Giants, Seahawks Host LB Joe Schobert
Free agent linebacker Joe Schobert has been a full-time starter over the past five years and has averaged over 126 tackles per season during that span, but he is quickly becoming a fixture on the NFL’s workout circuit. Per Aaron Wilson of Pro Football Network, Schobert visited with the Giants and Seahawks this week (Twitter link).
The visit with New York did not produce a deal, as Big Blue opted to sign Jaylon Smith instead. For the moment, at least, Schobert does not have a contract with Seattle either, and he will continue to search for another opportunity.
In 2017, his first and only Pro Bowl campaign, Schobert led the league with 144 tackles, adding an interception, three sacks, three forced fumbles, and four passes defensed. The advanced metrics supported those surface level stats, as Schobert also earned a solid 68.7 overall score from Pro Football Focus, along with a terrific 77.6 mark for his work in run defense.
His proficiency against the run slipped in the following two seasons, although he showed improvement when dropping into coverage. Over the 2018-19 campaigns, the Wisconsin product allowed QB ratings of just 87.5 and 74.6, respectively, and his pass coverage grades from PFF were equally strong. All in all, it was easy enough to justify the Jaguars’ decision to hand him a five-year, $53.75MM deal in March 2020.
However, Schobert was miserable against the pass that year, conceding a 110.0 quarterback rating and landing a 43.7 PFF coverage grade. Though he paced Jacksonville with 141 tackles, the team elected to trade him to the Steelers last August. Pittsburgh head coach Mike Tomlin reportedly believed that Schobert could return to his strong form as a pass defender, but that did not happen. Instead, Schobert struggled against both the pass and the run in 2021 — indeed, the Steelers featured the worst run defense in the league last season — and the club cut ties with Schobert and his hefty base salary in March.
Schobert visited the Saints several months later and signed with the Broncos in August following an injury to Denver starter Jonas Griffith. He evidently failed to make much of an impression, though, as the Broncos released him about a week later. It appears that teams have seen a significant drop-off in Schobert’s performance, and despite his gaudy tackle numbers, he has always struggled with missed tackles. A decline in other areas only magnifies the missed tackle concerns.
The Seahawks, who parted ways with franchise icon Bobby Wagner in March, are presently deploying Jordyn Brooks and Cody Barton as the starting inside ‘backers in their 3-4 scheme. Through the first two weeks of the season, both players have accumulated hefty tackle totals but have not graded out well in PFF’s eyes. In that sense, Schobert might have been redundant, though he certainly would have added some experienced depth, which the ‘Hawks presently lack.
Of course, the club could always circle back to Schobert if he remains on the open market or signs with another team’s taxi squad. Seattle also worked out fellow LB Blake Lynch, who started six games for the Vikings last year.
Latest On Ravens’ Pass Rushing Situation
The Ravens signed veteran edge defender Jason Pierre-Paul earlier this week, and that transaction was consummated in order to offer an immediate boost to the team’s pass rushing contingent. It does not necessarily mean that anything has changed with respect to the prognoses of Tyus Bowser and David Ojabo.
Per Jeff Zrebiec of The Athletic, Baltimore is hopeful that Bowser will be on the field shortly after he is eligible to return from the PUP list (Twitter link). Bowser, who signed a four-year, $22MM contract in March 2021, rewarded the Ravens’ faith in him with a season in which he started all 17 games and registered career-highs in total tackles (59), sacks (seven), tackles for loss (eight), quarterback hits (15), and forced fumbles (two). Unfortunately, he suffered an Achilles tear in the 2021 finale and was placed on the reserve/PUP list in August, thereby guaranteeing that he would miss at least the first four games of the 2022 season.
Bowser does not necessarily excel in any one area, but he is useful against the run, in coverage, and as a pass rusher. His absence became even more significant when the Ravens lost Steven Means to an Achilles tear of his own last week, and Zrebiec’s report suggests that Bowser’s recovery is progressing more or less as expected.
Ojabo, meanwhile, was a first-round talent who fell to the second round of the 2022 draft due to (what else?) an Achilles tear during his Pro Day. GM Eric DeCosta chose to play the long game when he selected Ojabo, who was always expected to miss most, if not all, of his first season in the NFL. Per Zrebiec, the Ravens remain optimistic that the Michigan product can return in the second half of the season.
The Bowser injury and the dearth of proven pass rush talent on the roster meant that many free agent and collegiate edge defenders were connected to the Ravens this offseason (including Pierre-Paul, who first visited the team back in June). However, aside from the Ojabo selection and signing players like Means and Vince Biegel — who, almost predictably, tore his Achilles this summer — Baltimore did very little of note to address its needs in that regard.
The club did bring back Justin Houston, and it should be noted that the tragic death of Jaylon Ferguson also played a role in the team’s current lack of edge depth. The hope is that 2021 first-rounder Odafe Oweh, Houston, and Pierre-Paul can hold down the fort until Bowser and Ojabo are ready to return, though Oweh has been mostly invisible during the first two games of the season. There is plenty of time for him to get on track, but Baltimore was clearly relying on a second-year breakout from him, and he has yet to show signs of such an emergence.
Luckily, Pierre-Paul will not need much of a ramp-up period, as Zrebeic tweets. JPP will not be on the field for Sunday’s matchup with the Patriots, but he is in line to make his Baltimore debut during the club’s Week 4 contest against the Bills.
Broncos Hire Jerry Rosburg As Senior Assistant
The first two regular season games of Nathaniel Hackett‘s head coaching career have not gone particularly smoothly. Hackett’s Broncos suffered an upset defeat at the hands of the Seahawks in Week 1, and while Denver squeezed out a 16-9 win over the Texans in Week 2, the victory had its share of troubling moments.
Hackett has been widely blamed for the Seattle loss. With the Broncos trailing 17-16 in the game’s waning moments, Hackett had to choose between letting quarterback Russell Wilson attempt to convert a fourth-and-five and to continue driving into comfortable field goal range, or to let kicker Brandon McManus attempt a 64-yard FG for the win. Hackett chose the latter option, McManus’ kick was unsuccessful, and the second-guessing began in earnest.
Of course, that decision is not the only reason the Broncos, who saw two different running backs fumble the ball at the Seahawks’ one-yard line on two different drives, lost that contest. However, Hackett did concede after the fact that he made the wrong choice, and his club’s 25 accepted penalties are the most in the league over the first two games of the 2022 campaign. That figure includes four delay-of-game infractions, and a general lack of organization has led to multiple unnecessary timeouts.
To that end, the team has hired longtime NFL coach Jerry Rosburg, 9News’ Mike Klis reports. Adam Schefter of ESPN.com adds (via Twitter) that Rosburg, who will operate under the title of Senior Assistant, has spent the week in Denver and will be in the Broncos’ coaching booth for the team’s Week 3 matchup with the 49ers. Rosburg will assist in gameday operations and decisions.
Earlier this week, Hackett indicated the team would have “good answers moving forward,” but as Jeff Legwold of ESPN.com writes, the rookie HC was not initially planning to add an assistant. It is unclear exactly what convinced Hackett to change his mind, though having another veteran presence who will be specifically tasked with in-game procedure should be a welcome development for Broncos fans.
Rosburg, 66, began his coaching career as the secondary coach for Boston College in 1997. He eventually became the special teams coach for the Browns, Falcons, and Ravens, spending the 2008-18 seasons in Baltimore before announcing his retirement in March 2019. He earned a championship ring with the Ravens, whose Super Bowl XLVII victory featured a key piece of special teams/game management strategy.
Rosburg returns to the NFL on the coaching staff of a team that has a championship-caliber roster but that has some wrinkles to iron out.
Restructure Details: Brockers, Butker, Clark
Here’s a roundup of a few recent contract restructures:
- Michael Brockers, DT (Lions): Detroit converted $4MM of Brockers’ 2022 base salary into a signing bonus, which opened up $2MM of cap room, as Field Yates of ESPN.com tweets. Brockers signed a three-year, $24MM deal with the Lions in March 2021, and he appeared in 16 games (all starts) in his first year in the Motor City. However, he recorded just one sack and earned an abysmal 40.6 overall grade from Pro Football Focus.
- Harrison Butker, K (Chiefs): Butker injured his ankle in Kansas City’s Week 1 win over the Cardinals and missed the club’s Week 2 victory over the Chargers as a result. According to Yates, Butker agreed to convert $2.19MM of his 2022 base salary into a signing bonus, thereby giving KC an additional $1.46MM of cap room (Twitter link). Butker is signed through 2024 and is the league’s 10th-highest-paid kicker by measure of AAV.
- Chuck Clark, S (Ravens): There are no specifics on this one, though Jeff Zrebiec of The Athletic tweets that Baltimore gave Clark a bit of a raise this year and also added some incentives to his deal. The Ravens doled out a big-ticket free agent contract to safety Marcus Williams in March and selected Notre Dame safety Kyle Hamilton in the first round of the draft, and Clark subsequently requested a trade. However, it eventually became clear that Clark would continue to play a prominent role on the defense in 2022, and in the team’s Week 1 victory over the Jets, the Virginia Tech product played in all 84 defensive snaps and tallied eight tackles and a forced fumble while continuing to wear the green dot. He is under club control through 2023 and was slated to earn $1.25MM in base pay this year. Per Zrebiec, this transaction represents a show of appreciation for how Clark handled himself this offseason.
- Desmond King, DB (Texans): The Texans have converted $911K of King’s 2022 salary into a signing bonus, thereby creating $455K of cap space (Twitter link via Yates). King re-signed with Houston this offseason after appearing in 16 games (12 starts) for the club in 2021 and posting 93 tackles to go along with three interceptions. His two-year contract is worth $7MM.
Cardinals WR Rondale Moore To Miss Multiple Weeks
Cardinals wide receiver Rondale Moore sustained a hamstring injury in practice earlier this month, and he missed the club’s regular season opener as a result. Per Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.com, Moore is expected to miss several more weeks (Twitter link).
That news is not overly surprising, as the original report on the hamstring ailment described it as “serious.” Per Fowler, Arizona will exercise caution here but expects its second-year wideout to avoid IR and to return to the field within a month.
The injury came at an especially unfortunate time for Moore, who was in line for an increased workload in the wake of DeAndre Hopkins‘ six-game suspension and Christian Kirk‘s free agency departure. The diminutive speedster caught most of his passes behind the line of scrimmage in his rookie season, though he was expected to have an expanded route tree and to have more opportunities to operate in space in 2022.
There is still time for that to happen, because when Hopkins is reinstated, it would be fair to expect that he and draft-day trade acquisition Marquise Brown will operate outside the numbers and that Moore will assume Kirk’s role in the slot, which was the plan before Moore’s injury. Nonetheless, the team is also rostering Greg Dortch, A.J. Green, Andy Isabella, and Andre Baccellia, with Brown, Dortch, and Isabella all representing viable slot options. So any lost time is significant for Moore at this point.
Isabella, however, will also miss the team’s Week 2 matchup against the Raiders due to a back injury. Brown, Dortch, and Green will serve as quarterback Kyler Murray‘s top options as the Cardinals seek to rebound from their Week 1 blowout loss at the hands of the Chiefs.
Giants CB Cor’Dale Flott To Start In Week 2
Giants starting cornerback Aaron Robinson will miss several weeks following his appendix removal, and rookie Cor’Dale Flott will start in his place in the team’s Week 2 matchup against the Panthers on Sunday, per Dan Duggan of The Athletic (Twitter link). Flott, a third-round choice in the 2022 draft, played just two special teams snaps in New York’s opener last week, so this will represent an early test of the rookie’s mettle.
Flott lost this summer’s slot cornerback battle with third-year pro Darnay Holmes, and Big Blue deployed a starting CB trio of Robinson, Adoree’ Jackson, and Holmes in Week 1. It appears that Flott, a 6-1 defender who has a three-inch height advantage over Holmes, will operate opposite Jackson on the boundaries while Holmes will remain in the slot.
The Giants pulled off a surprising upset over the Titans last week, but as Nic Bodiford of Pro Football Focus (subscription required) observes, the club did surrender seven completions of 15 yards or more, the fifth-highest total in the league. The task will not get any easier this week, as Carolina features D.J. Moore and Robbie Anderson at the top of its WR depth chart. Panthers QB Baker Mayfield will likely attempt to attack Flott early and often with his speedy, talented wideouts.
Flott, an LSU product, has the speed and length to compete with players like Moore and Anderson, but he entered the league as something of a raw prospect who would need a little time to reach his ceiling. However, the Giants made James Bradberry a cap casualty this offseason, and the team is paper-thin at the CB position at the moment. Nick McCloud is dealing with a hamstring injury, leaving recent waiver claim Justin Layne and Fabian Moreau — who was promoted from the taxi squad yesterday — as the only healthy backups.
Despite their cornerback woes, the Giants are a slight favorite today as they seek to move to 2-0 for the first time since 2016.
Packers WR Amari Rodgers Near Bottom Of Depth Chart
Packers wide receiver Amari Rodgers was the only pass-catcher the team selected in the 2021 draft, and following the offseason departures of wideouts Davante Adams, Marquez Valdes-Scantling, and Equanimeous St. Brown, it was fair to expect Rodgers to assume a larger role in 2022. However, it appears that Rodgers is currently near the bottom of the WR depth chart, and as Tom Silverstein of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writes, it’s unclear if that will be changing in the near future.
Rodgers appeared in only 103 offensive snaps in his rookie year, and his primary contributions came as a return specialist. That trend continued in Green Bay’s 2022 opener against the Vikings, as Rodgers did not see any action on the offensive side of the ball and returned one kickoff for 14 yards and one punt for 12 yards. Meanwhile, rookies Christian Watson and Romeo Doubs saw 40 and 35 offensive snaps, respectively, while veterans Randall Cobb and Sammy Watkins enjoyed similar usage rates. After missing the Minnesota contest, Allen Lazard is expected to return for Sunday’s game against the Bears, which will serve as yet another obstacle to playing time for Rodgers.
Silverstein says Watson and Doubs “are the priority” when it comes to getting snaps to young receivers, and when asked about Amari Rodgers during his Wednesday press conference, quarterback Aaron Rodgers said simply, “he’s returning [kicks] for us right now. That’s all I got.” Amari Rodgers did not take offense to that statement, saying, “I mean, that’s what I am. He’s really speaking fact. I can’t do nothing about that.”
Still, it’s a disappointing development for a player who was a third-round draft choice just one year ago, who lost 20 pounds over the offseason, and who finished the preseason in strong fashion (Amari Rodgers lined up at wide receiver and running back in the Packers’ preseason finale against the Chiefs and notched four catches for 39 yards and three carries for 17 yards). After getting more reps out of the backfield towards the end of training camp, he is, at least, the third RB on the depth chart as of the time of this writing.
Offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich does expect Amari Rodgers to have a role on the offense this year. “Where you are Week 1 doesn’t necessarily mean that’s where you’re going to be Week 5,” Stenavich said. “So, I wouldn’t say he doesn’t have a role. He has a role. He’s going to have some sort of role on the field this year.”
For now, though, it looks like Amari Rodgers will need to continue trying to get the coaches’ attention in practice and as a returner or running back. With five receivers above him in the pecking order, he has a long way to go to earn a meaningful spot as a wideout this year.
Chiefs DE Frank Clark Resolves Criminal Charges
2021 was a difficult year for Chiefs DE Frank Clark from a legal perspective. In March 2021, the three-time Pro Bowler was arrested for possession of a concealed firearm, and in June 2021, he was arrested again when police officers conducted a traffic stop and noticed an Uzi in an open bag in Clark’s vehicle. Earlier this month, it was reported that Clark has resolved those charges.
Per the Associated Press, Clark pleaded no contest to two counts of misdemeanor possession of an assault weapon, and he was sentenced to one year of probation and 40 hours of community service. Charean Williams of Pro Football Talk writes that Clark will be due back in court on March 29, 2023 to prove that he has completed his sentence. Williams also notes that the judge required Clark to host four free youth football camps, which he has already done.
Now 29, Clark was rumored as a release candidate earlier this year given the hefty cap charges that he was due to carry over the 2022-23 seasons. Rather than release him, Kansas City ultimately decided to keep Clark in the fold via a new two-year deal worth $29MM (with incentives that could push that number to $36MM).
Over the first two games of the 2022 campaign, both Chiefs wins, Clark has appeared in 60% of the team’s defensive snaps. He has yet to record a sack and has posted three total tackles.
Under his present contract, Clark is due a $20.5MM base salary in 2023, and KC can release him to save $10MM against the cap while incurring a $9.075MM dead money charge. Given his declining sack totals over the past several years and his slow start to the current season, a release or another restructure presently looks like the most likely outcome next offseason.
As Williams observes, Clark could still face punishment under the league’s personal conduct policy for the gun charges.
Lamar Jackson Rejected Six-Year, $290MM+ Offer
One of the most prevalent NFL storylines this offseason has been the Ravens’ extension negotiations with star quarterback Lamar Jackson, and we learned on Friday that the two sides had not come to terms. As such, it is likely that contract talks will be tabled until the offseason.
We now have more details on Baltimore’s most recent offer. Per ESPN’s Chris Mortensen, the Ravens proposed a six-year deal worth over $290MM, which included $133MM guaranteed at signing (Twitter link). The full guarantees and the average annual value would have eclipsed the figures included in the recent contracts signed by Denver’s Russell Wilson ($124MM fully guaranteed, $48.5MM AAV) and Arizona’s Kyler Murray ($103.3MM fully guaranteed, $46.5MM AAV). Indeed, Mortensen says that Wilson’s pact — which was signed just 10 days ago — prompted the Ravens to up their offer.
As has become increasingly clear, Jackson wants his entire contract to be fully guaranteed, just like the one the Browns gave to Deshaun Watson. Of course, clubs are trying to treat the Watson accord as an outlier, and Wilson and Murray clearly did not object to that approach. According to veteran NFL reporter Josina Anderson, Baltimore was frustrated that Jackson, unlike Wilson and Murray, did not accept that unique circumstances precipitated Watson’s deal (Twitter links).
Anderson adds that helping elite quarterbacks land fully guaranteed contracts in the future is important to Jackson (links to Twitter). One wonders if the NFLPA — which, as Mortensen tweets, counseled the agentless Jackson — might have influenced the 2019 MVP in that regard, though there is presently nothing to suggest that is the case.
If Jackson continues to bet on himself and takes the “Kirk Cousins approach” to the situation — i.e., forcing the Ravens to put the franchise tag on him in 2023 and ’24 — he would earn around $100MM in guaranteed money over those two seasons, along with the $23MM he is earning in 2022. In 2025, when the cap charge of a third franchise tag becomes untenable, Jackson could theoretically have the leverage to get the fully guaranteed deal he desires from Baltimore or another franchise.
That obviously assumes that his play remains at a high level and that he does not suffer a career-altering injury, though Anderson hears that Jackson is essentially bullet-proof; no matter what happens to him (barring something completely catastrophic), sources expect him to ultimately get what he wants (Twitter links). That may or may not be true, but it is clearly a risk Jackson is willing to take.
We heard previously that the negotiations have not led to any acrimony between Jackson and the Ravens, and for what it’s worth, the union believes the team has negotiated in good faith (Twitter link via Mortensen). Baltimore did include $2.5MM “de-escalator” clauses if Jackson did not attend a certain percentage of offseason workouts, though it’s unlikely that particular provision had much of an impact in talks.
For now, the Ravens and Jackson will turn their attention to Sunday’s opener against the Jets, the start of another campaign in which expectations are high for player and team.
Rams Were Interested In Jimmy Garoppolo
The 49ers temporarily put the Jimmy Garoppolo rumors to bed when they agreed to a reworked contract with the veteran passer at the end of August. San Francisco had been trying all offseason to work out a trade, but at the beginning of training camp, the club approached Garoppolo about sticking around as Trey Lance‘s backup. No other club had a starting job materialize throughout the course of the preseason, so Garoppolo eventually accepted the Niners’ proposal.
However, if San Francisco had released Garoppolo — which was long seen as the most likely outcome if a trade did not come to fruition — the division-rival Rams were prepared to pounce, as Adam Schefter of ESPN.com reports. While it was well-known that another NFC West outfit, the Seahawks, may have attempted to sign Garoppolo if he had hit the open market, Schefter says the 49ers were unaware of Los Angeles’ interest until after the restructured deal was consummated (interestingly, Schefter also writes that the Rams and Garoppolo had the “makings of a deal” in place, which raises tampering concerns; the 49ers had given Garoppolo permission to seek a trade, but not to negotiate a potential free agent contract).
In LA, Garoppolo would have been the backup to Matthew Stafford, who did not throw during spring work due to right elbow issues. Obviously, the team was comfortable enough with Stafford’s prognosis to hand him a hefty extension in March, and in the run-up to the Rams’ Week 1 loss to the Bills on Thursday, head coach Sean McVay said his QB would not have any limitations (via Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic (subscription required)). Despite those confident words, Stafford is 34, has dealt with tendinitis that required an anti-inflammatory injection in the spring, and has thrown over 7,000 regular season and postseason passes in his pro career. Per Ian Rapoport of NFL.com, Stafford went into the Buffalo game feeling better than he did throughout the 2021 season, though an accomplished QB2 certainly would have made sense for a team that has its eyes on a second consecutive championship.
Many have interpreted the 49ers’ decision to keep Garoppolo in the fold as an indictment on Lance’s performance this summer. The team, naturally, has continued to publicly express full faith in Lance, but Jason La Canfora of the Washington Post says that sources around the league do not believe San Francisco is as confident in its second-year passer as it professes to be. As one general manager told La Canfora, “It’s not what you say; it’s what you do and when you do it. A deal like that doesn’t come together overnight, and it got done right before the season. That tells you all you need to know. They think they need their backup to play.”
Albert Breer of SI.com says Garoppolo’s return was somewhat difficult for Lance to stomach at first, though he does not believe Lance will allow the decision to impact him moving forward. And, in contrast to La Canfora’s sources, Rapoport and NFL.com colleague Tom Pelissero hear that Lance does not have a short leash and that the 49ers are definitely “his team.” The NFL.com duo reiterates that, assuming the Niners do not need to call on Garoppolo this year, a midseason trade of Jimmy G is still an option, especially since his new contract makes the financials more palatable for an interested club.