HEADLINES

Month: October 2024

Chiefs, LT Orlando Brown Jr. To Begin Extension Talks

May 4th, 2022 at 6:44pm CST by Sam Robinson

After acquiring Orlando Brown Jr. in a contract year, the Chiefs used their franchise tag on their new left tackle. While Brown playing 2022 on the tag is in play, the Chiefs are set to begin negotiations with the fifth-year blocker, GM Brett Veach said.

Kansas City kept Brown off the market via the $16.7MM offensive line tag, but the former Ravens right tackle will be targeting a deal that averages more in annual value. A deal north of $20MM per year will be the target of Brown’s camp, a group that has yet to fully form going into these negotiations.

Former NFL O-lineman Jammal Brown serves as Orlando Brown’s mentor, and NFL.com’s Garafolo adds (video link) they are meeting with agents and advisors to determine which path to take ahead of these pivotal negotiations. As of now, Orlando Brown is self-represented.

Brown, who turned 26 this week, maneuvered to reach this point. After filling in for Ronnie Stanley at left tackle to close out the 2020 season, Brown communicated to the Ravens he wanted to stay at that position. With Stanley entrenched at the spot in Baltimore, the Ravens traded their three-plus-year right tackle to the Chiefs for first-, third-, fourth- and fifth-round picks. The Chiefs also acquired a 2021 second-rounder in that swap, softening the blow. But the team’s trade compensation will come up in Brown’s negotiations, putting the mammoth blocker in good position to cash in.

Kansas City tabled an extension to 2022, making that plan immediately after acquiring Brown, and only has one O-lineman (left guard Joe Thuney) tied to a lucrative long-term contract. The Tyreek Hill trade and decision not to offer Tyrann Mathieu an extension cleared funds for a Brown re-up.

The Jaguars just gave Cam Robinson a deal averaging $17.6MM annually. Brown has three Pro Bowls to Robinson’s zero, putting the former in position to become the NFL’s fourth $20MM-per-year O-lineman. Trent Williams, whom the Chiefs aggressively pursued before the 49ers submitted their $23MM-per-year offer, joins David Bakhtiari and Laremy Tunsil as the league’s $20MM-AAV blockers. All three earn at least $22MM per year, giving Brown a target. The Chiefs sit near the top of the league with $18MM-plus in cap space; they have until July 15 to hammer out an extension.

Rams Bring In 17 UDFAs

May 4th, 2022 at 6:16pm CST by Sam Robinson

The Rams are the latest team to unveil their crop of undrafted free agents. Here are the 17 UDFAs who have officially signed on with the defending Super Bowl champions:

Texas’ kicker for the past four seasons, Dicker is listed as a punter despite only punting in two of those four. Dicker served as the Longhorns’ full-time punter last season but only logged eight punts prior to that senior year. Dicker averaged 46.8 yards per boot last season, earning first-team All-Big 12 acclaim. The Rams cut 10-year punter Johnny Hekker but signed Riley Dixon later this offseason.

Although the four outside linebackers in this year’s crop should not necessarily be connected to the team’s loss of Von Miller in free agency, this quartet joins a team that used one draft choice (a seventh-rounder at that) on the edge spot. Thomas, who teamed with first-rounder Jermaine Johnson at Florida State last season, used his COVID-19-enabled extra season after playing five years at South Carolina. Thomas recorded 6.5 sacks and 12.5 tackles for loss last season. Brayden Thomas and Hughes-Murray also spent six years in college. They registered nine and six sacks as seniors, respectively.

The Rams pursued UDFA quarterbacks, per The Athletic’s Jourdan Rodrigue, and plan to add one before camp (Twitter link). John Wolford and 2020 UDFA Bryce Perkins comprise Matthew Stafford‘s backup contingent. Jamal Pettigrew is a cousin of former Lions first-rounder Brandon Pettigrew. Jamal transferred from LSU, where he played a backup role on the Tigers’ unbeaten national championship team, to McNeese State and played 18 games — seven in the spring due to COVID adjustments — last year. Counting the draft, the Rams added six rookie cornerbacks

Browns To Hire Eagles’ Catherine Raiche

May 4th, 2022 at 5:00pm CST by Sam Robinson

Catherine Raiche‘s NFL rise is set to continue, and the next step will take place in Cleveland. The Browns are set to hire the Eagles executive, according to USA Today’s Jori Epstein (on Twitter).

Previously rising to the role of Eagles vice president of football operations, Raiche is set to work in an assistant GM-type capacity with the Browns, per Epstein. The Browns lost Andrew Berry‘s previous top lieutenant, Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, when he became the Vikings’ GM. Raiche has only been in the NFL since 2019 but experience in an assistant GM role, serving in that capacity with the CFL’s Montreal Alouettes in 2017.

Raiche, 33, interviewed for the Minnesota job Adofo-Mensah landed. The Eagles promoted the young exec to the VP of football ops role in May 2021, making her the highest-ranking female exec at that point. With the Browns, she will still hold that distinction. Raiche worked with Berry in 2019, when the current Browns GM worked as the Eagles’ VP of football ops. After rising to the role Berry vacated, Raiche is set to play a significant role in Cleveland.

The Eagles have lost a few key personnel staffers this offseason. Both Ian Cunningham and director of player personnel Brandon Brown left for jobs with the Bears and Giants, respectively, during the winter. The Eagles also fired college scouting director Casey Weidl earlier Wednesday.

Panthers Still Open To Veteran QB Addition

May 4th, 2022 at 4:25pm CST by Sam Robinson

Although the Panthers came away with a Day 2 quarterback in this draft (Matt Corral), third-round picks do not necessarily block teams from further investments at this position. The team will continue to look into the likes of Jimmy Garoppolo, Baker Mayfield and now Nick Foles, SI.com’s Albert Breer notes.

GM Scott Fitterer said post-draft the team would go with its current group — one headlined by Sam Darnold and Corral — but Garoppolo or Mayfield would provide an upgrade. The Panthers and Browns had discussed Mayfield ahead of last week’s second round but could not determine how to divvy up the since-replaced QB’s fifth-year option salary ($18.9MM). Darnold is already attached to that sum, which would make Carolina eating all of Mayfield’s option price a non-starter. As such, Mayfield is in limbo.

This marks the second Garoppolo connection to form in the past few days, with the Texans also believed to have the longtime 49ers starter on their radar. Houston did not draft a quarterback last week. Few Garoppolo connections emerged this offseason, with the 49ers’ high asking price limiting teams’ interest. The eight-year veteran’s shoulder surgery provided a roadblock as well.

Foles, 33, languished on the Bears’ bench for most of last season. The former Super Bowl MVP also lost his starting job in both 2019 (to Gardner Minshew in Jacksonville) and ’20 (to Mitchell Trubisky, after having taken it from the incumbent earlier that year). Last season, Andy Dalton and Justin Fields ran Chicago’s offense in all but one game — a Foles-directed win in Seattle — and the Bears finally cut bait after the draft.

Corral became a Panther after the team traded into the third round, giving up its 2023 third-rounder to do so, but the team might have had its eye on a different QB. The Panthers had a deal on the table to trade back into Round 2, when Corral, Malik Willis and Desmond Ridder were on the board amid their Friday-night freefalls.

“I had the card in my hand, and [owner David Tepper] looks at me and says, ‘What do you want to do?’” Fitterer said, via Breer. “And we both just kind of took a moment, and we looked at the board, and we decided the right thing to do was to be patient. Let’s not overpay. Let’s be smart about this. Let’s not dig ourselves in a hole for next year. Let’s inch back on trading with these quarterbacks.”

The Falcons and Titans took Ridder and Willis, respectively, and Breer adds the Panthers would have been fine going with Sam Howell instead of Corral. They decided on the Ole Miss product, and the in-state product fell all the way to Washington atop Round 5.

Broncos Re-Sign TE Eric Saubert

May 4th, 2022 at 3:55pm CST by Sam Robinson

A 17-game contributor for the 2021 Broncos, Eric Saubert will have a chance to make it back-to-back seasons in Denver. The sides agreed to terms on a one-year deal Wednesday.

The veteran tight end signed with the Broncos on May 3, 2021; 366 days later, he will join their new-look offense. The team has remade its tight end room this offseason, but Nathaniel Hackett‘s staff will take a look at Saubert to see a potential fit.

Formerly a Falcons fifth-round pick, Saubert has played with four teams over the past four years. After his two-year Atlanta stint ended, the Drake alum played with the Bears in 2019 and Jaguars in 2020. The Broncos reunited Saubert with ex-Falcons tight ends coach Wade Harman, but Harman is no longer in that role.

Saubert, 28, caught eight passes for 47 yards and one touchdown — his first as a pro — last season but mostly aided the Broncos in the run-blocking department. Denver added veteran blocking tight end Eric Tomlinson this offseason and still has fullback/tight end Andrew Beck on its roster. The team swapped out Noah Fant for third-rounder Greg Dulcich on the receiving front, and Albert Okwuegbunam is set to reprise his role.

Minor NFL Transactions: 5/4/22

May 4th, 2022 at 3:31pm CST by Zachary Links

Today’s minor moves:

Carolina Panthers

Chicago Bears

Dallas Cowboys

Houston Texans

Los Angeles Rams

Washington Commanders

D.K. Metcalf Expects To Re-Sign With Seahawks

May 4th, 2022 at 2:41pm CST by Adam La Rose

The Seahawks’ roster has seen plenty of turnover this offseason, but one player they wish to keep for the foreseeable future is D.K. Metcalf. Earlier this week, the wideout reiterated his desire to get a long-term deal done with Seattle. 

“I will say we are going to get something done” the 24-year-old said on the Club Shay Shay Podcast with Shannon Sharpe, via Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times. “I think I’m going to be in Seattle for the next coming years, yes sir.”

Those comments mirror the sentiment Metcalf expressed in January, knowing that he would be eligible for a new contract starting this offseason. Likewise, the team has publicly expressed their desire to keep him in place as they transition away from the Russell Wilson era on offense. Head coach Pete Carroll – who has made his intentions of keeping the Ole Miss alum clear – repeated over the weekend that he is optimistic a new contract will be worked out, and that both parties are on “a great wavelength to move forward”.

While Seattle hasn’t looked to actively move the former second-rounder, they have fielded calls regarding a potential trade. It was reported in the build-up to the draft that the Jets were willing to part ways with the 10th overall pick, though nothing materialized on that front. With Metcalf still a Seahawk, Condotta notes that he could be in line for a similar deal to the one signed by A.J. Brown, with whom he shares an agent.

To accommodate such a lucrative extension, the Seahawks could use some of the cap relief they will be seeing next month. Given that Carlos Dunlap was released with a post-June 1 designation, the team will gain just over $5MM in space after that date, which should make a deal feasible from a financial perspective, provided all parties still wish to get one done at that time. Metcalf’s remarks point to that being a strong possibility.

“At the end of the day once you sit down and make a grown-man decision, yeah, I want to be in Seattle.”

Open Competition For Steelers’ Starting QB Role?

May 4th, 2022 at 12:59pm CST by Adam La Rose

While some were surprised that only one quarterback heard his name called on the first day of last week’s draft, no one was caught off guard by the fact that Pittsburgh was the lone team to add a signal-caller. After the draft was over, it was confirmed that Kenny Pickett will have a chance to win the No. 1 role right away. 

[RELATED: Steelers Select Pickett At No. 20]

As detailed by Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer, head coach Mike Tomlin was “pretty clear” in his post-draft media availability that Pickett “will be given the chance to unseat Mitch Trubisky as [the] starter”. Once the latter had been signed, it was expected he would operate as a stop-gap while the team searched for a long-term Ben Roethlisberger replacement. Given the structure of his two-year deal, Trubisky’s cap hit for 2022 is only $3.66MM, while it jumps to over $10.6MM the following year.

While that pointed to the ex-Bears first-rounder being the favorite for the starting role, the team made it clear in the build-up to the draft that they would add competition at the position. On that point, Breer adds that Tomlin named Pickett’s status as the most NFL-ready of this year’s prospects as “a big reason the Steelers took him” with their top pick. Another, undoubtedly, was the familiarity the team has with the Pitt product, who had a record-breaking final season in college en route to being a Heisman finalist.

Much of the team’s evaluation of both Trubisky and Pickett, of course, will depend on their performances during the offseason. With most other starting QB spots already decided, though, the internal competition between the two will be one to watch in the run-up to the 2022 campaign.

Eagles Fire Scouting Director Casey Weidl

May 4th, 2022 at 11:54am CST by Zachary Links

The Eagles have fired director of scouting operations Casey Weidl, according to Jeff McLane of the Philadelphia Inquirer. The move comes just days after the draft, which was widely regarded as a success for the Eagles.

[RELATED: Perry Signs With Jaguars; Nixes Eagles Deal]

Weidl spent the last two years as the Eagles’ director of scouting operations, but he’s been with the front office for several years. He’s also the brother of Eagles vice president of player personnel Andy Weidl and McLane hears that his future is also in question. No matter what, Andy may be moving on anyway — he’s among the candidates to take over for Kevin Colbert as the Steelers’ general manager.

The Eagles have yet to respond to McLane’s report, but it sounds like a scouting shakeup is imminent. Meanwhile, the rest of the front office will spend the coming weeks signing its incoming draft picks:

Commanders Notes: Wentz, Samuel, Ownership

May 4th, 2022 at 10:03am CST by Zachary Links

It’s been a strange journey for Carson Wentz. Even though the quarterback is now with his third pro team, Commanders head coach Ron Rivera is confident that this time will be the charm.

“All those guys come out and say, man, this guy was a good teammate, this was a guy that pulled us tighter, this was a guy that helped us get where we are or headed toward — you feel positive about that, you really do,” Rivera told Rich Eisen (audio link via NBCSports.com). “And it’s an exciting thing to hear that, that his teammates spoke of him in that fashion.”

Wentz was widely panned for his Week 18 showing against the Jaguars, the loss that cost the Colts a playoff spot. He also clashed with team brass throughout the year, leading some to question Wentz’s character. Still, Rivera & Co. see real potential in the former No. 2 overall pick, especially after he posted a solid 27-7 TD-INT ratio.

“The one thing I do look at is the fact that at one point he was 11-2 [in 2017],” said Rivera. “And, of course, he hurt his knee in a year he was talked about in the MVP conversation. So, there’s a lot of things that go into play, a lot of things happen. But, to us, this was a positive. We were looking for a guy of his stature, with his kind of ability. So to be able to pick him up and make the deal for him, we feel very positive about that.”

Here’s more from D.C.:

  • Curtis Samuel hardly played for his new squad last year, but the wide receiver says he’s ready to go full speed (via Nicki Jhabvala of the Washington Post). “I’ve been training and working out, and I haven’t been limited to anything,” he said. “I’ve been doing pretty much everything that I used to be able to do — running fast, cutting fast. I’m just feeling good overall, and I’m excited about it. This upcoming season, I got a lot of goals.” In the 2021 offseason, Samuel inked a three-year deal worth up to $35.25MM with $24.5MM guaranteed. Unfortunately, his groin injury limited him to just five games last year.
  • A former Commanders exec submitted a 22-page letter to the Federal Trade Commission, detailing years of alleged financial impropriety. The Commanders have responded, calling the allegations “baseless,” “false and reckless,” and based on “pure speculation,” (via ESPN.com’s John Keim).
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