Saints Rework Taysom Hill’s Contract, Expand His Offensive Role
The Saints went back to a familiar well to carve out some cap space for the 2024 season. As Jason Fitzgerald of OverTheCap.com reports, New Orleans converted just under $9MM of Taysom Hill‘s base salary into a signing bonus, thereby creating $6.59MM of cap room. Hill is under contract through 2025, and he now has $9.7MM of void year charges if he is not extended before 2026.
This marks the third time in three years that the Saints have reworked Hill’s pact, and it increases his chances of remaining with the club through the end of his current deal or landing another contract. If he were to be released as a non-June 1 cut next year, the Saints would incur $17.7MM of dead money.
Of course, the Saints likely have no desire to move on from their jack-of-all-trades weapon, who racked up 114 total receiving and rushing touches and 692 yards in 2023, both of which were career bests. He also completed six of 11 passes for 83 yards and accounted for seven total touchdowns.
Under new offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak, Hill’s role could expand even further, as Matthew Paras of The Advocate details. During OTAs, Hill lined up as a running back — most of his career runs have come when taking the snap as a quarterback — and at fullback. His work at fullback naturally entailed his putting his hand in the dirt in a three-point stance and serving as a lead blocker. Just 29 of Hill’s 426 offensive snaps in 2023 came out of the backfield, and it sounds as if that might change in a big way in 2024.
Hill, who is entering his age-34 season, welcomes the new opportunities. “It’s been a lot of fun,” he said. “It’s weird to say after seven years of doing what I’ve been doing that I’m being asked to do things I’ve never done before. That is exciting to me and it’s challenging, and I love to be challenged like that. I’m grateful for those guys creating unique and fun opportunities for me.”
Kubiak & Co. will likely still give Hill a number of chances as a receiver, and it would be fair to expect him to get his customary handful of passing attempts as well. As always, training camp will shed more light on exactly what the team has in mind.
“Taysom has been phenomenal here early,” Kubiak said during rookie minicamp. “We’ve been kind of moving him in a lot of spots as he has his entire career. He’s a really intelligent guy, and we’re looking forward to giving him a lot of volume early. And then we’ll start narrowing it down as we get closer to the season.”
The Saints are now $12MM under the cap and have their entire 2024 draft class under contract, so they have plenty of room to operate (although they do have a contractual dispute with RB Alvin Kamara that will need to be resolved in some way).
Packers To Continue Three-Way Kicking Competition In Training Camp?
Following kicker Anders Carlson‘s struggles down the stretch of the 2023 regular season and into the playoffs, the Packers signed Jack Podlesny to a reserve/futures deal in January and subsequently added veteran Greg Joseph in March. The trio remained on the roster throughout the offseason and engaged in what ESPN’s Rob Demovsky called an “intense three-way competition” this spring.
Per Demovsky, that competition could well continue into training camp, and it is a reflection of how poorly Carlson’s rookie season ended. A sixth-round draft choice last April, Carlson was essentially handed the placekicking job, as Green Bay did not even roster another kicker during last summer’s training camp. Although his season started out well enough, Carlson misfired on 10 kicks (field goals and PATs) over the final 12 games of the campaign, including the playoffs. That was capped by a devastating miss on a 41-yard field goal attempt in a divisional round matchup with the 49ers, which would have given the Packers a seven-point lead with a little over six minutes to play. Green Bay ultimately lost the game by a 24-21 score.
Carlson’s 87.2% success rate on PATs was the worst mark among qualified players in the 2023 regular season, and his 81.8% FG perecentage was a bottom-10 showing. That said, team brass clearly thinks highly of him, and he did perform well this offseason. Said head coach Matt LaFleur, “I think Anders had a pretty solid spring. I think all these guys have kind of had their moments, but I think particularly of late, he’s done a really nice job.”
Joseph, meanwhile, finished with an even lower FG success rate in 2023, converting at an 80.0% clip (though he did sink 94.7% of his extra point tries). He at least offers a fair amount of experience, having served as the Vikings’ primary kicker over each of the past three seasons and having also seen action with the Browns and Titans. His 82.6% career conversion rate on field goal attempts is uninspiring, and as Demovsky notes, the South Africa native has not kicked particularly well at Lambeau Field, connecting on just three of his seven career attempts at Lombardi Avenue. Nonetheless, he said he chose to sign with the Packers because he “liked the opportunity,” meaning that he believes he has a real chance to unseat Carlson.
The dark horse candidate, Podlesny, was signed by Minnesota as an undrafted free agent last year and actually engaged in a brief training camp battle with Joseph for the Vikes’ kicking job, a battle that Joseph obviously won. Podlesny signed with the Packers in the midst of his search for non-football jobs, and like Carlson, he also ended offseason work on a high note.
Podlesny acknowledged that he does not know what the Packers are planning for training camp with respect to their kicking situation, and LaFleur is playing it close to the vest as well.
“I think that’s to be determined, quite honestly,” LaFleur said at the end of last week’s minicamp. “We’ll see how it all plays out, and ultimately that’s going to be [GM Brian Gutekunst‘s] decision. But that’s something that we’ve certainly talked about.”
Seahawks Agree To Reworked Deals With Jarran Reed, Dre’Mont Jones
The Seahawks recently restructured the contracts of two of their starting defensive linemen, Jarran Reed and Dre’Mont Jones. While the goal of most such transactions is to lower a player’s salary cap charge, that was not the case with Reed, whose cap number actually increased from $6.34MM to $6.47MM.
Reed, 31, had one year and $4.47MM left on his current deal, along with $900K in incentives. As ESPN’s Brady Henderson details in a thread on X, Seattle took $530K of those incentives and added them to the contract’s base value, while also adding $510K in per-game roster bonuses. The incentive package was originally based on sacks and playing time, and the $370K of incentives that remain are based exclusively on sacks (Reed will earn $185K if he records eight sacks, and he will unlock the full $370K if he hits the 10-sack threshold).
Per Henderson, the goal of this modification was to add a small contractual sweetener for a player who saw significant snaps for the ‘Hawks last season and who appears to be an integral part of new HC Mike Macdonald‘s plans. Indeed, the performance of Ravens interior defender Justin Madubuike had a positive trickle-down effect on the rest of Macdonald’s Baltimore defense, and while no one expects Reed to replicate Madubuike’s 2023 performance, the club does hope he will continue to generate a strong interior pass rush.
Meanwhile, the reworked Jones deal did create considerable cap room for the Seahawks, who were just $1.1MM under the cap after signing their rookie class. As Jason Fitzgerald of OverTheCap.com details, Seattle converted nearly $10MM of Jones’ 2024 base salary into a signing bonus and added two void years to the deal. Those void years carry $4.9MM in cap charges, and Jones’ 2025 cap number increased by roughly $2.5MM to a whopping $25.65MM, but his 2024 number decreased by $7.4MM, which should give the team plenty of breathing room to operate throughout the summer and into the regular season.
Jones signed a three-year, $51MM deal with the Seahawks last March, the largest contract that the team had ever authorized for an external free agent. He did not play poorly, but he did underperform relative to expectations, ranking as Pro Football Focus’ 55th-best interior defender out of 130 qualifiers (eight spots behind the more modestly-priced Reed). Despite his categorization as an interior lineman, Jones did begin to see more action on the edge last year in the wake of the season-ending pectoral strain that Uchenna Nwosu suffered in October.
As Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times details, Macdonald moved Jones around the formation during minicamp and had the former Bronco line up with the outside linebackers and edge rushers as well as with the defensive tackles. One of the reasons for the Ravens’ success under Macdonald was his ability to generate a strong pass rush from veterans like Jadeveon Clowney and Kyle Van Noy, and he will attempt to coax the same production out of Jones.
“I think his skillset lends to trying to play a little matchup ball with him or setting another guy up,” Macdonald said of Jones. “He can do a lot of things.”
One way or another, Macdonald plans to rotate his defenders quite a bit, so the team is not expected to subtract from its perceived glut of D-linemen, a group that also includes first-round draftee Byron Murphy II. Now that the ‘Hawks are comfortably under the salary cap, there is no financial reason for them to do so anyway.
Chargers’ Trey Pipkins In Line To Start At RG?
The Chargers’ decision to select Notre Dame tackle Joe Alt with the No. 5 overall pick in this year’s draft naturally displaced Trey Pipkins, who has served as the club’s primary RT over the past two seasons. The Bolts have no intention of moving Pro Bowl LT Rashawn Slater from the blind side, so with Alt now in the mix and possessing Pro Bowl upside of his own, Pipkins has been shunted to the interior of the line.
Still, head coach Jim Harbaugh recently called Pipkins one of his club’s five best O-linemen, thereby implying that the 27-year-old blocker would remain in the starting lineup. That appears to be the case, with Daniel Popper of The Athletic noting that, after the Chargers rotated the right side of their first-team OL during the first two open OTAs, Los Angeles had Alt taking all of the first-team RT reps during the latest open OTA, with Pipkins handling all of the first-team RG reps (subscription required).
Assuming that setup holds, the domino effect of the Alt selection would force 2022 sixth-rounder Jamaree Salyer — who started 14 games at LT in place of the injured Slater in 2022 and who settled in as the Chargers’ starting RG last season — to the bench. And that is likely an acceptable outcome for Los Angeles, as Salyer did not fare particularly well on the interior of the line after impressing on the outside as a rookie. In 2023, Salyer earned a mediocre 54.2 overall grade from Pro Football Focus, placing him as the 56th-best guard out of 79 qualifiers.
Pipkins did not fare much better as a right tackle than Salyer did as a right guard, with PFF ranking the former as the 50th-best OT out of 81 qualified players (though he did grade out as an above-average performer in terms of pass blocking). That was actually an improvement over his 2022 showing, at the end of which he was rewarded with a three-year, $21.75MM deal (to be fair, he did battle an MCL sprain throughout the 2022 season).
That contract was authorized by the Chargers’ prior regime, but Harbaugh clearly thinks highly of Pipkins, and it is certainly possible that his play improves by shifting to the interior. While he is under club control through 2025, he is not guaranteed any more money past the upcoming campaign, so a strong effort in 2024 could at least position him well to remain on the club and collect the $6.75MM base salary he is due in 2025, or even to land a new contract.
Steelers Notes: Fields, Harris, WR2
Last month, there was some chatter that Steelers quarterback Justin Fields could see some action as a kick returner in 2024, with special teams coordinator Danny Smith raising the possibility at a team meeting. Steelers beat reporters were quick to throw cold water on the notion, and Fields himself recently did the same.
While acknowledging that Smith did indeed bring up the idea of having him return kicks, Fields said, “nah, I think everybody kind of interpreted it wrong. Coach Danny was basically just trying to send a message that no matter who you are, you could be on special teams. He just used that as an example” (via Brian Batko of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette).
Even if Fields is not deployed as a third phase player, his athleticism could be an asset in other ways, especially since Russell Wilson is expected to at least open the regular season as Pittsburgh’s starting quarterback. However, as Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette noted during a recent chat with fans, head coach Mike Tomlin is not fond of taking out his starting QB to run gadget-type plays. Of course, the team would not necessarily need to remove Wilson from the game in order to take advantage of Fields’ athletic gifts, so it will be interesting to see whether OC Arthur Smith designs a package of plays for Fields as the 2021 first-rounder tries to unseat Wilson and prove that he can be the club’s long-term starter under center.
In that same conversation with fans, Dulac predicted that the Steelers will extend running back Najee Harris. Back in January, we heard that Pittsburgh was planning to exercise Harris’ fifth-year option, which would have kept him under club control through 2025. However, the Steelers ultimately reversed course and declined the option, which puts their RB1 on track to hit free agency next year.
Harris has been a model of durability and consistency throughout his three-year professional tenure, starting all 17 regular season games and topping 1,000 rushing yards each year. On the other hand, his heavy usage and efficiency issues — he has a career YPC rate of just 3.9 — likely informed the team’s decision to decline his option.
Despite their passing on the option, we heard that the Steelers would nonetheless be open to working out a deal that would keep Harris in the fold beyond 2024. The team’s policy of not negotiating contracts in-season and Harris’ own public frustrations with running backs having to settle for team-friendly pacts would seem to work against such a deal coming to fruition, so Dulac’s prediction is a noteworthy one.
Speaking of predictions from longtime Pittsburgh beats, Mark Kaboly of The Athletic says it would demonstrate “a lack of awareness and urgency if [the Steelers] don’t add a legit No. 2 [wide receiver] before the season starts,” and he believes the club will do just that (subscription required). Kaboly does not hazard a guess as to whom the Steelers might pursue, and 49ers GM John Lynch said his team is no longer talking trades involving Deebo Samuel or Brandon Aiyuk (Pittsburgh was one of the clubs eyeing Samuel).
Needless to say, a trade could come together at any time, and the trade market would seem to be a more likely source of WR2 talent than the free agent pool at this point in the year. At present, Hunter Renfrow (who is more of a slot option) and Michael Thomas (who has not turned in a healthy, productive season since 2019) profile as two of the top free agents available. In the meantime, players like Van Jefferson, Calvin Austin III, Scotty Miller, Quez Watkins, Marquez Callaway, Denzel Mims, and third-round rookie Roman Wilson are competing for reps behind George Pickens.
Lions HC Dan Campbell Discusses QB Hendon Hooker
The expectation is that quarterback Hendon Hooker, whom the Lions selected in the third round of the 2023 draft, will serve as Jared Goff‘s primary backup in 2024. However, it does not sound as if he is where he needs to be just yet.
Hooker was in the midst of a terrific final season at Tennessee when he suffered an ACL tear that cut his season short and undermined his draft stock. Detroit added the big-armed passer anyway, viewing him as a talent worth developing behind Goff. The club subsequently signed Teddy Bridgewater to operate as Goff’s QB2, but with Bridgewater having retired, the backup quarterback role is there for the taking.
Hooker’s competition for the gig is Nate Sudfeld, who sustained an ACL tear of his own last August. Obviously, Hooker’s ceiling is much higher than Sudfeld’s, but Lions HC Dan Campbell will not simply hand the job to Hooker.
As ESPN’s Eric Woodyard writes, Hooker showed flashes of promise during last week’s minicamp, though he has also struggled at times with his accuracy. Per Campbell, Hooker will need to “take a step up” to secure the QB2 post.
“We need to feel like by the end of [training] camp this guy can run this offense,” Campbell said. “He’s somebody that we know we can play the game a certain way. We know he’s going to be able to process the information. He’s going to get us in the right play and he’s going to keep the ship afloat. That’s it.”
Woodyard says the Lions are committed to developing Hooker, despite Goff having proven that he is capable of leading the team on a Super Bowl run and landing a massive extension last month. To that end, Detroit put Hooker through a “rigorous routine” during their offseason work, and the expectation is that he will have a firm grasp on the offense when the club reconvenes for training camp.
“We don’t need him to come in and win a game,” Campbell added. “You just want to feel like, ‘all right.’ So obviously, he’s going to need to take another step up.”
Hooker, who threw for a whopping 58 touchdowns against just five interceptions in an admittedly QB-friendly offense during his 24-game run at Tennessee after a less productive stint at Virginia Tech, said, “I’m just learning these lessons as I go. I’m going to fail some, I’m going to pass some. But it’s all about just learning and banking these reps. … Just getting back into the rhythm of moving off my spot and completing balls and just playing free, that’s what I’m trying to get to. Just playing free like I was at Tennessee.”
Eagles Interested In Getting CBs James Bradberry, Avonte Maddox Reps At Safety
Despite a down year in 2023, the Eagles plan to keep cornerback James Bradberry for the upcoming campaign. However, after adding defensive backs Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean in the first two rounds of this year’s draft, the club is seemingly interested in seeing how the soon-to-be 31-year-old veteran looks at safety.
On the first day of Philadelphia’s mandatory minicamp last week, head coach Nick Sirianni told reporters, including Eliot Shorr-Parks of 94WIP.com, that Bradberry would get some reps at safety, citing the fact that a number of high-end corners have become high-end safeties in the latter stages of their careers (video link). Unfortunately, as Jeff Neiburg of the Philadelphia Inquirer noted, Bradberry sustained an injury early in the practice and did not return.
Per Neiburg’s Inquirer colleage, Jeff McLane, Bradberry suffered an abductor injury that kept him out of the remainder of the Eagles’ three-day minicamp. It is not considered a serious issue, though Sirianni obviously did not get much of a chance to see how Bradberry looked at a different position. It appears the 2020 Pro Bowler will be cleared in time for training camp, so perhaps the experiment will continue then.
Meanwhile, longtime slot man Avonte Maddox is also taking snaps at safety, as Neiburg observes. Like Bradberry, Maddox struggled in 2023, though the latter was limited to just four games due to a torn pectoral muscle. This offseason, he was released in a cost-cutting move but later re-signed to a modest one-year pact, and he acknowledged that learning the safety position could extend his career.
“I know the nickel spot really well, and I feel like something that’s going to help me in my career is to learn the safety spot,” Maddox said. “When you get older, you get a little bit slower.”
Neiburg said that Maddox did take first-team reps at his familiar nickel post during minicamp, but he also saw second-team action at safety behind presumptive starters Reed Blankenship and C.J. Gardner-Johnson. DeJean is also capable of playing multiple positions in the defensive backfield.
New defensive coordinator Vic Fangio prizes versatility, and the esteemed DC is tasked with fixing a defense that yielded the seventh-most total yards per game and second-most passing yards per game in 2023. The offseason additions of Gardner-Johnson, Mitchell, and DeJean infused much-needed talent into the unit, and the hope is that Fangio will be able to maximize that talent.
“We’ll throw a lot at them in training camp to see what best fits for them, what they’re good at, and then try and whittle it down, but always keeping some stuff in the bank in case we need it at some point during the season,” Fangio said last month. “We have a system that is versatile, we like to think. It needs to be versatile because every week you’re facing different strengths of an offense, different schemes. So what you play in one week 10, 15 times, you may not play at all the next week. You have to have a versatile system for the offenses today in the NFL. What we’ll eventually do is learn what our guys are best at.”
Chiefs WR Rashee Rice: “I’ve Learned So Much”
This offseason has been one filled with legal troubles for Chiefs wide receiver Rashee Rice. Rice is facing a total of eight felony charges stemming from a hit-and-run incident in Dallas on the evening of March 30, an incident in which he and another driver were believed to be street racing (with Rice allegedly reaching a speed of 119mph). About a month later, Rice was accused of punching a photographer at a Dallas nightclub.
During his meeting with police about the hit-and-run matter, Rice reportedly accepted “full responsibility” for his role, and his attorney later indicated that his client intends to cover the expenses of the victims, though Rice is being sued for over $1MM in actual damages and $10MM in punitive damages by two of those victims. The photographer that Rice allegedly struck subsequently asked police to not file charges against the second-year wideout, and the investigation was reportedly closed shortly thereafter.
While it seems as though Rice will not face charges for his encounter with the photographer, that incident could nonetheless impact the suspension that the Chiefs expect the NFL to hand down at some point. The league may wait until the hit-and-run legal process plays out before issuing sanctions, but once that happens, the alleged assault — as well as an incident that took place while Rice was still in college, in which the then-SMU player or a member of his party fired shots into an empty vehicle belonging to a member of the school’s basketball team — may well factor into the punishment.
In the meantime, Rice is free to take part in all team activities, and he was a full particpant in the Chiefs’ OTAs. Yesterday, he participated in a youth football camp in Kansas City alongside a number of the team’s other top receivers, and he offered his first public comments on his situation (via ESPN).
“I’ve learned so much from [the hit-and-run],” Rice said. “All I can do is mature and continue to grow from that. This (the youth football camp) is a step in a better direction for me.”
While vowing to improve as a person, Rice added, “[a]ccidents and stuff like that happen, but all you can do is move forward and walk around being the same person, try to be positive so that everybody can feel your love and your great energy.”
As a rookie in 2023, Rice was the Chiefs’ most effective wide receiver, and whenever his seemingly inevitable suspension is levied, KC will feel his absence. The team did address its WR corps in a meaningful way this offseason, adding Marquise Brown in free agency and another speed merchant, Xavier Worthy, in the first round of the 2024 draft. The club recently agreed to a re-up with Mecole Hardman and is still rostering Justin Watson, Skyy Moore, and Kadarius Toney.
Latest On Jets’ Haason Reddick
JUNE 4: When speaking to the media on Tuesday, Jets head coach Robert Saleh confirmed Reddick has been absent from the team throughout the offseason (video link via SNY’s Connor Hughes). Saleh has yet to be in contact with the two-time Pro Bowler, though he added he expects Reddick to attend next week’s mandatory minicamp. Missing out on OTAs will cost Reddick a $250K workout bonus, Cimini notes.
JUNE 2: One of the newest members of the Jets’ roster, edge defender Haason Reddick, has not been present for the club’s two OTA sessions that have been open to the media, as Rich Cimini of ESPN.com observes. Presumably, Reddick has not participated in any of New York’s six OTAs to date.
Of course, those sessions are voluntary, though players often stay away in order to drive home the point that they are seeking a new contract. That could certainly be the case with Reddick, who was acquired via trade with the Eagles earlier this year and who is entering the final season of the three-year, $45MM contract he signed with Philadelphia in March 2022.
Reddick’s $14.5MM base salary for the upcoming campaign is non-guaranteed, and while he made it clear that he did not request a trade from the Eagles and hoped to remain with the club, the fact that he is underpaid relative to his market value and will be the beneficiary of a lucrative new deal in the near future certainly drove GM Howie Roseman‘s decision to move the accomplished sack artist.
Obviously, extension talks between Reddick and Philadelphia were unsuccessful. And while it was speculated that Reddick and the Jets would discuss a new contract upon his arrival, Cimini says that if negotiations have indeed taken place, nothing to that effect has been made public.
At his introductory press conference in April, Reddick suggested he would be amenable to a multi-year accord with Gang Green but would also be willing to play out the 2024 season and hit the open market next year. One way or another, the Jets will be counting on him to spearhead their pass-rushing contingent, particularly since their 2023 sack leader, Bryce Huff, defected to (coincidentally) the Eagles in free agency.
If Reddick does maintain the level of production he has established over his past few seasons — he has averaged over 12.5 sacks per year from 2020-23 — he will certainly be in line for a monster payday in 2025 (if he does not get one before then). There are currently 12 edge rushers with contracts featuring average annual values of at least $20MM, and Reddick’s production and record of durability give him a strong case to join that group. Whether he elects to skip the remainder of OTAs and/or any portion of mandatory minicamp or training camp as part of that endeavor remains to be seen.
Ravens Hope OLB David Ojabo Will Be Cleared By Training Camp
The Ravens allowed Jadeveon Clowney, who recorded 9.5 sacks in 2023, to depart in free agency, and they have not added a veteran replacement. Additionally, Baltimore did not select a pass rusher until the third round of this year’s draft (Adisa Isaac), so the club will be counting on several young, internal options to step up as it seeks to replicate its league-leading sack production (60 total sacks) from last season.
One such youngster is David Ojabo. The Ravens selected Ojabo in the second round of the 2022 draft, taking a chance on a player with first-round talent whose stock fell because of an Achilles tear he suffered during Michigan’s pro day that year. Since the Ravens knew beforehand that Ojabo would essentially have to redshirt his rookie year, the fact that he appeared in only two games that season did not set off any alarm bells.
Unfortunately, he sustained what was originally described as a knee/ankle injury in the club’s Week 3 loss to the Colts in 2023, and he was later diagnosed with a partially-torn ACL.The four snaps he tooks in that Week 3 contest would be his last action of the 2023 campaign.
In March of this year, head coach John Harbaugh said that Ojabo is healthy and predicted a breakout season for the 24-year-old defender. That may well be the case, but as Matt Ryan of the team’s official website writes, Ojabo has been limited in Baltimore’s offseason work and will not be a full participant in the upcoming mandatory minicamp.
“His timeline, I believe, is somewhere in training camp,” Harbaugh said. “It won’t be minicamp, but it’s at some point in time once we get back for training camp.”
Like Clowney, Kyle Van Noy was a late signing who enjoyed unexpected success in Baltimore’s Mike Macdonald-coordinated defense in 2023, and he was rewarded with a new two-year accord in April. He is now the unquestioned veteran leader of an edge rush group that has plenty of promise in the form of Ojabo, Isaac, and 2021 first-rounder Odafe Oweh, but little by way of proven production. Of course, the pressure that Justin Madubuike can generate from the interior of the D-line helps to ease the burden of the edge defenders to some degree, though a quality third professional season from Ojabo would obviously be a major boost to the team’s 2024 fortunes and the player’s future earning power.
Baltimore did get a little creative with Ojabo’s roster spot this year, designating the Nigerian-born ‘backer as an international player who qualifies for a roster exemption. That move gives the Ravens the right to carry one more player than they would otherwise be allowed to have.