NFL notebook: Giants release CB Rodgers-Cromartie

[March 12, 2018]  The New York Giants released cornerback Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie on Sunday.

Rodgers-Cromartie was entering the final season of a five-year, $35 million deal, and he reportedly refused to take a pay cut. The move will save the Giants $6.5 million in cap space.

The team also had considered moving him to safety.

Rodgers-Cromartie, who played the slot corner role, failed to register an interception in 2017 after tying his career high with six the year before.

--Bids to purchase the Carolina Panthers are due shortly, and a new name has emerged as a potential buyer.

Michael Rubin, who owns Fanatics -- which runs the NFL's online store and is the top seller of NFL-licensed gear -- is preparing a bid, according to ESPN's Darren Rovell. Rubin, who lives in Pennsylvania and owns stakes in the Philadelphia 76ers, the New Jersey Devils and Premier League side Crystal Palace, is reportedly worth $3 billion, according to Forbes.

The last NFL team to sell -- the Buffalo Bills in 2014 -- went for $1.1 billion. Forbes lists the value of the Panthers at $2.3 billion.

--The Los Angeles Chargers and two-time Pro Bowl cornerback Casey Hayward agreed to a three-year, $36 million extension with $20 million fully guaranteed.

Both figures would rank on the edge of the top 10 among cornerback contracts around the league.

Hayward, 28, joined the Chargers in March 2016 on a three-year, $15.3 million deal and has thrived since, leading the NFL in interceptions (seven) in 2016 and earning second-team All-Pro honors and Pro Bowl selections in both seasons.

--The Seattle Seahawks will release another veteran cornerback on Monday, but they hope to bring this one back, according to an ESPN report.

Having already said goodbye to Richard Sherman and Jeremy Lane, the Seahawks will release DeShawn Shead to honor a promise.

Under NFL rules, Shead's contract is set to toll -- or roll over a year on the same terms -- because he spent all but two games of the 2017 season on the physically unable to perform list while recovering from a torn anterior cruciate ligament. However, according to ESPN, the Seahawks had promised Shead -- who spent 2017 on a restricted free agent tender of $1.2 million -- he would become an unrestricted free agent after last season. To honor their word, they will release him with the hopes of bringing him back on a new contract.

--Before the Denver Broncos agreed to trade veteran cornerback Aqib Talib to the Los Angeles Rams on Thursday, the club reportedly had a deal in place that would have sent him to the San Francisco 49ers.

 

The Broncos and 49ers had agreed to terms, but Talib scuttled the deal by refusing to report to San Francisco, according to an ESPN report.

The deal never materialized, and the Broncos sent Talib to L.A. instead. The 49ers, meanwhile, wooed and then signed cornerback Richard Sherman after he was released by the Seahawks.

--With the official start of free agency on the horizon this week, Denver linebacker Von Miller has Kirk Cousins high on his wish list, viewing the free agent quarterback as a great potential addition to the Broncos.

"I'm all in 100 percent," Miller told NFL.com. "This is a big time for Denver and a big time for the National Football League. You don't really have, especially quarterbacks, become free like that."

Cousins, 29, is coming off his sixth pro season and third as a full-time starter. With 81 touchdown passes and more than 13,000 yards over the past three seasons, he will attract considerable attention in a quarterback-driven league.

--The Cleveland Browns' flurry of trades Friday can't be formally announced until Wednesday, but offensive tackle Joe Thomas didn't let that stop him from giving his review of the moves.

Thomas posted an "emergency" episode of his ThomaHawk podcast on Saturday, just hours before his brother's wedding, and gave the team high marks for the acquisitions, especially for quarterback Tyrod Taylor.

Whether Thomas joins the Browns on the field next season remains to be seen. The 10-time Pro Bowl selection reportedly told ESPN in an email his "decision will be based purely on my health."

--Eric Winston's future as an NFL player is uncertain, but his status as head of the player's union is guaranteed for two more years.

The veteran offensive tackle was elected unanimously to a third two-year term as president of the NFL Players Association.

Winston, who has played the past three seasons on one-year deals with the Cincinnati Bengals, was eligible to run for the position because he played in the NFL last season. If he doesn't play in 2019, he won't be eligible for the 2020 election.

--Field Level Media

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