Email
Print
FeedBazooka Joe and Friends
A growing number of Delaware products are moving the chains in the NFL. Our pigskin pride and even more football clichés below.
(page 1 of 9)
Bazooka Joe and Friends
A growing number of Delaware products are moving the chains in the NFL. Our pigskin pride and even more football clichés below.
Joe Flacco
Quarterback, Baltimore Ravens
Delaware team: University of Delaware Blue Hens
Status: A first-round draft pick (18th overall, the highest ever for a UD player), Flacco is counted on to carry the franchise into the future.
2008-09 Prediction: Supermodels, parades and cereal boxes. OK, maybe not all at once. Flacco started the season opener in place of incumbents Kyle Boller and Troy Smith.
Circle your calendars: The Ravens take on the Eagles in week 12.
Jamaal Jackson
Center, Philadelphia Eagles
Delaware team: Delaware State University Hornets
Status: Starting center for the Iggles, despite a sub-par 2007-08 season.
2008-09 Prediction: Return to form. Jackson dedicated himself to a Jack LaLanne-like offseason training program that brought him into the season in great shape. Now if only he could cure Philly fans’ crippling depression.
Kwame Harris
Offensive tackle, Oakland Raiders
Delaware team: Newark High School Yellowjackets
Status: Penciled in as the Raiders’ starting left tackle, protecting quarterback JaMarcus Russell’s $68 million keister.
2008-09 Prediction: Rebound. The Raiders are high on Harris, who has been considered to this point a bad first-round bust with the San Francisco 49ers. 
Montell Owens
Running back, Jacksonville Jaguars
Delaware team: Concord High School Raiders
Status: Rising. Owens scratched and clawed his way onto the Jags’ RB-rich roster in 2006 and paid dividends as a standout on special teams.
2008-09 Prediction: Rising. Look for an increased workload after turning heads in training camp and preseason, a few snaps at fullback and serious Pro-Bowl consideration as a special teamer.
Mike Adams
Defensive back, Cleveland Browns
Delaware team: University of Delaware Blue Hens
Status: Adams was valuable to the up-and-coming Browns as a sub and special-teamer last year. He registered 19 special teams tackles before blowing out his knee late in the season (which might be ironic considering Adams was known affectionately as “Pops” in his UD days).
2008-09 Prediction: Quality depth at safety, nickel back or special teams for Cleveland, which makes the playoffs. 
Ben Patrick
Tight end, Arizona Cardinals
Delaware team: University of Delaware Blue Hens
Status: Muddled in a Cardinal tight end corps that includes Leonard Pope and Troy Bienemann.
2008-09 Prediction: Breakout. Patrick emerges as the go-to starter accumulating loads of yards after catch.
Luke Petitgout
Offensive tackle, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Delaware team: Sussex Central High School Golden Knights
Status: Petitgout was bounced from the eventual Super Bowl Champion New York Giants to the Bucs and promptly tore his ACL.
2008-09 Prediction: Cloudy. Petitgout is 32 years old and coming off a major knee injury. If things go well with his recovery, he’ll swipe the starting job from Donald Penn and give coach Jon “Chucky” Gruden one less thing to be homicidal about. 
Orien Harris
Defensive lineman, Cincinnati Bengals
Delaware team: Newark High School Yellowjackets
Status: Kwame’s younger brother appeared on four NFL rosters and practice squads in a two-season span.
2008-09 Prediction: Practice squad. If not with the Bengals, somewhere else. Like Starbucks.
—Matt Amis
Page 2: Gunner Gets It Done
