NFL - NEWS & NOTES

That really seems like the way they're doing it. COVID cases and deaths have surged and yet the NFL seems a bit less wary. In all fairness, it does feel like they are mandating that teams take precautions. But are they themselves talking one way and acting in another fashion.

 

A Ravens forfeit would open a financial can of worms



If you thought that Steelers players were upset by the postponement of their Week 12 game from Thursday to Sunday, wait to see how they’d respond to a possible decision that the Ravens have forfeited the game.

The vague threat of a forfeited game has loomed over the 2020 season, and plenty have argued that teams should be held responsible for their own inability to control the virus by taking an automatic L. Financial realities make the situation far more complicated than that.

A forfeit would spark a fight over money between the league and the union. Although some in the media are parroting the league’s position that the players for both teams wouldn’t be paid, the agreement struck by the NFL and the NFL Players Association prior to the opening of training camps does not cover forfeited games. It provides only for non-payment of players in the event that games are cancelled or suspended.

A forfeited game isn’t a cancelled or suspended game. It’s a forfeited game. There’s a winner (by the score of 2-0, per the league’s official rulebook) and a loser. It goes into the standings. It counts as an official game.

In any other year, a forfeit never would have resulted in the forfeiture of player pay. If the league wanted forfeited games to fall within the parameters of the no-play, no-pay arrangement, the league should have included that specific term in the agreement with the union.

Really, why should the Steelers not be paid if the game can’t be played for reasons unrelated to them? They spent the week practicing, they spent the week preparing. They spent most of the week in limbo. If the game can’t be played and if the league tries to pick their pockets for their game checks, the Pittsburgh players would have every right to scream and shout and tweet streams of profanities regarding their displeasure with the situation.

Besides, it’s hard to make the Ravens solely responsible for the potential inability to play. As explained earlier today, the league allowed the Ravens to gather at the facility on Monday and Tuesday despite obvious evidence of an ongoing outbreak. The league wanted to preserve the Thanksgiving night game if it could. That calculated risk apparently backfired; if it keeps the Ravens from playing on Sunday, the Ravens can’t solely be faulted for that.

Far better than a forfeit, the worst-case scenario should entail bumping the game to Week 18. Although that would give both teams no further leeway when it comes to any other COVID-19 issues involving them or their future opponents, it may be the only path to chicken salad.

NBC

 

As a Steelers fan, the knee-jerk reaction is to want the Ravens to play short handed so victory is more probable. But in the end, the safety of the Steelers players is involved too. I really want players and staff for all teams to be safe and healthy and that's the first priority.

Still, from a logistics standpoint, what does the NFL do for each team. This game means a lot.


Classy Post dirk.........nice too see you understand what is going on with this Virus and you do not blame another team for starting it.

 

Eagles right tackle Lane Johnson is done for the season.

Johnson told reporters today that he needs ankle surgery that will require four to five months to recover, according to Martin Frank of the Delaware News Journal.

Matt Pryor will take over at right tackle on an injury-plagued offensive line in Philadelphia.

Johnson has appeared in seven games this year, but he’s been playing hurt all season. Now the Eagles will hope he can get right for 2021, and hope their offense can manage yet another injury in a season full of them.

NBC

 

NFL moves Ravens-Steelers to Tuesday night



The NFL decided to wait no longer to make a final decision.

ESPN reports that the league has moved Sunday’s Ravens-Steelers game to Tuesday night.

The decision was made despite pending Friday PCR test results, which may show no new positives for Friday, an indication that the outbreak may have subsided. At least one positive test came from Friday-morning point-of-care tests.

The delay raises questions now regarding the timing of the Week 13 games between the Cowboys and Ravens and the Steelers and Washington. There’s been some speculation that Cowboys-Ravens could move from Thursday to Monday. If that’s the case, Pittsburgh’s game against Washington should move to Monday, too.

The fact that the decision was made today proves that, as of last night, no decisions had been made — despite reports suggesting that decisions had been made. The league made the decision today, independent and regardless of anything communicated by and between Ravens coaches and players.

NBC

 

Texans will cut Kenny Stills



Wide receiver Kenny Stills was not in the Texans lineup for Thursday’s win because of a quad injury and it doesn’t look like he’ll play any other games for the team because he’s not going to be on the roster much longer.

Cameron Wolfe of ESPN.com reports that the Texans are cutting Stills. It’s described as a “mutual parting” with a player who has seen a diminshed offensive role in Houston. He has 11 catches for 144 yards and a touchdown.

In addition to a shrinking role on offense, Stills also went public with a negative reaction to the team’s decision to fire PR head Amy Palcic earlier this month.

Stills will go on waivers, so any team in the league could claim him and what’s left of his $6.975 million salary for the 2020 season.

NBC

 

NFL closing all teams facilities on monday and tuesday.

Team facilities will be closed to all in-person activities Monday and Tuesday, the NFL said Friday in a leaguewide memo.

The ban does not apply to teams scheduled to play on Monday or Tuesday.

 

Multiple Steelers being added to the covid 19 list. James Conner has tested positive.

According to the team on Friday, Steelers defensive tackle Isaiah Buggs, tackle Jerald Hawkins and defensive end Stephon Tuitt have all been placed the Reserve/COVID-19 List. It’s unclear if any of them tested positive for COVID-19 at the time of this post. (From steelers depot)

There is at least 1 coach testing positive not named at this point (or at least not in the article i saw)

 

Lot of peeps in the fantasy world will rush to grab snell but if the Steelers #s grow like the ravens did daily there is a good chance this game becomes the first one moved to week 18.

 

It certainly appears as if "Covid Appathy" is creeping into NFL organizations just as it is in the general population.

 

Might be time to bubble up the teams.

 

That’s what they are talking about for the playoffs... we have to actually get to the playoffs though.

 

Lions fire Matt Patricia, Bob Quinn



Amid another losing season, Lions head coach Matt Patricia and General Manager Bob Quinn have both been fired.

The hammer came down two days after a disastrous loss to the Houston Texans on Thanksgiving dropped the Lions to 4-7 this season.

Everyone knew Patricia was on the hot seat, but firing Quinn at the same time is a strong statement from Lions owner Sheila Ford Hamp that this franchise needs major changes. This is Quinn’s fifth season as the Lions’ G.M., and the roster has only gotten worse, not better.

The team also got worse with Patricia as its coach. Jim Caldwell was fired as Lions head coach after back-to-back 9-7 seasons, and now Patricia has taken over for Caldwell and taken the Lions to three consecutive losing seasons.

Now the Lions will get to work on rebuilding a franchise that has been run into the ground.

NBC

 

WTF



The Broncos are heading into tomorrow’s game against the Saints with an unprecedented challenge: They don’t have a single quarterback.

All of the quarterbacks on the Broncos’ roster have been ruled out of Sunday’s game because they were exposed to COVID-19, according to multiple reports.

Broncos backup quarterback Jeff Driskel has tested positive for COVID-19, and the report says all of the Broncos’ other quarterbacks have been in close contact with Driskel, with no one wearing masks.

It’s unclear what the Broncos will do. It’s not feasible to bring in a quarterback from the outside in less than 24 hours. So unless the NFL postpones the game, the Broncos would have to have a position player line up at quarterback. (No, Broncos General Manager John Elway can’t play.) Broncos running back Royce Freeman appears to be the leading contender.

This NFL season has seen teams go through a number of unique challenges because of the COVID-19 pandemic. But no team has done anything like play a game without a single quarterback. That’s what the Broncos are poised to do tomorrow.

NBC
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This is getting ridiculous... and worsening. I guess the social distancing and mask wearing doesnt work after-all. That or these clowns in the NFL, dont ad-hear to the recommendations.

 

Kendall hunter on their practice squad is listed as a wr but a former 3 year starter for wake forest. Also isnt one of their former qbs on someones practice squad? Unless he is protected they could sign him.

 

Good chance its that

 

That's what I was thinking. All these guys are talented athletes. One of those guy had to play QB in college or maybe even high school. Next man up !!

 

League has had no discussions on a full Week 12 cancellation



Rumors currently are flying that the league may cancel all games this weekend. They are strictly rumors, and the NFL says they aren’t true.

Per the league, there has been no discussion on the possibility of pulling the plug on Week 12.

This doesn’t change the fact that the rumor is running rampant; the league’s position potentially will extinguish it. That said, if a cancellation of Week 12 were to happen, some league insiders believe it actually would make sense.

Apart from the ongoing issues in Baltimore and Pittsburgh and the fact that the Broncos have lost all their quarterbacks, the fact that players and coaches gathered with out-of-town visitors for Thanksgiving sets the stage for a potential problem. The league already has ordered all team facilities shuttered on Monday and Tuesday, given that so many team personnel gathered on Thursday with people who had traveled from other cities and states.

So if any of those players and coaches caught the virus and if they flip from negative to positive on Sunday morning and if they shed virus all day in the locker room and on the sideline and on the field before finding out tomorrow night after PCR tests are generated that they were positive all along, the walls could come crumbling down for the league.

The easiest solution, then, could be this: Move Week 12 to Week 18. Or, even better, move Week 12 to Week 17 and move Week 17 to Week 18.

Again, the league says there’s been no discussion of cancelling Week 12. Given what’s currently happening, however, it’s not hard to make the case that maybe there should be.

NBC

 

How disappointing.

 

Purely a guess, but seems very likely to me the problem here lies in what happens away from the facility. The league imo has put in pretty comprehensive protocols for during the week and game day for teams which, possibly after the example made of LV & Gruden, teams have been buying into.

But they never could control what the thousands of players/staff did outside work and this was always the glaring weakness they faced by not entering a full bubble from the get go(not that that would've been easy to implement at all either). There always felt like an element of inevitability re this to me tho, hence on the Bears board i picked the team to go 7-7 this year.

I dont know what more they could've done other than a bubble. The country as a whole is hitting 200,000 reported cases every day now, i just dont know how you run a league during that.

My guess is the league is desperately trying to get within a couple of weeks of the end of the season with a goal of cutting the season short, going to 16team playoffs and maybe trying to implement a bubble throughout the playoffs.