Here are Thursday’s practice squad signings and cuts from around the NFL:
Today’s minor signings, cuts, and other moves..
8:24pm: The two sides have reached agreement on a four-year, $43.6MM extension, a person with knowledge of the deal tells Michael Marot of The Associated Press. Colts GM Ryan Grigson has confirmed the pact, as Mike Chappell of the Indy Star tweets.
“Left tackles like Anthony Castonzo are hard to come by. He’s a team first guy that works as hard at his craft as anyone I have ever been around regardless of position. His desire to be great literally consumes him and he is a shining example of the sacrifice it truly takes every single day to be at the top of his game come Sunday. From ownership on down we are all extremely happy that AC will be wearing the horseshoe for many years to come, ” Grigson said.
2:29pm: Castonzo will get a four-year extension worth $42MM, sources tell Rapoport (Twitter link), who adds that the Colts tackle will get $35MM in the first three years of the deal.
2:24pm: After locking up wide receiver T.Y. Hilton earlier in the preseason, the Colts appear poised to sign another key offensive player to a new contract. According to Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (Twitter links), Indianapolis is finalizing an extension for left tackle Anthony Castonzo, and will pay him $10.5MM annually on the new deal.
Castonzo, who turned 27 last month, took over the Colts’ left tackle job on a full-time basis shortly after being selected by the club in the first round of the 2011 draft. In 2013, he ranked 27th out of 76 qualified offensive tackles, according to Pro Football Focus’ advanced metrics (subscription required). In 2014, he placed 12th out of 84 qualified tackles, further increasing his value to Andrew Luck and the Colts.
While owner Jim Irsay indicated this summer that an extension for Luck would likely have to wait until 2016, he suggested that locking up Hilton and Castonzo, who had both been set to enter contract years, would be a top priority for the Colts.
“We have a little time with trying to work on a few extensions,” Irsay said. at the end of July. “There’s no reason Anthony Castonzo and T.Y. Hilton can’t get done. Look for us to keep core players and our top players. I don’t think it’ll be a distraction. I can’t see why we can’t get something done before Labor Day with T.Y. and Anthony.”
The Colts may not have quite met that unofficial deadline of Labor Day, but they were fairly close. Their pending agreement with Castonzo is the latest in a string of new contracts for left tackles around the league — Washington’s Trent Williams signed a mega-deal worth $13MM+ per year at the end of August, and the Patriots extended Nate Solder through 2017 earlier this week.
At $10.5MM per year, Castonzo will earn a top-five salary for left tackles, equaling Ryan Clady‘s per-year figure for the Broncos, according to Over the Cap’s data. Castonzo had been set to earn a $7.438MM for the 2015 season.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Cowboys defensive end Greg Hardy announced that he has accepted his four-game suspension, as David Moore of The Dallas Morning News tweets.
“While I am terribly disappointed to miss the first four games of this season, I am absolutely determined that my issue is not going to be a distraction for the Cowboys,” Hardy said in a statement (via PFT). “I have enormous affection and respect for everyone here, and having seen the impact a court case can have on an NFL organization, I believe it is in the team’s best interest for me to announce that I will not pursue any further litigation. Everything I do from this point on will be designed to bring glory and pride to my family, their family and this team.”
In the wake of Tom Brady‘s victory over the NFL, some speculated that Hardy could have had a better chance of getting his suspension reduced or eliminated altogether via litigation. However, time was not on the side of the Cowboys star. Had he started the legal process after the Brady ruling, Hardy probably could not have gotten a ruling in his own case before Week 4.
Now that he has accepted the four-game suspension, he’ll have the potential to earn up to about $10.628MM this season. The 26-year-old’s contract has a modest base salary, but features up to $9.25MM in per-game roster bonuses and about $1.8MM in incentives. By getting his penalty reduced from 10 games to four games, Hardy will have the opportunity to earn nearly $3.5MM in extra per-game roster bonuses.
As a refresher, Hardy allegedly assaulted and threatened to kill ex-girlfriend Nicole Holder in May of 2014. After being found guilty by a judge, Hardy was scheduled to get a jury trial, but due to a lack of cooperation by Holder, the charges against the defensive end were ultimately dismissed, as he reached a civil settlement with his accuser. While the case played out, Hardy spent the 2014 season on the commissioner’s exempt list for the Panthers, missing all but one game. The Cowboys signed Hardy earlier this offseason before word of his suspension broke, and a four-game ban is about what the team had initially expected. For a while, it appeared that Hardy would be serving a ten-game suspension, but that was chopped down in July.
The Jets and Muhammad Wilkerson are “nowhere close on a deal,” according to Jason La Canfora of CBSSports.com (on Twitter). He adds that there won’t be in-season negotiations between the two parties and a long-term deal after the season is unlikely (Twitter links).
Wilkerson, 26 in October, skipped voluntary workouts and organized team activities because of stalled contract talks with the Jets. He would later admit that he was a “little frustrated” with the way negotiations were going, but he attended mandatory minicamp and training camp.
Wilkerson is set to earn $6.969MM this season, and the Jets could opt to franchise tag him in 2016. The Jets added even more leverage to the talks when they used the No. 6 overall pick in the draft to select USC defensive lineman Leonard Williams, regarded by some as the best talent in this year’s class. However, the pendulum might have swung back the other way a bit when Sheldon Richardson was suspended for four games for violating the league’s substance abuse policy.
As a 3-4 defensive end in a blitz-heavy scheme, Wilkerson isn’t in a position to put up large numbers in the traditional statistical categories, only notching 24 sacks in his four seasons, including a robust 10.5 in 2013. Still, advanced metric sites like Pro Football Focus (subscription required) have rated Wilkerson extremely highly, listing him as the second-best 3-4 defensive end in 2012 and third best in 2014. J.J. Watt was first both of those years, and Richardson was ranked second this past season. Accordingly, he was named a Pro Football Focus All-Pro in both of those seasons.
Over the summer, PFR’s Rob DiRe looked at Wilkerson as an extension candidate.
With the NFL season nearly underway, we’ll have a whole new series of topics to discuss in the coming weeks, and PFR’s Community Tailgate is designed to address those topics. What’s the Community Tailgate all about? Well, it’s pretty simple. Every weekday, we’ll highlight one of the top stories going on in the NFL. Then, in the comment section below, we want you to weigh in and let us know what you think.
Of course, while the debate may get spirited, we ask that it all stays respectful. If you need a reminder of our rules, please check out our commenting policy. Basically, we ask that you refrain from inappropriate language, personal insults, and attacks. Speaking of commenting: we’ve made it much easier to leave a comment here at Pro Football Rumors. You are no longer required to be a registered user – simply put in your name, email address, and comment and submit.
The 2015 NFL season officially kicks off in just a few hours! In advance of tonight’s contest between the Steelers and Patriots, the writers at Pro Football Rumors weighed in with projections for the upcoming year. We’ve predicted which teams will earn playoff berths, which clubs will win their respective conferences, the Super Bowl champion, and the winners of the league’s major awards.
Can the Packers still finish as a top team despite the absence of Jordy Nelson? Three of our writers say yes and have picked Green Bay to win it all. However, the Colts are also picked to make noise in 2015 behind Andrew Luck, who wound up as a popular pick to win MVP.
We gave you our thoughts – now we want to know what you think! Let us know in the comment section who you think will win the Super Bowl, MVP, and all of the other major awards this season.
5:00pm: Dareus’ deal calls for $42.9MM fully guaranteed at signing, Rand Getlin of NFL Network tweets. That puts him second only to Ndamukong Suh for defensive players and well north of the guarantees given to quarterbacks Russell Wilson and Cam Newton.
He’ll make a whopping $28MM in the first year of his deal, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets.
9:54am: As is often the case with new contracts, it appears the initial reports on Dareus’ extension overvalued the deal a little. Per Vic Carucci of The Buffalo News (all Twitter links), the base value for Dareus’ six new years is around $95MM, though he could earn up to about $100.35MM via incentives. That sounds similar to Mario Williams‘ six-year deal with the Bills, which is worth $96MM, or up to $100MM in incentives.
Carucci adds, as expected, that the $60MM in guarantees aren’t all full guarantees.
9:30am: Ian Rapoport of NFL.com provides an important detail on Dareus’ deal, tweeting that the $108MM figure includes the 2015 season, so the six new years are worth about $100MM — right in line with Watt’s deal.
9:17am: With just three days to go until their regular season opener, the Bills have locked up star defensive lineman Marcell Dareus to a new contract, reports Adam Schefter of ESPN.com. According to Schefter (via Twitter), the Bills and Dareus have agreed to a six-year extension worth $108MM.
The agreement is the result of negotiations that appeared to be ongoing for a good chunk of the offseason, with Bills GM Doug Whaley indicating after the draft that getting Dareus signed to a new contract was the team’s top priority this summer. Dareus had been set to play out the final year of his rookie contract, with a fifth-year option salary of $8.06MM.
A defensive tackle under old head coach Doug Marrone, Dareus appears likely to continue playing on the inside under Rex Ryan, occupying the nose tackle role in Dennis Thurmond’s 3-4 scheme. Interior defensive linemen typically don’t post huge sack numbers, but Dareus has done an impressive job getting after the quarterback in his first four seasons, recording 28.5 career sacks, including 10 in 2014, a total that matched teammate Jerry Hughes‘ output. That number may decline for the first time in 2015 as Dareus moves to nose tackle, but the Bills value his ability to stop the run at least as much as his ability to bring down the quarterback.
Without extensively studying Dareus’ game tape, his overall impact against opposing run games is hard to quantify, particularly since the Bills were outside of the top 10 run defenses in 2014, allowing 106.4 yards per game and 4.1 yards per carry. However, Pro Football Focus (subscription required) ranked Dareus first among the league’s defensive tackles as a run defender, giving him a +20.7 grade. By comparison, Ndamukong Suh was second, with a +17.6 mark.
Speaking of Suh, when Dareus addressed his contract situation last month, he cited the Dolphins’ defensive star when he expressed his frustration with his own negotiations. At that point, the Bills had reportedly offered Dareus an extension worth $90MM over six years, and when he was asked what sort of figures he was seeking, the Bills’ star replied, “I’ll just say, ‘Thank you, Suh.’”
His new extension doesn’t quite match Suh’s deal with Miami, but Dareus appears to have done very well, surpassing J.J. Watt‘s six-year, $100MM contract with the Texans. According to Schefter (via Twitter), Dareus’ contract features $60MM in guaranteed money, which would be the highest guarantee for a non-quarterback deal in NFL history. Jason La Canfora of CBSSports.com tweets that the extension includes $65MM in injury guarantees, along with a $25MM signing bonus.
At this stage, many of those figures are coming from the player’s camp, so we’ll have to see how much of the contract is fully guaranteed. But it sounds like a massive deal for Dareus, and one that will keep him in Buffalo for the next several years. It could also pave the way for other defensive lineman extensions, with players like Muhammed Wilkerson of the Jets and Dontari Poe of the Chiefs among the extension candidates at the position.
Dareus will serve a one-game suspension to start the 2014 season.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Reports this week have indicated that Eli Manning and the Giants are making progress toward a new contract extension, and it looks increasingly possible that a deal could be reached before New York’s Week 1 opener against the Cowboys. Adam Schefter of ESPN is the latest to express optimism, suggesting today on NFL Live that Manning will likely have an extension in place by Sunday that pays him north of $20MM annually (Twitter link).
As we wait to see whether the Giants and Manning can get something finalized this week, let’s round up a few more NFC items….
3:42pm: Pryor tells Cabot (Twitter link) that the Browns cut him to clear a spot on the roster to claim running back Robert Turbin off waivers from the Seahawks. It makes sense that Cleveland would want another running back on the roster, with just two backs currently active and one of them – Duke Johnson – recovering from a concussion. However, Turbin has an injury of his own — his ankle is expected to sideline him for a few more weeks.
3:34pm: Terrelle Pryor, playing a new position, appeared over the weekend to have earned a spot on the Browns’ Week 1 roster, but it sounds like he won’t be on the team for its regular season opener after all. Per Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk (via Twitter), the Browns are waiving Pryor, who converted to wide receiver this summer.
According to Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com (Twitter link), Pryor himself confirmed his release. “This will be a mistake by them,” he said.
The move comes as a bit of a surprise, since Pryor reportedly impressed Cleveland’s coaching staff over the summer as he transitioned into a new role. Although he was limited by a hamstring issue and head coach Mike Pettine said it would require a “leap of faith” to carry him on the roster, Pryor looked like a back-of-the-roster player with some upside, one who could perhaps be involved in some gadget plays and act as the team’s emergency quarterback if necessary.
The last time Pryor was cut, back in June by the Bengals, the Browns snatched him off waivers, and the Cowboys and Patriots also submitted claims, per Dianna Russini of ESPN.com (Twitter link). Of course, at that time, teams were carrying 90 players on their rosters, so it’ll be interesting to see if the former Raiders signal-caller makes it through waivers unclaimed this time around.
3:24pm: Despite all the reports suggesting the Bengals and Green are trying hard to reach a compromise, a deal doesn’t appear imminent. A league source tells Michael David Smith of Pro Football Talk that while the two sides are talking, they’re not currently close to an agreement. As expected, the main roadblock appears to be the Bengals’ reluctance to guarantee any money beyond the first year of an extension.
1:55pm: With Demaryius Thomas, Dez Bryant, Julio Jones, and T.Y. Hilton all set to play on new contracts this year, A.J. Green is the last notable extension candidate at the wide receiver position without a new deal of his own. However, all signs point to the Bengals and Green pushing hard to get something done before the team’s regular season opener.
Coley Harvey of ESPN.com reported this afternoon that talks between the Bengals and Green had “picked up,” with the two sides seemingly moving closer to an agreement. Jim Owczarski of the Cincinnati Enquirer (Twitter link) agreed that the “extension rumblings” are picking up for Green, with Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweeting that the two sides are working hard to finalize a new contract.
Jason La Canfora of CBSSports.com (Twitter link) continues to hear that Green’s camp would like to beat Jones’ deal, which would make the Bengals’ star the second-highest-paid wide receiver in the NFL. However, La Canfora isn’t sure Cincinnati will be willing to budge that far. The team is typically reluctant to give out significant guaranteed money on contract extensions, with even quarterback Andy Dalton getting a modest $17MM guarantee on his new $96MM deal last year. Jones received $35.5MM in guaranteed money on his five-year, $71.25MM extension with the Falcons.
Green, who would play out the season on his $10.176MM fifth-year option if he doesn’t sign a new contract, has made four consecutive Pro Bowls since entering the league as the fourth overall pick out of Georgia in 2011. After catching 97 balls in 2012 and 98 in 2013, Green was slowed down last year with injuries, finishing with 1,041 yards and six touchdowns on 69 receptions. With the 2015 season about to get underway, the 27-year-old looks healthy and poised for a big year.