“I think he can be very good if he plays at a high level like I think he can and makes the improvements he can to help us put the ball in the end zone win football games” Shurmur said, via the News-Herald. “I’m expecting that he will. The thing that’s encouraging to me is he a guy you know is going to work at it.”

McCoy will head into his third season in the NFL.

McCoy has a career quarterback rating of 74.5 and has 20 touchdowns and 20 interceptions. It’s fair to say that the Browns still need to see more out of McCoy and Shurmur acknowledged this.

“I think it’s fair to say [McCoy] has some things he has to improve on,” Shurmur said. “They’re quantifiable, whether it’s footwork, a better feel for the progressions, a better feel for the targets he’s throwing to. I think all that is refined when you have an offseason [program] to help.”

Shurmur also talked to the Cleveland Plain Dealer about McCoy.

“We’re looking forward him to improving through the offseason,” Shurmur said of McCoy. “I think it will make a big difference in Year 2 (of) me being here. I told him to prepare himself to get as much out of this offseason as possible. I’m expecting him to attack this offseason and get as good as he can get within our system. He really works at things, and that’s going to help him.”

While Shurmur seems positive about McCoy, there’s no denying the talent of Heisman winner Griffin. It’s still a likely possibility that the Browns will be interested in drafting Griffin come April. The combine should help the Browns determine how interested they are in Griffin.

Henne, a second round draft pick from 2008, separated his shoulder against the San Diego Chargers in Week 4 and missed the rest of the 2011 season. He becomes a free agent this off-season and he’s not the direction that Miami is going for.

The Dolphins new head coach Joe Philbin will likely go after Matt Flynn via free agency or try to find a quarterback in the draft. With a new coaching staff in place it only makes sense not to keep Henne around.

Henne hasn’t exactly lit it up statistically throughout his career. With more career interceptions than touchdowns (31 touchdowns to 37 interceptions) the four-year quarterback hasn’t shown much in his career. He’s also coming off an injury.

The Pittsburgh Steelers are in an odd situation with wide receiver Mike Wallace and it may lead to him not playing for the franchise next year.

Wallace becomes a restricted free agent and the Steelers may not have the salary cap needed to keep him in Pittsburgh. If another team wants to sign the speedy receiver then they would have to forfeit a first round draft pick to Pittsburgh.

Wallace is aware of the situation and says that he understands the business of the NFL.

“[Pittsburgh is] where I would like to be, but we all know that it is a business and you have certain things you have to handle,” Wallace told Sirius NFL Radio, via the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. “So if I have to go elsewhere, you know Pittsburgh will always be in my heart, but I have to do what I have to do.”

In the same interview, Wallace discussed the possibility of going to San Francisco or New England. It should be noted the hosts asked specifically about San Francisco and New England.

“Most definitely. Those are two playoff caliber teams. Super Bowl caliber teams,” said Wallace, who’s averaged nearly 19 yards per catch in his first three seasons. “I think that the right person or the right piece for those guys could put them over the top. All they need is one more piece … most definitely, those are Super Bowl contending teams.”

Wherever Wallace ends up he’ll be a great contributor. He’s got great speed and one of the best receivers in the game.

Reports say that Shanahan likes Oklahoma State quarterback Brandon Weeden.

“…but here’s an interesting theory I heard recently that makes some sense: Mike Shanahan loves Oklahoma State quarterback Brandon Weeden, who he coached in the Senior Bowl, and might try to trade down into the 20s of the first round to take him. Weeden is 28 and that scares a lot of teams, but he’s mature and ready to play in the NFL right away, and the Redskins don’t have time to wait around for someone to develop.”

I would think that the Redskins first plan would be to trade up with St. Louis, at the number two pick, and take Baylor’s Robert Griffin. Griffin would be a great fit for the Redskins offense, as pointed out here, and is a lot younger than Weeden.

Weeden is going to turn 29 in October, which is old for a quarterback coming out of college.

In his senior season, Weeden threw for 4727 yards with 37 touchdowns and 13 interceptions. He led the Cowboys to a 12-1 record and a bowl win over Stanford.

Michael Silver wrote an article on GQ Tuesday which had a few interesting quotes from soon-to-be free agent quarterback Brady Quinn.

In the article, Quinn made big statements and explained his feelings towards teammate Tim Tebow. Take this one for example.

“If you look at it as a whole, there’s a lot of things that just don’t seem very humble to me.  When I get that opportunity, I’ll continue to lead not necessarily by trying to get in front of the camera and praying but by praying with my teammates, you know?”

Uh, wow.

Quinn also described his feelings when Tebow took over as the starting quarterback this season. Quinn felt that Tebow jumped him on the depth chart because that’s what the fans wanted and not because he was better than him.

“Early in the season, there was a game when Kyle [Orton] got hurt and the coaches were calling for me to go in, but Kyle got up and finished the game out,” Quinn said.  “So I was the second-string guy.  Then, a few weeks later, they decided to put Tim in.  I felt like the fans had a lot to do with that.  Just ’cause they were chanting his name. There was a big calling for him. No, I didn’t have any billboards.  That would have been nice.”

Quinn was highly critical of Tebow in a recent GQ article.

These statements are extremely critical about Tebow and quite surprising to say the least. That’s probably why later on Tuesday Quinn backpedaled (via Twitter) and said that he didn’t really mean what he said.

“The comments attributed to me in a recent magazine article are in NO WAY reflective of my opinion of Tim and the Broncos,” Quinn wrote. “Tim deserves a lot of credit for our success and I’m happy for him and what he accomplished. Most importantly, he is a great teammate.

“That interview was conducted three months ago, and the resulting story was a completely inaccurate portrayal of my comments. I have addressed my disappointment with the writer and have reached out to Tim to clear this up. I apologize to anyone who feels I was trying to take anything away from our team’s or Tim’s success this season.”

Silver responded (via Twitter) and said that Quinn wasn’t being disrespectful.

“The people ripping [Quinn] 4 his comments in GQ have it wrong. He was honest and not bitter at all. We talked for 50 minutes and he was respectful. . . . He was put in a uniquely weird position that would have rattled most quarterbacks. I thought he handled it well. He’s a standup guy,” Silver wrote.

I’m not sure how else Quinn’s comments could have been taken. Overall they were pretty negative and it sounded like Quinn was really upset when Tebow took over as the starting quarterback. However Quinn meant these comments, there’s little possibility that he will be back on the Broncos next season.

Mathis' play in 2011 gained attention throughout the league.

Heading into the 2010 off-season Mathis only had 22 starts in seven seasons and had played on three different teams (Carolina, Miami and Cincinnati), which didn’t make him an attractive pickup.

This year, he received two votes to the All-Pro team and Pro Football Focus named him the best left guard of 2011. Now he’s a free agent again and says he expects more calls this go-around.

“It was my full intention to sign a one-year deal, prove that I was an elite guard, and gain more attention going into free agency,” Mathis told The Cover Two. “This league is all about timing. The first six years of my career were littered with terrible timing. The body of work I put on tape for 2011 was great and I did it with no offseason with the team.”

Mathis says he expects the Eagles would be interested in bringing him back and he’s open to coming back.

“The Eagles are an organization that I would play for again, they do things the right way,” Mathis said. “As far as negotiations go, it’s too early to report anything.”

Before his successful 2011 season, the Panthers drafted Mathis in the third round of the 2005 NFL Draft. He became the starter in 2006.

“I thought I played fairly well, especially for my first year starting. I was admittedly still very raw but I’ve never stopped working to become better every day,” Mathis said.

After Mathis’ first year as a starter the Panthers made some personnel changes. They fired offensive line coach Mike Maser and offensive coordinator Dan Henning. After that Mathis couldn’t back to the top spot on the roster and he didn’t know why.

“I asked my coaches why and they never gave me a direct answer. 2007 was a wasted year as I played maybe three snaps,” Mathis said. “I got the impression that the coaches were trying to go with bigger guards so I bulked up to 320 for training camp in 2008.”

Mathis was cut after training camp in 2008 and was picked up by the Dolphins. Miami released him after week nine and he finished out the season with the Bengals. After cutting his weight down Mathis worked hard to become the starter.

He became the starter after an injury to Nate Livings and played the next seven games. In week nine Mathis suffered a high-ankle sprain in a game against the Ravens.

“It’s really just an unlucky, freak injury when someone falls into your legs from behind at full speed,” Mathis said. “I missed three games and upon my return played the 2^nd and 4^th quarters of the remaining games.”

Mathis spent the 2010 season with the Bengals, but did so in a backup role. He says he played “maybe 100 snaps” the entire season.

“I don’t know why I wasn’t played more in Carolina or Cincinnati. I wish I knew. I look at 2011 like the first year of my career,” said Mathis.

Part of what helped Mathis improve in 2011 was an intense workout regimen with 28 straight weeks of training.

“I invested all of my free time into getting in the best shape of my life. I also thought it would be a great to be a walking billboard for my gym, www.ZoneAP.com,” Mathis said.

The results left some people thinking that the transformations weren’t real.

“We posted the before and after pictures on the website and people claimed it was Photoshopped,” Mathis said. “We posted the video and people claimed it wasn’t natural, that I was using steroids or something similar.”

Another aspect of Mathis’ 2011 success was being instructed by veteran offensive line coach Howard Mudd.

“If I knew [Mudd’s] techniques my rookie year I would have excelled in any system. He’s the best [offensive line] coach in the game,” Mathis said.

While Mudd and the 28-week workout helped Mathis, there’s no doubting that his talent has been there all along. Mathis hopes to use his talents to become the best guard in football.

Last year the Arizona Cardinals made, what seemed to be, one of the biggest moves in free agency when they signed former Eagles quarterback Kevin Kolb.

Kolb agreed to a five-year, $63.5 million contract last off-season and was expected to be “the guy” in Arizona, but after a few poor performances and a couple of injuries, Kolb didn’t pan out the way the Cardinals had hoped.

Replacing Kolb during those injured games was backup John Skelton. Skelton displayed some talent and had a 6-2 record as a starting quarterback for the Cardinals. Kolb went 2-6 as the starting quarterback.

Since Skelton won more games, and overall looked like a better quarterback in 2011, coach Ken Whisenhunt said that the starting job is open to competition for 2012.

“Both guys are going to get opportunities because John certainly deserves it from the way that he played over the back half of the season and Kevin certainly deserves it from the reason that we went out, got him, and brought him in,” Whisenhunt told KTAR-AM in Phoenix.

Whisenhunt is confident that he has two quarterbacks who can help his team.

“We’ve got two guys that we feel like can play. They’ve shown at times that they can do things very well, they’ve shown at times that they are knuckleheads and it’s our job to get the players that are there on our team to play better. That’s what we’re going to do and we’re excited about that.”

If the Cardinals end up starting Skelton then Kolb will be one expensive mistake.

Routt wil go to the division rival Chiefs.

Canfora.

The deal includes a $4 million signing bonus, according to the report.

It was a surprise when the Raiders released him. After all he was just one year into his five-year, $54.5 million contract. Routt was still owed $5 million in guaranteed money when the team released him.

“Stanford has a proven record of success in the NFL,” Chiefs coach Romeo Crennel said according to NFL.com. “He’s a talented player that has spent seven seasons in the AFC West, so he is familiar with us and our division opponents. We are excited to have Stanford join the team, and we are looking forward to getting started.”

By the Chiefs signing Routt to a contract it leads one to believe that they will let cornerback Brandon Carr go. Carr will become a free agent so unless the Chiefs want to heavily invest in the cornerback position, it’s unlikely that he will be a Chief next season.

Sheridan will become the Bucs newest coaching hire.

Ohio State and Urban Meyer lost a member of their coaching staff to the NFL and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The Lantern is reporting that defensive backs coach Bill Sheridan is leaving Ohio State to join the Buccaneers as their defensive coordinator. Sheridan will join former Rutgers coach Greg Schiano’s coaching staff which also includes offensive coordinator Mike Sullivan.

Sheridan has spent the last seven seasons coaching in the NFL and was Meyer’s last hire on the Buckeyes. For the last two years Sheridan has been the linebackers coach for the Dolphins. Before that he served as the Giant’s linebackers coach from 2005-08, including a Super Bowl championship in 2007. Sheridan was promoted to defensive coordinator in the 2009 season, but was fired at the end of the year.

Also a part of the Giants 2007 coaching staff was Tampa Bay’s offensive coordinator Sullivan.

The Bucs and Schiano also hired former North Carolina head coach Butch Davis as a special assistant. Davis will not be involved in any coaching decisions.

Matthew Stafford had an unbelievable season in 2011 becoming  just the fourth player in league history to throw for 5,000 yards in a season, but one former player isn’t impressed with it.

Hall-of-Fame running back Marshall Faulk said that Stafford’s accomplishment wasn’t that big of a deal.

“Throwing for 5,000 yards in the NFL right now is nothing,” Faulk said, per MLive.com. “I don’t want to take anything away from it. As much as people throw the football now, you better have 5,000 if you have Calvin Johnson.”

While Megatron will definitely help pad any quarterback’s stats, it’s hard to agree with Faulk on this one. Only three other quarterbacks have thrown for 5,000 yards in a season, Dan Marino, Drew Brees (twice) and Tom Brady. While the league is becoming more pass-heavy, you can’t say that throwing for 5,000 yards is “nothing.”

This was Stafford’s first full season as an NFL starter and he was able to throw for 5,000 yards in a season, that’s pretty impressive. If Stafford can improve at all on his season this year, and stay healthy, he will become one of the league’s best quarterbacks.

The only reason I won’t totally discredit what Faulk is saying is because he has somewhat of a point. The NFL say many quarterbacks have great years this year such as New York’s Eli Manning (4,933 yards), Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers (4,643 yards) and San Diego’s Philip Rivers (4,624 yards). But to say that Stafford’s 5,000-yard season was “nothing” is just disrespect.