Offensive tackle Ja’Wuan James, who just last month tore his Achilles and was declared out for the season, filed a $15 million grievance against his former team, the Denver Broncos, and also managed to agree to a contract with a new team, the Baltimore Ravens. James filed this grievance after suffering his injury in a facility away from the team. At the time, he had been guaranteed $10 million for the 2021 season, but because the injury took place off-site, it was designated as a non-football injury, meaning the Broncos were not obligated to pay his salary. The team later released him.

In his grievance, James is seeking his $10 million salary for the 2021 season, and his entire argument centers around the fact that he was working out away from the facility under guidance from the Broncos. Even if James is unable to accomplish this lofty goal, he has a very solid backup plan in place. James is set to sign a two-year deal worth up to $9 million with the Ravens. The contract includes $500,000 in guaranteed money this year while he rehabs from his Achilles injury, with his sights set on a return for 2022. The Ravens will have him under contract at north of $8 million next season.

For the Ravens, this move seems to be a smart one, as they attempt to fill the void of recently traded Orlando Brown Jr. He was a Pro Bowler and widely regarded as one of the best young tackles in the league, so replacing him was never going to be easy. James, along with the recently signed former Pittsburgh Steelers left tackle Alejandro Villanueva, are both solid tackles. Villaneuva was signed to a two-year, $14 million deal and moved to the right side of the line to immediately fill that void. Next season, the Ravens can go with James on the right side if he is fully healthy and if Villanueva struggles to make the transition to right tackle. But given that James has played only three games since 2019, Baltimore has the option to keep Villanueva, who is scheduled to make $4 million in 2022, as insurance.

Pittsburgh Steelers offensive lineman Alejandro Villanueva said in an interview this week that he hopes his teammates honor recently deceased assistant coach Darryl Drake by playing for him.

Drake died on Sunday at age 62. Although the exact cause of death remains unknown, the assistant coach — who joined the Steelers last season as a wide receivers coach — had been suffering from chest pains the night before.

Villanueva, an Army veteran who served three combat tours in Afghanistan, was approached on Wednesday by reporters who asked him about how losing Drake compared to the losses of fellow soldiers he experienced throughout his time as a veteran.

The Steelers offensive lineman bluntly said the two types of losses can’t be compared.

“You can’t compare the two,” Villanueva said Wednesday at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. “In the Army, you prepare for these things to happen. You expect these things to happen. They definitely unify the group, maybe not for the right reasons, but they definitely have an impact on the morality of the unit. Sometimes, it’s vengeful. You want to go get the responsible culprits. In this case, it was one person who died.”

IN MEMORIAM: SPORTS FIGURES WHO DIED IN 2019 TRIBUTE SLIDESHOW

“The kids that died in battle are usually 18, 19 years old, so that’s a little bit tougher to swallow. You look at their kids that they’ll never be able to meet. It’s part of the culture. You deal with death. Once you get over the deployments, once you can put it in the rearview mirror, you can learn some very valuable lessons about death. It makes you appreciate life. Death is a part of life. You cannot have life without death. It’s something that individually everyone has to deal with at some point because it does come to all of us.”

Villanueva added that Drake, who was with the Steelers for 18 months, was “very close” with quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and with other players on the team.

“From the time he came he was very up front; he just walked in, he didn’t have to do any introductions,” Villanueva said of Drake. “He started to open up his mind. He became an outspoken leader about the things he thought had to be said. People respected that and responded to that. When you have someone who has such a genuine personality everyone becomes attracted to them. All of the offensive line had individual jokes with him. ”

In September 2017, Villanueva famously refused to protest the national anthem like many of his Steelers teammates, who chose to stay in the locker room for the playing of “The Star-Spangled Banner” before a game that season. However, the Army veteran later said he felt “embarrassed” for not siding with his teammates.

Pittsburgh Steelers offensive tackle Alejandro Villanueva surprised his teammates on Sunday when he became the squad’s only player to stand for the national anthem before their 23-17 overtime loss to the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field.

NFL national anthem protests news

The 6-foot-8, 320-pound Villanueva — a former Army Ranger who served terms in Afghanistan — was the only Steeler to emerge from the tunnel despite an agreement made during Saturday’s players-only meeting that the entire squad would stay in the locker room, sources stated.

According to ESPN, players said they wished to accommodate Villanueva, who said during Saturday’s meeting that he did not want to be singled out. The Steelers decided to move their protest off the field as a way to maintain solidarity without isolating any players.

Asked what played into Villanueva’s leaving the tunnel, defensive end Cam Heyward said: “I don’t want to go into that, but we support our guy Al. He feels he had to do it. This guy served our country, and we thank him for it.”

James Harrison told PennLive.com that he did not think anyone was exempt from the pregame plan.

“We thought we were all in attention with the same agreement, obviously,” Harrison told PennLive.com. “But I guess we weren’t.”

Villanueva, 29, has previously said he supports other players’ disdain of racial injustice, although he has added that as a military veteran, he refuses to sit during the playing of the anthem. The lineman, who joined the Steelers in 2014, signed a four-year, $24 million extension with the team in July.

“I don’t know if the most effective way is to sit down during the national anthem with a country that’s providing you freedom, providing you $16 million a year … when there are black minorities that are dying in Iraq and Afghanistan for less than $20,000 a year,” Villanueva once said.

Jersey sales for Villanueva increased significantly after his decision to stand for the anthem. However, Villanueva later said he regretted his decision, and that he felt like he let his teammates down.

Several NFL teams engaged in anthem protests — sitting, kneeling, linking arms with teammates and law enforcement — over the weekend as a way to express opposition to comments made by President Donald Trump, who called on football fans to boycott games until the league or team owners fire or suspend players who “disrespect” the flag or anthem. 

“If NFL fans refuse to go to games until players stop disrespecting our country, you will see change take place fast,” Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter early Sunday morning, on the second weekend morning in a row in which he vented over the issue on social media. “Fire or suspend!”

The tweets followed comments Trump made at a rally in Huntsville, Alabama on Friday.

“Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, say, ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now, out, he’s fired!” Trump said, alluding to players like unsigned quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who first started the protests when he sat during the national anthem before a preseason game in August 2016.

The President also criticized the NFL for instituting new rules at the annual league meeting earlier this year intended to reduce the occurrence of concussions and other series injuries.

League commissioner Roger Goodell condemned Trump for his remarks, calling his rhetoric “divisive,” and several players also lambasted the President on social media.

“The NFL and our players are at our best when we help create a sense of unity in our country and our culture,” Goodell said in a statement. “There is no better example than the amazing response from our clubs and players to the terrible natural disasters we’ve experienced over the last month. Divisive comments like these demonstrate an unfortunate lack of respect for the NFL, our great game and all of our players, and a failure to understand the overwhelming force for good our clubs and players represent in our communities.”

“The way we reacted today, and this weekend, made me proud,” Goodell — who is reportedly finalizing a contract extension — added Sunday evening. “I’m proud of our league.”

Tom Brady, a renown close friend of Trump, said in an interview Monday morning that he disagreed with the President’s comments, and even locked arms with wide receiver Phillip Dorsett and placed his other hand over his heart before the New England Patriots’ 36-33 home victory over the Houston Texans on Sunday.

“Yeah, I certainly disagree with what he said. I thought it was just divisive,” Brady said on the Kirk & Callahan show on WEEI. “Like I said, I just want to support my teammates. I am never one to say: ‘Oh, that is wrong. That is right.’ I do believe in what I believe in. I believe in bringing people together and respect and love and trust. Those are the values that my parents instilled in me. That is how I try and live every day.”

The protests have not been limited to the NFL, however. On Saturday night, Oakland Athletics rookie catcher Bruce Maxwell became the first MLB player to kneel during the national anthem when he did so before the team’s 1-0 home victory over the Texas Rangers.

“My decision has been coming for a long time,” Maxwell, the son of a U.S. Army veteran, said after the game. “I know I was on the fence for a long time because I know no one in baseball has ever done it. I finally got to the point where I thought the inequality of man is being discussed, and it’s being practiced from our president.

“The point of my kneeling is not to disrespect our military, it’s not to disrespect our Constitution, it’s not to disrespect this country. … My hand over my heart symbolizes the fact that I am and I’ll forever be an American citizen, and I’m more than grateful to be here. But my kneeling is what is getting the attention because I’m kneeling for the people that don’t have a voice.

“And this goes beyond the black community, and this goes beyond the Hispanic community, because right now we’re having an indifference and a racial divide in all types of people. It’s being practiced from the highest power that we have in this country, and it’s basically saying that it’s OK to treat people differently. My kneeling, the way I did it, was to symbolize that I’m kneeling for a cause, but I’m in no way or form disrespecting my country or my flag.”

CHICAGO, IL – SEPTEMBER 24: Alejandro Villanueva #78 of the Pittsburgh Steelers stands by himself in the tunnel for the national anthem prior to the game against the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field on September 24, 2017 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)