Jimmy Graham Contract Talks Moving Slowly
While all eyes in the sports world this week have been on a certain NBA free agent, one of the top 2014 NFL free agents technically remains on the market, and two important deadlines are looming for Jimmy Graham and the Saints. The two sides have until July 15 to work out a long-term agreement for the franchise player. If no multiyear contract is agreed upon by that point, Graham can only sign a one-year deal with New Orleans.
Additionally, Graham has a 10-day window to appeal the decision made by arbitrator Stephen Burbank, who ruled that he is a tight end rather than a wide receiver, meaning his one-year franchise tag is worth $7.035MM rather than $12.312MM. Burbank’s decision came down on July 2, which would suggest Graham and the NFLPA would have to file an appeal by tomorrow, prompting a three-person appeals board would review the case. However, a source tells Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk that Graham’s camp believes the deadline actually comes on Monday, since the Saints star received the ruling on July 3, and the league office is closed on Sunday.
We heard on Monday that contract talks between Graham and the Saints were expected to resume this week, and it seems that has indeed happened. However, according to Florio, those discussions have been moving slowly, and the two sides don’t appear on the verge of reaching a deal.
The pair of deadlines could provide an interesting predicament for both sides as Tuesday’s deadline approaches — if Graham’s camp files an appeal by Monday (or by tomorrow, depending on when that deadline actually arrives), a final decision on his positional designation likely won’t be made until after July 15. As such, if the two sides don’t come to an agreement by Tuesday, the Saints risk Burbank’s decision being overturned, meaning they’d be on the hook for a much larger franchise salary for Graham in 2014.
Complicating matters further is the fact that, since he received the non-exclusive franchise tag, Graham is still technically a free agent, albeit a restricted one. If another team is willing to give up two future first-round picks, it could sign the 27-year-old to an offer sheet and hope New Orleans decides not to match it, and recent reports have indicated a few teams haven’t ruled out this possibility.
At last word, according to Florio, the Saints’ offer to Graham was in the $9.5MM per year range, which would be enough to make him the highest-paid tight end in the league, but is nowhere near the $12MM annual figure he was initially seeking. We’ll have to wait to see whether the two sides find a common ground by Tuesday, and also whether Graham’s camp appeals last week’s franchise positional ruling, which would throw another wrench into the negotiations.
AFC Notes: Dalton, Glenn, Colts, London
Shortly after star wideout A.J. Green said he doesn’t want to play with any other quarterback besides Andy Dalton, the Dalton support campaign continued, with Bengals offensive coordinator Hue Jackson praising his QB.
“We are tethered together,” Jackson told Michael Silver of NFL.com. “And I’ll jump off a building with this guy, because I believe in the things he’s trying to accomplish with his career, and I think I can help him.”
Dalton is entering the final year of his current contract, and has reportedly discussed an extension with the team, though it’s not clear whether the two sides will reach a long-term agreement in the near future. Here’s more from around the AFC:
- Cordy Glenn was arguably the Bills‘ best offensive lineman a year ago, but he’s not extension-eligible until after the 2014 season, at which point locking him up figures to become a top priority for the team, says Mike Rodak of ESPN.com. Because Glenn wasn’t a first-round pick, Buffalo won’t hold a fifth-year option on his rookie deal.
- Pointing to Andre Johnson‘s contract with the Texans as an example, Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk suggests that simple contract restructures don’t always benefit the player, since they result in larger cap hits in later years of the deal, increasing the likelihood of the player’s release. While there’s some truth to that, I’d point out that restructures also increase the dead money on a contract in those future seasons, which somewhat offsets the increased cap hit — Before it was reworked, Johnson’s deal had a more manageable cap number for 2015, but it also had less dead money for ’15, so if he’s at risk to be cut next year, that risk probably would’ve existed either way.
- In his latest mailbag, Kevin Bowen of Colts.com explores how free agent signee Hakeem Nicks will fit in Indianapolis, and discusses a few other Colts-related topics.
- Maurice Jones-Drew, Charles Woodson, and Marcel Reece are among the Raiders looking forward to this year’s game in London, and both Jones-Drew and Matt Schaub went so far as to suggest that the European city deserves an NFL franchise, as Neil Reynolds details at BritViewNFL.com (hat tip to Pro Football Talk).
Waivers
Over the last several months at Pro Football Rumors, we’ve published dozens of stories on players being cut, waived, or released by their NFL teams. While these terms are often used interchangeably, they’re not quite synonymous. A player who is “cut” has been removed from his team’s roster, but whether he is “waived” or “released” generally depends on his NFL experience.
Between the day after the Super Bowl and the following season’s trade deadline, players with less than four years of service time – or “accrued seasons” – have to pass through waivers after they’re cut by an NFL team. The other 31 clubs around the league have a day to place a waiver claim on that player, adding him to their roster and taking on his contract. That’s why we refer to these players as having been waived, rather than released.
If a player with more than four years of service time is cut between the Super Bowl and the trade deadline, he is not subjected to the waiver process, meaning he becomes a free agent immediately, able to sign with a new team right away if he so chooses.
This isn’t the case all year round, however. Once the trade deadline passes, any player who is cut by his team must pass through waivers, regardless of how many accrued seasons are on his résumé. So if a team cuts loose a 12-year veteran in Week 10 of the coming season, that player must pass through waivers unclaimed before he’d be free to sign with a team of his choice.
Here are a few more details on the waiver process:
- If two teams place a waiver claim on the same player, he is awarded to the team with the higher priority. Waiver priority is determined by the previous season’s standings — this year, for example, the Texans have first dibs, while the Super Bowl champion Seahawks have 32nd priority.
- The window to claim a player closes at the end of the NFL’s business day, which is at 3:00pm central. So if a player is waived by one team on Monday, the other 31 clubs have until Tuesday afternoon to submit a claim. Players cut on Friday clear waivers (or are awarded to a new team) on the following Monday.
- Prior to the first cutdown date in training camp, injured players with fewer than four years of service time cannot be placed on injured reserve until they pass through waivers. Teams will cut this sort of player with a waived-injured designation, allowing other teams to place a claim if they so choose. If the player goes unclaimed, his team can place him on IR or agree to an injury settlement, then fully release him from the roster.
Note: This is a PFR Glossary entry. Our glossary posts will explain specific rules relating to free agency, trades, or other aspects of the NFL’s Collective Bargaining Agreement. Information from Russell Street Report and SBNation.com was used in the creation of this post.
Texans Don’t Plan To Trade Andre Johnson
While it’s not clear if he has lodged a formal trade request with the Texans, Andre Johnson appears to be hoping for a deal before the regular season, as Ian Rapoport detailed in a story for NFL.com yesterday. Although Rapoport suggested there were four teams with interest in acquiring the star wideout, John McClain of the Houston Chronicle says the Texans don’t intend to move Johnson anytime soon.
According to McClain, the Texans would like to see Johnson eventually retire with the club, and the team doesn’t want to set a precedent for future situations where a player may be unhappy with his contract or his role. In McClain’s view, the standoff between the two sides can only end in two ways: Johnson will either report to the team in time for its Week 1 opener against the Redskins, or he’ll sit out the season. And McClain thinks the latter scenario is very unlikely, considering the receiver, who turns 33 today, would forfeit about $588K in salary per missed game.
While there has been speculation that Johnson is unhappy with the team’s quarterback situation and doesn’t want to go through another rebuilding year, McClain dismisses these notions, suggesting that the Texans – who don’t believe they’re in rebuild mode – have never had a star quarterback and Johnson has been just fine up until this point. That may be true, but the former third overall pick is clearly unhappy with the team for some reason, and I suspect it’s not just because of a dispute over his $1MM bonus.
Despite McClain’s confidence that Johnson will eventually report to the Texans, Rapoport suggests (via Twitter) that he’d be “surprised” if that happens, assuming the Texans don’t make any sort of concessions. With both sides apparently digging in as training camp nears, it’ll be interesting to see whether a compromise can be reached, or whether the issue will drag into August and perhaps even September.
Latest On Andre Johnson
The quiet period in the NFL calendar got a little more interesting today, when Ian Rapoport of NFL.com reported that Andre Johnson wants the Texans to trade him, and that there are four teams with interest in making a deal for the wide receiver. Since that story broke, a number of writers have suggested, via Twitter or in columns of their own, that Houston won’t be inclined to move Johnson because a trade would result in nearly $12MM in dead money on the team’s cap.
While I agree that a trade is unlikely, pointing to the potential dead money on Houston’s cap as the primary reason the club would prefer to keep him seems a little off to me. Since it’s after June 1, only $4.64MM of that dead money would count against the team’s cap in 2014, with the remainder ($7.32MM) being applied to 2015’s cap. Those are significant numbers for a player no longer on the roster, but Johnson’s cap hits if he remains a Texan are much higher — $14MM+ this season and $16MM+ in 2015. Trading Johnson would actually open up cap room this year and next for the club. It would just mean that a larger percentage of cap space is being committed to a veteran no longer on the club.
Trading Johnson wouldn’t be the best way for the Texans to manage their cap. But if the team could get a decent asset, such as a future draft pick or two, without taking on a sizable contract in return, there’s no reason why the club shouldn’t explore the possibility, regardless of that dead money. I just don’t think the Texans will get an offer at this point in the NFL year that makes a deal worth their while. We’ll have to wait and see how the situation plays out.
Here’s the latest on the Johnson situation:
- A source tells Ian Rapoport of NFL Network (on Twitter) that Johnson would restructure his contract to help a potential new team get under the salary cap but will not take a pay cut. Meanwhile, Rapoport (on Twitter) sees the Raiders as a possible landing spot if Johnson would greenlight a deal to Oakland since he shares an agent with GM Reggie McKenzie.
- Ben Volin of the Boston Globe (via these Twitter links) throws cold water on the idea that the Patriots can land Johnson in a trade with the Texans. The Pats are currently $6.4MM under the cap, Johnson will earn a $10MM base, and trading Danny Amendola will add $2.25MM to the Pats’ cap. So, unless Johnson agrees to a heavily backloaded new contract, it’s not a likely pairing. The Pats can clear come space by cutting Dan Connolly and extending Devin McCourty and Stephen Gostkowski, but that’s a lot work to do before dealing for Johnson.
- Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk hears a similar story to what Rapoport reported earlier today — after meeting with the Texans‘ new coaching staff and being reassured that the club wasn’t in full rebuild mode, Johnson had been willing to report to OTAs and minicamp this spring in order to receive his $1MM bonus. However, because the bonus hinged on the 32-year-old’s full participation in offseason activities, the Texans turned down that request. If there’s a rational explanation for why the team wasn’t willing to pay that $1MM to mend the fences and allow Johnson to save face, it “has yet to make its way into the eyes and ears of the media,” writes Florio.
- In his full story on Johnson from this morning, Rapoport noted that the wideout feels he has earned a measure of goodwill from the Texans, since he has restructured his contract three times at the team’s behest. That’s part of the reason why he’s upset about the $1MM slight. Of course, as Brian McIntyre points out, none of those three restructures – which saw a total of $18.5MM in salary or roster bonuses converted into signing bonuses – involved pay cuts, so it’s not as if Johnson was making huge sacrifices (Twitter links).
- Florio and NFL.com’s Marc Sessler both ran through a list of potential suitors for Johnson, should the Texans start to seriously explore trades. Predictably, there’s plenty of overlap, with the Browns, Ravens, Patriots, Panthers, and Chiefs showing up in both pieces. Florio also identifies the Falcons, Chargers, and Rams as possibilities, while Sessler names the Seahawks and Jets.
NFC North Notes: Thompson, Bears, Lions
Let’s check in on the latest from around the NFC North….
- Packers general manager Ted Thompson remains under contract through the 2016 draft, but that doesn’t mean the club hasn’t started thinking about extending his deal. According to ESPN.com’s Rob Demovsky, Green Bay president Mark Murphy confirmed that he considers an extension for Thompson a priority for the team. “I think Ted’s been instrumental obviously in the run we’ve had,” Murphy said, adding that the GM hasn’t conveyed a desire to retire anytime soon.
- Guard Matt Slauson is Jason Fitzgerald’s pick for the Bears‘ most team-friendly contract in his latest piece for Over The Cap. Fitzgerald had a harder time identifying the club’s worst contract, eventually deciding on Tim Jennings, who will be paid $7.5MM in the first year of his four-year deal.
- Plenty of other March signings overshadowed the Lions‘ addition of fullback Jed Collins, but the former Saint may end up being a real difference-maker in Detroit this season, writes Carlos Monarrez of the Detroit Free Press.
East Notes: Redskins, Bills, Bryant, Jordan
Tanard Jackson wasn’t a lock to make the Redskins‘ roster before word of his second indefinite suspension broke, so his absence from training camp doesn’t figure to have a huge effect on the secondary. A source tells Mike Jones of the Washington Post (Twitter link) that the club is unlikely to bring in another safety to fill Jackson’s roster spot, and John Keim of ESPN.com (Twitter link) hears that as of this morning, Washington had not reached out to free agent safety Reed Doughty, who has spent his entire eight-year career with the team.
Here’s more out of the NFL’s two East divisions:
- Jeffrey Gundlach, CEO of Los Angeles-based investment firm DoubleLine Capital, still has interest in making a bid for the Bills, reports Tim Graham of the Buffalo News. Gundlach has previously expressed interest in purchasing the franchise and keeping it in Western New York, and appears to have rebounded from a financial perspective after an “ugly courtroom divorce”
- In a conversation with Nick Eatman of DallasCowboys.com (video link), star wideout Dez Bryant admitted it was hard for him to hear that the Cowboys cut Miles Austin this offseason. Bryant, entering the final year of his rookie deal, also downplayed his contract situation, suggesting he intends to focus on football. “When it’s time to talk about it, that’s when I’ll talk about it. I’m gonna let that stuff take care of itself,” Bryant said.
- Todd Archer of ESPNDallas.com notes that the worst-case scenario for Bryant this year would involve those extension talks becoming a distraction and having an effect on his on-field performance.
- Dolphins defensive end Dion Jordan has no plans to appeal his four-game suspension and will serve it at the start of the 2014 season, according to James Walker of ESPN.com (Twitter link). That’s no surprise, since the NFL typically doesn’t announce a suspension until it has already gone through the appeal process.
No Players Selected In Supplemental Draft
The 2014 NFL supplemental draft has come and gone, and for the second consecutive year, no players were selected, according to Rob Rang of NFLDraftScout.com (via Twitter). The event took place at noon central time today, but quickly came to a close, with no teams submitting draft-pick bids for any of this year’s eligible players.
New Mexico wideout Chase Clayton, Virginia-Lynchburg defensive lineman LaKendrick Ross, SMU running back Traylon Shead, and UNC linebacker Darius Lipford were the four players eligible to be drafted today, and will now become free agents, able to sign with any team.
The supplemental draft is intended to accommodate players who missed the deadline for May’s NFL draft or were declared ineligible for another reason. If a team wants to select a player in the supplemental draft, it must let the league know the round in which it’s willing to select that player. The club which submits the highest round will receive the player and forfeit a 2015 draft pick in that same round. For instance, when the Browns used a second-round supplemental choice on Josh Gordon in 2012, it meant that the team lost its second-round pick for the 2013 draft.
Since no players were selected this year, 2015’s draft order won’t be affected.
Andre Johnson Hoping For Trade
Longtime Texans wide receiver Andre Johnson wasn’t in attendance at the team’s spring workouts and camp, but remains open to the possibility of attending training camp later this month. Johnson told NFL Media’s Marcus Smith on Wednesday that he’ll “hopefully” be present when Houston’s training camp gets underway, though he didn’t commit to anything, and didn’t make any promises about being in uniform for the club’s regular season opener.
“I don’t know. I can’t answer that question,” Johnson replied when asked about that Week 1 game against the Redskins.
Johnson, who turns 33 tomorrow, expressed frustration earlier this year with the Texans’ direction and his role with the team. According to Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (via Twitter), the $1MM workout bonus lost by Johnson due to his absence this spring is currently a point of contention between the Texans and the receiver, who wants an opportunity to earn that money back. The team has denied that request, according to Rapoport.
Of course, Johnson’s absence from spring workouts was a result of earlier dissatisfaction, so the bonus money isn’t the only roadblock. It’s believed that Johnson is upset with the club’s 2-14 performance last year and the fact that the quarterback situation remains uncertain — after trading Matt Schaub to Oakland, the Texans signed Ryan Fitzpatrick and drafted Tom Savage, two signal-callers who aren’t exactly viewed as Super Bowl caliber options at this point in their respective careers. As he enters the late stages of his career, Johnson isn’t enthusiastic about going through another rebuilding process with a team that hasn’t been a consistent contender in the AFC during his tenure.
Per Rapoport (via Twitter), Johnson has informed Houston that he wants to play for another team in 2014, and the former third overall pick is “not thinking of the Texans” as he works out independently now. Rapoport adds that four clubs have expressed interest in trading for the receiver, who is coming off back-to-back Pro Bowl seasons. Still, it’s hard to imagine the Texans agreeing to a deal that would likely result in pennies on the dollar for Johnson, unless they felt they had no other options.
I’d expect the Texans will lay out their plan for returning to playoff contention in the short term – and perhaps promise to address Johnson’s situation via a trade or extension during the 2015 offseason – and hope that’s enough to convince the star wideout to return to the field for the coming season. Rapoport suggests (via Twitter) that the team could also guarantee Johnson he’ll be on the roster in 2015 and can retire a Texan. That would give him the opportunity to earn his full $10.5MM base salary during his age-34 season.
For now, the two sides appear to be at an impasse. If Johnson decides not to report to training camp, the Texans will be able to fine him up to $30K for each missed day.
Tanard Jackson Suspended Indefinitely
10:26am: Jackson did appeal his suspension, but that appeal was denied, a fact the safety didn’t find out before yesterday, says Zac Boyer of the Washington Times (Twitter links).
THURSDAY, 8:08am: It’s not clear what Jackson is referring to when he talks about appealing, according to John Keim of ESPN.com, who tweets the process has already been completed. “There are no more appeals,” says Keim. “Period.”
WEDNESDAY, 9:33pm: Jackson tells ESPN 980 (on Twitter) that he and his agent are planning to appeal and swears that “this is not a repeat of the past, [it’s] totally different.”
3:51pm: Redskins safety Tanard Jackson has been suspended indefinitely without pay once again for violating the NFL’s substance abuse policy, the team announced today (Twitter link). For Jackson, it’s his second indefinite suspension and fourth overall suspension for the same offense. He was reinstated by the NFL from his last ban just over two months ago.
Considering Jackson’s previous suspension cost him two NFL seasons, it seems unlikely that he’ll return from this one and play in the NFL again. While Washington was prepared to give him a chance to earn a roster spot in 2014, Jackson was on a minimum salary contract and was no lock to make the team.
A former fourth-round pick, Jackson spent five seasons with the Buccaneers from 2007 to 2011, starting all 56 games he played for the team during that stint. During those five years, the Syracuse product, who will turn 29 later this month, accumulated 239 tackles, 10 interceptions, and five forced fumbles.