Covered Vikings for Minneapolis Star Tribune, 1999-2008
The NFL’s competition committee has proposed a policy change that would allow teams to formalize head coaching hires when the coach’s original team is playing in the postseason.
The change would relieve decision-makers from waiting weeks to formalize hires.
Set to be voted on next week during the NFL owners meeting, the proposal would help teams avoid the predicament faced by the Indianapolis Colts last month. The Colts had agreed to terms with New England Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels to replace Chuck Pagano in mid-January, but under current NFL rules, could not execute a signed contract until after the Patriots’ season ended. The Patriots continued playing through Super Bowl LII. Two days later, McDaniels informed the Colts that he planned to remain with the Patriots, forcing the Colts to scramble to hire Frank Reich instead.
Under the proposed change, the Colts would have been able to give McDaniels a contract to sign at the same time they agreed to terms. Had McDaniels declined to sign, the Colts could have moved more quickly to make another hire.
The proposal was among a long list of potential rule changes the NFL will consider when the meetings open Sunday. Some were previously reported, including a significant change to the catch rule, a proposal from the New York Jets to make pass interference a 15-yard penalty unless it is “intentional and egregious” and the authority for the NFL’s centralized officiating office to eject players for non-football acts during games.
NFL executive vice president Troy Vincent said Wednesday that the Jets’ pass interference proposal had gained momentum during a week of competition committee meetings.
The full list of proposals, released publicly Thursday night, also includes:
Allowing coaches and players to view video on league-issued tablets on the sideline or the coaches’ booth during games. Currently, only photographs are allowed to be viewed — either printed or on tablets. Available video could significantly enhance the process of in-game adjustments and evaluations.
Eliminating the requirement that a winning touchdown at the end of regulation, or overtime, to kick an extra point.
Proposals, from the Los Angeles Chargers and Washington Redskins, to expand replay review to include personal fouls, including roughing the passer and hits to players in a defenseless posture. They are not endorsed by the competition committee and are unlikely to earn approval.
Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam was among those viewing as Sam Darnold was slinging in the rain Wednesday at USC.
Haslam was one member of a large contingent present to evaluate the quarterback the Browns are pondering taking with the first overall pick in the NFL draft. In an unusual twist, Darnold chose to keep throwing after a heavy rain started a few minutes into his workout. He received generally favorable reviews from analysts for his footwork, arm strength and accuracy.
Those Browns in attendance for the workout included Haslam, general manager John Dorsey, coach Hue Jackson, offensive coordinator Todd Haley and quarterbacks coach Ken Zampese. Haslam sat with Darnold’s parents during part of the workout. On Tuesday night, the Browns took Darnold out to dinner. Haslam was not present to scout Darnold, but more to get to know him with the rest of the Browns staff.
“He’s a great guy,” Darnold said of Haslam on the NFL Network. “That whole staff is awesome. I was able to meet with the Giants as well [on Monday]. Just meeting with both of those organizations, like I said before, those people are at the top of the world right now and I’m trying to impress them but at the same time be myself. So there is a fine line between that, and I just tried to find that and do my best.”
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Part of the reason the Browns sent such a large contingent to Los Angeles is because Darnold did not throw at the scouting combine. Darnold, who will turn 21 in June, chose not to go inside when it started raining, in part because he wanted to show he could handle the elements, and because he did not think it was fair to his USC teammates to move the time of the workout. Another factor is that USC’s indoor facility is not large enough for deep passes, ESPN’s Keyshawn Johnson said during the workout.
Though there were several dropped passes, Darnold was praised for his accuracy and mobility. He also focused on showing that he had worked at holding onto the ball with two hands (he had 21 fumbles in two seasons at USC). He did not seem to do anything to hurt his draft standing, and might even have improved his cause.
“Just being aware of all those little things and then just coming out here and ripping it,” Darnold said. “I thought I did a pretty good job.”
“It’d be awesome to go No. 1, just because I think what the Browns are doing is really good right now and I think they have potential to be a really good team in the future,” Darnold said. “Just based on that, yeah, a part of me really wants to go 1. But at the same time, if they don’t want me and they don’t pick me, that’s the best situation. Because I don’t want to go to a team that doesn’t want me.”
This is a busy time for quarterback pre-draft workouts. Josh Rosen had his workout at UCLA on Tuesday. The Browns will visit and work out Oklahoma’s Baker Mayfield on Thursday. On Friday, it’s on to Wyoming, where Josh Allen will have his pro day. Allen is also viewed as a possibility for the Browns at No. 1.
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Richard Sherman, dressed in a bright red tailor-made suit for his first meeting with the Bay Area media Tuesday, made it clear how he feels about the negative assessments of his deal with the San Francisco 49ers and why he valued the chance to negotiate it.
“It was really important to me,” said Sherman, who served as his own agent. “I think that a lot of times in our league there are players that have the ability to do that and have the ability to structure their own deals and really take advantage of just being in control of their own destiny.
“There are great agents in our game that take care of our players, make sure our players are ready for life after football, their finances, whatever the case may be. And then there are some agents who negotiate a deal in 2006 and don’t talk to their client again until 2010, and that’s the thing we’re trying to avoid and I’m trying to avoid.
“I didn’t feel like I needed an agent. I felt like I knew contracts well enough and I felt like coming off the Achilles [injury], there’s going to be negotiation points, there’s going to be give and takes on both sides, and I felt comfortable with that.”
In the days since he signed with the 49ers after a tedious, five-hour-plus negotiation with general manager John Lynch and chief strategy officer Paraag Marathe, Sherman has seen and heard plenty about the disapproval of the contract. The three-year deal could be worth up to $39.15 million, though it effectively would only pay him that much money if he returns to his previous All-Pro form after a ruptured right Achilles suffered last season.
Richard Sherman dressed in a bright red tailor-made suit for his first meeting with the Bay Area media on Tuesday. AP Photo/Tony Avelar
For example, Sherman wrote that he has a $2 million roster bonus that he will receive if he can pass a physical before Nov. 11, which is the final day teams can activate a player from the physically unable to perform list. Along with that, Sherman believes he will be back on the field in May or June and be ready to go in time for training camp. That timetable would have him able to earn the roster bonus with time to spare.
Which is why Sherman — who received a $3 million signing bonus — is counting on a total of $5 million guaranteed, more than the zero guaranteed dollars he had on the remaining year of his deal with Seattle.
“The biggest misconception is that it’s a bad deal,” Sherman said. “… If I’m basing it just going off my last year [of the deal] in Seattle, and you compare it, I got no money guaranteed and I’m coming off a ruptured Achilles. What security do I have there? … That’s really all that I wanted. And [if] I play at the level that I’m capable of, I feel security in the upcoming years and I feel comfortable with that and I’m great with it.”
Sherman also said that at no point did Seattle ask him to take a pay cut, and though he offered the team a chance to match what the Niners offered, Seahawks general manager John Schneider declined.
Sherman said his biggest issue was with an apparent double standard between coverage of the deal he signed and the ones negotiated by agents who do team-friendly contracts but never receive similar critiques.
Guard Jonathan Cooper, who started a career-high 13 games for the Cowboys in 2017, signed a one-year deal with the 49ers on Tuesday.
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“I think the thing I’m most frustrated about is all the people that were so high on bashing this deal refuse to bash the agents that do awful deals every year,” Sherman said. “There are agents out there that do $3 million fully guaranteed deals that look like $50 million deals. When a guy gets cut after two weeks or after a year and the guy only makes $5 million off a $50 million contract, nobody sits there and bashes the agent.
“… So I think that this was just one of those things where the agents feel uncomfortable with the player taking the initiative to do his own deal. That obviously puts a fire under them, it makes them more accountable for their actions because more players will do this.”
Sherman said he has heard from “a lot” of players around the league who intend to negotiate their own contracts. Before he was released, Sherman spent time reading through copies of past contracts in the NFLPA database. He also enlisted the union to help him study the language and structure of contracts.
Now Sherman is expecting to see more players around the league follow in the footsteps of players like him and Chargers offensive tackle Russell Okung.
“I think it goes back to just educating our players in general on their own finances and being in control of your own life,” Sherman said. “I think more of our players are.”
While on the subject of player contracts, Sherman also offered some support for Eric Reid. The free-agent safety, who spent the past five seasons with the 49ers, has yet to sign with a new team almost a week into free agency.
Sherman said there is concern about Reid being unsigned.
“He played at a high level just about every year that he’s played in this league,” Sherman said. “He’s made enough plays to be signed with a team and to make his money. … I would think he’s [among the] top-five, top-10 safeties in this league, so he deserves to be paid accordingly.
“So there is concern there because you would think a player of his caliber and his quality would be picked up by now. Great teams are still looking and people are still looking for players and I’m praying that he gets picked up. But if he doesn’t, then I think there would be a conversation between the league office and the union on potential legal action.”
BEREA, Ohio — With just the right mix of self-deprecating humor and sincere feelings, Joe Thomas said with emotion Monday that the time had come for him to say goodbye to his NFL playing career.
“Goodbye not because I’m retiring, but because I’m merely changing jobs,” Thomas told fans as he wiped away a tear. “From being your left tackle to being the No. 1 fan of the Cleveland Browns.”
Thomas spoke to a full house of Browns employees, coaches and front office officials. Owner Jimmy Haslam joined Thomas’ wife, Annie, in the front row with the couple’s three children, and employees wore T-shirts that read “No Ordinary Joe.”
Thomas started his remarks with several barbs that featured a rundown of his 11 years of struggle with the Browns.
He said Ray Farmer tried to text him, but he didn’t get it because it was during a game and Farmer had been suspended — a reference to the former general manager being suspended for texting the sideline during his tenure with the Browns.
Thomas said Kyle Shanahan put together a 32-page PowerPoint presentation trying to convince him not to retire, a reference to Shanahan putting together a detailed explanation why the Browns should let him out of his contract as offensive coordinator after the 2014 season.
Thomas said he wanted to talk to former coach Eric Mangini, but he would have had to ride a bus with him to Connecticut — a reference to Mangini having Browns rookies bus to Connecticut and back to take part in Mangini’s coaching clinic.
Thomas said former quarterback Brandon Weeden tried to text, but he still was caught under a giant American flag (something that happened before Weeden’s first game in Cleveland); that former VP Sashi Brown tried to send information but didn’t submit it on time (a reference to the botched trade deadline deal for AJ McCarron); and that Johnny Manziel tried to call him from a club but the “money phone” didn’t have good service.
With Haslam listening and smiling, Thomas even described the Rob Chudzinski coaching era by saying “both those days were outstanding.”
The jokes somehow seemed fitting from the guy who a day earlier had posted this on Twitter:
Does anyone make a toothpaste tube of butter? That’s your million dollar idea @butterproject
— Joe Thomas (@joethomas73) March 19, 2018
There were plenty of serious moments. Thomas mentioned numerous people he wanted to thank, starting with Annie and his family and continuing through teammates, coaches (he credited former Browns line coach George Warhop for much of his growth), friends and front office types. Thomas even wiped his eye when the Cleveland chapter of the Pro Football Writers of America informed him that its player of the year award would henceforth be known as The Joe Thomas Award.
Thomas admitted that before he hurt his triceps in a loss to the Tennessee Titans last October — an injury that ended his consecutive snaps streak at 10,363 — he was already worried that he might not make it through the season. A knee issue plagued him the past few years and limited his practice time, ultimately leading to his retirement decision.
“I was feeling like I was in tough shape physically, my knee specifically,” Thomas said. “I was concerned that I wasn’t going to make it through the season. Not only that, but I was concerned that if I was going to make it, my performance was going to drop significantly because of what I had to go through to try to get the knee ready for Sunday.
“And sometimes it wasn’t really feeling all that ready.”
As for his success, the 10 Pro Bowls in 11 seasons and all the snaps, Thomas credited a basic mantra: Be on time, pay attention and work hard.
His plan is to move back to Wisconsin, where both his and Annie’s families live. But he wants to remain connected to the Browns and Cleveland. Thomas saved his last and most passionate thanks for Browns fans.
“The passion, toughness and determination that you display on a daily basis is an inspiration for myself and for all of my teammates and all the people that wear ‘Cleveland’ across their chest,” Thomas said. “You guys taught me what it means to be a Clevelander. Playing in front of the greatest fans in the NFL is easily the greatest honor that I’ve had in my 11-year career. I hope I was able to make you guys proud in the way that I was always proud when I told people boldly that ‘I am a Cleveland Brown.’ The excitement I had for my team and my city never wavered, no matter what the circumstances.”
As he continued his voice cracked just a bit.
“So it is with all of this,” he said, “that I must say goodbye.”
Thomas capped his emotional day at Quickens Loan Arena, where he took in the Cleveland Cavaliers’ game against the Milwaukee Bucks and was saluted by fellow Cleveland legend LeBron James.
CLEVELAND LEGENDS. @KingJames showing some love to @joethomas73. #ThankYou73 pic.twitter.com/EExdYPs8Ju
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