NFL fines Marcus Davenport, Panthers’ D’Onta Foreman following Week 18 ejections
#Saints DL Marcus Davenport and #Panthers RB D’Onta Foreman were both fined for unnecessary roughness last week. Davenport fined $5,750 and Foreman fined $10,972. Both players threw a punch and were ejected.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) January 14, 2023
That’s a bummer. NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reports that New Orleans Saints defensive end Marcus Davenport lost a lot of money following his role in a Week 18 fight with Carolina Panthers running back D’Onta Foreman, with the league fining Davenport $5,750 for throwing a punch. Both players were ejected from the game, but Foreman took the bigger hit — he received a letter from the league office docking him $10,972 for escalating things.
Ouch. Both players earned the league minimum of $60,882 in weekly game checks during the 2022 season, though Davenport restructured his contract to lower his base salary to league minimum and convert the difference into a $9.8 million signing bonus. So while Foreman’s team may have ended the day with a win, this scrap ended up being far more expensive for him than his competition.
The Saints tweaked Davenport’s contract again recently to buy themselves a little more time in deciding whether to re-sign him ahead of free agency. If he isn’t extended prior to March 14, he’ll be eligible to sign with any other team while leaving a dead money charge of more than $7.6 million on New Orleans’ books for 2023. It may best for both sides that Davenport finds a fresh start somewhere else, but they could choose to run it back and find a resolution that ensures the Saints aren’t paying that money for nothing.
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