NFL - NEWS & NOTES

Deep thoughts....by bears fan.

 

Storm clouds gather for Todd Gurley, Rams



It’s been clear for months that the Rams have a huge decision to make regarding running back Todd Gurley‘s contract. In the coming days and weeks, it all will be coming to a head.

With another $10.5 million in compensation under Gurley’s blockbuster deal due to become fully guaranteed on March 20, the Rams reportedly want to meet with Gurley.

The Rams surely regretted the Gurley contract, signed in June 2018, by the time its first year concluded. In 2019, he became a part-time player whose abilities and contributions simply don’t justify the terms to which the Rams have committed.

He received $21 million to sign, part of $34.5 million in guarantees that fully vested last March. If they’d cut him now, Gurley would walk away with $17.25 million per year for two seasons. (Of the $34.5 million, $31.95 million would not be subject to offset.)

Keeping Gurley beyond March 20 means that his $5.5 million base salary for 2020 along with a $5 million roster bonus for 2021 will become fully guaranteed. He’s also due make $5 million in base salary in 2021.

So it’s not hard to guess the subject of the meeting. The Rams, I believe, will tell Gurley that they want to keep him, but that they can’t justify keeping him under the terms of his current deal, which was signed before Gurley’s knee necessitated making him something less than the workhorse he’d been before signing the deal.

The Rams could (and maybe should) allow Gurley to gauge the market elsewhere, to see if anyone would offer him as much or more than whatever the Rams are willing to pay on a restructured deal. Chances are that Gurley won’t do any better than whatever the Rams would pay, especially since keeping Gurley on the roster would avoid a cap charge of $12.6 million in signing bonus acceleration and $7.55 million in a fully-guaranteed roster bonus for 2020. (They could push $8.4 million in dead money into 2021 by designating Gurley as a post-June 1 release.)

Of course, Gurley may decide to simply refuse whatever the Rams offer, even if he ends up getting less elsewhere. With $34.5 million (or at a minimum $31.95 million) in hand, he can afford to take a stand on principle and to force his way to the open market.

Gurley has a short fuse when it comes to conversations about his knee, and it won’t be easy for the Rams to sell him on the idea of taking less without mentioning the elephant in the room. The moment they do could be the moment Gurley refuses to do anything other that sit and wait for another $10.5 million in guaranteed money to vest — or for the Rams to rip up the contract and make him a free agent.

NBC

 

Gurley was good for a while. That's why teams are reluctant to pay big money to the RB position.

 

I've watched a little bit of the XFL today, and I think it's actually looking like a pretty good product.

It's still going to fail IMHO because I don't believe "football" is the thing that gets people watching week in and week out. To me, it's brand loyalty above anything. There's just no history, and more importantly, there's no nostalgia with these teams.

Also have to tip the cap to Vince because the kickers look terrible, but he probably realized this and was a part of the decision to make sure there are no extra point kicks.

 

The XFL will fail because of lack of star players. People aren't going to be interested enough to watch Joe Smoe against John Doe.

 

It's a shame because the behind the scene stuff they show you during the game is great. You can hear the playcalls as well as go inside the replay booth and listen to the discussion. It really is not a bad product that they are putting out there. I just don't have any reason to care to put my ass in the seat on a Saturday or Sunday even if the game is significantly shorter than a regular NFL game.

 

I wonder will the XFL make it they got some interesting rules cool looking ball,it should be two feet inbounds not one foot that's just for college football

 

97 for Tampa Bay is a dumb ass

 

We are now just 14 days from the start of the 2020 GMO exercise here on L4SN and still have 9 (maybe 10) openings left to fill. Teams still available are the Texans, Broncos, Redskins, Rams, Seahawks, Cardinals, Packers, Saints and Panthers (with maybe the Lions if @Quew777 doesn't return).

A schedule and complete set of rules has been posted in the GMO Forum in case you're interested but curious. This is always a fun exercise. You can spend as much or as little time on it as you choose to spend. (I would guesstimate a participant could get by with as little as 2 hours a week.)

Check it out. If you want to join in, there's a 2020 GMO Sign up thread in the same GMO Forum.

 

This week’s meeting must have been a good one.

The Browns announced that defensive end Myles Garrett has been reinstated by the NFL.

Garrett was given an indefinite suspension last November for clocking Steelers quarterback Mason Rudolph with his own helmet. He ended up missing the final six games of the season.

Commissioner Roger Goodell met with Garrett on Monday, and was apparently convinced that Garrett was contrite.

The Browns issued a statement backing their star pass-rusher.

“We welcome Myles back to our organization with open arms,” Browns General Manager Andrew Berry said. “We know he is grateful to be reinstated, eager to put the past behind him and continue to evolve and grow as a leader. We look forward to having his strong positive presence back as a teammate, player and person in our community.”

NBC

 

The punishment was enough. I'm glad they reinstated him.

It'll be an unpopular opinion for a Steeler's fan but, I would've suspended Rudolph for a game or two. He didn't deserve as much as Garrett but he did deserve something more than what he got.

 

I agree...MG went way over the line, but he paid the price for it, and I'm glad he's back in the fold.

No doubt the Browns sure missed him in those final 6 games.

 

I think it's much harder to sell a professional football league these days than it was in years past. The USFL had a chance. It was a good product, played in Spring.
Had Donald Trump, who owned the New Jersey Generals, not urged some owners to take the NFL to court, ultimately winning the anti-trust anti-monopoly decision and awarded a "victory in name only" $3.00, that league may have had a chance. They had some bonafide NFL players and an audience in the spring. 778 players from the USFL played in the NFL after the league folded; Jim Kelly, Herschel Walker, Coy Bacon, John Banaszak and Bobby Hebert to name a few.

The AFL was around for 3 years, with growing pains, until it finally signed Joe Namath and, all of a sudden, they became credible and forced a merger.

The XFL has castoffs. Until they land, and pay, quality players, they'll fail. And they can't afford the money quality players are getting these days.

My question is why are they trying to sell a product in cities that have the NFL product?

 

New Washington coach Ron Rivera has been surrounding himself with old friends from his Panthers days.

That will not extend to the field, at least in the case of Josh Norman.

According to Mike Garafolo of NFL Network, Washington is releasing the veteran cornerback.

Norman was in the doghouse last year, and didn’t play down the stretch. Some might have thought having his old coach in town would help, but his $12 million salary was deemed more than they wanted to pay for the former Pro Bowler.

This gives Norman a head start on free agency, much like former Panthers teammate Greg Olsen (who is negotiating with Washington, Seattle, and Buffalo as we speak).

NBC

 

Linebacker Joe Schobert has played for three head coaches during his four years in the NFL and he’ll be playing for a fourth during the 2020 season.

The question is whether he will be getting to know his fourth head coach since joining the Browns or if he’ll be acquainting himself with both a new coach and a new team. Schobert is set for unrestricted free agency after starting 45 games over the last three seasons and said he’d like to stick around, but talks haven’t gotten going yet.

“We have to see where it goes, see where it leads,” Schobert said on SiriusXM NFL Radio. “If both sides can reach can an agreement that would be great. I would love that but you never know. As of now, I haven’t heard anything.”

Schobert had 133 tackles, two sacks and four interceptions for the Browns last season.

NBC

 

The Ravens are set to kick off their offseason moves by saying farewell to one of their veteran safeties.

Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports that the team is releasing Tony Jefferson. Jefferson was signed for a salary of $7 million with a cap hit of over $11.6 million and the move will clear $7 million of that cap space for 2020.

Jefferson went down for the season with a torn ACL in Week Five and missed the rest of the season. Chuck Clark took over as a starter and recently signed a three-year contract extension with the team that signaled Jefferson might be moving on this offseason.

Last season was Jefferson’s third with the Ravens. He started all 35 game he played in Baltimore, but may have to wait until he can show he’s healthy enough to get back on the field before finding another landing spot.

NBC

 

Chuck Clark stepped in and took that job.

It was something I discussed and suggested with Chris Linfante this past offseason.

 

When the Texans claimed cornerback Vernon Hargreaves off of waivers in November, they also acquired the right to cut him before his $9.594 million salary for the 2020 season kicked in.

The Texans have taken advantage of that option. Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports that the team cut Hargreaves loose on Friday. Hargreaves’ cap hit was set to be the same as his salary, so the Texans will have all of that money to use this offseason.

The Buccaneers had exercised the fifth-year option on the 2016 first-round pick’s contract before cutting him, but it was guaranteed for injury only until the start of the new league year in March.

Hargreaves had 21 tackles and one tackle for loss in six games with the Texans. He started all nine games he played for the Bucs before being waived.

NBC

 

Washington faces decisions with Jordan Reed, Ryan Kerrigan, Adrian Peterson

By hiring Ron Rivera on Dec. 31, Washington got a head start on its evaluation of the roster. That led to Friday’s roster moves, with the team cutting receiver Paul Richardson, cornerback Josh Norman, defensive lineman Chris Odom and safety Kenny Ladler.

It freed up some $16 million in cap space.

“The biggest thing that we did in terms of evaluation was we literally came together on Feb. 10 as a coaching staff and as a pro scouting department and personnel department, and we evaluated our entire roster,” Rivera said this weekend, via Ben Standig of TheAthletic.com. “Based off of that, we started making the moves.”

More decisions remain, with more transactions expected.

Washington is expected to move on from tight end Jordan Reed, who missed all of 2019 with a seventh known concussion. Reed’s release would create $8.5 million in cap space.

Pass rusher Ryan Kerrigan has an $11.5 million cap hit, with Washington expected to use the No. 2 overall choice on Chase Young. The team also must decide whether to exercise the final year of running back Adrian Peterson‘s deal.

“We’re evaluating all of our options,” Rivera said. “We have a good young group of guys, and we’re just looking at things and deciding whether or not we want to go that way, continue to get younger — or, do we have to sit there and sprinkle in some veteran guys?”

NBC

 

Seahawks running back Rashaad Penny is making progress in his recovery from the torn ACL that ended his 2019 season last December.

Penny tweeted earlier this week that he had his first day back on a bike since the injury. Penny had surgery to repair the injury and head coach Pete Carroll said that doctors also cleaned up some other issues with the knee during the operation.

“He’s doing great,” Carroll said after the Seahawks were knocked out of the playoffs in January, via NBCSportsNorthwest.com. “He’s ahead of schedule already. They’re really excited about the progress that he’s making. That’s a much longer prognosis there. He’s got six or seven months ahead of him that are going to be really challenging. We’ll have to wait and see. He’s really determined, his attitude is great about it. He’s planning on making it back and getting ready to play. So, we’ll see how that goes.”

The timeline will likely lead the Seahawks to put Penny on the physically unable to perform list at the start of training camp. Whether he remains on that list into the regular season will be something to watch this summer.

NBC