This Date In Transactions History: Bengals Cut Terrelle Pryor
On this date in 2015, the Bengals released quarterback Terrelle Pryor. After four unremarkable years in the NFL, the move didn’t mean much at the time. However, the release changed the trajectory of the former Ohio State star’s career. 
The late Al Davis brought Pryor into the league after selecting him in the third round of the 2011 supplemental draft. Pryor didn’t play much in his first two seasons and struggled on the whole in 2013, although there were some impressive moments. Pryor was traded to the Seahawks in 2014, but was cut prior to Week 1 and wound up sitting out of football altogether that year. In January of 2015, the Chiefs signed Pryor, but released him in May. The Bengals scooped him up, but cut him from the roster five weeks later on June 18, 2015.
Clearly, Pryor’s athleticism could not carry him at the quarterback position in the NFL, but he was reluctant to give up on his lifelong dream. Prior to signing with the Bengals, Pryor declared, “If I can’t play quarterback, I can’t play football.” But, after his release from the Bengals, agent Drew Rosenhaus informed teams that Pryor was willing to line up as a wide receiver.
Ohio’s other team – the Browns – moved quickly to claim Pryor off of waivers. Pryor didn’t see much time on the field in that season, but things changed when the Browns shifted him to wide receiver prior to the 2016 offseason. The Browns were optimistic about what the 6’4″, 228-pound athlete could do at his new position, but few expected him to finish the season with 77 catches for 1,007 yards and four touchdowns.
Pryor parlayed his huge season into a one-year, $6MM free agent deal with the Redskins, but he was held back by an ankle injury and did little in D.C. He tried to regain his footing with the Jets last year, but injuries got the best of him once again. After his midseason release, his deal with the Bills amounted to nothing more than a cup of coffee.
Pryor resurfaced again in May when he signed a veteran’s minimum contract with the Jaguars. The former quarterback could have an opportunity to stand out in Jacksonville’s lackluster WR group, if he’s healthy.
Extension Candidate: Julio Jones
After skipping voluntary OTAs, Falcons star Julio Jones reported for the team’s mandatory minicamp earlier this month. There’s clear mutual interest in a new deal, but Jones’ situation is trickier than most. 
Jones is one of the league’s most accomplished wide receivers, but figuring out a multi-year extension for a 30-year-old skill player is never easy. He’s topped 1,400 receiving yards in each of the last five seasons, but it’s hard to bank on his speed holding up across multiple seasons.
Still, Jones led the league with 1,677 receiving yards in 2018 and continues to draw double coverage from overwhelmed defenses on a regular basis. And, while his contract has two more years to go, the Falcons cannot risk a rift – or a holdout – with their most potent offensive weapon.
A fresh deal for Jones would likely take him through the end of his career, but what would such an add-on look like? Currently, Jones’ salary has him ranked just 12th among wide receivers with an average annual value of $14.25MM. Making Jones No. 1 in AAV would mean vaulting him ahead of Antonio Brown‘s $19.8MM/year and Odell Beckham Jr.’s $18MM/year, which should be doable for the Falcons. However, Jones is unlikely to match the length of OBJ’s contract or, more importantly, the guarantees.
Beckham’s five-year, $90MM extension granted him $65MM in total guarantees and a whopping $41MM guaranteed at signing. Jones, who is already under contract through his age 32 season, is probably looking at no more than an additional three years. From there, you can expect a hefty signing bonus, and a decent sum scheduled for Year One of the new deal, but it’s unrealistic to expect the Falcons to ensure $41MM to the aging superstar.
So, how can the two sides reach an accord that is satisfactory for everyone? Recently, Joel Corry of CBSSports.com suggested the following:
- Length: Three years
- New money total: $60MM (Bringing total remaining value to $81MM over five years)
- Signing bonus: $25MM
- Guaranteed money: $50.526MM
- Fully guaranteed at signing: $37.526MM
Ultimately, that amounts to a $20MM average annual value, allowing Jones to edge Brown and OBJ in that category. Meanwhile, the Falcons preserve some flexibility, as Jones’ total guarantees would be $14.475MM shy of OBJ’s.
A new deal for Jones and the Falcons seems like an inevitability, but it will be interesting to see when they get it done, how they get it done, and what the cashflow of the extension looks like.
Contract Guarantees
Unlike in the NBA or MLB, players’ contracts in the NFL aren’t guaranteed by default. Typically, an NFL player will receive at least some guaranteed money when he signs a deal, but that money often comes in the form of contract bonuses, and in particular signing bonuses. While a player’s base salary, or P5 salary, will occasionally be guaranteed for a season or two, more often than not future seasons in that contract are fully non-guaranteed, allowing the team to escape the contract without much of a cap hit, particularly if the player’s bonus money was limited. 
Take Vontaze Burfict for example. The linebacker inked a three-year, $33MM extension with the Bengals in 2017 with just $3.3MM in total guarantees. Rather than carrying Burfict at a $7.3MM cap figure in 2018, the Bengals released him in March, leaving just $1.8MM in dead money against $5.5MM in savings. At the time of signing, Burfict was ticketed to be the highest-paid 4-3 outside linebacker in the game on a per-year basis, but the Bengals were able to pull the plug and pay out only a portion of that commitment.
Signing bonuses, which are generally paid in one or two lump sums, are fairly straightforward forms of guaranteed money, but not all guaranteed money is created equal. We saw a prime example of that when Colin Kaepernick inked a long-term extension with the 49ers in 2014. When word of the agreement first broke, Kaepernick’s guaranteed money was reported to exceed $60MM+. However, upon learning the full details of the contract, we found that only about $13MM of that total was fully guaranteed, whereas another $48MM+ was guaranteed for injury only.
An injury-only guarantee is one of three types of guarantees that a team can write into a player’s contract that apply to his base salary in a given season. These guarantees are as follows:
- Guaranteed for injury: If a player suffers a football injury and cannot pass a physical administered by the team doctor, he would still be entitled to his full salary if the team were to release him. For a player like Kaepernick who has several future seasons guaranteed for injury only, it would take a career-ending injury for the Niners to be on the hook for all those future injury-only guaranteed salaries.
- Guaranteed for skill: The most subjective of the three, a player whose talents have significantly declined and is released for skill-related reasons (ie. another player beats him out for a roster spot) would still be entitled to his full salary if that salary is guaranteed for skill.
- Guaranteed for cap purposes: This form of guarantee ensures that a player who is released due to his team’s need to create cap room will still be entitled to his full salary.
A team can use a combination of these forms of guarantees, making a player’s salary guaranteed for injury and skill, for example. In the event that a player’s salary is guaranteed for injury, skill, and cap purposes, we’d refer to that salary as fully guaranteed, since the player would be eligible for his full salary regardless of the reason for his release.
As is the case with prorated bonuses, all future guaranteed salary owed to a player by a team is considered “dead money” and would accelerate onto the club’s current cap in the event of his release (over one or two years, depending on whether the cut happens after June 1). For the most part though, beyond the first year or two of a deal, that prorated signing bonus money is the only guaranteed figure remaining on the contract, which is why teams often don’t have qualms about releasing a player in the later years of his deal.
Note: This is a PFR Glossary entry. Our glossary posts will explain specific rules relating to free agency, trades, or other aspects of the NFL’s Collective Bargaining Agreement. Information from Over the Cap was used in the creation of this post. This post was modified from an early entry by editor emeritus Luke Adams.
Poll: Which New Head Coach Will Experience Least 2019 Success?
This year, eight NFL teams decided to make a head coaching change. The teams that hire a new head coach are rarely in a position to win – these are not gorgeous new condos, these are fixer-uppers with creaky floorboards and cobweb-filled basements. 
As a quick reminder, these are the NFL’s new head coaches for the 2019 season:
- Arizona Cardinals: Hired Kliff Kingsbury to replace Steve Wilks.
- Cincinnati Bengals: Hired Zac Taylor to replace Marvin Lewis.
- Cleveland Browns: Hired Freddie Kitchens to replace Hue Jackson / Gregg Williams(interim).
- Denver Broncos: Hired Vic Fangio to replace Vance Joseph.
- Green Bay Packers: Hired Matt LaFleur to replace Mike McCarthy / Joe Philbin (interim).
- Miami Dolphins: Hired Brian Flores to replace Adam Gase.
- New York Jets: Hired Adam Gase to replace Todd Bowles.
- Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Hired Bruce Arians to replace Dirk Koetter.
Recently, we asked PFR readers to choose which coach would have the most success in 2019, and Kitchens got the vote of confidence with LaFleur as the runner-up. Now, we want to know which coach you believe will have the least success in 2019.
Kingsbury finished at the bottom of the aforementioned poll, which is understandable given the Cardinals’ last-place finish in 2018 and Kingsbury’s lack of NFL experience. However, one has to think that Flores has his work cut out for him in Miami as well – the Dolphins are clearly rebuilding and are not in a position to win in 2019.
Which of these eight coaches do you think will have the toughest 2019? Click below to cast your vote (link for app users) and back up your choice in the comment section.
This Date In Transactions History: Colts Extend Robert Mathis
The Colts in the 2000s centered their team around their passing attack and pass defense. The least likely member of this cornerstone group became a long-term Colt on this day 13 years ago.
On June 16, 2006, the Colts ensured Robert Mathis, taken with a fifth-round pick out of Alabama A&M three years prior, would play in Indianapolis for many years. They signed the blossoming sack artist to a five-year, $30MM extension (with an $8.1MM signing bonus), which at the time made him one of the top-10 highest-paid defensive ends. That year changed the Colts’ trajectory, and Mathis played a key role in it.
From 2003-05, the Colts deployed Mathis as an off-the-bench defensive end. But he racked up 25.5 sacks (and 17 forced fumbles) in his first three seasons, doing so despite starting only one game. Raheem Brock started as Dwight Freeney‘s counterpart during each of Mathis’ first three seasons, but the Colts moved him to defensive tackle in 2006. Brock remained a Colts fixture up front until 2009, but Freeney and Mathis became the pass rush’s top bastions beginning with Mathis’ ’06 extension.
Interestingly, Mathis received his new deal before Freeney. But the latter’s rookie contract contained more years, and much more money, allowing the Colts to table that extension until 2007. (Freeney signed a six-year, $72MM contract in ’07.) Both players were full-timers for the Colts for the next seven seasons, the first of which doubling as the franchise’s second Super Bowl championship (and first in Indianapolis). In his age-25 season, Mathis led the Super Bowl champion Colts edition in sacks.
Mathis, Freeney, Peyton Manning, Marvin Harrison, Reggie Wayne and Jeff Saturday became the linchpins of that Colts era, with the franchise allowing Edgerrin James (franchise-tagged for $8MM in 2005) to walk just prior to the Mathis extension. The Division I-FCS product outlasted all of his peers in Indianapolis.
Although Mathis did not make a Pro Bowl until 2008, the decision to extend him worked out marvelously for the Colts. Mathis went on to play 11 more seasons with the franchise, his 193 games sitting second only to cornerback Eugene Daniel in the Colts’ Indianapolis history. Mathis’ 123 sacks are a Colts record; his 54 forced fumbles are the most of any player in the past 25 years.
PFR Originals: 6/9/19 – 6/16/19
The original content and analysis produced by the PFR staff during the past week:
- PFR’s “This Date in Transactions History” series saw four more chapters added.
- Zach Links discussed the Dolphins’ 2012 move to bring in Chad Johnson, who was then coming off a season with the 2011 AFC champion Patriots. Unfortunately, a legal issue ended what turned out to be a poor fit, and that year’s Hard Knocks captured the team cutting the cord on the former Pro Bowler.
- Ten years ago this week, the Falcons concluded the Michael Vick era. Zach recalled the Falcons’ plan trade Vick following his two-year prison term. But no team wanted to take on Vick’s massive contract, and the Falcons ended up cutting him.
- The first of the Peyton Manning-led Broncos’ Super Bowl teams made a change at running back late in the 2013 offseason, and Zach discussed the team’s jettisoning of Willis McGahee after two years in Denver. Knowshon Moreno went on to have a strong season for the AFC champions, while McGahee ended up in Cleveland for what turned out to be his final season.
- I discussed another two-plus-year Bronco, revisiting the Josh McDaniels-led team’s decision to bring in Brandon Lloyd in 2009. Lloyd ended up producing a surprisingly strong 2010 season, leading the league in receiving yards while also helping the Broncos assemble part of their Super Bowl rosters.
- This draft produced some unconventional quarterback choices near the top, and Zach asked the PFR community which of this year’s top-10 picks has the biggest bust potential. Unsurprisingly, the two quarterbacks selected — Kyler Murray and Daniel Jones — lead the way so far.
- A fourth of the league’s teams replaced their coach in 2019, and Dallas Robinson asked which new leader was in position to oversee the best season. Despite Freddie Kitchens‘ inexperience, PFR readers believe the new Browns HC will finish well. The Packers’ Matt LaFleur garnered strong support as well.
- With the Texans’ GM search hitting a wall, potentially creating another Patriots rival after the Nick Caserio saga, Rory Parks asked the PFR readership whom they believe the team will end up hiring. Interestingly, many readers believe the Texans will not end up replacing Brian Gaine this year.
Poll: Who Will Texans Hire As Their Next GM?
The NFL news cycle over the past few weeks has been largely dominated by surprise GM vacancies, and while the Jets filled their opening with Joe Douglas, who has quickly generated a great deal of excitement in New York, the Texans are still looking for their next GM.
Of course, the club had zeroed in on Patriots director of player personnel Nick Caserio, but Houston abandoned its pursuit shortly after New England filed tampering charges against the Texans. Houston may have been successful if it had elected to fight those charges and the provisions in Caserio’s contract with the Patriots that may prohibit him from interviewing with other clubs, but it chose to take the path of least resistance.
So where do the Texans go from here? Aside from Caserio, the only other candidates that Houston has definitely expressed interest in are former Browns GM Ray Farmer and former Lions GM Martin Mayhew, both of whom have already interviewed with the club. However, neither one seems like a home run hire.
Farmer’s two years as Cleveland’s top exec (2014-15) did not do much to inspire confidence, as he generally failed in both free agency and the draft. Some of his draft picks (Joel Bitonio) and free agent signings (Andrew Hawkins, Josh McCown) did work out. But he also handed $9MM in guaranteed money to receiver Dwayne Bowe — who had five catches in his first and only year with Cleveland — and used first-round picks on Johnny Manziel and Justin Gilbert.
Mayhew, currently the 49ers’ vice president of player personnel, had his ups and downs in Detroit, but he did construct several playoff rosters — not an easy thing to do for Lions’ GMs — and he remains well-respected in front office circles. If the Texans’ choice ultimately comes down to Farmer and Mayhew, Mayhew would appear to be the superior candidate.
Other names that have been floated as potential targets include Reggie McKenzie and Scott Pioli. McKenzie enjoyed some success as the Raiders’ GM for seven years — including an executive of the year award in 2016 — and he currently serves as a senior personnel executive with the Dolphins. His ouster from Oakland had more to do with the club forcing him to cede most of his authority to head coach Jon Gruden than anything else, and there has been plenty of speculation that he could return to the GM ranks at some point.
Pioli, meanwhile, recently stepped down from his post as Falcons assistant GM, and he said he did so simply to “pursue other opportunities.” At the time, the Jets’ GM job had just come open, though Pioli was never named as a candidate for that position. He served as the Chiefs’ general manager from 2009-12, which was a mostly forgettable stretch of time in Kansas City franchise history, but he does have over 20 years of front office experience.
Although the Texans were interested in Patriots director of college scouting Monti Ossenfort when they were looking for a GM in 2018, New England denied the club’s interview request at that time. Houston did not request an interview with Ossenfort in 2019, and given the Caserio debacle, it would be quite surprising if they reversed course. In fact, the Texans may not hire a GM at all this year.
So how do you think this situation will be resolved? Let us know whom you think the Texans will name as their GM in 2019 (if anyone), and feel free to explain your thoughts in the comment section.
This Date In Transactions History: Broncos Sign Brandon Lloyd
While Josh McDaniels‘ stint in Denver is not remembered fondly, one of the fliers the coach/de facto GM took during his tumultuous tenure turned out to pay big dividends. Ten years ago today, the Broncos signed wide receiver Brandon Lloyd. This led to one of the more randomly great receiving seasons in modern NFL history.
After stays as a starter with the 49ers, Redskins and Bears between 2003-08, Lloyd signed a one-year pact with the Broncos on June 15, 2009. The deal paid him less than $700K. However, the Broncos used the ’09 season as an evaluation period for the former fourth-rounder. Brandon Marshall, Eddie Royal, Jabar Gaffney and Brandon Stokley resided on the ’09 Broncos, who deactivated Lloyd for 14 games. But their 2010 team relied on him heavily.
McDaniels kept Lloyd in Denver via multiyear deal worth more than $2MM in 2010. Although the Broncos stumbled to one of the worst seasons in franchise history, a 4-12 campaign that included McDaniels’ midseason firing, Lloyd blew up for one of the organization’s greatest receiving showings. After an eight-catch 2009, Lloyd produced 77 receptions, 1,448 yards and 11 touchdowns. That yardage total not only led the NFL by a fairly healthy margin, it remains the third-highest single-season figure in Broncos history — trailing only Demaryius Thomas (2014) and Rod Smith (2001). Thomas and Eric Decker took a backseat to Lloyd as rookies.
The then-29-year-old wideout’s showing with Kyle Orton and Tim Tebow at that offense’s controls — after the Broncos had parted ways with Marshall and Stokley — earned Pro Bowl acclaim. But less than a year later, the Broncos traded Lloyd to the Rams. A contract dispute, and the team’s Tebow-based shift to one of the more run-centric offenses in recent NFL annals a year later, led to Lloyd’s midseason departure.
Both sides benefited from the exit. Thomas and Decker helped attract Peyton Manning to Denver in 2012, and Lloyd signed a three-year, $12MM deal with the Patriots (who had recently rehired McDaniels) that year. Lloyd, who recorded one 1,000-yard receiving season in 11 NFL campaigns, was the Patriots’ second-leading receiver in 2012 but was released the following offseason.
The conditional pick the Broncos received from the Rams turned into a 2012 fifth-rounder, which became Malik Jackson. The defensive lineman started in both Super Bowl XLVIII and Super Bowl 50 and remains a well-regarded interior presence eight years into his career.
Poll: Which New Head Coach Will Experience Most 2019 Success?
Coaching staff turnover was abundant this offseason, but most of that change occurred at the assistant level: while there were 28 instances of alteration among offensive and defensive coordinators, only eight new head coaches will be leading teams in 2019, a number that fits in nicely with yearly averages. Naturally, most of these eight new HCs are taking over clubs that are in something of a rebuilding phase, as no club that made the postseason in 2018 decided to make a change at the top.
With that in mind, we’d like to ask PFR readers which new head coach will experience the most success during the upcoming campaign? While we aren’t solely asking about record (the Dolphins could win five games and consider that a success, for example), we’re looking mostly at wins and losses.
Here’s a refresher on the NFL’s new head coaches:
- Arizona Cardinals: Hired Kliff Kingsbury to replace Steve Wilks.
- Cincinnati Bengals: Hired Zac Taylor to replace Marvin Lewis.
- Cleveland Browns: Hired Freddie Kitchens to replace Hue Jackson / Gregg Williams(interim).
- Denver Broncos: Hired Vic Fangio to replace Vance Joseph.
- Green Bay Packers: Hired Matt LaFleur to replace Mike McCarthy / Joe Philbin (interim).
- Miami Dolphins: Hired Brian Flores to replace Adam Gase.
- New York Jets: Hired Adam Gase to replace Todd Bowles.
- Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Hired Bruce Arians to replace Dirk Koetter.
In the AFC, Taylor will not only lead an extremely young coaching staff in Cincinnati, but hope bringing the Rams’ offense to the Queen City leads to positive results. Kitchens and the Browns will enter the 2019 season with extremely high expectations, and he has the benefit of experienced coordinators — Todd Monken and Steve Wilks — on each side of the ball. In South Beach, Flores will attempt to change the Dolphins’ culture as the club embarks on a potentially multi-season rebuild. Miami’s prior coach, Gase, is now in New York where he’ll be tasked with developing second-year quarterback Sam Darnold.
Moving to the NFC, Kingsbury is probably the most intriguing NFL head coaching hire in several years, and all eyes will be on the desert as he meshes his Air Raid offense with No. 1 overall selection Kyler Murray. LaFleur comes to Green Bay with only one season of play-calling experience under his belt, but Packers fans won’t be happy with a step back while Aaron Rodgers is still under center. And in Tampa Bay, Arians will add his “no risk it, no biscuit” mantra to an offense that already loved to throw deep in 2018.
So, who do you like? Which of these coaches will post the most successful season in 2018? (Link for app users).
This Date In Transactions History: Broncos Release Willis McGahee
In the summer of 2011, the Ravens released Willis McGahee in an effort to save cap space. Days later, the Broncos scooped him up to provide to starter Knowshon Moreno. It proved to be a wise decision, as Moreno went down with an injury in the very first game of the season. 
From there, McGahee took off. He topped 100 rushing yards in the team’s Week 2 win against the Bengals, torched the Packers for 103 yards off of just 15 carries in Week 4, and nearly set a new career high with 163 rushing yards against the Raiders in November. McGahee finished out the year with 1,199 rushing yards with an average of 4.8 yards per tote.
With that, the Broncos seemingly had their new No. 1 running back in 2012, the year of Peyton Manning‘s arrival. Unfortunately, things did not go according to plan for McGahee. After a solid first half to the season, a helmet-to-knee hit from Quentin Jammer in November resulted in a torn MCL and an early end to his campaign.
From there, Moreno regained his spot as the team’s top RB and, on this date in 2013, McGahee was released by the Broncos. Sadly, McGahee was unable to return to his old form after the release. McGahee hooked on with the Browns after they traded Trent Richardson to the Colts, but he averaged just 2.7 yards per carry and ran for 377 yards in his 12 games, both career lows. After that, it was curtains for the former first-round pick and University of Miami star.
McGahee had an up-and-down career in the NFL, but he left the game with two Pro Bowl selections and four seasons with upwards of 1,100 rushing yards.