Bradford also participated in some 11-on-11 drills, specifically the two-minute drill. He was not expected to be involved in the full team drills.
Bradford took the field wearing a knee brace to protect his injury as he continues to rehab, but he looked sharp throwing the football, writes Thomas. He had good velocity on his throws, completing an array of passes including an impressive deep out to Justin Veltung.
He also threw two touchdown passes during the 7-on-7 period, to tight end Jared Cook and wide receiver Austin Pettis, and showed some mobility moving in the pocket.
“Obviously, it’s good having Sam back just for team morale and everything,” said Pettis. “Sam is one of the better players on this team clearly, and he’s a leader out there, especially on the offensive side. So just having him back in the huddle, we’re kind of more in our comfort zone. . .and we’re able to click a little bit better. Him being back, especially as soon as he has, is definitely a positive for everyone.”
Although New York City has hosted the NFL Draft for nearly 50 years, the league is currently considering other options for next year, writes David Moore of DallasNews.com.
Big market cities Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York are all in the running to host the 2015 Draft.
If it is held in New York, it will not return to Radio City Music Hall, but instead Madison Square Garden would be in line to host. The Draft was first held in New York in 1965 at various location, and Madison Square Garden hosted for ten years starting in 1995. In 2005, it was held at the Javits Center, before moving to Radio City Music Hall in 2006. The draft had been held there ever since.
According to Moore, Cowboys’ Vice President Stephen Jones has been pushing to hold the draft in AT&T Stadium, although it seems they are not being seriously considered for 2015. Nashville is another city that has pursued the draft for a long time, writes John Glennon of the Tennessean.
New York is the unlikeliest of the three favorites, because of scheduling concerns with the Rangers and Knicks playing home games at Madison Square Garden, and the Nets occupying the Barclays Center. A three-day draft would be difficult to fit in, according to Adam Schefter and ESPN.
The NFL is planning on making a decision by the end of the month.
Cam Newton assures Panthers’ fans that he will be ready to play come the start of the season. “I guarantee you that,” said Newton according to the team’s official Twitter page.
Newton has been campaigning to be the cover athlete of the upcoming Madden, battling, and eventually losing out to Seahawks’ cornerback and Super Bowl champion Richard Sherman(via Twitter).
Newton’s status has been in question this offseason as he has been recovering from surgery he had to repair his ankle, an injury that has plagued him throughout last season.
The Panthers have been under pressure as Newton approaches his next contract. Newton is coming off his best year as a pro, leading the Panthers to capture the second seed in the playoffs and a first-round bye. However, the team was unable to retain key pieces this offseason, nor replace them with quality players. The team has serious question marks at receiver, left tackle, and in the secondary.
The team will have to fight regression to get back in the playoffs, and Newton will have to match or even outperform his 2013 season if he wants a contract extension close to what Colin Kaepernick got, Andrew Luck is soon to get, or one of the other top flight young quarterbacks in the NFL.
Speaking to Terez A. Paylor of the Kansas City Star, former NFL agent Joel Corry suggests that he thinks the Chiefs could push for a similar structure to Colin Kaepernick’s deal when they try to extend Alex Smith, though he doubts agent Tom Condon would go for it. “If you ask me to take my agent hat off, I don’t think this deal is going to have any real impact on Alex Smith’s negotiation,” Corry said of Kaepernick’s extension. “It’s two different (situations). The problem is, the Chiefs still aren’t going to want to want to pay him in that Matthew Stafford, Tony Romo, Jay Cutler range.”
Jason Fitzgerald of Over The Cap (Twitterlinks) posits that the bottom line on Kaepernick’s deal is that he would have put himself in line for the Joe Flacco extension if he had a big walk year but he instead protected himself against injury.
Wide receiver Joe Adams, who was drafted by the Panthers in the fourth round in 2012, has been released by the CFL’s Edmonton Eskimos, according to Adam Caplan of ESPN.com (via Twitter).
There was some speculation that an undated press release from the Arena Football League’s Arizona Rattlers indicated that former Giants safety Will Hill had signed with the AFL club. However, Conor Orr of the Star-Ledger says that’s not the case, suggesting that perhaps Hill was activated off the AFL’s suspension list, creating some confusion.
It may be a stretch to dub this June the month of the tight end, but the position will be at the center of a number of major stories over the next few weeks. Vernon Davis is skipping the 49ers’ OTAs in hopes of landing a new contract; Jimmy Graham‘s franchise tag position is a point of contention that will be decided by an arbitrator after a hearing later this month; and Jermichael Finley is the best free agent still on the market, in the estimation of PFR readers.
With June 1 behind us, free agents are no longer tied to future compensatory draft picks, and Finley has now been medically cleared by his personal doctor. That doesn’t mean that he’ll be subsequently cleared by every NFL team doctor, but he appears to be on the road to recovery after undergoing spinal fusion surgery last year, and there are few roadblocks left for him to ink a new deal.
Of course, just because he’s getting healthy, that doesn’t mean Finley is a lock to return to the field. While we do expect the tight end to sign somewhere, agent Blake Baratz confirmed last week that his client could file for the collection of a $10MM insurance policy if he opts not continue his playing career. If the offers Finley receives are modest one- or two-year proposals, that insurance policy could start to look awfully appealing, particularly since it would come with no further health risks.
Still, Finley has been a productive pass-catcher when he’s been healthy, accumulating 223 receptions for 2,785 yards and 20 touchdowns in 70 career contests. At age 27, he still should have plenty left in the tank, and a good season in the right situation could increase his value and help him land a bigger contract next year — perhaps one that would ensure his career earnings eventually exceed that $10MM insurance policy.
Assuming he does return, Finley seems to have a handful of possible landing spots. Mike Freeman of Bleacher Report reported earlier this week that “a good half-dozen teams” were quietly pursuing the former Packer, and while the Seahawks are reportedly out of the running, several clubs are still believed to have interest. The Steelers and Raiders were the latest potential suitors added to a list that already included the Patriots and Packers. And while they haven’t necessarily been connected to Finley recently (or at all), I wouldn’t rule out the possibility of the Giants or Falcons entering the mix, since both teams could use a pass-catching tight end.
What do you think? Where will Finley eventually land?
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The 49ers hammered out a new agreement with quarterback Colin Kaepernick quicker than expected, but it doesn’t look like that will also be the case for head coach Jim Harbaugh. According to Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, negotiations on a contract extension for Harbaugh remain at an impasse for now. The Niners have made an offer, but the coach had yet to respond to it.
Whereas Kaepernick was entering the final year of his previous contract, Harbaugh still has two years left on his, so there may not be quite the same amount of urgency to finalize an extension quite yet. Still, it’s highly unlikely that the team and coach would head into the 2015 season without a new agreement in place, so if the two sides don’t work something out this summer, the 2014 season could be decisive in determining Harbaugh’s future.
As Florio observes, Harbaugh seems to want to be paid like a coach who has won the Super Bowl, even though he has yet to do so. If the Niners aren’t willing to pay that price, Harbaugh may be inclined to roll the dice on himself and his team and see how the 2014 season plays out — per betting site Bovada.lv, only the Seahawks and Broncos have better odds than the Niners to win this season’s Super Bowl, and adding a championship to his resumé would certainly improve Harbaugh’s leverage in negotiations heading into his contract year.
More than half of 2014’s first-round picks have already reached agreements with their new NFL clubs, and now we can add the No. 1 overall selection to that list. According to John McClain of the Houston Chronicle (via Twitter), the Texans have agreed to terms with Jadeveon Clowney on his four-year rookie contract, which will include a team option for 2018.
After a dominant sophomore season at South Carolina, Clowney’s junior campaign didn’t go quite as smoothly, as he missed two games due to injury and some observers questioned his work ethic. Still, his pure athleticism and talent made him the consensus No. 1 overall pick last month. As a sophomore, Clowney helped lead South Carolina to a 11–2 record, setting the school record for sacks (13.0) and tackles for loss (23.5) while also registering 54 tackles and three forced fumbles. In 2013, Clowney finished his junior season with 35 tackles, 10.5 for a loss of yardage, and three sacks.
Per Jason Fitzgerald of Over The Cap, Clowney’s four-year rookie contract will have an overall value of about $22.273MM, including a signing bonus of approximately $14.519MM. With Clowney locked up, the Texans have now reached agreements with nine of their 10 draft picks. As our tracker shows, only second-round guard Xavier Su’a-Filo remains unsigned.
A former Packers tight end will work out for the Giants next week, but it’s not the player voted the best remaining free agent by PFR readers last month. Tom Crabtree, not Jermichael Finley, will audition for the Giants, a source tells Conor Orr of The Star-Ledger. Crabtree’s stint with the Buccaneers came to a premature end after an injury-plaged 2013 season, but the tight end is healthy now, according to Orr’s source. While the 28-year-old has never provided consistent production as a pass-catcher, he did make several big plays for the Packers in 2012, racking up 203 receiving yards and three TDs on just eight receptions.
Here’s more from around the NFC:
When Vikings offensive coordinator Norv Turner held the same job with the Browns a year ago, he wanted Cleveland to sign Matt Cassel. The Browns ultimately went with the cheaper Jason Campbell instead, but Turner will get his chance to work with Cassel in Minnesota this season, writes Chris Tomasson of the St. Paul Pioneer Press.
In the view of Joel Corry of CBSSports.com, Colin Kaepernick‘s extension shouldn’t prevent the 49ers from locking up other key players, but it may create less margin for error in the club’s roster decisions.
Based on pre-draft assurances from head coach Jeff Fisher and GM Les Snead, Sam Bradford was able to brush off the Johnny Manziel rumors surrounding the Rams last month, as the quarterback tells Jim Thomas of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Mike Tanier of Sports on Earth tries to make sense of the Panthers‘ moves over the last several months in his piece breaking down the team’s offseason.
The Patriots have reached out to Devin McCourty‘s camp to begin contract negotiations for the standout safety, who is in the final year of his rookie deal, reports Albert Breer of the NFL Network (via Twitter). Jeff Howe of the Boston Herald (Twitter link) clarifies that while the Pats have informed McCourty they’re interested in an extension, the two sides haven’t officially begun to negotiate specific figures yet.
Meanwhile, according to Breer (via Twitter), McCourty isn’t the only notable AFC defender whose team is eyeing a new contract — nose tackle Jurrell Casey and the Titans have also had early discussions about an extension.
McCourty, 26, didn’t post the same flashy numbers in 2013 that he has in past seasons, grabbing just one interception after totaling 14 in his first three NFL seasons. However, the former 27th overall pick received excellent scores for his overall performance from Pro Football Focus (subscription required), whose grades ranked him as the league’s best safety in ’13. Given the big-money deals signed by fellow safeties like Jairus Byrd and Earl Thomas in recent months, McCourty should be in line for a multiyear contract that rivals the $9-10MM annual salaries earned by those players.
As for Casey, the 24-year-old is coming off a breakout season in which he compiled 10.5 sacks and 55 tackles, ranking fourth among 69 qualified defensive tackles, per PFF’s metrics (subscription required). Casey’s pass-rushing grades placed him behind only Gerald McCoy and Ndamukong Suh as an interior rusher, as he racked up 54 quarterback pressures for the season. Not coincidentally, Suh and McCoy are the league’s top two highest-paid defensive tackles by per-year salary, so Casey, who will earn a $1.431MM base salary in the last year of his rookie contract, should also expect a lucrative long-term deal.