Today’s minor moves:
Chicago Bears
Dallas Cowboys
Denver Broncos
Green Bay Packers
Indianapolis Colts
Los Angeles Chargers
New York Giants
New York Jets
The Bears will be receiving a boost just in time for the playoffs. NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport reports (via Twitter) that the team will be activating offensive lineman Kyle Long off the injured reserve today. To make room on the roster, Chicago waived quarterback Tyler Bray (via ESPN’s Adam Schefter on Twitter).
Long suffered a foot injury during his team’s late-October victory over the Jets. The injury involved a tendon, and it wasn’t related to his broken ankle from 2016. His estimated time of recovery was six to eight weeks, and Long was healthy enough to be activated by the time he was eligible to return. Earlier this week, head coach Matt Nagy acknowledged that Long had completed an entire week of practice and would likely play most of the game this weekend.
‘‘Just talking to him throughout the week, I feel pretty good with him playing most of the game,’’ Nagy told Patrick Finley of the Chicago Sun Times. ‘‘But we’ve just got to kind of see if that’s where we’re at and if it is a pitch count. I think a lot of that, honestly, is going to be more so when you’re in the game: How’s he feeling?
‘‘If he’s feeling good, keep him going. If he’s not . . . maybe it’s just between all of us talking, ‘Hey, let’s just get him out.’ It’s good for him any way you look at it.’’
The 2013 first-round pick has battled through injuries over the past three years, missing a total of 22 games during that span. When he’s been in the lineup, Long has been among the top offensive guards in the entire league. Pro Football Focus only ranks him 28th among 79 eligible guards in 2018, but he was previously an annual inclusion in the top-five.
Current starting offensive guards Eric Kush and James Daniels have seen their way in and out of the starting lineup this season, and Long will surely replace one of them. Daniels, a second-round rookie, has graded out as the better lineman this season, per Pro Football Focus.
Marcus Cooper‘s second Bears season did not feature much work. The veteran cornerback logged just three defensive snaps in 2018, and his time with Chicago may be ending.
The Bears, who are facing the prospect of being without Mitch Trubisky for their Thanksgiving Day game against the Lions, promoted quarterback Tyler Bray from their practice squad, Rich Campbell of the Chicago Tribune tweets.
Trubisky was sore this morning and didn’t have as much shoulder movement as he expected to, Adam Schefter of ESPN.com tweets, adding it’s likely Chase Daniel will start in Detroit. This would be Daniel’s first start with the Bears. He did see action in blowout wins over the Buccaneers and Bills, however. Trubisky is listed as doubtful, pointing to a Daniel start in a key game for the NFC North-leading Bears.
Chicago may well have the quarterback depth chart the Chiefs once did behind Alex Smith for a three-year stretch earlier this decade. Both Daniel and Bray were Kansas City backups during a few of Matt Nagy‘s seasons in Kansas City. Despite being a 2013 UDFA, Bray — a Tennessee product — has only thrown one pass in a game. He signed with the Bears this offseason.
Cooper re-signed with the Bears on a one-year, $1.5MM deal this year as well. He started in four games and played in 15 last season, making 30 tackles. The 28-year-old corner missed time this year with a hamstring injury but has been buried on Chicago’s depth chart. He will head to waivers.
We’ll keep track of today’s practice squad moves here:
Atlanta Falcons
Arizona Cardinals
Baltimore Ravens
Chicago Bears
Signed:
Cleveland Browns
Signed:
Dallas Cowboys
Detroit Lions
Denver Broncos
Houston Texans
Indianapolis Colts
Signed:
Los Angeles Chargers
Minnesota Vikings
New England Patriots
New York Jets
Signed:
New York Giants
Oakland Raiders
San Francisco 49ers
Seattle Seahawks
Signed:
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Signed:
Tennessee Titans
The Bears have reduced their roster to 53 players by making the following transactions:
Waived:
Released:
Placed on injured reserve:
Here are today’s minor moves:
Arizona Cardinals
Carolina Panthers
Chicago Bears
Jacksonville Jaguars
Minnesota Vikings
Oakland Raiders
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
The Raiders need to find a running back to complement Latavius Murray, opines Scott Bair of CSNBayArea.com. Bair lists Chris Johnson, Tim Hightower, Matt Forte, James Starks and Ronnie Hillman as potential fits through free agency.
Earlier tonight, PFR’s Rory Parks previewed the Raiders’ offseason in depth and, like Bair, named RB as a position the club could address. Click here for the rest.
More from the AFC:
Sam Robinson contributed to this post.
Week 6 of the NFL season will come to an end after Monday night’s game between the Giants and Eagles, and when teams begin preparing for Week 7, many clubs could be welcoming injured players back to practice. Six weeks into the NFL season, players who were placed on the physically unable to perform list or the non-football injury list prior to Week 1’s games will be eligible to return to the practice field.
Of course, just because those players are able to return to practice doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll be healthy enough to do so. Players on the PUP list have a five-week window to begin practicing. Once they return to practice, they have three weeks to be added to their respective teams’ active rosters. In other words, a player currently on the PUP list could return to the field for his team’s Week 7 game, or could return as late as for his team’s Week 15 contest.
The rules for NFI players are similar to those for PUP players. If a player on either reserve list doesn’t return to practice or game action in time, his 2015 season will officially be over.
Here are the players currently on the physically unable to perform (PUP) list who can begin practicing as soon as this Tuesday:
And here are the players currently on their teams’ non-football injury or illness lists, who are also eligible to begin practicing this Tuesday:
In addition to monitoring players on the PUP and NFI lists, it’s worth keeping an eye on players who have been placed on the injured reserve list with the designation to return. Teams can use this IR-DTR spot on one player per season, placing him on the injured reserve list without necessarily ruling him out for the season. As we explained in an earlier post, players given this designation can begin practicing after six weeks and can return after eight weeks.
That means that a player who was placed on IR-DTR prior to Week 1 can begin practicing on Tuesday, though he won’t be eligible to return to game action until Week 9. A player who was placed on IR-DTR after Week 1 will have to wait until next Tuesday – October 27 – to return to practice, while other IR-DTR players will have to wait until November to practice.
Here’s the list of players currently on IR-DTR who can begin practicing as soon as Tuesday:
Quarterback Tyler Bray underwent surgery on a torn ACL back in January, and will open the 2015 season on the Chiefs’ reserve/non-football injury list, but as GM John Dorsey said at February’s draft combine, Bray remains in the team’s plans. According to Field Yates of ESPN.com (Twitter links), Kansas City has signed Bray to a two-year extension, keeping him under team control through the 2017 season.
Bray, 23, tore his ACL playing basketball, which is why he landed on the NFI list, rather than injured reserve. When a player suffers a non-football injury, a team can elect to withhold his salary, but the Chiefs will pay Bray the full $510K he’s owed for 2015, as part of the extension agreement, according to Yates.
While the Chiefs made a concession on this year’s salary, they’ll get a good bargain on the two new years of Bray’s contract. Per Yates, those two years have a base value of just $1.925MM, with no guaranteed money.
The fact that Bray’s 2016 and 2017 seasons feature no guarantees means his roster spot in Kansas City is far from safe. But if the Chiefs like what they see from the former UDFA as he recovers from his ACL tear, the team could consider promoting him to the No. 2 role next season, with Chase Daniel‘s contract set to expire in March.
The Chiefs have waived Junior Hemingway and Tavon Rooks as a part of their effort to get down to a 75-man roster, Terez A. Paylor of the Kansas City Star tweets. KC also placed Justin March on IR and Tyler Bray on the NFI list.
Hemingway, a wide receiver, was selected by the Chiefs in the seventh round of the 2012 NFL Draft. Over the last two seasons, he has hauled in a combined 25 catches for 233 yards and two touchdowns. Rooks, a sixth-round pick in the 2012 draft, offers great size for the tackle position at 6’5″, 280 pounds.