HEADLINES

David Mayo

Giants’ Xavier McKinney Suffers Broken Foot

August 26th, 2020 at 1:02pm CST by Zachary Links

Giants rookie safety Xavier McKinney fractured the fifth metatarsal on his left foot, per a club announcement. The second-round pick out of Alabama will undergo surgery on Wednesday afternoon and he’s likely to miss at least a couple months of action. 

McKinney was expected to be a contributor in the Giants’ secondary, serving as the understudy to Julian Love at free safety. Instead, he’ll likely start the year on injured reserve before, hopefully, rejoining the club down the stretch.

Like Landon Collins in 2016, the Giants used an early second-round pick to draft McKinney out of Alabama. The standout Crimson Tide safety was on the first-round radar, starting for the past two seasons and registering 95 tackles, three sacks and three interceptions in 2019. He represents a key long-term piece alongside contract-year safety Jabrill Peppers.

This represents another major blow to a Giants secondary already without 2019 first-round pick DeAndre Baker, who currently resides on the commissioner’s exempt list. The Giants ranked 31st in pass-defense DVOA last season and did not make a concerted effort to upgrade their edge rush. These setbacks will make it difficult for the team to excel in this department, even considering the team’s pricey James Bradberry addition.

Several experienced veteran safeties are on the market, though the Giants do not profile as the kind of team who would win an Earl Thomas pursuit at this juncture. In addition to the recently released All-Pro, Eric Reid, Tony Jefferson, Reshad Jones and Clayton Geathers are available. The Giants did not re-sign 36-year-old Antoine Bethea, who started 16 games for them last season.

The Giants also lost linebacker David Mayo, who will go under the knife following a meniscus tear in his left knee. Luckily, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com says Mayo will just need a meniscus trim rather than a full repair, so he should be able to return in about three weeks (Twitter link). The sixth-year defender started a career-high 13 games for the Giants last season, making 82 tackles.

Contract Details: Mayo, Patriots, Bailey

March 21st, 2020 at 9:21am CST by Ben Levine

A handful of contract details to pass along:

  • LB David Mayo, Giants: three-year extension. $8.4MM deal, including $3.5MM guaranteed. Salaries: $1.5MM guaranteed (2020), $2.25MM (2021), $2.5MM (2022). Via Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle on Twitter.
  • WR Damiere Byrd, Patriots: one year, $2.5MM. $1MM base salary, $350K signing bonus, $900K in receptions incentives. Via ESPN’s Field Yates on Twitter.
  • S Adrian Phillips, Patriots: two years. Deal worth up to $7.5MM, $3MM guaranteed, $1.5MM signing bonus. Can earn up to $4MM in 2020. Via Yates on Twitter.
  • K Dan Bailey, Vikings: re-signed. Three-year deal worth up to $12MM. $5MM guaranteed, $3.15MM signing bonus. Via Yates on Twitter.
  • OL Joe Looney, Cowboys: signed. One-year, $2.4375MM deal. As Mike Garafolo of NFL Network tweets, one of the new CBA’s veteran benefits is that the deal will count $1.25MM less on the cap than it would have last season.
  • OT Shon Coleman, 49ers: one-year extension. Worth $962.5K, including $825K base salary and $137.5K signing bonus. Via ESPN’s Nick Wagoner on Twitter.
  • DB Jaylen Watkins, Texans: signed. Two-year deal worth $3MM, per Wilson.
  • OT Roderick Johnson, Texans: re-signed. One-year deal worth $1.75MM, per Wilson.

Giants Sign David Mayo To Three-Year Extension

March 13th, 2020 at 8:41pm CST by Andrew Ortenberg

The Giants are locking up one of their own shortly before the start of free agency. New York has signed linebacker David Mayo to a three-year extension, according to Ryan Dunleavy of The New York Post (Twitter link). Dan Duggan of The Athletic was the first to report the news (Twitter link).

Terms of the deal weren’t immediately available, but we’ll pass those along to you as soon as we get word. 2019 was Mayo’s first year with New York, and he enjoyed a breakout season. He appeared in all 16 games and started 13, receiving very strong marks from Pro Football Focus for his work. Now, he’s being rewarded with what is presumably a nice payday. He finished last season with 82 tackles, two sacks, and two passes defended, serving mostly as a run-stuffer.

All told, he played a hair under 57 percent of the defensive snaps. A Texas State product, Mayo entered the league as a fifth-round pick of the Panthers back in 2015. He barely played on defense his first couple of years in the league, before earning a small role his last two seasons in Carolina.

He was mostly a special teams player with the Panthers, and signed a two-year deal with the 49ers last offseason. San Francisco released him at final cuts, and the Giants didn’t even sign him until September 2nd. It was a pretty late pickup that ended up paying major dividends, and turning into a nice diamond in the rough find.

Giants Cut B.J. Goodson

September 2nd, 2019 at 10:00am CST by Zachary Links

The Giants have released B.J. Goodson, their one-time starting middle linebacker. To take his place, the club added fellow ‘backer David Mayo.

As recently as June, Goodson profiled as the Giants’ base-set starter. Things changed, however, and the 26-year-old has been displaced from the only NFL team he’s ever known. Since being drafted in the fourth round in 2016, Goodson has appeared in 37 games with 20 starts for the G-Men. Last year, he notched 61 tackles, half a sack, and two interceptions.

Mayo, meanwhile, was dropped by the Niners on Saturday. Before he hooked on with SF, Mayo suited up for 59 games as a member of the Panthers across four seasons.

49ers Cut Joshua Garnett, Reach Max

August 31st, 2019 at 7:29pm CST by Zachary Links

The 49ers got down to the 53-man roster maximum by releasing 24 players in total on Saturday, including former first-round pick Joshua Garnett.

The Niners used the No. 28 pick to select Garnett in 2016, but they never saw much from him at the pro level. The Stanford product started in eleven of his 15 games as a rookie, but even then, his performance was underwhelming – Garnett racked up penalties and didn’t excel in run blocking or pass blocking. Garnett then missed all of 2017 after undergoing knee surgery and only saw action as a reserve in seven games last year. At a rate of $10.35MM, it made little sense to keep Garnett for 2020, especially since the option would have been guaranteed for injury.

This year, Garnett is said to be healthy, but that ensured little in terms of performance, so he’s out. The Niners will save $1.7MM against $1.2MM in dead money.

Jordan Matthews was said to have had a strong camp, but the 27-year-old wide receiver wasn’t able to stick in SF. He inked a one-year, $1.8MM deal with the Niners in March, but he’ll exit with just his $300K signing bonus in hand.

Aside from Garnett and Matthews, here’s the rest of the Niners’ cuts:

Released

DB Antone Exum Jr.

LB Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles

DL Jamell Garcia-Williams

DL Kevin Givens

S Marcell Harris

TE Daniel Helm

WR Malik Henry

LB Elijah Lee

LB David Mayo

DL Damontre Moore

LB LaRoy Reynolds

G Ross Reynolds

S Tyree Robinson

QB Wilton Speight

WR Chris Thompson

DL Jordan Thompson

OL Najee Toran

DL Jeremiah Valoaga

RB Austin Walter

RB Jeff Wilson Jr.

Waived/Injured

DB Adrian Colbert

OL Andrew Lauderdale

Contract Details: Dennard, 49ers, Fins, Jets

March 25th, 2019 at 10:23pm CST by Sam Robinson

Here are the latest contract details from around the league:

49ers Cut Brock Coyle, Who Will Retire

March 14th, 2019 at 5:21pm CST by Micah Powell

The 49ers released linebacker Brock Coyle on Thursday, the team announced. San Francisco also signed linebacker David Mayo to a two-year deal and announced linebacker Elijah Lee has signed his exclusive rights tender. 

Coyle later announced his retirement from football due to the back injury that cut his season short in 2018 [Twitter link].

Injuries are a part of this game and it is a risk all players willingly take when we step onto the field. Unfortunately, the injury I sustained last season is one that will prevent me from returning to the field again.

Coyle, 28, joined the 49ers in 2017 on a one-year deal and impressed, starting 10 games and appearing in all contests while registering a career-high 62 tackles. He signed a three-year deal in the ensuing offseason but only played in one game in 2018 due to the injury.

Mayo, 25, was a fifth-round pick by the Panthers out of Texas State in 2015. He has appeared in all but one regular season game in the last three seasons with Carolina, making four starts and logging a combined 35 tackles. While he didn’t see a ton of action on the defensive side of the ball, Mayo is a strong contributor on special teams.

Lee, 23, was a seventh-round pick by the Vikings in 2017. The 49ers signed the Kansas State product off Minnesota’s practice squad that same season and he has appeared in 30 of a possible 32 games in his career. In 2018, the linebacker made five starts and logged 65 tackles with a sack and forced fumble.

Extra Points: Panthers, Bucs, Kwon, Dolphins

February 20th, 2019 at 9:57pm CST by Dallas Robinson

The Panthers have hired former Alabama assistant Jake Peetz as their new running backs coach, tweets Albert Breer of TheMMQB.com (Twitter link). Carolina announced that Peetz’s predecessor, Jim Skipper, will retire after spending six seasons with the club. Peetz, 35, worked for the Raiders from 2015-17, serving as quarterbacks coach during his final campaign in Oakland. He was briefly rumored to be an offensive coordinator candidate in Indianapolis under presumptive head coach Josh McDaniels in 2018, but that never occurred after McDaniels spurned the Colts. Peetz will lead a Panthers backfield that was dominated by Christian McCaffrey — who played 91% of the team’s offensive snaps — last year.

Let’s take a look at a few more coaching notes from around the NFL:

  • Impending free agent linebacker Kwon Alexander has already met new Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians and wants to re-sign with Tampa Bay, as he told WDAE-FM (link via Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times). Alexander doesn’t think the Bucs’ likely shift to a 3-4 front under new defensive coordinator Todd Bowles would be a hindrance to his play. “Man, I’m a baller, period,” Alexander said. “I’m going to get to the ball whatever scheme it is. If it’s 4-3, 3-4, I know how to make plays and that’s what I’m going to do if I’m in there.” From a contractual standpoint, Jenna Laine of ESPN.com recently reported that Tampa Bay had no intention of paying Alexander $10MM per year even before he tore his ACL last October.
  • Panthers free agent linebacker David Mayo recently underwent sports hernia surgery, but is expected to make a full recovery, reports Joe Person of The Athletic (Twitter link). As of yet, there’s been no timeline reported for Mayo’s return to full health. A fifth-round pick in 2015, Mayo hasn’t been much of a factor on Carolina’s impressive linebacker unit, playing only 307 defensive snaps over four years. But he’s been extremely reliable on special teams. Mayo has played on at least 60% of the Panthers’ ST snaps in all of his NFL seasons, and has ranked either first or second in Panthers’ special teams snaps in each of the past three years.
  • Alabama special teams/offense analyst Brendan Farrell will join the Dolphins as an assistant special teams coach, per Cameron Wolfe of ESPN.com. Miami is attempting to rebuild its special teams staff after losing longtime coordinator/associate head coach Darren Rizzi to the Saints earlier this year. Farrell will work under Danny Crossman, the former Bills’ ST coach who joined the Dolphins earlier this month. Farrell previously served as the special teams coordinator at Northwestern State.

South Rumors: Luck, Bucs, Saints, Texans

September 6th, 2018 at 12:54pm CST by Sam Robinson

The Colts have their franchise centerpiece ready to resume his career after a hiatus so long it had many concerned his NFL days were over. But not everyone’s buying into Andrew Luck being able to pick up where he left off.

“Have you watched the guy play? Go back and watch him pre-injury…like 2015. Now watch him today. His throwing motion is completely changed, and he has no deep velocity,” an AFC offensive assistant coach said, via Bleacher Report’s Matt Miller. “His entire game has changed. I bet he’ll be Checkdown Charlie. Like Alex Smith but afraid to get hit.”

An AFC South assistant, per Miller, doubted the Colts’ offensive line can protect Luck. That was an issue for the team when its 28-year-old quarterback was last healthy. Colts scouts and execs are obviously more bullish on Luck being ready to resume his trajectory.

“The last time y’all saw Andrew, he threw for 4,200 yards with a (messed) up shoulder and a bad offensive line,” a “high-level” Colts executive told Miller. “Just wait.”

Continuing with some additional Colts news, here’s the latest from the South divisions:

  • Both Anthony Castonzo and Marlon Mack returned to Colts practice this week, per ESPN.com’s Mike Wells and NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport (Twitter links). Castonzo injured his hamstring before training camp and re-aggravated it in the first week of August. He missed nearly a month of work but is optimistic he can still play in Week 1, the Indianapolis Star’s Zak Keefer tweets. Mack missed almost a month of work as well because of a hamstring issue. He’s Indianapolis’ projected running back starter, but his status for the opener is also up in the air.
  • Both the Buccaneers and Saints paid premiums to sign certain practice squad players. Tampa Bay went well above the minimum $7.6K-per-week wages to add linebacker Azeem Victor, agreeing to pay him $28K per week, Tom Pelissero of NFL.com tweets. The Saints are paying wide receiver Keith Kirkwood that amount as well, per Pelissero. Kirkwood is a rookie UDFA out of Temple who went to Saints camp, while Victor was sixth-round Raiders pick in April.
  • While Luke Kuechly and Shaq Thompson are expected to handle three-down work for the Panthers, David Mayo will start in place of the suspended Thomas Davis, DC Eric Washington said (via Joe Person of The Athletic, on Twitter). Mayo’s a 2015 sixth-round pick who’s started one game in his three previous Panther seasons.
  • The Texans worked out both Charles Sims and Akeem Hunt on Thursday, Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle notes (on Twitter). While Sims is a former regular on Buccaneers passing downs, Hunt’s workout went well, Wilson tweets, adding no deal is imminent. The Texans will be without D’Onta Foreman for the first third of the season. Alfred Blue, third-year back Tyler Ervin and recent waiver claim Gregory Howell are on Houston’s roster behind starter Lamar Miller.

NFC Notes: Peterson, Vikings, Kuechly

October 20th, 2017 at 1:34pm CST by Sam Robinson

Bruce Arians came up with the idea for the Cardinals to acquire Adrian Peterson, doing so after his team’s blowout loss to the Eagles. Arians was driving to the team facility when the concept emerged, Lars Anderson of Bleacher Report notes. The Cardinals coach watched every Peterson carry with the Saints to make sure the 32-year-old future Hall of Famer still had enough to be a solution for an Arizona rushing attack that still ranks last in the league because of its anemic start. Arians then took the idea to Steve Keim, who called Saints GM Mickey Loomis, Anderson reports.

“He ran hard and could get something out of nothing,” Arians said. “We had finesse backs on our team. I was looking for that power guy. He was it, brother, he was it.”

Immediately installed as Arizona’s starter, Peterson turned back the clock and rushed for 134 yards and two touchdowns in his Cardinals debut. The former five-time All-Pro said previously he wants to play into his late 30s, but that dialogue stopped in New Orleans. But Peterson has resumed that talking point now as a Cardinal, eyeing “four or five” more seasons.

“I felt like my ability was going to waste in New Orleans,” Peterson said, via Anderson. “The system just wasn’t a good fit for me. But I still want to play four or five more years. I still can run a high-4.3 40. And I’ve always loved getting the ball deep in the backfield, which is what we’re doing here. I feel like I’m built for this offense.”

Here’s the latest from the NFC, shifting to Peterson’s first two NFL employers.

  • The Vikings are starting Case Keenum again this week, the team announced. Mike Zimmer, though, said he believes Sam Bradford will play again this season, per Chris Tomasson of the St. Paul Pioneer Press. This will be Keenum’s fifth start of the year. Bradford’s status has gone from somewhat surprising inactive in Week 2 to being potentially out for six weeks to having the knee be categorized as worse than what’s been reported. Bradford consulted with a specialist last week, Courtney Cronin of ESPN.com notes. The eighth-year quarterback saw this same specialist previously, per Zimmer. Teddy Bridgewater returned to practice but likely remains far away from playing in a game.
  • Luke Kuechly will miss the Panthers‘ Week 7 tilt against the Bears after suffering a concussion in Week 6. David Mayo will replace Kuechly at middle linebacker, Josh Alper of Pro Football Talk notes. Kuechly has missed time because of concussions in each of the past two seasons but was progressing in the protocol earlier this week.
  • Minnesota will also be without Stefon Diggs this weekend, with the Vikes’ No. 1 wide receiver set to miss a second straight game because of a groin injury.
  • Saints practice squad offensive lineman Cameron Tom recently had his salary bumped to $27K+ per week, according to a source who spoke with Nick Underhill of The Advocate. He was previously making $7,200 per week. Assuming he stays on the taxi squad through the end of the season, he’ll earn $344K as opposed to $122K. His weekly pay is now equal to a minimum salaried player on the 53-man roster ($465K). It’s a sign that the Saints think highly of Tom and that other teams have thought about signing him away.

Zach Links contributed to this report.