Tag: Ron Leary

Browns worked out Ron Leary, 2 other linemen

Browns worked out Ron Leary, 2 other linemen

The long-reported workout for free agent offensive guard Ron Leary and the Cleveland Browns finally happened on Saturday, per the NFL’s transaction wire. Leary was one of three interior linemen working out for the Browns in Berea on Saturday.

Leary made his appearance, which had been reported earlier in the week. The veteran starter has experience working under Browns offensive line coach Bill Callahan.

Along with Leary, centers Joey Hunt and Casey Dunn also auditioned for the Browns. Hunt started eight games at center for the Seattle Seahawks in 2019 and has appeared in 34 NFL games since 2016, but Seattle cut him earlier this offseason despite signing the TCU grad to a tender offer.

The Browns are still scrambling for depth on the interior offensive line after three players opted out for COVID-19 reasons. In addition, starting center JC Tretter is sidelined for at least a week after undergoing a minor knee procedure.

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Report: Browns bring in veteran OG Ron Leary for a visit

Leary is a 31-year-old vet with years of starting experience

“We are going to look across every position to add talent and competition over the course of the next few months.”

Andrew Berry said those exact words twice and a close variation of it three others during his press conference in Indianapolis at the 2020 NFL Scouting Combine. Thus far, the greenhorn Browns GM has been a man of his word.

Faced with a depth issue at offensive guard thanks to three COVID-19 opt-outs, Berry has wasted little time in trying to add talent and competition before the hitting begins in training camp next week. Berry and the Browns have signed two guards who would qualify as “competition” in Jovahn Fair and Michael Dunn. Now they’re chasing the “talent” part of the equation.

According to a report from NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport, the Browns are bringing in veteran Ron Leary.

The free agent spent the last three years in Denver, starting all 29 games he played in. Prior to that stint, Leary spent his first five seasons in Dallas, a regular starter for the final four of those when he was healthy. The 31-year-old has battled numerous injuries throughout his career.

There is familiarity for Leary with the Browns. New offensive line coach Bill Callahan was his coach with the Cowboys from 2012-2014.

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Three ways the Vikings can spend their remaining 2020 salary cap space

Here are three ways the Vikings can spend the money left in their 2020 salary cap

Minnesota has a new-look roster and some money to spend for the 2020 NFL season.

Over The Cap reported that the Vikings have just over $12.7 million in cap space. So what should the team do with the remaining money for the 2020 season?

Michael Pierce opted out of the 2020 NFL season. Minnesota terminated Josh Kline’s contract. The Vikings traded Stefon Diggs. The defense has plenty of younger, more inexperienced players.

The deadline has passed for teams to work out long-term deals for players under the franchise tag, so safety Anthony Harris will have to play under the tag.

There are a plethora of options when it comes to the remaining cap space. Here are a few things Minnesota can do:

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4 free-agent options for Chiefs following Laurent Duvernay-Tardif’s opt-out decision

Looking at four free-agent options who make sense for the Kansas City Chiefs after Laurent Duvernay-Tardif’s opt-out.

The most likely scenario for the Kansas City Chiefs is that they’ll go with in-house options to replace starting RG Laurent Duvernay-Tardif, who elected to opt-out of the 2020 NFL season. There still exists a slight possibility that the Chiefs could look outside the organization for help in terms of immediate impact or depth. There are a handful of interior offensive linemen available that make varying degrees of sense in Kansas City.

Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images

Larry Warford

Warford is probably considered the cream of the crop of free-agent guards on the market right now. The 29-year-old veteran also might be the most expensive guard on the market because as of May he was looking for a contract worth up to $7 million per year in average salary. It’s not clear if he’d take a discount to join the defending Super Bowl champions, but that number would likely price out the Chiefs.

Warford is reliable, only missing two games in the last two seasons. He only allowed two sacks during the 2019 season and earned a 73.1 overall grade according to Pro Football Focus. His fit with the Chiefs is a debatable topic as he’s not the most mobile and athletic guard, but he’s physical and a tone-setter on the offensive line. There are few teams in the NFL that couldn’t use that type of player on their team.

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Cowboys retain Joe Looney, Su’a-Filo to Bengals, Fleming to Giants

The backup guard played a critical role in Dallas’s 2018 playoff run; now he’ll likely compete for a starting job blocking for Joe Burrow.

The Cowboys traditionally put serious emphasis on their offensive line; the backups are often of a caliber that ostensibly would make them starters for other teams. That theory is about to tested in Cincinnati.

The Bengals have lured away guard Xavier Su’a-Filo after two seasons in Dallas. All is not lost though, as the Cowboys retained the services of versatile interior lineman Joe Looney, bringing him back on a one-season deal.

Looney has spent the last four years with the club, starting 20 games including the entire 2018 season when All-Pro center Travis Frederick was out with an autoimmune illness. The eight-year veteran played just 100 snaps in 2019, backing up both center and guard positions, after proving he’s a capable starter with 1,076 snaps in 2018.

While a deal has yet to be finalized, it is believed that the Bengals have offered the 29-year-old Su’a-Filo a three-year contract worth $10 million. The former second-round pick will likely compete for a starting spot blocking for LSU quarterback Joe Burrow, expected to go to Cincinnati with the top pick in the 2020 NFL Draft.

The Bengals cut guard John Miller earlier on Wednesday in anticipation of the Su’a-Filo signing.

Su’a-Filo spent his first four pro seasons with the Houston Texans before going to Tennessee in 2018. He was cut prior to the season, though, and plucked by Dallas. Midway through the season, he took over for injured rookie Connor Williams and started several games during the team’s remarkable turnaround and eventual playoff run that year.

The UCLA alum started four games in 2019 before suffering a high ankle sprain and fibula fracture in the Week 16 loss at Philadelphia. He ended the season on injured reserve.

ESPN’s Todd Archer writes:

“With Xavier Su’a-Filo joining Cincinnati, the Cowboys will look to fill that interior offensive line spot in-house. Last year’s third-round pick, Connor McGovern, missed the season with a pectoral injury but will be ready to go for whenever the offseason program starts. The 2018 second-round pick, Connor Williams is coming back from a torn ACL.”

Tackle Cameron Fleming has already been released by the club and has signed with the New York Giants on a one-year, $4 million agreement.

Former Cowboys left guard Ronald Leary is on the open market after three seasons in Denver. His name had already been making the rounds in regard to a possible return to Dallas.

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Would UFA guard Ron Leary be a solution or progress stopper for Cowboys?

Former Dallas Cowboy Ron Leary is a free agent again, and he might want to come back to Dallas

The Dallas Cowboys offensive line has quite the impressive reputation over the last decade. However, the line has looked increasingly vulnerable year after year, especially at the left guard position.

On Wednesday it was learned former Cowboys left guard, Ronald Leary, and his most recent team the Denver Broncos have split ways after Denver declined Leary’s team option, making him an unrestricted free agent on March 18 when the new league year opens.

Leary was a part of a dominant offensive line in Dallas, helping pave the way for two different rushing leaders in three seasons, Demarco Murray in 2014, and Ezekiel Elliott in 2016. The underrated guard would come to be known as a mauler in the run game.

This success led him to a similar situation the Cowboys are in now with a player like Byron Jones. Leary had played his way into a big payday and the Cowboys chose to let him reach free agency. He went to Denver on a four-year $36-million deal.

Dallas has since tried to address the position at the draft with selections like Connor Williams and Connor McGovern, and with veteran free agents like Xavier Sua-Filo, but they have been to no avail. None of the potential replacements have been able to produce in the interior of the line the same way Leary did with the Cowboys in his four seasons of starting.

The newly named free agent took to Twitter to express his interest in possibly returning to Dallas. “I do still have my crib in Dallas” Leary said in response to a Mike Fisher report that mentions that the former Cowboy “loves Dallas.”

Cowboys media member Bobby Belt expressed his thoughts, saying about the free-agent left guard, “Ron Leary still has good football left in him.”

 

Leary echoed the statement from Belt, and claimed to be the healthiest he has been in two years. Leary ended both his 2017 and 2018 campaigns on injured reserve in Denver, first with a back injury and then with a torn achilles. He was moved to right guard for last season and played the first 12 games of the season before missing the final four games of the year.

 

The Cowboys have invested two Day 2 picks for the guard position opposite Zack Martin over the last two seasons. In 2018, Williams was a second-round pick and in 2019 McGovern went in the third. He was the Cowboys’ second pick of the draft after not having a first rounder, traded away for wideout Amari Cooper.

McGovern did not hit the field in 2019 due to a pectoral strain during the offseason, and would be looking to compete with Williams in 2020. Williams, who surrended five sacks as a rookie but only one last season, graded out slightly higher than Leary did in 2019 according to Pro Football Focus, though Leary had a much better grade as a pass protector.

 

Broncos picking up contract options for 3 players

Broncos will pick up the contract options for Von Miller, Todd Davis and Brandon McManus this offseason.

Broncos general manager John Elway said at the NFL combine on Tuesday that the team will not pick up guard Ron Leary’s contract option for the 2020 season. Moving on from Leary will save Denver more than $8 million in salary cap space.

Elway also announced that the team is picking up the contract options for kicker Brandon McManus (a $1 million option) and inside linebacker Todd Davis (a $500,000 option). Elway previously announced late last year that outside linebacker Von Miller will have his option picked up.

Miller will have the most expensive cap hit on the team this year: $25,625,000. Davis ($6 million) and McManus ($4.25 million) have much smaller but still significant cap charges.

Before making any moves, the Broncos are projected to have around $62 million in cap space, according to OverTheCap.com. Removing Leary from the team’s books should bring that total to about $70 million. If Denver cuts quarterback Joe Flacco, that total could increase to more than $80 million.

The new league year — and NFL free agency — will begin on March 18.

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Broncos won’t pick up Ron Leary’s contract option for 2020

After declining Ron Leary’s contract option, the Broncos will save more than $8 million in salary cap space.

Ron Leary’s time with the Broncos appears to be coming to an end.

On Tuesday, Denver general manager John Elway told media members at the NFL combine in Indianapolis that the team won’t pick up Leary’s contract option for the 2020 season. That means the 30-year-old guard is set to become a free agent next month.

Leary will have a “dead money” salary cap hit of just $875,000 and the Broncos will save around $8,437,500, according to OverTheCap.com.

Leary (6-3, 320 pounds) signed a four-year, $36 million deal with Denver in 2017. He has struggled to stay healthy, missing 19 games — the equivalent of a full season plus three games — over the last three years.

After moving on from Leary, the Broncos appear poised to bring in a starting-caliber guard this offseason. Dalton Risner will start on one side — Denver will now need a replacement for Leary on the other side.

The new league year — and NFL free agency — will begin on March 18.

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Broncos have 6th-best ‘dead money’ total in the NFL

What is “dead money” and how does it work in the NFL?

As the NFL’s new league year draws closer, fans will begin to hear the term “dead money” mentioned when teams part ways with certain players. What is dead money in the NFL?

A team has dead money when part of their salary cap for that season goes toward a player no longer on the team. So for example, if the Broncos gave a quarterback a $2 million signing bonus on a two-year contract, that bonus would be prorated over the course of the deal.

In that kind of scenario, Denver would have $1 million salary cap hits in 2020 and 2021. If the Broncos cut that QB before the 2021 season, his prorated bonus would still count against the team’s salary cap. Denver would have $1 million in “dead money” because his bonus was still a cap hit.

This year, the Broncos have the sixth-lowest dead cap total in the NFL, just $498,486, according to OverTheCap.com. The Buccaneers ($130,241) have the lowest total and the Panthers ($15,673,834) have the highest total.

Denver’s dead money total will go up considerably if the team cuts quarterback Joe Flacco and offensive lineman Ron Leary — those two moves would increase the team’s dead money by $14,475,000.

Even though they would take a big dead money hit, cutting those players would still give the Broncos a net savings of $18,487,500 because the salaries for Flacco and Leary far outweigh their dead money totals.

In short, the Broncos’ salary cap situation is in a good place.

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2020 NFL Free Agency: Ron Leary among Broncos fit for the Saints

The New Orleans Saints could look to Denver Broncos free agents to address their roster needs, though the best targets have club options.

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We’re continuing the long march towards free agency by surveying players who could be available from every team in the NFL, with a slant towards potential targets for the New Orleans Saints. The latest entry in this series focuses on the Denver Broncos, who have even more players on track to hit the market (30) than the Saints themselves (27), though many of those players are under consideration for club options or exclusive-rights free agent tenders. Here’s the total list, with four of our picks for names the Saints should circle below;

  • CB Chris Harris
  • DE Derek Wolfe
  • DT Shelby Harris
  • RB Theo Riddick
  • LS Casey Kreiter
  • DE Adam Gotsis
  • CB Cyrus Jones
  • OLB Jeremiah Attaochu
  • ILB Corey Nelson
  • FS Justin Simmons
  • RB Devontae Booker
  • C Connor McGovern
  • S Dymonte Thomas
  • S Will Parks
  • OLB Von Miller (Club Option)
  • G Ron Leary (Club Option)
  • ILB Todd Davis (Club Option)
  • K Brandon McManus (Club Option)
  • CB Davontae Harris (ERFA)
  • S Trey Marshall (ERFA)
  • WR Diontae Spencer (ERFA)
  • T Jake Rodgers (ERFA)
  • CB DeVante Bausby (RFA)
  • RT Elijah Wilkinson (RFA)
  • OLB Joe Jones (RFA)
  • DE Mike Purcell (RFA)
  • QB Brandon Allen (RFA)
  • WR Tim Patrick (RFA)
  • OLB Dadi Nicolas (RFA)
  • DT Joel Heath (RFA)

The name to watch here is Ron Leary, who has started games at both left and right guard for the Broncos since signing with them back in 2018. Before that, he was a versatile backup for the Dallas Cowboys, and was a popular pick to land with the Saints in free agency; instead, they picked up Andrus Peat’s fifth-year option, and now he’s headed for the open market. The Broncos have a few weeks to decide whether to pick up Leary’s club option for the 2020 season (worth $9.3 million against the salary cap, but only $875,000 of which is guaranteed). If they choose to not keep him around, the Saints would be a logical fit should Peat also not return.

Denver has a similar decision to make on inside linebacker Todd Davis, who was once stashed on the Saints practice squad before he was poached by the Broncos. Davis finished the 2019 season ranked third in defensive snaps played for the Broncos (900) but he’s due $6 million next season, with the same March 18 deadline as the other Broncos players with club options written into their contracts. If he is allowed to hit the open market, it would be a great opportunity for the Saints to correct a past mistake by adding a durable linebacker who can hold things down while Alex Anzalone and Kiko Alonso work their way back from season-ending injuries.

One other player we’ll highlight isn’t one for the Saints to consider signing, but whose contract situation will mean big ramifications for Saints free safety Marcus Williams. Justin Simmons is his counterpart for the Broncos, and compares well statistically: through four years, Simmons has recorded 11 interceptions (28 total passes defensed) with 4.9 combined tackles per game (3.6 solo). Pro Football Reference has also credited him with 17 missed tackles the last two years. That matches up closely against Williams, who has bagged 10 interceptions (23 total passes defensed) through his first three years, along with 4.0 combined tackles per game (3.2 solo) and 13 missed tackles over the last two seasons. Simmons is likely to rest the market for starting free safeties, and Williams will be a big beneficiary of that. The Saints would be wise to extend him sooner rather than later, when his asking price rises.

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