HEADLINES

Month: November 2024

Giants Place WR Russell Shepard On IR

September 26th, 2019 at 6:36pm CST by Dallas Robinson

The Giants have placed wide receiver Russell Shepard on injured reserve and promoted running back Jon Hilliman from the practice squad, the club announced today.

Shepard, 29, had been working as New York’s fourth wideout behind Sterling Shepard, Bennie Fowler, and Cody Latimer. On 73 offensive snaps, Shepard had posted three receptions for 25 yards on eight targets. With veteran pass-catcher Golden Tate due back from a suspension in Week 5, Shepard — who recently suffered a foot sprain — is no longer needed. He could potentially return from IR in eight weeks, but it seems unlikely the Giants would use an IR/return slot on Shepard.

Hilliman will become New York’s third healthy running back behind Wayne Gallman and Elijhaa Penny, and will serve as depth while starter Saquon Barkley is shelved four-to-eight weeks with a high-ankle sprain. A 2019 undrafted free agent, Hilliman signed with the Giants’ practice squad August after getting waived at final cutdowns. He spent three years at Boston College and one at Rutgers, managing 3.5 yards per carry during his collegiate career.

Minor NFL Transactions: 9/26/19

September 26th, 2019 at 6:02pm CST by Dallas Robinson

Today’s minor moves:

Chicago Bears

Detroit Lions

Miami Dolphins

Seattle Seahawks

Saints Rework Larry Warford’s Contract

September 26th, 2019 at 5:10pm CST by Dallas Robinson

The Saints have created a bit of financial breathing room by restructuring the contract of guard Larry Warford, according to Field Yates of ESPN.com (Twitter link). New Orleans has converted $5.5MM of Warford’s base salary into a signing bonus, opening up $2.75MM worth of cap space in the process.

Prior to reworking Warford’s deal, the Saints possessed the fourth-least amount of cap space in the league ($1.754MM), per Over the Cap. Now, they’ll have a little more room if they need to make more transactions — in-season signings, moving players to injured reserve, practice squad, etc. — throughout the remainder of the season.

Warford, 28, inked a four-year, $34MM deal with New Orleans prior to the 2017 campaign. After re-doing his contract, Warford now have cap charges of $7.85MM and $13.35MM in 2019 and 2020, respectively. Through three games this year, Warford has played 100% of the Saints’ offensive snaps while grading as the No. 9 guard in the league, per Pro Football Focus.

Bengals Sign CB Torry McTyer Off Chiefs’ Practice Squad

September 26th, 2019 at 4:59pm CST by Sam Robinson

Torry McTyer will return to an NFL active roster. The Bengals will bring the third-year cornerback to their 53-man roster, plucking him off the Chiefs’ practice squad, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets.

The Bengals placed cornerback Darius Phillips on IR to make room for McTyer’s arrival. The latter spent three-plus weeks on Kansas City’s practice squad, arriving in western Missouri after the Dolphins waived him on cutdown weekend.

A more committed Dolphins team used McTyer in 15 games last season, deploying the UNLV-produced defender as a starter in four 2018 games. Overall, McTyer has played in 22 NFL contests since arriving as a 2017 Dolphins UDFA.

Phillips has played in 18 Bengals games since arriving in Cincinnati as a 2018 fifth-round pick. A knee injury will send Phillips to IR, though the Bengals view the backup corner — who notched his first career interception in Week 3 — as a possible return candidate later this season, per The Athletic’s Paul Dehner Jr. (Twitter link).

Seahawks Retain WR Gary Jennings, Cut DL Bryan Mone

September 26th, 2019 at 4:09pm CST by Sam Robinson

It turns out the Seahawks haven’t given up on rookie fourth-round pick Gary Jennings. The wideout was in Seattle’s locker room Thursday, with Field Yates of ESPN.com noting (via Twitter) the team will instead waive defensive lineman Bryan Mone to make room for safety Adrian Colbert‘s promotion.

A Wednesday report indicated Jennings was the player set for the waiver wire to make room for Colbert, a former 49ers starting safety. For the time being, the Seahawks will keep their three-rookie-wideout setup going. The Seahawks submitted a notice Jennings would be waived but rescinded it, per the Seattle Times’ Bob Condotta (on Twitter).

Seattle drafted D.K. Metcalf, Jennings and John Ursua this year. Only Metcalf has made a catch as a rookie, but he and Ursua — a seventh-rounder out of Hawaii — have played in games. Jennings has yet to be active. The West Virginia product missed time during Seattle’s offseason program with a hamstring injury and had a quiet training camp.

Patriots Work Out WR Ryan Grant

September 26th, 2019 at 4:01pm CST by Sam Robinson

After the Raiders broke up their seven-wide receiver contingent by releasing Ryan Grant, the sixth-year pass catcher headed east for a workout. The Patriots auditioned Grant on Thursday, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets.

Grant caught four passes for just 14 yards as a Raider this season. He snagged 35 passes for 334 yards with the Colts in 2018, that coming after his lucrative Ravens deal fell through.

Prior to his stays in Indianapolis and Oakland, Grant was a four-year contributor in Washington. Though, he was only a regular in two of those seasons. The most notable Grant slate came in his 2017 contract year, when the post-DeSean Jackson/Pierre Garcon Redskins deployed him as a 10-game starter. He posted a career-high 573 receiving yards that season.

The Patriots have signed (and cut or traded) numerous veteran wideouts over the past two years. They have six receivers on their active roster, though Matthew Slater operates almost entirely as a special-teamer.

Latest On Antonio Brown, Patriots

September 26th, 2019 at 3:21pm CST by Sam Robinson

The Patriots’ decision to end Antonio Brown‘s stay after 11 days may not have been as unanimous as originally reported. Robert Kraft led the charge for the Patriots to jettison the embattled wide receiver, and while Bill Belichick went along with it, Tom Curran of NBC Sports Boston notes the 20th-year Pats HC probably would have retained Brown had Kraft not insisted he be released.

Kraft has not been known to intervene in personnel matters, with Curran adding this is believed to be the first time (though, Kraft was reported to have played a role in the Jimmy Garoppolo trade process — something the owner denied). Tom Brady was not on board with Kraft’s decision to cut Brown, Curran adds, noting the future Hall of Fame quarterback’s practice work with the four-time All-Pro was nearly flawless and that Brown’s talent was “beyond anything Brady ever worked with.”

Kraft was reportedly “enraged” upon learning of Brown’s text messages to his second accuser, and it led to the team cutting ties with the perennial Pro Bowler. This led to a mostly deleted Brown Sunday-morning tweetstorm, with the disgruntled receiver referencing Kraft’s involvement in the reported prostitution sting. The Brown saga will still include the Patriots going forward, considering an NFLPA-backed grievance centered around his $9MM signing bonus is likely forthcoming.

While the Patriots will face an obstacle in keeping that $9MM off their books because they deployed Brown in Week 2 after learning of the civil suit filed against him (per Albert Breer of SI.com, on Twitter), the organization will be in line to lean on the contract’s morals clause as well as language indicating Brown’s failure to disclose “any situations that may prevent continued availability” in this upcoming battle. The NFLPA will likely argue that CBA language requires a higher standard to void signing bonus money and would supersede these team-implemented clauses, CBS Sports’ Joel Corry writes.

The Pats are set to carry $5.75MM on their 2019 cap because of this process, with Corry adding a grievance likely will not be settled until 2020. A $4.5MM cap credit would come the Pats’ way, in addition to Brown’s $4.75MM 2020 charge being removed from New England’s books, should the team prevail in the grievance.

Owners Now Seeking 17-Game Schedule

September 26th, 2019 at 2:12pm CST by Sam Robinson

After years of this subject lingering, the NFL is no longer pushing an 18-game season. Instead, they’ve shifted focus to a 17-game proposal, Daniel Kaplan of The Athletic reports (subscription required).

Proposals for an outright 18-game schedule, and the convoluted idea about an 18-game slate with a 16-game cap for players, have not necessarily been shelved. But with ownership support for 18 games not as widespread as it appeared to be, and the NFLPA remained staunchly opposed to it, it’s been effectively moved to the back-burner, Mark Maske of the Washington Post reports (Twitter links).

Part of the 17-game proposal would be a one- or two-game reduction in the preseason schedule, per Kaplan. A three-game preseason schedule is the most likely course of action, per Maske (on Twitter).

Packers president Mark Murphy floated the 17-game idea over the summer. The concept included eight home games, eight road games and one neutral-site contest. The league has five neutral-site games scheduled this season — four in England, one in Mexico City — so ballooning that to 16 would be a notable change. It’s unclear if that component is still being discussed, but it would likely need to be in play to prevent some teams from having nine home games and others not.

Another item that remains in play: expanding the playoff field to seven teams per conference. The NFL has used six-team brackets since 1990 but has seen the league grow by four teams since that format was implemented. The NFLPA is also opposed to this idea, Kaplan adds, but Maske tweets a 14-team playoff field being thrown into the mix is a “strong” possibility. The 12-team setup has lasted longer than either the four- or five-team fields the NFL previously used since the 1970 merger.

No additional CBA talks have been scheduled; they are expected to resume later this year or at 2020’s outset. It’s a good bet the 17-game season and seven-team playoff prospects will be talking points when they resume. The current CBA expires after the 2020 season.

NFC Notes: JPP, Keenum, Seahawks, Vikings

September 26th, 2019 at 1:08pm CST by Andrew Ortenberg

Jason Pierre-Paul restructured his contract with the Buccaneers yesterday, and now we have the details. Originally scheduled to make $13.65MM in 2019, his new base salary will be just $3MM, according to Greg Auman of The Athletic. He’s eligible to come off the NFI list and return for the final ten games of the season, and he’ll receive a $200K bonus for each of those games that he plays in. He’ll get an additional $200K for every game he plays at least 50 percent of the defensive snaps and another $200K for each game he plays 75 percent of the defensive snaps. If he’s able to hit eight sacks he’ll get a $500K bonus and another $1MM if he reaches ten sacks, pushing the maximum value to $10.5MM.

Those sack goals are pretty lofty for only ten games, and it’s unlikely he makes the max value. Because JPP suffered a non-football injury, the Buccaneers weren’t obligated to pay his 2019 salary at all and could’ve voided his guarantees. But as Auman writes, “the team wouldn’t look good not paying a player whose injury came in a car accident in which he wasn’t even cited,” so the two sides came to an agreement. It’s unclear if he’ll actually be ready to go in Week 8 after the Bucs’ bye, as we haven’t gotten an update on his neck in a while.

Here’s more from the NFC:

  • Case Keenum didn’t practice yesterday, sparking some excitement that the start of the Dwayne Haskins era might be right around the corner. That appears to have been false hope, as Keenum was back on the practice field working with the team during the portion open to the media Thursday. As of right now, the expectations is that he’ll be under center for the team’s Week 4 game against the Giants. Colt McCoy was also on the practice field today, and it looks like he’s close to returning from the leg injury that has sidelined him up until this point. Redskins head coach Jay Gruden has been tight-lipped about the situation, but it seems possible that Haskins will be demoted to third-string upon McCoy’s return.
  • It appears Seahawks tight end Ed Dickson‘s recovery isn’t going as planned. Pete Carroll is “concerned” Dickson won’t be ready to come off injured reserve when first eligible, according to Bob Condotta of The Seattle Times (Twitter link). When Dickson first had knee surgery back in early August, Carroll said the team was hoping he’d be out 4-5 weeks. That would’ve put him on track for an early September return, but now he apparently might not be ready for the Week 9 game in early November. Seattle is notoriously overly-optimistic about injuries, but that’s unusual even by their standards. The veteran’s first year with the Seahawks was last season, where he was mostly used as a blocker. Seattle just traded away Nick Vannett, and it looks like Will Dissly will be their only real option at tight end for the foreseeable future.
  • On the flip side, Vikings receiver Josh Doctson‘s recovery appears to be going quite smoothly. Doctson was placed on injured reserve with a hamstring injury shortly after being signed, and he thinks he’ll be ready to go when first eligible after eight games. “For sure, absolutely,’’ he said Wednesday, per Chris Tomasson of the St. Paul Pioneer Press. “That’s the target and that’s the plan.’’ Minnesota was recently forced to re-sign Laquon Treadwell because of how thin they were at receiver, so they could surely use Doctson. A former first-round pick of the Redskins, Doctson was released at final cuts. He was quickly scooped up by the Vikings, but suffered his injury a week later.

Melvin Gordon Reports To Chargers

September 26th, 2019 at 11:14am CST by Zachary Links

Melvin Gordon is in the building. On Thursday, the star running back halted his holdout to join the Bolts at their team facility, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (on Twitter). 

Gordon’s holdout was always viewed as unlikely to stretch the entire season. Per league rules, Gordon has to report before Week 10 in order to qualify for free agency next season. Early on, many thought that the running back would cut it close. That’s not the case – he’s ready to rock and reported to the team on Thursday. He won’t be suiting up for this week’s game, but he could be placed back into the lineup for the Chargers’ Oct. 6 showdown with the Broncos.

After missing three games, Gordon has lost out on $1MM of his $5.6MM salary for 2019. The Chargers may, or may not, rescind fines levied against him for the missed time.

More importantly – Gordon will be cashing paychecks the rest of the way and paving the way for free agent riches in March. From a football perspective, he’ll provide a major boost for the Chargers, who are presently 1-2.

Beyond this year, Gordon expects 2019 to be his last season with the Chargers, though he has previously indicated a desire to remain in L.A. Worth noting – Gordon was open to being traded to the Texans after they lost Lamar Miller to injury.

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