NFL Training Camps: Updates, Rumors and Analysis for Aug. 2

It's great to have football sort of back. Nothing says mid-summer quite like many days of hoping no one on your favorite football team tears or breaks anything.

There will be days when that white-knuckle ride goes off the rails for some teams. And Tuesday seemed to be a day with a lot of cringing and wincing.

The day began with the Los Angeles Rams losing a key defensive tackle when Dominique Easley went down. The hits kept coming when the New York Giants and Houston Texans—two contending teams in their respective divisions—took critical hits to their wide receiver depth charts.

Tackle Riley Reiff has missed six straight practices for the Minnesota Vikings, and there's still no definitive timetable for when the Indianapolis Colts will have quarterback Andrew Luck under center.

So today's training camp notes will mostly be a damage report. We begin with the Baltimore Ravens, where the stubborn refusal to reinforce the most important area of the roster is still baffling.

Harbaugh and Newsome Support Signing Kaepernick, Bisciotti Reportedly Resisting

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An NFL team might toss aside a chance to improve its roster because a player dared to take a stand on a social issue. He did so silently, harming no one and breaking no laws.

That's where we're at now with Colin Kaepernick and his ongoing unemployment that goes against the goal of winning football games.

The Baltimore Ravens have a clear need at the most important position in football. Even if they expect starting quarterback Joe Flacco to return quickly, a back injury is delicate and could be aggravated again.

His absence so far during training camp has highlighted the urgency to improve the depth chart behind him. Ryan Mallett, the Ravens' current backup, is a scattershooting mess and has been his entire career. He threw five interceptions during a recent practice and has a career per-attempt passing average of 5.4 yards.

If the Ravens enter the season with Mallett as their backup quarterback after seriously flirting with the idea of signing Colin Kaepernick, they're not doing everything in their power to field the best roster possible and maximize talent at every position.

Often throughout the summer of Kaepernick, it's been said that teams were making football decisions to pass on signing him as lesser quarterbacks found employment. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell was the most recent prominent league figure to say that, telling Luke Jones of WNST that teams are making "individual evaluations."

The Ravens have made their football decision and completed their individual evaluation. Head coach John Harbaugh and general manager Ozzie Newsome—the two men with the most say in all football matters—support signing Kaepernick, according to a report from ESPN's Dianna Russini. But they're meeting resistance from owner Steve Bisciotti, again per Russini, which Newsome later refuted in a statement from the team.

It's difficult to know who to believe, especially after Bisciotti said just days ago he's weighing fan input, which hints strongly at the team being concerned about optics.

Hopefully, this decision is only about improving a football team and not about fans rebelling against a worldview that doesn't reflect their own.

Colts Stand Firm and Insist Andrew Luck Will Be Ready for Week 1

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The Indianapolis Colts would be more than just up a creek without a paddle if quarterback Andrew Luck were to miss significant regular-season action.

They would careen down multiple cliffs, then get rescued only to have the ambulance smack right into a tree.

Luck is still recovering from shoulder surgery and hasn't practiced yet during training camp. Scott Tolzien is the Colts' second-string quarterback, and he has a career passer rating of 66.4.

The Colts will flounder without Luck. But it's still unclear how long they'll have to face life without him or if those dark quarterback times will extend into the regular season at all.

That lack of certainty is scary in early August, with the first week of preseason games fast approaching. In his report Tuesday, Jason La Canfora of CBSSports.com wrote that he's heard "plenty of rumblings" about Luck starting the season on the physically unable to perform list. That's an automatic absence of six games, which would be crushing for a team desperate to re-establish itself after two straight 8-8 seasons.

A lack of activity makes such a fate believable and brings to mind the reason why Luck is on the Colts roster to begin with. In 2011, there was hope Peyton Manning could play right up until early September, when the Colts ruled him out for the season opener. Indianapolis then lost all but two games, and the Luck era began when they secured the top pick in the 2012 draft.

But the Colts front office is fighting back the whispers of doom from La Canfora's report. General manager Chris Ballard told George Bremer of the Herald Bulletin that his statement from a week ago still stands. The team expects Luck to come off the preseason PUP list sometime in August and be ready for Week 1.

What's concerning is that no one can give even a vague timeline for when Luck might triumphantly return. That includes Luck himself.

"I will be better than I was coming into this," he said Saturday, via La Canfora. "I'll be better coming out of it. I know that. I don't know what day it's going to be. I don't know what week. I don't know when it's going to be, but I definitely will be."

So for now, the Colts will keep waiting, hoping and guessing.

Sterling Shepard Carted Off Practice Field

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Seeing the practice injury cart immediately leads to fears of the worst possible outcome. And that was the case when New York Giants wide receiver Sterling Shepard was helped off the field Wednesday.

The initial report about Shepard's injury came from Jordan Raanan of ESPN.com, and it was ominous.

"Sterling Shepard was looked at on [the] sideline," Raanan tweeted with an accompanying picture of the second-year receiver on a cart. "He's in serious pain. Taken off on [a] cart. Apparently in tears. Not good."

Those last four details from Raanan's tweet surely felt like stiff right hooks to Giants fans.

Shepard had a strong rookie season in 2016. He finished with 683 receiving yards and eight touchdowns. He especially surged in the second half and scored during six of the Giants' final eight games.

The 23-year-old is expected to be a key contributor among the stable of quality wide receivers assembled for quarterback Eli Manning. And his absence would still sting, even with Brandon Marshall alongside Odell Beckham Jr. now.

But everything sounds like it'll be just fine, and Shepard could miss only some training camp and preseason.

Per NFL Network's Mike Garafolo, evaluations confirmed Shepard has a low-ankle sprain.

It's the best possible scenario for an injury that looked scary at first.

Will Fuller Breaks Collarbone, Out 2-3 Months

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Houston Texans wide receiver Will Fuller V had a wildly inconsistent rookie season in 2016. He recorded 211 receiving yards on only nine catches over the first two weeks, then just 424 yards throughout the remainder of the season.

He went through the standard first-year peaks and valleys that greet many rookies. Still, his flashes of talent were blinding and lead to the hope that with better quarterback play, Fuller could take a second-year leap.

That might still happen, but not for a while after he broke his collarbone in practice Wednesday. The injury is a blow to both Fuller's development and the Texans' wide receiver depth.

It was first reported by ESPN.com's Sarah Barshop, who noted that Fuller elevated to corral a high throw and then fell awkwardly on his side.

The only source of positivity lies in the timing. We're still in the early days of August, and the Texans don't play meaningful football for another 46 days. That means a good chunk of the two-to-three months Fuller is supposed to miss, according to the John McClain of the Houston Chronicle, will be preseason time.

On the optimistic end of that timeline, he'll return in early October. On the pessimistic side, he could miss nearly half the season. In the meantime, the combination of Braxton Miller and Jaelen Strong will provide support for DeAndre Hopkins at wide receiver. In 2016, Miller and Strong combined for just 230 receiving yards.

Forrest Lamp Also Carted Off with Right Leg Injury

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The Los Angeles Chargers spent much of 2016 nursing wounds and wondering what could have been had they stayed even remotely healthy.

They lost eight games by no more than a touchdown and went through that agony with wide receiver Keenan Allen and cornerback Jason Verrett highlighting a list that included 26 players on injured reserve to end the season.

Now that brutal luck is carrying over into 2017, with no end in sight.

Forrest Lamp went down Wednesday during practice with a right leg injury, according to Jack Wang of the Los Angeles Daily News. He suffered the injury during a zone-stretch play and needed the assistance of the dreaded cart. He was later seen walking but still favoring his right leg.

Eventually, the voodoo spell cast over the Chargers will fade away. But for now, with wide receiver Mike Williams on the PUP list, their first two picks in the 2017 draft are injured.

The Chargers were set to lean on both rookies heavily and especially Lamp after quarterback Philip Rivers was sacked 36 times in 2016. Lamp allowed only five pressures during his final season at Western Kentucky, according to Pro Football Focus.

Dominique Easley's Season-Ending Injury Is a Serious Blow to Rams' Depth

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Wednesday wasn't a good day for teams hoping to escape another training camp workout without a soul-crushing injury. Dominique Easley started the depth-chart crippling.

The Los Angeles Rams defensive tackle had began to justify his 2014 first-round draft status. He flamed out for the New England Patriots but then became a solid interior defender after joining the Rams.

In 2016, he emerged while recording career single-season highs in tackles (35) and sacks (3.5). Easley also tallied 19 defensive stops, per PFF, and did it all while in a rotational role and playing a modest 43.2 percent of the Rams' defensive snaps.

Easley is still young at 25 years old and was being counted on to keep growing in 2017 as a quality defender to help anchor the Rams defensive front. Now all those hopes have evaporated, at least for one year.

The defensive tackle tore his ACL Tuesday, as ESPN's Adam Schefter confirmed, and will miss the 2017 season. The long-term blow for Easley may be even more devastating, as his body is starting to age fast. He's now torn an ACL three times, with the first two happening back in college.

A player who was already struggling at the next level could be zapped of his power and strength. He was heading into a contract year and will likely have to settle for the standard single-year "prove it" deal, with a team buying low on his potential.

As for the Rams, a lowly pass rush that tied for 24th in 2016 with only 31 sacks has now lost a serious source of push up the middle.

Carlos Hyde Would Likely Be the 49ers' Week 1 Starting RB Right Now

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In the not-so-distant past, there were whispers about San Francisco 49ers running back Carlos Hyde being a surprise cut at the end of training camp.

The dots weren't difficult to connect, and NBC Sports Bay Area's Matt Maiocco did just that in an early July mailbag response.

"Very few players have secured their starting jobs for the upcoming season," he wrote at the time. "Carlos Hyde is not among those.

"He is entering the final year of his contract, and we all know how badly [head coach] Kyle Shanahan and running backs coach Bobby Turner wanted Joe Williams in the draft. Shanahan and Turner would not have stood on the table for Williams if they did not have a clear vision for how he fits into their offensive plan."

Hyde is a violent runner who has been effective, and he averaged 4.6 yards per carry in 2016. But his body too often can't withstand the punishment of his rumbling style. He's missed 14 games over only three NFL seasons.

But even with all that going against him and a new coaching staff wanting to install its vision, the starting running back job in San Francisco is still Hyde's to lose.

"He looks, right now, to be in good position as the team's starting running back," Maiocco noted in his latest mailbag. "Veteran Tim Hightower is also looking very good. He appears to be the team’s second-best running back.

"Hyde looks to be adapting better and better to the 49ers' run scheme. And he has also placed a lot of emphasis on catching the ball out of the backfield."

For now, Hyde is holding on to his starting job. But as always, the preseason schedule is when the competition for roster spots truly begins.