Here are Thursday’s practice squad moves:
Atlanta Falcons
Denver Broncos
Kansas City Chiefs
Philadelphia Eagles
Tennessee Titans
The NFL now has its first teams eliminated from playoff contention. The Texans and Bears, as they essentially have been doing throughout this season, are playing for next year. Other eliminations will soon follow, as the league’s playoff picture heats up.
Through that lens, the 2023 draft order will become an increasingly more pertinent topic. The 2023 draft will present an interesting subplot near its outset. Traded picks are set to produce early selections for the Seahawks, Lions and Eagles. Each of those picks currently land in the top five, as the teams on the other end of those trades — the Broncos, Rams and Saints — have disappointed, spectacularly so in Los Angeles and Denver’s cases.
For non-playoff teams, the draft order will be determined by the inverted 2022 standings — plus a series of tiebreakers, starting with strength of schedule — with playoff squads being slotted by their postseason outcome and regular-season record. Here is how the draft order would look entering Week 14:
* = Denotes playoff team
The 2023 first round will resemble 2008 and 2016, when the Patriots were docked their Round 1 pick for their respective “gate” scandals. This year’s Dolphins saga never developed “gate” status, but the team lost a 2023 first-round pick and 2024 third-rounder due to the Tom Brady–Sean Payton tampering case. Thus, a 31-pick first round will commence.
While the Broncos, Rams and Browns lost their first-round picks due to trades for quarterbacks, the Saints passed theirs to the Eagles in this year’s pre-draft trade that allowed New Orleans a path toward moving up for Chris Olave. The No. 16 pick which was initially transferred from the Colts to the Eagles in 2021’s Carson Wentz trade was then moved to the Saints, netting Philadelphia a 2023 first-rounder and a 2024 second.
Increasingly in the spotlight due to passing-game limitations, the Falcons’ quarterback situation will undergo a change when the team next takes the field. Atlanta is benching Marcus Mariota for rookie Desmond Ridder, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets.
The second quarterback chosen this year, Ridder has not taken any snaps as a pro yet. The Falcons will begin the Cincinnati product’s audition following their bye week. Atlanta faces New Orleans in Week 15.
While Mariota’s longest run as a starter since 2018 has resulted in a potent Falcons ground attack, the team has not offered much through the air. Mariota has not topped 200 passing yards since Week 8; the Falcons rank 31st in passing. They are 5-8 and 1.5 games behind the Buccaneers, who have used two game-winning drives to take control of the NFL’s worst division this year. A recent report indicated the Falcons would stick with Mariota as long as they were in contention. But Arthur Smith said following Sunday’s home loss to the Steelers everything was on the table at this position.
Atlanta pulled the plug on the Matt Ryan era in March, unloading its 14-year starter after seeing its Deshaun Watson pursuit finish in what was believed to be the silver-medal position. The Browns’ unprecedented contract offer — five years for a fully guaranteed $230MM — enticed Watson to nix believed plans to play in his home state and waive his no-trade clause for Cleveland. The Falcons traded Ryan to the Colts soon after, and Smith then reunited with Mariota via a two-year, $18.75MM deal.
Although Smith had benched Mariota midway through his first season as Titans OC, he designed his second Falcons offense around the former No. 2 overall pick. Mariota’s contract calls for $12MM in 2023. Of that total, $3MM is due via a roster bonus on the fifth day of the 2023 league year, Tom Pelissero of NFL.com tweets.
Mariota, who backed up Ryan Tannehill for most of 2019 and served as Derek Carr‘s backup from 2020-21, does have a 15-to-9 touchdown pass-to-interception ratio and ranks 14th in QBR. But the Falcons used top-10 picks on pass catchers in each of the past two drafts. They have remained a run-oriented offense, putting the likes of Cordarrelle Patterson and Tyler Allgeier to work. That plan resulted in inconsistent years for Drake London and, especially, Kyle Pitts. The latter finished his abbreviated season with 28 receptions for 356 yards; this came after Ryan helped Pitts become only the second rookie tight end in NFL history to surpass 1,000 yards.
A four-year starter at Cincinnati, Ridder impressed as both a passer and runner at the American Athletic Conference program. The 6-foot-4 QB topped 500 rushing yards in three of his four Bearcats seasons and showed progress through the air as a senior. After failing to exceed 2,500 passing yards from 2018-20, Ridder threw for 3,334 yards and 30 touchdowns to help Cincinnati become the first Group of Five school to crash the College Football Playoff last season.
The Falcons stopped Ridder’s freefall at No. 74, selecting the experienced college passer ahead of Malik Willis and Matt Corral, and saw their draftee flash during the preseason. Atlanta’s delay in benching Mariota for Ridder confounded some around the league for weeks. The team, which took on extensive dead money to move Ryan and Deion Jones in trades, was not expected to contend this season. Were the Falcons in another division, it is worth wondering if they would have made the Ridder decision earlier. But they will begin this examination with four games remaining. While it is a bit later than most expected coming into the season, this stretch will help determine how the Falcons proceed at quarterback in 2023.
Here are Wednesday’s minor moves:
Atlanta Falcons
Cleveland Browns
Denver Broncos
Detroit Lions
Houston Texans
Los Angeles Rams
Minnesota Vikings
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Ellefson came off IR just last week and did not play in the Vikings’ matchup against the Jets. A nagging groin injury will send the third-year tight end back to IR. Although the new IR rules allow for players to be activated twice from IR, Minnesota’s injury-return math may come into play by the time Ellefson’s second activation window opens (Week 18).
In Darden, Browns snagged the NFL’s punt-return yards leader. The 2021 Bucs fourth-rounder has not seen much action on offense, with Tampa Bay oozing experience at the receiver position. But he has been Tampa Bay’s primary punt returner. Darden has totaled 330 punt-return yards this season. A 2021 third-round pick, Schwartz sustained a concussion that has sent him to IR. Ragland has spent the past month on the Raiders’ taxi squad. The Browns are the former second-round pick’s fifth team in four seasons; the ex-Jets draftee was with the Chiefs, Lions and Giants from 2019-21. After losing Anthony Walker and Jacob Phillips earlier this year, the Browns moved Sione Takitaki to IR with an ACL tear this week.
A rotational cog for the Saints, Colts and Chiefs during his five-year career, Stallworth played only 14% of Kansas City’s defensive snaps this season. He committed a third-down roughing-the-passer penalty during a Bengals touchdown drive in Week 13. The Texans had already used one of their injury activations on Dwumfour; the 1-10-1 team has three remaining. Greenard, who led the 2021 Texans with eight sacks, has been on the shelf since going down with a calf injury in an October practice.
Entering the season, the Falcons were one of a few teams which were expected to transition away from a veteran quarterback to a rookie at some point during the campaign. That has yet to take place, but the team’s circumstances could change during the bye week. 
When asked about the situation under center, Falcons head coach Arthur Smith said that “everything is on the table” following Sunday’s loss to the Steelers (Twitter link via Jeff Schultz of The Athletic). The options he and the coaching staff will weigh during the week off is allowing Marcus Mariota to remain in place as the starter, or handing the reins over to third-round rookie Desmond Ridder.
Mariota, 29, signed a two-year deal this offseason to join the Falcons after they moved on from Matt Ryan and came up short in the bidding war for Deshaun Watson. That allowed him to serve as a No. 1 for the first time since 2019, his final year with the Titans. The former second overall pick has put up numbers essentially in line with his career averages so far, while leading the team to a 5-8 record.
That level of performance led to questions around the league about why he had not been benched yet in favor of Ridder. Widely seen as a temporary hold-in as the starter, Mariota has overseen a run-heavy offense and averaged just over 170 passing yards per game. While the Falcons were able to tread water to begin the year, they have now lost four of their last five.
Nevertheless, Smith indicated just two weeks ago that Mariota would remain the starter as long as Atlanta was in playoff contention. Given the landscape of the NFC South, that may remain the case for several more weeks if the Buccaneers are unable to pull away with their division lead. With four games remaining on the schedule, though, the potential of a postseason berth could add urgency to a swap under center.
Ridder led the Bearcats to an historic CFP playoff appearance last season, but was a member of the underwhelming 2022 class of QB prospects. While that has led to questions about his NFL ceiling, the time for him to begin answering those questions may be coming in the near future.
Here are the league’s minor transactions leading into the Sunday-slate of Week 13 games:
Atlanta Falcons
Baltimore Ravens
Cincinnati Bengals
Cleveland Browns
Dallas Cowboys
Green Bay Packers
Houston Texans
Indianapolis Colts
Kansas City Chiefs
Las Vegas Raiders
Los Angeles Chargers
Los Angeles Rams
Miami Dolphins
Minnesota Vikings
San Francisco 49ers
Seattle Seahawks
Tennessee Titans
Washington Commanders
Next year’s running back market stands to feature a glut of starter-caliber options. Even if the Giants and Raiders respectively keep Saquon Barkley and Josh Jacobs from hitting free agency, potential first-time free agents Miles Sanders, Tony Pollard, David Montgomery, Damien Harris, Devin Singletary and Alexander Mattison are unsigned through 2023. Ditto Kareem Hunt, who is expected to hit the market after the Browns held off on a deadline trade. Jeff Wilson and Jamaal Williams would also be intriguing second-go-round UFAs, but the Panthers have a player in a similar position.
D’Onta Foreman signed a one-year, $2MM deal to relocate from Charlotte to Nashville this offseason, and he has continued his Titans pace. Christian McCaffrey‘s replacement, who ended up being Derrick Henry‘s top fill-in last year, now has seven 100-yard games over his past 13. Teams are monitoring the former third-round pick’s status, according to Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.com. The Panthers have Chuba Hubbard signed through 2024, and although they are likely to change coaching staffs come January, Foreman makes sense as a re-sign candidate. Despite being a 2017 draftee, he is just 26. And thanks to a lengthy hiatus that covered much of a three-year stretch from 2018-20, the ex-Texas Longhorn only has 366 career carries. That bodes well for more quality seasons being ahead.
Here is the latest from the NFC South:
Today’s minor NFL transactions:
Atlanta Falcons
Los Angeles Rams
Minnesota Vikings
Tennessee Titans
Kyle Pitts underwent knee surgery Tuesday, and the second-year tight end will not return this season. Falcons HC Arthur Smith ruled out the former No. 4 overall pick from coming back this year.
This is not an especially surprising outcome for Pitts, who suffered a torn MCL in Week 11. He will now have several months to concentrate on knee rehab; Smith said the team is not concerned about this issue lingering into 2023.
Wednesday’s news ends a fairly frustrating season for Pitts, who entered the year after becoming just the second rookie tight end (after Mike Ditka 61 years ago) to surpass 1,000 receiving yards. In Atlanta’s run-oriented offense this season, Pitts amassed 356 yards and two touchdowns on 28 receptions. Pitts, 22, remains a central part of Atlanta’s long-term plan; he is signed through the 2024 season and can be kept on his rookie contract through 2025 (via the fifth-year option).
The highest-drafted tight end since the AFL-NFL merger, Pitts finishes his 2022 season having eclipsed 45 receiving yards in just two games. The Falcons needed plenty from Pitts as a rookie, having traded Julio Jones and having seen Calvin Ridley leave the team midway through the season. The Florida product delivered in a Matt Ryan-centered offense. The Falcons trading Ryan and signing Marcus Mariota soon after turned out to have major ramifications for Pitts, who will aim to move back on track in 2023.
With the Falcons racking up dead money and expected to continue their rebuild, third-round rookie Desmond Ridder was expected to make at least a cameo this season. But the Falcons are unlikely to bench Mariota until they are out of playoff contention. Given the way this year’s NFC South race is unfolding, that may not happen for a while. No Falcon pass catcher has totaled more than 500 receiving yards through 11 games; top-10 pick Drake London has 41 catches for 438 yards.
The league’s minor moves and standard gameday elevations for Week 12:
Arizona Cardinals
Atlanta Falcons
Baltimore Ravens
Carolina Panthers
Chicago Bears
Cincinnati Bengals
Cleveland Browns
Denver Broncos
Green Bay Packers
Houston Texans
Kansas City Chiefs
Las Vegas Raiders
Los Angeles Chargers
Los Angeles Rams
New York Jets
San Francisco 49ers
Seattle Seahawks
Tennessee Titans
Washington Commanders