Browns Were In Serious Talks For Yannick Ngakoue
The Jaguars have finally traded Yannick Ngakoue, shipping him to the Vikings in exchange for a 2021 second-round pick and a conditional fifth-rounder in 2022. But before that happened, Jacksonville and the Browns were engaged in serious trade talks, as Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com reports.
The Browns were mentioned as a potential suitor for Ngakoue this offseason, but until now, there were no concrete reports concerning Cleveland’s interest. Per Cabot, the fact that Ngakoue was dealing with a change in representation during the trade negotiations threw a wrench in the works, and by the time his agency situation was settled, the July 15 deadline for extending franchise-tagged players had passed. While the Browns may have been willing to part with the same draft capital that the Vikings did to land Ngakoue, his status as a potential one-year rental made them less inclined to do so.
However, Ngakoue “really wanted” to play for the Browns, according to Cabot’s sources. The 2016 third-rounder accepted a significant pay cut from his $17.8MM franchise tag number to facilitate his trade to Minnesota, and Cabot says he may have been willing to drop his 2020 salary even more for Cleveland.
But the Browns ultimately elected to move forward with Olivier Vernon, reworking his deal to turn his $15.25MM non-guaranteed pact into $11MM guaranteed with the potential to earn an additional $2MM via incentives. When that happened, it made an Ngakoue trade (or a Jadeveon Clowney signing) much less likely.
Cabot says that Vernon is in the midst of a terrific training camp, and the Browns fully believe that he and Myles Garrett will form an imposing pass rush duo in 2020. Ngakoue obviously has considerably more long-term upside than Vernon, so time will tell if Cleveland — which still has a lot of salary cap space — made the right call.
Vikings To Acquire Yannick Ngakoue From Jaguars
Yannick Ngakoue finally got his wish. As Adam Schefter of ESPN.com was the first to report, the Jaguars have traded their disgruntled defensive end to the Vikings in exchange for a 2021 second-round pick and a conditional 2022 fifth-round selection that could become a fourth- or third-round choice.
Ngakoue has wanted out of Jacksonville for some time. Last July, he became upset when then-executive vice president of football operations Tom Coughlin abruptly ended extension negotiations with the 2016 third-rounder, and while he did suit up for the club in the 2019 season, he made it clear this offseason that the relationship between him and the team was beyond repair.
The Jaguars put the franchise tag on him, valued at $17.8MM, but he did not sign the tag, and all indications were that, if he wasn’t traded, he was going to stay away from the team until Week 10 of the 2020 season. That would have been the deadline for him to be able to count 2020 as an accredited year towards free agency.
Given his very public unhappiness with Jacksonville, the fact that the deadline for tagged players to sign an extension passed on July 15, and his high franchise tag number, the Jags didn’t have a ton of leverage. But GM Dave Caldwell managed to finagle two draft picks out of the Vikings, and Schefter says the 2022 fifth-rounder will become a fourth-rounder if Ngakoue makes the Pro Bowl in 2020 and will become a third-rounder if he makes the Pro Bowl and the Vikings win the Super Bowl.
From the Vikings’ perspective, that’s a relatively small price to pay for the chance to bookend Ngakoue with another talented young pass rusher, Danielle Hunter. The team lost longtime stalwart Everson Griffen to the Cowboys earlier this month, and as Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.com notes, Minnesota began working on an Ngakoue deal as soon as it became clear Griffen wasn’t coming back (Twitter link).
In order to make the trade work, the Vikings did have to create some cap room. Further proving just how desperate he was to get out of Jacksonville, Ngakoue reduced his 2020 pay from $17.8MM to just below $13MM to facilitate the deal (Twitter link via Albert Breer of SI.com). Courtney Cronin of ESPN.com reports that Minnesota could also rework an existing contract and names LT Riley Reiff as a potential restructure candidate. Cronin says the team will not cut a player just for salary cap purposes (Twitter links).
However, Cronin points out that the Ngakoue acquisition could mean that the team is not going to reach an extension with running back Dalvin Cook (Twitter link). The two sides recently agreed to table contract negotiations, and without a major cost-cutting move or two, Cook may be destined for free agency in 2021.
But that’s another story for another day. For now, the Vikings have solidified their status as one of the top teams in the NFC, and the Hunter-Ngakoue combination will be a formidable one for opposing offenses, especially when considering the similar excellence the team enjoys in its LB and DB corps.
Ngakoue is not particularly strong against the run, but he has averaged over nine sacks per season over his first four years in the league, and he has also shown some serious play-making ability. He has forced 14 fumbles to date, and as Schefter writes, the Maryland product is directly responsible for five of the 12 defensive touchdowns the Jaguars have scored since 2016. Cronin observes in a full-length piece that Ngakoue had a pass-rush win rate of 21% as an edge rusher last season, which ranked higher than Griffen (17%) and Hunter (15%).
Ian Rapoport of NFL.com notes that the Vikings plan to sign Ngakoue to a long-term deal after the 2020 season (video link). While Minnesota will have a number of other contract issues to address, pairing Ngakoue and Hunter together for the foreseeable future will be an indubitably tempting proposition.
Eagles’ Andre Dillard Done For Year
The hits just keep on coming for the Eagles’ offensive line. Andre Dillard has been ruled out for the season with a biceps injury, as NFL.com’s Mike Garafolo tweets. Dillard, a 2019 first-round pick, was reportedly having an inconsistent camp, following his up-and-down rookie campaign. Still, it’s a bad break for an Eagles O-Line that has already been spread thin by injuries.
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As Dillard gets set for surgery, the Eagles will scramble for solutions. They managed to quickly replace guard Brandon Brooks by re-signing Jason Peters (and shifting him to the interior), but Dillard’s absence creates a whole new problem for the Birds. Peters, in theory, could return to his usual post, but the Eagles would then have to figure out their right guard situation all over again.
If they put Peters at left tackle, the Eagles could draw from their current group of guards which includes Matt Pryor and fourth-round pick Jack Driscoll. They could also take things down to the wire by waiting a few days to see what shakes loose after cutdowns. There will undoubtedly be a number of proven guards and tackles available when teams trim down their rosters, but any new addition will have to learn the scheme in a hurry.
Cardinals, Budda Baker Agree To Record-Breaking Extension
Budda Baker is now the highest-paid safety in NFL history. On Tuesday, the Cardinals agreed to a four-year, $59MM extension with their young standout defender (Twitter link via Ian Rapoport of NFL.com). 
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Baker’s deal includes a whopping $33.1MM guaranteed and comes out to an annual average of $14.75MM. Before the re-up, Baker was set to earn just $1.396MM in base pay in the walk year of his rookie deal. With that, Baker tops the previous watermark set by Bears safety Eddie Jackson, who signed a four-year, $58.4MM extension with the Bears earlier this year.
The 24-year-old has impressed across three pro seasons, though he has never intercepted a pass as a pro. He has, however, notched 323 tackles, 3.5 sacks, four forced fumbles, and 14 passes defensed in total. Last year, he registered 104 solo stops to lead the league. Baker appeared as a slot corner earlier in his career, but he’s clearly found a home as a safety.
With Baker, edge rusher Chandler Jones, cornerback Patrick Peterson, and versatile rookie linebacker Isaiah Simmons, the Cardinals boast one of the league’s most intriguing defenses. They’ll look to put it all together in 2020 and improve on their 5-10-1 mark from last year.
Baker’s deal has surely captured the attention of new Seahawks safety Jamal Adams. Adams has spent years lobbying for a market-setting contract and he’ll surely leapfrog Baker in 2021. For now, Adams has agreed to table the talks.
Ravens Release Earl Thomas
11:37am: The Ravens have released Thomas, the team announced. The wording of the announcement suggests that Baltimore will indeed attempt to void his $10MM guaranteed salary for 2020 for conduct detrimental to the team.
9:12am: The Ravens will trade or release star safety Earl Thomas, as Adam Schefter of ESPN.com reports (via Twitter). Thomas got into a physical altercation with teammate Chuck Clark at practice on Friday, and the team sent the three-time First Team All-Pro home on Saturday. Baltimore told Thomas to stay away from the facility today, so it definitely sounded like a parting of the ways was in the works.
Schefter notes in a separate tweet that the Cowboys, who have long been connected to Thomas, are once again a candidate to land him. The ESPN scribe adds that Baltimore has been trying to complete a trade throughout the weekend, though obviously nothing has materialized just yet (Twitter link). Ian Rapoport of NFL.com says (via Twitter) that the 49ers and Texans could also be in the mix, while Michael Gehlken of the Dallas Morning News says the Cowboys will not trade for Thomas (Twitter link). Dallas could make a play for him if he is released.
The Ravens’ decision comes just one year after they landed Thomas, arguably the best safety of his generation, on a four-year, $55MM free agent contract. So any club that trades for the 31-year-old would be taking on the remainder of that hefty deal, though Thomas could certainly agree to some sort of restructure in order to facilitate a trade.
Without such a restructure, the Ravens would see a $15MM dead cap charge this year, though Thomas was set to count $15MM against the cap if he stayed with Baltimore, so that’s basically a wash. However, the Ravens would be left with a $10MM dead money hit in 2021 (when the salary cap is likely to be reduced), making this a major financial issue.
Of course, the Ravens don’t have a ton of leverage in trade talks right now, so a release could be forthcoming. If that happens, then obviously the same dead money charges would apply, though Baltimore could try to void Thomas’ guaranteed $10MM salary for 2020 for conduct detrimental to the team, thereby alleviating the burden. Thomas would almost certainly grieve such a move, but Baltimore would stand a good chance of succeeding in the grievance process. After all, the altercation started when Clark, Thomas’ would-be running mate at safety, became upset after Thomas blew a coverage assignment. Clark slammed his helmet to the ground, and Thomas escalated matters by throwing a punch. Thomas later posted a video of the play itself on social media, which is clearly prohibited.
That the Ravens are willing to take on a potentially massive dead cap hit while parting ways with a player like Thomas is indicative of just how bad of a fit he was in the team’s locker room. The incident with Clark, who is well-respected by his teammates, angered a number of prominent players, as Jeff Zrebiec of The Athletic details. And last year, Thomas was late for or missed several team and position meetings, and he reportedly already missed one position meeting this year.
His Ravens teammates had grown weary of his antics and wanted him gone, but they might very well miss his on-field presence. Though Thomas struggled in the early portion of the 2019 campaign as he learned Baltimore’s defensive system, his play improved considerably as the year went on, and opposing offenses generally avoided him. He did not make many splash plays, but he was consistently strong in coverage and earned his seventh career Pro Bowl nod.
For now, Thomas will be replaced by DeShon Elliot, a promising young player who has dealt with injury problems in the early stages of his career. Elliott was selected in the sixth round of the 2018 draft.
COVID-19 Test Results Cause Concern
NFL training camps had been rolling right along with very few COVID-19 cases. The positivity rate had been less than 1% (and dropping), and as of this morning, only four players league-wide were on the reserve/COVID-19 list.
But the NFL released a statement today indicating that yesterday’s testing returned several positive results from each team that is serviced by the same lab in New Jersey. The league is investigating those results, the impacted teams are working to confirm or deny the positive tests, and clubs around the league are taking precautionary measures, including altering or cancelling football activities today. The full statement can be found here, courtesy of Tom Pelissero of the NFL Network (on Twitter).
Luckily, it appears this might just be a issue with the testing site. Indeed, as Brad Biggs of the Chicago Times tweets, the Bears’ testing on Saturday yielded nine positive tests, but it turned out that all nine were false positives. The Bears have simply pushed back today’s morning practice to later in the afternoon, and at least a few clubs that aren’t serviced by the New Jersey location are practicing as normal.
Of course, even false positives during the regular season could force games to be canceled or force healthy players to sit out, so it may be a blessing in disguise that this has happened now so that the league will be better equipped to handle lab irregularities in the future. As of now, today’s news just seems to be a blip in the radar, but it is obviously worth keeping an eye on.
Washington’s Ron Rivera Diagnosed With Lymph Node Cancer
Ron Rivera has been diagnosed with lymph node cancer (Twitter link via Adam Schefter of ESPN.com). The Washington Football Team head coach says the cancer is in its early stages and regarded as “very treatable and curable.” 
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“I was stunned. But I was angry because I feel like I’m in best health I’ve been in,” Rivera said.
The 58-year-old broke the news to his team earlier tonight with a bit of his trademark humor. “I’m going to be a little more cranky,” the coach warned. “So don’t piss me off.” Rivera plans to conduct business as usual, though he tells Schefter that there is a “Plan B” in place, in case he has to take some time away from the team.
As Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets, that “Plan B” would be having defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio — who has 12 years of head coaching experience between the Jaguars and Raiders — assume HC duties. But RapSheet confirms that the plan is for Rivera to coach uninterrupted through the 2020 campaign.
Rivera, a former Bears linebacker, climbed his way up the ranks before taking over the Panthers’ head coach in 2011. The Panthers never captured the Lombardi Trophy with Rivera, but he did get them to Super Bowl 50 at the end of the 2015 season, and he earned Coach of the Year honors that year. Including playoffs, Carolina went 79-67-1 with Rivera at the helm. The Panthers parted ways with Rivera in December, leading him to Washington just a few weeks later.
We here at PFR would like to wish Rivera a speedy recovery.
Cowboys’ Gerald McCoy Done For Year
A torn quadriceps muscle will rule out Cowboys defensive tackle Gerald McCoy for the year, per an announcement from the team. The injury was initially feared to be an ACL tear, but the end result is the same.
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The Cowboys inked McCoy to a three-year, ~$20MM deal in March. Even though it was a lot less than McCoy’s massive Bucs deal, it was still a significant layout for Dallas. For the 32-year-old, it was an opportunity to win in the twilight of his career.
McCoy hooked on with the Panthers last year after spending his previous nine pro seasons with the Buccaneers. He started in every game for Carolina and was still effective on the interior – he finished out with five sacks, bringing his career total to 59.5.
McCoy was set to join forces with DeMarcus Lawrence and Tyrone Crawford on Dallas’ D-Line, helping to fill the void left by the departures of Robert Quinn and Maliek Collins. Now, he’ll have to wait until next year to make his Dallas debut.
Washington QB Alex Smith Activated
One of the most remarkable comebacks in NFL history is complete. Washington Football Team quarterback Alex Smith has been activated off the PUP list and will return to the field, as Nicki Jhabvala of The Athletic was the first to report (via Twitter). The team formally announced the move this morning.
By now, most NFL fans know the story. Smith, whom Washington acquired in a trade with the Chiefs in January 2018 and subsequently signed to a four-year, $94MM extension, broke the tibia and fibula in his right leg during a game against the Texans in November 2018. The injury was gruesome to behold, and its aftermath was even worse.
Smith developed sepsis, and the possibility of amputation was very real. The three-time Pro Bowler even indicated that he feels lucky just to be alive. He ultimately underwent 17 operations but vowed to resume his playing career, though his wife, Elizabeth, has understandably been conflicted on the matter.
But in an Instagram post that preceded Jhabvala’s report, Elizabeth wrote, “Hard work pays off! Lots to celebrate in the Smith house tonight,” and uploaded a video showing Alex’s family spraying him with champagne.
Of course, much has changed since Smith’s injury (aside from his team’s name). Washington was 6-3 and in the thick of the the NFC East race before Smith was hurt, but they ended up 7-9 that season and finished third in the division. They drafted Dwayne Haskins in the first round of the 2019 draft to be their QB of the future, and after they limped to a 3-13 record last season, they overhauled their front office and coaching staff, bringing in Ron Rivera as their new field general.
Rivera has previously indicated that Smith would be included in the team’s QB competition if activated, and while it would be surprising to see anyone other than Haskins under center when Week 1 rolls around, it’s clearly unwise to count Smith out. As John Keim of ESPN.com writes, Smith will be on the field when Washington begins full-pad work on Tuesday.
Now 36, the No. 1 overall pick of the 2005 draft will, if nothing else, provide invaluable veteran mentorship for Haskins and Kyle Allen. Smith will carry a $21.4MM cap charge in 2020, but Washington can release him after the season for some significant cap relief. He is due to count $24.4MM against the cap in 2021, but his dead cap hit drops to $10.8MM.
Packers, Kenny Clark Agree To Extension
The Packers have agreed to a four-year, $70MM extension with Kenny Clark (Twitter link via Tom Pelissero of NFL.com). The nose tackle will receive a $25MM signing bonus and he’ll earn $37MM over the first two years of the deal. 
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Before, Clark was due $7.69MM in the walk year of his rookie contract. The re-up makes Clark the 12th-highest paid defensive player in the NFL. It’s more money than some expected for Clark, but he made a strong case by registering 12 sacks over the past two seasons. At the age of 24 (25 in October), he’s one of the game’s better interior defenders, and he now has a deal to reflect his status.
His performance is even more impressive when considering that he was slowed by an elbow injury in 2018. Despite the early end to his season, Clark graded out as Pro Football Focus’ No. 9 ranked interior lineman that year while posting 55 total tackles. This past year, he had a perfect attendance card and set a new career high in stops (62).
Clark’s deal marks yet another major Packers investment in defensive talent. After shelling out big bucks for edge rushers Za’Darius Smith and Preston Smith, giving safety Adrian Amos a $9MM-per-year contract deal, and drafting two Round 1 defenders, they’ve shored up the middle with Clark.