Now, that everyone knows that No. 2 pick Calvin Johnson, the best player in this year's draft, received $1 million more in guaranteed money than Reggie Bush, the best player and also the second player selected in last year's draft, it is mind-boggling to think that the Raiders and top pick JaMarcus Russell can't strike an agreement. Yes, there should be a higher market for a quarterback, but with his long holdout Russell is virtually guaranteeing himself that he won't see the field this season unless Daunte Culpepper and Josh McCown suffer serious injuries.
 
The Raiders are stuck on about $30 million in guaranteed money while Russell's agents are asking for $35 million. Oakland's offer is a reasonable percentage increase over the $26.6 million last year's No. 1 pick Mario Williams received. But this holdout figures to continue unless Russell comes down.
 
If that never happens, the next scenario is for Russell to sit out the year and re-enter next year's draft. If that happens, Russell might get what he's asking now or then again, he could drop a little because teams may view his price as too high. Is that a risk he's willing to consider right now?

Croyle really No. 1?

After watching the Chiefs and Vikings practice against each other last week, the best young quarterback on the field was the Chiefs' Brodie Croyle and not Tarvaris Jackson, Minnesota's starter this season.

Chiefs head coach Herm Edwards is rotating Croyle and Damon Huard in drills and figures to do the same once preseason games start. But if you listen to the team whispers, the job is really Croyle's to lose. He's the future, plus everyone knows that Huard is best coming off the bench.

Croyle is pretty composed young man and the way he sees it his career is way ahead of schedule because he figured to be sitting behind Trent Green for two seasons. But with Green gone, his opportunity has come much faster.

Now, there is some Brett Favre in Croyle. Not the arm, but the aggressive nature. He wants to go down the field and take a few chances.

"I get the 'Don't be a gunslinger' talk about twice a week in practice," Croyle said. "Don't be Brett Favring it. I'm trying to take care of that. But the other night in the huddle, I said, 'Boys, give me some time because I'm throwing it deep.' That got a chuckle out of the linemen. But we're keeping that to a minimum right now."

Of course, Croyle can laugh now at his NFL introduction last season. He says the speed of the NFL has slowed down a bit, but all he remembers of his first pass against the Steelers was looking at Pro Bowl safety Troy Polamalu lined up near the line of scrimmage.

"We ran play action and sometime while I turned around Polamalu was way back in cover two," Croyle said. "I was thinking, "wow, that was really fast. That's covering a lot of ground.' I ended up throwing my first completion and interception for a touchdown all on the same pass. When I came to the sidelines, all the guys were laughing and one of them said to me, "It's fast, isn't it?' After a while, I think I finally settled down. And that's what I'm working on now. Trying to make better decisions."

Where's the game?

Peyton Manning and I had the same problem in Terre Haute, Ind. on Sunday night. I couldn't find a bar that had the NFL Network in order to watch some of the Saints-Steelers' preseason game. Manning couldn't get the game, either, from his dorm room at training camp.

"You have to tell the league they have to fix this," Manning said. "It doesn't make sense to have the first preseason game on their network and we can't watch it. This shouldn't be happening."

Camp Cupcake

This is the reference line to how new Cowboys coach Wade Phillips is running his training camp. At least, this is the observers' view of camp when compared to four summers under Bill Parcells.

Phillips has always been known as a players' coach and practices have been a little milder until Monday's when a couple of fights broke out, one initiated by running back Julius Jones.

There are a couple NFC general managers, though, who are worried about the Cowboys, believing that Phillips will really improve the play of pass rusher DeMarcus Ware and safety Roy Williams. If Tony Romo can improve, Dallas is being discussed as a potential playoff contender to Chicago and New Orleans.