With the owners and team representatives meeting in Chicago for updates on the labor negotiations, we inch closer to training camp and news starts to pick up. Without OTAs and mini-camps, some of the good nuggets we are used to getting just aren’t there, so when coaches or players speak on workouts or plans for the season, we’re listening with great interest.

The QB competition might be open in Denver, but we know who has the best NECKBEARD.

Fox says Bronco QB competition will be wide-open … between Kyle Orton, Tim Tebow, and yes, even Brady Quinn. Fox, who was hired by the Broncos back in January just two weeks after completing his tenure in Carolina, has said all along that the starting job would be decided in a competition, which he believes is a healthy part of the game. Fox said the team has “multiple plans in place, just waiting for the race to start” in relation to roster moves and practice schedules. What Fox didn’t and couldn’t address, were the trade rumors surrounding Orton, who is apparently favored by Fox and executive VP John Elway, although that doesn’t mean the team is against trading him at the right price. [...]

We will have much more in-depth analysis of what the NFL Draft means for fantasy in coming days – in fact, the Post-Draft Stock Watch is already up – but as we did for the 1st round Friday, we bring you a quick round-up here of what happened on Days Two of Three of the draft as we wait for a pivotal ruling from the Eighth Circuit Court in St. Louis.

Mallett’s fall headlines Day Two … While both QBs Andy Dalton (#35 to Cincinnati) and Colin Kaepernick (#36 to San Francisco) went off the board earlier, the big news of Friday’s portion of the NFL was the fall of the polarizing Ryan Mallett. Mallett, who is the best pure passer in the draft, has had his character called into question, and he dropped all the way to the 74th pick overall in the 3rd round, where he landed with the Patriots. Obviously, the Patriots aren’t in immediate need of a starting QB, but it’s a good spot for Mallett to land because he’ll get to adjust to the NFL under the guidance of Bill Belichick and Tom Brady. If maturity is a problem, there’s no better place for him to [...]

So, Opening Weekend in Major League Baseball has come and gone, and hopefully it was a worthy enough distraction so you failed to realize that free agency has not yet started in the NFL. When will that finally commence? That remains to be seen, but mark down April 6 as a key day: that’s when Judge Susan Nelson will hear the first arguments in the Brady v. NFL case. We could get a ruling immediately, or it could take a couple weeks. Buckle in.

NFL refuses to negotiate with decertified NFLPA… The NFL and its relentless battalion of PR lackeys (see @gregaiello on Twitter if you need to vomit) has insisted since the union decertified a few weeks ago that it’s always ready to go back to the negotiating table. But an ESPN.com story suggests otherwise – the players requested to meet with the owners starting March 28 to work out a settlement before the April 6 date in Judge Nelson’s court. What’s happening here is a classic battle of semantics, something we should expect to see until this situation is resolved. In essence, the NFL is willing to negotiate with the players, but only in collective bargaining sessions. And if [...]