Two days from my first draft, nine from the start of the season, and my brain is racing like Lance Briggs.

– Another major holdout is back in action, with New England’s Asante Samuel signing a one-year deal. The Patriots slapped the franchise tag on the cornerback, and he wanted a long-term deal the team was unwilling to give before the July 17 deadline. Samuel had threatened to sit out the first 10 weeks of the season, but he had a change of heart and reported to camp. He’s a big-time defender who might be doing the Pats a favor by compromising, the team will be well-served to take care of him when contract negotiations for next season come up again.

– More holdout news: The Giants and Michael Strahan are talking, but he still has not decided if he will retire or report. If the holdout truly is about his desire to keep playing, he needs to give the Giants a break and make a decision soon. At least when Brett Favre took to long to make a decision, he didn’t wait until the week before the season began.

– How awesome would it be if Lance Briggs wrecked a Taurus instead of a $350,000 Lamborghini? That’s something you don’t hear often from highly paid athletes, that they crashed a nondescript, sensibly priced sedan. The expressway in Chicago he crashed on, in the middle of the night, is one that just begs you to speed, so if he was sober and wrecked the car, he must have been going really fast or was very, very distracted.

– Finally, No. 1 overall bust, er, pick Tim Couch used HGH under a doctor’s care after shoulder surgery but denied a report he used steroids. Do we care? His comeback failed with the Jaguars, and his bust status is more cemented than ever. If he did use steroids, he joins baseball player Jeremy Giambi as evidence performance-enhancing drugs don’t always enhance.