The Vikings continue to lock up 2015 draftees today, reaching an agreement with their second-round pick, per Darren Wolfson of KSTP (Twitter link). Wolfson reports that linebacker Eric Kendricks has agreed to terms with Minnesota.
Kendricks, a former UCLA Bruin, was selected 45th overall last week by the Vikings. That draft slot means he’ll be in line for a four-year contract of about $5.156MM, with a signing bonus of almost exactly $2MM. Unlike Trae Waynes, who signed his rookie contract with the Vikings earlier today, Kendricks’ deal doesn’t include a fifth-year option, so he’ll be eligible for unrestricted free agency after the 2018 season.
Minnesota now has three of its 10 draft picks in the fold, having also agreed to terms with sixth-round offensive lineman Tyrus Thompson today.
Former Michigan State cornerback Trae Waynes is officially a Viking, according to Darren Wolfson of KSTP. A source tells Wolfson (Twitter link) that Waynes has signed his four-year rookie contract with the club.
The 11th player selected in the 2015 draft, Waynes will earn nearly $13MM over the life of his rookie contract, and will have the opportunity to make several extra million in 2019 if Minnesota exercises his fifth-year option. Because he just missed the cutoff to be a top-10 pick, Waynes’ fifth year won’t be as pricey as it otherwise would’ve — those amounts aren’t known yet, but for 2016 options, the difference in salaries between a top-10 cornerback and a corner picked between 11th and 32nd exceeded $3.5MM.
Of the 10 players the Vikings selected in last week’s draft, Waynes is the first one reported to have signed his rookie deal, though the others figure to follow suit shortly.
1:27pm: $8.8MM of Agholor’s $9.377MM contract is guaranteed, tweets Ian Rapoport of NFL.com.
1:16pm: The Eagles have locked up their first-round pick, agreeing to terms with wide receiver Nelson Agholor on his rookie contract, the team announced today (via Twitter). Agholor becomes the third first-rounder to reach a deal with his new team, following Jameis Winston and Kevin White.
Agholor, the 20th overall pick last Thursday, should be in line for a four-year contract worth about $9.4MM, with a signing bonus that exceeds $5MM, according to Over the Cap’s draft pool projections. As a first-rounder, he’ll also have a fifth-year option on his deal, which will allow the Eagles to lock him up for the 2019 season as well.
Agholor will join Jordan Matthews, Riley Cooper, Miles Austin, and the rest of an Eagles receiving corps that no longer includes Jeremy Maclin, who signed with the Chiefs in March. With Maclin no longer in the picture, I expect Agholor will get a chance to earn plenty of playing time in his rookie season, with he and Matthews representing the future of the position in Philadelphia.
Some draft prognosticators had the Rams selecting Todd Gurley at No. 10, but Chargers GM Tom Telesco wasn’t expecting him to be the pick. Telesco told Alex Marvez of SiriusXM (audio link) that he thought St. Louis was set at the position with incumbent Tre Mason in the backfield. It turns out that the Gurley selection altered the Bolts’ draft plans at the last minute and forced them to make a move. Here’s more from Telesco’s chat with Marvez…
Telesco explained that after Gurley came off the board at No. 10, he started making calls to other teams. He didn’t expect the University of Georgia star to be available at No. 17, but he did feel compelled to move up in the draft to get a running back after he was taken. The Chargers, of course, moved from No. 17 to No. 15 in order to draft Melvin Gordon.
The GM said that the Chargers have kept in touch with La’el Collins‘ agent and they continue to “compile information” on his off-field situation. A number of teams are getting background information on the LSU tackle and individual players are working hard to recruit him.
Sixth-round pick Darius Philon could see action as an inside pass rusher in nickel packages, Telesco said. He also said that the team will find a role for inside linebacker Denzel Perryman, whom they drafted in the second round.
With NFL rookie contracts coming in at a far more affordable rate than they used to, the most effective way a team can build a cap-friendly roster involves nailing a few draft picks every year, and carrying those players on cheap deals for the first four years of their NFL careers. And given how important it is to get those picks right, teams are increasingly shying away from players with off-field, character, or injury concerns, which might derail their NFL careers or result in suspensions down the road.
A team like the Browns provides a case study for how drafting high-risk, high-reward players can backfire — heading into the 2015 campaign, Cleveland’s best receiver, Josh Gordon, is facing a season-long suspension for repeated drug violations. Meanwhile, the team’s first-round quarterback from a year ago, Johnny Manziel, is coming off a stint in rehab, and it’s unclear whether he’ll be able to bounce back from a forgettable rookie year and contribute to an NFL franchise.
In 2015’s draft, a handful of players who would have been first-round talents, or even top-10 picks, had a number of question marks swirling around them as the draft approached. In some cases, those players still went about where we expected — cornerback Marcus Peters didn’t fall far, going 18th overall to the Chiefs, and defensive end Frank Clark was a second-round pick despite an alleged domestic violence incident that got him kicked off the team in Michigan.
Still, most players who had off-field questions or injury concerns slipped precipitously on draft day. Potential drug concerns for Shane Ray and Randy Gregory resulted in them going 23rd and 60th respectively, rather than in the top 10. Dorial Green-Beckham, Ronald Darby, and P.J. Williams had very strong cases to come off the board on day one if not for off-field question marks. And health concerns caused players like Jaelen Strong, T.J. Clemmings, and Jay Ajayi to fall further than expected.
In some cases, teams’ wariness may be warranted. But given the talent these players possess, I expect at least a couple of them to have long, successful NFL careers, and to make the teams that passed on them regret it. It’s just a matter of identifying which of these players is most likely to overcome the roadblocks currently facing them.
What do you think? Which of the following picks will provide the best value?
Fond of assessing teams’ draft performances hours after their completion, ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. provided some additional immediate analysis (Insider subscription required) on which teams’ depth charts improved the most.
Not coincidentally, six of Kiper’s eight teams mentioned here made their first pick in the top 10, with only the Browns and Seahawks drawing mention for their selections in the middle and near the end of the rounds, respectively.
While Kiper chastised Seattle for reaching each year, he’s come to accept what the franchise does may work, considering the annual production from homegrown players. He identified Tyler Lockett as a potential impact player for a team mostly devoid of them on the outside. Beyond their two first-rounders, the Browns’ third-round bolstering of their backfield with Duke Johnson drew specific praise from the longtime draft expert.
Here is some other news from around the league …
With interior-line players coming to Cleveland after first-round notifications, the Browns were definitely not as flashy in this draft as they were last year, writes Jeff Schudel of the Lorain Morning Journal. Characterizing this year’s class as one orchestrated by Mike Pettine and Ray Farmer rather than what he determines as a Jimmy Haslem move in getting Johnny Manziel last year, Schudel notes the Browns, who may start Josh McCown rather than the first-round quarterback they traded up for in 2014, are planning for low-scoring contests this season.
Coming off a torn ACL sustained in a bowl game, Cedric Ogbuehi seems destined for the physically unable to perform list to start his NFL career, writes Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com in his look at Cincinnati’s new depth chart. Second-round tackle Jake Fisher should also be ready for work at center, offers Hobson, with offensive line coach Paul Alexander preferring versatility from his charges.
With teams allotted $86K in bonuses to dole out to undrafted free agents, this year they are using funds from an unlimited area to compensate for that figure, reports Philly.com’s Paul Domowitch (Twitterlinks). By splitting finances for undrafted performers between bonus money and base salary guarantees, the latter not having a specific limit like the former, teams are spending quite a bit to land their post-draft targets.
The 49ers did the most in terms of securing future resources during this draft, by acquiring two of the five 2016 selections exchanged this weekend, according to Pro Football Talk’s Mike Wilkening. The Chargers and Cowboys traded the 49ers fifth- and sixth-round picks, respectively, in next year’s draft.
Though the draft is over, the Eagles want to add more players, according to head coach Chip Kelly, who says the club want to bring in more offensive lineman and a tight end to replace James Casey (Twitter link via Geoff Mosher of CSNPhilly.com). Philadelphia could look to add UDFAs and/or veteran free agents in the coming weeks.
Let’s look at some more notes from the NFC:
Offensive tackle Corey Robinson says the Ravens, Dolphins, and Washington all called him with interest in signing him as a UDFA before he was chosen by the Lions, according to Michael Rothstein of ESPN.com (Twitter link).
Cardinals GM Steve Keim said he traded up for defensive lineman Rodney Gunter because he thought another team would take Gunter soon, tweets Darren Urban of AZCardinals.com. That mystery team’s GM later confirmed to Keim that he would have selected Gunter had he been available, adds Urban.
Guard Joe Berger was the only free agent whom the Vikings had interest in retaining, Vikes GM Rick Speilman tells Chris Tomasson of the St. Paul Pioneer Press (Twitter link). Berger did end up being the only Minnesota FA to stick around, inking a two-year deal. (The Vikings also re-signed defensive tackle Tom Johnson and long snapper Cullen Loeffler, but both technically signed before the start of free agency).
The 49ers drafted Blake Bell as a tight end, but the club thinks the former college quarterback could serve as an emergency QB in the NFL, per Matt Barrows of the San Francisco Bee (Twitter link), who adds that the presence of Bell could affect San Francisco’s roster construction.
Here’s the complete breakdown of 2015 NFL draft picks by team, sorted alphabetically. Picks are listed by round and overall selection, and the number of picks each team holds is noted in parentheses:
The final day of the 2015 NFL draft is underway, and we’ll get through the last four rounds this afternoon. We recapped the day one and day two action, including every trade, and we also have breakdowns of the first 99 picks by team.
Here are today’s draft results (links to trades indicate that those deals happened today):
Round Four:
Tennessee Titans: Angelo Blackson, DT (Auburn)
New England Patriots (from Tampa Bay): Trey Flowers, DE (Arkansas)
Carolina Panthers (from Oakland): Daryl Williams, T (Oklahoma)
New York Jets (from Jacksonville): Bryce Petty, QB (Baylor)
Jacksonville Jaguars (from New York Jets): James Sample, S (Louisville)
Washington: Jamison Crowder, WR (Duke)
Chicago Bears: Jeremy Langford, RB (Michigan State)
Atlanta Falcons: Justin Hardy, WR (East Carolina)
Tennessee Titans (from New York Giants): Jalston Fowler, FB (Alabama)
Indianapolis Colts (from St. Louis via Tampa Bay): Clayton Geathers, S (UCF)
Minnesota Vikings: T.J. Clemmings, T (Pittsburgh)
New England Patriots (from Cleveland): Tre Jackson, G (Florida State)
Washington (from New Orleans via Seattle): Arie Kouandjio, G (Alabama)
Detroit Lions (from San Francisco via Buffalo and Philadelphia): Gabe Wright, DT (Auburn)
Miami Dolphins: Jamil Douglas, G (Arizona State)
Cleveland Browns (from Buffalo): Ibraheim Campbell, S (Northwestern)