The Jacksonville Jaguars announced Tuesday in a statement that head coach Gus Bradley will be retained for next season.
Jaguars owner Shad Khan confirmed that Bradley will be back for a fourth season but that the expectations with be higher in 2016.
Bradley has a 12-35 in three seasons with the Jaguars, who are 5-10 this season going into their final game on Sunday against the Houston Texans.
—Cincinnati Bengals quarterback AJ McCarron has a sprained left wrist, tests revealed.
Andy Dalton, who started the first 13 games of the 2015 season, is unavailable because of a fractured right thumb. It’s possible Dalton won’t be ready to play for three weeks.
McCarron jammed his left wrist battling Denver Broncos pass rusher DeMarcus Ware for a fumble on the final play of Monday’s loss. NFL Network reported Tuesday McCarron would be ready for Sunday’s game against the Baltimore Ravens.
—Deborah Davies offered a clarification on NBC’s “Today” that Al Jazeera did not make a claim of human growth hormone use by Peyton Manning.
“We have not said that in the program,” said Davies, the reporter central to the story that set off a threat from Manning to sue the company. “The only allegation in the program from Charlie Sly is that growth hormone was sent repeatedly from the Guyer (Institute) to Ashley Manning in Florida. We’re not making the allegation against Peyton Manning.”
In the interview televised Tuesday, Davies said she did not have evidence Peyton Manning used HGH. She added that Al Jazeera’s intent wasn’t to make that claim. Ashley Manning was confirmed as a patient at the clinic, and HGH can be prescribed in fertility treatment. The Mannings had twins the year she is alleged to have received HGH.
—There could be more trouble brewing in Cleveland for Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel.
Head coach Mike Pettine said he is aware of a 10-second clip posted to Instagram on Christmas Eve that shows Manziel rapping while holding what appears to be a can of alcoholic beverage. Earlier this season, a video of him partying got him demoted from starter to third string.
The latest video first appeared on the Yeti Campus Stories app over the weekend and was transferred to Instagram. BustedCoverage.com later picked up the video, and its circulation became rampant. Manziel appears to be gripping a 23.5-ounce can of black cherry Four Loko, a malt beverage. Manziel, 23, spent more than 10 weeks this past offseason in an inpatient rehabilitation facility specializing in alcohol and drug addiction treatment.
—A Missouri task force submitted a St. Louis stadium proposal to the NFL on Tuesday, one day before the league deadline in an attempt to keep the Rams from moving to Los Angeles.
The state wants to keep the franchise from moving or, if Rams owner Stan Kroenke does end up taking the franchise to Los Angeles, to attract a new team with a proposed billion-dollar stadium along the Mississippi River. The St. Louis funding proposal includes $150 million from the city, $300 million from the NFL, $250 million from Kroenke and $160 million in fan seat licenses. State tax credits or bonds would make up the remainder of the money needed to build the stadium.
The Rams, Oakland Raiders and San Diego Chargers are bidding to relocate to the LA area. League owners are to meet Jan. 12-13 to consider the contenders.
–The Indianapolis Colts, faced with mounting injuries at quarterback, signed free agents Josh Freeman and Ryan Lindley.
The Colts also promoted inside linebacker Amarlo Herrera to the 53-man roster from the practice squad, signed guard Kitt O’Brien to the practice squad and placed inside linebacker Josh McNary on injured reserve.
Veteran quarterback Matt Hasselbeck has a right shoulder injury that could keep him out of Sunday’s game against the Tennessee Titans, Charlie Whitehurst (hamstring) was placed on injuried reserve getting hurt in Sunday’s win over the Miami Dolphins and Andrew Luck (kidney, abdomen) remains doubtful to play.
—Carolina Panthers leading rusher Jonathan Stewart plans to practice Wednesday and could return to the lineup for the regular-season finale on Sunday.
Stewart said he would take the decision a day at a time. Last week,coach Ron Rivera said that Stewart has made progress but not enough to play in Sunday’s game against the Atlanta Falcons, the first loss of the season for the Panthers.
Carolina has used Cameron Artis-Payne, Fozzy Whittaker and Mike Tolbert to make up for the loss of Stewart, who is 11 yards from his second career 1,000-yard season.
—The Cowboys are closer than you think, that’s the estimation of owner Jerry Jones.
“The bottom line is that I can make you a strong case where you should line them up and go again with your hand,” Jones said on 105.3 The Fan in Dallas. “But under any circumstances, you have to do what you have to do. … And so just change for change sake? No, you’re not going to have that because I believe that we’re closer than this record indicates.”
The record, 4-11, puts Dallas closer to the No. 1 overall draft pick than the playoff picture, even in the lowly NFC East. The Cowboys finish the regular season Sunday against the division champion Washington Redskins. Washington is expected to rest its starters for at least part of the game with no playoff position to be gained before the postseason kicks off Jan. 9.
—Redskins coach Jay Gruden doesn’t want his team running scared in the regular-season finale against the Cowboys.
With 12 players expected to make the 53-man roster lost to injury during the 2015 season, Gruden also doesn’t want the NFC East champions limping into the playoffs. Gruden isn’t playing his hand yet but admitted there is value in resting players if it can be done without sacrificing positive momentum.
“The guys that play, they have every intent of trying to win this football game,” Gruden said. “It’s a big game for us to keep our momentum, but we also have to be smart about the guys that are a little bit (hurt) and get them well for the playoffs.”
—Coach Bill O’Brien expects to have Brian Hoyer available for the regular-season finale after the Houston Texans quarterback missed two games recovering from a head injury.
Hoyer is in the final stage of the NFL concussion protocol and is expected to be medically cleared as soon as Wednesday. If that happens, then Hoyer would get the start over Brandon Weeden.
Weeden won the past two games, including Sunday over the Tennessee Titans to break an individual 11-game losing streak as a starter.