Last year’s round of gambling suspensions affected a few teams’ starting lineups, but a handful of depth-level players also received significant suspensions for violating the NFL’s betting policy. Five players from this group will have a chance to resume their careers.
The NFL is reinstating Commanders defensive end Shaka Toney, along with veteran special-teamer C.J. Moore, wide receiver Quintez Cephus, linebacker Rashod Berry and defensive lineman Demetrius Taylor. None of the five played last year due to indefinite suspensions that covered at least one season in length. Moore, Cephus, Berry and Taylor are currently free agents.
Cephus, Moore and Toney were part of the initial wave of suspensions — a development headlined by Jameson Williams‘ six-game suspension — last April. Cephus and Moore lost their jobs as a result. Isaiah Rodgers headlined the Colts’ suspensions, but Berry was also banned for at least a season. Indianapolis waived both players. Rodgers, now with the Eagles, has not been reinstated.
The Lions released Moore, a four-year special teams contributor, despite having re-signed him in March 2023. Cephus, who has been a rotational wide receiver under Matt Patricia and Dan Campbell, hit the waiver wire. Of the contingent reinstated Thursday, Cephus has delivered the most early-career production. As a rookie in 2020, the former fifth-round Lions draftee caught 20 passes for 349 yards. He was at 15-204 in 2021, scoring four touchdowns in that span. Cephus, 26, spent much of the 2022 season on IR but had one more season remaining on his rookie deal at the time the Lions cut him.
Drafted in the seventh round during Ron Rivera‘s time with Washington, Toney totaled 1.5 sacks as a rookie but none during a 16-game 2022 season. For his career, Toney has played just 169 defensive snaps. He served as a special teams regular for the Commanders in 2022, however. With Dan Quinn taking over, it is worth wondering if the rebuilding team will keep Toney onboard.
Taylor joined Cephus and Moore in having been with the Lions in 2022. With an apparent communication breakdown transpiring in Detroit, the Lions axed multiple staffers amid this gambling scandal. The NFL tweaked its gambling policy last fall, which allowed for quicker returns for players given a six-game ban for betting on non-NFL games while on team grounds.
This adjustment did not impact the five players reinstated Thursday, as each was popped for betting on NFL games. Rodgers’ betting scheme was quite elaborate, so it will be interesting to see if the league greenlights the young cornerback’s return this year. It appears the Eagles had hoped to see the league reinstate Rodgers today, as the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Jeff McLane indicates they were monitoring today for a potential re-emergence. But Rodgers’ indefinite ban persists.
Whoever that referee was in that Dallas Detroit game should be banned for life for gambling. He rigged a game earlier in the season to with the Eagles and Mia on Sunday night football. Didn’t call a single penalty vs Phil including some blatant ones. Also called penalties on MIA that extended drives that resulted in TDs for Eagles.
Cephus would be a cheap free agent for a WR needy team. If nothing else he would be worth adding to a practice squad.
This is interesting considering the NBA just banned a player for life two days ago for gambling-related offenses. But I guess these guys weren’t betting on their own games, right?
Right, these guys are a very different can of worms. Porter, the guy who got the lifetime ban from the NBA, is a hilariously egregious case. He didn’t just bet on his own games, he bet unders on his own point totals and even went so far as to fake an illness to leave a game and guarantee he hit one. He gambled in the way that could most directly compromise the integrity of his position in the game and he also did it with much larger sums of money than any of these guys or Ridley. All of this also should have made it rather obvious that he would be caught. Porter is truly an all-timer.
Players aren’t allowed to make money gambling, only the league can profit from their deal with the devil.
At least the NFL uses all of that gambling income to raise their salary caps.
wait…
I’ll bet that no one saw this coming…
*knocking sound at my door*
Uh oh…
Goodell: “Gambling threaten the integrity of the game which is why we much rather have signal stealers in the NFL”.