HEADLINES

Month: October 2024

Raiders TE Darren Waller Dealing With Hamstring Injury

August 14th, 2022 at 2:49pm CST by Adam La Rose

Much has been made this offseason about the most significant addition to the Raiders’ pass-catching corps, and the effect he will have on the team’s WR room. Much of the offense’s success will still depend on the play of tight end Darren Waller, though, which makes his health status one of great importance. 

The Pro Bowler has been “held out of” Vegas’ training camp due to a hamstring injury, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter (Twitter link). He adds that the issue is not considered serious, something which is encouraging, but nevertheless a potential source of concern in the build-up to the season.

Waller missed five games last year due to an IT band strain, the first time since 2018 that he spent any period on the sidelines. The injury limited him to 665 receiving yards and a pair of touchdowns, but he was on pace for another highly productive season as the focal point of the Raiders’ passing attack. The month-plus absence was longer than originally expected, so the fact that Waller is again off the field for an extended period could prove problematic if the injury lingers into the regular season.

The 29-year-old was understandably listed as an extension candidate this offseason, given the disparity between his contract and level of play during his time with the Raiders. Set to earn $6.25MM in each of the next two seasons, Waller would be in line for a significant raise on a new deal – something which was reported as being imminent back in June.

The team, under new GM Dave Ziegler, acquired Davante Adams at a massive cost (both in terms of draft capital and the subsequent extension he signed). The Raiders also inked fellow receiver Hunter Renfrow to a new deal, ensuring QB Derek Carr will have the most talented array of skill-position players in his career. To help the team meet its heightened expectations (and improve his own financial future), though, Waller will need to return to full health in advance of the campaign – something which may still be in doubt at this point.

49ers OL Daniel Brunskill Suffers Hamstring Injury

August 14th, 2022 at 12:46pm CST by Rory Parks

49ers offensive lineman Daniel Brunskill suffered a hamstring injury during the team’s preseason victory over the Packers on Friday, as Matt Maiocco of NBC Sports Bay Area writes. Head coach Kyle Shanahan indicated that the ailment will keep Brunskill on the sidelines for “a few weeks.”

It will be interesting to see if this injury has a domino effect on San Francisco’s O-line plans. Brunskill started all 17 regular season games at right guard for the Niners in 2021, but he has taken all of his training camp snaps at center. He and Jake Brendel have been battling to replace the retired Alex Mack at the pivot, and though previous reports indicated that the team does not plan to sign a free agent center, Brunskill’s injury could leave the club with plenty of inexperience up front.

While nine-time Pro Bowler Trent Williams is entrenched as the blindside blocker, 2021 second-rounder Aaron Banks is the presumptive starter at LG, and he appeared in only five offensive snaps in his rookie season (though Shanahan said Banks was ready to be a starter by the end of the year). With fourth-round rookie Spencer Burford penciled in as the starting RG, San Francisco is already planning to have two very green players at the guard positions. Although the majority of his snaps have come at guard, Brunskill at least has significant recent starting experience, and he saw 546 snaps at center in the 2020 season. Brendel, meanwhile, did not play at all in the 2019-20 campaigns, and he saw just six offensive snaps in 2021. He has accumulated a grand total of three career starts, all of which came with the Dolphins in 2018.

So a Banks-Brendel-Burford triumvirate in the middle of the line would perhaps represent a less-than-ideal scenario for second-year passer Trey Lance, and Brunskill’s prognosis could speculatively compel the team to look for outside help. J.C. Tretter and Matt Paradis are the most accomplished options on the free agent market, and while neither player has received confirmed interest in their services this offseason, the lack of suitors for Tretter could be explained by the stances he has taken as NFLPA president.

Presumably, a team with a major hole at center would overlook Tretter’s union-related work in order to fill that void, although the Browns may be back in play for their five-year starter now that Nick Harris is likely done for the season.

Jets To Sign LT Duane Brown, Shift George Fant to RT

August 14th, 2022 at 12:12pm CST by Adam La Rose

AUGUST 14: Fant will indeed be moved to RT, head coach Robert Saleh confirmed (Twitter link via Rich Cimini of ESPN.com). That will leave the door open for Brown to assume his familiar role on the blindside.

Saleh acknowledged that Becton is expected to miss the entire season, but Becton is traveling to Los Angeles for a consultation to confirm that prognosis (Twitter link via Cimini).

AUGUST 11: Not long after visiting the team, Duane Brown is indeed joining the Jets. New York is signing the veteran offensive tackle to a two-year deal, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter (Twitter link). He adds that the contract is worth $22MM (Twitter link).

Brown, 36, met with the Jets last week, leading to speculation that a contract could be forthcoming. The five-time Pro Bowler had been in Seattle since midway through the 2017 season. The Seahawks’ addition of Charles Cross with their first-round pick in this year’s draft left Brown on the open market deep into training camp.

Further reason for the Jets to add the Virginia Tech product came earlier this week, as it was learned that Mekhi Becton is dealing with another major knee injury which is expected to keep him sidelined for the entire 2022 campaign. With an opening needing to be filled quickly, Brown became a logical candidate to step into a starter’s role once again.

Given the fact that Becton will be under contract through at least 2023 (or one year beyond that, in the increasingly unlikely event the Jets exercise his fifth-year option), the fact that Brown is receiving a two-year deal is significant. He will, in all likelihood, slide into the left tackle spot which was set to go to George Fant for a second consecutive season, although Brian Costello of the New York Post tweets that no decision has been made yet. In any case, the former Seahawks teammates will form the bookends of New York’s o-line, which also added Laken Tomlinson on a lucrative free agent pact. How much the addition of the latter, and now Brown, affects Fant’s contact status with the Jets will be worth watching throughout the year.

As a Pro Bowl alternate last season, Brown demonstrated that he can still operate at a high level despite his age. The Jets will be counting on him to remain an effective blindside blocker for the immediate future. With Becton’s long-term health even more of a question mark, Brown could prove to be a wise stop-gap investment as the team looks to take a significant step forward on offense this year.

Giants Activate LB Azeez Ojulari

August 14th, 2022 at 11:36am CST by Rory Parks

Giants linebacker Azeez Ojulari has been activated off the club’s NFI list, per Michael Eisen of the team’s official website. Ojulari practiced with the team on Sunday, the first time he has done so since camp opened late last month.

The 2021 second-rounder had been dealing with a hamstring injury, so his return to the field is a welcome sight for an outfit that is looking to start emerging from a rebuild. As a rookie, Ojulari led the team with eight sacks, which represented a franchise record for first-year players. He played in all 17 of New York’s games, starting 13 of them. His 58.3 overall grade and 56.9 pass rushing grade from Pro Football Focus were suboptimal, but his surface-level stats — which also included 13 quarterback hits — show plenty of potential.

Between Ojulari, Leonard Williams, and first-round rookie Kayvon Thibodeaux, the Giants have the foundation of a potentially formidable pass rush. In addition to Thibodeaux, the team also added Jihad Ward in free agency this year and invested a fourth-round pick in Elerson Smith. 2019 third-rounder Oshane Ximines remains on the roster, along with 2021 waiver claim Quincy Roche.

Big Blue also made a series of cuts on Sunday, parting ways with DB Michael Jacquet, G Josh Rivas, and S Jarrod Wilson. Wilson spent the first five years of his career with the Jaguars, the last two of which saw him operate as a full-time starter at safety. He saw action in nine games (three starts) last season, which he split between the Jets and 49ers. The veteran defensive back just signed with the Giants earlier this month.

Jacquet, who signed with the Eagles as a UDFA in 2020, has seen action in eight games (two starts) between Philadelphia and Jacksonville over the past two seasons. The Giants had signed Rivas, a Kansas State product, as part of their own UDFA class earlier this year.

Cowboys VP Of Player Personnel Will McClay Content With Current Role

August 14th, 2022 at 10:21am CST by Rory Parks

Cowboys vice president of player personnel Will McClay is widely regarded as a top GM candidate, but with owner Jerry Jones and son Stephen Jones at the top of the team’s unique hierarchy, McClay will never get a shot as a general manager in Dallas. However, his actions over the past few years have made it clear that he is happy right where he is, and he confirmed as much in a recent interview with Clarence E. Hill, Jr. of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

McClay, 55, joined the Cowboys as a scout in 2002. He took over the team’s scouting department as Assistant Director of Player Personnel in 2013, ran his first draft in 2014, and landed his current title in 2017. Since 2014, Dallas has drafted 10 Pro Bowlers, and while the Cowboys are generally restrained in free agency, McClay has had some success in finding contributors on modest FA contracts.

McClay, who is Black, has appeared on the Fritz Pollard Alliance’s list of recommended GM hires on multiple occasions, but he turned down interview requests in the 2016-18 hiring cycles. Though there have been no public reports of interview requests since 2018, that could be because other teams are aware of how difficult it would be to pry McClay from Dallas.

“I realize what my role and my structure is, what we do here,” McClay said. “I feel good about what we are doing. That is the job I am happy with now. If an opportunity comes up that makes sense, sure I will look at it. But I am happy where I am now. I am happy with the job, the role and how we do things.”

While McClay does not currently have the full range of authority that he would as GM, his voice carries a great deal of weight in the club’s collaborative personnel process, which also includes input from both Joneses and head coach Mike McCarthy. “I’m happy with the job and the role and the way it is here because of the way we work and do things together,” McClay said.

When asked if he feels pressure to accept a GM job in order to continue paving the way for other minority candidates, he replied, “I’m a grown man. I know I’m black. The pressure is from the outside saying, ‘oh, you have to do’…I don’t have to do anything. The thing that I have to do for any African-American person who is trying to get into personnel, what I’ve got to do is be the best at my job, then they can see. You’ve got to do your job first, so I’m doing my job to the best of my availability first.”

As noted above, McClay left open the possibility of taking a GM position if the right opportunity presents himself. When asked what such an opportunity would look like, he responded, “you want to make sure the top structure is right. How many picks do they have? What’s there? What’s the team? Got to have a quarterback. … So many different things you would consider. So when the time comes and I have the time to look at it and put that foot forward that I want to do that, then I will look at all the different factors. I don’t consider it because it’s here right now that’s most important.”

The Cowboys and McClay agreed to a three-year extension earlier this year, and Jerry Jones, who said he considers McClay as qualified as anyone he has ever been around in terms of GM potential, is happy to have one of his top lieutenants in the fold during the team’s current window of contention.

Latest On Buccaneers C Ryan Jensen

August 14th, 2022 at 9:13am CST by Ben Levine

AUGUST 14: Bucs head coach Todd Bowles said there have not been more updates on Jensen because the swelling in his knee has not yet subsided. Bowles confirmed that Jensen may miss the entire 2022 campaign, and he added that the team should know more this week (Twitter link via Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times).

AUGUST 13: There’s some hope that Ryan Jensen‘s season could be salvaged, and the Buccaneers will remain flexible and keep the door open for a late-season return. According to Greg Auman of The Athletic (on Twitter), the team won’t be placing Jensen on IR until after final cuts.

The Buccaneers could open a spot on their 90-man roster right now by placing the center on injured reserve. However, if Jensen was to be placed on IR now (or any time before final cuts), he wouldn’t be allowed to return for the 2022 campaign. Instead, the Buccaneers intend to keep him through final cuts and have him be a member of their initial 53-man roster. The team could then place Jensen on injured reserve and be allowed to activate him later in the campaign.

This may sound like minor roster machinations. However, it’s pretty telling that the Buccaneers are willing to wait to place Jensen on IR, and by doing so, they’re continuing to sacrifice a roster spot on a player who surely wouldn’t play for at least several months. Of course, Tampa Bay’s willingness to wait doesn’t definitively mean that Jensen will see the field during the 2022 campaign…rather, it keeps the door open.

Jensen suffered a severe injury in late July, and there was initial fear that he’d be out for the entire season. The Bucs just gave Jensen a second contract — a three-year, $39MM deal — to return as Tom Brady‘s center, and he was expected to provide some continuity to an offensive line that lost both Ali Marpet and Alex Cappa this offseason. Jensen has established himself as one of the NFL’s top centers, having evolved from sixth-round pick to a first-time Pro Bowler in 2021. Former offensive tackle Robert Hainsey is currently slotted in as Tampa’s starting center, but the team could add to the position before the start of the regular season.

Latest On Extension Talks Between Chargers, Derwin James

August 14th, 2022 at 8:38am CST by Ben Levine

AUGUST 14: There has been no change in the status of negotiations between James and the Chargers, per head coach Brandon Staley (Twitter link via Thiry).

JULY 27: As training camp begins, no James-Chargers agreement is imminent, Aaron Wilson of ProFootballNetwork.com notes. Although mutual interest exists regarding a James extension — one that would likely make him a top-three highest-paid safety — the sides are not there yet. While James waits for a new contract, count him as a “hold in” performer. James is not practicing with the team presently, Adam Schefter of ESPN.com tweets.

JULY 24: James plans to report to Chargers training camp even if he does not yet have a new contract in hand, per Lindsey Thiry of ESPN.com. Thiry does suggest that an extension could be in place by the report date (which is just two days away), so it sounds as if player and team continue to move closer to an accord.

With respect to the injury problems that have dogged him during the first few years of his pro career — including offseason labrum surgery that limited him during spring work — James said, “this is the best I’ve felt in the last four years, and I can’t wait to go.”

JULY 20: A Derwin James extension could be coming. ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler reports (via Twitter) that the Chargers are optimistic that they’ll reach an agreement with their star safety.

The 2018 first-round pick earned his second career Pro Bowl nod this past season after finishing with 118 tackles, two sacks, three forced fumbles, and two interceptions. Pro Football Focus was fond of his performance, ranking James ninth among 92 eligible safeties. The safety was limited to only five games in 2019 before sitting out the 2020 campaign, so it was a positive sign for both the player and organization that he could return to his Pro Bowl status.

His performance was also a positive development for the player’s earning potential. In fact, Fowler tweets that there’s “expectation from some” in the NFL that James will ultimately sign a contract that makes him the NFL’s highest-paid safety. Minkah Fitzpatrick paces the position with an $18.2MM average annual value, followed by Jamal Adams ($17.5MM AAV), Harrison Smith ($16MM AAV), Justin Simmons ($15.2MM AAV), and then four players making between $14MM and $15MM.

James will command at least $17MM per year, but if he intends to reset the market, he could sign a deal that exceeds $19MM per year. The safety franchise tag in 2022 was $12.9MM, and even assuming it goes up, there’s little chance that route would satisfy the impending free agent. Of course, it seems unlikely the Chargers would play hard ball with their homegrown player, anyway…especially after they ponied up to add defenders Khalil Mack and J.C. Jackson this offseason.

We heard last month that the two sides had engaged in preliminary discussions regarding an extension, and it sounds like both sides were hopeful that it’d get done before the start of the regular season. While the Chargers appear to be willing to pay up for James, the player’s injury history slightly complicates negotiations. Besides his injury issues in 2019, James also had offseaosn shoulder surgery that forced him to miss minicamp, although it sounds like his absence was just precautionary.

Lamar Jackson Won’t Negotiate Extension During Regular Season

August 13th, 2022 at 9:46pm CST by Adam La Rose

For the second day in a row, there has been an important development with respect to Lamar Jackson‘s extension efforts. ESPN’s Jamison Hensley reports that the Ravens quarterback won’t negotiate a new contract once the regular season begins. 

[RELATED: Jackson Seeking Fully Guaranteed Deal?]

When asked about a firm deadline approaching in the form of Week 1, Jackson said, “We’re coming up to it. It’s coming up. The season’s coming up. We’re going to be good for the season.”

The 25-year-old also repeated his desire to finalize a new contract in time for the season, which is in line with remarks he made in the build-up to training camp last month. Jackson is currently set to play on the fifth-year option this season, which will pay him just over $23MM.

One (or two) subsequent seasons played on the franchise tag remains an option if a deal can’t be finalized by next July, a path which this situation seemed to be headed towards for much of the offseason. With negotiations – which at all times have been conducted personally between Jackson and Ravens GM Eric DeCosta – potentially becoming more urgent, the lack of leverage the former has relative to Deshaun Watson as his trade market led to a fully guaranteed pact contrasts with the significant toll a franchise tag would take on the Ravens’ 2023 cap situation.

“I’m very confident that it will get done when it gets done,” head coach John Harbaugh said. “You can’t really rush it. I don’t think either side wants to rush anything.”

With just under one month remaining until the regular season, there is still time for both sides to finalize a deal which would all-but assuredly place Jackson at or near the top of the QB market. In the absence of an extension coming together in the immediate future, though, this situation will be set to drag on for several more months.

Minor NFL Transactions: 8/13/22

August 13th, 2022 at 7:50pm CST by Adam La Rose

Today’s minor moves around the league:

Baltimore Ravens

Cincinnati Bengals

Tennessee Titans

AFC South Notes: Willis, Funchess, Ngakoue

August 13th, 2022 at 6:49pm CST by Ely Allen

Titans rookie quarterback Malik Willis impressed in limited time during the team’s Thursday night preseason game. Willis ran the offense for the first half against the Ravens and ran one play in the second half before taking his place on the sideline.

The third-round pick completed 6 of 11 pass attempts for 107 yards. Mirroring the playing styles of the quarterbacks on the opposite sideline, Willis added 38 yards rushing with a touchdown on five carries. He was sacked twice but managed not to turn the ball over in just over two quarters of play.

Despite the playing time he’s received so far this preseason, Willis is “very clearly the developmental quarterback” in the eyes of the Titans, according to ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler. While Tennessee is happy with his progress and will continue to let him get adjusted to the speed of the game this preseason, the prevailing sense is that Willis will be stashed for a bit of a redshirt year. There doesn’t seem to be any ideas of forcing Willis onto the field in any Wildcat-type packages, as has been done with other dual-threat quarterbacks in the past.

Here are a couple other rumors from the AFC South, both hailing from the Hoosier state:

  • Devin Funchess is attempting to make a strong comeback this year with a slight position shift. After spending the first five years of his career as a wide receiver, Funchess has spent the offseason working with the tight ends in Detroit. Funchess is looking to find his first regular season game action since a broken collarbone sidelined him in his first game with the Colts. Funchess joined Indianapolis on a one-year, $10MM deal in 2019, reportedly, so he could “be the top red zone target” for then-quarterback Andrew Luck. Luck shocked the world, including Funchess, when he retired a few months later. In an interview with Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press, Funchess remarked, “It was kind of a whirlwind having Andrew Luck retire on me. I went there basically for him. Turned down other opportunities and a lot more money to go play with him, so that was kind of a mental strain on me for that whole year.”
  • After spending time with four different franchises in his first six seasons, defensive end Yannick Ngakoue believes he has found a true home in Indianapolis, according to Zak Keefer of The Athletic. Ngakoue is one of the league’s more prolific pass rushers, accumulating 55.5 sacks in his six years of play and never missing more than one game in a season. Despite his continued success rushing the passer, Ngakoue has had trouble finding a team that will make a long-term commitment to him. Well, after only a couple of months in the state, Ngakoue seems to think he’s found the place he’d most like to stay. “There’s just something about Indiana,” Ngakoue told Keefer. “This is definitely where I want to be. This is where I’d love to retire.” If he continues his dominance over this two-year deal with the Colts, they should be more than willing to fulfill that wish.
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