Dolphins Waive DT Gerald Willis, Five Others
Once a player thought to be a borderline Day 2 pick, Gerald Willis will again be in search of a new team. The Dolphins made the Miami native defensive tackle one of six players they waived Saturday.
The Dolphins also cut linebacker Jake Carlock, linebacker Jamal Davis, wide receiver Andy Jones, cornerback Linden Stephens and wide receiver Terry Wright. None of the players have seen much NFL action, but the Dolphins had signed Carlock, Jones and Wright to futures deals just after last season.
Jones caught 11 passes with the 2018 Lions but has not played since. Davis and Stephens played in three games for the Dolphins last season. Carlock and Wright did not suit up for a game as Dolphins. Originally a Ravens UDFA after seeing his value drop extensively during the 2019 draft, Willis saw action in two games with his hometown team.
Miami holds a league-high 14 picks in next week’s draft. No other team possesses more than 12 selections. Teams also will be signing their next round of UDFA classes, though this unusual offseason may make that a fluid process.
Ravens Sign LB Jake Ryan
After being limited to only a pair of games over the past seasons, Jake Ryan has found another gig. The linebacker has signed a one-year deal with the Ravens, according to NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport (via Twitter).
The 2015 fourth-round pick spent the first four seasons of his career with the Packers, and he started at least 10 games and compiled at least 80 tackles each year between 2016 and 2017. A torn ACL forced him to miss the entire 2018 campaign, and he proceeded to sign with the Jaguars last offseason.
Ryan started the 2019 season on the reserve/NFI list, but he managed to make two appearances after getting activated in November. He landed on the IR in December, and the Jaguars declined his option a few months later.
The Ravens have needed some depth at the position, and there were rumblings that the front office could opt for a linebacker in one of the first three rounds. While this signing certainly won’t prevent the organization from taking a prospect, it’ll certainly reduce the urgency to add at the position.
Minor NFL Transactions: 4/17/20
Today’s minor moves:
Chicago Bears
- Signed: K Ramiz Ahmed, OL Rashaad Coward, TE J.P. Holtz
Cincinnati Bengals
- Signed: RB Jacques Patrick
Las Vegas Raiders
- Claimed: TE Paul Butler (from Lions)
Browns’ Kareem Hunt Signs Tender
Browns running back Kareem Hunt has signed his second-round tender, as Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets. With that, Hunt will earn $3.27MM on the year. 
The Browns took a gamble on Hunt in 2018, despite his troubled history in Kansas City. The Chiefs cut the running back after a surveillance video showed him striking a woman at a Cleveland hotel. In that same year, he also got into a physical altercation with a man in Ohio. Hunt promised the Browns that he would work hard on the field and clean up his act off of the field. On the field, he held up his end of the bargain with a 4.2 yards per carry average. Off the field, this past January, he was cited for marijuana possession, though those charges were dropped in March.
Despite the citation, the Browns tendered Hunt at the second-round level this offseason. He’s now set to resume his role as a complementary back to starter Nick Chubb in 2020.
Hunt, a 2017 third-round pick, began his NFL career with a league-leading 1,327 rushing yards and eight touchdowns as a rookie. He continued that production up until his KC release in 2018 with 14 all-purpose TDs through eleven games.
Bears To Release TE Trey Burton
The Bears are cutting Trey Burton, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (on Twitter). With that, Burton will hit free agency and try to hook on with another team. 
The 28-year-old (29 in October) joined the Bears on a four-year, $32MM deal in 2018. However, thanks to the structure and cash flow of the deal, it was more like a two-year pact. Ultimately, that’s how the Bears treated it. Burton will be designated as a post-June 1 cut saving the Bears roughly $2.8MM in cap space (Twitter link via The Athletic’s Adam Jahns). There’s also offset language in his deal. If another teams signs Burton, the Bears will owe him less than his $4MM guaranteed sum.
Burton spent the majority of his career as a backup for Eagles, sitting behind star Zach Ertz. Over his last two Philly seasons, Burton averaged 30 receptions, 288 yards, and three touchdowns per campaign. Those weren’t eye-popping totals, but the advanced stats showed that he was extremely efficient. In his final season with the Birds, Football Outsiders ranked Burton No. 3 in DVOA among TEs, demonstrating his per-play value.
In Chicago, Burton didn’t break out the way the Bears and many fantasy owners hoped. Burton had 54 catches for 569 yards and six touchdowns in 2018. Last year, a calf injury shut him down in November. He finished out his season with 14 receptions for 84 yards and zero touchdowns.
With Burton gone, the Bears figure to be on the hunt for tight ends in the draft.
Bears To Sign OT Jason Spriggs
The Bears have agreed to sign offensive tackle Jason Spriggs, according to Dan Graziano of ESPN.com (on Twitter). The former second-round pick of the Packers will ink a one-year deal with his new NFC North squad.
[RELATED: Bears’ Robertson-Harris Signs Tender]
Back in 2016, the Packers saw Spriggs as a future starter, so they traded up to land the Indiana product at No. 48 overall. At the pro level, he wasn’t able to stick as a first-stringer. For his three seasons in Green Bay, Spriggs was mostly a part-timer for his 29 games. In between that, in 2017, he was placed on injured reserve twice.
Spriggs’ deal likely doesn’t contain much, or anything, in the way of guaranteed dollars, but he’ll get a shot to crack the team’s 53-man roster. Meanwhile, the Bears are keeping most of their focus on the draft for the next week. With their original No. 19 pick belonging to the Raiders, their first selection won’t come until the second round at No. 43.
Raiders QB Nathan Peterman Signs Tender
Raiders quarterback Nathan Peterman has signed his restricted free agency tender, as Field Yates of ESPN.com tweets. Ditto for offensive tackle David Sharpe. Both players will return to Las Vegas on one-year, $2.133MM deals. 
[RELATED: Raiders’ Morrow Signs RFA Tender]
Peterman, 26 in May, was a fifth-round pick of the Bills back in 2017. The Bills cut him midway through his second pro year. Pro Football Reference’s “indexed” statistics, which account and adjust for different eras of the game, rated Peterman dead last among all QBs since 1970 in passer rating, yards per attempt, interception percentage, and numerous other passing statistics.
Still, several teams took an interest in him when he hit the open market. The Raiders signed him towards the end of ’18 and he rewarded their confidence with a surprisingly strong preseason in ’19. Peterman connected on 60 of his 84 passes for 475 yards, three touchdowns, and zero interceptions. But, just before the start of the year, he landed on IR.
Earlier this week, fellow Raiders RFA Nicholas Morrow also inked his tender. Tendered at the second-round level, he’ll see a bump from $645K to $3.26MM.
49ers’ Matt Breida Signs Tender
49ers running back Matt Breida has signed his tender, as Adam Schefter of ESPN.com tweets. Per the terms of the second-round level cuff, Breida will earn $3.1MM in 2020. 
[RELATED: 49ers Re-Sign Verrett, Johnson]
The Niners reportedly used the second-round tender on Breida because they sensed that at least one other team was fixing to poach him at the original-round level. That doesn’t necessarily mean that he’s in the team’s plans for 2020 – reportedly, the Niners tendered him with the thought that he could be traded at a later date.
With Raheem Mostert and Tevin Coleman in the fold, Breida isn’t on track for a major role in the 49ers’ backfield. Jerick McKinnon is also in the mix – many thought that the Niners would cut Jet this offseason, but he’s on the books at a cheaper rate following his mid-March haircut.
At times, Breida impressed – he’s averaged at least 5.1 yards per tote in each of the last two seasons. Unfortunately, he hasn’t been able to stay healthy. Over the course of three seasons, the Georgia Southern product has totaled just 381 carries.
Minor NFL Transactions: 4/16/20
We’ll keep track of today’s minor moves here:
Chicago Bears
- Re-signed: DB Sherrick McManis
New England Patriots
- Signed RFA tender: OL Jermaine Eluemunor
New Orleans Saints
- Re-signed: RB Dwayne Washington
Pittsburgh Steelers
- Signed: DB Breon Borders, T Anthony Coyle, C John Keenoy, DB Arrion Springs
Broncos’ Mike Purcell, Elijah Wilkinson Sign RFA Tenders
Broncos defensive tackle Mike Purcell and guard Elijah Wilkinson have both signed their second-round restricted free agent tenders, according to Mike Klis of 9News (Twitter link). They’ll each earn $3.259MM for the 2020 campaign.
While Purcell isn’t much of a pass-rusher, he’s excellent as stopping the run. In fact, Pro Football Focus ranked 6’3″, 330-pounder as the league’s best run-defending interior player in 2019. Purcell, who turns 29 years old later this week, played in 13 games (seven starts) for the Broncos last season while posting 48 tackles (eight for loss).
Purcell, an undrafted free agent in 2013, bounced around the league before finding a landing spot in Denver. The Wyoming product spent time with six other NFL teams and the Salt Lake Stallions of the AAF before signing with the Broncos last April.
An undrafted free agent like Purcell, Wilkinson joined the Broncos out of UMass in 2017. Promoted to the starting lineup last season, the 25-year-old played on nearly 90% of Denver’s offensive snaps.
The Broncos have since added free agent Graham Glasgow on a multi-year deal, so it’s unclear if Wilkinson will still have a starting job in 2019. Glasgow can play center as well as guard, leaving Denver with multiple possible combinations up front.