THE PREMIER FOOTBALL
THINK TANK

This season will be the 10th as NFL Insider for Jason La Canfora at CBS Sports’ The NFL Today. He can also be read on CBSSports.com and seen on CBS Sports HQ. We caught up with La Canfora for this week’s Friday Five… Who is your biggest mentor? My closest mentors are all newspaper people. Fellow reporters and some editors who took an interest in me and helped me so much and were beyond kind when I was an intern and very young writer. I got to work very closely with Ken Rosenthal and Buster Olney when I was an intern at the Baltimore Sun and my sports editors there, Jack Gibbons and Molly Dunham in particular, were all beyond exceptional. I also through covering baseball became very close with John Lowe, who covered the Tigers for the Free Press for years and who was instrumental in me getting hired...

As training camps open around the NFL, I sat down with Joe Banner to get his take on some of the top storylines in the league heading into training camp: San Francisco traded up this year to draft their future quarterback in Trey Lance. They also still have Jimmy Garoppolo under contract for two more seasons at over $25 million annually, but only have a dead cap of $2.8 million overall if they were to move on from him. Joe Banner: This is a team that was recently in the Super Bowl, had some bad luck a season ago, and expects to be contenders again. I think they will hold Garoppolo until they are certain Lance is ready to go. As they have stated, if they feel Lance needs more time to develop, I think Garoppolo will begin the season as the starter and continue to play as long as...

As has been reported, the Houston Texans are willing to listen to offers for QB Deshaun Watson. This is a change for the team’s front office -- but not for Watson, who initially requested a trade in January. The Texans are now open to offers, Watson still wants out, and many teams are interested in the 25-year-old QB. However, any team considering a trade for Watson must consider a few factors, including eligibility questions. Specifically, there are two layers of eligibility in question: criminal and league. In terms of the former, there are 22 active lawsuits filed against Watson with allegations of sexual assault during massage sessions. As for league eligibility, the NFL issued a statement on Tuesday: “The NFL’s review of the serious allegations against Deshaun Watson remains ongoing and active.” The statement continues, “We are working cooperatively with the Houston Police Department and ensuring that the NFL’s inquiry...