Failed Trades: Beasley, Fowler, Jets, Jags
After the trade deadline passes each year, there are inevitably reports about the trades that were discussed but never consummated. For instance, Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network reports that teams were trying to trade for Falcons pass rusher Vic Beasley (video link). Beasley has just one sack this year, and he has regressed considerably since his First Team All-Pro performance in 2016, but Atlanta believes it can make the playoffs this season, and it was not prepared to move a foundational piece like Beasley, who is under contract through 2019 via the fifth-year option.
Now for more reports concerning trades that never happened, which nonetheless shed some light on the teams that declined to make the deals, the clubs that tried to make the deals, and the players themselves:
- The Jets, desperate for pass rushing help, inquired on former Jaguars defensive end Dante Fowler over the summer, and they tried again at last week’s trade deadline, as Adam Schefter of ESPN.com details. The Rams ultimately acquired Fowler in exchange for a 2019 third-rounder and 2020 fifth-rounder, and while the Jets submitted a similar offer about a half hour before the 4pm deadline on October 30, they also wanted a fourth-rounder to come back to them. As such, Jacksonville pulled the trigger on the Rams’ offer.
- Interestingly, before dealing him to the Saints in August, the Jets offered quarterback Teddy Bridgewater to the Jaguars in a one-for-one swap for Fowler, per Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports. Jacksonville rebuffed that proposal, even though it knew that Fowler was probably on the way out, and given their QB struggles, that decision may have made a major difference in the Jags’ season.
- Fowler may not have been the Rams‘ first choice for pass rushing help. We already knew that Los Angeles had made a significant offer for Khalil Mack before he was dealt to the Bears, but Schefter writes that the Rams also called the Texans to discuss Jadeveon Clowney in the first weeks of the season, and as late as last week, they made a push to acquire the Bills‘ Jerry Hughes.
- Several teams, including the Eagles, called the Jets in an effort to acquire deep threat Robby Anderson, per ESPN’s Chris Mortensen (Twitter link). However, Gang Green opted to hold on to Anderson because the development of Sam Darnold remains the team’s top priority, and it did not want to remove one of Darnold’s biggest weapons.
North Notes: Bell, Browns, Green, Cook
The Le’Veon Bell saga is coming to a head, as the Steelers running back must sign his franchise tender by November 13 to be eligible to play for any team this season. But as Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports writes, the CBA does not dictate that Bell must report by that day, only that he sign the tender. That means that Bell could sign the tender and not report until next Saturday, which would make him eligible to be added to the roster for next Sunday’s game — not that he would be playing in that game regardless — or he could just not sign the tender at all and skip the entire season.
The latter option is not considered likely at this time, but La Canfora says that if Bell does skip the entire 2018 campaign, the Steelers would strongly consider slapping the franchise or transition tag on him next offseason, which would of course set up another drama-filled battle. La Canfora further reports that no rival clubs called Pittsburgh at last week’s trade deadline in an attempt to acquire Bell.
Now for more the league’s North divisions:
- When the Browns have hired a new head coach in recent seasons, they have used a search firm, but Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network (video link) says he would be surprised if the team, with respected GM John Dorsey now in charge, goes that route when it looks for another HC this offseason. Rapoport’s sources expect Dorsey to conduct the search himself, and they expect that he will do so very “secretly.” Rapoport says one name under consideration would be Josh McDaniels, who is reportedly open to revisiting HC opportunities (should another one come his way), and RapSheet also lists John DeFilippo, Mike McCarthy, and Lincoln Riley as potential targets.
- Bengals WR A.J. Green is battling a toe injury, per Rapoport (via Twitter), who says that Green either has visited or will visit foot specialist Dr. Robert Anderson. There will be more clarity on the injury soon, and Rapoport says surgery remains on the table. Adam Schefter of ESPN.com tweets that Green is expected to miss time regardless of whether he has surgery.
- Vikings WR Stefon Diggs will miss today’s game with a rib injury, per Rapoport (video link), though it is uncertain whether Diggs will miss any additional time (given that he expected to play today and was listed as questionable on the final injury report, it seems that he’ll be ready to go after Minnesota’s bye next week. Meanwhile, RB Dalvin Cook is expected to hit the field today, which will mark his first appearance since Week 4. Cook will be on a pitch count and is only expected to see 20 snaps or so, but when the team returns from bye, it could have Cook and Diggs at full strength.
- The Packers signed punter Drew Kaser yesterday, but the team is not moving on from incumbent J.K. Scott at this time, per ESPN.com. However, it is still an open question as to whether Scott will be punting against the Patriots tonight.
- We learned earlier today that Ravens HC John Harbaugh is on the hot seat as the team faces a critical divisional matchup against Pittsburgh this afternoon.
Nick Mullens Expected To Remain 49ers’ Starting QB
After 49ers quarterback C.J. Beathard — who was only starting for San Francisco because No. 1 signal-caller Jimmy Garoppolo is out for the season with an ACL tear — was injured during the team’s Week 8 loss to the Cardinals, the 49ers turned to Nick Mullens to replace him for their Thursday night bout against the Raiders.
All Mullens did was turn in one of the best NFL debuts in league history. The 2017 UDFA out of Southern Miss was 16 of 22 for 262 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions as the 49ers trounced their Bay Area rivals 34-3. Most have assumed that performance would allow Mullens to retain control of the starting job moving forward, and that is apparently the correct assumption.
Ian Rapoport of NFL.com reports that Mullens is expected to remain the 49ers’ starting quarterback when their season resumes next Monday. Head coach Kyle Shanahan has not yet made an official announcement, as he wants to talk to his players first, but Rapoport says it would be a major surprise if Mullens did not get the nod.
Even after the win, the 49ers are 2-7, and whatever playoff hopes they had went out the window when Garoppolo went down. And since the team has seen Beathard, a 2017 third-round pick, produce one win and mediocre statistics during his ten games as a starter over the last two seasons, it makes sense to at least give Mullens a shot.
Mullens, who was summoned from the practice squad to serve as Beathard’s backup in September, is Southern Mississippi’s career passing leader in every major category. His collegiate numbers considerably outshine those of fellow Golden Eagles alum Brett Favre, but it’s probably a bit too early to begin comparing their professional careers.
Ravens HC John Harbaugh On Hot Seat
Ravens head coach John Harbaugh is under “mounting pressure” to turn his team’s season around, per Ian Rapoport of NFL.com. The Ravens started out the 2018 campaign strong, but since a primetime victory over the Steelers in Pittsburgh staked Baltimore to a 3-1 record, Harbaugh’s club has dropped three of its last four to fall to third place in the AFC North. And, while a midseason firing is not expected, an ugly loss against the Steelers today would give team brass a lot to think about in that regard.
Harbaugh has generally achieved excellent results since he was hired in 2008, leading the Ravens to two division titles, three AFC Championship Game appearances (including one win), and a Super Bowl win. But Baltimore has not qualified for the playoffs since 2014 — though the club had several near misses during that time — and while injuries and mediocre rosters certainly played a big part in that, the three-year drought is tough to take in light of Harbaugh’s earlier success.
Indeed, owner Steve Bisciotti said earlier this year that he considered firing Harbaugh at the end of the 2017 season, which culminated in a Week 17 last-minute loss that knocked the Ravens out of a playoff spot. Ultimately, Harbaugh kept his job, the front office finally added a number of legitimate weapons for embattled quarterback Joe Flacco, and the Ravens have thus far managed to avoid the spate of calamitous injuries they have suffered in recent years.
But the team is now 4-4 and is at a crossroads. As Jamison Hensley of ESPN.com points out, if the Ravens win their next two games (home divisional contests against Pittsburgh and Cincinnati), Baltimore will have an 85.6% chance of making the playoffs. If they lose both, the odds drop to 10.4%.
Further complicating matters is the fact that this will be GM Ozzie Newsome‘s last season at the helm, and assistant GM Eric DeCosta, who will take over for Newsome, does not have as strong of an attachment to Harbaugh. Plus, rookie quarterback Lamar Jackson is reportedly not progressing as well as the team had hoped, which also reflects poorly on the head coach.
Harbaugh is under contract through 2019, and he has compiled a 105-71 record (including playoffs) as the Ravens’ sideline general. If he does get the ax either during the season or after it, he will surely make the short list for other clubs in search of a new head coach.
Giants Getting “Decent Offers” For Odell Beckham
There are several wide receivers who could be dealt in advance of Tuesday’s trade deadline: Pierre Garcon, Demaryius Thomas, and DeSean Jackson are a few of the bigger names that are drawing the interest of various clubs after Amari Cooper was traded to the Cowboys on Monday.
And, given the Giants’ disastrous start to the season and Odell Beckham Jr.‘s dissatisfaction with the team’s direction, plenty of clubs are calling the Giants about the possibility of acquiring the enigmatic superstar. Jay Glazer of FOX Sports (via Ralph Vacchiano of SNY.tv on Twitter) reports that, not only is Big Blue getting offers, those offers are apparently decent ones. The implication is that, if the Giants were serious about trading Beckham, they would find a vibrant market, despite OBJ’s massive contract.
But the contract, as Vacchiano points out, is one of the major obstacles to a potential deal. If New York were to trade Beckham, it would have to carry $16MM in dead money on its cap next year, and it would obviously need to replace its best player. Indeed, while the Giants are clearly not going anywhere this season, they gave Beckham his big-money deal with the intention of keeping him around at least through his prime years, and given that rebuilds in football do not necessarily take an extended period of time, it would obviously be shocking to see OBJ traded in the next couple of days.
Still, it is interesting that rival clubs think there is enough of a chance that New York would be willing to pull the trigger that they are actually making offers and not just doing due diligence with a phone call or two. Even when OBJ isn’t making drama, drama seems to find him.
Lane Johnson Tears MCL
Eagles right tackle Lane Johnson suffered an MCL tear in his left knee during the team’s win over Jacksonville in London today, per Jeff McLane of the Philadelphia Inquirer (Twitter link). The Eagles are on a bye next week, but Johnson nonetheless could miss an extended period of time. Adam Schefter of ESPN.com tweets that Johnson, who was already dealing with an ankle injury (to the same leg), will be sidelined for about a month. McLane adds that the 2017 First Team All-Pro will have further testing when the team returns to Philadelphia.
Johnson, whom the team selected with the No. 4 overall pick in the 2013 draft, is having another excellent season. He is currently ranked as the 10th-best tackle in the league, per Pro Football Focus, and the Eagles — whose running game is already sputtering — will miss him dearly during his absence.
Johnson’s fellow bookend, left tackle Jason Peters, also left today’s game with a head injury. Though Peters did return to action, he has not been playing to his usual standards this year, and he is dealing with other health issues of his own (plus, he is 36 and is clearly on the tail end of his career).
There have been no trade rumors surrounding tackles in advance of Tuesday’s trade deadline, and the Eagles will likely ask Halapoulivaati Vaitai to fill in at right tackle while Johnson is out.
Johnson signed a lucrative five-year extension in January 2016, which was restructured (to his benefit) last March. He is under club control through 2021.
AFC Notes: Bell, Jags, Bosa, Michel
The Steelers are still hopeful that they can trade Le’Veon Bell and net a third-round pick or better in return before Tuesday’s deadline, per Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports. Bell, as we heard earlier this week, does not want to be traded, and given that he would need to sign his franchise tender before he can be dealt, he holds all the cards in that regard. La Canfora tweets that Bell (predictably) balked at returning to the Steelers on the exempt list, so there are still plenty of moving pieces to keep an eye on before this situation is finally resolved.
Now let’s take a quick swing around the AFC:
- Blake Bortles played decently for the Jaguars during their loss in London today, but we heard earlier this week that the fifth-year pro is on a short leash after he was benched during last Sunday’s loss to the Texans. However, Albert Breer of TheMMQB observes that Bortles still took the lion’s share of first-team reps in practice this week (though Cody Kessler did get a few, as anticipated), so it does not appear that there is a quarterback competition at the moment.
- La Canfora writes that the Jaguars were very much interested in Kirk Cousins last offseason and were prepared to offer him a significant free agent contract and move on from Bortles. However, they were not willing to meet the $30MM-per-year figure that Cousins ultimately got from the Vikings (they hoped to land him for something in the $20-24MM range). Instead, of course, they gave Bortles a pay-as-you-go, team-friendly extension, which allows the club the flexibility to move on this offseason if it so chooses.
- Jaguars RB Leonard Fournette is expected to return to the field for Jacksonville’s Week 10 matchup on November 11 against the Colts, per Schefter.
- It does not appear as if the Chargers will get Joey Bosa back for their November 4 matchup against the Seahawks, as they had been hoping for some time. Although Bosa is making progress, Schefter writes that he is not “anywhere near ready to play right now.” It is unclear when Bosa will make his much-anticipated return to the field, but the wait will carry until at least the second week of November.
- Sony Michel returned to practice for the Patriots yesterday, per Mike Reiss of ESPN.com. While Michel will not play in the team’s Monday night contest against the Bills tomorrow, he may be ready to go against the Packers next week. Reiss adds that New England could promote Kenneth Farrow from the taxi squad for tomorrow’s game in order to give themselves three healthy backs.
- The relationship between Browns HC Hue Jackson and OC Todd Haley is not improving, and one of the two could be relieved of his duties in short order.
Trade Rumors: Carr, Raiders, Peterson, Taylor
We learned earlier this morning that Buccaneers wide receiver DeSean Jackson has requested a trade, though the team wants to keep him. Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times tweets that Jackson, on his way to the team bus this morning, declined to comment on the report.
With the trade deadline two days away, let’s round up a few more trade rumors from around the league (Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports, who says many GMs expect there to be three to five “impactful” deals over the next 48 hours, offers a helpful primer, which includes a list of some of the most-discussed players on the market):
- Albert Breer of TheMMQB says that the Raiders may not be done dealing just yet, though he does not expect the team to move Derek Carr (indeed, Adam Schefter of ESPN.com reported this morning that the Raiders have told Carr that he is the quarterback of the present and future). However, Oakland is open to moving Karl Joseph and Gareon Conley, though the Raiders are driving a “hard bargain” with teams interested in Conley.
- Breer names a number of other players whose names we have not heard in recent rumblings but who could nonetheless be on the move: the Packers‘ Ha Ha Clinton-Dix, the 49ers‘ Pierre Garcon and Jimmie Ward, the Cardinals‘ Chandler Jones, and the Broncos‘ Shane Ray and Brandon Marshall. Breers adds that San Francisco would need to get something “significant” to deal Ward. He also says that, while teams are certainly interested in Denver corners Bradley Roby and Chris Harris, he thinks it would be difficult for the team to trade either.
- If they had elected to trade Patrick Peterson, La Canfora writes that the Cardinals could have received a bounty for him, and may have even landed multiple first-round picks (in fact, several teams were already prepared to offer a first- and second-rounder). JLC reports that Peterson was considered the “crown jewel” of the deadline, and given his attractive contract status, he may be the subject of renewed trade rumors during the offseason.
- Breer also writes that the Browns are open to trading Tyrod Taylor, whose contract structure could make a deal feasible. Meanwhile, Tony Grossi of ESPN.com suggests that Cleveland GM John Dorsey may be trying to acquire wide receiver help (Twitter link).
- The Bills remain unlikely to trade LeSean McCoy, per Schefter.
- Jets GM Mike Maccagnan has demonstrated a proclivity for making trades, and Rich Cimini of ESPN.com says Maccagnan has been doing his due diligence on everyone, including big-name players. But while there is a sense that New York could swing a deal, the fact that the team is in a no-man’s land between buyer and seller, and the fact that the roster does not have many tradeable pieces, could make a trade difficult to pull off.
Latest On Hue Jackson, Todd Haley
Browns head coach Hue Jackson created plenty of waves earlier this week when he suggested that he may take over play-calling duties from OC Todd Haley. And while Jackson quickly walked back those comments, he may have done serious damage to his chances of remaining in Cleveland.
Albert Breer of TheMMQB, who appeared on 92.3 The Fan on Wednesday, said, “I don’t think that [Jackson’s] comments went over all that well in certain corners of the building” (audio link). Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports agrees, going so far as to say that Jackson’s comments “flabbergasted and confounded” his coaching staff and players. Breer noted that team owner Jimmy Haslam and GM John Dorsey are prioritizing the development of No. 1 overall pick Baker Mayfield, and they are not very receptive to anything that may stunt his growth as a player. Although Cleveland’s offense has not been particularly good overall, Mayfield has shown enough flashes of brilliance to suggest that he can ultimately live up to his draft status.
Breer tweets that nothing has changed in the team’s offensive meetings rooms over the last week, so Haley is still running the show for now. However, Breer concedes that what happens after the team’s divisional contest against Pittsburgh this afternoon is uncertain, and Ian Rapoport of NFL.com writes that change could be coming soon. Rapoport says that several people within the organization have “battled” to improve the working relationship between Jackson and Haley, but to no avail. He adds that if the two men cannot reconcile their differences, the team will likely make a move.
In fact, Rapoport suggests that Haley could be the one getting the ax, because while Jackson has compiled a horrible record while at the helm, he is still in charge, and Haley’s interactions with his boss may amount to insubordination. It would be surprising to see Haley fired before Jackson, but Rapoport indicates that option certainly remains on the table.
Even if both men survive the year, the Browns could go in a different direction at the end of the season. After all, Dorsey did not hire Jackson, and with Mayfield under center and a legitimate GM calling the shots, Cleveland may very well be a desirable destination for some of the top head coaching candidates next offseason, which is a rarity for the franchise.
One way or another, things could be coming to a head. It is just a shame that, even in a year that has seen real signs of improvement, the Browns still cannot seem to get out of their own way.
DeSean Jackson Requests Trade
Buccaneers wide receiver DeSean Jackson recently requested that the team trade him, per Ian Rapoport of NFL.com. However, Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times tweets that Bucs head coach Dirk Koetter is unaware of the request, and if Jackson did ask for a trade, it would be surprising if Koetter did not know about it.
In any event, Rapoport says that the 3-3 Bucs have refused to grant that request, and it appears as if the team will hold on to Jackson through Tuesday’s trade deadline. After all, Koetter’s job security is tenuous at best, and GM Jason Licht is probably not much safer. As such, team brass may have personal reasons, as well as on-field reasons, to keep Jackson around.
Jackson signed a three-year deal, $33.5MM deal with the Bucs in March 2017, but he and quarterback Jameis Winston never got on the same page during Jackson’s first year with the club, and Jackson’s deep ball skills were sorely underutilized. He caught 50 balls for 668 yards and three scores last season, and his 13.4 yards per catch average was the lowest mark of his career.
This year, he and backup signal-caller Ryan Fitzpatrick were making magic together through the first two games of the season, but since Winston has resumed quarterbacking duties, Jackson has once again seen his numbers take a dip. In each of the last two games, Winston has missed an open Jackson for what would have likely been a long touchdown pass.
Although the Bucs have declined to honor Jackson’s request to date, this report will surely increase interest in the 31-year-old playmaker (who turns 32 on December 1). Any acquiring team would take on the remainder of his $11MM salary for this season and would be on the hook for his $10MM salary in 2019, but he could be released after the 2018 campaign without any dead money being left on the cap.