Category: Latest News

Former Ravens RB Ricky Williams reveals name change

Former Ravens running back Ricky Williams revealed that he changed his name

The Baltimore Ravens have had many veterans walk through their doors over the course of their franchise history. They’ve been able to get the best out of some of the players who are entering the back end of their careers, and they value the experience and leadership that each of them brings.

One of the veterans that Baltimore brought in was running back Ricky Williams. He played with the Ravens for one season during the last year of his career in 2011, rushing 108 times for 444 yards and two touchdowns. In an interview on “The Dan LeBetard Show with Stugotz”, Williams revealed that he changed his name to “Errick Miron” around a year and a half ago, taking the last name of his wife of the last five years. Williams said the change felt very meaningful to him.

“I did it probably a year and a half ago, made it official…Something I’ve been thinking about and talking about, and I finally went through the steps and I went to the social security office with my marriage certificate, and I went through the process, and it was quick and easy, and it felt meaningful. It felt really meaningful.”

Williams was born as Errick Williams, and went by Ricky. He revealed that the change was a way to create a balance in his relationship with his wife. He also mentioned that Williams isn’t really his last name.

“There’s like one of those family secrets…My grandma, obviously, back then you don’t say anything. And so Williams was her husband’s name who wasn’t my dad’s father. So Williams is not even really my last name…”

Ravens DL Brent Urban looks to be donning new number as OTAs begin

Ravens defensive lineman Brent Urban appears to be donning a new number as the team’s OTAs begin

The Baltimore Ravens have made multiple different additions to their defensive line over the course of the 2022 offseason. They signed Michael Pierce, brought back Calais Campbell, and drafted Travis Jones, adding talent all across the board. However, they also recently brought in defensive lineman Brent Urban, who should provide solid depth in what has turned into a very deep position for the Ravens.

Baltimore had their organized team activities begin on Tuesday, and the team posted a number of clips from the day. One of them was of Urban working through a drill, and the defensive lineman was donning a new number with No. 68.

Urban responded to the video, asking if he was looking good in No. 68

The veteran is currently listed as No. 68 on Baltimore’s team website, so it seems like the number could be his for at least a little while. He previously wore No. 96 during his first stint with the Ravens, and has also worn No. 92 and No. 95.

New Bengals OL Alex Cappa out a few weeks due to injury

An injury update on one of the Bengals’ big free-agent signings.

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Guard Alex Cappa is one-third of the major offensive line overhaul the Cincinnati Bengals made in free agency this offseason.

And it will be a few weeks before Cappa’s able to get in front of Joe Burrow during live work.

As Zac Taylor told reporters on Tuesday, Cappa’s dealing with a minor core injury that will sideline him for a few weeks.

With Cappa out, Hakeem Adeniji lined up at right guard and Jackson Carman was in at left guard alongside the team’s other two new additions, center Ted Karras and right tackle La’el Collins.

Mike Petraglia of CLNS Media captured the video:

As of this writing, this isn’t a major concern for Cappa and the Bengals, as it sounds like he’ll be ready in time for the start of training camp.

Cappa is, by the way, a guy who has played with a broken arm and tried to stay in a game with a broken leg. Or in other words, he’s the sort of glass-eater Frank Pollack’s been looking for in Cincinnati.

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Bengals’ joint practice with Rams a rare occurrence for franchise

A rarity will unfold for the Bengals this summer.

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Another rare occasion will occur for the Cincinnati Bengals this upcoming preseason — the Bengals will be working with another team for joint practices.

We previously noted that the Bengals will be holding joint practices with the reigning Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams leading up to their preseason finale on Saturday, August 27.

As noted by Bengals.com writer Geoff Hobson, this will be the first set of joint practices for the Bengals under head coach Zac Taylor. Taylor wanted to focus on his own team in 2019, his first season as head coach, then COVID prevented him from such practices in 2020 and 2021.

Joint practices have become more popular in recent years as teams look for extra help and preparation for the regular season. They may only continue to rise in popularity with the preseason now just three games instead of four (Hall of Fame Game participants play four preseason games).

“It’s a controlled environment,” said Taylor. “And with your starters playing less and less in the preseason than probably ten years ago, it’s good to get good work against an opponent in practice.”

The stars seemed to align perfectly for this set of joint practices with the Rams.

“They were open to coming out here. Probably wouldn’t have done it the other way around,” Taylor said. “It’s a coach I trust and two teams I think will work well together. A lot of these teams get paired up as the season comes to a conclusion. We were two teams left without a dance partner. We just jumped on the opportunity … We know how they practice, they know how we practice. There are a lot of similarities.”

Just about everyone knows by now the history between Taylor and Rams head coach Sean McVay, but for those new to the game, before Taylor became head coach of the Bengals, he was McVay’s wide receivers coach in 2017 in L.A., then his quarterbacks coach in 2018.

To also give an idea how rare joint practices have been for Cincinnati, this will be just the fifth set of joint practices for the Bengals since the beginning of the Marvin Lewis era, as the Bengals held just four such practices under his watch, though they became a little more common in the back half of Lewis’ run. Lewis’ Bengals worked with the Saints in 2007, the Falcons in 2013, the Giants in 2015 and the Vikings in 2016.

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Former Ravens RB Ty’Son Williams finds new NFL home

Former Ravens running back Ty’Son Williams signed with a new NFL team

The Baltimore Ravens were dealt some bad luck in 2021 when it came to their group of running backs. The team lost their top three backs prior to the start of the season and had to depend on signing veterans from elsewhere to try and get the job done.

During the offseason, Baltimore decided to move on from running back Ty’Son Williams, making the former BYU star a free agent. However, it didn’t take long for him to find a home on a new NFL team. The Indianapolis Colts announced on Tuesday that they signed Williams as well as waiving center Alex Mollette.

Williams has started in three games and played in 13 games during his NFL career. The running back notched one touchdown and 185 yards on 35 carries. He was expected to have a big role following the injuries to Dobbins and Edwards, but after just a few weeks of the 2021 season saw little playing time.

Ravens agree to terms with CB Kyle Fuller

The Ravens have agreed to terms with free agent cornerback Kyle Fuller

The Baltimore Ravens secondary struggled mightily during the 2021 season due to a combination of factors. Injury, subpar play and inconsistency plagued the unit, but Baltimore has taken the 2022 offseason to shore up their group and secure talented players at both cornerback and safety.

On Tuesday, it was announced that the Ravens signed former Chicago Bears and Denver Broncos cornerback Kyle Fuller. The veteran has had his fair share of success at the NFL level, and adds to what has turned into a very deep and very impressive unit.

In seven NFL seasons, Fuller has recorded 441 total tackles, 19 interceptions and four forced fumbles. He has the versatility to play both on the outside and in the slot, which will be welcome in new defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald’s defense.

Titans’ Ryan Tannehill addresses Malik Willis mentor comment

Titans QB Ryan Tannehill addressed Malik Willis and mentor-gate after Day 2 of OTAs.

Tennessee Titans quarterback Ryan Tannehill was present at organized team activities on Tuesday, which was the second session in two days for the Titans.

The team made players available to the media afterwards, and Tannehill was one of them — and as you’d expect, he addressed his now-infamous comment about it not being his job to mentor Malik Willis.

Tannehill says he meant no disrespect to Willis and his comments were spun into something else he didn’t intend. He also noted that he reached out to Willis immediately after mentor-gate began.

“We were communicating the whole time,” Tannehill said with a laugh. “As soon as it blew up, I reached out to him and said, ‘hey, I’m going to be a great teammate to you, I’m going to support you and they’re making this out to something that it’s not to be.’

“It’s not what it’s been made out to be at all,” Tannehill continued. “And he’s been good, and he was great with it throughout the whole time. As soon as I reached out to him, he’s like ‘yeah, I can’t believe it’s blown into this.’ So, things that were great with us from the beginning and have continued to be great, and it’s been great to have him in the room and get to know him as a person and we’ll continue to build that relationship.”

Tannehill also spoke on the progress he has seen from Willis thus far.

“He’s kind of coming up to speed with the way we work, the way we do things, and how we do things,” Tannehill said. “That’s one of my charges as leader of the room is to try to help him out, and he’s done a good job of getting with the room and working to get better.”

As we said at the time mentor-gate began, this whole thing was blown out of proportion. Tannehill was always going to help Willis out, even without using the specific label of mentor.

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Titans land in top half of Peter King’s NFL power rankings

The Titans land nine spots ahead of the Colts in Peter King’s NFL power rankings.

The dust has settled with the 2022 NFL draft in the rearview mirror and free agency leading up to training camp figures to be mostly minor transactions.

The Tennessee Titans have certainly had an offseason. After releasing several players to free up salary cap space, the Titans shockingly traded A.J. Brown to the Philadelphia Eagles during the draft after the two sides did not appear to be close on a contract extension.

Going into the offseason, the main focus was surrounding quarterback Ryan Tannehill with more talent after an injury-plagued season saw the Titans signal-caller without his top two targets in Brown and Julio Jones for long stretches of time.

However, after releasing Jones and trading Brown, the Titans appear to have more questions than answers in that department. As such, they sit at No. 12 in the NFL power rankings of NBC Sports’ Peter King, who noted similar concerns surrounding Tannehill.

What we have here is a failure to … well, have offensive competency in the big spots. And this season, without question, will be a referendum on the future of Ryan Tannehill to quarterback an NFL contender. In his last two playoff games, both in Nashville, Tannehill has led the Titans to two losses and a total of 29 points. Last season, in 18 games, Tennessee managed to win AFC home-field (largely because the rest of the division was a tawdry 16-35 and never challenged the Titans), but Tannehill had a crummy 22-to-17 TD-to-pick ratio. How he’s going to be better without A.J. Brown, I have no idea. I can’t figure this team out, but I do know Mike Vrabel is worth at least what he’s making in his new contract. This defense plays with the kind of intensity and efficiency their coach used to have as a player. The Titans will need that this year.

In King’s power rankings, he has AFC teams like the Buffalo Bills (1), Los Angeles Chargers (2), Kansas City Chiefs (3), Cincinnati Bengals (7) and Baltimore Ravens (8) ahead of Tennessee.

Given the offseason moves, the Eagles rightfully land at No. 9 on his list. He’s not as high on Indianapolis, putting the Colts at No. 21 despite the addition of quarterback Matt Ryan.

After moving up in the draft, the Titans added a potential superstar wide receiver in Treylon Burks. However, he doesn’t have Brown’s track record, one that saw the 24-year-old put up back-to-back 1,000- yard seasons.

Austin Hooper appears to be a significant upgrade at the tight end position, and the Titans will also have a healthy Derrick Henry back in the fold next year.

Robert Woods was brought over to bolster the wide receiver position, a move that looms larger than ever. It appears the USC product is on schedule in his recovery from a torn ACL after he participated in Day 1 of OTAs.

Tennessee’s bread and butter figures to once again be the defense, a unit that took a monumental leap forward in 2021 after a subpar 2020 campaign.

Mike Vrabel’s defense is headlined by names like Harold Landry, Kevin Byard, Bud Dupree, and Jeffery Simmons, with a terrific supporting cast in Kristian Fulton, Zach Cunningham, and Amani Hooker, to name a few.

If history has lent itself anything, Vrabel always gets the most out of his ballclub.

There are questions at the receiver position going into the year, but hopefully, Burks, Woods, Nick Westbrook-Ikhine, Dez Fitzpatrick and draft pick Kyle Philips can put those issues to bed.

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Titans go in different direction in B/R’s 2018 NFL re-draft

In a re-do of the 2018 NFL draft, the Titans go in a different direction.

Very rarely do teams have the opportunity for a re-do, but in the 2018 NFL draft, the Tennessee Titans would have gone in a different direction if they had a crystal ball.

Mike Vrabel’s ballclub selected linebacker Rashaan Evans with the No. 22 overall pick before finding a gem in the second round in outside linebacker Harold Landry.

The Titans declined Evans’ fifth-year option and the Alabama product walked in free agency, eventually signing a one-year deal with the Atlanta Falcons and thus ending what was a disappointing tenure.

According to Bleacher Report’s Gary Davenport, the Titans should have selected edge rusher Marcus Davenport instead.

For the first three years of his career, that looked to have been an unwise decision—Davenport tallied just 12 sacks over his first three seasons combined. But despite missing six games last year, Davenport turned in his best season as a pro, setting career highs in tackles (39) and sacks (nine).

With the selection of Davenport at the end of the first round, Tennessee likely would have addressed other needs instead of taking Landry in the second round.

Speaking of Landry, he went to the Green Bay Packers with the No. 14 overall pick in this re-draft.

Interestingly, Davenport has had a similar track record as Landry through his first four seasons. After a sophomore campaign that saw him achieve several career-highs, the former UTSA star regressed considerably in Year 3 before exploding for nine sacks in 2021.

Landry, who collected a then-career-best nine sacks in 2019, tallied just 5.5 sacks in 2020 before racking up 12 sacks this past season.

Davenport is entering the final year of his contract in 2022, while the Titans have already committed five years and $87.5 million to Landry in a second contract.

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Bengals vs. Rams preseason showdown gets primetime treatment

The Bengals just added another primetime game.

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The Cincinnati Bengals just added another primetime game, technically speaking.

According to the team’s official website, NFL Network has decided to carry the Super Bowl rematch on Saturday, August 27, bumping the time up an hour to a 6 p.m. ET kickoff.

This, after the Bengals and Rams agreed to hold joint practices in Cincinnati that week.

The joint practices came about due to the trust between head coaches Sean McVay and Zac Taylor, but players expect there will be a few things worked out on the field, too.

“It’s crazy. It will be a good time. I’m excited about it,” Bengals defensive tackle D.J. Reader said, according to Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com. “I’m sure some guys will still have some things going on. That will be a good part about it. Get those things ironed out … I’m sure guys will have some juices flowing.

The third preseason game is typically when starters see the most reps, so it’s no wonder the league decided to toss it in the spotlight.

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