National Football League News and Rumors
Injured Robert Griffin III put in bad spot by Washington Redskins coach Mike Shanahan in NFC wild card gameRobert Griffin III was sprinting toward the right sideline and throwing back to his left, a pass intended in the end zone for Pierre Garcon from the 4-yard line, when his right knee twisted awkwardly. He was not hit. He landed out of bounds on his back … |
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Adam Schefter, ESPN.com San Francisco 49ers director of player personnel Tom Gamble will interview Tuesday for the San Diego Chargers' vacant general manager job, according to league sources. |
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Jay Busbee, yahoo.com There's nothing worse than losing a game that you know you could have won. Based on the early minutes of Sunday night's Seattle-Washington playoff, the Redskins could have won if RG3 hadn't slowly broken down to RG2, RG1 and RG0.5. So you can't really b… |
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Josh Levin, deadspin.com LANDOVER, Md.—After the Redskins' 24-14 playoff loss to the Seahawks, Washington's players and head coach talked about the "difference between being injured and being hurt," the importance of being there for your teammates, and how, in the wor… |
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Adam Schefter, ESPN.com Oregon coach Chip Kelly has decided to turn down a chance to go to the NFL and to return to the Ducks, according to league sources. |
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Mike Florio, profootballtalk.com Darrell Bevell could be returning to the NFC North. The second-year coordinator of the Seattle Seahawks, who previously spent five years with the Vikings and six with the Packers, has landed on the Bears’ radar screen. According to Sean Jensen of the Ch… |
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ESPN.com news services, ESPN.com Indianapolis Colts offensive coordinator Bruce Arians was taken to a hospital Sunday with an undisclosed illness and will not be with the team for its wild-card playoff game against the Baltimore Ravens. |
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Brian McIntyre, yahoo.com Arian Foster, running back, Houston Texans: Foster, who was named to his third straight Pro Bowl, tossed the Texans on his back in Saturday's 19-13 win over the Cincinnati Bengals. Foster had 32 carries for 140 yards and a touchdown, becoming the first … |
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LANDOVER, Md. -- When Robert Griffin III crumpled to the turf with 6:25 left to play in Sunday afternoon's NFC wild-card playoff game against the Seahawks, fumbling at his own 5-yard line, the outcome no longer mattered to the Redskins or the sellout cr… |
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Mike Florio, profootballtalk.com The Eagles are returning to Philadelphia without a new coach. And on the night before their former coach, Andy Reid, will be introduced as the new coach of the Chiefs, the Eagles seem no closer to making a hire than when they fired Reid. According to C… |
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Josh Alper, profootballtalk.com Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III is going to have an MRI on his right knee Monday and he said Sunday evening that “it’s up in the air” as to how serious the injury to his knee might be. Griffin faced a similar line of questioning to coach Mik… |
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Adam Schefter, ESPN.com The Chicago Bears have asked for and received permission to interview Houston Texans offensive coordinator Rick Dennison for their head coaching vacancy, a source said. |
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Mike Florio, profootballtalk.com Browns Coaching Search 2.0 will include more names than the first version of the effort to hire the seventh coach since the franchise returned to the NFL 14 years ago. Jason Cole of Yahoo! Sports reports that Colts offensive coordinator Bruce Arians and… |
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Mike Florio, profootballtalk.com With the drive to hire Andy Reid permanently stalled at the five-yard line, the Cardinals still need a head coach. And despite spending plenty of time interviewing defensive coordinator Ray Horton, the Cardinals will continue to consider additional cand… |
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Michael David Smith, profootballtalk.com Although it won’t get as much attention as the injury suffered by Robert Griffin III, the Seahawks are also concerned on Sunday night about a knee injury suffered by a key player. Seahawks coach Pete Carroll acknowledged after the game that the team is … |
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Redskins coach Mike Shanahan gambled on Robert Griffin III's health ... and lost, says Chris Burke. RGIII re-injured his knee as the Seahawks rallied for a 24-14 wild-card win. |
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Josh Alper, profootballtalk.com … |
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Isaac Rauch, deadspin.com Seattle 24, Washington 14: It's fair to debate Mike Shanahan's decision to keep a hobbled Robert Griffin III in the game today: For much of the first half, it looked like a gamble in the process of paying off, and Griffin has been so stellar for so much… |
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Michael David Smith, profootballtalk.com We’d never seen this before, a playoff Sunday with three rookie quarterbacks starting, and if you were hoping for one of them to put up spectacular passing numbers, you turned off your TV feeling disappointed. But one of those three rookie quarterbacks,… |
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Mike Florio, profootballtalk.com After the Seahawks closed out a 24-14 win that featured 24 unanswered points after falling into a 14-point hole, Redskins tackle Trent Williams let his frustrations get the better of him. FOX cameras showed Williams shoving his hand into the face of Sea… |
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Josh Alper, profootballtalk.com The condition of quarterback Robert Griffin III’s knee is going to dominate the fallout from Wild Card weekend in Washington D.C., but the state of Washington is going to be talking more about another Seahawks win. Seattle scored the final 24 points of … |
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Frank Schwab, yahoo.com Everyone watching the Redskins and Seahawks play could see Robert Griffin III becoming more and more hobbled as the game went on. Troy Aikman and Joe Buck wondered if Griffin should come out, and made the point that he was vulnerable because of the inju… |
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The Ravens parlayed Ray Lewis' final home playoff game into a 24-9 win over the Colts. Emotion will only take you so far in the playoffs and the hot Broncos await, says Don Banks. |
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ESPN.com news services, ESPN.com Washington Redskins rookie Robert Griffin III left Sunday's NFC wild-card round game against the Seattle Seahawks in the fourth quarter due to another injury to his right knee. |
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Down 14-0, the Seahawks didn't flinch. Marshawn Lynch ran for 132 yards and a touchdown and Robert Griffin III reinjured his knee in Seattle's 24-14 wild-card victory. |
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Sean Newell, deadspin.com Like many teams of late, the Packers decided to cut off the sale of booze earlier than usual to combat drunken disorderliness during Saturday's wild card game against the Vikings. Knowing full well that beer sales would be cut off at the end of halftime… |
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Frank Schwab, yahoo.com What looked like a moment on trash talk from Broncos linebacker Von Miller apparently was a hoax, as a Broncos spokesman said the message in question isn't from Miller and he hasn't been on Facebook lately and the account in question has no affiliation … |
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Doug Farrar, yahoo.com The Seattle Seahawks won their first road playoff game since Dec. 31, 1983, and they did it in a fashion that was both ignominious and spectacular in a 24-14 win over the Washington Redskins. They became the third team in NFL history, adding their mark… |
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Frank Schwab, yahoo.com Seattle started terribly in its wild-card game against Washington, falling behind 14-0. It was 14-3 when Seattle's fumbled read-option handoff was on the turf, waiting for the Redskins to scoop it up and turn the first half into a rout. Seahawks running… |
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Sean Newell, deadspin.com Baltimore 24, Indianapolis 9: Ray Lewis was all over the broadcast, which is to be expected. It was his last game at M&T Bank Stadium and someone, somewhere decided that we all love Ray Lewis. He's clearly a divisive figure, however, and nothing typ… |
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Brian McIntyre, yahoo.com A solid defensive effort led by linebackers Ray Lewis and Paul Kruger and a huge second half from wide receiver Anquan Boldin lead the Baltimore Ravens to a 24-9 win over the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday. With the win, the Ravens have advanced to the di… |
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Doug Farrar, yahoo.com It was the play that effectively ended the Baltimore Ravens' 2011 season, and it eclipsed the fact that for most of the AFC championship game, Baltimore's Joe Flacco actually outplayed Tom Brady in a 23-20 nail-biter that saw Brady's New England Patriot… |
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Josh Alper, profootballtalk.com It’s been a while since the Redskins have been in the playoffs, but they started their game with the Seahawks like it was old hat. The Redskins have driven easily on the Seahawks on each of their first two possessions and lead 14-0 as a result. Everythi… |
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Frank Schwab, yahoo.com Indianapolis' season-ending loss at Baltimore summed up its regular season. There was a scary health issue with a coach. There were signs that this Colts team wasn't quite as good as its regular-season record. And there were other signs that the future … |
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The Ravens fought tooth and nail before pulling away in their 24-9 victory over the Colts. What changed in the second half? Anquan Boldin decided to come alive, says Chris Burke. |
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Associated Press, ESPN.com Anquan Boldin set a franchise record with 145 yards on five receptions, including the clinching touchdown, as Baltimore beat Indianapolis 24-9 in Sunday's AFC wild-card game. |
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ESPN.com news services, ESPN.com LSU junior defensive linemen Barkevious Mingo, Sam Montgomery and Bennie Logan will declare for the 2013 NFL draft, sources told ESPN's Joe Schad. |
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Isaac Rauch, deadspin.com Chan Gailey was pretty much a washout from the start for the Bills, and fans who withstood his 16-32 record there are understandably happy to have him gone. Still—who's the new guy? Doug Marrone is: Syracuse's former coach, a one-time offensive coordina… |
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Frank Schwab, yahoo.com Ray Rice doesn't fumble the ball and Adam Vinatieri doesn't miss big field goals in the playoffs. So what the heck happened in the fourth quarter at Baltimore? First, Rice lost his second fumble of the game (although the first was given to the Colts whe… |
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Michael David Smith, profootballtalk.com Bengals safety Robert Sands, who spent the entire 2012 season on injured reserve, was arrested on Friday. According to KYPost.com, Sands was accused of assaulting his wife and charged with assault and domestic violence in Florence, Kentucky. WLWT report… |
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Josh Alper, profootballtalk.com The Redskins had a couple of game-time decisions to make before handing in their 46-man roster for Sunday’s playoff game and both of them wound up with the players declared ready to go. Left guard Kory Lichtensteiger missed practice all this week with a… |
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Doug Farrar, yahoo.com Washington Redskins head coach Mike Shanahan and Seattle Seahawks head man Pete Carroll will go against each other with their game plans in Sunday afternoon's wild-card matchup, but almost two decades ago, the two longtime coaches were almost together o… |
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Josh Alper, profootballtalk.com The Packers defense got an unexpected opponent on Saturday night when Joe Webb started at quarterback in place of the injured Christian Ponder. Webb’s running skills led the Vikings to run some read-option plays early in the game, something that they do… |
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Vikings' DE Allen set to have first career surgery |
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Frank Schwab, yahoo.com Maybe the Baltimore Ravens should just erase the playbook and draw up different dump-off passes to Ray Rice. Rice, who made perhaps the signature play of the NFL season when he took a checkdown pass from Joe Flacco 29 yards on a fourth down and 29 again… |
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Darin Gantt, profootballtalk.com OK, emotion is all well and good, but at some point somebody’s going to have to play football. The Ravens lead the Colts 10-6 tie at halftime, in a game that somebody’s going to have to win for the right to get shelled by the Broncos next week. Neithe… |
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Sean Newell, deadspin.com A man wearing (only?) a Pittsburgh Pirates hat and gray sweatpants attempted to break into the Steelers locker room at Heinz Field Saturday with a hammer. Security at the stadium noted that he busted a lock at Gate B to gain entry to the stadium and the… |
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Mike Florio, profootballtalk.com So when Chip Kelly returns for the second straight year to Oregon after flirting seriously with the NFL, what will the story be? Will it be that Kelly and his agent, David Dunn, aimed too high and played too shrewdly and failed to get the deal Kelly wan… |
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Associated Press, ESPN.com Ray Lewis began his final playoff run with one last dance in the home of the Baltimore Ravens. |
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Doug Farrar, yahoo.com If Ray Lewis maintains his stance that the 2012 NFL season will be his last, what you're about to see is the last pre-game dance from Lewis as he comes out of the tunnel during a Baltimore Ravens home game. As always, Lewis sent his teammates and the Ra… |
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Frank Schwab, yahoo.com Figuring out who recovered a fumble is one of the more inexact things a NFL official does. Usually, the best approach is to wait to see who comes out with the ball, which basically leads to unspeakable things happening in the pile, but it's better than … |
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Mike Florio, profootballtalk.com Agent Bob LaMonte has been a busy man in recent weeks. And for good reason. With plenty of coaching and executive clients who want to find jobs or upgrade those they have, LaMonte is spinning plenty of plates, while periodically focusing closely on on… |
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Darin Gantt, profootballtalk.com So far, the highlight has been Ray Lewis dancing, and some suspect geography by referee Mike Carey. The Colts and Ravens are still in a scoreless tie, each side offering up a fumble to staff progress. After Ravens running back Ray Rice put one on the gr… |
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Mike Florio, profootballtalk.com The New York Jets could soon have a new General Manager, who may or may not celebrate the move with the addition of a tattoo to his arm. Per Adam Schefter of ESPN, 49ers director of player personnel Tom Gamble has passed on a second interview with the J… |
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Sean Newell, deadspin.com Indianapolis at Baltimore (CBS) 1:00 p.m.: This could be the last time Ray Lewis plays and it will definitely be the last game he plays at home in Baltimore after the Bengals lost yesterday. Depending on your point of view, that is either a good thing, … |
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Colts OC Arians hospitalized, misses game vs. Ravens |
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Sean Newell, deadspin.com Going back to Brian Billick's days in Baltimore, the Ravens have refused to say the word "playoffs." Instead, the team adopted a code word to be used by the entire organization when describing post-season play (and selling merch): Festivus. More » |
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Mike Florio, profootballtalk.com As the Eagles try to close the deal with Oregon coach Chip Kelly, they reportedly are selling potential coach Chip Kelly on the presence of quarterbacks Nick Foles and Mike Vick on the roster. That’s fine, but Vick has no intention or desire to reduce t… |
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Darin Gantt, profootballtalk.com Such that anyone’s going to be healthy this time of year, the Ravens and Colts are entering today’s Wild Card game with well-stocked lineups. Ravens linebackers Ray Lewis and Terrell Suggs will take the field together for the first time all season aft… |
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Brian McIntyre, yahoo.com In what will be his final game in front of the home crowd at M&T Bank Stadium, Baltimore Ravens inside linebacker Ray Lewis is active and will start in Sunday's wild-card playoff game against the Indianapolis Colts. Lewis, who has not played since t… |
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Maggie Hendricks, yahoo.com Lee Valsvik was just doing her job. The reporter for the Minneapolis NBC affiliate was hyping up Saturday night's game between the Minnesota Vikings and Green Bay Packers, and was showing off the rooftop at Union. Easy enough, right? But then her camera… |
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Doug Farrar, yahoo.com There are several great stories surrounding the Indianapolis Colts -- their rebound to an 11-5 season after 2011's 2-14 campaign, the success of first-overall pick Andrew Luck, and the contributions from little-known players and undervalued rookies. But… |
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Michael David Smith, profootballtalk.com One of the most memorable moments from the past season of Hard Knocks came when the Dolphins told cornerback Vontae Davis he was traded to the Colts, prompting Davis to express, in shock, “I need to call my grandma.” We never heard how Davis’s grand… |
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Josh Alper, profootballtalk.com The remarkable story of Chuck Pagano’s first year as Colts head coach adds another chapter with Sunday’s game against the Ravens and the coach took a little time before the game to recognize the team’s fans. Pagano sent an open letter to the Indiana… |
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ESPN.com news services, ESPN.com Dr. James Andrews told USA Today Sports that he didn't clear Robert Griffin III to return for four plays against the Baltimore Ravens on Dec. 9 when he sprained his knee as Mike Shanahan had told reporters after that game. |
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Josh Alper, profootballtalk.com The Falcons find out who they’ll play next week when the Seahawks and Redskins play on Sunday and it looks like their defense will be pretty healthy against either opponent. Cornerback Dunta Robinson was cleared to return from a concussion during the we… |
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Josh Alper, profootballtalk.com The Texans offense didn’t look particularly impressive in Saturday’s 19-13 win over the Bengals, but that isn’t stopping their offensive coordinator from drawing head coaching interest. Adam Schefter of ESPN reports that the Bears have asked for and… |
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Mike Florio, profootballtalk.com As the Jets try to hire a new General Manager, the list of guys who don’t want the job is almost as long as the list of the guys who do. Previously, Tom Heckert and Bill Polian said “thanks” and then “no thanks.” Now, Adam Schefter of ESPN rep… |
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Sean Newell, deadspin.com Everyone in Minnesota was in a frenzy about the Vikings rematch with the rival Packers yesterday. So, local news stations, why not send your reporters to fancy-looking restaurants to see how football-crazy the town is? As Edward R. Murrow said, "On… |
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Doug Farrar, yahoo.com Oregon head coach Chip Kelly has received a great deal of well-deserved praise for his explosive offense, and NFL teams -- starting with the New England Patriots -- have taken notice and are adapting their systems to a rapid-fire set of schemes that all… |
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Mike Florio, profootballtalk.com There’s a sad note this morning in the world of football. Chandler Williams, a seventh-round pick of the Vikings in 2007 and a current member of the Arena Football League’s Tampa Bay Storm, died on Saturday while playing flag football. According to … |
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Josh Alper, profootballtalk.com Is Russ Brandon the right man to bring the Bills back to winning? The Dolphins’ first try for a contract extension for WR Brian Hartline didn’t work out that well. Not much has changed since the Patriots blew out the Texans in the regular season. A vo… |
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Mike Florio, profootballtalk.com It’s widely believed that, if Chip Kelly becomes the next coach of the Browns, the relatively slow-footed Brandon Weeden won’t be the team’s quarterback of the future — or maybe not even of the present. Weeden, we’re told, shares those concerns … |
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Mike Florio, profootballtalk.com Well, at least no one said there was a 95-percent chance that the Browns would hire Chip Kelly. At a time when every report and indication (few if any of which likely were originating with the Browns) suggested that the man whose Oregon teams wore all s… |
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Maggie Hendricks, yahoo.com In four seasons, Green Bay Packers' linebacker has 45 sacks, but the first one he picked up during the Packers 24-10 win over the Minnesota Vikings on Saturday night was the easiest. While attempting to get at Vikings quarterback Joe Webb, Matthews was … |
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NY Jets stuck with Mark Sanchez, and Rex Ryan should be accountable for quarterback's collapseJan 6
The story with the Jets isn’t as much the No. 6 jersey that Rex’s wife is wearing in the tattoo on his upper right arm. The story with the Jets is the guy who actually wears No. 6 for the Jets, and that is Mark Sanchez. |
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Joe Webb played like someone who hadn't played in over a year, says Ben Reiter. The Pack then stymied Adrian Peterson and moved to the divisional round after their 24-10 win. |
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NBC Sports, yahoo.com Rodney Harrison says that the Texans do have a chance to beat the Patriots, but they’re going to have to run the ball 35-40 times to establish the running game and open up play action plays for Matt Schaub. Rodney also likes the Packers next week in the… |
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Maggie Hendricks, yahoo.com Jared Allen played football at Idaho State, but the Minnesota Vikings' defensive end claimed another school before his team's loss to the Green Bay Packers on Saturday night. Allen said his alma mater was the Culinary Academy. He cooked up one sack of P… |
