DT Jurrell Casey “Mulling Multiple Offers”
We haven’t heard much from Jurrell Casey since he was released by the Broncos back in February…but that doesn’t mean there’s a lack of interest. According to Adam H. Beasley of ProFootballNetwork.com, the veteran defensive tackle “is mulling multiple offers.” However, a deal isn’t imminent.
Casey, 31, made the Pro Bowl every year from 2015-2019, and from 2013-2019, the USC product had at least five sacks from the interior. His best work earned him a four-year, $60.4MM extension from the Titans. Last offseason, the Broncos agreed to take on that contract, and all it cost them (besides cash and cap flexibility) was a seventh-round pick.
Unfortunately for the Broncos, Casey’s first Denver season ended in September. Unable to return after a bicep tear, Casey finished out with just three appearances and a grand total of 14 tackles. It was his first season with fewer than 14 games played and his first ever sackless campaign.
Back in February, the Broncos cut the veteran, providing the organization with more than $11MM in cap relief. Once teams identify their need for defensive line depth, there will surely be suitors who are willing to pony up for the five-time Pro Bowler.
Latest On Potential Extension For Buccaneers WR Chris Godwin
There’s some hope that Chris Godwin could end up inking an extension with the Buccaneers after all. ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler reports (via Twitter) that there’s still a “chance” that the wideout inks a long-term deal with Tampa Bay.
[RELATED: Status Of 7 Remaining Franchise-Tagged Players]
The Buccaneers have been willing to dish out money this offseason to retain their top players, but Godwin’s demands could be too pricey for the organization. As Fowler notes, Kenny Golladay was able to earn $18MM this offseason from the Giants; that type of AAV might not be palatable to the Buccaneers front office.
We heard last week that negotiations between the two sides weren’t particularly close. Godwin’s tag is worth $15.9MM, but the Pro Bowl receiver is likely shooting for a deal in the WR1 range. Presently holding less than $500K in cap space (and, not to mention, paying fellow wideout Mike Evans a sizable contract), the Bucs will need to create some room if they truly want to re-up Godwin.
The former third-round pick has just one 1,000-yard season on his resume, but the Bucs did not make him a full-time player until they traded DeSean Jackson after the 2018 season. Godwin blew up for 1,333 yards and nine touchdown receptions in 2019. Although he encountered multiple injuries last season, the Penn State product still surpassed 800 yards and remains an essential part of Tampa Bay’s loaded skill-position corps.
Latest On Extension Talks Between Taylor Moton, Panthers
Taylor Moton is prepared to play next season on the franchise tag. While the Panthers still have interest in extending the offensive tackle, ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler tweets that there’s still a “gap to bridge.”
Specifically, Moton’s willingness to play the 2021 campaign on the franchise tag provides his camp with a bit of leverage. Since the 26-year-old isn’t necessarily pushing for a long-term deal, he’s willing to engage in a staring contest in pursuit of his desired salary. With only a few days remaining before the deadline, it’s most likely Moton ends up playing on that one-year, ~$14MM deal.
The 27-year-old has started 48 straight games at right tackle for the Panthers, with Pro Football Focus grading Moton as a top-20 tackle in each of those three campaigns. That included a 2020 season where the lineman ranked as a top-five right tackle. The team slapped Moton with the franchise tag earlier this offseason, but it was believed the team was eyeing a long-term deal for the former second-round pick.
Ryan Ramczyk’s recent deal with New Orleans could certainly provide a basis for a Moton extension. Ramczyk inked a five-year, $96MM deal that included $60MM in guarantees. Ramczyk’s $19.2MM AAV makes him the NFL’s highest-paid right tackle, eclipsing a mark that was previously held by Eagles lineman Lane Johnson. Ramczyk’s $60MM guarantee also surpasses Johnson’s ($55MM), with the two players earning the distinction of being the only right tackles with guarantees surpassing $35MM. For comparison’s sake, Moton will earn around $13.7MM this upcoming season under the franchise tag.
Latest On Bears RB Tarik Cohen’s ACL Recovery
Bears running back Tarik Cohen missed most of the 2020 campaign after suffering a torn ACL, and it sounds like the veteran still hasn’t fully recovered from his injury. Per Adam H. Beasley of ProFootballNetwork.com, Cohen is a candidate to open training camp on the PUP, and the delayed start to his preseason could impact his availability for the beginning of the regular season.
The 2017 fourth-round pick has spent his entire career in Chicago. This included a 2018 campaign where he finished with 1,169 yards from scrimmage and eight touchdowns, although it was his returning prowess (a league-leading 411 punt return yards) that earned him both an All-Pro and Pro Bowl nod. Cohen started a career-high 11 games in 2019, but he was limited to a (then) career-low 669 yards from scrimmage.
The 25-year-old didn’t start any of the Bears’ first three games of the 2020 season, with the running back collecting only 115 offensive yards. He suffered his ACL injury in Week 3 and was subsequently placed on IR.
Cohen is still an important part of the Bears’ offense, and if the team wants to make noise in the NFC, they’ll surely want one of their top skill players to be healthy. Further, the team also has some financial reasons for wanting Cohen on the field; it’s been less than a year since he signed a three-year, $17.25MM extension that will kick in this season.
Fortunately for the Bears, the team does have some depth to overcome a hypothetical Cohen absence. David Montgomery is still sitting atop the depth chart, and the team also added veteran free agent Damien Williams this past offseason. The team is also rostering the likes of Ryan Nall, Artavis Pierce, and rookies Khalil Herbert and CJ Marable.
Titans OL Nate Davis Could Get $11MM+ On Next Contract
The Titans’ offensive line has received its fair share of credit for the team’s dynamic running game over the past few years. One of the more unheralded members of that line, offensive guard Nate Davis, could be eyeing a significant contract once his rookie pact expires. As Adam H. Beasley of ProFootballNetwork.com writes, Davis is quickly transforming into one of the NFL’s top offensive guards, and “industry insiders believe he will get paid like it with another stellar year.”
The 2019 third-round pick out of Charlotte has spent his entire two-year career with Tennessee. After starting 12 of his 13 games as a rookie (plus another three starts in the postseason), Davis started all 16 games for the Titans in 2020, playing in each of the team’s 1,074 offensive snaps. Pro Football Focus graded the 24-year-old as one of the better offensive guards in the NFL, and another strong performance in 2021 should allow him to cash in on a potential extension.
As Beasley notes, Davis has had the opportunity to learn from a number of veterans during his short stint in Tennessee, including Taylor Lewan, Rodger Saffold, and Ben Jones. Couple that guidance with Davis’s intangibles (including a top-notch work ethic), and it shouldn’t be a surprise that the lineman has continued to improve in each of his two NFL seasons, and it wouldn’t be a surprise if he takes another leap in year three.
So how much could Davis ask for on his next contract? Per Beasley, league insiders believe the player can command a deal that pays him as one of the top offensive guards in the NFL, with the writer citing Brandon Brooks ($14.1MM AAV), Zack Martin ($14MM AAV), Andrus Peat ($11.5MM AAV), and Saffold ($11MM AAV). The Titans are going to be in a bit of a cap bind going forward, so the organization may have to get creative if they want to retain Davis beyond the 2022 season.
This Date In Transactions History: Chiefs Promote Brett Veach To GM
Brett Veach made his way through the coaching and front office ranks before hitting the pinnacle of his career on this date four years ago. On July 10, 2017, the Chiefs promoted the executive to the role of general manager.
Veach undoubtedly had the resume to lead the front office; after a few years as an Eagles coach and scout, he took the role of pro and college personnel analyst in Kansas City before getting promoted to Co-Director of Player Personnel, a position he held for two seasons. While the executive was certainly qualified to be GM, he also needed a bit of luck to get the job in the first place.
For starters, the Chiefs surprised the NFL world when they fired previous GM John Dorsey so late in the offseason. Dorsey had already guided the organization through much of their offseason tasks, including the draft (where they team traded up to select Patrick Mahomes) and extensions (where they handed Eric Berry a sizable pay day). Some pundits second-guessed the organization’s decision to not pivot away from Dorsey earlier in the offseason, especially since his heir apparent, Chris Ballard, had taken the Colts GM gig only months before. Ultimately, it sounds like Dorsey’s inability to effectively communicate and manage his staff (coupled with some questionable salary cap moves) spelled his demise in Kansas City. Rather than waiting another year to make a GM change, the organization decided to make their move at the end of June.
So, Veach took control of a roster that had lost in the Divisional Round in each of the past two seasons (despite averaging 11.5 wins per year during that span). After a 10-win 2017 campaign that saw Kansas City lose in the Wild Card Round, the GM made perhaps the most significant decision of his tenure. The Chiefs traded veteran Alex Smith to Washington, thus making Mahomes the full-time starter.
How has that worked out for the Chiefs? Well, Mahomes’ accolades are well-documented, but the team has also had plenty of on-field success. The team won 12 games and made it to the AFC Championship Game during Mahomes’ first season at the helm, they finally won that elusive Super Bowl during the 2019 campaign, and they made their second-straight Super Bowl appearance in 2020 (where they ultimately lost to Tom Brady and the Buccaneers).
Many fans want to give Mahomes credit for the Chiefs ascension into one of the best teams in football (rightfully so), and many pundits look back at Dorsey’s transactions and give him credit for forming the team’s core (also rightfully so). However, Veach has done a remarkable job of nurturing his roster by re-signing big names, taking shots on embattled or unheralded players, and making shrewd moves in both the draft and free agency. Signing Tyrann Mathieu to a three-year, $42MM deal was one of the GM’s best free agent acquisitions, and he’s also brought in contributors like Sammy Watkins and Bashaud Breeland via free agency, Frank Clark and Emmanuel Ogbah via trade, and Juan Thornhill and L’Jarius Sneed via the draft. The GM has also shown an ability to identify weaknesses and fix them. Kansas City’s offensive line dealt with a long list of issues in 2020, and Veach worked to revamp the unit by signing Joe Thuney to a five-year, $80MM deal and trading for Orlando Brown.
Perhaps most importantly, Veach has made sure that the team’s best players will continue to wear Chiefs uniforms. In 2020 alone, the general manager extended tight end Travis Kelce (four years, $57.3MM), defensive tackle Chris Jones (four years, $80MM), and Mahomes (a massive, unprecedented 10-year deal worth $450MM.
Clearly, the organization has valued what the GM has done. In 2020, the Chiefs gave Veach (along with head coach Andy Reid) a six-year extension.
Sure, you can question whether Veach deserves full credit for the Chiefs’ recent success, and it’s also fair to ask if he lucked his way into his position in the first place. However, plenty of replacements could have just as easily bungled the team’s roster over the past few years. Instead, Veach has helped elevate the team into a perennial contender.
Kyle Shanahan Discusses Decision To Take Trey Lance Over Mac Jones
Even up until the day of the 2021 Draft, it was still uncertain which QB the 49ers would take with the No. 3 pick. Our final report on the subject indicated that the decision was down to the team’s eventual pick, Trey Lance, and Alabama’s Mac Jones, who ended up going to the Patriots at No. 15.
During a recent appearance on the “Flying Coach” podcast, 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan seemed to indicate that the team did seriously consider Jones before ultimately choosing Lance.
“I think either one would have been a good decision,” Shanahan said (h/t Yahoo’s Josh Schrock). “Like, you’re not moving up if you don’t feel good about both of those. And if it had just been one then we probably would have said no — well, we probably wouldn’t have said that because it’s still risky. But we really — either one of those players would have been a great pick, in my opinion. And the third guy with Justin [Fields], he would have been a great pick. It’s just what direction do you want to go.
“There’s so many things that go into it and you’ve got to make that decision. But I didn’t blame people at all for thinking it would be Mac Jones. Because Mac Jones deserves that. He’s that good of a player and he put it on tape for a whole year, and everyone did want to relate me to Kirk [Cousins] because that’s the only guy that I was openly going for as a free agent, so people talk about him. But Trey brought another element. And it doesn’t mean he’s better or worse. It just means he brought another element that over the course of us studying it really intrigued us, and that’s a direction I would love to go and have always wanted to go.
“But the guy has got to be able to do it all, and Trey sold us that he could and that’s why I’m excited to work with him and it’s up to us to get him to do it.”
After acquiring the No. 3 pick from the Dolphins for No. 12 and a pair of future firsts, the 49ers never really showed their hand, but it sounds like the team was sincerely exploring all of their potential options. As Shanahan noted, the 49ers seemed to value Lance’s diverse skill set, something that was especially evident during a 2019 collegiate season where the quarterback ran for 1,100 yards. For comparison’s sake, Jones had 42 rushing yards throughout his entire college career.
While Lance will eventually be under center for his new team, it sounds like the team is going to give Jimmy Garoppolo every opportunity to win the starting gig.
Texans DL Brandon Dunn Feels “100 Percent”
A fractured hip forced Brandon Dunn to miss the final three games of the 2020 campaign, but the Texans defensive lineman is confident that he’s now 100-percent healthy.
“It’s been a long journey…and I’ve handled it and basically taken care of it the whole offseason,” Dunn said to Aaron Wilson of Sports Talk 790 (via Twitter). “Due to COVID and everything, it’s not an injury during a normal year…there really weren’t any days off.
“I feel 100 percent now, and I’m ready to compete.”
The former undrafted free agent out of Louisville has been with the Texans since 2015, and he’s had a consistent spot in the middle of Houston’s defensive line since 2017. Dunn has started 37 games for the Texans over the past four seasons, collecting nine QB hits and eight tackles for loss. He started a career-high 13 games this past season, finishing with 26 tackles, three QB hits, and one fumble recovery.
Dunn inked a three-year, $12MM extension with the Texans during the 2020 offseason, so there’s a good chance he’ll be sticking around Houston for the foreseeable future. However, Dunn is also one of the few players from the previous regime, and the front office has made it clear that they’re willing to move on from anyone. While the 28-year-old sounds confident in his ability to get back on the field, he’ll have to show it to secure his roster spot.
S Harrison Smith Discusses Future With Vikings
Harrison Smith has spent his entire nine-year career in Minnesota, and the Pro Bowl safety naturally wants to end his career with the Vikings. However, during a recent appearance on All Things Covered, Smith admitted to the hosts, current teammate Patrick Peterson and former NFL cornerback Bryant McFadden, that anything could happen.
“Yeah,” Smith said. “I mean I don’t know what happens at the end of careers. I was listening to, it might’ve been the [episode] with Champ [Bailey], Pat Pete was saying at that ten-year mark, sometimes things change. I don’t plan on that happening, but the NFL is the NFL. It’s always wild. But I’ll always consider myself a Viking no matter what.”
These comments are relatively timely; we learned earlier this week that the Vikings were exploring an extension with the veteran defensive back. Smith signed a five-year, $51.25MM deal nearly five years ago, but his AAV is now 11th among safeties. Smith is set to hit free agency next offseason.
Given Anthony Harris‘ offseason departure, it would make sense for the Vikings to explore another deal with Smith, and it’d make sense for Smith to look for a slight pay bump. Another five-year deal is probably not in the cards, but Smith has remained a high-end safety into his 30s, with Pro Football Focus rating him as a top-15 player at the position in each year of his current contract.
The 2021 season will be Smith’s 10th, and while the 32-year-old defender saw his five-year run of Pro Bowls cease in 2020, he matched his career high with five interceptions last season. He did so for a Vikings defense that cratered after defections and numerous injuries stripped away veterans. Minnesota let Harris walk to Philadelphia — on merely a one-year, $4MM deal — but signed ex-Dallas starter Xavier Woods and drafted Camryn Bynum in Round 4 this year.
Latest On Cowboys HC Mike McCarthy’s Job Status
Mike McCarthy‘s second season in Dallas could be his last unless his team is able to put together a playoff run. Adam H. Beasley of ProFootballNetwork.com reports that McCarthy’s Cowboys may need to make it to the NFC Championship Game if the head coach wants to keep his job.
As Beasley explains, Jerry Jones will soon be 79, and the owner is unwilling to show as much patience as he did with former head coach Jason Garrett. The Cowboys’ 6-10 record in 2020 left a lot to be desired, and while that record was obviously impacted by Dak Prescott‘s injury, another disappointing campaign could spell the end of McCarthy’s tenure in Dallas. If the Cowboys do underachieve, Jones may be ready to start over with a new head coach as he pursues that elusive championship.
Further, Beasley notes that some within the organization are “a bit dubious” about McCarthy’s coaching staff hires. The head coach has brought in four former Packers staffers (Joe Philbin, Joe Whitt Jr., Jeff Blasko, and Scott McCurley) since he’s been in Dallas, and the writer implies that some within the organization have been less than thrilled with the additions.
McCarthy has already slightly revamped his coaching staff in anticipation of the 2021 season. This past offseason, the team let go of defensive coordinator Mike Nolan and replaced him with former Falcons head coach Dan Quinn. McCarthy will surely be hoping that the coaching change (coupled with Prescott’s return and the team’s offseason acquisitions) will change the team’s fortunes…and help him keep his job.