayock is, I am 100 percent certain, either a computer or the 21st-century version of the robot 2XL (without, of course, the 8-track tapes). Only one time in the entire two hours did he fail to answer a question, and that was because somebody asked about a kicker, and he admitted he didn't really look at kickers in the draft.
The Redskins made the big early splash in this year's free-agent market, inking DT Albert Haynesworth to a seven-year, $100 million contract ($41 million guaranteed). But this latest from Terry McCormick of the Nashville City Paper makes you wonder if Washington needed to pay Hayneworth even half that much:
"Tennessee's final offer to Haynesworth, according to a league source, amounted to a four-year package worth $34 million total, with about $20 million in guarantees, The City Paper learned."
Can't imagine ol' Albert had to think too long about that one.
What a mess. This whole Broncos-Jay Cutler thing has devolved into one of those movies where there's no character to like, nobody for whom to root. The team and its new 32-year-old head coach obviously shoulder plenty of blame. If Josh McDaniels' first act as coach is to run a Pro Bowl quarterback out of town, he'd better turn out to be one heck of a coach. But this is a failed first test. A good coach, a true leader of men, could have found a way to pull Cutler through this and make him into a productive player for the team in spite of the rocky start.
But to lay all of the blame on the team is to let the quarterback off easy. Cutler has conducted himself like a gigantic, spoiled crybaby for the past several weeks. He deserves no sympathy, and the Bears have to be wondering what kind of man, exactly, they just added to their team.
The Redskins accomplished two things on the opening day of free agency: they signed three talented players that will immediately be expected to play key roles. And they killed any chance at having a "decent" season.
Washington will either be very, very good or very, very disappointing -- there is no possibility of simply meeting expectations. Why? Well, when you fork over $180 million for 13.6 percent of your team's starting lineup, you do so with the goal of winning the Super Bowl. Nothing less will be acceptable, not after this.
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- So you miss a whole year with an injury. You make goofy headlines for storming out of a team meeting two weeks before the start of the season. You're Osi Umenyiora, and for months all you could think about was getting back on a football field, in a real game.
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- The easy conclusion, if you like jumping to those, is that 
Amid all these 
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- The 
ASHBURN, Va. -- Just a week ago, 
What a mess. This whole Broncos-
The Redskins accomplished two things on the opening day of free agency: they signed three talented players that will immediately be expected to play key roles. And they killed any chance at having a "decent" season. 
