Patriots To Acquire Jalen Saunders From Saints
5:20pm: The Pats will send the Saints a conditional 2018 seventh-round choice, Field Yates of ESPN.com tweets.
8:22am: Bill Belichick and the Patriots have pulled off another trade, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN.com, who reports (via Twitter) that the team is acquiring wide receiver and return specialist Jalen Saunders from the Saints for a conditional draft pick. It’ll be the fourth trade New England has made since August 10.
Saunders, who turns 23 later this month, was selected by the Jets in the fourth round (104th overall) in the 2014 draft. The Oklahoma product was cut in September by New York, then spent time on the Cardinals’ and Seahawks’ practice squads before catching on with the Saints. However, he became expendable this summer, when seventh-round rookie Marcus Murphy beat him out for New Orleans’ return job.
The exact details on the conditional pick going to the Saints in the swap aren’t known, but I wouldn’t be surprised if New Orleans only gets the pick if Saunders makes the Patriots’ roster, or plays in a certain number of games for New England.
The Patriots have also made small deals for offensive lineman Ryan Groy, tight end Asante Cleveland, and OL/TE Michael Williams over the last month.
Panthers Acquire Kevin Norwood From Seahawks
TUESDAY, 5:19pm: The Panthers are sending the Seahawks a conditional 2017 seventh-round choice for Norwood, Field Yates of ESPN.com tweets.
MONDAY, 3:32pm: The draft pick the Panthers are giving up for Norwood is a 2017 selection, per a team release.
2:50pm: After initially deciding to cut wide receiver Kevin Norwood, the Seahawks have found a trade partner, sending the former fourth-round pick to the Panthers, per Aaron Wilson of the National Football Post. The exact compensation for Seattle isn’t yet known, but Mike Garafolo of FOX Sports says (via Twitter) it’ll be a draft pick.
Norwood, who turns 26 next month, joined the Seahawks last season out of Alabama, but saw limited action. For the season, he caught nine balls for 102 yards, with no touchdowns. Norwood may have an easier path to playing time on offense in Carolina, where the Panthers will be without their No. 1 receiver, Kelvin Benjamin, who tore his ACL earlier this month.
Panthers coach Ron Rivera had said earlier today that there could be a veteran available after this week’s cuts that might fit in the team’s scheme, as Joseph Person of the Charlotte Observer writes. Earlier in the offseason, Rivera seemed determine to roll with the receivers that Carolina already had on the roster. However, with Jerricho Cotchery and Devin Funchess sidelined, and other wide receivers underperforming this preseason, that stance may have changed.
I would expect the Panthers to still keep an eye on the waiver wire and the free agent market for potential upgrades, even after acquiring Norwood.
Chargers Reduce Roster To 75 Players
The Chargers are the latest team to officially announce their cuts down to 75 players, and the team’s four Tuesday moves involve a handful of injured players. According to a press release, San Diego has waived/injured the following four players:
- WR Torrence Allen
- CB Chris Davis
- S Gordon Hill
- G Melvin Meggs
Each of those players will have to pass through waivers unclaimed in order to remain with the Chargers’ organization. Assuming they do, they’ll revert to San Diego’s injured reserve list.
Having trimmed their roster to 75 players, the Chargers will now have to make 22 more moves in order to get down to a 53-man roster by Saturday afternoon.
Fred Jackson Expected To Sign With Seahawks?
2:45pm: Coach Pete Carroll stressed that Jackson’s trip to Seattle was a “visit not a signing,” (via the Seahawks on Twitter). He also told reporters, including Bob Condotta of The Seattle Times (on Twitter) that there has been no decision yet on signing Jackson. However, Condotta notes (link) that Robert Turbin has a high ankle sprain, and that could explain Seattle’s interest in FJax.
7:58am: Having hit the open market yesterday, it didn’t take Fred Jackson long to find an interested suitor. According to Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (via Twitter), the veteran running back is flying to Seattle this morning to meet with the Seahawks, and both sides expect to work out a deal.
Jackson, who debuted with the Bills in 2007 and had been with the team since then, was released by Buffalo yesterday. Despite being the league’s oldest running back, at age 34, Jackson doesn’t have a ton of mileage on his legs, since he started his career late and split carries with other backs throughout his tenure with the Bills.
Over the course of his eight-year career, Jackson has compiled 5,646 rushing yards and 80 rushing touchdowns on 1,279 carries. He’s also a capable receiver out of the backfield, setting a career high in 2014 with 66 catches. While Jackson was slowed by a hamstring injury earlier in the training camp this year, he looked good in his preseason debut this past weekend, carrying the ball five times for 48 yards.
According to Rapoport (via Twitter), Jackson received interest from numerous playoff teams upon his release. Assuming he finalizes a contract agreement with Seattle though, Jackson will reunite with his old backfield mate Marshawn Lynch, who played in Buffalo himself from 2007 to 2010.
Presumably, Jackson would become Lynch’s primary backup and see action on third downs, if and when he officially signs with Seattle. That would bump Robert Turbin down on the depth chart, and would create some uncertainty regarding the roles for Christine Michael and UDFA rookie Thomas Rawls. Seattle showed it was willing to move a young player for a future draft pick yesterday when the team sent wide receiver Kevin Norwood to the Panthers, so perhaps a running back trade could be explored as well.
Dolphins, Cards Trim Rosters To 75 Players
The Dolphins and Cardinals each had just one last roster move to make to get their respective rosters down to 75 players, and both clubs have now announced those moves.
According to the Dolphins (via Twitter), the club has waived running back Demitrius Bronson, after having released punter Brandon Fields earlier today. Bronson joined the club less than a month ago as a free agent, and wasn’t part of Miami’s regular season plans.
Meanwhile, the Cardinals moved from 76 players on their roster to 76 by parting ways with offensive tackle Rob Crisp, tweets Darren Urban of AZCardinals.com. Crisp, who played his college ball at North Carolina State, signed back in May with Arizona as an undrafted free agent, receiving a $15K bonus from the club.
Washington Notes: RGIII, Williams, Roberts
While Washington’s decision to name Kirk Cousins as the team’s starting quarterback for the 2015 season has been viewed as a signal that Robert Griffin III‘s time in D.C. is coming to an end, Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk makes the case for why it makes some sense for the club to keep him on the roster. As Florio writes, Cousins and Colt McCoy aren’t exactly the safest QB duo in the league, and RGIII’s salary isn’t exorbitant for a backup.
Still, as Charles Robinson of Yahoo! Sports observes, the RGIII era in Washington seems likely to come to an end by next February, with the club likely cutting him in the new year or sooner. Here’s more on the former No. 2 overall pick, along with a couple more Washington-related notes:
- Robinson and Peter King of TheMMQB.com both look ahead and attempt to identify an ideal landing spot for Griffin after he and Washington officially go their separate ways. In Robinson’s view, the Chiefs are the best fit for RGIII, while King cites the Seahawks and Cardinals as logical potential suitors.
- Although most observers don’t believe Washington would be able to trade Griffin, it may be possible if the quarterback is willing to renegotiate his 2016 option year to remove the injury-only guarantee, writes former agent Joel Corry of CBSSports.com. Of course, as Corry acknowledges, Washington still wouldn’t be able to get much in return for the 25-year-old.
- $30MM of Trent Williams‘ five-year, $66MM contract extension with Washington is fully guaranteed at signing, according to Joel Corry of CBSSports.com (all Twitter links). Corry adds that the team, having used a signing/option bonus structure on the deal, will pick up $3.55MM in cap room for the 2015 season.
- In his latest mailbag for the Washington Post, Mike Jones fields questions about Washington’s outside linebackers, Andre Roberts‘ role, and – of course – the quarterback situation.
Three Steelers Players Restructure Contracts
The Steelers have restructured the contracts for three of their players, freeing up $6MM in cap space for 2015 with the moves, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN.com (via Twitter). Schefter reports that wide receiver Antonio Brown, tight end Heath Miller, and kicker Shaun Suisham all had their deals reworked.
The most interesting move of the three is the Steelers’ decision to rework Brown’s deal. Per Mike Garafolo of FOX Sports (via Twitter), it’s not just a simple restructure for the star wideout, who had been seeking a new contract this offseason. Brown won’t get a significant raise or extension, but Pittsburgh has moved up $2MM from his 2016 base salary to 2015, making it part of a new signing bonus.
While specific details on the other restructures haven’t yet been reported, I would expect Miller and Suisham to have a portion of their 2015 base salaries converted to signing bonuses. Miller had been set to earn a $4MM salary this season, while Suisham would’ve earned a $2.595MM salary.
According to Schefter (via Twitter), the Steelers intend to use the majority of their newly-created cap room to offset the large number of injured players they have counting against their cap this year. One of those injured players is Suisham, and today’s moves were likely necessary, in part, to help accommodate the salary of kicker Josh Scobee, acquired by Pittsburgh yesterday from the Jaguars.
Jets Put Jace Amaro On IR, Trim Roster To 75
After cutting 12 players on Sunday, the Jets have made three more moves to ensure that they’re only carrying 75 players on their roster. Most notably, the Jets announced today in a press release that tight end Jace Amaro has been placed on injured reserve, ending his season.
Amaro, 23, was New York’s second-round pick in the 2014 draft, and grabbed 38 balls for 345 yards and two touchdowns in his rookie campaign. However, he injured his shoulder in the club’s preseason opener against the Lions, and Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News tweets that it’s a torn labrum for the tight end, who will undergo surgery.
In addition to putting Amaro on their injured reserve list, the Jets also moved veteran defensive end Kevin Vickerson to IR, and have waived/injured cornerback Dashaun Phillips.
Panthers Cut White, Boykin; Benjamin To IR
12:03pm: The Panthers have confirmed in a press release that they’ve cut Boykin and Lester, and that they’ve waived White with an injury designation. The club also announced the five other moves it has made to get its roster down to 75 players. Here are those transactions:
Placed on injured reserve:
- WR Kelvin Benjamin
Waived:
- DT Kenny Horsley
- WR De’Andre Presley
- DT Micanor Regis (waived with injury settlement)
- T Davonte Wallace (waived/injured)
9:58am: The Panthers have yet to announce their final set of roster moves that will get the team down to 75 players, but a pair of notable Tuesday cuts have already been reported. Joseph Person of the Charlotte Observer passes along a tweet from Melvin White, indicating the cornerback has been waived, while Jonathan Jones of the Charlotte Observer reports (via Twitter) that wide receiver Jarrett Boykin has also been let go.
White, 25, has spent the last two years in Carolina after joining the team as an undrafted free agent out of Louisiana-Lafayette. He claimed a larger role than expected, starting 17 regular season games for the club and recording 89 tackles to go along with three interceptions over the past two seasons. With Charles Tillman penciled in as a starter this year, White had slipped down the depth chart at cornerback, and was the odd man out.
As for Boykin, his release is somewhat surprising, given the Panthers’ lack of wide receiving talent. Boykin, who totaled 49 of his 57 career receptions in 2013 with the Packers, may have become expendable when Carolina acquired wideout Kevin Norwood from the Seahawks in a trade on Monday. According to Jones, Boykin was cut early in the process to allow him to latch on with another team.
In addition to cutting White and Boykin, the Panthers also waived safety Robert Lester, tweets Person. Person’s role was reduced last season after he started four games for the club in his rookie campaign in 2013.
By my count, the Panthers’ latest moves leave them with 80 players on their roster, so the team will have to announce a few more transactions before 3:00pm central time today.
Texans Reduce Roster To 75 Players
The Texans have made five more roster moves today, cutting their roster down to 75 players in advance of this afternoon’s deadline. One of the four transactions, the release of punter Will Johnson was reported yesterday after the club made its first series of cuts.
Here, via Mark Berman of FOX 26 Houston (Twitter link), are the Texans’ other four moves:
Cut:
- LB Jeff Tarpinian
Waived/injured:
- TE Anthony Denham
- S Terrance Parks
Placed on reserve/non-football illness list:
- T David Quessenberry