HEADLINES

Month: September 2017

Giants Release DE Devin Taylor

September 2nd, 2017 at 8:14am CST by Ben Levine

Devin Taylor‘s tenure with the Giants ended relatively quickly. According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter (via Twitter), the team has released the veteran defensive end.

Devin Taylor (vertical)Taylor originally joined the Giants back in May. Previously, the 2013 fourth-round pick had spent his entire four-year career in Detroit, where he served mostly in a reserve role. Taylor earned a bit more responsibility in 2016, starting a career-high 16 games while compiling 21 tackles, 4.5 sacks, and one forced fumble. The 27-year-old has 15 career sacks in four seasons.

With Taylor out of the picture, it appears that the Giants will roll with a younger reserve at defensive end. Among the candidates for a backup role are Romeo Okwara, Avery Moss, Kerry Wynn, Ishaq Williams, and Bobby Richardson. Olivier Vernon and Jason Pierre-Paul are slotted in as the team’s starters at defensive end.

Steelers Release Cobi Hamilton

September 1st, 2017 at 10:05pm CST by Connor J. Byrne

Cobi Hamilton was a fixture in the Steelers’ receiving corps in 2016, but he won’t be a member of the group this year. The team has released the wideout, Jeremy Fowler of ESPN reports.

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Thanks largely to superstar Antonio Brown, the just-reinstated Martavis Bryant, second-round pick JuJu Smith-Schuster and Eli Rogers, the Steelers are deep at receiver. With those four serving as locks to make the team, Hamilton joined a few other familiar Steelers receivers who vied to stay on their roster during the preseason. It wasn’t to be for the 26-year-old Hamilton, a sixth-round pick of the AFC North rival Bengals in 2013 who didn’t catch a pass in Cincinnati but made somewhat of an impact in Pittsburgh.

In 2016, his lone season with the Steelers, Hamilton started in eight of 11 appearances and caught 17 passes for 234 yards and two touchdowns. He added another four receptions and a TD in three playoff games last January.

Also a former Eagle, Dolphin and Panther, the well-traveled Hamilton’s next NFL organization will be his sixth.

Latest On Jets RB Matt Forte

September 1st, 2017 at 9:07pm CST by Dallas Robinson

Although recent reports indicate that he’s being shopped, Jets running back Matt Forte said he’s been assured by general manager Mike Maccagnan that he won’t be traded, as Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News tweets.Matt Forte

Those two viewpoints aren’t necessarily disparate, as New York could be offering Forte up on the trade market and not finding a taker. That wouldn’t be altogether surprising, especially given that Forte will be 32 years old in December, struggled in his first season with the Jets in 2016, and is due a fully guaranteed $4MM base salary for the upcoming campaign.

The Jets haven’t been afraid to part with veterans this offseason, as they’ve released Eric Decker, Brandon Marshall, Darrelle Revis, David Harris, Nick Mangold, and others. Maccagnan & Co. also traded defensive lineman Sheldon Richardson to the Seahawks earlier today.

If Forte were to be dealt or released, the Jets would turn to Bilal Powell and sixth-round rookie Elijah McGuire as their options in the backfield.

49ers’ Don Jones May Have Torn ACL

September 1st, 2017 at 7:37pm CST by Connor J. Byrne

Don Jones

49ers safety Don Jones posted on his Snapchat that he suffered a torn left ACL in the team’s preseason finale against the Chargers on Thursday, per James Brady of Niners Nation. He’s now likely to head to injured reserve, according to Matt Maiocco of NBC Sports Bay Area (Twitter link). Placing Jones on IR would reduce the 49ers’ roster to 70 players, 17 above the 53-man limit.

Jones joined the 49ers on a two-year deal at the outset of free agency in March, before which the 2013 seventh-round pick spent time with six organizations. He divided 2016 between Cleveland and Houston and appeared in 13 games, logging his first-ever start along the way.

While Jones is technically a defender, playing time has been scarce on that side of the ball for the 27-year-old. Jones has mainly functioned as a special teamer, and he played nearly 40 percent of the Texans’ ST snaps during his nine-game stint with them last season.

Titans To Acquire David King From Chiefs

September 1st, 2017 at 6:56pm CST by Connor J. Byrne

The Titans are acquiring defensive end David King from the Chiefs, Adam Caplan of ESPN tweets. Kansas City will receive a conditional 2018 seventh-round pick, Tennessee announced.

Tennessee will be the fifth organization for the 27-year-old King, who entered the NFL as a seventh-round pick of the Eagles in 2013. King never saw any regular-season action in Philadelphia or Cincinnati, where he had a stint from 2013-14. He debuted in 2014 as a member of the Seahawks, with whom he appeared in seven games over two seasons. The rest of his on-field experience (three games) came in Kansas City over the previous two years. Thus far, King has picked up four tackles and 1.5 sacks in 10 games.

With his new club, King will join a Titans defensive end contingent that includes DaQuan Jones, Austin Johnson and Angelo Blackson, among others. At best, he’ll serve as depth behind those three.

Raiders Had Interest In CB Joe Haden

September 1st, 2017 at 6:04pm CST by Dallas Robinson

The Raiders expressed interest in cornerback Joe Haden before he signed with the Steelers on Thursday, according to Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Twitter link).Joe Haden (Vertical)

Haden, of course, signed with the Steelers just minutes after being officially released by the Browns, but he managed to generate an extremely fruitful market during his brief period as a free agent. A number of clubs, including the Dolphins, Eagles, Saints, Chiefs, Cowboys, and 49ers were all mentioned as potential suitors for Haden, who ultimately leveraged that interest into a three-year, $27MM deal with Pittsburgh.

Oakland ranked just 25th in DVOA against the pass a season ago, and the team is already experiencing turnover at its cornerback position. Sean Smith, who inked a hefty free agent contract in 2016, has been demoted from the Raiders’ starting lineup, meaning T.J. Carrie is now playing opposite David Amerson. First-round rookie Gareon Conley is available, as well, but he was only activated off the PUP list on Tuesday.

Bears Shopping LBs Sam Acho, Dan Skuta

September 1st, 2017 at 5:52pm CST by Dallas Robinson

The Bears have made linebackers Sam Acho and Dan Skuta available for trade, according to Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune (Twitter link).Sam Acho

[RELATED: Bears Release Victor Cruz]

Chicago has a slight surplus at outside linebacker, as Leonard Floyd and Willie Young are the club’s projected starters while veteran Pernell McPhee recovers from a knee injury. Lamarr Houston is also around, and given his and McPhee’s lengthy injury history, it’s surprising the Bears don’t want to keep Acho and/or Skuta as insurance.

It’s not as if the Bears can hope to reap much in the way of draft compensation for either player — both Acho and Houston were freely available on the open market earlier this year, and both landed only minimum salary benefit contracts with Chicago. Both will be at least 29 years old by next, and neither has been a full-time starter in some time.

Given that the Bears are shopping Acho and Skuta, both figure to be in severe danger of being released by Saturday if Chicago can’t drum up a trade market.

Vikings To Acquire Tramaine Brock

September 1st, 2017 at 5:48pm CST by Connor J. Byrne

The Vikings are set to acquire cornerback Tramaine Brock from the Seahawks, according to Mike Garafolo of NFL.com. Minnesota will send a seventh-round pick to Seattle, tweets Ian Rapoport of NFL.com, and it’ll be a conditional selection in 2018, per Shawn Zobel of Zobel Sports Consulting (Twitter link via Adam Schefter of ESPN) and Chris Tomasson of the Pioneer Press.

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This continues an action-packed 2017 for Brock, who will join his third team of the year when the trade goes through. The 49ers released Brock in April on the heels of a domestic violence arrest, one that led to a felony charge, but the case was dismissed Aug. 9. As many as 12 teams – including the Vikings – then courted Brock, who joined the Seahawks on a $980K deal on Aug. 16. Seattle acquired fellow cornerback Justin Coleman from the Patriots on Friday, helping to make Brock expendable in the team’s eyes.

While Brock’s off-field incident damaged his stock, he has been a superb on-field performer at times during his seven-year career. As such, this looks like a worthwhile move for the Vikings, who were in need of a quality complement to No. 1 corner Xavier Rhodes. Brock will serve as one if he continues to post production along the lines of his recent output. The 29-year-old started in all 31 appearances from 2015-16, including each of the the 49ers’ 16 games last season, and has combined for nine interceptions since 2013. He picked off one pass in 2016, finished second among 49ers defenders in snaps (1,102) and graded a respectable 21st in performance among Pro Football Focus’ 110 qualified corners (Rhodes was 29th).

Lions Release RB Matt Asiata

September 1st, 2017 at 5:39pm CST by Dallas Robinson

The Lions have released veteran running back Matt Asiata, the club announced today.

Detroit signed Asiata away from the division rival Vikings in May, inking the 30-year-old to a minimum benefit contract. Always something of a plodder (3.5 yards per carry average for his career), Asiata had a chance to serve as the Lions’ power back if he performed well during the summer. However, Detroit will instead roll with Theo Riddick, Zach Zenner, and Dwayne Washington behind starter Ameer Abdullah.

The Lions also announced the following transactions:

Waived:

Waived/injured:

Panthers’ Roster Down To 77

September 1st, 2017 at 5:34pm CST by Connor J. Byrne

The Panthers made a series of moves on Friday to bring their roster to 77 players, still 24 above the 53-man limit (courtesy of Bryan Strickland of the team’s website):

Waived:

  • C Brian Folkerts
  • CB Devonte Johnson
  • DT Gabriel Mass
  • DE Arthur Miley
  • DE Efe Obada
  • TE Bryce Williams
  • DT Connor Wujciak
  • CB Zack Sanchez (waived/injured)

Released outright (vested veterans who are not subject to waivers):

Placed on IR:

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