Chiefs Hope To Determine Post-2030 Location Within Six Months
In the wake of a failed ballot initiative that would have generated $800MM for renovations to Arrowhead Stadium, Dallas mayor Eric Johnson publicly advocated for the Chiefs to relocate to Dallas. While it appears that is not going to happen, the Chiefs could still be on the move in the relatively near future.
The club’s lease with the Truman Sports Complex runs through January 31, 2031, meaning that Clark Hunt’s club does not yet have a place to call home for the 2031 season. As Josh Alper of Pro Football Talk writes, the Kansas legislature has passed a bill that would finance a new stadium for the Chiefs, thereby bringing a Big 4 sports outfit to the Sunflower State for the first time. Chiefs president Mark Donovan said at a Friday press conference that he is in talks with both Kansas and Missouri as he seeks to resolve his team’s stadium situation.
“I would say every option is on the table,” Donovan said (h/t Alper) . . . . “What makes the most sense for our fans? What makes the most sense for our franchise and this organization? What makes the most sense and can have the biggest impact on this region? I think the positive is we do have options and we’ll consider those.”
Interestingly, Donovan indicated that he hopes to make a decision between Kansas and Missouri within the next six months, a deadline that Nate Taylor of The Athletic deemed the “biggest takeaway” from the presser. Although it does not come as a surprise, Donovan did confirm that the Chiefs would play their home games at Arrowhead until the expiration of their current lease, which will take them through the 2030 campaign.
The president also indicated that there has been talk about another public vote in Jackson County (Mo.), though there is not currently much traction for such a measure. Donovan said the team would want “a lot of the details determined before we go” in that direction again.
Broncos Not Looking To Trade Garett Bolles
Broncos left tackle Garett Bolles is entering the final year of his current contract and is due a non-guaranteed $15.75MM base salary this season, to go along with a team-high $20MM cap hit. A trade or extension would have eased the burden on Denver’s cap, which is currently bloated by a league-leading $67.65MM in dead money stemming largely from the Russell Wilson release.
As Parker Gabriel of the Denver Post writes, however, the Broncos made it clear throughout the offseason that they are not looking to trade Bolles, their longest-tenured player. That makes it sound as if other clubs contacted Denver about acquiring the 2017 first-rounder, though there have been no public reports in that regard. Teams did check in on Bolles in the run-up to last year’s trade deadline, with the Broncos rebuffing overtures for all of their offensive talent.
Despite their resistance to any trade interest, the Broncos also do not seem to be in any hurry to extend Bolles. We heard in November that Bolles is interested in a new multiyear pact, and while the two sides could always open negotiations, it currently appears that the team is prepared to simply let their LT play out his contract and revisit the situation in 2025.
There is some logic to that. Denver is clearly in rebuild mode, so carving out cap space for 2024 is not necessarily a top priority, and authorizing a big-ticket extension for a 32-year-old blocker may not be the best use of limited resources (although it may have allowed the club to retain center Lloyd Cushenberry, who defected to the Titans in free agency). A trade for draft capital would have contributed to the rebuilding effort, but despite the Broncos’ bleak competitive outlook for the upcoming campaign, there is perhaps more value in having an established blocker protect the blind side of either Jarrett Stidham or first-round rookie Bo Nix, whom the team hopes will become its franchise QB.
While Bolles has never earned Pro Bowl honors, he has been a solid, starting-caliber LT since he entered the league, even considering his struggles with penalties during the early stages of his professional tenure. While he has been unable to replicate his elite 2020 performance, which made him Pro Football Focus’ third-highest-graded tackle that season and which earned him the four-year, $68MM extension he is about to finish up, he has mostly justified that investment.
He has also proven to be durable, with 2022 representing the only season in which he missed significant time due to injury. Bolles’ desire for a new contract notwithstanding, he was present for all of the Broncos’ voluntry workout this offseason, as Gabriel observes.
Jacoby Jones Passes Away
Former NFL wide receiver and return specialist Jacoby Jones has passed away, as ESPN’s Jamison Hensley was first to report. Aaron Wilson of KPRC2 reports that Jones died overnight in his sleep in his Houston-area home, and that the cause of death is not yet known. Jones was just 40 years old.
Selected by the Texans in the third round of the 2007 draft, Jones eventually became a complementary weapon on Houston’s offense, catching 109 balls for 1,511 yards and 11 scores over the 2009-11 seasons. However, he made his mark as a return man almost immediately, and over his first five years in the league, he averaged over 10 yards per punt return three times and took back three punts and one kickoff for touchdowns.
His time with the Texans came to something of an unceremonious end, as he muffed a punt in a divisional round game against the Ravens in 2011, which Baltimore recovered at Houston’s 2-yard line. The Ravens converted the turnover into a touchdown and went on to win the game by a 20-13 score.
Coincidentally, Jones signed with Baltimore the following offseason, a transaction that proved to be invaluable for player and team alike. While he again enjoyed an important ancillary role on offense, his return skills were instrumental to the Ravens’ success in 2012, as he took back two kickoffs and a punt for touchdowns and led the league with a 30.7 yards-per-return rate on kickoffs.
His performance in that season’s playoffs, though, is what cemented his legacy, particularly in Baltimore. In an upset win over the top-seeded, Peyton Manning-led Broncos in Denver, Jones was on the receiving end of a Joe Flacco bomb late in the game, with the Ravens trailing by a touchdown and facing a a 3rd-and-3 on their own 30 with 42 seconds left in regulation and no timeouts. Jones got behind the Denver secondary, caught the Flacco pass, and scampered into the endzone, blowing a kiss to the stunned crowd as he did so.
Following what became known as the “Mile High Miracle,” the Ravens would go on to defeat the Broncos in double overtime and eventually advanced to Super Bowl XLVII. Near the end of the first half of the team’s win over the 49ers in that contest, which was held in Jones’ hometown of New Orleans, Jones caught another deep Flacco pass, falling to the turf to secure the catch and then getting to his feet to elude San Francisco defenders on his way to paydirt. He then returned the opening kickoff of the second half for a 108-yard touchdown, all part of a 34-31 victory for Baltimore.
Jones, who earned First Team All-Pro honors for his 2012 performance, played for the Ravens for two more seasons, adding another kickoff return TD along the way. He played nine games between the Steelers and Chargers in 2015, and he officially announced his retirement in September 2017.
Wilson passes along statements from the Ravens and head coach John Harbaugh, who was in his fifth year as Baltimore’s HC when the club captured Super Bowl XLVII.
We at PFR pass along our condolences to Jones’ family and friends and his former teammates and coaches, many of whom have taken to social media to share their memories of a gregarious, affable, and often electric player.
Latest On Bengals’ WR3 Competition
With Tyler Boyd now in Tennessee, the WR3 role in the Bengals’ offense is up for grabs. Whoever lands the gig will likely see plenty of targets in Cincinnati’s Joe Burrow-led aerial attack, and they will also be well-positioned for an even bigger workload in 2025 if Tee Higgins — who is poised to play out the upcoming season on the franchise tag — should depart in free agency.
As Jay Morrison of Pro Football Network writes, “there is an assumption” that rookie Jermaine Burton will serve as Burrow’s top target behind Ja’Marr Chase and Higgins on the club’s WR depth chart. There is plenty of justification for that assumption, as Burton spent four years establishing himself as a dangerous weapon in college football’s best conference. Across two seasons at Georgia and two more at Alabama, Burton caught 132 passes for 2,376 yards (an excellent 18.0 YPR rate) and 23 TDs. That type of explosiveness could make life quite difficult for opposing defensive coordinators, who will already have their hands full in accounting for Chase and Higgins.
Morrison is quick to point out, however, that second-year player Andrei Iosivas is very much in the mix. The Bengals viewed the Princeton product as something of a project when they selected him in the sixth round of last year’s draft, but he adapted to the pro game more quickly than expected and played well in relief of an injured Higgins in 2023. Morrison notes that Iosivas has earned Burrow’s trust, and he worked with a receiver coach this offseason to further refine his route running and technique. He secured 15 catches for 116 yards and four TDs in his rookie season.
Of course, even the wideouts that find themselves lower on Cincinnati’s pecking order will still have an opportunity to carve out a meaningful role. Charlie Jones was taken two rounds before Iosivas in the 2023 draft, and he made a notable special teams impact as a rookie, returning 23 punts for 248 yards, including an 81-yard return for a score. Longtime Bengal Trenton Irwin saw significant snap shares over each of the past two seasons, notching 55 catches for 547 yards and five TDs in that span.
Irwin was re-signed to a modest one-year accord this offseason.
Patriots To Move Michael Onwenu Back To RG?
This offseason, the Patriots tapped offensive lineman Michael Onwenu as a core piece of their foundation, signing the versatile blocker to a three-year, $57MM contract. Shortly thereafter, we heard that New England planned to keep him at right tackle, where he took most of his snaps last season.
However, that plan may have changed. As Paul Perillo of the team’s official website observes, the Pats did indeed have Onwenu line up at right tackle in the early stages of spring work, but at mandatory minicamp last month, Onwenu slid inside to right guard. In Perillo’s estimation, RG is Onwenu’s best position, and the writer also made it sound as if the move is permanent, noting that David Andrews “will lock down the center spot next to Onwenu.”
While Onwenu’s ability to line up at right tackle and both guard positions is a selling point, Perillo may well be correct in his belief that the Michigan product is best-suited to RG. Pro Football Focus assigned Onwenu a strong 71.5 overall grade last year — positioning him as the 29th-best tackle out of 81 qualifiers — but in 2022, when he started all 17 games and took every single snap at right guard, Onwenu earned a 79.3 overall grade and finished as the league’s fourth-best guard out of 77 qualified players. In 1,044 snaps that season, he committed just two penalties and yielded 14 pressures, only one of which got home for a sack.
The Patriots, who are projected to lead the league with roughly $107MM in cap space in 2025, can afford to overspend on certain positions to retain premium talent, but the Onwenu contract does not qualify as a significant overpay even with his presumptive shift to the interior of the line. Since the Colts’ Quenton Nelson took the top off the market in 2022, a number of guards have landed contracts paying them at rates enjoyed by high-end tackles. In terms of average annual value, Onwenu’s $19MM figure makes him the fourth-highest-paid RT and the third-highest-paid RG. If we factor LGs into the equation, Onwenu slots fifth in the guard hierarchy.
Onwenu’s move to right guard opens the door for rookie Caedan Wallace to take the reins at right tackle. At present, Chukwuma Okorafor is penciled in at left tackle, though he has no experience on the blind side. While the Pats are surely comfortable with the Andrews-Onwenu pairing in the middle of their line, it would not be surprising to see them bring in reinforcements at OT as the summer progresses.
2023 fourth-rounder Sidy Sow, who started 13 games at right guard in his rookie season, will step in at left guard while Cole Strange recovers from knee surgery. That procedure will force Strange to miss the start of the 2024 campaign.
Panthers, Adrian Wilson Part Ways
Just last year, Adrian Wilson was on the short list of candidates to take over as the Cardinals’ permanent general manager. While he did not get the gig, he landed on his feet as the Panthers’ vice president of player personnel. After one year in that position, Wilson is again in search of a new employer.
Carolina never made a public announcement on the matter, but as a team spokesperson told Pro Football Talk this morning, “Adrian Wilson will not continue in his position as Vice President of Player Personnel for the Carolina Panthers. Consistent with our organizational policy on employee matters, we will have no further comment” (via PFT’s Mike Florio).
Of course, 2023 was hardly a banner year for the Panthers. The club’s 2-15 record was disappointing in and of itself, and the pronounced struggles of rookie quarterback Bryce Young made matters worse. Adding insult to injury was the fact that Carolina’s league-worst W-L mark would have entitled the team to the top selection in this year’s draft, but the Panthers had already traded that pick to the Bears as part of the package to acquire the No. 1 overall choice in the 2023 draft, which they used to select Young.
Given the Panthers’ forgettable season and the fact that GM Scott Fitterer was fired in January, it is not surprising that Wilson, one of Fitterer’s top lieutenants, is no longer with the team either. However, since owner David Tepper opted to replace Fitterer internally by promoting assistant GM Dan Morgan to the top job, it was reasonable to think that Wilson would remain on the staff and assist Morgan in trying to right the ship.
It is unclear whether Wilson moved on voluntarily or was dismissed. In either case, and fairly or not, Wilson’s departure will likely be seen as another failure of the Tepper regime. After all, if Wilson left on his own, it could reinforce the notion that Tepper is a difficult boss who fosters an untenable working environment; if Wilson was fired, it will add to Tepper’s reputation as an impatient and impulsive owner. As Florio wrote, “from David Tepper’s football team to his soccer team, the hinge on the swinging door never has much of a chance to get rusty.”
Wilson, a longtime Cardinals safety and five-time Pro Bowler, started working as a regional scout for Arizona in 2015. He ascended the executive ladder fairly quickly, and he and Quentin Harris ended the 2022 season sharing the Cardinals’ GM duties after Steve Keim took an indefinite leave of absence. Wilson had interviewed for the Giants’ GM post the previous offseason and was reportedly in line to take over as Jaguars GM the same year if Jacksonville had hired Byron Leftwich as their head coach.
Now 44, Wilson will surely land another high-ranking position in the near future, though his stint in Carolina stalled his upward trajectory.
Deven Thompkins Secures Meeting With NFL
Former Buccaneers wide receiver/return specialist Deven Thompkins met with two NFL Personal Conduct Policy investigators and an NFLPA attorney in New York last week, as ESPN’s Jenna Laine reported. Thompkins actively sought the meeting, which took place sooner than it otherwise would have, as part of his effort to clear his name and land another NFL opportunity this season.
Thompkins, 24, was waived from injured reserve with an injury settlement last month, which made him a free agent. Given his production as a return man in 2023, he ordinarily would have stood a good chance at hooking on with a new club. After all, the injury that ostensibly precipitated his release was a Grade 1 hamstring strain that should be fully healed by now.
The problem for Thompkins is that his estranged wife, Maria Castilhos, has accused him of physical abuse dating back to February 14, 2023. Thompkins filed for divorce on February 27, and in the wake of Castilhos’ accusations, he recently filed a lawsuit against her for defamation and tortious interference with his NFL contract. As part of that claim, Thompkins alleges that Castilhos threatened him “with fabricated allegations of domestic violence unless he met her financial demands for additional alimony” in the divorce proceeding.
As of the time of this writing, Thompkins has not been suspended, and given that his steadfast denials have now evolved into a separate suit, the league may wait until more information comes to light before taking any action. In the meantime, he is free to sign with any club, though the nature of Castilhos’ allegations will doubtlessly make teams reluctant to acquire him.
A former undrafted free agent, Thompkins spent the past two seasons operating as Tampa Bay’s kick and punt returner. He totaled 1,082 return yards during that span, adding 115 yards and one touchdown on offense. Bucs head coach Todd Bowles previously left the door open to a new contract for Thompkins, but it is unclear if the club would truly consider that.
Jeffrey Lurie Considering Sale Of Minority Interest In Eagles
Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie is considering selling a minority stake in the club, as Bloomberg’s Gillian Tan reported last month. Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk makes plain that the size of the stake is uncertain, and that there will be no path to a controlling interest.
As such, it is eminently possible that the sale will not happen at all. The club will be valued at $7.5 billion in any transaction (an 11-times multiple of annual revenue), so it will be a pricey endeavor for any buyer, especially since their prospective purchase would not guarantee them a chance to acquire a more significant share.
After all, it appears that the plan is to keep controlling ownership of the Eagles within the Lurie family. Jeffrey Lurie’s son, Julian, participated in the NFL’s two-year program for prospective executives upon his graduation from Harvard, he took part in the Eagles’ head coaching interviews in 2021 — ultimately advising his father as the team transitioned from Doug Pederson to Nick Sirianni — and even spearheaded the interviews for the team’s analytics department. Julian Lurie, now 29, appears poised to someday succeed his 72-year-old father at the top of the franchise.
The NFL currently does not allow private equity or other institutional investment in its clubs, and while that has not yet prevented owners who wish to sell from finding deep-pocketed buyers, the skyrocketing value of NFL teams could soon necessitate a relaxation of the rule. As Brendan Coffey of Sportico.com writes, the league recently retained an investment bank, PJT Partners, to explore the possibility of private equity partnerships.
Naturally, Jeffrey Lurie’s efforts to sell a share of the Eagles would be aided by a revised private equity rule, and as of the time of Tan’s report, those efforts were still in their early stages. Lurie is working with BDT & MSD Partners, a private banking company, to locate potential buyers.
Lurie purchased the Eagles for $195MM in 1994. Under his stewardship, Philadelphia has appeared in three Super Bowls, winning one and dropping the two others by three points. Like many owners of major sports franchises, Lurie has sometimes been accused of meddling too much in matters of on-field personnel, to the point that some saw GM Howie Roseman as a mere conduit for Lurie’s wishes. Of course, Lurie’s push to keep QB Jalen Hurts as the unquestioned starter heading into the 2021 campaign — even when Roseman had doubts about the young passer’s ceiling — turned out to be the right call.
Raiders LT Kolton Miller Expected To Be Ready For Week 1
Raiders left tackle Kolton Miller missed four games in 2023 due to a shoulder injury, which also caused him to play less than a full snap share in two other contests. However, it does not sound as if the team has any concerns about his Week 1 availability.
Per Vic Tafur of The Athletic (subscription required), Miller is making good progress in his rehab of the offseason surgery he underwent to address the shoulder issue. We had previously heard that Las Vegas will “manage” the blindside blocker this season to keep him healthy — presumably by limiting his workload in practice — so it should be expected that free agent acquisition Andrus Peat will take plenty of reps at LT in training camp and throughout the season, just as he did in last month’s minicamp.
The club has a fair amount of uncertainty at three of its five O-line positions. Dylan Parham, a 2022 third-rounder who has been a full-time starter during his first two years in the league, has taken the vast majority of his snaps at left guard (with generally middling results), but he will be shifitng to right guard for the upcoming season. Second-round rookie Jackson Powers-Johnson will be taking over LG duties, while 2022 seventh-rounder Thayer Munford is penciled in at right tackle. Veteran Andre James remains entrenched at the pivot.
It is a group that is relatively light on experience, making a healthy and productive campaign for Miller and James especially critical. Plus, while Miller is under contract through 2025 by virtue of the three-year, $54MM extension he signed in March 2021, there is no more guaranteed money left on his deal. If he can sustain the high level of play he has demonstrated over the past few seasons and handle a full slate of games, he will position himself nicely for a another lucrative extension.
Miller, who will turn 29 in September, was the first selection of the Raiders’ second Jon Gruden regime and was taken with the No. 15 overall pick of the 2018 draft. At the time, the choice was decried as a reach based on need, and Miller did indeed struggle in his rookie campaign. He showed marked improvement over the following two seasons, and after landing his big-money second contract, he reached new heights. From 2021-2023, Pro Football Focus assigned Miller stellar overall grades of 85.0, 84.1, and 80.2, all of which placed him inside or barely outside the league’s top 10 offensive tackles.
With the other question marks on the O-line and a relatively uninspiring quarterback situation, the Raiders will be counting on a similar showing.
Jacksonville Approves $775MM Renovation To EverBank Stadium, 30-Year Lease With Jaguars
The Jacksonville City Council recently approved $775MM in improvements to EverBank Stadium, the home of the Jaguars, as relayed by Ben Volin of the Boston Globe. Along with the funding comes a new lease tethering the Jags to Jacksonville for the next 30 years.
For those who are interested, more details on the agreement, including renderings of what the finished product will look like, can be found here. As Volin notes, one of the most notable components of the renovation will be the addition of a canopy over the field, which offers shade for fans and which can cool the stadium by as much as 15 degrees while still allowing for wind and other elements. SoFi Stadium, where the Rams and Chargers play their home games, has a similar feature.
For our purposes at PFR, the most important part of this development is the lease. Although the chatter had died down in recent years, Jaguars fans in particular will recall the persistent rumors connecting their team to a London relocation, and this lease will officially put that speculation to rest (for the next few decades, at least).
The NFL’s London games have generally been a tremendous success, and just last April, we heard that the creation of a four-team, all-European division was gaining steam among league ownership. The Jags are the only team to have their own international agreement, and they have played at least one game in London’s Wembley Stadium since 2013 (aside from the pandemic-altered year of 2020). As such, they were long considered to be the top candidate for relocation if the NFL’s goal of installing a permanent London-based outfit included relocation of a current club rather than expansion.
Plus, owner Shad Khan was at one time in talks to buy Wembley Stadium, and among his NFL owner peers, he had secured a right of first refusal with respect to a London relocation. So while Khan has consistently maintained that his goal is to keep the Jaguars in Jacksonville, it was always fair to wonder if the call of a move across the pond would prove to be too tempting.
Construction on EverBank will begin after the 2025 campaign, and the hope is that it will be completed before the 2028 seasons begins. The Jags will play at EverBank with reduced capacity (43,500) in 2026 but will need to play their U.S. home games elsewhere — Volin names Orlando and Gainesville as possibilities — in 2027.
In announcing the agreement, Jacksonville mayor Donna Deegan said it is “a historic day for our city,” and when the framework of the agreement was first announced last month, Khan said, “the belief and determination of Delores and Wayne Weaver to make the Jacksonville Jaguars a reality more than 30 years ago was reaffirmed today by the leadership of Mayor Donna Deegan, her team and the Jacksonville City Council. The message then, and now, should be clear. Never doubt Jacksonville!”