The Linc - Evan Mathis Holdout Still Possible?

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Busting on the division rivals: Cowboys trade for a retired guy - Philly.com
Essentially, the Cowboys moved back from the sixth round to the seventh round to bring in McClain, likely to help offset the loss of Sean Lee for the season. Many are calling it a "low risk" acquisition. However, if the Cowboys aren't good this year (a very real possibility) and the Ravens are, it could be a difference of 50+ draft slots. While the cost isn't high, the Cowboys gave up something for a twice-retired ineffective player with a bad attitude and a lengthy rap sheet who admitted 71 days ago that his heart isn't into football.

Favorite Underdog - Iggles Blitz
On paper, the Eagles have 90 players fighting for 53 roster spots. Reality says that’s not exactly true. 40 to 45 spots are pretty much already set. So you really have 45 to 50 guys fighting for about 10 spots. The odds aren’t good for those players. But that doesn’t mean we won’t pull for the underdog. Last year we all got excited by Chris McCoy and his bid to make the roster. We were all shocked when he was cut. The question for today is this…which underdog do you most want to make the team and why?

Lane Johnson’s suspension and the rationality of using PEDs in the NFL - Eagles Rewind
A more interesting angle from which to view this story is the overall use of PEDs in the NFL.  Now I’m going to let you in on a little secret about PEDs….the NFL doesn’t care! Why would they?  They make the players bigger, stronger, and faster; they don’t cost the owners anything; and the fans don’t really care either.  The only real losers in this situation are the players themselves (assuming there are long-term negative health effects from PEDs).  So why do they take them?  It’s essentially a prisoner’s dilemma.

Wake-Up Call: Why A Mathis Holdout Is Realistic - Birds 24/7
Mathis showed up for the offseason conditioning program and did not allow the business end  to affect his performance this spring. But that doesn’t mean that the financial matter has been resolved. The 32-year-old signed a five-year, $25 million contract in March of 2012 that included $6 million in guarantees. Three years remain on the deal and all of the guaranteed cash is gone.

Dark horse OLB Travis Long pushing to make Eagles - CSN Philly
Travis Long spent his first NFL season on the Eagles’ practice squad, a fairly impressive accomplishment given that he went undrafted last April and didn’t sign his first contract until after training camp had already started. And although he practiced with the team, joined them on the road and collected an NFL paycheck, he didn’t always feel like an NFL player.

Eagles Hopeful Safety In Solid Shape - PE.com
This has been a work in progress since the day Brian Dawkins signed with Denver in free agency in 2009. Are the safety spots now up to par for the Eagles? ...

Proposing The Optimal Contract Structure Technique - Overthecap
An optimal contract structure is one that provides the team with maximum salary cap flexibility. There are two characteristics of a contract that provides maximum salary cap flexibility. First, such a contract would allocate salary cap charges in a back loaded fashion. Second, such a contract would provide the team with the opportunity to completely mitigate dead money that the team would incur upon termination of the contract. The three prominent contract structure types – the Signing Bonus Contract, Roster Bonus Contract, and Post-2011 Contract – possess both of these characteristics to differing degrees. The Optimal Contract, which borrows characteristics of each of the other structure types, is characterized by partially fully guaranteed base salaries throughout the course of the contract.

Arbitrator sides with Jimmy Graham's Twitter bio, rules he's a tight end - SB Nation
Graham had hoped to be classified as a wide receiver, because under the league's rules, players tagged as tight ends make $7 million, while players tagged as wide receivers make $12.3 million. He claims he had a case to be named a wide receiver, because he was used more as a traditional wide receiver than he was as a traditional tight end.