Here’s the latest from around the league, beginning with two Southern California training camp teams who aren’t jumping at the chance to reconvene for joint practices.
- Despite the teams now training near Los Angeles, Cowboys and Rams aren’t planning to partake in another training camp scrimmage due to the brawl that occurred last year when the teams had joint practices in Oxnard, Calif., Clarence Hill of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports. The Rams will be training at UC-Irvine this year, but Jason Garrett hasn’t engaged in any discussions on bringing the teams together again.
- The Bills expect clarity on Percy Harvin‘s health status in the ensuing two weeks, Tyler Dunne of the Buffalo News reports. Doug Whaley and Rex Ryan are open to the UFA returning despite Buffalo’s $6.9MM left in cap space. Harvin, whose troublesome hip issues ended up sidelining him for the season last November, would have to compete with newly signed Leonard Hankerson and players like Olympic long jump hopeful Marquise Goodwin for the Bills’ No. 3 receiver spot, however, and do so having missed 36 games over the past four seasons.
- An NFC personnel man rates Arkansas’ Hunter Henry as the most complete tight end to be available in the draft in a long time, Mark Eckel of NJ.com reports. The unidentified evaluator sees Henry as a fit with the Jets, whose tight ends caught just eight passes last season after Jace Amaro missed the year with an injury. “I never liked Amaro,” the personnel man told Eckel. “(Hunter) is tons better than Amaro. Where do I see him going? That’s a tough question. (No. 20) might be a little soon, but he’s a first rounder. He’s definitely a first-rounder.”
- Dee Ford figures to have a bigger role with the Chiefs in his third season. How much bigger will likely be determined by Justin Houston‘s health. John Dorsey and Andy Reid saw flashes of brilliance, per Terez Paylor of the Kansas City Star, with Reid saying one of last season’s takeaways was finding out that Ford was “a pretty good football player.” The player who would be opposite Ford in a Houston-less look, Tamba Hali, believes the third-year player — who has been mostly buried behind Houston and Hali in his two seasons — needs to develop further mentally. “If I had to speak for him, I would like for him to take the next step in being a professional … basically (the reason) why they drafted him here is to take over the (starting) role. The season’s too long for me to focus on being a starter or a backup,” Hali said. “I think he’s in the position where he can kind of take the torch and go forward. That’s really mental; physically, the kid is gifted and he has it. But mentally we have to just make sure that he understands why we’re in this building and what needs to be done while we’re here.”
- Former Ravens defensive tackle Terrence Cody has been handed a nine-month sentence in his animal cruelty case, as Pat Warren of CBS Baltimore writes. Cody was found guilty of negligence in the death of his canary mastiff who was starved to death. However, he was not found guilty of felony animal abuse because the court did not find his actions intentional, according to his lawyer. PETA issued a statement following the sentencing and implored the NFL to do more to combat animal abuse amongst its players.
Zach Links contributed to this report
I always love these football players acting like what they do is rocket science. If he’s lazy, say he’s lazy. Don’t use all this code and stuff about “understanding why we’re in the building” and other such nonsense to say he needs to work harder.