INDIANAPOLIS — The Atlanta Falcons plan to place a second-round tender worth $2.81 million on restricted free-agent wide receiver Taylor Gabriel, a source told ESPN.com on Friday.
General manager Thomas Dimitroff said Wednesday that the team planned to tender Gabriel but said the level was not yet determined. The second-round tender means another team would have to surrender a second-round draft pick to sign Gabriel away from the Falcons if an offer wasn’t matched.
Taylor Gabriel tied for the Falcons’ team lead in receiving touchdowns (six) in 2016 with Julio Jones. Dale Zanine/USA TODAY Sports
Gabriel, who entered the league undrafted with Cleveland in 2014, was claimed off waivers from the Browns before the 2016 season. He made an immediate impact upon joining the Falcons, tying Julio Jones for the team lead with six touchdown receptions. Gabriel caught 35 passes for 579 yards, including a 76-yard touchdown. He also ran the ball four times for 51 yards and a touchdown.
There had been whispers about the possibility of former Falcons offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan, who also coached Gabriel in Cleveland, trying to bring Gabriel to San Francisco, where Shanahan is the new 49ers head coach. However, it’s highly unlikely the 49ers would surrender a second-round pick considering San Francisco owns the second pick in the round (34th overall).
Gabriel told ESPN.com that he wants to be a “Falcon forever” after developing a strong bond with his teammates and coaches. Without a new contract, he’ll make $2.81 million for 2017 after signing the tender.
Colin Kaepernick will enter the quarterback free-agent waters today when he officially opts out of his contract in San Francisco.
That makes him an option for a Cleveland Browns team that needs to consider all options.
Kaepernick is 29, a former second-round pick out of Nevada. His career passer rating is 88.9 and Total QBR is 64.9.
His overall statistics put him in the middle of the pack among NFL quarterbacks in his career. His accuracy is not great, and he’s been sacked way too often — 171 times, which ranks 14th-highest during his NFL years.
Kaepernick made news by not standing for the national anthem in 2016. He was making a statement — one that many understandably did not like. Judge him by his numbers, though, and those add up to a player who is similar to current Browns QB Robert Griffin III.
Start with this: Since Kaepernick joined the NFL, his passer rating ranks one spot ahead of Griffin. Kaepernick is a better pocket passer. The concern is that he’s been sacked so many times, he might be become more skittish.
The Browns should do their due diligence on Colin Kaepernick, but he’s likely not their best option. Getty Images
Here’s a breakdown of some of his numbers:
Kaepernick’s completion percentage is 59.2, which isn’t good enough and ranks 28th overall since 2011. The average in that time is 63.6 percent.
He hasn’t been the same since he guided the 49ers to the Super Bowl in 2012 and the NFC Championship Game in 2013. He was sacked 52 times in 2014, the fourth-highest single-season total in his years in the league. He is one of only five quarterbacks to be sacked more than 50 times in a season since 2010, and he’s been sacked 116 times in 35 starts the last three seasons. How much of that should be attributed to the offensive line and how much to the quarterback is up for debate, but those numbers point to everyone being somewhat responsible. In a December game in Chicago, Kaepernick completed 1 of 5 passes for four yards and was sacked five times. He eventually was benched for Blaine Gabbert — and the 49ers had a net passing yard total of minus-21 yards at that point.
Kaepernick’s career passer rating of 88.9 ranks 17th (Griffin is just behind him at 88.4), and Kaepernick’s Total QBR ranks 13th.
He does not turn the ball over. Last season he had 16 touchdowns and four interceptions, and in his career he has 2.4 touchdowns for every interception — ninth-best in his time. His 1.77-percent interception rate is the 45th lowest in the league, and he’s never had a season when he’s thrown more interceptions than touchdowns.
His career yards per attempt is 7.25, 20th overall.
He is mobile, but he’s also a pocket passer. In his career he’s completed 62 percent from the pocket. His passer rating from the pocket is 90.3, and he has 51 touchdowns and 22 interceptions. His numbers from the pocket are actually better than they are out of the pocket, where he’s completed 50.2 percent with a rating of 83.0 (all according to ESPN Stats & Information).
ESPN Stats & Information reports that he had the best completion percentage in the league in the first half last season (73 percent), but the worst in the second half and overtime (48 percent). His total QBR in 2015 and ’16 was 52.0, fifth-worst in the league.
Kaepernick owned the 49ers job after the 2013 season. He had guided San Francisco to the playoffs and was 17-6 as a starter. He never seized the job in the three seasons since then. In his last three seasons, he has gone 11-24 as starter and was sacked 116 times. Kaepernick opted out of his deal, but the 49ers were ready to move on as well.
The Browns owe it to themselves to consider Kaepernick, but in his case the on-field numbers say enough.
Covered Vikings for Minneapolis Star Tribune, 1999-2008
INDIANAPOLIS — He watched every offensive play from 2016. Twice. Then, Mike Zimmer established a schedule. On most workday mornings during the past two months, he sat with the Minnesota Vikings’ offensive coaches. Together, with new input from the head coach, they began compiling their 2017 playbook.
This is what happens when a team loses eight of its final 11 games and misses the playoffs with a punchless offense that finished with the NFL’s fourth-fewest plays of at least 25 yards (a total of 29). Zimmer is acting with a wall-breaking fury in a tacit acknowledgement of his worst mistake in three years as the Vikings’ coach. After leaving the offense almost entirely in the hands of former coordinator Norv Turner from 2014 to 2016, Zimmer has taken control of its direction and will ensure that replacement Pat Shurmur is not left solely to his own discretion.
“It’s not [about] the way Pat wants it,” Zimmer said Thursday at the NFL scouting combine. “It’s the way we want it.”
The bottom line of Zimmer’s three-year tenure has been mediocre, even considering a series of unique circumstances that include Adrian Peterson’s 2014 suspension and Teddy Bridgewater’s freak injury in 2016. Zimmer’s teams are 26-22 with one playoff appearance in three years.
Zimmer freely admitted Thursday that NFL coaches don’t always receive the time they need to learn on the job. So amid the rubble of the 2016 collapse, he began reaching out to current and former coaches to find ways to elevate the arc of the program.
“I was telling [mentor Bill Parcells] that they fire these coaches after two years or one year,” Zimmer said. “The guy doesn’t ever learn how to truly be a coach in two years, with all the stuff that happens and the things that go on. So I’m just trying to pick the brains of other coaches, see some of the stuff that they’ve done.”
The message in these private discussions has been clear: The head coach can’t cede any part of his team to an assistant.
“A lot of it is about being involved defensively, but also how I can help us to be better offensively,” he said. “We haven’t been very good statistically in the three years I’ve been here. It’s one of those things where if it’s not going well, you have to jump in there and get it better.”
Indeed, the Vikings ranked No. 28 in the league in scoring (18.5 points per game) during the past three years and No. 30 in yards per game (317.3). They face a tough challenge in 2017, needing yet another overhaul of their offensive line, and Zimmer will leave nothing to chance.
His primary contribution thus far, he said, has been to poke holes in playcalls and design from the position of a defensive coach. If he can conceive of a relatively clear defensive answer to a play or concept, it’s not worth adding to the playbook.
“I’m watching tape [of last season],” Zimmer said. “And we run a complementary play off another play, but we don’t run that other play. So [the defense] is saying, any time they do this, they’re going to run that. So this is about trying to get the players in the right position to do more.”
There are plenty of ways to view Zimmer’s new approach. You could be wary of a lifetime defensive coach suddenly deciding to jump into an environment he has relatively little expertise in. You could be worried that Zimmer, who calls the Vikings’ defensive plays and is their de facto defensive coordinator, could spread himself thin. (“That’s a dilemma too,” he said. “What I don’t want to do is take away from part of the strength of our football team and make it a weakness.”)
Or you could recognize that the Vikings’ record goes next to his name, not his coordinators’, and that his approach the past three seasons has led to disappointing results. With his team and career at a crossroads, Zimmer recognized a change was necessary. He has made it, and the results will soon be on display for all to see. Stay tuned.
The Baltimore Ravens really need to add a productive veteran wide receiver in free agency, and Brandon Marshall becomes one of the top available ones after news of his impending release broke Thursday night.
Whether the Ravens pursue him depends on how the team addresses this pressing question: Does Marshall become an exception to the Ravens’ stance on domestic violence?
Marshall has had nine reported incidents of domestic violence against women and was arrested three times for domestic-violence issues. The Ravens have avoided players with that type of history since the Ray Rice scandal in 2014.
“It will be tough for us to bring a player to Baltimore that has domestic abuse in their background,” general manager Ozzie Newsome said in February 2015.
Brandon Marshall would seemingly be a good fit in the Ravens’ receiving corps, but the veteran’s off-field history could be problematic for the franchise. Alan Schaefer/Icon Sportswire
But the Ravens could determine that Marshall has turned around his life. Baltimore could weigh the fact that Marshall was never convicted and focus on what he has done since those incidents.
In 2011, Marshall was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder and has become a spokesman for mental health to raise awareness. In 2014, he held a clothing drive in Denver to collect coats and winter clothing for survivors of domestic violence.
Marshall also opened up about how he grew up in an environment of domestic violence. His mother was physically and mentally abused, he said.
“I think the first half of my career really painted a picture of me being a product of my environment,” Marshall said in 2014. “I’m just thankful that now I’m in a position where I can take my story and tell these guys, ‘Listen, man, you don’t have to be a product of your environment. That is the wrong path.'”
The Ravens have not signed a free agent or drafted a college player with domestic violence in his past since the team abruptly cut Rice after a video of him hitting his future wife was released publicly. Team officials previously acknowledged the Ravens and the NFL didn’t treat domestic violence with the degree of seriousness that the issue deserved.
At the end of last season, Newsome said the Ravens are “not afraid” of adding a player who has other character concerns.
“When we do take someone, it’s upon all of us to make sure that that guy is doing everything he needs to do to change his life,” Newsome said.
While Newsome wasn’t talking about domestic violence, this could relate to Marshall in terms of how he has changed his life. The last domestic-violence incident involving Marshall occurred in March 2012, when he was accused of hitting a woman in the face at a New York club. No charges were filed because of lack of evidence.
On the field, Marshall would help fill the void left by Steve Smith in the Ravens’ passing game. Marshall, who will turn 33 later this month, is a six-time Pro Bowl receiver who has averaged 92 catches and 1,175 yards receiving over the past 10 seasons. He is a big-bodied receiver who relies on power and route-running to get open, which would play off the speed of Mike Wallace and Breshad Perriman.
In 2015, Marshall was voted Jets most valuable player after setting franchise season records for catches (109) and receiving yards (1,502). Last season, his production plummeted to 59 receptions for 788 yards receiving in a season when the Jets struggled as a team and went through three starting quarterbacks.
What could lure Marshall to Baltimore is the stability of the franchise (from ownership to quarterback) and how coach John Harbaugh has a reputation for letting players be themselves (which was a big selling point for Smith). During Super Bowl week two years ago, Marshall had a playful exchange with Harbaugh when he asked the coach whether he would be allowed to do a weekly NFL show in New York if he played in Baltimore.
Picking his next team will be an important decision for Marshall. Despite his consistent numbers, Marshall has bounced around to four teams over the past eight seasons and has never reached the postseason.
