Jeff Chiu/Associated Press

Training camps have started, and more than a few players have found a "natural" way to handle pain; Gronk may be headed for his best season ever; and Christian McCaffrey has the look of a potential star in Carolina.

1. High Times in the NFL

A few days ago, one of the players in the league I regularly speak to reminded me that he was heading to training camp with what has become for him a standard plan for pain relief: marijuana.

If you're not in the league's drug program, the NFL essentially tests you just once a year for weed. The window is April 20 to Aug. 9, but the tests generally happen during training camp. Stay clean, get tested during camp, and you're not tested again for the rest of year.

So once the camp test is given, this player, and others, smoke. He uses it a few times at camp, when the pain gets particularly bad. He's not alone. Players have told me in the past that anywhere from 30 to 50 percent of them, if not more, use marijuana.

The NFL has been draconian when it comes to punishing players for using weed, which is particularly interesting considering the NFL allows the use of far more addictive and dangerous pain-killing medicines.

But finally, the league's view on pot might slowly be changing.

The Washington Post reported the league has reached out to the NFL Players Association about working together to study the use of marijuana in pain management. For several weeks now, I've heard that the league is serious about lessening the punishment for marijuana use.

Before we get too far, a caveat: There are people in the union I've spoken to this week who think the league is full of crap on this issue. They don't buy that Roger Goodell is serious about it. They think the league is leaking this interest to make it look more progressive.

Yet numerous team and league sources say there are some powerful owners who are starting to support lighter punishments for marijuana use.

Part of the motivation behind the change is a reflection of America's evolving acceptance of marijuana. But a lot of it is practical. Owners are losing good players to failed pot tests, and it's starting to irritate some of them, I'm told by a variety of league sources.

One of those owners is Jerry Jones, arguably the most powerful man in football, and maybe in all of sports. This spring, according to Pro Football Talk, Jones told owners of his desire for the league to end its ban on marijuana.

And from what I'm hearing, some other owners are starting to feel the same way.

A word of caution here: There is still a large faction of ownership that has a 1950s view of weed use. But something is happening that feels different. When powerful people change their thinking, it may not be long before the rest of the league follows.

2. A New, Improved Gronk

Michael Dwyer/Associated Press

As Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski healed from December back surgery for a herniated disk, teammates would call and text on occasion, checking in on him. Gronkowski's response was always the same: I miss you guys, and I'll be back.

They'd check in again. Don't worry about me. I'll be back. Again: I'll be back stronger than before.

Each time they checked, the message was the same: You will see a faster, better, stronger Gronk. A more dedicated Gronk. A fiercer Gronk (which is saying something since besides being the best tight end the game has ever seen—yes, he is—and the party dude rep, Gronk has always been one of the grittiest players in football).

Still, it appears a new Gronkowski is here. Or, rather, a newer one, willing to adopt a healthier lifestyle akin to that of his quarterback, Tom Brady, according to the Boston Herald's Karen Guregian.

"Just looking at Tom, seeing what he does every day, what he eats, talking to him, personally one-on-one, just learning about the body with him," Gronkowski told Guregian, "just seeing how flexible he is, how pliable he is, how loose he is all the time, every day and ready to go, I just felt like it was the time in my career where I needed to devote myself at all levels."

Patriots players believe this season will be the best of Gronkowski's career. They see a player who could be more explosive than he's ever been before.

That's a scary thought for opposing defenses considering Gronkowski already has the single-season record for touchdown catches by a tight end with 18, the most receiving yards in a season with 1,327, the most career touchdowns with 68, a 6'6", 265-pound frame and the ability to run like a deer.

There's also the fact that this Patriots team, after winning a Super Bowl, is deeper and better on both sides of the ball. That can only help.

The key with Gronkowski, as always, is health. Few players take the kinds of beatings he does, but if he can stay healthy (and yes, that's a big condition), he could have a historic season.

And that's saying something.

3. Ode to an Underrated Difference-Maker

Winslow Townson/Associated Press

He "played in 131 NFL games with 101 starts and recorded 425 total tackles, 46 sacks, five interceptions, including one he returned for a touchdown, 22 passes defensed, 10 forced fumbles, 14 fumble recoveries and 28 special teams tackles," according to a team release. "In addition, he played in 17 postseason games with 16 starts and finished with 64 total tackles, six sacks, one interception, seven passes defensed, one forced fumble and one fumble recovery."

His name is Rob Ninkovich, and after spending the last eight seasons with the Patriots, he retired over the weekend.

"I ... never coached a more unselfish player, and I've coached a lot of them, but [he goes] right up in there in that top echelon group," Patriots coach Bill Belichick told the media. "It was always about the team. It was always about how Rob could help somebody else. 'What do you need me to do, Coach? Do you need me to play here, play there, do something else? I can do this. I'll snap, I'll cover kicks, I'll play linebacker, I'll rush, I'll cover. Whatever you need me to do.' That was really very important to us in the last three years really, starting with kind of that Denver game in '14 where we ... put a lot of flexibility into our defense, with the linebackers rushing more and our defensive ends dropping more, and Rob was really a huge, huge part of that transition."

Ninkovich will go down as one of those players who was never a household name outside of New England. But like a legion of players before him, and players to come, he was a core component of the team.

And in many ways a core component of the league.

4. Blake Bortles Is Who He Is

John Raoux/Associated Press/Associated Press

Last week Blake Bortles threw five interceptions in practice.

Now, to be fair, practice is practice. That's when you're supposed to throw picks. And certainly not all of them were Bortles' fault.

So, yes, there's room, and time, to get better.

However...

Remember, months ago, how we heard about how Bortles' mechanics would be better? How he was working on things, blah, blah, blah?

Perhaps we have to start thinking that Bortles simply isn't that good. That he's mistake-prone. That he could change, but after three full seasons, it doesn't seem like he will.

It seems like this might be the real Blake Bortles.

5. Don't Break in Case of Emergency

Patrick Semansky/Associated Press

Bortles wasn't the only quarterback to throw five picks in practice. Ryan Mallett did, too. Now into the sixth season of his career, Mallett is backing up Joe Flacco in Baltimore. Flacco is incredibly tough, and he doesn't miss a lot of games, but if he ever goes down, and the Ravens have to go to Mallett, their season is done.

That can be said about a lot of teams if they need to go to their backups, but when the man in reserve is a 55 percent passer for his career and has thrown 10 interceptions to seven touchdowns, it's a situation that ranks as one of the worst in football.

So cross your fingers, Baltimore, that Flacco gets past the back troubles that have plagued him early in camp and stays healthy.

6. The Browns Can Win...In Time

Tony Dejak/Associated Press

Browns owner Jimmy Haslam acknowledged what everyone knows in his annual address at training camp: In 2017, the Browns won't be very good. "Last year was harder than we thought," Haslam told Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com. "None of us are exactly sure what'll happen this year. I know we'll be a better team. So I think 2018—and I'm not hedging my bets—2018, 2019, you should see a substantially better football team."

Translation: Down the road, we'll be good.

This year: No bueno.

I've been wrong about the Browns before. I've thought they had turned things around in the past, and they had not. But I still think it will happen. I'm alone, I know. Just an old geezer yelling on his lawn, but something about the Browns gives me hope.

It's partly coach Hue Jackson, who is vastly underrated. But it's also because there are pieces there. Not many, but they are there. As the team adds more pieces, mistakes will be made, to be sure, but there is a level of emerging competency that is encouraging. They still need to find a quarterback (duh), but I remain encouraged.

I know. I'm a fool.

7. Is McCaffrey This Year's Zeke Elliott?

Chuck Burton/Associated Press

Rookie Christian McCaffrey will be sharing running duties not just with Jonathan Stewart but also with quarterback Cam Newton in Carolina this season. And while it's way too early, and the Panthers offensive line is not consistent enough, to claim McCaffrey will be this year's Zeke Elliott, it is becoming clear that the former Stanford star's quickness and ability to make plays out of the backfield will be a legit threat.

"He's pretty unstoppable as far as coming out of the backfield and running routes," Stewart told ESPN.com's David Newton. "I can tell you now there's not going to be anybody in this league that can cover him one-on-one.

"He's a special player."

It is early, and plenty of players look good in camp, and even in preseason games, and then utterly stunk. The sport is cruel and violent. Even for someone who played at a high level in college like McCaffrey, it can be crushing.

But for now, the No. 8 overall draft pick seems to be adapting well. If that continues, the Panthers will be incredibly dangerous.

8. Nice Try, Roger

Matt Dunham/Associated Press

Roger Goodell floated the idea of a joint Super Bowl bid by Washington, D.C., and Baltimore when meeting with the media while at Ravens training camp.

"The bar gets raised every year," Goodell told fans, according to a CBS DC report by Brian Tinsman. "So, someone just raised this with me before I came over here: They mentioned the idea of a joint bid in the Baltimore-Washington area, which is an interesting idea because clearly there's an infrastructure between the two communities."

Don't get too excited. It will never happen.

Part of the lure of hosting the Super Bowl is hosting, y'know, the actual game, and it can't be played in two stadiums simultaneously (well, I guess it could, but it would awwwkward), so you tell me which city will give up the right to play the game in its home. That's right. Neither would.

Can you imagine Dan Snyder, owner of the Washington team, saying to the city of Baltimore: No, you guys have the game. Please, be my guest. I like your crab cakes.

There's also the risk of inviting another cold-weather Super Bowl, which the league lucked out of when a snowstorm hit the New York-New Jersey area the day after the big game in 2014.

9. Say What?

There isn't much I can add to this, except to say it left me speechless.

Adams was sitting next to Goodell when he made the statement.

Like I said, I'm speechless.

10. Remembering Dan Rooney

Amy Sancetta/Associated Press

This is the 52nd straight year the Steelers are training at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, but the first year the team has done so without late owner Dan Rooney.

The quotes Natasha Lindstrom of the Tribune-Review collected from players about him are remarkable and show how deeply he connected with his team. Rooney remains one of the most important owners in the history of sports. He'll always be remembered fondly.

Mike Freeman covers the NFL for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter @mikefreemanNFL.