Tag: damon arnette

Former Raiders 1st-round pick Damon Arnette arrested on drug charges

Damon Arnette has been arrested again

Four games into Damon Arnette’s second season with the Raiders, the team cut ties with him. To grow tired of a first-round pick and cut him that quickly is usually a sign he had used up all his chances.

Since then, things have only gotten worse for Arnette.

Last January, he was arrested on charges of pulling a gun on a valet. And on the same day those charges by the Clark County DA, Arnette was again arrested in Florida on drug charges.

According to the TMZ report, Arnette was pulled over twice within a few hours of each other. The first time he was cited for driving with a suspended license.

The officers gave another person in the car permission to drive the car, but a few hours later, Arnette was again spotted driving the car and was thus pulled over again.

This time they searched Arnette and the police claim to have found a small bag of what was believed to be cocaine. At which point he was arrested for drug possession.

Arnette hasn’t been able to go long between incidents, either involving weapons or vehicles.

The incident that ended his short tenure in Las Vegas was a video he posted on Instagram in which he was wielding several firearms and threatening to kill someone.

And when he was released, it was revealed that during Arnette’s rookie season, he had crashed four rental cars in a month’s time.

When the Raiders drafted Arnette, he came with some red flags for incidents that occurred during his time at Ohio State. But the team was convinced enough that he had grown up and put his troubles behind him. Or perhaps Jon Gruden was convinced.

I asked GM Mike Mayock shortly after Arnette’s release if there were signs of this type of behavior and Mayock admitted he had “significant concern” with Arnette’s character.

As someone who covered Arnette as a Raiders player, he was a bit of a strange guy, albeit a fun person to speak with. Hopefully, he can get the help he needs to clean up his act.

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[lawrence-newsletter]

Chiefs cut Damon Arnette following arrest in Las Vegas

Damon Arnette was released by the Chiefs after an arrest in Las Vegas

Former Las Vegas Raider first-round pick and now former Kansas City Chiefs future contract player Damon Arnette is out of another NFL job.

The defensive back was arrested Friday night in Las Vegas on numerous charges. Shortly after the news, the Chiefs released the turmoil-plagued Arnette.

The 25-year-old cornerback faces charges for assault with a deadly weapon, carrying a concealed weapon, and possession of a controlled substance after a dispute allegedly occurred at the Park MGM.

Per Chiefswire.com:

Arnette signed a reserve/future deal with Kansas City just nine days ago. The former first-round draft pick was released by the Raiders earlier in the 2021 NFL season after an online video of him brandishing a weapon and making threats went viral. When the Chiefs signed Arnette to the reserve/future contract, it was met with criticism. Not two weeks later and the team knows exactly why the signing was criticized.

Chiefs release CB Damon Arnette from reserve/future contract following arrest

Less than two weeks after signing him to a reserve/future contract, the #Chiefs have released former #Raiders CB Damon Arnette.

The Kansas City Chiefs gave former Las Vegas Raiders CB Damon Arnette a second chance and he’s already gone and blown it.

Arnette signed a reserve/future deal with Kansas City just nine days ago. The former first-round draft pick was released by the Raiders earlier in the 2021 NFL season after an online video of him brandishing a weapon and making threats went viral. When the Chiefs signed Arnette to the reserve/future contract, it was met with criticism. Not two weeks later and the team knows exactly why the signing was criticized.

On Friday, Arnette was arrested in Las Vegas on a litany of charges including assault with a deadly weapon.

According to NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero, the Chiefs released Arnette from his reserve/future contract immediately following his arrest. Thankfully, this happened prior to Arnette having a chance to join the team. As a reserve/future signing, he doesn’t count toward the active roster until March 16, when the new league year begins. It’s also probably for the best that the team got this out of the way now rather than at a point when they were actually relying on him to play and contribute.

The Chiefs were hoping to find a nice reclamation project in Arnette, instead, they found themselves a headache. With a few departures expected at the cornerback position this offseason, Kansas City will need to look for reserve/future talent elsewhere.

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Former Raiders troubled CB Damon Arnette signs with Chiefs

Ex-Raiders CB Damon Arnette finds his second chance with Chiefs

Two months since the Raiders cut ties with former first round pick Damon Arnette, he has found a new home with the rival Kansas City Chiefs. No, he isn’t going to be suiting up for their team in the playoffs. He’s been signed to a reserve/future deal, so he will be on the team’s offseason roster.

If you are here wondering why the Raiders would cut a former first rounder midseason, well here’s the thing…

Arnette took to social media, posting a video of himself brandishing several high powered firearms and threatening to kill someone. Then GM Mike Mayock moved swiftly to release Arnette, saying threatening someone’s life is unacceptable.

This was the last straw for a team that had already dealt with several other strange behavioral issues with Arnette, including the second-year pro crashing four rental cars in a month.

It was also more than the team wanted to deal with in light of all the controversy they had faced this season, what with Gruden’s forced resignation and Henry Ruggs III’s DUI crash that killed a young woman and her dog.

On top of all of this, Arnette just hadn’t proven himself to be talented enough on the football to be worth the trouble. So, Mayock pulled the cord on the player he spent a first round pick on just a year prior.

Mayock admitted the team drafted Arnette despite serious concerns about his character. He added that he wished Arnette well and thought he was talented enough to get another shot elsewhere. If that turns out to be true, Arnette could get to face his former team a couple times next season.

Chiefs sign former Raiders first-round pick Damon Arnette on reserve/future contract

The #Chiefs have signed former #Raiders CB Damon Arnette on a reserve/future contract

The Kansas City Chiefs have added a former first-round draft pick at the cornerback position on reserve/future contract. It just so happens they’re a former first-round pick from an AFC West opponent too.

According to the NFL’s personnel notice for Thursday, the Chiefs have signed former Raiders CB Damon Arnette to a reserve/future deal. The No. 19 overall pick in the 2020 NFL draft by way of Ohio State, Arnette was released by Las Vegas earlier this season after a video posted to Instagram showed him brandishing firearms and making threats.

If you’re not familiar with reserve/future contracts, it means that Arnette won’t count against the team’s active roster until the beginning of the new league year on Mar. 16, 2022. That’s when the 90-man offseason roster opens for each NFL team.

Arnette played in just 13 games (7 starts) with the Raiders during his career, and at the time of his release, he was on injured reserve recovering from a groin injury. He had 29 tackles, one tackle for loss and three passes defended over two seasons with Las Vegas.

It’s not unlike Chiefs GM Brett Veach to go out and give a player who has made a mistake a second chance. They did so with former Giants’ first-round draft pick DeAndre Baker, who has been on the 53-man roster this season as a key backup for Kansas City. It’s a low-risk, high-reward type of signing for the team.

With the expected departures in the defensive secondary for the Chiefs in 2022, adding a player like Arnette could turn into a sneaky good move. He clearly has the talent to play in this league, but he’ll need to earn a shot at personal and professional redemption. That work begins this offseason.

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The Dolphins are adding a 2020 first-round pick to their practice squad

The Dolphins are taking a chance on a talented player.

The Miami Dolphins are continuing to add talent to their organization, even if there’s a risk that comes with the player.

Wednesday, general manager Chris Grier signed former Las Vegas Raiders cornerback Damon Arnette to the Dolphins practice squad, according to David Furones of the Sun Sentinel.

Arnette was a first-round pick of the Raiders just last season, but he was released in his second year for multiple off-field issues, including a situation that involved him threatening to kill someone on Instagram while waving a gun around.

When he was on the field, Arnette had issues as well. In his rookie season, he played in just nine games, allowing 78.1% of passes to be completed against him for a 106.9 passer rating, and this year, his performance was similar with a reduced role.

There’s obviously some raw talent there if Arnette was a first-round pick out of Ohio State after playing for St. Thomas Aquinas in high school. If Miami can get him to focus on football and can bring him along, they might’ve found a future contributor.

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Mike Mayock admits Raiders drafted Damon Arnette despite ‘significant concern’ with character

Mike Mayock admits Raiders drafted Damon Arnette despite ‘significant concern’ with character

For the second time in a week, the Raiders saw one of their 2020 first round picks make a terrible lapse in judgement that led to their swift release. Last Tuesday it was Henry Ruggs III who got behind the wheel of a car drunk and slammed into another vehicle, killing a young woman.

Yesterday, while the team was still very much dealing with that situation, which undoubtedly led to their loss to the Giants, Damon Arnette posted a video in which he was threatening to kill someone while brandishing several firearms.

Once again the Raiders hands were tied. As Mike Mayock explained in a statement over conference call Monday morning.

“Today we waived Damon Arnette,” said Mayock. “Very painful decision. We spent significant time, effort, and resources trying to help him in all facets of his life. There have been a series of bad decisions over the last year or so, but we can’t stand, we can not stand the video of Damon with a gun threatening to take a life. The content was unacceptable, contrary to our values, and our owner Mark Davis has been very clear and very consistent that this is not how we will conduct ourselves in this community. The bottom line; the Raiders will not tolerate this type of behavior.

“On a personal note, Ive talked to Damon, his dad, a couple of others in his life. From my perspective he’s a very talented young man with a good heart. [If] he cleans up his life, I know he can make a living in the NFL. But not now with the Raiders.”

Arnette’s actions, coupled with those of Ruggs has a lot of people pointing to the team’s many statements about how important character is to their team and therefore their draft process. But these two situations are different in that there were no signs prior to this that Ruggs would do anything like that. The same cannot be said of Arnette.

I asked Mayock if there had been anything in Arnette’s profile in the draft process that was of concern. He spoke candidly.

“Yeah, there was significant concern. And most of the teams around the league were very aware of it,” Mayock replied. “We spent an awful lot of time trying to understand his behavior. And really what kind of tilted everything in the direction of ‘ok, let’s go ahead and draft him’ was that we knew that coaching staff pretty well, we knew what they had asked him to do his last year at Ohio State, they felt very strongly that they knew who we had on our staff and that we’d be able to work with this young man. And not only help him on the football field, but help him in his life. Obviously in hindsight we weren’t able to do it. I know a lot of people, including myself, we were all concerned about this. But we at the time thought it was an acceptable risk. But obviously it’s painful on all levels.”

One potential red flag may have been this:

Yes, he said four rental car accidents. In a month.

The inevitable question becomes if there were so many red flags, and if teams around the league were also aware of those red flags, why did the team feel like Arnette was worthy of a being selected at 19 overall? I mean, I understand taking a flier on a player on day two and beyond, but it seems highly irresponsible to make that call with such a high pick.

“We found the risk acceptable after doing more homework on Arnette than anybody we’ve done in the years I’ve been here,” Mayock added. “And obviously we missed. And that is 100% on me.”

Despite Mayock falling on the sword here, it’s not fair to blame him for it entirely. He has said many times in the past that the team gets considerable input from coaches when selecting players and we also know that Jon Gruden had final say.

All you can do know is hope Mayock and the Raiders learn from these kinds of mistakes and realize sometimes the risk just isn’t worth it.

[lawrence-newsletter]

Raiders place cornerbacks Trayvon Mullen, Damon Arnette on injured reserve

Raiders place cornerbacks Trayvon Mullen, Damon Arnette on IR, activate CB Keisean Nixon, RB Jalen Richard

Both Trayvon Mullen and Damon Arnette were ruled OUT for Sunday’s game against the Bears. The question was just how long each would be out. That time away will be at least three weeks now because the team has placed both on injured reserve along with TE Derek Carrier.

Mullen was lost to a foot injury on the team’s first drive against the Chargers on Monday night. Arnette came in for him and a short time late, he too was lost to a groin injury,

The two injuries had the Raiders down to just three cornerbacks, which brought in Amik Robertson, had nickel corner Nate Hobbs play some snaps outside and safety Roderic Teamer see some snaps at cornerback as well.

In a good bit of timing, Keisean Nixon is eligible to return from his short-term IR and was activated to the roster in a corresponding move. Along with Nixon, RB Jalen Richard was also activated.

The team also signed CB Brandon Facyson this week for depth purposes.

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[lawrence-newsletter]

Keisean Nixon return to practice welcome sight with Raiders rash of injuries at cornerback

Keisean Nixon return to practice welcome sight with Raiders rash of injuries at cornerback

Monday night the Raiders depth at cornerback was tested and then some. The team lost Trayvon Mullen to a foot injury on the first drive of the game. Then a short time later, they saw Mullen’s replacement, Damon Arnette go down with a groin injury. And before all was said and done, nickel corner Nate Hobbs was banged up as well.

This meant the only two cornerbacks left were Casey Hayward and Amik Robertson, which forced the team to play safety Roderic Teamer at the nickel spot.

Well, Mullen and Arnette are still not practicing, which would leave the team with no depth at the position past the three starters. Or it would if not for the return of Keisean Nixon who practiced for the first time since being placed on injured reserve prior to the start of the season.

That means if Hobbs is ok, the team will have the personnel to field at least four cornerbacks on Sunday when the Bears come to town. The only question will be who starts at outside corner if Mullen and Arnette can’t go?

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[lawrence-newsletter]

32 potential trade targets, one from every NFL team

One potential trade target from all 32 NFL teams as final roster cuts loom.

Trades within the NFL are commonplace during the month of August. Teams must consistently trim rosters, and occasionally a trade makes more sense than a cut.

Trade talk around the league will heat up over the next week as all 32 teams decide how to get rosters down to 53 players. Teams with excess at one position can help out another with a need. For instance, just this week, the New England Patriots sent running back Sony Michel to the Los Angeles Rams for draft pick compensation.

Here is one player from each NFL team that could be traded soon: