Month: August 2019

The decision by new Miami Dolphins coach Brian Flores to start the season with Ryan Fitzpatrick at quarterback is — surprise — good news for second-year quarterback Josh Rosen.

But it makes no sense for the Dolphins

Job No. 1 for Flores in his rookie season as a head coach is finding out whether Allen is his quarterback of the future or whether he needs to target one in the draft next year.

He is not to going to learn anything about Rosen while Rosen is sitting on the bench.

For Rosen, though, it may be to his benefit not to open the season as the starter. The Dolphins open the season hosting Baltimore and New England, and then go to Dallas and host the Los Angele Chargers before the bye.

Continue reading “Flores’ QB decision looks like a dumb move for Fins”

Andrew Luck’s premature retirement shows the NFL needs to give quarterbacks even more protection.

Granted, the Indianapolis Colts bear a lot of responsibility for not putting enough emphasis on getting offensive linemen to protect Luck. That is the legacy of former GM Ryan Grigson.

But a simple rule change would give them more protection.

Make it a foul to touch the quarterback once the ball leaves his hands.

Defensive players would be irate, but the punters can’t be touched once they punt the ball so why shouldn’t quarterbacks get the same protection?

Continue reading “Some will gripe, but NFL should go all out to protect QBs”

If you scroll down the page, you will see the headline on my recent story about Andrew Luck’s injury history: Luck’s chronic injuries could make for a shortened career.

I just didn’t expect it to be that short.

Luck startled the football world Saturday night when he announced he was retiring after just seven years.

Yet the decision made perfect sense. He’s been dealing with serious injuries for four years, constantly rehabbing all year round, and it simply has taken too much of a toll on him.

It might seem hard to believe he could walk away from the game and millions of dollars, especially since he grew up in football as the son of quarterback Oliver Luck.

Continue reading “Luck’s retirement was startling but understandable”

Just a year ago, Jimmy Garoppolo was the hope for the future for the San Francisco 49ers.

Now they’re just hoping he has a future.

Garoppolo took San Francisco by storm in 2017, when the 49ers traded for the former New England Patriots backup and he took over a 1-9 team and led the team to five consecutive victories to give the team a 6-10 record.

But then he was sidelined last September with a torn ACL, and he has looked lost in preseason this year.

First, he threw five consecutive interceptions in a practice last week.

Continue reading “49ers have reason to worry about Garoppolo”

The Ezekiel Elliott talks with the Dallas Cowboys seem stalemated, but remember one thing.

Jerry Jones caved in to the salary demands of his star running back 26 years ago.

Will he do it again?

Emmitt Smith was holding out in 1993, wanting to top Thurman Thomas as the highest-paid running back in the league, but Jones refused to budge.

That all changed when the Cowboys fell to 0-2 after a 13-10 loss to the Bills.

Continue reading “Elliott standoff with Cowboys looks to last a while”