Covered the Philadelphia Eagles for Philadelphia Magazine and Philly.com from 2008 to 2015.
Covered the Baltimore Ravens and the NFL for BaltimoreSun.com from 2006 to 2008.
The Seattle Seahawks have signed kicker Blair Walsh, the team announced Thursday.
Walsh spent five seasons with the Minnesota Vikings, but the team released him after he struggled through nine games in 2016.
In the wild-card round of the 2015 playoffs, Walsh missed a potential game-winning field goal from 27 yards out against the Seahawks, allowing Seattle to advance. The miss came after kickers had hit 189 of 191 field goals from 27 yards or shorter during the 2015 season.
The Vikings stuck with him for the start of the 2016 season, but Walsh made just 15 of 19 extra points and 12 of 16 field goals before being released.
Steven Hauschka has been the Seahawks’ kicker for the past six years, but he is scheduled to be an unrestricted free agent. Hauschka has missed 10 extra points the past two seasons, and coach Pete Carroll pointed out on several occasions that Hauschka was kicking the ball too low.
The plan for the Seahawks appears to be to let Hauschka sign elsewhere and give Walsh a chance to compete for the kicking job going into 2017.
Walsh, who made the Pro Bowl as a rookie in 2012 after setting an NFL record by going 10-for-10 on attempts of 50 yards or more, saw his numbers slip in his second season, but his troubles really started when the Vikings moved outdoors to TCF Bank Stadium while their new facility was under construction in 2014. Walsh hit just 74.3 percent of his field goals in 2014 as he grappled with the stadium’s tricky wind conditions. Although he led the league in made field goals in 2015, he missed four extra points once the league moved the kick back to the 15-yard line.
ESPN Vikings reporter Ben Goessling contributed to this report.
TEMPE, Ariz. — After evaluating his body and his mind over the last six weeks, Cardinals quarterback Carson Palmer has decided to play in 2017, making the announcement Thursday through a team spokesman on Twitter.
“My intent was to take some time after the season to get away and see where I was physically and mentally,” Palmer said. “On both fronts, I can say I’m ready to get back to work and prepare for the 2017 season. This is a phenomenal group with a very special opportunity in front of it. I know how rare that is and I couldn’t be more excited to be a part of it.”
Palmer threw for 4,233 yards and 26 touchdowns in 2016. It was the fourth time in five seasons that Palmer eclipsed 4,000 yards passing.
He’s scheduled to earn $17.5 million next season, the final year of his contract. Palmer is coming off one of the most physically grueling seasons of his career, which included missing one game because of a concussion while dealing with lingering hamstring soreness. He was hit 57 times on pass plays, the third most in the NFL.
Palmer finished the season on a tear, throwing 11 touchdowns to three interceptions in the final five games.
“He played so well at the end of the season. He’s not ready to give it up, I don’t believe,” Cardinals coach Bruce Arians said last week on NFL Insiders. “I think it’s just a matter of the body healing, like every year with those older guys. And we now have a way of keeping him fresh every week. And he knows that we can keep him fresh and ready for Sundays.”
Covered Vikings for Minneapolis Star Tribune, 1999-2008
A Canadian Football League team has denied a report that it worked out former Cleveland Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel, who is attempting a comeback after sitting out the 2016 NFL season.
Saskatchewan Rough Riders general manager and coach Chris Jones told TSN that “no one from our club” worked out Manziel. In a separate statement to ESPN, the CFL said: “We are investigating. The Riders tell us that they did not work out Manziel. So at this point, it appears the report is false. Should other evidence come to light, we will deal with it accordingly.”
Denise Michaels, Manziel’s spokesperson, said Manziel has not worked out for any CFL team.
The Rough Riders would be in violation of CFL tampering rules if the workout did occur. Manziel’s CFL rights are owned by the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, and Jones told TSN that he is “considering legal action.”
The Canadian blog 3DownNation reported Thursday morning that Manziel worked out for Saskatchewan officials in Florida prior to the Senior Bowl. Practices for the Senior Bowl began Jan. 24 in Mobile, Ala, and the event concluded with a game on Jan. 27.
Manziel was not immediately available for comment. In a Jan. 12 post on Instagram, he said he had been sober for 18 days and was pursuing a comeback. In a subsequent message sent to ESPN’s Ed Werder, Manziel said: “I love sports, I love football and when you take something away from yourself you realize it the hard way. The happiness from doing it sober has been ASTRONOMICAL. Beyond my wildest imagination and once that continued other good things started happening in my life and it just clicked.”
Manziel made a rare public appearance last week for an autograph session in Katy, Texas. He did not take questions there from reporters.
Legitimate arguments exist for what Washington Redskins quarterback Kirk Cousins should make — or not make — in his next contract. The debate centers around one central issue: Do you view him as a top-10 passer (or close to it) or a guy who mostly benefits from his surrounding talent?
But two arguments don’t make sense, and they seem to pop up, at least from a fan’s perspective, whenever this topic is broached.
Comparing Kirk Cousins’ contract to Tom Brady isn’t fair to Cousins, nor is it fair to any other NFL quarterback. Steve Nurenberg/Icon Sportswire
If the only measuring stick were who’s better, then nobody except New England’s Tom Brady should be paid more than the Green Bay quarterback. Baltimore’s Joe Flacco, coming off knee surgery, signed a contract extension last March that paid him more per year than Rodgers. Yes, Flacco once won a Super Bowl, but he’s not better than Rodgers.
“He’s a great case of it being timing and leverage,” said Joel Corry, a former NFL agent who is considered a salary-cap expert, about Flacco’s deal.
That’s how it works in every sport. Timing is everything. Also, if Rodgers and Cousins were free agents in the same offseason? Their salaries wouldn’t be close; Rodgers would make a lot more.
Also, Rodgers signed his deal in 2013, when the salary cap was $123 million. Cousins will sign his in 2017, when the cap could reach $168 million. Percentage of cap space matters more. And by 2019, estimates are the cap will reach $190 million.
The benchmark will be Andrew Luck’s deal with Indianapolis signed in June, giving him an average of $24.6 million per year (with $87 million in guaranteed money, $60 million fully guaranteed).
“There’s a point, always,” Corry said of when demands don’t match value. “But I don’t think Kirk Cousins trying to top Luck is that point. We’ve seen this year, if you don’t have a quarterback, you’re not going to go that far. You can do it with Trent Dilfer, but you have to have a great defense. That’s a harder route to go, and the Redskins don’t have a great defense.”
The last point on this, from Corry: If other quarterbacks such as Atlanta’s Matt Ryan, Oakland’s Derek Carr and Detroit’s Matthew Stafford get extensions this offseason, they would (or should) top Cousins’ contract. So by the end of the offseason, Cousins’ average salary per year would be fourth, at best. None of these quarterbacks are better than Rodgers. At this point, though, Rodgers would be eighth on the money list.
Tom Brady took less, why not Cousins?
The New England quarterback makes less per year than 21 other quarterbacks. Think about that for a minute. But the Patriots also use that to reduce salaries elsewhere. If the best player on a team takes less, then so should others. That means, for example, Redskins cornerback Josh Norman and left tackle Trent Williams would not be making what they do. Both will count more against the cap in 2017 than Brady.
“That’s something nobody else is going to do on a regular basis,” Corry said of Brady. “You don’t even see guys on third contracts doing anything remotely close. Eli [Manning] and Philip [Rivers] and Ben [Roethlisberger] all got market deals when they got their second bite of the apple. Even Drew Brees did not give New Orleans a discount.
“I guarantee if you got the [players’] union to be honest, they would express displeasure. The fact that [Brady] didn’t get fair market value impacts the quarterback market. … That comes up in other negotiations with other players, where a team talks about how Tom didn’t maximize every dollar, and they use it as a point why other players shouldn’t.”
Brady also happens to be married to a supermodel, Gisele Bundchen, who made a reported $30.5 million last year, according to Forbes.
“Nobody else is in a position where they may have had to sign a pre-nup,” Corry said of other quarterbacks.
That’s not to say Cousins should squeeze every dollar out of the Redskins. He has said he doesn’t want to do so. If he truly wants to stay in Washington, he’ll do a fair deal. Of course, the two sides could disagree on what they view as fair. And that’s reasonable.
“I don’t think it’s very persuasive to say, ‘Take less money,'” Corry said. “Teams can always ask you to take a pay cut. They never gratuitously give you a raise.”
