ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — In an offseason in which Denver Broncos fans have had extra time to mine the wired world for even the smallest of nuggets about the team’s offseason overhaul, rookie wide receiver Jerry Jeudy has become a ray of electronic sun.
His workout videos, usually posted on his social media accounts, have fueled plenty of drive-time discussion in his new football home, making the Broncos’ first-round pick this past April the team’s retweet king over the past two months.
When Jeudy posted a 43-second clip of some footwork drills last month, former six-time Pro Bowl wide receiver Chad Johnson simply posted, “Moses parted the Red Sea for feet like this.”
Another 29-second clip Jeudy posted earlier this month showcased his route-running work and made Jeudy the face, and the feet, that launched a thousand emojis.
“I love the way he plays,” is how Broncos wide receiver Courtland Sutton put it earlier this offseason. “… He’s going to add a lot more pressure to defenses with his speed, his route-running ability. I think it’s going to open up a lot for a lot of the guys on the field.”
The Broncos say Jeudy was the top receiver on their draft board this past April when, in their efforts to rev up one of the league’s lowest-scoring offenses last season, they were more than happy to scoop him up with the 15th pick overall. He was the second receiver selected — his former teammate at Alabama Henry Ruggs III was the first wide receiver selected at No. 12 by the Las Vegas Raiders — and Jeudy is expected to be a walk-in starter for the Broncos whenever the team returns to the field.
His appearances at workouts organized by quarterback Drew Lock in recent weeks had teammates buzzing about his potential in an offense that needed upgrading. The Broncos finished 28th or worse last season in most of the major categories on offense, including scoring, total offense, third-down conversions and red zone scoring. They scored 16 or fewer points nine times last season and went 2-7 in those games.
The NFL has banned jersey exchanges in 2020 as the league attempts to play through the coronavirus pandemic, according to a set of protocols distributed to teams Wednesday and obtained Thursday by ESPN.
Jersey exchanges have gained in popularity in recent years, and their elimination was met with immediate derision from some prominent players on social media. San Francisco 49ers cornerback Richard Sherman tweeted that it was a “perfect example of NFL thinking in a nutshell,” noting that players will “engage in a full contact game” only to find that it isn’t safe to exchange jerseys. Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson tweeted that it was “DAMN SILLY.”
The NFL Players Association, however, signed off on the policy, which states: “A key component of the NFL and NFLPA’s COVID-19 Protocols is limiting exposure risk to NFL players, coaches, club medical staffs, and other club and league staff.”
All postgame interactions with less than 6 feet of separation are prohibited.
Other highlights of the policy include:
• Coaches and players who aren’t likely to appear in the game are “strongly encouraged” but not required to wear masks on the sideline. Assistant coaches who work in the coaches’ booth must wear a mask as they walk to and from the locker room or field. Other people who have field access, such as broadcast partners and NFL representatives, must wear masks. A maximum of 184 people can be granted field access for a game, not counting players, coaches and other staffers who receive bench access.
• Players and coaches must submit to multiple temperature checks before games and cannot participate if they have a fever of more than 100.4 degrees.
• Every effort must be made to space lockers 6 feet apart in both the home and visitors locker room. Plexiglass partitions are also an option.
• Arrangements must be made to ensure that there are no shared water cups or bottles on the sideline.
• Players are required to spend the night before games at the team hotel, even if they are playing in their home stadium.
These policies will take effect for preseason and regular-season games. The NFL is planning to have two preseason games for each team, but the NFLPA has endorsed a training camp with no preseason games. Rookies and selected veterans can report to training camp as early as July 21, with full teams eligible to report on July 28.
Perhaps mercifully, a determination on Dak Prescott’s contractual fate with the Dallas Cowboys will be known in a week.
Talks between the Cowboys and Prescott’s agent, Todd France, began in the spring of 2019. The club initially hoped a deal could be consummated before training camp, then during training camp, then at the start of the season, but it never happened.
Unable to get a contract worked out before free agency, the Cowboys put the exclusive franchise tag on Prescott, knowing that July 15 is the deadline to sign him to a long-term deal.
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The negotiations have generated a lot of public debate. Do the Cowboys really believe Prescott is their guy? Why won’t owner and GM Jerry Jones just pay the man? Does Prescott really think he should be the NFL’s highest-paid quarterback, even after the
2:04 Stephen A. Smith has faith in Dak Prescott to lead the Cowboys to a Super Bowl based on their revamped offense.
Truthfully, it probably doesn’t all that much. The Cowboys likely would do a 10-year deal with Prescott, but if he won’t do a five-year deal, why would he do a longer deal if the guaranteed money does not go up appreciably?
Quarterbacks are judged on wins and stats. Mahomes has both. His first two years as Kansas City’s starter are off the charts. He has taken the Chiefs to an AFC Championship Game and a Super Bowl win in his first two seasons. Prescott has one playoff win and has missed the postseason twice in his first four seasons.
Depending on how you want to read the Mahomes deal, it’s a max of $50.3 million per season, $45 million per season based on new money or $39.75 million when looking at it as a 12-year deal. You know which way France will view it and which way the Cowboys will view it.
What happens if the sides do not reach an agreement?
Prescott has to play the season on the $31.4 million tag and the sides cannot discuss a long-term deal until 2021. Essentially, this might kick the can down the road for a year before the sides get into the same prolonged dance again. The only good news is we wouldn’t have to hear and read incessant reports about negotiations until next offseason.
Could Prescott sit out?
Former NBA player Stephen Jackson defended DeSean Jackson on Tuesday night, saying the Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver was “speaking the truth” with his social media posts, including an anti-Semitic message that he attributed to Adolf Hitler.
The Eagles called DeSean Jackson’s posts “offensive, harmful and absolutely appalling,” and the wide receiver later issued two separate statements of apology with “a promise to do better.”
“So I just read a statement that the Philadelphia Eagles posted regarding DeSean Jackson’s comments. He was trying to educate himself, educate people, and he’s speaking the truth. Right? He’s speaking the truth. You know he don’t hate nobody, but he’s speaking the truth of the facts that he knows and trying to educate others,” Stephen Jackson said in a video posted on Instagram.
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“But y’all don’t want us to educate ourselves. If it’s talking about the Black race, y’all ain’t saying nothing about it. They killing us, police killing us and treating us like s—, racism at an all-time high, but ain’t none of you NFL owners spoke up on that, ain’t none of you teams spoke up on that. But the same team had a receiver [Riley Cooper] who said the word n—– publicly! They gave him an extension! I play for the Big3. We have a Jewish owner. He understands where we stand and some of the things we say, but it’s not directed to him. It’s the way we’ve been treated.”
He later deleted the video but appeared to respond to backlash he received with another post:
Cooper, a former Eagles wide receiver who is white, shouted a racial slur at Black security guard at a Kenny Chesney concert in 2013. Cooper later apologized to his teammates and was signed to a five-year extension by the Eagles in 2014. He was released by the team in 2016.
Stephen Jackson, who retired from the NBA in 2014 after playing 14 seasons and winning a championship with San Antonio in 2003, has been a voice for social activism since the death of his friend George Floyd in the custody of Minneapolis police on Memorial Day. Jackson is a former NBA analyst for ESPN.
DeSean Jackson spoke with Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie and general manager Howie Roseman — who both are Jewish — on Tuesday, a source told ESPN’s Tim McManus, with Lurie expressing deep disappointment about the social media posts. Jackson expressed a desire to educate himself and work directly with the Jewish community, and a short time later, his camp contacted the rabbi at Chabad Young Philly to discuss ways for Jackson to donate to and work with the organization.
The controversy spun out of Jackson’s Instagram story, on which he featured a quote he attributed to Hitler that said white Jews “will blackmail America. [They] will extort America, their plan for world domination won’t work if the Negroes know who they were.”
He also shared two posts on Instagram — on Saturday and on Monday — expressing admiration for Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, whom the Anti-Defamation League and Southern Poverty Law Center have identified as anti-Semitic. Those posts have since been deleted.
On Tuesday, Jackson posted an apology on Instagram, saying he “really didn’t realize what this passage [attributed to Hitler] was saying” and that he is “sorry for any hurt I have caused.”
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Eagles wide receiver DeSean Jackson apologizes after posting on his Instagram story an anti-Semitic message that he attributed to Adolf Hitler.
He posted an additional apology to his social media accounts after meeting with Lurie, saying “this apology is more than just words — it is a promise to do better.”
The Anti-Defamation League of Philadelphia on Tuesday said it appreciated his apology and said it was the organization’s “hope he uses this moment as a chance to work with the Jewish community and educate himself further on how dangerous and hurtful antisemitism is.”
Eagles wide receiver Marquise Goodwin, meanwhile, posted on Instagram on Wednesday that “the Jewish community is lashing out at me” for a comment he left on one of DeSean Jackson’s posts. Goodwin said his comment read: “I wish people commented this much on a BLM topic.”
Goodwin said Wednesday, regarding the reaction: “These disrespectful comments and threats need to stop.”
Stephen Jackson played in the Big3 in 2018 and ’19. The league canceled its 2020 season because of the coronavirus pandemic.