As Day 2 draft news comes rushing in, we’ll keep track of today’s minor moves here:
Atlanta Falcons
Buffalo Bills
Denver Broncos
Green Bay Packers
We’ll keep track of today’s minor moves here:
Atlanta Falcons
San Francisco 49ers
Injuries continue to pile up for the Falcons’ defense. Just about a week after making a deal to acquire safety Johnathan Cyprien from the Eagles, the team is placing him on injured reserve, they announced in a release.
Details on his injury weren’t immediately released, but he’ll now have to miss at least the next eight weeks. The Falcons already lost starting safety Keanu Neal for the season, and traded for Cyprien in part to help replace him. Cyprien started the team’s Week 5 loss to the Texans, so it’s yet another big blow to a unit that has been one of the most banged up in the entire league the past couple of years. The Falcons are now 1-4, and at a crossroads. Owner Arthur Blank has said he’s not making a coaching change at this time, but Dan Quinn is clearly on the hot seat.
Cyprien originally entered the league as a second-round pick of the Jaguars back in 2013. After four years as a full-time starter in Jacksonville, he signed with the Titans in 2017. He missed six games with a hamstring injury that year, but started the other ten. Last year, he missed the entire season with a torn ACL, and it’s unclear if his latest injury is related to that.
The Falcons made a small flurry of corresponding roster moves. They signed cornerback D.J. White off of the Eagles’ practice squad to their active roster, signed offensive lineman John Wetzel, signed punter Sam Irwin-Hill to their practice squad and released tight end Carson Meier off of the practice squad. Wetzel has started 24 games for the Cardinals the past three years, and White is a 2016 sixth-round pick of the Chiefs who has bounced around a bit but never played much.
Today’s minor moves:
New York Giants
Washington Redskins
The Redskins signed punter Sam Irwin-Hill, according to a tweet from agent David Canter. Irwin-Hill is expected to compete with incumbent Tress Way for the starting job.
Way is under contract through the 2020 season, so the odds of Irwin-Hill unseating him are not quite clear. As John Keim of ESPN.com (on Twitter) notes, Way ranked 13th in yards per punt (45.71) and 28th in net yards (39.02) in 2017 and has done a solid job overall over the last four seasons.
Naturally, as a punter, Way’s contract doesn’t have a ton of guarantees. If they feel strongly about Irwin-Hill, who has never punter in an NFL game, they can cut way with $750K in dead money on the cap.
Irwin-Hill spent last offseason with the Cowboys but ultimately lost out on that punting competition. He is an Arkansas product, which may have helped him get in with Jerry Jones.
The Cowboys had to resort to using defensive back Jeff Heath as their placekicker on Sunday after incumbent Dan Bailey went down with a groin injury, but the club won’t ask Heath to play the role of kicker any longer. Dallas is working out free agent kickers Mike Nugent, Jason Myers, Sam Irwin-Hill, and Younghoe Koo, according to Field Yates of ESPN.com (Twitter link).
Bailey is expected to miss several weeks after sustaining a groin strain, tweets Ian Rapoport of NFL.com. Replacing the 29-year-old certainly won’t be easy, as Bailey owns a 89.9% field goal success rate for his career, and hasn’t missed a field goal or an extra point this season. The Cowboys have garnered 4.1 points of field position from Bailey’s work on field goals and extra points, good for seventh in the NFL per Football Outsiders.
Nugent is — by far — the most experienced of the kickers Dallas is working out, as he’s appeared in 153 games during his 12-year NFL career. He lost out to Aldrick Rosas in the Giants’ kicking battle this summer. Myers and Koo, meanwhile, were released this season after struggling with the Jaguars and Chargers, respectively. Irwin-Hill has never appeared in an NFL game, but he did spend the summer in Cowboys’ camp.
The Cowboys navigated the busy cut week and moved down to the 53-man limit. Here are the players Dallas removed from its roster to reach the regular-season standard.
Released:
Waived:
Placed on Reserved/Suspended list:
Placed on IR:
The latest minor moves from around the NFL: