Breaking up is hard to do, but if you're LeSean McCoy, apparently it's impossible.
A whole six months has past since the Eagles dealt McCoy to the Bills in exchange for linebacker Kiko Alonso, nowhere near long enough for the traded to keep taking shots at the traders.
In particular, his own replacement. Speaking with GQ magazine, McCoy took aim at new Eagles starting running back DeMarco Murray.
"I think Murray's good," he said. "But I don't see him as competition as far as the best backs. I like my game a lot."
The fact that McCoy likes anything about himself is hardly breaking news. Not seeing Murray as decent enough competition for him, however, raises the eyebrows. Murray, a two-time Pro Bowl selection, led the NFL with 1,845 yards and 13 touchdowns last season, powering the Cowboys to a 12-win campaign and an appearance in the NFC Championship Game.
McCoy also said Bills head coach Rex Ryan "lets you be a man," leaving wide open the silent implication that Eagles head coach Chip Kelly did not, which are strange words coming from the man who took and held Philadelphia's all-time rushing records under Kelly.
Kelly made the trade because he thought he could get better in his backfield. While that remains to be seen, the different style that Murray brings certainly sets up the possibility. Murray is a straight-ahead, north to south rusher, contrasting heavily with McCoy's style (picked up especially during his last season with the Eagles) of looking for the big play, scampering east to west, often resulting in short or lost yardage on plays.
LeSean McCoy will have his first chance to "be a man" when the Bills open their regular season against the Indianapolis Colts at Ralph Wilson Stadium on Sunday.
After learning they'll be without defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul for their season opener on Sunday, the New York Giants learned they may also go without wide receiver Victor Cruz.
Cruz was able to start the team's training camp this summer on the active roster following his recovery from a patellar tendon he tore last season at Philadelphia, but it's been a new injury to his calf that has kept him from practice and preseason games over the last several weeks.
Head coach Tom Coughlin said there have been no positive (or negative) changes to Cruz's new condition that will enable him to take the field.
He also reiterated that the remaining concern surrounds his calf only, not his knee.
"The calf is what set him back. Not the knee. For whatever reason these things are very, very hard to get over," Coughlin said, via the New York Daily News.
The healing of this new injury should be the team's first priority, not getting him back onto the field as soon as possible. Eli Manning already has targets in Odell Beckham, Jr., Rueben Randle, and Preston Parker in line for their season opener against the Cowboys on Sunday.
Don't call it a comeback.
Giants defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul had been reported lately to not be as close to returning to the gridiron as was previously believed, and it looks like those reports are coming true.
Head coach Tom Coughlin said on Wednesday that, while Pierre-Paul is in a good place mentally, he is not ready to take the field and has returned to his native Florida, via the New York Daily News.
The Giants, Coughlin said, will "monitor" his progress while he's there.
One presumes the team will have closer access to him than they had following the July 4th weekend, when Pierre-Paul had to have his right index finger amputated after an accident involving an amateur fireworks display. Team officials tried to see him in the hospital, but went back to New York after spending a week without so much as laying an eye on him.
The geographical distance between player and team may also illustrate a financial distance.
Pierre-Paul is yet to put his name to a $14.8 million franchise tender, a number that will still count against the Giants' salary cap despite the man not being present.
As the 53-man rosters have already been submitted, the Giants can't place him on the Non-Football Injury list and activate him after six games as they could have previously.
Former All-Pro and Pro Bowl defensive end Jason Taylor's face lights up whenever he thinks about Jets head coach Todd Bowles.
"He's freaking perfect," the former Redskin, Dolphin, and Jet said on Thursday.
Taylor spent two seasons with Bowles when he was defensive coordinator with Miami, and Taylor said he saw all he had to during that short stint.
"Schematically, forget about it," Taylor told the New York Post. "There's nobody out there that can touch him."
It wasn't just the playbook that impressed Taylor. More so, it was the disciplinary hold he had over his players before they even took the field.
"He's honest, very honest, and he'll tell the players exactly where they are and what they need to do," Taylor said. "He'll have a very focused, disciplined team that won't have a ton of mental errors or penalties. He won't put up with that."
Though the preseason counts just as little for coaches as it does players, Bowles passed his first test with flying colors. When Sheldon Richardson was in high speed pursuit with the cops with a 12-year-old kid in the back seat, he didn't flinch. When quarterback Geno Smith was slugged by his teammate and his face split in half, Bowles acted swiftly and surely, releasing the perp from the premises and keeping a calm face.
That calm demeanor is not something to take at face value, says Jason Taylor.
"Don't mistake the meekness for weakness, put it that way," Taylor said. "He is very chill and laid back it seems, but he is on top of everything."
The most important thing Bowles needs to be on top of is the Cleveland Browns, who the Jets host on Sunday in their regular season opener. His most important test comes when his "chill" translates into results.
Judging by his past, though, Todd Bowles is someone that can be trusted to get the job done, according to one of his former players.
"If Todd's the head coach, I want to play for Todd," Jason Taylor said. "That's the kind of guy he is. I would run through a brick wall for him."
Giants quarterback Eli Manning noted on Tuesday that there has been "some talking" between his people and the club regarding a new contract extension.
Which is more than can be said for the progress of such talks until this point. And while Manning said he has no certain deadline until which those negotiations can take place, he did make one caveat.
"I'm not a big fan of negotiations going on during the season," he told WFAN. "I'm hoping if this thing is going to get done, it's going to get done very quickly. I would think both sides would want to do it that way and not have these talks continue on."
Apparently, the already rich man is getting picky about when he will be willing to talk to other rich men about making himself richer than he is already.
Manning is entering the final year of his existing contract, and some manner of gibberish has been ongoing between Tom Condon, his agent who wants more money, and Giants co-owner John Mara, who doesn't want to pay too much more money, for most of the offseason.
Nothing has been forthcoming, save words, which are free.
And, despite having apparently said he has no desire to be the NFL's highest paid player, that is precisely what he may become whenever the Giants decide to pay him more.
He'd like that "more" to be in the mail before he throws a gaggle of interceptions to the Cowboys in their regular season opener on Sunday, to not give management any reason to not fork it over.
If there was anything the Washington Redskins needed after their preseason campaign, it was a tight end. Or two.
Until then, they had been going down at an alarming rate. After watching starters Niles Paul and Logan Paulsen trot into doctors' offices and come out with frowns and casts, the club went out and fetched Derek Carrier from the 49ers.
An all-round versatile pass catcher and blocker, Carrier can move in and out of different looks easily, setting blocks for Alfred Morris and making an impact as another target for Kirk Cousins. He played in the Redskins' final two preseason games, starting one, snagging a 13 yard reception and recovering a fumble on special teams.
Ahead of his third pro season, he said he's progressing in his new team's system so far.
"It's going really well," he said. "Every game, every practice, every time I go out on the field, I'm just trying to get better. I'm trying to pick up on little things that I might've missed going through the playbook, and just trying to get better all the time."
Suddenly finding himself in a more prominent role than he had in San Francisco, Carrier says he is learning more of the nuances in the Redskins' playbook that he had the opportunity to learn with his former club.
"It's just a little different how we call things here, and some of the footwork -- the techniques are probably the biggest difference," he said. "Executing those at a high level and being able to do that at a fast pace is probably the biggest thing."
Though they also signed Anthony McCoy, Washington will take only two starting tight ends into Sunday's season opener against the Dolphins, Carrier and Jordan Reed.
"We just focus on our part," Carrier said. "With not as many guys, you just have to be on top of everything just in case something were to happen. So just being prepared, being focused is key, and then everything will take care of itself."
Rasheed Bailey was somewhat of a long shot to make a splash at the wide receiver position in Philadelphia. Too much depth and too much talent, even on a squad that uses a lot of players in the rotation.
That didn't stop most people in the area from rooting for him to make the cut. A local product, out of Roxborough High and Delaware Valley, Bailey was one of those names everybody in the neighborhood was pulling for.
He finished with 10 receptions for 100 yards and a touchdown in the Eagles' preseason.
Then he was cut. It raised an eyebrow. Then he didn't make the practice squad. That raised the other one.
Including Bailey's.
"They loved who I was, what I did, everything about me," Bailey told the Philadelphia Daily News. "That's what's confusing. . . Whatever decision they came up with, it's not up to me. I'm not in the meeting rooms, I don't know what goes on in there. I just know that they liked what I did.
"I was liked by a lot of players. They were as shocked as I was. They would tell me [prior to the final cuts] to relax, that I'm good, that I'd made enough plays."
Not enough in Chip Kelly's eyes, apparently. The Eagles etched two receivers into their 10-man practice squad, Quron Pratt and Freddie Martino. For now, Bailey waits for the next chance to make his way into the NFL.
The Buffalo Bills just couldn't quit Matt Cassel.
The club announced on Tuesday that it would re-sign the quarterback only three days after sending the veteran to the curb.
None of the contractual terms were officially released, but it would be appropriate to assume a pay cut of some sort was in order for Cassel to return to a field that includes E.J. Manuel and declared starter Tyrod Taylor.
Head coach Rex Ryan said during the offseason that it was his plan to keep three quarterbacks on the roster for the coming season. Cassel looked early on like he would lead that tangent, but was steadily outplayed down the stretch and finally unseated by Taylor after his performance against the Steelers in their third exhibition game.
The Bills released tight end Nick O'Leary in a corresponding move days after learning he made the 53 man roster, a list that apparently isn't as binding as he thought.
The Packers inked wide receiver James Jones to a deal immediately after he landed in Wisconsin on Sunday, but waited an extra day to announce the move officially.
To do that, first they had to make some room. Myles White was that room.
White came to the Packers as an undrafted free agent two seasons ago, catching nine passes for 66 yards in seven appearances. Jones brings valuable experience back to the team where he got it. He gained 4,350 yards over six years with quarterback Aaron Rodgers before spending a year with the Raiders and a summer with the Giants.
"He's a good football player," Packers coach Mike McCarthy said of Jones, via the Green Bay Press-Gazette. "Don't lose sight of that. Look at his tape in preseason and last year, he looks like James Jones. He's been a big part of our success in the past."
McCarthy added that Jones will likely be involved in the team's season opener at Chicago.
"I'm looking forward to seeing him in practice Wednesday," he said. "James is a very hard worker. I'm sure he'll be doing the same thing all week to be ready."
Jones' experience should aid the Packers' receiving corps, likely starting straight away as the No. 3 option behind Randall Cobb and Davante Adams. Rookie Ty Montgomery has also made strides and Jeff Janis is a potential, if inconsistent, talent.
"Great to have James back," McCarthy said. "Obviously everybody is excited. He has a certain energy about him. He's obviously a good fit for us, excellent player for us. I'm glad he's back."
Ten former roster hopefuls learned that they made the Philadelphia Eagles' practice squad on Monday. All ten were eligible to make the squad after they cleared waivers at noon on Sunday. Nine of the ten players spent time with the Eagles this offseason.
The Eagles' 10-member practice squad:
RB Raheem Mostert
LB Deontae Skinner
OL Brett Boyko
TE Chris Pantale
CB Randall Evans
OL Malcolm Bunche
WR Quron Pratt
S Ed Reynolds
DE Brian Mihalik
WR Freddie Martino
Mostert, an undrafted rookie free agent, was the Eagles' most productive player from scrimmage in the exhibition season, but the abundance of skill in the backfield pushed him from the starting roster. He's certainly good enough to hang around, though.
Evans was a sixth-round selection in April, but failed to show much of anything this summer. Denzel Rice, who went undrafted by the team, made the squad ahead of Evans after a more productive showing in pass coverage, coming up with two interceptions.
A fifth-round pick in 2014, safety Ed Reynolds finds himself back on the practice team for a second straight year. Tackling troubles kept him one spot shy of the Sunday roster, but some depth concerns at the position could find him promoted if need be.
Wide receiver Rasheed Bailey and outside linebacker Diaheem Watkins did not make the team's practice squad. Bailey, a Philadelphia native and rookie from Delaware Valley, looked a promising talent who caught a touchdown pass in the Eagles' preseason finale.
The effort to get IK Enemkpali back onto a starting NFL roster fell through after the Bills released him to comply with the 53 man mandate.
That doesn't mean he'll be moving out of Orchard Park, though. The Bills will keep the second-year linebacker on their practice squad, according to NFL Media.
Enemkpali had the option to visit with other teams, but elected to stay in Buffalo with Rex Ryan, who coached him when both were with the Jets last season.
The Bills claimed Enemkpali off waivers in August when he was released by New York after he broke starting quarterback Geno Smith's jaw in a locker room altercation. Smith said on Monday that he would not be pressing any charges against his former teammate for giving him the injury that will keep him out of football for six to ten weeks.
Speaking at an annual Packers fan luncheon last Wednesday, head coach Mike McCarthy played his highly-paid role as chief cheerleader for one of the cornerstone programs in the NFL.
"We will proudly stand as the 95th team in the history of the Green Bay Packers when we kick Chicago's ass!" he yelped.
The fans yelped in response as is their right and everyone went home happy. And, it being Wisconsin, heavily sedated by beer and cheese. As, also, is their right.
Meanwhile, down the shores of Lake Michigan at Halas Hall, Bears head coach John Fox sat in his office and wondered how he was going to stop Aaron Rodgers on Sunday at Soldier Field.
It's a prescription the Bears couldn't locate last season following two embarassing defeats to their ancient rivals, and so succumbed to the terminal NFL disease: losing.
The Packers discarded Chicago 55-14 in a Sunday night bloodbath at Lambeau Field following a more respectful decision in Illinois earlier that year. Fox recently viewed those game films. He liked what he saw, from the Packers, that is.
"I looked at the tape. They should be confident," he said on Monday.
Green Bay has had the Bears' number at Soldier Field, not falling there since 2010, and the Packers have taken 10 of their last 11 appearances overall, including the 2010 NFC Championship Game at Soldier Field before claiming Super Bowl XLV.
Steelers defensive coordinator Keith Butler had a look over what he had to field against the Patriots on Sept. 10 and didn't see as much as was there in recent years.
Looking across the field at his foe, aside from quarterback Tom Brady, he identified his No. 1 target: tight end Rob Gronkowski. The Patriots are relatively thin at receiver, making Gronk the most dangerous weapon overall in New England's arsenal.
The solution: "constant contact."
"He has success when people don't put their hands on him," Steelers safety Mike Mitchell said of Gronkowski.
So Butler will direct his pass defenders and tacklers to maul him within the first five years allowed them by the rulebook.
"You just have to jam him up a little bit, mess with his timing," Steelers linebacker Ryan Shazier said. "If you mess up their timing, they are really time-oriented. You have to mess up their timing and get in his face with pressure, then I feel we can slow him down a little bit."
Pittsburgh will get the first crack at stopping Brady as he launches his NFL revenge tour after having his former four-game suspension vanquished by federal judge Richard Berman in connection with his very-much alleged and very-little proven involvement in DeflateGate.
The Steelers' plan to stop Gronkowski has to be supplemented by their plan to stop Brady. If they can't get to the source, their overall effort will prove fruitless. Pittsburgh was 27th overall last season against the pass, permitted 7.8 yards per attempt (the fourth most), and allowed 253 yards per game, better than only five other teams.
That running back committee Titans head coach Ken Whisenhunt is trying to build may be getting another board member.
A day after swapping a conditional draft selection for Browns tailback Terrance West, the Titans might be in the works for Jonas Gray, who they'll be hosting this week, according to ESPN.
Gray went unwanted on waivers after the Patriots ditched him on Saturday.
He's most remembered for a herculean 201 yard rushing night in a rout of the Colts out in Indiana on a Sunday night in November. He averaged 2.1 yards per carry, but after winding up on the wrong end of head coach Bill Belichick's temper, scarcely saw the gridiron down the stretch.
Tennessee had to put David Cobb out to IR pasture last week, but are still fielding Bishop Sankey, Dexter McCluster, Antonio Andrews, West, and now possibly Gray. The surge in population in the Titans' backfield seems to illustrate what is a lack of faith in Sankey, the team's second-round pick last year, to take and keep the job himself.
If you ask Redskins head coach Jay Gruden what he thinks of rookie Brandon Scherff's progress this preseason, you'll get a smile.
"I'm fired up about Brandon," Gruden said.
"He's going against some pretty good players on the defensive line his first couple of weeks. He's got Aaron Donald with the Rams, [Ndamukong] Suh, possibly could be over there. He's got this [Dolphins tackle Earl] Mitchell guy. He's going to have some great challenges early. We'll see how ready he is."
Washington hosts Miami in their regular season opener on Sept. 13 and St. Louis the following week, two ample opportunities for the rookie to prove or disprove himself in Jay Gruden's eyes.
Change has been the motif of Scherff's brief NFL career. He started at left tackle at Iowa, eventually winning the Outland Trophy. The Redskins, who picked him No. 5 overall in April, switched him to right tackle in OTAs before nudging him over one spot during the preseason.
There was some good, there was some bad.
But more of the former than the latter, if you ask Gruden, who says his rookie's best attribute is versatility and his response to coaching.
"The one thing about him is that I feel like he's a mentally tough, stable human being," he said. "It's one thing to get beat every now and then on a nice swim move or a bull rush or something like that, but to not let it affect your play moving forward is very, very important."
Scherff permitted one sack (against Detroit) and one quarterback hit (against Baltimore) in 77 offensive snaps, according to Pro Football Focus.
"We think that's a great quality that Brandon has," Gruden said. "He's going to get beat from time to time, but he's going to bounce back and keep grinding."
The Cleveland Browns being the Cleveland Browns, they signed a quarterback.
The club announced they signed Austin Davis two days after he was released by the St. Louis Rams.
Davis will provide a tidy insurance policy behind declared starter Josh McCown and reliever Johnny Manziel, who still is nursing an elbow problem he acquired this preseason and that kept him from the Browns' final two exhibition games.
Davis started eight games for the Rams, who lost Sam Bradford in a preseason game at Cleveland last August, tossing 12 touchdowns and nine interceptions in the process. It was an overall superior showing than Manziel showed his team in 2014.
That long and fruitless search the Browns have been engaged upon in the last sixteen years is nothing new for those who follow them. Somewhere in the future lies that special someone who can lead the proud franchise to its former glory. Davis likely won't be that someone, but there's a better chance than not that he'll see the field in a Cleveland uniform. The Browns have started at least two quarterbacks since their 2001 campaign.
All that stands ahead of Davis is a 35-year-old veteran and a kid with a bum elbow.
If there was anything the Washington Redskins needed after their black and blue preseason, it was some tight end depth.
On Labor Day Monday, they added Anthony McCoy to the roster to take up some of that space.
McCoy was a sixth-round pick by the Seahawks in 2010, but was released by the team in an effort to trim their roster to the 53 man mandate last week. The Redskins released cornerback Deshazor Everett to make room for McCoy.
Washington lost starters Niles Paul and Logan Paulsen to ankle and toe injuries, respectively, after their first exhibition game, leaving them with only two starters: the talented, if injury-prone, Jordan Reed and Derek Carrier, the object of a trade with the 49ers.
Reed is more of a receiver than blocker and Carrier is an all-round talent. The team employed tackle Tom Compton in some situations this preseason.
McCoy himself is open to injury, however, missing the past two seasons with torn Achilles tendons suffered in his two previous offseason workouts. He has 31 career receptions for 437 yards and three touchdowns.
The Washington Redskins had to choose whether they wanted to expose linebacker Ryan Kerrigan's knee to the preseason to get him some real game reps, or to keep him from wear and tear until the regular season began.
They chose the latter, and Kerrigan, for one, thinks it was the right choice.
"In the long run it'll be more beneficial," he said. "Obviously it's good for the knee and even though you don't play a full game, those hits add up. My knee is feeling great right now."
Kerrigan had surgery in May to remove bone spurs from his left knee, keeping him from the team's spring workouts, but he saw some meaningful time in the summer training camp.
"It would get swollen at times, but my range of motion has been strong and good," he said. "That's always the main thing, to make sure it's bending right."
He doesn't think any offseason rust from his absence in the preseason will prevent everything from bending properly when it counts on Sept. 13 against the Miami Dolphins. Even though hitting is at a premium in such circumstances, his 1-on-1 pass rushing drill work in camp has been mostly at full speed, giving him the opportunity to perfect his first moves off the snap and his quickness.
It's that skill in particular his team needs from him the most this season. They lost linebacker Junior Galette for the year after signing him in August, and his cross-field rushing partners include the largely unproven tandem of Trent Murphy and rookie Preston Smith.
For now, Kerrigan is itching for that initial action.
"It's tough to compare it to years past, but I feel good. I feel fine," he said. "I'm ready to get that first hit out of the way. You're always anxious for that."
Chip Kelly did the NFL one better on Saturday, cutting the Eagles' roster to 52 rather than 53 men, the most high profile name to be spliced from the record being quarterback Tim Tebow.
Not that the Eagles will be going without a third quarterback. It'll just be anyone except Tebow.
"We're not done," he said. "We'll look and see what happens with the waiver wire and whether we add a quarterback to the active roster or to the practice squad, but we'll have a third quarterback in here."
Kelly said the Eagles don't have any particular addition in mind after dealing Matt Barkley to the Cardinals for a conditional pick next year and showing Tebow the door for free. Though the coach thought the latter had improved in many ways, it wasn't enough to make the cut.
Tebow had already spent two years away from the game before spending the offseason with quarterback guru Tom House. His throwing motion had improved, but his overall technique didn't match what Kelly had in mind.
"Tim's really progressed but we didn't feel like he was good enough to be the three right now," Kelly said. "He just needs to get out there and get more reps. He just needs to get more playing time. He needs to get out there and get actual reps. I think he's done a ton on his own from an individual basis, but it's about playing the game and taking the next step."
The thing is, there might not be another NFL team thinking of offering the path for the next step to be taken. Perhaps no coach or scheme was more suited to giving Tebow his best chance than Chip Kelly and his playbook. The fact that Kelly didn't see enough in him may convince other teams to think the same.
Though quarterback Robert Griffin III learned on Saturday that he'll be a member of the Washington Redskins' 53 man roster, he also learned he may not be the No. 2 behind Kirk Cousins.
That job belongs to Colt McCoy, according to Albert Breer of NFL Media. Head coach Jay Gruden had been mum from last Monday, when he promoted Cousins, until now as to what the rest of the position depth chart would look like.
It's still unclear to what degree the decision to put McCoy ahead of Griffin is due to the latter's continuing involvement in the league's concussion protocol, or the fact that McCoy, along with Cousins, merely outplayed the former starter in the preseason. The Redskins only looked like a confident, driving force when one of those two were under center, and like a confused blob with Griffin at the helm this summer.
Then again, it could be those millions of dollars. The Redskins would owe Griffin north of $16 million in full should he fall down and not get back up. A backup is theoretically one snap away from being a starter, so the team would prefer Griffin be theoretically two snaps away from the job, doubling their chances to not pay him.
That's enough reason to place McCoy the Texas Longhorn ahead of Griffin the Baylor Bear. But then, there's the more important reason: McCoy is better than Griffin and always has been.
Breaking up is hard to do, but if you're LeSean McCoy, apparently it's impossible.
