RFA/ERFA Tender Decisions: 3/6/17
Here are today’s ERFA decisions as teams make their final preparations for free agency.
- David Irving emerged as a viable pass-rusher for the Cowboys down the stretch last season, and the team will understandably extend an ERFA tender offer to the defensive end, Todd Archer of ESPN.com reports. He will make $615K in 2017.
- Two Panthers wide receivers, though, won’t be tendered and will thus become free agents. RFAs Philly Brown and Brenton Bersin will become UFAs, Joseph Person of the Charlotte Observer reports. Brown started 22 games for the Panthers and had a key role in Super Bowl 50. In three seasons, Brown caught 79 passes for 1,019 yards and seven touchdowns. Bersin also spent the past three seasons on Carolina’s roster but wasn’t utilized nearly as much.
- The Bears have re-signed ERFA tight end Daniel Brown to a one-year deal, the team announced. The team also tendered ERFAs Josh Bellamy, a wide receiver/special-teamer, and Bryce Callahan, a cornerback.
- The Saints plan to submit a tender to retain wide receiver Willie Snead, Josh Katzenstein of The Times-Picayune writes. However, his camp is hoping New Orleans will pay him more than the one-year minimum salary. The 24-year-old Snead is an ERFA despite arriving in New Orleans in 2014. However, the standout target only has two accrued seasons since he spent his rookie year on the practice squad. In those, he’s combined for more than 1,800 yards and scored seven touchdowns.
- The Vikings have agreed to tender offensive lineman Zac Kerin at the one-year, $615K level, Chris Tomasson of the Pioneer Press writes.
Panthers Expected To Pursue Barry Church
The Panthers are expected to make a run at free agent safety Barry Church when the market opens on Thursday, according to Bill Voth of the Black and Blue Review.
[RELATED: Panthers Interested In Matt Kalil]
Church, 29, is coming off the best season of his career, during which he posted two interceptions and graded as the league’s No. 11 safety, per Pro Football Focus. As Andy Benoit of Sports Illustrated recently noted, Church is “solid at everything, great at nothing,” but looks like one of the best safeties on the 2017 free agent market. PFR ranked Church as the third-best available safety in our positional rankings, while listing him as the No. 33 overall free agent on a macro level.
Earlier today, Charles Robinson of Yahoo! Sports reported Carolina figures to address the secondary in a “meaningful way,” and adding Church to a safety group that already includes Kurt Coleman and Tre Boston would do just that. Coleman and Boston graded as league-average defensive backs in 2016, so reducing one or both of their snaps in order to accommodate Church is a tenable idea. Per Robinson, Church is expected to garner north of $5MM on his next contract.
Church has spent the first seven seasons of his NFL tenure with the Cowboys, and is open to accepting something of a hometown discount to stay in Dallas. However, now that he’s just days from hitting free agency, Church figures to see what the open market has to offer as he competes with fellow safeties Tony Jefferson, Duron Harmon, Darius Butler, and Jonathan Cyprien for free agent funds.
Panthers Players Recruiting Okung
- Panthers players are “actively recruiting” free agent tackle Russell Okung, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets. Teams themselves cannot officially reach out to free agents until Tuesday.
FA Rumors: Warford, Cowboys, Panthers
This year’s strong guard market figures to drive up the prices for interior linemen. Two such top-tier UFAs figure to push for eight-figure deals, with Charles Robinson of Yahoo.com connecting both Ronald Leary and Larry Warford to deals of around $8MM per season (Twitter link). Robinson adds that Leary’s per year range could soar into the $9MM range (Twitter link). This comes after a report pegged Kevin Zeitler, generally viewed as this year’s top available guard, as being set to command $12MM AAV.
Kelechi Osemele‘s $11.7MM-AAV deal currently tops the guard hierarchy, but only two other players — Kyle Long and David DeCastro — are eight-figure-per-year players. The only other $8MM-per-year guards are Brandon Brooks, Mike Iupati and the recently extended Laurent Duvernay-Tardif, so Leary and Warford look set to join exclusive company with their second contracts. Robinson also reported last night T.J. Lang‘s next deal is estimated to be between $8-$10MM AAV.
Here’s more from the free agent market, courtesy of Robinson.
- The Panthers are going to be bargain hunting on the offensive line in free agency, Robinson (on Twitter) senses. He also envisions Carolina addressing the secondary in a meaningful way, which jibes with what we’ve been hearing over the past few months.
- Barry Church doesn’t figure to see a gargantuan raise the way many free agents will, with Robinson expecting the Cowboys safety sign for more than $5MM on average (Twitter link). Although, Robinson notes Church’s next contract could average earnings that are “solidly higher” than $5MM. Eric Berry‘s megadeal took the top safety off the market, so teams in need of back-line defenders could turn to a player like Church. The 29-year-old career-long Cowboy started in Dallas for the past four seasons. Church made $4.25MM in base salary last season in Dallas. A former UDFA, Church said last month he was open to giving the Cowboys a hometown discount to some degree, but this could well be his last chance to earn a higher-end contract. PFR’s latest safety rankings place Church third — behind Tony Jefferson and Duron Harmon.
- Robinson provided extensive clarity on what the wide receiver market could look like, and the pursuit of Alshon Jeffery might not yield what the Bears wideout believes he deserves.
Panthers Interested In Matt Kalil?
The Panthers could be fixing to have both Kalil Bros. on the roster in 2017. The Panthers are expected to have interest in Matt Kalil, according to Joseph Person of the Charlotte Observer. 
Kalil, 28 in July, played in only two games last year thanks to September hip surgery. Teams will be wary of his medical status, but his father tells Chris Tomasson of the Pioneer Press that he is now 100% healthy. For his part, the younger Kalil has said that he would like to stay in Minnesota:
“I’d love to stay here the rest of my career,” Kalil said last fall. “This is the team I started out with in the NFL, and I’ve been playing with these guys. I’ve met a lot of great friends here, my wife is from here. It’d be a good place to finish my career.”
Even if he’s healthy, the reality is that Kalil comes with tons of question marks. Kalil hasn’t been overly effective blocker since earning a Pro Bowl nod as a rookie. Kalil allowed the second-most pressures among tackles in 2014 and finished 18th from the bottom in 2015, according to Pro Football Focus.
Panthers To Draft Running Back
- It’s “fair” to say the Panthers will draft a running back this year, general manager Dave Gettleman told David Newton of ESPN.com. That’s not surprising given that starting running back Jonathan Stewart will play his age-30 season and face a contract year in 2017. Gettleman is bullish on this year’s selection of backs, which LSU’s Leonard Fournette, Florida State’s Dalvin Cook and Stanford’s Christian McCaffrey headline. “It’s a deep running back group, we know that,’’ he said. “It’ll be interesting to see how the whole process plays out because we’re really just halfway through it.’’
Michael Oher Still In Concussion Protocol
- Panthers GM Dave Gettleman told reporters on Wednesday that tackle Michael Oher is still in the league’s concussion protocol. This means the Panthers could be in the market for a starting left tackle. Oher has been dealing with a brain injury since September and only played in three games last year as a result. The eight-year veteran is under contract through 2019.
2017 NFL Franchise Tag Players
The deadline to designate franchise or transition players for 2017 has passed. Here’s the rundown of the players that were tagged, plus the candidates that did not receive the designation:
Franchise players (exclusive):
- Le’Veon Bell, RB (Steelers): $12.12MM (story)
- Kirk Cousins, QB (Redskins): $23.94MM (story)*
Franchise players (non-exclusive):
- Melvin Ingram, LB (Chargers): $14.55MM (story)
- Trumaine Johnson, CB (Rams): ~$16MM (story)*
- Chandler Jones, LB (Cardinals): $14.55MM (story)
- Jason Pierre-Paul, DE (Giants): $16.934MM (story)
- Kawann Short, DT (Panthers): $13.387MM (story)
*second tag; players receive raise over designated salary for position tender
Candidates who didn’t receive tags:
- A.J. Bouye, CB (Texans)
- Stephon Gilmore, CB (Bills)
- Dont’a Hightower, LB (Patriots)
- Alshon Jeffery, WR (Bears)
- Dontari Poe (Chiefs)
- Terrelle Pryor, WR (Browns)
- Ricky Wagner, OT (Ravens)
- Brandon Williams, DT (Ravens)
Salary Cap Numbers For All 32 Teams
On Wednesday, we learned that the 2017 salary cap will be set at roughly $167MM. However, every team’s number will be different depending on how much money each team elects to rollover from the previous season.
Courtesy of the NFLPA, we now have the total cap numbers for all 32 clubs. Here they are, listed by division and in descending order:
AFC East
- Dolphins – $175.36MM
- Patriots – $171.29
- Bills – $169.84MM
- Jets – $167.37MM
AFC North
- Browns – $217.12MM
- Bengals – $173.58MM
- Steelers – $170.27MM
- Ravens – $169.55MM
AFC South
- Jaguars – $206.31
- Titans – $191.05MM
- Colts – $173.61MM
- Texans – $171.94MM
AFC West
- Raiders – $175MM
- Broncos – $174.24MM
- Chiefs – $172MM
- Chargers – $167.11MM
NFC East
- Redskins – $182.06MM
- Eagles – $174.93MM
- Cowboys – $169.4MM
- Giants – $168.8MM
NFC North
- Bears – $175.1MM
- Packers – $174.98MM
- Lions – $171.73MM
- Vikings – $167.4MM
NFC South
- Panthers – $180.21MM
- Saints – $172.75MM
- Buccaneers – $172.33MM
- Falcons – $167.93MM
NFC West
- 49ers – $205.71MM
- Cardinals – $171.4MM
- Seahawks – $169.07MM
- Rams – $167.3MM
Opinion: Johnson, Peppers Options For Panthers
- The Panthers have “little to lose” by re-signing defensive end Charles Johnson to another short-term contract, while a reunion between Carolina and Julius Peppers would also make sense, opines Joe Person of the Charlotte Observer. Johnson, 30, inked a one-year, $3MM with the Panthers last offseason and responded by posting four sacks, while Peppers, who spent the first eight years of his career in Carolina, is likely done in Green Bay.