Jets trade defensive lineman John Franklin-Myers to Broncos for a 2026 sixth-round draft pick

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Jets trade defensive lineman John Franklin-Myers to Broncos for a 2026 sixth-round draft pick

2024-04-28 08:55 Last Updated At：09:00

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. (AP) — The New York Jets traded defensive lineman John Franklin-Myers to the Denver Broncos on Saturday for a sixth-round pick in the 2026 NFL draft.

Franklin-Myers, whose base salary this season was $13.3 million, was due to count about $16.4 million on the Jets' salary cap. Instead, New York cleared $7.3 million in cap space by dealing him to Denver in the middle of the final day of this year's draft.

“It’s an unfortunate part of the business not being able to keep him,” general manager Joe Douglas said. But, got a hell of a player. I’ll say that."

Franklin-Myers became expendable on the Jets’ defensive line — generally considered the team’s best position group — after New York acquired edge rusher Haason Reddick from Philadelphia on April 1. The Jets also have Quinnen Williams, Javon Kinlaw, Leki Fotu, Solomon Thomas, Micheal Clemons and Will McDonald on a loaded D-line.

“That was a difficult one because when we made the trade for Hasson, we knew it was going to be next to impossible to keep JFM at his salary,” Douglas said.

Franklin-Myers, who had 3 1/2 sacks last season and 17 1/2 in four seasons with the Jets.

It's the second trade between the teams this week after New York sent quarterback Zach Wilson and a seventh-round pick in this week's NFL draft to Denver for a sixth-rounder on Monday.

Franklin-Myers appeared to know his days with the Jets were numbered when he posted a cryptic message on the social media platform X on Friday.

“Life’s a trampoline,” he posted. “I’m gone bounce back regardless.”

Franklin-Myers was likely going to see reduced playing time and was due to make about $29 million over the final two years of the four-year, $55 million extension he signed in 2021. ESPN reported the defensive lineman agreed to a new two-year, $15 million deal with the Broncos.

“We opened it up to let them explore an opportunity elsewhere, a trade elsewhere and that was a few weeks ago, obviously, after we traded for for Hassan," Douglas said. “And we got the deal worked out with Denver today after a lot of talks.”

In Denver, Franklin-Myers would figure to have a chance to start at defensive end opposite Zach Allen.

Franklin-Myers was a fourth-round pick of the Rams out of Stephen F. Austin in 2018 and had two sacks as a rookie, along with a sack and forced fumble against New England in the Super Bowl. The Jets claimed Franklin-Myers off waivers before the 2019 season and he developed into a productive pass rusher for New York.

AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL

Russia says it has captured 5 villages in northeast Ukraine as more than 1,700 civilians flee

2024-05-11 23:10 Last Updated At：23:21

VOVCHANSK, Ukraine (AP) — The Russian Defense Ministry said Saturday that Moscow's forces have captured five villages as part of a renewed ground assault in northeastern Ukraine.

Ukrainian officials haven't officially confirmed whether Russian had taken the villages, which lie in a contested “gray zone” on the border of Ukraine's Kharkiv region and Russia.

Ukrainian journalists reported that the villages of Borysivka, Ohirtseve, Pylna and Strilecha, were taken by Russian troops on Friday. Russia said the village of Pletenivka was also taken.

The Institute for the Study of War said Friday that geolocated footage confirms at least one of the villages was seized. The Washington-based think tank described recent Russian gains as “tactically significant.”

The renewed assault on the region has forced more than 1,700 civilians residing in settlements near the fighting to flee, according to Ukrainian authorities. It comes after Russia stepped up attacks in March targeting energy infrastructure and settlements, which analysts predicted were a concerted effort by Moscow to shape conditions for an offensive.

Russia's recent push in Kharkiv also seeks to exploit ammunition shortages before promised Western supplies can reach the front line, and pin down Ukrainian forces in the northeast and keep them away from heavy battles underway in the Donetsk region where Moscow's troops are gaining ground, analysts said.

Russian military bloggers said the assault could mark the start of a Russian attempt to carve out a “buffer zone” that President Vladimir Putin vowed to create earlier this year to halt frequent Ukrainian attacks on Belgorod and other Russian border regions. Fears also mount that without adequate supplies, Russia might even be able to cut supply routes and besiege the city of Kharkiv, where 1.1 million people reside.

Ukrainian officials have downplayed Russian statements about captured territory, with reinforcements being rushed to the Kharkiv region to hold off Russian forces.

On Telegram, Kharkiv region Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said that heavy fighting continued in the areas around Borysivka, Ohirtseve, Pylna and Oliinykove, but that the situation was under control and there was no threat of a ground assault on the city of Kharkiv.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed Friday evening that Russian forces were expanding their operations. He also called on the country’s Western allies to ensure that promised deliveries of military aid would swiftly reach the front lines.

“It is critical that partners support our warriors and Ukrainian resilience with timely deliveries. Truly timely ones,” he said in a video statement on X. “A package that truly helps is the actual delivery of weapons to Ukraine, rather than just the announcement of a package.”

The attack was launched from two areas in the Kharkiv region early Friday, Ukrainian officials and analysts said. Russian assault groups attempted to break through Ukrainian defensive lines in the city of Vovchansk and in the region north of the village of Lyptsi.

On Saturday, Russia continued to pummel Vovchansk with airstrikes and grad rockets as police and volunteers raced to evacuate residents. At least 20 people were evacuated to safety in a nearby village. Police said that 900 people had been evacuated the previous day.

Associated Press journalists who accompanied an evacuation team described empty streets with multiple buildings destroyed and others on fire. The road was littered with newly made craters and the city was covered in dust and shrapnel with the smell of gunpowder heavy in the air. Mushroom clouds of smoke rose across the skyline as Russian jets conducted multiple airstrikes.

“In the current moment, the situation in Vovchansk and the settlements along the border (with Russia) is incredibly difficult. Constant aviation strikes are carried out, multiple rocket missile systems strikes, artillery strikes,” said Tamaz Hambarashvili, the head of Vovchansk City Military Administration.

"For the second day in a row, we evacuate all the inhabitants of our community who are willing to evacuate.”

AP journalists witnessed nine air attacks during the three hours they were there.

“I think that they are destroying the city to make (local) people leave, to make sure there are no militaries, nobody. To create a 'gray zone,'” Hambarashvili said.

In the meantime, artillery, mortar and aerial bombardments hit more than 30 different towns and villages in the region on Saturday, killing at least three people and injuring five others, Syniehubov said.

Separately, Ukrainian forces also launched a barrage of drones and missiles on Friday night, Russia’s Ministry of Defense said, with air defense systems downing 21 rockets and 16 drones over Russia’s Belgorod, Kursk and Volgograd regions. One person died in a drone strike in the Belgorod region, and another in the Kursk region, local officials said.

Another strike set ablaze an oil depot in Ukraine’s Russian-occupied Luhansk region, killing four people and wounding eight more, Leonid Pasechnik, the region’s Moscow-installed leader, said on the messaging app Telegram on Saturday.

There was also shelling in the Russian-occupied Donetsk region Saturday, where three people died when an explosion hit a local restaurant, said Denis Pushilin, the area's Kremlin-appointed leader. Eight more people were wounded, including a child.

In the war's early days, Russia made a botched attempt to quickly storm Kharkiv but retreated from its outskirts after about a month. In the fall of 2022, seven months later, Ukraine’s army pushed them out of Kharkiv. The bold counterattack helped persuade Western countries that Ukraine could defeat Russia on the battlefield and merited military support.

Katie Marie Davies in Manchester, England, contributed to this report.

Jets trade defensive lineman John Franklin-Myers to Broncos for a 2026 sixth-round draft pick

Sport

Jets trade defensive lineman John Franklin-Myers to Broncos for a 2026 sixth-round draft pick

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