NFL Player News

Lions head coach Jim Caldwell likes what he sees in the way of improvement for quarterback Matthew Stafford, according to the Detroit News.

"I think he's just got to keep improving," Caldwell said Wednesday during NFL annual meetings. "I was walking down a hall yesterday, and someone said something about, 'Well, hey, don't you really need your quarterback to really take off?' And I looked at him and said, 'No, we don't need him to really take off. He's been doing well.'

"He's improving steadily. Things in this league don't happen that way. No one makes a meteoric jump. It's gradual. It's too competitive. There are too many good players and it's a tough league, and I do think he's making really good progress."

Stafford, a former first round selection of the Lions, is entering his sixth season in the NFL. He has started all 16 games for four consecutive years. The 27-year-old has thrown for 21,714 yards with 131 touchdowns and 85 interceptions.

Rams coach Jeff Fisher confirmed Wednesday the Browns tried to trade for quarterback Sam Bradford in early March, and the compensation involved draft picks and not players, per Cleveland.com.

Fisher added the Browns did not offer the No. 12 pick in the NFL Draft, which indicates they offered the No. 19 pick. Other compensation was also discussed before the Rams traded Bradford to the Eagles for quarterback Nick Foles and an exchange of draft picks.

"There were discussions (with the Browns) late in the process,'' Fisher said. "There were never really any concrete offers per se. The misconception is that it started at the combine. It didn't. I stood up at the combine and said that Sam was our quarterback. This came well after that, several days before we initiated the trade with Nick, but there was a pick involved. There were numerous things that were discussed, different options. The compensation looked different over a period of a couple of days. I'm not going to go onto what it was, but it didn't involve  a player."

Fisher added acquiring the No. 12 pick in the draft probably wouldn't have sealed the deal.

"At that point, you still don't have a veteran quarterback," Fisher said. "Again, Nick for us was the perfect fit for us, and I have talked with (Eagles coach) Chip (Kelly) and he thinks Sam is the perfect fit, so this was a good deal. But for us, we get a younger quarterback that's won a lot of games in this league, can make all of the throws and is somewhat durable. I know he's had shoulder issues, but most everybody has.''

Jets head coach Todd Bowles said that for now quarterback Geno Smith will be the starter entering training camp, reports nj.com.

"Geno, he's our guy, right now," Bowles said at the NFL annual meeting at the Arizona Biltmore here. "When we get to training camp, Geno will start out running the first-team reps. He's the only quarterback we have right now, if we don't draft one, with Ryan Fitzpatrick hurt."

The Jets recently picked up quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick in a trade with the Texans.

Smith, 24, was drafted in the second round of the 2013 draft. The thrid-year pro has thrown for 5,571 yards with 25 touchdowns and 34 interceptions.

In Raiders coach Jack Del Rio's mind, quarterback Derek Carr was asked to do too much in his rookie season. 

Carr threw the ball 599 times and completed 348 of those passes for 3,270 yards, 21 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. Now that Del Rio is at the helm, he's looking to run the ball a lot more to balance things out. 

"I thought it was all about Derek last year," Del Rio said, via the San Francisco Chronicle. "I want to be able to run the ball, play good defense."

The Raiders are likely to rely on Latavius Murray to be the feature back now that Maurice Jones-Drew has retired and Darren McFadden has left for Dallas. Del Rio believes that a balanced attack should open the game up more for Carr in his second season. 

"If we do things around him, he really has a chance to flourish," Del Rio said. "He is really accurate. He has a huge upside."

Jets owner Woody Johnson isn't giving up on quarterback Geno Smith yet. 

Speaking to the New York Daily News, Johnson hinted he would be happy sticking with Smith instead of selecting a quarterback such as Oregon's Marcus Mariota in the upcoming NFL draft. 

"Geno’s probably way ahead of him at this point, believe it or not," Johnson said. "Whether you guys have skepticism or not … but certainly his college career was good."

The Jets are picking sixth overall and could see Mariota fall to them. The possibility of trading up could present itself, too. 

"That’s something that we’re going to look at," Johnson said. "We’ve got from now until the start of the season to address every position, not only quarterback. We’re going to have competition at every position. We’ve said that before and we’re going to have competition here. Hopefully, it’ll bring out the best in the quarterbacks and all the positions."

While the Dolphins will spend the next six weeks trying to finalize a long-term contract with quarterback Ryan Tannehill, if no deal can be reached, the team plans to exercise its fifth-year option on his contract, sources told the Sun Sentinel.

If the option is used, Tannehill would earn nearly $16 million in 2016.

"We like the player a lot. Our hope and expectation is he'll be here for a long time," Dolphins vice president of football operations Mike Tannenbaum said. "When a long-term deal gets done, I don't have a timetable right now."

The option must be utilized by May 1.

Dolphins owner Stephen Ross confirmed the team's interest when he said Monday he would like to discuss a long-term contract with Tannehill this offseason, reports the Palm Beach Post.

Bengals owner Mike Brown is confident the team has found a quality quarterback in Andy Dalton, reports Cincinnati.com.

"Andy is a good quarterback," Brown said.

Along with the Bengals, Brown said other teams consider Dalton a quality quarterback as well and that he would benefit from good players around him.

"He is the style of guy who can function best when he has a good group around him," Brown said. "He needs that. Maybe he needs it more than some, but they all need it. There is no quarterback that goes out and has success without good players in the mix."

Although there are reports to the contrary, the Seahawks are not close to a new deal with quarterback Russell Wilson, according to CBSSports.com NFL Insider Jason La Canfora.

Wilson, a third-round selection in 2012, is entering the last year of his rookie contract with the Seahawks. La Canfora wrote during the NFL combine that it could be possible that Wilson plays out his rookie contract.

The 26-year-old has accumulated 9,950 yards passing with 72 touchdowns and 26 interceptions in three seasons played. His 849 yards rushing last season led all quarterbacks.

Vikings quarterback Teddy Bridgewater expects more out of his play than he put on the field his rookie year, per the Pioneer Press.

"I wasn't impressed," he told the Pioneer Press this week.

"Yes, we did some good things as a team," he continued, "but we could have been much better finishing games. That's what separates championship teams and determining whether you're playing games in January or watching games in January."

The Vikings went 6-6 in Bridgewater's 12 starts. Despite his six wins and twelve starts as a rookie quarterback being Vikings' records, he knows that there was more that he could have done on the field.

"I left a ton of plays out there, whether it was due to poor mechanics, bad ball placements, overthrows, underthrows," Bridgewater said. "We want to be a big-play offense, and I have to continue to execute and play at a high level to allow our guys to make those big plays."

The 22-year-old threw for 2,919 yards with 14 touchdowns and 12 interceptions in 2014.

Bills head coach Rex Ryan has options at the quarterback spot going into the 2015 season. There will be competition for the starting spot this offseason.

“It’s going to be open,” Ryan told WGR radio, via the team’s official website.  “It’s a competition and whoever earns the job will be the guy that’s out there.”

The Bills currently have four quarterbacks on their roster including Matt Cassel, EJ Manuel, Tyrod Taylor and Jeff Tuel. Ryan brokedown what each signal caller brings to the table.

“We have some talented guys and we’ll see what happens,” Ryan said.  “You bring in a veteran like Matt Cassel.  He’s done some pretty good things in this league.  He’s got that veteran presence about him.  With EJ back there just going into his third year I really believe EJ is going to improve with his fundamentals having [quarterbacks coach] David Lee here.  I love the fact that he’s a gym rat and he’s smart.  With our offense being multiple we’ll be able to get out of bad plays, so the mental part of it all of the quarterbacks we have should be able to handle that.

“With Taylor that’s going to be a young man, he’s probably the fastest quarterback in the league,” Ryan said.  “He’s explosive running the zone reads, and we’ll see where he’s at.  Then Tuel.  We’ve got guys there to work with.  That’ll be the important thing.  There will be competition, but a person has to earn the job.  It hasn’t been handed to somebody.”