NFL Staff Notes: McDonough, NFLPA, Chiefs, Packers, Gruden, Philbin
It’s been nearly two months since former Cardinals executive Terry McDonough first filed an arbitration claim against team owner Michael Bidwill accusing Bidwill of cheating and gross misconduct. The claim specifically levied accusations of breach of contract, retaliation after engaging in protected activity, intentional infliction of emotional distress, defamation, and civil conspiracy. The Cardinals’ public relations consultant, Jim McCarthy, released a statement in return containing several personal attacks on McDonough.
The original complaint stemmed from a situation in which McDonough claims Bidwill had devised a plan for McDonough and then-head coach Steve Wilks to communicate with then-suspended general manager Steve Keim through burner phones. McDonough asserts that after voicing his concerns about the plan, he was written up for insubordination and, eventually, demoted.
McDonough has reportedly added more accusations in an amended arbitration complaint this week, accusing Bidwill and the Cardinals of defamation and invasion of privacy in response to McCarthy’s statement, according to ESPN’s Tisha Thompson. He called the statement “untrue and reprehensible,” and his wife, Lynette, called the statement “the most bizarre and dishonest thing that I have ever heard.” The new complaint also states that McDonough will prepare to pursue a civil complaint against McCarthy and his group, CounterPoint Strategies, for “grossly defamatory statements.”
The NFL recently selected Jeffrey Mishkin to arbitrate the employment dispute, according to another report from Thompson. Mishkin is the former chief legal officer for the NBA, leading the Association’s in-house legal department for seven years. He will determine the schedule of events, which are expected to last for several months.
Here are a few other rumors concerning staff positions in the NFL:
- Earlier this month, Mike Florio of NBC Sports reported that the league’s Players Association was moving closer to selecting a new executive director. The final candidates are not yet known, but we’re not completely in the dark. Previously this year, The Athletic’s Daniel Kaplan identified candidates Matt Schaub, the former quarterback, Kellen Winslow Sr., the former tight end, Teri Patterson Smith, the NFLPA chief operating officer, Don Davis, the NFLPA senior director of player affairs, George Atallah, the NFLPA assistant director of external affairs, and Dominique Foxworth, the former NFLPA president. A couple weeks ago, Jim Trotter, also of The Athletic, reported that no internal candidates made the cut, eliminating Smith, Davis, and Atallah. Foxworth is also expected to no longer be in consideration. Former wide receiver and former member of Congress Anthony Gonzalez has been mentioned but not confirmed as a candidate. The NFLPA is proceeding with the process with the utmost confidentiality and plan to bring it to a close sooner rather than later.
- After previously participating in the Chiefs‘ Norma Hunt Training Camp Fellowship Program last year, Madison Aponte was hired on as a player personnel assistant. According to Neil Stratton of SucceedinFootball.com, while Aponte’s title hasn’t changed, she will continue acting as the team’s college scouting coordinator, a role she’s held since the start of the 2022 season.
- Stratton reports another addition, this time by the Packers. According to Stratton, Green Bay has hired Joey Laine in the role of salary cap analyst. Laine was a longtime presence in the Saints’ building after working with the team for more than ten years. He eventually left, following Ryan Pace to Chicago and working as the Bears’ director of football administration for eight seasons.
- Finally, two former NFL head coaches have taken minor roles with new teams this season. According to Jeff Duncan of nola.com, the Saints have brought in former Raiders head coach Jon Gruden to assist in the integration of new quarterback Derek Carr in the Saints’ offense. Carr played his best statistical seasons under Gruden during their time together and Saints offensive coordinator Pete Carmichael welcomed Gruden’s assistance with open arms. The second former head coach is former Dolphins’ skipper Joe Philbin who, according to Pete Thamel of ESPN, has been hired as an offensive analyst at Ohio State.
Jaguars Trade K Riley Patterson To Lions
The Lions’ decision to cut Riley Patterson led him to Jacksonville in August 2022. Nearly a year later, Detroit will step in to prevent Patterson hitting the waiver wire.
After the Jaguars announced they were cutting Patterson — complete with the customary farewell tweet — they have reached an agreement to trade him to the Lions. Patterson kicked in seven Lions games during the 2021 season. The Jags replaced Patterson with longtime Bronco Brandon McManus earlier Thursday.
Patterson provided the Jaguars with some rare kicker stability last season, kicking in all 19 games for the team after seven kickers came through from 2020-21. McManus obviously provides Jacksonville with much more experience, but the team will still collect an asset for its 2022 kicker. The Lions are sending the Jags a late-round pick, Adam Schefter of ESPN.com tweets. That asset will be a conditional 2026 seventh-round pick, per NFL.com’s Tom Pelissero (on Twitter).
The Lions initially added Patterson off the Patriots’ practice squad in November 2021. The former UDFA out of Memphis then finished that season as Detroit’s primary kicker. Patterson made 13 of 14 field goals for the Lions that year, but the team waived him coming out of the preseason. In Jacksonville, Patterson made 30 of 35 field goal tries during the regular season and missed just one extra point (36-for-37). He also notched a game-winning field goal to complete a 27-point Jags comeback win over the Chargers in the wild-card round.
Patterson, 23, is due a $940K base salary this season. He can be retained via RFA tender next year. The Jags tendered Patterson as an ERFA in March, but the Broncos’ decision to cut McManus — in part due to cap savings, as they designated him a post-June 1 release — changed the AFC South team’s plans. It will impact the Lions’ path at kicker as well.
In signing XFLer John Parker Romo last week, the Lions already roster two kickers. They finished last season with Michael Badgley in that role. Badgley kicked in 12 games for the Lions last season and re-signed with the team in March. Badgley is tied to a one-year, $1.2MM deal. The Lions guaranteed their incumbent just $350K, opening the door to a kicking competition. Badgley made 20 of his 24 kicks as a Lion last year; both he and Patterson went 2-for-3 from beyond 50 yards.
This trade allowed Detroit to avoid losing Patterson via the waiver wire; the Lions’ 9-8 finish gave them the No. 18 spot in the waiver order. The Lions waived wide receiver Keytaon Thompson to make room for Patterson on the Roster.
NFL Draft Pick Signings: 5/25/23
One mid-round draft pick signing to pass along:
Tennessee Titans
- RB Tyjae Spears (third round, Tulane)
Spears had a breakout 2022 campaign at Tulane, finishing with 1,837 yards from scrimmage and 21 touchdowns. That performance led to him being selected by the Titans in the third round of the draft, and he should get some reps as a rookie behind Derrick Henry. Spears will compete with Hassan Haskins for that RB2 spot on the depth chart.
Minor NFL Transactions: 5/25/23
Only one minor move to pass along today:
Cleveland Browns
- Placed on reserve/retired list: WR Isaiah Weston
Pittsburgh Steelers
- Signed: WR Cody Chrest
Chrest is an UDFA out of Sam Houston State. The wideout signed with the Colts after the draft, but he was cut shortly thereafter, allowing him to catch on with Pittsburgh. Chrest earned a pair of All-Western Athletic Conference selections during his time in college, including a 2022 campaign where he finished with 36 catches for 548 yards and two touchdowns.
Jets DB Brandin Echols Suspended One Game
The Jets will be without a defensive back for the start of the 2023 campaign. Per NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero (via Twitter), Brandin Echols has been hit with a one-game suspension.
In a follow-up tweet, Pelissero reports that Echols was suspended for violating the league’s personal conduct policy. This stems from the player’s involvement in a high-speed car crash that partially paralyzed a man in 2022. Echols was later accepted into a diversionary program and avoided assault by automobile charges.
The 2021 sixth-round pick was thrust into a significant role as a rookie, compiling 63 tackles and two interceptions while starting all 14 of his appearances. After appearing in 760 defensive snaps as a rookie, he only got into 69 defensive reps in 2022. He still had a significant special teams role in his 13 appearances.
The Jets don’t have a whole lot of experienced outside CB depth behind Sauce Gardner and D.J. Reed. Even with the suspension, Echols should be in contention (with the likes of Bryce Hall) for the backup outside cornerback role.
The organization also cleared a roster spot today by placing defensive end Bradlee Anae on injured reserve (per Aaron Wilson of ProFootballNetwork.com on Twitter). The former fifth-round pick has seen time in 11 career games, all with the Cowboys. He spent the majority of the 2022 campaign on the Jets’ practice squad. Anae will now require an injury settlement if he hopes to take the field for a team during the 2023 campaign.
Patriots Place LB Raekwon McMillan On IR
Raekwon McMillan‘s 2023 season has ended before it even started. The Patriots announced earlier today that they’ve placed the linebacker on injured reserve. Jeff Howe and Chad Graff of The Athletic report that McMillan suffered a partially torn Achilles during practice.
This is a tough break for McMillan, who re-signed with the Patriots earlier this offseason. The former second-round pick got into 16 games (one start) for New England in 2022, finishing with 35 tackles, a sack, and a fumble return for a touchdown. The 27-year-old previously started 28 games across the 2018 and 2019 seasons for the Dolphins, including a rookie campaign where he had 105 tackles.
The Patriots haven’t done a whole lot this offseason to address their hole at off-ball linebacker. As Graff points out, the team now only has three players with any experience for those spots: Ja’Whaun Bentley, Jahlani Tavai, and Mack Wilson. Third-round rookie Marte Mapu could potentially fill McMillan’s spot on the depth chart, but Graff writes that the college safety projects to be more of a nickel than a linebacker in the NFL.
Players who are placed on the injured reserve during the offseason can’t be activated by their team during the regular season, meaning McMillan’s 2023 is effectively over. New England could later release the linebacker with an injury settlement, allowing him to sign elsewhere. Considering the length of McMillan’s impending recovery, it’s more likely he sits on the Patriots IR for the rest of the season.
Patriots To Sign TE Anthony Firkser
Two months after trading Jonnu Smith to the Falcons, the Patriots will pick up one of Atlanta’s recent tight ends. Anthony Firkser agreed to terms with New England on Thursday, Mike Reiss of ESPN.com tweets.
This will mark a Massachusetts return for Firkser, a Harvard alum, and another ex-Titan tight end to join the Patriots. After Tennessee let Smith walk in 2021, the team turned to Firkser as a replacement option. With Smith now in Atlanta, New England will see what Firkser has to offer alongside Hunter Henry and Mike Gesicki.
Firkser, 28, spent four seasons with the Titans before rejoining ex-Tennessee tight ends coach Arthur Smith in Atlanta. Despite Kyle Pitts going down with a season-ending injury midway through last year, Firkser did not make much of a statistical impact with the Falcons. He is coming off a nine-catch, 100-yard season. Pro Football Focus did grade Firkser as one of the top pass-protecting tight ends last year, but he only played 148 offensive snaps in Atlanta.
The Falcons added Firkser on a one-year deal worth just $1.2MM in 2022, bringing him in to replace Hayden Hurst. Atlanta did not feature a high-octane passing attack, preferring to lean on the ground game as Marcus Mariota started 13 games before rookie Desmond Ridder finished the year. Firkser fared a bit better in Tennessee, totaling 387 receiving yards in 2020 and 291 in 2021.
The Pats were able to land Gesicki — a 2022 franchise tag recipient — one a one-year deal worth just $4.5MM. Henry is going into Year 3 of a three-year, $37.5MM contract. The Pats have not quite received what they’d hoped when they splurged for Henry and Smith in 2021, but this year’s edition features plenty of experience. Henry is going into his eighth NFL season; Gesicki and Firkser each are entering their sixth years.
Jaguars Sign K Brandon McManus
It did not take long for Brandon McManus to find a new home. The longtime Broncos kicker reached an agreement to join the Jaguars. The Jags announced the deal Thursday.
While Denver has enjoyed kicker stability over the past decade, Jacksonville has cycled through several options at the position in recent years. The defending AFC South champions will now add an experienced specialist. The Jags waived kicker Riley Patterson to make room on their roster.
McManus, 31, called his Broncos release an “absolute shock,” per Denver7’s Troy Renck. He will rebound quickly, with Adam Schefter of ESPN.com noting this is a one-year Jaguars agreement (Twitter links). McManus will bring nine years’ experience as an NFL kicker, having taken over for Matt Prater in Denver in 2014. While Jacksonville will not offer the altitude advantage Denver provides kickers, the former Super Bowl-winning specialist will move to a team in better position to contend.
The Broncos had extended McManus on a four-year, $17.2MM deal before the 2020 season. Although two years remained on that contract, Sean Payton continues to make special teams changes with his new team. This marks a major change for Denver, which has only used three primary kickers (McManus, Prater, Jason Elam) since 1993. Patterson ended up lasting only one season as Jacksonville’s kicker.
Although McManus served as Denver’s kicker for a lengthy stretch, he is coming off his most inaccurate season since 2017. The former UDFA made just 77.8% of his field goals last season. While one of those was a 64-yard try at sea level — via Nathaniel Hackett‘s bizarre Week 1 decision that began an odd Broncos season — McManus missed four other attempts from beyond 50 yards and two from inside 40 yards. McManus did make eight 50-plus-yard field goal tries last season, marking the second-most of his career. He connected on 10 such attempts in 2020.
McManus served as a significant contributor to the Broncos’ Super Bowl 50-winning season. As Peyton Manning‘s injury-accelerated decline hit in full force in 2015, McManus went 10-for-10 on field goal tries during the playoffs. That included three Super Bowl makes. While the Broncos have largely struggled since that night, McManus represented the most consistent presence on the roster. He will now attempt to carve out a multiyear role with a second NFL employer.
Whereas the Broncos employed McManus since 2014, the Jaguars have used eight kickers in just the past three seasons. Patterson brought stability, after a six-kicker 2020 and multi-kicker 2021. The Jags brought in Patterson as a waiver claim just before last season, adding the young kicker shortly after the Lions waived him. Patterson made 85.7% of his field goal tries last year and was 36 of 37 on extra points. While Patterson only made three kicks from beyond 50 yards, that came on three attempts.
Steelers To Sign OLB Markus Golden
While Bud Dupree left his Pittsburgh visit without a deal, the Steelers are not letting Markus Golden do the same. The veteran edge rusher met with the team today and intends to sign, Adam Schefter of ESPN.com tweets.
The sides agreed on a one-year contract. This comes two-plus months after the Cardinals cut ties with Golden, who enjoyed two stints in Arizona. The ninth-year outside linebacker will now be positioned to work as a rotational rusher behind starters T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith.
This signing gives the Steelers four pass rushers who have totaled a double-digit sack season. Altogether, this quartet — Watt, Highsmith, Golden, Cameron Heyward — has combined for 11 such seasons. Golden has contributed three over the course of his career, the most recent coming in 2021 (11 sacks). While Golden did not approach that total last season, he displayed similar pressure numbers by totaling more quarterback hits (20) than he did in 2021 (19).
Golden is heading into his age-32 season, making this signing similar to the Melvin Ingram addition of 2021. The Steelers will obviously hope this turns out better. They ended up trading a disgruntled Ingram to Kansas City, where he closed out his age-32 season. Golden has a more productive recent past compared to Ingram at this point in their respective careers.
Consistency has eluded Golden, however. The former second-round pick surged to a career-best 12.5 sacks in 2016, but a 2017 ACL tear sapped that momentum. Golden did not regain his pre-surgery form in 2018, leading to the Giants taking a one-year flier during the 2019 free agency period. That bet paid off. After trading Jason Pierre-Paul and Olivier Vernon in consecutive offseasons, the Giants saw Golden lead their 2019 edition in sacks (10). New York placed the rarely used UFA tender on Golden in 2020 but traded him back to Arizona that October. Golden spent the past two-plus seasons with the Cardinals, delivering up-and-down production.
With Chandler Jones out for most of the 2020 season, Golden totaled just three sacks as a Cardinal. The Cards still re-signed Golden to a two-year, $5MM deal in 2021, leading to the 11-sack showing opposite Jones. That production then led to the Cards adding a year to Golden’s deal, though the team’s new regime bailed on that extra year in March. With Jones in Las Vegas last year, Golden totaled just 2.5 sacks — his lowest number since 2017.
This Pittsburgh pact should offer Golden plenty of favorable matchups. Watt and Michael Strahan share the official single-season sack record (22.5), and Highsmith moved himself onto the extension radar with a 14.5-sack slate late year. The Steelers have not received the production they have sought from their top OLB backup in recent years; Ingram and Malik Reed each registered one sack during their respective years in Pittsburgh. (Reed, a 2022 trade acquisition, has since signed with the Dolphins.) Golden should provide a higher floor for this role, as the Steelers — the league’s sack champions from 2017-21 — aim to keep their pass rush elite.
Former Bengals RB Jeremy Hill Retires
Nine years after his NFL debut in Cincinnati, running back Jeremy Hill has reportedly retired from football, announcing the move on his Instagram account yesterday. Hill had refused to give up on a return to the NFL despite not having appeared in a game since Week 1 of the 2018 season, but nearly five years after that final appearance, he’s finally ready to hang up his cleats. 
Hill showed immediate promise as a second-round rookie out of LSU, surpassing 1,000 rushing yards as a rookie. Despite having to split carries with Giovani Bernard, a second-round pick in the prior year, Hill earned a consistent workshare in each of his first three seasons as Cincinnati gave him 222, 223, and 222 rush attempts in 2014, 2015, and 2016, respectively. Over that period, Hill rewarded them with 2,757 rushing yards and 29 rushing touchdowns.
In 2017, the final year of Hill’s rookie contact, he began to lose carries to the team’s newest second-round running back, Joe Mixon. With Mixon starting to take the driver’s seat, Hill’s role lessened up until the point in the year when an ankle injury landed him on injured reserve after seven games, ending his season. That injury was the beginning of the end for Hill.
The next year, Hill signed with the Patriots as a free agent on a one-year deal. After a preseason battle with Mike Gillislee, Hill won the RB3-spot behind Rex Burkhead and James White. Unfortunately, Hill would tear his ACL in the third quarter of his first game for New England, ending what would be the last season of his career.
After a year removed from the sport, Hill was able to earn a contract with the Raiders after working out with the Lions and Titans, as well. Less than a week later, though, the Raiders moved on from Hill, satisfied with their depth of Josh Jacobs, Devontae Booker, Jalen Richard, and Rod Smith. Despite only being 27 years old at the time, teams stopped calling on Hill. He announced that he would get back on the field by entering the XFL draft last November but never landed with a team.
In the Instagram post, Hill cites the fateful ACL injury as the key reason that he will no longer pursue professional football as a career. It truly marked the beginning of the end of a career that began with so much promise before fizzling out due to injuries.