The Patriots’ waiver claim of ex-Dolphin safety Don Jones might be more intriguing that it seems, writes Mike Reiss of ESPN.com. New England plays Miami Week 1, leading Reiss to surmise that Bill Belichick is attempting his patented move of bringing in an upcoming opponent’s castoff in order to glean inside information. Rules prevent practice squad players from signing with his ex-team’s next opponent, but per my reading of the CBA, there is no such restriction on waiver claims. Therefore, as Armando Salguero of the Miami Herald argues, the Dolphins essentially enabled Belichick’s strategy by cutting a competent player the week before they play the Pats. Salguero believes Miami should claim offensive lineman Chris Barker (who New England waived to facilitate Jones’ addition) as retaliation of sorts, though I’m not sure engaging in back-end roster shuffling with Belichick is the best of ideas.
More from the AFC:
- In a separate piece, Reiss reports the Patriots worked out long-snapper Kevin McDermott earlier today. New England cut incumbent LS Danny Aiken on Saturday, leaving linebacker Rob Ninkovich as the the top snapping option on the 53-man roster.
- Following the news that rookie Derek Carr will be the Raiders’ starting quarterback (in lieu of Matt Schaub), Ian Rapoport of NFL.com opines that Schaub’s injury “[gave] the Raiders cover” for doing what they always wanted to do — name Carr the starter (Twitter link via Chris Wesseling of NFL.com).
- Jerry McDonald of the Oakland Tribune agrees with Rapoport, observing (on Twitter) that it will be difficult for the Raiders to sell the QB switch as “anything but performance-based” given that Schaub has returned to practice (and is presumably somewhat healthy).
- More on the Raiders: Jason Fitzgerald of Over the Cap notes (via Twitter) that Oakland has spent a first-, second-, fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-round pick on quarterback trades since 2012. Those QBs — Jason Campbell, Carson Palmer, Matt Flynn, and Schaub — will have started 45 combined games if Carr doesn’t relinquish the No. 1 role, tweets Fitzgerald.
- Alex Smith‘s contract extension with the Chiefs may have set the bar for the upper-middle-class of quarterbacks, and James Walker of ESPN.com wonders if Smith’s deal will affect future negotiations between Ryan Tannehill and the Dolphins.