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Mort Goes To Camp: Colts

Chris Mortensen interviews Peyton Manning on the changes at Colts camp

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Mort Goes To Camp: Colts

SEAHAWKS GO BACK TO SCHOOL (12:31 a.m. ET)
For about 15 minutes late Friday night, Quinton Richardson and some fellow Washington teammates stood still listening to T.J. Houshmandzadeh chew their ear.

"It's really something you'll never forget. Two years ago I'm playing him on the video games," said Richardson, a sophomore-to-be for the Huskies. "I never thought I'd get a chance to meet him in person and talk to him and joke around with him. It's a big thing for the pro guys to come out and talk to the college guys like us."

The Seattle Seahawks brought their practice to Washington's Husky Stadium on Friday night. It was a move to accommodate their fans, who have limited access at the team's training facility across Lake Washington in suburban Renton. While only 1,500 per practice have been allowed at the team's facility, a few thousand turned out on the chilly evening for what amounted to a normal practice of drills and situations.

"Yeah, I love going back in there. I mean, it's a place with some very fond memories. We had some great games. As everyone knows, we had some really special teams," Seattle head coach and UW alumnus Mora said Friday morning. "I think we were ranked No. 1 in the country at some point every year I played there. Of course, after I left, in our eyes, we won the national championship when we beat Oklahoma. I don't know that BYU agrees, but we did. It's obviously a place I love going back to."

RYAN GETS FEEL FOR OTHER TARGETS (10:26 p.m. ET)
Quarterback Matt Ryan doesn't know how the Atlanta Falcons will be without Roddy White, so he used a scrimmage Friday night to work with other receivers.

"We're getting timing down with the guys that are here," Ryan said. "Those guys are doing a job, and we're hopeful Roddy will get his stuff done in the near future."

With his Pro Bowl wideout having skipped the first full week of training camp in a contract dispute, Ryan worked primarily with No. 2 wideout Michael Jenkins, new tight end Tony Gonzalez, No. 3 receiver Brian Finneran and running back Michael Turner.

Ryan, the 2008 NFL offensive rookie of the year, lost another favorite target earlier this week when Harry Douglas had a season-ending knee injury. Atlanta signed Marty Booker, who won't arrive until Sunday, and Robert Ferguson, who took a few snaps in the scrimmage.

"I thought it was good for us to get out here tonight and go against some live defensive action," Ryan said. "It helps you get used to the timing against a pass rush and things like that. Tony, Jenks and Finn made some good catches. I thought our running game and passing game were OK."

THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE IN '09 (8:25 p.m. ET)
The Seahawks were criticized throughout last year for the unusual move of keeping two kickers on the roster and seemingly wasting a roster spot, while the rest of the team was decimated by injuries and were in need of reinforcements.

"[Keeping two kickers] won't happen again this year," Ruskell said. "We'll go with one guy, and it'll be a nice battle to watch."

That means 36-year-old former Pro Bowl kicker Olindo Mare will have to beat out 2008 seventh-roud pick Brandon Coutu -- only the fourth kicker ever drafted by the Seahawks.

Mare made 89 percent of his kicks last season, his first with the Seahawks as the replacement for the departed Josh Brown. That was 9 percent better than Mare's career average, and he wasn't even fully healthy. His leg remained weakened into last season from an injury sustained late in 2007 with New Orleans.

"Every year is a new year and a new competition," Mora said. "It's a really good competition. I imagine it will go all the way through preseason, and then we'll have a decision to make."

COLTS BACKFIELD TAKES HIT FRIDAY (6:25 p.m. ET)
Indianapolis Colts first-round draft pick Donald Brown missed practice Friday afternoon.

Coach Jim Caldwell says the running back from Connecticut had sore muscles and needed to rest.

Running back Mike Hart did not finish practice after rolling his right ankle early in the afternoon session. Caldwell says the team had no details on the injury.

Backup quarterback Jim Sorgi hurt his right hamstring on a handoff. Caldwell says cramps might have caused the injury.

--The Associated Press

REDSKINS CONCERNED ABOUT THOMAS' KNEE (6:23 p.m. ET)
While giving a rundown of the good, bad and ugly from his offensive lineman this week, Washington Redskins assistant Joe Bugel dropped a line about guard Randy Thomas that had red flags all over it.

"I am concerned about Randy," Bugel said. "His knee's aching right now."

The offensive line was a concern at the start of camp, yet there was a day this week when three-fifths of the starters -- center Casey Rabach, right guard Thomas and right tackle Stephon Heyer -- were watching from the sideline.

Rabach's calf injury was minor and Heyer's knee should be fine in a day or two, but it's not a good sign when the 33-year-old Thomas, who had knee and neck surgeries in the offseason, is already gimpy.

--The Associated Press

PANTHERS ADD DEPTH AT LINEBACKER (5:33 p.m. ET)
Missing two starters due to injury, the Carolina Panthers have added depth at linebacker.

Carolina signed Kelvin Smith on Friday and released long-snapper Nick Sundberg. The move comes with Thomas Davis out with a sprained right knee and Jon Beason out with a sore left hamstring.

Smith was drafted by Miami in the seventh round in 2007. He played in four games as a rookie before spending last season on injured reserve with a knee injury. Smith was waived last week by the New York Giants.

Sundberg is an undrafted rookie who fell behind J.J. Jansen in the competition for Carolina's long-snapping position.

BEARS' HESTER DONE WITH SPECIAL TEAMS (4:59 p.m. ET)
Chicago Bears wide receiver Devin Hester is a changed man.

After voicing frustration last season with his inability to break punt or kickoff return touchdowns while learning to be a wide receiver, Hester this year has accepted a slimmed down special teams responsibility. He's going to focus on being a better receiver.

Last year, he gradually learned the receiving game and finished with 51 catches. Eventually Danieal Manning replaced him returning kickoffs the last four games and has gone on to post the highest career kick return average among active NFL players with at least 40 returns (28.8 yards per return).

"I'm not doing any kickoff returns this year -- none," Hester said Friday. "That's going to be all Danieal."

Hester electrified the NFL with 11 kick and punt returns for touchdowns in 2006-07.

SEAHAWKS GET TALK FROM BILL RUSSELL (3:03 p.m. ET)
The Seattle Seahawks thought they were sitting down for another ho-hum evening meeting. Instead, they got one of the greatest winners of all time.

Boston Celtics legend and five-time NBA MVP Bill Russell came from his home in suburban Mercer Island, Wash., on Thursday night to awe the Seahawks with an hour-long talk on what it takes to win as a team.

The players were silent and applauded throughout the speech.

The stately, 75-year-old former center renowned for team play then posed for pictures with the Seahawks, who are coming off a 4-12 season and have a new coach in Jim Mora.

When Mora was Atlanta's coach from 2004 to 2006, he brought in Russell and former Atlanta mayor and United Nations ambassador Andrew Young to talk to the Falcons.

-- The Associated Press

SPENCER LATEST INJURED SEAHAWK (2:32 p.m. ET)
Chris Spencer is the latest Seahawks starter to get hurt in the first week of training camp, as the fifth-year center left Friday morning's practice on the back of a cart following a pileup during a blocking drill.

Spencer injured his left ankle, coach Jim Mora said, adding the severity of the injury was to be determined later when Spencer sees doctors.

"It doesn't appear to be anything serious," Mora said.

Deion Branch missed practice for the third consecutive day with swelling in his reconstructed knee. The former Super Bowl MVP has had two surgeries on the knee in the past 15 months. Cornerback Marcus Trufant, a Pro Bowl selection in 2008, has yet to practice in camp because of a back injury suffered last week. Mora has said that is minor.

SAINTS SEEKING SHORT-YARDAGE BACK (11:08 a.m. ET)
With Deuce McAllister no longer around, the New Orleans Saints are looking for a bruising running back to lead the way in key short-yardage situations.

Mike Bell, Lynell Hamilton, P.J. Hill and Herb Donaldson are vying for one or possibly two roster spots to replace McAllister, the Saints' career rushing leader who was released after last season.

"I'm anxious to see all of those guys," Saints coach Sean Payton said. "It's hard to get them all work. You'll see in practice that we'll start clumping two or three of them in a nine-on-seven and not try to give each one of them two reps but try to give one of them a little bit more work. That gives us a better chance to look at those players."

Bell likely holds the edge for at least the third spot because he is No. 3 on the depth chart. He signed with the Saints as a free agent in November after being waived by the Houston Texans in August.

Hamilton spent much of last season on the Saints' practice squad; Hill and Donaldson signed with the team after not being drafted.

-- The Associated Press

COWBOYS' SPEARS MAKES A BIG CHANGE (10:45 a.m. ET)
At his peak, Marcus Spears weighed 335 pounds and squeezed into XXXXXL shirts. He never turned down his uncle's fried catfish or any other fried foods. He also liked bedtime snacks.

Why not? Bigger was better, he figured, for his line of work as a defensive end in the Dallas Cowboys' 3-4 scheme.

Coach Wade Phillips thought otherwise. This offseason, he told Spears to show up at training camp weighing 309 pounds. He came in at 307 and everyone is seeing a, uh, big difference.

Spears got in shape by following the basics: Working out and watching what he eats. He hired a chef and a nutritionist, and learned to follow simple rules such as drinking lots of water, dropping the late-night binges and, toughest of all, avoiding his uncle's kitchen.

Two knee operations have slowed him a bit, with all that extra weight possibly to blame. But he's never missed a game and he's coming off a season that included a career-high 65 tackles, one sack and a lot of near-misses -- 16 quarterback pressures after a total of 11 in his previous three seasons.

"I'm not putting any added pressure on myself," Spears said. "I just have to go out and play and perform. I think when you get to thinking about money and contract situations, things like that, it takes away from what you really have to do. Hopefully my play already has and will take care of that."

-- The Associated Press