Good Call Mike - Clarett Arrested, plus other news and notes

A year ago, Mike Shanahan took a risk by drafting Maurice Clarett, and promptly made the right decision by dropping Clarett from the team before the season began. Maurice has now been arrested in Ohio, after he was driving erratically late at night and was found to have several weapons in his car. According to many Broncos, much of the team tried to reach out to Clarett during his tenure in Denver, but he just didn’t seem to be driven to become a part of the team.

Mike Shanahan:

“I don’t think I’ve ever been around a bunch of guys who reached out to a guy more than Maurice, trying to help him, and having a guy not wanting that help.”

Rod Smith:

“If that did happen, it’s very unfortunate. Hopefully it hasn’t gotten to that point where he feels he has to go out and try to hurt somebody. I don’t know. It’s sad…”

Nick Ferguson:

“I was one of the one guys who really had somewhat of a decent relationship with him and talked to him on a consistent basis. The first time he left camp I was asked to kind of use that relationship to find out what was going on. But it just seems like the young man is troubled.”

I guess the only thing left to say on the subject is that it’s a good thing Clarett was cut. It’s clear that his psyche was never all there.

In other news…It seems that Dwayne “House” Carswell may not make the team after 11 seasons with the Broncos. Last year, Carswell became the first offensive lineman to catch two touchdown passes in a game in over 35 years before suffering numerous injuries in a car accident late in the season. Despite making what doctors have called an ‘amazing’ full recovery, Carswell is facing tough competition from six-foot-six tight end Chad Mustard, who has been impressive in camp.

Still, Carswell is a hard worker and a guy with soft hands, something that goes far in football. I’d hate to see his grit and veteran leadership leave the team - plus his teammates are all behind him, telling everyone not to count Dwayne out. My favorite is a quote from FB Kyle Johnson:

“House is a gamer. He’s not necessarily the best practice guy, but when that referee blows that whistle and that ball is kicked off, the guy can play.”

This site = not funny

Uhh….this site isn’t funny, at all, and plus our writing is horrendous, so y’all best not come back. I can’t believe we call ourselves bloggers.

Hahaha, that’s great…insurgents. Wow.

And you thought we forgot about you!

Nope, no we didn’t. We’ve been keeping track of Avs news (there hasn’t been much), and we have to say, we don’t like much of what we’ve seen. Everyone else around us has gone out and gotten somebody - but despite Lacroix’s assurances that we’d be able to pick up a star this offseason, well, nothing much has happened. Now the team goes into the next season minus Tanguay and Blake, and plus, well, virtually no one. Not what I expected going into the offseason.

Still, here’s what’s been happening in Avaland:

We picked up center Tyler Arnason, a center who has played for the Blackhawks but was traded late last year to the Senators. He’s a young guy with a decent amount of offensive skill, but no Alex Tanguay - Tyler had just 45 points last year in 79 games.

We signed Kurt Sauer…ok…

…signed the dynamic duo of Clark and Skrastins, good…

…agreed to terms with Liles, Budaj, and McCormik, alright….

…signed McClean for another year, avoid arbitration…good call…

…and we’ve picked up, Ken Klee and Paul Stasny! YES!!! Wait…what?

Klee, a no-namer from New Jersey is a scrappy big blue-liner, who has never scored more than 20 points in a season except in one fluke year for Toronto. He does eat up some time (18+ per game), but as a replacement for Blake, which is basically how the Avs are trying to sell this, you’ve got to be KIDDING me!

You might recognize Paul Stasny as the standout DU forward who scored 29 goals in 28 games last year. Well, he was our second-round choice, and now we’ve signed him. He’s got some talent and he’s an excitingly fast player - but it’ll take a few years to see what he develops into.

Meanwhile, Justin Leopold, the guy we acquired for Tanguay, has gone down with surgery for a hernia, which will take him…well, apparently 10-12 weeks to recover. Seems a lot for a hernia, but as long as he’s ready for the season…

So that’s what’s up for the Avalanche. No big-name acquisitions, no start-studded contract swapping…just, a lot more of the same. If anything does happen though (and we expect it won’t), we’ll keep you posted.