Here are Wednesday’s practice squad moves:
Baltimore Ravens
Houston Texans
San Francisco 49ers
Seattle Seahawks
With the start of Week 1 quickly approaching, NFL front offices are still finding ways to open some cap space. A handful of players restructured their contracts today, and we’ve compiled some of the notable transactions below:
We’ve compiled today’s practice squad moves below:
Atlanta Falcons
Carolina Panthers
Chicago Bears
Cincinnati Bengals
Denver Broncos
Houston Texans
Miami Dolphins
New York Giants
Pittsburgh Steelers
Seattle Seahawks
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Washington Football Team
We’ll keep track of the latest minor moves here:
Carolina Panthers
Cincinnati Bengals
Indianapolis Colts
New York Giants
Philadelphia Eagles
Tennessee Titans
Seattle Seahawks
Former Raiders linebacker Tanner Muse cleared waivers and selected a new home shortly after. The Seahawks are signing the former third-round pick to their practice squad, Tom Pelissero of NFL.com tweets.
Caught in a sudden roster crunch, after the Raiders both traded for Denzel Perryman and signed K.J. Wright, Muse will receive another opportunity in Wright’s old stomping grounds. The Raiders did make an attempt to keep Muse via practice squad invite, per the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s Vincent Bonsignore (on Twitter), but the young defender opted for Seattle’s offer.
This stands to be Muse’s first healthy NFL season. He missed all of his rookie year due to a toe injury. One of a few Raiders draft picks from Clemson, Muse intercepted four passes during his senior season with the Tigers and saw regular time for the ACC powerhouse’s previous two outfits.
After playing safety at Clemson, Muse moved to linebacker this offseason. While the Raiders previously had injury-created openings for linebackers during their preseason slate, ex-Gus Bradley charges Perryman and Wright filled them. Acquired during Paul Guenther‘s defensive coordinator stay, Muse ended up being jettisoned to create roster space.
The Seahawks only kept four linebackers on their active roster, giving Muse a potential early chance to contribute as a backup. Cody Barton resides as Seattle’s fourth linebacker, behind starters Bobby Wagner, Jordyn Brooks and Darrell Taylor. Teams have until Saturday afternoon to set their active 53-man for the week.
It’s been a rollercoaster of a couple weeks for John Reid, but he’s back on a 53-man roster. The Seahawks have signed the cornerback from their practice squad to their active roster, his agency announced on Twitter.
A Penn State product, Reid was a fourth-round pick of the Texans just last year. He appeared in 13 games for Houston as a rookie and started one, but was traded to Seattle for a 2022 seventh-rounder toward the end of training camp. Just a week after trading for him the Seahawks waived him, quickly adding him back on the practice squad.
Now after a week on the practice squad, he’s back on the active roster. Seattle had a lot of turnover at cornerback this offseason, most notably letting Shaquill Griffin walk in free agency. The same day they waived Reid, they also traded for former Eagles and Jags corner Sidney Jones.
They also drafted Tre Brown out of Oklahoma in the fourth-round, and now have a pretty young group of cornerbacks. It wouldn’t be surprising if Reid gets a crack at some point.
Right before the start of the regular season, the Seahawks have taken care of one of their last remaining orders of business. Seattle has agreed to a deal with Duane Brown for him to play the 2021 season under, a source told Ian Rapoport of NFL Network (Twitter link).
The Seahawks will be “converting per game roster bonuses to guarantees” for this season while the veteran offensive tackle also gets an “injury protection benefit for 2022,” Rapsheet writes. We heard a couple of weeks ago the team was looking for a compromise, and they were able to get something done. Brown skipped training camp, staging a hold-in, in search of a new contract.
He didn’t get the extension he was hoping for, and will still become a free agent after this season, but at least he now has some injury protection for next year. For what it’s worth, Russell Wilson was vocal in his support for Brown this summer, not really giving the Seahawks much of a choice.
Brown will make around $10MM this year, a bargain for a blindside protector of his caliber. Despite turning 36 last month, the five-time Pro Bowler has remained a quality starter.
Brown isn’t any stranger to contract disputes, or to holding his ground. His holdout with the Texans in 2017 saw him sit out the first six games of the season, and eventually led to his trade to Seattle.
The Seahawks have signed cornerback Blessuan Austin (Twitter link via Dave Wyman of KCPQ). Austin will serve as a depth option for the ‘Hawks as they prepare to face the Colts on Sunday.
The Jets shopped Austin towards the end of the summer but couldn’t find a taker for him. Last week, they cut him loose in order to pick up linebacker Quincy Williams, the brother of defensive lineman Quinnen Williams.
Austin appeared in eleven games with ten starts last year, registering 63 stops, four passes defensed, one forced fumble, and three tackles for loss. Between his two Jets seasons, Austin registered 88 tackles and two forced fumbles across 18 games.
The 25-year-old Rutgers product now gets to reunite with old pal Jamal Adams while he supports the Seahawks’ CB group. For now, that leaves the Seahawks with six CBs in total — Sidney Jones, D.J. Reed, Tre Flowers, Tre Brown, and Nigel Warrior.
The Colts were hoping for a Week 1 return for new LT Eric Fisher, who has been rehabbing from the torn Achilles tendon he suffered as a member of the Chiefs in January. According to Joel A. Erickson of the Indianapolis Star, Fisher had a real chance to suit up for the September 12 opener against Seattle, but his recent positive test for COVID-19 has seriously complicated matters.
Fisher’s positive result has forced him to quarantine for 10 days — which suggests he is not vaccinated — so he is unable to continue his rehab at the team facility. As such, there is no way for the Colts to comment on his availability until he is activated off the reserve/COVID-19 list. Until he is ready to go, Indy will roll with Julie’n Davenport at left tackle.
Let’s take a look at several other injury-related items:
Sep. 5: Diggs may not be holding in after all. A source tells Adam Jude of the Seattle Times that Diggs is merely staying away from the practice field as he works to finalize an insurance policy to protect him in case he should suffer an injury this year. Diggs himself has said that he will be on the field for the Seahawks’ regular season opener next week, if not sooner.
“As soon as this little business thing that I gotta do, as soon as it’s done — signed, sealed, delivered — I’ll be back at practice,” Diggs said. “But, I mean, I wouldn’t call it a ‘hold in.’ I would say I’m just getting some things cleared up and I’ll be back with my teammates pretty soon.”
Aug. 29: The Seahawks and safety Jamal Adams finally agreed to a long-term extension earlier this month, clearing one major item off of Seattle’s agenda. The team is still in a holding pattern with left tackle Duane Brown, and now Adams’ running mate at safety, Quandre Diggs, is staging a hold-in of his own, as Brady Henderson of ESPN.com observes.
Diggs is entering his platform year, and we heard back in July that the 28-year-old DB was seeking a new deal. No reports on negotiations between the two sides have surfaced, and Henderson says its unclear if the Seahawks want to give Diggs a new contract at this point. The club is taking a similar stance with respect to Brown, though the ‘Hawks are now said to be exploring some sort of compromise that allows Brown to increase his 2021 compensation without adding years onto his existing deal.
Diggs, who held himself out of practice this week, was acquired by Seattle in a pre-deadline deal with the Lions in 2019, and he has been well worth the fifth-round choice that the Seahawks sent back to Detroit. He played in just five regular season contests for the ‘Hawks in 2019, though he did pick up three interceptions in that span. Last year, he enjoyed perfect attendance, racking up five picks and 64 total tackles en route to his first career Pro Bowl bid. Pro Football Focus assigned him a middling 63.1 overall grade, good for 52nd out of 94 qualified players, but his on-field impact belies that ranking.
When it consummated the trade, Seattle picked up the three-year, $18.6MM contract that Diggs had previously signed with the Lions. The $6.2MM AAV on that deal is now the 19th-highest figure in the safety market. While he will certainly not eclipse, or even get close to, Adams’ $17.5MM AAV, a $12MM/year contract seems to be a reasonable ask.
Head coach Pete Carroll addressed the matter on Friday, saying, “I think [Diggs is] making a bit of a statement now, but I have nothing for you to update. He deserves to do that.” Last night, Carroll was non-committal when asked if he thought Diggs would return to practice this week (Twitter link via Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times).
Diggs has taken to Twitter to express his thoughts, saying, “Can’t deny me what I deserve,” and Adams spoke out in support of his teammate. “He deserves it and hopefully we can get that done,” Adams said. “I’m not the GM, so I don’t know when. His time is going to come. They’re going to do right by him.”
As it stands, Diggs is due to earn $5.95MM in base salary in 2021. He had a $100K offseason workout bonus and can earn another $100K in per-game roster bonuses.