Bears RB Khalil Herbert To Miss Multiple Weeks; Team Signs Darrynton Evans
The Bears’ resounding Thursday night win against the Commanders, which broke Chicago’s 14-game losing streak, came with a price. As Tom Pelissero of NFL.com reports, running back Khalil Herbert will miss multiple weeks after suffering an ankle injury in the victory over Washington. Per Josina Anderson of CBS Sports, Herbert sustained a high ankle sprain and could land on injured reserve.
While Herbert’s rushing attempts this year have been somewhat limited by game script and the fact that quarterback Justin Fields carries the ball a great deal, he has played at a high level. He has 272 rushing yards on 51 carries — good for a strong 5.3 yards-per-carry average — and has added 10 catches for 83 yards and a score. The Bears’ offense came to life against the Broncos and Commanders over the past two games, and Herbert has performed especially well in both contests. In Chicago’s narrow loss to Denver in Week 4, the 2021 sixth-rounder recorded 18 carries for 103 yards and added four catches for 19 yards and a TD.
Denver and Washington are both fielding porous defenses at the moment, but Herbert’s play is in keeping with the ability he demonstrated over his first two years in the league as a backup to David Montgomery. Now with 283 NFL carries to his name, Herbert has maintained a career 5.1 YPC rate and has proven himself worthy of an RB1 role.
The Bears are also rostering talented rookie Roschon Johnson, who has 25 carries for 122 yards (4.9 YPC) and 11 receptions for 53 yards in 2023. Unfortunately, as Pelissero notes, Johnson is dealing with a concussion, and Travis Homer is battling a hamstring ailment. As such, free agent acquisition D’Onta Foreman — who has accumulated just five rushing attempts this year — could be in line for a larger role in the short-term.
Pelissero reports that Chicago, in an effort to fill out its RB depth chart, has signed running back Darrynton Evans off the Dolphins’ taxi squad. Evans, a 2020 third-round pick of the Titans, was waived by the Bills during final cutdowns in August and joined Miami shortly thereafter. He has not appeared in a game in 2023, but he has familiarity with the Bears, having played in six contests for the club last season.
Bills To Open Von Miller’s Practice Window
OCTOBER 5: After experiencing no speedbumps during the Bills’ wing of practices in Buffalo ahead of their London game, the future Hall of Famer is making the trip to England, per NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport. The Bills have nearly three weeks to activate Miller from the PUP list, but making the trip ahead of the Jaguars matchup represents a good sign of a Week 5 return.
OCTOBER 1: Bills defensive end Von Miller opened the season on the PUP list as he continues to recover from the ACL tear that ended his 2022 campaign prematurely. That meant that Miller would miss at least the first four games of the season but would be eligible to return for Buffalo’s Week 5 contest against the Jaguars next Sunday.
Per ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the Bills are opening Miller’s practice window, and the future Hall of Famer will resume practicing this week. Once that happens, the club will have three weeks to add him to the 53-man roster, and if they do not do so, he will be ineligible to return this season.
Obviously, the Bills would not open the practice window if they did not believe Miller was close to game-ready (indeed, at the beginning of August, GM Brandon Beane expressed optimism that Miller would suit up for Week 1). However, that does not necessarily mean that Miller will be in the lineup in Week 5. As Schefter notes, Buffalo will continue to be cautious with Miller, and there is not yet a definitive return date.
Now 34, Miller signed a six-year, $120MM contract with the Bills in March 2022. In his first season in western New York, which lasted just 11 games, the eight-time Pro Bowler posted eight sacks and was viewed as one of the league’s best all-around defenders in the eyes of Pro Football Focus’ advanced metrics. This offseason, Buffalo signed Leonard Floyd as something of a contingency plan, and Floyd has acquitted himself nicely, posting 3.5 sacks through the first three games of 2023.
Greg Rousseau and A.J. Epenesa have also had some success this season, but the return of Miller will nonetheless be a welcome development for a team that has designs on a deep postseason run. The team currently ranks second in the league in terms of total defense, points allowed, and sacks, and Miller’s presence will make an already-imposing unit even more formidable.
In other news, safety Damar Hamlin is making his 2023 debut against the Dolphins today. While Hamlin participated in all three of the Bills’ preseason games, this will mark the third-year pro’s first regular season action since he collaped on the field due to commotio cordis in a Bills-Bengals game in January. Hamlin’s inspiring recovery has now come full circle, and he has taken the place of the injured Jordan Poyer on the active roster.
Panthers Looking To Acquire Wide Receiver
The Panthers have started the Bryce Young era 0-4, though Young was unable to play in last week’s loss to the Seahawks due to an ankle injury. In spite of the disappointing start, Carolina is not necessarily going to be a seller at the October 31 trade deadline and is actually looking to acquire another wide receiver, as Ian Rapoport of NFL.com reports.
Of course, the Panthers traded former WR1 D.J. Moore to the Bears in order to acquire the No. 1 overall pick in this year’s draft and select Young, and the team added veteran wideouts Adam Thielen and DJ Chark, along with tight end Hayden Hurst, to aid in the development of its rookie passer. Carolina also selected Jonathan Mingo in the second round of the 2023 draft.
Thielen, Chark, Mingo, and 2021 second-rounder Terrace Marshall have seen plenty of playing time, but only Thielen and Chark have topped 100 receiving yards through the first three games of the season. Per Rapoport, the Panthers believe that another wideout will help to unlock Young’s potential, and GM Scott Fitterer has called several teams that may be looking to move a receiver.
Rapoport does not identify the teams that Fitterer has called or the players that he might be targeting. A report from this morning indicated that the Bears are looking to trade WR Chase Claypool, but Claypool is in a contract year, and Rapoport suggested that the Panthers could be looking for a player with more club control (he did not explicitly say so, but he did write that Carolina is seeking to solidify its roster for 2023 “and beyond.”) Given Claypool’s difficulties in Chicago and the fact that his effort has been questioned by his coaching staff and his teammates, he may not be the most logical target.
In addition to another receiver, the Panthers could also be in the market for a safety, according to Rapoport. Starting safety Xavier Woods is dealing with a hamstring injury, and Carolina may want additional depth in the defensive backfield.
Bears Make WR Chase Claypool A Healthy Scratch In Week 4, Actively Trying To Trade Him
6:00pm: There are conflicting reports coming out of Chicago this afternoon following the team’s crushing loss to the previously 0-3 Broncos. According to ESPN’s Courtney Cronin, head coach Matt Eberflus told the media that the decision for Claypool not to attend “today’s game after being made inactive was the wide receiver’s choice,” insinuating that the Bears didn’t instruct the beleaguered player to stay away.
Another source, Adam Jahns of The Athletic, provided an updated report later in the afternoon that a team spokesperson clarified the opposite claim, explaining that the Bears did, in fact, ask Claypool to stay home, away from the game, today.
There is clearly an extreme amount of tension building between the two parties, creating a schism that is starting to seem impossible to span. Eberflus claimed that he anticipates seeing Claypool back in the building tomorrow, but it’s unclear if the two sides will be able to come to a working agreement.
11:45am: Poles is actively trying to trade Claypool, as NFL insider Jordan Schultz reports. Poles is calling teams he believes may be in the market for a receiver and is looking for a fifth- or sixth-round pick in return.
11:06am: The Bears have made wide receiver Chase Claypool a healthy scratch for their Week 4 game against the Broncos (Ian Rapoport of NFL.com first reported the team’s plan to make Claypool inactive). Fellow wideout Equanimeous St. Brown, on the heels of a strong week of practice, will be active for the first time in 2023.
This represents another low in a disappointing Chicago tenure for Claypool. The former second-round pick of the Steelers, who was a focal point of Pittsburgh’s offense over the 2020-21 campaigns, was shipped to the Bears in advance of last year’s trade deadline in exchange for what turned out to be the No. 32 overall pick of the 2023 draft (which the Steelers used to selected Joey Porter Jr.).
Bears GM Ryan Poles added Claypool in an effort to surround quarterback Justin Fields with more receiving talent, an effort that continued with this offseason’s acquisition of D.J. Moore. However, in the 10 games that Claypool has played for Chicago, he has amassed just 18 catches for 191 yards and one touchdown.
As Patrick Finley of the Chicago Sun-Times details, Claypool was criticized by his coaches and teammates for not showing enough effort in the Bears’ 2023 regular season opener against the Packers. Prior to the club’s Week 2 game versus the Bucs, Poles said that he expected Claypool to make changes.
“And if he doesn’t,” Poles said, “then we’ll have to figure out what we’re going to do after that.”
While Claypool exhibited better effort in that matchup with Tampa Bay, catching three balls for 36 yards and a score, he caught just one pass for 15 yards in the Bears’ Week 3 drubbing at the hands of the Chiefs despite playing in 86% of the team’s offensive snaps. To be fair, the Kansas City loss was nightmarish for the entire team, but Claypool has obviously fallen out of the good graces of his coaching staff.
Claypool is likewise not too fond of the staff at the moment. When asked this past week if he believed he was being put in the best position to succeed, the Notre Dame product paused for seven seconds before saying, “no.”
“Obviously, there’s other places,” Claypool added. “You can say, ‘Oh, I want to be on the best offense with the highest passing yards,’ but that doesn’t happen in football. You just have to make do with what you’ve got.”
As Finley notes, it is unclear whether Claypool knew that he was being benched when he made those comments, or if the comments contributed to his benching. Either way, it is not a good look for a contract-year player to be scratched by a team that is desperate for offensive production. It is fair to wonder if the Bears will seek to move Claypool at this year’s deadline, though they will obviously not come close to recouping their own investment in him if they do put him on the block.
In related news, the Bears are elevating Tyson Bagent to the QB2 role behind Fields, according to Rapoport. Bagent, an undrafted free agent out of D-II Shepherd University, had an impressive summer and was rumored to be in the running for the backup job when the season got underway. While Chicago installed veteran Nathan Peterman as Fields’ clipboard holder for the first few weeks of the campaign, Bagent has done enough to merit a promotion.
Rapoport made it clear that the move does not impact Fields’ standing with the team.
Deshaun Watson Will Not Play In Week 4
Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson will not play in the team’s Week 4 game against the Ravens, as Josina Anderson of CBS Sports reports. Watson is dealing with a right shoulder contusion, and while player and team hoped that he would be able to play through the injury, that will not be the case.
Watson struggled through the first two games of the 2023 season, but in Week 3, he looked like the Pro Bowler the Browns believed they were getting when they made the now-infamous decision to trade a king’s ransom for the embattled quarterback and hand him a fully-guaranteed five-year, $230MM contract in March 2022. In Cleveland’s 27-3 romp over the Titans last week, Watson completed 27 of 33 passes for 289 yards and two touchdowns.
As James Palmer of the NFL Network notes, Watson did not throw much in practice this week as he attempted to rest his shoulder. During today’s pregame warmup and throwing session, it became clear that he was not healthy enough to suit up.
Fifth-round rookie Dorian Thompson-Robinson will get the nod in Watson’s absence, and he will be tasked with leading the team in an important divisional matchup. The Browns had initially planned to have Josh Dobbs serve as Watson’s backup this year, but when the QB-needy Cardinals made an “out-of-the-blue” trade offer for Dobbs at the end of August, Cleveland decided to pull the trigger on the trade and elevate Thompson-Robinson to the QB2 role.
Obviously, that decision indicated that the Browns were comfortable with Thompson-Robinson being called into action in his first professional season. Thompson-Robinson justified that faith with a strong preseason in which he completed 37 of 58 passes for two touchdowns and added 14 carries for 69 yards.
Although he did not always look like an NFL prospect during his collegiate career at UCLA, Thompson-Robinson put himself on the radar during his final season with the Bruins, completing just under 70% of his passes and throwing for 27 TDs against 10 interceptions. He also rushed for 645 yards and 12 touchdowns while maintaining a healthy 5.5 yards-per-carry rate.
DTR will at least have Cleveland’s top tight end at his disposal. After suffering burns to his face and arm during a household accident this week, David Njoku is expected to play against Baltimore.
The Browns have a Week 5 bye, and given that they were optimistic Watson would play this week, it seems reasonable to expect Watson to take the field against the 49ers in Week 6. However, it is obviously too early for the team to make that call.
Saints QB Derek Carr To Start In Week 4
Derek Carr will be back under center for the Saints in the club’s Week 4 contest against the Buccaneers today, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter. Ian Rapoport of NFL.com first reported that New Orleans’ QB1 had a good chance to play.
Carr, who signed a four-year, $150MM contract with the Saints in March shortly after his tenure with the Raiders came to an end, had guided his new team to a 2-0 record and a 17-0 lead in its Week 3 tilt with the Packers before sustaining a shoulder injury in the third quarter of that game. After Carr’s departure, backup Jameis Winston completed 10 of 16 passes for 101 yards, but the Saints were unable to add to their point total, and Green Bay rallied for an 18-17 win.
To be clear, New Orleans’ top-10 defense has been the primary catalyst for its 2-0 (and nearly 3-0) start. During his first two-and-a-half games in a Saints uniform, Carr has posted a mediocre 85.2 quarterback rating, completing roughly 65% of his throws for two TDs against two interceptions.
Still, the team will doubtlessly be happy to have its marquee offseason acquisition back in the fold, especially in light of the disappointing loss to the Packers. Carr, who was diagnosed with a sprained AC joint, has taken first-team reps in practice over the past two days and will suit up as long as the coaching staff believes he will be able to protect himself.
Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times, who covered the Bucs during Winston’s five-year run with the club, recalled a time when Winston was dealing with an AC joint injury of his own. As Stroud notes, it will be interesting to see whether Carr, in his first game after suffering the injury, turns down open looks because he lacks the arm strength and/or confidence to make the throw.
Luckily for Carr, he will have running back Alvin Kamara back in the fold to handle short tosses out of the backfield and to otherwise take some pressure off of the passing game. Kamara will make his 2023 debut after serving a three-game suspension to start the season.
Raiders To Start Aidan O’Connell At Quarterback In Week 4
The Raiders are expected to start fourth-round rookie Aidan O’Connell at quarterback in their Week 4 matchup with the division-rival Chargers, as Ian Rapoport of NFL.com reports. Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.com first reported that Las Vegas was leaning in that direction.
Offseason acquisition Jimmy Garoppolo completed the team’s Week 3 loss to the Steelers, though he sustained a concussion during that contest and went into the league’s concussion protocol. He was not able to clear the protocol in time for today’s game against the Bolts, leaving head coach Josh McDaniels with an interesting choice to make.
The Raiders also signed soon-to-be 38-year-old Brian Hoyer in free agency and guaranteed over $4MM of his two-year contract. Hoyer has dressed as Garoppolo’s backup in each of the first three games of the 2023 campaign and has started 40 games in his NFL career, the most recent of which came just last season. However, it has been seven years since Hoyer last won a game that he started, and McDaniels declined to confirm that the veteran would fill in for Garoppolo if necessary.
O’Connell had an impressive preseason, completing 43 of 62 passes for 482 yards and three TDs over Las Vegas’ three-game slate, which led many to believe that he would overtake Hoyer on the depth chart sooner rather than later. The Chargers may represent something of a soft landing for him, as Los Angeles is giving up a league-worst 337 passing yards per game over the first three weeks of the regular season.
ESPN’s Adam Schefter points out that Hoyer and O’Connell both took reps in practice during the early part of last week, but by the end of the week, O’Connell was taking most, if not all, of the reps.
“I think the preseason was valuable for me at the time, just to get out there and play and get it under my belt,” O’Connell said. “But I think at this point it’s pretty far gone and it’s different teams and different schemes and different game plans for us. So I’m happy it happened, but it’s time to move on, I think, and see what happens.”
The Raiders and Chargers are both 1-2 and are looking to keep pace with the 2-1 Chiefs in the AFC West.
Jets Have Contacted Only Chad Henne, Colt McCoy; Latest On Aaron Rodgers’ Recovery
The Jets are 1-1 and reeling from Aaron Rodgers‘ Achilles injury, which ended the future Hall of Famer’s season after four snaps and thrust Zach Wilson back into the starting lineup. We heard in the immediate aftermath of the Rodgers news that New York was exploring the free agent market for veteran passers and had inquired on retired QB Chad Henne.
Dianna Russini of The Athletic (subscription required) confirms that the Jets have indeed reached out to Henne, who has rebuffed their overtures. “The timing doesn’t work,” Henne said.
Gang Green has also contacted Colt McCoy, who was released by the Cardinals on cutdown day and who was mentioned as a possible Jets target several days ago. McCoy, 37, indicated that he has several offers in hand and expects to sign with a club shortly. He had been dealing with an elbow injury, though he should be ready to play this week.
The Jets told both Henne and McCoy that if they were to sign with the team, they would be doing so with the understanding that Wilson is the starter. As a team source told Russini, “[w]e have Zach. Zach Wilson is our best option.”
Offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett was pleased with what Wilson was able to do when he was forced to enter the team’s Week 1 contest against the Bills in relief of Rodgers, and Hackett was also impressed by the progress Wilson made throughout the spring and summer. Wilson appears to have earned the trust of the locker room, with another team source telling Russini that Wilson’s character is “off the charts.” The team has changed “about half of the game plan” to play to Wilson’s strengths, including an overall simplification of the offense.
The organizational view on Wilson explains why, as Russini reports, the Jets have no plans to pursue a more accomplished signal-caller like Tom Brady, Philip Rivers, Ben Roethlisberger, or Joe Flacco (Blake Bortles is reportedly not under consideration either). As Ian Rapoport and Tom Pelissero of NFL.com report, Brady’s purchase of a stake in the Raiders is not yet finalized and is unlikely to be finalized until October at the earliest. Until then, Brady can techincally sign with any team he chooses, but as we noted previously, he continues to insist that he will remain retired.
Rich Cimini of ESPN.com suggests that the Jets, who have the league’s most difficult strength of schedule over the next five games, could reassess the situation over their Week 7 bye. If they are still in playoff position but feel Wilson is holding them back, they could expand their QB search at that time.
Rodgers, of course, has not closed the door on an in-season return. The reason for such optimism, as Rapoport and Pelissero explain in a separate piece, is that Rodgers underwent an innovative surgery to accelerate the rehabilitation process.
The NFL.com duo, building on an earlier report from Russini and The Athletic colleague Jourdan Rodrigue (subscription required), say that a type of internal brace called a “speed bridge” was placed on Rodgers’ torn Achilles. The procedure, which was performed by well-known orthopedic surgeon Dr. Neal ElAttrache, could allow Rodgers to be back on the field right around the time the postseason begins.
The procedure does involve risk, but Rodgers determined that the possibility of helping his new club make a playoff run this season was worth taking a chance. The 39-year-old (40 in December) could also receive platelet-rich plasma injections to move his recovery along.
Texans WR John Metchie III Active For Week 2 Matchup With Colts
Texans wide receiver John Metchie III is active for the team’s Week 2 game against the Colts today. As such, the 2022 second-rounder will finally make his regular season debut.
It has been a long road for Metchie. The rebuilding Houston franchise selected the Alabama product, a first-round talent, with the No. 44 overall pick in last year’s draft as something of a buy-low maneuver. Although the team knew that Metchie, who suffered a torn ACL in the SEC title game in December 2021, would not be ready for the start of his rookie campaign, there was hope that he would be able to suit up at some point in 2022 and begin to provide a return on the Texans’ investment.
Sadly, Metchie with diagnosed with Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia last July, at which point it became clear he would miss all of 2022. He progressed enough in his recovery to participate in the Texans’ offseason program this year, though a hamstring strain prevented him from getting much OTA work. And while Metchie was able to see preseason action, the hamstring issue kept him out of last week’s regular season opener against the Ravens.
With his health issues hopefully in the rearview mirror, Metchie will try to begin capitalizing on his vast potential. Now 23, Metchie put himself on the draft radar with a pair of productive seasons with the Crimson Tide in 2020 and ’21. Across that span, he totaled 151 catches, 2,058 yards, and 14 touchdowns.
Although Houston dropped its Week 1 bout, the defense and rookie QB C.J. Stroud showed some promise. With Metchie and fellow pass catchers like Nico Collins, Tank Dell, and Xavier Hutchinson, to go along with second-year running back Dameon Pierce, the Texans hope they have a young core of skill position talent to build upon.
As of the time of this writing, Metchie has not yet recorded a catch in the matchup with Indianapolis.
Raiders DE Chandler Jones: Mark Davis Is Holding A “Huge Secret”
The odd situation between Chandler Jones and the Raiders does not appear to be any closer to a resolution. On September 15, the edge defender posted a tweet indicating that the team has not yet contacted him or his reps, though just last week he posted to his Instagram account what appears to be a text exchange between him and Raiders owner Mark Davis (via Tashan Reed of The Athletic).
To recap, in the days leading up to Las Vegas’ regular season opener, Jones posted a series of angry messages to his Instagram account alleging that the Raiders locked him out of the team facility, thereby forcing him to work out at a local gym. In those since-deleted posts, he went on say that he could not get in touch with either head coach Josh McDaniels or general manager Dave Ziegler and no longer wanted to play for the club as long as McDaniels and Ziegler remain in charge.
Then, in another round of social media posts that he later deleted, Jones — who missed several practices towards the end of training camp for undisclosed reasons — said that the Raiders had sent a member of the Las Vegas crisis response team to his home. The CRT member allegedly told Jones that he was in danger and needed to go with her.
Speculation has swirled that Jones is dealing with a mental health matter, though there has been no confirmation in that regard. The organization has, unsurprisingly, declined to comment about the situation.
In a new string of tweets, at least some of which have been deleted, Jones spoke more directly about Davis.
“I wish mark Davis told the ppl why I really can’t play,” Jones said (as relayed by Michael David Smith of Pro Football Talk). “I think I know why, but I want y’all to ask him. I’ll let him say it to the public not me lmao. I wish I could play with my brothers, but marky mark is holding a huge secret that only I know! That’s why I was asking for my protection sorry if I sound scared because I’m not lol, when I found out I was lol.”
It is unclear what secret Jones is referring to, or what information he discovered. In the above-referenced text exchange, the only substantive portion of Davis’ dialogue read, “I care for you the person more than I care for you the player.. I’m here for you should you feel the need to talk.. Man to man.. With respect..”
Jones was inactive for the Raiders’ Week 1 victory over the Broncos and is also inactive for today’s matchup with the Bills. At this point, it is difficult to say when (or even if) Jones will hit the field again.
In his most recent tweets, Jones added, “[Davis] can’t cut me, I have proof of his reps saying I’m under contract, and they want me on the team.. but not playing right now. Lol.”
Indeed, if the Raiders were to release Jones, they would be saddled with a dead money charge of roughly $13MM (though as a post-June 1 transaction, such a release would actually yield a modest cap savings on the 2023 ledger). Presumably, Las Vegas would like for Jones to return to action and try to live up to the three-year, $51MM contract he signed last offseason, a deal that looks like a signficiant misstep given the current impasse and Jones’ disappointing 2022 campaign.
It is fair to wonder if the NFLPA will become involved in this matter, particulary in light of Jones’ accusations against Davis.