CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Carolina Panthers coach Ron Rivera said Thursday during an appearance on ESPN’s NFL Insiders that the organization probably will have to use the franchise tag on Pro Bowl defensive tackle Kawann Short.
Short is an unrestricted free agent after the Panthers couldn’t reach a long-term deal with him prior to the 2016 season.
Rivera said general manager Dave Gettleman already has had salary-cap meetings, and the best way to guarantee Short remains on the roster is with the tag.
“Obviously, we’ll probably have to tag him,” Rivera said. “But if we do, so be it. If not, I think they can get a deal done and I’m pretty optimistic about that because KK is a big part of what we do.
DT Kawann Short said after Carolina’s season finale that he would be all right with the franchise tag, though it is not his first choice. He also reiterated, “I want to be a Carolina Panther.” Phelan M. Ebenhack/AP Photo
“Again, we believe up front is the most important part of your team. You’ve got to be able to stop the run, rush the passer, and I think KK is one of those guys who has that kind of ability.”
The estimated tag for a defensive tackle in 2017 is $13.5 million. Short, who led Carolina with 11 sacks in 2015, was believed to have been seeking a deal similar to the $17.1 million per year the Philadelphia Eagles gave Fletcher Cox last year.
Short, Carolina’s second-round pick in 2013, fell to six sacks this past season when the Panthers went 6-10.
Short said after the season finale that he would be all right with the franchise tag, although that is not his first choice.
“Everybody would like to avoid that,” he said. “If it happens, it happens. If it happens, I’m still going to be professional about the situation.”
Short said he doesn’t plan to follow in the footsteps of former Carolina cornerback Josh Norman, who didn’t sign the tag when Gettleman used it last season and didn’t participate in the start of offseason workouts.
Gettleman then rescinded the tag, and Norman signed with the Washington Redskins.
“Me and Josh are two different people,” Short said the day players cleaned out their lockers. “We walk two totally different sides of the street, at two totally different places, in two totally different directions.
“Me and Josh are not the same.”
Short reminded that Norman “could have stayed here if he wanted.”
He also reminded, when asked if he wanted to test free agency, that he wants to remain in Carolina.
“I want to be a Carolina Panther,” he said. “That’s it.”
Covered Vikings for Minneapolis Star Tribune, 1999-2008
Super Bowl LI has been dissected from nearly every angle. In the final days before the game, let us add one more: the role of officiating in determining the eventual champion.
Perhaps the least-discussed aspect of this matchup is the extent to which referee Carl Cheffers and his crew will allow defensive players on both sides to be physical with opposing receivers. It’s an especially pertinent topic given the New England Patriots’ long history of overcoming elite-level offenses in the playoffs, at times using a strategy that was so physical that it prompted the NFL to redouble its efforts to enforce defensive holding and illegal contact penalties in the mid-2000s.
It stands to reason that the Patriots will have more success against Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan and receiver Julio Jones if their cornerbacks can push the limits of what’s allowable under NFL rules. Will Cheffers and his crew permit it? Let’s make that issue the focus of our final officiating preview of the 2016 season.
As we’ve noted often, penalty frequency can vary dramatically among NFL officiating crews, similar to a strike zone that changes in baseball depending on who the home plate umpire is.
Tracking this tendency, as both the Patriots and Falcons surely have done, is complicated because Cheffers won’t have his usual regular-season crew.
The NFL assigns postseason games to its top-graded officials, regardless of crew assignment. In this case, Cheffers will have only one member of his 2016 crew with him: head linesman Kent Payne. Cheffers himself has little impact on penalty calls in the defensive backfield from his position behind the quarterback, other than setting the tone for the entire crew before the game.
So in this situation, we’ll utilize regular-season data for the crews of each official who will play a role in making such calls.
We’ll refer to “defensive coverage” penalties: the combined total of calls for defensive pass interference, illegal contact and defensive holding. As you’ll see below, most of the officials who’ll have the primary responsibility for those calls in Super Bowl LI — as spelled out on the NFL’s football operations site — hail from crews that call fewer such penalties on average.
Here’s one statistic to keep in mind from the top: Overall, penalties have dropped 29.7 percent in the 2016 playoffs compared to the regular season, from 15.8 per game (including declined/offsetting) to 11.1. Within that drop, however, calls for pass interference, illegal contact and defensive holding have remained steady: about 1.2 per game. It’s quite possible, of course, that the flag total has remained constant even as the level of physicality has increased, which leads to a net result of fewer uncalled fouls.
Carl Cheffers, who has been an NFL official since 2000, will be calling his first Super Bowl as a referee this weekend. James Kenney/AP Photo
2016 analysis: Spent the season on referee Pete Morelli’s crew, which called a total of 30 defensive coverage penalties, fourth fewest in the NFL.
Side judge Dyrol Prioleau
2016 analysis: Spent the season on referee Jeff Triplette’s crew, which called a total of 34 defensive coverage penalties, tied for seventh fewest in the NFL.
Back judge Todd Prukop
2016 analysis: Spent the season on referee Tony Corrente’s crew, which called a total of 34 defensive coverage penalties, tied for seventh fewest in the NFL.
There are 17 officiating crews in the NFL, and it’s worth noting the range of defensive coverage penalties between them. Referee Jerome Boger’s crew called 59, while Craig Wrolstad’s called 22. Three of the four crews represented in this analysis called fewer than the median total.
This isn’t all based on the officials’ tendencies, of course. The teams themselves, their strategies, and the skill with which their defenders use their hands play a role, too. During the regular season, the Patriots were called for 18 defensive coverage penalties, tied for the eighth fewest in the league. The Falcons were called for 19.
When two opponents have been penalized less than the median, and the majority of officials hail from conservative crews, there is reason to believe that defensive backs will be allowed a fair degree of physicality in Super Bowl LI. That would seem to favor the Patriots, especially in their efforts to slow down Ryan and Jones. But in the end, that’s why they play the game.
Former New York Giants kicker Josh Brown admitted publicly to domestic violence for the first time during an interview with “Good Morning America,” but he disputed the more than 20 incidents claimed by his now ex-wife, Molly Brown, and said he never hit her.
Brown, 37, wants to return to the NFL. He was cut by the Giants on Oct. 25 after admitting abuse to the team.
“I mean, I had put my hands on her. I kicked the chair. I held her down. The holding down was the worst moment in our marriage,” Brown said during an interview with ABC News’ Paula Faris. “I never hit her. I never slapped her. I never choked her. I never did those types of things.”
Farris asked Brown how people reconcile are supposed to reconcile him abusing but not hitting his ex-wife.
“They’re not supposed to. What I did was wrong. Period,” Brown said. “Domestic violence is not just physical abuse. We’re talking intimidation and threats, the attempt to control, body language. An abuser is going to abuse to a certain degree to acquire some kind of a reaction.”
Brown still seemed to take offense to the notion that he hit his wife.
“The world now thinks I beat my wife,” Brown said. “I have never hit this woman. I never hit her. Not once.”
In October, documents were released related to Brown’s arrest on domestic violence charges in Woodinville, Washington. The letters, emails and journals contained admissions by Brown that he had physically, verbally and emotionally abused his wife.
“These were the things that you say to yourself and then you’d burn them. … And I didn’t,” Brown told GMA. “The fact that my private things are being used against me, that’s hard to swallow. I’m talking about my journals. I had to learn all that and write that down in order to heal and now you’re telling me that I’m going to be punished for trying to correct the things in my life that needed to be changed.”
Brown was coming off his best season of his career in 2015 when he made 94 percent of his kicks. The Giants signed him to a two-year, $4 million deal last April despite knowing he was under investigation for domestic abuse.
Brown was arrested on May 22, 2015 for domestic assault, fourth degree. Charges were never filed.
The NFL ultimately suspended Brown for one game for what he repeatedly called a “moment.” Brown was arrested after he was accused by his ex-wife of grabbing her wrist during an argument the previous year. He said the league has known everything since the start of the investigation and that he’s never tried to hide his problems.
But the arresting officer wrote in his report that Brown told him he tried to grab the phone and grabbed her wrist. Brown provided a different version of the story during his interview with ABC News.
“No I did not. I did not touch her on the wrist,” he said.
Brown, who was placed on the commissioner’s exempt list at the time of his suspension, is still hoping to return to the NFL.
“I want to be able to play again. I want to be able to continue to write this story, continue to be a voice for change,” Brown said.
With the admission of abusing his wife, he’s not sure it will ever happen.
“Maybe. We’ll see,” Brown said. “If it doesn’t happen, I’m fine.”
Commissioner Roger Goodell said Wednesday there is still an open investigation into Brown’s case.
“We do have an active investigation on Josh Brown … You know from last fall that we didn’t have all the information from law enforcement,” Goodell said. “They released some of that at a later date. We now have that information and we will continue that investigation. Until we have a final decision we won’t be making a decision about anyone’s eligibility on that front.”
Cardinals receiver Larry Fitzgerald says he will return for his 14th season in the NFL.
Fitzgerald told ESPN’s Jim Trotter on Wednesday that he will play out the final year on his contract with Arizona.
Fitzgerald, who has played his whole career for the Cardinals, had said earlier in the week he had “pretty much made up my mind” but wasn’t ready to announce the decision, which he added wasn’t a tough one to make.
The 10-time Pro Bowler led the NFL in receptions this season with 107. He also leads active receivers in career receptions with 1,125.
Fitzgerald, 33, ranks ninth in NFL career receiving yards with 14,389. Another 1,000-yard season would put him third behind Jerry Rice, with 22,895, and Terrell Owens, with 15,934. Fitzgerald has eight career 1,000-yard seasons, including in 2016, when he totaled 1,023.
Fitzgerald, speaking Tuesday at the Waste Management Phoenix Open after participating in the Special Olympics Open, said his body is never at 100 percent but that he feels “good” and his body is in the process of “coming back.”
The Cardinals and coach Bruce Arians have been waiting to hear decisions on whether Fitzgerald and quarterback Carson Palmer would return.
“I feel very comfortable with where they’re at and what’s going to happen,” Arians said Tuesday. “Like everybody else, I’ve got my fingers crossed, and I think when the juices start flowing and the injuries go away, they’ll both be back, but there’s nothing to confirm yet.”
Information from ESPN’s Josh Weinfuss was used in this report.
