Giants Activate LB Azeez Ojulari
Giants linebacker Azeez Ojulari has been activated off the club’s NFI list, per Michael Eisen of the team’s official website. Ojulari practiced with the team on Sunday, the first time he has done so since camp opened late last month.
The 2021 second-rounder had been dealing with a hamstring injury, so his return to the field is a welcome sight for an outfit that is looking to start emerging from a rebuild. As a rookie, Ojulari led the team with eight sacks, which represented a franchise record for first-year players. He played in all 17 of New York’s games, starting 13 of them. His 58.3 overall grade and 56.9 pass rushing grade from Pro Football Focus were suboptimal, but his surface-level stats — which also included 13 quarterback hits — show plenty of potential.
Between Ojulari, Leonard Williams, and first-round rookie Kayvon Thibodeaux, the Giants have the foundation of a potentially formidable pass rush. In addition to Thibodeaux, the team also added Jihad Ward in free agency this year and invested a fourth-round pick in Elerson Smith. 2019 third-rounder Oshane Ximines remains on the roster, along with 2021 waiver claim Quincy Roche.
Big Blue also made a series of cuts on Sunday, parting ways with DB Michael Jacquet, G Josh Rivas, and S Jarrod Wilson. Wilson spent the first five years of his career with the Jaguars, the last two of which saw him operate as a full-time starter at safety. He saw action in nine games (three starts) last season, which he split between the Jets and 49ers. The veteran defensive back just signed with the Giants earlier this month.
Jacquet, who signed with the Eagles as a UDFA in 2020, has seen action in eight games (two starts) between Philadelphia and Jacksonville over the past two seasons. The Giants had signed Rivas, a Kansas State product, as part of their own UDFA class earlier this year.
Cowboys VP Of Player Personnel Will McClay Content With Current Role
Cowboys vice president of player personnel Will McClay is widely regarded as a top GM candidate, but with owner Jerry Jones and son Stephen Jones at the top of the team’s unique hierarchy, McClay will never get a shot as a general manager in Dallas. However, his actions over the past few years have made it clear that he is happy right where he is, and he confirmed as much in a recent interview with Clarence E. Hill, Jr. of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
McClay, 55, joined the Cowboys as a scout in 2002. He took over the team’s scouting department as Assistant Director of Player Personnel in 2013, ran his first draft in 2014, and landed his current title in 2017. Since 2014, Dallas has drafted 10 Pro Bowlers, and while the Cowboys are generally restrained in free agency, McClay has had some success in finding contributors on modest FA contracts.
McClay, who is Black, has appeared on the Fritz Pollard Alliance’s list of recommended GM hires on multiple occasions, but he turned down interview requests in the 2016-18 hiring cycles. Though there have been no public reports of interview requests since 2018, that could be because other teams are aware of how difficult it would be to pry McClay from Dallas.
“I realize what my role and my structure is, what we do here,” McClay said. “I feel good about what we are doing. That is the job I am happy with now. If an opportunity comes up that makes sense, sure I will look at it. But I am happy where I am now. I am happy with the job, the role and how we do things.”
While McClay does not currently have the full range of authority that he would as GM, his voice carries a great deal of weight in the club’s collaborative personnel process, which also includes input from both Joneses and head coach Mike McCarthy. “I’m happy with the job and the role and the way it is here because of the way we work and do things together,” McClay said.
When asked if he feels pressure to accept a GM job in order to continue paving the way for other minority candidates, he replied, “I’m a grown man. I know I’m black. The pressure is from the outside saying, ‘oh, you have to do’…I don’t have to do anything. The thing that I have to do for any African-American person who is trying to get into personnel, what I’ve got to do is be the best at my job, then they can see. You’ve got to do your job first, so I’m doing my job to the best of my availability first.”
As noted above, McClay left open the possibility of taking a GM position if the right opportunity presents himself. When asked what such an opportunity would look like, he responded, “you want to make sure the top structure is right. How many picks do they have? What’s there? What’s the team? Got to have a quarterback. … So many different things you would consider. So when the time comes and I have the time to look at it and put that foot forward that I want to do that, then I will look at all the different factors. I don’t consider it because it’s here right now that’s most important.”
The Cowboys and McClay agreed to a three-year extension earlier this year, and Jerry Jones, who said he considers McClay as qualified as anyone he has ever been around in terms of GM potential, is happy to have one of his top lieutenants in the fold during the team’s current window of contention.
Raiders Not Shopping RB Josh Jacobs?
AUGUST 8: McDaniels attempted to squash any Jacobs trade rumors Monday, indicating (via the Fresno Bee’s Anthony Galaviz, on Twitter) the Raiders have “no desire” to trade the running back “at all.” The first-year Las Vegas HC said the team has “a lot of confidence” in Jacobs. It is not too uncommon to see players traded after coach or GM declarations of this sort, but McDaniels made a similar pronouncement about Carr not being on the trade block. No Jacobs extension may be on tap, but this could quiet trade speculation for a bit.
AUGUST 7: While high-profile teammates like Derek Carr and Davante Adams did not participate in Thursday night’s Hall of Fame game, Raiders running back Josh Jacobs got a considerable amount of playing time. Combined with Las Vegas’ decision to decline Jacobs’ fifth-year option earlier this year and recent reports suggesting that 2022 would be his last season in the Silver and Black, HC Josh McDaniels‘ deployment of his presumptive RB1 led some to wonder whether Jacobs was being showcased for a potential trade.
According to Vincent Bonsignore of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, there has been no indication that the Raiders are interested in trading Jacobs. Instead, when asked why Jacobs saw so much action in a game that generally features few, if any, established starters for even a brief period of time, McDaniels said, “I always think it’s good for backs to carry the ball in preseason.”
Indeed, Jacobs’ primary backup, Kenyan Drake, got an extended look as well, and Brandon Bolden was the only veteran back who did not see the field. Per McDaniels, “There are a lot of things that happen when you’re tackled and getting hit that you can’t simulate in practice. All our guys either caught it or were handed the ball and got tackled. We can’t really simulate or rep that in practice.”
Even if Jacobs suits up for another club in 2023, the Raiders have playoff aspirations this year, and it makes sense that McDaniels would want him to continue building the positive momentum that he has generated in the early days of training camp (Bonsignore writes that Jacobs has had a “dazzling” start to camp after reporting to the club in terrific shape). Plus, a 2023 departure will likely result in a compensatory draft pick anyway.
Thanks in large part to a suspect and injury-plagued O-line, Las Vegas’ running game was among the league’s least productive in 2021. The club did not do much to improve its blocking this offseason, so unless linemen like Alex Leatherwood and rookie Dylan Parham step up in a big way, the Raiders will be counting on Jacobs & Co. to carve out their own space. A potentially prolific passing attack may also give the team’s backs some breathing room.
Bonsignore does believe that, as a result of their RB depth, the Raiders will trade or release an NFL-caliber rusher sometime before Week 1. In his estimation, Jacobs will not be the one on the move, although Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk believes Jacobs’ usage in the HOF game was indeed a sign that the 2020 Pro Bowler is available, and ESPN’s Matt Miller feels the same way (Twitter link).
Minor NFL Transactions: 8/7/22
We will keep track of today’s minor moves right here:
Atlanta Falcons
- Signed: DL Abdullah Anderson
- Placed on IR: DL Vincent Taylor
Buffalo Bills
- Activated from active/NFI list: G Rodger Saffold
Chicago Bears
- Placed on IR: LB Christian Albright (from waived/injured)
- Waived/injured: LB C.J. Avery
Cincinnati Bengals
- Activated from active/PUP list: DE Khalid Kareem
Green Bay Packers
- Activated from active/NFI list: CB Keisean Nixon
Jacksonville Jaguars
- Signed: RB Matt Colburn
- Waived/injured: RB Nathan Cottrell
New York Giants
- Signed: OL Eric Smith
Philadelphia Eagles
- Signed: OT Jarrid Williams
Washington Commanders
- Signed: TE Eli Wolf, S Steven Parker
- Released: QB Cole Kelley, LB Bryce Notree
- Waived/injured: WR Jequez Ezzard
Saffold landed on the NFI list after injuring his ribs in a car accident. Getting their starting left guard back sooner rather than later is an important development for the Bills.
Colburn will take the place of Cottrell in the Jags’ RB room. The Wake Forest product played in four games for the USFL’s Philadelphia Stars this year, garnering 102 rushes for 457 yards (just under 4.5 YPC) and eight scores.
Cottrell has seen action in each of the past two years for Jacksonville, returning seven kicks in 2020 and handling one carry in 2021.
Wolf and Parker get preseason roster positions after successful workouts yesterday. The Commanders are looking for depth at both positions as they work towards a 53-man roster.
Vikings C Garrett Bradbury In Danger Of Losing Starting Job
Vikings center Garrett Bradbury is in danger of losing his starting job, as Mark Craig of the Star Tribune writes. Although Bradbury has handled all of the first-team reps in training camp thus far, head coach Kevin O’Connell admitted that the NC State product does not have the gig sewn up.
That is largely a result of Bradbury’s struggles in pass protection. Over his first three years in the league, his Pro Football Focus pass-blocking grades have ranked last, last, and second-to-last among centers. He is more accomplished as a run blocker, and O’Connell made sure to mention Bradbury’s running game prowess while acknowledging the need for him to improve in pass pro.
“[Pass-blocking is] where we’re challenging him each and every time; technique, technique,” O’Connell said. “He’s got a good anchor when he’s got his feet underneath him. I think he has the strength to hold up. I think he has the technique to hold up. I think we can do some things with how we protect to try to limit some of the [one-on-one] situations by how we scheme up certain fronts.”
Bradbury missed four games in 2021 but has otherwise started every game for the Vikings since turning pro in 2019. Selected in the first round (No. 18 overall) of that year’s draft, his struggles in protecting the quarterback forced Minnesota to decline his fifth-year option for 2023, thereby turning 2022 into a platform year.
As such, Bradbury’s earning power hangs in the balance. A marked improvement in his game could lead to a lucrative multi-year pact, whereas a demotion could see him hit free agency after having spent a full season as a reserve and with major questions marks about his viability as a starting pivot.
If he ends up ceding his starting role, free agent acquisitions Austin Schlottmann (seven career starts) and Chris Reed (29 career starts) could fill the void, although Reed has never played a regular season game at center. Schlottman has been working as the second-team center.
O’Connell believes that Reed can handle a center’s duties, but one would imagine that his preference would be to have Bradbury step up and seize the job. He has yet to do that, having been burned repeatedly by the Vikings’ interior pass rush in the first several weeks of camp.
FA WR John Ross Generating Interest
It sounds as if free agent wide receiver John Ross will find a new employer soon. The No. 9 overall pick of the Bengals in the 2017 draft, Ross spent the 2021 campaign with the Giants and is still recovering from a knee injury that he sustained towards the end of the season.
As such, Ross will begin meeting with teams around the start of the regular season next month, per Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.com (via Twitter). He is expected to be fully healthy by that time, and a number of teams have remained in “consistent contact” with the Washington product.
Injuries have been the prevailing theme of Ross’ career. He possesses blinding speed, but due to various ailments and his inability to impress then-head coach Marvin Lewis, Ross played in just one game in his rookie year in Cincinnati. Though he started 10 games in 2018, he managed only 21 catches for 210 yards, and after a hot start to 2019, he missed another eight games due to injury.
The Bengals made the easy call to decline Ross’ fifth-year option in May 2020, and in his final season in the Queen City, Ross was a healthy scratch for a number of games and requested a trade as a result of his diminished role. Cincy could not find any takers, and Ross eventually landed on IR with a foot injury.
He signed with the Giants in March 2021, and he once again missed time for health reasons. A hamstring malady kept him out of the first few games of the season, and the above-mentioned knee trouble sidelined him towards the end of the year. Still, clubs apparently remain tantalized by his speed and big-play ability, which will buy the 26-year-old another opportunity.
Ross has indeed shown flashes of his potential. In 2019, he caught 28 balls for 506 yards — good for a 18.1 yards-per-reception rate — and in his first and only season with Big Blue, he tallied 11 catches for 224 yards, which represents a career-best 20.4 YPR average. His 43.4% career catch percentage is quite low, but that is largely a function of the routes he is asked to run. If he can ever stay healthy for a full season, his abilities as a bonafide home run threat would be a welcome addition to any number of WR rooms.
Although Fowler did not specify which clubs have expressed interest, the Colts, Cowboys, Packers, and Ravens are just a few of the teams that could still use receiving help.
Bills, FB Reggie Gilliam Agree To Extension
The Bills have signed FB Reggie Gilliam to a two-year extension worth up to $5.2MM, as Mike Garafolo of the NFL Network was first to report (via Twitter). The team subsequently announced the move.
A 2020 UDFA, Gilliam has seen most of his action on special teams, appearing in 504 third-unit snaps in his first two years in the league (as opposed to just 236 offensive snaps). However, he received high marks for his blocking prowess in his limited time on the offensive side of the ball, with Pro Football Focus assigning him a strong 76.3 grade for run-blocking and a stellar 84.7 pass-blocking grade in 2021.
Although he has lined up in the backfield and as a tight end, Gilliam hasn’t gotten many touches. In his career, he has five catches for 39 yards and a TD, to go along with three carries for three yards.
Still, the Bills clearly value his contributions. We do not yet know how much of the above-referenced $5.2MM payout is guaranteed, but as a former UDFA who plays a position that many NFL teams no longer utilize and who does not see nearly as much burn as better-compensated fullbacks like Kyle Juszczyk and Patrick Ricard, Gilliam appears to have done well for himself.
The soon-to-be 25-year-old was eligible for free agency at season’s end but is now under club control through 2024.
Chiefs Cut CB Deandre Baker
The Chiefs have cut cornerback Deandre Baker, as Adam Teicher of ESPN.com reports (via Twitter). After Kansas City injected a great deal of new blood into its CB room this offseason, Baker found himself on the wrong side of the roster bubble.
A first-round pick of the Giants in 2019, Baker played in all 16 games in his rookie season, including 15 starts. He did not perform particularly well, yielding a 116.2 passer rating and earning a poor 48.4 overall grade from Pro Football Focus, but as a Day 1 selection, Baker was in line to get another extended look in 2020 for a rebuilding New York outfit.
However, Baker’s career quickly went off the rails. The Georgia product was alleged to have robbed a party at gunpoint in May 2020, and the Giants had already waived him by the time charges were dropped, thereby ending a sordid saga that included the attorney for three of Baker’s accusers being arrested on extortion charges. Shortly after he was criminally cleared, Baker hooked on with the Chiefs’ taxi squad and wound up appearing in two games (one start) for KC towards the end of the 2020 campaign.
The Chiefs were intrigued enough to retain Baker for the 2021 season, and he appeared in eight games (one start) for the club last year. His performance still left much to be desired, and while Kansas City kept him in the fold this offseason, the team also drafted three corners — including first-round choice Trent McDuffie — and traded for former Texans CB Lonnie Johnson Jr.
Having failed to impress during his limited time in Kansas City, Baker was squeezed out by the new acquisitions. The soon-to-be 25-year-old will surely get another opportunity, as teams are always on the lookout for CB depth (especially when that depth comes with a first-round pedigree). But he will need to start displaying skills commensurate with that pedigree in order to stay in the NFL for the long haul.
Rams’ Van Jefferson To Undergo Surgery
AUGUST 1: McVay said Jefferson will undergo knee surgery Tuesday, though the sixth-year Rams HC described the procedure as minor and indicated the timetable here will be a few weeks, via CBS Sports’ Jonathan Jones (on Twitter). McVay stopped short of guaranteeing Jefferson would be ready for the regular season, however.
JULY 31: Rams wide receiver Van Jefferson will see a knee specialist on Monday, as Ian Rapoport of NFL.com reports (via Twitter). The third-year pro missed practice on Saturday, and in speaking with reporters after practice, head coach Sean McVay did not explicitly say whether Jefferson’s absence was related to his knee.
“We’re figuring that out right now, working through that,” McVay said (via Josh Alper of Pro Football Talk, citing Gary Klein of the Los Angeles Times). “I’ll have more information for you later — like I said, I don’t have anything right now.”
Those comments don’t shed much light on the matter, but Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic says that the coach was clearly concerned about his big-play wideout (Twitter link). McVay is not scheduled to speak with the media today, so we are unlikely to have additional information until Monday at the earliest.
Jefferson played through a knee injury late in the 2021 regular season and throughout the Rams’ postseason run to a Super Bowl title. As Rodrigue notes (via Twitter), Jefferson underwent a knee procedure in the spring, though he appeared to be in good health when training camp opened and was moving well. Per Rapoport, Jefferson could miss a few weeks, and another surgery is on the table.
The Rams selected Jefferson in the second round of the 2020 draft, and he played a key role in the club’s offensive success in 2021. Despite the knee problems, he started all 17 regular season contests, compiling 50 catches for 802 yards (good for a terrific 16.0 yards-per-reception rate) and six TDs. He also started all four postseason games, adding nine more catches for 102 yards.
Los Angeles has an enviable WR corps, with Cooper Kupp, Allen Robinson, and Jefferson as the top three players on the depth chart. The team invests heavily at the position, and if Jefferson is forced to miss time, the Rams have 2021 draftees Tutu Atwell, Jacob Harris, and Ben Skowronek waiting in the wings. An Odell Beckham reunion has consistently been rumored as a possibility, but OBJ may be unable to suit up until November, so the Jefferson situation will not necessarily impact the team’s decision to re-sign Beckham.
In better health-related news for Los Angeles, quarterback Matthew Stafford sounded mostly positive when asked how his arm is feeling after the first week of training camp. The 34-year-old passer did not throw during spring work because of a right elbow injury, but he has been throwing in camp.
“It’s coming along,” Stafford told reporters on Saturday (via Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk). “I’m kind of right where I want to be and just continue to get it feeling better. Get it stronger. You just lose those reps through the offseason and [I’m] trying to gain some of those reps back at the moment.”
Browns Unlikely To Re-Sign C J.C. Tretter
The Browns released center J.C. Tretter in March, and he has lingered on the free agent market ever since, with no concrete reports of interest in his services. However, even if Cleveland was able to re-sign its five-year starter to a team-friendly pact, Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com does not envision such a reunion.
Per Cabot, the Browns would only consider re-signing Tretter if presumptive starter Nick Harris suffers a serious injury. Harris has started only two games in his two-year professional career, but the team is high on his ability and expects the transition from Tretter to Harris to be a smooth one. Indeed, while Tretter’s release saved Cleveland $8.2MM against the cap, the Browns — who currently boast a whopping $48MM+ of cap space — would not have made that move if they were not completely comfortable with Harris at the pivot.
Cabot speculates that teams that might otherwise be interested in Tretter, the NFLPA president, may have soured on him because of the hardline stance he has taken in negotiations with the league over the offseason program (among other things). Still, it is somewhat surprising that a player who has missed only one game since 2017 — a COVID-related absence in 2021 — and who has consistently rated as a high-end starter in the eyes of Pro Football Focus’ advanced metrics has not gotten any bites.
One wonders if Tretter, who is 31 and who has dealt with ankle and knee ailments over the past three seasons, is simply waiting for the right opportunity, or if he is contemplating walking away from the game. His $44MM+ of career earnings would certainly allow him to do that, although Cabot does believe he will eventually sign somewhere.
Echoing her earlier reports on the matter, Cabot says that the Browns are unlikely to add a veteran wideout unless David Bell‘s foot injury lingers. Bell, a third-round rookie, had an impressive spring and is currently penciled in alongside Amari Cooper and Donovan Peoples-Jones at the top of Cleveland’s WR depth chart. But he was recently put on the PUP list and is not expected back for another couple of weeks. If players like 2021 third-rounder Anthony Schwartz or sixth-round rookie Michael Woods II should fail to impress while Bell is sidelined, the Browns could look to the FA and/or trade markets.
One member of the team’s receiver mix, rookie Isaiah Weston, was carted off the practice field yesterday, as Tony Grossi of 850 ESPN Cleveland tweets. As a UDFA, Weston was a longshot to make the team anyway, and even if his injury is serious, it’s unlikely to alter the Browns’ decision-making too much.