Minor Moves: Friday
You can find Friday’s minor transactions from around the NFL below, with the latest moves added to the top of the page throughout the afternoon and evening….
- Per a couple of tweets from the Indianapolis Star’s Stephen Holder, the Colts have waived-injured linebacker Daniel Adongo and defensive end Jeris Pendelton. In addition, Indianapolis has signed guards Thomas Austin and Marcus Hall, and re-signed receiver Nu’Keese Richardson.
Earlier updates:
- In a series of several tweets, Aaron Wilson of the Baltimore Sun lists the players who have been waived from their teams’ respective injured reserve lists with injury settlements: offensive lineman Darius Morris (Cowboys), cornerback Brandon Burton (Colts), defensive tackle Jordan Miller (Jaguars), and wideout Danny Coale (Steelers).
- According to Field Yates of ESPN.com (via Twitter), the Colts have waived former Arena Football League offensive lineman Chad Anderson, who originally signed with the team last month.
- Despite catching a touchdown in the Bengals‘ preseason opener, wide receiver Conner Vernon was one of three players cut by the team today, writes Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com. Per Hobson, the team also waived wideout Jeremy Johnson and defensive tackle Zach Minter. The Bengals, who now have 86 players on the roster, may have interest in filling one of their open roster spots with a quarterback as Jason Campbell and A.J. McCarron work through some health issues, Hobson adds.
- The Cardinals created a third opening on their 90-man roster today, cutting linebacker Trevardo Williams just a few days after claiming him off waivers. Darren Urban of AZCardinals.com has the details.
- Wide receiver Kofi Hughes has been waived by the Texans, according to Brian T. Smith of the Houston Chronicle (via Twitter).
- The Lions swapped one defender for another today, signing defensive back Nate Ness and parting ways with linebacker Cory Greenwood to open up the necessary roster spot, tweets Tim Twentyman of DetroitLions.com.
Extra Points: Herman, Finnegan, Boone, Colts
Over at ESPN.com, Jim Trotter has published an interesting piece on why teams are inclined to pay big bucks to lock up non-elite quarterbacks.
“Teams are just afraid to say, ‘Let’s start again, because we literally do not have a legitimate chance to win a Super Bowl with the quarterback that we have,’” one club president told Trotter. “They’d rather have an average to above-average quarterback than wait to get a great quarterback. I think it’s more than fair to say that the fear of the unknown is greater than the fear of the known.”
Let’s check in on a few more odds and ends from around the NFL….
- Giants offensive lineman Eric Herman has been suspended for four games for violating the league’s performance-enhancing drug policy, tweets Mike Garafolo of FOX Sports. The NFLPA released a statement on behalf of Herman explaining the positive test.
- Cornerback Cortland Finnegan tells Vaughn McClure of ESPN.com that he considered a pitch from the Falcons this offseason before ultimately reaching an agreement with the Dolphins (Twitter link).
- In the wake of the 49ers‘ first preseason contest, it doesn’t sound as if there has been any movement on contract talks with holdout guard Alex Boone, tweets Cam Inman of the Bay Area News Group.
- As Michael David Smith of Pro Football Talk details, former Colts running back Chris Rainey doesn’t seem to believe he should have been cut by Indianapolis for breaking team rules, and took to Twitter to vent last night. Rainey, a free agent, has since deleted the tweets.
- The Colts’ offensive line is thinning out, with both Khaled Holmes and rookie Ulrick John suffering injuries this week. According to Mike Chappell of the Indianapolis Star (via Twitter), the team believes Holmes may have sprained his left ankle, which would sideline him for a few weeks. As for John, Stephen Holder of the Star reports (via Twitter) that his ankle might be broken. Meanwhile, Xavier Nixon tweeted today that he’s set to undergo surgery, presumably on the knee that his been bothering him.
Dolphins Notes: Jones, Tannenbaum, Incognito
Here’s the latest out of Miami, where the Dolphins have announced some front office moves and lost a key defender for the first month of the season….
- Safety Reshad Jones has been suspended for four games for violating the league’s policy on performance-enhancing drugs, the team announced today (Twitter link). Jones, who has started every game for the Dolphins over the last two seasons, was penciled in as a starting safety alongside newcomer Louis Delmas for 2014, but the suspension means that he, like Dion Jordan, will miss the month of September.
- Per Mike Garafolo of FOX Sports (via Twitter), Jones’ suspension figures to cost him about $1MM in salary. For his part, Jones released a statement through the NFLPA explaining that he took a supplement he didn’t know was banned by the league, and apologized to the team and its fans.
- The Dolphins announced a series of front office promotions and additions today, and the most notable one of the bunch was the hiring of former Jets GM Mike Tannenbaum as a consultant. Tannenbaum, who will continue on as an agent for Priority Sports and Entertainment, has been working with the club in that consultant role for several weeks already, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN.com (via Twitter).
- Richie Incognito, who was at the center of last year’s bullying scandal, told Josh Peter of USA Today that his agent has received “a few nibbles” from teams this offseason. While it’s fair to assume that the free agent guard won’t be rejoining the Dolphins, it seems likely that he’ll catch on with another club at some point.
Texans Owner Talks Watt, Manziel, Fans
As we heard yesterday, it’s been a rough year for Texans owner Bob McNair, who endured a 10-month ordeal in which he battled two forms of cancer under an assumed name at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. However, McNair has been given a clean bill of health by the team of doctors that treated him, and was available to speak to Tania Ganguli of ESPN.com about a few topics related to football and the Texans. Here are some of McNair’s notable quotes from Ganguli’s pair of pieces for ESPN:
On the possibility of using the franchise tag on J.J. Watt when his rookie contract expires:
“You’ve got guys in the Hall of Fame that have been franchised in back-to-back years. The franchise tag is worth something to the team and you can’t be afraid to use it.”
On a potential long-term deal for Watt, sooner or later:
“It’s going to be a big contract. If we can do something with him that makes sense for the team to do it early, we’ll certainly do it. It has to make sense for us. The team comes first. We want to keep all of our players. We want to take care of all or our players, but the team comes first.”
On prioritizing which players to lock up:
“Mario [Williams] is gone; we just couldn’t do that. Some people said, ‘Why didn’t you sign Peyton Manning?’ Well, we just couldn’t do it. We would have had to let go of two or three of our outstanding players to create enough room in the salary cap to do something with him. Those are the decisions you have to make as you go forward. You hope you make the right decision.”
On what would have happened if the Texans opted to draft Johnny Manziel:
“I knew with Manziel it would be a frenzy. And probably even if he didn’t succeed at being an outstanding NFL quarterback for a couple years, the fans would have been frenzied. … Long term, we had questions as to how well he’d fit in our system doing what we wanted to do. At the end of the day, you’ve gotta do what you think is best for the team. If you do what’s best for the team and the team succeeds as a result of it, the fans are going to forget those other things.”
On the role that fan pressure plays in the team’s football decisions:
“Ultimately all they want to do is win. Once you win, at that point they don’t care what those decisions were; at that point, they’re happy because you’re winning. If you picked some of those other guys and you didn’t win, their response would be, ‘Why’d you listen to us? You’re losing. We’re unhappy because you’re losing.’ We respect our fans and we listen to our fans, but they don’t study the film that we study. They don’t have the information and knowledge that we have. We’re in the best position to make those decisions.”
2014 Offseason In Review Series
Over the last several weeks, with the 2014 regular season fast approaching, the Pro Football Rumors writing team has been taking a look back at the offseason. Zach Links, Rob DiRe, Rory Parks, Dallas Robinson, David Kipke, and Ben Levine have tackled all 32 teams, examining free agent signings, trades, draft picks, and all the other moves made by clubs in 2014, breaking down what sort of impact those decisions will have going forward. If you missed any of our Offseason in Review posts, be sure to check them out below, where we’ve rounded them all up in one place:
AFC East
AFC North
AFC South
AFC West
NFC East
NFC North
NFC South
NFC West
49ers Preparing For Aldon Smith To Be Suspended 4-8 Games
10:53am: According to Ian Rapoport of NFL.com, the Niners believe they’ll be without Smith for six games, or perhaps fewer than that. The team is hoping for a four-game ban, says Rapoport.
8:30am: As we heard last night, 49ers outside linebacker Aldon Smith met with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell this week to discuss Smith’s multiple legal run-ins, including DUI and gun charges. Following that meeting, it should be just a matter of time before the league announces a suspension for the linebacker to kick off the season, and according to Matt Maiocco of CSNBayArea.com (Twitter link), the team is bracing for a ban that covers six to eight games.
Maiocco notes that the team isn’t certain of the NFL’s verdict yet, so Smith’s penalty may ultimately not be quite so harsh — in fact, San Francisco may be preparing for the worst possible scenario so as not to be caught off guard in the event of a lengthy suspension. However, Goodell and the league figure to be under scrutiny after receiving criticism for a Ray Rice suspension that was viewed as too light, so it’s unlikely that the commish would be overly lenient on Smith, particularly since the 24-year-old has repeatedly violated the NFL’s personal conduct policy.
The Niners exercised Smith’s fifth-year option for 2015 earlier in the offseason, suggesting that the club has confidence he can stay out of trouble in the future. Still, that salary isn’t yet fully guaranteed, so the 2014 season represents an audition of sorts for the talented pass rusher — if he performs well again on the field and doesn’t have any off-field issues, he’ll be a strong candidate for an extension in 2015. On the other hand, if he has more troubles with the law, Smith may not have a long-term future in San Francisco.
East Notes: Mallett, Pouncey, Jets, Cowboys
After Ryan Mallett’s preseason debut for the Patriots, Ben Volin of the Boston Globe thinks it’s time to stop pretending that any of the league’s 31 other teams will give up anything of value for New England’s backup signal-caller. As I wrote yesterday, the Pats seem to be showcasing Mallett this summer in the hopes of finding a trade partner, but Volin believes the 26-year-old is too much of an enigma to even warrant a fourth- or fifth-round pick in a deal.
Here’s more from around the NFL’s two East divisions:
- It hasn’t been a great year for Mike Pouncey, who is expected to miss several weeks of the regular season with a hip injury and also was involved in the Dolphins‘ bullying scandal, but he may have finally caught a break — according to Adam Beasley of the Miami Herald, the Dolphins center isn’t expected to face charges for an incident at his South Beach birthday party last month. However, his brother, Steelers center Maurkice Pouncey, is likely to be charged with misdemeanor battery, says Beasley.
- There were no “competition-tilting developments” for Geno Smith or Michael Vick in the Jets’ first preseason game, but the fact that Vick led the team to its only touchdown drive indicates the free agent signee is continuing to push the incumbent QB, writes Rich Cimini of ESPNNewYork.com.
- Team executives around the NFL are upset after a TMZ video showed head of officiating Dean Blandino out for a night of partying with Cowboys executive VP Stephen Jones, according to Jason La Canfora of CBSSports.com. La Canfora quotes several execs voicing concerns about possible preferential treatment, but Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk reports that no formal complaints have been lodged with the league office about Blandino’s and Jones’ night out.
NFC West Links: Cards, Harbaugh, 49ers
Let’s round up a few Thursday notes from around the NFC West….
- Following Jake Ballard‘s retirement and the release of linebacker Ernie Sims, the Cardinals have opened up a pair of roster spots. However, the team doesn’t appear to be in any rush to make sure the roster’s back up to 90 players, tweets Kent Somers of the Arizona Republic. “We got too many (players) now,” head coach Bruce Arians joked.
- Outside of actually agreeing to an extension, tabling talks until after the season was the best thing Jim Harbaugh and the 49ers could have done, writes Dan Pompei of Sports on Earth. As Pompei observes, there was no rush to get something done now, since the San Francisco head coach remains under contract through 2015, and both sides should have a better understanding of Harbaugh’s value after this season.
- Praising the 49ers for having so many solid contracts to choose from, Jason Fitzgerald of Over The Cap identifies offensive tackle Anthony Davis as the player with the most team-friendly deal of the bunch. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Fitzgerald wasn’t a fan of the club’s new agreement with Anquan Boldin, which includes a voidable year to make it work under the cap.
No Settlement Talks Yet For Josh Gordon
As we’ve written in recent weeks, following Josh Gordon‘s appeal hearing earlier this week, hearing officer Harold Henderson will have to make an all-or-nothing judgment on the Browns wideout — either he upholds the year-long suspension for Gordon or eliminates the ban entirely, allowing the star receiver to take the field in Week 1. If a settlement is agreed upon by the league and the NFLPA, Gordon’s penalty could fall somewhere in between zero and 16 games, but according to Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, no negotiations on a settlement have taken place so far.
A compromise would seem to be in Gordon’s and the Browns’ best interests, since as Florio points out, even if he suspension is reduced to 15 games, that would allow the 23-year-old to rejoin the club by the end of the season and for the offseason — if he receives a year-long suspension, he wouldn’t be allowed to rejoin the team until next August. The fact that no negotiations have occurred could mean any number of things, but perhaps Gordon’s camp has confidence in its case, and expect the appeal to win out.
The NFL’s leading receiver in 2013, Gordon is facing a year-long ban for repeated violations of the league’s substance-abuse policy. However, his lawyers argued at his appeal hearing that his positive test was a result of second-hand smoke, calling into question the results of his test, in which one urine sample passed and one failed.
If no agreement is reached on a settlement, a decision from Henderson is expected within the next couple weeks.
East Notes: Eagles, Revis, Idonije, McCoy
While most teams around the NFL are shuffling players in and out at the back of their rosters, the Eagles have stood pat all summer, as Zach Berman of the Philadelphia Inquirer points out. According to Berman, Philadelphia’s last roster move came on May 19, which is the longest any NFL club has gone without signing or cut this year. Besides being relatively healthy in camp so far, the Eagles also like the 90 players currently on their roster, according to GM Howie Roseman.
“We’re trying to upgrade, we’re trying to get better at every spot,” Roseman said. “We’re trying to have the best possible 90-man, the best possible 61, the best possible 53 when there’s opportunities to do it. But at the same time, to change for change’s sake doesn’t make a lot of sense, either. It’s not the right message.”
Let’s check in on a few other notes from out of the NFC East and AFC East….
- While there may be mutual interest between Darrelle Revis and the Patriots in a contract extension, no actual negotiations have occurred yet, a source tells Jeff Howe of the Boston Herald. Nonetheless, Howe takes a closer look at what a longer-term agreement with the cornerback might look like, if the Pats try to lock him up.
- Israel Idonije‘s new one-year deal with the Giants is a minimum salary benefit contract, according to ESPN.com’s Adam Caplan, who adds (via Twitter) that the veteran defensive end can earn a $25K bonus if he makes the 53-man roster to start the season.
- Eagles running back LeSean McCoy ranks as one of the league’s most indispensable non-quarterbacks, accroding to Field Yates of ESPN.com (Insider link).
- Ryan Tannehill‘s play has been up and down so far in training camp, but in his latest look at the Dolphins, Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald points to a couple positive signs from the quarterback.