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National Football League
Draft King Analysis

January 20, 2009
Lou Pickney, DraftKing.com

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Ray Lewis turns 34 in May. Despite this, the pending free agent may be in line for a massive payday -- if he's willing to leave the only NFL team that he has ever played for.

According to this column by Mike Preston in the "Raven Insider" blog portion of the Baltimore Sun website, there is speculation that the Cowboys are preparing to offer Lewis a blockbuster deal, three years for $27 and $30 million, with $25 million guaranteed. I find the $25 million guaranteed part hard to believe, but never say never with the Dallas Cowboys.

Meanwhile, there is plenty of talk out of Baltimore that the Ravens are working to keep both Ray Lewis and Terrell Suggs. Bart Scott may end up as the odd man out, but so it goes in the NFL. Scott should be able to find work elsewhere without trouble.

Graham Harrell
Graham Harrell is looking good so far at the Senior Bowl practices. (Icon SMI)

This development, if accurate, might not sit well with NFL commissioner Roger Goddell. Last year Goddell expressed his displeasure about the perceived flaunting of the league's anti-tampering rules for players still under contract with other teams. Of course, speculation on a blog does not constitute tampering, but where there's smoke there's often fire.

CBSSports.com, which is expanding its NFL Draft coverage, has articles up from Monday of Senior Bowl week in Mobile. You can read about the North and the South team practices, which both have some interesting tidbits. Texas Tech QB Graham Harrell is said to be looking good for the North in early action, and the evaluation of Missouri FS William Moore is quite interesting. For the South, USC DT Fili Moala is reportedly looking quick and agile (perhaps justifying the first round status that he presently has here on Draft King), while his Southern Cal teammate, OLB Brian Cushing, has shown great agility.

Will the Detroit Lions look to the quarterback position with their #1 pick in the 2009 NFL Draft? That has been speculated in many circles, but this opinion column by Brian VanOchten of the Grand Rapids Press makes the argument that the Lions should take an offensive tackle with the top pick in the draft. There will be plenty of debate on this in the coming weeks. Certainly the Lions going offensive tackle is a possibility, and if the Rams follow suit with an offensive tackle at #2 overall, perhaps Scott Pioli and the Kansas City Chiefs might end up with Georgia QB Matthew Stafford at the #3 spot.

The latest out of Miami is that Stephen Ross has obtained the necessary funding (despite the credit crunch that has held up a number of other business deals) to buy a majority interest in the Miami Dolphins from Wayne Huizenga. Ross will gain 95% ownership of the club for an even $1 billion, with Huizenga retaining 5% ownership.

This is relevant because of a clause in Dolphins team president Bill Parcells' contract that gives him 30 days to leave the team in the event that Huizenga was no longer the majority owner of the Dolphins. But Ross has said that he intends to keep Parcells in place and that he believes that Parcells will remain with the team. Parcells wouldn't give a firm answer to questions from reporters in Mobile about his plans, indicating that he would "hate to be called a liar" if things changed, but giving every impression that he plans to remain in his current role with the Dolphins.


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