The NFL’s Purdy Fine on Tyler Davis Came in Light

The NFL fined Los Angeles Rams defensive lineman Tyler Davis $6,225 for a blow to the head of San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy. The league posted the bill on Saturday, Sept. 19, nine days after a 27-7 loss in Melbourne, and two days before Los Angeles plays the New York Giants on Monday, Sept. 21.

The hit carried Purdy’s name into the headline. The dollar figure did not match that fame. Davis was charged well under the posted roughing rate, and the 49ers who won the game left the same Saturday list with a larger tab.

A $6,225 Fine Against a $17,911 Posted Rate

Each Saturday the league publishes on-field fines. Davis’s line read “a hit on a quarterback” and “blow to the head/neck.” The amount was $6,225.

That sits $11,686 below the first-offense roughing fine of $17,911 on the NFL and NFLPA schedule. Helmet and launching fouls start at $23,882. Davis did not get either ceiling.

Players get a letter, a clip of the play, the reason, and the number. If they skip an appeal, the money comes out of the next game check. For Davis, that check is the Giants game.

The schedule is the union-bargained menu, not a vending machine. Staff can charge less than the listed first-offense figure, and they did. A Purdy hit still became the public label for a mid-range bill.

The Winning 49ers Left Melbourne With a Bigger Bill

Two Rams were fined from the opener. Inside linebacker Nate Landman was charged $11,111 for unnecessary roughness with use of the helmet, a play the league timed at 7:01 of the second quarter. His bill is larger than Davis’s. The Purdy clip is what traveled.

San Francisco went 1-0 and still paid more from the same file. Fullback Kyle Juszczyk was charged $20,033 for unnecessary roughness and illegal use of the helmet on a lead block, a play that drew no flag. Tight end Jake Tonges was charged $9,266 for a leg whip. Tonges’s foul is logged on the play that wrecked his knee and ended his season, a pairing that drew more heat than Davis’s cheaper Purdy line.

THE MELBOURNE FINE SHEET

Add the two Rams bills and you get $17,336. Add the two 49ers bills and you get $29,299, which is $11,963 more, from the team that won 27-7. Fines collected go to the Professional Athletes Foundation for former players in need and to the NFL Foundation for health and safety work, a split the league says has moved about $4 million a year since 2011.

What the League Logged as a Blow to the Head

The flag flew with 1:24 left in the first half, on second-and-3, with San Francisco already up 10-7. Purdy’s throw for Deebo Samuel fell incomplete. Davis, rushing inside, met Purdy high as Byron Young pulled the quarterback from behind. Officials called roughing the passer, wiped the incompletion, and walked off 15 yards for a first down.

The drive did not finish in points. Los Angeles got the ball at its 20 with 0:20 left and knelt into halftime. The cost on the field was field position and a personal-foul mark, not a touchdown. Purdy stayed in and finished 25 of 34 for 205 yards, 3 touchdowns, and 1 interception, a 105.6 rating, plus 29 yards on 5 rushes.

Matthew Stafford went 15 of 25 for 155 yards, no scores, and 1 interception. The Rams were 3.5-point favorites and scored once, a 5-yard Kyren Williams run. They were flagged 4 times for 43 yards. San Francisco was flagged twice for 21.

FROM MELBOURNE TO SOFI

1. Thursday, Sept. 10, 2026: 49ers beat the Rams 27-7 at Melbourne Cricket Ground, with 100,021 at Melbourne Cricket Ground, the league’s first regular-season game there.
2. Saturday, Sept. 19, 2026: The NFL posts Week 1 fines, including Davis at $6,225 and Landman at $11,111.
3. Monday, Sept. 21, 2026: The Rams, now 0-1, host the 1-0 Giants at SoFi Stadium at 8:15 p.m. ET.

Purdy was healthy enough to start Week 2 against Miami. The clip that produced Davis’s fine did not knock the quarterback out of the series.

A Sixth-Round End and the Linebacker Who Paid More

Davis is not a featured rusher. The Rams have him listed as a 306-pound defensive end, No. 90, 6-foot-2, out of Clemson, a 2024 sixth-round pick at 196. He is 25. In 2025 he played all 17 games with 1 start and posted 43 tackles and 1 sack.

In Melbourne he played 32 snaps and led his day with 7 tackles, 2 solo and 5 assisted, and no sacks. That was a career high for tackles in a game, on a defense that also has Myles Garrett and Aaron Donald on the roster. The fine is a small slice of his $1,075,000 base salary this season on a four-year deal worth $4,202,552.

DAVIS IN MELBOURNE

• Snaps: 32 on defense in the opener.
• Tackles: 7 (2 solo, 5 assisted), with 0 sacks.
• Draft slot: 2024 sixth round, 196th overall, still on that rookie contract.
• Fine share: $6,225 against a $1,075,000 base.

Landman is the starter in the middle, No. 53, a fifth-year linebacker from Colorado. He had 8 tackles, 1 pass breakup, and 1 quarterback hit in the loss. A shoulder limited him in practice during the week, and he carried no injury designation for Monday. His $11,111 helmet fine is the bigger Rams number, and it barely moved because it was not attached to Purdy.

New NFL Fine Rules Can Return the Money

The August discipline rewrite is the piece that sits under both bills. The NFL and NFLPA put a three-strike suspension on five techniques: hip-drop tackle, horse-collar tackle, launching, hit on a defenseless player, and blindside block. Three fouls in one of those buckets cost a player a game. One foul in those five returns half the fine if it stays a one-off.

This approach distinguishes between isolated mistakes and repeated conduct that jeopardizes the health and safety of players.

Joint statement, NFL and NFL Players Association, Aug. 26, 2026

Davis’s logged category was a hit on a quarterback, not one of those five labels. Landman’s was use of the helmet, which can overlap with launching but was not posted that way on the Saturday list. For other eligible safety fouls, the same deal calls for the full amount returned at season’s end if the player is not dinged again in that bucket. Everyone started 2026 with a clean slate.

HOW THE AUGUST DEAL TREATS A FIRST FINE

• The five strikes: Hip drop, horse collar, launching, hit on a defenseless player, and blindside block.
• The suspension: Three fouls in one of those five cost one game, and those counts can carry into later seasons.
• Half back: A single foul in those five returns 50 percent of the fine after the year.
• All of it back: A one-time foul in other eligible safety categories, including roughing the passer and helmet use, is written to come back in full.

If Davis wants the $6,225 off his Giants check, he can appeal. Hearings go to Derrick Brooks, Jordy Nelson, or James Thrash, officers paid by both the league and the union. The officer’s ruling is final. If he lets it ride and stays clean in the category, the new system is built to send the money back after the season anyway.

SoFi Stadium, Jaxson Dart and a Short Memory

The next quarterback in front of Davis and Landman is Jaxson Dart. New York is 1-0 after a 28-20 win over Dallas and comes to Inglewood on Monday Night Football. The Rams need a stop after Purdy went through them for three scores and 205 yards, with no sacks on the night.

Aaron Donald is expected to play after a rest day. Puka Nacua is questionable with a hip. Safety Kamren Kinchens is out with a hamstring. Landman’s shoulder is not enough to keep him off the report as a game-time scratch. Davis has no injury tag. Both fined defenders are in the plan against a Giants offense that ran clock and used Dart on the ground in Week 1.

The $6,225 comes out of the next check unless an appeal knocks it down. The 15-yard flag already happened, on a drive that died at halftime, in a game the Rams lost by 20. Purdy’s name made that the punishment story. The Saturday math, and the August refund language, made it a light one.