Titans GM Jon Robinson On Julio Jones Trade
A truly blockbuster NFL trade went down this morning, and we’re continuing to cover all the Julio Jones fallout. Most recently, Titans GM Jon Robinson spoke to the media to address his team’s new shiny acquisition. The following nuggets come courtesy of Jim Wyatt of the team’s official site on Twitter.
Interestingly, Robinson revealed the Titans have been in pursuit of the former Falcons star for a while. Robinson said Tennessee had been going back and forth with Atlanta for a few weeks, but things really picked up yesterday.
It sounds like some financial shuffling is about to take place, as Robinson said the Titans plan to restructure a contract or contracts to fit Jones’ big deal on their books.
Robinson emphasized that he spoke to current players on the team, and they were all enthusiastic about the prospect of adding Jones. He also added that he consulted with Nick Saban, Jones’ college coach at Alabama, who spoke very highly of him.
For Titans fans wondering about other potential additions to the offense, Robinson said the team is continuing to monitor the tight end market after losing Jonnu Smith in free agency.
After letting Smith and Corey Davis walk, it initially looked like Tennessee was going to have a pretty underwhelming group of pass-catchers outside of A.J. Brown, but Ryan Tannehill can’t complain anymore.
Steelers Sign First-Round Pick Najee Harris
The Steelers have their guy. Pittsburgh has officially signed first-round pick running back Najee Harris to his rookie contract, the team announced Tuesday.
It’ll be a four-year deal worth a fully guaranteed $13.1MM for the 24th overall pick. Harris will collect a signing bonus of $6.85MM. Harris to the Steelers was one of the most buzzed about connections leading up to the draft, and the rumors turned out to be accurate. He was the first running back off the board, taken one pick before Clemson’s Travis Etienne.
Pittsburgh was widely expected to draft a runner early, as they’ve emphasized the need for a revamped ground game after they got nothing from their rushing attack in 2020. They let James Conner walk in free agency, and opted for the former Alabama star to replace him.
Harris will slot in as the team’s immediate starter, and the Steelers are reportedly planning on having him play a big role as a pass-catcher. The California native rushed for a ridiculous 26 touchdowns last season, and averaged at least 5.8 yards per carry in all four of his college seasons.
He’ll now be lining up behind and next to Ben Roethlisberger, at least for one season. Harris has the talent to be a top back in the league, the question now is how the Steelers’ new-look offensive line will perform.
Joe Burrow At Bengals OTAs
With each piece of good news, Bengals fans can continue to breathe a little easier. Last week we heard Joe Burrow was on track for Week 1, and now the second-year quarterback has taken another step in the right direction.
Burrow participated in the teams OTAs on Tuesday, as Paul Dehner Jr. of The Athletic tweets. You can check out a video of Burrow throwing a few passes and looking fairly strong on his surgically repaired knee courtesy of this tweet from James Rapien of SI Now. Burrow, of course, is coming off a significant injury that included ACL and MCL tears as well as some other damage.
Cincy is going to be cautious with their expected savior of the franchise, so the fact that he’s doing any work at all in May is a good sign that his recovery has gone as well as could be hoped for. After practice head coach Zac Taylor said “we are not pushing the envelope,” which means nobody is allowed within ten feet of Burrow, Dehner tweets.
Seriously. Any running backs running routes are motioned out wide to end up as far from Burrow as possible. No word yet on if the team will be layering him in bubble wrap for minicamp. For his part, Burrow said his knee is at “80-85 percent.”
As for his first Bengals passes to former LSU teammate Ja’Marr Chase, who Burrow reportedly had a role in drafting, he said “it was a little rusty at first but we got it back pretty quick.” The former Heisman winner also said he’d be wearing a knee brace, something he’s not a fan of, calling the process of picking one finding the “lesser of the evils.”
Texans To Cut Ryan Finley
The Texans have been adding quarterbacks left and right as they prepare for a potential worst-case scenario in the Deshaun Watson saga, and now they’re letting one go.
Houston is releasing Ryan Finley, Ian Rapoport of NFL Network tweets. The Texans had just traded for Finley back in March, acquiring him from the Bengals in exchange for a late-round pick swap. Cincy was planning on cutting Finley before they were able to turn a seventh-rounder into a sixth-rounder a couple months back.
The Bengals drafted Finley in the fourth-round only in 2019, but he didn’t pan out. The NC State product started three games his rookie season after the team benched Andy Dalton to get a look at the youngster. He looked totally unprepared for NFL football, and was so bad the Bengals quickly moved back to Dalton. He started one game last year, and in four career starts has averaged 5.4 yards per attempt with a 48.7 percent completion percentage.
The Texans decided to take a flyer, but after signing Jeff Driskel the quarterbacks room became crowded. Outside of Driskel and Watson, the Texans also have Tyrod Taylor and rookie third-round pick Davis Mills on the roster.
None of them are particularly inspiring, but Houston is making sure they have options in the event they can’t reconcile with Watson.
David Njoku ‘In A Good Place’ With Browns
There’s been a lot of drama with David Njoku and the Browns over the past year. The young tight end requested a trade last July, then rescinded that request in August. In October, he once again changed his mind and asked to be traded around the deadline.
No trade materialized, with Cleveland reportedly not wanting to deal him. Just when it seemed like everything had calmed down, Njoku fanned the flames once again in February by responding very cryptically to an interviewer asking about his future with the team.
However, it seems like things have now been patched over. The Browns have “weathered the storm” and Njoku is now “in a good place with the franchise,” a source told Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.com (Twitter link).
Cleveland signed Austin Hooper to a big contract and drafted Harrison Bryant, which reduced Njoku’s role and made him unhappy. The Browns drafted the Miami product 29th overall back in 2017. While he’s shown plenty of flashes of potential, he hasn’t lived up to first-round status.
In 2018 he appeared on the verge of breaking out, racking up 639 yards and four touchdowns. Injuries then limited him to only four games in 2019, and he caught only 19 passes for 213 yards and two touchdowns.
Despite all the drama, Njoku is slated to make a little over $6MM this season after Cleveland picked up his fifth-year option last year. It’ll be the final year of his rookie deal. Njoku was drafted very young so he’s still only 24, and has all the theoretical potential in the world. 2021 is shaping up to be a make or break year for him.
Melvin Ingram To Visit Dolphins
Melvin Ingram‘s market has been quiet, but it looks like things could be heating up. The free agent pass-rusher is visiting with the Dolphins on Monday, a source told Adam Beasley of The Miami Herald.
Ingram visited with the Chiefs back on March 20th, and this is the first we’ve heard about him since. Miami has made overhauling their edge rushing group a priority this offseason, cutting Kyle Van Noy and then drafting Jaelan Phillips in the first-round last month. The Chargers drafted Ingram 18th overall back in 2012, and he spent his first nine seasons with the team.
Ingram had a lot of success with the Chargers, making three straight Pro Bowls from 2017-19. He struggled with injuries early in his career, but became a late bloomer and eventually formed one of the best pass-rushing duos in the league next to Joey Bosa.
Unfortunately his run of good health came to an end this past year, when multiple knee injuries limited him to seven games. After finishing with at least seven sacks in each of his previous five seasons, he had zero last year. Now 32 and coming off an injury plagued year, it’s not shocking his market has been slow to develop.
As Beasley points out, it’s not even clear if he’s 100 percent healthy since there hasn’t been much reporting on his knee. Either way, Ingram was a Pro Bowler just two seasons ago, and the South Carolina product could be a nice veteran presence for a young team. He was a vocal leader on the Chargers the past few seasons.
Extra Points: Lance, 49ers, Chubb, Broncos, Patriots
The 49ers just drafted Trey Lance third overall, officially starting the countdown clock for how long Jimmy Garoppolo will remain the team’s starter. Lance was considered a somewhat raw prospect due to his limited amount of college experience at North Dakota State, which is why most expect Garoppolo to open the season as the starter. While Garoppolo is the favorite to be under center come Week 1, that doesn’t mean we won’t get to see Lance on the field right away.
The 49ers will try to “sprinkle in Lance the way the Saints have used Taysom Hill in recent seasons,” Matt Barrows of The Athletic believes. Barrows highlights recent comments Kyle Shanahan made on KNBR, when he raved about how Lance’s athleticism could open up the offense.
“It really makes the defense — if you’re in certain formations — honor 11-on-11 football. Because he is that type of threat, not just with his feet but also the way he runs the ball. He’s very natural at it. He can protect himself. He’s got the size to handle a couple of things. He’s always going to be a threat at any time,” the 49ers head coach said. Even if he’s not throwing the bulk of the passes, it’ll be fun to see what kind of packages Shanahan can come up with for Lance off the bench.
Here’s more from around the league on a quiet Sunday offseason night:
- We heard over the weekend that Bradley Chubb underwent an ankle procedure, which understandably caused some concern. Broncos fans were surely having flashbacks to when the young stud pass-rusher missed most of the 2019 season with a torn ACL. Fortunately, it doesn’t appear to be anything serious. The surgery was a scope to remove a bone spur, Ian Rapoport of NFL Network tweets, noting that it’s “very common.” Rapsheet adds he’ll be in a “boot for a couple weeks and will be fully ready for camp.” The fifth overall pick of the 2018 draft is coming off a Pro Bowl season where he had 7.5 sacks in 14 games.
- The Patriots have a 17-year streak going of at least one undrafted rookie making their opening day roster. That streak looks like it may be coming to an end, as Mike Reiss of ESPN.com writes. Reiss points out the team has only signed one UDFA so far, kicker Quinn Nordin from Michigan. The Pats have three kickers on the roster and Nordin will need to beat out both Nick Folk and Roberto Aguayo if New England is going to make it 18 years in a row.
Jets Tried To Sign Brian Hoyer
Brian Hoyer signed a deal to return to the Patriots this past week, but they apparently had real competition from another AFC East team.
The Jets “made attempts to sign Hoyer,” a source told Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.com (Twitter link). We heard all the way back in early April that the Jets had met with Hoyer, but we didn’t know until now they made a serious push.
Taylor Lewan On Tack For Training Camp
The Titans were dealt a big blow when star left tackle Taylor Lewan tore his ACL last October. Lewan will turn 30 this summer and is coming off the serious knee injury, but fortunately it sounds like everything is going well.
Lewan is believed to be on schedule in his recovery and should be ready to go at the start of training camp, Jim Wyatt of the team’s official site writes. The Michigan product made the Pro Bowl three straight seasons from 2016-18, and is the anchor of the team’s offensive line. With the team relying so heavily on Derrick Henry, obviously the trenches are of the utmost importance.
Lewan was the 11th overall pick back in 2014. He started at least 15 games every year from 2015-18, but was hit with a four-game PED suspension in 2019. Then he made it only five games last year before going down with the ACL tear.
He’s signed through the 2023 season after inking a five-year, $80MM extension in July of 2018.
Colts WR Parris Campbell: ‘I’m 100 Percent’, Fully Cleared
Parris Campbell has had a tough time in the NFL since the Colts drafted him 59th overall in 2019. The Ohio State product is blazing fast and has flashed a lot of potential during his brief time on the field, but has been unable to stay healthy.
In his rookie season, he was limited to seven games due to a myriad of injuries, including a hernia, broken hand, and broken foot. This past season, he went down with a serious knee injury in Week 2 and never returned. That came on the heels of a promising Week 1 showing where he had six catches for 71 yards.
2021 is shaping up to be a make or break season for the third-year pro, and fortunately Campbell is saying he’s all systems go for the offseason. “I’m 100 percent,” Campbell said Wednesday, via Stephen Holder of The Athletic (Twitter link).
Campbell told reporters that he finally received full clearance from the medical staff this week. It wasn’t a torn ACL that sidelined him, but rather PCL and MCL injuries. Campbell also said that changing his jersey number to one was part of a hope for a fresh start.
The Colts didn’t add much at receiver this offseason and T.Y. Hilton will be 32 in November, so Campbell should have a big role if he can stay available. A healthy Campbell to go along with Hilton and second-year wideout Michael Pittman Jr. would make life a lot easier on Carson Wentz in his first year in Indy.