NFL - NEWS & NOTES

Bears sign Dante Pettis



Receiver Dante Pettis has signed with the Bears. Pettis broke the news himself, tweeting a photo of him signing his deal.

Pettis, 26, played only three games with the Giants last season before landing on injured reserve with a left shoulder injury. He caught 10 passes for 87 yards and a touchdown.


Pettis, a second-round choice of the 49ers in 2018, has played 33 games with 12 starts in his career. He has 52 receptions for 739 yards and nine touchdowns in his four seasons.

He joins a receivers room that includes Darnell Mooney, Equanimeous St. Brown, David Moore, Byron Pringle, Dazz Newsome, Nsimba Webster, Velus Jones Jr. and Tajae Sharpe. The Bears lost Allen Robinson to the Rams in free agency.

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Bears signing Tajae Sharpe to a one-year deal



The Bears signed two free agent receivers Wednesday.

Dante Pettis announced on Twitter that he had signed with the team, and Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports that Tajae Sharpe has agreed to terms on a one-year deal with the Bears.


Sharpe, 27, spent last season with the Falcons, playing 15 games with seven starts. He caught 25 passes for 230 yards.

The Titans made him a fifth-round choice in 2015, and he spent three years in Tennessee. He played for the Vikings in 2020. Sharpe spent a month with the Chiefs last offseason after some time on their practice squad late in 2020.

He joins a receivers room that includes Darnell Mooney, Equanimeous St. Brown, David Moore, Byron Pringle, Dazz Newsome, Nsimba Webster and Velus Jones Jr. The Bears lost Allen Robinson to the Rams in free agency.

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Broncos WR Jerry Jeudy arrested on misdemeanor criminal tampering charges

Denver Broncos receiver Jerry Jeudy was arrested Thursday on second-degree criminal tampering charges with a domestic violence enhancer, the Arapahoe County (Colo.) Sheriff's Office announced.

Jeudy, 23, was taken into custody around noon local time and is on a no-bond hold. Jeudy must remain in jail until he sees a judge, who can then issue a restraining order. His hearing is expected to take place within the next 24 hours.

Second-degree criminal tampering in Colorado means tampering with another person's property "with intent to cause injury, inconvenience, or annoyance." The domestic violence enhancer is based on Jeudy's relationship with the accuser.

"We are aware of the matter involving Jerry Jeudy and are in the process of gathering more information," the Broncos said in a statement obtained by NFL Network's James Palmer.

Jeudy, a 15th overall pick of the Broncos in 2020, has played in 26 games over his first two years in the league, totaling 90 catches for 1,323 yards and three touchdowns.

Denver begins voluntary organized team activities on May 23.

NFL.com

 

Chiefs-Cardinals, Raiders-Chargers highlight Sunday afternoon schedule in Week 1



The three biggest games of the league’s opening weekend all were previously reported: The Bills and Rams will kick off the 2022 NFL season with a Thursday Night Football game at SoFi Stadium; the Bucs will play at the Cowboys in the first Sunday Night Football game, which is a rematch of their season opener a year ago; and Russell Wilson returns to Seattle as the quarterback of the Broncos in the first Monday Night Football game of the year.

The NFL released the entire Week 1 schedule, and the rest of the opening weekend schedule features several intriguing matchups:


Sunday, Sept. 11, 1 p.m. window:

Saints at Falcons
Browns at Panthers
49ers at Bears
Steelers at Bengals
Eagles at Lions
Colts at Texans
Patriots at Dolphins
Ravens at Jets
Jaguars at Commanders

Sunday, Sept. 11, 4:25 p.m. window:
Chiefs at Cardinals
Raiders at Chargers
Packers at Vikings
Giants at Titans

 

Steelers at Bengals and the Packers at Vikings are pretty intriguing also.

 

Almost like a trade. Falcons signed Bears depth receiver Damiere Byrd, and now Chicago signs Falcons receiver Tajae Sharpe.

I didn't see enough of Byrd in Chicago last year to make a call on this one fairly, but just from what I saw of Sharpe last year I'd say Atlanta got the better end of this exchange.

 

The Falcons have signed linebacker Nick Kwiatkowski, who was with Las Vegas the last two seasons and was previously with Da Bears.

It seems to be a depth signing for Atlanta, but it may also be a signal that Deion Jones is indeed on the trade block and likely to be traded after June 1. Atlanta would need to trade Jones rather than release him, as his salary this season is guaranteed. A likely taker = Dallas Cowboys, where former Atlanta coach Dan Quinn is now the defensive coordinator. Jones was hand-picked for Quinn's defensive system in the 2016 draft.

Trading Jones after June 1 would generate a $5.3 million dead money hit in 2023 but would create $14.7 million in immediate cap savings. A chunk of that would likely be held in reserve for emergency signings and rolled to 2023 if not used, offsetting the dead money hit. Trading him June 1 or before then would simply put the entire net $9.4 million savings on the 2022 cap. I'd be happy with it either way, but the post June 1 approach offers more cap flexibility.

 

To me, those are the two must watch games.

 

The Chiefs’ 2022 schedule is unprecedented in NFL history.

Kansas City opens with eight straight opponents who had a winning record last season. That makes the Chiefs the first team ever to start the season with eight consecutive games against teams that had a winning record, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.


Here are the Chiefs’ first eight opponents, with their records the year before:
Week 1: at Cardinals (11-6)
Week 2: Chargers (9-8)
Week 3: at Colts (9-8)
Week 4 at Buccaneers (13-4)
Week 5: Raiders (10-7)
Week 6: Bills (11-6)
Week 7: at 49ers (10-7)
Week 8: Bye.
Week 9: Titans (12-5)

Not until Week 10, when the Chiefs face the Jaguars, do they meet a team that didn’t have a winning record in 2021.

The Chiefs knew they’d have a lot of good opponents this season: They play the first-place schedule, they’re in a tough division in the AFC West, and they play their nonconference games against another tough division in the NFC West. But no one knew they’d play so many good opponents in a row to stat the season.

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The 2022 NFL schedule has some good news for the Bills.

Buffalo has a +13-day net rest differential on its 2022 schedule, according to Seth Walder of ESPN. That’s the most favorable rest differential in the NFL.


In other words, over the course of the full season, the Bills will be better-rested than their opponents by a cumulative 13 days.

That starts in Week Two, because the Bills play the Thursday night opener against the Rams in Week One. When the Bills host the Titans in Week Two, they’ll have a three-day rest advantage over a Tennessee team that plays on Sunday in Week One.

It also includes the Bills’ Week Eight home game against the Packers. The Bills are on their bye in Week Seven, while the Packers play in Week Seven, so the Bills will have seven more days of rest than the Packers when the two teams meet.

The 2022 NFL schedule does not have the Bills playing any opponents who are coming off their bye weeks.

And in Week 14, the Bills will have three more days of rest than the Jets, because the Bills will be coming off a Thursday night game while the Jets will be coming off a Sunday game.

The Bills were already among the Super Bowl favorites this season. The schedule does nothing but assist the Bills’ championship hopes.

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Cowboys LB Micah Parsons on starting season vs. Buccaneers, Bengals: We'll see 'where we stand'

When the 2021 season came to a close, Micah Parsons was a unanimous selection as the AP NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year.

Parsons' ultra-impressive campaign began with him staring across from the most successful quarterback in NFL history, Tom Brady, and his Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Parsons' and the Cowboys' 2022 season will once again begin with a prime-time showdown against the Buccaneers and follow up with another arduous matchup against the reigning AFC champion Cincinnati Bengals. The Dallas linebacker believes those first two games will be an indicator of just how good the Cowboys will be -- especially after they win.

"Seeing, Tampa Bay and Cincinnati back to back, that was kinda like the first thing that I saw," Parsons said Thursday night on '22 Schedule Release. "Bengals in it last year, Super Bowl contender, obviously. Tom Brady and the Buccaneers are always Super Bowl contenders. It's a testament to see where our team's at and where we stand at. And I think that's a great start to [play against] those two Super Bowl teams, Super Bowl-type teams will be big 'W's for the Cowboys."

The Cowboys lost to the Buccaneers, 31-29, in last year's NFL Kickoff Game and will face Tampa Bay in Week 1 again, this time on Sunday Night Football and on their homefield. Seven days later, Parsons and Co. will host Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals.

Dallas, the reigning NFC East champion, will square off with the reigning NFC South and AFC North champions in its first two games, and true to Parsons' point, will find out in a hurry what it's made of.

Last season, though Parsons wreaked havoc throughout, he admitted he was a bit taken aback facing Brady.


"Obviously my first year, [playing against] Tom Brady, I was obviously big eyes in seeing Tom," he said. "I'm kinda excited for the rematch. It was a real big nail biter."

While Parsons will see Brady for a second time, he'll get his first glimpse of Burrow, who shared the NFL Honors stage with him as the AP NFL Comeback Player of the Year.

"Obviously, AFC champs, they're gonna come and bring it. They got a lot of young talent," Parsons said. "I'm excited to go up against Joe Burrow. He's a guy I've been watching for a long time and I just kinda want to experience it for myself."

The Cowboys will get all the big-game experience they can handle in the first two weeks. If they emerge 2-0 as Parsons predicts, it'll be a stellar start and an emphatic statement to the rest of the league.

NFL.com

 

One interesting quirk helped cause this... with the exception of 1988 (following the 1987 strike year), this is the first time the previous season has had an odd number of games. There were no 8-8 teams as a result, and we had 18 out of the 32 teams finish with winning records last year (compared to 13 in 2020).

Going to 17 games removes another quirk that I always thought was pretty cool about the 16-game schedule. Before last year, every team in the league played exactly four regular season games against the previous year's division winners.

 

As a Falcons fan, the other thing about this that jumps out at me is that while the article goes on about how the Chiefs earned such a difficult schedule, their strength of schedule is only 0.009 higher than Atlanta's.

WTF ??? A third place team that drafted #8 overall somehow gets the league's 9th highest strength of schedule.

 

Jarvis Landry lands back in New Orleans, with the Saints



If good things happen in threes, it’s just a matter of time before the Saints sign Odell Beckham Jr.

Free-agent receiver Jarvis Landry, a Louisiana native who played college football at LSU, has signed with the Saints. Following multiple reports regarding the move, Landry tweeted “WHO DAT.” (Not to be confused with Who Dey.)

Cut by the Browns before free agency started, Landry lingered on the market. Rumors circulated that he wanted $20 million per year, a number that doesn’t seem quite so nutty given some of the receiver deals that have since been done.


Most recently, Landry had been linked to the Ravens.

Landry’s arrival comes on the same day the Saints signed first-round pick Chris Olave. They also hope that Michael Thomas will make it back to the form that he last displayed in the 2019 season. He hasn’t been the same since suffering an ankle injury during the first game of the 2020 season.

Some will fairly interpret the signing of Landry as an indication by the Saints that they don’t think Thomas will be back to where he was.

A second-round pick of the Dolphins in 2014, Landry was traded to the Browns in 2018. He has 688 career catches, for 7,598 yards and 37 touchdowns.

Last week, the Saints signed safety Tyrann Mathieu, another local product who played at LSU.

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The Atlanta Falcons acquired wide receiver Bryan Edwards from the Las Vegas Raiders on Friday. It's unknown what the Raiders are receiving in return. Even after adding wideout Drake London in the first round of this year's draft, the Falcons were in need of more receiving help with Calvin Ridley suspended for all of the 2022 season. Given that Olamide Zaccheaus and Auden Tate are the top receivers behind London, Edwards could immediately become the No. 2 pass-catcher for quarterback Marcus Mariota this year. The former third-round pick had 571 receiving yards and three touchdowns last year on 34 receptions in just his second NFL season, and he's still only 23 years old.

Roto Baller

 

Denver Broncos wide receiver Jerry Jeudy will be released on bond on Friday after the female victim involved with Jeudy addressed the court and said she never felt threatened and doesn't feel threatened now. There is a mandatory protection order, but the "no-contact" provision has been dropped. The 23-year-old was arrested on Thursday on suspicion of criminal tampering with a domestic-violence enhancer. There was no physical contact between Jeudy and the woman in question, and he hasn't been formally charged in the investigation. He could still be facing a potential suspension from the league. If Jeudy avoids any type of suspension, he could be in for a breakout in his third NFL season now that Russell Wilson is at quarterback in Denver.--Keith Hernandez - RotoBaller

 

NOT Russ approved.

 

It's a pick swap. Atlanta sends a 5th rounder to Las Vegas in exchange for Edwards and a 7th rounder.

I claim it's better to have four or five #3-caliber targets on the field than to have Jerry Rice and The Pips. It's looking to me like Atlanta is already at or above that point for this season. The receiving group now is FAR better than what they had when Calvin Ridley left the team in week five.

Right now they can line up any two of Drake London, Bryan Edwards or Auden Tate outside, put one of the speedsters Damiere Byrd or Olamide Zaccheaus in the slot, have Cordarelle Patterson (natural WR) shifting out of the backfield to line up as a second slot receiver, and obviously Kyle Pitts at TE.

The obvious question is whether the linemen can hold a block long enough for Mariota to throw the ball. The bad news is that three of the five widely reported "projected starters" on the offensive line were among the 10 worst starting linemen in the entire league in pass protection last year. Think about that... THREE of the ten worst pass blockers in the entire league were starting for the same team.

At least for me, the good news is those guys were so bad that I don't believe they truly are projected starters. If there is open, legit competition, two of them are losing their starting roles (there are better players on the roster) while the third is likely to develop into a halfway competent pass blocker.

 

That is amazing to think about... I hope they can remedy that. Games are won in the trenches.