2020 March - Pro Football Rumors

Bengals To Cut John Miller

March 18th, 2020 at 11:05am CST by Zachary Links

The Bengals are releasing starting guard John Miller, Adam Schefter of ESPN.com tweets. Miller joined the team as a free agent just one year ago, but he no longer fit into their plans.

Miller was set to play out the last two seasons on his three-year, $16.5MM deal. By dropping him, the Bengals will save $2.61MM against $2.66MM in dead money.

Last year, Miller started in 13 games for the Bengals. Previous to that, he started in 47 games for the Bills across four seasons. His tenure in Buffalo garnered mixed reviews – in 2017, he was demoted in favor of Vlad Ducasse. But, in 2018, he regained his starting gig and showed enough to land a decent payday with the Bengals. Now, he’ll look for work elsewhere.

Titans Trade Jurrell Casey To Broncos

March 18th, 2020 at 10:54am CST by Zachary Links

The Broncos have landed Jurrell Casey, and it didn’t cost him much. On Wednesday, the Titans agreed to send the defensive tackle to Denver in exchange for a seventh-round pick.

Casey is on the books for $11.85MM in 2020, with $5.45MM of that sum becoming fully guaranteed this weekend. The Titans were likely to release him, but they found a taker and a small bit of compensation instead.

Casey, 30, missed the final game of the 2018 season with a knee injury and was held out of training camp as he recovered. He passed his physical in time for 2019 and managed to appear in 14 games, all starts. Casey has been first-string for his entire Titans tenure; he has 139 career games and has started in all but two of them.

With this deal, the Broncos have added a five-time Pro Bowler to their defensive line on the cheap. Casey has 51 career sacks from the interior under his belt and an impressive track record of disruption on the line. Last year, Pro Football Focus gave him a 74.3 score – a notch below his usual work, but still good enough to place as the No. 24 ranked interior defender in the NFL.

Bears Interested In Panthers’ Cam Newton

March 18th, 2020 at 10:27am CST by Zachary Links

Cam Newton is on the trading block and the Bears are among the teams with interest in him, Jonathan Jones of CBSSports.com (on Twitter) hears. The expectation is that Newton will be released by the Panthers in the coming days, but Jones notes that the Bears might not want to compete for him on the open market. Instead, they might be willing to give up something in a trade to bring the former MVP to Chicago.

The Panthers announced on Tuesday that they have given Newton permission to seek a trade. Soon after, the quarterback took to Instagram to let the world know that he did not want out of Carolina.

“Stop with the word play! I never asked for it,” Newton wrote. “There is no dodging this one: I love the Panthers to death and will always love you guys! Please do not try and play me, or manipulate the narrative and act like I wanted this. You forced me into this!”

The Panthers later agreed to a sizable deal with Saints free agent Teddy Bridgewater, cementing him as the team’s new starting QB. The Bears, who are looking for alternatives to Mitchell Trubisky, were among the clubs with interest in Bridgewater up until that point. Now, their search could lead them to Newton.

Bengals To Cut B.W. Webb

March 18th, 2020 at 10:16am CST by Zachary Links

The Bengals will release B.W. Webb today, according to ESPN.com’s Josina Anderson (on Twitter). The move will save the team $3.5MM against the 2020 salary cap while leaving $1MM in dead money.

Webb joined the Bengals last year on a two-year, $10.5MM deal, but he only fetched $2.5MM in guaranteed dollars. In his lone Bengals season, Webb appeared in 15 games and started in 12 of those contests. In a difficult season full of injuries, the Bengals finished the year 2-14.

Webb, who turns 30 in May, had a stronger 2018 when he was with the Giants. In that season, he graded out as the No. 77 ranked corner in the league, according to Pro Football Focus. By those advanced metrics, he performed roughly as well as Morris Claiborne, Marcus Peters, Minkah Fitzpatrick, and Jimmy Smith.

It’s just the latest shuffling of cornerbacks for the Bengals, who added Trae Waynes and lost Darqueze Dennard to the Jaguars this week.

Weak Market For Seahawks’ Jadeveon Clowney?

March 18th, 2020 at 10:08am CST by Zachary Links

Jadeveon Clowney has been disappointed by his offers thus far in free agency, NFL.com’s Mike Garafolo (Twitter link) hears. The Seahawks have made an effort to keep him and the feeling is that their offer could be the best he gets, Garafolo adds.

It’s a surprising development, considering that many of this year’s top pass rushers have already been spoken for. Matt Judon, Yannick Ngakoue, Chris Jones, Leonard Williams, and Bud Dupree were all yanked back via the franchise tag and DeForest Buckner was shipped from the 49ers to the Colts, which should have left Clowney as the belle of the ball. Instead, his market has stagnated.

Earlier this month, the Giants and Colts were both said to have interest in Clowney, but they’ve since addressed their needs. Our best guess is that Clowney’s injury history is scaring clubs off and his asking price probably hasn’t been adjusted to factor for that. And, in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, teams might not be able to give the former No. 1 overall pick a thorough physical.

Clowney posted just three sacks in 2019, but he was still effective against opposing passers and running backs. For his work, Pro Football Focus ranked him as the 20th best edge defender in the NFL, ahead of notables such as Olivier Vernon, Vinny Curry, Von Miller, and Dupree.

Cowboys Interested In Emmanuel Sanders

March 18th, 2020 at 9:51am CST by Zachary Links

The Cowboys have expressed interest in Emmanuel Sanders, according to Jane Slater of NFL.com (on Twitter). For the SMU product, it would mark a return to Texas. Meanwhile, the Cowboys would get another proven vet to help replace Randall Cobb, who has moved on to the Texans.

Sanders, a two-time Pro Bowler, trains in Dallas in the offseason and Slater hears that the interest is mutual. Last year, Sanders was shipped from the Broncos to the 49ers midway through the season and caught 36 passes for 502 yards and three touchdowns for his new team. He was a little quieter in the playoff run to the Super Bowl with five receptions for 71 yards in the postseason.

The Cowboys re-upped Amari Cooper on a five-year, $100MM deal on Monday, meaning that he’ll return as the team’s WR1 for 2020 and beyond. The Cowboys also have receivers Michael Gallup, Devin Smith, and Cedrick Wilson under contract. Whether they sign Sanders or not, you can expect to see another notable name join the group.

Lions To Sign Danny Shelton

March 18th, 2020 at 9:40am CST by Zachary Links

The Lions have agreed to sign former Patriots defensive lineman Danny Shelton, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN.com (on Twitter). It’ll be a two-year deal worth $8MM, agent Drew Rosenhaus tells Schefter.

Shelton hooked on with Rosenhaus in February, just weeks before entering unrestricted free agency. Last year, he sat on the market for a few months before re-signing with the Patriots on a one-year deal. This time around, he’s found his deal much sooner.

A better run defender than pass rusher, the 6’2″, 345-pound Shelton took on a key role for the Pats last year. He played in every regular season game and started in 14 of those contests. Overall he played around 49 percent of the defensive snaps for one of the league’s best defenses. With the Lions, he figures to serve as a key rotational piece on the interior.

The Washington product was drafted 12th overall by the Browns back in 2015. He became an instant starter in Cleveland but never quite lived up to his draft status, and was shipped to New England along with a fifth-rounder in exchange for a third-round pick before the 2018 season.

He had three sacks coming up the middle last year, and this continues a trend of Detroit and Matt Patricia picking up former Pats players after they also signed linebacker Jamie Collins earlier this week.

Jets To Release Trumaine Johnson

March 18th, 2020 at 8:52am CST by Zachary Links

The Jets will officially cut Trumaine Johnson when the league year opens this afternoon, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets. This has been a long expected move as the Jets look to move on from an absolute disaster of a free agent signing.

Since-fired GM Mike Maccagnan signed Johnson to a five-year, $72.5MM in 2018 after striking out on quarterback Kirk Cousins and other top targets. What seemed like an over-pay at the time went in a much worse direction than anyone could have anticipated. Injuries hampered Johnson and Jets officials were sometimes left with the impression that his effort was lacking.

The move will not free up lots of cap room for Gang Green – they’ll be saddled with $12MM in dead money versus just $3MM in cap savings. The silver lining, however, is that the Jets can spread his $12MM dead money cap hit by marking him as a post-June 1 release.

The Jets tried to scare up interest in Johnson before the trade deadline last year, but there were no takers. Predictably, there was no market for Johnson in March.

Between the Jets and the Rams, Johnson has earned $70M as an NFL pro.

Buccaneers’ Tom Brady Wants To Play With Antonio Brown

March 18th, 2020 at 8:39am CST by Zachary Links

Teams that have spoke with Tom Brady in recent days believe that the new Buccaneers quarterback wants to reunite with Antonio Brown, according to NFL.com’s Mike Garafolo (on Twitter). It’s not immediately clear whether the Bucs are willing to sign Brown, whose status with the league is still up in the air.

We also heard chatter that Brady wanted to play with Brown in the lead-up to free agency, though those were sourced from anonymous people “close” to the wide receiver. Now, we’re getting word of Brady’s desire to play with Brown directly from the teams that were courting him.

From a football perspective, it would be a huge win for the Buccaneers. With Brown, Mike Evans, and Chris Godwin at wide receiver, they’d be impossible to guard for opposing defenses.

Still, the NFL says Brown’s status remains under review. Even if he’s cleared to play, the Bucs might have reservations about bringing him into the locker room. Remember, even before all of the ugly accusations and disturbing social media videos, Brown was perceived to be unstable for his behavior in Pittsburgh and the drama that nixed his Oakland tenure before it even began.

Brown has caught 841 passes for 11,253 yards over the course of his ten-year career, which includes seven Pro Bowl appearances. Brady, meanwhile, has thrown for 74,751 yards and 541 touchdowns en route to 14 Pro Bowl selections.

Cowboys To Sign Gerald McCoy

March 18th, 2020 at 8:12am CST by Zachary Links

The Cowboys have agreed to terms with defensive tackle Gerald McCoy, a source tells ESPN.com’s Todd Archer (on Twitter). The pact, which is still pending a physical, is slated to be a three-year contract.

Once finalized, it’ll be a three-deal deal worth roughly $20MM, Mike Garafolo of NFL.com tweets. His average annual value should land north of $6MM, Garafolo adds, so it sounds like the base value of the deal will be no less than $18MM. That’s a lot less than McCoy earned on his massive deal with the Bucs, but still a solid payday for a vet who is eager to win on the backend of his career.

McCoy hooked on with the Panthers last year after spending his previous nine pro seasons with the Buccaneers. He started in every game for Carolina and was still effective on the interior – he finished out with five sacks, bringing his career total to 59.5.

McCoy, 32, will join forces with DeMarcus Lawrence and Tyrone Crawford on Dallas’ D-Line. There, he’ll help to try and fill the void left by the departures of Robert Quinn and Maliek Collins. Quinn cashed in on Tuesday by agreeing to a five-year, $70MM deal with the Bears. Collins, meanwhile, hooked on with the Raiders.