Broncos To Waive DaeSean Hamilton
DaeSean Hamilton‘s time in Denver has come to an end. The Broncos are waiving the receiver from Penn State, a source told Mike Garafolo of NFL Network (Twitter link).
We had heard about a month ago that the Broncos may trade Hamilton around the draft, but obviously nothing materialized. Garafolo writes that they “had trade talks” recently “but couldn’t finalize a deal.” Garafolo also says that Hamilton is a “strong possibility to be claimed” on waivers. Hamilton was a fourth-round pick back in 2018 and was set to enter the final year of his rookie contract.
Penn State’s all-time leading receiver has had between 23-30 catches and 243-297 yards in all three of his pro seasons. He’s flashed some potential at times, but has gotten buried on the depth chart. The Broncos have Courtland Sutton coming back from an ACL tear, and just drafted Jerry Jeudy and KJ Hamler in the first and second rounds last year, making Hamilton expendable.
Denver also has Tim Patrick coming back and just used a sixth-round pick on receiver Seth Williams, so the receiving room was getting pretty crowded. Hamilton turned 26 in March, and will undoubtedly get another shot somewhere.
49ers Sign Second-Round OL Aaron Banks
Another early draft pick signing to pass along. The 49ers made a big splash by drafting Trey Lance third overall, so their second pick didn’t get as much attention.
That would be guard Aaron Banks from Notre Dame, who is now officially ready to join the franchise. San Francisco has agreed to terms with Banks on his rookie deal, Field Yates of ESPN.com tweets. The 48th pick in the draft will get a four-year contract worth $7.073MM with a $2.504MM signing bonus per his slot, as Aaron Wilson tweets. Banks was the first member of the 49ers’ class to ink his deal.
Banks is a Bay Area native from Alameda, so this is a cool homecoming for him. He started every game for the Fighting Irish the past two years, and was a first-team All-ACC selection in 2020. Lance Zierlein of NFL.com writes that Banks is a better run blocker than pass blocker.
Zierlein says he “has some physical limitations but should be fine as a potential early starter” on a team with “a physical running game.” That would certainly seem to fit Kyle Shanahan’s run-heavy scheme.
Chiefs Sign Second-Round LB Nick Bolton
The Chiefs didn’t have a first-round pick in this past draft because of the Orlando Brown Jr. trade, so their first pick came at 58th overall. Kansas City used that pick on linebacker Nick Bolton, who is now officially a Chief.
Bolton has agreed to terms on his rookie contract, Field Yates of ESPN.com tweets. The Missouri product only turned 21 in March, and has been a first-team All-SEC selection in each of the past two seasons. This past year he racked up 95 tackles, eight for a loss, two sacks, and five passes defended in only 10 games.
In addition to offensive line the Chiefs have made upgrading their linebacking unit a priority, as they also just signed Kamalei Correa. Bolton projects as a potential day one starter. Obviously, he won’t have to be moving very far to start his pro career and will be staying in-state.
Per the terms of his slot, it’s a four-year deal worth $5.834MM that comes with a $1.602MM signing bonus, as Aaron Wilson tweets.
Bucs GM: Tom Brady Can Play Until He’s 50
The Buccaneers drafted Kyle Trask in the second-round a couple weeks ago, but don’t count on him seeing the field any time soon. Tom Brady continued to defy father time once again this past season, and as far as the Bucs are concerned there’s no cap on when he can keep playing until.
Tampa GM Jason Licht recently appeared on the Rich Eisen Show (Twitter video link), and made it clear he’s not going to force Brady out the door. For starters, Eisen asked Licht whether Brady gave any indication that the extension he signed back in March would be his last. Licht immediately said “none.” While Licht said he’d keep most of their conversations private, he said Brady gave “no inkling at all” that this would be his last go-round.
Most notably, Licht said “I told him if he wants to play until he’s 50, and he feels like he can still play, he can play until he’s 50.” Brady, born in August of 1977, would turn 50 right before the start of the 2027 season. Trask’s rookie contract will have already been long done at that point.
While Licht obviously wasn’t making a firm commitment right there, it’s yet another sign that Brady isn’t going to ride off into the sunset as long as he’s playing at a high level. His most recent extension keeps him under contract through the 2022 season.
The 43-year-old had knee surgery this offseason, although he said recently that he’s hoping to be ready to go by the time the team opens minicamp in June.
Jets Host Tavon Austin
The Jets have already given significant money to Corey Davis and Keelan Cole this offseason, but they might not be done adding receivers. New York worked out veteran Tavon Austin on Wednesday, a source told Ian Rapoport of NFL Network (Twitter link).
It seems a contract is a real possibility, since Rapoport writes that it “sounded like it went well.” Austin has appeared on the verge of falling out of the league a couple of times, but has been able to find additional chances. He signed with the 49ers right before the start of last season, but was placed on IR prior to final cuts and then later released. He managed to latch on with the Packers in December and played in four games for Green Bay, catching five passes.
Notably, Aaron Rodgers highlighted Austin late in the season as someone who made a very positive impact on the locker room. Perhaps that’s what the Jets are looking for here. Austin was a big name player coming out of college after a decorated career at West Virginia, and the Rams drafted him eighth overall in 2013.
He made a number of splash plays, and had a punt return touchdown in each of his first three pro seasons, but never lived up to his draft status. His career-high in receiving yards was 509 back in 2016. The Rams traded him to the Cowboys in April of 2018, and he spent the next two seasons in Dallas.
He was mostly used as a gadget player by the Cowboys, with only 21 receptions and 12 rush attempts in 21 games with the team. He turned 31 in March.
Steven Nelson Has Interest From Texans, Bears, Eagles, Bengals, Bills
One of the top free agents left on the market is cornerback Steven Nelson. The Steelers released Nelson back on March 23rd, and he’s remained unsigned ever since.
That being said, it sounds like he’s unsigned still by choice, not because of lack of interest. Nelson’s “market has been strong,” and he’s received interest from 14 teams including the Texans, Bears, Eagles, Bengals, and Bills, a source told Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.com (Twitter link).
Fowler adds that Nelson is choosing to be “patient waiting for right fit and opportunity.” Nelson was originally drafted by the Chiefs in the third-round in 2015. After a 2018 season where he had four interceptions for Kansas City, he signed a three-year, $25.5MM pact with the Steelers. He then started 30 games for Pittsburgh over the last two seasons, and had nine passes defended and two interceptions in 2020.
Nelson has been a solid starter, and has received strong marks from Pro Football Focus. In fact over the last two years, PFF has him graded as the NFL’s 11th-best cornerback. He could be a boost to plenty of teams in need of help in the secondary, and will likely get some significant money from somebody.
Former NFL QB Colt Brennan Passes Away
Truly tragic news to pass along, as former NFL quarterback Colt Brennan has passed away at the age of 37, his father Terry Brennan told Stephen Tsai of the Star Advertiser.
“He was doing so well, the spark was back in his eyes, and he was healthy and doing great, and it happened,” the elder Brennan said, explaining his son had been in the fifth month of a program at an inpatient rehab facility. ““He had been doing really (well),” Brennan said. “These guys were no-nonsense guys. It just got away from him. I don’t know how else to explain it. Maybe one day I’ll be able to explain it better.”
Brennan shined on the football field, becoming a superstar in college and elevating Hawaii’s program to heights nobody thought possible. In his record-shattering 2007 season, he led Hawaii to a perfect 12-0 record and an appearance in the Sugar Bowl. Between the 2006 and 2007 seasons, he threw for nearly 10,000 yards and 96 touchdowns. He was a Heisman Trophy finalist in 2017.
After wrapping up his decorated college career, Brennan was drafted by Washington in the sixth-round in 2008. After a couple of years with Washington he had a brief stint with the Raiders, and then in the UFL, CFL, and AFL.
All of us here at PFR are sending our thoughts to Brennan’s family.
Contract Notes: Bucs, Rodgers, Rudolph, Pats
We’ve got a handful of interesting notes on contracts to pass along, including for several quarterbacks:
- The Buccaneers’ quarterbacks room is a bit crowded now with Kyle Trask getting drafted in the second-round. One of Blaine Gabbert and Ryan Griffin will be the odd man out, since Bruce Arians won’t be keeping four signal-callers. “Their new contracts tell you who’s ahead” in the competition to hold Tom Brady‘s clipboard in 2021, Greg Auman of The Athletic tweets. Auman reports that Gabbert got $1.5MM in guaranteed money, $750K in base salary and a $750K signing bonus. On the other hand, Griffin only got a $75K signing bonus guaranteed. Gabbert has always been Bruce Arians’ guy, while Tampa’s front office has loved Griffin enough to keep him around since 2015. If these financial figures tell us anything, and they usually do, it’s that Gabbert will be back for the title defense while Griffin won’t be.
- The language of Aaron Rodgers‘ contract is going to get a lot of attention if his current beef with the Packers turns into a real holdout. Rodgers earned a $6.8MM roster bonus on the third day of the league year, but he hasn’t actually received that money yet since it’s to be “paid concurrently with his 2021 base salary,” former NFL agent and current CBS Sports analyst Joel Corry tweets. Corry notes that Green Bay has “the right to take fines & any recapture of signing bonus due to a training camp holdout from this money.” There was talk of Rodgers having to pay back that $6.8MM, but it turns out he hasn’t even gotten it yet. The Packers can start chipping away at that the moment he doesn’t show up for mandatory practices.
- One last quarterback note. Mason Rudolph recently got a one-year contract extension from the Steelers to keep him under team control through 2022, and it turns out the team gave him some real money. Rudolph’s new pact with Pittsburgh is worth $5MM for the 2022 season, which included a $2MM signing bonus, Mark Kaboly of The Athletic tweets. As Kaboly points out, Rudolph is the only passer the team has under contract for 2022. Rudolph hasn’t exactly looked like a franchise quarterback in his nine career starts, but with Ben Roethlisberger‘s status more than uncertain beyond this year, it makes since why the Steelers would want to make sure they have someone at least somewhat competent under center just in case.
- When Trent Brown got traded from the Raiders back to the Patriots, he reworked his contract from having two years and $29.5MM left to a one-year pact for $11MM. Turns out that new one-year deal has some interesting details. The massive offensive tackle’s contract has a series of weight-based incentives, Ben Volin of the Boston Globe writes. The 6’8 behemoth will have earned $150K if he weighed “385 pounds or less on the first day of the offseason program (April 19).” Brown will have an opportunity to earn another $150K if he clocks in at or below 375 pounds on June 1, and another $200K for 365 pounds on July 15. That’s a total of a half million bucks in weight-based incentives. Brown was with the Patriots for one season back in 2018, and won Super Bowl LIII with the team.
Browns Claim Chase McLaughlin
The Browns have added some more competition for Cody Parkey. Cleveland was awarded Chase McLaughlin off waivers from the Jets, Field Yates of ESPN.com tweets.
The Jets had claimed McLaughlin off waivers themselves from the Jaguars last December. He’s already bounced around a remarkable portion of the league considering he only entered the NFL as an UDFA in 2019. Despite playing just two seasons, McLaughlin has already spent time with the Bills, Vikings, Chargers, 49ers, Colts, Vikings (again), Jaguars, Jets, and now Browns.
He’s now played for a fourth of the league, and only just turned 25. Most of those stints were obviously short, and a few were just on the practice squad or during the preseason. As far as regular season action goes, McLaughlin kicked in a few games for the Colts, Chargers, and 49ers all in 2019. He then kicked in three for the Jags last year and one for the Jets.
In his career, the Illinois product is 22/28 on field goals and 31/32 on extra points. Parkey was solid but not spectacular in his first year in Cleveland in 2020, making 19 of 22 field goals and 43 of 47 extra points. The Browns never even had him attempt one from beyond 50 yards. They also currently have Matthew McCrane on the offseason roster.
Eric Fisher May Not Play Until October
The Colts just gave Eric Fisher $9.4MM for the 2021 season, but don’t count on him being ready to play right away. There’s a chance Fisher isn’t ready to play until early October, Ian Rapoport of NFL Network tweets.
That would mean Fisher could easily miss the first month-plus of the season. Rapoport writes that the Colts “won’t push” Fisher in his rehab, despite the fact they’ve only got him on a short-term deal. The Colts signed Sam Tevi this offseason, who will presumably open the year as the starter protecting Carson Wentz‘s blindside. That’s not very good news for Wentz.
Tevi was a starter for the Chargers the past three seasons, but the 2017 sixth-round pick never played very well. There’s a reason Indy was able to sign him for only $2.5MM back in March. Regardless the team surprised many by not drafting a tackle, so it appears they’re comfortable with Tevi.
Fisher, of course, tore his Achilles in January. The first overall pick of the 2013 draft made the Pro Bowl for his work during the regular season, but has now suffered serious injuries in back to back years. Either way, he’s about the best possible Anthony Castonzo replacement Colts fans could’ve hoped for at this time of year.