National Football League News and Rumors
Ravens to erect a Ray Lewis statueMike Florio, profootballtalk.com The irony of the overlap between football and religion is that the ultimate prize in the NFL is worshiped like the golden calf from Exodus 32. Folks in Baltimore will eventually be able to bow at the sculpted likeness of linebacker Ray Lewis. Via ESPN.c… |
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Mike Florio, profootballtalk.com The guy from Sporting News whose whining wasn’t sufficiently compelling to get me to remember his name will have another Colin Kaepernick tattoo about which to whine. Via SFGate.com, the 49ers starting quarterback has capped a special season with a new … |
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Mike Florio, profootballtalk.com When the NFL was forced to move from Sunday to Tuesday a prime-time game between the Vikings and Eagles due to a looming blizzard in Philadelphia, we asked the NFL whether there were any second thoughts about hosting a Super Bowl in an open-air New Jers… |
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Mike Florio, profootballtalk.com It has been widely believed that the unadjusted salary cap will move from $120.6 million in 2012 to (drum roll, please) $121 million in 2013. Per a league source, there’s a growing belief that it could be even higher. Instead of $121 million per team it… |
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Adam Schefter, ESPN.com The NFL promoted Troy Vincent, once a finalist for the NFLPA's executive director job, to senior vice president, one of the highest-ranking jobs in the league office, according to a source. |
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Associated Press, ESPN.com Hurtful names and racial stereotypes of all types were discussed and dissected Thursday in a daylong symposium at the Smithsonian, and the Washington Redskins were at the top of the list for nearly all those who spoke. |
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Mike Florio, profootballtalk.com Usually, a “blackout” happens in the NFL only when the NFL intends for it to happen. On Sunday, an accidental blackout knocked out power at the Superdome for 34 minutes. (Or, in other words, the amount of time it takes for Rob Ryan to find 6.8 job… |
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Michael David Smith, profootballtalk.com After the officials did not call pass interference against Ravens cornerback Jimmy Smith on the 49ers’ final offensive play of the Super Bowl, many observers who agreed with the non-call said that in a key play with the championship on the line, the off… |
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Associated Press, ESPN.com The Buffalo Bills are cutting ties with receiver Donald Jones by allowing him to become a free agent after declining to tender the third-year player a contract offer on Thursday. |
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Brian McIntyre, yahoo.com Over the next few weeks, "Shutdown Corner" will pay homage to "Office Space" (TPS reports) as we take a quick look back at each team's 2012 season and a look at what lies ahead for the 2013 offseason. We wrap up the AFC East with the… |
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Darin Gantt, profootballtalk.com Things aren’t going to be easy for the Panthers this year for many reasons. But the schedule doesn’t exactly do them any favors. The Panthers have the league’s hardest strength of schedule number for the 2013 season, as they’re playing teams with … |
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Adam Schefter, ESPN.com Chris Johnson will return to the Tennessee Titans under his current contract in 2013, coach Mike Munchak said Thursday. |
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Josh Alper, profootballtalk.com New Jets defensive coordinator Dennis Thurman has never held that job before, but he will have someone on his staff with experience as a coordinator. The Jets announced Thursday that former Falcons defensive coordinator Brian VanGorder will join the sta… |
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Ohm Youngmisuk, ESPN.com One day after jettisoning defensive tackle Chris Canty, the New York Giants re-signed Shaun Rogers to help fill the interior of their defensive line. |
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Jay Busbee, yahoo.com As amazing as the Internet is — it's why we have this job, and why you're reading this article, after all — every so often we're reminded that sometimes all it does is give people the opportunity to be idiots on a worldwide scale. Kaitlyn Collins is a… |
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Mike Florio, profootballtalk.com Dean Blandino wasn’t in charge of the league’s officials during Super Bowl XLVII. But he is now, and he’s doing his best to explain away the decision not to throw a flag on Ravens cornerback Jimmy Smith for defensive holding/pass interference agai… |
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Josh Alper, profootballtalk.com Giants defensive end Osi Umenyiora has expressed an interest in returning to the team in 2013, but he’ll have a chance to talk to any other team in the league before making any decisions about what uniform to wear. Jenny Vrentas of the Newark Star-Ledge… |
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Michael David Smith, profootballtalk.com New Eagles coach Chip Kelly has reached into the college ranks to hire his offensive line coach, and it’s a coach who comes from a very different system than the one Kelly ran at Oregon. Jeff Stoutland, who was the offensive line coach for Nick Saban at… |
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Josh Alper, profootballtalk.com We’re easing into the offseason this week on Pro Football Talk on NBC Sports Network and Patriots linebacker Jerod Mayo will help us with that process on Thursday. Mayo will talk to Erik Kuselias about the state of the Patriots after their loss to the R… |
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Michael David Smith, profootballtalk.com On his first day back in the NFL after being suspended for orchestrating the Saints’ bounty program, new Titans assistant coach Gregg Williams said he accepts the blame for the mess he created in New Orleans, and that he vows to do things the right way … |
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Now that 2012 is wrapped, we have some perspective on last season's rookies. If teams could do the first round over again, who would they draft? Don Banks has the answer. |
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Josh Alper, profootballtalk.com The Giants let three members of the 2012 rosters go this week and they’ve decided to bring back two others. Tight end Bear Pascoe and defensive tackle Shaun Rogers have both signed contracts for the 2013 seasons. Rogers spent the year on injured reserve… |
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Mike Florio, profootballtalk.com During the last labor deal — the one the owners hated — teams rarely had trouble complying with the salary cap. Now that the owners have struck a more favorable formula for paying players, the fact that more and more teams are pressed up against the… |
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Dom Cosentino, deadspin.com The Summer of Gronk, Part II, might be less than three weeks old, but it's already so far along that Gronkshaming has become a thing. So where can it go from here? Why not porn! A porn company has offered Gronk $3.75 million—the equivalent of his 2014 s… |
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Josh Alper, profootballtalk.com When the Cardinals made the decision to switch defensive coordinators from Ray Horton to Todd Bowles, there was some question about what kind of defensive look Bowles would run in the 2013 season. We got our answer on Thursday and it looks pretty much t… |
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Darin Gantt, profootballtalk.com … |
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Darin Gantt, profootballtalk.com Ravens running back Ray Rice thinks his quarterback is the best in the game right now, and he has two reasons. The Super Bowl title is one, but Rice may have some mild head trauma after an accident during the Ravens victory parade. Rice was the latest t… |
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Jay Busbee, yahoo.com While the NFL has plenty of quarterbacks indelibly associated with a single city — Brady, Brees, Ryan, Rodgers, the lil' Manning — receivers tend to be a more wandering lot. And in all sports, the flow of players and money runs away from small-market … |
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Doug Farrar, yahoo.com At this point, even Chuck Norris and Bill Brasky must fear Adrian Peterson. It wasn't just that the transcendent Minnesota Vikings running back gashed the NFL for over 2,000 yards on the ground in his 2012 season just months after undergoing major knee … |
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Michael David Smith, profootballtalk.com Last year the cap-strapped Lions did virtually nothing in free agency, and their 4-12 record suggests that was a problem. This year, Lions General Manager Martin Mayhew says, the Lions expect to bolster their roster with some free agent signings. “We we… |
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Barry Petchesky, deadspin.com Oakland came in dead last in attendance this season, an average of 54,217 per game. That's just 86 percent of the capacity at O.co Coliseum, already one of the smallest stadiums in the NFL at 63,132. Not small enough. Nearly every game, the Raiders ran … |
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Associated Press, ESPN.com Detroit Lions coach Jim Schwartz says receiver Titus Young was released to get rid of a distraction. |
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Drew Magary, deadspin.com Drew Magary's Thursday Afternoon NFL Dick Joke Jamboroo runs every Thursday during the NFL season. More » |
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Michael David Smith, profootballtalk.com Jevon Kearse, the former Titans and Eagles defensive end who played in the NFL for 11 seasons and earned about $45 million, is apparently struggling financially less than four years after receiving his last NFL paycheck. The South Florida Business Journ… |
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Josh Alper, profootballtalk.com The Giants got the ball rolling on veteran cuts over the last few days and it seems they’ll have some company from the other team that calls MetLife Stadium home in the near future. Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News reports that the team will part… |
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Mike Florio, profootballtalk.com If 49ers return specialist Ted Ginn Jr. had managed to break through the Baltimore coverage on the free kick that ended Super Bowl XLVII, Ginn may have needed an escort from his entire family to get to the end zone. Via Deadspin, NFL Films audio from th… |
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Titans GM: Britt 'on the spot' to produce this year |
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Jack Dickey, deadspin.com Being snobby East Coast elites, we've never understood the people of Wisconsin and their Packers. I guess the public owns the team, so that's something. Even so: These folks love the Packers even more than the team's shared ownership would dictate. The … |
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Darin Gantt, profootballtalk.com The Buccaneers released a full list of their coaching staff for the coming season Thursday. Several of the moves we knew, such as hiring quarterbacks coach John McNulty, receivers coach John Garrett and special teams coach Dave Wannstedt. But they slid … |
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ESPN.com news services, ESPN.com The Philadelphia Eagles will hire Billy Davis as the defensive coordinator on coach Chip Kelly's staff, sources confirmed to ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter. |
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Josh Alper, profootballtalk.com Three of Ryan Tannehill’s four leading receivers are free agents this offseason, which at least raises the possibility that Tannehill will be working with a lot of new faces in his second NFL season. Wide receiver Brian Hartline, tight end Anthony Fasan… |
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Darin Gantt, profootballtalk.com When Cam Newton’s in the house, Auburn just doesn’t lose to Alabama. His quarterbacking the Tigers to a comeback win over the in-state rivals helped him win a Heisman Trophy and a national championship in 2010, and last night, his people skills helped… |
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The games are over. But the intrigue is just starting. The NFL never stops, after all, and a number of issues loom this offseason. Chris Burke examines the biggest. |
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Jamison Hensley, ESPN.com Baltimore Ravens general manager Ozzie Newsome said he's "optimistic" that the team will get a long-term deal done with quarterback Joe Flacco. |
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ESPN.com news services, ESPN.com The alleged use of deer-antler spray by professional athletes was the hot topic of Super Bowl week, but former defensive lineman Tony Casillas said "that's nothing" compared to what players used during his playing career. |
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Josh Alper, profootballtalk.com When the Ravens won Super Bowl XXXV, they restructured a lot of contracts to ensure that the nucleus of their title team remained together as long as possible. The result was not a repeat championship. The Ravens made the playoffs in two of the next thr… |
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Josh Alper, profootballtalk.com Thanks to his Super Bowl MVP award and expiring contract, Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco is the man of the hour. That’s going to make for a busy few weeks for Joe Linta, Flacco’s agent and the man responsible for hammering out a new deal with the Raven… |
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Michael David Smith, profootballtalk.com During the Super Bowl, Ravens coach John Harbaugh told his assistant coaches that they needed to make sure their defensive calls didn’t leave linebacker Ray Lewis covering 49ers tight end Vernon Davis or receiver Michael Crabtree over the middle. The 49… |
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Darin Gantt, profootballtalk.com One of the biggest challenges for the Jaguars as they attempt to wash the stink of a 2-14 season off will be how they rebuild an offensive line. Protecting their quarterback was a challenge, but new offensive coordinator Jedd Fisch said he was going to … |
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Josh Alper, profootballtalk.com Browns coach Rob Chudzinski has reached into his recent past to find his team’s running backs coach. John Settle was fired by the Panthers before Chudzinski left his post as the team’s offensive coordinator, but it clearly wasn’t because Chudzinski … |
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Reuben Fischer, deadspin.com The map above shows the concentration of geolocated tweets sent during the Super Bowl that contained both the words "Lewis" and "murder." We were looking for references to Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis, who in 2000 was charge… |
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Michael David Smith, profootballtalk.com Former Cowboys defensive lineman Tony Casillas says that when the team was winning Super Bowls in the 1990s, players frequently used a medication meant for horses. Asked on 105.3 The Fan in Dallas about Ray Lewis’s alleged use of a banned substance cont… |
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Mike Florio, profootballtalk.com Last year, the Steelers had to cut players like linebacker James Farrior and receiver Hines Ward in order to get in line with the 2012 salary cap. As Ed Bouchette of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette explains it, last year’s changes could be a “drop in the … |
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Josh Alper, profootballtalk.com Broncos left tackle Ryan Clady placed a pretty big bet on himself by turning down extension overtures from the team last summer, leaving him to risk the possibility of injury before landing a big contract from Denver or someone else. The bet wound up wo… |
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Doug Farrar, yahoo.com When it comes to playing quarterback in the Super Bowl, who would you rather talk to than Joe Montana? Shutdown Corner had that exact opportunity this week, as Joe Cool sat down to talk with us about a number of subjects -- the evolution of the quarterb… |
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Mike Florio, profootballtalk.com Last year, teams had until February 28 to decide whether to carry over unused salary cap space. This year, the deadline came two months early. Per a source with knowledge of the schedule, teams had until December 29 to decide whether to shift remaining… |
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Darin Gantt, profootballtalk.com On the surface, there seems to be little in common between Patriots coach Bill Belichick and NBA star Kobe Bryant. But Bryant said he had a deep respect for the Patriots coach, after a brief meeting during a low point in his career. Bryant told ESPN NBA… |
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Jay Busbee, yahoo.com You've got to be a special kind of fan (and have a special kind of spouse) to get a football-themed cake past the gatekeepers of your wedding, but apparently a Twitter user named @bdeoff has just such a friend. Behold the JJ Watt wedding cake. That's a … |
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Mike Florio, profootballtalk.com After he was abruptly and unceremoniously cut by the Texans on May 1, receiver/kick returner Jacoby Jones found a new home in Baltimore. Now, after playing an indispensable role in the Ravens’ Super bowl win, Jones hopes it’s permanent. “I want to… |
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Darin Gantt, profootballtalk.com The Bills are looking more than just QB Ryan Nassib, as new coach Doug Marrone surveys the college landscape. Former Dolphins S Donald Bessilieu was arrested for marijuana possession while trying to pick up a prostitute. Patriots coach Bill Belichick is… |
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Darin Gantt, profootballtalk.com Ahmad Bradshaw was shown the door yesterday, but the Giants left it cracked open a bit. Bradshaw said on WFAN that the team told him they “had to move on,” but he also mentioned “future opportunities” with the team. As tough and productive as Brad… |
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Mike Florio, profootballtalk.com Add safety LaRon Landry to the list of players least likely to return to the Jets. Apart from the fact that he’s becoming a free agent in March and has said there will be no hometown discount for the team he called home for only one season, Landry has… |
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Curtis Crabtree, profootballtalk.com The Houston Texans lost a significant piece to their defense in October when linebacker Brian Cushing tore his ACL in a game against the New York Jets. Though they still finished as the seventh-ranked defense in the league, the Texans lost some of their… |
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Curtis Crabtree, profootballtalk.com A whopping 333 invitations have been extended to college prospects to attend the NFL Combine later this month. The combine, held from Feb. 20-26 in Indianapolis, will be broadcast on the NFL Network. West Virginia University quarterback Geno Smith and U… |
