The Carolina Panthers released quarterback Cam Newton, the team's No. 1 overall selection in the 2011 draft, on Tuesday.
Newton, who continues to rehab from foot surgery, had a physical in Atlanta on Monday that was coordinated by the Panthers and his agency, sources told ESPN's Adam Schefter. Newton passed the physical and is healthy, with both his shoulder and foot "checking out well," a source told Schefter. "He is hungrier than ever and eager for the next opportunity." "Cam has meant a lot to this organization and the Carolinas," general manager Marty Hurney said in a statement. "Everyone saw his performances on the field. I had the privilege of seeing how hard he worked off the field, and his commitment to this team when no one was watching. He's the ultimate competitor and it physically hurts him to lose. He willed this team to victory on many occasions and will always be considered one of the greatest players in the history of this franchise. His contributions to this team, this community and the game of football will leave a lasting impact on our organization." His release ends the team's nine-year relationship with the 2015 NFL MVP. A week ago, the Panthers announced that they had given him permission to seek a trade. Newton disputed that, however, writing on Twitter that the Panthers "forced me into this.'' Within a few hours of that tweet, news surfaced the Panthers were completing a deal to sign former New Orleans Saints backup quarterback Teddy Bridgewater to a three-year, $63 million deal. After the Panthers completed the Bridgewater deal, it became necessary for them to release Newton to clear the $21.1 million that he was scheduled to count against the salary cap in 2020. Releasing Newton saves the team $19.1 million in cap space with only $2 million in dead money. The Panthers also traded quarterback Kyle Allen to the Washington Redskins and signed P.J. Walker out of the XFL on Monday. Bridgewater's deal is cap-friendly, particularly on the front end. He'll count $14 million against the 2020 cap, $23 million in 2021 and $26 million in 2022. The team would take on only $5 million in dead money if Bridgewater is cut or traded in his third year. Panthers running back Christian McCaffrey took to social media to say goodbye to Newton. That the Panthers couldn't find any suitors for Newton, 30, is unsurprising. He had surgery in December, and teams can't bring him in for a physical or workout because the NFL has ceased such activity during the coronavirus pandemic. "Right now, he's worth nothing until such time as people can work him out and give him a physical -- their own doctors give him a physical and then work him out,'' Pro Football Hall of Fame executive Bill Polian told ESPN. "It's unfortunate. He's got to prove he's healthy for a number of reasons, and right now he can't do that, for a number of reasons.'' Newton has been posting videos on social media the past few weeks showing his progress in rehab. His latest Instagram post on Monday night mentioned he was "unemployed.'' His post after the Panthers said Newton was given permission to seek a trade summed up how he felt: "Stop with the word play. I never asked for it. There is no dodging this one. I love the Panthers to death and will always love you guys. Please do not try and play me, or manipulate the narrative and act like I wanted this; you forced me into this!'' Polian doesn't expect anything to happen fast with another team, unless a one-year, team-friendly deal -- like Indianapolis gave former Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers --can be reached. "I wouldn't be willing to give up anything until I knew he was healthy,'' Polian said. Newton was the NFL MVP in 2015 when he led the Panthers to the Super Bowl, a 24-10 loss to Denver. The Panthers have been to the playoffs only once since then, a wild-card loss to the Saints in 2017. Newton, who holds most of Carolina's career passing records, missed 14 games last season with the Lisfranc injury and the final two games of the 2018 season with a shoulder injury that also required surgery. Most likely teams - Chargers: Competition for Tyrod Taylor - Jacksonville: Is Minchew really the answer? - Washington: Haskins sucks. - New England: Will be the trendy pick, but unlikely because they would have to do some salary cap jujitsu to fit him in.
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The article purports to take the reader behind the scenes of the Buccaneers’ pursuit of Tom Brady. Its true purpose seems to be avoiding any potential accusation that the Buccaneers tampered with Brady.
The item from Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times opens with this line: “It was last Wednesday evening, the first day of the new league year, when the Bucs called Tom Brady.” The next few paragraphs delve into the details of the call, creating the impression that this was the first time G.M. Jason Licht or coach Bruce Arians spoke to Brady about playing for the Buccaneers. There’s a very good reason for this approach. Even though the rules permitted teams to speak to agents as of Monday at 12:00 p.m. ET, the rules prohibited a team from speaking directly to the player until 4:00 p.m. ET on Wednesday. By recounting a conversation that happened, per Stroud, on “Wednesday evening,” the Buccaneers weren’t even close to the line. But consider this: Wouldn’t Licht and Arians have gotten Brady on the phone at 4:01 p.m. ET on Wednesday, if they had never spoken to him about playing in Tampa? The facts and circumstances suggest that the story told to Stroud about the Wednesday evening phone call was less about providing insight into how the deal actually went down and more about throwing dirt on a trail that easily could lead to a tampering investigation. By Wednesday evening, Brady already had picked the Bucs. Brady picked Tampa Bay on Tuesday. On Tuesday evening, we explained why he picked the Bucs over the Chargers. By Wednesday evening, the question wasn’t whether Brady would pick the Bucs but why hadn’t the transaction been announced? As of 9:46 p.m. ET on Wednesday evening, for example, Adam Schefter of ESPN tweeted that the two sides “were still trying to finalize contract language.” Which would make no sense if Brady didn’t even make his decision until Wednesday evening. So the notion that Licht and Arians spoke to Brady for the first time on Wednesday evening seems off, to say the least. The deal was as a practical matter done well before then, during the window when the team were allowed to talk only to Brady’s agent and not to Brady directly. Which makes the story feel like an effort to keep anyone from now suggesting that the Buccaneers spoke to Brady before 4:00 p.m. ET on Wednesday. Common sense suggests that those commutations occurred. At the Scouting Combine, for example, Arians didn’t hesitate to tell reporters that he’d be calling Brady, weeks before the rules permitted Arians to make any public remarks regarding his interest in Brady. If Arians was willing to dance on the wrong side of the line then, it’s fair to wonder whether he danced on the wrong side of the line later. Then there’s the reality that the Patriots did nothing to suggest that they were taking notes regarding potential words and actions that cross the line. Instead, the Patriots seemed to be willing to let Brady do whatever he had to do to explore his options, even if those things happened before they were technically allowed to happen. As a practical matter, New England’s nonchalance created an atmosphere in which teams would have been even less worried about committing a tampering violation as to Brady. Throw in the real-word COVID-19 confusion of the past couple of weeks, the vague sense that Brady’s GOAT status creates a de facto tampering dispensation, the reality that no one was going to tell the GOAT “no” if he wanted to talk prematurely, and the league’s general lack of interest in enforcing a policy that routinely is violated in one way or another by every team (primarily through Combine-week meetings with agents of impending free agents), and it becomes very easy to envision Arians adapting his on-field “no risk-it, no biscuit” mantra to the effort to land Brady, throwing caution to the wind and ignoring rules that rarely are enforced in order to secure the services of a quarterback who could let Arians walk off into the sunset with a silver trophy in one hand and a glass of something brown and potent in the other. Now that they’ve landed Brady, it’s important to ensure that the league won’t decide to start poking around regarding potential irregularities, from communications with agent Don Yee before Monday at noon ET to communications with Brady before Wednesday at 4:00 p.m. ET. And the NFL’s anti-tampering policy allows the league to pursue a tampering case even if the Patriots don’t file tampering charges. When, for example, the NFL stripped the Chiefs of a third-round pick in 2016 and a sixth-round pick in 2017 (and imposed $285,000 in fines) for speaking directly to former Eagles receiver Jeremy Maclin during the 2015 negotiating window, the league initiated the investigation on its own. The Buccaneers have even more reason to be concerned about what the league may do as to the pursuit of Brady. Consider this portion of the policy, regarding willful violations: “In any case in which a preponderance of the evidence establishes that it is more likely than not that a club deliberately set out to violate the Anti-Tampering Policy, or made a calculated decision to risk the possible penalties for such violation as an acceptable cost of acquiring a player or non-player club employee (i.e., as a ‘cost of doing business’), or attempted to conceal evidence of the offense whether before, during, or after its commission, the club and any involved person will be subject to appropriate discipline under such aggravating circumstances.” No risk-it. No biscuit. The Bucs got their biscuit, and the effort to craft a narrative that they didn’t speak directly to Brady until more than a day after he decided to sign a contract to become a Buccaneer seems to reflect their best effort to engage in after-the-fact risk-it management. ~ via Mike Florio Darius Slay finally got his wish. The Detroit Lions traded him to the Philadelphia Eagles. Slay had been a bit disgruntled with Detroit ever since they traded away Quandre Diggs, and with the signing of Desmond Trufant, Slay was deemed expendable.
Detroit received Philadelphia's 3rd and 5th round picks in exchange for Slay. The Eagles then immediately signed Slay to a 3-year deal, paying him $50 million total, with $30 million guaranteed. That works out to $16.6 million per year. Desmond Trufant, meanwhile, will be making $10.5 million in Detroit, giving Detroit more salary cap space. Based on their offseason moves so far, Detroit is completely overhauling the defense that was ranked #31 in total yards allowed, #32 in pass yards allowed, #20 in rushing yards allowed, and #26 in scoring. In addition to the moves already made, it is widely expected that if Detroit stays at #3 in the draft, that they will continue to rebuild the defense by taking a defensive player, whether it's Chase Young, Jeffrey Okudah, or Isaiah Simmons, with their pick. The Texans have traded wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins and a late-round pick to the Arizona Cardinals for running back David Johnson and a second-round pick, sources told ESPN's Adam Schefter.
The Texans will take on all of Johnson's salary, according to Schefter. Johnson, who signed a three-year, $39 million contract extension in 2018, has cap hits of $10.2 million in 2020 and $7.9 million in 2021. Hopkins is owed $14 million in 2020, $15 million in 2021 and $13.9 million in 2022. Additionally, the Cardinals also receive a fourth-round pick in this year's draft while the Texans get a second-round pick this year and a fourth-round selection in 2021, sources told Schefter. Johnson took to Twitter to share his excitement on having a new home. Hopkins is coming off his third straight 1,000-yard receiving season and leaves one young quarterback on the rise, Deshaun Watson for an even younger one in Kyler Murray. Houston was in need of a lead running back after Carlos Hyde and Lamar Miller hit free agency. Hyde had the best season of his career after he was acquired on cutdown day from the Kansas City Chiefs. Miller tore his ACL in the Texans' third preseason game. The Texans also have running back Duke Johnson on the roster. The pass-catching specialist was acquired during training camp in 2019 from the Cleveland Browns for a third-round pick. Last season David Johnson had the lowest production of his career with 130 touches, 715 all-purpose yards, six total touchdowns, 345 rushing yards and 370 receiving yards. On Monday, the Cardinals placed the transition tag on running back Kenyan Drake, giving the team the right to match any offer Drake receives in free agency. Cards get Hopkins in megadealAdam Schefter reveals that the Texans are trading DeAndre Hopkins to the Cardinals for David Johnson. Johnson's production has been on a steady decline since his breakout 2016 season. He finished that season with a knee injury in Week 17 and then suffered a wrist fracture in the third quarter of Week 1 in 2017 that kept him out of the rest of the season. He never regained the form from 2016 after that. Johnson also dealt with a back injury early in the 2019 season and later had an ankle issue that kept him out of most of a Week 7 game against the New York Giants and the next week in New Orleans. Arizona traded for Drake the week of the Saints game. The trade impacted the teams' Super Bowl odds. At Caesars Sportsbook, the Cardinals went from 70-1 to 50-1 to win the Super Bowl, while the Texans moved from 35-1 to 50-1. NFL CBA approved: What players get in new deal, how expanded playoffs and schedule will work3/16/2020
www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/28901832/nfl-cba-approved-players-get-new-deal-how-expanded-playoffs-schedule-work
Dan Graziano ESPN Staff Writer NFL players voted to approve a proposed new collective bargaining agreement with the league's owners, ensuring NFL labor peace through at least 2030. The vote was tight, with 1,019 "yes" votes and 959 "no" votes. The new CBA will expand the NFL's playoff field by two teams starting with the 2020 season and allow owners the option to expand the regular season from 16 games to 17 games as early as 2021. But those are only the big-headline items. More than just a deal to increase the number of games played each season, this is a document that will establish and govern the rules under which the game is played, contracts are negotiated and rules are administered for the next 11 years, through the 2030 season. We thought you might have some questions about what's in it. Thanks to a copy of the memo the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA) sent to its members, we have some answers: You said 11 years? I thought this was a 10-year deal. Yeah, important point there, and it depends on how you look at it. The proposed new deal runs through 2030, which means it runs for 10 years after the current deal was set to expire. There are significant changes to certain rules and league structures that will go into effect in 2020 if the deal is approved by the players, however. So you could call it an 11-year deal that tears up the final year of the previous CBA and runs for the next 11 years. Or you could call it a 10-year deal that begins in 2021 but alters some rules for the final year of the current deal. Either way, it will run through the 2030 season. All right. And the 17-game season? Owners will have a window from 2021 to 2023 to expand the regular season from 16 games to 17 games, should they choose to do so (and it's expected they will). At this point, the two sides haven't had substantive discussions about how the 17-game season actually will work -- i.e., which team gets the extra home game and whether there will be more bye weeks -- which is why many think 2022 is the soonest it could happen. But it's very likely to happen. If it doesn't get cancelled between now and the weekend, here is the XFL Week 6 Schedule...3/12/2020 Saturday, March 14
Houston Roughnecks (5-0) at New York Guardians (3-2) 2pm, ABC St. Louis BattleHawks (3-2) at Tampa Bay Vipers (1-4) 5pm, FS2 (Note, not FS1) Sunday, March 15 Dallas Renegades (2-3) at DC Defenders (3-2) 4pm, FS1 Los Angeles Wildcats (2-3) at Seattle Dragons (1-4) 7pm, ESPN2 NOTE: The city of Seattle has determined that there will be no fans for sporting events, which means that the LA Wildcats/Seattle Dragons game will be played in a mostly empty stadium. It will be interesting to see the TV ratings and attendance numbers now that there are confirmed cases of corona virus here in the US... With the WWE...
www.espn.com/wwe/story/_/id/28881778/report-former-patriots-te-rob-gronkowski-close-deal-wwe The rumors about Rob Gronkowski's interest in the WWE began YEARS ago, but it looks like it's actually going to happen, at least kinda sorta. Per the ESPN article, Rob is NOT looking to become a full time wrestler or anything like that, but more of a part timer, who maybe does a full match every 5 years or so, or a special event like the Royal Rumble, something he can spend a few months training for, do it, and then go back to his normal life. The article points out that this year's Summerslam PPV does take place in Boston, which would give Rob the hometown crowd, if he wanted to do something. So, from what it sounds like, he is going to be doing something similar to what Dwayne "the Rock" Johnson currently does. Now he just needs a wrestling name...given his style, Gron Cena? bleacherreport.com/articles/2880080-nfl-2k-announce-multiyear-agreement-for-multiple-video-games
The NFL is turning back the clock on its video game partnerships. The league and 2K announced a multiyear partnership in a Tuesday press release, revealing they will join forces to revive an old pairing that has not been in place since 2004. There were no details regarding specific game titles and release dates for the multiple future non-simulation football video games to come, but 2K said the projects will launch in 2021. While the EA Sports Madden series has dominated the football video game landscape for years, the NFL 2K franchise was well acclaimed when it ran from 1999 through 2004. However, forthcoming 2K NFL titles will not be direct Madden competitors. Randy Moss, Brian Urlacher and Terrell Owens were notable players featured on the covers of those games during the last time the NFL and 2K formed a partnership. "The NFL is one of the most successful sports brands in the world, known for creating incredible entertainment for fans," David Ismailer, president of 2K, said in the release. "We're thrilled to be back in business with the NFL in a partnership that will span multiple video games centered on fun, approachable and social experiences. It's exciting to bring together 2K's expertise in creating award-winning sports games with the NFL's renowned status as a world-class entertainment and sports organization." Joe Ruggiero, who is the vice president of consumer products for the NFL, said, "Expanding the NFL's presence in the world of gaming has become a focus for the league as we look to grow the next generation of our fanbase, and reviving our partnership with 2K was a natural step in that effort." Previous NFL 2K games offered consumers a lower-priced alternative to the Madden series until EA Sports obtained an exclusive license from the NFL and the NFL Players Association in 2004. Following 2K's announcement, EA Sports released a statement: “EA SPORTS is the exclusive publisher of NFL simulation games, and our partnership with the NFL and NFLPA remains unchanged. Our agreements have always allowed for non-exclusive development of non-simulation games on various platforms. Our commitment to NFL fans, which spans almost 30 years, has never been stronger, and we’re having our biggest year yet. Madden NFL 20 is the most successful game ever in the franchise, and new modes like Superstar KO and our Madden NFL esports broadcasts are growing the fan base. We’ll be building on that momentum with more new and different experiences, on more platforms and with new ways to play, in the years to come." With the announcement of this revived partnership, fans and gamers will have more variety available when choosing their football game experiences in the future. For the time being, there's plenty of fun to be had imagining which types of different gaming experience 2K could be offering to fans in the near future. Gonna keep this short and sweet: Reportedly, the Dallas Cowboys have offered Dak Prescott a 3-year contract worth between $33-34 million a season...and Dak rejected it.
So, the Cowboys either have to up their offer, decide to franchise him (they have until this week Thursday to put the franchise tag on him), or not do anything, and let him walk, with the idea being that they will sign a QB in FA or draft one. If you were Jerry Jones, how much money is Dak Prescott worth to the Cowboys? |
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