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Monday Morning QB (cont.)

Posted: Monday March 5, 2007 1:38AM; Updated: Monday March 5, 2007 9:23PM
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Ahman Green has averaged only 3.8 yards per carry the last two seasons.
Ahman Green has averaged only 3.8 yards per carry the last two seasons.
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2. I think the most likely scenario in the wacky Tampa Bay quarterback story is that Plummer doesn't play again. Ever. He almost certainly won't play this year, and being the man of principle that he is (and not a man who lives and sleeps football ... and I mean that in a good way), he won't like being told if he wants to play again, he has to play for Tampa Bay.

Here's the deal with the Plummer trade: Tampa Bay agreed to send a seventh-round pick to Denver whether he stays retired or not. If he returns to football before the 2008 draft, Tampa Bay will owe Denver a higher pick. The Bucs believe he'll play in 2008. So where does this leave Chris Simms? Ticked off royally, I'd imagine. That's how I'd feel if I was slapped in the face twice in one afternoon.

"I spoke to Chris,'' Tampa Bay's GM Allen said, "and he is not ticked off. The one common ingredient these three guys have is their love of competition. Chris is a gym rat. So is Jeff. Jake is a tremendous competitor.''

Maybe so, but if Simms likes two starting quarterbacks being acquired in one day to compete for his job, then my name is Grantland Rice. One last thing with the Denver part of this saga. It's clear now that Mike Shanahan told the Texans, who wanted Plummer, that he wasn't going to just release him, and it's also clear the Texans called his bluff -- and lost.

3. I think I laughed when I heard Garcia say he'd look forward to having Plummer come to camp and compete for the starting job. That is such a crock; I can't believe anyone out there other than his mother and father would buy it. When Allen was telling me this on Saturday, I interrupted him and said, "Does he have a death wish?''

Players need to understand something sometimes. The people in Sportsville may look like suckers and often act like suckers, but they know when they're being BS-ed.

4. I know the Texans desperately wanted to make a splash in free agency, but Ahman Green? Paying Ahman Green $8 million in 2007? At age 30? Having missed 13 games due to injury the last two years? Having averaged 3.8 yards per carry over the last two years? I'm not saying he can't have a 1,300-yard year in 2007. I'm saying the odds are against it, and Dominic Rhodes or T.J. Duckett, to me, would have been better, and cheaper, options.

5. I think I know they spent a stratospheric $75 million on three non-Pro Bowl offensive linemen, but at the end of the day, the Bills now have a rising-star left tackle in Jason Peters, and two above-average guys in Langston Walker and Dockery, both of whom have quick feet and good power. Offensive line coach Jim McNally was a strong advocate of signing them both, with former McNally pupil Jason Whittle thrown in for the NFL minimum as insurance.

"Could we be wrong about [Dockery and Walker]? Yeah, we could,'' coach Dick Jauron said. "But they're big men with long arms and good feet who play hard. Looking at our team, and our young quarterback [J.P. Losman], we knew we had to protect him, and the best way to do that is to improve an area of our team that needed upgrading.''

6. I think Drew Bledsoe will be this year's Kerry Collins -- eschewing offers through training camp, then, if there's a starting offer he likes, taking it in mid- to late-August, in just enough time to get ready to play the opener for an Oakland or a Houston.

7. I think, first of all, there's almost no chance the Raiders will trade Randy Moss. But if they do, somehow, deal him, unless it's for some ridiculous bounty of picks and/or players, I will be first in line to rip the tar out of them. Here's why.

When the Raiders dealt for Moss in 2005, they did so to give themselves the best downfield weapon in all of football ... the deep threat Al Davis had frothed to acquire for years. The Raiders didn't have the kind of quarterback who could consistently get him the ball. Kerry Collins in '05 gave way to Aaron Brooks last year, and it was laughable when Oakland people talked about Brooks last summer as though he were some sort of savior instead of the organization-killing kind of guy who just doesn't like football. (Ask anyone who's been around Brooks the last couple of years, in New Orleans and Oakland. The guy likes money, not football.)

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