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NFC West Notes: Gordon, Edmonds, 49ers LBs

November 10th, 2019 at 4:58pm CST by Marc Delucchi

The Seahawks hope they finally found the perfect environment for wide receiver Josh Gordon. One of the most talented receivers in the league, Gordon’s career has been consistently impacted by his struggles with mental illness and substance abuse. After sitting out last week’s game against the Buccaneers, Gordon is expected to make his debut for Seattle and play a “fairly significant amount” tomorrow against the 49ers, according to Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.

Gordon told reporters that Seattle had long been a target destination for him, according to Mike Florio of NBC Sports. Reports recently revealed Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson had lobbied team executives to sign controversial wide receiver Antonio Brown and in Gordon’s statements he mentioned that he and Wilson had discussed teaming up “for awhile.”

Here’s more from around the NFC West:

  • Cardinals running back Chase Edmonds is planning to return in Week 11, according to Jeremy Fowler of ESPN. Edmonds has been out with a hamstring injury and hopes his injury will respond well to another week of rest. Currently with a healthy David Johnson and Kenyan Drake, Arizona would arguably have the deepest group of running backs in football if Edmonds returns to form.
  • In their biggest game of the season, the undefeated 49ers will be starting three 22-year old linebackers in their base defense. However, the team is not particularly worried about their youth, according to Matt Barrows of The Athletic. Kwon Alexander‘s season-ending pectoral injury alongside other injuries to veterans on the depth chart forced rookies Dre Greenlaw and Azeez Al-Shaair into prominent roles alongside second-year player Fred Warner. However, according to Barrows, all three have showcased high levels of maturity throughout the year. In fact, Al-Shair argues that he faced a bigger battle making it this far as an undrafted free-agent than anything he will face against the Seahawks tomorrow.

NFL Workout Updates: 11/1/19

November 1st, 2019 at 8:41pm CST by Marc Delucchi

The latest from the workout circuit around the league:

Denver Broncos

Detroit Lions

Jacksonville Jaguars

New York Jets

Oakland Raiders

NFC East Notes: Williams, Gettleman, Hill

November 1st, 2019 at 6:45pm CST by Marc Delucchi

The NFL and NFLPA will conduct a joint investigation into claims made by Washington’s LT Trent Williams, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL.com. Williams has been one of the best left tackles in football since entering the league in 2010. After solidifying the blindside in Washington for nearly a decade, Williams had been holding out for all of the 2019 season.

The team refused to move Williams before the trade deadline, but the tackle finally reported to the team on Tuesday. However, he has since failed his physical and publicly accused the team of failing to recognize the severity of a cancerous growth on his head this past summer. The team has since denied Williams’ claims of wrongdoing and called for a third-party evaluation. According to Rapoport, the collective bargaining agreement calls for a joint investigation amidst such accusations.

Here’s more from around the NFC East:

  • Giants general manager Dave Gettleman needs to answer for his trade deadline decisions, according to Darryl Slater of NJ.com. Since the second day of training camp in late July, Gettleman has not answered questions from any reporters. Even more concerning, a Giants spokesperson said he is not currently scheduled to address the media again this season, per Slater. Currently at 2-6, many were surprised to see the team give up draft assets for impending free agent Leonard Williams. Moreover, the team recouped no draft capital for any of their veteran players. Slater maintains it is “part of the job” for Gettleman to take questions from the media regardless of how popular his decisions are.
  • Cowboys rookie second-round pick Trysten Hill has become a problem, according to Calvin Watkins of The Dallas Morning News. Per Watkins report, the defensive tackle has recently been sent home after arriving late to practice and fell asleep in the middle of a speech by Hall of Fame basketball player Isiah Thomas. Dallas has not been publicly critical of Hill, but Watkins notes that even after losing starting defensive tackle Tyrone Crawford for the season, Hill remains outside the rotation.

AFC Notes: Dareus, Broncos, Green, Chiefs, Darnold

October 24th, 2019 at 1:56pm CST by cwcrouse

Marcell Dareus will undergo surgery today to repair a core muscle injury, sources tell Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (Twitter link). The defensive lineman is expected to miss 4-6 weeks for Jaguars.

Here’s more around the AFC:

  • Broncos coach Vic Fangio said it was “possible” that CB Bryce Callahan will miss the rest of the season, Nicki Jhabvala of The Athletic tweets. Callaham underwent stem cell treatment on his foot last month and the original projection was 4-to-6 weeks.
  • A.J. Green did not practice today for the Bengals and isn’t expected to play against the Rams in London, Ben Baby of ESPN.com tweets. LT Cordy Glenn will also not play in the contest.
  • DE Frank Clark (neck), DT Chris Jones (groin), LB Darron Lee (illness) and CB Kendall Fuller (thumb) all missed practice for the Chiefs today, Herbie Teope of Kansas City.com tweets. Patrick Mahomes is practicing again for the second-straight day.
  • Sam Darnold was limited in practice today, Brian Costello of the New York Post relays (Twitter link). Darnold was a non-participant for the Jets on Wednesday because of a toe ailment.

NFL Practice Squad Updates: 10/23/2019

October 23rd, 2019 at 4:01pm CST by Marc Delucchi

Today’s practice squad updates:

Atlanta Falcons

Denver Broncos

Jacksonville Jaguars

Los Angeles Chargers

New England Patriots

  • Signed: OL Aaron Monteiro

New Orleans Saints

XFL Notes: Robinson, Cook, Aguayo, Cobb, Gray, Broyles, Boyer, Locke, Novak, Ollie

October 8th, 2019 at 3:58pm CST by Andrew Ortenberg

The relaunched XFL is gearing up for its first season, and they’re starting to announce more and more of their initial player pool. There are a lot of ex-NFL guys in the mix, and we’ll get to that in just a bit, but at least one notable college player is looking to jump right in. Former West Virginia safety Kenny Robinson is entering the XFL draft pool, according to Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk. Robinson was dismissed from West Virginia for academic fraud earlier this year. Florio writes that he was “considered a likely draft choice,” but hadn’t been in school long enough to be eligible for the NFL, which requires you to be three years removed from high school graduation.

That left Robinson with the options of looking for a new school to play at, or entering an alternative pro league. “Now they can see how I hold up mentally and physically,” Robinson told Andy Staples of The Athletic. “They’ll see me playing against guys who have actually been in the NFL and done it.” Robinson will be an early test case for what the XFL is hoping more players opt to do. Ever since they announced they were coming back, the XFL has attempted to position itself as a league for talented high school and college players to consider as an alternative to the NCAA. As Florio notes, Robinson will be eligible for the 2020 NFL Draft. In 12 games for the Mountaineers last year he had 77 tackles and four interceptions, earning a first-team All-Big 12 nod.

And now, onto the NFL alums:

  • In the first group of players that the league announced on Twitter, a few names jumped out. Former Michigan State and Raiders quarterback Connor Cook is on the list. Cook was drafted by Oakland in the fourth-round back in 2016, and even ended up starting a playoff game for them that year after injuries to Derek Carr and Matt McGloin. He spent 2017 as a third-stringer and was released at final cuts the following year. He was briefly with the Lions earlier this offseason, but was waived back in June.
  • Everybody’s favorite kicker Roberto Aguayo was also on the list, as were running backs David Cobb and Jonas Gray. Aguayo, of course, was infamously drafted by the Buccaneers in the second-round back in 2016. He lasted only one year as the Bucs’ kicker despite his draft status, and has become a punchline ever since. Cobb had a brief run as the Titans’ lead back in 2015, but never did anything after that. He most recently played in the AAF with the San Antonio Commanders. Gray was with the Patriots in 2014, and won Super Bowl XLIX with the team. Gray randomly had an absurd week in November of that year, rushing for 201 yards and four touchdowns. He quickly fell out of favor, and was released by New England the following year. He hasn’t even been in a training camp since 2016.
  • Earlier Tuesday, the XFL posted to Twitter their second batch of players. Among the notable names was receiver Ryan Broyles, a second-round pick of the Lions back in 2012. Broyles, a legendary Oklahoma player, showed some promise as a rookie, but injuries derailed his career after that. He last appeared in a regular season game in 2014. There were also a few interesting specialists on the list in longsnapper Nate Boyer, punter Jeff Locke, and kicker Nick Novak. Boyer spent six years in the military and served in Afghanistan and Iraq before becoming a walk-on at Texas. He spent the 2015 offseason with the Seahawks, but was ultimately released. Notably, he is the player who advised Colin Kaepernick to kneel rather than sit during the national anthem. Locke spent four seasons as the Vikings’ punter. Novak is a veteran NFL kicker who spent over a decade in the league from 2005-20017. Ronald Ollie, one of the stars of the popular Netflix show ‘Last Chance U’, is also on the list.

 

NFL Workout Updates: 9/17/19

September 17th, 2019 at 9:15pm CST by Sam Robinson

Here are Tuesday’s updates from the workout circuit, all links going to veteran NFL reporter Howard Balzer’s Twitter unless otherwise noted.

Atlanta Falcons

Cleveland Browns

Dallas Cowboys

Detroit Lions

Green Bay Packers

Indianapolis Colts

  • T Gerhard deBeer, Christian DiLauro, Brandon Hitner, C James Murray (link)

New Orleans Saints

New York Jets

Oakland Raiders

San Francisco 49ers

Seattle Seahawks

Washington Redskins

Latest On Negotiations Between Dak Prescott, Cowboys

September 8th, 2019 at 8:56am CST by cwcrouse

Dak Prescott and the Cowboys are not expected to have a deal completed before the team plays its week 1 game against the Giants later today.

Prescott isn’t rushing to sign a new contract, as he’ll instead wait to receive what he deems as a fair one. The quarterback isn’t too worried about the potential risk for injury, as he has loss of value and disability insurance policies that are valued at over $50MM, sources tell Adam Schefter of ESPN.com. Prescott also has several multi-year endorsements.

“Obviously I want to see it done,” Prescott previously said. “To put a time frame on it, I think I’ve said this before, I’m not going to do that. At this point my focus is all on the Giants and the Giants defense and what this team needs to do to win the game. And next week it will roll to the next opponent. I don’t want to blur my mind or distract myself any with thinking about those talks or thinking about what’s going on when I’ve got enough on my plate to handle. So I’m just focused on the Giants and I’ve got people to take care of [the contract].”

The team would like to get a deal done before the game, though they’ll continue negotiations through the season if they can’t accomplish that goal. Should Prescott and the Cowboys not come to a deal before the offseason, the franchise tag would be a possibility for the quarterback. The two sides are undergoing negotiations this morning, as David Moore of the Dallas Morning News tweets.

Latest On Antonio Brown

September 7th, 2019 at 8:56pm CST by Andrew Ortenberg

One of the weirdest opening weeks in recent memory is starting to wind down, and a full slate of regular season games is right around the corner. Before that though, we have one more batch of notes on Antonio Brown. The All-Pro receiver is a member of the Patriots now, and there will surely be more fallout to come as the dust settles. Brown was on the open market for just a few hours before inking a one-year deal with New England, and the defending champions now have one of the best group of skill position players in the league.

Here’s the latest on the star of the 2019 offseason:

  • First off we have more details on his new contract, courtesy of Adam Schefter of ESPN.com. It was initially reported that Brown’s deal would be worth “up to” $15MM, and include a $9MM signing bonus. Per Schefter, there’s only $1MM in guaranteed money besides the signing bonus. The other $5MM is incentives, he reports.
  • The Raiders ultimately didn’t suspend Brown over his confrontation with GM Mike Mayock, and the Patriots obviously won’t be suspending him. That doesn’t mean he is out of the woods entirely though, as Brown could apparently be suspended by the league office for a Personal Conduct Policy violation. A league spokesman declined to comment on the matter, per Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com, who notes the policy specifically prohibits “[v]iolent or threatening behavior toward another employee or a third party in any workplace.” If the league finds that Brown threatened Mayock as some have reported, he could be slapped with a suspension.
  • The Patriots raised a lot of eyebrows by giving Brown a $9MM signing bonus given his recent erratic behavior. Teams can usually recoup 25 percent of a signing bonus if something goes wrong, per Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports (Twitter link). La Canfora wonders whether the Patriots asked for different language in the contract to protect them further in the event that things go off the rails like they did in Oakland.
  • The Raiders voided Brown’s guarantees before releasing him, and there have been rumblings that Brown might pursue a grievance to try to recoup some of that money. Even if his agent Drew Rosenhaus does pursue the grievance and it is successful, he won’t be getting all that money back. Brown’s deal with Oakland contained offset language, so “the $9 million signing bonus he’ll get from the Patriots — and any other money he earns as a player in 2019 and 2020 — reduces the amount he could pursue in a potential grievance over his voided guarantees,” Tom Pelissero of NFL Network tweets. As such, it doesn’t seem like the grievance will be very high-stakes, if it gets filed at all. 
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