SB Nation - Trai Essex

Cats Gettin Paid

Rodger Sherman — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 22:04:02 -0000

More photos » by Patrick Semansky - AP

Five Saints, one Tyrell Sutton.

So, the way this works is that this week, I'm just continuing my really random posting schedule, but next week is Auburn week. It'll be good.

As for today, t's time for a roundup of professional football playing ex-NU students, and how they're faring so far this fall. All 15 or less of them. And only 13 weeks into the regular season!

And no, I couldn't come up with a better title. Plus, a google search reveals the phrase "Cats gettin paid" was said by Akrobatik in this song featuring Little Brother, and if you don't know about Little Brother, well, hear about them. I'm not sure how combining two great lyricists with one of the best producers in the game doesn't create mainstream waves, but The Listening and The Minstrel Show are top ten albums of the decade in my opinion, just sayin'.

So yeah, Cats gettin paid.

Let's start out with the people in the NFL: 14 ex-Cats are being payed by NFL teams to play football. Of these, two are on their respective teams' active rosters but have not yet played, and two are on practice squads, leaving ten players who have played downs in the NFL this year.

I'ma make you hit the jump for it, though:

Luis Castillo is probably the most prominent NU grad in the NFL, having signed a $43 million dollar contract in the offseason. As you probably know, Luis is San Diego's starting right defensive end, but he's had a pretty off year - in the first 10 games of the year, he had 20 tackles and only two sacks, which seems kinda low, don't it? - and then a calf injury in week 11 has had him out since and he's doubtful right about now. Also, he still has the same name as a baseball player.
Barry Cofield as he has been for the past few years, is the Giants left defensive tackle, and one of NU's vastly important Super Bowl champs. The Giant's defense has fallen off a cliff this year and the team has lost five of seven, but it's not Barry's fault. (And if it is Barry's fault... well, wow, he's pretty bad. But it probably isn't.) In fact, reading briefly about what the Giants blog on this here SBN has said about him, he's been doing pretty decent.
Nick Roach has had a pretty decent sized role for the Bears this year, since Brian Urlacher had a season-ending injury way back in week one. Roach has been starting all over, including a few games at middle linebacker, which is a pretty hard position to randomly move into, and has since swapped out to strong-side linebacker, where he's been great from what I read. He's 3rd on the team with 61 tackles and in a 30-6 win against Cleveland, forced to fumbles. So that's aight.
Trai Essex, NU's other active Super Bowl Champ, has started every gosh-darned game of the season at right guard for the Steelers. Yeah. Oh yeah.
Kevin Bentley, everybody's favorite linebacker for the Houston Texans (depending on your feelings on DeMeco Ryans), is a linebacker for the Houston Texans. He don't start, but he ain't doing too bad. In other "me potentially making things up" news, I thought I remembered seeing him recover a fumble and being like "hey, he went to NU!" but a quick check of the actual stats shows that this never happened. Sippinonpurple.com: where my journalism professors' fears of blogs killing real journalism come true!
Ike Ndukwe got traded from the Miami Dolphins to Kansas City right before the season started. Although initially super excited to go from a potentially decent team in a crappy city like Miami to a terrible one in a gorgeous metropolis like Kansas City, Ike saw he might not get any playing time. Then KC's starting right tackle got injured, and Ike started the first three games of the year, earning the love and friendship of many Kansas City natives. He's back on the bench now, though. You might think this is all totally boring, but it somehow started a 44-comment thread over at the Chief's SBN site.
Zach Streif totally started a game at left tackle for the Saints. I remember this, because they were playing the Jets, and I was watching because I'm a Jets fan, and I got really happy when I saw his name and "Northwestern" on the starting lineups, and then got really sad when I saw him celebrating in the end zone against my team. I may or may not hold a grudge. Anyway, he's played in every game this year, but is still generally a backup behind ex-Towson Tiger Jermon Bushrod, whose apparent only goal in life is proving that the Tigers' 47-14 loss to Northwestern earlier this year was a fluke, considering which school produced the more prodigious New Orleans Saint left tackle.
Tyrell Sutton is a player I pay special attention to, because he's the only person to fall into the middle of the Venn diagram for "Players in the National Football League" and "People Rodger Sherman has had a class with." He was signed by the Packers out of training camp, but they cut him, which turned out to be a smart decision, because injuries and a terrible-to-begin-with running back corps has forced the Pack to give heavy reps to the exhumed corpse of Ahman Green, and if he gets hurt, I hear their GM has Samkon Gado on speed dial. (The Ahman Green part wasn't a joke. He's playing for them. It's 2009.) Anyways, Tyrell caught on with the Carolina Panthers, where he was a fourth-string running back for a long time, but when fullbacks Brad Hoover and Tony Fiametta both got simultaneously injured, that guy who was supposedly undersized to be a Big Ten running back had to see playing time as an NFL fullback, getting three rushes for 15 yards and a catch for 11. And this past weekend against Tampa Bay, with DeAngelo Williams out, we was second-string, earning 6 carries for 38 yards, including a 20 yarder. He's generally been a kick returner - a pretty good one at that - and an occasional third-string back. I saw him get some late-game tick against the Jets a few weekends ago. Him blocking people isn't pretty, because he's like, 5'8, but I think he can stick in the league. He's clearly got the skills to elude people like he did in college, be it returning kicks or running, someone's just gotta give him a chance. For those of you intrigued, here's what he looks like in an NFL uniform - weird that they let him use the LaDanian visor, he never got one of those in college.
Jason Wright has barely played as a third-string running back for the Cardinals behind Beanie Wells and Tim Hightower- two rushes for eight yards, six catches for 38 - but two of those receptions were for touchdowns. This leads me to believe they're probably bringing him in as another blocker or random backfield body on goal line sets and every once in a while he swings out and happens to get open in the end zone. We at NU call this "The Brendan Mitchell".
Marquice Cole has caught on with my Jets. I noticed this when he had a pick in the preseason, and the announcer was like "he went to Northwestern" and I was like "word?" and then the announcer didn't say anything because he couldn't hear me. Anyway, after being cut by three teams in the offseason in the two seasons since he left NU, Cole finally caught on with the Jets after a preseason perfomance that included that pick I mentioned, as you can see here. But as you can see here, he got cut like three days later. But as you can see here, he got signed again like a week later, and has recorded six tackles on special teams. (at least I think they're on special teams. Haven't seen him on the field in actual play yet, then again, I don't get to watch every Jets game out here in Illinois.)

Now, the practice squadders, because being a technicality on an NFL roster is better than being nothing at all:

Brett Basanez, Northwestern's practice squad hero and the one person you can point to if someone ever says there are no NU QB's in the NFL, is spending his third year primarily on the practice squad of an NFL team. His first two were with the Panthers, but you can't spend three years on the same team's practice squad apparently, so he had to move on, and he did, to Chi-town. It doesn't look like he'll break the iron grip Jay Cutler has on throwing passes to Chicago's opponents anytime soon, and second-string Caleb Hanie has only thrown two passes on the season, so Basanez is deep bench.
John Gill has been rocking the Indianapolis Colts' practice squad all season long, making me wonder whether practice squads get rings.

The NFL may have a virtual monopoly on the football world, but that doesn't mean that there aren't other football leagues out there. Northwestern basically runs the UFL, after all.

Prince Kwateng was basically a star for the California Redwoods (jesus these team names are awful). The Prince picked up 20 tackles on a team coached by ex-Northwestern coach Dennis Green. The Daily covered it and stuff.
Tim McGarigle, the guy who somehow holds the NCAA record for tackles, purportedly had a great season for the Florida Tuskers (again with the names!) who went on to the UFL Championship. (then again, there were only four teams, so he had a one in two shot.) There were articles written about him and stuff.
A lot of people heard CJ Bachér was in the UFL and talked about it because the concept of your recent starting quarterback being in the UFL is inherently disappointing. What they didn't know is that Bachér didn't hang on in the UFL - after what was apparently a pick-filled preseason, Bachér got cut by the New York Sentinels, who opted to go with NFL has-beens Quinn Gray and Ingle Martin at the quarterback slot. However, this Sentinels blog (a concept even more depressing than the UFL itself) reports that Bacher got resigned towards the end of the season. Although lord knows whether or not they put the accent aigu on his jersey.
After being cut by the Browns, Noah Herron decided to play for the Sentinels about halfway through the season, and although he suffered a pretty gross injury apparently, he's doing fine. No word on whether or not he stuck out the season. The biggest thing I found searching for news on Noah on google is that he really got screwed over by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in terms of salaries last season.

And now, for my final act, I'll discuss what was in my opinion my weirdest post of the summer: this one, originally written back on my blogspot account about how three ex-NU players - David Oredugba, Demetrius Eaton, and Deante Battle were playing professional football in Finland, of all places. No updates on Oredugba - for all I know, he's still balling in Finland - but I did receive a very cryptic message from Eaton a few weeks after that post.

No hit me up, I have all the answers you need. This is Demetrius. I've been back for the last month and Deante is actually still out there and wont return until the 14th. Some bs happened out there which sent me packing. Hit me for the exclusive!

I hit Demetrius up for the exclusive, but didn't get any further information. According to this post, Battle was back in Evanston tearing up IM football, but I wasn't there to witness it.

So that's that. If you made it through this whole thing, you're a champ. I stay grinding, so, keep coming back for more.

Final Injury/Practice Report: Cincinnati Bengals (6-2) at Pittsburgh Steelers (6-2)

Kirkendall — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 16:04:38 -0000

CINCINNATI BENGALS

DOUBTFUL	PROBABLE
G Evan Mathis (ankle)	WR Andre Caldwell (illness)
LB Keith Rivers (calf)	DE Robert Geathers (hip)
	DT Tank Johnson (illness)
QUESTIONABLE	C Jonathan Luigs (illness)
RB Jeremi Johnson (chest)
DE Frostee Rucker (neck)

PITTSBURGH STEELERS

OUT
RB Carey Davis (hamstring)
DE Travis Kirschke (calf)

Practice

BENGALS	WED	THUR	FRI
RB Jeremi Johnson (chest)	DNP	LP	FP
G Evan Mathis (ankle)	DNP	DNP	DNP
LB Keith Rivers (calf)	DNP	DNP	DNP
RB Cedric Benson (not injury related)	LP	FP	FP
DE Robert Geathers (hip)	LP	LP	LP
DE Frostee Rucker (neck)	LP	LP	FP
S Roy Williams (forearm)	FP	DNP	IR
WR Andre Caldwell (illness)	--	--	DNP
DT Tank Johnson (illness)	--	--	DNP
C Jonathan Luigs (illness)	--	--	DNP

STEELERS	WED	THUR	FRI
RB Carey Davis (hamstring)	DNP	DNP	DNP
G Trai Essex (illness)	DNP	--	--
LB James Farrior (not injury related)	DNP	--	--
DE Travis Kirschke (calf)	DNP	DNP	DNP
CB Deshea Townsend (not injury related)	DNP	--	--
WR Hines Ward (not injury related)	DNP	--	--
S Tyrone Carter (illness)	--	DNP	--

Practice Report: Cincinnati Bengals (6-2) at Pittsburgh Steelers (6-2)

Kirkendall — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 15:54:19 -0000

Every Wednesday, Thursday and Friday evening, we'll (TRY TO) update the practice/injury chart leading up to Sunday's game. The chart is pretty self-explanatory. If the player is listed as out, they're out for the game. If they did not participate, they didn't practice. If they were limited, then they only participated during a portion of practice (typically means missing 11-on-11 drills). If the player is listed as full participation, it simply means that they practiced fully and that the only reason they're listed is because injury was an issue the week before.

Practice

BENGALS	WED	THUR	FRI
RB Jeremi Johnson (chest)	DNP	LP
G Evan Mathis (ankle)	DNP	DNP
LB Keith Rivers (calf)	DNP	DNP
RB Cedric Benson (not injury related)	LP	FP
DE Robert Geathers (hip)	LP	LP
DE Frostee Rucker (neck)	LP	LP
S Roy Williams (forearm)	FP	DNP

STEELERS	WED	THUR	FRI
RB Carey Davis (hamstring)	DNP	DNP
G Trai Essex (illness)	DNP	--
LB James Farrior (not injury related)	DNP	--
DE Travis Kirschke (calf)	DNP	DNP
CB Deshea Townsend (not injury related)	DNP	--
WR Hines Ward (not injury related)	DNP	--
S Tyrone Carter (illness)	--	DNP

Vikings (6-0) @ Steelers (4-2) - Key Matchup #2 - Kevin Williams vs. Steelers Interior O-Line

Blitzburgh — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 09:42:30 -0000

What an exciting weekend of football ahead of fans of the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Minnesota Vikings. Two of the NFL's most historic and storied franchises squaring off in an October showdown of teams with Super Bowl aspirations. I'm going to leave much of my analysis of the game for a bit later in the week, but I wanted to begin by laying out what some of the key matchups will be on both sides of the ball. From there, you all (and hopefully Vikings fans as well) jump in and lend your take(s). There's plenty of top shelf matchups in this one - both one-on-one as well as unit-against-unit.

We first looked at Jared Allen vs. Max Starks.

Let's now move on to another pivotal matchup - defensive tackle Kevin Williams vs. the interior offensive linemen of the Steelers (Chris Kemoeatu, Justin Hartwig, Trai Essex). Defensive end Jared Allen gets all the publicity for his sacks and entertaining personality, but it's really Kevin Williams (and to a lesser extent Pat these days) that do much of the heavy lifting for Minnesota's defense clogging up running lanes and collapsing the pocket up the middle so that Allen can do his thing on the perimeter. Collectively, they make one heckuva front-four.

There's more.

Kevin Williams vs. The Steelers Interior O-Line

Why highlight both guards and the center when talking about Kevin Williams? Well, as one of the two DTs in Minnesota's 4-3 defense, he might find himself lined up over all of them by game's end. Justin Hartwig will have to have an outstanding game helping both Essex and Kemoeatu at various stages in the game. And when he does help out on whichever side K. Williams is shaded to, the guard on the other side will have to rise up to the challenge against Pat Williams, the other imposing tackle for Minnesota.

The Willaims beasts in the middle (630 pounds between the two) are as good a run-stopping duo in all of football. Since 2005 when Pat left the Buffalo Bills via free agency to sign an incredibly lucrative free agent deal with the Vikings in 2005, Vikings have consistently been next to impossible to run the ball against. After finishing 2005 with the 19th ranked rush defense, the Vikings have led the league in fewest rushing yards allowed each of the past three years.

At 29 years of age, I don't think there's any debating that Kevin is the better of the two at this point. Pat is 36 on and on the downhill side of an extremely durable, productive and long career. But he's still good enough to give an offensive line like Pittsburgh's problems potentially. It certainly helps that this one will be at Heinz Field rather than in the deafening indoor Metro Dome. I also think that Pittsburgh's big eaters up front are playing with a lot of confidence right now. I try not to quantify phantom things like momentum and confidence too often, but I will here because I think it's imperative for an offensive line to be confident - at least mentally confident that they know the assignments of each and every position along the line. It's a lot easier to hold your own down there I'd imagine if you're at least not wasting precious time and focus thinking about your assignments.

Will the Steelers be able to get the run game going against the formidable duo in the middle? It's possible, if only because the Vikings might game plan predominantly for the Steelers passing attack while hoping/assuming that the Williamses will be able to clog running lanes well enough on their own. Perhaps more importantly, the interior of the Steelers offensive line must hold up in the passing game. The Steelers have struggled the most when the pocket has collapsed up the middle (think Tennessee and Philly games last year). And they've not generally been great against 4-3 defenses featuring two forces at defensive tackle. Will they be up to the challenge on Sunday of taking on one of the game's very best defensive duos in the trenches? We will see. Can't wait!

Go Steelers!

Poll

Pittsburgh will have ____ 100 yards of rushing on Sunday (Roethlisberger's total included).

Less than

1106 votes

More than

1175 votes

2281 votes | Poll has closed

Steelers Rookies Seeing Significant Playing Time

Blitzburgh — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 23:00:39 -0000

I just wanted to throw this discussion starter out there to see what some of you guys thought - are the Steelers making more little mistakes early on in the 2009 season because they are working in a high volume of rookies compared to in years past? It's fairly well documented that rookies don't often see the field much during their first season in Pittsburgh. There have been exceptions, for sure, but for the most part, players are forced to learn the ropes for a year or two behind more seasoned, veteran players before getting their first real crack at making an impact for the Black 'n Gold.

Take last season, for example. The 2008 Rookie of the Year for Pittsburgh was reserve linebacker and special teams contributor, Patrick Bailey, an undrafted free agent rookie out of Duke. Donovan Woods (also undrafted) saw the field sparingly; so did Bruce Davis, the team's 3rd round pick. Other than that though, there was very little playing time for any of Pittsburgh's 1st year players last year.

What about in 2005, the other recent year Pittsburgh won the Super Bowl? The Steelers were introduced the services of Heath Miller that year, and he played quite a bit and fairly well. There was also rookie cornerback Bryant McFadden, who was also forced in to action later in the year due to injuries. Outside of those two, the Steelers other crop of rookies didn't play too much. Trai Essex was used sparingly; same with Chris Kemoeatu and Nate Washington. Undrafted free agent Andre Frazier made a few plays on special teams, and rookie long snapper Greg Warren saw playing time. That's about it though.

This year, the Steelers are incorporating quite a few first year players in to the fold. And they're doing so with mixed results I'd say. 1st round pick Ziggy Hood has played very little, but has appeared in all three games. The team's two 3rd round picks - Mike Wallace and Keenan Lewis - have also played early on. Wallace of course has been largely spectacular through three games. He caught 7 passes for 102 yards in Sunday's loss and now has 12 catches on the year, and at least 2 in each of his first three professional games. Despite his outstanding play, he's nevertheless made a few rookie mistakes the past two weeks. The most notable one came last week when he didn't stay in bounds late in the 4th quarter when the Steelers were on the move and trying to set up a potential Jeff Reed game-winning FG. By not staying in bounds, the Steelers left enough time on the clock for Jay Cutler to engineer a game-winning drive of his own following Reed's second costly miss. Wallace looks like he's going to be a player, but he can still help the Steelers chances of winning by eliminating some of the small, mental mistakes that players tend to outgrow as their careers progress.

Then there's Joe Burnett, who muffed his way out of a more prominent role on special teams during the preseason. By doing so, he opened up the door for Stefan Logan to win the return duties. That's all fine and well, and congratulations to Logan for seizing the opportunity and performing fairly well so far, but giving up a roster spot for a return specialist perhaps also has repercussions that aren't necessarily visible or easy to identify just yet.

Then there's Frank Summers, who also was seeing the field frequently before sitting this past Sunday's game out. Summers has shown promise on special teams and he's got every opportunity in the world to learn the nuances of being a professional fullback. But for now, he's missing assignments and not really making his big, bruising frame work for him or the running game.

Again, I'm not really pointing to specific plays or instances where the 2009 Steelers rookie class has cost the team. I'm just making a general point that the team is working in far more young bodies than we are accustomed to. This will pay dividends for the organization down the road, and perhaps even for this team later on in the 2009 season. There will be more growing pains though I'd guess before things really all start to come together for this particular squad. That's part of the process and the reality of life in the National Football League. As fans, we must be both excited about all the fresh talent in the pipeline while also remaining realistic about the growing curve that these young players must face and overcome before consistently contributing to a ballclub with championship aspirations.

Thoughts?

BTSC Steelers Daily Six Pack- Players Of The Decade Edition

drinkyourmilkshake — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 18:47:58 -0000

IX-J.J. Cooper of AOL Fanhouse says that the new four year contract for Max Starks and the extension of Trai Essex signals that the Steelers confidence that Tony Hills will start at tackle or even be able to be a back-up in 2009 is extremely low. He implies that Hills will spend another year on the practice squad and makes it sound like Hills will be the latest in a growing line of Steelers o-line draft picks who haven't panned out in recent years.

X-Two of the top 25 players of the decade according to ESPN.com are Pittsburgh Steelers. Troy Polamalu (19th) and Ben Roethlisberger (21st) were both chosen by a group of ESPN writers thanks in large part to both of them winning two Super Bowl rings. Besides Brady, Big Ben is the only QB two win multiple Super Bowls, so his ranking is justified, but his one pro-bowl is by far the lowest of any player on the list. I think he should be on the list, but I am somewhat surprised he is to be honest. Who are the players you think should be on that list?

XIII- An awesome piece on the soon to be inducted Hall of Famer, Rod Woodson, from Ed Bouchette. Bouchette says while Woodson may have moved on from the Steelers on a sour note after the 1996 season, his heart will always remain with the Steelers. Sadly the most vivid memory I have of Woodson is seeing him tear his ACL, and I remember being very young and thinking that his career in Pittsburgh may be done after that day. While Woodson recovered and had many more stellar seasons afterwards, the Steelers and Woodson were never the same together.

XIV-Dick LeBeau was honored by friends, and former colleagues at London High School, in Ohio. Over 400 people were in attendance to help raise funds for the what we eventually be named the "LeBeau Field House."

XL-N.Y. Times columnist KC Joyner gives a few reasons why the Steelers should be considered one of the top contenders to win Super Bowl XLIV. While the article is put together well and has good points, I am exhausted from hearing about who could and should be contenders, I can't wait for the season to start.

XLIII-Dan Rooney was confirmed by the U.S. Senate to be the embassedor to Ireland late last week, and he will arrive in Dublin on Thursday to prosent his credentials to the Irish President and then will be invovled in mutliple receptions and galas in the coming days.

OVERTIME- Tune into NFL Total Access tonight at 7pm on NFL network to hear Mike Tomlin talk about Rashard Mendenhall. According the the official NFL Network Twitter Account "Coach Tomlin has some interesting comments to Steve Wyche on Rashard Mendenhall, Monday Total Access 7 ET."

BTSC Steelers Daily Six Pack- Tony Hills Edition

drinkyourmilkshake — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 16:36:33 -0000

IX- Tony Hills is ready to compete this year after struggling to make an impact in his rookie season. He says he has added between five and ten pounds of muscle and is eager to learn how to play four positions on the line to become as valuable as Trai Essex. Make sure to check out the quote about Bruce Davis and Tony Hills from Mike Tomlin, it's another great one that could be entered in next years version of the Tomlinism tournament.

X-The Steelers will be going bowling this afternoon instead of participating in some of the last sessions of this O.T.A. This evening they will also be presented with their 2008 Super Bowl Championship rings, you can check out the rings before and get a description of all the elements before anyone else over at the Steelers Official Website. On a somewhat un-related not, did you know that Jerome Bettis is one hell of a bowler? He has an average over 200 and has posted a perfect game in his past, so perhaps with his recent unemployment he can go on tour with the P.B.A.

XIII- Debra Miller and her three grandsons will have a Champions House built by Habitat for Humanity. But on Monday afternoon a group of Steeler players attempted to help out. From some of the quotes from the WTAE report, I'm not sure her house will be standing long enough for her to pay off the 30 year mortgage. Here's a few of my favorites from their report:

"We got Deshea Townsend in there using a nail gun like he's in a western or something,"

"Somebody needs to get Willie P [Parker]. He's just painting too fast. He wants to do everything fast. He's not on the football field -- somebody needs to tell him,"

XIV- Mondessi's House has two good posts, one about Steelers fan and rock-star Brett Michael's near decapitation at the Tony Awards on Sunday, and they other is about the Hines Wards' all star softball event. They event raised over $7000 dollars for the fallen heroes foundation. Besides Rush Limbaugh, and Brett Michael's can anyone else think of famous celebrities that also happen to be Steeler fans?

XL- It's now or never for the Pittsburgh Penguins who are playing elimination game tonight in Pittsburgh. For some motivation to root for them during this make or break game check out D.C. Steeler nation's thoughts. Also check out Pensburgh for the live blog tonight at 8pm.

XLIII- Former Steelers Coach Bill Cowher along with current Raven's head coach John Harbaugh will be visiting troops for several days in the inaugural NFL-USO Coaches Tour. The event which will send the two coaches along with Tom Coughlin, John Gruden, and Jeff Fisher in a tour around the Persian Gulf Region to meet and greet with soldiers to boost moral.

Overtime-: Thanks to the BTSC Twitter Feed for pointing this one out. Quite possibly the best headline in the history of time; " Tom Brady Fell Out of a Boat." Perhaps he was too busy jamming along to the video below to stay in the boat. Sing it T-Pain!

Random Ramsdom, 2/10: Free agent linkage

VanRam — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 17:02:06 -0000

With teams, mostly the Browns and Lions, making cuts already, the free agent season is unofficially underway...or least the roster construction-through-deconstruction phase. Right now, there is plenty of interesting fodder out there for some Rams armchair GM'ing, but mostly the news doesn't rise to the occasion of a full post. Thus I present you with some free agent-related links of interest.

The Steelers have three, count 'em three, offensive tackles up for unrestricted free agency. Max Starks got the franchise tag last season, and might again. Marvel Smith, 30, sat out the season after Oct. 5 with back problems, but his agent says he's healthy. Competent and versatile backup Trai Essex could get starting money on the market. At, 26, he's worth kicking the tires on, and could be the challenger the Rams need at right tackle. \
NY Giants backup QB David Carr was resigned by the G-Men yesterday. We had talked about Carr as a potential candidate to compete with Bulger.
Speaking of competition for Marc Bulger, the Steelers current backup QB, Byron Leftwich wants to compete for a starting job. Could be expensive though.
With 11 picks in the draft this year, the Cowboys will likely be looking to make some trades.
Giants S James Butler might not be resigned. Given his connection to Spagnuolo and his business partner Tye Hill could we see him in a Rams uniform?