NFL - NEWS & NOTES

Thursday Night Football: 49ers WR Brandon Aiyuk is inactive; Giants WR Wan’Dale Robinson is active

The 49ers won’t have wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk, as expected, for Thursday Night Football. He was among the team’s inactives.

Aiyuk leads the 49ers in receiving with 11 catches for 172 yards and two touchdowns.

He injured his shoulder last week, keeping him out of a game for the first time since his rookie year of 2020 when he missed the regular-season finale.

The 49ers activated Chris Conley from the practice squad to help fill in.

Cornerback Ambry Thomas (knee), offensive lineman Nick Zakelj, defensive lineman Kalia Davis, running back Ty Davis-Price and linebacker Jalen Graham are the 49ers’ other inactives. Brandon Allen was designated as the third quarterback.

The Giants will have receiver Wan’Dale Robinson, who was questionable with a knee injury.

Their inactives are running back Saquon Barkley (ankle), left tackle Andrew Thomas (hamstring), interior offensive lineman Ben Bredeson (concussion), outside linebacker Azeez Ojulari (knee), cornerback Cor’Dale Flott, safety Gervarrius Owens and defensive lineman Jordon Riley.

NBC

 

McCaffrey is a lotta fun to watch.

 

Bosa was robbed... thats a safety.

 

3 and 13. Swing pass to CMC. First down. Wow

 

Never understood how a facemask (personal fowl) and holding can be offsetting.

 

Williams just killed Purdy. When I saw Purdy's head bounce off the ground, I cringed.

 

The Giants hung tough for almost three quarters, but couldn’t keep it up until the end.

 

49ers 30 - Giants 12

How does Daboll and Jones not incorporate Waller into the game more often? Only 6 targets and 3 receptions is negligence.

Next Gen stat of the game: The 49ers gained 215 of their 310 passing yards after the catch (69.4%) in their 30-12 victory over the Giants. Deebo Samuel (+613), Christian McCaffrey (+278) and George Kittle (+257) all rank in the top two of their position in YACOE since 2021.

NFL Research: Thursday was Christian McCaffrey's 12th game in a row (including playoffs) scoring a touchdown, which tied Jerry Rice for the longest 49ers streak.

 

49ers rookie receiver Ronnie Bell played 34 offensive snaps in the first two games but had no targets. His first target Thursday night resulted in his first catch and his first touchdown.

 

This hits the importance of "system fit" for QBs and how many other attributes are overrated. 215 yards after catch means only 95 yards through the air. That was on 25 completed passes. Brock Purdy averaged less than 4 yards downfield per pass COMPLETED, never mind average per attempt, but the 49ers offense still looked dangerous.

Purdy is starting because he's coachable and was able to assimilate the scheme, not because he has a cannon of an arm or can run like the wind.

GM John Lynch got his #1 and #2 QBs from the very last pick of the draft and a castoff free agent in Sam Darnold. Even with $8.3 million of dead money on Trey Lance, the 49ers have just 15 million of 2023 cap space tied up between Purdy, Darnold and Lance. That's slightly less than the 15.4 million of cap space that their opponents from last night have tied up in Daniel Jones alone.

 

So will they pay Purdy 50 million a year or dump him and find another to try and fit in the system?

 

Don't do anything!! The 49ers are 3-0 right now. If it works, don't fix it!!!

 

They'll probably draft someone else mid / late next year (Garoppolo and Lance are gone, and Darnold is only on a one year contract). If they like the new prospect's progress, I wouldn't be surprised if they let Purdy sign elsewhere as a free agent after his fourth season.

 

The last real football GM the Vikings had was Mike Lynn I didn't always agree with some of the moves he made the guy just seemed like an NFL GM,I just confused you had a good part of the Spring and all Summer to get the roster together in the draft you didn't get the center from Minnesota ( duh ) 2 games into the season you want to make roster moves?
boy do you look weak Kwesi-Adofo-Mensah

 

Nice breakdown here and I'm not saying disagree on your assessment of Purdy's talent.

One caveat that I consider is that Purdy is accurate enough with enough anticipation that he hits the open receiver in stride and allows him to use his attained speed to get those yards. I've seen my share of QBs that are so inaccurate that a WR breaks his stride for a completion and is tackled immediately.

We'll see how Purdy develops but I like him. Let's send them Pickett. Straight up trade

 

Ravens down eight starters, John Harbaugh excited for backups getting an opportunity

The Ravens will be without eight starters on Sunday against the Colts, but head coach John Harbaugh is looking on the bright side.

Baltimore had already put starting defensive back Ar’Darius Washington on injured reserve, and then listed wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. (ankle), offensive tackle Ronnie Stanley (knee), center Tyler Linderbaum (ankle), running back Justice Hill (foot), cornerback Marlon Humphrey (foot), safety Marcus Williams (pectoral) and outside linebacker Odafe Oweh (ankle) as out on the weekly injury report. That’s bad news.

But Harbaugh said most of the injured players should recover relatively soon, and that the backups are getting some big opportunities this week.

“It becomes a concern if they’re going to be season-ending injuries, and I think those are the ones you really hope to avoid, and you pray to avoid,” Harbaugh said. “We’ve had two of those, we’ve had J.K. and possibly Ar’Darius — that’s not set in stone yet. The rest of the guys are a few weeks, a week, two weeks. We thought we might have a couple guys back this week. They’ll be working for next week, so they’re right in that range. So that’s the good news. I feel good about it, and I feel good about the guys that are going to get an opportunity to play this week. They’re excited.”

Despite the eight injured starters, the Ravens are eight-point favorites to beat the Colts.

NBC

 

I don’t think we can look at this as a 4 year contract. He’s in year two of a $3.7M TOTAL contract. If he stays healthy and continues to play the way he is, there isn’t any way in hell he continues playing a 4th year on that contract.

By rules of the current CBA they cannot renegotiate a rookie deal until the conclusion of the 3rd year, but if there were ever a contract to be renegotiated, it’s this one. So you have through 2024 to decide what the future looks like in San Fran.

If they draft a QB in 2024 and they decide not to renegotiate with Purdy, I see a stand in situation. There is no way they will be able to evaluate the new rookie through practice alone, so they will have to negotiate based on Purdy himself.

I don’t think they are stupid enough to let a QB walk based on hitting the lottery with Purdy. They also wasted draft capital on a QB bust in their tenure. I think they realize how difficult it is, system or no system, to find a starting caliber QB in this league.

 

The Colts are continuing to make moves at running back as they try to account for the absence of Jonathan Taylor.

Indianapolis is releasing running back Deon Jackson and bringing up running back Trey Sermon from the practice squad, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network.

Jackson has been with the Colts since arriving as an undrafted rookie in 2021. He was the Colts’ Week One starter at running back, but he hasn’t done much this year, carrying just 13 times for 14 yards and catching five passes for 14 yards.

Sermon was a 2021 third-round pick of the 49ers and played for the Eagles in 2022. The Eagles waived him this week and the Colts claimed him, and now they think he’s ready to go on Sunday against the Ravens.

Taylor remains on the physically unable to perform list and remains disgruntled as the Colts have not offered him the contract extension he wants.

PFT

 

The NFL’s disciplinary process has hammered Steelers running back Jaylen Warren for a hit that the league’s officials didn’t deem worthy of a penalty flag.

Steelers running back Jaylen Warren was fined $48,333 for lowering his helmet to initiate contact on Monday night against the Browns.



The NFL must need the money, I guess.

 

Watson was fined $13,659 for unsportsmanlike conduct and $10,927 twice for two separate unnecessary roughness penalties during the Week 2 game.

NFL Network Insider Tom Pelissero reported that Watson's unsportsmanlike conduct fine was for a gun-themed celebration in the third quarter after Cleveland scored a touchdown.



Browns tight end David Njoku, who was seen doing the same celebration with Watson, was also fined $13,659 by the league for unsportsmanlike conduct, Pelissero reported.