This Date In Transactions History: Rams Sign Jared Goff
Five years ago today, the Rams officially signed No. 1 overall pick Jared Goff. The Rams were happy to sign the promising young Cal product to a four-year, $28MM deal in accordance with his slot, though they paid a hefty price for the right to draft him in the first place. 
After a classic Jeff Fisher middle-of-the-pack season, the Rams came into the offseason with the No. 15 overall pick and a major crush on Goff. A couple weeks before the draft, they pried the top choice away from the Titans with a Godfather offer, a package that included two 2016 second-round picks, plus 2017 first- and third-round choices.
Goff wasn’t everyone’s preferred quarterback in that class, but the Rams saw Goff as a more polished passer than North Dakota State’s Carson Wentz. It was hard to argue with Goff’s potential – he threw for nearly 8,700 combined yards and 78 touchdowns during his final two college seasons. And, in his final year, he established new personal watermarks by completing 64.5% of his passes and throwing for 4,714 yards and 43 TDs.
In keeping with team tradition, the Rams also signed the rest of their entire 2016 draft class on this same day. Thanks to the blockbuster deal to get Goff, the Rams’ next pick didn’t come until the fourth round at No. 110 overall, when they selected the troubled-yet-talented Tyler Higbee, a tight end out of Western Kentucky. Higbee panned out — the rest of the class was spotty, including Goff.
With Goff under center, the Rams reached the Super Bowl following the 2018 season. After Goff threw for 4,688 yards, 32 touchdowns, and 12 interceptions in the regular season and brought them to a snoozer of a championship game, the Rams rewarded him with a four-year, $134MM deal with $110MM guaranteed. That’s when things went south — Goff finished 22nd in Total QBR in 2019 and 23rd in 2020. Then, in January of 2021, the Rams swapped him — and a ton of draft capital — for Lions QB Matthew Stafford.
Eagles Sign JaCoby Stevens
The Eagles announced that they’ve officially signed sixth-round safety JaCoby Stevens. Per the terms of his slot, the former LSU safety will earn $3.6MM on his four-year deal. 
Stevens was a three-year starter for the Tigers, helping the program capture the 2019 National Championship. In total, Stevens notched 190 tackles, 21.5 tackles for loss, 9.5 sacks, and four interceptions across 42 games. Stevens struggled at times in his final year on campus, but scouts say he has the potential to play multiple positions in the secondary with occasional cameos at linebacker. He certainly has the size and athleticism to pull it off — the 6’1″ prospect weighs in at ~215 pounds and notched a 42” vertical jump at LSU’s pro day.
No matter where the Eagles slot him, Stevens says he’s ready to perform and outplay his No. 224 overall slot.
“I know that’s one of the things people are questioning because I’m playing linebacker here for the Eagles and I played safety at LSU,” said Stevens last month. “And that’s one thing that I said, I basically played linebacker at LSU as well. It’s just a position title.”
With Stevens signed, the Eagles have the majority of their draft class wrapped up. At the time of this writing, econd-round center Landon Dickerson stands as the last straggler.
Packers To Sign De’Vondre Campbell
The Packers are set to sign inside linebacker De’Vondre Campbell (Twitter link via ESPN.com’s Rob Demovsky). The deal could become official by the end of the business day on Wednesday, if everything checks out with his physical. 
Green Bay has been on the lookout for ILB support ever since moving on from Christian Kirksey. Campbell, who previously started for the Falcons and Cardinals, overlapped with Packers head coach Matt LaFleur in Atlanta. They’ll reunite in Wisconsin as Campbell tests his veteran experience against Krys Barnes, Kamal Martin, and Ty Summers.
The Packers were also connected to Campbell last offseason, but they chose to sign Kirksey instead. This time around, they held off on signing Campbell until after the May deadline, so this pickup won’t impact their compensatory pick calculation for 2022.
Campbell first entered the league a fourth-round pick in 2016, the year he played for LaFleur. All in all, he’s appeared in 75 career games, including 70 starts. He was also first-string for all 16 games of his games last year with the Cardinals. Campbell’s best work arguably came in 2019, when he notched 129 stops for the Falcons.
Terms of the deal are not yet known, but Campbell likely signed for less than last year’s one-year, $6MM pact with Arizona.
Packers’ Aaron Rodgers Begins Holdout
As expected, Aaron Rodgers did not report for the start of Packers’ minicamp on Tuesday. He’s now officially holding out as the saga continues between him and the Brian Gutekunst-led front office. 
Rodgers has already passed on $500K of bonuses by missing the team’s voluntary work. Now, he could potentially lose $93K for each day of the three-day minicamp. However, the Packers are thinking about waiving the fines in an effort to smooth things over with their franchise star.
Still, Rodgers’ stance has not changed. The reigning MVP wants to take his talents elsewhere, which would leave 2020 first-round pick Jordan Love or Blake Bortles as the No. 1 QB in Green Bay. Gutekunst, president Mark Murphy, and head coach Matt LaFleur say that won’t happen. So, with that, Rodgers has officially begun his holdout.
It’d be a shock to see Rodgers extend his holdout through Week 1. But, if he does, it’ll be costly. If he stays home all year, the 37-year-old will forfeit his $14.7MM salary, $6.8MM roster bonus, and be forced to refund $23MM of his signing bonus.
49ers Justin Skule, Tarvarius Moore Suffer Injuries
The 49ers got a double whammy of injuries on Monday. During practice, offensive Justin Skule tore his ACL. And, soon after, safety Tavarius Moore went down with a ruptured Achilles (Twitter link via Matt Barrows of The Athletic).
Skule’s injury will rule him out for 2020. It’s a bad blow for the former sixth-round pick, who was competing to serve as a top backup behind Trent Williams and Mike McGlinchey. With Williams out of practice, Skule was practicing with the first-string team, a promising sign that he’d make the cut and return for his third season. Instead, he’ll go under the knife, rehab, and switch his focus to 2022.
Moore, meanwhile, has at least some chance of returning later in the year. Similar to Skule, Moore had been practicing with the starters while Jaquiski Tartt deals with a toe ailment. Fortunately, the 49ers do have Tony Jefferson on hand. The veteran — who once inked a four-year, $34MM contract in free agency — agreed to a low-cost deal with SF earlier this week. Now, he’s the odds-on favorite to serve as the No. 3 safety on the team, behind Tartt and Jimmie Ward.
Titans Restructure Ryan Tannehill’s Deal
Ryan Tannehill has restructured his deal in order to welcome Julio Jones to Nashville (Twitter link via NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport). The simple revision will provide the Titans with upwards of $15MM in cap space, allowing them to fit Jones’ $15.3M salary for 2021.
[RELATED: Titans GM Jon Robinson On Julio Jones Trade]
This was the expected move after Sunday’s trade hit the wire. In effect, everything will basically remain the same on Tannehill’s end. The quarterback is still signed through 2023, thanks to the four-year, $118MM extension he signed in 2020. The only real difference is that his $29.5MM cap hit will be reduced for 2021, with the balance being pushed into 2022. Next year’s cap increase should allow the Titans to take that in stride, though they can kick the can down the road again in ’22 by converting a chunk of those dollars into a signing bonus.
Ultimately, it was an easy call for Tannehill. Now, he’ll have a dynamic 1-2 punch at wide receiver with Jones lining up opposite of A.J. Brown. Meanwhile, the Titans still have ammo to build for the future — instead of a first-round pick, the Titans coughed up little more than a 2022 second-round choice.
Ravens To Sign Michael Schofield
The Ravens have signed Michael Schofield, per a club announcement. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but it’s expected to be a one-year arrangement for the veteran guard. 
Schofield, 30, has 87 career games to his credit, including 69 starts. He first entered the league as a third-round pick of the Broncos in 2014. The next year he started at right guard on their Super Bowl winning team. He later moved on to the rival Chargers, spending time at right tackle in addition to his interior work. His most recent stop was in Carolina, where he suited up for eleven games before his release earlier this year.
Schofield missed a good chunk of 2020 due to time spent on the COVID-19/reserve list. In his 270 snaps, he allowed four sacks and drew three penalty flags.
Now, the 6-foot-6 Schofield will try to make his mark in Baltimore. Given his size and ability to play multiple spots on the offensive line, he should have a decent chance of making the final cut.
Jim Fassel Dies At 71
Jim Fassel has died of a heart attack at the age of 71 (via the Los Angeles Times). Fassel coached in the NFL from 1991 through 2006 and is known best for his time with the Giants.
Fassel broke into the pro ranks with the Giants and became one of three head coaches in franchise history to lead the team to a Super Bowl. In 1997, his first year as the Giants’ head coach, Fassel was named the NFL’s Coach of the Year. From 97 through ’03, Fassel guided the Giants to three playoff appearances. All in all, Fassel went 58-53-1 as the Giants’ HC.
After his first Giants stint, Fassel served as the Broncos’ offensive coordinator (1993-1994), Raiders’ quarterbacks coach (1995) and Cardinals’ OC (1996). Then, after his six-year run as the Giants’ head coach, he spent three years with the Ravens, including two as their OC. Fassel’s last coaching position was with the Las Vegas Locomotives of the United Football League. The UFL ceased in 2012, but Fassel continued to live in Vegas throughout his golden years.
Although Fassel fell short of a ring during his six-year tenure as head coach, he’ll be fondly remembered for igniting the 2000 Giants in the face of critics.
“This is a poker game, and I’m shoving my chips to the middle of the table,” Fassel told reporters in November of that year. “I’m raising the ante, and anybody who wants in, get in. Anybody who wants out can get out.”
Bucs Extend GM Jason Licht, HC Bruce Arians
The Super Bowl architects are staying put. The Buccaneers have agreed to extend the contract of GM Jason Licht (Twitter link via NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport). Meanwhile, they’ve also revised Bruce Arians‘ contract to give the head coach a pay bump.
Licht took over as the Buccaneers’ GM in 2014. The club went 27-53 in his first five years at the helm, but that didn’t stop the club from inking him to a five-year re-up just before the 2019 season. Today, they’re happy they stuck with him. Licht spearheaded the recruitment of Tom Brady, replacing the interception-prone Jameis Winston with a future Hall of Famer. And, together with Brady, Licht brought in a slew of stars, including Rob Gronkowski and Antonio Brown. For the reigning champs, the decision to extend Licht was a no-brainer.
Arians still has several years to go on the original deal he inked in 2019. And, all along, he’s said that he’ll honor the contract and coach until he’s truly had his fill.
“Oh yeah, that’s the plan. I don’t have any plans on retiring,” Arians said of finishing out his contract during an appearance on the Pewter Report Podcast. “It’s just, when do I not want to go back to work? When I’m not excited about going back to work then I’m cheating somebody. I’m cheating the Glazer family, I’m cheating my players. Right now I can’t wait to get back to work.”
Arians is the third-oldest head coach in the NFL, after only Pete Carroll and Bill Belichick. A three-time cancer survivor, Arians has already cemented one of the best comeback stories in NFL coaching history.
Saints To Meet With Dre Kirkpatrick
The Saints are set to meet with veteran cornerback Dre Kirkpatrick (Twitter link via NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport). Kirkpatrick would provide New Orleans with a proven corner and fill their need for better depth in that group. 
Kirkpatrick met with the Patriots last month, but nothing came of that visit. At least, not yet. That was Kirkpatrick’s first known workout, which is surprising since he’s served as a full-time starter for the last few seasons. He also offers a first-round pedigree, having been drafted 17th overall by the Bengals back in 2012.
After eight years with the Bengals, Kirkpatrick inked a one-year deal with the Cardinals last year. He appeared in 14 games, including 11 starts. He finished out with 56 tackles, seven passes defended, three interceptions, and a much softer market than he anticipated.
If signed, Kirkpatrick could help to fill the void left by Janoris Jenkins‘ departure. They’ve still got Pro Bowler Marshon Lattimore as their CB1, but they need better support. For now, they’ve got veteran Patrick Robinson and third-round rookie Paulson Adebo near the top of the chart.