As we do every week, let’s take a swing around the NFL, looking at a bunch of random things… 1. The Cowboys play the Giants on Wednesday, the high-profile season opener for the entire league and a rematch of the 2011 finale that kick-started the G-Men on their run to the Super Bowl. It will also be the debut of the Cowboys defense that has looked really stout in the preseason under second-year coordinator Rob Ryan. Most of it came without pass-rusher DeMarcus Ware, who had 19.5 sacks last year. As a precaution, he sat out three preseason games, even though he said after the second one that if there was a real game, he’d have played. Yet if Ware is worried […]

As we do every week, let’s take a swing around the NFL, looking at a bunch of random things … So, what’s been up? 1. Is there a better place to start than the New York Jets? Oh, and for a spoiler alert, we’re not talking about Tim Tebow right off the bat. So… you might not be interested. But anyway, we’ll talk about the Jets issues at right tackle. What a mess. Wayne Hunter, who the coaches praised all offseason, was benched after two horrific performances in preseason games. Duh. Even he said, “I was waiting for it.” I imagine this makes for a bit of an awkward time for OL coach Dave DeGuglielmo, who said this spring that until they […]

Every time we talk about the preseason, it comes with a caveat: It’s only the preseason. It doesn’t really count. Teams aren’t using their best game plans, stars only play a few plays and the models of evaluation are different. For teams, the focus shifts from, “Can this player thrive in our scheme?” to “Can he win 1-on-1 battles?“ The best performances (hello, Julio Jones) and the worst (ouch, Kevin Kolb) should be taken with a pound of salt. This was all reinforced Friday night quite nicely during the New York Jets’ 17-6 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals. As the New York Post pointed out, Cincinnati coach Marvin Lewis called Jets coach Rex Ryan and asked him not to run […]

On Friday former NFL LB Dhani Jones put down his phone, signed out of Twitter and stopped by The Art of Shaving for the first straight-razor shave of his life and a little “me” time.