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NFL notebook: Janikowski set to leave Raiders

[February 15, 2018] Sebastian Janikowski can hit the open market next month, bringing his 18-year run with the Oakland Raiders to a close.

According to ESPN, Janikowski was informed he would not be on the roster in 2018 as Jon Gruden -- the coach who drafted Janikowski -- returns to the sideline.

Janikowski agreed to a pay cut in 2017 and then was placed on injured reserve without playing in a regular season game. He turns 40 on March 2. Janikowski has battled back problems and the Raiders considered parting with the 2000 first-round draft pick during training camp last summer.

He will leave Oakland as the Raiders' all-time leader in games played and holds the NFL record for 50-plus-yard field goals (55).

--After considering retirement and sitting out the entire 2017 season, Washington Redskins safety Su'a Cravens was reinstated Tuesday by the NFL to active status from the team's reserve/left squad list.

Cravens applied for reinstatement with the NFL earlier this week. With it granted, he is now eligible to play again, but there remains the question of whether or not his team still wants him back on the active roster after he stepped away from the Redskins shortly before the start of the 2017 season.

Cravens, 22, battled a series of injuries through his first year and a half in the NFL, including a concussion, a biceps injury and a knee issue that required surgery to trim his meniscus.

--The San Francisco 49ers signed center Daniel Kilgore to a three-year contract through the 2020 season.

Kilgore was set to become a free agent next month.

Kilgore, 30, is coming off the best season of his seven seasons with the 49ers. He started all 16 games for the first time in his career and won the Bobb McKittrick Award as the team's top offensive lineman -- an honor that goes to a player who excels in courage, intensity and sacrifice as well as playing ability.

--New England Patriots safety Devin McCourty underwent minor shoulder surgery sometime after the Super Bowl, according to an ESPN report.

Per the report, the surgery was considered a clean-up procedure.

McCourty was limited in practice during Week 17 with a shoulder issue, but he wasn't listed on any injury reports during the postseason. He missed 16 defensive snaps in a divisional-round blowout of the Tennessee Titans before playing all 149 defensive snaps in the AFC Championship Game and Super Bowl LII.

--The Buffalo Bills hired longtime NFL assistant Terry Robiskie as wide receivers coach, the team announced.

Robiskie, 63, replaces Phil McGeoghan, who was hired Tuesday by the Los Angeles Chargers for the same role as receivers coach.

Robiskie, who has been an NFL coach for the last 36 seasons, was most recently with the Tennessee Titans, where he served as offensive coordinator for the past two seasons.

--The Atlanta Falcons hired three coaches, including Bernie Parmalee as running backs coach.

The new additions also include offensive assistant Chad Walker and assistant special teams coach Mayur Chaudhari.

Head coach Dan Quinn is close to finalizing his coaching staff for the 2018 season. The team also recently hired Greg Knapp to take over as quarterbacks coach.

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--The New York Jets added offensive coordinator to quarterbacks coach Jeremy Bates' title and hired Rick Dennison as offensive line coach/run game coordinator.

The 2017 season was the first of Bates' second stint as the Jets' QBs coach, after he held the same position for one year in 2005. He will replace John Morton, who was fired in January after one season as OC, as the team's play caller and game-plan builder.

The Jets also announced the hiring of Steve Jackson as assistant defensive backs coach. Jackson held the same position in Tennessee over the past two seasons.

--Jane Goodell and John Schnatter are on the deposition wish list of attorneys representing out-of-work NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick.

According to Yahoo Sports and the Washington Post, the wife of NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and Schnatter, formerly the CEO of Papa John's and a vocal critic of peaceful player protests during the national anthem, are among more than a dozen requests for deposition in Kaepernick's suit alleging collusion by the league office, owners and teams to keep him out of the NFL.

Jane Goodell was added to the deposition list only recently, per Yahoo Sports, and in part because of the admission she created the Twitter account @forargument to publicly -- if anonymously -- defend her husband from criticism. Jane Goodell was formerly an anchor for Fox News.

--In addition to usual coverage from ESPN and NFL Network, the 2018 NFL Draft will be televised by Fox for the first time, according to multiple reports on Wednesday.

Pro Football Talk reported that Fox is expected to carry a simulcast of the NFL Network feed, while ESPN will continue to run its own broadcast.

Putting the draft on Fox will allow the event to reach viewers who don't have cable, furthering efforts in recent years to bolster interest in one of the NFL's offseason highlights. This year will also mark the first time that the draft will be held in a stadium, with the Dallas Cowboys hosting the event.

--Boston radio station WEEI will suspend live programming for a day so that the entire staff can participate in sensitivity training Friday after backlash over an on-air personality mocking Tom Brady's agent with a stereotypical accent.

Retired pro football player Christian Fauria, a midday host on the station, was suspended for five days after mocking football agent Don Yee, who represents New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, during a segment last week.

Fauria's co-hosts laughed as the veteran of 13 NFL seasons recited a conversation using an over-the-top Asian accent. Yee, who is of Chinese descent, was born in Sacramento, Calif., and does not speak with a discernable accent. Fauria apologized online on Friday.

--Field Level Media

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