As NFL coaching staffs and front offices have increased their emphasis on passers and those who attack passers, middle linebackers have lost their luster in recent decades. But two players emerged in the last decade and a half to change the perception that linebackers who didn't blitz couldn't be superstars. 

Fittingly, Brian Urlacher and Ray Lewis are retiring together, and there's a small chance both enter the Hall of Fame together in about half a decade.

Lewis walked away a Super Bowl champion in February, while Urlacher confirmed Wednesday on Twitter that he's going out on less glamorous terms. He was let go by the Bears in March and apparently couldn't find the right job elsewhere.

Urlacher and Lewis should leave together. Two of the scariest dudes of this generation, and two throwback linebackers who stood out above all of their peers at that position. It just feels right. 

Combined, the two played 30 seasons but never switched teams. Lewis spent 17 in Baltimore, while Urlacher played 13 in Chicago. They recorded 2,565 tackles in 410 games (6.3 tackles per game over a 17-year span). They both had exactly 41.5 sacks, but Urlacher played in 46 fewer games. Urlacher had 6.8 tackles per game, while Lewis "settled" for 5.8. He had nine more interceptions than Urlacher (31 to 22), but Urlacher beat Lewis by a margin of 11 when it came to passes defenses (78 to 67). Lewis forced 17 fumbles, while Urlacher had 12, but that works out to only 0.008 more forced fumbles per game in Lewis' corner. 

They made three Super Bowls, with Lewis winning two and Urlacher losing one. And that might be the biggest difference between the two and the only reason why Lewis becomes a first-ballot Hall of Famer while Canton makes Urlacher wait. 

That would be a shame, though, because this is a team game. And while both were remarkable leaders, championships shouldn't define individual athletes completely. Urlacher has the look and feel of a first-ballot Hall of Famer, at least so long as everyone believes Lewis does. 

The phrase "defense wins championships" used to be a common phrase in the closing weeks of an NFL season. At those times, there would often be a high-powered offense cruising into the postseason, and that team's detractors would pull out that one stock quote to discredit any Super Bowl hopes. Then, the Rams won a Super Bowl, the Patriots won Super Bowls, the Colts won one, and the Saints won their own as well.

In today's NFL, it's no longer enough to simply eat the clock with a bulldozing running game and a tough defense. Now, you have to be able to put up plenty of points, even with a strong defense.

Case in point, the big game just a few months ago between the 49ers and Ravens. Both teams fielded exceptional defenses and bruising running games, yet the final score was a healthy 34-31 in favor of the Ravens. It's no accident that both teams put up plenty of points.

Rule changes have led to greater offensive production over the past couple of decades. We all know that, but offensive creativity has also led to great innovation on the offensive side of the ball. Conventional wisdom likely slowed that progress, but conventional wisdom has shifted. It's no longer a run-the-ball-and-stop-the-run league. Now it's a pass-and-stop-the-pass centric league, and that's given some teams a huge edge over others.

The 49ers are suddenly shallow at the wide receiver position after Michael Crabtree suffered an Achilles tear in OTAs according to USA Today Sports. Crabtree will "soon" undergo what could be season-ending surgery to repair the tear.

Crabtree, now 25, found success last season with the 49ers, and he was in position to be a staple of the 49ers pass attack.

To be clear on this injury, it's not a given that Crabtree will miss the whole 2013 season. Achilles tears can be rehabbed within months, and it's possible that Crabtree could return to action sometime in the middle of the regular season, just in time for the 49ers to make a run down the stretch.

The injury could prompt the 49ers to look for a fill-in receiver. Randy Moss had a quiet season with the 49ers in 2012, but his experience with the team could give him an opportunity to play one more year in the NFL. It may not be a popular option for the team, but San Francisco will need to replace at least some of the production they'll be losing without Michael Crabtree.

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Bruce Arians is not happy with his offense, and he's letting everyone know about it. It's not often that you hear a head coach, much less a first year head coach, call out his own team as early as OTAs, but it seems Arians wants to give his team a kick in the rear.

"We're just not picking it up fast enough," he said via the Associated Press. "We're still not picking it up the way I'd like to -- at all positions."

"I don't like mistakes. I really don't like mental mistakes," Arians continued, "especially if you made the same mistake last week. That should be corrected and in the books by now, and our receivers are not getting that done."

Running back Ryan Williams was happy to hear Arians' direct form of communication.

"Everybody’s accountable, that’s the No. 1 thing," Williams said. "It’s a respect thing.  We used to have egotistical guys who felt like they couldn’t be touched and be able to do whatever they wanted to.  So having guys like coach Bruce is able to nip that ASAP and we’re able to have a good, quality practice and sometimes that wasn’t able to happen because some guys were just doing whatever they wanted to do."

Normally, it would signal bad things to come for a first year coach to criticize his own team in such a direct and public manner, but in this case, it can't do any harm. The Cardinals got off to a great start last season, but it all fell apart. Arizona just isn't a very good football team, and they need to be working as hard as possible. By putting his team on notice, everyone in the Cardinals organization knows that playtime is over, and Bruce Arians means business.

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As was predicted by pretty much everyone, Super Bowl L will be played in San Francisco, and Super Bowl LI will be hosted by the city of Houston. Miami, the other city in the running for both Super Bowls, was shown the door after funding for improvements to Sun Life Stadium fell through.

Super Bowl L will be played at the yet-to-be-opened Santa Clara stadium in 2016. The stadium will also be the home to the San Francisco 49ers. The event will be held in the Bay Area for the first time since 1985.

Super Bowl LI will be played at Reliant Stadium the following year. The Super Bowl in 2017 will be the second time the event has been held at Reliant Stadium.

Miami is always a strong bidder to host a Super Bowl, but with so many state-of-the-art facilities popping up around the nation, it's unlikely Miami will win another bid until updates are made to the Dolphins' current home.

The added wrinkle that these selections have is that both the Texans and the 49ers are currently at the top of their respective division. This season's Super Bowl, to be played in New York, and the two aforementioned Super Bowls have the potential to field a team from the host city in the big game, something we've never seen before.

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With David Garrard now out of the New York Jets' quarterback struggle, and that's exactly the appropriate word for their situation, the team's starting quarterback options are essentially down to incumbent Mark Sanchez or rookie Geno Smith.

Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News reports that the Jets may pick their starting quarterback before training camp.

Offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg talked with Mehta about the Jets' quarterback battle, saying, "We don't care what the prevailing thought is," Mornhinweg told Mehta about the perception that the quarterback competition will continue through the start of training camp. "We only care about our competition here."

When asked about the possibility of one of the current quarterbacks, presumably Sanchez or Smith, separating himself from the pack as the team's starter, Mornhinweg responded, "Oh, absolutely," Mornhinweg said. "Sure. Absolutely. That's all part of the process. Absolutely. Everything we do is important. Our meetings are important… the way we go about our meetings, the way we go about our preparation right now with a new system. These are very important things. Every pass we throw out there in OTAs and these practices are important."

The overarching question in New York isn't who will be this season's starting quarterback; it's, is Geno Smith the starting quarterback of the future? If the answer is yes, Smith will likely be this season's starter, even if he's outperformed by Sanchez, so long as the competition is reasonably close. Considering the general attitude towards Sanchez, it's hard to see a scenario where the Jets don't roll with Smith in 2013.

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The San Diego Chargers won't be making rookie linebacker Manti Te'o available to the media until team's June 13 mini camp according to Michael Gehlken of U-T San Diego. The move is an effort to shield Te'o from negative media attention relating to the scandal of Lennay Kekua, his fake ex-girlfriend. To be clear, as most of you know, Te'o was the victim in the scandal.

Still, the Chargers are making a mistake by shielding Te'o from the media. When the media does gain access to Te'o next month, there will be questions about the Chargers' decision to keep him away as well as those about how his teammates have treated him. The difference is that in mid-June, teams are truly starting to get into gear for preseason action.

Regardless of the timing of Te'o's first press conferences, a minor distraction will be created, if not for the whole team, at least for Te'o. In my mind, the Chargers should try to get it over with sooner rather than later. By pushing the inevitable back another month, they're pushing the distraction closer to real games. That doesn't seem like a smart decision.

To this point, Te'o has smartly played along and not blown up every time someone mentions Lennay Kekua. Te'o attended Maxim's Hot 100 party, and after that, any talk of Kekua should be fading away. This isn't something that we'll talk about forever. Once real football starts, it'll be a passing mention by a broadcaster at best. The Chargers should be going along with Te'o. If he doesn't want to talk with the media, that's fine, but don't shield him if he's okay with talking. We don't know if that's what's happening, but if Te'o is ready to talk, and the Chargers are just looking to avoid distractions, San Diego is making a mistake.

Chargers director or public relations Bill Johnston talked about the decision on XTRA Sports 1360 in San Diego.

"Right now, anything that he does . . . makes news," Johnston said. "Right now, the news that people are talking about with him is really not the news that we want him to be talking about.  Really, he’s a rookie, he’s a second-round draft pick, yet everybody wants to talk to him.  Well, why?  Well, it all goes back to that stuff that happened back in the winter, and back when he was at Notre Dame."

"To us, that’s not what we want him talking about.  We want him focused on becoming a Charger, on becoming a better player.  Learning our system.  Getting comfortable here.  We want him talking football, talking Chargers, and that’s all we want him focused on right now.  So we’re doing what we think is in his best interests to stay focused and become the best player he can."

If that's the whole and true rationale the Chargers are using to justify the situation, they're simply making a mistake. No one is ever perfectly comfortable in a brand new city around brand new people. By getting this put in the past as soon as possible, the Chargers would be helping Te'o get comfortable when it counts, but now, Te'o will have to deal with an uncomfortable topic for at least another month.

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When Roger Goodell and the NFL began talking about the possibility of discontinuing the Pro Bowl due to a lack of performance by the players, the NFL's stars stepped up and gave us a better product in the 2013 Pro Bowl. That increased level hasn't stopped the NFL from considering ending the tradition.

At this week's quarterly league meetings in Boston, the Pro Bowl discussion has once again surfaced. Although the Pro Bowl continues to score well in ratings, and thus money, the league continues to talk about ending the game.

In all reality, the Pro Bowl will be here for the foreseeable future. As long as the NFL is making money on the game and ratings are good, there's absolutely no incentive for the league to stop staging the exhibition. The fans like the game, the players seem to enjoy the trip and recognition and the league makes money. That's a win-win-win situation.

Chances are good that we'll continue to hear talk over the next few years that the game will be discontinued, and that may happen at some point down the road. The league should consider altering the format of the game to ensure player safety while still delivering an all-star game.

Personally, I'd like to see more position skill challenges during Pro Bowl weekend. Those types of football related competitions don't carry a high risk for injury, and they're easy and fun to watch. That's just one suggestion from one football blogger. If you have a way that the NFL could improve the Pro Bowl, drop us a comment below.

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The NFL draft is about to be moved. At least that's what ESPN's Adam Schefter reports. According to Schefter, the NFL and NFLPA are close to a deal that would move the NFL draft from it's current time in April to May.

The NFLPA will also be getting a carrot of incentive. The start of the league year, and thus free agency, will likely be moved to begin before the scouting combine.

The by-product of the move of the beginning of the league year would occur at the scouting combine. Teams would also use the event as a way to strike deals since the league year would have officially started. That's a big change from the current state of the combine in which teams talk with each other over hypothetical deals that later become reality once the new league year starts.

The overarching idea of re-arranging the league year is simple. Give fans a better opportunity to follow the NFL year round. By bumping the draft later into the offseason, the dead period between the draft and OTAs will be all but eliminated, and excitement following the draft will carry deeper into the slow summer months.

The NFL is all about promoting its brand, and when there's an opportunity to do just that on the table, you can bet the league will try to get it done. We've seen this coming for some time, and if Adam Schefter is right, we'll be seeing an offseason shuffle in the near future.

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Josh Freeman is the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' starting quarterback right now. Let's get that straight before we go any further in discussing the possibility that rookie Mike Glennon could win the job. Tampa Bay isn't like other places like Jacksonville up the road or Cleveland where quarterback battles are as open as they can possibly get. The Buccaneers aren't looking for a guy to beat out Freeman.

Still, Tampa Bay isn't an open and shut book either. Josh Freeman has had a rocky, up-and-down career, and he's left the door ajar for someone to step in and win the Bucs' starting job.

Head coach Greg Schiano seems to have a grasp of that reality, telling Dan Pompei of the National Football Post that Glennon will be able to take over for Freeman if need be, even opening the possibility that Glennon could win playing time moving forward.

"But our situation will be only if he’s needed," Schiano told Pompei. "Or if he wins the job. Look, I’m not against that. We have a starting quarterback. It’s not like we’re looking to find a starter. But competition is competition. Mike Glennon is a fierce competitor. I knew that when he was coming out of high school. Now being able to work with him a little, you can see it on the practice field."

The catch is that it will be difficult for Glennon to overtake Freeman if he's taking snaps with the second team offense against the second team defense. The best case scenario for Glennon is to impress his coaches enough to get a small chunk of first team time. If he continues to impress, he'd continue to get more snaps with the first team units. Regardless of what he does on the practice field, preseason action will be huge for Glennon if he hopes to be anything more than a backup in Tampa Bay.

The big weakness that Freeman exhibited a season ago was his inability to connect with wide receivers, completing just 54.8% of his passes a season ago. Although it's comparing apples to oranges, Mike Glennon didn't exactly excel in that department at NC State, completing just 58.5% of his passes in his final year with the Wolfpack. For reference, Josh Freeman ranked 29th in the category out of 32 qualifying passers, and Glennon's percentage, had he been in the NFL, would have only put him at 22nd overall, just in front of Jacksonville's Blaine Gabbert.

There's no doubt that there's an opening for Mike Glennon, but there's also a steep learning curve in the NFL, and for a rookie to walk in and take a veteran's job, that player must be an exceptional prospect. "Exceptional" just isn't how most people would describe Mike Glennon coming out of the draft.