NFL Notes: A.J. Bouye, Aldon Smith, Jimmy Garoppolo, Packers

A.J. Bouye

• Jason Cole reports that many GMs around the league consider Texans CB A.J. Bouye to be the “most intriguing” free agent in this year’s market for a number of reasons.
• The first is that Bouye plays a premium position in the NFL and is coming off of an impressive 2016 season. Secondly, Bouye’s first three years in the NFL weren’t on par with his breakout 2016 season.
• Cole adds that GMs want to believe he’s really as good as he played this past season, but they’re still concerned about spending big money on him.
• The Texans are not expected to franchise Bouye. (NFLTR)

Aldon Smith

• Following the recent report that Raiders OLB Aldon Smith is being investigated for a “domestic incident” (NFLTR), Mike Freeman expects the NFL to “hit pause” regarding any type of reinstatement for Smith.
• According to Freeman, it’s possible that this latest incident could prevent Smith from every being reinstated to the NFL, simply because the league doesn’t trust players who continually find themselves in trouble, whether it was their doing or not.

Jimmy Garoppolo

• An NFL GM who spoke with Mike Freeman considers the best fits for Patriots backup QB Jimmy Garoppolo to be: 1) Browns, 2) 49ers, 3) Bears, 4) Patriots, 5) Texans.

Packers

Patriots WR Julian Edelman mentioned on an NFL Network appearance that he was prepared to sign with the Packers before New England selected him in the seventh round of the 2009 NFL draft.

“The whole time on draft day, I’m like ‘Well, they didn’t like me, I guess, because they didn’t bring me in for a visit.’ I didn’t know how it went,” Edelman said, via ESPN.com. “We had like 10 teams call for me to be a priority free agent and so we were thinking of signing with Green Bay if that happened. So I was going to sign with Green Bay. We thought it would be the best [opportunity] for me to make the team.“