Today’s minor moves:
Buffalo Bills
Carolina Panthers
Dallas Cowboys
New York Giants
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Today’s minor transactions:
Carolina Panthers
Cleveland Browns
Houston Texans
Kansas City Chiefs
Los Angeles Rams
Pittsburgh Steelers
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Tennessee Titans
Kazee was suspended three games for violating the league’s policy on substances of abuse. After signing with the Steelers this offseason, he landed on injured reserve after the preseason. Per ESPN’s Brooke Pryor (on Twitter), Kazee will be allowed to serve his suspension while he’s on IR.
Hopkins was also suspended three games for violating the NFL’s policy on substances of abuse.
Today’s minor moves around the league, including practice squad elevations for tomorrow’s action:
Arizona Cardinals
Atlanta Falcons
Baltimore Ravens
Carolina Panthers
Chicago Bears
Cleveland Browns
Dallas Cowboys
Denver Broncos
Detroit Lions
Green Bay Packers
Houston Texans
Indianapolis Colts
Las Vegas Raiders
Los Angeles Rams
Miami Dolphins
New York Giants
New York Jets
New Orleans Saints
Pittsburgh Steelers
Seattle Seahawks
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Washington Commanders
Today’s minor moves around the league, as teams prepare for the first Sunday slate of regular season games:
Arizona Cardinals
Atlanta Falcons
Baltimore Ravens
Carolina Panthers
Chicago Bears
Cleveland Browns
Dallas Cowboys
Detroit Lions
Green Bay Packers
Houston Texans
Indianapolis Colts
Kansas City Chiefs
Las Vegas Raiders
Los Angeles Chargers
Miami Dolphins
Minnesota Vikings
New England Patriots
New Orleans Saints
New York Giants
New York Jets
Philadelphia Eagles
San Francisco 49ers
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Tennessee Titans
The Cardinals’ moves come as a reaction to yesterday’s injury news. Baccellia’s roster spot was opened up in the short-term by the injury to Rondale Moore, but he won’t simply be a stop-gap. Arizona signed the 25-year-old to a two-year deal to remain on the main roster, per Aaron Wilson of Pro Football Network (Twitter link). A UDFA out of Washington, Baccellia has yet to make a regular season NFL appearance.
Likewise, the fact that Ford will miss at least the first four weeks of the season makes the re-acquisition of Garcia a logical one. The former fourth-rounder has plenty of guard experience, including his three seasons spent in Arizona. It was only in 2021 that he logged any starts, but he could provide veteran depth behind Justin Pugh at least until Ford is able to return.
Addison, 35, was one of several veteran signings the Texans made this offseason to add depth to their front seven. He had a productive season with the Bills last season, notching seven sacks despite not starting any games. In his absence, Harris and Pierre-Louis will provide depth in the edge rush department on Sunday, and likely the short-term future as well.
Quick reminder that standard game day practice squad promotions are a recent development from the new CBA and COVID-19 seasons. Essentially, each team is able to promote two players from the practice squad to the active roster for game days. The players will automatically revert back to the practice squad after the game, not needing to clear waivers before rejoining the developmental roster. A player can only be promoted three times per season. If a team would like to promote a player for a fourth game, they’ll need to go through the normal method of creating space on the 53-man roster to promote them and have them clear waivers before placing them back on the practice squad. That is the difference between “Signed to 53-man roster” from the practice squad and “Promoted from practice squad.”
Following the 53-man roster cutdown deadline Tuesday, many teams will make slight tweaks to their rosters. In addition to waiver claims, teams can begin constructing their 16-man practice squads today. These Buccaneers, Falcons, Panthers and Saints moves are noted below.
Here are Wednesday’s NFC South transactions, which will continue to be updated throughout the day.
Claimed:
Released:
Signed to practice squad:
Signed to practice squad:
Claimed:
Released:
Signed to practice squad:
The Panthers trimmed their roster to 53 players today, meaning a long list of players earned their walking papers:
The most notable move was kicker Zane Gonzalez landing on injured reserve, making him ineligible to return for the 2022 campaign. Gonzalez injury himself on Friday night while warming up on the sideline. It was later revealed that he suffered a significant groin injury, and that injury ended up being season-ending. The Panthers worked out five potential replacements yesterday.
Juston Burris started 20 of his 23 games for the Panthers over the past two seasons. After collecting a career-high 53 tackles in 2020, the safety finished with only 23 tackles this past year, with Pro Football Focus ranking him 77th among 92 qualifying safeties. He was on the roster bubble following the offseason pickup of Xavier Woods. Brandon Zylstra has seen time in 37 games for the Panthers over the past three years, hauling in 29 receptions for 391 yards and one touchdown. Yesterday’s trade for Laviska Shenault Jr. only pushed him further down the depth chart, leading to his release.
With the 2022 NFL Draft over, the Panthers went quickly back to work, signing 13 free agents from the undrafted rookie class. Here’s the full list of UDFAs headed to Carolina:
Carolina had one of the more interesting draft experiences. They took the Draft’s first offensive lineman, who was a threat to go No. 1 overall, with the sixth pick of the night. After that, they weren’t expected to make another pick until the end of the fourth round. The Panthers, though, made a move as they saw quarterbacks tumbling closer and closer to their draft position, trading up to take former Ole Miss quarterback Matt Corral in the third round.
Cheek is being brought in as a bit of additional quarterback competition. Cheek’s a hometown kid who started 40 games at Elon. He passed for 8,548 yards throwing 51 touchdowns to 21 interceptions over his college career.
Carolina’s UDFA class is also headlined by players like Rambo, Tolson, and Hartlaub. Rambo, the former Oklahoma Sooner who transferred to Miami for his last year of college ball, set single season records for the Hurricanes in receptions and receiving yards during his sole season with the team. Tolson can bring a lot of speed to the linebacker room. He ran a 4.45 40-yard dash at 235 lb. during the Fighting Illini’s pro day. The Panthers were eager to bring him in, giving him a guaranteed $85,000, according to Aaron Wilson of Pro Football Network.
Hartlaub is not a name most will recognize, as he spent most of his college career on special teams, but it says a lot about his abilities that he was able to earn an UDFA contract as a career-special teamer. Besides being outstanding on special teams, the Panthers were likely attracted to another aspect of Hartlaub. During the Nittany Lions’ pro day, Hartlaub reportedly ran a 4.22 40-yard dash. If accurate, that would have been the fastest 40-time at this year’s NFL Scouting Combine.
Carolina was willing to spend a bit to put together this group. In addition to the impressive amount guaranteed to Tolson, Wilson reported that the Panthers gave Henry a guaranteed amount of $100,000, as well as a $17,500 signing bonus.