There’s still no movement toward a deal between the Rams and cornerback Trumaine Johnson, per ESPN.com’s Alden Gonzalez, who’s the latest to report that he’ll play 2017 under the franchise tag. Yahoo Sports’ Charles Robinson relayed earlier this week that no agreement would come to fruition by Monday’s deadline, meaning Johnson will play the season as the NFL’s highest-paid corner. Johnson will earn $16.742MM in his second straight year as the Rams’ franchise player, and the likelihood is that he’ll test the free agent market next offseason. Tagging him again isn’t going to happen because doing so would cost the Rams $24.1MM.
Elsewhere around the NFC…
- The NFL needs to make a decision on whether to suspend Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott as soon as possible, opines Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk. In doing so, he league would ensure that the internal appeals process would be resolved by Week 1, reasons Florio. Elliott is bracing for a season-opening ban, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN, and Florio wonders if the league leaked that information to Schefter in order to gauge the opinions of both the public and Jerry Jones. The Cowboys owner has made it known to NFL higher-ups that he won’t react kindly if the league suspends one of his stars without ample justification, reports Florio. Given the power Jones has, the NFL “needs to placate” him, writes Florio; at the same time, the league’s also in a difficult situation because it can’t afford to screw up another ruling involving domestic violence.
- The Eagles want to “take a little bit off” second-year quarterback Carson Wentz‘s plate this season, head coach Doug Pederson told Comcast SportsNet’s John Clark this week (via Reuben Frank of CSNPhilly.com). Pederson believes that the offseason additions of wide receivers Alshon Jeffery and Torrey Smith and running back LeGarrette Blount should make life easier for Wentz, who didn’t have enough help at the skill positions last season and attempted 607 passes – the second-highest rookie total in NFL history, notes Frank. “Everything doesn’t have to fall on Carson’s shoulders and I think sometimes a little bit last year he felt that way and things had to fall his way a little bit to make a play and I don’t think we have to do that this year,” said Pederson.
- Redskins safety DeAngelo Hall agreed to a pay cut last month, but he’ll still enter training camp in danger of losing his roster spot, suggests Rich Tandler of CSN Mid-Atlantic. A couple of other veteran safeties, Will Blackmon and Josh Evans, are also on the bubble, per Tandler. Injuries limited Hall to just 17 games over the previous three seasons, including a mere three in 2016. Conversely, staying healthy hasn’t been a problem for the 32-year-old Blackmon, who has made 30 of 32 appearances and logged 16 starts since joining the Redskins prior to 2015. Evans, a regular for the Jaguars from 2013-15, was on and off Washington’s roster last year and only played two games.
At first I was peeved at the NFL for dragging their feet and the possibility that Elliott will be suspended when the judicial system hasn’t found him guilty of anything.
Then I thought back to Raffy Palmerio waving his finger to Congress saying he was innocent. Then I thought of Lance Armstrong. And Sammy Sosa, and Bonds, and A-Rod. Then Tiger Woods. Ben Johnson And Shawn Merriman. And so many other sports players that ended up being guilty when lots of us initially thought otherwise.
florio is an idiot
Is a privilege, not a right, to play in the NFL. Regardless of criminal actions, if I bring bad publicity to my employer or act in a way that would put them in a bad light, I am subject to disciplinary action. The same thing goes for those in the NFL.
Falls under the DAU rule….. Dumbys are Us !
First off, it isn’t a right or a privilege to play in the NFL. It’s a vocation. Players are there because they are good at football. And football is there because it makes a LOT of money for the brass that sells it to us. That players are expected to be “model citizens” is unrealistic and not comparable to labor and employment law on other professions. Roger Goodell and company taking pay from these players without real due process is un-American and absurd.
That being said, Elliot sounds like a crud and domestic violence is seriously a heinous and cowardly crime. The fact that Jerry Jones and the Cowboys influence is being gauged in light of this incident is just another indication and example of the hypocrisy and wanton disregard that the NFL has for anything but making more money.
You just went out of your to explain football is a job and then in the same breath say it isn’t. This is very simple. A said player is being paid a lot of money to play a game on a very large scale where many people watch. In that context, the employer has every right to expect the player to be an upright citizen. Only a select few are gifted enough to play, so yes the league should be allowed to allocate fines and banes to get the players in line of ones expectations.
Football player or athlete is a vocation, having the opportunity to do it in the NFL is a privilege. They aren’t expected to be model citizens, just law abiding citizens and not the thugs and scumbags that Goodell has tried to prevent from embarrassing the shield. Not being a thug is not unrealistic, the vast majority of those also having the privilege of working their vocation at the highest level seem to do it just fine.
But you’re asking an organization in the NFL that would screw up a game of pick up sticks to make a judgement call that has taken them a year to figure out. The league has lost every degree of credibility it has and a suspension would just enhance the need for Goodell’s termination of employment. All I want to see is proof. Cause from the outside it appears what Elliott is truly guilty of here is making a poor choice in acquaintances seeing as the legal system has already caught this woman in a lie with eye witness accounts to support Elliott’s side of things.