NFL 2022: The training camp thread

The contract specifically includes this sentence:

Player shall not receive any credit for Independent Study with respect to any time periods during which any material is displayed or played on an iPad or electronic device if (a) Player is not personally studying or watching the material while it is being displayed or played or (b) Player is engaged in any other activity that may distract his attention (for example, watching television, playing video games or browsing the internet) while such material is being displayed or played.

If true, then this sub-clause boggles my mind! Arizona not only have to specify that Murray undertakes a minimum amount of study; they also have to specify that he doesn't cheat... and defines what they believe constitute cheating!

I wonder how they're going to monitor this and - crucially - if they'll really take action if he doesn't meet the minimum standard.

Clearly there's a huge mismatch between Murray's performance as an individual player and his impact as a team-leading, game-winning QB.

The Charlotte Observer, in its ongoing attempt to pretend that there is an actual QB battle happening now in Spartanburg, busts out this headline this morning:

Sam Darnold looks comfortable playing QB

Yikes. Literally the lowest bar for a guy who (checks notes) has been a starting QB in college and the pros for the past six seasons. The story goes on say:

Darnold played with poise, throwing five red-zone touchdowns and only three incompletions on 11 throws.

Huh. That sounds pretty good, actually.

Here's more:

He threw with confidence, even shimmying after a touchdown toss to Tremble, which the second-year tight end corralled through a tight window. Contradictory to his 4-7 record and 13-interception season last year, Darnold looked reborn.

Wow! That sounds -- dare I say -- excellent? Maybe Darnold has figured it out.

Darnold attempted most of his throws near the line of scrimmage. Four of his five touchdowns came within 5 yards of pay dirt.

Oh.

Another way to look at it: A Carolina D that's talking about good (not accurate but OK) to great this season just gave up FIVE GODDAMN RED ZONE TOUCHDOWNS TO GODDAMN HEYDARNOLD.

So how did Baker do?

Mayfield double-clutched several passes and ended practice with an unnecessary interception. ...

That should not surprise anyone. Carolina traded for Mayfield 21 days ago. Mayfield said after practice he did not have a playbook two weeks ago. And due to the NFL’s no-contact rules, Mayfield couldn’t study or work with any of his new coaches until this week.

It's going to be a long August.

Enix wrote:

It's going to be a long August.

If you think it's going to be a long August, let me introduce you to September, October, November, and December.

I don't think you're going to need to be introduced to January or February.

Everyone gets to see January these days thanks to playing 75 games. So congrats - January can suck for you now too!

MilkmanDanimal wrote:
Enix wrote:

It's going to be a long August.

If you think it's going to be a long August, let me introduce you to September, October, November, and December.

I don't think you're going to need to be introduced to January or February.

I don't plan on seeing September or any of those other months you mentioned. Carolina's QB slapfight will be my undoing.

I'm on Team PJ, in case you were wondering. #maximumchaos

Speaking of PJ Walker, he and Matt Corral each got three snaps in camp yesterday. Carolina's going to screw up Corral just like they have every other QB who has come through there in the past two+ seasons.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/SQuHNmb.jpg)

This seems like the worst possible response to the reaction of the clause's reveal.

It doesn't undo the damage of the reveal. It doesn't convince anyone that the team believes in Kyler's preparation. "Kyler didn't do his homework" will still be a sign held up in every away stadium.

It adds another talking point to the issue, instead of letting it run its course.

It makes the Cardinals front office look bumbling. They negotiated for this clause, got lawyers to write the clause, and now they're not standing by it?

And finally, even in the event that Kyler is caught red-handed failing to do his study, the team has given up its recourse. Or perhaps more importantly, the *threat* of recourse.

The Browns have to be thinking to themselves, "Well, at least they're not scrutinizing our contract with Watson this week."

*Legion* wrote:

This seems like the worst possible response to the reaction of the clause's reveal.

It doesn't undo the damage of the reveal. It doesn't convince anyone that the team believes in Kyler's preparation. "Kyler didn't do his homework" will still be a sign held up in every away stadium.

It adds another talking point to the issue, instead of letting it run its course.

It makes the Cardinals front office look bumbling. They negotiated for this clause, got lawyers to write the clause, and now they're not standing by it?

And finally, even in the event that Kyler is caught red-handed failing to do his study, the team has given up its recourse. Or perhaps more importantly, the *threat* of recourse.

Agreed.

The reveal of the clause made it clear that the Cardinals thought that Murray was - to some extent - lazy AND untrustworthy.

The announcement that the clause has now been revoked makes the Cardinals look weak and incompetent.

I'm assuming that both parties came to the realisation that neither wanted to answer questions about Murray's film-study after EVERY SINGLE LOSS... Because that's what would have happened.

Q - "So, Kyler. You threw three interceptions in today's loss to X. How many hours of film did you study last week?"

I remember when the Jags had a really good kicker. What happened to him?

Oh, right...

The guy probably looked like Urban Meyer, and it was time for revenge. The Brotherhood of Kickers is an unbreakable bond, you know.

For all the Niner fans up in this joint.

Niners sign Deebo to pretty much the same 3-yr extension as DK Metcalf signed.

In other news, a Watson ruling is coming from the arbitrator tomorrow.

*Legion* wrote:

In other news, a Watson ruling is coming from the arbitrator tomorrow.

If the rumours on the suspension length are true, you're further ahead to sexually assault 20 people but don't even think about gambling on a game you're not playing in.

Per ESPN's Dan Graziano via NBC's PFT "The NFLPA, working with Watson’s camp, wasn’t willing to accept more than 6-8 games. The league would agree to 12 games plus a fine in the range of $8 million." Judge Sue L. Robinson, after a lack of an negotiated agreement between these three male dominated parties, is probably going to nuke the site from orbit.

Rat Boy wrote:

Per ESPN's Dan Graziano via NBC's PFT "The NFLPA, working with Watson’s camp, wasn’t willing to accept more than 6-8 games. The league would agree to 12 games plus a fine in the range of $8 million." Judge Sue L. Robinson, after a lack of an negotiated agreement between these three male dominated parties, is probably going to nuke the site from orbit.

Article implies there's a very logical solution with using last year's games as part of the suspension.

I wonder what the holdout on that is? Watson not giving up I guess the 10m in salary or the PA not wanting to set the games precedent?

NFL must be rubbing it's hands in glee though. In a massive turd sandwich that should make them look terrible on the other side is the PA and Watson making them look better.

Who had 6 games?

And Watson says he has no remorse about his actions.

Top_Shelf wrote:

Who had 6 games?

And Watson says he has no remorse about his actions.

Pathetic

My karmic justice scenario would be the following:

Jacoby Brissett starts the year 5-1

Panthers W
Jets W
Steelers W
Falcons W
Chargers L
Patriots W

Then gracefully goes back to the clipboard and watches Watson go 1-7 to knock the Browns out of the playoffs

Ravens L
Bengals L
Dolphins W
Bills L
Bucs L
Texans (revenge game) L
Bengals L
Ravens L

Before getting arrested for a DUI and sitting out the rest of the year while Brissett wins the next three

Saints W
Commanders W
Steelers W

Thus screwing up the draft picks for Houston, who also should not prosper for this sh*t.

Looks like Orlando Brown Jr. is back on the francheese tag. I don't know if you will find anyone in the states of Kansas or Missouri more miserable about getting $16 million this year. The pisser is that KC will not franchise him for his second year and Brown won't sign an extension for a penny less than what Trent Williams got, so it looks like this may be the last year the Chiefs have him.

I guess it's official Compare Ridley To Watson Day? Seeing that everywhere; Watson's suspension is bullsh*t and I can see the NFL trying to extend it, but it's not like this was their decision and it's an external judge who made the ruling. By the accounts I've seen, the NFL was pushing for 12 games, NFLPA was 6, and the judge agreed. It sucks, but, that being said, it doesn't impact the Ridley thing at all. A professional sports league, particularly one that is running open-armed into sports betting, has to treat Ridley like that, and a season for betting on NFL games is 100% fine with me.

I am curious to see if the NFL will try to extend Watson's suspension, or if fear of a lawsuit would cause them to grumble about it but let it sit as currently ruled.

I mean, Roger Goodell has just been given a golden ticket, to make him and the league be the "good guys" and cast the player's union as the villains.

My mind will be boggled if he doesn't take it.

Go hard on the $.

Easy on the sexual assualt.

The N. F. L.

Violating the "integrity" of the game is apparently worse than violating the integrity of women.

Disgusting

If he had molested just one woman, I guess the punishment would have been sitting out the first series of Week 1, like a college player that was late to a meeting?

Well, apparently part of the issue is that this ruling didn't consider 22, 24, or 30 accusations. It considered 5, and one of those was thrown out because the NFL didn't interview the woman. So, this ruling is based on 4 instances of assault.

League office needs to fix this one. If there was ever a situation the "appeal the arbitrator's ruling to ourselves" power was intended for, it's this situation.

Top_Shelf wrote:

The N. F. L.

Always going to click the Like for Alan Rickman.

So..... Deshaun Watson's first game back will be against the Ravens at The Bank. It is a 1pm game featuring Lamar Jackson, during a week where the night game is the Steelers at Miami. No one wants to watch Mitch Trubisky vs. Tua Tungavailoa. No one.

The NFL has to flex this game, right?

Paleocon wrote:

Looks like Orlando Brown Jr. is back on the francheese tag. I don't know if you will find anyone in the states of Kansas or Missouri more miserable about getting $16 million this year. The pisser is that KC will not franchise him for his second year and Brown won't sign an extension for a penny less than what Trent Williams got, so it looks like this may be the last year the Chiefs have him.

Orlando Brown was the 18th best graded left tackle at PFF last year. He's good, but not a tier 1 left tackle.

Of course, the left tackle 1 spot ahead of him was Cam Robinson, who the Jags have made the 7th highest paid left tackle by AAV. Brown's more proven than Cam, whose ranking last year represented a career high by a good margin. Signing him around Jake Matthews' $18.5m average (5th highest currently) might make sense, but the leap up to the $23m/yr club of Williams and Bakhtiari should be out of the question.

Meanwhile Jimmy Haslam says sorry you're triggered. Oh, my bad, he actually didn't say sorry. And he says Watson is remorseful, which is a lie.

Paleocon wrote:

The NFL has to flex this game, right?

I think the part of the NFL that wants high ratings for a game is going to lose an argument with the part of the NFL that is going to try very hard to pretend Deshaun Watson doesn't exist. If it sits at six games, I would be large sums of money that game is not flexed and is instead buried deep in the TV schedule.