Playoff Injury Updates: Seahawks, Brown, Iupati, Fant, Titans, Brown, Packers, Clark
The latest injury news for the divisional round games:
- The Seahawks’ offensive line is in dire shape. Starting left guard Mike Iupati is listed as doubtful, and it looks like he’ll miss his second straight game. Even more concerning, head coach Pete Carroll said both tackles Duane Brown and George Fant would be game-time decisions. Brown has missed the last few games, and Fant has been filling in for him at left tackle. Fant played 100 percent of the snaps in Seattle’s win over Philly last week, but is dealing with a groin injury. If he’s unable to go the plan is to start Chad Wheeler at left tackle, per Joe Fann of NBC Sports. Wheeler signed to Seattle’s practice squad back in October, and hasn’t appeared in a regular season game since October. He started a bunch of games for the Giants the previous two seasons, with disastrous results. If he’s forced into the lineup, the Packers’ pass-rushing duo of Za’Darius Smith and Preston Smith will be licking their chops.
- The Titans will be without a key piece of their defense as they look to pull off a second straight upset against the Ravens. Starting inside linebacker Jayon Brown has been ruled out for this weekend’s game. Brown started against the Patriots last week, but left the game with a shoulder injury. It’s a blow to Tennessee’s run defense as they look to slow down the league’s best rushing attack.
- The Titans might not be the only team without a key defensive piece. Packers defensive tackle Kenny Clark, who started all 16 games this season, is being listed as questionable. Clark was on a tear down the stretch, racking up 4.5 sacks in Green Bay’s last four games. If he doesn’t go it’ll help mitigate some of Seattle’s offensive line losses.
49ers Place DL Kentavius Street On IR
Kentavius Street is headed back to a familiar place, injured reserve. The 49ers announced they were shutting down the defensive lineman, in order to make room on the active roster for linebacker Kwon Alexander. 
Street was a highly regarded prospect coming out of N.C. State in 2018. Unfortunately, he tore an ACL during a private workout for the Giants, and tumbled in the draft as a result. San Francisco scooped him up in the fourth round, and he took his rookie season as a redshirt year. Knee issues plagued him again this offseason, and he was placed on IR back in August. It was looking like he was going to miss each of his first two seasons, but the 49ers activated him a few weeks ago for the stretch run.
He made his NFL debut in Week 15, and played a real role on defense over the final three weeks. In their pivotal Week 16 game against the Rams, he played 27 percent of the defensive snaps. He’ll now head into his third season as a pro with just three career appearances under his belt. He won’t necessarily be a lock for next year’s 53-man roster.
Latest On Cowboys’ Coaching Search
Jason Garrett is still technically the coach of the Cowboys, but everything continues to indicate they’ll be moving on with the team already scheduling interviews with Marvin Lewis and Mike McCarthy. Here’s the latest on everything pertaining to Dallas’ search:
- The Cowboys were conspicuously quiet for a while, but that doesn’t mean they weren’t working behind the scenes. The McCarthy interview news just leaked Friday morning but the former Packers coach was apparently originally scheduled to interview on Thursday before rescheduling to accommodate his Browns interview, according to David Moore of the Dallas Morning News (Twitter link). That proves owner Jerry Jones hasn’t just been sitting on his hands after the season ended.
- Garrett, meanwhile, is continuing to lobby Jones for another chance, as Jay Glazer of FOX Sports reported in Sunday’s FOX pregame show. Jones has been steadfast in his decision to move on from Garrett, but Garrett is doing everything he can to keep his post. Meanwhile, the team’s interview with McCarthy went so well that McCarthy stayed an extra day in Dallas.
- Baylor coach Matt Rhule and Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley have also been connected to the Cowboys’ job. The Jones family should have a good read on their potential interest in the job since they have the same agent as McCarthy, tweets Albert Breer of SI.com. Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network says that Jones will gauge Riley’s interest, but Riley is unlikely to leave Oklahoma at this point (video link).
- The Lewis interview caught a lot of people by surprise, but there is one interesting link between the two sides. Jones is very good friends with Bengals owner Mike Brown, tweets Paul Dehner Jr. of The Athletic. Dehner writes that the two men “hold very similar view[s]” on handling their teams. Lewis, of course, was Cincinnati’s coach for 16 seasons and Brown was very reluctant to let him go. It’s possible that Brown recommended Lewis to Jones.
- Speaking of Lewis, Rapoport says the former Bengals HC would require that the Cowboys — or any club — hire Hue Jackson as his OC (video link). That could be a deal-breaker for the Cowboys given the presence of Kellen Moore.
- Garrett had told his assistants on expiring deals they were free to start looking for other work. Most assistants were on expiring deals like Garrett, but that notably excluded Moore and offensive line coach Marc Colombo, Breer tweets. The organization thinks very highly of Moore and he generally received positive reviews in his first year calling plays. Since both are still under contract, it’s quite possible the Jones’ will retain them even when they hire a new coach. Breer adds that Garrett hasn’t spoken to any of his staff since Monday.
Latest On Redskins Staff, Washington Interested In Pat Shurmur For OC
Ron Rivera became the first head coach hired this cycle when the Redskins brought him in, and he isn’t wasting anytime assembling his staff. Notably, Rivera is raiding his old Panthers coaching staff and bringing a bunch of guys with him.
Panthers offensive line coach John Matsko, receivers coach Jim Hostler, and trainer Ryan Vermillion are all joining Rivera in Washington, according to a Twitter thread from Joseph Person of The Athletic. Person adds that defensive line coach Sam Mills III will also interview for a spot on Rivera’s staff. Obviously, the new head coach is interested in getting the gang back together again. We had heard initially that he was likely to keep offensive coordinator Kevin O’Connell, who did good work with Dwayne Haskins down the stretch, but that might not necessarily be the case.
We heard yesterday that Panthers offensive coordinator Scott Turner would get an interview in Washington, and there’s apparently another high profile contender. Recently fired Giants coach Pat Shurmur is getting consideration for the job, Grant Paulsen of The Athletic is told (Twitter link). John Keim of ESPN.com later tweeted confirmation that the Redskins are interested in Shurmur. That would certainly be interesting, especially with Shurmur potentially staying in the NFC East, though Keim says no interview is imminent and it’s unclear if there will be an interview at all.
Shurmur has never panned out as a head coach, but he’s been highly regarded as an offensive coordinator. Right before getting hired by the Giants, he received a ton of praise for his work with Case Keenum in Minnesota. Matsko had been with Rivera since he started in Carolina in 2011, so it’s not surprising he got brought along.
Jedrick Wills Declares For Draft
The 2020 NFL Draft just added another top prospect to the player pool. Alabama offensive tackle Jedrick Wills will leave school early and enter the draft, he announced on Twitter.
Wills is widely regarded as one of the best offensive linemen in the country, and as things stand right now is almost certain to be a first-round pick. Many analysts think he has a shot to go in the top ten, and Matt Miller of Bleacher Report had him at 15th overall in his most recent mock draft. Miller writes that he is “tailor-made to step in from Day 1” and “has the movement ability with an easy, poised kick-step to play either right or left tackle in the pros.”
Highly recruited out of high school, Wills became a full-time starter as a sophomore in 2018. Alabama’s other starting tackle and potential first-round pick Alex Leatherwood recently announced his intention to return to school. Like seemingly every year there are a bunch of teams picking early in need of tackle help, and the Browns could be a natural fit with the tenth overall pick.
NFL Pushes Back On Patriots Discipline Reports
Earlier this morning, there was a report that the Patriots were definitely going to be punished for committing a “game-day violation” as part of their videotaping scandal. Now, the league office is pushing back on that report. 
The NFL released a statement denying that any final decision had been made, via Adam Schefter of ESPN.com (Twitter link). “The investigation is ongoing and there has been no discussion of any potential discipline. Any suggestion of potential discipline or a timeline on an announcement is pure speculation,” the statement read. Schefter had reported that the official punishment was going to come down in the next two weeks, and obviously Roger Goodell took issue with his reporting.
Schefter cited a couple of examples of potential discipline, which have come up repeatedly throughout this process. One is the $250K fine for the Browns and four-game suspension for then-GM Ray Farmer for in-game texting, and the other is the Falcons losing a fifth-round pick and being fined $350K for pumping in artificial crowd noise to their stadium.
Everything has indicated for a while now that Goodell will hand down some sort of punishment, but it’s interesting that he took the unusual step of releasing this statement in response to a specific report. Perhaps the Pats have a chance to escape from this latest controversy unscathed after all.
Kenneth Murray Declares For Draft
Add another top prospect to the 2020 NFL Draft pool. Oklahoma linebacker Kenneth Murray is leaving school early to enter the draft, he announced in a video posted to Twitter. 
Murray is widely regarded as a first-round talent and one of the best linebackers in the draft. He was taken 18th overall in Matt Miller of Bleacher Report’s recent mock draft. Miller referred to him as “a linebacker with excellent range and the ability to stay on the field all three downs.” As Miller points out, that’s an essential trait for today’s NFL when inside linebackers like Murray need to be able to hold their own in coverage.
Murray became an immediate contributor as a freshman in 2017, and had an absurd 155 tackles as a sophomore last year. This past season, he had 102 tackles, 17 for a loss, and four sacks to go along with four passes defended. He was a first-team All-Big 12 as well as a consensus All-American selection this year.
Minor NFL Transactions: 1/3/20
Today’s minor moves:
Minnesota Vikings
- Signed to reserve/futures contract: DB Marcus Sayles
San Francisco 49ers
- Waived: S Antone Exum
- Signed to reserve/futures contract: S Derrick Kindred
Since it’s a reserve/futures deal, Kindred won’t be playing for the 49ers in the playoffs, he’ll be added to the offseason roster for 2020. A fourth-round pick of the Browns back in 2016, he started 17 games for Cleveland from 2016-18.
Giants GM Dave Gettleman On Not Wanting To Fire Pat Shurmur, Coaching Search
Giants GM Dave Gettleman has caught a lot of flak from both the media and fans, but he is surviving for at least one more year. The team fired head coach Pat Shurmur after the season, but announced they’d be retaining Gettleman for 2020. With his job safe for the time being Gettleman made a couple of appearances on ESPN Radio and WFAN in New York and made some interesting comments, via Ryan Dunleavy of the New York Post.
Perhaps most notably, Gettleman admitted that he didn’t want to fire Shurmur, the first coach he hired, and that the order came directly from ownership. “Came from above,” he said of the decision. There were reports that co-owner Steve Tisch was pushing for Shurmur’s firing, and his view ultimately won out with controlling owner John Mara. Many questioned the decision to bring back Eli Manning for 2019 and pay his hefty salary if they were going to bench him after only two games, but Gettleman insisted ownership played no role in making that call.
Gettleman was previously the GM in Carolina, where he worked with recently hired Redskins coach Ron Rivera. Gettleman revealed that New York would’ve been interested in a reunion, but they didn’t have the chance because they waited until after the season to fire Shurmur, whereas Washington had a head start. “Before we could turn around,” Gettleman said, “the [Redskins] deal was done.”
The front office head also revealed that it was Shurmur who originally identified and brought quarterback Daniel Jones to his attention. Gettleman then fell in love with the signal-caller from Duke, and ended up taking him sixth overall. Gettleman said on both radio programs that he would be willing to give up some of his power on personnel decisions to a new head coach depending on the candidate. With ownership calling the shots, he might not have a choice.
New York has been busy, already scheduling a slate of interviews, which you can keep track of via our head coaching search tracker. Below are a list of names we’ve heard about as of right now:
- Eric Bieniemy, offensive coordinator (Chiefs): To interview on 1/4
- Joe Judge, special teams coordinator/wide receivers coach (Patriots): Expected to interview
- Don “Wink” Martindale, defensive coordinator (Ravens): To interview on 1/4
- Mike McCarthy, former head coach (Packers): Interviewed on 1/3
- Josh McDaniels, offensive coordinator (Patriots): Expected to interview
- Matt Rhule, head coach (Baylor): Expected to interview; viewed as frontrunner
- Kris Richard, secondary coach (Cowboys): Interviewed on 1/2
Jonathan Taylor Declares For Draft
One of the most productive players in recent college football history is leaving school early. Wisconsin running back Jonathan Taylor will forego his final year of college eligibility to enter the 2020 NFL Draft, he announced in a video posted to Twitter.
Taylor isn’t considered to be a first-round pick by most analysts as of right now, but he’ll be among the first handful of running backs to be selected and has the potential to rise throughout the process. In his latest mock draft, Bleacher Report’s Matt Miller had Taylor getting taken 54th overall. Taylor became a starter at Wisconsin as a freshman, and instantly started etching his name in the record books. During Wisconsin’s bowl game this past week, he became the second college player ever to have multiple 2,000 yard rushing seasons.
He finished with at least 1,977 rushing yards in all three of his college seasons, and has the most ever by any player through his junior season. He was a unanimous first-team All-American in each of the past two seasons, and won the Doak Walker Award for the nation’s best running back in each of the past two years as well. The Badgers legend was a non-factor in the passing game his first two years, but managed to catch 26 passes for 252 yards and five touchdowns in this most recent campaign. That aspect of his game will be crucial for his draft stock.