Today’s practice squad moves:
Carolina Panthers
Chicago Bears
Green Bay Packers
Los Angeles Rams
Philadelphia Eagles
Pittsburgh Steelers
Seattle Seahawks
Here are Wednesday’s minor moves:
Denver Broncos
Los Angeles Rams
Minnesota Vikings
New England Patriots
A five-year Giants contributor, Ximenes logged 14 defensive snaps through two Patriots games. A rookie UDFA out of James Madison, Kromah has not played in a regular-season game yet. Because the Pats poached Kromah from the Bears’ P-squad, he must remain on New England’s 53-man roster for three weeks.
Additionally, free agent defensive back Alex Brown received a three-week suspension, per KPRC2’s Aaron Wilson. Brown has not been on an NFL roster since 2021 and has not played in a game since 2019.
Another Justin Fields start is likely on tap for the Steelers, who are 2-0 with the fourth-year passer at the controls. Russell Wilson is not scheduled to log a full practice Wednesday, and Mike Tomlin said (via ESPN.com’s Brooke Pryor) the team is “readying a plan that features Justin.”
The Steelers have not exactly been prolific on offense with Fields, scoring all of 31 points in two games. But the trade acquisition — who entered the offseason as the clear backup — has gained enough ground on Wilson it is believed to have put the starting job in question. The 25-year-old passer has completed 69.8% of his passes, albeit at just 6.3 yards per attempt, but has managed two pilot Pittsburgh to two wins despite questions about the team’s pass-catching group after the much-discussed Brandon Aiyuk trade fell through.
Fields helping the Steelers to a win over the Broncos boosted his case, and Wilson may be running out of time due to a calf issue sidelining him — save for some preseason time — since the start of training camp. A report before that Denver matchup suggested Wilson would not lose the job he won due to injury, but it may well be up in the air now.
Here is the latest from the AFC North:
As the Bears prepare for a Week 2 trip to Houston, they will be doing so without a key depth piece on the offensive line. According to Bears senior writer Larry Mayer, interior offensive lineman Ryan Bates will find his way to injured reserve. 
Bates was traded to Chicago early in the offseason this year after five seasons with the Bills. Since entering the league in 2019, Bates has made 19 starts in 73 game appearances, spending only one season as a full-time starter. Upon arriving in Chicago, Bates immediately entered into a position battle at center, losing out to current Bears starter Coleman Shelton.
Even though he lost out on the center job, Bates became an instant competitor for snaps at an uncertain right guard spot. Despite seeing Nate Davis start at right guard, Week 1 saw Bates split time at the position, actually dominating the snaps in the game 38 to 18. With Bates going on IR, Davis will be relied upon more heavily in Week 2.
Taking Bates’ spot on the active roster will be long snapper Scott Daly. This transaction felt inevitable after the Bears placed long-time long snapper Patrick Scales on IR back in August. Daly was elevated off the practice for Week 1, but practice squad players can only be elevated twice off of one contract. With a roster spot opening up, Chicago took advantage and promoted Daly, as Scales will be forced to miss at least three more games.
Joining Daly from the practice squad will be wide receiver Collin Johnson, who will come up as a standard gameday practice squad elevation. Johnson flashed in this year’s Hall of Fame Game, catching two touchdowns from quarterback Brett Rypien but missed the rest of the preseason with an injury. The former fifth-round pick out of Texas will get another regular season opportunity tomorrow before being relegated back to the practice squad after the game.
The Bears got good news surrounding the knee injury that knocked Rome Odunze out of Sunday’s season opener. Per Bleacher Report’s Jordan Schultz, the rookie wide receiver suffered a Grade 1 knee sprain, the “best-case scenario” for the team and player.
Odunze suffered his MCL injury while blocking for Velus Jones Jr. during a fourth-quarter screen pass. The rookie stayed in the game for one additional play before exiting for good. The wideout is officially considered week-to-week, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter, and there’s been no indication that the ninth-overall pick will have a stay on injured reserve. Coach Matt Eberflus said the Bears were “lucky” to avoid a serious injury, and he even kept the door open to Odunze playing in Week 2.
Wednesday’s injury report also showed that fellow receiver Keenan Allen didn’t practice while nursing a heel injury. Eberflus later clarified that the wideout was considered day-to-day, and there’s hope the offseason acquisition can hit the practice field on Thursday and Friday following his day off.
In the unlikely event that both Odunze and Allen are sidelined, the Bears’ deep wide receiver grouping will be down to just D.J. Moore. Rookie QB Caleb Williams is certainly hoping for his full arsenal of wideouts following an NFL debut where he completed only 14 of 29 pass attempts for 93 yards.
More injury notes from around the NFL…
Here are all the NFL’s minor transactions for Saturday, including the gameday callups leading into the first Sunday of the 2024 season:
Atlanta Falcons
Buffalo Bills
Chicago Bears
Cincinnati Bengals
Cleveland Browns
Denver Broncos
Detroit Lions
Indianapolis Colts
Jacksonville Jaguars
Las Vegas Raiders
Los Angeles Chargers
Los Angeles Rams
Miami Dolphins
Minnesota Vikings
New England Patriots
New Orleans Saints
New York Giants
Pittsburgh Steelers
Seattle Seahawks
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Tennessee Titans
With regular kicker Matt Gay listed as questionable for the season opener after hernia surgery, the Colts will call up Shrader from the practice squad as an emergency option. The 25-year-old has not made a regular season appearance in his career, but that could very well change tomorrow.
As the 2024 season kicks off, here are the day’s minor moves:
Arizona Cardinals
Baltimore Ravens
Carolina Panthers
Chicago Bears
Las Vegas Raiders
Miami Dolphins
New York Giants
Philadelphia Eagles
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Tennessee Titans
Washington Commanders
The Ravens drafted Ali in this year’s fifth round. He entered the week joining Derrick Henry and Justice Hill as running backs on Baltimore’s 53-man roster. Kelly has since replaced him as Baltimore’s RB3. He will now join Keaton Mitchell as being on an injured list; the latter remains on the Ravens’ reserve/PUP list, sidelining him for at least four games. This designation shelves Ali for that period as well. The Ravens could use one of their injury activations to bring Ali back to the roster at that point.
Here are PFR’s examinations of the 32 NFL teams’ 2024 offseasons:
SEPTEMBER 3: Both Pompei and Ryan Dunleavy of the New York Post have clarified that the Giants did not make an official offer to Jacobs. The team was one of many which was in on the veteran running back market, as evidenced by the Singletary deal. That update is notable given the financial details Jacobs mentioned, although expressions of interest and formal contract proposals are of course two different things. Jacobs’ Packers performance will remain a key storyline within the reshaped running back landscape in 2024.
AUGUST 29: Josh Jacobs‘ free agency featured several teams in on the former rushing champion. Half of the AFC West was interested, though that does not appear to include the Raiders.
After Jacobs said he did not meet with new Raiders GM Tom Telesco about re-signing, the sixth-year running back noted (via The Athletic’s Dan Pompei) he took the Packers’ four-year, $48MM offer back to his original team. The Raiders did not match, but Jacobs had said he would agree to stay for less than Green Bay’s offer if Las Vegas included incentives. Moving toward a setup with a much lower-cost backfield, the Raiders declined.
[RELATED: Offseason In Review: Green Bay Packers]
This effort came after a few teams reached out to Jacobs’ camp with interest. The Broncos, Cardinals, Giants and Texans were previously mentioned as suitors, with Pompei adding the Dolphins and Bears also expressed some degree of interest. But the former first-round pick said the Chiefs also expressed interest. Some old-school animosity, even regarding a rivalry that probably peaked in the 1960s and early ’70s, factored into Jacobs’ decision to not reciprocate that interest.
“They were trying to get me hard,” Jacobs said of the Chiefs. “But there was no way I was going there. I feel like once you are rivals with somebody, you have a genuine hate for them. I couldn’t see myself in that color. And besides, I never wanted to be the guy that joined the dominant team. I want to be the guy that beats the dominant team.”
It is unclear if the Chiefs made an offer on par with the Packers’, but Green Bay’s proposal included just $12.5MM guaranteed at signing. The Packers traditionally do not include second-year guarantees for non-quarterbacks, though they would owe Jacobs a $5.93MM roster bonus on Day 5 of the 2025 league year. It represents a decent bet Jacobs is a Packer for at least two seasons, though the Chiefs’ pursuit is interesting given the makeup of their RB room.
Kansas City has starter Isiah Pacheco at seventh-round money for two more seasons, and the team re-signed Clyde Edwards-Helaire for just one year and $1.7MM. Kansas City did host J.K. Dobbins before the Edwards-Helaire recommitment, but the oft-injured ex-Raven agreed to a low-cost Chargers deal to reunite with Greg Roman. Kansas City has not spent much on running backs during the Andy Reid era. Reid coached Jamaal Charles for four seasons and signed off on a 2014 extension, but that only guaranteed the elusive RB $8.3MM. Charles’ more notable extension came back in 2010 under Scott Pioli.
The team’s Jacobs interest is an interesting “what if?” regarding Pacheco’s status, but the hard-charging runner having gained 1,765 rushing yards in two seasons certainly represents great value from the seventh round. Edwards-Helaire, rookie UDFA Carson Steele and the recently added Samaje Perine join the starter as the AFC West power aims for a threepeat.
Additionally, Jacobs indicated (via Pompei) the Giants offered around $3-$4MM more than the Packers. Though, this account does not specify if that means $3-$4MM more per year, in total or in guarantees. The Giants guaranteed Devin Singletary $9.5MM on a three-year, $16.5MM deal. Jacobs has been a better player during his career, and he committed to the Packers around two hours before the ex-Bills draftee joined the Giants.
The Giants were also willing to guarantee Saquon Barkley around $22MM via their 2023 extension offer. Big Blue memorably balked at another Barkley deal, but they appear to have been willing to go beyond where they went for Singletary to add Jacobs, who balked at New York due to taxes, the media market and MetLife Stadium’s turf.
The Giants and Raiders both let their standout backs play out seasons on the franchise tag; Jacobs said his 2023 negotiations broke trust with the Las Vegas regime. This went far enough Jacobs revealed to Pompei he was willing to report in late November in order to collect an accrued season, but the then-Dave Ziegler-led Raiders front office became the rare team to provide a raise for a tagged player. Jacobs signed a one-year, $11.8MM tender — north of the $10.1MM number attached to Barkley and Tony Pollard.
Jacobs, 26, did end up stumping for Antonio Pierce, but he does not appear to have been especially high on the Ziegler-Josh McDaniels regime, indicating “trust was missing” regarding he and the team going into last season. These comments do, however, come after the Alabama alum had said the slate was clean after he signed his franchise tender.
The Raiders, who were believed to be interested in re-signing Jacobs (just not at the rate other teams went to), have given backup Zamir White their starting job, with primary 2023 Vikings starter Alexander Mattison set as the backup.
As we learned shortly after the Patriots agreed to trade contract-year edge defender Matt Judon to the Falcons last month, both Atlanta and the Bears offered New England a third-round draft choice in exchange for Judon. At that point, Judon was given the choice of which team he wanted to play for, and he chose the Falcons.
According to Albert Breer of SI.com, Judon was intrigued by the possibility of playing for Chicago, and he and the club did engage in preliminary contract talks. However, in the player’s view, the commitments that the Bears already have on the books for 2025 made it likely that he would only be with the team for the upcoming season.
While Judon indicated that he would not seek an immediate extension from Atlanta as he did from New England – saying that “the Falcons know nothing about me as a football player or as a man” – he can at least foresee a multiyear stay with the Falcons. Interestingly, as OverTheCap.com indicates, the Bears actually are projected to have the eighth-most cap room in the league in 2025, while the Falcons have the sixth-least.
On the other hand, Chicago is already tethered to a contract for a high-end edge rusher (Montez Sweat), whereas Atlanta has no such deal on its books. Speculatively speaking, perhaps the Sweat contract – along with the convincing sales pitch that Breer says Falcons head coach Raheem Morris gave to Judon about his role in the team’s defense – is what tipped the scales in Atlanta’s favor.
Even though New England extended Judon the courtesy of choosing between the two teams that extended acceptable trade proposals, Breer said on a recent appearance on 98.5 The Sports Hub that the Patriots’ coaches and front office personnel “were just sick of” Judon (video link). The lack of a resolution to Judon’s contract situation – the four-time Pro Bowler was, of course, pushing for a new deal when he was still a member of the Pats – certainly played a significant role in his departure, but Breer notes that the rift went beyond finances.
Patriots staffers, per Breer, believed there was the “public-facing Judon” and the “Judon behind the scenes,” and that the latter version of the player was something of an “operator” whose “act had worn thin.” Breer said those same traits were on display during Judon’s stint with the Ravens, and that the new Pats regime – which of course has extended a number of Bill Belichick-era acquisitions this offseason – was more than willing to move on.
As Judon attempts to return to form in a platform campaign for his new club, Oshane Ximines appears to have benefitted the most from his departure. A former third-round pick of the Giants, Ximines never truly established himself with New York, and he signed with the Patriots via the veteran salary benefit this offseason. As Mike Reiss of ESPN.com notes, Ximines was viewed as a bubble player when training camp began, but the Judon trade opened up a roster spot.
Outside linebackers coach Drew Wilkins, who served in the same capacity with the Giants over the last two seasons, said, “[Ximines] has been great. ame in here, learned the playbook quickly, humble approach to everything — a guy that wants to play the run, set the edge and do the dirty work. He fits right in this defense.”