Michael David Smith

The Bears traded for Brandon Marshall with the idea that he’d be their No. 1 receiver this year, but Marshall doesn’t see it that way. Marshall said on ESPN Radio in Chicago today that he believes Devin Hester is poised for a season in whic…

The wide receiver taken by the San Francisco 49ers in the first round of the NFL draft is going to get whipped into shape by the former 49ers receiver who is regarded by many as the greatest player in NFL history. A.J. Jenkins, the former Illinois rece…

In his first statement since he was suspended for three games in the NFL’s investigation of the Saints’ bounty program, Browns linebacker Scott Fujita denied contributing money for bounties and insisted that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell w…

Bills running back Fred Jackson has been saying throughout the offseason that he was confident he’d reach an agreement on a new contract soon. Now the deal is done. “The organization has done a tremendous job of keeping guys around,” …

In the latest sign that the story of brain injuries in the NFL is only getting bigger, ESPN has announced that it will devote a week of its investigative program Outside the Lines to examining concussions in the NFL from multiple angles. In a series of…

Ryan McBean, the free agent defensive lineman whose restricted free agent tender was rescinded by the Broncos in April, a month after news broke that he would be suspended six games for violating the NFL’s policy on performance-enhancing substanc…

As expected, all four players who were suspended for their roles in the Saints’ bounty program have appealed. We previously noted that Saints linebacker Jonathan Vilma, whose yearlong suspension was the harshest punishment for any player involved…

Saints linebacker Jonathan Vilma, who last week was suspended for all of 2012 for his role in the Saints’ bounty scandal, has filed his appeal to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. In so doing, Vilma has also made clear that he does not believe Good…

The Raiders will get Tyvon Branch back in the mix today. Branch, the free agent safety who is the Raiders’ franchise player, will sign his one-year tender offer and report to the team, NFL Network’s Jason La Canfora reports. That means he&#…

Ed Reed says the Achilles injury suffered by teammate Terrell Suggs will have far-reaching ramifications in Baltimore, including the way opposing quarterbacks think about facing the Ravens. “He’s definitely going to be missed,” Reed said …

Two-time NFL MVP Kurt Warner said last week that he would prefer for his sons not to play football, and although he later backed off those comments, he was hammered by former players Amani Toomer and Merril Hoge for giving a bad impression of a great g…

When the Titans spent their second-round draft pick on linebacker Zach Brown and their third-round draft pick on defensive tackle Mike Martin, they saw one aspect of the players’ backgrounds that they particularly liked: Both were successful high…

Alex Tanney, a small-school quarterback turned viral video star, is getting a chance to show what he can do with the Buffalo Bills. Tanney, who threw for 157 touchdowns at Monmouth College but is most famous for this video he posted on YouTube, has bee…

Four months after he was badly burned in a fire in his home, Steelers running backs coach Kirby Wilson is back at work, on the practice field for the team’s rookie minicamp this weekend. Wilson, who is dividing his time between working for the St…

After an up-and-down college career at LSU, quarterback Jordan Jefferson looked like a long shot to make it in the NFL. He still might be, but he was impressive enough at this weekend’s rookie minicamp that the Buccaneers have signed him to a con…

Jaguars rookie receiver Justin Blackmon was sidelined by a sore foot at today’s minicamp, but the team says that’s no big deal. Jacksonville coach Mike Mularkey said the coaching staff had already seen Blackmon on the practice field and did…

The Washington Redskins are moving quickly to get their draft picks signed and now have most of them under contract. Today the Redskins signed Tom Compton, a sixth-round offensive tackle from South Dakota, and Alfred Morris, a sixth-round running back …

Andrew Luck has been playing quarterback for nearly his entire life, so how much progress can he really make during a three-day minicamp? “Leaps and bounds,” Luck said when asked that question today, at the end of the Colts’ rookie camp. …

As the NFL world continues to debate the Redskins’ surprising decision to use their fourth-round draft pick on quarterback Kirk Cousins after already using their first- and second-round picks (and their next two years’ first-round picks) on…

Bears linebacker Lance Briggs says he favors efforts to ensure that NFL players will live healthy lives long after their careers are over. But he dismisses the notion that the NFL needed to suspend the players involved in the Saints’ bounty scand…

Eliot Wolf, the 30-year-old son of former Packers General Manager Ron Wolf, is looking like a rising star in the Packers’ front office. Wolf is in line for a significant promotion and will assume the duties of former director of football operatio…

Early this year, when questions were raised about the ability of former Giants defensive end George Martin to lead the NFL Alumni Association, the organization’s board stood behind Martin as the right man for the job. But now Martin is out of the…

Chandler Jones figured he’d be a first-round draft pick of an AFC East team. But he was surprised by which team. Jones, a defensive end/outside linebacker from Syracuse who went 21st overall to the Patriots, said he was expecting to go 16th overa…

Gary Anderson was one of the all-time great NFL kickers, second in league history with 2,434 points and 538 field goals. Now his son is trying to get his foot in the door in the family business: Austin Anderson, a 23-year-old who kicked at McGill Unive…

Veteran cornerback Drew Coleman was released by the Jaguars this week, but he probably won’t stay out of work for long. Coleman’s agent told the New York Post that the Jets, who drafted Coleman in 2006, are one of three teams that have already …

Weight problems have plagued Deuce Lutui for much of his NFL career. He once reported to Cardinals camp weighing 396 pounds, and when he signed a free agent deal with the Bengals last year, the contract was voided when he failed the team physical becau…

One of Pete Carroll’s hallmarks as a coach is that he wants every player on his team to compete for his job. And Carroll says that’s particularly true at the quarterback position this season in Seattle, where Matt Flynn and Tarvaris Jackson…

After his first practice at rookie minicamp, Jets first-round draft pick Quinton Coples told reporters he had had the playbook for a week, was given 10 DVDs of the Jets’ defensive game film from last season, and felt like he already knew most of …

Saints running back Mark Ingram is dealing with another injury. ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports that Ingram underwent arthroscopic knee surgery on Thursday that is expected to sideline him for six weeks. That means he’ll probably miss all of t…

Three teams giving up on him in two years isn’t enough to convince Donovan McNabb that his NFL career is over. McNabb said on ESPN 1000 in Chicago today that he has been working out, getting into better shape and focusing on his fundamentals as a…

Merril Hoge has been outspoken on the subject of brain injuries in the NFL since long before it became one of the major issues surrounding the league in the last few years. Hoge’s career was cut short after he had multiple concussions in 1994, an…

Praise doesn’t get much higher for a rookie linebacker than to be compared to Ray Lewis, but that’s the comparison Jets coach Rex Ryan made today after seeing rookie linebacker Demario Davis at practice for the first time. Manish Mehta of t…

Art Schlichter, the former Colts quarterback who has spent his life going in and out of prisons for various crimes related to his compulsive gambling, has been given his longest prison sentence yet. A federal judge sentenced Schlichter to more than 10 …

The Indianapolis Colts’ rookies have taken the field for the first time as minicamp opened today, and coach Chuck Pagano liked what he saw from No. 1 overall pick Andrew Luck. “He’s unflappable,” Pagano said, via the Indianapoli…

We noted a month ago that the Ravens are urging left tackle Bryant McKinnie to get himself into better shape. McKinnie says that ideal shape for him means a slightly higher number on the scale than ideal shape for most of us. The 6-foot-8 McKinnie told…

Free agent cornerback Leigh Bodden isn’t fully recovered from back surgery six months ago, but at age 30 he isn’t ready to say he’s done playing football. Bodden told Ian Rapoport of NFL.com that he’ll play if he believes his ba…

DeMarco Murray burst onto the scene as a rookie running back for the Cowboys last season, gaining 253 yards in his first game as the team’s primary ball carrier. But his season was cut short in Week 14, when he suffered a broken ankle against the…

When we passed along the names of a dozen undrafted free agents who signed with the Panthers, we mentioned that Southern University wide receiver Jared Green was on the list. We didn’t mention that Jared is the son of Hall of Fame former Redskins…

Buccaneers coach Greg Schiano is bringing in one of his former Rutgers players: Gary Gibson, a free agent defensive tackle who has agreed to terms with Tampa Bay. Gibson, who played for Schiano at Rutgers from 2001 to 2004, agreed to a two-year, $2 mil…

We noted today that Kurt Warner said he would prefer that his sons not play football, because the risk of injuries scares him as a father. Those comments don’t sit well with all of Warner’s fellow former players. Amani Toomer said today on …

Stephen Hill was one of the fastest players at the NFL Scouting Combine, and now he’s become one of the fastest players to get his contract signed. Hill has agreed to a four-year, $5 million contract with the Jets, Manish Mehta of the New York Da…

The San Diego County medical examiner’s office confirmed what police believed on Thursday, ruling that Junior Seau’s death was a suicide, and that the 20-year NFL veteran died of a gunshot wound to the chest. Seau died Wednesday morning in …

Pro Football Hall of Famer Deion Sanders is facing a new complaint of criminal mischief as police continue to investigate an altercation with his ex-wife. The Associated Press reports that police in the Dallas suburb of Prosper, Texas, filed a new comp…

The agent for free agent running back Ryan Grant said before the draft that Grant didn’t have anything going on with his old team, the Packers, but did have some interest from other teams. Now another of those teams has been identified: The Lions…