A major deadline is fast approaching for Redskins quarterback Kirk Cousins, Steelers running back Le’Veon Bell, and Rams cornerback Trumaine Johnson. If the three franchise-tagged players do not sign an extension with their respective clubs by 4pm ET/3pm CT, they will play out the season on a one-year tender and will not be able to reignite long-term talks until January.
So far, there hasn’t been significant movement towards a deal for any of the three players in question, though Bell is more likely to sign a multi-year pact than the other two. Then again, after last year’s deadline brought us a surprise accord between the Jets and Muhammad Wilkerson, nothing can be ruled out.
The Redskins have slowly upped their offer to Cousins over the last year, but a major gulf still divides the two parties. Cousins’ agent is said to be seeking $24MM annually on a new deal, a number reflective of his ~$24MM tender for 2017. The Redskins, meanwhile, have only offered $20MM per season on a five-year pact. The proposal, which was made back in May, only truly guarantees the first two years for Cousins, according to NFL.com’s Tom Pelissero. When considering the gap in dollars and the possibility that Cousins would rather be somewhere else long-term, it seems likely that the QB will play out the year on his tender.
On Monday morning, we heard that there was nothing imminent between the Steelers and Bell. Still, a long-term deal makes plenty of sense for both sides. Bell’s camp is aware of the injury risk that running backs carry and they would certainly forego some upside in favor of security. The Steelers, on the other hand, do not want to chance having to cuff Bell with a one-year, $14MM repeat franchise tender next offseason. Even though there hasn’t been a lot of reported progress on a deal in recent weeks, this one feels too logical not to happen.
On the flipside, it would be a shock to see the Rams and Johnson shake hands on a deal this afternoon. Johnson believes that he could be paid like a top cornerback on the open market next spring and unless he turns in a historically spectacular season, there’s little chance that the Rams will tag him for a third straight year at $20MM. Instead, Johnson will happily play out the year for $16.742MM and worry about his future next offseason.
There’s still no movement toward a deal between the Rams and cornerback Trumaine Johnson, per ESPN.com’s Alden Gonzalez, who’s the latest to report that he’ll play 2017 under the franchise tag. Yahoo Sports’ Charles Robinson relayed earlier this week that no agreement would come to fruition by Monday’s deadline, meaning Johnson will play the season as the NFL’s highest-paid corner. Johnson will earn $16.742MM in his second straight year as the Rams’ franchise player, and the likelihood is that he’ll test the free agent market next offseason. Tagging him again isn’t going to happen because doing so would cost the Rams $24.1MM.
Elsewhere around the NFC…
The NFL needs to make a decision on whether to suspend Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott as soon as possible, opines Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk. In doing so, he league would ensure that the internal appeals process would be resolved by Week 1, reasons Florio. Elliott is bracing for a season-opening ban, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN, and Florio wonders if the league leaked that information to Schefter in order to gauge the opinions of both the public and Jerry Jones. The Cowboys owner has made it known to NFL higher-ups that he won’t react kindly if the league suspends one of his stars without ample justification, reports Florio. Given the power Jones has, the NFL “needs to placate” him, writes Florio; at the same time, the league’s also in a difficult situation because it can’t afford to screw up another ruling involving domestic violence.
The Eagles want to “take a little bit off” second-year quarterback Carson Wentz‘s plate this season, head coach Doug Pederson told Comcast SportsNet’s John Clark this week (via Reuben Frank of CSNPhilly.com). Pederson believes that the offseason additions of wide receivers Alshon Jeffery and Torrey Smith and running back LeGarrette Blount should make life easier for Wentz, who didn’t have enough help at the skill positions last season and attempted 607 passes – the second-highest rookie total in NFL history, notes Frank. “Everything doesn’t have to fall on Carson’s shoulders and I think sometimes a little bit last year he felt that way and things had to fall his way a little bit to make a play and I don’t think we have to do that this year,” said Pederson.
Redskins safety DeAngelo Hallagreed to a pay cut last month, but he’ll still enter training camp in danger of losing his roster spot, suggests Rich Tandler of CSN Mid-Atlantic. A couple of other veteran safeties, Will Blackmon and Josh Evans, are also on the bubble, per Tandler. Injuries limited Hall to just 17 games over the previous three seasons, including a mere three in 2016. Conversely, staying healthy hasn’t been a problem for the 32-year-old Blackmon, who has made 30 of 32 appearances and logged 16 starts since joining the Redskins prior to 2015. Evans, a regular for the Jaguars from 2013-15, was on and off Washington’s roster last year and only played two games.
With five days to go until the deadline for teams to sign franchise tagged players to extensions, there apparently hasn’t been a ton of progress for any of the three players in question. Still, we’ve had some mid-July surprises in the past, like last year’s last minute extension for Jets defensive lineman Muhammad Wilkerson. Here’s a quick refresher on where things stand for Kirk Cousins, Le’Veon Bell, and Trumaine Johnson:
Kirk Cousins
There has been no movement towards a deal for the Redskins and Cousins, and both sides are apparently alright with that. You know the deal by now: Cousins is looking at a $24MM salary in 2017 and the Redskins will have to give him a tender worth at least $28MM to keep him away from unrestricted free agency next season. Cousins is confident in his abilities and eager to push the market for quarterbacks, so he is not all that inclined to sign a multi-year deal.
Cousins’ agent probably won’t consider any offer with less than $52MM guaranteed. If his camp really wants to drive a hard bargain, it will insist on a minimum $58MM in the bag since that factors in the value a third franchise tag in 2018 ($34MM) rather than the $28MM transition tag, which would only give Washington the first right of refusal.
Cousins, like any player in extension talks, must weigh the benefit of cost certainty versus the upside of the open market. But, with the way quarterbacks get paid in the NFL, he is looking at a high floor. Cousins is not considered to be a top five QB, but if he were to put pen to paper today, he would be the highest-paid player in the NFL – at least for a couple of weeks. Even if Cousins has a mild regression in 2017, he’ll still be looking at either a one-year, ~$30MM deal in Washington or a $100MM+ deal in free agency. In order for the soon-to-be 29-year-old to sign, he’ll either have to be wowed by an offer or he’ll have to catch a case of cold feet in the coming days.
Le’Veon Bell
Bell, by any measure, is one of the very best running backs in the NFL. In a suspension-shortened 2016 season, Bell earned his second career trip to the Pro Bowl as he ran for 1,268 yrds off of 261 carries, mirroring a career-high of 4.9 yards per attempt. He also added 75 receptions for 616 yards. When averaged out on a per-game basis, his 2016 numbers actually bested his 2014 campaign, a season in which he was a First-Team All-Pro selection. The advanced metrics at Pro Football Focus had Bell ranked as the third best RB in the league last season, behind only Ezekiel Elliott and David Johnson.
While there has been talk about Cousins being less-than-thrilled with Redskins management, Bell has been open about wanting to stay in Pittsburgh. The feeling is mutual as the Steelers want to keep in him in the fold for the long term. So, what’s the holdup?
Bell is probably seeking to overtake Bills star LeSean McCoy as the highest-paid running back in the NFL. The Steelers are probably willing to oblige, but, as we all know, there’s a difference between becoming the market-setter in terms of years/dollars and the true value of a deal. If Bell wants to sign a five-year deal worth more than $40MM, odds are that he could do that right now. What he’s really after, however, are substantial guarantees with significant cash flow in the first two years of the deal.
Running backs are always at a high risk of injury and teams are typically adversed to paying out real dollars for them on multi-year deals, even if the cases of exceptional players like Bell. The Steelers are hoping to find a happy medium with Bell in the coming days since his $12MM price tag for this year is high and a potential $14MM tag for 2018 is spit take worthy.
Trumaine Johnson
Like Cousins, this is the second year in a row that Johnson has been hit with the franchise tag. Where the situations differ is that there is zero chance the Rams will apply the tag to Johnson for a third year in a row. If Johnson plays out the year on his one-year, $17MM tender, he’ll hit unrestricted free agency at the age of 28 because there’s virtually no chance that the Rams would tag him at upwards of $24MM in 2018.
Johnson has yet to establish himself as an elite cornerback, but this would be the time to do it as he enters a contract year. The Rams’ strong front seven should keep opposing quarterbacks under duress, allowing Johnson to swarm receivers on immature routes. It appears that Johnson has little incentive to sign a long-term deal here, unless the Rams are willing to make a cap-crippling commitment.
Which of these three players, if any, will sign extensions before the deadline on Monday? Cast your vote below and back up your choice in the comment section.
Contracts are guaranteed in the NBA, where even mediocre players are capable of landing mega-deals, leading some NFLers to publicly express displeasure with the fact that their league’s deals are non-guaranteed. While discussing that issue Wednesday, Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman offered a possible solution, albeit a controversial one.
“If we want as the NFL, as a union, to get anything done, players have to be willing to strike,” Sherman told ESPN’s Jalen Rose. “That’s the thing that guys need to 100 percent realize. You’re going to have to miss games, you’re going to have to lose some money if you’re willing to make the point, because that’s how MLB and NBA got it done. They missed games, they struck, they flexed every bit of power they had, and it was awesome. It worked out for them.”
NFL players haven’t gone on strike since 1987, though there was a brief lockout in 2011. With the collective bargaining agreement the owners and players negotiated then set to expire after the 2020 season, more labor strife is seemingly brewing. Back in February, months before Sherman’s strike recommendation, union boss DeMaurice Smith shot down the possibility of extending the CBA, and the players hadn’t given him permission as of last month to begin talks with the league on a new agreement.
More from around the league:
While Sherman and others aren’t thrilled with the league’s current financial setup, one player who has done well in the system is Rams cornerback Trumaine Johnson, writes Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk. The Rams placed the franchise tag on Johnson both last year and this offseason, putting him in position to collect $30.672MM in guaranteed money from 2016-17. To hit Johnson with the franchise tag again next winter would cost the Rams an untenable $24.1MM, so he’ll reach the open market at the age of 28 and have an opportunity to cash in on a long-term contract.
Thanks to the relocations of the Rams, Chargers and Raiders, the league’s other 29 teams will each receive a gross sum of $55.2MM over an 11-year span, reports Darren Rovell of ESPN. The two Los Angeles teams, the Rams and Chargers, will each pay a $645MM relocation fee from December 2019 to December 2028, while the soon-to-be Las Vegas Raiders will owe $378MM. They won’t have to begin paying until the year they actually move to Vegas.
Bears linebacker Danny Trevathan is likely to open the season on the physically unable to perform list, suggests Chris Boden of CSN Chicago. Trevathan ruptured the patella tendon in his right knee last November, forcing him to sit out the Bears’ final five games of 2016, and he’ll miss their first six contests this year if he goes on the PUP list. The former Bronco is entering the second season of the four-year, $24.5MM pact he signed with Chicago in March 2016.
They say that deadlines spur action but, so far, the impending July 17 deadline for franchise-tagged players has not brought about progress for the Rams and cornerback Trumaine Johnson. Once again, we have word that a contract extension for Johnson is not in the works (Twitter link via Charles Robinson of Yahoo Sports).
Barring a surprising last-minute change, Johnson will play out the 2017 season on his one-year, $16.742MM franchise tender. Because this is the second consecutive year in which he has been tagged, Johnson’s salary is 20% higher than last year’s, giving him the top salary of any cornerback in the NFL.
Johnson is no slouch, but it’s hard to argue that the 27-year-old should be the highest compensated CB in the league. The Rams know this, but they also felt that they had little choice when it came time to make their big decision this offseason. If the Rams allowed Johnson to test the free agency waters, they would have risked losing two starting cornerbacks in two years.
Meanwhile, Johnson seems very willing to play out the season at his lucrative salary and cash in as a free agent next offseason. Right now, 14 cornerbacks in the NFL are averaging $10MM or more per year. If Johnson plays roughly as well as he has in the last two years, $10MM/ year seems like his worst-case scenario, given that he’ll be entering his age-28 season. If Johnson can take a step forward and establish himself as a shutdown corner, then he just might put himself in the top five at the position.
Last week, we heard that the odds of an extension for the Rams and Trumaine Johnson are “extremely slim.” Now, Adam Schefter of ESPN.com hears (on Twitter) that there is “nothing close” between the two parties and flatly says that “no long-term deal will get done.”
Without a new deal, Johnson will play out the 2017 season on his one-year, $16.742MM franchise tender. This is the second straight year that the Rams have used the franchise tag on Johnson, though their actions have made it clear that they do not see him as a franchise player. The Rams seriously considered trading Johnson this offseason, though talks with teams like the Browns and Saints did not yield the kind of offers that they were seeking.
Johnson’s $16.742MM salary currently has him the highest-paid cornerback in the NFL on a per-year basis. After a season in which he graded out as Pro Football Focus’ 26th-best cornerback, one could argue that he’s drastically overpaid. The Rams probably weren’t crazy about that price tag, but they were also unwilling to lose a starting cornerback for the second consecutive offseason. Last year, the Rams franchised Johnson and allowed Janoris Jenkins to sign with the Giants in free agency.
The odds of the Rams reaching a long-term agreement with franchise-tagged cornerback Trumaine Johnson are extremely slim, according to Jason La Canfora of CBSSports.com. Los Angeles spoke with Johnson’s representatives regarding an extension only once, and the discussions weren’t fruitful enough to warrant another round of talks.
If he’s not extended, Johnson will play under the franchise tag for the second consecutive season. As such, his fully guaranteed base salary for the 2017 campaign will be $16.742MM, a 20% raise over his 2016 salary and the highest figure among cornerbacks for the upcoming year. The 27-year-old Johnson will have earned north of $30MM for the 2016-17 seasons.
The Rams explored trading Johnson this offseason, and while the Browns and Saints reportedly expressed interest, Johnson is now expected to stay put in Los Angeles. New head coach Sean McVay recently indicated that Johnson “fits any system. You’re talking about a big corner who can run, he’s physical, he can tackle and he has great ball skills.”
The NFL has pushed back the deadline for franchise players to sign extensions to July 17, meaning the Rams and Johnson have a little less than a month to agree to a long-term deal.
The NFL has pushed back the deadline to sign franchise players to multiyear contracts, relays ESPN’s Adam Schefter (on Twitter). Teams that haven’t yet extended their tag recipients will have until July 17 to do so. The deadline was previously set for July 15.
The change could affect the Redskins, Rams and Steelers – the only teams that have players currently slated to play the season under the tag. The Redskins have the most expensive member of the trio, quarterback Kirk Cousins ($24MM), who could go through his second straight year as their franchise player. The same holds true for Rams cornerback Trumaine Johnson, who’s in line to make $16.42MM. The cheapest of the three, Steelers running back Le’Veon Bell, comes in at $12.1MM.
Placing the franchise tag on Cousins again next year would cost the Redskins upward of $34MM, an unpalatable amount, and finding quality quarterbacks isn’t exactly easy. As such, Washington has been working to extend the 28-year-old Cousins prior to the deadline. Unlike last year, when the two sides made little to no headway toward an agreement, there has been progress this spring.
Meanwhile, there’s no indication that the Rams and Johnson have engaged in discussions, in part because they wanted to see how he’d fit in new defensive coordinator Wade Phillips’ scheme. Los Angeles’ coaching staff got a look at Johnson, 27, in Phillips’ defense during the club’s offseason program, and head coach Sean McVaysubsequently praised the corner. It’s possible, then, that a deal will come together in the next month.
While Cousins and Johnson each signed their franchise tenders awhile back, Bell still hasn’t put pen to paper on his. He and the Steelers have been discussing an extension throughout the offseason, though, and despite his past suspensions and injury issues, the 25-year-old wants to become the league’s highest-paid back on his next deal. There’s a good chance that will happen, writes ESPN.com’s Jeremy Fowler, who notes that the per-year value of Bell’s contract won’t match the tag.
“Even if he gets $10 million a year, that’s 25 percent more than any other running back is making right now,” one front office executive told Fowler. “You’d have to call that a market-moving deal.”
In the end, Fowler expects the Steelers to offer Bell a four-year accord in the $40MM to $45MM range, including $20MM in guarantees.
The Rams had been holding off on extension talks with franchise-tagged cornerback Trumaine Johnson because they wanted to see how he fit in new defensive coordinator Wade Phillips’ scheme during their offseason program. Well, Johnson and Phillips are apparently a match, as head coach Sean McVay said Thursday (via Alden Gonzalez of ESPN.com) that he “fits any system. You’re talking about a big corner who can run, he’s physical, he can tackle and he has great ball skills.” The Rams have until July 15 to reach a long-term deal with Johnson, who’s currently scheduled to rake in $16.742MM this year. The same deadline doesn’t apply to superstar defensive tackle Aaron Donald, as he’s still under control for two more years. The sides have discussed an extension, though, and McVay is “optimistic that something’s going to work out.”
After playing just 27 percent of the Eagles’ defensive snaps in 2016, linebacker Mychal Kendricks has been the subject of trade rumors throughout the offseason. For now, Kendricks is still in Philadelphia, and if he remains an Eagle this year, his role is unlikely to change, writes Dave Zangaro of CSNPhilly.com. The Eagles used their nickel package over 70 percent of the time last season, and they’ll probably rely on it heavily again; if so, Kendricks will continue to watch from the sideline as fellow linebackers Jordan Hicks and Nigel Bradham receive the majority of snaps. The 26-year-old Kendricks still has three years left on his contract, but releasing him would cost the Eagles $9.15MM in dead cap this summer. Barring a trade, then, he figures to spend the sixth year of his career with his only NFL employer to date.
Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer is finally poised to put his nagging right eye issues behind him. “We’re just about out of the woods,” said Zimmer, who has undergone eight separate surgeries over the past year to repair a detached retina. A checkup on Wednesday revealed that “the retina is perfect, the pressure [in my eye] is great,” Zimmer informed reporters, including Ben Goessling of ESPN.com. The 61-year-old’s doctor told him he’d be “absolutely shocked if anything else happened in this eye.” Zimmer’s eye problems led to his absence from the Vikings’ Week 13 loss to Dallas last season and forced him to miss the first two weeks of organized team activities this spring.
The Cardinals have no interest in Jeremy Maclin, according to an NFL source who spoke with Kent Somers of The Arizona Republic (on Twitter). The Cardinals, in theory, could have used Maclin as a No. 2 option opposite of Larry Fitzgerald, but they’re apparently not giving him much thought. For now, the Cards will have the speedy John Brown, JJ. Nelson, Brittan Golden, and Jaron Brown as the WRs behind Fitzgerald. While the Cardinals are not interested in Maclin, at least four teams are in on the veteran.
Cornerback Trumaine Johnson was missing from Rams OTAs until Monday, but that was not due to any issues over his contract, as Gary Klein of the Los Angeles Times writes. “Right now, I’m happy to be here and playing ball,” Johnson said. “I’m controlling what I can control. When that contract stuff comes up, I’ll handle it.” The Rams have until July 15 to sign Johnson to a new contract. Otherwise, he will play under his one-year, ~$17MM franchise tender.
Austin Davis‘ deal with the Seahawks is for the veteran’s minimum, as Mike Garafolo of NFL.com tweets. The quarterback will earn a $775K base salary with a $50K signing bonus plus a $30K roster bonus if he makes the team. Seattle inked Davis earlier this week, effectively choosing him over Colin Kaepernick.
