NFL - NEWS & NOTES

All fastballs. No touch. But that can be developed.

 

Not by everyone though.

 

Commanders Won’t Exercise Chase Young’s Fifth-Year Option, per Report

 

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Still more than Devin Bush is getting.
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HAHHAAHAHAHHAHA.
That effing bum

 

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NFL: Gambling is bad. Unless we do it.

 

DaVon Hamilton agrees to three-year extension with Jaguars



The Jaguars have locked up one of their key defensive players with a second contract.

Jacksonville has agreed to a three-year contract extension with defensive tackle DaVon Hamilton, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL Media.


The deal is worth $34.5 million with $23 million guaranteed. Incentives could push the contract to a maximum value of $36 million. Hamilton is set to earn $18.7 million in the first year of the extension.

A third-round pick in 2020, Hamilton was entering the final season of his rookie contract.

Hamilton appeared in all 17 games last year with 14 starts, playing 53 percent of the team’s defensive snaps. He finished with 2.5 sacks, five tackles for loss, and six quarterback hits. He also had eight tackles with one for loss, a QB hit, and two passes defensed in Jacksonville’s two postseason games.

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Report: Lions fielding trade calls on D’Andre Swift



D'Andre Swift may be on his way out of Detroit.

After the Lions selected Alabama running back Jahmyr Gibbs in the first round of this year’s draft, General Manager Brad Holmes told reporters that Swift was “still part of our team” while calling him a “dynamic football player.”


But other teams have taken notice of Gibbs joining free agent signee David Montgomery in the team’s backfield.

According to Jeremy Fowler of ESPN, the Lions have received trade calls on Swift and his representation has been in touch with Detroit’s front office about potentially moving him elsewhere.

Swift has been at or around 1,000 yards from scrimmage in each of his first three seasons. Last year, he had 931 yards on 147 touches with eight touchdowns in 14 games. He tallied 542 yards rushing with five TDs and 48 catches for 389 yards with three TDs.

A second-round pick in 2020, Swift was not drafted by the current regime led by Holmes and head coach Dan Campbell. As he’s entering the final year of his rookie contract, he could be a cost-effective option for a contending team that would like a dual threat out of the backfield.

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I think he landed in exactly the right place. Titans still have Pat O'Hara on their coaching staff (at least for now) in addition to Charles London.

O'Hara would be perfect for helping him work on developing that touch.

 

Buffalo Bills Sign RB Latavius Murray

Murray is coming off one of his best statistical seasons in several years, having rushed for 703 yards and five touchdowns in 12 games with Denver last season. He led the team in rushing yards, with more than double the total of runner-up Melvin Gordon III (318 yards).

 

Report: Chiefs decline Clyde Edwards-Helaire’s fifth-year option



Clyde Edwards-Helaire is now set to become a free agent after the 2023 season.

According to Matt Derrick of ChiefsDigest.com, Kansas City has elected to decline Edwards-Helaire’s fifth-year option.

The decision is not entirely unexpected, given Edwards-Helaire’s production over the last two seasons and the rise of other running backs on the roster. The 32nd overall pick of the 2020 draft, Edwards-Helaire had 1,100 yards from scrimmage on 217 touches as a rookie. But injuries have limited him to just 20 games over the last two seasons. He had 646 yards from scrimmage with six TDs in 2021 and 453 yards on 88 touches in 2022.

If the Chiefs had picked up the option, they would have been on the hook to pay Edwards-Helaire a projected $5.461 million guaranteed in 2023.

General Manager Brett Veach did not directly say that the club was going to decline Edwards-Helaire’s option when asked about the running back on Monday. But he hinted this move might be coming.

“We’re excited though for Clyde this season,’’ Veach said in his video conference. “He was actually the first guy I saw in the building today, in tremendous shape.

“He’s a good football player. He’s going to help us out here, again, with these guys we have a list of things to do with a bunch of these guys and now that the draft is officially ended in the next coming weeks now’s the time we go through all that stuff and start making our plans for the future. But needless to say, we’re excited to have him back in the building today and look forward to hopefully a healthy 2023 campaign for him.”

Edwards-Helaire came off injured reserve in time for Super Bowl LVII but was inactive for the contest.

Even if Edwards-Helaire had not been injured in 2022, then-rookie Isiah Pacheco likely would have taken over as Kansas City’s starting running back. Jerick McKinnon, who the team agreed to re-sign on Monday, was second on the team with 10 total touchdowns.

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Report: Randall Cobb is expected to sign with Jets



It looks like Allen Lazard won’t be the only member of the Jets receiving corps with a history of catching passes from Aaron Rodgers.

Adam Schefter of ESPN reports that Randall Cobb is expected to sign a one-year deal with the AFC East club. Cobb played with Rodgers in Green Bay from 2011 to 2018 and then returned for the last two seasons. He and Rodgers walked off the field together after the final game of the 2022 season, but Wednesday’s news suggests that won’t be the final act of their partnership.

Cobb caught 34 passes for 417 yards and a touchdown last year and has 532 catches for 6,316 yards and 47 touchdowns over 130 total games with the Packers.

In addition to signing Lazard, the Jets also added Mecole Hardman in free agency. They had also shown interest in signing Odell Beckham Jr., but he wound up agreeing to a deal in Baltimore.

Garrett Wilson, Corey Davis and Denzel Mims are the team’s returning receivers from last season.

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Amazing how Rodgers is running the show in NY, first Lazzard, now Cobb. The New York Jetpacks!

 

Cardinals will figure out where to play Paris Johnson on offensive line



The Cardinals knew the player they wanted in the first round of last week’s draft and they were able to land offensive lineman Paris Johnson while also picking up a 2024 first-round pick in a trade with the Texans while positioning themselves to draft the Ohio State product.

That certainty does not extend to where they are going to play Johnson at the start of his NFL career, however. Johnson saw time at both guard and tackle while playing in college and head coach Jonathan Gannon said on Tuesday that the team will sort out where he fits into the line over the coming months.

“Yeah, we’ll figure that out. . . . He’s obviously played outside and inside,” Gannon said, via Bob McManaman of the Arizona Republic. “We’ve just got to get him on the grass and see where he fits in with the other guys. I’m very comfortable with what he’s put on tape of playing a lot of different spots on that offensive line, so we’ll put the best guys out there, the best five, and see how we can make the gel together and hopefully move people in the run game and keep the quarterback upright in the passing game.”

Left guard may be the clearest path to the starting lineup for Johnson as a rookie as left tackle D.J. Humphries is still with the team and they re-signed right tackle Kelvin Beachum this offseason, but there’s a lot of time to work things out before any final decisions need to be made.

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Plus Garrett Wilson...

He won't have an excuse if he fails. This will rest squarely on his shoulders.

 

The hot rumor in Hotlanta is that the Jets will release Corey Davis in a cap move ($10.5 million savings) and that Atlanta will quickly scoop him up.

I don't know about the Jets releasing him, though comments from the team (they like him, but the NFL is a business) hint that he's in jeopardy. Signing Cobb makes it seem a little more likely, and $10.5 million in savings would help New York get their new diva QB another toy or two.

If Davis does become available, Atlanta would be an obvious choice for his next destination. One more upgrade to the WR group is the team's top remaining need/wish-list item. They worked out two lower-tier free agent wideouts this week, and three of their six UDFA signings were wide receivers. He's also the big-body type that Arthur Smith likes.

And... he was with the Titans through 2020, with Arthur Smith as his OC when he had his best career year. So like Jonnu Smith, he'd be returning to the coach that helped him get that big free agency contract in the first place.

 

OT Donovan Smith signing 1-year deal with Chiefs worth up to $9M

 

I hope this is a decision that has already been in the works. Feels like you get to work on this right at the end of the prior season, not right as facilities open for the new one. I'm interested in the thought process of moving a guy that has been outrageously impactful to a new position, but hey, gonna be fun to see how it works out.

 

Found this at Sporting News...

Why is Micah Parsons switching positions in 2023?
Parsons is officially switching his position from linebacker to defensive end for two reasons.

First and foremost, Parsons actually played a majority of his snaps on the defensive line in 2022. It marked a shift in his rookie-season role that saw him serve as a hybrid player who saw action at linebacker but occasionally moved to the edge.

Below is a look at Parsons' snap counts by position in each of his first two regular seasons, as well as the percentage of snaps he played at each defensive position.



That data points to the fact that Parsons already was, effectively, a defensive end in 2023. He just didn't have the official title, but it's easy to understand why he would want that. Elite edge rushers are compensated at a higher rate than off-ball linebackers, so this will set Parsons up to earn a bigger payday when it comes time for the Cowboys to exercise his fifth-year option and extend him.

In fairness, teams probably wouldn't have tried to lowball Parsons by claiming positional value even if he had remained designated as a linebacker. Even still, now that he is officially switching positions, the Cowboys and other teams across the league will certainly be unable to argue that he is a linebacker.

 

Awesome find, Will. I presumed that the switch had to do with money - typically players try to set that up in advance of a new contract - but I didn't realize how heavily weighted his snaps were last year with his hand in the dirt. That's a huge change from his rookie year. Good to know. Shows you how much Cowboys football I watched last year...