City Of Las Vegas News & Rumors

AFC Notes: Jets QBs, Raiders, Vegas, Chargers

June 10th, 2016 at 7:02pm CST by Connor J. Byrne

With seemingly no progress being made in talks between the Jets and free agent quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick, Albert Breer of TheMMQB.com told Toucher and Rich of CBS Boston (video link via CSNNE.com) that he could envision Gang Green setting a deadline for the 33-year-old to sign. If the Jets and Fitzpatrick aren’t able to reach an agreement this summer, the team believes it would be able to “tread water” with Geno Smith under center, says Breer. The Jets were prepared to go into last season with Smith as their starter before then-teammate IK Enemkpali broke his jaw with a punch, thereby leading to the Fitzpatrick era. Notably, Fitzpatrick’s output in 2015 was vastly superior to Smith’s when he was the Jets’ starter the previous two seasons.

In other AFC news…

The Southern Nevada Tourism Infrastructure Committee will meet June 23 to endorse the construction of a stadium that would house the Raiders and UNLV, according to Jason Cole of Bleacher Report (video link). It remains up in the air whether the state of Nevada can raise the projected $750MM needed to build the stadium, but if it does, the Raiders will seek the NFL’s approval to relocate, says Cole.
San Diego voters cut three candidates for City Attorney this week, which seems to bode poorly for the Chargers’ plans for a $1.15 billion downtown stadium and convention center, writes Tom Krasovic of the San Diego Union-Tribune. The two candidates who advanced, Republican Robert Hickey and Democrat Mara Elliott, are on record as saying the Chargers’ plan will need two-thirds voter approval. Bryan Pease, who received the fewest votes and is now out of the running, thought the stadium could come to fruition with a 50 percent plus one vote. In regards to the city helping fund a stadium, Elliott said, “I’d rather see the money go toward something that benefits the public. Public safety, roads, our infrastructure is crumbling. We’ve got water issues in the City of San Diego. So in my opinion, there are more critical concerns for San Diegans than there is building a private Chargers stadium.” The Chargers have until Jan. 15, 2017, to join the Rams in Los Angeles, so it stands to reason that they’ll depart by then if a stadium deal isn’t reached.
Earlier this evening, we checked in on the latest Broncos rumors.

AFC West Notes: Broncos, Marshall, Sanders

June 2nd, 2016 at 10:54am CST by Zachary Links

On Wednesday night, Broncos GM John Elway spoke with Nicki Jhabvala of The Denver Post (on Twitter) about contract talks for linebacker Brandon Marshall, wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders, and defensive ace Von Miller. Elway says that he has gone back and forth with the agents for Marshall and Sanders but has no real update with regards to Miller. The GM says that he has a goal date in mind for all three deals.

“The ideal thing would be to get all three of them done (by mid-July). That’s the goal. That would be nice if we could do that,” Elway said (link).

Here’s more from the AFC West:

Now entering his contract year, it’s time for Chargers linebacker Melvin Ingram to put his money where his talent is, Kevin Acee of U-T San Diego writes. Last season, Ingram notched at least one sack in each of the team’s final five games. If he can produce across a full season in 2016, he’ll be in line for a major payday, whether it be from San Diego or elsewhere.
Non-union construction workers are frustrated with the latest proposal for a new Chargers stadium in San Diego, David Garrick of U-T San Diego writes. It’s not immediately clear whether these non-union laborers would have any ability to stand in the way of the proposal as it’s currently put together.
Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman told ESPN that she has yet to discuss gambling regulations in the process of luring the Raiders (link via PFT). There has been some speculation that the city would be asked to restrict sports books from taking bets on games played in Las Vegas. “We’ve had years and years of experience in how to set regulations and enforce them. But I really don’t believe it’s going to be an issue for us at all,” she said. “At this point, the first step is to work through those numbers to make sure we can get a stadium built, do it high quality and most importantly in the right location.”
Earlier this week, we rounded up some more news on the Broncos.

Latest On Raiders, Potential Las Vegas Move

May 31st, 2016 at 10:55am CST by Zachary Links

There are still some hurdles in the way, but things are looking good for the Raiders’ potential move to Las Vegas as far as league approval goes. To date, no NFL owners have publicly said that they’ll try and block the relocation due to gambling concerns, as Mike Florio of PFT notes. The current thinking in league circles, he adds, is that the gambling concerns won’t be generate enough “no” votes to keep the Raiders out of Vegas when all is said and done.

In the past week, Jason Cole of Bleacher Report (on Twitter) has surveyed 23 NFL owners and come to the same conclusion. For 21 of those owners, he writes that “gambling is not a factor.” It’s also not immediately clear if the two owners with concerns about gambling are even leaning towards a no vote. Ultimately, the strength of the market will determine whether league owners sign off on Las Vegas, he adds.

It’s possible that some owners do have reservations about putting a team in Las Vegas but are keeping quiet out of a desire to put pressure on Oakland to pony up money for a new stadium. Who could those naysayers be? One source with knowledge of ownership dynamics recently speculated that Giants co-owner John Mara, Bears chairman George McCaskey, and Bengals owner Mike Brown would vote no on a Las Vegas move, due to gambling, Florio writes. Florio also threw out Steelers owner Art Rooney as someone who could oppose the move because of gambling, though that would be quite hypocritical since the Rooney family has had extensive gambling interests over the years. Again, that’s all speculative and none of those owners have publicly expressed any concerns.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

West Notes: Raiders, Las Vegas, Rams

May 30th, 2016 at 11:45am CST by Zachary Links

Jenny Vrentas of The MMQB spoke with various NFL owners to get their take on the Raiders‘ potential move to Las Vegas. Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie expressed some concerns about the idea, though he did not cite gambling as a major problem.

“I’d be open to it. My only question is, is it a really good NFL market?,” Lurie said. “I’m not totally worried about a lot of other things. I am more worried, is it a great market for the NFL? I don’t know enough about that. I never thought about it much before. It has to support 70,000 every weekend. It is not an NBA team, like say the Thunder, which does an incredible job of supporting their smaller market. We have got to make sure it really will support a team if a team goes there, but I am open to it.”

Here’s more from the AFC and NFC West:

The Rams believe they have in-house options to replace cornerback Janoris Jenkins, safety Rodney McLeod, middle linebacker James Laurinaitis, and defensive end Chris Long, but it remains to be seen whether they can get the job done, as ESPN.com’s Nick Wagoner writes. Now, Los Angeles is hoping for big performances out of the likes of cornerback E.J. Gaines, safety Maurice Alexander, linebacker Alec Ogletree, and defensive end William Hayes to help fill the void.
Eric D. Williams of ESPN.com believes that the Chargers, ideally, would like to bring Manti Te’o back on a multi-year deal when his contract expires after the 2016 season. However, the linebacker will have to prove that he can stay healthy. The 25-year-old missed 13 games in his first three years because of various foot and ankle ailments. In 2015, the Notre Dame product emerged as a team leader on defense and finished with a team-high 83 tackles. If he can stay on the field, the Chargers would like to have him and Denzel Perryman as their main players at inside linebacker.
After a surprisingly productive season with the Cardinals, Dwight Freeney remains on the open market as we turn the calendar to June. Over the weekend, PFR’s Rory Parks asked readers to weigh in on where the multiple-time Pro Bowler could wind up.

Latest On Raiders’ Potential Relocation

May 28th, 2016 at 2:56pm CST by Sam Robinson

Mark Davis has yet to receive official pushback from fellow owners after declaring his intentions to relocate the Raiders to Las Vegas, but the item did not come up at this Tuesday’s owners’ meetings in Charlotte. Details are lacking on the Raiders’ viability in Vegas to the point that multiple owners told Ben Volin of the Boston Globe they haven’t received any “research, market studies, or plans” about how the team could succeed in Sin City.

Although this process resides in its early stages, with a stadium deal in Nevada not yet agreed upon, some owners appear to be displaying some skepticism about another Raiders move.

While a prospective $1.4 billion stadium is much more enticing for the Raiders than staying at O.co Coliseum, the Las Vegas market doesn’t interest the league nearly as much as the Bay Area does, an NFL insider told Volin. The preference within the league is for the Raiders to stay put rather than traverse a relocation path for the second straight year.

The disparate sizes of said markets drive this sentiment, with Vegas ranking as the country’s No. 42 media market and the Bay Area its sixth. Despite the 49ers already standing as the more secure Northern California franchise, the region remains favorable for the NFL when compared to the nation’s gambling capital.

In addition to the corporate wealth situated in Northern California for business-partnership purposes, Volin points out that the 49ers’ trek to Santa Clara places them further away from downtown San Francisco. The Raiders presently playing 17 miles from downtown San Francisco has a claim to the area’s appeal despite the teams technically sharing a market.

Owners have yet to study Vegas as a market, however, but also have no idea at this point if the Raiders moving there is a viable option. Despite reports that Davis is ready to “walk the walk” when it comes to moving his team to Nevada — even going as far as to say Los Angeles is no longer in the team’s plans despite its standing behind the Chargers as a candidate to join the Rams there — Volin concludes the most realistic and profitable plan remains finding a solution in Oakland, the support of influential owners Jerry Jones and Robert Kraft notwithstanding.

However, the city of Oakland and the Raiders have made next to no progress in their talks for a new stadium, which has led Davis to publicly pursue other areas. Calling the Raiders-to-Vegas talk premature, Roger Goodell did speak with Oakland mayor Libby Schaaf earlier this week in hopes of the league finding a “combined solution” to keep the team in its original location.

Photo courtesy USA Today Sports Images

Latest On Raiders, Las Vegas

May 24th, 2016 at 7:44pm CST by Dallas Robinson

As Peter King of TheMMQB.com reported yesterday, the Raiders’ potential relocation to Las Vegas was not scheduled to be on the agenda at the owners’ meetings today. Still, it was practically inevitable that the subject would get brought up, with reporters questioning the league’s 32 owners on the viability of such a move. Let’s take a look at the latest, with reports and comments from several different sources…

While Raiders owner Mark Davis allowed that the issue of his club moving was not on the docket today, he did say that he hasn’t received any pushback as of yet. “I haven’t heard no,” said Davis, according to ESPN.com.
Appearing later on NFL Network, Davis claimed that Las Vegas would be act as a solid middle ground for all parties involved. “The Raider fan in Northern California get upset a little bit when we talk about going to Los Angeles, and the L.A. fans get a little ticked off at the fans in Northern California, so it seems like Las Vegas is a neutral site that everybody’s kind of bought into,” said Davis, per Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk. “It will unite the Raider nation more than divide it.”
Davis confirmed that he is now longer attempting to move the Raiders to Los Angeles, per the ESPN report, as he told those in Las Vegas that he would not use the city as a bargaining chip in order to find a stadium elsewhere. “[Los Angeles] doesn’t have anything to do with where my train of thought is right now,” Davis said. “If Las Vegas comes through, we’re going to Las Vegas.”
Oakland isn’t completely out of the picture, according to Davis, and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said he spoke with Oakland mayor Libby Schaaf last night, and hopes that the two sides can reach a “combined solution,” reports Jason Cole of Bleacher Report (Twitter link). Goodell, for his part, called the Raiders-to-Vegas “premature” and “pure speculation,” as Steve Reed of the Associated Press tweets.
Gambling isn’t the primary concern for owners who might be against the Raiders moving to Las Vegas, according to Cole (video link). Rather, owners have some worries about the city’s ability to finance a new stadium, per Cole.

Extra Points: Vegas, Eagles, Stafford, Peterson

May 21st, 2016 at 12:43pm CST by Ben Levine

Let’s check out some assorted notes from around the NFL on this Saturday afternoon…

Count Patriots owner Robert Kraft among those who would embraces a Las Vegas franchise. The executive told Jarrett Bell of USAToday.com that he’d support a Raiders move to Nevada, assuming the organization can’t secure a new stadium in Oakland.“I think it would be good for the NFL,” Kraft said. “I know Mark Davis has tried so hard in Oakland. If they won’t do it . . . I want to support him.”
Undrafted rookie running back Byron Marshall chose the Eagles for the opportunity to contribute right away, writes Jeff McLane of Philly.com. “The running back position was a little slim,” Marshall said. “And they were talking to me about being able to play [wide receiver] in the slot and a little bit at running back – to do what I did in college. I liked that role.”
An extension for Matthew Stafford could depend on the quarterback’s production this upcoming season, writes ESPN.com’s Michael Rothstein. If the Lions quarterback struggles, the writer wonders if general manager Bob Quinn would decide to “clean house.”
Vikings running back Adrian Peterson is expected to be in attendance for the start of OTAs, tweets Darren Wolfson. Of course, as the writer notes, the $250K bonus certainly provides some incentive.

East Notes: Bills, Lawson, Redskins, Patriots

May 20th, 2016 at 7:23pm CST by Dallas Robinson

Bills rookie edge rusher Shaq Lawson is likely to miss four or five games at the beginning of next season after undergoing shoulder surgery, and some have wondered if the need for an operation should have pushed Lawson down the draft board. Don Banks of Sports Illustrated spoke with head coach Rex Ryan and general manager Doug Whaley about Lawson’s injury and it’s implications for the club.

“That’s part of the deal with Shaq,” said Ryan. “We drafted him for the long haul success, not for one season. They say me and Doug Whaley share the blame. You’re damn right we do. We’ll share the blame, that’s fine. Oh, by the way, there should be another end to [the story]. Let’s see what kind of kind of player this kid is over the long haul. And we will stand by drafting this guy.”

Here’s more on the Bills and a few other clubs in the NFL’s two East divisions…

Fellow linebacker Manny Lawson isn’t related to Shaq Lawson, but he figures to get the first shot to replace the rookie in the Bills‘ starting lineup, as Joe Buscaglia of WKBW details. The WKBW scribe also dives into several other Buffalo position battles, including wide receiver — where Sammy Watkins and Robert Woods are the only roster locks — right tackle, safety, and nickel corner.
The Redskins are hoping that fifth-round pick Matt Ioannidis can play defensive end, defensive tackle, or nose tackle depending on the team’s package on the field, John Keim of ESPN.com writes. “He has the toughness and competitiveness and quickness to cause problems,” GM Scot McCloughan said. “He doesn’t look like Terrance Knighton, but this team will be a good team because we have a couple guys who are special and the majority will be good. He’s one of the good guys.”
There is a lot to like about Nate Sudfeld and the only question is whether the quarterback will be on the Redskins‘ 53-man roster this year or on their practice squad, as Rich Tandler CSNMidAtlantic.com writes. To get Sudfeld on to the taxi squad, the Redskins would have to sneak the QB through waivers. But if he performs well in camp and in the preseason, he might be plucked by another team. As a result, the odds slightly favor Sudfeld making the 53-man roster. Sudfeld, an Indiana product, was taken in the sixth round with the No. 187 overall pick.
Reports continue to link the Raiders to Las Vegas, and the club has found another supporter — Patriots owner Robert Kraft, who tells Jarrett Bell of USA Today that he’s in favor of the Raiders leaving for Nevada. “I think it would be good for the NFL,” Kraft said. “I know Mark Davis has tried so hard in Oakland. If they won’t do it … I want to support him.”
The Patriots won a grievance with former tight end Jimmay Mundine, giving them a $71K salary cap credit, as Ben Volin of The Boston Globe tweets.

Zach Links contributed to this post.

Extra Points: Raiders, Vegas, Fins, Cowboys, Orlando

May 19th, 2016 at 9:03pm CST by Connor J. Byrne

The Southern Nevada Tourism Infrastructure Committee will meet again next Thursday to discuss potential funding for a Raiders stadium in Las Vegas, reports Vincent Bonsignore of the Los Angeles Daily News (Twitter link). A $1.4 billion domed stadium has already been proposed, and one NFL owner said last week that the chances of the Raiders relocating to Las Vegas could be anywhere from 50 percent to 75 percent.

Latest On Las Vegas

May 14th, 2016 at 2:30pm CST by Sam Robinson

Las Vegas has increased its effort to pry the Raiders from Oakland, but should that avenue close, the city is not going to shut down its efforts to add an NFL franchise. The Chargers are further along than the Raiders in their quest to secure a stadium deal from their respective city, only Las Vegas is monitoring San Diego’s negotiations and would seek a union with the Chargers if the Raiders’ venture ends up shy of a Silver and Black desert relocation.

“My husband and I have had season tickets at the Chargers for the past 30-plus years and we would love that, and Alex Spanos already has some relationship with us here in the city — he’s been a developer for us in the ’70s and ’80s,” Las Vegas mayor Carolyn Goodman said during a Dan Patrick Show appearance (via Michael David Smith of Pro Football Talk). “I know they’re absolutely looking to move and that’s another place to go.

“Whether it’s the Chargers or Oakland, that would really be exciting.”

After talks stonewalled between the Chargers and San Diego last year, the sides have progressed to the point the issue could be in the hands of the voters this fall, with a downtown stadium measure likely to appear on ballots. Whereas Oakland and the Raiders have made next to no progress by comparison with Oakland, so Vegas’ primary option seems to be more realistic at this point, if the city can secure funding for the $1.4 billion domed stadium proposed.

As for Vegas’ first choice: one owner tells Bleacher Report’s Mike Freeman the chance the Raiders move to Sin City has hit the 50 percent threshold and may be as high as 75 after starting out as a borderline-laughable notion.

That anonymous owner said other owners and executives around the league to whom he’s spoken on this matter have softened their stance on Las Vegas as an NFL city. While the owner told Freeman that three or four years ago, there was virtually no chance the league would have considered Vegas. Despite John Mara still coming out against this idea, Jerry Jones has voiced intrigue about the proposition. More owners could be coming around to Jones’ line of thinking.

“That’s not the case any longer,” he told Freeman. “One of the things owners see is there’s a lot of money to be made there. A lot of money will ease those gambling concerns.”

For Mara’s side to win out, it would take eight “no” votes to block a Raiders-to-Vegas venture if it gets that far. Freeman hears there aren’t eight owners who will do so, which would represent a marketed improvement in support for this once-laughable move. And while this still could be a bluff on Mark Davis‘ side to increase his leverage in talks with Oakland, but the owner categorized that chance as a small one to Freeman.

Photo courtesy USA Today Sports Images

Load More Posts