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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 Giants in 2012.

Dream scenario (12-4): The last time the the Giants won the Super Bowl, they followed it up with a 12-4 season and claimed the No. 1 seed in the NFC playoffs. It seems a fair bet that, this time, their top wide receiver won't shoot himself in the leg with an unlicensed firearm in a nightclub and severely damage their playoff chances. The Giants remain extremely strong at quarterback, wide receiver and pass-rusher in a pass-heavy NFL era, and for that reason they have reason to believe they can be a much better regular-season team than the one that went 9-7 and made the playoffs on the final day last season. In the Giants' dream scenario, Hakeem Nicks recovers from his broken foot in time to start the season, second-round pick Rueben Randle wins the No. 3 wide receiver spot and someone -- perhaps first-rounder David Wilson -- steps forward to be the running back who can spell Ahmad Bradshaw when he needs a rest. Terrell Thomas comes back healthy and continues along the career path that, this time last year, had him on track to become one of the best cornerbacks in the league. Keith Rivers solidifies the linebacker corps, and Jason Pierre-Paul and Victor Cruz build on their breakout seasons as the Giants get back into the playoffs and make a real run at defending their title.

Nightmare scenario (6-10): The Nicks injury is a reminder that the Giants did lose some depth this offseason. And although they are (a) very strong if their front-line starters are healthy, (b) very good at filling needs internally and (c) always at least in contention even when they miss the playoffs, the likelihood of the nightmare scenario is unimportant to this exercise. This is about imagining, and in the Giants' nightmare scenario their key starters -- such as Nicks, Cruz, Pierre-Paul, Justin Tuck and Bradshaw -- struggle with injury or ineffectiveness. Eli Manning reverts to his interception-happy ways of 2011. Thomas struggles to get back to where he was, Prince Amukamara fails to take the next step forward, and they still can't find a reliable middle linebacker from among the crew they bring to camp. The nightmare scenario also sees the offensive line struggle, especially at the left tackle spot, where Will Beatty was a work in progress in 2011 before eye problems ended his season. Should these troubles come to pass, the Giants would have to lean heavily on their rookies, and it's unlikely that Wilson, Randle and Jayron Hosley could all emerge as successful starters in their first year in the NFL. Again, the Giants' nightmare scenario seems unlikely, but if it happens, it will have to do with depth issues behind the starters.

Dallas Cowboys coach Jason Garrett said Wednesday the team isn't going to trade disgruntled cornerback Mike Jenkins. We didn't post on it here because we already knew this. Everybody already knew it. Even Jenkins, though he's let it be known he's unhappy with his contract and his new role as the team's No. 3 cornerback and would like to be traded, probably knew it too. He'd have to be blind not to.

Jenkins isn't making so much money that the Cowboys would want to dump him like the Eagles did with Asante Samuel. He's too good for them to trade for a late-round draft pick and not quite good enough to convince a team to offer an early-round pick. The result is that the team, as it tends to in NFL contract situations, holds all of the cards and is required to make no move at all in response to Jenkins' decision to skip offseason workouts. If he wants to stay home, he stays home. If he wants to skip mandatory workouts next month or part of training camp, they can fine him. If he wanted to sit out a whole season, they'd just run Brandon Carr, Morris Claiborne and Orlando Scandrick out there and take their chances. They're better with Jenkins in that mix and would like to have him, but they're not desperate enough to even consider granting him his wish.

Jenkins finds himself in NFL contract limbo, and if he's looking for a sympathetic shoulder on which to cry he doesn't even have to look outside his own division. The New York Giants' Osi Umenyiora is basically in the same situation -- he's unhappy with his contract, he isn't thrilled to be the No. 3 defensive end on his team, and he would rather play elsewhere. But he isn't getting traded either, because (stop me if this sounds familiar) he's affordable, he's too good to trade for peanuts, and he isn't going to bring back a first-round or second-round pick in a deal. The Giants are better off keeping an unhappy Umenyiora around than trading him for pennies on the dollar. It's the decision they made when he raised the same fuss a year ago, and they got 12.5 sacks out of him in 13 games (counting postseason) for their patience.

If either Jenkins or Umenyiora really wanted to push this, there are two somewhat extreme ways they could go. The first is that they could sit out the meaningful stuff, like training camp and regular-season games. If they prove that they're willing to do that, then circumstances could, theoretically, improve their leverage. Say Jenkins is sitting at home in late August and Claiborne gets hurt, or Umenyiora is sitting at home Week 2 and Justin Tuck gets hurt. In cases like those, the need for the player may become great enough to warrant a new deal. But that's a big risk to take because injuries are unpredictable, and in the meantime the player has allowed the team the chance to get used to life without him.

The second option in this case is to make a nuisance of yourself -- to show up, but put your contract situation into the spotlight in an annoying and disruptive way. The all-time visual symbol of this may well be Terrell Owens doing pushups in his driveway. Jenkins or Umenyiora could choose to simply continue being a pain, in the hope that the annoyance might prod the team into trading him for less than they think he's worth. But this carries risk, as well -- the basic one being the risk of giving the outside world (and potential future employers) reason to believe you're a jerk.

The Giants don't fear this from Umenyiora, because they trust their coaching staff and their veteran locker room to effectively ignore potential disruptions. And the Cowboys know Jenkins, and I think they're betting on the idea that he's not the pushups-in-the-driveway sort.

What these guys are doing now -- skipping voluntary workouts and letting it be known through third-party sources that they're upset -- is the simplest way to make their particular point. It costs them nothing right now to stand up for themselves, and they should.

If you're unhappy at work and you feel your bosses aren't treating you fairly, it's important to find a proper and effective way to let them know. That goes for you, me, NFL players and everyone else. But in the end, in the cases of Jenkins and Umenyiora, there's not going to be anything either one can do.

This is the nature of their profession, and the working conditions under which NFL players operate. It's not fair, because teams can end contracts on a whim and the risk of injury is incredibly high, but a history of players crossing picket lines and caving in on labor negotiations has constructed a system in which the teams hold all the cards and the player rarely finds himself in the position of strength. Unfortunately for NFL players, this isn't Major League Baseball.

Jenkins and Umenyiora are both eligible to be free agents next year, and I don't think either has to fear the franchise-player designation. The franchise numbers for cornerbacks and defensive ends are over $10 million, and it's unlikely that either the Cowboys or Giants would want to commit so much to their No. 3 player at those positions.

It's too far into the future to predict for certain, but the odds are they won't be in limbo again this time next year. Right now, all these guys can do is decide how much fine money (if any) they're willing to spend to make their point, and once they reach that number, show up, practice, hope they don't get hurt and play well enough to convince some other team to give them big contracts in 2013.

It may not be great. May not be fair. But for Jenkins, Umenyiora and so many others like them in the NFL, they unfortunately don't have much choice.

The 2011 season was not the most, well, beastly season in NFC East history. It was the first time in a full, 16-game season that no team in the division won at least 10 games, and for much of the year the talk around the division was that it wasn't what it used to be.

Buncha baloney if you ask me. Even forgetting for a second that an NFC East team won the Super Bowl, this division still does one very important thing better than any other: rush the passer. The NFC East's 181 sacks led all NFL divisions in 2011, and by quite a bit. (The AFC North, which had three playoff teams, was second with 160). The Eagles tied for the league lead with 50. The Giants tied for third with 48. The Cowboys tied for seventh with 42, and the Redskins tied for 10th with 41.

Look deeper, into the film-based, number-crunching stats from Pro Football Focus -- stats that take into account more than just sacks when evaluating the extent to which teams rushed, hassled and affected opposing quarterbacks, and the division still rules. The Eagles rank No. 1 in PFF's 2011 team rankings, the Cowboys No. 3, the Giants No. 6 and the Redskins No. 9. No division prizes this critical aspect of the game more than the NFC East does, and it shows up in the numbers.

So, as we slug our way through a slow news month in the NFC East, I thought it'd be a good idea to check in on the pass rushes of our four teams and see how they're doing -- what they've done to get better or worse, what their 2012 prospects look like from this far out and yes, how they rank against each other. You guys asked for more polls, and I promised I'd listen, so there's one right here for you to vote on. After you finish reading, of course. I'm addressing them in order of how many sacks they got in 2011, in case you're wondering how I decided. Seemed fair.

Philadelphia Eagles

Key contributors: DE Trent Cole, DE Jason Babin, DT Cullen Jenkins. PFF ranked Cole the No. 1 overall 4-3 defensive end in the league last year. Babin ranked 10th overall and third in pass rush, finishing third in the league with 18 sacks. Jenkins ranked as the No. 4 pass-rushing defensive tackle, and Derek Landri was No. 10. Defensive line coach Jim Washburn and defensive coordinator Juan Castillo, each of whom is entering his second season in his current position with the Eagles, believe the front four is responsible for the pass rush. And while they got a lot of publicity for how wide they like to line up their defensive ends, they like to get pressure from the defensive tackles as well.

Newcomer: DT Fletcher Cox. The Eagles traded up in the first round to pick Cox because they believed he could be an impact pass-rusher from one of those interior spots right away. They need to toughen up against the run, and that will have to be part of Cox's game. But what appealed to them was his ability to get to the passer. Rookie linebacker Mychal Kendricks could conceivably factor in here too, but the Eagles don't ask their linebackers to rush very much in the new scheme.

Stock watch: UP. The addition of Cox, as well as the possible return to full health of Mike Patterson and 2010 first-round pick Brandon Graham, give the Eagles incredible depth at a position at which they were already very strong in 2011. It's possible they'll rush the passer even better in 2012.

New York Giants

Key contributors: DE Jason Pierre-Paul, DE Justin Tuck, DE Osi Umenyiora, DE/LB Mathias Kiwanuka. No one's roster goes as deep as the Giants' does in terms of star-caliber defensive ends. Pierre-Paul was fourth in the league with 16.5 sacks in just his second NFL season. Umenyiora had nine in just nine games. Tuck turned it on at the end and in the playoffs, and Kiwanuka is a defensive end playing linebacker. The Giants believe a strong pass rush is their heritage and their key to being an annual contender.

Newcomer: DT Marvin Austin. The Giants didn't really bring in anyone this offseason who looks like a 2012 pass-rush contributor, but their 2011 second-round pick missed all of last season due to injury, so we'll call him a newcomer. The Giants would like to get more help from inside. Linval Joseph was their best pass-rushing defensive tackle in 2011, according to PFF's rankings. A healthy Austin could be a difference-maker.

Stock watch: DOWN. Not by much, but a little, because of the loss of reliable, underrated reserve DE Dave Tollefson. If Tuck and Umenyiora have injury problems again, or if Umenyiora holds out, they could get kind of thin at defensive end pretty quickly without Tollefson there to fill in this time. Now, this is the Giants, and they'll probably figure it out. The addition of linebacker Keith Rivers could allow them to move Kiwanuka back to end in case of injury. But it's worth pointing out that they did lose a somewhat important piece of the pass rush and didn't replace him.

Dallas Cowboys

Key contributors: LB DeMarcus Ware, LB Anthony Spencer, DE Jason Hatcher, NT Jay Ratliff. There's no one like Ware, who rang up another 19.5 sacks in 2011. That's nearly half the team total, and the conventional wisdom says he needs more help. But PFF ranked Spencer its 11th-best 3-4 outside linebacker in the pass rush and Hatcher as its eighth-best 3-4 pass-rushing defensive end. Add in Ratliff, who can generate pressure up the middle, and the Cowboys look better in this area than we tend to think.

Newcomer: DE Tyrone Crawford. Dallas' third-round pick is looked at by many as a project, but as one that can eventually help with the pass rush whether he ends up as a 3-4 end or standing up as an outside linebacker. Whether he can help in 2012 remains a question, but the Cowboys didn't see a first-round or second-round pass-rusher they liked better than Spencer, so they focused on the secondary instead and picked up some down-the-road guys for the pass rush.

Stock watch: EVEN. They're bringing back basically the same group, and while there's a theory that the improvements at defensive back will help the pass rush by giving it extra time to get sacks, we have yet to see that in action. Spencer must play with more aggressiveness if this unit is to take a step forward into the upper tier with the Eagles and Giants.

Washington Redskins

Key contributors: LB Brian Orakpo, LB Ryan Kerrigan, DE Stephen Bowen. The Redskins' pass rush is all about those young outside linebackers, and they are fearsome. But with only 16.5 sacks between them in 2011, their numbers have a ways to go to get into the big-time stratosphere we're talking about in the NFC East. PFF did rank Orakpo fifth and Kerrigan ninth among pass-rushing 3-4 OLBs in 2011, so they do a lot of things well in that area. Bowen had six sacks and DE Adam Carriker came up with 5.5.

Newcomer: DE Jarvis Jenkins. Just as we did with the Giants, we'll go with a 2011 second-round pick who missed his rookie season due to injury. Jenkins may not be a pass-rusher, but adding him to the defensive line rotation could help free up more room for the linebackers and maybe help the other linemen get to the passer more often as well.

Stock watch: EVEN. This is really all about how much and how quickly Orakpo and especially Kerrigan continue to develop as elite pass-rushers. They've both shown flashes of incredible raw ability, and they have to continue to hone their craft so they can play at the level of the other pass-rushers in their division. Ware, Cole, Pierre-Paul and the rest of these guys are setting a high bar, and the Redskins know they have to have their own pass-rush monsters if they want to hang with them year in and year out.

Oh, man, do we have links. They're mid-May links, so they may not be the tastiest or juiciest links we have all year. But they are links nonetheless, and they're piping hot and ready for you on what looks to be a glorious Thursday morning. Enjoy.

Dallas Cowboys

Calvin says the Mackenzy Bernadeau hip injury, while obviously not a good thing for the player or the Cowboys, opens the door to opportunity for several of the young guard/center types the Cowboys will bring to training camp. Yeah, Bernadeau has a contract, but that doesn't guarantee him a starting spot, and if Bill Nagy or David Arkin looks stronger this year and takes some big steps, either could force his way into the starting picture.

Jonathan Bales ran the numbers to determine how important it was for the Cowboys to address the interior of their offensive line this offseason and the likelihood that a healthy Bernadeau and fellow free agent Nate Livings will help shore things up in there. Jonathan has cool graphs in his post as well, with cylindrical illustrations in team colors. If that's your kind of thing.

New York Giants

It was apparently important to the players that this Giants Super Bowl ring have some blue in it, and it does, and it's quite stunning. The Giants received their rings Wednesday night in a ceremony at Tiffany & Co. Justin Tuck said the goal now is to "make it a dynasty," which is bold talk from a team that went 9-7 and lost to the Redskins twice. But hey, it was their night, you know?

John Mara says the contract extension for Giants coach Tom Coughlin will be done "sooner rather than later." As I've said before, I'm guessing it's a three-year extension whose announcement, which will come sometime between now and the start of the regular season, will rank among the least surprising announcements in NFL history. Coughlin's going to decide when he's not the Giants' coach anymore, and he's earned that right.

Philadelphia Eagles

Sheil Kapadia looks at the bounty of talent through which defensive line coach Jim Washburn gets to sort this year. The Eagles tied for the league lead in sacks last year with a defense that relies on pressure from its front four, much the way the Super Bowl Champion Giants do, and they will try to do even better this season than the 50 sacks they racked up last season in an effort to catch those Giants and beat them at their own defensive game.

A big part of the Eagles' problem on defense last year was that they ignored the linebacker position and handed the starting middle linebacker job to unprepared Casey Matthews. They have addressed that issue this offseason by acquiring middle linebacker DeMeco Ryans from Houston. And rather than lament his chance to atone and get the job back, Matthews describes Ryan as "the leader we didn't have" on defense in 2011.

Washington Redskins

Kirk Cousins didn't want the Redskins to be the team that drafted him -- not after they drafted Robert Griffin III with the No. 2 pick in the draft. But they were, and now that the shock has waned a bit, Cousins says he's come to an understanding about the terms of his opportunity and what he needs to do to make good on it.

Griffin's opportunity, at least in the near term, includes a rush of endorsement opportunities, and he's grabbing them. He's also hawking "Go Catch Your Dream" socks like the ones he wore at the draft. If Griffin turns out to be as good as the Redskins are betting he will, he's going to be a Madison Ave. monster before it's all said and done.

And a good Wednesday morning to all. (Wednesday, right? Yeah, Wednesday.) I'll be with you just as soon as I catch up on my NBA reading. Wait, it says here the Heat only lost one game last night. Man, based on the reaction I saw all over Twitter after the game, I could have sworn it was four. The NBA confuses me. The NFL, though ... that always makes sense. Links.

Dallas Cowboys

Calvin weighs in on the Tony Romo thing, saying that yes, stats are nice and the stats support Romo as a top quarterback, but that doesn't matter until and unless he starts winning playoff games. And yeah, a lot of that's out of his control. But Calvin is right that the outside perception of the guy will not change until the playoff record does. He could have a rotten year and put up lousy numbers in three playoff games, but as long as the team won those three playoff games his reputation would likely improve. Of course, this hypothesis ignores the likelihood that, if Romo had a rotten year, the Cowboys wouldn't have a chance to play in any playoff games.

Michael Irvin thinks the offense is fine and that the biggest problem the Cowboys have had is a defense that hasn't shown an ability to generate turnovers and therefore contribute to the scoring from its end. He believes that this offseason's additions at cornerback may have changed that.

New York Giants

In a private ceremony Wednesday night at Tiffany & Co., the Giants will receive their Super Bowl rings. Thanks to punter Steve Weatherford, there were some pictures of the ring swirling around the Internet on Tuesday. But Justin Tuck says the photo Weatherford put on Twitter wasn't the real ring. So I guess we'll see.

Tuck also says the Giants won't let the Osi Umenyiora contract situation become a distraction to them this offseason, mainly because they're used to it by now. This isn't just talk with the Giants, as we've discussed before. Their veteran locker room is well suited to handle and/or ignore an issue such as the Umenyiora contract dispute, even if it gets far uglier than it is right now.

Philadelphia Eagles

Speaking of contract disputes, DeSean Jackson is happy to no longer be in one this offseason, and the extension he signed with the Eagles has him feeling like a new man as he gets ready to begin offseason practices. Jackson admitted several times last year that the contract situation was bothering him and affecting the way he went about his business. So, you know. No more excuses on that front, right?

Owen Schmitt has signed with the Raiders, leaving Stanley Havili ostensibly as the Eagles' starting fullback. But as Bleeding Green Nation points out, the Eagles don't use the fullback very much, so it's not likely to be a high-impact change.

Washington Redskins

Richard Crawford, the SMU cornerback the Redskins drafted in the seventh round, grew four inches in college and believes that's what helped make him a draftable prospect. We'll see. Lots of opportunity in the Redskins' secondary this offseason.

Former Redskins great Art Monk has been named to the College Football Hall of Fame for the career he had at Syracuse before he became a star in the NFL. Somebody on the chat asked me to give this news a "shout-out," and there isn't much else going on, so there you go.

The defending Super Bowl champions get back to work this weekend, as the New York Giants hold their rookie minicamp in East Rutherford, N.J. Repeating is hard work, though, and there are good reasons why only one team this century has been able to do it.

You lose players. You lose coaches. You become the No. 1 target for teams that have identified you as the biggest obstacle standing in their way of getting what they want. The people who run the Giants, and many of the people who play for the Giants, were in this position four years ago, and they know all about the challenges that face the defending Super Bowl champs.

But this year's Giants are not your ordinary defending champ. They were, speaking strictly in terms of winning percentage, the weakest Super Bowl champion in history. They didn't even secure their playoff spot until the final game of the regular season. With two weeks to go, they were 7-7 and in real danger of finishing under .500.

All of these things are facts, just as much as the title they won. So as they get back to work this spring and summer, the Giants face the seemingly incongruous dual task of maintaining the magic that brought them their title while also improving a 9-7 team.

They have some things going for them, and I'm not just talking about Eli Manning, Hakeem Nicks, Victor Cruz, Justin Tuck and Jason Pierre-Paul. The Giants run their franchise as one that's perpetually in transition.

Rather than wait for problems to present themselves, or roster holes to open, the Giants constantly churn the middle and the back end of their roster, developing players in their system so they're ready to step in when need arises. There are running backs and wide receivers on the roster who have been waiting for the opportunity created by the free-agent defections of Brandon Jacobs and Mario Manningham, and those players will get the chance to do what Cruz and Pierre-Paul did last year when presented with similar chances. The Giants never allow themselves to get so thin at any one position that they don't at least have options for replacing those who leave or get hurt or decide to sit out training camp.

That said, this Giants team does have holes to fill and problems to solve. They finished 32nd in the league in rushing offense -- a fact that, while mitigated by the improvements the run game showed in December and January -- didn't sit well with their running backs and their offensive linemen. They will need to get better there, and to do so they'll need Ahmad Bradshaw's feet to stay healthy for the first time in years. Plus, they must find someone to replace the 167 touches and eight touchdowns Jacobs contributed to last season's cause.

They'll need to shuffle the offensive line again. While Kareem McKenzie was not what he used to be, he was the starting right tackle on a team that won the Super Bowl, and they did not replace him. They hope that Will Beatty (a) comes back healthy from his eye injury and (b) plays better than he did at left tackle in the first 10 games of last season.

David Diehl isn't around to slide over and bail him out this time. Diehl's got to play right tackle in place of McKenzie. The Giants have some offensive linemen they like for the long-term, but this looks like another transition year on the line. While they have enough good veterans in place to pull it off, that's a tough tightrope act to try too many years in a row.

They have bodies at linebacker, with Keith Rivers brought in as a good veteran reinforcement and some of last year's promising rookies hopefully ready to take a next step, but they have no clear man for the middle. They have bodies at cornerback, but they have question marks there, too.

Corey Webster was awesome in 2011. Can he repeat that performance? Is Terrell Thomas fully recovered from the preseason knee injury that cost him the whole season? Will Prince Amukamara make more of a contribution?

Don't think for a second that GM Jerry Reese isn't concerned. He used each of his first three draft picks on positions at which he lost a player in free agency -- running back (David Wilson for Jacobs), wide receiver (Rueben Randle for Mario Manningham) and cornerback (Jayron Hosley for Aaron Ross). And he's smart to be concerned, because while these Giants rightfully consider themselves a championship team, they're also a team that won one less regular-season game in 2011 than it won in 2010. Had someone in the NFC East won 10 and the Giants missed the playoffs, their offseason narrative would have been that of a team moving in the wrong direction.

Instead, the Giants have a two-front problem to solve. They have a division and a conference and a league full of teams that saw what they did and now consider Super Bowl glory more attainable than ever. And they have an internal mandate to be better this year than 9-7, because they know first-hand that it's not usually good enough to get you the chance to make a Super Bowl run.

They're capable of doing it, and they'll deservedly enter the season among the favorites to win it all again. They have superstars at quarterback, wide receiver and defensive end, and in this day and age that can carry you a long way. But as far as defending Super Bowl champions go, these Giants have more issues than most -- and more work to do.

New York Giants GM Jerry Reese said on ESPN radio in New York that the contract dispute between the team and defensive end Osi Umenyiora is not personal -- at least from his end -- and reiterated that he'd like Umenyiora to "retire as a Giant." Ohm was listening to the interview on ESPN radio's new spot at 98.7 on the FM dial:

"I don't carry grudges," Reese said in an interview with Stephen A. Smith and Ryan Ruocco on ESPN New York 98.7. "In the offseason, there is always some controversy about contracts. It is not just one person, it can be several different people with contract situations. That is part of my job, it is never personal, I don't think it is personal with respect to players and it definitely is not personal with respect to me."

"I call it offseason chatter," he continued. "There is always some chatter about different situations about contracts during the offseason. That is what happened. It is never personal with me."

Which is really nice, especially since Reese was the one being called a liar by Umenyiora this time last year in a sworn affidavit as part of the Brady vs. NFL lockout suit. But whether it's personal from Reese's standpoint really isn't the issue at this point. Because other than that affidavit, there have been very few (if any) points during this three-year drama at which Reese felt he had cause to feel like the wronged party. Umenyiora's discontent over his contract has had no discernible impact on the Giants whatsoever. He's played, and played well. The times he's sat out practice in protest have had no effect on his teammates. The games he's missed due to injury have been ably handled by people such as Mathias Kiwanuka, Justin Tuck and Jason Pierre-Paul. Pierre-Paul, in fact, surpassed Umenyiora as a starter last year, which is part of the basis for the current disagreement between Umenyiora and the Giants about what he should be getting paid.

It is clearly personal from Umenyiora's end, and has been for some time now. He feels disrespected by what he considers insufficient compensation. He has said he doesn't like being a backup. And it is clear that he intends to continue making an issue of his contract in this, its final season. I can't imagine a circumstance, barring some shocking new development that results in a new deal, under which Umenyiora attends all of the Giants' offseason or training camp practices. This isn't going away anytime soon, because whether it's personal from Reese's end or not, it clearly is from Umenyiora's.

In the end, what I believe will happen is Umenyiora will play out the final year of his contract on the Giants' terms. He has no leverage, and if he wants to sit out, the Giants believe they have coverage with their other excellent pass rushers. But that doesn't mean he's going to stop kicking about it anytime soon. At this point, it wouldn't be a Giants offseason if Umenyiora weren't upset.

In this video about the contract dispute between the New York Giants and defensive end Osi Umenyiora, Adam Schefter suggests that the Giants could still trade Umenyiora at some point down the road, though he points out that their best opportunity to do so may have expired Saturday when this year's draft ended. It's clear at this point that the relationship between player and team management is fractured, and it's increasingly clear that a new contract is not in the offing.

Sure, you can still deal a guy for a player, or for some future picks, but in general it's easier to get deals done before the draft if you want to get real value. I don't imagine the Giants will want to just dump Umenyiora to be rid of him, since they've had opportunities to do that in the past and have turned down every one. They held the line with him a year ago and got great production out of him en route to their Super Bowl title. I see little reason to believe they won't take the same tactic this year. And if he wants to hold out, I'm sure they feel fine about their pass rush in the hands of Justin Tuck, Jason Pierre-Paul, Mathias Kiwanuka and the rest of the gang.

I thought earlier this offseason that the Giants would be wise to trade Umenyiora in advance of the draft, since his value was high coming off the Super Bowl run and teams with which they would have been negotiating might not have felt as strong a concern about his recent injury history. But they didn't, and at this point the right move is probably to ride it out.

I do not, for one second, buy the argument that Umenyiora's situation and/or behavior can be a distraction in the Giants' locker room. Anyone who really thinks that hasn't been in that room. The Giants have a strong nucleus of veteran leaders. Their young players are, by and large, intelligent, high-character guys who have been shaped by those strong veteran influences and respect the coaching staff. Most of the players on the roster have been around long enough to know there's always something going on with Umenyiora and his contract, and I can't imagine any significant way in which it might affect anyone on the team other than Umenyiora himself. And that provides Jerry Reese even more leverage if he wants to play hardball with Umenyiora and dare him to sit out the final year of his contract and try and convince some other team next year that he was right to do so.

Ohm's got some thoughts on what the New York Giants might do tonight with the 32nd pick in the first round of the NFL draft. Pick 32 is a trophy, remember. You get it for winning the Super Bowl, and when you're picking 32 you're not supposed to be a team that needs much. The Giants have a few needs, but they don't tend to draft for need, and with that in mind Ohm believes they will take either a defensive player or a wide receiver with the No. 32 pick:

The Giants would probably be thrilled if someone like North Carolina DE Quinton Coples, Syracuse DE Chandler Jones, Illinois DE Whitney Mercilus, Alabama CB Dre Kirkpatrick and Alabama LB Dont'a Hightower were to fall to 32. Same for Georgia Tech WR Stephen Hill. All those guys are on the Giants' wish list.

But all those guys, based on many projections, are not expected to be there when the Giants are on the clock. My guess is if all those guys are gone, the Giants could tab LSU WR Rueben Randle. Indications are the Giants are looking at wide receiver if the players mentioned earlier above are not available. Randle is a player the Giants have discussed.

Very interesting. We have not discussed Randle here, but picking a wide receiver at the end of the first round when the need appears greater at offensive line and running back would be a very Giant thing to do. Remember, as we have written many times here over the past few weeks, the Giants don't view the draft as a means of addressing immediate needs or filling obvious holes. They view it as a means of building, maintaining and replenishing a deep roster from which they can fill needs as they arise in the future.

Giants defensive end Justin Tuck was tweeting about the draft earlier today and wrote:

Can't wait 2 c who Reese and company get tonight. It really doesn't matter who bc we will teach him how 2 play @Giants football #worldchamps

— Justin Tuck (@JustinTuckNYG91) April 26, 2012

And that pretty much sums up the feeling of the Giants as an organization. Draft players they like, who represent good value at the pick and trust their coaching staff and their veteran players to develop them. It's paid off with two Super Bowl titles in the past five years, and for that reason I would expect them to stick with it.

So there's no way to know who the Giants will take at No. 32, because we don't know what their draft board looks like or which players at or near the top of it will still be there. But Ohm's story offers useful perspective and drives home the point that the Giants look at the draft a bit differently than other teams do.

The Osi Umenyiora situation remains a mystery as the New York Giants begin defense of their Super Bowl title. Things seemed to have been cooling in January and February, but then last week Umenyiora indicated he'd be skipping this week's voluntary conditioning session because of lingering discontent about his contract situation and said he didn't like being "a backup." It remains possible that the Giants will trade Umenyiora, extend his contract or just keep him and dare him to hold out if he doesn't want to play the final year of his deal under the current terms.

Giants GM Jerry Reese told reporters in New Jersey Thursday that he hadn't ruled out an extension for Umenyiora, but of course that doesn't indicate how likely a possibility it is. Umenyiora's friend and teammate, Justin Tuck, said he had no way of handicapping what would happen with Umenyiora, per Mike Garafolo:

"I don't know. You never know with that guy and what the scenario is going to be this year. But I just wish for the best. Obviously, he's a huge part of our success on defense but (also) the little things he does in the locker room as far as taking some of the pressure off the young guys and so on and so forth. I'm definitely rooting for him to be back, but at the end of the day you just want the best for him."

There's no way to doubt Umenyiora's value, especially after having watched the Giants' pass rush solidify into a Super Bowl-caliber unit once he returned from his injuries late last year. But the Giants do have salary-cap concerns and Umenyiora does have injury concerns, so I still think the most likely scenario is a little bit of griping (less than last summer) and then Umenyiora plays out his deal. But as Tuck said, you never know.

Catching up on weekend news, I'm sure all of my New York Giants fans saw that the Raiders signed free-agent defensive end Dave Tollefson. The Giants liked Tollefson, and valued his contributions to two Super Bowl championship teams, but given their depth at the defensive end position, they weren't going to spend real money to keep him.

That said, this is a spot -- defensive end -- where when the Giants lose a player, they notice it. Brandon Jacobs signs elsewhere? They can figure out running back. Mario Manningham? Ah, they'll find another No. 3 receiver. But defensive end, that's the Giants' bread and butter. And they just lost one that was on the field for about 40 percent of their defensive plays in 2011. Tollefson could spell Justin Tuck or Osi Umenyiora when those guys were hurt. He could move inside and play defensive tackle in those alignments the Giants like to run where they put as many pass rushers on the field as they can. He was a valuable piece, and they will, you can be sure, do something that's directed at replacing him.

One thing Tollefson's departure means is that the Giants are far less likely now to trade Umenyiora. That likelihood already seemed to be fading, as last year's hard feelings between Umenyiora and the Giants over his contract situation have eased considerably. But now, even if they can't extend Umenyiora's contract, it's hard to imagine the Giants getting a trade offer that makes it worth losing two pieces of their pass rush in the same month.

It's possible the Giants could look for a linebacker, or an increased contribution from one or more of last year's rookie linebackers, and move Mathias Kiwanuka back to defensive end full-time. Kiwanuka played well in his hybrid role last year, but he's a pass-rusher at heart and would surely be happy to be asked to pick up whatever snaps Tollefson left behind.

And yeah, they're picking No. 32 in the draft in 17 days, and they have needs at running back and tight end and linebacker and places like that. But you know, if you follow the Giants, that if a pass rusher like Syracuse's Chandler Jones falls to them at 32, there's a very real chance they take him. As we discussed last week, there are certain bedrock facets of the Giants' team-building philosophy, and the most prominent may be their belief in the importance of the pass rush. Tollefson's departure doesn't leave them short in that key area for 2012. They still have Tuck and Umenyiora and Kiwanuka and Jason Pierre-Paul, which is a group for which a lot of other teams would kill. But it's a reminder that things can get thin quickly, and defensive end is one position at which the Giants are determined never to let that happen.

If you're like me, when you heard the part of the ugly Gregg Williams audio that touches on the concussion history of 49ers receiver/return man Kyle Williams, you flashed back to the aftermath of the NFC Championship Game. Remember? When Giants special-teamers Devin Thomas and Jacquian Williams said they'd known about Kyle Williams' concussion history and played with that in mind? Here's a rundown from late January in the New York Times:

"The thing is, we knew he had four concussions, so that was our biggest thing, to take him out of the game," Jacquian Williams said of Kyle Williams, who had replaced the injured Ted Ginn Jr. as San Francisco’s punt returner.

Devin Thomas, a wide receiver and special-teams player who recovered the ball both times, said: "He's had a lot of concussions. We were just like, 'We've got to put a hit on that guy.' "

The Giants went into spin-control mode a few days later, with players such as Justin Tuck and Michael Boley saying they'd never gone into a game with the intent to injure anyone. And NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said in that same Times story that the Giants were in no trouble from the league because "players are held accountable for their actions on the field" and "there were no illegal hits to the head or neck area against Kyle Williams on Sunday. There was no conduct by the Giants of any kind that would suggest an effort to injure Kyle Williams in any way."

When I reached out to Aiello on Thursday to ask him about this issue, he referred me to those comments and the Giants' denials and reiterated that the Giants were in the clear as far as the league is concerned. And that makes sense. After all, there's nothing to indicate that the league is going to take any action against Williams for the audio that came to light Thursday morning courtesy of Yahoo! Sports' Michael Silver. That tape would seem to be just more dirt on the grave of Williams' NFL coaching career, as Mike Sando points out.

Here's what I think about all of this:

It seems clear that it's completely routine for opposing players' injuries to be discussed in defensive team meetings. It seems clear, in spite of the denials after the fact, that Williams' concussion history was a topic of discussion among Giants defensive and special-teams players (and likely coaches) before the NFC Championship Game. I mean, no way did Devin Thomas and Jacquian Williams just think that up independently during postgame interviews. Their lockers were clear across the room from each other.

But it's entirely possible that such issues are raised in non-aggressive ways. There's nothing to indicate that the Giants' plan, knowing Kyle Williams had a concussion history, was to give him another concussion. It might well be that the discussion was about whether the concussion history would lead Williams to shrink from a big hit, or do something potentially game-changing, like muff a critical punt deep in his own territory, if the Giants made a point to be physical with him. Scaring or intimidating a guy would seem to be fair game. Intent to injure, which is what they have Gregg Williams and Sean Payton for based on evidence that predates the 2011-12 playoffs, is a far different thing. And whether the Giants were talking about Kyle Williams' concussions before that game or not, there's no evidence that they set out to injure him. Thomas said as much to Newsday's Bob Glauber in the days that followed:

"It was more about understanding personnel," Thomas said. "You want to find every strength and weakness you can. The whole concept of him having concussions is you know he's been hit a lot. I've had a concussion. When you get rattled like that, your judgment sometimes changes. You worry about getting hit instead of worrying about protecting the ball or whatnot. He's the backup returner, so he's being put in a huge role for a huge game. There's things like that that you key on putting an emphasis on putting a good hit on him. Legal hit, no cheap shots. Let's see if we can get a turnover."

Thomas said the Giants weren't attempting to give Williams another concussion. "That's not the concept," he said. "It's just going after somebody knowing you can do something to change the game."

Fine lines? Sure. But these are the kinds of discussions that will dominate in the present and future NFL. This league is being sued pretty much weekly by hundreds of former players who claim it covered up their injuries. Whether fans like it or not, player safety has become a paramount issue for the NFL, and it will continue to take it very seriously. If the Giants had been flagged for even one illegal hit to the head of Kyle Williams in the NFC Championship Game and then said what their players said after the game, they'd likely be in huge trouble. That they weren't could be good fortune, could be coincidence, or it could reflect the difference between big pregame psych-up bluster and the reality that most players aren't comfortable with the idea of trying to injure (or re-injure) someone.

In the end, my conclusion is that it might be a good idea for coaches and players to stop pointing out their opponents' specific pre-existing injuries in their pregame meetings. That seems like a lesson everybody would do well to take from today.

Have you seen what the New York Giants have been up to in free agency? No? Me neither, and I cover the division!

Ah, we kid, we kid. Jokes about the Giants' offseason inactivity are so 2011. It is what it is, as they say in places where Giants fans live, and after the way last season ended, there's no reason to think it's going to change. Those of us who ripped Giants general manager Jerry Reese for not doing enough to improve his team last summer (and yes, of course, I very much include myself) are full to bursting from all the crow we had to eat once Reese's bunch won the Super Bowl. And the Giants' uninspiring list of 2012 free-agent pickups to date -- let's call them Martellus and the Special Teamers -- isn't worth getting worked up over now that even the doubters understand the way the Giants look at the NFL world.

See, the issue last year was that those of us who criticized got caught up in the impatience that defines our times. My point, after watching the Giants stubbornly ignore immediate needs at every level of the draft and do nothing in free agency to address the exodus of seemingly important passing-game targets, was that their philosophy wasn't working. Although it was admirable that they were determined to stick to a plan about which they felt strongly, that plan had produced two straight years without a playoff appearance and was therefore fair game for questioning.

But Reese and the Giants were looking at the landscape more broadly, and that's to their credit. The Giants don't use the draft to address immediate needs. They believe that's a poor use of draft picks -- that rushing to plug a hole with a first-round or second-round pick reduces the value of those picks. The Giants view the draft as a means of building, augmenting and maintaining a deep roster -- the kind of roster that can withstand free-agent defections, plug holes from within and consistently challenge for a playoff spot. The kind of roster that, in the years when it does reach the playoffs, has what it takes to win postseason games and the Super Bowl.

The Giants don't view free agency as some huge shopping mall stocked with all kinds of desirable goodies. Sure, if they see someone they like who plays a position where they need help, they're not above making an aggressive move to get him. Antrel Rolle is a good example from two years ago. Last year, they targeted a center, David Baas, and got him. This year, they targeted a tight end, Martellus Bennett, and locked him up on the first day. But their approach in free agency is measured, focused and patient, and that's the way they believe it should be.

Patience is a hard sell in today's sports culture, where two years without a playoff appearance can feel like an eternity even if the people running the team are the same ones that brought you a Super Bowl title not long before. So last year, the Giants' front office found itself under attack for inactivity. But Reese insisted that inactivity was the right path. The Giants believe in their system, in their coaching staff and in the core of veterans in their locker room. Reese told everyone he'd had a 10-win team in 2010 that missed the playoffs and believed his 2011 team could be better by just enough to get in this time. Lots of us thought he was nuts.

To his credit, at the Super Bowl, Reese declined to accept the accolades. He pointed out more than once that his 2011 team had won only nine games -- one fewer than the previous year's team -- and that he found it funny that somehow he was a genius this time around. Again with the big-picture viewpoint. Reese know there's some good fortune involved -- that if the Eagles hadn't kicked away so many September games or if Miles Austin had caught that pass down the sideline late in the game in Dallas, the Giants very well could have been looking at three straight years without a playoff game. This NFL is a razor's-edge business, and one can do very little to control the placement of that fine line between success and failure.

But what the Giants do is position themselves the best they can to take advantage when fate smiles on them. They don't want their season to ride on the worthiness of a couple of big offseason signings. They don't want their season to rise and fall on the immediate readiness of their first-round draft pick. If the Giants get an opportunity, they want to know they have a roster, driven by gutsy, respected leaders like Tom Coughlin, Eli Manning and Justin Tuck that's deep and talented and experienced and driven enough to spot it and take advantage of it.

That's what last season was. The Giants weren't the best team in the NFL in 2011. For most of it, they weren't even close. But they may have been the toughest. And when the time came for that to matter -- for the toughness and the depth of their roster to deliver -- that's exactly what happened.

So here the Giants are again, sitting idly by while the rest of the league rushes out to grab free agents. Do they have some holes they could fill? Sure they do. Might not filling them cost them a game or two this season? Absolutely. But the Giants know who they are and what they have. And after winning a second Super Bowl title in five years, they feel very good about it. They could win the Super Bowl again next year. They could go 8-8 and miss the playoffs. But these are the Giants, and they know one year won't define them. It's a lesson that a lot of other teams -- and a lot of us who analyze and predict this league -- would do well to learn.

So I was sitting here on Twitter, trolling for news, answering your questions and getting a kick out of the fact that Justin Tuck was watching (and tweeting about) the same "Big Bang Theory" rerun as me when it occurred to me that it was almost time to turn in and get some sleep. Before I did that, I just wanted to ask one question.

How was your day ...

Philadelphia Eagles?

"Surprising." You guys know I didn't think the Eagles intended to sign DeSean Jackson to a long-term contract, so when the news broke Wednesday afternoon that they had, I was stunned. It's a good deal for the Eagles, as almost all of the $15 million in guaranteed money is concentrated in the first two years and it saves them $6.6 million against this year's salary cap. And Jackson's happy because he's making a ton more than he did last season. The issue now is whether his production will rise along with his happiness. (And how long he'll stay happy, considering what other receivers are getting on the open market.) They signed Trent Cole to a four-year contract extension, and in the wake of the Jackson news the Philadelphia Inquirer reported that they were working on a new deal for running back LeSean McCoy.

The Eagles seem determined to take care of their own roster before dipping into the free-agent pool, so they're making little moves, too. Antonio Dixon signed his restricted free-agent tender, and Winston Justice got traded to the Colts in a deal that saw the teams swap sixth-round draft picks. That last was a salary dump, but it was one they needed to make. Guard Evan Mathis remains unsigned and is drawing interest elsewhere, but the Eagles still believe they have a good chance to bring him back.

One weird thing did happen. Late in the afternoon, Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive tackle Gerald McCoy sent out a tweet in which he apologized to Bucs fans for being unable to lure free-agent linebacker Curtis Lofton to Tampa and said Lofton was going to sign with the Eagles. The Eagles quickly denied any contact with Lofton, and McCoy retracted his tweet. So it's tough to say what's going on there, but it bears watching. The Eagles need linebacker help, but the linebacker market is slow, so they can wait it out.

Dallas Cowboys?

"Outstanding." They got their top-choice cornerback, agreeing with Brandon Carr on a five-year, $50.1 million contract. They got their veteran, starter-quality backup quarterback, agreeing on a three-year deal with Kyle Orton. They added guard Mackenzy Bernadeau to their interior offensive line mix, where they needed (and still could use more) help. And they signed fullback Lawrence Vickers to replace Tony Fiammetta, who seems to want to go see what he can get on the market. According to ESPNDallas.com, they have visits scheduled in the coming days with free-agent safety Brodney Pool and free-agent guard Nate Livings, so they're still hard at work trying to fill needs. The names may not be the splashiest, but the Cowboys have been down those roads before, and this measured, focused, need-based approach looks like the right way for them to go. A lot of money for Carr, yes, but they desperately needed a top free-agent cornerback, and that's what they're going for this year.

Many Cowboys fans were upset to lose wide receiver Laurent Robinson, who came out of nowhere to catch 11 touchdown passes from Tony Romo in 2011. But the Cowboys were never going to pay him anything close to what the Jaguars ended up paying him ($32.5 million for five years), and they shouldn't have paid their No. 3 wide receiver that much. They were prepared to go without Robinson last year. He was a bonus, a lottery ticket that hit. They'll be fine with what they have at receiver, and they can fill in Robinson's spot the same way they did last year, when they sifted through a bunch of decent-looking candidates and came up with Robinson. Don't sweat that loss, Cowboys fans. The team has bigger worries and bigger needs.

New York Giants?

"A success." They flew former Cowboys tight end Martellus Bennett in late Tuesday night, and they signed him Wednesday to a one-year, $2.5 million contract. They obviously see something they like in Bennett and believe that the coaching staff and quarterback Eli Manning can bring the best out of him, and they targeted and got him. They also got him on a very low-risk deal that will allow them to go in a different direction if he disappoints and their injured tight ends are healthy enough to return at the end of the season. Cowboys fans seem sure he will disappoint, and he very well may. But he's only 25 and he's got a ton of physical ability, so the Giants think maybe they're getting a guy right before he really takes off. The Giants also retained backup quarterback David Carr, which they wanted to do. What they'll do next I do not know. They need offensive line help and could use a veteran running back to replace Brandon Jacobs, but they'll be patient and target specific guys they like, because that's the way they operate. It seems to work for them.

Washington Redskins?

"Quieter." After racing out of the free-agent gates and signing two wide receivers before the sun went down on Tuesday, the Redskins made very little news Wednesday. Their trade with the Rams for the No. 2 pick in the draft became official, and we learned that they will host former Giants cornerback Aaron Ross for a free-agent visit Thursday in the hopes of adding him to their cornerback mix. They still haven't locked up Eddie Royal, who seemed poised to become their third free-agent wide receiver signing last night, and he's on his way to talk to the Chargers. And they have a visit set up with safety Brandon Meriweather. But the most-asked question about the Redskins is where they stand with free-agent linebacker London Fletcher, who was called a "top priority" in December by Mike Shanahan but remains unsigned. It's possible that this is where the salary-cap sanctions hurt the Redskins. Having lost $18 million in cap room this year (and $18 million next year) for violating the other owners' sense of spending propriety during the uncapped 2010 season, the Redskins might find a Fletcher signing trickier than, say, a Pierre Garcon signing. Garcon is 25, and they can spread out his contract and the resulting cap hit over five years. Fletcher is 36, and any deal with him is much more likely to be front-loaded. That doesn't mean they can't bring him back, but it could make it a little more difficult. Just a theory I heard from someone I talked to today.

My day was excellent, and I enjoyed spending it here and on Twitter with you. Much more to come Thursday and beyond.

The first full day of the new NFL year dawns with the Redskins piling up receivers and the rest of our division still at work on the early part of free agency. Tuesday was a crazy, action-filled day, and the links offer us an opportunity to summarize, analyze or catch up on some things that maybe didn't get as much attention as they otherwise would have. Love the links.

Dallas Cowboys

The Cowboys did not tender any of their restricted free agents, including fullback Tony Fiammetta, who performed well last year as the lead blocker for breakout star running back DeMarco Murray. This of course makes it less likely that they'll be able to bring back Fiammetta, and as Todd Archer speculates, it's likely the result of the salary-cap penalty issued by the league Monday for the Cowboys having the audacity to spend whatever they wanted to spend during a season that had no salary cap. Fiammetta says they're still talking, but that the non-tender was a "game-changer."

There's a prevalent assumption that, since their in-person talks wore on deep into the night, the Cowboys will succeed in signing free-agent cornerback Brandon Carr. Even if they do, however, it wouldn't be a bad idea for them to look at a cornerback with their first-round pick in next month's draft. To that end, and as part of its draft preview series, ESPNDallas.com looks at North Alabama's Janoris Jenkins and what he offers as a first-round option.

New York Giants

Mike Garafolo has the full breakdown of the contract Terrell Thomas signed Tuesday. While Thomas announced it as a $28.4 million deal over four years, Mike points out that the base value of the deal is $17.4 million and that $28.4 million is the maximum value. But Mike also points out that the extra money is easily attainable if Thomas is recovered from his injury and able to rack up the playing time that a starting NFL cornerback would normally get. In other words, if Thomas hits all of the incentives that max out the contract, the Giants would have no problem compensating him for it. But if he doesn't, they're covered. Fine deal both ways.

Perhaps in part because of reports that Brandon Jacobs visited the Giants' team facility on Tuesday, Justin Tuck is holding out hope that Jacobs might still be able to return to the Giants. I do not think Tuck should hold out this hope. A Jacobs return at this point is a serious long shot that would require him to receive almost no interest from other teams and for the Giants to sign no replacement while he looks. These are two unlikely scenarios, and the combination of the two is nearly inconceivable. Jacobs will play elsewhere in 2012.

Philadelphia Eagles

The Eagles didn't go out on the free-agent market the first day. They stayed in-house and took care of extensions for two of their own players -- tackle Todd Herremans and defensive end Trent Cole. Jeff McLane explains the thinking behind this. But don't worry, Eagles fans. It was only the first day. They didn't do anything on the first day last year either, if I recall correctly, but they eventually caught up.

If you're looking for linebacker-target names, there's a report that the Eagles are bringing in Ben Leber for a workout. Leber is a former Vikings and Chargers linebacker who was cut by the Rams last year. It's entirely possible that this is the depth of the free-agent pool in which the Eagles plan to play this year, and that the big-splash signing doesn't happen. Not certain, but possible.

Washington Redskins

It seemed, for a time Tuesday, that the Redskins had signed wide receiver Eddie Royal to go along with wide receivers Pierre Garcon and Josh Morgan. But we got a Lee Corso-style "not so fast, my friend" on that Tuesday night when we learned that the Royal deal was not done and that he was, in fact, still talking to other teams. I wonder if Royal got cold feet when he saw that he was one of three being signed on the first day and might be looking for better playing-time options. If the Redskins do succeed in signing him, he could upgrade their return game as well as their wide receiving corps.

Sally Jenkins thinks there's a personal element to what the NFL did to Dan Snyder (and, to a lesser extent, Jerry Jones) with the salary-cap sanctions -- that Snyder is paying the price for making enemies around the league and not toeing the establishment line. I have no problem with this theory. What the NFL did is wrong and ridiculous, and smacks of something petty. Yes, Snyder spent more than anyone else did in the uncapped year after the owners supposedly all got together and secretly agreed not to do that. But that doesn't make him the crook -- just the guy who wouldn't go along with all the rest of the crooks.