East Notes: Drake, DRC, Revis

The Dolphins will treat rookie running back Kenyan Drake as the starter this week in place of the injured Arian Foster, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL.com. Rapoport, though, passes along more interesting news regarding Miami’s running back corps and head coach Adam Gase‘s attempts to instill discipline in his new club.

After Gase’s highly-publicized decision to leave Jay Ajayi off the team’s travel list prior to the Dolphins’ regular season opener in Seattle, there was another incident involving the team’s running backs the following week. Both Isaiah Pead and Damien Williams missed a meeting in advance of Miami’s Week 2 matchup against New England, which is why both were inactive for that contest. Drake, it appears, is the only back on the 53-man roster who is both healthy and has not had a lapse in maturity over the past several weeks.

As Rapoport notes, time will tell if more “messages” are necessary or if the Dolphins will begin to fall in line with Gase’s vision.

Now for more from the league’s east divisions:

  • Despite his team-friendly deal and his still considerable abilities, Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie is clearly not in the Giants‘ long-term plans, James Kratch of NJ.com writes. Janoris Jenkins and Eli Apple are entrenched as the team’s top two corners, and it would make no sense for New York to pay $6.5MM for a 30-year-old slot corner after this season (especially when the team could recoup the full $6.5MM by cutting DRC). But there are plenty of cornerback-needy teams for whom Rodgers-Cromartie would represent a significant upgrade, so Kratch opines that the Giants should look to trade DRC prior to this year’s deadline, and if that fails, then the team should release him before free agency begins next year.
  • Rich Cimini of ESPN.com believes the Jets and cornerback Darrelle Revis are set for a “contract staredown” after the season. Revis is scheduled to earn $15MM in 2017, including a non-guaranteed roster bonus of $2MM, which is due to be paid on the second day of the 2017 league year in March. Of course, if Revis begins to recapture his prior level of play, his contract may not be as much of an issue, but if he continues to struggle, the team will probably ask him to renegotiate, which Revis has never shown any inclination to do. As Cimini notes, the roster bonus puts a deadline on what could become one of the bigger storylines of the offseason.
  • Eagles head coach Doug Pederson expects Dorial Green-Beckham‘s role to increase as DGB continues to learn the offense and get healthy, as Jimmy Kempski of PhillyVoice.com writes. Through the first two games, Green-Beckham has had just six passes thrown his way, though Pederson says DGB was the primary target on several plays in the team’s Week 2 win over Chicago, but the defense dictated that the play go elsewhere.
  • If Eagles right tackle Lane Johnson is in fact suspended for PED use–his hearing is set for October 4–Marc Narducci of The Philadelphia Inquirer writes that the team will move left guard Allen Barbre to right tackle and promote Stefen Wisniewski to the starting lineup to take Barbre’s place.
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