Steelers Not Interested In Trumaine Johnson
- A recent CBS Sports report suggested that Pittsburgh is interested in trading for Rams franchise-tagged cornerback Trumaine Johnson, but “several Steelers sources laughed at that premise,” Ed Bouchette of the Post-Gazette writes. At $16.74MM, Johnson is the league’s top-paid corner. Meanwhile, the Steelers’ entire cornerback corps only makes $12.49MM.
Rams’ Aaron Donald Could Miss Games
Aaron Donald‘s holdout might not end anytime soon. The Rams defensive tackle could take his holdout into the regular season, league sources tell ESPN.com’s Adam Schefter (Facebook link). 
One of Schefter’s sources even speculated that he could envision Donald sitting out the entire season. That would be an extreme measure, of course, but it says a lot about where negotiations are at this point in time.
Recently, Rams GM Les Snead indicated that the team has made a substantial extension offer to Donald. Apparently, the proposal was not to Donald’s liking.
Donald, 26, is slated to earn $3.225MM in 2017 and $6.892MM in 2018 through the fifth-year option. Those numbers are way below market for the player who graded as the league’s No. 1 interior defender in 2016, per Pro Football Focus. Donald may be seeking a deal that tops Ndamukong Suh‘s six-year, $114MM pact, making him the league’s highest paid defensive tackle.
An extended holdout may give Donald the leverage he needs since he still has two years of club control remaining on his contract.
NFC West Notes: Rams, Watkins, Seahawks
Here’s a look at the NFC West:
- The Rams started discussing a Sammy Watkins trade with the Bills in the spring when they declined to exercise his fifth-year option in the spring, L.A. GM Les Snead told SiriusXM (Twitter link). The Watkins deal came completely out of left field, so it’s impressive that the two sides were able to keep rumblings of the deal out of the media for four months. The Rams acquired Watkins and a 2018 sixth-round selection in exchange for for cornerback E.J. Gaines and a 2018 second-round pick. Los Angeles has already expressed interest in inking him to an extension.
- Tramaine Brock‘s one-year deal with the Seahawks is for the minimum salary, Bob Condotta of The Seattle Times tweets. In the days leading up to his deal with Seattle, we heard that Brock had interest from as many as a dozen teams. Since Brock will only be making the minimum, it sounds either like the level of interest league-wide was overstated or Brock took less money from a quality team like the Seahawks in order to give himself a better platform for free agency next year.
- 49ers GM John Lynch says he has spoken with Broncos GM John Elway about which players might be available in trades (Twitter link via Matt Maiocco of NBC Sports Bay Area). Lynch offered no specifics, so we don’t know which players were discussed or how close the two sides were/are to a deal.
Rams Host Leodis McKelvin On Visit
The Rams are meeting with free agent cornerback Leodis McKelvin, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets. He’ll chat with the team on Wednesday and work out for them on Thursday. 
[RELATED: Seahawks Sign Best Available CB]
Things have been quiet for McKelvin ever since being let go by the Eagles in February. He auditioned for the Saints late last week, but that was his first known workout of the offseason and he left New Orleans without a deal.
The Rams shook things up in a major way last week, acquiring Sammy Watkins in a surprising blockbuster trade with the Bills. Clearly, they are not shy about shaking up the roster here in August.
The Rams plan to use Trumaine Johnson and Wade Phillips favorite Kayvon Webster as the starting corners with Nickell Robey-Coleman as the slot specialist. McKelvin, if signed, could push Blake Countess and Michael Jordan for a spot on the 53-man roster. The team will be without Troy Hill for the first two games of the year thanks to his suspension for DUI.
Watkins Not Eager To Discuss Extension Immediately
Sammy Watkins addressed his contract situation for the first time as a Rams employee on Saturday. Rams GM Les Snead said Friday he hopes to sign the recent trade acquisition to an extension and avoid a one-and-done scenario for the former first-round pick. But it doesn’t sound like Watkins is especially anxious to discuss a new deal just yet. The former Bills No. 1 target may be willing to take his chances he can enhance his stock this season.
Latest On Aaron Donald, Trumaine Johnson
The Rams have made a substantial extension offer to Aaron Donald, Les Snead said (via Jason La Canfora of CBSSports.com).
Donald remains a camp holdout, and the most recent news coming out of Los Angeles hasn’t moved the needle much on a re-up for the dominant interior defender. Dialogue between the Rams and Donald is ongoing, however, Snead said.
“We want Aaron here and we want to make him a Ram for a long time,” Sean McVay said, via La Canfora, “and in the little bit of time I’ve spent with him it doesn’t take long to see what kind of a special player he is, based on the tape, and what kind of person he is and how much he loves the game of football and his teammates. That’s why we want to get it figured out.”
The 26-year-old defender is due just $3.225MM this season. That number rises to $6.892MM in 2018 because of the fifth-year option. But Donald, a two-time All-Pro, has obviously proven he’s worth top-market money. Ndamukong Suh‘s six-year, $114MM — negotiated while Suh was a UFA — remains the standard for interior defenders. Von Miller‘s six-year, $114.6MM deal represents the high for all defensive players.
La Canfora added the Rams are open to making a trade as well. Shedding Trumaine Johnson‘s $16.742MM franchise tag salary would be an avenue to clear cap space — the Rams hold just $3.78MM at present — and La Canfora reports the Steelers are among the teams inquiring about a possible deal for the sixth-year corner. While that wouldn’t exactly be in Pittsburgh’s draft-centric nature, and La Canfora doubts L.A. would pull the trigger after the Gaines deal, Johnson has proven himself to be an upper-echelon corner. The Steelers return their cornerback trio from last season in Ross Cockrell, 2016 first-rounder Artie Burns and William Gay
Rams Eyeing Sammy Watkins Extension
The Rams received the highest-ceiling talent in Friday’s seminal trades, and Les Snead wants Sammy Watkins to stick around in Los Angeles long-term.
The sixth-year GM said he “definitely” wants to sign Watkins to an extension, telling Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports, “he’s 24, so you don’t just do (this trade) for the now.”
Snead said the Rams were eyeing Watkins from the time the Bills decided not to pick up his fifth-year option in the spring. With Los Angeles now armed with multiple slot options in Tavon Austin and Cooper Kupp, and featuring newly acquired No. 2 wideout in Robert Woods, Sean McVay coveted a field-stretching presence for his first Rams offense, La Canfora writes.
“It probably started a little bit in the spring as you’re talking to people and trying to improve your roster,” Snead said. “We started flirting with Buffalo and Sammy probably around the time when they didn’t put the fifth-year option on him and we didn’t put the fifth-year option on Greg (Robinson).
“And over time I had a conversation with Buffalo and then when Brandon Beane got the GM job we rekindled that a little bit during the summer and it came to fruition this week.”
The Rams traded a second-round pick and E.J. Gaines for Watkins, so the former No. 4 overall pick bolting after one season would not net the team a particularly good return on its investment.
Snead acknowledged Watkins’ medical history was a key discussion point before pulling the trigger on the trade with the Bills. But the Rams eventually signed off on it. Watkins missed eight games with a severe foot injury last season.
“We definitely discussed it,” Snead said, “and I think it’s probably one of the reasons they didn’t put the fifth-year option on him. But when we dove into it we felt comfort taking the risk and making this move and going forward.”
With a quality season, Watkins will be a coveted commodity come 2018 if he makes it to free agency. The former Clemson star has two 975-plus-yard receiving campaigns to his credit but is coming off his worst season. It’s possible Watkins will want to wait to sign a deal in hopes of re-establishing top-market value or near that level with a good season, but the Rams could preempt that with a quality offer beforehand.
Wade Phillips Confident In Kayvon Webster
The Bills reshaped their team and 2018 draft with two trades on Friday afternoon. Buffalo unloaded Sammy Watkins to the Rams for E.J. Gaines and a second-round pick. The Bills then shipped Ronald Darby to the Eagles for Jordan Matthews and a third-rounder. Here’s the latest fallout from these deals.
- A perpetual injury risk, Watkins seeing another team take a chance on him in a contract year indicates belief he can stay healthy, ESPN.com’s Stephania Bell tweets. Bell adds a member of the Bills medical staff is now with the Rams. Watkins missed eight games last season and three in 2015. He played in all 16 games as a rookie.
- The Rams were the only team to not receive a cornerback in these trades, but Wade Phillips is confident in his group. Gregg Rosenthal of NFL.com notes (via Twitter) that means Kayvon Webster as well. The 2013 third-round pick’s a bit of an enigma in being buried behind Denver’s dominant trio for three seasons, but he’s in line to start in Los Angeles now. Robey-Coleman and Webster are now the top two candidates to play opposite Trumaine Johnson.
- Watkins was due a $2.4MM bonus last week, according to OverTheCap’s Jason Fitzgerald (on Twitter). He notes unless there was an unreported adjustment in the contract, the bonus was the Bills’, and not the Rams’, responsibility.
Rams To Keep Tavon Austin
In theory, the Rams’ blockbuster trade for Sammy Watkins could have enabled them to flip wide receiver Tavon Austin to another team in a separate trade. Apparently, that’s not in the cards. The Rams are not shopping Austin, multiple sources tell Mike Florio of PFT, and they do not intend to. The belief in L.A. is that they will be better off with as many offensive weapons as possible. 
Austin has yet to live up to his status as a former No. 8 overall pick in the draft, but he could thrive as opposing defenses focus their game plans on Watkins. At least, that’s what the Rams are hoping for as he plays out the four-year, $42MM extension inked just before the start of the 2016 season.
In 2016, Austin had 58 catches for 509 yards, averaging out to just 8.8 yards per grab. He has only one season – his rookie campaign – in which he averaged double digits per catch.
The Rams have Watkins, Robert Woods, and Austin as their top three receivers heading into the season. With that trio plus athletic rookie tight end Gerald Everett, Jared Goff will have lots of weapons to work with.
Bills Trade Sammy Watkins To Rams
In a blockbuster trade, the Bills have sent wide receiver Sammy Watkins and a 2018 sixth-round pick to the Rams in exchange for for cornerback E.J. Gaines and a 2018 second-round pick, Buffalo announced.
[RELATED: Bills Acquire WR Jordan Matthews]
Los Angeles headed into the 2017 offseason with the goal of adding offensive weapons around second-year quarterback Jared Goff, and — when healthy — Watkins is a top-flight NFL wideout. After averaging 62 receptions for more than 1,000 and six touchdowns during his first two pro seasons, Watkins dealt with nagging injuries in 2016, and only managed 28 catches in eight appearances.
That lack of availability led Buffalo to decline its 2018 fifth-year option for Watkins, which would have paid him north of $13MM. As such, the Rams are acquiring Watkins as he enters his contract season, though they’ll certainly have options through which to retain him. The franchise tag will be on the table, and would allow Los Angeles to keep Watkins through at least 2018. Alternatively, the Rams could work out an extension with Watkins, something that’s presumably an ideal solution given the draft capital the club just sacrificed.
Watkins will now reunite with his former Bills teammate Robert Woods, who agreed to a free agent contract with the Rams this spring. Los Angeles also used several draft choices to upgrade a passing offense that ranked dead last in DVOA a season ago, selecting wide receivers Cooper Kupp and Josh Reynolds while also adding tight end Gerald Everett in the second round.
Acquiring Watkins came at a price, however, as the Rams are not only giving up a 2018 second-round pick (a choice that, given the Rams’ current roster talent, could be a top-40 selection) but a young cornerback in Gaines. Gaines, 25, was a solid defender during his rookie campaign in 2014, missed the entirety of 2015 with an injury, and then struggled in 2016, grading as a bottom-four NFL corner, according to Pro Football Focus. Like Watkins, Gaines is entering the final year of his contract, during which he’ll earn $1.797MM.
For the Bills, this trade meshes with another deal struck by the club today in which Buffalo acquired wide receiver Jordan Matthews and sent cornerback Ronald Darby to the Eagles. Matthews, presumably, will be asked to replicate some form of Watkins’ production, while Gaines will be counted to start in place of Darby.