INDIANAPOLIS - Leftovers as the NFL Scouting Combine rolls on and the assembled media sprint to the airport for late-afternoon or early evening flights home, rejoicing that there is not a repeat of the snowstorm that hit the city last year on this day.
*The general consensus is that there is no consensus No. 1 pick. If running Miami's draft room, I'd try and trade the pick to whatever team gets enamored with Boston College quarterback Matt Ryan. If I'm St. Louis, I stay at No. 2 and draft Michigan left tackle Jake Long. If I'm the Redskins at No. 21, I take the best available pass rusher.
*Virginia Tech safety Brandon Flowers is projected as a late first/early second round pick. There's a big difference between the last pick of the first round and the first pick of the second round.
Last year, Ohio State receiver Anthony Gonzalez went 32nd overall to the Indianapolis and signed a five-year, $10.3 million contract that included a $5.3 million signing bonus. Arizona selected Michigan defensive tackle Alan Branch 33rd overall. Branch's four-year contract included a $2 million signing bonus and $750,000 roster bonuses in 2008, 2009 and 2010.
So, basically, the difference between the picks is $1 million guaranteed. But since Branch's contract is a year shorter, he could sign his second contract sooner.
*Former Redskins quarterback Jeff George, now 39, hasn't started an NFL game since September 2001 (a Redskins Monday nighter in Green Bay). But he's holding out hope he can return to the league. On Friday, George was the quarterback during a workout for Carson-Newman receiver James Banks, who like George is from Indianapolis.
After the workout, which 18 NFL teams attended, George told the Indianapolis Star: "I don't want to blow my own horn, but I felt like I was 22 again. [The NFL scouts were on hand] to check James out, but at the same time, maybe it helped me. I feel good. I'm amazed that I haven't gotten a chance in the last couple years. Every year, I get my hopes up, especially when you look around and see what's in the l league. I'm saying there is a role for me somewhere."
*New Miami coach Tony Sparano - a guy who was coaching in something like Division 4 a decade ago and should be lucky he has a head coaching job considering the aforementioned fact - takes the Arrogance Award at the Combine, and that’s saying something considering most of the NFL is here.
Dolphins writers were told before the week started that Little Tony would be off limits for interviews, puzzling considering that he's a new coach and almost all new coaches take a turn at the podium or, at the very least, meet with the beat reporters at a downtown coffee shop.
Earlier today, I witnessed the following exchange.
Dolphins writer to Little Tony: "Do you have a couple of seconds to talk about how the week is going."
Little Tony to Dolphins writer: "Sure don't."
Little Tony then hopped on an escalator. Not exactly a way to create goodwill among the media. What a moronic strategy.
*Next up is the start of free agency on Friday. It will be interesting to see what kind of dollars Lance Briggs, Alan Faneca and Asante Samuel command. Randy Moss is expected to stay with New England. There aren't a lot of quality free agents on the board and there are teams with a ton of salary cap space to burn. The result will be some astounding deals. I'll predict Samuel to the New York Jets, Briggs to the San Francisco 49ers (even though SF didn't get a big return on its heavy spending last year) and Faneca to the Green Bay Packers (one last enticement for Brett Favre to return).
*I’ll be having an ABA Moment tonight. My flight leaves Indianapolis at 5:25 p.m. and arrives at Chicago at … 5:20 p.m. It brings to mind the great Bob Costas story when he was broadcasting games for the St. Louis Spirits of the old ABA. One morning, the Spirits took a commercial flight from Memphis to St. Louis. A player looked at the boarding card, read the 7 a.m. departure and 6:55 a.m. arrival and said, "I don’t know about you, bro, but I’m not getting on no time machine."
