Ben Tate of the Cleveland Browns and Legarrette Blount of the Steelers have both received walking papers. For what you ask? Poor production? Criminal charges? Contract disputes?

The answer is no to all three questions. The two backs were cut simply for publicly criticizing their lack of playing time. Wow. Between that and the NFL’s arguably best runner getting banned for a child abuse charge he already lost 11 games over the fate of the RB position is pretty much sealed. The NFL can find a guy working at Dunkin Donuts to tote the rock, they don’t need ya.

This is probably the reason you hear whispers of many agents urging their running back clients to switch to linebacker in college. I can’t blame them either. If I had the choice between a flighty career as a RB or being a career backup LB I don’t think it’s a difficult decision at all.

In case you did not hear yet, Georgia RB Todd Gurley is done for the year with a torn ACL. This is sad considering the NCAA took much of this season away from him due to being connected with a memorabilia seller. Hate to see the young man go out like this.

Confirmed ACL tear for Todd Gurley. Terrible news. Was in my top 10 overall.

— Matt Miller (@nfldraftscout) November 16, 2014

Six months isn’t enough time for him to heal fully but I do expect him to be able to compete in the combine in some fashion. We’ll keep an eye on this as it develops.

Now Winston is in another deal, something to do with hundreds of pieces of authenticated signed memorabilia hitting the market. Just a week prior Georgia’s Todd Gurley II was suspended indefinitely for the same thing.

My tune on this hasn’t changed. During the Johnny Manziel fiasco I issued these words regarding players getting paid off their image:

The problem here is that it isn’t illegal for a college athlete to sign his autograph and the next person to sell it- it’s just illegal for the athlete to get any kind of financial kickback from the deal.

… it is going to be downright impossible to prove that Johnny got a little “something something” on the side without someone snitching.

All in all, this looks like much ado about nothing. Let young Johnny live.

Again, I don’t have a problem with these young men signing autographs and people selling it. I don’t even REALLY have a problem with them getting paid. With what we know about brain injuries, I’m pretty sure that a meal plan and a dorm room is not proper compensation for what these athletes give up in return for their service.

Let’s throw out the whole “student athlete” debate because we all know these young men are signed to scholarships for their athletic prowess, not their academic. Not that there is a problem with them wanting to take school serious, but reality is the NCAA is a two year minor league for the NFL at this point nothing more nothing less.

In the end this won’t hurt Gurley’s stock. This is the first major thing he messed up with. In Jameis’ case it is another ledger on a long list of red flags regarding his character. I believe more than half of the teams in the NFL will take Jameis completely off their draft boards, but ultimately someone will call his name. We’ll just wait and see who…