The Patriots made a couple of roster moves on Friday as they prepared themselves for the start of training camp.
The NFL’s daily transaction report shows that they placed running back Terrell Jennings on the physically unable to perform list. They also placed linebacker Jontrey Hunter on the non-football injury list.
Jennings ran 120 times for 673 yards and 10 touchdowns while at Florida A&M last season. He signed with the Patriots as an undrafted free agent.
Hunter played at Georgia State and also went undrafted earlier this year. He had 96 tackles, seven tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks, and three forced fumbles last season.
The Bengals announced that the leading rusher in franchise history will be entering the team’s Ring of Honor.
Such an announcement would be expected in most circumstances, but things haven’t always been smooth between Corey Dillon and the Bengals. The running back and the team had acrimonious battles over his contract and Dillon threw his helmet and pads into the stands after what turned out to be his final game with the team in 2003. Since retiring, Dillon has criticized the team for not doing right by their former players and called it “damn-near criminal” that he was not in their Ring of Honor.
A vote by the team’s fans remedied that and Dillon said in a press conference on Thursday that he is ready to put any past problems to bed.
“I think time heals everything,” Dillon said, via Ben Baby of ESPN.com. “We had our due process of healing in our different ways. It’s been long enough. I don’t think the antics outweighed the production on the field, you know what I mean? I think what I presented to the organization outweighed the little antics that went on.”
Longtime defensive lineman Tim Krumrie will be joining Dillon as an inductee during a Monday night game against the Commanders on September 23.
As the cliché goes, nice guys finish last. 49ers receiver Brandon Aiyuk, in officially requesting a trade this week, has figured that out.
There’s another modified saying that has been particularly relevant to the 49ers in recent years.
The squeaky wheel gets the green.
That’s how receiver Deebo Samuel cashed in two years ago. From the outset of the offseason, he agitated. He wanted to be traded. He created the impression he was done with the 49ers.
And it worked.
Last year, defensive end Nick Bosa stayed away until he got paid. And it worked.
Others have gotten paid. Running back Christian McCaffrey, whose squeaking was extremely discreet and generally minimal but nevertheless effective, got paid. Tackle Trent Williams has gotten paid. Most key players from the team that has made it to four conference championships and two Super Bowls have been rewarded.
Those they didn’t want to pay got a fresh start, whether it was defensive tackle DeForest Buckner via trade or defensive lineman Arik Armstead, who was given an ultimatum to take a pay cut or take a hike and choose a fresh start.
Aiyuk falls in a rare category for the Kyle Shanahan/John Lynch 49ers. The 2023 second-team All-Pro clearly deserves more than the $14.1 million he’s due to earn in the fifth year of his rookie deal. They won’t give him what he wants, however. And they won’t trade him to a team that will.
Earlier this year, it seemed as if they were hoping to keep the band together for one more season before figuring out how to reconfigure the roster after the next run at an elusive sixth Super Bowl win.
If that happens, it’ll come against the wishes of Aiyuk, who’s trying to parlay a great performance last year into the contract he believes he deserves.
He was second in the league last year with 12.8 yards per target, racking up 1,342 receiving yards with only 105 passes thrown his way. (Bills receiver Khalil Shakir led the NFL with 13.6, but he had only 611 total receiving yards.)
From Aiyuk’s perspective, what would he do if he got, for example, the 181 targets that went to Cowboys receiver CeeDee Lamb? What would Aiyuk do with even 150?
The 49ers could find out, perhaps by trading Samuel. Or by trading Aiyuk.
Regardless, Aiyuk decided this week to start squeaking. We’ll see if it works.
Former NFL running back Corey Dillon said last year that it was “damn-near criminal” that he was not in the Bengals Ring of Honor, so he was likely happy to hear the team’s announcement about 2024 inductees on Thursday.
The team announced that Dillon and defensive tackle Tim Krumrie will be inducted into the Ring of Honor this year. The induction ceremony will be held at halftime of the team’s Monday night game against the Commanders on September 23.
Dillon was a 1997 second-round pick and spent seven seasons with the Bengals. He is the franchise leader with 1,865 rushing attempts and 8,061 rushing yards, and he also has the top three single-game rushing performances in Bengals history. He moved on to the Patriots and won a Super Bowl in the first of his three seasons in New England.
Krumrie was a 10th-round pick in 1983 and he played with the Bengals through the 1994 season. He was a first-team All-Pro in 1988 and the Bengals advanced to the Super Bowl that season, but Krumrie broke his tibia and fibula during their loss to the 49ers. He returned the next season and coached for the Bengals from 1995 to 2002 after retiring as a player.
Patriots wide receiver Kayshon Boutte will not be facing criminal charges for underage gambling or computer fraud in Louisiana, but the NFL has not closed its own investigation into his actions.
Boutte was arrested in January and charged for bets he allegedly made before turning 21 last year and the NFL said it was looking into the case. His attorney said that those charges have been dropped on Tuesday, but the NFL says they have not made any ruling about league discipline yet.
“We have been following developments in the matter, which remains under review. He may continue to participate in all team activities,” an NFL spokesperson said, via Mike Reiss of ESPN.com.
Boutte turned 21 shortly after being drafted by the Patriots in the sixth-round last year and it is possible that he could have violated league gambling policies even if the criminal charges will not be moving forward.