Roundup 8/1

News & Notes: From My Blackberry To Your Eyes

• After about 36 hours of teasing everybody about their interest in free agent QB Michael Vick, the Patriots did an about face today. Owner Robert Kraft came out publicly and announced that the Patriots do not have interest in signing Vick. Then they went ahead and began negotiations with another free agent QB in Cleo Lemon. According to all reports a deal of Lemon to the Pats is all but a done deal.

• Laurent Robinson began Rams practice as the starter opposite Donnie Avery. It appears he is ahead of Keenan Burton on the teams first draft of the depth chart this summer. I expect Robinson to be a good player. He is definitely a guy to keep your eye on this year as a big time fantasy sleeper.

• One of the worst kept secrets around 49ers camp is that everybody from the front office would really like to see Alex Smith win the starting job from Shaun Hill this year. I'm not quite sure why this is but it has gotten out of control at how fixed this competition might be. It will be interesting to see if Mike Singletary let's management influence his team or if he will be one who sticks to what he thinks is best for the team.

• There's been talk around the Carolina Panthers coaching staff that they may want to add a veteran WR to the mix this camp. It is not clear who, if anybody they have got their sights set on but it appears they may work out a few in the next week or so.

• A big blow to the Titans offensive line possibly as veteran center Kevin Mawae, who was expected back by the start of training camp will miss another month while he recovers from offseason elbow surgery. I am starting to get just a bit worried about the Titans offensive line. There are several minor injuries here and now missing Mawae until the start of the regular season may cause some slip in a unit that was possibly the best in football a year ago.

• Rookie RB Chris Wells, who just signed his first NFL contract a day ago, showed up in Cardinals camp in excellent shape. He weighed in at 224 lbs. which is down 22 lbs from what he was at immediately after he was drafted. Head coach Ken Whisenhunt was extremely pleased by this and this could be the beginning of Wells taking over as the feature RB in Arizona.

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