NFL Player News

The Steelers have signed quarterback Bruce Gradkowski to a three-year deal. The Pittsburgh native, who once led the Raiders to an improbable win at Heinz Field, will back up Big Ben.

The Cardinals placed a second-round tender on quarterback Brian Hoyer, likely keeping him with the team in 2013. Hoyer is allowed to negotiate with other teams until April 19, but the Cardinals have the right to match any offer or receive a second-round pick as compensation.

CBS Sports NFL Insider Mike Freeman reported Tuesday that Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers does not plan on holding out this offseason if a new deal is not reached. However, according to ProFootballTalk.com, a league source close to the team has indicated that the Packers will extend Rodgers' contract "soon" and that it will set a new benchmark that will stand for several years to come.

In an interview on WLW-AM in Cincinnati, Bengals offensive coordinator Jay Gruden said quarterback Andy Dalton needs to make a big jump in 2013 by improving his deep-ball accuracy and touch passes. "He’s got a long way to go," Gruden said. "He's done some great things for a second-year quarterback, won a lot of games and thrown some good touchdown passes, but we feel like he has not come close to his potential. That’s our job to get it out of him. And he knows he’s gotta play better, and we all do."

New Jaguars coach Gus Bradley likes what he saw from quarterback Blaine Gabbert in watching film from his Week 1 performance against Minnesota in 2012. He hopes that Gabbert can show up all season in 2013. “He started off real well, he was on fire, and you said, 'Wow,’” Bradley said. “After that the inconsistency started showing up. So I think there are enough bright spots. We’re so competitive, we’re saying all we have to do is start out like he did in Minnesota and have that be more consistent in his game. That’s how we operate, that’s how we’re going into it, saying we just need to help him become more consistent, give him more confidence and let’s see if we can do that. That’s why I think we’re so excited about him. Let’s see where it takes us. We don’t know. We’ve got to get him on the field and see how he handles it.”

The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports when specifically asked about trading Brandon Weeden or backup Colt McCoy, Browns coach Rob Chudzinski didn't shoot the idea down. "We're looking to improve our team in any areas, by any means of doing that," he said.

According to mlive.com, Lions president Tom Lewand said it is important to rework quarterback Matthew Stafford's current contract. Stafford has two more years remaining on his contract, and will earn a base salary of $12 million in 2013, but his salary cap hit is $20.3 million. He will earn $11 million in 2014 ($19.3 million salary cap number) and $15 million in 2015 ($17.7 million salary cap number). Despite the obvious need to free up cap space, Lewand said reworking Stafford's deal is essential because he wants the quarterback to remain in Detroit long-term. "Matthew Stafford is our quarterback, and we hope is our quarterback for a long time," Lewand said. "The reason to explore a contract extension with Matthew is to fulfill that goal of having him be our quarterback for a long time. It's not a short-term look at the salary cap. That's the wrong way to look at that. When you look at extending somebody like Matthew, he's not going to take less money to extend. That's a very short-term focus to look at. The reason to have an extension with Matthew, just like the reason to have the extension with Calvin last year, was to secure their services for a long period of time. In Calvin's case last year, the timing was a little bit different because we knew that there was an opportunity to get something done. But in Matthew's case, Matthew's got two years left on his deal. Calvin didn't. It's a different set of circumstances."

A number of sources are reporting USC quarterback Matt Barkley has a Grade-3 shoulder separation, keeping him from participating in Combine drills. Barkley sent a letter to every NFL team explaining his injury and his decision to not work out at the Combine. He intends to throw at his Pro Day on March 27.

Browns blog DawgsByNature.com picked out an interesting nugget on quarterback Colt McCoy: Due to clauses in his contract he's set to make over $2.3 million in 2012. By cutting him the Browns save nearly all but $200,000 of that money.

New Jaguars quarterbacks coach Frank Scelfo told the Florida Times-Union he believes Blaine Gabbert is better than any quarterback prospect in the 2013 NFL Draft. "If you graded him out right now, this is his draft class. If he were coming out and the quarterback draft class the way it is, would he be the top guy taken? I think the answer is yes," Scelfo said. "Ask the scouting departments and the general managers around the league and I think you would end up with a yes on that. Basically at his age, 23, the No. 1 pick in the draft with two years of experience already under his belt. That’s pretty good."