HEADLINES

Billy Devaney

Extra Points: Cowboys, Matthews, Devaney

February 19th, 2014 at 9:27pm CST by Zachary Links

Could Mavericks owner Mark Cuban go from the pages of Hoops Rumors to Pro Football Rumors? Don’t bank on it. In an interview with 105.3 The Fan, Cuban was asked if he could see himself buying the Cowboys someday and he didn’t sound like a man ready to break out his checkbook, writes Jon Machota of The Dallas Morning News. “I think football teams have gotten so expensive that it would take a whole consortium, you’d have to put together a whole fund in order to buy them and that wouldn’t be any fun,” Cuban said. “It wouldn’t be any fun because it wouldn’t be my money, it wouldn’t be my team. It would have to be purely a business. That makes it a lot tougher.”

  • Wide receiver Chris Matthews will get a guaranteed $10K bonus on his futures contract with the Seahawks, according to Brian McIntyre (via Twitter). Matthews is one of just a few futures signees to see guaranteed money on their deal.
  • Former Rams GM Billy Devaney is joining the Falcons‘ player personnel department as a regional scout, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN.com (on Twitter). We learned on Valentine’s Day that Atlanta was giving consideration to hiring Devaney, who was previously working as an analyst with ESPN. Former Rams scout Russ Bollinger has also been hired by the Falcons, tweets Jim Thomas of the St. Louis Post Dispatch.
  • The Lions signed Rugby speedster Carlin Isles to a reserve/futures contract, but it sounds like he’ll be sticking with his first sport. David Ferguson of The Scotsman writes that Isles, who has recorded a 4.22 40-yard-dash time, will ink a deal with the Glasgow Warriors, keeping him from the NFL.
  • The Dolphins announced that they have canned offensive line coach Jim Turner and longtime head athletics trainer Kevin O’Neill. Both men were named in the Ted Wells report which examined the Dolphins organization following the Richie Incognito/Jonathan Martin controversy.

NFC Notes: Vikings, Falcons, Packers, Graham

February 14th, 2014 at 2:09pm CST by Luke Adams

With Matt Cassel and Josh Freeman headed for unrestricted free agency, the Vikings will have some decisions to make at quarterback this offseason. Despite Christian Ponder‘s subpar performance in 2013, the team is confident will return, GM Rick Spielman tells ESPN.com’s Ben Goessling (Twitter link). As Goessling notes though, Spielman sounds committed to the idea of bringing in a young QB, and says the club will “at least two” signal-callers to the roster.

Let’s round up a few more Friday items from across the NFC….

  • The Falcons are giving “strong consideration” to hiring former Rams GM Billy Devaney to their front office, reports Jason La Canfora of CBSSports.com (via Twitter). The Falcons, who recently added Scott Pioli to their ranks, employed Devaney as recently as 2007, when he was an assistant GM in Atlanta.
  • Even if the Packers hope to retain both of their restricted free agents – safety M.D. Jennings and linebacker Jamari Lattimore – it may not make sense to tender either player for $1.389MM, says Rob Demovsky of ESPN.com, suggesting that the team could try to sign both players for something close to the minimum salary.
  • There’s a good chance that contract negotiations between Jimmy Graham and the Saints will go to the eleventh hour, but it’s not entirely clear when the clock will strike as midnight, as Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk explains.
  • Re-signing punter Donnie Jones should be the easiest call for the Eagles this offseason, according to Phil Sheridan of ESPN.com.