Browns, David Njoku Talking Extension
The Browns and David Njoku are in active extension talks (Twitter link via NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport). The two sides only have until July 15 to get a deal done, but all parties are confident that they’ll come to terms.
[RELATED: Browns GM Proposed Fully Guaranteed Watson Deal]
The Browns used the franchise tag on Njoku, choosing to cuff him despite also having Austin Hooper at the time. The 25-year-old (26 in July) could now command a deal worth upwards of $10MM — something the Browns are reportedly willing to do.
“I’ve been here (Cleveland) for four years going on five,” Njoku said last summer. “I don’t know anything different. I want to keep being here.”
For now, the Browns have Njoku at a $10.8MM cap figure in 2022, a number they hope to tamp down.
Njoku, a 2017 first-round pick, enjoyed his best year in 2018 when he notched 56 grabs for 639 yards and four majors. Despite not putting up eye-popping numbers during his five seasons with the team, he has ultimately shown a willingness to stick around. In 2021, Njoku finished with 36 catches for 475 yards and four touchdowns.
Raiders Sign Nick Mullens
The Raiders are signing Nick Mullens to a one-year deal (Twitter link via NFL.com’s Mike Garafolo). The quarterback will receive just over $1MM guaranteed with a chance to earn up to $2.5MM via incentives (Twitter link via Field Yates of ESPN.com). 
[RELATED: Raiders Begin Extension Talks With Carr]
Mullens will support Derek Carr on the Raiders’ depth chart, alongside Garrett Gilbert. It’s not a given that the Raiders will carry three QBs on their final roster, so it may be a one-or-the-other scenario. For what it’s worth, Mullens has $1.5MM guaranteed versus sub-$100K locked in for Gilbert.
Mullens, 27, has appeared in 20 games over the course of his career with 17 starts. The bulk of those starts came with the Niners, where he spent his first three seasons. Last year, he made just one start for the Browns — a December loss to the Raiders.
Meanwhile, the Raiders have kicked off extension talks with Carr. The 31-year-old currently has one year to go on his contract with a cap hit of $19.8MM.
Saints To Bring Back G Forrest Lamp
The Saints will give Forrest Lamp another opportunity. Although the former second-round pick played just one game with the team last season, he committed to another New Orleans deal Thursday, Mike Garafolo of NFL.com tweets.
A Chargers draft choice in 2017, Lamp has seen injuries largely define his career. He missed all of his would-be rookie season in 2017, suffering a torn ACL during training camp, and went down with a season-ending malady midway through the 2019 season. The Bills placed Lamp on IR during the preseason slate last year, leading him to the Saints.
New Orleans returns its starting interior offensive line — Andrus Peat, Cesar Ruiz, Erik McCoy — and has swingman James Hurst still rostered. Lamp figures to compete for a depth role with the Saints, who allowed longtime left tackle Terron Armstead to join the Dolphins, creating a key question for what has been one of the league’s most stable O-lines.
Lamp, 28, established some momentum by starting all 16 games for the 2020 Chargers, but it did not lead to a key 2021 role. The Western Kentucky alum will nevertheless have another chance to contribute.
Steelers Re-Sign S Karl Joseph
Karl Joseph bounced on and off the Steelers’ active roster last year, but the team will give the former first-round pick another shot. Joseph agreed to re-sign with the Steelers on Thursday, Field Yates of ESPN.com tweets. The Steelers have announced the one-year agreement.
The ex-Raiders first-rounder and Browns starter played just two games as a Steeler last season, being involved in a few promotions from Pittsburgh’s practice squad. But Joseph has a year in the Steelers’ system and 49 career starts to his credit.
Las Vegas cut the veteran safety just before last season, leading the West Virginia alum to the Steelers on a practice squad agreement. Joseph made just two tackles in his first Steelers season, which came after he registered 67 in 14 games (eight starts) with the playoff-bound Browns.
Joseph has intercepted five passes in his career and recovered five fumbles, but the one-time top prospect has never been able to establish himself as an upper-echelon starter. As a result, a lucrative free agency deal has eluded him. The Raiders passed on Joseph’s fifth-year option, and he has now signed one-year deals during each of the past three offseasons.
The Steelers have been monitoring the safety market for a bit now. Longtime starter Terrell Edmunds hit free agency earlier this month but has not signed anywhere. Pittsburgh has been unusually active on the market this year, adding multiple new O-linemen (James Daniels and Mason Cole) and adding likely starters on defense (Myles Jack, Levi Wallace). Mitchell Trubisky headlined Pittsburgh’s March spending. Joseph does not appear to be the answer alongside Minkah Fitzpatrick, but the 29-year-old defender certainly makes sense as a backup for the talented defense.
Falcons Sign S Dean Marlowe
The Falcons have added another veteran to their secondary. The team announced on Thursday that they have signed safety Dean Marlowe on a one-year deal. 
The 29-year-old has spent six seasons in the NFL to date. He was in Carolina for two years after joining the team as a UDFA. It was after he followed many other ex-Panthers to Buffalo, however, that he took on a significant defensive role. His most productive campaign in Western New York came in 2020, where he totalled 22 tackles, 1.5 sacks and his only two career interceptions.
That led to a one-year pact in Detroit last offseason. In his lone season in the Motor City, Marlowe made a career-high nine starts and 16 total appearances. 2021 marked the only time he played over half of a team’s defensive snaps, staying on the field for 70% of Detroit’s plays. He made 67 tackles and registered two pass deflections.
In Atlanta, Marlowe will join a secondary which has already added Casey Hayward. The team’s pass defense was the strongest element of that unit, ranking 18th in the league last season. The James Madison alum will join a safety group already featuring Erik Harris, but also recent draftees Jaylinn Hawkins and Richie Grant. His special teams experience should at least make him a third phase contributor, though he has shown an ability to be a role player on defense as well.
Buccaneers Re-Sign QB Ryan Griffin
Since coming into the NFL in 2013, Ryan Griffin has thrown four career passes. But he has impressed the Buccaneers for years. The veteran quarterback landed another deal with the team Thursday. Griffin signed for near the league minimum again, with The Athletic’s Greg Auman tweeting the sides agreed to a one-year, $1.1MM deal (Twitter link).
The Bucs announced they another Griffin contract. He joins a team that has seen its quarterback situation go from uncertain to stable in recent weeks, with Tom Brady coming back. Blaine Gabbert remains unsigned, however, and Griffin will rejoin Brady and Kyle Trask on Tampa Bay’s QB depth chart.
Griffin, 32, signed with the Bucs last year but did not make their 53-man roster, instead spending the season on the practice squad. Tampa Bay carried Gabbert and Trask as its Brady backups in 2021. Bruce Arians has consistently talked up Gabbert, who played under the Super Bowl-winning coach in Arizona and Tampa. But Arians stepped down as Bucs HC on Wednesday, leaving the former first-rounder’s path unclear. Trask, last year’s No. 64 overall pick, currently resides as Brady’s backup.
Griffin’s Bucs arrival predates Gabbert’s by a few years. He caught on with the team back in 2015, being claimed off waivers from the Saints. One of two Ryan Griffins who entered the NFL in 2013, the former Tulane quarterback saw his lone game action in 2019. But he has been with the team under Lovie Smith, Dirk Koetter, Arians and now Todd Bowles. The Bucs tendered Griffin as an RFA in 2018 and gave him a two-year deal in 2019; he collected a Super Bowl ring on the latter contract.
Rams To Sign LB Bobby Wagner
Bobby Wagner has made his decision, and the Rams will add another future Hall of Famer to their defense. The longtime Seahawks star is headed to Los Angeles on a five-year deal, Adam Schefter of ESPN.com tweets.
After visiting the Rams last week, Wagner will sign a deal worth $50MM. The contract can pay the 10-year veteran up to $65MM. Wagner visited both the Rams and Ravens but will stay in the NFC West to join the Super Bowl champions’ Aaron Donald– and Jalen Ramsey-led defense. Ex-Wagner teammate Richard Sherman was the first to report the news (on Twitter).
Since signing Donald to an extension in 2018, the Rams have not spent much on the off-ball linebacker position. But they were connected to Wagner immediately after his mid-March Seahawks release. While the Ravens made what they believed to be a competitive offer, the Rams ended up handing out an eight-figure-per-year deal to a non-pass-rushing ‘backer. As a result, they now have two six-time All-Pros on defense, with Wagner and Donald combining for 13 such honors. No active NFLers match either’s All-Pro count.
This amounts to a homecoming for Wagner, who is an L.A. native. The Seahawks drafted Wagner in the second round out of Utah State, on the same day they acquired Russell Wilson, and plugged him in at middle linebacker. Although the Legion of Boom received the most attention on the Seahawks’ Super Bowl defenses, Wagner began his Canton-caliber ascent for those teams. His 2014 return from injury catalyzed Seattle’s run back to the Super Bowl and earned him his initial All-Pro honor. Wagner’s six first-team All-Pro selections, among pure off-ball linebackers, rank behind only Mike Singletary and Ray Lewis (seven apiece) since the AFL-NFL merger.
Wagner, 31, will join 2021 third-round pick Ernest Jones as the Rams’ top second-level defenders. The Rams were prepared to pay Von Miller around $15MM annually. Miller signing with the Bills freed up some money, and Matthew Stafford not venturing into the Aaron Rodgers/Deshaun Watson contract realm did as well. And, as the Rams have done in recent offseasons, they subtracted role players (Darious Williams, Sebastian Joseph-Day, Austin Corbett) in exchange for bigger names (Wagner, Allen Robinson) in free agency.
While the Seahawks felt comfortable parting ways with their defensive anchor, Wagner made a career-high 170 tackles last season, doing so despite missing a game. Wagner has compiled 23.5 sacks and 68 tackles for loss over the course of his career, adding 11 interceptions as well. The Seahawks gave Wagner two extensions — in 2015 and ’19. Wagner’s Rams deal runs closer to the 2015 extension, a four-year, $43MM pact that topped the linebacker market at the time.
Minor NFL Transactions: 3/31/22
Bears Sign DB Dane Cruikshank
After spending the first four seasons of his career with the Titans, Dane Cruikshank is moving to Chicago. The Bears have signed the defensive back, according to the player’s agent (h/t Josh Alper of ProFootballTalk.com).
Cruikshank was a fifth-round pick out of Arizona in 2018. The defensive back played mostly a special teams role through his first two seasons in the NFL, appearing in 28 total games. His 2020 campaign was mostly wiped out thanks to a pair of injured reserve stints, limiting him to only a pair of appearances.
The 26-year-old took a clear step forward in 2021, setting career-highs across the board while appearing in about half of his team’s defensive snaps. In 14 games (four starts), Cruikshank collected 43 tackles and one forced fumble.
Assuming Cruikshank slots in as a safety, he’ll be joining a depth chart that currently features Eddie Jackson, DeAndre Houston-Carson, and Michael Joseph.
Vikings To Re-Sign Patrick Peterson
Although the Vikings have changed GMs and coaching staffs, Patrick Peterson will return for a second season in Minnesota.
The All-Decade cornerback said during an appearance on the All Things Covered podcast (Twitter link via NFL.com’s Tom Pelissero) he is re-signing with the Vikings on a one-year deal. The deal is worth $4MM, including $3.5MM in guaranteed money, per NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo on Twitter). This will be Peterson’s 12th NFL season.
Minnesota gave the former Arizona star corner a one-year, $8MM deal in 2021. New GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah praised the Mike Zimmer-era signing recently, and the eight-time Pro Bowler will aim to make an impact in new DC Ed Donatell‘s system. Peterson, who will turn 32 this summer, played 13 games with the Vikings last season. A few other teams — the Bills, Bears, Colts and Commanders — also expressed interest, Peterson said (via the St. Paul Pioneer Press’ Chris Tomasson; Twitter links).
After regressing toward the end of his Cardinals tenure, which featured a 2019 PED suspension, the former top-five pick performed better in his first Vikes campaign. Peterson allowed a 67% completion rate as the nearest defender in coverage in 2020; he dropped that number to 56% last season. Peterson’s passer rating-against figure also dropped considerably (98.2 to 78.7) in that span. While the 6-foot-1 cover man is not the player he was at his peak, he remains a capable starter.
The Vikings waived Bashaud Breeland late last season; he ended the season with the Cards. Former Minnesota first-round corner Jeff Gladney is also with Arizona, having signed with the NFC West squad this offseason. Minnesota returns Cameron Dantzler, who started seven games last year, and signed slot defender Chandon Sullivan from Green Bay. The Vikings also added potential depth pieces in Nate Hairston and Tye Smith this week. Even with Peterson’s return, the Vikings still have a need at the position. Peterson expects the team to further address cornerback in the draft (Twitter link via Tomasson).