Free agent offensive lineman Julian Vandervelde has generated interest from three NFL teams, a source tells PFR (Twitter link). The 28-year-old Vandervelde has spent the duration of his career with the Eagles, but he’s bounced on-and-off the active roster, appearing in just 17 games over five seasons. In 2015 alone, Vandervelde, who can play both guard and center, had three separate stints with Philadelphia. The former Iowa Hawkeye also had a workout with the Seahawks earlier this year.
Let’s take a look at a few more items from around the league:
- Former Seahawks quarterback Tarvaris Jackson has pleaded not guilty to aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, according to a report from TMZ Sports. Jackson was arrested last week for allegedly pointing a gun at his wife and threatening to kill her — he reportedly asked for a public defender because he didn’t have the funds to pay for a lawyer. Seattle has apparently moved on, as the club tried to claim Connor Shaw off waivers from the Browns and is still in the process of finding a No. 2 quarterback.
- Looking (far) ahead to the 2018 draft, UCLA quarterback Josh Rosen is expected to be one of the first players off the board, and NFL clubs are already looking into him, reports Albert Breer of NFL.com. While Bruins head coach Jim Mora Jr. is unsurprisingly a major supporter of Rosen (“His potential is unlimited”), some NFL scouts think that Rosen might need to exhibit more maturity over the next two years.
- Franchise-tagged players have until July 15 to agree to long-term deals with their respective clubs, leading Mark Maske of the Washington Post to placed odds on the likelihood that on Von Miller, Kirk Cousins, and Muhammad Wilkerson will ink new contracts in the next week or so. PFR’s Sam Robinson posed a similar question last night, asking PFR readers which of the franchisees would sign new pacts with their teams before next Thursday.
- As anyone who was watching Amazon’s All or Nothing witnessed, the Cardinals cut defensive end Lawrence Okoye last season after he parked in the wrong parking spot (link via Josh Weinfuss of ESPN.com). Of course, had Okoye been a more high-profile player, the parking issue likely would gone unpunished — instead, the incident was used by head coach Bruce Arians as a way to teach his players to become detail-oriented.