Jags Claim Teddy Williams, Cut Dekoda Watson
The Jaguars have added two new players to their 53-man roster, claiming wide receiver and kick returner Teddy Williams off waivers from the Bears, and activating cornerback Aaron Colvin from the non-football injury list, per Aaron Wilson of the Baltimore Sun (Twitter links). To make room for the incoming players, the club has waived linebacker Dekoda Watson and cornerback Peyton Thompson.
Watson is perhaps the most notable name of the bunch, as the Jags signed the former Buccaneers linebacker to a three-year deal this past offseason that included $1.5MM in guaranteed money. However, he battled injuries during OTAs and training camp, and was underwhelming once he actually got onto the field.
This set of transactions doesn’t include one involving Allen Robinson, who is out for the year with a foot injury and will presumably land on injured reserve soon.
Allen Robinson Out For Season
Rookie wide receiver Allen Robinson has sustained a stress fracture in his foot and will be sidelined for the rest of the 2014 season, the Jaguars announced today (Twitter link). Jacksonville has yet to officially place Robinson on the injured reserve list, but when the team makes that move, it will likely replace him by promoting someone from the practice squad, according to head coach Gus Bradley (Twitter link via John Oehser of Jaguars.com).
Robinson, 21, was one of two wideouts selected early in this past May’s draft by the Jags. After using the 39th overall pick on Marqise Lee, Jacksonville drafted Robinson 61st overall, and the Penn State product has outperformed his fellow rookie teammate this season. In 10 games, Robinson hauled in 48 passes for 548 yards and pair of touchdowns.
The Jaguars also announced (Twitter link) that cornerback Aaron Colvin will be activated later today from the reserve/non-football injury list. Assuming the team does indeed make a promotion from the taxi squad to replace Robinson, another player will have to be removed from the 53-man roster to clear room for Colvin.
Sunday Roundup: Jags, Cowboys, Randy Moss
PFR’s Ben Levine wrote yesterday that Jaguars owner Shad Khan expects his club to be active in free agency in 2015, and Ryan O’Halloran of the Florida Times-Union followed up on Khan’s statements this morning. O’Halloran, noting that the Jags have nearly $30MM in cap room, a “figure that could double with rollover (unused) dollars, an increase in the cap and cleared space from veterans who will be released or not re-signed,” will have a whole host of opportunities to improve their roster next year.
Although Jacksonville is still far from a destination of choice for the league’s top free agents, Khan noted that it is not just the money that the team has to spend that excites him, it is the fact that 2014 has revealed the specific needs that the Jaguars need to address in the offseason. As our Rob DiRe pointed out yesterday, the team could look to add a defensive lineman, a free safety, and a pair of linebackers.
Now for some more links from around the league:
- An earlier report from NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport claimed that 20 Cowboys players missed curfew on Friday night, but Josh Alper of Pro Football Talk writes that owner Jerry Jones said there were no curfew violations because there is no curfew. Meanwhile, head coach Jason Garrett said there is a curfew, at midnight. As Alper notes, this is not the first time Garrett and Jones have issued contradictory statements regarding the team’s inner machinations, and the Cowboys need a win today to divert attention from what should have been a non-issue.
- In the wake of the mounting criticism surrounding Falcons head coach Mike Smith, D. Orlando Ledbetter of the Atlanta Journal Constitution sides with defensive lineman Osi Umenyiora, who believes the coaching staff is not the problem. Ledbetter writes, “If the Falcons get rid of the winningest coach in team history, it won’t be about winning football games. It will be about selling tickets and premium seat licenses to the new stadium.”
- Marc Sessler of NFL.com says retired wideout Randy Moss, to whom the Seahawks made overtures after trading Percy Harvin, said he would come out of retirement if Peyton Manning and the Broncos came calling.
- Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times writes that “how the season ends — and how [Marshawn] Lynch plays — may matter only so much in the debate” as to whether the Seahawks should retain Lynch after this season. Instead, “it will still come down largely to one thing — will the Seahawks think it worth it to pay Lynch $7 million in 2015 when he’s 29 years old? And will Lynch be happy playing out the final year or would he ask for more money?”
- ESPN’s Ed Werder reports that 49ers linebacker Aldon Smith‘s suspension was not reduced as expected, thereby allowing him to participate in today’s game, because “while Smith did more than mandated in terms of community service, he did not fulfill the obligations assigned him in terms of his counseling protocol.”
- Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports writes that, although the Browns and Brian Hoyer have not engaged in contract talks since the summer, sources indicate the deal that Andy Dalton recently signed with the Bengals will be the benchmark for future negotiations.
Teams With Most Salary On Injured Reserve
On Friday, we took a look at the league’s highest-paid players to land on season-ending injured reserve. As I explained in that post, teams have control over how they use their cap space, but have little control over players’ injuries, so if highly-paid players end up on injured reserve, clubs may have limited flexibility to adequately replace them.
The next logical step then is to examine which teams have been the hit the hardest overall by season-ending injuries this year. Of course, a player’s cap number doesn’t necessarily reflect his importance – many of the league’s best players are underpaid – but when clubs devote significant chunks of their cap room to certain players, having those guys go down with injuries can be hard to overcome.
Listed below are the 14 teams who currently have more than $10MM in player salaries on season-ending injured reserve. Players who received the designation to return when they were placed on IR aren’t taken into account here, since those players could still contribute this season. Additionally, players on practice squad IR lists aren’t included, and cap numbers rather than base salaries are considered when adding up a team’s total IR cap hit. Here’s the top 14:
- St. Louis Rams: $30,605,636 (seven players)
- New York Giants: $22,033,726 (12)
- Oakland Raiders: $21,844,733 (8)
- Washington: $15,984,975 (7)
- Tennessee Titans: $15,202,696 (7)
- Atlanta Falcons: $14,885,479 (7)
- Jacksonville Jaguars: $14,617,538 (10)
- Arizona Cardinals: $14,230,500 (4)
- Philadelphia Eagles: $12,858,000 (5)
- Miami Dolphins: $12,567,956 (8)
- Chicago Bears: $11,210,500 (4)
- Cleveland Browns: $11,147,375 (4)
- Dallas Cowboys: $11,121,121 (7)
- San Diego Chargers: $10,316,892 (7)
So is there any correlation between a team’s “dead money” on the injured reserve list and its record? On the whole, the 13 clubs on this list combine for a 52-65 record thus far, which isn’t great. However, it gets a whole lot worse when we separate the top half from the bottom half — the first seven teams on this list have combined for an incredibly dismal 14-44 record.
Would some of those teams have been cellar-dwellers even without injury problems? Most likely. It’s hard to imagine a team like the Raiders, for instance, as even a .500 squad if they’d stayed completely healthy. Still, a few of those clubs were expected to compete for playoff spots, and the fact that they’ve fallen well out of contention likely has at least something to do with how much of their cap space is currently being devoted to players who aren’t actually playing.
Information from Over The Cap was used in the creation of this post.
AFC South Notes: Washington, Ball, Savage
Titans‘ wide receiver Nate Washington was rumored to be available at the trading deadline, and he knows that he could be playing in the last eight games with the team, according to Jim Wyatt of the Tennessean. “To be quite honest, I love Tennessee. I love the city, and I love the people. Would I love to retire here? Of course I would,” Washington said. “My family is here and we’ve kind of made this our home. But I can’t lie – some of those things run through your mind.” Washington is in the last year of a six year deal he signed with the Titans in 2009.
Here are some other notes from around the AFC South:
- Cornerback Alan Ball has been the Jaguars best defensive back this season, but with his contract up at the end of the year, Michael DiRocco of ESPN.com does not see him coming back to the team next year.
- While Ball may be leaving the Jaguars, DiRocco sees the team using the draft and free agency to address other parts of the defense. DiRocco believes the team will look to add a defensive lineman, a free safety, and a pair of linebackers this offseason.
- The Texans will be starting Ryan Mallett when they come back from the bye week, but rookie quarterback Tom Savage could still see some game action this season. Tania Ganguli of ESPN addresses the chance that Savage takes over at some point, noting that if at some point the Texans decide Mallett is not the long-term answer, the logical move would be to see what they have in Savage this season.
Jags Owner Talks London, Front Office, FAs
As the Jaguars prepare to take on the Cowboys in London tomorrow, Jacksonville owner Shad Khan spoke to a group of reporters at a Hyde Park hotel earlier this morning. This included Ryan O’Halloran of the The Florida Times-Union, who compiled the owner’s various quotes. The whole piece is worth checking out, but we’ve collected some of the more interesting notes below…
On his team playing in London for the second consecutive year, and the team’s scheduled game in 2015:
“We have to look at where we are as a franchise in Jacksonville, how many tickets we’re selling and what are the [fan and business] engagements. Everything is geared toward stabilizing the franchise in Jacksonville.
“Our goal is we want to sell out every game. It’s money [from ticket sales], but more importantly, it’s the energy in the stadium. We want to have the home-field advantage. We have that [scheduling] flexibility now. Last year, we thought we really needed the 49ers to help us and they did that.”
On the team’s competitive play:
“That is very, very encouraging to me. have a huge amount of confidence in [general manager] Dave [Caldwell] and [coach] Gus [Bradley] and they’re encouraged. Some of these players are the future of the franchise and will be with us for a long time. It’s very important they mature, but we want them to mature quicker.”
On free agency:
“We were active this year – look at our defensive line, which is pretty good and they’re mostly free agents. We’re going to be very active for a number of reasons. Other teams don’t have the luxury we have – they have constraints and can’t sign everyone. We’ll be on the flip side.”
NFL Announces 2015 London Games
1:05pm: Per Albert Breer of the NFL Network (via Twitter), all six teams heading to London next year will have their bye weeks following their overseas games. The automatic bye for teams playing in London could be removed as soon as 2016, says Breer.
9:45am: The NFL has officially announced its three games scheduled to take place in London’s Wembley Stadium during the 2015 season. The Dolphins, Lions, and Jaguars will all be heading back to Europe after playing games there this season. Here’s the full schedule:
- Week 4 (October 4): Jets at Dolphins
- Week 7 (October 25): Bills at Jaguars
- Week 8 (November 1): Lions at Chiefs
The Daily Mail had previously reported that the league intended to increase the number of games in London next season from three to five, but it appears that’s not the case. Still, 2015’s lineup reflects the NFL’s desire to further experiment with the schedule and the stadium — games will be held in London on back-to-back weeks for the first time, and with three games bunched together in five weeks, the schedule will put Wembley Stadium’s playing surface to the test. The NFL’s international chief, Mark Waller, explained earlier this season why such changes were coming.
“I’m less focused on going from three (games) to four, four to five, five to six,” Waller said in September. “Can we do back-to-back games? Will the surface hold up? Can we start sending teams there without the bye attached? It’s not about the number anymore. … We’re at a place now where if we continue to do the job with the fans, the fan base will grow, and we’ll be able to have a team (in London). The questions now are logistical.”
While the NFL’s full schedule for 2015 has yet to be announced, it’s worth keeping an eye on whether any of the teams visiting London will do so without having their bye the following week, as Waller suggests.
Additionally, the Jets/Dolphins game in Week 4 represents the first time a divisional matchup has been held in London. The decision by Dolphins ownership to give up a divisional home game is already being panned by local media.
AFC South Notes: Mallett, Jaguars, Brazill
The Texans are going to give former Arkansas quarterback Ryan Mallett his first career start when the team comes back from their bye week on Sunday, November 16th. If Mallett can hold on to the job for the rest of the season, the draft pick the Texans will have to give the Patriots figures to increase from a seventh-rounder to a sixth-rounder, reports Tania Ganguli of ESPN.com. Mallett needs to play only 40% of the snaps in order to meet this threshold, meaning he needs only 350 snaps (just under 52 snaps a game).
Here are some other notes from around the AFC South:
- The Jaguars are playing out the season conservatively, focused on not sacrificing long-term health to pad their win total in 2014, writes Ryan O’Halloran of the Florida Times-Union. By protecting their better players and refusing to push them during this losing season, the team could struggle to find many more wins down the stretch, and end up with a very high draft pick.
- While the Colts are pushing for the top overall seed in the AFC, and the Texans looking to make the playoffs, the AFC South has not one but two teams in contention for the number one overall pick. Alex Marvez of Fox Sports One wrote a reverse Power Rankings, trying to figure out which teams would have the best shot of landing that top selection. Both the Jaguars and the Titans are both projected by Marvez to pick in the top five based on their play thus far and their schedule over the rest of the season.
- Former Colts receiver LaVon Brazill was released from the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League, reports Adam Caplan of ESPN (via Twitter).
AFC Notes: Jaguars, Bills, Pats, Texans
Through nine weeks, there aren’t many teams in the AFC that can truly be considered out of the postseason hunt. Besides the Titans, Jaguars, Jets, and Raiders, none of whom have more than two wins, no AFC club is more than two games out of first place in its division. That group also includes an impressive 11 teams over .500, which should make for a pretty interesting second half as contenders jockey for position.
Here are a few Tuesday items from across the AFC:
- With the Jaguars prepared to play the Cowboys in England this weekend, Gene Frenette of the Florida Times-Union takes a look at the team’s relationship to London and how it will affect the franchise going forward. “Some people view London as a threat to the Jaguars,” said Jaguars president Mark Lamping. “I view it the exact opposite. London is going to be one of the things that protects Jacksonville as an NFL market. It stabilizes a franchise that was unstable a few years ago.”
- Cornerback Brandon Smith, who has fully recovered from the broken leg he suffered earlier this year, worked out for the Bills this week, according to Aaron Wilson of the Baltimore Sun (via Twitter). Smith has previously spent time with both the Bills and Jets.
- Long snapper Tyler Ott, who was with the Patriots in training camp, was among the specialists to try out for New England today, per Mike Reiss of ESPN.com (via Twitter).
- As first reported by Jayson Braddock (via Twitter), Texans cornerback Kareem Jackson suffered a sprained MCL and is expected to be sidelined for three or four weeks. If Houston looks to promote a player from the practice squad for depth purposes, cornerback Charles James looks like the top candidate.
- Browns general manager Ray Farmer spoke to reporters today, but the GM’s comments about Brian Hoyer‘s and Johnny Manziel‘s futures in Cleveland weren’t too revealing. Tony Grossi of ESPNCleveland.com has a few details and quotes from Farmer.
Jags Place Will Blackmon On IR, Sign Fortt
The Jaguars have made a change to their 53-man roster, the team announced today, confirming in a press release that cornerback Will Blackmon has been placed on injured reserve. To replace Blackmon, the Jags signed linebacker Khairi Fortt from off the Bengals’ practice squad.
Blackmon, who re-signed with Jacksonville in the offseason, had been one of the team’s top three corners throughout most of the first half before breaking his finger in the team’s Week 8 loss to the Dolphins. The nine-year veteran remains under contract with the Jags for the 2015 season, so while his ’14 campaign may be over, he could still return to the club next year.
As for Fortt, the rookie is already playing for the third team of his young NFL career. After having been drafted by the Saints in the fourth round in May, Fortt was placed on IR with the designation to return, but was cut shortly thereafter, landing with the Bengals’ 53-man roster, and then Cincinnati’s practice squad. The 22-year-old has yet to make his regular season NFL debut.