HEADLINES

Matt Pryor

OL Notes: Thuney, Packers, Cowboys, Bears

January 17th, 2025 at 7:02pm CST by Sam Robinson

Joe Thuney landed on the All-Pro first team at his natural left guard position, but as the Chiefs have struggled to find a left tackle solution this season, they had kicked their standout LG to that post. Although in-season free agency addition D.J. Humphries is healthy, ESPN.com’s Jeremy Fowler notes Kansas City will leave Thuney at LT. This arrangement has featured Mike Caliendo at left guard. Humphries, who rehabbed an ACL tear for most of 2024 as a free agent, suffered a hamstring injury during his Chiefs debut. Thuney has fared much better than Wanya Morris or second-round rookie Kingsley Suamataia, the latter having won the job out of training camp. While the two-time reigning champions will have work to do at this spot soon, it appears their threepeat push will feature Thuney at LT the rest of the way.

Here is the latest from the O-line ranks:

  • The Packers have both their primary tackle starters (Rasheed Walker, Zach Tom) under contract for 2025, and Elgton Jenkins is tied to a lucrative extension. With Jordan Morgan‘s rookie deal going through 2027, Green Bay only has one key UFA-to-be on its offensive front. Four-year center starter Josh Myers is out of contract, but GM Brian Gutekunst labeled (via the Green Bay Press-Gazette’s Ryan Wood) the blocker as having “his best year.” Perhaps more importantly, Gutekunst praised how Myers and Jordan Love work as a combo on offense. Although Ryan Kelly is the biggest name among available centers, Myers’ age (26) and experience (56 starts) will help him become one of the top interior O-linemen on the market. The Packers last faced a decision on a center in 2021, when they let Corey Linsley walk before drafting Myers. It will be interesting to see how they address the situation with Myers.
  • Also in Green Bay, Gutekunst noted that there could be some shuffling in the offensive line starters’ positions. Notably, he mentioned that Tom, who has started every game at right tackle for the past two years, could potentially shift over to the blind side, per Tom Silverstein of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Back in 2022, Tom’s rookie season, the Wake Forest alum started games at both left tackle and left guard, and Gutekunst believes Tom could play any of the five positions, though he lauds that the 25-year-old has established himself at tackle and could end up starting on the left side.
  • In the recent past Jerry Jones and the Cowboys have been extremely fortunate when forced to start rookie offensive linemen. Players like Tyler Smith, Tyler Biadasz, Connor Williams, and Zack Martin have all been players who immediately (or almost immediately) stepped in to great success on the offensive line in Dallas. This year, Jones hoped he’d be able to count to two rookies drafted in the first three rounds once again, starting first-round Oklahoma tackle Tyler Guyton and third-round Kansas State center Cooper Beebe for a combined 27 games. Guyton was drafted to replace departed veteran Tyron Smith, but the rookie was in a bit over his head this season. Out of 81 players graded at the position by Pro Football Focus (subscription required), Guyton graded out as the 73rd-best tackle, getting benched near the end of the season. Beebe faired a bit better in 16 starts but only ranked as the 16th-best center in the league, per PFF. According to Jon Machota of The Athletic, Jones admitted on a radio interview with 105.3 The FAN that he “probably got a little out over (his) skis thinking, ‘just plug those guys in.'”
  • Offensive guard Matt Pryor has bounced around quite a bit over his first six years in the NFL, getting traded halfway through his rookie deal from Philadelphia to Indianapolis before spending a year each in San Francisco and Chicago. In his sixth NFL season, Pryor, who had only filled in as a starter over his first five years, found himself starting 15 games this season for the Bears. According to Adam Jahns of The Athletic, Pryor wouldn’t mind putting down some roots, saying “he’d like to return” after the one-year deal he played on this season. He graded out decently (21st of 77) per PFF, so he could fetch some money on the free agent market, but it sounds like he’s interested in staying in Chicago.

Ely Allen contributed to this post.

Minor NFL Transactions: 3/13/24

March 13th, 2024 at 9:18pm CST by Ben Levine

Today’s minor moves:

Chicago Bears

Cleveland Browns

Houston Texans

Jacksonville Jaguars

Miami Dolphins

New Orleans Saints

San Francisco 49ers

Seattle Seahawks

Tennessee Titans

Washington Commanders

Minor NFL Transactions: 12/27/23

December 27th, 2023 at 8:03pm CST by Ely Allen

Wednesday’s minor NFL transactions:

Arizona Cardinals

Carolina Panthers

Las Vegas Raiders

Minnesota Vikings

San Francisco 49ers

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Washington Commanders

Minor NFL Transactions: 12/25/23

December 25th, 2023 at 3:06pm CST by Adam La Rose

Today’s minor moves:

Baltimore Ravens

Cincinnati Bengals

Los Angeles Chargers

San Francisco 49ers

The Ravens designated Hamm for return on Dec. 4, making Christmas Day the linebacker’s activation deadline. Rather than activating Hamm to their active roster, the Ravens let his 21-day practice window close. A rookie UDFA out of Division I-FCS Lafayette, Hamm will end up missing his entire rookie season. The Ravens carried Hamm over to their 53-man roster after training camp, placing him on IR a day later.

49ers Planning To Use Jon Feliciano At G

May 17th, 2023 at 10:49am CST by Sam Robinson

The 49ers fielded an inexperienced interior offensive line group last season, but the group stayed healthy and helped on another journey to the NFC championship game. As of now, that Aaron Banks–Jake Brendel–Spencer Burford trio is on track to reprise their roles.

But the 49ers also carried Daniel Brunskill as an insurance policy last year. The former starter mixed in frequently at guard. Brunskill signed a two-year, $5.5MM deal with the Titans in March; he has a clearer path toward a starting job in Nashville, where ex-49ers exec Ran Carthon now runs the show. The 49ers replaced Brunskill with Jon Feliciano, the Giants’ starting center throughout last season.

[RELATED: Colton McKivitz Favored To Become 49ers’ RT Starter]

During an offseason in which a few starting centers re-signed with their respective teams, San Francisco retained Brendel on a four-year, $16.5MM contract. Feliciano joined the team on a one-year, $2.25MM pact. That does not point to starter money, but the Giants used Feliciano as a first-stringer for $3.25MM last year. And the 49ers are not viewing the veteran as a depth-only cog. Feliciano will compete with Burford for the team’s starting right guard gig, David Lombardi of The Athletic notes (subscription required).

The 49ers listed Brunskill as a backup but used their former right guard starter on 519 offensive plays; he primarily platooned with Burford. The 2022 fourth-round pick played 745 snaps. Brunskill’s exit opens the door for Feliciano, a former Raiders backup who became a starter upon joining the Bills in 2019. Feliciano started 16 games at guard for the Bills that year, and while injuries hounded him in 2020 and ’21, ex-Bills staffers Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll made a successful bet on him. Feliciano started 15 games for the Giants last season.

Pro Football Focus graded Feliciano 31st overall among centers in 2022, and the Giants are handing the reins to second-round pick John Michael Schmitz. But the 31-year-old blocker appears a key part of the 49ers’ plans up front.

“Jon is a guy who has started a lot of games here in the last few years,” GM John Lynch said. “I think he gives us tremendous versatility at guard and center. Around the league, it’s kind of known he’s one of those glue guys, one of those guys you want in your room. He became a priority for us in free agency. I felt very fortunate that we were able to come out of free agency with Jon a part of our team, especially once we lost Danny.”

Banks, Brendel and Burford combined to miss just two games last season. Odds are against that collective health repeating. Should Feliciano (54 career starts) lose the RG job to Burford, he will be positioned as an experienced interior swingman. For the other swing spot, Lombardi adds UFA addition Matt Pryor — the Colts’ Week 1 left tackle starter last season — will vie for the OT3 role with third-year blocker Jaylon Moore. Moore started two games last season. Although the Colts demoted Pryor during a disastrous year for their O-line, he has 24 career starts — at both tackle and guard — on his resume.

49ers Sign OL Matt Pryor

March 27th, 2023 at 1:36pm CST by Adam La Rose

San Francisco has brought in a veteran depth option along their offensive line. Per a team announcement, the 49ers have signed Matt Pryor.

The 28-year-old first saw starting action in his second season with the Eagles, playing primarily at guard. He was then traded to the Colts in the subsequent offseason, giving Indianapolis depth both on the interior and at the tackle spot. Pryor responded with a career-year in 2021.

Working mostly at right tackle, the former sixth-rounder delivered a strong performance both in terms of run blocking and pass protection. That resulted in an overall PFF grade of 76.5, by far the highest mark of his career. It also earned him a one-year, $5.5MM deal to remain with the Colts for 2022, a season in which expectations were high for the offensive front.

Nothing went according to plan for the unit, however, and Indianapolis struggled throughout the season to find consistency up front. Pryor contributed to those issues, seeing time at both tackle spots as well as right guard over the course of the year. His PFF ratings plummeted to career-lows, which makes it little surprise the Colts have elected not to bring him back on another new deal. Instead, Pryor will now head to the Bay Area in the hopes of competing for playing time.

If he is used at right tackle, the 6-7, 332-pounder could be in line for at least a backup role. The 49ers, as expected, saw Mike McGlinchey depart in free agency, leaving a vacant starting spot as the bookend to Trent Williams. Guarding against the possibility, San Francisco re-upped Colton McKivitz, giving them a familiar option to take McGlinchey’s place. Pryor could be penciled in as an experienced swing tackle option, though his usage on the interior could also see him spend time at guard if necessary.

Latest On Colts’ Offensive Line Changes

October 14th, 2022 at 4:55pm CST by Sam Robinson

For years, the Colts deployed one of the NFL’s best offensive lines. The holdovers from those years have since been rewarded with top-market extensions. This season’s Eric Fisher and Mark Glowinski replacement options have helped lead to a regression, inviting questions about the highly paid unit.

Early-season starters Matt Pryor and Danny Pinter have been either relocated or benched. The Pryor-at-left tackle experiment is over, and although the Colts did not see great returns from the Bernhard Raimann-vs.-Bradley Chubb matchup in Week 5, they are turning to the third-round rookie full-time on the blindside.

“We just think he has the makeup; he has the physical talent,” Frank Reich said, via the Indianapolis Star’s Joel Erickson. “We understand — like a lot of our young players — it’s a process. You look at Alec [Pierce], you look at Jelani [Woods], they get better fast, the more they play. … So we’re just going to put him in there, and we’re going to play.

“We feel like he’s got a lot of upside. Right now, I’d be willing to tell you we think that’s going to be our left tackle.”

Raimann seizing the blindside reins would be a welcome sight for the Colts, who have seen this position go through some turbulence since Anthony Castonzo‘s retirement. The team signed Fisher last year, but after his Achilles tear in the 2020 AFC championship game, the longtime Chiefs starter was unavailable to start last season. The Colts used Julie’n Davenport at the marquee O-line spot to start last season and did receive 15 Fisher starts once he was healthy. But the Colts did not re-sign Fisher, who remains a free agent. They tried Pryor at left tackle to start the season, working in Raimann off the bench. Now, it will be Raimann playing throughout.

A 25-year-old prospect out of Central Michigan, Raimann committed four holding penalties in the Colts’ overtime win last week. He has not been charged with any sacks allowed yet; Pryor has given up five, leading to questions about his starter status going forward. A 2020 fifth-round pick, Pinter did not start in Week 5 but replaced an injured Ryan Kelly. Indy’s Pro Bowl was back at practice this week.

It remains to be seen how the Colts will play it on the right side. Citing run-blocking aid, the Colts shifted longtime right tackle Braden Smith to right guard during the Denver outing. Smith has been Indianapolis’ right tackle since October 2018, shortly after the team drafted him in Round 2, and signed a four-year, $70MM deal to man that spot. That contract sits fourth among right tackles, in terms of AAV. If the Colts are planning a longer-term Smith guard foray, their guard commitments — headed by Quenton Nelson‘s position-record $20MM-per-year pact — reside on their own cost tier.

The Colts shifted Pryor to right tackle in Week 5, but the move did not work out. A veteran backup who re-signed with the Colts (one year, $5.5MM) this offseason, Pryor rates as Pro Football Focus’ sixth-worst-graded tackle. This performance has contributed to Matt Ryan‘s 11 fumbles — the most through five games since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger — and 21 sacks taken.

Indianapolis has Dennis Kelly as another right tackle option. Kelly, 32, has 51 career starts — mostly at right tackle. He started 16 games for the 2020 Titans at that position. The 11th-year blocker missed time this summer due to knee surgery and has not played an offensive snap this season. The Colts viewed Kelly as a swingman upon signing him for no guaranteed money. Kelly, understandably, said (via Erickson) he wants a chance to start again.

“As he was coming off of his injury in training camp, you can see him getting more and more physically comfortable, comfortable in the system,” Reich said. “Love that he’s here, and we’ll continue to evaluate.”

South Notes: Saints, Darnold, Colts

September 14th, 2022 at 1:53pm CST by Sam Robinson

Links between Patrick Mahomes and other teams have emerged in the past. The Cardinals were preparing to draft the eventual Chiefs megastar five years ago. Sean Payton also confirmed the rumored story of his old team’s plans with the then-Texas Tech prospect. During his latest FOX appearance (h/t NFL.com’s Peter Schrager), the former Saints coach said he was prepared to draft Mahomes at No. 11 in 2017. While Payton confirmed he discussed the selection with Drew Brees and informed the future Hall of Famer a Mahomes pick would not impact his starter status, the Saints also viewed Marshon Lattimore as a top-four player in the 2017 class.

Payton said in 2020 the team did not have a clear choice between Lattimore and Mahomes, though then-Kansas City GM John Dorsey made New Orleans’ decision easier with the trade-up for the quarterback. Payton said this week Mahomes was “the best quarterback I’d ever seen on college tape.” The Saints had worked out Mahomes in Lubbock that year. Hindsight would suggest the Saints needed to be ready to climb into the top 10 for such a talent, but Mahomes was not viewed as a surefire top-10 pick that year. GM Mickey Loomis also said Lattimore falling impacted the team’s decision not to trade up for Mahomes. Both Mahomes and Lattimore are now signed to long-term contracts, though the former’s prime should be expected to last longer.

Here is the latest from the NFC South:

  • The NFL’s longest-tenured general manager, excluding those with owner-GM or coach-GM roles, Loomis has seen fellow Saints cornerstones Payton and Brees depart in the past two offseasons. But the 21st-year Saints front office boss is not planning to join them in leaving anytime soon, via Jeff Duncan of NOLA.com. When the acclaimed salary cap guru does walk away, Jeff Ireland looms as a logical successor. The former Dolphins GM is well-regarded by Loomis and others in the organization, Duncan adds. Ireland, 52, was the Dolphins’ GM from 2008-13. Currently the Saints’ assistant GM, Ireland has been with the team since 2015. The Bears interviewed Ireland for their GM post this offseason, while the Lions and Panthers met with him in 2021. It will be interesting to see if Ireland sticks around to potentially succeed Loomis or land a GM gig elsewhere before the New Orleans GM exits.
  • After a strained 2021 between Michael Thomas and the Saints, first-year HC Dennis Allen made connecting with the wide receiver one of his first acts upon being promoted. Allen flew to Los Angeles to have dinner with Thomas early this offseason, Mike Triplett of ESPN.com notes. Despite Thomas’ injury-plagued 2020s and the Saints’ frustration with their top wideout regarding his 2021 surgery timetable — a process that led to the All-Pro missing a full season — the team vowed not to trade him early this offseason. Thomas, 29, has returned healthy and caught two touchdown passes in the Saints’ Week 1 comeback win over the Falcons.
  • Potentially the Colts‘ left tackle of the future, Bernhard Raimann backed up Matt Pryor in Week 1. But the Colts used the third-round rookie in a rotation with Pryor. After Raimann played 12 of the five-period game’s 90 left tackle snaps, Frank Reich said (via the Indianapolis Star’s Joel Erickson) he plans to continue rotating his backup in going forward. Left tackle represented the only position at which the Colts deployed a rotation, beginning a path to Raimann seizing this job full-time. The Colts re-signed Pryor on a one-year, $5.55MM deal this offseason, and Erickson offers the 2021 Colts swingman — who has never been a full-time left tackle — could be an option at right guard, should Raimann take over the blindside.
  • Sam Darnold is making progress toward a return. The Panthers backup has shed his walking boot, per The Athletic’s Joe Person (on Twitter). On IR due to a high ankle sprain, Darnold will miss at least the season’s first four weeks.

AFC Rumors: Gilmore, Pryor, Petit-Frere, Wilson, Jaguars

September 3rd, 2022 at 5:59pm CST by Ely Allen

Cornerback Stephon Gilmore is playing with his fourth team after a short stint in Carolina. He started in Buffalo before signing with the Patriots. New England traded the two-time All-Pro midseason for only a sixth-round draft pick in return. Gilmore was injured at the time, but the compensation the Patriots received never made a ton of sense. Recently, though, Gilmore elaborated on the situation that deteriorated in New England, according to Stephen Holder of ESPN.

At the peak of his career, Gilmore suffered a torn quadriceps in the 2020 season. The injury kept him on the Patriots’ reserve/physically unable to perform list to start the 2021 season and, during that time, the relationship between Gilmore and New England “reached a point of no return.”

“I just didn’t like how they handled my situation, my injury,” Gilmore told reporters. “The situation just, I don’t know, wasn’t right for both sides.”

Here are a few more rumors from around the AFC, starting with a couple position battle victories in the AFC South:

  • In a bit of a surprise decision, it appears that veteran offensive tackle Matt Pryor has won the left tackle job in Indianapolis over rookie third-round pick Bernhard Raimann, according to Joel A. Erickson of the Indianapolis Star. Pryor has only ever started one game at left tackle in the NFL and many expected the rookie out of Central Michigan to give him a strong run for the job. Erickson goes on to say that, should Pryor not perform up to expectations, there’s a strong chance that the starting job could slip out of his grasp.
  • A third-round rookie who did win the starting job is just across the division in Tennessee. Titans general manager Jon Robinson made it known last weekend that Ohio State rookie Nicholas Petit-Frere will start at right tackle to open the season, according to Kayla Anderson of WKRN News 2. Last year’s rookie offensive lineman Dillon Radunz failed to earn much of a role last season but, reportedly, did everything right this offseason. Still, Petit-Frere has effectively won the starting job and Radunz will continue to come off the bench in Year 2.
  • New Broncos quarterback Russell Wilson received an impressive contract extension this week reported as a five-year, $245MM deal. The new money on the contract extension was originally reported to be $49MM per year. Those original reports failed to take the league’s new 17th-week into account when calculating the new money, according to Mike Florio of NBC Sports. Wilson was entitled to two more years under his previous contract and the original new money reports included the Week 17 paychecks that really should’ve been included with the original contract. So, while still an extremely impressive payday for Wilson, his average new money is more like $48.52MM per year than $49MM.
  • The Jaguars are losing a member of their front office, according to Seth Walder of ESPN. Director of strategic research & development Momin Ghaffar is leaving the team for a job outside of football. In fact, the job is “outside of sports.” This isn’t a terrible surprise as the position was one of Jacksonville’s many roles that fuse business analytics with football analytics.

Colts’ Bernhard Raimann Could Become Week 1 LT Starter

July 17th, 2022 at 11:00am CST by Rory Parks

New Colts quarterback Matt Ryan will operate behind a number of top-tier blockers in 2022, including All-World performer Quenton Nelson at left guard, three-time Pro Bowler Ryan Kelly at the pivot, and Braden Smith — who signed a four-year, $70MM extension one year ago — at right tackle. The left tackle and right guard spots, however, remain up for grabs.

Of course, the LT job is the most important one on the line, and Matt Pryor is currently penciled in as the Week 1 starter on Ryan’s blindside. The problem is that Pryor, a 2018 sixth-round pick of the Eagles, has just one start at left tackle in his career, which came in the penultimate game of the 2021 season as an injury replacement for Eric Fisher. Indianapolis acquired Pryor in a minor trade in advance of final cutdowns last August, which is indicative of his generally underwhelming performance during his two-year stint in Philadelphia.

On the other hand, Pryor demonstrated marked improvement in an admittedly small sample size with the Colts last year. In 438 offensive snaps, the TCU product did not allow a sack and earned a strong 76.5 overall grade from Pro Football Focus. PFF ranked him as the 25th-best tackle in the game — he also saw time at right tackle as a fill-in for Smith — and gave him high marks for both his pass-blocking and run-blocking acumen. The Colts were sufficiently impressed to re-sign Pyror to a one-year, $5.5MM contract this offseason, while Fisher remains a free agent.

Indianapolis did, however, select Central Michigan’s Bernhard Raimann, a First-Team All-MAC left tackle last year, in the third round of April’s draft. Per Mike Chappell of Fox59.com, Pryor will open training camp with the first-stringers, but Raimann, who is viewed as the long-term solution at LT, will be given “every opportunity” to win the job.

It’s not difficult to see why the Colts are so optimistic about Raimann. Even though he began his collegiate career as a tight end and just converted to tackle in 2020, Lance Zierlien of NFL.com says the Austrian native is much more developed as a technician than one might expect. That technique combined with a tight end’s athleticism make Raimann an intriguing prospect, and while he still has plenty of work to do to reach his ceiling, it sounds as if he has a good chance to step right into a starting role as a rookie.

If that happens, then Pryor — who saw time at guard with Indy last year and whose work with the Eagles came on the interior of the line — could compete with 2020 fifth-rounder Danny Pinter for the RG gig.

“We’ll get the best five [O-linemen] on the field,” GM Chris Ballard said. “Whatever the coaches think are the best five, we’ll get them on the field.”

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