2021 April - Pro Football Rumors

Falcons To Sign Cordarrelle Patterson

April 15th, 2021 at 11:01am CST by Zachary Links

The Falcons have agreed to terms with Cordarrelle Patterson (Twitter link via NFL.com’s Mike Garafolo). The veteran wide receiver/kick returner will head to Atlanta on a one-year, $3MM deal.

Patterson, 30, entered the league as a first-round round pick of the Vikings in 2013. Expectations were sky-high — especially since mock drafts had the Tennessee product going much higher than No. 29 overall. Unfortunately, Patterson never developed into the superstar receiver he was made out to be. By 2015, the 6’2″ athlete barely factored into the Vikings’ offense, playing in 16 games and gaining just 25 yards from scrimmage.

However, he did earn first-team All-Pro honors in 2013, ’16, ’19, and ’20 on the strength of his kick returns. The Vikings didn’t get everything they hoped for, but the Raiders, Patriots, and Bears were mostly happy with the human highlight reel.

Over the last two seasons with the Bears, Patterson turned two kickoffs into touchdowns for Chicago with an overall average of 29.2 yards per return. He also logged 32 catches for 215 yards, plus 81 carries out of the backfield for 335 yards and a touchdown.

Seahawks To Sign Aldon Smith

April 15th, 2021 at 10:40am CST by Zachary Links

The Seahawks have agreed to a one-year deal with Aldon Smith (Twitter link via NFL.com’s Mike Garafolo and Ian Rapoport). The deal came together pretty quickly, following the edge rusher’s Wednesday visit.

Smith’s multitude of suspensions and off-the-field incidents kept him out of the league for years. He was pretty much off of everyone’s radar, up until last year when the Cowboys signed him to a low-cost one-year deal. Smith managed to shake off the rust, tallying five sacks, two fumble recoveries, and 14 quarterback hits on 73% of Dallas’ defensive snaps.

All of Smith’s sacks came in the first half of the season. Around that time, the Seahawks took notice and tried to pry the veteran away from the Cowboys just before the deadline. Even though they were rebuffed, they managed to get their man a few months later.

After recording 46 sacks last year to finish seventh in the league, the Seahawks have done their best to keep the band together. Carlos Dunlap — the Seahawks’ Plan B when the Smith talks fell through — was re-signed to a two-year deal in late March. Smith will be joined up front by Benson Mayowa, who has a fresh one-year contract, and fellow newcomer Kerry Hyder, who joined on a three-year, $16.5MM accord.

Hue Jackson Hired As Tennessee State OC

April 15th, 2021 at 9:19am CST by Zachary Links

Hue Jackson is back in football. The former Browns and Raiders head coach will serve as the offensive coordinator for Eddie George‘s Tennessee State staff, as Mike Organ of The Tennessean writes.

Jackson, 55, has been away from the game since infamous tenure with the Browns. After his Cleveland teams went 3-36-1 across two-and-a-half seasons, Jackson has hardly been able to get an interview for an NFL job. Recently, he went public to try and set the record straight.

“There is no doubt I was lied to by ownership and the executive team,” Jackson said. “They were going to be football plus analytics, but they intentionally made it football versus analytics. They were going to take two years and they were going to find a way to use us as an experiment to make sure that they got the data that they needed for it to get better — at the expense of whoever — and that’s not right.”

Now, Jackson will try to rebuild his stock at the NCAA level. For what it’s worth, he was in the running for the Steelers’ OC position just a few months ago, so it’s still possible that he could mount an NFL return — just not in Cleveland.

Tyler Lockett Wants To Finish Career With Seahawks

April 14th, 2021 at 10:55pm CST by Rory Parks

Seahawks wide receiver Tyler Lockett just signed a lucrative contract extension that will take him through the 2025 season, but he already knows how he would like his playing career to end. The 28-year-old wideout told reporters during a meeting with media yesterday that he wants to finish his career with the ‘Hawks (via Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times).

“I would love to finish my career as a Seattle Seahawk,” Lockett said. “That’s why I said it was an amazing feeling that they even wanted to keep me on the team even longer. … To just to be able to see how they feel about me, understand how they feel about me, it brings that type of feeling to me that, you know, they want me here just as much as I want to be here.”

The latest extension represents Lockett’s third contract with the team, and as Condotta points out, he is now the only player on Seattle’s roster signed past the 2023 season. He would have been eligible for free agency at the end of the 2021 campaign, but the new deal gave him $37MM in fully-guaranteed cash while lowering his cap hit for this year, so it was a beneficial transaction for both player and team.

Lockett’s warm and fuzzy feelings towards Seattle are perhaps not shared by his quarterback at the moment, and it could be that Lockett’s tenure in the Emerald City will outlast Russell Wilson‘s. But Wilson will be throwing passes to Lockett for at least one more year, and both players will operate within new OC Shane Waldron‘s scheme.

Lockett, who has operated more out of the slot in the past several seasons, hopes to get a little more burn outside the numbers in Waldron’s offense. But wherever he lines up, he is excited about what the future holds after seeing Waldron’s work with the Rams’ passing game in recent years.

“I mean even when we watched the Rams and how they did a lot of things, they did a lot of great things,” Lockett said. “They utilize people in a lot of great ways. And just with the opportunity to be able to have Shane come in, I think there’s a lot of things that we can learn. There’s a lot of things he brings to the table…”

Five Deshaun Watson Accusers Have Spoken With Police

April 14th, 2021 at 9:50pm CST by Rory Parks

One of the civil suits against Texans QB Deshaun Watson has been dismissed, but as Samantha Ketterer of the Houston Chronicle writes, another lawsuit has been filed, which returns the total to 22. The newest accuser is a makeup artist who alleges, among other things, that at various points during two massage sessions, Watson asked her to put her hand on his penis and tried to kiss and grope her.

She also avers that Watson contacted her via social media to request a massage, at which point she made it clear that she was not a licensed massage therapist. Like all of the other plaintiffs, she is represented by Tony Buzbee.

Even more problematic for Watson is the fact that five of Buzbee’s clients have now spoken to police, as Will Hobson of the Washington Post reports. We had previously heard that Ashley Solis — the first accuser to publicly identify herself — had contacted the Houston Police Department, which opened a criminal investigation earlier this month.

Hobson provides a comprehensive look at how this matter has unfolded, including Buzbee’s initial communication with Watson’s management at Athletes First. Buzbee claims that Scott Gaffield, general counsel for Athletes First, did not take the accusations seriously, and while Gaffield was willing to discuss a “reasonable” settlement for Solis — i.e. less than the $100K that Buzbee had offered on Solis’ behalf — he was doing so just so that Watson “can learn a lesson about having put himself in this situation.” Gaffield declined to comment for Hobson’s story, instead referring a reporter to an earlier statement in which he expressed his belief that Watson did not engage in any wrongdoing.

Buzbee, both in his interview with Hobson and on Instagram, fired back at statements from Rusty Hardin, Watson’s attorney, which indicated that any sexual interactions between Watson and Buzbee’s clients were consensual. Hardin had suggested that Watson turned to social media to arrange for massages due to the pandemic, to which Buzbee replied, “Because of COVID, he was reaching out to dozens of different people on Instagram? For massages? … Because of COVID, you would think he would have one person who had tested negative.”

Meanwhile, Hardin — who has accused Buzbee of taking part in a “new kind of extortion using social media and salacious innuendo” — did not speak with the Washington Post for very long, saying that he believes it would be better to address the inaccuracies of Buzbee’s claims in the series of pleadings he plans to file next week as opposed to a newspaper article.

Jabril Cox To Hold Pro Day

April 14th, 2021 at 8:40pm CST by Rory Parks

LSU linebacker Jabril Cox will hold a Pro Day on April 26 — just three days before this year’s draft — as his agent, Andy Ross, tweeted. Cox was unable to work out with his teammates at LSU’s Pro Day in March due to a hamstring injury.

Cox is widely seen as a Day 2 talent. His biggest selling point is his versatility, which will make him attractive to any number of clubs. He can line up as an outside linebacker in either a 4-3 or a 3-4 scheme, and his rare combination of size and speed allows him to excel in coverage. He is not as polished against the run, but that coverage ability is one of the first things talent evaluators looks for when studying modern-day ‘backers. His speed and burst also give him some upside as a pass rusher.

Cox began his collegiate career with FCS powerhouse North Dakota State, and he did so well there that, when he graduated and entered the transfer portal, Alabama and LSU both went after him. In his one year with the Tigers, he tallied 58 tackles (6.5 TFL) and three interceptions, including a pick-six. The Butkus Award semifinalist is also lauded for his leadership abilities and character.

The Rams, the Washington Football Team, and the Patriots are among the clubs that could have interest.

Aaron Donald Facing Assault Allegation

April 14th, 2021 at 6:27pm CST by Sam Robinson

A man filed a police report accusing Aaron Donald of committing assault outside a bar in Pittsburgh, KDTV reports. The alleged incident occurred in the morning hours of April 11.

The accuser, DeVincent Spriggs, intends to press charges against the superstar Rams defensive lineman, whom Spriggs alleges attacked him after the two were asked to leave a bar on Pittsburgh’s South Side. Police have not issued a charge against Donald, a Pittsburgh native.

Spriggs’ attorney said his client accidentally bumped into Donald inside the nightclub. This led to an argument and both being asked to leave the club, with Spriggs’ attorney then indicating Donald confronted Spriggs and began punching and kicking him outside the venue, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Mick Stinelli. Spriggs, who admits to throwing a bottle of alcohol at some point during the proceedings, required hospitalization. He suffered a broken eye socket, a broken nose, a concussion and required 16 stitches.

Neither Donald, 29, nor Spriggs, 26, are named in the police report. This does not appear to have progressed to the point a possible Donald suspension would be in play, but the Rams are monitoring the situation. The six-time All-Pro has missed just two games in his seven seasons; both came because of a 2017 holdout.

NFL Sets Offseason Workout Schedule; More Teams To Hold Virtual Sessions

April 14th, 2021 at 5:28pm CST by Sam Robinson

The subject of offseason workouts has generated considerable discord this offseason, but teams remain free to begin programs Monday. The NFL also released a schedule for this year’s OTAs, for the teams that intend to participate onsite.

From April 19 to May 14, players can lift in team weight rooms; all meetings during this span will be virtual. May 17 begins a more relevant section of the offseason calendar; teams are permitted to hold noncontact on-field drills over a five-day period, Mike Garafolo of NFL.com tweets. The OTA portion of the offseason would begin May 24; teams can hold 10 OTA sessions and a mandatory minicamp from May 24-June 18.

Of course, the number of teams who will exercise these onsite opportunities continues to dwindle. After the Broncos, Seahawks and Buccaneers declared they will go through another virtual offseason, the Lions followed suit Wednesday (Twitter link). The Patriots did as well, though their release indicates “many” team members will not attend onsite workouts (Twitter link). Some Patriots may show up next week. New England led the NFL with eight opt-out players last year.

During the first phase of the offseason schedule, the NFL intends to focus on vaccine education, according to ESPN.com’s Dan Graziano. NFL staffers set to work with players must receive COVID-19 vaccinations; no mandate exists for players, however. Meetings during the third phase of the proposed program could remain virtual, but Graziano adds teams will be allowed to hold in-person meetings at this point — with COVID restrictions — as well.

The NFLPA has continued to push for a second fully virtual offseason program, citing coronavirus concerns, and players on a few teams have stood with the union thus far. More clubs may well follow suit.

Predictably, the union is displeased with the NFL’s proposed schedule. In a letter sent to players tonight, NFLPA executive director De Smith and president J.C. Tretter said that the league’s plan does not address any of the concerns that players have raised, and they continue to encourage players to stay away from team facilities. The full letter can be found here, courtesy of Tom Pelissero of the NFL Network.

The NFL, perhaps in response, issued another memo setting forth one of the benefits of working out at facilities: if a player gets hurt on-site, he will have injury protection. If he gets hurt while working out on his own, he will not. Pelissero has that memo as well.

As the battle of the paperwork rages on, it looks like the NFL may be set for a strange imbalance featuring some teams holding in-person workouts and others not.

Colts Still In Mix To Re-Sign Justin Houston

April 14th, 2021 at 4:39pm CST by Sam Robinson

Justin Houston spent the past two seasons as the Colts’ top edge rusher, but the 10-year veteran visited the Ravens on Wednesday. However, the Colts are still in the mix to bring Houston back, according to Jim Irsay.

The Colts owner said Wednesday that Houston may still return to Indianapolis, via The Athletic’s Zak Keefer (on Twitter). However, Irsay also indicated the Colts can address their edge and left tackle needs in the draft (Twitter link).

A month ahead of free agency, GM Chris Ballard said a Houston return would depend on the market. The Colts were still monitoring their two-year contributor late last month, but he remains a free agent. The Ravens, however, are looking into edge help. They were interested in Jadeveon Clowney, but the former No. 1 overall pick agreed to a Browns deal Wednesday. Both Baltimore and Indianapolis feature clear needs on the edge.

Houston agreed to a two-year, $24MM Colts deal in 2019 and displayed surprising durability, not missing a game as a Colt after running into frequent injury trouble with the Chiefs. Houston registered 19 sacks in two Colts seasons; three of those were safeties. He joins Melvin Ingram, Ryan Kerrigan and Aldon Smith as the top edge defenders available.

The Colts lost their third-leading sacker from 2020, Denico Autry, who signed with the Titans and have not seen their high draft picks produce at this position. Kemoko Turay has played in just 11 games over the past two seasons, while fellow former second-round pick Tyquan Lewis has six sacks in three seasons. Indianapolis re-signed Al-Quadin Muhammad but certainly should be expected to add one or two starter-level cogs ahead of training camp.

Steelers Re-Sign Vince Williams

April 14th, 2021 at 3:24pm CST by Zachary Links

The Steelers have agreed to re-sign Vince Williams (Twitter link via ESPN.com’s Jeremy Fowler). The linebacker had other offers, Fowler hears, but he ultimately chose to stay in Pittsburgh.

The Steelers cut Williams earlier this year to save $4MM against the salary cap. It wasn’t an easy call for Kevin Colbert & Co., as Williams had spent his entire eight-year career in black and gold.

After entering the league as a sixth-round pick in 2013, Williams spent the early part of his career as a part-timer. But, for the last four years, he’s served as a starter. In 2020 ,he appeared in 14 games (all starts), racking up 70 tackles, 14 for a loss, and three sacks. His most noteworthy season came in 2017, when he notched eight sacks despite lining up as an inside linebacker.

The remainder of Williams’ last deal — a three-year extension worth $18.6MM — was too rich for the Steelers’ blood, but he managed to find middle ground with management. Now, he’ll look to add to his career tallies of 479 tackles and 20.5 sacks while staying with the only team he’s ever known.