Packers Wrap Draft Class
The Packers have wrapped up their 2019 NFL Draft class. On Monday, the club signed tight end Jace Sternberger, according to an announcement from his agent. 
Sternberger, a third-round pick, started his collegiate career at Kansas but wasn’t given much of an opportunity. He left to sign with JUCO program Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College and put together a solid game tape that elicited attention from top schools such as Florida State and Boise State. When Jimbo Fisher moved on to the Aggies, he brought Sternberger with him.
In Sternberger’s one and only season at Texas A&M, he caught 48 passes for 832 yards, good for a 17.3 yards per catch average. He also reeled in ten touchdowns, proving that he can be a difference-maker in the red zone. For now, Sternberger will be stationed behind veterans Jimmy Graham and Marcedes Lewis.
Here’s the full rundown of the Packers’ class, courtesy of PFR’s tracker:
- 1-12: Rashan Gary, DE (Michigan): Signed
- 1-21: Darnell Savage, S (Maryland): Signed
- 2-44: Elgton Jenkins, OL (Mississippi State): Signed
- 3-75: Jace Sternberger, TE (Texas A&M): Signed
- 5-150: Kingsley Keke, DT (Texas A&M): Signed
- 6-185: Ka’dar Hollman, CB (Toledo): Signed
- 6-194: Dexter Williams, RB (Notre Dame): Signed
- 7-226: Ty Summers, LB (TCU): Signed
Broncos Sign Rookie Dre’Mont Jones
The Broncos signed defensive tackle Dre’Mont Jones to his four-year rookie deal, according to Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle (on Twitter). The third-round pick will receive a $4.188MM contract that includes a $1.066MM signing bonus. 
Jones was eligible to enter the 2018 draft, but opted for another season at Ohio State for additional seasoning. Entering this year’s draft, many pegged Jones as a potential first-round selection, but size and strength concerns contributed to a drop in stock between December and April. On draft week, Jones still appeared on target for the second round, but he fell to the third where the Broncos pounced.
While some evaluators are skittish about whether Jones can be a difference-maker at the next level, John Elway & Co. do not seem concerned. Jones is coming off of his best statistical season to date after notching 8.5 sacks and 13 tackles for loss for the Buckeyes.
With Jones signed, the Broncos are left with just two unsigned rookies in tackle Dalton Risner and quarterback Drew Lock.
Lions Waive QB Connor Cook
The Lions’ search for a backup quarterback continues. On Monday, the club released former Michigan State QB and NFL journeyman Connor Cook, according to a team announcement. He was replaced by QB David Fales, who has also had multiple stops throughout the NFL. 
Cook, 26, entered the league as a fourth-round pick of the Raiders in 2016. he saw time in just one game as a rookie and has not taken a regular season snap since. He has, however, had practice squad/futures stints with the Panthers, Bengals, and Lions. His next deal could bring him to his fifth team in four years.
Cook was thought to have a chance at the No. 2 QB role behind starter Matthew Stafford, but his release leaves Tom Savage as the favorite. Meanwhile, Fales will look to make his case.
In related moves, the club also signed offensive lineman Luke Bowanko and released safety David Jones.
Saints To Sign Kayvon Webster
The Saints have agreed to sign cornerback Kayvon Webster, according to ESPN.com’s Adam Schefter (on Twitter). Exact terms of the deal are not yet known, but it’s likely a low-cost one-year contract for the 28-year-old and New Orleans. 
The Saints auditioned several cornerbacks last week and apparently liked what Webster brought to the table. Barring injury to one of the team’s other corners, Webster probably won’t be in line for serious playing time. Marshon Lattimore, Eli Apple, Patrick Robinson, and P.J. Williams all rank ahead of him on the depth chart, though he could carve out a role on special teams.
Webster garnered some hype as a backup in Denver, but injuries spoiled what could have been his true coming out party with the Rams. Instead of taking off in old friend Wade Phillips‘ system, his season ended after just eleven games. Last year, he latched on with the Texans, but he was limited to just two games thanks to multiple injuries and two IR stints.
Minor NFL Transactions: 6/7/19
Shifting from GM decisions, here are the lower-level moves teams executed Friday:
Jacksonville Jaguars
- Claimed off waivers from Cardinals: T Andrew Lauderdale
Washington Redskins
- Signed: TE Donald Parham
Jets Hire Joe Douglas As General Manager
The favorite ended up winning out. On one of the most action-packed June Fridays in recent NFL history, the Jets named Joe Douglas their next general manager. While Douglas beat out three other candidates, he was the frontrunner from the start. The Jets will make a six-year commitment to Douglas, Adam Schefter of ESPN.com tweets.
Howie Roseman will lose one of his top lieutenants, with Douglas having served as the Eagles’ VP of player personnel since 2016. Adam Gase has been believed to have preferred Douglas since Mike Maccagnan‘s ouster. The two worked together with the 2015 Bears, when Douglas served as their college scouting director while Gase was Chicago’s OC. Prior to that, Douglas spent 15 years in the Ravens’ personnel department.
Gase, who served as Jets interim GM, will cede 53-man roster control to Douglas, Rich Cimini of ESPN.com tweets. Both will report to CEO Christopher Johnson.
This comes at an interesting time. The Texans fired Brian Gaine on Friday afternoon, and with the team having attempted to interview Douglas for that post last year, it stood to reason the AFC South franchise would try again. The Jets and Douglas were believed to be apart on salary, with CBS Sports’ Jason La Canfora tweeting a chasm of around $1MM per year existed. But we now have a June day featuring two GM moves, an obviously uncommon NFL occurrence.
Douglas, 42, becomes the Jets’ fourth GM in the past eight years, following Maccagnan (2015-19), John Idzik (2013-14) and Mike Tannenbaum (2006-12).
Douglas certainly appears to have resisted the Jets’ initial overtures, with Schefter reporting (via Twitter) he repeatedly turned the team down. But the Jets continued their aggressive pursuit. This comes a few days after a report surfaced about some candidates being leery of the Jets’ atypical ownership situation. Christopher Johnson is working as CEO while Jets owner Woody Johnson serves as an ambassador in the Trump administration. A six-year deal would cover any amount of time the president would serve in office, though as the Texans showed earlier today by cutting bait on Gaine’s five-year deal after one season, long-term pacts are tenuous. But the team appears to have made an effort to help assuage any concerns about its ownership status.
Breaking into the NFL as a scout for the Super Bowl champion 2000 Ravens, Douglas also played a key role in helping the franchise win its second Lombardi trophy. He brought Joe Flacco‘s name to Ozzie Newsome, per Jamison Hensley of ESPN.com (Twitter link). Douglas has been part of three Super Bowl champions.
The Jets have not been to a Super Bowl in 51 years and have missed the past seven AFC playoff brackets. They are the only team to have failed to win six games in each of the past three seasons. Their most recent coach-GM experiment deteriorated rapidly. Gase and Maccagnan differed on some 2019 decisions, most notably the Le’Veon Bell contract, and that led to an awkward draft. But the first-year Jets HC will likely have more confidence in Douglas. Interestingly, with Douglas now signed up, he, Gase and Sam Darnold share an agent (Jimmy Sexton).
Jets Re-Sign RB Bilal Powell
Bilal Powell will return to the Jets. The team announced the veteran running back reached an agreement to re-sign. Powell worked out for the Jets on Friday. It’s a one-year deal, per Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News (on Twitter), and Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets that Powell will receive a $90K signing bonus. That’s not a huge guarantee, but it is sizable for this time of year, and it likely speaks to the Jets’ belief in Powell’s health.
Cleared from a scary neck injury that was believed at one point to be a career-threatening malady, per Rapoport (on Twitter), Powell is now signed on to play a ninth season in New York. The backfield has obviously changed since Powell’s last time in a Jets uniform, with Le’Veon Bell now almost certainly set for a three-down role, and Powell’s addition crowds the group.
Elijah McGuire, Trenton Cannon and Ty Montgomery join Bell on New York’s depth chart. Adam Gase said this week he wanted increased competition at certain spots, and despite this looking like a fairly well-stocked backfield, the 30-year-old Powell stands to provide some. He holds a career 4.4-yard average per carry and combined for more than 2,100 yards from scrimmage between 2016-17.
A fourth-round pick during the Rex Ryan years, Powell recently wrapped up a three-year, $11.25MM deal. He will team with another Pro Bowl back, having already worked with LaDainian Tomlinson and Matt Forte. While Powell does not figure to be a lock to make the Jets’ roster, he provides far more experience than any of Gang Green’s other backup candidates.
Seahawks Finalize Draft Class Contracts
Linebacker Cody Barton became the latest third-round pick to agree to the terms of his rookie contract. This signing (Instagram link) rounds out the Seahawks’ 2019 rookie deals.
Eighteen third-round picks are still unsigned. This round’s contract agreements drag out every year because of CBA language, but as teams approach minicamps, that number figures to drop dramatically. Barton was Seattle’s lone third-round selection. The Seahawks began this draft with four first-round picks, but numerous trades turned that number into 11.
Chosen 88th overall out of Utah, Barton became the first of two linebackers the Seahawks selected. Ben Burr-Kirven (Washington) joined the team as a fifth-round pick. Both Pac-12 products figure to back up Bobby Wagner, K.J. Wright and Barkevious Mingo as rookies. Barton made a career-high 117 tackles for the Utes as a senior and registered eight sacks between the 2017 and ’18 seasons.
Here is the Seahawks’ 2019 draft class:
- 1-29: L.J. Collier, DE (TCU): Signed
- 2-47: Marquise Blair, S (Utah): Signed
- 2-64: D.K. Metcalf, WR (Ole Miss): Signed
- 3-88: Cody Barton, LB (Utah): Signed
- 4-120: Gary Jennings, WR (West Virginia): Signed
- 4-124: Phil Haynes, G (Wake Forest): Signed
- 4-132: Ugo Amadi, S (Oregon): Signed
- 5-142: Ben Burr-Kirven, LB (Washington): Signed
- 6-204: Travis Homer, RB (Miami): Signed
- 6-209: Demarcus Christmas, DT (Florida State): Signed
- 7-236: John Ursua, WR (Hawaii): Signed
Texans Fire GM Brian Gaine
The Texans GM job is again vacant. The team announced Friday Brian Gaine will no longer serve in that capacity. Gaine began running Houston’s front office in January 2018.
Gaine signed a five-year contract with the Texans, so to see them move on at this juncture — and after the 2018 team compiled the second-most wins in franchise history — is stunning. Senior VP of football administration Chris Olsen will take over in the interim. The Texans went 11-5 and won the AFC South in 2018. They will now join the Jets in conducting a mid-offseason GM search, potentially set to meet with some of the same candidates.
Despite the short duration of Gaine’s tenure, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets no one incident is believed to have prompted this.
Prior to Gaine’s hiring, the Texans dealt with frequent friction in their front office. Reports of Rick Smith, who stepped away after the 2017 season to tend to his ailing wife, and Bill O’Brien butting heads emerged often. O’Brien signed a five-year deal when Gaine was hired and was believed to have a close relationship with him. O’Brien served on the search committee that produced the Gaine hire.
Prior to a 2017 stay in Buffalo as Bills player personnel director, Gaine spent three years with the Texans. Smith promoted from director of pro personnel to director of player personnel in 2015, but he left to take a job under Brandon Beane. Considering Smith received 12 years Texans GM — his first five seasons ending shy of the playoffs — this decision figures to have considerable fallout.
Gaine only oversaw two drafts as Houston’s top front office bastion, and thanks to Texans trades in 2017, the first did not involve first- or second-round picks. This year, Gaine used the Texans’ first-rounder on small-school tackle prospect Tytus Howard. This came after Deshaun Watson was sacked 62 times in 2018 — the most any quarterback has been dropped in a season since Jon Kitna in 2006.
Last year, the Texans sought interviews with seven candidates but ended up meeting with just two — Gaine and assistant GM Jimmy Raye III. Among those on Houston’s 2018 list: Joe Douglas, who is currently the favorite to become the next Jets GM. The Eagles denied the Texans permission to speak with Douglas last year, and the Patriots exercised the same action regarding execs Nick Caserio and Monti Ossenfort.
Before Smith vacated this post last year, the Texans had not had a GM vacancy since the Charley Casserly-to-Smith changeover in 2006.
Rams Wrap Entire Draft Class
And just like that, the Rams’ entire draft class has been signed. After inking three of their rookies on Friday morning, the Rams following up by signing third-round running back Darrell Henderson, third-round cornerback David Long, third-round tackle Bobby Evans, fourth-round defensive tackle Greg Gaines, and fifth-round tackle David Edwards. 
Second-round safety Taylor Rapp was the highest-selected player in the Rams’ rookie class, but most of the attention is on Henderson, who rushed for 1,909 yards and 22 touchdowns on just 214 carries last year. His 8.9 yards per rush was no fluke, as he posted the exact same average as a sophomore in 2017. Henderson could see a decent amount of work behind star Todd Gurley and he’ll really be in the limelight if Gurley’s knee issues remerge in 2019.
Here’s the full rundown of the Rams’ draft class:
- 2-61: Taylor Rapp, S (Washington)
- 3-70: Darrell Henderson, RB (Memphis)
- 3-79: David Long, CB (Michigan)
- 3-97: Bobby Evans, T (Oklahoma)
- 4-134: Greg Gaines, DT (Washington)
- 5-169: David Edwards, T (Wisconsin)
- 7-243: Nick Scott, S (Penn State)
- 7-251: Dakota Allen, LB (Texas Tech)