Titans Release Delanie Walker
Delanie Walker‘s lengthy Titans tenure will end after seven seasons. The team announced the release of its longtime tight end.
The 35-year-old target had battled injuries in recent seasons but wraps up his Tennessee stay with three Pro Bowls on his resume. Injuries limited Walker to just eight games over the past two seasons, however, and it’s fair to wonder if this will be it for the 14-year veteran. For what it’s worth, Walker said in December he planned to play a 15th season in 2020.
While Walker’s work decreased in recent years, he was one of the league’s premier tight ends for an extended stretch. After leaving his post as Vernon Davis‘ backup in San Francisco, Walker thrived after signing with Tennessee. From 2014-17, he posted four straight 800-plus-yard seasons.
Tennessee used Jonnu Smith as its primary receiving tight end last season and received some contributions from Anthony Firkser as well. They combined for more than 600 yards and look to be the players tasked with succeeding Walker going into the 2020s.
This move will create more than $6MM in cap space for the Titans, who opened $2MM earlier Friday by releasing Ryan Succop. Tennessee has not re-signed Ryan Tannehill, Derrick Henry or Jack Conklin. The Titans are running out of time but are now north of $66MM in cap space. Only a handful of teams possess more.
Vikings Cut Xavier Rhodes, Linval Joseph
Three seasons remained on Xavier Rhodes‘ five-year, $70.1MM contract. Instead, the Vikings will remove that deal from their books in an effort to create cap space.
Minnesota made its expected move Friday, cutting Rhodes, Tom Pelissero of NFL.com tweets. The Vikings, however, are also releasing defensive tackle Linval Joseph. The former enjoyed a seven-season Twin Cities tenure, while the latter spent six seasons in the middle of Minnesota’s defensive line.
These cuts will create over $18MM in cap space for the Vikings, who entered the day barely $1MM below the projected salary ceiling. This also marks a major shift for the Vikings, who spent years crafting extensions and adding to Mike Zimmer‘s veteran defense. But the team’s payroll, headlined by a fully guaranteed quarterback contract, became flooded with veteran contracts in recent years.
Rhodes’ play had declined considerably, although Joseph remained one of the league’s better interior defenders. The Vikings will need to fill holes at these spots, likely with cheaper and younger cogs. Minnesota has Trae Waynes and Mackensie Alexander as free agents as well, so the franchise that has drafted three first-round cornerbacks since 2013 will need to have a plan at this priority position.
Joseph, 31, and Rhodes, 29, were two of the best players at their respective positions as recently as 2017. Both made the 2016 and ’17 Pro Bowls, and Joseph graded as one of Pro Football Focus’ top players in both 2015 and ’17. They will head to free agency, with Joseph joining a strong defensive line group.
Broncos Use Tag On Justin Simmons
John Elway indicated the Broncos would use their franchise tag on Justin Simmons if no extension occurred between the Combine and the now-twice-moved tag deadline. With no deal in place, the Broncos are tagging Simmons, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com reports (on Twitter).
This marks Friday’s third tag, with the Broncos joining the Ravens (Matt Judon) and the Chargers (Hunter Henry) in locking down a top free agent. Simmons will earn approximately $12.7MM on the safety tag, according to OverTheCap, giving the Broncos a pricey safety duo.
Denver signed Kareem Jackson to a three-year, $33MM deal in 2019. A Simmons re-up will likely cost at least $14MM per year, the new going rate for top-market safeties. Eddie Jackson, at $14.6MM per year, resides as the league’s highest-paid safety.
The Broncos have not used their franchise tag since keeping Von Miller off the 2016 market, but Elway is 4-for-4 in extending tagged players. He reached extensions with Miller, Demaryius Thomas (2015), Ryan Clady (2013) and Matt Prater (2012) during his run as GM. Unless the league alters its offseason schedule, teams have until July 15 to extend franchise-tagged players.
Not yet a Pro Bowler, Simmons does not have some of the accolades his modern-era Denver tag predecessors do. But he finished the 2019 season as Pro Football Focus’ top safety. The contract-year defender led all safeties with 15 passes defensed. The Broncos saw enough from Simmons to prioritize him over four-time Pro Bowler Chris Harris, the last link to the franchise’s acclaimed Super Bowl-winning secondary. Simmons, 26, doubles as one of Elway’s best draft picks — a 2016 third-rounder — and the team’s best bet to establish some post-Harris continuity in the secondary.
Chargers To Franchise Hunter Henry
For the first time in six years, a tight end will receive the franchise tag. The Chargers are following through with their rumored plan to tag Hunter Henry. The Bolts will cuff their fifth-year tight end, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets.
No tight end has been franchise-tagged since the Saints locked down Jimmy Graham in 2014. Henry’s price will come in a bit higher. It will cost the Chargers approximately $11.1MM to tag Henry, making him the NFL’s highest-paid tight end for the time being. This ensures the promising but injury-prone target will not hit the market and thus potentially help another team that is courting Tom Brady.
The Patriots have needed a tight end for over a year now, having not replaced Rob Gronkowski. They naturally would have been a Henry fit, but the Bolts — also in the hunt for Brady — now have Henry’s retention as a selling point. The Chargers have Henry, Keenan Allen and Mike Williams under contract for 2020. They just extended RFA Austin Ekeler as well, giving Philip Rivers‘ to-be-determined successor a nice complement of weapons.
Henry, however, is not yet a surefire bet to be a long-term Pro Bowl candidate. He has flashed promise and posted career-high catch (55) and yardage (652) numbers last season, those coming in just 12 games. But Henry tore his ACL in 2018, missing the regular season, and missed four games due to a knee injury last season as well.
The Bolts will have roughly $46MM in cap space after tagging Henry. Unlike the Raiders, they have not yet shown an indication they are backing out of the Brady sweepstakes. At just 25, however, Henry profiles as a player who would stand to help the next long-term Chargers quarterback. He, Williams and Ekeler are each 25 or younger.
Ravens Use Franchise Tag On Matt Judon
Long mentioned as a candidate for the Ravens’ franchise tag, Matt Judon will not have the opportunity to test free agency. The Ravens will use their top tag on their top edge rusher, Mike Garafolo of NFL.com tweets. The Ravens made the designation official.
The interesting chapter will follow. The Ravens were linked to a Judon tag-and-trade scenario early in the offseason, and the team has a fairly extensive history of letting outside rushers leave. If Baltimore dangles Judon in trades, widespread interest will likely follow.
Judon will be tagged as an outside linebacker, per Adam Schefter of ESPN.com (on Twitter). While he is essentially a defensive end, 3-4 teams have used the linebacker tag in the recent past to save money. This could prompt a challenge from Judon, who will be on an approximately $15.8MM tender instead of a defensive end price ($17.8MM). Multiple pass rushers are prepared to dispute linebacker tags this year, according to Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.com (on Twitter).
“I’d rather have a long-term deal for stability. It is what it is,” Judon said, via Josina Anderson of ESPN.com (on Twitter). “I feel like this is what many of us go through that are facing free agency. At the end of the day, I know I’m playing football next season.”
The all-time compensatory pick kings, the Ravens have let Paul Kruger, Pernell McPhee and Za’Darius Smith sign their second contracts elsewhere. Judon, however, has been a key weapon for the Ravens for years. And the team no longer has Terrell Suggs anchoring one side of its edge rush, complicating the prospect of Judon being the latest Baltimore edge to leave. A Judon exit, though, would net Baltimore far more than a comp pick.
A Division II product out of Grand Valley State (Mich.), Judon became vital for the Ravens’ Super Bowl push last season. After Suggs and Smith exited in free agency, Judon posted a team-record (since the stat surfaced in 2006) 33 quarterback hits in a 9.5-sack season. Judon, 27, now has 24.5 sacks over the past three seasons.
Three teams used the tag-and-trade route to recoup value for their pass rushers last year, with Dee Ford, Frank Clark and Jadeveon Clowney being dealt. The Jets are interested in Judon, who doubles as one of a few tag-and-trade pass rushers this year. Yannick Ngakoue and Bud Dupree join him. It will be costly for a team to acquire Judon, but we will surely hear more about this market soon.
Bears, Danny Trevathan Agree To Three-Year Deal
The Bears have signed linebacker Danny Trevathan to a new three-year deal, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (Twitter link). Trevathan had been scheduled to become a free agent when the market opens.
Trevathan turns 30 years old later this month and missed time in 2019 due to an elbow injury, so there was no guarantee Chicago would re-sign the veteran ‘backer. Indeed, Trevathan has missed 19 of 64 games since inking a four-year, $28MM deal prior with the Bears to the 2016 campaign. But he’s shown enough when on the field — and as a locker room presence — to warrant a new deal from general manager Ryan Pace.
There’s no word as of yet on Trevathan’s new annual salary or guaranteed money. His $7MM yearly average now pales in comparison to the top of the off-ball linebacker market, where Bobby Wagner and C.J. Mosley currently top the list at $18MM and $17MM, respectively. Trevathan clearly won’t come close to those figures, but it’s possible he sees a bump on his previous per-year commitment.
A former sixth-round pick, Trevathan spent the first four years of his career with the Broncos before Denver allowed him to leave for Chicago. In 2018, Trevathan played all 16 games for just the second time in his career before missing seven contests in 2019. Last year, he posted 70 tackles and one sack while grading as Pro Football Focus‘ No. 39 linebacker among 89 qualifiers.
With Trevathan back in the fold, the Bears are almost assuredly prepared to let fellow linebacker Nick Kwiatkoski walk in free agency. Kwiatkoski, a fourth-round pick in the 2016 draft, played the most defensive snaps (512) of his career last season, and could be a candidate for a surprisingly large free agent contract from another club.
“Zero Communication” From NFL On Coronavirus Plans
There has been “zero communication” between the league office and teams regarding COVID-19 procedure, according to a team source who spoke with Ben Fischer of the Sports Business Journal (on Twitter). Individual teams have moved to restrict or eliminate travel, but the NFL has yet to announce any league-wide moves or changes to the offseason.
Instead, the NFL has decided to proceed with the upcoming offseason schedule in place. The league has no plans to move the start of the league year (and the beginning of free agency) on Wednesday, March 18.
Meanwhile, the rest of the sporting world has acted quickly this week to limit exposure to the pandemic. In North America:
- The NBA season has been suspended indefinitely.
- The NHL season has been suspended indefinitely.
- Major League Baseball is set to suspend spring training.
- The Major League Soccer season has been suspended, for at least 30 days.
- Multiple college basketball conference tournaments – including the Big Ten and SEC tournaments – have been cancelled.
A cancellation of March Madness also seems likely. At minimum, those games will be played without fans in attendance.
Although the NFL season doesn’t start until September, the league’s offseason is in full swing and it calls for a great deal of travel, conferences, and face-to-face interaction. The league is said to be considering adjustments to April’s NFL Draft, but many are calling for Roger Goodell to take immediate measures to protect the game’s players, executives, and prospective rookies in the interim.
NFL Has “No Plans” To Move Free Agency
The NFL announced that it still plans to begin its league year on March 18. Barring any change, this means that pro football’s free agency will kick off on Wednesday.
In the last 24 hours, we’ve seen the NBA put its season on hiatus and the NCAA progress towards a likely cancellation of March Madness. The NFL, meanwhile, has been mulling different measures to prevent league officials and players from catching the coronavirus while keeping the offseason schedule in tact.
More and more teams are cancelling travel – the Jets, Redskins, and Giants are among the latest – but the NFL has yet to put the kibosh on all travel league-wide. But, according to agent Erik Burkhardt (on Twitter), the league has cancelled all draftee facility visits.
The situation, of course, is fluid, but this is the slated schedule for events in the NFL and labor talks right now (h/t ESPN.com’s Field Yates, via Twitter):
- Saturday, 11:59pm ET: Deadline for players to vote on proposed CBA
- Monday, 11:59am ET: Deadline to apply a franchise or transition tag
- Monday, 12pm ET: Legal tampering window opens
- Wednesday, 4pm ET: Free agency begins
In Response To COVID-19, NFL Discussing Adjustments To Draft
In the wake of the global COVID-19 pandemic, the NFL is considering potential changes to the upcoming NFL Draft, as Michael Gehlken of the Dallas News writes. As of this writing, the draft is slated to take place in Las Vegas from April 23-25. 
On Wednesday night, the NBA suspended its season shortly after learning that Jazz center Rudy Gobert had tested positive for the coronavirus. The unprecedented move has many calling for the NFL to take similar measures with the draft, free agency, and other major league milestones on the horizon.
“The league office, the players association and the city and the state are working together,” Raiders owner Mark Davis told Gehlken in a phone interview on Wednesday. “They’re making a measured decision. Health and safety will always be No. 1.”
The draft is one of many face-to-face large scale conferences on the league’s calendar. In just a few weeks, for example, the annual owners meetings are set to take place. Beyond that, the NFL offseason calls for countless flights, meetings, and workouts. Hours after the NBA paused its season and the United States announced a ban on most travel to Europe, it’s hard to imagine the NFL going about business as usual.
For the draft, the NFL may scale back or eliminate fan attendance entirely. There has also been speculation that the draft could take place entirely via teleconference
“They’ll make the correct decision,” Davis told Gehlken. “They won’t put anyone in jeopardy over it.”
Packers To Cut Jimmy Graham
The Packers will release Jimmy Graham on Thursday, according to ESPN.com’s Adam Schefter (on Twitter). The release will be formally processed on Thursday, sending the tight end into free agency immediately.
This has been the expected move for some time. Despite Graham’s many career accomplishments, the Packers had little reason to keep him and his $11.6MM cap hit. By dropping Graham, the Packers will save $6MM against $3.6MM in dead money.
Graham was one of the league’s most dominant tight ends for a long stretch. In his first eight seasons – spent with the Saints and Seahawks – Graham earned five Pro Bowl nominations. In 2013, one of his seasons ever, Graham was also named a First-Team All-Pro after notching 86 catches for 1,215 yards and a league-leading 16 touchdowns.
After that, he inked a three-year, $30MM deal with the Packers, but he couldn’t match his previous production. In 2018, he finished out with a 5/636/2 line. Last year, he had just 38 catches for 447 yards and three TDs. It was his lowest output since his rookie season back in 2010, and it was a reminder that Father Time catches up with everyone – even the game’s greats.
While Graham won’t have an issue finding another gig, he’ll be joining a relatively deep free agent class that’s led by Austin Hooper and Hunter Henry. It’s worth noting that fellow veteran Greg Olsen got $5.5MM guaranteed from the Seahawks.