NFC Front Office Notes: Eagles, Rosenberg, Falcons, Giants, Panthers, Bears
Jake Rosenberg‘s Eagles exit is now official. After a report earlier this offseason indicated Rosenberg would step down following a 12-year tenure with the team, the Eagles’ VP of football administration made the announcement (via PHLY.com’s Zach Berman). A friend of GM Howie Roseman‘s dating back to elementary school, Rosenberg assisted the Eagles on the salary cap front. The team has frequently been ahead of the curve in this area, as its 2024 offseason reinforced. It is not known where Rosenberg is headed, but this marks another key departure in the Eagles’ front office. Two years ago, four of Roseman’s lieutenants — Brandon Brown, Ian Cunningham, Catherine Raiche, Andy Weidl — left for assistant GM roles elsewhere. Another key piece will need to be replaced now.
Post-draft front office changes are common around the league. Here is the latest from the NFC:
- Despite not being a Terry Fontenot hire, Tokunbo Abanikanda will rise to a key post in the Falcons‘ front office. The team is promoting the veteran scout to its college scouting director post, InsidetheLeague.com’s Neil Stratton tweets. Abanikanda has been with the Falcons since midway through Thomas Dimitroff‘s GM tenure, arriving in 2012. He will now take a pivotal role in the team’s draft preparation. Elsewhere in the Falcons’ front office, the team’s player personnel coordinator — Brian Zeches — is moving on, Stratton adds. Formerly an exec in Washington and Kansas City, Zeches was named to this post during the 2023 offseason.
- In addition to adding Chris Snee to their scouting staff, the Giants are making multiple in-house promotions. They are bumping Nick La Testa to assistant director of pro scouting and naming Charles Tisch their football operations manager, The Athletic’s Dan Duggan tweets. Charles Tisch, who had been a football ops assistant, is the nephew of Giants co-owner Steve Tisch. With the Giants since 2017, La Testa had previously worked on the scouting level for the team.
- A Carolina-to-Washington pipeline formed during Ron Rivera‘s NFC East stay, but the Commanders will now lose an exec to the Panthers. Carolina is hiring David Whittington for a college scouting role, according to Stratton. Whittington had been with Washington since 2009, holding several positions. Most recently, he worked as a national scout with the Commanders. The Panthers are also adding Eric Eager to their analytics department, per Stratton. Eager, a former Pro Football Focus staffer, worked most recently as the vice president of SumerSports, an analytics-based website that also employs Dimitroff presently.
- The Bears are going through with a round of promotions as well. GM Ryan Poles is elevating Breck Ackley from assistant college scouting director to the director post, while Stratton notes national scout Francis St. Paul will become the assistant director. Area scouts Brendan Rehor and John Syty are also moving to national scouting roles.
Jaguars Sign Terrell Edmunds, Tre Flowers
Two veteran DBs will make mid-offseason arrivals in Jacksonville. The team reached agreements with safety Terrell Edmunds and cornerback Tre Flowers on Thursday, adding some secondary depth.
Flowers, 27, is following new Jags DC Ryan Nielsen from Atlanta. The veteran corner caught on with the Falcons, in what turned out to be Nielsen’s only Atlanta season, last May and worked as a part-time starter. Included in the October trade that sent Kevin Byard to Philadelphia, Edmunds also made a handful of starts in 2023.
This will mark a third straight year in which Flowers has signed a one-year contract. The former Seahawks draftee, who commandeered a starting spot from the jump despite being a fifth-round pick, signed a Bengals deal in 2022 and played in all 17 Falcons games last year. The Jags will give the 44-game starter a shot to vie for a role among a cornerback group that has seen some updates this offseason.
Following its Darious Williams release, the team added Ronald Darby. Although the Jags did not use a first-round pick on a corner — as rumors suggested they considered — they added pieces here in the third and fifth rounds (Jarrian Jones, Deantre Prince).
Edmunds, 27, has logged more starts as a pro. The former Steelers first-round pick worked as a regular starter from 2018-22 in Pittsburgh; last season’s four starts upped his career total to 79. The Eagles used Edmunds as a three-game starter, as they cut costs at safety by letting C.J. Gardner-Johnson and Marcus Epps walk in free agency, but included him in the pre-deadline trade that brought Byard over from the Titans. Edmunds made one start in Tennessee but played in nine games with his third NFL employer.
Operating as Minkah Fitzpatrick‘s sidekick from 2019-22, Edmunds graded as a top-40 safety (per Pro Football Focus) in 2022 and landed in the top 25 two seasons prior. Edmunds stands to have a clearer path to playing time, as the Jaguars moved on from three-year safety starter Rayshawn Jenkins and did not replace him this offseason. The team still rosters starter Andre Cisco and role player Andrew Wingard (26 career starts), but one of the team’s offseason questions involves who will start opposite Cisco.
PFF has never viewed Flowers as an upper-echelon corner, helping explain his April and May contract agreements. Both players have proven durable. Between the 2018 draftees’ 12 NFL seasons, only Flowers’ 2020 campaign (in which he missed four games) involved more than two missed games. Flowers also has changed teams in-season, being waived by the Seahawks before catching on with the Bengals — during their Super Bowl LVI-qualifying slate — and operating as a key backup.
To make room on their 90-man offseason roster, the Jaguars waived linebacker Dequan Jackson and waived wide receiver Wayne Ruby with an injury designation.
Latest On Jared Goff’s Lions Extension
MAY 16: When speaking about his extension – which is now official – Goff noted he received a no-trade clause. He added that the security the clause provides was a major factor in negotiations, and it confirms he will remain in Detroit through the life of the pact. Any change of scenery before then will not be possible without Goff green-lighting a trade.
MAY 15: Jared Goff‘s Lions extension both reflects his surge in value since being the throw-in piece in the Matthew Stafford trade while also illustrating where the quarterback market has gone since the 2016 No. 1 pick’s Rams extension surfaced.
The Lions’ Monday extension made Goff the NFL’s second-highest-paid player — behind only Joe Burrow — and his new $53MM AAV is almost $20MM north of where that number stood when Goff received his Rams payday in September 2019. The Rams gave Goff a $33.5MM-per-year deal that became valuable, as QB deals skyrocketed, over the first three years of his Lions stay. With Goff’s previous contract expiring after the 2024 season, the Lions followed up record-setting extensions for Amon-Ra St. Brown and Penei Sewell by checking off their top offseason priority.
When Goff agreed to terms with the Rams, the $33.5MM AAV number made him the NFL’s second-highest-paid passer (behind Russell Wilson‘s third Seahawks contract). This Lions deal does not feature guarantees that rival Deshaun Watson or even the likes of Burrow, Justin Herbert or Lamar Jackson. But the Lions are committing to Goff for the foreseeable future; his contract displays the team’s confidence.
Guarantees in Goff’s four-year, $212MM extension stretch to 2027, with Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio reporting the contract includes $113.6MM guaranteed at signing. The actual guarantee number will probably check in much higher, as practical guarantees check in at $148.6MM. A rolling guarantee structure akin to what the Chiefs used with Patrick Mahomes is present in this deal.
After two fully guaranteed years (2024-25), the Lions guaranteed $20MM of Goff’s $55MM 2026 base salary. The other $35MM of that salary will become fully guaranteed in 2025, Florio notes. This structure reappears in 2026, to a degree. Goff’s $50MM 2027 base salary features $22MM guaranteed for injury at signing, Florio adds. Of that $22MM, $18MM shifts from an injury guarantee to a full guarantee a year early. The other $4MM becomes guaranteed in 2027. Goff’s 2028 base salary ($39MM) is nonguaranteed; a $7MM roster bonus will be due ahead of Goff’s age-34 season.
Much of Goff’s guarantee will come via a $73MM signing bonus, according to SI.com’s Albert Breer. That figure prorating through 2028 will increase the dead money Detroit would incur by bailing on this deal early. In terms of full guarantees, Goff’s deal ranks fifth — behind Watson, Burrow, Jackson and Herbert — but the guarantee structure will assuredly see the former top pick tied to this contract through at least 2026. Among QBs who signed only a four-year deal, no one has done better in terms of guarantees. The players above Goff in terms of total guarantees each signed five- or six-year extensions.
The 2027 vesting date will become key if the Lions have second thoughts about a player whose value had plummeted in his final Rams years. The Rams sent the Lions an extra first-round pick so they would absorb Goff’s previous contract. As Detroit brass insisted Goff — whom Lions GM Brad Holmes helped draft when he was the Rams’ college scouting director — was not a bridge QB, the team passed on adding a passer early in the 2021 and ’22 drafts. This extension effectively ensures 2023 third-rounder Hendon Hooker, whose rookie deal runs through 2026, will not have a viable path to a starting job in Michigan.
Despite Goff’s struggles between Super Bowl LIII through a 3-13-1 2021 Lions season, the NFC North franchise will trust the form the resurgent QB has shown in his late 20s under OC Ben Johnson will continue if/when the promising play-caller departs for a head coaching job. For now, Goff and Johnson will continue to work together — and the QB will do so armed with a much better contract.
Jets Made Effort To Hire De Facto OC To Oversee Nathaniel Hackett?
While woeful two-year coaching stretches have occurred throughout NFL history, Nathaniel Hackett is coming off a uniquely brutal period. The short-lived Broncos HC’s rebound effort fizzled four plays into last season, and although Aaron Rodgers‘ presence has effectively kept the embattled play-caller in place as Jets OC, the team does not appear pleased with its top offensive coach.
A report in January mentioned Robert Saleh exploring ways to strip some of Hackett’s authority, going so far as to say the fourth-year HC explored adding to his staff to limit his current OC’s power. It appears such an exploration did, in fact, occur. The Jets are believed to have pursued a hire that would have overseen Hackett on the offensive side, according to SNY’s Connor Hughes. No known hire has occurred at this point.
This shadowy search looks to have been aimed at an assistant HC-type hire, as opposed to a new OC. The latter effort would have required the Jets to comply with the Rooney Rule and dismiss Hackett, whom they hired largely to woo Rodgers in 2023. Unlike the Broncos, the Jets did manage — thanks to the Packers deeming Jordan Love ready to play by 2023 — to reunite Rodgers and Hackett. But the former ended up losing a season due to an Achilles tear. Rodgers’ repeated endorsements of Hackett have almost definitely kept the veteran coach employed.
The Jets actually making such a hire would have brought an extraordinary step, and it is interesting the team would even try this given the NFL’s OC landscape and this type of staff addition’s potential impact on Rodgers. The 20th-year QB certainly wields considerable power with the Jets. Among the 32 NFL teams, play-calling duties either run through a head coach or offensive coordinator. It is not certain the Jets were seeking a new play-caller, but it certainly sounds like they sought someone who could oversee Hackett on this front. With Saleh a defensive-minded HC, guardrails associated with Hackett are not in place.
If the Jets had truly made such an addition, it would have brought another ignominious chapter for a coach whose stock has tumbled since his Broncos stint. Beating out Dan Quinn for the Denver HC job in 2022, Hackett quickly proved overmatched. His bizarre decision to attempt a 64-yard field goal in his Broncos opener preceded a Week 2 game in which Denver fans counted down the play clock, as procedural penalties — or timeouts used to prevent them — piled up. This led to Broncos GM George Paton insisting Hackett hire a game management coach (Jerry Rosburg). A disjointed Broncos season still ensued, as the Hackett-Russell Wilson partnership dropped the team to 32nd in scoring offense. The Broncos made Hackett just the third post-merger HC to be fired before his first season ended.
Jets brass was not impressed with Hackett’s ability to adjust the offense to Zach Wilson last season, and the team’s 10 offensive TDs through 12 games marked the fewest any team had compiled since 2000. The Jets finished 29th in scoring and 31st in yardage last season, putting just about every key team decision-maker on thin ice.
Rodgers’ injury prompted ownership to give Saleh, Hackett and GM Joe Douglas a pass for 2023. It would seem Woody Johnson‘s patience will run out if the Jets extend their NFL-leading playoff drought to 14 seasons.
Saleh is among only six 21st-century HCs to retain his job after beginning a tenure with three sub-.500 seasons. Hackett, who operated as a non-play-calling OC in Green Bay for three years, will be counted on to maximize Rodgers’ age-40 season. Even when Rodgers was healthy last summer, Hughes adds the four-time MVP would repeatedly change a play Hackett called. With Rodgers being just about all that stands in the way of Hackett being axed, this will be an interesting partnership to follow as the Jets hope to justify the 2023 trade for the future Hall of Fame quarterback.
Poll: Who Will Lead Steelers In QB Starts?
Bailing on their handpicked Ben Roethlisberger successor two years in, the Steelers put together one of the more interesting quarterback offseasons in recent NFL history. Two starters on other teams last season are now in the mix, with neither tied to a pricey deal nor a commitment beyond 2024.
The dominoes that led Kenny Pickett out of Pittsburgh began to fall before the team’s Russell Wilson signing, but that contract — a veteran-minimum deal agreed to before the Broncos officially designated Wilson a post-June 1 cut — led the way in driving Pickett to Philadelphia. After it looked like Wilson had a firm grip on the Steelers’ starting job, the team reached an agreement on a low-cost trade for Justin Fields. The final year of the ex-Bears first-rounder’s rookie contract is on the Steelers’ payroll — at the cost of merely a conditional sixth-round pick.
Mike Tomlin has said plenty to suggest Wilson will be his starter in 2024, but given the age gap between the two high-profile acquisitions and how the potential Hall of Famer’s Denver chapter unfolded, it would be a bit unusual if Fields was not mentioned as a candidate to step in at some point. The team has already been linked to pursuing potential deals with both QBs beyond 2024, though the club’s longstanding policy not to negotiate contracts in-season will put these efforts on hold. That seems unrealistic, given each’s starter background. For this year, however, the Steelers have assembled a unique depth chart — one that also includes UFA addition Kyle Allen.
An eight-asset package — headlined by two first-round picks — brought Wilson to Denver. The Broncos cut the cord on the Wilson contract before the extension years (on a five-year, $245MM deal) began. This will bring record-smashing dead money to Denver’s payroll, as the Steelers’ Wilson contract (one year, $1.2MM) barely ate into the $85MM dead cap coming the Broncos’ way through 2025. Wilson bounced back in 2023, but Sean Payton deeming him a bad fit represented another setback in a career that has veered off course.
After a shockingly poor 2022 season when paired with overmatched HC Nathaniel Hackett, Wilson rebounded — to a degree — under Payton by throwing 26 touchdown passes compared to eight interceptions. Slotting him 12 points higher than 2022, QBR ranked Wilson 21st last season. That settled in six spots behind Fields. It is arguable Wilson (six original-ballot Pro Bowl nods) disrupted his Hall of Fame path with the Broncos stay and needs a strong Steelers season to firmly reestablish himself as a Canton-bound player. Fields stands in the way of this reality, and Tomlin kept the door open — while still affirming Wilson will go into training camp as the starter — for the younger player to challenge for the job at some point.
While Wilson trails only Michael Vick and Cam Newton in career QB rushing yards and is the league’s only 40,000-5,000 player, Fields is certainly a better runner from the position. Joining Wilson with a propensity to take sacks, Fields both led the NFL in sacks taken and QB rushing yards in 2022. The Bears saw some improvement through the air last season, and QBR interestingly viewed the Ohio State product’s 2022 showing as superior to his 2023 slate. Fields also posted a worse yards-per-attempt number (6.9) compared to 2022 (7.1) and upped his passer rating by barely a point from the ’22 campaign.
Mentioned as a player expected to command at least a Day 2 pick in a trade, Fields bringing the trade value he did reflects a dim outlook around the league regarding his potential to improve significantly as a passer. The Steelers quickly declined Fields’ fifth-year option, joining the Broncos (Zach Wilson), Cowboys (Trey Lance) and Jaguars (Mac Jones) in passing on an extra year for a recently acquired QB. Pittsburgh will still attempt to finetune the former No. 11 overall pick, and it will be interesting to see how long they do so while keeping him in a backup role. If Fields plays at least 51% of Pittsburgh’s offensive snaps this season, the 2025 pick owed to the Bears vaults to a fourth-rounder.
The post-Killer B’s Steelers have been among the NFL’s most dependable teams, but the ceiling from the Roethlisberger-Antonio Brown–Le’Veon Bell period dropped as Big Ben aged and then Pickett, Mitch Trubisky and Mason Rudolph stepped in. Improved Pittsburgh defenses have been unable to make the past three Steelers squads, even as two of them advanced to the postseason, Super Bowl-caliber operations. This season will be key to isolate some variables within the organization, as Pickett and since-booted OC Matt Canada are gone. After seeing QB play sink his Falcons tenure, OC Arthur Smith will be tasked with coaching two middling — at this point, at least — signal-callers.
The Steelers are banking that Smith and the Wilson-Fields duo will provide sufficient upgrades from their previous play-calling setup and what the QB group of the past two seasons offered. Who will be the quarterback that ends up as the team’s preferred option by the season’s stretch run? Who gives the Steelers the best chance to succeed? Vote in PFR’s latest poll and weigh in with your thoughts on this revamped setup in the comments section.
WR Rumors: Chiefs, OBJ, Giants, Packers
Rashee Rice faces eight felony charges in connection with a hit-and-run incident earlier this year; the second-year Chiefs wideout has since been accused of punching a photographer in the face at a nightclub. On top of that, Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio notes teams were aware a previous incident — while Rice was at SMU — ahead of last year’s draft. Believing former SMU basketball player Kendric Davis was seeing his girlfriend, Rice and others attended a Mustangs basketball game. Rice or a member of his party, per intel gathered during the pre-draft process, fired multiple bullets into Davis’ car, which was empty at the time. The Chiefs, who have displayed a rather high tolerance for off-field issues, chose Rice 55th overall in 2023 and saw him fare well during the team’s Super Bowl LVIII-winning season.
The incident at SMU did not produce a police report, Florio adds, but it would factor into any potential punishment Rice receives under the NFL’s personal conduct policy. The Chiefs are bracing for a suspension. While Rice is facing the eight felony charges, he is still viewed as a key part of Kansas City’s offense. The promising wideout attended the first phase of Kansas City’s offseason program virtually.
Here is the latest from the wideout landscape:
- The Chiefs joined the Cardinals, Titans and Cowboys in meeting with Zay Jones last week. While the recent Jaguars cut ended up signing with the Cardinals, ESPN.com’s Jeremy Fowler adds he was also interested in joining the Chiefs. Jones landed a one-year deal worth up to 4.25MM. Rice’s issues are likely spurring the Chiefs on the receiver front, as they have already signed Marquise Brown and traded up in Round 1 for Xavier Worthy. A Rice suspension is not a lock to commence during the 2024 season, but it certainly could. It appears the Chiefs are preparing a contingency plan, though the free agent market is obviously thin at this point.
- One of the other receivers recently taken off the market, Odell Beckham Jr. joined Jones in signing a one-year deal. The Dolphins closed a lengthy back-and-forth with the veteran target, giving him a $3MM deal. But OBJ could see that figure more than double through incentives. The Dolphins must finish as a top-20 offense to trigger any Beckham escalator, per SI.com’s Albert Breer, but the yardage totals are achievable. Beckham would earn $400K for reaching 566 yards (his 2023 Ravens total), another $800K for 650 and an additional $1MM for 800 yards. Just 36 receptions would produce a $400K payment, with 45 and 55 catches respectively representing the $800K and $1MM triggers on the catch front. Payments of $400K and $450K are respectively in place for four and six touchdowns.
- Brian Daboll said (via the New York Post’s Ryan Dunleavy) the team’s Allen Robinson addition does not have any bearing on the situation with Darius Slayton. The team’s leading receiver in four of the past five seasons, Slayton is staying away from Giants voluntary offseason work in pursuit of an adjusted contract. Slayton’s two-year, $12MM deal does include a fully guaranteed salary ($2.6MM) this year, but the sixth-year pass catcher is aiming for more. Robinson, who is coming off three consecutive down seasons, received the veteran minimum (with just $25K guaranteed) to sign.
- Alex McGough spent all of last season on the Packers‘ practice squad, re-emerging in the NFL after winning USFL MVP honors in 2023. The Packers are giving the veteran reserve QB an unusual assignment this year. They have moved McGough to receiver, Matt LaFleur said recently (via Pro Football Talk’s Charean Williams). McGough worked as a receiver during practice at points last season. The Packers are team No. 5 for the 2018 Seahawks draftee. Green Bay used McGough as its third QB last season. It appears Tulane’s Michael Pratt, a seventh-round pick, has a decent shot to be the passer behind Jordan Love and Sean Clifford this season.
Commanders To Add WR Damiere Byrd
A seventh team will sign off on a Damiere Byrd contract. The veteran wide receiver, who spent 2023 with three teams, will join the Commanders, per Bleacher Report’s Jordan Schultz.
Byrd trekked to Washington on Wednesday for a workout, KPRC2’s Aaron Wilson tweets, noting the well-traveled vet joined Martavis Bryant on this audition. Bryant remains unsigned, while it will be Byrd receiving an opportunity in Washington.
While a number of Dan Quinn-driven reunions have commenced in Washington this offseason, Byrd will return to a Kliff Kingsbury-run offense. Byrd, 31, was in Arizona for Kingsbury’s Cardinals HC debut back in 2019. While Byrd’s 2023 journey makes it far from certain he will be on the Commanders’ 53-man roster this season, he will bring some experience in the system Kingsbury is implementing.
Byrd’s original team, the Panthers, reacquired him during the ’23 offseason but released him from IR after an August injury settlement. The Falcons, who employed Byrd in 2022, brought him back after his summer hamstring injury healed. By mid-January, Byrd was in Houston as an emergency option for a Texans team down multiple wide receivers. Altogether, however, Byrd played in just one game last season. He will attempt to rebound from a lost year.
A diminutive target at 5-foot-9 and 175 pounds, Byrd has been with the Panthers, Cardinals, Patriots, Bears, Falcons, Texans and Commanders. Moved from a special teams presence into a more regular receiving role under Kingsbury in 2019, the former Panthers UDFA’s best season came during Cam Newton‘s Patriots starter year. Byrd caught 47 passes for 606 yards in 2020; he has operated as more of a role player since. Byrd did average 20.6 yards per catch with the Falcons in 2022, scoring two touchdowns in a 268-yard season.
Washington has added two smaller wideouts in free agency, with Byrd joining ex-Falcons teammate Olamide Zaccheaus on Quinn’s team. They join the re-signed Jamison Crowder, who goes 5-9, as potential auxiliary options under Kingsbury. The Commanders closed this year’s third round by drafting Rice’s Luke McCaffrey. Holdovers Terry McLaurin and Jahan Dotson lead this Commanders position group
Latest On Giants’ Quarterback Situation
Offerings from Seahawks GM John Schneider and NFL.com’s Daniel Jeremiah this offseason have pointed to Drew Lock being part of an actual quarterback competition in New York. The organization’s stance has remained in the Daniel Jones camp, but the five-year starter submitted a poor showing in his abbreviated 2023 season.
Some pushback has emerged regarding the possibility Lock will be part of a true competition with Jones. Barring a spectacular development from Lock during the offseason program, ESPN.com’s Jordan Raanan views this as Jones’ job. The expectation remains that Jones will return to starter duties once he is cleared, The Athletic’s Charlotte Carroll adds.
[RELATED: Giants Deny Buyer’s Remorse On Daniel Jones]
Lock, who has entered just one of his five NFL seasons as a starter (2020), said the Giants did convey to him upon signing he would be Jones’ backup. Viewed at one point as the Seahawks’ most likely post-Russell Wilson starter, Lock lost a summer competition to Geno Smith in 2022. With Smith re-signing on a three-year, $75MM deal and Lock returning to Seattle on a one-year, $4MM accord, no competition occurred in 2023. Jones has never exactly competed for the New York QB1 gig, as his draft status and Eli Manning‘s age led to a September 2019 change. Jones’ career has been rocky, though, and his contract points to pressure being justifiably applied — even after the Giants passed on drafting a QB at No. 6.
Big Blue, of course, went through an exhaustive research project on this draft’s QB crop. And the team did make an aggressive offer — Nos. 6 and 47 and a 2025 first-rounder — for the Patriots’ No. 3 pick, with Drake Maye as the target in that proposed swap. The Giants did not view the Michael Penix Jr.–J.J. McCarthy–Bo Nix contingent as a sufficient upgrade on Jones or Lock to pass on filling its wide receiver need in Round 1. Malik Nabers is now poised to help Jones (or Lock, potentially) this season.
Jones’ four-year, $160MM contract features language that could prompt the Giants to be careful with an injury-prone player, opening the door for Lock to see time down the stretch — certainly if the team is out of contention. A $12MM injury guarantee would kick in if Jones is unable to pass a physical by the start of the 2025 league year. Jones entered the 2022 and ’24 league years on the mend; his injury history affected the Giants’ pursuit of QBs in this draft class and influenced Lock to sign with the team. Even if Jones recovers from his ACL rehab in time for training camp — all parties’ long-held expectation — his 2025 guarantee offers a variable here. If Jones can pass a physical next March, the Giants can designate him a post-June 1 cut and incur less than $12MM in dead money.
The Giants and Jones engaged in a negotiation that went down to the wire in March 2023. The QB used the franchise tag deadline, which impacted Saquon Barkley‘s future with the team, as leverage en route to the $40MM-per-year deal that included $81MM guaranteed. During a process that featured Jones changing agents, his asking price was believed to have reached $47MM per year at one point. The Giants were not exactly thrilled their starter aimed to squeeze the team in negotiations, with SNY’s Connor Hughes noting the QB’s hardline stance rubbed some in the organization the wrong way.
It is obviously not uncommon for players to maximize leverage during talks; the most accomplished QB in the Giants’ division, Dak Prescott, did this three years ago to secure $40MM per year on a player-friendly structure. Prescott also used a franchise tag deadline as leverage, and while the Giants hoped Jones’ asking price would come in around $35MM per year, the QB knew the team prioritized him over Barkley. After a playoff win, Jones took full advantage.
A year later, Barkley — after turning down a Giants extension offer in July 2023 — is elsewhere and Jones faces another “prove it” year. Jones’ New York future certainly appears to hinge on how he performs this season — should he indeed be the starter and Lock the backup.
Lions To Add Tom Roth, Raiders’ Dwayne Joseph To Staff
Despite multiple changes atop the Raiders‘ front office, Dwayne Joseph stayed with the team in recent years. Brought in during Mike Mayock‘s GM tenure, Joseph lasted through Dave Ziegler‘s short run in charge. But the veteran exec is now moving on.
In place as the Raiders’ director of pro personnel, Joseph will not make it far past Tom Telesco‘s first draft as the team’s GM. Joseph recently left the Raiders for a Lions position, per the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s Vincent Bonsignore. The Lions are also hiring former Titans area scout Tom Roth, according to InsidetheLeague.com’s Neil Stratton.
The Raiders hired Joseph shortly after the 2019 draft, bringing him over after an Eagles tenure. As retooling continues in Las Vegas, the Raiders will separate from a staffer who held the same position under Mayock and Ziegler. Prior to following Mayock to Oakland, Joseph spent four years as the Eagles’ pro scouting director. Joseph collected a Super Bowl ring for his efforts under Howie Roseman in the 2010s.
Joseph, 51, played one season in the NFL, seeing action in 16 games with the 1995 Bears, after a career at Syracuse. He interviewed for the Raiders’ GM job in 2022; despite that position going to Ziegler, the Raiders kept Joseph on. The Raiders decided on Telesco over Champ Kelly for GM. While Mark Davis wanted Kelly to remain with the team as assistant GM, Joseph will end up departing in the wake of the Telesco hire.
Telesco brought over former Chargers interim GM JoJo Wooden as his senior director of player personnel. Although Wooden and Joseph overlapped as Syracuse defensive teammates under Paul Pasqualoni for multiple seasons in the early 1990s, the duo will separate shortly after Wooden’s Vegas arrival.
The Titans, who are retooling their scouting department in second-year GM Ran Carthon‘s second offseason, parted ways with Roth earlier this month. Roth was with the Titans for six years, coming to Tennessee during Jon Robinson‘s GM tenure. He spent the previous 14 years with the Bills. Roth and Joseph will join a Lions front office that lost longtime senior player personnel director Lance Newmark (to the Commanders) earlier this offseason. Joseph and Roth’s Detroit titles are not yet known.
Broncos To Sign P Trenton Gill
While no one claimed Trenton Gill‘s rookie contract following his Bears exit, the two-year Chicago punter will have another chance elsewhere. The Broncos are signing Gill, NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport tweets.
Waived shortly after the Bears used a fourth-round pick on Iowa punter Tory Taylor, Gill will head to Denver after two years as Chicago’s punter. It appears he will compete with incumbent Riley Dixon for the Broncos’ punting gig.
The Bears placing fourth-round-level importance on upgrading at punter provided a clear sign Gill would not have a chance to keep his job in Chicago; the cut came days after the draft choice occurred. Gill, 25, served as the Bears’ punter over the past two seasons; he arrived in Illinois as a seventh-round pick out of NC State.
Dixon initially arrived in Denver as a seventh-rounder back in 2016, but the team traded him to the Giants to accommodate a Marquette King signing. The latter move did not pan out in Denver, with King lasting only four games with the 2018 team. The Broncos have cycled through punters in the years since, with Dixon coming back — via a two-year, $3.5MM deal — during Sean Payton‘s first offseason with the team. No guaranteed money remains on Dixon’s deal.
Gill averaged 46.1 yards per punt last season. Despite punting in Denver’s thin air, Dixon averaged 46.3 per boot. Gill averaged 46 even per punt in 2022, while Dixon fared better with the Rams (career-high 48.4). Both Dixon and Gill finished outside the top 20 in this category last season. Dixon, 30, finished last season having placed 34.2% of his punts inside the 20; Gill closed his second Bears slate at 26.9%.
Should Gill beat out Dixon, the Broncos will have used four punters in the past four seasons. The team deployed four between its 2018 Dixon trade and his 2023 return.