Chargers Interested In CB Darrelle Revis
The Chargers were among a “handful” of teams that recently contacted free agent cornerback Darrelle Revis, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN.com.
Los Angeles is in need of defensive back help after losing starting corner Jason Verrett to season-ending surgery, but Schefter reports the Chargers actually reached out to Revis before they placed Verrett on injured reserve. The Chargers currently only have four cornerbacks on their active roster, with starters Casey Hayward and Trevor Williams backed up by Desmond King and Michael Davis.
Revis still intends to play in 2017, per Schefter, although he hasn’t yet met with any clubs. Interest in Revis has been scant, as only two unidentified teams had inquired on Revis prior to the Chargers reaching out. Asking price could be an issue — because Revis is still earning $6MM from the Jets, he’d essentially have to play for free (unless a club is willing to sign him to a $6MM+ deal).
Revis, 32, certainly isn’t the shutdown corner he was in days gone by, but he’s still a viable starting option. He graded out as the league’s No. 64 corner in 2016, per Pro Football Focus, which would place him right at the tail end of acceptable play. However, one general manager told Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News he wouldn’t go after Revis even if the veteran cornerback agreed to play “for free.”
Latest On Dolphins LB Lawrence Timmons
In what amounts to a bizarre twist in an already odd story, Dolphins linebacker Lawrence Timmons visited his former team — the Steelers — during Miami’s Week 1 bye and watched the club practice, reports Jason La Canfora of CBSSports.com.
Timmons, of course, went AWOL prior to Miami’s Week 2 contest and has subsequently been suspended indefinitely. But prior to that episode, Timmons ventured to Pittsburgh (his professional home from 2007-16) and was allowed into the Steelers’ facility. Most players and team officials were unaware Timmons planned to attend practice, although head coach Mike Tomlin had some idea of the visit, per La Canfora.
Timmons reportedly told his former Steelers teammates that he wanted to return to Pittsburgh, and essentially called his decision to sign with the Dolphins this offseason a mistake. The 31-year-old Timmons inked a two-year, $12MM deal with Miami in March that included $11MM in full guarantees.
Clearly, an under-contract player attending the practice of another NFL team is extremely peculiar event, but it’s unclear if that incident will affect Timmons’ status with the Dolphins. Head coach Adam Gase seemingly opened the window for a Timmons return last week, but La Canfora reports the veteran linebacker may never play a down for the club.
Bucs, WR Mike Evans Discussing Extension
The Buccaneers and wide receiver Mike Evans have engaged in preliminary extension negotiations, according to Jason La Canfora of CBSSports.com.
Evans and Tampa Bay are “very early” in the discussion process, cautions La Canfora, and that comes as no surprise given that the Buccaneers have Evans under team control for some time. In what was surely a simple decision, the Bucs exercised Evans’ 2018 fifth-year option at a cost of $13.258MM, and the club could also utilize the franchise tag to retain Evans in 2019.
The franchise tender will likely only be on the table for one season, per La Canfora, as Tampa Bay will need to use the tag as leverage in talks with quarterback Jameis Winston following the 2019 campaign. Extending both Evans and Winston shouldn’t be a financial problem for the Buccaneers, however, as the team ranks in the top-10 in projected available cap space in each of the next three years.
Evans, 24, has lived up to his draft status since being chosen with the seventh overall pick in 2014. He’s topped 1,000 receiving yards in each of his first three NFL seasons, and posted his best overall campaign in 2016, when he put up 96 receptions for 1,321 yards and 12 touchdowns.
Extra Points: NFLPA, Siemian, Verrett, 49ers
One of the 14 members of the NFLPA’s selection committee responsible for re-electing executive director DeMaurice Smith, Dolphins long snapper John Denney said the No. 1 issue among his constituents — as the team’s union rep — is guaranteed money. The contracts annually doled out to NBA and MLB talents, in leagues with fewer players, include far more guarantees than NFLers’ deals. That issue eclipsed personal conduct complaints, Denney said (via Adam Beasley of the Miami Herald).
“You can’t have it all, so what’s at the top of the list?” Denney said, via Beasley, in an apparent defense of Smith’s handling of the 2011 CBA — one that granted Roger Goodell with the controversial disciplinary powers he holds. “It really does boil down to money. It does affect some guys, but it’s a very few amount of guys. The union has to make decisions for all of the current players. You’ve got 1,500, 1,600 players. How many of those players are dealing with off the field issues? You’re going to tell these 1,600 players, ‘Are you willing to give us this money so eight or nine players a year won’t have to deal with the things they’re dealing with? You still want to go to bat for your guys, but you’ve got to make decisions on what’s best for the group.”
Here’s the latest from around the league going into this season’s Sunday of action.
- Conversely, SI.com’s Robert Klemko argues the NFL’s product has suffered because of the Smith-negotiated CBA. Early-season football — particularly line play — has been scrutinized for years, and a lack of practice time when compared to past generations is an obvious culprit. The players received a key concession in that department, but aesthetically, the game hasn’t improved. Additionally, the revamped rookie wage scale — while opening the door to more extension and free agency opportunities for veterans — has also led to teams carrying more young, and thus lesser-prepared, talent. Klemko notes the middle-class contract has become endangered, with Smith overcorrecting for the previous era of exorbitant rookie deals. The result has allowed teams to stockpile rookie contracts, saving money but also lowering the quality-of-play floor.
- IR remains a possibility for 49ers defensive lineman Tank Carradine, but Ian Rapoport of NFL.com notes (on Twitter) he received a shorter return timetable than expected. The starting defensive end will be out between four and six weeks with a high ankle sprain, with Rapoport adding the 49ers may elect to keep him on the active roster rather than shuttle him to IR. An IR trip would shelve Carradine for eight weeks.
- Trevor Siemian has picked up plenty of Peyton Manning‘s work-ethic habits, Nicki Jhabvala of the Denver Post reveals in an expansive story. Citing Siemian’s early-morning facility arrival, Jhabvala writes the Broncos current starting quarterback’s taken to many of his predecessor’s revered preparation methods. The second-year starter also underwent left shoulder surgery after playing on a separated clavicle for three months last season, per Jhabvala. Siemian is tied for the NFL lead with six touchdown passes going into Week 3.
- Jason Verrett‘s latest injury elevates the Chargers‘ near-future cornerback need, Eric Williams of ESPN.com writes. While a Pro Bowl talent, Verrett — placed on IR today due to a forthcoming knee surgery — has been unable to stay on the field. At the conclusion of this season, the 2014 first-round pick will have played in only 25 of 64 possible games. He’s under contract for next season, via the fifth-year option, and Williams doesn’t expect GM Tom Telesco to use the same strategy he did with D.J. Fluker (cutting him before the option became guaranteed). But Williams notes Verrett’s lack of dependability will make it difficult to sign the 2014 first-round pick to an extension. For now, 2016 UDFA Trevor Williams will start alongside Casey Hayward.
NFL Practice Squad Updates: 9/23/17
East Rumors: Giants, Fins, Jets, Cowboys
Justin Pugh‘s contract year could well include a lengthy stay at right tackle. The Giants‘ starting left guard slid to his original position on Monday night and will do the same Sunday against the Eagles. Big Blue plans to start Brett Jones at left guard and does not plan on ditching Ereck Flowers at left tackle, Jordan Raanan of ESPN.com notes. Pugh’s versatility will allow the Giants, per Ben McAdoo, to keep the “best five” on the field rather than the team having to use a swing tackle. Usual right tackle Bobby Hart will miss Week 3, and D.J. Fluker — a four-year Chargers starter — is apparently the Giants’ seventh offensive lineman. He’ll profile as the backup guard behind Jones and John Jerry, Raanan writes.
Here’s more from the Eastern divisions in advance of Week 3’s Sunday slate.
- Lawrence Timmons‘ pre-Week 2 disappearance will be costly. The Dolphins linebacker signed a two-year, $12MM deal but will lose money because of the suspension his new team handed down this week. In addition to voiding the $4.5MM in guaranteed money attached to his 2018 salary, Timmons stands to lose as much as $235K in base salary this season — since he can only be suspended for four weeks under the CBA — and could be set to forfeit signing bonus money, Ben Volin of the Boston Globe reports. Volin adds the linebacker could be forced to refund 4/17ths of this year’s portion of his $5.5MM signing bonus. This team-imposed ban could cost Timmons $882K this season before giving Miami greater leverage over him in 2018 because of voided guarantees.
- Jay Cutler reached out to Matt Forte about a possible Jets path, but his longtime Bears teammate couldn’t provide many details about an offensive system about to change, Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News reports. Although the Jets and Cutler had multiple visits scheduled, neither came to fruition and the interest wasn’t heavy on either side. Cutler also talked with former Broncos and Bears quarterbacks coach Jeremy Bates, Gang Green’s current QBs instructor, throughout his first free agency process, per Mehta. But with Bates not calling plays in New York, that connection didn’t have the kind of appeal that would have induced Cutler to sign with the rebuilding team. Instead, Cutler’s second wave of free agency became a Dolphins-centric odyssey.
- Austin Seferian-Jenkins weighed over 300 pounds in the recent past, according to Calvin Watkins of Newsday. The Jets tight end dropped a staggering 60 pounds, per Watkins, and is down to 262 as he comes off his two-game suspension for substance abuse. A May report indicated Seferian-Jenkins was down 25 pounds. A year ago Saturday, Seferian-Jenkins was arrested on suspicion of DUI. The Buccaneers cut him, routing the formerly coveted prospect to the Jets. As of this week, ASJ is approaching 250 days sober, Watkins reports.
- The Cowboys struggled to stay with Demaryius Thomas and Emmanuel Sanders in a Week 2 loss in Denver, and the team will take a shorthanded cornerback group to Arizona as well. Both Nolan Carroll and Chidobe Awuzie are out for the Cowboys’ Monday-night tilt against the Cardinals, Jon Machota of the Dallas Morning News tweets. A hamstring injury will shelve Awuzie, and Carroll’s in concussion protocol.
Lavonte David Suffers High Ankle Sprain
The Buccaneers could be without Lavonte David for the near future. The cornerstone defender suffered what’s believed to be a high ankle sprain in Tampa Bay’s loss to the Vikings on Sunday, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets.
David will undergo an MRI Monday morning, which will lead to a clearer timetable. But given the nature of this injury, it’s likely the stalwart outside linebacker misses some time.
Should David miss games because of this malady, they will mark his first absences since the 2014 season. David missed two games that year. During his other four NFL seasons, the former second-round pick suited up for all 16 Bucs contests. A hamstring injury sidelined David in 2014.
A former first-team All-Pro, David made seven tackles in Tampa Bay’s Week 3 defeat. A cart transported the sixth-year defender to the locker room. Worries about a knee injury swirled after the seminal sequence, but it appears David’s dodged a season-ending setback.
The Bucs were already playing without fellow standout ‘backer Kwon Alexander. Rookie Kendell Beckwith started in the middle for Alexander, who missed the Vikings matchup with a hamstring injury. So, Tampa’s defensive second level is reeling at the moment.
Cyrus Mehri Plans To Contest DeMaurice Smith’s NFLPA Re-Election
The NFLPA decided to retain executive director DeMaurice Smith, amending the union’s constitution from holding another election. Smith attained the job in 2009 and won elections in 2012 and 2015. This week’s unanimous vote — one featuring Richard Sherman, Adam Vinatieri, Dolphins long snapper John Denney and free agent center Ryan Wendell as four of the 14 voters — put the kibosh on Cyrus Mehri‘s hopes of challenging Smith in a 2018 election.
The Boston Globe’s Ben Volin reports Mehri wrote a letter to NFLPA president Eric Winston and the executive committee Thursday indicating he still intends to press the league’s 32 player reps for a formal spring election.
“Basically, I’m going to tell player reps, ‘Look, you were robbed of this ability to control your own destiny. You’re only going to get good things from competition. You can have a competition if you stand up and say you want it,’” Mehri said, via Volin. “The players that I talked to loved the ideas that I had. If we can organize the player reps to call for an election, it will happen.”
The co-founder of the Fritz Pollard Alliance that brought the Rooney Rule to the league, the 56-year-old Mehri told Volin the NFLPA didn’t post the new constitution on its website until August. Upon informing Winston at an August dinner about his plans to challenge Smith for the post, the would-be challenger didn’t come away pleased with the response.
Winston said Mehri “didn’t do his homework” about the changes, instead making his pursuit like a public campaign. The NFLPA, per Volin, did not want another “free-for-all” like what occurred in 2015, when Smith fended off eight others vying for the executive director job. This led to the 14-member vote this week.
“At the end of the dinner Eric mentioned to me, ‘Well, they changed the process,’” Mehri told Volin. “They wanted to create the false impression that the election was in the spring. Meanwhile, they were just going to quietly have his contract renewed by some insiders.”
Mehri has already approached player reps about his crusade. Winston said earlier this week having full-on elections every three years would not be a good look for the union. Mehri appears to disagree.
“I started talking to player reps, and a couple of things happened — they uniformly are in favor of competition, uniformly they feel I’m a legitimate candidate, and uniformly none of them remember signing off on changing the constitution,” Mehri said. “Which they must have done, but must have done in such a trickery way that they didn’t know what they were signing on to.
“So I think there’s a scandal buried in this thing, because normally a constitutional change would be in neon lights, very vivid and open.”
Minor NFL Transactions: 9/23/17
Here are today’s minor moves.
- Jason Verrett‘s 2017 season ended up including just one game. The cornerback will undergo season-ending left knee surgery, and the Chargers placed the cornerback on IR Saturday. To make room on their 53-man roster, the Bolts signed linebacker Nick Dzubnar, Eric Williams of ESPN.com reports. Dzubnar played in 20 games for the Chargers over the past two seasons.
- Steven Johnson‘s transaction-heavy month continued today when the Steelers cut the veteran linebacker and signed linebacker L.J. Fort, Ray Fittipaldo of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette tweets. The Steelers made this reverse transaction last week, and Fort re-signed with Pittsburgh’s practice squad soon after. Johnson’s been involved in four September transactions. He figures to be a candidate to re-sign.
- The Bears promoted linebacker John Timu from their practice squad and cut wide receiver Tre McBride, Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune tweets. Already down multiple key receivers, the Bears currently are carrying just four on their active roster.
- The Titans also made a receiver transaction before their Week 3 game, swapping out pass-catchers. The team promoted wideout Darius Jennings from the practice squad and waived wideout Zach Pascal. Jennings has spent time with several teams prior to this promotion, but his most relevant work came in making 14 receptions for the 2015 Browns.
North Notes: Long, Browns, Lions, Harrison
Kyle Long will return to action Sunday after missing 10 games, between the 2016 and ’17 seasons, with a severe ankle injury. The veteran Bears guard shed some light on why the recovery took so long after the November 2016 setback. Long said (via Rich Campbell of the Chicago Tribune) he “tore everything but his Achilles” during a gruesome sequence in the Bears’ eighth game last season. This included four ankle ligament tears. No broken bones occurred, but this induced the lengthy rehab process. It’s been more than 10 months since the Bears’ three-time Pro Bowl blocker stepped on a field for a game. Long’s father, Hall of Famer Howie Long, said he should have started training camp on the PUP list to prevent from attempting to come back too early.
Here’s the latest from the North divisions as its teams make final preparations for their third regular-season games.
- Kenny Britt‘s Browns tenure has not started off well. The 29-year-old wide receiver has just two receptions for 15 yards, on five targets. Recent practice squad promotion Rashard Higgins more than doubled Britt’s season target figure in Week 2. When the Browns signed Britt to a four-year, $32MM contract in March, an anonymous NFL executive told cleveland.com’s Terry Pluto the deal came with risk because Britt could become an “attitude problem.” Pluto characterizes Britt as having trouble in this department while with the Titans before re-routing his career with the Rams with a 1,000-yard season in 2016. Now paid handsomely by a non-contending team, Britt has an uphill battle to prove he’s worth the investment. The bulk of Britt’s guaranteed money will be paid out this season, but the ninth-year veteran’s 2018 dead-money figure is higher than the cap savings that would come the Browns’ way with a release.
- DeShone Kizer left last weekend’s game due to migraine headaches. Pluto notes the Browns were aware of this trouble, but since the issue never impeded the quarterback during a game at Notre Dame, the Browns didn’t deem it a medical red flag. A waiver claim last year, 2016 fifth-round pick Kevin Hogan came on in relief of Kizer and has usurped Cody Kessler for the backup job.
- Teryl Austin‘s been a frequent visitor for teams seeking head coaching interviews in recent years. He met with the Chargers in January and spoke with the Browns, Dolphins, Giants and Eagles in 2016. The veteran Lions DC has yet to receive a chance to lead a team, and while Austin said last year he felt only two of his 2016 interviews were legitimate, some teams may have had issues with the DC’s ideas for a staff, Kyle Meinke of MLive.come notes. However, Meinke adds Austin has rectified those seemingly minor concerns, and teams “love the way he’s interviewed.” If the Lions turn in a solid defensive performance this season, Meinke envisions the 52-year-old defensive mind landing a coaching gig in 2018.
- When T.J. Watt went down with a groin injury in Week 2, Anthony Chickillo, not James Harrison, replaced the rookie. The Steelers have Harrison his first DNP-CD since 2003, and the 39-year-old linebacker addressed these concerns this week. “Just doing what I’m asked,” Harrison said, via Chris Adamnski of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. “You’re not going to get any other answer than that. So if you have any other questions about playing time, you ask coach T (Mike Tomlin).” Tomlin said Chickillo’s insertion into the game came because he wanted to “leave the hot hands in there.” Harrison started seven games last season and rated as one of Pro Football Focus’ best edge defenders. Steelers outside linebackers coach Joey Porter said earlier this year he plans to use Harrison as a relief pitcher of sorts despite the two-year deal the outside ‘backer signed in March. The franchise is following through with that plan so far.