The first trade that isn’t going to happen is any trade for Anquan Boldin, and the reason is Roy Williams. Dallas gave up a first and a third round pick to acquire Williams from Detroit, and the NFL is a league of relative values. That being said, Arizona simply needs to point to the fact that Boldin has been more productive than Williams the past two seasons to turn down any offer for less than Detroit got. On top of that the teams that would be the most likely trade partner for Boldin (Giants, Ravens, Eagles, Titans) are teams that are known for building their teams through the draft and therefore value their draft picks and don’t trade them away very often.

The second trade that just isn’t going to happen is Julius Peppers to the Niners. This is one trade that seems to be picking up steam around the rumor mill, though it appears to be one of those rumors that is picking up momentum all its own. As far as I can tell the rumor is not based off of anything that Mike Singletary or Scot McCloughan has said but instead it makes sense to the analysts writing the articles so they say there is a high chance of it happening. The reason this isn’t going to happen is because it goes opposite of the direction Singletary has been taking this team, I just don’t see him taking a player that is that expensive and at the age of 29 already has a reputation for complaining.

What I had previously selected as my third trade that might happen I am now hearing just might! I was ready to say that at this point in the season Braylon Edwards better be prepared to re-new his lease on his downtown Cleveland apartment. However, I am hearing that since the Jets have realized that Mangini and the Browns are a pretty easy trade partner (Example: the Jets jumped to the number 5 pick after everyone said they wouldn’t be able to get ahead of 8th pick) they are wondering if they could get Edwards to strengthen their offense for relatively cheap as well. This is not a sure thing, its not even a deal that is in the discussion process, it seems the Jets like the group of young wideouts they have and are waiting to see if one of them can claim the number 2, namely the starting X receiver, but if none of them can, watch for the Jets to look into acquiring Edwards.

When it comes to Leftwich the NFL has always known about the amount of talent he has, after all he was the 7th overall pick in the 2003 NFL draft.  Leftwich has a strong arm that can make every throw on the field and is an accurate passer that is known for his leadership.  However, all of this came with a few caveats, he is injury prone, has a long delivery, and he isn’t very mobile.  None of these characteristics tell me that he is a 16 game starter for a west coast offense.

McCown, on the other hand, has a skill set that very much seems to fit the mold of the west coast QB.  He has a quick release, is good about getting the ball out of his hands quickly, a strong arm, good mobility, and the ability to throw accurately on the move.  Also, McCown has already shown that he does a good job of hitting the slant route and quick outs, both plays are part of the foundation of a west coast passing attack.

When I am trying to figure out whether a QB will work well with a certain system I like to look at the skill sets of the most successful QBs to run that system. For the west coast system the prototype has to be Joe Montana, the QB drafted by the creator of the system (Bill Walsh) to run it.

Its easy to see how different Leftwich and Montana are, Leftwich is 6-5 245lbs with a long release and a canon arm that is best suited launching the ball around the field from the pocket.  Montana played at 6-2 200lbs with quick footwork, a quick release, below average arm strength but excellent accuracy within his arms range.  Luke McCown is 6-3 208lbs with quick feet, a quick release, does a good job of getting the ball out of his hands quickly and has average arm strength for a starting QB.

Montana and the west coast system are all about being quick, the west coast offense is an offense that is based on quick decisions and quick releases from the QB to get the ball out into the hands of his play makers.  There is nothing too quick about Leftwich’s game.  Leftwich is best suited for a system like the one that Pittsburgh runs and that he ran in Jacksonville, one that is based around a strong running game that it uses to open up its passing game to drive the ball deep down the field.

Raheem Morris is saying its an open competition for the starting QB position, and both Leftwich and McCown are making the same amount of money so it does seem like that is the case, and if I were to take a guess I’d say McCown wins an open competition.

Many analysts have said that the Bucs need to improve their QB stable to compete for the division again this year.  However, what moves have the Bucs done that make someone think they are pushing to win the division this year?  Granted no team ever really completely throws away a season, and with some of their offensive moves they have gotten better at a few positions, but looking at how many holes remain on the team (and how many of those wholes were created by releasing veteran players) it doesn’t seem that the Bucs are looking to make a Championship push this year.

That being said, there are a number of coaches and GMs in the league that believe that McCown has the skill set to be a potential starting QB, and has already shown that he has the game management down, and is now ready to take on a larger playbook.  He has fairly prototypical size at 6-3 210lbs, he has shown that he has the necessary arm strength and accuracy to be a good QB, and in 2007 he showed over five games (three starts) that he can make good decisions, complete passes and not throw interceptions.

The problem with evaluating McCown is that most people don’t have much to look at in regards to his play.  His coaches in Tampa Bay are the ones that have seen him the most, and the Jay Cutler trade talks aside they have done the least talking about picking up other QBs so they must like what they see.

Looking at that 2007 season McCown put up good numbers in almost every category.  He completed 67.6 percent of his passes in 139 attempts throwing for 201.8 yards per game and 7.3 yards per attempts throwing 5 TDs to 3 INTs, accumulating in a passer rating of 91.7.  Granted, those numbers are in a system that has been cut down for a back up QB, so what can we expect him to do with a full season and a full playbook?  Well if we were to project his performance in 2007 over a full season he would throw for 3,228 yards with 16 TDs and 10 INTs, nothing amazing but defiantly not bad.

However, if he is the starter McCown will have more asked of him on a game to game basis and the question is whether or not he can handle it.  Looking at the stats that he put at as a back up and the offensive personal that have been gained since he played I am predicting a sold season out of McCown, specifically around 3400 yards, 18 TDs and 13 INTs with a completion percentage of around 62, which would give him a QB rating of 86.9.  This seems to follow the changes in stats that most back ups have in their transition to starters, the yards per game goes up a little bit since they are now trusted to throw more, but because of this the completion percentage goes down, and both the TD and INT percentages go up.

I am not sure if this is how I believe McCowns season will look, but this is what the number analysis is telling me, and if it is right then Raheem Morris will look pretty good for sticking with him.

Cutler and his agent Bus Cook are saying that there were not multiple attempts made over the last week and a half to contact Cutler from the Broncos, but at this point isn’t that what we would expect out of this situation?  Is anyone surprised that both sides had completely different stories on what happens?  You shouldn’t be.

So where could Cutler end up?  The Lions are supposed to be one of the leaders in the Cutler sweepstakes but if they are sold on Matt Stafford they can get him for one first round pick, opposed to the multiple picks or players they would have to package to get Cutler.  The Browns are a possibility because they have two QBs in Quinn and Anderson to trade that could start for the Broncos.   Eric Mangini might not be sold on either of the QBs leading his team and might welcome the idea of adding Cutler.

Derek Anderson is similar in body and skill set to Matt Cassel but then the Browns would have a bit too much money locked into their QB position with Quinn and Cutler (two first rounders) under contract going into the season.  The Bucs could try and get in on it, but I don’t know if they have the ammunition for this type of trade, namely because they don’t have a QB or a D-Lineman to give them, so they would most likely need to get another team like the Browns involved to land Cutler.

The other side of this story is what will become of Denver’s QB position.  They have Chris Simms signed to an oddly large contract for a back up (six million for two years, more than either Orton or Grossman got from the Bears last season), he has lead a team to the playoffs before, and was once considered a bright young arm in the league.  But he has only thrown two passes since his freak spleen injury after which he was completely shunned and held hostage by John Gruden as the number three QB on the Bucs roster since he returned from the injury.

If the Browns are involved in the trade for Cutler the Broncos could end up with either Brady Quinn or Derek Anderson as their starting QB.  The wild-card scenario is drafting a QB, possibly by trading up in the draft using the picks they get for Cutler.  Word around the league as of late is that McDanniels is enamored with Mark Sanchez out of USC.  McDanniels thinks that Sanchez’s mix of leadership, accuracy, and work ethic to be a top notch QB in the league.  However, he does come from the Bellichick team which is used to winning with 6th rounders (Brady) or 7th rounders (Cassel) so grabbing a QB that high might not be in the plan, but at the same time it might make McDanniels ok with sitting Sanchez behind Simms for a season.

Whatever happens I would not be surprised if it happens soon so teams can get their draft boards straightened out.

Last season was supposed to be the beginning of the end for Holt’s career, but he was thirty-two years old, trying to be phased out of an offense (an offense that was anemic to say the least) that was forcing a rookie wide out into the number one role.  Despite these circumstances Holt had sixty-four receptions and was only four yards shy of eight hundred. Granted Holt’s age is one of the factors that tells us that he is on the downside of his career, most players have hit their peaks by the time they are thirty-three, especially at wide receiver.

That being said, however, many wide receivers have had productive seasons between the ages of thirty-three and thirty-five. Terrell Owens just got signed to a 6.5 million dollar 1-year deal, he is going to be thirty-six and only has fifteen hundred more receiving yards in his career than Holt. Owens is a great example of how productive a wide receiver can be in his mid-thirties, he had over one thousand yards receiving in each of the last three seasons where is age was thirty-three, thirty-four, and thirty-five. Granted Owens is a physical specimen and gym rat so his career will age better than most, but looking at their career numbers can someone really say that Owens is that much better than Holt?

When you look at the class of wide receivers that Holt’s career stats have put him in, there are plenty of examples of players who continued to be productive at his age. Tim Brown had three eleven hundred yard seasons and a pro bowl appearance, Chris Carter went to a Pro Bowl three times after he turned thirty-three. Again, this seems like high praise for Holt, but if he gets just two thousand more yards in his career he would have the third most receiving yards in history how things stand now. I’m not saying that Torry Holt is as good of a player as Tim Brown and Chris Carter, but I am saying that there is no reason to think that he can’t be similarly productive towards the end of his career, and there are a lot of teams in the league that could use that kind of production at that position.

The five team stats that I plan on using are: Points, goals for per game, goals against per game, power play, and penalty kill.

Again, this chart is not to rank who the best teams are, as you can tell that the overall rankings are a bit off from the points ranking (and in any sport the only stat that really matters is Wins).  It ranks which teams are playing a better team game which should give us a clue as to who is going to play well in the playoffs going off of the old adage that it takes at team playing as a team to win.

Is this really a fair comparison?  Cutler has already been to a Pro Bowl in just his third season (second as the full time starter) and George never made it to the pro bowl after more than a decade in the league, but he also only threw eighteen interceptions once in his career and Cutler, as already done that one too. The question with Cutler, as with any “gunslinger” type of QB, does his ability to make plays that other QBs can’t over shadow the amount of turnovers he produces when trying to make the tough throw and not succeeding?

Last year Cutler’s interception percentage was 2.9, not horrible, but far from great.  In fact, that is the same interception percentage put up but Tyler Thigpen of the Chiefs, who had many less weapons around him and was forced to create his own play because of it more than Cutler.  That was 2.9 is higher than the 2.3 that Philip Rivers turned in on his way to leading the league in QB rating and touchdowns before getting snubbed out of the Pro Bowl for Cutler who threw for five hundred more yards and seven more interceptions.

In fact, only one QB threw more interceptions than Cutler last year, and almost every other young QB had a lower interception percentage, including but not limited to: Matt Cassel, Aaron Rodgers, Tyler Thigpen, Joe Flacco, Trent Edwards, Matt Ryan, Derek Anderson, JaMarcus Russell, Jason Campbell.  But out of that group only two QBs threw more touchdowns than Cutler’s 25 (Rivers, 34, Rodgers, 28).

This is where the future of Cutler becomes a question mark.  He can obviously do some great things on the football field, but he if moves teams will he be able to continue to complete 62.5 percent of his passes? Will his touchdown percentage of 4.4 be as high if he is on a team that doesn’t have as good of a receiving core and pass protection as the Broncos did last year (which is most)?  And that is why Cutler needs to stop complaining that the new head couch didn’t immediately give the job of franchise savior to him and why he needs to stay and prove that he can be exactly that.  Because he will most likely not find a better place to prove Mel Kiper wrong, and if he talks his way out of a good situation he just may have Kiper saying,  “I told you so” and using Cutler as an example of why teams shouldn’t draft “gunslinger” QBs for the next few years.

The Rockets were lead by their big man Yao Ming who played 45 minutes, added 31 points, 15 rebounds and 2 assists in the win.  With these number, Yao Ming is “The Stat Line Of The Night” for Wednesday March 18th, 2009.

“I need to be more aggressive, I guess,” Yao said. “I’ve been in this situation before. I think I need to do more for the team.”

Indeed he does, if the Rockets want to continue winning Yao Ming needs to step up.

Yao, Artest propel Rockets to double-overtime win – [Sportsline]