Colts Place LB Darius Leonard On PUP List
The Colts have placed linebacker Darius Leonard on the PUP list, as Stephen Holder of ESPN.com writes. This was the expected move after Leonard underwent back surgery in June.
It seems that a nerve issue in Leonard’s back caused the ankle pain that ailed him throughout the 2021 season and continued to give him trouble this spring (despite the fact that he had the ankle operated on in June 2021). Per Holder, the team has not indicated when Leonard will return to the field, but the most recent reporting on the matter suggested that he would be available near the start of training camp, which opens this week.
Despite the injury concerns, Leonard performed at his usual stellar level in 2021, earning his third First Team All-Pro bid in his fourth professional season. Pro Football Focus assigned him a 79.0 overall grade, which was the sixth-highest mark among all qualified LBs and Leonard’s best showing since 2018, when he led the league with 163 total tackles and earned Defensive Rookie of the Year honors.
The centerpiece of Indianapolis’ defense, Leonard offers considerable playmaking ability along with his tackling acumen. He has accrued 11 interceptions and 17 forced fumbles in his career, including four picks and an NFL-best eight FFs last season. His efforts landed him a five-year, $99.25MM extension last August, which made him the highest-paid off-ball ‘backer in league history in terms of AAV. Obviously, his health will be one of the Colts’ primary concerns heading into the 2022 season.
Joining Leonard on the PUP list are defensive end Tyquan Lewis, safety Rodney McLeod, and wideout Mike Strachan. DT Eric Johnson, a fifth-round rookie, is on the NFI list.
Bills CB Tre’Davious White To Open Camp On PUP List; G Rodger Saffold On NFI List
Bills cornerback Tre’Davious White will start training camp on the PUP list, as Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets. That does not come as much of a surprise given that White sustained a torn ACL in November.
Rapoport does note that White is “in a good place” in his recovery. It is still unclear when the two-time Pro Bowler will be able to return to the field, and he is a candidate to open the season on IR. If he is not ready to go for Week 1, Buffalo will likely deploy first-round rookie Kaiir Elam and Dane Jackson — who acquitted himself well when filling in for White last year — as its starting boundary corners.
White, who had signed a four-year, $70MM extension a little more than a year before suffering the ACL tear, was in the midst of a terrific 2021 campaign. His yards-per-completion (9.9) and yards-per-target (5.2) figures represented career-best marks, and he was surrendering a meager 60.8 QB rating on passes thrown in his direction. He had also posted 41 tackles, one forced fumble, six passes defensed, and one interception. The Bills have legitimate championship aspirations, and White’s healthy return will be instrumental to the club’s push for its first Lombardi Trophy.
Meanwhile, offseason acquisition Rodger Saffold will open camp on the NFI list after injuring his ribs in a recent car accident, per Joe Buscaglia of The Athletic (via Twitter). Head coach Sean McDermott did not put a timeline on Saffold’s return, saying only that the 34-year-old will return “in due time.”
Saffold spent the last three seasons with the Titans and earned the first Pro Bowl nod of his career in 2021. Tennessee released him in a cost-cutting move in March, and he signed with the Bills several days later. He projects as Buffalo’s starting left guard.
Fellow guard Ike Boettger, who started 10 games for the Bills last season, finds himself on the PUP list after sustaining an Achilles tear towards the end of the 2021 season. DT Eli Ankou, a reserve/futures player who notched one sack and nine tackles in five games for Buffalo last year, joins him and White on that list.
Bengals Unlikely To Trade Jessie Bates
The Bengals and safety Jessie Bates were unable to agree to terms on a new contract prior to the July 15 deadline for franchise-tagged players to sign an extension, and Bates is not planning to attend the team’s training camp. Still, Cincinnati does not plan to trade its fifth-year DB, as ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler said during an appearance on the Ari Meirov NFL Show (video link).
“The time to do it would’ve been before the deadline,” Fowler said (h/t Doug Kyed of Pro Football Focus (subscription required)). “Talking to people involved, I think the player would be very surprised, too. The Bengals haven’t shown a willingness to move him.”
Despite something of a down 2021 regular season, there surely would have been clubs interested in dealing for Bates and giving him a contract near the top of the safety market if the Bengals had entertained trade talks before July 15. Now, though, any acquiring club would be on the hook for the $12.9MM salary and cap number associated with Bates’ franchise tender, and not many teams can comfortably absorb such a charge at this point in the year. Plus, Cincinnati’s return for a safety who may turn into a one-year rental would likely be limited.
Bates has not yet signed his tender — which means that he cannot be fined for skipping training camp — but he will either need to sign it at some point or sit out the entire 2022 campaign, which seems highly unlikely. The only player in recent history to go that route was Le’Veon Bell, and with the benefit of hindsight, it is difficult to argue that was a good move for Bell’s career.
Cincinnati is also rostering Vonn Bell and first-round rookie Dax Hill, who took every OTA rep as the team’s starting free safety in Bates’ absence. The early returns on Hill have been positive, and while it should be expected that Bates will show up before he starts losing game checks, a parting of the ways in 2023 looks like a very real possibility.
Bell is also entering a platform year, and the Bengals may have found his eventual successor as well when they nabbed Tycen Anderson in the fifth round of this year’s draft. With quarterback Joe Burrow eligible for an extension at season’s end, Cincinnati is clearly looking for cost-controlled talent at non-premium positions.
Latest On Titans’ RT, LG Competitions
Second-year pro Dillon Radunz has the chance to win the Titans’ starting right tackle job, per Jim Wyatt of the team’s official website. That jibes with an ESPN report from last month, and it makes plenty of sense given that Radunz was selected in the second round of the 2021 draft with the expectation that he would be a long-term bookend on Tennessee’s O-line.
The possibility of Radunz competing for the team’s other OL vacancy, left guard, was floated earlier this year. HC Mike Vrabel subsequently indicated that the team would be focusing on Radunz as an RT candidate, although he will have to fend off 2022 third-rounder Nicholas Petit-Frere, who presently appears to be the most significant threat to his playing time. In his rookie campaign, Radunz started just one game while learning and developing behind former right tackle David Quessenberry, who signed with the Bills this offseason. According to Wyatt, Radunz has looked more comfortable during OTAs and minicamp, but obviously training camp will be a better gauge of where he stands.
While Radunz and Petit-Frere are battling it out for the right tackle slot, Wyatt confirms that Aaron Brewer and Jamarco Jones are the top candidates for the LG gig, as we heard several weeks ago (and throughout the offseason). Brewer, a 2020 UDFA, has started six games for Tennessee in his first two professional seasons, five of which came last year. Jones, meanwhile, signed a two-year, $5.75MM contract with the Titans in March, and one of his primary selling points was his versatility. Despite dealing with injury problems throughout his brief career, the 2018 fifth-round pick of the Seahawks has seen action all over the O-line.
Both Brewer and Jones received sub-par marks from Pro Football Focus for their 2021 work. This offseason, Jones has managed to stay healthy and has, in Wyatt’s estimation, demonstrated improvement, while Brewer missed time due to injury. Brewer’s familiarity with the offense will help, and Wyatt believes the Texas State product will ultimately win the LG job, but that battle will be one of the most hotly-contested for the Titans this summer. Whichever player emerges as the starter will have big shoes to fill, as Rodger Saffold had become a reliable fixture on the interior and earned his first Pro Bowl bid in 2021. He became a cap casualty in March and signed with Buffalo a week before Quessenberry.
The Titans finished the 2021 regular season with the No. 1 overall seed in the AFC. While Vrabel’s outfit fell to the Bengals in the divisional round of the playoffs, the club still has its eyes set on another deep postseason run. As such, Wyatt confirms that Tennessee will look at the free agent and trade markets if the RT and/or LG competitions are not going well.
Of course, the players who are on the free agent market at this point in the calendar year are generally available for a reason. The top RTs include Bryan Bulaga, Daryl Williams, and Marcus Cannon, all of whom were released by their previous clubs in March and who have not generated any reported interest since. Similarly, the Commanders released LG Ereck Flowers in March, and while our own Ely Allen noted that the former top-10 pick could make plenty of sense for Tennessee, we have not heard of any interest in his services.
Laurent Duvernay-Tardif may be an appealing option for the Titans if Brewer and Jones fail to impress, but LDT may not want to continue his NFL career. Nonetheless, potentially intriguing players could be cut as we get closer to the regular season, and GM Jon Robinson may be able to swing a trade if the FA market does not bear fruit.
Colts’ Bernhard Raimann Could Become Week 1 LT Starter
New Colts quarterback Matt Ryan will operate behind a number of top-tier blockers in 2022, including All-World performer Quenton Nelson at left guard, three-time Pro Bowler Ryan Kelly at the pivot, and Braden Smith — who signed a four-year, $70MM extension one year ago — at right tackle. The left tackle and right guard spots, however, remain up for grabs.
Of course, the LT job is the most important one on the line, and Matt Pryor is currently penciled in as the Week 1 starter on Ryan’s blindside. The problem is that Pryor, a 2018 sixth-round pick of the Eagles, has just one start at left tackle in his career, which came in the penultimate game of the 2021 season as an injury replacement for Eric Fisher. Indianapolis acquired Pryor in a minor trade in advance of final cutdowns last August, which is indicative of his generally underwhelming performance during his two-year stint in Philadelphia.
On the other hand, Pryor demonstrated marked improvement in an admittedly small sample size with the Colts last year. In 438 offensive snaps, the TCU product did not allow a sack and earned a strong 76.5 overall grade from Pro Football Focus. PFF ranked him as the 25th-best tackle in the game — he also saw time at right tackle as a fill-in for Smith — and gave him high marks for both his pass-blocking and run-blocking acumen. The Colts were sufficiently impressed to re-sign Pyror to a one-year, $5.5MM contract this offseason, while Fisher remains a free agent.
Indianapolis did, however, select Central Michigan’s Bernhard Raimann, a First-Team All-MAC left tackle last year, in the third round of April’s draft. Per Mike Chappell of Fox59.com, Pryor will open training camp with the first-stringers, but Raimann, who is viewed as the long-term solution at LT, will be given “every opportunity” to win the job.
It’s not difficult to see why the Colts are so optimistic about Raimann. Even though he began his collegiate career as a tight end and just converted to tackle in 2020, Lance Zierlien of NFL.com says the Austrian native is much more developed as a technician than one might expect. That technique combined with a tight end’s athleticism make Raimann an intriguing prospect, and while he still has plenty of work to do to reach his ceiling, it sounds as if he has a good chance to step right into a starting role as a rookie.
If that happens, then Pryor — who saw time at guard with Indy last year and whose work with the Eagles came on the interior of the line — could compete with 2020 fifth-rounder Danny Pinter for the RG gig.
“We’ll get the best five [O-linemen] on the field,” GM Chris Ballard said. “Whatever the coaches think are the best five, we’ll get them on the field.”
Cardinals WR Rondale Moore In Store For Increased Workload
Cardinals WR Rondale Moore is expected to see more of the field in 2022, as Doug Kyed of Pro Football Focus writes (subscription required). Given the departure of Christian Kirk in free agency and the six-game suspension that DeAndre Hopkins will serve to start the season, that should not come as much of a surprise, but it is noteworthy nonetheless.
Head coach Kliff Kingsbury acknowledged earlier this year that Moore — who saw 45% of Arizona’s offensive snaps in his rookie campaign in 2021 — will be a bigger part of the offense, and he specifically referenced the need to give the second-year pro more opportunities in space. Indeed, Moore’s size (5-7, 180) makes it difficult for him to physically dominate off the line of scrimmage, and his high-end speed will be best-utilized if QB Kyler Murray can get him the ball with room to run.
Interestingly, Moore’s ostensible big-play potential was not put on display last year. The Purdue product posted a measly 1.2-yard average depth of target in 2021, which, according to Kevin Cole of Pro Football Focus, was the third-lowest mark among rookie wideouts since 2006 (subscription required). Especially surprising is the fact that, of Moore’s 54 receptions, 37 came behind the line of scrimmage (h/t Neil Dutton of 4for4.com). And, as Cole posits, Arizona’s draft-day acquisition of similarly diminutive speed merchant Marquise Brown could mean that the club does not see Moore as a legitimate field stretcher.
The good news for Moore is that he was quite efficient with his targets, as one would hope for a player running primarily short and intermediate routes. His 54 catches came on just 64 passes thrown in his direction, good for a terrific 84.4% catch rate despite a low 8.1 yards-per-reception average.
Per Alex Sutton of CardsWire.com, the slot receiver role vacated by Kirk is generally assumed to belong to Moore. That is where he saw the majority of his snaps in 2021, and that familiarity can only help. Both Kingsbury and assistant head coach Shawn Jefferson have said that they will expand Moore’s route tree in 2022, and even if he is not asked to run many go routes in 2022, the presence of Brown — and Hopkins, when he returns from suspension — could open up the field for Moore to make the most of his speed and post significant YAC.
In addition to his expected uptick in snaps on the offensive side of the ball, Moore still projects as the club’s primary return man. He returned 21 punts and 13 kickoffs last year, though his averages (8.1 yards per punt return, 22.4 yards per kick return) were not particularly notable.
During Hopkins’ absence, the Cards are expected to have Brown and A.J. Green receive the bulk of the work outside the numbers.
CB Joejuan Williams Unlikely To Make Patriots’ Roster?
Patriots cornerback Joejuan Williams is presently a longshot to earn a place on New England’s 53-man roster, per Mike Reiss of ESPN.com. Given the uncertainty surrounding the club’s cornerback room, failing to make the cut would be rather damning for Williams.
In his weekly piece touching on 10 topics concerning the Patriots — in which he cites a subscription-only article he published after mandatory minicamp in June — Reiss examines the shortcomings of the Pats’ 2019 draft class. That group sustained another blow earlier this week when the team traded its first pick in that year’s draft, wide receiver N’Keal Harry, to the Bears in exchange for a 2024 seventh-rounder. Williams, the No. 45 overall pick in 2019, could be next up on the chopping block.
New England moved up 13 spots to nab Williams, doing so with the belief that his size (6-3, 212) would allow him to match up well with larger receivers and tight ends. That has not, unfortunately, proven to be the case.
After appearing in just 80 defensive snaps in his rookie season, Williams took a step forward in terms of playing time in each of the next two years, but that did not come with a corresponding improvement in play. In 2021, the Vanderbilt product saw action in 35% of the Patriots’ defensive snaps in the regular season, but he was also deactivated for five games — including three of the final four contests of the regular season — and struggled mightily in his two starts.
One of those starts came in the team’s wildcard round loss to the Bills, and Williams was inserted into the lineup for that game only because Jalen Mills had landed on the COVID-19 list. In New England’s 47-17 drubbing at the hands of its division rival, Buffalo quarterback Josh Allen completed four of the five passes he threw in Williams’ direction, racking up 72 yards and a TD. That performance is emblematic of Williams’ struggles as a whole throughout his pro career, as he has allowed opposing passers to generate a 113.4 QB rating and has yet to record an interception (h/t Bernd Buchmasser of PatsPulpit.com).
Plus, after carving out a role as a core special-teamer in 2020, Williams also saw a lessened workload on the Pats’ third unit, appearing in just 25% of the club’s ST snaps in 2021 after posting a 47% number the year before. All told, he certainly looks like a player on the wrong side of the roster bubble.
As noted above, however, the Patriots’ cornerback contingent is not exactly a top-flight crew, with Mills, Malcolm Butler, Terrance Mitchell, and fourth-round rookie Jack Jones penciled in as the top boundary corners. Jones may well find himself in the starting lineup sooner rather than later, and a strong training camp could allow Williams to force his way back into the picture in Foxborough. Even if that does not happen, his draft pedigree should allow him to find another opportunity on a team that believes his potential can be unlocked with a change of scenery.
Buccaneers Not Interested In Jimmy Garoppolo
On Friday, Grant Cohn of SI.com published an article suggesting that the Buccaneers want to trade for 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo and install him as Tom Brady‘s successor. The report stemmed from a conversation that Dan Sileo, a former NFL defensive tackle and current sports radio host, had with renowned agent Don Yee.
Yee represents both Garoppolo and Brady, who shared a quarterback room in New England for three-plus seasons after the Patriots drafted Garoppolo in 2014. However, while a Brady-Garoppolo reunion would certainly be an interesting story, there are a number of issues that would make such a trade difficult. Although Brady is entering his age-45 campaign and briefly retired this offseason, he is still playing at a high level, and Tampa may want him back in 2023 if the legendary signal-caller wants to continue his career. Plus, Garoppolo, who comes with a laundry list of injury problems and whose throwing shoulder surgery in March already complicated the Niners’ trade talks with other clubs, is due a $24.2MM salary this year. Although the 49ers are willing to let their 30-year-old passer negotiate a new contract with interested teams, the money that Garoppolo will want and the uncertainty of Brady’s future would make it difficult for Garoppolo and the Bucs to find middle ground.
Of course, all of those obstacles would only come into play if the Buccaneers truly wanted Garoppolo. Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times throws cold water on that notion, saying, “Not a chance” (Twitter link). Stroud cites an unnamed Buccaneers coach who said, “[i]f (Garoppolo) could throw a deep ball, he would’ve won two Super Bowls already.”
The 49ers doubtlessly welcome any reports of outside interest in Garoppolo — reports that Yee might be trying to drum up — as the club does not have many potential trade partners at the moment. The Panthers took themselves out of the running when they traded for Baker Mayfield earlier this week, and if Mayfield’s prior team, the Browns, receive good news vis-a-vis Deshaun Watson‘s expected suspension, then Cleveland likely would not be in the market for Garoppolo either. Without the Browns in the picture, the 49ers may be forced to wait for another club to suffer injury or underperformance during training camp or the preseason to consummate a trade, or they may end up with no choice but to release Garoppolo before Week 1, when his salary becomes guaranteed.
Ben Volin of the Boston Globe offers a few potential landing spots other than Cleveland, but those are all imperfect, speculative fits. The list includes teams with established starters like the Raiders (Derek Carr) and clubs that have young quarterbacks that they want to continue evaluating, like the Texans (Davis Mills) and the Giants (Daniel Jones).
Ravens QB Lamar Jackson On Contract Negotiations
When asked during his fourth annual “Funday with LJ” event on Saturday if he and the Ravens will agree to a new deal before training camp begins on July 26, Baltimore quarterback Lamar Jackson said, “[h]opefully. I’m not going to say ‘yeah’ right now. Hopefully. But it’s God’s timing” (via Safid Deen of USA Today). Jackson added that he is not presently considering a training camp holdout.
Jackson’s contract status has been the biggest storyline surrounding the Ravens this offseason. The 2019 MVP is scheduled to earn just over $23MM in 2022 under the fifth-year option of his rookie deal, but the booming quarterback market and the cost of a franchise tag in 2023 (roughly $35MM) suggest that Baltimore would want to work out a long-term extension sooner rather than later.
According to the team, the reason that a deal is not in place, or at least closer to the finish line, is because Jackson had not come to the table to negotiate. But there are other complicating factors. The fact that Jackson represents himself is one of them, as is his statistical regression from his MVP campaign — first in QBR in 2019, seventh in 2020, and 17th in 2021 — his sprained ankle that ended his 2021 season prematurely, and the fact that much of his value is tied to his running ability. Then there is the matter of Deshaun Watson‘s fully-guaranteed five-year, $230MM contract with the Browns, though Jackson has implied that Watson’s deal will not have any bearing on his own.
In November 2021, it was reported that Jackson was targeting a contract with a $45MM AAV and that the Ravens were not willing to go that far. The team was reportedly amenable to $40MM/year pact, but of course, cash flow and guarantees are the true indicators of a contract’s value. Speculatively, it could be that the gulf between the two sides was such that the quarterback felt further engagement in contract talks would have been a fruitless endeavor, and that he would be better off playing out the 2022 season to prove that he is deserving of a top-of-the-market pact. To be clear, Jackson has never suggested as much, though he did reportedly tell the team he was focused on having the best possible year and did not want to discuss a contract until after the 2022 campaign.
There was something of a sea change at mandatory minicamp in June, when Jackson and Baltimore GM Eric DeCosta touched base on the contract situation. It is unclear where negotiations stand at this point, but his comments yesterday indicate that Jackson is now willing to put this matter behind him before the end of the year.
As Deen observes, Jackson recently made some waves on social media when he changed his Instagram profile picture and his Twitter header to a picture of a mouth with a gold grill that reads “I Need $.” The image is from a movie called “How High” starring rappers Method Man and Redman, and Jackson says he simply found it amusing and wanted to post it. It was not, he asserts, intended to be a comment on his dealings with the Ravens.
“I don’t know why people are blowing it up,” Jackson said. “I just saw Bleacher Report post it. They just take anything that’s posted on social media and just blow it up, and try to think for you. I don’t take it too seriously. … Our contract discussion is going on already. But it ain’t about that though. I’m not putting my business life on social media. I won’t ever do that. I won’t put my personal life on social media. I’ll show stuff, but I won’t throw subliminal [messages] out. That’s not me.”
His remark that “our contract discussion is going on already” is certainly notable given the history of his extension talks. It would seem that neither player nor team would want to continue negotiating into the regular season, but there is no real deadline since Jackson is not playing under the franchise tag. So while a new deal may be likelier now than it was a month ago, it is still difficult to put any sort of timeframe on it.
Dolphins, TE Mike Gesicki Unlikely To Agree To Extension?
The Dolphins and franchise-tagged tight end Mike Gesicki “have not really engaged” in contract talks, as Mike Garafolo of the NFL Network reports (video link). Gesicki, who signed the franchise tender back in March, is set to earn $10.9MM in 2022.
In April, Gesicki offered a few comments on the matter that made it sound as if Miami was not prepared to commit to a long-term contract for its 2018 second-rounder, even though the club is willing to keep him in the fold on an eight-figure salary for the upcoming season. “I am absolutely open to negotiation, but it’s not really up to me,” he said. “If they reach out, my agent will be listening.”
Since those comments were made, the Browns and fellow franchise-tagged TE David Njoku agreed to an extension that features an average annual value just shy of $14MM, making Njoku a top-five tight end in terms of AAV. Gesicki, who has thus far been the more productive of the two players, will doubtlessly be trying to top that mark, as well as Njoku’s $28MM in practical guarantees.
The deadline for tagged players to sign multi-year deals is July 15. Garafolo acknowledges that deadlines spur action, and that a deal can theoretically come together over the next few days. However, given that there have been virtually no negotiations to this point, it seems as if player and team will be revisiting the situation in 2023. At that time, Gesicki could well be the top tight end on the free agent market, particularly if Cowboys and TE Dalton Schultz — another player who has been slapped with the franchise tag — can work out an extension before July 15.
If the Dolphins want to hit Gesicki with a second franchise tag next offseason to prevent him from getting to the open market, they would be committing to a salary of roughly $13.08MM — 120% of his 2022 pay — which is still below Njoku’s AAV and which would seem to be a reasonable price point for a player like Gesicki, assuming he continues performing at the level he has established over the past several seasons. If, as Gesicki suggests, the team is the party that has been reluctant to engage in contract discussions, that could be one of the primary reasons why.
From 2020-21, the Penn State product has averaged a 63/741.5/4 triple-slash despite a less-than-ideal quarterback situation. While QB Tua Tagovailoa is still a major question mark, the ‘Fins have invested heavily on the offensive side of the ball this year, bringing in the likes of WR Tyreek Hill, LT Terron Armstead, and RBs Chase Edmonds and Raheem Mostert, among others. With improved O-line play and a stronger cast of skill position players, Tagovailoa could be well-positioned to live up to his potential in his third professional season, which should improve Gesicki’s stock.