Around the NFL in 32 plays
By Ben Almquist
It’s Friday, Addicts, and time for another roundup of all the NFL news and rumors from around the league.
The preseason injury bug made its rounds this week and hit a few teams particularly hard. It’s still early in the offseason practice phase, but there are a number of teams that have to be worried about the availability of some star players for the start of the season.
More from Kansas City Chiefs News
- Former Chiefs cornerback in legal trouble in Las Vegas
- Chiefs news: Travis Kelce wants to host fan ‘chug-off’ in Germany
- KC Chiefs send Dave Merritt to NFL coaching accelerator
- Creed Humphrey lands on PFF’s Top 25 Under 25 list
- Tyreek Hill, Davante Adams prove themselves away from star quarterbacks
Other teams are still looking to plug some holes following their first look at the new rookie class. As teams start to get a better picture of their incoming talent, you’ll see a few moves being made to help shore up the roster before the season gets underway.
The Kansas City Chiefs are normally pretty active during this time of the year (at least comparatively so). So don’t be surprised to see them add a player or two to the mix. They’ve already added some competition on the interior OL and were apparently checking out some more options with Amini Silatolu.
But the lead story this week belongs to the Baltimore Ravens who blatantly broke a rule regarding the use of pads at practice. I actually never thought I’d see a story like this since the new CBA made it pretty clear how things are supposed to go. But if there’s a rule, then there’s always someone ready to break it…
Lead Story: Baltimore Ravens Play By Their Own Rules
The Ravens tried to pull a fast one at Rookie Minicamp this past week. With the veteran players not around to blow the whistle, the team broke out the pads and put their rookies and tryout players through a five minute session in full gear.
Now, five minutes certainly sounds pretty minor, and realistically it is. However, it’s five minutes that are in clear violation of the rules established by the 2011 CBA that banned padded practices until Training Camp. It was a major sticking point for the NFLPA and is considered one of the few areas that the players “won” in the negotiations. So you had to know that the union would be up in arms about this. And it seems like the league is inclined to back the NFLPA on this one.
The NFL is reportedly taking the stance that the Ravens intentionally broke the rule. The Ravens are saying it’s an honest mistake and are trying to claim ambiguity in the rules. Personally, I’m not buying that. Head Coach John Harbaugh and General Manager Ozzie Newsome have been around for a while…certainly long enough to know these rules. And it took Ravens player rep Ben Watson just five minutes to correct the team on what they were doing wrong.
The team’s punishment is laid out pretty clearly in the CBA. They will face fines and potentially lost practices depending on the outcome of the NFL’s investigation, but no loss of draft picks. However, if the team is caught in violation of any more practice regulations, they immediately lose a fourth round pick.
And, of course, there is always the potential that Roger Goodell will just go off the rails and assign a punishment that is completely unheard of and goes well beyond the severity of the violation.
Next: Onto the teams...