2017 August - Pro Football Rumors

Lions’ Jake Rudock Drawing Trade Interest

August 27th, 2017 at 11:27am CST by Dallas Robinson

Lions backup quarterback Jake Rudock is generating trade interest around the NFL, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (Twitter link), who adds rival clubs attempted to “poach” Rudock last season.

Rudock, a sixth-round pick out of Michigan in the 2016 draft, didn’t attempt a pass during his rookie campaign but did perform well in his most recent preseason contest, as he completed 10 of 13 passes for 113 yards and one touchdown. Entering his age-24 season, Rudock is signed through 2019 under the terms of his rookie contract.

While Rudock didn’t see a snap last season, that doesn’t mean he’s not valuable to Detroit, which only has two other quarterbacks on its roster: starter Matthew Stafford and rookie Brad Kaaya. Kaaya, a sixth-round choice earlier this year, presumably isn’t prepared to serve as Stafford’s backup in 2017, so the Lions would potentially need to secure another quarterback if they deal Rudock.

Chiefs’ Spencer Ware Likely Done For Season

August 27th, 2017 at 10:50am CST by Dallas Robinson

Chiefs running back Spencer Ware is expected to require season-ending surgery for a torn PCL and a damaged LCL, Kansas City head trainer Rick Burkholder told reporters, including B.J. Kissel of Chiefs.com (Twitter link) and Terez A. Paylor of the Kansas City Star (Twitter link).

Initial reports indicated Ware would only be sidelined for two-to-eight weeks, a timeline that would have allowed him to return during the 2017 campaign (the Chiefs would have had the option to designate Ware as an injured reserve/return player). Ware will get a second opinion on his health status, but the outlook isn’t positive.

Kansas City has the depth to withstand the loss of Ware, and rookie third-round selection Kareem Hunt will likely step into the starting lineup. Charcandrick West figures to serve as a reserve, while Chiefs head coach Andy Reid also said veteran back C.J. Spiller will likely be part of Kansas City’s roster (Twitter link via Paylor). If Kansas City searches for an external addition, free agents such as DeAngelo Williams, Rashad Jennings, and Ryan Mathews could come into play.

Ware, 25, has spent the past two seasons with the Chiefs, and was the club’s full-time starter for the 2016 season. Last year, he managed 4.3 yards per carry on 214 rushes and scored three times, adding 33 receptions, 447 yards, and two more touchdowns through the air. Ware is signed through 2018 as part of a three-year extension he signed prior to the 2016 campaign.

Browns Eyeing Trade For Wide Receiver

August 27th, 2017 at 10:13am CST by Dallas Robinson

The Browns are scouring the trade market for a wide receiver, according to Tony Grossi of ESPN.com (Twitter link).

While Cleveland boasts a clear starting combination of wideouts in Kenny Britt and Corey Coleman, the club’s depth chart beyond those top two is a bit sparse (and inexperienced), as the Browns’ other options include Ricardo Louis, Rashard Higgins, Mario Alford, and Jordan Payton. Running back Duke Johnson has also been working as a slot receiver.

When I examined the premier NFL trade candidates earlier this month, I listed two wide receivers: Phillip Dorsett (Colts) and Cody Latimer (Broncos). While neither player has posted much in the way of professional results, each would give the Browns a young pass-catcher at a position of need. Of course, both Dorsett and Latimer are entirely speculative acquisitions for Cleveland.

One wild card in the Browns’ search for a wide receiver is Josh Gordon, who hasn’t been played since 2014 while serving suspensions. Gordon is eligible to apply for reinstatement this fall, and has reportedly spent time in a rehab facility, perhaps buoying his chances of returning to the NFL.

Browns To Name DeShone Kizer Starting QB

August 27th, 2017 at 9:21am CST by Dallas Robinson

The Browns will name DeShone Kizer their starting quarterback following his performance in last night’s preseason game against the Buccaneers, sources tell Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com. An official announcement is expected later today.

Kizer’s numbers against the Buccaneers certainly weren’t very impressive, as the second-round rookie complete only 6-of-18 pass attempts for 93 yards and one interception. But that was apparently enough for Kizer to earn Cleveland’s starting role over veteran Brock Osweiler, as head coach Hue Jackson said he was “comfortable” with Kizer following Saturday’s contest. On the whole, Kizer has attempted 49 passes during the preseason, completing 51% for 351 yards, one touchdown, and one interception.

With Kizer under center, Cleveland will likely continue shopping Osweiler, whom it originally acquired from the Texans in a contract dump earlier this year. The Browns’ attempts to trade Osweiler are nothing news, as the club has reportedly been doing so ever since picking him up from Houston. But given that Osweiler is due a fully guaranteed $16MM salary in 2017, the Browns will need to eat some of that total in order to find a trade partner.

Cleveland’s quarterback depth chart machinations may not stop at the top, per Cabot, who reports the Browns may demote Cody Kessler to fourth-string behind Kevin Hogan. The regular season effects of such a move would be unclear for Kessler, who started eight games as a rookie in 2016.

Eagles Trade Terrence Brooks To Jets For Dexter McDougle

August 27th, 2017 at 8:42am CST by Dallas Robinson

The Eagles have traded safety Terrence Brooks to the Jets in exchange for cornerback Dexter McDougle, Philadelphia announced today.

Brooks, a third-round selection in 2014, will now join the third team of his NFL career (the 26-year-old began his pro tenure in Baltimore before the Eagles claimed him off waivers prior to the 2016 season). Last year, Brooks appeared in 11 games but rarely played on the defensive side of the ball — while he managed only three snaps on defense, Brooks saw action on more than a third of the Eagles’ special teams plays.

Philadelphia didn’t have a need for Brooks, tweets Adam Caplan of ESPN.com, who notes the Florida State product was unlikely to crack the Eagles’ roster. The Jets, on the other hand, could use a third safety behind rookie starters Jamal Adams and Marcus Maye, per Adam Schefter of ESPN.com (Twitter link). New York’s other defense backs include Rontez Miles, Shamarko Thomas, Ronald Martin, and Robenson Therezie.

McDougle’s chances to earn a spot on Philadelphia’s roster are a bit less clear, as the Eagles now have a decent stable of cornerbacks following the trade that netted them Ronald Darby from the Bills in exchange for Jordan Matthews and a draft choice. After Darby, the Eagles boast Jalen Mills, Ron Brooks, Rasul Douglas, Patrick Robinson, and others, including second-round pick Sidney Jones, who may begin the season on the non-football injury list.

If he does make the Eagles’ squad, McDougle will likely play mostly on special teams. Like Brooks, McDougle was a third-round pick in 2014 — in fact, he was chosen just one selection after Brooks (80th overall). He’s mostly been injured during his three-year stay in New York, as he’s only appeared in 20 total games since 2014.

AFC Rumors: Bills, Bortles, Patriots, Broncos

August 26th, 2017 at 8:48pm CST by Sam Robinson

Marcell Dareus‘ standing with the new Bills regime took a hit Saturday night when the team sent the cornerstone defensive tackle home from its preseason game against the Ravens for violating a team rule. The nature of the violation isn’t known, but first-year GM Brandon Beane addressed the matter pregame.

“A guy with his contract status, you’d hope he’d be a better leader than that,” Beane said, via CBS Sports’ Jason La Canfora (on Twitter).

A quadriceps injury has slowed the seventh-year defensive tackle in practice, so it’s uncertain he would have played anyway. Nevertheless, this is another run-in with authority for Dareus, who hasn’t been eligible to play in a Week 1 game since 2014. He was suspended for four games last season and one in 2015, and as Mike Rodak of ESPN.com points out, benched in multiple games under Doug Marrone in 2013 because he showed up late to meetings.

Here’s the latest out of Buffalo and some other AFC cities as the league’s most relevant preseason week continues.

Shortly after the Bills sent Dareus home, they lost their quarterback to a concussion. Tyrod Taylor left the game because of a head injury, the team announced. He is in the concussion protocol. A third-down sack led to Taylor’s removal from the game. Nathan Peterman replaced the starter.
One key facet of Blake Bortles‘ game got him the nod to make a third straight Week 1 Jaguars start over Chad Henne. Marrone pointed to Bortles’ scrambling ability as the key, Ryan O’Halloran of the Florida Times-Union notes. Bortles has rushed for 1,088 yards in his three-year career, and the Jags face the Texans and Ravens during the first two weeks of the season. O’Halloran writes this decision doesn’t change the Jags’ 2018 draft strategy, when another quarterback figures to be in play (barring an unexpected Bortles bounce-back effort).
The Patriots cut Kony Ealy a week early in order to help the former Panthers defensive end catch on with his next team early, thus giving him a better shot to make an impact in 2017, Bill Belichick said. “I just think it’s one of those things that didn’t work out or wasn’t going to work out,” Belichick said, via Mike Reiss of ESPN.com. “Nobody’s fault. He worked hard. We worked hard. A lot of effort put in, but in the end, we didn’t feel like this was going to work out. It gives him an opportunity about a week ahead of next week to hopefully create a better opportunity for himself.” Ealy will be placed on waivers.
Saddled with a ravaged defensive end corps, the Broncos would make sense as an Ealy fit. But Troy Renck of Denver7 said the team doesn’t plan to pursue him (Twitter link). Denver is without Derek Wolfe and Jared Crick for the time being and saw recently re-signed defensive lineman Billy Winn tear an ACL in the Broncos’ first preseason game. UFA addition Zach Kerr also left the Broncos’ preseason game Saturday with a first-half knee injury. Ealy’s best game came against the Broncos, with the former second-round pick sacking Peyton Manning three times and intercepting him once in Super Bowl 50.

Seahawks To Work Out Desmond Bryant

August 26th, 2017 at 8:01pm CST by Sam Robinson

The Seahawks already employ some high-profile defensive linemen they’re attempting to study as potentially useful pieces, but they plan to work out another.

Desmond Bryant will trek to Seattle for an audition, Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times tweets. Bryant did not play last season after suffering an injury away from the Browns’ facility but served as a key player for both the Browns and Raiders during his seven active seasons.

Flush with younger and cheaper defensive end options, the Browns cut Bryant earlier this week.

Cleveland did not ask the 31-year-old defender to take a pay cut prior to the release; Bryant was set to make $4MM this season. He started for three seasons as part of the Browns’ 3-4 look, but a torn pectoral muscle last summer sidetracked his career.

The Seahawks signed 2013 first-round pick Dion Jordan earlier this year and claimed 2014 first-rounder Marcus Smith this summer. While Seattle has Michael Bennett and Cliff Avril entrenched as starters, its backup situation isn’t solidified, as Roster Resource shows. Frank Clark operates as the team’s third end, but second-round rookie Malik McDowell is out indefinitely after being involved in an ATV accident.

Bryant has functioned as both an edge and interior defender. He last played in a 4-3 with the Raiders in 2012. Bryant registered a career-high six sacks with the 2015 Browns.

Minor NFL Transactions: 8/26/17

August 26th, 2017 at 6:54pm CST by Sam Robinson

Here are today’s minor moves.

The 75-man cutdown date no longer exists, but the Eagles made an early start toward paring their roster down to 53 Saturday. Philadelphia waived wide receivers Keevan Lucas and David Watford and also parted ways with cornerback Tay Glover-Wright. An early-entry rookie this year, Lucas spent two weeks with the Eagles. Philly signed Watford to a reserve/futures deal in January; the Eagles cut Watford before the 2016 regular season.
An injury settlement will lead to the Lions and defensive tackle Bruce Gaston splitting up. Gaston previously resided on Detroit’s IR list. He played in nine games in 2015 for the Bears and Packers, respectively.

Fallout From Julian Edelman Injury

August 26th, 2017 at 6:02pm CST by Sam Robinson

Tom Brady offered hopes Julian Edelman could come back this season after the Patriots‘ third preseason game Friday night, but after the team confirmed earlier today the ninth-year wideout tore his right ACL, the Pats will have to adjust again. The team’s primary slot receiver post-Wes Welker, Edelman recorded a career-high 1,106 receiving yards last season and played in 16 games. Edelman missed nearly half the season in 2015, and Brady’s production dipped without his top volume target. The iconic quarterback’s completion rate plummeted from 68 percent in nine Edelman games to 60 percent in seven contests without him. But the Patriots, as Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk notes, are deeper now and are expected to use a group effort to replace the 31-year-old receiver.

New England now employs Brandin Cooks and Chris Hogan, along with second-year player Malcolm Mitchell and a slew of viable receiving backs. Danny Amendola served as Edelman’s primary replacement in 2015, and the veteran figures to be part of the solution two years later. Florio uses New England’s 2016 Super Bowl run as an example of the resourceful team winning without a key pass-catcher. While the Pats won Super Bowl LI without Rob Gronkowski‘s services down the stretch, it’s hard to bank on the all-world tight end being available throughout this now-Edelman-less season. That said, Gronkowski did play in 15 games in both 2014 and ’15. Brady’s only played one game without Gronk or Edelman — 2015 loss to the Eagles — since the pair became the Patriots’ top chain-movers four years ago.

Here’s the latest fallout from the injury situation.

AFC execs and coaches concur with Florio’s assessment, to some degree. “They’ll find another way to do it. So initially, [it’ll hurt them] some, but in the end not much at all,” an AFC coach texted Albert Breer of SI.com. Another added: “Amendola will have to stay healthy and pick up the slack. It won’t be easy, but they’ll make it work.” The 31-year-old Amendola reworked his contract again this offseason to stay with the Pats in what is the final year of his deal. Amendola amassed 243 air yards last season. “Health of others is key,” an AFC exec said, via Breer. “Amendola and [Gronkowski] need to stay healthy, but their offense is diverse enough to pick it up.”
Edelman will still make nearly $7MM this season, with Ben Volin of the Boston Globe (Twitter link) relaying that in addition to his $3MM base salary, the slot bastion collected $3.5MM of his signing bonus and $250K workout bonus. Edelman, though, will miss out on $750K in per-game roster bonuses and a possible $500K in incentives, via Volin (on Twitter).
Anquan Boldin retired from the Bills last weekend and would be an intriguing fit if the 36-year-old pass-catcher could be convinced to delay his busy-looking post-career endeavors, but Volin tweets Buffalo placed Boldin on its reserve/retired list. The Bills hold his rights and would have to relinquish them to green-light a Boldin/Patriots future. Boldin also said a day after his retirement intentions surfaced he won’t make a late-season return, insisting he’s done with the game.
Edelman will stick around Foxborough to do his rehab, Volin tweets, likely offering help to his replacements as they attempt to fill the void created by the absence of one of the game’s top slot targets.

Bills Sign Eric Wood To Extension

August 26th, 2017 at 5:00pm CST by Sam Robinson

The Bills plan to keep Eric Wood around through the remainder of the 2010s, signing the veteran center to a two-year extension, the team announced.

Wood was entering a contract year. The 31-year-old center has been Buffalo’s starting snapper since entering the league in 2009. This deal will take him through 2019.

The extension secures Wood $16MM in new money, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets. It also adds $5.28MM to his 2017 wages. Wood counted for $7.58MM on Buffalo’s books this season. Rapoport adds (via Twitter) this deal comes with $14.2MM in guarantees. Factoring into these figures: Wood received a $6.5MM signing bonus and will collect a $1.75MM roster bonus next week.

This continues to fortify Buffalo’s interior line. The team matched a Rams offer sheet to retain backup center Ryan Groy earlier this year. Groy is signed through 2018.

It also answers the question about the Bills’ belief their second-longest-tenured player can bounce back from a broken leg sustained in November 2016. The team’s 2009 first-round pick, Wood will remain entrenched as Buffalo’s starter and one of the cornerstones of a rushing attack that led the league last season. The Bills paced the NFL by nearly 15 rushing yards per game in 2016, averaging 164.4 per contest.

Prior to the injury that limited Wood to nine games in 2016, the Louisville product played in at least 14 games in the previous four campaigns.