The starting lineups have been announced for both the Eagles and Jets.

Of note, Macho Harris gets the start at free safety over Quintin Demps – which could indicate that Demps is in trouble for a roster spot, as we discussed on ITI Weekly thsi week. Demps was previously listed above Harris and the Birds may not keep five safeties. Keep a close eye on Harris and Demps tonight.

It also looks like Mike Bell won’t see any action, with Mallett and Buckley making the starts. Also expect the starting offensive lineman to play most of the game, with only two players deeper on the depth chart remaining (Jeraill McCuller and Funiki Tupou).

Philadelphia:
QB: Michael Vick
RB: Martell Mallett
FB: Eldra Buckley
WR: Riley Cooper
WR: Kelly Washington
TE: Clay Harbor
LT: Austin Howarde
LG: Max Jean-Gilles
C: A.Q. Shipley
RG: Dallas Reynolds
RT: King Dunlap

LDE: Daniel Te’o Nesheim
LDT: Jeff Owens
RDT: Antonio Dixon
RDE: Darryl Tapp
WLB: Keenan Clayton
MLB: Omar Gaither
SLB: Moise Fokou
LCB: Joselio Hanson
RCB: Trevard Lindley
SS: Kurt Coleman
FS: Macho Harris

New York:
QB: Mark Brunell
RB: Joe McKnight
FB: John Conner
TE: Matthew Mulligan
WR: Santonio Holmes
WR: David Clowney
LT: Wayne Hunter
LG: Vladimir Ducasse
C: Robert Turner
RG: Matt Slausen
RT: Dan Gay

DE: Martin Tevaseu
NT: Matt Kroul
T: Ty Steinkuhler
OLB: Vernon Gholston
MLB: Lance Laury
WLB: Brashton Satele
OLB: Jamaal Westerman
CB: Marquice Cole
CB: Drew Coleman
S: James Ihedigbo
S: Eric Smith

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The Eagles face the Jets tonight at 7:30 in the final pre-season game for both teams. No opening day starters are expected to play, as Mike Vick will take the helm for the Eagles second-string offense in the first half. Mike Kafka is expected to play the entire second half with the third-string.

On the Jets side, Santonio Holmes is scheduled to play three quarters, since he will miss the first four games of the season with a suspension. New York head coach Rex Ryan is only playing 36 players in tonight’s game.

The Eagles come into the game at 2-1 in exhibitions this season, while the Jets are 1-2. Vick still searches for his first touchdown pass of the pre-season, as neither he nor starter Kevin Kolb have found the end zone through the air.

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Via BuffaloBills.com

Head coach Chan Gailey has chosen not to dress Spiller simply to rest him up for the regular season. With Fred Jackson and Marshawn Lynch out the past two weeks, Spiller has endured a heavy workload as the primary back in each of the last two preseason games. Gailey would like to rest his top pick for the season opener.

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Special Edition: As a Browns fan living in Chicago, I recently attended the Bears’ preseason game against the Arizona Cardinals and got a chance to tackle this question in real life. We won’t cover anything else as we wait for the first week of the season to arrive.

Question: So, are the Bears going to be any good this year?

A thoughtful and long winded answer: Honestly, I see a lot of the 2008 Browns written on the Bears this year.

Sitting in a Chicago bar with Bears fans you can feel it in the air. Everyone is in on the edge of their seat. It’s like they are watching one of those movies where a car almost drives over a cliff, but at the last second stops and is left balanced on the edge, teetering back and forth. Bears fans are holding their breath in suspense as they wait for the car’s passenger to shift just slightly the wrong way, causing the car fall over the edge.

This is what happened to the Browns in 2008.

In 2007, the Browns were the cinderella story of the NFL. They came out of nowhere, with a quarterback nobody wanted, scored a ton of points, and finished the year 10-6. Though they missed the playoffs by a half game, the networks pegged them as a team to watch. The following year they played on national TV five times.

Browns upper management was thinking the same thing.  Phil Savage began trading away the future to win now. Before the draft Shaun Rogers was acquired for a third round pick and Leigh Bodden, and Corey Williams was acquired for a second round pick.

They were already without a first round draft pick in 2008 because they’d traded it away to get Brady Quinn. This left the Browns with no picks in their first three rounds of the draft.

Derek Anderson was given the starting job out of camp despite fans being bitterly divided over supporting him or Quinn. He was also handed a contract extension, as were Romeo Crennel and Savage. The pressure was on the Browns to make the playoffs, now. They pushed all of their chips to the center of the table and went all-in.

And then casino exploded in their face.

2007 turned out to be a mirage of an easy schedule. Derek Anderson turned out to a QB who just got hot for a month. He lost his starting job midseason. The Browns wilted under the heat of national TV schedule and only won 4 games. The injuries that always seemed to plague them returned from their 2007 vacation.

Romeo Crennel became a dead man walking, focusing on his guys instead of the future, fading into defiance. Phil Savage began to panic as the ship he was steering swerved out of control. He exploded in a profanity laced text message to a Browns fan, and threw Kellen Winslow under the bus asking him to publicly lie about a staph infection.

The Browns lost eight of their last nine games.

When the dust settled both Savage and Crennel were gone, and the Browns would come to admit they pulled the trigger on today too quickly. They were left with cupboard empty of talent, and a long rebuilding project before them.

The Bears have it coming.

They play on national TV four times this season. Like the Browns in 2008, they’ve drawn the treacherous NFC East.

They traded away their future – two first round picks for starting Quarterback Jay Cutler. They forked over another second round pick in this year’s draft to acquire defensive end Gaines Adams (now deceased). They gave 30-year old free agent Julius Peppers a record $41-million guaranteed  to become a Bear. The time is now and there is no turning back.

If they fail this year it may be time to rebuild.

General Manager Jerry Angelo has now made enough Savage-esque moves to lose his job. Bears coach Lovie Smith is a defensive specialist, and a dead man walking.

The great Bears defense of 2006-2007 is past its peak. They are old and their window is closing.

Jay Cutler is a more accomplished quarterback than Derek Anderson ever was, but he is not playing up to the price the Bears paid to get him. A league high 27 interceptions in 2009 has the natives restless.

Back in the Bears’ bar you can hear it: Moments after Cutler completes a nice pass over the middle to Chester Taylor for 17 yards and a first down, a patron bellows out “Stop throwing off your back foot!”

Cutler, like Anderson, is on thin ice with his home town crowd. He can’t win.

You can see the Bears season unraveling painfully and slowly, with Cutler disintegrating to the sound of boos as the Soldier Field crowd turns on him.

Picture a little boy running as fast as he can down a suburban sidewalk. He is smiling and happy, until he trips and slams face-first down into the pavement. That is the best metaphor for what Browns fans experienced in 2008. Bears fans can see it coming and are getting antsy.

It’s not that they don’t have talent at all, they have a chance. But they are still thin in key areas, especially along the offensive line and in the defensive secondary. They are not a bad team, but are still looking up at the Packers and Vikings in their own division, much the way the Browns look up at the Ravens and Steelers.

In their dress rehearsal preseason game against the Cardinals, they scored  9 points total, all in the fourth quarter. They missed two field goals, Cutler threw two more interceptions, the defense handed former Browns disappointer Derek Anderson the starting QB job for Arizona – with a bow on it.

Everyone in the bar knows it. The Bears are slipping farther and farther away from the Super Bowl they appeared in five years ago, and their front office is grabbing for straws more franticly. Their fans are desperate, knowing they are just one last step before the edge of the cliff leading to a rebuild.

So the answer is, no. There are too many question marks for the Bears. Too many things have to go right for them to pull off a successful season. There is too much tension surrounding the team for them to survive intact.

Follow me on Twitter at @JimmyCTown to talk Browns, or CTown sports in general.

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The title of this article will surely spur at least a little debate, if not a lot.  Not because I’m going to spend the next few minutes of your life explaining why the first game of the season could be a must win game for the Miami Dolphins, but because a good portion of you will take to calling me an idiot or worse, for even suggesting that the first game of a new season could be that important.  O.k. go for it.  My skin is thick enough.

Is the Buffalo Bills game a must win game for the Miami Dolphins?

While I doubt many of you will open your minds to the prospect of any game in the first half of the season being that important, I can’t help but amuse myself by asking that question.

In some ways, yes.  Yes it is.

The Miami Dolphins thought they found an identity two years ago when they ran the Wild Cat to perfection as the manhandled their way into the playoffs.  Last year, the WC lost much of it’s surprise and the Phins fell short of their playoff goal.  Now, year 3 of the Bill Parcells, Jeff Ireland, and Tony Sparano is up on us and the team no longer has an identity.  In fact, it has possibly more questions surrounding it.

Consider year one for a quick second.  No one was safe, roster turnover was huge and no one was surprised.  It was a must.  Last year’s off-season brought much of the same.  This year, not so much.  At least not outside of Karlos Dansby and Brandon Marshall.  But neither player brings an identity that reshapes the team on either side of the ball.  The power running game is in flux with the depth issues on the Oline and the defense is a youth movement.  So there are a lot of questions on both sides.

In both seasons past, the Dolphins lost their opening 3 games.  Rebounded in year one to win the division.  That was behind the surprise success of the WC.  Last year they rebounded a tad too late and faltered in the end and missed the dance.  Can “THIS” team afford that same opening issues?  I don’t think so.

The Phins open on the road at Buffalo and a loss would hardly put their season in doubt, however, they travel from Buffalo to Minnesota for week 2 before coming home to face division rivals New York and New England.

In other words, the easiest game on the opening schedule is the Bills.  Following the first 4 games the Dolphins have their bye week.  When they return, they face Green Bay, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Cincy, and Tennessee.  One of the toughest opening schedules in the NFL.  Has these Miami Dolphins shown you enough to believe they are hands down the favorite to win all of those games?  Not even close.

That is the kind of schedule that can get your head coach fired mid-season.  Following that horrid test, they get a run against the Bears, Raiders, and Browns before getting a second helping of the Jets, Bills, and Patriots.  With the Lions between the last two division games.  In other words, no hiccups along the way.

Momentum is something that is preached at all levels of football.  Hell it’s preached at all levels of sports.  Opening the season with a win builds confidence and starts that all important momentum.  The Dolphins have not won in Buffalo in 5 seasons.  And to a degree, they almost must beat them to open the season.

It’s easy to be a homer and say that the Dolphins “can” beat this team and “can” beat that team but reality is a different world.  The Dolphins “CAN” beat anyone.  So can the Lions, Browns, and Raiders.  As they say, “Any given Sunday”.  But “any given Sunday” is used to describe teams that really shouldn’t be winning games.  No one says that when referring to the Colts, Patriots, or Saints.  Will they be saying it about the Dolphins?

The truth is that these Miami Dolphins can’t afford to lose the first game of the season.  It is that important.  Getting the season off to a good start, even if sloppy, puts the team on the right path.  It gives them confidence the following week to face Brett “I don’t have any receivers and I should have stayed retired” Favre.  It gives them confidence to come home and open their stadium for the 2010 season with their orange jerseys and knock of the Jets.  It gives them confidence to take on the Patriots at home.  In other words, a win at Buffalo could give the team what it needs to beat the Vikings.  A win against the Vikings and there is momentum to take the home stand.

A loss at Buffalo and they will start looking at last year and the year before.  A “here we go again” with 3 in a row to start the season.  But looking at this year first 8 games, I’m not so sure that an 0-3 start is going to be something this team can recover from.

And that is why I think, maybe, just maybe, the Buffalo game has a little more importance to the start of the season than just an opening day win.

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The USA Today released its annual pre-season power rankings today, and Seahawks fans probably won’t be very happy.

The newspaper ranked the Hawks 29th overall, in front of only St. Louis, Buffalo, and Tampa Bay. The entire list can be viewed at USAToday.com.

Although the ranking is low, it is probably where the Seahawks deserve to be after winning only nine games the past two seasons combined. But there is hope, as the newspaper adds, “With a healthy Matt Hasselbeck, playoffs aren’t out of question.”

The top of the list features Green Bay at number one, followed by Indianapolis, Dallas, New Orleans, and Baltimore.

Where would you rank the Seahawks in 2010?

Shaun Dolence: dolencesm@gmail.com
Follow 12th Man Rising

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Jurrell Casey- DT- USC

6-1 296lbs Junior

Stats:

2008- 12 tackles, 2 tackles for loss, 1 forced fumble

2009- 59 tackles, 4.5 sacks, 9 tackles for loss, 2 forced fumbles

Pros:

Jurrell Casey is looking to follow in the footsteps of former USC DT Mike Patterson.  Like Patterson Casey is a shorter but stout defensive tackle.  He has the proper bulk and strength to fit into a 4-3 defensive scheme as the nose tackle.  Casey has shown excellent ability to control gaps and get off blocks to make plays.  His always running motor enhances the ability of this already gifted athlete.  Casey is an excellent run defender and has the ability to clog up holes.

Cons:

So far in his career Casey has struggled to get off the ball quickly.  He needs to work on his snap recognition and anticipation.  The fact that he doesn’t react quick enough may limit his ability to play the 3 technique because it will not allow him to beat offensive guard off the ball.  The athleticism is there for improvement but he needs to refine his technique.

Thoughts:

Casey is part of a very talented group of defensive tackles that are eligible for this year’s draft.  He needs to build on his solid Sophomore season and tighten up in some areas.  He sits just outside our Big Board and needs to have a strong start to get consideration to move up the board.  Casey has the physical ability and college production to intrigue NFL scouts.

Projected Round:

I think Casey is sitting in the early 2^ndround range right now but he could easily find himself in the 1^st round discussion.

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Finally the pre-season is coming to an end. The Cowboys’s reputation has unbelievably taken a hit because of there lackluster performance in glorified exhibition games.  Regardless that the game against Miami will matter very little to the Cowboys 2010 regular season, the following storylines are worth paying attention to.

1. Dez Bryant: Bryant will not play in this game. Our curiosity will not be sated until week one of the regular season. We may see him on the sideline burning to get into the game. I had my initial reservations about the Cowboys drafting Bryant, but I’ve grown to like his attitude. Other than players on the roster bubble, how many really want to play in the fourth game of a meaningless pre-season.

2. Ogletree v. Hurd: It is unlikely we will keep both players on the roster. Only 10 months ago, some fans were projecting Ogletree to displace Roy Williams as the starter. Now he may not make the team. On the other side of the coin, Hurd is a substantial contributor to special teams, a good character guy, can play all the WR’ing positions, and he may soon find himself looking for a new home. This is a better problem to have than choosing between two mediocre players. My vote is to keep Hurd. With a lockout on the horizon, many teams are building to win this year. I like Ogletree in the long run, but Hurd in the here and now.

3. 5th corner:  The dime corner may not be played by a corner at all.  The Cowboys staff may use safeties to cover 4th/5th WR’s.  Nonetheless, injuries may force the Cowboys to play a 5th corner in nickel packages.  It is a passing league and WR’s at the bottom of the depth chart are more talented their their counterparts a generation ago.

4. How many starters will play?  The Miami Dolphins were not satisfied with their performance against Atlanta in their 3rd pre-season game and will consequently play many of their starters.  The Cowboys will take a similar approach and will play some of their starters, but will hold back key contributors like Tony Romo.  Obviously injury is a primary concern.  If the Cowboys play Leonard Davis who then sustains an injury, the offensive line would be even more in shambles than it presently is.  Wade Phillips has not indicated which starters will play, or for how long.  Fans will breathe a sigh of relief once the last starter is off the field (unless it is Roy Williams).

5. Will the Dolphins game plan to make the Cowboys look foolish? I don’t believe this to be the case, but if the Dolphins management harbors ill will towards the Cowboys’s management, they may game plan to make every effort to dominate the Cowboys which will only amplify the alarm bells ringing in Dallas.  The Dolphins (as previously indicated) intend to play their starters.  The game could quickly get out of hand.  The game could be lopsided without any malicious intent by the Dolphins, so this question won’t have an answer.

6. Is McGee a long term solution at backup QB? McGee was drafted in 2009 in the fourth round. The buzz around him initially was that he could run the wildcat offense considering his athletic prowess. Fast forward 1.5 years and you do notice McGee’s athleticism, but he is not even a poor man’s Mike Vick. If McGee expects to have a long term future with the Cowboys, he needs to earn that spot as a classic drop back QB. Proving he can handle that role begins tonight when he starts against the Dolphins.

7. Will Parcells return to the house he built (but Jerry Jones designed and paid for it). Jones admitted while in an inebriated state that he brought in Bill Parcells to bring some excitement back to the team. While The Parcells lead Cowboys made the playoffs twice, they did not make it passed the first round. Nonetheless, Parcells is in a similar position as Jimmy Johnson was. Parcells will receive a lion’s share of the credit for constructing the foundation of this team.  Maybe in a few years, Parcells will again follow Johnson’s lead and join a reality TV show.  Parcells’s presence on The Jersey Shore would certainly pique my interest considering he is the ultimate Jersey boy, next to Bruce Springsteen.

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