The Jaguars suspended cornerback Jalen Ramsey for a week of preseason action, but the ban won’t void his guarantees, according to Mike Florio of PFT (on Twitter). That’s because the Jags suspended Ramsey for “violating team rules and conduct unbecoming of a Jaguars football player,” rather than “conduct detrimental.” The small difference in language made a huge difference in the outcome for Ramsey, and probably kept the team on good terms with one of its defensive stars.
Unfortunately, there’s no loophole to help defensive end Dante Fowler Jr. Thanks to a previous suspension under the personal conduct policy, Fowler’s future guarantees have already been eliminated.
Here’s more from the AFC:
- Jets linebacker Lorenzo Mauldin will miss another week with a hamstring injury, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets. Mauldin will wind up missing the first two preseason games of the year, and that’s a bad sign for his odds of making the roster. Over the weekend, we heard that the former third-round pick could be released sooner rather than later.
- Can wide receiver Eric Decker make the Patriots’ 53-man roster cut? Right now, Doug Kyed of NESN.com doesn’t think so. So far, Decker has yet to impress, and Kyed sees him missing the cut along with Braxton Berrios. Kyed projects that the Pats will keep the following five receivers, in addition to the suspended Julian Edelman: Chris Hogan, Kenny Britt, Phillip Dorsett, Cordarrelle Patterson, and Matt Slater.
- Last week, the Patriots sweetened Tom Brady‘s contract.
So by getting a suspension a player can lose all of their guaranteed money?
Yes. Its a big thing that is thrown into a lot of contracts and is usually the biggest holdup when rookies are negotiating their contracts. Usually the language pertains to a suspension but there are more and more contracts that have language in it that allows teams to take away the guaranteed money if they get fined multiple times for on-field offenses or if the player is deemed to speak badly about his team (which could be as minor as saying the playcalling is bad/could be better or as major as actually speaking badly about teammates or coaches). Roquan Smith has yet to sign his contract because the Bears are insistent on including language that would allow them to take away his guarantees if he gets fined multiple times for on-field penalties (such as the new helmet rule).
These contract adjustments for suspensions are great. The NFL has players suspended every day. The only way to make players stop acting like derelicts is to hit them in the guaranteed money.