Raiders Cut Arden Key, Maurice Hurst
The Raiders are making some big cuts on their defensive line. Las Vegas has waived defensive end Arden Key and defensive tackle Maurice Hurst, a source told Ian Rapoport of NFL Network (Twitter link).
The Raiders have already added free agents like Yannick Ngakoue and Quinton Jefferson this offseason, making these guys more expendable. Both Key and Hurst were drafted by the Raiders in 2018, Key in the third-round and Hurst in the fifth. Hurst was initially viewed as a much better prospect, and potentially a first-rounder, until a heart condition was discovered just before the combine.
That heart issue was initially feared to be career-threatening, but fortunately Hurst was able to be cleared to play. He fell to 140th overall though, costing him a lot of money in the process. In the end, neither player made it to the end of their rookie deals.
Key started 10 games as a rookie but was used as a rotational player this past year. Despite playing around 40 percent of the defensive snaps, he finished with no sacks. The LSU product was the 87th pick in 2018 and is still only 24, so he should get scooped up before too long.
Hurst, who will turn 26 next month, was fairly productive his first two years in the league. From 2018-19, he had 7.5 sacks, six passes defended, an interception, and a couple of fumble recoveries. He was limited to 11 games this past year, finishing with 27 tackles, a half sack, and one pass defended.
Broncos May Trade DaeSean Hamilton
The Broncos have Courtland Sutton coming back from an ACL tear in 2021. They also drafted Jerry Jeudy in the first-round last year, and K.J. Hamler in the second. They also have Tim Patrick coming off a breakout 742-yard season.
Needless to say, the receivers room is a bit crowded at the moment. That surplus of wideouts could lead to a trade around the draft, and Mike Garafolo of NFL Network says to keep an eye on DaeSean Hamilton (Twitter video link). The Broncos have “gotten inquiries” on Hamilton, Garafolo reports, and he believes Denver “would move him for the right price.”
Considering Hamilton was a fourth-round pick in 2018 and hasn’t done a ton in the league, it likely wouldn’t take more than a Day 3 pick to get a trade done. As Garafolo points out, new Broncos GM George Paton also has no ties to Hamilton, making him more easily expendable.
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 set to enter the final year of his rookie deal in 2021.
He only just turned 26 and has flashed some potential while being buried on the depth chart, so it wouldn’t be surprising if a team that misses out on a receiver in the early rounds of the draft pulls the trigger here.
Buccaneers To Sign Giovani Bernard
There’s been a lot of talk this offseason about what the Buccaneers’ backfield will look like between Ronald Jones and Leonard Fournette, but in the meantime they’ve added an outside option.
Tampa has agreed to a one-year deal with Giovani Bernard, Tom Pelissero of NFL Network tweets. Bernard was released by the Bengals just last week, and Pelissero reports that Tom Brady and Bruce Arians both helped recruit him to Tampa Bay. Patriots running back James White apparently had interest in joining the Bucs as their third-down back before ultimately re-signing in New England, Ian Rapoport of NFL Network tweets.
In the same tweet, Rapsheet notes that Bernard also had interest from the Chiefs, so he had his pick of last season’s Super Bowl teams. The Bucs have mostly prioritized locking up all of their own guys, and this is their first significant outside free agent signing of the spring.
He had been set to earn right around $4MM in Cincy in 2021, so it’ll be interesting to see if he beat that when we get the financial terms. A pass-catching specialist who ended up carrying the ball a lot this past year in the wake of Joe Mixon‘s injury, Bernard has 342 receptions for 2,867 yards since entering the league as a second-round pick in 2013.
The North Carolina product spent his first eight seasons with the Bengals. He’ll turn 30 in November, and he should see a lot of targets from Brady, who loves to check down to his ‘backs.
Latest On Broncos’ QB Plans
Several teams have already made big splashes under center this offseason, but the Broncos have been mostly quiet. That could change soon.
Denver “isn’t sitting still at the position,” Albert Breer of SI.com writes. Breer lays out details of the Broncos’ pursuits we haven’t heard before, including the previously unreported full offer they made for Matthew Stafford. The Broncos apparently did in fact offer the ninth overall pick to the Lions, but they wanted a second-rounder back in return which quelled those talks.
Breer thinks they’ll add competition for Drew Lock in one form or another, and he mentions the Panthers’ Teddy Bridgewater as a potential option. As he points out, new Broncos GM George Paton was in Minnesota when the Vikings drafted Bridgewater in the first-round. On that note, Breer has some interesting thoughts on the makeup of Denver’s new front office.
The fact that the team isn’t committing to Lock is “a pretty decent sign that John Elway has truly moved into the background,” Breer writes. He also thinks Denver’s lack of real interest in Sam Darnold is a telling sign that Elway isn’t calling the shots, since Elway was infatuated with Darnold coming out of college in 2018.
The team hired Paton to be GM earlier this offseason, with Elway getting elevated to President of Football Operations. At the time there were murmurs about how much power Elway would actually be ceding and how much he would still control the organization, but it sounds like he truly has relinquished the reins.
Britt Reid Charged With DWI
Britt Reid has been charged with DWI stemming from his February car crash, according to Dia Wall of KSHB Kansas City.
Reid is the son of Chiefs head coach Andy Reid, and was their outside linebackers coach last season before his contract wasn’t renewed following the accident. A five-year old girl, Ariel Young, was tragically seriously injured in the crash, which occurred right before the Super Bowl. Wall writes that the charge for Reid is “a class D felony with a potential jail sentence of one to seven years.”
The Chiefs released a statement following news of the charge, saying “the Kansas City Chiefs organization remains steadfast in our concern for all who have been impacted by this tragic accident. Our prayers are focused on Ariel’s continued healing and recovery. The Chiefs are regularly in contact with the family’s designated representative during this challenging time.”
As of a family update on March 27th, Ariel was still in the hospital but was recovering. Blood tests on Reid revealed he had a .113 BAC, well above the legal limit, per a document tweeted by Mike Garafolo of NFL Network.
As Charles Robinson of Yahoo Sports tweets, Reid’s claim to police that he was coming back from work at the time of the crash could entangle the Chiefs in the ensuing legal proceedings. All of our thoughts here at PFR are with the most important thing, the full and continued recovery of Ariel.
Latest On Jadeveon Clowney
Last night, we heard that the Browns were hoping to host Jadeveon Clowney for a second time today, and that a deal was looking likely. We may need to pump the brakes there just a little bit.
Cleveland is going to host Clowney on Wednesday now, and “nothing is imminent” on the contract front, Ian Rapoport of NFL Network reports (Twitter video link). We heard this morning that the Ravens and Colts are also pursuing the edge rusher, so they’ve got competition. Interestingly, Rapsheet says that the Browns want to see Clowney pass a physical on Wednesday. They’re apparently at least a bit concerned about the former first overall pick’s knee.
Clowney who has had multiple knee injuries in his career, is coming off surgery for a torn meniscus that limited him to just eight games with the Titans in 2020. Cleveland has made finding an edge rusher to pair opposite Myles Garrett, and replace Olivier Vernon, a priority this offseason.
They were in on J.J. Watt, and signed fellow former first-rounder Takkarist McKinley. It appeared a Clowney signing was likely to happen to day, but now it looks like we’re going to have to wait at least a couple of days.
Clowney waited until the first week of September to sign last year, so this is actually an expedited process for him. 2020 was somewhat of a lost season, as he finished with no sacks in that injury-plagued half campaign.
Extra Points: Joseph, Eagles, Bengals
Karl Joseph is back with the Raiders. The safety agreed to a deal earlier this week to return to the team that drafted him in the first-round back in 2016, and as he tells it, he never wanted to leave. “I never wanted to leave,” Joseph said, via Vincent Bonsignore of the Las Vegas Review Journal. “This is my home. I was drafted here. I feel like I was born to be a Raider.” Joseph would’ve still been a Raider in 2020 if the team hadn’t declined his fifth-year option.
Instead, he ended up signing a one-year contract with the Browns. Clearly there were no hard feelings about the option getting declined, because he’s back with Jon Gruden now. “It felt like the right decision was to come back and help finish what I started here and be a part of that,” he explained. “All the pieces are there,” Joseph raved. “I think we’re ready to win. So whatever I’m going to need to do to help us win, that’s what I am going to do.” We still haven’t gotten the financial terms on Joseph’s new Raiders deal, so those will be interesting to see.
Here’s more from around the league on a quiet Sunday night:
- Two members of the Eagles’ offensive line seem to be progressing well from major injuries. Tackle Lane Johnson had ankle surgery in December, and is apparently almost back to full strength. “Going good. Still in rehab,” Johnson said, via John McMullen of SI.com. “I’m running, moving around well so probably a month out from being cleared fully.” Johnson made three straight Pro Bowls from 2017-19, and his absence was sorely felt last year. Guard Brandon Brooks, also a Pro Bowler from 17-19, missed all of 2020 with a torn Achilles, and Johnson said he’s making good progress as well. “I know he’s excited coming off that injury last year,” Johnson explained of his line-mate. “As far as being cooped up and ready to go, man, he’s a ball of energy.” Whether it’s Jalen Hurts or someone else under center, the Eagles’ pass protection should be a lot better than it was in 2020.
- The Bengals are bringing back a familiar face, but not a player. The team is hiring Louie Cioffi as a defensive quality control coach, via Josh Alper of ProFootballTalk.com. That’s significant since Cioffi was in the building as a defensive assistant and defensive backs coach from 1997-2010. His tenure with the team preceded that of even Marvin Lewis, and continued through much of Lewis’ time there. He’s been a DBs coach for numerous teams around the NFL since leaving the Bengals, and is one of few people who can say they spent time in both the recent ill-fated spring leagues, the AAF and XFL.
Browns To Host Jadeveon Clowney Again, Deal Likely?
Things appear to be heating up between Jadeveon Clowney and the Browns. Cleveland is arranging a second visit for the free agent edge rusher, likely for Monday, a source told Josina Anderson (Twitter link). The belief is that the sides will be able to work out a contract during that visit, sources told Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports (Twitter link).
Clowney initially met with the Browns back on March 24th. No deal materialized at the time, but we heard about a week later that the team was still very much interested, so this second visit isn’t too surprising. During Clowney’s last free agency in 2020, the Browns were reportedly his best multi-year offer, so they’ve been after him for a while. Rather than take that multi-year deal from Cleveland, Clowney opted to sign a one-year, $13MM pact with the Titans.
That didn’t work out, as injuries limited him to only eight games last season. In those eight games, he had zero sacks, and he’ll now likely have to settle for a significantly cheaper deal. The Browns are letting Olivier Vernon walk, and we’ve heard all offseason that their plan was to bring in a big name edge guy to pair with Myles Garrett.
They signed former first-rounder Takk McKinley last month, but that apparently wasn’t enough to satisfy them. The first overall pick of the 2014 draft, Clowney has never quite lived up to his potential and has often struggled with health issues, but he’s also shown he can be a legit disruptor along the defensive front.
His sack numbers have never been anything eye-popping (career-high 9.5 in 2017), but he’s capable of setting the edge with the best of them and being a very strong presence in the run game. The 28-year-old made the Pro Bowl three straight years from 2016-18, and it sounds like he’s getting closer to finding his third NFL home.
Bills Interested In Jesse James
The top tight ends have all found their new homes, but there are still some (relatively) big names left for the second wave. One of those is Jesse James, who is apparently on the radar of an AFC contender.
The Bills are interested in James, sources told Tony Pauline of ProFootballNetwork. Those same sources did caution that “they are not close to a contract.” James was released by the Lions last month just halfway through the four-year, $22.6MM pact he signed with Detroit back in 2019. James started his career as a fifth-round pick of the Steelers back in 2015. He flashed some potential in Pittsburgh, including with a 423-yard campaign in 2018.
That potential earned him the big contract from the Lions, but the Penn State product disappointed there. In 32 games (18 starts) over the past two years in Detroit, James has hauled in 30 receptions for 271 yards and two touchdowns. The Bills didn’t get a ton of production from the position in 2020 despite having a dynamic passing game overall, so it’s not too surprising they’re looking to add to the group.
2019 third-rounder Dawson Knox led the Bills’ tight ends with only 288 yards last season. Pauline writes that it could be a situation where Buffalo or another team looking for help there signs James on “Day 3 of the draft if they can’t come away with a tight end in Rounds 2-4.”
Buffalo already has a great receiving group highlighted by Stefon Diggs and Cole Beasley, so tight end is the natural spot to bolster as they look to take the next step in 2021.
Jets To Sign Corey Levin
The Jets already signed Dan Feeney to give them some interior offensive line depth last month, and now they’re making another similar move. New York has agreed to a deal with Corey Levin, a source told Connor Hughes of The Athletic (Twitter link).
Levin entered the league as a sixth-round pick of the Titans back in 2017. He didn’t play as a rookie, but then appeared in all 16 games and made a start in 2018. He was waived at final cuts the following year, and spent a bit of time with the Broncos and Bears in 2019. This past season, he was with the Bears in training camp and briefly on the Patriots’ practice squad.
The Chattanooga product is still only 26, and is the latest dart throw for GM Joe Douglas. Levin has experience at both guard and center, so his versatility could help him make the team this fall.