Latest On 49ers’ Reuben Foster
49ers linebacker Reuben Foster pled no contest to his last remaining charge, a misdemeanor assault rifle possession count (Twitter link via Robert Salonga of the Mercury News). Foster will serve 232 hours of community service and two years probation, during which he’ll be prohibited from possessing guns or ammunition. 
Legally speaking, this ties up the final loose end from Foster’s Feb. 11 domestic violence arrest. In May, the court dismissed the more serious felony charges against Foster after his ex-girlfriend recanted her allegations.
In terms of his standing with the league, however, much is left to be determined. Foster was faced with four charges in all and the league is still mulling a multi-game suspension for him, sources tell Adam Schefter of ESPN.com (on Twitter).
Foster, who has been running with the first-team since returning to practice, is in line to start for the Niners in 2018. However, it seems likely that his season will be interrupted by a ban from the league office.
On the field, Foster has been a solid contributor for the Niners. As a rookie in 2017, he recorded 72 total tackles in ten games (all starts). In November, he earned NFL Defensive Rookie of the Month honors.
Chuck Pagano Wants To Coach Again
Chuck Pagano wants to get back in the game. Pagano says that he hopes to return to the NFL sidelines, one year after going 4-12 in his final year with the Colts. 
[RELATED: Colts DE Chris McCain Arrested]
“Absolutely. I’m young. I’m 57 years old,” Pagano said (Twitter link via NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport). “I’ve got a couple years left in me. I’ve got unfinished business. I’d love to have another opportunity, I just love being around the guys, being on grass and competing.”
Things didn’t go as planned for Pagano and the Colts in 2017 (particularly since they were without the services of Andrew Luck), but he did coach the team to three consecutive 11-5 campaigns from 2012-2014. In 2014, the Colts advanced to the AFC Championship game but were defeated by the eventual Super Bowl-champion Patriots.
All in all, Pagano owns a career 53-43 regular season record as an NFL head coach. Before the Luck-less ’17 season, Pagano was 49-31 over five years.
Jets’ Rontez Miles Suffers Torn Meniscus
Jets safety Rontez Miles underwent surgery to repair a torn meniscus and will be out for 3-4 months, a source tells Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (on Twitter). Miles is a possible Injured Reserve/to return candidate (IR-DTR) for the team, but in the meantime, it’s a blow to their depth in the secondary. 
The Miles injury would help to explain the Jets’ signing of safety J.J. Wilcox. Wilcox initially agreed to join the 49ers, but had a change of heart at the last minute and flew to New York to sign with the Jets. Wilcox won’t flip again as Mike Garafolo of NFL.com (on Twitter) hears it’s a done deal. It was unclear as to whether Wilcox would have made the 49ers’ cut, but his odds look good with the Jets given Miles’ injury.
Miles, retained via the original round tender this offseason, was slated to be the top backup to starting safeties Jamal Adams and Marcus Maye this offseason. Doug Middleton, Terrence Brooks, and Wilcox will now push for that job, though it wouldn’t be surprising to see the Jets add another veteran option.
Sam Beal To Enter Supplemental Draft
Former Western Michigan cornerback Sam Beal and Mississippi State safety Brandon Bryant are set to apply for the NFL’s supplemental draft, according to Tom Pelissero of NFL.com (on Twitter). Beal, in particular, will be of interest to NFL teams as Adam Schefter of ESPN.com (on Twitter) hears that he could become highest player selected since Browns used a second-round supplemental pick on Josh Gordon in 2012. 
[RELATED: Virginia Tech CB Adonis Alexander To Enter Supplemental Draft]
Beal was already projected to be taken high in the 2019 NFL draft and NFL personnel people believe he’s likely to fall somewhere in the first three rounds, according to Schefter. In the last decade, only Gordon and Terrelle Pryor have been selected in the top three rounds of the supplemental draft.
Bryant isn’t as big of a name as Beal in draft circles, but he also offers potential. At Mississippi State, he was said to have posted a team-high 4.24-second time in the 40-yard dash.
The supplemental draft allows teams to select players who, for one reason or another, were barred from entering the regular draft in the spring. When a team selects a player in the supplemental draft, they forfeit the corresponding pick in the regular draft next year.
Since the supplemental draft was created in 1977 only 43 players have been selected. Beal seems to be a lock to become the next player tapped, while Bryant and Virginia Tech cornerback Adonis Alexander also have a chance at being selected.
Bears’ Zach Miller Still Hopes To Play
This week, the Bears did right by Zach Miller. Chicago re-signed the tight end to a “split contract” on Monday and placed him on the PUP list on Tuesday, giving him $458K for the year even though he will not be able to play. Taking the field will not be in the cards this year, but Miller says he still hopes to return to football down the road. 
“With my doctors and everyone I spoke to, we’re not going to put any set limitations on this,” Miller said (via ESPN.com’s Jeff Dickerson). “We’re just going to take it as it goes. There has not been a definitive, ‘you can never do this again.’ That hasn’t been talked about. It’s to approach this as you are planning to get back to where I can be myself and play football and then when that time comes, some of that is out of my hands. So, I’m just going to do as much as I can to get that point and see what happens.”
Recently, Miller was seen walking around the Bears’ facility with a limp. That indicates that he’s a long way from getting back to football, but it’s a tremendous sign overall after he had to endure nine surgeries. Slowly but surely, Miller says the rehab process is paying off.
“I’m feeling good,” Miller said. “Knee’s getting stronger, really daily. Putting a lot of work in here just continuing to work on strengthening that area, everything around it. That’s kind of the big thing about this is it allows me to have that opportunity to continue to do that. So I feel good and continue to just get stronger, get healthier. Time will tell. Just put everything into it that I can and see where that takes me.”
In the meantime, Miller will continue to sit on team meetings and mentor the club’s tight ends. Although he misses being on the gridiron, the tight end says that he is “in a good place right now.”
East Notes: Eagles, Wentz, Pats, Gronk
Good news for Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz. Based on what he is hearing, ESPN.com’s Chris Mortensen (Twitter link) believes that Wentz will be ready for the team’s season opener.
All offseason long, the Eagles have been hoping that Wentz would be ready for Week 1. Of course, after his late-season ACL and LCL tears, the team is taking a cautious approach to his recovery. So far, Wentz has looked sharp in OTAs, so he should be ready to retake his spot as the team’s starting QB in September.
Here’s more from the East divisions:
- There was a great deal of retirement talk surrounding Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski this offseason, but that’s all in the rear view mirror now. “I had to see where my body was at and where my mind was at. But now I’m out here, and I feel good,” Gronk said (Twitter link via ESPN.com’s Jeff Darlington). “I feel like I definitely made the right decision coming back out. Mind and body. That’s what it has always been about. Nothing wrong with that, in my opinion. On Tuesday, Gronk and Tom Brady both reported to the Patriots for OTAs.
- Jets tight end Chris Herndon, who was arrested Saturday, was on the practice field on Tuesday (Twitter link via Brian Costello of the New York Post). It remains to be seen whether he’ll face league discipline or whether the DUI charge will impact his status with the team.
- The Giants announced that GM Dave Gettleman is set to undergo treatment for lymphoma. “Recently, I underwent an annual physical, during which it was discovered I have lymphoma. Over the past week, I have undergone more testing to determine the course of treatment, which is scheduled to start in the very near future,” Gettleman said in a statement. “The doctor’s outlook for the treatment and the prognosis is positive, and so am I. I will continue to work as much as the treatment process will allow, and as they know, when I am not in the office, I will be in constant communication with Pat (Shurmur), Kevin (Abrams) and the rest of our staff.”
J.J. Wilcox Cancels 49ers Deal, Will Join Jets
J.J. Wilcox had a change of heart. After agreeing to a one-year deal with the 49ers on Tuesday morning, Wilcox has agreed in principle to a deal with the Jets, according to ESPN.com’s Adam Schefter (on Twitter). 
Apparently, Wilcox decided that he wants to play for Jets head coach Todd Bowles. One source tells Schefter that the safety got “stage fright” after verbally agreeing to sign with San Francisco.
Wilcox, 27, was initially set to spend the 2017 season with the Buccaneers, but they shipped him to the Steelers after signing T.J. Ward in September. He played in 12 games with Pittsburgh, but he ultimately was unable to carve out a role in the secondary or on special teams. By the end of the year, he wound up as a healthy scratch due to his tendency to commit penalties while on special teams. All in all, he finished out with 12 tackles in 12 games.
Wilcox may have an easier path to the 53-man roster in New York than he would have had with the Niners. The Jets will start Jamal Adams at free safety with fellow rising sophomore Marcus Maye at strong safety, but after that things are fairly wide open with Terrence Brooks and Doug Middleton among those looking to lock down reserve jobs.
However, penalties and minor mistakes hurt the Jets last season, including a close loss against the Panthers in November. After the defeat, the Bowles stressed the importance of playing smarter. In keeping with that theme, Wilcox will have to reign in his playing style in order to avoid more yellow flags.
“There were about two or three plays where we had gone over things countless times that we should have known better, certain guys should have known better,” Bowles said (via USA Today). “And that’s a lack of concentration from a discipline standpoint and that has to get better.”
Giants Sign P Taylor Symmank
The Giants have signed punter Taylor Symmank, according to a tweet from his agent. Symmank will compete with Riley Dixon for the team’s punting job in 2018. 
Symmank spent the 2017 preseason with the Vikings and he apparently has a fan in former Minnesota offensive coordinator and new Giants head coach Pat Shurmur. In that preseason, the 25-year-old averaged 42.9 yards per punt on nine attempts with one punt traveling 60 yards. Five of those punts were downed inside the 20. The Texas Tech product lost that competition to Ryan Quigley and he has yet to appear in a regular season game.
The Giants acquired Dixon via trade with the Broncos back in April for a conditional 2019 seventh-round pick. Dixon is still probably the favorite to take over for the job previously held by Brad Wing, but he’ll have to earn it this summer.
Tom Brady, Gronk Report To Patriots
As expected, Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski were on hand for the Patriots’ Tuesday morning practices. The two stars previously stayed away from voluntary offseason team activities, but it appears that all parties are now on the same page. 
It is widely believed that Gronkowski was abstaining from OTAs in order to push the Patriots for a new contract. No new deal has been reached yet, but that’s likely forthcoming. Gronk, who is signed through the 2019 campaign, is scheduled to earn a base salary of $8MM in 2018, but New England has been working on “tweaking” his deal. The Patriots are expected to add some sort of incentive package to Gronkowski’s pact, as they did last year.
The circumstances behind Brady’s absence are not quite as clear. It has been speculated that the quarterback is angling for a new deal and/or is at odds with head coach coach Bill Belichick. Brady has not confirmed such talk and owner Robert Kraft did his best to sweep those rumors under the rug. Belichick, predictably, has been mum on the subject.
Last year, Brady led the NFL in passing yards en route to his third MVP trophy. While the rumors of discord will continue to swirl in New England, Brady will look to capture his sixth Super Bowl trophy this season.
Browns Release LB Tank Carder
The Browns announced the release of linebacker Tank Carder. Carder was released in order to make room for new addition Mychal Kendricks. 
Carder missed the entire 2017 campaign after suffering a torn ACL, but the Browns re-signed him this offseason to a low-cost one-year deal to see what he could do after his recovery. The deal likely had little or no guarantees, so the release should have little impact on the Browns’ tremendous amount of cap room.
Carder, 29, is really a linebacker in name only and has rarely played on the defensive side of the ball. However, he was a key cog on Cleveland’s special teams unit when he was on the field. In each of his healthy Browns seasons, he saw at least 60% ST playtime. The former fifth-round pick, was with Cleveland from the 2012 through 2017 seasons and was voted a team captain in 2016.