NFL GridIron Gab Daily Digest

According to ESPN Analyst John Clayton, the new CBA will have a projected cap of $120 million. Even with a $3 million exemption, the Giants will be over the cap by $11.34 million, leaving them with a total cap of $131.34 million. The Giants have very high profile free agents, such as RB Ahmad Bradshaw, who will require a hefty contract. The Giants' will have to make some moves to get under the cap, and sign some of there free agents to be.

Shawn Andrews Dilemma: 

The Shawn Andrews dilemma goes as follows. Andrews was a tremendous signing for the Giants last season. He gave them depth and versatility when his back held up. When healthy, he can start at left tackle, or left guard. With Rich Seubert potentially not being ready for the beginning of next season, Andrews can start at LT and have David Diehl start at LG. However, the oft injured offensive linemen is due a $3.5 million roster bonus 30 days after the start of the league year.
According to Clayton, the Giants can save $7.333 million by releasing Andrews. The Giants clearly need his depth. Andrews has said in the past he would be open to renegotiating his contract, which I believe will likely end up being the case.

Brandon Jacobs Money

The Giants have told Ahmad Bradshaw that there #1 priority this off-season is to resign him. However, a key to resigning him will be his "brother" RB Brandon Jacobs, who is due $4.65 million this season. If Bradshaw signs elsewhere this is no problem, money wise for Jacobs. However, if they can resign Bradshaw, Jacobs' large base salary will need to be addressed. Jacobs has also said he'd be willing to redo his contract as long as it fair to him. This one will be interesting.

Barry Cofield Wants to get Paid:

For those who have asked about Barry Cofield, it seems highly unlikely Barry Cofield will be back next season. With large contracts to DT Rocky Bernard, DT Chris Canty and second round picks Marvin Austin and Linval Joseph waiting in the wings, it's highly unlikely they Giants' will pony up the cash and take care of Cofield.

Osi Stay or Osi Go?

Osi Umenyoria wants to get paid. It's that simple. Jon Mara has spoken to Osi in the past few days. If the Giants fail to resign Mathis Kiwanuka might they be more inclined to resign him? If they resign him, do they feel content with Kiwi, JPP and Tuck? All these questions, but no answers. He's the most interesting case, in my opinion.

Kevin Boss:

One of the least talked about New York Giants F/A is Kevin Boss. The Mr. Reliable will require a solid contract. Not to big, but he will be a guy they need to sign. Some scouts have said, if in an offense where he'd see the ball a lot, he could grab 70 balls. I don't see that, but he should resign for a decent amount.

From AP

Workers assembled the metal framework for outdoor tents in the parking lot of the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Friday, getting ready for its big enshrinement weekend—one that won't include a game for the first time in 45 years.

It's much more than just a lost preseason game for the northern Ohio community with deep football roots.

The labor dispute between NFL owners and players forced the league to call off the annual Hall of Fame game between Chicago and St. Louis scheduled for Aug. 7.

Everything else will go as planned, including the enshrinement on Aug. 6.

It's a financial blow to the Hall of Fame, which could lose about $1.5 million out of its $20 million annual operating budget. And it's a big loss for the community, which gets more than just a financial boost from the event.

Pride also comes into play.

"We're such a football community," said Joanne Murray, director of the Hall of Fame festival for the local Chamber of Commerce. "From the staff to the man on the street, I doubt you'd find a single person who would say they're not disappointed.

"We're just going to have to get through this unusual year and embrace the other events."

A day after the game was cancelled, the city was feeling the sting.

NFL general managers were told Friday at a meeting to discuss the specifics of the proposed labor agreement that the Saturday start to re-signing free agents and opening team facilities to players is on hold until the NFL Players Association board of executives accepts terms of Thursday’s announced deal, sources told ESPN.com’s John Clayton.

An official NFL announcement of the delay is expected later Friday.

GMs were told that they could start to do some business the day after acceptance of the labor agreement, sources said, but no one can guess when that will occur.

The Buccaneers are another doing their due diligence and going through former Ohio State QB Terrelle Pryor's tape to access if they are willing to submit a bid on Pryor in the supplemental draft according to Charlie Campbell of Pewterreport.com.

Pewter Report believes that it would be unlikely that Tampa Bay would surrender anything more than a fifth-round pick. Their fourth-round pick in the 2012 NFL Draft was traded to the Philadelphia Eagles when the Bucs moved up in the fourth round to get tight end Luke Stocker.

The Bucs could look at Pryor as a developmental project behind starter Josh Freeman. After this season the Bucs are likely to lose backup quarterback Josh Johnson in free agency. His contract will be up and he wants the opportunity to compete to be a starter.

Adam Schefter of ESPN reports that under the proposed CBA, NFL gameday rosters will expand from 45 to 46, with the number three QB no longer inactive.

Beginning this year, teams like the Vikings and Steelers can leave Joe Webb and Dennis Dixon active for more creative play-calling. It’s also a way for rookie QB’s such as the Ravens’ Tyrod Taylor to see the field even if they remain projects as passers.

Another change will be that teams will not be able to use both the franchise tag and the transition tag in a given year. The NFL is simply going back to pre-2010 rules.

The Eagles applied the franchise tag to Michael Vick and the transition tag to David Akers, knowing one of them could be overturned under a new CBA. Vick will stay franchised, leaving Akers as a unrestricted free agent. Rookie Alex Henery is expected to take over as the Eagles’ kicker this season.

The proposed CBA approved by the owners allows for all teams to begin negotiating with restricted, unrestricted, and college free agents this Saturday. As it turns out, that 72-hour window for teams to sign their own free agents won’t include “exclusive” negotiations.

This change, as pointed out by Gregg Rosenthal of Pro Football Talk, will go a long way toward eliminating the NFL’s perennial tampering problem. The upshot is that there’s nothing stopping a team like the Broncos or Dolphins from recruiting free agent running back DeAngelo Williams as early as Saturday — as long as the players approve the CBA on Friday. One team cannot sign another team’s free agent before Wednesday, however.

The website NFLVR.com is asking players to vote there to reconstitute as a union and for players to use it in assisting to do so according to the NFLPA. The site is not affiliated with the NFL or NFLPA and the players association has sent the following email to agents:

"We have received information from players indicating that they are being referred to a website – nflvr.com. The website is asking players to vote to reconstitute as a union and that the players can use the site to facilitate that action. Please be advised that this site is not affiliated with either the NFL or the NFLPA. You should ignore this site and advise your players to do so as well."

The website now has the following wording:

"Due to recent conversation in between us and George Atallah of the NFLPA via Twitter, we have removed some content of our site. We learned that the NFLPA is not interested in doing voting on our site in order to recertify the NFL Player’s Union once an agreement has been made. We thank George Atallah and the NFLPA for the consideration of using our site and services."

A free agent and a free man again after serving two years in prison for a gun charge where he accident shot himself in the leg, wide receiver Plaxico Burress told middle school students in Fort Lauderdale that he would like to play for the Dolphins.

He has lived in South Florida for years, and many players say they would like to play in Miami. Whether the Dolphins’ interest is mutual remains to be seen.

“Of course,” Burress told the children, per the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. “There are a lot of things that go into me making that decision and wanting to be here. But of course. Of course I would love to be a Miami Dolphin.”

Burress also talked about learning from his mistakes.

“I pretty much come from the same upbringing as most of these kids do, so I understand,” Burress said. “I know what goes on … I think we need to get back into the community and stress the damages that guns do and how they take lives away, rip families apart.”

Giants' free agent running back Ahmad Bradshaw gave mixed signals as to whether he'll return to the Giants, or make a move to play in South Beach in 2011 for the Dolphins.

On the one hand, he talked up a return to the Giants, praised the New York-New Jersey area and showed love for Tom Coughlin. But on the other, he fanned the flames of talk he'll soon be a Dolphin by saying it would “look good” to be in a Miami uniform and that he would like to play for Dolphins coach Tony Sparano.

"It's all in the Giants' hands. I want to be a Football Giant, I love the Giants' organization," Bradshaw said during an interview with WQAM's Sid Rosenberg. "It's all a process, it's a business, man. I just have to go with the flow and see what happens.

"I love New York, and that gives them the upper hand. But like I said, it's all a business. … I take it very seriously where I want to be. I love New York, I'd love to stay there but then the money factor comes in."

John Clayton of ESPN said Thursday that based on what he’s hearing from sources at the NFL owners’ meetings in Atlanta, he’s unsure whether the Seahawks will make a contract offer to free agent quarterback Matt Hasselbeck.

In all likelihood, Clayton believes, Hasselbeck will end up with the Titans, a team in need of a veteran quarterback to help ease rookie Jake Locker’s transition to the NFL. Clayton noted a “comfort level” with Hasselbeck and Titans general manager Mike Reinfeldt, who spent seven years in the Seahawks’ front office.

“I don’t know if they’ll pay $5 million (per year), I don’t know if they’ll pay $6 million,” Clayton said of Hasselbeck, “but if there’s no offer from Seattle, you take the best offer and it very well could be in Nashville.”

Clayton said he’s “getting the feeling” that the Seahawks could have serious interest in quarterback Tarvaris Jackson, a free agent who spent the first five years of his career with the Vikings and has ties with Seattle’s new offensive coordinator, Darrel Bevell.

NFL Executive Vice President Jeff Pash says the NFL plans to institute a random blood testing program for Human Growth Hormone this season, and that it has the support of the NFL Players Association, Gary Myers of the New York Daily News reports.

“We expect that we will have testing for HGH. I think that both sides believe that’s important for the integrity of the game and that we should continue to be leaders here,” Pash said. “I think that’s a view that’s strongly held by the players as it by us.”

A less invasive, urine-based test for HGH does not currently exist. One of the reasons why the NFLPA and MLBPA has opposed a blood-based test in recent years is they believe that doing so would slow research towards a urine-based test.

“It will take some time to get that ramped up, but we would hope that it could be ramped up by the start of the season,” Pash said of the time frame to implement the program.

In March, NFL Vice President Adolpho Birch, who oversees the league’s drug testing program, pushed for HGH testing.

“We want it. We think it’s necessary. We’re going to ensure that it’s done,” said Birch. “That’s something very important to us and the integrity of our game. We believe some of the basis for going slowly on it before has been addressed. At this point, it’s proper for it to be an active part of our program.”

The league’s drug testing policy is something that needs to be collectively bargained, which could not have happened with the NFLPA in its present form.