Tom Brady’s Ownership Interest In Raiders Cleared For Approval
It was first reported back in May that Tom Brady had agreed to buy a stake in the Raiders. The approval of that transaction was delayed for multiple reasons, but according to Ian Rapoport and Tom Pelissero of NFL.com, all systems are go.
Other league owners reportedly took issue with the bargain price at which Raiders owner Mark Davis was trying to sell a share of his club to Brady. Although minority pieces of a sports franchise are frequently sold for discounted rates — due to limited partners’ minimal contributions to franchise operations — it was rumored that Davis may have been offering Brady, one of his most-respected confidants, a 70% discount.
It sounds as if the purchase price was increased to placate Davis’ fellow owners. Per Rapoport and Pelissero, Brady’s investment was “recently altered,” and it now reflects “the proper valuation of the team.” The duo add that all other hurdles have been cleared. The league’s finance committee will meet in early March to discuss the purchase, and final approval should come during the annual league meetings in Orlando from March 24-27.
Another concern that arose during this process stemmed from Brady’s broadcasting contract with FOX, a 10-year, $375MM deal that will begin in 2024 and that will position Brady as the network’s No. 1 color commentator alongside top play-by-play man Kevin Burkhardt. Of course, teams do not want anyone with an ownership stake in a rival outfit having the access and obtaining the inside information that broadcasters often enjoy, but Rapoport and Pelissero note that Brady’s FOX plans remain unchanged without suggesting that his access wil be any different than any of his media peers.
The Raiders are valued at $5.8 billion, and Brady’s ownership group is purchasing a 10% interest (Brady himself is putting up roughly seven percent). While the legendary QB has said he intends to play a “passive role,” Rapoport and Pelissero confirm that he has operated as an unofficial advisor to Davis — he assisted in the team’s recent head coaching search and in the hiring of OC Luke Getsy — so his definition of “passive” may be a broad one.
QB Tua Tagovailoa Expects To Remain With Dolphins Long-Term
Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa is under club control through 2024 by virtue of the fifth-year option on his rookie contract, but he anticipates being with the team for the foreseeable future. When asked at a Pro Bowl practice last week if he believes he and Miami will ultimately come to terms on a long-term deal, Tagovailoa said, “I believe that will happen” (via Joe Schad of the Palm Beach Post).
In 2022, Mike McDaniel‘s first year as the Dolphins’ head coach, Tagovailoa was mostly terrific, as he led the league in quarterback rating (105.5), TD% (6.3%), and yards per attempt (8.9). Unfortunately, that season was also marred by several frightening concussions, and it was reported last August that the team would be tabling contract talks with the former first-rounder.
Tagovailoa managed to stay healthy for the entirety of the 2023 campaign, and although his interception percentage increased, he did lead the league in passing yards (4,624) while posting a 101.1 QB rating en route to his first Pro Bowl nod.
“My main goal this year was to play, you know, 17-plus games and I was able to accomplish that goal and just very fortunate that I was able to do that and very happy too,” Tagovailoa said.
Following consecutive seasons of high-end play, including a 2023 season that featured perfect attendance, it makes sense that the Dolphins would want to explore a multiyear deal with the southpaw passer sooner rather than later, especially since the quarterback market continues to surge with no ceiling in sight. Indeed, as Schad notes, GM Chris Grier recently said he wants to keep Tagovailoa in the fold for the long haul.
It is worth noting that Tagovailoa struggled in last season’s most meaningful games. Although he got off to a fast start in a Week 17 game in Baltimore, a contest in which control of the AFC’s No. 1 seed was on the line, Tagovailoa and his offense soon faltered, and he ultimately completed 22 of 38 passes for two TDs against two interceptions in a 56-19 blowout loss to the Ravens. That took the AFC’s top seed off the table, but the ‘Fins still had the chance to secure the AFC East title and a home playoff game if they could defeat the Bills in the regular season finale in South Beach.
Tagovailoa struggled in that contest as well, and the Dolphins’ loss to Buffalo forced the team to open the playoffs on the road against the eventual-AFC champion Chiefs. On a frigid Kansas City night in January, Tagovailoa again failed to muster much production, completing 20 of 39 passes for a paltry 199 yards (53 of which came on one throw), one TD, and one interception.
The Dolphins’ meek exit from the playoff field and Tagovailoa’s poor performance down the stretch led to renewed questions about his future in Miami, though player and team both apparently expect to continue their relationship for some time. However, with the Alabama product due a below-market $23.17MM salary on his fifth-year option in 2024, and controllable via the franchise tag in 2025, there is not necessarily any urgency — aside from the rising QB market referenced above — to get something done right now.
Spotrac estimates that Tagovailoa could land a six-year contract worth just over $300MM if he were currently on the open market.
Ravens To Let LB Patrick Queen Hit Open Market?
Two of the Ravens’ Pro Bowl defenders, defensive lineman Justin Madubuike and inside linebacker Patrick Queen, are due to hit free agency next month. As Baltimore appears likely to put the franchise tag on Madubuike, there may not be enough cap room to give Queen the type of contract he would command on the open market, and GM Eric DeCosta recently suggested that Queen would get the chance to see what the market has in store for him.
“Patrick had an amazing season,” DeCosta said at his end-of-season presser, via Jeff Zrebiec of The Athletic (subscription required). “I love Patrick. He’s one of my favorite guys on the team. He’s put himself in a great position, potentially, to hit the market and see what his value is. You never know.”
The Ravens selected Queen in the first round of the 2020 draft. While the LSU product flashed at times during his first several years in the league, he did not truly break out until Baltimore acquired fellow inside ‘backer Roquan Smith at the 2022 trade deadline. With the elite Smith as a running mate, Queen finally began living up to his draft status and excelled down the stretch of the 2022 campaign. Baltimore nonetheless declined the fifth-year option on Queen’s rookie deal, and extension talks between player and team failed to produce an agreement, which led to some frustration on Queen’s part and which turned 2023 into a platform year.
Although Queen was named a trade candidate in the run-up to last year’s draft and over the summer, the Ravens elected to let him finish out his rookie contract, to the benefit of both parties. In 17 games (all starts) in 2023, Queen set a career-high with 133 tackles and graded out as the 23rd-best linebacker in the league (eight spots behind Smith) per Pro Football Focus. In the process, he earned the first Pro Bowl bid of his career and set himself up nicely for a lucrative contract in his first foray into free agency.
Given that the Ravens committed a five-year, $100MM contract to Smith last January, it was always unlikely that they would authorize a contract for Queen commensurate with his market value (which Spotrac estimates is $18.5MM/year). That is especially true given the franchise’s penchant for drafting and developing quality ILB talent, and 2023 third-rounder Trenton Simpson is in line to take over Queen’s role should the latter find a new employer in 2024.
DeCosta obviously did not rule out a reunion with Queen, but unless his market does not develop as expected, the 24-year-old may have played his last snap for the Ravens.
Latest On Geno Smith’s Future With Seahawks
According to ESPN’s Brady Henderson, it is not certain that quarterback Geno Smith will be back with the Seahawks in 2024. After all, longtime head coach Pete Carroll — who was one of Smith’s biggest champions and who frequently deflected blame away from the veteran passer — has been shifted to an advisory role. GM John Schneider now holds final say over personnel matters, and his evaluation of Smith’s performance is not as glowing as Carroll’s was.
“I think Geno had a good season,” Schneider said last month. “It was a little bit opposite of [2022]. He started out real strong last year and things dipped a little bit the second half. And then I thought this year he started out not quite as strong as last year and then finished in a real strong manner.”
Henderson, whose piece was published before Seattle hired Mike Macdonald as its new head coach, noted that Schneider would of course discuss Smith’s future with his new HC. At his introductory press conference, Macdonald offered praise for Smith, saying that he has “great respect” for him.
“We’ve played against Geno,” Macdonald added (via the team’s official website). “He’s a really good player. I’m pretty sure he’s at the Pro Bowl right now. We’re going to build around the quarterback. You’ve got to.”
At the risk of inferring meaning where there is none, Macdonald did not explicitly commit to Smith as the quarterback around whom the Seahawks would be building, and the team is still in search of a new offensive coordinator, who will also have input into the matter. That said, Henderson suggests Smith has a good chance to return as Seattle’s QB1.
If the team chooses to go in a different direction, Henderson believes a trade is more likely than a release. Smith’s $12.7MM salary for 2024, currently guaranteed for injury only, converts to a full guarantee on February 16. That is effectively the deadline to cut Smith, but not necessarily to trade him. He is not due his $9.6MM roster bonus until March 17 — the fifth day of the new league year — and by that time, the team will have had the chance to explore the quarterback options it might have in this year’s draft (to say nothing of getting some sort of trade compensation from an acquiring club).
As Schneider observed, Smith performed well down the stretch of the 2023 season, although he was unable to match the overall production of his breakout 2022 performance. In 2022, Smith led the league in completion percentage (69.8) and threw for 30 TDs against 11 interceptions, which amounted to a 100.9 quarterback rating and 62.8 QBR. In two fewer games in 2023, the former second-round pick of the Jets completed 64.7% of his passes for 20 touchdowns and nine picks, leading to a quarterback rating of 92.1 and a QBR of 59.5. If Macdonald & Co. can help Smith marry the first half of his 2022 campaign with the second half of his 2023 season, they may be on to something.
Although he is due to hit free agency in March, Drew Lock would be the most likely candidate to assume the QB1 job — at least in the short-term — if the Seahawks were to part ways with Smith. Schneider has long been high on the 27-year-old, who was a key part of the return in the 2022 blockbuster that sent Russell Wilson from Seattle to the Broncos, but as Henderson writes, Lock being retained as the starter would indicate that the ‘Hawks view 2024 as a retooling year, which is inconsistent with Schneider’s belief that his club is “on the cusp” of serious championship contention.
As Armando Salguero of Outkick.com wrote at the end of December, Lock views himself as a starter and will seek such an opportunity if he hits the open market. In two starts in relief of an injured Smith in 2023, Lock completed 68.8% of his passes for three TDs and two interceptions. He went 1-1 in those contests, with the one victory coming on an impressive late-game drive against the Eagles in Week 15.
Smith is under club control through 2025 and is due to carry a $31.2MM cap charge this year. Henderson suggests that, if the Seahawks move forward with Smith, they could look to convert some of his salary and/or roster bonus into a signing bonus to reduce that number.
Bills GM: “I Don’t Think You’re Going To See Any Splashes” In Free Agency; Latest On Team’s Top FAs
Bills GM Brandon Beane, echoing the remarks he made in the 2023 offseason, said that his club is unlikely to hand out any especially lucrative contracts in free agency this year. As Joe Buscaglia of The Athletic (subscription required) observes, Buffalo is projected to be roughly $49MM over the 2024 salary cap, which obviously puts a damper on the team’s spending ability.
“I don’t think you’re going to see any splashes,” Beane said. “Even if I found something that was exciting to me, I don’t think it would fit within our cap parameters. I think everyone needs to understand that we’re going to be shopping at some of those same stores we were shopping last year. We’re not going to be on Main Street of New York City or whatever all those high-end shopping centers are. It’s not feasible to where we’re at.”
In Buscaglia’s view, the only surefire way to alleviate the Bills’ cap problems would be to undergo a full roster overhaul as they did in 2017 — the year before quarterback Josh Allen was drafted — and 2018. However, with a star QB like Allen in place, the team is not going to punt on a season just to get right with the salary cap, as Buscaglia opines.
As a result, Buffalo will not be able to swim in the deep end of the free agency pool, and the team may also be forced to part with some of its own top free agents. Indeed, Buscaglia expects most of Buffalo’s high-profile FAs to at least test the open market.
That list includes wide receiver Gabe Davis, who emerged as a key big-play threat for Allen after being selected by the Bills in the fourth round of the 2020 draft. Over his four-year tenure in western New York, Davis posted 27 touchdowns and a 16.7 yards-per-reception rate (though that comes with a modest 54.5% catch percentage, which is typical for a home run hitter). Unfortunately, Davis was forced to sit out the Bills’ two playoff contests at the end of the 2023 campaign due to a PCL injury sustained in the regular season finale against the Dolphins, and even before that happened, 2022 fifth-rounder Khalil Shakir had shown an ability to serve as a capable, cost-controlled complement to Stefon Diggs.
Davis, who will turn 25 in April, confirmed that he plans to test free agency next month (via ESPN’s Alaina Getzenberg). He suggested that he would be receptive to a new deal with the Bills, but he said that there were no extension talks between him and the club last season.
Notably, while Davis’ injury was originally classified as a PCL sprain, Ryan O’Halloran of the Buffalo News says that the UCF product actually suffered a torn PCL. There is presently no indication as to whether that ailment will impact Davis’ free agent prospects.
Defensive tackle DaQuan Jones, meanwhile, is one of a number of Bills defensive linemen who are out of contract, and like Davis, he said he has not had any talks with the club about a new deal (as relayed by Buscaglia). Jones signed a two-year, $14MM contract with Buffalo in March 2022, and after playing 16 regular season contests in his first year with the team, he was limited to seven games in 2023 thanks to the pectoral injury he sustained in Week 5. The 32-year-old veteran, who has been a consistently strong and mostly durable starter throughout his career, returned to play the final two games of the regular season and both of Buffalo’s postseason matchups, and he said he is looking forward to his return to the open market.
Jones’ fellow DT Jordan Phillips, on the other hand, is considering retirement, per O’Halloran. Phillips, who stepped into the starting lineup following Jones’ injury, suffered a dislocated wrist in a Week 15 win over the Cowboys and ended the season on IR as a result. Now 31, Phillips enjoyed his finest season as a member of the Bills in 2017, posting 9.5 sacks over 16 games (nine starts). He parlayed that performance into a lucrative three-year contract with the Cardinals the following offseason, but his time in the desert was marred by injury, and he was released in March 2022. He has spent the last two seasons back in Buffalo, but he conceded that “this might be it” for his playing career.
Safety Micah Hyde may also hang up the cleats, as Mark Gaughan of the Buffalo News reports. Hyde, a Packers draftee who began a long and productive stint as a member of the Bills in 2017, played in 14 games in 2023 after being limited to just two contests the year before as a result of a neck injury. In the view of Pro Football Focus, he was not quite as sharp as he had been throughout most of his time in Buffalo, though he was still an above-average defender.
Hyde, 33, said he had no issues with his surgically-repaired neck over the first half of the 2023 season, but he sustained a stinger in Week 9 and another in Week 14, and he conceded that it was a difficult year for him physically. Although he has medical clearance to play, he has not yet decided if he wants to do so.
The Bills also have several key edge rushers on expiring contracts: Leonard Floyd and A.J. Epenesa. Floyd, who signed a one-year contract with the team in June, posted 10.5 sacks in his first Buffalo season, the fourth consecutive year in which he has recorded at least nine sacks. As he prepares for his age-32 campaign, Floyd acknowledged that he will follow the money in free agency, though he still wants to sign with a contender.
Of all of the soon-to-be FAs mentioned above, it could be that Epenesa has the best chance to return to the Bills. The 2020 second-rounder has posted 6.5 sacks in back-to-back seasons, and as ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler writes in a subscribers-only piece, Buffalo — in keeping with its usual desire to retain homegrown talent — may talk extension with Epenesa before free agency opens.
Lions, QB Jared Goff Expected To Finalize Extension In Offseason
Lions QB Jared Goff is under contract through 2024, but the team remains interested in a long-term arrangement. Per Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network (video link), the Lions and Goff are expected to come together this offseason to discuss an extension that will make Goff one of the highest-paid quarterbacks in the league.
Goff was selected by the Rams with the No. 1 overall pick of the 2016 draft, and he struggled in his rookie season under then-HC Jeff Fisher. Of course, Sean McVay‘s hiring in 2017 proved to be one of the best decisions in team history, and for a time, McVay and Goff enjoyed a productive partnership.
Over the 2017-18 campaigns, Goff posted a 24-7 record while throwing for 60 touchdowns against just 19 interceptions. He earned Pro Bowl acclaim in both of those years and guided the the Rams to a Super Bowl appearance at the end of the 2018 season, which prompted Los Angeles to hand him a four-year, $134MM extension a few months later.
Unfortunately, Goff regressed over the next two seasons, and after the Rams were bounced from the playoffs at the conclusion of the 2020 season, McVay was notably non-committal on Goff’s future with the club. Shortly thereafter, the Rams traded Goff to the Lions in a blockbuster deal that brought Matthew Stafford to LA and sent significant draft capital to the rebuilding Detroit outfit.
At the time of the trade, Goff’s contract looked like something of an albatross, and many believed that Lions GM Brad Holmes agreed to assume the deal merely to squeeze an extra first-round draft choice out of the Rams. But subsequent reports made it clear that Holmes — who had just joined Detroit after spending the previous eight years in the Rams’ front office — truly believed that Goff could recapture his Pro Bowl form and was not viewed as a mere bridge option.
It appears that Holmes’ assessment was correct, as Goff posted solid numbers on an otherwise poor Lions club in 2021 and has taken his game to a higher level as the talent around him has improved. Over the past two seasons, Goff has guided the team to top-five finishes in both points per game and total offense, and two weeks ago, Detroit won its first playoff game since 1991. Of course, the Lions also won last week’s divisonal round tilt with the Bucs and are one victory away from the first Super Bowl appearance in franchise history.
In 2023, we heard rumblings that the Lions were targeting a Goff extension, though that was before the team experienced playoff success with him under center. Now, it appears there will be more urgency to that dialogue.
Sources tell Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports that there is a little doubt a deal will get done in the coming months, though Jones believes the average annual value on Goff’s next contract will be “somwhere in the 40s.” There are now 12 quarterbacks with AAVs of at least $40MM, so while Jones indicates that Goff is not overly concerned with his ranking in the QB contract hierarchy, Rapoport’s report — to say nothing of Goff’s leverage and his importance to a formerly moribund franchise — suggest that the number could check in closer to $50MM.
Raiders Interested In Klint Kubiak For OC
The Raiders are interested in Klint Kubiak for their vacant offensive coordinator position, as Ian Rapoport of NFL.com writes. Since Kubiak is currently the 49ers’ pass-game coordinator, and since the Niners’ season has not yet come to an end — they host the Lions in today’s NFC Championship game — Las Vegas cannot conduct an in-person interview with him at this point.
If San Francisco should lose today, Rapoport says the Raiders might bring Kubiak in for an interview. But as the Silver-and-Black plan to hire their OC in the next several days one way or another, it sounds like Kubiak will not get the chance to meet with Vegas brass if the Niners advance to the Super Bowl.
Without Kubiak in the mix, the Raiders and head coach Antonio Pierce would be choosing from a list comprised of Luke Getsy, Thad Lewis, Kliff Kingsbury, Mike Sullivan, and Alex Van Pelt. The club was also connected to Dan Pitcher, Zac Robinson, and Shane Waldron, but all three of those candidates accepted OC jobs elsewhere.
Kubiak, 36, has enjoyed multiple NFL play-calling stints, succeeding his father, Gary Kubiak, as Vikings OC under Mike Zimmer in 2021 and taking over during the Broncos’ lost 2022 season under then-HC Nathaniel Hackett. 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan hired the younger Kubiak as his pass-game coordinator this past offseason, and the 49ers nearly became the rare team with three 1,000-yard pass catchers. Deebo Samuel, who missed two games, finished 108 yards shy of joining Brandon Aiyuk and George Kittle in the 1,000-yard club.
Although the Raiders’ decision to remove Pierce’s interim tag and name him the permanent head coach has been well-received, the team’s QB position is decidedly unsettled. Las Vegas’ free agent acquisition of Jimmy Garoppolo last offseason proved to be a poor decision, and Garoppolo looms as an obvious release candidate. Although Aidan O’Connell played well enough for a fourth-round rookie, he hardly cemented himself as the franchise’s long-term answer. The Raiders currently hold the No. 13 pick in the draft, which will prevent them from acquiring one of the top passers in this year’s collegiate class, barring a trade-up.
Kubiak has interviewed for the Saints’ and Bears’ OC jobs in this year’s cycle, as our coordinator tracker shows. Chicago ultimately hired Shane Waldron for the post, though Kubiak is presumably still in the running for the New Orleans gig.
Steelers Expected To Exercise RB Najee Harris’ Fifth-Year Option
The Steelers are expected to exercise running back Najee Harris‘ fifth-year option prior to the May 2 deadline, per Mark Kaboly of The Athletic (subscription required). That maneuver would give Harris a fully-guaranteed salary of $6.66MM for the 2025 season (he is due to earn $2.44MM in 2024 on the fourth and final year of his rookie contract).
The running back market has notoriously grown stagnant in recent years, and Harris was one of the high-profile RBs to publicly voice his frustration with that trend. In June, Pittsburgh GM Omar Khan suggested that surging prices for quarterbacks naturally create the need to cut costs on other areas of the roster, and like his fellow top execs, Khan might not have an appetite for authorizing a lucrative second contract for a running back in light of the position’s high attrition rate, especially for workhorse backs like Harris.
Of course, the Steelers are in quarterback limbo at the moment, as 2022 first-rounder Kenny Pickett has struggled through his first two professional seasons, and Mitchell Trubisky is the only other quarterback under club control for 2024. But regardless of whether the Steelers add a notable QB contract to their books this offseason, the relatively small fifth-year salary for Harris in 2025 should be easy enough to absorb. Whether extension talks take place between now and the end of the 2025 campaign, however, is an entirely different story.
Mason Rudolph, who just finished a one-year veteran minimum deal, was inserted into the starting lineup in Week 16 after Trubisky struggled in relief of an injured Pickett. That switch coincided with a heavier reliance on the running game, as Harris tallied 72 carries over the final three contests of the regular season and racked up 312 yards (4.33 YPC) and four TDs in the process. Efficiency had been a problem for Harris, but that productive stretch helped him finish the year with a YPC over 4.0 for the first time in his career and underscored his potential upside. Whomever the Steelers hire as their next OC should have a productive RB tandem in Harris and Jaylen Warren, who was a UDFA in 2022 and who is therefore entering a platform campaign.
Another decision that Khan will have to make this offseason is not as clear as the call to pick up Harris’ option. We recently heard that stalwart DT Cam Heyward may be contemplating retirement following a 2023 season marred by a serious groin injury, and while Kaboly says Heyward would like to return for at least one more season (subscription required), the decision is not his alone. The Steelers can cut the six-time Pro Bowler and save roughly $10MM against the 2024 salary cap after accounting for dead money, but as Kaboly notes, ownership would probably rather eat Heyward’s salary than release him given what he has meant to the franchise.
In other words, if Heyward is able to continue playing, the team will welcome him back. Although Kaboly does not say so, it is presumably still possible that player and team work out a short-term extension to smooth out Heyward’s $22MM cap hit in 2024.
Bucs Interested In Jerrod Johnson, Antwaan Randle El For OC
We can add two more names to the Buccaneers’ list of candidates to replace offensive coordinator Dave Canales, who parlayed a strong showing in his one year as Tampa Bay’s OC into a head coaching gig with the division-rival Panthers. Per Ian Rapoport of NFL.com, the Bucs either have interviewed, or have requested an interview with, Texans quarterbacks coach Jerrod Johnson, and they have requested an interview with Lions wide receivers coach Antwaan Randle El.
Johnson, 35, is a popular name in this year’s hiring cycle and has already interviewed with the Browns, Saints, Eagles, and Steelers for their vacant OC positions (Philadelphia went in a different direction, however, as they hired Kellen Moore yesterday). An offensive quality control coach for the Colts from 2020-21, Johnson joined the Vikings as assistant quarterbacks coach in 2022 and took his current position with Houston when DeMeco Ryans was named the Texans’ HC last year.
Of course, Johnson’s work with C.J. Stroud is driving the interest from rival clubs. As a rookie, Stroud led the league in passing yards per game and interception rate while finishing sixth in quarterback rating. That production, along with Stroud’s excellent performance in a wild-card round victory over the Browns earlier this month, raised Johnson’s stock considerably. He took a second interview with New Orleans yesterday, so if Tampa Bay wants him, it may need to act quickly.
Meanwhile, it appears that this is the first time we are hearing Randle El’s name in connection with an OC post. The former college quarterback entered the NFL as a wide receiver and served as an auxiliary target and return man for Pittsburgh and Washington over his nine-year playing career (he earned a Super Bowl ring as a member of the Steelers in 2005 and caught 12 passes for 119 yards and a touchdown during the team’s four-game run in that postseason).
Now 44, Randle El began his coaching career with the Bucs as an offensive assistant in 2019 and accepted his current post with the Lions in 2021. While Detroit offensive coordinator Ben Johnson has understandably drawn rave reviews for his work in the Motor City — which is likely to earn him an HC job of his own in the very near future — Randle El has coaxed strong production out of the Lions’ complementary wideouts and has overseen the evolution of 2021 fourth-rounder Amon-Ra St. Brown. St. Brown earned a Pro Bowl nod in 2022 and firmly established himself as one of the league’s top receivers in 2023, piling up 119 receptions for 1,515 yards and 10 TDs en route to a First Team All-Pro selection.
The Bucs will have to wait to interview Randle El until the Lions’ season is over. Detroit takes on the 49ers in today’s NFC Championship game, and assuming Ben Johnson lands one of the remaining HC posts — the Seahawks and Commanders are now the only two clubs with vacancies — Randle El would be an obvious candidate to fill his shoes with the Lions.
Jaguars GM Trent Baalke On QB Trevor Lawrence
Jaguars QB Trevor Lawrence, who now has three years of service time under his belt, is eligible for a contract extension. Our Sam Robinson, however, suggested at the end of December that Jacksonville may wait to enter into extension talks with the former No. 1 overall pick, who did not take the leap forward that many had anticipated when the 2023 season began. Jags GM Trent Baalke did not put a timetable on those dicussions, but he did imply that a new deal for Lawrence is not exactly at the top of the agenda at the moment.
“As far as Trevor and the long-term relationship with this team, there’s no doubt in that,” Baalke said at a press conference on Thursday (via Myles Simmons of Pro Football Talk). “We’re going to get something done at the appropriate time.”
The Jaguars will surely exercise Lawrence’s fifth-year option sometime before the May 2 deadline. That will lock in a fully-guaranteed salary of $21.98MM for the 2025 season, and when combined with the $1.06MM salary he is due to make in 2024, Jacksonville essentially has Lawrence under club control for two more years at an $11.5MM AAV. Even if the Clemson product is not yet a top tier signal-caller, that qualifies as excellent value.
When asked to assess Lawrence’s performance in 2023 and how to improve his production moving foreard, Baalke said, “I think Trevor had another learning year, right? Like we all do when we’re a third-year guy in this league. I think there are some areas he made great strides in. You look at this season, one thing we’ve got to do is we’ve got to — two things, it works both ways — we’ve got to do a better job of keeping him safe and protected and he’s got to do a better job of protecting himself.”
Baalke referenced the myriad injuries that Lawrence faced in his third year in the league, including a concussion, a knee sprain, an ankle sprain, and a sprained AC joint. Although Lawrence was able to play through the first three of those ailments, they certainly affected his performance, and the sprained AC joint forced him to sit out Jacksonville’s Week 17 contest against the Panthers. That was the first game that Lawrence had missed in his career.
In his final four games of the 2023 campaign, Lawrence failed to post a quarterback rating above 83.9 and completed 60% of his passes for seven touchdowns and seven interceptions. Jacksonville lost all four of those contests, including a Week 18 matchup with the 5-11 Titans that was meaningless for Tennessee but that would have put the Jaguars in the playoffs as AFC South champions if they had won it. In all, the Jags lost five of their last six games to drop them from contention for the conference’s top seed to a postseason non-participant (the only game the club won in that stretch was the Week 17 contest that Lawrence missed).
Now 24, Lawrence still has time to live up to the vast potential that made him such a coveted prospect when he entered the professional ranks. It may even be fair to write off his rookie season in 2021, which was spent primarily under the disastrous stewardship of then-HC Urban Meyer. Nonetheless, Baalke may want to see a step forward in 2024 before making any significant contractual decisions.
In 2023, Lawrence completed 65.6% of his passes for 4,016 yards and 21 TDs against 14 interceptions, good for a QB rating of 88.5. He did run for 339 yards on 70 carries (4.8 YPC), tallying four rushing touchdowns in the process.