Just a friendly reminder. If there is someone on your Christmas shopping list for whom you are considering or planning to get a Devin Hester jersey, you might want to think twice about it. Otherwise, you might be buying another one next year. As we all know, the No Fun League is very determined to make sure all players wear the correct uniform numbers according to the positions they play. Hester has been on the NFL's radar ever since the Bears switched him from defense to offense last year. He was allowed to keep uniform #23 last year since he was listed as a RB/WR. But now that he is playing almost exclusively as a WR, it is very likely the NFL will demand that he change to a number in the 10's or 80's by the start of next season.
I apologize that I have not done any NFL articles for the last month. Like everybody else, I just don't have enough time to do all the things I would like to. How quickly things change. If I had done an article after the games of week 12, I would have mentioned that we might have to prepare ourselves for a Jets-Giants Super Bowl. Now it looks like the Giants could be one and done in the playoffs, and ditto for the Jets, that is if Brett Favre and friends even reach the playoffs. Tennessee still has the best record, but Carolina and Pittsburgh appear to be the best teams right now. Stay tuned, however, because it's still early.
What an outrage it is that Davone Bess was not selected in the draft back in April. All he did at Hawaii was gain over 1100 yards receiving all 3 years. All he did at the pre-draft combine was impress with his ability to catch the ball (although his speed was most definitely unimpressive). All the teams knew he was likely to be productive as a slot receiver, and probably not so much as a receiver split wide. But nobody drafted him. He signed as a free agent with the Dolphins, and they knew pretty much from the first day of the first mini-camp that he would make the final roster. Now three months into his rookie season Bess, believe or not, has become the Dolphins' go-to receiver. He had a smaller role earlier in the season, but injuries to others have forced him into the starting lineup. And he has not disappointed. his numbers for the last 4 games: 5 receptions for 87 yards, 6 for 84, 9 for 74, and 3 for 25. For the season Bess now has 42 catches for 458 yards (10.9 average per catch) for 24 first downs and 1 TD. That's more than high draft picks Limas Sweed, James Hardy, Malcolm Kelly, and Devin Thomas have COMBINED (32 catches for 272 yards between them). And yet those players are making millions, while Bess, who also had better stats than those players in college,
had to settle for a contract probably barely above minimum wage and only a $7,000 signing bonus. It must aggravate him to no end. Of course, Bess is not the only player in this situation, but I mean, what a joke.
Also moving up the Dolphins' depth chart has been Ernest Wilford. He has gone from "inactive for most games" to "active but still not playing much". So infrequently has Wilford played that when I clicked on his name on CBS Sports.com last week, I had to laugh when it read "We have a Wilford sighting!" That was after he caught all of 2 passes against the Bills. Wilford led the Jaguars with 45 receptions in 2007, but for some reason they couldn't say goodbye to him fast enough, allowing him to become a free agent in favor of trying to revive the careers of Jerry Porter and Troy Williamson. Obviously, it has been a disaster all the way around. Wilford currently has 3 catches for 25 yards all season, Porter has 11 for 181, and Williamson has 4 for 27 (three more millionaires that Bess is outperforming). I wonder if the Jaguars would take Wilford back. I can't imagine the Dolphins would bring him back next year.
I also wonder if the Jaguars will make the same mistake with Reggie Williams. When you are the 9th player taken in the draft, as Williams was in 2004, you are expected to be a star. In that regard, Williams has been a bust. But he is what he is-- a possession receiver who is pretty good after the catch with career average of 12.3 yards per catch, and a player who has made an art form of the celebration following the 5-yard catch. Still just 25 years old, he has improved (and might continue to improve) enough to be a decent #2 receiver. Hopefully the Jags will be satisfied with that, but I wouldn't be very surprised if they show him the door, just as they did Wilford, at the end of this season.
It was a rare occasion indeed when Williams DIDN'T celebrate after scoring a TD during week 13 against Houston. With the Jaguars trailing 30-10 in the final minute, I guess he figured he better not try Coach Del Rio, especially after what happened to Mike Peterson a couple of weeks earlier. Even though the Jags' playoff hopes were already on life support at the time, I was eager to see their game against the Texans and eager to see how Rashean Mathis would fare against Andre Johnson, arguably the best WR on the planet. Johnson made him look bad on a 31-yard TD catch in the 1st quarter, but Mathis struck back with his 4th INT of the season a bit later. Unfortunately the game (and the season) ended early for Mathis when he injured his knee late in the 1st half on a play that never should have happened. The Texans lined up for a routine FG attempt, but the snap was bad, and Matt Turk, who was holding, picked up the ball and lobbed a pass into the end zone. Mathis jumped to knock the pass away but landed awkwardly and ended up with a sprained MCL. It's an injury that requires only rest (not surgery, thankfully) to heal, but with only 4 games left and no shot at the playoffs, the Jaguars decided to put him on the injured reserve list.
According to the list on the page of shakedemdreads, the Packers-Jaguars game last Sunday featured the NFL's two teams with the most players with dreads. But the game lost of lot of its luster without Mathis and without Atari Bigby on the field. Reggie Nelson's 2nd INT of the season with 40 seconds remaining clinched Jacksonville's 20-16 victory in a battle of teams finding victories very hard to come by right now.
Speaking of having a difficult time winning, the Cincinnati Bengals picked up their 2nd win of the season last Sunday 20-13 over Washington, and they were sparked by a motley trio of players with dreads. Cedric Benson made the dread stars list this week, thanks in large part to a 79-yard gain on a screen pass. He probably should have scored on the play, but having never run that far before, he must have gotten tired because (almost comically) he ended up tackling himself when he tripped over the 15-yard line. Two plays later, Chris Henry, who had has best game of the season with 4 catches for 54 yards, scored on a 12-yard catch to put the Bengals up 14-0, a TD for which he truly appeared to be very thankful (he should be). Then, in the 3rd quarter, backup LB Corey Mays (photo) was a big factor in helping the Bengals' defense deny Washington the tying TD. Click on the original story link for an article from the Dayton Daily News that gives more details of a goal line stand that to this point must be the highlight of Mays' career.
Elsewhere..... welcome to the house Steve Johnson. The Bills' rookie WR scored his 1st NFL TD on a 2-yard catch to give Buffalo a 17-14 lead in the 2nd quarter against the Jets. But the Bills went on to lose their 3rd in a row, 31-27 in unbelievable fashion..... Welcome back to the house Steven Jackson. He scored his first TD at home in almost 2 months with a 6-yard run in the Rams' 23-20 loss to Seattle. Jackson's dreads were visible in all their glory as he celebrated the TD since his helmet had been knocked off while three defenders tried to keep him out of the end zone. (See Jackson's page on NFL.com for the video.) With both the Rams and Seahawks entering the game with 2-12 records, the game seemingly was meaningless. But it was hardly meaningless for the Falcons and Buccaneers. Seattle's victory, believe it or not, clinched the tiebreaker in favor of Tampa Bay should they finish tied with Atlanta at 11-5..... Finally, what is it that makes players for the Eagles think that the end zone begins at the 1-yard line? Everyone thought it was a rookie mistake when Desean Jackson dropped the ball at the 1-yard line against Dallas back in week 2. But now it has happened again. Asante Samuel, who definitely is not a rookie, let go of the ball at the 1 on Monday night at the end of his 50-yard INT return. He immediately realized his mistake and was able to recover the ball before it rolled out of the back of the end zone, saving the TD and saving himself much embarrassment. The Eagles defeated the Browns 30-10 to keep playoff hopes alive.
That's all for now. I'll catch up on the weekly honors next time.
NEXT WEEK
It's showdown time in the AFC (Steelers at Titans) and the NFC (Panthers at Giants). The Falcons' (and Bears') playoff hopes will be extinct if Atlanta doesn't win at Minnesota. What is Peyton Manning going to do against the Jaguars now that he doesn't have Rashean Mathis to pick on? And time is running out if the Lions plan on winning a game this season. They host the Saints.
Original Story:
http://daytondailynews.com/s/content/...
