thotz, by Peter King…with a kwik Rams thot

Welcome to Camp Hope

Five months after the Super Bowl ended, football is finally back … well, sorta. Training camps are getting started this week, and optimism is high in all 32 locales—including Buffalo, where playoffs have only been a rumor since 1999

By Peter King

http://mmqb.si.com/2014/07/21/buffalo-bills-training-camp-opens/5/

The Fine 15, Pre-Camp Edition

Now this is odd. A Fine 15 some 46 days before the season starts. But there’s nothing like a little controversy to sell papers.

1. Seattle. I like the approach of the coach and the defense (“We’re going to win again, and we don’t care who knows it”) and, from being with Russell Wilson a bit this offseason, I know his approach. He’ll enter camp this week thinking he’s got to beat out Tarvaris Jackson for the starting job.

2. Green Bay. Aaron Rodgers has his weapons and his health, and the schedule’s friendly post-Sept. 4, with the Bills, Jets, Dolphins out of conference on the docket.

3. San Francisco. If I trusted Colin Kaepernick as much as I trust Russell Wilson, 1 and 3 would be reversed.

4. New Orleans. The rich get obscenely richer, and Brandin Cooks wins offensive rookie of the year, and the defense stays stout. Need to survive the schedule: three of the first away, three of the last five away.

5. Indianapolis. I’m buying the Luck hype, plus he gets back one of the great young tight ends in the game—Dwayne Allen. Colts will score loads of points, and could go 6-0 in the AFC South.

6. Denver. Having a hard time getting That Game out of my head.

7. New England. Good chance to start 7-0 before a pretty rough six-game stretch (Chicago, Denver, at Indy, Detroit, at Green Bay, at San Diego).

8. Philadelphia. Chip Kelly, with a year to study. That’s dangerous. Also think Nick Foles wasn’t a fluke.

9. Chicago. Marc Trestman’s acing chemistry class. He’s got Jay Cutler kumbaya-ing in the cafeteria at Halas Hall. And who’s covering those Olajuwon-sized receivers and tight end Martellus Bennett?

10. St. Louis. Might not show up in the record, but the Rams are going to be hell to play, and they’ll be a playoff team if Sam Bradford plays the way he was drafted to play.

11. Arizona. Might not show up in the record, but the Cards are going to be hell to play, and they’ll be a playoff team if Carson Palmer plays close to the way he played in his prime.

12. San Diego. So impressed with the jobs Tom Telesco and Mike McCoy did last year. That’s a tough D to play, and an explosive offense.

13. Cincinnati. Deep and talented, but let me be the 4,672nd guru to say in the last six months, “It all comes down to Dalton.”

14. Carolina. I’d feel better about the Panthers’ chances if the receivers all weren’t told to come to training camp this week wearing name tags.

15. Baltimore. A few too many questions on defense for my liking, particularly rushing the passer.

Five Men, Five Pre Camp Thoughts

On Chris Kluwe. “Scorched earth” would best describe the approach of Kluwe in the wake of the Vikings-issued report that found, basically, one confirmation of a Mike Priefer knock on gays and no evidence to suggest Kluwe was waived for his political views or outspokenness. Kluwe rapped the team for what he felt was a light penalty on Priefer, and for cutting him last year when he’d played well the year before.

Now, Kluwe has written for the site in the past, and he is a smart and engaging person, and he fiercely defends the rights of the oppressed. But I do not see how he justifies poking fun at strength coach Tom Kanavy, who formerly worked at Penn State, by cutting out the seat of his pants and, in an apparent joking way, saying he was a Penn State victim and telling Kanavy to stay away from him while his buttocks were exposed. Kluwe said on Twitter, in justification, that “over half the team” chided Kanavy about the Jerry Sandusky pedophilia, some of them cruelly. That makes no sense to me. It’s justifying what you did the same way gang members do—everybody else was doing it, so why single me out? Kluwe so stridently fought for the right side on other issues, like gay marriage, and it’s just so sordid to join the crowd in making fun of a pedophile. Sounds like Kluwe is going to press a further suit against the Vikings. Laundry will get dirty, on both sides.

One last thing: The investigation’s clumsy attempt to paint Kluwe as a poor punter in 2012 was laughable. He wasn’t the best punter in the league, but judging the number of fair catches as a piece of evidence—which the investigation did—in any discussion of a punter is like saying Dan Jenkins wrote a bad story because it was 800 words long instead of 1,200. In 2012, Kluwe had the best net punting average (39.7 yards per punt) in his eight-year Viking career, and his third-best gross average, at 45.0 yards. He wasn’t a bad outdoor punter, as the investigation suggested. In fact, over his last two seasons, he had a better punting average—45.83 yards per punt—than when he punted indoors (45.30). So, at the end of the day, this is a story that’s not going to paint anyone with a glory brush.

On Mike Priefer. On a spring trip to Minneapolis, I passed through the Vikings’ facility and met Priefer. He was adamant that he was guilty of nothing Kluwe charged him with saying. Well, he tacitly admitted making this statement, which Kluwe and long-snapper Cullen Loeffler said they heard Priefer make on the practice field one day: “We should round up all the gays, send them to an island, and then nuke it till it glows.” Priefer told investigators he was not going to disagree with Loeffler’s memory of the event. And then he apologized Friday, saying, “I regret what has occurred and what I said.” I don’t care if Priefer was kidding, as he claimed. What he said was unconscionable, and he’s lucky to have gotten only a three-game suspension that can be reduced to two games if he completes sensitivity training. It’s an outrageous statement. What kind of message does it send if the coaches, the ones who are supposed to be the most mature, say garbage like that?

On Jimmy Graham. To me, four years and $40 million is eminently fair for Graham, a transcendent player at a suddenly complicated position. Tight end has become the NFL’s Prius position. The NFL tight end is a hybrid—heavier in almost all places than a wide receiver, but lined up all over the map the way a versatile wideout might be, as coaches look for matchup problems for the defense. I can appreciate tight ends being angry that the tight-end franchise number has been depressed ($7.04 million this year, compared to $12.31 million for a wide receiver), and the fair thing would be for the league and Players Association to negotiate a fair-market compromise for a higher franchise tag. But two points occur to me. I was in Seattle for the Saints’ final game of the season last year, a forgettable day for Graham (one catch, eight yards) as he was covered by a variety of Seahawks, including cornerbacks, and was a total non-factor. Something similar happened to him against New England when the Patriots matched cornerback Aqib Talib against him (zero catches) in October in Foxboro. You’ll never convince me Graham would be a great player if he was shadowed by the opponents’ best (and most physical) cornerback each week. As Greg Cosell of NFL Films said, a major strength Graham brings to the New Orleans offense is to be considered a tight end, matched against linebackers and safeties. He could be even more trouble this year if rookie first-rounder Brandin Cooks, as expected, threatens opposing secondaries and directs more coverage his way than, say, a Nick Toon. Finally, this intelligence from Sam Monson of Pro Football Focus: “Four tight ends last season saw a greater percentage of their snaps split out from the formation than Graham, including Tony Gonzalez, a sure-fire Hall of Fame player, but a guy who in 2013 had lost all of his athletic prowess and got by on a combination of veteran savvy and great hands.’’ So Graham wasn’t alone. Lots of tight ends are playing everywhere. It doesn’t mean they have the same skills as wide receivers.

On Aaron Rodgers. I think we’re taking Mr. Rodgers for granted a bit. I’m not a big fan of the traditional NFL passer rating, as you may know, but doing some research for the camp tour, I found Rodgers’ place among active quarterbacks highly, highly impressive. Check out where Rodgers stands among the active Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks: First in rating, second in completion percentage (by nine-hundredths of a point), first in yards per pass attempt, first in touchdown percentage, first in lowest interception percentage. He is 30 years old.

On Tom Coughlin. With his first win this season, the Giants’ coach passes Paul Brown (170) on the all-time list of NFL coaching victories. With his second win, he passes Joe Gibbs (171). Coughlin, with his two Super Bowl wins, is starting to get in yellow-jacket territory.