1. If James Hanna isn't on the Cowboys' 53-man roster come September, it'll be due to one reason only: health. Not only did Hanna miss all of the 2016 season, but he missed the entire offseason after having a bone bruise in his knee that required surgery. He is not expected to return to the field until training camp at the earliest.
While Hanna isn't a spectacular player, he is a useful blocker and can play multiple roles for Dallas. In 2014 and 2015, Hanna finished with respective grades of 67.2 and 62.7 from Pro Football Focus. Again, not a dominant player but close to average. Hanna's versatility is what the Cowboys missed in 2016, as he's able to line up and block from multiple positions. He's a good-enough receiver to keep teams honest on defense.
With Rico Gathers and Geoff Swaim's emergences, though, the Cowboys have covered themselves in case Hanna is not ready to return to action. When healthy, he's the team's No. 2 tight end, but those days might be over because of his latest knee injury. If Hanna isn't ready to return to the field by the start of the season, the Cowboys could decide to cut bait.
2. In 2016, the Cowboys re-signed tight end James Hanna to a modest three-year, $8.25 million deal. On the surface, that deal doesn't look too bad. But after missing all of 2016, it's fair to wonder if Dallas overpaid for Hanna. Obviously, his knee injury makes this deal look worse than it is, but it still doesn't justify the contract. Before signing his contract in 2016, Hanna caught just 33 passes in his career and zero touchdowns. He's really an H-back who makes his living as a blocker. While he's an average blocker, he isn't being paid like a situational blocker. Instead, he's being paid closer to a starting tight end (36th highest paid tight end in the NFL). However, he's just so limited as a player that it's hard to justify paying just an average blocker close to starter money. The Cowboys paid decent money to a player who is pretty replaceable, all things considered. Hanna's contract won't prevent the team from re-signing their own or attracting big name free agents, but it's an overpay for a below average player. In five years in the NFL, Hanna has never finished with an average grade, per Pro Football Focus. Yet, he's being paid like one again in 2017. [OUB: Sounds like Hanna needs to get his butt back on the practice field ASAP.]
3. Charles Tapper missed his entire rookie season after being diagnosed with Pars Defect. However, he is supposedly ready to compete in his sophomore season. He essentially will be a rookie, as he hasn’t had any true game experience. Tapper is a pure speed rusher. The big question mark with him is his bend. At Oklahoma, he was misused in a 3-4 scheme. In Dallas, he’ll be playing his true position as a 4-3 end. In all honesty, he may have the highest ceiling on the right side of all the Cowboys current rushers. His biggest problem may be finding opportunities, as Mayowa and Taco Charlton figure to be ahead of him on a crowded depth chart. I expect him to be used as a situational, third-down pass rusher due to his outstanding speed.
4. Tapper missed all season with a back injury but has come back in great shape and looks to be real competition for right end snaps. Tapper is down about 20 pounds and to 11 percent body fat from arriving at 280, 15% a year ago. Said it's important in keeping his back healthy.
5. The Eagles unveiled their offensive line of the future during Organized Team Activities (OTAs) Tuesday. And it could be the line of the very near future if management decides it’s time to move on from 35-year-old veteran Jason Peters and the contract that has two years at $10 million per to go.
Lane Johnson was at left tackle, where he’s filled in before. Johnson said he weighed in at a career-high 325 pounds. Isaac Seumalo was at left guard, Brandon Brooks at right guard, Jason Kelce at center and Hal Vaitai at right tackle.
I’m heavier than I’ve ever been,” Johnson said. “I feel like I’m in good shape. I have a lot to prove. This is a big year for me.”
Johnson has started all 50 games he’s played since the Eagles took him off the board with the fourth overall pick in the 2013 draft. But he’s been suspended twice after testing positive for PEDs. Johnson was suspended 10 games last season and four games in 2014. The next suspension would be a lifetime ban.
“I trained by myself,” Johnson said. “I wasn’t going to have any mishaps.”
Johnson said offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland told him to be ready at left tackle for at least this round of OTAs because Peters didn’t show up. Ultimately that should turn into a fulltime job.
“Stout told me the first week they were going to try to do that just to get me some reps,” Johnson said. “So whenever J. P. does retire or whatever happens that I’ll have some reps now so that’s it’s not just six years of not playing and I’ll have to slide over there.”
It’s early and all the pieces still need to be squeezed into the puzzle. That said, the offensive line with Peters at left tackle and Johnson on the right side finished the season strong.
“I think they’re always going to hype the Dallas O-line,” Johnson said. “But don’t underestimate us. I think we can be as good as anybody if we just keep them all together.”
6. Wide receiver Dorial Green-Beckham is embracing a role on special teams, which could be his best shot to make the team.
7. Dorial Green-Beckham is not making this Eagles roster. This much should have already been obvious by now, but his bad showing at practice was just a reminder that he’s not really good. DGB got chewed out by new Eagles wide receiver Mike Groh on multiple occasions.... DGB dropped and bobbled a few catches. He also totally failed to win a jump ball situation deep down the field. The 6-4 receiver simply got out-muscled by a leaping 5-11 Patrick Robinson, who knocked Wentz’s attempt down. [OUB: What a HUGE mistake he made by not staying at OU one more year and learning some toughness and discipline. Talent is not the problem.]
8. Liked a little stutter step just now from [Skins rookie RB Samaje] Perine as he got to the next level, created hesitation in defender and picked up more yards.
9. There's a lot to do on the Redskins defensive line, and it starts in the middle. Expect free agent addition Stacy McGee to have a big opportunity to take over the nose tackle job. McGee ranked as a +5.5 run defender last season as rated by Pro Football Focus, and at 6-foot-3 and 308 lbs., he has the size to man the middle. McGee has plenty of talent, health has been his hiccup. He has only played all 16 games in one of his four seasons, and in 2016, he played only nine games.
10. [Packers FB] Aaron Ripkowski has developed into a good NFL Fullback. His hard-nosed blocking gives the offense an edge that has sometimes been lacking in the past. “The Ripper” demonstrated the ability to be a good runner when called upon, and has become a key Special Teams contributor. Joe Kerridge provided a solid lead blocking option during the second half of the 2016 season (at times lead blocking for Ripkowski). McCarthy loves to keep two Fullbacks, but the depth at other positions may make keeping Kerridge impossible.
11. The John Kuhn era ended a year ago, but second-year fullback Aaron Ripkowski justified the Packers' decision to move on from the long-time fan favorite. When the team utilized multi-back sets, Ripkowski proved a capable lead blocker. He also demonstrated the ability to tote the rock, averaging over 5 yards per carry and protecting the football (his fumble in the NFC title game notwithstanding). With Green Bay expected to lean on two-tight-end sets more often this season, Ripkowski's versatility could lead to a bigger role in the offense.
12. The Panthers' overlooked offensive tackle
Bill Voth, Digital Reporter
CHARLOTTE - For nearly eight months now, people have been wondering about Michael Oher's status.
With the popular offensive tackle absent for the first two days of OTAs, and the Panthers still hoping he'll return sometime this spring, the questions probably won't stop anytime soon.
Fans will keep asking media; media will keep asking head coach Ron Rivera and media, fans and friends will keep asking players if they think Oher will play again after missing 13 games last season with a concussion.
"I think everybody on the team is (getting asked about Oher)," said tackle Daryl Williams shortly after the Panthers, sans Oher, wrapped up Wednesday's practice. "But what can we do?"
The Panthers' answer, at least right now, is to plug Williams in as the starting right tackle. Which is also what happened after Oher suddenly entered the NFL's concussion protocol in late September.
Williams ended up making 10 starts in 2016, a run interrupted by an ankle sprain that cost him three games in December. But for the most part, the 2015 fourth-round pick was solid if not unspectacular in his second season.
If you're one that puts stock into Pro Football Focus grades, the site ranked Williams 45th among all tackles last year. That was three spots behind Arizona's D.J. Humphries, who the Panthers eyed in the first round of the same draft they took Williams, and six spots ahead of Mike Remmers, who had to spend most of his final season with the Panthers filling in for Oher on the left side.
That's where Williams has spent part of the spring.
Even though the Panthers used a second-round pick on Taylor Moton last month, he, like Williams, is a natural right tackle. So if Oher doesn't return, Williams has a leg up on the No. 2 left tackle spot, even if he's not all that comfortable in the role.
"This is the NFL, I have to embrace it. I can't not play left tackle," Williams said. "Anything can happen, obviously. I'm just glad I'm getting more practice at it."
It won't be anything more than practice as long as Matt Kalil is healthy and plays up to the considerable investment the Panthers made in him during free agency. And while it's still early, Ryan's younger brother seems to be fitting in nicely with his new teammates.
"Matt's a good dude. Very athletic, too, just like his brother. I always kind of get them confused seeing them around the locker room, but I know when I see a 6-7 dude, it's Matt," Williams said with a laugh.
Williams, who turns 25 in September, is still far from a finished product. He's a better mauler in the run game than pass blocker. But coaches saw enough last year to believe they'll be OK on the right side with or without Oher. And so did Williams.
"I got some playing time under my belt, so obviously that helps me out," he said.
"I thought I played good, so I think I proved to not only myself but to everyone that I can play and start in this league."
13. NFL Network's Peter Schrager predicts that Saints running back Adrian Peterson will have more rushing yards and touchdowns than any player on the Vikings or Seahawks.
14. [Bucs LB] Devante Bond was with the ones. Bond, a sixth-round draft pick a year ago who missed all of his rookie season with an injury, was working with the first-team defense as the strong side outside linebacker. That position had been filled by Daryl Smith last season and Danny Lansanah the year before. Bond appears to be the front-runner to land the job, with third-round pick Kendell Beckwith recovering from an ACL injury.
15. PICK! Second-year linebacker Devante Bond with a diving grab off an odd deflection. Great focus on finishing that play.
16. After re-signing Jermaine Gresham to a four-year contract, the Arizona Cardinals did basically nothing with the tight end position. They let Darren Fells leave in free agency, signing with the Detroit Lions, and they drafted nobody. They added a pair of tight ends among their undrafted rookies, but the team basically sent the message that it is comfortable with Gresham and the group behind him of Troy Niklas, Ifeanyi Momah and Hakeem Valles.
Specifically, coach Bruce Arians has Troy Niklas set to be a big part of the offense.
“Troy’s probably No. 1,” Arians said to reporters after practice during the first week of OTAs. “Jermaine is playing the ‘F’ again, which is the move tight end. Those two guys, no matter how we shake them up, they’re the two tight ends.”
Niklas has the frame to be a great blocker in the running game, a big reason why the Cardinals drafted him in the second round three years ago.
Arians still thinks the world of Niklas. “Troy just has to stay healthy,” he said. “He was coming on like gangbusters last year,” noting how even ESPN Monday Night Football analyst and former NFL coach Jon Gruden called Niklas “a great player.”
But the injuries. He has landed on injured reserve in each of his first three years in the league. According to Arians, “it’s just bad luck.”
It is a critical year for Niklas, entering the final year of his contract.
Gresham appears to be headed for a more prominent role in the passing game. Niklas staying healthy and being productive as an inline tight end and blocking will be critical for that happening.
While Hanna isn't a spectacular player, he is a useful blocker and can play multiple roles for Dallas. In 2014 and 2015, Hanna finished with respective grades of 67.2 and 62.7 from Pro Football Focus. Again, not a dominant player but close to average. Hanna's versatility is what the Cowboys missed in 2016, as he's able to line up and block from multiple positions. He's a good-enough receiver to keep teams honest on defense.
With Rico Gathers and Geoff Swaim's emergences, though, the Cowboys have covered themselves in case Hanna is not ready to return to action. When healthy, he's the team's No. 2 tight end, but those days might be over because of his latest knee injury. If Hanna isn't ready to return to the field by the start of the season, the Cowboys could decide to cut bait.
2. In 2016, the Cowboys re-signed tight end James Hanna to a modest three-year, $8.25 million deal. On the surface, that deal doesn't look too bad. But after missing all of 2016, it's fair to wonder if Dallas overpaid for Hanna. Obviously, his knee injury makes this deal look worse than it is, but it still doesn't justify the contract. Before signing his contract in 2016, Hanna caught just 33 passes in his career and zero touchdowns. He's really an H-back who makes his living as a blocker. While he's an average blocker, he isn't being paid like a situational blocker. Instead, he's being paid closer to a starting tight end (36th highest paid tight end in the NFL). However, he's just so limited as a player that it's hard to justify paying just an average blocker close to starter money. The Cowboys paid decent money to a player who is pretty replaceable, all things considered. Hanna's contract won't prevent the team from re-signing their own or attracting big name free agents, but it's an overpay for a below average player. In five years in the NFL, Hanna has never finished with an average grade, per Pro Football Focus. Yet, he's being paid like one again in 2017. [OUB: Sounds like Hanna needs to get his butt back on the practice field ASAP.]
3. Charles Tapper missed his entire rookie season after being diagnosed with Pars Defect. However, he is supposedly ready to compete in his sophomore season. He essentially will be a rookie, as he hasn’t had any true game experience. Tapper is a pure speed rusher. The big question mark with him is his bend. At Oklahoma, he was misused in a 3-4 scheme. In Dallas, he’ll be playing his true position as a 4-3 end. In all honesty, he may have the highest ceiling on the right side of all the Cowboys current rushers. His biggest problem may be finding opportunities, as Mayowa and Taco Charlton figure to be ahead of him on a crowded depth chart. I expect him to be used as a situational, third-down pass rusher due to his outstanding speed.
4. Tapper missed all season with a back injury but has come back in great shape and looks to be real competition for right end snaps. Tapper is down about 20 pounds and to 11 percent body fat from arriving at 280, 15% a year ago. Said it's important in keeping his back healthy.
5. The Eagles unveiled their offensive line of the future during Organized Team Activities (OTAs) Tuesday. And it could be the line of the very near future if management decides it’s time to move on from 35-year-old veteran Jason Peters and the contract that has two years at $10 million per to go.
Lane Johnson was at left tackle, where he’s filled in before. Johnson said he weighed in at a career-high 325 pounds. Isaac Seumalo was at left guard, Brandon Brooks at right guard, Jason Kelce at center and Hal Vaitai at right tackle.
I’m heavier than I’ve ever been,” Johnson said. “I feel like I’m in good shape. I have a lot to prove. This is a big year for me.”
Johnson has started all 50 games he’s played since the Eagles took him off the board with the fourth overall pick in the 2013 draft. But he’s been suspended twice after testing positive for PEDs. Johnson was suspended 10 games last season and four games in 2014. The next suspension would be a lifetime ban.
“I trained by myself,” Johnson said. “I wasn’t going to have any mishaps.”
Johnson said offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland told him to be ready at left tackle for at least this round of OTAs because Peters didn’t show up. Ultimately that should turn into a fulltime job.
“Stout told me the first week they were going to try to do that just to get me some reps,” Johnson said. “So whenever J. P. does retire or whatever happens that I’ll have some reps now so that’s it’s not just six years of not playing and I’ll have to slide over there.”
It’s early and all the pieces still need to be squeezed into the puzzle. That said, the offensive line with Peters at left tackle and Johnson on the right side finished the season strong.
“I think they’re always going to hype the Dallas O-line,” Johnson said. “But don’t underestimate us. I think we can be as good as anybody if we just keep them all together.”
6. Wide receiver Dorial Green-Beckham is embracing a role on special teams, which could be his best shot to make the team.
7. Dorial Green-Beckham is not making this Eagles roster. This much should have already been obvious by now, but his bad showing at practice was just a reminder that he’s not really good. DGB got chewed out by new Eagles wide receiver Mike Groh on multiple occasions.... DGB dropped and bobbled a few catches. He also totally failed to win a jump ball situation deep down the field. The 6-4 receiver simply got out-muscled by a leaping 5-11 Patrick Robinson, who knocked Wentz’s attempt down. [OUB: What a HUGE mistake he made by not staying at OU one more year and learning some toughness and discipline. Talent is not the problem.]
8. Liked a little stutter step just now from [Skins rookie RB Samaje] Perine as he got to the next level, created hesitation in defender and picked up more yards.
9. There's a lot to do on the Redskins defensive line, and it starts in the middle. Expect free agent addition Stacy McGee to have a big opportunity to take over the nose tackle job. McGee ranked as a +5.5 run defender last season as rated by Pro Football Focus, and at 6-foot-3 and 308 lbs., he has the size to man the middle. McGee has plenty of talent, health has been his hiccup. He has only played all 16 games in one of his four seasons, and in 2016, he played only nine games.
10. [Packers FB] Aaron Ripkowski has developed into a good NFL Fullback. His hard-nosed blocking gives the offense an edge that has sometimes been lacking in the past. “The Ripper” demonstrated the ability to be a good runner when called upon, and has become a key Special Teams contributor. Joe Kerridge provided a solid lead blocking option during the second half of the 2016 season (at times lead blocking for Ripkowski). McCarthy loves to keep two Fullbacks, but the depth at other positions may make keeping Kerridge impossible.
11. The John Kuhn era ended a year ago, but second-year fullback Aaron Ripkowski justified the Packers' decision to move on from the long-time fan favorite. When the team utilized multi-back sets, Ripkowski proved a capable lead blocker. He also demonstrated the ability to tote the rock, averaging over 5 yards per carry and protecting the football (his fumble in the NFC title game notwithstanding). With Green Bay expected to lean on two-tight-end sets more often this season, Ripkowski's versatility could lead to a bigger role in the offense.
12. The Panthers' overlooked offensive tackle
Bill Voth, Digital Reporter
CHARLOTTE - For nearly eight months now, people have been wondering about Michael Oher's status.
With the popular offensive tackle absent for the first two days of OTAs, and the Panthers still hoping he'll return sometime this spring, the questions probably won't stop anytime soon.
Fans will keep asking media; media will keep asking head coach Ron Rivera and media, fans and friends will keep asking players if they think Oher will play again after missing 13 games last season with a concussion.
"I think everybody on the team is (getting asked about Oher)," said tackle Daryl Williams shortly after the Panthers, sans Oher, wrapped up Wednesday's practice. "But what can we do?"
The Panthers' answer, at least right now, is to plug Williams in as the starting right tackle. Which is also what happened after Oher suddenly entered the NFL's concussion protocol in late September.
Williams ended up making 10 starts in 2016, a run interrupted by an ankle sprain that cost him three games in December. But for the most part, the 2015 fourth-round pick was solid if not unspectacular in his second season.
If you're one that puts stock into Pro Football Focus grades, the site ranked Williams 45th among all tackles last year. That was three spots behind Arizona's D.J. Humphries, who the Panthers eyed in the first round of the same draft they took Williams, and six spots ahead of Mike Remmers, who had to spend most of his final season with the Panthers filling in for Oher on the left side.
That's where Williams has spent part of the spring.
Even though the Panthers used a second-round pick on Taylor Moton last month, he, like Williams, is a natural right tackle. So if Oher doesn't return, Williams has a leg up on the No. 2 left tackle spot, even if he's not all that comfortable in the role.
"This is the NFL, I have to embrace it. I can't not play left tackle," Williams said. "Anything can happen, obviously. I'm just glad I'm getting more practice at it."
It won't be anything more than practice as long as Matt Kalil is healthy and plays up to the considerable investment the Panthers made in him during free agency. And while it's still early, Ryan's younger brother seems to be fitting in nicely with his new teammates.
"Matt's a good dude. Very athletic, too, just like his brother. I always kind of get them confused seeing them around the locker room, but I know when I see a 6-7 dude, it's Matt," Williams said with a laugh.
Williams, who turns 25 in September, is still far from a finished product. He's a better mauler in the run game than pass blocker. But coaches saw enough last year to believe they'll be OK on the right side with or without Oher. And so did Williams.
"I got some playing time under my belt, so obviously that helps me out," he said.
"I thought I played good, so I think I proved to not only myself but to everyone that I can play and start in this league."
13. NFL Network's Peter Schrager predicts that Saints running back Adrian Peterson will have more rushing yards and touchdowns than any player on the Vikings or Seahawks.
14. [Bucs LB] Devante Bond was with the ones. Bond, a sixth-round draft pick a year ago who missed all of his rookie season with an injury, was working with the first-team defense as the strong side outside linebacker. That position had been filled by Daryl Smith last season and Danny Lansanah the year before. Bond appears to be the front-runner to land the job, with third-round pick Kendell Beckwith recovering from an ACL injury.
15. PICK! Second-year linebacker Devante Bond with a diving grab off an odd deflection. Great focus on finishing that play.
16. After re-signing Jermaine Gresham to a four-year contract, the Arizona Cardinals did basically nothing with the tight end position. They let Darren Fells leave in free agency, signing with the Detroit Lions, and they drafted nobody. They added a pair of tight ends among their undrafted rookies, but the team basically sent the message that it is comfortable with Gresham and the group behind him of Troy Niklas, Ifeanyi Momah and Hakeem Valles.
Specifically, coach Bruce Arians has Troy Niklas set to be a big part of the offense.
“Troy’s probably No. 1,” Arians said to reporters after practice during the first week of OTAs. “Jermaine is playing the ‘F’ again, which is the move tight end. Those two guys, no matter how we shake them up, they’re the two tight ends.”
Niklas has the frame to be a great blocker in the running game, a big reason why the Cardinals drafted him in the second round three years ago.
Arians still thinks the world of Niklas. “Troy just has to stay healthy,” he said. “He was coming on like gangbusters last year,” noting how even ESPN Monday Night Football analyst and former NFL coach Jon Gruden called Niklas “a great player.”
But the injuries. He has landed on injured reserve in each of his first three years in the league. According to Arians, “it’s just bad luck.”
It is a critical year for Niklas, entering the final year of his contract.
Gresham appears to be headed for a more prominent role in the passing game. Niklas staying healthy and being productive as an inline tight end and blocking will be critical for that happening.
