WitP: Mauia, Forney, C.J., Pisa, Mat, Colt

Reagan Mauia signed a 1-year contract with the Arizona Cardinals today.

The Cardinals signed free agent fullback Reagan Maui'a to a one-year contract Wednesday.

Maui’a (6-0, 260) started two games last season for the Cincinnati Bengals and was inactive for three others after being claimed on waivers from the Miami Dolphins on Sept. 3.

A native of American Samoa, Maui’a was placed on injured reserve (hamstring) by the Bengals on Oct. 24, 2008 prior to receiving an injury settlement on Nov. 26.

He talked to AZCardinals.com about his famous Youtube video and getting another chance to play:

"You get on youtube and get a couple hits, man, it's going to follow you around," he added.

Maui'a said he feels fortunate to find an NFL job after stints with the Bengals and Dolphins. "I was put on this earth to play football," Maui'a said. "Being here makes me so happy."

Relaunch of the Juggernaut!

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The North County Times talks to Kynan Forney about getting a chance to prove himself to the Chargers.

The offensive guard didn't play a snap despite being on the roster all season, so it's understandable that many were left scratching their heads when he was rewarded with a two-year, $4.8-million contract extension in the offseason.

What many didn't know was that Forney had quite a resume. He was a seven year starter with the Atlanta Falcons, and was named as a first alternate to the 2005 Pro Bowl. The 6-foot-3, 302-pounder is known as a ferocious run blocker and a tough guy, characteristics that kept him in a Chargers uniform and earned a new contract.

"(That) gave me a sense of urgency," Forney said. "It renewed me a little bit to know that they want me, they believe in me and I'm going to give it my best."

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C.J. Hawthorne made a nice move in Bills practice today.

C.J. Hawthorne made a nice spin move after pulling in a throw from Gibran Hamdan. Hawthorne made the catch while coming inside, but saw his lane was cut off and quickly spun back outside and took it up the sideline for extra yardage.

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Lindsey Willhite of The Daily Herald profiles Pisa Tinoisamoa.

It might be 2009, but Tinoisamoa's getting $1.5 million to relive 2003:

He's in his first year with a team, Lovie Smith and Bob Babich are his coaches, and he's trying to prove he belongs on the field in the Tampa-2 scheme.

"It's the same stuff, which is good," Tinoisamoa said with a laugh. "The good thing is I learned it before. Now I'm just kind of repeating myself."

If Tinoisamoa repeats his rookie year, then the Bears will be giddy. The 6-foot, 230-pounder started 15 games for the Rams in 2003 and led them with 121 tackles while also posting 3 interceptions.

"He's a playmaker," Babich said. "He's just a playmaker. It's great to have him around. He has a great personality and he's brought a lot to the (linebackers) room."

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John Whisler of the San Antonio Express profiles Mat McBriar, who relives the injury that ended his season.

McBriar suffered a main fracture and two hairline fractures to his right foot and had to undergo surgery. Ten months later, the play is still etched in his memory.

“It was pretty painful,” McBriar recalls. “But I actually was more upset that we lost the game and I had a punt blocked. I kind of liked my record. No blemishes. No blocks.”

On the pivotal play against Arizona, McBriar had no chance.

“I think I kicked (Morey) in the hip,” recalled McBriar, 30, a native of Australia who played collegiately at Hawaii. “If I had kicked him pretty much anywhere else, I would have been all right.”

Not only was it the first block of his pro career, it was McBriar's first major injury ever.

He didn't begin punting again until February. Now he says he's fully recovered from the injury and punting as well as ever.

“He's been one of the bright spots of our training camp the way he's been punting the ball,” Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said.

Wade Phillips has been just as impressed. He said McBriar looks comfortable and has boomed a number of prodigious punts.

“He had one that was 70 yards in the air the other day,” Phillips said. “I think it ended up being an 80-something-yard punt. We feel good about where he is.”

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Warpath Confidential begins a regular feature with Colt Brennan.

As a regular feature, we are going to speak with Brennan about things he sees and does in practice and in games. We will highlight individual plays or situations and ask him to share his perspective.

Today he breaks down a pass he completed to Santana Moss in 7-on-7s.

Redskins.com's training camp report notes some of the plays Colt made today.

Colt had some great quotes as well. From DC Sports Bog:

Colt Brennan to Chick Hernandez: "Over the [past] year I started to feel like I was old, you know; I had these little aches and pains all the time. And now that's all kind of faded away, now I'm starting to feel young and fruitful again."

From the Redskins.com blog:

The post-practice drills were particularly interesting, mainly because they replaced a promising trashcan challenge between Jason Campbell, Colt Brennan, and Chase Daniel. The trashcan was set up in the back corner of the endzone, and the quarterbacks were out around the 10-yard line. Campbell went first, dropped back, and missed. Brennan was next, and he hit on his first try.
Then there was a huddle of some kind, and then next thing anyone watching knew -- me and the TV guys who were filming, basically -- the quarterbacks were throwing fade routes to the wide receivers in the back of the end zone.

"It was gonna be best out of five," Campbell told me, "but then the receivers came back out so we just started throwing fades to 'em. We're gonna regroup and do it again tomorrow after practice."

"Colt's claiming that he won just because Coach Meidt and Coach Hixon wanted us to throw to the receivers instead," Daniel added, "but we're definitely picking back up tomorrow."

Brennan looked disappointed at the change in plans. "We started throwing before we could properly set terms, so I wasted a perfectly good trashcan shot," he said.

The other two high points of Brennan's day were the long touchdown to Santana Moss in morning practice, and the high five with Coach Jim Zorn that followed.

"It was nice," he said of the high five. "It's a progression from where I started. A lot of times even when you complete a pass, you still have to be coached. There's very few times you get to turn around and get a high five, so it was nice that that happened. It gave me a good feeling on the inside."

With those things in the past, I asked if anything else exciting had happened today and Brennan shrugged. "I threw a ball into a trashcan. After that, you can pretty much call it a day."