Justin Fields To Start Week 1 For Steelers
Although Russell Wilson was named the Steelers’ starting quarterback at the end of August, it will be Justin Fields under center for the club’s Week 1 contest against the Falcons today. NFL insider Jordan Schultz was first to report that Wilson’s calf strain would keep him on the sidelines and would open the door for Fields to start.
ESPN’s Adam Schefter had previously noted that Wilson told the team he could play, but team doctors were more cautious than the accomplished signal-caller. ESPN’s Brooke Pryor suggested that the state of Pittsburgh’s offensive line might have also factored into the decision, as the unit struggled in the preseason and is dealing with the absence of LG Isaac Seumalo. Wilson’s mobility is limited by his calf injury, and combined with a questionable offensive front, that could have posed a major concern.
Wilson has been battling a balky calf since the start of training camp, which allowed Fields to get plenty of work with the first team during the summer. Fields gained support in the organization with his performance in practice and the preseason, and he closed the gap on his veteran competition, who was long said to be in “pole position” for the starting gig. Ultimately, head coach Mike Tomlin elected to go with Wilson’s more experienced hand, though Fields will now have a chance to seize the job.
Of course, Fields’ performance today and Wilson’s health status will go a long way towards determing their immediate futures. And, since both players are on low-cost deals that expire at season’s end, and since the team is not deviating from its policy of not negotiating extensions in-season, their long-term earning power also hangs in the balance. Fields, 25, is 10 years younger than Wilson and has a longtime fan in Tomlin, and after he failed to develop into the franchise quarterback the Bears envisioned when they made him the No. 11 overall pick of the 2021 draft, he has a second bite at the apple in Pittsburgh.
Wilson is the emergency third QB for the Atlanta contest, meaning he can only enter the game if Fields and backup Kyle Allen sustain injuries.
Bengals, WR Ja’Marr Chase Will Not Agree To Extension Prior To Week 1
Despite some optimism that the Bengals and star wideout Ja’Marr Chase would finalize an extension prior to today’s regular season opener against the Patriots, that is not expected to happen, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter. Chase, who was listed as questionable for the New England contest due to an illness, is active, although veteran NFL reporter James Palmer says that the three-time Pro Bowler will be limited.
Chase, 24, is under contract through the 2025 season by virtue of the fifth-year option on his rookie deal, but the LSU product is looking to take advantage of the booming wide receiver market and land a lucrative new contract. Despite the remaining club control, the Bengals have shown a willingness to negotiate with their WR1, and talks have been ongoing for months.
On Friday, Chase himself indicated that an extension is “in reach,” which reflects the increased efforts that Cincinnati has made to resolve the matter in recent days. Those efforts include a reportedly significant offer that was not significant enough to get a deal done.
It is unclear whether negotiations will continue into the regular season. Schefter’s report merely indicated that an agreement would not be struck prior to kickoff today, whereas NFL insider Jordan Schultz appears to suggest that talks will be tabled now that the season is underway. Schultz says, “after months of negotiations, the two sides couldn’t bridge the gap, and Cincinnati was unwilling to compromise.” As such, Schultz’s sources tell him that a deal is “not expected.”
Chase has previously indicated he is prepared to play out the 2024 campaign without an extension in hand, and he may have to do just that. However, given the progress the two sides seem to have made, it is fair to expect that a new deal will be reached at some point in the relatively near future, and that Chase will soon be at or near the top of the WR contractual hierarchy.
Although the Bengals are favored to top the rebuilding Patriots today, they will be short-handed at the receiver position. As noted above, Chase’s workload will be limited, and Cincinnati will be without WR2 Tee Higgins, who is dealing with a hamstring ailment. 2024 will be a platform year for Higgins, who is widely expected to be squeezed out of the picture in Cincinnati given the club’s anticipated commitment to Chase.
Rams Considered Bill Belichick For DC Job
While Bill Belichick will take on a number of media roles this season, he remains steadfast in his desire to return to the head coaching ranks in 2025. As could be expected, he apparently has no interest in returning to the sidelines as anything other than an HC; we learned back in July that the 49ers had offered Belichick the chance to join their staff this offseason (perhaps as defensive coordinator), and per ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the Rams also eyed Belichick for their DC vacancy.
Los Angeles had an opening after Raheem Morris left the team to take the Falcons’ head coaching job. Of course, Atlanta ultimately became the club most connected to hiring Belichick as HC, interviewing the future Hall of Famer twice before a number of factors — among them internal concerns about organizational structure — steered owner Arthur Blank away from Belichick and towards Morris.
Ultimately, the Rams promoted Chris Shula, who has spent the past seven seasons working his way up the team’s coaching ladder, to defensive coordinator. Belichick, meanwhile, will continue focusing his efforts on catching Shula’s grandfather, Don Shula, who is currently 15 wins ahead of Belichick on the all-time list.
According to both Schefter and Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports, Belichick’s various media projects will double as a tool to stay familiar with the league and its players as he readies himself for possible interviews in 2025. He has reportedly informed people close to him that he expects to land at least one HC interview next year.
Naturally, if Belichick has the chance to become a head coach again, he will not take just any opportunity. Schefter confirms that the 72-year-old will be “choosy” when it comes to his next HC endeavor, and we have repeatedly heard the Cowboys and Eagles floated as possibilities thanks to their strong rosters and status as Super Bowl contenders. The Giants, who employed Belichick from 1979-90, also make some sense as a possible landing spot.
Among other endeavors, Belichick will enjoy regular appearances on ManningCast, The Pat McAfee Show, and Inside the NFL while hosting a football show on YouTube TV and serving as a strategic adviser for the 33rd Team, a media and technology company that analyzes football. In addition to gathering intel and keeping his football mind sharp, his media pursuits will also serve two other purposes, per Jones, who spoke with an executive who worked with Belichick for years in Foxborough.
For one, he will have a chance to show a part of his personality other than the gruff, terse demeanor that was famously on display throughout his Patriots tenure. That could make owners and execs who would consider Belichick as a head coach but who might be concerned about his personal interactions more likely to hire him. And, if he does not get another HC gig, he will at least have laid a strong foundation for a media career, as the executive does not expect his longtime colleague to ever leave the football world.
Jets GM Joe Douglas Is In Final Year Of Contract
Jets general manager Joe Douglas is, like head coach Robert Saleh, widely believed to be on the hot seat this season. Underscoring that reality is the fact that Douglas has just one year remaining on his contract, as Ian Rapoport of NFL.com reports.
Regardless of contractual situation, Douglas’ future with Gang Green would likely be dictated by the club’s performance this season. After all, New York is 27-56 during his time at the helm, and while some of that record can be chalked up to the expected growing pains of a rebuild and poor injury luck, GMs and head coaches generally do not survive too long without at least a playoff appearance.
Douglas signed a six-year deal with the Jets in June 2019, and since that time, he has certainly added plenty of talent to the roster. That includes a celebrated 2022 draft class that featured Sauce Gardner, Garrett Wilson, Jermaine Johnson, and Breece Hall, and the Saleh hire has paid major dividends on the defensive side of the ball: over the past two seasons, New York has finished in the top-four in total defense.
Still, the long-term success of a franchise will be driven largely by quarterback play, and that is where the Jets have failed. Douglas’ decision to use the No. 2 overall pick in the 2021 draft on Zach Wilson, despite Wilson’s unusual prospect profile, proved to be a disastrous decision that Douglas tried to correct by acquiring then-39-year-old Aaron Rodgers last year.
The fact that Rodgers suffered a season-ending ankle injury four snaps into the 2023 season, which thrust Wilson back into the starting lineup and torpedoed the fortunes of a seemingly playoff-worthy outfit, essentially gave Douglas and Saleh a reprieve. But owner Woody Johnson made it clear that, while he is not one to issue a “playoffs-or-bust” mandate, he is expecting a strong showing in the upcoming campaign.
“[Douglas and Saleh have] seen me about as mad as I could be with what was going on with the offense particularly,” Johnson said in February. “We’ve got all this talent and we’ve got to deploy talent properly. So I think they all got the message. This is it, this is the time to go. We’ve got to produce this year, we have to produce this year.”
If the Jets do not, in fact, produce, then Douglas and Saleh will likely be seeking new employment, with Douglas’ contract making it even easier for Johnson to make the call on his oft-scrutinized GM. For what it’s worth, Rapoport says that Douglas is comfortable with his lame-duck status, perhaps because he believes he is a healthy Rodgers season away from securing a new deal.
Steelers LG Isaac Seumalo To Miss Time
SEPTEMBER 3: When speaking to the media on Tuesday, head coach Mike Tomlin confirmed (via ESPN’s Brooke Pryor) Seumalo will miss the team’s season opener. He is week-to-week beyond that, however, so a return to the lineup could take place sooner than his initial timeline suggested.
SEPTEMBER 1: The Steelers will be without their top-rated offensive lineman from 2023 for a time. Starting left guard Isaac Seumalo sustained a pectoral injury in practice late last month, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
Schefter subsequently noted that the injury was not a season-ender – torn pecs often are, though Pittsburgh star edge rusher T.J. Watt was a notable exception to that rule in 2022 – but it was not immediately apparent how much time Seumalo would miss. Mike Garafolo of the NFL Network later reported that the 30-year-old blocker would be sidelined for four weeks.
Assuming that four-week timeline holds true, Seumalo would be forced to sit out the first three games of the season and would be ready to return for the Steelers’ Week 4 contest against the Colts. That explains why the team has not put him on injured reserve, which requires that a player miss at least four games.
In Seumalo’s absence, 2023 seventh-rounder Spencer Anderson and fourth-round rookie Mason McCormick will vie for the left guard gig, as Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette noted. Anderson, who appeared in just two offensive snaps in his rookie season, will get the first look, with McCormick hoping to overtake him on the depth chart. If McCormick should impress, it is at least within the realm of possibility that he will remain at LG when Seumalo returns, with Seumalo kicking over to RG (left guard is the only position McCormick played in college, while Seumalo has pro experience at right guard).
Seumalo, a third-round pick of the Eagles in 2016, signed a three-year, $24MM deal with the Steelers last March. The Oregon State product performed well in his first year in Pittsburgh, grading out as Pro Football Focus’ 12th-best guard out of 79 qualified players. He was charged with just one penalty in a full 17-game slate, and PFF’s evaluation showed that he yielded zero sacks (though he did give up 26 total pressures).
2023 marked the second straight year in which Seumalo enjoyed perfect attendance, which was a welcome change of pace after he played in just 12 total games across the 2020-21 seasons. While he will not play a full season in 2024, a healthy and productive return to the field would obviously bolster his chances of finishing out his Steelers contract and earning his $6.88MM salary and $1MM roster bonus in 2025 (no guaranteed money remains on his deal).
Matt Judon, Bears Had Preliminary Contract Talks; More On Judon’s New England Exit
As we learned shortly after the Patriots agreed to trade contract-year edge defender Matt Judon to the Falcons last month, both Atlanta and the Bears offered New England a third-round draft choice in exchange for Judon. At that point, Judon was given the choice of which team he wanted to play for, and he chose the Falcons.
According to Albert Breer of SI.com, Judon was intrigued by the possibility of playing for Chicago, and he and the club did engage in preliminary contract talks. However, in the player’s view, the commitments that the Bears already have on the books for 2025 made it likely that he would only be with the team for the upcoming season.
While Judon indicated that he would not seek an immediate extension from Atlanta as he did from New England – saying that “the Falcons know nothing about me as a football player or as a man” – he can at least foresee a multiyear stay with the Falcons. Interestingly, as OverTheCap.com indicates, the Bears actually are projected to have the eighth-most cap room in the league in 2025, while the Falcons have the sixth-least.
On the other hand, Chicago is already tethered to a contract for a high-end edge rusher (Montez Sweat), whereas Atlanta has no such deal on its books. Speculatively speaking, perhaps the Sweat contract – along with the convincing sales pitch that Breer says Falcons head coach Raheem Morris gave to Judon about his role in the team’s defense – is what tipped the scales in Atlanta’s favor.
Even though New England extended Judon the courtesy of choosing between the two teams that extended acceptable trade proposals, Breer said on a recent appearance on 98.5 The Sports Hub that the Patriots’ coaches and front office personnel “were just sick of” Judon (video link). The lack of a resolution to Judon’s contract situation – the four-time Pro Bowler was, of course, pushing for a new deal when he was still a member of the Pats – certainly played a significant role in his departure, but Breer notes that the rift went beyond finances.
Patriots staffers, per Breer, believed there was the “public-facing Judon” and the “Judon behind the scenes,” and that the latter version of the player was something of an “operator” whose “act had worn thin.” Breer said those same traits were on display during Judon’s stint with the Ravens, and that the new Pats regime – which of course has extended a number of Bill Belichick-era acquisitions this offseason – was more than willing to move on.
As Judon attempts to return to form in a platform campaign for his new club, Oshane Ximines appears to have benefitted the most from his departure. A former third-round pick of the Giants, Ximines never truly established himself with New York, and he signed with the Patriots via the veteran salary benefit this offseason. As Mike Reiss of ESPN.com notes, Ximines was viewed as a bubble player when training camp began, but the Judon trade opened up a roster spot.
Outside linebackers coach Drew Wilkins, who served in the same capacity with the Giants over the last two seasons, said, “[Ximines] has been great. ame in here, learned the playbook quickly, humble approach to everything — a guy that wants to play the run, set the edge and do the dirty work. He fits right in this defense.”
Colts GM Chris Ballard On Roster-Building Approach
Many general managers say that the best way to build an NFL roster is to draft well, develop the in-house talent, and extend that talent rather than plunging too frequently into the free agent waters, where lurk significant overpays and the dead money charges they engender.
Perhaps no GM adheres so rigidly to that approach as Colts top exec Chris Ballard. After narrowly missing out on a 2023 playoff berth despite playing most of the season with a backup quarterback, many expected Ballard to pull off a high-end free agent signing or two in order to address his roster’s most glaring weaknesses and position the club for a postseason run in 2024.
After all, Indianapolis’ starting signal-caller, Anthony Richardson, is entering the second year of his rookie deal, and while he played in just four games in his injury-marred debut campaign, he certainly showed flashes of the high-end two-way ability that made him the No. 4 overall pick of the 2023 draft. And when a club with a potentially postseason-worthy roster has its QB on a cost-controlled contract, that club is better able to make a foray into free agency or to acquire an established veteran via trade.
Last season, the Colts fielded a defense that was in the bottom-10 in terms of total yardage and bottom-five in terms of points allowed. The secondary was a major culprit, but as Joel A. Erickson of the Indianapolis Star points out, the only new defensive back on the roster is Samuel Womack, whom the club recently claimed off waivers.
Indianapolis did not even make an offer to safety Justin Simmons before he recently signed with the Falcons, and the Colts will largely run it back with the same secondary that struggled so mightily last year. Ballard, though, is unwavering in his commitment to his roster-building principles.
“I still have a strong belief in what we’re doing, how we’re doing it and how we’re going to get there,” he said. “That will not waver. It’s easy to vacillate, easy to vacillate and go with what the world wants you to do. You either believe in something or you don’t. This is what we believe. If it gets me fired, so be it.”
To be fair, Ballard did suggest that he considered other moves that did not come to fruition.
“Things don’t always work out, even when you’re trying to acquire a player,” he said. “Not saying we didn’t try to do some things. Sometimes it just doesn’t happen.”
Julian Blackmon, who turned in a solid individual showing in 2023, was re-signed, as was talented slot corner Kenny Moore. But Ballard & Co. will still be relying heavily upon further growth from young players like Nick Cross and JuJu Brents who have yet to establish themselves at the professional level.
“They’re young,” Ballard said of his secondary talent. “They’re going to continue to get better. We do think we have good, young talent back there, and we have a lot of belief in our front. We’ll continue to let these guys grow and come on. They don’t become players without playing. I think sometimes we forget that. They’ve got to play.”
Meanwhile, Ballard also remained consistent with his commitment to the trenches. As Erickson observes, Ballard kept 10 offensive linemen and 10 defensive linemen on the 53-man roster even though it will be difficult for all of those players to see enough action to make a meaningful impact.
During Ballard’s seven-year tenure, the Colts have failed to secure an AFC South title and have qualified for the postseason just twice. The surprise Andrew Luck retirement in 2019 obviously threw a wrench into the works, and such a development would knock any franchise off track for a time. And, per Erickson, owner Jim Irsay has not indicated that Ballard is on the hot seat, continuing to refer to his personnel chief as a blue-chip general manager.
However, should Indianapolis fail to make the playoffs in 2024, it is fair to wonder if Irsay will become a little more impatient with Ballard’s resolutely patient approach.
49ers’ Talanoa Hufanga Returns To Practice
49ers fans received some good news during final roster cutdowns this week, as the club elected to activate safety Talanoa Hufanga from the PUP list. The even better news is that Hufanga has returned to practice, as David Lombardi of The Athletic writes (subscription required).
Hufanga suffered a torn ACL in November, and if he had not been activated, he would have begun the season on the reserve/PUP list and would have therefore been forced to miss at least the first four weeks of the campaign. He was indeed mentioned as a candidate for the reserve/PUP list, but San Francisco saw enough progress to believe that he could be ready for game action sooner rather than later.
Lombardi cautions that Hufanga’s return to the practice field does not necessarily mean that the 2022 First Team All-Pro will see a full snap share right away. After all, he only participated in individual drills during his first two practice sessions, with the team hoping to ramp up his activities this week.
Plus, the Niners gave themselves a little protection on the back end of their defense by adding veteran Tracy Walker to the taxi squad after finalizing their 53-man roster. Walker signed with the club early last month, was released during final cuts, and was brought back to the p-squad shortly thereafter with the goal of elevating him for the Week 1 contest against the Jets (thereby suggesting that San Francisco will need an extra safety at least for that game).
Per Lombardi, Walker will not start even if Hufanga is unavailable for the season opener, with rookie fourth-rounder Malik Mustapha and veteran George Odum likely to see more reps. While Mustapha has built some momentum for himself, all of those players are presently placeholders for Hufanga, who is entering a contract year and who could set himself up for a lucrative payday if he is fully healthy and can continue performing as he did in 2022 and prior to his injury in 2023.
“He’s really worked his butt off,” defensive coordinator Nick Sorensen said of Hufanga. “Hearing how he’s gone through this process, I’m not surprised just because of who he is. I think everybody involved with it — but him primarily — the way that he worked to get back to this, it’s exciting and really happy for him.”
As Lombardi notes, the 49ers also welcomed new acquisition Isaac Yiadom back to practice. Yiadom, who figures to see plenty of reps at cornerback this year, had been battling an ankle injury throughout the second half of training camp.
Cowboys WR CeeDee Lamb Was Unwilling To Sign Extension In 2023; Details On New Deal
Cowboys brass has been criticized for waiting too long to pull the trigger on extensions for some of their star players, which has caused them to pay top-of-the-market prices when those extensions finally come to fruition. Owner Jerry Jones and executive vice president Stephen Jones faced the same criticism in the aftermath of the recent mega-deal they authorized for wide receiver CeeDee Lamb.
If the Cowboys had extended Lamb last year, they may not have had to go to the same lengths ($34MM per year, $67MM in practical guarantees) to secure his services for the foreseeable future. Of course, it takes two to tango, and Stephen Jones recently told Albert Breer of SI.com that Lamb simply was not going to sign a new contract in 2023, when he was first eligible for one.
Indeed, it was reported last July that Dallas was hoping to hammer out an extension for Lamb prior to the start of the 2023 season. At the time, Tyreek Hill‘s contract with the Dolphins was the only WR pact that featured an average annual value of at least $30MM, though that deal was famously bloated by a non-guaranteed salary in its final year that pushed the AAV to the $30MM mark. Even if Lamb was able to secure a more “genuine” $30MM/year accord back then, he chose to bet on himself while allowing the rising tide of the receiver market to continue lifting his boat.
Not only did Lamb turn in the finest season of his young career in 2023 — he posted a 135/1,749/12 slash en route to First Team All-Pro honors — he watched as fellow wideouts Amon-Ra St. Brown, A.J. Brown, and Justin Jefferson further expanded the upper reaches of the contractual landscape for wide receivers (a few weeks before Lamb put pen to paper, Hill also agreed to a restructure that landed him the most guaranteed money added to a contract without new years also being added).
Lamb is now second only to Jefferson in terms of AAV and guaranteed money. Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk lays out the full details of the Lamb contract, noting that it is a clean, simple deal that does not include any of the “funny money” that artificially inflated the value of Hill’s original contract.
As was previously reported, Lamb will net a $38MM signing bonus, and his $1.15MM base salary for 2024 and $26.85MM base salary for 2025 are both fully-guaranteed at signing, as are his $1MM in per-game roster bonuses for 2025 (though those bonuses must be earned). Lamb’s $25MM base salary for 2026 is presently guaranteed for injury but will become fully-guaranteed in March 2025, and $7MM of his $28MM base salary for 2027 is currently guaranteed for injury; that figure will become fully-guaranteed in March 2026.
Aaron Wilson of KPRC2 details Lamb’s salary cap hits in each year of his contract. He will count just $8.75MM against the cap in 2024, but that number will jump to $35.35MM in 2025.
Dolphins Release QB Mike White
The Dolphins have a winner in their QB2 battle. As ESPN’s Adam Schefter was first to report, Miami is releasing Mike White, which leaves Skylar Thompson as Tua Tagovailoa‘s backup.
Last year, it was White who prevailed over Thompson in the war to serve as Tagovailoa’s clipboard holder. At the time, that seemed to be a significant development, as Tagovailoa had yet to play a full season and was coming off a concussion-riddled 2022 campaign. Fortunately for the Dolphins and their top passer, Tagovailoa suited up for all 17 of the club’s regular season games and one playoff contest last year, so White only appeared in garbage time.
Thompson, a seventh-round pick of the Dolphins in 2022, made two regular season starts as a rookie in relief of Tagovailoa, and he nearly led the team to a playoff win over the Bills that year. That performance was not enough to stop the ‘Fins from adding White as competition in March 2023, inking the former Cowboy and Jet to a two-year deal worth up to $16MM.
Given that financial commitment, it is not surprising that White beat out Thompson for the backup job in 2023, but as ESPN’s Marcel Louis-Jacques points out, neither candidate separated himself over the course of this year’s training camp. Thompson saw the bulk of the action in the club’s preseason finale against the Bucs on Friday, completing 19 of 27 passes for 190 yards, two TDs, and an interception (good for a QB rating of 99.3). White, meanwhile, completed five of nine passes for 37 yards.
Although Thompson was drafted four years after White, the players are just two years apart in age (Thompson is 27, White is 29). Thompson, though, is under club control through 2025 and will make just $985K this season. White was due a $3.5MM salary, and as Adam Beasley of Pro Football Network observes, his release will net the Dolphins $2.5MM in cap savings.
As they start working their way towards a 53-man roster, the Dolphins have also cut TE Jody Fortson, per Tom Pelissero of the NFL Network.