2016 September - Pro Football Rumors

Rams’ T.J. McDonald Charged With DUI

September 17th, 2016 at 8:35am CST by Connor J. Byrne

SATURDAY, 8:35am: The Rams have released a statement (via Gary Klein of the Los Angeles Times):

“We are aware the city attorney filed charges today against T.J. McDonald stemming from his arrest in May. As this is an ongoing legal matter, it would be inappropriate to comment further at this time.”

Jeff Fisher also commented on McDonald, noting that the defensive back did an admirable job of ignoring these distractions during last week’s game.

“We were concerned with respect to the issues he was working through,” the head coach said. “But we stood behind him the whole time, knowing that he would come back.”

FRIDAY, 5:13pm: The Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office announced Friday that it has charged Rams safety T.J. McDonald with one misdemeanor count of driving under the influence of drugs, reports Rich Hammond of the Los Angeles Daily News. If McDonald is found guilty, he could face up to six months in county jail and a $1k fine. The NFL could also discipline him.

McDonald was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence of a substance on May 10 in Woodland Hills, Calif., after police said he crashed into a parked car and seemed inebriated. It’s not clear which substance police believe McDonald had used at the time, though Hammond notes that it could have been a narcotic, prescription drug or an over-the-counter drug.

On the field, the 25-year-old McDonald has started in all 38 of his appearances since the Rams selected him in the third round of the 2013 draft. Along the way, the former USC standout has accrued 229 tackles, including a career-high 105 in 2014, four sacks and two interceptions. He amassed eight tackles in the Rams’ 28-0 loss to the 49ers in Week 1.

McDonald is the son of six-time Pro Bowler Tim McDonald, a former NFL defensive back who enjoyed a 13-year career with the Cardinals and 49ers.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Extra Points: Roman, Giants, Jets, Saints

September 16th, 2016 at 9:10pm CST by Connor J. Byrne

Former Bills offensive coordinator Greg Roman, whom the team fired Friday, issued a statement to the Buffalo News’ Vic Carucci, saying, “I just want to thank the Pegulas for the opportunity to work in Buffalo, Russ Brandon, Doug Whaley, Rex Ryan and the entire Bills organization — all the great players and coaches I got to work with. I want to thank all the great fans of Buffalo for all and we love the community of Buffalo. I wish the Bills’ organization the best moving forward.”

The Bills’ decision to fire Roman came as a surprise to him, per Carucci, who tweets that the coach was working on an offensive game plan for the club’s Week 3 matchup with the Cardinals when he received the news. Carucci reported earlier Friday that Roman was not a big Ryan fan and had hoped to head elsewhere at the end of the season.

Here’s more from around the NFL:

Rookie Sterling Shepard, who caught three passes for 43 yards and a touchdown in the Giants’ Week 1 win over the Cowboys, has the chance to be the team’s next great wide receiver, argues Jordan Raanan of ESPN.com. Former Giants cornerback Prince Amukamara had one workout session with the second-round pick from Oklahoma this summer and came away impressed with his skill set. “His confidence and raw skills … he’s just confident in his ability that he’s going to beat the man across from him,” Amukamara said. “And he’s very sudden at the line, meaning he’s quick. He has a combination of [Victor] Cruz and Odell [Beckham Jr.]’s skill set.” Recently, PFR’s scouting guru Dave-Te Thomas praised Shepard in his rundown of the Giants’ rookie class.
Jets receiver Quincy Enunwa could end up as the lone bright spot from ex-general manager John Idzik‘s failed 2014 draft class, opines Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News. Enunwa, a sixth-rounder that year, has begun the season in terrific fashion, having hauled in 13 catches on 14 targets for 146 yards and a touchdown in the Jets’ first two games. The 6-foot-2, 225-pounder appeared in 12 contests last year and failed to find the end zone while amassing 22 receptions on 46 targets. Now, along with the excellent tandem of Brandon Marshall and Eric Decker, Enunwa’s early 2016 breakout has given quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick another quality option in the passing game. “That’s what we didn’t have last year. We didn’t have a No. 3 guy. We didn’t have a No. 4 guy,” said Marshall. “Quincy is our unsung hero.” Fitzpatrick targeted Enunwa six times in the Jets’ 37-31 win over Buffalo on Thursday. Enunwa caught all six passes for 92 yards.
The Saints‘ defensive line couldn’t get any kind of pass rush going against the Raiders in Week 1 and one reader asked Herbie Teope of The Times-Picayune if Paul Kruger can be fairly labeled as a bust signing. Kruger can’t be written off as a bad addition, nor can he be blamed for the lack of pressure on Derek Carr, Teope contends. While Kruger was in on 53 percent of the team’s defensive plays on Sunday, he was restricted somewhat by the team’s defensive game plan along with the rest of the front seven. Carr’s mobility kept the Saints from getting too aggressive, but Teope expects to see a much different plan of action against Eli Manning and the Giants in Week 2. Earlier this month, the Saints signed Kruger to a three-year deal that can be voided after one year. The deal comes with a $2.1MM signing bonus and base salaries of $900K, $1MM, and $1MM.

Zach Links contributed to this post.

Raiders’ Relocation Odds Increasing

September 16th, 2016 at 8:02pm CST by Connor J. Byrne

The odds of the Raiders relocating to Las Vegas are increasing, according to Bleacher Report’s Jason Cole, who hears that both Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval and state Legislature will likely approve businessman Sheldon Adelson’s $1.9 billion stadium plan (video link). Adelson’s proposal calls for a record $750MM in public money, which would come from a hotel tax increase, as well as $650MM from him and another $500MM courtesy of the Raiders.

Cole’s report comes a day after the Southern Nevada Tourism and Infrastructure Committee approved the use of $750MM in public money toward a stadium. That decision, which came after months of negotiations and a threat from Adelson’s company to withdraw financial support, left Raiders owner Mark Davis optimistic about relocation.

“We are excited and thanks to the committee,” Davis told USA Today in a text message.

One potential hurdle is whether the stadium vote comes before or after the Nov. 8 elections in Nevada, notes Cole, though he adds that it would take a “miracle” for the Raiders’ relocation plans to fall through.

Andy Abboud, who’s the vice president of government relations and community development of Adelson’s company, Las Vegas Sands, said Thursday that the Raiders could have difficulty moving by next season if the Nevada Legislature doesn’t hold a special session to vote on the stadium proposal before Nov. 8 (via Art Marroquin and Tom Spousta of the Las Vegas Review-Journal). Abboud’s reasoning: The Raiders’ relocation package would also require approval from the NFL in January, when they’d need 24 of the league’s 32 owners to sign off on a move. Ray Ratto of CSNBayArea.com wrote Thursday that Davis isn’t a lock to receive the necessary amount of support to shift his franchise to Las Vegas.

For its part, Oakland – where the Raiders launched in 1960 – is not “giving up,” Mayor Libby Schaaf told Ratto on Thursday. The city isn’t ready to commit nearly as much in public money to a new stadium as Vegas could, though.

“While Nevada lawmakers consider making the largest public investment in a private stadium deal in history by approving a $750MM public subsidy for a facility in Las Vegas, I will continue to work with the NFL and the Raiders’ designee Larry McNeil to iron out a deal that works for the team, the league, the fans and the taxpayers in Oakland,” Schaaf stated.

The Raiders’ current facility, Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, opened in 1966. The franchise called it home until 1981 and, after spending over a decade in Los Angeles, has played there since 1995.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Minor NFL Transactions: 9/16/16

September 16th, 2016 at 6:38pm CST by Connor J. Byrne

Friday’s minor moves:

The Bengals have made a couple of practice squad transactions, signing offensive lineman Trey Hopkins and cutting cornerback Tony McRae, according to Paul Dehner Jr. of the Cincinnati Enquirer (Twitter link). The Bengals cut Hopkins on Thursday, but his time away from the organization didn’t last long. McRae has spent time with both Oakland and Cincinnati since the ex-North Carolina A&T defender went undrafted during the spring.
The Bills have signed linebacker Bryson Albright to their practice squad, per Vic Carucci of the Buffalo News (Twitter link). Albright has shuffled in and out of the Buffalo organization since it signed him as an undrafted free agent from Miami of Ohio on May 2.
The Saints have waived offensive tackle Ryker Matthews from IR with an injury settlement, tweets Nick Underhill of the New Orleans Advocate. Matthews, who signed with the Saints this year as an undrafted free agent from BYU, landed on IR on Aug. 1 with a knee injury.

Workout Notes: Cards, Lions, Browns, Bears

September 16th, 2016 at 6:22pm CST by Connor J. Byrne

Friday’s workouts from around the NFL:

The Cardinals auditioned a pair of offensive linemen, guard Vlad Ducasse and tackle Garry Williams, reports Adam Caplan of ESPN (on Twitter). Ducasse is the more experienced of the two, having made 78 appearances and 22 starts since the Jets drafted him in the second round in 2010. Ducasse totaled a career-high 11 starts with Chicago last season. Williams has played far fewer games than Ducasse (41), but he has made just one fewer start (21). The 30-year-old’s latest action came in 2014, though, and he hasn’t appeared in more than one game in a season since 2012. Williams spent the first five years of his career with the Panthers.
The Lions tried out two offensive tackles – Sam Young and Laurence Gibson – and defensive tackle Cliff Matthews, tweets Caplan. Young, a sixth-round pick in 2010, has amassed a combined 58 appearances and 13 starts with the Cowboys, Bills and Jaguars. He suited up in all 16 games last season for the first time. The Falcons chose Matthews in the seventh round of the 2011 draft, and he ultimately appeared in 32 games with Atlanta from 2012-14.
The Browns worked out offensive lineman Mike Leidtke, as agent Brett Tessler tweets. Liedtke, an Illinois State product, auditioned for New Orleans last week.
Punter A.J. Hughes tried out for the Bears, according to Caplan (Twitter link).

Zach Links contributed to this post.

Joey Bosa Out Week 2, Could Miss Week 3

September 16th, 2016 at 6:00pm CST by Connor J. Byrne

The strained hamstring that kept Chargers defensive end Joey Bosa from playing in their Week 1 loss to the Chiefs will also sideline him Sunday against the Jaguars. Further, Bosa isn’t a lock to play the Chargers’ Week 3 road game versus the Colts, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (Twitter link).

Nothing has gone according to plan for Bosa or the Chargers since the team selected him with the third pick in this year’s draft. The ex-Ohio State Buckeye and the Chargers engaged in a contentious battle over Bosa’s rookie contract, and he didn’t sign until Aug. 29. The two sides fought over offset language and signing bonus distribution in Bosa’s deal before eventually agreeing to a compromise.

Thanks to the length of his dispute with the Chargers, Bosa missed all of training camp and sat out each of the club’s four preseason games. The now-injured Bosa missed all of the Bolts’ practices this week before they declared him out and hasn’t yet suited up in full pads since ending his holdout.

Without Bosa, a two-time All-American who combined for 51 tackles for loss and 26 sacks during his three-year college career, the Chargers blew a 24-3 lead over the Chiefs en route to a 33-27 overtime defeat last Sunday. San Diego did sack Chiefs quarterback Alex Smith three times, but he still completed 34 of 48 passes for 363 yards and a pair of touchdowns.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Sealver Siliga Visited Buccaneers

September 16th, 2016 at 5:26pm CST by Connor J. Byrne

Free agent defensive tackle Sealver Siliga visited the Buccaneers this week, reports Jenna Laine of ESPN.com. Siliga has been available to sign anywhere since the Seahawks reached an injury settlement with him Sept. 2, but the Bucs are the only team that has shown public interest in him this month.

Siliga, 26, joined the Seahawks on a one-year, $1.4MM deal featuring $250K in guarantees back in March. He spent the previous three years in New England, where he started in 13 of 25 regular-season appearances and was part of a team that beat the Seahawks in the Super Bowl to conclude the 2013-14 campaign. For his career, which also includes a one-game appearance with the Broncos in 2012, Siliga has totaled 96 tackles, 5.5 sacks and a forced fumble.

As of now, the Buccaneers currently have four options at defensive tackle, as Roster Resource shows. Star Gerald McCoy and Clinton McDonald start, while Akeem Spence and DaVonte Lambert are Tampa Bay’s reserves. Spence collected 17 snaps in the Bucs’ Week 1 win over the Falcons. Lambert was inactive.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Latest on Bills’ Firing Of Greg Roman

September 16th, 2016 at 4:51pm CST by Connor J. Byrne

The Bills’ front office forced Rex Ryan to shake up his coaching staff after the team’s 37-31 loss to the Jets on Thursday dropped it to 0-2, reports the Sporting News’ Alex Marvez. That led Ryan to fire offensive coordinator Greg Roman on Friday and replace him with assistant head coach/running backs coach Anthony Lynn.

Ryan disputed the notion that the decision to make a change came from his superiors, telling reporters that he informed Bills ownership of his desire to move on from Roman on Friday morning. Bills owners Terry Pegula and Kim Pegula were supportive, Ryan said (Twitter link via Vic Carucci of the Buffalo News), and Carucci writes that the Pegulas hadn’t been happy with Roman’s offense going back to last season. They expressed their concerns to Ryan on Friday, and he then took action, according to Carucci, who tweets that Roman was not a Ryan fan and had hoped to leave the Bills at season’s end.

“This was my move, 100 percent,” insisted Ryan (Twitter link via Mike Rodak of ESPN.com).

Ryan denied that he scapegoated Roman, per Rodak, but the head coach did distance himself from his ex-assistant’s run-first philosophy (Twitter link).

“I want to be multiple. I want to be able to throw the football,” stated Ryan, who called dual-threat quarterback Tyrod Taylor a “rare talent” and expressed a need to “showcase” his abilities (Twitter link via Carucci).

Thanks in part to Taylor’s legs, the Roman-led Bills had the top-ranked running attack in the NFL last season at 152 yards per game. That number has been more than cut in half in 2016, though, as Buffalo averaged a meager 75.5 rushing yards per contest in losses to the Ravens and Jets.

As a passer, Taylor – whom the Bills signed to a contract extension last month – completed 18 of 30 passes for 297 yards, three touchdowns and an interception Thursday. On paper, those are excellent numbers, but the bulk of Taylor’s success came on scoring tosses to receivers Marquise Goodwin and Greg Salas. He otherwise had difficulty connecting on short and intermediate routes.

Doug Whaley, the general manager who extended Taylor, is now “on notice,” as is the rest of the football operations department, according to Albert Breer of TheMMQB (via Twitter). The long-struggling Bills showed some progress in Whaley’s first two seasons at the helm en route to a 17-15 record, but they’re now on track to miss the playoffs for a league-worst 17th consecutive year.

The chief reason for the Bills’ failures dating back to 2015 has been Ryan’s defense, not the Roman-coached offense. For his part, Ryan admitted Friday that the unit “has to improve” (Twitter link via Breer). The Bills’ defense was a below-average group last season after establishing itself as one of the league’s elite under ex-coordinator Jim Schwartz in 2014. Journeyman quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick carved up the unit Thursday, hitting on 24 of 34 passes for 374 yards and a touchdown, and the beleaguered Bills will next have to deal with Carson Palmer and the Cardinals’ high-octane offense.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

NFL Suspends Manny Lawson Two Games

September 16th, 2016 at 4:43pm CST by Connor J. Byrne

The NFL has handed free agent linebacker Manny Lawson a two-game suspension, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN. There’s no official word yet on why the league disciplined Lawson, but Tim Graham of the Buffalo News reported a month ago that he was facing a one-game ban over a domestic violence incident. Lawson’s agents denied that was the case, though, and Lawson then said that he vowed to “get to the bottom of it.” Publicly, nothing has since come of Lawson’s declaration.

Perhaps thanks in part to his off-field issues, the Bills surprisingly released Lawson as they whittled their roster down to 53 players in advance of Week 1, thereby ending his tenure in Buffalo after three years. Lawson started in 14 of 16 appearances last season, amassing 47 tackles, a sack and interception. All told, in 47 of a possible 48 appearances as a Bill, he logged 29 starts, 6.5 sacks and two picks.

Lawson, 32, hasn’t missed more than two games in a season since 2007, but that streak will end this year. Even if the former 49er and Bengal catches on elsewhere, he has already missed Week 1, and a suspension will keep him off the field until at least Week 4. Given Lawson’s on-field track record (110 starts, 24.5 sacks), the 2006 first-round pick from North Carolina State could end up with a team later this season, though clubs aren’t exactly champing at the bit to sign players fresh off domestic violence incidents.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Jared Goff To Serve As Backup Sunday

September 16th, 2016 at 3:49pm CST by Connor J. Byrne

Quarterback Jared Goff, the No. 1 pick in this year’s draft, was in street clothes for the Rams’ 28-0 loss to the 49ers on Monday. That won’t be the case Sunday, however, as Rams head coach Jeff Fisher said Friday that Goff will back up Case Keenum for the team’s Los Angeles opener against the Seahawks (Twitter link via Alden Gonzalez of ESPN.com).

Goff, who was previously behind both Keenum and Sean Mannion on the depth chart, hasn’t developed as quickly as the Rams hoped he would when they traded up to draft him. General manager Les Snead dealt a handful of highly valuable picks – including first-rounders this year and next, not to mention multiple second-rounders – to the Titans to secure Goff. The former Cal star didn’t progress enough in either training camp or the preseason to earn a spot on the Week 1 active roster, though, and he became the first quarterback to go No. 1 overall and not start the opener of his rookie season since the Raiders’ JaMarcus Russell in 2007.

Considering what Keenum provided in the Rams’ embarrassing Week 1 defeat, Goff could usurp the starting role under center sooner than later. Keenum, an undrafted free agent in 2012, completed just 17 of 35 passes for a paltry 130 yards and two interceptions against the 49ers, whom many expect to compete for the No. 1 pick this year. He might not fare much better this week against an excellent Seahawks defense, one that yielded 10 points and sacked Dolphins quarterback Ryan Tannehill five times last Sunday, which could further hasten the official start of the Goff era.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.