NFL, owners talking over LA relocation plans

The Rams and Raiders both want to call Los Angeles their home once again. (Getty Images)

With more teams than ever prepared to move to Los Angeles as soon as the 2015 season, and many of the NFL's most influential owners bullish on getting franchises there as soon as possible (including Jerry Jones and Bob Kraft) there have been ongoing semi-regular conference calls taking place between small groups of owners and NFL officials regarding the topic, team and league sources said.

As reported last week, the Rams and Raiders would be moving forward with plans to move to LA now if not for the league's overriding role in handling the process and its control of the process. The intent of multiple teams to get to LA in the near future is not lost on other owners and for the past six months or more there have been a series of calls between select owners and the NFL office discussing the array of plans and potential stadium projects in the area. The NFL has also begun surveying fans in that area about their willingness to spend certain thresholds of money on PSLs and seasons tickets should teams relocate to LA.

This topic could be raised in depth at the short December league meeting and NFL official Eric Grubman, who is spearheading the league's LA initiative, briefed the owners on the situation two weeks ago at the fall league meeting in New York.

Before any vote was ever taken on a potential relocation of a franchise or franchises to Los Angeles, the league would have already done all of its due diligence on the project, ensured the influential stadium and finance committees were fully on board, and, in essence, the matter would never ever be allowed to be brought to a vote unless it was already certain there were 24 votes in the affirmative.

I continue to hear it's not out of the question two teams could announce their intent to move to Los Angeles for the 2015 season by the February deadline assuming a bevy of remaining hurdles are cleared, and two teams, the Rams and Raiders, have been engaged in active discussions exploring the LA market and stadium options. Many team and league officials say that if not by 2015, then by 2016 there will be a team or teams playing in the Rose Bowl on an interim basis while a new stadium is under construction.

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Saints TE Jimmy Graham questionable, likely to play



According to New Orleans Saints beat writer Mike Triplett, tight end Jimmy Graham (shoulder) is officially listed as questionable but is likely to pad-up and take the field Sunday night when the Saints welcome the Green Bay Packers to town for a prime-time showdown. After getting a week off while the Saints were on bye Week 6, Graham was active last week but did not catch a pass. He was targeted only twice on the day.



Graham was limited in practice all week but appears to be a go for what should be a shootout. Even though he played only 41 percent of the team's offensive snaps last week, he's still a player you need to use if you have him and he's active this week due to the projected high score. However, if you have an alternative option that could put up 10-plus points for you, it may not be a bad move to go that route. While it's sounding like Graham is good to go, the last thing you want to have is to have him end up getting benched at game time while you had a healthy tight end who put up 10 to 15 points on your bench.If you want to pick up a Saints tight end to be your backup plan, Ben Watson (39 percent) and Josh Hill (31 percent) each saw time last week. Each of them caught just one pass.