Free-agent safety Tashaun Gipson received a six-game suspension last week for reportedly violating the NFL’s policy on performance-enhancing substances.
On Monday, Gipson released a statement accepting responsibility for the suspension while also noting that he intends to play in 2024.
“During this offseason, I took a supplement one time, which I thought to be completely safe and well within any of the NFL’s policies,” Gipson said. “It was in no way related to performance, training, or gaining an advantage of any kind at any time. I have competed at this level for a long time, and have nothing but respect for the game and the fraternity of players in it. The NFL’s policy on performance-enhancing substances is clear, and I take full responsibility for anything I put into my body. It is with great disappointment that I accept this suspension, and I do so knowing that I have never even attempted to cheat the game. I look forward to returning for my 13th NFL season and helping a team compete for a championship.”
Gipson, who turns 34 in August, spent the last two seasons with the 49ers. He tallied 60 total tackles with three passes defensed and an interception in 16 regular-season games in 2023. He then had 14 total tackles with a forced fumble and pass defensed in three postseason games.
Having entered the league as an undrafted free agent in 2012, Gipson has appeared in 173 career games with 165 starts for the Browns, Jaguars, Texans, Bears, and 49ers.
After last year’s successful debut of Quarterback on Netflix, the producers couldn’t find enough quarterbacks for season two. So they moved to a new position.
And in compiling the roster for Receiver, a highly popular pass-catching tight end had a chance to join the fray.
Appearing on the Bussin’ with the Boys podcast, Travis Kelce said he declined the invitation to be one of the subjects of the show.
“After [Patrick Mahomes] did it, I did get asked about it,” Kelce said, via USA Today. “I’d rather just play ball, man; I’m already doing enough with the podcast and everything. I’m way over the reality shit, dude. I’m out on that shit.”
The subjects of Receiver are Justin Jefferson of the Vikings, Davante Adams of the Raiders, Amon-Ra St. Brown of the Lions, and Deebo Samuel and George Kittle of the 49ers. If Kelce had done it, there’s a good chance (given everything that happened last year), that he would have become Bruce Springsteen and the rest of the bunch would have been the E Street Band. Or maybe it would have been all about Kelce and only Kelce.
The show debuts, without Travis Kelce, on July 12.
Training camp is coming. When the 32 teams gather for preseason practices, several high-profile players might not be present, if they force the issue on getting new contracts.
So which names are the ones to watch? Funny you should ask, even if you didn’t.
The goal of this item is to list all of the potential veteran holdouts, with some explanation and analysis of each situation.
That said, there’s a chance some of the players listed below will “hold in.” That’s a fairly new trend where the player shows up for training camp but doesn’t practice while negotiations continue. The only problem with this approach is that, if/when there’s no deal, at some point it’s time to practice and play. For the player who never shows up, it’s easier to keep holding firm. And the pressure remains even more pronounced on the team if the player isn’t there.
The following list has no particular order to it, other than the fact that I went through the eight divisions from AFC East to AFC North to AFC South to AFC West before doing the same in the NFC when compiling the list.
Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa
He wants a market deal. The Dolphins have yet to offer one, or they’d already have an agreement. At some point before training camp opens, the Dolphins will make an offer far better than the $23.1 million he’s due to make in his option year. To get what he wants, Tua’s best and only play might be to hold out.
Dolphins receiver Tyreek Hill
He’s doing everything he can to put a happy face on a contract situation that has him nearly as unhappy as he was two years ago in Kansas City. Still, the market has passed him by. Even though he says he’s making $30 million per year, he’s at $25 million — behind teammate Jaylen Waddle.
Hill seems to believe the Dolphins will adjust his contract. Maybe they will, maybe they won’t. Maybe, at most, they’ll move some of the $45 million he’s due to make in 2026 into 2024, where he’s south of $20 million. If that’s not good enough, maybe he’ll stay away in order to get a deal that compares favorably to other high-end receivers.
Patriots linebacker Matt Judon
Judon skipped some of the offseason program as he enters the final year of his contract. He showed up for mandatory minicamp.
Last year, he held in. This year, he said he won’t be “throwing tantrums.”
One way to not throw tantrums is to not show up. Still, he has made it clear that he plans to show up. While plans can change, his mindset as of last month was to show up and get to work.
Jets linebacker Haason Reddick
The Jets traded for a guy who wanted a new contract without signing him to a new contract. It should be no surprise, then, that he skipped the entire offseason program.
Will he show up for camp? No one knows at this point. The possibility that he won’t underscores the magnitude of the mistake the Jets made in trading for him without getting him signed.
Yeah, the Jets supposedly thought they had a verbal understanding with Reddick that he’d show up for the offseason and they’d eventually do something with his contract. As we’ve seen time and again, verbal understandings aren’t worth the paper they aren’t printed on.
Bengals receiver Ja’Marr Chase
On the day Justin Jefferson got his new deal, the Bengals could have worked out a contract for Chase that same day. And they should have.
It should be easy to get to the new-money number Chase wants. Although Chase showed up for mandatory minicamp, he could decide to take a stand if the Bengals keep dragging their feet.
The good news for the Bengals is that receiver Tee Higgins has signed his franchise tender. Since training camp opens after the deadline for doing a long-term deal, there’s nothing to be gained by staying away. He has opted to accept $21.8 million for 2024, followed by a likely shot at free agency in March, given the team’s longstanding habit of tagging a player for one year before letting him walk away.
Browns receiver Amari Cooper
Cooper skipped mandatory minicamp in an effort to get a deal to replace the final year of his current contract, with a base salary of $20 million. If he doesn’t get a new deal by the start of camp, a holdout can’t be ruled out.
Broncos receiver Courtland Sutton
Sutton showed up for mandatory minicamp despite wanting a new deal. (He’s due to make only $13 million this season.) He hasn’t ruled out a holdout.
Cowboys receiver CeeDee Lamb
Lamb reportedly won’t attend camp without a deal that replaces the $17.9 million he’s due to make in the final year of his rookie contract. Will the Cowboys give him what he wants? As explained Monday, there’s a way to do it while also creating current-year cap space. Which would be a win-win for a team desperately hoping to engineer some wins in the playoffs.
Cowboys linebacker Micah Parsons
Parsons has said he’ll be patient when it comes to getting a new contract. He shouldn’t be.
He’s one of the best defensive players in football. He shouldn’t risk his health for less than $3 million in 2024. He should refuse to practice or play until he gets paid.
Yes, he attended mandatory minicamp. So did Ezekiel Elliott in 2019. And then Zeke didn’t show up for training camp.
Without a new contract, Parsons should do the same.
Packers quarterback Jordan Love
There’s currently no reason to think the Packers and Love won’t get a new deal done before training camp opens. If they don’t, however, why should Love show up?
He’s due to make only $11 million this year. He needs to be willing to take a stand, if his contract situation isn’t resolved before the Packers head to training camp.
Buccaneers tackle Tristan Wirfs
With only $18.44 million in salary for 2024, he’s been looking for a new deal all year. He showed up at mandatory minicamp. Again, that’s no guarantee he’ll show up for training camp unless he gets a contract offer that prompts him to sign on the dotted line.
Saints running back Alvin Kamara
Kamara left mandatory minicamp early, due to frustration with contract talks. He wants security beyond 2024, given that the team will tear up next year’s phony-baloney $25 million compensation package.
Will he skip camp without a new deal? We’ll find out when camp opens.
49ers receiver Brandon Aiyuk
Much has been said about Aiyuk and the 49ers and whether he will or won’t be traded. He ultimately needs to ask himself whether he’s willing to show up and play for $14.1 million in 2024 — or whether he wants to draw a line in the sand.
Short of a long-term, market-level deal, the 49ers could give him a sweetener and/or agree not to tag him in 2025. For now, there’s been nothing other than a staring contest augmented by the various things Aiyuk has said, on social media and elsewhere.
When it’s time to show up for camp, we’ll see if he does.
Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford
Stafford has wanted more guarantees for a while. He should also want more money. A deal hasn’t been done yet.
If it doesn’t happen before camp opens, who knows? Given the lack of high-end options on the roster, Stafford had plenty of leverage. If he chooses to use it.
The 49ers would surely love to persuade receiver Brandon Aiyuk to play for the team in 2024, at a fifth-year option salary of $14.1 million. Whether Aiyuk is ultimately willing to do that remains to be seen.
Regardless, Mike Garafolo of NFL Media reports that the 49ers and Aiyuk are no closer to a long-term deal.
“For Aiyuk and the 49ers, they had conversations recently,” Garafolo said, via NBC Sports Bay Area. “They are no closer to a deal, from my understanding, but they are also no closer to a trade request. That’s never been something that he has explored in this case.”
There’s a game of semantics going on between the 49ers and Aiyuk. Even if he hasn’t asked to be traded, we believe his agent was given permission to seek a trade before the draft. The goal, we also believe, was to let Aiyuk realize that no one else was willing to give him the $30 million per year he reportedly has been seeking.
Ultimately, no one was willing to give Aiyuk what he wants in a contract and what the 49ers want in a trade. Otherwise, a trade would have happened.
If Aiyuk wants something more than the $14.1 million he’s due to make, he might have to take a stand. Whether he does or doesn’t remains to be seen. The deeper question is whether the 49ers will blink for Aiyuk, the same way they did a year ago with defensive end Nick Bosa.
The NFL has suspended free agent safety Tashaun Gipson for the first six games of the 2024 season, according to the daily transactions report. The league does not specify the reason, but Adam Schefter of ESPN reports that Gipson violated the NFL’s performance enhancing substances policy.
Gipson, 33, spent the past two seasons with the 49ers and started 34 of a possible 35 regular-season games and all six postseason games.
He recorded one sack, one interception and three passes defensed in 16 games in 2023.
Gipson has played for five teams in his 12 seasons, totaling 684 tackles, 33 interceptions and 68 pass breakups.
His only Pro Bowl came in 2014 with the Browns.
July 1 is known as Bobby Bonilla Day in some circles because it is the day that Bonilla receives his annual deferred salary payments from the New York Mets.
Bonilla last played for the team in 1999 and they bought out the remaining $5.9 million in his salary in 2000. Rather than pay Bonilla a lump sum, the Mets proposed deferring the compensation making annual payments of just under $1.2 million over 25 years starting in 2011. Mets ownership at the time believed they would make a profit from the arrangement because they would invest the money in the interim and they had been receiving double digit returns on their investments at the time.
That plan hit a snag because Bernie Madoff was the financial advisor overseeing those investments and the returns the Mets thought they were generating were never actually realized.
It worked out well for Bonilla, however, and his payment this July 1, as pointed out by Adam Schefter of ESPN, is more than the 2024 salary of 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy. Purdy, who will make $985,000 in salary this year, is heading into his third season, so the league’s Collective Bargaining Agreement has barred him from renegotiating the deal he signed as a 2022 seventh-round pick.
That will change after the 2024 season and it will be a surprise if Bonilla continues to draw a bigger salary than Purdy at this time next year, but Bonilla will still continue to cash in on a deal that keeps on giving for years to come.
Christian McCaffrey won the NFL’s offensive player of the year award while handling more touches than any player in the league, so the running back provided the 49ers with both quality and quantity on the field.
49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan hinted that they might like to dial back the quantity a bit as they try to maintain the quality during the 2024 season. While speaking to reporters from the team’s offseason workouts this month, Shanahan said that the team thinks they have enough depth to give other players a run in place of McCaffrey at points this season.
“We have guys that can run the ball,” Shanahan said, via TheAthletic.com. “We have to protect Christian from himself. He doesn’t like to ever come out no matter what the situation is and I do think that’s something we could protect him with more. When you are such a threat in the pass game, it’s a little bit different. . . . But if he’s just taking the wear and tear with 20 carries and stuff every game — and he’s definitely good enough to do that and he has proved he can stay healthy — but you’d like to take some of that off of him and give it to other guys also.”
Elijah Mitchell had 75 carries last season and Jordan Mason ran the ball 40 times, but the 49ers could wind up looking to 2024 fourth-rounder Isaac Guerendo as a change of pace if he does well in the preseason. They could also just opt to not break what didn’t need fixing last season and continue rolling with McCaffrey as the main force in their offense.
The current expectation is that wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk will be playing for the 49ers in 2024, but he has thought about what other options might be in play.
Aiyuk met with the 49ers this week and a report said that the meeting ended with both sides saying they were not looking for a trade ahead of the season. Aiyuk hasn’t gotten a contract extension, though, and the continued absence of one means that things could still flare up again before we get to September.
During an appearance on The Pivot, Aiyuk said he doesn’t feel the two sides are particularly close to striking a deal at the moment and he was asked what uniforms he could see himself wearing in 2024.
“If I were to take a guess, probably a Niner uniform,” Aiyuk said. “Probably a Niner uniform. If not a Niners uniform, probably a Washington Commanders uniform. If not a Washington Commanders uniform, probably a Steelers uniform.”
The Steelers have previously been mentioned as a possible landing spot for Aiyuk and he was once college teammates with Commanders rookie quarterback Jaylen Daniels, but the fact the 49ers remain the likeliest choice should give nervous 49ers fans some solace about where the wideout will be this year.
49ers wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk’s push for a new contract recently led to a meeting with the team that reportedly ended with an understanding that the team was not looking to trade him, but without any certainty about a new deal.
During an appearance on The Pivot, Aiyuk was asked if he feels like they are close to an agreement that would keep him with the Niners beyond the 2024 season. Aiyuk said that it has not felt that way recently.
“Throughout this process, there have been times when we’re super close,” Aiyuk said. “I’m telling my agent ‘Let me get my suit ready, I’ve got to get it back to the Bay. I got to get right to sign that contract.’ There’s days and times, like in the past month or so, where you could say we’re pretty far apart.”
Aiyuk indicated that the feeling the two sides were close came earlier in the process and that deals signed by other receivers have changed the market in a way that has made a deal feel less likely. That may have been part of the reason why Aiyuk told Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels that the 49ers “don’t want me back.” Former NFL safety and The Pivot host Ryan Clark said he didn’t believe the team told Aiyuk that and the wideout explained why he said that to Daniels.
“They told me that they didn’t think that we were on the same page and that they didn’t believe that we were going to,” Aiyuk said. “And that was about it at that time. But it’s part of it. It’s part of the contract negotiations, trying to sway stuff in either direction. So whether that’s 100 percent true or not, I guess that’s still to find out.”
For now, the two sides aren’t on the same page so the 2024 season could prove to be Aiyuk’s swan song with the NFC West club.
The 49ers aren’t putting a timetable on linebacker Dre Greenlaw’s return to action and they’ve planned for his absence in the early part of the season.
They signed De’Vondre Campbell away from the Packers as a free agent in March and he spent the last few months learning the team’s defensive scheme. Assuming he gets it down and shows he’s capable of fitting the team’s needs, Campbell seems like the top choice to team with Fred Warner when things get underway in September.
During an interview with 49ersWebzone.com, Campbell said he won’t make that call but will be ready for anything the team asks of him.
“That’s really not up to me,” Campbell said. “My goal right now is to try to learn as much as I can about this defense so I can help them. Whatever is required of me, I’m going to be ready to impress the coaching staff. I want to get on the field because I know nothing is promised or guaranteed. They called me and told me they wanted me. It was a really good opportunity for myself to join a contender. I’m just trying to make the most of it. I don’t have any expectations really. I’m just trying to impress this coaching staff and let the chips fall where they may.”
The 49ers have spent the last few seasons knocking on the door of a championship and they hope that Campbell’s presence will help them finally take the final step.