NFL Injury Updates: Hill, Horne, Cook, Magee, 49ers
As the preseason comes to a close, a number of teams experienced the scares of a worst-case scenario for most players: getting injured just before the team makes final roster decisions. Some ended up being that worst-case scenario, while others lucked out with minor ailments.
Texans safety Brandon Hill was one such player who experienced a worst-case scenario this weekend. In Houston’s final preseason game against the Rams, Hill suffered a significant knee injury, per Aaron Wilson of KPRC 2. The injury will be enough to end Hill’s 2024 season before it even got a chance to begin.
A seventh-round pick out of Pittsburgh last year, Hill only appeared in two games. With much of the same cast from last year returning in 2024, he wasn’t likely to see much more time on the field, but his loss thins out the team’s depth at safety and certainly ends his chances of being on the 53-man roster.
Here are a few other injury updates from around the NFL:
- Per ESPN’s Jordan Raanan, Giants defensive tackle Timmy Horne is also likely to miss the 2024 season. The third-year player out of Kansas State suffered a tear to his Achilles tendon that will keep him out for the year. Horne came to New York late last year after spending most of his first two seasons in the league with the Falcons. He started five games as an undrafted rookie in 2022 but has been a depth piece ever since.
- The Steelers continue dealing with some bumps and bruises along the offensive line. After seeing rookie first-round tackle Troy Fautanu suffer an MCL sprain two weeks ago and center Nate Herbig tear his rotator cuff, the latest bump hits key reserve lineman Dylan Cook, per ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler. Pittsburgh picked Cook up after he was waived by the Buccaneers last offseason and, while he made the team’s final 53-man roster in 2023, he didn’t ever appear in a game. With the recent foot injury, it looks like Cook will have to wait several more weeks before he can make his NFL- and Steelers-debut.
- Another player who avoided the worst-case scenario but who is set to miss a decent amount of time is Commanders middle linebacker Jordan Magee. According to John Keim of ESPN, the fifth-round rookie out of Temple had an MCL injury that required a “procedure.” It’s been confirmed that the injury is not season-ending and that he will return at some point this season. Washington has a bit of depth at linebacker, but Magee was the only player listed behind veteran Bobby Wagner in that Mike-role.
- Lastly, we finally got an update on the MRI results of 49ers pass rushers Leonard Floyd and Yetur Gross-Matos. Matt Maiocco of NBC Sports Bay Area reported late after Friday’s contest that the two had suffered knee sprains that didn’t result in ACL damage, but MRIs were scheduled for both players to be sure. The Athletic’s Matt Barrows was the one to provide an update today, claiming that, following the MRIs scheduled for yesterday, Floyd has been determined as day-to-day, while Gross-Matos will be week-to-week.
Ravens OL Coach Joe D’Alessandris Passes Away
AUGUST 25: D’Alessandris has sadly passed away, the team announced. We at PFR send our condolences to D’Alessandris’ family, friends, and the many players and fellow coaches he has impacted over the course of his career.
AUGUST 14: Baltimore received some unfortunate news this afternoon as it was announced that “offensive line coach Joe D’Alessandris was hospitalized over the weekend with an acute illness,” per a statement from the team. No details were given to the nature of his illness, but the Ravens noted that D’Alessandris’ condition would “require ongoing treatment for an extended period of time.” To fill in during the interim, the team has hired George Warhop to their coaching staff. 
D’Alessandris, 70, has been with the Ravens as offensive line coach for the past seven seasons, helping the team to become on the team’s top offenses in the league, along with being a perennial rushing powerhouse. His storied history coaching football dates back to the 1970s. He’s spent time on the staffs of nine universities, two teams in the Canadian Football League, and even a team in the short-lived World League of American Football.
After 30 years of coaching football without making it to the NFL, D’Alessandris finally got his big break in 2008 as an assistant offensive line coach with the Chiefs. After following that up with three-year stints as offensive line coach for the Bills and Chargers, D’Alessandris landed in Baltimore, where he’s been ever since.
Warhop has been coaching for nearly as long, working his first job in 1983, five years after D’Alessandris’ first gig. He spent the next 13 years coaching offensive lines with six universities and was, coincidentally, also an offensive line coach in the WLAF. In 1996, Warhop got his first NFL opportunity in St. Louis and has coached offensive lines in the league ever since, spending time with the Rams, Cardinals, Cowboys, 49ers, Browns, Buccaneers, Jaguars, and Texans.
Warhop’s history throughout his tenure in the NFL has been a rocky one. He’s been fired from multiple positions, once even getting let go mid-season. While he has stuck around for an extended time in some jobs, it’s twice been the result of the head coach that hired him getting fired and the newly hired head coach simply retaining his services for a short period. Most recently, Warhop was hired by the Texans in Lovie Smith‘s lone campaign. He was not retained by DeMeco Ryans.
Warhop will have his work cut out for him as the Ravens have been working this offseason to replace three starters on the offensive line. Left tackle Ronnie Stanley and center Tyler Linderbaum return to their roles, and it seems that second-year guard Andrew Vorhees has taken control of the left guard job. At right tackle, the Ravens seem content to start their sixth-man of the offensive line Patrick Mekari until second-round rookie Roger Rosengarten is ready to take over the job. The real work will come with determining the battle at right guard between Daniel Faalele, Ben Cleveland, and Malaesala Aumavae-Laulu, though head coach John Harbaugh has been pretty tapped into this position battle and may take the reins on the decision.
Regardless of the work cut out for the Ravens and Warhop, many of their concerns will still be on the treatment and recovery of D’Alessandris. We at PFR send our best wishes and hopes for a speedy and full recovery to Joe and our thoughts to the D’Alessandris family.
Cowboys CB DaRon Bland To Miss Up To 8 Games
9:50pm: While Bland’s absence will be felt at the start of the year, Jones said the Cowboys will not explore a cornerback addition to fill the vacancy created by his injury (h/t Nick Harris of the team’s website). Jones further indicated (via Machota) Dallas is not likely to be active at any positions during roster cutdowns with the team having already added along the defensive line by way of the Jordan Phillips trade acquisition and the Linval Joseph signing.
1:58pm: The Cowboys defense was hit with yet another significant blow before the season has even begun. As Dallas has been scrambling to make up for the loss of Sam Williams to a season-ending ACL tear, they will now be forced to replace another starter, as well. First reported by Jon Machota of The Athletic, All-Pro cornerback DaRon Bland is set to undergo foot surgery that will keep him out for six to eight weeks. 
According to Machota, “Bland experienced foot discomfort on Wednesday of last week during training camp.” He underwent imaging that “revealed a stress fracture in his foot,” requiring the necessary surgery. While experts are predicting the above six- to eight-week absence, team owner/president/general manager Jerry Jones was quoted predicting an absence of four to five weeks during an interview on 105.3 The FAN. Regardless, the team will be without an All-Pro defender to start the season.
Bland burst onto the scene two years ago, despite being a fifth-round pick out of Fresno State. Originally a dual-sport athlete at Sacramento State where he competed in track and field for the Hornets during both indoor and outdoor seasons, primarily as a long jumper, Bland’s collegiate career did nothing to suggest the impact he would have in the NFL. With only three interceptions in three years at Sacramento State and only two picks in his lone season with the Bulldogs, Bland matched his collegiate interception-total in his rookie season alone.
As a rookie in Dallas, Bland started eight of the final 10 games and recorded the first five picks of his career. The Cowboys didn’t start him in Week 1 of last year, but when he returned an interception for the first pick-six of his career, it didn’t take them long to remedy their error. Three weeks later, in his second start of the season, Bland picked off two more passes returning another for a touchdown. Bland would end up leading the league with nine interceptions and setting an NFL record with five pick-sixes on the year.
The Cowboys were set to enter the season with Bland across from Trevon Diggs as their starting cornerbacks with Jourdan Lewis returning as a near-permanent fixture in the slot. After Diggs went on injured reserve near the start of the season last year, the Cowboys saw Bland and veteran addition Stephon Gilmore make up 85 percent of the team’s defensive snaps at outside cornerback, so they don’t have anyone with extensive experience ready to fill in.
Nahshon Wright had reportedly been mixing in with the first-team defense a bit on the perimeter this offseason, but the team shipped him off to Minnesota, receiving Vikings cornerback Andrew Booth in return. A former second-round pick out of Clemson, Booth has struggled to live up to his draft stock so far in his NFL career, only making two starts with the Vikings in as many years. Second-year defensive back Eric Scott Jr., who failed to make an appearance in his rookie season, and fifth-round rookie Caelen Carson out of Wake Forest will both join Booth in attempting to fill in early for Bland.
The Cowboys will likely utilize one of the NFL’s newer roster rules and place Bland on IR. Though, usually, players placed on IR before the start of the regular season are forced to miss the entire year, a new rule allows teams to place two players on the injured list before roster cutdowns who are exempt from that requirement, allowing them to be activated and return within the same season. Bland is likely to receive that distinction for Dallas.
Ravens Rumors: RBs, Samac, Safety
So much of the Ravens’ roster is set at the top of the depth chart; even the starting guard spots are starting to come into focus. Still, with the regular season fast approaching, Baltimore is going to need to make some decisions down the stretch.
At running back, the team has an obvious 1-2 punch in Derrick Henry and Justice Hill while they wait for Keaton Mitchell to return from injury. While Mitchell remains on the injured list, though, that leaves the opportunity to fill one more spot on the roster with a running back, though ESPN’s Jamison Hensley acknowledges that they could run with just two until Mitchell returns.
Owen Wright has seemingly been the name to watch for that spot. An undrafted free agent addition out of Monmouth last year, Wright was pushing for a roster spot in the team’s final preseason game today before suffering a hairline fracture in his foot in the contest, per Jeff Zrebiec of The Athletic, complicating his roster status. While not season-ending, the injury will likely require a stay on an injured list if the Ravens want to keep him on the roster.
This opens the door for fifth-round rookie Rasheen Ali out of Marshall. The Ravens don’t like to get in the habit of waiving rookie draft picks, but after Stanford cornerback Kyu Blu Kelly was failed to make the 53-man roster last year, it seems nobody is safe. Ali hasn’t gotten much use this preseason and failed to appear in today’s preseason game, so it was not looking great for him to make the roster, but Wright’s injury may allow him to do just that.
Here are some breakdowns of other roster battles in Baltimore:
- Another player who suffered an injury in today’s contest was backup center Nick Samac. The seventh-round rookie out of Michigan State was making a push for the 53-man roster, culminating in a start at center this preseason. While fans saw him carted off the field today, both Hensley and Zrebiec see him making the final cut.
- At safety, the Ravens have an interesting decision ahead of them. The Ravens have boasted an outstanding record over the years of seeing an undrafted rookie make the 53-man roster, and this year, there doesn’t seem to be an obvious choice. Beau Brade, an undrafted signee out of Maryland, has been a popular option, but there is no guarantee. The team already rosters Kyle Hamilton, Marcus Williams, and Eddie Jackson, as well as rookie seventh-round pick Sanoussi Kane out of Purdue. They also roster Ar’Darius Washington, who may split his time between nickelback and safety. Additionally, the team re-signed veteran Daryl Worley who has played quite a bit on the Ravens defense in the past three years. If Baltimore decides to hold on to five safeties (not including Washington), the decision may come down to the potential of Brade versus the experience of Worley.
Cardinals’ First-Round DE Darius Robinson Out Multiple Weeks
The Cardinals’ defensive line depth took a hit this afternoon when it was reported that first-round defensive end Darius Robinson suffered a calf injury. According to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network, Robinson’s injury will require a multi-week absence. 
Armed with two first-round picks in this year’s draft, Arizona selected Robinson out of Missouri at pick No. 27 after securing wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. with the fourth-overall pick. Robinson was a five-year defender for the Tigers. He provided contributions throughout his collegiate career, but it wasn’t until his redshirt senior season that he broke out. His 2023 sack (8.5) and tackle for loss (14.0) numbers surpassed the stats he had put up in the previous four years combined (4.5 sacks, 7.5 tackles for loss).
The Cardinals were hoping that Robinson’s addition would provide an upgrade to a pass rush that ranked 30th in the NFL last year with only 33 total sacks. Robinson was set to join returning starters Zaven Collins and Dante Stills on the defensive line, along with free agent additions Bilal Nichols and Justin Jones. Most of the team’s sacks came from outside linebacker, despite a base 4-3 defense, but the addition of Robinson had the potential to change that and take some pressure off of the linebackers.
Rapoport posits that Robinson’s extended absence may warrant a start to the season on injured reserve. If that’s the case, the rookie pass rusher would have the possibility to make his NFL debut as early as Week 5 of the 2024 season. In the meantime, the Cardinals could field a defensive front consisting of Collins-Nichols-Jones-Stills, with Stills shifting to end, where he spent about half his time last season.
Buccaneers Plan For RB Chase Edmonds To Start Season On IR
As we near the start of the regular season, we are beginning to get a clearer picture of what NFL rosters will look like in Week 1. In one such instance, Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles informed the media that running back Chase Edmonds would likely start the season on injured reserve, per Greg Auman of FOX Sports. 
Edmonds spent the 2023 season as RB2 for Tampa Bay, running behind starter Rachaad White and before Ke’Shawn Vaughn. He finished his first season with the Buccaneers with 49 carries for 176 yards and 14 catches for 81 yards through the air.
Despite his status as the second back on the depth chart, last year saw the least-productive season of Edmonds’ career. Running mostly as the second back in Arizona during his rookie contract, Edmonds averaged about 388 rushing yards and 231 receiving yards per season as a Cardinal. He even earned 11 starts in 12 games during the final year of his rookie deal. He followed that up by splitting the 2022 season between Miami and Denver before making his way to Tampa last year.
Vaughn signed as a free agent in San Francisco, so without Vaughn and Edmonds, the top backup behind White is seemingly fourth-round rookie Bucky Irving out of Oregon. Originally a Golden Gopher as a freshman in college, Irving transferred from Minnesota to spend the past two seasons with the Ducks, amassing 2,238 rushing yards for 16 touchdowns and 712 receiving yards for five more scores through the air over that time. He hasn’t gotten much run throughout the preseason, but Tampa Bay won’t have much choice but to rely on him at the start of 2024.
Additionally, Bowles claims that second-year wide receiver Rakim Jarrett will follow Edmonds to IR. An undrafted rookie last season out of Maryland, Jarrett caught four passes for 60 yards in 2024. With some shuffling around in the receivers room this offseason, Jarrett was looking to start the year on the two-deep. Instead, he’ll likely miss the first four games of the year, at least.
While there is a rule that players placed on IR before the start of the regular season must spend the entire season there, there is also a new rule dictating that teams may place two players on IR before the roster cut deadline and still have them be eligible to return for the season. Any other players that a team plans to place on IR will need to spend at least on day of the 53-man roster before being moved to the injured list. It looks like Edmonds and Jarrett will be the unlucky two for Tampa Bay allowed to return.
Latest On WR Contracts
The regular season draws ever nearer, and there are still three receivers who are waiting for new contracts. Cowboys wide receiver CeeDee Lamb and 49ers wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk are still holding out from team activities, while Bengals wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase is continuing with his hold-in. 
Lamb is entering the final year of his rookie contract on a fifth-year option and, according to Mike Garafolo of NFL Network, the 25-year-old is angling for a contract to rival Justin Jefferson‘s recent deal in Minnesota. This doesn’t necessarily refer to annual average value, but focuses, as well, on guarantees, cashflow, and overall structure. Dallas and Lamb are expected to communicate this weekend as they attempt to get this extension over the finish line.
Chase is still not practicing as he attends team events in Cincinnati. The Bengals have exercised Chase’s fifth-year option, so the 24-year-old still has two years left on his rookie deal. While he hopes to enter the season with a new extension, his former LSU teammate, Jefferson, had to wait until after his fourth NFL season to secure his bag. It’s looking like the same might be true for Chase, but if that’s the case, Cincinnati needs to figure out a way to get Chase on the field and ready for the fast-approaching regular season. Mike Garafolo of NFL Network sees this coming week as a crucial time for the team to navigate this situation.
With Aiyuk, the rumors continue to swirl and paint an unreliable picture. Last night, in an interview on KNBR, Mike Silver of the San Francisco Chronicle claimed that “everything is still on the table, including all the trades you’ve heard about.” He noted the Steelers and Commanders as teams not to rule out but left the picture as cloudy as ever.
After the team’s initial contract offer fell short of expectations, they attempted to bring Aiyuk back in to try and close the gap. Garafolo reports that the two sides don’t seem to be that far apart on contract figures anymore, and Aiyuk even traveled with the 49ers to their final preseason game in Las Vegas. While this may be a sign of good faith and a sign that the things could be on their way to a resolution, Silver’s comments still leave plenty of room for doubt.
The NFL season starts in 13 days. In order for these three receivers to be on the field for Week 1, they’re either going to need to have new contracts in hand or they’re going to need to come to terms with the fact that they’re going to be playing under their current deals with no guarantee that they won’t be testing free agency in the future. While most teams prefer not to have contract discussions during the regular season, there’s always a possibility that close negotiations bleed over a bit into September and deals are reached midseason.
NFL Levies Suspensions For FA CBs J.C. Jackson, Chris Claybrooks
The league levied two suspensions on cornerbacks currently sitting on the free agent market today. Per Mike Garafolo of NFL Network, former Patriots cornerback J.C. Jackson received a one-game suspension, while former Jaguars cornerback Chris Claybrooks was given an eight-game suspension. 
Jackson is currently dealing with the end of his second stint in New England. After an impressive four years in which he went from undrafted free agent to second-team All Pro and Pro Bowler, Jackson signed a massive five-year, $82.5MM contract with the Chargers in 2022. Jackson struggled in Los Angeles, though, getting benched before eventually rupturing his patellar tendon.
Halfway through last year, the Chargers traded Jackson back to New England along with a seventh-round pick, only receiving a sixth-rounder in return. After a season-ending injury to rookie first-round pick Christian Gonzalez, the Patriots hoped Jackson would be able to return to his former dominance and fill in as a starter. Mental health issues and a series of broken team rules led to some discipline from his own team. Combined with a history of off-field troubles in college, Jackson’s troubles led to his release from the Patriots after the season ended.
Jackson’s suspension stems from an arrest warrant that was issued for him in Massachusetts last September. He was wanted after failing to appear for a court hearing related to a reckless driving and speeding incident from 2021. If Jackson signs with a team soon, he would be eligible to participate in the remainder of the preseason but would have to sit out Week 1 and make his season debut in Week 2.
Claybrooks’ was a seventh-round pick back in 2020 for Jacksonville. As a rookie, he started four of 13 game appearances and followed that up with two starts in 16 games the next year. His role on defense continued to diminish in 2022 as he appeared in every game but failed to make any starts.
Starting in the 2023 offseason, Claybrooks began to display some troubling behavior, getting arrested in Nashville on charges of domestic assault with bodily injury and vandalism under $1,000 for allegedly grabbing a cell phone from a woman’s hand and throwing it on the ground. Three months later, Claybrooks was arrested a second time, this time in Duval, and this time for domestic violence. As a result, the Jaguars placed Claybrooks on the Commissioner Exempt list, and he didn’t appear in a game last season.
The suspension for his actions is eight games, but considering he spent all of last season on the exempt list, the league is deeming his eight-game suspension as complete due to time served. Should Claybrooks end up signing with a team, he would be eligible to play immediately. He faces a tall task to return with any team, though, after two separate arrests last offseason.
Minor NFL Transactions: 8/23/24
Friday’s minor transactions to wrap up the week:
Carolina Panthers
- Reverted to IR: T Badara Traore
Chicago Bears
- Waived (with injury settlement): DE Khalid Kareem
- Released (with injury settlement): WR Freddie Swain
Cleveland Browns
- Signed: K Lucas Havrisik
Detroit Lions
- Released (with injury settlement): LB Malik Jefferson
Indianapolis Colts
- Waived (with injury settlement): G Josh Sills
Kansas City Chiefs
- Waived (with injury settlement): WR Jaaron Hayek
Minnesota Vikings
- Reverted to IR: TE Trey Knox
New Orleans Saints
- Signed: LB Andrew Dowell, DT Camron Peterson
- Waived (with injury designation): DE Trajan Jeffcoat
- Waived: CB Kaleb Ford-Dement
San Francisco 49ers
- Reverted to IR: S Tayler Hawkins
Seattle Seahawks
- Signed: CB Willie Roberts
- Waived (with injury settlement): DT Nathan Pickering
Washington Commanders
- Signed: C Cameron Tom
- Released: C J.C. Hassenauer
Latest On Cowboys’ Contract Holdups
Cowboys owner/president/general manager Jerry Jones is starting to tip his hand. All offseason, we have watched the market for quarterbacks and wide receivers be reset as other teams across the NFL pay their players, some of whom were not free agents and still had time left on their contracts. All the while, Dallas has been negotiating, leaving quarterback Dak Prescott, wide receiver CeeDee Lamb, and outside linebacker Micah Parsons as some of the few players with unresolved contract issues. 
In an interview today, Jones clued us in as to why the Cowboys seem to be resting on their laurels while the rest of the league signs their players. DallasCowboys.com writer Nick Harris provided the full quote.
“Well, again, we’re just continuing to talk,” Jones started before getting to the point at hand. “The thing is there, since we’re really (nearing) in-season, practicing, doing all those things, we’re operating under the existing contract really good.
“One of the things that the fans should really understand is that, nine times out of ten, these are existing contracts that you have in place. You should be able to operate under those, but we’ve gotten it now in the NFL — other teams are dealing with it — with some time on the contract, you still might have a contract discussion. And that’s what we’re doing. None of us — player or team — want to hurt the preparation or likelihood of playing at your best.”
There it is. It’s seemed as if the Cowboys are sitting on their hands in terms of extending their three stars because Jones seemingly wants the players to honor the remainder of their contracts before taking extension conversations seriously. On its surface, this seems like a reasonable expectation, until the flipside shows teams cutting veterans with multiple years left on their contracts because they don’t want to be beholden to the cap figures they agreed to.
It’s strange to see Jones play ignorant to the concept that there is value in keeping your star players happy by offering them security and a raise above what they are already owed. One of the league’s most-talented defenders, Parsons is set to be paid as the 76th highest-paid edge rusher (in terms of annual average contract value) in the NFL in 2024. He’ll receive $2.99MM in cash this year. Lamb is set up a little better with his fifth-year option paying him $17.99MM this year, though that amount would qualify as the 25th-highest annual average for receivers in the league.
Prescott is rightfully content to play out the 2024 season on his current deal, as he’ll receive $34MM in cash this year, but one might think that his $55.13MM cap hit in 2024 might encourage Jones to work out a new deal to reduce his cap impact. The team has already shoveled $54.14MM of Prescott’s cap numbers into future void seasons, so perhaps Jones is hesitant to dig the future hole even deeper.
Jones already voiced a lack of urgency in extending Lamb. The holdout receiver could do nothing but laugh on social media as a response. Jones’ comments today concerning Prescott’s situation indicate more of the same. While other teams are attempting to stay ahead of the ever-inflating contract numbers around the NFL, Jones is keeping his wallet closed for now. Jones even blamed some of his tight-purse tendencies on the NFL’s DirecTV case that could involve a large payout from the league.
Regardless, it seems evident that, at the very least, an extension for Prescott will not likely occur before the start of the regular season. Parsons seemed to be on a lower priority level than Prescott, so he will likely have to wait, as well. As for Lamb? He continues to hold out as offers are proffered and rejected. While media pundits seem to think that Lamb will be out there for Week 1, Jones’ continued nonchalance in negotiating could end up forcing Lamb to continue his holdout into the regular season.