NFL GridIron Gab Daily Digest

According to ESPN.com, Falcons kicker Matt Bryant is frustrated that the lockout is lingering, it's understandable because Bryant, who had a great 2010 season, long ago should have had a new contract. He should know where he's going to have his family settled when a big event comes in the fall, but, like a lot of other players out there, Bryant has no clue what's going on.

"I can do all the research in the world,'' Bryant said. "What I say or do isn't going to fix the problem. But I just want to understand why my childhood dream and the way I make my living is in such jeopardy.''

Unless something happens very quickly, Bryant's going to have to make a very difficult decision soon. He's a free agent and, although the Falcons have said they'd like to re-sign him and his preference is to remain in Atlanta, no deal was reached before the lockout and there's no guarantee one will be reached if and when it is lifted.

Last season was a tough one for the Cowboys and their fans, as the team limped to a 1-7 start before Wade Phillips was dismissed and the team wrapped up the year 6-10 with a new coach and without their star QB.

Now it’s a fresh start with Jason Garrett and a QB in Tony Romo who comes into 2011 at 100 percent and newly married. Cowboys fans want to know the biggest question about Romo – can he rebound for what was a terrible 2010 and get back to Pro Bowl form?

Romo was having a rough season, and the team was 1-5 when he went down in week six against the New York Giants. Sure he had thrown for 1605 yards and 11 touchdowns and 7 picks when he was hurt, but make no mistake about it – Romo wasn’t having a good season when he went down.

He’s the starting QB of the team that will always have the focus of the NFL on it. He puts the focus on himself off the field, but some of that should go away since he’s now a married man.

If the Cowboys are going to get back to the form of being a playoff team like two seasons ago when Romo was at his best with 26 touchdowns and 9 picks, he needs to get more out of the run game, and also needs better protection from a team that allowed him to get sacked and pressured too often last year.

Stephen McGee and Jon Kitna helped the Cowboys win three of their last five games, and that was after a long season with a coaching change and a number of injuries. Now it’s Romo’s turn with a fresh start and a coach in Garrett who knows the offensive side of the ball and will give him every chance to be a Pro Bowl QB again.

The ball is in Romo’s court in 2011 – now it’s up to him to step up and run with it.

If you are a Ravens season ticket holder then today marks an important day for you and your wallet. Full payment is due on season tickets for 2011, even though there appears to be little progress on a new labor deal.

If you are one of those ticket holders, will you take that "Leap of Faith" that the season will come off without a hitch?

I can understand the dilemma because if you chose not to pay or only paid a partial amount you'd risk losing your PSL . That's an investment that may have been made years ago for which there is no return on.

I understand the reality of the situation but that still doesn't make it fair. It smells of another poor P.R. move on the part of ownership. The Ravens say that if games are cancelled that they will refund their money plus 1% interest.

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The player-run workouts that Vikings first-round quarterback Christian Ponder organized for this week in Bradenton, Florida was expected to include eight of his future teammates. Greg Auman of the St. Petersburg Times is covering the three days’ worth of workouts for the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and reports that four Vikings pass-catchers have not shown up, and are likely to do so before tomorrow’s final workout.

According to Viking Update of the Scout.com network, Ponder says some of the missing players had excuses, with a late scheduling conflict keeping Visanthe Shiancoe from attending, while wide receiver Percy Harvin lost his phone and was not able to be communicated with. Veteran wide receiver Bernard Berrian missed his flight.

No reason was provided for Sidney Rice’s absence, however Rice is coming off an injury, could potentially be an unrestricted free agent this off-season, and is represented by Drew Rosenhaus, who in previous months had advised clients against doing football-related workouts during the lockout due to the injury risk. “We’ll definitely do it again and hopefully a bunch more guys will show up,” Ponder said according to Auman.

Last week, Seahawks wide receiver Mike Williams disclosed that for the first time this off-season, he and some of his teammates were organizing group worouts for this week. “I got a text message this week–I’m not going to reveal who it’s from–but we got a guy up here trying to organize a two-day mini-camp next week in Seattle,” Williams told The Brock & Salk Show on 710 ESPN Seattle last Tuesday.

One doesn’t have to be Columbo to reach the conclusion that, in all likelihood, “the guy” Williams is referring to as the workout organizer is quarterback Matthew Hasselbeck.

Hasselbeck has a copy of the team’s playbook, and has been working out with several Seahawks, including throwing passes to tight end John Carlson, Hasselbeck has lived in the Seattle area for over a decade, and likely knows which local facilities would work best for the work the players intend to do, Hasselbeck organizing the workouts makes some sense, but ESPN’s John Clayton wonders why Charlie Whitehurst, the only quarterback the Seahawks have under contract at the moment, hasn’t taken an active role in organizing these workouts.

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The Bears left the NFL draft without a big, physical wide receiver to be the true number one option in offensive coordinator Mike Martz's pass-happy offense. While there isn't a prototypical number one receiver on the roster, Martz thinks he has a player that can turn into Jay Cutler's go-to receiver, Earl Bennett. Bennett and Cutler had a previous relationship when Cutler was traded to Chicago. Cutler and Bennett had played together in the SEC at Vanderbilt, Martz has plans to build on that relationship and get Bennett more involved in 2011.

"We didn't throw it to him enough," Martz said on the team's official website. "That will be remedied. He will figure in a much larger role than he did last year. He came to us late. He was injured. I wasn't really sure where he was with all the stuff. But he established himself as a guy who needs to get a lot more balls than he did. "He's extremely reliable. I know Jay (Cutler) feels comfortable with him in the slot doing some of those things. But he should be able to play outside for us as well."

The LA Times reports that there is a scenerio in place that once the players lose that all important game check, or come close to losing it, they are going to crack and the lockout that has been going on since March is finally going to be over.

If the owners win in the 8th Circuit, the players could cave in late August or early September, when they either have lost that first game check or are in danger of losing it. It’s important to watch what happens in the so-called lockout-insurance case, which the players won at the district level and should bar the owners from using any money paid by networks in the event of game cancellations. Still, it could take years to sort through that, and who knows if those damages (still being decided) will actually be paid or will be handled in the eventual collective-bargaining talks. Regardless, if it gets to September and no leverage-shifting court decisions are in the offing, players might choose to settle closer to Week 1 than Week 4.

If the lockout does go that long (late August or early September), the league is going to have to cancel all preseason games, quickly put together a couple weeks of training camp (figure 2-3), and probably the first two weeks of the season would have to be scrapped. The league could also push the Super Bowl back a week, which has been talked about, and then you could move the regular season back a week and you’d only lose one week.

Bottom line, the players are going to lose.

ESPN Boston reports that Pats QB Tom Brady will be leading some player only workouts starting today, following the lead of a number of QB’s around the league, including Tim Tebow, Josh Freeman and rival Mark Sanchez.

Patriots quarterback Tom Brady is back in town, and he’ll be leading players-only workouts starting Wednesday, according to sources familiar with his plans. Brady’s return to New England is in conjunction with his charity work for Best Buddies International, as he is hosting a football game at Harvard on Friday night, before riding in the Audi Best Buddies Challenge on Saturday. Brady has spent the majority of the offseason training in California as he works his way back from January foot surgery, knowing he’d be in the region this week, he attempted to gather as many teammates as possible to join him, particularly pass-catchers. While the value of player-led workouts during the lockout is debatable, many believe chemistry between a quarterback and receiver can grow during the offseason, one could point to Brady’s past work with Deion Branch and Wes Welker as evidence of that. Not surprisingly, teammates have responded, according to sources, breaking from their personal workout regimens to join Brady, who spearheaded the arrangements.