-Time will tell if Michael Vick is a good investment for the Eagles, but if a New York Daily News story from Sunday is correct, wide receiver Plaxico Burress might be a guy that teams want to stay away from. Gary Myers reports that, according to an unnamed source, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell plans to suspend Burress for at least eight weeks if he is claimed, and possibly for the entire 2009 season. While Vick may have served out his penalty in prison, the same cannot be said for Burress -- perhaps Goodell is prepared to be sure that justice is done in the case of The Man Who Killed the 2008 Giants.

-Ken Walter may have served as the Patriots' second quarterback in Thursday's exhibition game against the Eagles, but most fans who voted in a Boston.com poll do not believe he is any better as a backup than Kevin O'Connell.

-Pats rookie Ron Brace had butterflies on Thursday when he played in his first competitive action as a pro, but he said the presence at Lincoln Financial Field of former Boston College teammate Mark Herzlich, who is battling cancer, served as inspiration.

-Broncos wide receiver Brandon Marshall, who missed two weeks of camp with a hamstring injury, was back yesterday and said he was happy to have been found not guilty last week of a misdemeanor battery charge. Safety Brian Dawkins was also back, for the first time in nearly two weeks, sporting a cast heavily wrapped over his right hand.

-Cowboys wide receiver Roy Williams had a scare when he landed hard in the morning practice, spraining his left wrist. X-rays were negative, but Williams was held out of the afternoon session.

-On the day that his interview with "60 Minutes" aired for the national audience, Vick was spending extra time working on the fundamentals with the Eagles coaching staff. Despite the speculation about his being used in "wildcat" offensive formations, the Eagles are for now focused on improving Vick's accuracy, which has been a problem throughout his NFL career.

-Saints kicker Garrett Hartley, who will miss the first four games of the season after testing positive for the banned stimulant Adderall, says he took it to stay awake on a long drive from Dallas to New Orleans. He'll be replaced by the ancient John Carney.

-The Raiders, who recently worked out free-agent Derrick Brooks, signed another linebacker, Morlon Greenwood.

-The Jets may have lost Pro Bowl left guard Alan Faneca for the entire preseason with a broken middle finger that required surgery.

-Matt Ryan led the Falcons to a playoff season in 2008, despite no expectations from their fan base. This season, with the addition of tight end Tony Gonzalez, the expectations in Atlanta will be high. The defense, however, is a major question mark, with several new starters and now a pair of injuries in the secondary.

-Sage Rosenfels easily outperformed Tarvaris Jackson in Minnesota's first preseason game, but the Vikings won't rush to make a decision on who their opening-day starter will be.

-While the Patriots experiment with a 4-3 defensive alignment, the Packers under former New England assistant Dom Capers have switched to a 3-4, and head coach Mike McCarthy is pleased with the results after one preseason game.

-It turned a lot of heads last season when Tom Brady was held out of preseason action. Skipping exhibition play has been the norm, however, for San Diego's LaDainian Tomlinson, who on Saturday night appeared in his first preseason game since 2005.

-Already relegated to number-three quarterback status with the Houston Texans, former Chicago starter Rex Grossman will miss a month of action after suffering a hamstring injury in the exhibition opener against Kansas City.

-Redskins rookie defensive lineman Jeremy Jarmon sounds like an interesting character. Before losing his final season of eligibility at the University of Kentucky because of a failed drug test -- he says it resulted from an over-the-counter supplement -- he was a double major in political science and theater who was planning a trip to Paris to study French.

-Ten years after Barry Sanders shocked the football world by retiring at age 30, while on the verge of breaking Walter Payton's all-time rushing yardage record, he told Fred Mitchell of the Chicago Tribune that he has no regrets.