OL Notes: Lions, Linderbaum, Steelers, Texans, Giants, Panthers, Browns, Saints
Winning a 49ers starting guard job to open last season, Ben Bartch ran into injury trouble and ultimately lost his job. The veteran interior O-lineman suffered a high ankle sprain in Week 2, being part of another injury-riddled 49ers season. Upon return, Bartch did not reacquire his starting job. Bartch ended up suffering a foot sprain, after the 49ers used an IR activation on him, and played out his contract. The Lions have him on their radar, however, with KPRC2’s Aaron Wilson noting the NFC North team conducted a visit recently. A 24-game starter with Jacksonville and San Francisco, Bartch is heading into an age-28 season. Detroit signed Cade Mays to fill in at center, and the team returns starters Tate Ratledge and Christian Mahogany from last season.
Here is the latest from around the O-line groups:
- Not returning after a Week 12 neck injury, Broderick Jones underwent fusion surgery in his neck (according to the Pat McAfee Show‘s Mark Kaboly). It looked like a long shot Pittsburgh would exercise Jones’ fifth-year option ($19.07MM), and Omar Khan did not confirm Jones would be ready for training camp. That will make the left tackle position — in a stopgap scenario at the very least — one to monitor in Pittsburgh.
- Tyler Linderbaum‘s Raiders deal keeps looking more impressive. Already locked in to what is practically a three-year, $81MM fully guaranteed contract, the new Raiders center secured a no-tag clause for 2029, KPRC2’s Aaron Wilson tweets. No center has been franchise- or transition-tagged since the Panthers cuffed Ryan Kalil with a franchise tag in 2011. Then again, no center (or guard) has approached Linderbaum’s $27MM-AAV accord. With tackles, guards and center grouped together on the tag, a 2029 Linderbaum tender would have been highly unlikely. But, showcasing the leverage the three-time Pro Bowler held in free agency, he secured this deal point anyway.
- The Giants re-signed Joshua Ezeudu earlier today; this came after the team hosted veteran guard Ryan Bates on a visit, Wilson adds. Bates spent the past two seasons with the Bears, starting only two games in two Chicago seasons, but he played out a four-year, $17MM Bills deal — one designed by Chicago via a 2022 RFA offer sheet — last season. The Giants have been stingy at guard despite making a strong push for Alijah Vera-Tucker, and options are dwindling. Though, ex-John Harbaugh Ravens charge Daniel Faalele remains available.
- Wyatt Teller played right guard throughout his Browns tenure, with LG staple Joel Bitonio in place on the other side for 12 seasons, but Wilson indicates a willingness on the new Texans signee’s part to switch sides. With 2025 Houston RG Ed Ingram re-signed, Wilson points to Teller playing left guard in 2026. Wilson also posits a scenario in which Evan Brown competes with incumbent Jake Andrews for the center position. While the Cardinals used Brown at guard over the past two seasons, he has logged full seasons at center — for the Seahawks and Lions — in the past.
- As Teller leaves Cleveland after six-plus seasons and Bitonio not certain to return, the Browns added three guard options (though, guard/tackle Tytus Howard is expected to play RT following a trade). Howard’s two-year, $45MM Browns extension includes $34.5MM guaranteed at signing, per OverTheCap. Option bonuses exist in 2027 ($18.41MM) and ’28 ($14.36MM), and $13.5MM of Howard’s 2027 compensation is guaranteed at signing. Howard is due a $4MM roster bonus in 2028, per Spotrac. Zion Johnson‘s three-year, $49.5MM Browns deal includes $27.83MM fully guaranteed, Wilson tweets. Two option bonuses are in place here, with Wilson adding the ex-Chargers guard will be due a $3MM roster bonus if on Cleveland’s roster by Day 3 of the 2028 league year. $13.57MM of Johnson’s 2027 compensation is fully guaranteed.
- The Saints‘ Dillon Radunz deal is worth $6.9MM over two years, with ESPN.com’s Katherine Terrell noting it includes $3.5MM guaranteed.
- Adding center Luke Fortner and tackle Stone Forsythe, the Panthers kept costs low for both. A 2025 Saints trade pickup, Fortner is tied to a one-year deal worth $2.75MM ($1.33MM guaranteed), Wilson adds. Coming over from the Raiders, Forsythe signed a one-year, $2MM pact with $500K guaranteed (per Wilson).
Panthers To Sign C Luke Fortner
The Panthers may have found their replacement for Cade Mays. The team is set to sign veteran center Luke Fortner, according to NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero.
It’s a one-year deal for Fortner, per Pelissero. The contract will pay the lineman up to $4.75MM.
The 2022 third-round pick spent the first three seasons of his career in Jacksonville. He was a full-time starter through his first two years, but he was limited to only 13 offensive snaps in 17 games in 2024. Predictably, the Jaguars moved on from him following that campaign, trading him to the Saints for defensive tackle Khalen Saunders.
Fortner returned to the starting lineup during his lone season in New Orleans, starting 10 of his 17 appearances. Pro Football Focus believed this was the best showing of the lineman’s career, ranking him 17th among 37 qualifying centers. The site ultimately credited him with three sacks allowed and 11 pressures allowed.
Mays joined the Lions yesterday on a three-year deal, and with center/guard Austin Corbett also unsigned, the Panthers had a major hole on their offensive line. Fortner will surely be penciled in for the starting gig entering training camp, but he could face some competition from special teamer Nick Samac or any other offseason acquisition.
Saints’ OL Depth Hurting
After a year in which two offensive line positions were essentially revolving doors for starters, the Saints entered their offseason program with a strong plan. Unfortunately, their emergency plan may have required an emergency plan of its own as New Orleans has watched injuries ravage their offensive line depth.
The Saints have a preliminary starting five that sees Erik McCoy and Cesar Ruiz return to their roles last year at center and right guard, respectively. Trevor Penning, last year’s starting right tackle, has bumped in to the left guard spot, allowing last year’s left tackle, Taliese Fuaga, to return to the position he played in college after starting his rookie year at left tackle. Finally, filling the vacated left tackle spot will likely be rookie first-round pick Kelvin Banks Jr.
However, as mentioned above, the Saints have been bitten before, so they made sure to stock up on depth for their offensive line. Those pieces included free agent addition Dillon Radunz, centers Will Clapp and Shane Lemieux, guard Nick Saldiveri, tackle Landon Young, and a few others. Despite the team’s efforts, a number of those players have already gotten injured in the preseason, leaving New Orleans extremely thin along their offensive line with just over two weeks until their regular season opener.
Clapp and Saldiveri are already done for the season, and Radunz has stepped in for Penning as he deals with turf toe, per Matthew Paras of The Times-Picayune. To make matters worse, Young was carted off the field during Saturday’s preseason game with an ankle injury, according to ESPN’s Katherine Terrell. Lemieux appeared to be making a push for the Saints’ backup center job until he, too, left Saturday’s game with an ankle injury (via Paras). That could give bolster the roster chances of depth interior linemen Torricelli Simpkins and Luke Fortner, the latter of whom was acquired in a trade last week.
New Orleans’ OL woes could have them scouring the waiver wire over the coming days to shore up their depth in the trenches. A quicker recovery from Penning would also allow Radunz to serve as a versatile backup after playing every position except center in Tennessee.
Nikhil Mehta contributed to this post.
Saints Trade DT Khalen Saunders To Jaguars For C Luke Fortner
The Saints are trading veteran defensive tackle Khalen Saunders to the Jaguars, according to NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero. The swap is now official.
In exchange, fourth-year center Luke Fortner will be heading to New Orleans, per Pelissero. Though they didn’t match up on the field, both players appeared in the Saints-Jaguars preseason game earlier on Sunday in what turned out to be auditions for their new teams.
Saunders, 29, started 27 games for the Saints over the last two seasons. He was not viewed as a good fit for the 3-4 scheme imported by new defensive coordinator Brandon Staley, according to Nick Underhill of NewOrleans.Football and Jeff Duncan of NOLA.com. With plenty of defensive line depth in New Orleans, the six-year veteran was deemed surplus to requirements and sent to Jacksonville to shore up their depth in the trenches.
Saunders will join veteran starters DaVon Hamilton and Arik Armstead in the Jaguars’ defensive line room. He can add some veteran experience to a backup rotation that currently features young defensive tackles Jordan Jefferson, Maason Smith, and Tyler Lacy.
Fortner, originally a Jaguars third-round pick in 2022, will likely push for the Saints’ backup center job right away with Will Clapp sidelined for the season with a Lisfranc injury. The Saints have been evaluating their options behind Erik McCoy since Clapp went down; undrafted rookie Torricelli Simpkins got the start against the Jaguars with second year lineman Kyle Hergel handling the rest of the snaps. Neither did enough to lock down the backup job, as evidenced by Fortner’s arrival after the game.
Fortner, 25, started every game at center in his first two seasons but lost his spot to veteran signing Mitch Morse last year. Rather than go back to Fortner, the Jaguars opted to sign former Liam Coen Buccaneer charge Robert Hainsey in free agency. They also added Patrick Mekari, who is competing to start at right guard but has plenty of center experience from his time in Baltimore. Even if Mekari wins the right guard battle, he can still provide depth at center, as can seventh-round rookie Jonah Monheim.
Jaguars Featuring Position Battles At RT, C
Although the Jaguars spent wildly in free agency, it is possible four of their primary five starters from last year’s offensive line reprise their roles in 2022. But competitions are revealing themselves ahead of training camp.
Tyler Shatley, the team’s longest-tenured player, will attempt to hold off third-round pick Luke Fortner at center, while John Reid of the Florida Times-Union notes three-year right tackle starter Jawaan Taylor is not a lock to keep his job. Walker Little, a 2021 second-round pick, looks to have a good chance to unseat the ex-Florida Gator.
Third-year blocker Ben Bartch and big-ticket free agency pickup Brandon Scherff are set to be Jacksonville’s first-string guards, with the recently extended Cam Robinson in place at left tackle. Taylor has played opposite Robinson throughout his career, being one of the NFL’s most durable players in that span. The 24-year-old right tackle has not missed a game, and the Jags have turned to the 2019 35th overall pick as a starter in every one of those contests.
Pro Football Focus viewed Taylor as a slightly better blocker in 2021 than he was in 2020, but it still graded the 6-foot-5 lineman as the Jags’ worst regular up front. Taylor’s 12 penalties led all O-linemen last season. Little played 225 offensive snaps as a rookie, working as the swingman behind Robinson and Taylor, but Reid views the Stanford product as the likely favorite to be Jacksonville’s 2022 right tackle. This would relegate Taylor to a swing role, representing bad timing for him on that front. As a 2023 free agent-to-be, Taylor has an opportunity to audition for other teams this season.
Little missed nearly two full seasons, suffering an ACL tear early in 2019 and opting out of the COVID-19-altered 2020 Pac-12 slate. PFF graded he and Robinson as middling blockers, though the latter obviously played far more snaps.
Shatley, 31, filled in for the injured (and now-retired Brandon Linder) frequently during the past two seasons, starting 18 games. The Jags made Fortner their only O-line pick this year. The Kentucky product made 36 straight starts, using his additional eligibility year to vault onto the Day 2 radar. A former UDFA, Shatley would become the Jags’ interior swingman again if beaten out for the Week 1 snapping gig.
Jaguars Sign Third-Rounders Luke Fortner, Chad Muma To Finalize Draft Class Deals
The Jaguars became the latest team to wrap up the draft pick-signing portion of their offseason. Two third-rounders — center Luke Fortner and linebacker Chad Muma — rounded out this process by signing their four-year rookie deals Wednesday.
Fortner’s deal at the No. 65 overall slot will be worth $5.5MM, according to Aaron Wilson of ProFootballNetwork.com, who adds the Kentucky alum will collect a $1.18MM signing bonus (Twitter link). Muma, chosen 70th overall out of Wyoming, will be entitled to a bonus just north of 2021 No. 70 selection Brady Christensen‘s; the Panthers tackle collected $1.15MM guaranteed.
Brandon Linder‘s retirement created an immediate need for Jacksonville. Linder had been the team’s longest-tenured starter, and although he battled injuries for much of his career, the talented blocker had been the Jaguars’ starting center since 2016 after beginning his career at guard. Fortner played center and guard at Kentucky, starting 36 games played after taking advantage of the extra year of eligibility schools provided after the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
Fortner moved from right guard to center before last season. He stands to vie for the Jags’ center spot with previous Linder backup Tyler Shatley, who is the team’s longest-tenured player. Shatley has been with the Jags since 2014; he started eight games last year.
Jacksonville aggressively pursued upgrades at linebacker this year. The team gave ex-Atlanta starter Foyesade Oluokun a three-year, $45MM deal and traded back into the first round for Utah standout Devin Lloyd. The Jags selected Muma with the pick obtained in last year’s C.J. Henderson trade. They moved on from longtime starter Myles Jack this offseason as well. Muma broke out last season by making 142 tackles (eight for loss), earning first-team All-Mountain West Conference acclaim. It will be interesting to see where he fits with a Jags team that reloaded at this position.
Here is how the Jags’ draft class breaks down:
Round 1: No. 1 Travon Walker, Edge (Georgia) (signed)
Round 1: No. 27 (from Buccaneers) Devin Lloyd, LB (Utah) (signed)
Round 3: No. 65 Luke Fortner, C (Kentucky) (signed)
Round 3: No. 70 (from Panthers) Chad Muma, LB (Wyoming) (signed)
Round 5: No. 154 (from Commanders through Eagles): Snoop Conner, RB (Ole Miss) (signed)
Round 6: No. 197 (from Eagles) Gregory Junior, CB (Ouachita Baptist) (signed)
Round 7: No. 222 Montaric Brown, CB (Arkansas) (signed)