NFL GridIron Gab Daily Digest

It’s very interesting what a difference one season can make. Before the start of the 2010 season some NFL experts had the Ravens Offensive line as one of the top five in the league. Now as the team heads into an uncertain 2011 season the line is in need of retooling to rediscover success in the run game, which dropped to almost last in the league (3.6 yds per carry), and in pass protection (40 sacks given up).

How did a once promising group seem to fizzle so quickly? Here are a few questions that need answers surrounding the O-Line.

1) Will Jared Gaither still be with the team next season?

The loss of Gaither threw the line into a tailspin and caused shifting and uncertainty. The drama surrounding the past year between the franchise and Gaither could fill a book. Gaither was switched to Right Tackle and that’s when the trouble began. You’d think considering how much has gone on that Gaither would simply be shown the door and the team would move on. It won’t be that simple though. Gaither has said recently that he is healthy and ready to play. If the Ravens can convince him it is at Right Tackle instead of his old spot now occupied by Michael Oher then they may have the bookends they need to build on.

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Unlike several teams, Packers players haven’t participated in large-scale informal workouts during the lockout, and maybe that’s because they are still basking in the glow of their Super Bowl victory.

In an interview with ESPN’s “NFL Live” on Monday, receiver Donald Driver said there are no formal plans for player workouts and that he and his teammates are still enjoying the feeling of being champions. “We’re just enjoying having the feeling of winning the Super Bowl. We haven’t had the opportunity just to celebrate like we want to,” he said. The team will hold a private ceremony June 16 to give players their Super Bowl rings, according to a report in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Driver said although Packers players have talked about getting together for workouts, members of the team are “working out individually.” He has noticed that other teams’ players have been working out in groups but he doesn’t see that as a priority for the Packers. “Maybe it’s been beneficial to (other teams). We haven’t done it, but one thing about our team is we know exactly what stands in front of us and that’s trying to come back and start a season where we can repeat once again.”

National Football Post reports that new Vikings QB Christian Ponder has shifted his throwing motion a bit to get ready for his rookie year where he could see some serious playing time for the Vikings who are still without a solid veteran QB on the roster.

In the midst of the lockout, Christian Ponder continues to do everything he can in an effort to prepare for his rookie season with the Vikings. He's been working diligently at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., and spending a lot of time with Chris Weinke. Not only have they gone over elements of the Vikings' playbook, Weinke has fine-tuned Ponder's throwing motion in an effort to reduce some arm problems he had in his final two seasons at Florida State. "(My arm) feels great," Ponder said on KFAN, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

"Actually me and Chris have done some things – he's fixed some things in my mechanics and I'm throwing the ball extremely well. That's one thing why I'm excited for the season to get started so I can get back out there and really play." The Vikings don't have a quarterback with experience on the roster, so as it stands now Ponder will have an opportunity to compete for a starting job.

But it's expected the team will bring in a veteran. Does he believe the lockout is sabotaging his opportunity to start this season? "I definitely don't think it's helping me," Ponder said. "I need as much time and practice as I can get. It's good what I'm doing now. But it's completely different when you're going against defenses and you're getting coaching from (offensive coordinator Bill) Musgrave and being with your teammates. I definitely don't think it's helping me."

With or without a new collective bargaining agreement, if the lockout remains in place by August, the Panthers would be better off staying in Charlotte for training camp, writes Joseph Person of the Charlotte Observer.

The Panthers have held training camp at Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina for the past 16 years, with the two sides reaching a five-year extension of that agreement last year. “We hope they come down because we love having them. I think it’s good for Spartanburg and it’s good for South Carolina to have them train here,” Wofford athletics director Richard Johnson told the paper last week.

“But this is an aberration, and we’re going to have to do the best we can with it and hope they get it settled soon.” Unlike other teams (like the New York Jets and Cincinnati Bengals) that face early-to-mid July deadlines to hold training camp away from their team headquarters, the long-standing relationship between the Panthers and Wofford, where Jerry Richardson played football in the 1950s, allows for a later deadline to make a decision.

“We have such an excellent relationship with everybody at Wofford, plus with the history of having been there now for 16 years,” Panthers president Danny Morrison, a Wofford alum, said. “We have the luxury that people can move quickly and turn things around quickly.”

Released from prison after 20 months on Monday, free agent wide receiver Plaxico Burress must now wait for the NFL lockout to end to see where the next phase of his life, and NFL career, will unfold.

Even though Burress hasn’t caught a pass in an NFL game since November 16, 2008, agent Drew Rosenhaus expects interest in his client to be high.

“Many teams want him. He will be a top free agent,” Rosenhaus told the Associated Press earlier this week. “He is healthy and ready to go. He will be signed shortly after the lockout ends.”

The Dolphins were one team that was reportedly interested in Burress, but now the Miami Herald reports that’s not the case at all.

“…But I am told by a reliable source the Dolphins are ‘absolutely not’ interested in Burress…So much for that rumor,” stated Dolphins writer Armando Salguero.

Miami still has one of the best playmakers in the game in Brandon Marshall, and combined with Burress it could have given Chad Henne plenty of weapons.

The team must have felt they didn’t want the distraction, and would rather see another team take the issues and press that Burress will bring with him wherever he ends up in 2011.

Jaguars' general manager Gene Smith has made no bones about it recently that he feels the need for the team to get better at the linebacker position. It's not that he doesn't feel that the corps that he has isn't good or strong he just feels that it could use an upgrade and became even better.

With 10 linebackers on the roster no doubt you can expect someone from last years team to not be back. Smith realizes that the linebackers need to get more pressure on the quarterback as the group only had 3.5 sacks all last year and all of those came from just Daryl Smith.

In the AFC South you need to have linebackers that can tackle, make big hits, and get after the QB especially when you play Matt Schaub and Peyton Manning twice a year each. The best available option that I can see in this year's free agent class is outside linebacker Manny Lawson. There were better options out there but have been franchise tagged or tendered, two of those are LaMarr Woodley and Kamerion Wimbley.

Lawson is entering his 6th season in the league, all of which have been spent with the San Francisco 49ers. Lawson is a product of North Carolina State and hails from Goldsboro, North Carolina. While Manny only has 14.5 career sacks if he jumps back to 2009 and replicates what he did that year it could be a great help to the Jags if he does sign with them.

In 2009 Manny had 6.5 sacks, 3 forced fumbles and 68 total tackles. While these aren't overwhelming stats Manny does have the intensity and athleticism to be a major threat if put in the right spots and system. Lawson could fit very well into Mel Tuckers defensive schemes and would add size and speed to an already athletic linebacker corps. If Lawson is added to the team Tucker will have an extra athlete to send at the South's QB's.

While Lawson may not be the best in the class of free agent linebackers he may be the best fit for the Jags. With progress going on with the lock out Jacksonville will definitely be active in doing their research on Manny as well as others. Manny would be an upgrade and bring the intensity that GM Gene Smith is looking for this upcoming season.

Albert Breer of NFL Network reports the NFL owners and players are meeting now in the New York area, and the talks are expected to continue beyond this week’s discussions, as the sides look to resolve the differences that led to the union’s decertification and the lockout.

According to sources on each side of the talks, both sides have come to an understanding that the time to bargain seriously is now. And as much as the ongoing litigation has set the calendar thus far, the calendar itself — and the looming mid-summer start of training camps — is starting to overtake the litigation as a motivator to move the talks along.

One league source estimated that it would take 4-6 weeks to go from serious negotiations to the drafting process, and a trade association source said the feeling is there’s a 30-day window to get a deal done that’s just now opening.

League sources indicate that the cancellation of the preseason would cost the NFL approximately $1 billion, while a lack of resolution by August 1 would come at a price of $350 million. While those numbers are inexact, there’s no question that the loss of revenue — which will begin once the preseason games come off the schedule — will make negotiations exponentially more difficult. The pie shrinks, the less money there is to go around in a situation that, for both sides, is about making the finances right.

“That’s by necessity,” said one league source. “They get a percentage of the revenues, so if the revenues shrink, their share is less. It’s automatic.”

For a normal preseason to happen, most estimate an agreement must be reached by about July 15th.

Ravens QB Joe Flacco thinks his teammate Ray Lewis is on point when he said crime in cities with NFL teams will increase. Appearing on a Philadelphia radio show, Flacco was asked his reacting to Lewis' silly comments, not only did the quarterback say his comments make sense, he went further.

"The cities, they're going to get hurt from this thing if we don't play football. So I hear where he's coming from and I wouldn't say he's wrong." "I definitely think he has a point," he said. "Ray likes to take things a little far, and he's very passionate about what he's talking about, but I don't think he's not making sense when he says that stuff."

Again, NFL players should really think before they speak. “Making sense”? Lewis’ rant that “crime and evil” are going to go up if the NFL doesn’t play is about the most off the wall thing I have heard the entire off-season.

I would love to see the crime rates across America from 1pm to 8pm on Sundays, and if by chance the lockout continues into the season (won’t happen), I would like to see how much they actually rise.

Flacco is simply trying to stand up for his teammate, which I get, but really – don’t think if the NFL doesn’t play that people are that desperate that they won’t find something else to do – and that doesn’t include going out committing crime and plotting evil.

Whenever the NFL returns, Cardinals receiver Larry Fitzgerald says he’ll be ready not only to play in short order but also to remain in the desert for the long term.

“I love being in Arizona and enjoy working for the Bidwill family (which owns the Cardinals),” said the five-time Pro Bowler, whose contract expires after the 2011 season. “And I enjoy playing for Coach (Ken) Whisenhunt. I think he has the right (philosophy) to get back to where we were three years ago (in Super Bowl XLIII) and I want to be part of that.”

The five-time Pro Bowler has kept busy during the lockout by organizing players-only workouts with teammates and others including Washington Redskins quarterback Donovan McNabb. At different times since April the workouts have drawn at least two dozen players, with several last month in Arizona including 40-plus players.