Browns Acquire Pierre Strong From Patriots
The Browns and Patriots have swung a trade that will allow both clubs to reinforce position groups that feature injury concerns. As Ian Rapoport of NFL.com reports, Cleveland is acquiring running back Pierre Strong and is sending offensive tackle Tyrone Wheatley Jr. to New England.
Strong was selected by the Pats in the fourth round of the 2022 draft, and he earned just 10 carries in his rookie season. Thanks largely to a 44-yard scamper in a Week 13 victory over the Cardinals, Strong turned those carries into 100 rushing yards, and he added seven catches for 42 yards.
However, as Mike Giardi of the Boston Sports Journal notes, Strong has generally failed to impress the Patriots’ coaching staff, which was evidenced by the fact that the club was actively seeking a veteran complement to RB1 Rhamondre Stevenson this summer. Of course, New England ultimately signed longtime Cowboys standout Ezekiel Elliott, which made Strong expendable.
The Browns, meanwhile, allowed Kareem Hunt and D’Ernest Johnson to depart in free agency, as they were comfortable with their own second-year back, Jerome Ford, serving as the primary backup to four-time Pro Bowler Nick Chubb. Unfortunately, Ford is dealing with a hamstring ailment that has jeopardized his Week 1 availability, and even if Ford were healthy, Cleveland could stand to supplement an RB room that includes unproven or uninspiring options like Demetric Felton, Jordan Wilkins, and Hassan Hall. As Tony Grossi of TheLandOnDemand.com posits, Wilkins’ two fumbles in the Browns’ preseason loss to the Chiefs yesterday likely cost him his roster spot.
What Cleveland lacked in RB depth, it made up for in OT talent. With Jedrick Wills, Jack Conklin, James Hudson III, and fourth-round rookie Dawand Jones in the fold, Wheatley — who spent most of the 2022 campaign on the Browns’ taxi squad — was unlikely to have a place on the 53-man roster. He did, however, play well in an extended look during this year’s preseason slate, and though he has yet to see any regular season work in the NFL, he is an ascending player that can serve as needed depth in Foxborough.
As Mike Reiss of ESPN.com writes, presumptive right tackle Riley Reiff left New England’s preseason loss to the Titans on Friday with a right leg injury that could linger into the regular season, and swing tackle Calvin Anderson is presently on the NFI list. Anderson is reportedly close to a return to the active roster, though there is still plenty of room for a tackle with Wheatley’s upside.
Dolphins, DL Zach Sieler Agree To Extension
The Dolphins and defensive lineman Zach Sieler have agreed to a three-year contract extension, as ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports. Per Schefter, the deal is worth up to $38.65MM and includes $20MM in guarantees. The NFL Network’s Cameron Wolfe says that the contract has a base value of $30.75MM and can top out at $35.7MM via incentives, so we will need to wait for a little more clarity with respect to Sieler’s maximum earnings. The reporters are in agreement on the $20MM guaranteed money figure.
Sieler, a seventh-round pick of the Ravens in 2018, is the last player that longtime Baltimore GM Ozzie Newsome drafted while at the top of the club’s personnel department. But like many Day 3 draftees, Sieler had a difficult time carving out a role for himself, and after appearing in just six games for the Ravens, he was waived in December 2019.
The Dolphins, who were in the midst of a rebuild at the time, claimed Sieler and gave him his first NFL start several weeks later. In that game, a victory over the Bengals, Sieler recorded his first career sack, along with seven total tackles and two passes defensed.
The Ferris State find built on that momentum the following year, and in November 2020, he landed a three-year, $8.58MM extension that ran through the 2023 season. That deal gave Sieler a little financial security, but it was also a buy-low transaction for the club, which was rewarded for its savvy waiver claim with over three years of a quality defensive lineman at a fairly modest cost.
In 2022, Sieler appeared in all 17 regular season games (15 starts). He set career-highs with a 77% snap share, 70 total tackles, four passes defensed, and two forced fumbles, and his 3.5 sacks matched his career-best total from 2020 (he also added two sacks, a fumble recovery, and a defensive touchdown in Miami’s postseason loss to the Bills). Pro Football Focus’ metrics considered him the 21st-best interior defender out of 127 qualifiers, and while PFF did not think highly of his pass rush work last season, it assigned him elite grades across the board in 2021, when it ranked him as the third-best interior DL in the league.
It stands to reason, then, that Sieler wanted a raise on the $2.5MM he was due to earn in the final year of his first Miami extension. Indeed, we heard in June that the soon-to-be 28-year-old was actively seeking a new contract, and player and team were able to come to terms before the start of a season in which the Dolphins are again expected to contend for a playoff berth.
Sieler’s fellow defensive lineman, Christian Wilkins, is pushing for his own lucrative extension, and he has staged a hold-in as part of his efforts to secure it. One wonders what type of impact, if any, the Sieler agreement will have on negotiations with Wilkins. While the Dolphins’ short-term salary cap outlook is less than ideal, the team did not supplement its D-line with any free agent signings or draft picks this year, and Miami generally takes care of the talent that Drew Rosenhaus represents (both Sieler and Wilkins are Rosenhaus clients).
Colts Release RB Kenyan Drake
Although Colts running back Jonathan Taylor has been given permission to seek a trade and is unsurprisingly garnering plenty of interest, and although fellow RB Zack Moss sustained a broken arm at the end of July that threatens his Week 1 availability, Kenyan Drake was unable to crack Indianapolis’ roster. Per Tom Pelissero of the NFL Network, the club has released the veteran back.
Now 29, Drake just signed with the Colts earlier this month. He saw action in each of the team’s three preseason games, though he failed to impress as a runner, accumulating just 36 rushing yards on 13 carries, which amounts to a poor 2.8 YPC average. In Indy’s preseason finale against the Eagles on Thursday, he did exhibit the receiving acumen that has made him a valuable commodity during his NFL career, catching two balls for 22 yards and a touchdown.
Obviously, that was not enough for the Colts to keep him around, and the fact that the club cut ties with Drake while Taylor’s future in Indianpolis is so uncertain perhaps suggests that Moss will be cleared before the start of the regular season. It could also mean that the team is content with its other RB options, a largely unproven group that includes third-year pro Deon Jackson — who has just a 3.3 YPC average in 81 career carries — fifth-round rookie Evan Hull, Jake Funk, and Jason Huntley.
Prior to his short-lived tenure with the Colts, Drake had been with four teams over the last four seasons. Despite that nomadic stretch, he has had productive spurts with each of those outfits. The Alabama product averaged 5.2 yards per carry in his 2019 Cardinals games following a midseason trade with the Dolphins, and Arizona put the transition tag on him in 2020. The then-Kliff Kingsbury-led team used Drake as its top back that year, and he finished with a career-high 10 touchdowns. Drake totaled more than 1,000 scrimmage yards in 2019 and ’20, and the Raiders — despite having drafted Josh Jacobs in the first round of the 2019 draft — gave him a two-year, $11MM deal in March 2021.
Jon Gruden‘s vision of Drake serving as a dynamic pass-catching back complement to Jacobs did not entirely come to fruition, with Drake totaling just 291 receiving yards in the 2021 campaign. The Josh McDaniels-headed Raiders released Drake last summer following failed trade talks, which led Drake to the Ravens. In Baltimore, Drake had several notable performances, including a 119-yard game against the Giants and a 93-yard showing against the Saints. Though he was deactivated for the final few games of the season and the Ravens’ lone playoff contest, Drake finished with 482 rushing yards on a 4.4-YPC rate and made some key contributions to the cause while J.K. Dobbins and Gus Edwards battled injuries.
Given his history, it seems likely that Drake will get another opportunity at some point.
49ers To Work Out Multiple Kickers
The 49ers do not know who their placekicker will be when they open the regular season against the Steelers on September 10, as ESPN’s Nick Wagoner details. The club did not make an effort to re-sign longtime kicker Robbie Gould this offseason but did acquire veteran Zane Gonzalez via trade and selected Jake Moody in the third round of the 2023 draft (thereby making Moody just the second kicker in the past 15 years to be taken within the draft’s top 100 picks).
Unfortunately, Gonzalez and Moody have both sustained injuries that threaten their Week 1 availability. Given the draft capital the team invested into him, Moody has been viewed as the presumptive starter, and he has performed well in practice, converting most of his field goal attempts (including multiple attempts from over 60 yards). He has struggled in preseason action, however, missing two FG attempts against the Raiders — though one was a 58-yard try — and an extra point against the Broncos.
Wagoner writes that Moody left Wednesday’s practice early, and the Michigan product is considered week-to-week with a right quadriceps injury. In light of Moody’s ailment, it appeared as if Gonzalez would have a chance to make a case for himself in San Francisco’s preseason finale against the Chargers on Friday, but he suffered a strained calf that kept him out of the game. Head coach Kyle Shanahan said that Gonzalez’s injury will cost him multiple weeks, and given that he was facing an uphill battle to make the club anyway, it seems he is not long for the 49ers’ roster.
The Niners obviously need to make at least a short-term addition, and Shanahan said the team will work out multiple kickers this week. Gould, 40, recently said that he has spoken with several teams and is remaining patient as he looks for the right fit. It is unclear whether he would entertain a reunion with San Francisco given the presence of Moody, though Shanahan would not rule it out.
“We’re discussing everything and just being ready for any possibility to maneuver this roster however, but we really don’t know what direction we’re gonna go until time takes care of that,” Shanahan said.
Colts C Danny Pinter Out For Season
Colts center Danny Pinter suffered a broken left ankle during the team’s preseason win over the Eagles on Thursday, as Mike Chappell of Fox 59 writes. Pinter has been placed on injured reserve, and his season is over.
Pinter, a 2020 fifth-round choice, has appeared in 46 games (seven starts) in his first three professional seasons. He opened the 2022 campaign as Indianapolis’ starting right guard but was benched for poor performance after just three games. He handled the bulk of the snaps at center in relief of an injured Ryan Kelly in the Colts’ Week 5 win over the Broncos, was relegated to reserve duty when Kelly returned the following week, and scarcely saw any action the rest of the way.
This season, Pinter was penciled in as Kelly’s primary backup at the pivot. Pinter started three games at the position in 2021 and received a strong 78.4 run-blocking grade from Pro Football Focus for his work, though his subpar 46.0 pass-blocking mark left much to be desired. The Colts did, however, win all three of those contests, and the club values Pinter’s ability to line up at multiple positions along the O-line.
“Danny is a really good player for us,” head coach Shane Steichen said. “To lose a guy like him is very unfortunate for us.”
2022 UDFA Wesley French and 2023 waiver claim Dakoda Shepley are the top internal options to fill the backup center role. However, French has yet to take a regular season snap in the NFL, and Shepley’s only non-special teams action came with the Cowboys last year, when he took eight snaps at center and six at right guard.
Steichen did not commit to either player at this point, saying, “[we’re] working through all of that right now. There are a couple of guys we’re looking at.”
It is possible that the Colts look for external reinforcements with cutdown day looming, especially since they will be starting rookie Anthony Richardson at quarterback.
Eagles LB Myles Jack To Retire
Eagles linebacker Myles Jack plans to retire, as Ian Rapoport of NFL.com reports (via Twitter). Jack just signed with Philadelphia two weeks ago.
A first-round talent that fell to the second round of the 2016 draft due to knee concerns, Jack was selected by the Jaguars and quickly established himself as a fixture on quality Jacksonville defenses that featured other notable performers like Jalen Ramsey, Yannick Ngakoue, and Calais Campbell. Like Jack, Ramsey and Ngakoue were also 2016 draftees.
In his second professional campaign, Jack started all 16 regular season contests for the Jags and all three of their playoff games, helping the team come heartwrenchingly close to a Super Bowl appearance. He finished the year with 90 total tackles and a strong 71.7 overall grade from Pro Football Focus.
The following year, Jack cracked 100 tackles for the first time in his career and was again considered a solid overall performer by PFF’s metrics. However, the 2018 season was not as successful for the Jaguars as a whole, as the team finished 5-11 and well outside the playoff picture. After that season was over, Jack, Ramsey, and Ngakoue became extension-eligible for the first time, though Jack was the only member of that talented trio to see a second contract with Jacksonville.
In August 2019, Jack inked a four-year, $57MM extension to stay in Duval, though the 2019 season was a forgettable one for player and team alike. For the first time as a pro, Jack missed game action due to injury, as he was shelved for the final five contests of the regular season slate. He received an abysmal 45.9 overall grade from PFF, and the Jags finished in last place in the AFC South for the second straight year.
In terms of both surface-level stats and the advanced metrics, Jack had a bounceback effort in 2020, as he posted 118 tackles, five passes defensed, a sack, and an inteception. Unfortunately, the club finished with a 1-15 record, and after a similarly disappointing showing in 2021 under Urban Meyer‘s brief and disastrous stewardship, Jack was released.
He quickly caught on with the Steelers and recorded over 100 tackles for the third consecutive season, but those tackle numbers were not indicative of his overall effectiveness. Pittsburgh made him a cap casualty in May as part of its overhaul at the linebacker position.
Jack and fellow veteran linebacker Zach Cunningham signed with the Eagles on August 6, and both seemingly had an opportunity to see significant snaps alongside Nakobe Dean (particularly with Shaun Bradley out for the season). But as Jeff McLane of the Philadelphia Inquirer observed just yesterday, Cunningham was more impressive than Jack, who had not seen much action with the first-stringers.
Days away from his 28th birthday, Jack will hang up his cleats with over $50MM in career earnings. We at PFR congratulate the former UCLA standout on a fine career and wish him well in the next chapter of his life.
Minor NFL Transactions: 8/20/23
Here are today’s minor moves:
Baltimore Ravens
- Waived from IR with injury settlement: CB Jordan Swann
Detroit Lions
- Signed: S Scott Nelson
- Waived/injured: RB Mohamed Ibrahim
Jacksonville Jaguars
- Signed: LS Tucker Addington
- Released: LS Carson Tinker
Philadelphia Eagles
- Reverted to IR: WR Tyrie Cleveland, DT Noah Elliss, CB Zech McPhearson
- Placed on reserve/retired list: LB Myles Jack (story)
Seattle Seahawks
- Signed: DE DaMarcus Mitchell
- Waived: DE Jordan Ferguson
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
- Claimed off waivers (from Giants): CB Rodarius Williams
- Placed on IR: WR Russell Gage (story)
Tennessee Titans
- Waived: S A.J. Moore
Washington Commanders
- Signed: DT Isaiah Mack, P Michael Palardy
- Released: K Michael Badgley (story)
- Waived: WR Jalen Sample
It appears that, like Colby Wadman before him, Palardy is just a camp body. Incumbent punter Tress Way is dealing with a back ailment, and he will only work as the holder in the Commanders’ preseason contest against the Ravens tomorrow night (Twitter link via Nicki Jhabvala of the Washington Post). So Palardy, who has appeared in 80 games in his career (including eight with the Patriots in 2022), will have a chance to audition for other clubs that may be on the lookout for a punter at some point.
Washington is also in need of another player to rotate in on the defensive line, as Jonathan Allen (plantar fasciitis) and Phidarian Mathis are both banged up (Twitter link via ESPN’s John Keim). Mack, who has 25 appearances in his pro career, will at least help the team get through camp and the rest of the preseason slate.
Cowboys LB DeMarvion Overshown Suffers Torn ACL
3:10pm: Gehlken reports that Overshown has indeed torn his ACL (Twitter link). The news confirms the worst-case scenario, and that he will miss his entire rookie campaign. Overshown will now turn his attention to rehab ahead of an attempt to replicate his impressive showings next offseason, while the Cowboys may now find themselves on the market for a depth LB addition in the near future. Undrafted rookie tight end John Stephens also tore his ACL last night, per Gehlken.
8:28am: The Cowboys fear that third-round rookie linebacker DeMarvion Overshown tore his ACL during last night’s preseason loss to the Seahawks, per Michael Gehlken of the Dallas Morning News (Twitter link). The club will know the full extent of the damage after an MRI.
Overshown suffered the injury while making an open-field tackle of Seattle running back Zach Charbonnet during the first quarter of the game. An ACL tear, of course, would force him to miss the entirety of his first professional season, which would be an especially difficult blow given that he appeared ticketed for a significant role right out of the gate.
On paper, Dallas’ linebacking corps is the weakest part of its defense, so there was plenty of opportunity for Overshown to establish himself as at least a key rotational player and special teams contributor. He had put together an impressive training camp and was seen as an ascending talent.
“He was climbing. He was climbing the charts,” head coach Mike McCarthy said of Overshown after the game (Twitter link via Clarence Hill Jr. of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram). “He showed up right away in the offseason program, just his ability to fly around. Really has excellent command. So just hopeful. See how tomorrow goes.”
Leighton Vander Esch, who re-upped with the Cowboys on a two-year, $11MM contract in March, will likely operate as Dallas’ starter at middle linebacker (despite some recent run as an edge defender). Lining up next to him will be recent Day 3 draft choices Damone Clark (fifth round, 2022), Devin Harper (sixth round, 2022), and Jabril Cox (fourth round, 2021), all of whom will see an uptick in playing time if Overshown is indeed out for the year.
“You never want to see any of your guys get hurt, that’s what’s so tough about these preseason games,” McCarthy added (via Calvin Watkins of the Dallas Morning News). “We had a couple of young guys go down, you say your prayers and hopefully the imaging points in the right direction. He’s had an incredible camp, we’ve talked about him almost every other day. I just hope he’s OK.”
Overshown, a Texas product, received First Team All-Big 12 acclaim following his final season with the Longhorns, a season in which he compiled 96 tackles (10 TFL), four sacks, and five passes defensed.
Latest On Lions’ RG Competition
The Lions’ offensive line was a key to their suprising success in 2022, and the club will return four-fifths of its starting front from last season. The only OL spot up for grabs is at right guard, and the battle between Graham Glasgow and Halapoulivaati Vaitai for that job is a close one.
Per Justin Rogers of the Detroit News, Vaitai entered training camp as the betting favorite for the post, which he manned from 2020-21 after signing a lucrative free agent contract with the Lions in March 2020. He struggled a bit in his first season in the Motor City, a campaign that was tainted to some degree by injury, but he rebounded with a strong 15-game performance in 2021. Unfortunately, he was forced to undergo back surgery last September, which caused him to miss the entire 2022 slate and to even consider retirement.
While Vaitai elected to resume his playing career, he did have to take a pay cut to remain on the roster. Meanwhile, Detroit reunited with Glasgow and allowed Evan Brown, who served as Vaitai’s primary replacement last year, to depart in free agency. Glasgow, a former third-round pick of the Lions, spent the last three seasons with the Broncos, and he will provide experienced insurance at both guard positions and at center in the event he does not win the right guard gig.
As Rogers notes, Vaitai was absent for a brief time in this year’s camp due to injury, and since then, he and Glasgow have largely split first-team reps at RG. Glasgow’s efforts in this positional battle have been compromised a bit by the fact that he has to step in for starting pivot Frank Ragnow whenever Ragnow needs time off, but he believes he has acquitted himself well just the same.
“I was saying earlier, I think if you can play center, you can play guard,” he said. “I would like to get more guard reps, but at the end of the day, it’s just the price of doing business.”
Both players have plenty of financial motivation. After being released by Denver three years into a four-year, $44MM contract, Glasgow is due just $1.5MM in base pay on his one-year pact this season (though he can earn up to $4.5MM). And Vaitai, as part of the above-referenced pay cut, agreed to remove the 2024 season from his contract, which means he, like Glasgow, will be eligible for free agency next year.
Commanders Release K Michael Badgley
The Commanders’ kicking competition is over. Washington is releasing K Michael Badgley, as Tom Pelissero of the NFL Network tweets, which means that Joey Slye will remain the team’s placekicker.
After two disappointing seasons with the Panthers from 2019-20 that saw him post a poor 79.4% success rate on field goal tries, Slye had three-game cameos with the Texans and 49ers in 2021 before winding up in the nation’s capital for the second half of that season. His performance (12/12 on field goal attempts, 9/10 on extra point attempts) earned him a two-year contract last April.
Unfortunately, the 2022 campaign was not as successful, as Slye hit on just 83.3% of his FG attempts and missed four of his 28 PATs. Badgley, meanwhile, also had an 83.3% FG conversion rate in 12 games with the Lions last season, though he made all 33 of his PATs. Detroit re-signed him in March, and while it appeared as if he was the frontrunner in the club’s kicking battle, he was released last month. He quickly caught on with the Commanders but will have to search for another new home.
Now 28, Badgley has been unable to replicate the success he enjoyed during his 2018 rookie season with the Chargers. His 93.8% success rate on field goals and 96.4% success rate on PATs that year earned him his “Money Badger” nickname and appeared to solidify him as a fixture on the Bolts’ special teams unit for the foreseeable future. However, he appeared in just eight games in 2019 due to injury, and he endured an awful 2020, converting 72.7% of his field goal tries and missing several crucial kicks. The Chargers cut him prior to the 2021 season, and he bounced around to the Titans, Colts, Bears, and Lions over the next two years.
Washington has played one preseason game this summer, a 17-15 victory over the Browns. In that contest, Slye hit his lone FG attempt, a 49-yarder, and his only extra point try. Badgley also converted his one extra point attempt and did not get a shot at a field goal. As ESPN’s John Keim tweets, Slye and Badgley performed similarly in training camp with respect to their field goal and PAT work, but Slye had the clear advantage in terms of kickoffs.