The Green Bay Packers agreed to a contract with second-round draft pick Jerel Worthy on Thursday night, the Green Bay Press-Gazette reported.

I admit, I had barely heard of Jacob Bell before Tuesday. Now, I’ll always remember him. The veteran lineman became the first player to change his life following the death of legendary linebacker Junior Seau. Valuing his safety, Bell stepped away from the game. He officially retired, doing so because Seau’s apparent reality spurred him to do it. Bell is healthy now, but he doesn’t know what is around the corner. Bell wants to speak out about the realities of the game, and he did so in my article. “Everybody wants to make the money, but what are you really sacrificing?” Bell told me. “If they tell you we’re going to take your brain and whack it with a baseball bat, [...]

Bucky Brooks and Matt “Money” Smith cast their gaze to the top prospects for the 2013 NFL Draft. Could next year’s draft have even more talent than 2012?

Well, this didn’t take long. You knew the Jets would wrap their arms around Tebowmania. And you knew they were entering another world when Tim Tebow’s introductory news conference was treated like a gala. But I feel like it really crystalized today. Media members who cover the Jets were allowed in the locker room today for the first time this offseason, and Tebow received most of the attention. Duh. And as you can see here, here, and here, it was an epic period of media access. Those Gang Green reporters are never boring. And Tebow contradicting a report about where he lived was fantastic. But the best and most absurd thing was that Tebow — ready for this?? — changed the [...]

As soon as the Cowboys drafted CB Morris Claiborne, the status of starting CB Mike Jenkins was in doubt. In the final year of his contract, wanting a new pay day, Jenkins was trade bait. And the team did try to trade him. That was two weeks ago. Offers were slim, and any hope of the Cowboys receiving back the second-rounder they gave up to get Claiborne was wishful thinking. Some thought they could get a fourth-rounder for Jenkins, but even that didn’t happen. Dallas officials lamented how teams simply wanted to go with their picks, rather than trade for a proven corner. What now? At the Cowboys annual golf tournament, owner Jerry Jones said yesterday that team now considers [...]

If there is one thing I took out of Cowboys rookie mini-camp last week, it’s that defensive coordinator Rob Ryan think this year’s defense will be a lot better than last year’s defense. But it was his reason why that got me thinking. Thanks to the lockout-infused offseason and a much shorter time for acclimation in 2011, Ryan said he rushed the teaching of his scheme in his first year with the Cowboys. That’s why, when it came time for blame, he didn’t put it on his players. He put it on himself as the reason for their bad play. Ryan insisted that this year, he’s going to go about it the right way and build a foundation. “It’s like [...]

Drayton Florence was still in Tennessee Wednesday after meeting with the Titans Tuesday, but the cornerback still plans to meet with the Denver Broncos, according to sources with knowledge of the situation.

The San Diego Chargers are also interested in the veteran cornerback who spent his first five years in the league with the team.

The summer is usually a slow time in this business. Teams wrap up their mini-camps on June 14, then go off into hibernation until preseason training camp in late July. That’s a decent chunk of time to not do much at all. Sure, there is golf to play (and I need to find a place in Dallas). And there are tans to work on. But what else? Well, I just found something. And it’s awesomely ridiculous. Fox has a new dating show (as we told you about here), which usually is a guarantee of something I won’t be watching. I mean, unless they bring back Elimidate, I’m out. And this show, which features celebrities hearing pitches from non-celebrities who want [...]

The Pittsburgh Steelers have brought in veteran kicker Dave Rayner, according to sources with knowledge of the situation.

The NFL journeyman kicker has played with eight teams in as many years where he has racked up 65 field goals on 90 attempts and made 77 or 78 extra points.

Adrian Peterson, Jamaal Charles and DeMarco Murray are all coming off injuries in 2011. Find out how this trio is progressing and where you should target them in fantasy drafts.

Defensive back Chris Crocker visited with the Detroit Lions on Tuesday and has a visit scheduled with the Arizona Cardinals on Wednesday, according to a source with knowledge of the situation.

The annual Met Gala, benefiting the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, was held Monday night and drew two of the NFL’s biggest luminaries — Tom Brady and Tim Tebow. Now, I don’t want to say Brady is getting a little jealous of the attention Tebow has commanded over the last year, but then you have Tom’s hairstyle.

The draft was not even a week old, and Bears WR Alshon Jeffery already had his rookie contract finished. That day, his agent Eugene Parker told me he didn’t understand why more teams didn’t follow suit. Soon, they would. Thanks to the new Collective Bargaining Agreement, rookie deals are getting done at record pace. The Seahawks are done with theirs. The Chargers signed three today. By the time I type this, another will probably get done. Players are paid from a smaller pool with a different structure from before, and haggling over first contracts is mostly old news. It’s basically a rookie wage scale, with strict rules. Agents will be trying to get the most guaranteed money they can for [...]

We covered my thoughts on Patriots longtime left tackle Matt Light yesterday, reflecting on his career following his retirement announcement. I knew Light for three years, talking to him in the locker room after practices and games, seeing him at charity events, and wherever else. We knew each other, I’d say, fairly well. But last night, we all received a reminder of something absolutely essential. It’s an important lesson for reporters, fans, coaches, and really anyone who comes across those who live in the spotlight. We think we know. We really don’t know. In a fantastic article by Mike Reiss of ESPN Boston, Light details his decade-long battle with Crohn’s disease. It’s a nasty ailment, one that Light lived with [...]

If you think Browns rookie running back Trent Richardson is being overvalued in fantasy football, you might want to think again.