Leger Douzable

49ers Add Two Defensive Linemen

The 49ers have beefed up their defensive line in the wake of Arik Armstead‘s injury. Defensive tackles Tony McDaniel and Leger Douzable have been signed, as Adam Caplan of SiriusXM reports (Twitter links). Tony McDaniel (Vertical)

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McDaniel, 32, has experience in a system similar to SF’s thanks to his time in Seattle. Defensive coordinator Robert Saleh was even on staff with the Seahawks during one of his seasons with the team. In that year, McDaniel started a career-high 15 games and recorded 53 tackles (a career mark) plus two sacks.

Douzable missed the Niners’ initial cut, but he is back with the team here in October. The 31-year-old appeared in every game for the Bills last season (including five starts) and had 43 total tackles and 1.5 sacks.

Saints Work Out Will Beatty, Jaye Howard

The Saints auditioned edge rusher Lamarr Houston earlier today, but he wasn’t the only notable NFL veteran to work out for New Orleans today. Here’s who the Saints looked at on Tuesday, according to Tom Pelissero of NFL.com (all Twitter links), Adam Caplan (Twitter links), and Howard Balzer (all Twitter links):

Beatty is perhaps the most high-profile name of the bunch, as the veteran offensive tackle 63 career starts under his belt (all for the Giants). Having served as a backup last season, Beatty would presumably play right tackle for the Saints, who are down to Senio Kelemete on the right side following starter Zach Strief‘s MCL sprain. Ola, too, would give New Orleans depth along their front five, although he doesn’t offer nearly the experience that does Beatty (only 19 starts).Ricky Jean-Francois (Vertical)

As Caplan noted, the Saints essentially worked out the majority of the top free agents on the defensive side of the ball, and that comes as no surprise. Despite throwing free agent funds and draft picks at its defense, New Orleans ranks dead last in yards, 31st in scoring, and 31st in DVOA through two weeks.

Douzable, Howard, Jean-Francois, Johnson, and Langford have all served as quality starters in the very recent future, and Douzable (49ers), Howard (Bears), and Jean-Francois (Packers) have each signed contracts earlier this offseason only to be released later. Wilson, meanwhile, repeatedly bounced on-and-off the Bears’ roster a year ago, and also has a previous stint in New Orleans.

Per Pelissero, the Saints’ Week 4 contest in London is a factor in the club working out such a long list of players right now. Given that New Orleans won’t have much time to audition veterans in the coming weeks, the team will likely update its emergency list now before heading across the pond.

49ers Reduce Roster To 71

The 49ers parted with 15 players on Friday to bring their roster to 71, per a team announcement.

Waived:

Released outright (vested veterans who are not subject to waivers):

49ers Sign OL Andrew Gardner

The 49ers signed offensive lineman Andrew Gardner and defensive tackle Leger Douzable, according to Adam Caplan of ESPN.com (on Twitter). Andrew Gardner (vertical)

Gardner, 31, finished out the 2016 season with the Niners. He has been a bit of a journeyman over the years, but he might have an opportunity to stick for a little while in San Francisco. The veteran’s most notable experience came with the Eagles when he started eleven games from 2014-15.

The Gardner addition should give the Niners additional depth while starting guard Joshua Garnett misses time at the start of the season. Originally given a one-month timetable for recovery, doctors have now told Garnett that he will need six weeks to get back on the field.

Douzable, also 31, was a favorite of coach Rex Ryan and wound up playing for him in both New York and Buffalo. He appeared in every game for the Bills last season (including five starts) and had 43 total tackles and 1.5 sacks.

Bills Meet With Devon Still, Others

The Bills didn’t just meet with Anquan Boldin on Monday. The Bills also spent the day looking at defensive linemen Roy Miller, Leger Douzable, and Devon Still, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (on Twitter). Leger Douzable

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Still, 28, only played 25 defensive snaps for the Texans in 2016 before going down with a Lisfranc injury which required surgery. A former second-round pick, the defensive tackle has never lived up to his draft billing, as he’s never started a game during his career due to health issues and lack of effectiveness. Of course, Still has dealt with plenty in his off-field life, as his daughter Leah battled cancer until announcing in 2015 she was cancer-free.

Miller recently worked out for the rival Dolphins, but left Miami without a deal. Like Still, he also was slowed by injuries in 2016 and he’s also looking to prove to teams that he’s back to 100% health. In 2015, he had 4.0 sacks and 40 total tackles for the Jaguars. From 2013 through 2016, he appeared in 50 games at defensive tackle for Jacksonville. He started in all but one of those games.

Douzable’s biggest champion, Rex Ryan, is no longer in Buffalo, but the new regime still wants to see what he has to offer. The 31-year-old defensive lineman appeared in every game for the Bills last season and made five starts. He had 43 total tackles and 1.5 sacks.

Fallout From Rex Ryan’s Firing

The Bills are on the hunt for a new head coach after firing Rex Ryan on Tuesday, but the presence of general manager Doug Whaley is likely to limit their options, according to Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk. With Whaley entrenched atop the Bills’ front office, head coaching candidates who want significant say in roster construction might be less inclined to take the job.

Tom Coughlin[RELATED: Bills to bench Tyrod Taylor]

That could include longtime NFL head coach Tom Coughlin, with whom the Bills spoke last offseason about a front office role before he took a position with the league. Coughlin is now a possibility to end up back in Jacksonville – where he coached from 1995-2002 – but Bills owner Terry Pegula is interested in tabbing the two-time Super Bowl winner to succeed Ryan, per Jason Cole of Bleacher Report (Twitter link). Lions defensive coordinator Teryl Austin is also high on the Bills’ list, reports Cole, who adds that the team would want to retain interim head coach Anthony Lynn as its offensive coordinator under either Coughlin or Austin.

Lynn entered the season as the Bills’ running backs coach, but they elevated him to O-coordinator after firing Greg Roman on the heels of an 0-2 start. Buffalo’s Lynn-led attack ranks first in the league in rushing, seventh in scoring, eighth in DVOA and 12th in total offense. Now, given his impressive work this season, it’s possible Lynn is actually the favorite to take over for Ryan on a permanent basis. Whaley “pushed” ownership to place the interim tag on Lynn, tweets the Buffalo News’ Vic Carucci, who wrote last week that Lynn could be primed to grab the reins going forward. Lynn garnered attention from head coach-needy franchises last winter and will again be on teams’ radars this offseason (the Rams are reportedly eyeing him), so the Bills could lose the 47-year-old if they don’t select him as Ryan’s replacement.

Rex Ryan

As for Ryan, his downfall in Buffalo was his inability to live up to his reputation as a defensive guru. The Bills had a top-tier defense in place when they hired him in advance of the 2015 campaign, but it was a below-average unit in each of his two years with the club. Ryan’s move last January to hire his twin brother, the now-fired Rob Ryan, to team with him and defensive coordinator Dennis Thurman didn’t produce positive results. In fact, Bills players told ESPN’s Jeff Darlington that the Ryans lost the defensive portion of the locker room because there were “too many cooks in the kitchen” (Twitter link). Defensive end Leger Douzable took to Twitter to bash Buffalo’s decision to ax Rex Ryan, whom he also played under as a Jet, but star D-tackle Marcell Dareus doesn’t seem too broken up about the coaching change.

While Dareus told ESPN’s Josina Anderson that he likes Ryan, the franchise’s highest-paid player explained that the defensive scheme “was just too much detail for a lot of guys, and I feel like for a lot of guys it was too much going on for them to check here and check there, if this happens and that happens. Then nine times out of 10, a team will throw something out there that we weren’t prepared for, and then the adjustment to it, we had to get use to and try to make it happen and make plays.”

The 26-year-old Dareus will be among a few marquee talents the Bills’ next coach inherits (running back LeSean McCoy and wide receiver Sammy Watkins are the others), though the environment “from top to bottom” is “toxic,” relays Carucci (Twitter link). Considering the Bills have gone a league-worst 17 years since their latest playoff trip, that’s not overly surprising.

Bills Sign Leger Douzable, Chris Martin

3:40pm: The Bills announced that they have signed Douzable along with tackle Chris Martin. Martin spent some time on the Bills’ taxi squad in 2015 and other practice squads. To make room, defensive end Claudell Louis and tackle Keith Lumpkin have been let go.

8;37am: Former Jets defensive lineman Leger Douzable is visiting the Bills today, according to Adam Caplan of ESPN.com (via Twitter). Douzable, of course, has history with current Bills coach Rex Ryan after playing for him in 2013 and 2014.

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As Joe Buscaglia of WKBW notes (on Twitter), Douzable would be a five-technique defensive end in Ryan’s scheme. Douzable, 30, has inked one-year deals with the Jets in each of the last three offseasons. This time around, coach Todd Bowles & Co. apparently decided to go in a different direction at bookend. We haven’t heard much in the way of Jets interest in Douzable this offseason – or much about any other team’s interest in him.

In 322 defensive snaps as a part-time contributor in 2014, the Central Florida product recorded 25 tackles and 2.5 sacks. In 2015, Douzable saw only 207 snaps and recorded a total of 14 tackles. The advanced metrics at Pro Football Focus (subscription required) ranked Douzable as the No. 89 edge defender in the NFL last season out of 110 qualified players.

If Douzable signs with the Bills, he could work in support of defensive ends Marcell Dareus, Kyle Williams, Corbin Bryant, and Adolphus Washington. To earn a spot, however, he’ll probably have to supplant Jerel Worthy and/or Lavar Edwards.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Jets Re-Sign Leger Douzable

THURSDAY, 2:01pm: Douzable’s new one-year deal with the Jets is worth $1.2MM, tweets Adam Caplan of ESPN.com.

WEDNESDAY, 1:54pm: The Jets have officially confirmed Douzable’s new deal in a press release.

1:27pm: The Jets and defensive lineman Leger Douzable have agreed to terms on a new deal, according to the veteran free agent himself. Douzable announced in a tweet to Jets fans that he was “back,” and confirmed in a text message to Josina Anderson of ESPN.com (Twitter link) that he’s signing a new contract with the team today.

Douzable, who turns 29 next month, has played on back-to-back one-year deals with the Jets, earning a little more playing time in 2014 than he did in his first season with the team in 2013. In 322 defensive snaps as a part-time contributor, the Central Florida product recorded 25 tackles and 2.5 sacks.

The Jets will be bringing Douzable back into the fold despite the fact that former head coach Rex Ryan and defensive coordinator Dennis Thurman are now in Buffalo. Since free agency began, New York has added defensive lineman Stephen Bowen and Kevin Vickerson to the roster, so it’ll be interesting to see whether Douzable gets as much playing time in 2015.

Terms of Douzable’s new deal have yet to be reported, but I’d expect another one-year pact.

Contract Details: Howard, Hawley, Carroll

As more signings become finalized, let’s check in on the specific terms for a few of them:

  • Rich Cimini of ESPN.com (Twitter link) has the financial details on Austin Howard‘s new five-year, $30MM contract with the Raiders, which includes a $5MM roster bonus due this weekend.
  • Joe Hawley‘s two-year contract with the Falcons includes a $2MM signing bonus, with base salaries of $1MM (2014) and $3MM (2015), tweets Tom Pelissero of USA Today.
  • While Nolan Carroll‘s deal with the Eagles is worth $5.25MM over two years, it can max out at around $7MM with playing time and performance bonuses, tweets Jason La Canfora of CBSSports.com.
  • Tony McDaniel inked a two-year, $5.75MM contract with the Seahawks that includes a $1.25MM signing bonus and various other roster and incentives bonuses, says Pelissero (via Twitter).
  • Aaron Wilson of the Baltimore Sun (Twitter link) and Pelissero (Twitter link) pass on the details for a pair of Chiefs signings from yesterday. Joe Mays‘ deal apparently included a $2MM signing bonus, which is higher than initially reported, and $3MM in guaranteed money. Jeff Linkenbach‘s base salary is $900K, with $250K guaranteed and up to $600K in incentives.
  • Pelissero also has the details on Leger Douzable‘s one-year pact with the Jets (Twitter link). It’s worth $1MM, with a $150K signing bonus and a $100K bonus if he makes the team’s 53-man roster.
  • David Johnson‘s two-year deal with the Chargers is worth $1.7MM and features a $220K signing bonus, tweets Wilson.

Jets Sign Leger Douzable

The Jets will bring back defensive end Leger Douzable, as the team has signed him to a one-year deal, reports ProFootballTalk (via Twitter). Details of the deal have not been released.

Douzable played in 16 games for the Jets in 2013, compiling 19 total tackles to go along with 1.5 sacks. The 27-year-old was undrafted out of UCF in 2008, and caught on with the Vikings‘ and Giants‘ practice squads. He played 12 games for the Rams in 2009 before playing the next two seasons for the Jaguars.