NFL News

[Futureshock]

Vikings would “ideally” like to have next quarterback behind Kirk Cousins for a year

Posted by Josh Alper on April 13, 2023, 4:56 PM EDT

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Kirk Cousins is in the final year of his contract with the Vikings and the team’s plans for the position after Cousins were part of the discussion at a press conference on Thursday.

General Manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah said that he doesn’t think there’s “one right answer” to handling a change at the quarterback position, but admitted that you would “ideally” have a year with the next quarterback in the building before he took over as the starter. Head coach Kevin O’Connell used similar language in his answer before noting that the team has to have firm conviction about someone being the right fit before putting anything like that in motion.

“Ideally you would like to have that person in that role developing behind a great player like Kirk, but I don’t think you ever sacrifice it being the right player,” O’Connell said. “Regardless of the when, where, why, how, you can’t sacrifice that. You have to have ultra belief and connection on making that decision because it is such an important decision.”

If the Vikings do make such an addition, it would likely come in the draft later this month. Adofo-Mensah didn’t commit to any course of action, however.

“Quarterback is the most important position in our sport,” Adofo-Mensah said. “Ultimately, Kevin and I — these aren’t things you just kind of decide in the moment. You have to have plans, you have to have strategies, you have to have different ways of getting to that answer. We’ve had these conversations, they’re ongoing. There’s lots of different avenues in terms of addressing that position. I wouldn’t necessarily box us in to just one. We do know it’s the most important position in this sport and we’ll treat it with that kind of importance.”

Passing on quarterbacks in the draft without extending Cousins would set the Vikings up for an interesting offseason in 2024.

[Futureshock]

DALVIN COOKRB, MINNESOTA VIKINGS
Asked about Dalvin Cook being on the roster this season, Vikings GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah said "conversations are always ongoing with him."


In other words, not a yes. Adofo-Mensah also said when asked about committing to Alexander Mattison this offseason that "In theory I think they could exist, of course" about Mattison and Cook in the same backfield. It sounds like both players are going to be held into the draft as potential trade assets for Minnesota.

SOURCE: Kevin Seifert on Twitter
Apr 13, 2023, 4:27 PM ET

[Futureshock]

DAN SNYDERO, WASHINGTON COMMANDERS
Sportico reports Commanders owner Daniel Snyder has agreed to sell the team for $6 billion to Philadelphia 76ers/New Jersey Devils owner Josh Harris.


If true — and there is no reason to believe it isn't — the $6 billion price tag would obliterate the previous $4.65 billion record set by the Broncos' sale. Of course, it also seems like something of a disappointment considering some of the rumored prices. The Commanders are a distressed asset after two-plus decades of Snyder's disastrous control, but they are still one of only 32 NFL teams in the world. They are also a sleeping giant. The Commanders had one of the league's most passionate fanbases until Snyder did everything he could to destroy it. It's also a monster, growing market. If Harris can walk, chew gum and avoid filing frivolous lawsuits at the same time, he could oversee a quick turnaround for this storied franchise. Snyder will retreat to his super yacht to watch Marvel movies on his personal IMAX.

SOURCE: Sportico on Twitter
Apr 13, 2023, 1:25 PM ET

[Futureshock]

https://www.the33rdteam.com/category/nfl-draft/biggest-question-facing-each-nfl-division-entering-2023-nfl-draft/

NFL DRAFT Biggest Question Facing Each NFL Division Entering 2023 NFL Draft

Jeff DiamondAward-Winning NFL Executive

NFC North

Is Detroit ready to take control of the division after its 2022 rise?

The Detroit Lions are the team to watch in this division even after the Minnesota Vikings won 13 games and ran away with the NFC North title last season. After a 1-6 start, Coach Dan Campbell’s feisty Lions won six of the next seven games (including an 11-point home victory over Minnesota) and only a poor performance in their Week 16 loss in Carolina kept Detroit out of the playoffs. They knocked Green Bay out of a playoff spot in Rodgers’ final game as a Packer.

So the arrow was already pointing up for the Lions, who had a top-five offense led by revived quarterback Jared Goff. Then the team made major strides toward improving their league-worst defense through free agent signings of solid cornerbacks Cam Sutton and Emmanuel Mosley plus an excellent safety in Gardner Johnson, whose six interceptions for the Eagles last season tied for the league lead). Running back David Montgomery was signed to replace Jamaal Williams, who had a league-leading 17 rushing touchdowns, and the Lions hope D’Andre Swift can stay healthy and provide a change of pace from Montgomery.

The Lions’ haul from the Matthew Stafford trade continues with them holding the Rams’ No. 6 overall pick in this month’s draft. Detroit has its own No. 18 pick, so they have a good opportunity to further improve their defensive line and secondary with these picks.

The Packers will begin the Jordan Love era and the Bears are in transition with a lot of new talent incoming, so it should be Detroit and Minnesota at the top of the NFC North. We’ll see if the Lions can take the next step to their first divisional title since 1993.

[wcfwtf]

No excuses for the Carolina game but what knocked the Lions out of the playoffs was the shit job by the refs officiating the Rams Seahawks game.

[El Axe]

No excuses for the Carolina game but what knocked the Lions out of the playoffs was the shit job by the refs officiating the Rams Seahawks game.

I loved how Rich Eisen acknowledged that in his Coach Campbell interview: "There was a lot that went down in the last week that did not go your way and, quite honestly, should have...that happened in Seattle"

[Mainevent]

Well, there’s your baseline for Lamar discussions.

The Philadelphia Eagles and quarterback Jalen Hurts have reached agreement on a five-year, $255 million extension, including $179.304 million guaranteed, a source told ESPN's Adam Schefter on Monday.

With the deal Hurts becomes the highest-paid player in NFL history.

Hurts extension includes a no-trade clause -- a first in the Eagles' history, a source told Schefter.

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/...gree-255m-deal

[Futureshock]

That's a lot of Burgers

[Futureshock]

FMIA: Snyder’s Long Goodbye, and the First-Round Case for Bijan Robinson

Posted by Peter King on April 17, 2023, 12:13 AM EDT

Geoff Burke/USA TODAY Sports

I’m going to top the column today with news that’ll make sports fans in the Washington area weep tears of joy. They’re already weeping. Now, I know the Caps won the Stanley Cup in 2018, and that’s fantastic, and the Mystics won the WNBA a year later, and Nationals shocked the Astros to win the [more]

...Four big names in the first round I heard a lot about in recent days. I cast a wide net. I listen. I pry with people I’ve known for a while.

Bryce Young is (no pun intended) head-and-shoulders in the lead to be the first pick in the draft.

Tyree Wilson, the Texas Tech pass-rusher, might be in competition with Alabama’s Will Anderson for the top defensive prospect on Houston’s draft board, and that could mean something if the Texans aren’t quite as smitten with C.J. Stroud as Mock Draft World thinks.

Jalen Carter has two visits to top-10 teams left before Wednesday’s deadline for players to make pre-draft visits to teams. That’s what agent Drew Rosenhaus told me Saturday. I’ll tell you the team that is the most perfect fit for Carter in the NFL: the Pittsburgh Steelers, who’d have to trade up from 17 to get him.

Jaxon Smith-Njigba had a left hamstring injury last year. He had a gigantic 2021 season at Ohio State, then played only 60 snaps in 2022, and I’m hearing some reticence about taking a guy 12^th or 18^th in the first round when, in a 4.5-month season, he managed to play the equivalent of one football game with a hamstring injury.

This might sound crazy, but I’m not sure how many teams will be aggressive in trying to move up for C.J. Stroud if Bryce Young goes first to Carolina.

All the anti-Bijan-Robinson-in-the-first-round folks, hear this: There’s this reticence to pick a running back in the first round because he might not be around for a second contract. Fact is, most first-round picks don’t sign second contracts. Per overthecap.com, 31 percent of first-round picks from 2011-’14 signed second contracts with teams, and well under half the players from 2011 to 2019 (the last year we’d be able to figure if first-rounders got second contracts) re-signed.

One other Bijanism. His college coach, Steve Sarkisian, told me Robinson could be a slot receiver, regularly, in the NFL. I’ve got the clip to convince you. “I probably made a couple of receivers on our team mad last season,” Sarkisian said, “but he had the best hands on our team.”

>I'd have no problem with him being drafted by the Lions. I usually am not a 1st rd RB guy, but I trust this group and if that is the best player FOR US, then let's go.

> And, that statement about, "some reticence about taking a guy 12^th or 18^th..." Well, we pick 18th, so did someone in AP spill the beans that they don't like JSN?

[Futureshock]

More from Peter King...

What I’m Hearing

I pass these mini-nuggets along as a fan service. They are among the things I’m hearing about the top of the 2023 draft.

• This doesn’t mean anything on the surface, because the way “reporting” works this time of year, things that make sense get repeated and repeated and repeated and it all becomes one giant Insider Echo Chamber. But I didn’t hear anyone, in calls Friday through Sunday, who thinks the first pick won’t be Bryce Young. He may not be. I’m just telling you what’s out there.
• I will not be surprised if, in the Edge category, Tyree Wilson is picked ahead of Will Anderson. I particularly will not be surprised if Houston—whether at two or through a trade-down if the Texans don’t take a quarterback—takes Wilson over Anderson. “DeMeco Ryans could look at Wilson after his year in San Francisco and say, ‘I got my Nick Bosa,’” said someone in the league who knows Ryans.
• One coach with a pick in the top 10: “Wilson will be a better pro than Anderson.”
• I’m like you. I hear the Houston’s souring on Stroud stuff, and I just can’t believe the Texans wouldn’t take a quarterback high in this draft. How would Cal McNair answer to his disaffected season-ticketholders if, after passing on a quarterback with the third and 15^th picks in the first round last year, he passes on a quarterback at number two this year? It’s the job of coaches to get the best out of players, and there’s certainly enough potential in C.J. Stroud—should he be there for Houston at two—for the Texans’ coaches to make a good NFL QB out of him.
• An increasing number of people around the league think Jalen Carter has done enough in his visits to not sink like a stone on draft night. (More on Carter in my next section.) It’s become almost a cliché, how many team officials think the Seahawks will take Carter with the fifth overall pick.
• Best rumor of the week: Steelers trading up from 17 to nine if Carter’s there. There could not be a more perfect coach for Carter than Mike Tomlin.
• Carolina owner David Tepper has not been overbearing in the QB-search process. I can hear it now: You’re giving us a sanitized version of this to get on Tepper’s good side. Uh, I’ve never met the man. I could care less about buttering up David Tepper. I’m just telling you the real stuff.
• Peter Skoronski’s an interesting case. The Northwestern tackle has the dreaded short-arm plague, and two teams in the top 10 see him now as a guard. So what? Guard Chris Lindstrom got drafted 14^th by the Falcons in 2019, and he’s now a cornerstone player in Atlanta. Ditto Zack Martin (16^th) in Dallas, and with a slightly smaller exclamation point, Quenton Nelson (sixth) in Indy. All got second contracts. If Skoronski’s a great guard, getting picked ninth or 12^th or 15^th is absolutely fine.
• This is not an overriding negative on Jaxon Smith-Njigba, an excellent receiver prospect. But the Ohio State football season was five months long last year, including practice, and Smith-Njigba got a left hamstring injury early, and he played 60 snaps total in three games, and never got on the field in the last 10 weeks. He runs a 4.48 40-. I’m not the only one wondering: How is Jaxon Smith-Njigba the top-rated receiver on so many boards with 10 days to go?

---

On Jalen Carter. Interesting to note that last week, Georgia defensive tackle Jalen Carter was on the list of draftees who will be in Kansas City on Thursday night for the first round. On Saturday, his agent, Drew Rosenhaus, told me: “We definitely would have skipped it if I thought there was the potential of him falling out of the top 10. I’m not concerned in the slightest about that.”

Carter is the lightning rod prospect in this draft after pleading no contest to charges of racing and reckless driving connected with the deaths of a teammate and Georgia football staffer in another car earlier this year. Some thought his draft prospects would plummet after he was sentenced to 12 months of probation, a $1,000 fine and 50 hours of community service. Since then, Rosenhaus said Carter would make visits to teams only in the top 10 of the first round; if other teams wanted to talk to him, they could travel to Carter’s home of Apopka, Fla. Entering this week, he’s made visits to four teams (Seattle, Las Vegas, Chicago and Philadelphia) and Rosenhaus said there will be two more this week before the league shuts off visits on Wednesday. Adam Schefter reported one of the visits will be to Detroit today.

“The goal has been to educate teams about Jalen and the case and who he is,” Rosenhaus said. “It hasn’t been an easy process, but I do think it’s been good for Jalen to get out and see the teams. I think there’s a very good chance he’ll go in the top five.”

Lots of teams look at the fifth slot—Seattle, with Mr. Positive, Pete Carroll, as coach—and automatically think it’s a good shot. It may well be. Detroit, at six, and Chicago and Philly, at nine and 10, also seem to be in play. Who takes the risk on Carter, and who gambles on the potential reward, is going to be one of the big stories of round one.

[ghandi]

No excuses for the Carolina game but what knocked the Lions out of the playoffs was the shit job by the refs officiating the Rams Seahawks game.

Its too bad because I think alot of us wanted to see Jared Goff in a playoff game on the road......Until we see how he performs in that situation, it is going to be difficult to give him that next big contract.

[Futureshock]

Nick Caserio says “I’m not leaving”

Posted by Mike Florio on April 17, 2023, 12:53 PM EDT

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The gif of Leonardo DiCaprio declaring “I’m not leaving” often shows up, in various contexts. It’s apparently extremely relevant in this one.

During his pre-draft press conference, Texans G.M. Nick Caserio addressed persistent rumors that he might leave the team after the draft.

“Before we take any questions, quite frankly, I’m almost embarrassed that I have to say anything,” Caserio said at the outset of the media availability. “Honestly, I feel sort of like Leonardo DiCaprio in Wolf of Wall Street. I’m not leaving. There’s never really been any substantive discussions of the sort. Grateful and appreciate of the opportunity that my family and I have here in Houston. We understood when we arrived, when we got here, there was a lot of work to be done. And I think when you look across the NFL landscape, there’s a lot of work to be done in every organization. I think we’ve made some progress. We still have a lot of work in front of us.”

He attributed the chatter to “information and topics” that emerge at this time of year, and that “some are more accurate than others.” He also said he felt an obligation to address the issue in order to “stay ahead of it.”

During the questioning, the topic apparently came up (it was impossible to hear the reporter). Caserio said this: “Again, you guys know more than I do. Again, I mean, my first inclination, you know, people are reaching out to me last week, and I’m like literally laughing. So I can’t speak for anybody else other than myself. So, I mean, again, maybe you can do some digging on that.”

This all seems to address the question of whether Caserio would leave on his own. It doesn’t rule out conclusively the possibility that somebody else (as in ownership) could want to make a change.

And that basically compels ownership to corroborate Caserio’s comments in order to put the issue to bed.

[Topweasel]

Its too bad because I think alot of us wanted to see Jared Goff in a playoff game on the road......Until we see how he performs in that situation, it is going to be difficult to give him that next big contract.

It wasn't top Erin Rodgers as the other QB, but we went into a division rival, in their weather, in a place we have always struggled to win, in a game that didn't mean much to us, but was a win and in game for them and I thought he played admirably. You can't get much more playoff like than that (other than you know, being in a playoff game). True we could play more open because the end wouldn't have impacted us either way. But it was still as close to a statement game you could have last season and we made the statement and I think Jared did as well. I don't know if we pass on Anthony Richardson if he is available, having Goff actually makes that a better prospect, we could carry him for years as a backup qb and sub him in for plays built around him. But if I had to decide now? I extend Goff and go for a couple really raw, but pretty athletic or big armed guys in the 2nd to 4th, to get a true backup or possible late career replacement for Goff. That said Goff might be one of those QB's that trail off after you extend them, he did as much with the Rams and we don't know how much of that was on McVay. I would worry more about that rather then if Goff can be our long term guy. He took a team with almost no def to within a half game of the play-offs, and got a team to the super bowl. We can win with him.

[Futureshock]

Brian Davis emerges late in the Commanders with a reported $7 billion bid

Posted by Mike Florio on April 18, 2023, 6:43 AM EDT

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No, nothing about the process of selling the Commanders will be easy.

Over the weekend, a fringe candidate to purchase the team gathered a little momentum, courtesy of a story published by WUSA9.

Brian Davis, a former Duke basketball player who spent two years in the NBA, reportedly has offered $7 billion for the team. His bid reportedly remains in play.

The Davis bid first surfaced last month, via a report from 106.7 The Fan in D.C. WUSA has confirmed the report, by obtaining documents reflecting the details of the bid that Davis made on March 21. The documents reportedly show that Davis will pay the first $1 billion within 24 hours, and another $6 billion within seven days.

It’s unclear why the Davis bid hasn’t been taken more seriously. The structure of the offer becomes critical, given the limits on borrowing and the minimum cash investment that the primary owner must make. The controlling owner must be able to pay for 30 percent of the team.

In this case, that’s $2.1 billion. Cash. The primary owner then must have sufficient remaining resources to operate the team.

So while it’s possible that Davis has cobbled together $7 billion in cash commitment and loans and everything else needed to come up with $7 billion to give to Snyder, the question is whether Davis himself can personally transfer $2.1 billion of his own money.

The other question is whether the league would revise its rules, given that Davis would be the first Black primary owner of any NFL team.

The fact that this bid hasn’t gotten more traction suggests that something is keeping it from being regarded as a viable alternative to the Josh Harris bid of only $6 billion. If Davis or anyone else can plunk down $7 billion with all structural rules satisfied, why wouldn’t the NFL want that?

Again, the only test to being an owner of an NFL team is having the cash to buy it. There’s no entrance exam. No good-citizen requirement (even if there should be). It’s all about offering the most money — and being able to raise it in a way that meshes with the NFL’s rules.

[Futureshock]

He maintains a close friendship with former Timberwolves teammate Christian Laettner, with the two pursuing multiple sports ventures together. Such businesses include real estate development and founding D.C. United Holdings in 2007 as a holding company for D.C. United of Major League Soccer.^[1]