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.”
FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. — Matt Ryan is comfortable calling his own plays. He showed it at specific times throughout his MVP season.
Atlanta Falcons coach Dan Quinn pointed to one aspect in particular that illustrated Ryan’s comfort level at directing the offense himself, and how former offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan had a comfort level in allowing Ryan to have such leeway.
“Matt and Kyle did some of that this year with some of our two-minute stuff,” Quinn said of the no-huddle. “It’s something that Matt was really familiar with that he had in the past. And he brought it up to Kyle, and Kyle changed what he was doing. Good for him, because Matt was really comfortable. I think that’s your clearest example of that.”
Maybe the simple solution to keeping the flow of the current offensive scheme is to let Ryan have even more authority with the playcalling. It’s not that easy, of course, but there is some validity to Ryan having more freedom as he makes a transition to a new offensive coordinator.
Quinn made clear that the hiring of Steve Sarkisian as offensive coordinator to replace Shanahan, the new San Francisco 49ers head coach, would be more about Sarkisian adapting to the current scheme implemented by Shanahan: an offense based on an outside zone run-blocking scheme with play-action passes off the run plays. Ryan mastered the scheme in Year 2 and earned himself NFL MVP honors and his first Super Bowl appearance.
Quarterback and league MVP Matt Ryan will be playing for his fourth offensive coordinator in Atlanta. Tom Pennington/Getty Images
Quinn expanded on Ryan being the type of player who can take the offense and run with it, essentially like an offensive coordinator on the field.
“Some players might be, ‘I like everything.’ No, you don’t. So we’re fortunate that Matt’s able to really have a clear vision. You have to go through a couple of systems. You have to go through playing to gain that experience. I don’t think that’s possible in Year 1 or Year 2.”
Now going into Year 3 under Quinn, Ryan gets to keep the continuity of the offense despite being on his fourth offensive coordinator since entering the league in 2008. The first two, Mike Mularkey and Dirk Koetter, ran similar systems. When Ryan first paired with Shanahan for the 2015 season, he struggled with the movement that comes with the rollouts and bootlegs. This past season, Ryan and Shanahan had a much better understanding of what worked best for Ryan — not to mention better protection with the addition of center Alex Mack — and Ryan thrived while setting franchise records in passing yards (4,944), touchdowns (38), passer rating (117.1), completion percentage (69.9 percent), and 25-plus-yard passes (42).
But Ryan is not about to go into the huddle calling his own plays the entire game. Quarterbacks go to the line with multiple checks, but a playcall always comes through the helmet. Under Mularkey and Koetter, Ryan did on-the-ball checks all the time and called his own plays, which means going the line with multiple calls, seeing what the defense is in, and then calling the best option. Peyton Manning used to make more adjustments at the line, so it seemed as if he were calling his own plays, although it was still coming through the helmet. Rodgers has a similar setup in Green Bay. In contrast, Brady reads off a wristband.
Whatever the case, these are quarterbacks who have mastered schemes and have a better feel than the average player. Ryan certainly is among the elite group now.
“Matt definitely can call plays like that,” Shanahan said during Super Bowl week. “Of course he’s the type of quarterback who can make the adjustments and run the offense. That’s just how great a quarterback Matt truly is.”
