Brian Urlacher says Bears don’t have a problem with Jay Cutler

AP

Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher says the locker room isn’t divided after quarterback Jay Cutler’s sideline spat with left tackle J’Marcus Webb in last week’s loss to the Packers.

“People get mad,” Urlacher told the Chicago Tribune. “I’ve gotten in spats with coaches, players as well. It happens. . . . People get pissed off and sometimes do things we shouldn’t do. But it happens.”

Everyone — including Cutler — seems to agree that Cutler bumping Webb was something he shouldn’t have done. But Urlacher says sideline screaming matches are non-issues.

“It’s just like a fight in practice: It’s in practice, who cares?” Urlacher said. “You guys probably see us fight in training camp every year. So what? After practice is over, you’re in the locker room [and] you’re buddies again. It’s not a big deal. You lose your emotions sometimes out there and you get mad. But once it’s over with, it’s over with. We spend a lot of time around each other, so you better get rid of it real quick. It’s going to be a long season if we don’t.”

And it’s going to be a long season if the Bears’ offensive line doesn’t do a better job of protecting Cutler.

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Until Deshawn Shead can return from his torn ACL, the Seattle Seahawks will need to find at least a temporary option to start opposite Richard Sherman to begin the regular season.

While the leader in the clubhouse to earn the job is veteran Jeremy Lane, third-round pick Shaquill Griffin will likely factor into the discussion during training camp as well.

“The competition is wide open, these guys understand that,” defensive coordinator Kris Richard said. “I’ve said it for years, and I know people kind of look at me like I’m crazy, but Richard Sherman’s job is up for grabs. The competition is open, the best players are going to be out there and they’re going to play for us. The best guys are going to be out there, and if he shows he is more than able and more that capable of being out there and helping this football team, then he will play.”

Lane has played five seasons for Seattle and started a career-high nine games for the team last season. With Seattle shifting to utilize nickel defensive looks more frequently, Lane was a regular on the field. While he can play outside, the Seahawks have previously used him mostly in the slot. But with Shead not expected back until after the start of the season, Seattle needs another starter in the interim.

Griffin left a good impression during the limited activity of the offseason for Seattle’s coaches to envision how he could factor into the discussion as well.

“He’s got probably one of the best corner minds that we’ve had for a young guy around here,” Richard said. “That’s just in regards to leverage, positioning, the understanding of our coverages and where we need him to be. He has picked it up fairly quickly. We’re going to be really excited to see him strap it up and get out there and actually be able to compete for the football while it’s in the air. That’s going to be the next phase, but his technique has been improving day after day, and he has real strength. He has strength in his hands, you can tell he’s a powerful guy, and obviously his speed is there.”

Added head coach Pete Carroll: “He looks good. He looks really good. If you look at our draft class, I think I told you the other day, the guys look like they fit. They fit the expectations. He’s really diligent. He’s real fast. Technique-wise, it’s not hard for him to make it look right. Camp will be huge for him,” Carroll said.

Neiko Thorpe, sixth-round pick Mike Tyson, DeAndre Elliott and Pierre Desir will all factor in to the battle as well, but Lane and Griffin will head into camp as the favorites to win the job.

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Chiefs outside linebacker Tamba Hali has seen good, and bad, front office management during his 11-year tenure in Kansas City.

He played through the final three years of Carl Peterson’s tenure in Kansas City and the rocky four years of Scott Pioli’s run before John Dorsey and Andy Reid took over in 2013. Dorsey and Reid have combined to lead the Chiefs to three playoff appearances in four seasons. So Hali is understandably a little caught off guard by Dorsey’s sudden departure from the Chiefs last week.

“From a subjective opinion, I wasn’t too pleased,” Chiefs veteran linebacker Tamba Hali said Monday on Good Morning Football on the NFL Network. “I’m really fond of John. Mr. Dorsey, he’s done a tremendous job since he’s been with the organization so everything that happened the past week really caught a lot of us off guard. But I’m sure the Hunt family knows exactly what they’re doing with the re-signing of our coach Andy Reid. I think everything will be fine but Mr. Dorsey will be missed with the Chiefs.”

Dorsey signed Hali to a three-year extension with the Chiefs last year after Hali was named to a fifth straight Pro Bowl in 2015. The Chiefs compiled a 43-21 record in Dorsey’s four years as general manager.

Ryan Crowden, Scott Fitterer, Louis Riddick and Brent Veech are among the candidates to replace Dorsey.

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Adam Gase wouldn’t make a prediction on Ryan Tannehill’s future a year ago after being hired by Miami. But after the Dolphins quarterback established career highs in completion percentage, touchdown percentage and passer rating in going 8-5, Gase gushes about Tannehill.

“We were put in a lot of tough positions last year,” Gase said, via Clark Judge of the Talk of Fame Network. “And I felt like — especially in our fourth-quarter games, which we had quite a few of them, he did a great job of leading our team [and] finding ways to win.

“Sometimes they weren’t pretty as far as how we had to win them, but I love the fact that he’s the same guy from start to finish. You see him get excited every once and awhile, but it’s probably one of those plays where he makes a good throw, and he gets crushed. But he’s the same guy all the time. And when you can find a guy like that there’s a lot there for us to just keep working on and find ways to get better.”

Gase wants Tannehill to become more aggressive this season, letting it rip, but Gase likes how far the former Texas A&M star has come in the past year.

“I think he’s really made a lot of strides from when I got here,” Gase said. “A lot of it has been his own development through experience.”

Tannehill, 29-35 in his first four seasons, has quieted critics for at least the moment.

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Apparently, the reluctance of some (I’m looking at me) to use the nickname of the Washington NFL franchise has created some confusion for the fine folks at NFLShop.com.

Via Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post, a line of “State Pride” license plates offered by the league has the Washington team logo over the outline of the state of Washington.

Of course, Washington is in D.C., with the name technically being the team’s only connection to the area. Home games currently are played in Maryland, and training camp currently is held in Virginia.

The link to the item is now dead. Hopefully, someone managed to order the thing before the item was yanked.

And, even more hopefully, the man for whom both the state and the capital were named is currently making the same face he was making in the portrait accompanying this article regarding the blunder, somewhere.

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A strange situation emerged on Sunday morning, when the league-owned media conglomerate (i.e., partially owned by the Chiefs) reported that the Chiefs had reached out to ESPN analyst and former NFL defensive back Louis Riddick about interviewing for the unanticipated G.M. vacancy in Kanas City. Riddick, who presumably would be interested in interviewing for the job given his interest in the 49ers G.M. position earlier this year, took to Twitter to declare that he hasn’t been contacted by the Chiefs.

So what’s going on? One theory, as offered earlier today on the non-vacation vacation edition of the PFT Live podcast (and in the video attached to this post) is that Riddick simply hadn’t been contacted yet, but that he will be. In that case, his more prudent move arguably would have been: (1) to appreciate having his name in circulation for another G.M. job; and (2) to wait for what may have been inevitable.

As one media source explains it to PFT, the truth is that, technically, the Chiefs hadn’t directly contacted Riddick, but that the team had contacted his representation. Which allowed Riddick to technically claim that he hadn’t been contacted by the Chiefs.

So why did Riddick, who definitely is a candidate for the job, shout down the report from Ian Rapoport of NFL Media on social media? It likely has something to do with what he said, or more accurately didn’t say, about the situation to ESPN. Another factor quite likely may be the fact that ESPN’s NFL information machinery ended up being scooped by a competitor — a dynamic that one specific reporter at ESPN is reputed to be very sensitive about, even if said reporter pretends publicly to not be.

For now, Riddick is continuing to pretend to not be a candidate for the Chiefs job, even though he is. It likely is a matter of time for him to interview, unless he withdraws his name or the team decides based on the clunky public denial to move on to another candidate.

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Some scouts questioned Teez Tabor’s lack of top-end speed after he ran a 4.62 at the combine, but Lions General Manager Bob Quinn has downplayed concerns by mentioning the cornerback’s instincts and “reactionary athleticism.”

Tabor has impressed Lions cornerbacks coach Tony Oden with his mental makeup.

“I consider him a balcony thinker as opposed to a ground-level floor thinker,” Oden said, via Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press. “So he wants to know what the guy next to him is doing. Before I go over it he starts to think about, ‘OK, what if this route happens? What’s our adjustment vs. that?’ But it’s in a positive way. Sometimes you get guys doing it, trying to just kind of get on your good side. He’s doing it because it’s a legit question.”

While Oden cautions that Tabor has much to learn, the second-round pick has impressed thus far. Tabor will compete with Nevin Lawson and D.J. Hayden for time opposite Darius Slay.

A three-year starter at Florida, Tabor made 104 tackles, nine interceptions and 37 pass breakups.

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Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott will appear on the cover of a magazine while wearing no covering on his body. He’s the featured athlete in this year’s edition of the ESPN The Magazine “body issue,” which features “all nude, tastefully done” photos of various athletes.

In the press release announcing the placement of Elliott on the cover of the issue, ESPN included some quotes from Elliott, the most interesting of which relates to his habit of hurdling. Though he doesn’t say it directly, the clear message is that he’s trying to avoid taking low hits to the knee.

“One of my signature things is to hurdle people,” Elliott says. “I think it’s one of the most impressive physical feats I’m able to do, being a bigger, physical running back. I don’t have the highest vertical, but I think it’s more of a mental thing. Being a bigger running back, defensive backs will go lower on you — they tend to cut-tackle you. I just kind of gives them the aspect where they have to worry about me jumping over them and right through them; it adds an aspect to my game. I ran hurdles in high school. I was a really good hurdler.”

To continue to be a really good running back, Elliott needs to be durable. Which means it will be important for him to avoid taking the kind of hits that could make mincemeat of his knees.

AP

The Vikings continue to support Michael Floyd as they have since signing him. On Monday, Floyd was sentenced to a day in jail for violation of his house arrest.

“When we signed Michael Floyd, we hoped he would show signs of improvement and we continue to expect that he shows progress and a professional attitude,” Vikings General Manager Rick Spielman said in the statement. “We believe Michael will be a productive member of the Vikings organization, both on and off the field. Pursuant to the ruling of the Arizona Court earlier today, Michael will serve the remainder of his sentence and we expect him to be with the team at the start of training camp in Mankato when the players report on July 26.”

The Vikings supported Floyd’s defense that kombucha tea caused him to violate alcohol tests that were part of the terms of his house arrest. Floyd said he did not realize kombucha tea contained alcohol, which he was prohibited from consuming as part of his sentence for a December DUI in Arizona.

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Washington tight end Vernon Davis is heading into his 12th NFL season, but one hit stands out above all the rest as the hardest he’s ever taken.

Davis made an appearance for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Washington and told a group of kids that the hardest hit he’s taken came from Seahawks safety Kam Chancellor, who hit Davis so hard he felt disoriented.

“It was crazy. He hit me so hard, I just got up, I didn’t know where I was going. I kind of lost my memory a little bit. I just got up like this, my face was just like aaagh,” Davis said as he made a face, making the kids laugh. “I just didn’t know what happened. I was like, ‘Wow I just got hit by a very big man.’ He hit me hard. You know what somebody told me? He said, ‘Shake it off. It’s all right. Shake it off.’ I’m like, ‘I can’t remember anything. You tell me to shake it off? Why don’t you go shake it off, buddy?’ That was quite a hit.”

The hit Davis referred to gave him a concussion and drew a flag on Chancellor, although Chancellor was not fined by the NFL.

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Dak Prescott arguably had the best rookie season for a quarterback in history. He went 13-3 as the starter with 3,667 passing yards, 23 touchdowns, only four interceptions and a 104.9 passer rating.

Whether it was easy or not, Prescott made his rookie season look that way.

Cowboys offensive coordinator Scott Linehan, though, has warned Prescott that defensive coordinators have spent the offseason studying Prescott’s every move.

“You’ve got to build on the good things,” Linehan said, via Matt Mosley and Ed Weder on The Doomsday Podcast. “There were a lot of good things for a young player, but you know they will be gunning for him, studying him a little bit more. You’re not going to sneak up on anybody. They’re going to find out what it is about your game that is strong and what maybe wasn’t as good, and you really dig deep and you study. You say, ‘Hey, I’ve got to be better against this certain, whether it’s this blitz or this coverage they might be working on, my potential Kryptonite so to speak.’ So I think you’ve really got to hone in on that and be a little proactive with it.”

Everyone — from Jerry Jones to Jason Garrett to rookie teammates — has spent the offseason lauding Prescott’s work ethic, which Linehan calls “rare.” Prescott hasn’t sat idly by waiting for defensive coordinators to catch up with him.

“Every day we give him something more,” Linehan said. “It just makes sense to do in a systematic and timely fashion. I don’t think you say, ‘Hey, Dak, in your second year you need to do 10 times more.’ You need to do a few things more every day, just like you did last year. Where you started the season isn’t where you finished. We were doing things at the end of the year we didn’t even dream of doing at the beginning of the year, but there is a time factor that needs to go by.

“…Our job is to put him in a position to succeed and his job is to go out and the execute the plays we call in the situations that we’re in. That’s probably one of his best attributes is he plays his position. He takes it to another level based on a guy who does all the intangible stuff that some guys just don’t get. He’s got that part. The mental side, the experience side, that comes with daily reps and really off the field preparation that he does. He’s got some rare work ethic type stuff.”

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Yes, Vikings receiver Michael Floyd is going back to jail. No, he’d prefer not to. Yes, the fact that his sentence has been limited to only one day is being viewed by him and his representatives as a major victory.

One source with knowledge of the situation called it a “huge win,” pointing out that the presiding judge had broad discretion. The judge could have, for example, forced Floyd to spend in jail the 96 days he was given the opportunity to serve on house arrest. Likewise, the judge could have imposed a fresh sentence of house arrest, with an order requiring Floyd to serve the term in Arizona.

As it stands, one day in jail and five days of house arrest represent a “can I start serving it right now?”-type of an outcome, allowing Floyd to quickly pay his debt to Arizona and then to focus on his efforts to make the team in Minnesota, and to have a major impact on the field in 2017. This outcome allows him to miss not a single day of training camp and the preseason.

Also, the decision possibly will have no impact on his looming suspension from the league for the extreme DUI guilty plea. He faces a baseline suspension of two games, and it can be increased based on aggravating factors. The positive alcohol test becomes less of a problem if, from the judge’s perspective, the glitch necessitated only one day in jail.

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The times are a-changing for online written content. But this one is driven more by money grabs than shifting audience habits.

Yes, plenty of younger folks are consuming online content via video. But plenty of folks from all demographics are still looking to get information about sports via the written word.

Here’s the problem: Online videos currently carry much more lucrative advertising dollars (and, in turn, higher commissions) than online articles. Which means that many of the people who are hired to sell advertisements are focusing more on selling video ads than on selling digital ads. Which means that websites are having a harder time selling digital ads, because they are selling more video ads. Which means that websites are focusing on generating video content that will carry the video ads their advertising employees are selling.

Which means that websites are ditching written content that has far fewer advertising dollars attached to it.

The latest, and most significant, example of this phenomenon comes from FOX, which is dumping its entire online writing and editing crew and replacing them with employees who will be enhancing the video operation. Via Bloomberg, by way of SportsBusiness Daily, FOX Sports National Networks President Jamie Horowitz justified the move by explaining that “[c]reating compelling sports video content is what we do best at FOX Sports,” and that FOX Sports “will be shifting our resources and business model away from written content and instead focus on our fans’ growing appetite for premium video across all platforms.”

It’s entirely possible that this claim is true, and that it’s just not cover for the decision to not give all customers what they want but to let the FOX Sports advertising staff chase the biggest commissions in order to serve only those who want video. But if Horowitz’s contention is accurate, that’s on FOX Sports for not hiring people who can generate written content that will whet the appetite of visitors to FOXSports.com.

Either way, welcome to PFT and NBCSports.com, those current-or-soon-to-be-former FOXSports.com customers who can’t or won’t get their information about sports via video, and who have little interest in the #EmbraceControversy style for the purposes of capturing inauthentic moments that will make waves on social media. Here, as you may have noticed, we’re providing content both in writing and through video — but not through video that features yelling and screaming and preening and posturing; instead, we’re generating video that supplements our written content and presents it in an entertaining and engaging way.

If/when FOX decides that it once again can make money from online written content or that it can’t fully and effectively promote video without tying the content to digital articles or that it cares about all of its audience and not just some of it, we hope you’ll remember that we didn’t bail on the format you prefer simply because the current business cycle entails greater financial rewards for generating video.

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Saints defensive tackle Nick Fairley has been visiting doctors recently for opinions about a heart condition that created concern about his ability to continue playing in the NFL.

It looks like the consensus is that it is better for Fairley to put his career on hold. The Saints have placed Fairley on the reserve/non-football illness list, which means he will not be playing football for the team this season.

Coach Sean Payton said earlier this month that Fairley visited with three doctors and that at least one of them told him to stop playing football.

The Saints also have the option not to pay Fairley while he is on the list. Fairley signed a four-year, $28 million contract with the Saints after recording 6.5 sacks for the team last season, but Monday’s news casts serious doubt about whether he will be on the field during the life of that deal.

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Taco Charlton seemed like a perfect fit with the Cowboys, what with a name like taco in a Tex-Mex crazy area. So who would have guessed the defensive end’s first endorsement deal would come from a soda company?

Big Red announced in a press release Monday that it had signed Charlton.

“I love my name and I actually do love tacos,” Charlton said in the release. “Although I am new to Texas, I quickly learned that nothing goes better with tacos than Big Red, so I’m excited to partner with such a unique, iconic brand.”

When Charlton arrived in DFW, he received offers of free tacos for life and one local pizza place even named a taco pizza after Charlton. Charlton, whose Twitter handle is @TheSupremeTaco, went on a taco tasting tour around the area soon after arriving.

Charlton’s given name is Vidauntae, but his grandmother nicknamed him “Taco” because he was premature and making a “run for the border,” which was a Taco Bell slogan airing at that time. 

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The judge apparently wasn’t a Star Wars fan.

According to Josh Weinfuss of ESPN.com, Vikings wide receiver Michael Floyd was sentenced to a day in jail after a Scottsdale judge found him in violation of his house arrest for drinking kombucha tea.

Floyd was prohibited from drinking alcohol as part of his sentence for a December DUI in Arizona, which led the Cardinals to release him. He said he violated the alcohol tests that were a part of the terms of his house arrest (which was transferred to Minnesota) by drinking the tea, which he didn’t realize contained alcohol.

The Vikings bought that explanation, but the Scottsdale judge didn’t care. Floyd also has to serve the remaining five days of his house arrest.