Everson Griffen On Free Agency, 2018 Turmoil
Everson Griffen was going through a tough time in 2018. The Vikings pass-rusher missed five games as he dealt with personal issues following some concerning incidents, and he opened up about the experience, as well as his current free agency, for the first time during a recent interview with Tom Pelissero of NFL.com.
“Nobody knew that I was living in a sober house,” Griffen told Pelissero. “I lived in the sober house for three months, from October to the end of the (2018) season. I was living like I was in college. Had a roommate, had a little bit of clothes. I was going to my meetings. I did the whole nine. That was a part of my recovery. Just to reset. I wanted to reset.”
Griffen credited the period for putting him in a better space today, and said it wouldn’t be an issue moving forward. “I’m happy that 2018 happened, because I wouldn’t be sitting here today, being able to tell my story and showing teams that I am strong, I am healthy and there’s nothing really that you have to worry about, because I’m doing all the right things. There’s nothing I’m doing behind the scenes that they should be worried about. I’m doing everything possible to make sure that 2018 doesn’t happen again. And it will not happen,” he explained.
Griffen’s agent also told Pelissero that serious mental health issues like bipolar disorder had been ruled out during his evaluations, and that his “erratic behavior resulted from significant unresolved emotional distress,” such as the sudden death of his mother a handful of years ago. As for his free agency, the 32-year-old intimated the inability to conduct full evaluations as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic had impacted his market.
“This process, for me, has taken a lot of patience, a lot of self-reflection, too,” Griffen said. “It’s like, why haven’t (more) teams been interested? And the reason why is because they don’t know Everson.” While Griffen and his agent had publicly announced he wouldn’t be returning to the Vikings, Griffen told Pelissero he would “never say never” on a potential return.
Griffen has been with the Vikings ever since they drafted him in the fourth-round back in 2010. The last we heard a couple of weeks ago there was mutual interest with the Seahawks, and it sounds like he could be a top option for them if they don’t bring back Jadeveon Clowney. The USC product played in 15 games last year, racking up eight sacks. Often one of the league’s better pass-rushers, he’s made the Pro Bowl in four of the last five seasons.
Griffen says he isn’t in any rush to sign, and will take his time to find the right situation. He told Pelissero he still speaks with a team of therapists, clinical psychologists, and a life coach daily, and that he will be an open book for inquiring teams. Here’s to hoping that Griffen continues to do well off the field no matter where he’s suiting up in 2020.
Broncos Pursued Aldon Smith
The Cowboys shockingly pulled Aldon Smith out of football purgatory a couple weeks ago, and they apparently weren’t the only team in on the former All-Pro. The Broncos pursued Smith and the two sides had mutual interest for a while, sources told Mike Klis of Denver 9 News.
Klis points out that Broncos head coach Vic Fangio was Smith’s defensive coordinator during his best seasons in San Francisco, which explains the connection. Ultimately, financials led Smith to go with Dallas. Klis reports that the Broncos only made a “vet-minimum/incentive-laden offer” to Smith, while the Cowboys gave him a one-year contract with a base value of $2MM and an additional $2MM available in sack incentives.
If Smith had been able to get anywhere close to his old heights, he would’ve formed a scary pass-rushing trio in Denver alongside fellow former first-round picks Von Miller and Bradley Chubb. The seventh overall pick of the 2011 draft, Smith was one of the best defensive players in the league before a series of arrests and substance abuse issues derailed his career. He led the league in sacks in 2012 with 19.5.
He hasn’t played in a game since the 2015 season, so it’ll be very interesting to see what the 30-year-old looks like when he steps on the field. The Broncos lost Derek Wolfe, who had seven sacks last year, in free agency, so Smith would’ve been a nice high-upside addition to bolster the defensive front.
Pass Interference Won’t Be Reviewable In 2020
The NFL is officially making a big rule change ahead of the 2020 season. Pass interference will no longer be a reviewable foul whenever the league next plays games, a source told Mark Maske of the Washington Post (Twitter link).
Maske reports that owners won’t even take a vote on the issue and the pass interference replay review rule will simply be allowed to expire. In a separate tweet, Maske notes that teams “overwhelmingly indicated” they didn’t want the rule renewed for another season. In a huge move last offseason, the league made pass interference penalties reviewable by coach’s challenges and by the booth.
They made the decision last year at the behest of the Saints following the controversial no-call that likely cost them the NFC Championship Game to the Rams. The rollout was a disaster, and seemingly everyone hated the implementation right from the start. The replay booth was very strict for the most part, but also inconsistent, with what they would overturn.
As for new rule changes that could take effect in 2020, the NFL released the full list of proposed rule changes that owners will vote on at upcoming meetings. Included are the Eagles’ proposals to “provide an alternative to the onside kick that would allow a team who is trailing in the game an opportunity to maintain possession of the ball after scoring (4th and 15 from the kicking team’s 25-yard line),” as well as to make overtime 15 minutes and reduce the importance of the overtime coin toss.
There are a handful of other interesting but less significant proposed changes which you can view in the release. All proposed rules need support from 24 of the 32 owners in order to pass.
Tom Johnson Retires From NFL
Tom Johnson is officially hanging up his cleats. The former Vikings defensive tackle is retiring from the NFL, he told Chris Tomasson of the St. Paul Pioneer Press (Twitter link).
We heard early last offseason that Minnesota was interested in bringing him back, but Johnson ended up spending 2019 out of football. Johnson said he had some offers from teams but didn’t want to play on a minimum deal, Tomasson tweets. The Southern Miss product was an undrafted free agent in 2006, and it took him a while to find his footing in the league. After playing in NFL Europe, the AFL, and the CFL, he finally made his NFL debut in 2011 with the Saints.
He broke out in 2014 with the Vikings, racking up 6.5 sacks. The following year he started eight games, and had another 5.5 sacks. In 2017 he started 15 games and was a large part of the defense that made it to the NFC Championship Game. He signed with Seattle in 2018 but quickly ended up back in Minnesota when the Seahawks cut him after just one game.
Johnson will finish his playing days with 186 tackles and 25.5 sacks in 116 games. He carved out a remarkable career for such an unheralded prospect, and all of us here at PFR wish him the best in retirement.
Drew Brees Signs With NBC Sports
Drew Brees already has his post-playing career lined up. The longtime Saints quarterback has signed a broadcasting deal with NBC, sources told Andrew Marchand of the New York Post.
We heard just a few days ago that ESPN was chasing Brees, and apparently NBC had a more appealing offer. Brees will be “groomed as the potential replacement for Cris Collinsworth” on ‘Sunday Night Football’ broadcasts, sources told Marchand. Of course, this deal won’t take effect until after Brees decides to hang up his cleats. He’s back in New Orleans for at least one more season. Saints coach Sean Payton recently let slip that Brees was “coming back for his final season,” although it’s possible he misspoke.
It’s been reported for a while now that the Saints view Taysom Hill as Brees’ successor, and that they’re anxious to increase his role on offense. All the moves that they’ve made this offseason indicate they’re going all-in on one last Super Bowl run with Brees in 2020, like signing aging vets Malcolm Jenkins and Emmanuel Sanders.
It looks like the ‘Sunday Night Football’ broadcast is getting a total makeover, as Marchand has already reported that Mike Tirico is going to take over for Al Michaels as the play-by-play caller after the 2022 Super Bowl. Brees isn’t going to take the reins on SNF immediately either. Brees “is expected to start as a game analyst on Notre Dame football and as a studio analyst for ‘Football Night in America,’” before eventually taking over for Collinsworth, Marchand writes.
Marchand also notes that ESPN’s offer was thought to be in the $6MM annually range, and that NBC’s offer was “competitive with it” financially but that they “sold him on it being the best place to succeed.” Obviously, Brees wants to avoid an experience like Jason Witten had at ESPN on ‘Monday Night Football,’ and it sounds like the chance to get eased in appealed to him.
Extra Points: Draft, Bills, Williams, Manusky
The COVID-19 pandemic is impacting everything in the sports world, including the NFL draft. The draft being in Las Vegas has already been scrapped for a while, but now it appears teams won’t even be gathering in their respective buildings. In an unprecedented situation, multiple high-level officials will conduct the draft from their homes, sources told Adam Schefter of ESPN.com. The pre-draft preparation will be more important than ever, as it will likely be more difficult for teams to coordinate internally while the draft is going on. It’ll be very interesting to see how this impacts draft-day trades, among other logistical issues.
Here’s more from around the league on a quiet Saturday night:
- The Bills signed offensive lineman Daryl Williams a couple weeks ago, and now we have the details on his contract. Williams got a one-year deal worth $2.25MM from Buffalo with only $250K guaranteed, Tom Pelissero of NFL Network tweets. As Pelissero points out the two sides are very familiar with one another since a lot of Buffalo’s brass, including head coach Sean McDermott, used to be with the Panthers. Williams started all 16 games at right tackle for Carolina in 2017 and played very well, but missed almost all of 2018 with a knee injury. He signed a one-year deal with the Panthers worth $7MM last year and started 12 games, a few each at left tackle, right guard, and left guard. Pelissero adds that Buffalo plans to move him back to the right side.
- Greg Manusky spent the last three years as the Redskins’ defensive coordinator, but he got bounced last year after head coach Jay Gruden got the axe. Manusky has a new job now, and it’s a big step down the coaching ranks. The former 49ers, Chargers, and Colts defensive coordinator has accepted a position as a defensive quality control assistant with the University of Kentucky, according to JP Finlay of NBC Sports. It’s an unusual move for such a grizzled veteran, but it’s possible he decided to take this gig as a temporary stopgap before emerging with a more prominent role in 2021. Quality control coaches are often young guys on one of their first jobs, but nonetheless Manusky will be serving on Mark Stoops’ staff this fall.
Draft Notes: Bengals, Burrow, Redskins, Giants, Dolphins, Jets
Sports leagues across the world are shutdown due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and the next big event for most fans to tune into is the NFL draft. The league is hoping the draft can serve as a welcomed distraction for the country, and we’ve got a fresh batch of notes on what’s happening from Matt Miller of Bleacher Report. It’s been assumed for a while now that the Bengals will be taking Joe Burrow with the first overall pick, but that apparently isn’t set in stone.
While the expectation is still that Burrow is the pick, there is “a lot of buzz in scouting circles that the Bengals will at least listen to calls” on potential trades for the top choice, Miller writes. Since there’s no one ahead of them, it wouldn’t make all that much sense for the Bengals to be playing games if they weren’t actually planning to listen to inquiries. As of a couple of weeks ago we had heard that the Dolphins were still interested in trading for the first pick and selecting Burrow.
Here’s more on the draft, which will now be held remotely:
- New Redskins coach Ron Rivera has said ever since he took the position that Dwayne Haskins won’t just be handed the starting quarterback job and will need to compete. That has led to some rumblings that Washington could use the second overall pick on a quarterback, but that looks like it was all bluster. Sources told Miller that the Redskins are not considering using the pick on a passer, and it continues to look like Ohio State defensive end Chase Young will be the pick.
- The Giants are in an interesting spot with the fourth pick, and Miller writes that he’s heard talk out of New York that the team loves Clemson do-it-all linebacker Isaiah Simmons. While Miller has made Simmons the pick in his latest mock draft, he notes there has been “quiet buzz building for Iowa offensive tackle Tristan Wirfs“ with the fourth overall pick. The Giants could certainly use an offensive tackle as well as Simmons’ versatility on defense, so either pick would make sense.
- Speaking of the Dolphins, if they aren’t able to pull off the shocking trade up for Burrow, their situation is pretty up in the air. Although there has been a ton of talk over the last year linking Miami to Alabama signal-caller Tua Tagovailoa, multiple sources told Miller the team isn’t “convinced Tua is the best option and could instead target Oregon’s Justin Herbert.” In fact, the “buzz around the league is that Herbert has the most fans in the Dolphins’ draft room,” Miller writes. This echoes what Armando Salguero of the Miami Herald wrote back in February, when he reported that Miami had an “increasingly positive” view of Herbert and that the Dolphins were concerned about Tagovailoa’s hip as well as his long-term durability.
- The Jets lost Robby Anderson in free agency and didn’t do much to replace him or add receiving help outside of signing Breshad Perriman. They could certainly use another wideout and while the sources Miller talked to still expected the Jets to take an offensive tackle with the 11th overall pick, he also learned that the team is very high on Oklahoma receiver CeeDee Lamb. Lamb put up ridiculous numbers with the Sooners last year, racking up 1,327 yards and 14 touchdowns in 13 games.
NFC Notes: Slay, Hurts, Cowboys, Bears
The Eagles were eyeing Darius Slay for a long time. In March, they finally got him for the cost of a third-round pick, a fifth-round pick, and a brand new three-year, $50MM deal. We heard all the way back in January that upgrading the secondary was a priority for Philly, and it looks like they could change their style of play a bit on defense. The Eagles traditionally play strictly zone under defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz, without a number one corner shadowing the opponent’s top receiver. Slay apparently wants to change that. “I love the challenge,” Slay said of shadowing during his introductory press call, via Kevin Patra of NFL.com.
“I kind of ask for it a lot because the fact that I want the game on me, and I want to help win the game, and if the best route to go about it is me traveling with a guy, then I’ll do it,” he continued. “I’ve been doing it the past four or five years,” the former Lion explained, “and I’ve been very, very successful at it. If they need me to continue to do it, that’s what I’ll continue to do.” Most observers seemed to agree that the Mississippi State product’s play dropped off a little bit last season as he dealt with injury, but the Eagles’ new top corner rejected that assertion. “I had a great year, in my opinion,” Slay said of 2019. “I think I played freaking fantastic. … It was dang sure good enough to make a Pro Bowl third season in a row.”
Here’s more from the NFC:
- The Cowboys are still waiting to close an extension with starting quarterback Dak Prescott, and while those negotiations continue they’re apparently taking a look at some of the quarterbacks in this year’s draft class. Dallas owner Jerry Jones conducted a video interview with Oklahoma passer Jalen Hurts, via a post on the team’s Instagram page. The Cowboys’ post offers a cool behind the scenes look at what the pre-draft process is looking like for teams in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Hurts is expected by many analysts to go off the board sometime in the second or third-round, which would be pretty early for the Cowboys to be taking a backup. If they do end up picking Hurts and still don’t have a deal done with Prescott, that would certainly raise a lot of eyebrows.
- Yesterday we passed along word that the Bears were planning on using free agent acquisition Germain Ifedi at guard, and now we have the details on his contract. Ifedi got a $137.5K signing bonus and a $910K base salary on his one-year deal, Field Yates of ESPN.com tweets. We figured Ifedi didn’t get too much, but this is still pretty cheap for a 25-year-old with versatility who has started 60 games the past four seasons. A first-round pick of the Seahawks back in 2016, Ifedi became a full-time starter but always underwhelmed and never lived up to his draft status. He played both tackle and guard extensively for Seattle.
- In case you missed it, the Seahawks may only be willing to pay between $13-15MM for Jadeveon Clowney.
Extra Points: Brees, Kuechly, O’Brien
Saints coach Sean Payton might’ve accidentally let some big news slip this week. Appearing on ESPN’s ‘Get Up,’ Payton said “the unique situation with our team and quarterback Drew Brees, he’s announced he’s coming back for his final season,” via Katherine Terrell of The Athletic. When Brees elected not to retire this offseason, he said he’d be taking things year by year and didn’t make any official proclamations about this being his last campaign.
Either Payton misspoke, or he let the cat out of the bag. We’ve heard for a while now that the Saints eventually want Taysom Hill to take over as the starting quarterback, and that they plan on utilizing Hill even more this coming season. All the moves they’ve made so far point to one last run with Brees, so it would make sense if he has in fact told them this is his final ride. They’ve signed a 32-year-old Malcolm Jenkins and a 33-year-old Emmanuel Sanders, so they’re clearly all-in on 2020.
Here’s more from around the league:
- Speaking of NFC South retirements, Panthers linebacker Luke Kuechly surprisingly decided to hang up his cleats this offseason. Interestingly, Carolina still hasn’t officially placed him on the reserve/retired list, according to Joseph Person of The Athletic. Before fans get excited, that’s likely because the Panthers can add $6MM in cap space by waiting until after June 1st to make the move, Person notes. Additionally, a source close to the former Defensive Player of the Year told Person that he has had “no second thoughts” about his decision to retire. We’ve heard the former All-Pro could be eyeing a coaching/consulting gig, and Person writes he has also explored broadcasting opportunities. Kuechly is still only 28, so there’s plenty of time for him to change his mind about his playing career.
- Texans coach Bill O’Brien caught a lot of flak for his trade of Deandre Hopkins and what he was able to get back in return, and he sought to explain himself a bit Friday. “It was in the best interest of our team. DeAndre Hopkins was a great football player. We loved DeAndre Hopkins He had three years left on his deal and he wanted a raise. David Johnson is going to be a great addition to our football team,” O’Brien said, via Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle (Twitter link). O’Brien seemed to confirm that Hopkins’ desire to sweeten his deal was a driving force behind the shocking trade. It’ll be very interesting to see how O’Brien handles the locker room and growing backlash from the fanbase.
Minor NFL Transactions: 4/3/20
Today’s minor moves:
Chicago Bears
- Re-signed: LB Isaiah Irving
Irving played about 12 percent of the defensive snaps last year as a reserve linebacker, also contributing on special teams. The San Jose State product signed with Chicago as an undrafted free agent back in 2017.