Broncos Expected To Sign Brock Osweiler
The Broncos will reunite with Brock Osweiler, agreeing to sign the quarterback the Browns recently released, Mary Kay Cabot of cleveland.com reports (on Twitter).
However, Adam Schefter of ESPN.com reports (on Twitter) the deal is not yet done. But he adds the Broncos hope to sign him, noting there are still details to sort through.
Osweiler would stand to slide into the backup spot behind Trevor Siemian for the time being. Paxton Lynch is expected to miss multiple regular-season games with a shoulder injury. Cabot reports the Browns are still going to be stuck with most of Osweiler’s guaranteed $16MM due this season.
Denver’s Osweiler decision signals Lynch could be out for a while, Troy Renck of Denver7 notes (on Twitter).
This will provide a reunion between Osweiler and the Broncos, obviously, but also with rehired OC Mike McCoy. While Osweiler saw his only relevant Denver game action in Gary Kubiak‘s offense, he worked with McCoy as a rookie in 2012 and developed in a similar system with Adam Gase from 2013-14.
The 26-year-old quarterback’s career has spiraled to a different place compared to March 2016, when he agreed to leave Denver for a four-year, $72MM Texans contract. John Elway, though, made a competitive offer to Osweiler during free agency. But the Texans proposed a better deal, enticing the quarterback to bolt for Houston. Denver would be getting Osweiler back for much cheaper than it was offering in the winter of 2016.
The Texans made a historic trade of Osweiler to Cleveland, having to give up a second-round pick to coax the Browns into taking on his contract.
Osweiler caught the Texans’ eye with a sporadically productive 2015 season, when he came on in relief of Peyton Manning to help the Broncos to the No. 1 seed in the AFC. The former second-round pick completed 62 percent of his passes and led Denver to key wins over the Patriots and Bengals to secure home-field advantage. However, Kubiak’s benching of the 6-foot-7 signal-caller midway through the 2015 regular-season finale was believed to be one of the causes of Osweiler’s exit.
Denver moved on and drafted Lynch in the 2016 first round but will again start Siemian, who was the third-string quarterback behind Manning and Osweiler as a rookie. Bill O’Brien benched Osweiler late last season, and the Browns tried to move his contract for another draft pick throughout the offseason but found no takers. DeShone Kizer won Cleveland’s starting job, and Cody Kessler will be his backup.
It remains to be seen if the Broncos would consider keeping their one-time starter once Lynch recovers, but in waiving preseason success story Kyle Sloter today, the team may merely be eyeing a temporary Osweiler arrangement until its preferred two-quarterback setup can be utilized.
Giants Acquire CB Ross Cockrell
The Giants have acquired cornerback Ross Cockrell from the Steelers in exchange for a conditional 2018 draft pick, Pittsburgh announced.
Cockrell, 26, was a 16-game starter for the first time in his career in 2016, and he played rather well, grading the NFL’s No. 27 cornerback, per Pro Football Focus. However, the Steelers signed free agent cornerback Joe Haden earlier this week, a move that would have pushed Cockrell into a reserve role.
Of course, Cockrell will be a backup with the Giants, as well, as Big Blue boasts one of the more impressive secondaries in the league. New York will start Eli Apple, Janoris Jenkins, and Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie in its nickel package, making Cockrell one of the NFL’s best fourth cornerbacks.
A restricted free agent, Cockrell will earn $1.797MM in 2017 before hitting the open market next spring.
Vikings To Release OL Alex Boone
In a surprising development, the Vikings will release starting offensive guard Alex Boone, according to Tom Pelissero and Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (Twitter link).
Boone was one of Minnesota’s most prized free agent additions just one year ago, as the former 49ers lineman agreed to a four-year, $26.8MM deal with the Vikings last spring. That deal contained $10MM in guaranteed money, a high price to pay for only a single season of work.
Boone’s contract does not contain offsets, meaning Minnesota won’t gain any salary relief if he signs elsewhere (Twitter link). The Vikings asked Boone to accept a paycut, but he refused, tweets Ben Goessling of the Star Tribune. Minnesota will take on $3.4MM in immediate dead money by cutting Boone.
A 14-game starter for the Vikings in 2016, Boone ranked as the NFL’s No. 37 guard among 75 qualifiers, per Pro Football Focus, which assigned him high marks for his pass blocking but poor scores in the run game. With Boone gone, Minnesota figures to turn the interior of its offensive line over to some combination of Joe Berger, Nick Easton, and rookie Pat Elflein.
Chargers To Cut Josh Lambo
The Chargers will cut third-year kicker Josh Lambo and give his job to undrafted rookie Younghoe Koo, Adam Schefter of ESPN.com tweets.
Lambo played in all 16 games for the Bolts over the past two seasons, but the team will move on and go with Koo — a South Korean talent who kicked at Georgia Southern before signing with the Chargers in May.
The Bolts are the latest AFC team to award their kicking job to the lower-profile competitor, doing so shortly after the Texans released Nick Novak — whom Lambo succeeded with the Chargers in 2015 — in favor of a second-year kicker.
Lambo made 26 of 32 field goal tries last season. He’s missed eight extra point attempts in his two-year run, however, misfiring on four post-touchdown efforts in each season. Koo only served as Georgia Southern’s full-time kicker in one season, 2016, but made 95 percent of his tries (19-for-20) during his final college campaign.
Bears Likely To Release Lamarr Houston
The Bears will place edge rusher Lamarr Houston on injured reserve with the intention of reaching an injury settlement, tweets Tom Pelissero of USA Today.
Houston, who has torn his ACL twice in the past, doesn’t have any structural damage to his knee this time around, per Pelissero, but he’ll go on IR nonetheless. An injury settlement would pay Houston for the time it takes him to recover, and allow him to sign with any club when the settlement timetable expires.
Long an underrated player with the Raiders, Houston hasn’t been able to contribute much after inking a five-year, $35MM contract with Chicago prior to the 2014 campaign. In three seasons with the Bears, the 30-year-old Houston has appeared in just 26 of a possible 48 games and made only 10 starts. He’s managed nine total sacks in Chicago, but eight of those came in 2015, his only healthy year with the Bears.
Chicago will create $6MM in cap room by releasing Houston, but it will also incur nearly $1MM in dead money in each of the next two seasons.
Mike Williams To Come Off PUP List
The Chargers will take Mike Williams off the PUP list in advance of the regular season, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets.
A lingering back injury had the first-round pick’s rookie season in doubt, but this move signals the Chargers believe he will be ready to contribute early in the season. Williams remaining on the PUP list would have shelved him for the first six weeks of the Bolts’ season.
The most recent news on the former Clemson star indicated a possible October return was in the cards, and Rapoport hears (Twitter link) that’s still the tentative plan. The herniated disc Williams suffered is still not believed to require surgery; he’s been rehabbing it for several weeks now.
Williams missed Los Angeles’ training camp and did not play during the preseason. The No. 7 overall pick returning would strengthen a Chargers offense that’s also getting Keenan Allen back. Allen, Mike Williams, Tyrell Williams and Travis Benjamin would quietly form one of the league’s most intriguing wideout contingents — one that could be the deepest of Philip Rivers‘ career.
49ers To Release Jeremy Kerley
Having signed a 49ers contract set to run through the 2019 season, Jeremy Kerley won’t make into Year 1 of that agreement. The team will release the veteran wide receiver, Matt Maiocco of CSNBayArea.com reports (on Twitter).
San Francisco signed Kerley to a three-year, $10.5MM deal, which included a $1.7MM signing bonus, in March. The seventh-year pass-catcher led the 49ers with 667 receiving yards last season.
The 49ers will absorb a $3.5MM dead-money hit for this transaction. But the team is not exactly hurting for cap space, entering Saturday holding a league most $69.3MM.
The rebuilding franchise followed up the Kerley re-up with signings of Pierre Garcon and Marquise Goodwin, adding talent to the receiving corps. The 49ers also drafted Trent Taylor in the fifth round.
This release will send Kerley back into free agency, where he resided when the Lions signed him in 2016. The former Jet’s bounce-back season in San Francisco figures to put him on the free agency radar. He won’t turn 29 until November.
Patriots, Colts Swap QB Jacoby Brissett, WR Phillip Dorsett
The Patriots and Colts have completed an unexpected swap. According to ESPN’s Field Yates (via Twitter), the Patriots are dealing quarterback Jacoby Brissett to Indy for wideout Phillip Dorsett.
There were whispers that Brissett might not make the Patriots 53-man roster, despite the fact they used a third-round pick on the Florida/North Carolina State product in 2016. The 24-year-old got an opportunity to play during his rookie campaign, starting a pair of games for the depleted Patriots. He ultimately completed 61.8 percent of his passes for 400 yards, no touchdowns, and no interceptions. He also added 83 rushing yards and one score on 16 attempts.
Brissett’s season ended early after he underwent thumb surgery, and he was subsequently placed on injured reserve. However, the second-year player looked fully recovered this preseason, and he threw for 341 yards and four scores during the team’s finale. While Bill Belichick has carried three quarterbacks in past seasons, he traditionally likes to carry a single backup behind starter Tom Brady. With Jimmy Garoppolo healthy and ready to go, the Patriots clearly wanted to carry an extra player elsewhere.
Now, Brissett could find himself thrust into a starting role with the Colts. With Andrew Luck‘s status up in the air for the team’s season opener, Indianapolis might view Brissett as a better starting option than Scott Tolzien and Stephen Morris.
Dorsett had spent his entire two-year career in Indy after being selected in the first round of the 2015 draft. He didn’t live up to his draft position during his rookie campaign, but the 24-year-old showed signs of improvement during his second year in the league. Dorsett ultimately appeared in 15 games (seven starts) last season, hauling in 33 receptions for 528 yards and two touchdowns.
With Julian Edelman out for the season, Dorsett will provide the Patriots with an experienced replacement. Meanwhile, the 24-year-old’s status with the Colts was up in the air. Roster Resource listed Dorsett as the team’s fourth wideout behind T.Y. Hilton, Donte Moncrief, and Chester Rogers. The team is also rostering receivers Kamar Aiken, JoJo Natson, and Quan Bray.
Eagles Extend Chance Warmack
The Eagles signed Chance Warmack in March but have seen enough from the veteran lineman to extend the arrangement past 2017.
Warmack signed a one-year extension through 2018 on Saturday, the team announced. The fifth-year player figures to join Stefen Wisniewski as experienced depth on Philly’s front.
A former Titans first-round pick, Warmack signed a one-year, $1.51MM deal with the Eagles at free agency’s outset. He did so after suffering a hand injury that shelved him for all but two games in 2016. The former well-regarded Alabama prospect’s Eagles agreement profiled as a value-re-establishing pact, but it looks like both sides have enjoyed the arrangement they’ll see fit to continue it.
Although Isaac Seumalo may well open the season as the Eagles’ starting left guard, Warmack profiles as quality insurance and an option in case the second-year player falters. Warmack has started in each of the 48 games he’s played.
Dolphins, T.J. McDonald Agree To Extension
The Dolphins and safety T.J. McDonald have agreed to a four-year, $24MM extension, as James Walker of ESPN.com tweets. The deal includes $10MM in guaranteed money. 
The Dolphins won’t get to see McDonald in live action for a while thanks to his eight-game suspension, but they have been floored by his performance thus far in the summer. He originally came to Miami on a low-risk, one-year deal, but the Fins have seen enough to warrant giving him a multi-year deal at a starter’s salary.
McDonald was a longtime starter for the Rams, but L.A. showed little interest in retaining him. His suspension didn’t come down until the end of March, but it seems that the Rams had some sense of the punishment that was coming his way for the DUI arrest and drug charges.
In 2016, McDonald had 62 total tackles, two interceptions, one sack, and six passes defensed. He graded out as as Pro Football Focus’ 58th best safety in the NFL last season. The Fins clearly disagree with the advanced metrics and see him as a much stronger player.
When McDonald is in uniform, the Dolphins will have a strong safety combo between him and Reshad Jones. In the interim, Jones will be paired with Nate Allen.