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Month: November 2024

Jets Likely To Sign Dan Bailey

September 3rd, 2018 at 8:37am CST by Andrew Ortenberg

Yesterday it was announced that recently released kicker Dan Bailey would be traveling to New York for a workout with the Jets, and now it appears likely that the team will sign the former Cowboy.

“Barring an unexpected poor workout, NYJ will offer Bailey a deal to sign and replace Jason Myers” sources to Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News (Twitter link). Bailey, the second most accurate kicker in NFL history in terms of field goal percentage, was shockingly released by Dallas at final cuts.

Bailey had been with the Cowboys since 2011, and besides an injury plagued 2017, had been one of the best kickers in the league. Myers appeared to have won the battle to be the Jets’ kicker but looks like he’ll now find himself out of a job once again.

The Jets have cycled through kickers since Nick Folk left after the 2016 season, and could finally find some stability with Bailey. Whatever Bailey signs for, it will likely pay him top of the kicker market type money. It would be a nice upgrade this late in the proceedings for the Jets, and if New York fails to sign him several other teams will surely come calling.

Lions, Quandre Diggs Agree To Extension

September 3rd, 2018 at 8:19am CST by Andrew Ortenberg

The Lions are locking up safety Quandre Diggs, signing him to a three-year extension according to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network (Twitter link).

Diggs played just five games at safety last season, but Rapoport says “Detroit really liked what they saw” in those five games. The extension is worth $20.4MM. Starting his career as a cornerback, Diggs was taken in the sixth round out of Texas back in 2015 and was heading into the final year of his rookie contract.

Diggs started four games in each of his first two seasons before starting 11 last year. He’s received solid marks from Pro Football Focus throughout his career, and apparently impressed new coach Matt Patricia during their short time together.

The Lions were busy this morning, also signing former Patriot Marquis Flowers. Flowers will now be reunited with Patricia. Flowers was a reserve in New England but ended up making a couple of starts down the stretch in 2017. He was originally drafted by the Bengals in 2014 before being traded to the Patriots.

NFC North Notes: Packers, Vikings, Bears

September 2nd, 2018 at 9:00pm CST by Andrew Ortenberg

A much anticipated domino finally fell earlier this week when Aaron Rodgers and the Packers agreed to terms on his mega-extension. The deal made Rodgers the highest paid player in league history, and has reset the market for the next crop of signal callers looking to sign deals.

Former NFL agent Joel Corry of CBS Sports took a look at the extension, and what it might mean for several other top quarterbacks. In a way only an expert could, he completely broke down all the cap implications the deal will have for the Packers over the coming years.

Corry notes that Rodgers’ annual salary of $33.5MM is an 11.67% increase over what Matt Ryan got on his record-setting deal, noting that it’s the “biggest increase over the previous benchmark under the current Collective Bargaining Agreement.” The whole piece is worth a read, as few understand contracts as well as Corry.

Here’s more from the NFC North:

  • Brett Jones, acquired in a trade with the Giants just last week, is the “leading candidate” to start at center for the Vikings in Week 1 according to Chris Tomasson of the St. Paul Pioneer Press (Twitter link). Coaches “have raved about how quickly” Jones picked up the offense, writes Tomasson.
  • The Bears will likely “survey [the] cornerback market” according to Brad Briggs of the Chicago Tribune (Twitter link). Briggs also expects Chicago to add a defensive lineman in the coming days.
  • Bears tight end Adam Shaheen will be placed on injured reserve, but “could potentially return later in season” according to the team’s GM Ryan Pace (Twitter link via the Bears’ official account). Shaheen, last year’s second round pick, is suffering from both ankle and foot injuries.

Latest On Raiders’ Khalil Mack Decision

September 2nd, 2018 at 7:34pm CST by Sam Robinson

Addressing the Khalil Mack trade for the first time, Jon Gruden said the Raiders’ salary cap situation indeed played into the choice to ship the team’s best player to Chicago. Particularly, Derek Carr‘s contract played a role.

While Gruden said (via the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s Michael Gehlken, on Twitter) he was not involved in the daily communications between Mack’s agent and the team, he did indicate Carr’s $25MM-AAV contract — one the quarterback signed in hopes of leaving his team enough money to take care of teammates’ deals down the road — made it difficult to complete a Mack extension. And the Raiders weren’t particularly close on terms with their former superstar defender.

The Bears gave Mack a six-year, $141MM contract with $90MM in guarantees — raising the bar for defenders after Aaron Donald did so previously. Gruden confirmed (per Scott Bair of NBC Sports Bay Area, on Twitter) the Raiders made an offer, and it was “not anywhere close” to the terms Mack received from the Bears.

Gruden said the 27-year-old phenom was part of why he accepted Mark Davis‘ offer to return to coach the Raiders, per Tom Pelissero of NFL.com (on Twitter), but added the $90MM in guarantees was something the Raiders “could not do.” Rumors about the Raiders’ wherewithal to authorize such a guarantee surfaced late in the offseason, but nothing concrete emerged about Davis’ ability to construct a Mack extension. But it’s clear the Raiders were not willing to venture into the financial neighborhood the Bears were.

As for pulling the trigger on a trade now, when Mack was attached to a $13MM-plus fifth-year option and could have been franchise-tagged in the future, Gruden said he did not believe Mack was going to report and it was “time to move on.” Additionally, the Bears’ “unique” offer prompted the Raiders to make the deal, with the 55-year-old head coach adding there was no guarantee a proposal including two first-round picks would’ve been on the table in 2019 (Twitter links via The Athletic’s Vic Tafur).

The Raiders received interest from several teams on the Mack front — the Jets, 49ers and Browns are the known suitors who didn’t match the Bears’ haul — and ended up giving the Bears a second-round pick in the deal. Gruden said, via Adam Schefter of ESPN.com (Twitter link), he was not part of the discussion that sent a future Day 2 pick to the Bears.

With Gruden having cut or traded several of Reggie McKenzie‘s recent draft picks in recent weeks, and having criticized the 2015-17 classes during training camp — and on Sunday (Twitter link via Gehlken) — some understandable discord may be taking place in Oakland. Some around the NFL did not expect the Gruden-McKenzie partnership, one that featured Gruden siphoning much of the GM’s power, to last, Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports tweets. However, Gruden said the Raiders came to this Mack decision “as an organization,” per Gehlken (on Twitter).

Steelers Re-Sign Nat Berhe

September 2nd, 2018 at 7:17pm CST by Andrew Ortenberg

The Steelers are re-signing safety Nat Berhe after cutting him yesterday, according to Jeremy Fowler of ESPN (Twitter link).

The San Diego State product was drafted in the fifth round by the Giants back in 2014, and spent the first four years of his career in New York. He signed with Pittsburgh back in April, but failed to make the initial 53. Fowler writes that Berhe is “a valuable special teamer.”

Fowler notes the Steelers must now make a corresponding roster move, and that sending someone to injured reserve is a strong possibility. The Steelers have a few guys that are banged up, and now that rosters have been set players can be sent to injured reserve and later re-activated.

Berhe never played a ton on defense for the Giants, but did start two games back in 2016 and could fill in at safety in a pinch. For his career he has 26 tackles across 38 games.

Sunday NFL Transactions: NFC South

September 2nd, 2018 at 6:40pm CST by Dallas Robinson

Listed below are the Sunday roster moves for the four NFC South teams. Following the 53-man roster cutdown deadline yesterday, many teams will make slight tweaks to their rosters, claiming players off waivers or signing guys who clear waivers. Those transactions for the Falcons, Panthers, Saints, and Buccaneers are noted below.

Additionally, as of 12:00pm CT today, teams can begin constructing their 10-man practice squads. You can check out our glossary entry on practice squads to brush up on those changes, as well as all the other guidelines that govern the 10-man units, whose players practice with the team but aren’t eligible to suit up on Sundays.

Here are Sunday’s NFC South transactions, which will continue to be updated throughout the day:

Atlanta Falcons

Practice squad:

Carolina Panthers

Placed on injured reserve:

Signed:

Practice squad:

New Orleans Saints

Signed to practice squad:

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Texans Re-Sign QB Joe Webb

September 2nd, 2018 at 6:29pm CST by Andrew Ortenberg

Just one day after being cut, the Texans are resigning quarterback Joe Webb, according to Adam Caplan of Sirius XM NFL (Twitter link).

Webb is unique in the sense that he has the ability to contribute both as a signal caller as well as on special teams. He’ll now slide back in behind Brandon Weeden on the depth chart as the Texans’ third quarterback.

With DeShaun Watson coming off a torn ACL, it makes sense why Houston would want to have plenty of depth at the position.Webb spent 2017 with the Bills and signed a one-year deal with the Texans back in April.

When he checked in at quarterback for Buffalo during last year’s infamous snow game against the Colts, it was the first time Webb attempted a regular season pass since 2011. He had spent the previous three seasons as a core special-teamer with the Panthers.

Travis Frederick To Avoid Cowboys’ IR

September 2nd, 2018 at 6:17pm CST by Sam Robinson

While it’s not certain when Travis Frederick will be back as the Cowboys’ starting center, the team will not place him on IR.

The All-Pro center’s unknown timetable has prompted the Cowboys to keep him on their active roster rather than using an IR-stash strategy, David Moore of the Dallas Morning News reports.

Placing Frederick on IR, which was a consideration going into the weekend, would shelve the 27-year-old blocker for at least eight weeks. The Cowboys are hoping the acclaimed snapper can return in weeks rather than months, so this decision could signal the team believes an early-season return is still possible.

Cowboys brass deemed the prospect of a Frederick return within the next eight weeks as being more important than gaining a roster spot at this point, Moore notes. The Guillain-Barre syndrome diagnosis has Frederick on the mend and Joe Looney set to begin the season as the Cowboys’ first-string center.

The Cowboys utilized a similar tactic with Tony Romo in 2016, carrying their then-franchise quarterback on the active roster to start the season despite a diagnosis that stood to keep him out for more than two months.

Frederick traveled with the team to its fourth preseason game, per Moore, and is being tested weekly to determine his progress. Evaluations with a neurologist will occur as Frederick tries to return to the field.

49ers Tried Trading For Khalil Mack

September 2nd, 2018 at 6:04pm CST by Andrew Ortenberg

Add one more team to the list of those who tried trading for superstar defensive end Khalil Mack before he was ultimately dealt to the Bears. The 49ers tried acquiring the All-Pro pass-rusher, according to Cam Inman of the Mercury News.

49ers GM John Lynch talked about the team’s pursuit of Mack earlier, saying “we would have been foolish not to” go after him. Lynch added that the team moved “aggressively” for Mack, but ultimately came up just short in the negotiations.

In the same article, Inman writes that coach Kyle Shanahan hasn’t ruled out adding a different pass-rusher. Mack would’ve joined forces with last year’s number three overall pick Solomon Thomas, and would’ve greatly bolstered the 49ers’ defense.

Clearly, the Raiders had a host of suitors for Mack and a number of trade offers to choose from. Nobody was able to beat the Bears’ offer, and Lynch made clear that the team established “parameters” as to what they were willing to include in trade talks.

Jets To Work Out K Dan Bailey

September 2nd, 2018 at 6:02pm CST by Sam Robinson

Dan Bailey will receive an opportunity to catch on with another team after the Cowboys released him this weekend. The Jets will observe an audition from the veteran kicker on Monday, Field Yates of ESPN.com tweets.

The Cowboys made Bailey a surprise cut this weekend. Bailey resides as the second-most accurate kicker in NFL history, making 88.2 percent of his tries. The 30-year-old specialist has only kicked for the Cowboys in his career.

Groin trouble limited Bailey to 12 games last season; they were the first the seven-year veteran missed as an NFLer. Bailey made 15 of 20 field goal tries last season and 26 of 28 PAT attempts.

The Jets are on their third kicker since 2016. The since-departed Chandler Catanzaro replaced Nick Folk last season, and Gang Green’s shuttled in a few kickers this offseason. New York added both Cairo Santos and Nick Rose this year but parted ways with each specialist. Claimed off waivers from Seattle, Jason Myers resides as the Jets’ current kicker.

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