NFL - NEWS & NOTES

Lions cut Ameer Abdullah; sign WR Ellington, RB Zenner...

After trading Golden Tate, the Detroit Lions signed a veteran receiver and jettisoned another former offensive centerpiece.

The Lions signed former Houston Texans receiver Bruce Ellington and brought back running back Zach Zenner on Tuesday, the team announced. To make room on the roster, Detroit waived running back Ameer Abdullah.

Abdullah, a former second-round pick, was banished deep down the Lions' depth chart. The additions of stud rookie Kerryon Johnson and aging sledgehammer LeGarrette Blount to pair with pass-catching back Theo Riddick made Abdullah superfluous in Detroit.
Abdullah has been active for just three games and earned one carry for one yard and two receptions for 18 yards. His most notable play of the season was a negative one. He fumbled a kickoff in the Lions' 28-14 home loss to the Seattle Seahawks two weeks ago. Abdullah was inactive on Sunday.

The 25-year-old former Nebraska Cornhusker showed burst and speed on the edge as a rookie, compiling 597 yards on 4.2 yards per carry in nine starts. Injuries all but wiped out his second season. The 2017 campaign was a cluster of inconsistency as he earned a middling 3.3 yards per tote. The Lions had the infamous streak of sub-100-yard rushing games with Abdullah on the roster -- a streak Johnson broke this season.

Despite the struggles, it wouldn't be a surprise if a team in need of a running back gave a shot to a speedy potential dual-threat back with experience. The Lions had some trade talks before the deadline, per Rapoport, but nothing came to fruition.

Adding Ellington to the roster provides a slot receiver to help make try to up for the trade of Tate. The 27-year-old played 66 percent of his snaps from the slot with the Houston Texans last year and again in three games this season, per Next Gen Stats. Ellington can be a reliable possession receiver when healthy, but no one would confuse him for Tate in terms of YAC ability.

The addition likely indicates the Lions weren't thrilled with the prospect of T.J. Jones getting more playing time behind Marvin Jones Jr. and Kenny Golladay in three-receiver sets. (NFL.com)

 

Report: Saints, Dez Bryant talking contract...



Dez Bryant may soon have a new team, finally.

According to NFL Media, the Saints liked what they saw during Tuesday’s workout, and the two sides currently are negotiating a deal.

And if the deal happens, circle this date on your calendar: November 29. That’s when the Saints play the Cowboys. In Dallas. In prime time.

Once the season began, Bryant’s best play became signing with a team in November, getting up to speed over the balance of the regular season, and attempting to contribute in the postseason, hopeful to make the kind of impression in January that will get him paid in March.

As to Bryant’s reputation for being emotional, the Saints may be one of the few teams equipped to handle him. Between quarterback Drew Brees and coach Sean Payton, they’ll be blunt and candid regarding their expectations, and if it’s not working, the Saints will move on. Like they did a year ago with running back Adrian Peterson.

Earlier this year, the Browns were interested in Bryant, but he resisted. If he was trusting his instincts, his instincts were on the money. (NBC's PFT)

 

Saints sign Dez Bryant...

Seven months after he was cut by the Cowboys, Bryant has signed with the Saints today, according to NFL Network.

Once among the NFL’s best wide receivers, Bryant appeared to be on the decline last year in Dallas, and it was no surprise that the Cowboys cut him. But it was surprising that it took Bryant so long to find another team. There were a few scattered reports about some teams showing interest in Bryant, but no deals materialized.

Until today, when the already strong Saints passing attack decided to see if Bryant can make them even stronger. He’ll presumably get a low-price deal that would make it easy for the Saints to move on without him if he doesn’t have anything left. If he does have something left, he could be a good addition to a team that has legitimate Super Bowl aspirations. (NBC's PFT)

 

Bruce Irvin didn’t stay unemployed for long.

Irvin, who passed through waivers after the Raiders cut him, is signing with the Falcons, the team announced this morning.

It was unsurprising that no team picked Irvin up on waivers, given that it would have required paying him $3.8 million the rest of the season. But it’s also unsurprising that he was quickly signed once he became a free agent. The Falcons’ struggling defense will benefit from Irvin’s help as a pass rusher, even if they’re paying him some amount less than $3.8 million.

The 31-year-old Irvin has three sacks so far this season. He had a career-high eight sacks last season.

Irvin played two seasons in Seattle when Falcons head coach Dan Quinn was the Seahawks’ defensive coordinator, so it shouldn’t be hard for him to get up to speed in Atlanta’s defense. Irvin is expected to play for the Falcons on Sunday against the Browns. (NBC's PFT)

 

Kinda strange to see a good Thursday game and a ho-hummer on MNF...

 

You said, ho-hummer.

 

He must have been reluctant to type that but true to it he had to do it.

 

Ezekiel Elliott: Cowboys must find run game with “must-win” game looming...

Ezekiel Elliott calls Sunday’s game against the Eagles a “must-win.” That should go without saying considering the Cowboys are a game behind the Eagles and two games behind Washington in the NFC East and have lost two in a row.

The Cowboys are running out of time on this season and perhaps on Jason Garrett’s career in Dallas.

“One hundred percent, it’s a must-win,” Elliott said. “Being a division game that makes it that much more important.

“We definitely have talked about it. Definitely talked about kind of just having that mentality. We got to go out there and win as many ball games as we can to get ourselves the opportunity to get in the playoffs.”

It’s a must-run game as well.

Although Elliott ranks fourth in the NFL in rushing with 680 yards, he had only 15 carries for 32 yards against Washington and 17 carries for 61 yards on Monday night against Tennessee. Elliott had just six touches in the second half against the Titans.

His only touch in the fourth quarter was a reception for no gain.

“We’ve got to get this run game going, point blank, period,” Elliott said. “We’ve got to get it going. We’ve got to figure out how we’re going to do that. It’s been inconsistent. I think we made some good strides last week early in the game, but still not where it needs to be. Still not at the level that it should be.” (NBC's PFT)

 

NFL fines Dolphins, Adam Gase over injury reporting irregularities...

The NFL currently isn’t looking the other way (as it usually does) when teams violate the letter and/or the spirit of the injury reporting rules.

According to Albert Breer of SI.com, the league fined the Miami Dolphins $30,000 and coach Adam Gase $15,000 for the handling of the Week Six injury report regarding quarterback Ryan Tannehill.

The fine came from the team’s listing of Tannehill as a full participant in practice on a Thursday, even though Tannehill missed some of the first-team reps.

Per Breer, the Dolphins and Gase weren’t fined for failing to downgrade Tannehill from questionable to doubtful due to a shoulder injury, in advance of the team’s decision to make him inactive for the game against the Bears. That would seem to the the more obvious — and problematic — violation of the rules.

The league recently fined the Raiders $20,000 for failing to downgrade guard Kelechi Osemele from questionable to out when he didn’t travel to L.A. for a game against the Chargers. The league also could be looking into whether the Cardinals violated the rules by failing to list former quarterback Sam Bradford on the injury report, given an ESPN report that he didn’t practice for five weeks due to a bone-on-bone condition in his knee. (NBC's PFT)

 

AFC playoff picture: Chiefs and Patriots have the lead...

As we head into Week 10 of the NFL season, we’re taking our first look at the playoff picture, and the top two teams have separated themselves from the pack.

The Chiefs are the top team in the conference, but the Patriots are only a game behind and have the head-to-head tiebreaker. The Chiefs also have the Chargers to contend with in the AFC West, so Kansas City can’t get complacent.

Here’s how the race looks before Week 10:

LEADERS
1. Kansas City (8-1): Owns a one-game lead in the conference and a 1.5-game lead in the division.

2. New England (7-2): The Patriots appear destined to get their usual bye week.

3. Pittsburgh (5-2-1): After a sluggish start, the Steelers now control the AFC North.

4. Houston (6-3): The Texans are threatening to run away with the AFC South.

5. L.A. Chargers (6-2): They’d be a dangerous wild card.

6. Cincinnati (5-3): Marvin Lewis is on pace to save his job by getting the Bengals back to the playoffs.

OUTSIDE LOOKING IN
7. Miami (5-4): They won’t catch the Patriots, but the Dolphins are very much alive in wild card contention.

8. Tennessee (4-4): : The Titans won a playoff game last season and fired Mike Mularkey anyway. Will they even get to the playoffs with Mike Vrabel?

9. Baltimore (4-5): John Harbaugh may need a winning streak and a playoff berth to save his job.

10. Jacksonville (3-5): The Jaguars currently own the tiebreaker over the Colts, based on having a better record in common games.

11. Indianapolis (3-5): The Colts look like they could go on a run over the second half of the season, but will it be enough to catch the Texans?

12. N.Y. Jets (3-6): The Jets have the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Broncos.

13. Denver (3-6): Two straight losing seasons could cost Vance Joseph his job.

14. Cleveland (2-6-1): The Browns are a little better. They need to get a lot better.

15. Buffalo (2-7): They keep losing no matter which of their three quarterbacks play.

16. Oakland (1-7): Jon Gruden won’t be making the playoffs in his first year back in Oakland.

(NBC's PFT)

 

NFC playoff picture: Rams are in first, despite a loss...

The Rams remain the top team in the NFC playoff race, even after losing to the Saints.

Although the Saints now own the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Rams, L.A. is on top because it has played and won one more game than New Orleans has. So the Rams are the favorites to earn home-field advantage throughout the NFC playoffs, just not the overwhelming favorites they would have been if they had beaten the Saints.

Here’s how the playoff picture looks heading into Week 10:

LEADERS
1. L.A. Rams (8-1): A loss in New Orleans doesn’t change the fact that the Rams are the class of the conference.

2. New Orleans (7-1): The good news for the Saints is they just have to keep winning.

3. Chicago (5-3): Owns the tiebreaker with Washington based on better record in NFC games.

4. Washington (5-3): The leader in a weak NFC East.

5. Carolina (6-2): Has the wild card lead heading into Week 10.

6. Minnesota (5-3-1): Half a game behind The Bears in the NFC North.

OUTSIDE LOOKING IN
7. Atlanta (4-4): Owns the tiebreaker over Philadelphia and Seattle thanks to its 4-2 NFC record.

8. Seattle (4-4): Owns the tiebreaker over Philadelphia thanks to its 3-2 NFC record.

9. Philadelphia (4-4): The 2-3 conference record hurts in the tiebreaker calculations.

10. Green Bay (3-4-1): The Packers are still in the playoff race, but it’ll be an uphill climb from here.

11. Dallas (3-5): Owns the common games tiebreaker over Tampa Bay.

12. Tampa Bay (3-5): Owns the tiebreaker with Detroit based on NFC record.

13. Detroit (3-5): Jim Caldwell was fired after back-to-back 9-7 seasons. Matt Patricia looks unlikely to do better.

14. Arizona (2-6): At least they’re not in last place in the NFC West.

15. San Francisco (2-7): They’re in last place in the NFC West.

16. N.Y. Giants (1-7): Eli Manning is guiding them toward having the first overall pick to draft his replacement.

(NBC's PFT)

 

Of course the Rams "have played and won one more game" than the Saints. The Saints have had their bye week, the Rams have not. Right now they both have a conference record of 5-1 and the Saints own the head-to-head tie breaker. The Saints also currently own the opponent's SOS tie breaker.

You think that someone who writes for NBC's PFT would actually know that !!!

 

Its funny you should mention that... they have mis-reported things on a very frequent basis and get me in trouble. Its to the point where I really need to double check things and that's a lot of extra work I don't care to do.

Im going to see about comparing them with a few other out-lets for current news. Right now I use, AP, NFL.com, PFT and some others I get on my PC news feed.

Im not really a huge fan of NBC's coverage in the first place, but they do pop out the data quicker than others (with mistakes included).

Good eye Lym… you'd think they would have better Quality Control down there.

 

Journalism 2018...being first is more important than being correct.

 

Sports "Journalists" are no different than the rest of today's so called journalists. Back in the day, journalists had an unspoken mantra of "its our job to report the news, not make it". Those guys would report the facts and allow the public to draw their own conclusions. And they would fact check what they reported before they opened their mouth on the air or submitted an article for publication.

Sadly, this quality of journalism has become a dinosaur.

 

I don't read it that way, even though I don't care for NBC reporting all that much...

The way I read it is...They are still leading as of this printing BECAUSE they have won one more game than the Saints. .889 winning percentage is on top of a .875 winning percentage. They explain that in the following sentences stating that all New Orleans has to do is win out.

They are the "favorites" today, because they have already won that extra game that the Saints need to still play.

Am I misinterpreting something?

 

I should just do this and report the facts, lol... its simple that way.

 

That Elliott had only one touch in the 4th quarter of what was a one-score game is a testament to how truly awful the play-calling has been. I don't think Cole Beasley saw the ball until the 4th quarter.

 

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/...gainst-dr-james-andrews-over-botched-surgery/

$180 mil is no laughing matter. wow.