CINCINNATI — The NFL does not take bye weeks off from handing out fines, and the Cincinnati Bengals found that out this week, when two players received fine letters for plays in the team’s Week 5 win over the Miami Dolphins — a game Cincinnati won to help build its 3-2 start before the break.
Tight end Erick All was fined $7,073 for an unnecessary roughness penalty from the Dolphins game. Safety Jordan Battle drew the larger letter, $21,623, for illegal use of the helmet — the kind of lowering-the-head contact the league has made a point of emphasis in its weekly fine process, which reviews plays from every game whether or not a penalty flag was thrown on the field.
Battle’s fine stems from a hit identified by Sports Illustrated’s Bengals reporter Jay Morrison, who posted the play the league cited. Battle has been a regular in Cincinnati’s secondary this season, and a fine of more than $21,000 is among the stiffer standard amounts the NFL assesses for helmet-contact violations under its published fine schedule, short of a suspension-level offense.
All, meanwhile, has carved out a role as a blocking and short-yardage tight end, a job that puts him in the middle of the physical plays that draw unnecessary-roughness scrutiny. His $7,073 fine is the standard first-offense amount the league lists for that category, and like Battle’s, it arrives by letter during the week after the game rather than during play.
As usual, both players are expected to go through the league’s appeals process, in which fines can be reduced or rescinded by jointly appointed appeals officers. The Bengals saw that process work in their favor just last week, when a fine against wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase was overturned on appeal — a reminder that the letter a player receives is the start of the process, not always the end of it.
The fines do not affect either player’s availability. Neither All nor Battle was suspended, and both remain on track to play when Cincinnati’s bye week ends.
That return is a demanding one: the Bengals travel to Baltimore next Sunday to face the Ravens, the AFC North rivals who visit Cleveland this weekend, in the first of the home-and-home meetings that usually shape the division race. Cincinnati comes out of its bye a game out of first place in the North, with wins over Tampa Bay, Houston and Miami and losses to Pittsburgh and Jacksonville — and, now, two fine letters from the Miami win to appeal along the way.