According to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Daniel Thomas (ankle) is likely done for the season.

Thomas reportedly tore ligaments in his left ankle on an awkward tackle from Captain Munnerlyn during Sunday's loss to the Panthers. It leaves Lamar Miller as the unquestioned feature back and every-down player for the final five games of the year, with Mike Gillislee and Marcus Thigpen as backups. Thomas did show improvement this season as he forged a committee with Miller, rushing 77 times for 279 yards (3.62 YPC) with three touchdowns. We've still seen nothing to suggest the 2011 second-round pick will ever be a plus running back in the NFL. Thomas will be back in 2014 for the final year of his rookie contract.


(rotoworld.com)

Ed Reed still hasn’t won a game this year. And the Jets still can’t defend the deep ball.

But Jets coach Rex Ryan wasn’t about to connect those two dots.

Despite Reed being in the vicinity of Jacoby Jones before a back-breaking 66-yard touchdown pass, Ryan insisted it wasn’t the veteran safety’s fault.
“I’m not going to pin it on any one individual,” Ryan said, via Neil Best of Newsday. “Certainly not on one guy. Certainly not Ed Reed. He’d probably be third on that list, in all honesty.”

The Jets were stacked in a deep coverage designed to prevent such a play, but Reed said he couldn’t find the ball.

“I never really saw the ball,” he said. “I should have played it different. I probably should have just grabbed Jacoby and took the pass interference instead, given the position I was in. . . .

“I mean, they had the wind; it’s just that simple. It was like, here comes a shot . . . What would you do? I tell one of the fastest guys to just run deep and locate the ball, and that’s what he did.”

Sunday was the second time Reed’s lost to the Ravens this year, after once with the Texans before he was cut. And since he missed Houston’s two-game win streak to start the year, and has lost his first two with the Jets, he’s still waiting to experience a victory this season.

“You hate to be on this side of the fence, but somebody wins and somebody has to lose,” he said. “It’s a child’s game we play. We had fun. We have to make our corrections and have to be ready to play next week.”

And while they prepare, they’ll still be working on fixing the problem Reed was supposed to solve.


(profootballtalk.com)

One of the reasons that Colin Kaepernick was so successful for the San Francisco 49ers last year as they made their improbable run to the Super Bowl was his elusiveness. He never really took a lot of shots last season from defenses.

But, we sort of knew coming into this season that opposing coordinators would find some schemes to implement that would put Kaepernick in the position to take some cracks.

Tonight, of all people, Redskins safety Brandon Meriweather got one of those shots.

Now Meriweather is one of the guys that has been at the forefront of this whole targeting initiative. He’s notorious for going in on the person with the ball with some bad intentions.

Tonight, though, this hit on Kaepernick was completely okay. Well, it was for Meriweather at least, not so much for Colin:



(fansided.com)

ST. LOUIS — Devin Hester and Craig Steltz walked together from the field, through the tunnel and to a losing locker room Sunday, quietly chatting as they went.

The subject of their discussion was the play that could’ve — perhaps should’ve — turned this ugly game around but didn’t.

In the opening seconds of the fourth quarter, with the Bears trailing 27-14, Hester took a punt back 62 yards for an apparent touchdown. But a holding penalty on Steltz nullified what would’ve been his 20th career punt or kickoff return. It would’ve broken the NFL record he shares with Deion Sanders.

For Bears fans — especially the tens of thousands at the Edward Jones Dome — it was the most exciting and the most disappointing play of the game.
For Steltz, a longtime Bears special-teams standout, it also was confusing.

“I really don’t know what happened,” he said. “I don’t know what I did. I didn’t [notice] anything.”

According to Hester, Steltz told him the Ram deemed to have been held actually fell on his own. The Bears wound up scoring on a 72-yard drive anyway, but the drive chewed up about half of the quarter. On an afternoon full of letdowns and screw-ups for the Bears, Steltz’s penalty was as damaging as any.

Perhaps damaging to Hester’s legacy, too, if it turns out we’ve seen his last glorious run-back.

“Nah, man,” Hester said. “It’s not the first one I’ve gotten called back. And it’s not going to be the last one.”

What did Hester tell Steltz as they made their way to the locker room?

“He just told me to keep my head up because we block our butts off for him every time,” Steltz said. “He’s the greatest of all time.”


(suntimes.com)

After Houston dropped their ninth straight game, Andre Johnson was in no mood to sugarcoat his thoughts on his team’s struggles.

Between the Texans’ quarterback shuffle and the team drawing boos from their own fans, things have gone from bad to worse for the team that jumped out to a 2-0 start to the season.

Failing to notch another victory since then, however, frustration has continued to build in Houston and after handing the Jaguars their second win of the season on Sunday, Johnson voiced his displeasure in a very candid, succinct manner.

“We suck,” Johnson said. “As an offense. That’s pretty much it.” The wide receiver hauled in only two catches on the day while Case Keenum threw for just 169 yards with an interception.

It was a poor showing for the Texans, once again, and Johnson didn’t hold back when asked if they were the worst team in the NFL. “I think our record shows it,” he said. “Yeah, if you look at our record, yeah, we’re the worst team.”


(nesn.com)

Greg Olsen caught five passes for 34 yards with a touchdown in Sunday's Week 13 win at Miami.
Olsen was second on the team with nine targets. His touchdown was a goal-line game-winner, coming with just 43 seconds left off a play-action fake that left the tight end wide open. Olsen now has four scores in his last five games and is a decent bet for another touchdown when the Panthers take on the Bucs in Week 13. He's a low-end TE1.


(rotoworld.com)

Lamar Miller rushed 10 times for eight yards and caught four passes for 39 yards in Sunday's Week 12 loss to the Panthers.

Miller had no shot against the Panthers' elite front seven, routinely taking hits behind the line of scrimmage and getting knocked back for huge losses when he tried to escape. The only silver lining for owners is that Daniel Thomas went down with what looked like a serious ankle injury. There's potential for Miller to finally be an every-down back come Week 13, but he'll be facing an elite Jets run defense while playing with an inept offensive line.


(rotoworld.com)

Saints tight end Jimmy Graham brought down the house last night.

Figuratively, and nearly literally.

Graham even took to Twitter to apologize for bending the goalpost with his mighty two-handed dunk.

Of course, Graham did more than just tear up the furniture.

He finished the game with five catches for 100 yards. That’s his sixth 100-yard game this year. According to Mike Triplett of ESPN.com, that’s tied for the most in Saints franchise history and tied for the most by any player in the league this year (with Bengals wide receiver A.J. Green).

It also tied Falcons tight end Tony Gonzalez’s record for most 100-yard games in a season, which Gonzalez did in 2000 and 2004.

Considering he’s doing it all while dealing with a foot problem that has limited him this year, his feat of strength might not be the most impressive thing he’s doing.


(profootballtalk.com)

LAKE FOREST, Ill. -- Return specialist Devin Hester grinned Friday when approached by reporters to explain the cameo appearance he made at practice this week with the club’s defensive backs.

“If I go line up at quarterback and take a couple of snaps, you are all going to say we are running the option or running the Wildcat,” Hester said. “That’s your job.”

Hester, a former collegiate and NFL cornerback and nickelback, participated with members of the secondary in individual drills open to the media twice this week (Wednesday and Friday), and even spent roughly 10 minutes after Wednesday’s session working one-on-one with Bears’ defensive backs coach Jon Hoke.

“I did it to have fun,” Hester said. “Being a special-teamer now, I really don’t get as many reps as the normal guys do in practice since I’m a specialist now with the returns. That’s pretty much all I do now. To keep myself busy, I jump in every now and again to play around.

“We all hang out off the field, so whenever I come over there and play around with those guys, it gives them a little more energy and a little more excitement to go out there and work hard. When they see me in their group, it sparks them up a little bit. You have to make practice fun. You just can’t go through the same routine every day. When you joke around and have some fun, it goes by quick.”

While Hester seemed to enjoy the attention, he got serious for a moment when asked if he could cover Tavon Austin, the Rams' speedy rookie wide receiver, if the situation called for it.

“I can cover anybody,” Hester said before cracking a smile. “Just put a safety over the top, and I can shut anybody down. I need a safety over the top; I’m a Cover 2 man.”

Hester is likely an emergency option for the Bears if they suffer more injuries in the secondary Sunday. Cornerback Charles Tillman (triceps) has already been ruled out, while safety Craig Steltz is questionable with a concussion and starting nickelback Isaiah Frey is dealing with a fractured right hand that will require him to wear a cast during the game. The Bears also have reserve cornerbacks Sherrick McManis and Derrick Martin on the depth chart, and could theoretically elevate another defensive back from the practice squad before Sunday since the active roster stands at 52 (the max is 53).


(espn.com)

DALLAS --It's only been two games, but the reviews on Dallas Mavericks rookie point guard Shane Larkin have been positive.

In his two games since returning from right ankle surgery, Larkin has 11 points, four rebounds, five assists and five steals in 25 minutes and 23 seconds. He also is 4-of-8 from the field, including 2-of-4 from three-point range.

"His quickness helps us,'' coach Rick Carlisle said. "Defensively, he's done some good things.

"But we’re early in the process and there’s a long way to go. But he's done some positive things to this point and we just need him to keep working and getting better.''


(star-telegram.com)

Ryan Braun told manager Ron Roenicke earlier this week that he'd be open to the idea of moving to right field.
The idea behind the switch would be opening left field for Khris Davis, whose arm isn't strong enough to play regularly in right field, but whose bat is critical to the Brewers lineup. At the same time though, it would create a logjam in the outfield, and could lead to lesser playing time or a trade involving incumbent right fielder Norichika Aoki.


(rotoworld.com)