ESPN Chris Mortensen Blog

There's a missing link to the idea that Dolphins defensive end Jason Taylor might follow the career path of the late great Reggie White in making a move to Green Bay: Brett Favre.

"Maybe if Favre were still the quarterback, [Taylor] would think about it," said a source close to Taylor. "Otherwise, I doubt it."

White cited Favre's presence as a vital factor in his decision to sign a free-agent contract with the Packers in 1993, even though Favre was still in the formative stage of his own Hall of Fame career.

The source close to Taylor made certain to point out he was only "speculating" about Taylor's reluctance to embrace a trade between the Dolphins and Packers. Of course, the entire story is speculation, too, even though it has now been widely reported that the Packers have had discussions about adding Taylor.

The Packers would want some assurance that Taylor would play beyond his stated intention of "one more year" before they would consider giving up a second-round draft pick. That's where Taylor controls the situation. The source believes Taylor would definitely consider playing beyond 2008 "with the right team and the right situation. An unproven quarterback [Aaron Rodgers] in a cold-weather site where you have to move your family wouldn't be that enticing."

Favre retired in March, giving way to Rodgers. Even though there has been speculation that Favre could "un-retire," the Packers and those close to Favre believe he is finished as a player.

The news that the Green Bay Packers have genuine interest in Miami Dolphins defensive end Jason Taylor makes so much sense that you can almost feel Ron Wolf's fingerprints on the speculated deal.

Wolf is the revered former Packers GM who mentored current GM Ted Thompson. Wolf is also a consultant for Bill Parcells, the Dolphins VP of football operations.

Wolf has long anguished over the lack of "deal-makers" in the NFL, past and present. There were a handful -- Parcells and Wolf among them -- but not enough. Now in retirement, Wolf has lamented the overall lack of risk-taking, if you can call it that, in quest of the ever-elusive Super Bowl ring.

Thompson has been more conservative than Wolf. He has cherished draft picks to the point that it seems he's obsessed with them. In his first four years as the Packers' GM, he had the mission of rebuilding a team with salary-cap issues. Now the Packers are $30 million under the cap, still one of the youngest teams in the NFL and coming off an appearance in the NFC Championship Game.

Now consider Thompson's possible vision for the next two years. Brett Favre is gone, and even though the Packers are somewhat confident about Aaron Rodgers' ability to get the job done, nobody knows for sure. The Packers also have defensive end Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila coming off knee surgery. Their capable cornerbacks, Al Harris and Charles Woodson, are not getting any younger. And Corey Williams, their best interior pass-rusher, was traded to Cleveland for a second-round draft pick after the team briefly halted his free-agent bid by placing the franchise tag on him.

A second-round pick also happens to be the Dolphins' asking price for Taylor. Can the Packers afford to give up next year's second-rounder? Probably. The pick Green Bay acquired in the Williams deal was one of three second-rounders the team used in this year's draft.

According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Thompson has had discussions with defensive coordinator Bob Sanders and defensive tackles coach Robert Nunn about Taylor. Both spent time coaching with the Dolphins before landing in Green Bay.

Taylor could fill a void at right defensive end, which would allow the team to move Cullen Jenkins to defensive tackle, filling the void left by Williams and also providing the depth the Packers need with former first-rounder Justin Harrell still plagued by injuries. Taylor's playing on the opposite side of Pro Bowl DE Aaron Kampman also would allow Gbaja-Biamila to rehab without risk and would provide the Packers with more versatility.

What needs to happen to get the deal done? Taylor has to commit to playing at least two more years, as opposed to his "intentions" to play one more season. Taylor's wants could chill Thompson's desire to give up a second-round pick.

True, Taylor has played his entire career in the warmth of South Florida and sees his future in the paradise of Southern California.

Reggie White once sensed his destiny in Green Bay and saw it fulfilled with a Super Bowl championship.

You know who brought White to a place few players wanted to go? Wolf did, in what was one of the stunning developments of free agency in the early '90s.

This one is worth watching.

Did cold, hard honesty about the dreaded "soft" tag kill the relationship between Steelers top draft pick Rashard Mendenhall and Ron Zook, his former coach at the University of Illinois?

Mendenhall stunned Illini fans when he was recently quoted as saying, "To tell you the truth, as long as Ron Zook is there, it will be hard for me to support the University of Illinois football team."

The Steelers got a gift when the talented Mendenhall fell into their laps with the No. 23 pick of this year's draft. It was one of the surprises of the draft for the public. It wasn't a shocker in some circles.

Leading up to the draft, there were a handful of personnel men and coaches who privately said Mendenhall's one-year flash as a junior raised questions as to why it took so long for the highly rated recruit to fulfill his promise at Illinois, where he had less than 1,000 yards rushing combined in his freshman and sophomore seasons.

Those questions indicate Zook told more than one NFL evaluator that Mendenhall was soft until his junior year. Mendenhall did get plenty of praise from Zook, but "soft" can be a red flag for any football player, especially a running back.

Mendenhall wanted to transfer before the 2007 season but his brother, Walter, also a member of the team, persuaded him to stay. Good thing for Mendenhall and Zook. Mendenhall rushed for a school-record 1,681 yards and Illinois had its first winning season (9-4) under Zook to garner a coveted Rose Bowl berth.

In his recent interview, it's clear Mendenhall resents the soft label that pushed his near-departure from Illinois after the 2006 season.

"I sat down and I was like, 'If this is what football is, I don't know if I want to do that anymore,' " Mendenhall said. "I'm not soft at all. I'm not scared of adversity. I don't care if somebody's yelling at me. That's not what it was about, at all."

Zook, who generally has gotten strong reviews from former players, was disappointed Mendenhall aired his feelings, but his words suggest tough love motivated the Steelers' top pick to realize his potential.

"We were obviously fair with Rashard and we tried to make him the best player he could possibly be," said Zook. "To me, he was a pretty good player and it paid off that he's going to have an opportunity to be a heckuva pro football player as well."

Is this cause for concern for Steelers fans? Probably not. The 5-foot-10, 224-pound back is very young. He turns 21 Thursday.

Good news for Oakland: The Raiders are relieved wide receiver Javon Walker did not suffer more serious injuries when he was beaten unconscious in Las Vegas on Monday morning. A team source says doctors have told the team that Walker did not suffer damage to his vision, which was a concern because of his facial injuries. Walker was released from the hospital Wednesday morning.

So far, Walker has done little to earn confidence from the team after Al Davis gave him a $55 million contract that stunned many across the league. Walker was less than spectacular during the offseason program, in part because he was overweight.

In other Raiders issues, the team denied a report here that they were close to bringing former Packers executive Andrew Brandt on board to help solve their potential salary-cap issues. The Raiders went so far to say there had been "no discussions" with Brandt, but that's misleading, according to a team source.

Davis had an estimated "half-dozen" conversations with an intermediary about Brandt joining the Raiders, the source said. However, Davis balked at Brandt being called a "consultant" and recently backed away, sending the message that he had some other "internal matters" to solve first.

Such is life with the Raiders.

Now that the Oakland Raiders have agreed to a contract with top draft pick Darren McFadden, their challenges aren't just on the football field over the next few years -- it's managing their payroll, salary cap and consequently, their roster.

Enter Andrew Brandt, a highly regarded salary-cap manager whom league sources say is a strong candidate to join the Raiders any day now in a similar role.

Brandt resigned from the Green Bay Packers as vice president of player finance in late January when the franchise hired Mark Murphy as its team president.

Brandt was credited with helping the Packers clean up their salary cap at the end of the Mike Sherman era. The Packers transformed from a team with cap concerns to one that went into this offseason with more than $20 million in salary-cap space.

Raiders owner Al Davis just spent the past few months on a record spending spree, committing $137 million to the 2008 payroll by mid-March, easily the highest in the NFL. The purge included the free-agent signings of cornerback DeAngelo Hall, wide receiver Javon Walker and safety Gibril Wilson, among others. The Raiders also re-signed defensive tackle Tommy Kelly to a six-year, $54 million deal.

If he is hired, as expected, Brandt's most urgent challenge would be to solve the contract dilemma of Pro Bowl cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha, the Raiders' franchise player who is eating up $9.465 million on the books. Asomugha is regarded by many personnel evaluators to be an even more accomplished cornerback than Hall, the defender who got a potential $70 million package when he was acquired by trade with the Atlanta Falcons.

Thurman forced Bengals' hand: From a distant vantage point, the release of Odell Thurman by the Cincinnati Bengals seemed harsh and cold-hearted. The young man was grieving for his grandmother, with whom he was deeply connected, after she died three weeks ago.

Yet the Bengals also believed, based on the opinion of behavioral experts, that Thurman was at risk for returning to his substance abuse addictions during this time of grief. "Self-medicating" is one path that addicts take when they are confronted with something emotionally painful.

Sadly, it turns out, the Bengals were right. As SI.com reported, Thurman again has been suspended indefinitely for violation of the league's substance abuse policy. The Bengals saw it coming when they cut him, but don't call it abandonment.

The Bengals sent a member of their organization to support and monitor Thurman in Georgia during his time of mourning. They also wanted this employee to accompany Thurman back to Cincinnati, where their support system is in place. And, yes, getting Thurman back on the field for voluntary on-field workouts, in the presence of teammates and coaches, was part of the plan.

Sources say that Thurman just flat-out refused to return to Cincinnati, even fleeing afoot from the Bengals' rep.

Given that Thurman was obviously high-risk -- he was suspended for the 2006 and 2007 seasons after his first substance abuse violation and an arrest for drunken driving -- the Bengals also were at risk. And the question that arises is, how much time and money do you invest in a player who probably can't be counted on?

The Bengals also were at risk with the league. As commissioner Roger Goodell stated at the most recent owners' meetings, teams automatically will be fined whenever one of their players is suspended under the NFL's personal conduct policy.

Technically, that team fine would not be imposed for a player's violation of the league's substance abuse policy, as in Thurman's case. But the potential to violate the personal conduct policy certainly seems greater if one is under the influence of illegal substances.

How could the Bengals get two first-round picks for Chad Johnson in that proposal by the Redskins? The first-round pick, No. 21 overall in this year's draft, would have been absolute. Next year's third-rounder would have escalated to a second-rounder if Johnson caught 80 passes in 2008 and a first-rounder in '09 if he caught 95 passes.

Those achievements are not impossible because Johnson easily could be the featured receiver in the Redskins' offense. Then again, with new coach Jim Zorn installing the West Coast offense, the ball is spread around more than some conventional schemes, so 95 catches might be a stretch.

What are the chances of Johnson being traded? Hard to tell. The Bengals' Mike Brown is an old-guard, small-market owner and doing business with owners such as Dan Snyder of the Redskins and Jerry Jones of the Cowboys may be distasteful to him. Also, Brown doesn't like being shoved around by a player he has paid handsomely and is represented by an agent like Drew Rosenhaus, although it should be noted that Rosenhaus has been pretty quiet during this process.

Should Cincinnati trade Johnson? They must consider it. He has been a drain on the organization, coach Marvin Lewis and quarterback Carson Palmer.