Jason Garrett: There’s a lot to be proud of with the Cowboys

AP

Each of Jason Garrett’s three full seasons as head coach of the Cowboys has ended the same way: The Cowboys went into Week 17 with an 8-7 record, needing to win their final game to win the NFC East, and instead lost and fell to 8-8, finishing out of the playoffs.

Garrett knows that’s not good enough. But he also told reporters today that he believes the way his team played hard in Sunday night’s loss to the Eagles should be a source of pride.

“We understand it’s a bottom line business and we did not get the job done,” Garrett said. “There’s a lot to be proud of with this football team, a lot to be proud of the performance last night.”

Now the Cowboys turn their attention to the future. Cowboys owner and General Manager Jerry Jones says he remains committed to Garrett, although it seems highly likely that major changes will be coming to Garrett’s coaching staff. Garrett said it would be premature to talk about the future of his staff, although defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin’s job security would certainly seem to be in doubt, considering that Garrett emphasized that the Cowboys’ defense has to get better.

“We have to play better on defense, there’s no question about that,” Garrett said.

Ultimately, Garrett knows that no matter how proud of his team he is, his team fell short of its goal.

“We’ve done that the last three years, we played the last game of the season for the NFC East and we didn’t get the job done,” Garrett said. “And we all have to live with that.”

Fortunately for Garrett, Jones is going to let him live with that for one more season in Dallas.

AP

The good news for 49ers running back LaMichael James is that he is expected to be ready to go by Week One after suffering a practice injury on Sunday. The bad news is that the inexperienced James won’t benefit from any preseason experience.

James suffered a dislocated left elbow that will take about a month to heal, meaning he’s likely out for the entire preseason, ESPN reports. The 24-year-old James has just 39 carries for 184 yards so far in his NFL career, and the 49ers would have liked to see him get more action in the preseason, especially after they already lost running back Kendall Hunter for the entire season when he suffered a torn ACL on Friday.

The 49ers suddenly find themselves thin at running back, a position where they expected to be deep. In addition to the Hunter and James injuries, 2013 fourth-round pick Marcus Lattimore is still not practicing because he’s still not 100 percent recovered from the serious knee injury he suffered at South Carolina in 2012.

After starter Frank Gore, the only 49ers running backs able to practice right now are second-round pick Carlos Hyde and former practice-squad player Jewel Hampton.

AP

Vikings tight end Kyle Rudolph has a new five-year extension, announced tonight by the team and reportedly carrying a base value of $36.5 million.  A source with knowledge of the terms has shared some additional details with PFT.

Rudolph gets a $6.5 million signing bonus.  Along with a technically non-guaranteed but as a practical matter fully guaranteed base salary of $956,343 for 2014, Rudolph definitely will earn $7.456 million in the next five months.

Per the source, the deal has another $12 million in injury-only guarantees that eventually convert to full guarantees on the third day of a given league year.  (The number of years over which the guaranteed money is spread isn’t currently known.  Until the relevant dates pass and the money becomes fully guaranteed, it’s not actually or practically guaranteed.)

On the back end, Rudolph earns an extra $750,000 for each year in which he catches 80 passes, and $500,000 for each year he makes it to the Pro Bowl.  Over five years, that’s a total of $6.25 million in available incentives, but the total he can earn through these accomplishments is capped at a total of $3.5 million.

The base new-money value of $7.3 million puts him behind only Jimmy Graham ($10 million in new money), Rob Gronkowski ($9 million), Jason Witten ($7.4 million), and Vernon Davis ($7.35 million).  A single 80-catch season will throw another $0.25 million on the annual average, vaulting Rudolph ahead of Witten and Davis.

Eighty catches won’t be a breeze, but in Norv Turner’s offense it’s a distinct possibility.

AP

The Vikings have signed one of their core offensive players to a contract extension.

The club confirmed Sunday night it had reached a new deal with 24-year-old tight end Kyle Rudolph, who was entering the final year of his contract.

According to FOX’s Jay Glazer — who first reported news of the extension — Rudolph received a five-year, $36.5 million contract from Minnesota.

NFL Media’s Ian Rapoport reports the new deal makes Rudolph the game’s fifth highest-paid tight end.

Rudolph has hauled in 109 passes for 1,055 yards and 15 touchdowns in three NFL seasons, all with Minnesota. The Vikings selected Rudolph in the second round of the 2011 NFL Draft. He played collegiately at Notre Dame.

“I’m extremely excited to get this extension completed and continue my career with the Minnesota Vikings,” Rudolph said in a statement issued by the club Sunday night. “I’ve said all along I wanted to stay in Minnesota. I love the fans, the community and, most importantly, I’m excited about where this team is going. I’m looking forward to the 2014 season and helping this organization reach our ultimate goal.”

AP

As the Marshawn Lynch holdout lingers, his leverage spikes if/when any of the team’s alternatives at tailback gets injured.

If became when on Sunday, when second-year running back Christine Michael left practice with a shoulder injury.

“He just banged his shoulder a little bit,” coach Pete Carroll told reporters after practice.  “They think he will be ready to go on Tuesday.”

The injury serves as a reminder that Plan B can quickly becomes Plan C and so on, unless and until Lynch returns to the fold.  There’s been no progress along those lines, with Lynch wanting a new contract and the Seahawks refusing to rip up the last two seasons of a four-year, $30 million deal.

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The Panthers waived defensive back De’Quan Menzie on Saturday.

And now, it appears the third-year pro could be electing to end his career.

According to Joe Person of the Charlotte Observer, Panthers head coach Ron Rivera indicated Sunday that the 24-year-old Menzie was retiring.

Menzie’s verified Twitter account had the following post Sunday: “Officially done….”

An Alabama product, Menzie (5-11, 200) was a fifth-round selection of Kansas City in 2012. He spent his rookie season on injured reserve (hip flexor). After being waived by Kansas City in May 2013, Menzie had a brief stint with Detroit before being waived in August 2013. The Panthers signed Menzie to a futures contract in January 2014.

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Another day, another injured tailback in San Francisco.

Via Matt Maiocco of CSNBayArea.com, third-year running back LaMichael James was carted off during practice with an apparent wrist/arm injury.

James, who has appeared in only 14 regular-season games in two NFL seasons, has a chance to show that he can contribute to the base offense following the season-ending ACL injury suffered on Friday by Kendall Hunter.  While the specific nature and severity of the injury isn’t known, guys usually don’t get carted off with arm/wrist injuries.

Before practice, coach Jim Harbaugh said that the team has “complete and total confidence” in James, who along with Marcus Lattimore and Carlos Hyde will be counted on to make an impact, especially with Hunter done for the year.

In two seasons, James has only 39 regular-season rushing attempts for 184 yards.  He has caught five passes for 45 yards.  His primary contributions have come as a kickoff and punt returner, with 49 total returns in two season.

AP

On Sunday, during the second practice of camp and a day before the pads go on, Eagles running back LeSean McCoy took issue with a hit from defensive end Trent Cole, sparking the first fight of the year.  After the session ended, Cole and McCoy downplayed the exchange of pleasantries.

“I don’t even know what you’re talking about,” Cole said, via Geoff Mosher of CSNPhilly.com.  “That’s my brother, man.  We were just playing around.  We’re competitors.  We’re very competitive.”

McCoy was a little less willing to let it all go.  But he seems to have moved on, too.

“The whole camp so far, it’s been touching a little too much,” McCoy said. “I’m trying to let them know, ‘It’s OK if you can’t cover me.’”

Defensive end Brandon Graham, who was in the middle of the melee but called himself a spectator, initially tried to describe the hit as a “nudge.”

“You know, it wasn’t really a nudge because it was 270 [pounds] against 200,” Graham said.  “I wasn’t taking it that seriously because it was just a regular catfight.”

But Graham admitted there’s no place for fighting or otherwise hurting teammates.

“You gotta draw the line,” Graham said.  “You gotta take care of each out out here.  Even when we get pads on you can’t just be out here trying to kill everybody, because we do got to have them for the season.  But [Monday] is gonna be a lot of aggression.”

Coach Chip Kelly isn’t a fan of aggression that results in fights — cat-style or otherwise — between guys who wear the same uniform.  Kelly may need to send a clear message to his players to keep things from getting out of control.

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As Texans offensive lineman David Quessenberry prepares to endure his third round of chemotherapy, his teammates have found a way to honor him.

“Absolutely, we have dedicated this season to him as a line,” left tackle Duane Brown told FOX 26 and the Houston Chronicle.  “He’s in the ultimate battle right now.”

Center Chris Myers intends to take it a step farther, finding ways to raise money and awareness for lymphoma.

“With everything going on with David right now this season is obviously going to be dedicated to him,” Myers said.  “He’s on our minds 24-7, and that’s not going to stop. . . . It’s going to go throughout the whole season and for us to be able to do something special this season would be huge for him.”

“Hey, every night we go to bed, we say a prayer for the man,” guard Ben Jones said. “Every day we try to reach out to him because he means a lot  to us.  We want him to know we’re behind him.”

The support from his teammates has had a major impact on Quessenberry.

“It’s hard to put into words what it means to have the support of your brothers on the team,” Quessenberry said. “It’s humbling.  Truly it’s an honor.  I want to do them proud. I want to come back stronger and come back and help these guys when I do come back eventually.  “This year I got blind-sided getting diagnosed with cancer.  Just knowing that my teammates and my brothers got my back is truly something special.”

A sixth-round pick in 2013, Quessenberry was diagnosed with lymphoma in June.  We wish him the best as he continues the battle.

AP

During his time with the Cowboys, defensive end/linebacker DeMarcus Ware played through plenty of injuries.  He’s already dealing with one in Denver.

Ware was held out for roughly half of Sunday’s practice due to what coach John Fox called a lower leg injury.  Fox told reporters it doesn’t appear to be serious.

Of course, “doesn’t appear” leaves the window slightly open for the possibility that it is.  And as Broncos fans learned four years ago with former Denver pass-rusher Elvis Dumervil, a season-ending injury can happen out of nowhere in the early stages of training camp.

AP

In training camp last year, Cardinals coach Bruce Arians said cornerback Patrick Peterson could be one of the Top 5 receivers in the NFL. But at training camp this year, Arians has decided to put a stop to the experiment of giving Peterson snaps on offense.

Arians told Darren Urban of the Cardinals’ website that the addition of speedy receivers Ted Ginn in free agency and John Brown in the draft means that Peterson won’t be needed to make plays on offense. That’s no surprise: Peterson didn’t do much of anything on offense last season, catching six passes for 54 yards and carrying the ball four times for 21 yards. If that’s all the Cardinals are going to get out of Peterson on offense, it’s probably not worth the time and energy it takes for Peterson to work with the offense.

Peterson added that not only will he not be a wide receiver anymore, but he won’t return punts either. That decision is a little more surprising because Peterson is an outstanding punt returner who led the league with 699 yards and four touchdowns as a rookie. But Ginn and Brown can both return punts as well, and taking Peterson off punt returns will allow him to focus on his most important job, at cornerback.

As for talk that Peterson is due for a pay raise and a long-term contract extension soon, Peterson said he’s not worrying about that.

“I’m here to play football,” Peterson said. “I have two years left on my deal and I want to do the best I can to help this team win. I haven’t been to the playoffs since I’ve been here & that’s my first goal.”

Arians thinks Peterson can do more to help the Cardinals make the playoffs if he’s doing nothing other than playing defense.

AP

Though it sounds strange to see given their track record, the Panthers found themselves short at running back.

So they solved that problem for the moment by bringing in former Browns running back/return man Fozzy Whittaker. (Waka! Waka!).

The Panthers had an immediate need with Jonathan Stewart on the shelf with a hamstring and sixth-round pick Tyler Gaffney going on injured reserve with a knee injury.

Whittaker has some return ability, but has been looking for work since the Browns cut him in May.

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Players with value get chances. Players without value get made into examples.

The Redskins released 2013 fifth-round pick Brandon Jenkins Sunday, less than a week into his second training camp.

According to Tarik El-Bashir of CSNWashington.com, Jenkins “had a particularly poor effort in Sunday morning’s one-on-one battle drills,” and was released hours later.

The former Florida State linebacker had one tackle in six games last season, and barely played in the second half of the season, since he didn’t contribute on special teams.

Draft picks usually get a longer leash, especially in their first two seasons. But he might be more useful to the Redskins as an object lesson than as a player.

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Hard to believe as it may seem, the Browns currently employ football players not named Johnny Manziel.  As to one of them, a question has arisen regarding his employment.

Via Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, offensive lineman Jason Pinkston isn’t around.  And no one will say what’s going on.

“I can assure you I’m in no legal trouble and retiring hasn’t come up,” Pinkston said via Twitter.  “As far as my situation, I’ll leave it to them to explain.”

The only problem is that the Browns won’t explain.

“Pinkston’s unavailable to practice and due to his circumstances I cannot comment on it any further,” Pettine said.  “I want to give you more, but just given the circumstances, I can’t.  That’s where we are with Jason.”

Agent Neil Schwartz, who has a history of holding players out (including 49ers guard Alex Boone), couldn’t be reached for comment.

AP

After being called out by Peyton Manning for his smedium shirt and all-access pass to Broncos training camp, FOX’s Jay Glazer took his bus-defacing training-camp tour to Mankato State University.  He liked what he saw and heard of Vikings rookie quarterback Teddy Bridgewater.

Per Glazer, Bridgewater and veteran Matt Cassel are “pretty much splitting reps” at practice, and “[h]ugeee” (maybe the tight shirt made the button stick) optimism exists for Bridgewater’s future.

It doesn’t mean that Bridgewater will be the Week One starter.  It does mean that, the longer the rep-spitting lasts, the less prepared the Week One starter will be.

Though in different conferences, the Vikings and Browns will provide an intriguing apples-and-apples quarterback comparison in 2014 and beyond, given that both were interested in Johnny Manziel and Teddy Bridgewater.  Cleveland ultimately traded up to get Manziel before the Vikings could, and Minnesota moved back to round one to get Bridgewater.

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If the Chargers stay in San Diego, the last thing they want is one or two teams headquartered 90 miles up the road in L.A.  It’s no surprise, then, that the Chargers don’t believe the NFL would ever solve the generation-old L.A. stadium problem by building its own.

“It’s pie in the sky,” Chargers special counsel Mark Fabiani told Nick Canepa of U-T San Diego.

It’s also nothing new, according to team president Dean Spanos.

“It’s an idea that has been floated before,” Spanos said.  “There’s nothing new to it.  For the past 20 years we’ve been hearing about it.”

Regardless of who builds and owns the stadium, the Chargers clearly aren’t interested in encouraging the arrival of franchises that will compete for the same eyeballs and $100 bills.

“[T]he league has been successful without a team there and so has L.A.,” Spanos said.  “There are a lot of issues.  And you have to sell 24 of the 32 owners that it’s a good investment.  It’s a ways down the line, and I’m not sure it has the votes.”

In contrast, Patriots owner Robert Kraft recently said he wants to see a team return to Los Angeles within two or three years.  For now, we’ll take the over.  And if Spanos has his way, the over will be never.

Unless, of course, the Chargers are the team that moves to L.A.