NFC Rumors: Lions, Rams, Redskins, Saints

February 6, 2018

Lions

According to Pete Thamel, Boston College DL coach Paul Pasqualoni is leaving for a position with the Lions.

Rams

Alden Gonzalez of ESPN writes that the Rams could face some tough decisions regarding a few notable players this offseason including WR Tavon Austin, LB Mark Barron and DE Robert Quinn.

Austin hasn’t come close to living up his big-money contract and the Rams would pick up $3 million of cap space by releasing him. Austin is owed a $5 million roster bonus on March 16.
Cutting Barron would result in much better cap savings, as the Rams would pick up $7 million in 2018, $7 million in 2019 and $8 million in 2020. He too has a roster bonus on March 16 of $2 million.
As for Quinn, he’s set to cost $25.3 million against the team’s cap over the next two years, but the good news for Los Angeles is that they could save more than 96 percent of his salary by moving on.

Redskins

Kirk Cousins says he tried to get the Redskins to draft his college teammate RB Le’Veon Bell several years ago.

“Le’Veon is so talented and he was our best running back the minute he stepped on campus at Michigan State,” Cousins said, via the Postgame. “And I remember scouts from the Redskins asking me about him going into the draft. They said, ‘Tell us about Le’Veon.’ I said, ‘I haven’t seen a lot of NFL backs. I’ve only been in the league one year. But I don’t know what he can’t do. He can pass protect, he can catch the ball, he can run routes, he can run downhill, he’s fast, he has a spin move, he can jump over people. I don’t know where the weakness is, so that’s all I can tell you.’ He’s still showing there’s not many things he can’t do.”

We have both Cousins and Bell featured in our Top 100 – 2018 NFL Free Agents list.

Saints

Nick Underhill points out that $3.4 million of Saints TE Coby Fleener’s base salary becomes guaranteed on Wednesday.
According to OverTheCap.com, releasing Fleener would free up $3.2 million of available cap space while creating $4.8 million in dead money.
Herbie Teope reports that Saints TE Josh Hill recently underwent surgery to straighten out a finger that was locked at a 90-degree angle. The good news, according to Teope, is that Hill should be fine in time for OTAs.