Steelers Waive DB Kameron Kelly
The Steelers have waived defensive back Kameron Kelly, the team announced. Brooke Pryor of ESPN.com reported earlier today that Kelly was arrested in the early morning hours on Friday on two counts of terroristic threats and one count of resisting arrest.
Per the criminal complaint, police were called to Mario’s South Side Saloon in Pittsburgh when a man, identified as Kelly, was being disorderly. Police told him he had to leave, and he then became confrontational (he had already physically threatened an employee when his music choice was skipped over on the jukebox). Outside the venue, the arresting officer accidentally stepped on the foot of a woman, which angered Kelly. Kelly said the woman was “his girl” and pushed his chest against the officer’s and threatened him. Kelly then resisted arrest and was punched in the face several times by an officer. He was treated for a busted lip at a nearby hospital and then taken to jail.
Kelly, 23, signed with the Cowboys as a UDFA following the 2018 draft. The San Diego State product was cut prior to the start of training camp and later caught on with the San Diego Fleet of the now-defunct AAF. Kelly signed with the Steelers in April, shortly after the AAF shut down.
He played in every defensive snap for Pittsburgh in the team’s Week 1 loss to the Patriots, but he has only been used on special teams since the middle of the season (though he did record the first interception of his career against Lamar Jackson in the Steelers’ Week 5 loss to the Ravens).
In a corresponding move, the Steelers have promoted safety Marcus Allen from the practice squad.
Cardinals GM Steve Keim On Drake, Fitzgerald, Offseason
It was somewhat surprising when the Cardinals traded for Kenyan Drake in advance of this year’s deadline, given that Arizona was clearly not going to make a postseason run and given that Drake is eligible for unrestricted free agency in March. But GM Steve Keim saw something he liked in the former Dolphins RB and wanted to secure exclusive negotiating rights with him.
Drake has not disappointed, averaging 4.8 yards-per-carry in his six games in Arizona to go along with five scores and 22 receptions for 130 yards. Keim touched on Drake’s future with the team and several other key issues facing the Cardinals this offseason, including Larry Fitzgerald‘s future, in an interview with Darren Urban of AZCardinals.com.
On the Drake trade:
“The mindset of going into the trade, it wasn’t done because we had two backs that were injured and was sort of a stop-gap situation. If that was a the case, my mindset was I would’ve signed a guy off the street. We truly thought this was the type of player Kenyan Drake was. That’s why we made trade and hope this was the kind of success he would have.”
On his hopes of re-signing Drake, and when he might try to do it:
“As far as waiting until after the season (to re-sign Drake), that’s not necessarily the thing either. I would certainly love to have Kenyan Drake back. I think he fits in this offense and he really has given us a spark in many ways.”
On Fitzgerald’s future (for Fitzgerald’s thoughts, see here):
“We would love to have him back. We all know what he brings to the organization. But the one thing you want to do with a player like him is give him the respect he deserves. Allow him to make that decision on his own. But I will say this. This is maybe the most fun I’ve seen him have in the last four years. He’s playing at a high level. I know he likes [head coach] Kliff [Kingsbury] and I know he likes this offense. Doesn’t hurt to have a guy (in quarterback Kyler Murray) who can spin it to him like this too.”
Keim said he will look to upgrade the Cardinals’ O-line this offseason, though he thinks the team’s high sack total is partly due to Murray’s style of play:
“I think Kyler would be the first to tell you there have been quite a few sacks given up that are on him. There has been times when I thought our offensive line has given him the type of protection he’s needed.”
On Murray himself:
“[T]here is no doubt in my mind we hit it through the roof. It’s one thing to be ultra-talented, but the guys who are the great ones, just when everybody thinks they have worked hard and done enough, those guys go above and beyond. There are up late night watching film, trying to find little tells that people don’t see. Just so the speed of the game slows down.”
Giants QB Daniel Jones To Start Week 16
The Giants are turning back to their rookie signal-caller. After re-inserting franchise icon Eli Manning into the starting lineup while Daniel Jones was dealing with a high-ankle sprain, New York is once again handing the reins to Jones, head coach Pat Shurmur announced on Friday.
While the team obviously wants to give Jones as much experience as it can, the No. 6 overall pick of the 2019 draft has seen a lot of action this year, and one could argue that it doesn’t make sense to risk injuring him in meaningless games. Plus, the Giants do close the season at home, so fans certainly wouldn’t mind giving Manning one more sendoff.
Jones took over the starting role in Week 3 and has gone 2-8 in the games that he has started. He has shown plenty of promise and has thrown 18 touchdown passes while posting a 61.6% completion rate, but he has also struggled with turnovers. He has thrown 11 interceptions to go along with his 18 TDs, and he has fumbled an alarming 15 times.
Manning, meanwhile, is near the end of his career, though recent reports have affirmed that he does not want to retire at the end of the season. He wants to at least compete for a starting job in 2020, and he wants to play for a team that has a chance at the postseason.
In his four games this season, the two-time Super Bowl MVP has thrown for six TDs against five interceptions and has posted a quarterback rating of 82.6. The Giants have gone 1-3 in those games, with the one win coming against the 3-11 Dolphins on Sunday.
NFC West Notes: Watson, Penny, 49ers
Current Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians, who enjoyed a strong run as the Cardinals‘ HC from 2013-17, nearly brought one of the league’s best quarterbacks to the desert prior to his final year in Arizona. Deshaun Watson was selected by the Texans with the No. 12 overall pick in the 2017 draft, and the Cardinals held the No. 13 overall pick that year. As Patrick D. Starr of SI.com writes, Arians was poised to nab Watson if he slipped one more spot.
It’s unclear whether the Cardinals tried to trade up to select Watson, but they ultimately took linebacker Haason Reddick with their choice. Of course, Arizona seems to have found its QB of the future in Kyler Murray. and who knows how things may have turned out if Watson ended up with the Cards, but it’s always fun to play the butterfly effect game when reports like this surface.
Now for more from the NFC West:
- Seahawks RB Rashaad Penny is undergoing ACL surgery Friday morning, as Adam Schefter of ESPN.com tweets. We recently heard that, in addition to an ACL tear, Penny may have sustained additional knee damage, but Schefter says the 2018 first-rounder is expected to be ready to go for the 2020 season.
- The 49ers have sustained a number of injuries lately, but they will have CB Richard Sherman back this week. Though recent reports indicated that Sherman may not be back until the playoffs, Matt Barrows of The Athletic says the three-time First Team All-Pro will play in San Francisco’s matchup against the Rams on Saturday night (Twitter link). The Niners, of course, are trying to get back into one of the NFC’s top two seeds after a bad loss to the Falcons on Sunday dropped them to the fifth seed.
- Speaking of Sherman, Field Yates of ESPN.com points out that the 31-year-old earned a league-high $1MM incentive by being named to this year’s Pro Bowl on the original ballot, and he also increased his 2020 base salary by $1MM (Twitter link). Sherman is currently under contract with the 49ers through the 2020 season.
- 49ers LB Kwon Alexander, who was ruled out for the season in November with a torn pec, does have a chance to return at some point in the postseason, as Jennifer Lee Chan of NBC Sports Bay Area writes. However, head coach Kyle Shanahan conceded that the odds of that happening are slim, and it seems much more likely that the team will have to wait until next year to see Alexander back in action.
Adam Gotsis Undergoes Knee Surgery
Broncos defensive lineman Adam Gotsis underwent knee surgery yesterday, per Mike Klis of 9News.com (Twitter link). Gotsis will obviously miss Denver’s final two games of the season. The Broncos placed Gotsis on IR.
2019 did not go as planned for Gotsis, a 2016 second-round pick. This time last year, Gotsis was playing the best football of his career, and it seemed as though he was setting himself up for a lucrative extension. Gotsis said, “[i]t’s exciting knowing that [an extension could] come in the future. I feel like if I take care of what I have to on the field, the extension is going to be there when the time comes. Saying this or saying that won’t get it done for me. It’s just going out there and making plays.”
After compiling three sacks and 38 total tackles in 16 games (12 starts) in 2018, Gotsis didn’t register a single sack in nine games (three starts) this year, and he recorded just 16 total tackles. As Klis observes in a separate tweet, Gotsis appeared to struggle grasping new head coach Vic Fangio‘s defense, and he was never able to build much momentum in 2019.
Troy Renck of Denver 7 says the surgery was to repair Gotsis’ ACL and meniscus in his left knee, and it sounds as if Gotsis has been dealing with that injury for some time (Twitter link). “It sucks but I feel good,” Gotsis said. “I feel like I will be healthy finally.”
Klis suggests that Gotsis may be suiting up elsewhere in 2019. Regardless of where he signs, though, he may have to accept a one-term pact and try to rebuild his value in 2020. The Broncos promoted tackle Quinn Bailey from their practice squad to take Gotsis’ roster spot for Week 17.
South Notes: Godwin, Peat, Marrone
Buccaneers WR Chris Godwin left Sunday’s victory over Detroit due to a hamstring injury, and since Tampa Bay is out of playoff contention, Godwin’s breakout 2019 campaign may end prematurely. Curiously, fellow wideout Mike Evans has already been placed on IR with a hamstring ailment, and yet another receiver, Scott Miller, also left the Lions game due to a hamstring issue.
That has led some to question the way in which head coach Bruce Arians is running things, and as Eduardo A. Encina of the Tampa Bay Times writes, Arians has conceded that he may be overworking his receivers. “We’ll be talking with our sports science people about it,” Arians said. “Maybe I’ve overworked them in practice, the receivers, because we need the reps. Our quarterbacks need the reps, so we run them this time of the year more than I would probably like to, but we need the reps.” The hamstring injuries may all just be a coincidence, but it’s worth keeping an eye on the team’s new sports science department moving forward.
Jenna Laine of ESPN.com says Arians has already ruled Godwin out for Week 16 but hopes he will play in the 2019 finale.
Now for more from the league’s south divisions:
- Good news for the playoff-bound Saints. As Mike Triplett of ESPN.com tweets, New Orleans guard Andrus Peat, who has missed the last five games with a broken arm, has returned to practice. The team’s offense has performed just fine in Peat’s absence, but the Saints would surely like to have their 2018 Pro Bowler back in action.
- The Saints continued to bolster their secondary by adding safety D.J. Swearinger on Wednesday, just two days after claiming CB Janoris Jenkins. As Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle observes, the Saints did their due diligence in the DB market before signing Swearinger, working out nine total players (Twitter link). That list included recognizable vets DeShawn Shead and Kentrell Brice.
- The Jaguars parted ways with executive vice president Tom Coughlin yesterday, and many believe that head coach Doug Marrone will be axed at the end of the season. However, Marrone said he has not heard anything in that regard from owner Shad Khan, nor does he expect to (h/t Josh Alper of Pro Football Talk). Meanwhile, Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk believes that, since Khan did not also fire Marrone when he fired Coughlin, Marrone (and GM Dave Caldwell) could be back in 2020. But Coughlin seems to have been fired largely as a result of a damning NFLPA report that surfaced Monday, so the fact that Marrone and Caldwell will stay on board for the rest of 2019 probably doesn’t mean very much.
- The Colts tried to shore up their CB position by signing Briean Boddy-Calhoun yesterday, and as Wilson tweets, Indy also brought in CB Ken Crawley for a tryout.
Lions Ownership Has No Plans To Sell Team
There has been some speculation that the Ford family would be selling the Lions in the near future, speculation that was largely fueled by long-time Detroit sportscaster Eli Zaret, who said on a recent podcast that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos would buy the team in 2020.
But per Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press, that is not the case. Team president Rod Wood said there has indeed been outside interest in purchasing the Lions, but Wood said there have been no serious discussions in that regard. Controlling owner Martha Ford is 94, and while she remains just as involved and visible as any other controlling owner — as Birkett writes, she is an active participant in league meetings and regularly meets with head coach Matt Patricia to discuss the franchise — the team obviously needs a succession plan.
And while neither Wood, Ford, nor Ford’s daughter, Sheila Ford Hamp, have disclosed the details of that succession plan, Wood has consistently maintained that the team will remain in the Ford family, just as it has been for the past 60 years. The franchise has not experienced a great deal of success in that time, and fans have been plenty vocal about their desire to have the Fords sell the team, but that does not appear likely to happen anytime soon.
It seems that Ford Hamp may take over as controlling owner when Ford is no longer able to serve in that capacity. As Birkett notes, Ford Hamp has taken a bigger role in running the franchise in recent seasons. She is one of the four vice chairs of the Lions, and she began serving on the NFL’s Super Bowl and Major Events Committee this spring.
Recently, Ford indicated that Patricia and GM Bob Quinn would be back with the team next season.
NFL Workout Updates: 12/16/19
Here’s the latest from the workout circuit:
Cleveland Browns
Detroit Lions
Green Bay Packers
- WR Alex Wesley
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
- DL Willie Henry, S Derrick Kindred
NFL Practice Squad Updates: 12/16/19
Here are today’s practice squad updates:
Cincinnati Bengals
- Signed: K Kaare Vedvik
Philadelphia Eagles
- Signed: TE Alex Ellis
- Released: TE Scott Orndoff
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
- Signed: WR Spencer Schnell
- Released: WR Trevion Thompson
Minor NFL Transactions: 12/16/19
Here are today’s minor moves:
Detroit Lions
- Claimed: OL Caleb Benenoch
Miami Dolphins
- Waived/inured: CB Ken Crawley
Pittsburgh Steelers
- Promoted: WR Amara Darboh
- Waived: WR Tevin Jones
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
- Signed off Cowboys‘ practice squad: WR Cyril Grayson