Packers To Sign CB Davon House
Cornerback Davon House has agreed to one-year deal with the Packers, according to a source who spoke with Tom Silverstein of the Journal Sentinel (on Twitter). The deal brings House back home to where his NFL career started. 
The timing of the House agreement might not be coincidental. Minutes ago, the Packers lost running back Eddie Lacy to the Seahawks. A reunion with House may take some of the sting out of the Lacy defection for some Packers fans (other Packers fans, meanwhile, are rolling their eyes as they read this).
The 27-year-old (28 in July) shined in a reserve role while with the Packers. When he first joined Jacksonville, he ascended to a larger role and started in all 16 games. Then, in 2016, he was demoted to the bench as Jalen Ramsey and Prince Amukamara held down the top spots.
After finishing near the bottom in passing yards allowed last season, House could give the Packers secondary some badly-needed reinforcements.
Seahawks To Sign RB Eddie Lacy
Eddie Lacy is going to Seattle. The Seahawks and the running back have agreed to a one-year, $5.5MM deal with $3MM fully guaranteed, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN.com (on Twitter). 
Lacy now joins a running back group that already features C.J. Prosise and Thomas Rawls. Presumably, Lacy will be at the top of the order and receive the bulk of the carries. Now, the Seahawks will likely move away from other free agent RB targets like Latavius Murray and Jamaal Charles.
Even though Lacy has had problems with consistency and conditioning over the years, he was my top-ranked running back in this year’s free agent crop. The Packers were interested in retaining Lacy, but they apparently didn’t offer him much money to stay. The Vikings were also in the mix. The Vikings may now circle back to Adrian Peterson and, speculatively, I wonder if this could spark the Packers to also get involved with No. 28.
The ex-Alabama star averaged a so-so 4.1 yards per rush and posted a career-low three touchdowns in 187 carries in 2015. Last year, he was averaging 5.1 YPC through five games before an ankle injury ended his season. If healthy, Lacy could be one of the league’s very best rushers. He could then parlay that into a lucrative multi-year deal next year.
The running back market has been slow to develop this year and Lacy’s deal might finally get the ball rolling. So far, only Lacy and a few other backs on PFR’s top 10 list of free agent RBs have come off the board.
Photo courtesy of Pro Football Rumors on Instagram.
Saints To Meet With Patriots’ Malcolm Butler
Patriots restricted free agent cornerback Malcolm Butler will be visiting the Saints on Thursday, coach Sean Payton tells Brett Martel of The Associated Press (on Twitter). This will be Butler’s first free agent visit. 
Butler, of course, is a restricted free agent and the Patriots reserve the right to match any signed offer sheet. If the Patriots decline to match an offer sheet, Butler will join that new team and the Patriots will receive that club’s 2017 first-round pick.
After signing Stephon Gilmore in free agency, that’s a concession the Patriots might be willing to make. The Pats are already down a pick thanks to the Brandin Cooks deal completed with New Orleans last week, so this could be their opportunity to get back into the first round. In the Cooks deal, the Pats received the No. 118 overall selection while pick Nos. 32 and 103 went to New Orleans.
RFA rules dictate that the Patriots would receive the No. 11 overall pick from New Orleans, not their own No. 32, if the Saints were to sign Butler away. It’s possible that this could be the starting point for a sign-and-trade type of deal. The Patriots could agree to a deal with Butler, then trade him to New Orleans for lesser compensation. Sign-and-trade deals are not often seen in the NFL, but neither are salary dump trades and that barrier was broken recently by the Browns and Texans in the Brock Osweiler deal.
The Patriots could also play hardball and refuse to take anything less than the No. 11 pick from the Saints. If that happens, Butler will probably continue to meet with interested clubs, some of whom may be willing to sacrifice a first founder. The worst case scenario for New England is that they retain the rights to one of the league’s better cornerbacks in Butler. Reportedly, Butler isn’t thrilled with New England right now, but he is not going to hold out under any circumstances.
Kirk Cousins Denies Making Trade Request
Redskins quarterback Kirk Cousins says that he never asked for a trade, despite rumors claiming he did so last week in a personal appeal to owner Dan Snyder (link via John Keim and Adam Schefter of ESPN.com). Instead, Cousins says he simply reached out to the Redskins to find out if they were planning on trading him. 
“I laughed and thought, ‘I don’t know where that comes from because that wasn’t the case,’” Cousins said of the report. “Somehow it got twisted..that’s not the approach I took.”
This offseason has been a bizarre one for the Redskins, even by Redskins standards. General manager Scot McCloughan was M.I.A. for several weeks without explanation from the team. Finally, last week, the Redskins fired him with anonymous team officials telling reporters that McCloughan was let go due to ongoing issues with alcohol. At the same time, there have been rumblings that top Redskins decision makers dumped McCloughan out of jealousy and a desire to regain power in the front office. With everything going on, few would have blamed Cousins for requesting a trade.
Now that he has signed his one-year tender, Cousins will play out the 2017 season for roughly $24MM, unless the two sides can agree to a long-term deal between now and July. Based on the way contract talks have gone between the two sides, a new deal doesn’t seem likely to fall into place in the next five months.
Saints To Sign LB Alex Okafor
The Saints have agreed to terms with outside linebacker Alex Okafor, NFL reporter Rand Getlin tweets. It is a one-year deal worth up $3MM, a source tells Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (on Twitter). This means Okafor is leaving the Cardinals, the only NFL team he has ever known. 
Okafor, 26, played through a torn bicep last season and didn’t have a great season. Still, teams recognized his potential and he had multiple suitors upon reaching free agency this month. Before the Saints deal came about, the Dolphins also showed interest in signing Okafor.
Okafor was only on the field for 231 last year, but he did line up with Arizona’s first string defense 12 times in 2014 and posted a career-high eight sacks. In 2015, he made 13 starts and notched 2.0 sacks. Last year, as a reserve, he had 3.5 sacks and eleven total tackles. He didn’t see enough action to qualify to be ranked, but Pro Football Focus gave him a 72.5 overall score, buoyed mainly by his pass rush work. With enough snaps, he could have placed somewhere in the late 50s amongst PFF’s 100+ qualified edge defenders.
The Saints currently project to start Craig Robertson and Dannell Ellerbe at outside linebacker with new addition A.J. Klein in the middle, though you can expect the team to seek an upgrade over Ellerbe. Okafor wll join fellow outside linebackers Hau’oli Kikaha, Nathan Stupar, and Travis Feeney in support. Middle linebacker Stephone Anthony, an underachieving former first-round pick, also remains under contract.
Terms Of Tyrod Taylor’s New Bills Deal
Tyrod Taylor‘s camp insisted that it was an all or nothing proposition: the Bills either had to pick up his five-year option with $30.5MM guaranteed or the quarterback would test the open market. Amidst rumblings that Bills brass wasn’t all that high on Taylor anyway, it seemed like a sure thing that the QB would reach free agency. Then, out of nowhere, the Bills and Taylor agreed to a restructured deal to keep him under center. Details were a bit sparse at the time, but we now have additional info on the revamped pact. 
Taylor’s restructured Bills deal is a two-year, $30.5MM pact, which is less than the $40.5MM he would have made under the terms of the option (Twitter link via Mike Rodak of ESPN.com). However, Taylor benefits here because he will be eligible for free agency following the 2018 season. Under the old deal, he would have remained under Bills control through the 2021 campaign.
The structure of the new deal could lead the Bills to go through the same song and dance next year. Only $1MM of his $10MM salary in 2018 is guaranteed and he’ll be due a $6MM roster bonus early on in the 2018 league year. If Taylor is retained through 2018 and plays well, there will also be a decision to make on whether to use the franchise tag. In that scenario, Taylor would probably prefer to test the open market unencumbered since he’ll still only be entering his age-30 season.
Assuming the two sides see this new contract through until the end, he’ll have a $9.713MM cap number in 2017 and a $18.08MM cap number in 2018. In the original five-year option, Taylor’s 2018 cap number would have been $16.78MM. The deal will automatically void if he’s on the roster just after the Super Bowl in February 2019. Then, the Bills will carry $4.2MM for 2019 in dead money in 2019, representing the leftover portion of his $7MM signing bonus.
Falcons To Sign WR Andre Roberts
The Falcons signed wide receiver Andre Roberts, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (on Twitter). He gets a one-year deal worth $1.8MM with $750K guaranteed. 
Roberts had a disappointing first season in Detroit, but the Lions were still among the teams in the mix to sign him this month. The Patriots also were said to have interest.
The 29-year-old’s best season came back in 2012 with the Cardinals, when he finished with 64 receptions for 759 yards and five touchdowns. Unfortunately for him, the emergence of Michael Floyd bumped him down the pecking order in Arizona, leading him to join up with the Redskins in 2013. His two years in D.C. and one year in Detroit have not yielded 2012-type numbers. In 2016, Roberts finished out with 14 receptions for 188 yards and one touchdown.
Roberts now figures to be the Falcons’ No. 3 WR behind Julio Jones and Mohamed Sanu. Justin Hardy, Devin Fuller, and Nick Williams are also under contract. Receivers Taylor Gabriel and Eric Weems remain in free agent limbo while Aldrick Robinson has followed coach Kyle Shanahan to San Francisco.
DeMarcus Ware Retires From NFL
DeMarcus Ware is done playing football. The free agent linebacker announced his retirement via Twitter on Monday afternoon. 
“I’m hanging up my cleats and beginning the journey to my next destination,” Ware wrote as a part of his statement.
Ware, 35 in July, piled up 21.5 sacks in three years as a member of the Broncos, giving him 138.5 for his career. Just over a week ago, there was word that he wanted to end his career as a member of the Cowboys. Broncos GM John Elway also wanted to re-sign the veteran. Despite the options that were out there, Ware has decided to focus on other ventures and spend more time with his family. He leaves the sport eighth on the all-time sack list.
A 2017 return would have represented Ware’s 13th NFL season, and there were offers for the pass-rusher to suit up again. Ware turned down proposals in the $7-$8MM-per-year range, per Jane Slater of NFL.com (on Twitter). “A few” teams made these kind of offers, per Slater, potentially meaning Ware drew serious interest from beyond the Broncos or Cowboys. Slater adds to the notion that other teams were pursuing Ware, noting the Cowboys and Broncos didn’t reach the offers stage of this pursuit (Twitter link). Those talks didn’t expand beyond the formative stage, per Slater.
Ware said in December he intended to play next season but ultimately decided to move on to other things.
The future Hall of Famer enjoyed some of his best seasons with Dallas, a run that included four first-team All-Pro selections and seven consecutive Pro Bowl nods. He continued to be productive in Denver, even though he wasn’t fully healthy in the last two seasons.
We here at PFR wish Ware the best in retirement.
Bills To Sign WR Jeremy Butler
Former Chargers receiver Jeremy Butler is signing a one-year deal today with the Bills, a source tells Adam Schefter of ESPN.com (on Twitter). Financial terms of the deal are not yet known. 
Butler was non-tendered by Los Angeles last week. Butler appeared in four games last season for the Bolts and caught only two passes for eleven yards. In between his time with the Ravens and Chargers, he had a brief stint with the Jets.
The 25-year-old (26 in April) appeared in eight games in 2015, collecting 31 catches for 363 yards. Extrapolated to a full season, those are some pretty solid numbers. That’s likely the kind of playing time and production he’s shooting for in 2017 with Buffalo. The Bills now have a quality receiver to help support star Sammy Watkins. The rest of the WR depth chart isn’t exactly star studded. Philly Brown (newly signed), Dezmin Lewis, Walt Powell, and Kolby Listenbee are the team’s other receivers under contract.
Butler’s departure still leaves the Chargers with Keenan Allen, Tyrell Williams, and Travis Benjamin as their three best wide receivers. Butler would have slotted no higher than the team’s WR4 had he re-signed.
Colts Re-Sign RB Robert Turbin
Bobby Turbo is back in Indy. The Colts have re-signed Robert Turbin to a two-year deal worth up to $4.1MM, Jason La Canfora of CBSSports.com (on Twitter). 
Turbin had one of his most productive NFL seasons in 2016, running for 164 yards and seven touchdowns. The 27-year-old also collected a career-high 26 receptions to go along with 179 yards and one score. He’s now slated to battle it out for playing time with veteran Frank Gore and Josh Ferguson. It’s a safe bet that the Colts will explore some upgrades at the position as well.
Turbin missed the cut on my top 15 list of free agent running backs, but he did garner honorable mention. We haven’t heard much on him since the legal tampering period kicked off six days ago, so there might not have been much of a market for him outside of Indy.