Best of Saturday at NFL training camps: Pads, awkward autographs, bad day for WRs - 5 minutes read
Teams are putting pads on, dudes are signing dudes' heads and the Giants keep finding ways to lose receivers.
Here's what you need to know from camps across the league:
Jump to the best of Saturday: Photos | Videos | Quotes
Top news of the day
Top story: Giants' Tate gets 4-game ban for fertility drug
In yet another blow to the New York Giants' receiving corps, Golden Tate has been suspended for four games for violating the NFL's policy on performance-enhancing substances, he confirmed Saturday.
Tate, who said the banned substance was a prescribed fertility medication, has scheduled an appeal for Aug. 6 and a resolution is expected before the start of the regular season, league sources told ESPN's Adam Schefter.
The Giants were already down two receivers after Corey Coleman (torn ACL) and Sterling Shepard (fractured thumb) had suffered injuries on the first day of training camp on Thursday.
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Best videos
Life of JuJu at training camp: ‘Dude, I signed this dude's head today.'
Get used to one-hand catches, Cleveland.
(via ) pic.twitter.com/L5R8xLviL6
— ESPN () July 27, 2019
You probably want to make sure Matt Ryan's looking directly at you before tossing him a ball to sign. Falcons don't need him on IR with an eye injury or something. pic.twitter.com/wfRCSU31Pu
— vaughn mcclure () July 27, 2019
Chillin' out maxin' relaxin' all cool.#ChasingGreat pic.twitter.com/E2m148jScp
— Chicago Bears () July 27, 2019
Best photos
Bengals WR A.J. Green carted off the field at the end of practice. Had the shoe off of his left foot. pic.twitter.com/pa7S8EAP2I
— Ben Baby () July 27, 2019
For the sixth straight year, Melba Jacobson of Silver Spring, Md., celebrated her birthday at Redskins training camp. She was in a tent at the opposite end from where the players exit but she still got autographs from several Redskins: Trey Quinn, Case Keenum and Jehu Chesson. Jacobson was reared in Texas but made it clear: She's a longtime Redskins fan.
49ers DE Nick Bosa, signed and in camp on time, went through his first training camp practice as a pro on Saturday. Bosa worked mostly with the second team but also got some reps with the starters in third down packages. Bosa had some good reps against LT Joe Staley, though the Niners won't be in pads until Monday. Here, Bosa and edge partner Dee Ford get some sled work in. Much is expected of these two this season.
Quotes of the day
"He's 22 years old and can throw the piss out of the ball. It's fun to call plays." Jets first-year coach Adam Gase on second-year quarterback Sam Darnold.
"The treatment this past April had no effect on the upcoming season, and I did not, and could not have undergone this treatment in April for any competitive advantage." Golden Tate on his pending 4-game suspension because for what he said was his usage of a prescribed fertility drug.
"Phillip was getting a chiropractic treatment and the guy overdid it. So, to hell with chiropractors, let's just play football." Broncos coach Vic Fangio on running back Phillip Lindsay, who was limited Saturday.
"I don't see shorts coming back anytime soon." Browns coach Freddie Kitchen on putting on the pads.
Best of the rest from across the league
Todd Gurley jogs onto the practice field at Rams training camp. Sean McVay says there's a plan in place to monitor Gurley's training camp load.
Jets QB Sam Darnold still communicates with the recently retired Josh McCown every other day. Darnold said McCown "misses it every single day" and constantly asks questions about the team. On Saturday, McCown visited camp and stood with Adam Gase on the sideline. Asked if he will mind if McCown criticizes him in his new role as an ESPN analyst, Darnold cracked, "He'll probably be a lot nicer on TV, even if he's critical, than he would be in the film room."
Saturday was Ryan Fitzpatrick's worst day at practice. He was off on his accuracy at times and just had to run to T.N.T. wall after a mishandled snap with Chris Reed. Josh Rosen, on the other hand, had his best session including a nice play-action TD to Nick O'Leary. First glimpse of a true back-and-forth QB battle. If you're keeping score through three days of camp, Fitzpatrick has won two days and Rosen one.
Ron Rivera didn't hesitate when asked if he would want to be a part of another show like the Amazon Prime series ‘'All or Nothing'' in which his profanity-laced halftime speech at Pittsburgh was one of the highlights. ‘'No,'' the Panthers coach said. ‘'There were cameras everywhere, ... It was hard. I really couldn't express myself like I wanted to because of the cameras.'' He didn't have trouble expressing himself during and after the Pittsburgh shellacking, saying ‘'Sh- - happens'' in his postgame interview. His wife told him afterwards, ‘'Really?''
Takeaways from the Browns' third practice: 1. The first day of pads was a frustrating one for the first-team offense, as Baker Mayfield and Co. couldn’t really get anything going during team period. In fact at one point, Mayfield screamed at his WRs to work back to him off a scramble. The offense, however, did flash its firepower at the end during 2-minute, scoring on just three plays with a Jarvis Landry TD grab. The result of the first two offensive snaps, however, in team: a false start (by several players) and a T.J. Carrie interception, as Mayfield tried to find OBJ on a deep post. Rough start.
Seen a lot of different ways Packers players have done the kids bike thing but can't say I've seen anything quite like what offensive lineman Gerhard de Beer is doing.
