HEADLINES

Month: September 2024

Extra Points: 49ers, Hurts, Gase

November 29th, 2020 at 8:22pm CST by Andrew Ortenberg

The 49ers picked up a huge win over the Rams on Sunday, but they were dealt an unexpected blow earlier this week when Santa Clara County officials suddenly announced they wouldn’t be allowed to practice or play in their stadium moving forward. That’s left the 49ers reeling, with little time to formulate a backup plan. Speaking after the game, head coach Kyle Shanahan said it was “extremely disappointing” that the team wasn’t given any advanced notice, and said “we’re working our tail off” to find new accommodations. As of right now the “most likely” option is for the 49ers to play their remaining home games at the Cardinals’ stadium, sources told Ian Rapoport of NFL.com.

Their division rivals are apparently willing to lend a helping hand to the 49ers. Rapoport also writes that a stadium in Texas is another option, although the NFL would prefer them to play at an NFL arena. The question would then turn into what the team will do for a living situation. Rapoport writes that it’s possible the team just stays in Arizona and lives out of hotels in the area, forming a bubble of sorts. It’s a tough situation that will put 5-6 San Fran at a competitive disadvantage for the rest of the year. We’ll update whenever a plan is officially ironed out.

Here’s more from around the league:

  • Eagles fans that have been clamoring for more Jalen Hurts are about to get their wish. Philly is expected to give Hurts his most extensive playing time of the season, including plays where Carson Wentz isn’t on the field, for their Monday night game against the Seahawks, Rapoport writes. Rapsheet says it’s unlikely he’ll get a full series, but to expect to see him for two or three plays at a time. Philly inflicted this quarterback controversy upon themselves by drafting Hurts in the second-round back in April. Wentz, of course, has been mostly awful this season. He’s still owed over $50MM in guaranteed money over the next two seasons, but it sounds like things could finally be trending toward a benching if he doesn’t get things turned around soon. Either way, it’ll be very interesting to see how Hurts looks on MNF.
  •  The Jets continued their march toward a potential winless season with a defeat at the hands of the Dolphins. 0-11 aside, there’s now a minor controversy over who is calling the plays in New York. Before the game, Chris Mortensen of ESPN.com tweeted that Adam Gase would re-take play calling duties from offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains. But after the game, Gase insisted he wasn’t calling the plays. Reporters pressed Gase on it, claiming Loggains looked like he was doing nothing on the sidelines and that Gase was the one talking. Gase then claimed Loggains would talk to him before the drive about what plays to call, then conceded he was calling the plays for third downs and two-minute drills. Sam Darnold said after the game that it was Gase’s voice in his helmet telling him the plays. It’s another bizarre situation, but one that is pretty much par for the course for this 2020 Jets campaign.

AFC North Notes: Ravens, Conner, Steelers

November 29th, 2020 at 6:54pm CST by Andrew Ortenberg

We learned that Ravens tight end Mark Andrews was the latest member of Baltimore’s organization to test positive for COVID-19 in yesterday’s round, and there apparently were more this morning. There were multiple player/staff positives in Sunday’s round of testing, a source told Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com. At least one of those positives was receiver Willie Snead, Jamison Hensley of The Athletic tweets. As he notes, Snead is the seventh offensive starter to test positive, and there have now been eight consecutive days with a positive test within the team.

Florio writes that it’s believed the league will opine these positives are a result of the “tail end” of the outbreak, and that Tuesday’s game against the Steelers is still on for now. Meanwhile the Ravens are planning on convening at their facility tonight in order to condition and then have a walkthrough tomorrow, Jay Glazer of Fox Sports tweets. He notes that all work will be done on outdoor fields and players won’t be allowed inside the locker room.

Here’s more from the AFC North:

  • While the Ravens have obviously had it worse, the Steelers have also had their fair share of COVID-19 issues as they approach Tuesday night. Pittsburgh will be without both special teams coordinator Danny Smith and quarterbacks coach Matt Canada due to illnesses, Brooke Pryor of ESPN tweets. Canada plays a pretty large role in the offensive game-planning, so that’s a significant loss.
  • Pivoting away from COVID news for a moment, the Steelers have some big question marks to address this offseason. One of those is what to do with running back James Conner, who is set to be a free agent. His production has declined since his breakout 2018 campaign, and he’s also dealt with frequent nagging injuries. With those issues, Mark Kaboly of The Athletic writes that he “can’t imagine” Conner getting brought back on anything more than a one-year, prove-it deal. Kaboly thinks the team is grooming Benny Snell to potentially take over for Conner. The Pittsburgh product recently tested positive for COVID-19 himself, which obviously won’t help with his next contract. He’s shown flashes of being a potential featured back, and it’ll be very interesting to see what the market for him looks like. It’s very possible he’s not back with the Steelers in 2021.

Daniel Jones To Miss Time?

November 29th, 2020 at 5:46pm CST by Andrew Ortenberg

The Giants are in the lead in the NFC East thanks to a tiebreaker over Washington, but they picked up a big injury during Sunday’s win over the Bengals when starting quarterback Daniel Jones went down.

Jones has a hamstring injury that is believed to be “pretty bad,” a source told Jordan Raanan of ESPN.com. Raanan adds that it could force him to miss some time, and if it’s actually “pretty bad,” that would almost certainly be the case. Jones will go for an MRI on Monday that will tell the full story. A hamstring injury is especially tough for Jones since his mobility is a huge part of his game.

The Giants have frequently used his legs to help spark the offense this season, and he already has 403 rushing yards on the year. He’s been active as a runner in pretty much every game, and his passing numbers would likely look a lot worse if he didn’t have that scrambling ability. The second-year pro struggled mightily early in the year but had been a bit better recently, with no interceptions in his past three games.

The sixth overall pick of the 2019 draft has eight touchdowns and nine picks through the air. If he has to miss any games, Colt McCoy will take over as the starter. He’s in his first year with the team and doesn’t have much of a relationship with OC Jason Garrett, so things could get rough. New York has a tough schedule coming up, including a trip to Seattle to take on the Seahawks next week. We’ll keep you posted once we hear more on the situation.

Jaguars Fire GM Dave Caldwell

November 29th, 2020 at 4:32pm CST by Andrew Ortenberg

After another loss dropped them to 1-10, the Jaguars are making a major shakeup. Jacksonville has fired general manager Dave Caldwell, sources told Adam Schefter of ESPN.com (Twitter link).

It looked for a while like the Jags were just going to ride out this lost season before making any big changes, but obviously owner Shad Khan felt like he couldn’t wait any longer. Just about everybody has assumed head coach Doug Marrone is a lame-duck coach waiting to get fired at the end of the season, so it’s interesting he wasn’t let go here at the same time like we saw with Matt Patricia and Bob Quinn yesterday. It’s the end of a long run for Caldwell, as he was in his eighth season with the team.

Caldwell broke into the league as a scouting assistant with the Panthers in 1996, then spent ten years as a scout with the Colts. From there he moved on to the Falcons, becoming their director of player personnel in 2012. After just one year in that role, he was poached away to lead Jacksonville’s front office. Khan released a statement politely thanking Caldwell for his time with the team but acknowledging the need for new leadership, which you can read in full via this tweet from Ian Rapoport of NFL Network. Rapsheet also notes that Trent Baalke will take over as interim GM for the rest of the season.

Baalke spent six seasons as the 49ers’ GM from 2011-16 before becoming the Jags’ personnel director back in February. Atlanta, Detroit, and Houston had already fired their GMs in-season, leaving a number of front office head openings around the league.

Caldwell certainly had an interesting tenure with the team. After his hire of Gus Bradley and drafting of Blake Bortles didn’t work out, he was essentially demoted as the team hired Tom Coughlin to run its football ops. Then after a pretty disastrous run which saw most of the star talent get traded away, like Jalen Ramsey, Coughlin himself was fired and Caldwell re-emerged with more power.

Jacksonville was never going to win anything this year with their stripped down roster, and it’s likely Khan was planning for a full-blown house cleaning for 2021 all along. Meanwhile Rapoport tweets that Khan told Marrone after the game he and the rest of his staff are safe through the rest of the season. Caldwell deserves a lot of criticism, but he’ll leave the next GM with an enviable bounty of draft picks.

The Jags had two first-rounders this past April, and they’ll have two picks in the first and second rounds in 2021. They’re entering yet another rebuild, but there could be some light at the end of the tunnel. Priority number one for the new regime will be finding a franchise quarterback, as the current trio of Gardner Minshew, Jake Luton, and Mike Glennon obviously aren’t cutting it.

Ravens’ Mark Andrews Tests Positive For COVID-19

November 29th, 2020 at 11:36am CST by Zachary Links

Ravens tight end Mark Andrews has tested positive for COVID-19, as Adam Schefter of ESPN.com tweets. Andrews, a Type 1 diabetic with elevated risk, has ben ruled out for Tuesday night’s game against the Steelers. 

Andrews is now the eleventh Ravens player to test positive for COVID-19 and the 20th player to hit the reserve list, which also includes players who have been exposed to the virus. In addition, ten Ravens staffers have tested positive, putting the team under a great deal of scrutiny. For now, the plan remains for the game to be played on Tuesday, according to Jay Glazer of FOX Sports (on Twitter). The Ravens intend to have their players return to the facility on Sunday night for conditioning, marking their first in-person gathering in days.

The league already postponed this game twice. A third postponement may lead the league to one of their two contingency plans — either rescheduling to “Week 18” or, if there are more cancelations, a historic 16-team playoff bracket.

Broncos WR Kendall Hinton To Start At QB

November 29th, 2020 at 11:24am CST by Zachary Links

All four of the Broncos’ quarterbacks have been ruled out for today’s game, putting the team in a truly unprecedented situation. With no other options available, wide receiver Kendall Hinton will be elevated from the practice squad and put under center against the Saints.

[RELATED: Broncos Lose All 4 QBs]

According to NFL.com’s James Palmer (on Twitter), there are people in the Broncos’ facility who have never even met Hinton. For those who are unfamiliar with Hinton — inside and outside of Denver headquarters — he’s a Wake Forest product who started out as a dual-threat QB for the Demon Deacons. Then, when an ankle injury and a suspension took him out of the equation, he converted to wide receiver. Hinton topped 1,000 yards in his senior season, leading him to a UDFA deal with the Broncos earlier this year.

Hinton hasn’t played QB in a long time and he reportedly hasn’t practiced as a passer in years. Still, he represents the Broncos’ only real option today. He’ll be backstopped by running back/emergency QB Royce Freeman, who attempted just one pass in four seasons at Oregon.

Falcons’ Julio Jones Ruled Out Vs. Raiders

November 29th, 2020 at 11:13am CST by Zachary Links

Julio Jones has been ruled out for today’s game against the Raiders, the Falcons announced. The wide receiver was forced out of last week’s game against the Saints with tightness in his left hamstring and his condition has not gotten much better. 

The Falcons are 3-7 heading into today’s contest, so they don’t have much on the line for the rest of this year. Many would argue that there’s little sense in rushing Jones back to the field this year, but they’d have a hard time convincing the veteran to sit out. The Falcons will have a chance to avenge their 24-9 loss to the Saints next week and Jones will surely be chomping at the bit.

Jones, 31, has caught 45 passes for 677 yards and three touchdowns across eight games this season. It’s a far cry from his usual stat line, though we’ve seen glimpses of Jones at his best. In the season opener, Jones managed nine grabs for 157 yards in a losing effort against the Seahawks. And, just a few weeks ago, Jones went off for seven catches and 137 yards as the Falcons topped the Panthers.

The Falcons have Jones under contract through 2023 thanks to the three-year, $66MM re-up he signed last year.

Dolphins’ Tua Tagovailoa To Miss Time

November 29th, 2020 at 11:01am CST by Zachary Links

Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa has been ruled out for today’s game against the Jets. Although scans on his thumb did not reveal a fracture, he has a good deal of swelling and weakness that could sideline him for multiple weeks (Twitter link via NFL.com’s Mike Garafolo). 

Ryan Fitzpatrick will take over for the rookie, who saw his honeymoon end last week against the Broncos. Tagovailoa struggled mightily and, according to head coach Brian Flores, was benched for performance rather than an injury. Still, the No. 5 overall pick was set to start against the Jets today, up until the injury took him out of the equation.

Tagovailoa completed 11 of his 20 passes for just 83 yards last week before Fitzmagic took over. The Dolphins went on to lose, snapping their five-game winning streak. Before the rough outing against Denver, Tagovailoa had thrown for five touchdowns and no interceptions across three victorious starts.

The Dolphins are 6-4 heading into today’s game against the 0-10 Jets. If Tagovailoa needs extra time to heal up, Fitzmagic will be slated to start against the Bengals and Chiefs as the Dolphins make their playoff push.

All Broncos QBs Ineligible For Week 12

November 28th, 2020 at 5:10pm CST by Sam Robinson

The Broncos and the NFL have run into a significant problem. Jeff Driskel‘s positive COVID-19 test earlier this week will lead to an unprecedented situation.

None of the Broncos’ three other QBs will be eligible to play Sunday, Adam Schefter of ESPN.com tweets. Drew Lock, Brett Rypien and Blake Bortles have been deemed high-risk close contacts of Driskel. The NFL forced the Broncos to pull the three passers out of practice earlier today, Mike Klis of 9News tweets.

With the Broncos having no available QBs, this certainly puts the viability of Sunday’s Denver-New Orleans game in doubt. However, this game is still on schedule for Sunday, NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport tweets. This seems like a tenuous proposition, but as of now, the Broncos would be forced to deploy a true emergency quarterback. They cannot sign any free agent passer to play Sunday, due to COVID-19 protocols.

Driskel’s Thursday positive test coincided with his three non-infected teammates not wearing masks, Schefter adds (on Twitter). It is not known how long the trio went without masks, but it was evidently long enough for the NFL to sideline an entire team’s QB room. The Patriots saw Cam Newton sidelined because of the virus earlier this season, and COVID-positive Lamar Jackson will miss Tuesday’s Ravens-Steelers game — should it stay on as scheduled. But the Broncos’ predicament drags the NFL into new territory regarding the virus.

The Broncos have a wide receiver on their practice squad, Kendall Hinton, who played quarterback at Wake Forest for three seasons, Klis adds (on Twitter). Quality control coach Rob Calabrese worked in that role at practice Saturday, Klis tweets. Hinton attempted 251 career passes with the Demon Deacons, though most of them came in 2015. He ran for 390 yards and seven TDs that season.

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