NFL - NEWS & NOTES

Browns, Nick Chubb reach agreement on extension



Nick Chubb said last month that Cleveland was where he wanted to stay, and indeed he will for the foreseeable future.

The Browns have reached agreement on an extension with the running back, Mike Jones of USA Today reports.

It is a three-year extension worth $36.6 million with $20 million fully guaranteed, a source tells PFT.

Chubb was entering the final year of his rookie deal due to make $3.384 million in base salary in 2021.

He finished seventh in the league last season with 1,067 yards rushing and 12 rushing touchdowns despite playing only 12 games. He ranked second among qualified running backs in averaging 5.6 yards per carry in 2020.

Chubb has 3,557 rushing yards and 28 rushing touchdowns along with 72 receptions for 577 yards and two receiving touchdowns in 44 career games since the Browns made him a second-round choice in 2018.

PFT

 

Report: Kellen Mond tests positive for COVID-19, Kirk Cousins a high-risk contact



Details emerged not long after the Vikings tweeted multiple players would miss Saturday night’s practice inside TCO Stadium because of COVID-19 protocols.

Tom Pelissero of NFL Media reports rookie Kellen Mond has tested positive for COVID-19, and starter Kirk Cousins and Nate Stanley were deemed high-risk close contacts.

Jake Browning is expected to get all the reps at today’s practice. Browning is vaccinated, Andrew Krammer of the Star Tribune reports, and no quarantine is required for vaccinated players who are close contacts.

The Vikings are going through contact tracing to determine who else is a high-risk contact.

The Vikings’ statement reads: Due to the NFL-NFLPA COVID-19 protocols, multiple players will be held out of tonight’s practice inside TCO Stadium. Further updates will be shared as they become available in the coming days.

The Vikings had not placed any players on the COVID-19 reserve list during training camp.

PFT

 

Former Falcons RB Devonta Freeman signs one-year deal with Saints

While Alvin Kamara has the headliner role in the New Orleans Saints offensive backfield on lockdown, the chase for backup action figures to be at least a somewhat livelier competition. And it just got a bit more crowded, as the Saints have signed free agent RB Devonta Freeman to a one-year contract, according to NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport.

Freeman, 29, visited the team Saturday prior to signing.

The Saints certainly know him well having faced him twice a year as a divisional opponent during his peak years with the Atlanta Falcons. Freeman posted back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons in Atlanta, each ending with a Pro Bowl, in 2015-16. He saw just four starts and 54 carries in his only season with the New York Giants last year, having spent time on the injured reserve list with ankle and hamstring injuries.

The Saints' primary backup to Kamara is Latavius Murray, who rushed for 656 yards last season and averaged 4.5 yards per carry. Freeman will also join Tony Jones Jr., Stevie Scott III and Dwayne Washington in the Saints running backs room. New Orleans also has Ty Montgomery, who is rostered at the wide receiver position but is primarily a rusher.

NFL.com

 

Thanks for that Willie. For the first time in a while. The Saints news that I get here isn't bad. But it's still going to be a long season for me.

 

Well, it might be, it might not be. Time to rally the troops and pick up the slack and see just how deep the Saints really are. You cant replace a Michael Thomas, but tread water till his return and anything can happen.

 

Injured Cowboys stars Amari Cooper, DeMarcus Lawrence 'in really good shape'

Amari Cooper and DeMarcus Lawrence won't be active when the Cowboys kick off the NFL preseason in the Hall of Fame Game on Thursday against the Steelers. But they're making progress toward being available for the regular season.

Cooper (ankle) and Lawrence (back) were placed on the physically unable to perform list to begin camp following offseason surgeries. Coach Mike McCarthy told reporters Sunday the two are "in really good shape."

"Amari, he looks great," McCarthy said. "Everything's been extremely positive from the strength staff. ... His weight is as low as it's been since I've worked with him, so he looks great. And D-Law, same deal. He's in tremendous shape."

McCarthy added that timelines for the two stars will be discussed in about a week.

NFL.com

 

It’s hard to believe that we will have a preseason this year, last season we weren’t even sure there would be a regular season let alone anything else. We are all now veterans of the pyschic war

 

Eagles rookie WR DeVonta Smith will miss 2-3 weeks with MCL sprain

DeVonta Smith, the Philadelphia Eagles' prized rookie receiver, will miss two to three weeks of training camp with a MCL sprain, NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport reported Monday.

If Smith indeed misses more than a week, he'll likely be out for the club's preseason opener against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Aug. 12.

Smith, the 2020 Heisman Trophy winner who led Alabama to a national championship last year, was selected No. 10 overall in the 2021 NFL Draft. Size and durability were the lone pre-draft concerns on Smith, a spindly 170 pounds on a 6-foot frame. He enjoyed a relatively healthy college career, although a finger injury suffered in his last college game prevented him from competing at the Reese's Senior Bowl. If there's a positive in Smith's absence, it's perhaps the familiarity he has with Eagles quarterbackJalen Hurts -- the two were teammates at Alabama for two years.

Smith noted the advantage of that familiarity with Hurts earlier this month.

NFL.com

 

I read this morning that the Bills are threatening to move to Austin, Tx if they don't get a new stadium.
Wait? What? What planet are these owners living on? Do they not see what's happening around them in the last decade?
Here in LA, that stadium is all private money. Levi stadium up in Santa Clara, Is I believe is private money. The State might have thrown in a buck or two. I don't remember. Jerry Jones build his own house. And don't forget San Diego. The city council said NO. The county board of supervisors said "oh hell NO" Then they put it to the voters and they couldn't even get 40% to say yes. And they think Texas taxpayers are going to foot the bill for this? Best of luck with that!

 

Well actually... That's probably already been proposed. Cleveland built their stadium in order to get the Browns back in the 90's. If a city/state want a franchise (or yet ANOTHER franchise) they will go to every means necessary to make it attractive for a team to move in.

I don't see Buffalo moving.. That would be just as big a shame as when the Browns moved. They need to share in the cost to keep them there, otherwise their economy will suffer. First the Bills, then the Sabres will go.

 

All true. The Browns and Colts moving were both crimes against humanity. But the NFL was able to right these wrongs. Both cities wanted their teams back, no doubt. But does Austin even want a team there? And are they willing to shell out a billion bucks to do it? This is Texas. The Cowboys OWN that state. JJ will never go for it!

 

He couldn’t stop the Texans…how would he stop another team? Especially in a growing city like Austin. They don’t have a major sports franchise but the city has grown large enough to support one.

That said…it won’t be the Bills. That franchise is just gonna play chicken with the city. And they have leverage. Buffalo fans are rabid. The city won’t lose them. It’s just posturing. The Bears have been doing the same thing to Chicago…only they are threatening to move outside of the city.

 

They would go to San Antonio before Austin.

 

Agreed. Bigger city and a little further away from Dallas. But I don't see either team going there. This is just more off season bull shit that we can talk about. That will end soon enough. The real bull shit will start in about a month.

 

I can’t understand why anyone would put a team in Texas when the Cowboys are so popular there?

 

DING, DING, DING! That's 95% of it! Try St Louis. They might be interested.

 

Don't look now, but the Cowboys are losing some of their luster. They(we) just celebrated 25 years of them not making it to the conference championship game. Over that time, they've only won 4 playoff games, never more than one in any season. They became America's team because every bandwagon fan between the ages of 6 and 30 jumped on across the country during their run between 1966 and 1995. They had a 30 year run of 18 Conference Championship games, 10 League Championship games, including 5 Super Bowl wins. A 30 year run makes the most common bandwagon fan, a fan for the ages... Though they are starting to wind down. They haven't gained enough support from the NOW generation to make up for the last 25 years. If they don't start winning NOW, they will become just another team in the next 10 years, as another generation of "not Cowboys fans" enters our world.

This would be a perfect time for another Texas team to sneak in, if they are going to do it.

Of course, you have to win games to take over America's team in Texas. The Texans have never won a divisional round game.. The Bills, coming off of a AFC Championship loss, are poised to have a good team over the next decade. If they were to move right when this ascension begins, it could sway a state... or at the very least, every Austin/San Antonio fan for hundreds of miles. As bad as the Texans are right now, they could take fans from that city and possibly run them out of the state. With Austin/San Antonio's central location, they could take everything south of the Texas center line for their fan base. It's actually a pretty good business proposition, with the right team.. which the Bills seem perfectly fit to become that type of team over the next 10-15 years as long as their QB remains healthy.

 

You have to have an offer, to entertain an offer.. The owners don't just pick a city, the city picks them. If they have a negotiation with Austin, it doesn't automatically mean they also have a negotiation with San Antonio.

It isn't so much WHERE the city is, it's more about the city.

Austin is the capital of the biggest state in our nation. The population of San Antonio is MUCH larger than Austin however... Austin cuts off the path to the Cowboys from that population. If the team is in San Antonio, it is just as likely Austin citizens will be Cowboys fans, as they are "insert new team name here" fans. If the team is in Austin, you gain the support of that city, and most likely everything south of Austin as well..hence San Antonio. For San Antonians, new team would be 1 hour and 15 minutes in Austin, or 4 hours in Dallas. Logistically, it would be easier to catch games in the Capital than drive 4 hours to get there. Theoretically, you could say the same for people that live in Austin, but their drive is only 3 hours to Dallas with no team in between to catch their eye.

If I'm an owner looking to make a move to Texas, I would choose Austin.

 

Funny thing is... Austin hadnt heard of such a move.

Per, PFT:

If Austin is a potential destination for the Buffalo Bills, that’s news to the powers that be in Austin.

Ryan Autullo of the Austin American-Statesman has spoken with multiple members of the Austin City Council. And they said that Sunday’s report from Seth Wickersham of ESPN as a potential destination for the Bills is the first they’ve heard of it.

This would mean that the potential move of the Bills to Austin is, at least for now, a leverage play to get public funding in Buffalo.

 

Haha, that's pretty bold (or stupid). Starting such talk, without an actual partner, just makes you look bad. Most teams that leverage a move for help from their current location, have suitors that are publicly campaigning for them to come. This just seems desperate.