Uncategorized News & Rumors

Donald Penn is officially a member of the Redskins. On Friday, we learned the details of his deal, courtesy of NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport (on Twitter). 

[RELATED: 4 Potential Landing Spots For Trent Williams]

If Penn is the starting left tackle for the Redskins, he can make $5.03MM in 2019, according to RapSheet. The deal’s $250K signing bonus, meanwhile, represents the only guarantee in the deal.

Beyond that, the veteran will also receive a base salary of $1.03MM, 46-man active roster bonuses worth $750K, and incentives that can net him $3MM more.

There’s a clear opportunity for Penn to play, start, and show that he’s still a top-tier lineman. Redskins notable Trent Williams is still holding out from the club, and the Redskins are already exploring possible trades. The Patriots have been heavily connected to Williams and the Bengals would also be a logical fit.

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In the fall, the NFL will open its inaugural football academy in London, serving 80 players ages 16 to 18 in the England capital, the Associated Press reports.

“In the last two or three years, this has been about, whilst being quintessentially American, could we be more British (and) locally relevant?” said NFL UK managing director Alistair Kirkwood. “(Can we) have grassroots and a commitment to having British players who look like you and talk like you, and then at the same time have younger kids playing the game right down to flag football?”

Similar to soccer clubs overseas, which cultivate talent at a young age through their academies, the NFL will accomplish a similar goal while growing the sport outside the United States. While it will initially be open to 16 to 18-year-olds, the program, if successful, could look to target other age groups and girls in the future.

More than 1,500 individuals applied for the program, with 150 finalists already picked. That number will be whittled down to 80 before the academy begins.

The league has been looking to expand its fanbase to Europe for years now and this looks to be the next step in that process. The NFL has been playing games regularly in London since 2007, and the new Tottenham Hotspur Stadium that opened in April has a retractable field suitable for American football games going forward.

The NBA found success with its Basketball Without Borders program, and the NFL will look to find similar success at cultivating talent with this new endeavor.

Today, we celebrate the Fourth of July, the anniversary of the United States’ Declaration of Independence from the rule of the British monarchy. It’s a day for picnics, barbecues, fireworks, parades, pool parties, and talking about football, among other things. It’s a day off from work (er, for most of us), and that includes just about everyone in the football world. 

For those of you who are perusing Pro Football Rumors in between burger flips and cannonballs, we’d like to wish you a happy Fourth of July! And, to our international readers: Stay tuned, because the NFL’s offseason calendar will quickly pick up steam.

Today might not bring us news of record-breaking extensions or big-ticket signings, but July will feature plenty of breaking news and insightful analysis on PFR. Remember, we’re just 63 days away from a brand new NFL season.

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Among the safety initiatives coming to the NFL this season include safer helmets and cleats, the banning of some practice drills and the elimination of blindside blocks to any part of a defender’s body. The NFL’s executive vice president of health and safety initiatives, Jeff Miller, discussed these changes in an interview with the Toronto Sun’s John Kryk.

In regards to helmets, the NFL ranked the brands of helmets and gave them ratings from green (safest) to red (least safe). Those 11 helmet models that received a red listing were banned for the 2019 season. In 2018, less than 40 players wore a red helmet while 74 percent were in greens, according to Kryk.

“It is one of the pillars of our 2019 concussion-reduction strategy — to move the 26% of the league’s players still wearing either yellow or red helmets into green,” Miller said. “We know that 32 players who were in the red have to move into the better-performing helmets, but we’re also spending time and effort with the clubs to get those who were in yellow into green, because those are the helmets that test best in the laboratory, and there is a correlation with how those performed on the field.”

Miller also said that the punt has become the play with the highest rate of injuries. To help reduce that rate, the NFL is instituting a ban on the blindside block.

“We shared this information with the competition committee, and they came back and not only eliminated blind-side blocks, and broadened the (offending action) on the punt, but also prohibited the blind-side block on all other plays.”

Miller also discussed at length the banning of drills, such as the Oklahoma drill, in practices and a similar rating system for cleats that it already uses on helmets.