After former NFL cornerback Vontae Davis’ unexpected passing, Vernon Davis said his brother’s death was a mystery. It remains that way more than a year later.
The Broward County Medical Examiner released its autopsy report on Davis on Friday, listing the cause of death as “undetermined,” per Hal Habib of The Palm Beach Post.
Davis was found unresponsive at his grandmother’s home in South Florida on April 1, 2024. Vernon Davis has said Vontae collapsed after getting out of the sauna.
Police said foul play was not suspected.
Vontae was 35 years old.
The Dolphins made him a first-round pick in 2009, and he was in his 10th season when he abruptly retired during a game with the Bills. He spent six seasons in Indianapolis, earning two Pro Bowls.
James Cook put his house up for sale not long after Bills General Manager Brandon Beane declared contract talks on hold.
The running back has a $5.3 million salary for 2025, the last year of his rookie deal, and he has made it know he’s looking for at least $15 million per year.
Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports that things are “not great” between Cook and the Bills, which seems obvious given the for sale sign in Cook’s yard. But Rapoport adds that Cook “will play for the Bills next [season].”
While the Bills want Cook signed long term, that seems unlikely at the moment given Cook and the team seemingly have a wide gap to close in negotiations.
The Bills made Cook a second-round pick in 2022, and he has two 1,000-yard seasons, two Pro Bowls and, in 2024, he scored 16 rushing touchdowns. He is only 25 and currently headed toward free agency in 2026.
The Green Bay tush push proposal was tabled until May. And it’s likely to return in a very different form.
The Packers’ original proposal (which may or may not have been instigated by the league office, like the Lions’ playoff reseeding proposal) was badly flawed. It prevented an “immediate” push of the player who received the snap. Which, if it had passed, would have opened a can of worms regarding officiating consistency as to what is and isn’t “immediate.”
The most obvious fallback, as mentioned last week by Commissioner Roger Goodell (who seems to want the rule to change), is a return to the pre-2006 rulebook. More recently, Packers president Mark Murphy mentioned it as the likely alternative.
In those days, pushing and pulling of the ballcarrier was prohibited. The league removed the ban on pushing a teammate, because it was never called. (As we understand it, assisting the runner — by pushing or pulling — has not been called since a 1991 divisional round playoff game between the Bills and the Chiefs. During the 2024 postseason, we reported that the league would not instruct officials to call fouls for pulling a runner, given that it hasn’t been called.)
As one source with knowledge of the dynamics explained it, however, the 2006 adjustment happened as part of a broader set of changes to the rules regarding blocking. Simply prohibiting pushing without making other adjustments to the blocking rules could have, as the source put it, unintended consequences.
Frankly, it’s unnecessary to prevent a downfield shove. While it’s regarded as unnecessary roughness for a player to charge down the field and barrel into his teammate with the ball (it’s called, we’re told, five or six times per year), there’s no specific concern about a teammate pushing a teammate with the ball spontaneously.
The best approach could be to ban pushing in limited circumstances. Basically, within the tackle box and/or five yards (or some other specific distance) on either side of the line of scrimmage.
The problem is that the league doesn’t want to create the impression that it’s changing the rules to target one specific team. But we all know that’s what’s happening. Why play games with it?
If it’s a safety risk and/or aesthetically problematic, cut with a scalpel and not a chainsaw. Green Bay’s proposal from last week, bad as it was, started the conversation. The best way to finish it, if Goodell is able to twist 24 arms, is to make a change that focuses on the technique that causes concern, without trying to fix unrelated maneuvers (like a downfield push) that aren’t broken.
There’s an ongoing assault against the tush push. And one of the reasons for removing it from the rulebook is player safety. If so, it’s fair to know what the players think.
It became clear last week that the tush-push opponents are pointing to two things: safety and aesthetics. On the former, there’s no injury data to support that it presents a heightened risk of injury. It’s all hypothetical and speculative.
And incomplete.
What does the NFL Players Association think about the tush push? On Monday afternoon, the union declined to comment on any internal discussions about the play.
Regardless, if it’s truly a safety issue, the union should be involved. The union needs to be involved. If the union isn’t involved, it looks like it’s not a safety issue. It looks like safety is being used as a pretext to remove the play from the game.
Maybe the NFL hasn’t involved the union in the analysis because the league fears the union would say something like this: Since there’s no data to support that it’s an unacceptable injury risk, we’re OK with it; why aren’t you?
Cornerback Shavon Revel has lined up several pre-draft visits for this week.
Tom Pelissero of NFL Media reports that Revel will will visit the Bills, Colts, and Vikings in the coming days. Revel is seen as a possible first-round pick and is expected to be off the board on the second night of the draft if he doesn’t go that early.
Revel’s ranking on draft boards has been affected by a knee injury he suffered while playing for East Carolina last season. Revel is due for a medical recheck while in Indianapolis to visit the Colts, but his doctor has already sent a letter to teams telling them that he has been cleared for conditioning work in the spring and that he should be able to do team work during training camp.
Revel had two interceptions and he returned one of them for a touchdown before his injury. He had 54 tackles, four tackles for loss, an interception and a fumble return for a touchdown during the 2023 season.
