VITO'S VIEWS

The Jacksonville Jaguars’ signing of Myles Jack to a four-year contract extension last weekend was obscured because teams were making their last cuts.

But the fact they signed Jack – their second-round pick in 2016 — and haven’t signed Yannick Ngakoue – their third-round pick in the same draft – gives an interesting insight into the Jaguars’ philosophy of signing players.

They don’t seem to like giving premium money to players at a premium position.

Jack got a four-year deal for $57 million with $33 million guaranteed that made him the third-highest paid linebacker.

Linebackers don’t get paid like defensive ends, so the Jaguars were willing to sign Jack and not Ngakoue, who is worth more than Jack got.

Continue reading “Ramsey will test Jaguars’ penny-pinching ways with premium players”

The fate of Miami Dolphins coach Brian Flores may have been sealed before he ever coaches a regular-season game.

That’s because the Dolphins are all into the strategy of dumping veterans to stockpile draft picks for the future.

Or as it is commonly called, tanking.

That means a lot of short-term pain with no promise of long-term gain.

And even if it does work, there is no guarantee that he and general manager Chris Grier will survive long enough to enjoy the fruits of the strategy.

Continue reading “Dolphins’ Flores already looks like dead coach walking”

As the NFL celebrates its 100th anniversary season, one significant part of its history will largely go ignored.

The league will not point out that its first century includes the fact that it banned black players from 1934 to 1945, even though it never announced a ban and it got virtually no notice because the NFL wasn’t a big deal at the time.

According to Pro Football Chronicle, the league had 13 black players from 1920 to 1933 before it stopped hiring them.

Of course, baseball had been segregated from its early days, but it is curious that the NFL had black players, including some great ones like Fritz Pollard, before they banned them.

No reason was given for the change, but the fingerprints of Washington owner George Preston Marshall are all over the decision. He marketed his team to a southern audience and didn’t integrate until 1962, when the federal government insisted on it when the new stadium was built on federal land.

Continue reading “NFL’s shadow ban of Kaepernick is a racist disgrace”

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”

Well, that didn’t take long.

When the owners voted to make pass interference reviewable because of the botched non-call in the New Orleans Saints-Los Angeles Rams playoff game, most critics predicted it would create more problems than it solved.

Sure enough, it happened in the Washington-Cincinnati game when what should have been a routine play turned into a controversy and delayed the game for no good reason.

What happened is that Washington’s Kelvin Harmon pushed off and the officials called it offensive pass interference.

Then Washington coach Jay Gruden challenged. It turns out the push-off was before the pass was thrown and the TV cameras didn’t show it, so the call stood because there was no way to judge the call.

Continue reading “Interference review already looks like a debacle”

Are Andrew Luck‘s chronic injuries going to hamper the rest of his career?

That is the question the Indianapolis Colts are dealing with after general manager Chris Ballard revealed this week that Luck will miss the preseason and that they’re not sure if he will be ready for the regular season.

Ballard said what they thought was a calf issue has now become a high ankle sprain issue. He said Luck is having pain in the “high anklish” area of his leg.

Depending on how serious it is, a high ankle sprain can take six weeks to three months or longer to heal.

So the Colts don’t know when Luck, who sat out the entire 2017 season with a shoulder injury, will be back, although Ballard said, “This is not 2017.”

Continue reading “Luck’s chronic injuries could make for a shortened career”