NFL News

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Matt Eberflus: DJ Moore brings “different gear” to Bears offense

Posted by Josh Alper on May 23, 2023, 4:50 PM EDT

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The Bears are hoping to see their offense take a leap forward this season and part of their plan to help set that in motion was the acquisition of wide receiver DJ Moore in the trade that sent the first overall draft pick to Carolina.

Moore caught 364 passes in five seasons with the Panthers and Bears head coach Matt Eberflus has been impressed by his first chances to see the skill set that helped Moore pile up those receptions. Eberflus mentioned Moore’s speed at the top, but noted that there’s more to the package.

“The first thing I [noticed] is speed,” Eberflus said, via NBCSportsChicago.com. “I just saw that yesterday, and I was like ‘wow.’ There’s a different gear there, you know? That was exciting to see yesterday. . . . It’s rare when you’ve got a guy that can run the route and have the route discipline that he has and the football IQ that he has, and then also that speed and that talent he has.”

The Bears also have Darnell Mooney back from injury and Chase Claypool on hand for the entire season, so the hope will be that the upgraded receiving corps helps quarterback Justin Fields make the kind of growth as a passer that the Bears will need in order for their offense to truly take flight in 2023.

[Futureshock]

Allen Lazard’s brief exit from practice traces to a shot to “the gonads”

Posted by Mike Florio on May 23, 2023, 4:20 PM EDT

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Pro football players notoriously do not wear cups. Sometimes, they wish they did.

Jets receiver Allen Lazard made a brief exit from practice on Tuesday, walking off with trainers. He later returned.

On Twitter, Lazard provided an update. He said that he practiced for the balance of the day at 100 percent. He also disclosed his injury.

“Just got hit in the gonads,” he said.

Usually, it’s a temporary condition that involves intense pain. The pain typically arrives roughly 10 seconds later, in an area separate from the location of the impact.

[Futureshock]

Matt LaFleur on Jordan Love at OTAs: A lot of good things, a lot to clean up

Posted by Josh Alper on May 23, 2023, 4:15 PM EDT

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Jordan Love‘s preparation for his first season as the Packers’ starting quarterback moved into a new stage with the start of organized team activities this week.

Love has seen plenty of action in previous OTAs because Aaron Rodgers was not in attendance, but this is the first time he’s piloting an offense that’s going to be tailored to his abilities. On Tuesday, head coach Matt LaFleur gave an update on how Love is doing in the early part of this period of the offseason program and he indicated that it has been a mixed bag.

“A lot of good things and a lot to clean up,” LaFleur said, via Rob Demovsky of ESPN.com.

The Packers are also relatively inexperienced at wide receiver and LaFleur added that “we’ve got to see what everybody else around him can do” as they move toward a season that will look very different on offense.

[jaadam4]

GB will be a complete shit show this year. Jordan Love isn’t a good QB

[Futureshock]

Commanders’ trademark application is denied

Posted by Mike Florio on May 24, 2023, 12:39 PM EDT

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Some have wondered whether the new owner of the Washington Commanders will change the team’s name. Again.

The new owner might have no choice. Via trademark attorney Josh Gerben on Twitter, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has denied the trademark application for the name “Commanders.”

The reason for the denial was: (1) the existence of a trademark for “Commanders’ Classic”; and (2) pending applications filed by a man in the D.C. area.

The Commanders’ Classic is the name of the annual college football game between Army and Air Force. Also, Martin McCaulay filed trademarks for “Washington Space Commanders” and “Washington Wolf Commanders,” at a time when he was trying to squat on the team’s potential new name.

It doesn’t end the issue. As Gerben explains, the team can fight the matter, and it can attempt to work out a deal to use the name. (McCaulay already has said he’ll surrender anything he owns to the team. That’s something he has been saying for several years now.

Gerben believes the team will eventually be able to use the name. The separate question is whether new ownership will want to. The best move could be to make a clean break from All Things Snyder, and a full rebrand could be part of that effort.

[Futureshock]

Aaron Jones: We’ve got everything we need, this isn’t rebuilding

Posted by Josh Alper on May 24, 2023, 11:57 AM EDT

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Packers head coach Matt LaFleur said in late March that “we all kind of have to temper our expectations” for quarterback Jordan Love in his first season as the team’s starter, but running back Aaron Jones isn’t willing to temper his expectations for the team this season.

Love may be inexperienced and the team may also be callow in the receiving corps, but Jones said on Tuesday that the team isn’t looking to 2024 or any other year in the future as their time because all the pieces are already in place.

“We’ve got everything we need here. If you think we’re in a rebuild, you’ve got the wrong team, the wrong place,” Jones said, via Zach Kruse of USAToday.com. “We know it’s going to take all 11 and we’ll have to depend on each other in all phases, but we’re hungry, we’re ready to prove a lot of people wrong. We know what people are saying. Everybody has an opinion and most of them stink.”

After 15 years with Aaron Rodgers as their starting quarterback, the Packers are not used to heading into a season without high expectations. Many will be curious to see if Jones is right about where things stand in Green Bay.

[jaadam4]

Anyone else wish we had tried to land C Ridley this offseason? He’s going to be really good IMO

[edindetroit]

GB will be a complete shit show this year. Jordan Love isn’t a good QB

Could they be tanking?

[ghandi]

GB will be a complete shit show this year. Jordan Love isn’t a good QB

Usually when we say things like this it comes back to bite us later on......I hope you are right though.

[Tom]

Yeah, the Packers were almost a playoff team with a QB that didn’t seem interested in being part of the team. If Love has any skill/talent whatsoever, they might end up surprising some people.

[Futureshock]

Anyone else wish we had tried to land C Ridley this offseason? He’s going to be really good IMO

Ridley was acquired by the Jaguars via trade from the Atlanta Falcons just prior to the NFL's trade deadline last year. For a 4th rd pick

[Futureshock]

DK Metcalf still wants to race Tyreek Hill

Posted by Mike Florio on May 25, 2023, 6:31 AM EDT

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The periodic “I’m faster than you” debate among fast NFL players never really seems to be resolved with an actual race.

Seahawks receiver DK Metcalf claims that he still wants to prove that he’s faster than Dolphins receiver Tyreek Hill.

Appearing on FS1’s Undisputed, Metcalf explained that he has been trying to set up a race with Hill.

“Look, I had my people contact his people, we still couldn’t come to an agreement,” Metcalf said, via Harrison Reno of SI.com. “We’ve been trying to do this for two years now. We haven’t come to an agreement in two years but you’ve seen me running in a track meet, I didn’t race against no 30-year-olds but whenever you wanna get this done, let me know.”

That was a reference to Hill’s easy 60-meter dash win earlier this year in the USA Track and Field Masters Indoor Championships in Louisville, Kentucky. (The competitors were in the 25-29 age group.)

Metcalf acknowledged that Hill was willing to race in July 2022, but that Metcalf didn’t want to risk injury that close to football season.

As Reno notes, Metcalf has generated a higher top-end speed on a football field than Hill, with Metcalf topping out at 22.64 miles per hour when chasing down Budda Baker and Hill realizing a maximum of 22.60 miles per hour against the Vikings in 2019.

That’s close enough to make for an interesting race, one that quite possibly will come down to gets out of the blocks the fastest and the cleanest.

But they both have to want to do it. Choose a date. Choose a place. Let someone find a way to monetize it and give the money to charity. It’s really not that hard — if the people involved are willing to put up or finally shut up with this constant preening, without actually racing.

[Futureshock]

The Patriots cheating? No. That can't be <sarc>
Report: Patriots lose two days of OTAs for violating offseason rules

Posted by Charean Williams on May 24, 2023, 9:35 PM EDT

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The Patriots were docked two days of organized team activities for a violation of offseason rules, Mike Reiss of ESPN reports.

The specifics of the violation are unclear, and it also remains to be seen whether that is the team’s only penalty.

The Patriots called off Thursday’s practice earlier in the day, presumably after receiving word of the penalty, and they will lose another day next week.

Teams are allowed a total of 10 OTAs, but no live contact is permitted as part of Article 21 of the Collective Bargaining Agreement.

The NFL Management Council disciplined the Cowboys last offseason for violating rules governing offseason work. They lost a day of OTAs for 2023 as a result of OTA practices in 2022 that were considered too physical, and coach Mike McCarthy was fined $100,000.

The Bears also were sanctioned in 2022.

In 2021, the Cowboys, 49ers and Jaguars were found in violation.

[Futureshock]

Andy Reid on kickoff changes: Eventually you’ll be playing flag football

Posted by Mike Florio on May 24, 2023, 9:31 PM EDT

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The NFL’s obsession with making the game safer has its limits. At some point, it stops football from being football.

In the aftermath of the most recent revisions to the kickoff, Chiefs coach Andy Reid made that observation when asked about the new rule that allows the receiving team on a kickoff to make a fair catch and get the ball at the 25.

“I don’t know,” Reid told reporters, via John Dixon of ArrowheadPride.com. “We’ll have to go through all that. My thing is, ‘Where does it stop?’ Right?

“So you start taking pieces [away] — and we’ll see how this goes — but you don’t want to take too many pieces away. You’ll be playing flag football.”

That’s the balance the NFL needs to strike. It’s one thing to make football safer. It’s another thing to make football not football.

That’s the risk. The game has changed slowly but, overall, dramatically in the past 14 years. Watch games from the 1980s or 1990s on YouTube.com. It was brutal, so much more than it is now.

At some point, the league risks crossing the line into something that makes football feel like it isn’t football anymore. The NFL isn’t there yet, but it could be getting close to it.

[Futureshock]

Mark Cuban is looking like Nostradamus


. Thursday night flexing is not about Amazon — it’s about the next wave of broadcast deals

Posted by Mike Florio on May 24, 2023, 9:07 PM EDT

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There’s a popular belief in the aftermath of a pair of offseason tweaks to the Thursday night package that the NFL has bowed to Amazon czar Jeff Bezos.

It’s popular, but it’s also inaccurate.

The NFL hasn’t taken steps to enhance the Amazon package as a favor to Bezos, expanding the maximum short weeks per team to two and adding late-season Thursday night flexing. As one high-level source with knowledge of the dynamics explained it to PFT on Wednesday, this is not about Amazon. They already have Amazon’s commitment.

This is about the future of streaming.

The NFL knows that it needs to boost the performance of streaming properties in order to ensure the appropriate return the next time rights deals are negotiated. Last year’s streaming numbers for Thursday Night Football did not compare favorably to the numbers generated in prior years by Fox. If the league is going to realize maximum revenue from streaming providers in the next deals, the streaming packages need to be viable.

Said the source in response to the notion that the changes aren’t about Amazon but about streaming generally, the source said this: “You’re not 99 percent right, you’re 100 percent right.”

For the NFL, the goal is to get streaming audiences as close as possible to 100 percent of what they were on broadcast TV. In this regard, there is plenty of work to be done. And not much time within which to do it.