Teddy Bridgewater has left the Lions camp to retire again.
Surprised to see noting on last nights Packers-Steelers game. I didn’t watch it (board game night)
What I gathered for the Pack:
Packer’s new kicker did well
#3 QB McCord was ok
Backup defense was very bad
Brian
Yeah, the success of their kicker, who was having a pretty pedestrian camp, was the most important takeaway about the Packers. That, and, the Steelers were assholes for playing a preseason game. 3 or 4 personal fouls. Ugly.
The Seattle Seahawks have signed Terrion Arnold, a former first round draft pick who was recently cut by the Lions.
The reason the Lions cut him? He was arrested for 4 counts of kidnapping and armed robbery. You know, minor stuff. It’s not like he had some thugs kidnap and beat 3 men who Arnold suspected of having stolen from him. Or that 2 of the thugs have pled guilty already and agreed to testify.
I know there will usually be an NFL team willing to give anybody, no matter what they do, a chance if they’re good at football. It’s a shame its the Seahawks.
And, as a nice cherry of top, this quote: “The facts of the case, all those things about the comments of what happens, that’s not our responsibility to have a comment on that nor can we.” Cowards.
It’s a little ironic because the Lions used to be the team that signed these guys (after the Bengals drafted and cut them).
They also had Mychal Kendricks on the roster. While that wasn’t as extreme of a situation, there are parallels.
They sometimes take risks, but don’t generally stack their roster with problematic players.
Criticizing the team for making a roster move like this is understandable, and I agree somewhat. I definitely don’t like it. But saying they’ll give anybody a shot no matter what shows that you don’t know the team very well.
Also remember that he tried out for at least 4 teams that we know of, so it’s not just the Seahawks willing to give him a chance. And who knows if he’ll even play?
Also, this is inaccurate:
He has not actually signed yet, though there are indications that he will.
I thought it clear that I wasn’t saying that the Seahawks are the only NFL team that would sign a problematic player, just that this time with this signing it was the Seahawks.
Fair enough.
And I don’t like it either.
Houston Texans’ promising 2nd year WR Jayden Higgins tore his ACL during joint practice with the Raiders. This just after Chargers starting center Tyler Biadasz got rolled up on accidentally during a joint practice with the 49ers; he’s out “indefinitely” or “extensive time” but not officially a season ender.
Are these joint practices more likely to result in injuries because his go a little harder?
From my understanding, joint practices should be less likely to result in injuries because they are more controlled than a preseason game, which is not much different from a regular season game and have all the same chaos and risk you’d associate with one.
If you read this article, it talks about how joint practices are safer, and why, and it’s one reason why teams are embracing them:
In a standard preseason game, a head coach cannot control the environment. They cannot, for example, risk their starting quarterback taking a blindside hit from an opposing defensive end who is on the roster bubble and trying to make an impression on his coaches. Joint practices do a lot to solve this issue. Coaches are able to agree ahead of time on specific rules such as no tackling of the quarterback, quick whistles on run plays, and specific situational drills like third-and-long or two-minute drills.
This environment allows starters to get high-quality, game-speed repetitions without the standard game risks. A starting offense can run 40 plays against a premier first-string defense from the opposite conference—something that never happens in modern preseason games where starters sit on the bench to avoid injury. Coaches get film of their top players executing the actual playbook against unfamiliar schemes and elite talent.
I’d say that’s either just bad luck, or poor planning on someone’s part. The joint practices should be safer.
The only way I can see it being any more dangerous is that because starters are more likely to participate in a joint practice than a preseason game, they then have the risk of being injured. But that’s no different than a regular practice with starters. And players do get hurt during regular practice; Teddy Bridgewater’s infamous injury that sidelined his entire career happened during a regular practice with the Vikings.
There’s been a general increase in connective tissue injuries but players are larger and stronger than generations past. Injuries have always happened.
The history of football rule changes has always gone hand in hand with safety concerns, even dating back to the 19th century. Teddy Roosevelt had to intervene to get changes to barely save the game early in the 20th century when nearly 20 players nationwide (mainly high school) literally died one season. And somehow, every time, some would-be purists always say we’re ruining the game and making it soft.
If anything, we’re better now about spotting potential issues early. Still lots of room for improvement, though. Especially on head injuries. Despite the emphasis we’ve been putting on head injuries, players, coaches, and even officials at every level still commonly miss or downplay them.
That’s comparing joint practice with a preseason game. I’m wondering comparing single-team practice with joint practice.
When they went to 17 games, they cut one preseason game, so these joint practices have gotten more popular. It’s not a bad comparison.
Bit hard to compare, though, because extra contact in the preseason is also associated with reduced soft tissue injuries during the season. Back during COVID, they canceled preseason entirely and early season soft tissue injuries spiked that year. The working hypothesis is ramping up workload is a better way to go. But I’m not sure how that effect can be teased out, i.e. how much it helps and what sort of workloads would be best to minimize overall injuries through the season and not just in the preseason.
Gotcha. You had only said “more likely”, but didn’t specify what you were comparing it to. Considering you posted this in the midst of preseason games, I naturally assumed that’s what you were comparing it to.
I imagine that it’s more likely to have an injury in a joint practice than a regular team practice, that just seems like common sense to me. When you bring in another team and have players competing against each other like that, the stakes are higher, much as they would be in a game. If nothing else, when the players aren’t on the same team they are not going to always be on the same page, and there is a level of intensity when you are going up against people who are probably going to be your opponents at some point in an actual game.
There is also some discussion about whether or not joint practices should replace preseason games altogether.
Maybe drop one for it. League would want some sort of scrimmage portion they call sell tickets for (that’s the primary reason for preseason games).
Preseason games are for more than just the players and coaches. They allow practice runs for the officials, game administration, stadium and concession staff, broadcast teams, parking and traffic management, and more.
Dropping them entirely could result in mistakes and problems large and small, on the first month of the regular season. But they should certainly be shortened. The 49ers and Chargers game took well over three hours, ending ~10:15pm Pacific time.
I agree with everything you said here.
Latest stars to go down for the season.
Jeanty, RB for Oakland*.
Tyler Biadasz, $30 million center for the Chargers.
Is it just my bias or are neutrals surprised of the lack of Seahawk defensive players that made the NFL top 100 list?
The Super Bowl winners had only 3 of the top 100 players (the same as the Cards) and Ernest Jones was the only defensive player that made it in a team whose biggest strength was their defence (and he barely made it at 97).
I was convinced at least Leonard Williams and Witherspoon would be selected. What do others think?
As a Seahawks fan I expect that there are too many good players that it’s hard for anyone to stand out.
Except at this point, Nick Emmanwori and Devon Witherspoon are probably the best DBs in the NFL.
It might also hurt that some of their better players are young and so don’t have years of a reputation either.
I nearly added Emmanwori to my list but decided with only one year in the NFL he probably might not have built up enough reputation.
Having said that the Eagles had two CBs (Dejean and Mitchell) in the top 50 both Drafted a year after 'Spoon and (and both made the top 100 as rookies so some defensive players can make the list without years of reputation. (Were they really that much better than our DBs?)