Today’s practice squad moves:
Arizona Cardinals
Carolina Panthers
Indianapolis Colts
Las Vegas Raiders
Los Angeles Rams
Seattle Seahawks
Thursday’s taxi squad moves:
Carolina Panthers
Cleveland Browns
Las Vegas Raiders
New England Patriots
Philadelphia Eagles
Uzomah is a veteran of 106 games stemming from his seven-year run in Cincinnati followed by two years with the Jets. The 31-year-old has topped 400 receiving yards in a season only twice, but he has remained a consistent depth option in the passing game. He will aim to provide a rotational contribution behind Dallas Goedert in Philadelphia.
Minor transactions and practice squad callups for the Week 4 weekend:
Arizona Cardinals
Atlanta Falcons
Baltimore Ravens
Carolina Panthers
Chicago Bears
Cleveland Browns
Denver Broncos
Green Bay Packers
Houston Texans
Indianapolis Colts
Jacksonville Jaguars
Las Vegas Raiders
Los Angeles Chargers
Los Angeles Rams
Minnesota Vikings
New England Patriots
New Orleans Saints
New York Jets
Philadelphia Eagles
Pittsburgh Steelers
San Francisco 49ers
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Washington Commanders
Here are all the NFL’s minor transactions for Saturday, including the gameday callups leading into the first Sunday of the 2024 season:
Atlanta Falcons
Buffalo Bills
Chicago Bears
Cincinnati Bengals
Cleveland Browns
Denver Broncos
Detroit Lions
Indianapolis Colts
Jacksonville Jaguars
Las Vegas Raiders
Los Angeles Chargers
Los Angeles Rams
Miami Dolphins
Minnesota Vikings
New England Patriots
New Orleans Saints
New York Giants
Pittsburgh Steelers
Seattle Seahawks
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Tennessee Titans
With regular kicker Matt Gay listed as questionable for the season opener after hernia surgery, the Colts will call up Shrader from the practice squad as an emergency option. The 25-year-old has not made a regular season appearance in his career, but that could very well change tomorrow.
PFR’s practice squad rundown, signaling we are indeed close to games that count, begins Thursday. Here is how teams began to handle their 16-man P-squads.
Arizona Cardinals
Atlanta Falcons
Carolina Panthers
Chicago Bears
Cincinnati Bengals
Cleveland Browns
Dallas Cowboys
Detroit Lions
Houston Texans
Indianapolis Colts
Jacksonville Jaguars
Las Vegas Raiders
Los Angeles Chargers
Los Angeles Rams
Miami Dolphins
Minnesota Vikings
New England Patriots
New Orleans Saints
New York Giants
Philadelphia Eagles
Pittsburgh Steelers
San Francisco 49ers
Seattle Seahawks
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Tennessee Titans
Washington Commanders
Slovis went to camp with the Colts, joining the team as a UDFA this year. Houston placed Case Keenum on IR and released Tim Boyle, who is now the Dolphins’ P-squad QB. Slovis, who played at USC, Pittsburgh and BYU in college, is now the Texans’ de facto third-stringer.
Shelley has 11 career starts — with the Bears and Vikings — on his resume. He joined the Raiders last year but ended up with the Rams, playing in 11 games as a backup. The Giants have spent time searching for a cornerback answer, having not been too satisfied with their Cor’Dale Flott–Nick McCloud CB2 competition. New York did not make any waiver claims at the position Wednesday.
Reagor, who played for the Patriots last season, is back after being released earlier this week. The former Minnesota first-rounder played in 11 New England games last season, returning a kick for a touchdown. Latu joins the Browns after being a 49ers cut. The 2023 third-round pick missed all of last season with an ACL tear. Jefferson is back with the Bolts hours after being released.
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 Bills, Dolphins, Jets and Patriots moves are noted below.
Buffalo Bills
Signed:
Claimed:
Signed to practice squad:
Miami Dolphins
Released:
Claimed:
Signed to practice squad:
New England Patriots
Signed:
Claimed:
Released:
Waived:
Signed to practice squad:
New York Jets
Signed:
Claimed:
Waived:
Signed to practice squad:
A frightening report from late last month noted that Patriots DT Christian Barmore was diagnosed with blood clots. At the time, it was too early to speculate on his NFL future, but we now have some additional information to pass along.
This year, up to two players that are placed on injured reserve on cutdown day can be activated during the season (previously, a player had to be on the 53-man roster on cutdown day and then placed on IR in order to be eligible for activation, which led to a significant amount of seemingly needless roster machinations). According to Doug Kyed of the Boston Herald, Barmore is one of New England’s top candidates to benefit from the new rule (safety Marte Mapu is the other player that Kyed names).
In other words, there is a chance that Barmore will play this season. As Kyed notes, the 25-year-old defender has not yet been placed on a season-ending reserve list, so the Pats are at least holding out hope for a 2024 return.
That would obviously represent a key development for the club’s defense. In his 2023 breakout, Barmore logged a 66% snap share and recorded career highs in sacks (8.5), total tackles (64), tackles for loss (13), quarterback hits (16), pass deflections (six), and forced fumbles (one). The advanced metrics supported that surface-level production, with Pro Football Focus ranking Barmore as the eighth-best interior defender in the NFL.
On the strength of that performance, the 2021 second-rounder became one of a number of Patriots to land an extension from the club’s new regime, inking a four-year deal worth up to $92MM in April. Clearly, New England saw Barmore’s 2023 effort as a sign of things to come and not a one-year blip.
While the Pats await Barmore’s return, they will turn to Daniel Ekuale as his primary replacement, as Kyed writes. While Ekuale has been utilized primarily on passing downs since coming to Foxborough in 2021, he has the size (6-3, 310) to operate as a three-technique defensive tackle.
Like Ekuale, the similarly-sized Trysten Hill has quietly had a strong camp, per ESPN’s Mike Reiss. Nonetheless, Reiss expects the club to trawl the waiver wire for a run-stuffing DT – and additional offensive line help – when teams across the league make their final cutdowns this week (that is especially true since free agent pickup Armon Watts has failed to impress). New England has No. 3 waiver priority so should have an opportunity to claim some of the more intriguing cuts from rival clubs.
Many teams have started signing players to reserve/futures contracts, allowing organization to retain (routinely) young, practice squad players. Here are the latest reserve/futures contracts:
Arizona Cardinals
Atlanta Falcons
Carolina Panthers
Chicago Bears
Cincinnati Bengals
Denver Broncos
Indianapolis Colts
Las Vegas Raiders
Minnesota Vikings
New England Patriots
New Orleans Saints
New York Giants
New York Jets
Seattle Seahawks
Tennessee Titans
Washington Commanders
Here are the minor moves made around the league in advance of the Week 7 slate of Sunday games:
Arizona Cardinals
Atlanta Falcons
Baltimore Ravens
Buffalo Bills
Chicago Bears
Cleveland Browns
Denver Broncos
Detroit Lions
Green Bay Packers
Jacksonville Jaguars
Kansas City Chiefs
Las Vegas Raiders
Los Angeles Chargers
Miami Dolphins
New England Patriots
New York Giants
Seattle Seahawks
Washington Commanders
Dulcich already had one IR stint this season due to an aggravation of last year’s hamstring injury. The 2022 third-rounder has appeared in only two contests so far this season, and in the most recent one he suffered yet another setback. As a result, he will once again be shut down for at least four weeks.
The Giants’ decision to again promote DeVito points to starter Daniel Jones missing another game. Indeed, ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler reports Jones is considered a “longshot” to play tomorrow against the Commanders. It will in all likelihood be Tyrod Taylor under center for New York in Week 7 while Jones continues to recover from his neck injury.
The Patriots have added a notable name to their practice squad. According to Doug Kyed of the Boston Herald, the Patriots have signed defensive tackle Trysten Hill to the taxi squad. Hill worked out for New England earlier today.
[RELATED: Patriots Place DT Daniel Ekuale On IR]
The Patriots will see if they can get anything out of the former second-round pick after he flamed out in Dallas. Hill was limited to 25 games in three-plus season with the Cowboys, compiling 39 tackles and 1.5 sacks. A torn ACL partly contributed to those missed games, but he also struggled to carve out a role when healthy.
He was ultimately waived by the Cowboys last November and caught on with the Cardinals for the stretch run of the 2022 season. He ended up getting into six games with Arizona, collecting six tackles and one sack. He joined the Browns this past offseason and signed with the practice squad after final cuts, but he was let go in late September.
The Patriots will hope Hill can at least provide some temporary depth on the defensive line. The team placed defensive tackle Daniel Ekuale on injured reserve last week, leaving the team with Davon Godchaux, Lawrence Guy, Christian Barmore, and Sam Roberts as options at the position. Hill will likely compete with fellow practice squad players Jeremiah Pharms Jr. and Manny Jones for weekly elevations.