Posts tagged BrandonLloyd at FanHouse - AOL Sports Blog

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Most maligned offense in the league, even after the departure of Cedric Benson. Over the past two to three seasons it has become so popular to hate on Rex Grossman even my mother-in-law knows who he is. Kyle Orton backs up Rexy, and he's awful. The receiving corps was decimated in the off-season with the departures of Muhsin Muhammed and Bernard Berrian while being replaced with uninspired choices Marty Booker and Brandon Lloyd. The team was also criticized -- in addition to not drafting a QB -- for passing on Rashard Mendenhall in the first round of the draft and instead settling on a 2nd rounder to replace push Benson before his arrest(s). The offensive line was pathetic last year, and minimal work was done to repair it in the off-season (though getting rid of Fred Miller within itself should vastly improve things). About the only part not under scrutiny is tight end, with Greg Olsen and Desmond Clark.

The Bears' top receivers last year were Bernard Berrian and Muhsin Muhammad. Both are now gone.

So why on earth would Chicago wide receivers coach Darryl Drake say he thinks the team is in better shape at receiver this year than last year? That's what he suggested in talking to the Chicago Sun-Times.

But when you also consider that he said his best receiver right now is Rashied Davis, you realize that the team is sorely lacking in experienced wide receivers. Yes, Davis and Devin Hester and Brandon Lloyd and Mark Bradley and Earl Bennett all have talent, but Marty Booker is the only guy on the roster who has accomplished much of anything as an NFL wide receiver.

Although the Bears' quarterback controversy will be the talk of training camp, the wide receiver situation may be the team's biggest question mark. Neither Rex Grossman nor Kyle Orton can be confident that he'll have any good receivers catching his passes.

Marty Booker is going into the 2008 season with the right mindset: expect the worse and you won't be disappointed. Or maybe I'm just projecting. Whatever, the Bear-turned-Dolphin-turned-Bear doesn't have a preference for who ends up under center in Chicago, and that's been his M.O. for most of his NFL career:

Booker has made a successful career of adapting to whatever situation he has been thrown into, regardless of who's throwing the football.

Since 1999, Booker's first season with the Bears -- when he had to adjust to Shane Matthews, Cade McNown and Jim Miller all starting games -- playing with multiple quarterbacks has been routine for Booker.

In all, on NFL fields over nine seasons he has played catch with 17 different quarterbacks, some of them no longer in the NFL.

As much fun as it is to point and gawk in Rex Grossman's general direction, he's an improvement over Matthews, McNown, and Miller (at least when Miller couldn't lift his throwing arm over his head). So for Booker, it'll be like playing with a Hall of Famer (but very, very different).

Of course, there are plenty of holes on the Bears offense outside of quarterback, and wideout is pretty high on the list. Booker is a nice No. 2 receiver, but he's not a No. 1. Then again, it's debatable whether Brandon Lloyd even deserves to be in the league, so by comparison, Booker seems like some combination of Wille Gault and Tom Waddle.

So, yeah, Redskins rookie tight end Fred Davis likes to sleep. Unfortunately, his raging case of narcolepsy struck during last weekend's minicamp. This is generally frowned upon, particularly when starting a new job.

The Washington Post's Jason Reid writes that "some draft evaluators reported that USC tight end Fred Davis exhibited poor work habits and made questionable decisions at times." The Redskins considered him too much of a talent to pass up, and three days into his NFL career, Davis missed practice. The team reported that Davis had overslept, and his brother, Kedran, confirmed as much ... before adding: that he overslept after a late night on Saturday.

Front-office bigwig Vinny Cerrato, the man responsible for drafting Davis*, isn't worried:

"The biggest thing is, as long as they learn from their mistakes, that's the biggest thing," Cerrato said. "The kid felt awful. Jim got a chance to talk to him and Jim's handling it internally. I've talked to his agents and the kid feels horrible, which he should.

"Anytime you miss anything, to me it's important. Especially when you're here to ... he's making his first impression. Do what's right. He made a mistake. Now, he's got to fight back from the mistake."

In the scheme of things, this is nothing. Of course, that's what people said when Brandon Lloyd first starting acting out. If there's a lesson in all of this, it's this: make Davis start a blog. It builds character.

* possibly not entirely true

No matter what you think of the Jerome Mathis signing, at least it won't cost the Redskins much. According to the Washington Post's Jason La Canfora, Mathis got a one-year, veteran minimum deal and no bonus. Which means he could earn $520,000 if he makes it through the season.

La Canfora, like the Washington Times' Ryan O'Halloran (and me), questions the signing, even suggesting that there "ain't no way Mathis gets in the building on [Joe Gibbs'] watch, not even for a workout. Not even to deliver the mail."

The Redskins may have had more players off their draft board last year for character issues than any club in the league. Gibbs blew it on Brandon Lloyd - and Vinny Cerrato, after all his years in San Fran, should have had the goods on that one - but otherwise proved that character and attitude mattered. Owner Daniel Snyder has a rep for reaching for players, and the Skins were never known much for their overall character and team-first ethos before Gibbs returned.

La Canfora throws out the obligatory "Is Chris Henry next?" reference before writing that the Redskins were apparently high on Kenny Wright before he signed with the Browns. The point, I think, is that the team is a more willing to take chances on players with character concerns now that Gibbs has retired.

The Bears decision to sign Brandon Lloyd as a replacement for the departed Bernard Berrian hasn't been lauded as the greatest move of the offseason. Lloyd has spent more time earning the ire of his coaches and teammates than making meaningful catches in NFL games. In fact, during his time with the 49ers he was accused of spending too much time concentrating on his rap career. So it's probably not cheerful news for Jerry Angelo and Lovie Smith that Lloyd has a new gig writing for the video game site Gametap.

It seems that while Lloyd was being left at home on Redskin road trips for disciplinary reasons, he was filling his time with Rainbow Six and Call of Duty. Who knows, maybe he was even playing Madden seasons which ended with Lloyd on top of the football world instead of at the bottom of the team's depth chart with two whole catches to his name. That could be how he knew Rex Grossman would be the team's QB this season. He simulated ahead and knows the horrible fate that awaits Kyle Orton.

The writing should provide Lloyd with a safety net if he flops with his third NFL team in as many tries. It's an engaging article about his history as a gamer and he comes off as a likable guy who knows what he's writing about.

(H/T The Big Lead)

We're a third of the way through March and the Redskins, perennial off-season Super Bowl Champs, have yet to sign one free agent that wasn't with the team last year. Vegas had March 1 as the over/under on when the front office would go back on their promise to sit out free agency and give Asante Samuel the league's first billion dollar contract. Didn't happen. The house made a killing.

Earlier in the off-season, there were rumors that Chad Johnson could be on his way to Landover, but Bengals coach Marvin Lewis (in between bobs and weaves) said Ocho Cinco ain't leaving Cincy. Still, the Redskins need a wide receiver, although that was the case before they cut ties with chronic underachiever/lyrical assassin Brandon Lloyd. Which explains why Washington will have former Seahawks wideout D.J. Hackett in for a visit this week.

Limited to six games last season because of a high ankle sprain, Hackett had 32 receptions for 384 yards (a 12-yard average) and three touchdowns in the regular season. He played a key role in the Seahawks' 35-14 victory over the Redskins in the first round of the NFC playoffs, catching six passes for 101 yards (a 16.8-yard average) and one touchdown.

The year before, Hackett caught 45 passes for 610 yards and four touchdowns. By comparison, during Lloyd's two-year stint in Washington, he had 25 catches for 379 yards and no touchdowns. And he certainly didn't help the Redskins during the playoffs since, you know, he didn't dress.

Hackett could actually be a good signing because he'll come relatively cheap and he has some upside, two things Washington has generally frowned upon when targeting free agents. Maybe this Vinny Cerrato fellow knows what he's doing.

Maybe Bears offensive coordinator Ron Turner didn't need to see any film of Brandon Lloyd's NFL exploits since he coached the former fourth-round pick at the University of Illinois. This would be ironic since this is how the Redskins did much of their scouting in recent seasons, and they were the team that released Lloyd last week.

The Sacramento Bee's Matt Barrows goes all "1998 internets" on us and busts out an animated .gif of Lloyd during those heady 49ers days. The clip shows, over and over and over, Lloyd running a crossing route and ducking as the pass whizzes by his ear. I guess it never occurred to him to try to, you know, catch the thing.

Anyway, after hearing Barrows recount some of Lloyd's finer moments in San Francisco, you have to wonder why the Bears signed him at any price.

If there are any teams that know Lloyd's true colors, it's the 49ers, the Redskins (where Lloyd was to receiving what Joseph Hazelwood was to seamanship) and the Bears. After all, it was in that stunningly windy game in Chicago in 2005 that Lloyd famously alligator-armed two Cody Pickett passes, including one on the goal line that would have put the 49ers right back in the game. At least Lloyd had the guts and the self-awareness to man up and take the blame afterward. "The ball was thrown too early," he said at the time. "That wasn't the route. I still had more of the route to run. It was thrown way too soon."

Brandon Lloyd has announced that Rex Grossman as the Bears starting quarterback. This is hardly the biggest gaffe of Lloyd's checkered NFL career, and it seems like a fitting start to what will likely be a bumpy marriage in Chicago, but I'm guessing the Bears coaching staff could've done without the mini-controversy nonetheless.

Lloyd, after signing a whopping one-year veteran-minimum contract, told reporters that "Rex Grossman is the starter," when asked how the quarterback situation was explained to him. Most of us figured it was an open competition between Grossman and Kyle Orton since, you know, that's what the Bears have been saying since re-signing both players.

Which explains why offensive coordinator Ron Turner went into full-on Scott McClellan mode:

''I just listened to part of [Lloyd's comments], and Brandon said he assumed it was going to be Rex,'' Turner said. ''I just want to clarify that before we got going. You guys know the situation. It's an open competition. When I talked to Brandon about the quarterback situation, I talked about both guys, Rex and Kyle.''

So there you have it: Rex and Kyle are both in the mix to run the Bears offense (into the ground) next season, no matter what Lloyd thinks/was told/wishes to be true.

Ultimately, I don't think it'll much matter; Chicago still has questions along the offensive line, in the backfield and, even with the addition of Lloyd (and maybe even because of it), at wide receiver. It won't matter who's under center. On the bright side, Lance Briggs will be back and, Lord willing, so too will Brian Urlacher.

The Chicago Bears have announced the signing of wide receiver Brandon Lloyd, and it says a lot about the Bears that adding Lloyd to their receiving corps actually represents an upgrade.

Lloyd makes just enough highlight-reel catches, and has just a colorful enough personality, that there are still people who think of him as a good NFL wide receiver. But if any of those people are Bears fans, they're going to be seriously disappointed when they actually get a look at him this season. Lloyd caught a whopping two passes for 14 yards in 2007, and even in his best year, he managed just 48 catches for 733 yards. Lloyd and Marty Booker are not an NFL-caliber pair of starters.

In the right system, though, it's possible that Lloyd could be a serviceable third or fourth receiver, and it should be noted that "the right system" might be the one run by Bears offensive coordinator Ron Turner, who was Lloyd's head coach in college at Illinois. Maybe the Bears can get the most out of Lloyd's athletic talents, but I still say they should have franchised Bernard Berrian.