SB Nation - James Blair

Lions Trade Gerald Alexander to Jaguars for Dennis Northcut

Sean Yuille — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 00:19:37 -0000

According to John Clayton, the Lions have traded safety Gerald Alexander to the Jaguars for wide receiver Dennis Northcutt. Apparently Northcutt found out a trade was imminent earlier in the week, but nothing happened until today. The Lions weren't interested in parting with a draft pick, so they decided to send Alexander to Jacksonville.

Alexander was drafted in 2007 and started every game during his rookie year. A neck injury ended his season early last year after only starting one game. Although Alexander has recovered well from his injury, he became expendable after Louis Delmas was drafted and Marquand Manuel was signed. I was actually just thinking earlier today that the safety position was getting a bit crowded, so I'm not too surprised that Alexander was dealt to the Jaguars. This leaves the Lions with Delmas, Manuel, Kalvin Pearson, Daniel Bullocks, Stuart Schweigert, and LaMarcus Hicks at the safety position.

Northcutt is entering his tenth season in the league. He played for the Browns from 2000 to 2006 before signing a five-year deal with the Jaguars in 2007. He put up solid stats at receiver in Jacksonville and occasionally returned punts.

In other news, the Lions signed undrafted rookie wide receiver Kenneth Harris, who played at Georgia, and released offensive lineman James Blair, formerly of Western Michigan.

Thursday Notes: Lions to Request Sanchez to Do Extra Drills at His Pro Day

Sean Yuille — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 04:43:25 -0000

Thanks to a FanPost for giving me the heads up, the Lions signed offensive guard James Blair and released wide receiver Reggie Ball last week. Blair is from Western Michigan and was a rookie last season. He was a member of the Bengals after being signed as an undrafted free agent and was released during the last round of roster cuts in August.
The Lions aren't going to schedule a private workout with USC quarterback Mark Sanchez. Instead they are going to ask Sanchez to run some extra drills conducted by them at his pro day on April 1. That way they can save time and not have to set up a separate workout with Sanchez.
Upon meeting Sanchez for the first time, Jim Schwartz told him he looks like Vinny Chase from Entourage.
Via PFT on the Sporting News, the Lions aren't going to draft Aaron Curry with the top overall pick, according to Scout.com, because they don't want to pay a linebacker No. 1 pick money. While that wouldn't surprise me, I'm not writing off Curry just yet given the source. After all, this is coming from a network that has the Lions drafting Mark Sanchez with the top overall pick.
If the Lions don't draft Matthew Stafford, Todd McShay thinks they will take Jason Smith. Surprisingly, I agree with him on something for a change.
Tom Lewand was asked about the leaked images of what appears to be the Lions' new logo, and he basically confirmed that it is official, though he didn't directly say that.

"Toy trucks?'' said Lewand, who quickly changed the conversation. "As I've said all along throughout the course of this offseason, even when Jim (Schwartz) was hired, we're looking to get tougher and stronger. We're looking at every way we can get tougher and stronger through the course of this offseason.''
Considering the images we saw earlier this week are of a tougher and stronger looking Bubbles, I will take this as a hint that those images are, in fact, the new logo.
New Buccaneers head coach Raheem Morris spoke very highly of Lions cornerback and former Buc Phillip Buchanon.
Unlike previous years when the Lions openly talked about the draft with the media, Martin Mayhew and Jim Schwartz aren't saying a whole lot that could let other teams figure out what their plans are for it, though Schwartz did talk at length with the media about various things on Wednesday.
Schwartz briefly commented on the Jay Cutler saga by saying this when he was asked about how trading for the Broncos QB may not be an option for the Lions: "I don't know that he ever really was."
Someone tell Mel Kiper to get off his knees, because the amount of love he is throwing in Matthew Stafford's direction is getting old really quickly.
Texans coach Gary Kubiak thinks Dan Orlovsky has "starter ability."
NFL owners approved a change to the draft order that will take effect in 2010 (2009 season, 2010 draft). The change is that playoff teams will get picks 21-32. In the past, only teams that made the Super Bowl could have their draft pick change, creating scenarios where a playoff team actually picked ahead of a non-playoff team (like the Chargers in this year's draft). Under the new format, that won't happen.
Charles Rogers is now in jail and wants to attempt to make a comeback once he is out in a couple weeks. It seems like I have as good of a chance of making it to the NFL as he does right now. Rogers smoked himself into a slow player and has character issues galore. I'm rooting for him, though. If he somehow pulled off a miracle and got back into the NFL, then maybe he could pay the Lions the $8.5 million he owes them. He was actually asked if he has the money to pay them right now during his interview with the AP and declined to comment.

Bengals release Dexter Jackson, three off-season roster players

Kirkendall — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 21:18:20 -0000

In an expected move to free up cap space, and realistically no need for roster depth, the Bengals released Dexter Jackson on Friday, along with practice squad players guard James Blair, defensive end Victor DeGrate and cornerback Marcus Brown.

At safety, after Jackson's release, he Bengals now have six guys under roster.

Chinedum Ndukwe
Marvin White
Chris Crocker
Corey Lynch
Kyries Hebert
Mike Doss

Tuesday afternoon links and notes; practice squad moved to offseason roster

Kirkendall — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 21:23:58 -0000

The Bengals signed seven players onto the offseason roster that were on the team's practice squad.

G James Blair
CB Marcus Brown (McNeese State)
C/G Digger Bujnoch (Cincinnati)
DE Victor DeGrate (Oklahoma State
WR Maurice Purify (Nebraska)
FB J.D. Runnels (Oklahoma)
WR Mario Urrutia (Louisville)

Mark Curnutte is leaving as the Bengals beat writer. No word on who's replacing him. We've never had a problem with Curnutte, he provided us with plenty of information. However, we think that the Enquirer has never fully understood the potential they have with their Bengals blog; where information meets opinion in a messy collision. That's a good blog.

Stacy Andrews, who plans on being back by training camp, is having surgery in Cincinnati on January 5.

Not only is Chris Henry looking to have an "uneventful offseason season", but he says his relationship with head coach Marvin Lewis is "repaired." Forgive us if we've heard that before and remain suspect.

Chick Ludwig agrees with CJ, Bob Bratkowski should be "under heavy scrutiny". But he also thinks tagging Houshmandzadeh would be a mistake.

Lewis' latest press conference proves it, he's no fun.

While Lewis complimented the veteran players for helping keep things stable, but also said "I can't have said it enough times that they weren't quite ready to go when we got started, and that makes a big difference. It's difficult to train on your own at the pace everyone else is keeping with the team." Chad and Houshmandzadeh were within his sights when saying that. We fully stand behind the head coach on that one.

Why Geoff Hobson is examining anything other than tackle for the upcoming NFL draft is beyond me. At the same time, I'm a little flaky on my stance if that means we can get a leader, a play-maker, on defense -- specifically the middle linebacker.

The 2009 schedule based on location.

B.J. doesn't seem too optimistic.

Bengals release Victor Hobson, sign James Blair to PS

Kirkendall — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 21:59:04 -0000

James Blair taking a break from AVP2 as the Predator.

As quickly as Victor Hobson was signed on December 3, he was promptly released one day short of his two week anniversary, to which eventually Ignatius said, "One of the job requirements is a well-developed taste for Mike Brown’s ass." No, I'm not clarifying the context.

However, the Bengals keep auditioning roles. Not necessarily guys that will help us this year; rather finding something that the team can steal in a continuing (some say feeble) effort to upgrade the team's depth by taking a look at guys off the street. With Dhani Jones, and recently Chris Crocker, the team is ~~cheap~~ convinced enough that they can still rotate guys in, hoping to find another Crocker, or Dhani.

Waiving Hobson and filling the team's practice squad by bringing back James Blair, by our count, means that the team is one short of the 53-man limit. And yes, we're arrogant enough to say that we're the only Bengals blog on the net that can fill out three paragraphs about the Bengals releasing Victor Hobson.