Rams & qbs in free agency (from RG3 to possibly Fitzpatrick)

Need to Know: Why RG3 won’t sign with the Cowboys

Rich Tandler

Need to Know: Why RG3 won’t sign with the Cowboys

Here is what you need to know on this Friday, February 19, five days before the NFL Combine in Indianapolis.

Why RG3 won’t go to the Cowboys

The next team that Robert Griffin III will play for is already set, according to the conventional wisdom of many fans and members of the media. He is going to sign with the Dallas Cowboys and back up Tony Romo until the veteran retires and then RG3 will become the starting QB in Big D.

There are many reasons why RG3 to Dallas is inevitable. He’s from Texas. When the Redskins played in Dallas in the season finale there were some fans on the sideline with RG3 No. 10 Cowboys jerseys on. He would be welcomed with open arms. Jerry Jones likes high-profile players he certainly was dazzled by what Griffin did to his team in his house on Thanksgiving Day in 2012. The Cowboys need a backup quarterback and Griffin will be available when the Redskins release him sometime between now and March 9.

It’s all too perfect except for one thing—it’s not going to happen.

For one thing, it makes no sense once all of the hoopla is done and the players actually have to take the field and play games. If (when?) Romo gets injured again, Griffin is exactly the wrong person to come in and help the Cowboys win games.

Here is the way that Jean-Jacques Taylor, who covers the Cowboys for ESPN.com and knows the Dallas offense much better than I do, put it in a recent post:

What you must understand is that the Cowboys run a timing-based passing scheme, built around quarterbacks throwing the ball just as the receiver makes his break. No way, based on what we’ve seen during his four-year NFL career, could Griffin successfully run the Cowboys’ offense.

Taylor noted that a member of the Cowboys front office said that In December one member of the Cowboys’ front office said, “Griffin was an even worse fit in the Cowboys’ offense than [Johnny] Manziel”. Taylor concluded by saying, “Someone will give Griffin a chance, but it won’t be the Cowboys.”

Not only would Griffin with a star on his helmet not work for the Cowboys, it wouldn’t work for Griffin either. Romo is the established starter in Dallas. He turns 36 in a couple of months which is getting up there in years but far from ancient. Yes he was injured most of last year but that happens. Romo is not a particularly fragile; he had missed a total of two games in the four years leading up to the 2015 season. The backup might get a start here and there but steady work is unlikely.

A chance for Griffin to be the starter is at least a couple of years away. Romo’s contract locks him into Dallas for at least two more years, with prohibitive amounts of dead cap in 2016 ($31.9 million) and 2017 ($19.6 million). Maybe they could consider letting him go in 2018 when the dead cap drops to “only” $8.9 million. Of course, they could restructure the deal again and push even more money into later years, again increasing the dead cap to a prohibitive amount.

But even given the shorter, two-year time frame during which Griffin would have to show that he is a better alternative than Romo, will RG3 want to wait that long? He would be entering his age 28 season. It’s not impossible to establish yourself in your late 20’s—Kirk Cousins breakthrough season came last year at the age of 27. But a guy who was driven, perhaps to the point where it was against common sense, to recover from a torn ACL in time for the 2013 season opener doesn’t seem like a guy who would willingly sign on knowing he would have to wait at least two years to be The Man.

To be sure, there aren’t any teams where Griffin could walk in and be the starter. But there are plenty of places where the QB situation is much shakier than it is in Dallas. I count seven—the Jets, Browns, Texans, Broncos, Eagles, Rams, and 49ers. There could be a few more that are under the radar right now. Not all are fits in terms of scheme and culture but all of them are more likely to have Griffin in a situation he plays more in 2016 than he would in Dallas and is more likely be the starter going into 2017 than he would be with the Cowboys.

Not the right situation for the team, not right for the player. Other than those factors, the only ones that really matter, it’s the perfect fit.

Broncos offer to Osweiler: 3 years, more than $45 million

Mike Klis

http://www.9news.com/sports/broncos-offer-to-osweiler-3-years-more-than-45-million/69607526

KUSA – The Denver Broncos’ priority is unmistakable. They want to make Brock Osweiler their starting quarterback in 2016 and beyond.

Of course, commitment to a player in the salary cap/free agent NFL economy is always measured in dollars.

The Broncos have offered Osweiler a three-year contract proposal that is worth more than $45 million, NFL sources told 9NEWS. Osweiler can become an unrestricted free agent at 2 p.m. Wednesday. The market begins with a “soft” opening Monday where free agents can talk to other teams to gage interest and their value.

Meanwhile, the Broncos will get an update on the future of veteran Peyton Manning either Monday or Tuesday. Manning is expected to either announce his retirement or reveal he wants to keep his options open for a while longer.

If Manning remains undecided, the Broncos are expected to make a procedural move that would release them from his 2016 salary of $19 million that is scheduled to become fully guaranteed on Wednesday.

Regardless of Manning’s decision, the Broncos are trying to reel in Osweiler. The Houston Texans, Cleveland Browns and possibly the New York Jets are among the few teams that need a quarterback and could be interested in talking to Osweiler’s agent, Jimmy Sexton, on Monday, when the free-agent “tampering window” opens.

The Broncos’ $45 million-plus package includes incentives. Typically, some incentives are more makeable than others. It’s not known how much of the package is fully guaranteed, but still the offer could be deemed strong considering Osweiler has but seven NFL starts.

Still, Osweiler was impressive in those seven starts, especially during clutch regular-season wins against New England and Cincinnati that were instrumental in giving the Broncos’ home-field advantage through the AFC playoffs.

Osweiler was the 12th-ranked passer in the final seven weeks of the regular season with an 87.8 passer rating based off 9 touchdown passes, 5 interceptions and 1,821 passing yards. The Broncos won five of Osweiler’s seven starts.

He showed enough athleticism, poise, decision-making and ability to perform in bad weather to project as a good fit in head coach Gary Kubiak’s offensive system that is built on running the ball and mobile passing game.

And the quarterback market is rising as evidenced by the extensions received last week by Philadelphia’s Sam Bradford and Baltimore’s Joe Flacco.

It might be a stretch, though, to say Osweiler has comparable value to those quarterbacks, who are far more established.

The closest comparison to Osweiler is Nick Foles who has the 22nd richest contracts among the 22 starting quarterbacks who have progressed beyond their rookie deals.

The 21st-highest-paid starting quarterback is Andy Dalton, who had 30 wins and 80 touchdown passes before he received his extension that pays $16 million a year.

Even Foles was far more accomplished with a 14-4 record and 40 touchdown passes against 12 interceptions in the two seasons before he got his two-year, $24.54 million extension with the Rams.

Yet the Broncos non-incentive annual average offer to Osweiler is more than Foles’ $12.27 million average, according to sources. With incentives, Osweiler would have a chance to approach Dalton’s average.

As free agency approaches, the Broncos are also hoping to re-sign defensive end Malik Jackson and work out reduced contracts for outside linebacker DeMarcus Ware and left tackle Ryan Clady.

Other Bronco free agent players will hit the free-agent market when it opens next week, a group that includes inside linebacker Danny Trevathan, running back Ronnie Hillman, offensive guard Evan Mathis, offensive tackles Ryan Harris and Tyler Polumbus, safety David Bruton Jr., tight end Vernon Davis, receivers Andre Caldwell and Jordan Norwood, and defensive back/returner Omar Bolden.

zn wrote:

Jets, Fitzpatrick “far apart” in negotiations

http://www.theredzone.org/BlogDescription/tabid/61/EntryId/55183/Jets–Fitzpatrick–far-apart–in-negotiations/Default.aspx

The New York Jets and journeyman quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick were a match made in heaven in 2015 but, just two days ahead of the official start of free agency, the union appoears headed for divorce according to Ian Rapoport of NFL.com.

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Jets, Ryan Fitzpatrick moving closer to stunning divorce

http://nypost.com/2016/03/07/jets-ryan-fitzpatrick-moving-closer-to-stunning-divorce/

The Jets and quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick are not close to a deal, and he will hit the open market, according to a source.

Teams can begin talking to other teams’ free agents Monday at noon. Both the Jets and Fitzpatrick have said they would like to sign a new deal, but the two sides are not close to an agreement on what kind of money would be involved in that deal. The NFL Network first reported the gap between the Jets and Fitzpatrick.

It is a tricky negotiation.

Fitzpatrick, 33, had a career year with the Jets in 2015, breaking the franchise record with 31 touchdowns and leading the team to a 10-6 record. The starting quarterback market is mostly $16 million per year and above other than players still on their rookie contracts and a few outliers.

The Jets surely want Fitzpatrick at a much cheaper rate. The team could argue that the Jets are the perfect situation for Fitzpatrick with offensive coordinator Chan Gailey and wide receivers Brandon Marshall and Eric Decker. That group had tremendous chemistry last year after Fitzpatrick replaced an injured Geno Smith in training camp.

The key to the negotiation could be what type of interest Fitzpatrick garners on the open market. Will any teams be willing to pay him what he wants? The Jets likely want him to test the market, gambling that no team would be willing to pay the journeyman big bucks.

If the Jets lose Fitzpatrick, they would be in the starting quarterback market, which is shallow. Fitzpatrick, Chase Daniel and Brock Osweiler are the top free agent quarterbacks. Denver is expected to work out a new deal with Osweiler.

The Jets have Smith and Bryce Petty on their roster, but neither option is appealing as a starter this year.

Chris Cooley: Robert Griffin III ‘was never willing to be friends with Kirk Cousins’

By Dan Steinberg

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/dc-sports-bog/wp/2016/03/08/chris-cooley-robert-griffin-iii-was-never-willing-to-be-friends-with-kirk-cousins/

Robert Griffin III is gone from the Redskins after four wildly up-and-down seasons, but it’s hard to make a clean break from someone who had such an outsized influence on your franchise. And so expect the stories (and headlines) about Griffin’s tenure here to continue for weeks if not longer, as everyone tries to make sense of one of the most dramatic rises and falls this town has seen in decades.

That already started on Monday. Chris Cooley — a former teammate of Griffin’s, who was also among the harshest critics of Griffin’s play in 2014 — looked back on the past four years during several segments on ESPN 980 on Monday afternoon, offering a level of candor we didn’t always hear in real time. Cooley’s thoughts were perhaps most interesting when he talked about his impressions of the Griffin-Kirk Cousins relationship.

“There’s always a working relationship,” Cooley said at the beginning of the discussion with co-host Al Galdi. “There’s a working relationship where guys show up and they work. I would drink a beer with Mike Shanahan today; I did not like him as a head coach. I like him as a dude. That said, I don’t think Kirk Cousins and Robert Griffin are going to be drinking any beers together. One, Robert doesn’t drink, [and] Kirk rarely drinks. But there was never a friendship relationship. From the moment Kirk was drafted, I think Robert had animosity towards him. A lot of people in this area hated that fourth-round pick; I don’t think anyone hated it as much as RGIII hated it.”

Cooley said after Cousins excelled in a preseason game their rookie season, Griffin said it was nice to see “the twos” do well, implying that the remark did not go over well. And he said that while Griffin had many friends on the team, Cousins — who tries to be friends with everyone and is the “nicest dude in the world”– never really got there.

“Robert was never willing to be friends with Kirk Cousins,” Cooley said. “They never hung out together, they never spent time together, their families didn’t hang out together. … It was never a great relationship. I don’t think Robert ever wanted it to be a great relationship. And I think it became really contentious over the last two years, to where Rex Grossman, a guy who I’m close with, said ‘This is weird in here. This is a bad situation in here. These guys don’t like each other.’

“Colt McCoy had to deal with some stuff,” Cooley said. “Two years of who should be the starter, constant competition between a guy who doesn’t want to handle competition. And I think there was respect. I think there was enough working respect. But you have to understand, there’s a group of quarterbacks on every team, usually three, sometimes two. There’s a quarterbacks coach. Seventy-five percent of their professional time is spent in just that meeting room. Really. Quarterbacks spend more time [in meetings] than anybody else. Seventy-five percent of their time is spent not talking to each other, in the same room. That’s got to be so hard. You deal with it, but that’s got to be so weird.”

McCoy hinted at some of this to our Mike Jones and Liz Clarke, mentioning the “difficult circumstances” last season, and how “it was one of the most unusual rooms I’ve ever been a part of.”

Cooley said the issue wasn’t that Cousins was worried about preexisting loyalties to Griffin, or about losing his starting spot. And he said there was professional respect between the two players. But he said repeatedly on Monday that Cousins and Griffin “never became friends, they never became guys that hung out, that spent time together.”

“There was not a friendship there,” Cooley said. “Now again, I don’t know if it’s even relevant, but I just think it’s so interesting, and I just think it plays into so much of how much Robert disliked anyone ever challenging what he was. And when people started to challenge that Kirk might be the guy, it became even worse. It became even more awkward. Let me stop with that.”

Cooley also spoke explicitly of the longstanding impression that some of Griffin’s teammates did not enjoy playing with him.

“The offensive line did not like Robert Griffin,” Cooley said. “A lot of the receivers did not like Robert Griffin. The offensive line had a problem with Robert, because they were considered for a year-and-a-half or two years a terrible offensive line that couldn’t protect a quarterback. A lot of that isn’t true. A lot of that was Robert. A lot of the sacks were put on Robert. Want to believe it or not, they were, okay? Football-wise, they were: it was Robert.

“Robert never took [responsibility] for that,” Cooley said. “Robert continued to let his offensive line eat the blame. They don’t like it. They hate that, man. That kills them. Perception is the only thing an offensive line has, because 99 percent of people watching football have no idea what an offensive line’s doing.

“Receivers didn’t like playing with Robert, because they didn’t get the ball,” Cooley said. “It was never consistent, other than a couple in 2012; they struggled with that. So they didn’t like Robert. … Robert did have friends, of course he had friends, but there were a lot of guys on this team that said it doesn’t benefit me — as a player, as an individual — and we don’t know if it benefits the team with him under center at this point. That was what really happened in that locker room, in talking to a lot of those guys. That’s not me saying I think they would have perceived it this way. It’s me talking to a lot of players in this locker room, as friends, and understanding why the dislike or why the problem.”

Cooley also mentioned Griffin’s comments to members of the media after Cousins beat the Browns in late 2012, when Griffin was held out because of injury. ” I was not happy with the decision,” Griffin said then, even though the Redskins had won the game. “At the end of the day, that’s the decision they went with. I respect that, but it doesn’t mean I necessarily have to like it.” Griffin also said that it was a “great business trip,” and that the win was “huge” for the Redskins, but Cooley said players looked askance at his comments.

“The press conference was unprecedented, and it showed a little b—- in him,” Cooley said. “Not that he is that as a person, but it showed that characteristic, of ‘I can be a little b—- if I need to be a little b—-. I can make just enough noise if I need to make just enough noise.’ I don’t think anybody liked that. That was actually seen amongst the team as dude, we still won the game. We actually had to win this game to keep our playoff hopes alive. … All of it really starts to tie together towards the end of that season.”

And Cooley, it’s worth pointing out, was not entirely unsympathetic to the situation Griffin faced in Washington — a situation not of his own making.

“I think it was tough for Robert, knowing that there was a guy like Kirk over his shoulder,” Cooley said. “And I think it was tough as well because even in 2012 the players bonded a lot with Kirk. He showed a lot of promise in practice, he showed a lot of promise in the preseason games, and I’m sure there was always that thought that ‘I might not lose this job because he outplays me but if I’m hurt for a month I could potentially lose the job,’ or ‘This guy could step in and play some,’ or ‘The fans might like him more,’ or ‘The team might like him more.’ I think there was always that thought in Robert’s mind.”[

As free agency begins, quarterback market still unclear for Rams

Nick Wagoner

http://espn.go.com/blog/st-louis-rams/post/_/id/27472/as-free-agency-begins-quarterback-market-still-unclear-for-rams

EARTH CITY, Mo. — At 4 p.m. ET Wednesday, the free-agent negotiating window will give way to the real business of the NFL and the Los Angeles Rams and the rest of the league will finally be able to be about action rather than discussion.

The two-day negotiating window has offered some early answers on destinations for top free agents such as end Malik Jackson, pass-rusher Bruce Irvin and guard Kelechi Osemele. But the game’s most important position, quarterback, still hasn’t gained clarity.

From a Rams’ perspective, interest in the free-agent quarterbacks has either been a well-kept secret or it’s just plain tepid. That doesn’t mean the Rams won’t kick the tires on some of the available signal callers, but it seems other dominoes may need to fall before we see if the Rams are going to seriously pursue a free agent or wait until the draft to get better there.

Heading toward the start of the new league year, here’s what we know about some of the quarterbacks poised to hit the market:

Brock Osweiler, Denver Broncos — Osweiler is widely-regarded as the best option on the market and it seems that a two-horse race between the Broncos and Houston Texans has emerged. Reports have indicated that Osweiler is pondering offers in the $13-15 million annual range. If that’s the case, it’s understandable why the Rams might not be willing to get in the mix. Osweiler doesn’t have much of a sample size and a commitment beyond one year at a high price comes with its share of risk.

Ryan Fitzpatrick, New York Jets — Fitzpatrick has long been presumed to return to the Jets and though that still could be in the works, there are contradictory reports on how close the two sides are to a deal. The New York Daily News believes it’s all posturing and the marriage between the two will continue. Fitzpatrick could become an option for the Broncos if they lose out on Osweiler but otherwise, it doesn’t seem the market for him is more than lukewarm. The Rams drafted Fitzpatrick when he entered the league but they don’t offer the situation the Jets do in terms of receiver help.

Chase Daniel, Kansas City Chiefs — Daniel doesn’t seem like a fit for the Rams since he’s a bit redundant with current projected starter Case Keenum. Nonetheless, he brings some intrigue simply because there’s a bit of the unknown based on his lack of opportunities as a starter. Even though they re-signed Sam Bradford, there are multiple reports that a reunion with coach Doug Pederson in Philadelphia could be in the offing for Daniel. Still, if he wants to be a starter, he’ll probably need to look elsewhere.

Robert Griffin III, Washington Redskins — Washington did what was long expected on Monday when it released Griffin. Immediately, the rumors connecting Griffin and the Rams heated up again. But ESPN’s Ed Werder reported that the Rams had “no significant interest” in Griffin and while that left some wiggle room with the use of the word significant, there haven’t been any signs of the Rams making a push in that direction yet.

Colin Kaepernick, San Francisco 49ers — This is still the name that makes the most sense to me for the Rams on this list from a scheme, cost (on a new, short-term deal) and upside standpoint. He’s the most accomplished in terms of winning in the postseason and he’s still young enough to turn his career around. The Niners have said they want to keep Kaepernick but there have been signs to the contrary, including potential interest in Griffin. And there’s still a good chance San Francisco will use the No. 7 overall pick on a quarterback. What the Niners do in the next couple of weeks should tip their hand on Kaepernick’s future, but it seems unlikely the Rams would want to offer much, if anything, in trade when they know he could ultimately be released. Kaepernick has his warts or he wouldn’t be on this list but we’ll keep monitoring this situation moving forward.

from off the net

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BigGame81

Eagles just signed Chase Daniels. So they won’t be drafting a QB in Round 1. Not with Bradford and Daniels.