NFC NORTH

GREEN BAY

Rob Demovsky of ESPN.com looks at the contract that retained the services of RB AARON JONES:

Without using the franchise tag, the Green Bay Packers essentially paid running back Aaron Jones the same as if they had used the tag on him this year and again in 2022.

The four-year, $48 million deal that Jones signed with the Packers on Sunday just before he would have hit the free-agent market is essentially a two-year, $20 million contract that almost certainly would have to be blown up before March 2023.

That’s when the Packers would have to pay Jones a roster bonus of $7 million and followed by a base salary for that season of $8.1 million. After reasonable salary-cap charges the first two years ($4.475 million this season and $9 million in 2022), Jones’ cap charge would jump to $19.25 million for the 2023 season.

If the Packers moved on after two years, they would have to count $6.5 million in dead money, but they would ultimately save $12.75 million on their 2023 cap (or $16 million if they made it a post-June 1 cut).

At that point, AJ Dillon would be entering the final year of his rookie contract and could be poised to take over for Jones as the Packers’ RB1.

Jones’ signing came on the heels of several restructured contracts and/or pay cuts. Preston Smith’s pay cut created 7.25 million in cap space. They also restructured the contracts of Za’Darius Smith, who saved the Packers $7.38 million in cap space, along with Billy Turner and Adrian Amos.

Here’s the year-by-year breakdown of Jones’ contract:

2021

Signing bonus: $13 million

Base salary: $1 million

Weekly roster bonus: Up to $200,000 ($12,500 per game active)

Workout bonus: $50,000

Salary-cap charge: $4.475 million

Total cash: $14.25 million

Notes: Weekly roster bonuses for salary cap purposes are calculated based on the numbers of games played the previous year. Jones played in 14 of the 16 games in 2020. … $250,000 Pro Bowl salary escalator.

2022

Base salary: $1.1 million

Roster bonus: $3.75 million due on the third day of the league year

Weekly roster bonus: Up to $400,000 ($25,000 per game active)

Workout bonus: $500,000

Salary-cap charge $9 million

Total cash: $5.75 million

Notes: $250,000 Pro Bowl salary escalator.

2023

Base salary: $8.1 million

Roster bonus: $7 million due on the third day of the league year.

Weekly roster bonus: Up to $400,000 ($25,000 per game active)

Workout bonus: $500,000

Salary-cap charge: $19.25 million

Total cash: $16 million

Notes: $250,000 Pro Bowl salary escalator.

2024

Base salary: $11.1 million

Weekly roster bonus: Up to $400,000 ($25,000 per game active)

Workout bonus: $500,000

Salary-cap charge: $15.25 million

Total cash: $12 million

RB JAMAAL WILLIAMS, Brown’s backfield partner in recent years, his leaving Greener pastures and taking his talents to Detroit on a two-year deals.

MINNESOTA

The Vikings have signed former All-Pro CB PATRICK PETERSON.  Courtney Cronin ofESPN.com with the tweet:

@CourtneyRCronin

The Vikings are signing cornerback Patrick Peterson to a one-year deal, per source. It’s worth $10 million, as @AdamSchefter  reported. Minnesota needed a boost at cornerback with Jeff Gladney, Cam Dantzler taking the next step & questions RE: Mike Hughes’ health. They got it.

NFC EAST

NEW YORK GIANTS

WR KENNY GOLLADAY has the best combination of age and talent of the receivers on the free agent market, but interest in him has been soft so far.  The Giants appear to be the first team interested in him.  Josh Alper of ProFootballTalk.com:

Wide receiver Kenny Golladay is the top player on PFT’s list of available free agents, which is something of a surprise given the market that many expected Golladay to generate as a free agent.

Golladay’s wait to find a home for the 2021 season may not last much longer, however. Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports that the Giants have been talking to the wideout are expected to have Golladay in for a visit.

Free agent visits were not allowed last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Players may visit with teams this year as long as they pass a rapid PCR test before entering the facility.

Players can also take physicals and that may be part of Golladay’s visit. He was limited to five games last season by hamstring and hip injuries, so a clean bill of health could help Golladay land a deal.

Given the slow-developing market for Golladay and many other receivers, it will be interesting to see what kind of contract he lands and whether he opts for a one-year deal in hopes of reminding teams what he can do when healthy.

Michael Rothstein of ESPN.com wrote this last week to help explain why Golladay hit the market:

It feels like so long ago, back in August, when Detroit Lions wide receiver Kenny Golladay openly said he wanted to remain with the franchise. That he thought he and the only NFL team he played for would be able to agree on a long-term contract.

Back then, there was still a multitude of hope. Of hope for a regime run by Bob Quinn and Matt Patricia that ended in failure. Of hope for Golladay to emerge as one of the elite receivers in the league last season.

It was last training camp, after all, where then-offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell said he saw Golladay as a player who could reach the same level of dominance as Michael Thomas and DeAndre Hopkins.

So much has happened since then. Quinn and Patricia were fired, leading to the hiring of general manager Brad Holmes and head coach Dan Campbell. The Lions skidded to a 5-11 finish, with Bevell as the interim head coach.

Bevell left for Jacksonville, where he’s the offensive coordinator.

And Golladay? He barely played last season, a combination of a hamstring injury early in the early and hip injuries throughout the second half of the season limiting him to five games, 32 targets, 20 catches, 338 yards, two touchdowns and no long-term contract.

Now he’s leaving Detroit, as the Lions told Golladay Tuesday they would not use their franchise tag on him.

As it became clear Detroit would be headed toward a long-term rebuild in an attempt to find sustained success, how the team viewed Golladay in the future became a legitimate question. He’s a top-line receiver who led the NFL in receiving touchdowns (11) in 2019 and had back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons before last year’s injury issues.

But he’ll also turn 28 this season. He’s played 16 games in just one of his four years. And the Lions — already tight on cap space and inheriting Jared Goff’s contract when the new league year begins next week — had to think of long-term visions perhaps more than short-term gains.

“We’ve had dialogue. We’ve talked back and forth,” Campbell said. “Brad and I have talked about this. I mean, we’ve gone every scenario you could go down, believe it or not, on everybody. How does this move here affect this move?”

That was last week, when both Holmes and Campbell were reticent to say much at all about the future of Golladay other than they believed he is a really talented player. But in following everything Holmes and Campbell said about wanting to build long-term success, if they didn’t believe Golladay was a player they could build around three or four years from now, better to move on from him than keep him on a short-term rental.

“We have a process in place that we believe in, that we’ve been firm in,” Holmes said. “When you really start the planning stages of the process, that process can go all the way up to when you have to make the decision.”

The Lions have made their decision. It won’t make the franchise better in the short-term because Golladay is a true No. 1 wide receiver and the franchise doesn’t have one of those now. They have just one receiver that caught significant passes for them last year in Quintez Cephus. The team also signed Tyrell Williams and have Geronimo Allison back from an opt-out.

Moving on from Golladay offers more money for Detroit to potentially spend — or save — this offseason. And it offers the chance for more reps if the Lions were to draft a receiver early, perhaps at No. 7, to develop faster. This could be best for Detroit in the long-term when the team is hoping to be a consistent competitor for division titles.

By doing this, if Golladay signs elsewhere, the Lions would be in line for a 2022 third-round compensatory pick as long as they aren’t big spenders in free agency this year.

That’s clearly Detroit’s process. It has been with every move it has made so far, from the Matthew Stafford trade to the cutting of veterans. It’s a restart, and now the Lions will be going forward without their best homegrown offensive option in the past five years.

Will it work? No one will know that answer for years. But in moving on from Golladay it shows Detroit does have a plan for what its future will look like.

WASHINGTON

Ron Rivera adds another player from his days in Carolina – WR CURTIS SAMUEL. ESPN.com:

Former Carolina Panthers wide receiver Curtis Samuel is signing a three-year, $34.5 million deal with the Washington Football Team, a source told ESPN’s Adam Schefter on Wednesday.

A second-round draft pick by the Panthers out of Ohio State in 2017, Samuel finally met expectations this past season under offensive coordinator Joe Brady, who took advantage of the speedster’s ability to play wideout and running back as he did in college.

Samuel had a career-best 77 catches for 851 yards and 41 rushes for 200 yards as Brady used the 24-year-old the way he planned to use running back Christian McCaffrey, who missed 13 games with injuries.

Samuel’s most impressive stat this past season was a catch rate (79.4%) that led all NFL receivers and was well ahead of his 56.3% rate over the previous three seasons. He also became one of the league leaders on third-down catches for first downs.

Washington wanted to add speed at wide receiver and accomplished that mission with Samuel, who ran the 40-yard dash in 4.31 seconds at the 2017 scouting combine. Fellow starting wideout Terry McLaurin ran a 4.35 two years later. Washington lacked depth and a consistent receiving partner for McLaurin and wanted to limit the attention defenses paid to him.

Samuel’s deal reunites him with McLaurin in the NFL after the two played together at Ohio State, where they were members of the 2014 recruiting class.

In a tweet on Wednesday, McLaurin expressed his excitement over Samuel joining him in Washington, writing, “We really talked about this in the dorms freshman year.”

Washington tried to trade for Samuel last season, a quest that started in the summer and lasted until the trade deadline, ESPN reported Tuesday. The person who blocked the move: Panthers general manager Marty Hurney, who now serves as Washington’s senior vice president of player personnel.

NFC SOUTH

CAROLINA

LB HASSAN REDDICK is heading to Carolina to be re-united with Matt Rhule.  Nick Shook of NFL.com:

Haason Reddick‘s breakout, contract year has landed him in a new home.

The Carolina Panthers are signing Reddick to a one-year deal worth up to $8 million, NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport and NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo reported. Reddick’s contract includes $6 million guaranteed, Garafolo added.

Taken 13th overall in the 2017 NFL Draft, Reddick was largely seen as a bust, or at the very least a disappointment prior to 2020 — a season in which he flipped his own narrative on its head with one five-sack performance. That game against the Giants turned the football world’s attention back to Reddick, formerly an afterthought, and punctuated a season in which Reddick posted career-high marks in sacks (12.5), tackles for loss (15), QB hits (16), and forced fumbles (six).

Now, he’s headed to Carolina to join a Panthers team that boasts its own promising pass rusher in Brian Burns. It’s a reunion for Reddick, who is signing to play under his former coach at Temple, Matt Rhule, who now leads the Panthers. It’s also the second defensive signing made by the Panthers on Wednesday, as Carolina added linebacker Denzel Perryman on a two-year deal, Perryman’s representation announced via Twitter.

Reddick isn’t the only pass-rush addition for the Panthers, who are signing former Rams defensive lineman Morgan Fox to a two-year, $8.1 million deal, with $7 million guaranteed, NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero reported.

NEW ORLEANS

Besides his gig with NBC, what will Drew Brees be doing in his post-football life? Ramon Antonio Vargas of NoLa.com:

Retired Saints quarterback Drew Brees is keeping mum about whether he will continue raising his family in the Crescent City or elsewhere, but he pledged Wednesday, “We will always have a strong presence in New Orleans.”

During a conference call with national and local media Wednesday, Brees said his participation with a development team vying to resurrect the derelict Six Flags site in New Orleans East is among several community initiatives he has planned in the city. He didn’t elaborate but said about three “will slowly become public knowledge” in the coming months.

“I’m as excited about that as anything we’ve done in New Orleans,” said Brees, adding that he anticipates being able to do more for the city than he’s ever done now that he has hung up his cleats.

But Brees stopped short of saying whether he and his wife, Brittany, would raise their four children here or someplace else, such as San Diego, where the family spends a significant amount of time and where his NFL career began.

The couple’s three sons — Baylen, Bowen and Callen — and one daughter, Rylen, are between the ages of 6 and 12. At least some of the boys have gone to Isidore Newman School, and Rylen has attended McGehee’s Little Gate. And Brees has fostered close ties to Lusher Charter School in Uptown throughout his 15-year career with the Saints.

Brees’ remarks came a day after Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s administration chose a group of which he is a part as a finalist to redevelop the 227-acre Six Flags site that has been abandoned for nearly 16 years.

That partnership — between Kiernan West LLC of Colorado and S.H.I.E.L.D. 1, a foundation launched by Brees, Saints linebacker Demario Davis and Buffalo Bills cornerback Josh Norman — received the highest of six scores given to proposals aiming to breathe new life into the site.

The plan involving Brees calls for transforming the old amusement park into a series of educational centers, including an agriculture innovation area that would teach youngsters about urban farming.

Brees on Wednesday also addressed his decision to join the NBC broadcast crew as an analyst for “Football Night in America” as well as Notre Dame football games. He said the choice was an easy one for him because it allowed him to work for a respected media outlet while also feeding his passion for football.

TAMPA BAY

Another member of the band signs up – a relatively long term deal for PK RYAN SUCCOP per Tom Pelissero of NFL.com:

@TomPelissero

The #Bucs are re-signing kicker Ryan Succop to a three-year deal worth $12 million with $6.25M guaranteed, per source. He gets $8.25M over the first two years.

NFC WEST

ARIZONA

Does WR A.J. GREEN have anything, post particulary health, left in the tank?  If so, the Cardinals have made a good signing.

Veteran receiver A.J. Green, one of the most prolific players in franchise history over his 10 years with the Cincinnati Bengals, has agreed to a one-year deal with the Arizona Cardinals, it was announced Wednesday.

The deal is worth up to $8.5 million and includes $6 million guaranteed, a source told ESPN’s Adam Schefter.

Green, who will be 33 at the start of next season, will fill a much-needed WR2 hole for the Cardinals and will be the complementary piece to DeAndre Hopkins that the team was seeking. Green has the most receiving yards over the past 10 years, while Hopkins is third.

“Time to go to work!” Hopkins tweeted Wednesday.

If Larry Fitzgerald returns for the 2021 season, Arizona may feature three future Hall of Fame receivers on its roster.

Hopkins essentially carried Arizona’s passing game in 2020, leading the team with 1,407 receiving yards; the next most productive receiver was Christian Kirk with 621 yards.

Green will give third-year quarterback Kyler Murray another every-down threat, likely on the opposite side of the field from Hopkins.

Arizona ran three-wide receiver sets the most last season, accounting for 44.9% of its plays. Two-receiver sets accounted for 29.8% of plays and ran four-receiver sets on 20.3% of plays.

Green’s contributions with the Bengals dropped significantly over the past few seasons due to numerous injuries and apparent frustrations with his role in the offense.

He finished last season ranked second in Bengals franchise history in career receiving yards (9,430), second in touchdowns (65) and second in total receptions (649). Green also holds the team record for consecutive 100-yard receiving games (five, 2013).

This from Cardinals PR ace Mark Dalton:

@CardsMarkD

All 3 of the @azcardinals 2021 offseason acquisitions to date – JJ Watt, AJ Green & Rodney Hudson – were team captains in 2020

SEATTLE

Apparently it was Pete Carroll who nixed the deal with the Bears for QB RUSSELL WILSON.  Gregg Rosenthal of NFL.com:

The most interesting part of the Bears’ trade proposal for Russell Wilson is that the Seahawks thought about it.

NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport reported Wednesday that a clandestine meeting between Bears general manager Ryan Pace and Seahawks GM John Schneider took place in Fargo, North Dakota when the two were in town for prospect Trey Lance’s pro day. The Seahawks slept on the offer. According to Rapsheet, it was Seahawks coach Pete Carroll who decided that, at 69 years old, he’s not looking to rebuild his team.

The timeline here is instructive. If trading Wilson was totally off the table, Schneider would not have needed to meet with Pace or think about it for a night. It’s also a reminder that Carroll has as much power as any head coach in football, including Bill Belichick and Jon Gruden.

The Bears quickly pivoted to signing Andy Dalton, inspiring an expression of righteous public anger about the team’s quarterback position that has been building for roughly three decades. Carroll and Schneider should be wary of potentially embarking on a similar streak in the wilderness if they continue to entertain moving Wilson, this offseason or next. Unless the Seahawks receive a franchise quarterback in return, trading Wilson away makes no sense. And if it comes down to choosing between Carroll or Wilson, it shouldn’t be a tough choice for ownership.

Two additions for the Seahawks on Wednesday bolstered the offense.  OL GABE JACKSON was acquired in a trade with the Raiders and the team signed TE GERALD EVERITT from the division-rival Rams.

AFC WEST

KANSAS CITY

The Chiefs let their tackles go, but they have added two veteran guards.  Michael David Smith of ProFootballTalk.com:

Kyle Long is back, and he may be ready to help the Chiefs win another Super Bowl.

Long, the former Pro Bowl guard, has agreed to terms on a one-year deal with the Chiefs, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN.

Although Long was out of football in 2020 after announcing his retirement, he indicated that he has stayed in great shape and is eager to play again.

The Chiefs, who might have won the Super Bowl with a better offensive line, have now added two veteran guards in Long and Joe Thuney. The identity of their starting tackles remains to be seen.

This tweet from Jay Glazer:

@JayGlazer

As you can imagine, talking to @PatrickMahomes  made a huge difference in Kyle’s decision making

LAS VEGAS

The Raiders did not cut C RODNEY HUDSON after all.  Instead, he’s been shipped to Arizona, basically for a 3^rd round draft pick.  ESPN.com:

The Las Vegas Raiders traded center Rodney Hudson and a 2021 seventh-round pick to the Arizona Cardinals for a 2021 third-round pick on Wednesday.

The trade is pending Hudson passing a physical, the Cardinals announced.

The Raiders are also shopping starting guard Gabe Jackson, sources tell ESPN’s Adam Schefter.

Hudson is the second starting offensive lineman traded by the Raiders this offseason, joining tackle Trent Brown, who was dealt to the New England Patriots. Las Vegas also released guard Richie Incognito, but he tweeted Wednesday that he is re-signing with the team.

The team also agreed to re-sign offensive lineman Denzelle Good on Wednesday, sources tell ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler. Good started 14 games on the line last season.

Hudson will slide into the Cardinals’ starting center role, replacing Mason Cole, who had the job in 2018 and 2020. Cole struggled at times last season and finished the year with four false-start penalties.

In Hudson, Arizona gets a veteran presence in the middle of the offensive line, plus someone who can provide leadership and guidance to third-year quarterback Kyler Murray. Cole could end up competing for the right guard job, which is the only position on the offensive line that hasn’t been solidified for the 2021 season.

Arizona averaged 4.7 yards per carry last season, but its bid for a 1,000-yard rusher came up short when Kenyan Drake finished with 955 yards.

Hudson, who turns 32 in July, signed a three-year, $33.4 million extension, including $24.4 million guaranteed, with the Raiders on Aug. 30, 2019, which made him the highest-paid center in the NFL in terms of annual pay per year at $11.13 million a season. He restructured his contract for cap purposes last summer.

Hudson, a four-time winner of the Raiders’ Commitment to Excellence Award as voted on by teammates, signed with the franchise as a free agent in 2015 after four seasons with the Kansas City Chiefs.

And it turns out they really didn’t “cut” G RICHIE INCOGNITO either.  Marcus Mosher of RaidersWire:

The Raiders have been very active on Wednesday in regards to their offensive line. The team traded away Rodney Hudson to the Arizona Cardinals for a third-round pick and also re-signed veteran guard Denzelle Good to a two-year deal.

They made another big deal on Wednesday, bringing back former Pro Bowl guard Richie Incognito, who they had released earlier this month. Incognito confirmed the deal via his Twitter account:

The terms of the deal have not yet been announced, but the Raiders are expected to bring back Incognito on a one-year deal. We will update this post as more information becomes available.

Incognito joined the Raiders in 2019 after he sat out the 2018 season. Over the last two years, he’s started 14 games, all of them, at left guard. He is expected to continue to start at that spot despite turning 38 in July. When he is healthy, he is among the best guards in the NFL.

While the Raiders appear to have their starting guards set with Good and Incognito, don’t be surprised if the Raiders add another one in free agency or in the draft. Both players are in their 30s and neither is a long-term solution. However, Good and Incognito should be a fine tandem in 2021.

And they did send OL GABE JACKSON packing.

The Las Vegas Raiders are trading offensive lineman Gabe Jackson to the Seattle Seahawks Adam Schefter of ESPN reports via Andrew Holleran of The Spun.

Jackson, 29, has been with the Raiders for his entire NFL career. The offensive lineman was a third round pick out of Mississippi State in 2014.

“And another offensive line trade for Las Vegas: Raiders are trading Gabe Jackson to the Seattle Seahawks for a 2021 draft pick,” Schefter and Jeremy Fowler reported on Wednesday night.

The Silver and Black also bolstered their D-Line.

Free agent defensive lineman Solomon Thomas is heading to Las Vegas.

Thomas, the No. 3 overall pick in the 2017 NFL draft, has agreed to a one-year deal with the Raiders, according to Tom Pelissero of NFL Network.

Although Thomas has never lived up to his status as the No. 3 draft pick, he has shown flashes of promise at times in his career with the 49ers.

Last year Thomas suffered a torn ACL in Week Two and missed the rest of the season, but he is expected to be ready to go for the start of the 2021 season.

Four years later – how does the top 10 of the 2017 draft look

1          CLE                Myles Garrett  DE                                                                             

2          CHI                 Mitchell Trubisky QB                                                                       

3          SF                  Solomon Thomas  DE

4          JAX                Leonard Fournette RB

5          TEN               Corey Davis  WR

6          NYJ               Jamal Adams S

7          LAC               Mike Williams WR                                                                             

8          CAR              Christian McCaffrey RB

9          CIN                 John Ross WR

10        KC                  Patrick Mahomes QB                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

The five players in boldface are still with the team that drafted them, although Trubisky has been more failure than success and Mike Williams has been inconsistent.

In case you missed it, WR John Ross just signed with the Giants while Davis signed with the Jets.

AFC NORTH

CLEVELAND

The Browns made a significant signing with former Rams safety JOHN JOHNSON who chose not to maximize his cash infusion.  Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer:

New Browns safety John Johnson III turned down “significantly more money” from another team to sign with Cleveland, his agents told cleveland.com Monday.

Johnson, the Browns’ new starting safety, agreed to terms Monday on a three-year deal worth $33.75 million, including $24 million guaranteed, sources told cleveland.com. The $11.25 million a year makes him the 8th-highest paid safety in the NFL.

Johnson is represented by Alan Herman and Jared Fox of Sportstars, who also represent former Browns Pro Bowl safety Tashaun Gipson, now with the Bears. They say he really wanted to play for the Browns and can’t wait to get started. He loves the team that Browns GM Andrew Berry has assembled, and felt it was the perfect fit.

Several other teams were interested in signing Johnson, including the Lions, Eagles and Jaguars, according to CBS Senior writer Jonathan Jones.

Johnson, 25, was the third-best safety in the NFL according to Pro Football Focus. He was also the site’s 24th-best prospect in free agency.

The Browns’ signing got the stamp of approval from Rams cornerback Jalen Ramsey, who tweeted, “Browns just got a good 1.’’

AFC SOUTH

HOUSTON

Add QB DESHAUN WATSON to the list of prominent celebrities who have accusers who want us to believe them over the man.  Sarah Barshop of ESPN.com has the details of a coordinated attack by an attorney named Tony Buzbee:

Two civil lawsuits have been filed against Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson alleging inappropriate conduct during massages, on two separate occasions by two separate plaintiffs.

The first lawsuit, which was filed Tuesday night and appeared on the Harris County district clerk’s website on Wednesday morning, alleges inappropriate conduct in a massage therapist’s home in Houston in March 2020.

The incident the second lawsuit is based on, filed on Wednesday, occurred Aug. 28, 2020.

The lawsuits, which were filed by Houston lawyer Tony Buzbee, both allege that Watson “committed civil assault” when touching a massage therapist with his penis and that he “intentionally or knowingly caused physical contact with Plaintiff when Watson knew, or should have reasonably known, that Plaintiff would regard such contact as offensive.”

The second lawsuit says, “Watson’s behavior is part of a disturbing pattern of preying on vulnerable women.”

Buzbee said on Instagram there are six total cases against Watson, although only two lawsuits have been filed so far.

Watson responded on Twitter after Buzbee announced the filing of the first lawsuit on Tuesday night, saying he rejected “a baseless six-figure settlement demand” and that this is “about clearing my name, and I look forward to doing that.” At the time of his statement, Watson said he had not seen the first lawsuit.

“I have never treated any woman with anything other than the utmost respect,” Watson said in his statement.

The first lawsuit alleges Watson booked a massage on March 30, 2020, with a therapist who regularly works in her home. After leaving the room, the massage therapist alleges, she returned to find Watson lying on the massage table with just a small towel covering his groin area.

The lawsuit says the plaintiff “began to feel extremely uncomfortable” and “it became apparent that Watson wanted a massage for only one reason — sex.” It accuses Watson of exposing himself and subsequently touching the woman.

In that lawsuit, the massage therapist alleges that after she asked Watson to leave, the quarterback made a statement that she considered to be a threat. The lawsuit also says Watson later texted her to apologize.

The second lawsuit alleges Watson booked a massage with a masseuse over Instagram and flew her to Houston from Atlanta. When she arrived at the hotel where the massage was scheduled to take place, the suit said Watson was nude on a massage table and refused to cover himself with a towel despite several requests. It also said he inappropriately touched the woman.

Watson’s Houston-based attorney, Rusty Hardin, told ESPN he first learned of the lawsuits involving the quarterback on Tuesday evening. Hardin said he spoke with Watson on Wednesday and agreed to represent him.

“I’m real comfortable with the kind of person that Deshaun Watson is, and I don’t like to publicly comment until I get all the facts,” Hardin said, adding that Watson “has a great reputation here in the Houston area, and the allegations are really inconsistent with the kind of person he is.”

The Texans and the NFL on Wednesday said they are aware of the matter.

“We became aware of a civil lawsuit involving Deshaun Watson through a social media post last night,” the Texans’ statement said. “This is the first time we heard of the matter, and we hope to learn more soon. We take accusations of this nature that involve anyone within the Houston Texans organization seriously. We will await further information before making any additional statements on this incident.”

The NFL has declined further comment at this time.

Six different masseuses?

INDIANAPOLIS

Adam Schefter tweets about what the Colts are or aren’t up to:

@AdamSchefter

Even though Colts are almost $40 million under salary cap, they still need to save money for contract extensions for OL Quenton Nelson and Braden Smith, as well as LB Darius Leonard. It is a primary reason the Colts have been bystanders during free agency. Saving for their own.

JACKSONVILLE

The Jaguars have found out there is a market for QB GARDNER MINSHEW.  This fromNFL.com:

The Jacksonville Jaguars have received a few calls from teams inquiring about quarterback Gardner Minshew, Rapoport reported. Jacksonville is expected to draft a QB with the first overall pick. It makes Minshew expendable, and Rapoport added available, after he closed out his second season on the bench. Following a surprisingly promising rookie year for the former sixth-round pick, Minshew wasn’t quite as effective in Year 2 while the Jags won just one of his eight starts

AFC EAST

NEW ENGLAND

OLB KYLE VAN NOY, surprised to be cut by Miami, gets a deal to re-join the Patriots.

He’s not the only one returning to New England after a sojourn to South Florida. Mike Reiss ofESPN.com:

The New England Patriots have agreed to a one-year deal with free-agent center Ted Karras that could be worth up to $4 million, a source confirmed, which could foreshadow that starting center David Andrews won’t be back with the team.

The Patriots drafted Karras in the 2016 sixth round out of Illinois and attempted to re-sign him last offseason to a multiyear deal. But Karras elected for a one-year contract in Miami, where he had a clearer path to a starting role.

Karras (6-foot-4, 305 pounds) started all 16 games for Miami last season. In his prior four seasons in New England, he had started 20 games, with flexibility to play both guard spots and center.

The Patriots have been active reshaping their offense, agreeing to terms on a trade for offensive tackle Trent Brown, and having reached contract agreements with tight ends Jonnu Smith and Hunter Henry, wide receivers Nelson Agholor and Kendrick Bourne.

If Karras’ return means that Andrews’ time with the Patriots comes to an end, it caps one of the more remarkable rises in franchise history.

The Patriots signed Andrews as an undrafted free agent out of Georgia in 2015, paying him a paltry $15,000 signing bonus. Andrews not only made the roster that year, but was an opening-day starter.

In all, he has played in 72 regular-season NFL games (69 starts), in addition to 11 playoff games (9 starts). The Georgia native, a four-time team captain, was one of the NFL’s top comeback stories in 2020, as he started 12 games after missing the entire 2019 season due to blood clots in his lungs.

The Athletic first reported the agreement with Karras.