Garry Gilliam started most of the season at right tackle, and he is a restricted free agent.
Coach Pete Carroll made it clear after the season that he didn’t think spending more money on the offensive line would fix the Seahawks’ issues.
“That’s not how we think, like, ‘OK, let’s take money and put it here,’ and all of a sudden you’re going to be better,” he said. “You have to get guys that will play worthy of it, and when they demonstrate that, they get paid. We’ve shown that we understand that, and we’re committed to that mentality.
“I don’t think you can just buy your way to it. We’re not going to do that. We’re not going to go out and spend a ton of money on free agency on one guy to try to save the day. That’s not how we function at all.”
Having said that, general manager John Schneider and his staff pride themselves on exploring all possibilities.
Albert turns 33 in November, has missed 13 games the past three seasons and did not play particularly well in 2016. He was a Pro Bowler the previous season, though. Albert is due $8.9 million in 2017 and $9.6 million in 2018. Any team that trades for him will have to give up compensation and be willing to take on his current contract.
Clady has missed 22 of a possible 48 starts the past three seasons due to injuries. In 2016, he tried to play through a torn rotator cuff but then was placed on injured reserve. Clady turns 31 in September.
Beachum does not have the length that the Seahawks typically prefer at tackle but has started 39 games there, including 15 last season. He turns 28 in June.
The guess here? The Seahawks will employ the same approach as last offseason. They will look to sign players to low-risk, one- or two-year deals with little guaranteed money and hope their decisions yield better results than last season when the team got next to nothing from J’Marcus Webb and Bradley Sowell.
The Seahawks would be wise to add competition at tackle this offseason, but it seems unlikely that they’ll target one of the bigger names on the market in free agency.
Many NFL teams script their first 15 (or more) plays before a game starts to focus on getting a few fundamental concepts right. Whether they want to attack a particular defensive player or scheme, exploit a perceived weakness or simply drill down on the offensive elements they think are most critical to winning, they pay particularly close attention to the plays they’ll start with on Sunday as they wrap up the week.
Likewise, organizations need to pay attention to the first few critical things they do during the 2017 offseason, as those might end up defining the year to come. Some teams have a lot to do before the new league year begins March 9, while others won’t have to make critical calls until the first day of the NFL draft on April 27.
In this two-week series for ESPN, I’ll be running through the first five things that should be running through each team’s mind as it prepares for the 2017 offseason.
Let’s get to the NFC West, where we have a near-dynasty, a team that unexpectedly fell apart last season and two teams that overhauled their coaching staffs in a hope to return to relevance …
1. Pick up Deone Bucannon’s fifth-year option. The Cardinals were ahead of the curve in using a first-round pick on Bucannon, who is maybe the best example of the hybrid linebacker/safety combinations that continue to sprout around the league. Arizona will want to keep him around for the long term, but it’ll at least get Bucannon for another season in 2018.
2. Franchise Chandler Jones. The trade for Jones may not have put the Cardinals over the hump the way that they surely expected last offseason, but the former Patriots star delivered on his end of the bargain. Jones stayed healthy, making it through all 16 games for the second time in his career, while finishing with 11 sacks and 21 knockdowns. He also drew enough attention to make things easier for Markus Golden, who broke out with a 12.5-sack season across from Jones.
Arizona’s in a difficult financial spot because of the heavy investments made in Carson Palmer and Larry Fitzgerald, who are due a combined $40 million on the cap in 2017. General manager Steve Keim was likely overaggressive in giving Palmer a one-year extension in August. Had the Cardinals not re-signed Palmer, they could have cut him this offseason and freed nearly $12 million in cap room. Instead, Palmer’s contract is stuck on the Arizona ledger, with his $24.1 million cap hit ranking as the third-highest in football behind Tony Romo (who won’t be playing under that cap hit) and Joe Flacco. Had Palmer retired, Arizona would have owed a staggering $28.8 million.
Pass-rusher Chandler Jones could be headed for one of the richest contracts for a defender in the league. Mark J. Rebilas/USA TODAY Sports
3. Create additional cap room. Keim probably needs to create extra space, given Step 4. The Cardinals have $35.5 million in room at the moment, but that will drop to $18.5 million if they franchise Jones. They’ll gain an additional $7.2 million if Daryl Washington remains ineligible, but Arizona might just want to move on from the long-suspended inside linebacker, a move which would instead create $4.7 million in cap room.
Besides Washington, the Cardinals will have to make some tough calls. With the news that Arizona intends to flip its tackles and move D.J. Humphries to the left side, Jared Veldheer’s $10 million cap hit looks untenable. Keim could create $6.8 million in space by releasing the former Raiders pickup. (Remember when the Raiders were a laughingstock by letting Veldheer and Lamarr Houston leave?)
Justin Bethel is a star special-teamer, but he has hardly been playable at cornerback. The player Bruce Arians called “a failure in progress” in December has a $5.3 million cap hit, with $3.8 million shaking free if he’s released. I suspect the Cardinals will keep him, in part because Bethel’s penciled in to start at cornerback in 2017, but they may force him to take a pay cut. In all, if Washington stays suspended and Keim cuts Veldheer and Bethel as suggested, the Cardinals would free up an additional $17.8 million.
4. Figure out who among the rest of the defensive pieces you want to retain. Including Jones, six of the seven Arizona players who led the defense in snaps last year are free agents. The only returning player from that group is Patrick Peterson. Inside linebacker Kevin Minter, safeties Tony Jefferson and D.J. Swearinger, cornerback Marcus Cooper, and two-time Pro Bowl defensive end Calais Campbell are unrestricted free agents this offseason. And that’s without including depth pieces like Frostee Rucker and Alex Okafor, who were starters in 2015 and will hit the market. (Rucker could retire.)
It’s difficult to imagine a win-now team like the Cardinals losing a superstar like Campbell, who is perennially one of the most underrated players in the league and hasn’t slipped much despite turning 30 this past season. Given that teams like the Buccaneers and Titans can and would likely offer Campbell in excess of $13 million per year without batting an eye, though, can the Cardinals really afford to re-sign him given their other needs? They might instead decide to let Campbell go, hope that Robert Nkemdiche shows more after a frustrating rookie season, and bring back younger talents like Minter and Jefferson with the money they’ve saved. Jefferson, who was tied for second in the league in tackles for loss, might be the best safety on the market if Eric Berry re-signs with the Chiefs.
There’s an alternate path that might be interesting. The Cardinals could choose to bring back Campbell via the franchise tag, re-sign Jefferson, Minter and Okafor, and take a swing at Swearinger or Cooper before targeting a released veteran or two in free agency. They could do all of that by letting Jones leave town. It would seem like a waste, but remember that the Cardinals are likely to recoup a high compensatory pick for doing so. If the Cardinals stay out of free agency, Arizona would pick up a third-rounder in the 2019 draft as compensation for losing Jones. In essence, given that they wanted to wash their hands of guard Jonathan Cooper (who subsequently failed to suit up for the Patriots), they would have dealt a second-round pick in the 2017 draft to New England for a year of Jones and a third-round pick in 2019.
Should the Patriots franchise Dont’a Hightower? How should the Vikings handle Adrian Peterson’s contract? Doling out advice on the league’s top upcoming roster decisions.
From Romo to Garoppolo, AD to JPP, Alshon to Dont’a, plenty of big-name players could be on the move this offseason. Where will they all end up? Our roundtable of experts makes predictions.
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Cardinals president Michael Bidwill has said the team intends to franchise Jones if it can’t come to terms with him on a long-term deal, but Bidwill might be saying that as a negotiation ploy. Given Golden’s breakout season, the Cardinals might just want to rely on the former Mizzou standout as their primary pass-rusher, bring back as much of the defense as possible, and let Jones leave after one season.
5. Find a receiving tight end. Arizona has basically gotten nothing out of the tight end position recently, with Troy Niklas struggling with injuries after being taken in the second round of the 2014 draft, while Darren Fells has been a replacement-level contributor. Starter Jermaine Gresham is a free agent this year, and the Cardinals will want to find a better option to work in the red zone. They probably won’t be able to afford Julius Thomas even if he’s released by the Jaguars, although a Thomas-for-Veldheer swap could make some sense. Keim might want to take a one-year flier on a player like Jacob Tamme or look for someone with soft hands in the draft.
1. Pick up Aaron Donald’s fifth-year option. Send the paperwork in twice, just in case.
2. Re-sign Trumaine Johnson. Los Angeles probably regrets letting go of Janoris Jenkins, who had an excellent season with the Giants. The Rams can’t afford to lose both Jenkins and Johnson, their other starting cornerback — but keeping him won’t be cheap. The Rams already franchised Johnson a year ago, so a second consecutive franchise tag would take Johnson to $16.5 million, which would make him the second-most expensive cornerback in the league behind Josh Norman.
The Rams won’t want to do that, and Johnson’s representation will know as much. Jenkins received $39.7 million over the first three seasons of his new deal from the Giants, and Johnson’s going to top that mark. New defensive coordinator Wade Phillips made his hay in Denver with a trio of great cornerbacks — Aqib Talib, Chris Harris Jr. and Bradley Roby — and while the Rams will try to develop Lamarcus Joyner and E.J. Gaines, neither has looked to be on Johnson’s level. Even if it means letting free-agent safety T.J. McDonald leave town, the Rams probably need to commit to Johnson.
3. Try to gather compensatory picks. Rams general manager Les Snead doesn’t have a lot of flexibility, given that his first- and third-round picks are on their way to Tennessee as part of the Jared Goff trade. The Rams weren’t contenders last year, but they need to resist the urge to go after veteran free agents in the hope of a quick fix. They’re going to need to rebuild around Goff with young talent.
To that end, the Rams probably need to avoid signing players who will infringe upon the formula for compensatory selections. They’ll also want to let a few of their veterans leave, which means McDonald and Kenny Britt could hit the market. Johnson would recoup the highest pick, likely a third-rounder, but McDonald and Britt should get the Rams started with extra selections in 2018.
Jared Goff was sacked 26 times in only seven starts last season. Jae C. Hong/AP Photo
The most notable failure on the line is 2014 second overall pick Greg Robinson, who has committed a league-high 35 penalties over the past three seasons and became a healthy scratch at points in 2016. New coach Sean McVay might move Robinson off Goff’s blindside, but that just leaves a crater at the line’s most important position with no obvious replacement or path to one.
Realistically, the Rams are going to have to use their second-round pick on a lineman or shop in the bargain bin for offensive linemen who were cut by other teams. They should seriously consider Branden Albert if the Dolphins part ways with their starting left tackle. Signing Albert, 32, doesn’t exactly fit with Los Angeles’ long-term timeline, but the Rams desperately need to create an infrastructure within which Goff can develop. They otherwise run the risk of turning Goff into the next Tim Couch or David Carr, quarterbacks who developed bad habits and lengthy injury histories while under fire at the beginning of their careers.
5. Be patient. Los Angeles is in a tough spot. It surely wants to develop a competitive team to attract fans in its new home, but the moves it has made haven’t panned out. Goff was a mess as a rookie. Todd Gurley was wildly disappointing during his second season. Tavon Austin’s contract is horrific, one of the worst in football given his production. The Rams are stuck in a division with a dominant Seahawks team and a Cardinals squad which should be better in 2017. They feel years away from the playoffs.
Whatever the Rams do this offseason probably isn’t going to make a huge difference, and that should be OK. Goff will be better as a sophomore. Gurley will break off more big runs in 2017. Austin might thrive in the Jamison Crowder role under McVay. They still have a great defensive line, and in Phillips, they have arguably the best defensive coordinator in the league. Los Angeles will probably be better in 2017. That should be enough for now.
1. Re-sign Eric Reid. One of the few promising young players on the San Francisco roster, Reid has been relatively effective as a pro while struggling with injuries. He has suffered multiple concussions and missed the final six games of the 2016 season with a torn biceps. Reid’s in the fifth-year option of his rookie deal, and the 49ers might have to pay a premium to keep him from testing the open market next season, but they will likely have in excess of $100 million in cap space with which to work. The 49ers might also try to bring back Jeremy Kerley, who was a useful slot receiver for $760,000 last season.
2. Resist the urge to do something dramatic at quarterbackwith the second overall pick. If Colin Kaepernick opts out as expected, the 49ers will literally have no quarterback on their roster. Blaine Gabbert, Christian Ponder and Thaddeus Lewis are unrestricted free agents, and they wouldn’t exactly inspire confidence if they were on the roster. Coach Kyle Shanahan and GM John Lynch have two paths to a new quarterback: the No. 2 pick or free agency.
It’s possible that the brain trust could fall in love with Mitch Trubisky or Deshaun Watson and decide to take one of them with the second overall pick. It would be aggressive given that the league-wide perception, at least at this point, seems to be that neither Trubisky nor Watson is that highly rated. Some have suggested that the 49ers send the pick to the Patriots to acquire Jimmy Garoppolo, which might be even more aggressive, given that the organization would then need to pay its new quarterback to keep him in town after the 2017 season. It’s also way out of line with what teams have paid for emerging backups like Garoppolo in the past.
Colin Kaepernick is 11-24 as a starter since the 2014 season began. Kyle Terada/USA TODAY Sports
There are two things to keep in mind, however. One is the enormous opportunity cost of trading away the No. 2 pick for a quarterback. Not only would they be making their most important guess as an organization with the very first pick they have, but they’re incurring an enormous opportunity cost by not using that pick elsewhere. The 49ers have so many needs that the second overall pick could fill — most of the defenders likely to go in the top eight would make sense for a team that was 28th in defensive DVOA last season — that they basically have to be 100 percent sure about a quarterback to justify the selection.
And the other one is that this is a group of coaches and executives that will be learning on the fly. Which brings us to:
3. Actually, resist the urge to do something drastic in general. Shanahan has never been a head coach at any level. Lynch has never even held a personnel job, having transitioned immediately from his time as a player to an announcing career. Defensive coordinator Robert Saleh has never been a coordinator at any level and didn’t even have his own positional room until 2014.
None of this is to say that the new guys are doomed to fail, and the 49ers can’t be much worse than the 2-14 mark they posted last season. It is fair to say, though, that there will be a learning curve. Everybody running this team will know a lot more about how to do their jobs in a year than they do right now. Given how late in the cycle they had to hire Shanahan, the 49ers might very well want to hire two different coordinators next year. Making bold decisions right now might seem foolish in 2018.
Patience is a dangerous virtue to espouse for a team on its fourth head coach in four years, but the 49ers gave Lynch and Shanahan six-year contracts under the idea that this rebuild is going to take a while. This team is almost definitely not one quarterback away from contention, unless Aaron Rodgers is suddenly on the market. (They should trade for Aaron Rodgers if he’s on the market.)
The other benefit to waiting on a long-term quarterback decision is that Shanahan’s oft-discussed affinity for Kirk Cousins could come in handy next year. If the rumors are true that Cousins is disgruntled in D.C., Washington will basically have to let him leave after the 2017 season. Cousins’ franchise tag of $23.9 million this season would be feasible, but there’s no way Washington can realistically pay their passer $34.4 million on a one-year deal for 2018. San Francisco could then sign Cousins without having to give up any draft picks. It’s also likely that the 2018 quarterback draft class will be better than this year’s bunch.
4. Pursue defensive help. The 49ers will want to target players who are going to hit their peak in two to three seasons, so their goal should be to look for young talents who can help one of the league’s worst defenses. This is a relatively deep class of defenders in free agency, so the 49ers should have a few options.
The 49ers desperately need a pass-rusher; Aaron Lynch went through a lost 2016 season, combining a four-game suspension with a high ankle sprain, and the only San Francisco defender who shone as a pass-rusher was rookie DeForest Buckner. San Francisco could take some risk on Nick Perry, who broke out last season, and the 49ers could be in line to go after Patriots rotation end Jabaal Sheard. Both Perry and Sheard are 26, which is the age range the Niners should be targeting.
Behind Perry and Sheard, the Niners need to spend on a cornerback after years of letting the position fester. The 25-year-old A.J. Bouye makes sense, and the 49ers could be the team that goes after Stephon Gilmore or Logan Ryan, both of whom are 26. The Niners aren’t going to fix their defense overnight, but making one or two additions this offseason is wise.
5. Re-sign Carlos Hyde. The 49ers probably don’t need to treat Hyde like a superstar back, but he has been useful enough amid some pretty middling offenses, and it would mean that at least some small number of fans in the stands at Levi’s won’t have to buy new jerseys over the next 18 months. Hyde’s an unrestricted free agent after the 2017 season, and his injury history suggests that the 49ers probably won’t have to pay him like a superstar to keep him in San Francisco.
1. Re-evaluate left tackle. And left guard. And right gua … You get the idea. I was tempted to just make each of the five items on this list a different offensive line spot, but that’s no fun. It’s safe to say that Pete Carroll, John Schneider, and Tom Cable need to re-evaluate their plans up front, given how bad the offensive line was in 2016. Sheil Kapadia wrote in January about Seattle’s offensive line philosophy, noting how the Seahawks want to draft and develop offensive linemen while trying to find buy-low opportunities from other teams.
That’s great in theory, but the Seahawks haven’t been able to pull it off. Their offensive line is a mess, and it’s time for them to shift — at least a little bit — in a different direction. It’s reasonable to give 2016 first-rounder Germain Ifedi more time to develop at guard, and Justin Britt has been decent at center when healthy, but it’s downright dangerous to go into 2017 with George Fant at left tackle.
There will be plenty of left tackle options available. Russell Okung, the team’s former starter on the blind side, will be a free agent if Denver declines his option. Branden Albert’s likely going to leave Miami. Kelvin Beachum was cut by the Jaguars. Andrew Whitworth’s a free agent and was still playing at a high level for the Bengals. Jason Peters could be available via trade from the Eagles. None of these players represent long-term answers at left tackle, but the Seahawks haven’t shown much aptitude for solving their O-line problems in recent years.
Jimmy Graham had 65 catches and six touchdowns in 2016. Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
2. Leave the Jimmy Graham contract alone. Somehow, all options are on the table for the Seahawks and their tight end, who delivered a surprisingly effective 2016 season after rupturing his patellar tendon in 2015. As Graham enters the final year of the four-year, $40 million deal he signed with the Saints before the 2014 campaign, the Seahawks could conceivably decide to keep Graham around by signing him to an extension. They also could feasibly cut Graham to free up cap space in the hopes of addressing another position. Not that any positions come to mind.
The best option seems to be keeping Graham on his current deal for another year. His $10 million cap hit is tenable given Seattle’s current cap situation, and as Graham hits the wrong side of 30, the Seahawks might be better off drafting a tight end to team with Graham this year before taking over for the four-time Pro Bowler next season. The Seahawks can also franchise Graham in 2018 if he has a stellar season.
3. Add depth at defensive tackle. Otherwise, truthfully, the Seahawks don’t really have much to write about. They’re going to continue to do what they do with their core of talent, and while they’ve made surprising trades in the past, there’s no obvious weakness on the roster requiring attention. They perennially cycle through veterans at defensive tackle, so it wouldn’t be a surprise to see them target a couple of veterans to play behind Jarran Reed and Ahtyba Rubin. They’re already planning to meet with former Dolphins tackle Earl Mitchell, and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see them give Jags free agent Tyson Alualu a look.
5. Target Adrian Peterson or Jamaal Charles in free agency if their market crashes. Thomas Rawls was effective as a rookie, but he struggled mightily last season and has missed chunks of each of his first two pro seasons with injuries. There’s still plenty of promise, but Rawls might end up as a better fit in a situational role.
The Seahawks have a pair of interesting backups in C.J. Prosise and Alex Collins, but Prosise profiles more as a receiving back, at least thus far in his career. I don’t think anybody would have done well behind the Seahawks’ awful 2016 offensive line, but if Peterson or Charles (both of whom presumably will be cut) want to try to rebuild their value on a one-year deal, Seattle would be a fascinating place for one of them.
The Miami Dolphins agreed to a trade Monday to acquire Jacksonville Jaguars tight end Julius Thomas for a 2017 seventh-round draft pick, a source told ESPN’s Adam Caplan, confirming multiple reports.
In a separate deal, the Jaguars acquired Dolphins left tackle Branden Albert for a 2018 seventh-round pick, league sources told ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
If both players pass physicals and neither team reconsiders, the deals will be officially announced on or shortly after March 9 at 4 p.m. ET, the start of the new NFL year.
Thomas also will restructure his contract upon completion of the trade. He is expected to be in Miami on Tuesday to meet with the Dolphins.
Team
TE Yards
Jets
173
Dolphins
551
Raiders
580
Rams
584
— ESPN Stats & Information
Both teams were in heavy trade talks throughout the past week. The initial scenario, according to sources, was to swap Albert for Thomas. Albert was in Jacksonville on Monday to take a physical and will meet with the Jaguars sometime this week.
With the acquisition of Thomas, Miami has filled a major need at tight end. Former starters Jordan Cameron and Dion Sims suffered through injuries and inconsistency, and both will be unrestricted free agents in March.
Albert, 32, is a quality left tackle when healthy, but he has missed 13 games the past three seasons due to various injuries.
The Jaguars didn’t get what they’d hoped out of Thomas when they signed him to a five-year contract worth $46 million with $24 million guaranteed in March 2015. He made little impact in 2016, and the Jaguars got as much out of second-year players Neal Sterling and Ben Koyack (29 catches for 271 yards combined), which made him and his $7 million salary expendable in 2017.
Thomas’ struggles were partly due to injury but also because of erratic quarterback play by Blake Bortles. Thomas had 76 catches for 736 yards and nine touchdowns in two seasons, which is less than 10 yards per catch. He averaged 11.8 yards per catch and had 24 touchdown catches in his final two seasons in Denver.
Thomas missed a total of 11 games in two seasons with the Jaguars. He missed the first four games last season because of a fractured bone in his hand, and it took a while for him to get involved in the offense when he did return. He finished with 46 catches — the second-highest total of his career — but his yardage was way down (455 yards, the lowest of his career in which he played more than five games) and so were his touchdowns (five).
Thomas caught nine passes for 135 yards and a touchdown in the first two games of the 2016 season but caught more than three passes in a game just once after that and didn’t have more than 28 yards receiving in any game. Thomas played in only nine games in 2016 and finished with 30 catches for 281 yards and four touchdowns. He missed Week 4 with an elbow injury and went on injured reserve after hurting his back against Detroit on Nov. 20.
ESPN’s Mike DiRocco, Adam Schefter and Adam Caplan contributed to this report.
Jen Welter, who made NFL history when the Arizona Cardinals hired her in 2015 as an assistant coaching intern for training camp and the preseason, has been named the head coach of Team Australia for the 2017 IFAF Women’s World Championship.
Gridiron Australia made the announcement Monday that Welter, believed to be the first female coach of any kind in the NFL, will helm the Australian Outback’s first women’s national team at the tackle football competition, which is held every four years.
Welter was a member of the U.S. team that won the gold medal at the IFAF Women’s World Championship in 2010 and 2013.
“In 2010, I had the opportunity to represent Team USA in the inaugural Women’s World Championship. … We committed to not only winning a gold medal but also to being International Ambassadors for the game of American Football,” Welter said in statement released by Gridiron Australia. “I am honoured to uphold this promise by assuming the Head Coaching role of Team Australia. … Additionally, I hope other teams will follow suit and continue to open doors and expand the roles of women in football and sport as a whole.”
Welter worked with the Cardinals’ inside linebackers during the 2015 training camp and preseason but has not coached in the NFL since, although it put her on the map as a pioneer for women in sports and made her the face of women’s football.
Welter previously became the first female coach in a men’s professional football league when she was hired by the Texas Revolution of the Champions Indoor Football league to coach linebackers and special teams in February 2015.
In February 2014, she became the first female to play a nonkicking position in a men’s professional football league when she played running back and special teams for the Revolution.
Welter played professional football for more than 14 years as a linebacker, mostly with the Dallas Diamonds of the Women’s Football Alliance, which she rejoined after her stint in the NFL. She helped lead them to four championships.
