He rushed for 2, yards in his final year of high school. Dupree committed to play for Barry Switzer at the University of Oklahoma. Despite not starting until the seventh game of the season, Dupree still finished the season with 1, rushing yards, averaging a whopping 7.
Switzer was on Dupree about his weight and sometimes called him out for being lazy. That turns out to be true. Dupree played in four games in his sophomore season and suffered a concussion against the University of Texas.
After taking a week off, Dupree surprisingly announced he was leaving Oklahoma and would be enrolling at Southern Mississippi. The NCAA ruled that Dupree would have to miss one full season after transferring, meaning he would have to miss the rest of the season and all of His second and final season in the USFL was short-lived after sustaining a severe knee injury.
Both youngsters played well at times in but roster quotas might mean only one will make the team this year. Canidate is a lock and the Redskins are listing kickoff return specialist Chad Morton as a tailback, and hope to utilize him as a third-down back. Not many teams retain four tailbacks on their roster.
Then again, since Spurrier makes so little use of his tight ends, the Redskins could go "light" at the position on their roster, and keep an extra back. Cincinnati coaches got some good news this week when their excellent backup tailback, Brandon Bennett , was cleared physically for camp.
Bennett missed considerable practice time as he rehabilitated from disc surgery and Bengals officials had grown concerned enough at one point to begin considering alternatives to the No. The team looked into a possible trade for Thomas Jones , before the former Arizona first-rounder was swapped instead to Tampa Bay, but decided to wait and see how Bennett's recovery progressed. A four-year veteran, Bennett doesn't get much publicity, but he is a productive role player and a good guy to have around.
Bengals coach Marvin Lewis is very high on longshot running back Ray Jackson, a free agent who wasn't even in a training camp last year. The former University of Cincinnati standout, who began his college career at Michigan and then transferred, spent the year working for the local recreation commission, stocking shelves at Wal-Mart and redefining his frame.
His weight went from pounds to pounds and his yard time, remarkably, improved from 4. Jackson has a chance to earn a roster spot as a kick returner. Although the league has advised exiled cornerback Rashard Anderson that he cannot file for reinstatement until December, since he tested positive again for marijuana during his treatment, look for the former first-rounder's camp to mount an effort to have the NFL consider an August appeal.
The tack likely won't succeed, but some feel that it is worth a shot, since the most recent positive test occurred when the Carolina Panthers veteran was extremely close to having successfully completed his one-year suspension. Nearly as slim as the chances for that argument succeeding are the chances the Panthers will ever take Anderson back again. Given past off-field indiscretions by Panthers players, the franchise is trying to sanitize its image.
Because he has prototype size and lots of untapped potential, Anderson might get another opportunity in the league, but it won't be until and it won't be in a Carolina uniform. By the way, sources confirmed to ESPN.
It seems like every week, there's a note in this column about safeties -- how many remain in free agency and how many teams seem to still need a veteran backup.
But perhaps no team is in more need of a proven safety than the Philadelphia Eagles , whose depth chart behind starters Brian Dawkins and Michael Lewis is nearly as bare as Mother Hubbard's pantry. But don't expect LeJeune to be the primary backup for long. Coordinator Jim Johnson has conceded he is concerned about the depth problem. With a ton of money still left on their salary cap, bet the mortgage the Eagles will sign a veteran safety either before or during training camp.
Well, he didn't get much more. Of course, the eight-year veteran still has a job, and , of anything is always better than zero. The contract reworking, though, didn't assure Bruener of any security past this year. So the two sides likely will go through the trimming process again next summer or Bruener will be released. Notably, it appears Bruener could retain his starting job. The word in the 'burgh is that former Buffalo starter Jay Riemersma , released by the Bills for salary cap reasons, will be used primarily on third downs.
Pittsburgh offensive coordinator Mike Mularkey has rarely deployed a tight end on third down, but wants to better control the middle of the field in Riemersma is a solid receiver who should now give the Steelers a presence between the hashes. There have been a lot of tales told this week about the late Tex Schramm, truly one of the giants of the game, and we're certainly not going to endeavor to top those stories.
But one insight, if you will, into just how creative, inventive and resourceful Schramm could be in almost any circumstance: In , when the Dallas Cowboys were re-designing their uniforms, Schramm had a certain shade of blue in mind for the new game-day duds. Problem was, the color didn't exist, except in the fertile Schramm cranium. So he simply invented the color. Lore is that Schramm went through hundreds of combinations before he finally struck the formula for the tint that he wanted.
He described it as "a sort of blue-hued silver sort of. We were remiss last week in failing to note the passing of longtime college offensive line coach Joe Moore, who passed away in Pittsburgh after a too-long battle with cancer. Why does Moore merit a mention in the "Tip Sheet," a vehicle about the NFL, when he never coached a down in the professional ranks? Hey, sometimes you make exceptions, and Moore was an exceptional coach and a guy your humble correspondent knew well.
Plus he sent plenty of players to the NFL ranks, all of them polished blockers, none shy of work ethic. In one amazing five-year stretch, when he was coaching at the University of Pittsburgh, every senior lineman from the Panthers went on to play in the NFL.
Two of the most notable, Jimbo Covert and Bill Fralic, considered Moore the best line coach they ever had. Moore was right up there with all those guys. He smoked way too much, threw down a few beers too many, didn't particularly like to recruit, and usually needed a diligent graduate assistant to break down film for him, but in the coaching laboratory of the practice field, there weren't many guys better than Joe Moore.
Our condolences are extended to his family. Baltimore defensive end Michael McCrary is really struggling with a retirement that Ravens officials thought would have been announced by now. In fact, McCrary, 33, is beginning to wonder if he can squeeze out an 11th season by playing just as a situational pass rusher.
Certainly in his prime, McCrary was a scourge to quarterbacks -- one of the top upfield rushers of the '90s. If he doesn't announce his retirement, the Ravens will likely release McCrary, sometime next week before camp begins. Then, if he wants to continue playing, it will be up to him to find a team and to convince some coach that there is a little bit left in the gas tank.
We're not typically alarmists when it comes to rookie signings because, at some point, nearly everyone gets into camp in time to prepare for the season. That said, this year's pace is especially slow, with just 85 of the draft choices having agreed to terms as of Thursday night. That's fewer than one-third of the draft class with deals. Of course, the middle and late rounds will fill in quickly over the coming week as camps begin to open.
What is troublesome, though, is that only 10 of the 97 players chosen on the first day of the draft have reached contract terms. That redefines slow, folks, and there are going to be some contentious battles in the first round.
One trend that continues: Teams are still signing middle- and late-round choices to four-year contracts, virtually unheard of in the past. Even some seventh-round picks are being pressed into four-year deals. She owns the franchise lock, stock and barrel now. Despite their optimism about Luther Elliss' return from a pectoral injury in time for the start of the season, Detroit Lions officials are, indeed, considering signing a veteran defensive tackle.
Gary and Delpino led the team in rushing in and , respectively, but gained a combined 63 yards during the exhibition season because of minor leg injuries.
Dupree, who signed with the Rams Oct. On Monday, when asked about Dupree, Knox mentioned several times how hard it was to cut another back, Plan B acquisition Derek Loville. Knox told both Dupree and reporters that Dupree was not versatile enough to adapt to the one-back offense, and that the two backup spots--filled by rookie Tim Lester and second-year man David Lang--were reserved for prime special teams contributors.
Dupree, who never has been known as a pass catcher or a blocker, simply did not fit into the finesse system, Knox indicated. All Sections.
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