Cut from the Miami Dolphins, 32-year-old kicker Jay Feely should find a new home before the start of the regular season. The only problem he is facing is the continued accuracy of the field-goal kickers around the league. In the first 17 preseason games, place-kickers made 60 of 70 field-goal attempts, a staggering 85.7 percent. Because of the 80-man roster, only about a dozen teams have more than one kicker in camp, using the roster spot for position players instead of kicking competition. Feeley is an 80.8 percent career field-goal kicker, giving him a résumé that should attract a new team. But the bar keeps getting raised for field-goal kickers because of their improved accuracy.
The rundown: The Ravens running back situation took several weird turns over the past couple of days. Because the Ravens were down three injured defensive tackles and had some shortages at other positions, they released fullback Justin Green, who was claimed by the Jets, and waived injured running back P.J. Daniels, a fourth-round pick in 2006. Starting running back Willis McGahee underwent arthroscopic knee surgery but should be ready for the regular season. In the meantime, the Ravens will try to get by with second-round pick Ray Rice and Cory Ross for the final three preseason games. They signed veteran Lorenzo Neal on Tuesday to help out at fullback.
Snap decisions: Staying with the Ravens, head coach John Harbaugh has narrowed most of the practice snaps to Troy Smith and Kyle Boller, indicating first-round pick Joe Flacco is probably going to be brought along slowly. Flacco looked lost in his 0-for-3 debut over the weekend. While the Ravens believe he could play in 2008, it's probably not going to be until midseason or later.
Two-man race: The 49ers have temporarily shortened their quarterback battle to J.T. O'Sullivan and Alex Smith. O'Sullivan has the clear lead at the moment. Over the past couple of practices, Shaun Hill hasn't taken any snaps with the first-team offense. While head coach Mike Nolan says there is a three-way competition, O'Sullivan and Smith are getting most of the work this week trying to learn Mike Martz's huge offensive playbook.
Bills hurting: The Bills are down to three healthy offensive tackles with recent injuries to
Matt Murphy and
Patrick Estes. Neither injury is considered serious. There remains no movement in the holdout of Pro Bowl left tackle
Jason Peters, who continues to be fined $15,000 a day because he's missing camp with three years remaining on his contract. To get through this week, right guard
Brad Butler, who played some tackle in college, will get work at the position.
On hold: The reason Jaguars No. 8 draft choice
Derrick Harvey remains out of camp is because Jacksonville is offering a five-year base package valued at only $1 million more than what was the ninth pick in the draft (linebacker
Keith Rivers of the Bengals) is getting. According to a source, the seventh pick (
Sedrick Ellis of the Saints) could max out his five-year deal at $49 million, while Rivers could max out at $25 million. That's a huge difference. Ellis has a $32 million base package over five years, but the Jaguars, according to a source, are offering Harvey $21 million, $1 million more than the Rivers deal. The Jaguars have complained about the amount of money being given to rookies.
John Clayton
