Category: NFL News

Report: 49ers expected to address Aiyuk extension after free agency originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

Another 49ers offseason, another contract extension saga — this time, for wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk.

But San Francisco has an excellent track record of paying its proven stars what they deserve, and NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport doesn’t believe that will change with Aiyuk.

“My understanding is obviously there are teams who would love to trade for the very, very talented young receiver,” Rapoport said Sunday on NFL Network. “The 49ers firmly believe he is in their plans; I would expect them to get to work on a new deal for him, probably after free agency.”

Rapoport’s report is on par with how the 49ers have operated in the past when it came to extensions for their best players, including George Kittle, Fred Warner, Deebo Samuel and Nick Bosa — all of whom signed their new contracts close to or after the start of training camp.

And with plenty to decide on currently, from the 2024 NFL Draft to improving the team in free agency, it makes sense that general manager John Lynch would want to take care of business in a specific order.

But even though the 49ers have had no trouble paying their players in recent offseasons, Aiyuk, who is entering the fifth and final year of his rookie deal, left his future with San Francisco open as he answered questions from local reporters during locker clean-out day two days after Super Bowl LVIII.

“If that’s the right move, yeah,” Aiyuk responded when asked if he hopes to remain with the 49ers moving forward, before noting that right move would look like “being a champion.”

Lynch, however, has made it perfectly clear where the 49ers stand.

“Brandon’s one that we think incredibly highly of,” Lynch said this past week at the NFL Scouting Combine. “One of my favorite just guys around our building, the way he approaches the game. He’s a competitor. He’s a warrior. He plays with such a physicality, also with a grace, the way…

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Josh Jacobs was the premier running back in last year’s talented free agent class at his position. Jacobs was coming off his first NFL rushing title, leading the league in rushing yards (1,653), yards from scrimmage (2,053), and rushing yards per game (97.2) — having the right to demand a high salary at his position. 

The Las Vegas Raiders placed the franchise tag on Jacobs, even after he was the first player for the franchise to win the rushing title since Marcus Allen in 1985. That resulted in a holdout as no agreement was reached between the two sides before the franchise tag contract deadline passed in July. Jacobs and the Raiders eventually came to terms in late-August on an adjusted one-year contract worth up to $12 million, leaving Jacobs with even more to prove in 2023.

Jacobs had his worst season as a pro, having 233 carries for 805 yards and six touchdowns — all career lows. He also had a career-low 3.5 yards per carry and 1,101 yards from scrimmage. Not exactly the best season in an attempt to earn a long-term deal. 

Omitting the 2022 season, Jacobs averaged 973…

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J.J. McCarthy took the field on Saturday afternoon at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis in his latest quest to improve his draft stock before April.

The former Michigan quarterback, who led the Wolverines to their first national title in decades earlier this year, didn’t participate in the broad or vertical jumps or the 40-yard dash due to what he called “hamstring tightness.” He did, though, throw in the on-field workout.

He got some pretty good looks in, too, including one perfect deep ball.

While it wasn’t perfect — McCarthy often struggles to throw left outside the numbers, which he did again on Saturday — he did seem to have a very large fan base watching him in Indianapolis.

McCarthy racked up a career-high 2,991 yards and 22 touchdowns while throwing just four interceptions last season with the Wolverines. He threw for 221 yards and had three touchdowns in their overtime win against Alabama in the Rose Bowl, and then led the Wolverines to a blowout win over Washington to win the program’s first national championship since 1997.

He quickly declared for the NFL Draft after winning the title. It’s unclear where McCarthy will fall in the draft later this spring, though Yahoo Sports’ Charles McDonald and Nate Tice had him going No. 11 overall to the Minnesota Vikings in their latest mock draft.

While McCarthy is well aware that there are better quarterbacks than him in this year’s draft class on paper — he’s the fourth quarterback off the board in Yahoo Sports’ latest mock draft behind Drake Maye, Caleb Williams and Heisman winner Jayden Daniels — McCarthy knows he’s the only quarterback to mount an undefeated national title run, and he’s not afraid to lean into it.

While he threw on Saturday, J.J. McCarthy didn’t run the 40-yard dash or participate in the broad or vertical jumps due to hamstring tightness. (AP/Darron Cummings)

“You know, like, stats for me aren’t really the big thing, and all I really cared about was being the best…

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Day 2 of on-field drills at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis ended with tight ends demonstrating their athletic gifts inside Lucas Oil Stadium. No, this isn’t a loaded tight end group like we had a year ago, a few prospects elevated their stock with strong performances.

Here are some of the winners and losers from Friday’s on-field drills in Indianapolis, starting with a look at the measurements of the prospects in CBS Sports’ top 100 consensus rankings.

Brock Bowers, Georgia

N/A

N/A

N/A

Ja’Tavion Sanders, Texas

4.69

N/A

N/A

Ben Sinnott, Kansas State

4.68

40″

10-foot-6

Cade Stover, Ohio State

4.65

34.5″

9-foot-8

Grading the top-rated TEs

Brock Bowers, Georgia: N/A

Bowers opted against working out at the combine, and with seemingly such a “lead” on the rest of the tight ends in this class, that decision makes plenty of sense. He measured in just over 6-foot-3 and 243 pounds with quality length — nearly 33″ inches. No major changes here. 

Ja’Tavion Sanders, Texas: B

While I don’t think Sanders is a total burner at the tight end spot, barely running under 4.70 seconds surprised me a bit, especially for someone who was a monster high school recruit and did hit plenty of long plays in college. I would’ve liked to see some jumps from him, too, but he decided to wait until his pro day. He does have big hands, over 10 inches. That’s a plus. 

Ben Sinnott, Kansas State: A

A 4.68-second 40-yard dash for the nearly 6-foot-4 and 250-pound Sinnott was rock solid, and his jumps were eye-opening. It’s rare we see tight ends hit 40 inches in the vertical, and the 10-foot-6 broad will be close to the 94th percentile at the position since 1999 at the combine. Sinnott is in the discussion to be the second or third tight end off the board now, if he wasn’t already before the combine.  

Cade Stover, Ohio State: B

While his jumps didn’t compare to Sinnott’s and a few other tight ends, Stover ran a respectable 40-yard dash in the group…

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Howie Roseman explains where Eagles went wrong with Nolan Smith originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

Why draft Nolan Smith in the first round and then not play him?

Good question.

And a question with no valid answer.

Smith, the 30th pick in last year’s draft, had a promising training camp, then disappeared once the season began.

He never played more than nine snaps in the Eagles’ first 10 games and averaged just 6.1 snaps per game through the Chiefs game. At one point in the middle of the season, he played just 11 snaps in a three-game stretch.

His numbers nudged up after that, but even with 41 snaps in the season finale against the Giants – most after the game had been decided – he averaged only 11 snaps per game.

Even late in the season, when the edge rushers weren’t making an impact – four sacks the last eight games, none the last four – Smith rode the bench.

He didn’t do a ton with the snaps he did get. A sack. Three QB hits. A tackle for loss. Eighteen tackles. But can you even fairly evaluate a player who’s barely playing?

Nope.

Both defensive coordinators are gone, and on Tuesday Howie Roseman admitted what we all knew.

Smith should have played more.

“In retrospect, just seeing him certainly in the playoff game, one of the guys who played well in the playoff game, maybe giving him a little bit more time during the year and experience, we talked about that,” Roseman said at the combine in Indianapolis.

“He’s got all the right tools in his body. He’s got the right mentality. And at the same time, he’s got to go out and show it.”

Smith played 16 snaps in the wild-card loss to the Bucs and it was by far his best game. He split a sack with Fletcher Cox, had four tackles in just 16 snaps and he had a quarterback hit. Pro Football Focus gave him the 4th-highest grade of all edge rushers wild-card weekend at 84.9 (Brandon Graham was highest at 90.2).

Where was that all year?

Sitting on the bench for 84 percent of the Eagles’ defensive…

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There could be a dramatic change coming to the way the NFL operates on a down-to-down basis. 

According to CBS Sports NFL Insider Jonathan Jones, the league tested optical tracking on line-to-gain rulings at both MetLife Field and Hard Rock Stadium throughout the 2023 season, as well as at the Super Bowl earlier this year. If there is support from enough owners, the league could move to optical tracking rather than the so-called “chain gang” as early as the 2024 season, Jones reports.

At the moment, it’s unclear how much support there is among ownership to make the switch. And as Jones notes, it could be difficult to outfit all 30 NFL stadiums and international stadiums with the requisite technology in time for the upcoming season. But it’s notable that it is being tested, because it indicates a willingness to move in that direction in the future.

Line-to-gain and spot-of-the-ball issues are not of the judgment call variety that the NFL can’t feasibly eliminate. If the league can ensure a way that the ball is spotted more accurately than it is with the current, obviously archaic system of referees eyeballing it from yards away from the play, it should do just that. 

Of course, what the league “should” do has never really stopped it from doing certain things before, so nothing is guaranteed. But if the league can make sure the technology works and can be installed where it needs to be installed, it should be a no-brainer to get this passed by the competition committee and then a full ownership vote.

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Yahoo Sports’ Jason Fitz looks at the one big thing for Los Angeles’s offseason – which involves boosting the defense around superstar lineman Aaron Donald.

Video Transcript

– It’s time to take a look at one big thing facing the LA Rams this offseason. It’s, How do you make that defense better? Now we didn’t have high expectations for the Rams coming into this season. I think we can all be honest about that. They were one of the youngest teams in the NFL. And frankly, on both sides of the ball, we found ourselves wondering if this was even going to be a competitive team.

And all of a sudden, the Rams were not only competitive, they were very good. The Rams were ahead of schedule. They won’t have that grace this year, as everybody is going to have more expectations. But the alarming thing is that the Rams have got to figure out how to fix their defense, which is strange to say on a defense that has Aaron Donald. But if you look at the numbers last year, the defense just wasn’t good enough, especially when it comes to pass rush.

Now I’d love to think that the Rams could simply go out and address that. But they’ve also got to figure out a way to keep some important free agents in-house. They’ve got offensive line issues they’ve got to keep in place. They’ve got to figure out what they’re going to do with Matt Stafford long-term. Are they going to eventually draft a replacement for Stafford? Are they going to use some of their 10 picks in the NFL draft to move up?

There are all of these questions around the Rams. But realistically, the one question that they’ve got to answer right away is, How do you get better defensively? Because we’ve seen, yet again, Sean McVay, who can never be questioned for his offensive brilliance, has found a way to make the most out of every single person that comes into that offense. Now that you know that that offense is going to be as good as it’s going to be for as long as he’s ever going to be there, the only thing you need to focus on, if…

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Last week, the NFL announced the official salary cap figure for 2024: $255.4 million. That number is $30.6 million more than the cap in 2023, making it the largest increase in free agency history. While this announcement benefits every team, there’s still work to be done for some clubs. 

As of Feb. 26, there are seven teams still over the cap number: the San Francisco 49ers, Dallas Cowboys, Denver Broncos, Los Angeles Chargers, Miami Dolphins, New Orleans Saints and Buffalo Bills. A couple of different ways these teams can create cap space is by releasing players, or restructuring contracts. Early this week, we saw a handful of restructures and cuts, which we will break down below.

Restructures

DL Carl Granderson, Saints: New Orleans completed a conversion on Granderson’s contract, which cleared $7.2 million in cap space. The 27-year-old joined the Saints as an undrafted free agent out of Wyoming in 2019. In 2023, he recorded a career-high 8.5 sacks after signing a four-year, $52 million extension in September. (NFL Media)EDGE Rashan Gary, Packers: Green Bay restructured Gary’s contract, creating $4.781 million in cap space. The former No. 12 overall pick out of Michigan signed a four-year, $107 million extension in October. Gary recorded nine sacks in 2023. (NFL Media)OL Connor McGovern, Bills: Buffalo guaranteed McGovern’s deal for 2024, and cleared $3.74 million. The former Cowboy signed a three-year deal with the Bills this offseason, and started in all 17 games. (NFL Media)CB Denzel Ward, Browns: Cleveland restructured Ward’s contract, freeing up $11.359 million in cap space by converting that much of the Pro Bowl cornerback’s salary into a restructured bonus. The move puts the Browns just under the…..

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