Russell Wilson on playing two sports: “Never say never”

When the Rangers selected Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson in the Rule 5 draft, Hall of Famer and former two-sport star Deion Sanders said Wilson should consider playing baseball.
49ers CEO Jed York tweeted, “I agree.”
At the time, Wilson laughed off the possibility of playing both football and baseball.  He seemed to be slightly more serious about the possibility now that he has gotten a taste of spring training.
“You never say never,” Wilson said Monday.  “I’ve always had the dream of playing two sports.  If somehow it was a miracle that it could work out, I’d consider it.  At the same time, my focus is winning the championship with the Seattle Seahawks and hope to be playing for a long time.”
It would only work out if Wilson is deemed to be so good at baseball that a baseball team would allow him to make football his top priority.  Even then, it would be much harder to play both sports than it was in the days of Deion (who eventually gave up baseball) and Bo Jackson (whose hobby was football) and Brian Jordan (who eventually picked baseball as his sole sport).
For quarterbacks especially, football takes up much more than football season.  So in order for Wilson to follow his own advice to outwork everyone, he probably needs to be outworking everyone at only one job.
That said, he’s a year away from being eligible to get a new contract in Seattle.  It’s simply good business to muse about his options in order to ensure that the Seahawks will treat him fairly, at the appropriate time.

Source: PFT.com
Author: Mike Florio
AP Photo: Elaine Thompson

NFL officially applies tight end tag to Jimmy Graham

The league has officially announced the full list of franchise-tagged and transition-tagged players for 2014.  The biggest name belongs to the player for whom the biggest fight is looming.
The NFL’s Management Council has decided to deem Jimmy Graham a tight end for purposes of the franchise tag.  It sets the stage for a grievance to be filed by Graham and the NFLPA arguing that, based on the language of the labor deal, Graham is actually a receiver.
The league’s release even quotes the relevant language from the Collective Bargaining Agreement, which states that the tender will be based on “the position . . . at which the Franchise Player participated in the most plays during the prior League Year.”
Graham will argue that he lined up more as receiver than as a tight end in 2013. The Saints will argue that tight ends routinely line up in the slot or split wide, but that this doesn’t make them something other than tight ends, since only tight ends line up tight to the tackle.
In other words, the Saints hope to persuade the System Arbitrator to find that, when Graham lines up in the slot or split wide, he’s still participating in those plays as a tight end.
Whatever the outcome, the issue has been lingering for the last few years. At some point, a resolution is needed, either through arbitration or an amendment to the labor deal.
For the Saints and Graham, more than $5.2 million hangs in the balance. While the two sides can resolve the situation at any time with a long-term deal, Graham could decide to let it ride. Regardless of the outcome, he’s going to make far more than the $3.3 million he has received in four NFL seasons.

Source: PFT.com
Author: Mike Florio
Photo: Chris Graythen, Getty Images

Report: Jim Harbaugh’s “act has worn thin” in the 49ers locker room

At this rate, 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh’s infamous “who’s got it better than us?” victory cry eventually may become a “who hasn’t got it better than us?” lament.
With most of the last nine days devoted to a dissection of the dysfunction between Harbaugh and 49ers G.M. Trent Baalke, Ann Killion of the San Francisco Chronicle identifies a new front in the organizational battlefield.
“One source with inside knowledge of the team says that Harbaugh’s act has worn thin in the locker room,” Killion writes, “particularly among some key ‘face of the 49ers’ type players.  While the team is winning, that’s not a problem.  But a few losses could expose a widening rift.”
No specific players are mentioned, but the obvious candidates are linebacker Patrick Willis, defensive lineman Justin Smith, running back Frank Gore, receiver Michael Crabtree, tight end Vernon Davis, and/or quarterback Colin Kaepernick.
Speaking of the team’s hot-and-cold franchise quarterback, another source explained to Killion that there’s no real link between the Harbaugh-Baalke disconnect and the team’s inability to return to the Super Bowl this past season.  “‘If Jim and Trent have a beer together, it’s not going to make Kap throw the ball four inches higher,’” the source said, referring to the intercepted pass from Kaepernick to Crabtree at the end of the most recent NFC title game, the second straight year that the failure of quarterback and receiver to deliver in crunch time ended a postseason run.
As a result, the shelf-life between Harbaugh and Baalke possibly mirrors the shelf life between Harbaugh and his players.  If, as Killion points out, adversity arrives and stays, it could all implode.
Some think that, if the 49ers give Harbaugh the contract he covets, all will be well. There’s also a chance it could get worse, right away or in time.
“That’s just who Jim is,” a team source told Killion.  “He’d probably like to redo his contract every year, just out of competition.”
At it’s core, that’s really the issue.  Jim Harbaugh is intensely competitive.
“Jim is the greatest pure competitor, by far, that I ever met in my life,” Ravens coach John Harbaugh told Sports Illustrated in 2010.  “At everything.”
Jim Harbaugh competes with everyone, about anything.  It has made him wildly successful during his first three seasons as an NFL head coach, with three straight NFC title game appearances.  But it could make this coming season his last one in San Francisco.
And then his competitive nature will be welcomed gladly by any of the various teams that would love to go to only one conference title game.

Source: PFT.com
Author: Mike Florio
Photo from NFLGridIronGab.com

Report: Redskins agonizing over whether to keep Orakpo

If the Washington Redskins haven’t made an “official offer” to linebacker Brian Orakpo, there’s a good reason for it.
They haven’t decided whether they want to keep him.
Mark Maske of the Washington Post reports that the team isn’t sure whether to make the financial commitment necessary to keep Orakpo around.
“I think there’s a lot of back and forth on it,” an unnamed source with knowledge of the team’s deliberations told Maske. “I don’t think it’s clear cut.”
Maske also explains that it’s a “really close call” on whether the Redskins will apply the franchise tag to Orakpo before Monday’s deadline. A decision to tag Orakpo could be followed by a Terrell Suggs-style fight over whether he’s really a defensive end, which has a 2014 tender amount of $13.116 million. The franchise tag for linebackers is $11.455 million.
The Redskins also could apply the transition tag to Orakpo, which would give them a right to match but not compensation if he leave. It would cost $9.754 million at linebacker, $10.633 million at defensive end. And if Orakpo signs the tender, the money will become fully guaranteed.
The Redskins have a history of spending bigger money on free agents from other teams than on their own players, a practice that can send a bad message to a locker room full of young players hoping to be rewarded financially for their efforts. It’s always better for those players to think they’ll get their reward without having to move to a new city.

Source: PFT.com
Author: Mike Florio
Photo: Ricky Carioti, The Washington Post