Logan Ryan Hires New Agent
Free agent DB Logan Ryan has hired one of the NFL’s top agents, Joel Segal, as Ian Rapoport of NFL.com reports (Twitter link). Rapoport says Ryan is “poised to do a deal.”
It’s unclear if that means Ryan, 29, is set to sign a contract or just that Segal has some ideas to get his new client signed as the regular season draws closer. Ryan, who is now marketing himself as a safety, has seen his name crop up in some informal speculation recently.
The Ravens just parted ways with Earl Thomas, thereby opening up a theoretical spot for Ryan, and the Browns lost rookie safety Grant Delpit for the season due to an Achilles tear. Meanwhile, Browns’ starting corner Greedy Williams is dealing with a shoulder injury, so Cleveland could definitely use some reinforcements in the secondary.
Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com says the Browns have likely inquired about Ryan, but the most recent reports regarding his salary demands indicated that he was looking for a $10MM/year contract. That number has almost certainly come down, so we will see if he can come to terms with a new club in the coming days.
Ryan led all corners — by a significant margin — in tackles last season, racking up 113 combined. No other corner topped 82. The then-Titans slot defender also paced corners with 73 solo tackles. Ryan’s tackling prowess extended to his New England days as well, with the former Patriots starter registering 74 solo stops in 2016.
Ryan only played 22 snaps at safety — compared to 855 in the slot and 243 at outside corner — last season. Still, his intelligence and experience should make the switch to safety a relatively straightforward one, and though his coverage abilities at corner are not as strong as they used to be, he can still serve as effective CB depth if necessary.
Jets Notes: Gase, Bell, Ngakoue
Earlier this week, there was yet another tense moment between Jets head coach Adam Gase and running back Le’Veon Bell. As Rich Cimini of ESPN.com details, Gase pulled Bell after two series during Wednesday’s scrimmage because of hamstring tightness. That prompted Bell to take to Twitter to say that there was nothing wrong with his hamstrings and that “it’s tough to stay loose when you do a bunch of standing around.”
Gase said that he spoke with Bell for a long time after the Twitter posts and that the two sides are on the same page. But as Cimini writes in a separate piece, the latest episode might not be the last one. Bell has reportedly had an unimpressive camp, and Gase has previously indicated he wants to reduce Bell’s workload in 2020. So Bell, who needs a productive season in order to avoid being cut — or to land a lucrative contract with another club — is unlikely to appreciate his fellow backs siphoning off his carries. It remains a situation ripe for future turmoil.
Now for more from Gang Green:
- Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News has previously reported that GM Joe Douglas is under cash-flow restrictions imposed by Jets ownership, and he reiterated that report today. He says ownership gave Douglas a “hard time” after last year’s one-year, $8.4MM contract for Ryan Kalil didn’t pan out, and he also suggests that the club’s tight-fistedness prevented the team from pursuing Yannick Ngakoue, who was just traded to the Vikings (Twitter links).
- On the other hand, the restraint that Douglas showed in free agency this offseason was generally lauded in light of the team’s recent history with splashy signings, so it’s difficult to say whether that restraint was due to a mandate from ownership or just a deliberately measured approach. And as Brian Costello of the New York Post tweets, the Jets were not hugely interested in Ngakoue to begin with given his struggles against the run and the fact that the deadline for an extension passed on July 15.
- Backup QB Joe Flacco is eyeing a Week 3 return, per Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.com (Twitter link). The Jets signed the former Super Bowl MVP to back up Sam Darnold, and Flacco has been working his way back from neck surgery.
Vikings To Acquire Yannick Ngakoue From Jaguars
Yannick Ngakoue finally got his wish. As Adam Schefter of ESPN.com was the first to report, the Jaguars have traded their disgruntled defensive end to the Vikings in exchange for a 2021 second-round pick and a conditional 2022 fifth-round selection that could become a fourth- or third-round choice.
Ngakoue has wanted out of Jacksonville for some time. Last July, he became upset when then-executive vice president of football operations Tom Coughlin abruptly ended extension negotiations with the 2016 third-rounder, and while he did suit up for the club in the 2019 season, he made it clear this offseason that the relationship between him and the team was beyond repair.
The Jaguars put the franchise tag on him, valued at $17.8MM, but he did not sign the tag, and all indications were that, if he wasn’t traded, he was going to stay away from the team until Week 10 of the 2020 season. That would have been the deadline for him to be able to count 2020 as an accredited year towards free agency.
Given his very public unhappiness with Jacksonville, the fact that the deadline for tagged players to sign an extension passed on July 15, and his high franchise tag number, the Jags didn’t have a ton of leverage. But GM Dave Caldwell managed to finagle two draft picks out of the Vikings, and Schefter says the 2022 fifth-rounder will become a fourth-rounder if Ngakoue makes the Pro Bowl in 2020 and will become a third-rounder if he makes the Pro Bowl and the Vikings win the Super Bowl.
From the Vikings’ perspective, that’s a relatively small price to pay for the chance to bookend Ngakoue with another talented young pass rusher, Danielle Hunter. The team lost longtime stalwart Everson Griffen to the Cowboys earlier this month, and as Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.com notes, Minnesota began working on an Ngakoue deal as soon as it became clear Griffen wasn’t coming back (Twitter link).
In order to make the trade work, the Vikings did have to create some cap room. Further proving just how desperate he was to get out of Jacksonville, Ngakoue reduced his 2020 pay from $17.8MM to just below $13MM to facilitate the deal (Twitter link via Albert Breer of SI.com). Courtney Cronin of ESPN.com reports that Minnesota could also rework an existing contract and names LT Riley Reiff as a potential restructure candidate. Cronin says the team will not cut a player just for salary cap purposes (Twitter links).
However, Cronin points out that the Ngakoue acquisition could mean that the team is not going to reach an extension with running back Dalvin Cook (Twitter link). The two sides recently agreed to table contract negotiations, and without a major cost-cutting move or two, Cook may be destined for free agency in 2021.
But that’s another story for another day. For now, the Vikings have solidified their status as one of the top teams in the NFC, and the Hunter-Ngakoue combination will be a formidable one for opposing offenses, especially when considering the similar excellence the team enjoys in its LB and DB corps.
Ngakoue is not particularly strong against the run, but he has averaged over nine sacks per season over his first four years in the league, and he has also shown some serious play-making ability. He has forced 14 fumbles to date, and as Schefter writes, the Maryland product is directly responsible for five of the 12 defensive touchdowns the Jaguars have scored since 2016. Cronin observes in a full-length piece that Ngakoue had a pass-rush win rate of 21% as an edge rusher last season, which ranked higher than Griffen (17%) and Hunter (15%).
Ian Rapoport of NFL.com notes that the Vikings plan to sign Ngakoue to a long-term deal after the 2020 season (video link). While Minnesota will have a number of other contract issues to address, pairing Ngakoue and Hunter together for the foreseeable future will be an indubitably tempting proposition.
Minor NFL Transactions: 8/28/20
We’ll keep track of today’s minor moves in this post. In addition to the transactions listed below, note that Broncos DT Joel Heath and Giants CB Shakial Taylor, who had previously been listed as cut, actually opted out of the 2020 season. As Tom Pelissero of the NFL Network tweets, both players were reinstated to their teams’ rosters and placed on the Reserve/Opt-Out List. The full (and final) opt-out tracker can be found here:
Baltimore Ravens
- Signed: RB Ty’Son Williams
Buffalo Bills
- Signed: CB Brian Allen
Carolina Panthers
- Signed: CB Jameson Houston, DE Austin Larkin
- Waived: DE DaVonte Lambert, CB Cole Luke
New England Patriots
- Signed: WR Andre Baccellia
- Waived: WR Will Hastings
New Orleans Saints
- Signed: LB Wynton McManis
Pittsburgh Steelers
- Signed: WR Saeed Blacknall
- Placed on IR: WR Anthony Johnson
- Waived: LB James Lockhart
South Notes: Ngakoue, Benson, Campbell
A little over a week ago, Michael Lombardi of The Athletic reported that the Jaguars were on the verge of a deal that would ship disgruntled defensive end Yannick Ngakoue out of Jacksonville. Jags GM Dave Caldwell refuted the report, saying no trade involving Ngakoue is imminent.
But Lombardi has doubled down and insists a trade will happen soon (subscription required). He says Ngakoue is not motivated by money right now, he is motivated by a change of scenery, so he is not worried about missing game checks. According to Lombardi, if Ngakoue is not traded, he will not report until the 10th game of the season, the deadline for him to be able to count the 2020 season as an accredited year towards free agency. And at that point, the trade deadline will be in the rear-view mirror and the Jaguars will be left with nothing but a comp pick when Ngakoue signs elsewhere.
On the other hand, Lombardi’s second report linked above was published on August 21, and nothing has materialized on the Ngakoue front since then. It is, as ever, a situation to keep an eye on.
Now for more from the league’s south divisions:
- Saints owner Gayle Benson tested positive for COVID-19, the team announced. Luckily, the 73-year-old was not hospitalized and is recovering at her New Orleans home. Benson is the second NFL owner to test positive, joining the Cardinals’ Michael Bidwill. Bidwill was hospitalized for his symptoms but appears to have made a full recovery, and it sounds as if Benson will do the same.
- Mike Chappell of Fox 59 reports that Colts wide receiver Parris Campbell is in the concussion protocol following a minor car accident earlier this week. Indianapolis nabbed the Ohio State speedster in the second round of last year’s draft, and after his rookie campaign was derailed due to injury, he was in the midst of a solid training camp this year. He is a roster lock, of course, but it’s unfortunate that his positive momentum has been slowed a bit.
- The Texans activated Gareon Conley from the PUP list earlier this month, and Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle reports that the 2017 first-rounder is progressing well from his offseason arthroscopic ankle surgery. Houston declined Conley’s fifth-year option for 2021, so he will be eligible for free agency next year and could cash in with a strong platform campaign. However, Wilson says second-year pro Lonnie Johnson and Conley are neck-and-neck for a starting job, as Conley has been inconsistent since his return to the field.
- We learned earlier today that the Buccaneers are interested in extending longtime LB Lavonte David.
Rams, Jalen Ramsey Not Close On Extension
The Rams and cornerback Jalen Ramsey are not close to an agreement on a contract extension, per veteran NFL reporter Josina Anderson (via Twitter). However, Anderson’s source notes that it’s still early in the process, thereby implying that there is no real tension between player and team at this time.
Of course, given that Los Angeles ponied up two first-round picks and a fourth-rounder to obtain the outspoken star last October, the club will do everything in its power to keep him around on a long-term basis. Ramsey, the No. 5 overall pick of the 2016 draft, did not maintain the same high level of play during after his trade to the Rams that he displayed during his 3+ years with the Jaguars, but there is no reason to believe that he cannot return to form and serve as one of the game’s top corners for years to come.
Indeed, Rams head coach Sean McVay recently indicated that he views Ramsey as a player who can reset the CB market, which certainly won’t hurt Ramsey’s leverage. Currently, Darius Slay is the leader in the cornerback clubhouse with an average annual value of $16.7MM, so Ramsey is likely shooting for at least a $17MM AAV. And given that he won’t turn 26 until October, he is likely eyeing the ~$57MM in guarantees that Byron Jones took home from the Dolphins this offseason.
The Rams’ cap space could be a complicating factor in negotiations. According to OverTheCap.com, LA has roughly $4MM of room right now. Ramsey is presently slated to take home a $13.7MM salary this season with a corresponding cap charge, and while an extension could theoretically bring that number down a bit, the team also has future salary cap concerns, exacerbated by the fact that the 2021 cap could decrease by as much as $23MM.
So talks could extend into the season, but look for the two sides to come to an agreement at some point before the end of the 2020 campaign.
Big Ten Aiming For Thanksgiving Start?
A little over two weeks ago, the Big Ten announced that it would not play its fall schedule and would shoot for a spring slate instead. Now, however, the conference could be shifting gears.
As Bruce Feldman of The Athletic tweets, Big Ten coaches discussed the matter by phone this morning, and a reversal of the earlier decision is a strong possibility. Jeff Potrykus of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (subscription required) was the first to report that the conference was considering an earlier start date, and that the goal is to open the season by Thanksgiving weekend.
If the Big Ten can pull off a 2020 season starting around Thanksgiving, that would obviously be a major boon for the NFL. As of now, the Pac 12 is the only other Power 5 conference to postpone its season to the spring, with the ACC, SEC, and Big 12 still pushing for a normal start. If the Pac 12 were to also have a Thanksgiving start date, the collegiate season for all Power 5 conferences would end no later than the middle of February, so the NFL could hold its scouting combine more or less on time and the 2021 draft could proceed as normal.
Of course, smaller conferences have already announced plans to postpone their fall schedules, but the Power 5 is where the NFL finds the vast majority of its talent. The league is reportedly willing to do whatever it can to make sure college football is played before the 2021 draft, but maybe it won’t have to do as much rearranging as it initially thought.
Angelique S. Chengelis of the Detroit News reports that Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh has scheduled an NFL-style combine for his players on October 24, and players have been practicing combine-specific drills in preparation for the event, which will be open to NFL scouts. Perhaps Harbaugh will soon be able to shift his focus back to preparing for actual games.
Pete Thamel of Yahoo Sports, however, cautions that it’s still early in the process and that Big Ten coaches and ADs are discussing a number of different start dates (Twitter link).
Bucs Exploring Extension For LB Lavonte David
The Buccaneers have had recent extension talks with longtime linebacker Lavonte David, per Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (via Twitter). David is set to enter the final year of his current contract, which will pay him a salary of $10.75MM.
Tampa selected David, 30, in the second round of the 2012 draft. He earned a First Team All-Pro bid in his second professional season, and he picked up a Pro Bowl nod in 2015. Though he hasn’t earned any All-Pro or Pro Bowl recognition since, he has consistently performed as one of the best linebackers in the league. Advanced metrics and the eye test suggest that he is generally strong against both the pass and the run, and he has averaged 126 tackles per season throughout his career.
He has also been durable. He did miss a couple of games in the 2017 and 2018 seasons, but he bounced back to play a full 16-game slate last year. He has started all 121 of the games in which he has appeared.
So it makes sense that the Bucs would want to extend their relationship with David. The fact that he is typically not called upon to rush the passer means that he will not be paid like one of the top LBs in the league, but a multi-year pact with an average annual value in the $13-14MM range wouldn’t be out of the question.
David is still looking for his first playoff appearance, and he might just get it in 2020. In case you hadn’t heard, the Bucs made several high-profile acquisitions on the offensive side of the ball this offseason and managed to keep a strong defense intact. Though question marks remain in the secondary, the front seven is stout, and David and 2019 first-rounder Devin White look like they will continue serving as one of the game’s better LB tandems for at least the next couple of years.
Ravens Frontrunners To Sign Jadeveon Clowney?
The Ravens find themselves with a bit of surprise salary cap room following the release of safety Earl Thomas earlier this week. Baltimore is attempting to void Thomas’ guaranteed 2020 salary of $10MM pursuant to the personal conduct provision of his contract, so the club will temporarily pick up an extra $10MM of cap space.
As Joel Corry of CBS Sports details, that number will drop to $6MM once Thomas files his inevitable grievance, and $4MM will become a cap charge under the terms of the CBA. If Thomas prevails in the grievance, the $6MM of newfound space will of course be added back to the Ravens’ books, and if the team prevails, it will be credited back the $4MM hold.
But the grievance may not be resolved until 2021, so it’s looking as if the Ravens will indeed have another $6MM to play with this year. And while the expected salary cap decrease in 2021 and the upcoming fight with the union over Thomas’ salary could make Baltimore hesitant to spend that money, the club currently profiles as a Super Bowl favorite, so it might make sense to add another piece that can aid in the push for a Lomabrdi Trophy. Plus, Thomas did have offset language in his contract, so if and when he signs with another club, Baltimore will get at least some cap relief regardless of how the grievance process unfolds.
Enter Jadeveon Clowney. The most-discussed free agent of the 2020 offseason is still without a home, and while the Ravens have been loosely connected to him over the past few months, his salary demands have been viewed as an insurmountable obstacle. However, Tony Pauline of Pro Football Network said in a recent podcast that league insiders believe Clowney will ultimately land with Baltimore (via Cole Thompson of Pro Football Network).
As Jeff Zrebiec of The Athletic points out, the Ravens have monitored Clowney’s market, but even when accounting for an extra $6MM of cap space, the club has just $13MM to work with and will want to keep about half of that in reserve. So if Clowney is to end up in the Purple-and-Black, it will be for a salary in the $6-7MM range — which feels like an absolute non-starter for him — or the team will need to get creative.
Clowney does make plenty of sense for Baltimore. The team has beefed up its defensive front this offseason but could still use another proven pass rusher behind Matt Judon, and Clowney’s skills against the run would make him a valuable chess piece in DC Wink Martindale‘s creative schemes. The team has also expressed interest in Ziggy Ansah, who is a more one-dimensional player but who would come much cheaper than Clowney.
Interestingly, Pauline says the division-rival Steelers have also been sniffing around Clowney, but Pittsburgh has even less cap space than Baltimore and would likely need to trade Bud Dupree to make a Clowney deal work.
Minor NFL Transactions: 8/23/20
Here are today’s minor moves:
Atlanta Falcons
- Signed: OT Ka’John Armstrong
Carolina Panthers
- Waived: RB Jordan Scarlett
Cincinnati Bengals
- Activated: WR John Ross
- Placed on IR: DT Renell Wren
Detroit Lions
- Signed: DE Will Clarke
- Released: OL Caleb Benenoch
Houston Texans
- Signed: LB Daren Bates, LS Anthony Kukwa
Indianapolis Colts
- Signed: CB Andre Chachere, C Joey Hunt
- Placed on IR: Andrew Donnal
- Waived/injured: TE Ian Bunting
Jacksonville Jaguars
- Signed: TE Matt Flanagan
- Waived/injured: TE Charles Jones
Kansas City Chiefs
- Waived: CB Hakeem Bailey
Las Vegas Raiders
- Waived: RB William Stanback
New England Patriots
- Signed: TE Paul Quessenberry, DT Xavier Williams
- Released: TE Alex Ellis, DT Darius Kilgo
Philadelphia Eagles
- Activated: WR Travis Fulgham
- Waived: OL Casey Tucker
Pittsburgh Steelers
- Signed: TE Kyle Markway