Minor NFL Transactions: 5/14/17
Today’s minor moves:
Atlanta Falcons
- Signed: WR Reggie Davis, DL Taniela Tupou
Chicago Bears
- Signed: WR Titus Davis
- Waived: WR Levonte Whitfield
Philadelphia Eagles
- Signed: T Victor Salako
- Waived/injured: QB Jerod Evans
Pittsburgh Steelers
- Signed: TE Phazahn Odom (Twitter link via Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle)
NFC Notes: D. Martin, Giants, Joeckel
We heard last month that the Buccaneers may retain RB Doug Martin, and Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times explains why Martin remains relevant to the Bucs. For one, Tampa Bay did not select a running back in the draft that could make an instant impact, so Martin is still the most talented back on the roster. But the Bucs do have enough talent at the position to get away with a running back-by-committee until Martin returns from suspension in October, so they can afford to be patient. Plus, Martin has something to prove, and he has shown that, when motivated, he can be highly productive. The team has expressed a great deal of optimism about Martin’s prospects since the draft, so it is looking more likely than ever that he will play out the 2017 campaign with the Bucs.
Now for more from the NFC:
- The Giants were one of the most logical suitors for free agent RB LeGarrette Blount, but the Patriots’ decision to use a May 9 tender on Blount probably takes New York out of the picture, according to James Kratch of NJ.com. Plus, Kratch believes the team’s reported interest in adding a veteran back was always a bit overblown, as the Giants have three young RBs that they want to give opportunities to, along with veteran Shane Vereen.
- In the same piece, Kratch observes that Giants cornerstones Justin Pugh, Weston Richburg, Landon Collins, and Odell Beckham will all reach the end of their rookie contracts over the next two seasons. Kratch says it will be difficult for Big Blue to re-sign all four, but it’s not impossible, and he lays out how New York could go about it.
- Former West Virginia center Tyler Orlosky is part of the Eagles‘ 2017 class of UDFAs, and as Eliot Shorr-Parks of NJ.com writes, it was a bit surprising that Orlosky chose to sign with Philadelphia. After all, he garnered plenty of interest as a UDFA, and the Eagles have three centers on their roster that they are invested in to some degree. But Shorr-Parks suggests that Orlosky may know something we don’t, and if Orlosky performs well in camp, Shorr-Parks says Philadelphia could ship veteran Jason Kelce, whom the club has been trying to trade anyway, off to the highest bidder.
- Luke Joeckel represents the biggest investment the Seahawks made in free agency this offseason, but given his disappointing tenure as a left tackle for the Jaguars — which ultimately forced him to move to guard — and his season-ending knee injury in 2016, there is plenty of skepticism about his ability to bolster Seattle’s underwhelming O-line. But Seahawks offensive line coach Tom Cable is bullish on Joeckel’s outlook. As Sheil Kapadia of ESPN.com writes, Cable said during a recent radio interview that Joeckel played as well as any guard in the league before his injury last season, and he believes his coaching will only make Joeckel better. Of course, Joeckel only signed a one-year pact, so if he does play well and stay healthy, the Seahawks will likely have to pay a premium to keep him.
- The Rams‘ center position is hardly settled, as injury-prone John Sullivan sits atop the depth chart with only Demetrius Rhaney, a special-teams contributor and a natural guard, behind him. As such, Rich Hammond of the Los Angeles Daily News writes that UDFA Jake Eldrenkamp, who did not play center at all in college but whose body and skill-set are best-suited to center at the professional level, has a real chance of winning the starting job this summer. At the very least, he could make the team as Sullivan’s backup.
49ers Tried To Trade Into Mid-First Round For Reuben Foster
We learned several weeks ago that the 49ers were willing to make Alabama LB Reuben Foster the No. 3 overall pick in this year’s draft if edge rushers Myles Garrett and Solomon Thomas were already off the board. Ultimately, of course, San Francisco grabbed Thomas with the No. 3 overall selection and dealt its No. 34 and No. 111 overall picks to Seattle to move up to No. 31 and select Foster, the third-ranked player on its board.
But as Peter King of The MMQB writes in his piece detailing 49ers GM John Lynch‘s 24 hours up to and during the draft, Lynch and Co. were trying to land Foster long before that. The team did not believe Foster would fall past Baltimore’s selection at No. 16, as the Ravens had an apparent need at middle linebacker and Ravens GM Ozzie Newsome has a perceived proclivity for selecting Alabama players. The 49ers therefore offered Baltimore a second-, third-, and fourth-round selection to move up to No. 16, and Newsome countered with the second-rounder and both of the 49ers’ third-rounders.
The 49ers declined, but they kept trying. They offered the same package they offered to Baltimore to the Redskins, who held the No. 17 overall selection, but Washington declined as well (for what it’s worth, John Keim of ESPN.com says Redskins head coach Jay Gruden was unaware of the trade proposal, but it’s likely that team president Bruce Allen would have rejected the deal before it reached Gruden anyway). Lynch also called the Giants before they made their No. 23 overall choice, but he was rebuffed by New York GM Jerry Reese. Lynch finally, and unexpectedly, got his man eight picks later.
We now know that Foster could miss the entire 2017 season due to a shoulder injury, so it’s not surprising that he fell as far as he did on draft night (his watered-down urine sample and pre-draft argument with a hospital worker did not help his cause either). And, as our Dallas Robinson pointed out in the post linked above, it’s not a great look for Lynch and the 49ers staff that they were willing to use the third overall pick — or to trade significant draft assets to get back into the middle of the first round — for a player who ultimately fell to the end of Round 1.
However, by getting Foster in the first round, they can keep him under contract for five years, so it will be easier for them to treat 2017 as a medical redshirt season if necessary. Plus, if Foster can stay healthy, he and Thomas could form a fearsome duo in the middle of San Francisco’s defense for years.
Hue Jackson: Browns’ QB Job Is Cody Kessler’s To Lose
The Browns have been searching for a franchise quarterback for a long time, and that search continued during this year’s draft, when the club nabbed Notre Dame signal-caller DeShone Kizer with the No. 52 overall selection. We heard several weeks ago that Cleveland is open to having Kizer start right away if he performs well in training camp and in the preseason, and since he has far and away the most upside of any QB currently on the roster, the club certainly hopes he earns the starting job sooner rather than later.
But as Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk writes, second-year player Cody Kessler, whom the Browns selected in the third round of the 2016 draft, currently sits atop the Browns’ depth chart, and the starting QB job is his to lose. Head coach Hue Jackson said, “They have to take it from [Kessler]. They better take it from him because I know him — he is not going to give it up. It will be fun. That is what competition is all about. Until someone takes something from someone and shows that they can do it at a high level play in and play out, then we have to keep going in the direction where we’re traveling.”
Kessler performed reasonably well in nine games for the club last year, and Jackson said back in October that the USC product was one of the best rookie quarterbacks he had ever coached. It therefore makes sense that Kessler would get the early opportunity to take control of the starting job, but Jackson also made it clear that there will be an open competition among Kessler, Kizer, Brock Osweiler, and Kevin Hogan.
Jackson said that all four players will have the opportunity to take first-team reps, and he unsurprisingly sounded the most pessimistic about Osweiler, whom the Browns acquired from Houston as part of a salary dump in order to take the Texans’ second-round selection in this year’s draft. Jackson said, “Brock is learning our system and learning the things that we do at the position. I think the other guys have done it. They have been through the process with me and understand how to play. That doesn’t mean that he can’t have an opportunity to exceed or succeed anybody” (interestingly, Kizer, like Osweiler, has not yet “been through the process” with Jackson either, so that statement could suggest just how little the team values Osweiler).
In any event, the training camp battle to watch will be Kessler v. Kizer, though Kizer will almost inevitably get his shot at some point in the near future.
Bills Name Joe Schoen Assistant GM
Less than a week after the Bills tabbed Brandon Beane as their next GM, the club has made former Dolphins director of player personnel Joe Schoen its assistant GM, as Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk writes. Florio adds that Miami could have blocked the move, but Dolphins executive vice-president of football operations Mike Tannenbaum allowed Schoen to take a promotion with a division rival in order to foster an atmosphere of upward mobility in Miami.
Schoen has steadily worked his way through the front office ranks, having began his professional career as a scouting assistant with the Panthers in 2001. He spent seven years in Carolina before joining the Dolphins as a national scout in 2008, and Miami promoted him to assistant director of college scouting in 2013 before bumping him up to director of player personnel one year later. During his collegiate days, he enjoyed a standout career as a wide receiver at DePauw University (via a press release from the Dolphins announcing his 2014 promotion).
Schoen is now well-positioned to become a GM himself if he enjoys some success during his tenure with Buffalo. Of course, the Bills enter 2017 with a completely new crop of top decision-makers after hiring head coach Sean McDermott earlier this year and replacing departed GM Doug Whaley with Beane a few days ago. While there have been some conflicting reports as to whether McDermott or Beane will have control over the Bills’ 53-man roster — team owner Terry Pegula tried to set the record straight on Friday by announcing that Beane will have the final say — the longtime coworkers will certainly collaborate on roster construction. Schoen, another young front office talent, will now have the opportunity to join that collaboration.
Minor NFL Transactions: 5/7/17
Here are today’s minor moves:
- The Raiders saw enough from two tryout defenders over the weekend to extend offers. Former Tennessee defensive lineman LaTroy Lewis and ex-Wagner College linebacker Najee Harris will sign with the team, Michael Gehlken of the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports (Twitter links). Both agreed to three-year deals, although they will obviously have uphill battles due to the circumstances of their respective signings. Lewis played both defensive end and tackle with the Volunteers.
- The Jets announced that they’ve signed tryout offensive linemen Benjamin Braden and Chris Bordelon. In order to create roster space, New York has waived offensive lineman Donald Hawkins and long snapper Zach Triner. Braden appeared in 38 games during his career at Michigan, while Bordelon was a 12-game starter for Nicholls State in 2016. Hawkins, meanwhile, played in seven contests for Carolina last season, but finished out the year with Gang Green.
Earlier updates:
- The Ravens have released RB Stephen Houston, per Jeff Zrebiec of the Baltimore Sun (via Twitter).
- The Panthers signed their entire draft class several days ago, and now they are working on filling out their 90-man roster. As Josh Alper of Pro Football Talk reports, Carolina has signed LB Kyle Kragen (whose father, Greg Kragen, was a member of the Panthers’ 1995 expansion team), LB Alex Bazzie, and DT Gabriel Mass.
Bengals Sign John Ross
The Bengals have signed first-round pick (No. 9 overall) John Ross and fourth-round pick (No. 116 overall) Carl Lawson to their rookie contracts, per Jim Owczarski of the Cincinnati Enquirer (via Twitter).
Ross, of course, had a breakout final season at Washington (81 catches for 1,150 yards and a whopping 17 receiving TDs), and he has game-breaking speed, which will be an excellent complement to A.J. Green in Cincinnati. The concern, of course, is that the diminutive wideout has major medical red flags, which caused some teams to drop him on their boards or remove him from their boards entirely. Ross tore his ACL and missed the 2015 collegiate campaign and also underwent labrum surgery after the combine, and we heard last week that some clubs only view him as a one contract player and not as a long-term investment.
If he stays healthy, his explosiveness could be a boon to the Bengals both on the offensive side of the ball and in the return game. He will be in line for a four-year deal worth roughly $17MM and a $10.5MM signing bonus.
Lawson, meanwhile, was the first of three fourth-round selections the Bengals made, and he will earn roughly $3MM over the life of his four-year pact. The Auburn product amassed 9.5 sacks in his final collegiate season, and Cincinnati plans to utilize his pass-rushing skills from the outside linebacker position even though he lined up as a defensive end in college.
Mike Brown On Joe Mixon
The Bengals recently made Oklahoma running back Joe Mixon the No. 48 overall pick of the 2017 draft, a move that predictably sparked a great deal of conversation and controversy. Mixon’s assault of a female Oklahoma student several years ago caused a number of teams to remove him from their draft boards completely — a recent report indicated that only four clubs said they would consider drafting Mixon — and any team that did select him knew it would have to contend with significant public backlash.
Cincinnati, no stranger to taking a chance on players with character concerns, decided to take the plunge in the second round of the draft. Jeremy Hill and Giovani Bernard are on the Bengals’ roster, but neither back reached the 4.0 yards-per-carry mark last season, Hill will be a free agent next offseason, and Bernard is coming off a serious injury, having torn his ACL in November. So Mixon, who was perhaps the most talented back in this year’s class, made sense from an on-field need and value perspective.
Nonetheless, the off-field concerns needed to be addressed, and Bengals owner and president Mike Brown wrote a letter to the team’s fanbase in an attempt to do that. Here are the highlights (courtesy of the Cincinnati Enquirer):
On the incident itself:
“Joe’s regrettable deed was that he struck a young woman, another student, shortly after arriving on campus in Norman, Oklahoma, three years ago. Joe and this young woman recently met in person, came to terms with the incident, and they agreed to resolve their differences so they could move forward with their lives.”
On Mixon’s response to the incident:
“Since the incident three years ago, Joe was suspended by the football team, pleaded guilty in court, and accepted the consequences of his actions. He later went on to become a good citizen in Norman, a popular teammate, a player respected by his coaches, and one of the most talented players in college football.”
On why the team selected Mixon:
“[H]e is a rare football talent, and his conduct over the past three years leads us to believe he can help us win football games and also become a productive member of this community.”
On Mixon’s future with the club:
“In making our decision, we took a risk. In this case, the risk has an upside as well as a downside. We believe Joe has put this behind him and that he can turn into the player and community member that creates a plus for Cincinnati. We are going to do everything in our power to make this happen. Our hope is that time will prove that this opportunity is deserved, and perhaps – if given a chance – Joe can write a chapter in Cincinnati sports history that both he and Cincinnati can be proud of.”
East Notes: Butler, Grant, Redskins
Malcolm Butler reported to the Patriots earlier this week to participate in voluntary workouts, but as Ryan Hannble of WEEI.com writes, that does not mean he is happy to be back in New England. Butler has been displeased since the club signed Stephon Gilmore to a five-year, $65MM deal this offseason, and while the Saints were apparently willing to pony up big bucks for Butler, they were unwilling to also part with their No. 11 overall draft pick for his services. But with Gilmore set to assume the No. 1 cornerback role in New England, Butler may be shifted to the slot, which could decrease his value when he hits unrestricted free agency next year. Hannable says that the situation is worth monitoring because if Butler isn’t playing the way he wants, and if that creates a locker room distraction, the Pats could still trade him, just as they traded Jamie Collins last year.
Now for more from the league’s east divisions:
- Jakeem Grant, who worked almost exclusively as a return man for the Dolphins last year, is being asked to learn the outside receiver positions this offseason, as Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald writes. Grant played only 19 offensive snaps last season, and he dropped the only pass thrown his way, but offensive coordinator Clyde Christensen believes his explosiveness will translate well to offense.
- There are a few ways the Redskins go could about re-organizing their front office, which John Keim of ESPN.com helpfully summarizes in his latest mailbag. Keim believes the club will really start working on the issue over the next week or so, which will include interviewing potential GM candidates.
- Nate Gerry was a safety during his collegiate career at Nebraska, but as Zach Berman of the Philadelphia Inquirer writes, the Eagles plan to convert Gerry, whom they selected in the fifth round of this year’s draft, to linebacker. Gerry will have a chance to compete for immediate playing time in an unsettled linebacker unit.
- We learned yesterday that Giants wide receiver Brandon Marshall plans to hang up the cleats after his two-year deal with Big Blue expires at the end of the 2018 season (as long as he has a Super Bowl ring by then).
Tre Boston To Visit Three Teams
Tre Boston, who was released by the Panthers last week, has free agent visits lined up with three clubs. The 24-year-old safety (25 in June) tweeted that he visited the Steelers several days ago and plans to meet with the Chargers and Bills shortly.
Boston appeared in 15 games (10 starts) for Carolina last season, and he was projected to return as the team’s starting free safety in 2017. As such, his release came as something of surprise, especially since the Panthers did not select a safety in this year’s draft.
Boston graded out as Pro Football Focus’ No. 46 safety last season, putting him in a three-way tie with Jairus Byrd and George Iloka. Boston’s coverage grades were not as strong as Byrd’s or Iloka’s, but he made up ground with a better showing in terms of pass rush. Boston’s 78.1 overall score stands as a career high, but he was on roughly the same plane in 2014 and 2015, his first two years in the league (though he started just five regular season games in 2014 and only one in 2015).
It therefore seems as if Boston could be a serviceable starter in the league, or, at the very least, quality depth. He would likely serve as a depth piece with the Steelers, who have Mike Mitchell and Sean Davis penciled in at the starting safety positions. The Chargers selected safeties Rayshawn Jenkins and Desmond King in the middle rounds of last week’s draft, and they do have Dwight Lowery returning, but Lowery did not fare much better than Boston in 2016 in terms of Pro Football Focus’ metrics, and he turned 31 in January (though Lowery was decidedly better in coverage than Boston). Buffalo, meanwhile, signed Micah Hyde and Jordan Poyer this offseason to revamp their safety tandem, but Boston could certainly compete with Poyer for the team’s starting free safety job.