Browns’ trade spree nets Taylor, Landry
A starting quarterback. A three-time Pro Bowl receiver. A shut-down cornerback.
With three major trades on Friday, the Cleveland Browns let it be known that they intend to be taken seriously.
Two months after an agonizing 0-16 season mercifully ended, new general manager John Dorsey addressed three major needs on the eve of free agency by acquiring mobile quarterback Tyrod Taylor in a deal with Buffalo, wide receiver Jarvis Landry from Miami and cornerback Damarious Randall from Green Bay, a person with direct knowledge of the overhaul told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. Teams are not permitted to announce any trades until next week.
In exchange, the Browns shipped quarterback DeShone Kizer and swapped late-round picks with the Packers, gave the Dolphins a fourth-round pick this season and a seventh in 2019 and sent the Bills the No. 65 overall pick in this year’s draft.
Seahawks: Cut ties with star cornerback Richard Sherman, who became one of the NFL’s premier cornerbacks during his seven seasons with the team.
Sherman was an overlooked fifth-round draft pick who went on to become a two-time All-Pro who helped anchor a defense that was the league’s best for several years. He will be 30 years old going into next season and coming off an Achilles tendon injury that cost him half of the 2017 season.
Sherman was due $13 million for the 2018 season and his release gives Seattle a salary cap savings of about $11 million. Sherman was released with a “failed physical” injury designation.
Bucs: Mike Evans agreed to a five-year, $82.5 million contract extension that makes him the second-highest paid receiver in the NFL. The deal includes $55 million guaranteed with an average salary of $16.5 million, surpassed only by Antonio Brown’s $17 million average in Pittsburgh.
Eagles: Agreed to trade wide receiver Torrey Smith to the Panthers for cornerback Daryl Worley, according to two people familiar with the deal. Smith had 36 catches for 430 yards and two touchdowns while starting 14 games in his first season in Philadelphia. The move saves the Super Bowl champion Eagles about $5 million on the salary cap.
49ers: Will not pick up the contract option on pass rusher Elvis Dumervil, 34, who led the team with 6½ sacks last season and has 105½ in an 11-year career.
ODDS AND ENDS
Baseball: Facebook is getting deeper into the professional sports streaming game, partnering with Major League Baseball to air 25 weekday afternoon games in an exclusive deal. The games will be available to Facebook users in the U.S. on Facebook Watch, the company’s video feature announced last August, via the MLB Live show page.
NASCAR: Martin Truex Jr. won the pole Friday for the Cup Series race Sunday at ISM Raceway. The defending series champion turned a lap at 136.945 mph in the last of three rounds of qualifying on the mile oval. He edged Kyle Larson in 84-degree afternoon heat for his 16th career pole and second at Phoenix.
Tennis: Serena Williams beat Zarina Diyas of Kazakhstan 7-5, 6-3 in the first round of the BNP Paribas Open on Thursday night after a 14-month layoff for the birth of her first daughter. Williams has been away since winning the 2017 Australian Open early in her pregnancy. She gave birth to Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr. six months ago.
Cycling: French cyclist Rudy Molard won the sixth stage of the Paris-Nice race and Spanish rider Luis Leon Sanchez kept the leader’s yellow jersey.