NFL - NEWS & NOTES

BS!! It's always a good thing to see the kicker drop that ball inside the 5 yard line and get the coverage. With this rule? Just kick it into the stands. Non play!!


NFL is becoming like the CFL.....(let's hope not)...kick the ball in the end zone and you get a single point in the CFL.....BS !

 

The CFL rule does have something going for it - you only score the point on a touchback. So if you're the receiving team, you have that extra incentive to run the ball out rather than take the touchback and give up the point. It also fits the CFL better than the NFL because the Canadian field is 10 yards longer and each end zone is 20 yards instead of 10 yards.

A kick out the back of the end zone is 95 yards. If the kicker can do that, he deserves a point.

 

Disclaimer, this might be considered in bad taste with the passing of a legend... I do not wish to offend anyone.

I love the football player that was in my opinion the greatest professional player to ever play the game of football. But, I am in a tug of war with who he was in his early years. It is well documented how badly he treated women, I just think it is a slippery slope to continue to immortalize a sports figure without at least acknowledging the mistakes he made along the way. By all accounts, it would seem that he became a better human being as he matured, but I would feel an injustice if it were not at least mentioned briefly to not only acknowledge a human beings accomplishments in life, but also teach that no one is without fault and make sure our youth understand the difference between wrong and getting away with wrong because you are a star in a sport. Please resume the accolades, as he very much deserves them.

 

I think Jim Brown falls in to the category of a lot of men in America's history. Noteworthy and complicated. Some people can and will separate the man from the player. Some will refuse to. Some will ignore all the negative. Legacies are in the eye of the beholder.

 

These 2 post's are well said and I appreciate where you guy's are coming from. In all sports and aspects of life in general, from Presidents to war hero's, there is always flaws in the said persons character, some way more than others... a genuine, all around good man has been far and few between. Look at Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb in baseball, they were immortalized for their sports achievements, but were both class A assholes.

On the other hand, most of these sports 'heroes' are being called/proclaimed, the greatest of all-time, or the greatest in their era for their 'sports' accomplishments, not for their manhood or personal accomplishments. In my opinion, calling Jim Brown the greatest of all-time, even Tom Brady, only means in my mind, what they have accomplished in the game. I know some of them are very flawed, but i tend to keep that in a separate place in my mind. As Im typing this, OJ Simpson just popped up in me head, great RB, probably a terrible person guilty of murder... still one hell of a baller, but one hell of an asshole in life.

 

NFL passes flex scheduling for Thursday Night Football by a vote of 24-8

The NFL got (almost) what it wanted Monday despite outspoken opposition by several prominent owners.

The league needed 24 votes for flexible scheduling of Thursday Night Football. It got 24 exactly.

Despite the Giants, Jets, Packers, Bears, Raiders, Detroit, Bengals and Steelers voting against the measure, according to Adam Schefter, the resolution passed albeit with some caveats.

Amazon Prime, which streams the Thursday games, gets only two flexes during the Weeks of 13-17. The flexes must be done with 28 days advance notice, and teams cannot play two away TNF games in a season.

Owners also voted it effective only for the 2023 season unless flexible scheduling is not applied for Thursday Night Football during the 2023 regular season. In that case, flexible scheduling would remain in effect for the 2024 season.

In 2006, the NFL adopted flexible scheduling for late-season Sunday nights. This season, late-season Monday night flexing is possible for the first time.

Now, Thursday nights can flex two games.

Owners voted in March to allow teams to play on two short weeks during the season. That means teams can play two Thursday night games on short rest during the 2023 season.

Giants co-owner John Mara famously called the initial proposal from the March league meeting, which would have allowed a game to be flexed from Sunday to Thursday with only a 15-day notice, as “abusive” toward fans.

PFT

 

Thursday night flex is middle finger to in-stadium fans



When the NFL first tried in March to persuade Thursday night flexing through ownership, Giants co-owner John Mara accurately (and bravely) called the proposal “abusive” to fans.

Mara’s candor didn’t register with 345 Park Avenue. The Commissioner kept pushing for 24 votes and, on Monday, he got what he wanted — paying customers be damned.

They can mealy-mouth their way around it all they want. They can get members of the media who are either on the payroll or perhaps someday would like to be to downplay it as something that won’t be used very often.

Regardless of how often it is or isn’t used, it’s now a blip on the radar screen. Anyone who plans a late-season trip to see a game that requires buying tickets and plane fare and reserving a hotel room (or more) will now have to worry about the possibility, slim as it might be, that a game set for Thursday will move to a different day, or that a game set on a different day will move to Thursday.

And the league just doesn’t care about the inconvenience and/or expense to ticket-buying fans. If the league cared, the league wouldn’t do it.

OK, maybe the league cares a little bit. But the league clearly cares more about boosting Amazon’s streaming numbers, if it becomes obvious that a game that looked good in May will now be, based on the season as it has unfolded to date, not good at all.

Again, it doesn’t matter if this new power is rarely used. It’s now one of the risks to be assumed when someone decides to buy tickets to a late-season game.

When making the arrangements, fans need to know there’s a chance the trip won’t be happening. Regardless of whether no money is ultimately lost, the experience won’t be happening.

Again, the league doesn’t care. The league cares about maximizing viewership numbers, especially as it hopes to eventually realize via streaming services audiences of the same size that turn in to watch games on three-letter networks.

PFT - Mike Florio

 

Austin Ekeler will play for Chargers this year after getting incentives added to his contract



The Chargers and running back Austin Ekeler have agreed to a deal that will see Ekeler play out the final year of his contract in Los Angeles.

Ekeler and the Chargers agreed to revise his contract to add close to $2 million in incentives this season, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN.

There’s no word on what Ekeler has to do to earn those incentives, but he is apparently satisfied that it’s something doable, and the team now has a happy camper.

Ekeler hadn’t been participating in voluntary offseason work and had indicated he’d like the team to trade him somewhere that he’d get paid more. Ekeler is due a $6.25 million base salary this season, and now he can earn incentives on top of that.

Realistically, given the way the running back position has been devalued in the NFL, it seems unlikely that Ekeler was going to get a better deal anywhere else. And so he’ll play out the 2023 season for the Chargers and hope to play well enough to cash in as a free agent in March.

PFT

 

Veteran edge rusher Markus Golden will be spending some time with the Steelers on Tuesday.

Jordan Schultz of TheScore.com reports that Golden will be visiting the team as he looks for a place to play in 2023. It’s the first reported visit for Golden since he was released by the Cardinals in March.

That move ended Golden’s second tour of duty in Arizona. He was a 2015 second-round pick of the team and was traded back in 2020 after playing 23 games for the Giants.

Golden had 11 sacks during the 2021 season before turning in 48 tackles and 2.5 sacks for the team last season. He has 323 tackles, 47 sacks, an interception, 11 forced fumbles, and four fumble recoveries over his entire career.

 

NFL approves putting ball on 25-yard-line following fair catches on kickoffs

The NFL delayed a vote on a proposed rule change involving fair catches on kickoffs Monday, but circled back to it on Tuesday and the change was approved by team owners.

As a result of the approval, the ball will be placed on the 25-yard-line if teams make a fair catch inside the 25-yard-line on kickoffs. That rule is in place at the college level and the stated reason for the proposed change was increasing player safety given the number of injuries that happen on kickoffs.

Special teams coordinators around the league had a different view of the impact of the rule change, however, and came out against it recently. In addition to seeing it as a possible step toward eliminating kickoffs entirely, there has been discussion that the rule change could encourage squib kicks and other attempts to force teams to field kickoffs and negate potential increases in safety in the process.

The rule change was approved for the 2023 season only, so the issue will be revisited next offseason after everyone sees how things play out before deciding about whether or not to make it permanent.

PFT
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Sissies!

 

Damar Hamlin on the Bills’ practice field today, participating in individual drills

Bills safety Damar Hamlin is continuing to work toward continuing his NFL career, after his heart stopped on the field during a game last season.

Hamlin was on the Bills’ practice field participating in individual drills during today’s Organized Team Activities.

Like other players recovering from injuries, Hamlin was not wearing a helmet and was not a full participant, but videos from reporters on the scene showed him hitting a sled and working on covering receivers, with no apparent limitations.

Bills General Manager Brandon Beane has said Hamlin has been fully cleared, so while the Bills are easing Hamlin into offseason work, from all indications they’re confident that he’ll be ready for full-contact practices and ready for games when the season starts.

PFT

 

The Thursday rules say no team can play two TNF games. The Steelers are scheduled for two TNF games this season. Do they even know their own rules in this league?

 

I believe the new TNF guidelines has each team with the ability to play 2 TNF games.

"Owners voted in March to allow teams to play on two short weeks during the season. That means teams can play two Thursday night games on short rest during the 2023 season."

 

lolol... I fucking hate when that happens!!!

 

Veteran offensive lineman Germain Ifedi is signing with the Lions, Tom Pelissero of NFL Media reports.

The Falcons released Ifedi a week ago, saving $940,000 in cap space.

Ifedi played every game as a reserve for the Falcons last season but only eight of his 80 snaps came on offense.

A first-round pick of the Seahawks in 2016, Ifedi started 83 of the 85 games he played for Seattle and Chicago before moving to Atlanta last season.

He has played both right tackle and right guard in his career.

 

Kind of a mystery why Atlanta released Ifedi. It's certainly not a cap move - the "savings" for releasing him is $940k, but the next guy on the list below the 51-man cutoff point also has a $940k cap figure, so the cap ends up being a complete push.

I have read rumors that he allegedly wasn't easy to get along with when he played for previous teams. I'm not buying that as a reason for releasing him though - they resigned him in March, so they knew what they had and were getting, and they haven't had a contact practice since then. I also haven't heard a thing about issues between him and his teammates.

I think it's more a case that later transactions made him utterly expendable from Atlanta's perspective. The article noted that he only played 8 snaps on OL last season. Only 4 of those snaps came as a regular lineman - and they were the very last snaps of the season, when backup QB Logan Woodside came in and handed off to backup RB Avery Williams four straight times to end the game. So it's not like he had a lock on the swing tackle role or anything like that.

Since resigning him, the team drafted two more interior linemen and they have signed a few other hopeful prospects who can play the tackle positions. The signing that tipped the scales was one of the XFL linemen, as Ifedi was released in the same batch of roster moves.

That should give you an idea how far he has slid down the ladder in the league. He was a former late first round pick (by Seattle, who traded down first before taking him), and now he's deemed less likely to make a roster than some of the XFL guys. Ouch.

Good luck to him in Detroit.

 

My guess is this; He didnt start a single game last season, although he isnt a bad player, so maybe he went back in the office and said look here, 'lets keep this on the down low, but if im not the starter, I want out'... so, the brass obliged him. Just a thought that popped into me head... happens from time to time.

 

And drafting a couple linemen probably sealed the deal... He seen the writing on the wall.

 

That could easily be the case. Releasing him now was probably a professional courtesy, giving him a chance to latch elsewhere since he wasn't likely to make the final 53 here.

The odd thing about it is that he had nearly zero chance of starting plus some new competition for the swing tackle role when he resigned. That makes you wonder why he even signed on for another year in Atlanta in the first place.

 

David Montgomery: Bears’ losing “sucked the fun out of the game for me”

After four seasons with the Bears, running back David Montgomery signed with the Lions this offseason. And he thinks he’s going to win a whole lot more in Detroit than he did in Chicago.

Montgomery said in a video posted by the Lions that playing for the Bears last year, when they went 3-14 and had the worst record in the NFL, was an unpleasant experience because he’s a competitor who wants to win.

“That’s all I was used to,” Montgomery said of the Bears’ losing, via NBCSportsChicago.com. “And it got to a point where it sucked the fun out of the game for me because I’m a competitor. I like to compete. That’s what football’s about. It’s so refreshing to be in a place where that’s appreciated.”

Montgomery talked about Detroit’s potential to win as one of the reasons he signed there. That hasn’t often been said about the Lions, but after they went 8-2 in their last 10 games last season, they have a lot of optimism for this season. And Montgomery is glad to be a part of it.

PFT