Titans' Burks 'moving' after being carted off field after late hard landing
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Tennessee Titans wide receiver Treylon Burks was stabilized on a stretcher and carted off the field late in the fourth quarter against Pittsburgh on Thursday night with an injury. He was able to give a thumbs up as he was taken away.
After the game, Titans coach Mike Vrabel said Burks was alert, moving in the locker room and had full use of his extremities. Vrabel said Burks was being evaluated in a training room.
Burks was seen walking out of the locker room on his own power, stopping to talk to a coach before heading towards the team bus.
The injury occurred when Burks tried to make a deep catch along the sideline on a fourth down, but saw the ball slip from his grasp. He landed hard out of bounds and appeared to be unconscious.
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Medical staff from both teams came out to treat Burks, the 18th overall pick in the 2022 draft. His face mask was cut off and he was placed onto a spinal board while players on both teams knelt on the Acrisure Stadium turf nearby. Burks appeared to be able to wiggle his toes as he was being loaded onto the cart.
Burks sustained a concussion as a rookie in Philadelphia when he was knocked out while making a touchdown grab in a blowout loss to the Eagles.
Steelers' Holcomb carted off vs. Titans with 'serious' knee injury
Steelers linebacker Cole Holcomb was carted off with what coach Mike Tomlin called a "serious" knee injury late in the first quarter of Thursday night's 20-16 win over the Tennessee Titans.
Matched up with wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins, Holcomb was trailing on the play after quarterback Will Levis connected with Hopkins for a big gain. Steelers safety Keanu Neal came in to make the tackle on Hopkins, running into Holcomb's knee after bringing Hopkins down.
Holcomb immediately clutched his left knee on the field as Steelers trainers rushed out to him. A cart came on quickly, and Holcomb was helped into the back as teammates gathered around him. He did not return.
Tomlin said his "thoughts and prayers" were with Holcomb, and said the team would likely have an update on the specifics of his injury "next time we come together."
Holcomb, who signed with the Steelers in free agency after a four-year stint with the Washington Commanders, is a key part of a three-man inside linebacker rotation with Kwon Alexander and Elandon Roberts. Holcomb has 52 tackles on the season, including four for a loss. He has also forced two fumbles and recovered another. Holcomb has played 85% of the defensive snaps for the Steelers this season.
Dolphins' Tyreek Hill says Chiefs 'going to get this work'
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Tyreek Hill is excited to play against his old team and delivers some trash talk ahead of the Dolphins' matchup against the Chiefs in Germany. (0:39)
Miami Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill is appreciative of his time with the Kansas City Chiefs, but even though he looks forward to seeing some of his former teammates when the two sides face off this weekend, he doesn't feel any additional emotion heading into this week's game.
Hill spent the first six years of his career with the Chiefs before he was traded to the Dolphins last offseason and faces his former team for the first time Sunday. The game will be played in Frankfurt, Germany, instead of the Chiefs' Arrowhead Stadium, but Hill said the location of the game isn't as important as the result.
"It doesn't really matter where we play at," he smiled. "I mean, obviously it would've been great to play in K.C., but it really doesn't matter where we play at, you feel me? They going to get this work wherever though."
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Hill's reunion comes days after he was named the AFC's Offensive Player of the Month for October. He currently leads the league in receiving yards with 1,014 and is on pace to become the first receiver in NFL history to surpass 2,000 receiving yards in a season.
Since his trade last March, no player has more receiving yards or catches than Hill, and he set a career high with 1,710 yards in his first season with the Dolphins. He did not necessarily want to leave Kansas City when he requested a trade last offseason but wanted to be paid like the best wide receiver in the NFL. Miami made him the highest-paid receiver in NFL history shortly after completing the trade.
"I'm kind of glad that [the trade] happened," Hill said. "Obviously the situation that I'm in is great. I've got great teammates. My family is from Miami, and also, I accomplished one of my goals of being one of the highest paid in the league. So, everything's great. Life is great, man. Never can take anything for granted. So, I can't look back. Always got to look forward. That's my mindset."
Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes is known for making plays off-script. Since 2018, he leads all active players in passing yards (16,187), passing touchdowns (121) and quarterback rating (69.4) when his time to throw is greater than 2.5 seconds.
Hill said he offered one major piece of advice to his defensive teammates for when plays break down and Mahomes starts to scramble: Find Travis Kelce.
Since 2018 Kelce leads all players with 296 receptions on passes that take longer than 2.5 seconds to attempt.
"What I've been telling the guys to do is just find Kelce," Hill said. "If you allow Kelce to get open, man, he's like the energy of that team. Although Pat is all-world, if he finds Kelce and Kelce just catches a 2-yard pass, he just somehow finds energy in that and gets that team going."
Hill said he looks forward to seeing Mahomes and Kelce, among other former teammates, and expects a lot of back-and-forth chatter throughout the game.
Not that he's complaining.
"It is going to be trash talk, but it's going to be fun though," he said. "It's going to be like, 'I want to see you do good, but we going to bust your ass at the same time, though.' It is going to be one of those things like backyard football with your brothers."
Hill was named to three All-Pro teams and six straight Pro Bowls during his six years with the Chiefs, and he credits the experience for his current success.
"I just look back at that time and just say, 'Man, he's just a young guy just trying to find himself in the league,'" he said. "I was able to learn from so many guys, was able to mature so fast because I was able to step into a receiver role. It was a lot, and I kind of took that on and I didn't look back.
"The coaching staff trusted me there, and I absolutely loved every minute of it. I wouldn't take none of it back."
Raiders' Adams on firings: 'It was time for some sort of change'
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Pat McAfee explains why "The Raider Way" played a factor in the firing of Josh McDaniels. (1:51)
It was a different vibe at the Las Vegas Raiders facility Thursday, when the team held its first practice under interim coach Antonio Pierce.
From warming up to the musical stylings of seminal rap group N.W.A.'s "Straight Outta Compton" to All-Pro receiver Davante Adams taking running back Ameer Abdullah to school in the locker room's new mini-basketball hoop to offensive linemen wrestling each other WWE style to even, yes, a new starting quarterback in rookie Aidan O'Connell, it was a new day.
All less than 48 hours after the Raiders fired Josh McDaniels and Dave Ziegler as coach and general manager, respectively, and replaced them with Pierce and Champ Kelly.
"Don't get it confused," Adams cautioned. "It's not a celebration that we have a new coach and there's been changes made. We, obviously, think it was time, one way or the other, it was time for some sort of change. Just to bring a little juice in and revitalize the team a little bit. So, I think that's kind of the mindset we're having, just trying to have fun and enjoy our time in this building because I think as we speak to each other, it's been too much of, this has just been feeling like work too much and not having enough fun."
Adams went on to thank McDaniels and Ziegler for trading for him.
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"As I've said countless times, I want to be a Raider," Adams added. "So I want to try to make this work and do everything I can to keep it going now."
Pro Bowl edge rusher Maxx Crosby also thanked McDaniels for pushing him to be a better leader but added that he simply wanted to win.
"I want to be in a great environment," Crosby said. "I want to show up to work every single day and feel great energy. I feel like that's more important than anything. At the end of the day, you've got to enjoy this. If you don't, you're not going to have much success and it's already hard enough to go out there and do what we do. So, if you're walking in the building, not enjoying it, it's going to be even harder."
In Pierce, Crosby said he feels a natural leader, a former player who was a Pro Bowler and a Super Bowl champion with the New York Giants, the Raiders' opponents on Sunday at Allegiant Stadium.
"Guys relate really well," Crosby said.
Perhaps none will have to vibe with Pierce more than the new starting quarterback.
Rookie O'Connell is at the center of the biggest on-field change for the evolving Raiders and was tapped by Pierce and Kelly to replace high-priced but oft-injured and ineffective thus far Jimmy Garoppolo.
"Obviously a little crazy, just a lot going on around here and nothing I've been part of before," O'Connell said of the past few days. "I had one coach my whole time in college, so it's all pretty foreign to me. Just trying to take it day by day, really minute by minute and try to enjoy it as much as I can.
"Definitely overwhelming to know the guys have my back and are super supportive, both vocally and how they treat me. So that gives me a lot of confidence in myself and I appreciate that a lot from them."
O'Connell started the Raiders' Week 4 loss at the Los Angeles Chargers, when Garoppolo was out with a concussion, and also played in relief of Brian Hoyer two weeks ago in the blowout defeat at the Chicago Bears, with Garoppolo sidelined by a back injury.
The fourth-round pick from Purdue has completed 65.4% of his passes (34-of-52) for 313 yards, a touchdown pass and two interceptions for a passer rating of 72.0, a total QBR of 7.6. But he has also been sacked seven times, losing two of three fumbles.
"It was obviously a crazy few days and so I found out yesterday," O'Connell said of being named the starter going forward. "These conversations happen quick because we've got to get going and start getting the work and so they've, again, voiced their confidence in me and been super supportive of me from A.P. to Champ and Bo [Hardegree, interim offensive coordinator], all alike. So again, just them being confident in me and showing that verbally, has been huge for me."
Former Pro Bowl receiver Hunter Renfrow also alluded to a "different energy" under Pierce.
"We're not walking on eggshells everywhere," said Renfrow, a forgotten man in the previous offense.
"I mean, I think there was things that McDaniels did really well, right? I'm not going to sit here and say he was a bad coach. He's very good ... but I think with A.P. being a player and just having different energy, it's just different. And we have a basketball [game] going on in the locker room now, trying to have a little fun. Just trying to get back to having fun as a kid and playing the game. Well, I think that's been his message."
Another change? The Raiders on Thursday signed linebacker Jaylon Smith off the New Orleans Saints' practice squad. He was a second-round pick of the Dallas Cowboys in 2016 out of Notre Dame and was named to the Pro Bowl in 2019.
Pierce was the Raiders' linebackers coach before being elevated by owner Mark Davis. And it was Davis who told ESPN he didn't necessarily want Pierce to "coach" the team, so much as he wanted him to "lead" the players.
And that was fine with Adams.
"You need somebody that knows how to lead men, and that's not me saying that Josh wasn't that guy, but that's just what [Davis is] obviously alluding to because I think Josh was great at leading men," Adams said. "He had the right idea and, what he was looking for out of this team, I totally agree with everything that he wanted us to do. It's not like he was sending us out there with bad intentions or not with our best interests at heart.
"But A.P. is not going to get in there and say, 'Run this play for 'Tae,'" Adams laughed. "He don't know any of our plays. He's over there coaching linebackers and dealing with the defense. So, I think it's more about just having him shape our minds, getting us ready to go out there. I mean, I'm already ready to run through a wall for that man, so it's a good feeling."
The New York Giants are signing kicker Randy Bullock to the practice squad with Graham Gano set to undergo surgery on his left knee, sources told ESPN.
Gano has been dealing with the problem for several weeks and was trying to kick through it. He missed two field goals in Sunday's 13-10 overtime loss to the New York Jets, including a 35-yard attempt in the final minute.
"I have no excuses. That's not who I am," Gano said afterward. "I'm sure some people want me to sit up here and make excuses. I've got none. I've got to play better. It's frustrating, I know the team played well. I just didn't. I've got to play better."
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