Raiders To Sign Yannick Ngakoue
The Raiders have struck a deal with Yannick Ngakoue. The former Ravens linebacker will head to Las Vegas a two-year, $26MM deal, as ESPN.com’s Adam Schefter tweets. 
Jon Gruden has been eyeing Ngakoue since his Jaguars days. The Vikings and Ravens got him first, but Gruden now has his man. The deal will reunite Ngakoue with defensive coordinator Gus Bradley as the Raiders look to rekindle their pass rush. Ever since the Khalil Mack trade three years ago, they’ve struggled to generate consistent pressure.
Ngakoue, who turns 26 later this month, is set to enter his sixth season as a pro. With 45.5 career sacks to his credit, he’s a difference-maker — even if the Ravens didn’t use him all that much in the playoffs.
Ngakoue projects to lead a Raiders edge group that also features Maxx Crosby and Clelin Ferrell. Ferrell hasn’t lived up to Gruden’s expectations since he was drafted (and, arguably, reached for), but Ngakoue can help cover his deficiencies.
Ngakoue is not particularly strong against the run, but he averaged over nine sacks per season over his first four years in the league, and he has also shown some serious play-making ability. He forced 14 fumbles in that stretch and he directly responsible for five of the 12 defensive touchdowns the Jaguars scored between 2016 and 2019.
Jaguars To Sign Roy Robertson-Harris
The Jaguars have agreed to a three-year, $24.4MM deal with Roy Robertson-Harris (Twitter link via NFL.com’s Tom Pelissero). The defensive tackle will receive $14MM in guarantees as a part of the deal. 
Robertson-Harris started six of the Bears’ eight games before suffering a season-ending shoulder injury. His specialty is run-stuffing, so he played on roughly 50% of Chicago’s snaps. He’s also shown glimpses as a pass-rusher too, notching 2.5 sacks in 2019 and three the year prior. An UDFA from UTEP back in 2016, he’s already carved out a nice career for himself, despite injuries. He also missed his entire rookie season, spending it on the the NFI list.
The Bears kept Robertson-Harris with a second-round tender last year, but they couldn’t keep him for anything close to that one-year, $3.2MM deal. Instead, he’ll join up with Urban Meyer & Co., potentially with safety John Johnson.
Cardinals Re-Sign Markus Golden
The Cardinals have re-upped Markus Golden. The edge rusher will return on a two-year, $9MM deal, as Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets. 
Golden started out with the Cardinals as a second-round pick before moving on to the Giants in 2019. His first Cardinals run was fairly productive and included a 12.5-sack season in 2016. Then, he was hampered by injuries. In his first year with the Giants , he managed 72 tackles and ten sacks, but teams saw that as a fluke — he generated just 26 pressures, so evaluators didn’t think he’d keep it up. Midway through the year, the Cardinals brought him back via trade.
He didn’t go for double-digit sacks in 2020, but he did manage 4.5 between both stops. For his career, Golden has 33.5 total sacks across 78 games.
With Golden back in Arizona, Haason Reddick is probably packing his bags. Meanwhile, the Cardinals project to have a front seven featuring Golden, J.J. Watt, Chandler Jones, and Jordan Phillips.
Panthers To Sign OL Pat Elflein
Pat Elflein is joining up with the Panthers. The former Vikings and Jets offensive lineman has agreed to a three-year, $13.5MM deal with $6MM fully guaranteed at signing, as ESPN.com’s Adam Schefter tweets.
Elflein started 15 games at guard for the Vikings in 2019, and he started the 2020 season opener before suffering a torn thumb ligament. That injury forced him to the injured reserve list. And, shortly after returning to practice, the Vikings released him. That led him to the Jets, who were 0-9 at the time and had the league’s No. 1 waiver priority spot.
The Jaguars, Bears, Dolphins, Ravens, and the Washington Football Team also entered bids for Elflein — it’s not clear if the Panthers were also in that group. Either way, they were keenly interested this time around. Elflein will now be tasked with clearing lanes for Christian McCaffrey and protecting the starting quarterback, who may or may not be Teddy Bridgewater.
Lions Re-Sign Romeo Okwara
The Lions have re-signed edge rusher Romeo Okwara to a three-year deal worth $39MM (Twitter link via NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport). Okwara’s deal will become official later in the week and will bring him $25MM upon signing. 
Okwara posted a career-high ten sacks last year, setting himself up for a sizable pay day. His profile has been rising since 2018, when he recorded 7.5 sacks in his first year as a starter. He wasn’t able to match that in his 2019 encore, but he rebounded with perfect timing in 2020.
Similar to Shaquil Barrett — who just scored a $72MM deal from the Bucs — Okwara was hardly known just a few years ago. He missed the Giants’ 53-man cut in ’18, but he’s now going to earn eight figures per annum in Detroit.
Okwara may have sacrificed some potential upside by skipping the open market, but he has ample security in a system that works for him. He also gets to continue playing with his little brother, Julian Okwara.
Buccaneers Re-Sign Shaq Barrett
Piece by piece, Bucs are keeping the band together. Edge rusher Shaquil Barrett has agreed to re-sign on a four-year deal worth as much as $72MM (Twitter link via NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport). The deal includes $36MM fully guaranteed and, remarkably, will carry a minuscule $5.6MM cap hit in 2021. 
As a free agent in 2019, Barrett received tepid interest. Offers came only from the Bucs and Bengals, and Barrett signed a one-year, $4MM Bucs pact. The Bucs tagged him last year, following his franchise-record-setting 19.5-sack season. Barrett will turn 29 later this year and seized his chance to secure a lucrative long-term deal.
Barrett’s rise through the football ranks has been meteoric. He started as a Division II recruit before switching to Colorado State. Then, he turned pro and spent 2014 on the Broncos’ practice squad. By 2015, he found a role in the Broncos’ defense.
After the 2019 tag, Barrett recorded eight 2020 regular season sacks and added four in the playoffs. He also finished on a high note, notching eight pressures in Super Bowl LV.
Barrett’s deal carries a base value of $68MM over the four-year stretch. The other $4MM can be earned off of escalators. If Barrett reached 15 sacks and the Bucs make the playoffs, he’ll add another $1MM to his forthcoming yearly salary. The average value of $18MM/year is solid, though several ticks behind Joey Bosa and Myles Garrett who will have ~$25MM/ year.
The Bucs have been busy this month, re-signing inside linebacker Lavonte David and deploying franchise tag on wide receiver Chris Godwin. They also reached a one-year extension with quarterback Tom Brady to free up additional space — he’ll carry a lighter cap hit in 2021 with voidable years in 2023 and beyond.
RFA/ERFA Tender Decisions: 3/15/21
Teams have until Wednesday to extend tender offers to their restricted free agents and exclusive rights free agents. We’ll keep tabs on the latest here:
RFAs
Tendered:
- Browns: WR KhaDarel Hodge
Non-Tendered:
- 49ers: QB Nick Mullens
ERFAs
Non-Tendered:
- .
Tendered:
- .
Details On Anthony Barr’s New Vikings Deal
Anthony Barr has agreed to a pay cut in exchange for a shorter contract. Now, the linebacker will make a fully guaranteed $9.4MM in 2021 — a, plus $500K in per-game roster bonuses and a $100K workout bonus (Twitter link via NFL.com’s Tom Pelissero). 
Originally, Barr was set to make $12.9M this year with a deal running through 2023. Now, he’ll be eligible for free agency in March of 2022. In turn, the Vikings will clear $2.9MM in cap space.
Barr, who turns 29 this week, made the Pro Bowl every year between 2015 and 2018. However, a torn pec limited him to just two games last year and many believed that the Vikings would release him this offseason to gain some much-need cap space. Barr hasn’t been stellar on his five-year, $67.5MM contract, but he has an opportunity to cash in all over again. When healthy and at his best, the former No. 9 overall pick is among the best linebackers in the league.
Roughly two years ago today, Barr flip-flopped on the Jets to stay in Minnesota. The Jets then parlayed that money into an ill-fated deal with Le’Veon Bell.
Vikings Won’t Tender Chad Beebe
The Vikings will not extend a restricted free agency tender to wide receiver Chad Beebe, as Chris Tomasson of the Pioneer Press tweets. However, the Vikes are still interested in bringing him back at a lesser rate. 
[RELATED: Vikings’ Barr Takes Pay-Cut, Will Become FA After 2021]
Minnesota could have tendered the former undrafted free agent at $2.133MM, but that wouldn’t have fetched them anything in the event of a signed offer sheet. Now, Beebe is unfettered and free to strike a handshake deal with any team during the legal tampering period.
Beebe had 20 catches 201 yards and two touchdowns in 2020, including a game-winner against the Panthers (to erase his earlier muffed punt). He’s not one of the Vikings’ leading receivers, but he would provide the team with consistency and depth. As it stands, they’re pretty thin at WR beyond Adam Thielen and Justin Jefferson.
Meanwhile, the Vikings have some extra coin to work with after Anthony Barr agreed to restructure his deal.
Jets Interested In Corey Linsley, Joe Thuney
The Jets missed out on Kevin Zeitler and they won’t have an opportunity to speak with Andrew Norwell. However, they have two other interior linemen on their list. The Jets are expected to pursue center Corey Linsley and guard Joe Thuney, according to Rich Cimini of ESPN.com (Twitter link). 
The Jets were said to be keenly interested in Thuney last week with plans to call him bright and early on Monday morning. The Patriots declined to tag him again, making him an unfettered free agent. A second-team All-Pro in 2019 and a key part of the Patriots’ most recent Super Bowl wins, Thuney is regarded as one of the better guards in the NFL.
Linsley, meanwhile, was a First-Team All-Pro for his work with the Packers last season. It’s expected that he’ll approach or best Ryan Kelly‘s $12.4MM per-year average, so either player would be mighty costly for the Jets. Still, the offensive line is a long-standing need for Gang Green, so they’re willing to spend the big bucks.