Los Angeles Rams star receiver Cooper Kupp left practice early Tuesday with a hamstring injury, and the team is not sure how long he could be sidelined.

Kupp’s final play of the day came on a route that he ran into the end zone. He appeared to come up slightly lame after finishing the route and walked over to the training staff before leaving the field.

Rams coach Sean McVay didn’t have any updates on Kupp.

“Obviously we’re much better when he’s here, and we hope he’s going to be OK,” McVay said. “If he’s not, we’ll see what happens, but the practice had to go on.”

McVay saw the play where Kupp appeared to injure himself but had no other details.

“He looked like he came up a little bit in a red zone route, and then I just knew they told me he was out of practice,” he said. “I have no more information than that.”

Kupp, 30, has been one of the league’s best receivers, but his season was cut short last year after he suffered an ankle injury that forced him to miss the Rams’ final eight games. He still finished with 75 receptions for 812 yards and six touchdowns in nine games.

Kupp won the NFL’s triple crown of receiving in 2021, leading the league in catches (145), yards receiving (1,947) and touchdowns (16).

Training camp opened less than a week ago, and the Indianapolis Colts are suddenly short on running backs.

Zack Moss suffered a broken bone in his forearm during Monday's practice and will undergo surgery.

The recovery time is expected to be six weeks, which means he'll miss the rest of training camp and puts his availability for the Colts' Week 1 opener against the Jacksonville Jaguars on September 10 into question.

Moss had been working as the Colts' No. 1 running back in training camp with Jonathan Taylor absent.

Taylor, who was the NFL's rushing leader in 2021, has been seeking a contract extension, prompting him to request a trade.

He is currently on the physically unable to perform list, but the Colts are considering moving him to the non-football injury list after it was reported he failed his physical due to a back injury that was sustained while away from the Colts. He is also working his way back from an ankle injury that forced him to miss six games last season.

Last November with Taylor injured, the Colts traded for Moss from the Buffalo Bills, and in the season's final four games, he rushed for 334 yards on 69 carries with one touchdown while averaging 4.8 yards per attempt.

With Moss injured and Taylor clashing with owner Jim Irsay and the front office, Deon Jackson and rookie Evan Hull are next men up at running back for Indianapolis.

 

Pass rusher Danielle Hunter has agreed to a new contract with the Minnesota Vikings for the 2023 season that could be worth up to $20 million and guarantees the three-time Pro Bowl selection $17 million, NFL Network reported Sunday.

Hunter was slated to earn $5.5 million this season, and this new deal reportedly has a clause that prevents Minnesota from using the franchise tag on Hunter – making him an unrestricted free agent next year.

Hunter was selected by Minnesota in the third round of the 2015 NFL Draft. He has 71 sacks in 102 games, including a team-best 10.5 last season when the Vikings won the NFC North with a 13-4 record.

The Cincinnati Bengals will likely be without their franchise quarterback for the rest of training camp, and his status is in jeopardy for the team’s season opener.

Joe Burrow will be out “several weeks” with a strained right calf, Bengals coach Zac Taylor said Friday.

When asked to clarify Burrow’s timeline for a return, Taylor repeated his previous phrasing.

“It will take several weeks, and that’s all the information we have,” Taylor said.

Burrow came up limping after scrambling during a play in Thursday’s practice. He eventually went to the ground, where he was examined by training staff before riding off the field on a cart.

Burrow was wearing a compression sleeve on his right calf, but Taylor said he was unaware of any pre-existing injury or symptoms before the play.

Jake Browning and Trevor Siemian handled quarterbacking duties in Friday’s practice with Burrow out.

The first overall pick in the 2020 draft, Burrow is still in negotiations with the Bengals on a long-term contract extension that will likely make him one of the league’s highest-paid players.

After a shortened preseason in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, injury rehab in 2021 and appendicitis during last year’s training camp, Burrow had said earlier this week that he was hoping to play a full preseason schedule this year.

“Joe got more days this July than he’s ever had in the NFL,” Taylor said Friday. “So I feel really good about the progress we made during those July practices with Joe, and if he’s able to get back, we’ll be able to keep working with him.”

A 2022 Pro Bowl selection, Burrow has 11,774 passing yards, 82 touchdowns and 31 interceptions in 42 career games.

The Miami Dolphins will have to play a portion of the season without star cornerback Jalen Ramsey after he was carted off the field at the end of Thursday’s practice.

According to reports, Ramsey will undergo surgery on his left knee and is expected to miss 6-8 weeks. The good news is that Ramsey’s ACL is intact and the injury isn’t season-ending.

He collided with receiver Tyreek Hill during an 11-on-11 drill and went down grabbing his left knee. Ramsey was helped up but didn’t appear to put any weight on his leg and was carted back to the locker room as Miami’s second full-team practice of training camp closed.

“I’ll be back on that field stronger than ever… in due time!” Ramsey tweeted Thursday evening. “This SO minor for God’s child? I trust fully & know He got me! I’m forever grateful to worship his name!”

The Dolphins acquired Ramsey from the Los Angeles Rams in March for a third-round pick and tight end Hunter Long.

Ramsey had a career-high 88 tackles and four interceptions in 17 games last season for the Rams. He is a six-time Pro Bowler, three-time All-Pro and Super Bowl LVI champion.

The Bengals intend to keep Trey Hendrickson in the fold for another three seasons after watching the star defensive end regularly disrupt opposing offences during his first two years in Cincinnati.

The Bengals signed Hendrickson to a one-year contract extension on Thursday.

Terms of the deal were not revealed.

Signed to a four-year, $60million contract with the Bengals prior to the 2021 season, the 28-year-old Hendrickson is now tied to the Bengals through 2025.

In his first two seasons in Cincinnati, Hendrickson proved to be one of the NFL's top edge rushers, earning Pro Bowl selections each year.

After finishing fifth in the NFL with a career-high 14 sacks in 2021, Hendrickson registered team highs of eight sacks and 24 quarterback hits in 15 games last season.

During Cincinnati's playoff run following the 2021 regular season, Hendrickson notched 3 1/2 sacks - including one in the Bengals' Super Bowl loss to the Los Angeles Rams.

A third-round selection by the New Orleans Saints in the 2017 NFL draft, Hendrickson has 42 sacks, 36 tackles for loss and 94 QB hits in 76 career games.

 

Bryce Young's tenure as the Carolina Panthers' starting quarterback will begin right away, as head coach Frank Reich announced Wednesday that the 2023 No. 1 overall pick will start the team's season opener against the Atlanta Falcons on Sept. 10.

Young, the 2021 Heisman Trophy winner, will become the first rookie quarterback to start for the Panthers in Week 1 since former NFL MVP Cam Newton in 2011.

“When we decided to pick Bryce we imagined and saw the vision that we would be standing here today saying he is the QB1,” Reich told reporters.

Reich's decision was not unexpected, as Young took over first-team reps from veteran Andy Dalton near the end of Carolina's organised team activities in June.

"I think Bryce has made good progress. You can just tell, he and the whole group on offence ... you can just tell everybody is feeling more comfortable with it. Certainly, Bryce is as well. So we feel good about where he's at."

The Panthers traded two first-round picks, including the No. 9 overall selection in this year's draft, and wide receiver D.J. Moore to the Chicago Bears in March in order to move up to No. 1 and take the diminutive but dynamic Young as their intended franchise quarterback.

Young earned that honour with a stellar three-year career at the University of Alabama in which he completed nearly 66 per cent of his attempts while totalling 8,356 passing yards and 80 touchdown passes with just 12 interceptions.

The 5-foot-10 California native won the Heisman Trophy as a sophomore after throwing for 4,872 yards and 47 touchdowns in 15 games and leading Alabama to the College Football Playoff championship game.

"That's a huge blessing," Young said in being named the Week 1 starter. "For me, it doesn't change my approach. I want to make sure I take things day by day. There are a lot of things that I want to keep growing in, keep improving in.

"We are all as a team in this together."

 

Young takes over a Carolina team that recorded its fifth consecutive losing season by going 7-10 in 2022. The Panthers' streak of five straight non-playoff seasons is tied with the Falcons for the second-longest active drought among NFC teams.

 

 

The New York Giants and tackle Andrew Thomas have agreed to a five-year extension that reportedly contains the largest amount of guaranteed money for an offensive lineman in NFL history.

NFL.com reports that Thomas' new deal, which runs through the 2029 season, has a maximum value of $117.5 million and includes $67 million in guarantees. The previous high in guaranteed money for an offensive lineman was the $64 million the Baltimore Ravens granted left tackle Ronnie Stanley in his 2020 extension.

Thomas becomes the second highest paid offensive lineman in terms of average annual value at $23.5 million, surpassed only by the three-year, $75 million extension the Houston Texans gave tackle Laremy Tunsil in March.

"Ecstatic about that," Giants general manager Joe Schoen told reporters Wednesday about locking up Thomas. "He played at a high level. He's our type of guy."

Thomas has emerged as one of the NFL's premier left tackles since being selected by the Giants with the fourth overall pick of the 2020 draft. The 24-year-old has started 44 games over his three seasons and was named a second team All-Pro in 2022.

He's also the latest core player the Giants have signed to a multi-year contract this offseason. The team retained starting quarterback Daniel Jones with a four-year, $160 million deal and Pro Bowl defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence on a four-year, $90 million extension.

The Giants were unable to reach a long-term agreement with star running back Saquon Barkley, who instead received the franchise tag and signed his one-year, $10.1 million tender offer Tuesday.

Thomas is one of two offensive linemen that agreed to an extension Wednesday. The Houston Texans reached a three-year, $56 million deal with right tackle Tytus Howard that contains $36.5 million guaranteed, according to NFL.com. 

A first-round pick of Houston in 2019, Howard has started 54 games over his four seasons and was entering the final year of his rookie contract. 

The Dallas Cowboys checked off one major task on their offseason to-do list, while another looms large as the team opens training camp.

The Cowboys signed star cornerback Trevon Diggs to a five-year, $97million contract extension Tuesday, multiple media outlets reported, while six-time All-Pro guard Zack Martin officially began his holdout for a new deal.

Diggs, who led the NFL and tied a franchise record with 11 interceptions in 2021, is entering the final year of his rookie contract and is now signed through the 2028 season.

Martin has been one of the league’s top offensive linemen since the Cowboys drafted him in the first round in 2014 but was absent when players reported for training camp Tuesday.

Martin, 32, has two seasons remaining on a six-year, $84million deal that represents the ninth-highest average annual value among interior offensive linemen in the NFL.

Dallas owner and general manager Jerry Jones declined to give much detail about Martin’s contract situation.

 “I don’t want to get into what we are doing here or not doing,” Jones told reporters Tuesday. “I just want to say that he is in our plans.”

Diggs was a second-round draft pick in 2020 and has 17 interceptions in 45 career games.

Diggs, who said in May that he “loves” Dallas and hoped to remain with the Cowboys long-term, will reportedly receive half of the deal’s $42.3million in guaranteed money up-front as a signing bonus.

The contract extension reportedly contains an additional $7million in incentives, pushing its maximum possible value to $104million.

With Diggs’ money on the books, the Cowboys could struggle to reach a new long-term deal with Martin, especially with massive extensions for wide receiver CeeDee Lamb and pass-rusher Micah Parsons looming in the coming years.

“We've got everything, as we start camp today where we are, there [is] nothing to concern me about anything to do with what we're doing with contractual situations,” Jones said.

Martin will be fined $50,000 for each day of training camp missed.

 

 

San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy has been medically cleared to participate in training camp after undergoing offseason surgery on his throwing elbow, general manager John Lynch said Tuesday.  

“Brock’s cleared and ready to go,” Lynch said. “He’s been cleared. He’s going to be without restrictions. Having said that, we’re sticking to and adhering to a plan. He got after it the last couple days and we upped his pitch count. We believe in that plan.”

Lynch said the club will continue to work Purdy back in gradually, not allowing the second-year quarterback to throw more than two days in a row.

After throwing Monday and Tuesday, Purdy will not participate when the 49ers hold their first practice Wednesday.

After going 5-0 as the starter down the stretch last season, Purdy projects to open this year under center for the 49ers. Trey Lance – who has recovered from two surgeries to repair a broken right ankle – and Sam Darnold will also take snaps at quarterback.

Purdy was a seventh-round draft pick in 2022 out of Iowa State and was unexpectedly thrust into the spotlight last season after injuries to Lance and Jimmy Garoppolo.

Purdy took the reins in the first quarter of a Week 13 game against the Miami Dolphins, guiding the 49ers to a 33-17 win before ending the regular season with five straight wins as a starter.

After playoff victories over the Seattle Seahawks and Dallas Cowboys, Purdy threw just four pass attempts in the NFC Championship game against the Philadelphia Eagles before being knocked out of the game with a right elbow injury.

With journeyman Josh Johnson and running back Christian McCaffrey taking snaps, the 49ers’ 2022 season ended a game short of the Super Bowl.

Purdy completed 67.1 percent of his passes in his rookie campaign, finishing with 1,374 yards, 13 touchdowns and four interceptions. He added three touchdown passes and no interceptions during the postseason.

Saquon Barkley and the New York Giants reportedly settled on a one-year contract worth up to $11million, ending the star running back's brief holdout.

The deal was agreed upon on Tuesday, one day before the Giants open training camp for the 2023 NFL season.

Barkley's new contract is worth $10.1million fully guaranteed and includes a $2million signing bonus.

The deal also adds $900,000 in incentives, which can be earned if he reportedly reaches 1,300 yards rushing, 11 touchdowns and 65 receptions.

The 26-year-old Barkley ranked fourth in the NFL with a career-high 1,312 rushing yards in 2022, while scoring 10 touchdowns and sharing the team lead with 57 receptions in 16 games.

Just last week, Barkley had said sitting out the 2023 season was an option after he and the Giants failed to reach a long-term deal by the NFL deadline of Aug. 17.

He'll now be back on the field for the Giants as they prepare for their Week 1 game against the Dallas Cowboys on September 10.

Barkley is coming off a bounce-back season following injury-marred years in 2020 and 2021.

He finished seventh in the NFL in scrimmage yards with 1,650 and earned a Pro Bowl selection - his first since 2018, when he was also named the Offensive Rookie of the Year.

In 60 career games, the former No. 2 overall pick has 4,249 rushing yards, 1,820 receiving yards and 37 total touchdowns.

 

The Seattle Seahawks have locked up a key defender just before the start of training camp by agreeing to a three-year extension with edge rusher Uchenna Nwosu through the 2026 season.

Nwosu's agency, Rosenhaus Sports, told multiple outlets Monday the new deal is worth up to $59 million and contains $32 million guaranteed.

Signed to a two-year, $19 million contract by Seattle in March 2022, Nwosu had a breakout first season with the Seahawks in which the five-year veteran set career highs with 9.5 sacks and 67 tackles while starting all 17 regular-season games. The Seahawks were 7-0 in games in which he recorded at least a half-sack.

Nwosu spent his first four seasons with the Los Angeles Chargers after being selected in the second round of the 2018 draft. After being used mainly as a backup and special-teams player his first three years, the 26-year-old started 15 games in 2021 and compiled 40 tackles, five sacks and one interception.

In 79 career games, Nwosu has registered 182 total tackles, 24.5 sacks and six forced fumbles while making 42 starts.

The Los Angeles native returns to a Seattle defence that made two notable additions this offseason, signing former Denver Broncos tackle Dre'Mont Jones to a three-year, $51 milliion contract and bringing back six-time All-Pro linebacker Bobby Wagner on a one-year deal.

Wagner spent his first 10 NFL seasons with the Seahawks before playing for the NFC West-rival Los Angeles Rams in 2022. 

The Buffalo Bills' Nyheim Hines will miss the 2023 NFL season after he injured his knee when he was struck by a jet ski.

Hines was sitting on an idle jet ski and was struck by another rider, sustaining a serious knee injury, according to a report from NFL Network Insider Tom Pelissero on Monday.

His injury is non-life threatening but will require surgery.

It was not immediately reported when and where the accident occurred.

Acquired by the Bills in a trade with the Indianapolis Colts last November, the 26-yard-old Hines was expected to be the Bills' primary kick and punt returner and serve as their third-down running back this season.

In nine games for Buffalo in 2022, Hines returned 16 punts for an average of 9.6 yards and brought back 19 kicks for an average of 29.2 yards and two touchdowns - both against the New England Patriots in the emotional season finale in what was the Bills' first game since Damar Hamlin suffered cardiac arrest against the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 16.

A fourth-round pick by the Colts in 2018, Hines has 22 career touchdowns in 81 games - 10 TDs via rushing, eight from receiving and two each from punt and kick returns.

The three-time defending AFC East-champion Bills begin training camp on Wednesday and will open the regular season on Monday Night Football visiting the New York Jets on September 11.

 

Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo will be ready for the start of training camp after passing his physical on Sunday, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported.

The Raiders signed Garoppolo to a three-year, $67.5 million contract in March, including $34 million guaranteed.

He is taking over for Derek Carr, who was released in February and went on to sign with the New Orleans Saints after serving as the Raiders’ starting quarterback since 2014.

Garoppolo began the 2022 season with the San Francisco 49ers as Trey Lance’s backup but found himself back in the starter’s role after Lance sustained a season-ending broken ankle in Week 2.

Garoppolo then led San Francisco to a 7-3 record before his season ended due to a fractured foot sustained in Week 13.

Garoppolo, 31, has appeared in 74 games since being selected by the New England Patriots in the second round (62nd overall pick) of the 2014 NFL Draft.

In 57 starts for New England and San Francisco, Garoppolo posted a 40-17 record while throwing for 13,923 yards with 84 touchdowns and 42 interceptions.

The Baltimore Ravens added further depth to the running back position Friday by reaching an agreement with veteran Melvin Gordon on a one-year contract.

NFL.com reports that Gordon, a two-time Pro Bowl selection, can earn up to $3.1 million. The deal is pending a physical.

Gordon has rushed for 900 or more yards four times in an eight-year career spent with the Chargers and Denver Broncos, though he managed a career-low 318 with two touchdowns in 2022 and was released by the Broncos in November after fumbling five times in 10 games.

The 30-year-old finished last season on the Kansas City Chiefs' practice squad but was not elevated to the active roster.

Gordon's 69 total touchdowns are the third-most among active running backs, and he recorded nine or more in six straight seasons before having that streak end in 2022.

The 2015 first-round pick will face plenty of competition to earn a roster spot with the Ravens, who bring back three running backs who rushed for over 250 yards last season in J.K. Dobbins, Gus Edwards and Justice Hill.

Gordon has accumulated 6,462 rushing yards in 108 career regular-season games, along with 309 receptions totalling 2,467 yards. He spent the last three seasons with the Broncos after a five-year tenure with the Chargers from 2015-19. 

 

 

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