HEADLINES

Month: November 2024

AFC Notes: Ravens, Steelers, Jets, Bills

August 16th, 2017 at 7:34pm CST by Connor J. Byrne

Free agent running back Ryan Mathews may be a fit for the Ravens, but signing him would require the club to overlook his ball security issues, observes Jamison Hensley of ESPN.com. Mathews has fumbled a league-high 20 times since 2010, notes Hensley, who adds that Ravens head coach John Harbaugh cut the playing time of Ray Rice, Lorenzo Taliaferro and Javorius Allen in recent years after each had problems in that department. “You play the best players, and at running back, the best players don’t fumble,” Harbaugh said in 2015. While Mathews has his flaws, including injury concerns, he has nonetheless averaged a lofty 4.4 yards per carry on nearly 1,200 career attempts. A Ravens team that tied for 20th in YPC last year (4.0) and won’t have the injured Kenneth Dixon in 2017 could use the type of per-carry production Matthews’ brings to the table.

More from the AFC:

  • The Steelers invested a second-round pick in Senquez Golson in 2015, but the cornerback’s lack of availability could bring an end to his time with the team, according to defensive coordinator Keith Butler (via Ray Fittipaldo of the Pittsburgh-Post Gazette). “If he can’t stay on the field we can’t keep him,” said Butler. “That’s just the fact of the matter. That’s not threat or anything like that. That’s just the fact of the matter. It’s just the way it is for all of them.” Injuries prevented Golson from playing a down in either of his first two seasons, and a hamstring issue has kept him out for almost all of training camp this year.
  • Jets wide receiver/return man Lucky Whitehead will undergo surgery on his broken foot, head coach Todd Bowles told reporters Wednesday (via Dennis Waszak Jr. of the Associated Press). While it’s unclear exactly how much time Whitehead will miss, he’ll be on the shelf for a while. Bowles said that Whitehead “could potentially” play this year, per Waszak. The late-July waiver claim from the Cowboys had been in line to begin the season as Gang Green’s top returner. With would-be replacement Jalin Marshall out the first quarter of the season because of a suspension, the Jets could turn to one of Frankie Hammond, Romar Morris, Chris Harper or Marcus Murphy, Waszak suggests.
  • Fifth-round rookie Nathan Peterman has passed T.J. Yates on the Bills’ depth chart at quarterback, leading Mike Rodak of ESPN.com to argue that the team should release the veteran. The Bills would only have the untested Peterman behind starter Tyrod Taylor at that point, but as Rodak writes, the loss of Taylor for an extended period would kill their already slim hopes of contending anyhow. Further, cutting Yates would allow Buffalo to keep another player at a position of need, and it’s possible the team would be able to re-sign him at a later date if an emergency were to arise under center. Yates nearly went without an employer last season until the Dolphins signed him in mid-December, after all, though he did suffer an ACL tear late in the previous year.

Latest On Potential Greg Olsen Extension

August 16th, 2017 at 7:01pm CST by Connor J. Byrne

The Panthers gave an extension to one of their most productive, respected veterans – linebacker Thomas Davis – on Tuesday. Tight end Greg Olsen might not get the same treatment, though: While interim general manager Marty Hurney and Olsen’s agent, Drew Rosenhaus, have discussed a new deal, an agreement isn’t imminent, Joseph Person of the Charlotte Observer reports.

Greg Olsen

An extension for Olsen isn’t a must from the team’s point of view, as the prolific pass catcher still has two seasons remaining on the three-year, $22.5MM pact he inked before the 2015 campaign. Further, Olsen hasn’t created any behind-the-scenes issues over extension talks. The 32-year-old would like a new contract, but he announced last month that he’s willing to play out the current deal so as not to serve as a distraction to the Panthers. However, Olsen did indicate on Wednesday that an extension could come this summer.

“I haven’t talked to Marty about it or anybody about it,” Olsen said. “If something gets done, great. But we’ve got a lot going on now with training camp and preseason and whatnot. So it hasn’t been really something I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about. But we’ll see over these next couple of weeks what happens.”

Olsen, whom Hurney acquired in a 2011 trade with the Bears during his first stint as Carolina’s GM, has become one of the top players in the Panthers’ relatively short history. The ex-Miami Hurricane hasn’t missed a game during his six years with the Panthers, and he has averaged 71 catches, 897 yards and five touchdowns per season with the club. He’s coming off his third straight 1,000-yard season, making him the first tight end in league history to accomplish that feat. It’s easy to make a case that Olsen deserves a new deal, then, especially considering he’s only seventh among TEs in yearly value on his current accord. But there’s apparently no rush on either side to make it happen.

Minor NFL Transactions: 8/16/17

August 16th, 2017 at 6:27pm CST by Connor J. Byrne

Wednesday’s minor NFL transactions:

  • The 49ers have placed linebacker Donavin Newsom on injured reserve and and waived/injured fellow LB Jayson DiManche. An undrafted rookie from Missouri, Newsom avoided a severe neck injury during practice last week, but he still suffered a concussion. DiManche has been with the 49ers twice in recent months, and his second tenure with the team only spanned 11 days. The 26-year-old has 29 NFL appearances on his resume, all of which came with the Browns and Bengals from 2013-15.
  • The Falcons have signed running back Jhurell Pressley, according to JuliaKate E. Culpepper of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Pressley, a 2016 undrafted free agent from New Mexico, spent time on Atlanta’s practice squad last year, before which he had stints with the Vikings and Packers.
  • The Seahawks have signed linebacker Rodney Butler, waived linebacker Ronald Powell with an injury settlement, waived wide receiver Jamel Johnson and waived/injured safety Jordan Simone (Twitter link via Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times). Butler had been awaiting an opportunity since going undrafted this spring from New Mexico State, where he amassed 165 tackles last season. Powell is the only member of this quartet with NFL experience, having appeared in 14 games (no starts, one tackle) with the Saints in 2014. He originally signed with the Seahawks off the Bears’ practice squad last December. Johnson, who went undrafted back in 2014, has had two Seahawks stints – the most recent of which didn’t even last two weeks. Simone, undrafted in 2016, has been in and out of the Seahawks organization since late May. He was a playmaker from 2014-15 at Arizona State, where he totaled 191 tackles, five sacks and four interceptions.

Lions Waive/Injured Brandon Copeland

August 16th, 2017 at 5:18pm CST by Connor J. Byrne

The Lions waived/injured linebacker Brandon Copeland on Wednesday. Copeland will either land on the Lions’ injured reserve or head to free agency via an injury settlement if he goes through waivers unclaimed.

Brandon Copeland (Vertical)

Detroit lost the 26-year-old Copeland to a season-ending torn pectoral on Monday, just one day after defensive end Kerry Hyder saw his 2017 conclude prematurely on account of a torn Achilles. Copeland hasn’t been nearly as important to the Lions’ defense as Hyder has, having totaled a mere 13 tackles and one start in two seasons. However, Copeland led the Lions’ special teams unit in snaps in 2016 (305), pacing a group that Football Outsiders ranked No. 6 in the NFL. The year before, he piled up 313 ST snaps – good for third among Lions.

In less notable moves, Detroit signed offensive lineman Connor Bozick, tight end Andrew Price and defensive end Giorgio Newberry. No one from that trio has any NFL experience.

Dolphins Work Out Kelvin Sheppard

August 16th, 2017 at 5:01pm CST by Connor J. Byrne

Along with the previously reported Rey Maualuga, the linebacker-needy Dolphins worked out free agent Kelvin Sheppard on Wednesday, according to Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald (on Twitter). Miami didn’t sign either player and “will keep monitoring options,” writes Jackson, who adds that the team hasn’t ruled out picking up Maualuga. Whether it will continue considering Sheppard is unclear.

Kelvin Sheppard

Had the Dolphins inked Sheppard to a deal Wednesday, he’d have been in line for his second stint with the team. Sheppard was a member of the Dolphins from 2014-15, when he made 30 appearances with the club and started 15 times. Nearly all of those starting appearances (14) occurred in 2015, a season in which Sheppard amassed a career-high 102 tackles. The former LSU Tiger wasn’t much of a difference-maker in Miami, though, and also wasn’t a high-impact defender in stints with the Bills (2011-12), Colts (2013) and Giants (2016).

Sheppard, 29, appeared in each of the Giants’ games last season and made 11 starts, but he finished with just 47 tackles, failed to force any turnovers and earned a poor grade (39.1) from Pro Football Focus. He hadn’t generated any known interest in free agency until his workout with the Dolphins.

Miami’s decision to bring in Maualuga and Sheppard came as a reaction to the ACL tear that ended second-round rookie linebacker Raekwon McMillan‘s season last week. The Dolphins will also go without Koa Misi, whom they placed on injured reserve in June as a result of the spinal fusion surgery he underwent last year, further weakening their depth at linebacker.

Latest On Ezekiel Elliott

August 16th, 2017 at 4:45pm CST by Connor J. Byrne

Last September, when the NFL was investigating domestic violence allegations Tiffany Thompson made against Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott, she expressed a desire to blackmail him, Charles Robinson of Yahoo Sports reports. Thompson and her friend had a text messaging exchange in which the former noted that she was considering selling sex videos of herself and Elliott. When the friend suggested leveraging the videos against Elliott, Thompson replied, “I want to bro.” Thompson also registered the the email address “ezekielelliott sex vids” in August 2016, according to Robinson.

Ezekiel Elliott (vertical)

While Elliott is appealing the six-game suspension the NFL handed him last week as a result of its domestic violence investigation, the texts between Thompson and her friend won’t necessarily lead to a shorter punishment for him. There’s nothing in them to disprove Thompson’s accusations against Elliott, for one; further, the league already knew of the texts when it was looking into the case, as it explained in its 160-page report of the investigation that Robinson obtained:

“The League’s forensic experts also recovered evidence from Ms. Thompson’s phone that she had registered an email address titled, “ezekielelliott sex vids” during the month of August, 2016. In addition, a text message with her friend [name withheld by Yahoo] was recovered that showed them talking about their need to make more money and Ms. Thompson raised the idea of selling the sex tapes she had of herself and Mr. Elliott. Her friend [name withheld] said they should blackmail Mr. Elliott with them, they’d be “millionaires”. Ms. Thompson replied that she’d like to but was scared. When Ms. Thompson was asked about this by the League’s investigators, she stated that she did have sex tapes of her and Mr. Elliott on her phone and she did open the email account but she denied doing so to blackmail Mr. Elliott.”

That’s not going to fly for Elliott’s camp, which will use the texts to establish a lack of credibility on Thompson’s part, according to Robinson. Elliott will have the NFLPA on his side, which the league accused on Wednesday of “spreading derogatory information to the media about the victim in Ezekiel Elliott’s discipline case.” The NFLPA issued a response on Twitter, contending that “the League office has a history of being exposed for its lack of credibility.”

NFC West Notes: Rams, Watkins, Seahawks

August 16th, 2017 at 3:28pm CST by Zachary Links

Here’s a look at the NFC West:

  • The Rams started discussing a Sammy Watkins trade with the Bills in the spring when they declined to exercise his fifth-year option in the spring, L.A. GM Les Snead told SiriusXM (Twitter link). The Watkins deal came completely out of left field, so it’s impressive that the two sides were able to keep rumblings of the deal out of the media for four months. The Rams acquired Watkins and a 2018 sixth-round selection in exchange for for cornerback E.J. Gaines and a 2018 second-round pick. Los Angeles has already expressed interest in inking him to an extension.
  • Tramaine Brock‘s one-year deal with the Seahawks is for the minimum salary, Bob Condotta of The Seattle Times tweets. In the days leading up to his deal with Seattle, we heard that Brock had interest from as many as a dozen teams. Since Brock will only be making the minimum, it sounds either like the level of interest league-wide was overstated or Brock took less money from a quality team like the Seahawks in order to give himself a better platform for free agency next year.
  • 49ers GM John Lynch says he has spoken with Broncos GM John Elway about which players might be available in trades (Twitter link via Matt Maiocco of NBC Sports Bay Area). Lynch offered no specifics, so we don’t know which players were discussed or how close the two sides were/are to a deal.

Rams Host Leodis McKelvin On Visit

August 16th, 2017 at 1:43pm CST by Zachary Links

The Rams are meeting with free agent cornerback Leodis McKelvin, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets. He’ll chat with the team on Wednesday and work out for them on Thursday. Leodis McKelvin (Vertical)

[RELATED: Seahawks Sign Best Available CB]

Things have been quiet for McKelvin ever since being let go by the Eagles in February. He auditioned for the Saints late last week, but that was his first known workout of the offseason and he left New Orleans without a deal.

The Rams shook things up in a major way last week, acquiring Sammy Watkins in a surprising blockbuster trade with the Bills. Clearly, they are not shy about shaking up the roster here in August.

The Rams plan to use Trumaine Johnson and Wade Phillips favorite Kayvon Webster as the starting corners with Nickell Robey-Coleman as the slot specialist. McKelvin, if signed, could push Blake Countess and Michael Jordan for a spot on the 53-man roster. The team will be without Troy Hill for the first two games of the year thanks to his suspension for DUI.

Jets Sign WR Kenbrell Thompkins

August 16th, 2017 at 12:46pm CST by Zachary Links

The Jets have signed wide receiver Kenbrell Thompkins. To make room, the team waived/injured safety Doug Middleton. Kenbrell Thompkins (vertical)

Thompkins may have a shot at sticking on the roster after the Jets saw Quincy Enunwa suffer a season-ending neck injury and return specialist Lucky Whitehead went down with a broken foot. Right now, things are pretty dire in New York with Robby Anderson, Marquess Wilson, Charone Peake, and rookies ArDarius Stewart and Chad Hansen atop the depth chart. Jalin Marshall won’t be able to join the team until October thanks to his four-game ban.

Thompson spent time with the Jets in 2015 and totaled 17 passes for 165 yards. His best NFL season was his first – he had 32 grabs for 466 yards and four scores with the Patriots in 2013.

Seahawks To Sign CB Tramaine Brock

August 16th, 2017 at 11:09am CST by Zachary Links

The Seahawks have agreed to a one-year deal with cornerback Tramaine Brock, sources tell Mike Garafolo of NFL.com (on Twitter). The Seahawks met with Brock on Tuesday and it didn’t take long for a deal to come together. Tramaine Brock

The Seahawks were actually among the teams with interest in Brock back in April, but clubs stopped calling in the wake of domestic violence allegations. When he was cleared of all charges last week, as many as 12 teams came calling, including the Seahawks, Texans, and Vikings. The incumbent 49ers were discussing a new deal with him in the spring but they did not circle back to him.

Brock, 28, spent the last two seasons as a starter for the Niners. While the free agent cornerback market still features some big names (like Darrelle Revis), Brock stood as the most talented one of the bunch at this juncture of the offseason. The Seahawks didn’t necessarily need Brock, but their famed Legion Of Boom has gotten even deeper with his addition.

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