NFL Notes: CFL, Bills, Giants, Texans

CFL

The Canadian Football League and their Players Association announced Wednesday that they’ve agreed to two rule changes in an attempt to benefit the health of players. These changes include:

• Effective immediately and for the 2018 season, the number of full contact padded practices allowed per team once training camps have been completed will be reduced from 17 to zero.
• Starting in 2018, the CFL schedule will expand from 20 to 21 weeks, to allow athletes more time to rest and recuperate between games. The schedule will still consist of 18 games.

Bills

• Bills HC Sean McDermott said CB E.J. Gaines, who was limited in Wednesday’s practice with a shoulder injury, is expected to play in Week 2. (Sal Capaccio)
• McDermott also said the team will start LB Jelani Jenkins out at outside linebacker since that is what he has mostly played so far in his career: “He’s played outside mostly, so that’s where we’ll start him off. The important part now is just acclimating him to our system and what we do and getting him comfortable so he can play fast.”

Giants

• According to Ian Rapoport, the Giants have “a lot of optimism” that WR Odell Beckham Jr.  (knee) will be ready to play in Monday night’s game.
• However, Beckham Jr told reporters that his ankle injury requires a 6-8 week recovery. For what it’s worth, this Monday marked the four-week mark for Beckham Jr.

Texans

Neil Schwartz, the agent for Texans QB Tom Savage, took exception to HC Bill O’Brien‘s decision to bench his client, saying it “makes no sense” during an interview on PFT Live on Wednesday.

“I’m still trying to figure this out,” Schwartz said. “Thirty-one plays and you’re getting benched? It makes no sense.”

“I went through every single play and I even went one step further. I asked two different NFL personnel people (or) coaches on two separate teams to evaluate and break down the film to see if I was missing something,” Schwartz said. “He went 7 for 13…12 of the 13 balls touched the receiver’s hands. The only ball that didn’t was the strip-sack fumble that they called incomplete (upon replay). Seven were completions, five were drops.“