Today’s practice squad moves:
Arizona Cardinals
Cincinnati Bengals
Green Bay Packers
Los Angeles Rams
New England Patriots
San Francisco 49ers
Here are Wednesday’s minor moves:
Dallas Cowboys
Green Bay Packers
Los Angeles Rams
Pittsburgh Steelers
San Francisco 49ers
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, in their search to make their first general manager outside hire in over a decade, the Vikings have requested an interview with Buccaneers’ executive John Spytek (Twitter). Spytek is the current vice president of player personnel in Tampa Bay.
A Midwest-native, Spytek got his start as an operations intern for the Lions in 2004. He became a player personnel intern for the Eagles in 2005, taking only a year to earn a full-time college scouting assistant position. From Philadelphia, he moved to Cleveland to become their director of college scouting. After three seasons in the Browns’ organization, he spent about three more years in Denver before taking a position in the Buccaneers’ front office. He’s currently in his sixth season with Tampa Bay and his 18th in the NFL.
The connection to Minnesota is interesting due to Spytek’s connection to the Kubiak family from his time in Denver. Be sure to track the Vikings’ interest in Spytek and other candidates to replace Rick Spielman here.
The Dolphins have requested to interview Bills’ defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier, according to a tweet from Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer. 
Frazier has been with Buffalo throughout Sean McDermott‘s five-year tenure, overseeing a Bills defensive resurgence, and would be a second-chance candidate after a four-season run as Vikings HC in the early 2010s. The 62-year-old assistant has been an NFL staffer since 1999, joining the Eagles under Andy Reid after two years with the University of Illinois.
Taking over the Vikings as an interim HC in 2010, Frazier did not enjoy a favorable quarterback situation while in that role. The Vikings used Christian Ponder as their starter for most of Frazier’s run. Frazier has called defensive plays for the Bills and has been connected to a couple of coaching searches in recent years.
Frazier interviewed twice for the Texans job that went to David Culley this year and met with the Colts following the Josh McDaniels about-face in 2018. Bills ownership has pushed for a team to hire Frazier as HC. It would be interesting to see the Dolphins once again go for a defensive play caller from a divisional rival.
Parts of this article were contributed by Sam Robinson
Ten candidates have emerged in the Broncos‘ coaching search. Despite the team going back-to-back with defensive coaches, Dan Quinn is believed to be one of the early frontrunners, per ESPN.com’s Dan Graziano and Jeremy Fowler (ESPN+ link). Despite being fired early in the 2020 season, the ex-Falcons HC has become a hot name in the 2022 interview cycle. The interest in Quinn puts him in position to be picky, as the current Cowboys DC has raised his stock after turning around the NFC East champions’ defense this season. He has yet to interview for the Broncos job yet. Quinn and Denver GM George Paton worked together in Miami under Nick Saban from 2005-06. Quinn, 51, was the Dolphins’ defensive line coach in those seasons. The Broncos have also done extensive work on Packers OC Nathaniel Hackett, Fowler adds. Both Hackett and Green Bay QBs coach Luke Getsy are on Denver’s HC interview list.
Here is the latest from the coaching ranks:
Likely set to hire an outside GM for the first time in over a decade, the Vikings have taken a bit more time to send out their interview requests. But they sent out their first summons Wednesday night.
Browns vice president of player personnel Glenn Cook received a Vikes interview request, Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports tweets. Cook has landed on the radar of both the NFC North’s GM-seeking franchises, having interviewed for the Bears’ GM gig Wednesday.
In addition to Cook, the Vikings sent out requests to speak with Patriots senior consultant Eliot Wolf and fellow Browns staffer Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, Tom Pelissero of NFL.com tweets. Those two are also on Chicago’s interview list.
Previously in the Packers organization, Cook joined the Browns in 2016. Cook started in the scouting department and rose to the level of assistant pro scouting director, before climbing to his current post in 2020. The Browns were not exactly a sought-after organization for executive talent when Cook arrived, but they have seen multiple execs receive interview requests during this cycle. Both Minnesota’s other two early interview hopefuls worked in Cleveland, where longtime Vikings assistant Kevin Stefanski landed.
Prior to stays in Cleveland and New England, Wolf enjoyed a lengthy Green Bay tenure. The son of Hall of Fame GM Ron Wolf, Eliot has been in the GM mix for a few years now. Yet to rise to a GM role, Wolf interviewed for the Packer job that went to Brian Gutekunst. He also was in the mix for the Colts’ GM post in 2017. The Browns’ vice president of football operations, Adofo-Mensah spent time with the 49ers before joining the Browns in 2020. He interviewed for the Panthers’ GM position last year.
The Vikings are seeking to replace Rick Spielman, who had been with the organization since 2006. In addition to the three requests sent out, Colts VP of player personnel Ed Dodds and Chiefs director of football administration Brandt Tillis are potential candidates, ESPN.com’s Courtney Cronin tweets.
Barely 300 receiving yards from 10,000, T.Y. Hilton is not certain to play next season. The longtime Colts wideout is considering walking away after 10 years.
So is Jack Doyle, who has been in Indianapolis for nine seasons. Interestingly, the two plan to discuss their respective plans before making their own decisions. The veteran tight end is signed through 2022; Hilton is set for free agency again.
“I’m just gonna take some time and talk to Jack and just go through it,” Hilton said, via George Bremer of the Herald Bulletin. “If I want to play one more year, I could play one more year. If not, then I won’t. So [I’ll] just talk to him, see how he’s feeling and once he makes his decision, I’ll kind of know what I want to do kind of based on him.
“Whether it’s here or whether it’s somewhere else, I’ll make my decision some time in the offseason.”
Hilton, 32, received strong interest from the Ravens in 2021 but opted to take a slightly lesser offer — one year, $8MM — to come back to the Colts. This is also not the first time Hilton considered walking away. The neck injury he suffered last summer, the latest in a recent run of injuries, sidelined him for the season’s first five weeks. During that time, he contemplated leaving the game.
The former third-round pick returned to action in October, and although his numbers were way down (23 catches, 331 yards, three touchdowns — all career-lows), the longest-tenured Colt still played a key role. While Hilton is 309 yards away from 10,000 — a club currently housing 50 players — the four-time Pro Bowler is behind only Marvin Harrison and Reggie Wayne in Colts history. The Colts have moved to Michael Pittman Jr. as their top wideout. Regardless of Hilton’s plans, his age, Zach Pascal‘s UFA status and Parris Campbell‘s health history certainly makes wide receiver a need for the Colts this offseason.
A two-time Pro Bowler, Doyle played 58% of the Colts’ offensive snaps this season. Pro Football Focus did not observe a decline in Doyle’s blocking, slotting him as a top-five run-blocker at his position. That obviously proved key for the run-focused Colts, who unleashed Jonathan Taylor to the point he finished with a 552-yard lead for the rushing title. Doyle, 31, is set to make $4.7MM in base salary next season.
Two AFC South staffers became the latest to emerge in the Panthers’ hunt to fill their offensive coordinator post. Colts wide receivers coach Mike Groh and Texans quarterbacks coach Pep Hamilton are the latest to surface on the radar for the job.
The Panthers sent out an interview request for Hamilton and have interviewed Groh, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets. These assistants join former HCs Bill O’Brien and Jay Gruden, along with Vikings OC Klint Kubiak, in the mix to succeed Joe Brady.
Both Groh and Hamilton have OC experience at the NFL level and at major colleges. Hamilton has bounced around a bit, but the current Houston assistant was a play-calling OC in Indianapolis for three seasons (2013-15) under Chuck Pagano. During those seasons, Andrew Luck helped the Colts to the divisional round and AFC championship game. A former Stanford OC and Michigan passing-game coordinator, Hamilton has been with the Chargers and Texans as QBs coach over the past two years, which respectively saw a dominant debut from Justin Herbert and a quality late-season run from Davis Mills.
A non-play-calling OC with the Eagles from 2018-19, Groh did not retain his duties into 2020 under Doug Pederson. Groh, who has spent the past two years as the Colts’ wideouts coach, was previously the OC at Virginia in the 2000s before finishing his college run at Alabama in 2012. He has been in the NFL since.
After a complicated run during last year’s GM hiring period, Omar Khan is a name to watch again. The Bears sent out an interview request to speak with the Steelers exec Wednesday, Adam Schefter of ESPN.com tweets.
The Steelers vice president of football and business administration figures to be a candidate to succeed departing Pittsburgh GM Kevin Colbert, but for the second straight year, his name has surfaced on the interview circuit. Khan has been with the Steelers since 2001, though he was seemingly prepared to leave Pennsylvania for another gig last year.
A key figure for the Steelers on the contract front, Khan became the top candidate for the Texans’ GM post last year. The Texans offered Khan the job, on the recommendation of the search firm the franchise hired, and were believed to be negotiating a deal with him. At the 11th hour, those plans changed; Nick Caserio became Houston’s GM. Khan also interviewed with the Panthers, who ended up hiring Scott Fitterer to team with Matt Rhule.
Khan is the ninth name connected to the Bears’ GM search. Here is how that stands as of Wednesday afternoon:
After sustaining several injury subtractions down the stretch, the Buccaneers are preparing to deploy a healthier squad for their first-round playoff matchup. The defending champs designated Lavonte David, Leonard Fournette and Giovani Bernard for return from IR on Wednesday.
David has been down since suffering a foot injury during the Bucs’ Week 15 loss to the Saints, one of a few key Bucs who did not make it past that night. The veteran linebacker has spent the past three weeks on IR but is eligible to return for Sunday’s Eagles tilt. Also seeing an ankle malady sideline him earlier in the campaign, David missed five games during the regular season due to injury.
Joining David in going down in that Saints shutout loss, Fournette returned to practice and is expected to play Sunday. Fournette enjoyed a bounce-back season, rushing for 812 yards (on 4.5 per carry) in 14 games, before suffering a hamstring injury in Week 15. The playoffs stand to be pivotal for Fournette, who is on the cusp of what should be a better free agent market. The former top-five pick played a vital role for the Bucs during last year’s postseason, totaling 448 yards from scrimmage and scoring four touchdowns.
Bernard has been down a bit longer, missing that Saints tilt and having not played since Week 14. One of the few key newcomers for Tampa Bay this season, Bernard has not played much of a role for his second NFL team. The longtime Bengal has totaled just 181 scrimmage yards in 12 games.
The Bucs activated Shaquil Barrett from IR on Tuesday, and Bruce Arians also expects Jason Pierre-Paul to return after a rotator cuff tear sidelined him for the past four games. While Richard Sherman is done for the season, the Bucs stand to be a much healthier squad when they play their 18th game this season.