Logan Thomas

WFT To Activate Logan Thomas, Curtis Samuel

Washington will have two of their best offensive players in action tonight. Both tight end Logan Thomas and wide receiver Curtis Samuel have been cleared to play against the Seahawks (Twitter link via NFL.com’s Mike Garafolo).

The WFT opened Thomas’ practice window last week by designating him for return. Before that, he spent six weeks on IR with a hamstring injury. Through his four games this year, Thomas has tallied 12 catches for 117 yards and two scores. After his career year in 2020 — 72 receptions for 670 yards and six touchdowns — there should be plenty more where that came from. Still, as head coach Ron Rivera has said, both he and Samuel will be on a pitch count against Seattle.

Samuel joined Washington on a three-year deal worth up to $35.25MM with $24.5MM guaranteed. Unfortunately, he’s been limited to just two games so far this year. Like Thomas, he’s also coming off of a career year with 1,051 yards from scrimmage, five touchdowns, and one heck of a highlight reel.

Washington enters tonight’s game at 4-6, enough for a ~34% chance of making the playoffs, per FiveThirtyEight. With a win, they can inch a little closer to the Cowboys and improve their chances to about 46%.

WFT’s Logan Thomas To Return From IR

Logan Thomas is just about ready to retake the field. The Washington Football Team plans to designate Thomas for return this week by opening his 21-day practice window, according to NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport (on Twitter). 

[RELATED: WFT’s Young Done For Year]

Thomas has been on the injured reserve list with a hamstring injury since October 6. While it’s not yet official, his doctors are expected to clear him for football activities in the coming days. In theory, Thomas could be activated for Monday night, when WFT hosts the Seahawks in D.C. However, they’ll want to monitor his progress for a bit, so a December return seems more likely.

The former quarterback enjoyed a career year in 2020 with 72 receptions for 670 yards and six touchdowns. His catch total was good for third among all tight ends in the NFL while his yardage slotted him seventh at the position. Through his four games this year, he tallied 12 catches for 117 yards and two scores.

In his stead, Washington has turned to veteran Ricky Seals-Jones with support from Sammis Reyes, fourth-round pick John Bates, and practice squad call-up Temarrick Hemingway. Seals-Jones has gotten the bulk of Washington’s TE targets, tallying 23 grabs for 230 yards and two scores across nine games.

In other WFT news, standout defensive end Chase Young has been formally placed on injured reserve with a torn ACL.

Minor NFL Transactions: 11/2/21

Today’s minor moves:

Atlanta Falcons

Baltimore Ravens

Cleveland Browns

Dallas Cowboys

Detroit Lions

Green Bay Packers

Los Angeles Rams

New York Jets

Pittsburgh Steelers

San Francisco 49ers

Washington Football Team

WFT Places Logan Thomas On IR

The Washington Football Team will place tight end Logan Thomas on the injured reserve list (Twitter link via NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport). He’s expected to miss the next four weeks as he recovers from a hamstring injury.

Thomas enjoyed a career year in 2020 as he hauled in 72 catches for 670 yards and six touchdowns. His 72 receptions were the third most of any tight end in the league last year; his yardage total put him seventh at the position. Through four games this year, he has 12 catches for 117 yards and two scores.

To replace Thomas, Washington has plucked fellow TE Jace Sternberger from the Seahawks’ practice squad. Sternberger, a 2019 third-round pick, was dropped by the Packers late month, leading him to the Seahawks’ taxi squad. The Texas A&M product posted 48 passes for 832 yards and ten touchdowns before turning pro, but he’s yet to achieve anything close to that as a pro.

WFT’s Brandon Scherff To Miss Time

Washington guard Brandon Scherff has been diagnosed with a sprained MCL that will keep him out of action for 2-to-3 weeks (Twitter link via Adam Schefter of ESPN.com). Meanwhile, tight end Logan Thomas is considered week-to-week with his hamstring injury.

[RELATED: WFT’s Bostic Suffers Pec Injury]

Scherff missed a total of 18 games from 2017-2020, including an MCL issue that sidelined him for three games in last year. Now, he’ll add to that total en route to free agency. The two sides could not come to terms this summer, so the the All-Pro guard is playing out his second-straight franchise tag for a salary of $18.04MM. Barring any further setbacks, Scherff is still expected to net a record-setting contract. His tag already puts him at the top of the list for guards while Joe Thuney‘s $16MM/year deal leads the way for multi-year pacts.

Thomas, a one-time quarterback, is coming off of a career year with 72 catches, 670 yards receiving, and six touchdowns. His 72 grabs last year put him third among all tight ends while his yardage (670) put him seventh at the position. Through four games this year, he has a line of 12/117/2.

WFT’s Jon Bostic Suffers Pec Injury

WFT linebacker Jon Bostic suffered a pec injury on Sunday (Twitter link via Ian Rapoport of NFL.com). He’ll undergo an MRI today to determine the severity, but Washington is bracing for bad news.

Bostic was ruled out in the fourth quarter, following early exits for tight end Logan Thomas (hamstring), wide receiver Cam Sims (hamstring), and guard Brandon Scherff (knee). They went on to beat the Falcons 34-30 in Atlanta, but it was a costly victory.

Bostic never lived up to his second-round draft status in Chicago and barely played in New England. But, when he resurfaced with the Colts in 2017 and the Steelers in 2018, he found his footing as a starter. His best work has come in D.C. Bostic has did not miss a game between 2019 and 2020, starting in all but one of his games. Last year, he finished out with 118 tackles — a new career best — plus three sacks, six tackles for loss, three passes defensed, and one interception.

Now at .500, the WFT will travel to New Orleans to take on the Saints in Week 5.

Contract Details: Chubb, Thomas, Allen, Wilson

Let’s catch up on the details of some of the big contracts recently signed around the NFL:

  • We heard last night that Browns running back Nick Chubb was signing a big three-year extension worth $36MM with $20MM guaranteed. We’ve got the full equation now, thanks to what a league source told Jason Fitzgerald of Overthecap.com. For starters, Chubb is getting a $12MM signing bonus. It also turns out that not *quite* $20MM is fully guaranteed. The actual guarantee is only $17.133MM. However, it’s almost effectively $20MM, since the other $2.87MM in guarantees vests in 2022 and it’s incredibly unlikely Chubb would be off the roster by then. Chubb will have low salaries and low cap hits in 2021 and 2022. In 2023, he’ll have a cap hit of $14.85MM. He’ll have a $10.85MM salary but only the $2.87MM of that will be guaranteed. In 2024, he’ll have a non-guaranteed salary of $11.775MM and a cap hit of $16.2MM for his final year.
  • Washington just made Logan Thomas the seventh highest-paid tight end in the game, and now we have new figures on his deal. His three-year, $24MM extension will give him a cap hit of $6.465MM in 2022, $8.75MM in 2023, and $8.315MM in 2024, John Keim of EPSN.com reports. The dead cap hits for those three years will be $7.465MM, $3.5MM, and $1.75MM respectively. In other words it won’t be too hard for the team to get out of the contract after 2022 if they wanted to. Thomas will receive a $300K roster bonus each season, and is due a $500K roster bonus on the fifth day of the 2024 league year, so that will be an important date in the final season of his new pact.
  • Thomas wasn’t the only player to get an extension from Washington this past week. The Football Team also gave defensive tackle Jonathan Allen a big four-year, $72MM deal. We didn’t previously know the full guaranteed amount, but it’s apparently $35.6MM. Allen’s cap hits for those four new seasons will be $9.5MM, $21.5MM, $21.5MM, and $23MM, Keim writes. As such, he won’t start really weighing down Washington’s books until 2023. He has a $14MM salary for that season which becomes guaranteed on the third day of that league year. His dead cap charges will be $26MM, $18MM, $12MM, $6MM for 2022-2025.
  • Zach Wilson and the Jets avoided potential disaster by agreeing to terms on his rookie deal right before training camp started, and now we have more context on the holdup. We knew there was an issue about potential signing bonus money deferment, and it turns out New York wanted the rookie quarterback to wait to get a significant amount of cash. The Jets “only opened negotiations last week,” and wanted Wilson to defer a whopping $6MM of his signing bonus to 2022, a source told Jeff Howe of The Athletic (Twitter link). After the team relented and agreed to pay the whole signing bonus upfront, Wilson hopped on a plane to New York. In return, the Jets did get some of the offset language they were seeking.

WFT, Logan Thomas Agree To Extension

The Washington Football Team has agreed to a three-year extension with tight end Logan Thomas (Twitter link via NFL.com’s Mike Garafolo). The new deal is worth $24MM with $10.3MM in guarantees, making Thomas the seventh-highest paid TE in the NFL.

[RELATED: Washington, Allen Agree To $72MM Extension]

Thomas is coming off of a career year with 72 catches, 670 yards receiving, and six touchdowns, so it’s safe to say that the former quarterback has been successful in his transition. His 72 grabs last year put him third among all tight ends while his yardage (670) put him seventh at the position. It all seemingly happened overnight, but Thomas spent multiple seasons trying to prove himself as a blocker and receiver.

Thomas, 30, entered the NFL as a signal caller in 2014 and transitioned to tight end in 2016 when he joined the Lions’ taxi squad. After a few years with the Bills, he returned to Detroit in 2019. From 2017 through 2019, Thomas had a grand total of 35 catches for 317 yards and two TDs. Now, after doubling/tripling those totals, he’s got a fresh deal to take him through his prime seasons.

Thomas should continue his role as WFT’s top tight end, ahead of fourth-round pick John Bates, Ricky Seals-Jones, and ex-basketballer Sammis Reyes.

NFC Contract Details: Zuerlein, Poe, Shell, Vikings

We’ve got a bunch of contract details to pass along, all out of the NFC:

Minor NFL Transactions: 3/19/20

We’ll keep track of today’s “minor” moves here:

Carolina Panthers

Cincinnati Bengals

Cleveland Browns

Dallas Cowboys

Green Bay Packers

Miami Dolphins

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

  • Re-signed: WR Bryant Mitchell

Washington Redskins