Release Candidate: Broncos DE DeMarcus Walker
Two years ago, the Broncos used a second-round pick to select DeMarcus Walker out of Florida State. Today, the defensive end may be on Denver’s roster bubble.
[RELATED: Broncos TE Jake Butt Eyeing Training Camp Return]
Walker appeared in ten games for the Broncos as a rookie, but saw the field just three times in 2018. At one point, the Broncos tried to jumpstart his career by moving him to outside linebacker before shifting him back to defensive end, but, so far, nothing has worked.
Ordinarily, a team would stick things out with a young second-round pick like Walker, but Walker finds himself buried in a defensive line group that also includes Derek Wolfe, Adam Gotsis, Shelby Harris, Zach Kerr, and third-round pick Dre’Mont Jones. To make the 53-man cut, he’ll have to leapfrog at least one veteran while staving off the rest of the pack on the 90-man offseason roster.
If Walker doesn’t stick with the Broncos, you can expect him to immediately draw interest on the waiver wire. The 6’4″, 280-pound defender compiled 16 sacks as a senior at FSU and had the attention of several teams heading into the ’17 draft. In fact, before selecting Walker at No. 51 overall, the Broncos pondered a trade up to land him.
This Date In Transactions History: Vikings Sign Brock Lesnar
Fifteen years ago today, Brock Lesnar stepped out of the squared circle and on to the gridiron. The WWE superstar hadn’t played organized football since high school, but his athletic ability made the Vikings curious enough to give the muscle-bound homegrown talent an opportunity to compete in training camp as a defensive tackle.
On the surface, this seemed to be a publicity ploy for the former WWE champion, but there was reason to believe that Lesnar could defy the odds and embark on a legitimate professional sports career. Before Lesnar beat the likes of The Rock and The Undertaker, he was an amateur wrestling phenom at the University of Minnesota, where he captured the 2000 NCAA Division I heavyweight Greco-Roman wrestling championship.
At 6’2″ and 285 pounds, Lesnar’s drill times and marks were downright impressive. With a reported 4.7-second 40-yard-dash time, 35-inch vertical leap, and 30 reps on the 225-pound bench press, Lesnar would have bested many DTs at the 2004 combine. For reference, No. 14 overall pick Tommie Harris ran a 4.78-second 40-yard-dash and posted 29 reps on the bench press before the Bears made him the first DT drafted in April.
Despite never playing football in college, Lesnar was still only 26 years old at the time and had real potential as a raw prospect. Still, there was one big problem – an April motorcycle accident left Lesnar with a busted jaw, a broken left hand, a bruised pelvis, and a pulled groin. Playing at less than 100% health, Lesnar’s unlikely mission became even more improbable.
After Lesnar missed the Vikings’ cut in late August, the Vikings offered him a spot on their NFL Europe affiliate team. Citing a desire to stay close to his family in the U.S., Lesnar left football, transitioned to MMA, and went on to become the heavyweight champion of the UFC.
Lesnar’s NFL career was short-lived, but his presence in camp was appreciated by Randy Moss, Nate Burleson, and other members of the Vikings’ locker room who grew up as wrasslin’ fans. Lesnar also got to put his WWE skills to good use while with the Vikes. When a Chiefs defender roughed up Daunte Culpepper during a summer scrimmage, Lesnar grabbed him by the waist, suplexed him high in the air, and slammed him on the turf. At least, that’s how Burleson remembers it.
PFR Glossary: Physically Unable To Perform List
When training camp rolls around next month, you might start hearing about players being placed on the PUP list. While the PUP list (sadly) isn’t a collection of which players are bringing their favorite canines to practice, it does have an important meaning for the NFL season.
PUP stands for physically unable to perform, and the PUP list is similar in fashion to injured reserve. It denotes which players aren’t healthy enough to practice during training camp. But there is one important distinction regarding PUP that can often get confusing.
Players who can’t start training camp due to an injury are initially placed on Active/PUP. This is a minor designation, and one that we at PFR typically won’t even cover. A player on Active/PUP isn’t able to practice until he’s medically cleared. Once he gains that clearance, he’s free to hit the practice field and is removed from the PUP list.
If a player begins training camp on Active/PUP and never gets healthy enough to practice throughout camp and into the preseason, he’s likely to be placed on Reserve/PUP. This is the more common PUP designation, and one that we will cover. Being placed on Reserve/PUP forces a player to miss the first six weeks of the regular season, so it’s a fairly serious option. After those six weeks are up, the team has a three-week window in which in must either activate the player, place him on injured reserve, or release him.
A few things to remember:
- A player can’t practice and then be placed on a PUP list. If Patrick Mahomes takes part in only a single day of training camp before suffering an injury that will knock him out for the first six weeks of the regular season, the Chiefs wouldn’t be allowed to move him to PUP.
- Similarly, if a player is on Active/PUP, gets healthy enough to practice, and then gets hurt again during camp, his team is out of luck. He won’t be able to go back on the Active/PUP list or be placed on the Reserve/PUP list.
- Any player on either PUP list does not count toward his team’s 53-man roster.
In short, you typically don’t need to fret if your favorite player is placed on Active/PUP. The majority of players on Active/PUP are there for precautionary reasons and will soon be allowed to participate in practice sessions. But if that player sticks on Active/PUP throughout the preseason and is then shifted to Reserve/PUP, buckle in for a minimum absence of six weeks.
Note: This is a PFR Glossary entry. Our glossary posts explain specific rules relating to free agency, trades, or other aspects of the NFL’s Collective Bargaining Agreement.
2019 NFL Free Agents
Pro Football Rumors’ up-to-date list of 2019 NFL free agents is below. These are players who are eligible for restricted or unrestricted free agency after the 2018 season. The player’s 2019 age is in parentheses. Players are generally sorted by the position at which they played most in ’18, or the position at which their most recent team listed them.
Players who are currently on an NFL roster but don’t have a contract for 2019 are listed below, along with a few other notable free agents who aren’t on a roster at the moment.
Players eligible for restricted free agency are marked with (R), while franchise and transition players will be marked with (F) and (T) respectively. Exclusive rights free agents are not included. All other free agents are assumed to be unrestricted.
If you have any corrections or omissions, please contact us. For instant free agent updates, be sure to follow us on Twitter @pfrumors.
Updated 8-28-19 (1:03pm CT)
Quarterbacks
Matt Cassel (37)
Connor Cook (26)
David Fales (28)
Landry Jones (30)
Brock Osweiler (28)
Brandon Weeden (35)
Running Backs
Jay Ajayi (26)
Kapri Bibbs (26)
LeGarrette Blount (32)
Alex Collins (25)
Benny Cunningham (29)
D’Onta Foreman (23)
Jeremy Hill (26)
Chris Ivory (31)
Rob Kelley (27)
Daniel Lasco (26)
Stevan Ridley (30)
Robert Turbin (29)
Fozzy Whittaker (30)
Shaun Wilson (23)
Zach Zenner (28)
Fullbacks
Derrick Coleman (28)
Jalston Fowler (29)
Tre Madden (26)
Wide Receivers
Kelvin Benjamin (28)
Dez Bryant (30)
Martavis Bryant (27)
Leonte Carroo (25)
Sammie Coates (26)
Bruce Ellington (28)
Pierre Garcon (33)
Rashad Greene (26)
Maurice Harris (26)
Darrius Heyward-Bey (32)
Andre Holmes (31)
Justin Hunter (28)
Brandon LaFell (31)
Roger Lewis (25)
Ricardo Louis (25)
Brandon Marshall (35)
Rod Streater (31)
Mike Wallace (33)
Kevin White (27)
Nick Williams (28)
Terrance Williams (30)
Read more
How The Cardinals Have Used Their No. 1 Waiver Priority
Since late December, when the Cardinals took over the top spot on the NFL’s waiver priority list due to their league-worst record, Arizona has had its pick of the NFL’s freely available talent. In that time, general manager Steve Keim has acquired five players via the waiver wire, many of whom have significant NFL experience.
Let’s take a look at the players the Cardinals have picked up on waivers over the past seven months and examine how each might contribute in 2019:
Pharoh Cooper, WR: Claimed from Rams on 12/19/18
The Cardinals may have gained some valuable intel from Cooper after claiming him in advance of their Week 16 matchup against the Rams, but Arizona also likely had Cooper’s potential 209 contributions in mind. A fourth-round pick out of South Carolina in 2016, Cooper earned a Pro Bowl nod in 2017 as a return man. That season, the 24-year-old handled 66 combined kick and punt returns, and led the NFL in yards per kickoff return (27.4). The Cardinals now have a bevy of wide receivers on their depth chart after adding draft picks Andy Isabella and Hakeem Butler to holdovers Larry Fitzgerald and Christian Kirk, so Cooper is unlikely to see the field as an offensive player. But he’ll compete to become Arizona’s top return man, a role that he should be able to win.
D.J. Swearinger, S: Claimed from Redskins on 12/25/18
Sometimes you can go home again. The Cardinals brought in Swearinger — who previously played in Arizona from 2015-16 — via a Christmas Day waiver claim after the veteran defensive back was cut by the Redskins for criticizing Washington’s coaching staff and play-calling decisions. Still just 27 years old and due less than $4.5MM in 2019, Swearinger was unsurprisingly a popular name on the waiver wire, as both the Raiders and Packers attempted to claim him. Viewed as one of the more physically imposing defensive backs in the league, Swearinger graded out as the NFL’s No. 13 safety a year ago, per Pro Football Focus. He’ll start alongside Budda Baker in a now Patrick Peterson-less (at least, for six games) Arizona secondary.
Tanner Vallejo, LB: Claimed from Browns on 2/5/19
Like Cooper, Vallejo is likely ticketed for a special teams-only role in 2019. Over the past two seasons with the Bills and Browns, Vallejo played only 158 total defensive snaps but appeared on more than 500 special teams snaps. In both campaigns, he finished top-three on his club in special teams plays. The Cardinals were actually relatively successful on special teams last year, ranking as a top-12 unit in both kickoffs and punts, but Vallejo will give the club more depth. Speaking of depth, Arizona doesn’t have a ton of serviceable options behind projected starting ‘backers Haason Reddick and Jordan Hicks, so a scenario exists where Vallejo sees meaningful playing time on defense.
Pita Taumoepenu, LB: Claimed from 49ers on 5/9/19
A sixth-round pick in the 2017 draft, Taumoepenu has only played in six games (21 defensive snaps, 69 special teams snaps) over two seasons. Now 25 years old, Taumoepenu will have to compete for time on special teams, as he’s unlikely to see the field as a pass-rusher behind Terrell Suggs and Brooks Reed.
Desmond Harrison, T: Claimed from Browns on 6/6/19
The Browns cut Harrison earlier this month after he reportedly missed team meetings, but the Cardinals were willing to take a chance on his talent. Harrison joined Cleveland as an undrafted free agent in 2018 and subsequently started eight games, and while his overall marks from PFF weren’t stellar, he ranked 32nd among tackles in pure pass-blocking grade (min. 50% snap percentage). He was hurt by his run-blocking limitations and his 11 penalties, the latter of which ranked ninth-most among tackles. Harrison will open the season behind starting Arizona tackles D.J. Humphries and Marcus Gilbert, but given that those two have only played a combined 26 games (out of a possible 64) over the past two seasons, Harrison stands a decent chance to make it onto the field.
Largest 2019 RB Cap Hits
Despite the celebrity status that many NFL running backs enjoy, the market for the position has not advanced like market for quarterbacks and wide receivers has.
[RELATED: Largest 2019 Quarterback Cap Hits]
Here’s a look at the top 10 RB cap hits for 2019, with a few notes and observations accompanying the figures:
Running backs:
- David Johnson (Cardinals): $9.75MM
- Todd Gurley (Rams): $9.2MM
- LeSean McCoy (Bills): $9.05MM
- Le’Veon Bell (Jets): $8.97MM
- Ezekiel Elliott (Cowboys): $7.94MM
- Leonard Fournette (Jaguars): $7.4MM
- Lamar Miller (Texans): $7.2MM
- Saquon Barkley (Giants): $7.1MM
- Devonta Freeman (Falcons): $6.75MM
- Jerick McKinnon (49ers): $5.75MM
- Surprised to see McKinnon at the bottom of the top 10 after he inked a lucrative free agent deal with the Niners just one year ago? The Jet still has plenty of money coming to him on his four-year, $30MM deal, but the deal was structured to give him the lowest cap hit in ’19. Next year, McKinnon’s hit will rise to $8.8MM, then elevate to $9.2MM in 2021, the final scheduled year of the contract. McKinnon is looking to bounce back from his lost 2018 season this year, but if he doesn’t, the Niners will be able to escape his contract and save $4.8MM next year against $4MM in dead money.
- It’s a similar story for Bell, who has the second-highest paying contract of any running back in terms of overall annual value, with a relatively affordable $8.97MM cap hit for the coming year. As of this writing, he’s slated to have the second-highest hit of any RB in 2020 at a whopping $15.5MM.
- Despite playing on a rookie contract, Barkley makes the list with a $7MM+ cap hit for his sophomore season. This, perhaps more than any other deal on this list, illustrates the gap in pay between RBs and QBs. Sam Darnold, drafted one spot behind Barkley in 2018, has the 25th highest cap hit of any QB this year.
Extension Candidate: Bengals WR A.J. Green
As one of the league’s most feared wide receivers, an extension for A.J. Green should be fairly simple. Unfortunately, after yet another injury-shortened season, the negotiations figure to be a bit complicated. 
On the plus side, Bengals owner Mike Brown has indicated that he wants Green to remain in Cincinnati on a new deal.
“Oh, I think he’s a proven commodity, isn’t he?,” Brown said in March. “The price range for him will be something we can figure out, it will come together. It’s true with anyone, if they suddenly get an injury..it reduces them. Well that changes the equation, but I never plan on that happening. I like to think that won’t happen. If A.J. is healthy, he’s as good a receiver as anybody in the league.”
Ditto for Green:
“Cincinnati is home for me,” Green said recently. “I’ve been here nine years. This is home as much as South Carolina. All I know is Cincinnati. I can’t see myself playing anywhere else or playing in a different city. Hopefully I can be here for a couple more years, so we’ll see on that part.”
Will Green have himself a fat new contract before or soon after his 31st birthday in July? That may depend on his willingness to accept a bit of a hometown discount.
Green has missed 13 games due to injury over the past three seasons and the Bengals, historically, have not been big spenders. They’ve also recently extended teammates Geno Atkins and Carlos Dunlap, so their flexibility is somewhat limited.
Green finished out the 2018 season with just 46 catches for 694 yards and six touchdowns, but when his nine-game season is adjusted for 16 games, those numbers are right in line with his career 75/1,113/8 average. It’s also worth noting that ’18 was only Green’s second season to fall shy of the 1,000-yard mark. The only other time that happened was in 2016, when he came just 36 yards shy, despite playing in just ten games.
Ultimately, a new deal for Green should put him right around Odell Beckham Jr.’s $18MM average annual value, particularly if fellow receivers Julio Jones and Michael Thomas ink their next deals first. Of course, Green’s deal will be shorter in length than OBJs, or, at the very least, have a much lighter load of guarantees beyond Year 2.
For now, Green is set to enter the final season of his four-year, $60MM contract.
This Date In Transactions History: Julius Peppers
After a mysteriously quiet 2007, Julius Peppers mounted a strong comeback campaign in ’08. Then, on the heels of notching a career-high 14.5 sacks and helping the Panthers return to the playoffs, Peppers wanted out. Specifically, Peppers expressed a desire to join a team with a 3-4 scheme so that he could move from defensive end to linebacker. 
Peppers insisted that he would never sign a long-term deal with Carolina and tried hard to discourage the team from using the franchise tender on him in the 2009 offseason.
“The front office has been informed of my desire to explore opportunities with other NFL teams following the expiration of my contract next month,” Peppers said in a statement (via ESPN.com). “At this point in my NFL career, I am seeking new challenges that will allow me to grow, develop and reach my personal potential on the football field.”
The Panthers held firm, however, and applied the one-year, $16.7MM placeholder on their top defender. In theory, another team could have signed Peppers as a restricted free agent, but that would have required the forfeiture of two first-round picks on top of a mammoth contract. While he was stuck between a rock and a hard place, Peppers abstained from offseason activities. The multiple-time Pro Bowler’s absence cast a serious shadow over the Panthers’ offseason and made the football world wonder whether the Panthers would cave and trade him.
Ultimately, Peppers’ agent was unable to find a suitable deal for him. And, on June 26, 2009, Peppers inked his one-year deal with the Panthers.
Peppers earned another Pro Bowl nod in 2009, and that proved to be the final season of his first Panthers run. After the season, the Panthers declined to use the franchise tag on him, allowing him to reach unrestricted free agency and to a six-year, $91.5MM deal with the Bears. When that deal was terminated in 2014, he stayed in the NFC North and signed with the Packers.
It took a while, but Peppers ultimately came full circle. In 2017, the veteran joined the Panthers on a one-year, $3.5MM deal. A few months later, the Panthers canned GM Dave Gettleman and brought back Marty Hurney as their top football executive, but there were no hard feelings between Peppers and Hurney.
Last March, Peppers and Hurney shook hands on a new one-year, $5MM deal to keep the then 38-year-old in Carolina. Then, this past February, Peppers walked away from the game with 159.5 career sacks.
Release Candidate: Texans TE Darren Fells
The Texans signed Darren Fells to a one-year deal in March, adding a proven blocking tight end to their offensive unit. However, the 33-year-old could be looking for work before the summer is through. 
Roughly six weeks after signing Fells, the Texans used a third round pick on San Diego State’s Kahale Warring, a 6’5″ tight end who has shown serious promise as a blocker. Meanwhile, the Texans also have the Jordans – 2018 rookies Jordan Akins and Jordan Thomas – on their TE depth chart. Fells faces an uphill battle, even after the Texans released Ryan Griffin in May.
Fells’ blue collar blocking skills have made him a known commodity in a league obsessed with offensively explosive tight ends, but they might not be enough to get him over the hump in Houston. It’s also worth noting that Fells, despite his rep, wasn’t all that sharp of a blocker last season. Pro Football Focus assigned Fells a 72.9 pass-blocking grade in 2018, which put him near the middle of the pack among his position group, and a 55.9 grade in the run game, a mark which ranked near the bottom of the league.
Fells’ blocking foibles weren’t just recognized by the advanced metrics. The Browns, who inked him to a three-year, $12MM deal in the 2018 offseason, released him this year and took on a dead money hit of $1.4MM.
Fells seems likely to hook on somewhere for the 2019 season, but it might not happen with the Texans, who guaranteed him just $100K on his one-year, $1.5MM deal.
Poll: Grading The Raiders’ Offseason
To say that this was an offseason of overhaul for the Raiders would be a drastic understatement. With the aid of new GM Mike Mayock, head coach Jon Gruden completely rebooted his team after a disappointing 4-12 finish last year. 
The renovations got underway in 2018 when the Raiders shipped out stars Khalil Mack and Amari Cooper for a combined haul of draft capital. The moves also gave the team financial flexibility this offseason, which was used to add wide receiver Antonio Brown, wide receiver Tyrell Williams, right tackle Trent Brown, and slot cornerback LaMarcus Joyner. Those four players alone account for more than $109MM in guaranteed money, signaling a clear desire to compete in 2019.
It’s hard to knock any of those additions – at least, when considering their expected value for the coming season. However, the Raiders’ draft was among the most polarizing in the NFL. After Gruden and Mayock sent their scouting department packing, they stunned every prognosticator by selecting Clemson defensive end Clelin Ferrell with the No. 4 overall pick. Then, at No. 24 overall, some felt that the Raiders reached again with their pick of Alabama running back Joshua Jacobs.
Other picks, such as Mississippi State safety Johnathan Abram at No. 27 overall, were better received. Abram projects to be a Day 1 starter alongside Karl Joseph and, ultimately, figures to inherit his spotlight after the club turned down Joseph’s fifth-year option for the 2020 season.
Despite some clear upgrades, question marks remain for the Raiders. The club tried to upgrade its backfield with the quietly effective Isaiah Crowell, but he was quickly lost to a torn Achilles and replaced by the return of Doug Martin. There were also rumblings that they would add a new quarterback to play ahead of Derek Carr, but they elected to stick with the signal caller in hopes that he could return to his old form. It’s also fair to wonder about the status of the Raiders’ locker room – the mercurial Brown always has the potential to rock the boat and he’s now joined by longtime rival Vontaze Burfict and controversial lineman Richie Incognito.
On the whole, how would you grade the Raiders’ offseason? Click below to cast your vote (link for app users) and back up your choice in the comment section.