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NFC East Notes: Redskins, Guice, Giants

June 22nd, 2019 at 7:40pm CST by Andrew Ortenberg

The Redskins’ backfield situation didn’t go as planned last year. The team drafted Derrius Guice in the second round to be their starter, but then Guice tore his ACL in the preseason. They ended up signing Adrian Peterson at the last minute, and he unexpectedly became the team’s workhorse. Peterson played well all things considered, but noticeably wore down toward the end of the year and won’t be expected to handle the same workload in 2019. Guice had some complications while recovering from his injury, but is expected to be fully recovered soon.

Guice is the much younger player who would appear to have more upside, but don’t count out Peterson yet. Speaking after a recent minicamp practice, Redskins running backs coach Randy Jordan said he envisions a 50-50 or 60-40 split between the two backs this season, per Kareem Copeland of the Washington Post. Washington was depleted by injuries last year, and getting Guice back is a great step in the right direction. Assuming they end up starting Dwayne Haskins at quarterbackthey’ll need a strong running game to help take some of the load off, and a Guice/Peterson partnership has the potential to be one of the league’s better backfields.

Here’s more from the NFC East:

  • With Haskins and Guice now in the fold, the Redskins’ offense is going to look a lot different next year. They won’t be the changes, as second-year receiver Trey Quinn is coming back from an injury of his own. A seventh round pick out of SMU last year, injuries limited Quinn to just three games as a rookie. He’s reportedly been a standout this offseason though, and the team is very high on him. Speaking to the media recently, Redskins coach Jay Gruden declared him a starter. “Trey Quinn has taken over the inside slot role,” Gruden said, per JP Finlay of NBC Sports. Quinn must’ve been really impressive in practices for the coaching staff to have this much confidence in him. After Jamison Crowder left in free agency the Redskins were left with a hole in the slot, and they’re apparently comfortable with Quinn filling it.
  • Mike Remmers signed with the Giants last month, and is widely expected to be their starting right tackle in 2019. The offseason back surgery he underwent was initially deemed minor, but Remmers didn’t participate at all during OTAs or minicamp, according to Ryan Dunleavy of NJ.com. Remmers apparently isn’t fully healthy, and Dunleavy thinks there’s a chance Chad Wheeler will take advantage of the opportunity to keep the starting job. Wheeler, a 2017 UDFA, was the starter for most of last season, but played poorly. Remmers is still the favorite, but if he can’t get back soon he might end up losing the job.
  • In the same piece, Dunleavy also breaks down the Giants’ situation at receiver beyond Sterling Shepard and Golden Tate. Shepard and Tate are locked in as the top two options, but there’s not much clarity after that. Cody Latimer and Bennie Fowler both operated as the third receiver last season, but Dunleavy thinks Corey Coleman is the favorite for that role in 2019. Dunleavy writes that Coleman showed well in recent practices, as “Latimer started the offseason with the upper hand and Coleman finished with the edge.” A 2016 first round pick of the Browns, Coleman has had a bumpy road in the pros. The Browns, Patriots, and Bills have all given up on the Baylor product, but it looks like he could make a home for himself in New York.

Bears, Jaguars Pursued Adrian Peterson

March 19th, 2019 at 9:12pm CST by Sam Robinson

Adrian Peterson did not find a 2018 landing spot until mid-August, but his Redskins work last season was not the only catalyst for his contract to be finalized much earlier this year.

Both the Bears and Jaguars were in on the Peterson market, Albert Breer of SI.com notes. This likely drove up Peterson’s price. Via the two-year, $8MM deal Washington authorized, the soon-to-be 34-year-old running back is in line to make nearly four times the veteran-minimum money he earned in 2018.

Peterson played quite well in spurts for the 2017 Cardinals, who featured a bottom-tier offensive line, but scant interest came his way last year. On a 2018 Redskins team that saw their line decimated, Peterson still eclipsed 1,000 rushing yards — his eighth such season. He became only the fourth running back to exceed 1,000 yards in his age-33 season (John Henry Johnson, Franco Harris, Frank Gore). Only two — Johnson and John Riggins — have ventured into four-digit territory past age 33.

While Peterson is unlikely to replicate his 1,042-yard season, with Derrius Guice expected to be healthy by Week 1, he will still be in position to add to his Hall of Fame career.

The Bears still have Jordan Howard and Tarik Cohen under contract but added Mike Davis early in free agency. The Jaguars feature a less settled running back situation, having cut Carlos Hyde and potentially in line to lose T.J. Yeldon as a free agent. Only 2018 seventh-round pick David Williams resides behind Leonard Fournette, so Jacksonville will be adding to its backfield in some way soon. But Peterson opted for familiarity by staying in Washington, as he said previously he’d hoped to do

Contract Details: Thomas, Barr, Peterson

March 13th, 2019 at 6:59pm CST by Ben Levine

Some assorted contract details from the around the NFL:

Redskins To Re-Sign Adrian Peterson

March 13th, 2019 at 1:55pm CST by Dallas Robinson

The Redskins will re-sign running back Adrian Peterson to a two-year deal worth $8MM, according to Ian Rapoport and Mike Garafolo of NFL.com (Twitter link).

Peterson had indicated he’d like to stay in Washington, while the Redskins also expressed interest in retaining the veteran back. Despite some chatter that other clubs could target Peterson, he’ll return to the nation’s capital following a successful 2018 campaign.

After collecting only a minimum salary deal last year, Peterson will now see a nice pay increase. He joined the Redskins after the club lost rookie second-round pick Derrius Guice to a torn ACL, and went on to rush 251 times for 1,042 yards and seven touchdowns. Advanced metrics weren’t nearly as bullish on Peterson, as he finished just 28th in success rate, but he was running behind a Washington offensive line that ranked just 24th in adjusted line yards.

Guice will be back in 2019, as will pass-catching back Chris Thompson, so it shouldn’t be a surprise if Peterson’s attempt see a drastic decrease next year. However, with Case Keenum under center, the Redskins may need to utilize a run-heavy offense, meaning Peterson will still be involved in the offense.

Peterson will 34 years old when next season gets underway, and only one running back age-34 or older has ever topped 1,000 rushing yards: John Riggins, who did it twice for the Redskins (1983 and 1984).

Redskins In Talks With Peterson, Scherff

February 5th, 2019 at 4:14pm CST by Sam Robinson

Two key Redskins players, at different points in their respective careers, have engaged in discussions with the team about new deals.

Adrian Peterson has participated in preliminary talks with the Redskins, John Keim of ESPN.com notes, adding Brandon Scherff — under contract via fifth-year option in 2019 — has been in discussions with Washington about his next contract.

Peterson has said on multiple occasions he would like to return to the Redskins. The future Hall of Famer was a free agent throughout the 2018 offseason. Derrius Guice‘s injury led Peterson to Washington, and he responded with his eighth 1,000-yard rushing season. He also played all 16 games for just the second time in the past six seasons, the other being when he won the 2015 rushing title.

Guice, though, is expected to be healthy for the 2019 season. The Redskins also have passing-down back Chris Thompson under contract. Peterson’s skill set would seemingly overlap with Guice’s, but the soon-to-be 34-year-old back is obviously the more proven NFL runner and could be used in a timeshare with the LSU alum.

Scherff’s salary will spike from $6.8MM to $12.5MM this season. An extension would help the Redskins lower that cap number by a bit and help a team that will carry Alex Smith‘s contract in addition to a potential extra veteran starter-level salary, perhaps similar to the Dolphins’ 2017 Ryan Tannehill–Jay Cutler setup.

It’s also possible the Redskins do not look to the veteran market to fill in for Smith. Washington is “looking hard” at quarterback prospects and continues to believe in Colt McCoy, Keim adds, pointing out a cheaper bridge-type option may be the better bet for Washington than a veteran starter.

An upper-echelon guard since coming into the league, Scherff can be expected to command a deal in the neighborhood of the highest-paid guards in the NFL. Zack Martin and Andrew Norwell became the NFL’s first guards to sign for $13MM-plus per year. Washington, though, already has Trent Williams and Morgan Moses signed to high-end deals and holds barely $20MM in cap space. Navigating toward a Scherff extension won’t be easy.

Adrian Peterson Wants To Continue Playing

February 4th, 2019 at 2:37pm CST by Zachary Links

This is the time of year when NFL veterans tend to ponder retirement. That’s not the case for running back Adrian Peterson, however, who turns 34 in March.

[RELATED: Rob Gronkowski To Make Decision Soon]

“I’ll be playing next year for sure,” Peterson told TMZ. “Maybe two or three more years.”

Of course, it takes two to tango and there’s no guarantee that the free-agent-to-be will find a home for 2019. Even if he does, few running backs outside Frank Gore have been able to keep it going in the mid-30s.

The Redskins signed Peterson last season after losing rookie Derrius Guice to injury. Peterson silenced the doubters by running for 1,042 yards off of 251 carries, good for a 4.2 yards per carry average. The YPC was his best posting since 2015. He also added seven touchdowns on the ground and 20 catches for 208 yards and one TD over the air.

With nearly 3,000 carries under his belt, and a clear desire for significant playing time, it remains to be seen whether Peterson will find a good fit this offseason. For what it’s worth, there appears to be mutual interest in a new deal in D.C.

Extra Points: Gronkowski, Patriots, Peterson, Schaub, Wright

December 29th, 2018 at 7:47pm CST by Andrew Ortenberg

Rob Gronkowski is arguably the greatest tight end of all time, and as the regular season winds down, we could be seeing the end of Gronk in a Patriots uniform, opines Tom Curran of NBC Sports. Curran breaks down all the drama between Gronkowski and the New England front office regime over the past couple of years, and thinks that the fact that Gronkowski has been severely underpaid for years played the main role in the thawing of the relationship.

Both sides are unhappy with one another, and the Patriots already tried trading Gronkowski this offseason. Given that they already deemed him non-essential before the season began it won’t be at all surprising if they want to move on at the end of the year, and it’s highly possible Gronkowski will want to move on as well, as Curran writes he’s grown tired of the ‘Patriot Way.’ Curran thinks the writing is on the wall that things are coming to an end, and Gronk is having a very disappointing season by his lofty standards. His body has been breaking down, and he hasn’t been his usual game-breaking self most times this season. If it is indeed the end, it’ll be an end of an era in Foxborough.

Here’s more from around the league:

  • On the subject of the Patriots, the team brought in CFL players defensive back Tevaughn Campbell and receiver Jordan Williams-Lambert for workouts, according to Mike Reiss of ESPN (Twitter link). Since CFL players aren’t eligible to be signed until after the season, these workouts are likely for consideration for reserve/futures contracts to be handed out in 2019.
  • While he’s already rewritten the rule book about what a running back can do at his age, Adrian Peterson isn’t done yet. The 33-year-old future Hall of Famer wants to continue playing, and wants to be back with the Redskins next year,per Josh Alper of ProFootballTalk.com. Signed at the last minute when Derrius Guice went down with a torn ACL, Peterson has been one of the biggest surprises of the 2018 NFL season, rushing for 1,042 yards and seven touchdowns. He’s slowed down a bit as the season has gone on, but Washington could bring him back as a veteran mentor and change of pace option behind Guice.
  • Speaking of veterans who want to keep playing, quarterback Matt Schaub hopes to be back with Falcons next year, according to Matt Winkeljohn of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Schaub is aware his NFL career might be coming to an end, as most teams are trending toward having younger players as their backups. But the 37-year-old signal caller, once one of the league’s better starting quarterbacks, hopes to be back in the place where he’s taken on a coach-like role behind Matt Ryan. If he does end up hanging up his cleats, Schaub said he wants to stay “around sports in some form or fashion whether it’s trying to do broadcasting or with an organization somehow.”
  • While the Panthers were officially eliminated from playoff contention in Week 16, at least one player did get some good news. Receiver Jarius Wright got a $200K bonus for hitting his catch incentives, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network (Twitter link). So far this season the 2012 fourth round pick out of Arkansas has 41 catches for 427 yards and a touchdown. He should be back in Carolina next year at his $2.5MM salary.

Peterson Wants To Stay With Redskins

December 4th, 2018 at 10:35am CST by Zachary Links

In August, the Redskins signed Adrian Peterson to a one-year deal after a rash of injuries to their backfield. Now, Peterson is hoping to continue that arrangement into 2019 and the Redskins also have some interest in a new deal, ESPN.com’s John Keim writes. 

[RELATED: Redskins’ Colt McCoy Suffers Season Ending Injury]

After Week 13, Peterson ranks eighth in the NFL with 856 rushing yards, which isn’t too shabby for a 33-year-old running back. He was actually fifth in the NFL after eight weeks, but his yards per carry average has dipped in recent weeks thanks to a banged up Redskins’ offensive line and a shoulder injury of his own.

All of these factors make it difficult to accurately assess Peterson’s performance. Last night, the Redskins got a glimpse of prime Peterson when he rattled off a 90-yard touchdown run in the second quarter against the Eagles. But, at the same time, he averaged just one yard on his other eight carries. You read that right – on a night where Peterson became the oldest player to rattle off a 90-yard touchdown run, he also failed to reach 100 yards overall.

The Redskins are also expecting Derrius Guice to return healthy in 2019 and still have pass-catching specialist Chris Thompson under contract, so there’s not a real clear need for Peterson. Peterson, in theory, could split time with Guice, but he didn’t take kindly to his limited role in New Orleans and it’s not clear if he’ll be willing to average single-digit carries in 2019.

For what it’s worth, he has the support of at least one teammate.

“You look at Guice and he’s one of those backs you could be talking about for a long time,” said Redskins left tackle Trent Williams. “He could benefit tremendously from Adrian. With Adrian showing how much he has left in the tank, I don’t know if he’d want to come back and waste away his final seasons as a mentor when he could be adding to his legacy somewhere. He could still be the guy.”

Injury Notes: Lang, Wright, Cravens, Peterson

October 9th, 2018 at 9:10pm CST by Ben Levine

Lions offensive guard T.J. Lang is still in the concussion protocol after having suffered his sixth career brain injury, but the team is still expecting the veteran to be back at some point this season. The 31-year-old was even in the building last week helping the team prepare for their matchup against his former team, the Packers.

“He was in the room to be able to talk through some of the Green Bay stuff,” offensive line coach Jeff Davidson told Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press. “I try to talk to him about some of the personnel things that he knows. That’s the only thing I had to do as far as commenting on T.J. Looking forward to him going forward.”

The offensive lineman previously said that he’ll continue to play football as long as his body holds up. Lang has also dealt with back, ankle and shoulder injuries during his tenure in Detroit.

Let’s check out some more injury notes from around the NFL…

  • While there’s still optimism surrounding Seahawks linebacker K.J. Wright‘s return to the field, it won’t happen this weekend. ESPN’s Brady Henderson writes that the veteran will miss this weekend’s London matchup against the Raiders. Wright is still recovering from knee surgery, and head coach Pete Carroll said there’s no use in rushing him back. “He’ll run all throughout the week,” said Carroll. “It’s going to be too much to ask of him to get him back this game. I think we’ve got to make sure and take care of him and get him strong and confident and all that … I think we just need to maximize his opportunity to be at full strength, really recovered and confident and all that.”
  • Su’a Cravens is currently sitting on the injured reserve with a knee injury, but Nicki Jhabvala of The Athletic tweets that the Broncos safety is expected to return to practice next week. The 23-year-old is eligible to return following his team’s game against the Rams this weekend, and the organization will have three weeks to activate him. The 2016 second-round pick was acquired from the Redskins back in March, and he’ll be looking to crack a depth chart that already includes Darian Stewart, Justin Simmons, and Will Parks.
  • There seemed to be a difference in opinions when it came to Adrian Peterson‘s injury. ESPN’s John Keim tweets that the Redskins running back described the injury as a dislocation, while head coach Jay Gruden simply referred to it as a strain. Peterson underwent an MRI earlier today, and the tests ultimately revealed a strain (via USA Today’s Mike Jones on Twitter). The 33-year-old has compiled 242 rushing yards and three touchdowns on 60 carries this season.

Redskins Rumors: Peterson, Galette, Cap

September 29th, 2018 at 8:41pm CST by Sam Robinson

Neither Daniel Snyder nor Redskins president Bruce Allen knew about the team’s decision to bring Adrian Peterson in for a workout. Instead, VP of player personnel Doug Williams and football operations president Eric Shaffer moved forward with the audition that quickly led to Peterson signing and then reclaiming an NFL starting gig.

“(Shaffer) looked and me and said, ‘Well, what do you think, what do we got to lose?’” Williams said during a radio interview with the Team 980’s Doc Walker (via the Washington Post). “I’m a little hesitant to pull the plug, and then before I went out to practice I looked at Eric and said, ‘Hey Eric, what the heck? Let’s do it.’

“The thing about that, I came to practice, I was so hyped about it that I forgot to tell Bruce that we was bringing him in. I’m sitting there that evening and Bruce came in my office and he just stood there looking at me. I’m thinking, ‘What’d I do?’ Well, Dan had called him and let him know he didn’t know. And Bruce let me know that he didn’t know because Dan didn’t know. I said, ‘Well look, that’s on me.’ I took it. Sometimes you have to have big shoulders, you take it and you move on.”

Williams arranged the workout for Monday, at a time when the Redskins were searching for available backs, and Peterson signed for the veteran minimum later that day. Peterson is thriving with Washington, his fourth NFL team; his 236 yards are fourth among players who’ve played just three games. He scored twice and rushed for a season-high 120 yards (6.3 per carry) in the Redskins’ 31-17 Week 3 win over the Packers.

Here’s the latest out of the nation’s capital:

  • Unless the Redskins see a member of their edge-rushing contingent suffer a setback, don’t look for them to bring back Junior Galette. Redskins brass is comfortable with its quartet of Ryan Kerrigan, Pernell McPhee, Preston Smith and Ryan Anderson, Rich Tandler of NBC Sports Washington notes. Galette’s expressed regret he turned down a Washington offer, for what the veteran pass rusher says was for two years and $10MM, this offseason. The Redskins informed him during free agency they were moving in a different direction. A Rams visit also did not produce a deal. After two season-nullifying injuries, Galette played in 16 Washington games last season and recorded three sacks. Of the aforementioned incumbents, only Anderson has a sack this season.
  • Washington would like this season to be a redshirt campaign for third-round pick Geron Christian. Jay Gruden said this week (per Tandler) he would like the rookie offensive linemen to learn this season. Christian has not been active on a game day yet, and the Redskins’ offensive line hasn’t encountered the injury trouble it did in 2017.
  • Although Washington has not made Caleb Brantley part of any of its 46-man Sunday rosters, the team views the young defensive lineman as a rotational piece down the line, Tandler adds. The Browns waived Brantley after one season. He played in 12 games as a rookie, starting one, and registered two sacks and a fumble recovery. Washington’s receiving strong play from its defensive line thus far, making opportunities for the second-year newcomer scarce.
  • One of the ways Washington can increase its cap space next year (projected total of $25MM) would be by cutting Josh Norman. While that line of thinking surfaced over the summer, Tandler writes it may behoove the team to keep its top corner in the fold for another season. A Norman release would save Washington $8.5MM but also stick the franchise with $6MM in dead money. Washington ranks second in total defense thus far and moved on from Kendall Fuller and Bashaud Breeland this offseason. Norman’s working with Quinton Dunbar and Fabian Moreau now.
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