HEADLINES

Month: September 2024

Extra Points: AAF, Dundon, Lock, Broncos

April 7th, 2019 at 6:17pm CST by Andrew Ortenberg

The AAF decided to cease operations almost a week ago now, and we still don’t have much clarity on exactly why. All we know right now is that Tom Dundon, the owner of the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes who became the controlling owner of the AAF with his massive investment after the first couple weeks of the season, made the decision on his own. Dundon reportedly made the call to shut things down over the objections of co-founders Charlie Ebersol and Bill Polian. At the time, we heard that many within the league suspected Dundon had just bought a majority stake in the league in order to obtain the technology behind the AAF’s gambling app.

That isn’t the case, a source told Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com. Dundon “doesn’t own that technology, and his investment in the AAF doesn’t give him the ability to abscond with it,” Florio writes. While the gambling app theory appears to be a bust, it’s still a mystery as to why Dundon would invest tens of millions of dollars into the league, and then unilaterally decide to shut it all down just weeks later. One source attempted to explain to Florio that Dundon made the investment just to “kick the tires.” “Once he realized how expensive it was to own and operate a sports league, he initially tried to cut costs. But that resulted in a cutting of functionality,” he added. If that’s true that raises a whole new round of questions, as it’s hard to understand how Dundon couldn’t have realized how expensive it is to operate a league before actually making the investment. Dundon presumably had access to all of the league’s financial information prior to pulling the trigger.

Here’s more from around the football universe:

  • Speaking of the AAF, the league finally broke its silence yesterday. In a statement posted to Twitter, the league apologized for the abruptness of the decision. It read in part: “We understand the difficulty that this decision has caused for many people and for that we are very sorry. This is not the way we wanted it to end, but we are also committed to working on solutions for all outstanding issues to the best of our ability. Due to ongoing legal processes, we are unable to comment further or share details about the decision. We are grateful to our players, who delivered quality football and may now exercise their NFL-out clauses in our contract. We encourage them to continue pursuing their dreams and wish them the best.” The league has caught a lot of flak in recent days for how they handled the closure. Many players were left more or less stranded and forced to pay their own way home, and some were left with charges from hotel rooms and other expenses.
  • Drew Lock could be headed to the AFC West soon. He’s been heavily linked to John Elway and the Broncos with the tenth pick, and Lock will meet with Denver today, according to Tom Pelissero of NFL Network (Twitter link). According to Pelissero, Lock will then head to Los Angeles and meet with the Chargers tomorrow. The Chargers sniffed around the top quarterbacks in last year’s class and are doing the same thing with this class, even though Philip Rivers just had his best season in years. If you believe the current reporting, the Chargers would likely have to trade up in the draft if they wanted to get Luck. Denver is slated to roll with Joe Flacco in 2019, but the Broncos are widely expected to draft a young quarterback who can be the future.
  • In case you missed it the other pro football spring league, the XFL, could be looking to target high profile college players for their upstart league, as they aren’t bound by the NFL’s draft eligibility rules.

5 Key NFL Stories: 3/31/19 – 4/7/19

April 7th, 2019 at 4:51pm CST by Dallas Robinson

Cowboys sign DeMarcus Lawrence to extension. Roughly a week after reports surfaced that Lawrence had increased his asking price, the franchise-tagged defensive end agreed to a five-year, $105MM deal to stay in Dallas. Lawrence had been set to earn $20.572MM on his second consecutive franchise tender, but he’ll now average $21MM for the next five seasons, an AAV that places him second among all defensive players (behind only Khalil Mack). The former second-round pick received a $25MM signing bonus, $48MM fully guaranteed, and $65MM in practical guarantees.

Russell Wilson gives Seahawks contract deadline. Wilson is entering the final season of his current deal, and he’s set an April 15 deadline for extension talks. While it’s not entirely clear what will happen if that date comes and goes with no new pact in place, Wilson could choose to shut down negotiations until after the 2019 season. Seattle wasn’t blindsided by the deadline, as Wilson conveyed his intentions to the club in January. As of earlier today, the Seahawks reportedly aren’t close to an extension with their star quarterback.

Trade alert! The Chiefs and Browns last week consummated the 13th trade of the NFL offseason, with Cleveland sending defensive end Emmanuel Ogbah to Kansas City in exchange for safety Eric Murray. Ogbah had been on the trade block ever since the Browns acquired fellow edge rusher Olivier Vernon, and he’ll now head to the Chiefs to complete his rookie contract. Murray has a chance at starting in Cleveland, but he’ll likely have to compete with recent free agent addition Morgan Burnett.

AAF shuts down operations. The Alliance of American Football last week closed up shop midway through its inaugural campaign, with majority league owner Tom Dundon shutting down the organization against the wishes of founders Charlie Ebersol and Bill Polian. AAF alums are now free to sign contracts with NFL teams, and ex-Orlando Apollos cornerback became the first AAF veteran to land an NFL contract by signing with the Chiefs.

Josh Sitton hangs up his cleats. Sitton, who is most known for his time with the Packers but also played for the Bears and Dolphins, announced his retirement after 11 NFL seasons. The 32-year-old earned one first-team All-Pro berth and four Pro Bowl nods at guard, and will end his career with more than $50MM in earnings. Sitton is the fourth former Packers Pro Bowler to retire this offseason, joining fellow guard T.J. Lang, receiver Jordy Nelson and fullback John Kuhn.

PFR Originals: 3/31/19 – 4/7/19

April 7th, 2019 at 3:59pm CST by Dallas Robinson

The original content and analysis produced by the PFR staff during the past week:

Vikings To Sign QB Sean Mannion

April 7th, 2019 at 1:47pm CST by Dallas Robinson

The Vikings have agreed to sign backup quarterback Sean Mannion, according to Mike Garafolo of NFL.com (Twitter link). It’s a one-year deal for Mannion, tweets Ben Goessling of the Star Tribune, and it’s worth up to $900K, per Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN (Twitter link).

Having lost 2018 backup Trevor Siemian to the Jets, Minnesota was searching for a signal-caller to play behind Kirk Cousins. Mannion met with the club last week, as did former Dolphins passer David Fales.

A third-round pick of the Rams in the 2015 draft, Mannion has only attempted 53 passes during his four-year NFL career. His most significant action came in Week 17 of the 2017 campaign, when he started a meaningless game against the 49ers. In Mannion’s only pro start, he completed 20 of 34 passes for 134 yards.

Mannion was replaced in Los Angeles by former Jaguars starter Blake Bortles, and hadn’t been linked to any other clubs in free agency. Despite his inexperience, Mannion is the favorite for No. 2 duties in Minnesota, although he could face competition for 2017 undrafted free agent Kyle Sloter.

Cousins has proven extremely durable throughout his career, so Mannion may not get the opportunity to see much action for the Vikings. Since becoming a full-time starter in 2015, Cousins has started 64 consecutive games.

Draft Notes: Bush, Oliver, Gary

April 7th, 2019 at 11:37am CST by Rory Parks

Michigan linebacker Devin Bush is meeting with the Giants tonight, and the visit will last until Monday, as Adam Schefter of ESPN.com tweets. New York, armed with the Nos. 6 and 17 overall picks, will be one of the most interesting clubs to watch in the draft given the uncertainty surrounding its QB position. Despite that uncertainty, Big Blue could very well use both first-round selections on defensive playmakers, and Bush, one of the best LBs in the draft, would be a good fit with the 17th-overall selection.

Now for more draft rumblings from around the league:

  • The Eagles have three picks in the first two rounds of the draft, and Eliot Shorr-Parks of 94WIP.com expects the club to be very aggressive in trying to trade up. That will be especially true if Houston defensive tackle Ed Oliver starts to fall, as Shorr-Parks believes Philadelphia will want to move up the draft board to land him. The team either has hosted, or will host, Oliver on an official visit.
  • The Raiders recently met with Oliver and Penn State offensive lineman Connor McGovern, per Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (via Twitter). Rapoport adds that the Colts have met with Michigan defensive end Rashan Gary.
  • After losing out on Odell Beckham Jr., the 49ers still have a major need at the WR position. Matt Maiocco of NBC Sports Bay Area believes there is a good chance the club uses its No. 36 overall pick on a wideout, and he names A.J. Brown and Deebo Samuel as legitimate possibilities. San Francisco either has hosted, or will host, both players.
  • We learned several weeks ago that Ohio State quarterback Dwayne Haskins would meet with five teams, including the Broncos and Redskins, and Rapoport tweets that those visits will take place this week. Denver and Washington are among the clubs doing their homework on all of this year’s top passers.
  • The Bengals are reportedly considering using their No. 11 overall pick on a QB, and while Katherine Terrell of ESPN.com believes it is unlikely Cincinnati goes that route, she concedes it is a definite possibility (Twitter link).

Latest On Patriots, Stephen Gostkowski

April 7th, 2019 at 10:35am CST by Rory Parks

Stephen Gostkowski, one of the league’s most prolific kickers, is still unsigned as we head into the fourth week of the new league year, and there has not been any chatter about him since March 21.

On March 21, we learned that the Patriots and Gostkowski, who has served as the team’s place kicker since 2006, were working on a new deal. But nothing has happened yet, and despite rumored interest from other clubs, it is unclear who those other teams might be and how interested they are in Gostkowski’s services.

Mike Reiss of ESPN.com says the Patriots are simply waiting on a “market correction” after they signed Gostkowski to a four-year deal in 2015 that included an AAV of $4.3MM, which would still rank second among kickers (behind only Robbie Gould‘s one-year franchise tender of just under $5MM). New England apparently believes it overpaid, and the club is not inclined to do so again.

Reiss expects Gostkowski’s status with the Pats to be solidified one way or another by the draft, which begins on April 25. But the ESPN scribe does not offer any indication as to whether he believes the two sides will re-up, so while it would still be surprising to see Gostkowski kicking for another club in 2019, it certainly appears to be a possibility.

Bengals Considering QB With First-Round Pick?

April 7th, 2019 at 10:01am CST by Rory Parks

There has been talk around the league that the Bengals are considering drafting a QB with their first-round pick (No. 11 overall) in this month’s draft, per Matt Miller of Bleacher Report (via Twitter).

The Bengals have deployed Andy Dalton under center since 2011, but even though he is a three-time Pro Bowler, he has never been considered one of the best passers in the game. He is under contract through the 2020 season, though Cincinnati could release him without any dead money ramifications. We heard back in December that Dalton was almost certainly going to be back with the club in 2019, but in January, director of player personnel Duke Tobin left the door open for the team to draft a future replacement.

New head coach Zac Taylor, who served as the Rams’ quarterbacks coach in 2018 and whom the Bengals believe offers the same type of QB development ability as Los Angeles head coach Sean McVay, may be ready to find “his guy” in the draft and have him learn behind Dalton for a year.

It seems unlikely that the Bengals will be players for the top two signal-callers in the draft, Kyler Murray and Dwayne Haskins, who will probably be off the board by the time Cincinnati is on the clock with the No. 11 pick. The Bengals do have 11 picks in total this year, but the only round in which they have multiple selections is the sixth (they have five sixth-rounders), so if they want to trade up, they would likely have to dip into their 2020 draft capital.

But signal-callers like Drew Lock and Daniel Jones should be available to them if they want to go that route, and if Taylor believes in one of those players, the team may very well pull the trigger.

Examining How The OBJ Trade Came Together

April 7th, 2019 at 9:42am CST by Rory Parks

Ever since the blockbuster trade that sent Odell Beckham Jr. to the Browns last month, reports have trickled in that have allowed us to piece together how the deal ultimately unfolded. But in an excellent piece that examines the timeline of the trade in detail, Pat McManamon and Jordan Raanan of ESPN.com provide a comprehensive look at what is likely to be the biggest blockbuster of the offseason, which could have massive ramifications on both of the league’s conferences.

The entire piece is worth a read, but the highlights are below (some of this has already been reported, but it helps put everything in context):

  • The Browns had been monitoring the Beckham situation as far back as March 2018 — before OBJ signed his five-year, $90MM extension with the Giants — but New York had made it clear that it would not trade Beckham for less than two first-round picks. Since Cleveland was holding the No. 1 and No. 4 overall selections last year and was unwilling to part with either, no discussions ever took place between the two clubs.
  • But OBJ’s relationship with the Giants deteriorated throughout the 2018 campaign, so the Browns kept Beckham in mind, knowing that if there was even a one percent chance New York could be persuaded to pull the trigger, Cleveland would try to break down the door. The fact that Browns GM John Dorsey and Giants GM Dave Gettleman have been friends for 37 years was certainly a major factor in pushing the deal along.
  • Gettleman did call the Bills early last month to discuss OBJ after Buffalo reportedly showed interest in acquiring Antonio Brown, but the Bills’ involvement in the Beckham sweepstakes was so minimal that the idea never reached head coach Sean McDermott‘s desk.
  • On the other hand, Gettleman did have numerous conversations with 49ers GM John Lynch — who wanted OBJ badly — over the course of a few weeks. Lynch was willing to swap 2019 first-round picks with the Giants (No. 2 for No. 6), but he was not willing to give up the No. 2 pick and leave his team with no selections in the first round, so that became the sticking point in the deal.
  • Ultimately, the Browns got word that the 49ers were in serious pursuit of Beckham, so Dorsey decided it was time to act. When the Giants and Browns were discussing a deal for Olivier Vernon, Dorsey brought up Beckham, and the trade came together shortly thereafter.
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