'Canes safety is in a hurry to make NFL impact

'Canes safety is in a hurry to make NFL impact
'Canes defender Kenny Phillips is trying to extend an extraordinary Miami streak of success in the NFL Draft, Alex Marvez says.

Report: Vick playing QB on prison team
Michael Vick may never play in the NFL again. But his football days are far from over.

Bengals cut Wilson, who was arrested in '07
Running back Quincy Wilson has been waived by the Cincinnati Bengals. It is the second time in the past five days the Bengals released a player who had been arrested. The second-year running back from West Virginia was arrested last June 17 in Huntington, W.Va., and charged with disorderly conduct for failing to disperse after a weekend wedding party. The Bengals waived him Monday. Wilson was the 10th Bengals player arrested in a 14-month span.

Break-out QB Garrard signs extension with Jags
Quarterback David Garrard has signed a contract extension with the Jacksonville Jaguars. Terms of Monday's deal were not released. But Garrard and his agent, Albert Irby, had been looking for something similar to the six-year, $67.5 million contract Dallas quarterback Tony Romo signed last season. The 30-year-old Garrard is coming off his best season. He completed 64 percent of his passes for 2,509 yards and 18 touchdowns despite missing three games because of an ankle injury.

Martz: 'Detroit was not a good football team'
During a chalktalk sessions with fans, new San Francisco 49ers offensive coordinator Mike Martz�revealed the more accurate NFL rankings in terms of sacks per pass play which he said had never been extraordinary, and in fact, quite good up until he went to Detroit.

"In Detroit we were not a good football team," said Martz. "We were last in the NFL on defense and when you have to throw the football to win, that's not a good thing. We weren't good enough on the offensive line to protect him and throw the ball like we did. When I was with the Rams, we were. The number of hits on the quarterback when I was with the Rams near the end of my time there was about the middle of the pack. In the early goings, it was actually very low and we were ranked near the best in the league."

With Smith, Falcons have lots of options
Falcons coach Mike Smith has a bounty of picks and an eye on Jake Long. But good luck getting him to admit it, says Alex Marvez.

Packers will improve from within, not by breaking bank
This year,�the Green Bay Packers dived a little deeper into the free-agent pool with the three-year, $5.4 million contract they gave linebacker Brandon Chillar, but it was hardly the kind of impact move the New England Patriots made last year to improve their chances of making it to the Super Bowl.

Both McCarthy and general manager Ted Thompson are sticking to their plan of improving from within. And even with the loss of Favre to retirement, they both feel the maturation of their young talent will lead them to bigger and better things this year.

"I feel very strongly about that because we have youth on our side, our system of how we develop the players on a one-on-one basis in the off-season that works," McCarthy said. "We proved that last year. Now we need to do that again this year. That's my job, to make sure it gets done. I feel we have an opportunity once again to improve within."