NFL News

[Futureshock]

Andy Reid: Josh Gordon is very smart and has picked things up quickly

Posted by Myles Simmons on October 7, 2021, 9:12 AM EDT

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After adding receiver Josh Gordon to the 53-man roster, the Chiefs seem set to play him in Sunday’s game against the Bills.

While head coach Andy Reid said earlier this week that he didn’t want to put Gordon in a poor position by putting him on the field too soon, it seems like Reid is getting more comfortable with the idea of the receiver making his debut.

“He’s very smart and has picked things up quickly,” Reid said Wednesday, via ArrowheadPride.com. “He’s had a little bit of the flavor of the offense when he was in Cleveland, so he understands some of the language there.”

Gordon’s first head coach when he entered the league back in 2012 was Pat Shurmur, who was on Reid’s staff in Philadelphia from 1999-2008.

Beyond that, Reid said Gordon is feeling good from his workouts with the team.

“He feels like he’s in pretty good shape and wants to get going,” Reid said. “He’s got experience, and I learned over years that the veteran guys will tell you how they’re feeling and where they’re at because they know what’s ahead of them and they surely don’t want to embarrass themselves. He feels good about getting in there and getting it started. We’ll see where it goes from there — whether he’s active or not or whatever. We’ll just see how it goes.”

Gordon hasn’t appeared in a game since 2019, when he caught a 58-yard pass for the Seahawks in their Week 15 victory over the Panthers.

[Futureshock]

A.J. Green: I never left, I’m just getting great opportunities

Posted by Josh Alper on October 7, 2021, 7:21 AM EDT

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Wide receiver A.J. Green’s last three seasons with the Bengals offered reasons to think he was on the backside of his career, but the Cardinals made a bet that there was still gas left in his tank when they signed him as a free agent this offseason.

That bet has paid off thus far. Green leads the 4-0 team with 248 receiving yards and has joined DeAndre Hopkins, Christian Kirk, Rondale Moore, Maxx Williams, and Chase Edmonds to create a deep group of receiving options for quarterback Kyler Murray.

On Wednesday, Green said that he thinks any perceived resurgence is just a matter of getting the chances that have come his way in Arizona.

“I don’t think I ever left,” Green said, via Bob McManaman of the Arizona Republic. “I’m just getting great opportunities. When you have a guy like Hop on the other side and Kirk and the way our skill positions are playing, everybody plays us honest. Kyler’s just spreading the ball around, getting it to Max and Chase, our offensive line, everybody is just playing well. We’ve just got to keep this thing going. The sky’s the limit for us.”

With so many mouths to feed on offense, Green may not wind up leading the team in receiving yards come the end of the season. As long as he remains healthy and the team keeps winning, though, it’s hard to imagine anyone will be second-guessing the decision to bring Green to desert.

[Futureshock]

Panthers players get “win now” message from Stephon Gilmore trade

Posted by Josh Alper on October 7, 2021, 6:24 AM EDT

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When the Panthers traded for cornerback CJ Henderson last week, the message was that the Panthers hoped that a change of scenery could lead the 2020 first-round pick to blossom into the player he failed to become with the Jaguars.

Trading for cornerback Stephon Gilmore sent a very different message. Gilmore was the 2019 defensive player of the year and he’s not signed beyond the 2021 season, so the idea is for him to provide an immediate boost to the 3-1 team’s chances of contending. It was a message received by the team’s players.

Cornerback Donte Jackson said “they’re confident we can win right now” and defensive lineman DaQuan Jones said he thinks everyone in the building believes that’s the case. Quarterback Sam Darnold had a similar response.

“We’re ready to win now,” Darnold said, via Darin Gantt of the team’s website. “I think that’s the biggest thing. We’re all aware, we can win games, and we’re capable of doing that. So that’s really the message it sends.”

Gilmore won’t be eligible to play for the Panthers until Week Seven and it’s clear that the expectation in Carolina will be for him to hit the ground running.

[Futureshock]

NFL to play 29th and 30th London games, has still never matched two winning teams

Posted by Michael David Smith on October 7, 2021, 5:39 AM EDT

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The NFL wants to establish a significant fan base in London. But it has never given the fans the opportunity to see a great matchup of two top teams.

In fact, after the 1-3 Jets play the 1-3 Falcons in London on Sunday, and the 1-3 Dolphins play the 0-4 Jaguars next week, the NFL will have played 30 games in London, and there still hasn’t been a single game between two teams with winning records.

Jets-Falcons is the ninth London game to match up two teams with losing records. Dolphins-Jaguars will be the 10th London game to match up two teams with losing records. The other 20 London games have had one team with a winning record or a .500 record, but never have both teams had a winning record.

The NFL sometimes sends bad teams to London because those teams struggle to fill their home stadiums and don’t mind giving up a home game to play overseas. But sometimes the London games are just the victims of bad luck, with the games looking good on paper when they’re scheduled, only to have the teams playing in London struggle early in the season.

[Futureshock]

Retrial date set for April 4 in death of former Saints defensive end Will Smith

Posted by Curtis Crabtree on October 7, 2021, 2:26 AM EDT

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A new trial date has been set for Cardell Hayes in the death of former New Orleans Saints defensive end Will Smith after his previous conviction was thrown out by the United States Supreme Court in January.

According to Kevin McGill of the Associated Press, a new trial has been set to begin on April 4.

Hayes was convicted of manslaughter in the death of Smith in 2016 that stemmed from a traffic dispute. Hayes was convicted by a non-unanimous decision, 10-2. Such judgments have since been deemed unconstitutional and Hayes’ conviction, which had been under active appeal at the time of the Supreme Court decision on split decision judgments, was thrown out.

Hayes has claimed he acted in self defense. Hayes and Smith engaged in an argument after their vehicles collided. Hayes then fatally shot Smith, and his wife Racquel was also injured in the incident.

Hayes had been serving a 25-year prison sentence from the conviction handed down in 2017. He has been free on conditional release and home confinement since the prior judgment was tossed.

[Futureshock]

Derek Carr: Joey Bosa’s comments “did piss me off”

Posted by Mike Florio on October 6, 2021, 9:24 PM EDT

USA TODAY Sports

After Monday night’s game between the Raiders and Chargers, L.A. defensive end Joey Bosa had some pointed things to say about the connection between Las Vegas quarterback Derek Carr getting hit and getting “shook.” On Wednesday, Carr admitted that Bosa’s words left a mark.

“I just thought it was unfortunate that he’d even think to say it,” Carr told reporters. “Maybe he was just trying to get under my skin. Which he did piss me off. So good job for that.”

Said Bosa on Monday night, “We knew once we hit him a few times, he really gets shook. “And you saw on [Christian Covington’s] sack, he was pretty much curling into a ball before we even got back there. Great dude, great player . . . but we know once you get pressure on him, he kind of shuts down.”

Carr disagreed with that assessment. “He was probably mad because I was talking a lot of crap to him during the game,” Carr said. “He’s entitled to that opinion and saying those things. It’s almost like he watched the game in reverse. The game that I watched, we came out and fought after they got after us a little bit up front. . . . We’ll see them again. And he’s entitled to say that. He’s a great player, great dude. I just don’t think he watched the game in the same order I did.”

As to the claim that Carr “curled into a ball,” the reality is that he was protecting the ball. At a time when too many quarterbacks don’t know when to concede a play gone haywire, Carr did the right thing by waving the white flag and living to fight another day.

Regardless, the rematch comes in little more than three months, on the final Sunday of the season. It’s safe to say that Bosa’s words and Carr’s response will resurface then.

[TheLondonLion]

This Raiders shit is absolutely wild. They looked playoff bound, now look rebuild bound.

What a fall from grace.

[Cody_Russell]

Thank goodness they have 3 wins already.
Some of us Lions fans… we already know how to play chess instead of checkers when it comes to draft tanking thoughts.

…

Whoa.

[Mainevent]

What's even wilder is you scroll down 3 spots and Brady would be sitting there with 1,803.

[Futureshock]

This Raiders shit is absolutely wild. They looked playoff bound, now look rebuild bound.

What a fall from grace.

It's been like that with Gruden. I have never liked him anyway, but every year they start hot and then run out of gas by half way through the season.

[The Ken]

The Grudan scenario is just crazy, Urban, Meh.... he got caught playing around. If you are famous there are way to many cameras and folks willing to ruin other peoples live anymore.

[-Deborah-]

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[chemiclord]

As if the Ford family would care. The damn patriarch of the family business was a Nazi sympathizer. I wouldn't be surprised to see racist, bigoted screeds on the regular in family communication. They might not even think anything was wrong with it.

The only thing that actually seemed to shame them for a little bit was when the Lions went 0-16, for whatever reason.

[Futureshock]

The Grudan scenario is just crazy, Urban, Meh.... he got caught playing around. If you are famous there are way to many cameras and folks willing to ruin other peoples live anymore.

Truthfully, they ruined their own lives.

We all know what is right and wrong. The issue isn't other people ruining his life. HE needed to come to grips with that whole mindset is wrong and purge those thoughts from his mental.

As some may be able to remember, we had a troll that came here before the GB game. He ticked me off so bad I called him a terrible name (a same sex slur). But, the name calling was the tip of the mountain. Deb was gracious when she told me my words were immature. They were terrible and I personally vowed to myself to not think or accept anyone talking like that around me. Yeah, we talked like that 5 decades ago and we were dumb. We now know better. I knew better but in the absence of have something better to say I went there. I can't allow myself to be lowered like that.

[Futureshock]

As if the Ford family would care. The damn patriarch of the family business was a Nazi sympathizer. I wouldn't be surprised to see racist, bigoted screeds on the regular in family communication. They might not even think anything was wrong with it.

The only thing that actually seemed to shame them for a little bit was when the Lions went 0-16, for whatever reason.

I did not know that.