Mike Tolbert took less money so he could be in the South

AP

When running back Mike Tolbert signed with the Panthers, it was reported that he took less money than the Chargers were offering.

In an interview with the Associated Press, Tolbert confirmed he left $1 million on the table and explained why he left money on the table as a free agent. It certainly wasn’t an increase in opportunity, not with DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart already in Carolina. Tolbert, who played at Coastal Carolina and grew up in Georgia, says that he wanted to get back to his roots.

“I just wanted to raise my daughter in the South,” Tolbert said. “I just think this is a better place to raise a family. It was time for a change, and I just think first of all the South is a better place to raise a family.”

Tolbert also said that his familiarity with the Panthers offense helped make it easier to make the move. Head coach Ron Rivera and offensive coordinator Rob Chudzinski both worked for the Chargers and Tolbert refers to Chudzinski as an “innovator” offensively.

The Panthers have talked a lot about using Tolbert in a variety of roles, including split out as a receiver. Reports from OTAs have him working almost exclusively as a fullback, however, which likely means a reduction in touches from his San Diego days. It would seem coming home doesn’t come without its sacrifices.

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Despite only being in existence since 1996, the Ravens have won two Super Bowls.  Which will make it difficult to limit the pantheon of franchise greats to only four.

Ray Lewis and Jonathan Ogden can safely be installed in two of the spots.  For the other two, consider candidates like Ed Reed, Terrell Suggs, Peter Boulware, Joe Flacco, Ray Rice, Anquan Boldin, Matt Stover, Ozzie Newsome, John Harbaugh, Steve Bisciotti, Art Modell, Jamal Lewis, Chris McAlister, Haloti Ngata, Matt Birk, Willis McGahee, and Shannon Sharpe.

Nominate your favorites below.

The unveiling of team-by-team Mt. Rushmores will commence on June 2, on NBCSN’s Pro Football Talk.

What else are you gonna do in June?  Watch baseball?

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After his appearance at Redskins’ OTA practice on Thursday, quarterback Robert Griffin III said he has “only” two hurdles left in his recovery from a torn ACL:  (1) clearance for “explosive” sprinting; and (2) clearance to cut.

Those are both fairly significant hurdles.

As to these obstacles, perhaps the most important maneuver for an athlete with a new ACL, a source with knowledge of the situation tells PFT that there is no timetable for said clearance.

“It is still a ways off,” the source said.  “No one is going to rush anything.”

That’s the most important thing for Griffin, the Redskins, the media, and the fans to remember.  Griffin got into this mess because not enough attention was being paid to his health.  This time around, despite anything anyone says, they’re going to be careful.

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The Texans have agreed to a contract with third-round pick Sam Montgomery, Tania Ganguli of the Houston Chronicle reported Thursday.

The 6-foot-3, 262-pound Montgomery will play outside linebacker in the Texans’ 3-4 scheme. He recorded 19 sacks in three seasons for LSU.

After the selection of Montgomery, Texans linebackers coach Reggie Herring called the rookie linebacker a “big, strong, powerful, explosive individual.”

“His play strength is (the) exception, it’s about average,” Herring said, according to a transcript from the club. “As far as the run game, he has that play strength that you need to play early in this league. I think he’ll blend in well as far as the run game and setting the edge in our package.

“The other thing is when we look at our outside backers, we look at pass rush as a priority in our defense. He does bring an element of rush off the edge that is, once again, probably undeveloped and raw, but he has the basic ingredients, and that is, he can rush speed to power.”

Montgomery, who garnered first-team all-Southeastern Conference honors from league coaches in 2012, declared for the draft with one season of eligibility remaining.

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The 49ers have signed rookie tight end Vance McDonald, the club said Thursday.

McDonald, whom the 49ers selected in the second round, could compete for playing time right off the bat for San Francisco, which lost Delanie Walker in free agency. According to Pro Football Focus, Walker played 589 regular-season snaps a season ago for the 49ers, with Vernon Davis — the Niners’ top tight end — logging 942 snaps, per PFF data.

A Rice product, the 6-foot-4, 267-pound McDonald caught 120 passes for 1,513 yards and 15 touchdowns in four seasons with the Owls. He was the No. 55 overall pick.

Adam Caplan of TheSidelineView.com first reported McDonald’s signing.

The 49ers also confirmed the signing of defensive lineman Tank Carradine, their other second-round selection in the 2013 draft.

AP

We noted before the draft that Terrell Brown was a 6-foot-10, 388-pound defensive lineman from Ole Miss who had drawn some interest from NFL teams. But that’s not quite right.

Actually, Rams coach Jeff Fisher says, Brown is a 6-foot-10, 403-pounder. And Fisher says that after the Rams signed Brown as an undrafted free agent, they decided that his future is on the offensive line.

“Actually, we weighed him in at 403,” Fisher told reporters today. “We had him in for the tryout and he had some issues that we had to clear up from a physical standpoint. But he got that put behind us. We worked him out on both sides of the ball, defensive line and offensive line, and we felt like his best position would be right tackle. [Rams offensive line coach Paul Boudreau] said he’d love to have him. He’s a defensive lineman that we’ve converted to offensive lineman.”

Fisher also noted that with Brown’s height, the Rams might be able to put him on the field goal block team.

“He might be able to block some kicks,” Fisher said.

And if he can’t do that, he might have a future in the WWE, which is looking for some big-bodied football players. And it might help Brown make it in professional wrestling that he already has experience with folding chairs.

AP

It sure looks like a lot of NFL contract negotiators are heading to the beach this weekend, given the dizzying pace of rookie signings.

According to Adam Caplan of TheSidelineView.com, the 49ers joined the parade by signing second-round defensive end Tank Carradine.

Carradine’s coming off a torn ACL last November at Florida State, but they think he could be cleared to return by training camp.

Considering he ran a 4.75-second 40 at his pro day at 265 pounds, there is evidence to back up that belief.

The 49ers have shown a tendency to draft guys a year away (or more) from when they’re needed, but Carradine’s skills, along with age and some departures on the 49ers defensive line could push him forward.

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The Chiefs have signed rookie defensive back Sanders Commings, the club said on its official website Thursday.

A fifth-round pick from Georgia, the 6-foot, 216-pound Commings has gotten a look at safety early in his NFL career, a position where the Chiefs have Eric Berry and Kendrick Lewis as starters. He can also line up at cornerback, the position he primarily played at Georgia.

Commings, 23, notched 51 tackles and intercepted three passes in 2012, his senior at Georgia. He started 35 games in his final three seasons for the Bulldogs. Commings was timed at 4.41 seconds in the 40-yard dash at the NFL Scouting Combine.

AP

As we reported earlier, the Cardinals signed third-round pick Tyrann Mathieu to a four-year deal on Thursday.

While discussing Mathieu’s agreement, we mentioned dueling post-draft reports that the Cardinals wanted to sign Mathieu to a contract that included no guaranteed money and that Mathieu was unwilling to sign such a contract. The Cardinals didn’t announce the terms of the deal, but Albert Breer of the NFL Network reports that Mathieu wound up coming out ahead on that front.

Per Breer, Mathieu got the full slotted signing bonus for the 69th overall pick. That’s $662,500, but Mathieu won’t see it all up front. He will be paid $265,000 right now with the remainder of the bonus coming in the next three years with annual payments of $132,500 that must be paid unless Mathieu is cut because of drugs. The total value of the deal is $3.052 million.

Breer’s colleague Ian Rapoport also reports that Mathieu agreed to regular drug testing with the Cardinals, although the details of that agreement are not part of the contract. Mathieu’s agent Pat Lawlor told Rapoport that “both sides understood the issues we were dealing with all along” while working on the contract and the resulting deal is one that satisfies both the Cardinals’ desire for protection against a relapse from Mathieu and Mathieu’s desire to be paid what the 69th overall pick of the draft is supposed to be paid.

AP

There was a wide range of opinions about quarterback Matt Barkley heading into the draft, but the side that argued he was too flawed a quarterback to go in the first couple of rounds won out in the end.

That left Barkley to go to the Eagles in the fourth round and we’ll find out his thoughts about how things turned out when he joins Carolyn Manno for a conversation on Thursday’s edition of PFT on NBCSN. Manno will also talk to Barkley about his first impressions of playing for Eagles coach Chip Kelly and how he sees the quarterback derby playing out in Philly this year.

Ralph Vacchiano of the New York Daily News will also be on hand to talk about the Giants with wide receiver Hakeem Nicks‘ absence from OTAs likely to be a prime topic of conversation. Mike Florio and Tom Curran will also be on hand to talk about the biggest news of the day and the burning questions that AFC East teams will need to answer heading into the season.

It all gets started at 5 p.m. ET on NBCSN.

Reuters

Well, at least now he’ll be able to cover the medical bills.

The Ravens announced that they had signed second-round pick Arthur Brown, a day after coach John Harbaugh mentioned that Brown had sports hernia surgery earlier this month.

Assuming he’s well at the start of training camp, which is reasonable with the timeline of the procedure, Brown figures to start inside, where the Ravens lost a guy named Ray Lewis as well as free agent Dannell Ellerbe.

Brown’s a little undersized, but he was solid value for the Ravens in the second round, and could make an early impact for them once he gets back on the field.

AP

The Cardinals think they may have gotten the best playmaker in the draft when they drafted former LSU defensive back Tyrann Mathieu in the third round and now they’ve gotten him under contract.

The team announced Thursday that they have reached agreement on a four-year deal with Mathieu. Shortly after Mathieu was drafted, Peter King of SI.com reported that the Cardinals would be offering Mathieu a contract without guaranteed money, something Mathieu’s agent unsurprisingly said was not acceptable to his client. There’s no word yet on the financial details, but it would be surprising if Mathieu backed off that demand with the deal getting done in May.

Mathieu will be starting his Cardinals career as a safety instead of at the cornerback spot he played while at LSU before he was dismissed from the team following failed drug tests. He’s also expected to put that playmaking ability on display in the return game, although the Cardinals also have Patrick Peterson to bring back punts.

With Mathieu under contract, the Cardinals now have three draft picks left to sign. That group includes first-round guard Jonathan Cooper.

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The Steelers have signed sixth-round pick Justin Brown, the club announced Thursday. Pittsburgh now has five draft choices under contract.

A wide receiver who finished his collegiate career at Oklahoma, Brown (6-3, 209) hauled in 73 passes for 879 yards and five touchdowns in 2012 for the Sooners. He played his first three college seasons for Penn State.

After the selection of Brown, Steelers wide receivers coach Richard Mann said the receiver’s size and blocking ability were assets.

“(He’s) a guy that is primed for the strong side,” Mann said, according to the club. “He is a big guy who can lock up on the safeties and dig them out when it’s colder up here and we have to run it. He’s a guy we can put in and help with our running game.”

Brown is the third-tallest wide receiver currently on the Steelers’ roster; only 6-foot-5 Plaxico Burress and Derek Moye are taller.

AP

The Panthers signed their entire draft class in about a day and a half.

The agent for fifth-round linebacker A.J. Klein just tweeted that his client had signed his rookie deal. The Panthers came back moments later with confirmation of that, along with word they had signed sixth-rounder Kenjon Barner.

The Panthers announced deals for defensive tackles Star Lotulelei and Kawann Short in the last day, along with fourth-round guard Edmund Kugbila.

Klein won’t have an immediate role on defense, but he’s a versatile linebacker who could find a spot down the line, when the Panthers start culling out bad contracts. The same could be true for Barner, though restructuring deals for DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart pushes that off for another year or so.

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As the recently retired Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher looks back on his career, there’s one missed tackle in particular he wishes he could have back.

Urlacher said on the Dan Patrick Show that it still sticks in his craw that when the Patriots beat the Bears in 2006, Tom Brady ran right past him for an 11-yard gain to pick up a crucial first down on third-and-9.

“Brady always kicked my butt. I don’t think I ever beat Tom, we as a Bears team, ever beat Tom Brady when he was the starting quarterback. He always played well against us and he juked me out of my shoes in 2006,” Urlacher said. “Man, he got me.”

Urlacher’s memory is correct: Brady’s Patriots played Urlacher’s Bears three times, and the Patriots went 3-0. And on that run in 2006, Brady met Urlacher in the open field, and instead of sliding, gave just a little bit of a head fake and ran right past him, leaving Urlacher grabbing for air.

“That was pretty cool,” Brady said after that game. “I can tell my kids one day that I beat Brian Urlacher.”

That’s a play both of them will remember long after retiring.

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Redskins wide receiver Pierre Garçon chose to rest his injured foot last season instead of having surgery, a decision that got him back on the field for the final stretch but one that didn’t keep him from having an operation this offseason.

The operation wasn’t on his foot, however. Redskins coach Mike Shanahan said Thursday that Garçon had “chest” surgery after an injury suffered in the team’s playoff loss to the Seahawks. He wasn’t more specific than that, although Rich Campbell of the Washington Times reports that it was actually an operation to repair an injury to his labrum.

More significant for the Redskins is the fact that Shanahan is upbeat about Garçon’s recovery. He’s not doing team drills right now, but did catch passes from Robert Griffin III during Thursday’s workout and should be recovered in time to do everything at camp.

“I think Pierre, his rehab has been unbelievable,” Shanahan said, via Campbell’s colleague Stephen Whyno. “Anytime you get operated on like he did and you’re able to come back as quickly as he has, I was watching him this morning in the weight room and he was lifting weights that he shouldn’t be able to lift. And he feels very comfortable, and it’s been a slow process. But he’s in excellent shape, so I’ll be surprised if he’s not full-speed, ready to go once we go to training camp.”

Garçon had 44 catches for 633 yards in 10 games last season, numbers that the Redskins surely expect to rise if he can stay healthy in 2013. While you never want to see one of your players have surgery, it doesn’t sound like this operation is going to be a major stumbling block for Garçon come the start of the season.