Latest On Contract Talks Between Ravens, Ronnie Stanley
It does not sound like the Ravens and left tackle Ronnie Stanley have made much progress in contract talks, as Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.com observes (Twitter link). Stanley is currently playing under the fifth-year option of his rookie deal, and the last we heard, he is looking to top the massive $22MM/year deal that Laremy Tunsil signed with the Texans.
The Tunsil pact was viewed as an unnecessary overpay by Bill O’Brien, a head coach who appears miscast as a GM, but the market is the market, so it makes sense that Stanley — who earned a First Team All-Pro bid last season — is shooting for the stars. However, Baltimore knows it will soon have to pony up major cash for a new deal for quarterback Lamar Jackson, and it just committed a ton of money to CB Marlon Humphrey.
Still, Stanley has a lot of leverage. The Ravens’ O-line does not look as sharp as it did last year, as the team had to replace a future Hall-of-Fame right guard in Marshal Yanda with rookie Tyre Phillips, and right tackle Orlando Brown Jr. has regressed a bit. Losing one of the best LTs in football is not something Baltimore will allow to happen, especially with Jackson under center.
Stanley has dealt with injuries throughout his first four years in the league, though he has never played fewer than 12 games in a season. He will miss today’s contest against Washington with a shoulder ailment, but the team hopes he will return in Week 5. As of now, durability will not be a huge factor in negotiations.
Fowler says that player and team have explored multiple scenarios, including a short-term contract that would keep Stanley under club control for a couple more seasons while allowing him to be eligible for free agency again before he turns 30. Apparently, though, those talks have not been especially productive, and the franchise tag is looking more and more likely.
Eric Weddle Open To Return
Six-time Pro Bowl safety Eric Weddle, who announced his retirement in February, may be getting the itch to play again. According to Mike Garafolo of the NFL Network (video link), Weddle has received at least two offers from NFL clubs, and though he spurned both of those overtures, the 35-year-old is open to a return.
Garafolo says that an AFC North club made an offer prior to the season, and depending on when the offer was made, it could have come from either the Browns, Ravens, or Steelers. Cleveland lost rookie safety Grant Delpit for the year in August; Baltimore pivoted to the unproven DeShon Elliott following its release of Earl Thomas, and it might have welcomed a reunion with Weddle, who spent three seasons in the purple-and-black; and the Steelers were interested in Weddle before he signed with the Ravens in 2016, and they might have liked the idea of pairing him with Minkah Fitzpatrick in the defensive backfield.
More recently, Weddle received an offer from an unnamed AFC South club, which might have been the Colts, who lost Malik Hooker for the season after he suffered an ACL tear in Week 2. Weddle hasn’t found the right situation yet, but he might suit up this year if a contender that he like comes calling.
Although Weddle made the Pro Bowl during each of his three seasons in Baltimore, his speed was clearly in deep decline. He hooked on with the Rams last March after the Ravens released him, but chronic shoulder and knee pain led to his decision to hang up the cleats after his first and only season in LA.
Apparently, he feels good enough to make a comeback, and a club with playoff aspirations might covet his veteran leadership in a rotational role.
Chiefs, Patriots To Play Monday Night
The Chiefs’ latest round of point-of-care COVID-19 tests came back negative, as Ian Rapoport of NFL.com reports (via Twitter). Adam Schefter of ESPN.com had previously reported that the Patriots’ tests also came back negative (Twitter link), so the two clubs will play each other Monday night at 7:05pm ET.
This is obviously great news for the NFL, which is dealing with a significant number of positive tests on the Titans. After New England’s Cam Newton and KC’s Jordan Ta’amu also tested positive, there was plenty of speculation that, like the Titans-Steelers Week 4 contest, the Patriots-Chiefs game slated for this week could be pushed back. For now, it seems like this particular crisis has been averted.
Still, the Chiefs will now face the tall task of playing three games in 10 days, and if the Titans-Bills Week 5 game gets postponed, Buffalo will be coming off a Week 5 bye when it takes on KC. On the other hand, the Chiefs will face a Brian Hoyer-led New England offense tomorrow night, as Newton has now landed on the reserve/COVID-19 list.
Although teams don’t usually undergo tests on gamedays, Schefter reports that both the Patriots and the Chiefs will be tested tomorrow morning (Twitter link). The Falcons-Packers game, the original Monday night contest, will be pushed back to 8:50pm ET.
Texans HC Bill O’Brien To Be More Involved In Play-Calling
Texans head coach/GM Bill O’Brien has come under intense scrutiny for his management of his club’s roster, especially after this offseason’s infamous DeAndre Hopkins trade. O’Brien did cede play-calling duties to offensive coordinator Tim Kelly, but in the wake of Houston’s 0-3 start to the season, the head coach is renewing his involvement in that side of the operation.
As Ian Rapoport of NFL.com writes, O’Brien will take on an increased role in game-planning and play-calling. Kelly will continue to relay the plays to QB Deshaun Watson, but O’Brien will have significant input into which plays are called. That means that Houston’s offense will run more like it did in 2019, which ended in a trip to the divisional round of the playoffs.
The Texans’ offense has sputtered without Hopkins, and the team currently ranks near the bottom of the league in terms of total offense and yards per game. Still, the club has more offensive talent than that showing would suggest, and O’Brien apparently believes he can help get more production out of that unit.
Houston has started the season in an 0-3 hole, but since its first three opponents have a combined 8-1 record, no one is panicking just yet. Still, an 0-4 start would put an even bigger damper on the Texans’ playoff aspirations, and O’Brien is trying to make sure that doesn’t happen. His club will take on the Vikings this afternoon in a battle of talented but winless outfits.
No Progress In Talks Between Bears, Allen Robinson
Negotiations between the Bears and top wideout Allen Robinson picked up last month after reports surfaced indicating that Robinson was unhappy with how contract talks had proceeded and after Robinson removed Bears-related references from his social media pages. Robinson, though, denied making a trade demand, and Chicago reportedly rebuffed all trade inquiries that came its way, so it seemed that there was a chance of a long-term accord coming together.
But Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports says that seems unlikely. La Canfora reports that the two sides remain at an impasse, and that the renewed negotiations did not gain any traction. One reason for that may be that Robinson sees himself as the top receiver in the 2021 free agent class, which means that he is likely shooting for a contract paying him at least $20MM per year. Statistically speaking, he doesn’t have the same resume as players like Michael Thomas and Julio Jones, but since Keenan Allen and Amari Cooper are also above the $20MM threshold, Robinson may well get that type of money on the open market.
Unfortunately for him, he might not be allowed to get to the open market. La Canfora reiterates his earlier report that this process will probably end with Robinson receiving the franchise tag, and that rarely makes a player happy. But with Nick Foles now under center for Chicago, Robinson may be able to bolster his bargaining position as the season unfolds.
Robinson is off to a solid start in the 2020 campaign, catching 18 passes for 230 yards and a score. His 3-0 Bears will battle the Colts this afternoon.
WFT Could Bench QB Dwayne Haskins
The Washington Football Team is not pleased with how quarterback Dwayne Haskins has performed through the first three games of the season, and Ian Rapoport of NFL.com says the club could bench Haskins if he does not show improvement soon. In fact, Rapoport hears Haskins could be yanked during the club’s game against the Ravens this afternoon.
Haskins was the 15th-overall pick of the 2019 draft, and WFT gave him all the first-team reps in this year’s training camp while tailoring the offense to his strengths. Washington is not talent-rich on the offensive side of the ball, so not all of the club’s struggles fall on Haskins’ shoulders, but Haskins has certainly had his issues.
Thus far, he has taken too many sacks, has not shown much poise in the pocket, and he turned the ball over four times in last week’s loss to the Browns (three interceptions and one fumble). Although WFT did have an exciting comeback win over the Eagles in Week 1, Haskins has completed just 56.4% of his passes and has thrown four TDs against three picks, good for a 75.7 QB rating.
The Ohio State product had just one season as a starter in college, so it would seem strange that a team like Washington that doesn’t have realistic postseason hopes would pull the plug on him before he has even played a season’s worth of games as a pro. But as Rapoport writes, WFT sees the five games after Baltimore as eminently winnable — the team plays the Rams, the Giants twice, the Cowboys, and the Lions — and the coaching staff might believe current backup Kyle Allen is better-suited to win those games.
Allen was with WFT head coach Ron Rivera and OC Scott Turner in Carolina, so he has more experience with the offense. But Haskins definitely has a higher ceiling than Allen, and the team has much more invested in him. It will be interesting to see if Rivera — who was not with Washington when the club selected Haskins — has a quick hook.
COVID-19 Latest: Titans, Pats, Newton
After three blissfully uneventful weeks in the NFL — at least as far as COVID-19 is concerned — the virus has begun to rear its ugly head. Let’s get you up to date with all the pandemic-related happenings in the league:
- One more Titans player and one more Tennessee personnel member tested positive, as Adam Schefter of ESPN.com tweets, bringing the total to 20 positive tests (10 players and 10 personnel). Since the Titans have now had positive tests on six straight days, the soonest they could reopen their facilities would be Wednesday, October 7 (Twitter link via Schefter). Tennessee is scheduled to play the Bills next Sunday, October 11.
- Schefter says in a full-length piece that the league and union are investigating whether the Titans violated COVID-19 protocols, and the team has been asked to turn over multiple videotapes of team activities. At least one source believes Tennessee failed to follow the protocols, and if that turns out to be true, the club could face punishment in the form of fines or draft pick forfeiture. Another source thinks that the league will ultimately look to make an example out of the Titans.
- Luckily, no other team had a positive test from yesterday’s round of testing, as Tom Pelissero of the NFL Network observes (via Twitter). That includes the Patriots and Chiefs, both of whom recently had a player test positive (starting QB Cam Newton of New England, and practice squad QB Jordan Ta’amu of Kansas City). But as Schefter cautions, the virus has an incubation period, and Newton was in the huddle all week with teammates (Twitter link). There will be another round of testing today, but if the tests come back negative, the plan is to have the Pats and Chiefs play each other on Monday night, per Dianna Russini of ESPN.com (Twitter link). Newton, of course, will miss that game, and his availability for Week 5 is also in doubt.
- There was a scare last night when ProFootballTalk reported (via Twitter) that a Saints player had tested positive. Subsequent reports indicated that the player was fullback Michael Burton, but as Nick Underhill of NewOrleans.Football tweeted, Burton’s retest came back negative, so the Saints’ game against the Lions will go on today as scheduled.
- Hopefully the league will be able to recover from these scares, but Mark Maske of the Washington Post says the NFL is looking into the possibility of adding a Week 18 to the regular season schedule to accommodate postponed games (Twitter link). ProFootballTalk adds that multiple coaches have discussed the possibility of temporarily suspending the season, reconfiguring the schedule to allow for 12 total games, and then putting teams in hotels for the nine games that would remain (Twitter link).
- Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports writes that the league will hold a mandatory phone call for coaches, GMs, and owners tomorrow to discuss penalties for violating COVID-19 protocols. La Canfora says in a separate piece that the league is also considering playoff bubbles.
South Notes: Godwin, Titans, Texans, Jaguars
With the Titans dominating NFL newscycles this week, here is the latest from their division and an update on one of the NFC South’s best players.
- Chris Godwin‘s latest injury-induced absence may well extend beyond Sunday. The Buccaneers wide receiver will miss Week 4 with a mild hamstring pull, per NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport (on Twitter). Because the Bucs face the Bears on Thursday to kick off Week 5, the team may be hard-pressed to have Godwin avoid missing two games. Godwin missed Tampa Bay’s Week 2 game because of a concussion. Coming into his contract year, Godwin had only missed two career games.
- The shoulder injury Taylor Lewan suffered against the Vikings last week is not considered serious, Tom Pelissero of NFL.com tweets. He was iffy to face the Steelers, prior to the game’s postponement, so odds are certainly better the longtime Titans left tackle would be ready to play against the Bills next weekend.
- Should the Titans be cleared to resume their season against the Bills in Week 5, they will need to bring in another long snapper. The team will not use starting center Ben Jones as its specialty snapper, Paul Kuharsky of PaulKuharsky.com tweets. Beau Brinkley, Tennessee’s long snapper in every game since his 2012 rookie season, is currently on the Titans’ reserve/COVID-19 list.
- The Seahawks will have Shaquem Griffin in uniform for the second straight week, despite not carrying the linebacker over to its Week 1 roster out of training camp. A Seahawks regular in 2018-19, Griffin began the season on the team’s practice squad. But at least three other teams, including the Texans, expressed interest in the inspirational defender. Griffin, however, did not believe a move elsewhere would have presented a better situation, per Brady Henderson of ESPN.com (on Twitter). Shaquem Griffin’s twin brother, Shaquill, being a longtime Seahawk factored into this decision, Shaquem said (Twitter link).
- The Jaguars did some reshuffling in their scouting department recently. They promoted DeJuan Polk to director of pro personnel and named Chris Driggers as their pro scouting director, Adam Caplan of Sirius XM Radio tweets. Driggers has been with the Jags since the franchise’s inception, actually joining in 1994 — a year before the team began playing games — and has worked in a scouting capacity for the past 23 years. Polk was hired as the Jags’ assistant pro personnel director in 2016.
Cowboys RT La’el Collins Out For Season
La’el Collins will, in fact, undergo season-ending surgery on his bothersome hip, Jane Slater of NFL.com reports (on Twitter).
This loomed as a possibility for the Cowboys right tackle, but now that the veteran blocker will proceed with the operation, it represents a major blow to a team that has struggled on the injury front thus far. Collins will go under the knife Wednesday, Calvin Watkins of the Dallas Morning News tweets.
The Cowboys’ hopes he would recover with rest and treatment failed, with the sixth-year offensive lineman still in considerable pain. Collins has not played this season and will remain on Dallas’ IR list the rest of the way. This will mark the second time Collins will have been shut down early in a season. A toe malady ended Collins’ 2016 season after three games. Between 2017-19, the Round 1 talented-turned-UDFA started 47 of the Cowboys’ 48 regular-season games.
Dallas has been without Collins and All-Pro left tackle Tyron Smith for the past two games. However, Smith is expected to return against the Browns on Sunday. The Cowboys will then have to decide on one of their UDFA backups — Terence Steele or Brandon Knight — to start opposite Smith, per Ed Werder of ESPN.com (on Twitter). The Cowboys moved Zack Martin to right tackle on Sunday, but it appears the team will keep the All-Pro guard at his more familiar spot — at least to start the game against Cleveland. Pro Football Focus has graded Knight ahead of Steele thus far, though neither have made a particularly strong impression. The Seahawks’ maligned pass rush made a late impact to swing the teams’ Week 3 shootout.
Although Collins signed a second Cowboys extension last year, this will stunt his on-field momentum. The former guard emerged as one of the better right tackles in football last season. He will have to wait until 2021 to build on that.
Packers Place Christian Kirksey On IR
Packers inside linebacker Christian Kirksey sustained a shoulder injury during the team’s Sunday night victory over the Saints, and Rob Demovsky of ESPN.com reported earlier this week that Kirksey would miss at least one game as a result. Unfortunately, the Packers placed the 28-year-old ‘backer on IR today, sidelining him for at least three games.
It’s a tough break for Kirksey, who was released by the Browns in March following two injury-marred seasons. An assortment of ailments limited him to just seven games in 2018, and he missed all but two games of the 2019 campaign due to a broken collarbone. He still managed to find a nice payday in free agency, landing a two-year, $13MM contract from Green Bay after generating a significant amount of interest on the open market.
He played in all of the Packers’ defensives snaps over the first two games of the season, recording 12 total tackles in each contest. He also served as the defensive signal-caller. 2019 seventh-rounder Ty Summers filled in for Kirksey and wore the speaker helmet, and the team reported no communication issues.
Still, if Kirksey is out for an extended period, Green Bay could look to sign a veteran, especially since the club is also starting UDFA rookie Krys Barnes at the other inside linebacker spot. Players like Wesley Woodyard and old friend Jake Ryan currently headline the available ILBs.