NFL: Oh, The Places Players Might Go!

"You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself any
direction you choose."

—Dr. Seuss: Oh, The Places You'll Go!

Ann Hogan: We're at all the games, unlike a lot of the other parents.
Phil Weston: No no, not like the other parents at all! You're better than the other parents.
Ambrose's Dad: Oh, so they're better?
Phil Weston: No, they're different.
Donna Jones: What do you mean "different"?
Phil Weston: I mean, you're different because you're better.
Ambrose's Dad: How are they better?
Phil Weston: You're both better different... in a different but better way!
Ann Hogan: Uh, okay.

--Kicking & Screaming

Julius Peppers wants to leave Carolina, and LaDainian Tomlinson is still wondering about his future in San Diego.

Peppers wants to challenge himself by playing in the 3-4 defense.  No word on whether he wants to remain a lineman or move to linebacker.  However, the teams that utilize the 3-4 as their base defense are limited: Cleveland, Miami, San Francisco, San Diego, New England, Pittsburgh, and Dallas.

Some teams might jump at the chance for Peppers and decide to convert to the 3-4 as their base defense just to get Peppers, but until then, the aforementioned teams are currently the only that do. 

Perhaps, the best move for Carolina would be to 'sign and trade' Peppers, if it truly is just about moving on rather than money for Peppers.

LaDainian Tomlinson meanwhile has found himself as the aging star in limbo, because of the typical arrogance that is typical of front offices in sports. 

In my mind, the front office is basically a collection of people that remind me of the 'crazily parents' at junior league games; in that, the execs are just living vicariously through the players and seek stars because that makes them feel like a star. 

In football, the 'crazily parents' are ultimately those who pull the strings; while the football journalists are more interested in making believe that they to could be an NFL executive and so, they live vicariously through the execs by making nice with execs rather than deriding them for foolishness.  Unless of course, it is popular amongst execs to deride certain teams, like Al Davis and the Raiders.

I say that with a grain of salt though: execs deserve credit when they succeed but deserve derision when they fail, but that doesn't happen enough because the writers are too chicken to risk the loss of a contact for an interview.  Unless of course, it's Al Davis or Mike Brown.  With that said, the livelihood of those writers depends on their unconditional submission to execs, but really, they are just in a prison of their own construction, as Ben Karlin once said about journalists.  Simply put, if I want to hear the perspective of NFL executives and coaches, I would rather read from Pat Kirwan or Bill Parcels -- not some guy who had his nose up their behind.

Does LT deserve to be treated like old meat?

No.

The question is will he be treated like old meat?

Probably.

The reality is, the Chargers will unlikely trade LT to the AFC while the NFC lacks a team that would need LT as a starter and has a reasonable belief that they can compete in 2009.

Yes, I always believe that a team should believe they can win, but I issue that with a grain of salt. Don't pick up big contracts to the detriment of value and your system.

In other words, Detroit and Seattle should likely focus on the draft rather than throw in a star where he doesn't belong. 

Before I receive angry comments from Detroit and Seattle fans:

Star players bubble up from teams that win; but building around a star player from a different system, often does not result in wins. Star-players can be added to help a team win, but only as long as they aren't the focus, like Rodney Harrison and Corey Dillon were in New England.

Thus, Seattle and Detroit should focus on rebuilding.

Detroit fans know that, but I think Seattle fans still believe that the Seahawks can contend with only a few changes, but they can't. They need to start over on offense and clean up the defense.

Seattle can potentially do that in the draft like Atlanta and Miami did, but I definitely believe that Seattle should veer from the temptation to acquire LT.

That leaves only a few sound locations for LT: Dallas and New York.

The Giants will likely lose one of their running backs in free-agency and would benefit from LT. I though cannot see that one happening after that whole Eli Manning thing in the 2004 Draft.  (The aforementioned should be said with sarcasm in mind).

LT meanwhile is from Texas and grew up in admiration of Emmit Smith, so Dallas would make sense for LT, even with Marion Barber and Felix Jones, because Jerry Jones loves star players, so much so that the Cowboys made sure that Emmit Smith would pass Walter Payton statistically as the all-time rusher. 

One potential trade, although it would be a questionable one, would be for the Cowboys to trade either Marion Barber or Felix Jones to San Diego for LaDainian Tomlinson.

The problem with that theory though is that Felix Jones is a change-of-pace runner, similar to Darren Sproles.

The Chargers though need a compliment to Sproles, thus Marion Barber would fit that bill. Barber though, is Dallas' best runner, so the only possibility that I can conceive is that San Diego would trade LaDainian Tomlinson and their first-round pick to Dallas for Marion Barber and another player, such as G Montrae Holland and a low draft-pick or a swap (swapping picks in the same round).