Welcome to the Dog Days of the NFL

Sigh…

It’s finally here. 

The Super Bowl is in the rear-view mirror (unless you live in Philly), every big name free agent now has a home (sorry/not sorry, Dez), the Combine is in the past, the NFL Draft hype has faded away, the rookies have their numbers… and here we are. 

Patiently waiting for anything exciting in to happen in the NFL… and it sucks.

We’ve officially entered the Dog Days of the NFL calendar where literally nothing exciting is going to happen in the immediate future. Sure the rookies still have deals to sign, but with the slot system in place, there’s really nothing worth keeping an eye on, barring a Joey Bosa-type holdout (which still, isn’t that exciting). Hell, it’s so easy to figure out deals for the rookies these days, that the Ravens have already signed eight of their 12 draft picks, with the top guys (Hayden Hurst, Lamar Jackson, Orlando Brown Jr. & Mark Andrews) the remaining unsigned players.

*PSSSSST! They’ll sign soon enough!*

Then there’s the remaining free agents looking for homes, including such big names as Antonio Gates, Eric Decker, NaVorro Bowman, Adrian Peterson, Dez Bryant, Karlos Dansby, Brandon Marshall, DeMarco Murray… 

If it were 2010, this would be a helluva group!

Unfortunately, the vast majority of available free agents are special teamers, fliers, fringe guys, and over-the-hill-has-beens. On occasion, we’ll see a big name hit free agency via cut, but it’ll likely be due to drugs, arrests, drug related-arrests, etc. (waiting on you, Robbie Anderson!), but other than social media outrage, it’s not something we should be excited about (heathens).

As a matter of fact, I’m not sure anything good can happen during the Dog Days of the NFL; by my count, there’s only (3) things that will, without a doubt, happen in the next 2-ish months:

-Arrests

-Suspensions

-Injuries

None of which are ideal by any means, and on the rare occasion, you get the trifecta where a player gets injured while running from the cops during an arrest, followed by a suspension by the NFL for the incident. We’ve yet to see it here in Baltimore (wouldn’t shock me in Cincy), but the closest thing we’ve had to the trifecta was Kenneth Dixon last offseason, who got suspended four games for PEDs, then got injured and ended up missing the entire season.

So, I guess a bi-fecta? 

Indeed, the coming months of the NFL calendar will drag on, but let’s be optimistic!

At least we have the Orioles to keep us entertained during these Dog Days of the NFL!