HEADLINES

Month: November 2024

South Links: Richardson, Phillips, Vaccaro

July 12th, 2014 at 9:17am CST by Matt Feminis

Despite averaging just 2.9 yards per carry in 2013, Trent Richardson is penciled in as the Colts’ No. 1 running back, writes ESPN’s Mike Wells: “Richardson obviously was behind the rest of his teammates after being acquired just days before the Colts’ Week 3 game against San Francisco, but he didn’t show much progress as the season went on. He actually regressed as the season went on. Richardson has to step up to not only avoid being labeled a bust after being taken with the No. 3 pick in the 2012 draft, but also to help the Colts from looking like they got played by the Browns in the trade.” In exchange for Richardson, the Browns received the 26th overall pick, which they used to trade up for Johnny Manziel.

Here’s some more AFC and NFC South links:

  • Shaun Phillips is fitting in well with the Titans thanks to his veteran presence and likable personality, writes Jim Wyatt in the Tennessean. Phillips, 33, has totaled 19.5 sacks the last two seasons with the Broncos and Chargers. He signed a two-year, $5MM deal in Tennessee.
  • Second-year Saints safety Kenny Vaccaro brings unique “duality” to the secondary, writes NFL.com’s Gregg Rosenthal, who identifies Vaccaro as a rising star. Vaccaro’s versatile skill set enables defensive coordinator Rob Ryan to deploy him as a safety, cornerback or linebacker. “Ryan might have asked Vaccaro to do too much as a rookie,” according to Rosenthal. “In the first half of the season, Vaccaro didn’t excel when he lined up as a deep safety. The Saints have spoken this offseason about dialing back Vaccaro’s responsibilities with Jairus Byrd in town. With Byrd taking most of the traditional “free safety” roles, Vaccaro should be freed up to play closer to the line of scrimmage. They should be the best safety tandem east of Seattle.”
  • The Panthers turned over their receiving corps this offseason. With the dust settled, first-rounder Kelvin Benjamin is joined surrounded by a few veterans and a few more unproven players vying for jobs. Panthers.com staff writer Max Henson provided a position preview.
  • Reid Ferrin of AtlantaFalcons.com did the same for the Falcons receiving corps, which has significantly more star power and significantly fewer question marks.

Extra Points: Jets, Johnson, Saints

July 11th, 2014 at 10:34pm CST by Ben Levine

Let’s check out some assorted NFL notes to wrap up this Friday evening…

NFC Links: Saints, Cowboys, Cardinals, Rams

July 11th, 2014 at 10:05pm CST by Ben Levine

Saints tight end Ben Watson was keeping tabs on the franchise tag situation regarding his team and the player he backs up, Jimmy Graham. However, the 33-year-old is confident that both sides will be able to move on and told ESPN.com’s Mike Triplett that heated moments accompany any contract negotiation…

“I’m very confident that it’ll be resolved the right way and guys can move forward. Obviously it’s always tough when you go through litigation with somebody, and it can probably get heated. And I’m sure there are emotions on both sides. But that is the business side of the game.

“And it’s unfortunate that it came to that and that it was so public. But I really think – I know, I don’t think – I know that Jimmy loves New Orleans and I know that he loves our team and the organization and he loves playing here. And we love him, everybody wants him here, coaches included. So when it comes down to contract situations, that’s just a necessary evil…not even evil, but just a necessary progression of getting a player here.”

Let’s check some more NFC notes…

North Notes: Steelers, Ravens, Packers, Bears

July 11th, 2014 at 9:00pm CST by Ben Levine

Steelers coach Mike Tomlin isn’t losing any sleep determining how to use all of his running backs. Le’Veon Bell had a terrific rookie season, and the team added free agent LeGarrette Blount and rookie Dri Archer this past offseason. Figuring out how to best utilize those backs is a tough task, so the coach is going to leave it up to the players. Tomlin told NFL Network’s Total Access hosts Lindsay Rhodes and Brian Baldinger that he’ll let the preseason determine his running back depth chart for next season.

Via NFL.com’s Dan Hanzus…

“I’m excited about letting these guys sort themselves out from a division of labor standpoint. I know that they’re all committed to being a significant component to what we do.”

Tomlin also gushed about his three options…

“Le’Veon Bell has had a great offseason. He’s really shown that he is excited about taking the next step in terms of work that he’s done thus far, particularly from a conditioning standpoint.

“LeGarrette Blount has a definite football playing personality, one that not only is evident on the field but in the locker room. Think he’s going to be positive to our efforts.”

Tomlin added that Archer was a “speed guy” who would play both running back and wide receiver.

Let’s check out some more notes form the NFL’s North divisions…

  • Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown has left Roc Nation and is planning on returning to Rosenhaus Sports for representation, reports Fox Sports’ Mike Garafolo and Ross Jones (via Garafolo’s Twitter).
  • The Ravens defense has changed drastically since the team won the championship in 2013, writes Hanzus. The team dedicated their top-three picks to defenders in 2013 and 2014, with Terrell Suggs and Haloti Ngata remaining as the lone starters from their Super Bowl victory.
  • Following the departure of Evan Dietrich-Smith, the Packers will likely go with former fourth-round pick J.C. Tretter as their starting center, writes ESPN.com’s Rob Demovsky. The 23-year-old missed his entire rookie season with a broken ankle.
  • Bears rookie Brock Vereen has “virtually established himself as the player to beat” for the starting safety position, writes CSNChicago.com’s John Mullin. The writer labels the fourth-round pick as a “draft gem.”

Browns Notes: Whitner, Gordon, Manziel

July 11th, 2014 at 7:36pm CST by Rob DiRe

As Josh Gordon stays in the spotlight for the wrong reasons, many fans and pundits (notably Cris Carter) have called for the Browns to cut ties with their star receiver, but one of his new teammates does not want to see that happen. Donte Whitner does not think he deserves to be released, reports Marc Sessler of NFL.com.

“I know all the dumb things people say — ‘he should be cut, he should be this’ — he shouldn’t,” said Whitner. “He’s a 23-year-old kid; he made some mistakes. A lot of people’s 20-year-old sons make mistakes. We have to help him, and that’s the bottom line. We have to help him collectively. It’s not going be one person that helps him, it’s not going to be two people that help him. It’s gonna come from the front office, the coaching staff, the players and his whole family. We have to help him — not only for football purposes, but for life purposes to get his life in order.”

Whitner also said that most of the team, including cornerback Joe Haden, have reached out to Gordon and that he is “very remorseful” over the situation.

Here are some other notes about the Browns:

  • Whitner also lauded how the offense is taking shape, comparing it to what the Redskins executed under offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan, writes Sessler. “This scheme that they’re running on offense is some of the stuff they did in Washington with (Robert Griffin III),” Whitner said. “So if you get that running, you get the defense guessing, and you’re running the football well and throw the football around and guys’ eyes aren’t in the right place on defense, that’s where a lot of the big plays come from.”
  • Another Browns’ player who has been in the spotlight for non-football related reasons is Johnny Manziel, and Maggie Hendricks of USAToday.com writes that the rookie quarterback is a big winner of the return of LeBron James to the Cleveland Cavaliers. She writes that sharing the city with an NBA star of that stature will take some of the pressure off of Manziel, and will spread out the spotlight.
  • Whether it was because he is relieved to share the spotlight, excited as a fan, or just happy for his friend to join him in Cleveland, Manziel was excited for James to come back to his hometown. Manziel posted to his Twitter and twice on Instagram welcoming James back to Ohio.
  • While Manziel has his detractors, don’t count Hall of Fame cornerback Deion Sanders as one of them. Sanders appeared on 105.3 The Fan with Shan and RJ in Dallas to discuss the embattled quarterback. “The kid hasn’t done anything,” said Sanders. “They’re putting him out there like he’s Justin Bieber — like he’s egging folks on and doing wild and rich folks stuff. He’s not doing stuff like that. He’s a good kid.”

College Quarterbacks Discuss 2015 NFL Draft

July 11th, 2014 at 5:51pm CST by Rob DiRe

Although Blake Bortles was drafted third overall by the Jaguars, the 2014 quarterback class failed to capture the imagination of NFL general managers this past May. Johnny Manziel’s hype got him drafted 26th overall, and Teddy Bridgewater was once thought to be the first pick of the first round, and ended up being the last pick of round one.

Derek Carr, Tom Savage, A.J. McCarron, Zach Mettenberger, Aaron Murray, Logan Thomas and Tahj Boyd all had dreams of being first-round picks at some point during their college careers. Whether those dreams were realistic or not at any point are questionable, but they seemed possible while they were still tearing through their respective conferences.

Even still, two quarterbacks that will be lining up representing their universities come late August would have had a chance to jump all of those drafted. Chase Goodbread of NFL.com caught up with both of these players, who spoke about their NFL futures.

Heisman Trophy winner and National Champion Jameis Winston was only a freshman last year and ineligible for a draft in which he outperformed every single player at his position in college. He led Florida State University all the way to the promise land, and produced one of the greatest seasons by a freshman in the history of college football.

The third-year sophomore could have been the first quarterback taken if he was eligible for the draft, but although he will be able to enter the league next year, it is no certainty that he will. “It’s very important to me. I was always raised as a student first and an athlete second,” Winston said. “I think that’s the main purpose in college. Some athletes lose that perspective. It’s about being a student-athlete, and not just getting that easy money and going to the league. Even if kids leave early, I would want them to come back and get that degree.”

Marcus Mariota of Oregon was eligible for the draft, but elected to return to school. Mariota possesses the combination of size and speed to go along with the traditional quarterback skills that make him one of the most sought after prospects in football. The versatility he will bring to an offense is unlimited, and there was speculation that he could have been the first quarterback taken had he decided to leave school.

The fourth-year junior has two years of eligibility remaining, and has yet to make a decision about entering the 2015 NFL Draft. “We’ll see, I’m not too sure,” said Mariota. “The opportunity to leave obviously is there, but at the same time, college is fun and I’m not sure what I’m going to do yet.”

Although both players seem ambivalent about their hurry to get to the professional level, Michael David Smith of Pro Football Talk expects both players to be with an NFL team this time next year. Both would be expected to be selected very high in the first round. Of course, the same could be said for a number of quarterbacks this past draft, from Manziel to Boyd. A lot can happen in a football season.

Andre Johnson Unlikely To Hold Out

July 11th, 2014 at 4:59pm CST by Rob DiRe

Andre Johnson‘s frustration with the Texans’ organization has been well documented. The star receiver has made it very clear that he has no interest in returning to the team to endure another rebuilding era, and has asked to be traded out of Houston.

Johnson has been linked to a handful of teams as a trade destination throughout the course of this offseason, including the Jets, Colts, Browns, Patriots, Panthers, and Chiefs. However, Johnson’s $10MM salary in 2014 limits his options as teams have already pressed themselves up against the cap.

Johnson has already skipped the team’s mandatory minicamp, a move that caused him to forfeit a $1MM roster bonus, in addition to the nearly $70,000 fine incurred for missing the time.

The Texans have displayed zero interest in moving the best player in the brief history of the franchise, and that is unlikely to change anytime soon. The unfortunate truth for Johnson is that the organization holds all the cards in this standoff.

If Johnson were to try to hold out of training camp, or even the beginning of the regular season, the financial penalties would be tremendous, according to Joel Corry of CBSSports.com. The Texans’ organization could fine their star up to $30,000 per day of training camp missed, which is no small change even for a star of Johnson’s size.

The scarier thought is the money from Johnson’s signing bonus that the team could try to recoup. Corry explains:

Under the NFL Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), teams can recoup 15 percent of the prorated amount of a signing bonus on the sixth day of a training camp holdout. It’s one percent for each additional missed day with a maximum of 25 percent of the prorated amount during training camp. An additional 25 percent can be recovered with the first missed regular season game. After four missed weeks, a team can recover one-seventeenth of the prorated amount for each additional week of the player’s absence. The maximum a team can recover in a season is the entire prorated amount of the player’s signing bonus in that contract year.

This number could be compounded should Johnson decide to holdout, and would prove extremely costly. This is especially true because when Johnson restructured his contract three times to allow the Texans more breathing room under the salary cap, he turned $18.5MM of his base salary numbers into a signing bonus. This is significant because a team cannot go after a player’s already paid salary, but they have the right to try to go after signing bonus money in the event that the player is unwilling to perform.

Other players who restructured their big money contracts, were sure to include language that would prevent the team from going after that money, since it was converted from salary into a signing bonus. In this scenario, the player can help their team create some cap room without directly putting their own money in jeopardy. Johnson failed to include any of this protective language in his restructure.

Because of that, Johnson is in a position to lose a huge amount of money if he continues to fail to reports during training camp. If he had protected his signing bonus, he would be currently in danger of losing less than $500,000 in prorated bonus money at the most, plus game checks for every week he did not play, if it came to that. Now that maximum number has ballooned to nearly $4.45MM. A six day training camp holdout will cost him over $111,000 per day, rather than just over $70,000 total for six days.

Johnson even lost the leverage of a potential retirement, not that this was a realistic scenario anyway. But due to the contract language, he would owe the Texans more than $11.36MM in the event that the receiver retired before the season. Once again, had he protected his signing bonus during the restructures, he would owe less than $1MM if he decided to retire prematurely.

Financially, Johnson has nothing going for him if he wanted to force his way out of Houston. He can ask for all the trades he wants, but if the team is not willing, he will have to show up for work all season, as unhappy as he is with the direction of the team.

Vikings’ Spencer Nealy Suspended Four Games

July 11th, 2014 at 3:09pm CST by Rob DiRe

Vikings’ defensive end Spencer Nealy has been suspended by the NFL for four games for violating the league’s policy on performance-enhancing substances, reports Tom Pelissero of USA Today (via Twitter).

Nealy, a defensive end out of Texas A&M, spent last season on the Vikings’ practice squad after going undrafted in the 2013 NFL Draft. He had a chance to improve his standing and possibly make the 53-man roster in 2014. Two things in his favor this season were the departure of stalwart defensive end Jared Allen and new head coach Mike Zimmer’s tendency of using a rotation on the defensive line that promotes more snaps for backups.

Dolphins’ second-year defensive end Dion Jordan and Chiefs offensive lineman Rokevious Watkins have already received similar suspensions, and LaVon Brazill was cut by the Colts shortly after his year-long suspension was announced.

Nealy will only miss four games, much less than that of Brazill, so just because Brazill was released does not ensure that Nealy will also be cast out from his franchise. However, his pedigree is not close to that of Jordan or even on the level of Watkins. He is much less valuable as an asset going forward, and the team may be unwilling to grant him a second chance.

Nealy released a statement in which he apologized. “I accept full responsibility,” said Nealy, reports Pelissero (via Twitter).

Colts Cut LaVon Brazill, Sign Aaron Burks

July 11th, 2014 at 2:31pm CST by Rob DiRe

The Colts have cut wide receiver LaVon Brazill in the wake of his year-long suspension for violating the league’s substance-abuse policy, reports Adam Caplan of ESPN (via Twitter).

Brazill, who was going into his third year in the NFL, all with the Colts, had 23 career catches but showed signs of ability in key moments last season. He saw increased playing time after the injury to Reggie Wayne, but was unable to turn that opportunity into impactful production.

The team moved on quickly, signing undrafted free agent Aaron Burks, according to Caplan (via Twitter). Burks, a wide receiver out of Boise State University, stands tall at 6’3″ and 205 pounds. The team could use him to replace Brazill’s size and add physicality to a receiver unit.

Following owner Jim Irsay’s recent indiscretions, the Colts were going to be watched closely in how they dealt with Brazill. There was some expectation that the organization would have to provide some latitude in their punishment, considering the parallel situation with their owner.

Poll: Who Will Win The NFC North?

July 11th, 2014 at 1:58pm CST by Luke Adams

While the NFC North was home to the league’s tightest division race in 2013, it wasn’t exactly a thrilling ride — with the benefit of a tie, the 8-7-1 Packers eked out the division crown over the 8-8 Bears and the 7-9 Lions. It was the Packers’ third straight NFC North title, but it was by far the least convincing, in large part due to to an injury that limited Aaron Rodgers to only nine games.

Rodgers is healthy and will look to lead Green Bay to a fourth consecutive division title in 2014, but the Packers won’t have an easy path. Major changes were afoot throughout the NFC North this offseason, including a pair of elite veteran pass rushers joining division rivals. When Julius Peppers made the move from the Bears to the Packers, Chicago responded by signing former Viking defensive end Jared Allen.

Elsewhere in the division, the Lions bolstered an already dangerous offense by inking wide receiver Golden Tate to a lucrative five-year contract and selecting tight end Eric Ebron with the 10th overall pick in May’s draft. The Bears added not just Allen, but also defensive end Lamarr Houston and rookie cornerback Kyle Fuller, who will look to help stabilize the defense on a team whose offense features arguably the best duo of wideouts in the NFL (Brandon Marshall and Alshon Jeffery).

Meanwhile, 2013’s last-place finishers, the Vikings, may find themselves on the outside looking in if it turns into a three-team race. But Minnesota’s offseason shouldn’t be dismissed. The team bolstered its defense by inking linemen Linval Joseph and Everson Griffen to long-term deals, then drafting linebacker Anthony Barr with the ninth overall pick. Throw in a potential franchise quarterback in Teddy Bridgewater and this is a roster with upside, even if the club may still be a year or two away from making any real noise.

What do you think? Will the Packers’ streak be snapped in 2014, or will Green Bay sit atop the North again at the end of the regular season?

Previously:
Who will win the AFC North?
Who will win the AFC West?
Who will win the AFC South?
Who will win the AFC East?

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