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By | at August 21, 2015 2:25 pm

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South Notes: Pagano, Titans, Mathis, Panthers

By | at August 21, 2015 1:02 pm

Expectations are high in Indianapolis this season, with Colts owner Jim Irsay suggesting that he’d like to see his team win “at least two world championships” while Andrew Luck is the quarterback. Those high expectations, combined with the fact that Chuck Pagano is entering the final year of his contract, could mean it’s a “Super Bowl or bust” season for the Colts’ head coach, writes Jason La Canfora of CBSSports.com.

La Canfora hears that there’s “consistent chatter” around the Colts about possible tension between Pagano and GM Ryan Grigson, who haven’t always seen eye to eye on staff decisions — per La Canfora, Grigson strongly supported Pep Hamilton as offensive coordinator, while Pagano was more inclined to go with Rob Chudzinski.

I’m skeptical that Irsay and the Colts are drawing a hard “Super Bowl or bust” line with Pagano, but it’s somewhat surprising that the two sides haven’t been able to work out a new deal yet. As we wait to see what this season brings for Pagano and his team, let’s round up a few more Friday notes from around the NFL’s two South divisions….

  • The Titans are monitoring Evan Mathis‘ situation, according to Paul Kuharsky of ESPN.com (Twitter link), who suggests Tennessee’s interest in the veteran guard could intensify if the team’s offensive line play doesn’t improve in this weekend’s preseason game vs. the Rams.
  • In an Insider-only piece for ESPN.com, Field Yates examines the Panthers‘ options for replacing Kelvin Benjamin, wondering if the Colts might be a logical trade partner — players like Donte Moncrief and Duron Carter may find themselves pushed far down on Indianapolis’ depth chart, with T.Y. Hilton, Andre Johnson, and Phillip Dorsett expected to be the club’s top three wideouts. For what it’s worth, Carolina was one of the teams interested in Carter before he signed with the Colts.
  • Jim Woodcock, spokesman for Jaguars owner Shad Kahn, denied an international report claiming that the Jaguars have extended their deal with London’s Wembley Stadium through the 2030 season, per Hays Carlyon of the Florida Times-Union. However, Woodcock added that discussions for the team to continue its London series “have been frequent and promising.”
1 comment Carolina Panthers City Of London Indianapolis Colts Jacksonville Jaguars Tennessee Titans

Corey Peters Tears Achilles, Out For Year

By | at August 21, 2015 12:39 pm

FRIDAY, 12:39pm: The Cardinals have officially placed Peters on injured reserve, ending his season, tweets Urban.

THURSDAY, 1:11pm: After losing multiple defensive starters to various injuries and suspensions during the 2014 season, the Cardinals are now down a starting defensive lineman in 2015. Head coach Bruce Arians confirmed today that nose tackle Corey Peters has suffered a torn left Achilles, and will be sidelined for the season (Twitter link via Darren Urban of AZCardinals.com). Peters has yet to officially be placed on injured reserve, but figures to land there shortly.

It’s a devastating blow for Peters, who tore his right Achilles at the end of the 2013 season. He returned from the injury last season to play 15 games for the Falcons, but didn’t have quite the same impact on the field, recording 26 tackles and two sacks – down from 46 and five in 2013 – as he transitioned into a reserve role.

Another year removed from that 2013 Achilles injury, Peters was poised to take over for Dan Williams as the Cardinals’ starting nose tackle this season. Instead, he’ll spend the first season of his three-year contract with Arizona on the IR list, with fourth-round rookie Rodney Gunter stepping into the starting lineup (Twitter link via Urban).

Arians also addressed Mike Iupati‘s health, telling reporters that the veteran guard is getting his meniscus repaired. The recovery timeline for the procedure varies, so Iupati could be on the shelf for anywhere from three to eight weeks (Twitter link via Urban).

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AFC East Notes: Dareus, Flynn, Bryant

By | at August 21, 2015 11:32 am

Bills defensive tackle Marcell Dareus , frustrated with contract negotiations, is “delusional” if he thinks he’ll get an extension similar to Ndamukong Suh‘s deal with the Dolphins, tweets former agent Joel Corry. Jason Fitzgerald of Over the Cap essentially agrees with that assessment, suggesting that Suh’s contract is one of the biggest outliers in the NFL, made possible by the fact that Suh reached the open market when the Lions were too cap-strapped to franchise him.

As Corry tweets, Dareus may have a hard time topping Mario Williams‘s contract with the Bills – which was worth $16MM per year – since pass-rushing edge defenders are typically paid more than even the best interior defensive linemen. On the other hand, Fitzgerald argues that the fact the Bills were willing to make Williams the highest-paid player on their team with that massive deal three years ago means that Dareus could be right to assume they’ll do it again. In Fitzgerald’s view, the team may not “have a leg to stand on” in offering the star defensive tackle less than $16MM annually.

As we wait to see if the Bills and Dareus can reach a compromise before the season begins, let’s check out some other items from around the AFC East….

  • The one-year deal Matt Flynn got from the Jets is a minimum-salary pact that includes a guaranteed $60K signing bonus, according to Tom Pelissero of USA Today (via Twitter).
  • Pelissero also provides some details on Red Bryant‘s new one-year contract with the Bills, tweeting that the veteran defensive lineman got $80K to sign, and can earn up to $100K in playing-time incentives on top of his minimum salary.
  • As Brian Costello of the New York Post details, Dan Quinn and Todd Bowles were viewed as the consensus top coaching candidates among assistants at the end of the 2014 season, and the Jets and Falcons each had interest in both coaches. Bowles had been scheduled for a second interview in Atlanta following his second meeting with the Jets, but New York came away so impressed that the team decided not to wait on Quinn, hiring Bowles instead.
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Marcell Dareus Frustrated With Bills’ Talks

By | at August 21, 2015 8:21 am

A report yesterday indicated that contract extension discussions between the Bills and star defensive lineman Marcell Dareus had come to a standstill, and Dareus himself confirmed as much after last night’s win over the Browns. Speaking to Tyler Dunne of the Buffalo News, Dareus took the negotiations public, expressing frustration with the process.

“They’re making it hard,” Dareus said. “And it’s just really making me unhappy. I feel like they don’t really want me here. … I feel like they don’t want me here as bad as I want to be here, as bad as the fans and my team wants me here. I feel like they’re saying, ‘Whatever. You come a dime a dozen.'”

According to Dunne, the Bills have offered Dareus a six-year extension worth more than $90MM, though it’s not clear what portion of that money would be guaranteed. It’s a per-year average of $15MM+, which would exceed Gerald McCoy‘s deal but falls short of contracts like those signed by J.J. Watt and especially Ndamukong Suh. Dareus appears to be using the latter player’s deal as a benchmark — asked if he had a specific figure in mind, the Bills’ Pro Bowler replied, “I’ll just say, ‘Thank you, Suh.'”

As Dunne observes, the Bills committed big money to a handful of players earlier this offseason, and have potential extensions for players like cornerback Stephon Gilmore, tackle Cordy Glenn and outside linebacker Nigel Bradham to consider. However, if the club isn’t careful, it could risk losing Dareus, or at least having to use its franchise tag on him in 2016. For now, he doesn’t appear willing to settle.

“They’re playing,” Dareus said. “It’s a contract game. They’re playing. They’re going back and forth. I play one game, they play this game. There’s not much I can really say. I know what I’m worth.”

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NFL Millionaire Maker Contest At DraftKings

By | at August 20, 2015 10:55 pm

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The one-week contest for Week 1’s slate of NFL games gets underway on Sunday, September 13 at 1:00pm eastern time, so you have plenty of time to set – and tweak – your lineup. It’s a salary cap style contest, meaning you’ll have a budget of $50K with which to fill nine roster spots — one QB, two RBs, three WRs, one TE, one Flex, and one Team Defense. Here’s what my current Week 1 roster looks like, for example:

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Steelers Won’t Change Contract Policy For Antonio Brown

By | at August 20, 2015 3:33 pm

When it comes to star wide receiver Antonio Brown, the Steelers won’t change the way they handle player contracts, according to GM Kevin Colbert. That means that Brown, who had been considering a holdout this summer, will likely have to wait until after the 2016 season to get a new deal from the team.

“Players sign contracts, we expect them to honor them,” Colbert said, per Mark Kaboly of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. “If a player has one year to go other than a quarterback is when we have gotten into discussions. It has been the position of the organization and it has always been like that.

“It was something that was here before I got here and I am sure it will continue after I am gone,” Colbert added. “It is just the consistency within the organization. It is something that we believe in and it works for us, so I don’t see it changing.”

Brown, a former sixth-round pick, signed his first big, long-term contract in 2012, agreeing to a five-year, $41.7MM pact. That deal pays him over $8MM per year, but that annual average value is only the 14th-highest in the NFL among wide receivers, placing him behind players like Victor Cruz and Pierre Garcon.

Coming off a season in which he led the NFL with 129 receptions and 1,698 yards, Brown probably deserves a deal more in line with the big-money contracts signed by Dez Bryant, Demaryius Thomas, and T.Y. Hilton this offseason. However, as Colbert points out, the Steelers don’t renegotiate contracts with players until they have just one year left. Brown, who will earn base salaries of $6MM in 2015 and $8.25MM in 2016, has a deal that runs through 2017, so Pittsburgh is unwilling to rework it at this point.

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Panthers Not Pursuing Wayne, Other WRs

By | at August 20, 2015 2:32 pm

Despite losing their No. 1 wide receiver, Kelvin Benjamin, to a season-ending ACL injury, the Panthers aren’t in a hurry to sign a free agent or to acquire a wideout via trade. As David Newton of ESPN.com writes, the team isn’t currently shopping for a receiver, and isn’t looking at veteran free agent Reggie Wayne.

“We feel real good about who we have right now. We really do,” head coach Ron Rivera said. “We’ll see. We’ve got plenty of time. We’ve just got to be patient with them.”

With Benjamin, who topped 1,000 yards in his rookie season, no longer in the mix, the team will rely on a group that includes second-round rookie Devin Funchess, Corey Brown, Ted Ginn Jr., Jerricho Cotchery, and Jarrett Boykin. While there are some solid players in that group, it’s unlikely that any of them will match Benjamin’s production — it’s not even clear who would have been the team’s No. 2 receiver, prior to Benjamin’s injury.

For their part, some Panthers sources believe Funchess can step in and post numbers similar to what Benjamin did in his rookie year, according to Jason Cole of Bleacher Report (video link), who also says that the team isn’t in the market for a veteran free agent, at least for now. It seems unlikely that the former Michigan wideout, who is currently battling a hamstring injury, will be that effective out of the gate, but he’ll be forced into a larger role than anticipated, and the Panthers appear confident he can handle it.

“We drafted Devin for a reason,” Rivera said. “You want to have a big, quality receiver, and Devin gives us that still.”

Newton, Cole, and Joseph Person of the Charlotte Observer all suggest that the Panthers like their depth at wide receiver, so if the team does pursue an outside option, it figures to happen closer to the season, if an intriguing player becomes available during roster cutdowns.

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East Notes: Dolphins, Flynn, Giants, JPP

By | at August 20, 2015 12:58 pm

The Dolphins confirmed today that safety Louis Delmas has torn his ACL for the second time in nine months, and the injury leaves the team scrambling to find a new starter at free safety. While it’s possible that Miami will promote an in-house option to the starting lineup, Armando Salguero of the Miami Herald (Twitter link) hears that the team will “definitely” look around the league for a possible upgrade, either via trade or a waiver claim later in the preseason.

Despite the fact that Eric Weddle ‘s agent David Canter promoted the idea of a trade that would send his client to the Dolphins, Canter himself acknowledged that such a deal won’t happen, and Miami is unlikely to make a major splash to add a safety. Still, as Salguero suggests, the team is in win-now mode, so if the Dolphins’ backups can’t get the job done, it’s imperative that the club finds someone who can.

Here’s more from out of the NFL’s two East divisions:

  • According to head coach Todd Bowles, the Jets considered waiting to sign a quarterback in order to see what other QBs might become available within the next few weeks. However, the club decided to sign Matt Flynn to give him a head start on getting comfortable with the team’s system, and because there was no guarantee he’d still be available in a couple weeks, as Brian Costello of the New York Post details.
  • The only scenario in which Eli Manning and the Giants don’t eventually work out a new contract is if the team decides to rebuild around a younger, cheaper quarterback, but barring a major injury or a disastrous season, the team is much more likely to stay the course with Manning, says Dan Graziano of ESPN.com.
  • Nearly seven weeks after the fireworks accident that cost him a finger on his right hand, Jason Pierre-Paul has yet to inform the Giants when he’ll report to the club and when he might return to action, writes Ebenezer Samuel of the New York Daily News.
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Marcell Dareus Contract Talks At Standstill

By | at August 20, 2015 11:40 am

The Bills have stressed since the draft that their top offseason priority is getting a new contract done for star defensive lineman Marcell Dareus. However, for now, negotiations on that extension are at a standstill, two sources tell John Wawrow of The Associated Press.

One source tells Wawrow that the Bills and Dareus’ camp haven’t exchanged offers within the last few weeks, raising concerns that the two sides won’t be able to get something done before the regular season gets underway. Buffalo’s Week 1 game isn’t viewed as a hard deadline for the contract talks, but players generally prefer to focus on football once the regular season gets underway.

Back at the end of July, Bills general manager Doug Whaley confirmed that he and Dareus’ reps had exchanged proposals, but cautioned that “these things take time.” With the 25-year-old heading into the final year of his rookie contract, I still think there’s a good chance the club locks him up within the next few weeks.

When I examined Dareus as an extension candidate, I suggested that his camp would likely push for an extension in the ballpark of J.J. Watt‘s deal, or perhaps even aim for something similar Ndamukong Suh‘s new contract. However, the team is probably seeking something closer to Gerald McCoy‘s deal with the Buccaneers.

As Over the Cap’s data shows, Suh, Watt, and McCoy are earning $19.06MM, $16.67MM, and $13.6MM per year, respectively.

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