Raiders paid a steep price for Pryor in supplemental draft; reader mail

ARLINGTON, Texas -- Got into my hotel last night around 10, and the fancy toteboard near the front desk at the Courtyard Marriott had this temperature listed: 100.

Got into my room, turned on the news, saw the extended forecast with the highs reading: 104, 103, 103, 104, 105, 103, 104.

This answers my question about why the Cowboys are inside Dallas Cowboys Stadium for camp right now. With their practice field bubble down, they have no climate-controlled facility at Valley Ranch, so here they are.

Oh, and isn't it convenient that it's the Red Sox vs. the Rangers across the street tonight? A certain someone might be taking that one in with his new best friends from the USO.

Before getting to your mail, three NFL thoughts:

Terrelle Pryor had Raider written all over him, though I thought he'd be a Bengal. The Bengals, it turned out, did not make a bid for Pryor, which surprised me. So many things lined up right -- the fact that the Bengals have strong connections with Ohio State, Kenny Anderson as Pryor's private coach over the last two months, and the team loves taking quarterbacks. But they've got a lot of kids with steep learning curves in Jay Gruden's new offense, and the sense is Pryor would have thrown a monkey wrench into what they're trying to do.

So he goes to Oakland for a third-rounder, which is steep. But you know Al Davis -- he's always going to take a chance on speed, and he's always going to take a chance on players with major questions if he thinks they can be stars. And clearly, the numbers (the 40 speed, the arm strength, the incredible high school pedigree) turned Al on.

Now we'll see if veteran quarterback coaches Hue Jackson and Al Saunders can get it out of Pryor. You can be sure that Pryor's going to have mountains of homework on his five-week break from football when he serves his NFL suspension; Saunders has the thickest playbook of any offensive coach I know.

The Jaguars have two defensive players you should hear about this year. Watching defensive tackle Tyson Alualu and backup defensive end Jeremy Mincey against Atlanta Friday night, I thought if there's a fantasy football league out there with tackles as a category, Jags middle linebacker Paul Posluszny should be a high pick.

Alualu and Mincey caved in the Atlanta line a few times. Alualu looks like anything but the reach GM Gene Smith was derided for supposedly making in 2010 when he made him a first-round pick. He's a relentless, spinning machine at various spots of the line, refusing to stay velcroed on a blocker. He's going to be good.

As will be Terrance Knighton, his fellow tackle, when Knighton gets his weight down. He reported to camp at least 30 points over his prescribed 330 and has been working to get that down. Mincey, 6-3 ½ and 272 pounds, is in a four-man end rotation. It's likely Aaron Kampman and Matt Roth will start, while Mincey and Austen Lane will sub in for 20 or so snaps a game.

Jacksonville has no choice but to improve against the run (22nd in the league last year) and overall defensively (28th), or risk being buried by Peyton Manning, Matt Schaub and, assuming he shows up, Chris Johnson in the AFC South. "We're going to be good on defense,'' Jack Del Rio vowed to me. I think Matt Ryan would tell you after getting chased by Alualu and Mincey that Del Rio's right.

Joe Thomas gets paid. At seven years, $84 million, the Browns' left tackle is worth it. He's started all 64 games at left tackle since Cleveland drafted him third overall in 2007. He's made four straight Pro Bowls. Only Jake Long, in my opinion, among left tackles, is better, and it's very close.

The fact that Thomas is never hurt, and one of the most reliable people in the league, make this the easiest contract GM Tom Heckert will ever have to do. It's a big bite out of the $120.3 million cap over the next three seasons, because the cap's not going to go up appreciably. But starting in 2014, when the cap could skyrocket, Thomas' deal will average $10.5 million a year for four years. It may get redone in year six or seven, obviously, but that's going to be very good value then.

Now onto your email:

• CHRIS JOHNSON HAS THE RIGHT TO DO WHAT HE WANTS"You seem to always refer to the contracts players have as being set in stone. The Chris Johnson situation is yet another one where you mention the years left and that he should honor them. Do you think if there were two years left at 12 million/year and he had a sudden downturn, the owner/GM would not ax him to save the $24 million? Things should work both ways, but they don't in the NFL. No one holds out in baseball because they get every cent they sign for, regardless of injury, illness or ineptitude. Pay the man!'' -- Sze Yan, Kelowna, British Columbia

It's Johnson's right to do that, and he is. I'm not arguing with his right to do so. Nor am I arguing with the Titans' right to say no. It's business. In the NFL's form of business. Johnson signed a five-year, $12 million contract with $7 million guaranteed when he entered the league in 2008. He's gotten the guaranteed money. Now he wants more. He is worth more. The Titans have said they would pay more -- lots more. In a salary cap system, the simplest thing to do is say, "Pay the man!'' Well, how much? Ten million a year? Twenty? Thirty? He'll end up making $10 million or so per year at some point. But the Larry Fitzgerald contract is really going to hurt the talks, in my opinion.

• A TEBOW FAN CHECKS IN"It was said that Tim Tebow was moved to third string because he was outplayed. I looked at the stats from Week 1 preseason and I don't see it. I know a big part of it is practice but to quote Allen Iverson, "Practice? We are talking practice?" Obviously from John Elway on down, the Broncos don't want Tebow and Kyle Orton is their only hope right now. Would all parties be better off just dumping Tebow to the Dolphins for a fourth round or lower pick, thus giving Miami something to cheer for and placing Tebow back in Florida? I think there are many people out there who want to see Tebow at least get an honest chance.'' -- Michael Miller, Colorado Springs

Good question. I think if I were John Fox I'd be working on a package of plays to get Tebow in the game, without the pressure of the third-quarterback rules this year. (Teams can use third quarterbacks regardless of the time of game without worrying about the first and second quarterbacks being ineligible to return, as has been the case in the past, because teams will be able to dress 46 players this year, not 45 players plus a third quarterback.) Anyone who watched the second half of the Broncos-Texans game last year can see Tebow has some value to a winning team, and a good coach like Fox can figure out a way to get that value out of Tebow.

• DREW PEARSON'S CASE FOR THE HALL "Love the column, Peter. With Jerry Jones announcing this last weekend that Drew Pearson will be added to the Cowboys 'Ring of Honor' this fall will you and the HOF voting committee reconsider him for the Hall? He was on The Ticket [sports radio station] in Dallas with some harsh words for the HOF voting committee, particularly since he and Cliff Harris were two of the few All-Decade team members from the 1970s not yet in the Hall. Do local team's Ring of Honors and/or All-Decade members make a difference to you when voting? Seems if Lynn Swann and John Stallworth are in, Drew should be as well. Thoughts? Thanks.''-- Pete Wurst, Colleyville, Texas

Thanks, Pete. I've never been bullish on things like local team's halls of fame or rings of honor or whatever being big factors in what we do. (And I would hardly call the Cowboys' inclusion of Pearson, 28 years after he retired, a ringing endorsement of his candidacy if we did.) As for the other 43 people on the committee, I cannot speak for them. But in the room, when we've debated various candidates, I don't recall team honors being a factor in election. As for Pearson, I am dubious about his chances. His career directly parallels Cliff Branch's, and I believe Branch is a more deserving candidate (though not by a lot). Their cases:

The asterisk is because Branch barely played in his first and last years, so his career basically is 12 years, Pearson's 11. I just view, in history, Branch a better deep threat.

As for Swann and Stallworth, there are some of us on the committee who felt Super Bowls played too big a part in their election, so that they're in wouldn't automatically make me a proponent of anyone in their era who had better numbers. But I do believe Branch is worthy and I'm not convinced Pearson is.

• WOW. I GUESS I'D BETTER TAKE MY JOB SERIOUSLY THEN "Not much of a question here but wanted to relay a story to you about the impact of the NFL and MMQB on a global scale. I recently relocated to Berlin, Germany, for a work assignment and one of my biggest concerns about the move was missing football season (especially my beloved Redskins and Gamecocks).

"On my first Saturday after a long day taking in the likes of the Brandenburg gate and Checkpoint Charlie, I popped into Belushis Bar for an afternoon beer and to check on the status of their "American Football" coverage and capabilities. A few of the patrons sitting at the bar next to me joined our conversation, and much to my surprise they were die-hard NFL fans. Neil (London), Carlo (from Spain) and Tim (Aussie) began talking about the troubles of Albert Haynesworth when I mentioned the Redskins. When I mentioned how they all needed to read Peter Kings MMQB, I got some are you kidding me looks and one of them said, 'He needs to come do a tweetup in Berlin.'

"Bottom line. Things seem to be fine with the NFL on a global scale and my new mates and I look forward to hosting you for a tweetup and beer tasting in Berlin.'' --Kevin, Berlin, Germany

You have no idea how great that sounds right now. Could be a future vacation spot for the Kings! Thanks a lot.

• A COMMON THEME"Peter, love your column but me and the rest of the Dallas fans are wondering if you're ever going to write about the Cowboys this year. I'm not in that unhappy group of folks that rip you for focusing on northeastern teams, but your analysis of the Cowboys is appreciated.''-- Troy Krause, Dallas

Troy, you and about 100 of your friends must be thinking the same thing. I've heard from quite a few of you, and I appreciate it. I'm at Cowboys camp today in Arlington (as you can see by the dateline) and I'm going to be writing something in my training camp blog about them later in the day, and more in Monday Morning Quarterback next week.

Here's the problem this time of year: I spend a day at about three-quarters of the teams in the league. Let's take the Texans yesterday as an example. I immerse myself in the team for most of a day and try to learn as much as I can about them, because in my job at Sports Illustrated I try to be as in-the-loop on all 32 teams as I can. So each week I try to reprise the places I've been, as well as get to the headlines of the week. Then, with the other obligations I have, I try to get 8,000 words or so out each week with what I've seen and know. I know it can't be good for all fan groups.

• WHAT ABOUT THE BUCS?"So you spent Saturday at the Bucs and we got nothing in your Monday column about them other than a stupid factoid?''-- Tom Carter, St. Petersburg

Well, I would like to first defend the honor of Mr. Factoid. To refresh your memory:

Amazing But True Buc Factoid of the Week

Three years ago:

• Josh Freeman was entering his junior year as the quarterback at Kansas State.

• Mike Williams was serving an academic suspension for the season at Syracuse.

• Gerald McCoy was entering his redshirt sophomore season at Oklahoma.

• LeGarrette Blount, fresh out of East Mississippi Community College, was practicing for his first year at Oregon.

Those are the four Tampa Bay Buccaneer players on billboards around Tampa-St. Petersburg now with the club's 2011 slogan, "Climb aboard!

I get your point. The fact is, I simply ran out of clock at 6:15 a.m. Monday and had to board a plane to Houston; if that plane had had wireless, I'd have been able to get something to you. I'm just writing my Tampa Bay preview for Sports Illustrated's NFL Preview Issue. Next week I'll have a few Buc thoughts.