Eli Manning Benching Appears Inevitable
After an ugly loss to the Eagles on Thursday night, Giants head coach Pat Shurmur was asked if he would be making a quarterback change. Shurmur replied, “No. We believe in Eli (Manning).” But that did not do much to quell the rumors surrounding Manning’s job security, and Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports writes that the team will inevitably make a switch at some point this season.
La Canfora adds that Manning’s poor performance in 2018, which has included missing receivers even on basic screens and slants, has led to increased tension in the locker room. Players are reportedly frustrated with the lack of creativity on offense and the limitations that Manning’s abilities at this stage of his career have placed on that unit. They also remain disappointed in the team’s failure to grab one of the elite QB prospects in this year’s draft, a decision that was criticized at the time but which now appears borderline irresponsible.
Star receiver Odell Beckham Jr. made a number of public comments earlier this month that earned him a fine from the team, but those comments were nonetheless quite telling. OBJ failed to support Manning, and La Canfora says that he was not just speaking for himself. Indeed, one source who has discussed the matter privately with various Giants players said, “[l]et’s just say a quarterback change wouldn’t be unwelcome.”
Of course, without a top-tier prospect to turn to, it will be difficult for Giants fans to get too excited about the quarterback switch. After surprisingly waiving 2017 third-rounder Davis Webb before the start of the 2018 season, the team is currently rostering fourth-round rookie Kyle Lauletta — who has some promise but who does not have top-flight upside — and career backup Alex Tanney, who will turn 31 next month.
In any event, La Canfora believes there is almost no chance that Manning will be on the team in 2019, the last year of his current contract. After this season, New York could save $17MM against the cap by cutting ties with the two-time Super Bowl MVP, whose tremendous run with the only team he has ever known appears to be coming to an ignominious end.
Jets Not Considering Coaching Change
Although the Jets have struggled to a 1-3 start, and although head coach Todd Bowles‘ job has not felt particularly safe for the last couple of years, Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports writes that Gang Green is not considering any staff changes at this point.
Indeed, the fact that the team is starting a rookie signal-caller will certainly buy Bowles — who signed an extension that runs through 2020 last December — a little bit of time. But Sam Darnold‘s development over the course of the season will be critical to Bowles’ status with the club moving forward, especially since the Jets seem to have regressed in many ways from last year, when a weak roster scrapped its way to a 5-7 record through the first 12 games of the season (before finishing 5-11 and in the AFC East cellar for the second straight campaign).
Plus, Bowles’ game management has again come under fire in 2018, and Rich Cimini of ESPN.com criticized Bowles this morning for his conservative approach. While ownership is not mulling a coaching change right now, things could change if the Jets do not begin playing more soundly as the season progresses. La Canfora says he would not be surprised if New York is in the market for a new head coach in 2019, especially if a candidate with a strong offensive resume becomes available. To date, Bowles has compiled a 21-31 record with the Jets and has failed to make the playoffs (though the team did come close in 2015, Bowles’ first year on the job).
In related news, Ralph Vacchiano of SNY.tv tweets that Jets defensive coordinator Kacy Rodgers could be out for several weeks as he deals with a serious illness. Bowles will call the team’s defensive plays in Rodgers’ absence.
NFL Workout Updates: 10/7/18
Here are today’s workout updates:
Minnesota Vikings
- WR Damoun Patterson (Twitter link via NFL Insider Adam Caplan)
NFC Notes: Thomas, Garoppolo, Griffen
The obscene parting shot that Seahawks safety Earl Thomas made in the direction of his team’s bench as he was being carted off the field last week was not directed at any one person or player, but at the Seattle organization as a whole, per Adam Schefter of ESPN.com. And, even though all signs were already pointing towards a parting of the ways between Thomas, who will be a free agent at the end of the season, and the only NFL team he has ever known, Schefter reports that the Seahawks are not expected to use the franchise tag on Thomas, which all but ensures that he will not return to Seattle in 2019.
Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets that Thomas will have surgery to have a rod inserted in his leg this week, which will increase his chances of healing while lowering his chances of a re-fracture, so he is expected to be fully healthy well before free agency officially opens in March.
Now for more from the NFC, starting with another item out of Seattle:
- Seahawks LB Mychal Kendricks was hit with an indefinite suspension earlier this week, and Schefter reports that Kendricks, his lawyers, and the NFLPA are still battling to prove that the NFL does not have the right to impose such a ban in his case. Instead, Kendricks is arguing that the league should suspend him for a specific number of games, thereby allowing him to return to action this season and play until he receives his sentence for insider trading in January.
- In keeping with a report from several days ago that 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo underwent successful surgery on his torn ACL, Rapoport tweets that Garoppolo faces a relatively obstacle-free rehab. His ACL was the only thing that needed to be repaired, so he is expected to make a full recovery.
- We heard at the end of last month that there was no definite timeline for Vikings defensive end Everson Griffen to return to the team, and Schefter reported today that Griffen is not expected to return anytime soon. Griffen, of course, is tending to apparently serious mental health issues.
- Lions guard T.J. Lang suffered at least the fifth concussion of his career last week, and assuming he wants to continue his career, Kyle Meinke of MLive.com believes 2018 will be his last season in Detroit. Lang is under contract through 2019, but he missed games last year because of brain, back and foot issues, and he is dealing with brain and back issues again this year. He would carry a cap hit of $11.7MM in 2019, and Meinke does not envision Detroit ponying up that kind of cash given Lang’s recent spate of injury problems.
- The Buccaneers recently worked out former first-round draft choice Paxton Lynch, but Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times reports that the Bucs have no interest in signing Lynch at this time.
Le’Veon Bell Has Not Informed Steelers Of His Plans, Not Inclined To Accept Trade
11:04am: Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (video link) says that Bell is not inclined to accept a trade at the moment, and that he remains intent on staying in Pittsburgh and “putting up numbers.” Rapoport adds that the Steelers have not received any firm trade offers at this point, and this report could dampen any trade buzz surrounding Bell, who does not believe a trade would be in his best interests.
08:05am: Although we heard last week that Steelers running back Le’Veon Bell would end his holdout and report to the team during its Week 7 bye, both Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports and Albert Breer of TheMMQB report that Bell has not actually informed his coaches, teammates, or anyone in the Pittsburgh front office of his intentions. As such, the Steelers are continuing to operate as though Bell will not be a part of the team this season.
Both Breer and La Canfora reiterate that the Steelers will continue to try and trade Bell, but the team that represents the most logical fit at this point, the Eagles, still appear to be something of a long shot to pull the trigger on such a deal. Plus, Breer observes that, before Bell can be traded, he would have to sign his franchise tender, which appeared to be a given when Bell announced that he would return to the club in a couple of weeks. But Breer writes that it is not a certainty that Bell will actually sign the tender.
La Canfora notes that the Steelers could place Bell on the exempt list for up to two weeks if and when he does report, and the team seems likely to go that route. The team and Bell’s agent would need to negotiate the terms of that exempt-list stay, which sounds like another difficult conversation between the two parties, but Pittsburgh does not want Bell to get injured before the October 30 trade deadline and blow up his trade market in the process.
Indeed, the Steelers remain hopeful that teams will become more inclined to trade for Bell as the deadline approaches, especially since Pittsburgh is unsure how Bell’s teammates will respond to him and how game-ready Bell will be after missing all of training camp and the preseason and nearly half of the regular season. If Bell does suit up for the Steelers again, he says the team has informed him it intends to use the transition tag on him in the offseason. La Canfora, though, says the team only mentioned the transition tag as a possible tactic and has not even fully discussed the matter internally.
We have discussed the ramifications of a transition tag for Bell over the course of the past week, and as La Canfora details in a separate piece, there could be another fight between the league and the NFLPA if the Steelers were to apply the tag to Bell. Jason Fitzgerald of OverTheCap.com believes that, assuming Bell finally gets his long-term deal in free agency this offseason, it would likely be in the neighborhood of a four-year, $48MM pact with incentives or “funny money” to get the total value up to a potential $60MM and hit that $15MM/year mark that Bell is seeking. Fitzgerald also suggests that the contract would need to include around $30MM guaranteed (Twitter links).
Haason Reddick, Deone Bucannon On The Trade Block?
The Cardinals drafted former Temple standout Haason Reddick with the 13th overall pick in the 2017 draft in the hopes that his explosive athleticism would serve him well as a pass rusher and as a run stopper. But Reddick’s development has not gone as planned, as he has played just 30 defensive snaps in the first four weeks of the 2018 season and has struggled to grasp new head coach Steve Wilks‘ defense.
Reddick lost his job as the team’s starting strong side linebacker to veteran journeyman Gerald Hodges, and Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports says that there does not appear to be any change in that regard moving forward. As such, La Canfora writes that other teams are considering a possible trade for Reddick, whose potential is still quite high. While it does not sound as though the Cardinals are actively shopping Reddick, La Canfora says they are generally “willing listeners,” so they may be fielding a lot of calls as we get closer to the October 30 trade deadline.
Another former first-round pick, Deone Bucannon, enjoyed plenty of success during his four-year run with the Cardinals from 2014-17. But like Reddick, Bucannon is not being utilized very much in Wilks’ scheme, which is not a great fit for his smaller body type and his hybrid safety/linebacker skills. Bucannon is eligible for free agency this offseason, and he would probably welcome a trade to a team that can make better use of his skill-set during this pivotal year in his career. Indeed, La Canfora says Bucannon will generate a lot of trade interest as well in the next few weeks.
The 0-4 Cardinals will not be competing for a playoff spot this year, and if they are committed to Wilks in the long-term, it may make sense for them to move Reddick and Bucannon in exchange for draft capital that they can use in their rebuild.
Bills To Sign Derek Anderson
One of the more experienced backup quarterbacks still available is about to come off the market. ESPN’s Chris Mortensen reports (via Twitter) that the Bills are expected to sign 35-year-old Derek Anderson, who will serve as a backup and mentor to rookie QB Josh Allen.
Mortensen adds that Anderson could even earn some playing time, though it is difficult to imagine the Bills yanking Allen out of the starting role unless he begins to struggle a great deal. Instead, Anderson should provide valuable veteran leadership to Allen, just as he did with Cam Newton in Carolina. Anderson spent seven years with the Panthers, and he is widely credited with playing a major role in Newton’s development (both Newton and Anderson arrived in Carolina in 2011).
The Bills, of course, signed A.J. McCarron in March, and he, Allen, and second-year player Nathan Peterman competed for the starting QB job. The team later traded McCarron before the regular season began, and although the plan was to give Allen some time to develop while Peterman handled starting duties, Allen was thrust into game action in Week 1 when it became abundantly clear that Peterman is not an NFL-caliber player at the moment.
Now the Bills, who have carried only Allen and Peterman on the active roster through the first quarter of the season, appear to have realized that Allen would benefit from an experienced signal-caller. Anderson has 76 career NFL appearances under his belt, though he has not seen consistent action since his 2010 campaign with the Cardinals. He went just 2-7 that year, but he did lead the 2007 Browns to a 10-5 record in 15 starts en route to his only Pro Bowl nod.
Anderson, a sixth-round pick of the Ravens in 2005, formally parted ways with the Panthers back in May. He has a connection with Bills GM Brandon Beane, who was Carolina’s director of football operations from 2008-14 and the team’s assistant GM from 2015-16, and Buffalo OC Brian Daboll, who was the Browns’ OC in 2009.
Latest On Aaron Rodgers, Mike McCarthy
Packers star QB Aaron Rodgers made a few comments during his postgame press conference last week that many interpreted as a dig at his team’s coaching staff and its offensive play-calling. And Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports writes, even though Rodgers later went out of his way to clarify those comments, he remains frustrated with the state of Green Bay’s offense and is still upset about some of the changes made to the roster and coaching staff this offseason.
Of course, last week was not the first time that Rodgers has made comments indicating his displeasure with play-calling, and now that head coach Mike McCarthy has once again taken over play-calling duties, the relationship between McCarthy and Rodgers — which has already been a hot topic of conversation in recent years — is once again under the microscope.
Indeed, La Canfora says several sources who have “regular contact” with McCarthy and Rodgers wonder if the two will be working together in 2019. Obviously, the Packers are not going to part way with Rodgers, whom they just signed to the most lucrative contract in NFL history, but the team could certainly sever ties with McCarthy, whose contract runs through the 2019 season and whose job has not been entirely secure in the last several years anyway.
But Ian Rapoport of NFL.com paints a different picture. As indicated above, there has been tension between Green Bay’s head coach and its best player before, but the two men have always been able to resolve their issues in the past, and club CEO and president Mark Murphy expects more of the same this year.
Murphy did not deny that there was some strain in the McCarthy-Rodgers relationship at the moment, but he said it was a non-issue. Murphy is in regular contact with McCarthy and has spoken with Rodgers, and he said, “We’ve seen this before. I think they’ve had a great relationship. It’s just, two highly competitive people. The most important thing, they both want the same thing — they want us to win and obviously score as many points as possible. I think it’s a very stressful environment, too. Highly pressurized.”
Murphy added that Rodgers’ knee injury, which he sustained in Week 1, is rapidly improving, which will of course be a tremendous benefit to a team that is currently 19th in the league in scoring and 17th in total offense.
Steelers Actively Shopping Le’Veon Bell; Eagles, 49ers Interested
Last week, reports that the Steelers were listening to trade offers for running back Le’Veon Bell became the latest development in the long and winding Bell saga. Today, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (video link) reports that Pittsburgh is actively shopping Bell and is not simply waiting on calls from rival clubs.
In addition to the obvious complications to finalizing a Bell trade — which Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk laid out again today — Rapoport says that the Steelers’ asking price is reportedly too high for other teams at the moment. RapSheet indicates that Pittsburgh is currently asking for a second-round pick and a player in exchange for Bell, which another club is almost certainly not going to give up. Bell’s talent doubtlessly merits such a return, but the fact that he will effectively be a one-year rental — and an expensive rental at that — will limit what the Steelers can get in a Bell swap.
Right now, however, it appears that Pittsburgh is not in any rush to lower its demands. As Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports points out, the trade deadline is still a month away, and the Steelers are currently willing to let the market develop. La Canfora adds that the Jets and 49ers have made “exploratory calls” to Pittsburgh, though San Francisco’s interest in Bell may no longer be very high after the team lost starting quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo for the season.
The Eagles, though, are also interested, per La Canfora. The Eagles are obvious contenders and have suffered a number of injuries to their backfield that could prompt the ever-aggressive Howie Roseman to get creative in his push for back-to-back titles. Philadelphia would of course need to clear some cap space in order to acquire Bell, but there are ways to do that (like jettisoning backup QB Nick Foles).
La Canfora writes that the Steelers would be willing to deal one disgruntled star for another by sending Bell to the Seahawks in exchange for safety Earl Thomas, but there has been no contact between Pittsburgh and Seattle at this point.
Indeed, Adam Schefter of ESPN.com reports that no team has been aggressive in pursuing Bell thus far. That jibes with a tweet from ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler, who says that there is minimal trade buzz surrounding Bell at the moment.
Schefter also notes that, the longer Bell stays away from the Steelers, the more he could lose on his 2019 pay. For instance, if any team were to use the transition tag on Bell next season, the tag number would be 120 percent of this season’s salary, so the more 2018 game checks Bell misses out on, the lower the tag number would be. Of course, Bell could appeal such a matter to an arbitrator, but his holdout is becoming riskier with each passing week.
Patriots Notes: Gordon, Cooks, Gronk
New Patriots wideout Josh Gordon will make his New England debut today, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter (via Twitter). Gordon was inactive for last week’s loss against the Lions, but the Pats are sorely in need of some playmaking ability at the wide receiver position, and Gordon certainly has the potential to give them exactly that.
Let’s take a quick look at a few more notes out of Foxboro as the Patriots get set to take on the Dolphins in what could surprisingly be a pivotal divisional matchup:
- Speaking of playmaking wideouts, given the disappointing performance of New England’s receiving corps thus far, plenty are wondering whether the Pats were right to trade Brandin Cooks to the Rams in the offseason. When factoring in what the team netted in its trade to acquire Cooks from the Saints in 2017 and the trade that sent him to LA, Doug Kyed of NESN.com believes the Patriots were right to make the move. The Pats ultimately received a year of Cooks, a 2017 third-round pick, the 2018 No. 23 overall pick, and a 2018 sixth-rounder in exchange for another year of Cooks, a 2017 fourth-round pick, the 2017 No. 32 overall pick, and a 2018 fourth-round pick. That represents good value, especially when considering the Pats would have had to pay Cooks $8.5MM this year and might have received a 2020 compensatory third-rounder if they let him walk in free agency (which they almost certainly would have). Plus, New England could not have predicted the Julian Edeleman suspension, so even though the results might indicate the Cooks trade was a bad one with the benefit of hindsight, Kyed believes the process was right.
- The Patriots have already put nine players on IR since the start of training camp, as Mike Reiss of ESPN.com observes. Reiss points out that the team put just 11 players on IR all of last season, and just four during the 2016 Super Bowl season. Reiss notes that only Rex Burkhead and Duke Dawson are the only two players who could realistically return from IR in 2018.
- In light of last week’s Rob Gronkowski trade reports, Reiss points out that there had not been much communication between Gronk and the Pats before the star tight end was informed of the potential trade to Detroit. Reiss wonders whether New England really would have pulled the trigger on the deal, or if it simply used the trade as a way to reignite conversations with Gronkowski
- Reiss also notes that last week’s AFC Defensive Player of the Week, the Bills’ Matt Milano, was drafted by Buffalo with the fifth-rounder it acquired from the Pats when New England signed then-RFA Mike Gillislee. Needless to say, that transaction looks like a big win for the Bills right now.
- The Patriots cut Gordon’s former Browns teammate, Corey Coleman, from their practice squad yesterday.