NFL GridIron Gab Daily Digest

Over the past 48 hours, a lot has been going on with players that the Dolphins will take a look at this off-season, and are expected to show some interest in signing them.

• Jason Taylor and his agent have both come out and said that JT will be back for another season in the NFL. For which team Taylor will be playing for, both do not know, but it looks like it is up to the Trifecta on whether or not Taylor will be in Miami next year or not.
• Arizona has reportedly told inside linebacker that they will not tag him with the franchise tag, but instead are going to try and re-sign him through free agency. They say they will not overpay for Dansby and not go after him if he is attracting big money from other teams, but I think the Cards will make a pretty hefty offer at first. This foresights a bidding war for Dansby, including the Cardinals, and most assuredly multiple other teams, but as it looks now, the Dolphins will not be in that bidding war, as Dansby’s pricetag only rises in that situation.
• The Dolphins are also interested in Cardinals receiver Anquan Boldin. The Dolphins have been rumored in thinking about offering a 3rd rounder for Boldin, and the Trifecta offering up a 3rd rounder just like that is not like them. If a trade for Boldin goes through, which the Cardinals general manager Rod Graves said that they will look into all options, the Dolphins will have a plan to get themselves a 3rd round pick back.
• Cardinals safety Antrel Rolle, who the Trifecta was also looking into, is working hard with the Cardinals front office to work out a new contract extension with the Cards. This pretty much means that he will not be coming to the Dolphins this off-season to fill the free safety hole.
• The San Diego Chargers are supposedly shopping around cornerback Antonio Cromartie, and looking to acquire a running back in return. While the Dolphins may or may not be interested in this trade, trading for Cromartie would allow the Fins to switch Sean Smith to free safety, and fill that void. The Dolphins could also garner more draft picks if they were to trade Ronnie Brown for Cromartie. Cromartie did not have as good of a season as he was projected to, so his trade stock did nothing but plummet this year. The Dolphins could get themselves a 3rd/4th round pick in this trade if they were to look into it.

In terms of trades, this could be a busy off-season for the Dolphins, as they have been speculated to either be looking to trade for certain players, or possess certain players that have trade value, such as Tyler Thigpen, Channing Crowder, Greg Camarillo, and Ronnie Brown.

Teams will be looking to acquire players through trades to fill voids this season more than through free agency. The Dolphins have the perfect opportunity to stock up on draft picks this way, and in turn, come back next season with a stock load of new, fresh talent to inject into the Dolphins roster.

According to General Manager Rod Graves, the Cardinals have started addressing some of their roster issues. Graves and Whisenhunt recently cited four players that are receiving the most immediate attention. They are Antrel Rolle, Karlos Dansby, Darnell Docket, and Anquan Boldin.

Rolle is going into the final year of his rookie contract. He is scheduled to receive a $4 million roster bonus at the beginning of next month and more than $8 million in salary this season. Graves reported that they are currently working on negotiating an extension.

Both Whisenhunt and Graves had high praise for Rolle. Whisenhunt stated that "this organization [tries] to keep the good football players, and Antrel is one of those. We are working on it, much like we did with Larry [Fitzgerald] in almost this same type of situation [in 2007]." Fitzgerald is obviously the face of the Cardinals' franchise, so being mentioned as a priority similar to the stand-out receiver is quite a compliment.

Dansby will inevitably become an unrestricted free agent and it is almost as likely that he will not be playing for the Cardinals this season. Graves, however, seemed somewhat hopeful that Arizona can re-sign their inside linebacker. Graves stated that "it's going to depend on [Dansby's] expectations and the kind of interest he gets out there on the open market. We know where we would like to be with Karlos from a contractual standpoint. If we are able to meet that, I think we can get him back. If not, we'll make a decision on it based on the situation."

Graves has consistently stated that they will not chase Dansby if other teams shell out huge dollars. It seems, therefore, that the only way the Cardinals re-sign Dansby is if he doesn't generate top dollar interest on the open market.

Arizona made contact with Dockett and his blight-on-the-NFL agent, Drew Rosenhaus. The two sides talked about the possibility of a contract extension, but nothing is imminent. Graves mentioned that "we are going to take a look at it to see first of all if we can do it and then if it makes sense to do it at this time. But we are going to take an opportunity to study the feasibility."

This basically means that after they take care of everything else, Arizona will determine whether they have enough left to make a serious extension offer. If it isn't "feasible" for Graves and the Cardinals to offer Dockett an extension before he hits free agency, the hopes of re-signing him would decrease dramatically. Based on Dockett's exclamations that he deserves to be one of the highest paid defensive players in football, Darnell will most likely look for the big payday, wherever it may be.

As for the often debated Anquan Boldin, Graves explained that the Cardinals will consider all the options, which include a trade, an extension or allowing Boldin to play out the final year of his contract; which is to say nothing we didn't already know.

A few weeks back we put out a Super Bowl trivia contest for a pair of FLO TV’s, the great product that brings live mobile TV to the small screen.

FLO TV offers more than 3,000 hours of sports programming and more than 1,200 live sporting events this year from such partners as ABC Mobile, CBS Sports, ESPN Mobile TV, Fox Mobile and NBC 2Go. Never miss a game again, and watch all your favorite shows on the run!

Well, here are the pair of winners:

From Bradenton, FL – Tony Walker and from Nashville, TN – Carla Stewart

Congrats to both! Stay tuned, as tomorrow we will be giving away a GREAT pair of Bushnell Binoculars!

Did you know there are actually two sequals to "The Never Ending Story?"

Now they're working on a re-make of the original.  I have to admit, I'm kind of excited.

Okay, back to the Vikings… I half-joked yesterday that a ruling on Thursday morning would probably not end the StarCaps case because the case never seems to end… ever.

And I was right.

According to PFT (who employs an actual lawyer that understands this stuff), Judge Gary Larson ruled that the 2008 drug tests given to Pat and Kevin Williams did indeed violate Minnesota State law.  However, the decision was "split" meaning that some things were also ruled in favor of the NFL.

A trial is set for March 8^th which should resolve the issue as to whether or not the two defensive tackles will be suspended in 2010… unless the American judicial system continues to be never ending just like my favorite children's movie.

When the Eagles signed Stacy Andrews, it seemed like it was killing two birds with one stone. He was projected to be a starter, and could at the very least add some depth to the line. Many also believed that Stacy would help get his younger brother, Shawn, straightened out. Neither of these worked out according to plan.

Stacy saw a very limited amount of play (although raking in $5 million for it) and Shawn Andrews missed the entire season. The elder Andrews did not impress anyone last season and now he is facing the consequences. Being owed a roster bonus over $4 million in April, Andrews will be forced to restructure his contract or find employment else where.

I think this is a good move by the Eagles. Often you hear about players who feel they are outplaying their contract and deserve more money. However, you never hear a player say "I don't think I'm earning my keep around here, why don't you pay me less?" I also like this move as it forces a decision to be made, and one that can have an impact on how the Eagles use the draft in April.

The Eagles are a few elements away from being a dominant team in the NFL and shoring up the offensive line is a big piece of this. I like this call the Eagles are making and hope they continue to be aggressive.

Who knows, maybe the Andrews brothers will be on the unemployment together.

There has been talk about the future of Richard Seymour in Oakland, as the team had already given up a number one for him, and there was talk about if he was going to be back with the team next season. It appears now that he will, as reports from various sources say that he will be with the Raiders long term.

When the Oakland Raiders gave up a 2011 first-round pick for Patriots defensive Richard Seymour, they surely didn’t intend to have him on the team for only a year.

And he’ll apparently be around longer than a year. Unless someone wants to give up two first-round draft picks for his services.

David White of the San Francisco Chronicle reported on Wednesday that the Raiders will use the franchise tag on Seymour if they don’t sign him to a long-term deal.

Adam Schefter of ESPN has confirmed the report. Use of the franchise tag would require the Raiders to offer Seymour a one-year guaranteed contract worth $12.398 million.