NFL - NEWS & NOTES

He was, but he was even better as Angel Eyes.

 

Tuesday marks an important date in the NFL’s offseason calendar.

The window for teams to use franchise or transition tags is now open. Teams can apply the tags at any point between now and 4 p.m. ET on March 8 and any player who receives a tag will be able to continue negotiating a long-term deal with their teams through July 15.


Each team can only use one tag, which may make for a tough decision for the Giants as they have quarterback Daniel Jones and running back Saquon Barkley on their way to free agency. Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson, Chiefs left tackle Orlando Brown, Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith, Raiders running back Josh Jacobs, and Cowboys running back Tony Pollard are others who could wind up being tagged over the next couple of weeks.

Players can negotiate with other teams after being tagged, although signing away a franchise-tagged player would cost his new team two first-round picks. If a player signs his tag, his salary for 2023 becomes guaranteed. The franchise tag salaries, by position, are listed below:

Quarterback: $32,416,000.

Running back: $10,091,000.

Receiver: $19,743,000.

Tight end: $11,345,000.

Offensive line: $18,244,000.

Defensive end: $19,727,000.

Defensive tackle: $18,937,000.

Linebacker: $20,926,000.

Cornerback: $18,140,000.

Safety: $14,460,000.

Kicker/punter: $5,393,000.

Given how often deadlines result in agreements, it’s unlikely any teams will rush to use the tags but they’re now free to do so.

 

Titans releasing three-time Pro Bowler LT Taylor Lewan, WR Robert Woods, K Randy Bullock

The Titans are parting ways with a bundle of players: left tackle Taylor Lewan, wide receiver Robert Woods, kicker Randy Bullock and linebacker Zach Cunningham.

Lewan, a three-time Pro Bowler, initially announced his release on Twitter. The team later confirmed the offensive lineman's release along with his three former teammates, including labeling Cunningham's release with a failed physical designation.

By cutting all four players, the Titans were able to clear nearly $38 million in salary-cap space and $42.2 million in cash off the books for 2023, NFL Network Insider Tom Pelissero reported.

Woods lasted just one season with the Titans after joining the team in a trade from the Rams. The reliable veteran returned from a November 2021 ACL tear with Los Angeles to play in all 17 games for Tennessee, starting 15 of them but failing to make a splash.

He caught 53 receptions for 527 yards and two touchdowns.

The release of Lewan bids farewell to a much longer-tenured Titan.


The 2014 first-rounder played 105 games over nine seasons for Tennessee and made three consecutive Pro Bowls from 2016-18.

Lewan was a sturdy blindside protector for Marcus Mariota when he first emerged as the team's full-time starter in 2015, and later for Ryan Tannehill, but Lewan's injuries began to diminish his returns.

Following a five-year contract extension in 2018, Lewan was suspended for the first four games on the 2019 season after violating the NFL policy on performance-enhancing substances.

The Pro Bowler tore his ACL in Week 5 of 2020 and suffered another season-ending knee injury after just two games this past season.

The 31-year-old played 20 games across the last three seasons and was heading into the final year of his extension signed on the heels of his last Pro Bowl campaign.

While the Titans will be searching for new pieces at both of those positions, Woods and Lewan have three weeks to evaluate their futures ahead of free agency's March 15 start date.

NFL.com

 

Per NFL.com

Wagner's release will not occur until the start of the new league year on March 15, NFL Network Insider Mike Garafolo notes. The 32-year-old gets an early look at the free-agent market and will be able to shop himself at the beginning of free agency.

This appears to be a salary-cutting move by the Rams, who are currently more than $14 million above the salary cap, according to Over The Cap.

The Rams had signed Wagner to a five-year, $50 million deal last April. He received $20 million in guarantees, which included $10 million guaranteed at signing. Both his 2022 base salary and 2023 roster bonus ($3.5 million) were fully guaranteed. According to Over The Cap, the Rams would take a $7.5 million dead-money hit this year but also would receive $5 million in additional cap space.

Wagner started all 17 games for the Rams in 2022, logging a career-best six sacks while adding 140 tackles (10 for losses), two interceptions and five passes defensed.

Prior to joining the Rams, Wagner spent 10 seasons with the Seattle Seahawks. In 151 games (150 starts), Wagner totaled 1,381 tackles, 23.5 sacks, 11 interceptions (one pick six), six forced fumbles, nine recoveries and one safety. He earned first-team All-Pro honors six times in that span and led the Seahawks to a victory in Super Bowl XLVIII in the 2013 season.

 

Gotta say it... the Thursday night XFL game on FX just now was better than several of the Thursday games on Amazon this season.

 

The Los Angeles Rams are reportedly looking to move on from Jalen Ramsey.

According to NFL Network's Tom Pelissero, the three-time All Pro and six-time Pro Bowl cornerback is "very likely" to be traded as the Rams shift toward a rebuild and look to clear cap space. Los Angeles has engaged in trade talks, Pelissero added.

 

First I think one of the AFC teams goes after Ramsey just makes sense when you look at the QB gauntlet you have to get through to get to the SB

As they move more.and more toward rebuild I wonder if Stafford decides to hang it up? Does he want to go through a rebuild at his age and as beat up as he has been his whole career?

 

I think thats a valid point. I think he plays tho... Too much guaranteed money coming if he plays.

 

Matthew Slater and Bill Belichick only needed a few minutes to agree he’s coming back



When the Patriots announced that special teams captain Matthew Slater will return for his 16th season, coach Bill Belichick said he was thrilled. And that’s all Slater needed.

The 37-year-old Slater told TheAthletic.com that he had a very short conversation with Belichick to confirm that both sides still wanted him to play in New England.


“I bumped into him outside the weight room,” Slater said. “I was going out, he was coming. I told him I felt like I wanted to come back and play. And it was very well received. He was excited that I felt that way.”

Slater said he would have listened if Belichick had told him it was time to retire.

“If Bill had said, ‘OK, it’s time,’ that would have removed all doubt about playing,” Slater said. “But he wanted me back. The conversation was all of two minutes, maybe three minutes.”

Slater’s dad, Hall of Fame offensive tackle Jackie Slater, played 20 seasons with the Rams, so 16 seasons with one team doesn’t seem like a lot.

“I’m in a very unique position. My dad has more experience doing what I do than I have. The conversation between us was what Year 16 looked like to him, in his career. And how he felt physically,” Slater said.

Whether Slater can play as long as his dad did remains to be seen, but he’s not ready to walk away yet, and Belichick isn’t ready to lose his special teams captain.

PFT
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Like father, like son... I remember those years of Jackie and the Rams. Cool story.

 

Pay or wait? What should the Steelers do with LB Alex Highsmith?



When it comes to free agency, the Pittsburgh Steelers typically have three groups of players in terms of priorities.

At the bottom are the players they don’t offer a contract to. Should they come up empty on offers, Pittsburgh will often bring that type of player back.

Then there is the group of guys who gets re-signed as soon as their free agency begins, keeping them off the market.

Finally, there is a third group, who Pittsburgh typically tries to get locked up a year ahead of free agency. The player who falls into this category the closest this offseason is outside linebacker Alex Highsmith.

Highsmith had a breakout season in 2022. He finished with 14.5 sacks, the sixth-most in the NFL. We can debate why and how the numbers happened as they did, but in the final analysis, Highsmith finished among the elite in the NFL. And he’s probably going to want to parlay that into a big contract extension.

But what should Pittsburgh do? Pay him based on last season or wait and see if he can do it again? If Highsmith has another big season, his asking price is only going to go up. If he falters, he loses some leverage. If I’m the Steelers front office, I wait. There’s no reason to panic. Let Highsmith prove he is among the elite edge rushers in the game. If he does it, pay the man in the 2024 offseason.

STEELERSWIRE
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Highsmith tore the NFL up last season, was great on the BOMBERS fantasy team, I might add. I got lucky picking him up and was very surprised at how well he did. In my opinion, he already earned a pay raise in 2022, pay the man!

 

You make him a team friendly offer if he take it great if not no big deal. Yes he had a break out but most of he is sacks and pressures occur only when Watt is on the field. Where his game remains solid when Watt is out is in his run stopping ability. He will likely get overpaid by a team and it shouldn't be the Steelers but if they are going to overpay him now is the time to do so (with Pickett on his rookie deal).

 

I went through the numbers once before in noting why his situation makes it hard for the team to resign Baker Mayfield. But there's some confusion because of the timing involved. It's worth a quick recap just to see why he's not bloody likely to retire until every avenue of rehabilitation is exhausted.

Since he's under contract and currently injured, the team would have to deal with all those messy injury settlement issues if they attempted to release him before the new league year kicked in. They could attempt to trade him, but that wouldn't impact his side of the finances. So we'll ignore the team cap aspects for now and just focus on Stafford's end of things.

From his standpoint, if he's still on a roster on the third day of the new league year, he collects the option bonus on his contract (which I'm pretty sure is $26 million) and his 2024 salary ($31 million) becomes guaranteed.

His $1.5 million base salary for 2023 was already guaranteed when he signed his extension last year, and he collected a $60 million signing bonus.

If he retired in the next couple of weeks, at least $48 million of that signing bonus would be up for grabs for a clawback, and potentially the entire $60 million (it's a four year extension covering 2023-2026, so the team could contend that he hasn't played out any of it yet). Also adios to the $1.5 million and $31 million salaries, and he wouldn't be on the roster to get that $26 million option bonus.

He'd be walking away from over $100 million in guaranteed money, plus another $63 million that wouldn't become guaranteed.

So.... If he does NOT retire, he continues a long physical rehab process. If that doesn't go so well, then he has surgery and is out for another season. By comparison, if he did retire he'd still go through a long physical rehab process. If that didn't go so well he'd still have surgery. No difference, except for that little thing about walking away from nine digits of guaranteed money.

He has a pretty strong incentive to keep going through the rehab process as long as necessary and to get back on the field for whatever portion of the 2023 or 2024 season remains if the rehab and/or surgery is ultimately successful.

 

Competition Committee begins to explore the quarterback push play



Sixteen years after the NFL removed the rule against pushing a runner, some teams finally realized that it could become a strategic aspect of the offense.

Now, as the Competition Committee begins to ponder potential rule changes for 2023, the push play is on the docket.


Per multiple reports, NFL executive V.P. of football operations Troy Vincent said that the Competition Committee already has discussed the play at length, and that the topic will be revisited in March.

The Eagles used it on multiple occasions during Super Bowl LVII. If executed properly, it’s unstoppable.

Before 2006, the rules prohibited pushing and pulling of the runner. Pushing, which happened spontaneously in the open field, was never called.

Now, it’s part of the play design. The NFL has to decide whether it wants to embrace a play that basically amounts to an inverted tug of war.

Broncos coach Sean Payton has said that, if the rule isn’t changed, he’ll embrace it on a regular basis. Other coaches likely will do the same.

Our suggestion? Make it a violation within the tackle box. If someone wants to push the runner from behind in the open field, so be it. They did it for years without a flag being thrown, even when the rules prohibited it.

PFT

 

NFL seems unlikely to change roughing the passer rules



Many fans, media, and observers believe the NFL’s officials have been overly aggressive when it comes to calling roughing the passer. As the Competition Committee prepares to make its annual proposals to ownership for rule changes, it seems likely that, when it comes to calling roughing the passer, nothing will change.

Via Judy Battista of NFL Network, the Competition Committee has looked at 80 roughing the passer plays. The Committee found that only three were “questionable.”


Only three? And just “questionable”?

The message is clear. They ain’t changing shit.

Sorry to be so blunt and coarse. But the truth continues to be, as NFL executive V.P. of football operations Troy Vincent explained it on ESPN in October, that the league places a premium on keeping quarterbacks healthy. If that means tolerating “questionable” roughing the passer calls, so be it.

Once again, the biggest problem with the rule — one that rarely if ever gets mentioned beyond the borders of this website and the weekday show carrying its name — is that the rulebook specifically requires referees to call roughing the passer if there’s any doubt regarding whether roughing happened.

Not everyone connected to the game is fine with doing nothing. Per multiple reports, one team has proposed making roughing the passer reviewable.

But even if it’s subject to replay review, the standard will be whether it’s clear and obvious that the ruling on the field was wrong. And given that the rule expressly requires a flag to be thrown “when In doubt,” when would it ever be “clear and obvious” that there was no doubt about whether roughing happened?

Bottom line? Nothing is changing. The league would rather deal with periodic criticism arising from phantom roughing calls than risk not having starting quarterbacks available to play in high-profile games.

It’s all about keeping the quarterbacks healthy. And if that means flagging players for roughing when roughing hasn’t happened, it’s a risk worth assuming. Because it’s better than assuming the risk of quarterbacks getting hit hard, and then getting hurt.

PFT

 

Milwaukee Bucks co-owner Marc Lasry has reached an agreement to sell his portion of the Bucks to Cleveland Browns owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam for a $3.5 billion valuation, sources told ESPN.

The deal, which sources said is still pending league approval, would be the second-highest valuation ever for an NBA team, only being surpassed by the $4 billion purchase of the Phoenix Suns by Mat Ishbia from Robert Sarver that was completed earlier this month. It would also be the third highest for any American professional sports team, also trailing the $4.65 billion the Denver Broncos went for last June.

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My condolences to Bucks fans.

 

@Lyman

You are missed around here. Chime in more often please. I enjoy your opinions/posts and frankly you know your shit. Im not suggesting... thats an order.
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@LAOJoe

Same goes for you... we need you to stir things up. Your quiet and that doesnt set straight with me. Your one of the best posters around here also in spite of being Canadian.

 

Things have been kinda hectic with home renovations lately but I'll get back on the swing of things here soon. I've been relatively quiet this year on general but that had more to do with me being away from things in general.

 

Some of you may remember Art Donovan... a favorite of mine.

 

Third quarterback rule, onside kick alternatives among proposed rules changes by NFL teams



There was word this weekend that a team was proposing making roughing the passer penalties subject to review and that’s not the only change being proposed this offseason.

Mark Maske of the Washington Post reports that the Rams were the team to make that roughing proposal and that a handful of other proposals are on the table for the Competition Committee and league to consider. They include a reprise of the proposal for an onside kick alternative.


The NFL tabled discussion on proposals to allow teams to try a fourth-and-15 play rather than an onside kick in the past and Maske reports that it is up for discussion again. The XFL has implemented the rule and St. Louis pulled off a conversion to propel themselves to a win this season.

Also up for consideration are a return of the rule allowing teams to dress a third quarterback for use in an emergency. That was expected after the 49ers were down to no healthy quarterbacks in their NFC Championship Game loss to the Eagles.

There is also a proposal regarding the number of challenges available to a team that is successful in the ones they make during a game, but no particulars of that proposal are currently available.

PFT