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Extra Points: Barr, Seahawks, Hardy, Freeman

June 25th, 2018 at 9:53pm CST by Andrew Ortenberg

After Anthony Barr ended his short-lived absence from the Vikings‘ offseason program and reported to the team, all appeared to be well in Minnesota. Beat reporters suggested there had been good talks between Barr and the Vikings and that a deal could get done soon. But now there appears to be more tension, and judging by Barr’s recent statements, a deal doesn’t seem to be on the horizon.

Barr, who is heading into the final year of his rookie deal, recently sat down for an interview with Nick Shook of NFL.com. The 2014 first-rounder deflected when asked about his contract and implied there had been little progress. About his deal, he said “it’s more about feeling valued and respected than the actual dollar amount” and added that while he wants “to be there long term… It’s not my decision; it’s on them, and I would like to get it.” Barr put the ball firmly in the Vikings’ court, and made it seem like the Vikings hadn’t made him an offer yet.

Here’s more from around the league:

  • The Seahawks could make a selection in the upcoming Supplemental Draft, speculates Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times. Condotta thinks Adonis Alexander “may be the most ‘Seahawky'” of the players available due to his arms being over the team’s required 32 inches in length. Alexander reportedly could go as high as the third round.
  • In a recent profile by Robert Klemko of SI.com, former Cowboys defensive end Greg Hardy revealed he took two visits to NFL teams after the Cowboys opted not to re-sign him, but his potential signing was ultimately shot down by the owners each time. Hardy had been accused of domestic violence and is currently pursuing a career in UFC.
  • The Broncos released veteran running back C.J. Anderson this offseason, and now appear ready to let rookie Royce Freeman be the leader of their ground game, according to Troy Renck of Denver 7. Renck said about Freeman, the third round pick out of Oregon, “I believe the kid starts in September.” If Freeman starts right away it could make returning young backs Devontae Booker and De’Angelo Henderson expendable.

PFR Originals: 6/17/18 – 6/24/18

June 24th, 2018 at 9:35pm CST by Andrew Ortenberg

The original content and analysis produced by the PFR staff during the past week:

 

Pro Football Rumors Features

June 20th, 2018 at 10:12am CST by Zachary Links

Pro Football Rumors passes along the latest news and rumors on NFL player movement 365 days a year, but those aren’t the only updates you’ll see on the site. On our right sidebar, you’ll find a number of additional features and featured posts. Here’s a rundown of a few of them:

  • You can download our app to follow the latest stories on PFR, MLB Trade Rumors, Hoops Rumors, and Pro Hockey Rumors. The Trade Rumors app is highly customizable, allowing you to add feeds for any of the 92 MLB, NBA, and NFL teams, as well as for any of the thousands of players in our archives.
  • While many of the top players have already come off the board, you can keep tabs on the remaining 2018 veteran free agents by position using our list, which will be updated throughout the summer.
  • Before free agency got underway, we examined the offseason plans for all 32 teams. Our team-by-team Offseason Outlook pieces can be found right here.
  • You can look back on the 2018 NFL Draft by round and by team.
  • We’ve seen a surprising number of trades go down recently in the NFL. You can revisit all of this year’s moves by using our recap of 2015 NFL trades.
  • The Pro Football Rumors glossary highlights a number of aspects of the NFL’s salary cap, free agency, and Collective Bargaining Agreement. Feel free to let us know if there’s a specific concept that you’d like us to discuss in a future Glossary piece.
  • We value your input at PFR, which is why we regularly publish polls to allow our readers to weigh in on the biggest stories in the league. You can find our poll archives here.
  • While a handful of our notable articles can be found under the “Featured Posts” section on the right sidebar, the PFR Originals archive rounds up all the original posts from our staff. Recently, we explained the finer points of contract incentives and checked in on this year’s big name holdouts.

PFR Commenting Policy

June 18th, 2018 at 10:30am CST by Zachary Links

Comments of this nature are not allowed at Pro Football Rumors:

  • Attacks or insults towards other commenters, the post author, journalists, teams, players, or agents.
  • Inappropriate language, including swearing and related censor bypass attempts, lewdness, insults, and crude terms for body parts, bodily functions, and physical acts. Overall, we don’t want any language that a parent would not want their kid to see.
  • Juvenile comments or extensive use of text message-type spelling.
  • Writing comments in all or mostly caps.
  • Spam-type links or self-promotion.
  • Comments about how you’re sick of this topic or it’s not newsworthy.
  • No inappropriate avatars or images are allowed.
  • Anything else we deem bad for business.

If you see comments that fit the above criteria, please flag them and/or contact us. Bans may be handed out liberally by our moderators, without second chances. Remaining civil is not that difficult though, and most commenters have no problems doing so, as well as helping rein each other in. We are grateful for all of our longtime commenters and readers, though this policy applies equally regardless of tenure. This policy is always available at the bottom of the site, and will be re-posted monthly.

AFC Notes: Ravens, Jackson, Chargers, Sturgis, Patriots, Rowe

June 16th, 2018 at 8:36pm CST by Andrew Ortenberg

As soon as the Ravens took Lamar Jackson with the 32nd overall pick in this year’s draft, many assumed the Joe Flacco-era in Baltimore was coming to an end. Although Flacco has reportedly shown well in OTAs and minicamp thus far and Jackson doesn’t appear to be a threat for the starting job in 2018, the Ravens are still thrilled with their rookie. All the reports this offseason indicate the Ravens have been very impressed by Jackson’s development.

With Flacco still in line to take all the snaps at quarterback, the team is now looking for alternative ways to get Jackson on the field. Jackson will certainly be active on game days, and will be used in a variety of unique packages which feature him and Flacco at the same time, according to Childs Walker of the Baltimore Sun. Ravens coach Jim Harbaugh sounded very excited about the prospect of having “two quarterbacks on the field at the same time.” The Ravens may use the packages as an opportunity to see how Jackson responds to being thrown into a real live NFL game. If he shows well, the team could decide to move on from Flacco after this season and still be alright financially despite Flacco’s hefty contract.

Here’s more from around the AFC:

  • The Chargers likely would’ve been a playoff team last year if not for their shaky kicking situation. As soon as the season ended, the team made aggressive moves to upgrade the position. They brought in former Buccaneers second round pick Roberto Aguayo and former Eagles kicker Caleb Sturgis to compete for the job. Despite Aguayo being the more high profile player and his second round pedigree, it’s “Sturgis’ job to lose” according to Eric D. Williams of ESPN (Twitter link).
  • Cornerback Eric Rowe isn’t a lock for the Patriots’ 53-man roster, opines Doug Kyed of NESN.com. Undrafted rookie J.C. Jackson has reportedly been running ahead of Rowe during OTAs and minicamp and despite Rowe being a fairly big name, Kyed says he “could see scenarios” where Rowe is on another roster come week 1.
  • In case you missed it, 2017 fifth-rounder Nathan Peterman may have a real shot at beating out A.J. McCarron and Josh Allen to be the Bills’ starting quarterback.

Following Specific NFL Players On PFR

June 15th, 2018 at 1:45pm CST by Zachary Links

As we’ve outlined before, there are a number of different ways to follow Pro Football Rumors via Facebook, Twitter, and RSS. If you don’t want to follow all the site’s updates, you can subscribe to team-specific or transaction-only Facebook, Twitter, and RSS feeds. Although we don’t have Facebook pages or Twitter feeds for specific players, it’s easy to follow all our updates on your favorite player as well.

If, for instance, you want to keep track of all the latest news and rumors on Steelers running back Le’Veon Bell as his extension deadline nears, you can visit this page. If you’re interested in keeping tabs on the latest rumors involving Julio Jones, who is pushing for a new deal of his own in Atlanta, you can find his page right here.

In addition to dedicating pages to players, we also maintain archives for certain specific non-NFL topics. For example, all our posts relating to the XFL can be found here, while our updates on the Alliance of American Football (AAF) are here.

Every player we’ve written about has his own rumors page, and each of those players also has his own RSS feed, making it even easier to follow the latest updates. Links to RSS feeds for specific players are all located on this page. You can also find links to RSS feeds for various miscellaneous categories there. For instance, if you only want to receive one update every Sunday recapping the week’s notable headlines, you can subscribe to our Week in Review RSS feed, right here.

NFC Notes: Vikings, Cardinals, Thomas

June 10th, 2018 at 9:08pm CST by Ben Levine

The Vikings roster is quickly getting expensive. As Chris Tomasson of TwinCities.com points out, six players have salary-cap numbers that exceed $10MM for next season: quarterback Kirk Cousins, cornerback Xavier Rhodes, linebacker Anthony Barr, defensive end Everson Griffen, offensive tackle Riley Reiff, and safety Harrison Smith. The team is also paying more than $8MM to defensive tackle defensive tackles Linval Joseph and Sheldon Richardson, and they still have to extend wideout Stefon Diggs and defensive end Danielle Hunter.

With money quickly running thin (the Vikings currently have $17MM in cap space, and Tomasson believes part of that will be used for extensions), general manager Rick Spielman acknowledged that it’s difficult managing the team’s budget.

“The hardest thing right now is the economic structure on our team where we have all these high-priced guys now because they all deserve to get paid the way they’ve been playing,’’ Spielman said. “But economically, we’re not going to go out there, you can’t play fantasy football and have $3 (million), $4 (million) or $5 million backup guys. Those are going to be the young guys that we’ve drafted or we’ve developed.’’

Of course, as he should, Spielman has an optimistic view of the cap crunch.

“It’s a good problem to have, but we have a very high-priced roster right now,’’ Spielman said. “And eventually some of those guys are going to get aged out, just like we had some of our other Pro Bowlers … and you have to replace them.”

Let’s take a look at some more notes from around the NFC…

This Date In Transactions History: Mark Sanchez

June 10th, 2018 at 10:49am CST by Andrew Ortenberg

Nine years ago today, the Jets agreed to terms on the biggest rookie deal in the history of the franchise. They committed $50MM over five years with $28MM guaranteed to the quarterback they thought was going to be their signal caller for many years to come.

When the Jets traded up with the Browns to secure the fifth overall pick in the 2009 draft and take Mark Sanchez, they thought they had found the franchise quarterback they had spent many years looking for. After just one season as the starter at USC, Sanchez declared early for the NFL draft. Sanchez’s deal with the Jets came during one of the last years where rookie contracts were still negotiable before everything switched to pre-arranged slot values. The contract was reportedly worth up to $60MM with incentives and was a bit unusual in that it was only for five years instead of six, which was the norm at the time for top picks.

The Sanchez era was a tumultuous one in New York, full of ups and downs. He started right away as a rookie and would go on to start all but two games for the Jets over the next four seasons. Despite mediocre to poor individual stats, the Jets made back-to-back AFC championship games in 2009 and 2010 with Sanchez under center. Sanchez enjoyed the best season of his career statistically in 2011, throwing for 3,474 yards and 26 touchdowns with 18 interceptions. Although the Jets missed the playoffs, the team rewarded Sanchez with a three year contract extension after the season.

After a down 2012 where Sanchez was at one point benched as he threw just 13 touchdowns and 18 interceptions, he would miss the entire 2013 season due to a shoulder injury. He wound up never playing another game for the Jets, as he was released after the 2013 season.

He did play out the entire five years of his rookie contract with the team, but Sanchez never played a year of the extension he signed after the 2011 season despite the Jets giving him an additional $20.5MM guaranteed. Sanchez has bounced around the league since his release, spending time with the Eagles, Broncos, and Bears. Although his tenure didn’t go as well as many hoped and expected, Sanchez was still the face of the franchise for almost five years, and June 10th will always be a significant date in Jets history.

 

Earl Thomas Will Continue Holdout, Not Report To Mandatory Minicamp

June 10th, 2018 at 10:00am CST by Andrew Ortenberg

Earl Thomas has been absent from the voluntary portions of the Seahawks’ offseason program, something not too uncommon for a player of his caliber. Most reporters covering the team have expected Thomas to show up when mandatory minicamp arrived with the potential for fines if Thomas continued to stay away.

But now Thomas has made it clear he will not be reporting until his contract demands are satisfied, announcing the news himself (Twitter link). In the post, Thomas says he will “not be attending the upcoming mini camp or any team activities until my contract situation is resolved.” The team can fine Thomas up to $84,435 if he misses all three days of the minicamp.

There were rumblings this offseason that the Seahawks may look to trade Thomas, with Thomas’ hometown Cowboys a popular rumored destination, but coach Pete Carroll appeared to put that talk to rest in April when he indicated the team was planning on having Thomas for the 2018 season. General manager John Schneider admitted at the time that the team considered trading Thomas, but said that “nothing was remotely close to happening.”

Today’s post by Thomas is sure to revive those trade rumors. Thomas is a Texas-native and it’s long been rumored that he’d like to play in Dallas. Thomas has played for the Seahawks since being taken by them in the first round back in 2010. He’s a five-time All-Pro and one of the best safeties in the league, but the team appears to have some concerns about his age and his health.

Reacting to the news from Thomas, Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times says that the issue isn’t whether the Seahawks have the salary cap space to give Thomas what he wants, but rather “it’s whether they want to give him that kind of a long-term contract at age 30 and beyond. That’s the issue.” (Twitter link). Thomas will turn 30 in May of next year.

Thomas did say in his statement that he wants to “remain a Seahawk” for the rest of his career, but that he feels he’s “earned the right to have this taken care of as soon as possible.” Thomas is currently set to be a free agent at the end of this season. Whatever happens next, it’ll be a situation worth monitoring this summer.

AFC Notes: Brady, Gates, Peterson, Titans

June 9th, 2018 at 5:04pm CST by Andrew Ortenberg

In a recent opinion piece, Ben Volin of the Boston Globe makes the case that Tom Brady didn’t hold up his end of the bargain in trying to quell concerns about drama within the Patriots organization. Volin argues that coach Bill Belichick and Rob Gronkowski both did their best to assure the media and the public that all was good in New England, but that Brady raised more questions than he answered during his brief media availability.

Volin writes that the Patriots’ goal when Gronkowski and Brady finally returned to the team was to “show a united front, and squash all of the drama”, but that Brady failed to do so. According to Volin, Belichick did a “superb job” and Gronkowski did a “great job of explaining himself too”, but that Brady seemed like “he wants the drama to linger, to let it be known that he’s still upset with Belichick and the organization.”

Whatever is going on with the Patriots, it seems to be a saga with no end in sight. The issues likely won’t be put to rest for good until the team take the field in 2018 and shows they can still play at a championship level even with all the off-field distractions.

Here’s more from around the AFC:

  • Antonio Gates isn’t a realistic candidate to be signed by the Bills, according to Jay Skurski of the Buffalo News. Despite the Bills being a bit thin at tight end behind Charles Clay, Skurski thinks the Bills would rather develop the young tight ends on their roster.
  • Adrian Peterson would like to play for the Texans, he told Mark Berman of Fox 26 (Twitter link). Peterson said “I would definitely love to be here in Houston. I think I can help them out tremendously..I still got it.” Peterson has repeatedly expressed his desire to continue playing, but hasn’t drawn much interest.
  • Rookie tight end Ethan Wolf is a “long shot” to make the Titans roster, according to Jim Wyatt of Titansonline.com. Wyatt thinks he’ll end up on the outside looking in due to the Titans’ full tight end depth-chart, but that he’s a potential practice squad candidate.
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