Could Pats Trade Jimmy Garoppolo To The Browns?
Where will Jimmy Garoppolo be playing next season? Well, if you ask former Browns and Patriots executive Mike Lombardi, he believes the young quarterback will be playing in Cleveland.
- Ben Volin of The Boston Globe suggests (via Twitter) another suitor for Garoppolo: the Bears. Volin tweets that Chicago desperately wants a young quarterback, and he also notes that the Patriots signal-caller is from Chicago and went to Eastern Illinois. Volin also suggests the 49ers and Cardinals as potential landing spots.
Pats Audition Wide Receivers
- Although the Patriots ended up signing Griff Whalen, they worked out wide receiver Jared Abbrederis, Mike Reiss of ESPN.com tweets. Wide receiver Kevin Smith also auditioned (Twitter link via Doug Kyed of NESN).
Patriots Cut Recent Waiver Claim Kilgo
- The Patriots waived defensive tackle Darius Kilgo, Doug Kyed of NESN reports (on Twitter). Kilgo’s cut opened the door for the Patriots to add wideout Griff Whalen earlier today. New England claimed Kilgo off waivers from the Broncos, who selected him in the sixth round in 2015. Kilgo became a superfluous commodity after Alan Branch won his suspension last week. Kilgo did not play in a game for the Patriots after suiting up for nine in each of the past two season for the Broncos.
Patriots To Sign Griff Whalen
Griff Whalen‘s career has ventured to the journeyman stage in 2016, but it will now take him to one of the league’s highest-profile locales.
The Patriots plan to sign the fifth-year wide receiver, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com reports (on Twitter). New England is down Danny Amendola due to a high-ankle sprain, and the organization believes Whalen could fill the veteran’s role until the playoffs, per Rapoport.
It’s a one-year deal for Whalen, Mike Reiss of ESPN.com tweets.
Amendola’s role has varied in importance with the Patriots, but he’s played in all 12 games this season and has 23 receptions for 243 yards and four touchdowns in this his fourth year with the team. He suffered the ankle injury against the Rams on Sunday.
This will be Whalen’s third team in the past three months. He worked out for the Jets last week. Initially cut by the Dolphins after spending the offseason and preseason in Miami, Whalen moved to San Diego and played in eight games a Chargers backup for a team that’s again reeling at wide receiver. The Chargers cut him two weeks ago after claiming Ronnie Hillman off waivers.
New England has Julian Edelman, Chris Hogan and Malcolm Mitchell shouldering the receiving reps, so Whalen figures to contribute mostly on special teams. For his career, the 26-year-old target has 47 receptions for 509 yards and three scores — all but two of those catches coming in four seasons with the Colts. His previous attachment to the Patriots came last season when in a Colts-Pats Sunday-night tilt he was the designated snapper on the strangest fake-punt attempt in memory.
Patriots Audition Three
- Searching for emergency interior line options, the Patriots tried out OL James Stone and Chris Watt today, reports Mike Reiss of ESPN.com (Twitter links), who adds that New England also took a look at wide receiver Dez Stewart. As Reiss wrote earlier today, the Pats could be forced to make a move at WR following an injury to Danny Amendola, and Stewart could potentially fill that void.
Patriots Notes: Blount, Gronkowski
- By reaching 950 yards rushing on the season, Patriots running back LeGarrette Blount earned a $200K incentive bonus on Sunday, tweets Joel Corry of CBSSports.com, who adds that Blount had already notched a separate $250K in incentives this year. Blount, who turns 30 years old today, signed a one-year deal with a base value of $1MM to return to New England this spring. So far, he’s ran for 957 yards and leads the league with 13 rushing touchdowns.
- Speculation has arisen following Rob Gronkowski‘s season-ending back injury that the Patriots could look to either trade or release their star tight end, but Jason Fitzgerald of Over the Cap doesn’t think that’s a likely scenario. While Gronkowski is by no means a bargain, he is inarguably the best tight end in the league, and New England pays him accordingly. The most likely outcome involves the Patriots allowing Gronk the chance to get healthy in 2017, and then gauging his value at that point, argues Fitzgerald.
NFL Spending By Team Over Last Four Seasons
The NFLPA has released the official data on team spending over the last four seasons. The Collective Bargaining Agreement stipulates that each team must utilize 89% of the salary cap over two four-year periods, 2013-16 and 2017-20. As previously reported, the Raiders are the only team that has yet to satisfy that requirement for the closing period. The CBA also requires the league, as a whole, to spend 95% of the cap, in cash, for the same period. That requirement has been easily met.
Here is the full rundown of every team’s spending in declining order:
Philadelphia Eagles – $613,928,134
Denver Broncos – $587,712,791
Seattle Seahawks – $584,305,975
Green Bay Packers – $583,138,740
Miami Dolphins – $577,975,260
Kansas City Chiefs – $575,541,332
Buffalo Bills – $573,647,850
Chicago Bears – $568,301,610
Cincinnati Bengals – $567,289,411
Baltimore Ravens – $562,425,698
San Diego Chargers – $562,232,116
Indianapolis Colts – $556,335,689
Atlanta Falcons – $550,614,572
New York Giants – $543,787,033
Arizona Cardinals – $543,327,538
Los Angeles Rams – $541,957,711
New Orleans Saints – $539,836,498
Tampa Bay Buccaneers – $539,736,102
Minnesota Vikings – $539,162,454
New York Jets – $533,151,519
Washington Redskins – $532,545,662
Pittsburgh Steelers – $530,698,171
Detroit Lions – $530,210,549
Tennessee Titans – $524,505,256
Dallas Cowboys – $523,033,036
Houston Texans – $517,212,166
Jacksonville Jaguars – $516,908,734
Cleveland Browns – $516,158,864
San Francisco 49ers – $514,488,198
New England Patriots – $500,083,836
Carolina Panthers – $495,149,346
Oakland Raiders – $491,433,408
Patriots WR Danny Amendola Suffers Injury
Patriots wide receiver Danny Amendola suffered a high-ankle sprain yesterday against the Rams, a source tells Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (on Twitter). The plan now is to make sure he’s ready for the playoffs, Rapoport writes, so it sounds like he could be sidelined for the remainder of the regular season. 
Once a focal part of the Pats’ offense, Amendola has been downgraded to more of a supporting role this season. In 12 games, the veteran has just 23 catches for 243 yards, though he does have a career high of four receiving touchdowns. That’s a step down from last year’s 65 grabs for 648 yards or his 2012 season in which he had 54 catches for 633 yards in a 12-game season.
Amendola’s injury is unfortunate, particularly after losing star tight end Rob Gronkowski. However, the Pats do have an impactful receiver in rookie Malcolm Mitchell. Yesterday, the fourth-round pick caught eight of ten targets for 82 yards. His targets and production have been ramping up in recent weeks and it is expected that he will continue to draw looks going forward.
It also helps that the Pats more or less have the AFC East sewn up. Over the next month, the Pats are pretty much playing for the top seed and home field advantage throughout the playoffs.
Martellus Bennett Rejected Patriots Extension
Patriots tight end Martellus Bennett rejected a $7MM per year extension offer before the season, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (Twitter link). However, talks are expected to resume after the season concludes.
[RELATED: Fallout From Rob Gronkowski Injury]
Bennett, 29, was reportedly one of several New England players that received contract offers earlier this year, although reports have indicated that those proposals were rather team-friendly, presumably containing little incentive for the player to sign on the dotted line. Additionally, Mike Reiss of ESPN.com previously reported that the Patriots explored adding only a single year to Bennett’s deal, so it’s possible that the veteran tight end is aiming for a longer commitment.
Nevertheless, Bennett figures to be an offseason priority for the Patriots, especially now that Rob Gronkowski has undergone yet another surgery and continues to face health questions. But Bennett won’t be the only New England player heading for free agency next spring, as Dont’a Hightower, Jabaal Sheard, LeGarrette Blount, Logan Ryan, Duron Harmon, Malcolm Butler (restricted), and others are scheduled to hit the open market.
With Gronkowski sidelined for the rest of the season, Bennett will take over as New England’s primary tight end, and have a chance to build on what has already been a solid 2016 campaign. After the Patriots acquired him (plus a sixth-round pick) from the Bears in exchange for a fourth-rounder, Bennett has hauled in 42 passes for 540 yards and four touchdowns.
Saints Could Explore Brandin Cooks Trade
Brandin Cooks is one of the most talented young wide receivers in the league, but his role in the Saints’ dynamic offense has diminished a bit this year. He is on pace to receive 30 fewer targets than 2015, and he was not targeted at all in last week’s victory over the Rams. He felt compelled to voice some frustration earlier this week, saying, “closed mouths don’t get fed.”
And yet, the Saints offense continues to thrive, leading some to wonder if the New Orleans system is the best one for Cooks. Ian Rapoport of NFL.com says that the Saints are expected to explore trading Cooks this offseason prior to the opening of free agency, and if that happens, Cooks would of course garner significant interest. ESPN’s Adam Schefter confirms the report, and adds that league sources believe a Cooks trade was brewing earlier this season, a deal that would have sent the former first-rounder to the Patriots in exchange for Jamie Collins.
The Saints, of course, traded Jimmy Graham and his highly lucrative contract a few seasons ago, and although Cooks is still playing under his rookie deal, he is eligible for a long-term extension at the end of the 2016 campaign. Plus, he is a deep threat who is not being used that way, and it appears as though Willie Snead and Michael Thomas better fit what New Orleans does on offense.
Head coach Sean Payton, however, took exception to the trade rumors, retweeting a reader who suggested that Rapoport was blindly throwing darts and did not do sufficient research to substantiate his report (link via Mike Triplett of ESPN.com).