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.

Thursday, 4 a.m.

Most NFL teams report for training camp this week. In your time in the league, what can you remember teams gaining in those weeks that helps once the regular season starts?

The biggest thing is for the teams is to evaluate the new players they drafted or signed in free agency. They had a chance to work with them in OTA’s, but when the pads are on the real evaluations begin.

The other benefit that training camps brings to each team is the time the players spend together. The positive chemistry that each team wants and needs to be a "team"  starts in training camp.

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Camps are much less intense these days, aren’t they? What can a coach learn about his team he only suspected beforehand?

Each camp is different. Some teams will be very aggressive with their players because they have to make decisions on the new players, as well as get themselves ready for the season opener. Some teams will go on easy one their players, not wanting to incur any injuries.

It’s a double-edged sword. If you work them to hard, there is a downside. If you don’t work them hard enough, you may still look like you're in training camp when it's week three into the regular season and you haven’t won a game. There is a balance here and the good coaches get it right.

USA Today ranked the Bucs’ Dirk Koetter only 24th in the NFL, behind Mike Mularkey, Hue Jackson, Chuck Pagano, Marvin Lewis and Jay Gruden (among others). Does that sound reasonable? Does it matter until Koetter’s team is in the playoffs?

It’s someone’s opinion, and really, it means nothing. A lot of the others have been in their role for a few or more years. The verdict is still out on Koetter.

We’ll see what type of coach he is this year. He has one season under his belt. He has his hand-picked staff with a year under their belts. He has a potential franchise quarterback. So, it’s up to him to make it work. We’ll see.

Richard Sherman finally admitted he yelled “you f------ suck” at Russell Wilson. Is that just an intense practice, or is that over the line?

No, that’s not over the line. That’s just one player expressing his misery and using another player to articulate it.

Those are the sunny, grinding, hazy miserable days of practice. By him admitting it, it tells you it was nothing out of the usual for Sherman.

I’d love to know what Wilson would say; if he had a fuse, as short as a fire cracker, like Sherman's.

Personal question: Do you remember O.J. Simpson as the running back, or as the accused murderer? If you ran into him at Bob Evans, what might you say?

I’ll always remember him as the ‘Juice’. Anything he did or didn’t do off the field is irrelevant to me. There is an ultimate judge. I’ll leave it to him to decide.

My memories are and will always be positives ones of Simpson, because that’s what I’m taught to do.

Let’s do our last division quarterback rating of the summer. This week, it’s the AFC West with Dereck Carr, Alex Smith, Philip Rivers and either Trevor Siemien or Paxton Lynch.

There is a little thinking on this one. I’ll go with Rivers, Smith, Carr and Siemien. It’s a tight competition. Things could change quickly this year for all of them.

In all of your years in the league, have you ever heard of a player getting blackballed?

No, and I don’t think there will ever be a player who isn’t in a uniform because he was blackballed. Players are accountable for how they handle business both on and off the field.

It's not a matter of ostracizing a player from football. It’s a matter of doing what's in the best interest of your team. It’s no more or less than that. Let’s move on. He’s not worth it.

I, as many others are, are tired of hearing about the “victim". He chose to follow his convictions and now he’s living with the consequences. Live with it and move on. Anything else is a "Crybaby”.
Okay, it’s time for your favorite player from different colleges. This week, let’s go with Oklahoma. You can chose from a) Lee Roy Selmon; b) Adrian Peterson; c) Billy Sims d) Keith Jackson or e) Brian Bosworth. Feel free to pick a different player.

I’m going with Lee Roy. In the college game,  no one was better. He was as hard to block as Sims and Peterson were to tackle.