NFL free agents roundup
Rice, Brown stay in Oakland Jerry Rice suggested last season that he might play until he’s 45. Now he has a contract that will pay him until he’s 46.
“It could happen,” Jim Steiner, Rice’s agent, said after his client signed a six-year, $30 million deal Tuesday that helped the Oakland Raiders with their salary-cap problems.
“He takes it year-to-year based on how he feels and how he’s playing. Who knows?”
The 40-year-old Rice is the league’s career leader in receptions (1,456), receiving yardage (21,597) and touchdowns scored (203).
The Raiders’ other venerable wideout, 36-year-old Tim Brown, also signed a restructured contract. The Raiders, by some accounts, were as much as $50 million over the cap.
Dallas, meanwhile, signed another veteran, fullback Richie Anderson. He’ll be reunited with Bill Parcells, who coached him with the New York Jets. Also, Houston re-signed inside linebacker Jay Foreman, who led the expansion team in tackles last season and Miami re-signed punter Mark Royals.
Rice, who joined the Raiders in 2001, had 92 catches for 1,211 yards and seven touchdowns last season, his 18th in the NFL. With Brown and fourth-year man Jerry Porter, he gives the AFC champions one of the NFL’s top receiving trios for Rich Gannon, who was voted the league’s most valuable player.
“They were as productive as any receiver trio in recent memory,” Raiders senior assistant Bruce Allen said of Brown, Rice and Porter. “We’re happy to have them back, and I’m sure Rich Gannon is as well.”
The 31-year-old Anderson, who is entering his 11th season, was one of the NFL’s top pass-catching running backs under Parcells and Al Groh, catching 88 passes and making the Pro Bowl in 2000.
With Herman Edwards as coach and a new offense under Paul Hackett, he fell to 85 receptions in the past two seasons combined. Over his 10-year career, he has 305 catches for 2,449 yards and has rushed for 722 yards and a 3.8 yard average.