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Cards’ Campbell not resting after cashing in

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Bumping his head while walking through the doorway. Trying to get comfortable in a coach seat on an airplane. Crouching lower, (lower, lower) to get his face in the picture frame.

Oh, the thrall of being tall. Calais Campbell, the Cardinals’ nouveau riche defensive end, has experienced it ever since he was 15 and his growth spurt finally maxed out at 80 inches.

“I’ve learned the hard way to duck,” said Campbell, who has painful memories about the times he has forgotten to drop his noggin. “I enjoyed being big (growing up). I wasn’t very good at hide-and-seek, but beside that I liked being big.”

The 6-foot-8 Campbell certainly can’t conceal himself on a football field — not just because he’s a human skyscraper, but because of all that he does. Campbell had a career season in 2011, his fourth in the NFL, when he led the Cardinals with eight sacks, had 73 tackles, broke up 10 passes, intercepted one, and forced two fumbles.

We should also mention that Campbell blocked three field goal attempts (giving him five for his career), including his stuff of a game-winning attempt by Rams kicker Josh Brown on the final snap of regulation in Week 9. The Cardinals won moments later in overtime when rookie Patrick Peterson returned a punt 99 yards for a touchdown.

The Cardinals know that Campbell is one of their core players, and they acknowledged it on March 2 by putting a franchise tag on him. That status lasted until earlier this month, when Campbell signed a new, five-year contract that is estimated to be worth $55 million, including a $31 million guarantee. The yearly average of $11 million reportedly puts Campbell No. 3 on the Cardinals player payroll behind wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald ($16.1 million) and quarterback Kevin Kolb ($12.4 million).

Removing the franchise tag lifted a big weight from Campbell’s lofty shoulders.

“That was huge,” he said. “Having the uncertainty about my future and just everybody asking questions … really does take away from the game. Now that that’s behind me, I can just relax and focus on football.”

Don’t misinterpret that comment. If you think that Campbell believes he is now living on Easy St. and can shift into cruise control for the rest of his career, you’re mistaken. He has played only four NFL seasons. In September he will turn 26. This big cat is just starting to scratch the surface in terms of his potential.

“I’ve got a lot more in the tank,” Campbell said. “I don’t feel like I’ve really played as well as I can play. I feel like I can be a better player in the years to come.

“I want to get better in all aspects of my game, as far as being consistent and making big plays. I really want to concentrate on creating turnovers. I think that’s one of the biggest things you can do to give your team a chance to win — cause turnovers. So that’s what I really want to do. Recover fumbles, force fumbles, intercept passes myself or tip balls, giving linebackers and DBs a chance to intercept them.”

Campbell plays in a 3-4 defense, where even a 6-8 end sometimes gets obscured. Often, his role is to tie up a blocker, sometimes two, so one of his teammates can get to the hole and make the tackle. The dirty work frequently goes unnoticed by the average fan, but not by Campbell’s teammates and coaches.

“He does a number of different things really well,” Cardinals coach Ken Whisenhunt said. “A lot of guys play with effort, and he does that, but his finish and his unselfishness are outstanding. If he’s asked to go inside and eat up two guys on a stunt, he does that. He does it just so the other guy can come around from the inside, looping on a stunt, to get free on the outside. The unselfish effort that he puts in is what being part of a great defense is all about.”

Campbell’s unselfishness likely was an acquired virtue. Growing up in Denver, he was one of eight children (two girls, six boys) raised by Charles and Nateal Campbell. Having five brothers who were close in age, Calais never lacked for companions or competitors in sports. Like each of his brothers, Calais played football — first at South High School, where he rang up a state-record 58 sacks in his career, and then at the University of Miami, where he was a two-time, All-ACC selection before the Cardinals drafted him in the second round in 2008 after his junior season.

Some of Campbell’s athletic talent may have been inherited. Charles Campbell stood 6-3 and was a pole vaulter at the University of Colorado. Nateal Campbell claims to be an accomplished basketball player in her day. “She always tells me I got my athleticism from her,” Campbell said, “but I think it came from both sides.”

Speaking of both sides, it was at Miami where Campbell realized that being able to rush the passer wasn’t enough. To be a complete end, he also needed to stop the run.

“My coach (defensive line coach Randy Shannon, who eventually became Miami’s head coach) was nervous to put me in the game when I was a redshirt freshman because he wasn’t sure I could play against the run,” Campbell recalled. “Ever since then, I’ve made a commitment to be good against the run in order to be on the field. I worked extra hard at being a run stopper. I take pride in being a run stopper now.”

Said Whisenhunt: “One of the things you like — I like — about him is not only is he strong at the point of attack, he’s (also) good at getting off blocks, which 3-4 ends have to be. He’s very good on the back side as far as pursuing plays and finishing plays. One of the things that jumps out at me is the number of tackles he’s involved in as an athletic 3-4 end that can hold the point.”

Campbell had to be mentally strong during a childhood that wasn’t always easy. “We didn’t grow up with a lot of money but we always had a lot of fun,” he said. At one point when Calais was in sixth grade, the family had to spend six months living in a homeless shelter until Charles could recover financially.

“It was a tough situation to be in,” Campbell said, “but we always had that sense of as long as we were together, we’d be OK. My dad would figure it out. So we just had to hold tight.”

Overall, Campbell called his experience growing up “awesome,” one that convinced him to “want to have a lot of kids one day.”

“It was a family atmosphere,” he said. “My dad was big on us eating together. We always prayed together before we sat down as a family and ate every meal.”

The Campbells eventually moved into a five-bedroom house, but tragedy struck two days before Thanksgiving in Calais’ senior year of high school when Charles, in need of a new liver, died before he could get a transplant. Charles once started a youth center for kids to come to after school, and his spirit lives on in Calais, who in 2010 established the “CRC Foundation” in his father’s name. The foundation’s purpose is to help youth develop by teaching them vocational and financial skills, quality health and nutrition, and sports. The goal is to have a facility built in the Phoenix area within a couple of years.

“As we get more advanced, there will be a lot more things that we can help them with,” Campbell said. “It’s still a work in progress.”

In a sense, Campbell’s NFL career still is a work in progress. He may be financially comfortable now, but he has a lot left to accomplish with the Cardinals.

Still, in those quiet, private moments away from the chaos and contact on the football field, when he allows himself to indulge in self-reflection, Campbell marvels at how far he has come.

“When you think about all I’ve been through, my family, and what we’ve accomplished, it’s amazing,” he said. “My father would be very proud of me right now. All I’ve been through really is the reason I’m in the situation where I’m at right now. Sitting back at this moment and knowing that I’ve accomplished so much is a dream come true.”

Calais Campbell: a big man with big dreams who has come up big. Now that’s a tall tale.

Article source: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/writers/dennis_dillon/05/24/calais.campbell/index.html?xid=si_nfl

Revis still unsure about another contract holdout

New York Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis is not sure whether he will hold out from training camp this summer, according to a tweet from New York Daily News beat writer Manish Mehta.

When asked if he will definitely report to training camp on Day 1, Darrelle Revis said, “I don’t know.” #nyj

—
Manish Mehta (@TheJetsStream) May 31, 2012

Revis held out two seasons ago and was rewarded with a frontloaded four-year deal. Pro Football Talk‘s Gregg Rosenthal reported when that holdout ended that Revis could hold out again before the 2012 season because, after earning a combined $32.5 million in 2010 and 2011, he would make $13.5 million combined in 2012 and 2013.

At the time, when asked about the possibility of another holdout, Revis told Sports Illustrated‘s Peter King, “If I continue to play ball like I usually do, we’ll probably be back at that same position we were this year.”

After bringing in Tim Tebow this offseason, Jets’ training camp will get plenty of attention. Revis adds another story to watch.

Article source: http://tracking.si.com/2012/05/31/new-york-jets-darrelle-revis-hold-out/?xid=si_nfl

There’s Life In The Desert

The Cardinals hope that Michael Floyd can give the team something it hasn’t had since Anquan Boldin left town — a receiver to take attention from Larry Fitzgerald. (Getty Images)

With NFL training camps just around the corner, we’re taking a team-by-team look at how the offseason played out and what you can expect in 2012 …

Last year was a tale of two seasons for the Arizona Cardinals. After dropping Cam Newton and the Panthers in Week 1, the Cardinals lost their next six games, essentially ending their playoff dreams. But Arizona still proceeded to take seven of its final nine games, a run that included four overtime victories and wins over the Cowboys and 49ers.

Which team will show up to start 2012?

With the addition of first-round pick receiver Michael Floyd, the Cardinals hope to finally take some pressure off Larry Fitzgerald, who has had to carry the passing game load basically by himself since Anquan Boldin left for Baltimore in 2010. That, and a relatively quiet offseason otherwise, has Arizona generating some positive momentum. The gap between the Cardinals and the top teams in the NFC may not be as wide as it looked through the 2011 season’s halfway point.

2011 Record: 8-8 (second place, NFC West)
Key Additions: CB Jamell Fleming, WR Michael Floyd, CB William Gay, LB Quentin Groves, OL Adam Snyder
Key Subtractions: LB Clark Haggans, CB Richard Marshall
Team Strengths: ST, WR, DB
Team Weaknesses: QB, RB, OL

Three Things to Watch:

1. Is Kevin Kolb the right man for the job?: The Cardinals didn’t do much to hide their interest in Peyton Manning when he hit the open market this offseason. While it’s understandable that they’d want the future Hall of Famer, their pursuit of him doesn’t say a lot for the team’s confidence in Kolb. The ex-Eagle went 3-6 in his first season with Arizona, while John Skelton posted a 5-2 record with Kolb out due to a concussion. Can Kolb, who is signed through 2016, hold onto his starting job or will Skelton unseat him? Either way, Arizona might be in the market for a QB next summer.

2. Will Patrick Peterson take the next step?: Move over, Devin Hester — there’s a new special teams superstar in town. Peterson, the fifth overall pick in the 2011 draft, returned four punts for TDs last season, including a 99-yarder to beat St. Louis in overtime. The speedy Peterson gives Arizona a dangerous return-game dimension that few teams have. But what Arizona needs from its second-year star is better play at the cornerback spot. Peterson led the Cardinals defense with 10 penalties in 2011, and the receivers he was responsible for put up nearly 900 yards receiving. Arizona is counting on him to develop into a Pro Bowl talent at defensive back, in addition to his world-class return game.

3. Can the Cardinals’ offensive line improve?: Arizona QBs were sacked 54 times last season, one off the league-high mark set by divisional rival St. Louis. The Cardinals also ran the ball just 389 times, the fifth-lowest total in the NFL. To get back to playoff contention in 2012, the Cardinals need better pass protection and a much more even balance in their game plan. Both goals start up front, where new arrival Adam Snyder should slot in at right guard, adding an experienced and proven player on the interior. But the big key will be the play of left tackle Levi Brown — he was downright putrid last season, giving up 11 of those 54 sacks by himself.

Outlook: The Cardinals have one of the league’s best weapons on offense in wide receiver Fitzgerald, and the dynamic Peterson gives them hope for a similar game-changer on defense. This team is also not all that far removed from the one that captured back-to-back division titles in 2008-09 and made a Super Bowl run.

The main difference is under center, where Arizona has traded in Kurt Warner for Kolb and, to a lesser extent, Skelton. Alex Smith and the 49ers proved last season that you can win without consistently great quarterback play, but the Cardinals need one of their two guys to step up and grab the bull by the horns. If that happens, there’s no reason this team can’t compete. Don’t be surprised if Arizona walks away with the NFC West in 2012.

Article source: http://nfl.si.com/2012/05/31/offseason-breakdown-arizona-cardinals/?xid=si_nfl

Harbaugh: 49ers were just ‘evaluating’ Manning

San Francisco 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh said Alex Smith was always the team’s quarterback and the club never pursued Peyton Manning. (Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

San Francisco 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh on Wednesday said that the idea the team pursued Peyton Manning this offseason is “erroneous” and “phony,” according to a report by The Sacramento Bee‘s Matt Barrows.

“It’s an erroneous perception that we were flirting with Peyton Manning. I keep hearing that over and over again,” Harbaugh said. “It’s silly, and it’s untrue. It’s phony. Even the perception that we were pursuing him … we were evaluating him.

“I’ve said all along, Alex Smith has been our quarterback. There’s been no scenario, other than Alex choosing to sign with another team, that we would have considered him not as our quarterback.” …

“Now, were we out there seeing, evaluating if we could have them both? Heck ya. You evaluate that, you eliminate that.”

San Francisco was widely reported to be a finalist for the quarterback, along with the Tennessee Titans and the Denver Broncos. Barrows reports a source said Manning did reach out to the 49ers first, and the team then began what Harbaugh called an “evaluation.”

Harbaugh confirmed that the team didn’t pull out of the running until Manning had picked the Broncos.

Smith, the former No. 1 overall pick who led the 49ers within a game of the Super Bowl, was a free agent in the offseason. He remained unsigned and visited with the Miami Dolphins before Manning made up his mind. Smith ultimately signed a three-year, $24-million deal to stay with San Francisco.

“Alex Smith is our quarterback, was our quarterback and we had every intention of bringing him back,” Harbaugh said. “There would be no circumstance that we would have let Alex Smith go.”

Article source: http://tracking.si.com/2012/05/31/san-francisco-49ers-jim-harbaugh-peyton-manning/?xid=si_nfl

Philbin calls Dolphins’ QB competition ‘very close’

Rookie Ryan Tannehill is competing with Matt Moore and David Garrard for the Miami Dolphins’ quarterback job. (Joel Auerbach/Getty Images)

The Miami Dolphins quarterback competition between reigning team MVP Matt Moore, veteran David Garrard and first-round pick Ryan Tannehill is still unresolved, coach Joe Philbin said in an interview with Joe Rose of WQAM, according to a report by Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio.

“I think it’s very close,” Philbin told Rose. “I think it’s very close. I think they all bring different attributes to the table. I will say that the room itself, the quality of the individuals in the room, I think is excellent.

“I mean, as you know Matt came in here [and] was voted as the [team's] Most Valuable Player, really played well down the stretch, and he’s picked up the [new] offense very well.

“David Garrard, when you look at his last season that he was active, obviously he didn’t play last year, he played very well in 2010. And he’s been working his tail off.

“And then we’ve got a young guy (Tannehill) that has some familiarity with the offense but not a lot of familiarity with the NFL game. But he’s holding his own, very much so. So it’s been a good competition so far.”

Moore started 12 games for the Dolphins last season, going 6-6. He completed 60.5 percent of his passes and threw 16 touchdowns against nine interceptions.

In nine seasons, Garrard has thrown 89 touchdowns and 75 interceptions. In 2010, his last season as a starter, he led the Jaguars to an 8-6 record in his 14 starts.

Tannehill, the strong-armed rookie, knows the offense because Mike Sherman, his coach at Texas AM, is now Miami’s offensive coordinator.

Philbin had previously said the team would pick a starter by the third week of the preseason.

Article source: http://tracking.si.com/2012/05/31/miami-dolphins-quarterback-competition/?xid=si_nfl

Don Banks: Ravens confident that trademark defense can survive minus Suggs

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OWINGS MILLS, Md. — Subtract a reigning NFL Defensive Player of the Year from the lineup of almost any team, and a lost season is likely in the offing. Certainly Super Bowl dreams would wither and die.

But in Baltimore, when pass-rushing outside linebacker Terrell Suggs went down with an Achilles’ tendon injury in late April, jeopardizing his 2012 season, there was disappointment, yes, but also a steadying sense of determination. Losing Suggs for a significant stretch — and maybe the entire season — was a serious blow to the Ravens, but not the death knell for a Baltimore team that narrowly lost on the road to New England in last January’s AFC title game.

This is a Ravens club with a history of playing suffocating defense for more than a decade now, and that mindset is not evaporating in the wake of one injury, no matter how far-reaching the potential impact. A month after Suggs went down, the reality of his absence has set in, but so far there’s no sign that Baltimore’s stiff upper lip will disappear too.

“The defensive locker room has so much pride, so much tradition and history, it’s almost ingrained in them,” Ravens assistant general manager Eric DeCosta said Wednesday, after Baltimore’s latest session of OTAs (organized team activities). “Other guys understand how to pick up the slack, and we’ve done that at various times before.

“If you look at our record without a Ray Lewis over the last how many years, or an Ed Reed, we do pretty well. This is going to be a major hurdle for us. But sometimes an injury like this is really good for your team at the beginning of a year, because it forces players to emerge. It forces it. And someone’s going to have to emerge for us to be a good defense.”

A check of the record confirms the cause of DeCosta’s confidence. In the first four seasons of the John Harbaugh coaching era, the Ravens are an impressive 10-4 when their lineup is missing future Hall of Fame defenders Ray Lewis and Ed Reed. In the past two seasons alone, Baltimore has gone 4-0 without Lewis (2011), their all-world middle linebacker, and 4-2 without Reed (2010), their ball-hawking safety.

It’s not proof the Ravens can repeat that resiliency and prosper despite the loss of Suggs, whose 14 sacks and seven forced fumbles last season earned him the league’s highest defensive honor, but it’s a track record that wards off any atmosphere of gloom and doom in Baltimore’s locker room. The “next man up” mantra, so popular everywhere in the NFL, doesn’t ring quite so hollow with the Ravens, who really have been there, and done that.

It’s not difficult to figure out where Baltimore’s defense will look first for players to emerge and fill the void created by Suggs’ torn tendon, which underwent surgery in early May and is likely to keep him sidelined until at least the season’s second half. Fourth-year outside linebacker Paul Kruger was already expected to vie with second-round pick Courtney Upshaw to replace departed strongside linebacker Jarrett Johnson, who left via free agency. But now Kruger will be asked to step into Suggs’ rush-linebacker spot in the lineup, always a featured position in the Ravens’ successful 3-4 formation. Upshaw, a playmaking talent off the University of Alabama’s national championship squad, is expected to be the team’s other starter at outside linebacker, in the SAM role.

“That’s the position (rush linebacker) I’ve been working at on and off since I’ve been here, so without saying too much about it, I’m the guy who’s got to step up and take that spot and run with it,” said Kruger, the former 2009 second-round pick who finished 2011 with a career-high 5.5 sacks in situational duty, the third-best total on the team. “You can’t replace a guy like Suggs, and we’re going to miss him until he gets back. He’s a dominant player, he changes games. But it’s time for me to get out there and do what I can do, and I expect big things.”

In reality, the Ravens know Kruger won’t be able to make up for Suggs’ lost production by himself. But in Baltimore’s scheme, he doesn’t have to. The idea is to get the best out of Kruger, have Upshaw hit the ground running as a rookie, and maybe generate some unexpected pass rush from the likes of young defensive ends Pernell McPhee (six sacks in 2011) and Arthur Jones.

Even 2010 second-round pick Sergio Kindle, who has done virtually nothing so far as a Raven, is seen as someone who could potentially pick up a bit of the slack with Suggs sidelined. If Kindle is ever going to contribute at rush linebacker, it better be now, because Baltimore is almost out of patience with the former University of Texas outside linebacker, who has played in just two games in his first two NFL seasons.

For his part, Upshaw has looked good so far in the earliest stages of his rookie season, generating some positive reviews in Baltimore’s rookie minicamp and first two weeks of OTAs. He’s not a dynamic and athletic playmaker in the Suggs’ mold, but he’s a polished and big-game-tested player, and the Ravens think his transition to the NFL will be a smooth one.

“With Sizzle (Suggs’ nickname) going down, it’s unfortunate,” Upshaw said. “But coming in, my mindset already was to get in the playbook and get on the field fast, regardless. Everybody’s mindset here is just to finish where he left off. I can’t wait to play defense with him, but right now I just want to come in, learn the playbook and go out and help pick up the slack. I’ve been playing football for a long time, and think it’s realistic for me to just go out and be productive and make plays.”

Whomever steps to the fore in the Ravens’ third-ranked defense, they’ll be doing it under the supervision of the fourth different Baltimore defensive coordinator in Harbaugh’s five seasons on the job. With Chuck Pagano hired as the new Colts head coach in January, former Patriots defensive coordinator Dean Pees was elevated from Ravens linebackers coach to heading one of the most respected and decorated defenses in recent league history. Besides losing Johnson, and Suggs for at least part of the year, he’s also faced with getting Lewis, 37, and Reed, 33, through another long NFL season.

“As a coach, you just go out there and coach the guys that are here,” Pees said. “There aren’t any other choices. Yeah, we may be missing a guy. I remember when I was in New England and they told me Tedy Bruschi had a stroke. Those weren’t exactly the words that I wanted to hear about my starting (middle) linebacker, but we put in somebody else. It will be the same thing with Terrell. We’ll have guys in place and we’ll do things that we need to do until he gets back.”

If Suggs can be believed, the Ravens might have their All-Pro linebacker back in the lineup by midseason, even though many assume it’ll be borderline miraculous if Baltimore gets much of anything at all out of him in 2012. The Ravens for now are holding out hope Suggs can recover quickly and perhaps play in a reduced role as a pass rusher late in the season, taking the field only on passing downs. At least this year’s change to the injured reserve rules helps, allowing teams one exemption on a player who could return to the active roster at any point after midseason. Who knows, we might end up calling it the Suggs Rule.

But Baltimore knows it can’t count on Suggs this season. Anything the Ravens get from him will be gravy. Instead, look for Harbaugh’s team to lean on its long and distinguished history of defensive excellence, and to trust a proven scheme that has been its trademark since the late ’90s. That’s not going away this year in Ravens-land, with or without Suggs in the lineup.

“We’ll be all right,” Kruger said. “We’ve got a lot of leadership on this team. A lot of veteran guys who have been through a lot, and a couple veteran players (Lewis and Reed) who can get you through anything. So I still feel confident. I can’t see too much negativity coming our way. We have too much to look forward to, and we’ve got too many guys to fill the roles that need to be filled. Yeah, losing Suggs is pretty tough, but I think we’re going to take this and run pretty good with it.”

Even if new and unexpected playmakers do emerge on the Ravens defense this season, there’s no silver lining in losing a talent like Suggs, who’s still only 29 despite having nine seasons of NFL experience. But this is Baltimore, where defense rules, and that means there’s no sense of panic either.

Article source: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/writers/don_banks/05/30/ravens/index.html?xid=si_nfl