Training camp burning questions (cont.)

Adam Jones will be under the microscope at Cowboys camp in Oxnard, Calif.

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5. Who will be more choir boy than Cowboy at Dallas' training camp?

Six weeks of good behavior is all that stands between Pacman, oops, Adam Jones and reinstatement to the NFL. If the ex-Titans cornerback and poster child for the league's get-tough approach to personal conduct can't stay off commissioner Goodell's radar screen between now until Sept. 1, then heaven (and Michael Irvin) help him.

I don't know exactly what there is to do at night in Oxnard, Calif., where the Cowboys will return to train this year, but I'm guessing there won't be a lot of personal time built into Jones' schedule outside of bathroom breaks. After his experience of the past year and a half, when his NFL career was very much in limbo, six more weeks of waiting should be a snap.

6. What's the over-under on Lane Kiffin making it through the Raiders entire camp as head coach?

If memory serves, it's been 30 years since an NFL head coach was whacked during the preseason. What, you forgot the Rams lowered the boom on Hall of Famer George Allen after just two exhibition games in 1978, launching the team's Ray Malavasi era? Time flies, eh?

Kiffin's job status was on life support at times during the early offseason, but even Raiders owner Al Davis isn't impulsive enough to throw his baby-faced coach out with the bath water in the middle of August. No, the real question figures to be whether Kiffin can survive until the end of September, when Oakland reaches its Week 5 bye?

Make no mistake, Davis and Kiffin can barely stand each other. But it is losses that will prompt the owner to push the eject button. The Raiders in the season's first four weeks face all three of their AFC West opponents, along with a Week 3 trip to Buffalo. If Oakland goes 0-4 or 1-3 in that span, and looks anemic on offense doing it, Big Al could tell Lane to hit the road.

7. How many headlines will Michael Strahan create for the Giants this year in camp?

Just like last year, Strahan won't be in Albany when the Giants convene next week, but that doesn't mean he won't be making news again. He's a bona fide TV commentator now, and that means he's getting paid for his opinions. Don't you just know he's going to have a few about the men in Blue? I figure mid-August is right around when he'll start flexing his verbal muscles, causing some sort of distraction for his old coach, Tom Coughlin, and maybe a few ex-teammates.

At the very least, you know Strahan is going to have to out-Tiki Tiki Barber, who got last year's Giants camp off to a rousing start by questioning Eli Manning's leadership abilities from his newly created TV analyst perch. They're probably already clearing space on the back pages of New York City tabloids.

8. What will be the big-trend story of the preseason in the NFL?

There is that little Favre matter to untangle, but that'll get settled once Jimmy Carter flies to Wisconsin and gets involved. My hunch is by the middle of next month, they'll be a growing cacophony of protest from the league's coaches regarding the new 80-man preseason roster limit. It'll be blamed for everything just shy of the demise of our nation's literacy rate.

Fewer kickers and punters and snappers (Oh my!) is one of the consequences of teams no longer having the NFL Europa roster exemptions at their disposal. But when some key starters begin going down to season-ending injuries because they had to play more in preseason games, that's when the, uh, spit, will hit the fan. Count on it.

9. Who besides the video guy is going to get the most scrutiny in New England this preseason?

I'd say for the first time in quite a while the pressure's on the Patriots offensive line, who are now known as the Turnstile Five after the Giants defensive front repeatedly blew past them in last February's shocking Super Bowl upset. New England's offensive line got exposed in that game, and the result was quarterback Tom Brady getting hit like we've never seen before.

Brady makes the Patriots line look better than it really is at times because he gets rid of the ball so quickly and smoothly, anticipating pressure by calmly moving around in the pocket. Not that New England runs any slouches out there, but left tackle Matt Light in particular has been handed his motivational fodder for 2008, and the group as a whole needs to prove that what happened against New York was the aberration, not the blueprint that Patriots opponents will be able to follow.