ESPN.com has definitely gone down hill in the last 8 months.

These days my favorite sources for NFL news are the ProFootballTalk Daily Rumor Mill and The Red Zone. Both provide links to local papers with the actual stories. The ProFootballTalk Daily Rumor Mill provides a lot of intriguing rumors, some of which prove true and some don't, but that's the nature of rumors. The guy who runs the site has obviously managed to cultivate a lot of contacts around the NFL.