NFL teams adapt to unrelenting heat at camp

HENDERSON, Nev. — The sight of wide receivers Keith Kirkwood and Shaq Davis leaving practice early this week because of heat-related symptoms was nothing new for the New Orleans Saints, with the hot and humid Louisiana weather a test for even the best-conditioned athletes.

The unrelenting, record-breaking heat across the nation this year has made the opening of training camps even more challenging than usual, however, not only for the Saints but teams throughout the NFL.

Scientists have already calculated this will be the hottest July on record, with the Southwest and parts of the South especially hit hard. Most of the Midwest and East also have been affected. That means NFL teams have to be even more mindful than usual about keeping players safe while also getting as much work done as possible before the season begins in September.

Safety has been a centerpiece of the preseason since Minnesota offensive tackle Korey Stringer died on Aug. 1, 2001, after slipping and falling the previous day after a Vikings training camp practice. NFL teams at the time didn’t have medical training for exertional heat stroke.

Some teams are taking extra precautions this year, including more water breaks and early practice times.

“I don’t know all the science and all that stuff, but I do my best to understand it,” Saints quarterback Derek Carr said. “I’ve seen growth … from when I first came in the league to what we talk about now. It’s definitely a difference on the things we talk about, the way we practice, how long we do something … how much time you’re actually accumulating outside during the week.”

Carr is in his first season in New Orleans, so he’s acclimating to the wet, muggy conditions. He spent the previous three seasons with the Raiders in Las Vegas, where the air is dry but temperatures are considerably higher.

“It just feels like your skin is going to fall off,” Carr said of playing in Las Vegas. “It feels like it’s boiling.”

For their part, the Raiders have begun practicing at 8:30 a.m. to avoid the hottest parts of the day but still must contend with temperatures in the triple digits by the time they walk off the field.

CINCINNATI — Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow could miss “several weeks” with a right calf strain, coach Zac Taylor said Friday.

The 26-year-old franchise quarterback hobbled on one leg and then went to the ground after a scramble play near the end of Thursday’s practice. He rode off the field in a medical cart.

“It will take several weeks, and that’s all the information we have,” Taylor said.

Burrow did not practice Friday, with backup QBs Jake Browning and Trevor Siemian taking the snaps. The Bengals play their first preseason game on Aug. 11 and open the regular season Sept. 10.

Taylor said Burrow “has seen the doctors” and was present for meetings at the team’s training facility Friday. The quarterback was wearing a compression sleeve on his right calf when he pulled up with the injury, but Taylor said Friday he was unaware there was anything wrong before that play.

Burrow is still negotiating with the Bengals on a long-term contract that could make him one of the NFL’s highest-paid players.

RENTON, Wash. — The brief training camp holdout of Seattle Seahawks first-round pick Devon Witherspoon ended Friday when the No. 5 overall pick from the draft signed his rookie contract.

Witherspoon missed the first two days of training camp but was expected to be on the field for Seattle’s third practice later Friday.

Witherspoon, a standout in college at Illinois, was the last player from this year’s draft class to sign his rookie contract.

Witherspoon signed a four-year contract worth a guaranteed $31.8 million as the terms of being selected fifth overall. The delay in his arrival at training camp was due to an impasse around bonus money he would be due.

Seattle coach Pete Carroll said Wednesday that he expected Witherspoon’s absence to be brief.

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Jalen Ramsey, set for surgery on Friday, addressed his Miami Dolphins teammates a day earlier about the injury and told them not to worry or feel sorry for him.

The six-time Pro Bowl cornerback suffered a torn meniscus in his left knee at the end of Thursday’s practice and is expected to miss the start of the regular season. But he vowed — bragged a little — that he could beat whatever timeline for return doctors give him.

“It really moved a lot of people,” Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said Friday. “He first let everybody know how much he appreciated this team, how this team has accepted him, how he has been in the league a little bit and how he knows what we’re doing here, in his opinion, is special, for his position group not to waiver, and exuded all the confidence that he had in that position group.”

McDaniel said Ramsey will have surgery Friday afternoon to repair the tear and his timeline for return won’t be known until the procedure is complete.

The injury happened during an 11-on-11 drill during Miami’s second practice of training camp. McDaniel said it was a non-contact injury that happened while he was matched up against receiver Tyreek Hill. Ramsey and Hill collided on the play, but the injury, McDaniel clarified, happened before the contact.

ALLEN PARK, Mich. — The Detroit Lions invested in their linebacking corps in the offseason, drafting former Iowa star Jack Campbell with the No. 18 pick and re-signing Alex Anzalone to a three-year, $18.75 million deal to bolster a position group that was shaky at times last year.

Linebacker play will be key to Detroit’s defense after it finished 29th against the rush and 30th against the pass in the 2022 season when the team finished 9-8.

Anzalone, the veteran in the room, said this week at training camp the linebacker depth is as deep as he’s seen it in his three seasons in Detroit.

“There’s five or six guys who can legitimately start in the NFL and have started in the NFL, obviously Jack (Campbell) hasn’t yet,’’ Anzalone said.

PACKERS: Green Bay announced the release of outside linebacker Jonathan Garvin on his 24th birthday. The 2020 seventh-round pick from Miami appeared in 38 games and made one start over three seasons with the Packers.

SAINTS: Defensive end Payton Turner accepts the notion that his first two NFL seasons were a disappointment and that the stakes are high for him in Year 3. Turner says it’s “no secret” this is a big year for him as New Orleans looks to fill a void created by the departure of former starter Marcus Davenport in free agency.

MORE SAINTS: New Orleans guard Trai Turner, who was signed earlier this week, left practice Friday with a season-ending torn quadriceps, two people with knowledge of the injury told The Associated Press.