Dolphins Waive RB Samaje Perine, Three Others
The Dolphins signed a running back (Jordan Howard) and traded for one during the draft (Matt Breida). As a result, they waived Samaje Perine.
Miami waived Perine, long snapper Taybor Pepper, safety Montre Hartage and linebacker Terrill Hanks on Sunday.
Since coming into the league as a fourth-round Redskins pick in 2017, Perine has bounced around. His career started somewhat promisingly, with the Redskins using him frequently as a rookie. The Oklahoma product rushed for 603 yards in 2017. Since, he’s gained only 48 rushing yards.
Perine has spent time with the Bengals and Dolphins since his Redskins departure. He does not have vested-veteran status and will return to the waiver wire.
Pepper worked as the Dolphins’ long snapper throughout last season. However, Miami drafted a snapper — LSU’s Blake Ferguson — in the sixth round on Saturday.
Dolphins To Sign S Kavon Frazier
A four-year Cowboys contributor, Kavon Frazier will move on to a second team. The Dolphins are signing the free agent safety, according to his agency (Twitter link).
Frazier played in 44 games with the Cowboys, starting two, after Dallas drafted him in the 2016 sixth round out of Central Michigan. He primarily functioned as a special teams player during his time with the team. Frazier spent most of last season on the Cowboys’ IR list, landing there in late September.
The Dolphins have both Bobby McCain and Eric Rowe signed to long-term deals, and they used a third-round pick on Texas safety Brandon Jones. The Dolphins also brought back former 49ers starter Adrian Colbert. Frazier figures to compete for a depth spot and a role on Miami’s special teams units.
Miami will begin its virtual offseason program this week.
Colts Sign UDFA K Rodrigo Blankenship
It looks like the Colts will hold a kicking competition. With second-year kicker Chase McLaughlin already signed, the Colts made one of college football’s best kickers part of their UDFA class.
Indianapolis will give Georgia kicker Rodrigo Blankenship a $20K bonus to sign, Joel Erickson of the Indianapolis Star tweets. Last season, Blankenship won the Lou Groza award, which is given annually to Division I-FBS’ best kicker.
The first-team All-American kicked for the Bulldogs for four straight seasons. In 2019, he hit 27 of 33 field goals. His 82.5% make rate over four years ranks as the best in Georgia history. Although college football has yet to move extra points back, Blankenship went 200-for-200 on PATs in college. He also recorded 65 touchbacks on 85 career kickoffs.
The Colts enjoyed kicker stability for most of this century, transitioning from Mike Vanderjagt to Adam Vinatieri in 2006 and seeing the latter become the NFL’s all-time leading scorer during his Indianapolis stay. But Vinatieri struggled mightily last season and is unsigned. McLaughlin, a 2019 UDFA, and Blankenship appear set to compete to be the Colts’ post-Vinatieri kicker.
Saints Extend Taysom Hill
The Saints have agreed to a two-year contract with quarterback Taysom Hill, per Adam Schefter of ESPN.com (via Twitter). According to Charles Robinson of Yahoo Sports, the deal is worth $21MM and includes $16MM in guarantees (Twitter link). It replaces the one-year RFA tender worth $4.6MM that the Saints had placed on Hill earlier this offseason.
The move comes immediately after the Saints agreed to sign free agent signal-caller Jameis Winston. Prior to the Hill extension, both players would have been eligible for unrestricted free agency at the end of the 2020 campaign, meaning that New Orleans could take the entire season to evaluate them, to decide which one was best-suited to serve as Drew Brees‘ successor, and to move on from the loser of the battle at season’s end.
Now, however, that’s not necessarily the case. If Hill should prove himself worthy of the QB1 title in 2021, then the Saints will have him under contract at a very modest rate for starting quarterbacks and can bid Winston farewell. But if Winston should win out and if New Orleans should retain him, then the team will owe a ton of money to its QB2/gadget player, even by its standards of commitment to backup signal-callers. The whole affair could become even more complicated if Brees wants to return, and it suggests that the team really is committed to Hill — as it has stated for some time — and views Winston as a highly-experienced insurance policy in 2020 but not as a potential future option.
Per Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times, the Saints won’t officially sign Winston until after 3pm ET tomorrow in order to avoid having him against their 2021 compensatory pick formula (Twitter link).
Saints To Sign QB Jameis Winston
Jameis Winston is staying in the NFC South. Hours after the 2020 NFL Draft came to an end, the Saints agreed to sign the former Bucs passer, per Charles Robinson of Yahoo Sports. According to Ian Rapoport of NFL.com, it will be a one-year deal for Winston, who had more lucrative offers elsewhere but who saw a better opportunity in New Orleans (Twitter link).
Indeed, Winston will now have the chance to further develop his game under one of the best to ever play, Drew Brees, who may be hanging up the cleats after the 2020 campaign. The Saints have long indicated that they expect Taysom Hill to take over when Brees does decide to retire, and they tendered Hill, a restricted free agent, at the first-round level this offseason.
On the other hand, Hill will be 30 in August and has thrown all of 13 passes in his professional career, so New Orleans’ commitment to him has drawn some public skepticism. But Hill is undeniably a valuable gadget player, and having Winston on board will allow the club to continue deploying Hill in various roles without worrying too much about an injury.
Robinson’s sources indicated that Winston will not be guaranteed the backup job behind Brees. After all, head coach Sean Payton said just last month that Hill had earned that opportunity, but he also said the Saints would add another QB to be active on game days so that Hill could continue contributing as a passer and receiver.
So it seems now that Winston and Hill may be battling not just to be the Saints’ QB2 in 2020, but to be the team’s quarterback of the future in 2021 and beyond. That will create an interesting dynamic in the locker room, as Hill said earlier this year that he is open to leaving New Orleans if the club does not view him as the long-term answer under center.
From the Saints’ perspective, adding Winston on a one-year pact puts both him and Hill on track to be unrestricted free agents in 2021. They will have the entire 2020 season to evaluate the viability of both players as Brees’ successor, and they can re-sign or tag the winner of the year-long battle, or they can go in a completely different direction.
Just yesterday, the club traded back into the seventh round of the draft to select Mississippi State quarterback Tommy Stevens, but Stevens clearly profiles as a taxi squad candidate at this point.
Rams Sign 20 UDFAs
The Rams announced their undrafted free agent class Saturday night, and it’s a big one.
- DL Eric Banks (UT San Antonio)
- OL Cohl Cabral (Arizona State)
- WR Earnest Edwards (Maine)
- RB James Gilbert (Kansas State)
- DL Mike Hoecht (Brown)
- DB JuJu Hughes (Fresno State)
- WR Trishton Jackson (Syracuse)
- RB Xavier Jones (SMU)
- WR JJ Koski (Cal Poly)
- CB Dayan Lake (BYU)
- QB Josh Love (San Jose State)
- CB Tyrique McGhee (Georgia)
- QB Bryce Perkins (Virginia)
- WR Brandon Polk (James Madison)
- LB Greg Reaves (South Florida)
- DL Sam Renner (Minnesota)
- LB Christian Rozeboom (South Dakota)
- CB Levonta Taylor (Florida State)
- DL Jonah Williams (Weber State)
- WR Easop Winston (Washington State)
The biggest name on the list is Perkins the former Virginia quarterback, and we wrote about his signing in more detail here. The Rams previously only had John Wolford on the roster behind Jared Goff, so it makes sense they signed Perkins as well as Love the former San Jose State passer.
Los Angeles signed five receivers, with three of them coming from the FCS level. After previously having a career-high of 143 yards Jackson exploded out of nowhere to put up 1,023 yards and 11 touchdowns with Syracuse last year. NFL.com’s Lance Zierlein had him pegged as a fifth-rounder and most analysts had him getting drafted, so this could be a nice pickup for Sean McVay.
Steelers Sign 10 UDFAs
The same night the draft ended, the Steelers officially announced their initial 10-man undrafted free agent class:
- FB Spencer Nigh (Auburn)
- OG Christian Montano (Tulane)
- DB Trajan Bandy (Miami (Fla.))
- DB James Pierre (Florida Atlantic)
- LB James Lockhart (Baylor)
- LB Leo Lewis (Mississippi State)
- LB John Houston (Southern California)
- DE Josiah Coatney (Mississippi)
- DE Calvin Taylor (Kentucky)
- P Corliss Waitman (South Alabama/Mississippi State)
Pittsburgh went very heavy on defense. None of these guys are huge name, although a few are notable. Lewis was a four-year starter in the SEC which is always impressive, and Houston was a team captain at USC.
Rams Sign Virginia QB Bryce Perkins As UDFA
We’ll be bringing you most of the undrafted free agent signings in batches when they’re officially announced, but for now we’re covering a few of the biggest names. Another one familiar to college football fans is Virginia quarterback Bryce Perkins, who just agreed to sign with the Rams, via Tom Pelissero of NFL Network (Twitter link).
Perkins started his college career at Arizona State in 2015, before transferring to Virginia. He started for the Cavaliers the past two seasons, and was electric at times. As a junior in 2018 he passed for 2,680 yards, 25 touchdowns and nine interceptions. An elite dual-threat, he added another 923 yards and nine touchdowns rushing.
After that campaign he was the subject of a lot of offseason hype, and there was even some darkhorse Heisman buzz going around. He wasn’t able to fully deliver on that hype unfortunately, and was less efficient in 2019. Still his mobility is well-suited for today’s NFL, and the Rams have virtually nothing at quarterback behind Jared Goff.
Los Angeles hasn’t yet re-signed Blake Bortles, Goff’s 2019 backup, and the only other passer on the roster is 2018 UDFA John Wolford. If the Rams don’t add a veteran, Perkins should have a good chance at the backup job.
Patriots Sign Louisiana Tech QB J’Mar Smith
The Patriots finally added a quarterback. After surprisingly opting not to pick a passer during the draft, New England has signed former Louisiana Tech quarterback J’Mar Smith as an undrafted free agent, per Tom Pelissero of NFL Network (Twitter link).
It was widely reported that the Patriots would be drafting a quarterback at some point, but that never materialized. It’s still unclear what exactly Bill Belichick is planning on doing to replace Tom Brady, and Smith certainly isn’t going to be the solution. As a redshirt senior and three-year starter at Louisiana Tech, he’ll at least bring plenty of experience. Smith had his best statistical campaign this past season, when he passed for 2,977 yards with 18 touchdowns and five interceptions.
A pretty mobile quarterback, he added 264 yards and another four scores on the ground. Smith is now only the third signal-caller on the Pats’ offseason roster behind Jarrett Stidham and Brian Hoyer. If they don’t add another veteran, he should have a decent chance of making the team or practice squad. The real question now is whether Belichick will go after a high-profile free agent vet like Cam Newton, trade for one like Andy Dalton, or stick with the in-house options.
Redskins Sign Thaddeus Moss As UDFA
One of the biggest-name players to go undrafted is off the market. The Redskins have signed former LSU tight end Thaddeus Moss, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN.com (Twitter link).
Moss, of course, is the son of Hall of Famer Randy Moss. The younger Moss declared early for the draft back in January, and for a while it looked like he had a chance to be a middle-round pick. He apparently was dealing with an unfortunate medical situation, as Tom Pelissero of NFL Network tweets that a Jones fracture in his right foot was discovered at the combine.
That fracture required surgery, and since Moss wasn’t able to visit with teams due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, there were lingering questions about his health that caused him to fall out of the draft. Assuming everything is alright with his foot, this could prove to be a nice no-risk flyer for the Redskins.
Moss has some physical tools and showed plenty of flashes in his one year with LSU, catching 47 passes for 570 yards and four touchdowns. Washington hasn’t had anything consistent at the position since Jordan Reed was last healthy years ago, and their tight end depth chart is pretty thin. Jeremy Sprinkle, Logan Thomas, and Richard Rodgers aren’t the most inspiring options, so Moss should have the chance to compete for playing time right away if he makes the team.