The Ravens and Ronnie Stanley began discussing an extension in February, but after taking a long break prior to an August negotiation resumption, the sides remain without a deal. An understandable reason may be holding up the talks. Buzz has emerged that Stanley is seeking a contract that pays him north of Laremy Tunsil‘s market-reshaping $22MM-per-year pact, Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.com notes (Insider link). Stanley has been diplomatic about the talks, but he is poised to cash in soon. Tunsil, of course, carried unique leverage after the Texans dealt two first-round picks to land him. Stanley, however, is Baltimore’s top lineman and became a top-tier tackle ahead of his contract year. The Ravens will have the option of a pricey franchise tag, in a year when the cap could plummet by a record margin, if they cannot extend Stanley by the March tag deadline.
Here is the latest from around the league:
- In another AFC North matter, one of the Bengals‘ wide receivers may be unhappy. And it is not A.J. Green. The Bengals made Auden Tate a healthy scratch Thursday night, and his agent floated the prospect of a trade. While Deiric Jackson stopped short of saying his client has requested one, it is clear Team Tate is not content. “He was healthy and ready to go,” Jackson said, via CBS Sports’ Cody Benjamin. “If they don’t know how to use him, I’m sure there are plenty of other teams that would love to have a weapon like that offensively.” Tate played 15 snaps in Cincinnati’s opener. The Bengals used the 6-foot-5 target frequently last season — when he caught 40 passes for 575 yards — but now have Green back and second-rounder Tee Higgins in the fold. Two seasons remain on Tate’s seventh-round contract.
- The Broncos have put off major investments at inside linebacker since Brandon Marshall‘s 2016 extension, but Mike Klis of 9News notes the team considered both signing street free agent Christian Kirksey and using its first-round pick on Patrick Queen this year. This is not the first time the Broncos were linked to a first-round likebacker under Vic Fangio. Had they not executed a trade-down for Noah Fant in the 2019 first round, they would have chosen Devin Bush 10th overall. Denver, which cut longtime starter Todd Davis this month, used 2019 breakout player Alexander Johnson and 2018 draftee Josey Jewell as its three-down ‘backers Monday.
- Phillip Lindsay will not be available for the Broncos against the Steelers. The talented running back is battling turf toe, leaving Royce Freeman as Melvin Gordon‘s top Week 2 backup.
- Blake Bortles remains a free agent, but the former Jaguars starter and Rams backup is waiting on the right situation to open up, Tom Pelissero of NFL.com tweets. After starting for five seasons, Bortles threw just two passes in 2019.
- NFL owners are confident they will have “groundbreaking” TV deals in place by early 2021, Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports reports. The league was making progress during its negotiations with networks prior to the pandemic, and La Canfora adds that the contracts would likely have been finalized were it not for COVID-19. The next round of TV contracts were expected to be a game-changer for the NFL; projections of a $260MM-plus salary cap within a few years surfaced this past winter. While fanless stadiums amid the pandemic will cut into that short-term growth, teams authorizing big extensions in recent weeks points to confidence in long-term financial stability. The NFL’s ESPN contract expires after the 2021 season; its deals with the other networks are not up until the end of 2022.
The Broncos have really boggled my mind with their refusal to replace Danny Trevathan in the middle of that defense. DT and MLB have both been neglected since the SB win, and Denver’s run defense has shown deterioration accordingly. Having a great safety emerge in Simmons has helped shore that up, as well as the emergence of Alexander Johnson and Mike Purcell. Those players are young and look to have some really high upside, but that only happened last year. The need has been evident a while. Hopefully those young guys will continue their development, and Denver will hold onto them. That said, investing serious capital in an ILB can only help Denver establish that position as a position of strength, which is extra important in a 3-4 base (even one that plays out of base as often as Fangio’s does).
As a side note, Lock is going to have to improve on his deep balls. Jeudy looked absolutely fantastic last night, but with Hamler set to go tomorrow, Lock figures to have to toss a few deep balls. Despite his great arm strength, he’s been missing on a lot of throws downfield. Lock is going to have to improve to take advantage of the suddenly powerful Denver wide receiver corps.
Fangio has developed championship caliber defenses everywhere he has been so the Broncos will get there in the next couple of seasons. Offense was the priority when he first arrived so that had to be addressed initially.
Valid points, lemon.
Tate should be ahead of John Ross on the depth chart.
Blake Bortles is waiting for the right situation to open up. In other words, he’s hoping the NFL expands to 64 teams very soon.
These TV deals might not be so lucrative if ratings continue to plummet due to the recent activities happening on NFL fields.
Now we’ve learned from a few players on the Steelers that they were not properly and fully informed about Rose’s situation and that the edict to wear his name on their helmets came from the management or possibly even ownership. Since then the owner came out and said it was the players.
How come there is no article about this? This is pretty huge news.
We are only one week into a pandemic affected season so I think ratings are pretty meaningless at this point. The networks and NFL will be accessing long term projections of 5 yrs or more. If Goodell ever realizes his dream of foreign expansion then the league and networks will hit the jackpot.
They aren’t meaningless at all. If anything they should be way up since more people are at home and not going out for their entertainment. The fact that they are down 20-30% speaks volumes.
There were plenty of articles about the helmet situation. It was a top story on ESPN for crying out loud. And don’t buy into the Fox News propaganda. Even a fox sports executive tried to explain the ratings change. Sunday afternoon game viewership was UP, prime time was down. Average watch time was UP. Check out the tweet from a fox’s sports executive Michael Mulvilhill. Which runs counter to what Fox News talking heads want you to believe. It uses logic and evidence to show why viewers are watching certain things
Isn’t it ironic that the very people that want athletes to stay out of politics are trying to politicize the ratings of sports.
There’s nothing political about it. It is about right and wrong. I don’t condone propping up criminals as heroes. I don’t condone supporting a terrorist and racist organization. Nobody else should.
No one on here is condoning criminal, terroristic, or racist behavior. You act like it’s a widespread issue. Just like the police, it’s just a few bad apples, am I right?
I wasn’t saying you were politicizing it. I was actually referring to Fox News politicizing ratings yet telling athletes to stay out of politics. Although, the first sentence of your OP clearly alludes to political activity being the cause of lower ratings.
Football is their safe space and if the NFL triggers them, they will cancel it.
That’s all.
I meant on here. There is no propoganda. Ratings were down 20-30%. You can try to do little dances around the issue but the numbers don’t lie. Viewership hasn’t been up for any game compared to last year. I don’t care what average watch time is when you are missing almost a third of your audience.
Yeah, the logic is that people are sick and tired of woke athletes trying to spread a false narrative and prop up habitual violent criminals (some of them sexual offenders) as heroes. Even some of the Pittsburgh Steelers are saying this, not just “right wing conspiracy nutjobs” like you want to suggest. Unless you think Maurkice Pouncey belongs in that group?
Did you even look at the ratings information? Doubtful. No one called anyone a “right wing conspiracy nutjob”, so
I don’t know why that’s in quotes. The logic is people are sick and tired? That’s not what logic is…that’s your opinion, that is not logic or fact. The logic is that people are tuning in to news programs during prime time because we are in the middle of a pandemic that is ravaging our country instead of watching football. The ratings actually enforce that, as opposed to your “viewership is down”, even though Sunday afternoon game viewership was actually up. I wasn’t suggesting anyone was a nutjob. I’m sorry if calling Fox News “propaganda” triggered you, but that’s exactly what they are. They straight up gaslight without any regard or decency. When executives from the parent company present information, they just say whatever they want anyway, without evidence. I hope you come back here to comment on how wrong you were when Fox shells out a billion dollars to continue to air football
What I do see about the ratings is the NBA , MLB, & NHL playoffs are in the distance rearview mirror to football. Football is king of the sports world & its not even close.
I think your last statement is correct if your referring to the football we North Americans call soccer. That sport has teams and fans in over 150 countries around the world.