Reggie Wayne - Pro Football Rumors

Reggie Wayne Wants To Retire As A Colt

December 5th, 2014 at 6:10pm CST by Dallas Robinson

The Colts, who sit atop the AFC South with an 8-4 record, can clinch their third playoff appearance in as many years with a win against the Browns on Sunday (the Texans must also lose to the Jaguars). Regardless of whether Indianapolis clinches this week, the club has a 96.3% of earning a postseason berth (per Football Outsiders), meaning that Reggie Wayne, the longest-tenured Colt, will likely be making the playoffs for the 12th time in his career. Given that level of success, it’s unsurprising that the veteran receiver wants to finish his career as a Colt. “Absolutely. Nobody else,” Wayne told Mike Chappell of RTV6 (via Twitter) when asked if he would only play for Indianapolis. “Put a stamp on it. Stamp it: Colt for life.”

As Chappell writes in a full article, it’s not a given that Wayne will play in 2015 — retirement certainly seems to be on the table for the 36-year-old. “It’s tough, it really is,” said Wayne, citing family commitments as a reason why he could leave the NFL. “You have to decide if you want to make that sacrifice again. A lot goes into it.” For his career, Wayne, a first-round pick in 2001, has caught 1,060 passes for 14,202 yards and 82 touchdowns. He is currently eighth all-time in receiving yards — a decent 2015 could allow him to move to fourth or fifth on that list, while sticking around for two more seasons could lead to him pass Terrell Owens for second all-time, behind only Jerry Rice.

This season, Wayne’s production has slowed, though that’s to be expected from a veteran receiver. He’s caught 54 balls for 636 yards, and scored twice, while grading as just the 69th-best pass-catcher in the league among 111 qualifiers, per Pro Football Focus (subscription required). While he’s clearly ceded the Colts’ No. 1 receiver role to T.Y. Hilton, Wayne actually outpaces Hilton in terms of percentage of offensive snaps played (77.2%-76.9%).

Wayne is playing under the final year of his contract, earning a base salary of $4MM and counting $6.167MM against Indy’s cap. Though he’s dealt with injuries in recent campaigns — he missed half of 2013 after tearing his ACL, and has dealt with an elbow ailment this season — I’d guess that the Colts would be happy to retain him in 2015, even if the team believes he’s lost a few steps. It’s difficult to measure the importance of soft factors, but with young pass-catchers like Hilton, Donte Moncrief, Dwayne Allen, and Coby Fleener on its roster, the club would surely reap the benefits of employing a veteran such as Wayne.

AFC Notes: Hoyer, Oher, Broncos

November 16th, 2014 at 11:04am CST by Rory Parks

Much has been made of Brian Hoyer‘s future as the impending free agent continues to inch the Browns closer to an improbable playoff berth, and ESPN’s Adam Schefter writes that, if Hoyer does leave Cleveland after 2014–which would “shock” at least one prominent talking head–the Texans would be a likely destination. As Schefter writes, “Hoyer trusts [Texans head coach Bill] O’Brien as much as any coach in the league from their time together in New England, per sources, and would welcome a reunion.” Titans head coach Ken Whisenhunt, who was the Cardinals‘ head coach during Hoyer’s one season in Arizona, would also have interest in bringing Hoyer to Tennessee. Schefter writes that a long-term deal between Hoyer and Cleveland will “get done only as soon as the Browns truly are ready to make Hoyer, not Johnny Manziel, their long-term quarterback.”

Now for some more links from the AFC (an NFC Notes post from this busy Sunday can be found here):

The Titans are going to have to admit they made a mistake in handing a lucrative free agent deal to Michael Oher and find a new right tackle, writes Paul Kuharsky of ESPN.com. Kuharsky adds that Tennessee can get out of the Oher deal “clean” after one year and $6MM, but Michael Roos will not be Oher’s replacement and the team is not going to move Taylor Lewan from left tackle.
Mike Klis of the Denver Post describes the issues the Broncos are having with locking up their top impending free agents with in-season extensions.
Mark Kiszla of the Denver Post makes the case for the Broncos to sign free agent guard Richie Incognito.
Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports explains why Broncos star wideout Demaryius Thomas is likely to get the franchise tag.
In the first news to come out of this saga since July, two trucking companies have formally accused Browns owner Jimmy Haslam of directing a fuel rebate conspiracy, writes Tom Feran of the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Stephen Holder of the Indianapolis Star tweets that, if Reggie Wayne wants to continue playing after 2014, he will only play for the Colts. We learned earlier today that the Colts are preparing for life without their longtime stalwart.
Leo Roth of the Democrat & Chronicle writes that the Bills should return to E.J. Manuel as their starting quarterback.

South Notes: Bucs, Jackson, Titans, Wayne

October 20th, 2014 at 8:47pm CST by Zachary Links

Even at 1-5, the Buccaneers are still right in the thick of it, as Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times writes. The Panthers (3-3), Saints (2-4), and the Falcons (2-5) all lost on Sunday, meaning that Tampa Bay is just two wins out of first place in the NFC South. “I watched all the games this week,” coach Lovie Smith said. “I know what happened in our division. I realize how many games we’re out of first place. We’re in it as much as anyone with our record. That’s what we’re focused on. There’s life when you take a little time off to not play a game and you end up in better position than when we started Sunday … we’re excited about that.” More from the South divisions..

When asked about reports that teams are interested in trading for Buccaneers wide receiver Vincent Jackson, Smith insisted that Tampa Bay doesn’t have him on the block. “We’re not trying to shop any of our players,” Smith said, according to Rick Stroud of WDAE (on Twitter).
The Titans‘ 2014 free agent acquisitions haven’t been contributing all that much, writes Paul Kuharsky of ESPN.com. In their most recent outing against the Redskins, outside linebacker Shaun Phillips played just 44% of the defensive snaps while supposed X factor Dexter McCluster saw just six snaps on offense.
Reggie Wayne‘s elbow injury probably won’t force the Colts to go shopping for a wide receiver. Mike Chappell of the Indy Star (on Twitter) hears that Wayne’s injury isn’t too serious and he should only miss a game or two. He’ll have extra time to heal up as well with the club’s Week 10 bye still ahead.

AFC Links: Bills, Jets, Colts, Jaguars

May 26th, 2014 at 7:35pm CST by Ben Levine

Earlier, we took a look at what ESPN’s NFC writers had to say on this Memorial Day. Now, let’s focus on ESPN’s AFC writers…

While he could envision the Bills adding a veteran defensive end to play alongside Mario Williams, ESPN.com’s Mike Rodak is very intrigued by former first-rounders Jerry Hughes and Manny Lawson.
The Jets will likely only keep four of their six runnings backs, writes ESPNNewYork.com’s Rich Cimini. Even then, the writer believes that the backfield, which includes Chris Johnson, Chris Ivory, Bilal Powell, Daryl Richardson, Alex Green and Mike Goodson, will still have “a lot of mouths to feed.”
Colts wide receiver Reggie Wayne is making good progress in his recovery from a torn ACL, says ESPN.com’s Mike Wells. Still, the wideout will likely miss the team’s mandatory minicamp in June.
The Jaguars have four receivers that are locks to make the roster, according to Michael DiRocco of ESPN.com: Cecil Shorts, Ace Sanders, Marqise Lee and Allen Robinson. That leaves Mike Brown, Kerry Taylor, Tandon Doss, Lamaar Thomas, Chad Bumphis, Damian Copeland and Allen Hurns to compete over the final two spots.