MVN - Most Valuable Network

Frank Gore, Marshawn Lynch to see more action in ‘08

For all the attention those glamor-boy quarterbacks get, this is still football. You need ground-pounders and you need to use them a lot.

San Francisco and Buffalo get that message and plan to give their running backs heavier duty.

New 49er offensive coordinator Make Martz understands that Frank Gore is San Francisco’s best offensive player. So he’s planning to build the Niner offense around the running back. That’s in contrast to Martz’s rep as a pass-oriented genius.

The story on SFGate.com says Martz plans 25 touches per game for Gore this year; 20 on running plays and five receptions.

Gore had a fall-off in production last season after exploding for nearly 1700 yards and eight touchdowns  in 2006. The SFGate story attributes that mainly to San Francisco playing catch-up so often that they were forced to go away from the ground game.

That’s the worrisome thing about Martz’s plan. He may have less to work with in San Francisco’s passing game than he did in Detroit and may still play from behind a lot. He’s also Mike Martz and he loves to sling the ball. If he can resist his inclination to pass while running the ball more to keep games close, both the ‘Niners and Frank Gore can have a good year.

Lynch on third down

Marshawn Lynch was one of the few good things to come out of Buffalo last season, rolling up 1115 yards for seven touchdowns. But he only caught 18 passes for 184 yards.

Lynch wasn’t on the field on situations for third down and greater than three yards. Bills offensive coordinator Turk Schonert figured that Lynch was too low on the learning curve to pick up that part of the offense.

Now Schonert thinks the first year veteran is ready for more according to a story on buffalobills.com.

“I anticipate him being in on third down a lot more,” said Schonert of Lynch. “He’s had a year, he understands the protections now and I think this year he’ll be an integral part of our third down package.”

The story says the Bills have been practicing passes to Lynch during the offseason, with Lynch occasionally lining up wide on occasion.

Marshawn Lynch’s growth as an every down back should make him more valuable to the Bills and to your fantasy team.

    

Memo to Lovie Smith

TO: Lovie Smith, Coach, Jerry Angelo, GM

FROM: The NFL Source

CC: New York Jets

SUBJECT: The Fix for the Chicago Bears Quarterback Mess

Get on the phone and cut a deal with Green Bay for Brett Favre NOW!

Gene Upshaw may be eased out of NFLPA

A story on SportingNews.com says that a committee of players pushed the National Football League Players Association executive board to look for a replacement for Gene Upshaw.

Gene Upshaw has been the executive director of the NFLPA since 1983 and has been a participant in negotiations between players and owners of the Collective Bargaining Agreement and extensions since 1977. He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1987 after a 16 year career with the Oakland Raiders where he was a six time Pro Bowler.

He is also a vice president of the AFL-CIO.

Pro football players have seen a dramatic rise in income under Upshaw’s leadership. Although he has led and threatened strikes, Upshaw is renowned for the uncommon working relationship with the owners and NFL commissioners Paul Tagliabue and Roger Goodell in a text book case of union - management cooperation for the benefit of an industry.

Baltimore Ravens kicker Matt Stover advocates replacing Upshaw by next March, according to an April 8, 2008, story on Yahoo Sports.  Stover’s efforts were thought not reflective of most players, but now the union has a search committee in place.

Upshaw is 62, just the time when organizations should start succession planning. His contract with the NFLPA ends at an awkward time in 2010. That’s the uncapped year if the union and owners don’t reach a new agreement on the CBA. The owners opted out of the 2006 extension of the agreement saying the players were getting too high a percentage of the revenue.

The players and the executive board may prefer someone who can be held accountable for the next round of negotiations rather than a lame duck as Upshaw will be. Out-going commissioner Paul Tagliabue negotiated the CBA extension on behalf of the owners, but isn’t around to take the heat from owner displeasure with the deal. I suspect the union did not like what it saw in that.

Upshaw also may not be in sync with the players. He denounced Roger Goodell’s statement about rookie salaries. The SportingNews.com story says that veteran players seem to want the restrictions. He also resisted boosting benefits for retired players. Sooner or later every player retires, a thought that may be on the mind of Upshaw’s older constituents.

Packers rebuffed Favre bid to return

A story on Packersnews.com says that indecisive Brett Favre actually contacted Green Bay head coach Mike McCarthy two weeks ago about returning to football. Unlike the last two years, the Packers declined.

“The Packers are reluctant to take Favre back for several reasons: They’re concerned how it would affect Aaron Rodgers, Favre’s replacement. They have already gone through an entire offseason preparing Rodgers, and they’ve adjusted the offense to suit his strengths.”

That’s a good move, painful as it may be. If Favre changes his mind again and “un-retires” from his retirement, he would be stepping into the middle of the preparation for the upcoming season. Preparation starts at the close of the previous season, not at training camp in July.

Favre missed all of the planning quarterbacks have with the coaches in February and March. The first steps in game planning are taken in the voluntary activities after the draft. Coaches, receivers and the line would have to unwind that work if Favre comes back now. 

Of course, that’s what Favre did last year on the way to a great season. Maybe he can pull if off again, but it stresses the organization. This year, next year, the Packers have to prepare for life after Favre. It may as well be under their own control.

Game Plan for Independence

Preamble to the United States Declaration of Independence 

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

“That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”

That was the kick-off to a game changing event in the history of Western civilization. Not since ancient Greece had anyone asserted that a people were free, with the right to self-governence. It was never done on the scale that the rag tag group of North American colonials did it in 1776.

The men who rebelled at the idea of paying taxes they didn’t vote for, or hosting a military they didn’t want, threw their monarch for a loss and created their own gameplan for the future.

The outcome was far from certain. The British were near the peak of the imperial dominance that was to rock the world for the next century and a half. No one gave the underdog Americans much of a shot.

But, those Americans had good position coaches and a good field general. Although he wasn’t the most skilled quarterback on the field, George Washington was the one man most of the colonials trusted enough to follow most of the time.

The home team got off to a shaky start. They pulled it together by half-time and kicked butt by the fourth quarter, with a little help from their friends, the French.

Washington was that rare revolutionary leader who did not betray the ideals of the cause he fought for. You can look it up. Most revolutionaries corrupt themselves in a grab for personal power and wealth. Not Washington, who stepped down as the head of a standing army when he might have made himself dictator. He did it again by stepping down as president when he might have been king.

Napoleon Bonaparte has nothing on this guy. Napoleon was a much better quarterback. He won more games, but the French lost the cause. Washington won the championship.

Not that those old guys got it completely right. Their concepts of freedom and who should have it were as out-dated as the Statue of Liberty play is to modern football. We get to move the ball forward on that because the Hall of Fame Founding Fathers who set up the game said the players could change the rules.

The rest of the world is still trying to catch up to us on that.

For Green Bay there’s Favre to go

If it’s July, it must be time to watch Brett Favre decide whether he is retired or not. Just like last year, Lord Favre is keeping his fans guessing.

Chris Mortensen at ESPN is reporting that Favre has an ‘itch’ to return to the game egged on by his family. Brother Scott Favre says Brett’s return is 50-50.

Favre himself texted a friendly reporter at The Biloxi Sun that it was “all rumor.”

Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who’s been waiting in the wings for Old Brett to go away, betrayed his frustration by telling Sports Illustrated that Packer fans need either to get on the Rodgers bandwagon, or “keep their mouths shut.”

Rodgers would later say he didn’t mean it the way is sounded, but he really did.

It can’t be easy being green these days, especially when you are the guy to replace a legend. There can’t be that many Packer fans who remember life before Brett. Or maybe they do and don’t like it. They need to cut Rodgers some slack though, until he proves what he can or can’t do.

The Packer front office can’t be on the Favre merry-go-round, either. The front office has to build a team for today and for the next few seasons. Delaying for a Favre decision is merely delaying preparation for the future. Planning for the season doesn’t begin at training camp. It begins right after the last game of the regular season. Favre missed that. Aaron Rodgers did not.

With or without Brett Favre, the Packers have far to go. It’s time to move on.