Packers To Sign CB Bashaud Breeland
Bashaud Breeland‘s eventful stay in free agency appears to be over. The Packers’ cornerback troubles will lead them to sign Breeland, Rob Demovsky of ESPN.com tweets. It’s a one-year deal, NFL.com’s Mike Garafolo tweets.
Green Bay placed Davon House on IR earlier this afternoon and was without Kevin King in its Week 3 loss in Washington, and the Packers will bring in the Redskins’ former No. 2 corner to help. The Packers on Tuesday worked out Breeland, David Amerson and fellow corner Arrion Springs, NFL reporter Howard Balzer tweets.
Nearly a third of the league secured visits from Breeland, who took part in meetings in all four American time zones by attending summits with the Colts, Cardinals, Raiders, Chiefs, Ravens, Browns, Patriots, Dolphins and Buccaneers. Breeland met with the Colts twice.
A nixed Panthers deal set Breeland on his complicated course during the offseason. A foot injury suffered in March led to Breeland’s $8MM-AAV Carolina contract being nullified. It’s highly unlikely his Packers deal is in that neighborhood. Breeland, though, was one of the top cornerbacks available when free agency began. He agreed to the Panthers deal quickly before the subsequent injury changed his offseason trajectory.
Breeland will join a corner corps flush with young talent. The 2014 fourth-round pick will now be a part of a group housing a 2017 second-rounder in King, a 2018 first-rounder in Jaire Alexander and 2018 second-rounder Josh Jackson. Tramon Williams rounds out the Green Bay group.
Breeland was a full-time starter with the Redskins, lining up with Washington’s first-string defense in 58 of the 60 regular-season games he played during his four-year stay in the nation’s capital. He will now begin his age-26 season, likely with an intent to impress for another run at free agency in 2019.
Jets Express Interest In Le’Veon Bell
The Jets have reached out to the Steelers about trading for Le’Veon Bell, according to Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News. The Jets have become the first known team, but certainly not last, to inquire on the superstar running back. 
The Jets have yet to make a concrete offer for Bell, but they believe the Steelers are serious about moving him, Mehta hears. Bell is set to miss the third game of the season when the Steelers face the Bucs on Monday night, and with no end to his holdout in sight, the Steelers recently opened up the phone lines for trade discussion.
This offseason, the Steelers hit Bell with the franchise tag for the second straight year. He’s under contract for 2018 with his one-year, $14.54MM placeholder (or, rather, the prorated portion of that), but any team acquiring Bell will have to wait until the season is over before negotiating an extension with him. For that reason, Bell’s trade value is capped for Pittsburgh. Any team acquiring Bell will have to lock him up to a mammoth contract to keep him in the long run while having no assurances of that deal coming together.
The Steelers would likely receive a third-round compensatory pick in 2020 by keeping Bell and allowing him to leave as a free agent next offseason, but that’s not a guarantee due to the complex comp pick formula. Instead, the Steelers would prefer to net a 2019 third-round choice – or perhaps even settle for a ’19 fourth-round pick.
The Jets have not had a running back of Bell’s talent level in his prime since the days of Curtis Martin, so they’d surely love to add Bell for the right price.
49ers’ Jimmy Garoppolo Done For Season
The 49ers’ worst fear has been confirmed. On Monday, an MRI revealed that quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo has suffered a season-ending ACL tear, as Adam Schefter of ESPN.com tweets. The Niners will place Garoppolo on injured reserve, opening up a spot on the roster that will surely be filled by another quarterback. 
The 49ers, for now, will turn the starting job over to backup C.J. Beathard. After the second-year QB went 1-4 in five starts last year, it’s far from an ideal situation for San Francisco. If the 49ers seek outside help, they may want to give the Browns a call to see what it would take to acquire Tyrod Taylor, who has lost his starting job to rookie Baker Mayfield.
The free agent market, which may or may not include retired signal caller Jay Cutler, doesn’t have much to offer the 49ers. Colin Kaepernick may represent the most talented available QB at this time, but he’s unlikely to return to SF for obvious reasons. On Sunday, we heard that the Niners are unlikely to bring in competition for Beathard, but that thinking could easily change.
The 49ers picked up Garoppolo from the Patriots in exchange for a second-round pick last November, and subsequently inked him to a five-year, $137.5MM extension. Tom Brady‘s former protege won all five of his starts in the Bay Area last year, but was off to a so-so start in 2018. In three starts, Garoppolo went 1-2 with three interceptions against five touchdowns.
Packers’ Mo Wilkerson Done For Season
Packers defensive lineman Muhammad Wilkerson done for the season after undergoing surgery, ESPN.com’s Rob Demovsky tweets. Exact details of the injury and procedure are not known, but it’s enough to shelve him for the year. 
The Packers signed Wilkerson to a one-year, $5MM deal in March with the opportunity to earn $3MM in incentives. The terms of the incentives package were not revealed, but it’s unlikely that he has earned much in the way of bonuses after just three games on the field.
Wilkerson was once one of the premier defensive players in the NFL, but he hasn’t been the same since inking a massive extension with the Jets in 2016. Wilkerson reportedly had problems with effort, tardiness, and coaches and his level of play slipped as well. Last year, the 28-year-old (29 in October) appeared in 13 games but graded as just the 50th-best interior defender in the league, per Pro Football Focus. This year, Wilkerson tallied five tackles and zero sacks in three starts at defensive end for Green Bay.
Without Wilkerson, the Packers may promote defensive end Dean Lowry to the starting lineup. They’ll also have to make at one addition to the DE group.
Falcons’ Ricardo Allen Done For Season
Falcons safety Ricardo Allen tore his Achilles and is out for the season, a source tells Adam Schefter of ESPN.com (on Twitter). It’s a tough blow for an Atlanta defense that has already lost multiple defensive starters to injury this year. 
Allen inked a three-year, $19.5MM extension with the Falcons before the start of the season, tying him to the club through the 2021 campaign. In his previous four seasons with the team, Allen played in 46 games, including 45 starts. During that time, he racked up six interceptions, ten deflected passes, one fumble recovery, and 158 tackles. This year, he added an interception in the team’s Week 2 victory over the Panthers plus 14 total tackles through three contests.
After a crushing overtime loss to the Saints, the 1-2 Falcons will look to rebound against the Bengals on Sunday. They’ll do so without one of their better players in the secondary.
The injury may force the Falcons to promote Jordan Richards or Keith Tandy to the starting lineup, but those are uninspiring options for a team that is already without starting safety Keanu Neal. Instead, one has to wonder if the Falcons might inquire on free agent Eric Reid, or pursue Seahawks safety Earl Thomas via trade.
49ers Fear Jimmy Garoppolo Has Torn ACL
The 49ers fear starting quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo suffered a serious knee injury in Week 3’s contest against the Chiefs, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (Twitter link). Head coach Kyle Shanahan admitted following the game that an ACL tear is the fear for Garoppolo, and an MRI could confirm the news by Monday.
Garoppolo took a hit while running along the sideline in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s game and looked to have injured his left knee. Trainers escorted him off the field via cart, and he was quickly ruled out for the remainder of Week action.
Losing Garoppolo would be a devastating blow for a 49ers team that had playoff aspirations entering the 2018 campaign. San Francisco has already lost one if its projected offensive focal points — free agent addition Jerick McKinnon — for the year after he suffered a torn ACL during training camp. Another knee injury, this time to Garoppolo, could further derail San Francisco’s postseason hopes.
With Garoppolo sidelined, the 49ers turned to backup C.J. Beathard for the remainder of their loss to the Chiefs. Beathard, a third-round pick in the 2017 draft, started five games for San Francisco before it acquired Garoppolo near last year’s trade deadline. The Iowa product completed 55% of his passes for 1,430 yards, four touchdowns, and six interceptions, and posted the second-lowest passer rating among NFL quarterbacks with at least 200 attempts.
The 49ers picked up Garoppolo from the Patriots in exchange for a second-round pick last November, and subsequently inked him to a five-year, $137.5MM extension after he won all five of his starts in the Bay Area. Through two starts this season, Garoppolo had managed 467 yards, three touchdowns, and three interceptions.
Steelers Listening To Trade Offers For Le’Veon Bell
ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter reports that the Steelers are listening to trade offers for disgruntled running back Le’Veon Bell, who has yet to report to the team (Twitter link). While we might expect further clarification shortly, as of right now it is unclear whether Pittsburgh is actively shopping Bell or if the team is simply fielding calls. Likewise, we do not know which teams (if any) have approached the Steelers about a potential trade.
The Bell saga has been one of the most well-documented storylines of the past several offseasons. The last substantive report we heard on the matter came several weeks ago, which suggested that Bell could hold out until the Tuesday following Week 10 of the regular season (he would preserve his free agency status by returning by that point). However, as Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk explored today, Bell could decide to skip the entire 2018 season, which would be a risky, but potentially profitable, move.
We had previously heard that the Steelers were unwilling to either rescind Bell’s franchise tag or trade the star running back, so today’s report represents a rather dramatic change in thinking. Still, it is fair to wonder just how much a rival club would be willing to give up for the rights to Bell given his holdouts, the mileage he already has on his legs, and his contract status. Indeed, any team that trades for Bell would be precluded from negotiating a long-term deal with him before the end of the season, and the franchise tag value for him for 2019 would be unpalatable. Plus, such team would of course need to have a fair amount of cap space this year.
But if a club is able to acquire Bell, it would obviously land a playmaker that would dramatically increase that team’s chances of making a championship run. And the Steelers, who are 0-1-1 and dealing with a number of other concerns, may simply want to get what they can for Bell and move forward with James Conner as their lead back.
Lions Nearly Traded For Rob Gronkowski This Offseason
The Lions and Patriots nearly completed a blockbuster trade this offseason that would have sent star tight end Rob Gronkowski to Detroit, per Adam Schefter of ESPN.com. Ian Rapoport of NFL.com recently reported that the Pats were close to dealing Gronk earlier this year, and while Rapoport did not name the team that nearly landed Gronkowski, it sounds as if the Lions were that club.
Indeed, Rapoport said that, when Gronkowski learned that he was about to be traded, he threatened to retire instead. That jibes with Schefter’s report today, with the ESPN scribe noting that Gronk said he would retire rather than go to the Lions, and that the tight end declined to return Detroit’s calls even though the Lions are led by former New England staffers Bob Quinn and Matt Patricia.
Although Schefter does not say what the Lions were willing to give up for Gronkowski, he notes that discussions peaked during the week of the draft, so it sounds as if 2018 draft capital would have been heading to New England. After Gronkowski threatened retirement, he met with Patriots officials and the two sides discussed a plan for Gronkowski to continue playing, though Gronk made it clear he would only play for the Pats. At that point, New England called off trade talks, and the team ultimately sweetened Gronkowski’s contract.
It certainly seems as though the 0-2 Lions could use Gronkowski’s services. Although the team is not hurting for receiver or running back talent, the Lions are thin at the tight end position, and QB Matthew Stafford would surely love someone of Gronkowski’s caliber creating mismatches in the middle of the field.
Through two games this season, the 29-year-old Gronkowski has nine catches for 138 yards and a touchdown.
Browns To Announce Baker Mayfield As Starting QB Monday
The Baker Mayfield era in Cleveland has begun. After Mayfield guided the Browns to a victory over the Jets on Thursday night in relief of Tyrod Taylor, it appeared that the writing was on the wall for Taylor, who struggled mightily before being lifted with a concussion. Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com reports that head coach Hue Jackson will formally announce Mayfield, this year’s No. 1 overall pick, as the team’s starting quarterback on Monday after he has had the chance to speak with both Mayfield and Taylor (Jackson gave his team the weekend off).
The original plan was for Mayfield to sit out for much, if not all, of 2018, and serve as Taylor’s backup while learning the professional game. However, as Cabot writes in a separate piece, Jackson and GM John Dorsey really just wanted to make sure the team around Mayfield was strong enough to support him. Indeed, she says if future Hall-of-Fame left tackle Joe Thomas had not retired this offseason, Mayfield may have started right away. But now that the team seems solid enough in all three phases — the Browns could easily be 3-0 right now — Cleveland brass is comfortable putting their prized rookie under center.
Cabot adds that, when it became clear that Taylor was not getting the job done through the first two games of the season, the Browns were likely eyeing next week’s game against the Raiders as a target date for Mayfield’s debut anyway. But Taylor’s concussion — which Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk believes may have been a ruse to get Mayfield in the game — allowed them to expedite the process.
Cabot says Jackson has not yet made a formal announcement because he wants to be respectful towards the veteran Taylor and to speak with him before going public. As Adam Schefter of ESPN tweets, Taylor is expected to clear the concussion protocol this week, so assuming Cabot’s report is accurate, Taylor will serve as Mayfield’s backup going forward.
Agent: Brown Has Not Asked For Trade
On Tuesday morning, Mike Tomlin told reporters that Antonio Brown has not asked to be traded from the Steelers. Now, Brown’s agent has confirmed that the wide receiver is not looking to leave Pittsburgh. 
“The tweet [on Monday] was not in reference to anything other than Antonio responding to a person he knows. It was not directed towards a trade, or wanting to be trading. Any idea he was asking for a trade is not accurate,” agent Drew Rosenhaus said in a statement to ESPN.com’s Adam Schefter (via Twitter links).
Rosenhaus went on to explain that Brown’s surprising absence from Monday’s practice was not tied to any sort of dissatisfaction with the club.
“Antonio had a personal matter. I talked to the team about it. His issue was unrelated to the tweet or his relationship with the team. Third, AB has an incredible drive to win. He just wants to win. That’s all that that is,” Rosenhaus said. “That’s not anything more than him encouraging his coaches and teammates to win. And that’s what his entire focus is on. Any notion, any speculation otherwise, can be put to bed. This is a non-story that has been blown out of proportion. We can end this right here and now.”
Brown was visibly upset with Steelers coaches during Sunday’s loss to the Chiefs, but it sounds like both sides are committed to smoothing things out. Brown is slated to talk with Tomlin on Tuesday and quarterback Ben Roethlisberger on Wednesday to clear the air. Then, on Monday, Brown and the Steelers will look to capture their first win of the season against the Buccaneers.