NFL GridIron Gab Daily Digest

With the NFL currently locked out, Chiefs running back Jamaal Charles is seriously considering going back and he’s been working out with Texas’ team to gauge where the former college All-American is at according to Jon Styf of the Beaumont Enterprise.

The Chiefs star is at the height of his game, recently signing a $32.5 million contract extension after running for 1,467 yards, averaging 6.4 yards per carry, last season.

If the lockout drags on, however, Charles said he’d “just travel and run track,” the sport he dominated in high school, with the fastest 110 and 300 hurdle times in the nation his senior year at Memorial and also was part of a record-setting 800-meter relay team as a sophomore.

He’s even talked about running at the Texas Relays next weekend in Austin with three other NFL stars like Adrian Peterson, DeSean Jackson and Chris Johnson.

The Jets said in a court document that the two massage therapists who say the team blacklisted them for objecting to Brett Favre’s texts are overplaying their ties to the team according to the Associated Press.

Team officials say Shannon O’Toole and Christina Scavo worked for the team on a combined total of five days over two years.

The team wasn’t told about the women’s concerns and simply took its massage business elsewhere when its training facility moved in 2008, Jets officials, lawyers and another massage therapist say in court filings.

“The relationship [with the team] they seek to portray could not be further from the truth,” Jets lawyer Gary H. Glaser wrote in response to a lawsuit filed by the massage therapists. A court date is set for next week.

Days after the NFL announced a fine for Favre for not cooperating with investigators in the Jenn Sterger texting allegations, Scavo and O’Toole sued him, the team and Lisa Ripi, another massage therapist who worked with the Jets and had recruited O’Toole.

During the 2008 preseason, Favre sent a fourth, unidentified massage therapist a text message asking to get together with her and Scavo and saying, “I guess I have bad intentions,” according to the lawsuit, filed in a Manhattan state court.

After Scavo’s husband asked Favre to back off and apologize, she and O’Toole got no more work with the team, the lawsuit says. They’d made a combined total of $2,300 from the Jets, according to the team’s court filings.

The Jets say they never guaranteed ongoing work to any massage therapists. The team started bringing them in occasionally in 2007, making their services available free to all players on preseason “Recovery Days” and at other points to players whose performance “earned” them a massage, athletic training director John Mellody said in court filings.

Jclombardi’s first preview about Packers draft needs.

The cumulative Packers mock drafts have more than 25 different players being picked including 3-4 defensive linemen, 3-4 outside linebackers, offensive tackles, interior offensive linemen, running backs, cornerbacks, wide receivers and safeties.  However, we first preview the immediate Packers needs:

1. Offensive Lineman. RT Tauscher and LT Clifton have durability issues. RT Tauscher can't stay healthy losing his starting job.  He may not be back at his 2011 $4.1 million base salary.  Bulaga is fine at RT. The Packers need to find aging LT Clifton's ultimate successor.  He is healthy with a bad knee having probably one more year. Granted, the Packers may move Bulaga to LT or LG. Also, they may try T. J. Lang at tackle or guard. Further, with Colledge may be gone, they probably need to find a reliable starter at LG. This is a tough call, LT or LG or both. The top tackle prospects available include Boston College’s Anthony Castonzo, Wisconsin’s Gabe Carimi, Colorado’s Nate Solder, Mississippi State’s Derek Sherrod, Villanova’s Benjamin Ijalana, and East Carolina's Willie Smith.

2. Outside Linebacker. We’re talking about a starter at OLB.  If we get another OLB pass rusher, defenses cannot focus their protection against OLB Matthews forcing many singular matchups that favor the Pack. Poppinga is gone. Zombo and Walden are better options than Jones, but we need a solid stud starter.  Two options include Texas Sam Acho and UCLA Akeem Ayers in the late first round. Meanwhile, at ILB, aging Nick Barnett kept getting injured and is probably gone replaced by starters Hawk and Bishop.

3. Defensive Lineman. DE Cullen Jenkins is probably gone. DE Johnny Jolly is gone with legal troubles. DE Ryan Pickett is in his thirties. DE Justin Harrell gets one more chance. Further, the Packers have tenacious and talented DE Neal has the Jenkins-like talents to assume the lead DE role and young prospects C.J. Wilson and Jarius Wynn.  Yet, the Packers could use depth here.

4. Wide Receiver. WR Donald Driver is 36. Free agent WR James Jones wants to be a starter with its consequential salary.  Also, the Packers probably like Nelson’s 2011 $1.029 cap number better than what Jones is going to get. We need to have another quality top receiver for one of the game’s top quarterbacks.

5. Defensive Back. Aging CB Woodson is still fine.  CB Sam Shields and CB Williams are solid starters, but CBs Patrick Lee and Brandon Underwood need to improve.  We need another quality starter here for the dime position.

Commentary: All right, we are making initial draft preview about potential Packers needs and draft choices.  Last year, the Packers drafted to meet immediate needs and good backups. They made good quality choices in tackle Bulaga, defensive end Neal, and safety Burnett with no immediate focus on OLB. Now, this year, fans, what do you think?