NFL GridIron Gab Daily Digest

Tampa Bay has the best assortment of young talent in the league and look to add more. Here are some predictions for the NFC South's 2011 draft class:

1. The Bucs will take at least two defensive ends and the first one will get at least 9 sacks this season. I am not saying this because they took twos of DT and WR last year, but more because this is a position of need and the Bucs will probably trade down and get more picks. Raheem is an expert in the cover-2 and the McCoy-Price combo will be much better in their second year, giving big sack totals to the first end they take.

2. The Saints will do what they did just once last draft: add a skill position player on offense. Colston, Thomas and Ivory are proof that Sean Payton can find talent anywhere in the draft. The Saints may seem like a stacked team on offense – and they are -, but they did take a serious step backwards in big plays (though you could argue Drew Brees' 58 pass plays of 20+ yards two seasons ago – only 47 last year – was anomalous given his lack of arm strength). Additionally, all of their top three running backs (including Bush, who probably won't be back) missed games with injury.

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Packers defensive end Johnny Jolly was arrested and charged with felony drug possession early Friday morning in Houston, CBS Houston reports. Jolly was stopped for a traffic violation at 12:45am, during the stop, officers discovered 600 grams of codeine, which constitutes a felony possession charge. In 2010, Jolly was suspended indefinitely for violating the NFL’s substance abuse policy after facing felony drug possession charges stemming from an arrest in Houston in July of 2008.

Jolly was facing up to 20 years in prison, but agreed to a plea deal on those charges last August, avoiding jail time by entering pretrial diversion that would result in the charges being dismissed if he stayed out of trouble for the next year. Jolly became eligible to apply for reinstatement following Super Bowl XLV, that reinstatement appears highly unlikely to occur anytime soon in the wake of Jolly’s latest arrest for drug possession charges, which could result in jail time for the former sixth-round pick out of Texas A&M.

The NFL has been affectionately referred to as the "Golden Goose" of the sports world because of it's propensity to lay golden eggs.  The NFL is not only the most profitable sporting league in the world, but one of the biggest brands in any industry in the world.  To make a long story short, the NFL has ascended to heights that no sport has ever seen and while it is commendable, it also means they have a long way to fall down if things go bad.  It's tough to envision things getting much worse than they are now.  The most profitable sports league in the world is shut down because the owners and players are unable to divvy up unreasonably obscene amounts of money amongst themselves.

I have heard many people say that the NFL is too big to fail and fans will flock back after a lockout, and that may be true.  I work in the financial industry and there were banks that were hailed as too big to fail as well, and we all know how that turned out.  The common thread amongst the failures was greed and don't think that just because the NFL is a sports league it is immune to failure.

The owners and players are fighting over $9.2 billion dollars, in the worst economy since the Great Depression.  Everybody is making record levels of money on both sides and there will be more money coming when the economy rebounds.  However, the big tagline being thrown about is "growing the pie" and finding new streams of revenue.  This approach is the first domino that could topple the NFL.

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Former Auburn quarterback & reigning Heisman Trophy winner Cam Newton will be visiting Redskins park as part of his pre-draft workouts.

Per the Washington Post:

Newton will be at Redskins Park on April 15, his agent, Tony Paige said. The Redskins reportedly are among nine NFL teams that have interviews scheduled with the Heisman Trophy winning quarterback

While Newton has been linked to the Redskins in numerous mock drafts to date, the visit appears to have more of an "exploratory, due dilligence"-type feel. Newton will be visiting eight other teams in addition to Washington, and will likely make second visits with other teams (perhaps including the Redskins) for more extensive workouts and interviews.

Also worth noting, per the Post:

But Shanahan said that it's not uncommon for him to draft players that he hasn't interviewed.

"A lot of times you don't want to show your hand," Shanahan said with a grin. "I never talked to John Mobley. [In Denver] I took him at the 15th pick [in 1996] and after the draft, Jimmy Johnson called and said 'Why did you not interview John Mobley?' and I said 'Because of guys like you.' He was going to move up had he known we wanted Mobley. So you don't want to show your hand."

Shanahan also drafted Jay Cutler in Denver without holding an additional interview with him.

The first round of the NFL Draft is set to take place on Thursday, April 28th. The Redskins hold the 10th overall selection in the first round.

The word around the NFL is that the Jaguars need to use their 16th pick of the draft on a quarterback. I'll concede that the Jaguars need to get a quarterback in the draft, but they aren't going to go out of their way to find one. The Jaguars are a self-proclaimed BAP team, and frankly, they've shown that over the past 2 seasons. Gene Smith will take the guy at the top of the board, period.

Pete Prisco, of CBSsports.com, said that the Jaguars should look into Christian Ponder for their first round selection. I would like to ask Mr. Prisco, why? The Jaguars have more urgent needs on the other side of the ball. That argument only even applies if we're talking about needs drafting, as Mr. Prisco seems to be doing, and as any Jaguars fan knows, that's not how Gene Smith uses his picks.

The fact of the matter is that the Jaguars will be drafting whoever is at the top of their board when it's their turn to pick, and it will likely be a defensive player. The Jaguars have a strong need to address their defense this offseason, and the draft seems to be loaded with defensive talent at the top end. That makes the opportunity for the Jaguars to make a big gain through the draft even greater this year than most.

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