NFL News

[Futureshock]

Derwin James needs surgery, which will keep him out 6-8 months

Posted by Charean Williams on August 31, 2020, 8:17 PM EDT

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Chargers coach Anthony Lynn struck a somber tone when talking about Derwin James‘ right knee injury Monday morning. It foreshadowed Monday evening’s news.

James will miss the season, Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports.

The All-Pro will require surgery on his meniscus and the full repair will keep James out six to eight months, per Rapoport.

The Chargers were hoping James could get by with a meniscus trim, which would have sidelined him four weeks or so. But James has not had much injury luck.

As a sophomore at Florida State in 2016, James played only two games while dealing with a torn meniscus and cartilage damage in his knee.

He began last season on injured reserve with a stress fracture of the fifth metatarsal in his foot. He returned in Week 13 and started the final five games of the season.

[Futureshock]

Leonard Fournette promises his next team will get a focused, motivated player

Posted by Michael David Smith on August 31, 2020, 5:23 PM EDT

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In three years with the Jaguars, Leonard Fournette didn’t exactly develop a sterling reputation for his presence in the locker room. But he says that his next team will have exactly the kind of player any coach would want.

“I am excited about what will come next for myself. Wherever that may be, know that you will get a player who is focused, motivated, and ready to get to work,” Fournette wrote on Twitter.

Fournette also had nothing negative to say about his former team.

“I want to thank the city of Jacksonville and all of the fans for embracing me the past 3 seasons,” Fournette wrote. “I would like to thank the Jaguars organization for giving me the opportunity to fulfill a lifelong dream of playing in the NFL.”

Fournette is currently on waivers, meaning all 31 other teams have a chance to claim him. It would be a shock if any team did claim him, given that he is owed more than $4 million guaranteed this season. But if he passes through waivers he becomes a free agent tomorrow, and he may be able to find some team that believes he’s going to be focused and motivated.

[Futureshock]

49ers latest team to have fan cutouts in stands

Posted by Charean Williams on August 31, 2020, 3:26 PM EDT

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The 49ers will begin the season without fans in the stands at Levi’s Stadium. Living, breathing fans that is.

The 49ers announced Monday they are following several other NFL teams and many in Major League Baseball in launching a Fan Cutout program for fans.

Fans can purchase a cutout of themselves that will take a seat behind one of the Levi’s Stadium end zones. The cutouts cost $149, but all proceeds will go to the 49ers Foundation and its direct programs 49ers EDU and 49ers PREP.

Season ticket holders received priority access Friday and the general public can purchase cutouts beginning today at 49ers-fan-cutouts.aaaflag.com.

“There’s no substitute for having the Faithful at Levi’s Stadium to give our team an incredible homefield advantage, but we’re happy to offer our fans this unique opportunity to support the team as well as the 49ers Foundation’s efforts in our community,” 49ers Chief Marketing Officer Alex Chang said in a statement. “We look forward to seeing all the creative ways the Faithful express their fandom through the cutouts.”

[Futureshock]

If Riley Reiff goes, what happens to the Vikings’ offensive line?

Posted by Mike Florio on August 31, 2020, 2:46 PM EDT

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The Minnesota pass rush added a new piece just as its offensive line could end up losing one of its five starting members. So if left tackle Riley Reiff refuses to accept a pay cut and the Vikings release him less than two weeks before the regular-season opener, how will the Vikings replace him?

The Vikings have a couple of options. The most likely alternative at this point would be to move Brian O'Neill will move from the right side to the left side, with Rashod Hill becoming the starting right tackle.

Rookie Ezra Cleveland was believed to be Reiff’s eventual replacement. However, the thinking is he’s not ready to step in and play. (Of course, an injury to O’Neill would change that, quickly.)

The Vikings also will have to replace Reiff’s leadership. Reiff, Kirk Cousins, and Kyle Rudolph served as offensive captains in 2018 and 2019. With Zimmer previously promising a “C” to running back Dalvin Cook, however, maybe we should have realized that Reiff was potentially moving toward the end of his run with the team.

[Futureshock]

Riley Reiff tells teammates he expects to be cut

Posted by Mike Florio on August 31, 2020, 2:10 PM EDT

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The Vikings and tackle Riley Reiff are stuck in a late-camp salary impasse, and for now Reiff is creating the impression that he won’t blink.

Per a league source, Reiff has told teammates he expects to be cut. This means that he doesn’t expect to reduce his $10.9 million salary for 2020.

Cutting Reiff would create $8.7 million in cap space, with $2.2 million in dead money this year and another $2.2 million next year.

It’s a common late-August dynamic for veterans with non-guaranteed contracts. After rosters elsewhere are set, the team gives the player an ultimatum on a reduced salary. By then, it will be difficult if not impossible for the player to get as much or more elsewhere.

Behind the scenes, Reiff’s agent will gauge the market before making a final decision. Although it’s tampering for another team to tell Reiff’s agent what Reiff would be paid if he suddenly becomes available, it happens all the time.

Reiff, 31, was a first-round pick of the Lions in 2012. He signed a five-year, $58.75 million deal with the Vikings as a free agent in 2017. He has made $36 million in three years with the Vikings.

[-Deborah-]

https://www.si.com/extra-mustard/202...ing-teams-2020

We haven't seen many significant changes to the Sunday NFL broadcast teams for CBS and Fox over the past few years.

That was set to change for the 2020 season when Charles Davis left Fox's No. 2 team, with Kevin Burkhardt, to join CBS's No. 2 team, with Ian Eagle.

The gig with Eagle opened up when CBS parted ways with Dan Fouts.

Fox announced its full roster of NFL broadcast teams for the 2020 season on Monday, and here's what it looks like:

• Joe Buck, Troy Aikman, Erin Andrews and Mike Pereira
• Kevin Burkhardt, Daryl “Moose” Johnston and Pam Oliver
• Adam Amin, Mark Schlereth and Lindsay Czarniak
• Kenny Albert, Jonathan Vilma and Shannon Spake
• Kevin Kugler, Chris Spielman and Laura Okmin
• Chris Myers, Greg Jennings, Brock Huard and Jennifer Hale

Additional play-by-play announcers: Dick Stockton, Tim Brando, Joe Davis and Brandon Gaudin

Additional analysts: Brady Quinn, Matt Millen and Robert Smith

Some things that immediately stand out:

1) Sadly, Fox passed on going outside the box for an analyst for its No. 2 team. With Davis now at CBS, the network had a chance to do something fun and creative, but instead paired Burkhardt with Daryl Johnston. Fox clearly wanted to play it safe here, but the choice is so uninspiring. Just a total blown opportunity here as Johnston keeps the seat warm for Greg Olsen, who will team up with Burkhardt once he retires from the NFL.

2) Dick Stockton, who has been at Fox forever, does not have a regular gig this season and will work only when Fox has extra games.

3) Newcomer Adam Amin gets a lofty spot as Fox's No. 3 play-by-play man after coming over from ESPN. I don't know if Amin would've been given this slot had Thom Brennaman not gotten himself benched a couple of weeks ago after his surreal gaffe. Either way, it's clear Fox thinks highly of Amin.

UPDATE: According to FOX, Adam Amin was going to be on the network's No. 3 team even before Thom Brennaman got the boot.

4) With college football in flux, the network will use veteran play-by-play man Tim Brando on weeks when it has extra games.

5) After seeing the roster of analysts Fox has other than Aikman, it's clear the network is in major need of an upgrade. You have to think if things return to normal in a post-COVID-19 world next season, Jay Cutler, Pat McAfee or a retiring player, such as Philip Rivers, has to be on Fox's radar.

[Futureshock]

Making sense of the Alvin Kamara craziness

Posted by Mike Florio on September 1, 2020, 11:38 PM EDT

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The past couple of days have spawned a rash of conflicting and curious reports and rumors regarding the Saints and running back Alvin Kamara. Ultimately, it’s all just part of the sausage-making process that currently is expected to lead to a new deal by, per a source with knowledge of the situation, Monday.

That’s not a guarantee a deal will be done by then. Currently, that’s the goal. Indeed, it’s always been the goal. But things have gotten sideways a bit during the negotiations, resulting in disputed reports of unexcused absences and rumor and reports of six-figure fines along with suggestions in some circles of a recent squabble that broke out between Kamara and coach Sean Payton.

As one source explained it to PFT, the Saints actually were calling other teams to gauge possible trade interest in the fourth-year tailback. It seems that this was part of an effort not to actually trade Kamara but to demonstrate that there’s no other team that currently would give the Saints what they’d want for Kamara (presumably a lot) and also pay him what he wants (presumably a lot more than what the Saints are offering).

The Saints have long believed that Kamara is every bit as good as Panthers running back Christian McCaffrey, if not better. That created, as one source put it to PFT, a very real sense of anxiety and apoplexy for the Saints, once McCaffrey signed his long-term deal worth $16 million per year and the Saints realized that Kamara would want the same deal or something close to it, even if the Saints don’t use Kamara as extensively as the Panthers use McCaffrey.

It currently seems that everything that has happened in recent days was simply part of the posturing aimed at getting a deal done, with a current belief that a deal will indeed get done. The fact that things got tenuous over the past few days means that they could get tenuous again between now and Monday, as the two sides work toward getting a deal done.

[Futureshock]

Joe Judge playfully dives on muddy field, winning over his team

Posted by Charean Williams on September 1, 2020, 11:21 PM EDT

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For everyone who said Joe Judge risked losing his players with his unorthodox training camp approach, take that.

A video of Judge from the end of Tuesday’s practice has gone viral, with 1.1 million views on the Giants’ Twitter account.

The Giants coach gathered his players, turned on a hose and threw down a football in the mud. Rookies took turns diving on the ball, trying to recover it without it slipping away.

Then, Judge signaled to his players as they chanted his name. He dove into the mud and onto the ball. One player sprayed Judge with the hose as other players patted their coach on the back as he cradled the football.

Everyone went crazy.

“We ended it with coach Judge. That’s big time,” Giants linebacker Markus Golden said, via Pat Leonard of the New York Daily News. “He coaches us big on ball security, and he got out there and did it himself. . . . Ain’t nothing wrong with mixing in a little fun.”

[Futureshock]

Chiefs getting rings tonight, and Andy Reid will use his for free cheeseburgers

Posted by Charean Williams on September 1, 2020, 7:40 PM EDT

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Finally.

The COVID-19 pandemic postponed the Chiefs’ plans for a ring ceremony this offseason.

The team teased its coming ring ceremony on social media Monday, and, Tuesday night, the Chiefs are at Arrowhead Stadium getting 10.5-carat rings to commemorate the Super Bowl LIV championship they won seven months ago.

On a YouTube broadcast, Chiefs chairman and CEO Clark Hunt said Chiefs president Mark Donovan and “a couple players had some input” in designing the rings.

“We have designed what we think is the best, the most beautiful, among the biggest Super Bowl rings in the National Football League,” Hunt said. “I know the players are going to love them.”

Chiefs coach Andy Reid, who also got a contract extension this week, will own his first championship ring as an NFL head coach. (He was an assistant on Mike Holmgren’s staff in 1996 when the Packers won a title.)

“You wear it for special occasions,” Reid said earlier Tuesday, “or if you want a free cheeseburger, you just point right there and show ‘em that ring and you might get one.”

The Chiefs have one more ceremony to come before closing the door completely on their 2019 championship season. They will raise a championship banner Sept. 10 before they kickoff the 2020 season against the Texans in the NFL’s first game.

[Futureshock]

Coaches, staff must wear face masks in bench areas on game day

Posted by Charean Williams on September 1, 2020, 6:13 PM EDT

USA TODAY Sports

Nine days before the season opener, the NFL has updated its protocols.

It has tweaked both the travel rules, reducing the travel party, and its game-day protocols.

NFL owners now are required to follow COVID-19 testing requirements if they want access to the locker room, playing field or team charter. That mandate came from the owners health and safety committee, Allen Sills, the NFL’s chief medical officer, said Tuesday.

“We’ve continued to decrease the numbers overall on the team’s travel parties, to decrease the numbers of people that will be in team locker rooms,” Sills said. “Then, even up to and affecting our owners. We had a part of a protocol put in that ownership will have limited access, and will have to be tested if they want to be on the field and in the locker room.

“I think everyone has pitched in. That idea actually came from the owners health and safety committee themselves. Everyone recognizes that reducing numbers all around helps keep us safer.”

Another new game-day protocol calls for every coach and staff member in the bench area to wear a mask. That includes head coaches.

Some practices are inside; some are outside. Some coaches are wearing masks during practice; others aren’t. Some coaches and staff are taking masks off at times during practice.

They won’t have a choice come game day.

“Coaches and other staff in the bench areas during games now will be required to wear face coverings,” Sills said. “We think that’s an appropriate risk-mitigation step as well, so that’s something new you’ll see.”

[Futureshock]

Reports: Saints open to trading Alvin Kamara if they can’t sign him to extension

Posted by Charean Williams on September 1, 2020, 5:24 PM EDT

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The Saints want to sign Alvin Kamara to an extension. Alvin Kamara wants to sign an extension.

But if the Saints can’t come to an agreement with their star running back, they are “open to trading” Kamara, NFL reporter Josina Anderson reports. Jeff Duncan of TheAthletic.com added that the Saints would seek a first-round draft choice in return for Kamara if they can’t get him signed to a long-term deal.

Kamara is entering the final year of his rookie deal scheduled to make $2.133 million this year.

A report Monday indicated Kamara had missed the previous three days of practice because of his contract. Kamara disputed that Tuesday, via Ian Rapoport of NFL Media.

“Spoke to #Saints RB Alvin Kamara and his agent and neither has asked for or demanded a trade,” Rapoport wrote on social media. “As of today, they thought they were actively negotiating and making progress on an extension. Kamara has never threatened to hold out and has been in the building every day.”

Joe Mixon, another running back selected in 2017, agreed to a four-year, $48 million deal with the Bengals on Tuesday. Kamara and Vikings running back Dalvin Cook, meanwhile, continue to wait for their paydays.

[Futureshock]

115 db should be it

NFL still working on allowable decibel level for fake crowd noise

Posted by Charean Williams on September 1, 2020, 4:58 PM EDT

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The NFL will use artificial crowd noise. The question is: How loud will it be?

PFT reported last week that the fake crowd noise is expected to be in the range of 70 to 85 decibels.

A Competition Committee meeting later this week is expected to bring the final answer.

“We’re working on that,” Troy Vincent, the NFL’s executive vice president of football operations, said Tuesday on a conference call. “We’re trying to finalize the decibel levels — in dome, outside. We will have them finalized in the coming days.”

The league appears set to allow all 32 teams to pipe in fake noise, whether fans are in the stands or not. That is a change in what originally was anticipated for teams allowing a limited stadium capacity.

“We’ve curated audio that will be played in all stadiums that don’t have fans,” Vincent said. “Then, it’s not prohibited in stadiums actually where fans are permitted.”

A league source confirmed Vincent’s quote is accurate but added that the overall policy still is being worked out.

Only a handful of teams are expected to begin their home schedule with fans in the stands, and with a limited capacity. The league hopes other teams will have fans before the end of the season.

“I believe that we may be having a lot of teams that start with no fans at the beginning of this season and they evolve to fans,” NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said. “Everyone is taking a cautious approach. We’re working with public health officials, and that will be our driving priority. We’re not going to go against public health officials. . . . Seventy percent of our fans are keeping their season-ticket deposits with the games in hopes they can buy a ticket for later this season or next season. Our fans, I’m just overwhelmed by their passion and their desire to follow football. From our standpoint, we’re going to create a safe environment in our stadiums, and we’re going to invite them in whenever we can do that in a responsible and safe way.”

[Futureshock]

Half the starting OT's in the NFCN have suited up for the Lions.

[TheLondonLion]

Fournette is a Buc.

[Forsh]

Fournette is a Buc.

Always made sense to me