Extension Candidate: Jordy Nelson
Few teams consistently reward high-level play from homegrown talent like the Green Bay Packers. Draft picks that come in and play well usually earn a second contract and play out their primes in Titletown. And, by not waiting until the player’s contract expires, the team can avoid a bidding war with 31 other teams and negotiate exclusively with its talent. 
This was the scenario for wide receiver Jordy Nelson early in the 2011 season. A second-round pick in 2008, the Kansas State product totaled modest numbers in his first three years — 100 catches, 1286 yards, six touchdowns — before exploding for career highs (68-1,263-15) in the Packers’ 15-1 season. Green Bay signed Nelson to an incredibly team-friendly three-year, $13.35MM extension after four games, locking him up through the 2014 season.
Nelson fought through injuries in 2012, playing in 12 games and catching just 49 balls. But, proving he doesn’t need an elite quarterback to put up elite numbers, Nelson set career bests in receptions (85) and yards (1,314) in 2013, catching passes from Aaron Rodgers, Seneca Wallace, Scott Tolzien and Matt Flynn.
Now, with just one year left on his deal, Nelson is one of the Packers’ prime candidates for a contract extension. Right behind him — or along side — is fellow wideout Randall Cobb, who is still on his rookie contract, but we’ll get to him later.
In February, NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport was told that signing Nelson to an extension is an important offseason task for the team.
In March, ESPN’s Rob Demovsky reported that the team’s salary cap is in excellent standing, with plenty of room to extend Nelson and Cobb if and when they choose to do so.
Today, answering tweets from his readers, Demovsky said it would be a surprise if at least one of the two free-agents-to-be didn’t receive his extension before September. He also suggests that Cobb is a more vital re-sign, given his youth and a “budding star” status.
In a Facebook poll, the Green Bay Press-Gazette’s Wes Hodkiewicz asked readers which receiver they’d choose to extend. 69 voted Nelson, 41 voted Cobb and 31 couldn’t get off the fence, voting for both.
Nelson’s not exactly old — he’ll turn 29 in a week — but the Packers have recently shown a willingness to walk away from wide receivers who might have seen their best years in the rear view. Case in point, Greg Jennings, whom the Packers let walk after seven incredibly productive seasons. Jennings got his payday in Minnesota, signing a five-year deal with a maximum value of $47.5MM ($18MM guaranteed).
After next season, Nelson will have been in Green Bay seven years, just like Jennings. Both are former second-round picks who were locked up to team-friendly deals in the midst of their rookie contracts.
According to Bob McGinn of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the Packers offered Jennings a contract averaging $8MM to stay in Green Bay once the free agency period started. Jennings chose Minnesota. During the season, with Jennings at his peak, the team reportedly offered $11MM/season, which Jennings turned down, far less than the $15 million AAV he was after.
Just last week, another division rival has helped set the market for receivers, with Chicago’s Brandon Marshall signing a four-year, $40MM extension with $22.5MM guaranteed. Will Nelson’s agent use Marshall’s extension to negotiate his client’s new deal? Will the Packers go the same route with Nelson they did with Jennings if the asking price is too high? Only time will tell, but all of Titletown — and especially its quarterback — will be watching.
Chiefs Sign First-Rounder Dee Ford
2:11pm: Ford’s deal includes a $4.25MM signing bonus and is worth $8.16MM, reports Aaron Wilson of National Football Post (via Twitter).
1:17pm: The Kansas City Chiefs announced via Twitter they have signed former Auburn defensive end and first-round pick Dee Ford.
Ford was selected No. 23 overall after being named First-team All-SEC at Auburn and garnering MVP awards at the 2014 Senior Bowl. With edge rushers Tamba Hali and Justin Houston already in the fold, the Chiefs are taking the adage, “You can never have too many pass rushers,” very seriously.
Chiefs Notes: Ford, Thomas, Rookie Minicamp
Rookie minicamp starts for the Chiefs today, and with the signing of first-round pick Dee Ford, the team now has all its picks under contract two months before the start of training camp, ESPN’s Adam Teicher reports (via Twitter).
Terez Paylor of the Kansas City Star lists five things to watch at this weekend’s camp, with No. 1 being the health of Aaron Murray, the former Georgia quarterback whom the Chiefs took in the fifth round of the recent NFL Draft. Paylor calls it perhaps the biggest story of camp, with Murray looking to challenge Chase Daniel and Tyler Bray for a spot on the roster and possibly the backup job to Alex Smith.
More notes from Chiefs’ rookie minicamp…
- Ford will wear No. 55 after previously being issued No. 90, Teicher reports (via Twitter).
- The team issued a roster showing fourth-round pick De’Anthony Thomas at No. 1, per Teicher, though Thomas will presumably have to wear a number between 20-49 for the regular season.
- All of the team’s six draft picks are at rookie camp, Teicher tweeted.
- In a series of tweets, Teicher and Paylor list the following players among the tryouts at camp: Kansas State long snapper Marcus Heit, Virginia Tech wide receiver Marcus Davis, Pittsburg State linebacker Nate Dreiling, Iowa cornerback B.J. Lowery, former Saskatchewan Roughriders wide receiver Weston Dressler and two developmental veterans, tight end Demetrius Harris and wide receiver Frankie Hammond Jr.
NFC South Notes: Bucs, Panthers, Saints
The NFL is a grown man’s league, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have taken notice.
First-round receiver Mike Evans and second-round tight end Austin Seferian-Jenkins both stand 6 feet 5, imposing figures amongst their defensive counterparts. Both players have basketball backgrounds. As the Tampa Bay Times’ Rick Stroud writes, the Bucs and coach Lovie Smith like their basketball players.
“My experience is that anybody can’t go out there and play basketball,” Smith said. “It takes a good athlete with quickness, size, vertical (jump). Normally, that translates to getting good production on the football field.”
Stroud points out a number of former hoopsters who excelled in pro football, including Tony Gonzalez, Antonio Gates and Jimmy Graham. Getting position on your defender in football is similar to boxing out for a rebound in basketball, and it looks like the Bucs are hoping to cash in on the trend.
More from the NFC South below…
- With a potential opening at punt returner, Greg Auman of the Tampa Bay Times reports the Bucs gave third-round pick Charles Sims, sixth-round pick Robert Herron and undrafted receiver Solomon Patton a shot to impress coaches at Saturday’s minicamp.
- The Panthers are expected to sign 6-foot-8, 320-pound tackle David Foucault, says Joseph Parson of the Charlotte Observer. The University of Montreal product impressed during the two-day rookie minicamp and figures to be the second Canadian lineman to sign with the team after coming to camp on a tryout basis.
- The signing of former Browns receiver Greg Little has been discussed by Panthers brass, but the team is not planning to sign him at this point, two sources told Person.
- There’s no denying the talent of Panthers defensive end Greg Hardy, says Jonathan Jones of the Observer. But, his recent actions have his future in question.
- In a heartwarming story, Saints coach Sean Payton announced the team signed former Tulane safety Devon Walker, who was paralyzed from the neck down in 2012, Andrew Lopez of The Times-Picayune writes.
- After spending 2013 in the Arena Football League, former LSU quarterback Jordan Jefferson was on hand at Saints minicamp Saturday as a tryout invitee, Lopez reports.
Cowboys Notes: Claiborne, Lawrence, Orton
When the Cowboys traded up for LSU cornerback Morris Claiborne in the 2012 NFL Draft, high expectations landed squarely on his 5-foot-11 frame. When you go No. 6 overall — to America’s Team, no less — coaches want instant impact.
But, it’s hard to make an impact when you can’t stay on the field, as Jon Machota of The Dallas Morning News notes. Claiborne has missed seven games with a variety of knee, hamstring and shoulder injuries, and he lost his starting job last season to veteran nickel cornerback Orlando Scandrick.
“He’s played well for stretches and then he gets dinged up and then he misses a stretch and then he has to get back,” secondary coach Jerome Henderson said. “You want him to just be able to ascend from preseason and keep getting better and better and better throughout a season. He just hasn’t been able to do that thus far.”
Dallas’ defense allowed 4,589 yards through the air and 33 passing touchdowns in 2013, so improved play from the defensive backfield is a must if the team hopes to contend for the NFC East title.
More news and notes from Big D below…
- Second-round pick DeMarcus Lawrence has had a busy seven days, Rainer Sabin of The Dallas Morning News writes. The Boise State defensive end witnessed his son’s birth on an iPhone while in Texas on Thursday. He flew home to Boise that day to see his son, Damari, in person, then flew back to Texas on Saturday. “It motivates me a lot knowing I got a mouth to feed,” Lawrence said. “It’s not just about me anymore. I got a little son now so really it all about him, how I raise him and how I put food on the table for him.”
- With veteran Kyle Orton still weighing his options, quarterback coach Wade Wilson showed frustration with the indecision, telling DallasCowboys.com’s Nick Eatman he wished the backup quarterback would be at voluntary workouts. Orton has a financial decision to make — he would owe about $3MM to the Cowboys if he decides to call it a career.
- AZcentral.com’s Paola Boivin says goodbye to former Cardinals running back Ryan Williams, signed earlier today by the Cowboys.
- Scott Linehan, Dallas’ new offensive play-caller, said the language will pretty much stay the same way it’s been, writes Brandon George of The Dallas Morning News.
- Defensive coordinator Rod Marinelli wants linebacker Bruce Carter to play the game the right way, said The DMN’s Jon Machota.
- Deion Sanders was in attendance at Valley Ranch for the second day of Cowboys minicamp, George reports.
Ditka Talks Rookies, RBs, Michael Sam
With the NFL Draft and the majority of free agency in the rearview mirror, former Bears tight end and coach Mike Ditka explores the weeks from now until in his weekly writing, “Four downs with Ditka,” for the Chicago Sun-Times. Among the topics touched on by the Hall of Famer were the Bears’ new punter, the disappearance of the elite running back and Michael Sam.
On what the coaches will be looking for from rookies in minicamp:
“The coaches have done their homework and watched all the film on these guys. Now they are looking for how they adapt to what the Bears are doing. They have to fit them in to the way the Bears play their system on offense and defense. What happens now, it’s more or less an educational system for these players to understand they have to play in a certain system that’ll likely be different than the one they played in college.”
On the days of the featured running back being over:
“The game has evolved now to where it’s more of a passing game, and teams look at the running back as not being that instrumental. But I know this: If you don’t have a good one, you have a problem. I know we had a good one in Walter Payton, who was the greatest one I have ever seen. All the great teams over the years, except for the Patriots, usually had a pretty good running back — the Steelers, Cowboys, Rams. The good teams have always had a bell cow running back. I don’t know why teams are suddenly going away from this. It’s probably because they feel it’s a position they can get lower in the draft.”
On the Bears taking punter Pat O’Donnell in the sixth round:
“I don’t see any problem with that. Here’s why they did it, I think: They didn’t have anyone else on their board that really jumped out at them. And they wanted a punter because they needed one for competition and they don’t have one. I think you have to be realistic at that point of the draft and say, ‘How many of those guys will really make your team?’ A few do, but it’s not a high percentage. I don’t see any problem with taking a punter at that point.”
On if Michael Sam was drafted lower because of his sexuality:
“Look, if a guy is a good football player — and I assume he is; he had a pretty good track record at Missouri — you would think that people would have taken him earlier. So now, when you get to that point in the draft and [Rams coach] Jeff [Fisher] sees him sitting there, and he knows he has talent, and he knows he has the ability to rush the passer and everything else, he jumps up and takes him. You have to look at it this way: Either Jeff got a steal, or the rest of the teams dropped him for other reasons.”
Saints Sign Stanley Jean-Baptiste
Second-round pick Stanley Jean-Baptiste has signed a four-year contract with the Saints, the team announced today.
Jean-Baptiste, a 6-foot-3 cornerback from Nebraska, becomes the fourth rookie to agree to terms, joining safety Vinnie Sunseri, linebacker Ronald Powell and tackle Tavon Rooks. The two players yet to sign their deals are first-round pick Brandin Cooks and fourth-round pick Khairi Fortt.
According to OvertheCap.com‘s estimates, Jean-Baptiste’s contract figures to be worth roughly $3.64MM.
Jets Notes: Amaro, Pryor, Boyd, Saunders
Jace Amaro, the consensus All-American tight end from Texas Tech whom the Jets took with their second-round pick, caught 106 passes in 13 games his junior season. Extrapolate that to 16 games — a full regular season in the NFL — and that’s over 130 receptions.
Now, college football is not pro football, but that doesn’t stop Amaro from setting his goals high, saying he hopes to catch 100 balls on a consistent basis, reports Kimberley A. Martin of newsday.com.
One player Amaro hopes to pattern his game after is Tony Gonzalez. “He’s kind of old-school, but he did some great things, too, and I definitely feel like I’d like to [model] his game,” Amaro said. “That’s someone I’d love to ultimately be. He’s supposedly the greatest tight end ever to play the game and that’s somewhere I want to be, too.”
Amaro and the team agreed to terms on a four-year contract yesterday.
More links below on the goings-on from Gang Green…
- Coach Rex Ryan is going to love his new safety, Calvin Pryor. Nicknamed “The Louisville Slugger,” Martin writes that Pryor doesn’t wear a mouthpiece so he can better talk trash to opponents, and that he hopes to walk the walk on that talk with big hits and loud play, similar to Seattle’s Kam Chancellor and Tampa Bay’s Dashon Goldson.
- Pryor joined the New York Post’s Steve Serby for a Sunday Q&A, touching on Pryor’s twitter narratives and his desire to prove the doubters wrong.
- Working out of the shotgun nearly every snap of his college career, Jets quarterback Tajh Boyd focused on proper footwork in rookie minicamp, Martin notes.
- With a host of new receiving threats acquired — Eric Decker and David Nelson through free agency, and Jalen Saunders, Shaq Evans and Quincy Enunwa through the draft — Ryan called the group much better from top to bottom than at any point last season, said Martin.
- On that note, Rich Cimini of ESPNNewYork.com writes that the receivers have had a case of the dropsies in rookie camp.
Packers Notes: Lyerla, Adams, Clinton-Dix
The Packers are leaning toward signing former Oregon tight end Colt Lyerla, ESPN.com’s Rob Demovsky reports.
Lyerla, in Green Bay at rookie orientation camp on a tryout basis after going undrafted, can be argued as the most talented rookie at his position. He stands 6-foot-3 and 242 pounds, and he ran 4.61 seconds in the 40-yard dash at the NFL combine. But, Lyerla left the Ducks program his junior season and was subsequently arrested for cocaine possession and feeling from the police.
“We did a lot of work on Colt,” general manager Ted Thompson said. “He’s a very talented athlete. We interviewed him at the combine. We went through all those procedures, talked to a lot of people. He’s a young man that made some mistakes, and we feel like he was worth bringing in and taking a look at.”
Without Jermichael Finley in the fold, the tight end position in Green Bay is relatively thin. Fifth-year pro Andrew Quarless was re-signed this offseason and figures to be the team’s opening-day starter, and the team used a third-round pick at the position on Cal product Richard Rogers.
More news and notes from Titletown…
- Wide receiver Davante Adams, the Packers’ second-round pick from Fresno State, is one of three rookies leading a youth infusion at the position, Mike Vandermause of the Green Bay Press Gazette writes. Green Bay added two more receivers on the third day of the draft with Wisconsin’s Jared Abbrederis (fifth found) and Saginaw Valley’s Jeff Janis (seventh round).
- In a video posted on packersnews.com, safety Ha Ha Clinton-Dix said he is honored and happy to be wearing No. 21, which was recently occupied by Charles Woodson, now with the Raiders.
- The Packers drafted for defense with four of their nine picks, and Tyler Dunne of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel said those rookies have a good chance to earn playing time on a unit that’s been struggling as of late.
- Despite a contract that is set to expire after the 2016 draft, Thompson — in his 10th year as GM of the Pack — said he’s just getting started and can’t anticipate himself doing anything different, writes Dunne.
NFC South Notes: Panthers, Saints, Bucs
The offseason losses outweighed the gains for the Panthers, and Carolina’s draft picks must grow up fast for the team to repeat as division champs, writes Charlotte Observer columnist Scott Fowler.
After losing Jordan Gross, Steve Smith, Captain Munnerlyn, Ted Ginn and Mike Mitchell, coach Ron Rivera and general manager Dave Gettleman hope first-round pick Kelvin Benjamin and a host of others can fill the large void.
“Status quo is not good enough,” Rivera said. “We’re not going to stand around and be just as good.
“We want to be better.”
More from the Panthers and the rest of the NFC South:
- With the picks of North Carolina safety Tre Boston and San Jose State cornerback Bene’ Benwikere in the fourth and fifth rounds Saturday, the Panthers added depth to the secondary rather than taking a chance on a developmental offensive tackle to replace Jordan Gross, writes Joseph Person of the Charlotte Observer.
- The Observer put together an early two-deep depth chart for the Panthers, slotting in Byron Bell, Amini Silatolu, Ryan Kalil, Chris Scott and Nate Chandler as the team’s starting offensive line from left to right.
- A recap of Times-Picayune reporter Larry Holder’s pick-by-pick analysis of the Saints‘ draft, passed along by NOLA.com’s Christopher Dabe.
- Dabe aggregated a smattering of reviews of the Saints‘ draft, with most analysts giving general manager Micky Loomis a B or a C.
- Buccaneers coach Lovie Smith believes his team has done all it can to be the the team that makes a leap, writes Tampa Bay Times columnist Gary Shelton.