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Jace Amaro

Panthers Not Interested In TE Gary Barnidge

By | at September 19, 2017 5:17 pm

Although they’ll be without tight end Greg Olsen for at least eight weeks, the Panthers are not interested in free agent Gary Barnidge, according to Joe Person of the Charlotte Observer (Twitter link).Gary Barnidge (vertical)

Barnidge is no stranger to Carolina, as he spent the first four seasons of his career as a backup tight end with the Panthers. Set to turn 32 years old this week, Barnidge had been linked to Carolina earlier this offseason after being released by the Browns, but it’s not clear if any meeting was ever actually arranged.

Other clubs — including the Jaguars, Bills, and Broncos — have also been tied to Barnidge this year, but he has yet to land a contract. The Texans, who recently lost three tight ends to concussions, worked out Barnidge a week ago but didn’t offer him a deal. Bardnidge’s lack of a pact is a surprise given that he averaged 67 receptions, 828 yards, and six touchdowns over the past two seasons and graded as the league’s No. 1 pass-blocking tight end in 2016, per Pro Football Focus.

Without Olsen in tow, the Panthers will turn to veteran Ed Dickson — who’s angling to be used in an Olsen-esque manner — as their starting tight end. Chris Manhertz is the only other tight end on the roster, but Carolina promoted fullback Alex Armah (who played some tight end in college) to the active roster today.

Instead of Barnidge, the Panthers auditioned fellow tight ends Jace Amaro, Gavin Escobar, and Kellen Davis today, tweets Field Yates of ESPN.com. Amaro and Escobar are both failed former second-round picks, while Davis isn’t much of a receiver — he’s managed only three receptions over the past three seasons. Still, with Dickson set to take over the starting tight end role, Carolina is likely looking for an addition who excels at blocking.

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Titans Move Roster To 53

By | at September 2, 2017 12:47 pm

The Titans have announced their final 53-man roster, moving from the 90-man limit down to the regular-season standard on Saturday. Here’s who Tennessee cut to get down to 53 (via Jim Wyatt of TitansOnline.com).

Cut:

Waived/injured:

Placed on IR:

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Sunday NFL Transactions: AFC South

By | at September 5, 2016 9:20 am

Listed below are the Sunday roster moves for the four AFC South teams. Following the 53-man roster cutdown deadline yesterday, many teams will make slight tweaks to their rosters, claiming players off waivers or signing guys who clear waivers. Those transactions for the Texans, Colts, Jaguars, and Titans are noted below.

Additionally, as of 12:00pm CT today, teams can begin constructing their 10-man practice squads. You can check out our glossary entry on practice squads to brush up on those changes, as well as all the other guidelines that govern the 10-man units, whose players practice with the team but aren’t eligible to suit up on Sundays.

Here are Sunday’s AFC South transactions, which will continue to be updated throughout the day. All links go to Twitter unless otherwise noted:

Houston Texans

Indianapolis Colts

Jacksonville Jaguars

Tennessee Titans

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Jets Cut Jace Amaro, Others

By | at September 3, 2016 1:05 pm

The Jets are working their way down to 53. Here are the cuts so far: Todd Bowles

Reilly, a seventh-round pick in 2014, played in 29 games for the Jets over the past two seasons. He finished the 2015 campaign with 16 tackles, one sack, and one forced fumble. As Slater notes on Twitter, the linebacker was waived with an injury designation. The 28-year-old could land on the injured reserve, but the reporter doesn’t believe the injury to be that serious.

There was a chance that Morris could carve out a role among the Jets’ defensive backs. However, the three-year veteran couldn’t do enough to beat out Dexter McDougle or Kevin Short. Meanwhile, there was some optimism that former CFL linebacker Freddie Bishop could establish himself, but the team’s linebacker depth proved to be too much to overcome.

On the offensive side of the ball, Sudfeld’s tenure in New York appears to be over. The 27-year-old collected only ten catches for 148 yards over the past two seasons.

In related news, the Jets may be making an addition to the roster before the weekend is through. Former San Francisco guard Ian Silberman worked out for the Jets on Friday, as Adam Caplan of ESPN.com tweets.

(Sheldon Richardson does not currently count against the 53-man roster due to his season-opening suspension)

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

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Extra Points: Cowboys, Rams, Bills, Henry, Ford

By | at March 26, 2016 4:25 pm

Here’s the latest from around the league, beginning with two Southern California training camp teams who aren’t jumping at the chance to reconvene for joint practices.

  • Despite the teams now training near Los Angeles, Cowboys and Rams aren’t planning to partake in another training camp scrimmage due to the brawl that occurred last year when the teams had joint practices in Oxnard, Calif., Clarence Hill of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports. The Rams will be training at UC-Irvine this year, but Jason Garrett hasn’t engaged in any discussions on bringing the teams together again.
  • The Bills expect clarity on Percy Harvin‘s health status in the ensuing two weeks, Tyler Dunne of the Buffalo News reports. Doug Whaley and Rex Ryan are open to the UFA returning despite Buffalo’s $6.9MM left in cap space. Harvin, whose troublesome hip issues ended up sidelining him for the season last November, would have to compete with newly signed Leonard Hankerson and players like Olympic long jump hopeful Marquise Goodwin for the Bills’ No. 3 receiver spot, however, and do so having missed 36 games over the past four seasons.
  • An NFC personnel man rates Arkansas’ Hunter Henry as the most complete tight end to be available in the draft in a long time, Mark Eckel of NJ.com reports. The unidentified evaluator sees Henry as a fit with the Jets, whose tight ends caught just eight passes last season after Jace Amaro missed the year with an injury. “I never liked Amaro,” the personnel man told Eckel. “(Hunter) is tons better than Amaro. Where do I see him going? That’s a tough question. (No. 20) might be a little soon, but he’s a first rounder. He’s definitely a first-rounder.”
  • Dee Ford figures to have a bigger role with the Chiefs in his third season. How much bigger will likely be determined by Justin Houston‘s health. John Dorsey and Andy Reid saw flashes of brilliance, per Terez Paylor of the Kansas City Star, with Reid saying one of last season’s takeaways was finding out that Ford was “a pretty good football player.” The player who would be opposite Ford in a Houston-less look, Tamba Hali, believes the third-year player — who has been mostly buried behind Houston and Hali in his two seasons — needs to develop further mentally. “If I had to speak for him, I would like for him to take the next step in being a professional … basically (the reason) why they drafted him here is to take over the (starting) role. The season’s too long for me to focus on being a starter or a backup,” Hali said. “I think he’s in the position where he can kind of take the torch and go forward. That’s really mental; physically, the kid is gifted and he has it. But mentally we have to just make sure that he understands why we’re in this building and what needs to be done while we’re here.”
  • Former Ravens defensive tackle Terrence Cody has been handed a nine-month sentence in his animal cruelty case, as Pat Warren of CBS Baltimore writes. Cody was found guilty of negligence in the death of his canary mastiff who was starved to death. However, he was not found guilty of felony animal abuse because the court did not find his actions intentional, according to his lawyer. PETA issued a statement following the sentencing and implored the NFL to do more to combat animal abuse amongst its players.

Zach Links contributed to this report

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Jets Re-Sign Kellen Davis, Kenbrell Thompkins

By | at March 14, 2016 3:40 pm

The Jets may not have a starting quarterback lined up for the 2016 season yet, but they’ve brought back a pair of pass catchers from their 2015 squad. Pro Football Talk reports (via Twitter) that tight end Kellen Davis has signed a new one-year deal with the Jets, while Rand Getlin of the NFL Network tweets that wide receiver Kenbrell Thompkins has signed his RFA tender.Kellen Davis

Davis, 30, caught just three balls in his first season with the Jets, but he started nine games for the team and played more offensive snaps than any other tight end on the roster. With Jace Amaro returning from a season-ending injury in 2016, Davis may see his role reduced, but I’d expect him to continue to get a decent amount of blocking work.

As for Thompkins, the 27-year-old received a promotion from the Jets’ practice squad last October and played a role for the club down the stretch. For the season, the former Patriot recorded a modest 165 yards through the air on 17 receptions, but the Jets liked him enough to assign him a contract tender worth $1.671MM, despite their relative lack of cap room.

With Jeremy Kerley having been released earlier this month, Thompkins may get an opportunity to compete for the slot receiver job on the Jets’ offense.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

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Jets Put Jace Amaro On IR, Trim Roster To 75

By | at September 1, 2015 12:31 pm

After cutting 12 players on Sunday, the Jets have made three more moves to ensure that they’re only carrying 75 players on their roster. Most notably, the Jets announced today in a press release that tight end Jace Amaro has been placed on injured reserve, ending his season.

Amaro, 23, was New York’s second-round pick in the 2014 draft, and grabbed 38 balls for 345 yards and two touchdowns in his rookie campaign. However, he injured his shoulder in the club’s preseason opener against the Lions, and Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News tweets that it’s a torn labrum for the tight end, who will undergo surgery.

In addition to putting Amaro on their injured reserve list, the Jets also moved veteran defensive end Kevin Vickerson to IR, and have waived/injured cornerback Dashaun Phillips.

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AFC East Notes: J. Taylor, McCourty, Dareus

By | at August 23, 2015 10:59 am

We learned earlier today that the Giants suffered yet another blow to their secondary last night, and as Adam H. Beasley of The Miami Herald writes, the Dolphins‘ secondary is also growing thin due to injury. After losing Louis Delmas to a torn ACL last week, Miami saw Jamar Taylor leave last night’s preseason game to a quadriceps injury. Taylor, fighting for a starting cornerback spot opposite Brent Grimes, dealt with a sports hernia in his rookie campaign in 2013, and last year he was placed on IR with a shoulder injury. The severity of Taylor’s latest ailment is unknown at this time.

As the Giants and Dolphins fret over their secondaries, let’s take a look at a few more links from the AFC East:

  • Devin McCourty played cornerback for the Patriots in their preseason contest against New Orleans last night, and he did not like it one bit. McCourty said, via Tom E. Curran of CSNNE.com, “I hope it’s not permanent. It didn’t feel great, and I don’t think it looked great so we’ll see.” McCourty, of course, transitioned to safety from corner in 2012, and has thrived as a safety in the past couple of seasons. But with the exodus of starting-caliber corners from New England this offseason, the team may be forced to utilize McCourty’s versatility more than he would like.
  • In a separate piece, Curran discusses the status of the Patriots‘ running back battle in light of the impressive performances from James White and Dion Lewis last night.
  • PFR’s Sam Robinson wrote yesterday that Marcell Dareus has softened his public stance towards his contract negotiations with the Bills, and as Jerry Sullivan of The Buffalo News opines, it’s the right move. Sullivan writes that Dareus may be an excellent player, but he is surrounded by other terrific players on the defensive line, and he is not nearly the run defender that Ndamukong Suh is. Those facts, combined with Dareus’ past indiscretions, suggest that Dareus should not be paid like Suh, regardless of what Dareus himself thinks. In the end, the Bills will likely bend a bit, Dareus will bend a bit, and Dareus will remain in Buffalo for the foreseeable future.
  • Rich Cimini of ESPNNewYork.com says Jets‘ tight end Jace Amaro, a holdover from the John Idzik regime, is on the “moderate” hot seat. Amaro was listed as the third tight end on the team’s first official depth chart, and the team has mixed feelings about him. Cimini adds that wide receiver Jeremy Kerley is in a similar situation, especially given the strong training camp of Quincy Enunwa.
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AFC Notes: Raiders, Amaro, Suh, Bortles

By | at June 30, 2015 5:50 pm

Let’s take a look at some notes from around the AFC:

  • The Raiders are looking to build up their offensive line for the future, meaning they could be a candidate to select former Clemson tackle Isaiah Battle during the supplemental draft on July 9, but ESPN’s Bill Williamson isn’t sure he’ll be worth it. Oakland already has a developmental tackle in seventh-round pick Anthony Morris, Williamson notes, as well as third-year man Menelik Watson vying for a starting role.
  • ESPN’s AFC East staff – James Walker, Mike Rodak, Mike Reiss and Rich Cemini – examined how the offenses of the Bills, Patriots and Jets will combat Dolphins defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh. They concluded that all three teams have questions along their offensive lines and could have serious issues against the four-time Pro Bowler in 2015.
  • The Jets’ Jace Amaro had a difficult rookie season as a tight end and is shifting to H-back under new offensive coordinator Chan Gailey. Brian Costello of the New York Post looked at what that could mean for Amaro this year.
  • Like Amaro, Jaguars quarterback Blake Bortles had a rough rookie year and the jury is certainly out on whether he’ll be a viable starter going forward. Conor Orr of NFL.com watched tape on Bortles and wrote about what 2015 could hold for the former third overall pick, noting that he’ll have a difficult time progressing if his offensive teammates don’t improve.
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Jets Notes: Holmes, Amaro, Vick

By | at September 20, 2014 9:53 am

Bears wideout Santonio Holmes will be making his return to New York this weekend, but it won’t be your typical homecoming. The former Jets standout told Patrick Finley of the Chicago Sun-Times that he hasn’t heard from one of his former teammates this week, so he won’t be shaking any of their hands following the game.

Members of the Jets organization understand where Holmes is coming from. In fact, defensive coordinator Dennis Thuman expects the player to be angry.

“He probably has a little revenge on his mind,” Thuman said (via Brian Lewis of the New York Post). “We know who he is and what they’re going to come and try to do. [But] we can’t get caught up in the one-on-one part of it.”

Bears quarterback Jay Cutler is also aware of Holmes’ extra motivation:

“He doesn’t need to say much. We know what happened with him there and how important this game is to him,” said Cutler. “At the same token, it’s another game for us, and we can’t get wrapped up in that.

“He hasn’t said anything to ruffle anybody’s feathers yet [in Chicago]. He has been in early, he stays late. He has had to catch up with everybody else in learning this offense, and I thought he has done an incredible job. He communicated with me of what he likes, what he doesn’t like. He gets in games and he just does exactly what we want him to do.’’

Let’s see what else is going on in the Big Apple…

  • Rookie tight end Jace Amaro has only played 30 percent of his team’s snaps, and ESPN.com’s Rich Cimini speculates that the lack of use could be because Amaro doesn’t have a solid grasp on the offense. Cimini also suggest that offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg could still be trying to distinguish the rookie’s “niche.”
  • Cimini believes the team’s two best trade options are quarterback Michael Vick and nose tackle Damon Harrison.
  • When asked about the prospect of acquiring a cornerback, Cimini says the Jets would need to give up a “premium” draft pick.
  • According to Mike Mazzeo of ESPNNewYork.com, a pair of Jets were fined for unnecessary roughness in their loss to the Packers: Muhammad Wilkerson ($20K) and Sheldon Richardson ($8,268).
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