NFC West

Count Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll among those who believe the NFL should consider mandating natural grass fields to improve player safety.

"I think we definitely need to look at this really seriously in the offseason again," Carroll said Wednesday, per Brady Henderson of ESPN. "It's been a discussion before. We've got to do what's right, and we've got to do what's safest for the players and we've got to make those choices. I would pound on the drum for that."

The conversation picked up steam around the Seahawks following Sunday's victory over the Los Angeles Chargers at SoFi Stadium, which has an artificial turf surface.

Chargers cornerback J.C. Jackson was lost for the season because of a ruptured patellar tendon in his right knee, while Seattle wide receiver DK Metcalf suffered a less serious left patellar tendon injury that will not require surgery but could keep him sidelined for the upcoming game against the New York Giants.

Henderson noted this is not a new discussion with NFL Players Association president JC Tretter calling for teams to use grass fields in 2020.

Tretter pointed to the league's injury data from 2012 to 2018 when making his argument. That data revealed there was a 28 percent higher rate of non-contact lower body injuries on turf than grass, which is notable since both Metcalf and Jackson suffered non-contact injuries.

"So you see that and you just kind of wonder why can't we have natural grass everywhere," Seahawks safety Quandre Diggs said. "I love playing in San Francisco and things like that where it's grass and you just go out there and you just go play. Hopefully we're doing some research on it and seeing what we can do to make things better."

While grass would lead to more upkeep and, by extension, more expenses, Diggs suggested player safety should be a bigger concern.

"I know it's hard to upkeep grass, but at the end of the day, we've got to do what's best for this billion-dollar industry and I think the players are a big part of that," Diggs said. "So maybe we can take some ideas from the players."

Despite the injury to Metcalf, Seattle still managed to defeat the Chargers 37-23. It has been among the league's most surprising teams in 2022 with a 4-3 record even though it traded future Hall of Famer Russell Wilson to the Denver Broncos this offseason.

The Seahawks will host the Giants in Week 8 at Lumen Field, which is one of the 14 NFL stadiums with an artificial surface.

The Los Angeles Rams are reportedly "lurking on the pass-rush market" ahead of the 2022 NFL trade deadline on Tuesday.

ESPN's Jeremy Fowler reported Wednesday the Rams were "in heavy" on Carolina Panthers defensive end Brian Burns to see whether he was available. The Panthers dealt star running back Christian McCaffrey to the San Francisco 49ers last week.

While L.A. has recorded a modest 12 sacks in six games so far this season, the team still ranks sixth in the NFL in pass-rush win rate, according to ESPN.

Defensive tackle Aaron Donald has paced the Rams with four sacks, while linebacker Bobby Wagner and cornerback Jalen Ramsey each have two apiece. The addition of Wagner has helped offset the loss of linebacker Von Miller to the Buffalo Bills in free agency.

The Rams are coming of their bye week, during which defensive coordinator Raheem Morris said it's important to get more consistent pressure on opposing quarterbacks.

"Our pass rush just in general has to pick up," Morris told reporters. "All those things are what make us great. When those things get rolling, our pass-rushers get home, they cause disruption, they tip balls, they make the things happen that make defense easy. We need more opportunities like that. Right now, we're playing decent, but you can play so much better, and we all know what it looks like."

Burns could have provided a massive boost, but for now, it doesn't appear the Panthers are heading toward a full-scale roster reconstruction following the McCaffrey trade.

ESPN's Adam Schefter reported Sunday an unnamed team offered Carolina two first-round draft picks for Burns, who's tallied 30.5 sacks in 55 career games but were turned down, with the Panthers saying they're not looking to move the standout lineman.

Denver Broncos linebacker Bradley Chubb is another marquee name who's been floated in the rumor mill leading up to the deadline and could be of interest to the Rams.

"Yeah, I heard about [the rumors], but I'm just focused on trying to help my guys fight through this," Chubb said Sunday, per Mike Klis of 9News. "I know it's a business and anything can happen, but all I care about right now is my guys and trying to get this thing turned around."

The 2020 Pro Bowler has 5.5 sacks in seven appearances so far this season for the 2-5 Broncos.

Whether it's Burns, Chubb or another veteran, impact edge-rushers typically cost a king's ransom, so L.A. will have to pay up to make a game-changing addition to its front seven.

Arizona Cardinals wide receiver A.J. Green has reportedly emerged as a potential target for the Green Bay Packers ahead of the 2022 NFL trade deadline on Tuesday.

ESPN's Dan Graziano reported Wednesday that Green is an "interesting name" to watch for the Packers amid inconsistent play from their wideouts, which could lead the team's front office to go outside its usual "comfort zone" to upgrade at the position.

Green's involvement in the Arizona offense has been limited this season. He's recorded just 10 catches for 56 yards with no touchdowns across five appearances.

He also posted modest numbers during his first year with the Cardinals in 2021—54 receptions for 848 yards and three scores—after a decorated nine-year run with the Cincinnati Bengals that included seven Pro Bowl selections.

While it's possible Father Time is starting to take a toll at age 34, the former University of Georgia standout expressed confidence in August his physical condition wasn't a serious concern.

"I love playing the game," Green told Bob McManaman of the Arizona Republic. "I've got a family, I don't smoke, don't drink. I just live a very simple life, and it keeps me young. I just focus on football, my wife handles all the other things, so I keep my mind free."

His role could increase exponentially if he's traded to the Packers, where longtime quarterback Aaron Rodgers is trying to find trustworthy targets amid the team's lackluster 3-4 start.

Rodgers discussed Tuesday on the Pat McAfee Show (h/t Kevin Patra of NFL.com) his desire to see give some different players an opportunity over those who've been making consistent errors.

"Guys who are making too many mistakes shouldn't be playing, you know,” he said. “Gotta start cutting some reps, and maybe guys who aren't playing, give them a chance."

Green is playing on a one-year, $3.5 million contract and is buried on the Cardinals' depth chart, so the Packers would likely be able to acquire him for a reasonable return, likely a late-round draft pick.

Bringing in a consummate professional like Green, who could both improve the team's pass-catching group this season and provide some guidance for the younger members of Green Bay's receiver room, certainly makes a lot of sense on the surface.

Ultimately, whether it's the longtime Bengals star or another veteran, it wouldn't be a surprise to see the Packers add another target for Rodgers before next week's deadline.

Los Angeles Rams star Aaron Donald announced Tuesday that he is parting ways with Kanye West's Donda Sports marketing agency, denouncing West's "recent comments and displays of hate and antisemitism."

https://twitter.com/AaronDonald97/status/1585036456908959746

Minutes later, Boston Celtics star Jaylen Brown announced that he is also parting ways with Donda Sports, writing that he will "always continue to stand strongly against any antisemitism, hate speech, misrepresentation, and oppressive rhetoric of any kind."

pic.twitter.com/v1eCAuC4cz

— Jaylen Brown (@FCHWPO) October 25, 2022

On Oct. 9, West, who legally changed his name to Ye, tweeted that he would "go death con 3 on Jewish people." He claimed that it was not antisemitic because "black people are actually Jew also." The tweet was removed and Twitter locked his account.

The since-deleted tweet was one of a number of troubling actions the Grammy-winning rapper has taken over the last month.

West was criticized for wearing a "White Lives Matter" T-shirt at his fashion show in Paris—the phrase was coined as "a racist response to the civil rights movement Black Lives Matter"—and also posted a screenshot of a conversation he had with Sean "Diddy" Combs on Instagram in which he made antisemitic remarks.

West also filmed an appearance on The Shop, however, SpringHill Company CEO Maverick Carter said the company had decided to pull the episode after West used the show "to reiterate more hate speech and extremely dangerous stereotypes."

Donda Sports, West's marketing agency, signed Donald and Brown in May. The deals didn't impact their representation, only their marketing contracts and off-field and off-court ventures.

Donald was the only known NFL player to have signed with Donda Sports, though former NFL wide receiver Antonio Brown was named president of the organization in February. Jaylen Brown was also the only known NBA player to have teamed up with Donda Sports.

Brown's decision to part with Donda Sports comes after he said in an interview with Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe on Monday that he was going to stay with the organization:

"The reason why I signed with Donda Sports, it represented education, it represented activism, disruption. It represented single-parent households, and a lot more people are involved in something like that.

"A lot of people that I work with, work with their families, build love and respect for, spending time in the summer. A lot of people involved. That’s what the organization from my vantage point from Donda Sports represented."

Donald had not commented on the situation until he announced his decision to part ways with the organization.

A number of businesses have also cut ties with West over the last week, including Adidas, which produced his Yeezy sneakers, Vogue and Balenciaga. On Tuesday, Foot Locker announced it would no longer "be supporting any future Yeezy product drops" and it had told "retail operators to pull any existing product from our shelves and digital sites."

The Los Angeles Rams are fielding trade interest for running back Cam Akers, but head coach Sean McVay indicated on Monday that there hasn't been much momentum building from any discussions.

"Talking to different teams," McVay told reporters. "No new updates. As of right now, he's on our team, on our roster and we're taking it a day at a time."

He said it isn't definite that the Rams will move Akers before the Nov. 1 trade deadline.

McVay said last week that the Rams were looking to trade Akers to "help him look for a fresh new start with another team." However, he said the Rams are also open to retaining him, adding, "If that doesn't come to fruition, then we'll figure out a solution, how to best move forward with him here."

The 23-year-old sat out Los Angeles' Week 6 win over the Carolina Panthers due to personal reasons. The Rams were on a bye this past week and will return to action Sunday in an NFC West matchup against the San Francisco 49ers.

In his third NFL season out of Florida State, Akers has not been able to find his footing. He leads the Rams with 51 carries, but he's rushed for only 151 yards for an average of 3.0 yards per carry. He's reached the end zone only once in five games.

Akers had a promising rookie year in 2020 but tore his Achilles prior to the 2021 season. While he hasn't been able to return to the form he flashed two years ago, there are some teams around the league that could use a boost to their backfield. The New York Jets just lost rookie running back Breece Hall for the remainder of the season due to a torn ACL and could be shopping around prior to the trade deadline.

It remains to be seen whether the Rams will receive an offer they deem satisfactory for Akers.

The Seattle Seahawks are 4-3, Geno Smith has been playing at a high level and, yes, Pete Carroll is enjoying everybody's surprise at how his team has looked in a post-Russell Wilson era.

"You guys thought we were all f--ked up," Carroll told Albert Breer of The MMQB on Sunday while laughing and discussing the response over the summer to the Seahawks giving Smith the first-team reps at practice.

"This didn't come out of nowhere; we saw it every day," Carroll continued. "But we were so [wrapped up] with the way we were playing and all that, we didn't really give him a chance to ever compete to take the job. He really didn't. He was the backup. That was understood. But last year, he played three games, half of the Los Angeles Rams game and two other games, and then he popped out in the Jacksonville game and had a near-perfect game. He was 15-for-15 to start the game. That's when you could really see this isn't that hard for him; he can do it."

And do it he has, throwing for 1,712 yards, 11 touchdowns and just three interceptions in seven games while completing an impressive 73.5 percent of his passes. The longtime backup has been one of the best quarterbacks in the league thus far in 2022.

Turns out the Seahawks didn't screw this one up at all.

DK Metcalf appears to have avoided the worst-case scenario after injuring his knee during Sunday's win over the Los Angeles Chargers and won't require surgery, head coach Pete Carroll told reporters on Monday:

Pete Carroll says they got a "really good report" on DK Metcalf and that he doesn't need surgery. Said it's a patellar tendon injury that may have been an older injury. Said unclear what the timeline is, but Metcalf is determined to practice Wednesday but not sure it'll happen.

— Brandon Gustafson (@TheBGustafson) October 24, 2022

My understanding is the plan for #Seahawks WR DK Metcalf is to rehab his knee injury -- which coach Pete Carroll referred to as a patellar tendon issue -- and see how the recovery goes. No timetable for his return yet. But no surgery as of now, which is obviously good news.

— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) October 24, 2022

Metcalf was carted to the locker room on Sunday after landing awkwardly while attempting to make a catch.

Ryan Neal said DK Metcalf told him in the locker room at halftime, “I’m alright.” Said Metcalf was smiling and in good spirits. “That’s a good sign for anybody.” https://t.co/18ky3BY0tL

— Brady Henderson (@BradyHenderson) October 24, 2022

DK Metcalf on back of a motorized cart again to Seahawks locker room at a road stadium. Another bathroom break? pic.twitter.com/NiyBRprXnA

— Gregg Bell (@gbellseattle) October 23, 2022

It's fantastic news for the 4-3 Seahawks, one of the surprise teams in the NFL this season.

Metcalf, 24, is one of the team's most important playmakers and has caught 31 passes for 428 yards and two scores on the season. He exceeded 900 receiving yards in each of his first three NFL seasons and came into the year with 29 career receiving touchdowns.

The Seahawks were already somewhat thin at wide receiver, with veteran wideout Tyler Lockett playing through a hamstring injury on Sunday and Penny Hart unable to play with a hamstring issue of his own. It would have made a long-term injury for Metcalf more difficult to overcome.

But the Seahawks received good news on Sunday, when X-rays on the injury came back negative. Further tests on Monday confirmed that Metcalf had avoided major injury.

"I was just with him in the training room, and he’s really positive about it," Carroll said on the Brock & Salk Show. "I don't know what that means in terms of coming back and how soon and all of that, but his attitude is exactly where you would want it to be."

The Seahawks have three games on the schedule before a Week 11 bye, all of them tricky matchups: the 6-1 New York Giants at home on Sunday, the 3-4 Arizona Cardinals on the road in Week 9 and the 3-4 Tampa Bay Buccaneers at home in Week 10.

It remains to be seen if Metcalf will be available for any of those games. If there's any doubt about whether he's ready to return, it wouldn't be shocking to see the Seahawks take the conservative approach and keep him out through the bye week, though it will depend on the state of his recovery.

Kyler Murray's five-year, $230.5 million contract extension with the Arizona Cardinals initially included language in the deal that required the quarterback to do independent study for four hours each week without other distractions like playing video games, before it leaked publicly, causing an uproar before being removed from the deal.

But it was an indication that perhaps the Cardinals had some questions about Murray's work ethic.

"It's the hardest position to play in the world of sports, and we have questions about study habits?" a veteran coach told The Athletic's Mike Sando. "We don't even have to get into being undersized and getting hurt and having a style of play that is limiting."

It's been an up-and-down start for Murray and the Cardinals in the 2022 season. The team has started 3-4, while Murray has thrown for 1,667 yards, seven touchdowns and four interceptions, completing 65.5 percent of his passes. He's also rushed for 263 yards and two scores.

The Cardinals established high expectations after starting last season 7-0. Since that time, however, they are just 7-11, including a postseason loss to the eventual Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams.

Frustrations may be mounting a bit in the desert, even during Thursday's 42-34 win over the New Orleans Saints. At one point in the game, Murray could be seen telling head coach Kliff Kingsbury to "calm the f--k down" as he came to the sidelines during a timeout.

Kyler: “Calm the f*** down” 😳
pic.twitter.com/U54uiXF2XO

— PFF (@PFF) October 21, 2022

"He's real animated over there on the sideline sometimes," Murray told reporters. "It's, 'Calm down, we're good. We're going to make it right.' We ended up scoring, so that was good, but that's all I was saying. Just chill out."

Kingsbury, at least publicly, didn't seem bothered by the exchange.

"Yeah, I mean, it's good," he said. "I think we're working through as an offense where we want to be and what we want to do, and you have competitors that have a level of intensity like that, I think it will keep pushing us forward."

It wasn't the first spat between the two. Earlier in October, cameras caught Murray clearly gesturing at his coach to speed up the tempo.

They are the sort of exchanges that aren't much of a story if a team is winning, but become more telling when a team has had struggles. Add that layer of intrigue to the already existing question marks about whether Murray can live up to his massive contract extension, and you have a fascinating situation brewing in Arizona.

As the San Francisco 49ers were close to completing their blockbuster trade for Christian McCaffrey, it appeared fans would have to wait a week to see him in action.

“No way, man," 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan told general manager John Lynch when asked if he would play McCaffrey in Sunday's game against the Kansas City Chiefs, per Peter King of NBC Sports.

Instead, McCaffrey wound up on the field for 21 snaps, according to Next Gen Stats, after contacting Shanahan and asking for a package of plays for his 49ers debut. The result was a modest 62 yards on 10 touches (eight carries, two receptions) but still far more than most expected from a player acquired in the wee hours of Thursday night.

McCaffrey will look to inject life into an offense that's been riddled by injuries. Trey Lance and Elijah Mitchell, the expected starters at quarterback and running back, are on injured reserve. Tight end George Kittle has missed two games. Perhaps more than any other team in the NFL, the 49ers have been snakebitten by injuries.

McCaffrey himself is no guarantee to stay on the field. He played a grand total of 10 games over the previous two seasons and has been on the injury report at points in 2022. Trading four draft picks for a player with his injury history is undoubtedly a risk.

That said, McCaffrey is on the short list of the league's most dynamic playmakers when he's on the field. For a team that fashions itself as a Super Bowl contender, it's apparently a risk Lynch and Shanahan found worth taking.

The San Francisco 49ers paid a high price to acquire Christian McCaffrey, but only because it came down to a bidding war with the Los Angeles Rams.

"The price was driven by Niners versus Rams, not by Christian McCaffrey," an executive involved in the trade talks told Peter King of NBC Sports.

San Francisco sent the Carolina Panthers three 2023 draft picks—in the second round, third round and fourth round—and a 2024 fifth-round pick in exchange for the star running back. As King reported, the Rams didn't want to give up too many picks in the 2023 draft after already dealing away its first-, fourth- and fifth-round picks.

According to Peter Schrager of Fox Sports (h/t Dov Kleiman), the Rams offered three picks to Carolina, but they couldn't match the 49ers' offer that featured a 2024 fourth-round pick.

While both teams wanted to add a potential game-changing player, keeping the running back away from a division rival also clearly played a role in this situation.

"I'm glad he's not there," 49ers general manager John Lynch said of McCaffrey going to the Rams.

John Lynch discusses how the Rams' interest in McCaffrey influenced 49ers, and how he tried to get the deal done early:

"I was trying to because I know their propensity to come in late and go big. I was trying to get it done before, but that wasn't going to happen." pic.twitter.com/Xe6UuayUeX

— KNBR (@KNBR) October 21, 2022

Head coach Kyle Shanahan also discussed the major swing of the trade.

"I think everybody would love the opportunity to have a player like Christian," the coach said, per ESPN's Nick Wagoner. "So, I think everyone looks into it, but it's also nice to keep a good player away from the team that we have to compete with year in and year out."

McCaffrey had 38 rushing yards and 24 receiving yards in limited playing time during his 49ers debut in Sunday's loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, but he is certain to have a bigger impact going forward.

The Rams, meanwhile, will have to keep searching the market for a running back to improve an offense that ranks 31st in rushing yards and 31st in yards per carry.