Luke Links: The Taking Stock Edition

We bring back the Luke Links after weeks of covering camp and the first two pre-season games. Just a friendly reminder, we are less than three weeks away from actual, real, OMG the games count! football. So, so wonderful.

I also want to use this opportunity to announce that King Richard will be returning to help cover the Colts at Stampede Blue. KR went off on his own to try the "get paid for blogging" gig, and like many things in life, it didn't work out. So, we welcome him back and look forward to him covering some Fantasy Football news, Colts player transactions, and other goodies. I will still post the Luke Links (much to your annoyance, I'm sure).

And speaking of links...

• The Indy Star's Mike Chappell reminds us that Reggie Wayne will be lined up all over the place in 2009. Gone are the days of Marvin on the right, Reggie on the left, and Dallas in the slot. Now, the offense is mixing it up.
• Staying with the Star, PhilB makes the same observation I've made of late: Kyle DeVan is looking good as a back-up center. He can also play guard. Steve Justice's days as a Colt are numbered.
• Edgerrin James is back in the league. This time, he is with the Seahawks. Nice to have Edge back.
• 18to88 reminds us that Tony Dungy did plenty of "tweaking" on defense when he coached.

• I've updated my 53-man roster page, and I've made some pretty bold moves. Gone are both Mike Hart and Tim Jennings. With some spots, I've left them open, indicating that a player cut from another team will fill the roster spot. The Colts have done this routinely in the past. Daniel Muir, who I believe will make the 53-man roster, was cut at the end of pre-season last year. Indy snatched him up the next day. Now, he seems like an important part of the DT rotation.
• The Dallas Cowboys, and their douchebag owner Jerry Jones, all have egg on their faces over this scoreboard fiasco. To keep this simple and neat, they were dumb to think that placing a scoreboard over the field, hanging down, would not disrupt the punters. Unlike the Cowboys, the Colts did their due diligence last season when they evaluated placing a similar scoreboard over The Luke. They had then-Colts punter Hunter Smith boom some punts, and determined the scoreboard would indeed disrupt the punters. This is another demonstration of what a team run by adults looks like (the Colts) vs. a team run by a clueless clown (the Cowboys).
• Very interesting insight from IFR regarding Larry Coyer and his thoughts on the Colts prior to him joining the team this year:

  "The thing that [Coyer] said he always noticed about the Colts when coaching other teams was that while many teams speak of playing through injuries, the Colts actually did it. He cited specifically the Colts’ 2003 postseason victory over Denver, the one that came two weeks after the Broncos beat the Colts in the RCA Dome. Coyer said each team came into the playoff game injured. The difference was the Broncos played like it and the Colts didn’t."

• Bill Polian tells the Indy Star that rookie contracts are out of control. Well, if they are so out of control, perhaps NFL GMs should stop giving rookies such contracts.
• And finally, Ron Meeks has his work cut out for him in Carolina while Russ Purnell continues to suck as a coach. Only this time, Purnell is in Jacksonville. Meeks lost his best interior linemen for the season early in training camp, and now his best player on defense (Jon Beason) is out for six weeks with the same MCL injury Jeff Saturday had last year. That's tough. I hope Meeks is able to  get those guys playing better despite the injuries. Meanwhile, in Jaguars land, Russ continues to leave his wonderful mark on special teams play:

  With the Jaguars set to play again Thursday night in Philadelphia, he doesn't have much time to fix the fundamental errors the Jaguars made both in coverage and the return game that helped the Tampa Bay Buccaneers post a 24-23 victory over the Jaguars on Saturday night.

  The Bucs cashed in on the special teams errors for two touchdowns and that was the difference in the game.

  "That's an area we need to be better in," Jaguars coach Jack Del Rio said.

  The Jaguars jumped to a 14-3 lead in the second quarter and appeared to be in control of the game when the special teams gave up a 75-yard return to Sammie Stroughter.

  Greg Estandia whiffed on him and then Gerald Alexander appeared to have him and let him get away.

  We experienced this type of coaching for seven years. How many games did the Colts lose because of special teams? Hell, the last game they played was lost due in large part to terrible special teams play.
  

I watched some of the Jets v. Ravens game last night. Joe Flacco is the real deal, folks.