Ravens May Re-Sign Lardarius Webb
The Ravens are mulling a reunion with defensive back Lardarius Webb just days after releasing him, tweets Jason La Canfora of CBSSports.com. Additionally, Baltimore may be closing in on agreement with free agent cornerback Morris Claiborne, as several teams with interest in Claiborne believe he’ll ultimately land with the Ravens, per La Canfora.
Baltimore cut ties with Webb on Friday after agreeing to terms with fellow safety Tony Jefferson, a cost-saving move that saved the club $5.5MM in cap space. Presumably, a potential Webb return would come with a lower price attached. Webb had spent his entire eight-year career in Baltimore appearing in 111 total games with 82 starts. Last season, the 31-year-old finished with 73 tackles, one sack, and one forced fumble in 16 games (all starts).
Claiborne, meanwhile, was first linked to the Ravens last week. The 26-year-old transformed himself from a former draft bust to a legitimate top corner in his fifth NFL season, ranking as Pro Football Focus 12th-best corner last year year. Re-signed to a one-year deal worth only $3MM in 2016, Claiborne played in seven and posted one interception. Injuries forced Claiborne to miss more than half of the regular season, though he did return for the postseason.
Anquan Boldin To Continue Career In 2017
Anquan Boldin has decided to continue to extend his NFL career for a 15th season, according to Jim Trotter of ESPN (Twitter link). Boldin, 36, is an unrestricted free agent.
Signed to a one-year, $2.75MM deal prior to last season, Boldin appeared in all 16 games for the Lions in 2016. On 95 targets, Boldin managed 67 receptions for 584 yards and eight touchdowns. While the yardage total was the lowest of Boldin’s career, his eight scores were the most he’s posted since 2008. Boldin, a three-time Pro Bowler, played on 80% of Detroit’s offensive snaps as the club’s third receiver behind Golden Tate and Marvin Jones.
Boldin will now enter a free agent receiver market that has seen most of the top options at the position already come off the board. Michael Floyd, Cordarrelle Patterson, Victor Cruz, and Kamar Aiken are among the other pass-catchers that remain unsigned.
Jets Reach Out To Jay Cutler
The Jets are in contact with free agent quarterback Jay Cutler and are expected to meet with him at some point, tweets Ian Rapoport of NFL.com.
Cutler has been linked to the Jets for more than a month, and a potential match between the two sides only grew more apparent when Gang Green hired longtime Cutler backer Jeremy Bates as its new quarterbacks coach. New York’s interest in Cutler is reportedly mutual, as Rapoport indicated last week, making the Jets the first club to be officially tied to the former Bears signal-caller. The 49ers were mentioned as a possible landing spot for Cutler before free agency began, but San Francisco has since agreed to terms with Cutler’s ex-teammates Brian Hoyer and Matt Barkley.
The Jets currently have two quarterbacks on their roster in Bryce Petty and Christian Hackenberg, but the team’s front office reportedly doesn’t believe either of those recent draft picks can develop into anything more than a long-term backup. New York was involved in the early Mike Glennon sweepstakes before he signed on to replace Hoyer in Chicago, and has also been tied to draft prospects Deshaun Watson and Mitch Trubisky as its seeks to stabilize the quarterback position.
Cutler, 33, spent most of the 2016 campaign sidelined by injuries, and wasn’t effective when he was on the field. In five starts, Cutler tossed four touchdowns against five interceptions, and posted a Total Quarterback Rating of just 33.1.
5 Key Stories: 3/5/17 – 3/12/17
Free agency opens! The busiest week of the NFL calendar was as crazy, as the free agent period officially opened on Thursday after a two-day legal tampering period. The sheer magnitude of signings means we won’t be able to go over all of them (or even a fraction of them) here, but there are several ways you can look back on the week that was. First, our Transactions tag will allow you to read stories that simply focus on actual moves, filtering out all rumors. The Newsstand tag, meanwhile, will show you the most important posts of the week. Check out our Top 50 Free Agents list, which is constantly being updated when each player signs, and bookmark our master list of 2017 free agents, which is also updated after each transaction.
The Browns go Moneyball. Cleveland made the first NBA-style trade in league history last week, acquiring quarterback Brock Osweiler, his contract (an entity unto itself), a 2018 second-round pick, and a 2017 sixth-round pick from the Texans in exchange for a 2017 sixth-round choice. The Browns effectively bought a second-round pick by taking on Osweiler’s fully guaranteed $16MM base salary, but Cleveland has little interest in Osweiler himself. The club is already trying to trade the 27-year-old (and are willing to pay roughly half his deal to do so), and will release him if no takers are found.
Patriots wheel and deal. The Browns weren’t the only club to operate in the trade market last week, as the Patriots made three (three!) of their own deals. First, they acquired tight end Dwayne Allen from the Colts to replace Martellus Bennett, and then picked up defensive end Kony Ealy from the Panther to bolster their pass rush. New England saved the largest move for last, however, sending a first- and a third-round pick to the Saints for wide receiver Brandin Cooks. You can keep track of all the moves by bookmarking our list of 2017 NFL 
Trades.
Redskins in turmoil. Washington fired general manager Scot McCloughan on the first day of free agency, a highly unusual decision even for a franchise known for making them. McCloughan’s status with the club had been in question for some time, and while the longtime evalutor’s admitted alcoholism may have played a role in his demise, the move may have simply been a power grab by others in the Redskins’ front office. While the distrust within the organization might have disrupted its free agency plans, Washington still signed a number of players including Stacy McGee, Terrell McClain, and D.J. Swearinger.
AP still waiting. Adrian Peterson remains unsigned and only has one visit scheduled (Seahawks), as more teams have indicated they’re not interested in Peterson than called to express intrigue. The Texans, Patriots, Raiders, Giants, and have all said “thanks, but no thanks” to Peterson, who could still return to the Vikings even after they declined his 2017 option. Peterson, 32 later this month, is the No. 2 running back on PFR’s board.
NFC North Notes: Packers, Lacy, Lang, Lions
Although Eddie Lacy said last month the Packers were pushing to re-sign him, they’re reportedly not offering him much money, tweets Tom Silverstein of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, who notes Green Bay will likely stand by its initial proposal. Lacy, 26, is scheduled to to take free agent visits with both the Vikings and Seahawks. The running back market as a whole has been incredibly slow to develop, as only one back on PFR’s top 10 list of free agent RBs has signed (Danny Woodhead).
Here’s more from the NFC North:
- If Lacy expects the Packers to change their tune, he may want to look at the example of right guard T.J. Lang, who today signed a three-year deal to join the division-rival Lions. Green Bay didn’t make a competitive offer, as their final proposal was $21.5MM over three years with $6.5MM guaranteed, according to Rob Demovsky of ESPN.com (Twitter link). Instead, Lang will earn $28.5MM and $19MM in guarantees over the same three-year term with Detroit. Lang would have re-signed with the Packers if the offer was close, reports Demovsky.
- The Packers may not have an obvious internal candidate to replace Lang, as Demovsky details. 2016 second-round pick Jason Spriggs slid inside to guard for a few games last season, but he’s more likely to stay at tackle long-term, leaving Don Barclay, Lucas Patrick, and Kyle Murphy as other option to take over for Lang. While Green Bay could look to add a veteran on the cheap, the club will most likely use the draft to find a new interior lineman, per Demovsky.
- Cornerback Marcus Cromartie visited with the Lions on Saturday, tweets Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press. Cromartie, 26, hit the open market last week after San Francisco declined to offer him a restricted free agent tender. Cromartie has appeared in 21 games during his three-year NFL tenure, mostly acting as a special teams player during that time.
Dontari Poe To Visit Jaguars
Defensive tackle Dontari Poe will next visit the Jaguars as part of his free agent tour, tweets Josina Anderson of ESPN.com. Poe wrapped up his visit with the Colts without agreeing to a deal, although Anderson reports the meeting “went well.”
Poe, 26, has also drawn interest from the Falcons, Dolphins, Raiders, and 49ers, and is expected to meet with Atlanta, Miami, and Oakland at some point. While the Colts were reportedly open to a long-term deal, Poe might be more open to a one-year pact that would allow him to rebuild his value before entering the market again in 2018. Clubs are apparently concerned about Poes’s lingering back issues, so a one-year contract would afford Poe the opportunity to prove his health before cashing in next year.
The Jaguars have been active in making defensive line moves this offseason, as they’ve added Calais Campbell on a four-year $60MM deal while releasing Jared Odrick, Sen’Derrick Marks, and Roy Miller. Poe, a former first-round pick, would slot in alongside Campbell, Malik Jackson, Dante Fowler Jr., Yannick Ngakoue, and Sheldon Day on a rapidly-improving front.
Bills Sign Philly Brown
The Bills announced that they’ve signed wide receiver Corey Brown. Brown, 25, became an unrestricted free agent last week after the Panthers to offer him a restricted free agent tender.
Brown, a former undrafted free agent, had spent his entire three-year career in Carolina. He started 22 games during his tenure with the Panthers, catching 79 passes for 1,019 yards and seven touchdowns. Brown has also posted 16 career rushing attempts for 139 yards. “Philly” appeared in all 16 games (eight starts) last season, hauling in 27 receptions for 276 yards and one touchdown.
In Buffalo, Brown will help mitigate the losses of receivers Robert Woods and Marquise Goodwin, who last week signed with the Rams and 49ers, respectively. At present, the only other Bills wideout with any real experience under his belt is Sammy Watkins. The rest of the position group is comprised of Dezmin Lewis, Walt Powell, and Kolby Listenbee.
The Lions hosted Brown for a visit last week, but instead he’ll reunite with former Panthers defensive coordiantor Sean McDermott in Buffalo.
Lions Sign T.J. Lang
The Lions have signed free agent guard T.J. Lang the club announced today. It’s reportedly a three-year deal worth $28.5MM that includes $19MM in guarantees. Lang said earlier today he was deciding between Detroit, Seattle, and Green Bay.
By adding Lang, the Lions have now completed a transformation on the right side of their offensive line. While Detroit lost both right tackle Riley Reiff (Vikings) and right guard Larry Warford (Saints) in free agency, the club has arguably upgraded at both spots by adding Lang and Ricky Wagner. The Lions’ front five — which ranked in the bottom half of the league in both adjusted line yards and adjusted sack rate in 2016 — now contains significant investments at multiple positions, including first-round picks at both tackle (Taylor Decker) and guard (Laken Tomlinson, who will likely act as a reserve).
Lang, 29, had spent the past eight seasons in Green Bay, having already agreed to one extension with the club back in 2012. A full-time starter since his third year in the league, Lang appeared in 119 games (94 starts) during his Packers tenure. In 2016, Lang graded as the No. 8 guard in the NFL, according to Pro Football Focus.
Green Bay’s offensive line takes another hit with the defection of Lang to an NFC North rival, as the club already lost top reserve J.C. Tretter to the Browns earlier this week. Fellow All Pro guard Josh Sitton, meanwhile, was released prior to last season and, like Lang, is still playing in the division with the Bears. With Lang gone, 2016 second-round pick Jason Spriggs appears to be the favorite to over right guard for the Packers.
Lang was the last elite option left on the free agent market guard market, as Kevin Zeitler, Ronald Leary, and Warford had already landed new deals. Jahri Evans, John Jerry, Nick Mangold, and Tim Lelito are the best interior lineman who still remain unsigned.
Lang’s agent Mike McCartney first tweeted the news of the deal and its length. Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (Twitter link) added the overall value and guarantees. Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Contract Details: Campbell, Demps, Wheaton
Let’s take a look the financial details of some recently-signed contracts:
- Mike Adams, S (Panthers): Two years, $4.2MM. $1.15MM guaranteed. $650K signing bonus. $00K available annually via Pro Bowl and interception incentives (Twitter link via Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle).
- Calais Campbell, DL (Jaguars): Four years, $60MM. $30MM guaranteed. $6MM signing bonus. Base salaries $9MM (guaranteed), $15MM (guaranteed), $12MM, $15MM. $3MM option bonus for 2019 (Twitter link via Wilson).
- Marcus Cooper, CB (Bears): Three years, $16MM. $8MM guaranteed. $1.5MM signing bonus. $1MM available annually in Pro Bowl and interception incentives (Twitter links via Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune).
- Quintin Demps, S (Bears): Three years, $13.5MM. $5MM guaranteed. $1MM signing bonus (Twitter link via Wilson).
- Ryan Griffin, TE (Texans): Three years, $9MM. $3.225MM guaranteed. Annual $100K workout base de-escalator (Twitter links via Wilson).
- D.J. Hayden, CB (Lions): One year, $3.75MM. $2.25MM guaranteed. $1MM signing bonus. $250K workout bonus. $1.5MM available via incentives (Twitter link via Wilson).
- Ted Larsen, OL (Dolphins): Three years, $5.65MM. $1.75MM guaranteed. $1.25MM signing bonus. $500K escalator in 2018. $1MM escalator in 2019 (Twitter link via Wilson).
- Josh Robinson, CB (Buccaneers): Two years, $5M. $2MM guaranteed. $1MM roster bonus due on eighth day of 2017 league year. $1.75MM team option in 2018. $750K available via incentives (Twitter link via Wilson).
- Cornelius Washington, DL (Lions): Two years, $5.825MM. $1.5MM signing bonus. $1.5MM guaranteed (link via Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press).
- Markus Wheaton, WR (Bears): Two years, $11MM. $5MM guaranteed (Twitter link via Adam Jahns of the Chicago Sun-Times)
- Terrance Williams, WR (Cowboys): Four years, $17MM. $9.5MM guaranteed. $5MM signing bonus. 2020 option season. Annual $200K workout base salary de-escalator (Twitter links via Wilson).
PFR Originals: 3/5/17 – 3/12/17
The original content and analysis produced by the PFR staff during the past week:
- Zach Links unveiled PFR’s Top 50 Free Agents of 2017, a list topped by cornerback A.J. Bouye, who received $65MM from the Jaguars over a five-year term. Given that we’re nearly three days removed from the start of free agency, most of the players on the list have signed, but there are still 14 free agents from that ranking who are still on the open market. That group of available players is led by linebacker Dont’a Hightower, who placed fourth overall.
- In addition to PFR’s overall rankings, Zach and I surveyed the top-15 players at each position on both offense and defense. So far, the running back and non-rush linebacker position markets have been slow to develop, while wide receivers, interior offensive linemen, and interior defensive linemen have been flying off the board. We’ll have updates to each of these lists in the near future, examining the top players still around for the second wave of free agency.
- Many free agents were already spoken for by Friday, leading Zach to take a look at the best remaining players at that time, a list that included (and still includes) Adrian Peterson, Hightower, Eddie Lacy, Dontari Poe, and Johnathan Hankins.
- The NFL has seen seven trades go down this year, and the Patriots have already been involved in three! Keep track of all the deals by bookmarking our ongoing list of 2017 NFL Trades.