Buffalo
Oct. 2, 2008   By Matt Sohn

Bills turn attention to Jauron after extending Evans

Updated at 6:26 p.m. EDT Thursday, Oct. 2

With QB Trent Edwards absorbing the spotlight in Buffalo's blistering 4-0 start, the superb play of WR Lee Evans has gone a bit under the radar. Through four games, Evans has 14 receptions for 332 yards, ranking seventh in the league in receiving yardage. More impressively, his 23.7 yards per reception tops the NFL's charts amongst receivers with double-digit catches. Evans' standout play might have hastened the Bills' resolve in locking up their star receiver to the four-year, $37.25 million deal he signed on Thursday, but the reality is that there was never a doubt as to whether he'd be a Bill beyond 2008. "It's extremely important for Lee to stay in Buffalo," a source directly involved in the negotiation told PFW the day before Evans signed his extension. "He loves it there." The way we hear it, the front office's attention now turns to extending coach Dick Jauron's deal, which is set to expire after the season.

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Miami
Oct. 3, 2008   By Matt Sohn

Dolphins curiously stagnant in extension talks for emerging linebacker

Updated at 9:22 a.m. EDT Monday, Oct. 6

Things have been surprisingly quiet on the contract front for ILB Channing Crowder. The fourth-year veteran is in the final season of his rookie deal, prompting some to wonder why the Dolphins are taking such a passive approach to locking him up long term.

According to a source close to the linebacker, Crowder’s representatives were engaged in preliminary talks with Miami’s front-office executives back in August, but the club hasn’t kept up the communication. It’s a curious tactic, considering how proactive it has been in working out extensions for more red-flagged players — specifically, troubled RB Ricky Williams and injury-risk S Yeremiah Bell, whom we hear they’re currently negotiating with.

“It’s baffling,” the source said. “You would think they’d want to lock down one of the best players on their defense, especially given how young (24) he is. Every day they wait, his price tag goes up. Every day they wait, the leverage shifts more to Channing. And there’s no way they’d franchise him.”

Crowder missed five games a season ago with a right knee injury, the only games he has missed in his career. This season, Crowder — Miami’s second-leading tackler — has helped transform the league’s worst run defense in ’07 into a solid unit against the run. The Dolphins limited the Chargers to 60 rushing yards in Week Five. However, Miami’s current silence doesn’t necessarily suggest that there’s no chance Crowder suits up for the Fins in ’09. A club observer we talked to before the season told us that it wouldn’t be surprising if team decision makers wait until they see more of a body of work from Crowder before deciding whether he’s the type of player they want to keep around. While the 6-2, 250-pounder fits the description of the big, young box defender the Dolphins want to outfit their 3-4 defense with, the new Miami regime doesn’t yet have a complete reading on the holdover players.

Although his play in coverage is spotty, Crowder could well be offered an extension at some point during the season if he continues to be stout vs. the run. However, the source cautioned that if the linebacker’s clout within the league continues to grow and the Dolphins hold off offering a new deal until late, he may opt to wait until free agency begins to see what kind of deals he’d attract from other clubs.

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New England
Oct. 2, 2008   By Matt Sohn

Patriots' rookie corners off to disappointing debuts

Updated at 9:22 a.m. EDT Monday, Oct. 6

The Patriots harbored high hopes for their rookie cornerbacks, second-rounder Terrence Wheatley and fourth-rounder Jonathan Wilhite, entering the season. Given the team’s patchwork secondary, they were expected to contribute immediately to the team’s plans, but thus far, they’ve been rather anonymous. Wheatley’s relatively scarce playing time has been particularly unnerving not only considering his talent level, but also because of his intelligence. Team sources say he’s one of the smarter defenders Bill Belichick has on his roster, but Wheatley has found it difficult to bump a middling talent like Lewis Sanders out of the starting lineup. However, sources also caution against reading too much into the fact that Wilhite has been active for all four of the games, whereas Wheatley has been held out of one. Wilhite’s special-teams proclivity, not his defensive ability, is primarily responsible for his playing time.

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NY Jets
Oct. 3, 2008   By Matt Sohn

Smith hitting hard, but falling short of expectation in Jets' secondary

The fact that S Eric Smith received a one-game suspension and $50,000 fine for his vicious hit on Cardinals WR Anquan Boldin wasn’t surprising. The fact that he was even on the field to lay the wood was the more surprising piece of news. The word we’re hearing from around the league is that third-year pro Abram Elam entered the offseason as the clear front-runner for the safety job. That notion was cemented even further when star SS Kerry Rhodes unveiled to PFW toward the start of training camp that Rhodes, Elam and CB Darrelle Revis would represent the core of their weekly film sessions at Rhodes’ house, sessions generally attended by the Jets' starting defensive backs. The way we hear it, Smith simply had the better training camp, but that fact that none of the safeties has proven an inspiring complement to Rhodes has coach Eric Mangini thinking hard about inserting converted CB David Barrett into the starting safety role opposite Rhodes.

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