Chiefs Place De’Anthony Thomas On NFI List
3:59pm: Thomas has actually been placed on the reserve/non-football illness list, rather than IR, tweets Adam Caplan of ESPN.com. The effect is the same – Thomas is no longer on the Chiefs’ roster – but the designation suggested he’s dealing with more than just a football injury.
3:51pm: Having already missed five games due to a concussion, Chiefs return specialist De’Anthony Thomas won’t be back on the field for the team this season. Per Adam Schefter of ESPN.com (via Twitter), Kansas City placed Thomas on the injured reserve list, ending his year.
Thomas, a fourth-round pick in 2014, was the club’s primary punt returner in the first half of the season, and handled the occasional kickoff as well. The Oregon product, who turns 23 next week, also saw some action on offense, with 174 total yards and two touchdowns on 17 receptions and nine carries. Wide receiver Frankie Hammond has taken over the punt-return duties in Thomas’ absence.
When the Chiefs officially announce the move, it figures to come with a corresponding addition to fill the 53-man roster.
More Leftovers On Eagles’ Firing Of Chip Kelly
In the wake of Chip Kelly‘s dismissal, multiple reports on Tuesday suggested that the Eagles wanted to strip Kelly of his personnel control, and then decided to fire him when he balked. However, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (Twitter link) has heard that scenario isn’t accurate.
According to both Rapoport and Chris Mortensen of ESPN.com (Twitter links), it doesn’t sound like there was any big event or dramatic moment that led to Kelly’s firing — owner Jeffrey Lurie simply called Kelly in and informed him of his decision.
While the build-up to Kelly’s firing may not have been dramatic, there has certainly been no shortage of reaction and follow-up to the move. We rounded several additional details and reactions to the story last night, but with many more surfacing since then, we’re doing it again. Let’s dive in….
- Albert Breer of the NFL Network (Twitter link) gets the sense that Lurie parted ways with Kelly to get the Eagles’ building back. Les Bowen of the Philadelphia Daily News hears something similar, with a source telling him that Lurie wanted to “take back the team.”
- According to Adam Schefter of ESPN.com (via Twitter), Kelly still had two years and $12.4MM left on his contract. If Kelly is hired by another team within the next two years, it would save the Eagles some money due to offset language in the deal.
- One Eagles player tells Ed Werder of ESPN.com (Twitter links) that Kelly is “definitely someone who doesn’t communicate,” adding that he “wouldn’t make a few changes here and there to make the players better.”
- With Kelly gone, Sam Bradford‘s future in Philadelphia is up in the air, writes Dave Zangaro of CSNPhilly.com.
- Alex Marvez of FOX Sports identifies interim Eagles coach Pat Shurmur, Panthers defensive coordinator Sean McDermott, and Chiefs special teams coordinator Dave Toub as three possible candidates to replace Kelly.
- What Lurie and the Eagles need more than a head coach is a smart, football-minded general manager who can fix the roster, says ESPN.com’s Ashley Fox. As David Murphy of the Philadelphia Daily News notes, Kelly may be gone, but the impact he had on the Eagles’ roster will linger.
Latest On Browns’ Ray Farmer, Mike Pettine
Earlier this month, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com suggested that it’s not realistic to expect Browns general manager Ray Farmer and head coach Mike Pettine to both return to Cleveland next year. According to Rapoport’s report, the deteriorating relationship between the coaching staff and the front office made it “unfathomable” that the Browns would want to have Farmer and Pettine continue working together in 2016.
Today, Jason Cole of Bleacher Report (video link) explores that same line of thinking. Citing sources within the Browns organization, Cole reports that Farmer’s seat appears hotter than Pettine’s, with the head coach considered the more likely candidate to keep his job. Cole’s sources indicate that Farmer’s draft selections and roster decisions are more to blame for Cleveland’s struggles this season than the job Pettine has done with the talent – or lack thereof – he has been given.
While Cole doesn’t go so far as to say that the Browns will fire Farmer in January, it sounds like that’s a realistic possibility. If owner Jimmy Haslam does decide to replace Farmer, Cole expects Chris Ballard (Chiefs), George Paton (Vikings), and Duke Tobin (Bengals) to receive consideration for the job, since those executives are viewed by the NFL as some of the top general manager candidates around the league.
With one week until the NFL’s Black Monday, I’d imagine there are several scenarios still in play in Cleveland, but it sounds like any outcome that involves both Pettine and Farmer staying in their current roles is extremely unlikely.
AFC Notes: S. Smith, Grimes, Yates, Chiefs
A report last weekend suggested that Ravens receiver Steve Smith is expected to put off retirement plans for one more year and return to the field in 2016. However, Smith himself remains noncommittal on the issue.
As Jon Meoli of the Baltimore Sun details, Smith said during an appearance on SiriusXM NFL Radio this week that he’s “been on the fence” for a while about his plans for next year. The veteran wideout isn’t letting his Achilles injury determine his decision one way or the other, adding that the main factor will be what his family thinks.
Here’s more from around the AFC:
- While there has been some speculation about Dolphins cornerback Brent Grimes taking a pay cut for 2016, Grimes said he hasn’t paid any attention to that conversation, but didn’t entirely rule out the possibility, notes Armando Salguero of the Miami Herald.
- Texans quarterback T.J. Yates, who was placed on injured reserve this week after tearing his ACL, will undergo surgery on Monday to repair that ACL, writes Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle. “I’m excited to get things going. I’m more annoyed than anything. I know I’ll come back. I know I’ll be fine, but it’s terrible timing for everything. I’m ready to get the process started,” Yates said, adding that he hopes to be ready to go for training camp next year.
- Veteran defensive tackle Ziggy Hood was among the free agents to work out for the Chiefs this week, per Wilson (Twitter link). Kansas City also took a look at quarterback Dominique Davis and defensive end Glenn Foster.
Breer’s Latest: GM Candidates, Dolphins, Cutler
Albert Breer’s usual Friday column at NFL.com has arrived one day early this week, in advance of Christmas Day. Breer’s Week 16 notebook focuses on general manager candidates around the league, with one current GM suggesting that the most important thing for a team is for its GM and coach to be on the same page.
“That is the most important thing,” the veteran GM said. “And it is for multiple reasons. The coach and GM have to share a vision. And once you start that relationship, you have to have clearly defined roles. If it’s that [the coach] is coaching and I’m bringing [players] in, once I start to veer and step over that line, everything becomes blurred and dysfunction follows.”
After detailing the importance of the rapport between a coach and GM, Breer identifies a number of potential candidates for jobs that will open up this offseason, examining front office executives who are on the rise and on the cusp of getting their first big shot (such as Chris Ballard of the Chiefs, Nick Caserio of the Patriots, and Brian Gaine of the Texans), as well as those that deserve a second chance at a GM position (like Mark Dominik, Jeff Ireland, and Scott Pioli).
Here are a few more highlights from Breer’s piece:
- The Dolphins have begun to vet possible candidates for their head coaching job, and the team is taking a closer look at the 2006 and 2009 coaching cycles to help identify important characteristics for those candidates. Those were the two years that former Jets executive Mike Tannenbaum hired new coaches – Eric Mangini and Rex Ryan – so the current Dolphins exec is very familiar with what he and his former team looked for at the time, and what they may have missed in other candidates. The overarching idea for Miami is to break away from the group-think mentality that may keep the club from considering a strong option.
- While it may have seemed unlikely a year ago, it now looks like a lock that the Bears will keep Jay Cutler on their roster for 2016, whether or not offensive coordinator Adam Gase remains in Chicago. Cutler’s partially guaranteed salary for next season will become fully guaranteed on St. Patrick’s Day, so the club figures to finalize its decision by then.
- A source tells Breer that the NFL expects to decide before the Super Bowl whether or not a 2016 regular season game will take place in Mexico. The league’s charge to make it happen has “slowed a bit,” according to Breer, who notes that there are several issues still to overcome to make Azteca Stadium game-ready.
- In Breer’s view, the Packers did well to lock up Mike Daniels to a four-year extension rather than having to consider using the franchise tag on him. As a defensive end in a 3-4 system, Daniels isn’t quite as valuable as elite 4-3 DE pass rushers, but his franchise salary would be the same as those players. Teams like the Jets (this year) and Eagles (next year) will face similar dilemmas for Muhammad Wilkerson and Fletcher Cox, respectively.
NFL Pro Bowlers In Contract Years
The NFL announced its Pro Bowlers for the 2015 season on Tuesday night, and while those rosters will certainly undergo some changes in the coming weeks – as players with injuries or on Super Bowl teams bow out and are replaced by alternates – it’s worth noting that several players in this initial crop are in contract years, and will be eligible for free agency this winter.
Currently, there are eight players in contract years among the Pro Bowlers, and not all of them are players you might expect. When we ranked the top free agents of 2016 earlier this month, we placed Bears wideout Alshon Jeffery second overall, but Jeffery didn’t get a Pro Bowl nod, partly due to the injuries that have slowed him down this season, and partly due to the star-studded group of receivers he was up against.
Similarly, our list of this offseason’s top 10 potential free agents included a pair of left tackles, Russell Okung of the Seahawks and Cordy Glenn of the Bills. However, given the strong group of left tackles that are locked up to long-term deals – including Tyron Smith (Cowboys), Jason Peters (Eagles), Joe Thomas (Browns), and others – neither Okung nor Glenn could crack the initial Pro Bowl roster.
Here are the eight potential free agents who earned Pro Bowl berths:
- Eric Berry, S (Chiefs)
- Doug Martin, RB (Buccaneers)
- Von Miller, OLB (Broncos)
- Reggie Nelson, S (Bengals)
- Josh Norman, CB (Panthers)
- Mike Tolbert, FB (Panthers)
- Muhammad Wilkerson, DL (Jets)
- Charles Woodson, S (Raiders)
Berry, Miller, Norman, and Wilkerson earned spots on our top-10 list, and each of those four standout players should be in line for either the franchise tag or a lucrative long-term contract. However, the extension cases for the other four players on this list aren’t quite to cut-and-dried.
Woodson, of course, has an expiring contract, but isn’t expected to sign another one, having announced earlier this week that he’ll retire after the season. That takes him out of the extension equation entirely.
Martin is having an excellent bounce-back season in Tampa Bay, and is the most logical candidate to receive the biggest free agent deal for a running back this offseason. As we saw last winter though, not many running backs sign massive free agent contracts, and 2015’s biggest deal – DeMarco Murray‘s – won’t exactly encourage teams to invest heavily at the position. So there’s a ceiling on how much Martin will earn this winter, despite his Pro Bowl berth.
Nelson and Tolbert are interesting cases. Nelson’s counting stats (an NFL-best eight interceptions) and Pro Football Focus grades (10th among safeties) suggest he’s had a very strong year, but he’ll also be entering his age-33 season, so it’s fair to question whether he’s deserving of a contract in the range of the ones that Berry and perhaps Eric Weddle will sign.
As for Tolbert, his Pro Bowl nod comes at one of the league’s least-valued positions, and he’s also now on the wrong side of 30, which is generally bad news for running backs. I expect he’ll draw interest from plenty of teams if the Panthers don’t lock him up, but as a 30-year-old fullback, his earning potential is limited.
One more player worth mentioning is Browns center Alex Mack. Technically, Mack still has three years remaining on his contract, but he’ll have the opportunity to opt out this winter, and coming off a Pro Bowl season, there’s a good chance he’ll take advantage of that option.
Ultimately, these eight players – plus Mack – aren’t likely to get a huge boost to their annual salaries on their next contracts simply because they made the Pro Bowl. In fact, Tuesday’s Pro Bowl announcement may very well have a more tangible impact on players with Pro Bowl bonuses in their current contracts.
Still, you can bet that the representatives for these potential free agents will be sure to point to this year’s Pro Bowl roster to help make their case that their clients are among the best players in the NFL at their respective positions.
AFC Notes: Blackmon, Miller, Browns, Reid
As detailed on the website for the Carter County Sheriff’s Office, Jaguars wide receiver Justin Blackmon was arrested once again this weekend, charged with driving under the influence. It’s the latest off-field incident for Blackmon, who remains suspended indefinitely — even though he’s technically still under contract with the Jaguars, the team has expressed skepticism that he’ll ever play football again, and his latest run-in with the law likely ensures that he won’t be reinstated anytime soon.
Here’s more from around the AFC:
- Dolphins running back Lamar Miller took a back seat to rookie Jay Ajayi in terms of plays and touches on Sunday, and he isn’t thrilled with his decreased role, as Hal Habib of the Palm Beach Post details. With Miller nearing free agency, it’s hard to imagine him re-signing with Miami, as the team seems to be preparing Ajayi for a bigger role in 2016.
- Browns tight end Gary Barnidge, recently extended by the team, would like to see Cleveland’s coaching staff remain intact for the 2016 season, and other players – including some speaking off the record – are saying the same thing, tweets Jeff Schudel of the Morning-Journal. Whether or not that will have any impact on the Browns’ end-of-season decisions remains to be seen.
- Browns guard John Greco has sustained an MCL injury that won’t require surgery, but will sideline him for the last two games of the season, head coach Mike Pettine said today (Twitter link via Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com). The team figures to send Greco to IR to open up a roster spot.
- Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle (all Twitter links) provides some specific details on Jah Reid‘s extension with the Chiefs, reporting that the three-year, $11.371MM deal includes a $3.1MM signing bonus , and cap figures of $1.825MM, $3.625MM, and $3.975MM from 2016 through 2018. Reid’s 2016 salary ($860K) becomes fully guaranteed on the third day of the ’16 league year.
- A pair of players – Jaguars linebacker Telvin Smith and Broncos safety David Bruton – played through injuries on Sunday, with Smith separating his right shoulder and dislocating a finger on his left hand, while Bruton, incredibly, played through a broken fibula (Twitter links via John Oehser of Jaguars.com and Lindsay Jones of USA Today). It’s not clear whether either player will return to the field this season — Bruton said he was told he’d have a recovery time of four to six weeks (Twitter link via Jones).
Community Tailgate: AFC Wild Card Race
As the NFL regular season nears its home stretch, there are plenty of topics and storylines to discuss, and PFR’s Community Tailgate is designed to address those stories. What’s the Community Tailgate all about? Well, it’s pretty simple. We’ll highlight one of the top stories going on in the NFL. Then, in the comment section below, we want you to weigh in and let us know what you think.
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With two weeks to go (plus the Week 15 Sunday night and Monday night games), six teams have already clinched their playoff berths. The Panthers, Cardinals, Packers, and Seahawks will be playing in the postseason in the NFC, and Patriots and Bengals have guaranteed spots in the AFC.
While that means half of the playoff spots have been filled, there are still a group of teams fighting for those final six postseason berths this season. In the NFC one of those spots will go to the winner of the NFC East, while the Vikings heave a nice lead over the rest of the also rans in that conference. Atlanta could potentially sneak in if they end up tied with both the Vikings and the Seahawks, but the Vikings own the head-to-head advantage.
In the AFC there is a little more drama. One of those four available spots will belong to the winner of the AFC South, which will be either the Texans or Colts. The Texans have the advantage after winning head-to-head today, but with quarterback woes nothing is guaranteed over the next two weeks.
The Chiefs, Steelers, and Jets are all in the running for a wild-card berth. At 9-5 across the board, all three teams have put themselves in a great position record wise to make the playoffs. The Bills and Raiders would be the closest wild-card competitors, and both have been mathematically eliminated with losses today.
The Jets are currently on the outside looking in, despite having identical overall records. Should all three teams finish with the same record, the Chiefs and Steelers will get the nod via tiebreakers. The Chiefs prevail in a three-way tie based on conference record, and the Steelers get in over the Jets based on record in common games.
The Jets also have arguably the toughest remaining matchup as they face the Patriots in Week 16. Kansas City gets the Browns and Raiders, while the Steelers finish with the Ravens and Browns. It would seem that the Jets would have to beat the Patriots and the Bills, and hope either the Chiefs or Pittsburgh drop a game. If the Jets lose to the Patriots, they would need to beat the Bills and hope one of those teams go winless the rest of the season.
Two of those three teams will likely find themselves playing in the first round of the playoffs, but there is still a chance all three teams make it into the tournament. If the Chiefs were to win the AFC West outright, the Jets could tie the Broncos and would own certain tiebreakers over them, depending on how exactly things break out around the league. It seems unlikely as the Broncos have been presumed AFC West champs for a while, but a tough game against the Bengals followed by a Week 17 matchup with San Diego could knock them off their perch.
What do you think? How do you the see the last two weeks of the regular season playing out in the AFC? Who are your picks for the two wild card teams? Can the Chiefs overtake the Broncos in the AFC West, leaving the Jets with another chance to get in? Weigh in below in the comments section with your thoughts!
West Notes: Rams, Chargers, Raiders, Broncos, Chiefs
The Rams won’t fire Jeff Fisher and GM Les Snead after this season, Adam Schefter of ESPN.com and Ian Rapoport of NFL.com report (Twitter link).
Despite a 25-35-1 record in more than four seasons, Fisher and Snead won’t be discarded even as the franchise potentially relocates to Los Angeles. Fisher’s job would have been one of the key positions out there post-Black Monday, with the speculation the Rams will be moving back to the west coast.
Schefter did mention that Fisher could step away on his own accord (via Michael David Smith of Pro Football Talk), although the 57-year-old coach who has just six playoff appearances in 21 seasons with the Oilers/Titans and Rams probably wouldn’t receive a third head-coaching opportunity if he did so.
Fisher is a Los Angeles native who played at USC before being drafted by the Bears in 1981.
Here’s some more from the Los Angeles situation and additional notes from the Western divisions.
- The Rams and Chargers remain in the lead in the LA pursuit, Schefter reports, with the Raiders still in the race but lagging behind. Schefter notes the NFL shutting down the San Diego market would be hard to believe; it’s housed an NFL team since the Chargers moved from Los Angeles in 1961. Both note the NFL apparently planned ahead for a scenario in which these fanbases say goodbye to their teams prior to the end of the season, with the Rams playing their season’s final home game tonight and the Chargers doing so Sunday.
- Some coaches and executives have taken issue with John Elway‘s decision to hire Gary Kubiak, knowing what it meant for Peyton Manning‘s role with the Broncos, Chris Mortensen of ESPN.com reports. Elway initially proposed a $10MM paycut for Manning, who eventually took a $4MM reduction, but Mortensen notes that was a message to leave town, with Kubiak’s style ill-suited for the 39-year-old quarterback’s skill set. A defensive coach mentioned Denver’s once-prodigious offense is much easier to game-plan for now that Kubiak’s in charge compared to Adam Gase and his more-nuanced attack. “Kubiak is a good offensive mind, a well-respected guy, but it’s about as elementary as it gets,” this coach said. “He did a good job in Baltimore but he also had a veteran offensive line, maybe one of the three best in the NFL. I think he has to take a serious look that it’s 2015 going on 2016.” This coach also pointed out Manning supplanting Brock Osweiler might not make that much of a difference considering how many hits the Broncos’ offensive line, which houses two of Pro Football Focus’ worst tackles in Ryan Harris and Michael Schofield, are allowing Osweiler to take.
- Justin Houston received a second opinion from Dr. James Andrews today that revealed a hyperextended knee, per Chiefs trainer Rick Burkholder (via Terez A. Paylor of the Kansas City Star, on Twitter). “I don’t want anyone to be alarmed that he saw Dr. Andrews. We knew it; we’re good with it, Burkholder told Paylor (Twitter link). Houston remains without a return timetable, with reports circulating he will miss the regular season’s remainder. Andrews also told the Chiefs’ top active player the swelling in his knee has decreased.
Chiefs To Extend OT Jah Reid
1:34pm: Reid’s three-year extension can be worth up to $12MM, with a $10.2MM base value, per Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (Twitter link). Rapoport adds that the contract features just under $4MM in guaranteed money.
12:37pm: The Chiefs have agreed to a deal with offensive tackle Jah Reid that will extend the lineman’s contract by three years, reports Aaron Wilson of the National Football Post (Twitter link). Reid’s contract had been set to expire at the end of the 2015 season.
Reid, 27, was selected by the Ravens in the third round of the 2011 draft, but never found a permanent role in Baltimore. Over the course of four seasons with the club, he appeared in 39 games, starting seven, before being cut earlier this year. The Chiefs signed Reid prior to the regular season, and he has been unexpectedly effective in Kansas City, starting eight games for the team — the Chiefs are 7-1 in those games.
“Jah has been a good pickup for us, just from the stand point of we got banged up up front there, and so he was thrown in, kind of, in the action his first week here against the Texans,” Chiefs head coach Andy Reid said this week, per Jon Meoli of the Baltimore Sun. “A couple games after that, he played, and then he had a little hiatus there, where he didn’t play; and we’ve had to bring him back here. So, he has been very valuable to us from that respect.”
Pro Football Focus hasn’t been particularly fond of Reid’s play, ranking him 71st out of 75 qualified offensive tackles this season, giving him an especially low grade as a pass blocker. However, the Chiefs liked what they’ve seen enough to ensure the UCF product doesn’t reach the free agent market this winter.
We’ll have to wait for the full salary details on the new three-year extension, which should keep Reid under team control through 2018, to see exactly how enthusiastic Kansas City is about his performance — it’s not clear if the team views him as a long-term starter, or as more of a swing tackle. Even a modest deal will represent a raise for Reid though, since he played this season on a minimum salary contract that didn’t include a signing bonus.