NFL

Detroit Lions Pro Bowl offensive tackle Penei Sewell didn't participate in Saturday's practice after entering the concussion protocol. Sewell was present in team gear but won't return until Wednesday at the earliest, coach Dan Campbell said.

"He's doing good," Campbell said Sunday. "He was good yesterday. So moving right along, just trying to be safe and smart." Sewell earned his first career Pro Bowl selection last season as a Super Bowl replacement for Philadelphia’s Lane Johnson. Sewell became the first Lions Pro Bowler at offensive tackle since Lomas Brown in 1995 after surrendering only 1.5 sacks in 2022.

Initially, Apple was signed in 2021 as a reserve option for Cincinnati’s secondary, but he took over as the full-time starter when Trae Waynes went down with a hamstring injury. That role was again solidified this past season when Chidobe Awuzie went down with an ACL injury in Week 8. In his two seasons, he started 31 of his 40 regular-season appearances for the Bengals.

A 2016 first-round pick, Apple has five career interceptions along with 335 tackles, 3 forced fumbles and 51 passes defended. He has also played for the New Orleans Saints and Carolina Panthers over his seven NFL seasons.

There is some history between Apple and new teammate Tyreek Hill. Apple called Hill "a baby" on Twitter after his Bengals beat the Kansas City Chiefs to reach the Super Bowl during the 2021 season, and tweeted an offer to buy Hill and then-Kansas City teammate Mecole Hardman tickets to the game. Before the Dolphins and Bengals played last season, Hill said he was excited to play against Apple, adding he owed the cornerback payback for his trash talk. Hill caught 10 passes for 160 yards in a Dolphins loss. The All-Pro receiver made light of their purported beef once news of Apple's signing came out. On Saturday, Hill posted on Twitter that "Monday practice gone be fun".

Martin's absence so far has cost him $250,000 in fines that cannot be rescinded when he does report.

"It's not about precedent. It's about facts," Jones said. "We need the money to pay [Micah] Parsons. We need the money to pay the players that we got to pay in the future. It's a fact. It's not even a philosophy. It's just a fact. Those dollars are there and we have this at this level, and if you redid all the contracts, then you never could put a roster together."

Martin has two years left on his contract and is set to make $13.5 million this year and $13 million next year on a deal that made him the highest-paid guard in 2018. Atlanta’s Chris Lindstrom and Indianapolis’ Quenton Nelson now have the highest annual average salaries for guards at $20.5 million and $20 million, respectively. Martin said he is "woefully underpaid relative to the market," a source told ESPN's Adam Schefter two weeks ago.

Murray met with the media on Saturday for the first time since Dec. 7, 2022, days before he injured his right knee against the New England Patriots on "Monday Night Football" in Week 14 of last season. He said he's improving daily while also learning a new offense in the classroom and by taking mental reps on the field during training camp, which began earlier this week. Even though it's a goal, Murray isn't sure a Week 1 return is possible, he said Saturday.

"Obviously, me being the competitor I am, do I want to miss any time? No," Murray said. "It's not on my mind, but we're not even in August yet. So, I'm taking it one day at a time." Murray isn't sure how much practice time he'll need to get ready once he's able to return because "I've never dealt with this." He's been ramping up his running and is to the point where he can cut.

Colts owner Jim Irsay, when asked later Saturday about the trade request, told ESPN the team would not trade Taylor. "We will not trade Jonathan Taylor," Irsay said. "That is a certainty. Not now or not in October." Speaking of Taylor earlier this week, Irsay told ESPN, 'When your time comes to get paid, then you get paid."

Michel, 28, was entering his sixth NFL season after a four-year college career at Georgia. He won a Super Bowl ring in his rookie season with the New England Patriots, and he earned a second championship with the Rams three years later.

Hunter does not want to play on his $4.9 million base salary for this season, so the Vikings have tried to find creative solutions should they fail to reach a new deal with him. Hunter, 28, skipped organized team activities and mandatory minicamp and is not practicing during training camp after missing the offseason program.

Hunter is in the final season of a five-year, $70 million extension. His salary is low this year because of a reworked deal two offseasons ago. He returned last season after two years of injuries and recorded 10.5 sacks, even after transitioning from a 4-3 defensive end to a 3-4 outside linebacker.

Elliott, who was released by the Dallas Cowboys on March 15 in a salary cap move, had a career-low 876 rushing yards in 2022, but he scored 12 touchdowns and remained a top short-yardage back and pass protector. That is a potential role that the Patriots, who are preparing to practice in full pads early next week with a heavy emphasis on the running game, could be looking to fill. This is Elliott's first free agent visit since he was released by the Cowboys.

In an interview with USA Today earlier this week, Payton called Hackett's 15-game run with the Broncos "one of the worst coaching jobs in the history of the NFL" and said there were "20 dirty hands" around quarterback Russell Wilson's career-worst season that included just 16 touchdown passes and a league-high 55 sacks.

After Friday's training camp practice, Payton apologized and said he intends to reach out to Hackett, now the Jets’ offensive coordinator, and to Jets coach Robert Saleh.

Payton spoke to the Broncos players about his comments Thursday in a team meeting. "Listen, I had one of those moments where I still had my Fox [network television] hat on and not my coaching hat on," Payton said Friday. "I said this to the team: We've had a great offseason relative to that, I've been preaching that message, and here I am the veteran stepping in it. It was a learning experience for me, a mistake obviously. I need a little bit more filter." Payton added, "I needed a bit more restraint, I regret that."

Burrow was carted off the field with the injury during Thursday's practice. He was rolling to his right during drills when he pulled up short in what appeared to be a noncontact injury and was later carted off the field.

This is the third straight training camp that Burrow has dealt with an injury. In 2021, Burrow was recovering from a torn ACL and MCL in his left knee that ended his rookie season in 2020, when he entered the league during the COVID-19 pandemic. Last year, Burrow suffered a ruptured appendix that required surgery days before the start of training camp. On Wednesday, one day before Burrow was carted off the practice field, he was asked about being healthy and having a normal training camp for the first time in his career.

"Knock on wood — I feel great," Burrow said. "This time last year I was sitting in a hospital bed. It's good to be out there with the guys. Excited about where we're at."

"People should expect a lot of great things to come compared to the things I did limping around all last year," he said. "I feel night and day from last year. I feel more like myself every day."

Robinson was shot twice in his leg while going out to dinner in Washington, D.C., in the early evening with a friend on Aug. 28. Police said it was an attempted carjacking/robbery. Robinson was shot in his right knee and hip, but he was able to wrestle the gun away from one of his assailants. Two teenagers were sentenced to six and four years — until they turn 21 — respectively, in youth services custody.

Robinson, expected to be Washington’s primary runner, underwent surgery and missed the first four games. He averaged 3.4 yards per carry on his first 108 rushes — before a three-game stretch in which he averaged 5-7 yards per carry and rushed for a combined 290 yards. That's when Washington started to see the running back they drafted in the third round in 2022; they even watched him run over a Falcons player during one carry. That stretch is when he started to show the vision and one-cut ability that impressed them when he played at Alabama.

Witherspoon signed his four-year rookie contract with the Seattle Seahawks, it was announced Friday. The fifth overall selection in April's draft was the last remaining pick who had yet to sign. The four-year, $31.86 million deal, which is fully guaranteed, includes a $20.17 million signing bonus. It also contains a fifth-year team option that is standard for first-round picks.

The contract parameters were all predetermined; the sticking point was with how the signing bonus would be paid. The Seahawks, like some other teams, defer portions of bigger bonuses to later dates for cash-flow purposes. Witherspoon wanted more of his bonus up front than what the team was offering.

Witherspoon has missed the first two practices of training camp but hasn't been subject to fines because he hasn't been under contract. After the first practice Wednesday, coach Pete Carroll gave brief answers to questions about Witherspoon's absence, saying he anticipated the cornerback to "be here very soon."

"I think [the odds] are pretty high, man," Cook said on NFL Network's "Good Morning Football." "I think we're in a position of, you know, a team that's building something special, and I want to be part of something special as a player. I want to add to whatever they've got going on.“

Irsay on Wednesday took aim at statements made by Pittsburgh Steelers running back Najee Harris, who said the league's top running backs were discussing, among other things, the idea of altering the way salaries of franchise-tagged players are determined so that elite backs earn more money. Irsay balked at the idea, saying "some agents are selling bad faith.”

But the ill-timed comment was made in the midst of Taylor's increasingly impatient search for a new deal, prompting an angry reply from Taylor's agent. "The comment wasn't really directed at Jonathan,” Irsay said in a phone interview with ESPN. "We haven't exchanged any contract numbers with each other or anything like that. So, it's not like we're in the midst of that. I think we had a tough season last year. Didn't win a lot of games. This is a year about coming back together and having a great year and we're really depending on Jonathan to team up with [quarterback] Anthony Richardson to try and pull together to have a great year."

Taylor — who led the NFL in rushing with 1,811 yards in 2021 — is scheduled to earn $4.304 million this season. That ranks 18th among running back salaries in 2023. Taylor, who Tuesday was placed on the physically unable to perform list after offseason ankle surgery, has not commented since making his displeasure known last month. His agent, Malki Kawa, declined comment Thursday but spoke to Taylor's frustrations by replying to Irsay's tweet, "Bad faith is not paying your top offensive player." And Thursday, in a reply to a tweet about the possibility of mending the relationship between Taylor and the Colts, Kawa simply wrote, "I doubt it."

Ramsey was injured toward the end of Thursday's practice and was carted back to the locker room after practice concluded. An MRI on Thursday evening revealed damage to his meniscus. McDaniel said the timeline for Ramsey's return is undetermined, but the beginning of the regular season is not a realistic target.

"The length of this rehabilitation is kind of dictated on a couple things that could occur in the surgery," McDaniel said. "So the exact timeline is a little too big to be determined. What I can tell you is I don't think the beginning of the regular season is really part of the scenario. It's going to be into the season, and how deep that is depends on what happens today.

A source told ESPN's Adam Schefter on Thursday that Ramsey could miss "a few months," depending on how the surgery goes.

Barkley signed an adjusted franchise tag and reported with the rest of his teammates Tuesday. It was a one-year deal for $10.1 million with close to an additional $1 million in available incentives, sources told ESPN. It also included a $2 million up-front signing bonus. It was not the long-term deal he wanted. The Pro Bowl running back, who finished fourth in rushing with 1,312 yards last season, did not miss a single day of training camp, but he also did not get the Giants to agree to a "no tag" clause for next year. It's conceivable the two sides will be in the same position next year. This is among the reasons Barkley isn't ecstatic about the final result, even though both parties are happy he's with the team in camp.

The deal comes a day before the Bolts open training camp and keeps Herbert, 25, under contract in L.A. through the 2029 season. It includes a no-trade clause, $133.7 million in full guarantees and $193.7 million in injury guarantees.

Herbert becomes the third quarterback this year to agree to a blockbuster extension following new deals between the Philadelphia Eagles and Jalen Hurts (five years, $255 million) and the Baltimore Ravens and Lamar Jackson (five years, $260 million).

Diggs is guaranteed $42.3 million.