Rams G David Edwards In Concussion Protocol
The Rams will be without starting left guard David Edwards for Monday’s matchup against the division-rival 49ers. As Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic reports, Edwards told head coach Sean McVay that he was feeling “foggy,” and he entered the concussion protocol on Saturday morning (Twitter link).
Given the situation surrounding Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, which prompted the league and union to amend the concussion protocols, the way in which NFL teams handle brain injuries will be even more scrutinized in the near-term. McVay, though, was clear that the Tagovailoa matter had no impact on Edwards’ treatment.
“[I]t was great for [Edwards] to be able to kind of communicate,” McVay said (via Sarah Barshop of ESPN.com). “We took the right steps, especially, with the [Tagovailoa] situation that occurred on Thursday. But really just in general, regardless of whether or not that happened with [Tagovailoa], [it’s] something we take very serious and I appreciate him handling it the right way.”
Edwards, a 2019 fifth-rounder, spent more time at right guard than left in his rookie campaign, but he has settled in as the club’s starting LG over the past several seasons. He received above-average marks from Pro Football Focus in both the 2020 and 2021 campaigns, and a repeat performance in 2022, his platform year, could set him up for a multi-year extension from the Rams or a lucrative free agent contract in 2023.
This continues a disturbing trend along the Rams’ O-line. Starting center Brian Allen, who underwent a knee procedure following Los Angeles’ season-opening loss to the Bills, will also miss the San Francisco game — his third straight absence — while both Tremayne Anchrum and third-round rookie Logan Bruss are out for the season.
Per Rodrgiue, Bobby Evans will fill in at LG in Edwards’ stead (Twitter link). Evans was selected several rounds before Edwards in 2019, and while he started seven games in his first professional season, he has started only one contest since.
Chargers To Start Jamaree Salyer At LT
The Chargers have placed starting LT Rashawn Slater on injured reserve, and they will be turning to a rookie to fill the void. As Daniel Popper of The Athletic reported earlier this week, the Bolts will deploy 2022 sixth-rounder Jamaree Salyer on QB Justin Herbert‘s blind side for the team’s Week 4 matchup with the Texans (Twitter link).
It would have been fair to expect veteran Storm Norton, who started 15 games at right tackle for the Chargers in 2021 and who filled in at left tackle in Week 3 when Slater went down with a torn biceps tendon, to get the nod, at least for the next couple of games. That is especially true given that Salyer, who is listed at 6-3, has less than ideal height for an NFL tackle. Given his size, Salyer was originally drafted as a guard, though he does have long arms and acquitted himself well as a tackle against Aidan Hutchinson — this year’s No. 2 overall pick — in the College Football Playoff semifinals last year.
Salyer also has a higher ceiling than Norton, a 2017 UDFA who lost this summer’s training camp battle for the starting RT job to Trey Pipkins III. As Ian Rapoport of NFL.com writes, the expectation is that Salyer will be a capable replacement for Slater. In the first three weeks of his pro career, Salyer has seen the field for 11 special teams snaps, so Sunday’s game will represent a trial by fire.
Herbert, of course, needs all the protection he can get. The passer is dealing with fractured rib cartilage, and while he came off the injury report on Friday, head coach Brandon Staley has confirmed that the injury will linger and will impact Herbert for some time. Luckily, starting center Corey Linsley — who exited the team’s Week 2 loss to the Chiefs due to a knee injury and who was inactive for the Week 3 loss to the Jaguars — is active for Sunday’s Houston contest.
RapSheet also passes along some good news with respect to Slater. Despite reports that the second-year pro would miss the remainder of the season, he may be able to return near the end of the campaign. If the Chargers are in the playoff hunt, Slater could suit up for one of the final two games of the season, or at least for the first game of the postseason if Los Angeles should qualify.
Cornerback J.C. Jackson, like Herbert, also came off the injury report on Friday.
Bills Place CB Xavier Rhodes On P-Squad Injured List
The hits keep coming for the Bills’ secondary. Veteran cornerback Xavier Rhodes, who signed with Buffalo just a few days ago, has been placed on the team’s practice squad injured list (Twitter link via ESPN’s Field Yates). Head coach Sean McDermott said that Rhodes sustained a hamstring injury (Twitter link via Chris Brown of OneBillsLive).
Buffalo’s top corner, two-time Pro Bowler Tre’Davious White, began the season on the PUP list and will therefore miss at least one more game as he continues to recover from an ACL tear. Fellow starter Dane Jackson suffered a neck injury in Week 2, and rookie Christian Benford fractured his hand during last Sunday’s loss to the Dolphins. That is not to mention safety Micah Hyde‘s season-ending neck injury or safety Jordan Poyer‘s foot ailment, which kept him out of the Miami contest and which rendered him questionable for the Bills’ Week 4 matchup against the Ravens.
The practice squad injured list operates under the same rules as the injured reserve. In other words, Rhodes will be forced to miss at least the next four games, at which point there may no longer be a roster spot for him. Indeed, Jackson returned to practice this week and is expected to suit up for the Baltimore game, as Joe Buscaglia of The Athletic tweets. The hope is that White will return shortly, and while Benford will miss time, he could nonetheless beat Rhodes back to the field.
Furthermore, even though Rhodes is on the taxi squad injured list, his activation from that list would still count as one of the Bills’ eight “return from IR” designations. It is possible that the team would elect against using such a designation on a player that had minimal practice time and never appeared in a game.
Rhodes, therefore, could be a free agent again in a few weeks and could be of interest to another team in need of secondary depth.
Giants, Seahawks Host LB Joe Schobert
Free agent linebacker Joe Schobert has been a full-time starter over the past five years and has averaged over 126 tackles per season during that span, but he is quickly becoming a fixture on the NFL’s workout circuit. Per Aaron Wilson of Pro Football Network, Schobert visited with the Giants and Seahawks this week (Twitter link).
The visit with New York did not produce a deal, as Big Blue opted to sign Jaylon Smith instead. For the moment, at least, Schobert does not have a contract with Seattle either, and he will continue to search for another opportunity.
In 2017, his first and only Pro Bowl campaign, Schobert led the league with 144 tackles, adding an interception, three sacks, three forced fumbles, and four passes defensed. The advanced metrics supported those surface level stats, as Schobert also earned a solid 68.7 overall score from Pro Football Focus, along with a terrific 77.6 mark for his work in run defense.
His proficiency against the run slipped in the following two seasons, although he showed improvement when dropping into coverage. Over the 2018-19 campaigns, the Wisconsin product allowed QB ratings of just 87.5 and 74.6, respectively, and his pass coverage grades from PFF were equally strong. All in all, it was easy enough to justify the Jaguars’ decision to hand him a five-year, $53.75MM deal in March 2020.
However, Schobert was miserable against the pass that year, conceding a 110.0 quarterback rating and landing a 43.7 PFF coverage grade. Though he paced Jacksonville with 141 tackles, the team elected to trade him to the Steelers last August. Pittsburgh head coach Mike Tomlin reportedly believed that Schobert could return to his strong form as a pass defender, but that did not happen. Instead, Schobert struggled against both the pass and the run in 2021 — indeed, the Steelers featured the worst run defense in the league last season — and the club cut ties with Schobert and his hefty base salary in March.
Schobert visited the Saints several months later and signed with the Broncos in August following an injury to Denver starter Jonas Griffith. He evidently failed to make much of an impression, though, as the Broncos released him about a week later. It appears that teams have seen a significant drop-off in Schobert’s performance, and despite his gaudy tackle numbers, he has always struggled with missed tackles. A decline in other areas only magnifies the missed tackle concerns.
The Seahawks, who parted ways with franchise icon Bobby Wagner in March, are presently deploying Jordyn Brooks and Cody Barton as the starting inside ‘backers in their 3-4 scheme. Through the first two weeks of the season, both players have accumulated hefty tackle totals but have not graded out well in PFF’s eyes. In that sense, Schobert might have been redundant, though he certainly would have added some experienced depth, which the ‘Hawks presently lack.
Of course, the club could always circle back to Schobert if he remains on the open market or signs with another team’s taxi squad. Seattle also worked out fellow LB Blake Lynch, who started six games for the Vikings last year.
Latest On Ravens’ Pass Rushing Situation
The Ravens signed veteran edge defender Jason Pierre-Paul earlier this week, and that transaction was consummated in order to offer an immediate boost to the team’s pass rushing contingent. It does not necessarily mean that anything has changed with respect to the prognoses of Tyus Bowser and David Ojabo.
Per Jeff Zrebiec of The Athletic, Baltimore is hopeful that Bowser will be on the field shortly after he is eligible to return from the PUP list (Twitter link). Bowser, who signed a four-year, $22MM contract in March 2021, rewarded the Ravens’ faith in him with a season in which he started all 17 games and registered career-highs in total tackles (59), sacks (seven), tackles for loss (eight), quarterback hits (15), and forced fumbles (two). Unfortunately, he suffered an Achilles tear in the 2021 finale and was placed on the reserve/PUP list in August, thereby guaranteeing that he would miss at least the first four games of the 2022 season.
Bowser does not necessarily excel in any one area, but he is useful against the run, in coverage, and as a pass rusher. His absence became even more significant when the Ravens lost Steven Means to an Achilles tear of his own last week, and Zrebiec’s report suggests that Bowser’s recovery is progressing more or less as expected.
Ojabo, meanwhile, was a first-round talent who fell to the second round of the 2022 draft due to (what else?) an Achilles tear during his Pro Day. GM Eric DeCosta chose to play the long game when he selected Ojabo, who was always expected to miss most, if not all, of his first season in the NFL. Per Zrebiec, the Ravens remain optimistic that the Michigan product can return in the second half of the season.
The Bowser injury and the dearth of proven pass rush talent on the roster meant that many free agent and collegiate edge defenders were connected to the Ravens this offseason (including Pierre-Paul, who first visited the team back in June). However, aside from the Ojabo selection and signing players like Means and Vince Biegel — who, almost predictably, tore his Achilles this summer — Baltimore did very little of note to address its needs in that regard.
The club did bring back Justin Houston, and it should be noted that the tragic death of Jaylon Ferguson also played a role in the team’s current lack of edge depth. The hope is that 2021 first-rounder Odafe Oweh, Houston, and Pierre-Paul can hold down the fort until Bowser and Ojabo are ready to return, though Oweh has been mostly invisible during the first two games of the season. There is plenty of time for him to get on track, but Baltimore was clearly relying on a second-year breakout from him, and he has yet to show signs of such an emergence.
Luckily, Pierre-Paul will not need much of a ramp-up period, as Zrebeic tweets. JPP will not be on the field for Sunday’s matchup with the Patriots, but he is in line to make his Baltimore debut during the club’s Week 4 contest against the Bills.
Broncos Hire Jerry Rosburg As Senior Assistant
The first two regular season games of Nathaniel Hackett‘s head coaching career have not gone particularly smoothly. Hackett’s Broncos suffered an upset defeat at the hands of the Seahawks in Week 1, and while Denver squeezed out a 16-9 win over the Texans in Week 2, the victory had its share of troubling moments.
Hackett has been widely blamed for the Seattle loss. With the Broncos trailing 17-16 in the game’s waning moments, Hackett had to choose between letting quarterback Russell Wilson attempt to convert a fourth-and-five and to continue driving into comfortable field goal range, or to let kicker Brandon McManus attempt a 64-yard FG for the win. Hackett chose the latter option, McManus’ kick was unsuccessful, and the second-guessing began in earnest.
Of course, that decision is not the only reason the Broncos, who saw two different running backs fumble the ball at the Seahawks’ one-yard line on two different drives, lost that contest. However, Hackett did concede after the fact that he made the wrong choice, and his club’s 25 accepted penalties are the most in the league over the first two games of the 2022 campaign. That figure includes four delay-of-game infractions, and a general lack of organization has led to multiple unnecessary timeouts.
To that end, the team has hired longtime NFL coach Jerry Rosburg, 9News’ Mike Klis reports. Adam Schefter of ESPN.com adds (via Twitter) that Rosburg, who will operate under the title of Senior Assistant, has spent the week in Denver and will be in the Broncos’ coaching booth for the team’s Week 3 matchup with the 49ers. Rosburg will assist in gameday operations and decisions.
Earlier this week, Hackett indicated the team would have “good answers moving forward,” but as Jeff Legwold of ESPN.com writes, the rookie HC was not initially planning to add an assistant. It is unclear exactly what convinced Hackett to change his mind, though having another veteran presence who will be specifically tasked with in-game procedure should be a welcome development for Broncos fans.
Rosburg, 66, began his coaching career as the secondary coach for Boston College in 1997. He eventually became the special teams coach for the Browns, Falcons, and Ravens, spending the 2008-18 seasons in Baltimore before announcing his retirement in March 2019. He earned a championship ring with the Ravens, whose Super Bowl XLVII victory featured a key piece of special teams/game management strategy.
Rosburg returns to the NFL on the coaching staff of a team that has a championship-caliber roster but that has some wrinkles to iron out.
Restructure Details: Brockers, Butker, Clark
Here’s a roundup of a few recent contract restructures:
- Michael Brockers, DT (Lions): Detroit converted $4MM of Brockers’ 2022 base salary into a signing bonus, which opened up $2MM of cap room, as Field Yates of ESPN.com tweets. Brockers signed a three-year, $24MM deal with the Lions in March 2021, and he appeared in 16 games (all starts) in his first year in the Motor City. However, he recorded just one sack and earned an abysmal 40.6 overall grade from Pro Football Focus.
- Harrison Butker, K (Chiefs): Butker injured his ankle in Kansas City’s Week 1 win over the Cardinals and missed the club’s Week 2 victory over the Chargers as a result. According to Yates, Butker agreed to convert $2.19MM of his 2022 base salary into a signing bonus, thereby giving KC an additional $1.46MM of cap room (Twitter link). Butker is signed through 2024 and is the league’s 10th-highest-paid kicker by measure of AAV.
- Chuck Clark, S (Ravens): There are no specifics on this one, though Jeff Zrebiec of The Athletic tweets that Baltimore gave Clark a bit of a raise this year and also added some incentives to his deal. The Ravens doled out a big-ticket free agent contract to safety Marcus Williams in March and selected Notre Dame safety Kyle Hamilton in the first round of the draft, and Clark subsequently requested a trade. However, it eventually became clear that Clark would continue to play a prominent role on the defense in 2022, and in the team’s Week 1 victory over the Jets, the Virginia Tech product played in all 84 defensive snaps and tallied eight tackles and a forced fumble while continuing to wear the green dot. He is under club control through 2023 and was slated to earn $1.25MM in base pay this year. Per Zrebiec, this transaction represents a show of appreciation for how Clark handled himself this offseason.
- Desmond King, DB (Texans): The Texans have converted $911K of King’s 2022 salary into a signing bonus, thereby creating $455K of cap space (Twitter link via Yates). King re-signed with Houston this offseason after appearing in 16 games (12 starts) for the club in 2021 and posting 93 tackles to go along with three interceptions. His two-year contract is worth $7MM.
Cardinals WR Rondale Moore To Miss Multiple Weeks
Cardinals wide receiver Rondale Moore sustained a hamstring injury in practice earlier this month, and he missed the club’s regular season opener as a result. Per Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.com, Moore is expected to miss several more weeks (Twitter link).
That news is not overly surprising, as the original report on the hamstring ailment described it as “serious.” Per Fowler, Arizona will exercise caution here but expects its second-year wideout to avoid IR and to return to the field within a month.
The injury came at an especially unfortunate time for Moore, who was in line for an increased workload in the wake of DeAndre Hopkins‘ six-game suspension and Christian Kirk‘s free agency departure. The diminutive speedster caught most of his passes behind the line of scrimmage in his rookie season, though he was expected to have an expanded route tree and to have more opportunities to operate in space in 2022.
There is still time for that to happen, because when Hopkins is reinstated, it would be fair to expect that he and draft-day trade acquisition Marquise Brown will operate outside the numbers and that Moore will assume Kirk’s role in the slot, which was the plan before Moore’s injury. Nonetheless, the team is also rostering Greg Dortch, A.J. Green, Andy Isabella, and Andre Baccellia, with Brown, Dortch, and Isabella all representing viable slot options. So any lost time is significant for Moore at this point.
Isabella, however, will also miss the team’s Week 2 matchup against the Raiders due to a back injury. Brown, Dortch, and Green will serve as quarterback Kyler Murray‘s top options as the Cardinals seek to rebound from their Week 1 blowout loss at the hands of the Chiefs.
Giants CB Cor’Dale Flott To Start In Week 2
Giants starting cornerback Aaron Robinson will miss several weeks following his appendix removal, and rookie Cor’Dale Flott will start in his place in the team’s Week 2 matchup against the Panthers on Sunday, per Dan Duggan of The Athletic (Twitter link). Flott, a third-round choice in the 2022 draft, played just two special teams snaps in New York’s opener last week, so this will represent an early test of the rookie’s mettle.
Flott lost this summer’s slot cornerback battle with third-year pro Darnay Holmes, and Big Blue deployed a starting CB trio of Robinson, Adoree’ Jackson, and Holmes in Week 1. It appears that Flott, a 6-1 defender who has a three-inch height advantage over Holmes, will operate opposite Jackson on the boundaries while Holmes will remain in the slot.
The Giants pulled off a surprising upset over the Titans last week, but as Nic Bodiford of Pro Football Focus (subscription required) observes, the club did surrender seven completions of 15 yards or more, the fifth-highest total in the league. The task will not get any easier this week, as Carolina features D.J. Moore and Robbie Anderson at the top of its WR depth chart. Panthers QB Baker Mayfield will likely attempt to attack Flott early and often with his speedy, talented wideouts.
Flott, an LSU product, has the speed and length to compete with players like Moore and Anderson, but he entered the league as something of a raw prospect who would need a little time to reach his ceiling. However, the Giants made James Bradberry a cap casualty this offseason, and the team is paper-thin at the CB position at the moment. Nick McCloud is dealing with a hamstring injury, leaving recent waiver claim Justin Layne and Fabian Moreau — who was promoted from the taxi squad yesterday — as the only healthy backups.
Despite their cornerback woes, the Giants are a slight favorite today as they seek to move to 2-0 for the first time since 2016.
Packers WR Amari Rodgers Near Bottom Of Depth Chart
Packers wide receiver Amari Rodgers was the only pass-catcher the team selected in the 2021 draft, and following the offseason departures of wideouts Davante Adams, Marquez Valdes-Scantling, and Equanimeous St. Brown, it was fair to expect Rodgers to assume a larger role in 2022. However, it appears that Rodgers is currently near the bottom of the WR depth chart, and as Tom Silverstein of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writes, it’s unclear if that will be changing in the near future.
Rodgers appeared in only 103 offensive snaps in his rookie year, and his primary contributions came as a return specialist. That trend continued in Green Bay’s 2022 opener against the Vikings, as Rodgers did not see any action on the offensive side of the ball and returned one kickoff for 14 yards and one punt for 12 yards. Meanwhile, rookies Christian Watson and Romeo Doubs saw 40 and 35 offensive snaps, respectively, while veterans Randall Cobb and Sammy Watkins enjoyed similar usage rates. After missing the Minnesota contest, Allen Lazard is expected to return for Sunday’s game against the Bears, which will serve as yet another obstacle to playing time for Rodgers.
Silverstein says Watson and Doubs “are the priority” when it comes to getting snaps to young receivers, and when asked about Amari Rodgers during his Wednesday press conference, quarterback Aaron Rodgers said simply, “he’s returning [kicks] for us right now. That’s all I got.” Amari Rodgers did not take offense to that statement, saying, “I mean, that’s what I am. He’s really speaking fact. I can’t do nothing about that.”
Still, it’s a disappointing development for a player who was a third-round draft choice just one year ago, who lost 20 pounds over the offseason, and who finished the preseason in strong fashion (Amari Rodgers lined up at wide receiver and running back in the Packers’ preseason finale against the Chiefs and notched four catches for 39 yards and three carries for 17 yards). After getting more reps out of the backfield towards the end of training camp, he is, at least, the third RB on the depth chart as of the time of this writing.
Offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich does expect Amari Rodgers to have a role on the offense this year. “Where you are Week 1 doesn’t necessarily mean that’s where you’re going to be Week 5,” Stenavich said. “So, I wouldn’t say he doesn’t have a role. He has a role. He’s going to have some sort of role on the field this year.”
For now, though, it looks like Amari Rodgers will need to continue trying to get the coaches’ attention in practice and as a returner or running back. With five receivers above him in the pecking order, he has a long way to go to earn a meaningful spot as a wideout this year.