Corbin Bryant

NFL Workout Updates: 11/27/17

Here are today’s NFL workouts, with all credit going to Adam Caplan of Sirius XM unless otherwise noted.

Detroit Lions

New England Patriots

  • DT Marcus Hardison (Mike Reiss of ESPN.com) (Twitter link)

New York Giants

Philadelphia Eagles

  • QB Matt Simms; TE’s Gabe HolmesJevoni Robinson (Twitter link)

 

 

 

Giants Sign DL Bobby Richardson

The Giants have signed free agent defensive lineman Bobby Richardson and placed defensive tackle Corbin Bryant on injured reserve, the club announced today.Bobby Richardson (Vertical)

Richardson will now join his fifth NFL club, but he’s still only 24 years old. Although he didn’t see the field last season, Richardson did start 11 games (and made 15 appearances) for the Saints during his rookie campaign in 2015. During that season, he managed 40 total tackles and half-sack while playing on roughly half of New Orleans’ defensive snaps.

Since that time, Richardson has bounced around the league, seeing time on both offseason and practice rosters with the Redskins, Chiefs, and — most recently — the Broncos. Now with the Giants, Richardson will compete with Romeo Okwara, Devin Taylor, Avery Moss, Kerry Williams, and Ishaq Williams to earn a back-end roster spot.

Bryant, meanwhile, signed a one-year, minimum salary benefit deal with the Giants this offseason after spending the past five years in Buffalo. The 29-year-old only appeared in half of the Bills’ 2016 games before being sent to injured reserve with a shoulder injury. This time around, it’s a dislocated elbow that’s landing Bryant on IR, per Jordan Raanan of ESPN.com. Bryant could conceivably be released with an injury settlement at some point down the road, allowing him to latch on with another team.

Giants Sign Corbin Bryant

The Giants have signed defensive tackle Corbin Bryant and waived interior offensive lineman Khaled Holmes, tweets James Kratch of NJ.com.

Corbin Bryant

The 29-year-old Bryant brings a fair amount of experience to New York, having appeared in 56 games with the Steelers and Bills since entering the NFL as an undrafted free agent from Northwestern in 2011. Fifty-five of Bryant’s appearances have come in Buffalo, where he started in 16 of 24 games from 2015-16. Bryant missed half of last season, an eight-game, six-start showing, and received poor marks from Pro Football Focus for his performance. The year before, though, he saw action in each of Buffalo’s contests, piled up a career-high 45 tackles across 10 starts, and drew a positive grade from PFF.

Now, Bryant will attempt to catch on with a Giants team that lost starting D-tackle Johnathan Hankins to the Colts in free agency. Big Blue still has standout nose tackle Damon Harrison, of course, and used a second-round pick on former Alabama D-tackle Dalvin Tomlinson. Backups Jay Bromley and Robert Thomas are also on hand to offer some experience, but not as much as Bryant.

Holmes, who joined the Giants on a reserve/futures deal in January, has seen his career stall since the Colts cut him after the 2015 season. The 2013 fourth-rounder started in nine of 17 appearances as a Colt over three seasons.

Bills Sign Logan Thomas Off Lions P-Squad

Yesterday, the Lions signed quarterback Logan Thomas with the idea that they would convert him to a tight end. Today, the Bills decided to swoop in and sign him to the 53-man roster. By rule, the Bills will be required to carry Thomas on their 53-man roster for the next three weeks. Logan Thomas (vertical)

The Thomas deal is one of many moves for Buffalo today. The team has also promoted wide receiver Dezmin Lewis and defensive lineman Deandre Coleman to the active roster. Wide receiver Walt Powell and defensive lineman Corbin Bryant will head to injured reserve.

Thomas, a former quarterback for Virginia Tech, was a draft pick of the Cardinals in 2014. Since entering the league, he has only appeared in a couple of games as a QB. After his most recent stint with the Giants ended, Thomas decided on pitching himself as a tight end. Always known for his athleticism, Thomas aims to put his big body to use at a new position. The Bills are hoping that they have found the next Terrelle Pryor – a QB turned pass-catcher – in Thomas.

RFA/ERFA Signings: 4/18/16

We’ll round the latest news on restricted and exclusive-rights free agents here…

RFA Tender Signings & Decisions: 3/7/16

When teams assign first- or second-round tenders to their restricted free agents, or when those RFAs accept the tender, we’ll devote full news stories to those moves. For news concerning everyone else getting the lower tenders, we’ll round it up in the space below, with the latest updates added to the top of the list throughout the day….

  • Fullback James Develin announced that he is returning to the Patriots on a one-year deal, as Mike Reiss of ESPN.com tweets. The Patriots did not plan to tender Develin an offer at $1.6MM, so the two sides worked out a reduced one-year pact (link).
  • Defensive tackle Stefan Charles will not be tendered an offer by the Bills, per John Kryk of The Toronto Sun (on Twitter). Defensive tackle Corbin Bryant, wide receiver Chris Hogan, and tackle Jordan Mills were tendered offers, however. There could be some teams interested in Hogan, Tyler Dunne of The Buffalo News tweets, and that low tender might not ward of interested clubs.
  • Washington has tendered a qualifying offer to restricted free agent Duke Ihenacho, a source tells John Keim of ESPN.com (on Twitter).
  • Fullback Jorvorskie Lane will not be getting a tender from the Buccaneers, Greg Auman of The Tampa Bay Times tweets.
  • The Panthers will not tender defensive end Frank Alexander an offer or re-sign him, a source tells Joe Person of the Charlotte Observer (on Twitter). Alexander must sit out until November thanks to his third drug suspension.

Extra Points: Slay, Lions, Bills, Griffin, Oher

Lions cornerback Darius Slay has made it clear that he’d like to sign an extension with Detroit, and it looks like some movement may be coming on that front. According to Jason Cole of Bleacher Report (video link), Slay’s new agent Drew Rosenhaus will meet with the Lions at the scouting combine to discuss a new contract. As Cole notes, it probably makes sense for Detroit to strike a deal now — and add some guaranteed money in 2016 while they’re flush with cap space — instead of waiting until next offseason and running the risk of having to franchise Slay.

Here’s a few more notes from around the NFL:

  • Restricted free agent Corbin Bryant believes he can be part of the solution in Buffalo, and the Bills defensive lineman wants to be retained, as Tyler Dunne of the Buffalo News writes. Because of cap trouble, Dunne expects the Bills to tender Bryant, a restricted free agent, at the lowest level, but he notes (via Twitter) that the two sides haven’t had any talks as of yet.
  • While Bryant is set to hit restricted free agency, Bills linebacker Nigel Bradham is an unrestricted free agent, and he’s willing to accept a one-year, “prove-it” deal to return to Buffalo, reports Dunne (Twitter link). Bradham was a much better fit under former Buffalo DC Jim Schwartz than he is in Rex Ryan‘s system, but general manger Doug Whaley wants Bradham to return, per Dunne.
  • Free agent safety Michael Griffin has hired David Mulugheta and Andrew Kessler as his new agents, as Rand Getlin of NFL Network reports (Twitter link). The 31-year-old Griffin was released last week after nine seasons with the Titans.
  • Like Slay did earlier this year, Panthers tackle Michael Oher has hired Rosenhaus as his representative, tweets Getlin. Oher, coming off a surprisingly successful first season in Carolina, has a $4.5MM 2016 cap charge in the second year of a two-year deal, and could be a candidate for an extension.

RFA Decisions: Thursday

Unrestricted free agency will get most of the publicity, but UFAs aren’t the only players impacted by the beginning of the new league year on March 10. By 3pm CT on that date, clubs must decide whether to tender offers to restricted free agents — players who have exactly three years of service time. We’ll round up those decisions here, with the latest updates being added to the top…

  • The Colts made several moves today, announcing they’ve tendered restricted free agent linebacker Jerrell Freeman, as well as three exclusive rights free agents: running back Dan Herron, and linebackers Daniel Adongo and Cam Johnson. Freeman and Herron are the biggest names here — despite missing four games, Freeman finished with the fifth-most snaps on Indy’s defense, while Herron took over as the club’s starting running back by the end of the season.
  • On the other hand, the Colts won’t tender an offer to RFA center A.Q. Shipley, writes Mike Wells of ESPN.com. Shipley was the club’s Week 1 starter at center, and received positive marks from Pro Football Focus (subscription required), so he should find some interest on the open market.
  • Following their trade of LeSean McCoy, the Eagles don’t have much depth at running back, and while they plan to offer an RFA tender to RB Chris Polk, it will only be at the “right of first refusal” level, per Eliot Shorr-Parks of NJ.com. Therefore, Philadelphia will only commit about $1.5MM to Polk, and won’t receive any compensation if another club signs him away.
  • The Bills have decided to bring back three ERFAs, tendering offers to receivers Justin Brown and Chris Hogan, as well as defensive tackle Corbin Bryant, tweets Mike Rodak of ESPN.com. Hogan, who saw the most snaps of the three, was a prominent feature of the Dolphins’ Hard Knocks season on HBO in 2012. Additionally, Buffalo did not tender an offer to ERFA kicker Jordan Gay, per Rodak (Twitter link).
  • The Giants have tendered exclusive rights free agent corner Chandler Fenner, tweets Ebenezer Samuel of the New York Daily News. Fenner, 24, saw action in 11 games for New York last season.

Extra Points: Manziel, Onobun, Wright

Let’s round up some links from around the league on this Monday evening, wherein the players and the officials in the BrownsRedskins preseason tilt have conspired to transform the Twitterverse into an alternately bemused and enraged cacophony:

  • Jason Fitzgerald of OverTheCap.com offers his first entry in what will be a three-part series examining how Super Bowl champions work within the confines of the salary cap to build a winner. Part I examines the percentage of the cap that different champions spent on their highest-priced player. Interestingly enough, the teams who invested most heavily in one player had the most success in the three-year period immediately following their Super Bowl victory.
  • The Ravens might need some out-of-house reinforcements depending on the severity of Jimmy Smith‘s chest injury and Jon Meoli of the Baltimore Sun looks at some of the names out there on the open market. Some of the more recognizable names are Asante Samuel, Chris Houston, Corey Webster, Dunta Robinson, and Quentin Jammer. However, as we learned yesterday, there is a reason most of those players are still on the market. GM Ozzie Newsome has never been one to make moves out of desperation, and if the injuries to Smith, Lardarius Webb, and/or Asa Jackson are more dire than initially thought, the Ravens are probably more likely to trade for a corner or sign someone who will be released in the coming weeks.
  • Buccaneers coach Lovie Smith is less-than-thrilled with tight end Tim Wright‘s play and Pat Yasinkas of ESPN.com writes that he needs to show improvement quickly if he doesn’t want his spot on the roster to be in danger. “He hasn’t played as well as Tim should be playing,” Smith said. “He’s dropped some balls. If you watched practice, he’s dropped balls. But he’s a big part of what we want to do with the two-receiver, two-tight-end set. Tim hasn’t blocked as well inside. Once you’re that H-back and you don’t block, now they say you’re just another receiver and teams start going nickel. If they do that at least you have to be a good pass catcher. Tim’s a good player. He just hasn’t played as well as he needs to lately.”
  • Jaguars tight end Fendi Onobun has been diagnoses with a torn quad and will require surgery, which means he’s done for the year, tweets Ryan O’Halloran of the Florida Times-Union.
  • Mike Rodak of ESPN.com writes that Bills defensive tackle Marcell Dareus did not take part in team drills on Monday, and the Bills used a combination of Landon Cohen, Corbin Bryant, and Stefan Charles in his stead. Although Buffalo could keep all three of those players as depth behind Dareus and Kyle Williams, they could choose to keep just two and release the third.
  • If the Cowboys tabbed Johnny Manziel, as a newly-released book says owner Jerry Jones nearly made happen, the Browns‘ rookie quarterback would be Teddy Bridgewater, tweets Tony Grossi of ESPNCleveland.com.
  • In Jim Dent’s new book “Manziel Mania,” the author wrote that Cowboys owner Jerry Jones wrote Johnny Manziel’s name on the draft card for the No. 16 pick only to have his son, Stephen Jones, literally yank the card out of his hand. As great as that story is, it’s simply untrue, a source tells Sean Lester of the Dallas Morning News. As Lester notes, given that the actual draft card is delivered in New York and Jerry and Stephen Jones supervised the draft from the team’s Valley Ranch war room, it seems unlikely the episode occurred as Dent described.

Rory Parks contributed to this post.