Around the NFL for Week 16

Around the league

C.J. payday?: Until he signed what was in essence an "interim" deal July 19, one that rewarded Chris Johnson with $1.25 million extra by accelerating roughly half of the escalator money he had already earned for 2012, much of the offseason rhetoric was devoted to whether the Tennessee Titans would grant their star tailback a new contract while he had three seasons remaining on his old one.

Although Johnson had the $1.25 million coming to him anyway, as part of the five-year, $12 million deal he signed as a first-rounder in '08, pushing the payment forward was an appeasement, a face-saving maneuver for both sides, aimed at ending the speedy tailback's absence from the offseason workouts and getting him into training camp.

Johnson, who in 2009 became only the sixth man in league history to rush for 2,000 yards in a season, hasn't exactly posted the same kind of numbers this year, but word is the club is poised to dramatically change the numbers on his contract. And not just with the sort of compromise the two sides reached last summer.

Johnson, who earned $550,000 in base salary in 2010, is set to pocket just $800,000 next season. He isn't apt to settle for a Band-Aid remedy this time, and Titans management seems to be aware of that. It seems an extension, one that bumps up the final two seasons of Johnson's rookie deal and adds another three or four years to the pact, is likely.

Agent Joel Segal told The Sports Xchange there were "no promises" made when Johnson and the Titans struck the interim agreement last summer, and he declined to elaborate on anything moving forward, except to acknowledge there have been no fresh discussions yet.

But the Titans, headed to a second consecutive non-winning season — and possibly the franchise's first losing year since 2005 — are intent on bouncing back, according to a front-office type. And part of that, it seems, is ensuring Johnson is happy. No matter the resolution of the situations with coach Jeff Fisher and quarterback Vince Young.

Diminishing returns: That Johnson will finish about 1,000 yards shy of his stated goal of 2,500 yards for 2010 — and more than 500 yards short of his 2009 total of 2,006 yards — should really surprise neither the three-year veteran back nor Titans officials. Backs who rush for 2,000 yards in a season historically fall off precipitously the next season, in terms of attempts, yards and rushing average.

Johnson has 1,267 rushing yards, and that projects to 1,448 yards for the season, and that is actually respectable when compared with the five 2,000-yard rushers who preceded him. Only two of those five backs — O.J. Simpson (1973), Eric Dickerson (1984), Barry Sanders (1997), Terrell Davis (1998) and Jamal Lewis (2003) — rushed for more than 1,200 yards in the season after their 2,000-yard years. Sanders had 1,491 yards in 1998, and Dickerson posted 1,234 yards in 1985. But Simpson registered only 1,125 yards in 1974. Lewis barely broke 1,000 yards (with 1,006) in 2004. And Davis, who suffered a string of injuries after running for 2,000 yards, managed only 1,134 yards total for the three seasons after his big year.

All of the backs logged at least 332 rushing attempts in their 2,000-yard years, and the onerous workload might have taken a toll. Their rushing averages dropped by at least a yard and by as much as 2 yards, and Davis averaged only 3.1 yards per carry the rest of his career.

Johnson has privately suggested to people close to him that, if his workload approximated that of last season, he would be close to his '09 output. But that isn't exactly the case. His rushes are down only about two per game (22.37 to 20.14) and, while Johnson had eight outings of 24 or more carries a year ago, he has six this season with two games remaining. Johnson's average per carry is down nearly 20 percent (5.6 yards to 4.5 yards), and his runs of 20 yards (22-13) and of 40 yards (seven-four) have dropped about 40 percent.

Play Fairley: The agent-player headlines at Auburn this year have surrounded Heisman Trophy quarterback Cam Newton, who has been cleared by the NCAA of any wrongdoing, but who still faces a decision about opting for the NFL after next month's national championship game against Oregon. Another standout Tigers player who has drawn the interest of NFLPA officials — but not, it is believed, by the NCAA — is defensive tackle Nick Fairley.

To reiterate, The Sports Xchange has not uncovered any evidence of NCAA interest in Fairley, but the NFLPA is monitoring whispers that an agent from the Southeast has been attempting to contact Fairley for the purposes of persuading him to forgo his final season of college eligibility. There is no evidence that Fairley has done anything untoward, merely that the agent has made attempts to curry favor with people close to the standout lineman.

Fairley is highly regarded by NFL scouts, with some believing he possesses a Warren Sapp-like skill set and would probably be a top-10 pick if he made himself available for the draft. Fairley has 55 tackles, 21 for loss, and 10.5 sacks.

While on the subject of agents, The Sports Xchange has confirmed that federal authorities who have been unofficially scrutinizing NFL player reps have now elevated at least two of them to "target" status. That might not mean much to civilians, especially in the parsing of words, but in the world of the feds, "target" is regarded as a much more serious level than "subject."

McOrphaned: In the wake of last week's benching of Donovan McNabb, The Sports Xchange called general managers around the league to gauge the value of the 12-year veteran. The bad news for the Redskins: Even at bargain-basement prices, the new contract the Redskins awarded McNabb last month might leave him with no market at all.

"If he would redo (the contract) and take the risk out of it, then we might (have some interest)," the general manager of one team that likely will need to address its quarterback situation for 2011 told The Sports Xchange. "But that option (for $10 million, which any team trading for McNabb would owe him) would be a deal-breaker for us. Now, if he got cut ... that would be another thing, although it wouldn't be a slam dunk (to take him)."

Despite initial reports McNabb's new contract guaranteed him $40 million, the Redskins can walk away from the deal and it will cost them just $3.75 million. To retain McNabb, they would have to pay him the $10 million option bonus, and they aren't about to do that.

McNabb is 34 years old, hardly ancient for an NFL quarterback anymore, but questions persist about his work ethic and standing in his own locker room, and one personnel man told The Sports Xchange that the veteran had lost some accuracy this year.

The personnel director said: "Maybe it's the receivers he's throwing to there, maybe the system, whatever. I'd have to watch more (video), but he doesn't seem to be the same guy."

McNabb has thrown 14 touchdown passes, his fewest since his 1999 rookie season. His 15 interceptions are a career high. And his passer rating of 77.1 is more than nine points lower than the career 86.5 mark with which he entered the season.

It should also be noted that Washington officials have not yet approached journeyman quarterback Rex Grossman, who threw four touchdown passes Sunday in his first start for the Redskins, about a contract add-on. Grossman is playing on a one-year, $755,000 contract.

Four-year veteran John Beck, who is scheduled to move up to the No. 2 spot this week, is signed through 2012. But it certainly looks as if coach Mike Shanahan will all but start over at the game's most important position.

Courtin' Carson: While the prospect of pursuing McNabb either in a trade or via free agency isn't scintillating to too many personnel guys, the possibility that Carson Palmer might be available intrigues a few teams.

One GM told The Sports Xchange: "I know he's looked (awful in games), but people from Cincy keep telling me that, in practice, he still makes every throw and that his (right) elbow is OK. I wouldn't take on that salary. But if he were willing to restructure or if he came loose (as a free agent), I'd look at him."

The former Southern Cal star and Heisman winner turns 30 on Monday. And while his game has slipped considerably in the past couple of seasons, particularly after an elbow injury in 2008 that did not require surgery, Palmer still apparently has some promise for a few franchises.

It was reported last week that Palmer will not take a salary reduction from his slated $11.5 million base for 2011. He is also due salaries of $11.5 million in 2012, $13 million in ’13 and $14 million in '14. But a source close to Palmer indicated to The Sports Xchange that he might be willing to redo his contract, provided he is "made whole" in 2011 (combination of bonus and salary totaling $11.5 million) for the right team. Translation: Palmer might be open to being moved to a club with a chance to win.

There is a possibility that the Bengals, who appear ready to start over at wide receiver by not re-signing Terrell Owens and not exercising a $6 million option to retain Chad Ochocinco, could simply jettison Palmer as well. The team figures to have a new coach, and he could have some input about whether he wants the eight-year veteran to stay. That's a boatload of money, though, for a guy who has thrown so many bad interceptions this year and for a franchise that has been so, uh, fiscally cautious in the past.

Safety last: That the Steelers didn't dress Troy Polamalu for a second straight game on Thursday night and will try to nurse his sore Achilles to the point where he's sufficiently recovered for the playoffs symbolizes what a difficult season this has been for safeties.

Of the 306 players on injured reserve as of Thursday morning, 36 were safeties, the second-highest at one position. The safety spot trailed only wide receiver (41).

Even with the league-wide move away from the "in the box" safety over the past few seasons, safety has become a position that seems to lend itself to injuries.

"People don't seem to realize just what a physical position it really is," Steelers free safety Ryan Clark told The Sports Xchange last week. "You get a lot of receivers coming over the middle, and they had momentum, right? Then you have to come up and play the run. It's like being part defensive back and (part) linebacker. In a way, it kind of lends itself (to injuries), I guess. You've got contact on just about every play, run or pass."

Polamalu is hurting, but at least he might return for the postseason. The injured reserve list includes prominent safeties such as Bob Sanders and Melvin Bullitt (Indianapolis), LaRon Landry (Washington), Jim Leonhard (Jets), Nate Allen (Philadelphia), Chinedum Ndukwe (Cincinnati) and rookie Morgan Burnett (Green Bay), to name a few. Ed Reed of Baltimore and New Orleans' Darren Sharper began the season on the physically unable to perform list because of injuries sustained in 2009. The Colts have six safeties on injured reserve and were forced this week to sign veteran free agent Ken Hamlin just to have enough healthy bodies for Sunday's game at Oakland.

Earlier this year, Colts safety Antoine Bethea, who has somehow managed to start the past 46 games and has been the glue of the Indianapolis secondary despite having played with four different starters the past two years, summed up the situation thusly: "It's a hurtin' position."

Scoring spree: It might not seem as if the 2010 season has been much of a scoring parade, but through the Thursday night Pittsburgh-Carolina contest, the 225th game of the year, teams have combined to average 44.3 points. If the current pace continues -- and clubs combine to average 42.6 points in the final 31 regular-season games -- this would be the highest-scoring season, on a per-game average, in NFL history. The previous high was 44.05 points in 2008. The increase, so far, is a healthy 3.2 percent bump over last year.

New England leads the NFL with 446 points. That's way off the pace the Patriots set in 2007, when the club put up 589 points, but by extrapolation would equal the 510 points New Orleans scored in 2009. There are nine teams on pace for 400 points or more, and that would equal the most in the past 20 years and be one more than a year ago.

Bills coming due: The long-suffering fans of Western New York probably don't want to hear it, because this will be their 11th straight season without a playoff team, but the Buffalo Bills are beginning to make some progress.

The Bills have won four of their past six games, and five of the club's 10 losses this season have been by five points or less, with four defeats of three points. Credit first-year coach Chan Gailey with demonstrating great patience, especially with quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick, and credit wide receivers coach Stan Hixon, too.

Hixon's best player, Lee Evans, is on injured reserve along with breakthrough slot option Roscoe Parrish, and three of the team's four remaining wide-outs — David Nelson, Donald Jones and Naaman Roosevelt — are undrafted rookies. The other is former seventh-round pick Steve Johnson.

"They're all good players," said Fitzpatrick, who has touchdown passes in 15 straight outings. "They're good learners, and you don't get the sense from any of them that they're (overwhelmed)."

Another rookie, fourth-round pick Marcus Easley, is on injured reserve. So the Bills have the foundation of a good, young receiving corps. Only three undrafted rookies have 30 or more catches this season, and Nelson is one of them, joining Anthony Armstrong of the Washington Redskins and Indianapolis' Blair White. Nelson has been a reliable slot receiver, with 31 receptions, 353 yards and three touchdowns. All of his scores have come in the past three games, and all have been in the red zone.

Philadelphia fifth-rounder Riley Cooper was supposed to be the long, gangly, former Florida standout who might develop quickly into a red-zone impact player in the NFL Instead, it's been Nelson, 6-5, who didn't even start full-time for the Gators until his senior season.

Sack men: Earlier this season, The Sports Xchange lauded the sack-rush ability of Kansas City third-year veteran defensive end Wallace Gilberry and wondered if the former Alabama defensive end might be in line for a contract extension.

With his three sacks last week — one of only 13 three-sack performances in the league in '10 — Gilberry now has seven sacks for the year. That's second on the team, behind only former first-round pick Tamba Hali (11 sacks) and six more than another first-round end, Tyson Jackson. And for a piddling base salary of $470,000.

But there have been no extension overtures from the Chiefs, probably because Gilberry can only become a restricted free agent, no matter the resolution of the collective bargaining talks, and the young defensive end would prefer to wait anyway to see what any new labor peace looks like.

Gilberry has posted his sack numbers despite starting only two games. But he isn't the only defender to ring up impressive sack numbers despite mostly coming off the bench.

Rookie Carlos Dunlap of Cincinnati, a second-rounder with no starts yet, has seven sacks. After netting six sacks the past four games, the onetime Florida star, who entered the 2009 draft with some personal questions about him, now figures big in the Bengals' plans, no matter who is the head coach in 2011. And Cleveland linebacker Marcus Benard has 7.5 sacks despite just one start. He is a natural 3-4 edge rusher and how he is used next season might depend on who is coaching the Browns and in what defensive front the club aligns.

Ball protection: His offensive line still suffers protection problems — Ben Roethlisberger has been sacked 32 times in 11 starts, has been dumped three times or more in five straight outings and has only two games this season in which he was sacked fewer than three times — but the Pittsburgh quarterback is protecting the football like it was in Fort Knox.

Roethlisberger has only three interceptions in 367 attempts this season, and his interception average (1.36 percent) and ratio of TD passes to pickoffs (3-1) are the best of his career. The Steelers star has now thrown a personal-best 136 passes without an interception and has just one interception over a six-game stretch. His lost fumble Thursday night was his first turnover in three games, and he has yielded two giveaways in his past six starts.

"I wasn't sure he could throw the ball any better," wide receiver Hines Ward told The Sports Xchange last week, "but he has. After everything he went through, it really is pretty remarkable."

Punts: If sixth-rounder Joe Webb opens for Minnesota at Philadelphia on Sunday, as expected, he will be the eighth rookie quarterback to start a game in 2010, a single-season record. The other seven rookies have combined for 36 starts and own an 11-25 record, and none has a winning mark. St. Louis' Sam Bradford has the Rams tied for first in the woeful NFC West and has accounted for six of the 11 wins. ... The Jaguars have sold out Sunday's home finale against Washington. Despite dire warnings that Jacksonville might not sell out a single home game this year, the Jags have had sellouts for all eight games, and the city should take some pride in its civic response to the pundits. ...

Since the NFL realigned into four-team divisions in 2002, just two teams, New England and Indianapolis, have not suffered a double-digit loss season. ... In The Sports Xchange survey of injured reserve lists this week, the non-special teams position with the fewest players on IR was center, with six. Beyond center and fullback (eight), every other position had at least 14 players on injured reserve. ... Hard to believe, even with the unsettled situation at quarterback, but Tennessee still doesn't have a single player with 40 receptions. ...

Buffalo has lost 14 straight to New England, whom its hosts on Sunday, and has been outscored 401-160 in those 14 games. The Bills have lost 19 of 20 to the Patriots. ... Courtesy of old buddy Rick Gosselin of The Dallas Morning News, this terrific note: Philadelphia wide receiver DeSean Jackson has scored a touchdown receiving, rushing and via a kick return in each of his first three league seasons. The only other NFL player to accomplish the triple-threat feat was Washington running back Dick Todd in 1939 through 1941. ...

Last week, we noted that the Atlanta Falcons' right side of the offensive line, tackle Tyson Clabo and guard Harvey Dahl, was eligible for free agency, and that the club had yet to approach either about a contract extension. Agent Tom Condon, who represents Atlanta left guard Justin Blalock, reminds that the four-year veteran is also in the final season of his rookie deal and there has been no discussion of an extension. Blalock won't be eligible for unrestricted free agency unless there is a collective bargaining agreement with the same free-agency terms as the previous one. Also, add Carolina center Ryan Kalil to the mix. The four-year veteran is in the final season of his rookie contract, and Condon told The Sports Xchange he has approached the Panthers about a new deal for the 2009 Pro Bowl snapper, but been told that owner Jerry Richardson will hold off on any extension until the labor landscape is resolved. ...

There are five backs who have more rushing yards than Indianapolis, Seattle and Arizona each have as a team. ... Three wide receivers who originally entered the league as undrafted free agents — Wes Welker of New England, Danny Amendola of St. Louis and Miami's Davone Bess — each have 70 or more catches. ... Tough to say this week who is more disingenuous: agent Fletcher Smith, who negotiated the big contract extension for McNabb, apparently with little regard for how Shanahan really felt about his client — and then skewered the coaches for their treatment of the quarterback; or Atlanta wide receiver Roddy White, who loves to play the "lack of respect" card, tweets borderline derogatory remarks about the city of New Orleans, then claims his comments were taken out of context and implores the local newspaper not to print them. ...

According to the official league play-by-play books, Tennessee wide receiver Randy Moss hasn't even been "targeted" the past two games. It marks the first time in Moss' career he has had no receptions for two consecutive games. ... Fourteen tight ends have at least 500 receiving yards for the season. ... Steelers first-rounder Maurkice Pouncey made the transition from guard to center, might be the league's best offensive rookie (apologies to Bradford) and could make the Pro Bowl in his first season. But most scouts don't expect his twin brother, Mike, to be able to do the same. Mike Pouncey, who moved to center at Florida this year to replace his brother, is regarded as a much better guard prospect. ...

Speaking of brothers, it's been a tough year for guys catching balls from the Manning boys. Peyton has tight end Dallas Clark and wide receivers Anthony Gonzalez and Austin Collie on the injured reserve list. The IR for the New York Giants includes four wide-outs, including Steve Smith, Eli Manning's favorite receiver. In addition, tight end Kevin Boss has missed one game because of injury and wide receiver Hakeem Nicks two games. ... It appeared earlier in the season that New York Jets tailback LaDainian Tomlinson might dodge the over-30 tag that has cursed most runners. Now? Not so much. Tomlinson, 30, posted a season-high 133 yards against Buffalo on Oct. 3, and since then has rushed for more than 55 yards just once. In his past nine outings, the 10-year veteran has averaged just 3.6 yards per carry. He hasn't scored in eight straight games and has a five-game streak of less than 50 rushing yards. ...

In his past three injury-filled seasons, linebacker Shawne Merriman has pocketed nearly $7.3 million in base salary and has played in only 18 games, with 32 tackles and four sacks. Still, he’s just 26 years old and currently on the Buffalo injured reserve list, and there are a couple of 3-4 teams whose general managers told The Sports Xchange they might be curious enough about the onetime league Defensive Rookie of the Year to bring him to camp next summer on a minimum salary deal. ... With Collie in the lineup, Indianapolis’ offense averaged 6.0 yards per play, 7.6 yards per pass attempt, 10.9 yards per completion and had a 68.7 completion percentage, a 101.4 passer rating and four interceptions. Without him on the field, those numbers, respectively, were 5.2 yards, 6.5 yards, 10.0 yards, 64.9 percent, 80.9 and 11.

The last word: "It's like, 'Look, he got it. They shouldn't do that.' That's what they sit there in their offices up in New York City and say. What the hell! They're up there sitting, looking at replays. They've not practiced, not touched a football, not been on the field, not worn a helmet. I know what it's like to be a football player. Today's players know what it's like to be a football player. The people making the rules don't know what the game is really like. They weren't out there. It is tackle football. It's the NFL. It's not a game of touch football." -- Hall of Fame middle linebacker Sam Huff, now a radio analyst for the Redskins