Snap Judgments

As the salary cap has grown dramatically in the past two years thanks to the most recent CBA -- from $85 million in 2006, to $109 million in '07, to $116 million in '08 -- teams have had more financial ability than ever to keep their best players rather than see them enter free agency.

"Players have come to expect the franchise tag now,'' said Baltimore general manager Ozzie Newsome, whose Ravens this week tagged outside linebacker Terrell Suggs. "They know that eventually they're going to get their long-term deals. Maybe not right now, but before July.

"And I just think we've all learned how to use the tag better, and how to use the salary cap. But that is why the franchise tag was put into the CBA in the first place, to give you a chance to keep your best players.''

The downside of all this franchising, of course, is that it weakens the crop of talent that makes it to unrestricted free agency. You think names such as Suggs, Albert Haynesworth, Jared Allen, Nnamdi Asomugha, Marcus Trufant, and Jordan Gross wouldn't have spiced up the marketplace?

"The whole market is just OK,'' 49ers general manager Scot McCloughan said of free agency, which opens Feb. 29. "You're seeing a lot of good players get franchised with that extra money in the cap. But that just makes sense. That's what the cap room is for.''

? USC's Fred Davis is projected to be the only tight end drafted in the first round, and in listening to him on Thursday, he reminded me of an NFL veteran. No, I mean he really reminded me of an NFL veteran. Davis is a dead ringer for former Raiders receiver Tim Brown

Asked if anyone had ever told him he looked like Brown, Davis said yeah, that makes it three times just today.

? Count Bears head coach Lovie Smith among those who doesn't buy that the Patriots might have taped the Rams' Super Bowl walk-through practice in February '02. Smith was Mike Martz's defensive coordinator on that St. Louis team.

"I'm having a hard time remembering last year's (Super Bowl),'' Smith said. "To think back to St. Louis, that's definitely harder for me. What I recall is that we were beaten by a good football team that year. It was an excellent football game. That's about all I remember.''

? A bit of speculation making its way around the combine is that former Panthers and Texans head coach Dom Capers might next surface in New England on Bill Belichick's staff. Capers was most recently Miami's defensive coordinator, but his two-year stint ended when Bill Parcells arrived. Though no announcement has been made by the Patriots, secondary coach Joel Collier is believed to have been let go.