In Arizona, Boldin developed a special pitch-and-catch bond with Warner

Baltimore has not had a true No. 1 wide receiver since a guy named Raymond Berry was catching passes from a guy named Johnny Unitas. In fact, in the brilliant front-office career of general manager Ozzie Newsome, it's worth pointing out that the Ravens have never had a wide receiver selected to the Pro Bowl. That's the only offensive or defensive positional grouping at which they (wholesale Arizona Cardinals Jerseys)have never had a player earn that honor, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

And though the Ravens reached the second round of the AFC playoffs last year, their passing game -- which finished 18th in the league -- proved to be a liability against the Colts, who beat them 20-3 in an embarrassing divisional round loss. But an anemic passing game has plagued this franchise since its rebirth in 1996.

Make no mistake about it, Boldin knows what's at stake here, even if he's downplaying his role. He understands there will be a serious adjustment from the multi-dimensional, pinball wizard, wide-open Cardinals offense with veteran Kurt Warner in the shotgun to the run-first, inside-out offense run by classic dropback quarterback Joe Flacco, who is entering his third year.

In cheap Arizona Cardinals Jerseys, Boldin developed a special pitch-and-catch bond with Warner. "He always knew what I was doing -- we didn't have to say anything to each other," said Boldin, who said he will stay in the Baltimore area to work out with Flacco for four weeks before the start of training camp in late July.

But will there be enough footballs to go around? Last season, the Cardinals' offense lined up in a four-wide receiver set 314 times, by far the most in the league. The Ravens lined up four-wide just 16 times last year, fewest in the league.

And Boldin, who does not demand a double-team, needs a strong receiver on his opposite side to help occupy coverage. That means veteran Derrick Mason, who led the team with 1,028 receiving yards last year, Mark Clayton and newcomer Donte' Stallworth will be fighting for playing time. And don't forget halfback Ray Rice, who led the Ravens with 78 catches last season.

Chaney ready for Eagles' training camp

FORT PIERCE — The way Jamar Chaney sees it, NFL training camp is going to be difficult, but certainly not something he can't get through fairly easily.

After all, the biggest obstacles most first-year NFL players face are something he's had to contend with for the past four years: The heat and the ability of the players on the other side of the line.

Chaney was drafted in the seventh round (220th overall) by the supply Philadelphia Eagles jerseys in April. The linebacker from St. Lucie West Centennial High School has already attended rookie camp and the Eagles OTAs (organized team activities) in Philadelphia after signing his four-year rookie deal at the beginning of June.

He came away feeling pretty good about his chances of making the team this summer.

"The terminology is different, but you can't really tell the game until you put on the pads," Chaney said. "I'm not sure that it's that big of a difference from the SEC."

Chaney played four years at Mississippi State University, going head-to-head with some of the toughest football players in the nation on a weekly basis. That's where his confidence comes from when asked about what he expects at training camp.

"I wouldn't say it's that big of a difference. I'm used to playing against wholesale Philadelphia Eagles jerseys guys from Florida, Alabama, Auburn, LSU … those are the guys that got drafted in the first round. So it shouldn't be that big of a difference," Chaney said. "There are a lot of guys from the SEC doing well in the NFL."

Not only did he play against them, he excelled.

As a Bulldog, Chaney was a Second Team All-SEC selection. He developed a work ethic that led him to Miami to train with Pete Bommarito to increase his speed before the combine. He followed that up with a 4.54 40-yard dash, the fastest among linebackers at the combine.

He said he is currently working out on his own in Fort Pierce, but plans to travel to Starkville, Miss., to work out with Bulldogs strength and conditioning coach, Matt Balis, a couple weeks before he is due to report to Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa., for Eagles training camp on July 26.

"We're going to do everything," Chaney said. "Lifting weights, training, spin training. It's going to be real hard. But last year was his first year with our team and I was in the best shape of my life.

"I just have to get ready to go up there and make an impression."

Another thing that trip to Mississippi will do is gear Chaney up for the heat that plagues all NFL training camps. Although, after four years in the Deep South, that isn't something that he's really thinking about.

"The heat? Have you been to Mississippi in August?" Chaney said. "I'm not all that worried about that. It's going to be hard. It's going to be tough. But hopefully it's not that hard for me. I've been down here in the Florida heat and then in Mississippi.

"I just need to go show the coaches that I'm ready to play."

Chargers' Brinkley has come to terms with being shot at home near Philly

SAN DIEGO - After years of football, Curtis Brinkley was as much at home in a locker room as he was in his living room.

That changed when the former Syracuse running back - the leading rusher in Southeastern Pennsylvania history at West Catholic High - returned to workouts with the San Diego Chargers this spring, less than a year after being shot in Elkins Park, Montgomery County.

Police say a boyfriend of his sister's mistook him for another man.

"I was uncomfortable at first, taking my shirt off," Brinkley said recently. "People want to know what happened. They want to see the scars, where you got shot at, how many times."

Brinkley would work out with the Chargers and then slip away, still wearing his shirt, to go home and shower alone.

Sitting in the sauna one day, San Diego running back Darren Sproles carefully brought up the subject.

"He said, 'You know, you're going to have to deal with that the rest of your life, or as long as your career is going, anyway,' " Brinkley said. "Once he told me that, I looked at it even more as, 'I've just got to deal with it. It's something that happened. I've got to be here and perform to the best of my abilities.'

"Now, I don't think about it."

Signed in 2009 after going undrafted out of Syracuse, where he capped an injury-marred career by rushing for 1,164 yards his senior season, Brinkley is trying to make the San Diego roster as the third running back.

He made an impression during off-season training last year. But back in Philadelphia last summer before returning for training camp, he was shot as he waited July 10 to pick up his sister, Niveka Cason, from her job as a caregiver shortly after midnight.

Police and court documents allege that Anthony Peterson Jr., a boyfriend of Cason's who was angry she was seeing someone else, mistook Brinkley as the potential romantic rival and fired three rounds from a .357 Magnum, hitting him in the shoulder.

"I was reaching to clear the front seat out for her, putting the things in the back, and put my hand on the steering wheel, and someone just ran up behind me and shot me," Brinkley said. "I just felt my shoulder drop, and I heard the noise and I ducked my head down, put the car in reverse and I just was crashing into a lot of things, trying to get away.

"I had my head down, trying to prevent getting shot in the head, and when I didn't hear no more shots, I lifted my head up. I had, I think, two or three flat tires. I didn't see my sister and I just pulled up, called the cops and told them I was shot multiple times. Next thing, I pulled up to the gas station, and I don't remember nothing that happened after that."

Peterson, who according to an arrest warrant affidavit told Brinkley's mother, Tawanda Cason, he was angry his girlfriend was seeing another man and would "kill someone for Niveka," surrendered to authorities and is being held at the Montgomery County Correctional Facility on charges that include attempted murder. Cason, according to the affadavit, called Peterson after the shooting and said, "You shot my son, you owe me an explanation why." According to a letter from his lawyer to the judge, Peterson is expected to plead guilty.

Brinkley spent a week at Albert Einstein Medical Center, where doctors ultimately decided a bullet that entered through his shoulder was too close to his heart to be removed. Doctors have assured him and the Chargers the fragment poses no risk.

Brinkley said he no longer spends much time rethinking the events of that night.

"I don't think I was in the wrong place at the wrong time, by no means. I think if anybody's sister called them to go pick them up, they're going to go pick them up," he said.

"I know I did a lot of damage to people's houses and cars. After my therapy and things like that, I just went up to the people's house and apologized. They forgive me. They know I was trying to get away, dodge bullets and things like that. They were like, 'No problem.' "

Still, his recovery was difficult.

"It was tough, mentally and physically," he said. "More mentally. I would dream about me being shot, and from time to time I would hear, just the shots. It just messes with you mentally. But I'm strong. Nothing messed with me more than me losing my father. I lost my father, Curtis Brinkley Sr., in '05. November 19."

Memories of his father, who died of lymphoma, made Brinkley's close call more poignant. His son, Elijah, was born in February and lives in Philadelphia with his mother.

"Just knowing I was in a position where my son, it was a possibility he would grow up without a father," Brinkley said. "It's beautiful to have a chance to be with him."

With his own father gone, Brinkley has become increasingly close to one of his uncles, Shaheed Brinkley.

"He told me, day in and day out, after my dad passed, when I broke my ankle, when I messed my knee up, when I got shot, that I was going to make it," Brinkley said.

Shaheed Brinkley, who lives in New Castle, Del., said his nephew's shooting is "just another blow he has been dealt."

"To me it's a blessing he stepped on the field, period, after what he's been through. But it's the first step in a long journey," he said.

Even the night of the shooting, football was on Brinkley's mind. Months later, he ran into one of the hospital workers who helped him.

"I was coming down the steps and this guy looked so familiar. We looked at each other and he was like, 'You don't even remember me, do you?'

"I said, 'I apologize for not recognizing you. I'm thankful that you helped me out.' And I asked him, 'What was I like?' And he said, 'You just kept asking if you could still play football.' "

Brinkley can still play, but his career might be approaching a turning point. As Ryan Brumfield of Owen J. Roberts High prepares to try to close in on Brinkley's Southeastern Pennsylvania rushing record of 7,429 yards this fall, Brinkley heads into Chargers training camp next month trying to become the third running back behind Darren Sproles and first-round pick Ryan Mathews.

"I don't know how it's all going to work out," Chargers running backs coach Ollie Wilson said. "But I do know this, that wherever he ends up, whether it be football or somewhere else, he's going to be successful, just because of the way he attacks it.

"He said to me, 'This time last year, I didn't know whether I was going to be alive. Now I've got an opportunity to do something. I better take advantage of it. Because I have first-hand knowledge that you never know what's going to happen.'"

 

Todd Haley: Drops hurt Matt Cassel a lot

 Kansas City Chiefs coach Todd Haley has a plausible explanation for why quarterback Matt Cassel didn't have a stronger season last year.

The Chiefs' wide receivers kept dropping the football last season.

Specifically, over 50 drops. According to various statistical tables, the Chiefs were one of the worst teams in the league in this category.

If the wide receivers perform better and the Chiefs run the football effectively with Jamaal Charles and Thomas Jones, then ostensibly Cassel should begin living up to his $40 million contract.

"This guy is making progress in a bunch of ways," Haley told ESPN.com. "He had a very difficult year last year, but he didn't crack. That's a good sign. He has been one of our best workers this offseason, if not the best. He's working.

"We had 50-plus drops last season. If those don't happen, people would look at Cassel differently … If we get the improved offensive play around him that we hope to, I think people will feel better about Matt Cassel."

It makes no cents for New York Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis not to hold out

Rex Ryan has a better chance of dropping another 50 pounds by the time the  New York Jets report to training camp six weeks from Sunday than Darrelle Revis has of showing up if he doesn't have a new contract.

In other words, if the Revis vs. Jets standoff isn't resolved by the time veteran camp opens in Cortland, N.Y. on Aug. 1, I will be very surprised if Revis isn't a summertime holdout.

The injury risk is too great for Revis to play for just $1 million this season, when his guarantees don't kick in until next year. Revis has qualified to have the final two years (2011-2012) voided from his original six-year, $36 million rookie contract after this season. Then the New York Jets  have the right to buy back them back for $5 million guaranteed in 2011 and $15 million guaranteed in 2012.

If Revis doesn't secure an extension with a sizable amount of guaranteed money, or if the Jets don't come up with a short-term solution, then he's going to be hanging out by himself on Revis Island while Ryan puts the Jets through two-a-days.

Perhaps a quick fix to get Revis into camp is jumping the $1 million he's scheduled to earn in 2010 to about $10 million, the market value for an elite corner. But without getting additional years, it's not likely the Jets would give Revis more money. But it would enhance their Super Bowl chances.

This could get ugly and nasty - as if Revis faking a hamstring injury in minicamp last week and embarrassing Ryan wasn't bad enough.

Here's the immediate problem for Revis:

- If he suffers a career-threatening injury in training camp or during the season, the Jets could elect not to exercise the buybacks, making Revis a damaged-goods free agent. Revis is good friends with ex-Jets running back Leon Washington and he viewed up close how one play can change a player's life. The Giants' Domenik Hixon is gone for the year after he blew out his ACL in a non-contact drill last week.

If Revis shows up and plays this season under his present contract, he will be gambling he can stay injury-free. But even then, he will be playing the next three years for a total of $21 million. The $7 million average is not even half of Nnamdi Asomghua's three-year, $45.3 million deal in Oakland and Revis is determined to be the highest-paid corner in the NFL.

- If Revis doesn't show up for camp, he can be fined about $16,000 a day and the guaranteed language in the $20 million in 2011-2012 disappears. If he doesn't show up, I believe this could go on for awhile. I don't see him losing his nerve when it becomes late August, with the Sept. 13 Monday Night opener against the Ravens fast approaching. Revis held out of camp 21 days until his rookie deal got done in 2007 when he had not proven anything. Now he's the best corner in the league.