NFL - NEWS & NOTES

Two of my favorite mid to late round prospects at wideout were Valdes-Scantling and St. Brown. Very distinct skill sets that should compliment each other as their careers come full circle. I think the Packers are in pretty good hands without the likes of an aging veteran who doesn't know the offense taking snaps. I like what the Pack has done. With Adams and Cobb leading the way in 2018, I think the addition of Jimmy Graham will have a bigger impact than Dez would have. Then the younger guys will begin to acclimate into the system in 2019 and beyond. J'Mon Moore will probably be asked to do more right away than the other two..but this trio could be the leading receivers for the pack as early as 2020 if Adams doesn't continue on his path to being a dominant WR in the league..He's implanted in this offense in 2018/2019, but after that his cap rises to over $16M, so unless he is dominating, they could move on after that...Cobb is spending his last days as a Packer, he will need replaced sooner than later as I don't see them renewing him with another contract at the end of this season.

 

Dolphins think Danny Amendola’s work ethic is making the whole team better

Danny Amendola has only been a Miami Dolphin for two months, but he’s already making a difference.

Dolphins coach Adam Gase said on PFT Live that Amendola, through his effort in offseason workouts, has shown other players what a championship-level effort looks like.

“It’s one of those values that I don’t think you can put a price on,” Gase said. “He’s been great in our locker room. I think the guys watch him work on the field and in the weight room and they understand why he’s played as long as he has, why he’s had success in big situations.”

Gase believes Amendola is making the Dolphins better even before he starts catching passes.

“Any time you can get a guy who can not only produce for you but can be a great example for other guys in your locker room, he’s making other guys better,” Gase said. “He makes 24 other offensive guys better if they watch him work.”

The 32-year-old Amendola spent the last five years in New England before moving on this year, and the Dolphins like the winning attitude he brings from the Patriots. (PFT)

 

NFL to vote on new kickoff rules, limiting full-speed collisions

The NFL is planning further changes to the kickoff, hoping to reduce the number of high-speed collisions that happen on the play.

A proposed new rule that owners will vote on next week will make several changes to the kickoff. The key takeaways are:

1. The kicking team must line up within one yard of the line where the ball is kicked (typically the 35-yard line), and must have five players on each side of the kicker. That changes the rule that allowed players to line up five yards behind the spot where the ball is kicked to get a running start. Now the kicker will be able to get a running start, but everyone else will get one step at best.

2. At least eight of the 11 players on the receiving team must line up within 15 yards of their restraining line, which would typically mean between the kicking team’s 45-yard line and the receiving team’s 40-yard line.

3. At least two players on the kickoff team must be lined up outside the numbers, and two players between the numbers and the hashmark.

4. Until the ball is touched or hits the ground, players on the receiving team can’t cross the restraining line (typically the 45), or initiate a block within 15 yards of the line where the ball is kicked.

5. Wedge blocks will be eliminated. Past rule changes have limited wedge blocks to two players, but now even the two-man wedge will be banned.

6. The ball will be dead if it touches the ground in the end zone. In the past the returner could pick up the ball off the ground in the end zone and run it out, but now it would be a touchback immediately if it touches the ground in the end zone.

These rules are likely to result in fewer high-speed collisions on kickoffs and, the NFL hopes, fewer concussions. (PFT)

 

The NFL never proved that kickoffs exposed players to more concussions than the rest of the game.
The NFL never proved that its kickoff rule changes decreased concussions as a percentage, since.

The NFL has been playing the PR game with concussions from word one, and that seems like the only solution they're going to bother with. We'll get a whole lot of lip service and show, and players will still be getting their brains knocked around. But I'm sure they'll talk this up a ton.

 

Long live Devin Hester!!!

 

so will making them play in bubbles and wear pink tu tu's and tiara's but we don't see that either.

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If the kicking team is not getting a 5 yard head start get prepared to see a lot of return TDs. We better find a good return man.

 

Quadre Henderson?

 

Well Reuben Foster's ex is a bitch.

 

Why? Actually it kinda runs in the gender

 

https://www.cbssports.com/general/n...throw-punches-in-womens-tackle-football-game/

the NFL is getting softer while the women's tackle league is having all out brawls in the middle of the games. love it.

 

Or she was incentivized to recant her story.

 

Greg Hardy approves of this theory.

 

Its become obvious the NFL really wants o do away with the kick off so they should quit dicking around and just scrap it already

 

I’m still holding out hope for a rugby scrum to decide opening possession.

 

J.J. Watt offers to pay for funerals for Texas school shooting victims

Houston Texans defensive end J.J. Watt has offered to pay for the funerals of the 10 people who were killed in a Texas high school on Friday.

Nine students and one teacher were killed at Santa Fe High School, about 30 miles from downtown Houston, when a student opened fire. Another 10 people were injured.

The Texans have confirmed that Watt said he will pay for the funerals of the deceased.

Watt was named the recipient of the NFL’s Walter Payton Man of the Year Award after his fundraising campaign raised more than $37 million for people affected by Hurricane Harvey. (PFT)
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Very nice gesture...

 

More information emerges regarding the new helmet rule...

Nearly two months after the NFL surprisingly passed a rule that, as written, broadly prohibits players from lowering their helmets to initiate contact, the eventual impact of the rule on the game remains to be seen. In part because the precise contours of the rule remain undefined.

Bit by bit, more information regarding the new rule is emerging. On Friday, NFL executive V.P. of football operations Troy Vincent answered questions on Twitter regarding the new helmet rule, and his first few answers confirmed that the new rule will have two clear tiers of enforcement: a 15-yard penalty and an ejection.

According to Vincent, a player “may be ejected” if he “lowers his head to establish a linear body posture prior to making contact with the head, has an unobstructed path to his opponent, and could have avoided contact.” The video attached to the tweet contains two examples of players making ejection-worthy hits: the 2017 helmet impact by Bears linebacker Danny Trevathan on Packers receiver Davante Adams and a helmet-first hit from a 2015 Monday night game by Falcons safety William Moore on Eagles receiver Jordan Matthews.

Vincent explained that the league looked at more than 40,000 plays from the 2017 season, and that only three ejections were identified.

Separately, Vincent confirmed that, under the new helmet rule, a foul occurs “if a player lowers his head to initiate and make contact with his helmet against an opponent.” Vincent demonstrates the point with video of a 2017 hit from Chiefs safety Ron Parker on Patriots receiver Danny Amendola.

It’s far closer to a bang-bang play, but Parker definitely had a chance to not plow helmet first into Amendola. And even if that play triggers a foul but not an ejection, it’s situation in which 15 yards will adjust based on a maneuver that, as of last year, was legal.

Which means that, as of 2018, the new helmet rule creates two levels of infraction. For something closer to bang-bang, a foul will be called, akin to the penalty for hitting a defenseless receiver in the head/neck area. For something that entails more time for the player to line up and attack with his helmet, it will be both a penalty and an ejection.

It won’t be a penalty, as Vincent has confirmed, if the player lowers his helmet not to initiate impact but to brace for it. That could make the rule even harder to officiate, with players colliding their helmets and a real-time decision being made regarding whether one was initiating it and whether the other was bracing for it.

Which brings into question, once again, the question of whether the new helmet rule will change the between-the-tackles running game, where plenty of players routinely dip their helmets as they try to create holes, collapse blocking plans, gain yardage, and make tackles. The league has still yet to explain that specific wrinkle.


So, basically, there’s still a long way to go before this new rule and its implications can be fully and properly understood. The sooner everyone knows precisely what is and isn’t allowed, the better.​

(PFT)
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For the life of me, I cant figure out why they keep trying to change many aspects of the game. These people behind this need to realize the game is what it is... its violent and folks are going to get hurt. Players play and make big cash moneys willingly and knowing full well the risk's involved, yet people are trying to change the game.

I agree that equipment can be made safer, but to tinker with the very aspects of the game that make the game what it is, is sac-religious.

Leave the damn game alone, but make the equipment more safer and advanced, period.

 

It's all due to the CTE studies. Plain and simple. They are paying out a lot of cash to victims of CTE from the past when they claimed that it wasn't effecting players and studies (that they were informed of) clearly showed it was. So, NOW, after the fact, they are doing what they can to limit CTE in all aspects. Until you invent equipment that limits the subjection of the neck to compression, rules like these are the only thing that can help avoid as much of it as possible.

OR, you could just leave all the rules the same, pay players even more money due to the facts of the repurcussions of playing the game...the quality of play will deteriorate as more and more players decide a league that doesn't care about their long term well being isn't worth playing in. They could easily defect to another league that does implement safety features to the game, then the NFL is 1) losing talent, 2) CAUSING long term health issues to their employees and 3) eventually losing their grip on the fanbase. Implementing the rules has not shown any semblance of losing the fanbase..so the rules will continue to be implemented to make the game as safe as a violent game can be.

We may see advances in equipment that could some day reverse some of these rules, but as of today it isn't in existence, so they are forced to do other things.

I for one would rather see my favorite players get in a 10-12 year career and see them grow as players, rather than see a trend of college kids coming in and making their $5M and get out after their rookie contract. The game would be spoiled that way as well.

 

Your points are well taken... I just think there is a lot of posturing on the part of the NFL. CTE test results and studies these days only prove that the risk has always been there. They didn't know or realize it back in the day, but they do now. I don't understand how this new technology and findings actually change anything or sheds light.

Personally, I don't think the game of football can be made into a non-risk, non-injury, non-CTE game In spite of all the new technology. Seems to me it will always be what it is and that's a violent sport with risk.

Maybe the contracts should just provide a clause that states 'play at your own risk of CTE' and then liability is taken away.

Another point to that I would make is this. Even if the game is deemed to be violent with high risk involved, there's always going to be the players who will play and take that chance.

I think and I'm being serious, the only way to end risk in football is to eliminate the sport entirely.

These same factors are in the NHL now too. CTE has become an issue... its also become a way of ex-players to rake in more money and I believe full well they new of most risks.

Ive been concussed many times myself (which explains a lot of my craziness), but never thought of life without driving cars, riding bikes or playing the games when I was able to.

I just think this CTE thing is a way for players to extort more money from the NFL and also a way for the goodytwoshoes out there to make cash in the name of 'safety'. That might be a hard-nosed line to take , but I believe it and think the changes to the game are un-necessary.

 

Johnny Manziel signs a 2-yr deal with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

Money says I find him in a bar by Christmas.