Biggest NFL Stories You Missed During Draft Mania

You may not have heard, but in just a few days, the 2017 NFL draft will begin in Philadelphia.

I know. I was surprised too.

Kidding aside, the draft has been the dominant story surrounding the National Football League dating back over a month. And the closer we get to April 27, the more the hype and hoopla surrounding the draft punt every other story to the back burner.

However, just because the draft is the biggest story in town doesn't make it the only story in town. Plenty of other things are going on around the NFL.

There have been more than a few free-agent developments, including one Pro Bowl running back potentially coming out of retirement and another one possibly inching toward it.

There's been a move in the league office that could have a big impact on the upcoming season—a season we know more about now that the schedule has dropped.

And there's the latest weird scandal enveloping a star quarterback.

Whether it's those stories, injury updates or news from the first round of workouts of the season, here's a look around the NFL at the biggest stories that have nothing to do with the draft.

Beast Mode's Return?

Ted S. Warren/Associated Press

It's no surprise the Oakland Raiders were in the market for running back help this offseason, especially after Latavius Murray left in free agency.

The player they appeared to have settled on was something of a surprise, but for several weeks, it looked like the deal was going to happen—veteran tailback Marshawn Lynch was going to un-retire and join the Raiders via a trade with the Seattle Seahawks.

"Beast Mode" was coming home to the Bay Area.

Maybe.

According to Kevin Patra of NFL.com, colleague Ian Rapoport indicated Oakland's acquisition of the 31-year-old bruiser may not be such a fait accompli after all:

"Right now, there's no agreement between Marshawn Lynch and the Oakland Raiders, and the real deadline here -- they hoped to have it done by yesterday when offseason conditioning started, didn't happen -- the real deadline here is the draft. Because it is possible that the Raiders get on the clock Thursday night or Friday, and say 'Alright, we're going to take this running back. He has a value here for us. We're just going to take the leap.' And once they take a running back, it probably will close the door on Marshawn Lynch."

It doesn't take a rocket surgeon to connect the dots. This year's class at running back is one of the deepest in years. There will be options available on Day 2 (Toledo's Kareem Hunt, Tennessee's Alvin Kamara and Oklahoma's Joe Mixon among them) who have every-down workhorse potential.

This is pure speculation on my part, but this feels like a situation where the hangup is compensation for the player and not the team. The Seahawks have no motivation to get greedy here. Anything beats nothing, even if all they get is a late Day 3 pick.

Lynch, on the other hand, is a Pro Bowl tailback with a Super Bowl ring. He may well expect to be compensated as such—or at least close to it, as a report from Vic Tafur of the San Francisco Chronicle suggests.

If that's the case, general manager Reggie McKenzie and the Raiders should stick to their guns. Lynch is also an aging back who didn't play last year and struggled the year before.

McKenzie confirmed to Tafur that either a deal is getting done soon or not at all. "At some point, you would like to know," McKenzie said. "Prior to the draft is that point."

Either sign him on the team's terms or just move on.

Adrian Peterson Watch

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Marshawn Lynch has one thing on Adrian Peterson where veteran running backs are concerned.

At least Lynch has an NFL team genuinely pursuing him.

However, that might be changing. According to Jason La Canfora of CBSSports.com, the New York Giants are keeping tabs on a couple of veteran tailbacks, including the 32-year-old Peterson.

"Not much movement in RB market," La Canfora tweeted, "but NYG are among teams keeping close tabs on Peterson and Blount seeing if their $$ comes down before draft."

Peter King wrote for The MMQB that he doesn't expect any movement on the Peterson front until post-draft, but there at least could finally be some positive momentum:

"

The good sign, I hear, is that he's willing to play for a reasonable sum for a 32-year-old back with two washout seasons in the past three years. I hear in the right situation he would be willing to play for $5 million or less. He's had a few visits, the most recent of which was New Orleans, which could hold some fascination because of the proximity to Peterson's Houston home, and because Sean Payton would know well how to use him. But right now I'm told there's no leader in the clubhouse. After the draft is smarter for him and for teams, because that's when teams can see most clearly their needs.

"

As situations go, New Orleans doesn't give Peterson much of a chance to pursue the ring that has eluded him to this point in his illustrious career. And while the Giants offer a better shot at a deep playoff run, the last I checked, Houston is down the road a piece from New Jersey.

Never mind that both landing spots could conceivably dry up if the chips in a deep draft class in the backfield fall a certain way.

It says something about the transient nature of the running back position in the NFL that a future Hall of Famer who topped 1,500 total yards in 2015 could be twisting in the wind as April turns to May.

That's the cold truth of this situation, though. It isn't apt to be resolved anytime soon.

Jay Cutler Needs a Hug

Rick Osentoski/Associated Press

No one is going to call Jay Cutler a great quarterback. But when the Chicago Bears parted ways with the 33-year-old, the belief was that it wouldn't take too long for him to find work.

Maybe a Houston Texans team that traded Brock Osweiler would sign the 11-year veteran. Perhaps the New York Jets.

Or perhaps not.

The Jets were at least believed to be interested, according to ESPN.com's Jeff Dickerson. But Cutler apparently wasn't feeling concluding his career starting games for a rebuilding Jets team, so Gang Green moved on to Josh McCown.

The Texans, per Dickerson, kicked the tires on Cutler, but with head coach Bill O' Brien preferring to proceed with Tom Savage under center, Houston's front office deferred to its head coach.

Can't really blame general manager Rick Smith for that after the Osweiler debacle.

However, that last part has got to sting at Casa Cutler. Rather than acquire a veteran quarterback with 139 career starts and a Pro Bowl on his NFL resume, the Texans decided to go with a fourth-year pro who has all of two career starts.

In those 11 NFL seasons, Cutler has thrown 208 touchdown passes. The next one Savage throws will be his first.

As if that weren't bad enough, Conor Orr of NFL.com reported former teammate Antrel Rolle recently reinforced the perception that Cutler wasn't the sort of locker room leader NFL quarterbacks are expected to be:

"

I just honestly feel like he would get much better results if he involved himself more in the team collectively, with all individuals. It doesn't have to be offense, defense, special teams, but just everyone as a collective unit, I think he would get more out of his game for himself.

"

It's possible something could change after the draft, but as things stand today, it looks like Cutler is going to follow Tony Romo down retirement road.

Without a fat broadcasting deal at the end of the street.

The Osweiler Era Begins in Cleveland

Steven Senne/Associated Press

Speaking of Brock Osweiler...

When the Cleveland Browns essentially bought out the abomination that is Osweiler's contract from the Houston Texans in exchange for a pair of draft picks, the belief was the Browns had one of two plans in mind for the 26-year-old.

Move him in another deal or cut him loose.

However, as Cleveland executive vice president of football operations Sashi Brown told reporters, that plan has changed:

"

We expect Brock to be here. He's in, done a good job, coming in [to voluntary workouts] the first couple days. Positive young man. He's got some ability and talent and we look forward to him trying to establish himself here and have a chance to compete to be the starting quarterback.

"

Now, the reality of this situation is that nothing has really changed. Everyone expects the Browns to target a quarterback early in the 2017 draft—probably with one of their two first-round picks.

But the reality also is that the Browns' current quarterback situation is, how shall I put this, ungood.

Awful.

In the immortal words of Charles Barkley, turrible.

Regardless of what the Browns do with Osweiler, they're going to be paying him a whole lot of money in 2017. They might as well see what they have.

Granted, what they probably have is a quarterback who completed less than 60 percent of his passes and threw more interceptions than touchdowns in 2016.

But they might as well make sure.

Dean Blandino Pulls a Romo

Manuel Balce Ceneta/Associated Press

It isn't often that a shakeup in the league offices results in what could be a huge impact on the field that season.

But with the NFL recently voting to use an even more centralized replay system, the news that the guy it thought would be watching those replays and making the calls is bolting to watch them for a TV network was a thunderclap in league circles.

The sudden departure of head of officiating Dean Blandino, who Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio reports is likely to join Fox's broadcast crew, has left the league with more than a little egg on its face. As Bleacher Report's own Mike Freeman wrote, it was no secret that Blandino was unhappy with his role in New York:

"

It was Super Bowl week when I first heard that Dean Blandino, the head of NFL officials until he stepped down from the position last week to take a job on TV, wanted out of the NFL and was headed to CBS. I asked several different sources what they knew and a picture emerged: Blandino was miserable, I was told, and hated working in the NFL office because it was too political, and no one had your back.

Blandino, according to my sources, had been trying to leave the NFL since November.

"

And yet, despite this rumor making the rounds in some circles, the league still voted overwhelmingly to make all replay calls from New York this fall. Without having Blandino under contract. Or a clear successor in place.

If it didn't know, why not? If some did, why wasn't everyone made aware Blandino was thinking of leaving?

And as Freeman asks, why should fans care?

Blandino's job may have been one of the more thankless in sports, but by all indications, it was one he performed well—as did his predecessor Mike Periera (who also works at Fox now).

Beginning this season, it's a job that will have even more impact on games across the NFL every week.

Now imagine Mike Carey (the former CBS analyst who never saw a replay he couldn't get wrong) or someone like him filling Blandino's shoes.

That's why fans should care.

'Hard Knocks' to Feature Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2017

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The Tampa Bay Buccaneers were one of the NFL's more pleasant surprises in 2016, winning nine games in Dirk Koetter's first year as head coach.

The Bucs won't be sneaking up on anyone this year.

As ESPN.com's Jenna Laine reported, the Buccaneers have been selected to appear on the HBO series Hard Knocks in 2017, which will follow the club throughout training camp.

Koetter said he thinks the exposure will good for the team—provided the Bucs back it up with wins once the season begins.

"I think it could be good, Koetter said. "I think when a team has not been one of the main faces of the league for a while, I think it can contribute to that, but the No. 1 thing that contributes to that is [to] win football games."

Quarterback Jameis Winston agreed.

"The whole world gets to see how great of an organization this is and see the great people that we have within the organization," Winston said. "We're out there doing it for the fans, we're out there doing it for the city, and 'Hard Knocks'—they'll just show the whole world."

Veteran defensive tackle Gerald McCoy assured Laine the publicity won't detract from Tampa's main mission in 2017—contending in the NFC South:

"

We've still got a season to prepare for, whether there's a camera watching or not. We play the games on Sundays with cameras watching, so if you think you can't go out to practice and practice with a camera on you then you're probably in the wrong profession. If we get picked, it is what it is, let's be professionals and go to work.

"

The Buccaneers are a team filled with young stars expected to take the "next step" this season with no shortage of subplots, including tailback Doug Martin's looming suspension and a camp battle at kicker between second-year pro Roberto Aguayo and veteran Nick Folk.

In other words, getcha popcorn ready.

Regular-Season Schedule Drop

Gregory Payan/Associated Press

It says something about the popularity of the NFL that with the NBA and NHL playoffs in full swing and the MLB season just getting underway that the biggest topic of conversation last Thursday was the release of the NFL's schedule.

There was a two-hour prime-time TV special announcing it, for Pete's sake.

Now that we know who's playing who and when they're doing it, here's a preview of a handful of prime-time games that highlight the first half of the 2017 regular season.

Kansas City Chiefs at New England Patriots (Week 1)

It's become tradition for the reigning Super Bowl champions to kick off the season on Thursday night at home. That will again be the case on September 7, when the AFC's top two seeds from last year get things underway in Foxborough, Massachusetts.

Green Bay Packers at Atlanta Falcons (Week 2)

Last year's NFC Championship Game wasn't much of one, with the Falcons opening a can on the banged-up Packers in the last game at the Georgia Dome. The first regular-season game at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium will be a rematch of that shellacking.

New England Patriots at Tampa Bay Buccaneers (Week 5)

My favorite thing about this year's schedule is no doubt a Thursday night slate that's short on turkeys and long on intriguing matchups—including this Week 5 opener in Tampa that could go a long way toward telling us how good the Buccaneers really are in 2017.

New York Giants at Denver Broncos (Week 6)

The Giants and Broncos are a pair of flawed contenders with stifling defenses but more than a few question marks on the other side of the ball. By this point in the season, at least one of them may be fighting to keep their season afloat.

Atlanta Falcons at New England Patriots (Week 7)

Given what happened the last time these teams met in Houston, you can't blame the Falcons if the thought of a trip to Boston gives them heartburn. They better get some Rolaids ready—they're heading to Gillette Stadium on October 22.

J.J. Watt Feeling Good

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Among the injured players rehabbing as the first round of voluntary workouts gets underway, one name looms large above all others.

But despite losing most of the 2016 season to a back injury that required a pair of surgeries, three-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year J.J. Watt of the Houston Texans insisted to ESPN.com's Sarah Barshop that he's feeling good and should be ready to go in 2017.

"I feel very good," Watt said. "My body feels really good so I'm really looking forward to this whole offseason process and OTAs and just getting back to just playing football. I think that's the biggest thing. I just want to play football."

Chronic back issues aren't the sort of injury that just "goes away." But Watt said in addition to playing at his customary million miles an hour in 2017, the 28-year-old plans to be smart about getting through the season intact:

"

I think they'll probably put some sort of plan in place just to limit overall reps throughout the season. Obviously there's a ton of reps during the season, the game reps being the most important ones, the ones that affect the result. But it mostly comes down to my workouts and making sure that I'm very smart in my workouts...creating a plan where I don't put myself at risk.

You can't really control what happens on the field. What I can control is my workouts. I can control what I'm doing in the weight room and what I'm doing on the practice field to make sure that I limit all of those risks. So that's what we control. We control the things we can control and then you go out there and you play and you just let it fly and obviously hope for the best.

"

Even without Watt in the fold in 2016, the Texans fielded the NFL's No. 1 overall defense en route to winning the AFC South and a Wild Card game.

Most of the offseason headlines have centered on the team's issues at quarterback, but the healthy return of the league's best defensive player could go a long way toward masking Houston's deficiencies on offense.

The Crowded Beantown Backfield

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There hasn't been a more aggressive team in the NFL this offseason than the New England Patriots.

You know, because they had so many holes to fill.

The latest part of the team to get the makeover treatment was the backfield. First, as ESPN.com's Mike Reiss reported, the Patriots rewarded Super Bowl hero James White for his performance in Houston, handing the 25-year-old tailback a three-year, $12.69 million contract extension.

That was just the beginning, though.

For the second straight season, the Pats raided their AFC East rivals in Buffalo, signing a restricted free agent to a deal the Bills were hard-pressed to match.

Last year, it was wide receiver Chris Hogan. In 2017, it's running back Mike Gillislee.

As Jay Skurski reported for the Buffalo News, as last week wound down, the Bills were still debating whether to match the two-year offer sheet for Gillislee, who averaged 5.7 yards a carry and scored eight touchdowns in limited duty for the Bills in 2016.

"You know, Mike's a good football player, right? And we understand that," coach Sean McDermott said. "We're still going through the process of evaluating that offer sheet, and in a couple days, we'll have a decision."

However, the Patriots structured the deal with a $4 million cap hit in 2017. That just so happens to be just about all the cap space the Bills have, per Spotrac, if you account for this year's rookie pool.

That creative structuring of the deal accomplished the desired effect. As Darin Gantt reported Monday afternoon for Pro Football Talk, the Bills decided not to match New England's offer. As compensation, Buffalo will receive the Patriots' fifth-round pick in 2017—No. 163 overall.

Now, with White, Gillislee, Dion Lewis and the recently acquired Rex Burkhead in town, the Patriots are hip deep in versatile young tailbacks.

Maybe LeGarrette Blount should have taken the offer that was on the table.

Say It Ain't So, Eli

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We'll wrap this article with what's sadly becoming something of an annual rite of passage in the NFL.

Bizarre scandals.

OK, this one isn't for sure a scandal—yet.

But it's definitely bizarre.

As part of a lawsuit brought against New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning and memorabilia company Steiner Sports by three collectors, an email was released recently that purports to show Manning was fraudulently trying to pass off helmets as "game used."

As Kaja Whitehouse and Bruce Golding reported for the New York Post, Manning wrote to equipment manager Joe Skiba that he needed "two helmets that can pass as game used. That is it. Eli." Minutes later, Manning wrote to agent Alan Zucker, who asked for the helmets, saying, "Should be able to get them for tomorrow."

The Giants say the emails have been taken out of context in an effort to make Manning appear guilty. And as ESPN.com reported, the 36-year-old quarterback vehemently denies any wrongdoing:

"

I will say that I've never done what I've been accused of doing. I have no reason, nor have I ever had any reason, to do anything of that nature. I've done nothing wrong and I have nothing to hide. And I know that when this is all done everybody will see it the same way.

"

Given Manning's hefty salary, it seems ludicrous at first glance that Manning would risk his reputation to pawn off fake doodads. But it also wouldn't be the first time in history that the ludicrous turned out to be true.

Manning told ESPN.com that the league offices have yet to contact him about these allegations, and the Giants say they have submitted documentation to the court that will resolve the matter and clear Manning's name.

Here's hoping that's the case. A spring and summer of countless reports about "HelmetGate" or "ManningGate" or "WhateverGate" just doesn't strike me as a good time.