NFL 2007 Off-Season Winners and Losers - FanHouse - AOL Sports Blog

With NFL players reporting for training camp this week, the 2007 NFL off-season has come to an end. It's been an off-season of free agents getting rich, coaches getting hired and fired and the league itself getting increased scrutiny, much of it negative.

Most of all, it's been an off-season of off-field trouble in the NFL. With Pacman Jones, Tank Johnson, Chris Henry and others, this might have been the first off-season in NFL history when arrests and suspensions got more attention than draft choices and signing bonuses. And the biggest name of them all, Michael Vick, is still in limbo just days before the Falcons open camp.

Here we present some of the winners and losers of the 2007 NFL off-season.

WINNER: Peyton Manning's fantasy stock.
LaDainian Tomlinson will be the No. 1 pick in every fantasy draft, but don't discount Manning at No. 2. Sure, a running back like Larry Johnson or Steven Jackson seems like a more sensible pick, but there's no safer choice than Manning -- he never gets hurt and he always plays well. And although he may have lost his left tackle, this year he may need to throw more passes than ever before.

LOSER: The Colts' defense.
Indianapolis punched a big hole in the "defense wins championships" theory, winning the Super Bowl with one of the weakest defenses in the NFL. The Colts' D might be even worse this year. Both starting cornerbacks, Nick Harper and Jason David, are gone. Linebacker Cato June is gone. Safety Mike Doss is gone. Defensive lineman Montae Reagor is gone. The Colts spent their first- and second-round picks on offensive players. Manning and Co. will need to win a lot of 41-38 games this year.

WINNER: Ron Jaworski
Jaws, the former Eagles quarterback known for his excellent game tape breakdowns, has been promoted to the highest-profile gig at ESPN -- Monday Night Football analyst. He'll be great -- especially if he can get Tony Kornheiser to shut up once in a while.

LOSER: Joe Theismann
Theismann, the former Redskins quarterback known for his arguments with Kornheiser, Paul Maguire and everyone else he's shared a booth with, lost the job that Jaworski got.

WINNER: Tom Brady.
The Patriots' quarterback has the best group of receivers of his career, thanks to the additions of Randy Moss, Wes Welker and Donte' Stallworth. He also has a baby due any day with his rich and beautiful ex-girlfriend, and he has a new girlfriend who's got his ex beat on the rich and beautiful scale.

LOSER: Gene Upshaw.
The executive director of the NFL Players Association has served as a punching bag for everyone from Bryant Gumbel to Mike Ditka. Dozens of former NFL players have come forward to say they face lifelong medical problems related to their NFL days and that their union has done nothing to help them. Almost everyone agrees that of the major sports leagues, the NFL has the weakest players' union. That raises the question: Does Upshaw really deserve to make nearly $7 million a year?

WINNER: Dwight Freeney.
Freeney, the Colts' defensive end, signed a six-year, $72 million contract with $30 million guaranteed, even though he's a pass-rushing specialist coming off a season in which he had just 5.5 sacks.

WINNER: Every player who had more sacks than Freeney last season.
Exactly 50 NFL players registered six or more sacks last season, and now every one of them can point to the fact that they had more sacks than the $72 million man when it's time to negotiate a new contract. The list of players who out-sacked Freeney includes Brandon Moore, Ryan Denney, Corey Williams and several other players who have no trouble walking through their local shopping mall without getting bothered by autograph seekers.

LOSERS: Fans who like to watch highlights, player interviews and press conferences online.
The NFL has told web sites that all online video footage of anything related to the league has to be limited to 45 seconds per day and must be removed after 24 hours. The absurd new policy might lead more fans to watch video at NFL.com, but it also places obstacles in the path of fans who are trying to find out more about their favorite teams.

WINNER: Norv Turner.
With the way his two previous stints, in Washington and Oakland, ended up, you'd think Turner would be finished as a head coach. But Turner, whose career record is 59-83-1, is now the coach of the Chargers, the NFL's most talented team.

LOSER: Wade Phillips.
Phillips spent last season as defensive coordinator of the Chargers, and if the annual NFL off-season game of musical coaches had gone just a little bit differently, Phillips could have stayed in San Diego and taken the top job. Instead he'll be head coach of the Cowboys. Phillips is a nice guy who deserves better than the meddlesome owner Jerry Jones and the troublesome receiver Terrell Owens.

WINNER: The Cover 2 defense.
After Cover 2 practitioners Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith coached their teams to the Super Bowl, it's official: The Cover 2 defense has taken over the league. We've now reached the point where the Cover 2 defense has become like the West Coast Offense -- so predominant in the NFL that every team employs elements of it and every TV broadcaster overuses it.

LOSER: Zone blocking offensive lines.
New Falcons coach Bobby Petrino is moving away from the zone-blocking emphasis of his predecessor. Second-year Texans coach Gary Kubiak still hasn't acquired the personnel necessary for the zone-blocking approach he wants to use. Longtime Broncos head coach Mike Shanahan, whose offense used zone-blocking lines to build the NFL's best running attack, has watched his two best offensive linemen, Matt Lepsis and Tom Nalen, get old and suffer injuries. Across the league, zone blocking offenses are running out of steam.

WINNER: Drew Brees.
An off-season that started badly for the Saints' quarterback when he dislocated his non-throwing elbow in the Pro Bowl was notable for another reason: He did a good deed this off-season that went almost totally unnoticed -- because he didn't call any attention to himself for doing it. Brees visited a prison in Utah to visit with inmates and give a speech about overcoming adversity, but he hasn't said a word about it publicly. The visit only came to light because people who work at the prison spoke about what a positive influence he was. Brees was one NFL player in jail for the right reasons.

LOSER: Joey Porter.
Porter, the former Steelers linebacker, is a nine-year veteran who should have learned how to conduct himself as a professional by now, especially after getting a contract with a $20 million guaranteed bonus from the Miami Dolphins. But he got in a fight with Bengals tackle Levi Jones in Vegas, an incident that Jones describes as less of a "fight" than a "sucker punch with six buddies backing him up." Porter was lucky he managed to escape serious punishment for the incident, getting charged only with a misdemeanor and fined but not suspended by the league.

WINNER: Ted Ginn.
After Ginn suffered a serious leg injury in Ohio State's loss to Florida in the college national championship game, his draft stock appeared to drop. Instead, Ginn was chosen by the Miami Dolphins with the ninth pick in the NFL draft, guaranteeing that he'll get an eight-figure guarantee on his rookie contract. Dolphins fans weren't happy that their team chose Ginn over quarterback Brady Quinn, but they'll be thrilled if Ginn is as exciting in the NFL as he was at Ohio State.

LOSER: Brady Quinn.
After Quinn finished his four-year career at Notre Dame, there was talk that he could be the first overall pick in the draft. Instead, the Browns took him 22nd. The difference between the contract he would have signed if taken first and the contract he'll sign after going 22nd? Somewhere in the $15 million to $20 million range.

WINNER: The Chicago Bears.
The Bears finally said enough was enough and eliminated their biggest headache by cutting Tank Johnson. Johnson was not, as his defenders like to claim, fired for speeding. He was fired for leaving the Bears' final off-season practice, where coach Lovie Smith had specifically asked him to stay out of trouble, and within less than 24 hours chugging a six pack, getting behind the wheel of his car, and driving 15 mph over the speed limit. The fact that he was just barely under the legal blood alcohol limit doesn't mean he did nothing wrong. The Bears were smart to cut him, and it says a lot that no other team has signed him. Johnson's NFL career may be over.

LOSERS: The dogs owned by Michael Vick.
Vick's dogs were, according to a federal indictment, forced to fight to the death and electrocuted, shot, hanged and slammed to the ground if they weren't strong enough to win fights.

TOO CLOSE TO CALL: Roger Goodell
The NFL Commissioner faces the biggest challenge of his brief tenure in deciding what to do with Vick, and he won't be able to please everyone. But if he makes a decision that allows the Vick case to overshadow the game on the field, that will make fans the biggest losers.