Saints Punishment, Raiders fallout

Most of you will already be aware of the historic punishment that Commissioner Roger Goodell handed to the New Orleans Saints in response to the unfolding bounty scandal that has been the talk of the football world.

If you're not aware of it, you can read more here.

Peyton Manning is now the starting quarterback of the Denver Broncos.

It looks like 'Tebow Time' in Denver will now be referred to as the time spent remodeling your crucifix. That Peyton Manning would make the God-awful decision to choose the Broncos over the Niners or the Titans, he must be (mile) high.

The Denver Broncos may as well just burn last year's game tape, because it's probably not going to help Peyton Manning play quarterback. John Elway and John Fox have decided to end the era of flimsy balling, and claim that they're Peyton's calling.

Cradle of the quarterbacks?
Some unknown player named Peyton Manning agreed to join the Denver Broncos today, ending weeks of speculation where he would end up.  Peyton's arrival in the AFC West makes the division a sudden powerhouse in the arms race that is the NFL. 

With Manning, Palmer and San Diego's Rivers three of the four AFC teams have QB's that were taken in the top 4 of their respective draft classes.  Kansas City is going in a diffrent direction with a stable of running backs and improving their offensive line so expect them to run more than their AFC West counterparts.

2012 free agency is now approaching a week old and Michael Bush's interest on the market has been tepid, at best.  It was stated that he was going to visit the Bears and the Bengals but neither has signed him at this time.

One theory, per PFT, is that the new rookie wage scale makes veterans RBs less valuable but I'm not sure that I agree with that logic.  While the new rookie wage scale does slot rookies into affordable contracts outside of the first round there isn't much changed - players in later rounds were already slotted into a reasonable range.

According to Raiders beat writer Vittorio Tafur, the Raiders will be having free agent CB Tracy Porter in for a visit "in the next couple of days."

The Raiders have been mentioned as a possible landing spot for Porter since it's been known that he would not be retained by the Saints.  This is due, in part, to the team's need at that position and because the Raiders' head coach Dennis Allen was the secondary coach for the Saints during their Super Bowl run and coached Porter at that time.

Porter plays primarily at right corner back or in the slot.  He's played primarily in the slot in his career with the Saints.

Despite signing cornerback Ronald Bartell on Friday, the Raiders are still looking for help at cornerback as they are very thin at that position - even with Bartell's signing they still only have 4 cornerbacks currently on the roster.

On Friday, the Raiders met with former 49ers CB Shawnte Spencer.  Raiders new defensive coordinator Jason Tarver was with the 49ers for year before a year at Stanford last season and will be familiar with Spencer's abilities.  That the Raiders are looking at him most likely means that Tarver thinks he's a possible future Raider.

Spencer is another big cornerback at 6'1", 190 lbs.  He was a 2nd round draft pick in 2004.  He was a starter at right cornerback for the 49ers almost from the start.

The Raiders went the morning without doing anything of note but there was a flurry of Raider related activity in the afternoon.  At about 12:30 PM Pacific, it was reported by numerous sources that the Raiders would, in fact, cut LB Kamerion Wimbley.

If the Raiders had not cut Wimbley by 1:00pm Pacific, his contract called for a large amount of the contract to be guaranteed and that forced the team's hand to cut him since he was not willing to come to a restructure deal that satisfied Raiders GM Reggie McKenzie.