Former Boise State star Hall to join New Orleans Saints - IdahoStatesman.com

Former Boise State and Glenns Ferry High star Korey Hall is moving from one Super Bowl champion to another.

Hall on Friday signed with the New Orleans Saints, who won the Super Bowl at the end of the 2009 season. He leaves the Green Bay Packers, where Hall earned a Super Bowl ring at the end of the 2010 season.

Hall, who was a three-time All-WAC linebacker at Boise State, spent the past four seasons as a fullback and special-teamer for the Packers. He was a sixth-round pick in 2007.

The Saints' veteran fullback, Heath Evans, isn't expected to return, Hall said.

"The fullback is a pretty big part of their offense and in a lot of pass plays," Hall said of the Saints. "They get him the ball quite a bit. Overall, it will be a real fun place."

Hall agreed to terms with the Saints earlier this week but signings weren't official until 4 p.m. Friday. The Saints needed a quick decision, he said, and the Packers' interest was dependent on what happened with another free-agent fullback, John Kuhn.

"We just couldn't wait around too long," Hall said. "When we talked to New Orleans, they had to fill the position and we didn't want to miss out. … They were one of the first (teams) to send us an offer."

Hall is the second former Boise State player to leave the Packers this week, as offensive lineman Daryn Colledge agreed to a five-year deal with the Arizona Cardinals.

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters featured article: Ten Years Of Media Lens - Our Problem With Mainstream Dissidents.

Source: "Super Bowl 2011" via Glen in Google Reader

Dimitroff propels his Falcons one step closer to a Super Bowl - Atlanta Journal Constitution (blog)

Bill Belichick seeks managerial tips from a former employee. (AJC photo by Curtis Compton)

Flowery Branch — Assuming he hasn't done so already, Thomas Dimitroff should take several moments to prop his feet on the nearest ottoman, pour himself a tall glass of cabernet and crank his main man Bob Seger to 11 on the hi-fi. Dimitroff has it coming.

The great general manager aced his greatest test. Half his offseason business had been left undone. He'd traded 21 spots upward to draft Julio Jones, the wide receiver of vast promise, but the still-sought pass rusher would have to come via free agency, which owing to the NFL lockout would be rendered a frenzy.

Speaking in his office shortly after noon Friday, Dimitroff said, "I feel calm amid this ostensible disarray." An hour later, he felt positively serene. An hour later, the Falcons had their pass rusher.

They'd landed the free agent Ray Edwards, formerly of Minnesota. And here we stand back to assess what the Falcons have done over an offseason complicated by a work stoppage: Upgraded at receiver, upgraded at defensive end and retained right tackle Tyson Clabo, a free agent himself. If they do nothing else, they look to be a better team than they were last season, and last season they were 13-3. They look to be better because their master planner had, yet again, planned masterfully.

"When we're called on to adapt," Dimitroff said, "we want to be adaptable. This league is about being adaptable. The best teams are."

There was a time — decades of it, actually — when the Falcons were among the NFL's klutzes. That time ended when Arthur Blank found this GM by way of a webcam interview. Since January 2008 this has been a model organization, smart and assertive and prescient. These Falcons had a plan to handle the lockout. These Falcons have a plan for everything.

"Nothing has surprised me as yet," Dimitroff said, meaning about the post-lockout process Blank had called "free agency on steroids." The Falcons made a quick pitch to Charles Johnson, but that defensive end chose to re-up with Carolina for the stunning sum of $72 million ($30 million guaranteed) over six seasons.

Dimitroff again: "This is a puzzle, and it all has to fit together from a skill standpoint and a character standpoint, but it also has to fit financially."

The Falcons landed Edwards for $30 million ($11.5 guaranteed) over five seasons. That's a fit cut from regal cloth.

The day had begun with the Falcons shedding Jamaal Anderson and Michael Jenkins, first-round draftees from a previous regime. That was done to clear money for Edwards, who would come aboard not long after the first practice of Training Camp 2011 — a short and sedate walkthrough –  ended. (There would be another session, this one with helmets, in the afternoon.)

"As a staff, we were so prepared going into this," Dimitroff said. "We've done a good job of being patient, and we'd said that going in: 'We have to be patient when things go awry a little bit.' "

Nothing really did. The Falcons took a run at Johnson but wound up with Edwards, who's likewise a left end and who has had 29 1/2 sacks over five NFL seasons to Johnson's 21 1/2 over four. And they did it at less than half the price.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but these aren't your father's Dumb Ol' Falcons. Dimitroff is shrewd enough to know what to do, bold enough to do it.  "When we started, we said we didn't want to get to the point where we were over-analyzing things," he said. "There can be a tendency to second-guess and to hesitate, and when you do that you don't get the person and you're left holding your backside wondering, 'What happened?' "

What happened Friday was this: The Falcons reported to camp and were given an immediate jolt by news that their GM had delivered. The first day of on-field work ended with this franchise closer to holding the Lombardi Trophy than at any time since Rod Smith beat Eugene Robinson deep in the second quarter of Super Bowl XXXIII.

It's traditional on the first day of camp to guzzle Gatorade by the jug. On this Friday, an exception needed to be made: The Falcons should have raised a glass of the grape to their snowboarding architect. He'd done his part. The rest is up to them.

By Mark Bradley

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters featured article: Ten Years Of Media Lens - Our Problem With Mainstream Dissidents.

Source: "Super Bowl 2011" via Glen in Google Reader

3 tasks for the Jets at training camp - Metro.us

Gang Green has already re-signed some big talent but they still have plenty of holes to fill thanks to cuts.

1. The defense will Go West-erman

With holes at defensive end and outside linebacker, the Jets will need to plug some positions with talent already on their roster.

Given the lavish contract already handed out to Santonio Holmes, they might need to find some bargains.

Third-year defensive end/linebacker Jamaal Westerman could be that player to plug in a couple different slots in the two-deep. The Rutgers product had a tremendous offseason in terms of strength building. 

“I’m excited to see Westerman, we need to give him an opportunity,” head coach Rex Ryan said.

2. Find a big target wide receiver

Now that the Jets have re-signed Holmes — a move that brings back their biggest offensive playmaker — other wideout needs exist.

But after spending big bucks to keep Holmes from testing the free agent market, the Jets still need to partner him with a possession-type wide receiver since Braylon Edwards is likely out of their price range now.

Can a practice squad player like Patrick Turner step up or would Randy Moss take a pay cut to play for a Super Bowl contender?

Identifying that big-body wide receiver is a must this training camp.

3. Do the offensive line shuffle

 A player to watch in training camp is right tackle Vlad Ducasse, the team’s second round pick last season.

He saw spot duty in his rookie season after showing up to camp in less than ideal shape and after months of dedicated workouts, Ducasse is much more physically ready for the NFL grind.The Jets just resigned the versatile Wayne Hunter to a long-term deal, meaning that the two will battle it out for the position vacated by Damien Woody’s recent retirement.

Sanchez steps up as leader

Sometimes, it is easy to forget that Mark Sanchez is in his third year as a starting quarterback.

Jets fans, meet one of your captains for the 2011 season.

Head coach Rex Ryan named the 24-year-old quarterback his offensive captain on Wednesday during a conference call.

It was a bit of a surprise move to name a quarterback so young and still learning to take a leadership role on a team with Super Bowl ambitions.

The Jets are a veteran team with plenty of proven leaders, but Ryan said the players’ response to Sanchez the last two seasons made it a natural move.

“I see the way the guys are around him. This is really going to be his team,” Ryan said. “I’m not big on giving out those captain [titles], but we will put the “C” on his jersey this year because he truly is our captain.”

From the moment he was taken with the No. 5 pick in the 2009 NFL Draft, Sanchez has become the face of this franchise, to the point that during his rookie season his teammates tagged him with the nickname “The Sanchise.” Orchestrating a playoff run with some gutsy performances due to a knee injury his rookie season, a series of late-game heroics in his second year and then this past January’s postseason push to a second consecutive AFC Championship Game ensures that Sanchez is more than just a marketing face to plaster on billboards.

He is in fact, the leader of this team’s offense despite being a little more than three months shy of turning 25 years old.

His leadership style can be flamboyant but is also quietly subtle. In the spring, Sanchez held a “Jets West” camp with the offensive skill position players in an effort to keep them sharp during the lockout. Then in June, over 40 players convened in Madison, N.J. at a local college as part of involuntary workouts put together in part by Sanchez.

“It can’t hurt, just those extra reps, throwing the ball around. Getting guys together just to see each other and hang out on-and off-the-field, is important,” Sanchez said. “Whether it’s from an X’s and O’s standpoint or a morale standpoint, and just a friendship/teammate standpoint, I think all of that stuff helps.”

Sanchez might still be that kid at heart, who pulls down the shorts of his offensive coordinator or jumps on the back of teammate Bart Scott and rides him around during offseason workouts, but underneath the “Dennis the Menace” grin of mischief lays a player who has earned his dues in three short years with the Jets. It might be easy to see Sanchez, wearing shorts and mismatched socks in December racing out of the locker room, late to an offense team meeting, as just a goofball and perhaps a player not yet seasoned enough to take on the role of being a captain.

Ryan and the coaching staff would disagree with that assessment.

“I’m really comfortable doing this now. Am I trying to drive up the jersey sales for Sanchez? Maybe that’s true,” Ryan said. “But I think seriously that he’s earned that and I’m excited to watch this young man grow.”

Follow Kristian Dyer on Twitter @KristianRDyer.

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters featured article: Ten Years Of Media Lens - Our Problem With Mainstream Dissidents.

Source: "Super Bowl 2011" via Glen in Google Reader