Dorial Green-Beckham Arrested
Former Eagles and Titans wide receiver Dorial Green-Beckham was arrested on a felony drug possession charge on Wednesday, according to TMZ Sports. Green-Beckham has not been on the NFL radar since being released by the Eagles in the summer of 2017 and this latest incident will surely be another barrier between him and the league. 
[RELATED: Patriots’ Josh Gordon Facing Indefinite Ban]
Police were called to a residence and found Green-Beckham attempting to flee through a window when they arrived. When he was captured, cops found one pound of marijuana in his backpack along with several vials of THC oil. Further inspection of the premises uncovered seven more pounds of marijuana, though authorities believe that weed belongs to someone else.
In high school, DGB was one of the country’s most sought after recruits. In the NFL, however, he washed out after two disappointing seasons. Green-Beckham’s lack of work ethic led the Titans to ship him out just one year after the organization used a second round pick on him. Then, his stint with the Eagles ended after less than one calendar year. During his lone season in Philly, the 24-year-old hauled in 36 receptions for 392 yards and two touchdowns.
Notable 2019 Pro Bowl Incentives/Escalators
The NFL announced the 2018 Pro Bowl rosters earlier on Wednesday, and aside from determining which players will spend a week in Orlando early next year, the rosters also dictate several important bonuses and/or contract escalators for individual players. Former NFL agent and current CBSSports.com contributor Joel Corry has rounded up the notable incentives earned, and we’ll pass those along below. As Corry notes (Twitter link), only first ballot Pro Bowlers who actually participate in the game (unless injured or playing in the Super Bowl) are in bonuses, which are typically paid out by the end of March.
Here are the notable Pro Bowl bonuses and escalators that were netted last evening (all links to Corry’s Twitter):
Bonuses
- Ravens S Eric Weddle, $1MM; requires Baltimore in playoffs (link): For the second consecutive season, Weddle’s bonus will ride on the ability of the Ravens to earn a postseason berth. Baltimore is one of several teams in the mix for the AFC’s No. 6 seed, but FiveThirtyEight gives the club only a 41% chance of actually making the playoffs. Weddle, who will be entering his age-34 campaign in 2019, could potentially retire or be released before next season starts.
- Chargers C Mike Pouncey, $500K (link): Pouncey somewhat surprisingly earned a Pro Bowl nod alongside his brother, Steelers center Maurkice Pouncey. Mike Pouncey hasn’t been a terrible player by any means, but Raiders center Rodney Hudson has undoubtedly been better. Signed to a two-year contract this offeason, Pouncey is due a $6MM base salary and a $1.5MM roster bonus in 2019.
- Vikings WR Adam Thielen, $500K (link): Thielen, notably, signed arguably the most team-friendly contract in the NFL in March 2017, a three-year deal that’s worth less than $20MM. By picking up a half-million dollar Pro Bowl bonus, Thielen will collect a bit more cash, but he’s still vastly underpaid. Second in the league in receptions, Thielen will count just $11.5MM total on the Vikings’ salary cap over the next two years.
- Eagles TE Zach Ertz, $100K (link): Ertz will also see his base salaries increase by $250K in each of the 2019, 2020, and 2021 campaigns. He’s already surpassed career-highs in both receptions and yardage, and could top his career-high of eight touchdowns with a strong showing down the stretch.
Escalators
- Chiefs T Eric Fisher, $500K base salary increase in 2019 (link): While Fisher hasn’t necessarily lived up to his status as a former No. 1 overall pick, he has played nearly every offensive snap for the Chiefs over the past six years while offering respectable play. He’s signed through 2021 as part of a four-year, $48MM extension he inked in 2016. Kansas City’s best tackle — Mitchell Schwartz, who mans the right side — has somehow been named second-team All-Pro for three consecutive years without ever being given a Pro Bowl nod.
- Lions CB Darius Slay, $550K base salary increase in 2019 (link): Slay needed to reach two of three thresholds in order to earn his escalator. While he hasn’t yet met a five interception requirement, he was named to the Pro Bowl and has played on at least 80% of the Lions’ defensive snaps.
- Packers WR Davante Adams, $250K base salary increase in 2019 (link): While he’s not quite at Thielen-level in terms of selling himself short, Adams arguably signed his extension with the Packers well before he needed to. Adams took a four-year, $58MM deal in December 2017, just months before he was scheduled to hit the open market. He’s vaunted to true No. 1 wideout status this year, but he’s just the NFL’s ninth-highest-paid wideout in terms of annual average.
- Eagles G Brandon Brooks, $250K base salary increase in 2019-2020 (link): Brooks, 29, is quietly one of the best offensive linemen in the NFL, and Pro Football Focus currently grades him as the No. 5 guard in the league. He’s signed through the 2020 season, although his contract does contain two void years in 2021-22 that are in place only for salary cap purposes.
Eagles Not Placing Carson Wentz On IR
Providing an interesting flashback, Nick Foles engineered the Eagles to a big win Sunday night. He is going to be Philadelphia’s starter next week against the Texans, Doug Pederson said Monday. However, unlike last season, Carson Wentz is not headed to IR after what is viewed as a season-ending injury, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets. The third-year starter is expected to miss the rest of the season because of a back problem, so an IR trip would make sense — unless the Eagles want Wentz around in case he can make a surprise recovery or be an emergency quarterback. Pederson added that the Eagles will not put Wentz in harm’s way. The Eagles remain committed to the former No. 2 overall pick, who is eligible for an extension at season’s end. Foles, though, has started during the team’s biggest wins the past two years and will have another chance to build a unique free agency case. Foles’ contract expires after the season.
- Landon Collins is rehabbing an injury that is expected to impact him well into the offseason. The Giants safety said he risked further damage to his injured shoulder by continuing to play, though he said during an appearance on The Michael Kay Show (via ESPN.com’s Jordan Raanan, on Twitter) he would have considered staying on the field if the Giants had beaten the Eagles to stay in a more realistic playoff pursuit at the time. Collins’ contract expires soon, and the Giants are not believed to have engaged in extension talks with him yet. Collins, though, would prefer to stay in New York and is, as of now, expecting to return (Twitter link via Raanan). The franchise tag — expected to be worth approximately $11.2MM for safeties — is likely, Raanan adds.
NFL Workout Updates: 12/17/18
Here is the latest from the workout circuit, all links going to NFL reporter Howard Balzer’s Twitter account (unless otherwise noted)
Jacksonville Jaguars
- K Marshall Koehn, LB Christian Kuntz, P Brock Miller, QB Mike Reilly, P Ryan Santoso, Caleb Sturgis, P Shane Tripucka (link)
Minnesota Vikings
- K Ty Long (CFL tryout), LB Alex Singleton (CFL tryout) (link)
New York Jets
- LB Jameer Thurman (CFL tryout), LB James Vaughters (CFL tryout) (link)
Philadelphia Eagles
- T Tyreek Burwell, T Taylor Hart, G Kaleb Johnson, T William Poehls (link)
Eagles Remain Committed To Carson Wentz; Nick Foles Likely To Hit Free Agency
For the second year in a row, the Eagles will ask Nick Foles to lead them to the promised land after watching starting signal-caller Carson Wentz succumb to a season-ending injury. Foles will have a tall order, as he goes against the Rams in Los Angeles tonight before returning to Philadelphia to take on the Texans. And the Eagles, at 6-7, probably need to win out just to have a shot at defending their title.
Ian Rapoport of NFL.com used Foles’ return to the starting lineup as an opportunity to take another look at the reworked contract that Foles and the Eagles agreed to back in April. The deal includes a mutual option for 2019 that allows the Eagles to keep Foles for $20MM if they so choose, or Foles could simply pay back the $2MM signing bonus he received as part of the deal to get out of the option. Given that Wentz is expected to fully recover from the fractured vertebra in his back, the Eagles will almost certainly not pick up Foles’ option, which means that he will hit free agency this offseason (after having the opportunity to add to his bank account thanks to the incentives in the contract).
Speaking of Wentz, Rapoport says it will take the third-year pro three months to make that full recovery, but the Eagles remain fully committed to him as their franchise quarterback (video link). The Eagles have yet to place him on IR, but he has been formally ruled out of tonight’s game against Los Angeles, per Adam Schefter of ESPN.com (via Twitter).
Jeff McLane of the Philadelphia Inquirer says that the team’s medical staff, which was facing mounting criticism anyway, will really come under fire now. Although Wentz should be fully healed in plenty of time for the 2019 offseason program, one does wonder when Wentz suffered the back fracture and how the team’s staff tested and treated it. McLane says it seems likely that Wentz sustained the injury back in October, but it remains unclear how much he knew about it. His experience, when coupled with the “inordinate number of irregularities in recurrence, recovery, and diagnosis” of the injuries the Eagles have suffered as a whole this year, make it fair to criticize the club for unloading its top two doctors and its head trainer after winning the Super Bowl.
NFL Practice Squad Updates: 12/14/18
Today’s practice squad updates:
Detroit Lions
- Signed: G Salesi Uhatafe
- Released: WR Deontez Alexander
Philadelphia Eagles
- Signed: OL Kaleb Johnson
Minor NFL Transactions: 12/14/18
Today’s minor moves will be posted here:
Indianapolis Colts
- Promoted from practice squad: LB Ahmad Thomas
Philadelphia Eagles
- Promoted from practice squad: LB B.J. Bello
- Placed on IR: T Jordan Mailata
Eagles’ Carson Wentz Likely Done For Season
The Eagles will be without Carson Wentz on Sunday and probably won’t have him back at all this season. The team has not formally decided on whether to place him on injured reserve, but it’s likely that we won’t see the quarterback again until 2019, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets.
As it turns out, Wentz’s back injury is more serious than it initially appeared. After a battery of tests, the team learned that Wentz has a fracture in his back. Now, the Eagles are doing more tests to determine whether playing would put him at further risk (Twitter link). On the plus side, Wentz will not require surgery either way.
With that, the Eagles will head into a crucial Week 15 matchup against the Rams without Wentz. A win keeps them very much alive in the Wild Card chase, but a loss would require two more wins and a whole lot of luck to get them into the playoffs.
On the plus side, the Eagles may have the league’s best contingency plan in quarterback Nick Foles. On Sunday, he’ll make his first start since the Eagles’ Week 2 loss to the Bucs.
Eagles Not Planning To Re-Hire DeFilippo
Former Eagles quarterbacks coach John DeFilippo is back on the market, but it doesn’t sound like a reunion is in the works. On Thursday, head coach Doug Pederson told reporters that there are no plans to bring the offensive guru back into the fold. 
[RELATED: Vikings Fire John DeFilippo]
“What I’ll say is John did a great job for me,” Pederson said (via Zach Berman and Les Bowen of the Philadelphia Inquirer). “He helped us win a world championship and then he had an opportunity. I love my coaches. I’m confident in the guys we have. At this time, no.”
Last year, DeFilippo was a hot candidate for both head coaching jobs and offensive coordinator vacancies. HC interviews with the Bears and Cardinals did not vault him all the way up the ladder, but he landed a coveted OC job in Minnesota. Unfortunately, his offense did not perform up to snuff in 2018, despite a strong group of receivers and the arrival of high-priced quarterback Kirk Cousins.
DeFilippo still figures to draw interest as an assistant this offseason, but he’s unlikely to have the same kind of buzz this time around.
Minor NFL Transactions: 12/12/18
We’ll keep track of today’s minor moves here:
Buffalo Bills
- Promoted from practice squad: RB Keith Ford, S Dean Marlowe
Green Bay Packers
- Signed: G Nico Siragusa (from Ravens practice squad)
- Placed on IR: G Byron Bell
Los Angeles Rams
- Signed: OL Jamil Demby (from Lions practice squad)
Miami Dolphins
- Signed: G/C Hroniss Grasu
Philadelphia Eagles
- Signed off Texans’ practice squad: DE Daeshon Hall
Seattle Seahawks
- Signed: LB Emmanuel Ellerbee
Washington Redskins
- Signed off Texans’ practice squad: G Kyle Fuller