Morning Reading: Bobby McCray Returns to the New Orleans Saints

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Let’s go all out NFL (with a little Gator flavor) on this glorious Friday.

Former Florida defensive end Bobby McCray will return to the New Orleans Saints for the 2010 season.  The pass-rush specialist was a key member of the Saints’ Super Bowl winning squad last season, but had been released by the team last month.  In the time since he was cut, New Orleans had been working to bring him back though.

McCray rejoins the Saints on a one-year deal where he’ll team up with another former Gator – Alex Brown, formerly of the Chicago Bears – on the defensive line.  New Orleans has positioned themselves to defend their title in 2010.  If they do, another former Florida star will be in line for a ring.  The Saints defensive line should bring back visions of past Gator glory to many Florida fans.

If you were a fan outside of the Big 12 looking in, it was easy to pick Texas’ Colt McCoy as your favorite QB in the conference.  Nothing against Oklahoma’s Sam Bradford, but McCoy had that likeability factor about him that made it easy to want him to do well (even if some soured on him during the national championship game).  He played hard and completed a ridiculous percentage of his passes – almost video game like.

When McCoy fell to the third round in the NFL draft this year, many were shocked.  I’m not exactly sure why – where he was picked sounds pretty reasonable to me all things considered – but people were surprised all the same.  Now McCoy has his deal with the Cleveland Browns and is ready to start his NFL career.

The Browns signed McCoy to a four-year deal worth around $5 million – or almost $2 million more than what an individual selected near where he was would normally get.  Cleveland hopes they can get more from McCoy over the course of his career than the did from Derek Anderson and Brady Quinn so pushing a little more money his way wasn’t a tough decision.  With a started nearing the end of his career – Jake Delhomme – it shouldn’t be long before McCoy gets his chance to run the offense.

Not too long from now I’ll have to make my selection of who I want to hang on to in my fantasy football keeper league (Side Note: Don’t join a keeper league.  They suck if you can keep three or more players.  It takes too many years for the tide to shift from the guys who got the league’s top running backs before the first season.  If you finish near the bottom, you’re destined to be there for a while before new great backs start to cycle in.  Then again, I have the #1 pick this offseason.  Welcome to the team Ryan Mathews.)  One of my options is Miles Austin.  I picked up Austin during the season and he did wonders, but there are two reasons I won’t be checking the keeper box next to his name: 1) running backs rule, and 2) Dez Bryant.

Bryant became the first first-round pick to agree to terms thanks to a five-year, $11.8 million deal with the Dallas Cowboys.  If Bryant is half as good as everyone expects him to be, expect that deal to be renegotiated before it’s up.

The former Oklahoma State star will get every opportunity to become a first-team WR early on and should see plenty of passes come his way during his rookie season.  Because of that, Austin may no longer be the #1 WR I’m looking for.  Then again, I’m one of those that finishes near the bottom of the standings every year, so what does it really matter?