NEWSLETTER
It’s been a little while since I put one of these together, mostly because we had reached the dead zone of the NFL offseason, but with Training Camp open and preseason football on our TVs tomorrow night, expect these ATNFLs to be a staple in the rotation here again.
Football is back!
Dolphins Penalized for Tampering, NFL Finds No Evidence of Tanking
The NFL concluded its investigation into the Miami Dolphins on a myriad of charges from tanking to tampering, and the Dolphins were found to be guilty of all of the claims but the tanking allegations levied by former head coach Brian Flores in his lawsuit against the team and the league’s owners.
The NFL concluded that the Dolphins were guilty of tampering when it came to communications with Tom Brady on multiple occasions while he was under contract with the New England Patriots and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The NFL also found Miami guilty of tampering after they had impermissible communications with Don Yee, the agent for New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton, about having Mr. Payton serve as Miami’s head coach. According to the report of findings released by the NFL, these communications came before Payton announced his retirement after last season.
As a result, the Dolphins were levied the following penalties by the NFL:
The NFL also fined Dolphins minority owner Bruce Beal $500,000 and banned him from NFL meetings for the rest of 2022.
In a statement to SI’s Albert Breer, Stephen Ross called Brian Flores and the tanking allegations malicious and defamatory and said that they’re now put to rest thanks to the findings in the NFL investigation.
“The independent investigation cleared our organization on any issues related to tanking and all of Brian Flores’ other allegations. As I have said all along, these allegations were false, malicious, and defamatory, and this issue is now put to rest.”
Ross went on to disagree with the findings in the affirmative on all of the tampering charges but said that he and the Dolphins would accept the punishment levied by the league office.
Trubisky Confirms What We Knew About Matt Nagy, Struggles at Steelers Camp
Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer has been making stops at NFL training camps and was in Pittsburgh last week where he observed former Bears’ No. 2 overall draft pick, Mitch Trubisky. While speaking with Trubisky, whom Breer called the front runner in a fluid QB battle in Pittsburgh, Trubisky had this interesting nugget to share about his time with the Bears and, more recently, the Bills:
“The difference between my experience in Chicago and what I saw in Buffalo is they allow Josh [Allen] to go out there and play his game,” Trubisky said. “In Chicago, they wanted me to play the coaches’ game. Call it whatever you will; that’s just how it felt to me.”
I mean, I didn’t need Mitch Trubisky to tell me that to know that it’s true. Sure, the confirmation is nice, but we all witnessed Matt Nagy try to force his system on a bevy of different quarterbacks, including two first-rounders in Trubisky and Fields and two established veterans in Nick Foles and Andy Dalton.
Nagy’s reluctance to sculpt a gameplan around his quarterback was ultimately a big reason why he was fired by Chicago, but he’s gone now, so … whatever.
Meanwhile, despite Breer reporting that Trubisky was the leader of the QB competition in Pittsburgh last week, more recent reports have the former Bear looking pretty bad. The Athletic’s Mark Kaboly has Trubisky struggling mightily in the ‘Seven Shots’ drill, where he’s 0 for his last 16. Kaboly also noted that Trubisky was 0-for-4 with an interception during a team period Tuesday, with back-to-back overthrows.
Despite the rough start to the week for Trubisky, Kaboly still has him ahead of rookie Kenny Pickett and veteran backup Mason Rudolph.
