NFL - NEWS & NOTES

The 49ers have announced they are switching from Gabbert to Kap this coming Sunday...

Oh boy.

 

The Lions are signing RB Justin Forsett...

 

What I meant is games that don't draw the major ratings.
Take for example, the presidential debate out rated the Monday night game but didn't the Sunday night game. Never heard of a presidential debate getting better ratings than football. Crappie games cause that.

 

Lane Johnson's 10-game suspension upheld

Lane Johnson did not win the appeal of his 10-game suspension.

Johnson's attorney released a statement Tuesday stating the suspension was upheld for violating the league's policy on performance-enhancing drugs.


"We are disappointed with Arbitrator James Carter's summary ruling," Steve Zashin wrote in the statement obtained by NFL Network's Mike Garafolo. "We will wait for his formal written opinion. After we review that decision, we will consider all available legal options."

Johnson was previously suspended four games for a PED violation in 2014.

The Eagles released the following statement from executive vice president of football operations Howie Roseman after the news:

"We're very disappointed that Lane Johnson has been suspended 10 games. His actions have affected the entire organization. We are all working under a clearly-defined set of rules and regulations set forth by the NFL in the collective bargaining agreement with the NFLPA. Moving forward, he has no choice but to hold himself accountable to Jeffrey Lurie, Coach Pederson and his staff, his teammates, and to the entire organization and our fans. When he returns from suspension, we will continue to support him and welcome him back to the team. We are moving on with our preparations for this week's game in Washington."

The 26-year-old Johnson played in the first four games of this season while appealing the ruling that came down in early August. (NFL.com)

 

Vikings sign veteran tackle Jake Long for ailing line...

EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. (AP) ? Jake Long was just waiting for that call from an NFL team, confident his right knee was healthy again and thus frustrated to be out of action.

The Minnesota Vikings, with both a former coach and quarterback of Long's as a bonus, finally checked in on the other end of the line.

"I know the type of player that I am, and I've still got a lot of football left," Long said Tuesday after his first practice with the team, taking most of his turns at left tackle. "It was frustrating, but like I said, I kept my head down, rehabbed, worked out every single day and knew a call would come eventually, and it finally did."

Minnesota also placed right tackle Andre Smith on injured reserve, with surgery required on his damaged right triceps. Left tackle Matt Kalil is already on injured reserve following surgery on his right hip, and T.J. Clemmings has had his struggles filling in. Jeremiah Sirles has taken over for Smith.

Right guard Brandon Fusco was held out of practice on Tuesday, too, before the players left for their bye week. He left the 31-13 victory over Houston on Sunday with a concussion and was replaced by Zac Kerin.

The Vikings badly needed some help, and the 31-year-old Long was a natural fit as a four-time Pro Bowl pick and All-Pro selection in 2010. The first overall pick in the 2008 draft out of Michigan, Long played his first five NFL seasons for Miami. The first four were under coach Tony Sparano, who is now offensive line coach in Minnesota. Then Long signed with St. Louis, where he spent two years with quarterback Sam Bradford, who's now running the offense for the Vikings.

 

CLEVELAND (AP) ? The Browns are shuffling quarterbacks. What else is new?

With their quarterback room looking like a medical supply store, the team released veteran quarterback Charlie Whitehurst on Tuesday and promoted rookie QB Kevin Hogan from the practice squad to the active roster.

Whitehurst injured his left knee in the final minutes of Sunday's 33-13 loss to New England. The longtime backup known as "Clipboard Jesus" reached an injury settlement with the team before he was let go.

Whitehurst was signed earlier this season after starters Robert Griffin III and Josh McCown were injured in the season's first two weeks.

The Browns were desperate to find an experienced backup for rookie Cody Kessler, a third-round pick who was supposed to spend the season on the sideline learning but was rushed into action because of the injuries.

Kessler sustained an injury to his ribs and chest late in the first quarter Sunday and was replaced by Whitehurst, who completed 14 of 24 passes for 182 yards and threw a 17-yard touchdown pass to Connor Hamlett.

Whitehurst, though, hyperextended his knee in the fourth quarter and limped through the Browns' locker room on Monday with an elastic wrap on his knee. He did not speak with reporters.

The Browns are hopeful Kessler will practice Wednesday and McCown will return for the first time in a month and could play Sunday when Cleveland visits Tennessee.

 

Vintage Baltimore

http://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2016/...fumbles-in-the-end-zone/#.V_5EkBlJkQY.twitter

 

If they don't have a QB to put in, why not use Pryor?

 

Because then they won't have a WR.

 

i always thought this rule was dumb and im not even a Ravens fan!

 

he already cheated once and got caught. now this. this better be his last chance. i heard he may lose $25 mil bc of this. GOOD! How dumb can you be to cheat not once, but TWICE? The league tests you dope, so don't use PEDs!

 

I think the rule is correct. If you fumble the ball into the end zone and out of bounds you lose it. What the heck else would they want them to do? This has to be the stupidest complaint I have ever heard about a rule.

 

I think its bs you loose it. If you fumble the ball out of bounds on the sideline you dont loose it so why should it differ in the endzone? Its a stupid rule the offense should keep the ball unless it was 4th down.

 

No, you deserve to lose the ball. You can't put the ball back at the one. If you can't hold onto the ball why should you be rewarded? So if you fumble the ball backwards into your own end zone and it rolls out of bounds you should not be punished with a safety.

 

It's a weird rule and I'm not sure changing it would make it any better...I get the logic of not being rewarded for losing the ball, but OTOH the team that lost the ball first ends up getting rewarded for doing literally nothing. But the more I think about it, I think it should probably be treated more like an unrecovered fumble over the sideline rather than one out of the back of your own end zone. The team that had possession before it went out of the opposing end zone keeps the ball, but put it back at the 25. That seems like the best solution to me.

 

Agreeing with Jean here. Why does the fumbling team "deserve" to lose the ball? The opposing team didn't recover it - why do they "deserve" to get the ball? Like Jean said - if it's fumbled out of bounds, the opposing team doesn't get the ball. Same concept applies here.

Agree that you can't just give the team the ball at 1. Put it back at the 20 (like a touchback), team that fumbled gets the ball there.

 

They didn't do "nothing"... they stripped the ball (which is part of being a good defensive play), which is on the offense to protect...

Once the ball crosses the goal line, that's the end of the road (or field in this case). Going out of bounds prior to, you have a point of contention to not changing possession because you are in the field of PLAY. But once the ball crosses the goal line it is either a score if the offense is holding the ball, or it changes possession, whether the ball is being held by a defender, or the ball goes out of bounds, being the defenses 12th man in this case. The end zone is not field of play it is, for all cases, end of play.

It's pretty simple logic actually...

 

In this instance OK, but an unforced fumble would still yield the same result.

I get where you're coming from ID, but once the fumbled ball crosses the goal line it is not the end of the road, because either team could still recover it in the EZ before it goes over the end line so the EZ is definitely still part of the field of play in this situation. Otherwise any loose ball over the goal line should be an immediate whistle and stop play.

 

There are 90 times more forced fumbles than runners just being so stupid that they lose control on their own. If a rule is written, it must be written for the overwhelming majority of any given circumstance. It is impossible to write a rule for every circumstance that will come up in a game.

The point is, a possession ends in either end zone during a team's possession, there are only 3 outcomes once the ball enters the end zone and doesn't come back out(in the case of a team's own end zone)...

Touch Down
Safety
Change of possession
(or a 4th if you are counting special teams, in which case a Touch Back would occur)

So, I can see where you count it as field of play, but AS SOON AS POSSESSION is accounted for and a play ends...there are only 3 possible outcomes, the play of that possession does not continue, not even for a safety.


The only possible other option, would be to count this situation also as a safety occurring in the defenders goal. Which would be a worse scenario as, not only does the opposite team get possession, they also get 2 points.

 

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/how-the-nfl-can-fix-its-falling-ratings-problems-032717116.html

NFL Ratings fixes...

Now I am not starting a war on here as this topic has come up in the last 2 weeks. We discussed Thursday night games and although the league makes $45 mil on them, the players dislike them for the short weeks etc. The link has a great read about the league and it's poor ratings. I am not trying to take away your football gents. Just posting this for everyone's benefit.