NFL - NEWS & NOTES

Well, I was wrong about Wilson. I'm surprised the Seahawks chose QB hell.

 

just because he is a shitty blocker doesn’t mean he should be able to file as a slot receiver. The guys a 6’5” 250 lb TE that can’t block.

 

Josh Gordon re-signs with Chiefs



Josh Gordon will get another chance in Kansas City.

Gordon, the wide receiver whose great talent has been overshadowed by his battle with drug addiction, has signed to stay with the Chiefs in 2022.


“KC right where I wanna be! Ain’t gon lie. I’m hype for 2022,” Gordon tweeted. “Been out the game so long ppl forget I even play ball.”

The 30-year-old Gordon spent last season with the Chiefs but was a non-factor, catching just five passes for 32 yards in 12 games.

Gordon burst onto the scene in 2013, leading the NFL with 1,646 receiving yards while playing for the Browns. But he has been suspended a total of six times for violations of the league’s substance abuse policies. No one can deny his talent, but at this point he’ll have an uphill battle just to make the Chiefs’ roster in September.

PFT

 

Seahawks are releasing Bobby Wagner

The Seahawks are officially rebooting. Or rebuilding. They’re definitely not reloading.

Via multiple reports, the Seahawks are releasing veteran linebacker Bobby Wagner. He was the last man standing from the team’s Super Bowl XLVIII championship in 2012.


The move creates $16.6 million in cap space, wiping out the final year of his four-year deal. He leaves behind a $3.75 million cap charge for 2022, which the Seahawks would have carried, whether he was on the team or not.

Because the Seahawks are releasing Wagner, he immediately becomes a free agent. He gets a head start on free agency; he can sign with any other team at any time.

Wagner is an eight-time Pro Bowler and a five-time All-Pro. At 31, he may have a few solid years left with a new team.

PFT

 

Harold Landry isn't hitting free agency, after all.

The Tennessee Titans are signing Landry to a massive five-year, $87.5 million extension with $52.5 million guaranteed, NFL Network's Tom Pelissero reported Tuesday night. The team later announced it ahd agreed to terms with Landry on a multiyear deal.

Landry will receive $20.5 million in the first season of his new deal, NFL Network's Mike Garafolo reported, which will be more than $2 million more than the $18.702 million he would have received had the Titans applied the franchise tag prior to Tuesday's 4 p.m. ET deadline.

Instead, the 25-year-old is coming off the best season of his career and broke the bank with a huge extension.

Pelissero reported earlier Tuesday that the Titans would not be tagging Landry, but were still hoping to sign him to a long-term deal, and with free agency less than a week away, they got the deal done.

Landry registered 12 sacks and 75 tackles in 2021 -- each of them career highs as he likewise tackled his first Pro Bowl selection.

The extension comes just an offseason removed from Tennessee signing pass rusher Bud Dupree to a five-year, $82.5 million deal. Landry, who easily outperformed his teammate in the '21 campaign, wanted to be the top-paid Titans linebacker and he got his wish Tuesday.

NFL.com

 

Has a team ever gone from being well run to a complete chaotic disaster with the exact same group of people in charge as fully and quickly as the Seahawks the last couple years?

 

I'm no expert on any franchise other than Atlanta, but I'll throw the Falcons out for consideration before and after 1998. Dan Reeves came aboard as head coach and was given control over personnel. He led the team to its first Superbowl appearance in 1998.

But during the 1998 season, he had cardiovascular issues and had major bypass surgery in midseason. He simply wasn't physically capable of putting in the hours afterwards to keep going at the same level as before. The team went from 14-2 that year to 9-23 over the next two seasons. That's with the same coaching staff, personnel group and scouting department.

The team's collapse after 2012 was also fast, and they did have the same "people in charge" (GM and head coach). But for 2012 they had introduced major changes underneath the head coach - a new OC, new DC, new OL coach, many new defensive assistant coaches, etc. So even though the front office was the same, they were tasked with bringing in players for almost an entirely new coaching staff with a different defensive scheme and a different blocking scheme for the offense. While they made it to the 2012 NFC Championship game, the draft that year was horrid, and the decisions to clean house on the former schemes and get the new coaches players for their own schemes was an epic disaster. In particular, Mike Nolan inherited what was the #9 defense in the NFL and took it to #32 in just three seasons.

In a cruel bit of irony, head coach Mike Smith also faced cardiovascular issues in 2011, which was part of his choosing to hand over the OC and DC roles to people he knew and trusted for 2012 and giving them more control.

 

Commanders are expected to release Landon Collins



Another veteran defender is set to hit the open market.

Per multiple reports, the Commanders are set to release safety Landon Collins.


According to Ian Rapoport of NFL Media, the move comes after Collins and Washington were unable to agree to a restructured contract.

Collins was set to make $11.5 million in base salary with a $4.2 million bonus in 2022. His release will save $6.5 million against the cap but would carry a $9.6 million dead cap charge. That makes him a candidate to be released with a post-June 1 designation, which would spread out that dead cap charge to future years.

Collins signed a six-year, $84 million deal with Washington in March 2019.

In three seasons with Washington, Collins started 35 games. He recorded 81 tackles with seven tackles for loss, 3.0 sacks, and a pair of interceptions in 2021.

Collins spent his first four seasons with the Giants, who selected him in the second round of the 2015 draft.

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Defensive lineman Trey Flowers was a big prize when free agency opened in 2019 and he wound up signing a five-year deal with the Lions, but his run in Detroit is set to come to an end with the start of free agency this year.

Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press reports that Flowers has been informed that he will be released when the new league year starts on March 16.


The Lions will clear $10.386 million under the cap by releasing Flowers, but they’ll be left with over $12.8 million in dead money. The team’s savings would go up to $16 million if they designate him a post-June 1 cut.

Flowers had seven sacks in 15 games during his first season in Detroit, but has been limited to 14 games because of injuries the last two years. He had 46 tackles, 3.5 sacks, three forced fumbles, and two fumble recoveries in those appearances.

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Bears working to finalize trade of Khalil Mack to Chargers



The AFC West’s pool of quarterbacks is getting even deeper with Russell Wilson headed for Denver and there may be another big-time pass rusher coming to the division.

According to multiple reports, the Bears and Chargers are working to finalize a trade that would send Khalil Mack from Chicago to Los Angeles. The compensation is expected to be a 2022 second-round pick and a 2023 sixth-round pick.


That’s a lot less than the package Bears gave up to get Mack from the Raiders before the 2018 season. They sent two first-rounders to the AFC West club in that exchange and signed him to a six-year extension that calls for Mack to make $17,550,000 in salary and bonuses while counting $30.15 million against the cap this season.

If the trade goes through next week, the Bears would have a $24 million dead cap hit. Making it a post-June 1 transaction would allow them to save half that amount and Ian Rapoport of NFL Media adds there’s some tinkering with his contract that needs to go on before everyone agrees to the deal.

Assuming that takes place, Mack would join Joey Bosa in an imposing pass rushing duo for the 2022 Chargers.

PFT

 

Scary to think the new league year is now less than a week away. According to Spotrac, the Saints are still $44.9 million over the cap.

Mickey Loomis has always been big on kicking the can down the road, which is how they got into such a crazy cap mess. Gonna be interesting to see what he does to create $45 million of space.

 

Sterling Shepard is sticking around to try to help the Giants turn things around.

The receiver and New York have agreed to a restructured contract, NFL Network's Mike Garafolo and Ian Rapoport reported. The agreement means the Giants' longest-tenured player will remain with the team for a seventh season.

Shepard has never been a game-breaking receiver in New York, but he's certainly been a consistent one. The wideout has caught at least 57 passes in all but one season -- his most recent -- racking up 3,518 yards, 20 touchdowns and an average of 11.2 yards per reception from 2016-2020. The 2021 season was a frustrating one for all, including Shepard, who was able to appear in just seven games, catching 36 passes for 366 yards and one touchdown as part of the league's second-worst passing offense.

A second-round pick out of Oklahoma in 2016, Shepard has met expectations with the Giants, even as the team has faltered elsewhere. With Daniel Jones returning for a fourth season with the team in 2022, he'll have a familiar target in Shepard.

NFL.com

 

Now that I think about it, Tampa in 1982-1983 with Ken Herock as GM is probably the most epic collapse. They went from elite to the worst team in the NFL in just two years. And the story behind it is just plain hilarious - at least if you're not a die-hard Bucs fan.

Up until then, the young Rich McKay had manned the team's table at the draft, getting the calls from Herock and turning in the cards with the picks. But in 1982, McKay was off to law school (he became the team's legal counsel - which led to him "accidentally" becoming GM and building Tampa's first Superbowl roster, but that's a whole different story) and wasn't there to run the on-site draft operations.

There was an epic miscommunication, and somehow the team managed to turn in the wrong card in the first round. Herock was hot to get Bethune-Cookman defensive end Booker Reese (I have no idea why) but ended up with offensive lineman Sean Farrell (who went on to have a 11-year career - and was very happy to get out of the Bucs organization).

Tampa didn't have a second rounder, so Herock traded the team's future first rounder to get Chicago's second round pick and take Reese. The Tampa braintrust patted themselves on the back for their swift maneuvering, and they all lived happily ever after. Except...

After that season, both of the team's quarterbacks bolted. 1983 would be The Year Of The Quarterback, Ken O'Brien or Dan Marino would have been there for the taking, and Tampa didn't have a first round pick.

Instead, Herock decided to get a "veteran" and traded the following year's first round pick to the Bengals for Cincinnati's third string quarterback, "Throwin' Samoan" Jack Thompson.

To put in perspective just how bad a move that was, Thompson had completed only 47% of his pass attempts during his four year NFL career up to that point and did not even get to throw a pass the one and only time that Cincinnati allowed him in a game in 1982. Yet for some reason this was the guy Herock chose to make or break Tampa's future. See if you can guess how that turned out.

Utter shocker: the Bucs finished the 1983 season with the worst record in the NFL. And to rub salt in the wound, they had traded away what was to be the #1 overall pick of the 1984 draft.

 

Reports are out that the Eagles were in talks to trade for Calvin Ridley last month. The Falcons front office suddenly backed out of the talks without explanation. I'm sure it makes more sense to the Eagles staff now. That's when Atlanta was notified by the league about the investigation into his gambling and the likelihood of suspension. But for legal reasons, they couldn't say a thing about it, so they quietly withdrew from the trade discussion. Who knows - maybe they'll work out the trade next year.


off topic... I started tinkering with a Socket AM1-based desktop computer last year during our mock draft, mainly just for giggles. The motherboard and CPU models turn 8 years old next month. I just finished overhauling it purely for the amusement factor. It's now over the top absurd. I set it up to be a media server / home theater PC.

It's a 4-core, 2.05 gHz CPU in a mid tower case. What makes it amusing is that it's completely silent - no fans anywhere in the system - and it's actually running off of a laptop power cord rather than a regular computer power supply. The over the top part is that Socket AM1 processors were designed to support two drives, but this one has six internal drives total: a Blu-ray burner, SSD for operating systems, three "permanent" hard drives and a hot-swappable drive cage. It also has front and rear USB3 ports for external drives or flash drives, including a Type C connector. For video display it has HDMI, DisplayPort, DVi and traditional VGA, and it can drive additional HDMI feeds through the Type C connector if needed.

I just think it's hilarious that you can run four cores at 2 gHz, six drives on a platform meant for two, and not even have a power supply or a single cooling fan in the system,

 

Sounds like a 'cool' machine.

 

The Jets have done some work at the safety position today.

After announcing the re-signing of safety Will Parks, Lamarcus Joyner‘s agent, Sunny Shah, announced the safety has agreed to a one-year deal with the Jets.


Joyner played only nine defensive snaps and two on special teams in the season opener before tearing a biceps. He missed the rest of the season on injured reserve.

The 2021 season was Joyner’s first with the Jets.

He spent five seasons with the Rams, who drafted him in the second round in 2014. Joyner then went to the Raiders for two seasons before joining the Jets.

In eight seasons, Joyner has 421 tackles, five sacks, four interceptions, 33 pass breakups and two forced fumbles.

PFT

 

Raiders set to release linebacker Cory Littleton

Once a high-priced signing with plenty of potential, Cory Littleton fell short of expectations with the Las Vegas Raiders and will be looking for a new club to call home.

The Raiders informed Littleton they'll be releasing him when the new league year begins next week, NFL Network's Tom Pelissero reported Thursday.

On the heels of a Pro Bowl selection in 2018 and a career-high 134 tackles in 2019 with the Los Angeles Rams, Littleton signed a three-year, $35.2 million deal to join the Raiders, but was never able to cash in on the field for the Silver and Black.

A pre-June 1 release of Littleton will save the Raiders $1.76 million on the salary cap.

Littleton, who filled up the stat sheet and oozed versatility in the final two years of his four seasons with the Rams, never flashed his previous form with the Raiders and earned dismal Pro Football Focus grades of 47.1 and 47.8 in 2020 and 2021, respectively.

As the Raiders begin a new era under head coach Josh McDaniels and defensive coordinator Patrick Graham, Littleton will be looking for a new squad and hopefully a better fit to find his previous form.

NFL.com