We’ll keep track of today’s minor moves here:
Detroit Lions
Los Angeles Rams
San Francisco 49ers
Seattle Seahawks
Tennessee Titans
Casey Hayward will stay in the AFC West. The former Chargers Pro Bowler intends to sign with the Raiders, veteran NFL reporter Josina Anderson tweets. It’s a one-year deal worth up to $4MM, Anderson adds (on Twitter).
The Bolts cut Hayward this offseason, ending a five-year tenure. The veteran cornerback will link up with former Chargers defensive coordinator Gus Bradley, whom the Raiders hired this offseason. Hayward met with Raiders coaches Tuesday, Anderson adds (via Twitter). He will also reunite with secondary coach Ron Milus, whom the Raiders brought over with Bradley. Milus was the Chargers’ DBs coach throughout Hayward’s tenure.
Corner has resided as a perennial Raiders need, and they have extensive experience going against Hayward to judge his credentials. Experience in Bradley’s system will benefit the nine-year veteran as well. This move, however, likely will send Richard Sherman elsewhere. The former All-Pro spoke with the Raiders about a deal this offseason, but Hayward’s impending Las Vegas stay likely will point Sherman to another team.
Hayward, 32 in September, operated as one of the league’s better corners for a while. He signed what turned out to be a bargain deal for the Chargers in 2016, coming over from the Packers, and made the Pro Bowl that season and under Bradley in 2017. Hayward intercepted 11 passes between the 2016-17 seasons. This led the Bolts to reward him with a $12MM-per-year extension. While 2020 can be classified as a down year for Hayward, he is not far removed from elite work. Pro Football Focus graded the former second-round pick as a top-five corner in 2019.
Las Vegas drafted a corner this year — Nate Hobbs — but not until the fifth round. The team still has highly drafted cogs Damon Arnette and Trayvon Mullen; Hayward will provide veteran support for these young defenders. Arnette missed much of last season due to injury.
Despite signing with the Lions earlier this offseason, veteran tight end Josh Hill intends to retire, Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press tweets.
Hill will walk away from the NFL having spent his entire playing career with the Saints. New Orleans, however, cut its long-tenured pass catcher this offseason. The soon-to-be 31-year-old vet signed a one-year, $1.2MM Lions deal soon after.
While the Saints frequently shopped for pass-catching tight ends, bringing in the likes of Coby Fleener, Ben Watson and Jared Cook in attempts to fill the Jimmy Graham-created void, Hill stuck around. The 2013 UDFA out of Idaho State played in 117 Saints games, catching 116 passes for 1,071 yards and 15 touchdowns. Hill followed former Saints tight ends coach Dan Campbell to Detroit. Campbell’s team will now need to look at other solutions, having not drafted a tight end.
The Lions brought in Darren Fells for a workout earlier Tuesday. This certainly explains why the team is interested in another tight end. Detroit has first-round pick T.J. Hockenson signed through at least 2022, but Hill was poised to work as his backup. His exit could point to a near-future Fells addition.
The Saints have assembled their initial group of undrafted free agents. The four-time reigning NFC South champions agreed to post-draft deals with 11 rookies, per a club announcement. Here is New Orleans’ full list:
Bronson received interest from several teams but agreed to sign with the Saints. New Orleans will guarantee $140K of Bronson’s base salary, Tom Pelissero of NFL.com tweets. In addition to the base guarantee, Bronson will collect a $25K signing bonus. A Temple transfer who began his college career back in 2015, Bronson was a three-year Huskies contributor.
A tight end out of Iowa State, Soehner will receive a $120K base salary guarantee, veteran NFL reporter Aaron Wilson tweets. Scott will vie for a backup job with the likes of Latavius Murray, Ty Montgomery and Dwayne Washington. The Indiana product, however, will head to the NFL after seeing his production drop in each of his three college seasons. Scott’s 1,137 freshman-year rushing total came with a 5.0 yards-per-carry figure. By 2020, Scott averaged just 3.6 per tote in Big Ten play.
One of two ex-Orange players to join the Saints in this class, Cooney may have a clear path to a roster spot. The Saints released longtime punter Thomas Morstead this offseason and do not have another punter on the roster. Should Cooney make the Saints’ 53-man roster, he would join Riley Dixon as Syracuse punting alums in the NFL.
One of a few teams linked to trading up for a quarterback in Round 1, Washington stood pat. Both the Bears and Patriots ended up landing potential franchise passers, with Chicago moving up nine spots to do so. Ryan Fitzpatrick remains Washington’s top quarterback.
Washington ended up staying at No. 19 and drafting linebacker Jamin Davis, but the team discussed making a jump to address its QB spot as well as drafting a later-round passer.
“Both those situations we had conversations [about]. We liked a couple of those young quarterbacks a lot; that was a consideration,” Ron Rivera said, via the Washington Post’s Nicki Jhabvala (on Twitter). “The thing that always seemed to just kind of make us step back and think about it was the draft capital we’d have to give up.
“So as we kept debating it was always, ‘Well, let’s take one more look.’ Let’s see if he falls again.’ At the right number, it would have been something we could have done.”
The Bears sent the Giants three picks (other than No. 20) — their 2022 first-rounder, along with a 2021 fifth and a 2022 fourth — to move up for Justin Fields, while the Patriots stayed at No. 15 to select Mac Jones. Although the Cowboys and Eagles agreed to a first-round deal, it was a lower-level exchange involving only a third-round pick. The Giants, who entered the draft having not traded down in Round 1 in 15 years, almost certainly would not have agreed to allow Washington to move up eight spots for a quarterback.
Washington would have needed to part with a similar package — or a slightly lesser one — to climb up into the low teens for Jones. But Trey Lance was the passer the team was linked to ahead of the draft. Rivera appeared to confirm as such.
“The guy we talked about waiting on ended up getting taken early,” the second-year Washington HC said. “So when those two guys left, then we just felt, ‘OK, hey we’re going to stick with what we got. We got a group of young guys, led by Ryan Fitzpatrick, that we think we can develop and be guys that can be very good football players for us.”
Linked to Jones for weeks, the 49ers ended up taking Lance at No. 3. Considering Jones lasted until No. 15, Fields may well have been the other potential Washington target. But going into the draft, the team was not believed to be especially eager to part with too many assets in a trade-up scenario. The defending NFC East champs ended up tabling their long-term QB solution, as the Broncos did at No. 9.
Washington gave Fitzpatrick a one-year deal and re-signed Taylor Heinicke on a two-year pact. The team also retained Kyle Allen as an ERFA. While a major quarterback need remains for the future, this looks like the team’s 2021 quarterback picture.
The Lions will meet with Darren Fells tonight (Twitter link via NFL.com’s Mike Garafolo). If all goes well, the veteran tight end could return to Detroit, where he spent the 2017 season.
Fells has notched eleven touchdowns across the last two seasons with the Texans, plus another TD in the 2019 postseason. The bulk of those scores came in ’19 (seven) off of 34 grabs for 341 yards. Last year was quieter for the 35-year-old as he registered 21 catches for 312 yards and four TDs. Still, it’s worth noting that he finished with the highest yards per catch average of his career (14.9). Also, it wasn’t exactly a banner year for the Texans offense on the whole.
Overall, Fells is better known for his blocking prowess than his pass-catching, so he still profiles as solid support for T.J. Hockenson & Co.
Former Colt Malik Hooker will visit with the Dolphins on Tuesday (Twitter link via NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport). This marks the first known visit in a while for the one-time first-round safety. 
Now that May 3rd has come and gone, teams will no longer be docked in the compensatory pick formula for signing veterans. Teams have been waiting patiently for that deadline to pass, so players like Hooker are bound to be scooped up in the coming weeks. The Ravens, for example, had been eyeing offensive tackle Alejandro Villanueva for weeks. Still, they waited until Tuesday morning to finalize his new two-year deal.
Hooker played out his rookie contract with the Colts, but he’s been plagued by injury trouble throughout his career. He did manage to bounce back from a seven-game rookie season to suit up for 27 regular-season contests from 2018-19, but he was limited to just two games last year. Now, he’s believed to be mostly recovered from his September Achilles tear.
If signed, Hooker will join third-round pick Jevon Holland in the Dolphins’ safety group. For now, the ‘Fins project to start Eric Rowe at strong safety and Bobby McCain at free safety.
Last year, dozens of NFL players opted out of the 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith says he’ll push to extend that option into 2021 (Twitter link via NFL.com’s Tom Pelissero). 
A number of NFL locker rooms have already decided against onsite offseason workouts. That’s an indication that some players may choose to stay home this year, should the coronavirus bring new variants to the states. Of course, with vaccines having been widely administered, players are more comfortable with the idea of traveling than they were in 2020.
Chiefs guard and medical school graduate Laurent Duvernay-Tardif was the first player to officially opt out last summer. Scores of players followed, though most said they struggled with the decision, which was complicated by lengthy negotiations over compensation and free agency rights. This time around, Smith is hoping to solidify the terms well in advance to make things easier for players.
Meanwhile, NFLPA president and Browns center J.C. Tretter reiterated the union’s position that every player should boycott voluntary OTAs.
“This is not a 2021 offseason issue. This will be an issue year after year,” Tretter said.
The Browns have signed veteran defensive tackle Damion Square, per a club announcement. This is just the latest in a string of defensive tackle upgrades, following the additions of Malik McDowell and promising UDFA Marvin Wilson.
[RELATED: Browns Sign Malik McDowell]
The Browns could use the interior support after shedding Sheldon Richardson earlier this year. Square, a nine-year vet, spent the past seven seasons with the Chargers, appearing in 81 games (24 starts). He’s served mostly as a rotational piece for the Bolts and he hasn’t missed a game in four years. During his time in San Diego and L.A., he’s picked up 6.5 sacks, thanks in part to seeing snaps at defensive end in 2018.
Of course, he’ll have to prove himself over the summer in order to stick on the roster this fall. Given Wilson’s $192K guarantee, the Florida State product may have a leg up on Square and others vying for a place on the depth chart.
The Colts are working out former Bears kicker Eddy Pineiro today (Twitter link via ESPN.com’s Adam Schefter). If signed, Piniero will compete with Rodrigo Blankenship over the summer for the Colts’ kicking job. 
Blankenship joined the Colts last year after nailing 27 of 33 field goals in his final season at Georgia. His 82.5% make rate over four years ranked as the best in program history and he went 200-for-200 on all of his extra point tries. He wasn’t quite as sharp from long range as a pro, missing four kicks from beyond the 40-yard mark. Still, he finished his rookie year with a 86.5% FG rate.
Pineiro, meanwhile, made just 82% of his field goals for the Bears in 2019. Then, he missed all of 2020 due to a groin injury and ceded the job to Cairo Santos.