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Uncategorized News & Rumors

Jared Lorenzen Passes Away

July 3rd, 2019 at 4:13pm CST by Andrew Ortenberg

We have sad news today, as former NFL quarterback Jared Lorenzen has tragically passed away at the age of 38. We heard late last week that Lorenzen was battling major health issues, and he unfortunately succumbed to them. The cause of death wasn’t immediately clear, although his family had issued a statement last week saying he was battling kidney and heart problems.

Lorenzen’s family issued a statement through Matt Jones of Kentucky Sports Radio (Twitter link). “It is with heavy hearts that the family of Jared Lorenzen, would like to extend our sincere thanks and appreciation for all of your support and prayers over the past 6 days,” the statement read. “We are deeply saddened to announce the passing of Jared today, July 3, 2019. Again, we appreciate all of the warm wishes and prayers, but as a family, we would request your respect and privacy. We will offer arrangement information in the coming days. Please keep Jared’s family and especially his children, in your thoughts and prayers.”

Lorenzen starred at Kentucky in the early 2000’s, and then signed with the Giants as an undrafted free agent back in 2004. He defied the odds by making the team, and would go on to serve as Eli Manning’s primary backup for a few seasons. Manning was never seriously injured so Lorenzen didn’t see the field too much, but he did win Super Bowl XLII with the team.

Shortly after, the Giants posted a statement to Twitter from Manning. “Jared was a great teammate and friend. We competed against each other in college and came to the Giants together. My thoughts and prayers go out to his family. I will always remember his competitive spirit and his good nature. Jared has left us all way too soon,” Manning said.

Lorenzen became a fan favorite in New York, and the fanbase affectionately gave him the nickname ‘Hefty Lefty.’ After being cut by the Giants he had a brief stint with the Lions, and then spent the next handful of years playing in various indoor football leagues. Lorenzen had been open about his struggles with his weight, admitting in retirement that he weighed as much as 500 pounds at one time.

He had made positive strides in dropping some of the weight, and his journey was chronicled in an ESPN E:60 feature last July. All of us here at PFR send our thoughts and condolences to the Lorenzen family.

 

Trade Rumors App For iOS/Android

July 2nd, 2019 at 11:00am CST by Zachary Links

If you enjoy PFR on your smartphone or tablet then you’ve got to download the free Trade Rumors app!

Trade Rumors, available for iOS and Android, is the best way to consume our content on a mobile device. Here’s what it delivers, all for free:

  • All the articles from Pro Football Rumors, MLB Trade Rumors, Hoops Rumors, and Pro Hockey Rumors in an easy-to-navigate, eye-catching format. Swipe through stories to quickly consume all the news and rumors from our four sites. Not into all four sports? No problem – any sport can be easily removed.
  • Customize what you see. You can create feeds for any team or player across any of our sites.
  • Notifications! For any team or player, you can set up push notifications to ensure you always get breaking news instantly. Notifications can also be set up at the sport level.
  • Commenting! You can now read and contribute comments on the app.
  • Customer service! If you find a bug, we’ll fix it. If you have a feature request, we’ll consider it. The app is continually evolving and improving.
  • Did we mention Trade Rumors is a free app? What do you have to lose? Download now!

Pro Football Rumors On Social Media, RSS

July 1st, 2019 at 3:30pm CST by Zachary Links

The 2019 NFL season is just around the corner! With so many storylines to follow on Pro Football Rumors in the coming weeks and months, you’re going to want to follow us across all social media platforms and on your RSS feed.

You can like us on Facebook, and receive headlines and links for all our posts via your Facebook account. You can also follow us on Twitter to have all our posts and updates sent directly to your Twitter feed. Meanwhile, if you’d like to follow us using your RSS reader of choice, you can find our RSS feed right here.

If you prefer to receive updates only on roster moves such as signings, cuts, and trades, you can follow our transactions-only feeds via RSS and Twitter. And don’t forget to check out our app for iOS and Android, which is available right here.

Trade Rumors App For iOS/Android

June 24th, 2019 at 2:49pm CST by Zachary Links

If you enjoy PFR on your smartphone or tablet then you’ve got to download the free Trade Rumors app!

Trade Rumors, available for iOS and Android, is the best way to consume our content on a mobile device. Here’s what it delivers, all for free:

  • All the articles from Pro Football Rumors, MLB Trade Rumors, Hoops Rumors, and Pro Hockey Rumors in an easy-to-navigate, eye-catching format. Swipe through stories to quickly consume all the news and rumors from our four sites. Not into all four sports? No problem – any sport can be easily removed.
  • Customize what you see. You can create feeds for any team or player across any of our sites.
  • Notifications! For any team or player, you can set up push notifications to ensure you always get breaking news instantly. Notifications can also be set up at the sport level.
  • Commenting! You can now read and contribute comments on the app.
  • Customer service! If you find a bug, we’ll fix it. If you have a feature request, we’ll consider it. The app is continually evolving and improving.
  • Did we mention Trade Rumors is a free app? What do you have to lose? Download now!

NFL Safety Exec Discusses New Initiatives

June 23rd, 2019 at 8:57am CST by Micah Powell

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.

PFR Commenting Policy

June 21st, 2019 at 3:00pm CST by Zachary Links

Comments of this nature are not allowed at Pro Football Rumors:

  • Attacks or insults towards other commenters, the post author, journalists, teams, players, or agents.
  • Inappropriate language, including swearing and related censor bypass attempts, lewdness, insults, and crude terms for body parts, bodily functions, and physical acts. Overall, we don’t want any language that a parent would not want their kid to see.
  • Juvenile comments or extensive use of text message-type spelling.
  • Writing comments in all or mostly caps.
  • Spam-type links or self-promotion.
  • Comments about how you’re sick of this topic or it’s not newsworthy.
  • No inappropriate avatars or images are allowed.
  • Anything else we deem bad for business.

If you see comments that fit the above criteria, please flag them and/or contact us. Bans may be handed out liberally by our moderators, without second chances. Remaining civil is not that difficult though, and most commenters have no problems doing so, as well as helping rein each other in. We are grateful for all of our longtime commenters and readers, though this policy applies equally regardless of tenure. This policy is always available at the bottom of the site, and will be re-posted monthly.

PFR Social Media Feeds By Team

June 19th, 2019 at 10:09am CST by Zachary Links

We’ve detailed how you can follow Pro Football Rumors on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, or using an RSS reader to ensure that you receive all of our updates, 365 days a year. If you prefer to only receive news about your favorite NFL team, PFR has you covered. Below are links to our Facebook, Twitter, and RSS pages and feeds for all 32 teams.

AFC East

AFC North

AFC South

AFC West

NFC East

NFC North

NFC South

NFC West

Transactions only: Twitter / RSS

49ers Notes: Verrett, Front Office, Taylor

June 15th, 2019 at 6:26pm CST by Andrew Ortenberg

Jason Verrett has had a long road. Ever since the 2014 first round pick debuted with the Chargers, it’s been clear he has a ton of talent. In 2015 he had a breakout sophomore season and made the Pro Bowl, but unfortunately that’s the only year he’s been able to stay healthy. In his other four years in the league, he’s only played in 11 total games. Most recently, he missed the entire 2018 campaign with a torn Achilles. Verrett said earlier this offseason he was in a “dark place” after his most recent injury and that the contemplated retirement, but the cornerback ended up signing a one-year, $3.6MM deal with the 49ers.

San Francisco is understandably taking it slowly with him, but he appears to be making some progress. Verrett said recently that he’s “on track to be ready for training camp,” per Jennifer Lee Chan of NBC Sports. Verrett has played at an elite level in the past, but it’s unclear what he’ll look like in 2019 after all the injuries. If he can get back to anywhere close to his 2015 self, he’ll be a huge addition for a 49ers secondary that struggled mightily last year.

Here’s more from San Francisco:

  • The 49ers made a historic promotion earlier this week, elevating Salli Clavelle to the role of pro personnel analyst, per Matt Maioccio of NBC Sports. Clavelle is the league’s only woman who holds a full-time scouting job. Maioccio also has updates on a handful of other moves the 49ers made in their scouting department, including hiring Steve Slowik away from Pro Football Focus to be a scouting assistant.
  • The 49ers have receivers Deebo Samuel, Dante Pettis, and Marquise Goodwin all playing on the outside, but they’ve got an interesting battle going on for their starting slot receiver job. In a separate piece, Maioccio writes that “Trent Taylor clearly created separation against Richie James,” for the role, and that Taylor has “created a nice rapport with [Jimmy] Garoppolo.” Taylor, a fifth round pick in 2017, had a promising rookie season but a disappointing 2018. Now fully healthy after back surgery limited him last offseason, it sounds like he could be in for a bounce back year.

Raiders Notes: Hard Knocks, Incognito, Moreau

June 11th, 2019 at 9:06pm CST by Micah Powell

The Raiders will be the team featured in the HBO documentary series Hard Knocks in 2019, ESPN’s Adam Schefter tweets. Oakland was selected over other eligible teams that included the 49ers, Lions, Giants and Redskins.

When asked about the prospect of Hard Knocks being a part of training camp in March, Raiders owner Mark Davis voiced his displeasure by joking he’d rather fire head coach Jon Gruden than have the show follow them around. That tune was reversed in a statement on Tuesday, in which Davis said, “Everybody wants to be a Raider. Now they’ll find out what it takes to become one.”

The Raiders seemed like an obvious choice for the show thanks to the multitude of storylines surround the team this offseason. First, there is the team’s upcoming move to Las Vegas which will make this the last training camp as the Oakland Raiders. Second, there is the big-name addition of receiver Antonio Brown, who mades headlines throughout the offseason with his feud with his former team the Steelers. Throw in the recent signings of Richie Incognito, who’s had multiple run-ins with teammates and the authorities, and linebacker Vontaze Burfict, voted the league’s dirtiest player, add to the long list of made-for-TV characters.

The show, which has run for 13 seasons with HBO, will premiere in August.

Here’s more from the Raiders:

  • Speaking of Incognito, the veteran guard has received plenty of work with the first team as left guard Denzelle Good has not been on the field for minicamp, the Las Vegas Review Journal’s Michael Gehlken tweets. Gehlken notes the left guard appears doubtful too see action before training camp begins.
  • Fourth-round pick Foster Moreau will have a chance to compete for “serious playing time” when training camp arrives, the Oakland Tribune’s Jerry McDonald tweets. The athletic tight end from LSU will be competing with Darren Waller for playing time at the tight end position.

Trade Rumors App For iOS/Android

June 6th, 2019 at 12:25pm CST by Zachary Links

If you enjoy PFR on your smartphone or tablet then you’ve got to download the free Trade Rumors app!

Trade Rumors, available for iOS and Android, is the best way to consume our content on a mobile device. Here’s what it delivers, all for free:

  • All the articles from Pro Football Rumors, MLB Trade Rumors, Hoops Rumors, and Pro Hockey Rumors in an easy-to-navigate, eye-catching format. Swipe through stories to quickly consume all the news and rumors from our four sites. Not into all four sports? No problem – any sport can be easily removed.
  • Customize what you see. You can create feeds for any team or player across any of our sites.
  • Notifications! For any team or player, you can set up push notifications to ensure you always get breaking news instantly. Notifications can also be set up at the sport level.
  • Commenting! You can now read and contribute comments on the app.
  • Customer service! If you find a bug, we’ll fix it. If you have a feature request, we’ll consider it. The app is continually evolving and improving.
  • Did we mention Trade Rumors is a free app? What do you have to lose? Download now!
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