There will only be two preseason games in 2020, and the NFL didn’t cut the first two weeks.  Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com: It’s been rumored and expected. It’s now official: The 2020 preseason will be trimmed from four games to two.   Specifically, Week One and Week Four have been scrapped. The league is expected to announce the move on Thursday.   The move was driven by two primary factors. First, teams who will be playing preseason games on the road won’t want to move that many people. Second, given that no teams had on-field practice sessions in the offseason, coaches would rather have the extra time to work with their teams, and that will happen if they don’t have to worry about two extra preseason games.   Already, the Week Four preseason game is worthless (or, more accurately, less worthless than the other preseason games). So it’s really only the loss of one preseason game. And the first preseason game doesn’t typically involve much work from starters, anyway. Florio hears that the NFLPA wants to do away with those two games also. The NFL has decided to cut the preseason in half. NFL Media reports that the NFL Players Association has yet to sign off on this. Which makes sense, because the NFLPA hasn’t signed off on anything, including the league’s protocol for facility and locker-room virus safety.   The NFLPA doesn’t have to sign off on the length of the preseason, however. The 2020 labor deal states only that the league may, in a season with 16 regular-season games, hold no more than four preseason games. If the NFL wants to cut the preseason from four to two, it can.   The broader point is that everything currently is on the table, as the NFL and NFLPA continue to hash out the details for training camp, the preseason, and the regular season. The NFLPA has the ability to push for no preseason games; the NFL would want some other concession for that.   Basically, only a few months after labor and management worked out a comprehensive labor deal that covers the next 11 years, they’ll be back at the table, hammering out an agreement that will cover all procedures and protocols for 2020, including the number of preseason games, the possibility of game-day travel, adjustments if any to the salary cap and player salaries, a player’s ability to opt out, and many, many more. The agreement also may spill into 2021 and beyond, with salary-cap ramifications arising from the pandemic being handled now, not later.   As NFLPA president JC Tretter has said, every question leads to an answer that gives rise to three more questions. And the NFL and NFLPA currently are trying to resolve all of these issues with the clock pounding toward the launch of training camp. So for those players complaining that the NFL hasn’t given them “answers”, the ball seems to be in the player’s court. – – – Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com on the NFL’s desire for their “hold harmless” clause to specifically prevent fans from bringing grandiose law suits if they come down with Covid-19 after attending a game: The NFL wants fans to be able to attend games during a pandemic. The NFL doesn’t want to be responsible for what may happen to fans who attend games during a pandemic.   Daniel Kaplan of TheAthletic.com reports that the league is considering a requirement that fans sign liability waivers protecting the league from lawsuits based on contracting COVID-19. The potential waiver “likely” will be forwarded to teams by the middle of next week.   “It is probably something you do electronically, just trying to figure out the operational challenges associated with waivers,” an unnamed source told Kaplan. “Just have to work out how best to do that.”   Although no waiver is necessary as to the question of whether fans who attend games assume the risk of catching the virus (indeed, anyone and everyone with any amount of sense and awareness knows about the virus by now), the question becomes whether teams and stadiums can or will take reasonable steps to protect fans from getting it. And the problem is that, if someone catches it, they’ll be inclined to argue that, whatever the teams or stadiums did, it clearly wasn’t good enough.   That said, it will be difficult to prove that a fan caught the virus at the game, even if there’s evidence of negligence or recklessness by teams and stadiums.   With so many unresolved issues still percolating in the NFL as it tries to figure out how to accomplish the 2020 season, I’d rather see the NFL spending time and effort resolving the various challenges than coming up with ways to escape liability to paying customers, especially if teams and stadiums eventually engage in behavior for which they should be held liable.   Put another way, the league should be spending its time focusing on insisting on fan wearing masks to games instead of insisting on fans signing away their rights. It is similar to the issue baseball faces with foul balls, golf with errant golf shots and hockey with pucks.  Steps are taken with nets in baseball and hockey to protect fans, but there still is a chance those steps will fail in unusual incidents. We would also assume that those who sit courtside at NBA games assume a risk of injury from falling players, but we don’t have knowledge of that.

NFC EAST

WASHINGTON Tony Dungy, a voice of reason, favors a change of name for Washington’s team.  Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com: Washington coach Ron Rivera believes that now isn’t the time to discuss whether the team’s name should change. Hall of Fame coach Tony Dungy believes that time already has come and gone; Dungy tells William C. Rhoden of ESPN.com’s The Undefeated that Dungy already has stopped using the name on the air.   “It’s not hard to change the name,” Dungy told Rhoden. “When I’m on the air, I try to just refer to them as Washington. I think it’s appropriate. If the team doesn’t want to change, the least I can do is try not to use it.”   Appearing on 670 The Score in Chicago earlier this week, Rivera defended the name in part by saying that the name was always the name when he was growing up, and it’s simply what the name is and has been for decades.   Dungy, who is older than Rivera and has been in and around football longer than him, isn’t swayed by that thinking.   “You can say, ‘This has been a historic name and we’ve used it for this team for X number of years, but in this day and age, it’s offensive to some people, so we’re going to change it,’” Dungy told Rhoden. “I don’t think that’s hard.”   It’s not hard. Especially not now. Beyond being the right thing to do in this moment of racial reckoning and awakening, a new name could energize the team and attract new fans. To the extent that some fans would disavow the franchise if it dares to abandon a dictionary-defined slur as its primary method of identification, are those really fans that any franchise should want? – – – Woke investors are going after unwoke corporations for their contacts with the Redskins.  John Keim of ESPN.com: The Washington Redskins face renewed pressure to change their nickname, but this time protestors are targeting their sponsors, Adweek reported.   According to the report Wednesday, Nike, FedEx and PepsiCo each received letters signed by 87 investment firms and shareholders worth a combined $620 billion asking the companies to sever ties with the Redskins unless they change their controversial name. There has been more pressure in recent weeks to change their name given the social climate following the death of George Floyd in Minnesota.   The Redskins have contributed to some of that change, removing the name of former owner George Preston Marshall from their ring of fame. Marshall was the last NFL owner to integrate his roster, and did so only under pressure from the government to avoid losing a 30-year lease on federal land.   But Native American leaders want owner Dan Snyder to change the name, which the franchise has used since 1933. In the past, groups protested the name and tried to win in court. Those efforts failed. Now investors are appealing to the sponsors, something that one former high-ranking Redskins employee called “different.”   Adweek listed six investment groups in particular: First Peoples Worldwide, Oneida Nation Trust Enrollment Committee, Trillium Asset Management, LLC Boston Common Asset Management, LLC Boston Trust Walden Mercy Investment Services and First Affirmative Financial Network. The groups appealed to PepsiCo after it dropped the Aunt Jemima image from its syrup. In the letter, they praised Nike for its association with Colin Kaepernick, but noted, “However, Nike continues to provide uniforms and equipment to the Washington, D.C. NFL football team which bears the logo and name.”

NFC WEST

SEATTLE WR ANTONIO BROWN has made his way to the side of QB RUSSELL WILSON.  Grant Gordon of NFL.com: Roughly a week removed from NFL Network’s Michael Silver reporting that the Seattle Seahawks — along with the Baltimore Ravens — were having internal discussions regarding signing wide receiver Antonio Brown, the seven-time Pro Bowler posted a video on his Instagram account of Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson and Brown working out together.   Brown’s caption to the video read: “Who would like to see this on Sundays? That was fun!!!!!!!!!!”     The video saw Brown go in motion and beat coverage to haul in a long ball in the end zone from Wilson.   Perhaps another next chance awaits Brown in the Pacific Northwest.   A tumultuous tenure for Brown and the Steelers ended in the 2019 offseason when he was traded to the Raiders. Brown never played for the Raiders, though, as he was released and subsequently picked up by the Patriots ahead of the 2019 season opener. His stay in New England was also over quickly and Brown has not played since Week 2 of last season.

AFC WEST

KANSAS CITY We’ve thought this for a while as we see 60-yard FGs sail easily over the bar. Michael David Smith of ProFootballTalk.com: Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker got some attention this offseason when he posted a video of himself kicking a 77-yard field goal on an empty practice field. In a game, however, Butker has never even come within 20 yards of that.   But Butker says that a 65-yard field goal is very doable. He said he and a lot of other NFL kickers can make one in game conditions from 65 yards or farther, as long as they’re given the opportunity.   “In terms of the NFL record, there are a ton of kickers that have the leg to make a field goal . . . in a game situation,” Butker said, via ESPN. “It’s just, does the coach want to put the kicker out there, because if he misses, now the other team gets the ball with great field position? So you kind of have to get set up with end-of-half, end-of-game situations. I don’t think we’ve had that situation where it would have been that long of a field goal. But I think definitely when it’s warm out, I’d be prepared to make that kick. I feel super comfortable kicking from distance. Obviously, we’re not going to be kicking field goals from [77 yards] most likely in a game, but it’s going to help me a lot when it’s a 55-yarder, wind’s in your face in January and February. That’s what I’m training for, to be able to make those kicks.”   The current NFL record of 64 yards was set by Matt Prater in Denver in 2013. Other kickers would surely be able to break that record, but many of them have never been given the opportunity to attempt a 65-yard field goal. And to paraphrase Michael Scott quoting Wayne Gretzky, you miss 100 percent of the field goals you don’t attempt.

AFC NORTH

CLEVELAND Long-winded Bill Barnwell of ESPN.com ponders how to re-make QB BAKER MAYFIELD.  Edited version below: You could argue that no player and team came into the 2019 season with more hype behind them than Baker Mayfield and his Cleveland Browns. I wasn’t on this particular bandwagon, but you could understand why people were excited by the league’s most notoriously snakebit franchise. The Browns had finished 2018 by winning five of their last seven games, with Mayfield posting the league’s fourth-best passer rating (108.4) in the process. A developing offensive line had allowed opposing teams to sack Mayfield just three times over that stretch, and with general manager John Dorsey trading for Odell Beckham Jr. over the offseason, Freddie Kitchens’ team seemed to be set to make their first playoff appearance since 2002.   Well, you know what happened. The Browns went 6-10. Beckham wasn’t healthy. The offensive line was a mess. Dorsey and Kitchens were both fired. The qualities that seemed like pluses for Mayfield in 2018 became liabilities in 2019. His confidence spurred belief in a previously moribund franchise as a rookie, but then he spent the offseason taking shots at teammates and fellow quarterbacks. Confidence seemed to turn to cockiness. The plays he made off schedule in 2018 turned into structureless hero ball in 2019. Mayfield was unflappable in 2018 and spent chunks of 2019 tilting at windmills.   Where it all went wrong for Mayfield in 2019 There wasn’t one single reason the Browns’ offense fell off in 2019. There were plays in which the offensive line gave Mayfield little chance of executing the concept. There were times in which he had time to throw and simply missed his receiver. There were moments in which the highly touted receiving corps didn’t do its quarterback any favors. Kitchens’ playcalling didn’t often put his weapons in a place where they could succeed.   In many cases, these problems coalesced and interacted with each other on the same play or within the same concept. Take the Browns’ screen game. With players like Beckham, Jarvis Landry, Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt, they should have had one of the league’s most dynamic screen games. A successful screen game would have kept some of the pressure off Mayfield and Cleveland’s struggling tackle combination of Robinson and Chris Hubbard. Instead,Cleveland games were full of screens in which something would go slightly wrong and it would blow up the play. Mayfield would try to complete screens that were horribly blown up before he even decided to release the pass. I’ve never seen an offense in which the receiver was drawing dead to the nearest defender before he even caught the screen more frequently than the 2019 Browns.   Having a middling screen game is one thing, but that sort of sloppiness permeated the Cleveland passing attack throughout the season. – – – I’m often skeptical of broad narratives surrounding a failing coach. (I saw the Giants supposedly quit on Tom Coughlin seemingly annually during a run where they won two Super Bowls in five seasons.) It might be too simplistic to suggest that Kitchens was overmatched in his first (and likely only) season as a head coach, but there’s plenty of evidence to support that hypothesis.   The offense didn’t play to the strengths of its weapons. Beckham catching slants from Eli Manning with the Giants became a meme, but Kitchens couldn’t unlock the same sort of production on Beckham’s signature route.   Kitchens tagged some of Cleveland’s run plays with the ability to throw a smoke route to Beckham, but perhaps owing to his injury, he couldn’t do much on those throws.   At times, it felt like Kitchens would lean on run-pass options (RPOs) as a way to try to create easy completions for Mayfield. The problem was that every defense Cleveland played knew those RPOs were coming, and while the Browns would have some success, there was rarely a Plan B for when the defense sniffed them out.   The problems with the offense were never resolved.   There were moments where it looked like Mayfield and the Browns could live up to the hype, if for a play or two. Kitchens would pull out something innovative, like a shovel pass into an option with Landry and Beckham. When they were able to protect Mayfield, we occasionally saw the big plays we would have expected from his link with Beckham.   Those moments were few and far between. The additions Cleveland made this offseason were less about creating those moments of magic and more toward building the stability the offense lacked a year ago. The Browns already had their magicians; they spent this offseason going after the players who would save them from having to throw away one or two plays each series thanks to a whiff on a blocking assignment or sloppy execution. Let’s see what they’ll have to do to get Mayfield back on a superstar trajectory.   Where Mayfield needs to improve By just about every measure, Mayfield was a below-average quarterback last season.   If we have to start somewhere in fixing Mayfield, begin with his pocket presence. It was clear from September on that he didn’t trust his offensive line or believe that he was going to be able to work through his progressions from a stable pocket. He was too quick to bail laterally to escape the pocket when he didn’t see what he wanted or expected at the end of his dropback. At the first hint of pressure, he often tried to escape. Once he did, things typically didn’t go well. He posted a passer rating of just 44.9 when he threw from out of the pocket in 2019, the second-worst mark in football. He was at an even 100.0 during the 2018 campaign. Also, nobody held onto the ball longer outside the pocket on average than Mayfield, a sign that he wasn’t finding productive solutions to his problems once he escaped.   What makes this even more frustrating is that Mayfield came out of Oklahoma as someone who had grown dramatically as a pocket passer dealing with pressure. He spent his three years as a starter under Lincoln Riley, who focused many of his drills on training him to keep his eyes up and make plays in the pocket under pressure. One such drill included peppering him with medicine balls while he moved within the pocket, forcing him to keep his eyes upright and protect the football while waiting to find an open receiver.   Mayfield’s QBR under pressure at Oklahoma jumped from 9.1 in 2015 to 36.2 over the 2016 and 2017 campaigns; the only quarterback in the nation with a better QBR under pressure over those last two seasons was Sam Darnold. Mayfield wasn’t awful under pressure last season — his 18.4 QBR was 12th — but there were too many times in which he left the pocket and missed an opportunity because he wasn’t comfortable or confident working there.   The biggest way the Browns aim to remedy Mayfield’s shakiness is to improve their protection. Robinson was out of the league before being arrested for allegedly possessing 157 pounds of marijuana, while Hubbard was moved into the same swing tackle role he excelled with as a member of the Steelers. The Browns spent lavishly on their replacements, signing Titans right tackle Jack Conklin to a three-year, $42 million deal in free agency before using the 10th overall pick on Alabama tackle Jedrick Wills Jr.   One of the reasons Hubbard excelled in Pittsburgh before struggling in Cleveland was the presence of offensive line coach Mike Munchak, who molded Hubbard from an undrafted free agent into a valuable, versatile offensive lineman. Munchak is now with the Broncos, and one of the few offensive line coaches who have a case for being in Munchak’s league joined the Browns this offseason. It’s one of the most valuable under-the-radar additions any team made.   Bill Callahan has built very good lines wherever he has gone over the past decade, often by molding young players into valuable contributors. With the Jets, it was D’Brickashaw Ferguson and Nick Mangold, both of whom turned into regular Pro Bowlers after Callahan arrived. In Dallas, Callahan inherited Tyron Smith and then helped Travis Frederick turn into one of the league’s best centers. With Washington, Callahan molded Brandon Scherff into a top guard and got the most out of players like Morgan Moses, Chase Roullier and Ty Nsekhe. There are a lot of first-round picks in that bunch, but if Callahan can continue to produce stars, the Browns are going to be in much better shape up front.   Better protection will help Mayfield, but that’s not going to be enough. New offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt has already taken on the task of trying to rebuild Mayfield’s footwork, suggesting that Van Pelt, whom you might remember during his time with the Bills from 1994 to 2003, wants his quarterbacks’ footwork to be “…like Mozart, not Metallica.” Teaching a quarterback new footwork isn’t easy under normal circumstances; with the coronavirus eliminating minicamps, Van Pelt has used a video application he learned about from a golf lesson to help Mayfield study remotely.   If Mayfield grows more comfortable with the footwork Van Pelt is prescribing, the benefits could be significant. He would get into his dropback and presumably get the ball out quicker, which will help keep pressure away. It could also reduce the number of small steps he takes at the end of his drop to try to help create throwing lanes, which would make it easier for his tackles to pass block.   The problem is that mechanical changes don’t always stick. Blake Bortles spent 2014 and 2015 rebuilding his mechanics, but many of those mechanical fixes went by the wayside during a difficult 2016 campaign. Bortles then rebuilt his mechanics in 2017 before losing the plot again in 2018. Will Mayfield trust in the new footwork when he needs to make a big play? If he’s feeling pressured and the results aren’t there, will he revert to his old footwork? We won’t know until we actually see him on the field this season.   Concise, repeatable footwork also plays a huge role in quarterback accuracy, and a more accurate Mayfield should be able to improve on his 21-interception total from 2019. After adjusting for era, his 3.9% interception rate was the second-worst mark since the merger for a quarterback in his second season over 400 or more attempts. Only Vinny Testaverde’s 35-interception campaign from 1988 was worse.   The biggest move the Browns made to rebuild Mayfield after a shaky season was to hire Stefanski, who was a finalist for the job when it went to Kitchens last offseason. Stefanski spent only one full season as the offensive coordinator and playcaller for Minnesota, but the results were impressive; the Vikings improved to 10th in offensive DVOA, while quarterback Kirk Cousins had his best season as a pro in the process. In many ways, Cousins was great in the places where Mayfield struggled.   Can Stefanski fix Mayfield? Cousins was one of the most accurate quarterbacks in football last season. While Mayfield’s completion percentage above expectation (CPOE) was among the worst in the league, Cousins’ 69.1% completion rate was 5.5 percentage points above expectation, the best mark in the league for a passer with 400 attempts or more. He was fourth in the NFL in adjusted completion percentage at 74.6%. The same Cousins who posted historically bad interception rates early in his career threw picks on just 1.4% of his throws in 2019, the ninth-lowest rate in the league.   The only other time Cousins has approached his 2019 level of play was in 2016, when his offensive coordinator in Washington was a little-known 30-year-old named Sean McVay. Browns fans understandably would love it if the 38-year-old Stefanski turned into the Midwestern version of the Rams’ coach, but it’s not quite that simple. Let’s dig into the offensive structure and scheme Stefanski used in Minnesota last season and see what it might do for Mayfield.   To start, the Vikings ran the ball. A lot. On early downs while games were still competitive, the Vikings had the NFL’s fifth-highest run rate. With Gary Kubiak on staff as a consultant, Stefanski installed a version of the Shanahan/Kubiak rushing attack that has unlocked huge seasons from a small army of running backs. Unsurprisingly, Dalvin Cook had his best pro season, although the Vikings still only finished 16th in rushing efficiency.   Unsurprisingly, the passing attack Stefanski implemented to work off that running game featured heavy doses of play-action. More than 31% of Cousins’ pass attempts incorporated play-action, the fourth-highest rate of any starting quarterback. The tactic worked: Cousins posted the second-best passer rating in the league off play-action, a whopping 130.1. He was still effective without play-action, ranking sixth in passer rating without a play fake, but his passer rating there was more than 33 points lower.   As I mentioned in the Josh Allen piece on Wednesday, a heavier dose of play-action will make Mayfield better, in part because it makes everyone better. The splits for quarterbacks using play-action last year were staggering. When quarterbacks didn’t use a play-fake, they posted a passer rating similar to that of Philip Rivers. When they did use play-action, quarterbacks posted a passer rating closer to that of Patrick Mahomes. Why shouldn’t NFL teams take advantage of that opportunity every chance they get?   Mayfield, the 2018 NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year, completed just 59.4% of his passes last season. Stacy Revere/Getty Images It wasn’t a huge surprise that the Vikings went with a heavy dose of play-action. Before the season, Cousins reported that Minnesota’s analytics department showed him how much more effective he was as a play-action passer. Stefanski admitted to reading the various studies on play-action circulating around the internet, including Ben Baldwin’s article suggesting that there’s no relationship between “establishing the run” and play-action efficiency.   With the Dorsey regime removed from power after the disastrous 2019 campaign and analytics-friendly executive Andrew Berry taking over as general manager, the Browns are again one of the league’s most numbers-friendly organizations. Mayfield was a totally different quarterback when he used play-action a year ago; his 106.2 passer rating with play-action was the 13th-best mark in football, but that fell all the way to 68.7 without using play fakes, which ranked 32nd. Mayfield’s interception rate jumped from 2.5% with play-action to 3.8% without. Research suggests that NFL teams haven’t yet hit a point where defenses stop reacting to play-action.   In a vacuum, everything seems to point to the Browns posting one of the highest play-action rates in league history. My lone concern goes back to Mayfield and where he wants to work from. In 2019, 135 of Cousins’ 139 play-action attempts came from under center. Mayfield typically isn’t under center that frequently. Nearly 82% of his pass attempts came out of the pistol or shotgun a year ago, and while that number was closer to 50-50 when play-action was involved, I wonder whether Stefanski & Co. will want to put Mayfield under center that much.   It also seems likely that the Browns will change their personnel packages. Last year, they worked out of 11 personnel (one running back, one tight end, three wide receivers) more than 56% of the time. It was their least effective package; by NFL Next Gen Stats’ version of Success Rate, the Browns were successful on only 43% of their snaps out of 11 personnel. Cleveland was far more effective out of 12 personnel (50% Success Rate), which they used about half as frequently. They were even more successful in limited doses of 20 personnel (53% Success Rate) and 21 personnel (58%).   The Vikings were in 11 personnel just 20.6% of the time last season; they essentially used five personnel groupings, and the other four all included at least two running backs or two tight ends. Like the Vikings, the Browns have two star wide receivers and a dynamic running back. It’s not an accident that they went out this offseason and signed Falcons tight end Austin Hooper, retained former first-rounder David Njoku and traded for Broncos fullback Andy Janovich. Even without considering that Landry is recovering from hip surgery and might not be ready to start the season, it’s clear that the Browns are going to move away from using 11 personnel as their base offensive package.   What they have that the Vikings didn’t, though, is Hunt. Alexander Mattison looked promising as a rookie, but Hunt’s skill set — particularly as a receiver — makes him an interesting proposition for this offense. Mayfield’s best numbers as a passer last season came when he had Hunt on the field, either alongside Chubb or on his own. His passer rating was north of 59 in both situations. He really struggled in his 118 dropbacks without one of his two starting backs on the field, posting a scarcely believable QBR of just 18.0.   There are two places Hunt can make a significant impact. One is in the screen game. The Vikings were one of the most efficient screen teams in the league a year ago; Cousins converted 44% of his screens into first downs, the highest rate for any starting quarterback. The other is when the Browns empty out the backfield and try to match up Hunt against a linebacker. Mayfield posted the league’s 31st-best passer rating (70.8) out of an empty sets a year ago, and while Cousins wasn’t much better at 79.9, the Vikings didn’t frequently use empty looks.   With Hunt and Hooper, the Browns have the weapons to come out in 12 or 21 personnel, spread the defense out wide with motion and rebuild Mayfield’s confidence in the quick game by giving him easy mismatches to exploit. They preferred to use RPOs as their quick game for Mayfield in 2019; I expect them to revert to a more traditional approach this season.   How to measure success from Mayfield in 2020 OK. Having laid out all of that, what would qualify as a successful return to form for Mayfield?   1. He needs to grow more comfortable in the pocket.   2. He needs to cut his interception rate.   3. He needs to leave no doubt. This is a critical year for Mayfield. It’s not out of the question that this could be his last season as the Browns’ starter if he continues to struggle. It seems crazy to imagine him going from toast of the town as a rookie to fighting for his job in Year 4, but the Bears went from thinking Mitchell Trubisky was a franchise quarterback after the 2018 season to turning down his fifth-year option a year later. The Browns will have to decide on Mayfield’s fifth-year option next spring, and if he disappoints for the second straight campaign, it’s not going to be an easy call.   Last year, while he struggled and took plenty of criticism, it was easy to make excuses and point toward the problems elsewhere on the roster. The coach wasn’t up to the task. His tackles were awful. His receivers were hurt or injured. Now, the excuses are (mostly) gone. If Mayfield doesn’t look like the quarterback we saw in the second half of 2018, the blame is going to be squarely on his shoulders. The Browns don’t have to be great, but they can’t be depressing, at least not on his account.

AFC EAST

MIAMI The idea of stadiums filled to the brim with fans seems to be fading under political pressure/lingering virus, but the Dolphins still believe they can have a reduced crowd.  Michael David Smith of ProFootballTalk.com: Although the NFL is still planning to open the season on time with fans in stadiums, the COVID-19 situation in some states is trending in the wrong direction.   One of those states is Florida, and Miami Dolphins chief executive officer Tom Garfinkel acknowledged that for some fans, it simply won’t be safe to be in large crowds when the season starts. But Garfinkel believes that the stadium won’t be completely empty.   “We will be going to our fans saying if you are in any way at risk we don’t think you should come, assuming we are going to be playing with some level of fans — which at this point may or may not happen,” he said, via Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald. “It’s very uncertain. I am optimistic we will play with some fans and am hopeful about that. Assuming that’s the case, we will recommend to fans who are any way at risk not to come. Our season-ticket holders can roll over money into next year. They will be able to roll over and keep their tenure.”   Garfinkel said the Dolphins have “a no-fans scenario, a socially distanced stadium scenario, which would be roughly 15,000 to 20,000 fans and then maybe half-capacity scenario. We have all of those scenarios with a lot of details for each, different budgets for each. Things are changing daily. A few weeks ago, things were looking great and [the] last few weeks things have changed.”   No NFL teams will be playing at full capacity, as every team is going to block off the front few rows to keep players and fans from getting too close. But whether stadiums will otherwise be mostly full, mostly empty or totally empty remains to be seen. At this point, teams are still hoping they can make it happen with fans in attendance.

NEW ENGLAND QB CAM NEWTON allowed the Patriots to franchise tag him for 2021 should they so desire.  CBSBoston.com: Cam Newton’s deal with the Patriots is for just one season, as the former league MVP will be looking to prove everybody wrong with a bounceback season for the ages. And if Newton succeeds in that endeavor, the Patriots will have the contractual freedom to keep the quarterback around for a second year.   That’s because, according to CBS’ Jason La Canfora, the language in Newton’s contract does not restrict the team from placing the franchise tag on Newton for 2021, if the team wanted to do so.   Of course, the Patriots would only be inclined to make such a move if two things happen. First, Newton would have to play like a top-10 quarterback in the NFL. Secondly, the Patriots and Newton would have to have been unable to find any common ground on a long-term contract. It’s entirely possible that at some point between September and March, the two sides do indeed agree to a longer-term deal.   Newton is set to earn a base salary of $1.1 million in 2020, with a number of incentives that could earn him up to $7.5 million.   The cost for a quarterback with the franchise tag in 2020 is just under $27 million. The Patriots would likely be very hesitant to dedicate that kind of money to the quarterback, but with a large amount of cap space opening up after the 2020 season, Bill Belichick is likely quite pleased to have that option at his disposal. Randy Moss thinks the Patriots offense might be more “fun” with Newton at the helm.  Kevin Patra of NFL.com: Randy Moss set records with Tom Brady in the New England Patriots offense. The Hall of Fame receiver, however, believes Cam Newton will bring out the “fun” in the Pats’ O.   “I think we are really getting ready to see how fun that offense can really be,” Moss said Tuesday on ESPN, via NJ.com. “Not discrediting anything Tom accomplished because he accomplished some great things, but I think being able to have a guy like Cam Newton that can run the ball, they are able to spread guys out, and then being able to be that viable threat in the passing game that he can just tuck the ball and run.”   There is no question a healthy Newton brings diversity to the Patriots offense that Brady never could. Fun is in the eye of the beholder. The historic 2007 Pats offense with TB12 and Moss divebombing defenses was as exciting as all get-out. Newton’s brand of offense should be a different kind of fun.   “I just think what we have seen coming out of New England for the past, let’s say 20 years, there is going to be a change in New England,” Moss said. “But I think we are going to see them have a lot more fun out there and Cam Newton is going to give them that opportunity for the fans, not just the New England Patriots fans, but the football fans around the world to really see how fun this offense can really be.”   For that fun, diverse offense to be employed, Newton must remain healthy for the first time in years. – – – Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com tries to figure out why the Patriots were whacked for “inadvertently” filming the sideline of the Bengals (of all teams) – and the NFL hasn’t provided any help: The latest punishment of the New England Patriots came with no press release or other announcement from the NFL. Although the league confirmed reports regarding the price to be paid by the Patriots for the taping of the Cincinnati sideline a week before the Patriots were scheduled to play the Bengals, the league hasn’t done what it’s done in many other instances of discipline: Review the evidence, disclose the penalty, and explain the connection between the conduct and the consequences.   Throw in the fact that the Patriots deftly leaked their agreement with Cam Newton just before the news of the punishment emerged on the Sunday evening of one of the quietest weeks of the year, and this case has gone largely unexplored. So let’s explore it now.   The Patriots had a film crew at the December 8 game between the Browns and the Bengals, ostensibly to record footage for an episode of the team’s “Do Your Job” series regarding the team’s scouting department. The Patriots promptly admitted that the film crew “inappropriately filmed the field from the press box.”   The obvious question regarding the league’s investigation related to whether the video crew had any connection to New England football operations. Reports from the aftermath of the incident indicated that the league had not found any connection between the video crew and football operations. We had learned at the time that league investigators were showing signs of irritation and frustration during interviews with relevant employees, when no proof of a link between the video crew and football operations could be developed.   At no point has anyone suggested the existence of a link between the video crew and football operations. The league, by simply confirming the reports regarding the penalties, has avoided saying whether evidence of a link was ever found. Per a source with knowledge of the situation, there was no link and no proof of a link.   So why did the Patriots receive a $1.1 million fine and lose a third-round draft pick? On multiple occasions earlier this year, reporters suggested that, absent proof of a link between the video crew and football operations, the situation would be treated like similar infractions from recent years. Adam Schefter of ESPN, for example, cited two prior incidents as providing the basis for eventual discipline: The suspension of Browns G.M. Ray Farmer for four games and a $250,000 fine for the team due to in-game texting to the sidelines; and the forfeiture of a fifth-round pick, a $350,000 team fine, and a suspension of team president Rich McKay from the Competition Committee after the Falcons used fake crowd noise at the Georgia Dome.   Other incidents cited by Mark Maske of the Washington Post as comparable to the current situation at the time were former Giants coach Ben McAdoo improperly using a walkie-talkie on the sideline ($150,000 fine, fourth-round pick reduced), the original #DeflateGate penalty ($1 million fine, first-round and fourth-round pick stripped), and the Ravens having two defensive players on the field with coach-to-player communication devices in their helmets ($200,000 fine).   As PFT pointed out at the time, a key difference exists between each of those incidents and the Patriots’ filming of the Cincinnati sidelines: The Patriots’ recording of the Cincinnati sideline, unlike the other examples, didn’t happen with any specific effort or desire to gain a competitive advantage. Given the absence of any link between the video crew and football operations, there was no a mechanism for turning the footage into a strategic benefit.   The league nevertheless whacked the Patriots, presumably because of their history — and possibly because (as one source with another team opined to PFT) certain league officials don’t like the Patriots and/or their head coach. Regardless, the league owes it to the Patriots and the other 31 franchises to explain what the league found and why the league converted that evidence into a fairly significant punishment.   If nothing else, details regarding the basis for punishing the Patriots become relevant precedent that would deter all teams from engaging in similar behavior. Without those details, the deterrence is vague and fuzzy. Other teams don’t know where the line is, because the league didn’t bother to explain where the line was.   Thus, on behalf of all teams (whether they want us to speak for them or not), we make this request to the league office: Release all details as to what the investigation found, and provide an explanation connecting the evidence to the consequence. Alternatively, if that information isn’t going to be provided, explain the reason for the lack of transparency.

THIS AND THAT

BILL COWHER, COVID-19 SURVIVOR In July, former coach Bill Cowher can confirm that he did have Wuhan Covid-19 after a visit to New York in March.  Brooke Pryor of ESPN.com: Former Pittsburgh Steelers coach and Hall of Famer Bill Cowher says he can be added to the list of sports figures who have battled the coronavirus.   Cowher told The Athletic that he and his wife, singer Veronica Stigeler — known by the stage name Queen V — weren’t tested for the virus when they were affected with symptoms in March but that they did test positive for antibodies a month later.   The couple first realized something was wrong when they lost their sense of smell and taste after returning from a trip to Honolulu, a last-minute change from their originally planned trip to visit Cowher’s daughter, Lindsay, and son-in-law, Ryan Kelly, in Tokyo. Kelly, a former NBA player, was playing in Japan’s B League when the league suspended play in early March.   On the way back, they flew through Newark Liberty International Airport and went to dinner in New York City before restaurants began closing. After that, Cowher told The Athletic, he and his wife began experiencing what would eventually be telltale coronavirus symptoms. In addition to the loss of smell and taste, both had shaky joints. Cowher had a slight fever, and his wife had a dry cough.   “I think I got it in New York and all the traveling, people coming into Newark airport at the same time,” Cowher told The Athletic. “That’s when the virus came from Europe and there was no shutdown. We were out in New York that weekend as well in a few restaurants. Who knows? There were people in Honolulu coming from China, and in Newark they were coming from Europe.”   Cowher and his wife have recovered from the virus. Somehow, we had missed Cowher’s re-marriage after his first wife passed away. This from Rolling Stone’s Brendan Prunty back in 2015: Unexpectedly, he found love again.   He met his second wife shortly after Kaye’s death. He wasn’t looking to date or even marry, but she was different. Veronica Stigeler was going through a divorce, in the same mindset as Cowher. She has a successful music career as Queen V. Cowher loves music, even taking piano lessons after first retiring. “V,” as he calls her, loves football – she’s a huge Jets fan, occasionally wearing her helmet for good luck during games.   It was a perfect match.   “He’s a very special person,” she says while visiting Cowher at the CBS studios. “People don’t even realize it, unless you really know him.”   After dating for a while, the two were married last year. It’s given Cowher a renewed purpose – something that he thought he would only have with Kaye. Now, he once again feels that his life is complete. He became a grandfather for the first time in May, when Lindsay (who is married to Lakers forward Ryan Kelly) gave birth to a son. Another grandchild is due in April.   V still plays, but has eschewed her former hard-rocking image for a more acoustic tone. She spends a week each month down in Nashville, collaborating with people from all over the musical spectrum. Occasionally, she’ll tag along for one of the Thursday Night Football road trips. Mostly though, she and Cowher try to soak in every bit of time they spend together at their home in Manhattan, where he relocated to full-time four years ago.   Just like he and Kaye used to, Cowher and V make it a point to have dinner every Friday night. Sometimes they’ll stay in and cook, sometimes they’ll dress up and go out someplace fancy.   Friday nights though, always end the same way: With the two of them dancing in their apartment.     Really?   “Oh yeah,” Cowher says, with a big smile. “Earth, Wind & Fire. Luther Vandross. Steely Dan. That’s me. Maybe some Billy Joel, too.” – – – Stage 2 at the Rockwood Music Hall is dimly lit. It’s a warm, early-October night and V is getting ready to play her first live gig in a couple months. The crowd starts to fill in to the small space, and she begins playing. Cowher is here, of course, nestled in the back corner next to the bar, sipping a glass of Stella Artois. He bobs his head as she plays.   It’s an eclectic audience, everyone from her fans to random folks who just stumbled in. There are some of his colleagues from CBS and The NFL Today cast and crew. All of them have become Queen V fans. To Cowher, this is what being a head coach in the NFL would mean giving up: Being around friends and family, supporting his wife, having a good time without being under the white-hot public spotlight.   “I just love doing this,” he says. “Coming here, supporting her. It’s great.”   Cowher enjoys this so much that it’s not unusual to see him at one of her shows, helping set up the stage. Last summer, he even drove the tour van down to a bunch of gigs she was playing in Philadelphia. Got to really know the rest of her band: Joan, Jimi Bones, Wes and Paulie.   “This guy is a trip!” Jimi Bones laughs. “We were hanging out a few weeks ago and he’s trying to convince us that we needed to break out our cover of ‘Broken Wings’, because he loves that song and loves how we do it. I told him, ‘Hey, you’ve got the boss’ ear.’”   Cowher smiles and admits it’s true: he’s got a soft spot for Mr. Mister.