Bills To Sign OL Vlad Ducasse
The Bills plan to sign guard Vlad Ducasse to a three-year deal, tweets Jason La Canfora of CBSSports.com.
Ducasse, a former second-round pick, has bounced around for most of his career, spending time with the Jets, Vikings, and Bears before joining the Ravens last year. Signed as a depth option, Ducasse ended up starting eight games in Baltimore, grading as the league’s No. 59 guard, per Pro Football Focus. All told, the 29-year-old Ducasse has appeared in 88 career games, including 30 starts.
In Buffalo, Ducasse will become a clear-cut backup, as the Bills already boast two above-average guards in Richie Incognito and John Miller, each of whom played more than 1,000 snaps last season. Still, Buffalo can’t have too much offensive line depth as it attempts to recreate its No. 1 DVOA-rated rushing offense. Plus, Ducasse will reunite former Ravens offensive line coach Juan Castillo, who now holds the same role with the Bills.
Bills Prioritizing Lorenzo Alexander Deal
On the heels of his stunningly excellent 2016 campaign, the Bills aren’t ready to watch linebacker Lorenzo Alexander depart in free agency. The team is prioritizing re-signing Alexander and “working hard” to lock him up, tweets Ian Rapoport of NFL.com.
Alexander settled for a minimum salary benefit deal with the Bills in free agency last spring, when he was a special teams-first journeyman who had racked up only 9.5 sacks in his first nine NFL seasons. But Alexander broke out last season in Buffalo, where he accumulated 76 tackles, 12.5 sacks, three forced fumbles and an interception across 16 starts en route to second-team All-Pro honors and the only Pro Bowl berth of his career.
The first real defensive success of Alexander’s career came under the Bills’ previous head coach, Rex Ryan, whom they fired with a week left in the season. Buffalo has since replaced Ryan with another defensive-minded coach, Sean McDermott, but the team clearly regards Alexander as a player capable of thriving in its new system.
If the Bills prevent Alexander from hitting the market, it would remove yet another quality edge rusher from a thinning class of free agents. PFR’s Dallas Robinson ranks Alexander as the fifth-best rusher available, and the defender’s agent, Peter Schaffer, expects him to garner anywhere from $5MM to $10MM per year on his next deal.
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Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Giants, Bills Pursuing Martellus Bennett
The free agent tight end market is heating up, as the Bills and Giants are pursuing Martellus Bennett, according to Jason La Canfora of CBSSports.com (Twitter link), who also confirmed the previously reported interest displayed by the Jaguars. The Titans and Lions are also contacting tight ends , per La Canfora, while the Packers are aiming to retain Jared Cook.
Bennett is reportedly seeking $9MM annually after a 2016 campaign which saw him 701 receiving yards and seven touchdowns for New England. Given that Jack Doyle recently re-signed with the Colts for nearly $7MM per season, Bennett seemingly has every right to ask for $9MM, but a report last month indicated a “real possibility” that Bennett won’t be returning to the Patriots in 2017. Now that New England has acquired Dwayne Allen, Bennett is almost assuredly not returning to the Patriots.
The Giants, meanwhile, are reportedly eyeing all the top tight ends on the free agent market, a list that includes Bennett, Cook, and previously Doyle, and have also expressed interest in Anthony Fasano. The Raiders, too, have been linked to Bennett, who ranks as PFR’s No. 20 overall free agent and No. 1 available tight end.
Bills Keep Tyrod Taylor
This is a bit of a surprise, but the Bills will be keeping Tyrod Taylor after all. The team announced that the quarterback will remain in Buffalo on a restructured deal. The new deal will cover five year, and it will become a “year-to-year agreement” following the first two years, per Vic Carrucci of the Buffalo News. Taylor’s cap charge will decrease from $16MM to just under $10MM in 2017, according to Carrucci.
This offseason, the Bills held an option on Taylor worth $27.5MM option, due March 11th. That number was unpalatable for Buffalo management and Taylor’s reps were holding firm, telling the organization that it was an “all or nothing” proposition if they wanted to keep him off the open market. Ultimately, Taylor caved a bit in order to stay put.
Based on recent word out of Buffalo, it seems that top decision makers like GM Doug Whaley, senior VP of football administration Jim Overdorf, and team president Russ Brandon were against bringing Taylor back. However, new head coach Sean McDermott advocated for Taylor’s return, citing a lack of quality options in free agency.
“I’ve gotten a chance to know Tyrod and study him over the past several weeks and he is both a great person and competitor,” McDermott said today (via Carucci on Twitter). “Doug (Whaley) and I are confident this was best move for the Bills at this time.”
After spending the first four seasons of his career in Baltimore, the former ACC Player of the Year signed a three-year, $3.35MM deal with the Bills in 2015. Taylor ended up earning the starting gig in Buffalo, and he went on to make the Pro Bowl that season.
The third year of that contract was voided since Taylor ended up playing more than 50-percent of the team’s snaps in 2015. As a result, the Bills extended the quarterback for six years and $92MM. The 27-year-old ultimately completed 61.7-percent of his passes for 3,023 yards, 17 touchdowns, and six interceptions in 2016. He also added another 580 yards and six touchdowns on the ground.
Of course, those numbers were compiled in “only” 15 games. Taylor was inactive for the team’s season finale as the Bills looked to slide out of his 2017 guaranteed salary.
The Jets, 49ers, Browns, and Cardinals were among the team’s reportedly eying the Taylor situation.
Bills Sign FB/RB Mike Tolbert
The human bowling ball is now rolling up to Buffalo. The Bills have announced the signing of running back/fullback Mike Tolbert to a one-year, $1MM deal.
The news is a bit surprising since the Bills stuck agreement with fellow fullback Patrick DiMarco just a couple of hours ago. It’s likely that DiMarco will be tasked more with a run blocking role and Tolbert will be used more as a traditional running back. Tolbert did amass roughly 1,600 all-purpose yards in his first four years with the Panthers before taking a backseat in the offense last year.
I had Tolbert ranked seventh amongst free agent fullbacks due to his age and diminished blocking skills. He’ll turn 32 in November. In 2016, he had 35 carries for 114 yards and just ten catches for 72 yards.
Jordan Raanan of ESPN.com first reported the agreeement. Joe Person of the Charlotte Observer had the details. Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Bills Interested In Brandon LaFell
With Tyrod Taylor seemingly returning to the Bills, the team is now looking to provide the quarterback with some weapons. According to Jim Owczarski of Cincinnati.com (via Twitter), the Bills have shown interest in free agent wideout Brandon LaFell. The writer notes that the veteran is a priority of the Bengals, and he adds that the Bears have also expressed interest.
The 30-year-old had one of the most productive seasons of his career in 2016. The wideout hauled in 64 catches for 862 yards and six touchdowns. LaFell hasn’t collected less than 500 yards since his rookie campaign. The veteran joined the Bengals last offseason following two years with the Patriots.
The Bills depth chart at wideout is currently looking a bit depleted behind Sammy Watkins. The team’s current depth consists of Dezmin Lewis, Walt Powell, Kolby Listenbee, and Marcus Easley.
LaFell was mentioned as an honorable mention in our rankings of the best free agent wideouts.
Minor NFL Transactions: 3/8/17
Today’s minor moves:
- Shiloh Keo will re-sign with a team for the second straight offseason. This year, the Saints made a move to re-up the safety, Nick Underhill of The Advocate tweets. A former Texans draft pick, Keo caught on with the eventual 2015 Super Bowl champion Broncos late that season and re-signed in Denver in the subsequent offseason. The Broncos cut Keo while he was serving a two-game suspension for a personal conduct violation, leading to the Saints adding him. The 29-year-old defender played in 10 games for the Broncos and Saints in 2016 and recovered three fumbles while failing to record a tackle.
- The Patriots are planning to re-sign tight end Michael Williams, Jeff Howe of the Boston Herald tweets. Williams saw action for the 2015 Patriots but missed their latest Super Bowl season because of a torn ACL.
- The Bills did not offer an RFA tender to punter Colton Schmidt but instead reached an agreement to re-sign him, Mike Rodak of ESPN.com reports. Rodak estimates Schmidt will be brought back at a lower cost instead of at the RFA low-round tender rate of nearly $2MM. A fourth-year player, Schmidt made $600K last season.
- Another Bills transaction involves the team parting ways with a long-tenured wide receiver. Buffalo cut Marcus Easley, Jason Cole of Bleacher Report tweets. Affiliated with the Bills since they drafted him in the fourth round in 2010, Easley missed the entire 2016 season after suffering a severe knee injury late in the 2015 campaign. He spent several seasons as one of Buffalo’s top special-teamers. Buffalo announced the move as a post-June 1 release.
- The Chargers have agreed to a four-year, $4.41MM extension with long snapper Mike Windt, tweets Michael Gehlken. Windt, who has appeared in 100 games with the Chargers, received a $600K signing bonus.
Bills To Sign FB Patrick DiMarco
The Bills are signing fullback Patrick DiMarco, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (on Twitter). He’ll get a four-year deal worth $8.5MM. The pact will contain $4MM guaranteed.
DiMarco was one of the top fullbacks available this offseason. Now that he has gotten a sizable payday, the arrow will be pointing upwards for Ravens free agent fullback Kyle Juszczyk. The Bills were considered the favorites on Juszczyk earlier, and it’s possible they did not want to spend to match an asking price that’s expected to be the new fullback standard. This stands to leave the Browns, 49ers and Ravens in better position to land Juszczyk, who wants a hybrid-type role in addition to pure fullback duties.
The Falcons wanted to retain DiMarco — PFR’s No. 2 UFA fullback free agent behind Juszczyk — but could not keep him from making plans to move to Buffalo. DiMarco earned Pro Bowl acclaim in 2015 with the Falcons, his employer from 2013-16, and profiles as more of a straight-up blocking back than does Juszczyk. While the Ravens’ blocking back graded as Pro Football Focus’ top fullback, the Falcons’ lead blocker received the best run-blocking grade at the position.
Considering the Bills led the league in rushing last season and used a pure fullback in Jerome Felton, this addition — and the retention of Tyrod Taylor — may be a sign Buffalo wants to keep the offense on a similar track.
Latest On Stephon Gilmore
Cornerback Stephon Gilmore is using Janoris Jenkins‘ deal as a baseline to work from, Josina Anderson of ESPN.com hears (on Twitter). The Giants handed Jenkins a five-year, $62.5MM contract last offseason.
We learned yesterday that the Bears were making a strong push for Gilmore. The cornerback said in January that he’d like to stay with the Bills, but the team ultimately decided against slapping the player with the franchise tag.
The former first-rounder has started 66 games since entering the league in 2012. Despite finishing the 2016 season with a career-high five interceptions, Pro Football Focus ranked him only 61st among 112 qualifying corners.
Despite the apparent decline in performance, Gilmore still ranked as our third-best available free agent cornerback. Zach Links also predicted that Gilmore will receive the 10th-highest contract this offseason.
Free Agency Rumors: Vikings, Okung, Bills
Rounding up the latest free agency news:
- The Vikings are expected to express interest in offensive tackle Russell Okung when free agency starts, Josina Anderson of ESPN.com tweets. This doesn’t come as a big surprise since Okung has been previously linked to Minnesota.
- The Bills were in play for Brian Hoyer, but he will not be signing with Buffalo after the team retained Tyrod Taylor, sources tell ESPN.com’s Mike Rodak (Twitter link). The Jets and 49ers have strong interest in the veteran QB.
- The 49ers are now among the teams in the mix for fullback Kyle Juszczyk, Tom Pelissero of USA Today tweets. The Ravens would like to keep him, but they are expecting to get outbid for the former fourth-round pick. The Bills are said to be in the lead for him and the Browns are also in pursuit.
- The Raiders working hard today on bringing back right tackle Menelik Watson, Vic Tafur of the San Francisco Chronicle tweets. If he reaches the open market, however, the Broncos are among the teams that will pursue him, Mike Klis of 9NEWS tweets.
- The Raiders are trying to get a new deal done with inside linebacker Perry Riley, Vic Tafur of the San Francisco Chronicle tweets.