Ask the expert: Jerry Angelo

Jerry Angelo is a former personnel director for the Bucs and former general manager of the Bears. Each week, Angelo answers your questions regarding the NFL. Send your questions to GarySheltonsports@gmail.com with "ask the expert'' in the subject line. The most interesting questions will be selected.

Friday, 4 a.m.

If you ran the Bucs, what would you do with running back Doug Martin? Would you stay the course and hope he does better? Would you cut him and invest the money in another player? Or would you try to cut his contract and bring him back at a lower price?

I really can’t comment on this. I would need more information and would have to have a strong personal understanding of the player.

This is a very a serious matter and has to be handled right. The ramifications of this can potentially create problems with their cap finances, team chemistry, as well as the credibility of the organization as a whole.

 Content beyond this point is for members only.

Already a member? To view the rest of this column, sign in using the handy "Sign In" button located in the upper right corner of the GarySheltonSports.com blog (its at the far right of the navigation bar under Gary's photo)!

Not a member? It's easy to subscribe so you can view the rest of this column and all other premium content on GarySheltonSports.com.

There was a debate on NFL.com this week wondering if Tom Brady is the best player ever as well as the best quarterback. When you think of Jim Brown, Lawrence Taylor, Jerry Rice, Dick Butkus and Otto Graham (among others), can you give me your top three?

I would put Brady in the top three, along with Brown and Taylor. Maybe Reggie White, Montana, or Manning will come into the discussion. But that’s my opinion. That’s all it is, an opinion.

Johnny Manziel supposedly worked out for a CFL team last week. If you were his advisor, is this the way he can make it back to the league? Go somewhere else ad prove his sincerity?

Absolutely. It’s his only recourse if he is serious about playing again.

Personally, I would have put him in a rehab center first. Once he came out of it and swore never again to use drugs or use alcohol again, I would consider evaluating him. He has acute problems and those issues can’t be evaluated or addressed base on him purely playing football in another league.

Tom Brady seems as if he’s going to play forever. However, he’s 39. He’s a medical marvel to takes care of himself, but how much time does he realistically have left?

Based off what he did the past season, my guess would be two more years. We’re talking George Blanda now. Most of your readers probably never heard of him.

In the history of the NFL, has there ever been a special-teams coach who is an ex-kicker? Why not?

No, but there have been ex-kickers who were brought in to assist the special team coach with kickers and/or punters. I can’t say for sure why, but my guess would be they aren’t proficient at the technical side of the business of covering kicks, returning them and the other facets that go along with being a special teams coach.

Maybe they just don’t like all the things they’d have to learn to do it. I really can’t say any more than that.

I thought the NFL made the right call in merely warning the Seahawks for not listing Richard Sherman on the injury report, seeing as how Sherman never missed practice and was in no danger of missing a game. What do you think? And is the injury report as necessary as ever?

Injuries reports are necessary for the league as far as the teams go. It may help them better prepare.Or look for certain match-ups if key players aren’t on the field.

It helps coaches better prepare and strategize during the week, but at the end of the day, it’s still 11 on 11.

It seems like the Raiders keep hitting snags on their proposed move to Las Vegas. How do you think this one plays out?

They will be in Vegas, that’s for sure.

I read where John Lynch’s nine-year-old daughter cried when she heard her dad was going to work for San Francisco “because the 49ers are horrible.” If she had been alive, might she have shrieked that he was drafted by the Sam Wyche-era Bucs?

Hmm, it sounds like she’s a pretty astute fan. John may have his
hands full dealing with the media and then coming home to his daughter!

When you were a g.m., what was your approach to free agency? Some teams seem to get themselves in trouble by spending a dime on a nickel’s worth of players.

You pay whatever it takes for special player. Try and sign your players first.

Don’t over spend on average, you’ll live to regret it and soon. Fill your needs in free agency, so you can go into the draft taking the best players and not being held hostage to “needs”.