NFL Notes: Ray Rice, Replay Expansion, & Rams

Ray Rice

According to Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports, former Ravens RB Ray Rice has “strong support” from within the NFL’s football operations department to get a second chance in the NFL.

La Canfora mentions that if given the opportunity, VP of football operations Troy Vincent would support Rice’s return to the NFL and express as much to an interested team.

Rice has reportedly been very active while away from the game, working out and volunteering his time to educate people on the mistakes he’s made.

However, no team has shown enough interest in Rice to even bring him in for a workout. La Canfora writes that numerous NFL executives and coaches have said they would bring Rice in for at least a workout, but doing so would require the full backing of ownership, and that has not happened up to this point.

The Bills, at least, held internal discussions about Rice this summer, but even his ties to HC Rex Ryan weren’t enough for him to get a tryout.

According to La Canfora, Rice is only seeking an opportunity at a minimum contract.

Replay Expansion

Jason La Canfora reports that the NFL continues to the idea of expanding replay internally, and there appears to be momentum building for expanding the system at some point in the near future.

The NFL is reportedly bracing for several proposals from NFL teams regarding replay changes, which means this will be a hot topic at the spring owner’s meeting.

According to La Canfora, people around the league believe it’s almost inevitable that head of officiating Dean Blandino will have the ability to step in towards the end of the game and alert officials of mistakes being made.

While it sounds like replay is likely to be expanded, La Canfora adds that there’s still “considerable opposition” to making every play reviewable, which had been proposed by Patriots HC Bill Belichick last year.

Rams

According to Jason La Canfora, even if the NFL determines that the stadium plan proposed by the city of St. Louis meets all the criteria, there’s still no guarantee the Rams will end up playing there.

La Canfora mentions that St. Louis could, however, present a stadium plan that makes it nearly impossible for Stan Kroenke to move the team, but he would not be required to have the Rams plan in the new facility.

Instead, Kroenke could operate on a year-to-year lease with the Edward Jones Dome through 2025. This would allow him to wait for a new opportunity to emerge such as London, rather than reach a deal with St. Louis.

It’s worth mentioning that the expectation from the teams in the running to relocate to Los Angeles expect the NFL to do whatever is necessary to get the process completed by January, and move at least one franchise to L.A. for the 2016 season.