Minor NFL Transactions: 9/14/17
Thursday’s minor NFL transactions:
- The Jets waived defensive lineman Claude Pelon, who has had an on-again, off-again relationship with the club since it signed him as an undrafted free agent in May 2016. The former USC Trojan had multiple stints on the Jets’ practice squad last year. New York re-signed Pelon to a futures contract in January, and he made his NFL debut in its Week 1 loss to Buffalo last Sunday. Pelon was on the field for 17 defensive snaps – just over 22 percent of the unit’s plays – and recorded the first two tackles of his career.
NFL Workout Updates: 9/14/17
The latest workout updates from across the NFL, courtesy of Howard Balzer (Twitter links here):
Arizona Cardinals
Detroit Lions
- CBs Aarion Penton, Marcus Sayles, Damian Swann
Kansas City Chiefs
- NT Rickey Hatley (signed to practice squad); DE Jhaustin Thomas
New York Giants
- CBs Elie Bouka, Robert Nelson
New York Jets
Texans To Work Out Audie Cole, Brian Parker
Dealing with a suspension at linebacker and injuries at tight end, the Texans will work out a couple potential reinforcements at those positions next week. The team will audition linebacker Audie Cole on Monday and tight end Brian Parker on Tuesday, according to Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle (Twitter links).
Nobody would mistake Cole for the accomplished Brian Cushing, who will sit until early December because of a 10-game performance-enhancing drug ban, though the former would nonetheless provide some experience at inside linebacker. The 28-year-old has appeared in 57 games, all with the Vikings, since going in the seventh round of the 2012 draft. He wasn’t much of a factor defensively in Minnesota, though, as he tallied just seven starts (five of which came in 2013) and 78 tackles. Cole played a mere 36 defensive snaps in 2016, compared to 275 on special teams.
Parker, whose sole NFL experience to this post came during a nine-game, one-catch 2015 with the Chiefs, would add a body at tight end for a Houston team whose top options – C.J. Fiedorowicz, Ryan Griffin and Stephen Anderson – are battling concussions. Notably, the Texans will meet with Gary Barnidge, a far more established tight end than Parker, on Friday.
Panthers Claim John Theus From 49ers
The Panthers announced that they’ve claimed offensive tackle John Theus off waivers from the 49ers. Carolina also placed undrafted rookie cornerback Cole Luke on injured reserve with an ankle problem.
The 49ers waived Theus on Wednesday, ending a union that lasted just over a season. Theus joined the team in 2016 as a fifth-round pick out of Georgia and went on to appear in four of San Francisco’s game last season, starting one. He totaled just 88 snaps in a 49ers uniform a year ago and wasn’t active for their season-opening loss to his new team, the Panthers, last Sunday.
Theus will serve as depth in Carolina, which starts Matt Kalil and Daryl Williams at the tackle positions. Amini Silatolu and Taylor Moton make up the other Panthers bookends.
Extra Points: Kap, Savage, Browner, Johnson
Free agent quarterback Colin Kaepernick is working out five days a week and is back to his 2013 weight, 230 pounds, as he awaits a potential NFL opportunity, Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk reports. Thanks partially (perhaps entirely) to his social activism, Kaepernick hasn’t garnered a single offer since he and the 49ers parted ways in March. While the 29-year-old would like to resume his career, he’s not saying it publicly because he worries that doing so would lead to further claims that he’s a distraction, Florio suggests.
More from around the game:
- After insisting throughout the offseason that Tom Savage would be their starting quarterback in 2017, the Texans bailed on him just one half into a 29-7 Week 1 loss to Jacksonville in which their offensive line imploded. The Texans have since turned the reins over to first-round rookie Deshaun Watson, a decision Savage’s agent, Neil Schwartz, spoke with Florio about on Wednesday. As you’d expect, Schwartz isn’t pleased with the move. “I watched all 31 plays, because that was the extent of what Tom saw in the first half,” Schwartz said. “And I can’t figure out why he’s benching Tom. I went through every single play and I even went one step further. I asked two different NFL personnel people (or) coaches on two separate teams to evaluate and break down the film to see if I was missing something. He went 7 for 13 … 12 of the 13 balls touched the receiver’s hands. The only ball that didn’t was the strip-sack fumble that they called incomplete (upon replay). Seven were completions, five were drops” (all of Schwartz’s comments are available here via the Houston Chronicle’s Greg Rajan). Schwartz does have the backing of Pro Football Focus, which ranked Savage’s season-opening performance 15th among 31 signal-callers. Watson came in last.
- Having not played in the NFL since his dreadful 2015 showing in New Orleans, free agent cornerback Brandon Browner is obviously facing an uphill battle to return to the league. The odds of the ex-Seahawks star making a comeback look even worse now, as Browner was arrested in Los Angeles on Monday on felony charges of making criminal threats to a woman, TMZ reports. The two-time Super Bowl champion hasn’t drawn any known interest since the Seahawks released him in August 2016 (even after playing in the the Spring League this year), and that probably isn’t going to change.
- The Cardinals are hoping to get running back David Johnson “back by Thanksgiving or Christmas,” coach Bruce Arians told SiriusXM. The initial word on Johnson’s wrist injury has been that he could be out for two to three months. Arians’ timetable seems to jibe with that.
Zach Links contributed to this post.
AFC Notes: Cushing, McCown, Pats
The latest from around the AFC:
- Texans linebacker Brian Cushing earned the second PED suspension of his career Wednesday, and while he appealed the previous ban in 2010, he’s not going to fight the punishment this time. “It is with the deepest remorse, he humbly apologizes to his fans, teammates and coaches,” Cushing’s attorney, Harvey Steinberg, said. “After consulting with his attorney and his agent he felt rather than dragging the appellate process out, this would be the best way to proceed.” Cushing will sit out the Texans’ next 10 games, which means the earliest he’ll see the field again is Dec. 3 in Tennessee.
- The roster bonuses in quarterback Josh McCown‘s contract with the Jets could make it difficult for him to keep the starting job as the season progresses, ESPN’s Adam Schefter notes. Already on a fully guaranteed $6MM salary, McCown will earn $125K for each game he starts in 2017. Given that the Jets are more likely to contend for the first overall pick in the 2018 draft than a playoff spot this season, McCown might not be long for the No. 1 role. Not only would the Jets save money by benching McCown, but they’d get a chance to evaluate one or both of their young signal-callers, Christian Hackenberg and Bryce Petty.
- Factoring in this season, linebacker Kyle Van Noy‘s two-year extension with the Patriots amounts to a three-year, $12.87MM contract, Mike Reiss of ESPN.com writes. The deal comes with $5.5MM in guarantees, including a $3.5MM signing bonus and a fully guaranteed $2MM salary for 2018. It also features a reporting bonus ($100K) and two workout bonuses (one for $7,095, another for $25K) in 2017 and a $100K roster bonus in both 2018 and ’19.
- The Raiders are nearing an extension with one of their top players.
49ers Work Out Seven Defenders
The 49ers hosted a few established defensive linemen on Wednesday, working out free agents Ahtyba Rubin, Jaye Howard, Kendall Langford and Tony McDaniel, according to Field Yates of ESPN (Twitter link). They also tried out defensive tackle Stefan Charles and a pair of defensive backs – Devonte Johnson and Josh Thornton – per Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk.
Rubin, perhaps the most notable of the bunch, spent the previous two years in the 49ers’ divisio – the NFC West – with Seattle. The Seahawks, who play the 49ers this week, released Rubin at the outset of the month, and his only known interest prior to his meeting with San Francisco came from the Bills. The 31-year-old DT started in all 32 appearances with the Seahawks, registering 75 tackles and three sacks, and previously started in 75 of 99 games as a Brown from 2008-14. Kyle Shanahan, the Niners’ rookie head coach, was Cleveland’s offensive coordinator during Rubin’s last season there.
Howard, 28, worked out for the Lions this week before his visit to San Francisco. The former Chief has been on the hunt for a job since the Bears released him Sept. 2. Howard didn’t play a down in Chicago, which signed him in May after the Chiefs released him, and is coming off an injury-played 2016. After Howard posted back-to-back 16-game seasons and combined for 24 starts from 2014-15, a hip ailment limited him to eight and five in those categories last year.
Like Rubin and Howard, Langford and McDaniel earned summer releases from their previous employers. The Colts cut Langford with a failed physical designation in August, indicating that the 31-year-old hadn’t recovered from the knee injury that ended his 2016 campaign in October. He was, however, the picture of durability from 2008-15 with the Dolphins, Rams and Colts, appearing in eight straight 16-game seasons. Langford’s also just two years removed from a career-high seven-sack showing.
McDaniel, whom the Saints released at the beginning of the month, is an 11-year veteran who spent three of the previous four years in Seattle. The 295-pounder is familar with first-year 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh, who worked on the Seahawks’ staff during one of McDaniel’s seasons with them (2013). McDaniel started a personal-best 15 games that season and notched 53 tackles (a career mark) and two sacks.
It’s unclear if the 49ers will sign any of these players, but doing so would perhaps improve a defensive line that didn’t generate much pressure during their 23-3 loss to the Panthers in Week 1. The 49ers hit Panthers quarterback Cam Newton just twice and failed to register a sack in Saleh’s debut atop their defense. They did, however, hold Carolina to a measly 3.1 yards per rush on 38 attempts.
Brian Cushing Gets 10-Game Suspension
The NFL announced Wednesday that it has suspended Texans linebacker Brian Cushing 10 games without pay for violating its policy on performance-enhancing drugs (Twitter link via Mark Berman of FOX 26). Cushing will be eligible to return to the Texans’ active roster Nov. 28. In the meantime, he’ll lose $4MM in salary and the Texans could attempt to recoup some of his signing bonus, per Field Yates of ESPN (on Twitter).
This is the second PED-related suspension for Cushing, a ninth-year man who served a four-game ban in 2010. Another such suspension would force Cushing to sit for at least two years, as Ian Rapoport of NFL.com notes (on Twitter). The 30-year-old is now in line for his shortest season since 2012, when injuries limited him to five games. Aside from that season and 2013, when he only suited up seven times, Cushing entered this year having played in no fewer than 12 games in any individual campaign. He has also started in all 100 career appearances.
While the former USC star has been a staple in Houston since it drafted him 15th overall in 2009, this suspension could give the team another reason to cut ties with him after the season. The Texans used a second-round pick this past offseason on a potential replacement, Zach Cunningham, as Sarah Barshop of ESPN.com tweets. Further, releasing Cushing would save the Texans $8.5MM and leave them with only $1.2MM in dead money in 2018.
While Houston will have an interesting decision to make on Cushing in the offseason, it has nearly a full slate to play before then. Already off to an 0-1 start after taking a beating from AFC South rival Jacksonville last week, the Texans will now have to go the next couple months without a key defensive starter (albeit one who has had a rather inconsistent career, according to Pro Football Focus). Along with Cunningham, possible in-house fill-ins include Brian Peters and Dylan Cole – two players who lack NFL track records as defenders.
NFL Practice Squad Updates: 9/11/17
Monday’s practice squad moves…
Denver Broncos
- Signed: DT Kyle Peko
Detroit Lions
- Signed: DT Daniel Ross
Tennessee Titans
- Signed: TE Tim Semisch
- Cut: Jerome Cunningham
Washington Redskins
- Signed: OL Alex Balducci
- Cut: OL Anthony Fabiano
Redskins Work Out Travaris Cadet
The Redskins worked out free agent running back Travaris Cadet on Monday, ESPN’s Field Yates reports (on Twitter). A signing doesn’t seem imminent, though, as Yates notes that the audition was “due diligence” on Washington’s part.
The Redskins were woeful on the ground during their 30-17 loss to the Eagles on Sunday, when quarterback Kirk Cousins led the team with 30 yards on four carries. Running backs Robert Kelley and Chris Thompson were far less successful than Cousins, combining for a mere 34 yards on 13 attempts.
Sunday’s struggles notwithstanding, Kelley and Thompson still carry more appeal than Cadet, who has barely been a factor as a rusher since breaking into the NFL in 2012 with the Saints. The 6-foot-1, 210-pounder has never totaled more than 11 carries in a season and has only racked up 26 tries and 84 yards in his career. The 28-year-old Cadet has been effective as a pass catcher, though, having tallied 102 receptions and seven touchdowns. He set career highs in catches (40) and receiving TDs (four), to go with 241 yards, last year in New Orleans, which released him during cutdown weekend Sept. 3. Cadet hadn’t drawn any reported interest until the Redskins took a look at him.