A.J. Richardson

NFL Staff Updates: Titans, Patriots, Hightower

The Titans announced a number of new hires and promotions within their front office staff recently. While we had already reported on a number of these, there were a few updates that we were not yet aware of.

Dale Thompson has been promoted to assistant director, college scouting. He’s in his 14th year with the team after breaking into the league doing pro scouting for the Seahawks. Mical Johnson earns a promotion to become the pro scouting coordinator. She served most recently as a scouting assistant in Tennessee. Mike Boni will move up to senior national scout in his eighth year with the Titans. He brings 19 years of NFL experience to the position.

Two more scouts earned promotions as former pro scout Brandon Taylor becomes a college scout for the southeast region and Kalan Reed becomes a personnel scout. Once made Mr. Irrelevant by the Titans in 2016, Reed is now making his name in the scouting world.

Here are a few other teams with recent staff updates:

  • The Patriots also made some recent additions and promotions, per their team website. A.J. Richardson and Landon Simpson join the team as new scouting assistants. Both come from the collegiate ranks with Richardson joining from Mizzou and Simpson coming from Miami (FL). Richardson was a personnel scouting assistant for the Tigers after spending a couple years as a receiver trying to make rosters in the NFL. Simpson was the coordinator of player personnel/head coach recruiting analyst for the Hurricanes. They can thank Marquis Dickerson for the open positions after he vacated one of them due to a promotion to pro scout. Dickerson takes the job of Sam Fiorini, who was promoted to assistant director of pro personnel. Patrick Stewart earned a bigger promotion, still. He’ll now serve as director of pro personnel after returning to the team two years ago as a senior personnel advisor. The veteran Patriots scout spent part of the interim time with the Panthers, where he worked his way as high as vice president of player personnel.
  • We had announced that former wide receivers coach Troy Brown was sticking around, as is pass rushing consultant Joe Kim. While neither were included as part of the new staff announcement, they have reportedly been confirmed to be working with the team in skill-development roles, per ESPN’s Mike Reiss. Lastly, we had previously noted that former linebacker Dont’a Hightower would be working with outside linebackers, but the most recent information indicates that he’ll work with inside ‘backers, instead.

Cardinals Cut 10 Players

The Cardinals got a jump on their roster housekeeping today. In advance of Tuesday’s 53-man deadline, they cut:

Johnson, a 2019 sixth-rounder, was pushing for the final wide receiver slot on the Week 1 roster. Instead, he was leapfrogged by Andy Isabella, Greg Dortch, and Antoine Wesley. All three are still on the roster as of this writing, but nothing is guaranteed for any of them beyond tomorrow. Johnson, 25 in October, registered 15 catches for 173 yards in eight games last year.

NFL Reserve/Futures Contracts: 1/6/21

We’ll keep track of the latest reserve/futures deals here:

Arizona Cardinals

Denver Broncos

Indianapolis Colts

Las Vegas Raiders

Miami Dolphins

New England Patriots

New York Giants

San Francisco 49ers

NFL Practice Squad Updates: 12/22/20

Here are Tuesday’s practice squad decisions:

Arizona Cardinals

Atlanta Falcons

  • Placed on practice squad reserve/COVID-19 list: DE Anthony Edwards

Baltimore Ravens

Carolina Panthers

  • Activated off practice squad reserve/COVID-19 list: WR Ishmael Hyman

Chicago Bears

  • Signed: RB Spencer Ware
  • Activated off practice squad injured list: WR Thomas Ives

Cleveland Browns

  • Placed on practice squad reserve/COVID-19 list: DB Elijah Benton

Detroit Lions

Green Bay Packers

Houston Texans

Kansas City Chiefs

Las Vegas Raiders

  • Placed on practice squad reserve/COVID-19 list: DE David Irving

Los Angeles Rams

Miami Dolphins

New Orleans Saints

New York Giants

San Francisco 49ers

Seattle Seahawks

  • Released: OL Andrew Jones

Washington Football Team

Reserve/Futures Contracts: 12/30/19

With the regular season behind us, teams can start signing players to reserve/futures contract. This ties the player to the team’s 90-man offseason roster.

Several teams have already started completing these deals, which we’ve compiled below:

Arizona Cardinals

Carolina Panthers

Denver Broncos

Indianapolis Colts

New York Giants

New York Jets

Pittsburgh Steelers

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

NFL Practice Squad Updates: 9/30/19

Today’s practice squad moves:

Arizona Cardinals

Detroit Lions

Green Bay Packers

Houston Texans

Philadelphia Eagles

NFL Practice Squad Updates: 9/2/19

We’ll keep track of Monday’s practice squad moves here:

Atlanta Falcons

Arizona Cardinals

Buffalo Bills

Cincinnati Bengals

Dallas Cowboys

Detroit Lions

Indianapolis Colts

Jacksonville Jaguars

Kansas City Chiefs

Miami Dolphins

Minnesota Vikings

  • Signed: WR Davion Davis

New England Patriots

New York Giants

New York Jets

Oakland Raiders

Philadelphia Eagles

Pittsburgh Steelers

San Francisco 49ers 

Seattle Seahawks

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Washington Redskins

Sunday NFL Transactions: NFC West

Listed below are the Sunday roster moves for the four NFC West teams. Following the 53-man roster cutdown deadline yesterday, many teams will make slight tweaks to their rosters, claiming players off waivers or signing guys who clear waivers. Those transactions for the Cardinals, Rams, Seahawks and 49ers are noted below.

Additionally, teams can begin constructing their 10-man practice squads today. You can check out our glossary entry on practice squads to brush up on those changes, as well as all the other guidelines that govern the 10-man units, whose players practice with the team but aren’t eligible to suit up on Sundays.

Here are Sunday’s NFC West transactions, which will continue to be updated throughout the day.

Arizona Cardinals

Los Angeles Rams

San Francisco 49ers

Seattle Seahawks

Cardinals Reach 53-Man Max

Arizona has officially announced their cuts. Notably, the Cardinals trimmed their roster all the way down to 51 players, which they said was in preparation for waiver claims on Sunday. Arizona has first priority in the waiver order, so they’ll almost certainly be claiming some players.

The biggest name on this list is probably tight end Ricky Seals-Jones. He showed a lot of promise as an undrafted rookie in 2017, and was a favorite of Bruce Arians. He fell out of favor when Arians retired, and the new staff didn’t take as kindly to him. Seals-Jones has flashed serious potential, so he should land on his feet soon. Pharoh Cooper was a 2017 All-Pro selection for his return prowess, and the Cardinals claimed him off waivers from the Rams late last season. Three other teams also put in claims for Cooper at the time, so maybe one of them will scoop him up now. Receiver Chad Williams was the team’s third-round pick in 2017, but he barely got on the field during his two seasons in the desert.

QB Drew Anderson

QB Charles Kanoff

RB Wes Hills (injury settlement)

RB Dontae Strickland

WR Pharoh Cooper

WR Chad Williams

WR A.J. Richardson

WR Isaac Zico

OL Rees Odhiambo (waived/injured)

OL Colby Gossett

OL Coleman Shelton

OL William Sweet (waived/injured)

OL Parker Ehinger

OL Patrick Lawrence

OL Jacob Ohnesorge

TE Ricky Seals-Jones

TE Darrell Daniels

TE Caleb Wilson

TE Drew Belcher

DL Bruce Hector

DL Pasoni Tasini

DL Siupeli Anau

DL Sterling Bailey

S Jonathan Owens

S Tyler Sigler

CB Brandon Williams (waived/injured)

CB Nate Brooks

CB Deatrick Nichols

Cardinals Sign 12 UDFAs

The Cardinals became the latest team to unveil their UDFA class. Twelve players comprise Arizona’s post-draft group. Here is the full list:

Although Charles Clay joined a group including Ricky Seals-Jones, before Caleb Wilson became a Cardinal in the seventh round, the Cards added two more tight ends Monday in Belcher and Washington. A former quarterback, Belcher helped Maine to the Division I-FCS semifinals, catching 46 passes for 357 yards last season. Washington transferred from Miami to Rutgers but did not exceed 300 yards in a season in college. Kliff Kingsbury‘s offense may not feature as much tight end work as Arizona’s previous attack did, with four- and five-wide receiver sets expected more often.

Anderson attended four schools — San Diego State, Diablo Valley (Calif.) College, Buffalo and Murray State — and although he only played in five games for the Bulls, one of those was a 597-yard, seven-touchdown pass performance in 2017. He threw for 2,864 yards with the Racers last season, in addition to 20 TD passes, and added 225 rushing yards. Anderson joins Kyler Murray, Brett Hundley and 2018 UDFA Chad Kanoff as Cardinals quarterbacks.