1 Related

Ladouceur will join Hall of Famers Bob Lilly, Mel Renfro and Randy White as well as Lee Roy Jordan, Jethro Pugh, Tom Rafferty and Tony Romo with 14 years with the Cowboys.

Ladouceur turned 37 last week and has never missed a game in his career. Last season, the Cowboys monitored his practice time in the offseason and training camp, but he has yet to have a poor snap since joining the Cowboys in 2005.

The biggest beneficiaries to Ladouceur’s return are kicker Dan Bailey, punter Chris Jones and new special teams coach Keith O’Quinn,

Bailey and Jones have lauded Ladouceur’s work for years, while O’Quinn would not want to worry about a new snapper in his first season. The Oakland Raiders made contact with Ladouceur’s agent at the start of free agency and they already signed away special teams’ stalwarts Kyle Wilber and Keith Smith, who will rejoin former Cowboys special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia in the Bay Area.

Ladouceur is the second free agent the Cowboys have kept, having placed the franchise tag on defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence before the market opened. In addition to Wilber and Smith, the Cowboys also lost linebacker Anthony Hitchens to the Kansas City Chiefs.

1 Related

Curry, 29, had been cut by the Eagles on Friday to free up cap space. He was due to make $9 million in 2018. The team also explored trade options before the release.

To make room for Curry, the Bucs cut Robert Ayers, who was entering the third and final year of a three-year pact with the Bucs. He was set to make $6 million, including a roster bonus due on the fifth day of the league year.

Ayers produced 2.0 sacks in 12 games in 2017, as the Bucs finished the year with just 22 total sacks, last in the league. The previous year, Ayers had 6.5 sacks in 12 games.

Curry is the third defensive lineman the Bucs have signed this free-agency period, along with former Eagles teammate Beau Allen and defensive tackle Mitch Unrein.

Curry has not missed a regular-season game in four years, with 22 sacks since 2012. His best season came in 2014, when he finished with 9.0 sacks. Last year, he had 3.0 sacks but managed 41 quarterback hurries.

1 Related

Clayborn, who turns 30 in July, led the Falcons with a career-high 9.5 sacks in 2017. His total included a franchise-record six sacks in a win over the Dallas Cowboys.

Known for his relentless effort, Clayborn also had a team-high 17 quarterback hits this past season. He played 526 defensive snaps.

Clayborn could help the Patriots’ pass rush, which noticeably needed a boost in Super Bowl LII. Trey Flowers, who led the team in 2017 with 6.5 sacks, is the Patriots’ top player at defensive end, and he returns in 2018, the final year of his contract.

The Patriots relied on Flowers heavily last season, as they struggled to build depth at the position behind him. Clayborn, who is the Patriots’ first signing of a player from another team since free agency began Wednesday, could help ease some of that burden in 2018.

The Patriots also have second-year player Deatrich Wise Jr. at the position, and he showed promise after joining the team as a 2017 fourth-round pick out of Arkansas, playing in every game and totaling five sacks.

Before free agency, Clayborn told ESPN, “I got some years left in me.”

He indicated an agreement with the Patriots on Instagram on Friday afternoon, posting the team’s logo with the caption: “Dope.”

Clayborn began his career as a first-round draft pick of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and he posted 7.5 sacks — his previous benchmark — as a rookie in 2011. However, he battled injury issues during his four seasons with the Bucs, playing in just one game during the 2014 season and playing just three games during the 2012 campaign.

The injury bug again hit Clayborn with the Falcons in 2016, when he was placed on injured reserve with a ruptured biceps, which prevented him from finishing the season and playing in Super Bowl LI. He revealed he contemplated retirement following that injury but had a discussion with his wife and decided to continue playing.

Hill adds to a backfield that lost Lewis to the Tennessee Titans.

He was drafted by the Bengals, but the writing was on the wall for the 25-year-old as it became known that Cincinnati coveted a running back in the 2017 NFL draft and eventually took Joe Mixon in the second round.

He had a successful rookie season in 2014, rushing 222 times for 1,124 yards and 9 touchdowns. But he has never been the same since fumbling late in the 2015 AFC wild-card game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, ultimately contributing to an eventual loss. Since that game, Hill has combined for 955 yards and nine touchdowns in the last two seasons and lost playing time to Mixon last year.

With Burkhead and James White locks to make the Patriots’ roster at running back, Hill projects to compete with Mike Gillislee and veteran special-teamer Brandon Bolden for a roster spot. One area in which he could make his mark is as a power rusher; the 230-pound Hill is the biggest running back on the Patriots’ roster.

As for the 6-foot-6, 303-pound Tobin, his addition highlights how the Patriots must make contingency plans at left tackle after Solder signed a four-year, $62 million deal with the Giants as one of the NFL’s top free agents. After entering the NFL as an undrafted free agent out of Iowa in 2013, Tobin has been with the Eagles (2013-16) and Seahawks (2017), appearing in 57 games, with 21 starts.

2 Related

“As Rick said yesterday, this is a lifetime deal,” Cousins said. “That’s the goal. This is a three-year deal but the expectation from both sides is we raise our kids here and then if everything goes as planned that I’d be here for a long, long time.”

Joined by Vikings owner Mark Wilf, coach Mike Zimmer and general manager Rick Spielman at his introductory news conference, Cousins became the franchise’s next quarterback, a role Minnesota allocated many financial resources toward in free agency. The Vikings had over $50 million in available cap space ahead of when Cousins signed his contract. He carries a $24 million cap hit in 2018, which leaves Minnesota with just over $26 million for the rest of their free agency needs and to structure contract extensions this offseason.

Cousins earned $44 million playing under the franchise tag in each of his past two seasons in Washington and was a rare commodity as a proven, sub-30-year-old quarterback with very little injury history when he hit the open market.

Only two other times have proven veteran quarterbacks become free agents in the salary-cap era: in 2006, when Drew Brees transitioned from the Chargers to the Saints, and again in 2012, when Peyton Manning signed with the Denver Broncos.

But injuries played a role in each of those circumstances. Brees became a free agent months after he suffered a serious shoulder injury. Manning missed the entire 2011 season with a neck injury.

In each of the past three seasons where he threw for more than 4,000 yards, Cousins made every start (49 games, including one playoff appearance). With a proven track record and that kind of durability, the Vikings were all in.

“If you have an opportunity to go out and potentially get a franchise quarterback or a quarterback that’s going to be leading you for years to come,” Spielman said. “He’s right now in the prime of his career. Our history tells us if we hit on a player, we’re going to do everything we can to keep that player here. Especially at that quarterback position. That’s why this was so unique. “The fully guaranteed part, I know it’s the first time, but also when you have an opportunity to get a potential franchise quarterback, you know where the leverage is going. We respected that and I respected that.”

Cousins only visit this week was to Minnesota. After the quarterback landscape began to take shape on Tuesday with three ex-Vikings quarterbacks finding jobs elsewhere between Case Keenum and Denver, Sam Bradford and Arizona and Teddy Bridgewater and the New York Jets, Cousins and McCartney decided against any other visits.

“We had intentions to potentially consider a second visit and, as I said, on that Tuesday, it was a mad scramble for every team to fill that quarterback slot,” McCartney said. “It wasn’t necessary at that point.”

McCartney said Minnesota was “not even close” to the best offer Cousins received, but he would not detail which team chose to offer Cousins more money.

“It’s not easy doing business,” he said. “Sometimes it’s hard to tell teams no, but I have a lot of respect for how everybody handled it, and we’re just thrilled to have Kirk here in Minnesota.”