The Rams are expected to pick up their 2017 fifth-year option for wide receiver Tavon Austin, but Los Angeles hopes to sign Austin to a long-term extension before the ’17 season rolls around, per Nick Wagoner of ESPN.com (Twitter link). We heard in February that the Rams are intent on extending both Austin and linebacker Alec Ogletree. Bookmark our 2017 Fifth-Year Option tracker.
The draft is still dominating today’s coverage, but life goes on the NFL world. Let’s dive into some more notes from the NFL’s two West divisions…
- Like the Rams, the Broncos must decide on a fifth-year option — in Denver’s case, it’s for defensive tackle Sylvester Williams, who would command a $6.757MM salary in 2017. Broncos GM John Elway said he’ll make a decision on Williams on Monday, but called the $6MM+ figure a “pretty big number” (links via Troy Renck of the Denver Post and Jeff Legwold of ESPN.com).
- Though the Broncos‘ next offseason focus will obviously be coming to terms on a long-term deal with Von Miller, Elway says the club also wants to work something out with receiver Emmanuel Sanders and linebacker Brandon Marshall, tweets Renck. Both Sanders and Marshall are both entering the final years of their respective contracts, and Sanders, for his part, recently expressed a desire to stay with Denver.
- Former Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch still hasn’t filed his retirement papers, but Pete Carroll thinks Lynch is committed to remaining retired, according to Sheil Kapadia of ESPN.com (Twitter link). “Your guess is as good as mine,” said GM John Schneider when asked about Lynch’s plans (Twitter link via Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times).
- Both Carroll and Schneider said the Seahawks are working on finding another quarterback, and are still speaking with free agent Tarvaris Jackson, tweets Condotta. For what it’s worth, the Seattle duo made those comments before reportedly agreeing to terms with former TCU QB Trevone Boykin.