NFL combine rumors and rumblings for free agency and the draft

The Post’s reporters round up the latest rumblings from Indianapolis. Refresh the page for the latest update.

Latest update: 4:08 p.m.

Redskins GM all but rules out franchise tag for Kirk Cousins

INDIANAPOLIS — The Washington Redskins have all but ruled out the possibility of placing the franchise tag on veteran quarterback Kirk Cousins for a third time, Senior Vice President of Player Personnel Doug Williams told reporters Tuesday afternoon at the NFL Scouting Combine.

“He’s a free agent for sure,” Williams said, adding that he “doesn’t think” the organization will opt to tag Cousins and pay him a guaranteed $34.5 million in 2018.

The Redskins technically have until next Tuesday’s deadline to designate Cousins for the tag, thereby keeping the quarterback from hitting free agency in a few weeks. — Kimberley Martin (Read the full story)

Colts say they won’t re-sign Frank Gore

INDIANAPOLIS — The Indianapolis Colts have informed running back Frank Gore that they don’t intend to re-sign him, Coach Frank Reich and General Manager Chris Ballard said. Ballard delivered that news to Gore after the season.

“I am aware that Chris and Frank did have a discussion once the season was over,” Reich said Wednesday. “And out of respect to Frank so he could know exactly what was going on, Chris was right up front and said that probably we’re moving on to make the roster a little bit younger at that position.”

Ballard confirmed that news later Wednesday.

Gore, who turns 35 in May, is eligible for free agency after spending the past three seasons with the Colts. He is the fifth-leading rusher in NFL history. — Mark Maske

Matt Patricia won’t clear up the Malcolm Butler Super Bowl mystery

Matt Patricia may be out from under the thumb of New England Patriots Coach Bill Belichick, but that doesn’t mean he’s suddenly going to become bubbly and talkative.

Now the coach of the Detroit Lions, Patricia was asked about the mysterious circumstances surrounding the Super Bowl benching of cornerback Malcolm Butler, when Patricia was still the Patriots’ defensive coordinator. Belichick has still not cleared up the reasons for the surprise benching, other than to say he put the “players and game plan out there that we thought would be the best, like we always do.” Naturally, Patricia was asked about the incident by reporters as the NFL combine began.

“To be honest with you, as far as the Patriots are concerned — and this is really how I feel about it — I’m going to be extremely respectful to Coach Belichick and his organization and I’m going to let him answer any questions that have to do with the Patriots,” Patricia said (via the Boston Globe). “I have obviously a lot of love for New England, but I have a new team.”

Butler, the hero of the Patriots’ Super Bowl XLIX victory three years ago, did not play a defensive snap in this year’s loss to the Eagles, and New England is likely to allow him to leave as a free agent. The New York Jets, according to early buzz out of the combine, are interested in Butler. Patricia had nothing negative to say about the defensive back.

“I would characterize my relationship with Malcolm as extremely strong,” Patricia said. “I love Malcolm a lot. Like all my players, he’s like one of my sons. I want to make sure that he does everything to the best and I hope the best for him. That’s really all I’m going to say about Malcolm.”

Rumors flourished after the surprise move, with Butler writing on social media that he would never do anything to hurt his team’s chances, that he never missed curfew during Super Bowl week and that he never “participated [in] any of the ridiculous activities being reported,” including attending a Rick Ross concert. The reports, Butler wrote, “are not only false, but hurtful, to me and my family.”

That drew an enthusiastic “like” from Tom Brady. Maybe the quarterback could put an end to the story? Nah. Not happening.  — Cindy Boren

Giants GM stresses team can’t miss on a QB at No. 2

INDIANAPOLIS — General manager Dave Gettleman is adamant Eli Manning remains a franchise quarterback, even though an eventual replacement could be in play when the Giants pick No. 2 overall in April. However, there doesn’t seem to be a sense of urgency to address the position as Gettleman heads into his first draft directing the Giants, and he could target a player at another position that could provide immediate help for a team that finished 3-13 last season.

“If [the quarterback prospect is] the right guy, if you think that guy can be a franchise quarterback like Eli has been, and still is as far as I’m concerned, then you do it,” Gettleman said. “You make a mistake on a quarterback, especially this high and even in the first round, it sets you back five years. It kills you. You’ve got to be right.”

Manning was benched for a game by former coach Ben McAdoo in November, ending a 210-game streak of regular season starts, but returned to the starting lineup the following week. The 14-year veteran threw for 3,468 yards with 19 touchdowns and 13 interceptions in 2017 and is in the twilight of his career, but that won’t force the front office to take a signal caller early.

“You have to look at the whole picture,” Gettleman said. “You cannot work in a vacuum. You’ve got to step back and look at your whole program. You’ve got to take everything into consideration.

“I’ve said it multiple times, [Manning] can still play.”

Quarterbacks are expected to come off the board early and often during the draft’s first round with the Browns, Giants, Bills, Jets and Cardinals all in the market at the position. Wyoming’s Josh Allen, USC’s Sam Darnold, UCLA’s Josh Rosen, Louisville’s Lamar Jackson and Oklahoma’s Baker Mayfield could all be top-10 selections.

New York signed five-year veteran Geno Smith, who started the single game in place of Manning, to a one-year deal before the 2017 season. Former third-round pick Davis Webb is entering his second season and is on a four-year rookie deal. — Kareem Copeland

Eagles leaning towards keeping Nick Foles

INDIANAPOLIS — For the Philadelphia Eagles, the celebration of their Super Bowl triumph is done and it’s time to get back to work. Preparations for next season are underway and one of the biggest orders of offseason business for the team’s brain trust is deciding what to do with Nick Foles, the reigning Super Bowl MVP who is slated to return to backup status when franchise quarterback Carson Wentz returns from his knee injury.

“Our intention is to keep all our good players,” Howie Roseman, the team’s top front office football executive, said Wednesday at the NFL Scouting Combine.

Roseman stopped short of declaring unequivocally that Foles will not be traded to get something in return for him with his value so high. But he said that, ideally, the Eagles would retain Wentz, Foles and young quarterback Nate Sudfeld. — Mark Maske (Read the full story)

Vance Joseph knows QB is an issue for Broncos, but it’s not the only one

INDIANAPOLIS — Vance Joseph spent his rookie season as an NFL head coach in Denver patching together the Broncos’ quarterback situation with Trevor Siemian, Paxton Lynch and Brock Osweiler. He knows that cannot happen again if the Broncos are going to be more successful than they were this past season.

“We played three quarterbacks last year,” Joseph said Wednesday at the NFL scouting combine. “No one wants to do that. You want one guy and one guy only. Obviously if someone gets injured, you want to have a capable backup. But you don’t want to play three quarterbacks. So I think all of us involved [know] we’ll get better by not playing three quarterbacks.”

Joseph was retained by the Broncos’ front office football czar, John Elway, after the Broncos’ 5-11 season. Elway’s next major task is to fix the team’s quarterback situation, perhaps by pursuing Kirk Cousins in free agency.

But whatever the Broncos do at quarterback, Joseph said Wednesday, they also must get improved play at other positions.

“We have to play better at quarterback,” Joseph said. “That’s apparent. But we have to also protect better. And we can play better defense, also. So it’s not just the quarterback position that we have to get better at. It’s a full team effort.” — Mark Maske

Jon Gruden returns to a changed NFL seeking to turn back the clock

INDIANAPOLIS — Jon Gruden may be the new guy on the head-coaching scene, but he’s determined to pick up right where he left off 20 years ago.

Asked about the proliferation of NFL teams relying heavily on advanced statistics, Gruden made it clear that he’s an old-school guy determined to get back to basics. His philosophy, he said, is to take things back. Way back.

“Are you talking about the analytics? The GPS? All the modern technology? Man, I’m trying to throw the game back to 1998. Really,” Gruden said Wednesday at the NFL Scouting Combine, when asked about the potential overload of information for teams using analytics.

This is Gruden’s first NFL scouting combine of his second go-round as a head coach, part of readjusting to life in the league after leaving ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” broadcast booth to return to the Oakland Raiders.

He previously coached the Raiders from 1998-2001 and last coached in 2008 with Tampa Bay, compiling a 57-55 record and winning Super Bowl XXXVII with the Buccaneers before his firing. Since then, Gruden has spent much of his time in the broadcast booth. And now he’s eager to get back on the sidelines and coach the “the old-fashioned way.”

“As a broadcaster, I went around and observed every team, asked a lot of questions, took a look at the facilities, how they’re doing business,” said Gruden, who signed a 10-year, $100 million contract with the Raiders in January. There’s a stack of analytical data … that people don’t even know how to read it. It’s one thing to have the data … It’s another thing to know how to read the damn thing.

“So, I’m not going to rely on GPSes and all the modern technology,” added Gruden. “I will certainly have some people who are professional who can help me from that regard. But I just think doing things the old-fashioned way is a good way. And we’re going to try to lean the needle that way.”

The influx and popularity of advanced analytics are just one way the league has changed since Gruden left its coaching ranks. Gruden said he is also struggling with the limitations on the amount of contact that he can have with his players in the early stages of the offseason under the terms of the current collective bargaining agreement.

“It’s a lot different because you’re not allowed to have any interaction with the players,” he said. “I’ve always complained about that since the new CBA came in place. A lot of players would come to see me in Tampa to get their football fix. So you’re not allowed to have contact with these guys. But what’s most discouraging to me is we’ve got to make some decisions on our roster, on salaries, on players and their futures, and you can’t even meet them. I don’t know these guys. I’ve never coached them. I’ve never met half of them. So that’s been very, very difficult for me. And I’ve been emotional about it at times.”

Gruden does know Raiders quarterback Derek Carr, having spent time with him before Carr was drafted as part of Gruden’s role as an ESPN analyst. Gruden said Wednesday that wide receiver Amari Cooper will be a “headliner” of the Raiders’ offense under Gruden. He sees an ongoing role, he said, for running back Marshawn Lynch, who came out of retirement before this past season to join the Raiders, Lynch’s hometown team.

“One of the reasons I’m excited to be with the Raiders is to join forces with Lynch,” Gruden said. “But we’ll see what happens. Obviously we’ve got to take a look at the entire roster. But I’m counting on him. I’m counting on him being a big part of our football team.”

Gruden said he will, by necessity, be a different coach than he was when he last coached in the NFL in 2008 with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

“You obviously have to change a little bit,” he said. “But I think the roots, the foundation of what I know is gonna stay in place. We’re gonna adapt to what the rules are and what our roster allows us to put out there every week. I think that’s the uncomfortable thing right now is I don’t know exactly what that’s gonna be. … We’ve got plenty of people to help me adapt. And that, we will do. But it’s frustrating right now because we don’t know exactly who’s going to be with us.”

After his extended absence from the league, Gruden knows the spotlight will be on him during his return and he’s embraced it so far.

“It’s been really cool,” Gruden said. “Not many people get a chance to go back and do it a second time. It’s a neat story for me because I want to take advantage of the opportunity. I know I have a lot to prove.”

Gruden said he will participate in the Raiders’ player-evaluation tasks this week at the combine. And he might have a night or two out on the town as well, he said.

“I might be out after curfew a few times this week,” Gruden said, “because I got a pass from my wife.” — Mark Maske and Kimberley Martin

NFL, NFLPA vow reduction in concussions for players

INDIANAPOLIS — Medical leaders of the NFL and the NFL Players Association said Wednesday they are committed to taking steps to attempt to curb the number of concussions suffered by players.

Concussions rose sharply this past season. Players suffered 291 concussions during the 2017 preseason and regular season, according to the league’s injury data, up 16 percent from the 250 concussions suffered by players in 2016.

“All of us want to take an aggressive approach toward: How can we reduce concussions?” said Thom Mayer, the NFLPA’s medical director.

Mayer’s comments came during a meeting of the NFL’s head, neck and spine committee, the first half-hour of which was opened to a small group of reporters.

Mayer told the group of doctors and other medical experts assembled for the meeting it is “imperative” that teams’ coaches be educated on how concussions are being suffered by players. That includes position coaches as well as head coaches, Mayer told the group.

Allen Sills, the NFL’s chief medical officer, said during the meeting that the increase in concussions is “a disappointment,” and told the group: “This, to me, is a call to action.”

A slide shown to committee members said potential steps to be taken toward reducing the number of concussions suffered by players include ensuring that more players wear better-performing helmets; focusing in particular on decreasing the number of concussions suffered by players during preseason practices; and studying issues related to the style of play.

Sills said each NFL team will be provided with its individual injury report, showing officials for each franchise how their team’s injury data compares to the league-wide averages.

When the NFL publicly released its preliminary injury data last month, it said there were 281 concussions suffered by players during the 2017 preseason and regular season, compared to 243 diagnosed concussions suffered by players during the 2016 preseason and regular season. — Mark Maske

This time, it’s other NFL owners (not Roger Goodell) vs. Jerry Jones

INDIANAPOLIS — One of the major off-field story lines of the turbulent 2017 NFL season was Jerry Jones vs. Roger Goodell. The Dallas Cowboys owner tried — unsuccessfully, as it turned out — to prevent the NFL commissioner’s five-year contract extension from being completed.

The fallout from that has continued this week, with the league planning to force Jones to reimburse more than $2 million in legal fees incurred by the owners’ compensation committee and the league in connection to Jones’s actions regarding Goodell’s contract extension and the six-game suspension of Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott under the NFL’s personal conduct policy.

Jones is contesting that order by the league and has requested an appeal hearing before Goodell, multiple people familiar with the sport’s inner workings said here Tuesday. Under league rules, the hearing will be conducted and the matter will be decided by Goodell or a person designated by him.

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But, according to several people familiar with the case, it would be misguided to regard this penalty and the haggling over it as a revival of Goodell vs. Jones. Instead, they said, it is far more about other NFL owners vs. Jones. The impetus for the punishment of Jones being imposed came from owners, those people said.

One person with knowledge of the case said Tuesday that “numerous owners” were involved in the deliberations. The owners’ finance committee was made aware of the penalty, along with other owners. Another person familiar with the situation estimated that as many as 29 of the 32 owners are in favor of the approach being taken with Jones.

The league is utilizing a 1997 resolution that any owner who takes legal action against the league or fellow owners must pay both sides’ legal fees. A person familiar with the league’s inner workings said Tuesday that the resolution has been put into effect previously but refused to provide further details.

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Jones never has been one to back down from a skirmish, as he demonstrated late last year when he said it was the wrong time to make such an enormous financial commitment to Goodell and more owners, in his view, should have input into the commissioner’s contract. If Jones remains combative on the issue, there could be more tempestuousness ahead for the league. — Mark Maske

Vikings have three free agent QBs and the Kirk Cousins rumors have begun

In a complex quarterback market in which teams are jockeying for position as free agency approaches, the Vikings reportedly are willing to let all three of their quarterbacks become free agents. That has left open the possibility of Minnesota chasing Kirk Cousins.

Minnesota wouldn’t be alone, though. A number of teams — the Jets, Broncos, Cardinals and others — need a quarterback and figure to line up to speak with Cousins’s agent, Mike McCartney, at the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis this week. But the 49ers, who reached an agreement to keep Jimmy Garoppolo, and Jaguars, who have a deal in place to retain Blake Bortles, are not among them. Nor are the Saints likely to need a quarterback. Although Drew Brees can become a free agent, he is not expected to leave New Orleans. — Cindy Boren (Read full story)

Start-up football league picks up adidas partnership

INDIANAPOLIS — The start-up professional football league founded by prominent NFL player agent Don Yee has added some significant business backing. The fledgling league, Pacific Pro Football, and adidas announced Wednesday that they’d agreed to a partnership by which the sporting goods company becomes a founding partner in the league.

Yee, whose list of clients includes quarterbacks Tom Brady of the New England Patriots and Jimmy Garoppolo of the San Francisco 49ers, plans for the league to begin play in the summer of 2019 with four teams based in Southern California.

The league previously announced plans to employ players less than four years removed from high school graduation, potentially preparing them for future NFL careers.

“We are grateful for adidas’ belief in our vision that there is a need for an alternative path to the NFL,” Yee said in a written statement. “Adidas is one of the world’s great brands and innovators, and they will help us create many new jobs and a league that supports the proper development of football players.”

The league has no formal ties to the NFL. But at a time when NFL officials have expressed curiosity about the possibilities for exploring the establishment of a developmental league for young players, and quarterbacks in particular, the upstart league’s viability and staying power could be worth monitoring.

“We’re always looking to create new and different things for the industry,” Mark King, the president of adidas North America, said in a written statement. “With Pacific Pro Football, we’re doing something that’s never been done before. We’re providing innovative opportunities for aspiring professional athletes and creating new avenues for them to reach the pros. Together we’re shaping the future of the sport. This is a future we believe in, and we’re excited to help create it.” — Mark Maske