FanHouse Rick Smith

Save the mustache and the mullet, the John Daly who won the 1991 PGA Championship at Crooked Stick looks a lot like the guy who finished second at last week's Italian Open. The new JD -- 40 pounds lighter and now taking fashion advice from Craig Sager -- finally seems committed to saving his golf career after years of interventions, rehab and falling off the wagon. It's a refreshing change, frankly.

PGA Commissioner Tim Finchem suspended Daly for the first six months of the 2009 season, presumably in response to his latest beer-and-wings-fueled mayhem. But instead of seeking solace at the nearest Hooters, Daly decided to rededicate himself to golf. Again. Last year, golf instructor to the stars Butch Harmon dumped Big John after four months, citing that the most important thing in Daly's life "was getting drunk."

Jake Delhomme is the undoubted goat of the Carolina Panthers' failures last season, because of the 72 six turnovers he had against the Cardinals in the playoffs. Whether he deserves total blame or not is an entirely different issue, but Panthers fans are still going to blame him.

That should make the news that the Cats are talking contract extension with the 34-year-old quarterback go over quite smoothly with the Carolina faithful.

Here is some news that will make you want to leave work Monday and go get some wings and a beer. John Daly has announced he is getting set to return to the European Tour in April and "reclaim his place in the game." In related news, I pulled an ab muscle today laughing.

According to Bud Martin, Daly's manager with SFX World, Daly has spent the time since his last start in December working on his game and his body to prepare for a comeback that will likely start in late April on the PGA European Tour.

Although Martin said he is still negotiating with European officials, the plan is for Daly to play three or four events in Europe. After that, however, it is unclear when he will be able to return to the PGA Tour.

Lots of confusion out there on who is going to get the running back touches for the Texans. I think the confusion exists because I am not sure even the Texans coaches know what they are going to do.

Here's what we know as of today:

1. Green's Injury: Ahman Green was in and out of the lineup for most of last year, and then put on IR due to a bone bruise of his knee. He has recovered from that, but was the anti-weeble in the first preseason game, falling down on his first play without being touched due to a groin injury.

2. Green as Starter: Richard Justice of the Houston Chronicle reports that the coaches believe in that Ahman Green will be back for the beginning of the season. As Justice says in his blog comments:

I was told by both Rick Smith and Gary Kubiak that they think he'll be the starting running back in the regular-season opener. He's telling them he'll be ready, which is different than last season when he was never optimistic about coming back. But the biggest factor is that from a talent standpoint he's light years ahead of the other RBs except for possibly the rookie, and there's no way they're going to throw him out there against the 3-4 in the first game.

And he says more about Green in this other blog post.

3. Green Gone: Justice's colleague, John McClain speculates that if Green doesn't play in the preseason, he is going to get cut.

Lots of confusion out there on who is going to get the running back touches for the Texans. I think the confusion exists because I am not sure even the Texans coaches know what they are going to do.

Here's what we know as of today:

1. Green's Injury: Ahman Green was in and out of the lineup for most of last year, and then put on IR due to a bone bruise of his knee. He has recovered from that, but was the anti-weeble in the first preseason game, falling down on his first play without being touched due to a groin injury.

2. Green as Starter: Richard Justice of the Houston Chronicle reports that the coaches believe in that Ahman Green will be back for the beginning of the season. As Justice says in his blog comments:

I was told by both Rick Smith and Gary Kubiak that they think he'll be the starting running back in the regular-season opener. He's telling them he'll be ready, which is different than last season when he was never optimistic about coming back. But the biggest factor is that from a talent standpoint he's light years ahead of the other RBs except for possibly the rookie, and there's no way they're going to throw him out there against the 3-4 in the first game.

And he says more about Green in this other blog post.

3. Green Gone: Justice's colleague, John McClain speculates that if Green doesn't play in the preseason, he is going to get cut.

Training camps are underway, the NFL season is a month off, 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: In Matt Schaub and Sage Rosenfels, the Texans have two quarterbacks who could start in this QB starved league. Schaub needs to show he can hold up over a full season, and have better decision making in the red zone. Even so, he could end up having a breakout season assuming he and his supporting cast stay relatively healthy. Heat Index: 7

Running Backs: The Texans have been busy fixing so many other parts of their team that they have had little interest in drafting running back with a high pick. The running back group consists of Ahman Green (old and oft injured), Chris Brown (oft injured), Chris Taylor (inexperienced and coming off of injury), Darius Walker (inexperienced), Steve Slaton (3rd round pick rookie and more of a third down back). Coach Gary Kubiak won't want to have to rely on a young player because of concerns about blitz pickup. The best hope for this group is if offensive line guru Alex Gibbs shows some magic in his run blocking teaching that makes this group look good. Heat Index: 4

I suppose somebody somewhere considers this progress: John Daly, dumped earlier in the season by renowned golf coach/egomaniac Butch Harmon, has joined forces with Rick Smith, the guy Phil Mickelson canned to work with Harmon. It's all very incestuous, but Daly's from Arkansas so I'm guessing he's cool with it.

Anyway, Daly met with Smith last Sunday and the two are working together during the PGA Championship. And it looks like they'll have even more time this weekend to hone John's game, because Daly just finished slamming his RV's version of a trunk.

On the upside, Big John shot two rounds in the 70s (74 on Thursday, 75 today), and missed the cut by thismuch*. Long term, it sounds like the Smith-Daly marriage could go a little better than the Harmon-Daly fling:

Sunday, and the two of them are working together during the PGA Championship. "I don't have any business dealing with John's personal life, nor do I want to," said Smith, who recently added Chris DiMarco to his roster of students. "But if John wants help with his golf swing, I'm happy to do it.

He's got unbelievable ability, as everybody knows, and I really think he wants to play better. I like John as a person, because he has a big heart. And I like his ability, which involves more than just hitting the ball a mile. He's got great hands, a wonderful touch around the greens."

No idea what to expect from Daly for the rest of '08, but if he's able to make a few cuts, it'll be a good start.

* thismuch = one stroke

Training camp is finally here and FanHouse breaks down the most important position battles heading into the season, team by team.

Over Gary Kubiak's last two seasons, the Texans have tried to piece together a running game using players that no other team really wanted. They haven't had much of a choice given all the needs of the team and limited salary cap money. Once again this year, the Texans have a group of running backs that few other teams would covet, but they are hoping to get away with it with offensive line guru Alex Gibbs joining the team.

I follow the Texans closer than what is probably mentally advisable, and I have little idea who is going to be the Texans leading rusher this upcoming year. Last year, it was Ron Dayne. Really. The ugliest looking 4.0 YPC average in the league. I know it won't be Ron Dayne this year, unless some how everybody gets hurt and Dayne gets re-signed. (apologies for any mental distress and/or gastrointestinal upset that this last paragraph might have caused).

Texans GM Rick Smith believes that running back will be "one of the most competitive positions in camp," and who am I to disagree? Here's a breakdown of the leading candidates for the running back committee and the pros and cons of them seeing playing time:

A rumor recently surfaced on the TexansTalk message board that former Bears running back Cedric Benson was in the Houston area and that he was telling people that he was closest in his talks with the Texans. I've heard similar gossip from other places, and as fans are interested in this, I think it is worth discussing.

(UPDATE: Adam Schefter from NFL Network is reporting that the Texans have no interest in Cedric Benson. No surprise given their emphasis on acquiring high character players, see below).

Clearly the Texans situation would be appealing to Benson. He would be close to home and playing in front of a crowd that includes Longhorn fans who may be inclined to give him another chance. Kyle Shanahan, the offensive coordinator for the Texans played (!) on the same University of Texas team as Benson.

And most importantly, the Texans have a need for better running back play. Their group of backs is still not where you want it to be for a team that aspires to dominate in the running game. Here's their current lineup:

Ahman Green - Oldish and oft injured
Chris Brown - Oft injured
Steve Slaton - Inexperienced smallish rookie
Chris Taylor - Undrafted inexperienced RB coming off of injury
Darius Walker - Undrafted inexperienced RB

Doesn't exactly inspire confidence. The best analysis of the Texans running back situation as it relates to Benson is from Keith Weiland of InTheBullseye.com (formerly of now-shuttered HoustonProFootball.com):

As yesterday's FanHouse NFL Liveblog discussed, sometimes we hear more about NFL players who are getting in trouble, than the ones who don't.

Ross Tucker, in a worth-reading SI.com story talks about the temptations that NFL players face in their downtime, and the ways that NFL teams are dealing with it. One way is to shorten the time between the offseason program and training camp:

Instead of beginning in mid- to late-March and finishing in mid- to late-June, teams could easily push those dates back in an effort to close the gap of time before training camp. Teams could potentially shift the beginning of their allotted offseason time to the second week of April and finish it sometime in early July and still give the players a couple of weeks off to mentally re-charge before the rigors of training camp begins. This not only would help teams keep a shorter leash on their players, but also satisfy coaches who often worry their players are not putting the time in working out and studying their playbooks during the downtime.

One team subscribing to this theory is Houston. The Texans started their offseason program March 31 and won't conclude until the week after July 4th, leaving less than two weeks between the end of the program and the start of training camp on July 25. It's clear Texans GM Rick Smith and coach Gary Kubiak are hoping this wrinkle will pay dividends on the field.

The theory of a shorter time between the offseason program and the training camp seems to make sense to me, but Tucker cites unnamed league sources who explain why teams are reluctant to do this. It's a copycat league, and well, over-worked coaches would miss their traditional vacation time.