Category: NFL News

New Steelers wide receivers coach Zach Azzanni is not wasting any time in demanding more from No. 1 receiver George Pickens.

Azzanni and Pickens got into a heated exchange at training camp because Azzanni didn’t like what he saw from Pickens, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

The report says Pickens “didn’t take kindly to Azzanni’s words” and that Pickens was visibly upset as other receivers approached him afterward.

Azzanni said last month that Pickens “can do anything he wants. He’s that talented. I think you guys all know that. Ray Charles can see that. You don’t need to be a coach. So we know that’s out there for him if he wants it. Now, he’s just got to keep stacking the days and that’s my job, too.”

Pickens was easily the Steelers’ best receiver last year, catching 63 passes for 1,140 yards in a year when the Steelers’ quarterbacks struggled. But the Steelers believe he can be better still. At the start of camp, Azzanni clearly wants to see a better performance from Pickens on the practice field.

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First came Jared Goff of the Detroit Lions, then Trevor Lawrence of the Jacksonville Jaguars. Now, Tua Tagovailoa of the Miami Dolphins has become the most recent quarterback to get paid this offseason. The market continues to boom, as the Dolphins gave their signal-caller a four-year, $212.4 million extension with $167 million in guarantees on Friday, CBS Sports lead NFL insider Jonathan Jones confirms. 

Tagovailoa’s new AAV of $53.1 million makes him the third-highest paid quarterback in the NFL behind Lawrence and Joe Burrow. That $53.1 million number is a record for the most money averaged in a four-year contract, and of course is the largest contract in Dolphins franchise history. 

Highest-paid QBs in the NFL

(via Over The Cap)

Trevor Lawrence

$55 million

$275 million

Joe Burrow

$55 million

$275 million

Tua Tagovailoa

$53.1 million

$212.4 million

Jared Goff

$53 million

$212 million

Justin Herbert

$52.5…

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OXNARD, Calif. — Every July, the Dallas Cowboys’ future is filtered through a tapestry of numbers.

How many free agents were signed? What extensions were achieved? How many years remain on the head coach’s contract? How much money is left under the salary cap? And of course, the unyielding accounting of how many years it’s been since that last Super Bowl win (28 and counting).

Now we can add this: How long the staring match is going to last between the team and two of its three biggest stars — quarterback Dak Prescott, who is actively practicing in training camp, and wideout CeeDee Lamb, who was nowhere near Oxnard, California, during Thursday’s first camp practice.

There’s plenty of other things going on with Dallas, but we’d be kidding ourselves if we think it’s not all a jumble of secondary storylines orbiting a supergiant star. And you really only needed to see the opening news conference kicking off training camp to understand the prism that Dallas is being focused through. With the clock ticking down on the first official practice of the season, it took 20 minutes and 40 seconds of the team owner/executive vice president duo of Jerry and Stephen Jones talking mostly about contract extension issues before a reporter took pity on head coach Mike McCarthy and asked him a question about the team.

“All right, here we go,” McCarthy said with a smile and a chuckle. “Let’s talk about football.”

A joking response that left Jerry to turn into McCarthy’s direction and interject about the previous 21 minutes: “Coach, that’s football.”

So it goes for Dallas. The contracts are the football as much as anything else inside the franchise. And it will continue to be that way for at least the next few weeks — until something develops with Lamb’s holdout or the waiting game with Prescott. But in the beginning of that expanse, some things are coming into view. There’s a little bit of soft gamesmanship taking place between Prescott, whose…

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The contract saga between the San Francisco 49ers and wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk has had plenty of twists and turns. There’s been more drama than on a daytime soap opera.

Aiyuk was noncommittal about his future with the 49ers during the locker-room cleanout a couple days after a 25-22 overtime loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LVIII. His response to reporters about remaining in San Francisco was “If that’s the right move.” When 49ers general manager John Lynch indicated at the NFL owners meeting in late March that talks to extend Aiyuk’s contract were ongoing, the 2020 first-round pick posted emojis on Instagram which seemingly translated to “Money talks, bullsh-t walks.” Aiyuk unfollowed the 49ers on social media shortly thereafter.

The 49ers selected wide receiver Ricky Pearsall at the end of the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft with the 31st overall pick. This increased speculation that either Aiyuk or fellow wide receiver Deebo Samuel could be traded.

Aiyuk skipped offseason workouts and the mandatory minicamp held June 4-6. He subjected himself to a $101,716 fine for missing the entire three-day minicamp. Aiyuk subsequently claimed in a TikTok post where he was having a video chat with former Arizona State teammate Jayden Daniels, who was selected second overall in this year’s draft to quarterback the Washington Commanders, that the 49ers didn’t want him back.

Aiyuk’s camp requested a meeting with Lynch and 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan to clear the air during the latter part of June. The meeting reportedly went well.

Any goodwill from the meeting was short-lived. Aiyuk’s frustration with his contract situation reached a boiling point last week as he requested a trade. The 49ers didn’t waste any time in publicly stating that Aiyuk isn’t on the trading block.

Aiyuk reported to the opening of training camp on July 23 rather than hold out. By showing up for training…

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Shanahan confirms Williams’ training camp absence is contract-related originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

It appears the 49ers officially have another contract dilemma on their hands.

Both wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk and left tackle Trent Williams did not participate in the team’s training camp practice on Wednesday and in speaking to reporters after practice, coach Kyle Shanahan explained why.

“[Williams] didn’t report. It’s contract related,” Shanahan said. “John [Lynch] is speaking with his representatives, he’s been doing it for a while. He will continue to go and when they work it out I’ll be pumped to see him.

“It was something I knew could be a possibility. I was hoping he would be here, but I knew it could be a possibility. I feel pretty confident it will all work out in the long run and he’ll be here and we’ll get on the same page with everything, but it’s just one day of practice and I think Trent will be alright missing a few practices.”

Shanahan added that Aiyuk, who reported to training camp after requesting a trade but did not participate in practice, was experiencing back and neck soreness today, which is the reason he did not participate.

It remains to be seen where Williams and the 49ers are in their negotiations, but it seems San Francisco another star soon could be paid.

Download and follow the 49ers Talk Podcast

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USATSI

As training camps get under way around the NFL, not everybody is quite ready to hit the ground running. Some players out there are still recovering from injuries or rehabbing in the wake of surgeries, or have otherwise just not yet been given the go-ahead to join practices.

In many of those case, the player’s team will place him on either the physically unable to perform (PUP) list or the non-football injury (NFI) list. According to the NFL, players are placed on the PUP list during training camp and count toward a team’s 90-man roster. Players can be removed from the list at any time during camp, but can’t be placed back on the list. The NFI list similar to the PUP list, but it is used for players who suffered injuries or ailments outside of NFL activities. 

What follows is a non-exhaustive index of players who have been placed on the PUP or NFI lists by their teams to begin camp.

Physically unable to perform (PUP) list

Non-football injury (NFI) list

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Jakeem Grant was among a group of wide receivers and returners the Giants worked out on Monday.

The Giants’ receivers were worked out with special teams in mind, according to Art Stapleton of the Bergen Record. Grant has four career punt return touchdowns and two career kickoff return touchdowns, and the new kickoff rule has NFL teams increasingly seeing value in players with big-play ability in the return game.

The Giants also worked out receivers Byron Pringle, T.J. Luther and Lincoln Victor. Quarterback Jarrett Guarantano was brought in for a workout primarily to throw to the receivers.

Originally a sixth-round pick of the Dolphins in 2016, Grant spent six seasons in Miami and was a Pro Bowl returner in 2021. He also played briefly for the Bears and has 100 catches in his career.

Grant hasn’t played in the regular season since 2021. He suffered a torn Achilles tendon in training camp with the Browns in 2022 and suffered a torn patellar tendon in the preseason with the Browns in 2023.

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Quarterbacks are important. There’s no disputing that. It’s why NFL teams are so quick to reset the position’s market when locking up even relatively unproven signal-callers for the long haul.

Oftentimes, however, a quarterback is only as effective as his supporting cast. There are a select number of transcendent talents, to be sure: Put Patrick Mahomes on any franchise, and his track record of NFL stardom suggests he’d elevate any lineup. Still, the easiest way to project a quarterback’s success is by looking at what’s around him, both on the field and on the sidelines.

Here, we’re ranking the 10 best quarterback situations entering the 2024 season, accounting for 1) skill weapons, 2) offensive linemen, 3) coaches and 4) defensive support, in roughly that order. Just because a quarterback has an enviable situation, of course, doesn’t mean he’s guaranteed a Super Bowl run; an elite setup has the ability to simply make a lesser passer competitive.

All that said, here are the teams doing the most to support their quarterback going into the season:

Wild cards

Atlanta Falcons

There’s a lot of upside, to be sure, with Robinson likely to take a bigger role as the do-it-all dual threat. The coaches are intriguing. Is there enough out wide to truly aid Cousins and meet his big-money expectations?

Buffalo Bills

For all the questions thrown the Bills’ way after their complete overhaul of Allen’s receiving corps, this isn’t as barren an infrastructure as you might think: Cook is an explosive dual threat out of the backfield, and Kincaid has the upside to be a Pro Bowl pass catcher at tight end. Still, in today’s NFL, it’s tough to outgun the best of the best when you’re lacking a bona fide No. 1 on the outside.

Jacksonville Jaguars

Etienne might be an All-Pro in a bigger market, while Kirk, Davis and Engram all serve functionally as No. 2-level outlets. The question is, how much can the line and…

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