Tag: troy hill

5 under-the-radar free agents Chargers should consider

While the splash signings are always great, most of the time, the best value-signings come in the second and third waves of free agency.

With free agency right around the corner, the Chargers should not waste too much time to fill their roster holes.

Even though Los Angeles has the money to spend on one or two big-name free agents, I expect general manager Tom Telesco to still do what he does best by bargaining on some of the more underrated options on the market.

With that being said, here are five players that could be targeted:

OL Matt Feiler

Feiler has started for Pittsburgh at two different spots along their offensive line during the past three seasons — 26 at right tackle and 13 at left guard. In 1,499 pass-blocking snaps, Feiler has only blown 31. In 903 run-blocking snaps, he has only blown eight, per Sports Info Solutions. His versatility, durability, consistency and familiarity with assistant offensive line coach Shaun Sarrett should be selling points.

C Austin Reiter

Packers’ Corey Linsley has received that majority of the attention as a target for the Chargers to upgrade at center. However, Reiter is a high upside option that shouldn’t cost much. Reiter proved to be a premiere pass-blocker, with Pro Football Focus grades of at least 78.0 in every season of significant playing time in that area. This past season, Reiter didn’t allow a single pressure and wasn’t penalized at all.

CB Troy Hill

The Chargers should be in the market for a corner, given the fact that Michael Davis is a pending free agent and Casey Hayward & Chris Harris, Jr. aren’t getting younger. Playing inside and outside, Hill finished tied for second on the team with three interceptions and scored three of the Rams’ defensive touchdowns on the year. Hill also had 10 passes defensed. Based on how head coach Brandon Staley runs his system with versatility and play-makers in secondary, Hill is one that he would love to reunite with.

S Will Parks

Parks is versatile, having played safety, slot and outside corner and box linebacker. Parks is a starting-caliber talent, so having him as a depth piece should be very enticing for a team that’s in need of deepening the defensive backfield and one who will be relying on it under Staley’s system. The defense would benefit from his energy, attitude and play-making ability at various spots in the secondary and on special teams. Parks is also familiar with Staley and defensive coordinator Renaldo Hill.

DL Roy Robertson-Harris

Another thing that’s required in Staley’s defense is the ability to play multiple spots on the defensive line, which the Chargers need more players who are capable of doing so. A consistent force up front, Robertson-Harris might not intrigue in the stat sheet, but his consistent generated pressure allows for teammates to finish off plays. In 2020, he posted six quarterback knockdowns in 2020 and six pressures. Outside linebackers coach Jay Rodgers was his defensive line coach in Chicago the past five years.

Rams 2021 free agency preview: Troy Hill to stay in LA?

Troy Hill should be a player the Rams try to retain this offseason.

Troy Hill is a hot-and-cold player in Los Angeles, and Rams fans’ feelings are reflective of that. Sometimes he looks like an absolute playmaker, and at other times, he’s giving up big plays in coverage.

But as is the case with most cornerbacks, the good comes with the bad. It’s just that with Hill, that’s multiplied because rarely does he seem to have just an average day.

Hill will become an unrestricted free agent on March 17 and given the Rams’ need at cornerback, he should be someone they try to retain. But will they be able to afford him after a mostly positive season in 2020?

NFL free agency: Best fits for Chargers at each position of need in 2021

Gavino Borquez names the best fits at each position for the Los Angeles Chargers.

The Chargers enter this offseason with a decent-looking roster on paper, but there are still some areas that need to be solidified before the 2021 season begins.

With a healthy amount of salary cap space available, Los Angeles can address those in free agency. While it’s easy to want the biggest names on the market, it’s not that easy to land them.

With that being said, here are the best fits at each position of need based on players who fit the team’s scheme and culture.

5 free agent cornerbacks the Jets should target

Jets Wire takes a look at five free agent cornerbacks New York should have interest in come March.

Important decisions lie ahead for Joe Douglas with free agency and the NFL draft nearing.

After spending the first part of the offseason finding New York’s next head coach, Douglas’ focus now shifts to putting together a competitive roster for Robert Saleh to work with. A major step in accomplishing that feat would be to address the cornerback position, which severely hampered the Jets’ secondary in 2020.

Between the inexperience New York boasts at the position and ineffective play throughout last season, cornerback is a glaring need for the Jets this offseason. This offseason’s free agent cornerback class isn’t exactly loaded, but there is enough talent available for the taking for Douglas to significantly upgrade the unit.

Here are five corners Douglas and New York should have interest in once free agency kicks off.

Browns free agency decision: CB Kevin Johnson – performance and potential upgrades

The Browns could keep Johnson but also have other options presented here

When the Cleveland Browns signed CB Kevin Johnson to a one-year deal worth $3.5M, they were hoping to get the 2019 Buffalo Bills version of Johnson. They didn’t. Johnson was brought in to fill the nickel cornerback position. He missed most of the Browns truncated training camp due to a lacerated liver, but was able to get on the field by Week 3 of the regular season.

Performance

Johnson was occasionally forced to play outside due to the absence of Greedy Williams and the ongoing roster shuffle of players on and off of the Covid-19/Reserve list. He played 225 snaps out wide and 338 in the slot according to Pro Football Focus. 

Overall, Johnson was inconsistent at best as the former 1st round pick’s performance remained disappointing compared to where he was drafted and what he has shown on tape at times in his career. In Johnson’s second season in the league, he posted his best PFF grade of 81.2 for the Houston Texans which he followed up with consecutive seasons of grades below 50 (46.1, 38.6). In 2019, he signed on with the Buffalo Bills and showed he could potentially be what the Texans thought they were getting when they drafted him 16th overall, posting a grade of 71.9.

Unfortunately, he failed to sustain that level of play with the Browns in 2020, posting an overall grade of 51.4 and a coverage grade of 52.6. He finished ranked 96th out of 121 eligible cornerbacks per PFF.

Potential Upgrades

The Browns should be looking to upgrade multiple positions on the defense in 2021 and this should be one of them. Having a good nickel cornerback is vital in today’s game and it’s consistently increasing emphasis on the pass game.

There are a number of players the Browns will likely look to acquire in free agency that specialize at playing in the slot and would make the defense better. A nickel corner that would make sense is CB Mike Hilton of the Pittsburgh Steelers who has played almost exclusively in the slot. Hilton has been terrific in both man and zone coverage, defending the run and when blitzing.

CB Troy Hill of the Los Angeles Rams has spent his share of time as an outside corner, but he excelled when moved into the slot after they acquired Jalen Ramsey. Hill is very versatile and could play either in the slot or outside but is probably best suited to go against smaller wide receivers in the slot.

CB Brian Poole of the New York Jets, fits in nicely as NFL nickel cornerback at 5-9, 215 lbs. Poole has emerged as one of the best slot corners in the game over the last two years, only allowing one touchdown and holding the opponent’s quarterback passer rating under 70 when targeting him during that time. He has been incredibly consistent and will be valued in free agency.

The Browns would do well to come away with any of these players. The nickel corner position is often undervalued in the NFL which does suppress their value on the free agent market somewhat. Depending on the currently fluid salary cap situation for the 2021 season, I would expect all of three players to command somewhere between $4M-$6M per year, which is not bad considering they paid $3.5M for Kevin Johnson.

Johnson will likely catch on somewhere for just over the veterans minimum with some incentives included as a way to make some of his value back. I would be surprised if the Browns brought him back for next season.

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Sean McVay explains Troy Hill’s value to Rams ahead of free agency

Troy Hill’s versatility opened things up for Jalen Ramsey, Sean McVay says.

When looking ahead to free agency, there are two names Rams fans are primarily focused on: John Johnson and Leonard Floyd. They were two of the most important players on the league-leading defense, and both will hit the open market in March unless the Rams sign them beforehand – a highly unlikely move by Los Angeles.

But Troy Hill shouldn’t get overlooked as one of the team’s top free agents. He scored three defensive touchdowns for the Rams this season, two pick-sixes and a fumble return for a score.

Most importantly, he allowed the Rams to be flexible with Jalen Ramsey. Hill’s ability to play cover the slot and play outside corner made it possible for Brandon Staley to move Ramsey around the defensive formation to maximize his impact each week.

Ramsey recognized Hill’s value to the defense himself last week, as did Sean McVay. Here’s what McVay said about Hill as the cornerback approaches free agency.

“Troy Hill, what can you say about the ball production, scoring the touchdowns that he did, the versatility,” he said last week. “I think a lot of the versatility that we were able to activate with Jalen was a reflection of also Troy Hill’s versatility. You feel comfortable, because in a lot of instances, you’re saying you’ve got this elite corner in Jalen Ramsey and then you can bump him inside, but who’s the guy that can play off of that and have the ability to play both positions as well? And Troy certainly enabled us to do that.”

McVay called Hill, Floyd and Johnson “really big-time parts of what was the No. 1 defense in the NFL,” and added that they’ll be “big-time topics of conversation and things that you want to try to figure out.”

The Rams will be limited with their spending money in free agency, but Hill could be cheap enough for them to re-sign and bring back – even if it’s on a short-term deal. Or, if they feel confident in David Long Jr., they could let Hill walk and lean more heavily on the young cornerback out of Michigan.

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Jalen Ramsey explains how Troy Hill helped him have a career year with Rams

Jalen Ramsey credited Troy Hill’s versatility for allowing him to have a big year in 2020.

Jalen Ramsey was one of the Rams’ most important players this season, putting together the best year of his career thus far. He didn’t allow more than 60 yards in a single game despite having to cover some of the best wideouts in football, giving up just 36 completions on 71 targets – a career-low 50.7% completion rate.

But he won’t take all of the credit for how dominant he was in 2020. During his end-of-season media session, Ramsey credited Troy Hill for allowing him to do all the things he did on the field.

Without Hill’s versatility and willingness to play both in the slot and outside, Ramsey wouldn’t have been able to move around the secondary as much as he did.

“Without him and his versatility and him being able to play inside and outside, I wouldn’t have been able to be who I was this year,” Ramsey said. “I wouldn’t have been able to have all of my skillsets used and be valued as I was, so I told him that nothing but respect for that because that’s something that I’ve never been able to do in my career yet thus far. But the coaches and everybody having the confidence in him that he could play inside or outside, that opened up opportunities for me to do that, as well. So nothing but respect for him and how he played this year and all the blessings he’s going to receive in the future.”

Hill is set to become a free agent in March and with the Rams lacking significant spending money, he may be on his way out. Though inconsistent at times, Hill was a valuable piece of the secondary, playing most of the defensive snaps.

After primarily playing outside prior to 2020, he transitioned to more of a slot role this past season. There were some bumps along the way, but Hill still put together a strong campaign ahead of free agency.

As for Ramsey, he’ll be sticking around for the long-term after signing a five-year extension with the Rams. He and the defense will move forward without Brandon Staley, who’s now the head coach of the Chargers, but don’t expect any sort of drop-off in Ramsey’s play.

He proved this season that he’s once again one of the two or three best cornerbacks in football, if not the very best.

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4 players who may follow Chargers HC Brandon Staley in free agency

The Chargers could garner the attention from these soon-to-be free agents.

The Chargers hired Brandon Staley to be the new man in charge.

In just one season as the Rams’ defensive coordinator, he was the engineer of the top defense in the NFL. He was respected by the handful that he coached, and some of those players may want to follow him.

With that being said, here are four soon-to-be free agents that Staley could potentially bring with him.

OLB Leonard Floyd

A former No. 9 overall pick of the Bears, Floyd was close to being labeled as a “bust” but Staley was the one who rejuvenated his career. Floyd is coming off his best year as a pro after totaling career-highs in sacks (12.5), tackles (55) and quarterback hits (19). He had a career-best 52 total pressures. Floyd also had 31 defensive stops and has been a consistently solid run defender over his career. With Melvin Ingram slated to be a free agent, he would give the Chargers another much-needed pass-rush presence alongside Joey Bosa.

CB Troy Hill

When you’re in the same secondary as Jalen Ramsey, you will likely have your work cut out for you, as opposing quarterbacks will look your way plenty. Hill did a fine job in that role, coming up in a big way. He finished tied for second on the team with three interceptions and scored three of the Rams’ defensive touchdowns on the year. Hill also had 10 passes defensed. Based on how Staley runs his system, he will likely load up on defensive backs and Hill is one that he would love to reunite with.

S John Johnson

After suffering an injury in 2019 that limited him to just six games, Johnson bounced back this past season, being the only player to play every defensive snap. Johnson logged 105 combined tackles and an interception. In addition, he only allowed a 4.9 yards per target. Versatility is everything and Johnson is a smart, adept in pass coverage and run defense, who’s capable of playing both safety positions, cornerback and linebacker.

DL Morgan Fox

The addition of Staley led to Fox’s breakout season in 2020. Fox came into the season with only 4.5 sacks and six tackles for loss in a three-season span. But he topped those this past season, finishing with six sacks and eight tackles for loss. The Chargers have promising defensive linemen in Linval Joseph, Justin Jones and Jerry Tillery, but Fox could be a huge depth piece up front.

4 Rams free agents who could be fits for the Cardinals this offseason

The Rams and Packers face off in the divisional round of the playoffs. The Rams have some scheduled free agents who might be of interest to the Cardinals.

The first game of the weekend in the divisional round of the playoffs has the Los Angeles Rams and Green Bay Packers. The Arizona Cardinals are not in the postseason but Cardinals fans can watch the game and see individual players who will be free agents this offseason.

Who are some Rams free agents who could be potential targets for the Cardinals in March?


Watch: Troy Hill scores 84-yard pick-six to give Rams halftime lead

Troy Hill has his second pick-six of the season against the Cardinals.

With Jared Goff and Cooper Kupp out, it’s been the Rams defense carrying the team against the Cardinals in Week 17 – a potential must-win game depending on the Packers-Bears result.

After already scoring a safety for two points, the Rams defense added six more points to the board with a pick-six. This one was once again courtesy of Troy Hill, who now has three defensive touchdowns on the year.

It went 84 yards after an ill-advised throw by Chris Streveler, which Hill initially bobbled before gathering himself and breaking upfield toward the Cardinals end zone. The Rams carried a 12-7 lead into halftime thanks to Hill’s score.

Hill sometimes catches some flak for the mistakes he makes on the field, but he undoubtedly makes more plays than he does gaffes.

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