2018 April - Pro Football Rumors

Month: April 2018

Baker Mayfield To Meet With Seven Teams

April 2nd, 2018 at 11:42am CST by Zachary Links

Baker Mayfield‘s April figures to be busy. The Oklahoma signal caller will meet with the Browns, Bills, Jets, Giants, Dolphins, Broncos, and Cardinals, Robert Klemko of The MMQB reports.

The Giants will sit down with Mayfield before the Jets, Manish Mehta of the Daily News adds. He’ll meet with the G-Men on April 8 and 9 before continuing his pre-draft tour with the Jets on April 9 and 10. The Jets conducted a private workout with Mayfield in Oklahoma on March 24, fueling speculation that he could be among the QBs in consideration for them at No. 3 overall.

Mayfield was last year’s Heisman Trophy winner, but some evaluators question whether he has the height to succeed at the next level. There are also some character concerns thanks to his actions during games against Ohio State and Kansas and a public intoxication arrest.

Most of the teams in this bunch were expected to show interest in Mayfield, but the Dolphins and Broncos are not obvious fits for him given the presence of Ryan Tannehill and Case Keenum, respectively. The Cardinals make more sense for Mayfield since Sam Bradford is not necessarily a long-term answer under center and the Bills are also a logical fit since they are not completely locked in on A.J. McCarron as their starter for 2018. Unlike the Dolphins and Cardinals, the Bills have ample ammo to move up for Mayfield with the Nos. 12 and No 22 picks in their possession.

Cowboys To Meet With Kony Ealy

April 2nd, 2018 at 11:07am CST by Zachary Links

Jets free agent defensive end Kony Ealy will meet with the Cowboys On Tuesday, sources tell Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (on Twitter). Meanwhile, he has “remained in discussions” with Gang Green over the past few weeks, Rapoport adds.

Ealy, 26, was shipped from the Panthers to the Patriots last offseason, but was cut by New England in August. The Jets claimed him off of waivers – beating out the Cowboys with a higher waiver priority – and he put together a solid season in New York.

Ealy’s one sack and 14 total tackles don’t exactly jump off of the page, but he saw time on 451 snaps as a part of the defensive line rotation and started in four of his 15 games. For his work, Pro Football Focus rated him as the No. 61 edge defender in the NFL last year, which actually slotted him ahead of former teammate Julius Peppers, despite Peppers’ eleven sacks.

The Cowboys are set with Demarcus Lawrence and Tyrone Crawford as their starting bookends, but Ealy could find work off of the bench in Dallas as a replacement for Benson Mayowa.

Raiders Cut Marquette King Over “Personality” Clash

April 2nd, 2018 at 10:37am CST by Zachary Links

Late last week, the Raiders cut fan favorite Marquette King in a move that was ostensibly about money. By releasing the punter, Oakland saved $2.9MM against the cap, but apparently that was not the only factor. King’s personality did not jibe with coach Jon Gruden, Vic Tafur of the San Francisco Chronicle (on Twitter) hears.

Some of Gruden’s concerns may have been rooted in the on-field impact of King’s antics. While King is among the best at his position, he has tallied four personal fouls over the last two seasons. One of his most memorable moments came in December 2016 when the Bills were flagged for roughing the punter and King received a penalty of his own when he danced with the flag.

King’s personality won’t dissuade other teams from pursuing him. The Vikings reached out to King immediately after he was cut and more clubs are sure to follow this week.

Josh Rosen To Meet With Seven Teams

April 2nd, 2018 at 10:03am CST by Zachary Links

UCLA quarterback Josh Rosen is set to meet with the Browns, Jets, Giants, Cards, Broncos, Bills, and Chargers in the coming weeks, according to Peter King of The MMQB. Cleveland gets the first crack at Rosen with a visit lined up for this week.

King suspects that the Browns will ask Rosen about recent comments made by his former head coach, Jim Mora, in which he advocated for USC Sam Darnold go to No. 1 overall.

“Because of fit, I would take Sam Darnold if I were the Cleveland Browns. I think that blue collar, gritty attitude, I think his teammates will love him, I think the city will love him. He’ll say the right things. He will come in and he will represent well. I think he kind of represents what Cleveland is. And if I was one of the New York teams, I would take Josh *snap* just like that. I think they will both be great in the pros.”

In his conversation with King, Mora expounded on those thoughts a bit, but didn’t exactly backtrack.

“He needs to be challenged intellectually so he doesn’t get bored,” Mora said, while reemphasizing the angle of Rosen needing the proper “fit.” “He’s a millennial. He wants to know why. Millennials, once they know why, they’re good. Josh has a lot of interests in life. If you can hold his concentration level and focus only on football for a few years, he will set the world on fire. He has so much ability, and he’s a really good kid.”

Mora’s comments may be a topic of discussion for interested teams, but it would be shocking to see Rosen fall any further than the Jets at No. 3.

Draft Rumors: Patriots, Jets, Darnold, TEs

April 1st, 2018 at 9:14pm CST by Sam Robinson

Despite using second- and third-round draft choices on quarterbacks in recent years, the Patriots are still reaping the benefits of their 2000 sixth-round investment. But with Tom Brady going into his age-41 season, Robert Kraft knows quarterback plans have to be front and center now that Jimmy Garoppolo is out of the picture. The owner said the team has to think about drafting another passer this year.

“I’m going to put my fan hat on, and obviously at some point we have to,” Kraft said (via Mike Reiss of ESPN.com) regarding how high of a priority finding a quarterback in this draft is. “Not just that, but think what happened in the ’08 season when in the first quarter against Kansas City, Tom goes out. How many people would have said that Matt Cassel would have led us to an 11-5 season?

“I put my faith and confidence in Bill (Belichick). He knows his responsibilities. Anything can happen, even if Tom comes in (and is in) tip-top shape.”

Brian Hoyer is under contract for two more seasons on a three-year, $4.82MM deal. Both he and Brady’s contracts run through 2019.

Here’s the latest from the draft world as we begin draft month.

Expected to select a quarterback at No. 3 overall, the Jets are going to be spending some key hours with prospects this month. They’ve already worked out Josh Rosen and Baker Mayfield, and Mike Maccagnan has plans to arrange some for-Jets-eyes-only throwing for Josh Allen, Calvin Watkins of Newsday reports. However, the Jets GM does not plan to schedule a private workout for Sam Darnold. Maccagnan watched Darnold play in person at USC, when the Trojans faced Rosen’s UCLA Bruins in November, and attended his pro day. Nevertheless, it’s interesting the Jets won’t use every avenue they have to evaluate Darnold, even if he’s been the quarterback most closely connected to the Browns at No. 1. The Jets have been closely tied to Allen for months.
Longtime Browns reporter Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer does not anticipate any Jets/Darnold prep work mattering, expecting the Browns to take the USC product at No. 1. She notes the team is close to settling on a consensus for what to do with that seminal selection. Hue Jackson said that process is winding down as well.
It’s looking like South Carolina’s Hayden Hurst will be the first tight end selected in this year’s draft, NFL.com’s Lance Zierlein notes. One NFL personnel man said it “wasn’t even close” between Hurst and the field, which also includes Penn State’s Mike Gesicki and South Dakota State’s Dallas Goedert. Zierlein writes Gesicki still has a chance to be a first-round pick after a take-notice Combine but adds it’s becoming clear TE-needy teams will gravitate toward Hurst, who is a top prospect despite catching just three touchdown passes with the Gamecocks in three seasons.
It’s not outside the realm of possibility that four quarterbacks could go in the top four, should a team trade with the Browns and move into the No. 4 slot, but NFL.com’s Chad Reuter sees one of the passers being available by the time the Bears pick at No. 8. Reuter suggests the Saints as being the team that trades into that draft slot and selects Mayfield, nearly mirroring the move the Chiefs made (from No. 27 to No. 10) last year to take Patrick Mahomes. Mayfield’s 6-foot frame being similar to Drew Brees and his profile as a player who could use some developmental time would line up with the Saints, who would have to almost certainly surrender their 2019 first-rounder and then some to move from 27 to 8.

Geno Smith To Sign With Chargers

April 1st, 2018 at 7:49pm CST by Sam Robinson

It looks like Philip Rivers will have a new backup quarterback. Geno Smith and the Chargers reached an agreement on a deal that will bring Smith to Los Angeles, Adam Schefter of ESPN.com tweets. It’s a one-year deal, per Schefter and ESPN.com’s Eric Williams.

Smith will reunite with Anthony Lynn, who was a Jets offensive assistant during his first two seasons with the team.

The sixth-year quarterback met with both the Bolts and Seahawks this offseason, with the Chargers receiving the first meeting. He will trek to L.A., leaving Seattle without a proven backup to Russell Wilson. Smith and Cardale Jones are now in line to fill out the Chargers’ Rivers-centric QB meetings.

Having spent a year backing up the player once traded for Rivers, Smith made one start for the Giants and ended up snapping Eli Manning‘s historic streak. That caused quite a bit of uproar and accelerated the changing of the guard in New York. Smith saw action in just two Giants games last season and only three Jets contests from 2015-16, with the infamous locker room skirmish with IK Enemkpali playing a role in sidetracking the former second-round pick’s career.

Entering his age-28 season, Smith holds a career 57.9 completion percentage and has thrown 29 touchdown passes compared to 36 interceptions. He started a loss to the Raiders in Oakland last season, completing 21 of 34 tosses with a touchdown on a depleted Big Blue team.

Rivers has not missed a start since taking over the Bolts’ passing reins in 2006. Jones did not throw a pass last season with the Bolts. Longtime Rivers backup Kellen Clemens, who threw eight passes in 2017, is a free agent. Rivers’ backup for the past four seasons, Clemens seems poised to head elsewhere now. The Seahawks could be a fit, with the 34-year-old quarterback having worked under new Seattle OC Brian Schottenheimer with the Rams earlier this decade.

Paul Pasqualoni To Call Lions’ Defensive Plays

April 1st, 2018 at 7:48pm CST by Sam Robinson

Matt Patricia has called defensive plays for the past eight years, doing so in New England during two seasons before he became the Patriots’ DC. But he will cede that responsibility in his first season with the Lions.

Detroit’s new head coach will delegate play-calling duties to new Lions DC Paul Pasqualoni, Patricia said (via Kyle Meinke of MLive.com).

While Patricia will still weigh in on defensive and offensive plays at times, the primary responsibilities for defensive calls will go to Pasqualoni. An on-and-off NFL assistant over the past 13 years whose primary connection to Patricia was at Syracuse in the early 2000s, Pasqualoni initially hired Patricia as a graduate assistant when he was the program’s head coach. He’ll now receive his biggest NFL assignment since 2010.

“Coach Pasqualoni will be calling the defense, and he’ll be running it from that standpoint,” Patricia said this week. “In general, I’ll call whatever I need to offensively, defensively or special teams. But yeah, he’ll be in charge.”

The 68-year-old assistant coached Boston College’s defensive line over the past two seasons and served as an NFL DC from 2008-10, with the Dolphins and Cowboys. The Lions ranked 19th in defensive DVOA in Teryl Austin‘s final season.

NFC North Rumors: Packers, Ebron, Vikings

April 1st, 2018 at 6:36pm CST by Sam Robinson

Bryan Bulaga has now seen two of his past five seasons either wiped out or largely nullified by severe injuries, and the Packers‘ starting right tackle is now entering the seasons of his contract where a cap-casualty cut is not incredibly prohibitive. Yet, the ninth-year blocker is expected to return for the fourth season of said deal.

“Whenever players are injured it’s tough as personnel guys who are not 100 percent sure of when they’re coming back,” Green Bay GM Brian Gutekunst said, via Michael Cohen of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “But I know that he’s been working exceptionally hard. We’ve got a lot of faith that he’s going to come back sooner rather than later, and obviously when Bryan is in there, Bryan is a good player.”

Mike McCarthy also wants Bulaga to be part of the 2018 Packers, indicating he’s heard the 29-year-old edge protector is on schedule following an ACL tear. It would only save the Packers $4.2MM to release Bulaga while tagging them with a $3.2MM dead-money penalty. That savings figure spikes to nearly $7MM in 2019, so Bulaga staying healthy will likely be paramount to him seeing the final year of that contract.

Here’s the more out of Green Bay as well as some of the Packers’ top rivals.

Jahri Evans remains in the picture, to some degree, for a second season with the Packers. Although, the former perennial All-Pro is going to turn 35 next season. “Jahri is definitely part of the conversation,” McCarthy said. “I don’t know exactly where he is as far as what his goals are, but we’re open (to him returning.” On the strength of his pass-blocking, Evans graded as Pro Football Focus’ No. 30 guard last season. While his 71.7 grade was slightly down from his Seahawks season, Evans showed in 14 games he’s still a viable NFL starter. He didn’t sign with the Packers initially until late April of last year, so the door may still be open on that front.
The Lions dangled Eric Ebron up until the deadline for his fifth-year option to vest before ultimately releasing him. Bob Quinn elaborated about why the former first-round pick ended up as a free agent instead of netting the Lions a draft pick in a deal. “I guess the general response that I got was, ‘The number’s too big,'” Quinn said, via Kyle Meinke of MLive.com, of Ebron’s then-$8.25MM cap figure attached to the 2018 option. “The salary that came along with the fifth-year option was something that we weighed, you know, really up until the last minute, to be honest. It was just one of those things that we knew was coming down the pike, we obviously had some trade conversations with a few teams that didn’t work out.” Ebron ended up with the Colts on a two-year, $13MM pact.
Not receiving any compensation for Ebron, the Lions are targeting picks via trades prior to this draft. Detroit holds just six picks. “That’s something that’ll definitely be in the talks I’d say, a week or two leading up to the draft — try to get more picks,” Quinn said, via Meinke. The Lions have a basic draft allotment, holding all their own picks save for the sixth-rounder they surrendered for Greg Robinson last year.
With Joe Berger and Jeremiah Sirles now out of the picture, the Vikings‘ top remaining need is on their offensive line, Ben Goessling of the Minneapolis Star Tribune writes. Although the team signed swing blocker Tom Compton, draft help is likely en route. Rick Spielman recently attended Billy Price‘s pro day at Ohio State, and Goessling notes the team could be on the lookout for another veteran. The Vikings still have $19MM-plus in cap space.

West Notes: Raiders, McKinnon, Broncos

April 1st, 2018 at 3:02pm CST by Ryan Posner

In a fairly surprising move, the Raiders released punter Marquette King earlier this week. Scott Bair of NBC Sports Bay Area looked into some of the options the Raiders have in replacing their punter of the last five seasons.

As Bair notes, there’s not much out there for the Raiders in free agency. Brad Wing is the only active punter on the market with full-time experience from last season, serving as the Giants’ starter. But Wing graded out as last in the NFL, per Pro Football Focus, out of the league’s qualified punters.

The Raiders also have former UC Davis punter Colby Wadman on their roster, though he has yet to record a punt in his brief NFL career.

That leaves the draft as the most likely place for the Raiders to find their replacement at the position. Bair identifies Texas’ Michael Dickson — who won last year’s Ray Guy Award — Alabama’s JK Scott, Bowling Green’s Joseph Davidson and Florida’s Johnny Townsend as potential options to be taken in the draft.

The departure of King is just one of several shakeups to the Raiders special teams this offseason. The team also cut long-time kicker Sebastian Janikowski and long-snapper Jon Condo.

Here’s more from around the AFC/NFC West

Jerick McKinnon‘s versatility in comparison to Carlos Hyde, who signed with the Browns this offseason, has the 49ers ecstatic about their most-recent addition at running back. “Everyone talks about running back and stuff – they need a new position to name people,” 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan said to Matt Barrows of the Sacramento Bee. “Because he plays running back and receiver and tight end – he does all that. You use him the same way you use all these positions. He’s a very good running back. But he also brings a lot of other stuff to the table.”
While speaking on the “Ben and Skin Show” on Dallas’ 105.3 FM The Fan, Broncos wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders did not speak highly on the physicality of the Cowboys’ secondary, stemming from the teams’ Week 2 matchup last season, which the Broncos won 42-17. “Honestly and truthfully, you know, what I’m going to say… I hope it’s not a shot to nobody but maybe in that game — this is what I saw, it’s the honest truth — I saw a defense that really, truly wasn’t physical. That’s what I felt when I was playing against those guys. In terms of the safeties coming down and hitting me, it’s an old term called ‘sticking your hand in the fan.’ Just unphysical. They weren’t physical at all. I’ve been in the league nine years and after that game, I felt like they were scared or something. That’s the kind of vibe that I had gotten. … I promise, this is not something I’m making up right now. I told everybody after that game that’s how I felt when I played against the Cowboys. Maybe they weren’t scared but I don’t know. … I know what a physical defense looks like and I just didn’t feel it out of that defense.”
On Saturday, we learned that the Rams plan to play newly-signed Ndamukong Suh at nose tackle in their base 3-4 defense, with Aaron Donald and Michael Brockers on the edges.

AFC Notes: Colts, Patriots, Jaguars, Bills

April 1st, 2018 at 1:15pm CST by Ryan Posner

While Colts owner Jim Irsay and general manager Chris Ballard might see the team in somewhat of a rebuilding stage, that’s not how newly-hired head coach Frank Reich is going to look at the upcoming season.

“I get that there’s certain positions in the organization where there are different perspectives,” Reich said to Stephen Holder of the Indianapolis Star. “And I think it’s mature to be able to say something can be both hands. But as a coach, I’m not both hands. I’m not being paid to (see) both hands. Other guys are being paid to see the rebuilding and have the patience. I’m not being paid for that. There’s not one ounce of me being patient. There’s not one ounce of me that thinks we are in a rebuilding project.

“Every ounce of me feels that we are winning this year.”

The Colts finished at 4-12 last season — their worst finish since 2011 when they were in between the Peyton Manning and Andrew Luck eras — and have missed out on the playoffs the last three years. Luck’s health is certainly a question mark, but the team’s decision to trade back in the first round of the draft should be viewed as a positive sign. Indianapolis has been fairly quiet in the free-agent market, with the additions of defensive end Denico Autry (three years, $17.8MM) and tight end Eric Ebron (two years, $13MM) serving as its biggest splashes.

Here’s more from around the AFC:

ESPN’s Mike Reiss opines that the Patriots should look at the Eagles and how they handled losing Jason Peters last season to help fill their own question marks at left tackle, with the loss of Nate Solder. Halapoulivaati Vaitai, a fifth-round pick in 2016, stepped in admirably to replace Peters amidst the Eagles’ Super Bowl run. Reiss points to unheralded players like LaAdrian Waddle, Cole Croston and Matt Tobin that could be developed in similar ways. It’s also possible the team will address the position with the No. 31 overall pick in the upcoming draft.
Mel Kiper Jr. had the Jaguars taking Maryland wide receiver D.J. Moore (Maryland) with the No. 29 pick in his latest mock draft. Ryan O’Halloran of the Florida Times-Union points out that Moore played for current wide receivers coach Keenan McCardell at Maryland where he was a wide receivers coach for two seasons.
In his latest mock draft, Peter Schrager of NFL Network projects the Bills to trade up for the Colts’ No. 6 pick in the draft and select Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield. The Bills currently hold the 12th and 22nd overall picks in the draft.

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