Today’s minor moves:
Denver Broncos
- Re-signed: OL Billy Turner
Kansas City Chiefs
- Re-signed: OL Jordan Devey
Oakland Raiders
- Waived: LS Bradley Northnagel
Seattle Seahawks
- Re-signed: DB Akeem King
Having made seven straight Pro Bowls and appearing on the 2016 All-Pro team, Matthew Slater has been one of the most decorated pure special-teamers in NFL history. He could be changing teams.
At least, he’s considering it. The longtime Patriots specialist is visiting the Steelers on Saturday, Field Yates of ESPN.com tweets. Slater has played his entire 10-year career in New England.
The 32-year-old gunner agreed to stay with the Patriots last year on a one-year, $1.8MM deal but is now a free agent. Pittsburgh, which is limited in cap space, will not have to spend much to acquire Slater. But the Patriots, who re-signed another ST-only player earlier this week in Nate Ebner, have long valued special teams. So it would be interesting if they deemed a core member of those units expendable.
The Buccaneers are moving fast. Minutes after their release of Robert Ayers, the team is set to sign Vinny Curry.
Jenna Laine of ESPN.com reports the Bucs are adding Curry, whom the Eagles released late this week, on a three-year deal worth $27MM with $11.5MM guaranteed.
Curry made 16 starts last season for the Super Bowl champions, the first 16 of his career, and played a key role in Philadelphia’s first Super Bowl title run. The Bucs have now added two pieces from Philly’s defensive front, with Curry joining Beau Allen. They’ve also added Mitch Unrein in what’s been a major effort to overhaul the Gerald McCoy-centered unit.
Set to turn 30 in June, Curry will land on his feet. The Eagles were slated to pay him $9MM this season as part of the previous extension he signed in 2016. Now, he’ll get that from the Bucs per year.
Curry ranked 21st among Pro Football Focus’ edge defender grades last season, 11 spots behind Ayers, and will be expected to provide an outside pass rush to complement McCoy’s nearly unparalleled interior-pursuit abilities. Curry’s best season (2014, nine sacks) came in a 3-4 defense as a rotational player who played on just 32 percent of Philly’s snaps, Adam Caplan of ESPN.com notes (on Twitter). He will likely be utilized more as a pure pass rusher since the Bucs do not have the edge-rushing depth the 2017 Eagles did.
So, Michael Bennett replaced Curry and now Curry will take over for Ayers. It figures to be a matter of time before Ayers lands elsewhere.
[RELATED: Buccaneers Depth Chart]
Oakland’s Doug Martin signing was not a precursor to a big shakeup in its backfield. The Raiders are going to retain Marshawn Lynch, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets.
He will receive his $1MM roster bonus due on Sunday, Rapoport reports, and appears almost certain to return as the team’s feature back.
Lynch signed a two-year deal with the Raiders, with most of the guaranteed money coming to the running back in Year 1. Jon Gruden provided a public challenge to the soon-to-be 32-year-old running back last month, indicating he needed a “full-time Lynch.” It’s looking like Bay Area fans will have a chance to see at least one more season of Lynch suiting up for his hometown team.
Although Lynch was plagued by injuries during his final year with the Seahawks, leading to his retirement/2016 sabbatical, he played in 15 Raiders games last year. He was not allowed to play in all 16 because of a suspension. While Lynch was reportedly a problem for previous Raiders coaches, he’ll have a strong chance to keep his starting job.
He rushed for 891 yards and seven touchdowns last season, with his 4.3 yards per carry eclipsing the 3.8 mark of his final Seattle slate. Lynch, though, came on strong late in the season, rushing for at least 95 yards three times in the Raiders’ final five games after failing to do that previously for the team.
Lynch, Martin, DeAndre Washington and Jalen Richard are the top Raiders backs. The latter two are signed to rookie deals but have impressed in spurts in the past. Coming off back-to-back seasons of 2.9 yards per tote, Martin may have to show he’s worthy of another chance with Lynch now being given the green light to stay with Gruden-led team.
Robert Ayers will not see a third season with the Buccaneers. The team has made the decision to release him, Field Yates of ESPN.com tweets.
The Bucs signed Ayers during the 2016 free agency period. He was due to make $6MM this season, but Tampa Bay won’t be charged with any dead money for cutting bait on a three-year agreement after two seasons.
Despite Ayers having completed his age-32 season, he remained a high-end producer in Tampa. Pro Football Focus graded the defensive end as the No. 10 edge defender in the league last season. He produced both as a pass rusher and a run defender, but Tampa Bay will turn to a younger player to replace him. Vinny Curry will join the Bucs, following Beau Allen, Will Clarke and Mitch Unrein in what’s looking like a near-total revamp around Gerald McCoy.
A former Giants and Broncos cog with experience as an end in 3-4 and 4-3 defenses, Ayers figures to generate interest on the open market. Although, he wasn’t especially durable with the Bucs, playing in just 10 games in each of his two seasons. His sack total plummeted from 9.5 with the 2015 Giants to six with the ’16 Bucs to 2.5 last season.
Ayers will be set for a 10th NFL season if he signs elsewhere.
Despite being released by a team that possessed arguably the NFL’s worst wideout situation last season, Deonte Thompson is encountering a market for his services. And he’s fielded multiple offers, Mike Garafolo of NFL.com tweets.
The former Bears castoff became a key target for the Bills upon signing with Buffalo in October. And the Bills have had discussions with the seventh-year wideout about re-signing him. However, they may be battling some competition. Both the Broncos and Cowboys are interested in the 29-year-old receiver, Garafolo reports.
It’s unclear if the Cowboys or Broncos have made an offer. The Broncos appear to have a bigger need of auxiliary receiving help, though.
Denver has struggled badly in this area since Wes Welker‘s departure, with no non-Demaryius Thomas or Emmanuel Sanders wideout surpassing 350 yards in any of the past three seasons. The Broncos non-tendered then-RFA Bennie Fowler, whose 350 yards were by far the most by a Denver WR3 from 2015-17, this week and saw underwhelming supplementary target Cody Latimer become a free agent.
The Cowboys have not made any Dez Bryant move and also have Terrance Williams, Cole Beasley and Ryan Switzer on their roster. Barring a Bryant decision, Dallas would seemingly have less need for Thompson than the Broncos or Bills, who saw Jordan Matthews‘ contract expire. Buffalo still has Kelvin Benjamin, Zay Jones and Andre Holmes under contract for 2018.
Thompson caught 38 passes for 555 yards with the Bears and Bills last season — by far a career high — and 430 of those air yards came after he caught on in Buffalo.
A report emerged Friday that the Vikings did not make the best offer for Kirk Cousins, and it was rather easy to speculate which franchise did. And some details on the Jets’ process have emerged.
The Jets may well have been the runners-up for Cousins, and they are believed to have made a $30MM-per-year offer for the quarterback, Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News reports.
Cousins’ agent, Mike McCartney, said the Vikings’ offer was “not even close” to the best for his client. And a previous report had the Jets ready to offer a boatload for the 29-year-old passer. And it’s quite possible they could have offered a $30MM-AAV fully guaranteed deal. That would have qualified as a better proposal than what Cousins accepted.
While the Vikings didn’t make the best offer, the one they did make comes with some historic provisions: an $84MM fully guaranteed deal, a no-trade clause and the prevention of placing the franchise tag on Cousins once the deal expires, Mehta reports.
During his press conference in Minnesota, the now-wealthier quarterback said he did some scouting on the city while he was in town for Super Bowl week, informing his wife that “everything was checking the boxes” in Minnesota. The Redskins agreed to trade for Alex Smith while Cousins was in Minneapolis, so the Vikings may have been the frontrunners from the start — even though it wasn’t yet known if they were going to place the franchise tag on Case Keenum. Mehta adds Cousins was not believed to have made a trip to the New York/New Jersey area for Jets-scouting purposes.
As far as the Jets go, being so committed to chasing Cousins harmed their free agency prospects, Mehta writes. Although they feared the Vikings in this chase, they were still holding out hope as of Tuesday morning he could be swayed to come to New York. The Jets reporter notes the team could not make sizable financial proposals on Monday because of the commitment they would have needed to make to Cousins if he were to sign with them. Mehta reports the Jets gave Cousins a deadline on Tuesday morning.
After Cousins-to-Minnesota became an accepted reality on Tuesday, however, the Jets sprang into action — most notably with their Trumaine Johnson commitment. New York signed both Josh McCown and Teddy Bridgewater to serve as a bridge to the likely passer the team will draft at No. 3 overall.
Another theory at Jets headquarters is McCartney helped arrange Cousins going to Minnesota to help Josh McCown — also a McCartney client — receive a better Jets offer. While that may be a bit extreme, since McCown got $4MM more in 2018 ($10MM) than he did in 2017, Mehta reports that is a real sentiment with the Jets.
Now that the Vikings have Sheldon Richardson set to add to an already stacked defense, the team is probably going to move on from previous defensive tackle starter Tom Johnson. Rick Spielman does not expect Johnson to return, per Chris Tomasson of the St. Paul Pioneer Press (on Twitter). The Vikes were previously open to a Johnson re-up, but that was before Richardson agreed to terms. Johnson turned down a $4MM extension offer last year that would have kept him alongside Linval Joseph on Minnesota’s front in 2018. But now, a menacing-looking Joseph-Richardson setup will be deployed. The Seahawks lost Richardson and now have interest in the 33-year-old likely-to-be former Viking.
Here’s more from the Vikings, courtesy of Tomasson.
- Terence Newman has expressed interest in returning for an age-40 season, and Tomasson tweets he would like that to be with the Vikings. However, he wonders if Newman — who counted nearly $4MM toward Minnesota’s 2017 cap — would be a fit at that price now that major dollars have been allocated for big-name talent this offseason. The Vikings still have nearly $20MM in cap space but also have several key extension candidates entering contract years.
- Spielman is confident Richardson has left his off-field trouble in the past. The former defensive rookie of the year encountered legal trouble while with the Jets, resulting in suspensions in 2015 and ’16 — the former a four-game ban. “We did a lot of research on that. That was maybe 2 1/2, 3 years ago,” Spielman said, via Tomasson (on Twitter). “We talked to a ton of people about it. … I felt very confident with him coming into this culture into our locker room that he’ll fit right in.’’
- The Vikings cut Jarius Wright after six seasons on Friday. The team kept him in the loop throughout this process. The 28-year-old pass-catcher added the Vikings alerted him a cap-casualty cut was a possibility. “They had come to me and let me know that it was a possibly with some of the contracts they were looking at,” Wright said, via Tomasson (on Twitter). “They kept me updated.” It’s possible Wright, who was set to make $3.64MM in base salary next season, could be brought back at a lower rate.
Another team with ties to the Bengals staff that drafted Emmanuel Lamur is considering signing the veteran linebacker.
The Raiders have discussed adding Lamur despite having already signed outside linebacker Kyle Wilber on Saturday, Adam Caplan of ESPN.com tweets. Oakland has made several investments to help several areas on its defense, and Lamur has a key connection to the new Raiders staff.
New defensive coordinator Paul Guenther coached Lamur while in Cincinnati. Lamur spent the past two seasons with the Vikings, following former Bengals DC Mike Zimmer to Minneapolis. With Lamur having strictly served as Vikings depth during his stay in the Twin Cities, he likely would not cost much for the Raiders to add.
Oakland has already agreed to deals with Wilber and Tahir Whitehead, helping reshape a linebacking corps that has been fluid during Reggie McKenzie‘s GM run.
A year after signing Johnathan Hankins to a three-year, $27MM deal, the Colts are releasing the defensive lineman, Field Yates of ESPN.com tweets.
Hankins received a $7MM roster bonus and no signing bonus, with all of the defender’s guarantees coming in the contract’s first year. The Colts will not be tagged with any dead-money charges because of this surprising cut.
The timing of this release is notable. The 26-year-old lineman would have seen $4.5MM his $8MM 2018 salary become fully guaranteed on Sunday, Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk reports. The Colts did this despite possessing more than $65MM in cap space — second-most in the league.
Hankins signed with the Colts shortly after free agency began last year, doing so after being a Giants starter for three years. He functioned in that role last season as well, starting 15 games.
This move also comes as the Colts are preparing to transition to a 4-3 defense, and prior to last season, Hankins had only worked in a 4-3 scheme. He played in the Colts’ 3-4 setup last season and graded out quite well, being tabbed as the No. 20 interior defender by Pro Football Focus. And the advanced metrics site only graded two full-time interior defenders — former Giants running mate Damon Harrison and now-UFA Ndamukong Suh — as being better against the run last season, doing so for an Indianapolis defense that ranked 30th.
He will become one of the more recognizable talents on the market and would almost certainly be expected to be a coveted commodity by other defensive tackle-needy franchises.