Former NFL defensive back Pacman Jones was one of our favorite PFT Live guests during Super Bowl week. So was Colorado coach Deion Sanders.
They recently got together for an episode of Deion’s Tubi show, We Got Time Today. And Jones made an eyebrow-raising claim regarding his efforts to beat the NFL’s drug-testing protocols.
“I cheated the program,” Jones said, via Brent Schrotenboer of USA Today. “Like, I was really good. People don’t know how smart I am, but like, I can say it now. I don’t play no more. But like, I’ve never used my [urine] for a [urine] test. Not one time. Not one time.” (Folks, it’s OK to use the word “piss,” if that’s the word he used. You won’t go to hell for it.)
Deion told Jones that “can’t happen today.” Jones, who spent 12 years in the NFL with the Titans, Cowboys, Bengals, and Broncos, disagreed.
“It can happen if you know what you’re doing,” Jones said. “Don’t say it can’t happen, Pop. Hey, Pop, don’t say it can’t happen.”
“The reason it can’t [is] because they go in there with you right now,” Sanders said, regarding the sample collectors. “No, no. They go in there and watch you pull out.”
“You still can get them,” Jones said.
Deion ended the conversation before Pacman could explain the workaround. In 2005, former NFL running back Onterrio Smith was caught at an airport with a “Whizzinator” — a fake penis that dispensed clean urine.
Nowadays, few care about marijuana use. As Jones said, it helps players manage pain.
“They’re giving guys opiates, pain pills, muscle relaxers,” Jones said. “You’re telling me that a guy that’s smoking THC, that it’s helping him perform more, or are you telling me is it helping his body? . . . I’m all for the weed.”
It’s currently legal for medical or recreational usage in 37 states. And while the NFL has largely decriminalized it under the substance-abuse policy, it would make more sense to tell the players, “Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em.”
Especially since it helps them get through the grind of a 17-week football season.
Broncos defensive end Zach Allen is looking to turn a strong 2024 season into a new contract with the team.
Chris Tomasson of the Denver Gazette reports that Allen is looking for a contract extension as the offseason gets underway.
Allen has one year left in the three-year contract that he signed with the Broncos in 2023. He’s set to make $12.74 million with a cap hit of $19.795 million.
Per the report, Allen is looking for a raise that would put him in the neighborhood of $25 million per season.
Allen, who will turn 28 this summer, was a second-team All-Pro in 2024 after recording 61 tackles and 8.5 sacks during the regular season.
The Broncos will be holding onto all five of their exclusive rights free agents.
According to multiple reports, the Broncos have tendered contracts to cornerback Ja’Quan McMillian, tight end Lucas Krull, linebacker Dondrea Tillman, defensive lineman Jordan Jackson, and safety Devon Key.
The players will have to sign the tenders before getting back on the field, but they will not be able to negotiate with other clubs so that is likely to happen without any issue.
McMillian had 81 tackles, two interceptions, a sack and a forced fumble in 17 regular season appearances while Krull caught 19 passes for 152 yards. Tillman had five sacks in a rotational role and Jackson and Key both played reserve and special teams roles over the course of the season.
Since the Jets were going to cut receiver Davante Adams before next Wednesday, they gave him a head start on the open market.
So he’s now a free agent for the first time in his career.
And the betting favorite to sign him is the team that drafted him in 2014. Via DraftKings, the Packers have +190 odds to be Adams’s next team.
The Chargers are next at +500, followed by the 49ers at +650, the Rams at +750, the Steelers at +950, and the Broncos and Patriots at 1000.
Another reunion, with the Raiders, is a 12-1 proposition.
Some think he’ll land wherever quarterback Aaron Rodgers goes. With the Giants at -150 to sign Rodgers, maybe Adams (like Rodgers) will be changing teams without changing addresses.
Running back Javonte Williams led the Broncos in rushing for the second straight year in 2024, but he saw Jaleel McLaughlin and Audric Estime take on a bigger share of the work in the backfield and that seemed to foreshadow an offseason departure.
Williams is set to become a free agent next month and paying him feels like a low priority given the other backs in Denver as well as the options available through the draft. General Manager George Paton didn’t rule it out during a press conference from the Scouting Combine on Tuesday.
“Well, I mean, there’s a chance we bring Javonte back, and I think Javonte is one of the best pass protectors in the league,” Paton said, via Andrew Mason of 104.3 The Fan. “And I think he’s still young and he’s still ascending, another year removed from the injury. But I think there’s so many different flavors in this draft of runner, and we have some backs that we like.”
Paton noted the severe knee injury that Williams suffered early in the 2022 season and there will be some thoughts of how things might have gone for Williams had he avoided that absence. That answer is impossible to know and it could lead to his next chapter being set in another town.
