NFL - NEWS & NOTES

They could be fun to watch if Williams isn't running for his life in under 1 second... Doesn't matter the talent if there is so much pressure that no one has a chance to get open.

 

Not a news thing, but a simple little 'note'. Lest we forget. Enjoy your weekend and good morning.



(actual colorized picture from 1945 at Iwo Jima)

 

Quez Watkins sees “great opportunity” with Steelers this season

The Steelers are going to have a new starting quarterback in 2024 and they are going to have a different look at wide receiver as well.

George Pickens and Calvin Austin III return from last season, but the team has also brought in four new faces. Quez Watkins, Van Jefferson, Scotty Miller, and third-round pick Roman Wilson join the holdovers in the scrap for playing time with Diontae Johnson and Allen Robinson moving on this offseason.

The departed receivers were targeted more than 130 times last season and Watkins sees a big chance to make an impression as a result of the changes.

“For me, when I saw they traded Diontae, it was a great opportunity to potentially be a No. 2 or whatever they want me to do,” Watkins said, via Ray Fittipaldo of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “It’s a good opportunity to compete for that spot.”

The Steelers have been mentioned as a possible destination for a receiver in a trade, but they have not pulled the trigger on a major move. If Watkins and the others have a strong showing over the rest of the offseason program, that will likely remain the case in Pittsburgh.

 

Kevin Stefanski: Jim Schwartz feels we can be so much better on defense

After the Browns hired Jim Schwartz as coordinator last offseason, Cleveland’s defense significantly improved in 2023.

The unit went from a liability in 2022 to a strength, finishing No. 1 in yards allowed.

But after the team lost to Houston 45-14 in the wild card round, head coach Kevin Stefanski said last week that Cleveland is still looking to improve on the unit.

“Year to year, things change, and every year stands on its own merit,” Stefanski said in his press conference. “And I could let coach Schwartz speak specifically to it, but I know Jim and I know the conversations we’ve had. We want to be better on defense. There are plays that we feel were left out there.

“I think if you talk to coach [Schwartz] as he watches the tape over the course of the season, he was surprised we were able to stop anybody — you know, he feels like we can be so much better. Some of that comes from different things. We can adjust. Some of that comes from putting guys in positions to go make plays, but we are in no way satisfied on defense.”

Defenses tend to fluctuate from one year to the next. But if Cleveland can remain dominant on the unit, then the club should have a chance to make it to the postseason once again in 2024.

PFT

 

Cardinals sign first-round DL Darius Robinson to his rookie deal

The Cardinals signed first-round defensive lineman Darius Robinson to his four-year rookie contract with a fifth-year option, the team announced.

Robinson, the 27th overall pick, was the team’s second first-round selection.

The Cardinals have two unsigned draft picks left of their 12-player class, with third-round running back Trey Benson and fourth-round safety Dadrion Taylor-Demerson having yet to agree to terms.

Robinson signed a guaranteed $13.9 million deal, with a $6.9 million signing bonus.
“Before your senior year, you think, ‘If I go in the first round you get this, this and this,’” Robinson said, via Darren Urban of the team website. “But now, it’s pen to paper, and it’s real.

“I have three goals: Have fun, be better than the last time I was on tape, and respect and trust in my coaches and teammates as I earn a role in this organization.”

The Missouri product is part of a revamped defensive line room that includes free agent signees Justin Jones and Bilal Nichols. He hopes to contribute as a rookie after totaling 8.5 sacks and 14 tackles for loss in 12 games last season.

PFT

 

Texans signing WR Nico Collins to three-year, $72.5 million extension

Houston has made a major financial commitment to one of its promising, young wide receivers.

The Texans and Nico Collins have agreed on a new three-year, $72.5 million extension that includes $52 million guaranteed, NFL Network Insiders Ian Rapoport and Tom Pelissero reported Tuesday, per sources. The deal has a max value of $75 million.

The Athletic's Diana Russini first reported news.

Collins will now become one of the 10 highest-paid receivers in the NFL with the new deal. According to Over The Cap, Collins' per-year average of nearly $24.2 million places him seventh among all wide receivers, just ahead of the Seahawks' DK Metcalf. The NFL's highest-paid wideout, Philadelphia's A.J. Brown, averages $32 million per year.

Collins, 25, enjoyed a breakout season in Year 3 while catching passes from rookie quarterback C.J. Stroud last season, totaling 80 receptions for 1,297 yards and eight touchdowns while also scoring a two-point conversion in 15 games (10 starts). Not only were all those numbers career highs, but all three totals were higher than his cumulative career receiving sums entering last season.

In the Texans' two playoff games in 2023, Collins also caught 11 passes (on 17 targets) for 164 yards and a touchdown.

It has been an extremely busy offseason in Houston following its divisional crown and unexpected playoff run in 2023. The Texans also traded for WR Stefon Diggs and running back Joe Mixon, bolstering a good offense and making 2024 one of the more anticipated upcoming seasons in recent franchise history.

NFL.com

 

George Kittle on track for training camp after core muscle surgery

49ers tight end George Kittle went for surgery after the team’s Super Bowl loss and he provided an update on his recovery on Wednesday.

Kittle suffered a core muscle injury around the middle of the regular season, but only missed a Week 18 game that had no bearing on the 49ers’ postseason fate. Kittle had surgery to address the injury shortly after the loss to the Chiefs in Las Vegas and word at the time was that he’d be ready to go for training camp.

On Wednesday, Kittle told reporters that he remains on track for that return. Kittle posted 65 catches for 1,020 yards and six touchdowns in the regular season and eight catches for 112 yards and a touchdown in the postseason while playing through the injury.

Cornerback Charvarius Ward is also recovering from core muscle surgery and was given the same recovery timeline as Kittle after going in for his operation.

PFT

 

The 49ers, like all teams, are processing the massive change to the kickoff

The NFL has revolutionized the kickoff, turning it in the blink of an eye from a dead play into something that will be very much undead. And the consequences of the new approach, which has 19 or 20 players clustered together and not moving until the ball is caught or strikes the ground in the landing zone, remain largely unknown.

On Wednesday, 49ers special teams coordinator Brian Schneider spoke at length about the new rule and the vast changes it will be bringing to the game.

“In the offseason when you get the news it’s a lot of anxiety because what you’re looking at is, the only thing you really have to look at is the XFL and it’s different too, than that,” Schneider told reporters. “So you really try to do as much as you can until the players got here. Because before it was all in my brain and one thing would go to another and then all of a sudden, I think it’s about here now for me, in terms of once we get the fundamentals together, once we ask the players to communicate with us, talk to us, what do you see? And once we kind of broke it down that way to get to, I think some fundamentals that will stick in terms of how to get there, and now we have to see where it goes. Because it’s different. That’s for sure.”

He said he watched “a ton” of XFL tape, even though there are differences between the XFL approach (which wasn’t adopted by the UFL) and the NFL’s configuration. One big similarity is that, once the ball is kicked, most of the players will not be moving at all.

“I think everyone that sees it for the first time, it’s really strange because you see the kickoff and I’m standing right here and it’s just like, it’s like you’re in space,” Schneider said. “You never see that happen without everyone moving. And so, it’s really like the music went off and everything, I was like in the Twilight Zone and then when it happens it’s just, it’s really fast. So getting used to all that for the players and it is going to continue to evolve.”

Schneider sees it evolving through the offseason, the training camp, the preseason, and into the regular season.

“I think you’re going through the whole season,” Schneider said. “I mean, to me, if you don’t look at this like a totally different play than anything we’ve coached, I think you’re going to be playing catch up. So . . . the speed of contact, like last year, those guys are running full speed and there’s a lot of things that happen in terms of what they can and can’t do just by how fast they’re running. That’s out too now. So, all those things, you have to figure out how it works when it’s alive. And we won’t know until the first preseason, like when it’s live, live. But, you know, that’s what makes it interesting.”

One of the most interesting wrinkles will be the decisions made at return specialist. Schneider echoed prior comments from Broncos coach Sean Payton regarding the baseball skills that might be needed to catch a ball that comes in hot, given that hang time will mean nothing if no one can go until the ball is caught or hits the ground.

“It’s all about the ball,” Schneider said. “And so that’s where we always start. So you always try to anticipate what kickers are going to do and it could be anywhere. So that’s where we start preparing. So, is it going to be like a shortstop? Is it, you know, what type of fielding balls are you going to get? What type of guys are there? And then what type of runners are there? I mean, is it going to be better to have a bigger back where you can break through the arm tackles? Because everyone’s going to be engaged. Is it going to be a quicker guy? But it all starts with the football. So that’s where you build everything from and really trying to figure out where they’re going to kick it, how they’re going to kick it.”

Schneider said everyone is still figuring it out.

“There’s 31 other coaches like me that don’t know exactly if we’re on the right track, what it’s going to look like,” Schneider said. “So more than anything, it’s going to be adjusting. And so, right now, I feel good finally with the players and getting their input and working through it all. But that’s going to be — it’s exciting. I mean, I’m fired up. This is the coolest thing to happen in terms of in my coaching career because it’s — what are you going to do? You have a great opportunity to do something that’s never been done before. So, it’s a race to figure it out and it’s going to be constantly adjusting.”

However it goes, Schneider sees it as good news for field position and scoring.

“I think an easier way to explain it is all the kickoff return teams have the advantage,” Schneider said. “Every kickoff return team, just from the way the kickoff team is set up. If you think about it, we’re on the 40-yard line with the same width we were when we were way back at the 35. So, backside almost geometry, I’m not very good at math, but those guys are almost eliminated just by alignment, if that makes sense. So, where it turns into, that’s what everyone tries to figure out. So, all the fundamentals are there, but then the body types that are on there, we’ve just got to see what works. And we have our plan kind of going into it, but I think you’ve just got to be ready to adjust however it looks.”

It’s an excellent, and overlooked, point. The kickoff team will be fanned out. Then, once the ball is caught (or strikes the ground), they’ll have to move.

If the defenders don’t realign, favoring one side of the field, a returner who can get through the first line of defense will have to beat only the kicker. If, in contrast, the coverage team converges in a way that creates multiple levels for the return specialist to navigate, an opening to the backside could blow the whole thing open.

So wake up, football fans. As I said earlier today on Pat McAfee’s show, this is a huge deal. It’s perhaps the biggest change to the game since at least the adoption of the two-point conversion, 30 years ago.

It might be bigger than that. Especially since it’s taking a play that was M-I-A and giving it an E-N-E-M-A.

PFT/Florio
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What I dont understand is the confusion involved and teams scrambling to figure things out. Why wasnt this experimented with preseason before implemented? Here we are at OTA's and teams arnt sure what exactly to do to handle this. Its all crazy... and I can relate.

 

The kickoff is going to be interesting for a little while. They will probably have the kickers just kick it out of the end zone.

 

I don't know. A ball that lands inside the 20 and bounces into endzone without being returned it's a touchback at the 20 yard line. Kicking the ball out of the end zone is a touchback at the 30.


To me there seems to more of an incentive to try and get some hangtime on kickoffs and play coverage. No fair catches equals a chance for some big turnovers.

 

I'm pretty sure they did experiment in a few pre-season games, but not universally. Then they finalized how it was going to look. NOW... it's my understanding that the rule is to go into effect across the board and they still have the ability to shelve it for the regular season if it results in an unfair advantage. It is definitely a one year deal that will be evaluated to see if it becomes permanent.

 

Jaylen Waddle, Dolphins agree to three-year contract extension

The Dolphins have locked up Jaylen Waddle with a long-term deal.

Waddle has agreed to a three-year contract extension that will make him one of the league’s highest-paid receivers and keep him tied to the organization through 2028, according to multiple reports.

The initial numbers indicate Waddle’s deal is worth $84.75 million with $76 million guaranteed.

Selected at No. 6 overall in 2021, Waddle was already under contract through 2025 after the Dolphins exercised his fifth-year option this spring.

Waddle caught 104 passes for 1,015 yards with six touchdowns as a rookie. But with head coach Mike McDaniel’s arrival in 2022, he nearly doubled his yards per reception, catching 75 passes for 1,356 yards with eight TDs. That season, he led the league with 18.1 yards per catch.

In 2023, Waddle had his third consecutive 1,000-yard season to begin his career with 72 catches for 1,014 yards and four touchdowns.

PFT

 

After drafting 2 CBs they had 1st round grades on with their first 2 picks, even with James Bradberry likely getting cut this weekend, it seems gambling addict Isaiah Rodgers Sr. Is in line to be the Eagles' starting CB opposite Slay.

 

DeJean and Mitchell still have a chance to do something about that. Eagles secondary is officially stacked.

 

Chiefs contemplating using DB Justin Reid as kickoff specialist under new rules

The new kickoff format has coaches in every NFL building flipping the switch on their creativity engines.

Justin Fields as a returner? Justin Reid as a kickoff specialist? Sure, why not? It's a new era; nothing is off limits!

The Chiefs are seriously considering the latter, according to special teams coordinator Dave Toub, who detailed his logic by first pointing to what he doesn't want his usual kicker, Harrison Butker, doing on the kickoff.

"I like to have somebody who can go back and is able to make a tackle," Toub explained Thursday. "(Harrison) Butker is able to make a tackle, but I really don't want him making tackles all year long. If you watch the XFL, we watched every play, I bet kickers were involved in at least 25 to 40 percent of the tackles. In either trying to make a guy bounce back or making the tackle himself, or just missing the tackle. We don't want Butker in that situation. But he will be a kicker.

"He will be a guy that we use in certain situations. He's got a lot of ability to move the ball whereas those other guys may not be apt to do that. … He can still a touchback if we need it. You're just giving up the ball. If we do kick a touchback out of the back of the end zone, now they're getting the ball at the 30 instead of the 25. So that 5 yards makes a big difference. That's another three percent chance you're giving the offense to score."

Reid, on the other hand, "can go down there and make tackles," Toub said.

"He's an extra guy they're probably not accounting for," Toub said. "They know that that guy can go down and tackle. But a guy like Justin is a guy they have to worry about, they have to get him blocked and have to give up blocking somebody else."

On the surface, this seems like sound logic. Reid has proven he can kick well enough to at least be considered for the role, is obviously the best kicking tackler out there, and could be a key part of a stifling kick coverage unit in this new world. But Prime Video analytics expert Sam Schwartzstein -- who was a driving force behind the implementation of a similar kickoff format in the XFL in 2020 -- noted Toub might be wasting his time because under the NFL's new rules, the kicker cannot cross the 50 until the ball is caught by the receiving team.

I don't expect kickers to be as involved in tackles in the NFL because of this rule," Schwartzstein wrote on social media. "Also the kicker was so involved because they have the best pursuit angle to the ball, being lined up further away AND in the middle of the field. There are no pre-established 'levels' of coverage, so the kicker is always at least the third level."

If anyone knows how the kickoff might play out in the NFL, it's Schwartzstein, but that isn't going to dissuade coaches across the league from turning over every stone in order to be best prepared for a new special teams frontier. Toub even admitted the changes are making for an entirely different set of key factors, which will require some finesse in order to walk the line between being overly aggressive and too safe.

"Hang time doesn't matter at all now. Hang time is out the door," Toub said. … "Now, it's about accuracy. Seeing what you're getting, how the returners are lined up and trying to kick away from them in the corners. But you can't take too much risk because if you hit it out of bounds now you're giving up the ball at the 40. If you hit it short of the target zone you're giving the ball at the 40. So there's a fine line between pushing the limits and edges or just going down and saying we can cover."

Expect some ambitious experimentation with the kickoff this preseason. Perhaps you'll even see Reid line up to boot one deep.

NFL.com
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Im thinking this could be very entertaining.

 

James Conner: Cardinals have a great football team, need our record to reflect it

Cardinals running back James Conner does not agree with the old football adage that you are what your record says you are.

The Cardinals have finished 4-13 two years in a row, but Conner believes they have a good team that just needs to put it all together.

“I want to turn things around out here. We have a great football team, we’re coached really well, so we want that to reflect on our record and our play. I want to speak up.”

Conner had a career-high 1,040 rushing yards last season despite missing four games, and he’s hoping for another strong season heading into a contract year.

“It would be awesome to finish my career here, but nothing changes,” Conner said. “If anything, it’s time to turn it up even more going into the last year of my deal. I’m thankful I got to see the last year of it, so I’ll go into it with everything I got. We’ll see what happens next year, hopefully stay, but I understand it’s a business.”

Helping the Cardinals turn that record around would be good business for Conner.

PFT

 

Good Morning all.

 

Donte Jackson: Steelers knew I'd be 'perfect corner for this system and this division'

The Steelers didn't come away empty-handed in their trade of Diontae Johnson to the Panthers in March.

Although Johnson was the headliner of the deal as Carolina's new pass-catching weapon for Bryce Young, Pittsburgh bolstered its typically menacing defense by netting Donte Jackson, a solid cover corner who feels he's already picking up the intricacies at his new locale after experiencing just one NFL home since 2018.

"I played in Carolina for all my career, but I've had five different defensive systems that I had to be in," Jackson said Thursday during his availability at organized team activities. "Even though I was in the same uniform, I still had to make sure we hone in one those details. So it's kind of the same way here, just making sure you learn every little detail. ... It ain't been that much of a learning curve for me, but it's been a real thrill just getting in here learning how this thing rolls so consistently year in and year out. I'm just happy to be a part of it."

During Jackson's six years in Carolina, he experienced three different full-time defensive coordinators, plus an interim DC for half of the 2022 campaign. The Panthers managed two top-five scoring defenses during that span, including a fourth-place ranking last season.

Jackson's new squad has also twice finished top-five in points allowed since he's been in the league, with two additional top-10 placements thanks to a relentless pass rush and, more recently, budding playmaker Joey Porter Jr., who this week called himself the best CB in the NFL.

"My reaction is you're supposed to," Jackson said of Porter believing he's the best. "You ask me that same question, I'm gonna say the same thing. Especially with a young guy, you love that confidence. Joey spent a lot of the season last year following guys, matching up with guys, and he did a really good job."

When asked a follow-up about his perception of his own ranking, Jackson -- who figures to slot in opposite Porter as the team's other boundary cornerback -- wouldn't partake in the numbers game. He did, however, express full confidence in his ability.

"One thing that always stood the test of time is my ability to make plays, my ability to go out there and match up against the best guys, my ability to go out there and hit and tackle," Jackson said. "When it comes to playing corner, you can do all the rankings and stuff, but I feel like I'm a complete guy. I don't really too much care about putting myself up in all that. I just care about being a solid, consistent guy. That's what I've been throughout my career. The tape don't lie."

Jackson has yet to make a Pro Bowl since entering the league as a second-rounder, but he's seldom been a weak point of any unit on which he's served. The 28-year-old played 16 games in 2023 for the first time since his rookie year, and with a return to health came better form than he's shown in other injury-plagued seasons.

Both his 66.6 PFF coverage grade and 64.3 defensive grade were personal bests since 2020. He has 14 career interceptions, and he's an able and willing tackler with 59 total and a career-high five for loss during his final season as a Panther.

His move to Pittsburgh brings him from the NFC South, a grouping that hasn't had a team win double-digit games for two straight seasons, to the AFC North, a famously black-and-blue division that saw all four teams finish above .500 last season and sent three of them to the playoffs.

Jackson expects to play the same type of well-rounded role for the Steelers that he's always played, only now he believe he'll be doing it on a grander stage.

"When I first got traded here, basically what they said, 'Get ready to go match, get ready to go follow guys, get ready to go and do what we know you do well,'" Jackson said. "Tackling is one of my big strong suits. Being my size, people don't expect me to come up and hit. So that was another thing that stood out. They just knew I'd be a perfect corner for this system and this division. I'm excited to put my talents and what I've been doing my whole career on such a big stage like this one. I can't wait."

NFL.com