The deadline for teams to extend tender offers to their restricted free agents and exclusive rights free agents looms next week. We’ll keep tabs on the latest here:
Tendered:
The kicking game was an issue for the Vikings this season, and they’re getting out ahead of the matter by bringing in a veteran early. Minnesota is signing kicker Greg Joseph, his agent Brent Tessler announced on Twitter.
Since Joseph finished the season on the Buccaneers’ practice squad and not active roster, he doesn’t have to wait until March to sign like everybody else. Undrafted out of Florida Atlantic in 2018, he originally signed with the Dolphins. After getting cut by Miami he signed with the Browns, and spent the last 14 weeks of the 2018 season as Cleveland’s kicker. In those 14 games he went 17 of 20 on field goal attempts and 25 of 29 on extra points.
He lost the job the following training camp, spent some time on the Panthers’ practice squad, and then was signed by the Titans late in the year. He was their kicker for the final couple of regular season games as well as their playoff run to the AFC Championship Game.
He didn’t appear in a game for Tampa this year, but earned a Super Bowl ring nonetheless. The Vikings had Dan Bailey as their kicker this past season, and he was a disaster at times. He had a few meltdown games, including one against none other than the Bucs where he missed four kicks. Minnesota opted not to cut him during the season, but it was a foregone conclusion that he’d face some competition in 2021.
The Vikings guaranteed a portion of Joseph’s salary, while Bailey has $1.8MM that becomes fully guaranteed on March 19th, Ian Rapoport of NFL Network tweets. As such, it wouldn’t be surprising if Bailey doesn’t even make it to camp and gets cut loose in the next couple of weeks here.
Here are today’s minor moves:
Buffalo Bills
Denver Broncos
Las Vegas Raiders
Los Angeles Rams
Miami Dolphins
Philadelphia Eagles
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
The Titans have signed four-time Pro Bowler Stephen Gostkowski, per a club announcement. To make room, they’ve waived incumbent kicker Greg Joseph.
Gostkowski, the Patriots’ all-time leading scorer, lost his 2019 season to a labrum tear. Now, the 36-year-old is healthy, and ready to begin the next chapter of his career.
The Titans have been concerned about their kicking situation for some time. Last year, the Titans effectively went to the conference championship game in spite of their kickers. Four kickers combined to go just 8-of-18 on field goal tries – Joseph attempted just one FG, and made it, in the playoffs. Before this week’s shuffle, the Titans’ only other in-house option was UDFA Tucker McCann.
McCann may still get a chance to compete with Gostkowski, but it stands to reason that the veteran will be the team’s one and only kicker when the season starts. With 28 playoff games and 39 postseason field goals under his belt, Gostkowski fits the bill for the Titans, who are looking to take another leap forward in 2020.
The Browns may be out of the Jadeveon Clowney sweepstakes, leaving the Seahawks and Raiders as the the arguable frontrunners for his services. But don’t count the Titans out just yet. In a Periscope/Facebook Live conversation with PaulKuharsky.com, GM Jon Robinson talked about what a useful asset Clowney would be to Tennessee’s front seven and how he would complement the talent already on the roster.
But Robinson also reiterated that he wants to have team doctors examine Clowney before he moves forward in his attempts to sign him. While Robinson acknowledged that the former No. 1 overall pick looks good from what he has seen on social media, there is obviously no substitute for an in-person evaluation.
“Anytime you are dealing with whatever the contract is going to command, you want to make sure that the player is healthy, that you are able to allow your doctors to see him, to look at it, to make sure everything is going to be good,” Robinson said.
Those comments are noteworthy in light of the fact that the Titans were previously reported to have made multiple offers to Clowney earlier this offseason. Assuming those reports were accurate, it seems as if Robinson may have been willing to bring Clowney in on a fairly low-risk deal without a medical examination, but if he is going to make a sizable commitment, he needs to be assured that Clowney is in good health.
Robinson also said that the team would consider taking a look at veteran kicker Stephen Gostkowski. The longtime Patriots stalwart was released by New England in March on the heels of a 2019 season that was largely wiped out by a left hip injury. The Titans are currently rostering Greg Joseph, whom they signed off the Panthers’ taxi squad in December, and UDFA Tucker McCann. Robinson conceded that the PK job is Joseph’s to lose, but he would be amenable to bringing in Gostkowski to provide some worthy competition.
Gostkowski, 36, said in April that he has no plans to retire, but this is the first time we’ve heard his name since then. His 87.4% field goal percentage is the fifth-best of all time.
Plagued by kicking woes this season, the Titans will add another reinforcement to this embattled position group. They are signing Greg Joseph off the Panthers’ practice squad, according to Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk (on Twitter).
Tennessee waived kickoff man Ryan Santoso earlier Tuesday but still has veteran Ryan Succop rostered. Succop is just 1-for-6 on field goals this season. As a team, the Titans are a woeful 8-for-18 on three-point tries, having used Succop, Cairo Santos and Cody Parkey in 14 games.
Joseph last kicked for the 2018 Browns, signing early in the season after Zane Gonzalez‘s rough day in New Orleans. He latched on with Carolina’s practice squad earlier this season. Joseph made 17 of 20 field goal tries last season.
This is Succop’s sixth Titans season. He began the campaign on IR. Since returning, he’s made 24 of 25 extra points but has made just one field goal in six games.
The Titans are on pace to miss more field goals than they’ve made and, per PFT, would become the first team to do so since the 1987 Vikings. Said Vikings team went 14-for-29 during a strike-shortened season that featured unsatisfactory work from both their regular kicker and three-game scab specialist.
A handful of practice squad moves to pass along:
Carolina Panthers
Indianapolis Colts
Los Angeles Chargers
The signing of Joseph is somewhat notable, as Panthers kicker Joey Slye missed three field goals during his team’s three-point loss to the Saints yesterday. Joseph appeared in 10 games for the Browns last year, converting 17 of his 20 field goal attempts and 25 of his 29 extra point tries. Elsewhere, Nelson Jr. is in contention for one of the best first names in the league.
The Panthers have acquired competition for incumbent kicker Joey Slye. Former Browns kicker Greg Joseph is now on the Panthers’ practice squad, according to Joseph’s agent, Brett Tessler (Twitter link).
Slye missed a 28-yard field goal that would have given the Panthers a three-point lead in the fourth quarter of what became a three-point loss to the Saints on Sunday. Prior to that, Slye missed two extra points.
Carolina was pondering workouts and will go with Joseph, whose Browns tenure began after Zane Gonzalez‘s rough September 2018 day in New Orleans.
Joseph made 17 of 20 field goal tries last season, the Florida Atlantic alum’s only NFL work to date. Slye is now 19-for-26 on field goals and 22-for-26 on PATs. Carolina went with Slye, a rookie out of Virginia Tech, after longtime kicker Graham Gano landed on IR.
Here is the latest from the workout circuit:
Chicago Bears
Cincinnati Bengals
Cleveland Browns
Green Bay Packers
Houston Texans
Indianapolis Colts
Kansas City Chiefs
New England Patriots
New Orleans Saints
New York Jets
Pittsburgh Steelers
Seattle Seahawks
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Tennessee Titans
Washington Redskins
Despite Adam Vinatieri not opting to retire, the Colts held a kicker audition. The team worked out Cody Parkey, Elliott Fry and Younghoe Koo, Field Yates of ESPN.com tweets. This workout occurred today, after Vinatieri decided not to retire, NFL reporter Howard Balzer tweets. Also part of the audition: Greg Joseph, Chase McLaughlin and Cole Hedlund, per Balzer.
None of these kickers has signed with Indianapolis yet, but the 1-1 team is doing due diligence in light of Vinatieri’s rough start to the season.
Parkey worked out for the Jets recently, but Gang Green went with a Kaare Vedvik waiver claim instead. They now have Sam Ficken at kicker. Parkey has not kicked in a game since his infamous double-doink sequence ended the 2018 Bears’ season, but he has five seasons’ experience.
Koo has also participated in workouts but has not kicked since some late-game misses cost him his Chargers job early in 2017. A South Carolina alum, Fry has yet to kick in an NFL game. Neither has Hedlund, who kicked at Arkansas and North Texas. Joseph served as the Browns’ kicker last season, taking Zane Gonzalez‘s job in September 2018. He did not win Cleveland’s kicking competition this year. McLaughlin did not make the Bills out of camp. He kicked at the University of Illinois from 2015-18.
This is not yet an ominous sign for Vinatieri, but the 46-year-old kicking icon may now be on notice. The future Hall of Famer may be kicking for his job in Week 3.