Jeremy Bates - Pro Football Rumors

East Rumors: Giants, Fins, Jets, Cowboys

September 23rd, 2017 at 8:39pm CST by Sam Robinson

Justin Pugh‘s contract year could well include a lengthy stay at right tackle. The Giants‘ starting left guard slid to his original position on Monday night and will do the same Sunday against the Eagles. Big Blue plans to start Brett Jones at left guard and does not plan on ditching Ereck Flowers at left tackle, Jordan Raanan of ESPN.com notes. Pugh’s versatility will allow the Giants, per Ben McAdoo, to keep the “best five” on the field rather than the team having to use a swing tackle. Usual right tackle Bobby Hart will miss Week 3, and D.J. Fluker — a four-year Chargers starter — is apparently the Giants’ seventh offensive lineman. He’ll profile as the backup guard behind Jones and John Jerry, Raanan writes.

Here’s more from the Eastern divisions in advance of Week 3’s Sunday slate.

Lawrence Timmons‘ pre-Week 2 disappearance will be costly. The Dolphins linebacker signed a two-year, $12MM deal but will lose money because of the suspension his new team handed down this week. In addition to voiding the $4.5MM in guaranteed money attached to his 2018 salary, Timmons stands to lose as much as $235K in base salary this season — since he can only be suspended for four weeks under the CBA — and could be set to forfeit signing bonus money, Ben Volin of the Boston Globe reports. Volin adds the linebacker could be forced to refund 4/17ths of this year’s portion of his $5.5MM signing bonus. This team-imposed ban could cost Timmons $882K this season before giving Miami greater leverage over him in 2018 because of voided guarantees.
Jay Cutler reached out to Matt Forte about a possible Jets path, but his longtime Bears teammate couldn’t provide many details about an offensive system about to change, Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News reports. Although the Jets and Cutler had multiple visits scheduled, neither came to fruition and the interest wasn’t heavy on either side. Cutler also talked with former Broncos and Bears quarterbacks coach Jeremy Bates, Gang Green’s current QBs instructor, throughout his first free agency process, per Mehta. But with Bates not calling plays in New York, that connection didn’t have the kind of appeal that would have induced Cutler to sign with the rebuilding team. Instead, Cutler’s second wave of free agency became a Dolphins-centric odyssey.
Austin Seferian-Jenkins weighed over 300 pounds in the recent past, according to Calvin Watkins of Newsday. The Jets tight end dropped a staggering 60 pounds, per Watkins, and is down to 262 as he comes off his two-game suspension for substance abuse. A May report indicated Seferian-Jenkins was down 25 pounds. A year ago Saturday, Seferian-Jenkins was arrested on suspicion of DUI. The Buccaneers cut him, routing the formerly coveted prospect to the Jets. As of this week, ASJ is approaching 250 days sober, Watkins reports.
The Cowboys struggled to stay with Demaryius Thomas and Emmanuel Sanders in a Week 2 loss in Denver, and the team will take a shorthanded cornerback group to Arizona as well. Both Nolan Carroll and Chidobe Awuzie are out for the Cowboys’ Monday-night tilt against the Cardinals, Jon Machota of the Dallas Morning News tweets. A hamstring injury will shelve Awuzie, and Carroll’s in concussion protocol.

QB Jay Cutler A “Possibility” For Jets

February 8th, 2017 at 3:29pm CST by Dallas Robinson

The Jets have hired Jeremy Bates as their new quarterbacks coach, the club announced today. While Bates’ addition seems fairly innocuous, the fact that he previously served as QBs coach in Denver with Jay Cutler, who is expected to become a free agent soon, has already provided a possible link between Cutler and Gang Green. Indeed, Cutler is considered a “possibility” for New York, according to Jason La Canfora of CBSSports.com (Twitter link), who notes that any union would be dependent on an appropriate price tag.

Cutler is expected to be released by the Bears in the coming weeks, and he could make for an interesting bounceback candidate under Bates and new New York offensive coordinator John Morton. With Bates’ assistance, Cutler posted perhaps the best season of his career in 2008, passing for more than 4,500 yards and 25 touchdowns while managing a Total Quarterback Rating of 67.09. Those numbers are a far cry from Cutler’s disastrous 2016 campaign, when mounting injuries limited him to five starts.

The 33-year-old Cutler is just the latest quarterback to be linked to the Jets this offseason, as the club has also been tied to draft prospects Deshaun Watson and Mitch Trubisky and pending free agent Mike Glennon. New York has two signal-callers already on its roster, but the team’s front office reportedly has doubts that either Bryce Petty or Christian Hackenberg will develop into more than a backup-caliber passer.

In addition to Bates, the Jets announced the hiring of three other coaches: offensive assistant/assistant quarterbacks coach Mick Lombardi, offensive assistant Jason Vrable, and assistant strength coach Joe Giacobbe.

Extra Points: Jets, Falcons, Romo, Bills

February 6th, 2017 at 9:14pm CST by Connor J. Byrne

Former Seahawks offensive coordinator Jeremy Bates has emerged as a strong candidate to become the Jets’ quarterbacks coach, according to Albert Breer of TheMMQB.com (Twitter link). The 40-year-old Bates hasn’t coached anywhere since 2012, when he oversaw the Bears’ QBs, but he did work on the same staff as then-USC offensive coordinator and now-Jets OC John Morton in 2009. If Bates ends up in New York, he’ll join a team whose starting signal-caller for 2017 probably isn’t on its roster yet.

A few more notes from around the NFL:

Falcons right tackle Ryan Schraeder tore a ligament in his right ankle Sunday during the team’s Super Bowl LI loss to the Patriots, a source told Vaughn McClure of ESPN.com. Schraeder suffered the injury in the second quarter and eventually departed in the fourth, when the Falcons were amid an all-time meltdown. Fortunately, this ailment seems unlikely to affect Schraeder going into next season – it’ll take “probably a good month” for the stalwart to feel normal again, per the source.
Should a team trade for Cowboys backup quarterback Tony Romo this offseason, that club would have to take on his $14MM base salary for 2017 before reworking his contract, tweets CBS Sports’ Joel Corry. The Cowboys would likely permit the acquiring team to have contract-related discussions with Romo’s camp before the trade, Corry adds.
The Bills will hire Gill Byrd to coach their defensive backs, report Vic Carucci and Alex Marvez of SiriusXM NFL Radio (Twitter link). The father of ex-Bills safety and current Saint Jairus Byrd, Gill Byrd served as the Buccaneers’ defensive backs coach from 2014-15. He worked under former Bucs D-coordinator Leslie Frazier, who’s now atop the Bills’ defense, in each of those two seasons.