Posted by Will Brinson

Ryan Mathews was supposed to the "next LaDainian Tomlinson." Or at hte very least, a serviceable replacement. After a horrible start to his season against the Chiefs, things got even worse Sunday against the Jaguars as Mathews lost an early fumble and then was carted off after a right foot/ankle injury in the first quarter.

Mathews was running into a pile and a rewind and slow-mo job shows that Kirk Morrison came down on his right foot as he pushed forward, in a relatively nasty looking little injury.

10 bucks says he's classified as "questionable" to return, and another $10 says he won't see the field again against Jacksonville; San Diego has too much invested in Mathews to risk further injury, particularly if he's dealing with something like a high ankle sprain.

Update: (5:10): Well, scratch THAT idea. Mathews is already back on the Chargers sideline and seems likely to play. Guess he's not the next LdT after all. (Because, you know, he would have put on a helmet and a raincoat and sat on the bench staring at nothing.)

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Posted by Will Brinson

It's just kind of presumed that the Minnesota Vikings are interested in trading for Vincent Jackson, who, if dealt by Wednesday, would be eligible to play in their fifth game. (Also interested/rumored to be interested are the Seahawks, Redskins and Rams, for what it's worth.)

But just because it seems obvious that the Vikes would want Jackson on their squad to help make up for the injured Sidney Rice and the migrained Percy Harvin doesn't mean coach Brad Childress is going to admit it -- according to Jeremy Fowler of the Pioneer-Press , Chilly "deflected" questions about Jackson during his presser on Friday.

"He's really not a guy I'm able to speak about for the fact that he's their property," Childress said. "I wouldn't get into any speculation about anybody on anybody else's roster."

What's the old adage? Where there's a funny looking bald dude desperately trying to blow out the smoke there's generally fire?

Whatever, it seems pretty safe to say that if Childress is refusing to speculate on Minnesota's interest in Jackson (he wouldn't discuss whether or not they'd asked the Chargers for permission to discuss a trade) that there is in fact some interest there. Otherwise he'd just say "No."

The problem still remains, however, that if the Chargers don't want to trade him -- and that seems like a very real possibility; they could end up spitefully holding the Jackson and trying to land a third-rounder in compensation for him leaving -- it doesn't matter who wants him, because he won't go anywhere. And that's a very real possibility.

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Posted by Will Brinson

Vincent Jackson's hotly debated suspension (he's locked into three games for a DUI, the roster exempt suspension could cost him an additional three games) is gathering even more discussion according to a report today that the NFL and the NFLPA are negotiating a deal that could allow Jackson to only miss either four or five games if he's traded by the San Diego Chargers.

Adam Schefter reports on Twitter that the two sides are "engaged in settlement talks" to reduce the suspension if the wide receiver is traded. The reduction is key, of course, because Jackson becomes substantially less trade-able if he misses five games (especially to a team like the Minnesota Vikings, who could have Sidney Rice back as early as Week 6) versus four.

Edit/Update: Multiple reports from Jason Cole at Yahoo! Sports and Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune indicate that the NFL and the NFLPA reached a settlement on this issue and Jackson will be able to play, if he's traded to another team, in that new team's fifth game. Meaning: the suspension has been reduced to four games, provided he's dealt.

It would appear then, that the NFLPA didn't believe it would emerge victorious from the hearing with a full nullification of the additional three-gamer. Otherwise, they wouldn't likely be seeking any sort of settlement.

Once a settlement is reached and the full extent of Jackson's suspension is known, you can expect wide receiver needy teams to reach out to the Chargers and try to figure out what it is they want in return for the disgruntled wideout.

Prior to Jackson's additional suspension kicking in, a unnamed team had reached a contract extension with Jackson's camp, but the offer in return to San Diego wasn't enough to entice them to trade him. Presumably, the value in Jackson, with an additional game or two that he'll miss, will go down.

But expecting Bolts' GM A.J. Smith to let V-Jax and his camp get out of this happy and without the Chargers being satisfied with their compensation is silly given the way he's behaved thus far in negotiations .

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Got a link for the Hot Routes ? Follow us on Twitter (@CBSSportsNFL) or drop it in the comments.

• My pal Dan Levy has an interesting poll running over at Press Coverage , which you should vote on -- it involves the NFL releasing video clips (embeddable ones, mind you) to the public. Would you like that? Because I would.

• Kissing Suzy Kolber has the best football meets internet memes of the summer. It's beyond hysterical but, obviously, be careful for language reasons if you're clicking through.

• Larry Fitzgerald, according to Darren Urban of the Cardinals' official blog , is "stumping" to get Steve Breaston a new contract. Breaston, however, didn't want to chat about it.

• Jason Reid of the Washington Post points out that rookie tackle Trent Williams will have had a pretty good couple of tests in the first two weeks -- DeMarcus Ware and Mario Williams as his blocking assignments. He gets a break next week with the Rams, but then games against the Eagles (Trent Cole), Bears (Julius Peppers) and Colts (Dwight Freeney) should give us a good idea if he was a good pick by midseason.

• Tom Brady -- wisely -- understands the stupidity of trying to throw the ball in Darrelle Revis' direction a lot on Sunday. Which means that if Revis is manned up on Randy Moss, we should have a fun little "the team is blatantly trying to sandbag me for a contract" press party.

• Steven Jackson sat out practice on Wednesday , which is terrifying for anyone who was z-z-z-z-z-z-aaaaany enough to make them their pick two weeks in a row.

• We've been discussing how "locker room spies" are beneficial to their new team (although Eric Winston told me he doesn't think Kyle Shanahan will make that big of a difference) and the Giants have the best one of all in Jim Sorgi, who was Peyton Manning's backup for quite a while. (Of course they also have, you know, his brother Eli Manning, but he doesn't know the Colts offense.) Sorgi, however, doesn't think it'll matter. Because it's Peyton.

• Matthew Stafford is officially out this week , in case you were wondering. The good news is that he got a second opinion on his shoulder and surgery won't be necessary.

• Brandon Graham discusses/compares the speed differences between Michael Vick and Denard Robinson. He thinks Robinson's faster because Vick's older . Seems fair, but doing what Vick does in the NFL is a helluva lot harder than what Robinson's doing in the NCAA. Also, he should be primed for a big game Sunday, since he's basically heading home.

• The Chargers are expecting a blackout come Sunday -- they need an extra 8,000 tickets sold before Thursday at 1:15 PM against the Jaguars starts. So, that seems like a pretty good bet.

• One of Brian Bassett's readers noticed that Kris Jenkins had a tough time making it up the stairs at Cortland. Provided this account is true, well, it kind of makes it seem like he shouldn't have even been on the field for Week 1. Or we should have seen another injury coming.

Posted by Andy Benoit

Let me start by a.) apologizing for writing in first person (something I almost never do on the Facts and Rumors Blog) and b.) stating that I realize I very well could be the only person who finds these next few paragraphs interesting. I don’t care – something happened in the Chiefs-Chargers game Monday night that I’ve been waiting for my entire life.

The biggest play in the game was Dexter McCluster’s 94-yard punt return touchdown. That play put Kansas City up 21-7 and officially blew the top off of a raucous Arrowhead Stadium (which, of course, never had a top to begin with….but you get what I’m saying).
I won’t remember the McCluster play for the momentum-swing, though. I’ll remember it for the clock. You know how the two minute warning sometimes comes at 1:59 or 1:57 or something like that? Well, for as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to see a two minute warning come after 1:50. In other words, I’ve wanted to see a two minute warning that starts with a 1 and a 4. Why? No idea – just one of those things.

Maybe it’s because the chances of a 1 and 4 two minute warning happening are Olson Twin-slim. You basically need a punt to occur at 2:01, followed by a long return. Punts right before the 2:00 mark which almost never happen.

But Monday night, it did happen. Mike Scifres caught the snap from the long snapper sometime between 2:01 and 2:02. By the time McCluster reached the end zone, 1:43 remained. 1:43! I’d always figured that when – if – the sub-1:50 two minute warning occurred, it would be a 1:49 mark. Having it at 1:43 was like Mark McGwire passing Roger Maris’ 61-home run record by 11. The mark wasn’t broken, it was shattered.

The sad part is, I didn’t realize what had happened until several seconds afterwards. (Ironic, given the seemingly hundreds of times I’ve anticipated it and been disappointed.) I had to rewind the DVR to confirm it.

Maybe this was because, like McGwire’s home run mark, this 1:43 felt tainted. Why? Because the two minute warning never really occurred. McCluster’s touchdown stopped the clock and prompted a television timeout anyway. Maybe that timeout was because of the two minute warning (this, in fact, is likely, because touchdowns late in the half often don’t lead to commercials as, by that point, the network has usually gotten through all the necessary ads for the first two quarters). But we’ll never know. Brad Nessler, who called the game for ESPN, never mentioned the two minute warning.

If you’re still reading then, Wow, I guess you cared. In that case, let me push my luck by sharing two more quick, miscellaneous
thoughts that perhaps only I find interesting:

One: did anyone else notice that there seemed to be an insanely high number of fan shots during the broadcast last night? I started keeping track during the second quarter. Unofficially, in the second quarter, ESPN showed close-ups of fans in the stands 20 times. In the third quarter, 10 times. In the fourth quarter, 23 times (this is a little more understandable because there were so many tense plays late in the fourth, which usually spark more fan shots). Overall, that was  50-plus fan shots in three quarters. And you have to figure there were at least 20 in the first quarter, otherwise I wouldn’t have been inspired to count them.

Second (and final) random thought: don’t the Chiefs uniforms look great under the lights? I figured out why: their helmets are red. Hold your sarcastic response…do you realize that Kansas City is essentially the only team in the NFL that wears a red helmet? Sure, the Bills have red helmets, but the enormous blue buffalo on the side, and the thick blue-white-blue stripe down the middle take up nearly half the helmet’s real estate. And I’m not counting the Redskins as having red helmets – that’s not red, it’s maroon. As popular as the color red is, the Chiefs are really the only team that sports the color on their lids.

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Posted by Will Brinson



Whether or not the Chiefs can actually challenge for AFC West division supremacy doesn't really matter, because they're going to be incredibly fun to watch this year. (Well, it does matter, I guess, and Kansas City can contend in a weak division, especially after beating the Bolts 21-14 in a thrilling Monday night doubleheader .)

But even if they don't, you're going to want to tune in when they play. Javier Arenas and Dexter McCluster are ticking timebombs in the return game; McCluster is a home run threat out of the slot, on screens and even out of the backfield on offense; Dwayne Bowe/Matt Cassel will be better than they were against San Diego; and Jamaal Charles is the truth.

The defense has playmakers too, even if the weather in Arrowhead substantially assisted the Chiefs (or, if you prefer, "Cheifs" as was the popular trending topic on Twitter at some point on Tuesday ). Glenn Dorsey managed a half-sack, which wouldn't be that impressive if it wasn't a half-sack more than his 2009 total.

And Tyson Jackson, if he's not hurt too badly, looked vastly improved -- look no further than the immediate success of the Chargers following his departure. Eric Berry got torched for a deep touchdown pass, but he's clearly got skills when he's not forgetting what coverage package the team is running.

Finally, Kansas City has two established veteran coordinators running the show; people (myself included) like to make jokes about Charlie Weis and Romeo Crennel. That's because they stunk when they were put in charge of teams. They didn't stink when they were calling plays and running individual units of teams.

While it's easy to say there was a "different feeling" in Arrowhead on Monday night/Tuesday morning based on the crowd noise and excitement, there's at least a logical reason for thinking that this franchise is headed in a different direction.

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Posted by NFL Facts & Rumors staff

Andy Benoit joins Will Brinson to preview the second slate of games on the first NFL weekend. Can the numerous ex-Niners among the Seattle crew help the Seahawks overcome inexperience? Will the Aaron Rodgers v. Kevin Kolb matchup be the most exciting quarterback battle of the first week? Would you rather have Derek Anderson or Sam Bradford starting? All those questions -- and more -- answered for your previewing pleasure.

If you can't view the podcast, click here to download .
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Posted by Andy Benoit

Anyone who saw the Season Opener Thursday night knows the Vikings need help at wide receiver. Bernard Berrian is clearly a No. 2 option; Percy Harvin, at this point, is clearly a No. 3. Yet, with Sidney Rice out, Berrian and Harvin are masquerading as the No. 1 and 2 receivers.

Friday, Henry Lake of KFAN tweeted that help could be on the way for Minnesota. Lake’s sources are saying the Vikings could make a play for disgruntled Chargers wideout Vincent Jackson. The team has not yet confirmed or denied Lake’s report.
Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk reports that an unnamed team worked out a one-year deal with Jackson last Saturday, but that a trade with the Chargers could not be worked out. Saturday, Florio wrote, “Though all concerned persons and entities are keeping quiet on this one, we've done some digging and we believe that Lake is right -- and that the Vikings are the team that nearly traded for Jackson last week.”

Jackson is scheduled for a hearing in New York in five days to determine whether he will miss three games or six games if he’s trade from the Chargers. The NFL has suspended him three games for his multiple DUI arrests; the Chargers suspended him an additional three games for his holdout. The hearing will decide if the Chargers’ three-game suspension must hold up in the event that a trade occurs. If the suspension does hold up, that could compromise a potential trade (and, ostensibly, make A.J. Smith wonder if he was wise to take the hardball to that level).

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