The league’s Competition Committee has talked about expanding team rosters from 53 players to 55 during its annual pre-league meeting, according to a ProFootballTalk source. MORE: Top 25 free agents for 2015 | Murray on the move? | Lynch talks Super Bowl ending Argument against expanding the roster comes from the struggle for many teams to remain below its salary cap, and the fact its employees will be paid less....

The committee will discuss the proper inflation of footballs and the protocol with which the footballs are handled, as long as the league’s Deflate-gate investigation has been completed. Fisher said they will have their annual meeting with Wilson to discuss the footballs. MORE: Latest on NFL’s Deflate-gate investigation | Change coming? Another hot-button topic will be the so-called “Calvin Johnson rule,” as it applied to Dez Bryant’s non-catch catch against Green Bay in the playoffs....

“What kind of hurts him is all the other crimes related to NFL players, the domestic violence and the assaults,” says Michael DelSignore, a defense attorney in Fall River, Mass., where jury selection for Hernandez’s trial in the 2013 death of Odin Lloyd began Friday. MORE: Disgraced athletes | Images of Hernandez investigation “The idea of (potential jurors) idolizing the players has gone down a few notches,” continued DelSignore, who has analyzed Hernandez’s cases in Sporting News and has blogged about them....

The NFL did no one a favor by putting two winless teams in its Thursday showcase involving the Broncos and Jets. Minnesota traveling to Houston is also another game involving teams without a win, but don’t count out the Texans as they are the most recent team to make the playoffs after starting 0-3. MORE: Watch NFL games live with fuboTV (7-day free trial) The biggest risers in Sporting News’ latest NFL Power Rankings include Detroit and Carolina....

At this point in the year, teams are beginning to separate themselves between playoff contenders and pretenders. Week 8 features a number of matchups that could go down as a trap games. The Seahawks are on the road in Atlanta to take on the Falcons, the Saints host the Cardinals, the Colts take on the Broncos and the Patriots battle the Browns. This week’s slate also features another international game as the Bengals and Rams play in London at Wembley Stadium....

Both teams are coming off a loss in Week 2, with Tennessee losing 19-17 at home to Indianapolis, while Jacksonville fell 13-12 on the road against the Houston Texans. Despite a second consecutive defeat, the Jaguars found some reasons to be optimistic, in the shape of Gardner Minshew. In his first start since replacing the injured Blake Bortles in Week 1, the rookie quarterback passed for 213 yards and a touchdown to finish with 97....

According to a report by ESPN, the league has contacted members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee to lobby against a hearing requested by U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J. The hearing is expected to be granted, according to ESPN. It reported that “multiple sources” said the league has been in contact with committee members. MORE: How DFS ruined one man’s life | Insider trading shakes industry’s foundation Pallone requested the hearing in mid-September to review the legal status of daily fantasy sports and sports betting, and to examine the relationship between professional sports and fantasy sports, specifically daily fantasy sports....

WEEK 14 RANKINGS: QB | RB | WR | TE | DEF | K Danger! QB Philip Rivers, Chargers (Ranked No. 10 at position) vs. Patriots: I want to envision a game script that has Rivers and Tom Brady throwing punches back and forth, but can’t ignore how well New England’s pass defense has performed in holding Peyton Manning, Andrew Luck and Matthew Stafford well below their season averages....

Lines listed are the Las Vegas consensus as of Tuesday at 10:30 a.m. ET , with early moves and numbers from various shops noted below each game. Visit our live odds page for current lines and totals from around Vegas. Thursday, September 25 Giants at Redskins -3.5, 45 Washington opened -5 at several Vegas books, but bettors jumped on the Giants at that number, and the line has settled at 3....

In Week 4, the NFL was forced to postpone the game between the Tennessee Titans and the Pittsburgh Steelers after several members of the Titans organization tested positive for COVID-19, while the matchup between the New England Patriots trip and the Kansas City Chiefs was postponed from Sunday afternoon to Monday night after Patriots quarterback Cam Newton tested positive. In separate memos this week, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and NFL chief medical officer Dr....

Before we get into the Week 7 forecasts, here’s a reminder that if you have any questions about sports weather or how weather could impact play (and, potentially, your fantasy, DFS, and gambling decisions), don’t hesitate to reach out to Rotogrinders’ meteorologist Kevin Roth on Twitter (@KevinRothWx) or check out the hourly NFL weather forecasts on RotoGrinders. To take your game to the next level, subscribe to RotoGrinder’s exclusive WeatherEdge tool and see how different weather conditions have impacted historical scoring....

Taunting calls are up 220 percent in the first four games of 2016 as opposed to last season, according to ESPN.com. MORE: Brandon Marshall wants more Antonio Brown twerking Other unsportsmanlike penalties, such as celebration dances, are up 56 percent. “We certainly want the teams to have clarification,” Blandino said on NFL Total Access, “and this isn’t a new issue. We’ve been dealing with this in the past. And so we’re going to send a tape out in the next week or so and clarify some of these things....

According to NFL Media’s Albert Breer, the league will research ways to add cameras to its replay system, starting next week. MORE: Latest mock draft | Washington looking at Mariota? | Clowney recovering well In case you missed it, Belichick sent a proposal to the NFL to add extra cameras for more angles. The Patriots coach said he wants cameras positioned on the sidelines, end lines and goal lines. He submitted a similar proposal last year and had it rejected....

Jarrett Stidham enjoyed a solid starting debut with the Raiders and Las Vegas found a way to beat up a vaunted 49ers defense. The Raiders kept it close and forced overtime before a critical Tashaun Gipson interception ended their upset bid. As good as the game was, it also served as a point of frustration for many NFL fans across the country. Why? Because they couldn’t see its ending....

The sides reached agreement on adjusting the salary cap following a loss of revenue as well as guidelines for players who choose to opt out of playing this season due to the coronavirus pandemic. There are also parameters established on how to handle guaranteed salaries in the event the league does not play a full season. “Our NFLPA Board of Representatives voted to adopt, by a count of 29-3, the proposed amendments to the 2020 Collective Bargaining Agreement to protect our players’ health, safety and financial wellbeing,” the NFLPA said in a statement....

Vegas odds project several games tonight with an over/under of six, but be careful about always trusting Vegas. Several seemingly favorable matchups between top-six teams and lower-tier teams didn’t meet expectations on Sunday and Monday. Tuesday night won’t necessarily be about “stars and scrubs”; rather, how a player maximizes value with spending. MORE: SN DFS | DFS Lineup Builder Because of the volatile nature of goalies (and other reasons), there will be more information on social media coming closer to roster lock....

We finally got the answer to the seemingly neverending Jack Hughes vs. Kaapo Kakko debate when the New Jersey Devils made Hughes the No. 1 overall pick in Vancouver Friday night. All the talk heading into the draft had been about which of the two teenage superstars would get chosen first overall, but the reality is that the Devils and New York Rangers — who took Kaako second — each gained a consensus franchise player....

Boston on Tuesday signed restricted free-agent center Danton Heinen to a two-year contract with an average annual value (AAV) of $2.8 million. Heinen was the only Bruins restricted free agent to file for arbitration this offseason. His hearing was scheduled for Aug. 3. NHL FREE AGENCY: Complete list of all 31 teams’ UFA, RFA players Heinen, 24, took the ice for 77 games in his second NHL season and finished with 34 points (11 goals, 23 assists) and a plus-13 rating....

Every team has a list of players it wants to keep and is prepared to make an offer to do so. Many of the top teams from the 2018-19 season, including the newest Stanley Cup champion, have plenty of large contracts to address as they try to recreate their success. The St. Louis Blues have 12 roster players with expiring contracts, including Jordan Binnington, Pat Maroon, Ivan Barbashev, Oskar Sundqvist, Sammy Blais and Carl Gunnarsson, and are projected to have just $17....