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And obviously, the Panthers and Texans already played.
Tom Brady continues to rail against certain aspects of the NFL evolution he's experienced throughout his 22-year career.
Before the 2021 season, Brady noted how penalties on the defense have allowed offenses to get away with mistakes -- this take was swiftly painted over by TB12's complaints about single-digit number changes. During this week's edition of SiriusXM NFL Radio's "Let's Go!" Brady discussed the evolution of quarterbacks and how a "softer" league has allowed for more running QBs. "I think there's probably a lot of shortsightedness," Brady said, via Pro Football Talk. "You know, when I hear that a lot, because I've heard over the years, you know, 'Oh, the game is changing,' and so forth. I think the game changes in different ways, absolutely. It evolves and changes and grows and hopefully it's getting better. And at the same time I think that there has always been, you know, incredible athletes playing professional football at the quarterback position. Randall Cunningham was an incredible athlete. Kenny Stabler was an incredible quarterback. Roger Staubach was. Michael Vick, I mean, I don't know if there's anyone more athletic that's ever played than Michael Vick. ... I think it definitely adds an element to the game. "But at the same time, the name of the game is scoring points. So there's definitely more volatility, I would say, in that style of play over a period of time. You're definitely more injury prone because you're out of the pocket. You don't have the types of protection that you typically have in the pocket. And I would say the one thing that's probably changed over the years in terms of why it's probably gone a little more this way is, and I've alluded to this in the past, I think they're calling more penalties on defensive players for hitting, you know, for violent contact. And I think when you're out of the pocket, you know, we got called on a play yesterday where Ryan Jensen's going basically to protect our runner, and they throw an unnecessary roughness on an offensive lineman that I don't think would have been called, you know, five years ago. There's a lot of plays and hits that are happening on quarterbacks now, that are flags for defensive players, that probably weren't that way 10 or 15 years ago. "So I'd say the game is a little softer than it used to be. I think the defensive players are more on the defensive when they go in to tackle. And I think that's probably adding to this element of quarterbacks outside the pocket and taking more chances, you know, than they did in the past." Certainly, protections for QBs have helped allow for an evolution. But the 44-year-old Brady also benefits from those rule changes. Former signal-callers like Kurt Warner have said for years that he might have played into his 40s if afforded the same protections Brady enjoys today. There are many layers to the "softer" discussion, from concussion issues to player safety. Also, the proliferation of running quarterbacks stems from a willingness of coaches to embrace different offensive concepts, and those signal-callers are getting a chance to play the position growing up and through college -- as opposed to constantly being funneled to WR, RB or CB. There's also the fact that "softer" doesn't necessarily mean worse. There are currently more good young QBs than any other time in NFL history, which Brady noticed earlier this season. Keeping these faces of the league healthy is priority No. 1, as it should be, regardless of some seeing those motives as "soft." My thoughts: Randall Cunningham was the man and Mike were magic. If they had the current protections their careers would have been much longer and even more productive than they were. It is a simple truth that it is almost impossible to actually play defense these days and that low scoring is more often attributed to bad work by the offense than a defense being able to totally shut someone down. The Browns didn’t agree with officials’ decision not to eject Chiefs assistant coach Greg Lewis. It’s a given they aren’t going to agree with the NFL’s decision not to fine the running backs coach.
The NFL fined Browns safety Ronnie Harrison $12,128 for his part in a sideline altercation with Hill. Hill received only a warning, Tom Pelissero of NFL Media reports. Hill was told that any subsequent violations of Rule 13, Article 8 will result in discipline. The NFL found that “Lewis’ actions weren’t deemed worthy of a fine.” Browns coach Kevin Stefanski said this week that teams had received a memo from the league about sideline comportment. The league reminded them that “non-player personnel of a club (e.g., management personnel, coaches, trainers, equipment personnel) are prohibited from making unnecessary physical contact with or directing abusive, threatening, or insulting language or gestures at opponents, game officials, or representatives of the League. Penalty: Loss of 15 yards.” The league’s treatment of Hill is curious at best since he pushed Harrison first. Harrison then pushed back. Officials originally penalized only Hill, but a call from the league office resulted in an offsetting penalty on Harrison and his ejection. Network rules analysts, including NBC’s Terry McAulay, disagreed. “On the field, penalize both, resulting in an offset, and after the fact, the league can fine as they see fit,” McAulay tweeted. “The result on the field seemed inequitable at best.” As Browns center and NFLPA president JC Tretter noted this week, “I would expect that the coach gets held to the same standard if not a higher standard than Ronnie.” “We can’t have opposing coaches putting hands on opposing players,” Tretter said. “I don’t think there’s any room for that in this league.’’ My View: This is complete crap. It is a huge problem when players are held to a higher standard than coaches. That KC seems to be alright with their coaches behavior isn't shocking in the least. NFL coaches aren't known for being honest and honorable people overall with Bruce Arians being the possible exception.
The Lions and Calvin Johnson continue to have no relationship. The rift traces to the fact that, when Johnson retired, the Lions made him pay back some of his signing-bonus money.
Johnson recently elaborated on his concerns in an interview with Graham Bensinger. “What do you make of their efforts to resolve it?” Bensinger asked Johnson. “Not really an effort,” Johnson said. So what needs to happen? “I’m not saying they got to repay me the $1.6 [million] all up front, but they need to figure out a way to do it, and not have me work for it, because I already did the work for it.” The Lions recently offered to pay Johnson $500,000 per year for three years, if he worked 28 hours per year. They also offered to make a $100,000 donation to a charity of Johnson’s choice, pushing the total payout to $1.6 million. Johnson declined. “That’s a joke,” Johnson told Bensinger. “I put it like this. Imagine you had a friend — well, maybe not even a friend, just somebody. They gave you something and then they take it back. And then are y’all gonna still really hang out? Are y’all still cool? And imagine you did a whole bunch of work for it, too. It’s the principle. It’s the principle of it. You cannot have me back unless you put that money back in my pocket. . . . I’m not working for it.” Technically, Johnson hadn’t earned the money. He received it as an advance on future services. That said, the Lions shouldn’t have asked for it back. They needed him off the books for cap reasons, and if he hadn’t retired they likely would have cut him. (Frankly, his agents screwed this up by not brokering a better deal when Johnson willingly walked away, allowing the team to dump most of his bloated cap number for the 2016 season.) Johnson also was asked whether the financial issue triggered Johnson’s failure to mention the Lions in his Hall of Fame induction speech. “Mama always tell you if you ain’t got nothing good to say, don’t say it at all,” Johnson said with a laugh. As to the issue between player and team, there’s nothing more to say. There will be no relationship until Johnson gets his money. My Thoughts: The thing that I hate the most about this is that it makes me agree with the Lions on something, which makes me sad. I get why he quit, but they gave him an advance on a service he didn't provide and he got butt hurt that they wanted their money back. He may be one of the best players in their history, but he's a toxic moron who you don't need around their team. 1. Today's show: Week 1 winners and losers, plus full recap
It's Monday, which can only mean one thing: I stayed up until 3 a.m. last night recording a podcast with Will Brinson and Ryan Wilson that touched on everything you need to know about Week 1, and let me just say, it's probably for the best that you listen. We covered all 14 games from Sunday, which means we likely spent some time talking about your favorite team. One thing we do every week is hand out our weekly winners and losers from Sunday's action. For our winners this week, Wilson and Brinson went with bird teams, but I spoiled our ornithological theme by going full homer. Ryan Wilson
2. Rookie receivers taken in the top 10 go off in Week 1 It's not often that you see three receivers get selected in the top 10 of an NFL Draft, but that's exactly what happened this year, marking just the second time since 2006 that three receivers have gone that high. Taking a receiver that high can be a gamble, but so far, that gamble has paid off for the Bengals, Dolphins and Eagles as their rookie receivers all had impressive games in Week 1. Here's a look at how they did:
All three receivers have one big thing in common and that's the fact that they were college teammates with their quarterback, which might help explain why they seem to have such a good connection with their QB just one week into the NFL season. 3. Raiders and Ravens. Wow, great game by two flawed teams. One thing I have seen so far is that there are very few complete teams this year. 4. Week 1 grades: Packers get an 'F' Every week I team up with six of my colleagues here at CBSSports.com to hand out grades, and this week we all shed a tear as Jameis Winston and the Saints graduated out of our imaginary football school with an 'A+' performance in their shocking win over the Packers. Here's a look at the grades from two notable games that were played Sunday: Saints 38, Packers 3
Steelers 23, Bills 16
5. Week 1 injuries: Ryan Fitzpatrick placed on IR with hip injury Hopefully we won't need to have an injury roundup every week, but there were so many injuries around the NFL over the weekend that we definitely needed one for today. Here's a look at the biggest injuries from Week 1:
A couple other players were also injured on Sunday and didn't return, but it's not clear what their prognosis is right now. They include: Patriots tackle Trent Brown (knee) and Chargers tackle Bryan Bulaga (back). 6. Rapid-fire roundup It was a busy weekend in the NFL and since it's nearly impossible to keep track of everything that happened, I went ahead and put together a roundup for you.
Yes, I know the regular season doesn't actually start until next week, but...I'm getting excited for it (which as a Lions fan, is kind of baffling) so I am gonna post the schedule a bit early...
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