Today’s minor moves:
Green Bay Packers
New England Patriots
New York Giants
Seattle Seahawks
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Khalil Mack and the Raiders are continuing their months-long staredown, an uneventful one at that, and have not made any recent progress, Scott Bair of NBC Sports Bay Area notes. The subject of the Raiders’ wherewithal to pay their top player the guaranteed money he seeks still lurks, even if no official report has suggested this. Mark Davis‘ status as one of the league’s most cash-poor owners may become more relevant if the Rams agree to a deal with Aaron Donald soon, thus establishing a neighborhood for a Mack contract, Joel Corry of CBS Sports writes. Reggie McKenzie does not expect Mack to report without a contract, and Corry adds the Raiders’ agreement with Donald Penn on an extension after he ended his holdout probably doesn’t serve as relevant for the Mack situation. Due to the Raiders having not submitted an offer this offseason, Corry does not anticipate one would emerge shortly after he reported to the team.
Here’s the latest out of Oakland:
Hip and neck troubles plagued Demaryius Thomas the past two seasons, enough so the Broncos’ top wide receiver contemplated near-future retirement — either after the 2018 season or the ’19 campaign, James Palmer of NFL.com reports. But a now-reinvigorated Thomas is looking at his career differently.
A new diet and a leaner physique has the 30-year-old wideout wanting to extend his career well into the 2020s, even though he acknowledges things change quickly.
“Now I’m thinking, 15 or 16 (years),” Thomas told Palmer. “Like, for real, I’m going to be like Larry Fitzgerald. Maybe even more. It just depends, you know? I mean, s—, tomorrow I could finish my career off of one crazy injury. But yeah, my mindset has changed.”
Thomas dropped more than 10 pounds this offseason, being currently under 220, per Palmer. And he’s obviously not experiencing the kind of hip pain that bothered him in 2016 and ’17. Even entering this season on the heels of the aforementioned injury-restricted ones, Thomas has played in 107 straight games since the 2011 season.
“For, like, the past two years, for real, it’s been my neck and my hip,” Thomas said, via Palmer. “It was just times I couldn’t compete my best. And you know, sometimes, I remember one game we were playing the Patriots, and the (then-Patriots) corner (Logan Ryan) called it out. He said, ‘You’re not yourself.’ And I was like, ‘Man, I’m doing whatever I can to try to get (coverage) attention.’ ”
“Like, for real, with all the problems with my hip, especially with my hip, it was like, sometimes I couldn’t even stop.”
Palmer notes one of Thomas’ hip labrums is partially torn. It’s not known what medical treatments Thomas underwent (if any) to recover from these maladies in order to be ready for this season.
If Thomas wants to play well into his 30s, he may have to relocate. By virtue of the Broncos picking up Thomas’ $4MM option, the Georgia Tech product will play a fourth season on his five-year, $70MM deal. But Thomas’ 2019 contract year will feature a $17.53MM cap number — up $5MM from this season’s — and the Broncos shedding that salary will save them $14MM. Of course, Emmanuel Sanders‘ contract expires after the 2019 season as well, and he’s due nearly $13MM in 2019.
With the Broncos having drafted Courtland Sutton and DaeSean Hamilton this year, it seems a somewhat safe bet to assume at least one of their longtime starters will be elsewhere in 2019. Though, they might be hesitant to part ways with both Thomas and Sanders given their importance to the Denver passing game the past four seasons. The Broncos and Thomas believe both rookies will make an immediate impact, per Palmer, with Sutton in particular drawing rave reviews in camp. Denver, though, has failed repeatedly to identify auxiliary receiving talent over the past three years, with previous Day 2 draft choices Cody Latimer and Carlos Henderson not working out.
Although Thomas’ 1,000-yard streak stopped at five due to 2017’s 949-yard showing, he passed Shannon Sharpe in both career receiving yardage and touchdowns (as Broncos) last season. He’s second behind Rod Smith in both categories with the Broncos.
Teddy Bridgewater hasn’t shown the effects of his career-defining 2016 injury during his Jets stay just yet, and the team plans to play him extensively in its preseason opener Friday. While this will help the Jets determine where their free agent acquisition is at physically, it also could double as an audition.
The Jets are open to trading Bridgewater, Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News reports, adding the circumstances need to be right.
For that to be the case, Gang Green will need to see that Sam Darnold is ready to take the reins. New York re-signed Josh McCown and added Bridgewater on the same day in March. The team wants to evaluate its No. 3 overall pick — whom Jets officials have repeatedly praised this offseason — during the preseason before pulling the trigger on a Bridgewater deal, Mehta reports. If Darnold impresses, the Jets are absolutely open to cashing in Bridgewater’s one-year contract in exchange for a draft pick.
However, if the USC-developed passer needs more time, the Jets would not hesitate to start Bridgewater in Week 1 and keep his $6MM salary on the books, per Mehta. Darnold’s been rumored as a viable candidate to open the season as the starter, but Bridgewater obviously has the experience edge and hasn’t shown signs he’s struggling physically.
“I know that’s a question that comes up,” Mike Maccagnan recently said about whether he’d trade one of his veteran QBs. “Any time you have a number of players that you like at a position, it’s a natural thing (to think), ‘Hey, they may have a — I’m not saying we have a surplus … but some teams carry two quarterbacks. (So) you have the ability to potentially (think), ‘Oh, hypothetically we could do that.’
“But our big thing, quite frankly, is to see how all these players develop. We like a lot of things that Teddy’s done this offseason. We obviously know Josh from having him last year and what he brings to the table. But I would say from that standpoint, it’s very early. We kind of want to see how these guys still grow and develop.”
Maccagnan also has said the Jets won’t have an issue carrying all three of these veterans into the regular season. The team has $16MM in cap space.
Tuesday’s deadline for Aaron Donald to be classified as a 2019 UFA — in the event he is not extended before this season — came and went. The reigning defensive player of the year remains away from the Rams, but GM Les Snead doesn’t believe the sides are too far apart.
“We’re in the same ZIP Code, area code, ballpark,” Snead said, via Gary Klein of the Los Angeles Times. “I think all of us weren’t anticipating Aaron showing up on the 7th. As we worked through this, we always figured this wasn’t the date, per se.”
Snead acknowledged no specific deadline exists here, other than one that would sufficiently get Donald ready for the season. Although, he was the NFL’s best defensive player last season and didn’t report until mid-September.
The Rams are not worried about Donald missing camp time, with The Athletic’s Vincent Bonsignore reporting (subscription required) the team is fine with its top player working out in his native Pittsburgh to stay away from a potential injury that would come with team drills in camp. But Donald may want significantly more money than what currently represents the top defender contract.
Von Miller raised the bar two summers ago by agreeing to a six-year, $114.6MM deal, with $70MM guaranteed. The belief around the league, per Bonsignore, is that Donald seeks “elite quarterback money” — potentially as high as $25MM per year and perhaps as much as $90MM in guarantees. He adds the Rams are willing to make Donald the league’s highest-paid defensive player, but the holdup seems to be determining if the all-world interior defender is worth good quarterback money or that of a top-tier signal-caller.
A $25MM-per-year contract would significantly top Miller’s deal in terms of cap percentage as well, since the Broncos linebacker’s $19.1MM-AAV accord represented just more than 12 percent of 2016’s $155.27MM cap. A $25MM pact would comprise more than 16 percent of this $177MM cap, but with the cap continuing to climb by approximately $10MM annually, the 26-year-old superstar asking for this perhaps isn’t entirely out of step.
Snead recently authorized a landscape-changing extension for Todd Gurley, and that deal changed the running back market more than a $25MM-AAV deal would for the defender spectrum. So, the Rams clearly aren’t against outside-the-box thinking. Their five-year, $80MM Brandin Cooks re-up before he’s played a down with the team illustrates this as well.
The Panthers will place right tackle Daryl Williams on injured reserve, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (on Twitter) hears. The hope is that Williams will be able to heal up in time to return for the second half of the season. 
[RELATED: Panthers, Tyler Larsen Agree To Extension]
Williams dislocated his right kneecap and tore the MCL in the same knee in late July. The tackle opted for rehab over surgery, but that path means that he’ll still need a fair amount of time to heal.
It’s a tough blow for a Panthers offense that will likely also be without guard Amini Silatolu to start the year. The Panthers will likely use Brandan Mahon or Tyler Larsen to fill in for Silatolu while 2017 second-round pick Taylor Moton figures to start in place of Williams.
Williams, a fourth round pick in 2015, will be a free agent after the season, so he has extra motivation to get back out on the field. The Panthers, meanwhile, will have to hope for the best while they’re without one of the game’s better tackles. Last year, Williams graded out as the 15th best overall tackle in the NFL, per Pro Football Focus.
Jets quarterback Teddy Bridgewater should have trade value for other clubs in need of help under center, ESPN.com’s Mike Sando writes. At least one anonymous executive agrees with that assessment.
“Bridgewater is the one that makes the most sense,” an exec said of Bridgewater while weighing his trade value against other potentially available QBs. “He has upside, the Jets already have a young guy they love and a veteran who makes them competitive, and that veteran has less value to anyone else.”
That executive went on to say that Bridgewater would especially make sense for a club with additional compensatory choices in the future. Such a team could afford to deal for the former Vikings QB, even if the cost was as high as a third-round pick. Speculatively, Sando wonders if the rival Patriots could have interest in Bridgewater since they are flush with comp picks in 2019 and could use a QB to groom as Tom Brady‘s eventual replacement.
On the flipside, a different exec said that Bridgewater’s contract could be a barrier to a trade. With $5MM in salary and a $250K bonus for every game in which he plays at least 50% of the snaps, that anonymous decision maker feels that Bridgewater is a better candidate for a release or pay reduction.
Here’s more from the AFC East:
Could the Raiders conceivably trade Khalil Mack? Paul Gutierrez of ESPN.com feels that they would be wise to listen if another team blows them away with an offer of, say, two first-round picks for the 2016 Defensive Player of the Year.
Within the blurb, Gutierrez also references an exchange in March with GM Reggie McKenzie in which he asked (perhaps jokingly) if the writer had an extra $100MM on hand to help pay Mack. That may be an indication that the Raiders do not have the cash necessary to make Mack one of the highest-paid non-quarterbacks in the NFL, though there is no direct evidence of financial trouble in Oakland at this time.
Here’s more from the AFC West:
Center/guard Tyler Larsen has agreed to a two-year, $4.4MM extension with the Panthers, Jordan Rodrigue of the Charlotte Observer tweets. The deal, expected to be signed on Wednesday afternoon, includes $1.4MM guaranteed. 
Larsen, 27, is an important depth piece for the Panthers, particularly in the wake of Amini Silatolu‘s torn meniscus. Undrafted rookie Brendan Mahon may start at left guard in Silatolu’s absence, but Larsen is in line for increased reps no matter what due to his ability to play guard or fill in for Ryan Kalil at center. Kalil, meanwhile, says the 2018 season will be his last, so Larsen could be a low-cost option to start in 2019.
Larsen, a Utah State product, has appeared in 23 games for the Panthers over the last two years. He did an admirable job of filling in for Kalil last year and graded out as Pro Football Focus’ No. 17 ranked center in the NFL.
Kicker Giorgio Tavecchio worked out for the Falcons this week, a source tells Michael Gehlken of the Las Vegas Review-Journal (on Twitter). Tavecchio was waived by the Raiders on Friday, making him a free agent. 
The Tavecchio audition could be an indication that the Falcons have some doubts about 43-year-old Matt Bryant. That would be somewhat surprising, since the Falcons inked Bryant to a three-year, $10.5MM extension in March to make him one of the ten highest-paid kickers in the NFL. The deal included a $2MM signing bonus, so that would be a sunk cost for Atlanta if they release him.
Last year, Bryant nailed 87.2% of his field goals, good for 12th in the NFL. He also sank eight-of-nine attempts from 50 yards or more, so his power hasn’t deteriorated much. Tavecchio, meanwhile, made 16 of his 21 field goal attempts with the Raiders in 2017 (76%), including three-of-four tries from 50 yards or further.
The Falcons also have Georgia UDFA kicker David Marvin on the 90-man roster.