Getty Taylor Rapp celebrates a play in a Buffalo Bills preseason game.
Buffalo Bills safety Taylor Rapp took heat for his controversial hit on Las Vegas Raiders wide receiver Davante Adams in Week 2, and now the veteran will likely face punishment from the league, an insider shared.
Rapp was flagged for unnecessary roughness after hitting Adams in the head on a deep pass in the fourth quarter of Buffalo’s 38-10 win on September 17. The game was already well in hand for the Bills at the time of the hit, leading Adams to speak out against Rapp this week.
Pro Football Talk’s Charean Williams reports that discipline is likely forthcoming for Rapp.
Hit Forced Davante Adams Out of the Game
As Williams noted, Adams was forced to exit Sunday’s game after the hit as he was evaluated for a concussion. Rapp drew a 15-yard penalty, though the Bills were able to hold the Raiders from scoring.
Davante Adams took an unnecessary hit from Taylor Rapp. #LVvsBUF
Williams added that the league will likely hand Rapp a fine from the NFL for the hit.
“Rapp, a second-round pick of the Rams, should expect a fine letter from the league this week for the unnecessary roughness penalty,” Williams wrote.
Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio noted that the league has become more transparent regarding fines, issuing a weekly announcement on Saturdays of all players who were fined from the previous week’s games. He noted that hits to the head, like the one Rapp laid on Adams, are a particular area of focus.
“One specific type of infraction that previously went underreported related to the rule against lowering the helmet to initiate forcible contact with an opponent,” Florio wrote. “Rarely is a flag thrown for such penalties. Far more often, players are fined.”
Bills linebacker Matt Milano was among the players fined in Week 1, facing a $10,927 fine for taunting after a second-quarter interception against the New York Jets. The league also fined Jets linebacker Chazz Surratt for an illegal block on the game-winning punt return in overtime. Had the penalty been flagged during the team, the touchdown would have been overturned.
Davante Adams Sounds Off on ‘Unnecessary’ Hit
Rapp’s hit didn’t sit well with Adams, who took aim at the Bills safety in an angry statement to reporters on Wednesday.
“Was it unnecessary? Completely, obviously,” Adams said, via USA Today.
“Certain players play a certain way too. Some people, out of control, they fly around, they don’t really have much true purpose out there. I mean, playing a half field on one side, you run over and hit somebody in the head on the other side of the field,” Adams added.
Adams went on to criticize Rapp as a player, saying that his hit was “the kind of stuff that contributes to (Rapp) not being on the field.”
“That’s why you’re in when you’re blowing us out by 25 at the end of the game,” Adams said. “Maybe if that man learns how to play the game the right way, he’ll see the field. Until then, he’ll have to go and live off of plays like that, I guess.”
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Bills Safety Taylor Rapp Likely Facing Punishment for Controversial Hit