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Chiefs To Cut RB La’Mical Perine

May 17th, 2024 at 3:52pm CST by Sam Robinson

The Chiefs spent more than a year developing running back La’Mical Perine, adding the former Jets draftee in January 2023 and using him at points last season. The team is now moving on from the reserve RB.

The two-time defending Super Bowl champions opted to cut the former fourth-round pick Friday, KPRC2’s Aaron Wilson tweets. This will create some questions regarding how the Chiefs will fill out their backfield behind their regulars.

Perine’s only notable work with the Chiefs came during a Week 18 matchup with the Chargers, one that featured the AFC West champs resting several starters due to having locked in a No. 3 seed in the AFC playoffs. Perine received 21 carries, totaling 76 yards, in that matchup. He was active for the Chiefs’ three AFC playoff games, playing a special teams role. The Chiefs did not dress Perine for Super Bowl LVIII, having activated Jerick McKinnon ahead of that game.

Kansas City has not gone through with its usual post-draft McKinnon agreement; the 10-year veteran remains a free agent. The team also did not draft a running back this year. Clyde Edwards-Helaire, however, is back with the team. Despite failing to live up to his first-round draft slot, the 5-foot-7 back re-signed and will be expected to reprise his recent role as an Isiah Pacheco backup.

Perine, 26, spent the first two years of his career with the Jets before short stints with the Eagles and Dolphins. The Chiefs signed Perine to a futures deal in February 2023 and brought him back after leaving him off their initial 53-man roster last summer. Unless the Chiefs circle back to the Florida alum once again, it is unclear who will be their RB3 in 2024. Ex-Cardinals cog Keaontay Ingram, UDFA Deneric Prince, rugby convert Louis Rees-Zammit and rookie UDFAs Carson Steele (UCLA) and Emani Bailey (TCU) round out Kansas City’s RB corps.

Patriots, David Andrews Agree To Extension

May 16th, 2024 at 10:08pm CST by Adam La Rose

David Andrews will remain in place with New England for at least the next two years. The Patriots’ longtime center has agreed to an extension keeping him on the books through 2025, ESPN’s Field Yates reports.

Yates adds that Andrews will receive $12MM in base compensation between this year and next. He can earn up to $13MM via incentives. This pact – the fourth of his career – will see the former UDFA collect $8MM in guaranteed money.

Andrews was scheduled to earn $5.5MM in 2024, the final year of his $19MM extension signed in 2021. The Georgia alum’s cap hit was set for $8.43MM, a figure which will likely change depending on the structure of this agreement. Andrews has served as New England’s starter at center for all but five regular season and playoff games in his rookie season, totaling 127 starts across his career to date. He will carry on in his current capacity with another multi-year agreement in hand.

Today’s Patriots investment comes not long after Andrews admitted to contemplating his future this offseason. The 31-year-old said in a press conference that he committed to continuing his career for 2024 (h/t ESPN’s Mike Reiss). Considering New England’s decision to add another year to his existing pact, the chances are high Andrews could continue playing through 2025 if he remains healthy.

Andrews has managed to play over 1,000 snaps four times in his career, including the 2023 campaign. His run blocking remained strong with respect to PFF evaluation, but his pass protection took a notable step back compared to recent seasons. He was charged with six sacks and 30 pressures allowed, which resulted in a career-worst PFF grade of 51.2 in that department. A rebound this season would be welcomed by team and player.

New England has committed to retaining a number of in-house players this offseason. Along the offensive line, that effort has seen tackle/guard Michael Onwenu sign a three-year, $57MM deal, one which will keep him at the RT spot moving forward. Questions are in place regarding the Patriots’ blindside protection with free agent addition Chukwuma Okorafor the likely left tackle starter as things stand. Regardless of what happens on that front, Andrews will continue as a mainstay in the middle.

NFL Draft Pick Signings: 5/16/24

May 16th, 2024 at 8:19pm CST by Sam Robinson

Here are today’s rookie deals agreed upon between teams and players chosen in the middle and late rounds:

Chicago Bears

Los Angeles Chargers

Los Angeles Rams

The Rams now have a two-Kamren safety group, with Kinchens following free agency addition Kamren Curl. The Kinchens and Jackson slot agreements leave only first-round pick Jared Verse unsigned among Rams draftees. The Rams got the ball rolling for picks near the top of the second round — the slowest-moving sector of the draft due to guarantee wiggle room — by inking Florida State defensive lineman Braden Fiske late last week.

Falcons Cut OLB Ade Ogundeji

May 16th, 2024 at 6:52pm CST by Sam Robinson

The Falcons have changed defensive coordinators twice since Ade Ogundeji last played, and the Raheem Morris–Jimmy Lake duo does not have the former starter in its plans. Atlanta cut the fourth-year pass rusher Thursday.

A 2021 fifth-round pick, Ogundeji worked as a starter for much of his first two seasons before suffering a season-nullifying injury during training camp last year. The Dean Pees-era starter, who suffered a foot injury last season, missed the Ryan Nielsen season and will be looking elsewhere ahead of Morris and Lake’s first season running Atlanta’s defense.

[RELATED: Chargers Sign OLB Bud Dupree]

Chosen during Arthur Smith‘s first draft with the team, the Notre Dame alum was drafted to play in Pees’ scheme. The Falcons, who have been thin at edge rusher for years, deployed the 6-foot-4 defender as a starter for most of his first two seasons.

Ogundeji started 26 games for the team from 2021-22, including 16 contests during the ’22 season. Production was rather sparse given the usage, however, as Ogundeji exited his second season with three career sacks. Playing 48% and 51% of the Falcons’ defensive snaps in 2021 and ’22, Ogundeji totaled eight tackles for loss with the Falcons. He produced six sacks in his final season with the Fighting Irish.

Atlanta added low-cost veterans Bud Dupree and Lorenzo Carter last year; those two teamed with 2022 second-rounder Arnold Ebiketie as the team’s top edge rushers last season. No Falcon reached the seven-sack mark. The Falcons showed interest in re-signing Dupree, but the former first-rounder is now a Charger. And the Falcons passed on bolstering their edge rush — though, not for lack of trying through back-door measures — in this year’s first round. This certainly qualifies as a need area for a team that surprised most by choosing Michael Penix Jr. at No. 8.

Two Mays ago, the Falcons cut John Cominsky to lead to eight waiver claims. It will be interesting to see if Ogundeji draws interest elsewhere soon. The 25-year-old pass rusher, however, was not on the field with teammates when the Falcons convened for OTAs last week, per AtlantaFalcons.com’s Terrin Waack.

Minor NFL Transactions: 5/16/24

May 16th, 2024 at 5:37pm CST by Sam Robinson

Here are Thursday’s minor moves:

Baltimore Ravens

  • Waived: WR De’Angelo Hardy

Cleveland Browns

  • Waived/failed physical: OL Kellen Diesch

Detroit Lions

A former Cowboys UDFA, McKeon spent the past four seasons in Dallas. He worked as a backup to the likes of Dalton Schultz and Jake Ferguson in that span. Used more as a run blocker, McKeon played between 100 and 128 snaps on offense over the past three seasons. The Michigan alum joins a Lions tight end group that includes Sam LaPorta and Brock Wright, the latter drawing a matched RFA offer sheet.

DL Michael Brockers Announces Retirement

May 16th, 2024 at 4:03pm CST by Sam Robinson

Although Michael Brockers landed an offseason workout, he did not end up playing in 2023. The veteran defensive lineman will pass on playing in 2024. Brockers took to Instagram on Thursday to announce he will retire from the NFL after 11 seasons.

Best known for his lengthy Rams tenure, Brockers finished his career with the Lions. Not part of the Jared Goff–Matthew Stafford trade, Brockers ended up joining Goff in relocating to Detroit as part of a separate 2021 swap. The Lions tenure pushed the former first-round pick’s start count to 157 games. Brockers’ NFL exit comes two months after longtime D-line mate Aaron Donald wrapped his storied career.

Brockers, 33, will be best remembered for a seven-year stretch working alongside Donald. The longest-running sidekick of the all-time great DT’s career, Brockers was also regarded as an upper-crust D-lineman for much of his time with the Rams. The LSU alum ended up signing three contracts with the Rams, who valued him alongside Donald. While Brockers was dealt as the team assembled its Super Bowl LVI-winning roster, he played in Super Bowl LIII and was part of three playoff teams after having been part of a lengthy Rams playoff drought.

Midway through that 12-season drought, the Rams hired Jeff Fisher and GM Les Snead. The duo began its St. Louis tenure with an eventful draft. It took multiple trades for the Rams to end up with Brockers in 2012. The team moved down from No. 2 to No. 6, collecting two future first-rounders from Washington in a deal that gave Mike Shanahan‘s team a path to Robert Griffin III, and then slid down (via the Cowboys) from 6 to 14. The Snead-Fisher tandem made a pick there, and Brockers moved into the starting lineup in Week 4 of his rookie year.

Playing in Fisher’s 4-3 scheme during the first half of his Rams career and a 3-4 alignment during the second chapter, Brockers produced 28 of his 29 career sacks during his Rams run. He put together two five-sack seasons (2013, 2020) and notched at least seven tackles for loss in four separate seasons. For his career, Brockers tallied 64 TFLs. He made seven tackles against the Patriots in Super Bowl LIII.

It took extensive time for the post-Greatest Show on Turf Rams to regroup, and it did not happen under Fisher. But the Donald-Brockers partnership certainly worked well to close out the team’s St. Louis stay, and Sean McVay made the pair more relevant in the grand scheme upon arrival in 2017. Brockers became one of the NFL’s top interior run defenders, and the Rams rewarded him with a three-year, $33.25MM deal in 2016. Staying in form long enough to land a third quality contract, Brockers fetched a three-year, $24MM deal from the Rams. This came after a memorable Ravens plot, which involved a Brockers three-year, $30MM agreement being nixed due to concerns about the veteran 3-4 D-end’s health. Brockers managed to play three more NFL seasons.

The Lions reached a reworked deal with Brockers in 2022 and stopped his run of starts midway through that season, making him a healthy scratch during the ’22 slate’s second half. Although Brockers worked out for the Titans last summer, no deal came to pass. He will nevertheless finish his career with $69.8MM in earnings in St. Louis, Los Angeles and Detroit.

Jaguars Sign Terrell Edmunds, Tre Flowers

May 16th, 2024 at 1:40pm CST by Sam Robinson

Two veteran DBs will make mid-offseason arrivals in Jacksonville. The team reached agreements with safety Terrell Edmunds and cornerback Tre Flowers on Thursday, adding some secondary depth.

Flowers, 27, is following new Jags DC Ryan Nielsen from Atlanta. The veteran corner caught on with the Falcons, in what turned out to be Nielsen’s only Atlanta season, last May and worked as a part-time starter. Included in the October trade that sent Kevin Byard to Philadelphia, Edmunds also made a handful of starts in 2023.

This will mark a third straight year in which Flowers has signed a one-year contract. The former Seahawks draftee, who commandeered a starting spot from the jump despite being a fifth-round pick, signed a Bengals deal in 2022 and played in all 17 Falcons games last year. The Jags will give the 44-game starter a shot to vie for a role among a cornerback group that has seen some updates this offseason.

Following its Darious Williams release, the team added Ronald Darby. Although the Jags did not use a first-round pick on a corner — as rumors suggested they considered — they added pieces here in the third and fifth rounds (Jarrian Jones, Deantre Prince).

Edmunds, 27, has logged more starts as a pro. The former Steelers first-round pick worked as a regular starter from 2018-22 in Pittsburgh; last season’s four starts upped his career total to 79. The Eagles used Edmunds as a three-game starter, as they cut costs at safety by letting C.J. Gardner-Johnson and Marcus Epps walk in free agency, but included him in the pre-deadline trade that brought Byard over from the Titans. Edmunds made one start in Tennessee but played in nine games with his third NFL employer.

Operating as Minkah Fitzpatrick‘s sidekick from 2019-22, Edmunds graded as a top-40 safety (per Pro Football Focus) in 2022 and landed in the top 25 two seasons prior. Edmunds stands to have a clearer path to playing time, as the Jaguars moved on from three-year safety starter Rayshawn Jenkins and did not replace him this offseason. The team still rosters starter Andre Cisco and role player Andrew Wingard (26 career starts), but one of the team’s offseason questions involves who will start opposite Cisco.

PFF has never viewed Flowers as an upper-echelon corner, helping explain his April and May contract agreements. Both players have proven durable. Between the 2018 draftees’ 12 NFL seasons, only Flowers’ 2020 campaign (in which he missed four games) involved more than two missed games. Flowers also has changed teams in-season, being waived by the Seahawks before catching on with the Bengals — during their Super Bowl LVI-qualifying slate — and operating as a key backup.

To make room on their 90-man offseason roster, the Jaguars waived linebacker Dequan Jackson and waived wide receiver Wayne Ruby with an injury designation.

Vikings Sign TE Robert Tonyan

May 16th, 2024 at 12:31pm CST by Adam La Rose

Robert Tonyan‘s trip around the NFC North will continue in 2024. The veteran tight end has a deal in place with the Vikings, ESPN’s Adam Schefter and Jeremy Fowler report. The deal is now official, per a team announcement. Minnesota has waived undrafted linebacker Donovan Manuel in a corresponding move.

Tonyan – who entered the NFL as a Lions UDFA – played for the Packers from 2018-22. During that span, he eclipsed 50 receptions on two occasions, scoring 11 touchdowns in 2020. The 30-year-old was an offensive mainstay for Green Bay during his final three Packers campaigns in particular.

Last offseason, Tonyan made another intra-divisional move by signing a one-year Bears pact. He played all 17 games in Chicago, but his offensive role was dwarfed by his special teams workload. The Indiana State product made only 11 scoreless receptions in 2023, and it comes as no surprise he found himself on the open market well after the draft.

Chicago also had ex-Packer Marcedes Lewis in the fold last year, but he too has not been re-signed. The Bears instead turned their attention to Gerald Everett, who joined in free agency on a two-year, $12MM deal. The 29-year-old will join Cole Kmet (who received a lucrative extension last summer) as a key member of the Bears’ very different looking offense this season.

Minnesota also has an established top tight end. Upon arrival via trade from the Lions, T.J. Hockenson has proven to be an effective producer when healthy. His first full Vikings campaign came to an abrupt end due to ACL and MCL tears, though, and he continues to rehab in the hopes of being available to start the 2024 season. Especially if Hockenson misses time, Tonyan could step into a first-team role. The latter has 24 starts to his name.

At a minimum, Tonyan should be able to carve out a rotational spot in Minnesota. The team retained Johnny Mundt as well as Nick Muse, but they did not add a rookie via the draft. As the Vikings transition to Sam Darnold enter center, a pass-catching corps headlined by Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison will now have Tonyan in the mix.

Bills Sign S Dee Delaney, Release WR Quintez Cephus

May 16th, 2024 at 8:52am CST by Adam La Rose

The Bills have added depth to their secondary while giving their special teams a boost. The team announced on Thursday that safety Dee Delaney has been signed.

The 29-year-old began his career with one-year stints in Jacksonville and Washington. During that span, Delaney appeared in only three games, and he was all-but exclusively used on special teams. After seeing sparse defensive playing time with those teams (and spending brief tenures on the Dolphins’ practice squad and the Jets’ offseason roster in between), though, he found a home in Tampa Bay.

Delaney joined the Buccaneers in 2021, and in his first campaign with the team he played over 200 defensive snaps – a notable increase from the four he had previously logged. The former UDFA again saw most of his action come in the third phase, and that continued the following season. Last year, though, Delaney took on a rotational role in the Bucs’ secondary, seeing two starts. He notched career highs in interceptions (two) and pass deflections (five) while making 25 tackles.

Buffalo released Jordan Poyer as part of the team’s cost-cutting moves this offseason. His longtime running mate at the safety spot (Micah Hyde) is unsigned, and his playing future remains in doubt. The Bills brought in Mike Edwards during free agency and re-signed Taylor Rapp before selecting Cole Bishop in the second round of the draft. Delaney will therefore have plenty of competition for playing time in his latest home.

In a corresponding move, wideout Quintez Cephus has been released. The former Lion was signed last month in a deal which followed his reinstatement from a gambling suspension. That seemed to put Cephus on track for a rotational spot in the team’s receiver room, but Buffalo signed Marquez Valdes-Scantling earlier this week. Cephus, 26, will now return to free agency and attempt to find a new opportunity elsewhere.

NFL Draft Pick Signings: 5/15/24

May 15th, 2024 at 8:45pm CST by Ely Allen

Here are the NFL’s midweek draft pick signings:

Arizona Cardinals

Kansas City Chiefs

New York Giants

Philadelphia Eagles

San Francisco 49ers

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