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Saints To Re-Sign G Shane Lemieux

August 2nd, 2025 at 12:25pm CST by Adam La Rose

August 2: Lemieux’s signing came on the heels of a knee injury to Nick Saldiveri, who is going on season-ending injured reserve, per ESPN’s Katherine Terell.

Saldiveri started six games at left guard last season and was competing for the starting job in 2025 with Penning. Though the Saints relied on him more than expected last year, Lemieux is unlikely to be a Week 1 starter and will likely served as a multi-positional backup along the interior of the offensive line.

August 1: Shane Lemieux spent the 2024 campaign in New Orleans, and he will look to do the same this season. The sixth-year guard as a deal in place with the Saints, Mike Garafolo of NFL Network reports.

[RELATED: Reviewing Saints’ Offseason]

Lemieux began his career with the Giants and played out his rookie contract from 2020-23. Over that span, the former fifth-rounder was marred by injuries; after logging nine starts as a rookie, Lemieux made a total of only six appearances for New York during his final three years with the team. That obviously hurt his value as a free agent.

Originally joining the Saints on the practice squad, Lemieux wound up being elevated to the active roster in October. That allowed him to make a total of seven appearances and four starts for New Orleans as the team battled a slew of injuries throughout its offense. The campaign nevertheless included another stint on injured reserve for the 28-year-old, so it comes as little surprise he remained on the open market into August.

Lemieux took part in the Saints’ minicamp in June as part of an effort to secure a second contract with the team. That has proven effective, albeit along a belated timeline. The Saints entered Friday with over $20MM in cap space, so this pact – which will no doubt check in at the veteran minimum – will not have an impact on any further moves which take place between now and the start of the regular season.

New Orleans is set to use Taliese Fuaga at right tackle in 2025 with first-round rookie Kelvin Banks Jr. a candidate to handle blindside duties. Regardless of how that plays out, Trevor Penning (who has not met expectations at either tackle spot) will move inside to guard this season. Penning is slated to operate as New Orleans’ top option at left guard, but Lemieux will look to compete for time on the right or, more likely, a backup role through the remainder of training camp.

Ravens Sign DL Brent Urban

August 2nd, 2025 at 11:20am CST by Ben Levine

August 2: Urban’s workout must have gone well, as the Ravens announced his signing on Saturday morning.

Urban was one of the five defensive linemen on Baltimore’s 53-man roster to start the 2024 regular season, but he will likely be competing with Jenkins if the team carries the same number this year.

July 31: Brent Urban could be back in Baltimore for yet another season. The veteran defensive lineman is set to work out for the Ravens “in the upcoming days,” according to Jeff Zrebiec of The Athletic.

The veteran will be seeking his fourth-consecutive one-year contract from Baltimore. That latest stint has seen Urban appear in 46 total games, with the defensive lineman compiling 63 tackles and four sacks while appearing in about one fourth of his team’s defensive snaps. The 34-year-old has also gotten into five playoff games over that span.

A former fourth-round pick, the Virginia product spent the first five seasons of his career in Baltimore, starting 19 of his 41 games. He spent the 2019 season between the Titans and Bears, and after collecting a career-high 2.5 sacks in Chicago in 2020, he spent the 2021 campaign with the Cowboys. He reunited with Baltimore ahead of the 2022 season.

As Zrebiec notes, Urban remains “an organizational favorite,” and his familiarity with John Harbaugh and the coaching staff would obviously make him a natural fit for the 2025 iteration of the Ravens. Baltimore is set to return the same main DL grouping of Nnamdi Madubuike, Travis Jones, and Broderick Washington next season, and the team added the likes of John Jenkins and sixth-round pick Aeneas Peebles for some depth. Urban would likely slide in towards the bottom of the depth chart if he garners another contract from the team.

Cowboys Add T Geron Christian After Today’s Workout

August 1st, 2025 at 10:07pm CST by Ely Allen

Though, earlier today, it seemed as if La’el Collins was the victor of a two-man audition with Geron Christian today in Dallas, it appears both players will get a chance with the team in training camp. Following today’s announcement that Collins would be reuniting with the team that signed him out of college, Christian was announced as a signee, as well, in an announcement from his representation.

The Cowboys offensive line is dealing with a bit of a hiccup as starting left tackle Tyler Guyton is now expected to miss several weeks due to a bone fracture and sprained knee. They also are currently without free agent guard addition Robert Jones. The team has Terence Steele entrenched at right tackle, but Jones is a key swing option following the first-round selection of pure guard Tyler Booker. All-Pro Tyler Smith is locked in at left guard, with the Cowboys resisting a move back to tackle for the ascending performer at the moment.

Christian joins Collins now as camp bodies, depth options who will need to use this opportunity to secure a bigger role. Collins has a leg up in both starting experience and experience with this team, but Christian has had more success with recent opportunities. Collins hasn’t appeared in a regular season game in either of the past two seasons.

Originally a third-round pick out of Louisville in 2018, Christian’s tenure in Washington was marred by injury. After tearing his MCL as a rookie with only two games under his belt, Christian was set up for redemption as he was named to be the successor to departing left tackle Trent Williams. Christian started six games before suffering a knee injury and missing the rest of the season.

After getting waived in the following offseason, Christian was claimed by the Texans. When both starting tackles went down with injuries in the first five weeks of the season, Christian was called upon to start at left tackle in eight games in 2021. After signing as a free agent with Kansas City and seeing little success, Christian returned to the Texans in 2023 but was cut shortly into the year.

He would land on the Browns’ practice squad and once again get forced into action when both starting tackles went down with injuries. He started the final nine games of the season for Cleveland at left tackle. Christian would once again branch out, signing with the Titans in 2024, then landing on the Rams’ practice squad when he failed to make the roster in Tennessee, and ultimately, getting signed off Los Angeles’ p-squad to rejoin the Browns in a special teams role.

He’ll compete now for another opportunity to stick around, ready to take over in case of injury. He joins Collins as the two new linemen in camp, and they’ll have work to do in order to make the roster for 2025.

Texans Sign DT Marlon Davidson, Place Rookie DT On IR

August 1st, 2025 at 7:46pm CST by Ely Allen

An injury to seventh-round rookie defensive tackle Kyonte Hamilton led to a successful surgery today, and the Texans already found his replacement, signing veteran defensive tackle Marlon Davidson, per Aaron Wilson of KPRC 2. With Hamilton hitting injured reserve after the surgery, Davidson’s spot on the roster was earned after a successful workout with the team.

Hamilton, a productive interior lineman at Rutgers last year, was carted off the field Wednesday with what appeared to be a significant lower leg injury. After being diagnosed with a fractured ankle and getting scheduled for surgery, it was determined that Hamilton was destined for IR with a potential four-month recovery on deck.

Davidson comes in as the next man up. After appearing in only eight games as a rookie, the second-round pick out of Auburn’s role grew a quite a bit in Year 2. Despite a few spurts of absences forcing him to miss six more games, Davidson found himself with a much larger snap share. In a Week 2 matchup, he recorded his first sack on Tom Brady, and in a Week 13 rematch, Davidson recorded a pick six off the arm of the future Hall of Famer.

Davidson’s NFL career has come crashing down ever since. Prior to the start of the 2022 NFL season, Davidson underwent arthroscopic knee surgery and was placed on IR. Already on the roster bubble due to his frequent absences, Davidson was cut by the team the following month. He rebounded in the offseason, signing with the 49ers, but was relegated to the practice squad after failing to make the initial 53-man roster and released four weeks into the season.

Once again, Davidson found a new spot on the Titans’ practice squad. He would get called up to the active roster near the end of the season and actually ended up starting the final three games of 2023 in Tennessee. The Titans re-signed him in the offseason, but they placed him on IR with a biceps tear in the preseason. He remained there the entirety of the 2024 season.

Now he’ll get another new chance in Houston. As Hamilton goes down for the next four months, Davidson comes in to fill out the position group during training camp. If he wants any chance at making the 53-man roster to stay with the Texans, he’s going to have to show he can stay healthy.

NFL Minor Transactions: 8/1/25

August 1st, 2025 at 6:56pm CST by Ely Allen

Here are the first minor NFL moves in August:

Arizona Cardinals

Atlanta Falcons

Buffalo Bills

Cleveland Browns

Denver Broncos

Indianapolis Colts

Jacksonville Jaguars

Kansas City Chiefs

Miami Dolphins

Minnesota Vikings

Philadelphia Eagles

Pittsburgh Steelers

San Francisco 49ers

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Washington Commanders

Cowboys To Bring Back T La’el Collins

August 1st, 2025 at 4:15pm CST by Sam Robinson

After meeting with La’el Collins, the Cowboys have a deal in place. Although the Micah Parsons news will overshadow anything Cowboys today (and for the foreseeable future), the Fort Worth Star-Telegram’s Nick Harris reports they have a deal in place with Collins.

This deal may not be final yet, per The Exhibit’s Josina Anderson, but Fox Sports’ Jordan Schultz confirms Harris’ report of an agreement. The contract is pending a physical, per Schultz, and KPRC2’s Aaron Wilson indicates the Cowboys will officially process the transaction Saturday. While working out Collins, the Cowboys also auditioned veteran tackle Geron Christian, Wilson adds.

Collins has not seen regular-season action since suffering ACL and MCL tears as a Bengal in 2022, though he has latched on with multiple teams since his September 2023 Cincinnati release. Collins, 32, reunited with the Cowboys to close the 2023 season but did not see any game action. Collins did not make the Bills’ 53-man roster last summer and spent the season out of football. The Cowboys are giving him a chance at another year.

The Cowboys deployed Collins as both a guard and tackle starter, grabbing the first-round talent as a UDFA back in 2015. The team moved Collins to right tackle in 2017, and he worked as — a missed 2020 season notwithstanding — the team’s RT starter over the next five seasons. The Cowboys rewarded Collins with two extensions but shed the second one from their payroll in 2021, leading to the Bengals signing. Collins did not make it through a season in Cincinnati, and the team released him from the reserve/PUP list months later.

For his career, Collins has made 86 starts (71 with Dallas). This profiles as a last chance of sorts, due to the time the LSU product has been away from regular-season action. The Cowboys have run into a key O-line injury, with left tackle starter Tyler Guyton expected to miss several weeks due to a bone fracture and sprained knee. They also are without free agent guard addition Robert Jones. The team has Terence Steele entrenched at right tackle, but Jones is a key swing option following the first-round selection of Tyler Booker. All-Pro Tyler Smith is locked in at left guard, with the Cowboys resisting a move back to tackle for the ascending performer. At this point in his career, Collins would be a depth option at best. But he is one the Cowboys appear to need right now.

Bengals To Sign TE Noah Fant

July 31st, 2025 at 10:27pm CST by Nikhil Mehta

The Bengals are expected to sign veteran tight end Noah Fant, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter. The Bengals released undrafted rookie Kole Taylor in a corresponding move, per Schefter.

Fant was released by the Seahawks on July 20 and quickly lined up a visit with the Bengals. Fant left Cincinnati without a deal and met with the Saints and the Dolphins but quickly circled back to the opportunity to catch passes from Joe Burrow.

Fant will now join a Bengals tight end room led by Mike Gesicki and Drew Sample. The former first-round pick will likely be an upgrade over 31-year-old Tanner Hudson, who has been a reliable, inexpensive third tight end in Cincinnati with 58 catches for 506 yards over the last two years. Fant nearly hit those numbers last year alone with a total of 1,400 yards over his last three years in Seattle and a career average of 550 yards per season.

The six-year veteran also brings some versatility to the tight end position that the Bengals currently lack. Sample is largely an inline blocker while Gesicki played almost all of his snaps last year in the slot or out wide. Fant can do all three, which will give head coach Zac Taylor plenty of ways to get him on the field.

The Bengals will be Fant’s third team after he was drafted by the Broncos in 2019 and sent to the Seahawks as part of the Russell Wilson trade in 2022. Fant then became the first Seahawk to see his fifth-year option picked up, which the team did upon acquiring him in 2022. The Seahawks still leaned mostly on D.K. Metcalf and Tyler Lockett during Fant’s first two years with the team, but they still re-signed him to a two-year, $21MM deal in 2024. Seattle then drafted Elijah Arroyo in this year’s second round; the team will lean on the Miami product after releasing Fant just before training camp.

The former No. 20 pick may not be an elite receiving threat, having never eclipsed 700 yards in a season, but he has been consistent; Fant’s 3,305 career receiving yards are the 10th-most among tight ends since he entered the NFL. After featuring mostly low-octane tight end contributors following Tyler Eifert‘s slew of injuries, Cincinnati has added two receiving threats over the past two offseasons. The team re-signed Gesicki (three years, $25.5MM) in March and will pair him with an intriguing late-summer addition.

NFL Minor Transactions: 7/31/25

July 31st, 2025 at 8:35pm CST by Ben Levine

Today’s minor moves:

Atlanta Falcons

Buffalo Bills

Cleveland Browns

  • Signed: WR Chase Cota

Denver Broncos

  • Signed: LB Garrett Nelson
  • Reverted to IR: LB Johnny Walker

Indianapolis Colts

Jacksonville Jaguars

Minnesota Vikings

New England Patriots

New Orleans Saints

Pittsburgh Steelers

San Francisco 49ers

Seattle Seahawks

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

  • Signed: WR Jaden Smith
  • Waived/injured: S Marcus Banks, RB D.J. Williams

Washington Commanders

  • Activated from active/NFI: OL Tim McKay

The Colts added some experienced cornerback depth today in Tre Herndon and Duke Shelley. Herndon had a long stint in Jacksonville, starting 34 of his 83 appearances with the organization. Shelley has bounced around the league a bit, with his longest stint coming in Chicago between 2019 and 2021. Both players were limited to one appearance each during the 2024 campaign.

The 49ers made a long list of moves today, most notably to their wide receiver depth. Marquez Callaway was limited to two games in Tampa Bay last season, but he compiled 698 receiving yards and six touchdowns as recently as 2021. Andy Isabella has only gotten into 13 total games over the past four years, hauling in five receptions over that span. They’ll be taking the roster spots previously held by former Bears starter Equanimeous St. Brown and former Kansas State standout Malik Knowles.

49ers Work Out Jeff Wilson, Ameer Abdullah

July 31st, 2025 at 9:20am CST by Sam Robinson

July 31: The 49ers are signing Abdullah after his tryout on Thursday, according to CBS Sports’ Matt Zenitz. A thin running back room in San Francisco may give the 10-year veteran a chance at making the 53-man roster as a kick returner who can provide depth in the backfield.

July 30: Jeff Wilson has spent the past his entire career in roughly the same scheme, rejoining ex-49ers OC Mike McDaniel after a 2022 deadline deal. After playing out his Dolphins contract, Wilson has lingered in free agency for four-plus months.

The 49ers are back on the radar for their former UDFA find. Wilson went through a workout with his original NFL team Wednesday, per NFL.com’s Mike Garafolo and Ian Rapoport. Wilson played with the 49ers from 2018 until that November 2022 trade. He joined ex-Browns and Jaguars backup D’Ernest Johnson at the audition.

Additionally, the 49ers brought in veteran tackle Cameron Fleming for a recent workout, KPRC2’s Aaron Wilson adds. Fleming played in one Broncos game last season, rejoining the team he played for from 2021-23.

Wilson had re-signed with the Dolphins on a two-year, $6MM deal in 2023 but accepted a pay cut in 2024. The Dolphins added De’Von Achane in the 2023 third round and turned to him as a rookie, preceding Wilson adjusting his 2024 Miami terms (one year, $1.75MM). Achane received more work in 2024, reducing 2023 NFL touchdown leader Raheem Mostert to a backup and Wilson to an afterthought. Wilson totaled just 15 carries for 57 yards last season.

For his career, Wilson has logged only 531 carries. The 49ers traded him to the Dolphins shortly after acquiring Christian McCaffrey via trade, but Wilson still gained a career-high 860 yards (between San Francisco and Miami work) that season. He amassed 600 rushing yards (4.8 per carry) and seven touchdowns for the 2020 49ers. Mostert is now a Raider, and Wilson (30 in November) has a chance to head west as well.

The 49ers have Isaac Guerendo positioned as their top McCaffrey backup, having traded Jordan Mason to the Vikings in March. San Francisco is ready to redeploy McCaffrey, but his extensive injury history should call for depth to be prioritized. The 49ers did use a fifth-round pick on Oregon’s Jordan James, and ex-Packer reserve Patrick Taylor is on the 90-man roster. Wilson would certainly bring scheme familiarity to go with a light career workload.

In addition to auditioning Jeff Wilson, the 49ers (per Aaron Wilson) had Ameer Abdullah at the audition. Abdullah has lasted 10 years in the NFL, playing the past three with the Raiders. Las Vegas used Abdullah as a backup and kick returner, though more in the latter capacity, during his tenure. The former Lions second-round pick did make three starts last season, when he rushed for 311 yards — his most since 2017 — but he has made five total starts over the past seven seasons.

Abdullah spent four seasons with the Lions but did not impress much as a starter. At 32, he has still managed to impress a host of coaching staffs and stick in the league for an extended period.

Fleming worked as a regular starter for the Broncos in 2021, after the Ja’Wuan James offsite injury saga, before becoming a swing backup in ’22. The Broncos have enjoyed good health along their O-line over the past two seasons, and Fleming was not needed for the most part. Last year, the 11-year veteran caught on with Denver in-season. Mostly a swingman throughout his career, Fleming (33 in September) has played in 118 games with 62 starts.

The 49ers have Andre Dillard rostered as a swing option, though he has mostly played left tackle as a pro. They did not ultimately do a deal with D.J. Humphries, also waiving Nicholas Petit-Frere after a brief stint. Trent Williams missed nearly half of last season due to injury, and the 49ers lost swingman Jaylon Moore to a $15MM-per-year Chiefs deal. Converted guard Spencer Burford represents an option behind starting RT Colton McKivitz, but Fleming would provide considerably more tackle experience if called upon.

Raiders, LT Kolton Miller Agree On Extension

July 30th, 2025 at 8:58pm CST by Ely Allen

Four Raiders remain from the Oakland days of the franchise. The longest-tenured of those four players is now set to stick around in Las Vegas for a few more years, at least. According to ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler, the Raiders are extending left tackle Kolton Miller on a three-year, $66MM agreement. The new deal includes $42.5MM of guaranteed money.

It’s no surprise that Miller is getting a new deal. We knew back in April that he was seeking a new deal as he skipped the team’s voluntary offseason program. Miller was entering the 2025 NFL season on the final year of the three-year, $54MM extension he had signed in 2021 to move on from his rookie deal. This time around, he’s received a $4MM-per-year raise.

There were thoughts that the Raiders might be looking to draft his replacement with options like Armand Membou and Kelvin Banks Jr. in range at No. 6 overall, but the team opted instead for a pair of third-round, developmental lineman in Texas Tech’s Caleb Rogers and William & Mary’s Charles Grant. Following the draft, Miller returned to team activities as the Raiders seemingly started to play ball. Miller had made it clear that he wanted to retire a Raider, it was just unclear whether or not the team was going to meet him there.

Miller has been a full-time starting blindside blocker for the Raiders since they selected him 15th overall in 2018 out of UCLA. Out of a possible 116 games, Miller has been on the field for all but seven of them. It took a couple years for his massive 6-foot-8, 325-pound frame to find his mojo in the NFL, but he improved year after year. Vegas opted to extend him before they even needed to make a decision on his fifth-year option, giving him an impressive — though not boundary-pushing — deal that would make him the fifth-highest paid offensive lineman in the NFL at the time.

Miller rewarded their faith in him with the best season of his career, in which Pro Football Focus (subscription required) would grade him as the fifth-best offensive tackle in the league out of 83 players graded at the position, commensurate with his salary. Though he hasn’t graded that high in the three years since, rankings of sixth in 2022, 11th in 2023, and 13th last year show that, time and again, Miller is up there with the best bookends in the NFL.

Miller’s new deal is, once again, impressive while not encroaching on the league’s highest-paid tackles, who are creeping up slowly on $30MM per year. His $22MM-per-year average ties him as the 11th-highest-paid tackles with Jordan Mailata and Zach Tom. The three-year term of the deal is short of those we’ve seen for young stars like Rashawn Slater (four years) and Tristan Wirfs (five years), but the contract length is well in line with players closer to his 29 years of age. Laremy Tunsil (28), Dion Dawkins (29), Ronnie Stanley (30), and Taylor Decker (30) all signed three-year deals of their own in the last two years.

While kicker Daniel Carlson shared a rookie year in Oakland with Miller, he didn’t join the team until Week 3 after the team that drafted him (Vikings) waived him two weeks into the season. Having worn a Raiders jersey longer than any other player in the locker room, as a result, Miller’s tenure has been extended through the 2028 season. It’s still to be determined whether or not he’ll spend his entire career in silver and black, as he desires, but today’s deal goes a long way in helping him towards that goal.

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