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City Of Los Angeles News & Rumors

West Notes: Raiders, CJ2K, Rivers, Rams

August 18th, 2015 at 5:15pm CST by Zachary Links

Vincent Bonsignore of the Los Angeles Daily News (on Twitter) spoke directly with the Raiders to shoot down a trio of rumors. The Raiders say they will not move to St. Louis, they will not move to San Francisco’s Levi Stadium, and owner Mark Davis will not sell the team. Here’s more from the AFC and NFC West..

  • Chris Johnson has $400K of his $870K salary with the Cardinals guaranteed, Kent Somers of The Arizona Republic tweets. There are no other guarantees in the veteran running back’s deal. Unhappy with their choices behind Andre Ellington, the Cards inked Johnson to a deal on Monday.
  • Cardinals coach Bruce Arians said that he told both Johnson and Jermaine Gresham that they’re not “promised anything,” including a roster spot, Darren Urban of AZCardinals.com tweets.
  • All in all, Jason Fitzgerald of Over The Cap thinks that the Philip Rivers deal is a very good contract for the Chargers. The Bolts, he says, avoided giving Rivers a monstrous signing bonus and they receive fairly favorable terms on the cash flows of the contract. Just days ago, Rivers and the Chargers shook hands on a four-year extension that is worth $84MM with $65MM guaranteed.
  • Rivers will now earn $32MM in 2015, Joel Corry of CBSSports.com tweets. He adds that $5.5MM of Rivers’ $22.5MM signing bonus is deferred until March 15th, 2016.
  • The Missouri Development Finance Board approved $15MM in tax credits this year for the proposed riverfront football stadium in St. Louis for the Rams, as David Hunn and Alex Stuckey of the Post-Dispatch write. Still, board Chairwoman Marie Carmichael said the money won’t be sent to new stadium planners until the board is assured the credits are a good deal for the state.
  • Carmen Policy says the Raiders and Chargers have agreed to shift divisions, if necessary, to make the Los Angeles project acceptable to the league, Michael R. Blood of the Associated Press writes.

Extra Points: Rivers, L.A., Enemkpali, Tabb

August 12th, 2015 at 10:25pm CST by Luke Adams

Sources continue to tell Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune that they don’t expect Philip Rivers and the Chargers to agree to terms on an extension before the season, though it’s not unfathomable that the two sides will reach a compromise. According to Acee, the Chargers and Rivers both eventually want to work out an agreement that will allow the quarterback to retire with the team, but disbursement of guaranteed money in the third year of any deal is among the current sticking points in negotiations.

Eric Williams of ESPN.com (Twitter link) hears from a league source that San Diego is willing to guarantee the third year of Rivers’ new contract, which is common for franchise quarterbacks, and Acee acknowledges that such a detail is unlikely to be a long-term roadblock. But if the two sides don’t agree on the structure of the extension soon, they may wait until 2016 to get something done.

Here are a few more Wednesday night odds and ends from around the NFL:

  • During the owners’ meeting in Chicago this week to discuss possible relocation to Los Angeles, both the Carson and Inglewood groups made strong presentations, and both projects have their share of supporters, says Jason Cole of Bleacher Report (video link). According to Cole, a large group of owners supports the Raiders and Chargers‘ joint Carson proposal, since it would solve the “California dilemma” in one fell swoop. On the other hand, a vocal contingent of owners – including Cowboys owner Jerry Jones – support Stan Kroenke‘s Inglewood proposal, since they feel the Rams owner’s deep pockets would make the project work.
  • Sam Farmer of the Los Angeles Times also has a recap of this week’s meeting regarding L.A., and touches on several of the same points as Cole. According to Farmer, many owners believe Kroenke has the best location and stadium plan, but he’s less popular among his peers than Chargers owner Dean Spanos, and St. Louis has done more than San Diego and Oakland to keep its franchise.
  • Explaining his decision to claim IK Enemkpali off waivers today from the Jets, Bills head coach Rex Ryan told reporters that Enemkpali “was a good teammate” last year in New York, adding that there’s no guarantee the former sixth-round pick will make Buffalo’s regular season roster (Twitter links via Tyler Dunne of the Buffalo News and ESPN.com’s Mike Rodak).
  • According to Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News, Ryan remains a fan of the player who Enemkpali cold-cocked — Mehta writes that, after landing the Bills‘ coaching job this winter, Ryan wondered aloud to friends if the Jets would trade Geno Smith to Buffalo.
  • Saints rookie tight end Jack Tabb underwent surgery this week to repair a torn ACL, a source tells Katherine Terrell of the New Orleans Times-Picayune. Waived last Friday by the team, Tabb is currently on New Orleans’ injured reserve list and will miss the 2015 season.

Latest On Los Angeles Relocation

August 11th, 2015 at 7:23pm CST by Zachary Links

The Rams, Raiders, and Chargers will learn their fate regarding a potential move to Los Angeles before this season’s Super Bowl, according to Carmen Policy, who is pushing the joint stadium project being proposed by the latter two teams.

“We expect the league to have a decision on who is going where and St. Louis before the Super Bowl,” said Policy (via Tom Pelissero of USA Today). “Now, it could happen this year. But we’ve been pretty well-schooled on the fact that even if it doesn’t happen this year, it’ll happen before the Super Bowl.”

Here are the latest developments on the Los Angeles situation..

  • Policy claims that a combo of the Chargers and Raiders in Los Angeles would create a “megamarket” ranging from Santa Barbara to Mexico, adding millions of fans, Pelissero tweets.
  • If the Carson project for the Raiders and Chargers is approved, Policy says that 2019 is a realistic start, Pelissero tweets. Policy doesn’t feel that an opening in 2018 is realistic.
  • NFL exec Eric Grubman says there “has been no viable proposal” made to the Raiders from the city of Oakland, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets.
  • Grubman says there are a lot of open questions regarding the city of San Diego’s plan for the Chargers, but that city has made “significant” progress, Sam Farmer of the L.A. Times tweets.
  • The Rams are claiming St. Louis breached their lease by not meeting first tier requirements, thus giving team the right to move, Jim Thomas of the Post-Dispatch tweets.
  • The cities of St. Louis, Oakland, and San Diego will have an audience with the owners in October, Albert Breer of NFL.com tweets. After the presentations on their respective projects, the Raiders, Rams and Chargers left the room to allow the other 29 clubs to discuss what they saw, Breer tweets.
  • The NFL’s relocation policy allows space for moving teams to pay a transfer fee to the league’s other owners and Mike Florio of PFT says that will be a big factor in who gets a seat in this game of musical chairs.
  • The Chargers want Los Angeles in the worst way, Jill Lieber Steeg of U-T San Diego opines.

Extra Points: Los Angeles, Cardinals, Levy

August 10th, 2015 at 9:19pm CST by Zachary Links

Ahead of tomorrow’s meeting, San Diego city officials are meeting with NFL today in Schaumburg, Illinois, Albert Breer of NFL.com tweets. The city of St. Louis has already met with the league. He adds that there is no meeting scheduled as of yet between the NFL and the city of Oakland, because there’s been no progress on that front (link). Here’s more from around the NFL..

  • Cardinals coach Bruce Arians says that he’s not happy with the play of his running backs and will discuss options for outside help with GM Steve Keim, Josh Weinfuss of ESPN.com tweets. When asked if Ray Rice will be among the options considered, Arians said no (link).
  • San Diego officials announced a stadium financing plan that would require $750MM in private money from the Chargers and NFL with $350MM in public funds, Kevin Acee of U-T San Diego tweets. Meanwhile, Chargers attorney Mark Fabiani struck back with a strongly worded statement that refuted the viability of the plan (via Jason Cole of Bleacher Report, Twitter links).
  • The early word from Chicago is that Carmen Policy should not be underestimated when it comes to the Los Angeles situation, Mike Florio of PFT tweets. Policy, the longtime NFL exec, is pushing the Carson stadium project.
  • The Lions were smart to get their extension with DeAndre Levy done before Lavonte David reached agreement with the Buccaneers, Joel Corry of CBSSports.com tweets. Corry reasons that David’s deal might have complicated things for Detroit.
  • The Ravens lost ace returner Jacoby Jones this offseason but they’re not sweating it because their system has been successful in producing many different quality returners, Jamison Hensley of ESPN.com writes. Currently, Michael Campanaro, Asa Jackson and DeAndre Carter are listed as the top three on the team’s unofficial depth chart. Lardarius Webb and Steve Smith also have expressed an interest in running back kicks.

NFC West Notes: Seahawks, Chancellor, L.A.

August 6th, 2015 at 8:17pm CST by Zachary Links

Tonight’s look at the NFC West..

  • Josina Anderson of ESPN.com (via Facebook) hears that Seahawks safety Kam Chancellor could end his holdout if he is better cash flow over the first two years of the remaining three on his current deal. A team tight against the cap but somewhat cash-rich like the Seahawks could get that done by converting the majority of his base salary over the next two years ($9.65MM) to a signing bonus, she posits. As Anderson reported earlier today, Chancellor is prepared to take his holdout into the regular season if necessary.
  • Meanwhile, Jason Cole of Bleacher Report (video link) hears that the Seahawks will not do any kind of new deal with the safety unless that deal is highly favorable for the club and ties him up for the rest of his career. Despite Seattle’s stance, GM John Schneider is keeping negotiations peaceful. The solution, Cole says, could be a “band-aid” deal, like they did with Marshawn Lynch. To satisfy Lynch last year, the Seahawks moved money from the back-end of the contract to the current year.
  • Sources have told Mike Garafolo of FOX Sports that, at next Tuesday’s special meeting in Illinois, NFL owners will discuss implementing a program to allow fans to make deposits to get on a waiting list for tickets at a temporary stadium in Los Angeles before the end of the calendar year. The goal would be to start building a season-ticket base for the 2016 season now, rather than waiting until it’s clear which, and how many, teams will be making the move. The Rams are one of the teams in the mix to make the move, of course, but the Chargers and Raiders could also wind up in L.A.

West Notes: Wagner, Floyd, Chancellor

August 5th, 2015 at 7:42pm CST by Zachary Links

The Raiders, Chargers, the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, and the Los Angeles Sports Council are hosting a luncheon in downtown L.A. on August 17th, Vincent Bonsignore of the L.A. Daily News tweets. At the luncheon, Carmen Policy will give an update on the Chargers’ and Raiders’ combined effort to build an NFL stadium in L.A. (link). Here’s more from the West divisions..

  • Good news for the Cardinals. There was word earlier tonight that wide receiver Michael Floyd broke multiple fingers during practice today, an injury that would have left him sidelined for several weeks, including regular season games. As it turns out, those fingers are only dislocated, and Floyd will only miss 3-4 weeks, a team official tells Adam Schefter of ESPN.com (on Twitter).
  • DeAndre Levy‘s contract extension with the Lions will likely be more relevant to Lavonte David‘s negotiations with the Buccaneers than Bobby Wagner‘s talks with the Seahawks, Joel Corry of CBSSports.com tweets. Earlier today, the Lions and Levy reached agreement on a brand new four-year deal.
  • Seahawks GM John Schneider told SiriusXM NFL Radio (on Twitter) that there’s no animosity between safety Kam Chancellor and the club. The GM has been in touch with Chancellor’s reps, but he can’t say if or when he’ll report to camp.

    • Stadium Updates: L.A., St. Louis, San Antonio

    August 5th, 2015 at 8:55am CST by Luke Adams

    The fate of the Rams, Raiders, and Chargers beyond the 2015 season remains up in the air, and NFL owners are scheduled to meet next week to touch base on where St. Louis, San Diego, Oakland, and Los Angeles stand on new stadiums. Here are a few of the latest updates on stadium projects and potential relocation:

    • The NFL recently approached several Los Angeles stadiums about the possibility of temporarily housing an NFL franchise while a new stadium was built in the L.A. area. However, as Sam Farmer of the Los Angeles Times, the league’s proposal hasn’t generated a whole lot of interest. Last month, we heard that the Rose Bowl wouldn’t serve as an interim home for an NFL team, and Farmer indicates that the StubHub Center is also out of the running.
    • According to Farmer, the Coliseum is the only Los Angeles venue to publicly express interest in working with the NFL on the matter. The Dodgers’ and Angels’ stadiums may also still be possibilities, but there would be plenty of scheduling issues to sort out in both cases, since the MLB and NFL seasons overlap. The NFL wanted proposal requests submitted by today, but neither baseball stadium is formally participating in that process, writes Farmer.
    • Earlier in the week, St. Louis Circuit Judge Thomas Frawley voided a city ordinance requiring a public vote to approve the use of tax dollars for funding a new football stadium in St. Louis. As Bernie Miklasz of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch outlines, that was a huge victory for the city’s stadium task force, and next week’s meeting with the NFL looms as an “important checkpoint” for St. Louis. So far, the city has made much more progress than either San Diego or Oakland on a new stadium.
    • San Antonio city manager Sheryl Sculley tells W. Scott Bailey of the San Antonio Business Journal that the city has “certainly raised the attention of the NFL” by continuing to pursue the Raiders. San Antonio is another city that will be keeping a close eye on the owners’ meetings next week, according to Sculley: “We expect to hear what (the Raiders’) plans are for the 2016 season after that meeting.”

    Giants Notes: JPP, Reese, Mara

    August 3rd, 2015 at 9:06am CST by Zachary Links

    Giants GM Jerry Reese told WFAN that he spoke with Jason Pierre-Paul on Sunday, but wouldn’t elaborate on the conversation (via Graziano on Twitter). “[It was] a personal conversation. I want to keep it private,” the GM said. He did say, however, that there’s no timetable for the defensive end’s return (link).

    • Reese says that the Giants’ defense can be really strong, even without Pierre-Paul in the lineup, as Tom Canavan of The Associated Press writes. “I think we’ll be really good defensively,” Reese said. “I think we’re going to surprise people. I think we have five defensive ends that we feel like can play and play at a high level at that position. I do think our defense is going to be a better unit than it was last year. I’m excited to see them out there playing.”
    • The Giants are trying to build a dominant pass-rusher from the ground up with third-round pick Owamagbe Odighizuwa, Dan Graziano of ESPN.com writes. Still, he’s green and has a long way to go before he can start replicating the production of someone like JPP. Odighizuwa was a 3-4 defensive end at UCLA and wasn’t asked to develop pass-rush moves or get after the quarterback in that scheme so he has a lot to learn.
    • Giants owner John Mara told WFAN that he believes the NFL will return to Los Angeles with two teams by 2016, Ralph Vacchiano of the New York Daily News tweets.

    AFC Notes: Mariota, Chargers, Raiders, Jags

    July 18th, 2015 at 5:10pm CST by Sam Robinson

    The odd standoff between the Titans and Marcus Mariota over offset language doesn’t look to be going over well for the franchise that’s been frequently thorough in negotiating with its top rookies and consistently forgotten for its recent play. A 2-14 team digging in over a matter that probably won’t come up with the face of a franchise devoid of many recognizable faces isn’t the best look, writes Geoffrey C. Arnold of the Oregonian.

    Arnold notes the contracts of Dante Fowler Jr. and Todd Gurley, two injured top-10 picks, do not include offset language, which would save the drafting — and in this instance, cutting — franchise money in the event it has to prematurely separate from a player. And Arnold predicts a deal next week is unlikely, considering the Titans’ late official additions of Taylor Lewan, Chance Warmack and Kendall Wright, the first-round picks in the 2014, ’13 and ’12 drafts, respectively.

    With Titans fans likely not losing much sleep over this minor point in Mariota’s contract, it’s not a good start to the relationship. Ben Volin of the Boston Globe went as far as saying this is a “terrible” beginning to the Titans-Mariota marriage, with an aura of distrust already swirling. Should Mariota be a bust, the Titans will have bigger problems than a few million dollars being lost, writes Volin, in the event they cave on offsets. If this indeed occurs, there will probably be new management overseeing the next quarterback’s contract negotiation.

    Let’s look at some of the notes emerging from AFC cities on Saturday as training camps are less than two weeks away from beginning.

    • In light of St. Louis’ recent adjustment to its plan to keep the NFL in the city, San Diego is making a similar move. But like the Rams, the Chargers aren’t exactly that interested, writes Jonathan Horn of the San Diego Union-Tribune. The team broke off discussions with the city last month despite a stadium location being determined, and a Chargers spokesperson doesn’t see much progress in the near future. “I think the chances of getting anything done in San Diego in 2015 or even in the first part of 2016 are over for sure, but that doesn’t mean this process is over,” Chargers spokesperson Mark Fabiani told Horn.
    • Reportedly fined for his weight hovering above 230 last season, Trent Richardson is down to 225 now and hopes to play this season at around 222, reports Bill Vilona of the Pensacola News Journal. The former No. 3 overall pick is aiming to counter a steep fall from grace that now has him in a battle with Latavius Murray and Roy Helu for a Raiders starting gig that’s been anonymous for most of this century.
    • With Ace Sanders waived, the Jaguars will employ a new punt returner. Among the candidates, according to Ryan O’Halloran of the Florida Times-Union, are fifth-round pick Rashad Greene, former Seahawk Bryan Walters and Tandon Doss, who was slated to replace Sanders during the wideout’s suspension last year before he suffered a season-ending ankle injury.

    Extra Points: Houston, Tucker, Dez, Los Angeles

    July 18th, 2015 at 12:27pm CST by Ben Levine

    It took a while for the Chiefs and linebacker Justin Houston to agree to a lucrative extension, but the three-time Pro Bowler was always confident a deal would get done.

    “When the season ended, coach Reid pulled me into the office saying, ‘It’s going to get done, just be patient,’” Houston told BJ Kissel of KCChiefs.com. “So that’s what I did.”

    Houston was clearly thrilled that the team inked him to the richest deal in franchise history.

    “It just made me feel like they really believed in me,” Houston said. “For them to do this, just like your family back home, your mom, your parents, they believe in you. It gives you an extra edge on the field when you know you’ve got people really believing in you and what you can do.”

    Let’s check out some more notes from around the league…

    • Following Stephen Gostkowski‘s extension with the Patriots, Aaron Wilson of the Baltimore Sun believes the Ravens and kicker Justin Tucker now have a framework that they can work with. Tucker will be a free agent following the season, and Wilson says it will “cost a lot of money” to retain the accurate kicker.
    • The Cowboys didn’t add any “special protections” to Dez Bryant‘s contract, reports Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com. Instead of loading up the contract with opportunities to void guaranteed money (like Dallas did with Byron Jones), Bryant’s contract instead includes the “standard language for voiding guaranteed payments.”
    • Angels Stadium in Anaheim likely won’t be submitted as an option to become a temporary home for a relocating NFL team, reports Scott M. Reid of The Orange County Register. The stadium was previously the home of the Rams.
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