Jason Fitzgerald of Over The Cap ran down the top wide receivers in the 2016 free agent class, including Browns speedster Travis Benjamin. Benjamin is on pace for over 1,200 yards and eight touchdowns on the year, but he doesn’t have a history of this production and will have to shed concerns that he is a flash in the pan. Fitzgerald estimates that he’ll get a deal in the range of Julian Edelman, Doug Baldwin, and Emmanuel Sanders. That tier generally has a floor of about $4.5MM per year with perhaps $1MM or $2MM more depending on production.
- Interim coach Mike Mularkey says that running back David Cobb most likely won’t be activated to the Titans‘ roster until next week, as Terry McCormick of TitanInsider.com tweets. McCormick (link) adds that the Titans may have to make roster move at cornerback this week with cornerbacks Jason McCourty and Blidi Wreh-Wilson ailing.
- Doran Grant told Mark Kaboly of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (on Twitter) that a couple of teams were looking to sign him off of Pittsburgh’s practice squad and he indicated that’s why he was promoted to the Steelers‘ 53-man roster.
- Ty Sambrailo, who was converted left tackle before hitting the IR, probably isn’t the Broncos‘ left tackle of the future, but his college coach believes that he can come back strong, as Chris Mortensen of ESPN.com writes. “I still believe Ty can be a 12- to 15-year player in the NFL,” said Colorado State coach Jim McElwain, now the coach at Florida. “He’s athletic and he’s nasty. It’s just going to take him awhile to get his strength where he needs to be.” It remains to be seen whether that will be the case for Sambrailo and, if it is, whether that will happen in Denver.
Sambrailo faced an extremely difficult assignment upon entering the NFL in replacing Ryan Clady. It did not go well, and this setback leaves only that sample size from which to judge entering Year 2. But Peyton Manning was frequently under siege — although this was mostly before the Broncos scrapped the under-center looks that marginalized the QB — when the rookie was in, and pass protection was viewed to be his strongsuit coming out of college. Nevertheless, it’s a big blow to Denver’s depth, as zero players who entered the season with any reps with Manning reside on the current depth chart.
If Clady hadn’t gone down for the season, I can’t help but feel like a lot of the early OL struggles would be a non-story. That’s not to say that Sambrailo wouldn’t still go on IR with the torn labrum and bone spurs in his shoulder, but he’s a more natural RT, given his quick feet but deficient strength as a rookie.
The struggles were and are related to Evan Mathis’ hamstring injury, and Ryan Harris’ lack of starting NFL-caliber talent, respectively. Given his high draft status, and excellent fit in a zone blocking scheme, it’s an incredulous thought to suggest that he doesn’t have a future in Denver at this juncture due to an up-and-down rookie season that included attempting to play through a very painful injury.