For a stretch of time late last season, it felt as though the final weeks of the season would be Paxton Lynch ‘s last stand in Denver.

He’s a special player, Bettcher said Wednesday. He’s a guy that’s going to create nightmares for any defensive coordinator, and matchup problems on any given down.

Instead, Fowler enters the final year of his rookie contract on a base salary of $3.6 million with a goal to prove himself worthy of a large payday.

I know how good of a player I am, Fowler said, via John Reid of the Florida Times-Union. I know I’m one of the best players in this league. When I go out there, I’m going to make the best of my opportunities every time. I’m working hard to have the best season of my career.

Fales finished the 2017 season with the Dolphins, playing in the regular-season finale and completing 29 of 42 passes (69 percent) for 265 yards. He’s the only contender for the No. 2 job who was on the roster last year; Osweiler and Bryce Petty joined the Dolphins in the offseason.

Still, Fales has a long way to go to become the primary backup to Ryan Tannehill.

We felt like [keeping Fales] was a good first step for us and really we wanted to see how everything played out, because between free agency and the draft, you just never know how things are going to shake out, coach Adam Gase recently said, via Jason Lieser of the Palm Beach Post. By adding Brock and then Bryce, I think it’s been a good competition.

That’s really what we’re going to be doing going into training camp. We’re just going to let those guys compete and see who wins out.

Gase made it clear that he won’t decide on a backup until August, or maybe September.

Falcons wide receiver Julio Jones made his statement by skipping the team’s mandatory minicamp, but the team remains confident he’s not going to be a malcontent.

In fact, coach Dan Quinn said he expected Jones would be quite happy by then.

Though Gelis might get the biggest title of Wednesday’s newcomers, Stefania Rizzo might have the most familiarity. She had been a rehabilitation specialist at Fortius Sport & Health. The Vancouver-based institution is where Lin had spent this season doing more than just rehabbing from his ruptured patella tendon on opening night.

Lin’s decision to rehab in Canada instead of around the Nets raised some eyebrows, but working with Fortius co-founder Rick Celebrini, the Nets point guard also retrained muscle memory and learned to run, jump and move more efficiently. Rizzo, who regularly shares Lin’s rehab updates on social media, will replace Aisley Toolan as director of performance rehabilitation.

I don’t know. I didn’t notice that, O’Brien said, via the team. I’m sure that was cleared with the proper people. I’m not the brace doctor or the brace coach.

Watson tore his ACL last November and has been doing 7-on-7 work at OTAs as he pushes to return to the lineup for the start of the regular season. Running back Lamar Miller seems to think that’s a likely outcome as he said, via Sarah Barshop of ESPN.com, that he doesn’t really notice any issues with his knee, other than his coaches holding him back from certain drills.

That will likely remain the case as minicamp wraps up, but it sounds like it won’t be a surprise if Watson’s doing just about everything come the start of training camp.

Daniel Liburd, replacing Meehan as head strength and conditioning coach, has an NFL background. He was the Steelers’ assistant strength and conditioning coach after nine seasons in the same capacity with the Bills.

Wade Phillips stands in the middle of the Los Angeles Rams’ practice field, turning slowly to watch a group of defensive linemen going through drills near one end zone.

Phillips turns, shifting his gaze to the linebackers, near midfield, working on force fumble drill, and finally to the defensive backs, who are practicing catching interceptions by the far sideline.

Phillips, the Rams’ 70-year-old defensive coordinator, raises his right arm in the air and spins his right finger. Rotate! Phillips yells, then animatedly claps his hands as players trot past him.

You have no choice but to respect what he brings to the table, safety Lamarcus Joyner told USA TODAY Sports. He respects you. This isn’t daycare to him. He’s not trying to treat you like you need any special attention. He sets the platform of trust, and gives you the accountability to be able to trust you, and players, we hone in on stuff like that. We respect the fact that he respects us as human beings and as people.

So that begged the question when the precocious rookie stepped to the microphone following Wednesday’s minicamp practice: does Barkley remember any passes he has dropped upon taking the field after being drafted by the Giants seven weeks ago?

The honesty with which he responded was not the most impressive part of his answer.

The fact that Barkley was able to break down exactly what he did wrong on the play that featured his only drop as a professional to this point is just another facet to his quest for perfection.

An angle route out of the backfield.

Didn’t anticipate the defender and turned up the field without completing the catch.

Learn from it. Don’t let it happen again.

NFL teams are built by accruing young talent and letting it blossom. They benefit from cost-controlled rookie contracts and from knowing who they can include in their future plans.

Here, we’re looking at all 32 franchises and who their promising building blocks. To define these players, we made sure they were 1) rookie-contract players, 2) 25 years old or younger and 3) have a chance to start in Week 1.

Last year, Grady Jarrett posted 23 tackles at or behind the line for the Atlanta Falcons. That number ranked fourth among interior defensive linemen, behind just Cameron Heyward, Ndamukong Suh and Kawann Short, all nationally recognized talents.

Nationals right fielder Bryce Harper left the game in the top of the eighth inning when he was hit by a pitch from Yankees reliever Dellin Betances. Betances threw an 0-2 curveball that hit Harper near the big toe on his left foot. Harper went about halfway up the first-base line before retreating to the dugout and exiting.

Harper was hit by two pitches on Tuesday. He also took a fastball off the right elbow during the top of the fifth inning from Yankees starter CC Sabathia. Harper doubled over in pain outside of the batter’s box before walking with a trainer to first base. Harper finished his third career game at Yankee Stadium 0-for-0 with two walks and two HBPs.

Tuesday marked the start of just the second series for Harper at Yankee Stadium during his career. He played two games in the Bronx during the 2015 season, where he went 3-for-8 with a solo home run.

The NFL community mourned Monday the passing of San Francisco 49ers legend Dwight Clark, who died at the age of 61 following a battle with ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease.

Clark’s Niners teammate Jerry Rice, Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and other NFL players remembered the Niners great on social media.

Dwight Clark was one of my idols growing up in San Mateo. I was lucky enough to be at the game where my hero Joe Montana perfectly placed the game winning throw/catch to Dwight in the corner of the end zone to beat the cowboys in the 1981 season.

The skill’s there. He’s another guy that needs to work on his shot, Binghamton coach Rick Kowalsky said. He’s a pass-first type of guy, and he likes to go to his backhand a lot. But he has to work on getting his shot off quicker and not over-handling the puck. Playing a little more give-and-go style.

The Eagles released a statement yesterday that didn’t directly address anything to do with the White House.

A Tuesday morning series of tweets clarified the president’s position on how the NFL will be expected to proceed. Staying in the Locker Room for the playing of our National Anthem is as disrespectful to our country as kneeling. Sorry!he wrote in one tweet. NFL, no escaping to Locker Rooms!he added in another. The president yoked other sports to his new dictates during his tweetstorm in a way that suggested he was marginalizing the Eagles and NFL. Meanwhile, the White House prepared to hold its own Super Bowl ceremony without any Super Bowl participants Tuesday afternoon in what promised to be an odd celebration of symbolic patriotism and itself.

The NFL’s compromiseon anthem protests, reached late last month in some star chamber session during the owners’ meetings, stipulates that players on the field must stand and show respect,giving them the option to remain in the locker room if they prefer. There’s no mention in the NFL’s policy of hand on heart,and allowing players to remain in the locker room was the closest the NFL came to a concession to the rights and feelings of players.