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NFL

Vance Joseph does not want to ride the QB 'roller coaster'

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — This is the 13th year that Vance Joseph has been to an NFL training camp as a coach, but it’s the first time he has had to answer for anything and everything as a team’s head coach.

In his first season with the Denver Broncos, in a quarterback-crazed city, Joseph finds himself front and center when it comes to answering questions about a quarterback competition he opened earlier this year.

“It’s kind of what you get used to,” wide receiver Demaryius Thomas said. “People are always talking about the quarterback, it seems like. We’ve done heard it all before.”

Joseph has spent, and will continue to spend, a piece of each training-camp day answering the inevitable questions that come with any unmade quarterback decision, the questions about each throw in each drill in each practice.

As much as most everyone wants to score the quarterback derby between Trevor Siemian and Paxton Lynch after each workout, Joseph said Saturday that’s not how it’s going to work.

“They both made plays, and they both didn’t make plays. It’s tough to ride the roller coaster with those guys, who won the day, who didn’t win the day, I’m not going to do that,” Joseph said after Saturday’s practice. “It’s going to be a collective evaluation over the course of weeks.”

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Joseph has stayed consistent in his message through the opening week of training camp: “Time” will help make the decision. Joseph reaffirmed that message Saturday, and he continues to preach patience along the way.

“It’s not going to change daily,” Joseph said. “That’s important because you don’t want to leave here every day thinking Paxton is the guy, and tomorrow Trevor is the guy. We can’t do that. It has to be a collective evaluation over time. That’s why time is a good thing because now we can have a full evaluation of both guys.”

The Broncos players, too, have found themselves being asked about their plans for the season, quickly followed by requests for opinions on the quarterback situation. Most have stuck to the that’s-up-to-the-coaches mantra, but running back C.J. Anderson took a different approach Saturday.

Anderson worked through the week-to-week uncertainty with Peyton Manning’s foot injury in 2015, with Brock Osweiler’s week-to-week notice of whether he would play the coming week, as well as last summer’s quarterback competition among Siemian, Lynch and Mark Sanchez. On Saturday, Anderson found a way to deflect the inevitable quarterback comparisons.

“Both of them had a good day [Saturday],” Anderson said with a smile. “I caught two touchdowns from both of them, so they’re doing good to me.”

Asked how he would make the decision, Anderson added: “Maybe if I catch more touchdowns from one than the other — that’s how I look at it. I caught a nice touchdown pass from Trevor the other day, and Day 1 I caught another one from Paxton. It’s like a win-win. I’m open, and they put them right on the money. It looks good to me.”

Although their competition is the story of training camp thus far, it has camouflaged the fact that both Siemian and Lynch are navigating a new playbook under new offensive coordinator Mike McCoy. Also, the Broncos might have as many as four new starters on the offensive line by the time they get to the season opener.

That’s a lot of change, and as a result, Joseph has moved Siemian and Lynch in and out of drills as both quarterbacks have worked with a variety of personnel groupings.

“I’ve said it plenty of times: As long as the O-line does our jobs, it doesn’t matter who’s under center,” guard Ron Leary said. “Both of them are good quarterbacks, so we know whoever takes that snap Week 1, as long as we go out there, they’ll look good.”

The Broncos seem to have used last season’s quarterback competition as the template for this one. Last summer, Gary Kubiak waited until Aug. 29 — two days after the Broncos’ third preseason game — to formally announce the starter.

Joseph has said that having a starter named before the third preseason game — Aug. 26 against Green Bay — would be “ideal,” but he has also said that he will wait longer if he believes that will yield the best decision.

“But we know we just need to play,” Thomas said. “The coaches are going to name [a quarterback] when they’re ready. Everybody else knows we need to just play, get ready and do whatever we need to do to be ready for the season. We can be a great offense with either Trevor or Paxton.”

NFL

Chiefs' Patrick Mahomes II passes two-minute test with time to spare

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. — Patrick Mahomes II faced his first true NFL training-camp moment on Saturday when the rookie quarterback went on the Kansas City Chiefs practice field for a two-minute drill. He passed the test with plenty of room to spare.

Mahomes needed just four plays — one a long pass to tight end Ross Travis that got the 75-yard drive started — to get the touchdown. He scored the touchdown himself on a run and used just 1:05 of his allotted 1:58.

They were just four plays in a long training camp, but they happened in an important game situation. That’s what stood out to the Chiefs and co-offensive coordinator Matt Nagy.

Patrick Mahomes II performed like a veteran in a two-minute drive Saturday. Denny Medley/USA TODAY Sports

“You want to get off [on] the right foot,” Nagy said. “[Something] that happens in these two-minute drills, when you have to go 75 yards and you need a touchdown to do it, that first play, it’s nice when you get a big chunk [to start].”

Mahomes made a veteran move on the first play of the drive by looking off the safety in the middle of the field. He then threw a dart to Travis.

“I tell everybody from his very first practice that he had when he came in and was screaming in the huddle what the play was — and didn’t realize he was talking to the defense — to where he is right now, looking off safeties, it’s a huge leap,” Nagy said.

“It was phenomenal. It was a great throw. He’s used to that two-minute stuff. It helps him out and he’s throwing with confidence.”

Two-minute situations are nothing new to Mahomes, the Chiefs’ first-round draft pick. He played in college at Texas Tech, where the offense played at a continuous fast pace. The hurry-up offense was the norm.

“When he gets to play fast, play quick … You see a lot of his tape, he’s out of the pocket, they’re scrambling, there are tense moments, tight throws,” Nagy said. “[Those are] some of his strengths.

“He’s very calm and you can’t break him down. Coach [Andy Reid] gets after him now. Every once in a while I’ll be looking out of the corner of my eye to see if he’s breaking down, but he’s doing great. As of now, he’s pretty unbreakable. But we’ll see how that goes as the test goes on.”

NFL

NFL-NIH partnership to end with $16M unspent
10:12 AM ET

  • Mark Fainaru-Wada

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    ESPN Staff Writer
    • Investigative reporter for ESPN’s Enterprise and Investigative Unit since 2007
    • Co-author of New York Times best-selling books “League of Denial” and “Game of Shadows”
    • Co-winner, 2004 George Polk Award

  • Steve Fainaru

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    ESPN Senior Writer
    • Winner, 2008 Pulitzer Prize in International Reporting
    • Four-time first-place winner in Associated Press Sports Editors competition
    • Co-author of New York Times best-selling book, “League of Denial”

Nearly five years ago, the NFL donated $30 million to the National Institutes of Health for brain research, an initiative that commissioner Roger Goodell touted as a demonstration of the league’s commitment to fund independent science exploring the link between football and brain disease. But the marriage between the NFL and the government agency appears headed for a divorce.

NIH officials decided months ago to let the agreement expire in August with more than half of the money unused, following a bitter dispute in 2015 in which the NFL backed out of a major study that had been awarded to a researcher who had been critical of the league, Outside the Lines has learned.

The expected NFL-NIH breakup would mark an uneasy conclusion to an initiative often billed as the largest single donation in NFL history. In the end, the NIH has signaled its willingness to leave approximately $16 million on the table, a measure of the mistrust that built up following the league’s unsuccessful efforts to rescind funding awarded to a group led by Robert Stern, a Boston University neuroscientist.

A statement released Thursday by the NIH, previous comments from agency officials, and information provided by sources to Outside the Lines all point to the NIH severing its ties to the NFL.

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“The NFL’s agreement with [the funding arm of the NIH] ends August 31, 2017, and there are no current research plans for the funds remaining from the original $30 million NFL commitment,” the NIH’s statement reads. “NIH is currently funding concussion research directly.

“If [the] NFL wishes to continue to support research at NIH, a simple donation to the NIH Gift Fund to support research on sports medicine would be favorably viewed, as long as the terms provided broad latitude in decisions about specific research programs.”

Under the original partnership with the NFL, the league retained veto power over how its $30 million donation could be used.

On Wednesday — one day after Boston University researchers reported finding neurodegenerative disease in the brains of 110 of 111 former NFL players — ranking Democrats from the House Committee on Energy and Commerce sent a letter to Goodell asking how the league planned to “follow through with its commitment to the NIH.”

The NFL responded that league officials are “engaged in constructive discussions” with the NIH’s fundraising arm “regarding potential new research projects and the remaining funds of our $30 million commitment,” according to a statement released by the league.

Asked Thursday if it were considering donating money to the NIH Gift Fund, a league spokesman referred back to Wednesday’s statement.

The NIH’s statement on Thursday does not mention any ongoing discussions with the NFL, however, and a spokesperson for the NIH’s fundraising arm said while it suggested a donation to the Gift Fund, it is not involved in such transactions.

In late June, NIH spokesman John Burklow told Outside the Lines that he was unaware of any discussions to renew or extend the $30 million contract with the league.

“If you asked me what happened with the agreement, there’s no action that I’m aware of. So it ends in August,” he told Outside the Lines then. “… I have not heard of any plans to use the remaining funds.”

In an interview last month, Patrick Bellgowan, a program director for the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, a branch of the NIH, told Outside the Lines: “Right now, we are funding all of our concussion research independently.”

House Energy and Commerce ranking member Frank Pallone Jr., D-N.J., — a co-author on the letter sent to the NFL — said Thursday “it’s disappointing that the NFL’s inappropriate actions soured the relationship to the point where it appears that NIH couldn’t see a path forward. However, at a time when there’s a desperate need for research dollars, I strongly encourage the NIH and NFL to work to use the remaining funding that the NFL committed to support critical research that could help protect current, former and future football players.”

The NFL announced its $30 million “unrestricted gift” to the NIH in September 2012 — four months after San Diego Chargers great Junior Seau committed suicide by shooting himself in the chest. Goodell billed the donation as an effort to fund independent research that would get to the bottom of the link between football and brain damage — a connection that the league had denied for nearly two decades.

The NIH said the money came “with no strings attached.”

By 2013, the NIH had begun to distribute the NFL money for peer-reviewed research. The NIH awarded two $6 million grants for a “comprehensive investigation” into chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, and six pilot studies totaling $2 million. One of the recipients of the larger grants was Boston University neuropathologist Dr. Ann McKee — a colleague of Stern’s — whose research produced the announcement this week that 110 of 111 former deceased NFL players had CTE.

McKee, who has clashed with the NFL over her conclusions, also has described the league’s funding as “an absolute lifeline for my work.”

The dispute over the $16 million grant awarded to a group to be led by Stern erupted in late 2015. The money was earmarked for research to find CTE in living patients; the disease currently can only be diagnosed post-mortem. According to reporting by Outside the Lines and a separate congressional report, several NFL health officials tried to persuade the NIH to rescind the award, including Jeff Miller, the NFL’s senior vice president for health and safety; Dr. Richard Ellenbogen, co-chairman of the Head, Neck and Spine Committee; and Dr. Mitch Berger, chairman of the subcommittee on the long-term effects of brain and spine injury. The NFL tried to redirect the funding to a group that included researchers affiliated with the league, the congressional report concluded.

The May 2016 report, issued by Democrats from the House Committee on Energy and Commerce following a months-long investigation, concluded that despite a signed agreement with the NIH, the NFL backed out of funding the seven-year, longitudinal study when it learned that Stern would be the lead researcher.

In public statements and written responses to the committee, the NFL repeatedly denied it withheld funding but argued that the NIH selection process was tainted by Stern’s bias and a conflict of interest involving a reviewer. The league maintained it had been prepared to fund a portion of the study but that it was told the NIH decided to use public funds instead. The report stated that the NFL made a last-minute offer of $2 million — a fraction of its original commitment — but was turned down by NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins.

Shortly after that controversy, the NFL announced a new commitment to spend $100 million toward concussion research and innovation. That money is administered by the league.

Four months after the Democrats’ report, Republican leaders from the Energy and Commerce committee called for an independent review of the controversy — with particular attention to whether the NIH mishandled the situation.

The status of the review is unclear.

In February 2016, a few months after the conflict had played out, NIH officials notified the NFL that it planned to initiate concussion research focused on youth and suggested the league could support this work. Miller, the NFL’s chief health and safety officer, was noncommittal, suggesting that the NIH pursue a longitudinal study, as the two parties had agreed upon earlier.

NIH officials responded in an email that they were “puzzled” by Miller’s email. They noted that this was the research they had already funded — through Stern’s group — using taxpayer money after the NFL backed out of the deal.

NFL

Cousins, Redskins on 'same page' despite tag

Richmond, Virginia — Kirk Cousins’ past will help guide him, once again, during a season in which his long-term status remains uncertain.

The Washington Redskins quarterback said that’s not just because he played on a one-year deal last season, but because most of his career has had the same feel: a player always having to prove himself.

Redskins quarterback Kirk Cousins says he’s “living the dream” playing in the NFL despite being unable to land a contract extension in Washington for a second straight offseason. Rafael Suanes/USA TODAY Sports

“The lesson I learned was the same lesson I learned as a senior in high school when I played my high school senior year with zero scholarship offers,” Cousins said, “and the same thing I learned my senior year of college when I played with wondering if I could go to the NFL.

“If you win football games, everything else takes care of itself, and that’s a beautiful thing. If you do that there is going to be plenty of opportunities down the road. So my focus never really has to change from that standpoint.”

Cousins is one of 12 key starters or backups playing on a one-year deal. But none have garnered headlines like Cousins’s situation. The Redskins used the franchise tag on him for a second season and failed to reach a long-term deal by the July 17 deadline. His future remains murky in Washington, but the same was true last season. He still threw for 25 touchdowns and 12 interceptions as Washington finished 8-7-1.

Teammates aren’t concerning themselves with his situation — cornerback Josh Norman made a “zero” sign with his fist when asked how much he worries about another player’s contract status. And Cousins said he’s not focused on it either.

“I feel good. I’m ready to go,” Cousins said. “I’ve been feeling good the last several weeks, and we’ve done a good job communicating between myself and the team. We’re all on the same page. We’re all in a good place right now. We’ve got enough to worry about trying to get our offense playing at the level it’s going to need to have a great season so that I can be back in future years.”

The common refrain is that Cousins is betting on himself. But Cousins said it’s not about betting on himself but rather the system: If he works hard and wins, he’ll be rewarded. It also helps that he’ll make $24 million this season.

“As I’ve said many times, my wife and I love it here and we’re in a good place,” Cousins said. “I’m living the dream being a starting quarterback in the NFL. I’ve got my hands full this season with 16 games. I talk about how in the offseason the ball is in the team’s court, as it is, but from Week 1 to Week 17, the ball’s in my court, and I’ve got to go play football well, so that’s where my focus is.”

And it’s a focus he’s grown accustomed to having.

“Every year you never had it mapped out,” Cousins said. “So to be in that role now may feel different, but it really doesn’t to me because that’s been my story all along, and I’ve just learned that’s the way life is. Maybe that’s the way the Lord wants it to be for me, and I’m OK with that. It’s a healthy place for me to be. It’s worked in the past and hopefully it can work going forward.”

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