NFL Notes: DeShaun Watson, Kickoffs, Bills & Seahawks

DeShaun Watson

Brett McMurphy of ESPN reports that Clemson QB Deshaun Watson has a $5 million insurance policy against a career-ending injury.

“It gives me peace of mind,” Watson told McMurphy.

Beyond that, Watson has a $5 million policy for an injury that causes loss of value in the NFL draft. Clemson is paying for the premiums for the these policies, according to the report.

Kickoffs

Cowboys executive VP Stephen Jones told Pro Football Talk Wednesday that some teams could consider kicking it deep so that opposing offenses start at the 25-yard line this year, as opposed to allowing them to return it.

“Well, I think you certainly have that conversation, there’s no question,” Jones said in response to whether they would tell HC Jason Garrett to kick deep. “There’s a lot of consequences, I know the Rams tried to kick it short on us the other night and Lucky Whitehead went to the house. Those things are the risk that you take when you try to do the mortar kick there into the corner, there’s a chance it goes out of bounds. Sometimes if you ask these defensive coordinators starting there at the 20 yard line, having the offense start there, knowing you haven’t given up anything is not such a bad thing. It’ll be interesting to see where that goes this year.”

Bills

• Jason Cole of B/R reports that the Bills are unsure about how dedicated DT Marcell Dareus is to the team after he was suspended four-games for a substance abuse violation.
• Cole goes as far to mentions that the Bills could possibly consider moving on from Dareus next year.

Seahawks

Seahawks HC Pete Carroll suggested Wednesday that TE Jimmy Graham (knee) may not be ready for the start of the regular season.

“We’ve had no issues at all in the work he’s doing on the field,” Carroll said, via ESPN.com. “That will continue to increase throughout the next few weeks. Really we’re shooting for: Where is he at the start of the season? And we’ll evaluate then on how much longer it may take, or he may be ready. We don’t know that yet. But he feels good.

“There’s some evaluation to be done going into next week, but I don’t have any expectations for that right now. We’ll just wait and see. We don’t have a timetable for this; that he has to meet any schedule at all. We’re just working him back, and he’s gaining confidence, and it’s really important not to have any setbacks. So we’re being careful.

“With three really big weeks coming up here, we’ll see how he goes. We’ll be continuing to progress him more with the action around him and stuff. He’s doing fine running routes and catching balls, and he looks good doing all that stuff.“