AROUND THE NFL

Daily Briefing

Jason LaCanfora of CBSSports.com has a way of looking at spending that says the Cowboys are cheapskates:

NFL fans get preconditioned to obsess over the salary cap. This time of year in particular, with free agency about to begin and players being cut around the league because of their cap figures, so much of the pro football conversation gets dominated by how much cap space teams have, or lack of it.

Of course, with a soft cap, the dirty little secret is, and always has been, that cash trumps cap and there are myriad ways to convert salaries and create space and continue to have a means to spend. Even teams seemingly caught in a bind routinely find ways to extend players or apply the franchise tag to players despite those confines … as long as ownership is willing to foot the bill and keep writing checks.

The discourse of the cap, most often, excludes the true numbers that matter, and the metric that tells the story about which funds were actually poured into the product in pursuit of victories. Despite this being far and away the greatest revenue-generating sport in this country, and despite the owners sharing a revenue model in which massive cash subsidies arrive every year from the television contracts alone, we generally don’t speak about payroll in the NFL the way we do in other sports. It’s all cap, cap, cap.

We think of huge-pocketed guys like Jerry Jones, whose big personalities have become woven into the very fabric of the game, as massive spenders doing whatever it takes to win, even if it means bidding against himself. We focus on the snapshot of two desperate teams over-spending on some mediocre free agent and lose sight of how much money so many teams are bringing in, and forget which owners aren’t exactly threatening to spend up to the cap in any given year, let alone over it.

So, take a minute and hazard a guess as to which owners you believe have spent the least on actual payroll the past four seasons. Forget about the cap and funny money and focus on base salaries and signing bonuses and roster bonuses and make a list of who you figure are the six lowest-spending teams in the NFL from 2016-19.

OK, are you ready? Here are the actual bottom spenders, culled from NFLPA salary numbers, over that span (rounded to the nearest thousand).

Cowboys: $634,379,000

Texans: $646,479,000

Bills: $648,442,000

Colts: $654,999,000

Chargers: $658,299,000

Ravens: $678,220,000

Browns: $687,708,000

That is your bottom 20 percent in spending in the league in that time frame.  The average NFL team spent $703 million on payroll in that span, and the top five spending teams in the league during that span – the Jaguars, Eagles, Falcons, Bears, and Packers – all spent at least $750M in salary since 2016. Of course, spending the most didn’t prove worth it for any of those teams save Philadelphia – but nevertheless, I’d presume seeing Jerah’s World at the bottom of this list would surprise some people (and seeing the Ravens that low as well probably would too, since their annual woes with the salary cap have become a narrative).

So what’s the moral of this story?

Cowboys fans, don’t believe the hype about trouble keeping Dak Prescott and Amari Cooper and Byron Jones and anyone else. It’s beyond time for the Cowboys to be writing checks left and right. The poster boys for marketing and sales revenue spent $134M less than the tiny-market Jaguars over the past four years. Let the shopping begin in The Big D!

Ravens fans, even with a Matt Judon franchise tag looming, don’t get caught up sweating over every dollar in cap space. Baltimore has plenty of space available now and even more that can be freed up. It’s all about cash, and it’s time for Steve Bisciotti to get going again. Joe Flacco is off the books. Lamar Jackson makes peanuts. This is the exact time to extend players and buy while most of the best players on the team aren’t making even a fraction of their worth.

Should they give Jadeveon Clowney $22M a year? No. But getting a little creative with salary structure and being willing to guarantee some future roster bonus payments is more than enough for ownership to invest in a receiver like Emmanuel Sanders and at least flirt with a pass rusher like Everson Griffen and an interior offensive linemen, at the very least. Or make an effort to take on salaries of Stefon Diggs or a pass rusher like Melvin Ingram in trade, instead of the free agent route.

According to Spotrac, the Cowboys (20th) and Ravens (21st) are both in the bottom third of current 2020 payroll, at around $130M, with the cap projected to go to $200M or slightly higher. Both teams have Super Bowl ambitions. It’s time for both to start spending like it, and ownership to budget accordingly.

NFC EAST

WASHINGTON

The Redskins may not return to The District – and they may not stay put in Maryland.  Matthew Paras of the Washington Times:

There are hurdles associated with any of the proposed sites for a new Washington Redskins stadium — from staying put in Landover to returning to the District to moving out to the western suburbs to build near Dulles.

But according to a new report, owner Dan Snyder is looking at a deal that would put his team’s new home turf in northern Virginia, at a site close to the District.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports Snyder and the Redskins are scouting a location that has “better access to the city,” but have not yet purchased the land. The location hasn’t been revealed because Snyder does not want a competitor to drive up the price, the Times-Dispatch reported.

The Redskins’ lease at Landover’s FedEx Field expires in 2027, and the team has extensive ties to Virginia. Team headquarters are in Ashburn, Virginia, and the annual Redskins training camp is held in Richmond.

The Times-Dispatch reported “optimism has grown” that Virginia could now become a “major player” in the Redskins’ stadium search. Virginia officials reportedly believe they are a better option than Maryland, but are unwilling to provide public subsidies to build the stadium.

Former team president Bruce Allen told WMAL in July that Washington had hoped to make a stadium announcement “within a year.”

The Washington Post reported last month that the Redskins building a new stadium on the site of FedEx Field remains an option.

NFC WEST

SAN FRANCISCO

Mike Lombardi of The Athletic has come around to the idea – and makes the case for – QB TOM BRADY signing with the 49ers:

American novelist Thomas Wolfe wrote “You Can’t Go Home Again” about returning to the place you remember only to find it’s not the same. In essence, our memories of the way things were seldom line up with the reality of how things are now. However, in Tom Brady’s case, returning home to the Bay Area and finishing out his career in the uniform of his favorite childhood team, the 49ers, might actually make some real sense. Going home might be the best place for him.

Now, before we get into this, I want to be clear: I’ve resisted from playing the ‘Where is Tom Going’ game, in part because we don’t have a clear understanding of the new CBA if the players do approve it and also because, honestly, I’m unwilling to wrap my head around the idea that Brady could play for a team other than the Patriots. I might get there at some point, but I am not there yet. But, for the sake of this column and because NFL fans across the world are asking where Brady might play next season, I will grudgingly admit that yes, the 49ers do make sense.

That may sound surprising, considering the fact that the NFC champion 49ers already have a much younger former Patriots quarterback in Jimmy Garoppolo. Garoppolo, 28, is coming off a solid season, and while he took a ton of heat for not making a play in the fourth quarter of San Francisco’s Super Bowl LIV loss to the Chiefs, he should not shoulder all the blame for the 49ers’ collapse. To understand why the 49ers might have an interest in Mr. Brady, you need to first understand how Garoppolo became their full-time starter.

Kyle Shanahan took the job as head coach of the 49ers in 2017 and was given complete authority to rebuild the organization. (Make no mistake about this: Shanahan has in his contract complete and total authority to do whatever he wants, even though John Lynch has the general manager title). Shanahan originally wanted Kirk Cousins to become his starter even though he was playing in Washington. Shanahan signed journeyman quarterback Brian Hoyer to allow himself some time to repair the team before Cousins arrived. During Shanahan’s first draft with the 49ers in 2017, he passed on quarterbacks Patrick Mahomes, Deshaun Watson and Mitch Trubisky, admitting later that he never gave them a full evaluation. After trading the No. 2 pick to the Bears, he drafted defensive tackle Solomon Thomas from Stanford at No. 3, an excellent college player labeled a “can’t-miss” because of his effort and instincts, though he has proven to be more miss than hit. Shanahan did not pay attention to the quarterbacks available in the draft because he knew he was going to sign Cousins. The 49ers’ reasoning had to be: why waste time on finding another quarterback when you know one is coming sooner rather than later?

Shanahan and Cousins have a close relationship fueled by how Shanahan hand-picked Cousins for his father Mike’s offense in Washington, even after the organization drafted Robert Griffin III.  And even after Griffin played well, Cousins was the quarterback the Shanahans wanted. When the Redskins ran out of options to resign Cousins, it seemed inevitable that he would land in San Francisco … until Jimmy Garoppolo arrived.

Garoppolo was never part of Shanahan’s master plan. Even after making the trade with the Patriots in October of 2017, he thought he was still going to sign Cousins when he hit free agency in 2018. All Jimmy G provided at the time of the trade was an asset, a quality player who was in demand throughout the NFL. The 49ers believed after making the initial trade that they could convert Garoppolo into a higher pick than the second-rounder sent to the Patriots. This is one of the reasons they made the midseason deal — they had a chance to add more assets to their portfolio. After they completed the deal, the 49ers were not shy about admitting they could send Garoppolo to another team like the Browns for a future first.  Then something occurred that even Shanahan could not ignore: Garoppolo played well, extremely well, far beyond what Shanahan had expected.

The 49ers were 1-10 when Garoppolo became the starter in December of 2017. By the end of the season, they were 6-10 and looked like a team with a bright future. Garappolo won over Shanahan, which was not easy, but after five games of playing at a high level, even Shanahan had to admit that Jimmy G. was the future, not Cousins. So in 2018 they negotiated a good contract for both parties, one that allows the 49ers the freedom to move on from Jimmy without paying a huge cap charge. (For example, if the 49ers trade Garoppolo this year, they only have $4.2 million of dead cap charge.)

And yet as the team improved around Garoppolo and as they played more games together, it never seemed that Shanahan had quite the love for Jimmy that he once had for Kirk. They appeared to grow further apart, not in conversations, but rather in mannerisms and interactions — which is natural the more time you spend around a player, particularly a player who was more of an arranged marriage then a true love affair. Even during their successful 2019 season, there was a sense at times that Shanahan was just trying to make sure Garoppolo didn’t lose the games instead of letting him go win them. And after the Super Bowl loss, you can only imagine this has gotten slightly more distant.

It’s not crazy to think that Shanahan could believe with the running game, defense and play design that his team has, Brady could be the player to push them over the edge and deliver them a Super Bowl victory. Despite his recent decline in play, Brady would not make blatant mistakes with the football, he would always get the 49ers into the perfect play, and he would not have to carry the team — he could be a supplement, a significant supplement. Yes, some might argue that Jimmy was the supplement as well, that the pressure was not entirely on Jimmy to carry the team either, which is true. But when the game is on the line, when the outcome rests solely on the quarterback’s overall talent, when the scheme cannot entirely compensate, then a quarterback must step up and lead the team forward. To some extent, Garoppolo can do that, and we’ve seen glimpses of it,  but in a broader, more critical way, Brady embraces these moments when the burden shifts from the coach to the player. Even at his age, Brady can take the game over with his mind; he can get into the right play and does not need the right call all the time. This is not a knock on Garoppolo, but rather a tribute to Brady’s experience — and it’s something that could bring a title to the 49ers.

Brady would be ideal for the present, and trading Garoppolo would give the 49ers an asset for the future. They could trade Garoppolo back to the Patriots or any other team in need of young talent, then spend draft capital on another young quarterback. Shanahan has great faith in his ability to find non-mainstream quarterback talent. He believes his offense makes the quarterback better and that he does not need rare skills at the position. He would not look at signing Brady as merely a short-term fix, because he knows he could find another young talent at the position — perhaps even bring back his first love Kirk Cousins next season. If he signed Brady, Shanahan would continue to think about the future beyond him, but in the meantime, Brady would give Shanahan what all coaches love: experience. Experience in big games, experience in making the right play at the right time. That experience, most importantly, brings a sense of confidence to his team. Signing Brady puts the bullseye on Shanahan’s back, and it also sends comfort to his entire team that if they do their jobs, they have the leadership in place to win a Super Bowl. The locker room will be filled with excitement, with players saying, “We got the GOAT.”

I could imagine Shanahan telling people in the organization that either Nick Mullens or C.J. Beathard could do what Garoppolo does — maybe not as good, but close enough. But no one can do what Brady does, or could do. Shanahan is confident in his talent as a coach, he places a massive sense of responsibility on his shoulders to make the game easy for the quarterback—and because of the smoothness of his offense, finding the right player for the offense becomes elementary to him. Yes, he craves talent, yes he wants the best player, but Shanahan knows his skills as a coach makes any player better, so if he believes Mullens or Beathard could do as well as Garoppolo, he means only with him coaching them. You might say this arrogance or cockiness is not becoming for a young coach, but it might be the best trait any coach can possess.  If Sean McVay of the Rams had a little more of this, then he might have let Jared Goff walk and find another option without hampering his cap. Because truthfully, he could. McVay, like Shanahan, possesses skills that can overcome talent at times and he should never be afraid to find an alternative.

He may not be playing at the levels he was just a couple of years ago, but Brady still gives Shanahan something he has never had as a coach: a player who can go beyond his playcalling, who has the experience to recover if a play goes wrong. That is the rare trait — and that’s why signing Brady might make sense for a team that’s ready to win right now.

From Brady’s standpoint, the 49ers do make sense on and off the field. It would be a homecoming; he could end his football career the way it began: in the Bay Area. Brady would be on a team with excellent veteran skill players, tremendous coaching and play design, one that is constructed to win a championship immediately.

Of all the teams in the mix for Brady, the 49ers make sense — not only because Brady’s mind and experience would give them an immediate improvement at the position, but because of  Shanahan’s skills as a quarterback evaluator for the future.

Maybe going home isn’t so bad after all.

AFC WEST

LAS VEGAS

LB TAHIR WHITEHEAD, who makes lots of tackles, but doesn’t do much of anything else, is a cap cut of the Raiders.  Paul Gutierrez of ESPN.com:

The Las Vegas Raiders released linebacker Tahir Whitehead on Monday, clearing $6.25 million in salary cap space in advance of free agency, which begins next week.

As such, the Raiders now have more than $53.9 million in cap room, 11th most in the NFL. Whitehead, who turns 30 on April 2, started all 32 games for the Raiders the past two seasons after signing with the team as a free agent following six seasons with the Detroit Lions.

And while he had 108 combined tackles last season, the fourth straight year he had more than 100 tackles, Whitehead’s 941 defensive snaps last season were the most in the NFL for any linebacker who failed to record a sack, an interception, a fumble recovery or a forced fumble, according to research by the Associated Press.

Whitehead carried a cap number of more than $7.29 million for the 2020 season, second-highest among defensive players for Las Vegas (defensive back Lamarcus Joyner has a cap number of $9.2 million for this season), and he would have had a roster bonus of $12,500 per each game he was on the 46-man active roster, with a max value of $200,000.

LOS ANGELES CHARGERS

TE HUNTER HENRY is the “top priority” for the Chargers – not someone to replace QB PHILIP RIVERS.  More info from Jeff Miller of the Los Angeles Times:

The Chargers will have a new quarterback in 2020.

They hope to arm that quarterback with a tight end known for his abilities as both a receiver and blocker.

With that stated goal, the team is negotiating with Hunter Henry on an extension as the veteran approaches the start of free agency next week.

If the Chargers are unable to lock up Henry long term, they could use their franchise tag on him to guarantee his services for this coming season. The deadline for such a move is Thursday.

A nonexclusive tag binds a potential unrestricted free agent to his team for one year, if certain conditions are met.

Henry, 25, is coming off his most productive season overall. He caught 55 passes for 652 yards and five touchdowns, missing four games because of injury.

In three seasons — he sat out all but one game in 2018 because of a torn anterior cruciate ligament — Henry has scored 17 touchdowns.

Keeping their top tight end is a priority as the Chargers transition away from Philip Rivers, their starting quarterback for all 235 games the franchise has played since 2006.

They also are looking to bolster their depth at wide receiver, through free agency or the draft. The offense needs another threat after Keenan Allen and Mike Williams.

The Chargers figure to lose pending free agent Melvin Gordon, though his future is somewhat clouded by an increasingly depressed running back market.

If the former 1,000-yard rusher fails to secure the sort of contract he’s seeking, there’s a chance Gordon could re-sign with the Chargers.

This already has been an active offseason for a franchise attempting to retool following a disappointing 5-11 finish, the biggest move being the decision to move on from Rivers.

The Chargers also traded left tackle Russell Okung to Carolina for five-time Pro Bowl guard Trai Turner.

They re-signed running back Austin Ekeler to a four-year, $24.5-million contract that included $15 million guaranteed.

The Chargers have decided to not bring back Travis Benjamin, their fastest wide receiver but a player who has been unable to stay healthy.

The team’s most significant offseason situation concerns quarterback. At the moment, veteran Tyrod Taylor, Rivers’ backup in 2019, is set to be the starter.

But the Chargers have been linked to Tom Brady, the six-time Super Bowl winner who could be on the verge of leaving New England via free agency.

Bolstering the offensive line would seem to be a must in any would-be attempt to lure Brady, which made the addition of Turner promising but also only a first step.

If Brady does leave the Patriots, his new team will have to pay a hefty salary, perhaps pricing the Chargers out of consideration.

There will be other more financially friendly free-agent and trade options available at quarterback or the Chargers could draft someone they hope is a long-term solution. They have the No. 6 overall pick and are believed to like Oregon’s Justin Herbert.

Whoever is throwing the ball for the Chargers in 2020, one of his targets should be Henry, regardless of how the team goes about retaining him.

The Chargers have used the franchise tag only seven times and just once since 2011. Defensive end Melvin Ingram was tagged in 2017 before signing a four-year extension worth up to $66 million.

AFC SOUTH

HOUSTON

Sarah Barshop of ESPN.com says that the Texans will be looking to add a cornerback or two in free agency.

The Houston Texans’ secondary struggled throughout the 2019 season, and the unit’s poor play was most evident on the biggest stage, when the Texans blew a 24-0 lead in the AFC divisional playoffs to Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs.

According to Pro Football Focus, Houston’s cornerbacks had the second-lowest coverage grade in 2019. Because of injuries and poor play, the Texans had a revolving door at the position and played 10 cornerbacks last season.

Two of Houston’s top corners from last season are entering free agency and one has been released. More turnover at the position is likely. A look at their options:

Where they stand

The Texans have five cornerbacks under contract for 2020: Gareon Conley, Lonnie Johnson, Keion Crossen, Cornell Armstrong and Anthony Chesley. Of those five, only Conley and Johnson played significant defensive snaps last season.

Head coach Bill O’Brien praised Conley at the combine and indicated that Houston is likely to pick up the cornerback’s fifth-year option. The 2017 first-round pick (drafted by the Raiders and traded to Houston for a third-round pick in 2019) still has one more year on his rookie deal (owed $1.89 million next season) and could be an option to start in 2020.

So who would start opposite Conley on the outside? One option is Johnson, a second-round pick in 2019. Although O’Brien is very high on Johnson’s potential, he struggled in his rookie season. According to PFF, he had a 31.7 coverage grade, while allowing a passer rating of 128.9 on 532 defensive snaps. Throughout his first season, Johnson lacked the speed to cover elite NFL receivers.

Perhaps Johnson comes in and impresses in his second training camp and wins that starting spot across from Conley, but Houston certainly needs another option.

Players they’re losing

Houston already cut Vernon Hargreaves to avoid paying his fifth-year option in 2020 and could lose Bradley Roby and Johnathan Joseph in free agency. Roby, who was playing on a one-year deal, was the Texans’ most consistent corner a season ago, but he isn’t expected to return. Another team is likely to offer a multiyear deal at a price that O’Brien won’t be willing to match.

Joseph has played for the Texans since 2011 and has been a leader in the locker room for Houston. But he played fewer than 60% of the Texans’ defensive snaps in 2019 because he did not play consistently starting in Week 13. The veteran cornerback could retire, but he said after the playoff loss to the Chiefs that he plans to play next season “unless someone [doesn’t] employ me.”

Even if Joseph returns to the Texans, it’s unlikely he will be expected to take a starting role given his decrease in snaps last season and his age (35).

While O’Brien might also decide to go after a cornerback in the draft, there are several options in free agency who could be a great fit in Houston.

“I think if you’re talking about an outside corner, I think you’ve got to have a guy that has man-to-man capability,” O’Brien said at the NFL combine. “I think it’s got to be a guy that obviously has the right skill set of body type, movement skills, ball skills, instincts, the ability to tackle, the physical nature of the game the way some offenses are running the ball to the outside, the way some offenses are putting tight ends on the perimeter now.”

While the Texans have a huge need at cornerback, they also might be hamstrung by contract extensions that they want to get done with quarterback Deshaun Watson, left tackle Laremy Tunsil and linebacker Zach Cunningham.

But if they do want to make a big splash at the position, cornerback Byron Jones might be the best available. Jones has played for the Cowboys since he was drafted in 2015 and could be available because Dallas might not be able to afford to use a tag on him with quarterback Dak Prescott and wide receiver Amari Cooper free agents as well.

According to Pro Football Focus, Jones has been a top-five outside cornerback over the past two seasons and allowed just 0.39 yards per coverage snap in press-man in 2019 — the second-lowest rate at that position.

Cornerback Logan Ryan, who has played for the Tennessee Titans since 2017, is a versatile option who can handle multiple positions in the secondary. Last season, he had 113 tackles, 4.5 sacks, four interceptions and four forced fumbles. Ryan was drafted by the Patriots in 2013 and was there when Jack Easterby, Houston’s executive vice president of football operations, was in New England. His experience and winning pedigree would be important additions to what is a relatively young secondary.

Other options include James Bradberry (although he could be too expensive for a player who might not make as much of an impact) and Trae Waynes, who could be a cheaper option.

With Hargreaves gone, the Texans will be looking for a slot corner, a position O’Brien called “very valuable” because “that’s a guy that does a lot for you on the inside of the defense, covering slot receivers, doing different things within the front.”

Chris Harris Jr. played primarily outside for the Denver Broncos last season but could go back inside and be an immediate upgrade in that role for Houston. His name was brought up as an option at the trade deadline last season, but O’Brien had no intention of trading for a player on an expiring contract. Instead, Houston traded for Conley, who is still under team control. The last time the Texans dipped into the free-agent market for a slot corner, it was for Aaron Colvin, who lasted 1½ seasons into his four-year deal.

Options in the draft

How the Texans approach free agency will obviously play a huge factor in how they attack the position in the draft, especially because they have several other holes they need to fill and do not have a first-round pick.

When the Texans drafted Johnson in 2019, O’Brien noted several times about his length and why he thinks that is so important at the position. Of course, it’s hard to tell how the board will fall, but the Texans could be looking at corners such as Clemson’s A.J. Terrell (ranked 10th at the position by ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr.), Mississippi State’s Cameron Dantzler (ranked eighth) or Oklahoma State’s A.J. Green.

JACKSONVILLE

Peter King on the Jaguars demise:

I think it is amazing what has happened to the Jaguars in the last 26 months, since Jan. 21, 2018. That afternoon, the Jaguars were 10 points ahead of the Patriots in the fourth quarter of the AFC Championship Game in Foxboro. Since that afternoon, the franchise is 11-22, and 11 of its top 14 players on defense have either disappeared or, as is the case with defensive end Yannick Ngakoue, seems headed for a tag-and-trade when free agency begins in nine days. Imagine the top five players from the secondary gone, including cornerbacks Jalen Ramsey and A.J. Bouye.

The denuding of this team is amazing. The Jaguars seem headed for a major rebuild, and just as amazing is the fact that the coach and GM, Doug Marrone and Dave Caldwell, will be kept aboard for at least this season. No coach/GM combo will be under as much pressure as Marrone and Caldwell—and they’ll be headed into the fire with 2019 sixth-round pick Gardner Minshew favored to be the quarterback on opening day.

AFC EAST

BUFFALO

The Bills are taking a one-year flier on CB JOSH NORMAN.  Jeff Kerr of CBSSports.com:

The Buffalo Bills have signed Josh Norman to a one-year, $6 million contract, per NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo. The deal has incentives that could net Norman up to $8 million.

Norman will be reunited with Bills head coach Sean McDermott, who was the defensive coordinator with the Carolina Panthers when the former All-Pro had his best seasons in the league.

A fifth-round pick of the Panthers in 2012, Norman played the first four seasons of his career under McDermott, having 181 tackles, 36 pass breakups, seven interceptions and two defensive touchdowns. Norman’s best season came in 2015, when he finished with 56 tackles, four interceptions, three forced fumbles, and 18 pass breakups in earning First Team All-Pro honors.

The Bills have been linked to Norman for several weeks, with Bills general manager Brandon Beane even admitting at the NFL Scouting Combine the team talked to Norman, but expected him to seek other opportunities. Beane was the Panthers assistant general manager when Norman played in Carolina, so there was some more familiarity toward Norman signing there.

Norman’s All-Pro season in Carolina led him toward becoming the highest-paid cornerback in NFL history at the time, signing a five-year, $75 million deal with the Washington Redskins in 2016. Norman did not live up to the contract in Washington, having 235 tackles, seven interceptions and 43 passes defensed in four seasons.

The 32-year old Norman had a disappointing 2019 season, allowing 67.4% of his passes targeted in his direction to be caught as opposing quarterbacks had an 129.0 passer rating when targeting him. Norman had one interception and allowed seven touchdowns in 12 games, fighting a lingering hamstring injury. Norman has allowed a total of 15 touchdown passes over the past two seasons.

Buffalo has All-Pro Tre’Davious White and Levi Wallace at the starting cornerback spots, but Norman could compete for playing time behind them. Former first-round pick Kevin Johnson is a free agent.

THIS AND THAT

THE DEAL AND THE NFLPA

A two-day voting extension.  Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com:

Players who want to vote on the proposed CBA will have two more days to do it.

The NFL Players Association has announced that its board of player representatives has voted to extend the deadline for voting on the proposed CBA by two days, from 11:59 p.m. ET on Thursday, March 12 to 11:59 p.m. ET on Saturday, March 14.

It’s unclear why the two-day change was made. Any player who wants to vote can vote at any time, quickly and easily. The vote by the 32 representatives was not publicized; the numbers would potentially reveal whether the change was favored by those who favor the CBA, and whether it was opposed by those who oppose it.

The NFLPA also has distributed to all players a side-by-side comparison of certain terms from the 2011 CBA and the 2020 proposal.

The NFLPA will have a new president – and he could be T RUSSELL OKUNG who is suing the union.  NFL.com:

As we wait for the NFLPA to decide on the proposed new collective bargaining agreement, there’s another decision to be made atop the labor organization’s hierarchy.

With sitting NFLPA president Eric Winston set to cycle out of his leadership role, the union must select a successor. NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero reported Monday players will vote for one of four nominees: Chargers tackle Russell Okung (set to be traded to Carolina upon the start of the new league year), Giants safety (and soon-to-be free agent) Michael Thomas, Buccaneers linebacker (and soon-to-be free agent) Sam Acho and Browns center JC Tretter.

Okung, Thomas and Acho are current NFLPA executive committee members, while Tretter is the Browns’ third co-alternate representative.

Okung voted against the current CBA proposal, per Pelissero, and he officially filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board on Monday in which he accuses the NFLPA staff of conducting CBA negotiations in bad faith. Per The New York Times, Okung’s filing accuses NFLPA staff, including executive director DeMaurice Smith, of forcing a CBA vote “over the objections of the executive committee” and of leadership’s attempt to prevent him from speaking out about a perceived “lack of transparency” during CBA negotiations.

The opinions of the three other candidates vary on the current CBA. Tretter took the time to explain in detail the specifics of the proposed CBA via Twitter, while Acho has promoted the upside of the deal and urged his fellow NFLPA members to vote in favor of the proposed CBA. Thomas has not made his opinion public.

The NFLPA also announced Monday it has extended its voting window from Thursday to Saturday night, with the deadline arriving at 11:59 p.m. ET.

Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com on Okung’s suit:

Regardless of whether his claim with the National Labor Relations Board does or doesn’t have merit, Panthers tackle Russell Okung (No. 76 in the photo) did the right thing by taking his issues with the NFL Players Association out of the shadows and into the light of day.

It was clear that something far deeper than agreement-to-disagree on the terms of a labor deal had been going on, and now that Okung officially has made his allegations of bad-faith activity by NFLPA leadership, the deeper issues can be hashed out with both sides producing whatever evidence they may have to support their respective positions.

And the players, who may have believed that a “no” vote on the proposed CBA was nothing more than a middle finger to the owners, will realize that voting against the deal amounts to voting against NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith and outgoing (as of today) NFLPA president Eric Winston. Ideally, voters would have had that kind of clarify from the moment voting opened five days ago; perhaps this balances out the fact that players didn’t receive a side-by-side comparison of the new CBA to the existing CBA from the NFLPA until Monday, the same day Okung’s complaint came to light.

Okung, one of the candidates for Winston’s position, probably didn’t help his campaign by taking aim at union leadership, but there wasn’t a strong belief that he could ever get 17 votes from the board of player representatives, given that 17 of them already have voted for the CBA that Okung so staunchly opposes. Indeed, it’s possible that Okung pivoted to the more public effort to clean house only after realizing his more subtle plan wasn’t going to work. Either way, it’s good that the players (and everyone else) now know where he stands.

However things play out, the NFLPA finds itself plunged into a rare state of chaos as voting continues on the new CBA, with Okung intent on blowing up the deal — and blowing out union leadership — whether through the office of the union presidency or through any available legal means (and the NLRB filing quite possibly will be followed at some point with a lawsuit). Whether Okung is right or wrong, every member of the union definitely now knows where he stands.

BROADCAST NEWS

A key component of the DB’s plan for a 17-game schedule was a second bye, something we thought the networks would welcome.  Apparently, we were wrong.  Sam Robinson of NFL Rumors:

It seems somewhat strange the NFL is attempting to move to a 17-game season without adding an additional bye week. After such a format was initially rumored, it did not take off.

This CBA proposal includes a 17-game season — which would begin as early as 2021 — and three preseason games. The TV networks’ past stance against a double-bye schedule influenced the owners to keep the single-bye setup this time around, Mark Maske of the Washington Post tweets.

The NFL, which used 16-week seasons from 1978-89, introduced the 17-week campaign in 1990. In 1993, the league placed two byes on the schedule. However, the 18-week season turned out to be a one-year experiment. And TV networks’ past issues with the double-bye format look to have intervened in these CBA talks.

The league has placed obvious importance on the next round of TV deals, and Maske notes the prospect of networks remaining against the two-bye setup led to this CBA proposal not including it. NFLPA executive committee member Aaron Rodgers expressed disappointment owners did not introduce the 17-game concept until midway through the talks and offered that a 16-game season with two byes would make more sense (Twitter links via Ryan Wood of the Green Bay Press-Gazette). Word of the 17-game season did not emerge until late September — months after the talks began.

Some owners may still be holding out hope for 18 games, which would be odd given that such a format would induce a 19-week schedule ownership just opted to avoid. During these CBA talks, the players deemed the long-rumored 18-game schedule a non-starter.

This is what Maske tweeted:

MarkMaske

@MarkMaske

There aren’t two bye weeks per team during the regular season in the proposed new CBA, a source said, because the TV networks balked when the NFL last tried that in the early 1990s, producing wariness that would devalue the product in the upcoming broadcasting deals.

Would today’s TV networks, losing viewers for almost all other programming really want less NFL games?  A lot has changed in 30 years.

OVERRATED AND UNDERRATED FREE AGENTS

Sam Monson of ProFootballFocus, writing at ESPN.com, offers these overrated and underrated free agents at each position:

QUARTERBACK

Overrated: Philip Rivers

Navigating the quarterback market in free agency is always tricky, since it’s unlikely that several of the top QBs will actually hit the open market, but Rivers seems to be among the most coveted. At his best, Rivers has been among the top quarterbacks in the NFL, but he is coming off a season in which he posted an overall PFF grade of just 74.3, the 17th-best mark in the league. The 2020 season will see him turn 39, and Rivers has already started to show signs of decline, which makes the Chargers lifer a risky acquisition.

Underrated: Case Keenum

Such is the state of the quarterback-driven NFL that none of the available starting-caliber players will truly be underrated. But you could find bargains once you get to the players who will be content with a backup role. Keenum, who spent 2019 with the Redskins, has plenty of poor play on his résumé but is just two seasons removed from an overall PFF grade of 81.4 and a trip to the NFC Championship Game. He may have exhausted starting opportunities but has real value as a backup, and a team wouldn’t have to break the bank to acquire his services.

RUNNING BACK

Overrated: Derrick Henry

Henry is a great running back, but the PFF data has shown that running backs are far more a product of their environment than of their ability to generate yardage — even those who eclipse 1,500 yards, as Henry did with the Titans last season. So any big-money contract sent his way will just not prove to be good value. Look at the recent history of big deals handed to backs and ask how many of those teams would rather turn back time and undo the deal.

Underrated: Kenyan Drake

Drake has been an underappreciated player throughout his NFL career, and he shined in the second half of 2019 once he joined the Cardinals. He has yet to be given more than 200 carries in a season but has averaged 4.8 yards per carry over his career, 3.1 of which have come after contact. He has broken at least 28 tackles in each of his past three seasons and is a capable receiver on top of that rushing skill. If you’re going to invest in a free-agent back, get one who is inexpensive yet capable.

WIDE RECEIVER

Overrated: Amari Cooper

Just as Henry is a fantastic tailback, Cooper is an excellent receiver and was a big piece of the Cowboys’ offense. He is coming off the best-graded season of his career, and he will be just 26 years old next season. In theory, he is the perfect free-agent target for a receiver-needy team. But he never quite seems to put it all together as consistently as the very best receivers in the game. The 2019 campaign marked the first season that he finished with a top-10 PFF grade, and even then, he still finished ninth. Cooper probably will want a market-defining deal at the position, but over the course of a whole season, he hasn’t played like he deserves one in the same way that others have.

Underrated: Breshad Perriman

In the last few games of Tampa Bay’s 2019 season, the former first-round draft bust flashed the potential that made him such an enticing prospect. Thrust into the starting lineup because of injuries, Perriman recorded 100-yard games in the final three outings, and he didn’t drop a single pass in any one of them. He still represents a long shot, but he is also just 26 years old and could be signed for a bargain price because of his career history to date.

TIGHT END

Overrated: Austin Hooper

Hooper notched 787 receiving yards last season with Atlanta, and while his overall PFF grade of 78.3 was certainly respectable, there is cause for concern in how that grade was produced. Much of his production came through simply taking what defenses gave him, but when he was targeted against single coverage, his grade dropped to just 66.5, almost 30 points lower than the league’s better receiving tight ends.

Underrated: Hunter Henry

Injuries have slowed Henry, and though he put up career highs in targets, receptions and yards in 2019, it was a significantly less efficient year than either of his first two seasons. He didn’t look like quite the same dynamic player he did before injuries, and he wasn’t particularly helped by Rivers’ decline with the Chargers. If Henry can get back to his best, he has the potential to be one of the game’s best. But the time to get him on a cheaper contract is now.

OFFENSIVE LINE

Overrated: Brandon Scherff

Scherff has always been a good-not-great player at the NFL level, but it takes a lot for teams to move beyond the top-five-pick label, no matter how long ago that player’s draft happened. Scherff gave up just one sack and 10 total pressures this past season in Washington, but he was penalized nine times. His overall PFF grade of 75.0 was good enough for seventh among guards league-wide. While Scherff is undoubtedly a fine player, he has rarely looked like a truly elite player at the position and might not be entirely worth the big-money deal he’ll command.

Underrated: Stefen Wisniewski

Wisniewski has been underrated for his entire career. All he does is come into the starting lineup for teams and perform at a solid level — and he often outperforms the player he replaced. He has now played for four different teams and started on two Super Bowl-winning offensive lines (earning grades above 65.0 in each game) despite having been a backup to start both seasons. He will assuredly be brought in by a team needing depth along the line once again, as he was with Kansas City, but he could easily start for several clubs.

EDGE RUSHER

Overrated: Jadeveon Clowney

Clowney wants to be the highest-paid edge rusher in the league, but he has never topped 65 total pressures over a season in his NFL career. Fourteen different edge rushers topped 65 in 2019 alone, and the league leader, Za’Darius Smith, had 93. Clowney’s run defense is arguably better than his pass rush, but even that is inconsistent, as his run defense grade of 77.4 ranked just 14th among all edge rushers last season in Seattle. And that’s just one year after he earned a second-ranked mark of 91.0. Clowney can be a dominant force but not across 16 games.

Underrated: Dante Fowler Jr.

This crop of free-agent edge rushers is far more stocked with overrated players than value finds, but if there’s one who qualifies as underrated, it would be the Rams’ Fowler. He has quietly improved his overall PFF grade in each of the past two seasons. This past year, he not only posted a career high in sacks but also notched 21 more total pressures (67) than in any other season of his career.

INTERIOR DEFENSIVE LINEMAN

Overrated: Jordan Phillips

Some will point to Phillips’ 9.5 sacks as evidence of solid pass-rush skills for a man of his size (341 pounds), but those sacks represent 10 of just 25 total pressures over the season. And frankly, if you run through Buffalo’s tape and look at them, you will be far from impressed by those sacks. Phillips has never earned an overall PFF grade north of 60.0 for a season, and he has yet to clear 30 total pressures over 16 games.

Underrated: D.J. Reader

By contrast, Reader stepped into an expanded role in 2019 and showed he could be more than just a big run-stuffer at north of 340 pounds for Houston. Reader played more pass-rushing snaps than ever before and responded by notching 35 total pressures, 11 more than his previous career high. Reader also made more plays overall. He bettered his previous career high in defensive stops by nine and earned the best PFF grade of his career (85.5).

LINEBACKER

Overrated: Jon Bostic

We’re slowly moving away from surface-level box-score analysis in the NFL. However, it can still have an irresistible allure, and a linebacker registering 100-plus tackles will entice some. But even when you use the “official numbers,” you’ll see that a large number of those tackles were assists, and that alone should make you wonder about the accuracy of that data. That’s precisely the case with the Redskins’ Bostic in 2019. He took the opposing ball carrier to the ground 101 times last season, but 24 of those were charted as an “assisted tackle” in our grading system. He also missed 11 attempts and earned a PFF run-defense grade of only 50.7.

Underrated: Cory Littleton

Over the past couple of seasons, Littleton has been one of the best coverage linebackers in the game. Only Lavonte David and Luke Kuechly had a higher PFF coverage grade than Littleton’s 90.1 over the past two seasons. And in that span, he has notched 16 forced incompletions, the third-best figure among all linebackers. The Rams’ Littleton carved a niche as a coverage specialist at a time when that has never been more valuable in the NFL.

CORNERBACK

Overrated: Bradley Roby

A year ago, Roby took a one-year deal with the Texans in an attempt to have a strong season and return to free agency with a stronger market for his services. He will be only 28 years old next season, but his performance in 2019 was barely better than the previous year’s, and it was short of his best play that came in 2017. That season’s grade was largely built on an impressive number of pass breakups (15). In the two years since, he has tallied just 16 across more than double the amount of targets.

Underrated: Byron Jones

Cornerbacks who don’t come down with interceptions will always be underrated, especially by teams that view dropped picks as missed opportunities rather than good coverage plays. Jones, who has spent all five years of his career in Dallas, has just two interceptions, and none in the past two seasons. But over that span, he does have the seventh-best PFF coverage grade (85.1) among all corners and 28 forced incompletions (tied for eighth).

SAFETY

Overrated: Jimmie Ward

Ward is coming off a career year as part of a transformed 49ers defense. He was a legitimate playmaker this past season despite not making an interception, registering a 30-point jump in overall PFF grade from his previous two seasons. A former first-round pick, Ward clearly has talent, but paying for players coming off such an outlier contract year is risky at best.

Underrated: Anthony Harris

You could make the argument that the same is true for Harris, but while Harris’ 2019 was by far the best season of his career, he has consistently graded well any time he has seen the field for the Vikings. He was finally rewarded with a chance to start all season last year, and he finished with the best PFF coverage grade (91.6) among all safeties. He tallied six interceptions and five pass breakups in the regular season before picking off Drew Brees in the postseason.

2020 DRAFT

Peter King talks to Jordan Palmer who has worked with QB JOE BURROW as his quarterbacks coach:

Palmer began working with Burrow in the summer of 2019, when Burrow was coming off a meh first season at LSU. After coaching him and spending time with him, Palmer got to be sold on him. Burrow was twice being overlooked for the starting job at Ohio State, then went to LSU and struggled in his first year. “When I look at maturity and confidence in Joe Burrow, I didn’t need more than two days,” Palmer said. “I watched him throw, I heard the story, I spent a bunch of time with him. And I go, ‘Pfft, I don’t know. This dude could be the next one.’ I did not say that he was gonna throw 60 touchdowns passes, win the Heisman trophy, blah blah blah. But it was obvious. And now I think these NFL people meeting him are seeing that.

“There is such a thing as being a competitive learner. Joe goes to LSU to play, obviously, but he’s there, and he gets his master’s. He knew he was going to the NFL. You don’t get your master’s unless you look at school and go, ‘Well, I’m gonna be here. I might as well go as far as I possibly can in school too.’ He’s a competitive learner. So when I look at him transitioning to the NFL, I look for patterns, patterns of dealing with adversity. Patrick Mahomes—I was so adamant that this guy is ‘next’ because I had seen patterns with him. The patterns that I’ve seen with Joe is, he took a bad high school football program and they barely lost in the state championship. He gets knocked down at Ohio State but he still believes in himself. Then what happened at LSU. Well that’s a pattern. He came, he was humble, he bought in, he got others to buy in, he demanded execution across the board and led by example in that category. So yeah, he’s gonna be a great pro.”

This is what the Bengals are seeing right now. Cincinnati needs a steely kid who can come onto a downtrodden team and lift it. There’s no guarantee than anyone can transform a team that hasn’t won a playoff game in 30 years into a January winner, but Burrow gives the Bengals the best chance of anyone in this draft to do it. That’s why he’ll be the first pick in the draft in 45 days.

– – –

A tweet from Mike Renner tells us what we need to know about Oklahoma WR CEEDEE LAMB:

@PFF_Mike

I have learned that CeeDee Lamb’s real name is Cedarian and that he was not, in fact, named after a compact disc. Sad day.

We could also tell you that Lamb’s family was driven from his native New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina, settling in Richmond, Texas where he went to high school.

Jason Kersey of The Athletic had the story back in July:

Cedarian Lamb went by his given first name until his first football practice in fourth grade, when a coach asked him his name.

“Cedarian,” Lamb responded.

“We’re going to come up with a nickname for you by the end of practice,” the coach responded.

At some point during that practice, the coach called Lamb “C.D.” Over the years, the spelling evolved to “CeeDee.”

“I feel like CeeDee is what I am now,” Lamb said Monday. “My mom calls me ‘Cedarian’ when I’m in trouble. I like to keep it that way.”