NFL Notes: Dolphins, Falcons, Raiders & Las Vegas

Dolphins

Dolphins third-round RB Kenyan Drake said his hamstring injury is not “major” and is healing quickly, which should allow him to be back before the start of training camp.

“I’m feeling great,” Drake said, via the Miami Herald. “…You’re going to get hurt as a football player. It’s about how fast you recover and get back on the field. It’s not about how many times you get injured. It’s about are you able to play in critical moments of the season when the team needs you to.”

Falcons

Falcons owner Rich McKay confirmed that $200 million in change order were ordered for their new $1.5 million Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

“When you look at the change orders — $200 million in change orders — it’s principally in steel from the complexity of design,” McKay said, via ESPN.com. “That’s where that [cost] is. We knew that was coming. We’ve seen it coming. When we decided to do the one-stadium solution and do a downtown solution on a complex site … this site was complex.

“As you know, it’s 50 feet higher up from the [World] Congress Center is to where we are here. So, there’s a lot of complexity. We knew that was going to increase cost. We also knew when we put a roof on, it’s going to increase cost.

“Those overruns were principally driven by the complexity of design, the amount of steel involved, the numbers of cranes involved to make sure that we get the stadium up on time. All those things went into that.”

As for the timeline for the new facility to open, McKay says that the change orders shouldn’t affect it at all.

“We’re pretty confident in our timetable,” McKay emphasized. “June 1 is a good date for us. We’re working pretty confidently toward that date, and we feel very good about it. I would say that we have really picked up the pace. You’ve seen the steel going up. You’ve seen the numbers of lifts that we have. We’re in a pretty good place.”

Raiders

• Earlier in the day, the SNTIC decided to reduce the public contribution for a new Raiders’ stadium in Las Vegas from $750,000 to $550 million from $750,000. (NFLTR)
• The Raiders said they were “disappointed” by the decision, but Vincent Bonsignore points out that this is a negotiation and the SNTIC essentially played their card.
• According to Bonsignore, both sides have expressed confidence that they’ll eventually be able to find common ground on the matter.
• The mutual feeling from people at the Vegas meetings is that common ground will be found on a stadium deal, per Bonsignore.