2015 June - Pro Football Rumors

Buccaneers Claim Tim Wright

June 12th, 2015 at 3:03pm CST by Luke Adams

Less than a year after trading him to the Patriots, the Buccaneers have re-acquired tight end Tim Wright, the team announced today in a press release. The Bucs have the No. 1 waiver priority in the NFL this offseason, and placed a claim on Wright after he was cut yesterday by New England.

Wright, 25, grabbed 54 balls for 571 yards and five touchdowns for the Bucs in his rookie season in 2013. However, after drafting Austin Seferian-Jenkins and signing Brandon Myers, the Bucs took advantage of their depth at tight end, sending Wright to the Pats in a deal for veteran guard Logan Mankins.

In New England, Wright didn’t come close to matching his 2013 totals, totaling just 26 receptions for 259 yards, though six of those catches went for TDs. His individual numbers were still more impressive than those compiled by Seferian-Jenkins and Myers in Tampa Bay — the duo combined for just 43 catches, 411 yards, and two touchdowns.

The claim on Wright is the second time this week that the Bucs have taken advantage of their top waiver priority. The club also added former Browns punter Spencer Lanning via waivers, and claimed veteran safety D.J. Swearinger a month ago.

Patriots Sign Matt Flynn

June 12th, 2015 at 2:19pm CST by Luke Adams

FRIDAY, 2:19pm: The Patriots have officially signed Flynn, the team announced today in a press release.

THURSDAY, 3:10pm: The Patriots have agreed to terms on a contract with quarterback Matt Flynn, reports Dianna Marie Russini of ESPN.com (via Twitter). Russini reported earlier today (Twitter link) that Flynn was working out for New England. Shalise Manza Young of the Boston Globe has the corresponding move, tweeting that the Pats are waiving QB Garrett Gilbert.

Russini notes (via Twitter) that she has been told by several sources that the signing has “nothing to do” with Tom Brady‘s situation, and that the Pats simply want to have a veteran quarterback in camp. Still, it makes sense that New England would want a veteran in the mix to start the regular season as well. The team is bullish on Jimmy Garoppolo, Brady’s backup, but if the four-game ban for the reigning Super Bowl MVP is upheld, having a No. 2 QB on the roster with more experience than Gilbert make sense.

Flynn, who turns 30 later this month, has spent most of his career with the Packers, parlaying a huge Week 17 game in 2011 into a three-year contract with the Seahawks in free agency. After never starting a game in Seattle, Flynn bounced around the league a little, joining the Bills and Raiders before returning to Green Bay.

Last season, Flynn backed up Aaron Rodgers once again, completing eight of 16 passes when he saw the field. The Packers carried both Flynn and Scott Tolzien on their roster in 2014, but after they re-signed Tolzien this past March, reports indicated that they weren’t interested in retaining Flynn as well.

Extra Points: Beasley, T. Johnson, Owens

June 12th, 2015 at 1:39pm CST by Luke Adams

At a season tickets holders’ Q&A on Thursday night, Falcons general manager Thomas Dimitroff assured fans – and owner Arthur Blank – that first-round pick Vic Beasley will be locked up soon, as Vaughn McClure of ESPN.com details.

“He has not been signed yet, but it’s very close,” Dimitroff said. “And rest assured, Arthur, it’ll be done very quickly. And he’ll be very happy.”

Here are a few more Friday odds and ends from around the NFL:

Vikings defensive tackle Tom Johnson has been found not guilty on all charges stemming from his arrest last year for disorderly conduct, agent Bardia Ghahremani tells Tom Pelissero of USA Today (Twitter links). Per Pelissero, Johnson plans to file a civil suit against the Minneapolis Police Department.
In an appearance on The Rich Eisen Show (link via SI.com), former NFL wide receiver Terrell Owens said he hasn’t officially retired, adding that he’d be “ready to go right now” if called upon. At age 41, Owens hasn’t appear in a regular season game since 2010, so I don’t expect we’ll see him draw interest from any teams.
With the details of Corey Liuget‘s new contract with the Chargers now available, Jason Fitzgerald of Over The Cap examines how the deal compares to Cameron Jordan‘s extension, and what it means for the 3-4 defensive end market.
Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (on Twitter) believes that Demaryius Thomas, Julio Jones, A.J. Green will break the ceiling in the stagnant wide receiver market. They may all try to reach Calvin Johnson money though, and it remains to be seen whether they’ll do quite that well.

Zach Links contributed to this post.

WR Rumors: Welker, D. Thomas, J. Jones

June 12th, 2015 at 12:01pm CST by Luke Adams

Wes Welker, Demaryius Thomas, and James Jones spent the 2014 season playing in the AFC West, but now all three receivers are free agents. Thomas, of course, isn’t on the unrestricted market like Welker and Jones, but he has yet to sign his one-year franchise tender, meaning he’s not yet officially under contract with the Broncos.

Here’s the latest on the trio of wideouts:

A general manager tells Mike Freeman of Bleacher Report that his team strongly considered signing Welker, but “there was great concern” about his history of concussions. As Freeman writes, teams familiar with Welker’s medical history say they think the ex-Bronco has sustained at least six concussions during his NFL career.
Despite the concern about Welker’s head injuries, which will keep many suitors away, there are still teams interested in adding him. According to Freeman, the Patriots and Broncos aren’t interested in a reunion with Welker, but the Ravens and Dolphins could be good fits.
Thomas, Welker’s old Denver teammate, has until July 15 to sign a long-term contract with the Broncos, and Ian Rapoport of NFL.com says Thomas may not report to training camp if the two sides don’t strike a deal.
While the Broncos consider Thomas’ asking price too high, some league executives have suggested to Rapoport that Thomas deserves a Calvin Johnson-esque deal, based on Thomas’ recent production and the salary cap increases over the last couple years. When Johnson inked his eight-year, $130MM extension in 2012, the cap was $120.6MM. Three years later, it’s up to $143.28MM.
Appearing on SiriusXM NFL Radio (Twitter link) today, Jones identified the Jaguars as a potential fit for him. He also mentioned the Chiefs, Giants, and Seahawks, three teams that reportedly inquired on him when he became a free agent last month.

Brandon Spikes Facing Multiple Charges

June 12th, 2015 at 10:31am CST by Luke Adams

Veteran linebacker Brandon Spikes is facing charges following the traffic incident that resulted in his release from the Patriots. Massachusetts State Police announced today that it has issued a citation charging Spikes with leaving the scene of a personal injury crash, among other charges.

A car registered to Spikes was found abandoned on I-495 in Foxborough, Mass., early last Sunday morning. An OnStar representative told Massachusetts State Police that the driver reported hitting a deer, but no deer was found in the vicinity and the car had front-end damage.

A short time later, police responded to a hit-and-run report nearby. The occupants of the SUV, who said they were rear-ended by a car they didn’t see, were treated for minor injuries at an area hospital and were later released. Police determined that Spikes was speeding and driving negligently when he crashed his Maybach sedan into the SUV.

While leaving the scene of a personal injury crash calls for up to two years in jail, it’s unlikely Spikes will face severe penalties, given the minor nature of the injuries. Still, the case figures to negatively impact his chances of playing for an NFL team this season, since he could face discipline from the league as well. The Pats didn’t even wait for the charges against Spikes to be confirmed before announcing earlier this week that they were cutting the inside linebacker.

Details On Corey Liguet’s Extension

June 12th, 2015 at 10:19am CST by Luke Adams

The full details of Corey Liuget‘s contract extension with the Chargers have surfaced, and the 25-year-old defensive lineman did very well for himself. When news of Liuget’s new deal first broke, I speculated that he would fall into the second tier of 3-4 defensive ends rather than joining players like J.J. Watt, Cameron Jordan, Calais Campbell, and Jurrell Casey in the first tier.

However, the Chargers’ agreement with Liuget indicates that the team is paying him not only for what he has done so far in his career, but for what the club believes he can do over the next several years. Liuget’s deal places him fourth among 3-4 defensive ends in annual salary, falling in just behind Jordan’s new contract, suggesting that San Diego thinks the former first-round pick is still on the rise.

Here are the details on Liguet’s extension, via Michael Gehlken of the San Diego Union-Tribune (Twitter link) and Aaron Wilson of the National Football Post:

New money on five-year extension: $51.25MM ($10.25MM per year)
Total money on six-year contract: $56.727MM ($9.455MM per year)
Signing bonus: $7.5MM
Total guaranteed money: $30.477MM
Total fully guaranteed money: $18.977MM
Annual base salaries:
- 2015: $1MM
- 2016: $3MM
- 2017: $8MM
- 2018: $8MM
- 2019: $7.5MM
- 2020: $8.25MM
Annual salary cap numbers:
- 2015: $7.977MM
- 2016: $10MM
- 2017: $9.5MM
- 2018: $9.5MM
- 2019: $10.25MM
- 2020: $9.5MM
Roster bonuses:
- 2015: $5.477MM (due today)
- 2016: $5MM (due third day of league year)
- 2019: $1.25MM (due third day of league year)
- 2020: $1.25MM (due third day of league year)

Negotiations Stalled Between Dotson, Bucs

June 12th, 2015 at 9:18am CST by Luke Adams

9:18am: Dotson will end his holdout and report to the Bucs’ mandatory minicamp next week, according to Mark Cook of PewterReport.com. As I noted below, that should help restart contract talks between the two sides, and it wouldn’t be a surprise if a deal was agreed upon before training camp.

8:46am: A week ago, we learned that Buccaneers tackle Demar Dotson was seeking a new contract, and wasn’t in attendance at the team’s OTAs as he angled for that new deal. According to Roy Cummings of the Tampa Tribune, Dotson’s absence from the Bucs’ voluntary program has created an impasse in negotiations.

Sources tell Cummings that the Buccaneers previously entered contract talks with Dotson’s camp, aiming to secure their longest-tenured player to an extension. Per Cummings’ sources, negotiations were nearly complete, but they stalled due to a team policy that prohibits the negotiation of contracts with players who are absent from workouts, whether those workouts are voluntary or mandatory.

Based on Cummings’ report, it sounds like the impasse between Dotson and the Bucs may be temporary. The club is holding its mandatory minicamp next week, and if the veteran right tackle reports at that time, it sounds like talks could resume, and an agreement could potentially come together quickly. For now though, as long as Dotson is away from the team, those discussions are at a standstill.

While the Buccaneers have struggled to find a reliable left tackle in recent years, they have received steady production on the right side from Dotson, who has started all but one game for the team since the start of the 2012 season. According to Pro Football Focus (subscription required), Dotson has recorded a positive grade in each of the last three seasons, and ranked 28th out of 84 qualified tackles in 2014. He’s set to earn a base salary of just $2.5MM in 2015.

Extra Points: Incognito, Davis, Wright

June 11th, 2015 at 9:42pm CST by Zachary Links

The Bills‘ offseason signing of Richie Incognito raised some eyebrows, but coach Rex Ryan says that the guard has been nothing but “outstanding” so far this spring, per Mike Rodak of ESPN.com. Incognito has long been regarded as one of the better interior lineman in the NFL. However, the bullying scandal of 2013 put his career on halt and his future in jeopardy. After missing half of 2013 and all of 2014, Incognito signed with Buffalo on a one-year deal with a base salary of $900K.

Panthers linebacker Thomas Davis anticipates landing a contract extension before the start of training camp, Joseph Person of the Charlotte Observer writes. Davis, 32, is entering the final year of a contract that will pay him $7.25MM this year, with a salary cap number of $9.9MM. Davis has averaged 77 tackles a year since returning from the third ACL reconstruction on his right knee in 2012. The Panthers drafted his likely successor when they took former Washington linebacker Shaq Thompson with the 25th overall pick this year, but he’s still confident that Carolina will present him with a fair deal.
With the Patriots having waived tight end Tim Wright, Mike Reiss of ESPN.com revisits the trade that brought Wright to New England last summer for Logan Mankins. As Reiss observes, the Pats also received cap relief and a draft pick in that trade, so Wright may not have been the key piece in the deal, but it’s still a bit surprising that the club parted ways with him.
Head coach Gus Bradley and the Jaguars expect to see veteran pass rusher Chris Clemons at next week’s mandatory minicamp, as Ryan O’Halloran of the Florida Times-Union writes. Clemons hasn’t been present for Jacksonville’s voluntary OTAs this year, but would forfeit his workout bonus if he doesn’t show up next week.
Frustrated with injuries, Eagles outside linebacker Travis Long nearly walked away from the game before ever seeing live action, as Geoff Mosher of CSNPhilly.com writes.

Luke Adams contributed to this post.

West Notes: Cardinals, Liuget, D. Thomas

June 11th, 2015 at 9:37pm CST by Zachary Links

The Cardinals are deep enough at certain positions that GM Steve Keim says he could look to make trades later this summer, Kent Somers of The Arizona Republic writes.

“It’s a good concern, (but) for the first time we have a certain amount of depth here where we’re either going to have the ability to trade a player, or two, or four or five at certain positions that can not only make other NFL rosters, but could potentially start for some teams,” Keim told the Doug and Wolf show on Arizona Sports 98.7. “So I have to be active and make sure that I address that situation so we’re not just releasing players and allowing teams to pick them up.”

Latest On Evan Mathis

June 11th, 2015 at 8:33pm CST by Zachary Links

One of the league’s very best guards is now on the open market and teams are already circling the wagons. Which teams are in Evan Mathis and which clubs look like potential fits? Let’s find out..

It’s not clear if Mathis has interest in the Bills, but the Bills are curious to find out, according to Vic Carucci of The Buffalo News (on Twitter). That union could make a lot of sense since Mathis blocked for running back LeSean McCoy for the last four years.
Kent Somers of The Arizona Republic (on Twitter) hears the Cardinals aren’t interested in Mathis.
The Dolphins, Patriots, and Seahawks all make sense for the 33-year-old, according to Jason La Canfora of CBSSports.com (on Twitter). However, he cautions that Mathis’ price point will start to scare teams off if it gets to be too high.
The Vikings might be a good fit for Mathis, Ben Goessling of ESPN.com writes. Two of the coaches who would work with Mathis the most — offensive line coach Jeff Davidson and head coach Mike Zimmer — are already familiar with him from previous stops. Meanwhile, the Vikings have $10MM+ in cap space for 2015.
The Saints, who have a vacancy at guard after trading starter Ben Grubbs, have only ~$3.5MM of salary cap space available to pursue Mathis, Evan Woodbery of The Times-Picayune notes. Tight end Tim Wright, however, could be more in the Saints’ price range.