Browns Fire VP Sashi Brown
The Browns have fired their top decision maker. Sashi Brown has been relieved of his duties, the team announced on Thursday morning. However, coach Hue Jackson will return in 2018. 
“We have great appreciation and gratitude for Sashi’s commitment and leadership to our organization but believe transitioning to someone with strong experience and success in drafting and building consistently winning football teams is critical to the future of the Cleveland Browns. Today we informed Sashi that we were going in a new direction. The 2018 draft and offseason is pivotal for our franchise, we need to ensure that we maximize our opportunity for success; with our picks, free agency and building our roster. Hue Jackson will remain our coach and will return for the 2018 season but we feel it is necessary to take significant steps to strengthen our personnel department. We have begun the process of having productive conversations regarding leadership of our football operations and will provide further updates when appropriate. We thank Sashi for all his hard work and dedication to the Cleveland Browns.”
The Browns are 0-12 and 1-27 over the last two seasons. Some sort of shakeup was expected, though not necessarily before the end of the season. It’s possible that the Browns were motivated to get a head start on their GM search after the Giants sacked Jerry Reese earlier this week. Their next hire will be their ninth GM since returning to Cleveland in 1999.
Meanwhile, the Browns will hold off on hiring their tenth coach since returning to Cleveland. Jackson was brought to Cleveland for his offensive acumen, leadership, and positive energy. Unfortunately, he hasn’t been able to demonstrate much of that with a lackluster roster. The good news for Jackson is that even if his team goes 0-16 this year, he will return for next season.
Brown was hired as the Browns’ executive vice president/general counsel in January of 2013 and was promoted to executive vice president of football operations in January of 2016. He took an unorthodox approach to team building, one that has yet to bear any fruit in Cleveland. However, he did leave the team with lots of cap room and draft capital to work with, so the team’s next GM may be in a position to succeed – provided that he can break the team’s longstanding curse.
Bengals Place WR John Ross On IR
The Bengals placed wide receiver John Ross on injured reserve with a shoulder injury. This brings an end to a frustrating year for the team’s first-round pick. 
The speedy wideout appeared in only three games this year and did not catch a single pass. Injuries marred his freshman season in the pros, which is exactly what scouts feared in the spring.
Ross was lighting quick, but he had more red flags than a USSR medal ceremony. He tore his ACL and missed the 2015 collegiate campaign and also underwent labrum surgery after the combine. Clubs loved his 4.22-second 40-yard-dash time, but many viewed him as a one contract player and not as a long-term investment. Next year, he’ll work to prove those critics wrong.
At 5-7, the Bengals have less than a 2% chance of reaching the playoffs. They’ll face the Bears, Vikings, Lions, and Ravens, without their top pick in tow.
In related moves, the Bengals have promoted defensive tackle Josh Tupou from practice squad and signed linebacker Carl Bradford to the practice squad.
NFL Extends Roger Goodell’s Contract
Finally, Roger Goodell has his extension. The league’s Compensation Committee has told all owners that a new contract for the commissioner has been executed, a source tells Mike Florio of PFT (Twitter link). It’s a five-year extension, taking Goodell to the start of the 2024 league year (Twitter link via Albert Breer of The MMQB). 
It has been an arduous few months for Goodell. Initially, it seemed that the commissioner’s new contract would be inked in the summertime. However, the anti-Goodell campaign from Cowboys owner Jerry Jones threw a wrench into things. While Jones was not technically a member of the six-man Compensation Committee, he was regarded as an unofficial seventh member. Using his influence, Jones helped to galvanize a small group of owners against a lucrative new contract for Goodell – or, at least, invite new scrutiny into the pact. But, it seems that he lost momentum as time went on. Florio hears that Jones “had four or five other owners on his side, at most.”
In a memo to all 32 owners, the league says that there was a “nearly unanimous consensus” among all owners to finalize the deal. With the support of his fellow committee members, Falcons owner Arthur Blank signed the “binding contract extension” on Wednesday afternoon.
While Jones is presumably unhappy about the extension, he may come away with a separate victory. For a long time, Jones has railed against the high salaries of executives in the league office. Already, buyouts have been offered to senior officials and the NFL may scale back its budget for investigations, such as the one that resulted in Ezekiel Elliott‘s six-game ban.
Goodell’s new deal, which will keep him in place beyond the next round of CBA negotiations, could be worth as much as $200MM.
Here is the complete text of the Compensation Committee to all owners, via PFT:
“In recent days, we have spoken with each of you regarding the status of the negotiations to extend Commissioner Goodell’s employment contract. In the course of those discussions, we have reviewed with you the details of the contract extension. Our Committee unanimously supports the contract and believes that it is fully consistent with “market” compensation and the financial and other parameters outlined to the owners at our May 2017 meeting, as well as in the best interests of ownership. We also have expressed in those conversations our strong belief that we should proceed to sign the agreement now, consistent with the unanimous May resolution and to avoid further controversy surrounding this issue. We are pleased to report that there is a nearly unanimous consensus among the ownership in favor of signing the contract extension now.
Accordingly, this will advise the ownership that a binding contract extension has been signed by the Commissioner and by Arthur Blank, on behalf of the League entities.
We are pleased to have resolved this issue and we appreciate the strong support received from our partners. It was particularly gratifying to hear so many owners commit to being more engaged in league affairs and to express the desire to work more closely with the Commissioner and League staff on matters critical to the League. We know that we speak for all of you, as well as for the Commissioner, in saying that the NFL is strongest when our ownership is active and unified.
We look forward to seeing each of you at the Special Meeting in Dallas on December 13th and to working together, as a partnership, to address the important issues facing the League.“
Chiefs Suspend Marcus Peters
The Chiefs have suspended cornerback Marcus Peters for Sunday’s game against the Raiders, coach Andy Reid announced. 
“This was something Marcus and I discussed,” Reid said (Twitter link via Terez A. Paylor of the Kansas City Star) “I’m going to leave it at that.”
Peters lost his cool during Sunday’s game against the Jets when teammate Steven Nelson was called for defensive holding on a two-point conversion attempt. After throwing the penalty flag into the stands, Peters was hit with an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty of his own. Peters ran off of the field and into the locker room, though he was not ejected from the game. Chiefs personnel had to follow Peters into the tunnel to inform him that he was still in the game. Reid, clearly, was angered by Peters’ actions.
Reid is sending a clear message to the Chiefs in advance of a hugely important divisional game. At 6-6, KC is currently in a three-way with the Chargers and Raiders for top record in the AFC West. A loss on Sunday would extend the Chiefs’ streak to five games and put them behind the 8-ball. The Chiefs presently have a 56.8% chance of reaching the postseason and a 54.3% chance of taking the division, according to Football Outsiders.
Without Peters, the Chiefs will be leaning more on Terrance Mitchell and Darrelle Revis alongside starter Kenneth Acker. With five cornerbacks still remaining on the roster, they don’t necessarily have to add one between now and Sunday.
Suspension Upheld For Gronk
Appeals officer Derrick Brooks has upheld the one-game suspension of Rob Gronkowski, the league announced. Gronkowski will not dress for Monday night’s game against the Dolphins. 
Gronk lost his cool after Bills cornerback Tre’Davious White intercepted a pass in his direction. Apparently frustrated with the rookie’s pestering D, Gronkowski hit White after the whistle. Surprisingly, the dirty play did not earn him an ejection, but few were caught off guard by the league’s one-game ban. Gronkowski appealed in an effort to keep himself on the field and potentially save millions of dollars, but it was an uphill battle.
Now that Gronk has officially been ruled out for Monday’s game against Miami, the Patriots may promote Will Tye off of the practice squad to serve as the team’s third tight end. Conversely, they may go out-of-house if they are keen on protecting Tye. If they were to promote Tye for just one game, they’d have to expose him to waivers before re-signing him to the taxi squad.
Giants Reinstate Eli Manning As Starter
It’s official – the Giants are going back to Eli Manning as their starting quarterback, according to NFL.com’s Mike Garafolo (Twitter link). Manning will be under center this weekend as the Giants face the Cowboys in East Rutherford, New Jersey. 
Mired in a lost season, the Giants made a daring move to bench Manning on Sunday in favor of Geno Smith. The decision ended Manning’s streak of 210 consecutive NFL starts and caused an uproar among Giants fans. There’s little doubt that the ensuing controversy sped up the inevitable for coach Ben McAdoo and GM Jerry Reese.
At 2-10, the Giants aren’t playing for much this year, but the outcome of these next four games will help shape the offseason. If Manning plays up to par, it’s conceivable that he could return as the starting QB in 2018, though that might require some healing between the two-time Super Bowl champ and team ownership. Manning remains under contract through next season, but the team must decide whether to keep him before his $5MM roster bonus comes due on March 18.
Manning, 37 in January, has completed 62.5% of his passes with 14 touchdowns against seven interceptions this year. He currently ranks as the 18th best quarterback in the NFL, per Pro Football Focus. For what it’s worth, the advanced metrics have not been a big fan of his work over the last five seasons. In 2011 and 2012, however, he rated as a top five passer in the NFL.
Dan Graziano of ESPN.com (on Twitter) first reported that Manning would be reinstated as the Giants’ starting quarterback.
NFL Suspends Patriots TE Rob Gronkowski
Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski has been suspended for Week 14, the NFL announced. Gronkowski hit Bills cornerback TreDavious White after he intercepted a pass and fell down on his return. The tight end was, surprisingly, not ejected from the game, but he will pay the price for it nonetheless. Gronkowski plans to appeal, Mike Freeman of Bleacher Report (on Twitter) hears. 
The Patriots will be without Gronk when they take on the Dolphins on Monday night. He will be eligible to return for Week 15 when the Pats travel to Pittsburgh to face the Steelers.
In his letter to Gronkowski, NFL Vice President of Football Operations Jon Runyan wrote the following:
“Your actions were not incidental, could have been avoided and placed the opposing player at risk of serious injury. The Competition Committee has clearly expressed its goal of ‘eliminating flagrant hits that have no place in our game.’ Those hits include the play you were involved in yesterday.”
There’s never a good time to lose a top weapon like Gronkowski, but the Patriots are in no real danger of missing the playoffs. At 10-2, they hold a virtually insurmountable lead over Buffalo for the AFC East crown. According to the playoff odds at Football Outsiders, the Patriots have a 99.97% chance of reaching the postseason.
However, the ban will hurt Gronkowski’s wallet. Not only will he miss out on $281K in lost salary, but the missed game may also impact his incentives package. The tight end’s contract includes three different tiers of incentives and he may wind up having to settle for the lowest one rather than the second-ranked tier that he was previously on target for. If that’s the case, then the ban may effectively cost him about $2.3MM.
Dwayne Allen and Jacob Hollister currently stand as the Patriots’ only tight ends on the active roster. Former Giants standout Will Tye is on the practice squad, so he could be in line for a one-week promotion.
Giants Fire GM Jerry Reese
The Giants are now in search of both a new head coach and a general manager. The Giants have fired GM Jerry Reese, according to Aditi Kinkhabwala of NFL.com (on Twitter). 
[RELATED: Giants Fire Ben McAdoo]
There is precedent for head coaches and GMs to be fired on the same day, but not necessarily during the season. In one fell swoop, the Giants have canned coach Ben McAdoo as well as the man who constructed his roster.
“This season has been incredibly disappointing for the organization and our fans, and while it would be ideal to make these kinds of decisions at the conclusion of the season, we simply felt now is the time to prepare for a fresh start,” owner John Mara said in a statement released by the team. “I have great respect for both Jerry and Ben. Jerry has worked tirelessly for this franchise for 23 years. He has always communicated in a straight forward and honest manner.”
Although the Giants have enjoyed great success during Reese’s tenure – including two Super Bowl championships – he has made some perceived blunders in recent years. His timidity in moving up on draft day has left the Giants with some serious busts in the top rounds. This past offseason, he failed to strengthen the Giants’ offensive line even though it was one of the team’s most glaring needs.
Reese has been with the Giants organization since 1994, meaning that he’ll have to find a job elsewhere for the first time in 23 years. Ten years after coming on board as a scout, Reese became the team’s Director of Pro Personnel in 2004. Then, in 2007, he was promoted to GM.
Giants’ assistant general manager Kevin Abrams will take over as GM for the rest of the season, a person with knowledge of team’s moves tells Kinkhabwala (Twitter link). Meanwhile, defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo has been appointed as the team’s new interim head coach.
Giants Fire Ben McAdoo
Giants coach Ben McAdoo has been fired (Twitter link via Ian Rapoport of NFL.com). His dismissal comes in the midst of a disappointing season, but also less than one year after leading his team to the playoffs. 
[RELATED: Giants Fire GM Jerry Reese]
The Giants will install defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo as the team’s interim head coach. Meanwhile, Giants’ assistant general manager Kevin Abrams will serve as the GM for the rest of the season, a person with knowledge of team’s moves tells Aditi Kinkhabwala of NFL.com (Twitter link).
“Steve and I spoke after yesterday’s game in Oakland and agreed to talk again today,” said owner John Mara in a statement released by the team. “Ben, as a first time head coach, continued up until this morning to do everything in his power to give us a chance to win. I know the public perception of both these men is not positive, but within these walls, you could not ask for two better professionals.”
This marks Spagnuolo’s second stint as an NFL head coach. After making a name for himself as the Giants’ DC years ago, he went on to become the head coach of the Rams. Things didn’t go as planned in St. Louis, unfortunately, as his teams went a combined 10-38 in three seasons. While he remains highly respected in coaching circles, it’s fair to wonder if he is the right guy for the Giants’ top job given their defensive struggles this year.
Heading into the season, the Giants believed that they had the talent necessary to contend in the NFC East. Instead, a slew of injuries early in the year – including several in the wide receiver group – hurt them early in the year. The offense slumped without Odell Beckham Jr. and Brandon Marshall, but the front office apparently feels that a lack of leadership was also to blame.
Last week, McAdoo was slammed by fans when Geno Smith was installed as the starter for Sunday’s game over Eli Manning. The decision to give Smith a shot over the franchise hero was not exclusively McAdoo’s, but it seems that he is being made to be the fall guy. Smith had his moments against Oakland, but ownership has decided to clean house after watching the Giants fall to 2-10 on the year.
McAdoo first made a name for himself nationally as Aaron Rodgers‘ position coach in Green Bay. In 2014, he joined Tom Coughlin‘s staff as the offensive coordinator for the Giants. Two years later, the Giants pushed Coughlin out and installed McAdoo as the head coach. At the time, the Giants felt that they were choosing the coach best suited to guide Manning. That wasn’t the case in hindsight, but other teams had serious interest in hiring McAdoo, including the rival Eagles.
Jimmy Smith Out For Season
The Ravens picked up a key win Sunday, keeping their wild-card hopes going strong. But their playoff push will have to unfold without a key performer the rest of the way.
Jimmy Smith will miss the rest of the season after suffering a torn Achilles’ tendon against the Lions, Adam Schefter of ESPN.com tweets. Smith sustained the injury on a non-contact play but had been dealing with Achilles trouble prior to this unfortunate setback.
John Harbaugh confirmed the diagnosis.
The seventh-year cornerback was operating as one of the best players at his position this season, rating as Pro Football Focus’ No. 12 corner coming into Week 13. This obviously isn’t the first time Smith’s encountered injury trouble. He finished last season on IR due to ankle issues, and a foot malady ended his 2014 campaign after eight games.
The Ravens are more prepared to handle a blow like this in 2017 than they were last season, having signed Brandon Carr in March and having drafted Marlon Humphrey in the first round. But neither were having the kind of season Smith was.