Redskins to sign QB Sanchez
NFL will play a game in Mexico City next season
Coach Jay Gruden says the Washington Redskins are signing quarterback Mark Sanchez to back up Colt McCoy after Alex Smith’s season-ending injury.
McCoy will start for the Redskins (6-4) Thursday at the Dallas Cowboys (5-5) in a game that could go a long way to determining which team wins the NFC East. Sanchez knows offensive coordinator Matt Cavanaugh from their time together with the New York Jets.
Gruden said Monday that Sanchez was the pick to sign over Kellen Clemens, Josh Johnson, T.J. Yates and EJ Manuel because of his experience and success in the NFL. All five worked out at the team’s facility Monday.
Smith underwent surgery Sunday night to repair a broken right tibia and fibula. Gruden says surgery went well, he didn’t believe there was any ligament damage and hopes Smith can make a full recovery in six to eight months.
COWBOYS: Rookie receiver Michael Gallup is away from the team after being told following a victory in Atlanta that his brother had died by suicide.
Coach Jason Garrett said on his radio show Monday that Gallup received the news after the Cowboys’ 22-19 victory over the Falcons. Gallup didn’t return to Dallas with the team, instead staying in his native Georgia with his family. His status for Thursday’s game against Washington is unknown.
Gallup’s only catch was a 10-yarder for a third-down conversion early in the winning drive. Brett Maher kicked a field goal as time expired.
Gallup was the first receiver drafted by the Cowboys after they released franchise touchdown catch leader Dez Bryant in the offseason. A thirdround pick out of Colorado State, Gallup has 16 catches for 285 yards and a touchdown. MEXICO: The NFL will return to Mexico City with a regular-season game next year.
Less than a week after the league moved the high-profile Chiefs-Rams matchup from Azteca Stadium to Los Angeles because of the poor playing condition at the Mexico venue, the NFL and Mexico’s president-elect confirmed the 2019 game. It will be the third match of a contract signed in 2016.
The date of the game and participating teams won’t be known until the NFL’s 2019 schedule is released in the spring.
RAIDERS: Derek Carr missed Jalen Richard on a third-down pass in the second quarter and immediately heard all about it from coach Jon Gruden as he walked to the Oakland sideline.
Carr was caught on television yelling right back at his coach in an exchange that repeated itself again in the fourth quarter and prompted many outsiders to point to it as a symbol of how bad things have gotten in this lost season for the Raiders.
To Carr and Gruden, it’s just a regular occurrence between two passionate people that just happened to be caught on camera during a 23-21 win for Oakland (2-8) over Arizona on Sunday.
“I don’t have a ‘no yelling’ sign on the sideline,” Gruden said Monday. “Things happen. We get excited down there. I get excited when we get a first down. Get excited when you work on something all week and it doesn’t work out. I get excited when he makes big plays, too. That’s just part of football. I think cameras can catch things sometimes that maybe make things look a little bit peculiar, but that happens.”
The first run-in between Carr and Gruden happened late in the second quarter when the Raiders went threeand-out after the missed throw down the sideline to Richard.
TITANS: Marcus Mariota is recovering from a stinger that knocked him out of the 38-10 loss to the Colts, not the elbow injury announced during the game. Coach Mike Vrabel said all tests were positive on defensive coordinator Dean Pees, who returned to Nashville on Monday. Pees spent a night in an Indianapolis hospital after an issue forced him from the coaches’ box early in the game.
Vrabel also said he is hopeful Mariota will play when the Titans visit Houston on Nov. 26 and Pees also will return to work.
BILLS: Buffalo quarterback Josh Allen will make his return to the starting lineup this week against the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Coach Sean McDermott made the announcement on Monday. Allen missed four games after suffering an elbow injury in Buffalo’s Week 6 loss to the Houston Texans. He returned to the practice field before the team’s Week 11 bye but didn’t play in Week 10 against the New York Jets.