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Yeah, look. There's no point in trying to deceive anyone. I'm checking out for the weekend. This is one of my very favorite weekends of the year, and I'm going to get it started early. This is the last blog post I'm writing today, and other than a phone interview on NFL32 at 6 p.m., work is over for me for the week. But before I go off to a weekend of char-grilled relaxation, I wanted to do a "one more thing" post. What's a "one more thing" post, you ask? Well, it's something I just thought up where I go through each of our four teams and raise one issue we haven't been discussing very much on the blog. They're all going to be positive issues, because I don't want anyone to go into the weekend upset. We'll do them in order of how close each team's home stadium is to my house, because I just decided that as well.

New York Giants

Corey Webster should get more love. The Giants have question marks at cornerback this year, with Terrell Thomas coming back from injury and 2011 first-round pick Prince Amukamara still learning on the job. But what doesn't get mentioned enough when we talk about those two is Webster, who had an absolutely incredible year in 2011. The Giants asked him quite often to play the Darrelle Revis role of the corner who just plasters himself to the other team's best wideout and keeps him from making plays. Webster was, far more often than not, up to the task. He's 30 years old now and doesn't get mentioned with the league's best corners, but he played like one of them last year, and another year like that will make sure he's on the national radar.

Philadelphia Eagles

I think the biggest thing working in Demetress Bell's favor as he works at the very difficult task of replacing Jason Peters as the Eagles' left tackle is the rest of the offensive line. Evan Mathis, Jason Kelce, Danny Watkins and Todd Herremans teamed with Peters last year to form maybe the best run-blocking line in the league. They are a confident, outgoing bunch of players who are eager to help, and Bell is certainly getting by-the-second lessons on Howard Mudd's blocking scheme from his new linemates. Bell doesn't have Peters' athleticism, and that's certainly likely to show up at times this year. But he's going to get a lot of help from some linemen who played extremely well together last year, and he's in a position to exceed expectations.

Washington Redskins

Don't rule out Pierre Garcon as No. 1 wide receiver material. No, of course he's never really been that traditional No. 1 we all think of when we think of guys like Calvin Johnson and Larry Fitzgerald. But Garcon doesn't even turn 26 years old until August. He had 70 catches and 947 yards last year for a Colts team that was using Kerry Collins, Curtis Painter and Dan Orlovsky at quarterback. And after deciding that one of his top priorities this offseason was finding a No. 1 receiver, Mike Shanahan picked Garcon from among the available free agents. This was the guy he wanted. The Redskins signed him within the first five minutes of free agency. For his offense, Shanahan was looking for a receiver with the speed and athleticism to catch the ball on a slant route and take it the distance. In Garcon, he sees a young man who can be that guy. Garcon will play with a rookie quarterback this year, as you're all aware, but he'll also grow and develop along with that quarterback, and the Redskins believe they have plucked a future No. 1 wide receiver just as he's about to become one.

Dallas Cowboys

Sean Lee wasn't having a good year before his dislocated his wrist. He was having an eye-poppingly fantastic year. Wherever the ball was, there Lee seemed to be at critical moments, to make an interception, deliver a big tackle or break up a pass. He played fine after the injury, when he came back with that big old cast on his arm, but lost in the way the Cowboys' defense melted down at the end of 2011 was that Lee had been one of the best defensive players in the league for the first month. Assuming he's back to full health, Lee could be a monster player for the Cowboys in 2012 -- the kind of do-everything defensive leader they've lacked for so long. DeMarcus Ware is the best player on the defense (some say on any defense), and it's doubtful Lee will ever match him. But given Ware's preference for keeping to himself and out of the media spotlight, Lee's the kind of guy you can imagine emerging, assuming he plays the way he did early last season, as the face of the Cowboys' defense in the coming years. Last year's disappointment shouldn't dim the hopes Cowboys fans have for more great things to come from Lee.

And that's it for now. I really do mean it about this being one of my favorite weekends, and I hope it is for you too. Memorial Day is the day to remember the people who died fighting to protect us. People who literally died so that you and I could keep sitting here arguing about sports. I have no idea if I could die for my country, and as a result I am incredibly appreciative of the people who have done it and allowed me the time and freedom to keep wondering. Think about them as you enjoy the first weekend of the summertime, because we owe them that and much more.

» AFC Scenarios: East | West | North | South » NFC: East | West | North | South

Yes, the start of training camps is two months away, but it’s never too early to consider the coming season. A look at the best-case and worst-case scenarios for the Redskins in 2012.

Dream scenario (9-7): This would mean Washington's first winning season since 2007, Joe Gibbs' final year as head coach. What has to happen to make it a reality? Well, lots, frankly. Robert Griffin III will need to be very good right away at taking care of the ball and limiting the kinds of mistakes it's reasonable to expect from rookie quarterbacks. Most important, the Redskins' offense must play very well around him. They'll need health from Tim Hightower and continued development from promising fellow running backs Roy Helu and Evan Royster. They'll need Pierre Garcon to play like the potential No. 1 wideout his free-agent price tag says they believe he can be. They'll need the offensive line to stay healthy and play well, with left tackle Trent Williams as its anchor. The Redskins' dream scenario sees Brian Orakpo and Ryan Kerrigan cementing their place among the league's top pass-rushing duos, DeAngelo Hall harnessing his ability and playing like a top corner, and something emerging from the muddle they take to training camp at safety. The defense looked like a young defense on the rise last year, and if the Redskins are to threaten or possibly exceed .500, it will have to continue that rise.

Nightmare scenario (5-11): That would mean the same record as last year and one game worse than the year before, and it would drop Mike Shanahan's three-year record as the team's head coach to a rather uninspiring 16-32. That would be what's called, in official NFL terms, "not good." In the Redskins' nightmare scenario, Griffin struggles with the transition, the wide receiver group is as uninspiring as Washington's free-agency critics believe it is, and the offensive line falls apart thanks to injury for the second year in a row. In the nightmare scenario, the secondary remains a big-time weakness of the defense and costs the Redskins dearly in division games against the likes of Eli Manning, Tony Romo and Michael Vick. If all of this happens, the Redskins would enter the 2013 offseason with far more to fix than they currently believe they do, and with questions about Shanahan's future as coach. I don't think there's much that can happen to wreck the Griffin honeymoon between now and January, but if the rest of the team plays well around him and he commits too many turnovers, that particular nightmare scenario could make Redskins fans nervous about the new franchise quarterback going into next season.

The winner of the how-to-order-the-Friday-links contest this week is Michael from Nashville, who suggested tying the order to fantasy sports. I went to the ESPN fantasy football page and looked up the points leaders from last year, and the links are hereby provided in order of each team's highest-scoring fantasy player from 2011.

New York Giants (Eli Manning, 273)

Tom Coughlin says "it's probably going to be close" when asked whether Hakeem Nicks will be ready for the regular-season opener. Nicks broke his foot in practice Thursday and is scheduled to have surgery today to insert a screw into it. The Giants' say the estimated recovery time is 12 weeks, which would be the middle of August, and Coughlin said Nicks is confident he can make that. We shall see.

As I wrote Thursday afternoon, if there's a positive to take out of the Nicks news it's that the Giants will be able to give more offseason and preseason reps to wide receivers Domenik Hixon, Jerrel Jernigan, Ramses Barden and Rueben Randle, and extended looks at those players will help them determine which, if any, is best suited to replace free-agent defector Mario Manningham as the No. 3 receiver behind Nicks and Victor Cruz. Hixon says he's feeling good and ready.

Philadelphia Eagles (LeSean McCoy, 270)

The concern with the Eagles is that Michael Vick's history says he's likely to miss at least a game or two due to injury this season. And if he does, there's very little in the way of experience among the backup options behind him. Jeff McLane breaks down the Eagles' backup quarterback situation, which should be Mike Kafka at this point.

As Sal Paolantonio reported the other day, second-year center Jason Kelce will be taking over the responsibility for making the protection calls at the line of scrimmage. The Eagles gave Vick that responsibility last year, and shifting it to Kelce will give Vick less about which to worry, and I think that's probably a good thing.

Dallas Cowboys (Tony Romo, 265)

Jean-Jacques Taylor writes that third-year wide receiver Dez Bryant has had a nice, blissfully quiet offseason and that he's on the verge of greatness. As we discussed many times last year, Bryant is a physical mismatch for almost anyone who tries to cover him, even at the NFL level. It's about committing to his own development and route-running, and once he does that he'll be as good as anyone.

And yeah, two from ESPNDallas.com this morning, as the crew there debates whether the Cowboys can beat the Vegas over/under of 8.5 wins for 2012. I bring this up as a preview to the "Dream/nightmare scenario" posts that are coming from each of our division's teams this morning. So, you know. Look forward to that.

Washington Redskins (Rex Grossman, 141)

In a bit of irony, the Redskins (and the Cowboys) are among the defendants in the NFLPA's collusion case against the league for the spending practices during the uncapped 2010 season. It's ironic because the union says the only way it found out about what it alleges to be collusive behavior was because the league punished those teams for not adhering to the secret agreement regarding 2010 spending. What you should take from this, once and for all, is the fact that the union's collusion case is in no way whatsoever aimed at helping the Redskins and Cowboys getting any relief of those cap punishments. That part of this case is over, they will pay the penalties and that's really it. I promise. No matter how nicely you guys ask.

The Redskins put Robert Griffin III's locker between those of London Fletcher and Brian Orakpo, which LaVar Arrington says could be crucial to the rookie's development. One of the Redskins' strengths as a team is the veteran leadership they have in their locker room, and they'll surely want to put Griffin in the best possible position -- literally as well as figuratively -- to benefit from that.

Been getting a couple of complaints about this morning's post seeking input on the order for the Friday breakfast links. The sense among the complainers is that such a post is too frivolous and takes up time and space that could be devoted to more serious, on-field football issues.

To illustrate the way I feel about such complaints, I will now write a post about uniforms and Roman numerals.

If you've seen film from the Washington Redskins' offseason practices, you've no doubt noticed that rookie quarterback Robert Griffin III is wearing "GRIFFIN III" on the back of his jersey. You've likely not thought much about it, since that's what he wore on the back of his jersey in college. But Uni Watch tells us not only that Griffin will wear the name and numerals during the season, but that prior to this year, that would not have been permitted under NFL rules:

Near as Uni Watch can figure, this will mark the NFL's first instance of RNOB (that's short for "Roman numeral on back"; you can learn more about this and other uni-specific terms in the Uni Watch Glossary). In fact, as far as Uni Watch can tell, this will be the first case of RNOB in any of the Big Four professional leagues -- NFL, MLB, NBA, and NHL. Yes, several college football and basketball players, including Griffin himself, have worn RNOB at the NCAA level, but never in the pros. So Griffin is breaking some serious new ground here.

Paul goes on to question whether Griffin's decision to wear the numerals has as much to do with the furthering of his personal brand as it does familial tribute, especially in light of his Adidas deal and the fact that their logo is three stripes. That's some serious Oliver Stone stuff right there, and kudos to Uni Watch for being willing to ask the tough uniform questions. I say could be, but one of the 17,000 Griffin stories to which I linked prior to the draft told of how Griffin started wearing the "III" on his jersey to honor his grandfather and that his father knew nothing about it until he saw him on the field with it on the back. So I'm not going to cast aspersions.

I also have a soft spot for these things. I've never used "Daniel Graziano III" as my byline even though that's my name, but I am proud of my numerals. They honor my father and help me remember my grandfather, and I think enough of the tradition that we named our first son Daniel IV. So I think it's cool that Griffin will wear them, and that the stodgy NFL will lighten up and allow him to.

In the same story, Paul reports that Redskins running back Roy Helu, Jr. will wear "HELU JR." on the back of his jersey this year, now that he's allowed to. I look forward to future updates on others taking advantage of this new rule.

Working off of last Saturday's request from the immortal Justin from B-more, we have been varying the order of the daily breakfast links this week. We've had four days, and four different orders, with each of our division's teams taking a turn atop the list. We have become an unassailable paragon of fairness.

However, there are only four teams in the division, and we do links five days a week. This leaves a quandary: In what order do we do the links on Friday? I am, as I explained Saturday, leaving this up to you. Give me your ideas, either here, on Twitter or in the mailbag. I will choose one of your ideas. Could be the most logical one. Could be the most ridiculous one. Could be the one that makes me laugh the hardest. I honestly don't know how I'll decide. This is our first day doing this. But remember, no matter what I decide, it was someone else's idea, so ... you know ... blame them.

I await your most creative Thursday morning ideas for our Friday morning links.

A good Thursday morning to you all. In honor of Wednesday's failed Vokle experiment, we're not going to try anything new at all today. Regular stuff. Blog posts. Thursday column. And of course, links.

Philadelphia Eagles

Casey Matthews' second year has to be better than his first, if only because he's not going to have to be the Eagles' starting middle linebacker by default and in spite of being unqualified for the job. Now, Matthews can learn, develop and work his way into NFL playing time the way he was always supposed to. He spoke with Les Bowen, who also took a very up-close photo.

Ashley Fox spoke with Michael Vick, who told her he knows this will be "a critical year" for himself and for coach Andy Reid.

Washington Redskins

Stephen Bowen is still recovering from arthroscopic knee surgery, but he plans on being ready to join his Redskins defensive linemates in time for training camp.

Santana Moss and Anthony Armstrong are well aware that the Redskins have added a lot of people at wide receiver, but that doesn't stop them from wanting (and working) to return to the larger roles they once occupied in the offense. Remains to be seen how the wide receiver situation shakes out, but either of those guys likely needs someone from the Pierre Garcon/Josh Morgan/Leonard Hankerson group to be injured or ineffective in order to get that opportunity.

Dallas Cowboys

So Jerry Jones answered a question about whether or not the Cowboys' Super Bowl window was closing in the vaguely affirmative, and because it's late May and it's the Cowboys this became a huge thing, and so people had to ask Tony Romo about it and he said not really and so you can expect a lot of people to be talking about this again today. Personally, I think it's all very silly, and that if the defense gets better the window will stay open and if it doesn't it will never open.

Bruce Carter and David Arkin were working with the starters at linebacker and guard, respectively, this week at OTAs. They're trying to get younger guys reps with the starters in the hope that it'll help their development. But while Carter is in a competition with free-agent signee Dan Connor at the inside linebacker spot opposite Sean Lee, it's likely that Connor and Mackenzy Bernadeau get those spots once the season starts.

New York Giants

The message for the Giants as they began their offseason workouts was that, as great as it was to win the Super Bowl in February and get their rings last week, it's time to move on and focus on 2012. As was the case when they reached the playoffs last year, the Giants are likely to benefit from the fact that their coaches and veteran players have been through this before.

Big disappointment for Giants cornerback Brian Witherspoon, who re-injured the ACL that cost him the 2011 season and, thus, would appear to be out for this season as well. Attrition injuries like this, in non-contact drills, are reminders of how fragile this all is for these players, and how close each one of them is to having it taken away.

Hey, so one of the video elements we tried today worked. It's the weekly Blogger Blitz video, and in it I address the issue of the supporting cast around Washington Redskins rookie quarterback Robert Griffin III. Griffin is getting and will continue to get most of the attention, because he's new and he's fun and he's a quarterback. But the Redskins' coaches will tell you they're just as concerned about the group that surrounds him on offense. So I talk about two of the members of that supporting group -- left tackle Trent Williams and tight end Fred Davis -- whose 2011 season ended rather poorly and who needs to step forward as leaders and productive players in the offense this year and beyond if Griffin is going to thrive.

Yeah, sorry about the Vokle chat. Sometimes our technology just doesn't do what we want it to do. There are plans in the works to try again. I hope you'll give us another shot if we try next week.

Anyway, back to the blog. As a twist on the usual Power Rankings, we had a panel of ESPN experts put together something called the NFL Future Power Rankings , basically projecting how the Power Rankings will look three years from now. It's Insider, so you have to pay to read it and I can't give it all away to you here. But if you are interested, the piece explaining how the panelists came to their conclusions is available to everyone and is here.

Here's how the NFC East teams fared, and partial explanations for why:

3. New York Giants

Trailing only the Packers and the Patriots, the Giants got a score of 81.13 out of a possible 100, with coaching, front office and quarterback their highest-scoring categories. Here's Trent Dilfer on the quarterback in particular:

He has the baby-brother look, but Eli Manning turns 32 this season, and since his 1-6 record as a rookie, has started all 16 games in seven straight seasons. He has had his INT issues, but is an elite passer when he gets comfortable with his targets. He has many good years ahead.

7. Philadelphia Eagles

Quarterback was the only place where the Eagles didn't score high, as uncertainty about Michael Vick's age (32) and future in Philly pushed them down to a 5.75 in that category. They had an overall score of 74 out of 100, buoyed but very high marks in front office, draft and coaching. Mel Kiper on their drafting:

A remarkably good draft in 2012 could shore up the defense and make the Eagles Super Bowl contenders. If Vick has any health issues, is Nick Foles the next guy in line? You never know what they'll do at that spot. But they have a system, draft very well and, at least based on my board, maintain a really strong sense of value and how to maneuver.

14. Dallas Cowboys

The highest score the Cowboys got was their 7 in quarterback, and their overall score was 62.06 out of 100. Their lowest marks were for draft and front office, and this is Gary Horton on their roster:

Age is a concern. And unless they do a good job in free agency and the draft, the talent level will drop off in the next couple of years. They should remain fairly young at WR and RB, and they seem to be rebuilding their offensive line. Defensively, they are not very young and their best playmaker of the future will be rookie CB Morris Claiborne, but a lot of replacements are needed.

20. Washington Redskins

An overall score of 56.38 out of 100, with the highest mark their 6.75 in coaching. The panel gave them a 6.25 for quarterback, which is generous since their current starter has never played an NFL game. But the assumption is that he'll fit in well and that he has the talent to be a franchise quarterback. Dragging the Redskins' score down the most is the 4.75 for the current roster. Here's Horton on that:

Obviously, this future will be built around rookie QB Robert Griffin III. The challenge will be to surround him with talent on both sides of the ball with limited high draft picks. Washington doesn't have a lot of young, talented guys at the offensive skill positions. The Redskins tried to upgrade the passing game in free agency and TE Fred Davis is a solid player. On defense, age is a real problem and with the exception of young edge rushers Brian Orakpo and Ryan Kerrigan, upgrades will be needed.

So like I said, Insider if you want to read it all. And remember, no one's saying this is definitely how it'll all turn out -- just the way it looks to those experts' eyes from here.

A day after the Washington Redskins and Dallas Cowboys saw their complaint over a combined $46 million in salary-cap penalties dismissed by an arbitrator, one of the entities against whom that claim was field has decided not to let the matter rest. The NFLPA has filed a federal lawsuit against the NFL alleging that the owners' spending practices in the uncapped 2010 season amounted to collusion. The suit claims the owners established a "secret $123 million salary cap" for that season and that the Cowboys, Redskins, Saints and Raiders "did not fully abide by secret NFL rules to suppress player salaries."

Here's my attempt to answer a few of the more popular questions I'm getting on this:

Q: Why is the union doing this now? Didn't they sign off on the cap penalties against the Redskins and Cowboys when the league decided to impose them?

A: Technically, yes, but they weren't happy about it. The NFLPA believes the NFL strong-armed them into agreeing to those penalties by threatening to reduce the 2012 salary cap by about $7 million per team if they did not agree. Faced with that alternative, the union believes it chose the lesser of two evils by agreeing that two teams lose $46 million over the next two years (and have that money redistributed to the other teams) rather than have more than $220 million taken out of the overall pool, which is what a $7 million-per-team cap reduction would have meant. As I've written several times, this was not a shining moment for the union, and they're angry that the NFL forced them into that decision. This may well be revenge for that tactic.

Q: Can they win?

A: I don't think so, since as a condition of the end of the lockout last year, the players agreed to drop all pending litigation against the league, and the league claims the agreement clearly covered litigation for offenses both "known and unknown." The union will argue that the impositions of the penalties against the Redskins and Cowboys brought previously unknown information to light, and that they never agreed not to sue over this specific behavior. But if that "known and unknown" clause is legit, it's hard to see how they have a case. One point to note, however: This suit has been filed in the U.S. District Court in Minneapolis, under the jurisdiction of Judge David Doty, who has leaned so heavily in favor of the players in past disputes that the owners made it a point to remove arbitration matters from his jurisdiction in the new collective bargaining agreement. It was arbitrator Stephen Burbank, historically more friendly to the owners, who threw out the Redskins' and Cowboys' complaint Tuesday.

Q: Will this help the Redskins and Cowboys get their money back?

A: I can't imagine how. The teams agreed to abide by Burbank's ruling Tuesday, and if the union were to succeed here, the players would be awarded damages. It's possible, if it's determined that there was collusion and the Redskins and Cowboys did not engage in it, that those two teams could be exempted somehow from having to pay the damages. But I don't see how they get their cap money back as a result of this.

I'll keep on top of this as far as it affects the division, but as you can see by the last answer there, the part about which most Redskins and Cowboys fans care is almost certainly settled. As always, I welcome any questions you have on this on Twitter, in the mailbag or in the weekly chat, and I'll do the best I can to help you understand it as far as I do myself.

Let's have a little debate, shall we? With nearly four months still to go before the games start, a good, old-fashioned quarterback debate may be just the thing to wake everybody up and get the blood going.

Now, for the purposes of this particular debate, I don't much care which quarterback you think is "better" than the other. Fact is we can't trust you guys to have an unbiased argument about that anyway. Which is fine. You're fans. You're not supposed to be unbiased. I just feel like we can turn this debate a couple of degrees and ask a different kind of question, namely:

Which quarterback is under more pressure to perform in 2012? Michael Vick or Tony Romo?

Yeah, the poll has all four listed, because that only seemed fair. But Eli Manning's a two-time Super Bowl MVP and Robert Griffin III is a rookie in charge of a rebuilding project, so I don't think either of those guys faces the same kind of pressure as Vick faces in title-starved Philadelphia or Romo faces in perpetually unsatisfied Dallas. Go ahead and vote for one of those guys if you really think he's the right answer, but in the context of 2012 only, with Manning coming off a Super Bowl win and Griffin learning the league, I think the answer to this question is between Vick and Romo.

And if you've been reading regularly, you know my pick is Vick. I don't think any quarterback in the NFL this year will be under more pressure than Vick will be. The Eagles are in a must-win situation after their high 2011 hopes flopped, and they can't afford to flop again. Not that the Cowboys can afford to flop, mind you, but I just think Vick is in a higher-pressure situation.

Vick was far more responsible for his team's 2011 flop than Romo was for his team's. Vick has not demonstrated the same kind of year-in, year-out production that Romo has, so he has less of a track record on which to stand. And fair or not, Vick is always going to be judged against his own brilliant 2010 season. A lot of the Eagles' plans last year were based on the idea that Vick could do many things no other quarterback could do, and that that gave them an edge against the other good teams in the league. He may not have to be as incredible as he was in 2010, but he's going to have to show some of that ability in order to make teams fear him and the Eagles.

Vick is in a fascinating situation. He obviously has to mature as a quarterback and a decision-maker in order for the Eagles to succeed. But he has to do so without sacrificing too much of what sets him apart, athletically, from the others who play his position. It may well be an impossible balance to strike. But Vick is being asked to do it anyway, and I think that puts him under a different kind of pressure than Romo or anyone else faces in 2012.

What do you guys think? Play nice!

Remember the video mailbag? Well, we're upgrading it a bit. Or trying to, anyway. At 2 p.m. ET today on this blog, we will be doing a live video mailbag through something called Vokle. The fantasy baseball guys have been using it for live video chats, and we're going to try it here on the NFC East blog and see how it works. Ideally, you'll be able to join the chat (right from the blog, and I think you can sign in through your Facebook or Twitter account so you don't have to go to Vokle.com and set up a Vokle account if you don't want to) and ask me questions. You can type in the questions as you normally would during our Tuesday chats, and I'll read them and answer them aloud. Or, if you have a webcam and a headset (please, only if you have a headset, as without it the echo is really bad) you can ask a live video question and I'll answer it. It'll be just like when I talk to my mom and dad while they're in Florida, only it won't be 25 degrees here this time.

Anyway, swing by around 2 p.m. ET to try this out with us. Assuming it works, it could help us take the blog to unprecedented heights of technological glory. Also, should be fun. Links.

New York Giants

The Giants start their OTAs today, and it's a chance for guys like Matt McCants, a tackle the Giants took in the sixth round last month, to get at least some sense of what it's like to try to block some of the best pass-rushers in the league.

Paul Schwartz writes that Rutgers product Joe Martinek is hoping to make a case for himself as a fullback on the Giants' roster, kind of the way Henry Hynoski did last year when he was an undrafted free agent in camp with the Giants. I guess you never know.

Philadelphia Eagles

The Eagles continue to move Jamar Chaney all around their linebacker rotation. With Brian Rolle and rookie Mychal Kendricks apparently battling for the strongside linebacker spot, it appears Chaney is now the favorite to start at the weak side with DeMeco Ryans in the middle. Chaney, who played the middle in 2010 when Stewart Bradley got hurt and in 2011 when Casey Matthews proved ineffective, continues to roll with it.

And yeah, the offseason storyline has begun to focus on quarterback Michael Vick and what he needs to change about his game in order to help the Eagles achieve their very lofty goals for the 2012 season. As I've written before -- not about changing style of play but more about changing his sense of responsibility about how he plays the position. Decision-making, study habits, things like that. As he has for the past three years, Vick is saying all of the right things. So we'll see.

Washington Redskins

Redskins.com is breaking down some position battles as the Redskins engage in OTAs this week. I like the rundown of the wide receivers especially, but you know it's a team website when you read something like, "the Redskins have arguably the best tight end duo in the league." I mean, they played the Patriots last year, right? So they know about those guys?

Mike Shanahan was back at work a day after being run over on the sideline by two Redskins players. The players who saw it happen said it was a scary sight, but apparently Shanahan is showing no ill effects.

Dallas Cowboys

Jerry Jones says the window may be closing on the time the Cowboys have to win with their current veteran core, including Tony Romo, Jason Witten and DeMarcus Ware. Of course, lest anyone think this means trouble for the coaching staff, Jones is quick to assert that Jason Garrett feels the same way. Those two are BFFs, I'm telling ya.

Our man Herman Edwards says the Cowboys have "a Super Bowl offense," and I agree with him in terms of the talent at the skill positions. I think we still need to see Super Bowl-caliber performance out of positions like center and guard before we start talking that way, though. And of course, none of that matters if the defense doesn't improve. Which I'm pretty sure is part of Herm's point. You play. To win. The game.

The appeal of NFL-imposed cap reductions to the Washington Redskins ($36 million) and Dallas Cowboys ($10 million) has ended. Arbitrator Stephen Burbank dismissed their claims today -- for reasons described below -- and the teams have raised the white flag, issuing a joint statement accepting the decision. Interestingly, the two NFL owners who enjoy a good fight the most -- Jerry Jones and Daniel Snyder -- have decided to go quietly here, choosing to use this as a chip for political capital down the road.

The NFL claimed the teams gained competitive advantage by maneuvering cap money into the uncapped 2010 year, clearing the deck for future spending without encumbrances from bloated contracts of Albert Haynesworth, DeAngelo Hall, Miles Austin and others. Were the teams given a chance to argue, they would have emphasized that there were no written warnings against their conduct, and that the contracts were approved upon submission to the NFL management council (NFLMC). However, they will have no such chance, as the case was dismissed.

Commissioner power

Burbank rejected the teams’ arguments that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell was not authorized to act on behalf of the NFLMC, the unit of the NFL that gave strident verbal warnings about their cap maneuvers and suggested discipline. Burbank intimated -- but did not expressly hold -- that the articles and bylaws of the NFLMC contemplate the commissioner acting as an agent for them. Thus, the commissioner’s powers may extend past the playing field into the contract and cap decisions made by teams and their ownership.

NFLPA on board

The March 11 letter announcing the reduction (reallocation letter) was executed by both Goodell and NFLPA chief DeMaurice Smith. Smith was agreeable as long as league-wide cap room remained the same, with the $46 million reallocated to the other 28 teams (the Saints and Raiders were denied reallocation because of similar, but lesser violations). The union’s buy-in -- forged with assurances from the NFL that the team cap number in 2012 would not dip below that of 2011 -- was a factor in Burbank’s dismissal.

Teams on board

With the NFLPA signing off, the March 27 resolution by 29 NFL teams (the Bucs abstained) to ratify the reallocation letter became, in Burbank’s eyes, a valid amendment to the collective bargaining agreement. Therefore, the Cowboys’ and Redskins’ claims of unilateral changes in the cap and collusion by other teams were denied. The key line from the decision reads in part: “the March 27th Resolution effectively ratified the Reallocation Letter, which therefore is binding on the Redskins and Cowboys as an amendment to the CBA.”

Thus, Burbank essentially gave his blessing to two agreements that served to bind and penalize the Redskins and Cowboys without them being a party to either. Commissioner power is strengthened again, 28 teams have additional cap room, and the NFLPA protects its players’ cap room league-wide. Everyone is satisfied except, of course, those two owners.

Something tells me that -- although they are accepting the decision -- they won’t soon forget this episode.

I don't know. Maybe this is for the best.

The effort by the Dallas Cowboys and the Washington Redskins to recover a combined $46 million in salary-cap penalties won't even get off the ground. Stephen Burbank, the NFL's independent arbitrator, granted the league's request to dismiss the complaint. And the teams released a joint statement saying they would respect the decision, so that's that. The Redskins lost a total of $36 million and the Cowboys $10 million in cap room over the next two seasons, and they're just going to have to deal with it because it's what the other NFL owners think is fair and the arbitrator found their argument that the complaint not be heard to be a persuasive one.

There's no way that any sensible, thinking person who's not an NFL owner can honestly feel that the league acted justly in penalizing the Cowboys and the Redskins for spending their money and structuring their contracts the way they did during the uncapped 2010 season. But it doesn't matter, because the NFL plays by its own rules and no one else's, and that's the lesson for today.

But in the end, maybe it's for the best. Maybe Burbank is doing everyone a favor. There's no one on any side of this dispute who can feel good about the way they've conducted themselves. It's a badge of shame for the league and the union, and it's not even really a badge of honor for the two aggrieved parties. So maybe, even though it's not fair, Burbank is being nice by telling everyone to just stop.

This all started because NFL owners agreed, in secret, to limit spending in 2010 even though there was no cap -- to continue to structure contracts as though there were a cap, because the lockout they were about to impose was basically a thinly veiled attempt at union-busting. They knew all along they'd ultimately have a new agreement with a new cap and they didn't want anyone to have gamed the system to their advantage in the meantime. In the real world, we call this collusion -- all of the business owners in a given industry agreeing among themselves to impose restrictions on wages. But in the NFL, it's OK, because the collective bargaining agreement the owners have with the players spells out which types of collusion are allowed and which aren't.

The Redskins and Cowboys got in trouble because they didn't go along with this game, instead using the lack of a salary cap in 2010 to structure contracts in such a way as to spare themselves from salary-cap trouble in future years. The sense is that many, if not all, teams did this, and that the Redskins and Cowboys just did it to such an egregious extent that some of the other owners insisted they be punished. They'd been warned, after all, that anyone who failed to honor the secret agreement discussed in the last paragraph would be punished. Giants owner John Mara, the chairman of the management council, said at the owners meetings in March that the Cowboys and Redskins got off easy -- that they were lucky they didn't lose draft picks.

Which is baloney, of course, because you can't break rules when there aren't any. But let's not go too far in letting our hearts break for Jerry Jones and Daniel Snyder, who weren't exactly acting on charitable impulses here. They didn't break with the rest of the owners because they felt the policy was unfair to players. They did it because they thought it would give them an advantage, and that they could get away with it.

And then there's the NFLPA, for which this is anything but a shining moment. The players' union, which should be fighting such collusive behavior, instead capitulated and agreed to the sanctions against the Redskins and Cowboys because the owners threatened to reduce this year's salary cap if they did not. The union believes that was the right decision for its membership, and in the end it may well have been. But it is not a decision of which the union can be proud, and the fact the NFLPA allowed itself to be outmaneuvered by the league on this matter likely contributed to Burbank's decision to dismiss the complaint. The league's argument was based, largely, on the fact the sanctions were agreed upon by the league and the union. And jeez, if those two agree on something, how can it not be OK? Right?

It's all just plain ridiculous, the whole thing, and it's probably for the best that it all goes away. Everybody associated with it should be ashamed of themselves (though, sadly, no one seems to be). And while it's unfair that only the Cowboys and Redskins suffer for the arrogance of a group of people who continue to play its paying customers for willing patsies, the truly sad part is that anyone in this situation gets to walk away feeling as though he was in the right.

We're going to chat at noon ET, because it's Tuesday and chatting at noon ET on Tuesdays is one of the things we do here on the NFC East blog. Way it works is you click on these little blue letters right here, any time between noon and 1 p.m. ET on Tuesday (which is today), and your computer brings you to a chat room in which I am picking through questions and deciding which ones to answer and which ones to make fun of strategically ignore. It's fun. As an experience, most people would tend to rank it somewhere on the vast spectrum in between mindless diversion and life-changing phenomenon, and that's fine. We're happy in our little corner of that spectrum. Please come and join us.

And we're back. Another Tuesday on the NFC East blog, which means I need to stretch my chat muscles so I don't pull anything. Let's get right to the links.

Dallas Cowboys

I wrote Monday about Mike Jenkins staying away from OTAs and assumed he was doing that to make some sort of statement. I was right, as it came out later in the day that he wants to be traded. As Tim MacMahon says, good luck with that, Mike. This isn't like the Asante Samuel situation in Philadelphia, where the Eagles just wanted to dump Samuel's salary and took a seventh-round pick for him. The Cowboys can still use Jenkins, even if he is now the No. 3 corner behind Brandon Carr and Morris Claiborne. And given his health issues of the past year and where we are on the 2012 calendar (i.e., after the end of the draft), it's impossible to imagine any team offering them enough to make it worth their while to trade him.

In the ongoing quest to say sillier and sillier things about Tony Romo, the latest apparently is that the Cowboys don't go to the Super Bowl because Romo is not enough like Michael Young, which I guess means he needs to get on base more.

New York Giants

On the topic of Giants players "under pressure" in 2012 -- a topic we discussed here on the blog last week -- Ed Valentine picks wide receiver Ramses Barden, for whom opportunity looms large. Barden will have to hold off Domenik Hixon, Jerrel Jernigan and second-round pick Rueben Randle if he wants that No. 3 wide receiver spot created by the free-agent departure of Mario Manningham. The Giants drafted him thinking he had the tools to do it. The question now is whether he can stay healthy enough and play well enough to take advantage of his chance.

Tom Coughlin is still big in Jacksonville, where he coached the Jaguars before coaching the Giants and where he still holds his annual charity golf tournament. While in town for that, he once again answered questions about his possible retirement by saying it's not even something he's remotely considering.

Philadelphia Eagles

You can blame Juan Castillo and the defense all you like, but the Eagles' coaching staff thinks the biggest problem last year was their 38 turnovers (second most in the league), and they're determined to work with Michael Vick to cut that number down in 2012. Reading this, it sounds as though part of the problem is getting Vick to understand that there is one.

Eagles offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg talked about the fine line between leaning on the franchise running back to whom the Eagles just gave a five-year contract and overworking him. LeSean McCoy will only be 28 years old at the end of his new deal, and the Eagles surely can get five good years out of him even if they don't worry about limiting his touches. It will be interesting to see which way they lean.

Washington Redskins

You have to pay attention when you stand on an NFL sideline during practice, and Redskins coach Mike Shanahan unfortunately was looking at the wrong set of drills Monday when a couple of his players slammed into him and knocked him to the ground. "A little woozy" seemed to be the diagnosis, as Shanahan's "toughness" after his knockdown impressed some of his players. Sheesh. It's only the first day of OTAs and already the coach is down. Take it a little slower down there, fellas.

In spite of all he's done as a Redskin, Chris Cooley knows he's in a position this offseason of having to show something. Specifically, he needs to show he's healthy enough to play effectively in a two-tight end formation with Fred Davis. The reports after the first day of OTA practices were encouraging on Cooley.