NFL - NEWS & NOTES

Travis Kelce’s four-year, $57 million extension with Chiefs is done



The Chiefs are tying up their core for the next few years.

The deal with Travis Kelce is done, Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports, with the tight end agreeing to a four-year, $57 million extension.

Kelce is entering the fourth year of a five-year contract set to make base salaries of $8 million in 2020 and $7.75 million in 2021. The new deal ties him to the Chiefs for the next six seasons.

The 49ers agreed to make George Kittle the highest-paid tight end in the NFL earlier Thursday, working out a five-year, $75 million extension. Kittle was entering the final year of his rookie deal, due a $2.133 million base salary.

This marks Kelce’s third contract with the Chiefs. He already has made more than $33.1 million.

In seven years, he has made five Pro Bowls and twice has earned All-Pro.

NBC

 

Russell Wilson is glad to be Jamal Adams‘ teammate.

Wilson talked up Adams, who arrived in Seattle in a blockbuster trade with the Jets, as a player who’s going to make an enormous difference to the Seahawks for years to come.

“Jamal’s a fiery guy. I love him,” Wilson said. “He’s passionate about the game, he’s one of the best players in the game, for sure, one of the best defensive players. He can do it all. He’s got the energy, he’s got the passion, he’s got the energy, he’s got the knowledge. He brings something, for sure, to our team, not just for the defense, for our whole football team. He’s a great leader. He’s going to be a great football player for a long time. I’m glad he’s on our team.”

The Seahawks gave up a lot to get Adams, including two first-round draft picks, and that’s going to make it harder to put good offensive players around Wilson. But Wilson doesn’t seem to mind.

PFT

 

Seahawks starting defensive tackle Jarran Reed left practice Friday.

The injury appeared to be a lower-leg injury, Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times reports.

Reporters had no availability with coaches or players after practice, so Reed’s condition is unknown.

Reed left an early drill with a limp. He headed to the locker room and didn’t return, according to Condotta.

The other starting defensive tackle, Poona Ford, was held out late in practice with what appeared to be a calf issue. Ford dealt with a calf issue last season.

The Seahawks have little experience behind Reed and Ford, with Bryan Mone, Cedrick Lattimore and Demarcus Christmas.

PFT

 

Packers defensive tackle Kenny Clark is heading into the fifth and final year of his rookie contract, but he won’t become a free agent next year.

Instead, Clark and the Packers have agreed to a four-year contract extension.

A league source tells PFT Clark will get a $25 million signing bonus and $37 million over the first two years of the deal.

Clark was due to make a salary of $7.69 million this season in the fifth-year option season on his rookie contract.

The Packers took Clark out of UCLA with the 27th overall pick in the 2016 NFL draft. He was selected to his first Pro Bowl last year, and he’s still just 24 years old. The Packers think he has many good years ahead of him.

PFT

 

Adam Thielen: To take next step, Vikings need to quit talking about it



Homer Alert !

What do the Vikings need to do to finally get to the next step and compete for a championship? Receiver Adam Thielen made a likely inadvertent Fight Club reference when addressing that topic earlier today.

“I think it really comes down to, ‘Quit talking about it,’ right?” Thielen told Bruce Murray and Bruce Gradkowski of SiriusXM NFL Radio on Saturday. “Like, we can talk about in the offseason how great we feel about our team, how great we feel about all the weapons we have and our defense and our defensive scheme, and our offensive scheme, how great all that is. Well, that’s great on paper, but that doesn’t win you games.

“What wins you games is going out there and executing and using your playmakers and making the plays when the ball’s in the air. And that’s what we’ve got to do. We’ve got to go out there and make those plays. You know, again, we did enough to make the playoffs and get to the second round, things like that. Which is great, and that’s a successful season. But at the end of the day that’s not our end goal.

“And so we need to figure out how to make those happen, and go back to work. Take advantage of every rep. Whether it be these walk-throughs we’ve been having because we can’t practice yet. The teams that are taking advantage of those and getting better on a daily basis, those are the teams that are gonna make a run and have a chance when it comes [in] February.”

If all of that sounds overly simplistic, well, that’s because it is. Plenty of teams are doing exactly the same thing the Vikings are doing, with the same final goal in mind. The teams that will have a chance when the calendar says “February” will have something else, something more, something (for at least one season) special.

It can be sheer physical dominance from wire to wire. It can be playmakers who clearly have a higher level of skills than their peers. It can be finding a way to stay the healthiest, especially in a pandemic. It can be rising to the occasion in those handful of moments during a game when victory or defeat is determined. It can be the right break, the right bounce of the ball, the right call (even if the call is wrong) at the right time.

But he’s definitely right about one thing: Teams probably shouldn’t talk about getting to the next level, because that’s definitely not one of the ways to do it. And they definitely shouldn’t talk about how losing in the divisional round of the playoffs in the prior campaign counts as a “successful season.” Although lasting that long in the postseason generally is better than the alternative, one of the ingredients in getting to the top of the mountain surely will be an unrelenting desire to make it there — which necessarily includes having an attitude that anything short of the top of the mountain does not count as success.

We addressed this dynamic as it relates to the Vikings a few weeks ago, on PFT Live. Some Vikings fans hated the take. Others agreed with it. It goes like this: The Vikings seem to be content to be consistently close, in a sport where close simply doesn’t count.

The clearest, simplest evidence to support this view comes from Minnesota’s reaction to being overpowered by the 49ers in the postseason and Green Bay’s. The Vikings have, by all appearances, done their best to tread water from 2019 to 2020. The Packers, in lieu of focusing on making an improvement here or an improvement there that could boost them if/when they face the 49ers in the elimination round again, have taken a step back now in the hopes of taking multiple steps forward in the future.

For 2020, that could mean that the Vikings will have a more successful season than the Packers. But it won’t help either of them get past a 49ers team that seems to be built to dominate for years to come.

That said, there’s only so much that can be done in any one offseason. And it would be interesting to know whether the Vikings would have handed out so many financial rewards (with the exception of Dalvin Cook) if the Saints had found a way to win at home in the wild-card round.

For now, the Vikings seem to indeed be happy to be on the porch, periodically rapping lightly on the door. They have yet to show that they have an overwhelming obsession with kicking the door in.

At least we now know that won’t be talking about kicking the door in, either.

NBC/PFT

 

Veteran offensive lineman Spencer Long didn’t last long in San Francisco.

The 49ers announced today that they have placed Long on the reserve/retired list, just three days after they signed him.

There was no immediate word on why Long decided to retire.

The 29-year-old Long was cut by the Bills on August 4 and reports quickly linked him to the 49ers. He was officially signed by San Francisco on August 13, and now he’s leaving the team on August 16.

A 2014 third-round draft pick, Long played his first four seasons in Washington and then played for the Jets in 2018 and the Bills in 2019.

NBC/PFT

 

49ers fear torn ACL for Jalen Hurd



The 49ers spent a third-round draft pick on wide receiver Jalen Hurd last year, but he missed his entire rookie season with a back injury. Now Hurd may miss his entire second season as well.

Hurd suffered a knee injury in practice that the team fears was a torn ACL, NFL Network reports. Hurd will get an MRI today.

San Francisco was hoping Hurd would be able to bounce back and contribute this year, especially after Deebo Samuel suffered a foot injury that may cause him to miss the start of the season. That now looks unlikely.

Now the 49ers need first-round pick Brandon Aiyuk to have a big rookie year. Their wide receiver depth chart is rapidly getting depleted.

NBC

 

Dez Bryant to work out for Baltimore Ravens this week

Could Dez Bryant catch another shot at reigniting his NFL career?

NFL Network's Jane Slater and Tom Pelissero reported Monday that Bryant is expected to travel to Baltimore this week for a workout with the Ravens, per sources informed of the situation.

Slater added that Bryant reached out to Ravens coach John Harbaugh before April's draft about a potential workout and planted the seed again recently. Bryant has continued to work out in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, including catching passes from Dak Prescott and Patrick Mahomes this offseason.

Asked about reports of Bryant coming in for a workout, Harbaugh told reporters Monday, per ESPN's Jamison Hensley, "My only comment I have is we're not commenting on workouts. We're looking everywhere at everybody all the time. Whoever we bring in, once the workout happens, I'm sure that will be announced."

The former first-team All-Pro hasn't played a regular-season snap since 2017. The Dallas Cowboys cut Bryant in the spring of 2018. He signed a one-year deal in New Orleans in Nov. 2018, but tore his Achilles tendon two days later, landing on injured reserve. He did not sign with a team last year.

Throughout his sabbatical, Bryant has insisted he had no plans to retire and instead wanted to get fully healthy before attempting a comeback.

The Ravens will now give a look-see as to whether Bryant is ready to return to the gridiron.


A menacing go-to target in his heyday, Bryant lived up to the 88-hype in Dallas, compiling 7,459 yards and 73 TDs in eight seasons, earning three Pro Bowl Bids along the way. During a three-year stretch from 2012-2014, in which he compiled 3,935 yards and 41 TDs, Dez was a field-tilting hazard for defenses. His box-out ability made him particularly dangerous in the red zone.

At the end of his run, however, his athleticism seemed tapped out, and he struggled to gain separation from younger corners. His final season in Dallas, he earned 838 yards on 69 receptions with six TDs. Unable to gain a step on defenders, Bryant wasn't the same go-to target.

Two years out of football, how will the 31-year-old look now?

Baltimore has been in the mix to add a veteran pass-catcher to its offense this offseason. The Ravens have considered bringing in Antonio Brown. Bryant wouldn't bring as much talent at this stage as Brown, but the off-field baggage would be considerably less.

The Ravens have some speed in their receiver corps in Marquise Brown and Miles Boykin. If they bring in Bryant, he'd play a reserve possession-receiver role, and likely have a focus on the red zone, where he can still use his big frame.

NFL.com

 

Report: Cowboys fear torn ACL for Gerald McCoy



With padded practices beginning, injury risk is spiking. In Dallas, a major injury already may have happened.

Via NFL Media, the Cowboys fear that defensive tackle Gerald McCoy suffered a torn ACL during Monday’s session.

The diagnosis hinges on an MRI, but in many cases the preliminary evaluation and manipulation of the knee by doctors and trainers results in a fairly clear indication that the ligament has been torn.

McCoy, the third overall pick in the 2010 draft, signed with the Cowboys earlier this year.

NBC

 

NFL’s COVID-19 reserve list shrinks to 12



As the NFL moves closer to the first game of the 2020 season (it’s only 22 days away), the NFL is moving closer to no players on the COVID-19 reserve list.

Currently, the total number has dropped to 12.

It’s a great sign for the league as it relates to the handling of the situation, but the latest test of the NFL’s procedures and theories arrived on Monday, with the commencement of widespread padded practices.

The league believes that transmission is unlikely in an open-air setting, even as players breathe, bleed, spit, cough, and sweating in close quarters. If a player slips through the cracks with while shedding the virus and enters that fray what will happen? That remains to be seen.

It remains critical that everyone continue to do everything that they should to avoid catching the virus and then bringing it to the facility. One head coach expressed dismay over the weekend regarding the league’s recent effort to tout the success to date of the testing program, both as it relates to the possibility that some players may become complacent and as it relates to the notion of the good, old-fashioned jinx.

Regardless, things currently are indeed going well. The teams seem to be determined to ensure that this continues. To make it continue through the entirety of the 2020 the season will require tremendous commitment and focus. So far, the good news is that it seems to be working.

NBC

 

Browns Evaluate Nick Chubb For Concussion

Gerald McCoy Out For Year With Ruptured Quadriceps Tendon

 

On Monday, the Browns evaluated running back Nick Chubb for a concussion. On Tuesday, coach Kevin Stefanski announced that Chubb is in the concussion protocol.

By rule, Chubb won’t be permitted to practice until he obtains the appropriate clearances from neurologists.

The NFL’s second-leading rusher in 2019, Chubb has become a key part of the Cleveland offense. While there’s no reason to think he’ll miss any game action, he’ll definitely miss at least some of the compressed preparations for the season, as the team installs a new offense under Stefanski.

The Browns also have running back Kareem Hunt, who led the NFL in rushing as a rookie in 2017.

NBC/PFT

 

Cowboys release Gerald McCoy

The Cowboys have released defensive tackle Gerald McCoy, the team announced.

Nick Eatman of the team website reports the Cowboys “had an injury waiver on McCoy’s right quadriceps and chose to release him, but have hopes of re-signing him next year when he’s healthy.”

McCoy signed a three-year, $18.3 million contract this offseason. The move takes the team off the hook for McCoy’s $3.25 million in base salary and roster bonuses this season. He will keep his $3 million signing bonus.

The right quadriceps was specified in the contract language as Mike Garafolo of NFL Media tweeted.

McCoy, 32, tore his quadriceps tendon in the first padded practice Monday. He underwent surgery Tuesday, according to Michael Gehlken of the Dallas Morning News, and McCoy will miss the 2020 season.

McCoy spent the first nine seasons of his career in Tampa after the Bucs made him the third overall choice. He missed 21 games with the Bucs, including 10 in 2011. McCoy played all 16 games with Carolina last season.

NBC

 

I guess he wasn’t the real McCoy

 

The Seattle Seahawks reportedly cut the undrafted rookie out of Oklahoma State this week after he was caught sneaking a woman into a hotel where the team was staying during training camp, the NFL Network reported on Thursday.


Sure. Throw you career away for a piece of ass. Dumb shit !!!!

SCS he actually dressed her up in a Seahawks uniform to get her to his room.....WOW what an idiot.

 

That was DUMB! Laughing

 

Bashaud Breeland confirms NFL suspended him four games



Chiefs cornerback Bashaud Breeland has confirmed that he will serve a suspension for the first four games of this NFL season.

The suspension, which was first reported as a possibility in April, is now official, according to a post from Breeland on Instagram.

“I have received a 4 game suspension for off-the-field matters,” Breeland wrote. “I post this today because I want to apologize, publicly, to the entire Chiefs organization, my coaches, teammates, family and fans. I accept full responsibility for my actions, and I look forward to getting back on the field with my teammates to defend our Super Bowl Title.”

Breeland was arrested in April for charges including marijuana possession and driving with an open container of alcohol, but this suspension reportedly stems from a violation of the league’s substance-abuse policy that took place before he was arrested.

The suspension allows Breeland to stay with the Chiefs through training camp, but will require him to be away from the team for the first four games of the season.

NBC

 

The NFL sideline will indeed look very different in 2020.

The game-day protocol for pro football in a pandemic does indeed prohibits cheerleaders and mascots. It also prohibits all sideline reporters, including TV network, national radio, and team flagship radio. Pregame TV reporters also are prohibited from the sidelines.

It’s not a surprise, but it’s further confirmation of how different things will be this season for the NFL.

Ultimately, the fans won’t care all that much, as long as the games are played. These measures are aimed at ensuring this happens by reducing the potential opportunities for someone bringing the virus to the field of play.

NBC

 

Chase Young dealing with hip flexor injury



Defensive end Chase Young has a prominent role in Washington’s plans for the 2020 season, so they won’t be taking any risks with him on the practice field this summer.

Young impressed in Tuesday’s first padded practice of training camp, but he was largely an observer when the team got back on the field Wednesday. Head coach Ron Rivera said that the second overall pick has a hip flexor injury and that the team will take things slowly in order to make sure it doesn’t get any worse.

“You’ve got to be smart,” Rivera said, via the Washington Times. “You don’t want to overwork him or wear him down and the next thing you know he’s going to miss four or five days, so we’re just trying to be smart about that.”

Rivera said they’ll see how Young is on Thursday and said that the more reps this summer the better for the rookie, but they’re unlikely to come at the expense of making sure he’s healthy for Week One.

PFT

 

Bryce Love getting healthy, showing promise in Washington



In 2017 at Stanford, running back Bryce Love ran for a whopping 2,118 yards, averaged an incredible 8.1 yards per carry, and finished second to Baker Mayfield in Heisman Trophy voting. Now, after an injury-plagued two seasons, Love is starting to flash that talent again.

Love missed a lot of his final year at Stanford with injuries, fell to the fourth round of the 2019 NFL draft, and then missed his entire rookie season in Washington with a torn ACL. But reporters on the scene at Washington Football Team camp say Love is looking impressive, and coach Ron Rivera talked up everything Love can do in the offense.

“This is a guy that could be an every-down back for you,” Rivera said, via Richmond.com. “He’s an explosive, dynamic player.”

Adrian Peterson is expected to start in Washington, and rookie third-round pick Antonio Gibson is in the mix as well, but Love looks ready to play an important part in Washington’s offense.

PFT