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AFC Notes: Hill, Burleson, Flowers, CJ2K

August 21st, 2014 at 8:01pm CST by Zachary Links

The Jets don’t sound like they’re ready to give up on 2012 second round pick Stephen Hill and cut him, writes Brian Costello of the New York Post. “I was pleased with his progress [last year] up until he got nicked and then he got nicked again,” Mornhinweg said. “This year he was even more impressive in the offseason and through training camp, with a few exceptions. There were a couple of days there. So, he’s coming along. And in many cases, this is what happens, at all positions, but especially at the receiver position, that third year they make a pretty good jump. That’s what we’re looking for there.” More out of the AFC..

  • Browns free agent addition Nate Burleson hopes that his strained hamstring won’t keep him off the final roster, writes George M. Thomas of the Akron Beacon Journal. Burleson was held out of Monday’s tilt against Washington and the plan now is for him to play Saturday against the Rams. Meanwhile, Burleson says he’s anxious to learn the outcome of Josh Gordon‘s case.
  • There were rumblings that cornerback Brandon Flowers didn’t want to play on the inside in Kansas City, but he’s playing inside and out without complaint for the Chargers, tweets Ian Rapoport of NFL Network.
  • Some may be questioning how much new Jets running back Chris Johnson has in the tank, but you won’t find any of those skeptics in green and white. “Oh yeah, he still has it,’’ linebacker David Harris said, according to Mark Cannizzaro of the New York Post. “We noticed it the first day when we were in Cortland. He’s still the fastest guy on the field. He’s still got a lot of juice in those legs.’’

AFC North Notes: Burfict, Bengals, Keisel

August 20th, 2014 at 8:30pm CST by Zachary Links

Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton took to Twitter to congratulate teammate Vontaze Burfict on his new contract. “Congrats to @King55Tez on the extension! Well deserved! #whodey #letsroar.” The linebacker tacked another three years on his contract, keeping him in Cincy through 2017. Here’s more from the #AFCNorth..

  • Burfict is now in the “show me” phase of his career after agreeing to a four-year, $20MM extension earlier today with the Bengals, writes Coley Harvey of ESPN.com. Once this deal ends for Burfict at the ripe age of 28, he’ll have more leverage when negotiating his third contract. Combine that with the steady increase in salary-cap money teams will soon have, and Burfict could really cash in on his next pact.
  • In a piece for ESPN Insider (subscription required), Aaron Schatz of Football Outsiders turned in his top ten impact rookies for 2014. While big names like Johnny Manziel and Jadeveon Clowney are on the list, day three offensive lineman Russell Bodine of the Bengals also made the cut. The former UNC center will be starting and must learn the intricate system of audible calls and line checks in Hue Jackson’s offense.
  • Mark Kaboly of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review looks at what the signing of Brett Keisel really means for the Steelers.

AFC Notes: Steelers, Jets, Patriots, Jaguars

August 17th, 2014 at 3:12pm CST by Dallas Robinson

Let’s round up some links from the AFC…

  • The Steelers should consider keeping two quarterbacks on their 53-man roster, opines Ed Bouchette of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. With Bruce Gradkowski locked in as the backup to Ben Roethlisberger, Pittsburgh could save a roster spot by moving Landry Jones to the practice squad. Jones, a 2013 fourth-round pick, would have to be exposed to waivers before being sent to the practice squad, a transaction Bouchette allows is unlikely.
  • In a report labeling the Jets’ risers and fallers, Rich Cimini of ESPN.com lauds the progress of general manager John Idzik’s 2014 draft class, noting that both Calvin Pryor and Jace Amaro, New York’s top two picks, fared well against the Bengals on Saturday.
  • Brian Tyms hasn’t wanted for media attention lately, and Jeremy Gottlieb of Boston.com lists the receiver among four surprising Patriots roster locks, noting that Tyms’ upcoming suspension will actually help him make New England’s squad because management won’t be forced to make a decision on his status until after Week 4.
  • An interesting note from ESPN’s Field Yates, who tweets that Patriots offensive lineman Jordan Devey is the only NFL player to play every snap this preseason; he’s lined up at every O-line position save for center. Devey, a 2013 undrafted free agent, wasn’t listed on Mike Reiss of ESPN.com’s most recent New England roster projection, but perhaps the coaching staff has been quietly impressed with the 26-year-old’s versatility.
  • Some have labeled the Jaguars’ plan to slowly develop rookie quarterback Blake Bortles a response to the failure of former Jag Blaine Gabbert, who was almost immediately thrown into the fire. In his latest chat at ESPN.com, however, Michael DiRocco disputes that argument, noting that general manager David Caldwell & Co. were not involved in the Gabbert flameout.
  • More Jaguars: Ryan O’Halloran of the Florida Times-Union offers his latest roster projection, which includes a few updates in the secondary.

NFC Notes: Bryant, Underwood, Lattimore

August 15th, 2014 at 9:13pm CST by Dallas Robinson

Even after signing a deal that pays him an average of $4.75MM per season with the Jaguars, defensive lineman Red Bryant still isn’t happy about the way his tenure with the Seahawks ended. “It’s football,’’ Bryant told Terry Blount of ESPN.com. “What have you did for me lately? I guess what [Chris Clemons and I] did for them lately wasn’t good enough anymore.” Seattle, in part, let Bryant go in order to retain a far superior talent in Michael Bennett, but it’s not surprising to see a player a bit miffed at his former team. Let’s look at some more notes from the NFC:

  • Though Tiquan Underwood has struggled to distinguish himself during his time with the Panthers, the team is not yet giving up on him, Joseph Person of the Charlotte Observer writes. Head coach Ron Rivera said the 27-year-old has “a skill set [Carolina would] like to have,” but if Underwood can’t crack the Panthers depleted receiving corps, his NFL future could be in doubt.
  • 49ers running back Marcus Lattimore is almost a year removed from a suffering a gruesome knee injury while at South Carolina, but San Francisco head coach Jim Harbaugh says the young ball-carrier still isn’t ready for practice. “He’s been doing well,” Harbaugh told Matt Barrows of the Sacramento Bee. “There’s been gains, but that’s where we’re at – not quite there yet.”
  • Cowboys owner Jerry Jones believes it’s possible that Rolando McClain “shakes things up” at linebacker, according to Jon Machota of the Dallas Morning News. Reports yesterday indicated that Bruce Carter could be losing his handle on Dallas’ weakside linebacker job, so perhaps McClain summon some of the talent that made him the No. 8 overall pick in 2010.
  • Chris Brown of Grantland pens an interesting look at Eagles head coach Chip Kelly, detailing not only the former Oregon head man’s offensive philosophies, but his unique approaches to sport science, nutrition, and practice regimens.

Pro Football Rumors On Facebook/Twitter

August 14th, 2014 at 9:23pm CST by Luke Adams

The NFL’s 2014 regular season debut is just three weeks away, and a significant amount of roster shuffling is expected over the next few weeks, as teams cut their 90-man rosters down to 75 players, and then to 53. There will be plenty of notable stories to track on Pro Football Rumors, and you don’t necessarily have to keep refreshing our site to keep tabs on them. There are a handful of different ways you can follow us to get the latest updates on NFL news and rumors all year.

You can like us on Facebook, and receive headlines and links for all our posts via your Facebook account. You can also follow us on Twitter to have all our posts and updates sent directly to your Twitter feed. Meanwhile, our Google+ page is located here, and if you’d like to follow us using your RSS reader of choice, you can find our RSS feed right here.

If you prefer to receive updates only on roster moves such as signings, cuts, and trades, you can follow our transactions-only feeds via RSS and Twitter.

Pro Football Rumors Features

August 12th, 2014 at 12:34pm CST by Luke Adams

Pro Football Rumors passes along the latest news and rumors on NFL player movement 365 days a year, but those aren’t the only updates you’ll see on the site. On our right sidebar, you’ll find a number of additional features and featured posts. Here’s a rundown of a few of them:

  • Most of the most noteworthy players on the 2014 free agent market came off the board back in March, but there are still plenty of recognizable veteran names available. You can find the full breakdown of veteran free agents by position using our list.
  • With teams having completed most of their major offseason moves, our Offseason in Review series looked back at the changes clubs made to their rosters over the last few months. Our team of writers examined all 32 NFL teams, so be sure to take advantage of our index to find your club of choice.
  • Several players figure to receive contract extensions from their respective teams between now and the start of the 2014 regular season, and we’ve identified a number of potential recipients in our Extension Candidate series, which profiles players eligible for extensions and assesses their value. As the list shows, a handful of the players we’ve profiled have since had their contracts extended.
  • Teams around the league have been active in tweaking their rosters since training camps opened last month. With dozens of transactions being made each week, we’re doing our best to keep tabs on which clubs have full 90-man rosters and which still have open roster spots, as you can see using our updated list of NFL roster counts.
  • 36 trades have been consummated by NFL teams in 2014, and you can find them all on our recap of 2014 NFL trades, which will continue to be updated up to this year’s trade deadline. Meanwhile, you can keep tabs on traded draft picks for 2015 with our tracker.
  • The Pro Football Rumors glossary highlights a number of aspects of the NFL’s salary cap, free agency, and Collective Bargaining Agreement. Feel free to let us know if there’s a specific concept that you’d like us to discuss in a future Glossary piece.
  • We value your input at PFR, which is why we regularly publish polls and have a regular feature called Pigskin Links, in which we highlight a few interesting recent articles from football blogs. You can find our poll archives here and our Pigskin Links pieces right here.
  • The Pro Football Rumors app for the iPhone and iPad is available for free on iTunes.
  • While a handful of our notable articles can be found under the “Featured Posts” section on the right sidebar, the PFR Originals archive rounds up all the original posts from our staff. Recently, we gauged the stocks of veteran free agents Jonathan Vilma and Richie Incognito, and listed the league’s longest-tenured general managers.

AFC East Links: Smith, Decker, Garoppolo

August 8th, 2014 at 10:15pm CST by Dallas Robinson

Let’s round up the latest batch of notes from the AFC East, specifically New York and New England:

  • The Jets’ quarterback situation hasn’t become a controversy as of yet, but as Dennis Waszak Jr. of the Associated Press writes, head coach Rex Ryan is certainly still coy about the competition between projected starter Geno Smith and veteran Michael Vick. “We’ll just let this thing play out,” said Ryan. “It’s our first preseason game. Obviously, we know we have two excellent quarterbacks.”
  • Eric Decker and Chris Johnson made their respective debuts with the Jets last night, and both were pleased with their performances, per Kimberely A. Martin of Newsday. “It was good,” Decker said of working with Smith. “It didn’t feel any different than practices. It’s just fun to go against a different opponent and work on the timing aspect, just getting into a rhythm.”
  • New Jets corner Dimitri Patterson‘s rough debut should give the team some pause, Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News writes.
  • Perhaps in order to showcase him for a trade, the Patriots started Ryan Mallett in yesterday’s preseason game, but it was second-round rookie Jimmy Garoppolo who shined, according to CSNNE.com. Garoppolo played college ball at Eastern Illinois, so it was encouraging to see him succeed against NFL-caliber players (even if they were second- and third-stringers).
  • The Patriots used tablets to go over plays on the sidelines for the first time last night, and head coach Bill Belichick was mostly pleased with the results. “The tablets, you have the ability to hold all the [schematic] pictures in the one tablet so you can kind of scroll through them,” he told Phil Perry of CSNNE.com. “Certainly much more concise and I’d say the quality of the tablets is good, the clarity of the pictures is good.” Belichick did note that he worries about connectivity issues, saying that a backup plan would need to be in place.
  • In a separate piece, Perry passes along some interesting comments from Belichick as he argues that the preseason is the time to work on deciding when to challenge disputed plays.

NFC East Notes: Henery, Giants, Redskins

August 8th, 2014 at 7:55pm CST by Dallas Robinson

We learned this afternoon that Giants offensive lineman Eric Herman has been suspended four games for violating the league’s policy on performance-enhancing drugs. Let’s take a look at some more notes from New York and the rest of NFC East.

Extra Points: McNair, Smith, Brent, Dalton

August 7th, 2014 at 9:38pm CST by Zachary Links

After a 10-month ordeal in which he battled two forms of cancer under an assumed name at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Texans owner Bob McNair has been given a clean bill of health by the team of doctors that treated him, writes John McClain of the Houston Chronicle. Here’s a look around the NFL as we enjoy some preseason football..

  • It was originally scheduled for Friday, but 49ers linebacker Aldon Smith actually met with commissioner Roger Goodell earlier today, writes Matt Barrows of the Sacramento Bee. Goodell is expected to discipline Smith, perhaps with a multiple-game suspension, to start the season.
  • Former Cowboys nose tackle Josh Brent also met with Goodell and a source tells Jean-Jacques Taylor of ESPNDallas.com that the meeting went well. Owner Jerry Jones said earlier that he’ll create a roster spot for the defensive lineman if he’s not suspended.
  • In a piece for CBSSports.com, former agent Joel Corry gives his take on Andy Dalton‘s new contract with the Bengals. Corry writes that the deal sets a new middle salary tier for quarterbacks, one that hasn’t been in place since Mark Sanchez was cut by the Jets and Matt Schaub took a paycut from his Texans deal upon joining the Raiders. The pact may also set a salary ceiling for teammate A.J. Green.
  • Packers coach Mike McCarthy believes that everything is “lined up for” his team in 2014, writes Tom Pelissero of USA Today Sports. “I feel like everything’s lined up for us, with the buildings and the upgrades and everything. It’s all about progress and growth. That’s the way we run our football operations, and I feel like we’re just getting ready to have our best run, hopefully,” the coach said. Meanwhile, quarterback Aaron Rodgers is excited about their young talent at the skill positions, Jordy Nelson‘s new contract, and the addition of Julius Peppers on the defensive line.
  • Bucs quarterback Mike Glennon might have been the only person in Tampa Bay who was upset to see coach Greg Schiano go, writes Tom Jones of the Tampa Bay Times. Schiano was absolutely convinced Glennon was not only the Bucs’ franchise quarterback of the future, but the present. Now that Schiano is out and Lovie Smith is in, Glennon has gone from starter to backup.
  • The Saints traded Darren Sproles to the Eagles this offseason but they might have a clone in UDFA Derrick Strozier, writes Jarrett Bell of USA Today. It won’t be easy landing a spot in a backfield that includes veterans Pierre Thomas, Mark Ingram, Khiry Robinson, and Travaris Cadet, but the diminutive Strozier looks good so far.

Extra Points: Graham, Seahawks, Packers

August 6th, 2014 at 9:50pm CST by Zachary Links

Some have criticized Jimmy Graham for his contract wrangling with the Saints this offseason, but those people should consider his history before judging him in any fashion, writes Jeff Duncan of The Times-Picayune. Duncan outlines Graham’s childhood history which included being abandoned by his mother and stepfather before landing in a less-than-desirable foster care situation. “Obviously I know where I came from, and I know how hard it was to get here and so I’m going to cherish every moment of it and do everything in my power to never go back,” Graham said. More from around the NFL..

  • As the Seahawks prepared for the 2014 draft, their execs considered game tape, player statistics, and all the typical barometers of future success. But they also studied players’ backgrounds, looking deep into the DNA of each young man’s character, writes Dan Pompei of Sports On Earth. True to their word, each of the first six players the team chose in the draft overcame adversity in some manner, though some was of their own doing. “If people have had a lot of adversity and have proven they can overcome that adversity, the chances for them to have success at the next level are going to be better,” General Manager John Schneider said. “It’s important to us to find guys who have a chip on their shoulder and feel they have something to prove.” Second-round choice Paul Richardson was arrested for stealing a backpack as a UCLA freshman, and was subsequently dismissed from the school. He later transferred to Colorado to start over, but he missed his junior year after tearing his ACL before coming back to have a very productive senior season. Like Richardson, fellow second-round pick Justin Britt tore his ACL in 2012 but also bounced back strong.
  • The Packers have had the fortune of employing some legendary GMs, writes Martin Hendricks for the Journal Sentinel. Current GM Ted Thompson ranks No. 4 on the list while the great Vince Lombardi occupies the top spot.
  • While Browns rookie cornerback Justin Gilbert is finding his niche at his position, it’s been a bit of a rougher road for fellow rookie Pierre Desir, the team’s fourth-round selection this year, writes George M. Thomas of the Akron Beacon Journal. Desir finds himself listed third at one corner spot behind Joe Haden and Isaiah Trufant on the recently released depth chart.
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