Cordell Volsonhad served as a full-time starter up to this point in his Bengals career. The third-year left guard is no longer a first-team option along the interior, however.
Cincinnati has replaced Volson with Cody Fordat the left guard spot beginning with today’s contest against Pittsburgh. Volson was healthy for each game during the 2022 and ’23 campaigns, logging every offensive snap during that span. He remained a first-team option this year through the team’s first 11 games, but Ford recently had the opportunity to handle left tackle duties in place of Orlando Brown Jr.
Ford’s PFF grades during that stretch left much to be desired, but he did not allow a sack while stepping in at left tackle. Brown is now healthy, leaving the Bengals with the option of returning Ford to backup duties or demoting Volson. The latter path has been taken for the time being as Cincinnati looks to remain productive on offense as part of a playoff push.
Selected in the fourth round of the 2022 draft, Volson graded out as PFF’s 64th-ranked guard during his rookie campaign. The following season saw a step forward (42nd out of 79 qualifiers), but it certainly left plenty of room for improvement. To date in 2024, Volson sits just 53rd in PFF grade with a 58.4 mark. Ford has not delivered demonstrably better figures over the course of his career – one in which he has seen time at both tackle spots as well as left and right guard – but he will get a look for at least a short-term stretch.
In Volson’s case, this demotion is notable from a financial perspective. The 26-year-old will first be eligible for an extension this offseason, and continuing his run of logging every snap would have have helped his chances of landing a new deal. Instead, his play once he is next on the field will be key in determining his value.
Ford, meanwhile, is a pending free agent since he is playing on his second straight one-year Bengals pact. The former second-rounder is attached to the veteran minimum for his base salary this season, but holding onto a full-time starting spot down the stretch would help his ability to secure a raise in 2025.
Signed to active roster from practice squad: DB Daryl Worley
The 49ers waived Bell after a frustrating season from the 2023 seventh-rounder. He appeared in all 17 games in 2023 and played all but two games this year, but only managed two catches for 22 yards despite expanded opportunities after Brandon Aiyuk‘s ACL tear. Any team that claims Bell on waivers will take on the remainder of his 2024 salary as well as the $2.2MM owed to him across 2025 and 2026, though that money is not guaranteed. However, Bell’s struggles this year will likely dissuade any team from claiming him on waivers. If he clears waivers, he will be free to sign with any team’s active roster or practice squad.
Quitoriano’s injury struggles continue. The depth tight end who often appears in running plays and multi-tight end sets has yet to prove he can stay on the field for much more than half a season. After appearing in 16 games (11 starts) over his first two years in the NFL, Quitoriano was only able to appear in seven games (four starts) before hitting injured reserve this year. Signed off the Bears’ practice squad to make up for the season-ending loss of Brevin Jordan, Quitoriano’s loss leaves Dalton Schultz and Cade Stover as the only healthy tight ends on the active roster as Quitoriano joins Jordan and Dalton Keene on IR. Houston has veteran Irv Smith on the practice squad, as well.
November 27th, 2024 at 12:50pm CST by Sam Robinson
The Giants making the decision to waiveDaniel Jones, rather than keep him around ahead of a potential 2025 post-June 1 cut designation, changed their dead money outlook for this year and next. Here is how their new total fits in with the rest of the teams’ numbers for dead money — cap space allocated to players no longer on the roster — entering the final third of the regular season. Numbers courtesy of OverTheCap.
Denver Broncos: $85.21MM
New York Giants: $79.57MM
Minnesota Vikings: $69.83MM
Buffalo Bills: $68.47MM
Carolina Panthers: $68.28MM
Green Bay Packers: $65.53MM
Tennessee Titans: $62.89MM
Philadelphia Eagles: $61.95MM
Tampa Bay Buccaneers: $60.64MM
New Orleans Saints: $59.44MM
New York Jets: $59.24MM
Los Angeles Chargers: $58.62MM
New England Patriots: $53.37MM
Miami Dolphins: $52.28MM
Seattle Seahawks: $52MM
Jacksonville Jaguars: $51.2MM
Las Vegas Raiders: $49.37MM
Washington Commanders: $42.81MM
Houston Texans: $39.28MM
Cleveland Browns: $38.79MM
Los Angeles Rams: $34.63MM
Detroit Lions: $33.71MM
Pittsburgh Steelers: $30.18MM
Chicago Bears: $29.65MM
Arizona Cardinals: $29.35MM
San Francisco 49ers: $26.91MM
Dallas Cowboys: $26.79MM
Baltimore Ravens: $21.35MM
Kansas City Chiefs: $12.65MM
Indianapolis Colts: $11.8MM
Atlanta Falcons: $11.55MM
Cincinnati Bengals: $9.11MM
The Jones release moved more than $13MM of dead cap onto the Giants’ 2024 payroll. More significantly, the Giants granting Jones an early exit — after a contract-driven benching — will prevent the team from designating him a post-June 1 cut next year. The Giants will take on $22.2MM in dead money in 2025, rather than being able to split that bill over two offseasons. The team also took on more than $10MM in dead money this year due to the 2023 Leonard Williams trade.
This year’s most egregious dead money offender has been known for months. The Broncos’ contract-driven Russell Wilson benching last year preceded a historic release, which saddled the team with more than $83MM in total dead money. A small cap credit is set to come in 2025 (via Wilson’s veteran-minimum Pittsburgh pact), but for this year, $53MM in dead cap hit Denver’s payroll as a result of the the quarterback’s release.
The Broncos more than doubled the previous single-player dead money record, which the Falcons held ($40.5MM) for trading Matt Ryan), and they will be on the hook for the final $30MM-plus in 2025. Beyond Wilson, no other ex-Bronco counts more than $7.5MM in dead money. In terms of total dead cap, however, the Broncos barely check in north of the Buccaneers and Rams’ 2023 totals. Denver is trying to follow those teams’ lead in rallying back to make the playoffs despite nearly a third of its 2024 payroll tied up in dead cap.
Twenty-two players represent dead money for the Saints, who have seen their total updated since the Marshon Lattimoretrade. Rather than restructure-crazed GM Mickey Loomis using the Lattimore contract once again to create cap space next year, the Saints will take on the highest non-QB dead money hit in NFL history. Lattimore counts $14MM in that category this year before the contract shifts to a whopping $31.66MM in dead cap on New Orleans’ 2025 payroll. Considering the Saints are again in their own sector for cap trouble next year ($62MM-plus over), the Lattimore trade will create some issues as the team attempts to rebound post-Dennis Allen.
Two 2023 restructures ballooned the Vikings’ figure toward $70MM. Void years on Kirk Cousins and Danielle Hunter‘s deals combined for more than $43MM in dead money. Minnesota also ate nearly $7MM from the void years on Marcus Davenport‘s one-year contract, while the release of 2022 first-rounder Lewis Cine (currently on the Bills’ practice squad) accounted for more than $5MM.
Free from the Tom Brady dead money that comprised a chunk of their 2023 cap, the Bucs still have eight-figure hits from the Carlton Davis trade and Mike Evans‘ previous contract voiding not long before the sides agreed on a new deal. Elsewhere in the NFC South, three of the players given multiyear deals in 2023 — Vonn Bell, Hayden Hurst, Bradley Bozeman — being moved off the roster in GM Dan Morgan‘s first offseason represent nearly half of Carolina’s dead cap.
November 25th, 2024 at 10:10pm CST by Adam La Rose
The Week 12 slate of games is in the books. For many teams, attention is increasingly turning toward the offseason with a playoff berth no longer in reach.
Plenty of time remains for the draft order to change over the coming months, and it will be interesting to see which teams wind up in position to add at the quarterback spot in particular. The crop of prospects for 2025 is not held in high regard after Shedeur Sanders and Cam Ward, meaning the demand for potential franchise passers is set to outweigh demand at the top of the board. Of course, players like Sanders’ Colorado teammate Travis Hunter will be among the ones worth watching closely as well.
The Jets have moved on from head coach Robert Saleh and general manager Joe Douglas, inviting questions about a reset under center as well. Aaron Rodgerswants to play in 2025, but it remains to be seen how his relationship with the organization will take shape down the stretch and if a new regime will prefer to move on at the position. The Giants, meanwhile, confirmed they will be in the market for a new signal-caller with Daniel Jonesno longer in the fold.
Teams such as the Raiders have long been mentioned as a team to watch regarding a rookie QB pursuit. Jayden Danielswas a target for head coach Antonio Pierce last spring, and it would come as no surprise if Vegas were to make a push for a long-term starting option this time around. Other franchises not on track to qualify for the playoffs figure to give the Raiders plenty of competition in that department, though.
For non-playoff teams, the draft order will be determined by the inverted 2024 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 an updated look at the current draft order:
November 22nd, 2024 at 10:30pm CST by Sam Robinson
Late-season collapses certainly occur, with injuries obviously playing key roles in contenders’ blueprints. As it stands now, however, the AFC playoff picture is top-heavy. It is quite possible the stretch run will feature division leaders jockeying for seeding and two wild-card teams hovering over the race for the bottom bracket slot.
ESPN’s FPI gives the Chargers a 94.7% chance to make the playoffs, with the AFC North holding a strong likelihood of producing a wild-card squad as well. Both the Steelers and Ravens’ chances sit north of 95%. Although the volume of sub-.500 AFC teams could drain drama from this year’s fight to wear white in Round 1, the conference does have a handful of teams on the fringe who appear poised for a battle to claim the No. 7 seed.
Six AFC teams have eight or nine losses entering Week 12. While the 2008 Chargers started 5-8 and erased a three-game division deficit with three to play, the odds are stacked against the conference’s bottom tier (Patriots, Jets, Browns, Jaguars, Titans, Raiders). This leaves four teams in between.
The Broncos have not made a postseason appearance since winning Super Bowl 50. Considering the Russell Wilson release brought a two-offseason dead money number unlike anything the NFL has seen, Denver snapping that drought this year was not expected. Wilson counts for $53MM on Denver’s 2024 payroll, with the club taking on the larger portion of the dead money this year ($30MM-plus is on the books for next year, as a small cap credit from the QB’s Steelers pact awaits). But Sean Payton‘s team is 6-5 and holds a, per FPI, 50.3% chance of making the playoffs.
Although the Broncos kept costs low and also moved on from Justin Simmons and Jerry Jeudy, they resisted Courtland Suttontrade offers — including a third-rounder from the 49ers in August — and assembled an interesting roster around No. 12 overall pick Bo Nix. The Oregon alum’s progress defines Denver’s season, as the team appears close to identifying a surefire long-term quarterback. The franchise has not seen a QB start more than four seasons since John Elway, amplifying the interest in Nix’s sudden entrance into the Offensive Rookie of the Year race, but Vance Joseph‘s defense has proven better than expected.
Extending Patrick Surtain in September and payingJonathon Cooper just before trading Baron Browning, Denver sits third in scoring defense and third in yardage. The team leads the NFL with 39 sacks. This has given Nix important support during his maiden NFL voyage.
Defense has conversely burned the 4-7 Bengals, who are squandering MVP-caliber work from Joe Burrow. Back from a season-ending wrist injury, Burrow has thrown an NFL-most 27 touchdown passes (compared to four interceptions) and has done so despite franchise-tagged wideout Tee Higgins missing five games. The Bengals are not expected to pay Higgins, with a 2025 tag-and-trade perhaps all that is left on the contract front between the parties after no substantial talks have taken place since early 2023, but Ja’Marr Chase‘s extension price — a matter tabled to 2025 — will rise coming out of this season.
Chase’s 1,056 yards pace the NFL by more than 100. A defense that had been solid during the team’s 2021 and ’22 seasons has fallen off. Cincinnati augmented its defense by adding Sheldon Rankins and Geno Stone while reacquiring Vonn Bell, but Lou Anarumo‘s unit ranks 28th. FPI gives the Bengals a 14.8% chance to make the playoffs. While this is almost definitely the highest-ceiling team left on the AFC’s fringe, a team that entered the year with Super Bowl aspirations in the expected Burrow-Chase-Higgins trio’s final act together runs the risk of missing the postseason entirely.
Sitting at 4-6, the Dolphins carry a 13.6% qualification chance, per FPI. Mike McDaniel‘s team is here largely due to Tua Tagovailoa‘s concussion-driven IR stay; the Dolphins went 1-3 without their recently extended starter. Tagovailoa’s absence reduced an offense that had led the NFL in yardage last season to one of the league’s worst.
Even as Tagovailoa has returned, neither Tyreek Hill nor Jaylen Waddle has taken off. The Dolphins paid both this offseason, reworking Hill’s contract and extending Waddle in a deal that delivered the younger WR a better guarantee than Hill received via his 2022 extension. Through 10 games, Waddle is at 404 yards. Hill, who topped 1,700 in each of his two full Dolphins slates, has accumulated just 523.
As Miami’s elite wideout tandem will need to heat up soon for the team to have a chance at a third straight playoff berth — something the club has not accomplished since a five-year run from 1997-2001 — its defense is again without Jaelan Phillips and Bradley Chubb. Phillips suffered a season-ending knee injury, while Chubb has not recovered from the ACL tear that ended his 2023 season on New Year’s Eve. No Dolphin has more than four sacks or eight QB hits, with 38-year-old Calais Campbell — whom the Dolphins nearly traded back to the Ravens at the deadline — proving valuable in a four-sack start in his Miami return.
The Colts are 5-6, and FPI gives them the second-best odds (34.2%) of this bunch. Quarterback play, of course, has defined Indianapolis’ season. The team’s about-face withAnthony Richardson reminds came after a historically early benching involving a top-five pick, as the 2023 fourth overall choice had started only 10 games when benched.
Still, Richardson’s accuracy problems threaten to derail the Colts, who had gone to Joe Flacco in an attempt to better position themselves for a playoff push. After Flacco lost the ensuing two starts, Richardson is back. While the raw prospect looked better in his return start, he still carries a 48.5% completion rate. Only six QBs who have attempted at least 200 passes have finished south of 50% in a season this century.
GM Chris Ballard mostly just paid to keep his core together this offseason, though waiver claim Samuel Womack has helped a depleted boundary cornerback group. The Colts rank both 19th in scoring and points allowed, and while other components on this roster obviously matter, Richardson’s development still overshadows their season’s second half. That represents perhaps the biggest X-factor among this middle-class AFC glut.
Assuming the Chargers stay afloat and the Steelers and Ravens do not collapse, who do you think will claim the conference’s final spot in the seven-team field? Vote in PFR’s latest poll and weigh in with your thoughts on the race in the comments section.
GM-needy teams could turn to Kansas City for a front office leader. Tony Pauline of Sportskeeda.com writes that Chiefs assistant general manager MikeBorgonzi is already the “hot name” that’s circulating ahead of the offseason hiring cycle.
Borgonzi has worked in Kansas City for 16 years, working his way up from college scouting administrator to his current role as right-hand man to general manager BrettVeach. Borgonzi has worked under three GMs during his tenure with the Chiefs (ScottPioli, JohnDorsey, Veach), and it sounds like he’ll finally get a serious shot at running his own front office. The Brown graduate has been linked to several GM gigs over the years. He was connected to the job in Carolina several years ago, and he garnered an interview with the Commanders this past offseason.
Pauline also mentions Bengals senior personnel executive TreyBrown as a name to watch. Brown was already popular during last year’s cycle, with the executive earning an interview with the Raiders while also landing on the Patriots’ short list of candidates. Brown got his front office start in New England before joining Philly’s operation in 2013. He ended up spending six years with the Eagles, working his way up to director of college scouting. After a few years in the AAF and XFL, he landed with the Bengals in 2021.
Fortunately for both Borgonzi and Brown, there should be plenty of gigs to go around. Josina Anderson recently pointed to at least five GM gigs that will open this offseason (not including the recently fired JoeDouglas with the Jets).
The Jets’ firing of general manager Joe Douglas was not necessarily a surprise given the team’s struggles during his tenure, but Tuesday’s announcement still felt unusual with six games remaining in the season. Douglas’ contract was set to expire after the 2025 season, per ESPN’s Rich Cimini, giving New York a natural transition point as they attempt to rebuild from a disastrous two years since trading for quarterback Aaron Rodgers.
However, Jets owner Woody Johnson grew impatient after his team dropped to 3-8 after giving up a fourth-quarter lead to the Colts in Week 11. Rather than wait until the offseason to find his next general manager, Johnson opted to fire Douglas so he could begin the search for a successor without any internal awkwardness, according to Cimini.
Johnson’s statement announcing Douglas’ departure included a note that the team “will begin the process to identify a new General Manager immediately,” though the Jets cannot interview any external candidates until the end of the regular season. Here is the latest coming out of the Jets’ GM firing:
However, Douglas “lost most of his authority” after Saleh’s firing, per FOX Sports’ Jordan Schultz, with other Jets executives handling negotiations with the Raiders and Reddick, both of which had stalled under Douglas. Since stepping back from his duties, Douglas “had become disenchanted in recent weeks,” per Cimini, “hoping a miracle turnaround might change things.”
Bengals senior personnel executive Trey Brown could be a candidate to become the Jets’ next general manager, according to Ryan Dunleavy of the New York Post. Brown interviewed for the Raiders’ GM gig during the offseason and turned down a request from the Patriots to interview for the same position. However, Johnson has largely listened to “nonfootball yes men” as the Jets’ owner, with outside criticism driving too much of the team’s direction, per Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer. Johnson ponied up a six-year, $20MM contract to secure Douglas to lead the front office in 2019, but money will only go so far to lure a would-be general manager who wants to execute his own vision for the franchise’s future.
Johnson even suggested benching Rodgers after a 10-9 loss to the Broncos in Week 4, per Zach Rosenblatt and Diana Russini of The Athletic. Douglas and the coaching staff had to convince Johnson to stay the course with Rodgers to avoid embarrassing the mercurial quarterback and upsetting the locker room.
Douglas’ next career move could be returning to Baltimore, per Jeff Zrebiec of The Athletic. He began his front office career as a Ravens scout in 2000 and remained in the team’s personnel department until the Bears hired him as director of college scouting in 2015. Douglas still enjoys a solid reputation in Baltimore, and he drafted several excellent young players in New York, including Garrett Wilson, Sauce Gardner, Jermaine Johnson, Breece Hall, and Michael Clemons all in 2022.
With their owner cleaning house and questions circling around Rodgers’ future in New York, the Jets’ locker room has “checked out,” according to SNY’s Connor Hughes. “Players aren’t angry or annoyed at their 3-8 record. They’re, as one person described, “just ready for it to be over.”
