HEADLINES

Month: November 2024

Bears To Decline Bobby Massie’s Option?

March 8th, 2021 at 10:55am CST by Zachary Links

The Bears are not likely to exercise the option on Bobby Massie’s contract, according to NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport (on Twitter). By letting the tackle walk, the Bears will save upwards of $5MM against the 2021 salary cap.

[RELATED: Bears Plan To Pursue Wilson Trade]

Massie may not be a world-beater, but he is an experienced starter at a premium position. Unfortunately, a knee injury cut his 2020 season at the midway point, and his 2019 was limited by an ankle issue.

Massie’s been with the Bears since signing a three-year deal with them in 2016. Before the 2019 season, he agreed to a four-year extension worth $8MM+ per year. The Bears could keep him through 2022, but they’d prefer to go younger, cheaper, and healthier at right tackle.

The salary cap figure is still TBD, but the Bears need to do some spring cleaning regardless of where the number stands. Even after dropping Massie, there will be more moves to come. And, if they make a play for Russell Wilson, they’ll have some especially difficult decisions to make.

NFL To Delay Franchise Tag Deadline?

March 8th, 2021 at 9:55am CST by Zachary Links

As of this writing, NFL teams have until Tuesday to assign the franchise tag to players. Now, there’s word that the deadline could be pushed up, as Dan Graziano of ESPN.com tweets.

The NFL and NFLPA are still working to set the salary cap number for 2021, which may complicate the decision for teams. The players’ union is hoping to wait until the league’s broadcast deals with TV partners are finalized — the larger the TV deals, the higher the salary cap can go. As a result, they’re pushing the NFL to pump the breaks on the deadline.

The league rearranged the calendar last year in the midst of the pandemic, so there is precedent for this type of last-minute shuffling. That included the franchise tag deadline, which went from 3/10 t0 3/12 to 3/16. The extra time allowed the two sides to hammer out the new collective bargaining agreement and set the salary cap beforehand.

Teams have been bracing for this possibility, though some clubs have made their calls already. The Broncos, for example, decided to franchise tag standout safety Justin Simmons late last week.

Eagles Discussing Brandon Brooks Trade

March 8th, 2021 at 8:55am CST by Zachary Links

Zach Ertz isn’t the only Eagles player potentially on the move. The Birds have also been discussing potential trades involving Brandon Brooks as of late, according to Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated. 

[RELATED: Eagles To Trade Ertz Soon?]

Brooks lost the 2020 season to a torn Achilles, his latest in a string of injuries. Still, he was considered one of the league’s better interior lineman when healthy. Brooks made the Pro Bowl every year from 2017-2019, despite a previous Achilles tear and a shoulder shoulder injury. All in all, he lived up to the lofty expectations set by his initial five-year, $62.5MM deal. That prompted the Eagles to lock him up with a four-year, $54.2MM pact in late 2019.

At the time of signing, the deal made Brooks the second-highest-paid guard in the game, with his $13.6MM AAV only trailing Zack Martin‘s $14MM/year. Now, as the Eagles look to remake their roster and trim salary, they’re willing to listen on offers. Brooks, who was able to practice before the end of the season, can be controlled through 2023 for a total of ~$53MM. This year, he’s on the books for a reasonable $10.5MM.

Multiple Teams Calling On Zach Ertz, Deal Coming Soon?

March 8th, 2021 at 8:46am CST by Andrew Ortenberg

It looks like the offseason of change for the Eagles is continuing full steam ahead. “Multiple teams” have contacted Philadelphia to express interest in trading for tight end Zach Ertz, and a deal “could happen in the coming days,” sources told Mike Silver of NFL Network (Twitter link).

This isn’t exactly a shock, as we heard last month that the veteran was expecting to either be traded or released and not return to Philly in 2021. Ertz had previously said in January that he wanted to be back with the Eagles. Ertz had a very bumpy 2020 campaign that saw him get into a heated argument with GM Howie Roseman over his frustration with extension talks. Philadelphia reportedly considered trading him at the deadline, but an ankle injury he suffered around that time nixed that.

The team clearly didn’t want to pay him the top of the tight end market money he’s looking for, and in their minds they’ve got his replacement waiting in the wings in the younger Dallas Goedert. Ertz has one more season left on his current deal with an $8.25MM salary and $12.4MM cap hit. Trading or cutting him would save the Eagles almost $5MM in cap space, but also leave almost $8MM in dead money.

Ertz is 30 now and is coming off easily his worst season as a pro, but he made the Pro Bowl in 2019 and was a first-team All-Pro in 2018. As such, it’s not hard to see why there’s legit trade interest in him. His struggles this past season were likely due more to the Eagles’ passing game woes as a whole than anything he was doing wrong.

In 11 games, he finished with only 36 catches for 335 yards and one touchdown. In 2019 he had 88 catches for 916 yards and six touchdowns. It sounds like we should know a lot more about where he’ll be playing next season very soon.

Kyle Rudolph Interested In Joining Patriots

March 7th, 2021 at 9:53pm CST by Andrew Ortenberg

Kyle Rudolph was only released by the Vikings this week, but he isn’t wasting any time in thinking about where he wants to play next. Immediately after his release we heard he’d be excited about joining Cleveland, and now we’ve got another team on his list.

Rudolph is also interested in playing for the Patriots, a source told Doug Kyed of NESN.com. It hasn’t been reported on yet, but there are some reasons to believe the interest might be mutual. New England sniffed around a Rudolph trade a couple of years ago when the tight end was having contract issues in Minnesota, although obviously nothing materialized.

Tight end is also a big need for Bill Belichick on paper, as the team got virtually nothing from the position in 2020. Ryan Izzo led the team’s tight ends with 13 catches for 199 yards and no touchdowns. No matter what you think of Rudolph, he’d be a massive upgrade.

As a veteran who got cut, Rudolph doesn’t have to wait for the start of free agency and can sign wherever he wants immediately. He’s 31 now and coming off a down year, but has two Pro Bowls under his belt and has proven he can be a reliable option.

Ryan Fitzpatrick Leaning Toward Retirement?

March 7th, 2021 at 8:11pm CST by Andrew Ortenberg

As recently as the beginning of February, Ryan Fitzpatrick sounded like he had every intention of playing in 2021, but that might no longer be the case.

“For me, personally, I have to take every offseason and reassess. These last two years have really re-lit that fire under me. I still want to play, and I enjoy being out there playing,” Fitz said at the time. Now however, it “looks like he’s going to retire,” veteran NFL reporter John Clayton writes for 104.3 The Fan Denver. Clayton writes that the Broncos had “some contact” with Fitzpatrick, but “it looks like he’s going to be out of the mix.”

Perhaps Fitzpatrick has decided that if he can’t find a starting gig, he’ll hang up his cleats. In Denver he’d be veteran competition for Drew Lock, and it’s possible Fitz has no interest in another situation like last year, when he was used to push Tua Tagovailoa with the Dolphins. This news is also more confirmation that the Broncos are in fact serious about Lock not being handed the starting job.

If it really is the end of the line for FitzMagic, it’d wrap up an incredible NFL journey. The 250th pick of the 2005 draft has defied all odds, sticking in the league for 16 seasons while playing for eight different teams.

The 38-year-old has started 146 games in the league, an achievement nobody ever could’ve seen coming for the Harvard product. We should know more about his future soon with the start of free agency right around the corner.

Lions Having Trade Talks About QB Chase Daniel

March 7th, 2021 at 7:01pm CST by Andrew Ortenberg

The Lions already made the big blockbuster trade of this offseason by swapping Matthew Stafford for Jared Goff and picks, and they apparently might not be done dealing quarterbacks.

Detroit has had trade discussions with teams about backup Chase Daniel, sources told Adam Schefter of ESPN.com (Twitter link). We’ve heard trade rumors about tons of quarterbacks in what should be an unusually busy cycle for signal-caller movement, but this is a new one.

Daniel of course has never actually produced much on the field, but teams are continuously enamored with him as a veteran backup. He only has five career starts under his belt, and just three since the 2014 season. The most recent of those came in a 2019 spot start with Chicago. The Missouri product spent time with the Saints, Chiefs, and Eagles prior to joining Chicago.

He then signed a surprisingly lucrative three-year, $13.05MM deal with the Lions last offseason. If the Lions do trade him it won’t be for anything more than a late-round pick, but it’s interesting that teams are talking. It could be squads with a recently drafted quarterback making calls, as Schefter notes that Daniel “has been considered an ideal mentor for young QBs” around the league.

Latest On Browns’ Receivers

March 7th, 2021 at 5:25pm CST by Andrew Ortenberg

The Browns are coming off their most successful season in decades, but they’ve got very important questions to figure out this offseason. One of the most pressing questions is what’s going to happen in their receivers room.

Jarvis Landry and Odell Beckham Jr. both have big cap hits for 2021, and there was a report back in November after Beckham tore his ACL that some believed he had played his final down as a Brown. GM Andrew Berry tried to squash that when he recently said Beckham was still very much in the team’s plans moving forward, and head coach Kevin Stefanski echoed that sentiment this week. “I think we can, yeah,” Stefanski said to Keyshawn Johnson on ESPN Radio when asked whether the team can fit Landry and Beckham’s salaries for 2021, via Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com.

Interestingly, Kay Cabot writes that Cleveland “would likely listen to offers for Beckham this offseason,” but that “there’s not expected to be much of a market” for him given his contract and the knee injury he’s coming off of. She notes the team could get out of Landry’s deal with only $3MM in dead cap, but doesn’t think they have any plans to cut him.

Stefanski spoke very highly of Beckham’s efforts to get his knee right, saying “he attacks rehab like I’ve never seen people do it.” Thankfully everything seems to be going well with his recovery and he should be all systems go for 2021.

The Browns also have a third key receiver flying more under the radar, Rashard Higgins. Kay Cabot writes that the impending free agent will receive a contract offer whenever the cap is set, but that if he receives an offer in the $6MM annually range that Spotrac.com estimates him at, it’ll likely be “more than the Browns are willing to pay.”

“If he can get that on the open market, he’ll likely be gone,” she writes. Higgins caught 37 passes for 599 yards and four touchdowns last year. As of right now, it looks like Landry and Beckham are strong favorites to be back catching passes from Baker Mayfield next year, although that seemingly could change if a team steps up with trade interest in Beckham. Higgins’ status is more up in the air, and it appears to be trending toward him heading elsewhere.

PFR Poll: Will Saints’ Drew Brees Retire?

March 7th, 2021 at 3:49pm CST by Zachary Links

In the midst of the playoffs, it was widely reported that Drew Brees would retire after the season. Now, we’re in March, and Brees has yet to make any sort of announcement. 

Of course, Brees has nothing left to prove. The 42-year-old can walk away with one of the most illustrious careers in the history of the sport. He currently has the most yards in league history, and more touchdowns than anyone not named Tom Brady. He even has his post-retirement career lined up after signing a deal with NBC Sports last April.

Brees has missed significant time with health issues in each of the past two seasons and he’d be leaving the Saints in a pretty okay place, provided that they can re-sign Jameis Winston. The Saints also have Taysom Hill on the roster with hope that he can be the answer under center in the long run. So, what’s the hold up?

Over the past few weeks, many have speculated that Brees could be having second thoughts about retiring. The longer this goes on, the more chatter picks up about the Super Bowl XLIV champ actually playing in 2021 on the (effectively) final year of his contract.

At this point, do you expect Brees to retire? Cast your vote below (link for app users) and let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Contract Notes: Harrison, Hyde

March 7th, 2021 at 12:37pm CST by Rory Parks

Here are the details on several recently-signed contracts:

As previously reported, Hyde’s extension will be added on to the one year he had remaining on his previous contract, keeping him under club control through 2023. Altogether, he is playing under a three-year, $24.4MM deal (excluding incentives).

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