Latest On Franchise-Tagged Players
Monday’s 3pm CT deadline for franchise-tagged players to sign extensions may come and go without one being finalized.
After a Saturday report indicated re-ups were unlikely for DeMarcus Lawrence and Ziggy Ansah, Adam Schefter of ESPN.com confirmed Ansah and the Lions won’t agree to terms by Monday afternoon and adds Lawrence is unlikely to come to terms with the Cowboys (Twitter links).
As for the other two tagged players, prospects also appear grim. Schefter reports (on Twitter) Lamarcus Joyner is not expected to reach an extension with the Rams, though he adds the sides are still discussing one. And despite Mike Tomlin‘s hopes of Le’Veon Bell finally agreeing to a Steelers accord, Schefter reports (via Twitter) that’s unlikely, too. However, the Steelers and Bell have made recent progress and will keep trying until the deadline. But this report throws some cold water on an 11th-hour solution coming to pass.
Ansah and the Lions have been far apart throughout this process, and the Lions are planning to see if their top edge defender can stay healthy and prove reliable enough for a long-term commitment. The Cowboys may be using the same strategy with their injury-prone pass rusher, despite making a stronger effort to discuss a deal with Lawrence.
Bell and the Steelers have been circling each other for years, but if the parties can’t agree by Monday afternoon, their arrangement will be a full-fledged rental situation. Bell will likely be headed toward the 2019 UFA market if the Steelers don’t sign him by Monday. The Rams’ issues with Aaron Donald‘s deal leave Joyner in a strange spot. Los Angeles possesses a league-low $2MM in cap space and has a glut of contract calls coming — Donald, Joyner, Brandin Cooks, Todd Gurley, Marcus Peters — in what will be a complicated stretch for the now-high-profile team.
Of course, by the Lions, Cowboys and Rams not agreeing on deals with their tagged performers, that ups prices down the line. Since Bell has already been twice tagged, it would cost the Steelers a staggering $20MM-plus to tag their All-Pro back again.
Ansah is going to play this season for $17.1MM, and if Lawrence indeed is still without a deal by Monday evening, he will too. Joyner will count nearly $12MM on the Rams’ payroll, while Bell’s $14.5MM 2018 salary has been well-known for months by NFL contract buffs.
Jack Conklin Addresses Rehab Timeline
Last month, Mike Vrabel said Jack Conklin could begin Titans training camp on the PUP list. The third-year tackle discussed his recovery this weekend but did not confirm he’d be ready by the first Vrabel-era camp commences.
While Conklin stopped short of proclaiming himself ready to go, which can be expected since he tore an ACL in mid-January, he said no setbacks have occurred during his recovery.
“I am still rehabbing, but things are going well, no setbacks,” Conklin said, via Jim Wyatt of TitansOnline.com. “It is hard having a new staff, not able to be out there running around. But I have a great team and the staff has done a great job of getting me (healthy). I am excited.”
Conklin added that he’s down to 310 pounds from 320, with Wyatt pointing out that may be a better fit for the new offense the Titans will run under new OC Matt LaFleur. The Titans are exercising patience with their right-edge starter.
“You don’t want to come back too early and hurt it again,” Conklin said. “You want to make sure you are full health and ready to go. If I come back too early, I am not only hurting myself, but I am hurting the team. If I can’t play at the level I need to perform at, there’s really no reason I should be out there playing. I think I need to earn my way back health-wise and practicing and that is something I am working toward and something I am excited to get back to.”
Blake Bortles On New Jaguars Contract
Rather than enter the Kirk Cousins sweepstakes or make a run at other starter-level players like Case Keenum, Tyrod Taylor or Sam Bradford, the Jaguars preemptively reached an extension agreement with Blake Bortles. He’s signed through 2020.
With Bortles having not shown much to indicate he’s capable of top-level quarterback play, the Jaguars look to be building around their defense. Bortles was on board with that strategy when it came time to negotiate his second Jags deal.
“I think definitely the way the Tom (Brady) has done it is the way to try to model,” Bortles said, via Sirius XM Radio (Twitter link), of willingly taking a lower salary. “Having guys and putting pieces around him was definitely something. When you take up a ton of money you kind of limit your team and who they can help you out with and put around you.
“I’m not naive enough to say that we don’t need a run game. We also need a good defense; we need good receivers; we need all these pieces. You can’t play as a quarterback and do it yourself so I’m more than willing to take less money than somebody else might in my position to put good guys around us.”
Bortles signed for three years and $54MM, with a $15MM signing bonus. His 2018 salary is fully guaranteed, and $6.5MM of his ’19 base salary is as well. With it costing the Jags $16.5MM in dead money to cut Bortles after this season, this deal ties the 2014 first-rounder to the team effectively through the next two seasons.
However, given the inconsistency he’s displayed in four seasons, it was unlikely Bortles was going to make much more than he did on this contract. He did want to remain in Jacksonville, something he hopes to do throughout his career.
“I was like, ‘I don’t really care how much money it is. Let’s just get a deal done so I can go play football and have some security in a place that I got drafted,'” Bortles said during the interview. “It was huge for me to sign a second deal by the team that drafted me. To be able to play in one place your whole career is something I’ve always wanted to do. To be able to have that security for at least a little bit … I’ve still go to go earn it and play well in order to stay there.”
Bringing in Cody Kessler and sixth-round pick Tanner Lee, the Jags did not make a big outside investment at quarterback this offseason. So, Bortles doesn’t have much in-house competition this season — one that features the Jaguars in as strong of a competitive position going into it as they have been in many years.
5 Key NFL Stories: 7/8/18 – 7/15/18
LeSean McCoy faces domestic abuse allegations. McCoy’s ex-girlfriend, Delicia Gordon, has accused the Bills running back of being involved in an incident which left her with brutal injuries. While McCoy wasn’t in the same state when Gordon was the victim of a home invasion, Gordon is claiming McCoy orchestrated the attack. McCoy has hired a defense attorney with experience in NFL cases, and it’s possible he’ll be placed on the commissioner’s exempt list while the case plays out.
DeMarco Murray announces retirement. Despite taking multiple offseason visits, Murray surprisingly decided to hang up his cleats — although not everyone is sure he’ll stick with retirement. As of last week, reports emerged that Murray was hoping to land with a new team soon, and a number of clubs looked like obvious fits. He met with the Lions, Seahawks, and Dolphins during the offseason, but declined an opportunity to work out for the Saints.
Darren Sproles will play one more season. Just this afternoon, Sproles announced that he’ll play just more season before heading into retirement. Sproles, now 35, had hinted at retirement at this time last year, but after his 2017 campaign was ended by both a torn ACL and a broken arm, the veteran running back decided to come back for one more year. He’ll handle passing game work in an Eagles backfield that also includes Jay Ajayi, Corey Clement, and others.
2018 supplemental draft results. Although the NFL’s supplemental draft had been a boring affair in recent years, that wasn’t the case in 2018. The Giants sacrificed a 2019 third-round pick in order to land Western Michigan cornerback Sam Beal, while the Redskins used a 2019 sixth-rounder on Virginia Tech corner Adonis Alexander. Mississippi State defensive back Brandon Bryant, meanwhile, went undrafted but has since landed with the Jets.
Marcell Dareus sued twice for sexual assault. Dareus is facing not one, but two sexual assault civil suits. Both women claim Dareus had sex with them after they’d fallen asleep or blacked out, while one woman says Dareus transmitted an STD. So far, no criminal charges have been pressed, but Dareus could still be subject to NFL discipline regardless of the legal outcomes of his cases.
Darren Sproles To Retire After 2018 Season
Eagles running back Darren Sproles will retire from the NFL after the 2018 season, as the veteran explained in a post today.
“The plan was for 2017 to be my last season,” writes Sproles. “I was 34, had a great career, accomplished a lot—it was time. No one ever expected my career to last this long, over a decade but I was proud to prove them all wrong. Then my season ended a little earlier than expected, to an injury.
An injury is different; It’s something you don’t have any control over but I feel like I left a lot out there, and I couldn’t let my career end like that.”
As Sproles alludes to, he’d originally hinted that 2017 would be his final NFL campaign, but backtracked on that sentiment even before multiple injuries ended his season in September. Sproles not only suffered a torn ACL, but a broken arm during the first month of the 2017 season, which concluded with Sproles having played in just three games.
After deciding to return for 2018, Sproles inked a one-year deal with the Eagles that contains $1MM in guarantees. Now 35 years old, Sproles will be part of a Philadelphia backfield that also includes Jay Ajayi, Corey Clement, Matt Jones, Wendell Smallwood, and Donnel Pumphrey. Sproles should be guaranteed a roster spot, and will likely handle passing game work in the Eagles’ offense.
Maintaining value based on his receiving skills is nothing new for Sproles, who has never topped 100 carries in a season during his lengthy pro tenure. Sproles spent the early portion of his career as LaDainian Tomlinson‘s backup with the Chargers, but emerged to even greater prominence as a backfield weapon for Drew Brees and the Saints. He was shipped to the Eagles in 2015 in exchange for a fifth-round pick.
PFR Originals: 7/8/18 – 7/15/18
The original content and analysis produced by the PFR staff during the past week:
- We covered three notable moves in our This Date In Transactions History series:
- Ben Levine looked at quarterback Matthew Stafford‘s first contract extension with the Lions.
- Zach Links went over now-Titans head coach Mike Vrabel‘s decision to retire as an NFL player in 2011.
- Zach also analyzed the 1966 retirement of Hall of Fame running back Jim Brown.
- PFR looked at three candidates for a contract extension:
- In PFR’s latest Community Tailgate post, Sam covered what has been an increasingly stalled free agent safety market.
- Zach looked at the free agent stock of defensive tackle Johnathan Hankins, who has yet to find a new home after being released by the Colts.
- Here’s a look at every NFL team’s cap space in mid-July.
- Zach ran down the list of 26 NFL players who will begin the 2018 season on the suspended list.
- In PFR’s latest poll, I asked readers which 2017 last place team is likeliest to make the playoffs in 2018.
East Notes: Redskins, Cowboys, Jets
Earlier today, we looked at how the Redskins plan to deploy their supplemental draft choice, Adonis Alexander. Now let’s take a look at notes from several other east division clubs, starting with more out of Washington:
- The Redskins‘ lack of a consistent running game in the Jay Gruden era is the byproduct of a number of factors, as John Keim of ESPN.com observes. While the offensive line is generally a good one (when healthy), the team has struggled mightily in short-yardage situations over the last few years, and some question whether Washington is committed enough to the run, as it ranks 27th in the league in total carries since 2014. But, as Keim points out, the Redskins rank 10th in first-down carries over that same span; the problem is that they rank 30th in yards per carry on first down. So, as one scout suggests, the issue is not running more, it’s running more effectively. The addition of Derrius Guice should help, as would a healthy season from the starters on the O-line and more effective blocking from receivers and tight ends. If Washington is going to push for a playoff spot, it will need an effective ground game to help out Alex Smith and the passing attack.
- The Cowboys have a new O-line coach in Paul Alexander, who spent the last 24 seasons with the Bengals. He inherits one of the best offensive lines in the league, so he is under a good deal of pressure to keep the train rolling. To that end, he does not plan on making a drastic overhaul, but as Jon Machota of the Dallas Morning News writes, Alexander and OC Scott Linehan are implementing concepts that are noticeably different from the ones that previous O-line coaches Bill Callahan and Frank Pollack employed. Star running back Ezekiel Elliott is impressed with the modifications, and Alexander suggests that the linemen themselves have also bought in.
- Darryl Slater of NJ.com touched on the Jets‘ tight end battle in a mailbag item yesterday, a situation that he delves into more deeply today. Per Slater, Jordan Leggett — whom the team selected in the fifth round of the 2017 draft, but who missed his entire rookie campaign with a knee injury — is a roster lock, as is 2018 fourth-rounder Chris Herndon. Both players are essentially rookies, and while they both have upside, rookie tight ends rarely produce a great deal in the passing attack. Slater suggests that Leggett and Herndon could see a fairly even split in snap distribution, though they will both need to improve as blockers. He adds that New York is expected to keep three tight ends, and Eric Tomlinson — who is a capable blocker — is currently the favorite for the No. 3 TE job.
- Per Adam H. Beasley of the Miami Herald, the Dolphins could build a training facility that will allow them to practice where they play. Miami is considering building a $75MM complex on team-owned land adjacent to Hard Rock Stadium, which would be a considerable upgrade from the facility at Nova Southeastern University that the team has trained in since 1993. Although that facility has been improved over the years, it is still a far cry from the first-class complexes that are becoming more commonplace around the league. Other locations remain in consideration, but an upgrade is coming, and it could come as soon as 2020.
Latest On Adonis Alexander
The Redskins sacrificed a sixth-round pick in next year’s draft by selecting Adonis Alexander in this year’s supplemental draft. That certainly seems like a risk worth taking, given that Alexander has the ability of a first- or second-round prospect and given that Washington has two other sixth-round choices in the 2019 draft anyway.
The general assumption around the league is that Alexander, who played both safety and cornerback at the collegiate level, will play cornerback for the Redskins. Rich Tandler of NBCSports.com, though, says no firm decision in that regard will be made until the team has had the opportunity to evaluate him at both positions. Although Washington is currently leaning towards deploying him as a CB, Tandler says Alexander’s makeup could make him a quality safety as well.
Either way, Alexander will have an excellent shot not only of making the roster, but of earning significant playing time right away. The top two corners on Washington’s roster, veterans Josh Norman and Orlando Scandrick, are locked into starting roles in 2019, but the depth chart looks pretty open behind that. Quinton Dunbar is currently penciled in as the team’s No. 3 CB, but Alexander certainly has the potential to push him for snaps, and Alexander has higher upside than second-year players Joshua Holsey and Fabian Moreau. Moreau, a 2017 third-rounder, is likely not going anywhere this season, but Tandler says that if Alexander makes the team, Holsey or 2018 seventh-rounder Greg Stroman — Alexander’s former Virginia Tech teammate — could be squeezed out.
At safety, D.J. Swearinger and Montae Nicholson are the presumptive starters, so Alexander’s primary competition would come from Deshazor Everett — who is viewed as more of a special teams contributor — second-year player Fish Smithson, and rookie Troy Apke.
For his part, Alexander predictably believes that he could line up anywhere in the defensive backfield (and the Redskins could certainly utilize his 6-3, 207-pound frame in a number of roles if they so choose). He said, “At safety, I feel like my strength is just being an instinctive player. Being physical would definitely be my strength in playing safety, coming down to tackle and stuff.” He added, “As for corner, my competitiveness, instincts, like I said, would definitely be a strength at corner because as far as playing corner, it’s a one-on-one thing with you and the receiver. I’ve definitely tried to win everyone at a one-on-one battle.”
Since Alexander missed offseason practices, he will have some catching up to do when training camp opens. But even if he starts a little behind the learning curve, one has to think that he will be given every opportunity to secure a spot on the 53-man roster, regardless of the position he winds up playing.
Extension Candidate: Brandin Cooks
Immediately after shipping a first- and sixth-round pick to the Patriots in exchange for wide receiver Brandin Cooks earlier this year, the Rams expressed interest in extending Cooks’ contract. And that makes sense, as Los Angeles presumably did not give up that type of draft capital with the intention of getting just one year of service from Cooks, who is entering the final year of his rookie contract.
But, as a young and accomplished wideout in today’s market, Cooks will not come cheap. After the trade to LA was consummated, our Zach Links suggested that the Oregon State product could land a contract approaching Mike Evans‘ recent mega-deal with the Buccaneers, a five-year, $82.5MM pact with up to $55MM in guarantees. While Cooks will almost certainly not get that type of money in an extension with the Rams, he may not be too far away.
Indeed, just last week we learned that Vikings wideout Stefon Diggs could command a deal worth at least $60MM over a four-year term, and he has not had a single 1,000-yard season yet. Cooks, meanwhile, is just a couple of months older than Diggs, and he has topped the 1,000-yard barrier in each of the past three seasons. In his only season in New England, he had 65 grabs for 1,082 yards and seven touchdowns, and he averaged 81 catches for 1,156 yards and eight scores during his final two years with the Saints.
Of course, Cooks has had the benefit of playing for two future Hall-of-Fame quarterbacks in Drew Brees and Tom Brady, but there is no denying his ability. And while many perceive him to be primarily a deep threat, his new head coach, Sean McVay, believes Cooks is a well-rounded receiver. Last month, McVay said of Cooks, “he’s a guy — if you just look at, really, his career — he is a really fast player, but he can do everything. He plays big for a smaller-stature guy. But he’s strong. He can win short, he can win intermediate, he can go down the field. So I think you’re really not limited in any way that you can utilize him. And there’s a reason why he’s had over 1,000 yards and [at least] seven touchdowns each of the last three years. And he’s a special player for sure.”
If the Rams and Cooks are able to come to terms in the next couple of months, it would not be surprising to see Cooks bring home something in the neighborhood of Jarvis Landry‘s new contract with the Browns, which pays him over $15MM per year with $34MM in guaranteed money. Landry and Cooks are quite different in terms of style of play, but in terms of age and track record, they’re pretty similar. Because of his big-play ability, Cooks would probably seek a little more than Landry, which could make him a top-five receiver by AAV.
Since it was reported that the Rams were interested in extending Cooks, there has been no further news on that front, presumably because LA still wants to lock up Aaron Donald before addressing Cooks’ contract situation. If and when the Donald matter gets resolved, though, Cooks could be the next domino to fall. He will lead a strong receiving corps on a team that features a great deal of talent on both sides of the ball and that could be a legitimate title contender.
AFC North Notes: Steelers, Ravens, Taylor
Mike Tomlin addressed the contract status of his top running back and is hopeful that the key players being in the same room will bring about a long-awaited resolution to the Le’Veon Bell impasse. The 12th-year Steelers coach believes everyone involved in this process wants this deal finalized.
“Now it’s just about negotiators getting into a room and doing what it is they need to do,” Tomlin told WAVY-TV’s Bruce Rader (Twitter link via Jeremy Fowler of ESPN). “I’m excited and hopeful. Hopefully we’ll have some exciting news before Monday.”
Earlier Saturday, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com reported some late progress has emerged here after previously it was looking like a strong possibility existed of Bell hitting the 2019 free agent market. The deadline for franchise-tagged performers to sign extensions is 3pm CT Monday. If Bell does not reach a deal, he’s not expected to show up at the Steelers’ facility until after the preseason concludes.
Aside from the division-dominating Bell saga, here’s what’s going on in the AFC North heading into training camps:
- After losing Ryan Jensen to the Buccaneers, the Ravens are in need of a new center. Going into camp, the hope is second-year Raven and former UDFA Matt Skura commandeers the job, Edward Lee of the Baltimore Sun notes. A Duke product who entered the league two years ago, Skura started 12 games in relief of Marshal Yanda last season at right guard. Pro Football Focus didn’t view those starts as particularly memorable, placing Skura’s 2017 work near the bottom of the guard hierarchy. Lee adds that while Alex Lewis will be tried at left guard, the part-time 2016 Baltimore starter also hovers as a center option.
- A scenario where Tyrod Taylor sees another year in Cleveland by holding off Baker Mayfield into 2019 has been discussed by some this offseason. It just doesn’t seem realistic, Mary Kay Cabot of cleveland.com said (video link). Cabot does not see a scenario that Taylor is on the 2019 Browns, partially because he may have a starting opportunity elsewhere next season as Baker Mayfield ascends to claim the Browns’ job. Even if Taylor leads the Browns to a surprise playoff berth, Cabot can see John Dorsey following his former organization’s example by moving on from the starter that got them there and installing the first-round pick the following year.
- The Steelers drafted James Washington in the second round because they “love” his ability to adjust on deep targets and make contested catches, Tim Benz of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review notes. Washington’s ability to win 50-50 balls will make him credible in an area in which Martavis Bryant didn’t display a reliable skill last season, Benz writes, though conceding the former Oklahoma State star doesn’t have Bryant’s athleticism.