NFL - NEWS & NOTES

Bears plan to play Justin Fields, Roquan Smith, other starters in preseason finale



While some NFL head coaches keep their key starters on the sideline in the preseason, Bears head coach Matt Eberflus is giving his starters plenty of work.

Eberflus said today that he plans to play starting quarterback Justin Fields for the entire first half of Saturday’s preseason finale against the Browns. Although Fields will likely have most of the first-string offense around him, Eberflus did say he might give certain veteran starters more rest in the third and final week of the preseason.


However, linebacker Roquan Smith will not be among the veteran starters resting on Saturday. Eberflus said he’s planning to have Smith on the field.

Smith sat out most of training camp while he was requesting a new contract or a trade, but he recently confirmed that he will play for the Bears this season on the fifth and final year of his rookie contract. Eberflus wants to give Smith some game action before the games count for real.

The Bears open the regular season at home against the 49ers on Sunday, September 11.

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Commanders place Chase Young on reserve/PUP list



The earliest edge rusher Chase Young will play in the 2022 season is the Commanders’ Week Five matchup against the Titans.

Washington announced on Tuesday that Young, who is recovering from tearing his ACL midway through the 2021 season, has been placed on the reserve/physically unable to perform list. With a change in this year’s rules, Young is now ineligible to play for the first four games of the season instead of six.


Head coach Ron Rivera has maintained throughout the offseason and training camp that the Commanders wouldn’t rush Young back to action. He said at the end of July that he expected Young to miss some time in the regular season.

After winning defensive rookie of the year in 2020, Young had recorded just 1.5 sacks, three tackles for loss, four QB hits, and two forced fumbles in nine games before his knee injury sidelined him for the rest of 2021.

Additionally, the Commanders have placed center Tyler Larsen on the reserve/PUP list, so he’ll also miss Washington’s first four games. Receiver Kelvin Harmon and offensive tackle Rashod Hill have been released. And linebacker Nathan Gerry has been placed on injured reserve.

All teams have to reduce their rosters to 80 players by 4 p.m. ET on Tuesday.

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The Bengals announced that Bates has signed his franchise tender. He is now guaranteed $12.91 million for the 2022 season.

 

Cornerback J.C. Jackson was one of the biggest additions to the Chargers defense this offseason, but he may not be part of the lineup to open the regular season.

The Chargers announced today that Jackson had ankle surgery. He is expected to miss between two and four weeks with the injury.


If it is the longer end of that window, Jackson will likely miss at least two games. The Chargers will host the Raiders to open the season in less than three weeks and then have a quick turnaround to go to Arrowhead Stadium for a Thursday night game against the Chiefs.

The Chargers would love to have Jackson on hand as they try to slow down Patrick Mahomes and company, but the long view make push his debut further into the season.

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Len Dawson, who was one of the greatest quarterbacks of his era and then went on to a long and successful career as a broadcaster, has died at the age of 87.

An All-State football and basketball player at Alliance High School in Ohio, Dawson turned down a scholarship offer at Ohio State to play in a more pass-friendly offense at Purdue, where he was recruited by assistant coach Hank Stram, who later became his head coach with the Chiefs. Dawson led the Big Ten in passing yards during all three of his seasons at Purdue, and on the strength of that performance, he went to the Steelers with the fifth overall pick in the 1957 NFL draft.

But in three years with the Steelers, Dawson barely played, and they ended up trading him to the Browns — who also barely played him, for two more seasons. Through five NFL seasons, Dawson’s career looked like it was going nowhere.

In 1962, however, Dawson’s fortunes changed: Stram had become the head coach of the American Football League’s Dallas Texans (who would move to Kansas City and change their name to the Chiefs the next year), and he brought Dawson in to be his quarterback. Dawson thrived in the AFL, leading that league in touchdown passes, completion percentage, yards per attempt and passer rating in his first season, while the Texans won the AFL championship.

Dawson would continue to lead an outstanding offense with the Chiefs for more than a decade, even leading the NFL in completion percentage in his final season, 1975, at the age of 40. He retired as one of the most prolific passers in pro football history.

But while Dawson retired from playing, he wasn’t nearly done with pro football. He had actually become the sports director at KMBC-TV in Kansas City while he was still an active player, and he worked for that station for decades. In 1977 he was hired by the upstart cable channel HBO to host Inside the NFL, and he continued to host it through 2001. He also worked as an analyst on NBC, and for many years on the Chiefs’ radio broadcasts.

Dawson was voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a player in 1987 and received the Hall of Fame’s Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award in 2012. Dawson started for the Chiefs in Super Bowl I, and he was the MVP of Super Bowl IV.

 

Hard to believe that the Steelers had Dawson and Johnny Unitas on their roster at the same time and let them both go for nothing. Definitely wasn’t the coaching we’re used to from the Steelers since 1969.

 

Funny to think the Chiefs actually WANTED him to become the TV station's reporter covering them. Today such a thing would likely be impossible. Back then, it wasn't all that rare for a player to cover the team, though I don't know of any other active players who became sports coverage directors while still playing.

 

Gotta love Falcons coach Arthur Smith. Here's his entire commentary to open his meeting with the press after the Jets game:

"Sorry y'all had to sit through that second half. Okay, fire away."

 

Report: Tyron Smith could miss multiple months with torn hamstring



The Cowboys may have lost one of their best players for a significant period of time.

Cowboys left tackle Tyron Smith suffered a torn left hamstring in Wednesday’s practice and could miss multiple months of the 2022 season, according to ESPN.


Smith went down during practice with what first appeared to be a knee injury, and when tests showed no damage to Smith’s ACL, it seemed to be good news.

But additional testing found that Smith’s hamstring is torn, and now he’s set for more testing on Thursday to determine the severity of the hamstring tear.

Without Smith, the Cowboys are missing a big part of their offensive line. Rookie first-round draft pick Tyler Smith played left tackle in college and might be called upon to do it now for the Cowboys, but prior to Tyron Smith’s injury, the Cowboys wanted Tyler Smith to play guard as a rookie. Josh Ball, a 2021 fourth-round pick who didn’t play at all as a rookie, and Matt Waletzko, a 2022 fifth-round pick, would be other options to replace Smith at left tackle.

The Cowboys selected Tyron Smith in the first round of the 2011 draft, and he’s been in Dallas longer than any other player on the roster. When healthy he has been among the best offensive linemen in the NFL.

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The news isn’t getting any better about Cowboys left tackle Tyron Smith.

Wednesday brought word that Smith tore his left hamstring during practice and will miss months while he recovers. Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports on Thursday that Smith actually suffered an avulsion fracture of the knee.


An avulsion fracture occurs when a tendon or ligament tears a piece of bone away from the main piece. Jets tackle Mekhi Becton suffered one earlier this month and has been placed on season-ending injured reserve.

The Cowboys have not made any move like that with Smith at this point, but Rapoport reports that he won’t be able to return until December if he is able to return at all. The Cowboys could keep the door open by waiting until after the cut to 53 players to put Smith on injured reserve, but any move before that would eliminate the chance of playing again this year.

 

Veteran center JC Tretter has not signed with a team since being released by the Browns in March and he doesn’t plan on signing with anyone at any point in the future.

In a letter posted to Twitter on Thursday, Tretter announced his retirement from playing in the NFL. Tretter wrote that he’s proud of what he’s accomplished in the NFL and that he realized his goal of being able to stop playing on his own terms.


Tretter was a 2013 fourth-round pick of the Packers out of Cornell and started 10 of the 31 games he played for the team. He signed with the Browns ahead of the 2017 season and would go on to start all 80 games he played for Cleveland over the next five years.

In addition to his on-field work, Tretter also became involved in the NFL Players Association and was elected its president in 2020. He was elected to another term in 2022 and wrote on Thursday that he is looking forward to “doubling down” on his union work now that his playing days are over.

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Devastating.

 

I don’t understand why nobody signed Tretter, he was a good center with the Browns.

 

He was pretty solid throughout his time with the Browns, no doubt. But, like the Browns, others were probably worried more about when is enough going to be enough? He had nagging injuries for the last several seasons... He was able to play the games, but he NEVER practiced. He was always on the sidelines Monday through Saturday. A guy like that is going to eventually be unreliable on Sunday as well..

On the bright side, with retirement, I believe the Browns can collect $1.6M in cap space...

 

Y’all cut him in March and got $8.2M in space then, there’s no cap savings to be had now. That $1.6M dead money hit stays on your cap regardless. Hence the name.

 

Under most circumstances, when a player retires the outstanding dead money is relieved I believe.

 

Aaron Donald swings helmet at Bengals’ players during joint practice brawl




The NFL has never gotten involved in legislating joint practice fights, instead deferring to the clubs to punish players. Maybe it’s time.

The Bengals and Rams engaged in an all-out brawl Thursday afternoon to end their work.

A photo posted by Sam Greene, a photojournalist with The Cincinnati Enquirer, shows Rams defensive lineman Aaron Donald holding two Bengals’ helmets, one in each hand. And a video from CincyHub shows Donald viciously swinging one helmet before getting knocked to the ground and then being held back. Multiple punches were thrown between the two teams.

Jay Morrison of TheAthletic.com wrote on social media that there were “full on roundhouse punches being swung, helmets being slammed on other peoples heads, multiple players joining in. Full on melee.”

“I don’t know exactly what instigated it,” Rams coach Sean McVay said, via Gary Klein of the Los Angeles Times. “I think in some instances it’s teams defending each other. Fortunately, my understanding is nobody got hurt, and we’ll move on from it. Not going to make a bigger deal than what it is. Not going to look at pointing fingers.”

But swinging a helmet or helmets at opposing players should be a big deal. Browns defensive end Myles Garrett was suspended indefinitely for swinging Mason Rudolph‘s helmet at the quarterback’s head during a 2019 nationally televised game, and Garrett ended up serving six games. Based on the NFL’s history of ignoring joint practice fights, Donald presumably faces no discipline for a similar (or worse) transgression.

Donald was scheduled for a news conference after the session, which ended three reps early, but he did not talk Thursday, according to Klein.

“I just see guys swinging and some guys have helmets on; some don’t,” McVay said. “There’s a scrum. You just never know what can occur. And my biggest concern in just unnecessary injuries for people that we’re counting on.”

Some minor scuffles took place before the brawl that ended practice, with Bengals right tackle La'el Collins throwing a Rams’ helmet.

The Rams and Bengals seem to be fortunate someone wasn’t seriously injured, and the NFL needs to ensure that it doesn’t ever happen by punishing players under the Personal Conduct Policy.

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Apparently Tretter's people called the Vikings, but the Vikings never called back... I dont know why. One thing they need in Minnesota is a sure fire center.

 

In this case, the $1.625 million is the prorated portion of a bonus he was paid with the contract extension. I don't think there's any relief from that - the money was paid, and the team terminated the contract rather than the player retiring while under an active contract.