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| | the Rams from 2015-16. (8th Sep 18 at 6:17am UTC) | | The Latest on the NFL combine (all times EST):
2:15 p.m.
Green Bay Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst says that the team would like to extend the contract of quarterback Aaron Rodgers ”sooner rather than later.”
Gutekunst was asked about the two-time NFL MVP at the combine. He says that the team realizes it’s ”not going to be inexpensive.”
Rodgers is under contract through the 2019 season following a five-year extension signed in 2013 that boosted his annual average salary to $22 million Brandon Marshall Jersey , making him the highest-paid player in the league back then.
The 34-year old Rodgers has since been passed by other players, including the five-year deal worth a reported $137.5 million that quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo agreed to with the San Francisco 49ers.
Gutekunst says that taking care of Rodgers is a high priority, ”and I think that should take care of itself at some point.”
Gutekunst is in his first year as the Packers GM after replacing Ted Thompson.
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1:45 p.m.
Browns coach Hue Jackson hopes to avoid starting a rookie quarterback in 2018.
Cleveland owns the No. 1 overall pick, and is expected to use it to select a quarterback from a talented group that includes Southern Cal’s Sam Darnold, UCLA’s Josh Rosen, Oklahoma’s Baker Mayfield and Wyoming’s Josh Allen.
The Browns will use this week’s combine to evaluate that foursome and other top players.
Last season, the Browns started rookie DeShone Kizer, who went 0-15 as the Browns became the second team in NFL history to lose all 16 games.
”I would hope not,” Jackson said when asked if he intends to start a rookie QB. ”There’s going to be other opportunities as we all know. We just go to see how it all fits as we move forward.”
The Browns are expected to be active in free agency and it’s possible they’ll land their starting quarterback there. Jackson refused to comment on Cleveland’s intended targets, but one of them is certain to be Cincinnati quarterback AJ McCarron. The Browns were poised to acquire McCarron in a trade last season before the deal was scrapped because the teams failed to file paperwork with the league on time.
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1:30 p.m.
The Chicago Bears plan to part ways with quarterback Mike Glennon.
General manager Ryan Pace said the Bears will release him rather than bring him back for a second season after he lost his starting job to rookie Mitchell Trubisky.
Pace, speaking at the NFL combine, said a mechanism in Glennon’s contract prevents the Bears from letting him go until the start of the league’s calendar year on March 14. The Bears were also releasing linebacker Willie Young.
Glennon left Tampa Bay to sign a three-year contract with the Bears last March and replace Jay Cutler as the starter. He went 1-3 with five interceptions, three lost fumbles and four touchdown passes before Trubisky – the No. 2 overall draft pick – took over.
”We were going to be aggressive at that position,” Pace said. ”We were going to take swings at that position and be aggressive at the most important position, really, in sports. There are multiple factors that go into that. But really, what stands out Chase Daniel Jersey , as I look back, was Mitch’s acceleration, too.
”So, it was kind of twofold. So I can sit back now and be happy that we have a guy that we feel good about, a young quarterback that we want to build around.”
A triceps injury limited Young to four games last season. He had 26 sacks in four seasons with Chicago, giving him 32 in eight years with the Bears and Detroit Lions.
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1 p.m.
The NFL’s competition committee is meeting in Indianapolis this week and the group is looking into ways to redefine the troublesome catch rule. The committee also is entertaining the notion of turning the defensive pass interference call into a 15-yard penalty.
It’s currently a spot of foul flag.
At least one head coach is certain the league won’t mess with that rule.
Broncos coach Vance Joseph was among the first coaches to step to the podium at the NFL combine and he says the catch rule certainly needs to be addressed.
But Joseph insists there’s no way the NFL would follow the NCAA’s lead in making defensive pass interference a 15-yard infraction instead of putting the ball at the spot of the foul.
Joseph says pro football fans like seeing points scored and if that rule is changed, there will be ”a lot of defensive backs grabbing and pulling guys, so that’s not going to change.”
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11 a.m.
Buffalo Bills coach Sean McDermott says cutting quarterback Tyrod Taylor is not part of the team’s current plans, though he won’t rule out trading the three-year starter.
McDermott says it’s too early to remove any option off the table ”other than cutting him at this point,” in answering a question as to whether the Bills would consider trading Taylor. ”We’re in a good position with some options out there, so that’ll work itself out,” he added at the NFL combine on Wednesday.
Taylor’s future in Buffalo remains in question even though he helped lead the Bills to a 9-7 record and clinch the team’s first playoff berth since 1999. Taylor has a 23-21 record with the Bills and went 8-6 last season while also being benched for one game in favor of rookie Nathan Peterman.
The Bills considered cutting Taylor last March before the quarterback agreed to restructure his contract by reducing it from a five-year to a two-year term.
Taylo LeBron James jerseys in assorted colors hung inside the Cavaliers team shop, their retail price slashed by 40 percent.
Eight years ago, some of them were still smoldering in the streets.
The day after James announced he is leaving Cleveland as a free agent for the second time since 2010, anger gave way to acceptance. There was still deep disappointment that the world’s best player – Akron, Ohio, born and raised – is leaving again Martinas Rankin Jersey , this time for the brighter lights of Los Angeles and a chance to play with the storied Lakers.
The pain is real. Cleveland is just handling it a lot better.
”It hurts at first, but we’ll be OK,” said Dave Howes, who manages Harry Buffalo, a sports bar and restaurant directly across the street from Quicken Loans Arena. ”We’ll rebound from it.”
If any city knows how to mount a comeback, it’s this one. Once a national punchline for jokes, Cleveland is thriving with new hotels, shops, condominiums and trendy microbreweries popping up on both sides of the Cuyahoga River. Millennials have flocked to live in once-neglected areas transformed into flourishing neighborhoods with hip food and arts scenes.
A skyline once dotted with factory smokestacks now features gleaming high-rise apartment buildings. There’s new construction everywhere, including at the Cavs’ Quicken Loans Arena, currently undergoing a $140 million renovation.
Nothing looks as it did a few years ago.
James made it happen. The LeBron Effect. He put Cleveland on the map, changing the city’s collective psyche and delivering on his promise by winning a championship in 2016 – the city’s first since 1964.
No wonder some are having a hard time saying goodbye. But the criticism of James was more muted this time around.
Two other prominent Cleveland sports figures understood his reasons for going.
”If someone gave me $154 million I’d probably go somewhere too,” Indians manager Terry Francona said. ”I will miss him, because I loved going to games when he played. It’s hard to begrudge somebody. He earned it.”
UFC heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic was confident his hometown would fight back.
”We’ll be all right,” Miocic said while preparing for his bout with Daniel Cormier at UFC 226. ”The city is alive now. We have food, good bars, good places to go to Joe Namath Jersey , and I think it’s going to stay that way for a long time now. The Browns are making moves. The Indians are playing well. … It’s not only about the Cavs anymore.”
On Monday, as news of James’ departure was still sinking in on another scorching-hot summer day, Sherwin-Williams announced that Nike plans to remove the 10-story banner of James on the side of the paint company’s global headquarters that had become a landmark and symbol of renewal.
The massive mural, which shows James in his No. 23 jersey with his head titled back and arms extended wide as if to welcome one and all, was also taken down in 2010 when he bolted for Miami.
Standing on the sidewalk across from the billboard, Tom Valentino of Painesville, Ohio, snapped some final photographs for posterity.
”I found out it was coming down, and it’s kind of an iconic image here in Cleveland so I wanted to make sure I got a good look at it and got some pictures before it goes away,” he said.
Like many Cleveland sports fans, Valentino was initially disappointed to hear James wouldn’t be re-signing with the Cavs. But as he digested this new reality, Valentino chose to reflect on James’ lasting legacy.
”Oh, man. Where do you even begin?” he said. ”The phrase that you hear from LeBron is that it’s bigger than basketball. I really took that to heart as a lifelong Clevelander and just a Northeast Ohioan, and just everything that he has brought to our city and our community and our region.
”And let’s just be honest, the basketball was a lot of fun. Every game you would turn on, you would never know what you were going to see from him, an amazing play Nick Vigil Jersey , the buzzer-beaters and just everything else that he has brought to the city.
”It’s just been something else.”
And it will never be the same.
Without James, the Cavs instantly went from title contenders to a team that will struggle just to make the playoffs. They’ve dropped on the city’s three-team ladder behind the AL Central-leading Indians who haven’t won a World Series since 1948 but ahead of the woeful Browns, who went 0-16 last season but are optimistic about their future.
Without James, those bars and restaurants brimming with fans on game nights have to hope Cleveland will stick with the Cavs.
”It might drop off, but we’ll be all right,” Howes said, looking around at his lunch-time crowd. ”Cleveland sports fans love their teams – thick and thin. I mean look at the Browns. We still mostly sell out the games.”
After James’ choice of L.A. was announced, Valentino’s phone filled with texts from friends weighing in on the decision. There wasn’t hatred toward James, but gratitude.
”I can’t speak for everybody, but know that’s how I feel,” he said. ”It was so crushing when he left in 2010 because it just felt like as a town we were so close to getting that title. And the thing that I’ve come back to over and over the past couple years is June 19, 2016 (Game 7 of the Finals) was the most perfect sports moment I’ll ever get in my lifetime.
”I knew in the moment that it happened that it was never going to be any better Adidas Seth Jones Jersey ,
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