Minor moves from around the league today:
Baltimore Ravens
Chicago Bears
Dallas Cowboys
Philadelphia Eagles
Pittsburgh Steelers
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 Bears, Lions, Packers and Vikings moves are noted below.
Here are Wednesday’s NFC North transactions, which will continue to be updated throughout the day.
Claimed:
Released:
Waived:
Placed on IR:
Signed to practice squad:
Claimed:
Waived:
Released from IR:
Signed to practice squad:
Signed:
Waived:
Signed to practice squad:
Waived:
After a woeful Raiders tenure, Alex Leatherwood will have a second chance via the NFL’s waiver system. The Bears put in a claim for the former first-round pick, Field Yates of ESPN.com tweets.
The Raiders bailed on Leatherwood after one season, marking a shocking freefall for last year’s No. 17 overall pick. The Bears, however, have also run into extensive O-line uncertainty. The rebuilding team will take a chance on the former Alabama prospect. Leatherwood’s signing bonus is the Raiders’ responsibility, leaving considerable dead money on Las Vegas’ cap sheet. But the Bears are now responsible for $5.9MM in Leatherwood salary.
Chicago, which changed up its roster considerably as it transitioned to a new GM-HC pairing this offseason, made five more waiver claims Wednesday. Defensive tackle Armon Watts, defensive back Josh Blackwell, defensive end Kingsley Jonathan, linebacker Sterling Weatherford and tight end Trevon Wesco will be en route to the Windy City as well, Yates tweets. The Bears’ six waiver claims are a league-high total this year.
This marks quite a haul for Chicago, which added former starters from Las Vegas and Minnesota. Watts started nine games for the Vikings last season, replacing the injured Michael Pierce, but the team changed defensive schemes this offseason and made a trade for former Texans second-round defensive tackle Ross Blacklock on Tuesday. That led Watts off the roster. But he will be back in a 4-3 scheme under Matt Eberflus, whose team cleared some D-tackle space by releasing Mario Edwards on Tuesday.
Viewed as a reach in last year’s first round, Leatherwood did not justify his draft slot when deployed at right tackle or right guard for the Raiders last season. The staff that drafted Leatherwood quickly moved him off right tackle, but Pro Football Focus rated him as one of the league’s worst guards. Despite the Raiders facing a few questions on their offensive line and losing Brandon Parker for the season, their new regime cut bait after trying Leatherwood at tackle again in training camp.
The Bears are expected to start fifth-round rookie Braxton Jones at left tackle, and they have 2021 fifth-rounder Larry Borom on the right side. Riley Reiff, who signed with the team shortly before camp, is also in the tackle picture. The team moved 2021 second-rounder Teven Jenkins from tackle to guard late this offseason, and while Jenkins appeared in trade rumors, he is on the roster and may well start the season at the new position. Leatherwood, his early-career struggles notwithstanding, may now also be a factor at that spot.
Here is how the Eagles reached the 53-man limit Tuesday:
The Eagles added two veteran receivers this offseason, with one of them (A.J. Brown) bumping Jalen Reagor down the depth chart. Zach Pascal, who has played for Nick Sirianni previously (in Indianapolis), may also be a factor. But the Eagles, despite their moves at receiver and offseason trade rumors that engulfed Reagor, still have the 2020 first-round pick rostered. The TCU product is also coming off a solid preseason.
Howie Roseman said the Eagles, who have two QBs on their active roster, are planning to add a third — either a practice squad arm or a legit third-stringer — soon, and The Athletic’s Zach Berman and Bo Wulf note running back remains on the radar. The team kept three — Miles Sanders, Boston Scott, Kenneth Gainwell — but Sanders has been dealing with a hamstring injury.
Philadelphia’s receiver setup and a long football layoff did not leave much room for Allen, who has a rather notable career on which to fall back. A two-time U.S. Olympian in the 110-meter hurdles, Allen came to Eagles training camp after a controversial false-start infraction denied the medal favorite the opportunity to vie for gold on his home track at the World Track and Field Championships. The Oregon alum, whose 12.84-second time at a meet this summer is the third-fastest clocking ever in the 110 hurdles, caught a deep touchdown during the preseason but may well move back to his primary sport soon.
Ward became needed during the Eagles’ injury-plagued receiver seasons of 2019 and ’20; he caught 53 passes in the latter campaign. The ex-college QB was not used as much last season, catching seven balls in 17 games. The Eagles kept three rookie UDFAs (cornerback Josh Jobe, safety Reed Blankenship and offensive lineman Josh Sills).
Teams have until 3pm Tuesday to slash their rosters from 80 to 53 players. Here are the Monday moves teams are making en route to doing so. The list will be updated throughout the day.
Arizona Cardinals
Baltimore Ravens
Buffalo Bills
Chicago Bears
Cleveland Browns
Denver Broncos
Detroit Lions
Houston Texans
Indianapolis Colts
Jacksonville Jaguars
Los Angeles Chargers
Miami Dolphins
Minnesota Vikings
New York Giants
New York Jets
Philadelphia Eagles
Pittsburgh Steelers
San Francisco 49ers
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Tennessee Titans
Washington Commanders
We will keep track of today’s minor moves right here:
Baltimore Ravens
Chicago Bears
Cleveland Browns
Dallas Cowboys
Green Bay Packers
Las Vegas Raiders:
New Orleans Saints
San Francisco 49ers
Seattle Seahawks
Washington Commanders
Summers is a 2019 seventh-round pick who has just one career start but who has established himself as a key contributor on Green Bay’s special teams unit over his first three seasons in the league. Ian Rapoport of NFL.com expects the TCU product to generate interest on the waiver wire (Twitter link). Indeed, Packers HC Matt LaFleur said that the team made the decision to part ways with Summers now in order to give him a chance to hook on with a new club before the wave of impending cuts that will soon flood the market (Twitter link via Rob Demovsky of ESPN.com).
The Seahawks’ decision to move Brown to the PUP list means that he will be sidelined for at least the first four games of the season. That marks a disappointing start to his second NFL campaign; the fourth-rounder had two separate IR stints last year. That limited him to just five games (three starts), during which he registered 10 tackles and one pass deflection. Seattle has seen plenty of roster turnover at the CB position this offseason, leaving Brown in line for at least a rotational role. In his absence, the team will rely even more on starters Sidney Jones and Artie Burns, with rookies Coby Bryant likely to play in the slot.
Today’s minor moves around the NFL:
Baltimore Ravens
Buffalo Bills
Carolina Panthers
Chicago Bears
Denver Broncos
Houston Texans
Indianapolis Colts
Kansas City Chiefs
New York Giants
Philadelphia Eagles
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Washington Commanders
Tuesday marked the day teams were forced to cut down from 85 to 80 players. Here are the moves teams made made to reach the new maximum. Players who land on the reserve/PUP or reserve/NFI list must miss at least the first four regular-season games.
Arizona Cardinals
Atlanta Falcons
Baltimore Ravens
Carolina Panthers
Chicago Bears
Cincinnati Bengals
Dallas Cowboys
Detroit Lions
Green Bay Packers
Houston Texans
Indianapolis Colts
Kansas City Chiefs
Las Vegas Raiders
Los Angeles Chargers
Minnesota Vikings
New England Patriots
New Orleans Saints
New York Giants
New York Jets
Philadelphia Eagles
Pittsburgh Steelers
San Francisco 49ers
Seattle Seahawks
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Tennessee Titans
Washington Commanders
Here are Wednesday’s minor moves:
Cleveland Browns
Green Bay Packers
Los Angeles Rams
Miami Dolphins
New Orleans Saints
Washington Commanders