NFL players wear the league’s shield on the collar of their game jerseys.
For the first time, the NFL will have the league MVP and the players of the year wear a gold shield patch, Alaina Getzenberg of ESPN reports. The gold patch is inspired by the NFL Honors logo.
The 2024 NFL Honors winners of the Associated Press’ awards were Bills quarterback Josh Allen (MVP), Eagles running back Saquon Barkley (offensive player of the year), Broncos cornerback Patrick Surtain II (defensive player of the year), Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels (offensive rookie of the year) and Rams linebacker Jared Verse (defensive rookie of the year).
The gold shield patches will be on their five jerseys for the entirety of the season, beginning with the Eagles’ season opener against the Cowboys on Thursday.
The NFL also honors captains with a ‘C’ patch on the jersey, and the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award winners wear a special patch on their jerseys for the rest of their careers.
For the first few games of a new quarterback’s career as a starter, he has a little bit of an edge.
The opponents have little or no NFL game film to study.
The Broncos will be dealing with that dynamic as they prepare to host the Titans and quarterback Cam Ward, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 draft.
Coach Sean Payton was asked about preparing for a rookie in his first NFL start on Monday.
“You have a limited exposure in the preseason with him,” Payton told reporters. “Then you would go back and look at his college tape at Miami just to get a feel for not only arm strength, but how does he handle pressure? How does he handle his own? We do a pretty in-depth study. It’s pretty normal when you play teams early in the season maybe to not have all the information you might have when you play a team Week 8 or 9.”
As more film emerges, teams can identify what the player does well — and perhaps what he doesn’t do well. They can try to take away the things he likes to do, and to force him toward something that makes him uncomfortable.
Denver is favored by 7.5 points in the opener, for reasons unrelated to Ward. Denver was a playoff team, and they seem to be ready to force their way into the Super Bowl window. The Titans earned Ward the old-fashioned way. By being the worst team in the league in 2024.
Twenty-four years ago, Shannon Sharpe gave an impassioned — and unexpected — defense of teammate Ray Lewis in advance of Super Bowl XXXV. More recently, Lewis gave and impassions — and unexpected — critique of Sharpe’s media career.
“I’m not surprised,” Lewis said on the PBD Podcast regarding Sharpe’s success as a podcaster. “I’m shocked at his content. . . . I kind of started to watch him and then we kind of went our own separate ways, because I’m like, ‘You’re gonna take that route? I can’t go that route. Never can go that route.’”
What is ‘that route’?
“That route is to become so worldly that you’ve become popular because you’re talking about ignorance,” Lewis said. “A lot of times a lot of these gossip conversations that they’re having and bringing up all this stuff, I’m not gonna do that to nobody. I’m not in the business for that. I’m in life to try to teach people what does it mean to be a better man or give back to the kingdom.
“And a lot of times, like, and a lot of guys get in trouble with these podcasts and things, man, because everybody wants the follower. Everybody wants to be popular, Everybody wants to make money. But that’s a tightrope into what you call influence and popularity. The devil has the ability to make you popular. God has the ability to give you influence that when people see you, they see an image of him.
“And that’s the thing for me that started to switch with not just Shannon, but just a couple of people. I’m like, ‘Wow, you will switch out like that? Really?’ And I would never, ever. Why? Because of the respect that I have for my mother, my daughters, my granddaughters, life, period.
“I think men, given these new platforms, we’ve overrode what the platform is actually for. The platform is supposed to help somebody find a new direction. We don’t help. Everybody’s just gets on. Like everybody’s talking now. Everybody got a podcast. Everybody is the new marriage coach. Everybody’s the new relationship coach. And ain’t nobody coaching themselves, because if you were coaching your yourself, when it says, ‘Power of life and death is found in the tongue,’ then go back and check out a couple of your episodes and ask yourself, ‘Do you give life, or do you give death? And that’s why me personally, yeah, I kind of do my own thing, Stay in my own lane.”
He exited that lane in a big way to share his views about his former teammate’s media career. It’ll be interesting to see if Sharpe, who has plenty to say about plenty of things, will have anything to say about what Lewis said.
Broncos wide receiver Marvin Mims left practice on Wednesday with a groin injury, but the outlook is good for him as the team heads into Week 1.
Mims did not practice on Thursday, but head coach Sean Payton said that tests on Mims came back with results that will allow him to return to the field soon.
“Good news, he’ll be back to practice,” Payton said at his press conference. “We have a bonus practice Monday, he’ll be at work Monday. So, we’re fortunate.”
Mims had 39 receptions for 503 yards and six touchdowns for the Broncos last season and he’s expected to be featured alongside Courtland Sutton and Troy Franklin at the top of the receiver depth chart. Mims was also an All-Pro punt returner during the 2024 season.
Four weeks ago tomorrow, Cowboys linebacker Micah Parsons asked to be traded. Cowboys owner and G.M. Jerry Jones shrugged it off as a negotiation tactic.
He’s reportedly not shrugging now.
ESPN reports that “several teams” have spoken to the Dallas Cowboys about a potential Parsons trade. And, for the first time, the Cowboys “appear willing to at least listen.”
Adam Schefter of ESPN.com adds that the Cowboys “would like to resolve the situation, one way or the other, in the coming days.”
If nothing else, trade talks coupled with, potentially, a new offer could bring the situation to a head. Maybe Parsons decides to take the best offer and stay. Or maybe he embraces a new team, even if it will be short handed in the near future, due to whatever they give up to get him.
Presumably, a Parsons trade package would include multiple first-round picks. And the new team would have to pay him upwards of $45 million per year in annual new money on an extension.
The Cowboys also could be inclined to ship Parsons, if anywhere, to an AFC team. The Packers have been linked to Parsons; the Cowboys should want to not have to compete with his team for playoff spots and/or seeding.
In the AFC, if teams like the Bills and Ravens are serious about catching the Chiefs, both should be burning up the phone lines to get a deal done. The Chargers and Broncos would also be intriguing destinations.
Or the Chiefs could get involved, if only to keep a rival from getting one of the best defensive players in the league.
