Washington has made a quarterback change: Kirk Cousins will be the starter this season, not Robert Griffin III.
"We feel like at this time, Kirk Cousins gives us the best chance to win," coach Jay Gruden said, unseating Griffin, the 2012 Offensive Rookie of the Year. "It's Kirk's team."
Griffin, who has struggled since tearing his right ACL and MCL in a January 2013 playoff loss to Seattle, was scheduled to start last Saturday's preseason game at Baltimore before being scratched the previous day in the wake of a concussion suffered on Aug. 20 against Detroit.
Griffin participated in noncontact drills on Monday but remains in the NFL's concussion protocol and won't play in Thursday's preseason finale against Jacksonville. Cousins is expected to sit out that night with Colt McCoy playing the entire game.
Cousins, taken in the fourth round in the same draft that Griffin was chosen No. 2 overall, took over and led Washington's starting offense to its first two touchdowns of the preseason. Those two drives seem to have clinched the starting job for Cousins.
Deflategate talks fail
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady attended last-minute settlement talks between the NFL and its players union Monday in New York before a judge announced he would decide the dispute over deflated footballs with a ruling in a day or two.
Everyone involved "tried quite hard" to reach a deal in the controversy that has hung over professional football since New England easily won the AFC title game in January, U.S. District Judge Richard Berman said in federal court in Manhattan.
Absent a compromise, Berman will have to either affirm or throw out Goodell's decision in July to uphold a four-game suspension of Brady. The NFL concluded the quarterback colluded with two Patriots ball handlers to deflate footballs to gain an edge in a 45-7 victory over the Colts.
Around the league
Bills • Buffalo is turning its offense over to quarterback Tyrod Taylor, coach Rex Ryan announced. Taylor beat out former Bills starter and 2013 first-round draft pick EJ Manuel, and Matt Cassel, a 10-year journeyman who was acquired in an offseason trade with Minnesota. Taylor signed a three-year contact with Buffalo in free agency this offseason after spending his first four years as Joe Flacco's backup in Baltimore. He was the Ravens' sixth-round pick out of Virginia Tech in 2011.
Also Monday, the Bills released veteran running back and respected team leader Fred Jackson. Buffalo acquired LeSean McCoy in an offseason trade with Philadelphia to take over the No. 1 spot, and also selected hard-hitting rusher Karlos Williams in the draft.
Jaguars • Tight end Julius Thomas could miss multiple games to start the regular season. General manager Dave Caldwell said that Thomas will get a second opinion on his injured right hand, and if he needs surgery, he would be sidelined another four weeks. Thomas, who signed a five-year, $46 million contract in free agency, broke a bone in the back of his hand in the preseason opener against Pittsburgh.
Broncos • Denver traded sixth-year tackle Chris Clark to Houston for a 2016 seventh-round draft pick. Clark, who started at left tackle in the Broncos' Super Bowl run in 2013, was supplanted at right tackle early this camp by Ryan Harris.
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