Broncos LB Jonas Griffith Dislocates Elbow
AUGUST 25: In a surprising yet encouraging update, head coach Nathaniel Hackett stated (via the team’s website) that the injury is not nearly as significant as originally thought. “Yeah, we’re definitely hoping for Jonas to be [ready for] Week 1, that’s kind of our aiming point ,” Hackett said. “We very much dodged a bullet on that one.” Griffith being ready in time to start the regular season (or at least miss less time than initially feared) would be a significant boost to the Broncos’ defense.
AUGUST 14: Broncos linebacker Jonas Griffith sustained a dislocated elbow during the team’s preseason victory over the Cowboys on Saturday, as Mike Klis of 9News.com tweets. Griffith is expected to miss the next four to six weeks, so his availability for the first several games of the regular season is in doubt.
The 25-year-old ‘backer entered the league as a UDFA with the 49ers and joined the Broncos via minor trade last August. He saw his first professional defensive snap in Week 14 of the 2021 season and performed quite well down the stretch, compiling 45 tackles — including four for loss and 5.5 run “stuffs” — in the final five games of the year.
He carried that momentum into spring work in 2022, taking first-team reps during OTAs and training camp. He and Josey Jewell have been viewed as the starting ILB tandem for months.
GM George Paton did not do much to address his team’s inside linebacker position this offseason, aside from re-signing Jewell and signing former Eagles LB Alex Singleton to a modest contract. He did not draft an ILB, and he did not retain players like Alexander Johnson, Kenny Young, and Micah Kiser (perhaps due to his confidence in Griffith).
Singleton, however, was Philadelphia’s leading tackler over the past two seasons, and he is the most likely Griffith replacement. While Singleton’s work in coverage is generally poor, he should be effective in Denver’s base packages, which is where Griffith is expected to see most of his action anyway.
Klis also names 2020 fifth-rounder Justin Strnad, who started fives games last year, as a candidate to see more snaps in Griffith’s absence, and he suggests that the Broncos could explore a reunion with Johnson (Twitter link). Singleton, whose contract includes a playtime incentive, may now have a better chance to cash in on that incentive.
Minor NFL Transactions: 8/21/22
We will keep track of today’s minor moves right here:
Chicago Bears
- Signed: FB Jake Bargas
- Placed on IR: WR David Moore
Green Bay Packers
- Waived: OL Ty Clary, LB Chauncey Manac
Houston Texans
- Released: LB Tae Davis
Los Angeles Rams
- Reverted to IR: WR J.J. Koski
New England Patriots
- Waived: TE Dalton Keene
New Orleans Saints
- Waived: QB K.J. Costello, RB Devine Ozigbo, K John Parker Romo
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
- Released: WR Vyncint Smith
- Waived: S Troy Warner
Washington Commanders
- Claimed (from Rams): Kendall Blanton
- Placed on IR: DE Bunmi Rotimi
Moore’s placement on IR indicates that his season is over, and as James Palmer of the NFL Network tweets, a leg injury is the culprit. Moore, who signed with the Bears in April, was a useful complementary receiver in Seattle from 2018-20, and he may have had a shot to carve out a rotational role with Chicago. He was arrested on drug and weapons charges in July and could face league discipline as a result.
The Patriots made Keene the second piece of their two-tight end third round in 2020, trading up (via the Jets) to No. 104 to nab the Virginia Tech product. But neither Keene nor the No. 91 overall pick from that draft (Devin Asiasi) have made big impacts as Patriots. Keene missed all of the 2021 season due to a knee injury. In six games in 2020, Keene caught three passes for 16 yards. In the offseason following the Pats’ Day 2 tight end dive, they signed Jonnu Smith and Hunter Henry to big-ticket deals. That duo remains in place in front of Asiasi.
Bucs G Aaron Stinnie Out For Season
Buccaneers guard Aaron Stinnie tore the ACL and MCL in his left knee during Saturday’s preseason loss to the Titans and will miss the entire 2022 season, as head coach Todd Bowles confirmed to reporters. Jenna Laine of ESPN.com reported the news (via Twitter) shortly before Bowles’ announcement.
This was the feared outcome after Stinnie was carted off the field, and it will further test an O-line that does not seem capable of withstanding many more losses. Seven-year starter Ali Marpet surprisingly announced his retirement in February, three-year starter Alex Cappa signed with the Bengals in March, and center Ryan Jensen may be lost for the season after sustaining a serious knee injury of his own. At the very least, it appears that Jensen will miss significant time.
Stinnie, who re-signed with Tampa this offseason on a one-year deal worth up to $2.5MM, was competing with Nick Leverett and second-round rookie Luke Goedeke for the starting left guard gig. Leverett was also battling Robert Hainsey for the starting pivot role in Jensen’s absence, though recent reports have suggested that Hainsey may have that job sewn up.
Stinnie, 28, signed with the Titans as a UDFA in 2018. Tampa claimed him off waivers from Tennessee in 2019, and he became a valuable contributor for the Bucs during their 2020 Super Bowl run. He started the final three playoff games that season — including Super Bowl LV — in the wake of Cappa’s ankle injury.
Bowles did have some good news for Bucs fans today, announcing that right tackle Tristan Wirfs, who sustained an oblique injury, is not at risk of missing Week 1 and is considered day-to-day (Twitter link via Scott Smith of the team’s official website). Bowles added that, while he is comfortable with his existing OL depth, he expects the club to monitor the FA market for reinforcements.
Commanders RB Brian Robinson In Line For Starting Role?
Commanders running backs Antonio Gibson and Brian Robinson are engaged in a battle for the team’s starting RB job, and Robinson may have a leg up. As Michael David Smith of Pro Football Talk writes, Robinson has outplayed Gibson during training camp, and the former earned the starting nod in the team’s preseason loss to the Chiefs on Saturday.
Robinson, a third-round rookie, carried the ball eight times for 31 yards, while Gibson handled just two carries for three yards (though he did have three receptions for 37 yards). What is particularly interesting is that Gibson, despite not handling any kick returns during his first two years in the league, took the opening kickoff in the Kansas City contest.
That usage represents the continuation of a developing trend. Gibson fumbled the ball on his second carry in Washington’s preseason opener against the Panthers last Saturday, and he was relegated to special teams duty when the Commanders hit the practice field on Tuesday, operating as a blocker on the punt team and working with the third-team offense. He began working as a kick and punt returner on Wednesday.
Head coach Ron Rivera has criticized Gibson for excessive stutter-stepping (Twitter link via John Keim of ESPN.com), and while he tried to downplay the significance of Gibson’s special teams deployment and pointed out that his third-year back ran better after the fumble, it presently appears as if Robinson is in line to earn more carries than his veteran counterpart. Indeed, a starting running back probably would not be returning kicks, and after Gibson fumbled six times in 2021, Rivera is understandably willing to give more of a role to a player he thinks will take better care of the football.
Of course, Gibson should remain a key member of the Commanders’ offense. Over 30 games (24 starts) from 2020-21, the Memphis product has accumulated 428 rushes for 1,832 yards (4.3 YPC) and 18 touchdowns. He has added 78 catches for 541 yards and three scores, which is perhaps why Smith speculates Gibson could serve as Washington’s third down/receiving back.
On the other hand, Robinson added more of a receiving element to his game in his final season at Alabama in 2021, catching 35 balls for 296 yards and two TDs to go along with his 271/1,343/14 line as a ball-carrier. In the Carolina game, he had six carries for 26 yards and a score and two catches for 15 yards. He looks the part of a starting-caliber back, and he may well get the chance to prove as much when Week 1 rolls around.
Broncos CB Michael Ojemudia Dislocates Elbow
Another week, another dislocated elbow for a Broncos defender. Per Mike Klis of 9News.com, Denver cornerback Michael Ojemudia dislocated his elbow during the team’s preseason loss to the Bills on Saturday (Twitter link).
The Broncos lost linebacker Jonas Griffith to the same injury last week. While Kilis did not provide a recovery timeline for Ojemudia, it seems safe to assume that Griffith’s expected absence of four to six weeks would apply to Ojemudia as well.
It may also be fair to expect a corresponding roster move. Denver’s CB starters appear to be set, with Patrick Surtain II and Ronald Darby penciled in as the primary boundary corners and K’Waun Williams in the slot, but the depth behind that trio was questionable even before Ojemudia’s injury. Ojemudia and fourth-round rookie Damarri Mathis had been battling for the CB4 role, and while earlier reports suggested that Ojemudia was faring well in that competition, the 2020 third-rounder played poorly during his time in the Buffalo game.
Mathis and players like Bless Austin and Essang Bassey could see an uptick in playing time, though GM George Paton could also look for reinforcements on the open market, just as he did when signing Joe Schobert in the wake of Griffith’s injury. There are a few notable corners still available, including Chris Harris, Joe Haden, and Jimmy Smith.
Ojemudia appeared in all 16 games (11 starts) in his rookie campaign in 2020, and he tallied six passes defensed and four forced fumbles while surrendering a 103.2 QB rating. He finished with a poor 48.7 overall grade from Pro Football Focus, and he slipped down the depth chart last summer. He was placed on IR at the start of the 2021 season and was not activated until December 11. He ultimately appeared in just two contests, though he did earn a start in the final game of the season, recording 11 tackles and two passes defensed.
Minor NFL Transactions: 8/14/22
We will keep track of today’s minor moves here:
Arizona Cardinals
- Released: DL Kingsley Keke, OL Haggai Chisom Ndubuisi, OL Greg Long, RB Ronnie Rivers, CB Breon Borders
Buffalo Bills
- Released: TE Jalen Wydermyer, CB Olaijah Griffin, OL Jordan Simmons, OL Derek Kerstetter
Carolina Panthers
- Released: RB Darius Bradwell, TE Nate Becker, LB Kamal Martin, OL Wyatt Miller, CB Chris Westry
Cincinnati Bengals
- Waived: CB Abu Daramy-Swaray, RB Shermari Jones, WR Pooka Williams Jr.
Green Bay Packers
- Signed: K Ramiz Ahmed
- Released: K Gabe Brkic
New England Patriots
- Signed: CB Devin Hafford
Philadelphia Eagles
- Waived: OL William Dunkle, LB Ali Fayad
San Francisco 49ers
- Activated from active/PUP list: TE Charlie Woerner
The most notable name amongst the Cardinals’ cuts is Keke. The 25-year-old made 17 starts with the Packers over the past two seasons, and was claimed off waivers by the Texans in February. Houston cut him in May, however, leading him to the Cardinals. In the waning months of the offseason, the 2019 fifth-rounder will need to find another NFL home in time for Week 1.
Another recent Packers draftee being let go is Martin. The 2020 fifth-rounder made six appearances last season with Carolina, playing all-but exclusively on special teams. Each of the team’s other roster cuts had yet to play in for the Panthers, including Westry, who had showed potential in 2021 when briefly starting for the Ravens.
49ers OL Daniel Brunskill Suffers Hamstring Injury
49ers offensive lineman Daniel Brunskill suffered a hamstring injury during the team’s preseason victory over the Packers on Friday, as Matt Maiocco of NBC Sports Bay Area writes. Head coach Kyle Shanahan indicated that the ailment will keep Brunskill on the sidelines for “a few weeks.”
It will be interesting to see if this injury has a domino effect on San Francisco’s O-line plans. Brunskill started all 17 regular season games at right guard for the Niners in 2021, but he has taken all of his training camp snaps at center. He and Jake Brendel have been battling to replace the retired Alex Mack at the pivot, and though previous reports indicated that the team does not plan to sign a free agent center, Brunskill’s injury could leave the club with plenty of inexperience up front.
While nine-time Pro Bowler Trent Williams is entrenched as the blindside blocker, 2021 second-rounder Aaron Banks is the presumptive starter at LG, and he appeared in only five offensive snaps in his rookie season (though Shanahan said Banks was ready to be a starter by the end of the year). With fourth-round rookie Spencer Burford penciled in as the starting RG, San Francisco is already planning to have two very green players at the guard positions. Although the majority of his snaps have come at guard, Brunskill at least has significant recent starting experience, and he saw 546 snaps at center in the 2020 season. Brendel, meanwhile, did not play at all in the 2019-20 campaigns, and he saw just six offensive snaps in 2021. He has accumulated a grand total of three career starts, all of which came with the Dolphins in 2018.
So a Banks-Brendel-Burford triumvirate in the middle of the line would perhaps represent a less-than-ideal scenario for second-year passer Trey Lance, and Brunskill’s prognosis could speculatively compel the team to look for outside help. J.C. Tretter and Matt Paradis are the most accomplished options on the free agent market, and while neither player has received confirmed interest in their services this offseason, the lack of suitors for Tretter could be explained by the stances he has taken as NFLPA president.
Presumably, a team with a major hole at center would overlook Tretter’s union-related work in order to fill that void, although the Browns may be back in play for their five-year starter now that Nick Harris is likely done for the season.
Giants Activate LB Azeez Ojulari
Giants linebacker Azeez Ojulari has been activated off the club’s NFI list, per Michael Eisen of the team’s official website. Ojulari practiced with the team on Sunday, the first time he has done so since camp opened late last month.
The 2021 second-rounder had been dealing with a hamstring injury, so his return to the field is a welcome sight for an outfit that is looking to start emerging from a rebuild. As a rookie, Ojulari led the team with eight sacks, which represented a franchise record for first-year players. He played in all 17 of New York’s games, starting 13 of them. His 58.3 overall grade and 56.9 pass rushing grade from Pro Football Focus were suboptimal, but his surface-level stats — which also included 13 quarterback hits — show plenty of potential.
Between Ojulari, Leonard Williams, and first-round rookie Kayvon Thibodeaux, the Giants have the foundation of a potentially formidable pass rush. In addition to Thibodeaux, the team also added Jihad Ward in free agency this year and invested a fourth-round pick in Elerson Smith. 2019 third-rounder Oshane Ximines remains on the roster, along with 2021 waiver claim Quincy Roche.
Big Blue also made a series of cuts on Sunday, parting ways with DB Michael Jacquet, G Josh Rivas, and S Jarrod Wilson. Wilson spent the first five years of his career with the Jaguars, the last two of which saw him operate as a full-time starter at safety. He saw action in nine games (three starts) last season, which he split between the Jets and 49ers. The veteran defensive back just signed with the Giants earlier this month.
Jacquet, who signed with the Eagles as a UDFA in 2020, has seen action in eight games (two starts) between Philadelphia and Jacksonville over the past two seasons. The Giants had signed Rivas, a Kansas State product, as part of their own UDFA class earlier this year.
Cowboys VP Of Player Personnel Will McClay Content With Current Role
Cowboys vice president of player personnel Will McClay is widely regarded as a top GM candidate, but with owner Jerry Jones and son Stephen Jones at the top of the team’s unique hierarchy, McClay will never get a shot as a general manager in Dallas. However, his actions over the past few years have made it clear that he is happy right where he is, and he confirmed as much in a recent interview with Clarence E. Hill, Jr. of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
McClay, 55, joined the Cowboys as a scout in 2002. He took over the team’s scouting department as Assistant Director of Player Personnel in 2013, ran his first draft in 2014, and landed his current title in 2017. Since 2014, Dallas has drafted 10 Pro Bowlers, and while the Cowboys are generally restrained in free agency, McClay has had some success in finding contributors on modest FA contracts.
McClay, who is Black, has appeared on the Fritz Pollard Alliance’s list of recommended GM hires on multiple occasions, but he turned down interview requests in the 2016-18 hiring cycles. Though there have been no public reports of interview requests since 2018, that could be because other teams are aware of how difficult it would be to pry McClay from Dallas.
“I realize what my role and my structure is, what we do here,” McClay said. “I feel good about what we are doing. That is the job I am happy with now. If an opportunity comes up that makes sense, sure I will look at it. But I am happy where I am now. I am happy with the job, the role and how we do things.”
While McClay does not currently have the full range of authority that he would as GM, his voice carries a great deal of weight in the club’s collaborative personnel process, which also includes input from both Joneses and head coach Mike McCarthy. “I’m happy with the job and the role and the way it is here because of the way we work and do things together,” McClay said.
When asked if he feels pressure to accept a GM job in order to continue paving the way for other minority candidates, he replied, “I’m a grown man. I know I’m black. The pressure is from the outside saying, ‘oh, you have to do’…I don’t have to do anything. The thing that I have to do for any African-American person who is trying to get into personnel, what I’ve got to do is be the best at my job, then they can see. You’ve got to do your job first, so I’m doing my job to the best of my availability first.”
As noted above, McClay left open the possibility of taking a GM position if the right opportunity presents himself. When asked what such an opportunity would look like, he responded, “you want to make sure the top structure is right. How many picks do they have? What’s there? What’s the team? Got to have a quarterback. … So many different things you would consider. So when the time comes and I have the time to look at it and put that foot forward that I want to do that, then I will look at all the different factors. I don’t consider it because it’s here right now that’s most important.”
The Cowboys and McClay agreed to a three-year extension earlier this year, and Jerry Jones, who said he considers McClay as qualified as anyone he has ever been around in terms of GM potential, is happy to have one of his top lieutenants in the fold during the team’s current window of contention.
Raiders Not Shopping RB Josh Jacobs?
AUGUST 8: McDaniels attempted to squash any Jacobs trade rumors Monday, indicating (via the Fresno Bee’s Anthony Galaviz, on Twitter) the Raiders have “no desire” to trade the running back “at all.” The first-year Las Vegas HC said the team has “a lot of confidence” in Jacobs. It is not too uncommon to see players traded after coach or GM declarations of this sort, but McDaniels made a similar pronouncement about Carr not being on the trade block. No Jacobs extension may be on tap, but this could quiet trade speculation for a bit.
AUGUST 7: While high-profile teammates like Derek Carr and Davante Adams did not participate in Thursday night’s Hall of Fame game, Raiders running back Josh Jacobs got a considerable amount of playing time. Combined with Las Vegas’ decision to decline Jacobs’ fifth-year option earlier this year and recent reports suggesting that 2022 would be his last season in the Silver and Black, HC Josh McDaniels‘ deployment of his presumptive RB1 led some to wonder whether Jacobs was being showcased for a potential trade.
According to Vincent Bonsignore of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, there has been no indication that the Raiders are interested in trading Jacobs. Instead, when asked why Jacobs saw so much action in a game that generally features few, if any, established starters for even a brief period of time, McDaniels said, “I always think it’s good for backs to carry the ball in preseason.”
Indeed, Jacobs’ primary backup, Kenyan Drake, got an extended look as well, and Brandon Bolden was the only veteran back who did not see the field. Per McDaniels, “There are a lot of things that happen when you’re tackled and getting hit that you can’t simulate in practice. All our guys either caught it or were handed the ball and got tackled. We can’t really simulate or rep that in practice.”
Even if Jacobs suits up for another club in 2023, the Raiders have playoff aspirations this year, and it makes sense that McDaniels would want him to continue building the positive momentum that he has generated in the early days of training camp (Bonsignore writes that Jacobs has had a “dazzling” start to camp after reporting to the club in terrific shape). Plus, a 2023 departure will likely result in a compensatory draft pick anyway.
Thanks in large part to a suspect and injury-plagued O-line, Las Vegas’ running game was among the league’s least productive in 2021. The club did not do much to improve its blocking this offseason, so unless linemen like Alex Leatherwood and rookie Dylan Parham step up in a big way, the Raiders will be counting on Jacobs & Co. to carve out their own space. A potentially prolific passing attack may also give the team’s backs some breathing room.
Bonsignore does believe that, as a result of their RB depth, the Raiders will trade or release an NFL-caliber rusher sometime before Week 1. In his estimation, Jacobs will not be the one on the move, although Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk believes Jacobs’ usage in the HOF game was indeed a sign that the 2020 Pro Bowler is available, and ESPN’s Matt Miller feels the same way (Twitter link).