NFL 2015 - Off Season Discussion

[Exe Gesis]

ESPN's Adam Schefter reports Josh Gordon has flunked yet another drug test and will be subject to a one-year suspension.

Details aren't yet known, but should trickle out within the next 48 hours. Gordon was suspended ten games to open the 2014 season for multiple failed drug tests. The Browns also suspended him for Week 17 following a violation of team rules. There were postseason rumors the Browns might try trading Gordon this offseason, but the latest ban effectively torpedoes his trade value. The Browns may outright release him shortly.


A source tells Profootballtalk.com that a successful appeal for Josh Gordon's latest suspension is "unlikely at this point."

Gordon allegedly tested positive for alcohol, something he was presumably prohibited from consuming in connection with his laundry list of drug-related misdeeds. Per PFT's Mike Florio, Gordon's one-year ban is likely a "done deal." The Browns need wide receiver help. And a quarterback.


Profootballtalk's Mike Florio confirms Josh Gordon's one-year suspension stems from a failed test for alcohol, a substance Gordon was prohibited from consuming following his July 2014 DUI.

Consuming alcohol seems minor to all of us, but it was explicitly banned in Gordon's case as part of his DUI probation terms. As NFL Network's Ian Rapoport noted on Twitter, the NFL's substance abuse policy is "extremely strict and spelled out. He'll wait for 2016." Gordon will be 25 1/2 years old when the 2016 season kicks off. He led the NFL in receiving yards at age 22.



Due to his latest suspension, Josh Gordon's contract will be tolled through the 2016 season, and he will only be eligible for restricted free agency in 2017.

This assumes the Browns don't cut Gordon. If they hold onto his rights -- doing so wouldn't count against Cleveland's roster limit -- Gordon will be signed for 2016 and eligible for the Browns to "tender" in 2017. All of this also assumes Gordon commits no violations during his year away. His contract will continue to be "tolled" as long as he's suspended.

 

[Exe Gesis]

FOX Sports' Alex Marvez reports "lots of folks" inside the NFL are "optimistic" suspended WR Justin Blackmon will return to the Jaguars in 2015.

Just as Josh Gordon's Dynasty league owners get the worst news possible, Blackmon's get a ray of hope. The Jaguars hope to have an update on Blackmon's progress before May's draft, at which point they can begin planning for the 2015 season. Blackmon remains "suspended indefinitely," with no concrete date for potential reinstatement. At Jaguars GM Dave Caldwell's season-ending presser this past December, he said he'd "heard some good things" about Blackmon's recovery from substance abuse. Blackmon turned 25 two weeks ago. His return would be a huge boost for beleaguered Blake Bortles.

 

[Blacky]

Gordon you idiot

 

[Exe Gesis]

Comprehensive list of 2015 free agents.....

http://www.rotoworld.com/articles/nfl/51589/309/2015-nfl-free-agents

 

[royals1922]

And the cleveland QB is still a trainwreck

 

[Exe Gesis]

Very good points made by Vinatieri....

---------------

Adam Vinatieri: If you’re going to make it harder for kickers, make it harder for everyone
Posted by Josh Alper on January 26, 2015, 10:25 AM EST

AP
The NFL continued their experiments to make the placekicking part of the game less automatic at Sunday night’s Pro Bowl.

The uprights were narrowed by over four feet and extra points were pushed back to the 15-yard-line, which contributed to three missed kicks for Colts kicker Adam Vinatieri. Vinatieri and Eagles kicker Cody Parkey, who made both his extra point tries, both said after the game that they weren’t in favor of the changes being extended beyond an exhibition game with Parkey saying that he felt like the league was “picking on” kickers. Vinatieri, meanwhile, said that the league should make other changes if they’re concerned with things being too easy for players.

“My answer to that is take the receiver gloves off the receivers and see how if they can make these amazing one-handed catches,” Vinatieri said, via ESPN.com. “Things might change. If we’re going to do it to make it harder on guys because they’re getting more accurate or more whatever, then maybe we should change a bunch of things.”

There’s some truth to the point that Vinatieri makes about receiver gloves helping the likes of Odell Beckham make ridiculous catches on a weekly basis, but until field goals join those catches on highlight films the league isn’t likely to treat the two things in remotely the same way.

 

[Exe Gesis]

In amongst all the BS and crap decisions, the NFL do a few things right here and there....this is good for me who wants to upload full games from the past onto youtube and not have them deleted....

---------

NFL announces partnership with YouTube
Posted by Michael David Smith on January 26, 2015, 9:39 AM EST

The NFL is embracing online video.

The league, which has been slow and cautious about allowing its content to appear online and has often ordered highlight clips removed for copyright violations, has now decided that it makes more sense to use online video to reach as wide an audience as possible. As a result, the NFL and YouTube announced a partnership today that will result in an NFL YouTube channel that makes videos directly viewable on Google searches.

Realistically, it’s all but impossible for organizations like the NFL to prevent all of their copyrighted material from being posted online. So it makes more sense to form a partnership with the biggest provider of online video in the world than to keep futilely fighting online video.

The partnership also guarantees that kickoff times and broadcast information for every NFL game will be prominently displayed in Google searches. The league’s YouTube channel has already launched, and currently features a Super Bowl preview, Pro Bowl highlights, and big plays from the 2014 season. Some day, it may expand to include the league’s enormous NFL Films video archive. That would be a treasure trove for NFL fans. This announcement has great potential.

 

[Exe Gesis]

Report: Rams interested in trading for Nick Foles
Posted by Michael David Smith on January 27, 2015, 6:39 AM EST

Getty Images
Last year, the Eagles made one of the most surprising moves of the offseason when they released receiver DeSean Jackson. This year, the Eagles may again make a surprising move by getting rid of starting quarterback Nick Foles.

Multiple stories have surfaced this month indicating that Eagles coach Chip Kelly is interested in moving on from Foles, especially if Kelly could replace Foles with his old Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota. The latest report comes from NJ.com, which says that possible suitors are beginning to emerge, and the Rams have interest in Foles.

The Rams have indicated that they would like quarterback Sam Bradford to return this year, but only at the right price. If the Rams can’t convince Bradford to take a significant pay cut from the $13 million he’s scheduled to make this year, they’ll surely release him, and then trading for Foles could make sense.

The question, however, is whether it would make sense for the Eagles. If Kelly is going to get rid of Foles, he has to be confident he can acquire someone better. Unless the Eagles are able to move up in the draft and get Mariota in three months, trading Foles feels like an odd move.

 

[Exe Gesis]

Marshawn Lynch avoids fine and shines light on a bad rule

Posted on January 27, 2015 by Jerry McDonald - NFL Writer

Seattle running back Marshawn Lynch made a mockery of the NFL rule that mandates that players speak to the media.

Good for him.

The circus crowded around podium No. 6 Tuesday at Super Bowl XLIX media day, but all they got from Lynch was “I’m just here so I wont get fined.” Over and over. For his mandated four-and-a-half minutes.

Thus, Lynch fulfilled his contractual obligation to speak to the media, a rule he and dozens of other players throughout the league routinely disobey during the regular season.

Good for them.

It’s a bad rule.

Is it self-defeating for a media member to defend a player’s right to avoid talking to the media? Perhaps. It’s just that after doing this for some 30 years and having covered the NFL exclusively since 1995, one of the biggest mistakes you can make is to compel someone to talk through threat of fine.

The Raiders have had a number of players over the years who were extremely selective in terms of talking to the media, including players such as Randy Moss, Rolando McClain and others. I had conversations with both players about it and got their explanations. Moss said his words were constantly twisted and McClain said it’s something that dated back to Alabama where Nick Saban told him he didn’t have to do it.

Yes, it would have made my job easier for Moss, McClain and others to make themselves available for a few questions. But it’s not their job to make my job easier and I respect any player’s right to avoid talking to the press if that’s their preference.

It made no sense to take the issue up with the NFL in hopes of getting Moss or McClain fined. Occasionally, you have a player that softens his stance and begins to make himself available.

Consider former Raiders defensive tackle Tommy Kelly. Kelly went years without saying a word to the press on the record. He would politely decline all requests and had no interest in explaining himself.

There were stories that Kelly felt he’d been given a bad rap in his final year of college at Mississippi State when he played injured and ended up going undrafted. Or that when Warren Sapp arrived in the locker room, Kelly was told to clam up and let the more experienced veterans do the talking.

Nobody ever turned in Tommy Kelly with the threat of a fine. Thank goodness.

Because all of a sudden, Kelly decided he felt like talking. And for the last four years or so of his Raiders career, there was no better go-to guy in the Raiders locker room. He was funny, blunt, candid and with a great sense of humor. That wouldn’t have happened had the writers taken the offensive and gone to the league with a complaint.

Or consider free safety Charles Woodson. Woodson is pretty much a ghost during the open locker room in the week leading up to the game. But once the game is unfailingly honest and direct. So why complain about what he doesn’t say during the week and jeopardize the chance to hear him address the media on Sundays? Woodson’s going into his 18th season. He’s earned the right to deal with the media as he pleases.

Working at the NFL combine the year Lynch came out, I sat at his interview table. Lynch told the story of how someone took a shot at him at Oakland Tech one year in a case of mistake identity. The shooter was so mortified when he learned who he almost shot that Lynch’s mother received a phone call that night. It was the shooter, saying he was sorry.

Lynch doesn’t tell these kinds of stories any more, which is too bad. But it’s also his prerogative. Whether he has his own issues with how the media has treated him or if he simply doesn’t want to do it, that’s up to him.

Players are supposed to talk to the media because it helps promote the NFL product by putting them in touch with fans. But fans clearly don’t care whether a player talks or not, and the NFL brand doesn’t need every single player to talk to the press.

Every team has players that talk and like to talk, and those that hate it and talk seldom if at all. With the advent of social media, players also have ways of getting out their own message in a controlled way.

Teams employ media relations departments which can help smooth out issues between players and the media. It need go no farther than that. No need for a rule or a threat of fine.

 

[Dixie Flatline]

Love this free agency simulator.

http://fanspeak.com/mtc/

 

[Beetlebum]

In amongst all the BS and crap decisions, the NFL do a few things right here and there....this is good for me who wants to upload full games from the past onto youtube and not have them deleted....

---------

NFL announces partnership with YouTube
Posted by Michael David Smith on January 26, 2015, 9:39 AM EST

The NFL is embracing online video.

The league, which has been slow and cautious about allowing its content to appear online and has often ordered highlight clips removed for copyright violations, has now decided that it makes more sense to use online video to reach as wide an audience as possible. As a result, the NFL and YouTube announced a partnership today that will result in an NFL YouTube channel that makes videos directly viewable on Google searches.

Realistically, it’s all but impossible for organizations like the NFL to prevent all of their copyrighted material from being posted online. So it makes more sense to form a partnership with the biggest provider of online video in the world than to keep futilely fighting online video.

The partnership also guarantees that kickoff times and broadcast information for every NFL game will be prominently displayed in Google searches. The league’s YouTube channel has already launched, and currently features a Super Bowl preview, Pro Bowl highlights, and big plays from the 2014 season. Some day, it may expand to include the league’s enormous NFL Films video archive. That would be a treasure trove for NFL fans. This announcement has great potential.

I like this, it should hopefully lead to more access to past games and docos as well without them being pulled every week.

 

[Druitt Soldier]

FOX Sports' Alex Marvez reports "lots of folks" inside the NFL are "optimistic" suspended WR Justin Blackmon will return to the Jaguars in 2015.

Just as Josh Gordon's Dynasty league owners get the worst news possible, Blackmon's get a ray of hope. The Jaguars hope to have an update on Blackmon's progress before May's draft, at which point they can begin planning for the 2015 season. Blackmon remains "suspended indefinitely," with no concrete date for potential reinstatement. At Jaguars GM Dave Caldwell's season-ending presser this past December, he said he'd "heard some good things" about Blackmon's recovery from substance abuse. Blackmon turned 25 two weeks ago. His return would be a huge boost for beleaguered Blake Bortles.

Great... Gordons in my dynasty team

 

[BomberWatson]

Very good points made by Vinatieri....

---------------

Adam Vinatieri: If you’re going to make it harder for kickers, make it harder for everyone
Posted by Josh Alper on January 26, 2015, 10:25 AM EST

AP
The NFL continued their experiments to make the placekicking part of the game less automatic at Sunday night’s Pro Bowl.

The uprights were narrowed by over four feet and extra points were pushed back to the 15-yard-line, which contributed to three missed kicks for Colts kicker Adam Vinatieri. Vinatieri and Eagles kicker Cody Parkey, who made both his extra point tries, both said after the game that they weren’t in favor of the changes being extended beyond an exhibition game with Parkey saying that he felt like the league was “picking on” kickers. Vinatieri, meanwhile, said that the league should make other changes if they’re concerned with things being too easy for players.

“My answer to that is take the receiver gloves off the receivers and see how if they can make these amazing one-handed catches,” Vinatieri said, via ESPN.com. “Things might change. If we’re going to do it to make it harder on guys because they’re getting more accurate or more whatever, then maybe we should change a bunch of things.”

There’s some truth to the point that Vinatieri makes about receiver gloves helping the likes of Odell Beckham make ridiculous catches on a weekly basis, but until field goals join those catches on highlight films the league isn’t likely to treat the two things in remotely the same way.

Coming from someone who was a fan of moving the extra points back to the 15 yard line in the preseason, I despised this idea of narrowing the goalposts. I'm all for making extra points harder and less automatic, but at some point, you've got to leave it be. It SHOULD still be a high percentage play, otherwise teams will just go for 2 all the time.

 

[larkis]

Is it safe to post here yet?

 

[Chism]

Report: Rams interested in trading for Nick Foles
Posted by Michael David Smith on January 27, 2015, 6:39 AM EST

Getty Images
Last year, the Eagles made one of the most surprising moves of the offseason when they released receiver DeSean Jackson. This year, the Eagles may again make a surprising move by getting rid of starting quarterback Nick Foles.

Multiple stories have surfaced this month indicating that Eagles coach Chip Kelly is interested in moving on from Foles, especially if Kelly could replace Foles with his old Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota. The latest report comes from NJ.com, which says that possible suitors are beginning to emerge, and the Rams have interest in Foles.

The Rams have indicated that they would like quarterback Sam Bradford to return this year, but only at the right price. If the Rams can’t convince Bradford to take a significant pay cut from the $13 million he’s scheduled to make this year, they’ll surely release him, and then trading for Foles could make sense.

The question, however, is whether it would make sense for the Eagles. If Kelly is going to get rid of Foles, he has to be confident he can acquire someone better. Unless the Eagles are able to move up in the draft and get Mariota in three months, trading Foles feels like an odd move.

Gee Whiz i hope Kelly pulls the trigger on Mariota!

Foles will have a better career than Mariota who is Kellys love child and Oregon protege! Eagles will go backwards 5 years IF this happens as they will have to trade up ( sell the farm ) to grab Mariota.

C'mon Chip and go for it as i would be much more confident facing an Eagles team with him in it than Foles!!

 

[TheGreatBarryB]

Coming from someone who was a fan of moving the extra points back to the 15 yard line in the preseason, I despised this idea of narrowing the goalposts. I'm all for making extra points harder and less automatic, but at some point, you've got to leave it be. It SHOULD still be a high percentage play, otherwise teams will just go for 2 all the time.

What's wrong with that though? I'd prefer teams going for more 2's. Problem for me is narrowing the goals makes the kicker more relevant with PATS. Don't like that.

 

[Exe Gesis]

Saints owner Tom Benson says the decision to leave the team to his wife instead of daughter and grandchildren was a "deliberate, reasoned and difficult decision."

Benson's decision prompted an immediate lawsuit, with his daughter and grandchildren alleging that he is no longer mentally competent, and under the spell of his wife, whom he married 10 years ago. Benson insists he made every effort to groom his daughter and grandchildren to take control of the team upon his death, but that they "never rose to the task." A protracted legal battle appears likely.

Source: New Orleans Times-Picayune

 

[Exe Gesis]

According to ESPN Dallas, there are people within the Cowboys who believe Joseph Randle can be a 1,400-yard rusher.

Those people are likely sharing a drink with Jerry Jones, who always looks at his players with rose-colored glasses. Randle is a decent back who averaged a whopping 6.73 YPC on his 51 carries in 2014, but he's nowhere near DeMarco Murray's skill level. There are also questions about Randle as a receiver and in pass pro. Still, he's a name to monitor closely (along with Ryan Williams and Lance Dunbar) as we wait to see if DeMarco bolts in free agency.

 

[Exe Gesis]

Some around the league believe teams will be interested in trading for Bucs QB Mike Glennon.

Although Glennon was quietly effective as a rookie in 2013, the Lovie Smith regime never gave him much of a shot. Glennon started just five games in 2014, operating mostly as a backup to 35-year-old journeyman Josh McCown. Now the Bucs, likely to select a quarterback with the No. 1 overall pick, should be even more motivated to trade Glennon than they were last year. Perhaps a QB-desperate team like the Bills or Jets would be willing to part with a late-round pick. Glennon is under contract for just $687,188 in 2015

 

[Sven]

BTW - Key non-draft related off-season dates over the next few months:

Feb. 2 Waiver system begins for 2015
Feb. 10 CFL Players with expired contracts can be signed to NFL Contracts (ie Duron Carter)
Feb. 16 First day for clubs to designate Franchise or Transition Players
March 2 Deadline for clubs to designate Franchise or Transition Players
March 7-10 Free agency preliminary contact period
March 10 2015 league year and free agency period begins
April 6 Clubs that hired a new head coach after the end of the 2014 regular season may begin offseason workout programs
April 20 Clubs with returning head coaches may begin offseason workout programs
April 24 Deadline for Restricted Free Agents to sign offer sheets
April 29 Deadline for prior club to exercise Right of First Refusal to Restricted Free Agents

 

[Sven]

Some around the league believe teams will be interested in trading for Bucs QB Mike Glennon.

Although Glennon was quietly effective as a rookie in 2013, the Lovie Smith regime never gave him much of a shot. Glennon started just five games in 2014, operating mostly as a backup to 35-year-old journeyman Josh McCown. Now the Bucs, likely to select a quarterback with the No. 1 overall pick, should be even more motivated to trade Glennon than they were last year. Perhaps a QB-desperate team like the Bills or Jets would be willing to part with a late-round pick. Glennon is under contract for just $687,188 in 2015

I'd think there would be quite a market for Glennon as he'd make a pretty cheap backup with a pretty good upside. The last two years of his rookie contract are 2015 $687,188, and 2016 $675,000 + $153,281 workout bonus before becoming a free agent in 2017. Add to that the possibility that he might be worth something in free agency in 2017 and therefore worth a compensatory pick, I'd think a few teams would be interested in trading a late round pick for him.

 

[Dixie Flatline]

Not sure why the Jets would trade for Glennon. Doesn't offer anything that they don't already have in Geno Smith. I see Maccagnan chasing a veteran free agent QB like Bradford if the Rams let him test the market. I also think the Jets will draft a QB.

 

[Exe Gesis]

Bullshit, Glennon is a gun waiting to go off. Lovie Smith sucks for not realizing that. Glennon the new Great Beanpole Hope that Skelton didn't fulfill.

 

[Blacky]

Give it up, mate

 

[Exe Gesis]

Give it up, mate

There's more hope/upside (realistic too) in Glennon making it, than anyone like Moore, Manziel, Osweiller, etc.

So, no to 'giving up'.