Eagles Interested In Baylor WR Denzel Mims
It’s not surprising that the Eagles, whose need for young wide receiver talent is obvious, have been connected to a number of the best pass catcher’s in this year’s draft class. Just yesterday, we learned that Philadelphia is taking a look at Arizona State’s Brandon Aiyuk and TCU’s Jalen Reagor, and we already knew that the club is interested in LSU’s Justin Jefferson.
You can now add Baylor wideout Denzel Mims to that list. Mims himself tells Jon Marks and Ike Reese of 94 WIP that the Eagles have expressed more interest in him than any other club, and that he chatted with Philly four or five times last week.
“I actually have talked to the Eagles a lot,” Mims said. “I felt like I killed the interview.”
While Jefferson may be gone by the time the Eagles are on the clock with the No. 21 overall pick, Mims should be available. He offers an intriguing blend of size and speed, and he is a willing blocker in the run game. He did struggle with drops at times, but in 2019, he managed to post over 1,000 yards for the second time in his collegiate career despite playing with a broken hand.
Of course, Eagles GM Howie Roseman is one of the most aggressive execs in the game, and he could try to move up the board to land one of this year’s consensus top WRs like Jerry Jeudy or CeeDee Lamb, as Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.com writes (subscription required). But the Eagles are also staring down the barrel of a bleak salary cap situation in 2021, so it would make sense for them to try and load up on as much cheap talent as possible. Given the depth of this year’s WR class, the team could trade down from No. 21 if all of the top-tier receivers are gone, and it could pick up a defensive playmaker in the process while still securing an impact wideout.
Depending on how far down the board Roseman moves in this hypothetical scenario, he may still be able to land Mims or Aiyuk. Reagor, meanwhile, could last until the end of the second round, though he’s also generating buzz as a potential first-round talent.
Falcons’ Brian Hill Signs RFA Tender
Falcons running back Brian Hill has signed his RFA tender, as D. Orlando Ledbetter of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution writes. With that, Hill will return to the Falcons on a $2.13MM salary in 2020.
Atlanta originally selected Hill in the fifth round of the 2017 draft. He was waived by the team in October of that year and was signed to the practice squad, but the Bengals plucked him off the practice squad a month later. He ultimately appeared in six games for Cincinnati but was waived prior to the start of the 2018 season. The Falcons, who never really wanted to let him go in the first place, brought him back to their practice squad shortly thereafter.
Hill got just 20 carries in 2018 but saw that number increase to 78 in 2019, as he became the primary backup to Devonta Freeman after Ito Smith succumbed to injury. Freeman was released last month, and while the club brought in Todd Gurley to replace him, Gurley’s own medical history doesn’t inspire a great deal of confidence.
Hill, who has posted a very good 4.7 yards-per-carry average across an admittedly small sample size of 109 career totes, will have a good chance to be Gurley’s primary backup, and he could get even more burn if Gurley cannot shake his injury woes. The Falcons may very well select another RB in this week’s draft, but Hill will be in the mix.
Draft QB Rumors: Bolts, Raiders, Pats
Let’s round up some of the recent QB-related rumors that are swirling in advance of Thursday’s draft:
- The Chargers hold the No. 6 overall pick and are not inclined to trade up from that spot, per Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports. The Bolts are fans of both Justin Herbert and Tua Tagovailoa, and it seems almost certain that at least one of those passers will be available when Los Angeles is on the clock. The team could still go in a non-QB direction with the No. 6 pick, but it would be difficult to pass up a franchise-altering talent at the most important position in sports, especially since the Chargers will probably not be picking nearly as high in 2021.
- Although the Raiders have Derek Carr and Marcus Mariota on the roster, La Canfora hears that the club could make a play for a QB with one of their two first-round picks. Las Vegas holds the No. 12 and No. 19 overall selections, and JLC believes the team could target a CB with the No. 12 pick and go after a QB like Tagovailoa — if he falls that far — or Jordan Love with the No. 19 pick. While the Raiders need a receiver and don’t have a second-round selection, this year’s draft is deep enough at WR that Las Vegas could still find an impact player with one of its three third-round choices.
- The Patriots are in the market for a collegiate signal-caller, and Mike Reiss of ESPN.com says it’s a question of “when,” not “if”, New England drafts a QB this week. We recently heard that the Pats would find a passer in either the first round or middle rounds, and if a player like Herbert or Tagovailoa should start to slide, it would not be surprising to see them pull the trigger. Coincidentally, new personnel consultant Eliot Wolf was a Packers staffer in 2005, when Green Bay was the beneficiary of Aaron Rodgers‘ famous draft-day slide.
- ESPN’s Matt Bowen wrote before last year’s draft that Jarrett Stidham was the QB that represented the best fit for the Patriots, and the Pats ultimately selected Stidham with a fourth-round pick. Bowen believes the rookie signal-caller that makes the most sense for New England this year is Washington’s Jacob Eason (subscription required). Eason profiles as a Day 2 pick, so he would not be the Pats’ target with their No. 23 overall choice, but he may be off the board by the time New England is on the clock again at No. 87.
- Colts GM Chris Ballard will not force a QB pick in this year’s draft, though Indy has been linked to rookie passers. The team could select a signal-caller like Eason with one of its second-round choices, though the Colts remain high on Jacoby Brissett. It may seem unlikely, but Joel A. Erickson of the Indianapolis Star says the team continues to insist that it could forgo a quarterback in the 2020 draft and look to bring Brissett back in 2021.
Broncos Eyeing Alabama WR Jerry Jeudy?
We heard last week that the Broncos may be trying to trade up from their No. 15 overall pick in Thursday’s draft, and those reports suggested that Denver would be targeting an offensive tackle with such a move. Although LT Garett Bolles actually performed surprisingly well in 2019 according to advanced metrics, he has not come close to living up to his status as a former first-round pick, and RT Ja’Wuan James saw his first season with the Broncos almost entirely wiped out due to injury.
So a tackle would make plenty of sense for Denver, but if the team does engineer a trade-up, it would be for a wide receiver, not a lineman, per Woody Paige of The Gazette (Twitter link). Specifically, the longtime Denver-based reporter says the club is targeting Alabama WR Jerry Jeudy.
Jeudy is seen as one of the top receivers in a draft that is historically deep at the position, and the run on wideouts is expected to start no later than the No. 11 overall selection, when the Jets are on the clock. As such, if the Broncos want Jeudy, they may need to get up to No. 8 (Cardinals) or No. 10 (Browns). Both Arizona and Cleveland profile as trade-down candidates, so Denver could have a trade partner should they choose to be aggressive.
Denver’s current WR depth chart looks pretty thin beyond budding star Courtland Sutton, and while it may make more sense to wait until the second or third round to nab another pass catcher — after all, a second-rounder in this year’s draft may be a first-rounder in any other year — there’s no denying that a Sutton-Jeudy combo is sorely tempting.
Jeudy is lauded for his route-running, and he averaged for 1,239 yards and 12 TDs over his final two seasons with the Crimson Tide. With him, Sutton, and second-year TE Noah Fant, QB Drew Lock would have a young and talented arsenal at his disposal.
One way or another, Paige does not expect the Broncos to stay put at No. 15. If they cannot trade up, or if they decide the price to do so is too high, Paige expects them to explore trade-down scenarios to further bolster their draft capital. As of this writing, they have 10 picks in the draft.
FIU QB James Morgan Drawing Interest
FIU quarterback James Morgan is starting to generate some buzz as we get closer to draft day, as Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle writes. Morgan made his way onto our site for the first time today, when we wrote that the Patriots have shown some interest, and New England is not the only team sniffing around.
Per Wilson, a number of clubs are closely vetting Morgan, though COVID-19 restrictions obviously mean that he can’t visit teams or work out privately for them. Wilson’s sources say that in addition to the Patriots, the Packers, Bears, Colts, Raiders, Giants, Bills, Jets, and Dolphins are among the teams intrigued by Morgan.
It is not surprising to see most of the teams on that list. New England, of course, is in the market for a collegiate passer after watching Tom Brady sign with the Buccaneers, and the Dolphins have long been connected to this year’s top rookie QBs. The Raiders, Bears, and Colts have varying degrees of long-term uncertainty at the quarterback position, and the Packers had planned to host the best QB prospects before pre-draft visits were cancelled (Morgan is actually a Green Bay native, and the Packers may be starting to prepare for life without Aaron Rodgers).
Meanwhile, all three New York outfits seem to have a long-term solution under center already, although none of their incumbents are sure things at the moment. And given that Morgan is a mid- to late-round prospect, it couldn’t hurt for those teams to at least have a look.
Morgan performed well at this year’s scouting combine and at the East-West Shrine Game, and a Southeast Area NFL scout said Morgan has one of the three strongest arms in the draft, along with the intelligence and leadership qualities that teams covet. After an uneven tenure at Bowling Green, Morgan transferred to FIU in 2018 and earned Conference USA Newcomer of the Year honors by completing over 65% of his passes for 26 TDs and seven interceptions.
His 2019 effort was not quite as strong, but he has put together enough quality tape to start rising up draft boards.
No Progress On Jamal Adams Contract Talks
We heard at the end of January that the Jets and star safety Jamal Adams were beginning contract talks, but as Rich Cimini of ESPN.com writes, those talks have been tabled for the time being. If Adams does get a new deal from Gang Green, it will not happen until after this month’s draft, and perhaps not until closer to the start of the regular season.
In the meantime, a trade is still a possibility. The Jets made Adams available in advance of the trade deadline in October, and while their asking price was too rich for a rival club to pull the trigger, we heard that a trade could still come together before the 2020 season gets underway. The Cowboys were negotiating with the Jets in the fall — they reportedly offered a first-round pick and backup corner Anthony Brown — and Cimini says there are rumors that Dallas is planning to make another run at Adams before the draft (though the club did add Ha Ha Clinton-Dix in free agency).
However, it does not sound as if the Jets have reduced their demands. They were asking for a first-rounder and two second-rounders at the deadline, and Cimini reports that it would still take an “extraordinary offer” to convince New York to deal Adams. After all, the LSU product has already established himself as an elite safety, and he won’t turn 25 until October.
The Dallas native previously indicated he would love to join the Cowboys, so if Jerry Jones‘ outfit does swing a trade, Adams would surely be receptive to a long-term pact. But whoever gives him his next contract will need to be prepared to make him the highest-paid safety in the game. Adams stands to land a deal paying him at least $15MM per season with upwards of $45MM in guaranteed money.
AFC East Notes: Tua, Pats, Diggs
Though Alabama QB Tua Tagovailoa has most commonly been connected to the division-rival Dolphins, Ben Volin of the Boston Globe believes the stars are aligning for the Patriots to make a play for the southpaw passer. The Lions — and all of their New England connections — hold the No. 3 overall pick and will have a major impact on how the quarterback dominoes fall in this year’s draft. If Detroit trades down, as many expect, Volin suggests that New England’s No. 23 overall pick along with a mid-rounder and a veteran player like Julian Edelman could be enough to get a deal done. The Patriots’ ties with Alabama head coach Nick Saban would also help give the team a little more insight into Tagovailoa as a player and as a person.
Let’s round up a few more AFC East rumors on another stay-at-home Sunday:
- Volin’s proposal may be a little far-fetched, but if Tagovailoa starts to slide on draft day — after all, the Dolphins may not be entirely sold on him, and Matt Miller of Bleacher Report says the 2018 Heisman runner-up is the No. 3 or 4 QB on some teams’ boards even if he is completely healthy — then the Patriots could be in play, per Doug Kyed of NESN.com.
- One way or another, Mike Reiss of ESPN.com says the Patriots will draft a rookie signal-caller. While he does not rule out a dramatic move for a player like Tagovailoa, he also says the team could once again target a mid-round prospect and is eyeing FIU passer James Morgan.
- WR Stefon Diggs sounded like a man who wanted out of Minnesota for awhile, and he finally got his wish when he got traded to the Bills in March. However, his displeasure with the Vikings had more to do with his role in the offense than his contract; he signed a five-year, $72MM extension last summer, and he still has another four years to go on that pact. Still, the contract looks fairly team-friendly in the current market, so Buffalo GM Brandon Beane was recently asked if Diggs is content with his deal. Beane side-stepped the issue, saying simply that Diggs is “happy to be in Buffalo” (Twitter link via Jay Skurski of the Buffalo News). It would indeed be rather surprising to see the Bills rework a contract that has four years remaining.
- Rich Cimini of ESPN.com confirms that Jets guard Brian Winters, who was presumed to be a cap casualty not that long ago, will remain with the Jets and will compete for a job in training camp. Cimini says that if Winters does not win a starting role, he will likely be asked to take a pay cut.
Latest On DeAndre Hopkins Trade
One of the most heavily-scrutinized trades in recent memory — the deal that will presumably send star wideout DeAndre Hopkins and a 2020 fourth-round pick to the Cardinals in exchange for David Johnson, a 2020 second-round pick, and a 2021 fourth-rounder — has not yet been processed because the players involved have been unable to take physicals, as Adam Schefter of ESPN.com observes (via Twitter). Of course, the same holds true for a number of free agent pacts around the league, but given the magnitude of, and fallout from, the Hopkins-Johnson swap, the fact that it’s not yet set in stone is significant.
In order to avoid having their free agent signees in a holding pattern, some teams have taken the route that the Bengals recently took with one of their big offseason acquisitions, D.J. Reader. Readers’s deal is now “official,” but he agreed to additional language in his contract which states that he still must pass a physical in order for the deal to take effect. If he doesn’t pass, the Bengals will have the option of cutting him immediately or keeping the contract as-is.
Similarly, if Hopkins and/or Johnson should fail a physical, it would give Houston and Arizona the ability to back out of the trade altogether. As it presently stands, the Cardinals — who are already said to be talking contract with Hopkins — would be hurt the most by such a development, and it stands to reason that they would then push for a modified deal that still brings the three-time First Team All-Pro to the desert.
On the other hand, a failed physical would allow the Texans and head coach/de facto GM Bill O’Brien to back out of a trade that has been universally panned, and while the underlying reasons for the trade would still exist — Hopkins’ contract demands and reported friction between Hopkins and O’Brien — O’Brien would surely welcome a chance to negotiate a more favorable accord with Cardinals GM Steve Keim.
The odds are slim that either Hopkins or Johnson will fail a physical. Hopkins has been the picture of health in his seven-year career, and while the same cannot be said for Johnson, he at least appeared to be 100% at the end of the 2019 season (even if his playing time was slashed). More likely than not, the trade will go through and Texans fans will remain bitter about it, but until it becomes official, it’s a situation worth monitoring.
Bears To Have Open QB Competition
It may not come as much of a surprise given the team’s trade for Nick Foles and his sizable contract, but Bears GM Ryan Pace has declared that there will be an “open competition” between Foles and incumbent Mitchell Trubisky for the starting quarterback job (Twitter link via Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune).
Those were probably not easy words for Pace to say, as he famously gave up a good deal of draft capital in the 2017 draft to move up one spot — from No. 3 overall to No. 2 overall — for the right to select Trubisky. After a disappointing rookie campaign, Trubisky seemed to be coming into his own with a quality sophomore effort in which he posted a 95.4 quarterback rating and threw for 24 touchdowns against 12 interceptions en route to a Pro Bowl nod.
But Pace’s vindication would be short-lived, as Trubisky had just 17 TDs against ten INTs in 2019, and the Bears’ talented D couldn’t make up for the offense’s shortcomings. The Bears went 8-7 in Trubisky’s 15 starts and finished .500 on the season, leaving them short of the postseason. To be fair, Trubisky did battle through a number of injuries, but Chicago still thought it was necessary to bring in legitimate veteran competition for its fourth-year signal-caller.
Foles, meanwhile, signed a four-year, $88MM deal with the Jaguars last March after leading the Eagles on a legendary ride to a Super Bowl title at the end of the 2017 season and more playoff heroics following the 2018 campaign. Unfortunately, he broke his clavicle in the first game of the 2019 season and did not play well enough after returning from injury to keep his job over sixth-round rookie Gardner Minshew. The 31-year-old is not as good as he looked during his Super Bowl run but is better than his disappointing effort in Jacksonville, and even competent QB play may be enough to get Chicago back to the postseason.
The Bears still have a decision to make on Trubisky’s fifth-year option, the deadline for which is next month, but Pace said he is not yet ready to make that call (Twitter link via Biggs). Per head coach Matt Nagy, Trubisky will be the first QB in the huddle whenever the team reconvenes, but the competition will be transparent and honest and the players will split reps equally (Twitter links via Biggs).
NFL Issues Memo On Draft Sites
As you probably know by now, the 2020 NFL Draft is proceeding as scheduled and will take place from April 23-25. However, it’s going to look and feel a lot different than it normally does, and the league has issued a memo on that front. The entire memo can be found here, courtesy of Albert Breer of SI.com (via Twitter).
Essentially, teams can conduct the draft in one of two ways. They can conduct them at their facilities, though they would obviously be subject to all applicable health and safety guidelines (including a limit on the number of personnel that can be at the facility and rigorous cleaning requirements). Or, they can conduct them totally remotely from the personal residences of their staff, though there would certainly be a limit on the number of personnel that could be present at any one residence.
The memo went on to say that a team can choose to draft from remote sites even if other teams choose to operate from their facilities. On the other hand, if any one team’s state prohibits that team from using its home facility, then all teams will be so prohibited and must conduct the draft remotely. Although the league has drawn plenty of criticism for pressing forward in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is at least trying to maintain some semblance of fairness in the way clubs can handle their business.
It seems that at least one team will be in a state that prohibits a gathering of personnel in a war room setting at a team facility, so it presently sounds as though execs and coaches from around the league should start preparing to select their collegiate prospects from their living rooms. The NFL’s IT department is working to make that process as seamless as possible.