2019 September - Pro Football Rumors

Cardinals Place Marcus Gilbert On IR With Torn ACL

September 10th, 2019 at 4:19pm CST by Andrew Ortenberg

Marcus Gilbert‘s season is over. The projected starting tackle for the Cardinals is being placed on injured reserve with a torn ACL, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network (Twitter link).

We knew Gilbert was dealing with an injury as he missed Week 1, but there were no indications that it was this severe. Arizona signed offensive tackle Jordan Mills earlier this morning, foreshadowing this move. Gilbert is in his first season with the team after getting traded over from Pittsburgh for a sixth-round pick back in March. The Florida product originally entered the league as a second-round pick of the Steelers back in 2011.

He became their starting right tackle, and spent the first eight years of his career with them. Unfortunately, this isn’t the first major injury for Gilbert. The Steelers traded him in part because of his injury history, as he had missed at least nine games in each of the past two seasons.

Making matters even worse for Gilbert, 2019 is the final year of his contract. He’ll now be heading into free agency in March at the age of 32 and coming off an ACL tear. He’s been a capable starter in the past, but he probably won’t have teams beating down his door and will have to settle for something cheap.

Patriots Trade Demaryius Thomas To Jets

September 10th, 2019 at 3:55pm CST by Zachary Links

The Patriots have traded wide receiver Demaryius Thomas to the Jets, according to ESPN.com’s Adam Schefter (on Twitter). In exchange, the Jets will send a 2021 sixth-round pick to New England.

It’s a rare intra-divisional trade for two teams that have a storied history together. But, after the Patriots used draft capital to strengthen their offensive line in August, they were eager to recoup some ammo. Meanwhile, head coach Adam Gase was eager to reunite with Thomas, who was among the league’s best receivers during their time together in Denver.

Thomas is now on to his fourth team in the past year after being traded for the second time in 2019. The first swap saw him traded from the Broncos to the Texans just prior to the 2018 trade deadline. Now, after a cup of coffee with the Pats, he’s on to the Jets.

The Jets believe that Thomas can help them move the chains, even though he’s clearly not the player that he once was. The Patriots, meanwhile, will have the services of newcomer Antonio Brown, one of the game’s greatest receivers of all-time.

Jets’ Nathan Shepherd Facing Ban

September 10th, 2019 at 2:41pm CST by Zachary Links

Jets defensive lineman Nathan Shepherd wasn’t on the active roster for the Jets’ season opener against the Bills. As it turns out, Shepherd was left out of the game due to a pending six-game suspension for performance-enhancing drugs, as Tom Pelissero of NFL.com writes.

When popped for PEDs, players typically say that they did not knowingly take a banned substance. That’s not the case with the 2018 third-round pick, who celebrated his 26th birthday today.

“All that was going on, I was coming off of a subpar season and a new coaching staff, new playbook, new everything,” said Shepherd, a holdover from one of ex-GM Mike Maccagnan‘s last drafts in office. “In my mindset, I didn’t feel very confident with how everything had gone thus far. In my mind, I was so prepared to come into this offseason and have a successful offseason and train very hard. I felt that because of these limitations, I wasn’t going to be able to do that. I made a rash decision, an unwise decision and a selfish decision to look to certain PEDs in order to help me with that recovery process so I would be ready to go.”

Shepherd explained that he tested positive on June 27 and again on July 25 while rehabbing from shoulder and groin injuries. His shoulder may eventually require surgery and a snag in his sports hernia surgery recovery left him with a herniated L4-L5 disc in his back.

The suspension has not been formally announced yet by the NFL, but that should be coming any moment now. Shepherd’s public confession, in all likelihood, means that he is either not filing an appeal or has already lost his appeal.

Last year, Shepherd tallied 15 tackles while appearing in all 16 games for Gang Green, including five starts.

Jets To Sign K Sam Ficken

September 10th, 2019 at 1:35pm CST by Zachary Links

The Jets are set to sign kicker Sam Ficken, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets. Ficken will replace Kaare Vedvik, who missed a field goal and an extra point in the team’s 17-16 loss to the Bills on Sunday.

Ficken served as Greg Zuerlein‘s injury replacement, but the Rams cut him prior to Zuerlein recovering. Ficken’s brief trial period ended after he missed two of three field goal tries between Weeks 3 and 4 last season. This offseason, he had stints with the Seahawks and Packers, but wound up back on the free agency pile when he missed the cut in Green Bay.

Vedvik, a hybrid kicker/punter specialist, has had a rough offseason. After being traded from the Ravens to the Vikings for a fifth-round pick, he was hoping to fill the Jets’ void at kicker. Instead, he’s now looking for his fourth team in four weeks.

Texans Sign Nick Martin

September 10th, 2019 at 12:41pm CST by Zachary Links

The Texans have signed center Nick Martin to a three-year, $33M extension, as Field Yates of ESPN.com tweets. The pact includes $18.35MM guaranteed, giving Martin some solid security on the pact.

Martin has been the Texans’ starting man in the middle since 2017. Initially, he was primed for a big role as a second-round rookie in 2016, but an ankle injury wiped out his would-be frosh season. Along the way, the Texans have considered moving him to guard, but he has remained the battery mate of quarterback Deshaun Watson.

Prior to this extension, Martin was set to reach the open market after the 2019 season. That ’19 year will remain in tact, but he’ll see a serious pay bump after he collects on his $1.1MM base and $418K prorated bonus. With an average of $11MM/year, Martin will become one of the five highest-paid centers in the NFL.

With Martin under center, the Texans suffered a heartbreaking loss to the Saints on Monday night. Next up, they’ll try to get to .500 when they face the Jaguars in Houston on Sunday.

Eagles’ Malik Jackson Done For Season

September 10th, 2019 at 12:29pm CST by Zachary Links

Eagles defensive tackle Malik Jackson is expected to miss the season with a Lisfranc injury suffered on Sunday against the Redskins (Twitter link via NFL.com’s Mike Garafolo and Ian Rapoport). Jackson is slated to undergo surgery next week and will be placed on injured reserve this week.

Fortunately, for the Eagles, they have depth on the defensive line outside of Jackson – Tim Jernigan is there to help fill in the interior gap while Vinny Curry and Josh Sweat are on hand to help on the bookends. In the coming days, it seems likely that the Eagles will also add another big man to help.

Jackson joined the Eagles on a five-year, $50MM deal in the offseason, though it’s really more like a two-year deal giving the Eagles flexibility on the remaining three. The pact includes $17MM guaranteed.

Last year, Jackson notched just 32 tackles and 3.5 sacks for the Jaguars, with Pro Football Focus ranking him 85th among 112 interior defenders. However, he was a Pro Bowler as recently as 2017 and enjoyed a solid first season in Jacksonville. Jackson also racked up 14.5 sacks across his final three years in Denver, despite only spending one of those campaigns as a full-time starter.

Browns Waive TE Rico Gathers

September 10th, 2019 at 8:44am CST by Zachary Links

The Browns will waive tight end Rico Gathers, according to ESPN’s Tony Grossi (on Twitter). Gathers was suspended for the first game of the season, but the Browns did not feel the need to drop someone else on the 53-man roster to bring him back into the fold for Week 2.

The Browns picked up Gathers off waivers from the Cowboys in August, giving them a potential depth option behind starter David Njoku. The former Baylor basketball player has upside, but he’s yet to really do much at the pro level.

Last year, Gathers appeared in 15 games (four starts) for Dallas. He caught just three passes for 45 yards.

The league’s other 31 teams will have an opportunity to pick up Gathers on the waiver wire over the next 24 hours or so. If Gathers clears waivers, he’ll be free to sign with any team.

Chiefs Create Cap Space

September 10th, 2019 at 7:41am CST by Zachary Links

The Chiefs did base salary-to-signing bonus conversions for linebacker Anthony Hitchens & offensive tackle Eric Fisher, Field Yates of ESPN.com (on Twitter). With that, they’ve carved out nearly $10.6MM in cap room for this year.

Between these deals and the cap-smoothing extension for Tyreek Hill, the Chiefs are in solid cap position. Of course, they’ll be in better position in general when Hill returns to action, but they have plenty of offensive firepower to keep things moving in the interim.

Hitchens signed a five-year, $45MM deal with the Chiefs in 2018 that made him the league’s seventh-highest paid inside linebacker on an annual basis, at the time of signing. The pact counted for $3.6MM against Kansas City’s salary cap last year, but was set to triple in size for this year. Fun fact: The Chiefs tried to trade for Hitchens in 2017, when he was on the Cowboys. Ultimately, they got their man anyway.

Fisher, 28, is under contract through 2021 thanks to the four-year, $48MM extension he inked in 2016. There’s no guaranteed money in the final year of the contract, but the Chiefs have no plans to ditch him after he earned his first career Pro Bowl nod in 2018.

Cardinals To Sign Jordan Mills

September 10th, 2019 at 7:34am CST by Zachary Links

The Cardinals have agreed to sign tackle Jordan Mills, according to Mike Florio of PFT. When finalized, it’ll be a one-year deal worth $1.25MM.

Mills worked out for the Cardinals on Monday and they liked what they saw. The veteran will help reinforce an offensive line that will be without right tackle Marcus Gilbert for at least another week.

Justin Murray got the start in Gilbert’s stead last week when the Cardinals came roaring back to finish out with a tie against the Lions. He figures to also start this week as the Cards take on the Ravens in Baltimore.

We’ll be tuning in to see if Mills attempts to leap over a defender and accidentally takes down Kyler Murray, as guard J.R. Sweezy did on Sunday.

Contract Details: Tyreek Hill, Joe Haden

September 9th, 2019 at 9:51pm CST by Ben Levine

Here are some contract details on a pair of recently-signed extensions:

Tyreek Hill, WR (Chiefs): Three years, $54MM. Injury guarantee is $35.26MM. $18.34MM guaranteed as of tomorrow (via $5.8MM signing bonus, 2019 minimum base salary, 2020 minimum base salary, $11MM roster bonus (paid in 2020)). Cashflow includes $6.52MM (2019), $16.2MM (2020), $15.4MM (2021). Team has flexibility to go year-by-year, roster bonuses determined early in league year. Details via Albert Breer of TheMMQB.com on Twitter.
Joe Haden, CB (Steelers): Two years, $22MM. $13.8MM signing bonus, dropping 2019 salary from $10MM to $1.2MM (with a $3MM roster bonus). Non-guaranteed $7MM via salary/bonuses for 2020 and 2021. Cap numbers: $8.772MM (2019), $12.6MM (2020), $12.6MM (2021). Details via ESPN’s Dan Graziano on Twitter.