2018 February - Pro Football Rumors

Ravens Did Not Violate Rooney Rule

February 6th, 2018 at 12:09pm CST by Zachary Links

Last week, the Ravens announced that general manager Ozzie Newsome will step down in 2019, allowing longtime assistant GM Eric DeCosta to take over. Although the position has been filled without first interviewing a minority candidate, the Fritz Pollard Alliance has confirmed that the team is not in violation of the Rooney Rule.

“Under Rooney Rule protocol, when a club has established a firm succession plan that involves an internal coach or executive replacing a departing head coach or general manager, no external search is required,” the Fritz Pollard Alliance said in a statement (via Jeff Zrebiec of The Baltimore Sun). “Examples of such circumstances include Jim Caldwell‘s succession of Tony Dungy as head coach of the Indianapolis Colts and Jim Mora‘s succession of Mike Holmgren as head coach of the Seattle Seahawks. DeCosta’s pending succession of Newsome does not violate the Rooney Rule. The FPA salutes Ozzie Newsome for his groundbreaking tenure with the Ravens and congratulates DeCosta on his pending promotion.”

The succession plan has been in the works “over the last five years,” according to Newsome. Michael David Smith of PFT first reported that the move was not in violation of the Rooney Rule.

Saints Cut DT Tony McDaniel

February 6th, 2018 at 11:55am CST by Zachary Links

The Saints announced that they have released defensive tackle Tony McDaniel. McDaniel was already scheduled for free agency in March, so his return to New Orleans was never assured.

McDaniels hooked on with the Saints in late December for his second stint with the team. The 33-year-old’s first go ’round came over the summer when he appeared in all four preseason games with the team before being released at the start of the season. In between those two New Orleans trips, McDaniel also appeared in four games for the 49ers.

All in all, McDaniels wound up appearing in just one regular season game for the Saints as well as their first round playoff win against the Panthers. An undisclosed injury in the Carolina game landed him on injured reserve, ruling him out for the divisional round game against the Vikings.

Now that McDaniel and fellow defensive lineman Nick Fairley have been released, the Saints have two vacant spots on their roster. It is expected that the Saints will use those openings to formally sign wide receiver Josh Huff and linebacker Jayrone Elliott. The Saints agreed to terms with both players in January, but the NFL nullified the deals because the team was already at the 90-man maximum.

NFL Invites 326 Players To Combine

February 6th, 2018 at 11:36am CST by Zachary Links

The NFL announced that it has invited 326 players to attend this year’s NFL Draft scouting combine. This year’s scouting combine is scheduled for February 27 to March 5.

There are typically 300+ players invited to the combine and that tends to be a pretty comprehensive group given that there are 256 picks in the draft. However, as Chase Goodbread of NFL.com details, there are always a handful of quality prospects who miss the cut for one reason or another. He notes that N.C. State guard Tony Adams, Texas defensive tackle Poona Ford, Northern Iowa wide receiver Daurice Fountain, Missouri defensive end Marcell Frazier, Sam Houston State defensive lineman P.J. Hall, Central Michigan defensive end Joe Ostman, and Washington State guard Cody O’Connell are among this year’s notable snubs. Frazier may be the biggest surprise as he recorded a team-high 15.5 tackles for loss and seven sacks in his final season on campus.

The combine takes place at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. In addition to the evaluations of the players, the combine will also be the site of the coin toss between the 49ers and Raiders to determine who will get the No. 9 or No. 10 overall pick in the draft.

Colts Officially Hire Josh McDaniels

February 6th, 2018 at 10:20am CST by Zachary Links

It’s a done deal. The Colts announced that they’ve hired Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels as their new head coach. The introductory press conference for the former Patriots offensive coordinator will be held on Wednesday.

In a sense, the Colts’ announcement was a mere formality as the two sides struck agreement on a deal in mid-January. However, there were rumblings leading up to the Super Bowl that McDaniels was getting cold feet and could instead stay with the Patriots as their OC. As of Sunday, McDaniels reportedly not yet told the Patriots that he’s leaving. Some around the league believed that McDaniels would stay in New England if Bill Belichick opted to retire and pass the torch to him. But, Belichick has indicated that he’ll return for another season, so that scenario was not on the table for McDaniels, unless he wanted to wait for an indeterminate period of time to potentially take over.

It’s not clear why McDaniels may have been having second thoughts about the job, but one has to wonder if he is at odds with team brass over the team’s offensive coordinator choice. Last month, it was reported that McDaniels had selected Raiders quarterbacks coach Jake Peetz as their new offensive coordinator and the two sides were hammering out a contract. However, team decision makers appear to have their sights set on former Seahawks offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell. It’s also possible that McDaniels was considering his options before making everything official since his stint as a head coach with the Broncos did not go as planned.

McDaniels will be tasked with turning the Colts around after a disappointing 4-12 season. On the plus side, they own the No. 3 pick in the draft and they may have their choice between North Carolina State edge rusher Bradley Chubb or Penn State running back Saquon Barkley.

The Colts are hoping that McDaniels can help get Andrew Luck back on track. Tom Brady has done his best work under the guidance of the 41-year-old OC, so he certainly seems like the right man for the job. Prior to McDaniels taking over as Patriots OC in 2006, Brady had one 4,000-yard passing season and had never thrown more than 28 TD passes in a campaign. Brady has topped those benchmarks in each of his healthy seasons under McDaniels, save for the first one in 2006.

Vikings Willing To Wait For John DeFilippo

February 6th, 2018 at 10:08am CST by Zachary Links

The Vikings’ offensive coordinator search could drag on for a while longer. The team would like to talk with Eagles quarterbacks coach John DeFilippo about their OC job, but they cannot do so until ten days until after Philadelphia’s season ends, which would be on Feb. 14, Right now, Vikings appear willing to wait, Adam Schefter of ESPN.com tweets.

DeFilippo has years of coaching experience, but he really put himself on the map in 2017 by guiding second-year QB Carson Wentz to a phenomenal season. When Wentz went down late in the season, DeFilippo helped knock the dust off of Nick Foles, who won the Super Bowl LII MVP trophy.

It’s no surprise that the Vikings are high on DeFilippo, but it is a bit unusual for a team to wait until the middle of February to solidify the upper ranks of the coaching staff. With the NFL Draft scouting combine starting on Feb. 27 and free agency on Mar. 14, that doesn’t leave much time for team brass to incorporate the OC’s input into major personnel decisions.

In the case of the Vikings, they’d surely want their OC to have time to suss out the quarterbacks situation. The Vikings, of course, have three starter-quality QBs scheduled for free agency in Case Keenum, Sam Bradford, and Teddy Bridgewater. The Vikings may only be able to retain one of those three and there’s even a potential scenario in which they could allow the entire trio to depart and sign a new signal caller in free agency.

Coaching Notes: Lions, Cardinals, Bears

February 5th, 2018 at 9:48pm CST by Ben Levine

Matt Patricia is already adding to his new coaching staff. Pete Thamel of Yahoo Sports reports (via Twitter) that the Lions have hired Paul Pasqualoni. The coach’s role in Detroit is unclear, although Charean Williams of ProFootballTalk.com wonders if he could be the team’s new defensive coordinator.

Pasqualoni, 68, has bounced between the NFL and NCAA during his long coaching career. In the NFL, he served as defensive coordinator of the Dolphins and Cowboys, and he was head coach at Syracuse for more than a decade. In fact, Patricia coached under Pasqualoni with the Orange during the early 2000s. Pasqualoni spent the past two seasons serving as the defensive line coach at Boston College.

Let’s take a look at some more coaching notes from around the NFL…

The Cardinals have hired a college coach to fill out their staff. Sporting News’ Alex Marvez reports that the team has hired Charlie Harbison as their new cornerbacks coach. The 59-year-old last served as the co-defensive coordinator and outside linebackers coach for the University of Louisiana-Lafayette. The Cardinals have also hired Kirby Wilson as their new running backs coach. Wilson spent the past two seasons in the same role with the Browns.
Former Steelers great Hines Ward was hoping to be considered for the team’s wide receivers coach job before it went to Darryl Drake, Marvez writes. Ward, who currently works as a contributor for CNN Sports, remains interested in coaching. “There was some interest, but I can’t hire myself,” Ward said. “If the opportunity presents itself, it’s something where I’d have to sit down and seriously think about it.“
Following news that Bears coach Matt Nagy had added Brad Childress to his staff as an offensive consultant, it sounds like the coach isn’t finished with his hires. Adam Caplan tweets that the Bears are also expected to hire Brian Ginn as an offensive assistant. Ginn was at Delaware for almost two decades, where he served as offensive coordinator (among many other roles).
The Bears are also expected to hire Bill Shuey as a defensive assistant, reports Caplan (via Twitter). Shuey previously served as the Eagles linebackers coach, where he coached alongside Nagy. Shuey also had a stint as defensive coordinator at Division III Widener for a handful of seasons.

Sam Robinson contributed to this post.

Vikings To Bring Back George Edwards As DC

February 5th, 2018 at 6:08pm CST by Ben Levine

George Edwards will be back with the Vikings next season. Sporting News’ Alex Marvez reports that the team has renewed the defensive coordinator’s contract for 2018. Edwards’ previous deal expired at the end of the 2017 campaign.

The move isn’t overly surprising, as Edwards led the Vikings to the top defense in the NFL this past season. Minnesota ultimately finished the season having allowed 275.9 yards per game and 15.8 points per contest, both tops in the league. Edwards initially took the gig back in 2014, with the Vikings defense showing slight improvements during each of his seasons at the helm. He previously served as the Redskins and Bills defensive coordinator.

The Bears had previously interviewed Edwards for their head coaching vacancy. While some detractors criticized the coordinator’s lack of play-calling duties, head coach Mike Zimmer was more than supportive of Edwards’ bid for a head coaching gig.

“George does everything,” Zimmer said recently. “He helps with the game plan. He runs a lot of the meetings, the defensive meetings. Him and I really sit down and talk about all the different things that are going on. He studies the game just like he’s calling the game. So he’ll come in and talk to me about second down-and-whatever. ‘They’re doing this,’ or, ‘they’re doing that.’ Really, he does everything other than call the game on Sunday.”

We learned earlier today that the Vikings were planning on interviewing Eagles quarterbacks coach John DeFilippo for the offensive coordinator opening. Pat Shurmer, the team’s offensive coordinator in 2017, is now the head coach of the Giants.

Giants Place OT Bobby Hart On IR

February 5th, 2018 at 5:48pm CST by Ben Levine

Bobby Hart‘s longterm outlook with the Giants may not be promising, but he’s sticking around the organization for now. ESPN’s Field Yates reports (via Twitter) that the team has placed the lineman on the injured reserve. The Giants had waived Hart in late December.

The 2015 seventh-round pick out of Florida State has spent his entire career with the Giants, starting 21 of his 33 career games (including seven starts this season). Pro Football Focus wasn’t particularly thrilled with his performance in 2017, ranking him 82nd among 86 eligible offensive tackle candidates. In fact, the lineman’s PFF rating has consistently dropped in each of his three seasons in the NFL.

The 23-year-old does still have a year remaining on his contract, but it doesn’t sound like he’ll be sticking around for very long. Geoff Schwartz of SBNation previously tweeted that the new regime may be looking to clear out “locker room cancers.” Towards this end of this past campaign, Hart randomly informed Giants staff that he wasn’t playing in the team’s Week 17 matchup against the Redskins.

Raiders Cut CB David Amerson

February 5th, 2018 at 5:16pm CST by Ben Levine

Add David Amerson to the list of 2018 free agents. ESPN’s Field Yates reports (via Twitter) that the Raiders have cut the veteran cornerback. Yates notes that the defensive back’s $5.5MM base salary would have become fully guaranteed this week.

The 2013 second-round pick came into the league with the Redskins before being waived during the 2015 season. He was subsequently claimed by the Raiders, where he proceeded to start 12 of his 14 appearances. Following his four-interception campaign, Amerson inked a four-year, $35MM ($17.5MM) extension with the organization.

The cornerback had another productive season in 2016, finishing the year with two interceptions and a career-high 64 tackles. However, he was limited to only six games in 2017 while dealing with a foot sprain. He ultimately finished the year with 18 tackles and four passes defended.

Saints Cut DT Nick Fairley

February 5th, 2018 at 5:06pm CST by Ben Levine

Nick Fairley‘s tenure with the Saints has come to an end. ESPN’s Field Yates reports (via Twitter) that the team has cut the defensive tackle with a non-football illness designation.

Fairley signed a four-year, $28MM ($14MM guaranteed) deal with the Saints this past offseason. However, he was shelved prior to the season after a team doctor discovered a heart condition. After receiving multiple opinions, the organization ultimately placed the defensive lineman on the non-football illness list.

Yates tweets that Fairley was due a $750,000 roster bonus this week, and his $4.25MM salary also would have become fully-guaranteed at this time. Nick Underhill of The Advocate tweets that the grievance over that money is still ongoing. Both sides had previously filed a grievance with the NFL’s Management Council over how much guaranteed money would ultimately be owed to the 30-year-old.

The 2011 first-round pick spent the first four seasons of his career with the Lions before bouncing between the Rams and Saints. In 2016, Fairley finished with 43 tackles and a career-high 6.5 sacks for New Orleans.