Seahawks linebacker Derick Hall was suspended for the team’s Week 17 game at Carolina after stepping on Rams offensive lineman Kevin Dotson last Thursday night. On Wednesday, coach Mike Macdonald was asked about Hall’s side of the story.
“His version was that he was getting rolled up on, and he tried to step over the guy,” Macdonald told reporters. “His heel landed on him, but his toe was on the ground when he made contact, so he was really surprised that it was going on.”
What went on was a suspension, which was upheld on appeal.
Here’s the play. Was it an accident? The NFL decided it wasn’t. And hearing officer Ramon Foster agreed. At the end of the day, that’s all that matters.
At a base salary of $1.578 million in 2025, the third year of his four-year rookie deal, Hall will lose $87,666 as a result of the suspension. He’ll be back for Week 18, in what could be a showdown for the No. 1 seed in the NFC.
Rams Clips
The Rams are getting some depth back on the practice field.
Los Angeles announced on Wednesday that the club has designated cornerback Roger McCreary to return to practice, opening his 21-day window to return from injured reserve.
McCreary was traded from the Titans to the Rams midseason. He appeared in four games for Los Angeles before being placed on IR in late November.
In 12 total games this season, McCreary has registered 33 total tackles with one interception and a sack.
The Cardinals have added a second kicker to their active roster.
The team announced on Tuesday that they have signed Joshua Karty off of the Rams’ practice squad. They also signed cornerback Kalen King off of Carolina’s practice squad. Defensive tackle Walter Nolen and cornerback Garrett Williams were placed on injured reserve in corresponding moves.
Karty was 10-of-15 on field goals and 23-of-26 on extra points before the Rams replaced him with Harrison Mevis earlier this season. Chad Ryland has been the Cardinals’ kicker and remains on the roster despite missing six field goals in the team’s last six games.
King was a 2024 Packers seventh-round pick and he appeared in one game for the Panthers this season.
The Rams fired special teams coordinator Chase Blackburn after they gave up a punt return touchdown that changed the momentum in Thursday’s loss to the Seahawks. But punt coverage wasn’t the only issue facing the Rams’ special teams.
Another was kickoffs, where the Rams are the only team in the NFL that usually kicks the ball into the end zone for a touchback, allowing their opponents to start on the 35-yard line. In Thursday night’s loss to the Seahawks, Ethan Evans kicked off eight times, and all eight were touchbacks to the 35-yard line.
Since Evans took over kickoff duties, the Rams have kicked touchbacks on 83.7 percent of their kickoffs, by far the most of any team in the NFL. The team with the second-highest touchback percentage in the league, the Jaguars, have kicked touchbacks on just 33.3 percent of their kickoffs. League-wide, just 18.9 percent of kickoffs have gone for touchbacks this season.
That hadn’t been the case early in the season, when Josh Karty was the kicker and the Rams were employing a strategy of trying to kick the ball low and into the landing zone, sometimes bouncing the ball into the end zone where the receiving team would get the ball at the 20-yard line, and other times giving the opposing returners kicks that were difficult to run back.
But when Karty was cut for missing too many field goals and extra points, that strategy went out the window.
It’s unclear to what extent head coach Sean McVay factored in kickoffs in his decision to fire Blackburn, but McVay had said early in the season that he was pleased with the way Karty was kicking off. The Rams moving away from that strategy when Evans took over kickoffs gave their opponents a big field position advantage. And when the opposing team is getting a big field position advantage, that can cost the special teams coordinator his job.
The AFC and NFC rosters for the 2026 Pro Bowl Games were announced on Tuesday morning.
Votes from fans, coaches and players were used to select the teams. Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce led the fan vote and was named to his 11th Pro Bowl. Bills quarterback Josh Allen, Patriots quarterback Drake Maye, Bears quarterback Caleb Williams, and Bears safety Kevin Byard were the other leaders in that vote, but Williams is not on the initial NFC roster.
Chargers tackle Joe Alt did make the AFC roster despite playing in only six games before being shut down with an ankle injury.
Three teams — the Jets, Saints and Vikings — have no Pro Bowlers. The Broncos, 49ers, Ravens, and Seahawks each had six players selected.
The Pro Bowl Games will be held in San Francisco on February
The full rosters appear below with starters indicated by an asterisk.
AFC
Quarterback: Josh Allen*, Buffalo Bills; Justin Herbert, Los Angeles Chargers; Drake Maye, New England Patriots
Running back: De’Von Achane, Miami Dolphins; James Cook, Buffalo Bills; Jonathan Taylor*, Indianapolis Colts
Fullback: Patrick Ricard*, Baltimore Ravens
Wide receiver: Ja’Marr Chase*, Cincinnati Bengals; Nico Collins*, Houston Texans; Zay Flowers, Baltimore Ravens; Courtland Sutton, Denver Broncos
Tight end: Brock Bowers, Las Vegas Raiders*; Travis Kelce, Kansas City Chiefs
Offensive tackle: Joe Alt*, Los Angeles Chargers; Garett Bolles*, Denver Broncos; Dion Dawkins, Buffalo Bills
Offensive guard: Quinn Meinerz*, Denver Broncos; Quenton Nelson*, Indianapolis Colts; Trey Smith, Kansas City Chiefs
Center: Creed Humphrey*, Kansas City Chiefs; Tyler Linderbaum, Baltimore Ravens
Defensive end: Will Anderson Jr.*, Houston Texans; Maxx Crosby, Las Vegas Raiders; Myles Garrett*, Cleveland Browns
Interior linemen: Zach Allen, Denver Broncos; Chris Jones*, Kansas City Chiefs; Jeffrey Simmons*, Tennessee Titans
Outside linebacker: Nik Bonitto*, Denver Broncos; Tuli Tuipulotu, Los Angeles Chargers; T.J. Watt*, Pittsburgh Steelers
Inside/middle linebacker: Azeez Al-Shaair, Houston Texans; Roquan Smith*, Baltimore Ravens
Cornerback: Christian Gonzalez, New England Patriots; Derek Stingley Jr.*, Houston Texans; Pat Surtain II*, Denver Broncos; Denzel Ward, Cleveland Browns
Free safety: Jalen Ramsey*, Pittsburgh Steelers
Strong safety: Kyle Hamilton*, Baltimore Ravens; Derwin James Jr., Los Angeles Chargers
Long-snapper: Ross Matiscik*, Jacksonville Jaguars
Punter: Jordan Stout*, Baltimore Ravens
Place-kicker: Cameron Dicker*, Los Angeles Chargers
Return specialist: Chimere Dike*, Tennessee Titans
Special-teamer: Ben Skowronek*, Pittsburgh
NFC
Quarterback: Matthew Stafford*, Los Angeles Rams; Sam Darnold, Seattle Seahawks; Dak Prescott, Dallas Cowboys
Running back: Jahmyr Gibbs*, Detroit Lions; Christian McCaffrey, San Francisco 49ers; Bijan Robinson, Atlanta Falcons
Fullback: Kyle Juszczyk*, San Francisco 49ers
Wide receiver: Puka Nacua*, Los Angeles Rams; Jaxon Smith-Njigba*, Seattle Seahawks; George Pickens, Dallas Cowboys; Amon-Ra St. Brown, Detroit Lions
Tight end: Trey McBride*, Arizona Cardinals; George Kittle, San Francisco 49ers
Offensive tackle: Penei Sewell*, Detroit Lions; Tristan Wirfs* Tampa Bay Buccaneers; Trent Williams, San Francisco 49ers
Offensive guard: Tyler Smith*, Dallas Cowboys; Joe Thuney*, Chicago Bears; Chris Lindstrom, Atlanta Falcons
Center: Drew Dalman*, Chicago Bears; Cam Jurgens, Philadelphia Eagles
Defensive end: Aidan Hutchinson*, Detroit Lions; Micah Parsons*, Green Bay Packers; DeMarcus Lawrence, Seattle Seahawks
Interior linemen: Jalen Carter*, Philadelphia Eagles; Leonard Williams*, Seattle Seahawks, Quinnen Williams, Dallas Cowboys
Outside linebacker: Brian Burns*, New York Giants, Jared Verse*, Los Angeles Rams; Byron Young, Los Angeles Rams
Inside/middle linebacker: Jack Campbell*, Detroit Lions; Zack Baun, Philadelphia Eagles
Cornerback: Jaycee Horn*, Carolina Panthers; Devon Witherspoon, Seattle Seahawks
Free safety: Kevin Byard III*, Chicago Bears; Antoine Winfield Jr., Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Strong safety: Budda Baker*, Arizona Cardinals
Long-snapper: Jon Weeks*, San Francisco 49ers
Punter: Tress Way*, Washington Commanders
Placekicker: Brandon Aubrey*, Dallas Cowboys
Return specialist: Rashid Shaheed*, Seattle Seahawks
Special-teamer: Luke Gifford*, San Francisco 49ers
On Thursday night, the Rams and Seahawks staged the best regular-season game of the season, especially given the playoff ramifications.
Prime Video has announced an audience of 15.36 million.
While that’s higher than the season-to-date average of 14.96 million, it feels multiple million viewers lower than the stakes and the in-game excitement should have generated. Two weeks earlier, a Cowboys-Lions Thursday night game attracted 19.39 million viewers in the same window.
The Week 16 game between the top two teams in the NFC had been circled for weeks. The winner seized the inside track to the No. 1 seed in the conference.
And the game itself delivered, in a big way. It went back and forth, with L.A.'s eventual16-point margin in the fourth quarter quickly disappearing, setting the stage for the first two-point conversion in NFL overtime history.
The final number underscores the impact of the teams on the size of an audience. For the franchises with the biggest followings (like the Cowboys), the numbers will generally be larger.
Still, the Rams-Seahawks game should have had a bigger audience. Especially since those who didn’t watch the game missed out on an incredible night of football.
Prime Video has one game left during the regular season: Broncos-Chiefs on Christmas night. And while the Broncos are vying for the top seed in the AFC, the Chiefs have instantly lost much of their luster, with Chris Oladukon now slated to start at quarterback for Kansas City. It will be interesting to see whether the captive audience of a holiday afternoon sticks around for a nightcap that could have the same impact on viewers as NyQuil.
Former NFL referee Walt Anderson now serves as the league’s primary (and only) spokesperson regarding the application of the rules. Every Sunday morning, he gets very limited real estate in a four-hour NFL Network pregame show to address any/all controversial calls from the week that was.
This week, there were several candidates. The league admitted to the Panthers that a fourth-quarter catch was incorrectly overturned by replay review. Chargers safety Tony Jefferson was ejected for an illegal helmet-to-helmet hit on Sunday against the Chiefs, but Bears defensive end Austin Booker was not ejected for an illegal helmet-to-helmet hit that knocked Packers quarterback Jordan Love out of the game. Why was one player sent to the showers when the other one wasn’t?
Sunday’s Walt Anderson cameo focused exclusively on the most unusual play from the past seven days: The two-point conversion from Thursday night, which tied Seahawks-Rams at 30. During his three-minute segment, Anderson explained the fairly obvious elements that anyone who would be watching NFL Network in the 9:00 a.m. ET hour on a Sunday already knew.
One key point was glossed over. If it was so obvious that Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold had thrown a backward pass that pinballed into the end zone and remained live, why did it take more than 100 seconds to initiate the review?
There’s a story there. An interesting one. One they likely don’t want anyone to know. Who figured out that the play should be formally reviewed during the 100-second interval between the end of the play and the announcement of the review? Was it the replay official? Was it someone from the league office? Did someone from outside the bubble but with access to it flag an issue that otherwise would have gone unnoticed?
The teams were lined up for the kickoff. The game was about to proceed. The play that became a clear and obvious two-point conversion was not sufficiently clear and obvious to trigger an instant decision to review the play.
There’s another important point to make, based on something Anderson didn’t say. Two weeks ago, when he addressed the erroneous intentional grounding call from Broncos-Commanders, Anderson explained that the mistake isn’t currently subject to replay review — and he advocated for a change to the rule. Since then, it has been reported that potential 2026 expansions to the replay process include the question of whether an eligible receiver was outside the numbers when a ball is overthrown in his direction.
On Sunday, Anderson said nothing about a potential change to the backward pass rule. Which tends to confirm the notion that a change won’t be made, even though Rams coach Sean McVay has said he wants one.
Thursday night’s instant classic between the Seahawks and Rams included an unprecedented two-point conversion that replay review changed from an incomplete pass into a backward pass that was recovered in the end zone. The current rules were applied correctly. Eventually.
On Friday, Rams coach Sean McVay argued that the outcome is something that shouldn’t be in the game, adding that he believes there will be an effort to change the rule that fueled the play in the offseason.
Per a source with knowledge of the broader dynamics at play, a change to the backward pass rule is highly unlikely.
McVay’s comments were received by the powers-that-be on Park Avenue as a normal club/coach reaction after a painful loss. Ultimately, the Rams squandered a 16-point lead with 8:18 to play, with the Seahawks’ comeback sparked by a punt return for a touchdown that got special-teams coordinator Chase Blackburn fired.
The two-point play, which was called correctly (even if it took some time), was simply one piece of the collapsing Jenga tower. The Rams still had chances after that to win the game. Indeed, it’s possible the Seahawks would have won the game in regulation with a late field goal if the two-point conversion that tied the game at 30 had failed.
Regardless, the rule that allows a backward pass to be recovered and advanced by someone other than the person who threw the ball most likely won’t be changing. Despite McVay’s role on the Competition Committee, he’ll need to get unanimous support from the rule-suggesting body to make it a formal proposal to owners. And even though the Rams (or any other team) can propose the rule change directly to ownership, at least 24 teams would have to vote for the revision.
Here’s the biggest problem with changing the rule that distinguishes recovering and advancing a fumble from recovering and advancing a backward pass. What would the new rule be?
Would a backward pass be dead at the spot where it hits the ground? Would it be dead if it ends up bouncing past the line of scrimmage? Would a backward pass be permitted to be recovered and advanced only by the person who threw it?
The rule against recovering and advancing a fumble on fourth down, in the final two minutes, or on a try was put in place to prevent a Holy Roller “accidental” fumble when a team is presumed to be in desperation mode. A backward pass is a different thing entirely. Backward passes are always intentional, and a teammate recovering/advancing the ball has always been allowed under all circumstances, without fear of any sort of shenanigans.
Thursday night was a fluke. The backward pass bounced off a defender’s helmet. The ball was nearly intercepted. The Rams didn’t pick it up. The Seahawks did. It’s a very rare situation that isn’t capable of being manipulated at full speed by a team in a “gotta have it” moment, unlike an “accidental” fumble forward.
When changing rules, the league always worries about unintended consequences. Changing the rule that allows a backward pass to be recovered and advanced by any offensive player would undermine an important and potentially exciting device for gaining ground in critical moments of a game.
Especially when the easiest fix is for all defensive players to understand that, in any play from scrimmage, a loose ball should be immediately recovered.
The biggest takeaway from Thursday night’s unprecedented two-point craziness was obvious: If you see a loose ball, pick it up.
49ers coach Kyle Shanahan, whose team now controls its path to the No. 1 seed thanks to Seattle’s unlikely overtime win over the Rams, was asked by reporters on Saturday whether he has talked about it with his team.
“Yeah, we actually did today,” Shanahan said. “I remember when I first got in the league, and I think we scrimmaged New Orleans and there were just obvious incompletions on the ground and defensive guys were running and jumping on it. I remember how much I used to make fun of them for it because I’m like, ‘Don’t they know that’s incomplete?’ But then it was actually Denver versus the Chargers. Jay Cutler fumbled a ball on a pass. They blew a whistle and the Chargers recovered it and the game should have been over, there was like a minute left. Denver was down seven. But, because they blew the whistle, they weren’t allowed to give it to the Chargers. And since that day they realized that, even if you blow the whistle, you get [the ball] if someone recovered it. So, since that day everyone’s been coaching, ‘Hey, if that ball’s on the ground, grab it.’ The two-point conversion was one that seemed a little bit over the top because it didn’t look obvious to anybody that that was the case. But, someone had a habit of grabbing it and it ended up probably helping them win the game. Not probably, it did.”
The someone in this case was Seahawks running back Zach Charbonnet. He has explained that he had no idea the ball was still live, but he has a habit of always picking it up.
The rule comes from a change that was made in the offseason after the 2008 Chargers-Broncos game to which Shanahan referred. Previously, the ruling of an incomplete pass couldn’t result in replay review awarding the ball at the spot of the recovery to either team; the ball was dead where it hit the ground. Since 2009, if the recovery is clear, the play ends where the ball was recovered. Even if the whistle has blown.
Before Thursday night, it was generally known to go get the ball. After Thursday night, it should be something that every coach teaches — and that every player executes.
For as good as the Rams have been this year, their special teams have struggled. Now, with two games left in the regular season, coach Sean McVay is making a change.
The Rams have fired special-teams coordinator Chase Blackburn, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN.com.
Blackburn, 42, played 10 seasons in the NFL, winning a pair of Super Bowls with the Giants. His coaching career began in 2016, with the Panthers. He was hired by the Rams in 2023.
On Thursday night, a 58-yard punt return touchdown by Seahawks receiver Rashid Shaheed in the fourth quarter sparked a 16-point comeback. Shaheed said after the game that the Seahawks had spotted a flaw in L.A.'s punt coverage.
“We’ve been focused on that left return all week,” Shaheed said. “We knew they had kind of a weak point with their special teams.”
On Friday, Rams coach Sean McVay was asked generally to descibe what he saw on the game-changing punt return.
“I saw a flat, low kick that was not at all intended for what we wanted,” McVay said. “You give a guy like that an opportunity, that’s where the momentum flipped.”
In hindsight, that’s where the switch flipped on McVay making a change as it relates to a critical aspect of any football team, especially in close games.
