NFL News

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Staying in LA

Chargers sign Troy Reeder

Posted by Michael David Smith on April 12, 2022, 4:09 PM EDT

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Troy Reeder has left the Rams but won’t leave Los Angeles.

Reeder, a free agent linebacker, signed with the Chargers today.

The Rams decided not to tender Reeder as a restricted free agent even though he started 10 games last season and was the player who wore the green dot on his helmet as the defensive play caller for part of the playoffs.

Reeder joined the Rams as an undrafted rookie out of Delaware in 2019. In three seasons he has played in all 49 games with 25 starts.

In 2020 Reeder played under Chargers head coach Brandon Staley, who was then the Rams’ defensive coordinator.

[Futureshock]

Courtland Sutton: The juice is just different with Russell Wilson

Posted by Josh Alper on April 12, 2022, 3:19 PM EDT

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The Broncos have started their offseason program and that’s giving their players a chance to feel what life is like with quarterback Russell Wilson as a teammate.

Wilson’s arrival in a March trade with the Seahawks shook up the outlook for the Broncos in new head coach Nathaniel Hackett’s first season on the job. The team has been searching for a high-level quarterback since Peyton Manning retired and landing Wilson ratchets up the expectations in Denver.

Wide receiver Courtland Sutton said at a Tuesday press conference that it has already become clear that “we have to operate at a different standard” now that Wilson is in town.

“You all can feel it, we all can feel it,” Sutton said. “The juice is just different. . . . Knowing that we have a guy that has been at the top of that mountain before, has won a Super Bowl before, does know what it’s like to be at the highest level and lead his team to the Super Bowl.”

Sutton returned from a torn ACL to catch 58 passes for 776 yards and two touchdowns last season. An offseason free of rehab and an upgrade at quarterback bode well for his chances of reaching the raised bar in Denver.

[Futureshock]

Their GM is still crap but they will be coached better


Trevor Lawrence pleased with new coach Doug Pederson, says they’re on the same page

Posted by Michael David Smith on April 12, 2022, 3:09 PM EDT

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Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence suffered through an ugly rookie season last year, one that saw head coach Urban Meyer last just 13 games. Lawrence thinks he and new head coach Doug Pederson will be together a lot longer than that.

Lawrence said today that Pederson is just the kind of leader the Jaguars need.

“I really like his demeanor. He’s really, really calm,” Lawrence said of Pederson. “Never gets too high or too low, I really like that. That’s the type of guy I like to be around. Offensively he brings a lot of different things to the table.”

Lawrence said he and Pederson are off to a great start.

“I think we align pretty well and we’re on the same page,” Lawrence said.

When the Jaguars drafted Lawrence, their expectation was that he’ll be the franchise quarterback for many years to come. They need Pederson to develop him in a way that Meyer proved incapable of.

[Futureshock]

April 13, 2022 - Field Level Media
REPORT: RAIDERS’ DEREK CARR AGREES TO 3-YEAR, $121.5M EXTENSION


Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Derek Carr agreed to terms on a three-year contract extension worth $1... Read More

[Forsh]

Carr is solid, and there aren't a ton of solid QB out there.

[JGSpartan]

Carr is a guy you pay. Too many teams give up on QB's before they ever give them anything to work with. Carr's been solid whenever they've had his weapons healthy. Now they have more.

[jaadam4]

I’ve never been a Carr fan but he’s put up decent numbers.

[Futureshock]

NFLPA silent, for now, on possible diversion of funds from salary cap by Washington

Posted by Mike Florio on April 13, 2022, 8:46 PM EDT

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The other 31 owners may not have been the only victims of the alleged Washington Commanders scheme to divert revenue from NFL games to other events held at FedEx Field. If the allegations regarding a ticket-sales shell game are true, the NFL Players Association may have something to say about the situation.

It’s a simple proposition. If money was moved from league revenues to non-league revenues, that money never made it into the calculation drives the salary cap. Which means that the salary cap was lower than it should have been.

The NFLPA has not yet issued a statement on the matter. Obviously, any type of financial shenanigans become a legitimate concern for the union. In 2016, the NFLPA won a legal battle with the league regarding the allegedly improper diversion of funds from the salary-cap fund to a nonexistent stadium-renovation exception.

Thus, it’s likely the union won’t remain silent about this. If money was stolen from the league by the Commanders, it also was stolen from the players. And if the other owners are upset about this (as they should be), the players should be upset about it, too.

[Futureshock]

Baker Mayfield: It’s fine if guys don’t like me, but I have to earn their respect

Posted by Myles Simmons on April 13, 2022, 8:18 PM EDT

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Quarterback Baker Mayfield said plenty during his lengthy appearance on the YNK Podcast, including that he felt disrespected by the Browns.

But Mayfield also acknowledged that he plans on doing some things differently when it comes to leadership at his next stop — wherever that may be.

Toward the end of the 90-minute interview, Mayfield was asked if he was excited to get guys to rally around him in a new locker room. The quarterback made it clear that his process isn’t going to be about trying to get guys to like him.

“I’m not going to force it. I’m going to be myself,” Mayfield said. “Because I feel like I tried to force it when things on the field weren’t going well, like in the past couple of years. I feel like I’m going to go in there and be myself, because that’s worked for me in the past. I’m going to go in with the same work ethic and mentality. And if they don’t like me, that’s fine. But when I step on the field and I play as confident as I am and what I think I’m going to do on the field the next time I get a chance to do it, I’ll earn the respect of the guys who didn’t appreciate it from the beginning.

“And if I’m worried about getting them to like me, what am I doing? They don’t care if I like them either. They want their quarterback to win. They’re trying to get a paycheck. If their team wins, they get paid. So the guys who don’t really personally like me, that’s fine. But I have to have their respect. And the way I do that is just working my ass off, being myself. Because you can get sniffed out in a f—ing heartbeat if you’re fake. They’ll sniff that out quick.”

Mayfield wasn’t asked about the report from ESPN’s Chris Mortensen that the Browns wanted “an adult” at quarterback — a comment Browns owner Jimmy Haslam denied making. But the quarterback did acknowledge that he’s working on improving at leading professional teammates in the locker room.

As Mayfield put it, one of a quarterback’s most important jobs is to get everyone to stave off complacency.

“It’s like, how can I get the best out of people that are making a s—t-ton of money?” Mayfield said. “Because I could always motivate people when we weren’t making money. That was easy. I could get in their face, I could do all that because, you know what, we were on the same playing field.

“You get a pension after four years, you get benefits and all that. So how do you motivate people who are at that point that have already reached it? That’s the biggest battle for me right now. I can motivate myself. I know how to do that. I haven’t done it, always, correctly. But I know how to do it. How can I get it out of everybody else? Because that’s a leadership perspective of being a quarterback. I have to get everybody else around me to be better than they really think they are.”

Mayfield added “a bunch” of his energy is going into his leadership, in part because he knows how he’s perceived and portrayed through the media matters for his teammates and their families.

“When they go home at night, they’re going to talk about how my quarterback acts,” Mayfield said. “And he better be a responsible guy that actually cares about them as human beings — not just winning. And how do you galvanize that? And that’s a huge issue.”

At this point, no one really knows where Mayfield’s next destination will be or when he’ll get there. But whoever he plays for could be getting a quarterback with a renewed appreciation for leadership and how much it matters as a team’s QB1.

[Futureshock]

Derek Carr: Throwing to Davante Adams again is like riding a bike

Posted by Myles Simmons on April 13, 2022, 3:40 PM EDT

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The Raiders shook up the AFC West when they traded for receiver Davante Adams and gave him a lucrative contract.

But that decision to bring in Adams also allowed the receiver to realize a long-establish dream with his college quarterback.

Las Vegas signed Derek Carr to a three-year contract extension on Wednesday, which potentially keeps him a Raider through the 2025 season. In Carr’s Wednesday press conference, he told reporters that it’s been “so good” to have Adams as his teammate again.

“It’s been a couple of years since we got to throw together because when we moved from the Bay, again, we were like almost neighbors,” Carr said. “And we’ve always been close, having dinner at each other’s houses and things like that. And then when we moved, obviously he’s not coming out here, I wasn’t going back to the Bay. But I told my brothers — I said after the first time we threw, they’re like, ‘How was it?’ I was like, ‘Honestly, it was like riding a bike.’ Every ball is right here and the guy is so freakishly talented, he makes me look better than I actually am.

“It’s a blessing to be able to play with him not only because of the player he is, but he’s one of my best friends in the whole world. We’ve tried to plot and scheme this thing for a long time, you know? But at the end of the day, we both loved our situations. He had a great situation, I had a great situation. But we always talked about it, one day we were going to make it happen. And the opportunity came and we worked hard to try and make that happen. And the fact that it’s here, it’s exciting. We’ve had success together, but that was at the college level — completely different. But we do have confidence that we can do it at this level, too.”

Carr and Adams were teammates at Fresno State, with Adams catching 233 passes for 3,031 yards with 38 touchdowns in their two shared seasons from 2012-2013.

They were then both selected in the second round of the 2014 draft, with Carr going to the Raiders at No. 36 overall and Adams going to the Packers at No. 53 overall.

[Futureshock]

Cam Robinson signs his franchise tender

Posted by Josh Alper on April 13, 2022, 2:46 PM EDT

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Jaguars left tackle Cam Robinson played out the 2021 season under the terms of the franchise tag and he’s prepared to do the same this season.

The Jaguars announced that Robinson signed his franchise tender on Wednesday afternoon. The two sides will still be able to talk about a long-term contract and they’ll have until July 15 to work one out before Robinson will be locked into playing on the tag.

If he does play on the tag, Robinson will make a salary of $16.662 million. He made $13.75 million during the 2021 season.

Robinson has started all 61 games that he’s played since joining the Jaguars as a 2017 second-round pick. He’s one of four current Jaguars who were drafted by the team and went on to sign a second contract with the team.

[Futureshock]

Sammy Watkins visiting Packers

Posted by Michael David Smith on April 14, 2022, 11:59 AM EDT

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Free agent wide receiver Sammy Watkins is taking a visit to Green Bay.

The Packers are hosting Watkins today, Mike Garafolo of NFL Network reports.

Watkins spent last year with the Ravens and had a disappointing season, with career-lows in catches (27), yards (394) and touchdowns (one).

But while Watkins has never lived up to the hype since the Bills took him with the fourth overall pick in the 2014 NFL draft, he has undeniable talent, and pairing him with Aaron Rodgers could give him an opportunity to make plays.

The 28-year-old Watkins spent three seasons on the Bills, one on the Rams and three on the Chiefs before landing in Baltimore last year. His career-best season came in his second year in Buffalo, when he caught 60 passes for 1,047 yards and nine touchdowns, with an average of 10.9 yards per target.

[Futureshock]

They just may have a case...


Should NFL explore possible tampering by Dolphins with Tom Brady?

Posted by Mike Florio on April 14, 2022, 10:44 AM EDT

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Simms and I first talked about it on February 28. Since then, the news of the Dolphins targeting both Sean Payton and Tom Brady in the weeks preceding the Brian Flores lawsuit has slowly spread, with more people adding details to the reporting — even as the biggest outlets covering the NFL (ESPN and NFL Network) have completely ignored it.

The story has grown longer legs. More and more media and fans are waking up to it, even if the outlet that first reported it has gotten lost in the sauce. (Twice on Wednesday, for example, I was asked what I think of the Brady to Miami rumors.)

Here’s a summary of the reporting we’ve done. The Dolphins wanted Brady and Payton. The Dolphins eventually admitted publicly that they called the Saints about Payton. The Dolphins privately acknowledge that they had conversations about making Brady a minority owner. But for the Flores lawsuit, he would have been made a minority owner as soon as the week preceding the Super Bowl. Then, the move would have been made for Payton. Later in the spring, Brady’s rights as a player would have been acquired by the Dolphins.

Charles Robinson of Yahoo Sports, who has added to this broader chain of reporting, has raised a very good question. Should the NFL be investigating the Dolphins for tampering with Brady?

The easy answer is absolutely yes. Many believe that Brady is the unnamed quarterback in the Flores lawsuit with whom owner Stephen Ross wanted Flores to tamper in 2020. If the Dolphins had a plan that started with Brady becoming a post-retirement minority owner and ended with Brady coming out of retirement to play for the team, there surely were one or more impermissible communications between the Dolphins and/or Brady and/or his agent, Don Yee (who also represents Payton).

But here’s the reality. The NFL rarely enforces the tampering rules. Because everyone tampers. Sometimes, but not often, they’ll nail someone to send a message. If the league wanted to investigate the Dolphins for tampering with Brady, they easily could.

And the Buccaneers could easily make a tampering claim. The Dolphins’ defense quite possibly would include pointing out that the Buccaneers tampered with Brady in 2020. Because they definitely did.

Tampering runs rampant in the NFL. The risk-reward calculation always favors it, since the risk of getting caught is low. Hell, former Buccaneers coach Bruce Arians openly stated his interest in Brady while Brady was still under contract with the Patriots in 2020, and the league never said a word about it.

The league surely realizes that it lacks the infrastructure to properly police tampering. Also, the league most likely isn’t inclined to find, over and over again, that teams cheat so brazenly. Although the NFL has ultimate responsibility for enforcing its rules, the NFL has ultimate accountability for the ensuing tarnish to Big Shield that arises from instance after instance of team being punished for breaking the rules.

So the league looks the other way. Just as it has in the past. Just as it will with the evidence it easily would find if it were to investigate whether the Dolphins have tampered with Brady.

[Futureshock]

Colts sign Stephon Gilmore

Posted by Michael David Smith on April 15, 2022, 10:03 AM EDT

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The top available free agent has found his next team.

Veteran cornerback Stephon Gilmore is signing with the Colts.

Gilmore was the No. 18 player on our list of the NFL’s Top 100 free agents, and the highest-ranked player who wasn’t already spoken for. (Tyrann Mathieu is now our top-ranked available player.)

Last season Gilmore was traded by the Patriots to the Panthers and struggled through injuries, eventually playing only half the season and usually not starting when he did play. But at his best he’s been one of the top cornerbacks in the NFL, and in 2019 he was the league’s defensive player of the year.

Gilmore will turn 32 in September, but the Colts still think he has something left, and after acquiring Matt Ryan, the Colts have now made another move that shows they view themselves as contenders in win-now mode.

[Futureshock]

Derek Carr: Josh McDaniels has something for everybody in his playbook

Posted by Myles Simmons on April 15, 2022, 9:51 AM EDT

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Raiders quarterback Derek Carr went through several offensive playbooks and play-callers early on in his career.

But things were more consistent over the last few years until Jon Gruden’s abrupt resignation set off a chain of events that eventually led to Josh McDaniels becoming the team’s head coach in January.

Now entering his ninth season, Carr’s familiarizing himself with the Xs and Os of McDaniels’ playbook. Carr was asked at his Wednesday press conference how similar or different the new playbook is to what he was running before.

“‘Gru’ had so much. He had something for everybody, and I thought that was really cool. And so does Josh, he has something for everybody,” Carr said. “It’s going to take a lot of work for our guys to learn it. And we’ve already started that process, but usually with the teams that have the most success like he has had the last 20 years or so, there’s usually a good amount of volume there. But at the same time, he’s all about playing fast.

“And so, I’m excited. I really am excited. Obviously, it’s different. But the same amount of work is going to be required to get it done.”

With rookie Mac Jones at quarterback last year, the Patriots finished the season sixth in points scored and 15th in yards. Between Gruden and former offensive coordinator Greg Olson calling the plays for Las Vegas, the Raiders were 18th in scoring and 11th in yards gained in 2021.