@McClain_on_NFL

Tell me why a player can be suspended for a year for placing a bet, but Rashee Rice can drive recklessly caught on camera, could have killed people, casually walks away with a locker full of felonies and nothing has happened to him yet? Good thing he didn’t place a bet, huh?

THURSDAY’S OPENER

To start the season, the NFL got an epic game that went right down to after the final whistle.

The Ravens were not happy with the final call.  Jamison Hensley of ESPN.com:

After the Baltimore Ravens lost by a toe Thursday night, quarterback Lamar Jackson could only shake his head.

Jackson said he doesn’t believe the officials should have overturned Isaiah Likely’s last-second touchdown, which resulted in a painful 27-20 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in the season opener. One official initially ruled Likely got both feet inbounds in the back of the end zone, which would have put Baltimore in position to win with a 2-point conversion, but a replay review confirmed the front of Likely’s right foot touched the white out-of-bounds line.

“I thought it was a touchdown,” Jackson said. “I still think it’s a touchdown.”

Jackson and the Ravens fell to 1-5 against Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs, but they nearly pulled off one of their most thrilling comebacks. With five seconds left and at the Kansas City 10-yard line, Jackson stepped up into the pocket and ran in a circle before launching a pass to Likely in the back of the end zone as time expired.

Likely leaped to catch the ball and came down with Chiefs linebacker Nick Bolton draped on his back. The official put both hands in the air to signal touchdown, and Likely tossed the ball in the air in celebration.

“The ref looked at me, I look at the ref, and when he signaled touchdown, I thought it was what it was,” Likely said. “Then, obviously we were going to win the game.”

If the touchdown had counted, Baltimore would’ve been down 27-26 with no time left. The Ravens were about to line up to go for two points and attempt to win the game before the officials changed the ruling.

“The runner’s toe hit out of bounds,” referee Shawn Hochuli announced. “It’s an incomplete pass. The game is over. Kansas City has won.”

Chiefs coach Andy Reid said he didn’t have a good view of whether Likely was inbounds.

“The guys upstairs saw it, and so they knew he was out,” Reid said. “We were just waiting after that.”

Likely, who finished with career highs of nine catches and 111 yards, appeared to injure his shoulder after landing in the corner of the end zone two plays earlier. Jackson then threw an incompletion to the end zone, and Likely returned to the field, almost scoring the biggest touchdown of his three-year career.

If the Ravens had pulled off the upset, it would’ve ended the Chiefs’ streak of 23 consecutive wins when leading by 10 points or more entering the fourth quarter.

“At this point, you just have to live with the call,” Likely said. “You have to look on, obviously watch the film, see where we can get better to not put ourselves in the situation to leave it in the refs’ hands to be able to call that.”

Ravens middle linebacker Roquan Smith said he was surprised the touchdown was reversed.

“I didn’t think it was enough evidence to overturn it,” Smith said. “But I feel like that’ll be something that the refs will have to deal with whenever that time comes and that’s out of my control.”

The DB assumes that the shoe is considered to be a part of the foot, no matter how far it extends forward from the actual front of the toe.  Because it looked like Likely got his actual toe down inbounds, but the front of the shoe flopped onto the line.

– – –

Baltimore writer Jeff Zrebiec of The Athletic is all about how the Ravens LOST the game:

Unofficially, the Baltimore Ravens were a right toe away from potentially beating the reigning Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs Thursday night in their house and starting the season with an improbable victory.

But ultimately they didn’t lose the NFL’s regular-season opener, 27-20, at Arrowhead Stadium because tight end Isaiah Likely’s toe came down on the white out-of-bounds line in the back of the end zone with the clock showing zeroes. If the touchdown had counted — to a man, Ravens players were sure it would even as replays showed clear evidence to the contrary — head coach John Harbaugh had already notified his team that it was going to go for the two-point conversion and the win.

“We’re not going to talk about emotions,” Harbaugh said after the game when asked about the wild swings over the final couple of minutes. “You’re disappointed.”

The replay reversal robbed everybody a chance to see a game-deciding play from the 2-yard line. Would Lamar Jackson, who was brilliant at times in totaling 395 yards of total offense, have kept the ball? Or would the Ravens have put the ball in the belly of their 247-pound back Derrick Henry to see if the Chiefs could stop him?

We’ll never know, but let’s forget for a second about the toe. The Ravens lost because they spent the first 59 minutes of the game repeatedly shooting themselves in the foot against an opponent that knows what to do with an opponent’s charity. The Ravens already knew that from their AFC Championship Game appearance against the Chiefs roughly seven months ago. Thursday offered another painful reminder.

“This is the worst we’ll play all season,” said middle linebacker Roquan Smith. “I can promise you that.”

That comment was echoed by many Ravens, including Likely, who added a twist.

“I’d say this is probably the worst game we’re going to play all year, so if this is the best that they’ve got, good luck in the postseason,” he said.

The Ravens as a team, and Jackson in particular, showed a grit that should serve them well over the next four months of the regular season. Trailing by double digits early in the third quarter and again early in the fourth, the Ravens kept coming and pushed the Chiefs to the brink. After a tired defense stopped Patrick Mahomes late in the fourth quarter and forced a punt, the Ravens ultimately took three shots to the end zone from the 10-yard line in the game’s final 20 seconds and didn’t complete any of them.

Because it was the final play, Likely’s near touchdown could easily stand as the team’s lead lament. However, on the play before, Jackson hurried and missed a wide-open Zay Flowers in the back of the end zone.

“I was ticked off about that, because if I held onto it a bit more, I would’ve just fired it to Zay for the touchdown,” Jackson said.

Neither the Ravens nor Jackson have anything to prove when it comes to playing with toughness and resilience. Been there, done that. Those have been characteristics of Harbaugh’s teams for a decade and a half. Nobody could question their effort from Thursday night, but the occasion called for more, and that’s where the Ravens fell short.

What the Ravens have to show, particularly against the AFC’s other heavyweights, is that they can clean up their mistakes and consistently execute when their best is required. Far too many times in recent seasons, the biggest thing holding the Ravens back has been themselves. Far too often, the Ravens have gotten buried under bad mistakes and untimely penalties.

One game isn’t enough to make a sweeping declaration about this year’s team. That would be unfair, particularly when most of the team’s starters didn’t play in the preseason. Thursday also represented the first regular-season game for defensive coordinator Zach Orr and several of his assistants. Some mistakes and rust had to be expected, and there was plenty of that.

But one game is enough to be a cautionary tale for the rest of the season. The Ravens have a lot to clean up in all three facets. Special teams aren’t exempt either, not after Justin Tucker missed a 53-yard field goal in the second quarter.

“Any time you have self-inflicted wounds, it’s going to be tough to try to overcome, especially with a team like this that’s very good and very sound and (capitalizes) on opposing teams’ mistakes,” said Henry, who announced his presence as a Raven with a bruising 5-yard touchdown run on the Ravens’ first possession. “We’ve just got to learn from it — first game — get those miscues out the way and be better the next time out there.”

The Ravens have nine days before their next game, a Week 2 matchup at home against the Las Vegas Raiders, but they also have plenty to clean up. As a team, they were assessed seven penalties for 64 yards, and quite a few of them helped prolong the Chiefs’ drives or contributed to stopping a Ravens’ possession.

If you ask the players, several of those penalties shouldn’t have been called. Left tackle Ronnie Stanley didn’t hide his displeasure after he was flagged three times for illegal formation — the Ravens were called for it four times — after the league made that infraction a point of emphasis this season.

“I would even go as far to say, I was lining up more in front of what I used to do in years past because of the emphasis,” Stanley said. “That was something we knew about in training camp and we were working on it as linemen. We have refs at practice all the time. It’s never been an issue.”

Stanley took it even further, saying he felt referee Shawn Hochuli’s crew was making an example out of him and not flagging Chiefs tackles Kingsley Suamataia and Jawaan Taylor for doing the same thing.

“The way it was going through the game, I really feel like they were just trying to make an example and they chose me to be the one to do that,” he said. “As far as I saw, they weren’t doing it on both sides of the ball and I know that I was lined up in a good position the majority of those calls they made. But we’ll go back and watch the film and we’ll make sure of it and we’ll send it in.

“If it’s that egregious that they are making those calls and they shouldn’t be, they should be held accountable.”

There were other costly penalties. An offensive pass interference call on Rashod Bateman in the second quarter created a second-and-long rather than a third-and-one, and the Ravens ultimately turned the ball over on that drive when Flowers was stopped on a fourth-and-three. A roughing-the-passer penalty on Nnamdi Madubuike gave the Chiefs a first down deep in Baltimore territory early in the third quarter and they scored a touchdown two plays later. A holding penalty on center Tyler Linderbaum wiped away a 29-yard run by Jackson late in the third quarter.

“It’s very frustrating, because we’re busting our behinds out there,” Jackson said. “We’re trying to win the game at the end of the day. It’s like, every time we had a big play, there was a flag down. We can’t be having that.”

And then there were turnovers and communication issues defensively. Jackson was strip sacked by Chris Jones, who beat rookie Roger Rosengarten, deep in Baltimore territory, leading to a Chiefs’ field goal. The Chiefs ultimately scored the game-winning touchdown when rookie Xavier Worthy capitalized on a coverage bust — Ravens cornerback Marlon Humphrey thought he had help and he didn’t — to catch a Mahomes pass and waltz into the end zone uncontested. The Ravens were forced to blow two timeouts in the third quarter because they didn’t have the right defensive personnel on the field.

“We just had some issues with the substitutions back and forth,” Harbaugh said. “We did have some communication problems. That’s something that we’ll have to iron out for sure. We can be better with that; we will be better with that.”

Ultimately, the Ravens had a good number of things to feel good about. Jackson was brilliant at times, totaling 395 yards of offense and a touchdown. The highly scrutinized offensive line had some issues, but more often than not, particularly late in the game, it did enough to give Jackson a chance. Even without the final catch, young tight end Likely had one of the best games of his career with nine catches for 111 yards and a touchdown.

Get used to plenty of touchbacks to the 30-yard line if Thursday’s game is any indication.  Michael David Smith of ProFootballTalk.com:

The results from the first game with the NFL’s new kickoff rule were not as dynamic as advertised.

The Chiefs and Ravens combined for 11 kickoffs, of which nine were touchbacks. That included all six kickoffs by Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker, who consistently booted the ball deep into the end zone. Ravens kicker Justin Tucker had three kickoffs go for touchbacks and two that were returned.

The two returns were nothing special; Carson Steele returned one 28 yards to the 31-yard line, while Mecole Hardman was credited with a 29-yard return on the other, although a Chiefs holding penalty pushed them back to the 19-yard line.

Touchbacks go out to the 30-yard line under the new rule, which benefits the offense compared to the 25-yard line last year, so that benefits the offense. But if the Chiefs and Ravens are any guide, the NFL is still going to see plenty of touchbacks on kickoffs this year.

There’s already talk that next year, touchbacks will be moved out to the 35-yard line to try to incentivize kickers not to boot the ball all the way into the end zone. But for now, the new kickoff rule doesn’t look like it’s going to provide a lot of excitement.

ARIZONA

QB KYLER MURRAY doing leadership things, at a significant cost.  Josh Weinfuss ofESPN.com:

It was, for all intents and purposes, an innocuous text, one of many lost in the daily shuffle of rings, pings and buzzes.

When a group of Arizona Cardinals wide receivers, tight ends and running backs opened the message about a week after minicamp in June, they saw it was from quarterback Kyler Murray, asking if they would be around on various dates. After they all responded with their availability, Murray took care of the rest.

Wide receiver Zay Jones told ESPN that, before they knew it, those who could go received a full itinerary for a trip to Los Angeles in mid-July, just about a week before training camp started.

All expenses paid. All on Murray.

From July 7-13, a group of 12 — wide receivers Marvin Harrison Jr., Michael Wilson, Greg Dortch, Chris Moore, Andre Baccellia and Jones; former receiver Jeff Smith; tight ends Trey McBride, Tip Reiman and Elijah Higgins; and running backs James Conner and Trey Benson — joined Murray in a mansion in Bel-Air and worked out together at UCLA, all with one goal in mind: To get on the same page.

Whether it worked will be seen Sunday, when the Cardinals begin the regular season against the Buffalo Bills at Highmark Stadium (1 p.m. ET, CBS).

“When you talk about how we’ve been seeing the our relationship pay off now that season’s here, I feel like it just makes it fun, because you’re out there with your brothers, and I might have not felt like that last year, might have been a little bit more nervous, because I don’t have the relationship with the guys that I have now,” Wilson said. “But being out there with Kyler and G [Dortch] and Marvin, we’re all just so close off the field that even in conditions [the torrential rain during the joint practice with the Indianapolis Colts], it was fun.”

THE GROUP MET at the Scottsdale airport, where they boarded a private jet bound for California. Awaiting them was a mansion with a pool, a room for massages and yoga and a room for each player.

“It was pretty sweet,” Higgins said. “It was pretty sweet.”

A masseuse was on call until about 2 a.m., and Murray hired a private chef for the group. Every day, cars picked up players at the house and shuttled them down the hill to a bus that was waiting to take them to UCLA, where they went through drills and on-field workouts for a few hours each day.

Murray also hired a security team to ensure the players were protected and knew where to go, and a maid service to keep the house clean.

“I don’t think there’s anything that he missed,” Jones said. “Not the way I live, so like, I’ve never been a part of something like that.

“I was kind of blown away.”

Moore said he couldn’t find the right words to describe the week. It was clear to everyone in the house that Murray “spared no expense,” Moore said.

“Kudos him for doing it,” Higgins said. “I think Zay Jones said something along the lines of, ‘Just because you can, doesn’t mean you have to.’ So, seeing him stepping into that role and going out of his way to do that for some of the guys on the team is super special. To be a part of it was super cool as well.”

The other 21-or-so hours every day were spent bonding through hanging out in the pool, watching Netflix, exploring Los Angeles, playing ping pong or cards, shopping and eating out. Very few video games were played.

For the group’s first dinner, Murray took everyone to Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles and they had the place to themselves.

“It was just nice, especially with your teammates, just to sit down there and have conversations over a good meal together,” said Moore, who had the Obama Special, which is three wings and a waffle. “So, that part, for me personally, that’s probably my favorite.”

The ping pong table became the place to be in the house during downtime and quickly became an outlet for the players to flex their competitiveness.

“When I tell you, when you get a bunch of highly competitive men in one place, like we competed from the time we got up to the time we went to sleep,” Wilson said.

Ping pong — of which Wilson was crowned the champion — was just the beginning. Anything that could be contested was: Who could catch the most passes? Who could do the most pushups? Who could run faster? Who can lift more?

“It just kind of gave college vibes,” Wilson said. “Going to sleep at the same place as your teammates in a kind of not a super-structured environment, so boys could just be boys and just hang out, work out, play ping pong.”

General manager Monti Ossenfort thought the trip was a “great bonding experience” for his players but, with his tongue firmly planted in his cheek, wasn’t shy about saying he was jealous he wasn’t invited.

Coach Jonathan Gannon is a firm believer that all the time the offense spent together away from the Cardinals’ facility will help. And he loved that it was his quarterback who took the initiative to gather his skill players for a week away from distractions.

“I honestly think it’s awesome what they did this offseason,” Gannon said. “And they had some fun too. I asked them what they do when they weren’t on the field and they had some fun. So, that’s always good for those guys to see and get a little break and get away, but go to dinner together, have a little fun together, but put in the work together too. They know what’s at stake.”

THE TRIP TO Los Angeles was the culmination of Murray’s offseason of camaraderie.

Throughout the offseason, Murray organized weekend passing sessions at local high schools, a trip with teammates to Oklahoma City for a Thunder game and a visit to Norman, Oklahoma. He and teammates checked out Murray’s statue at the University of Oklahoma and got a few swings in at the Sooners’ baseball field. He also went to an Arizona Diamondbacks game with another group of teammates.

“It’s paid off very quickly,” offensive guard Will Hernandez said. “If you think back, not even a couple months ago, guys were hanging out outside of the facility. We just talked about how Trey’s blocking improved. We talked about how Jonah [Williams] and Evan [Brown] quickly adapted. All that stuff didn’t just happen because we decided to go out on the field and do it.

“That’s part of it, but most of it is those guys feeling the confidence, feeling the support of the rest of us, feeling like, ‘Hey, we’re counting on you, kind of deal.’ But when you put it that way, after hanging out with these guys and having fun, it means a little bit more. So, it’s definitely paid off. I already seen it, and it’s only going to keep growing.”

The LA trip was something that Murray felt he couldn’t have organized earlier in his career, especially during his first season. As a 21-year-old, he entered a Cardinals’ locker room full of older vets, most of whom had families, making it more difficult for them to leave town for a week.

This year’s team skews younger. The average age of the group that went to L.A. was about 25.

“It’s something I wanted to do,” Murray, 27, said. “It goes back to having guys kind of my age that we can coordinate those things a lot easier.’

After missing last offseason while rehabbing an ACL injury in his right knee, Murray knew how important it was for him to bond with his teammates away from the structure of a team setting.

“I think it’s an underrated thing, the camaraderie off the field, just loving each other, being together spending time together, getting to know each other,” Murray said. “The teams that I’ve been on that have been the best, we were tight off the field, and it allows you to go harder for each other.”

On the field, his injury prevented him from running anything with his teammates. They couldn’t work on their timing or the nuances of a route, or even just be on the same field. It made the time in LA invaluable.

“Just hearing plays calls again, hearing how Kyler speaks, how he calls it, what he thinks, how he’s viewing a defense, how he sees the route, timing, chemistry, camaraderie, laughing, joking, being serious, competing,” Jones said. “Kind of anything you would expect from a team bonding together.”

For the receivers, getting any extra time with Murray will directly improve their timing, the key to any thrower-catcher on-field relationship.

Harrison noticed a difference in the first few weeks of training camp.

“I think, definitely, you see the timing there,” Harrison said. “I think that’s always the biggest thing between a quarterback and receiver is just getting the timing down pat. He has to know my body language, know what I’m about to do before I do it.”

The hope among all the players who went to L.A. is that spending that much time together produces a cohesiveness and camaraderie. Ultimately, though, Murray hopes all that turns into wins this season.

That, Murray said Wednesday, is what the Cardinals are about to see this weekend.

“Getting all those reps that we got, we may not have gotten if we didn’t do those things off the field because the sense of urgency’s there,” Murray said. “We want to hit the ground running. We are not coming out this season, despite what everybody thinks or what they’re saying, we know what we want to do in this locker room, so, in order to do that, you got to put the work in.”

SAN FRANCISCO

Are the 49ers just showing an abundance of caution with their injury report on RB CHRISTIAN McCAFFREY – or is there something to worry about?  Jason Owens of YahooSports.com:

San Francisco 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey was listed as limited for practice Thursday with a calf/Achilles injury that sidelined him through training camp and the preseason.

Head coach Kyle Shanahan told reporters before practice that the Achilles designation was nothing new and related to the calf strain he suffered in early August at training camp. He did not indicate any concern about McCaffrey’s availability for Monday’s season opener against the New York Jets.

McCaffrey was at practice jogging and catching balls.

McCaffrey and the 49ers downplayed the injury as minor throughout training camp. McCaffrey said on Aug. 9 that his absence from practice was “cautionary” and that if the 49ers had a game that day, he’d be ready to play.

Shanahan has stated throughout the preseason that he expects McCaffrey to be ready to play in Week 1. McCaffrey returned to practice for the first time on Tuesday, putting him on track to play Monday night.

KANSAS CITY

On the day of the opening game, Adam Teicher of ESPN.com reports the Chiefs have reached an extension with TE NOAH GREY.

The Kansas City Chiefs have signed tight end Noah Gray to a three-year contract extension worth $18 million, sources told ESPN’s Adam Schefter on Thursday.

The deal includes $10.1 million fully guaranteed at signing.

Gray is the Chiefs’ main backup to Travis Kelce. Gray joined the Chiefs in 2021 as a fifth-round draft pick from Duke. He played in 50 games in three seasons with 19 starts, including 10 last season.

Gray has 63 catches for 640 yards and four touchdowns. In 2021, Gray caught 28 passes for 305 yards and two touchdowns.

As a public service, here’s the AP’s update on TE TRAVIS KELCE and Taylor Swift:

Pop superstar Taylor Swift returned to Arrowhead Stadium on Thursday night to watch her boyfriend, Travis Kelce, and the rest of the Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs open the NFL season against the Baltimore Ravens with a 27-20 victory.

The Chiefs are now 10-3 in games Swift attends.

Swift arrived about 90 minutes prior to the AFC title game rematch, wearing a denim crop top and shorts along with red, knee-high heeled boots. She joined nearly 80,000 fans awaiting kickoff as storms began popping up in the area.

Swift became one of the Chiefs’ biggest fans last season, when she began her high-profile romance with Kelce, a pop culture heavyweight in his own right. Kelce had failed to give her a friendship bracelet at one of her concerts, so he took to social media to invite Swift to a game, and the “Anti-Hero” singer took him up on the offer for a September matchup with the Bears.

They continued to see each other throughout the season, whenever Swift was on break from her Eras Tour. The 14-time Grammy winner even made a much-publicized sprint from a stadium show in Japan to Las Vegas in time for the Super Bowl, where she partied with friends such as Blake Lively, enjoyed Post Malone’s performance of “America the Beautiful,” won what appeared to be a beer chugging contest, and then celebrated the Chiefs’ triumph by locking lips with Kelce on the field.

Along the way, Swift became close friends with Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes and his wife, Brittany.

During the offseason, Kelce frequently dropped in on the Eras Tour, even making an onstage cameo in a tuxedo during a performance. Swift later said in a social media post she was still “cracking up/swooning over (Kelce’s) Eras Tour debut” before 90,000 screaming fans at Wembley Stadium in London, and that “she was never going to forget these shows.”

Indeed, it has been a busy offseason for both of the superstars.

Swift recently concluded the European leg of the Eras Tour with five consecutive shows at Wembley, and she is on break until October, when she begins the North American leg with stops across the U.S. and Canada stretching into December.

Kelce and his brother, retired Eagles center Jason Kelce, recently struck a deal reportedly worth nine figures to take their “New Heights” podcast to Amazon’s Wondery service. He also is due to appear in Ryan Murphy’s murder mystery “Grotesquerie” on FX debuting Sept. 25, and he is hosting “Are You Smarter Than a Celebrity” on Prime Video premiering Oct. 16.

Then there’s the fact that the Chiefs, who have won two straight Super Bowls and three in the past five years, are chasing some history beginning Thursday night. No team has ever won the Lombardi Trophy three consecutive times.

Kelce was asked this week how he juggles everything, and he pointed to the Chiefs practice facility — and Arrowhead Stadium, which sits just up the hill and across a parking lot — as his sanctuary, where he is surrounded by his closest friends.

“I just love football and how it takes me away from life,” he explained, “and it gives me something I can feel genuinely happy about. I enjoy coming into the building, working on my craft, getting to understand a new game plan and perfecting that for the people around me. It gives me a purpose to kind of go about my day and to live my life.”

Not everything was smooth for Swift and Kelce during the offseason.

Last month, Swift canceled three sold-out shows in Vienna after the CIA discovered intelligence that led to multiple arrests of men linked to the Islamic State group. The agency’s deputy director, David Cohen, said “they were plotting to kill a huge number — tens of thousands of people at this concert, including I am sure many Americans — and were quite advanced in this.”

Then on Thursday, a spokesperson for Kelce denounced a document recently posted online calling into question the authenticity of their romance as “entirely false and fabricated.” The document, carrying the title “Comprehensive Media Plan For Travis Kelce’s Relations Following Breakup with Taylor Swift,” was posted on Reddit but has since been deleted.

It surfaced about the same time that Kelce appeared on “The Rich Eisen Show,” where he discussed their relationship.

“She had just been so open to learning the game,” Kelce said. “I think what makes her so good in her profession is that she’s so detailed in every aspect of it, from the words to her music and even the releases and the music videos and everything. She’s just so detailed and a part of it, that I think she was just curious about the profession.”

Kelce even said that Swift had started drawing up some plays for him, though he noted with a smile: “She’s a little biased and just creates plays for me. So we’ll see if they can make coach (Andy) Reid’s office.”

LOS ANGELES CHARGERS

Jeff Howe of The Athletic on the leaguewide perception of the 2024 Chargers:

It already feels like the Chargers are taking on head coach Jim Harbaugh’s personality. They’re physical and aggressive, perhaps toeing the line of both characteristics during joint practices. We’ll see where the offense is after quarterback Justin Herbert missed most of camp with a plantar fascia injury — after already losing receivers Keenan Allen and Mike Williams in the offseason — but the Chargers are shaping up to be a grueling team to play. General manager Joe Hortiz was well past due for this type of opportunity, too, so there’s belief he’ll succeed in this new role.

– – –

If the Chargers have mapped out the usage of RBs GUS EDWARDS and J.K. DOBBINS, they aren’t saying.  Josh Alper of ProFootballTalk.com:

Chargers offensive coordinator Greg Roman is in his first year in Los Angeles, but he has experience balancing backfield work between Gus Edwards and J.K. Dobbins.

Both players were with the Ravens when Roman was the offensive coordinator in Baltimore and both signed with the Chargers as free agents after Roman was hired by head coach Jim Harbaugh. The team lists them both in the No. 1 slot on the depth chart and Roman said that was an accurate portrayal of how he plans to approach using them this season.

“We don’t overthink that,” Roman said at a press conference. “They’re both going to play and whoever’s got the hot hand, as I tell them, has got the hot hand. So, we’re going to go with the hot hand. And they know that and they get that. Really nothing scientific.”

Roman was asked in followups if he viewed either back as better suited to short yardage or passing situations and he stuck to the same line. He said he would not “pigeonhole” either player, so the breakdown of playing time looks like it will be on a sliding scale this fall.

BALTIMORE

QB LAMAR JACKSON with a statistical milestone in defeat. Michael David Smith of ProFootballTalk.com:

Even in defeat on Thursday night, Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson continued to show that he’s a unique player in NFL history.

Jackson had 273 passing yards and 122 rushing yards against the Chiefs, recording a double-triple, which is when a player has more than 100 yards in two different statistical categories in the same game. Jackson has more of them than any other player, ever.

Thursday night was the 14th time Jackson has recorded a double-triple in the regular season, and he also has three in the postseason, most recently in last season’s divisional round against the Texans.

With a total of 17 double-triples, Jackson now has more than twice as many as any other player in NFL history. Michael Vick has the second-most double-triples in NFL history, with eight. And Vick played in 149 games in his career to record those eight double-triples. Jackson’s 17th double-triple came in his 92nd career game.

Other than Jackson and Vick, no one in NFL history has more than four double-triples.

With the loss to the Chiefs, the Ravens are now 13-4 in games when Jackson records a double-triple.

So, how many times has Jackson run for 100 yards and failed to get 100 yards passing?

Well, the answer is all 17 times Jackson has run for 100 yards, he has also passed for 100.  So a “double-triple” for a QB is basically how many times has he run for 100 yards in a game.

We would be more interested in 200-100 games as a QB benchmark.  Or even 300-100.

In Jackson’s case, he has passed for 200+ yards and run for 100+ yards on eight occasions (counting postseason), including Thursday night against the Ravens.

He has two games with 300-100, one regular season, one postseason.

There have been a total of five 300-100 games with Josh Allen, Russell Wilson and Cam Newton having one each.

Scott Kacsmar:

I tweeted this 46 months ago and it’s still just as true.

Lamar is now:

1-3 vs. Steelers

1-5 vs. Chiefs

2-4 in the playoffs

Almost unbeatable in the regular season against the rest of the NFL.

@ScottKacsmar

·

Nov 1, 2020

It’s 7 games, but Lamar Jackson has three different kryptonites: the playoffs, matching Mahomes and the Chiefs, and this Steelers defense.

Not good.

PITTSBURGH

QB RUSSELL WILSON missed practice time earlier with a calif issue.  It’s still bothering him.  Brooke Pryor of ESPN.com:

Steelers quarterback Russell Wilson was limited in Thursday’s practice after reporting tightness in the calf he injured during training camp.

Coach Mike Tomlin wouldn’t say when Wilson, 35, informed coaches of the tightness but added the quarterback will get further evaluated out of an abundance of caution.

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“His calf got tight, so we wanted to exercise some precaution,” Tomlin said. “We’ll see what tomorrow looks like and kind of go from there.”

Wilson was initially scheduled to speak with the media Thursday afternoon, but he delayed his availability to Friday following the calf aggravation.

Wilson first injured the calf pushing a sled during the team’s conditioning test on the eve of training camp, and he didn’t throw a pass in a team period for 10 practices after the injury. Wilson slowly returned to being a full participant in practice by the end of camp, but he missed the first preseason game and played in just six series over the final two. After playing five series in the second preseason game, Wilson said he “felt great” and “strong,” adding that his calf injury wasn’t a factor.

Asked about long-term impacts of Wilson’s apparently new calf tightness Thursday, Tomlin simply responded, “None,” and downplayed the significance of the injury to game-planning for the team’s season opener against the Falcons on Sunday.

“It really doesn’t [affect game-planning] at all, to be honest with you,” he said.

If Wilson can’t go, Justin Fields, who Wilson beat out for the starting job, would start in his place. Tomlin expressed confidence in the 2021 Bears first-round pick.

“I’m extremely comfortable if that is the case, certainly,” Tomlin said.

Because of Wilson’s training camp injury, Fields got extra experience working with the first-team offense, something that could benefit him if he has to fill in for Wilson.

“I don’t know the specifics of it or what’s going on, but obviously Russ is a great competitor,” wide receiver Van Jefferson said. “He wants to be out there. If Justin has to step out there, he’s more than prepared to do that.

“But at the end of the day, we’re just going out there and play. Whoever gets out there, the job still has to get done. So, both quarterbacks are capable of doing that on Sunday and we’re just going to roll with whoever’s out there.”

This on the reaction to Wilson around the NFL from Jeff Howe of The Athletic:

There’s concern among rival teams that Wilson is too far past his prime to be a difference-maker for an offense that has finished in the bottom 10 in total yards in five consecutive seasons.

HOUSTON

As of September 6, 2024, WR STEFON DIGGS is happy.  Josh Alper ofProFootballTalk.com:

Stefon Diggs said in a recent interview that he was in the “worst mental space” of his career with the Bills last season, but the wide receiver is feeling much better about things as the 2024 season gets underway.

Diggs was traded to the Texans in the offseason and he was named one of the team’s captains this week. He said it means “everything” to have won the trust and respect of new teammates in such a short amount of time and that the good feelings run both ways.

“I always believe in where I’m supposed to be when I’m supposed to be at my feet, you know where I’m at,” Diggs said, via Aaron Wilson of KPRC. “I don’t talk bad about my old girlfriend to make my new girlfriend feel good. Being here, this is where I am right now. It’s my place and it’s amazing. It’s some great people here. I can say there’s a lot of southern hospitality here. I’m just happy to be where I am.”

Diggs may not want to talk about his past stops, but he had times where he felt at home in Minnesota and Buffalo before things stopped being so pleasant. The Texans seemed to take that into account when they reworked Diggs’s contract to make him a free agent after this season, so everyone will have to buy back in if there’s going to be a multi-year run for the wideout in Houston.

TENNESSEE

WR DeANDRE HOPKINS is trying to play with a torn ACL.  Charean Williams of ProFootballTalk.com:

DeAndre Hopkins injured his left knee July 31, and word then was that he would miss 4-6 weeks. The Titans receiver revealed Thursday that he tore his medial collateral ligament but did not require surgery.

He plans to play through the injury.

“I had the MCL tear maybe four and a half, five weeks ago so the thing about those is it takes a whole year for them to heal,” Hopkins told Paul Kuharsky of paulkuharsky.com. “Obviously, it’s pain at that point.”

Hopkins wouldn’t say whether his injury might later require surgery, which would take him out for 2-3 months.

“I don’t like speaking like that; I’m going to let you speak that,” he said, laughing.

Hopkins did require surgery for a Grade 3 MCL tear in his right knee in 2021. He missed the Cardinals’ final six games, including their postseason loss.

He’s hoping not to miss any time this season, expecting to play Sunday against the Bears.

“Right now, the way I feel, hopefully I can get out there Sunday and perform,” Hopkins said.

He led the Titans with 75 receptions for 1,057 yards and seven touchdowns last season.

The team added Calvin Ridley and Tyler Boyd this offseason to go with Hopkins, with Treylon Burks and Nick Westbrook-Ikhine in line to spell Hopkins if needed.

THIS AND THAT

DB PICKS

Some random predictions –

* Not that we’re rooting for it, but we think the Chiefs will repeat – best QB, top defense, and now the X factor.

* The four best NFC teams are in the North and West.  We’ll take the Lions going to the SB, beating out Green Bay for the division and the 49ers and Rams in the playoffs.

* Teams that will be better than most think – Arizona, Tampa Bay

* Teams that won’t be as good as most think – Buffalo, Philadelphia

* Caleb Williams will not be the best rookie QB.

FRANCHISE VALUATIONS

CNBC says the Cowboys are worth twice as much as the Bengals.

Here we rank professional football teams on overall franchise value, calculated by CNBC senior sports reporter Michael Ozanian. The rankings factor in a team’s revenue, profit and debt to match up the 32 clubs ahead of the start to the NFL season.

Today, the average NFL team is worth $6.49 billion, representing major returns for league owners. Among the factors driving up values this year are big-money media deals, sponsorship revenue and non-NFL events at team stadiums, including Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour.

Along with this year’s list, we look at how the Dallas Cowboys went from losing $1 million a month to becoming the NFL’s most valuable franchise at $11 billion, and why the Los Angeles Rams are worth so much more than the Los Angeles Chargers.

With global sports business booming and private equity investors finally off the NFL sidelines, where does your team rank among professional football’s most valuable franchises?

CNBC Official 2024 NFL Team Valuations

Rank       Team                                Value       RevenueEBITDA Debt as % of value              Owner(s)

1.             Dallas Cowboys                 $11B       $1.22B   $550M   3%          Jerry Jones

2.             Los Angeles Rams              $8B         $825M   $243M   44%        Stanley Kroenke

3.             New England Patriots         $7.9B     $740M   $250M   3%          Robert Kraft

4.             New York Giants               $7.85B     $723M   $185M   6%          John Mara, Steve Tisch

5.             Las Vegas Raiders              $7.8B     $780M   $115M   18%        Mark Davis

6.             San Francisco 49ers           $7.4B     $687M   $138M   3%          Denise DeBartolo York, John York

7.             New York Jets                    $7.35B   $677M   $145M   7%          Woody Johnson, C, Johnson

8.             Miami Dolphins                   $7.1B     $673M   $160M   7%          Stephen Ross

9.             Philadelphia Eagles            $7B         $669M   $138M   3%          Jeffrey Lurie

10.          Chicago Bears                    $6.4B     $590M   $103M   2%          Virginia Halas McCaskey

11.          Houston Texans                  $6.35B  $640M   $122M   0%          Cal McNair

12.          Green Bay Packers             $6.3B     $638M   $128M   2%          Publicly owned nonprofit

13.          Washington Commanders $6.25B   $602M   $137M   17%        Josh Harris

14.          Denver Broncos                  $6.2B     $613M   $108M   3%          Rob Walton

15.          Seattle Seahawks               $6.11B   $600M   $82M      3%          Paul G. Allen Trust

16.          Atlanta Falcons                   $6.1B     $625M   $101M   16%        Arthur Blank

17.          Pittsburgh Steelers              $6.08B   $596M   $105M   3%          Arthur Rooney II, Dan Rooney Trust

18.          Kansas City Chiefs              $6.07B   $590M   $90M      1%          Lamar Hunt family

19.          Minnesota Vikings               $6.06B   $587M   $100M   9%          Wilf family

20.          Tampa Bay Buccaneers     $6.05B   $640M   $134M   3%          Glazer family

21.          Baltimore Ravens               $6.03B   $584M   $46M      4%          Steve Bisciotti

22.          Cleveland Browns               $6.02B   $581M   $95M      5%          Jimmy Haslam, Dee Haslam

23.          Tennessee Titans                $6.01B   $559M   $112M   8%          Amy Adams Strunk

24.          Jacksonville Jaguars          $6B         $567M   $139M   5%          Shad Khan

25.          Carolina Panthers               $5.9B     $571M   $84M      3%          David Tepper

26.          Los Angeles Chargers        $5.83B   $564M   $93M      14%        Spanos family

27.          Indianapolis Colts                $5.8B     $564M   $47M      9%          James Irsay

28.          New Orleans Saints            $5.5B     $569M   $83M      5%          Gayle Benson

29.          Detroit Lions                        $5.4B     $546M   $75M      4%          William Clay Ford family

30.          Buffalo Bills                         $5.35B  $551M   $29M      7%          Terry Pegula, Kim Pegula

31.          Arizona Cardinals                $5.3B     $543M   $85M      3%          Michael Bidwill

32.          Cincinnati Bengals              $5.25B   $546M   $42M      2%          Mike Brown

So a 10% share of the Raiders is worth $780 million?

Michael Ozanian of CNBC with more on the value of NFL franchises:

A National Football League team today is a $6.5 billion business.

That is the average value of the NFL’s 32 franchises, according to CNBC’s Official 2024 NFL Team Valuations. Pro football teams have been a lucrative asset for owners in the most popular U.S. sports league: The returns they have seen on their initial investments dwarf the gains of traditional stocks over matching time periods.

Take, for example, the Houston Texans, No. 11 on CNBC’s 2024 value rankings. Back in 1999, the last time the NFL expanded, the late Robert McNair agreed to buy the rights to the franchise at a purchase price of $600 million, which takes into account payment structure and the value of a deal over time. The Texans are now worth $6.35 billion, more than 10 times McNair’s fee and three times more than the gains of the S&P 500  since that year.

That’s not bad for a team that has a record of 152-202-1 over its 22 seasons and has never made it to the Super Bowl.

And the Texans aren’t alone.

Across the past 10 NFL teams to be sold, seven of the 10 outperform the S&P 500 on a percentage-gained basis in the period since the sale. The Washington Commanders and the Denver Broncos — No. 13 and No. 14 on CNBC’s 2024 team valuations list, respectively — underperform broader market gains and, notably, were sold within the past two years. The Miami Dolphins, No. 8 on CNBC’s list, also lag the S&P, but were last sold in 2009 when the stock market was emerging from a bottom after getting pummeled during the 2007-08 financial crisis.

The escalation in football team values is largely the result of the league’s massive and growing media deals.

The NFL’s current television agreements with Comcast, Disney, Paramount and Fox,

 which began last season, are worth an average of $9.2 billion a year, 85% more than the previous deals.

Add in the streaming deals with YouTube for NFL Sunday Ticket and with Amazon Prime

 for Thursday Night Football, and the NFL is guaranteed an average of $12.4 billion a year through 2032 — almost double the $6.48 billion a year it collected during its previous media rights cycle.

On top of those bulk agreements, the league has been boosting its media revenue by selling additional streaming games.

Last season, the NFL sold exclusive streaming rights to a Wild Card playoff game to Comcast’s Peacock streaming service for $110 million, according to a person familiar with the deal.

The league sold three exclusive streaming packages for this season: two Christmas Day games on Netflix  for a total of $150 million; a Wild Card game on Amazon Prime for $120 million; and an international regular-season game on Peacock for $80 million, according to the person familiar with the agreements. The league should get about $200 million for its commercial Sunday Ticket rights, which gets an array of NFL games into bars and restaurants, according to the person familiar with the matter.

All of those agreements combined bring total media rights fees to $357 million per team, up from $325 million in 2023.

CNBC sources requested anonymity to discuss the specifics of deals that aren’t publicly available.

A rising tide lifts all boats in the NFL. The 32 teams share the national media deal revenue evenly, along with money from leaguewide sponsorship and licensing deals and 34% of gate receipts. In 2023, $13.68 billion, or 67%, of the NFL’s $20.47 billion in revenue was shared equally.

When such large revenue sharing is combined with a salary cap that limits player spending to about 49% of revenue, teams in small markets such as Green Bay; Wisconsin; and Buffalo, New York, can compete with big-market teams in New York and Los Angeles. The small-market Kansas City Chiefs, No. 18 on CNBC’s 2024 valuation rankings, have won the past two Super Bowls and three of the past five.

But there is still a wide chasm in team values, largely due to stadiums. Teams do not share revenue from luxury suites, on-site restaurants, merchandise stores, sponsorships or non-NFL events at their stadiums.

Last year, that made a bigger difference than usual.

Pop star Taylor Swift performed at several NFL stadiums last year as part of her blockbuster Eras Tour, including Los Angeles’ SoFi Stadium, Tampa Bay’s Raymond James Stadium, New England’s Gillette Stadium and Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field. One Eras Tour stop netted $4 million in revenue per show for the hosting stadium, according to a person familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss confidential information.

The Dolphins’ Hard Rock Stadium, also an Eras Tour stop, raked in more than $30 million last year from college football games, soccer matches, concerts, festivals and tennis matches — and it could double that this year, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Return on investment

The revenue sharing and salary-cap agreements also make the league very profitable.

During the 2023 season, the NFL’s 32 teams generated average revenue of $640 million and average operating income — earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization — of $127 million. The typical NFL team has an EBITDA margin of 19%.

Financial success for the NFL has meant higher premiums for team sales.

Two years ago, Walmart heir Rob Walton bought the Denver Broncos for $4.65 billion, or 8.8-times the team’s revenue. But these days, a prospective owner would be hard-pressed to pay less than 10-times revenue for a team. The average value-to-revenue multiple in CNBC’s 2024 ranking of all 32 teams is 10.2.

Last year, private equity billionaire Josh Harris purchased the Washington Commanders for $6.05 billion, or 11-times revenue. Earlier this year, a prospective owner looked into buying the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for about $6 billion, which would have valued the team at 9.4-times revenue, according to two people familiar with the matter.

When teams do change hands, they have proven to be a smart investment.

The league’s most valuable team, the Dallas Cowboys, is worth $11 billion — 73 times what owner Jerry Jones paid for the team in 1989. The S&P 500 is up just 18-fold since Jones bought the Cowboys.

The Cowboys posted by far the most revenue of any team in the league last year, at $1.22 billion, and the most operating income, at $550 million, in large part because of sponsorship revenue. Dallas is approaching an NFL-leading $250 million in revenue from sponsors, according to CNBC sources.

The Los Angeles Rams, No. 2 on CNBC’s 2024 valuations list, were also No. 2 in revenue, with $825 million. The Rams were also second in the league in sponsorship revenue and brought in some serious money by hosting more than 25 nonfootball events at SoFi Stadium, including six sold-out nights of Swift’s Eras Tour and three of Beyoncé’s Renaissance Tour, as well as concerts for Ed Sheeran, Metallica and Pink.

The Rams, who were in St. Louis when sports and entertainment mogul Stanley Kroenke bought the team for $750 million in 2010, are now worth $8 billion. Even factoring in the $550 million relocation fee Kroenke had to pay the league to move the team to Los Angeles, as well as a $571 million settlement fee related to legal challenges for relocating, his investment is up more than four-fold.

The rise in NFL team values explains why private equity firms are chomping at the bit to invest in the league.

For several years now, Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association, the National Hockey League and Major League Soccer have all permitted institutional investors to buy limited partner stakes in teams. European soccer leagues such as the English Premier League have also.

The NFL followed suit just last week. The league owners voted to allow a select group of private equity firms — Ares Management, Sixth Street Partners, Arctos Partners and an investing consortium made up of Dynasty Equity, Blackstone, Carlyle Group, CVC Capital Partners and Ludis — to take up to 10% stakes in NFL franchises. The firms committed $12 billion in capital over time, people familiar with the matter told CNBC.

Allowing private equity firms to invest in the league should make it easier to finance the purchase of a team.

Even the lowest-valued team on CNBC’s list, the Cincinnati Bengals, is worth $5.25 billion.

Factoring in the league’s maximum allowable debt of $1.4 billion, that leaves an equity burden of $3.8 billion. Assuming a general partner would hold the minimum required 30%, limited partners need to put in a combined $2.7 billion to get in the game.