NFL - NEWS & NOTES

It never looked like a good trade at the time. Now it looks like a terrible one.

 

Leonard Fournette has found his new home, and he won’t have to move far.

Fournette is signing with the Buccaneers, according to multiple reports. There is no immediate word on the financial terms of his contract.

After spending the first three seasons of his career in Jacksonville, Fournette will now head to Tampa Bay and join an offense that has also added Tom Brady, Rob Gronkowski and LeSean McCoy this offseason. There’s no shortage of recognizable names on the Bucs’ offense.

With the Bucs set to open the season against the Saints in 11 days, that marquee game just got one more well-known player.

NBC

 

49ers could have Deebo Samuel, Richie James cleared for Week One



The 49ers have not gotten much good news at the receiver position this offseason. They received better news Wednesday.

49ers coach Kyle Shanahan said Deebo Samuel and Brandon Aiyuk have chances of returning for the opener.

“We’re hoping to get both of those guys back next week,” Shanahan said.

Mike Garafolo of NFL Media reports receiver/returner Richie James “should be cleared in advance of Week 1 as well, which is ahead of the expected timeframe for him.”

Samuel is on the non-football injury list after undergoing surgery in June to repair a broken foot.

Aiyuk, a first-round choice this spring, injured his hamstring Aug. 23.

James broke a bone in his wrist in June.

Samuel, a second-round choice last season, caught 57 passes for 802 yards and three touchdowns as a rookie.

James, a seventh-round choice in 2018, has played 29 games, mostly as a returner. He has three starts as a receiver the past two seasons.

James has 15 catches for 295 yards and two touchdowns on offense. He has averaged 23.4 yards and has scored a touchdown on 43 kickoff returns and has averaged 7.5 yards on 45 punt returns.

NBC

 

Yup. At least Bill isn’t compounding the problem by forcing him onto the roster to try to justify the deal.

 

I heard that all those guys are going to do an AARP commercial together

 

Cowboys release Ha Ha Clinton-Dix



The Cowboys signed Ha Ha Clinton-Dix in March to shore up their safety position.

They released Clinton-Dix on Thursday after he failed to win a starting job, Todd Archer of ESPN reports.

The Cowboys signed Clinton-Dix to a one-year, $3.75 million deal with $2.25 million in guarantees. His departure opens up $1.5 million in cap space.

Xavier Woods injured his groin in Sunday’s practice at AT&T Stadium, but the Cowboys’ move with Clinton-Dix is an indication Woods’ injury isn’t serious. The Cowboys, though, likely will scan the waiver wire for safety help.

Darian Thompson, who beat out Clinton-Dix, and Woods are expected to start at safety.

Clinton-Dix played four seasons for Mike McCarthy in Green Bay after the Packers made the safety a first-round choice in 2014. The Packers traded Clinton-Dix to Washington during the 2018 season.

He played in Chicago last season.

Clinton-Dix made the Pro Bowl and was a second-team All-Pro in 2016. He has 16 career interceptions, four forced fumbles, 5.5 sacks and 33 passes defensed in his career.

NBC

 

Eagles put Andre Dillard on IR, cut 12 players



The Eagles began the process of dropping to 53 players by Saturday afternoon by ending the season of Andre Dillard.

Dillard was in line to start at left tackle this season, but tore his biceps in practice last month and landed on injured reserve Thursday. Players placed on injured reserve before the cut to 53 players are ineligible to be designated for return during the regular season, so we won’t see Dillard on the field again until 2021.

The Eagles also waived 12 players on Thursday, so the roster now stands at 67 players. Wide receivers Manasseh Bailey, Deontay Burnett, Travis Fulgham, Marcus Green; defensive backs Grayland Arnold and Elijah Riley; running backs Elijah Holyfield, Adrian Kilins and Michael Warren; offensive linemen Julian Good-Jones and Luke Juriga; and tight end Tyrone Swoopes make up the departed dozen.

Practice squads have been expanded to 16 players this season, so some of these players may be back with the Eagles come Sunday if other teams don’t pounce before that point.

NBC

 

Josh Gordon returns to the Seahawks



Josh Gordon is back in blue.

The veteran receiver has re-signed with the Seahawks, according to Gordon’s agent, David Canter. Gordon, however, has not yet officially been reinstated by the NFL.

Seattle’s decision to sign him could be regarded as a sign that Gordon will soon be allowed to return to the NFL.

The league dramatically changed its substance-abuse policy in March, wiping out for example suspensions solely for positive drug tests for non-PEDs. However, the new policy did not account for players serving indefinite suspensions; each of them must go through the same reinstatement process, which leaves the decisions to the full and complete discretion of the Commissioner.

Once reinstated, Gordon will also be subject to another suspension for any further violations. That’s not fair to him, or to any other players held to a different standard under the new policy. Here’s hoping that the league will realize that the time has long since come to quit worrying about what players do away from work and dump the artificial, meaningless barriers to utilizing the services of some of the best young athletes in the world.

NBC

 

Browns acquire safety Ronnie Harrison from Jaguars in trade

The Jacksonville Jaguars jettisoned another starter.

NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport reported that the Jags traded safety Ronnie Harrison to the Cleveland Browns in exchange for a 2021 fifth-round pick, per a source informed of the deal.

The teams later confirmed the trade.

The Browns had a need at safety following the season-ending injury to promising rookie safety Grant Delpit.

A former third-round pick out of Alabama in 2018, Harrison started 22 of 28 games in the Jags secondary. He missed two games in 2019 due to a concussion, compiling 71 tackles, two sacks, nine passes defended and two interceptions in 14 starts last year.

It was an up-and-down year at safety for Harrison, who provides the versatility to thump ball-carriers and cover in space but was part of several breakdowns in the Jags secondary.

Harrison is the latest starter to leave Jacksonville, following the recent trade of Yannick Ngakoue and the cutting of Leonard Fournette.


The 23-year-old Harrison brings talent and upside to Cleveland with starting experience and special teams ability, having played 814 snaps in 2019, per Next Gen Stats.

The Jags continue to accrue draft picks while trading away young talent. Jacksonville now has 11 picks in the 2021 draft -- and counting.

NFL.com

 

Not cool.

 

The Washington Football Team is moving forward without running back Adrian Peterson.

NFL Media reports that Peterson will be released as the team moves to 53 players ahead of Saturday’s deadline.

Peterson appeared to be the likely starter in Washington after Derrius Guice was released this summer, but the team has opted to move in a different direction. Third-round pick Antonio Gibson, Bryce Love, Peyton Barber and J.D. McKissic are the remaining backs in Washington.

Peterson was set to make a base salary of $2.25 million this season. Cutting him will save Washington just over $2.4 million in cap space with $750,000 in dead money.

The veteran back will become a free agent once the move is official and, per the reports, intends to continue playing with a new team.

NBC
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Kinda shocking to me.

 

Kinda feel like he'd look good in a Bears uniform for 1 season......

 

A year after spending a fifth-round draft pick on him, the Buccaneers are saying goodbye to kicker Matt Gay.

Gay is being waived and Ryan Succop will be the Buccaneers’ kicker in Week One, NFL Network reports.

The decision to draft Gay was a bad one, and it’s compounded by the fact that the Buccaneers of all teams should have known not to draft a kicker. In the last five NFL drafts, the two highest-picked kickers were Gay (145th overall in 2019) and Roberto Aguayo (59th overall in 2016). Both were picked by the Buccaneers, and both were big disappointments.

Gay will now go on waivers, where the other 31 teams will have the opportunity to put in a claim on him if they want a young kicker who didn’t pan out in his first opportunity.

NBC

 

I was thinking Fournette also, but he went Buc's.

 

Problem with Fournette is he might not be a good locker room guy. In TB with TB that won't be a problem. In Chicago with a QB controversy looming and idiots in every direction....wouldn't be good.

 

Colts sign Ryan Kelly to four-year, $50 million contract extension

The Indianapolis Colts have locked in the centerpiece of their offensive line.

Center Ryan Kelly has agreed to a four-year, $50 million contract extension with the Colts, NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport reported Thursday.

The deal makes Kelly the highest-paid center in the NFL.

Kelly, 27, became an immediate starter for the Colts after being selected with the 18th overall pick in the 2016 NFL Draft. Over the past four seasons, Kelly has started all 51 games he's appeared in and didn't miss a game in 2019, which was his first Pro Bowl season.

"I haven't told a lot of people this, but I never wanted to play anywhere else," Kelly told reporters shortly after the news. "This is home. This is where I wanted to be."

According to Pro Football Focus, Kelly has earned the sixth-highest run-blocking grade among starting centers in the NFL and has been a catalyst for a Colts offense that feasts on the run. The Colts finished seventh in the NFL in rushing with 2,130 yards, averaging 133.1 per game in 2019.

Evidently, the Colts look to run even more going forward, and the three-headed RB monster of Marlon Mack, Jonathan Taylor and Nyheim Hines will be happy to do so with Kelly leading the way.


"I just want to live up to the contract I just signed," said Kelly. "Be the leader they want me to be, play with the consistency I know can, and stay healthy."

NFL.com

 

Will he ever hang em.up

 

Still logs over 4 yards a carry. Caught a few balls and found the endzone 5 times last season. And played in 31 games the past two seasons. Not bad for an old man.

 

Hakeem Butler is gonezo.