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In the weeks following their shocking exit from the AFC playoffs the San Diego Chargers have announced plans to release LaDainian Tomlinson and not to tender Darren Sproles.

The first announcement didn’t surprise me. After seven fantastic seasons Tomlinson has struggled with injuries and performance the last two years, finishing 2009 with the lowest number of carries and yards-per-carry averages of his career.

The Sproles announcement, on the other hand, I found just short of stunning. First off, the guy has been a fireplug when he’s had the opportunity to play regularly, including the January 2009 playoff game where he had more than 300 all-purpose yards in the Chargers’ overtime win over Indianapolis.
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It didn’t take an expert watching Tim Tebow play quarterback for Florida over the last four years to see that he was a great college player and a good and decent human being. It also didn’t take a genius to guess that he’d have trouble translating his ample skills to the National Football League, at least if he wanted to continue playing quarterback.

While he was a great scrambler and he could buy enough time in college where his long windup didn’t hurt him he wasn’t going to get away with windmilling his throws playing against elite competition every week.

Those beliefs seemed to be confirmed when Tebow went to the Senior Bowl and promptly struggled – not only with his throwing but with taking snaps from center.

Give Tebow credit for paying attention. In a recent story published at Bleacher Report he indicates a realization that he’s got shortcomings and that he is and plans to continue working on them.

That same story, however, indicates that he won’t throw at the NFL Scouting Combine.

Huh?

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I know I just wrote 2,200 words the other day focused at least in part on describing why I think ProFootballTalk.com isn’t as good a site as it used to be.

And I hate to harp on the topic. But he wrote another post today that raised my ire. Today Mike Florio’s topic was Noel Devine, the running back from West Virginia who decided to pass on the draft and go back for his senior season.

Sure, there might be little for him to prove by staying a Mountaineer. And yes, the NFL might impose a rookie salary cap for the 2011 season. So it’s possible – even likely – that Devine might cost himself some money by staying in school.

But at the end of the day, even if the NFL imposes a rookie salary cap, if he’s taken in the first couple rounds of the 2011 draft (assuming there is one) he’s going to make plenty of money.

Isn’t it just possible that Devine is enjoying the college experience? Can it be that he likes his teammates and wants to make a run at a major bowl game? Perhaps a national championship? Or, maybe he wants to guard against the chances that an NFL career doesn’t work out by, cough, cough, getting a degree?

Many college players come out early. And sure, it’s hard to blame them with the payouts they see in front of them. But many stay in school, some because they just enjoy it.

So often college football players are criticized for pretending to be students and using the NFL as a springboard for a pro contract. It’s almost surprising with a good to great player when it goes the other way.

So whatever Devine’s reasons, can we just enjoy the fact – injury risks aside (yes, see the cases of Sam Bradford and Michael Bush) – that this guy might be in the college game for more than just the big payoff? He’s taking a risk. But there’s insurance for that. I applaud Noel Devine. I don’t watch a lot of West Virginia games but I hope this move pays off for you.

No matter what ProFootballTalk.com says.

With the end of the decade approaching, a lot of people are putting out top 10 lists for the decade–so of course we figured, why should we be any different?

Rather than talk more about hall of fame level players, though, we decided to take a different approach–who were the top draft busts for the decade?

The criteria we tried to stick to for defining a bust was this:

• Had to be a first round pick–it sucks when later round picks don’t pan out, but they don’t have the expectations of first round guys.
• Not playing for a lengthy period of time due to football related injuries doesn’t necessarily equal a bust (think Ki-Jana Carter or David Pollack).
• However, injury due to a guy being an idiot can qualify him for bust status (Andre Smith’s getting fat, holding out, Charles Rogers possibly making his bones more brittle by smoking dope, etc).
• Obviously guys from this year’s (and maybe last year’s) aren’t fully qualified busts–but first round guys should always contribute something in their first season, second at worst, so they can be on the list.
• The rest of the first round does influence things—so if there are a bunch of busts early (like in 2002), it may be less likely that a guy is a bust later in the round, because there was probably quality to pick from…

With that, here’s our list:

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Graham Harrell, the latest record-setting quarterback from Texas Tech University, has signed a contract to play for Saskatchewan in the Canadian Football League.

Nothing against the Roughriders (or is it the Rough Riders), but how can 14,000 yards passing and 119 touchdowns against 30 interceptions during a four-year college career not even warrant a training camp tryout in the NFL?

I realize Mike Leach runs a passing offense that skews some of those numbers. I also realize the stellar numbers of guys like Kliff Kingsbury, B.J. Symons and Sonny Cumbie haven’t translated to success in the pros.

But in a league where backup guys like Dan Orlovsky, Quinn Gray, Cleo Lemon and Anthony Wright get recycled year after year after year, wouldn’t a fresh face like Harrell warrant a tryout?

Harrell completed better than 70 percent of his passes his last two seasons. He led the Red Raiders in chasing the national championship against traditional powers like Oklahoma and Texas by posting a six-to-one touchdown-to-interception ratio. He threw for nearly 2,000 more yards than Kingsbury did – breaking his school passing yardage record five games into his senior season – in a similar number of attempts and completions.

He can run – he eclipsed the 1,000 yard mark as a rusher his senior year of high school – so he’d at least have an opportunity to complete in the new, fangled Wildcat fad that’s spread across the NFL. And he was considered a leader at Texas Tech.

I’m not saying all or any of those facts will make him into an NFL superstar. Is it possible he could join the ranks of all the other Texas Tech “system” quarterbacks and be junk in the pros? Absolutely. It might even be likely.

But the fact that this guy isn’t going to get a chance to prove or disprove those theories is confusing and disappointing. Not even a spot on someone’s practice squad? Really?

Somebody give this guy a shot.