Sunday Roundup: Loadholdt, Dotson, Broncos
The Buccaneers and Vikings played each other on Saturday night, and both teams lost their starting right tackles. Minnesota’s Phil Loadholdt suffered a torn Achilles and is likely done for the season, while Tampa Bay’s Demar Dotson sprained his MCL and will undergo an MRI today to determine the extent of the sprain. Today’s Sunday Roundup begins with some fallout from those two injuries.
- Greg Auman of The Tampa Bay Times notes that the Buccaneers could shift Kevin Pamphile from left tackle to right tackle to replace Dotson, or they could promote Patrick Omameh. However, if Dotson has anything worse than a sprained MCL, Auman expects Tampa Bay to look outside the organization to fill the void (Twitter links).
- Former NFL agent Joel Corry tweets that the Vikings could be forced into a tough early decision on Loadholdt next season. As Corry notes, Loadholdt will be due a $500,000 bonus if he is on the roster on the third day of the league year (March 17, 2016), which may be too rich for a player who has suffered two major injuries in 10 months.
- Mark Craig of The Star Tribune tweets that the Vikings are not panicking over Loadholdt’s injury or scrambling for outside help, as the team has confidence in its young tackles.
- John Keim of ESPN.com breaks down Washington‘s potential options at tight end as it seeks to build depth behind Jordan Reed.
- Nick Wagoner of ESPN.com observes (via Twitter) that the season-ending injury to Rams CB E.J. Gaines could open the door for someone like undrafted free agent Imoan Claiborne.
- Broncos WR Bennie Fowler, whom Denver signed as an undrafted free agent last year, might be a long-shot to make the roster, but as Mike Klis of 9News.com writes, Fowler’s impressive showing in training camp and in the first preseason game is giving the Broncos’ brass a lot to think about.
Rams’ E.J. Gaines Done For Season
Rams cornerback E.J. Gaines will miss the 2015 season after having surgery for a Lisfranc foot injury suffered earlier this summer, reports Jim Thomas of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Gaines was injured when he got stepped on during practice on August 2, and while it was originally thought to be a knee ailment, it’s a foot problem that will sideline Gaines.
“It’s a tough break,” a team source told Thomas. “But the team will roll on. He’ll be 100 percent when he comes back. We’ll keep him busy and keep him occupied during his rehab.”
For a club that doesn’t have a ton of depth at the corner position, the loss of Gaines signifies a major loss. A sixth-round pick a in 2014, Gaines was inserted into the starting lineup following a preseason injury to Trumaine Johnson; Gaines continued to start even when Johnson returned. The 23-year-old Gaines went on to post 63 tackles and two interceptions in 15 contests, grading as not only the fourth-best Rams defender, but as the 29th-best cornerback in the league, per Pro Football Focus (subscription required).
With Gaines (as a Missouri alum, he’s a local product) out for the year, Johnson figures to reclaim his starting role opposite Janoris Jenkins. Second-year pro LaMarcus Joyner, meanwhile, will become the new slot corner. Along with safeties Rodney McLeod and T.J. McDonald, the Rams will field a secondary of players all age 26 or younger.
More Minor NFL Transactions: 8/14/15
Earlier in the day, we rounded up several of Friday’s minor transactions from around the NFL, but there have been a number of moves since then. Here’s the latest:
- The Broncos have claimed punter Spencer Lanning off waivers from the Buccaneers, increasing their roster to the maximum 90 players, tweets Mike Klis of 9News. For Lanning, who can also handle kickoffs, it’s the second time this offseason he has been claimed off waivers — the Bucs snatched him up in June after he was cut by Cleveland.
- Defensive tackle Casey Walker has rejoined the Patriots, the team with which he saw the most action last season, the club announced today in a press release. According to Jeff Howe of the Boston Herald (Twitter link), after being cut by the Ravens earlier this month, Walker visited the Pats and Rams and received interest from other clubs as well.
- Washington has swapped one linebacker for another, waiving Trevardo Williams and signing Sage Harold, tweets Mike Jones of the Washington Post. Williams, who’s dealing with a hamstring issue, will revert to the team’s injured reserve list if he clears waivers.
- The following players have been removed from their respective teams’ IR lists with injury settlements, according to Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle (all Twitter links): WR Caleb Holley (Bills), DB Shamiel Gary (Dolphins), and LB Quinton Alston (Buccaneers).
- After being waived/injured by the Steelers earlier this week, running back Cameron Stingily is now on the team’s IR, tweets Wilson.
West Notes: Rivers, Massie, T. Williams
A report earlier in training camp indicated that the Chargers and quarterback Philip Rivers figured to shelve extension talks until 2016 if the two sides didn’t reach a deal by August 13. However, during Thursday night’s broadcast of the team’s preseason opener, Rivers still sounded open to getting something done this year, if the two sides can reach a compromise, writes Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk.
“I have a contract for 2015 and I’m excited to be here with the guys and try to go help us win,” Rivers told Alex Flanagan. “If that changes, if there’s more years after that, then I’ll be fired up. But if not, in the short term I’m excited just to be a part of this team this year and try to lead us to win a lot of football games.”
While we wait to see if the Chargers and Rivers can agree to terms on a new deal, let’s check in on some other items from around the NFL’s two West divisions….
- The police report from Bobby Massie‘s January arrest has been released by the Tempe Police Department, and Jim Walsh of the Arizona Republic passes along some of the troubling details. According to police, Massie – who was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence – said he had been impaired by alcohol every day for the last 10 years, but didn’t believe he had an alcohol problem. The Cardinals‘ starting right tackle is facing a three-game suspension for the incident, though he’s appealing that penalty.
- Chargers outside linebacker Tourek Williams broke his foot during last night’s game against the Cowboys and will require surgery, a source tells Rand Getlin of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link). It’s a significant blow for San Diego, since the team wasn’t particularly deep at the position to begin with. Williams could be a candidate for the injured reserve list with the designation to return, depending on his recovery timetable.
- NFL rules prohibit team owners from owning NBA, NHL, or MLB teams in other markets that have NFL teams, but Rams owner Stan Kroenke continues to hold the Denver Nuggets and Colorado Avalanche. As Jim Thomas of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes, Kroenke has submitted a plan to the NFL to resolve that situation, and it should meet league approval, though details of the proposal aren’t known.
Extra Points: Rivers, L.A., Enemkpali, Tabb
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.
West Notes: A. Davis, Rivers, Foles, Sendlein
When former 49ers right tackle Anthony Davis announced his decision to leave the team earlier this offseason, it wasn’t considered a permanent retirement. Davis has since expressed a desire to return to football in 2016 after a year away, but coach Jim Tomsula isn’t thinking about a reunion just yet, as Matt Maiocco of CSNBayArea.com writes.
“First of all, I’m not thinking about the playing side with Anthony,” Tomsula said. “He’s taking care of Anthony. I’m excited about hearing that he’d like to come back with football. I think that speaks volumes of where he’s at and how he’s feeling. That’s a different time and a different place. It does make you feel good. Obviously, things are going in the right direction for him.”
Here’s more from out of the NFL’s two West divisions:
- If the Chargers don’t work out a new contract with Philip Rivers before the season begins, the team is “fully prepared” to use the franchise tag on him in 2016 and – if necessary – 2017, writes Jason La Canfora of CBSSports.com. According to La Canfora, the two sides have made significant progress in extension negotiations, but there are still at least one or two issues holding up a potential agreement.
- La Canfora also passes along several details on Nick Foles‘ extension with the Rams, reporting that the deal includes $13.8MM in fully guaranteed money. The contract could void in 2017 if Foles meets certain team and individual goals, and he could also make up to $4.5MM in incentives based on individual and team achievements (all Twitter links).
- Center Lyle Sendlein‘s one-year deal with the Cardinals is worth $1.4MM with $500K fully guaranteed, Adam Caplan of ESPN.com tweets. With playing time incentives, the center could earn close to $2MM, Kent Somers of The Arizona Republic tweets.
- Appearing on SiriusXM NFL Radio (Twitter link), Chiefs linebacker Derrick Johnson said, “I’m not ready for retirement and I have a lot of football left in me.”
Zach Links contributed to this post.
Latest On Los Angeles Relocation
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.
NFC Notes: McKay, Bears, JPP, Rodgers
Falcons president Rich McKay, who received a suspension from the NFL as part of the team’s penalty for pumping fake crowd noise into the Georgia Dome, is set to meet with commissioner Roger Goodell and league officials about reinstatement to the competition committee, writes D. Orlando Ledbetter of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Owner Arthur Blank says he’s “optimistic” McKay will be reinstated.
“We’ve had some discussions with the league,” Blank said. “Rich is scheduled to go up there in a few weeks and meet with the commissioner and others. Rich certainly has my support. He was a very valued member of the committee for 22 years and was mentioned [Saturday] night by Bill Polian, who was an inductee into the Hall of Fame, as somebody who was important that he worked with for a number of years.”
Here’s more from around the NFC:
- The Bears, having traded guard Ryan Groy to the Patriots, have been keeping an eye out for potential offensive line additions during camp. According to Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune, the club worked out veteran free agent Lucas Nix last week. Nix, 25, started 10 games for the Raiders in 2013.
- Despite Jason Pierre-Paul‘s absence from the Giants‘ training camp, co-owner John Mara says the team still has “a good relationship” with the defensive end, tweets Ralph Vacchiano of the New York Daily News. However, Mara added that JPP won’t rejoin the Giants “until he’s ready to come do some [physical] therapy.”
- Speaking to Peter King of TheMMQB.com, Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers thinks he’s got another eight years in him. Of course, since Rodgers is still just 31 years old, it’s impossible to predict what his health or his NFL future will look like seven or eight years down the road. For what it’s worth, the two-time MVP also said two years ago that he hoped to play eight more seasons.
- The Rams‘ new two-year extension with quarterback Nick Foles is a smart deal for both sides, opines Jeff Gordon of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
- The Seahawks recently worked out several defensive linemen, including former Colorado State Pueblo pass rusher Darius Allen, reports Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle (via Twitter).
NFC Notes: A. Smith, Rams, Falcons, Panthers
Matt Barrows of The Sacramento Bee has had a look at how Aldon Smith‘s release will impact the 49ers as a whole and a few individual players moving forward. For instance, Barrows writes that the team had been working with $10MM of cap space which, if unused, would roll over to 2016 and would be put toward a player. That player, of course, was Smith. Now, the team will need to decide what to do with its surplus cash. The team could bring in free agent guard Evan Mathis, and players like Vernon Davis, Ian Williams, and Quinton Dial might also be in line to get some of that money.
Barrows also details the emotional and strategic fallout of Smith’s release, and he writes that Corey Lemonier, who looked destined to be cut just a couple of days ago, may be able to hold on to his roster spot.
Now let’s take a look at a few more links from around the league:
- Paul Domowitch of The Philadelphia Inquirer tweets that Rams head coach Jeff Fisher took the St. Louis head coaching job because of Sam Bradford, but he traded Bradford because he could not afford to gamble that Bradford would not suffer a third ACL tear.
- Within an article touching on Julio Jones, Vaughn McClure of ESPN.com reports that Falcons president Rich McKay will meet with commissioner Roger Goodell and executive vice president Troy Vincent to discuss McKay’s reinstatement to the NFL’s competition committee. McKay, Atlanta’s GM from 2003-08, was suspended from the committee as a result of the Falcons pumping in crowd noise during home games the past two seasons.
- In his latest mailbag at ESPN.com, David Newton writes that despite Michael Oher‘s slow start in camp, the Panthers are in a much better place at left tackle than they were a year ago. Head coach Ron Rivera has spoken in defense of Oher, and Carolina is content with Nate Chandler and Amini Silatolu as Oher’s backups.
- While the Panthers‘ front seven has been widely lauded, the clubs’ secondary has remained largely anonymous, even being labeled the “Legion of Whom” by broadcaster Jon Gruden. But as Joe Person of the Charlotte Observer notes, Carolina’s defensive backfield could start to generate some headlines this year, as young corners Bene Benwikere, Tre Boston, and Josh Norman will be joined by veterans Charles Tillman, Kurt Coleman, and Roman Harper.
Dallas Robinson contributed to this post.
Minor NFL Transactions: 8/8/15
Here are Saturday’s minor signings, cuts, and other transactions from around the NFL:
- The Colts made several moves along their offensive line today, adding guard Dionte Savage while waiving guard Kitt O’Brien and tackle Matt Hall (Twitter link via Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle). O’Brien lost his roster spot quickly, as he was just signed yesterday.
- In Kansas City, the Chiefs have also been busy, signing offensive tackle Anthony Dima and receiver Adam Drake, and waiving linebacker Sage Harold and receiver Armon Binns, writes Terez A. Paylor of the Kansas City Star.
- The Rams have signed defensive tackle Marcus Forston, who has spent the past few years with the Patriots, tweets Jim Thomas of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. In order to create a roster spot, the team waived running back Terrence Franks, a 2015 undrafted rookie free agent (Twitter link).
- The Cowboys have removed linebacker Justin Anderson from their injured reserve list, according to Wilson (Twitter link), who reports Dallas reached an injury settlement with Anderson. The Cowboys also cut fellow linebacker Will Smith, who, like Anderson, had been on the club’s IR.
Earlier updates:
- The Browns signed former Ravens tryout cornerback Joe Rankin, according to Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle (Twitter link). A 2014 undrafted player from Division I-FCS Morgan State, Rankin worked as an overnight forklift operator to save enough money to train for another NFL opportunity.
- Former Arena League and CFL cog Shawn Lemon signed with the 49ers, according to Matt Barrows of the Sacramento Bee (on Twitter). The Steelers waived the 26-year-old outside linebacker last week.
- The Steelers have placed safety Isaiah Lewis on the waived/injured list, and they’ve signed safety Jordan Dangerfield to take his spot, the team announced (via Twitter). Lewis, a former undrafted rookie, was signed to a futures contract at the end of last season. The Michigan State product had been battling a hamstring injury for most of camp. Dangerfield has previously been with the Steelers, participating in their 2014 camp and practice squad before being signed to a futures contract. He was waived last month when Pittsburgh added offensive lineman Kelvin Palmer.
- The Lions have waived cornerback Ethan Davis, tweets ESPN.com’s Michael Rothstein. The undrafted rookie had joined Detroit earlier this week.