The Red Zone Lounge

Posts Tagged ‘NFC South’

A new deal announced Thursday allows the New Orleans Saints to call the Louisiana Super Dome their home through at least 2025.  The deal also will create a Sports Development District by allowing Saints owner Tom Benson to purchased the surrounding structures, the New Orleans Centre and Dominion Tower.  These two were damaged during hurricane Katrina and were never repaired.  They currently remain unused.

The new agreement is good for the state as well, saving them $280 million compared to the current deal with the Saints.  This opens the door for New Orleans holding another Super Bowl in the near future and restoring the city to what it once was before the natural disaster stuck it down.

The Carolina Panthers have locked up their starting quarterback, Jake Delhomme.  The Panthers signed the veteran signal caller to a five-year, $42.5 million extension which will provide valuable cap space.  Delhomme is now under contract until the 2014 season, when he will be 39.

The new deal come with $20 million guaranteed money and and comes after a horrible show in the NFC divisional playoffs against the surging Arizona Cardinals.  Delhomme threw five interceptions and lost a fumble in that game, but didn’t shake the confidence of head coach John Fox.  Fox and GM Marty Hurney strongly support Delhomme as the starter, a gig he has held since the 2003 season.

“Jake Delhomme is incredibly excited to be able to finish his career in Carolina,” his agent, Rick Smith, said. “He felt there was unfinished business at the end of last year.”

Delhomme through for 3,288 yards and 15 touchdowns with 12 interceptions last season.

Byron Leftwich has agreed to terms with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers after meeting with both the Bucs and Redskins last week.   Leftwich, who has been a backup for the past two seasons with the Steelers and Falcons will compete for the starting gig in Tampa.

The details of the deal aren’t known but Leftwich has confirmed it is a two year deal.  This move brings another player with a lot of experience to a Buccaneers team who is trying to return to Super Bowl form.  Under new head coach Raheem Morris, the Bucs have franchise-tagged wide receiver Antonio Bryant, re-signed wide receiver Michael Clayton, traded for tight end Kellen Winslow and signed free-agent running back Derrick Ward.  Ward joins a tandem of an already established running game in Earnest Graham, Cadillac Williams and Warrick Dunn.

Leftwich will compete for the starting job against current signal callers Brian Griese, Luke McCown and Josh Johnson.  It is expected one of the four will be released before draft day.  This move all but rules out the chance Tampa Bay will take a quarterback in the first round but bigger surprises have happened in the draft.

Jeff Garcia may get to start this Sunday.  Injured starting quarterback for the Buccaneers, Brian Griese, is listed as questionable by head coach Jon Gruden.  During Wednesday’s practice, Garcia took most of the reps signaling that he may infact start.  Gruden would not say one way or the other.

“You know what? If you can’t throw, you have a hard time playing,” Gruden said. “Again, I don’t want to make any concrete statements until we get a chance to meet and see how Brian is and how Jeff feels and the whole crew of quarterbacks.”

Garcia had to take over last week when Griese was injured.  Stepping in, Garcia completed 13 of 17 for 93 yards with both a touchdown and interception.  Garcia was benched early in the season so that he could recovery fully from minor injuries, but there was some controversy that he was not made the starter due to poor performance.  It will all be made clear this week if Garcia gets the start as he may win the job back.

Aaron Rodgers’ starting streak may end with four.  Rodgers was injured during the Packers 30-21 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Sunday.  The Packers would not know the extent of the injury until Monday.  Rodger has an idea, he believes he has separated his shoulder, but he’s not sure.

“It felt like that’s what possibly happened,” Rodgers said after being sacked three times and throwing his first three interceptions of the season. “But we’re going to wait until tomorrow to figure out exactly what the problem is.”

After throwing a 48-yard touchdown pass to Greg Jennings, Rodgers had to go to the sideline with his shoulder injury.  That touchdown put them up 21-20.  The Packers put backup Matt Flynn in the game for a series after Rodgers was hurt.  After not being able to get anything going, the Buccaneers got it and took the lead with a field goal. 

Once Rodgers was back, he had 2:26 left to work with to create a comeback.  That slipped away when he was hit while throwing causing him to send it in to the waiting arms of Gaines Adams for an interception.  That next drive culminated with a 47-yard run by Earnest Graham and a touchdown to cap it off.

Rodgers would sit out the last series of the game for the Packers, in which Flynn would lead the huddle again.  That drive would end with turning the ball over on downs. 

Head coach of the Packers, Mike McCarthy, has said it’s too early to tell whether or not Rodgers

Steve Smith is ready for action, fresh off his two game suspension.  Smith was suspended for two games of this regular season for punching teammate Ken Lucas’ in the face in training camp, resulting in a broken nose.  Lucas required surgery to fix the damage.

The Panthers and Lucas have put the incident behind them and insist the past is the past.

“I truly forgave my teammate, my brother,” said Lucas, who underwent minor surgery to set his nose. “I’ve truly forgotten about it. The only time I really talk about it is when somebody brings it up and I try to shoot it down as much as possible.”

This wasn’t the only time Smith had an incident with a teammate, the first time coming in 2002 when he attacked a practice squad player, Anthony Bright.  Bright, who is no longer in the NFL, was attacked by Smith during a film session.  Smith says Bright took a swing at him, a difference from the incident with Lucas.  Smith talked about it all in a blog entry.

“Yes, I made a mistake in November 2002,” Smith wrote. “I will say for the first time that somebody did take a swing at me then, for all the people who want to say I pummeled a teammate six years ago.”

The Panthers are on a great start, going 2-0 from two come from behind wins in the 4th quarter against the Chargers and Bears.  Both wins have come without Smith, who makes the Panthers much more potent on offense.  This definitely gives the Panthers another boost to keep their winning streak going.  Now having Smith, they may be able to put up more points, not having to pull of comebacks in the 4th quarter.  The Panthers play the Vikings on Sunday, who’s increased defense should help stave off points but they are 0-2.

After practice Wednesday, head coach Jon Gruden named Brian Griese the starter for the Buccaneers against the Falcons in week 2.  Gruden made the change to allow his former starter, Jeff Garcia, time for his recent string of injuries to heal up properly.  The quarterback change doesn’t look permenant as Griese starting was only named for week 2 as of now. 

Jeff Garcia helped the Buccaneers to win their division last year and go to the playoffs only to lose to the storybook New York Giants.  The team is ready to rally behind Griese, who actually played for the Buccaneers in 2004 and 20005.  He took over for Chris Simms when he was injured after taking over for Brad Johnson.  Griese is a guy who can get the job done and he gives the Buccaneers their best chance of winning against the Falcons as Garcia isn’t himself right now.  We shall see on Sunday.

Questions in the Atlanta Falcons’ organization, about whether Matt Ryan will start as quarterback this season.  As of Sunday, the rookie out of Boston College was named the starter for the regular season.

During training camp, Ryan was second to veteran Chris Redman on the depth chart and it was unclear if the Falcons were going to bench Ryan for his first season in the NFL.  The Falcons will host the Detroit Lions on Sept. 7th for their season opener.  A lot of pressure is on Ryan to lead the Falcons to a better season then 4-12 from last year.

Earnest Graham, running back for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, got his contract extension Sunday.  The Bucs signed Graham to a three year extension, worth $10.5 million.  The agreement gets Graham into camp for workouts and prevents a holdout that would hurt the team.  He missed the team’s voluntary OTAs but did show up for the minicamp in June.

Graham got the start last season following the injury of Carnell “Cadillac” Williams and Michael Pittman.  Last season Graham played in 10 games running for 898 yards, which is a team high, and made it into the endzone for 10 touchdowns, as well as pulled in 49 receptions for 324 yards.

Graham was signed undrafted in 2003 to Tampa Bay and pent most of the past 4 seasons on special teams before exploading out of the backfield and reviving the Buccaneers running game.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers Website