Rashaad Penny Done For Season
Seahawks RB Rashaad Penny will miss the remainder of the season, according to Seattle head coach Pete Carroll (Twitter link via Brady Henderson of ESPN.com). Penny injured his ACL during the Seahawks’ loss to the Rams Sunday night, and while Carroll has not yet been made aware of Penny’s MRI results, the team doctors could tell it was a significant injury.
It’s a difficult blow for Penny, who was finally starting to get the touches he probably expected when the Seahawks selected him in the first round of the 2018 draft. After getting just 85 carries in his rookie season and 36 through the first ten weeks of the 2019 season — though he did miss three games this year with a hamstring injury — Penny got 14 totes for 129 yards and a score against the Eagles in Week 12 and 15 rushes for 79 yards in Week 13. Seattle won both games.
As Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times notes, the Seahawks were planning on a timeshare at running back between Penny and Chris Carson. That was shaping up as a pretty formidable 1-2 punch, but now the team will need to rely more heavily on Carson, just as it did earlier in the season.
It sounds as if C.J. Prosise will move up to the No. 2 spot on the depth chart, while rookie Travis Homer may also get some looks.
Latest On Odell Beckham Jr.
There were two major reports concerning Odell Beckham Jr. on Sunday. First, we heard that OBJ has been battling a “serious and painful” sports hernia that may require offseason surgery. Then, Jay Glazer of FOX Sports, who has been tuned in to Beckham-related happenings in the past, dropped something of a bombshell when he reported that Beckham wants out of Cleveland and has told opposing players and coaches to “come get me.”
Per Charles Robinson of Yahoo! Sports, two sources close to Beckham confirmed that Glazer’s report is accurate, at least as far as Beckham’s comments to opposing teams are concerned. Interestingly, one source said that Beckham made the comments during “at least” one game in October, and the Browns’ October schedule included games against the 49ers and Patriots, both of whom were in the market for wide receiver upgrades in advance of the trade deadline.
Beckham would have liked to play for the 49ers, and he holds San Francisco head coach Kyle Shanahan in high esteem and has developed a friendship with Niners QB Jimmy Garoppolo. According to one source, OBJ was in disbelief when he was traded to Cleveland, especially since San Francisco had made several attempts to acquire him in 2018. While he tried to see the silver linings in the deal — the Browns were loading up for a championship run, he would have the opportunity to play alongside close friend Jarvis Landry, etc. — he was unsure about his fit with the Browns.
Robinson’s sources say Beckham is still uncertain about his fit — his relationship with the coaching staff and his role in the offense make him continue to question his place on the team — and that issue, along with his injury and the fact that he is not playing to the standard that he is capable of, have left him “lost” and looking for redemption. “Fame got to him, he made bad choices [and] now he has to redeem himself,” one source said. “And the road to redemption isn’t an easy one when you have an ego.”
As Robinson notes, there is no indication that the Browns have any intention of parting ways with Beckham, and even if they did, it’s unclear whether any team would offer the kind of package that would make GM John Dorsey trade an immensely talented receiver on a reasonable contract (the 49ers, with their tight salary-cap situation and relative lack of draft capital, no longer profile as an OBJ suitor). And if the Browns shake up their coaching staff this offseason, perhaps OBJ’s potential could be unlocked.
Current Browns head coach Freddie Kitchens, when asked on Monday about recent reports concerning Beckham, said that there has been no discussion of shutting OBJ down for the season due to his injury (Twitter link via Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com). With respect to his relationship with the star receiver, Kitchens said, “Until I hear something from Odell…mine and Odell’s relationship is fine. What I’ve seen from Odell is nothing like the reports would indicate” (Twitter link via Cabot).
Perhaps as part of his quest for redemption, Beckham did gift the entire team with Nike Air Max 720 shoes on Monday, as Cabot tweets.
Calvin Ridley Done For Season
Falcons wide receiver Calvin Ridley will be shut down for the rest of the season, as Ridley himself announced on Instagram. The second-year wideout sustained an abdominal injury during the third quarter of Atlanta’s win over the Panthers on Sunday, and he did not return to the game.
Obviously, the 4-9 Falcons have been out of playoff contention for some time, so it makes sense for the club to play it safe with Ridley, who followed up a strong rookie campaign in 2018 with an even better sophomore effort. After catching 64 passes for 821 yards and 10 TDs in 2018, Ridley reeled in 63 receptions for 866 yards and seven scores in three fewer games in 2019.
Ridley, whom the Falcons selected with the No. 26 overall pick of the 2018 draft, was considered the most polished receiver in his class. He has more than lived up to that billing and has shown a nose for the endzone, and while the Falcons as a whole have disappointed over the past two years, Ridley has been a bright spot.
Since trading Mohamed Sanu to the Patriots in October, the Falcons have given opportunities to a number of younger receivers. With Ridley out of the picture for the remainder of the year, players like Russell Gage, Christian Blake, and Olamide Zaccheaus will have more chances to shine.
Cowboys Waive Brett Maher, Sign Kai Forbath
The Cowboys are making a change at kicker. Dallas has waived Brett Maher and is signing Kai Forbath, per a team announcement.
In the wake of Maher’s struggles in 2019, the Cowboys worked out three kickers last week, but they elected to give Maher another shot. Unfortunately, Maher missed a field goal attempt in the team’s loss to the Bears on Thursday, so Dallas hosted another workout today. Forbath was obviously one of the three kickers the team brought in, along with Nick Rose and Tristan Vizcaino (Rose and Vizcaino were also part of last week’s audition).
Forbath has much more experience than his fellow tryout candidates, which obviously appeals to the Cowboys. Over parts of seven seasons with five different clubs, Forbath has a strong 85.8% success rate on field goal attempts. He kicked for the Patriots last week as a one-game fill-in for Nick Folk, making a 23-yard field goal attempt and going 1-2 on extra points.
Maher, meanwhile, hits the waiver wire after he was unable to replicate his solid 2018 performance. He converted just 66.7% of his field goal tries in 2019, and he missed all but one of his five tries from 40-49 yards. The Cowboys, in the thick of a division title race, exercised as much patience as they could but ultimately were compelled to move on.
Adam Vinatieri To Undergo Season-Ending Surgery
12:12pm: Mike Chappell of CBS 4 says Vinatieri’s surgery is to repair meniscus and patellar issues. Those issues have certainly contributed to Vinatieri’s struggles this year, and apparently Vinatieri believes he can return to form after he recovers. He wants to at least give himself a chance to kick for a 25th season, which is why he is undergoing the surgery now. “But I promise you one thing: I’m gonna bust my dang ass every day from Wednesday until whenever to give myself a chance to see [if I can keep playing],” Vinatieri said. “If it’s there, it’s there. If it’s not, it’s not.”
09:23am: Adam Vinatieri‘s season is over, and his career may be as well. Per Adam Schefter of ESPN.com, Vinatieri will undergo season-ending knee surgery, and the Colts will place him on IR (Twitter link).
Vinatieri missed Sunday’s loss to the Buccaneers with the knee injury, and given that the soon-to-be 47-year-old was in the midst of the worst season of his storied career, it would not be a surprise to see him hang up the cleats.
If so, it would be a disappointing end for the future Hall-of-Famer. He ends the 2019 campaign having converted just just 17-of-25 field goals and 22-of-28 extra points, and his struggles are one of the reasons why Indianapolis is all but eliminated from playoff contention.
In the long run, though, that will just be an unpleasant footnote to a tremendous resume that includes four Super Bowl rings, three First Team All-Pro nods, and a bevy of clutch kicks. Sunday’s game was also the first he had missed since Super Bowl XLIV, and he had kicked in every Colts game over the past 10 seasons.
The Colts will likely to continue to deploy Chase McLaughlin in Vinatieri’s absence, though McLaughlin did miss a field goal try in Indy’s three-point defeat to Tampa Bay.
NFC East Notes: Manning, Redskins, Cowboys
Giants QB Eli Manning said back in April that he wants to continue playing in 2020, and as Jordan Raanan of ESPN.com writes, the soon-to-be 39-year-old has not deviated from that stance. Manning, who was benched in favor of rookie Daniel Jones following New York’s Week 2 loss to Buffalo, is slated to start for the Giants on Monday night due to Jones’ ankle injury. And, as Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets, Jones’ injury could force him to miss 2-4 weeks, so Manning could end up finishing out the season for Big Blue.
Manning’s contract with the Giants expires at the end of the year, and he knows he will need to go elsewhere if he wants to continue playing. However, he doesn’t want to just collect a paycheck, he wants to start, and he wants to start for a team that has at least some chance of cracking the postseason. Given that the 2020 QB market could be unusually strong, Manning may have a tough time finding such an opportunity, though his odds of doing so would improve dramatically if he plays well down the stretch.
Now for more from the NFC East:
- The Redskins will be looking for a new HC this offseason, and Albert Breer of SI.com says several high-profile candidates have told Washington they will not go there if the structure of the organization does not change. It’s unclear exactly what that means, though head of football operations Bruce Allen would definitely scare away some candidates if he remains. Redskins owner Dan Snyder is considering parting ways with Allen, and he may have to do even more to attract the type of big-name coach that he is looking for.
- The Cowboys have real interest in Urban Meyer as their next head coach, and Jon Machota of The Athletic offers a list of candidates that Dallas should take a look at. Meyer is at the top of the list, and despite the fact that the Saints just gave Sean Payton a healthy extension, Machota expects Jerry Jones to “try anything possible” to bring Payton to Dallas. Machota also names the recently-fired Ron Rivera as a possibility, though Rivera will surely attract plenty of interest from other clubs in need of an HC.
- Redskins RB Derrius Guice is believed to have suffered an MCL sprain during Sunday’s loss to the Packers, and he may be done for the season.
- Giants DL Leonard Williams believes he should be paid “top-tier money,” and if he doesn’t get it from New York, he is prepared to test the open market in 2020.
Cowboys’ Interest In Urban Meyer Is “Real”
The Cowboys are widely expected to be shopping for a new head coach this offseason, and the team’s interest in Urban Meyer is real, as Albert Breer of SI.com writes. Recent reports indicated that Cowboys owner Jerry Jones was zeroing in on Meyer and Patriots OC Josh McDaniels — though Oklahoma HC Lincoln Riley could also be a legitimate possibility — and Meyer himself said he would “absolutely” accept the Dallas gig if offered.
Breer confirms that Meyer is interested in the Cowboys, and while the SI scribe does not believe Meyer is necessarily dying to get back into coaching, Dallas does check two important boxes for him. One, it’s a flagship organization, and two, it has a roster that looks capable of competing right away. Meyer also has a close relationship with one of the Cowboys’ best players, Ezekiel Elliot, thanks to their days at Ohio State together.
Meyer is undoubtedly one of the most accomplished head coaches in college football history, having compiled a 187-32 career record that includes a whopping 12-3 mark in Bowl Games. He also won three national championships, two with Florida and one with Ohio State.
His success with the Buckeyes led to some NFL interest, and he said in December 2015 that he had recently spurned an NFL team’s advances. He always seemed content with his collegiate job, but he announced last December that he would retire from coaching after the Buckeye’s Rose Bowl game on January 1, 2019 (which Ohio State won). He cited health concerns as the reason for his decision, which leaves one to wonder if he would welcome the rigors of an NFL post. However, since Dallas does not need to go through a lengthy rebuild, Meyer seems open to considering the opportunity.
Leonard Williams Prepared To Hit Free Agency
It sounds as though Giants DL Leonard Williams is prepared to hit free agency. As Darryl Slater of NJ.com writes, Williams said that if the Giants don’t offer him “top-tier money,” he is going to test the open market in 2020.
Williams’ feelings are certainly understandable. Big Blue is in the midst of a rebuild, and Williams — who was traded from the Jets to the Giants prior to this year’s trade deadline — is tired of losing. He has played in 11 games this year between the two clubs, and his team won just one of those games. Over the past three-plus seasons, Williams’ teams have gone 15-44, and he wants to play for a winner.
Of course, if the price is right, he may be willing to stomach a few more losses. “I know that I want to get a big contract, and I know that I am worth a lot,” Williams said. “If I don’t think [the Giants are] giving me what I think I’m worth, then obviously I think hitting free agency would make sense.”
Williams, whom the Jets selected with the No. 6 overall pick of the 2015 draft, concedes that his play does not merit Aaron Donald money, but he does not believe he is too far removed from Donald’s level. That suggests that he could be eyeing something like Grady Jarrett‘s recent four-year, $68MM ($38MM fully-guaranteed) deal with the Falcons.
The problem is that any of Williams’ potential suitors would need to believe that he can start converting his quarterback hits into more sacks before they pay him top dollar. He has 97 QB hits in his career, but he has just 17 sacks to show for it. He also has not made much of an impact in the running game, having recorded just one tackle for loss this season. Simply put, he looks like a solid starter who could become more if he is paired with a Pro Bowl-caliber talent on the defensive line.
When Giants GM Dave Gettleman swung the trade for Williams, it raised a few eyebrows given Williams’ status as a pending FA and New York’s status as a non-contender. Gettleman sent a third- and fifth-round draft choice to the Jets in the deal, picks that increase in value with each Giants loss. Plus, the fifth-rounder could become a fourth-rounder if Big Blue re-signs Williams. As Ryan Dunleavy of the New York Post observes, Gettleman has shown an ability to cut his losses rather than compound mistakes, so it will be interesting to see if he is willing to move on from Williams rather than bank on his upside and potentially pay him more than he is worth.
The Giants have exclusive negotiating rights with Williams until March 16.
Redskins Interested In David Shaw As HC
The Redskins are interested in Stanford head coach David Shaw for their own HC job, and Washington is expected to pursue Shaw this offseason, as Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports writes. Of course, Shaw has rebuffed advances from NFL clubs in the past, and if he is going to jump to the professional ranks, it seems unlikely that the Redskins would be his top choice.
Still, owner Dan Snyder is expected to aim high, and he has had success in bringing high-profile candidates to the Redskins’ sidelines in the past. As La Canfora notes, head coaching candidates are wary of Washington head of football operations Bruce Allen‘s role within the organization, so if Snyder relieves Allen of his duties — which sounds like a real possibility — perhaps the Redskins could attract a coach with an impressive resume.
La Canfora reported back in October that Snyder would try to trade for Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin, and he says that remains Snyder’s preference. But given that Tomlin is in the midst of perhaps his finest work with Pittsburgh, that seems like even more of a pipe dream than it did when that rumor first surfaced.
Shaw, 47, served as an NFL coach from 1997-2005 before heading to the college game. He has been Stanford’s head coach since 2011, compiling an 86-34 record during that time (including a 5-3 mark in bowl games).
Odell Beckham Jr. Reportedly Wants Out Of Cleveland
Odell Beckham Jr. has been in the news a lot this morning. We heard earlier today that the Browns wideout has been battling a hernia injury all season and may be headed for offseason surgery, and Jay Glazer of FOX Sports (h/t Michael David Smith of Pro Football Talk) reports that OBJ wants out of Cleveland.
When he was asked about his future with the Browns several days ago, Beckham was non-committal. He said, “I couldn’t sit here and tell you whether I’m going to be here, want to be here, don’t want to be here. This is exactly where I’m at now and I wouldn’t rather be anywhere else. God has a plan. In the offseason, everything will figure itself out. I feel like I’ve been here before, answering questions about the next team when I’m on a team already. That’s just something I’m going to tune out for right now. Catch me in the offseason and we’ll see what happens.”
But Glazer says Beckham has approached opposing players and coaches before (and even during) games this season and has told them, “come get me.” And considering that Glazer was the one who said the Giants would trade Beckham when everyone within the New York organization was saying they wouldn’t, that carries some weight. Glazer said, “I don’t see that relationship ending well for [the Browns] after this year.”
Of course, trading Beckham would be a tough pill to swallow for the Browns, who gave up first- and third-round picks in the 2019 draft along with Jabrill Peppers and Kevin Zeitler to acquire the star receiver and Olivier Vernon. The fact that Beckham has had a disappointing year (by his standards, at least) and would have basically forced his way out of two organizations would obviously hurt his trade value.