Antonio Gates has made plenty of big catches for the San Diego Chargers. On Wednesday, he hauled in the biggest contract ever given to an NFL tight end.

Gates agreed to a five-year, $36.175 million contract extension with the Chargers, with $20.4 million guaranteed, a league source told NFL Network insider Jason La Canfora. The deal averages $7.235 million per season from 2011 to 2015.

Gates, a college basketball star at Kent State, blossomed from a rookie free agent in 2003 to a superstar who is a three-time All-Pro and six-time Pro Bowl pick.

Three other Chargers players are unhappy about their contracts, but talks with Gates apparently intensified this week. Gates and other veterans are scheduled to report to training camp Thursday, with the first full-squad practice Friday.

"I've been blessed my whole career to be with one team," Gates said in a statement released by the team. "It's always good to get it out of the way. The goal is to win a championship. We all are human and it becomes a distraction even though you might not want it to be. It's always great to be able to go ahead and do what you need to do and get it out of the way."

It wasn't clear if Gates' deal would lead to new contracts for restricted free agentsMarcus McNeill, Vincent Jackson and Shawne MerrimanMcNeill, the left tackle who protects quarterback Philip Rivers'blind side, and Jackson, a Pro Bowl wide receiver with back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons, are unhappy that they haven't been given long-term deals and are expected to hold out through training camp and the season's first 10 games. They are expected to return for the final six games to accrue another season toward unrestricted free agency.

Jackson and McNeill were tendered one-year deals at just more than $3 million each. When they didn't sign the offers by June 15, the Chargers were entitled to offer them their same salaries as 2009, resulting in a loss of about $2.5 million each.

Merriman hasn't signed his tender for $3.269 million, but the outside linebacker was due a 10 percent raise anyway, which would put his 2010 pay at approximately the tender amount. Still, he hasn't said when he'll report.

These negotiations between Gates and the Chargers went much more smoothly than in 2005.

Gates held out during training camp that year, leading Chargers general manager A.J. Smith to take the extreme measure of placing the tight end on the roster exempt list in an attempt to break the impasse, automatically triggering a three-game suspension. Gates missed the final two preseason games and the season opener, which the Chargers lost.

Gates dumped the agent who represented him then and hired Tom Condon.

"Antonio is a special player and person. He is everything we are looking for in a Chargers player," Smith said in a statement. "His talent and contributions to our team speak for themselves. His work ethic and desire to be the best are unmatched. He has been a major part of the success we have had over the past several years, and we are thrilled he will continue to be with us for years to come."

Since his rookie season, Gates leads NFL tight ends in touchdown catches (59), and he ranks second in receiving yards (6,223) and third in receptions (479). Gates has led the Chargers in receptions each of the last six seasons. In 2009, he topped the team with 79 catches and a career-best 1,157 yards, with eight touchdowns.

This is the second big contract for a Chargers player in less than a year. Rivers was given a six-year contract extension worth nearly $93 million toward the end of last year's training camp.

This past April, Buddy Nix surprised not only Bills fans, but the entire NFL world by not drafting a left tackle within the first two rounds. Instead, Nix waited until the 5th round to draft LT Ed Wang. When asked, Nix stated that both he and Bills head coach Chan Gailey feel differently about the left tackles that they have currently on the Bills then most people do. Nix acknowledged that last season was a disaster to start off with, the no-huddle offense that didn’t work and both the offensive coordinator and left tackle getting fired 10 days before the start of the season. Even though Nix did acknowledge those problems, he did say that the players on the O-line and the QB’s are not given a free pass, so they’re all getting one more chance this season to show what they’ve got.
The two left tackles who will be battling it out will be Demetrius Bell and Jamon Meredith. Bell is a former 7th round pick who started 8 games last season at LT before going down with a season ending knee injury. While Bell did show signs of promise last season, he also struggled with false start and holding penalties. After watching film on Bell last year, Gailey believes Bell can play at a very high level in the NFL. "He's an amazing athlete first of all. Run, jump and change direction all of that was very good," Gailey said. "He went in and played as rookie. He started as a rookie. You don't know how hard that is especially at offensive line. And quarterback and offensive line may be the hardest places to start in this league as a rookie. And he went in and did that and held his own. Now, he made some mistakes and you hope the second year he doesn't make those mistakes. But he is really a very good athlete." Bell is hoping to be ready by the start of training camp which starts in 9 days.
Jamon Meredith was picked up from the Green Bay Packers practice squad last season when the Bills offensive linemen were dropping like flies. Meredith had 4 starts last season, including one at left tackle in the season finale against the Colts. With the Bills new strength and conditioning program in place, Meredith has gone from 298lbs to 311lbs. Meredith has been taking all the reps at LT with the first team offense since the rookie mini-camp and looks bigger and stronger through the shoulders and upper body. Right guard Eric Wood said that Meredith is one of the strongest players on the team.

Rookie LT Ed Wang suffered a high ankle sprain in the OTA’s this past spring, but should be ready to go by the start of training camp. Wang is expected to be a backup offensive tackle this season while he learns and continues to develop.

Since Bell is the incumbent, it’s his job to lose. If Bell is healthy and doesn’t miss a beat, he’ll continue to be the starting LT. But if Bell is not healthy by the start of training camp and struggles in the preseason, then the Bills should not risk bringing him back into the starting lineup and let Meredith start the season at LT. If Bell does start the season at LT, look for Meredith to try and overtake Cornell Green as the Bills starting right tackle.

The Bills are heavily gambling on the success of a 7th round draft pick or a former practice squad member to man one of the most important positions on the offense. If the gamble pays off and the Bills get adequate play from either Bell or Meredith, then the Bills front office has struck gold. To get another solid LT from either the 7th round or practice squad, like the Bills did when they picked up UDFA Jason Peters, would really show that the Bills talent evaluators know how to find hidden gems. If the gamble fails, then the Bills will be facing the exact same pass protecting problems as last season. If the pass protection from the LT position is as bad as last season, expect to see more of the same from the Bills QB’s: short-dump off passes, no deep passes, being flushed out of the pocket, getting sacked and the QB’s getting injured. It could be another long season for the Bills offense if the gamble fails. This battle will be watched just as closely as the QB battle by Bills fans.

MINNEAPOLIS — Brett Favre shared a laugh with Brad Childress about the two of them butting heads over the direction of the offence during a recent visit the Minnesota Vikings coach made to Hattiesburg, Miss.

What Favre didn't share with Childress is any decision about his future.

Favre told USA Today on Tuesday that Childress stopped to visit him on his way home from vacation in Florida. The two chatted about a lot of things, but no deadline was imposed for the quarterback to announce a decision about returning for a 20th NFL season.

"Our visit was great," Favre told the newspaper. "I think the world of him (and) his patience. He and I joked about how there were some rocky times (between them) last year. ... We're both competitors, that happens."

Favre and Childress had a very public spat in December last season after the two of them argued over play-calling in a loss at Carolina. They resolved their differences and the Vikings advanced to the NFC title game, where they lost in overtime.

Favre injured his ankle in that game and had surgery on it earlier this summer. He has been throwing to receivers at Oak Grove High School near his home to test it out.

"After almost nine weeks, it's not where I would like it to be, but I'm working at it," he said. "Maybe it never gets to where I want it to be. Forty years old ... three surgeries ... that's all you need to know."

He will turn 41 in October and is coming off one of the best seasons of his brilliant career. But Childress has repeatedly said he will not put any pressure on Favre to make a decision, saying that he would be fine with a similar scenario to last year. Favre skipped the first two weeks of training camp last year and joined the team after the first pre-season game.

"The deadline? I don't know," Favre said. "There obviously comes a point where you've probably gone too far, where you just have to move on. He hopes I make the right decision for myself, one way or the other."

Ravens Pro Bowl safety Ed Reed says he expects to miss the start of the regular season while he recovers from offseason hip surgery.

He said Tuesday his rehab is a slow process. ''I'm going to get out there when I feel good. I can't give you a date. I don't know.''

Reed, 31, missed four games last December because of a variety of injuries, including problems with his neck, hip and groin.

''I had to reconstruct my whole hip. It's not something where I can say, 'I'm going to be back.' I'm not coming back until I'm well and ready.''

While other off-season predictions will rely on silly things like roster talent, strength of schedule, and computer simulations, I’ve decided to go deep into some numerology and ridiculousness to determine why the Oakland Raiders will make it to the Super Bowl.

First of all, the Raiders franchise has made it to the big game an average of every 6.25 years, with appearances never more than 9 years apart. Since it’s been 8 years since their last berth, they are certainly due. Also, 3 out of 5 of their Super Bowl appearances were on even days in odd years (this year’s game will be on the 6th in 2011) and 2 of those 3 even-day games followed odd-day games from the previous year (last year was on the 7th).

The next Super Bowl will be in the new Cowboys Stadium, and the Raiders have played 3 out of their 5 Super Bowls in venues that were hosting their first SB. Last year saw New Orleans win the game in Miami; 4 out of 5 of the Raiders appearances were in (or followed SB’s in) New Orleans or Miami.

Not convinced? Well, 4 out of 5 of the Raiders’ SB trips followed years when a team with black and/or gold were part of the previous winning team’s uniforms. The reigning-champ Saints wear both black and gold.

All of the Raiders SB appearances followed a Super Bowl where a total of 37-50 points were scored; last year’s total was 48. This year is an odd-numbered Super Bowl (XLV, 45); 3 out of 5 of the Raiders’ big games were in odd-numbered SB’s.

As for jersey numbers, 4 out of 5 of the SB-starting QB’s jerseys were even numbers, including 4 in a row and all 3 victories. Jason Campbell will wear #8 this year. In fact, 16% of SB-starting QB’s have worn #8.

Now for the clincher. If you add up the number of letters in the names of all the head coaches and starting QB’s for the Silver & Black who made it to the big game and divided that by all 5 Raider SB appearances, the average coach-QB name total is 21 letters. Now add up T-O-M-C-A-B-L-E + J-A-S-O-N-C-A-M-P-B-E-L-L = 21