HEADLINES

Leonard Floyd

Rams To Re-Sign LB Leonard Floyd

March 15th, 2021 at 5:35pm CST by Sam Robinson

5:35pm: The Floyd market moved fast. The Giants pushed to sign him, but the Rams will win the sweepstakes, Anderson tweets. Floyd will stay in Los Angeles on a four-year, $64MM deal, Adam Schefter of ESPN.com tweets.

This represents a major win for Floyd, who saw the Bears release him prior to his fifth-year option vesting in 2020. Floyd will follow Fowler in riding a Rams contract year into free agency success. The Rams are making their biggest commitment to an edge defender in years here, doing so after trading Robert Quinn and letting Fowler walk. The team’s journey toward cap compliance will continue, however, with the team now having three front-seven bastions — Donald, Floyd and Michael Brockers — signed to veteran deals.

5:15pm: Although the Rams let Dante Fowler walk in free agency last year, they are not quite ready to lose another edge rusher. They remain in talks with Leonard Floyd, according to veteran NFL reporter Josina Anderson, who notes the discussions are going well (Twitter link).

The Rams will still need to clear considerable cap space to keep Floyd. They reside more than $30MM over the cap. Teams must comply with the $182.5MM salary ceiling by 3pm March 17, when the 2021 league year starts.

Like Fowler, Floyd produced in a contract year. The former Bears first-round pick, whom Chicago cut after an inconsistent tenure, recorded a career-best 10.5 sacks while teaming with Aaron Donald in Los Angeles. After battling injury issues early in his career, Floyd has now played in 16 games in each of the past three seasons.

More edge rushers are available this year, compared to a 2020 offseason in which several received franchise tags. Like Fowler, Floyd did not. And he is in much better position to land a strong deal than he was last year, when the Rams signed him to a one-year pact worth $10MM. It will be interesting to see if Floyd can improve on that salary soon.

Giants Pushing To Sign Leonard Floyd

March 15th, 2021 at 5:34pm CST by Sam Robinson

5:34pm: This market moved fast. The Giants’ push for Floyd did not end in a deal. The Rams are bringing him back. Although other edge rushers remain available, the market is thinning. Floyd, Yannick Ngakoue and Matt Judon have chosen their teams.

5:31pm: Featuring an edge-rushing need for a couple of years now, the Giants are trying to poach the Rams’ top outside sack artist. They are making a push to sign Leonard Floyd, per Dianna Russini of ESPN.com (on Twitter).

The Rams have not given up on re-signing Floyd; they remain in talks with the former first-round pick. The Giants are not in the finalizing stage yet here, Russini adds, so a bidding war may be taking place.

A Floyd agreement would be interesting for the Giants, who have used their franchise tag on Leonard Williams. A two-Leonard front seven would make re-signing Dalvin Tomlinson quite difficult. The Williams tag has left the Giants with less than $3MM in cap space, so the team still has moves to make ahead of the March 17 start to the 2021 league year.

NFC West Rumors: Fitzgerald, Gould, Reed

December 27th, 2020 at 12:21pm CST by Rory Parks

Speculating about Larry Fitzgerald‘s future has become something of a holiday tradition over the past few seasons. The surefire Hall-of-Famer did say earlier this year that if the Cardinals were to win Super Bowl LV, he would ride off into the sunset, but Arizona’s hopes for its first Lombardi Trophy suffered a major blow in an upset loss to the 49ers last night.

So will Fitz be back in 2021? As Rachel Gossen of ArizonaSports.com writes, head coach Kliff Kingsbury said he believes Fitzgerald could play for another four seasons, but Fitzgerald himself was noncommittal.

“I haven’t really given it much thought to be honest with you,” he said. Though Fitzgerald did add that it will be nice to have fans back in the stands when it’s safe, Kingsbury downplayed the notion that Fitzgerald would return just to receive a proper sendoff from the Cardinals’ faithful.

As we wait to see whether one of the best receivers in NFL history will call it a career, and as the Cards focus on keeping their fading playoff hopes alive, let’s round up a few more notes from the NFC West:

  • The 49ers have a big decision to make on kicker Robbie Gould this week. Per the four-year extension Gould signed in 2019, San Francisco has until January 2 to pick up an option that would guarantee $2.25MM of Gould’s $4.5MM 2021 salary. Gould had hit 90.5% of his field goal attempts heading into last night’s matchup with Arizona, but he missed two FGA’s and a PAT in a 20-12 win that could have been more decisive. However, head coach Kyle Shanahan said the performance will not impact the team’s decision on Gould’s contract. “You got to look at the body of work, and Robbie has been unbelievable,” Shanahan said (Twitter link via Matt Maiocco of NBC Sports Bay Area).
  • Claimed off waivers from the division-rival 49ers in August, Seahawks CB D.J. Reed has been a great find for Seattle. In eight games (six starts), Reed has lined up both in the slot and outside the numbers and has accumulated 49 tackles, two interceptions, and six passes defensed while yielding a modest 77.9 passer rating as the nearest defender (via NFL Next Gen stats). Though the 5-9 Reed does not fit the mold of the big-bodied specimens that Seattle generally prefers at the outside corner positions, Brady Henderson of ESPN.com thinks his presence could make the club more amenable to moving on from contract-year players Quinton Dunbar and Shaquill Griffin. Reed will be entering the final year of his rookie deal in 2021.
  • As Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic points out, the Rams would be about $26MM over the 2021 salary cap if the cap is decreased to $175MM as many expect. So while the club can certainly restructure the contracts of players like Robert Woods and Cooper Kupp to create space, it will also have tough decisions to make on pending free agents. Rodrigue posits that, if DC Brandon Staley gets hired as a head coach, he may try to bring safety John Johnson and outside linebacker Leonard Floyd with him, though Los Angeles will doubtlessly prioritize re-ups with both players. Meanwhile, Rodrigue sees players like WR Josh Reynolds and TE Gerald Everett signing elsewhere this offseason.

Rams Claim LB Justin Hollins, Add 15 To Practice Squad

September 6th, 2020 at 5:33pm CST by Sam Robinson

The Rams left their roster at 52 players after cutdown day, and the team filled the roster spot with a player familiar with their new defensive coordinator.

Los Angeles submitted a waiver claim for Justin Hollins, a linebacker whom Denver cut Saturday, and the 2019 draft pick will rejoin Brandon Staley. The Broncos used Hollins at both inside and outside linebacker spots last season; Staley coached Denver’s outside linebackers in 2019.

This will bring another ex-Staley pupil to L.A. The Rams already signed Leonard Floyd, whom Staley coach in Chicago, to be a starter. Hollins, a fifth-round pick out of Oregon, profiles as a depth piece.

The Rams also set their practice squad Sunday. All 15 players were in camp with the Rams this year, so for those hoping to go in fresh for the Hard Knocks finale next week, this is the spoiler warning.

Here is how the Rams’ practice squad looks:

Rams Sign OLB Leonard Floyd

March 18th, 2020 at 2:03pm CST by Andrew Ortenberg

The Rams are making their first big splash of free agency. Los Angeles is signing outside linebacker Leonard Floyd to a one-year deal, Adam Schefter of ESPN.com tweets.

It’s a $10MM deal that can be worth up to $13MM, Schefter reports. Floyd was cut by the Bears yesterday when Chicago signed fellow outside linebacker Robert Quinn, and it didn’t take him very long to find a new home. We heard word that the Giants were interested in Floyd, so Rams GM Les Snead likely had competition for his services. Floyd would’ve earned $13.2MM in 2020 under his fifth-year option had the Bears kept him, so his release won’t end up hurting him too much financially if at all.

The ninth overall pick back in 2016 Floyd was a bit of a disappointment in Chicago, but he’ll now get the chance to prove himself and re-enter unrestricted free agency at this time next year. The Georgia product became a starter as a rookie and showed plenty of flashes, racking up seven sacks in 12 games in his first year as a pro.

Unfortunately he never really progressed from that point, and his sack totals actually declined in each of the past three years. Still only 27, he has a lot of theoretical talent. He’ll slide in more or less as the replacement for Dante Fowler Jr., who just left the Rams to sign a three-year, $48MM deal with the Falcons less than an hour ago.

When the Rams next take the field looking to put their disappointing 2019 season behind them, their defense is going to look quite a bit different. Not only did they trade away cornerbacks Marcus Peters and Aqib Talib midway through last year, they’ve now seen a string of departures in free agency.

Safety Eric Weddle retired; Cory Littleton, Michael Brockers, and Fowler Jr. have now all departed in free agency, and the team just declined their option on usual slot corner Nickell Robey-Coleman. They’ve also replaced defensive coordinator Wade Phillips with Brandon Staley, so it’s safe to say that side of the ball is getting a complete makeover after Sean McVay’s dissatisfaction with the previous structure became evident.

Giants Interested In LB Leonard Floyd

March 17th, 2020 at 6:36pm CST by Ben Levine

Linebacker Leonard Floyd was cut by the Bears earlier today, but he’s already got several suitors lining up. NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo tweets that the Giants are among the teams that are in play for Floyd.

There were high hopes for Floyd when the Bears selected him in the first-round of the 2016 Draft. The Georgia product had a productive rookie campaign, compiling seven sacks.

While the linebacker put up solid numbers in the subsequent three years, his sack numbers have dropped each season. The 27-year-old finished the 2019 campaign with 40 tackles and three sacks.

Floyd was set to earn $13.2MM in what was his fifth-year option year. That would have been tough to juggle after the Bears inked pass-rusher Robert Quinn to a lucrative five-year deal.

The Giants have been active in adding linebackers this week. They signed a pair of former Packers linebackers in Blake Martinez and Kyler Fackrell.

Bears To Sign Robert Quinn, Cut Leonard Floyd

March 17th, 2020 at 11:15am CST by Zachary Links

In one fell swoop, the Bears have revamped their pass rush. On Tuesday, the Bears agreed to a five-year, $70MM deal with Robert Quinn, according to NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport (on Twitter). Meanwhile, they also released former first-round pick Leonard Floyd (Twitter link via ESPN.com’s Adam Schefter).

Quinn’s deal includes $30MM fully guaranteed, giving him solid security over the course of the deal.

The Cowboys worked to keep Quinn, but the numbers crunch didn’t quite allow for that. Dallas, of course, came into the offseason with even bigger fish to fry, including negotiations with quarterback Dak Prescott and wide receiver Amari Cooper. They already watched as cornerback Byron Jones left for the Dolphins, and now they’ll be losing another key member of their defense.

Quinn was the comeback kid in 2019, notching 11.5 sacks for Dallas. It was a resurgent year for the veteran, who had a rocky stretch following his last Pro Bowl appearance in 2014.

The 2011 first-round pick emerged as a serious force in 2012 and looked the part of a world-class defender in 2013 when he posted 19 sacks. He had a solid follow-up effort in 2014 (10.5 sacks), but he missed roughly half of 2015 and 2016 with the Rams. After spending the 2018 season with the Dolphins, Quinn was traded to the Cowboys last offseason.

There were high hopes for Floyd when the Bears selected him in the first-round of the 2016 Draft. The Georgia product had a productive rookie campaign, compiling seven sacks. While the linebacker put up solid numbers in the subsequent three years, his sack numbers have dropped each season. The 27-year-old finished the 2019 campaign with 40 tackles and three sacks.

Floyd was set to earn $13.2MM in what was his fifth-year option year.

Latest On Bears’ OLB Leonard Floyd

March 11th, 2020 at 9:24am CST by Rory Parks

We heard back in December that the Bears could part ways with outside linebacker and former first-round pick Leonard Floyd this offseason. Last May, Chicago exercised Floyd’s fifth-year option, which would keep him under contract through the 2020 campaign at a salary of $13.2MM, but as of right now, that salary is guaranteed for injury only. As such, the Bears could cut Floyd and obtain $13.2MM of cap space.

However, they would need to do that soon, because the salary becomes fully guaranteed when the new league year begins on March 18. And as Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune writes, some believe that GM Ryan Pace will indeed release Floyd within the week.

Floyd has by no means been a bad player, and he has been a full-time starter since his rookie campaign. But after posting seven sacks in 12 games in 2016, those numbers have tailed off considerably. He has accrued just 11.5 sacks in the last three seasons, and Pro Football Focus’ advanced metrics pegged him as just the 53rd-best edge defender in 2019. He managed 27 QB hurries in 2019 after 30.5 in 2018, but he has not yet been able to convert those hurries into sacks on a regular basis.

“He’s close in a lot of areas when you look at the pressures and those things,” Pace said. “He just needs to finish a little better on the quarterback.” While acknowledging that the team would like to see more sack production out of Floyd, Pace did say that Floyd’s versatility and his coverage abilities make him an asset.

Still, $13.2MM is a lot for a solid but replaceable player, especially since the Bears don’t have a ton of cap room to work with. While the top edge rushers who would otherwise be eligible for free agency are likely to remain with their current teams, players like Kyle Van Noy and Vic Beasley could be available, and Pace could also turn to the draft.

A Floyd trade or paycut is unlikely, according to Biggs.

NFC Notes: Floyd, Bears, Buccaneers, Barrett, Vikings, Rhodes

December 17th, 2019 at 12:57pm CST by Andrew Ortenberg

The Bears have obviously been having a disappointing season. A year after being one of the toasts of the league and winning the NFC North, they’ve officially been eliminated from playoff contention following their loss to the Packers. With the postseason out of reach, all eyes will now turn toward the offseason. The elephant in the room is what Chicago will do with Mitchell Trubisky and the quarterback situation, but they have some other big decisions to make as well. Linebacker Leonard Floyd is set to make $13.2MM under the fifth-year option in 2020, but that’s entirely non-guaranteed money. They can cut him this offseason with no financial penalty, and Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune seems to think that’s a real possibility.

In an interesting column Biggs explores Floyd’s situation, noting all the dynamics at play. Floyd is the second first-round pick that GM Ryan Pace made since taking over the front office, and the first was megabust Kevin White. As such, Pace could be motivated to keep Floyd on the team to try and validate the pick. Floyd certainly hasn’t been bad and he’s been a full-time starter for the Bears since entering the league, but it’s fair to wonder if he’s lived up to the billing of a ninth overall pick. As Biggs points out, the option would make him the tenth highest-paid outside linebacker in the NFL. Floyd had seven sacks as a rookie, but only 4.5 two years ago and four last year. In 14 games this season, he has three. His money becomes guaranteed on March 18th, so the Bears will have to make a decision by then.

Here’s more from the NFC:

  • Speaking of NFC pass-rushers, the Buccaneers’ Shaq Barrett has been having a breakout season. He just picked up his 16.5th sack of the year this past weekend, tying the legendary Warren Sapp for the all-time single season franchise record. He’s been a bright spot all year long for this Bucs defense, and they aren’t planning on letting him get away even as he prepares to enter unrestricted free agency this spring. “He ain’t going anywhere,” head coach Bruce Arians said of Barrett, who signed a one-year, $4MM deal this offseason, via Jenna Laine of ESPN.com. Barrett will likely be in line for a massive payday this offseason, and it sounds like the Buccaneers are ready to pay up. Barrett originally signed with the Broncos as an UDFA back in 2014, and was eventually able to get on the field as a situational rusher. He was slept on this offseason, and as we heard earlier this year, only one team other than Tampa even offered him a contract.
  • Vikings cornerback Xavier Rhodes played only 14 snaps against the Chargers this past weekend, but it wasn’t because of an injury. Head coach Mike Zimmer said after the game that Rhodes was healthy, and that his limited action was the plan going in, per Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com. In other words, Rhodes got benched. The 2013 first-round pick quickly became a star and one of the league’s better corners, but he’s declined rapidly. He’s still started every game this season but his snaps have declined each of the past couple weeks, as he’s been burned repeatedly. A first-team All-Pro in 2017, Rhodes is under contract through the 2022 season as part of a five-year, $70MM extension he signed with the Vikings. There’s been a lot of talk that Minnesota will move on after this season, and it’ll be very interesting to see what happens to the 29-year-old.

Bears Pick Up Leonard Floyd’s Option

May 1st, 2019 at 9:03am CST by Zachary Links

As expected, the Bears have picked up the fifth-year option on outside linebacker Leonard Floyd (Twitter link via ESPN.com’s Field Yates). The former first-round pick is now under club control through the 2020 season. 

Floyd, who has registered 15.5 sacks through three seasons, is slated to earn $13.3MM in 2020. The additional year is guaranteed for injury only, so the Bears could theoretically escape the additional season without cap consequences if Floyd is able to pass a physical heading into the ’20 campaign.

Floyd, the ninth overall pick in 2016, played in all 16 games last season, marking his first ever campaign with perfect attendance. While he managed a career-low four sacks, Floyd ranked 31st among pass rushers with 30.5 quarterback pressures, according to Sports Info Solutions’ charting data. He also put up nine tackles for loss, 11 quarterback hits, and graded as the NFL’s No. 45 edge defender among 105 qualifiers, per Pro Football Focus.

Floyd is eligible for a contract extension after completing his third NFL season, but the Bears have plenty of time to cross that bridge.

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