The Ravens unveiled a new alternate helmet this year and they announced when they will wear it for the first time on Thursday.
The purple headgear will make its debut during their Week 10 Thursday night home game against the Bengals. It will be the first time that the Ravens have worn a helmet other than their familiar black one.
“The reaction to our ‘Purple Rising’ helmet launch from both players and fans was extremely positive,” Ravens senior vice President of marketing Brad Downs said in a statement. “We can’t wait to debut it in front of a national audience and huge Baltimore crowd this November.”
It’s not the only bit of fashion news that the team shared on Thursday. They also revealed that they will wear all-black uniforms for their Week Four Sunday night game against the Bills.
The Bengals announced a couple of roster moves on Thursday morning.
Cincinnati has re-signed running back Trayveon Williams and placed defensive lineman McKinnley Jackson on injured reserve.
Williams, 26, has spent his entire career with the Bengals since he was selected in the sixth round of the 2019 draft. As a vested veteran, Cincinnati could release him on cutdown day without risk of losing him to waivers.
Williams was on the field for 64 percent of special teams snaps in 2023 and 14 percent of offensive snaps. He has 62 career carries for 307 yards and 15 catches for 74 yards.
Jackson is dealing with a knee injury. He will be eligible to practice after four weeks.
The Bengals also signed guard Dashawn Manning, running back Kendall Milton, defensive tackle Justin Rogers, and defensive end Isaiah Thomas to their practice squad.
Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo said that Drake Maye outplayed Jacoby Brissett in the preseason, but that wasn’t enough for the first-round pick to win the starting quarterback job in New England.
According to multiple reports, Mayo told the team at a Thursday meeting that Brissett will be the starter against the Bengals in the season opener. That’s not a great surprise given the prevailing belief all offseason that Maye’s limited experience as a starter in college and the makeup of the Patriots offensive roster would make Brissett the choice, but the last few weeks provided some reason to think the Patriots might go the other way.
They will go to Maye at some point because you don’t pick players third overall for them to remain on the bench. The timing of that move will likely be based on multiple things and the play of the team’s offensive line will likely be at the top of the list. The group struggled all summer and the Patriots won’t want to subject Maye to weekly poundings if they can avoid it, although Brissett’s shoulder injury in the preseason finale shows that won’t be the easiest balancing act.
Those are questions for the future, though. The present belongs to Brissett and we’re a little more than a week away from seeing how that will play out for the NFC East club.
On Tuesday, Bengals head coach Zac Taylor expressed a lot of confidence that wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase will be in the lineup for the season opener against the Patriots.
Taylor sounded a lot different when he spoke to the media after practice on Wednesday. Chase did not practice at all a day after Taylor’s pronouncement, which also featured Taylor saying that the wideout would continue practicing all this week after getting on the field for the first time this summer on Sunday. Taylor said that he “probably put my foot in my mouth speaking too quickly” about Chase’s practice plans and took a more measured approach to the outlook for Week One.
“I think every day is a new day, we’ll keep working through it. . . . I think it’s wise for me just to say we’re gonna take it day-to-day and see what tomorrow brings,” Taylor said, via Kelsey Conway of the Cincinnati Enquirer.
Taylor said that he thinks Chase can still play on September 8 even if he doesn’t practice again this week, but it looks like everything is very much up in the air when it comes to the availability of the Bengals’ top wideout.
Wednesday brought another twist in the saga of Bengals wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase.
Reporters at Bengals practice sent word that Chase was not present for the start of Wednesday’s workout and then shared that Chase arrived late to the session. The wideout was in street clothes rather than a uniform.
Chase returned to practice this week after sitting out of training camp and the preseason in a contract impasse with the team. Bengals head coach Zac Taylor said on Tuesday that he’s confident Chase will play in Week One and that the plan was for him to continue working all this week.
It’s not clear why that plan changed, but there will likely be an update from Cincinnati in the near future.
