HEADLINES

Jason Licht

Extra Points: Bucs, Bills, LA, Cowboys, Pryor

December 17th, 2015 at 9:51pm CST by Connor J. Byrne

The latest from around the NFL as Thursday wraps up:

  • Buccaneers general manager Jason Licht is enamored with rookie quarterback Jameis Winston. “I wouldn’t trade him for another quarterback in the league,” Licht said, per Jeff Darlington of NFL.com. Licht stated he expected more growing pains and perhaps as many as 30 interceptions this year from Winston, but the ex-Florida State star and No. 1 pick in this year’s draft entered Thursday with only 11 in 13 games.
  • The Bills are in wait-and-see mode when it comes to the long-term status of signal caller Tyrod Taylor, but if they give him a new contract, it could end up being their most important transaction over the next several years, opines Sal Maiorana of the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. Taylor, who has been one of the top statistical QBs in the league this year, will be a free agent after next season. If he acquits himself well again in 2016 and the Bills wait until the season’s over try to lock him up, he could either sign a sizable deal elsewhere or stay in Buffalo and take up a large portion of its cap. For his part, Taylor says he isn’t focused on anything other than this season. “I have three important games. I don’t have time to talk about contract situations.”
  • With as many as two of the Rams, Raiders and Chargers potentially relocating to Los Angeles at season’s end, Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk examined where exactly the teams could call home starting next year. Multiple league sources believe the Chargers are the likeliest of the three teams to end up in LA, per Florio.
  • Cowboys quarterback Kellen Moore took “a couple” first-team practice reps this week, head coach Jason Garrett said. That’s a sign his first NFL action could be approaching, Charean Williams of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram writes. With the Cowboys out of contention and Matt Cassel having performed poorly in place of the injured Tony Romo, giving Moore a shot before the year’s out would seem to make sense. Dallas signed Moore, 26, to its practice squad in November and added him to its active roster earlier this month. The fourth-year man has never taken a regular-season snap since going undrafted out of Boise State in 2012.
  • Browns receiver Terrelle Pryor, formerly a quarterback, made his regular-season debut at wideout last week and played 16 snaps. Quarterback Johnny Manziel didn’t target Pryor, but that could change this week because Pryor will get more playing time, Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com reports.
  • Veteran safety Brandon Meriweather, whom the Giants cut Wednesday, went through waivers unclaimed and is now a free agent, per Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle (Twitter link).

NFC Notes: Amukamara, Bucs, Packers, Boldin

October 17th, 2015 at 4:55pm CST by Sam Robinson

Let’s look at some of the news coming out of NFC locales Saturday afternoon.

  • Prince Amukamara‘s latest injury, a partially torn pectoral muscle expected to sideline the Giants cornerback for multiple games, could cost him millions in free agency, writes Ralph Vacchiano of the New York Daily News. Currently playing on his fifth-year option, Amukamara profiles as one of the top corners on next year’s market, joining Sean Smith and Leon Hall in a thin class. A former first-round pick, the 26-year-old Amukamara’s played in 16 games just once (2013) and has been available for double-digit contests just twice in four seasons. Vacchiano reports the talented-yet-brittle corner’s injury history represents why Big Blue hasn’t been negotiating an extension with him.
  • Now back with the Bucs, Connor Barth generated a public apology of sorts from Tampa Bay GM Jason Licht, who expressed regret over choosing rookie Kyle Brindza over the veteran Barth. “In hindsight, I shouldn’t have let him go,” Licht told Sirius XM radio (via Roy Cummings of the Tampa Tribune). The Bucs cut Brindza after he endured a horrendous start that included two errant extra points and six misssed field goals, and brought back Barth, an accurate field goal specialist but one with a weaker kickoff leg. “(Barth) has always been a steady kicker, but his kickoff leg has always been inconsistent, to put it mildly,’’ Licht said. “But (after Barth hit five touchbacks in eight kickoffs in Week 5) I asked him where that came from and he said he had been working on it. I think he realized that was his best chance to stick around for a long time.”
  • After Steve Spurrier announced his retirement this week, former Packers GM Ron Wolf recalled twice trying to offer him the Packers’ head-coaching job — once in 1999 and again in 2000 — but the longtime SEC coach showed no interest in American pro sports’ smallest city, according to Bob McGinn of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The Packers hired Ray Rhodes to succeed Mike Holmgren in 1999 then after firing him brought in Mike Sherman instead of Spurrier, who ended up coaching in Washington from 2002-03.
  • 49ers wideout Anquan Boldin acknowledged he achieved what he wanted to with the Ravens and now accepts his former team’s decision to trade him for a sixth-round pick. “I went there to win a championship, so job done,” Boldin told Matt Maiocco of CSNBayArea.com. “I understand the business part of it now. No team is the same the following year. It wasn’t a big surprise.”

Extra Points: Titans, Beckham, Raiders, Bucs

June 25th, 2015 at 9:32pm CST by Ben Levine

Following the Titans announcement today of their 20-year agreement with Nissan, CEO/president Steve Underwood reiterated that the team is not for sale.

“The team is not for sale,” Underwood told John Glennon of the Tennessean. “We have not had any discussions with anyone about selling the team. Our owners are committed to continuing to maintain the team just as it is in their family, and we couldn’t be happier about that.”

Let’s take a look at some more notes from around the NFL…

  • Following reports that Giants wideout Odell Beckham Jr. was peeved at his teammates’ teasing, the second-year player told Paul Schwartz of the New York Post that he gets along fine with the other players. “I have no problem with anybody on the team or inside or anything,” he said.
  • ESPN.com’s Bill Williamson took a look at the Raiders cap situation. The NFL requires teams to spend at least 89 percent of their cap between 2013 and 2016. The Raiders entered the offseason having spent just over 80 percent, and Williamson surmises that the team will need to spend nearly “all of their cap room” in the next two years.
  • Buccaneers general manager Jason Licht recognizes that it takes time to build a contender. However, as he told Steven Ruiz of USA Today, he believes his roster has improved drastically in his year-plus on the job. “This wasn’t a rebuild, this was a little bit of a retool,” he said. “When you have players like Gerald McCoy and Lavonte David and Mark Barron and Vincent Jackson and the list goes on and on, you can’t call it a rebuild. We just had a little retooling to do.”

Extra Points: 49ers, Hardy, Peterson, Rivers

March 18th, 2015 at 10:22pm CST by Ben Levine

49ers CEO Jed York appeared on Bloomberg Television on Tuesday to discuss a number of different topics, including the surprise retirement of Chris Borland (via SFGate.com):

“We respect it, and I love Chris. He’s a great kid. And it’s certainly a surprise to us and I think to some of his teammates. But you have to respect the decision. If he fears for his health and safety going forward, I don’t ever want somebody to go out there and do something that they’re not comfortable doing. And I would never try to talk somebody out of retirement. I know it wasn’t an easy decision for him, but we respect him and we wish him the best.”

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

  • Greg Hardy spurned the Buccaneers for the Cowboys earlier today, but as Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times writes, it may have been the organization that rejected the player. “At the end of the day, we didn’t feel good about it,” said general manager Jason Licht.
  • Count Larry Fitzgerald among those who’d like to see Adrian Peterson wearing a Cardinals jersey next season. The veteran wideout told Chris Tomasson of the St. Paul Pioneer Press that adding the All-Pro running back would be a “game-changer” for the organization. “Obviously, he’s an MVP-caliber player,” Fitzgerald said. “Everybody knows that. Any team he ends up with — or if he stays with the Vikings — is going to have a great back. If he was to come play here, it would obviously mean a tremendous amount for our ballclub.”
  • Following news that Philip Rivers wouldn’t consider a new deal with the Chargers until the end of the 2015 season, NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport says the organization has no intention of letting the quarterback depart (via Around The NFL on Twitter). Rapoport notes (on Twitter) that both sides have plenty of leverage during negotiations.
  • CBS Sports’ Jason La Canfora tweets that the Bills actually signed wideout Percy Harvin to a three-year, $24MM deal, but the contract voids to a one-year, $6MM pact. As WGR550’s Joe Buscaglia points out on Twitter, this saves the organization $2MM in 2015 cap through “signing bonus proration,” meaning the player’s cap hit for this season will be $4MM as opposed to $6MM. Furthermore, if the Bills decide to void the contract following 2015 (which they’re expected to do), they’ll get hit with $2MM in dead money.

NFC South Notes: Bucs, Trestman, Draft

January 1st, 2015 at 10:32am CST by Rob DiRe

The Buccaneers had a disastrous 2014, but with the New Year hope they will be able to turn things around quickly. Among their top priorities are landing an improvement at quarterback and finding an offensive coordinator to replace Jeff Tedford, who missed the season after having a heart procedure in August, according to the Associated Press in USA Today.

  • Buccaneers current quarterback Josh McCown has pushed for the team to hire Marc Trestman as the offensive coordinator, reports Conor Orr of NFL.com. He mentioned his affinity for Trestman to the media, according to Roy Cummings of the Tampa Tribune. “I think Marc is an outstanding coach and an outstanding person and he has a great sense of offensive football, especially quarterback play,” said McCown. “I just know that, for me personally, I played my best football in my career under him. So obviously I have good things to say. But I’ve been around a bunch of different guys over the course of my career, and he was probably the most detailed with game plans and things like that. I really felt like he was on top of it.’’
  • Today the Oregon Ducks will play the Florida State Seminoles in the Rose Bowl, and the Buccaneers will be watching that game closely according to Martin Fennelly of the Tampa Tribune. The Buccaneers top need is quarterback, and they are expected to draft one with the first pick in the 2015 NFL Draft. Their options will likely be either Oregon’s Marcus Mariota and Florida State’s Jameis Winston, the past two Heisman Trophy winners. General manager Jason Licht will be in attendance for the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, and will probably be watching his team’s franchise quarterback one way or the other.
  • The Falcons also have had a close eye on bowl games since missing the playoffs, with general manager Thomas Dimitroff and assistant general manager Scott Pioli in attendance for the Peach Bowl between TCU and Ole Miss on New Year’s Eve, according to D. Orlando Ledbetter of the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
  • The Saints have 11 players set to become unrestricted free agents this offseason, according to Evan Woodbery of NOLA.com. Woodbery writes that none of the 11 will have huge markets for themselves, except maybe Mark Ingram if another NFL team is in desperate need of a starting running back.

NFC Notes: Bucs, Bucannon, Receivers

May 26th, 2014 at 12:31pm CST by Rob DiRe

Mike Glennon is the Buccaneers‘ quarterback of the future, despite the arrival of Josh McCown via free agency. After McCown was announced as the starter, trade rumors began to circulate concerning Glennon, but head coach Lovie Smith and general manager Jason Licht have come to the decision to support the quarterback they inherited, writes Roy Cummings of the Tampa Tribune. They believe Glennon possesses the most important traits needed for a successful quarterback.

“The three things — and Lovie and I were in complete agreement on this — are toughness, intelligence and accuracy,’’ said Licht. “And then arm strength is a distant fourth. Mike showed during this process that he has those three things and he scored very high on those three things.”

Here are some other notes from around the NFC:

  • Although the Buccaneers have had a thin roster the past few seasons, Smith says that one of the most important aspects of winning is depth at multiple positions, writes Cummings. Specifically, Smith spoke about the team’s depth at safety and how impressed he is with the players they have.
  • Cardinals‘ first-round pick Deone Bucannon hasn’t provoked many negative statements from the organization, but head coach Bruce Arians tried to come up with one, writes Darren Urban of AZCardinals.com. “(Deone has) only got one problem — He is so much a perfectionist,” said Arians. “It is paralysis by analysis right now because he wants to do everything just perfect.”
  • Lions‘ receiver Ryan Broyles is committed to returning from a ruptured achilles tendon that sidelined him in 2013, writes of Kyle Meinke of MLive.com. “I’m looking forward to the competition. It’s never scared me away,” said Broyles. “But at the end of the day, we’re here to win. They’re going to put guys in place to help us win.”
  • Saints‘ receiver Kenny Stills is looking to get better in his second season with the team, writes Mike Triplett of ESPN.com. Stills could have an increased role in the offense after finishing 2013 strong, but has new competition as the team traded up to draft Oregon State receiver Brandin Cooks.

Pompei On Bradley, Licht, Babin

January 25th, 2014 at 9:34am CST by Matt Feminis

A dearth of elite talent in Mobile has created a potpourri of non-traditional headlines. In his latest missive, Bleacher Report’s Dan Pompei explains that Jaguars head coach Gus Bradley has been the “star of the Senior Bowl.” Contained in the NFL Confidential section are the following notes:

  • Despite Buccaneers head coach Lovie Smith having final say on personnel matters, ownership made the final call on the hiring of GM Jason Licht. It is believed the Dolphins were also sold on Licht.
  • Jason Babin is expected to be cut by the Jaguars. At 33, Babin might be relegated to a situational pass-rushing role for his next team.
  • One GM calls the 2014 Senior Bowl rosters the worst he’s ever seen, explaining that many of the players expected to be drafted highly are underclassmen. Additionally, several of the most highly regarded seniors opted not to attend the All-Star game. The GM refers to the exhibition as a “second-round game,” saying 15-18 players could come off the board on the draft’s second day.