Tin Bits - Thursday, 2/11/10

• Asked who was the toughest receiver he ever covered, Boise State cornerback, Kyle Wilson (the guy with his own customized RV at the Senior Bowl) said:
  "Hmm, the toughest? Davone Bess from Hawaii. When he's bad, haha, he's bad. He's a tough guy to guard in the slot. Especially that year, my sophomore year when they had Colt Brennan. Definitely one of the best. What I noticed about him was that he had really had good footwork. And in that offense, where they were very accurate and on the same page, the combo was deadly."

• Chad Henne, fresh off his win in the Rachel Ray Super Bowl Cook Out Competition, won the Audi Efficiency Challenge as well, and has thus been the winningest NFL QB so far in the off-season. In the event, Henne had to drive from Washington D.C. to Miami in a lovely new Audi Q7 TDI.  In a Top Gear-style of logic, Audi decided to use a V-12 to showcase their fuel economy.  He competed against Osi Umenyiora and several media members including Bill Simmons of ESPN.com and Mike Silver of Yahoo! Sports.
  
  
• Former Hawaii slotback and newly signed Miami Dolphin WR, Ryan Grice-Mullen was a guest instructor at last weekend's Hawaii Speed and Quickness clinics on the UH campus.  Word is that Davone Bess was also an instructor....you know what they say, those who don't have speed, teach speed.  One thing I can say about these two guys, they are really loyal to Hawaii for giving them a chance. 

• The rumor buzz is really starting to grow about the Bills trading for Dolphins' backup QB Tyler Thigpen.  The speculation really only started to take foot after Chad Pennington 's agent announced he wanted to come back to Miami.  Thigpen is linked to new Bills head coach, Chan Gailey, as he was the Kansas City offensive coordinator in 2008.  Some people are also saying that since Buffalo's O-line is so shoddy, a mobile QB like Thigpen would be the best fit.  Well that doesn't really take into consideration that Buffalo's O-line was shoddy due to trading Jason Peters and losing a handful of players to injury.  They actually have a lot of young talent on their O-line, including Eric Wood, Jamon Meredith, Andy Levitre, Richie Incognito, Demetrius Bell, etc.  There's a good chance that their O-line will be head and shoulders above the unit they had in 2009.  In any event, I don't see them drafting anymore, they are young enough on the line.  This gives them some freedom with their draft picks, of which they have 9.  Keep in mind that Miami traded their 5th round pick for Thigpen last year, so Buffalo would probably have to offer up something better than that to Miami, especially considering it would be an inside the division move, which in itself makes it unlikely.

• Speaking of the draft, there are six teams that currently only have 5 draft picks.  Chicago is the worst off because they don't pick until the 3rd round (74th overall) due to the Jay Cutler trade.  You may recall last year, the Dallas Cowboys didn't pick until the 69th pick due to the Roy Williams trade.

• The NY Jets are one of the teams with only 5 picks, and considering they have a lot of aging players to replace, their foray into the playoffs could be a bit of a one-hit wonder.  They have 16 players who will be in their 30s in 2010 including all 3 of their nose tackles, two of their running backs (Tony Richardson is 38), 3 of their 4 starting linebackers and almost all of their special teams specialists (Feely - 34, Izzo - 36, Dearth/LS - 34).  They are a team that also can not sign any Unrestricted Free Agents or make any trades during the off-season unless a new CBA is agreed and signed in the next few weeks.  This means they could be up shit creek in a year's time, having to play catch up.  The concept of a lockout in 2011 means the whole team could be using walkers by the time play starts up in 2012.  They need to replace several players and just don't have the picks to do it.