HEADLINES

Ryan Griffin (QB)

Buccaneers Unlikely To Sign Veteran QB

June 24th, 2018 at 11:18am CST by Rory Parks

The Jameis Winston saga will continue to dominate NFL headlines for the foreseeable future, but life goes on for the Buccaneers, who need to determine who will give them the best chance to win in Winston’s expected absence. The team is currently rostering veteran Ryan Fitzpatrick, career reserve Ryan Griffin, and 2018 UDFA Austin Allen.

That is not a particularly inspiring group, and though Fitzpatrick is expected to run the offense while Winston serves his suspension, it would make sense for the team to consider a veteran backup for the 35-year-old (36 in November) Harvard product. However, Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times does not believe the Bucs will go that route (Twitter link).

Of course, the free agent crop of signal-callers does not engender much confidence either, as it features the likes of Derek Anderson, Matt Moore, and Mark Sanchez. Plus, as Florida Football Insiders observes, the team seems to have plenty of faith in Griffin, who is entering his sixth year in the league but who has yet to attempt a regular season pass.

Griffin, a former UDFA out of Tulane, has spent the last three years with Tampa Bay and therefore is plenty familiar with head coach Dirk Koetter‘s system. The team intended to give him a thorough evaluation last summer, but he got hurt early in the preseason schedule and was not fully healthy until after the first month of the regular season.

Nonetheless, the Bucs carried Griffin through to their initial 53-man roster before placing him on IR, and the fact that they have kept him around for three seasons has to mean something. Indeed, the above Florida Football Insiders piece suggests that he could challenge Fitzpatrick as Winston’s placeholder in training camp.

Buccaneers Activate QB Ryan Griffin

November 7th, 2017 at 7:44pm CST by Micah Powell

Tampa Bay activated Ryan Griffin from the injured reserve list and released third-year cornerback Ayodeji Olatoye to make room for the quarterback on the 53-man roster, the team announced today. Ryan Griffin (vertical)

The move did not come as a surprise after it was announced starting quarterback Jameis Winston would be sidelined for at least two weeks due to a shoulder injury. Griffin, who was placed on IR after suffering his own shoulder injury in the team’s second preseason game vs. Jacksonville, returned to practice on October 18 and has been throwing for the scout team. He will serve as Ryan Fitzpatrick‘s backup until Winston returns to the field.

In 2013, Griffin was signed by the Saints after going undrafted coming out of Tulane. After spending two seasons on the team’s practice squad and a brief stint on the 53-man roster as a rookie, Griffin was released in 2015 and claimed by the Buccaneers. The fifth-year quarterback has yet to attempt a pass in a regular season game, and completed 4-of-9 passes in the 2017 preseason before being sidelined.

Bucs QB Ryan Griffin Returns To Practice

October 20th, 2017 at 8:31pm CST by Dallas Robinson

Buccaneers quarterback Ryan Griffin has returned to practice this week, according to Greg Auman of the Tampa Bay Times (Twitter link). Griffin is currently on injured reserve as a result of the sprained AC joint he suffered during the preseason.Ryan Griffin (vertical)

Tampa Bay carried Griffin through to its initial 53-man roster before placing him on IR, which means he’s allowed to return to the field following an eight-week absence. As such, Griffin can be activated as early as October 30, the day after the Buccaneers’ Week 8 contest against the Panthers. Tampa has a three-week window during which it can place Griffin on its active roster, meaning the deadline to so is November 8.

Griffin, 27, was tendered at the original level as a restricted free agent earlier this year but subsequently agreed to a one-year extension through 2018 that reduced his base salary for the 2017 campaign. Since entering the NFL as an undrafted free agent out of Tulane in 2013, Griffin has spent time with the Saints’ practice squad and Tampa Bay’s active roster, but has never appeared in a professional game.

If and when he’s activated, Griffin will serve as the Buccaneers’ third quarterback behind Jameis Winston and Ryan Fitzpatrick. Speaking of Winston, he’ll start for Tampa against the Bills on Sunday despite suffering a minor AC joint sprain in Week 7, as Auman writes in a full piece.

Minor NFL Transactions: 9/5/17

September 5th, 2017 at 5:13pm CST by Dallas Robinson

Today’s minor moves:

Atlanta Falcons

Chicago Bears

Detroit Lions

Houston Texans

Los Angeles Chargers

Los Angeles Rams

New England Patriots

New Orleans Saints

New York Giants

New York Jets

Oakland Raiders

Philadelphia Eagles

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Buccaneers To Extend QB Ryan Griffin

August 30th, 2017 at 8:23am CST by Dallas Robinson

The Buccaneers have agreed to a one-year extension with backup quarterback Ryan Griffin, locking him up through the 2018 campaign, according to Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times (Twitter link).Ryan Griffin (vertical)

Griffin, 27, was tendered at the original level as a restricted free agent earlier this year. As such, he’d been scheduled to earn $1.797MM for the 2017 season, but that figure could now be adjusted, tweets Stroud. Since entering the NFL as an undrafted free agent out of Tulane in 2013, Griffin has spent time with the Saints’ practice squad and Tampa Bay’s active roster, but has never thrown appeared in a professional game.

Griffin has been set to serve as the Buccaneers’ third quarterback behind Jameis Winston and Ryan Fitzpatrick, but it’s possible he could begin the season on injured reserve after suffering a shoulder injury in Tampa Bay’s preseason opener. The Buccaneers could potentially designate Griffin as an IR/return player, allowing him to return to the club midway through the season.

NFC Notes: Bucs, Norwell, Cowboys

August 13th, 2017 at 12:01pm CST by Rory Parks

Buccaneers nickel corner Jude Adjei-Barimah will have surgery to repair the patellar fracture in his right knee and will be placed on IR, as Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times tweets. When we first learned of the injury, we heard that it could sideline Adjei-Barimah for roughly four months, meaning he would miss most of the 2017 campaign. Stroud’s report suggests that the 25-year-old DB will in fact miss the entire season.

In other bad news for the Bucs, linebacker Devante Bond, who was expected to open the season as the starting strongside linebacker, has a sprained PCL in his right knee, per Jenna Laine of ESPN.com. Bond could still be ready for Week 1, but it may be four to six weeks before he plays again. Meanwhile, Laine adds that QB Ryan Griffin has a sprained AC joint in his throwing shoulder that will take a few weeks to heal. The team is not expected to sign another quarterback, which means that Ryan Fitzpatrick will likely win the backup job.

Now let’s take a look at a few more NFC rumors:

  • Scott Smith of Buccaneers.com tweets that the Buccaneers are expected to bring in another kicker in the wake of Roberto Aguayo‘s dismissal, but the new signing will be used for camp/preseason reps. That suggests that Nick Folk, and not a new acquisition, will be the team’s starting kicker.
  • Panthers guard Andrew Norwell is playing under a one-year RFA tender worth $2.75MM this year, but he hopes to get a long-term deal before the end of the season, as Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk writes. Norwell graded out as the league’s No. 11 guard in 2016, per Pro Football Focus, and has started 29 games over the past two seasons, firmly entrenching himself at left guard opposite Trai Turner. Turner, of course, recently received a lucrative extension from Carolina, and Norwell wants in on the action. He has even hired Turner’s agent, Drew Rosenhaus, to help him get paid.
  • Cowboys RB Ezekiel Elliot has until Wednesday to appeal his six-game suspension, and Adam Schefter of ESPN.com tweets that Elliott will likely file the necessary paperwork on Tuesday.
  • Cowboys tight end Rico Gathers was hugely impressive in Dallas’ preseason game against the Rams last night, posting four catches and a touchdown. That builds upon the solid showing he had in the team’s first preseason matchup last week, and it is clear that he is the most explosive tight end on the roster. Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets that Gathers has come a long way in a short time — the Cowboys selected Gathers, a collegiate basketball player, in the sixth round of the 2016 draft — and makes the fairly obvious point that Gathers has a legitimate shot to make the team.
  • The Redskins are very thin at outside linebacker following Trent Murphy‘s season-ending ACL tear, so they are moving ILB Pete Robertson outside to give themselves another pass-rusher, as Master Tesfatsion of the Washington Post writes. Robertson, a UDFA in 2016 who has yet to play a regular season snap, did lead the Big 12 with 13 sacks as an outside linebacker for Texas Tech in 2014.

Minor NFL Transactions: 4/17/17

April 17th, 2017 at 7:12pm CST by Connor J. Byrne

The latest minor moves…

  • Raiders defensive end Denico Autry has signed his RFA tender, reports ESPN’s Adam Caplan (Twitter link). The Raiders gave the 2014 undrafted free agent an original-round tender, leading to speculation that he could draw interest from elsewhere. Instead, Autry will return to the Raiders on the heels of back-to-back three-sack seasons. ERFAs Seth Roberts (WR) and Denver Kirkland (G) are also back in the fold, according to Michael Gehlken of the Las Vegas Review-Journal (on Twitter).
  • The Seahawks have re-signed linebacker Kache Palacio, writes Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times. Palacio, a former fullback who went undrafted out of Washington State last year, spent most of 2016 on Seattle’s practice squad.
  • Lions ERFAs Brandon Copeland (DE), Kerry Hyder (DT) and T.J. Jones (WR) have signed their tenders, tweets Birkett. Dolphins ERFAs Mike Hull (LB) and Anthony Steen (C) did the same earlier Monday, per Adam Beasley of the Miami Herald (Twitter link).

Earlier updates:

  • The Panthers have re-upped restricted free agent guard Andrew Norwell and a pair of exclusive rights free agents – center Tyler Larsen and punter Michael Palardy – writes Bryan Strickland of their website. Carolina used a second-round tender on Norwell, who will earn $2.746MM in 2017. Norwell combined for 29 starts over the previous two seasons and ranked 11th in performance among Pro Football Focus’ 72 qualified guards last year.
  • Steelers RFA cornerback Ross Cockrell has inked his original-round tender, reports ESPN’s Adam Schefter (Twitter link). Cockrell went in the fourth round of the 2014 draft, so the Steelers would have been entitled to a fourth-rounder had Cockrell signed elsewhere and they elected against matching the offer. The 25-year-old caught on with the Steelers in 2015 and has since totaled 31 appearances, 23 starts and two interceptions. Cockrell started in every Steelers game last year, and his performance ranked an improve 28th among 111 qualified corners at PFF.
  • Chiefs RFA kicker Cairo Santos has signed his tender, per Schefter (on Twitter). Santos, undrafted in 2014, received a low tender; as such, Kansas City wouldn’t have been entitled to compensation had he gone elsewhere. The three-year veteran has connected on 84.3 percent of field goal attempts, including 88.6 percent last season (good for fifth in the league).
  • Lions offensive tackle Cornelius Lucas has signed his RFA tender, tweets Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press. The Lions assigned Lucas an original-rounder tender last month, so they wouldn’t have gotten a pick had the 2014 undrafted free agent signed elsewhere and they chose not to match. Lucas is now slated to make $1.797MM this year in Detroit, where he has started in six of 35 career appearances.
  • The Buccaneers have re-signed quarterback Ryan Griffin, cornerback Jude Adjei-Barimah, tight end Cameron Brate, linebacker Adarius Glanton, and wide receivers Adam Humphries and Freddie Martino, per Scott Smith of the team’s website. As a restricted free agent, Griffin is the only one of the bunch who could have potentially gone elsewhere (the rest were exclusive rights free agents). The Bucs tendered the 2013 undrafted free agent at an original-round level last month, and he’ll now try to win the No. 2 role behind Jameis Winston. Tampa Bay’s previous second-stringer, Mike Glennon, is now the Bears’ starter.
  • RFA defensive back Marcus Burley and ERFA running back George Atkinson III are returning to the Browns, per a team announcement. Burley, undrafted in 2013, received an original-round tender. The former Seahawk is coming off his first year in Cleveland, where he appeared in 12 games and played just under 40 percent of the Browns’ special teams snaps.
  • Fullback Tommy Bohanon and receiver Larry Pinkard have signed with the Jaguars, tweets the team’s account. Bohanon is the only with NFL experience, having logged 36 appearances and 14 starts as a Jet from 2013-15.
  • Speaking of the Jets, they have re-signed linebacker Julian Stanford (via Randy Lange of the team’s site). The Jets could Stanford on Friday, but both sides knew that was only a procedural move. Last season was the first as a Jet for the 26-year-old Stanford, who appeared in nine games (two starts) and played about a quarter of their defensive snaps and a third of their special teams snaps.

RFA/ERFA Tender Decisions: 3/9/17

March 9th, 2017 at 2:00pm CST by Dallas Robinson

Unrestricted free agent news will obviously dominate the day, but several clubs also had to make decisions on whether to offer tenders to restricted and exclusive rights free agents. All RFA tenders listed are original round/right of first refusal (worth $1.797MM), and all links go to Twitter:

RFAs:

Tendered:

Non-Tendered: 

ERFAs:

Tendered:

Non-Tendered: 

Extra Points: Jags, 49ers, Cousins, Bucs, Cards

January 27th, 2017 at 9:27pm CST by Dallas Robinson

The Jaguars announced that they’ve hired former CFL head coach Scott Milanovich as their new quarterbacks coach. Milanovich, who played in the NFL with the Buccaneers from 1996-99, has been coaching in Canada since 2003. After serving in a variety of offensive roles for the Montreal Alouettes from 2007-11, Milanovich took over the Toronto Argonauts in 2012, winning the Grey Cup in his first season as head coach and posting a 43-47 record overall.

Here’s more from around the NFL:

  • Soon-to-be 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan tried to trade for Redskins quarterback Kirk Cousins while he was Cleveland’s offensive coordinator in 2014, and also favored Cousins over Robert Griffin III when the trio was in Washington, according to Albert Breer of TheMMQB.com. With Shanahan likely headed to San Francisco, he could theoretically pursue Cousins if the price is right (and Washington is willing to let him go).
  • Although the Buccaneers have started dialogue with a good deal of their pending free agents, general manger Jason Licht is clearly targeting a few key players for re-signing, as Scott Reynolds of PewterReport.com and Roy Cummings of FloridaFootballInsiders.com detail in separate articles. Defensive end William Gholston and running back Jacquizz Rodgers appear to be “priorities” for Tampa Bay, while the club also wants to keep quarterback Ryan Griffin given that fellow backup QB Mike Glennon is expected to leave via free agency.
  • Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie was the driving force behind his club’s refusal to allow quarterbacks coach John DeFillipo interview for the Jets’ offensive coordinator vacancy, and Jeff McLane of the Philadelphia Inquirer writes that Lurie did so in order to keep Philadelphia’s staff together for the benefit of Carson Wentz. Additionally, Lurie is reportedly willing to spend what cap space the Eagles have this offseason in order to secure more offensive weapons for his second-year quarterback.
  • The Cardinals did not renew the contract of running back coach Stump Mitchell, meaning it was the club’s choice to part ways, tweets Josh Weinfuss of ESPN.com. Mitchell, who joined Arizona in 2013, is now free to pursue other opportunities, as Mitchell’s agent last year told PFR’s Zach Links he was open to doing.

Buccaneers Likely To Keep Three QBs

August 31st, 2016 at 10:30am CST by Zachary Links

As the Buccaneers prepare to cut down from 75 players to 53, they know they will have some tough choices to make. One option they apparently won’t consider is having only two quarterbacks on the final roster. Buccaneers coach Dirk Koetter explained that he would ideally like to keep two QBs on the team with one signal caller on the practice squad, but he does not believe that third-stringer Ryan Griffin would survive the waiver process (via Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times). "<strong

“I feel great about that room. I think we have good depth,” Koetter said. “If it was a perfect world, we are getting to the point where it would be better for our football team if we could keep two quarterbacks because we’re going to have to let some guys go that we don’t want to let go. And I think the perfect set-up with the way the NFL is structured right now, is two quarterbacks and one on practice squad. But if you have a good one and you try to put him on practice squad, the league is so short of quarterbacks, he’ll get scooped up like that…I think it’s safe (to say) that we’re probably going to keep three quarterbacks.”

In March, Koetter indicated that Griffin would be capable of backing up starter Jameis Winston in the event that Mike Glennon was traded. With that kind of confidence in Griffin, it makes sense that they would want to retain him.

Meanwhile, the Buccaneers are less inclined to trade Glennon now than they were in the spring. Glennon is poised to hit the open market after the 2016 season and if he goes elsewhere, the Bucs will receive a compensatory pick for him. If another team – say, the Vikings – wants to trade for Glennon, they’ll really have to make it worth it for the Buccaneers. For now, the Bucs like the security of having two quality backups behind Winston and an additional future draft choice.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

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