HEADLINES

Month: November 2024

Minor NFL Transactions: 5/16/24

May 16th, 2024 at 5:37pm CST by Sam Robinson

Here are Thursday’s minor moves:

Baltimore Ravens

  • Waived: WR De’Angelo Hardy

Cleveland Browns

  • Waived/failed physical: OL Kellen Diesch

Detroit Lions

A former Cowboys UDFA, McKeon spent the past four seasons in Dallas. He worked as a backup to the likes of Dalton Schultz and Jake Ferguson in that span. Used more as a run blocker, McKeon played between 100 and 128 snaps on offense over the past three seasons. The Michigan alum joins a Lions tight end group that includes Sam LaPorta and Brock Wright, the latter drawing a matched RFA offer sheet.

DL Michael Brockers Announces Retirement

May 16th, 2024 at 4:03pm CST by Sam Robinson

Although Michael Brockers landed an offseason workout, he did not end up playing in 2023. The veteran defensive lineman will pass on playing in 2024. Brockers took to Instagram on Thursday to announce he will retire from the NFL after 11 seasons.

Best known for his lengthy Rams tenure, Brockers finished his career with the Lions. Not part of the Jared Goff–Matthew Stafford trade, Brockers ended up joining Goff in relocating to Detroit as part of a separate 2021 swap. The Lions tenure pushed the former first-round pick’s start count to 157 games. Brockers’ NFL exit comes two months after longtime D-line mate Aaron Donald wrapped his storied career.

Brockers, 33, will be best remembered for a seven-year stretch working alongside Donald. The longest-running sidekick of the all-time great DT’s career, Brockers was also regarded as an upper-crust D-lineman for much of his time with the Rams. The LSU alum ended up signing three contracts with the Rams, who valued him alongside Donald. While Brockers was dealt as the team assembled its Super Bowl LVI-winning roster, he played in Super Bowl LIII and was part of three playoff teams after having been part of a lengthy Rams playoff drought.

Midway through that 12-season drought, the Rams hired Jeff Fisher and GM Les Snead. The duo began its St. Louis tenure with an eventful draft. It took multiple trades for the Rams to end up with Brockers in 2012. The team moved down from No. 2 to No. 6, collecting two future first-rounders from Washington in a deal that gave Mike Shanahan‘s team a path to Robert Griffin III, and then slid down (via the Cowboys) from 6 to 14. The Snead-Fisher tandem made a pick there, and Brockers moved into the starting lineup in Week 4 of his rookie year.

Playing in Fisher’s 4-3 scheme during the first half of his Rams career and a 3-4 alignment during the second chapter, Brockers produced 28 of his 29 career sacks during his Rams run. He put together two five-sack seasons (2013, 2020) and notched at least seven tackles for loss in four separate seasons. For his career, Brockers tallied 64 TFLs. He made seven tackles against the Patriots in Super Bowl LIII.

It took extensive time for the post-Greatest Show on Turf Rams to regroup, and it did not happen under Fisher. But the Donald-Brockers partnership certainly worked well to close out the team’s St. Louis stay, and Sean McVay made the pair more relevant in the grand scheme upon arrival in 2017. Brockers became one of the NFL’s top interior run defenders, and the Rams rewarded him with a three-year, $33.25MM deal in 2016. Staying in form long enough to land a third quality contract, Brockers fetched a three-year, $24MM deal from the Rams. This came after a memorable Ravens plot, which involved a Brockers three-year, $30MM agreement being nixed due to concerns about the veteran 3-4 D-end’s health. Brockers managed to play three more NFL seasons.

The Lions reached a reworked deal with Brockers in 2022 and stopped his run of starts midway through that season, making him a healthy scratch during the ’22 slate’s second half. Although Brockers worked out for the Titans last summer, no deal came to pass. He will nevertheless finish his career with $69.8MM in earnings in St. Louis, Los Angeles and Detroit.

NFC Front Office Notes: Eagles, Rosenberg, Falcons, Giants, Panthers, Bears

May 16th, 2024 at 3:01pm CST by Sam Robinson

Jake Rosenberg‘s Eagles exit is now official. After a report earlier this offseason indicated Rosenberg would step down following a 12-year tenure with the team, the Eagles’ VP of football administration made the announcement (via PHLY.com’s Zach Berman). A friend of GM Howie Roseman‘s dating back to elementary school, Rosenberg assisted the Eagles on the salary cap front. The team has frequently been ahead of the curve in this area, as its 2024 offseason reinforced. It is not known where Rosenberg is headed, but this marks another key departure in the Eagles’ front office. Two years ago, four of Roseman’s lieutenants — Brandon Brown, Ian Cunningham, Catherine Raiche, Andy Weidl — left for assistant GM roles elsewhere. Another key piece will need to be replaced now.

Post-draft front office changes are common around the league. Here is the latest from the NFC:

  • Despite not being a Terry Fontenot hire, Tokunbo Abanikanda will rise to a key post in the Falcons‘ front office. The team is promoting the veteran scout to its college scouting director post, InsidetheLeague.com’s Neil Stratton tweets. Abanikanda has been with the Falcons since midway through Thomas Dimitroff‘s GM tenure, arriving in 2012. He will now take a pivotal role in the team’s draft preparation. Elsewhere in the Falcons’ front office, the team’s player personnel coordinator — Brian Zeches — is moving on, Stratton adds. Formerly an exec in Washington and Kansas City, Zeches was named to this post during the 2023 offseason.
  • In addition to adding Chris Snee to their scouting staff, the Giants are making multiple in-house promotions. They are bumping Nick La Testa to assistant director of pro scouting and naming Charles Tisch their football operations manager, The Athletic’s Dan Duggan tweets. Charles Tisch, who had been a football ops assistant, is the nephew of Giants co-owner Steve Tisch. With the Giants since 2017, La Testa had previously worked on the scouting level for the team.
  • A Carolina-to-Washington pipeline formed during Ron Rivera‘s NFC East stay, but the Commanders will now lose an exec to the Panthers. Carolina is hiring David Whittington for a college scouting role, according to Stratton. Whittington had been with Washington since 2009, holding several positions. Most recently, he worked as a national scout with the Commanders. The Panthers are also adding Eric Eager to their analytics department, per Stratton. Eager, a former Pro Football Focus staffer, worked most recently as the vice president of SumerSports, an analytics-based website that also employs Dimitroff presently.
  • The Bears are going through with a round of promotions as well. GM Ryan Poles is elevating Breck Ackley from assistant college scouting director to the director post, while Stratton notes national scout Francis St. Paul will become the assistant director. Area scouts Brendan Rehor and John Syty are also moving to national scouting roles.

Jaguars Sign Terrell Edmunds, Tre Flowers

May 16th, 2024 at 1:40pm CST by Sam Robinson

Two veteran DBs will make mid-offseason arrivals in Jacksonville. The team reached agreements with safety Terrell Edmunds and cornerback Tre Flowers on Thursday, adding some secondary depth.

Flowers, 27, is following new Jags DC Ryan Nielsen from Atlanta. The veteran corner caught on with the Falcons, in what turned out to be Nielsen’s only Atlanta season, last May and worked as a part-time starter. Included in the October trade that sent Kevin Byard to Philadelphia, Edmunds also made a handful of starts in 2023.

This will mark a third straight year in which Flowers has signed a one-year contract. The former Seahawks draftee, who commandeered a starting spot from the jump despite being a fifth-round pick, signed a Bengals deal in 2022 and played in all 17 Falcons games last year. The Jags will give the 44-game starter a shot to vie for a role among a cornerback group that has seen some updates this offseason.

Following its Darious Williams release, the team added Ronald Darby. Although the Jags did not use a first-round pick on a corner — as rumors suggested they considered — they added pieces here in the third and fifth rounds (Jarrian Jones, Deantre Prince).

Edmunds, 27, has logged more starts as a pro. The former Steelers first-round pick worked as a regular starter from 2018-22 in Pittsburgh; last season’s four starts upped his career total to 79. The Eagles used Edmunds as a three-game starter, as they cut costs at safety by letting C.J. Gardner-Johnson and Marcus Epps walk in free agency, but included him in the pre-deadline trade that brought Byard over from the Titans. Edmunds made one start in Tennessee but played in nine games with his third NFL employer.

Operating as Minkah Fitzpatrick‘s sidekick from 2019-22, Edmunds graded as a top-40 safety (per Pro Football Focus) in 2022 and landed in the top 25 two seasons prior. Edmunds stands to have a clearer path to playing time, as the Jaguars moved on from three-year safety starter Rayshawn Jenkins and did not replace him this offseason. The team still rosters starter Andre Cisco and role player Andrew Wingard (26 career starts), but one of the team’s offseason questions involves who will start opposite Cisco.

PFF has never viewed Flowers as an upper-echelon corner, helping explain his April and May contract agreements. Both players have proven durable. Between the 2018 draftees’ 12 NFL seasons, only Flowers’ 2020 campaign (in which he missed four games) involved more than two missed games. Flowers also has changed teams in-season, being waived by the Seahawks before catching on with the Bengals — during their Super Bowl LVI-qualifying slate — and operating as a key backup.

To make room on their 90-man offseason roster, the Jaguars waived linebacker Dequan Jackson and waived wide receiver Wayne Ruby with an injury designation.

Vikings Sign TE Robert Tonyan

May 16th, 2024 at 12:31pm CST by Adam La Rose

Robert Tonyan‘s trip around the NFC North will continue in 2024. The veteran tight end has a deal in place with the Vikings, ESPN’s Adam Schefter and Jeremy Fowler report. The deal is now official, per a team announcement. Minnesota has waived undrafted linebacker Donovan Manuel in a corresponding move.

Tonyan – who entered the NFL as a Lions UDFA – played for the Packers from 2018-22. During that span, he eclipsed 50 receptions on two occasions, scoring 11 touchdowns in 2020. The 30-year-old was an offensive mainstay for Green Bay during his final three Packers campaigns in particular.

Last offseason, Tonyan made another intra-divisional move by signing a one-year Bears pact. He played all 17 games in Chicago, but his offensive role was dwarfed by his special teams workload. The Indiana State product made only 11 scoreless receptions in 2023, and it comes as no surprise he found himself on the open market well after the draft.

Chicago also had ex-Packer Marcedes Lewis in the fold last year, but he too has not been re-signed. The Bears instead turned their attention to Gerald Everett, who joined in free agency on a two-year, $12MM deal. The 29-year-old will join Cole Kmet (who received a lucrative extension last summer) as a key member of the Bears’ very different looking offense this season.

Minnesota also has an established top tight end. Upon arrival via trade from the Lions, T.J. Hockenson has proven to be an effective producer when healthy. His first full Vikings campaign came to an abrupt end due to ACL and MCL tears, though, and he continues to rehab in the hopes of being available to start the 2024 season. Especially if Hockenson misses time, Tonyan could step into a first-team role. The latter has 24 starts to his name.

At a minimum, Tonyan should be able to carve out a rotational spot in Minnesota. The team retained Johnny Mundt as well as Nick Muse, but they did not add a rookie via the draft. As the Vikings transition to Sam Darnold enter center, a pass-catching corps headlined by Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison will now have Tonyan in the mix.

Rams Promote Aubrey Pleasant To Assistant Head Coach

May 16th, 2024 at 11:15am CST by Adam La Rose

Aubrey Pleasant was a candidate to be promoted to the Rams’ defensive coordinator position as the team replaced Raheem Morris. He did not land that gig, but he has nevertheless seen his importance to the organization acknowledged with a new title.

Pleasant – Los Angeles’ defensive backs coach and passing game coordinator – has been given the additional title of assistant head coach, per Ian Rapoport of NFL Network. He adds that head coach Sean McVay‘s announcement of the promotion to the team was well received, a sign of how Pleasant is viewed in the organization.

The Wisconsin grad began coaching in 2010, one year after his playing career came to an end. Pleasant’s first college opportunity came at Michigan, and he spent the 2011 and ’12 campaigns with the Wolverines. That was followed by a jump to the NFL level, which saw him spend time in Cleveland and Washington before his first Rams stint. That tenure (from 2017-20) came with the title of cornerbacks coach.

Pleasant moved on to the Lions and Packers, working as an offensive consultant with Green Bay in 2022. He was brought back by the Rams last offseason, though, and he was a key figure on Morris’ defensive staff. The latter took the Falcons’ head coaching gig during this year’s hiring cycle, creating the Los Angeles DC vacancy. That post was ultimately filled when another internal candidate (linebackers coach Chris Shula) was promoted.

Pleasant spoke with the Rams prior to their decision to tap Shula for the coordinator gig. He was also connected to the Packers’ DC opening, an indication that he could be a strong coordinator candidate in the 2025 hiring cycle and beyond. Taking on his latest title could also help Pleasant’s future head coaching aspirations.

Latest On Jared Goff’s Lions Extension

May 16th, 2024 at 10:30am CST by Sam Robinson

MAY 16: When speaking about his extension – which is now official – Goff noted he received a no-trade clause. He added that the security the clause provides was a major factor in negotiations, and it confirms he will remain in Detroit through the life of the pact. Any change of scenery before then will not be possible without Goff green-lighting a trade.

MAY 15: Jared Goff‘s Lions extension both reflects his surge in value since being the throw-in piece in the Matthew Stafford trade while also illustrating where the quarterback market has gone since the 2016 No. 1 pick’s Rams extension surfaced.

The Lions’ Monday extension made Goff the NFL’s second-highest-paid player — behind only Joe Burrow — and his new $53MM AAV is almost $20MM north of where that number stood when Goff received his Rams payday in September 2019. The Rams gave Goff a $33.5MM-per-year deal that became valuable, as QB deals skyrocketed, over the first three years of his Lions stay. With Goff’s previous contract expiring after the 2024 season, the Lions followed up record-setting extensions for Amon-Ra St. Brown and Penei Sewell by checking off their top offseason priority.

When Goff agreed to terms with the Rams, the $33.5MM AAV number made him the NFL’s second-highest-paid passer (behind Russell Wilson‘s third Seahawks contract). This Lions deal does not feature guarantees that rival Deshaun Watson or even the likes of Burrow, Justin Herbert or Lamar Jackson. But the Lions are committing to Goff for the foreseeable future; his contract displays the team’s confidence.

Guarantees in Goff’s four-year, $212MM extension stretch to 2027, with Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio reporting the contract includes $113.6MM guaranteed at signing. The actual guarantee number will probably check in much higher, as practical guarantees check in at $148.6MM. A rolling guarantee structure akin to what the Chiefs used with Patrick Mahomes is present in this deal.

After two fully guaranteed years (2024-25), the Lions guaranteed $20MM of Goff’s $55MM 2026 base salary. The other $35MM of that salary will become fully guaranteed in 2025, Florio notes. This structure reappears in 2026, to a degree. Goff’s $50MM 2027 base salary features $22MM guaranteed for injury at signing, Florio adds. Of that $22MM, $18MM shifts from an injury guarantee to a full guarantee a year early. The other $4MM becomes guaranteed in 2027. Goff’s 2028 base salary ($39MM) is nonguaranteed; a $7MM roster bonus will be due ahead of Goff’s age-34 season.

Much of Goff’s guarantee will come via a $73MM signing bonus, according to SI.com’s Albert Breer. That figure prorating through 2028 will increase the dead money Detroit would incur by bailing on this deal early. In terms of full guarantees, Goff’s deal ranks fifth — behind Watson, Burrow, Jackson and Herbert — but the guarantee structure will assuredly see the former top pick tied to this contract through at least 2026. Among QBs who signed only a four-year deal, no one has done better in terms of guarantees. The players above Goff in terms of total guarantees each signed five- or six-year extensions.

The 2027 vesting date will become key if the Lions have second thoughts about a player whose value had plummeted in his final Rams years. The Rams sent the Lions an extra first-round pick so they would absorb Goff’s previous contract. As Detroit brass insisted Goff — whom Lions GM Brad Holmes helped draft when he was the Rams’ college scouting director — was not a bridge QB, the team passed on adding a passer early in the 2021 and ’22 drafts. This extension effectively ensures 2023 third-rounder Hendon Hooker, whose rookie deal runs through 2026, will not have a viable path to a starting job in Michigan.

Despite Goff’s struggles between Super Bowl LIII through a 3-13-1 2021 Lions season, the NFC North franchise will trust the form the resurgent QB has shown in his late 20s under OC Ben Johnson will continue if/when the promising play-caller departs for a head coaching job. For now, Goff and Johnson will continue to work together — and the QB will do so armed with a much better contract.

Broncos Unlikely To Bring Back S Justin Simmons

May 16th, 2024 at 9:43am CST by Adam La Rose

A number of veteran safeties were let go in the lead-in to free agency, and many remain unsigned well after the draft. That includes Justin Simmons, who saw his eight-year Broncos tenure come to an end in March.

Denver’s decision to cut bait created $14.5MM in cap savings for 2024, the final year of Simmons’ deal. The 30-year-old’s future with the team was in question before his release, given the nature of his contract. Rather than pursuing an extension to lower his cap hit, though, the Broncos made Simmons one of the most high-profile players to be let go this offseason.

The two-time Pro Bowler has not been connected to any new teams during his ongoing free agent spell. It would come as a surprise if he were to reunite with the Broncos, however. Parker Gabriel of the Denver Post writes that it appears “very unlikely” a new deal keeping Simmons in the Mile High City will be worked out. As Gabriel notes, the Broncos have not acted in a way which suggests they are open to exploring a way to renew this relationship.

Not long after Simmons was let go, fellow safety P.J. Locke was retained on a two-year deal. The latter took on starting duties when Kareem Jackson missed time through suspension in 2023, and his play earned him a new investment from the team. Denver also has Caden Sterns as well as Delarrin Turner-Yell and JL Skinner in place as returnees on the backend.

In free agency, the Broncos moved quickly in adding Brandon Jones. The former Dolphin secured $20MM on a three-year pact, and he will be counted on to replace Simmons’ production moving forward. Jones, 26, has amassed three interceptions and nine pass deflections in his four-year career. Those figures fall well short of what Simmons has accomplished (30 interceptions, 64 pass breakups), but Jones will have significant opportunities to make an impact on his new team.

Denver did not select a safety during the draft, leaving Jones and Locke as starters for the 2024 campaign. While a Simmons reunion cannot be entirely ruled out until his next contract is in place, signs point toward him playing on a new team for the first time in his career in 2024. He could represent the first of many safety dominoes in the waning stages of free agency around the league.

Bills Sign S Dee Delaney, Release WR Quintez Cephus

May 16th, 2024 at 8:52am CST by Adam La Rose

The Bills have added depth to their secondary while giving their special teams a boost. The team announced on Thursday that safety Dee Delaney has been signed.

The 29-year-old began his career with one-year stints in Jacksonville and Washington. During that span, Delaney appeared in only three games, and he was all-but exclusively used on special teams. After seeing sparse defensive playing time with those teams (and spending brief tenures on the Dolphins’ practice squad and the Jets’ offseason roster in between), though, he found a home in Tampa Bay.

Delaney joined the Buccaneers in 2021, and in his first campaign with the team he played over 200 defensive snaps – a notable increase from the four he had previously logged. The former UDFA again saw most of his action come in the third phase, and that continued the following season. Last year, though, Delaney took on a rotational role in the Bucs’ secondary, seeing two starts. He notched career highs in interceptions (two) and pass deflections (five) while making 25 tackles.

Buffalo released Jordan Poyer as part of the team’s cost-cutting moves this offseason. His longtime running mate at the safety spot (Micah Hyde) is unsigned, and his playing future remains in doubt. The Bills brought in Mike Edwards during free agency and re-signed Taylor Rapp before selecting Cole Bishop in the second round of the draft. Delaney will therefore have plenty of competition for playing time in his latest home.

In a corresponding move, wideout Quintez Cephus has been released. The former Lion was signed last month in a deal which followed his reinstatement from a gambling suspension. That seemed to put Cephus on track for a rotational spot in the team’s receiver room, but Buffalo signed Marquez Valdes-Scantling earlier this week. Cephus, 26, will now return to free agency and attempt to find a new opportunity elsewhere.

Jets Made Effort To Hire De Facto OC To Oversee Nathaniel Hackett?

May 15th, 2024 at 10:30pm CST by Sam Robinson

While woeful two-year coaching stretches have occurred throughout NFL history, Nathaniel Hackett is coming off a uniquely brutal period. The short-lived Broncos HC’s rebound effort fizzled four plays into last season, and although Aaron Rodgers‘ presence has effectively kept the embattled play-caller in place as Jets OC, the team does not appear pleased with its top offensive coach.

A report in January mentioned Robert Saleh exploring ways to strip some of Hackett’s authority, going so far as to say the fourth-year HC explored adding to his staff to limit his current OC’s power. It appears such an exploration did, in fact, occur. The Jets are believed to have pursued a hire that would have overseen Hackett on the offensive side, according to SNY’s Connor Hughes. No known hire has occurred at this point.

This shadowy search looks to have been aimed at an assistant HC-type hire, as opposed to a new OC. The latter effort would have required the Jets to comply with the Rooney Rule and dismiss Hackett, whom they hired largely to woo Rodgers in 2023. Unlike the Broncos, the Jets did manage — thanks to the Packers deeming Jordan Love ready to play by 2023 — to reunite Rodgers and Hackett. But the former ended up losing a season due to an Achilles tear. Rodgers’ repeated endorsements of Hackett have almost definitely kept the veteran coach employed.

The Jets actually making such a hire would have brought an extraordinary step, and it is interesting the team would even try this given the NFL’s OC landscape and this type of staff addition’s potential impact on Rodgers. The 20th-year QB certainly wields considerable power with the Jets. Among the 32 NFL teams, play-calling duties either run through a head coach or offensive coordinator. It is not certain the Jets were seeking a new play-caller, but it certainly sounds like they sought someone who could oversee Hackett on this front. With Saleh a defensive-minded HC, guardrails associated with Hackett are not in place.

If the Jets had truly made such an addition, it would have brought another ignominious chapter for a coach whose stock has tumbled since his Broncos stint. Beating out Dan Quinn for the Denver HC job in 2022, Hackett quickly proved overmatched. His bizarre decision to attempt a 64-yard field goal in his Broncos opener preceded a Week 2 game in which Denver fans counted down the play clock, as procedural penalties — or timeouts used to prevent them — piled up. This led to Broncos GM George Paton insisting Hackett hire a game management coach (Jerry Rosburg). A disjointed Broncos season still ensued, as the Hackett-Russell Wilson partnership dropped the team to 32nd in scoring offense. The Broncos made Hackett just the third post-merger HC to be fired before his first season ended.

Jets brass was not impressed with Hackett’s ability to adjust the offense to Zach Wilson last season, and the team’s 10 offensive TDs through 12 games marked the fewest any team had compiled since 2000. The Jets finished 29th in scoring and 31st in yardage last season, putting just about every key team decision-maker on thin ice.

Rodgers’ injury prompted ownership to give Saleh, Hackett and GM Joe Douglas a pass for 2023. It would seem Woody Johnson‘s patience will run out if the Jets extend their NFL-leading playoff drought to 14 seasons.

Saleh is among only six 21st-century HCs to retain his job after beginning a tenure with three sub-.500 seasons. Hackett, who operated as a non-play-calling OC in Green Bay for three years, will be counted on to maximize Rodgers’ age-40 season. Even when Rodgers was healthy last summer, Hughes adds the four-time MVP would repeatedly change a play Hackett called. With Rodgers being just about all that stands in the way of Hackett being axed, this will be an interesting partnership to follow as the Jets hope to justify the 2023 trade for the future Hall of Fame quarterback.

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