Minor NFL Transactions: 8/7/22
We will keep track of today’s minor moves right here:
Atlanta Falcons
- Signed: DL Abdullah Anderson
- Placed on IR: DL Vincent Taylor
Buffalo Bills
- Activated from active/NFI list: G Rodger Saffold
Chicago Bears
- Placed on IR: LB Christian Albright (from waived/injured)
- Waived/injured: LB C.J. Avery
Cincinnati Bengals
- Activated from active/PUP list: DE Khalid Kareem
Green Bay Packers
- Activated from active/NFI list: CB Keisean Nixon
Jacksonville Jaguars
- Signed: RB Matt Colburn
- Waived/injured: RB Nathan Cottrell
New York Giants
- Signed: OL Eric Smith
Philadelphia Eagles
- Signed: OT Jarrid Williams
Washington Commanders
- Signed: TE Eli Wolf, S Steven Parker
- Released: QB Cole Kelley, LB Bryce Notree
- Waived/injured: WR Jequez Ezzard
Saffold landed on the NFI list after injuring his ribs in a car accident. Getting their starting left guard back sooner rather than later is an important development for the Bills.
Colburn will take the place of Cottrell in the Jags’ RB room. The Wake Forest product played in four games for the USFL’s Philadelphia Stars this year, garnering 102 rushes for 457 yards (just under 4.5 YPC) and eight scores.
Cottrell has seen action in each of the past two years for Jacksonville, returning seven kicks in 2020 and handling one carry in 2021.
Wolf and Parker get preseason roster positions after successful workouts yesterday. The Commanders are looking for depth at both positions as they work towards a 53-man roster.
Vikings C Garrett Bradbury In Danger Of Losing Starting Job
Vikings center Garrett Bradbury is in danger of losing his starting job, as Mark Craig of the Star Tribune writes. Although Bradbury has handled all of the first-team reps in training camp thus far, head coach Kevin O’Connell admitted that the NC State product does not have the gig sewn up.
That is largely a result of Bradbury’s struggles in pass protection. Over his first three years in the league, his Pro Football Focus pass-blocking grades have ranked last, last, and second-to-last among centers. He is more accomplished as a run blocker, and O’Connell made sure to mention Bradbury’s running game prowess while acknowledging the need for him to improve in pass pro.
“[Pass-blocking is] where we’re challenging him each and every time; technique, technique,” O’Connell said. “He’s got a good anchor when he’s got his feet underneath him. I think he has the strength to hold up. I think he has the technique to hold up. I think we can do some things with how we protect to try to limit some of the [one-on-one] situations by how we scheme up certain fronts.”
Bradbury missed four games in 2021 but has otherwise started every game for the Vikings since turning pro in 2019. Selected in the first round (No. 18 overall) of that year’s draft, his struggles in protecting the quarterback forced Minnesota to decline his fifth-year option for 2023, thereby turning 2022 into a platform year.
As such, Bradbury’s earning power hangs in the balance. A marked improvement in his game could lead to a lucrative multi-year pact, whereas a demotion could see him hit free agency after having spent a full season as a reserve and with major questions marks about his viability as a starting pivot.
If he ends up ceding his starting role, free agent acquisitions Austin Schlottmann (seven career starts) and Chris Reed (29 career starts) could fill the void, although Reed has never played a regular season game at center. Schlottman has been working as the second-team center.
O’Connell believes that Reed can handle a center’s duties, but one would imagine that his preference would be to have Bradbury step up and seize the job. He has yet to do that, having been burned repeatedly by the Vikings’ interior pass rush in the first several weeks of camp.
FA WR John Ross Generating Interest
It sounds as if free agent wide receiver John Ross will find a new employer soon. The No. 9 overall pick of the Bengals in the 2017 draft, Ross spent the 2021 campaign with the Giants and is still recovering from a knee injury that he sustained towards the end of the season.
As such, Ross will begin meeting with teams around the start of the regular season next month, per Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.com (via Twitter). He is expected to be fully healthy by that time, and a number of teams have remained in “consistent contact” with the Washington product.
Injuries have been the prevailing theme of Ross’ career. He possesses blinding speed, but due to various ailments and his inability to impress then-head coach Marvin Lewis, Ross played in just one game in his rookie year in Cincinnati. Though he started 10 games in 2018, he managed only 21 catches for 210 yards, and after a hot start to 2019, he missed another eight games due to injury.
The Bengals made the easy call to decline Ross’ fifth-year option in May 2020, and in his final season in the Queen City, Ross was a healthy scratch for a number of games and requested a trade as a result of his diminished role. Cincy could not find any takers, and Ross eventually landed on IR with a foot injury.
He signed with the Giants in March 2021, and he once again missed time for health reasons. A hamstring malady kept him out of the first few games of the season, and the above-mentioned knee trouble sidelined him towards the end of the year. Still, clubs apparently remain tantalized by his speed and big-play ability, which will buy the 26-year-old another opportunity.
Ross has indeed shown flashes of his potential. In 2019, he caught 28 balls for 506 yards — good for a 18.1 yards-per-reception rate — and in his first and only season with Big Blue, he tallied 11 catches for 224 yards, which represents a career-best 20.4 YPR average. His 43.4% career catch percentage is quite low, but that is largely a function of the routes he is asked to run. If he can ever stay healthy for a full season, his abilities as a bonafide home run threat would be a welcome addition to any number of WR rooms.
Although Fowler did not specify which clubs have expressed interest, the Colts, Cowboys, Packers, and Ravens are just a few of the teams that could still use receiving help.
Bills, FB Reggie Gilliam Agree To Extension
The Bills have signed FB Reggie Gilliam to a two-year extension worth up to $5.2MM, as Mike Garafolo of the NFL Network was first to report (via Twitter). The team subsequently announced the move.
A 2020 UDFA, Gilliam has seen most of his action on special teams, appearing in 504 third-unit snaps in his first two years in the league (as opposed to just 236 offensive snaps). However, he received high marks for his blocking prowess in his limited time on the offensive side of the ball, with Pro Football Focus assigning him a strong 76.3 grade for run-blocking and a stellar 84.7 pass-blocking grade in 2021.
Although he has lined up in the backfield and as a tight end, Gilliam hasn’t gotten many touches. In his career, he has five catches for 39 yards and a TD, to go along with three carries for three yards.
Still, the Bills clearly value his contributions. We do not yet know how much of the above-referenced $5.2MM payout is guaranteed, but as a former UDFA who plays a position that many NFL teams no longer utilize and who does not see nearly as much burn as better-compensated fullbacks like Kyle Juszczyk and Patrick Ricard, Gilliam appears to have done well for himself.
The soon-to-be 25-year-old was eligible for free agency at season’s end but is now under club control through 2024.
Chiefs Cut CB Deandre Baker
The Chiefs have cut cornerback Deandre Baker, as Adam Teicher of ESPN.com reports (via Twitter). After Kansas City injected a great deal of new blood into its CB room this offseason, Baker found himself on the wrong side of the roster bubble.
A first-round pick of the Giants in 2019, Baker played in all 16 games in his rookie season, including 15 starts. He did not perform particularly well, yielding a 116.2 passer rating and earning a poor 48.4 overall grade from Pro Football Focus, but as a Day 1 selection, Baker was in line to get another extended look in 2020 for a rebuilding New York outfit.
However, Baker’s career quickly went off the rails. The Georgia product was alleged to have robbed a party at gunpoint in May 2020, and the Giants had already waived him by the time charges were dropped, thereby ending a sordid saga that included the attorney for three of Baker’s accusers being arrested on extortion charges. Shortly after he was criminally cleared, Baker hooked on with the Chiefs’ taxi squad and wound up appearing in two games (one start) for KC towards the end of the 2020 campaign.
The Chiefs were intrigued enough to retain Baker for the 2021 season, and he appeared in eight games (one start) for the club last year. His performance still left much to be desired, and while Kansas City kept him in the fold this offseason, the team also drafted three corners — including first-round choice Trent McDuffie — and traded for former Texans CB Lonnie Johnson Jr.
Having failed to impress during his limited time in Kansas City, Baker was squeezed out by the new acquisitions. The soon-to-be 25-year-old will surely get another opportunity, as teams are always on the lookout for CB depth (especially when that depth comes with a first-round pedigree). But he will need to start displaying skills commensurate with that pedigree in order to stay in the NFL for the long haul.
Rams’ Van Jefferson To Undergo Surgery
AUGUST 1: McVay said Jefferson will undergo knee surgery Tuesday, though the sixth-year Rams HC described the procedure as minor and indicated the timetable here will be a few weeks, via CBS Sports’ Jonathan Jones (on Twitter). McVay stopped short of guaranteeing Jefferson would be ready for the regular season, however.
JULY 31: Rams wide receiver Van Jefferson will see a knee specialist on Monday, as Ian Rapoport of NFL.com reports (via Twitter). The third-year pro missed practice on Saturday, and in speaking with reporters after practice, head coach Sean McVay did not explicitly say whether Jefferson’s absence was related to his knee.
“We’re figuring that out right now, working through that,” McVay said (via Josh Alper of Pro Football Talk, citing Gary Klein of the Los Angeles Times). “I’ll have more information for you later — like I said, I don’t have anything right now.”
Those comments don’t shed much light on the matter, but Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic says that the coach was clearly concerned about his big-play wideout (Twitter link). McVay is not scheduled to speak with the media today, so we are unlikely to have additional information until Monday at the earliest.
Jefferson played through a knee injury late in the 2021 regular season and throughout the Rams’ postseason run to a Super Bowl title. As Rodrigue notes (via Twitter), Jefferson underwent a knee procedure in the spring, though he appeared to be in good health when training camp opened and was moving well. Per Rapoport, Jefferson could miss a few weeks, and another surgery is on the table.
The Rams selected Jefferson in the second round of the 2020 draft, and he played a key role in the club’s offensive success in 2021. Despite the knee problems, he started all 17 regular season contests, compiling 50 catches for 802 yards (good for a terrific 16.0 yards-per-reception rate) and six TDs. He also started all four postseason games, adding nine more catches for 102 yards.
Los Angeles has an enviable WR corps, with Cooper Kupp, Allen Robinson, and Jefferson as the top three players on the depth chart. The team invests heavily at the position, and if Jefferson is forced to miss time, the Rams have 2021 draftees Tutu Atwell, Jacob Harris, and Ben Skowronek waiting in the wings. An Odell Beckham reunion has consistently been rumored as a possibility, but OBJ may be unable to suit up until November, so the Jefferson situation will not necessarily impact the team’s decision to re-sign Beckham.
In better health-related news for Los Angeles, quarterback Matthew Stafford sounded mostly positive when asked how his arm is feeling after the first week of training camp. The 34-year-old passer did not throw during spring work because of a right elbow injury, but he has been throwing in camp.
“It’s coming along,” Stafford told reporters on Saturday (via Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk). “I’m kind of right where I want to be and just continue to get it feeling better. Get it stronger. You just lose those reps through the offseason and [I’m] trying to gain some of those reps back at the moment.”
Browns Unlikely To Re-Sign C J.C. Tretter
The Browns released center J.C. Tretter in March, and he has lingered on the free agent market ever since, with no concrete reports of interest in his services. However, even if Cleveland was able to re-sign its five-year starter to a team-friendly pact, Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com does not envision such a reunion.
Per Cabot, the Browns would only consider re-signing Tretter if presumptive starter Nick Harris suffers a serious injury. Harris has started only two games in his two-year professional career, but the team is high on his ability and expects the transition from Tretter to Harris to be a smooth one. Indeed, while Tretter’s release saved Cleveland $8.2MM against the cap, the Browns — who currently boast a whopping $48MM+ of cap space — would not have made that move if they were not completely comfortable with Harris at the pivot.
Cabot speculates that teams that might otherwise be interested in Tretter, the NFLPA president, may have soured on him because of the hardline stance he has taken in negotiations with the league over the offseason program (among other things). Still, it is somewhat surprising that a player who has missed only one game since 2017 — a COVID-related absence in 2021 — and who has consistently rated as a high-end starter in the eyes of Pro Football Focus’ advanced metrics has not gotten any bites.
One wonders if Tretter, who is 31 and who has dealt with ankle and knee ailments over the past three seasons, is simply waiting for the right opportunity, or if he is contemplating walking away from the game. His $44MM+ of career earnings would certainly allow him to do that, although Cabot does believe he will eventually sign somewhere.
Echoing her earlier reports on the matter, Cabot says that the Browns are unlikely to add a veteran wideout unless David Bell‘s foot injury lingers. Bell, a third-round rookie, had an impressive spring and is currently penciled in alongside Amari Cooper and Donovan Peoples-Jones at the top of Cleveland’s WR depth chart. But he was recently put on the PUP list and is not expected back for another couple of weeks. If players like 2021 third-rounder Anthony Schwartz or sixth-round rookie Michael Woods II should fail to impress while Bell is sidelined, the Browns could look to the FA and/or trade markets.
One member of the team’s receiver mix, rookie Isaiah Weston, was carted off the practice field yesterday, as Tony Grossi of 850 ESPN Cleveland tweets. As a UDFA, Weston was a longshot to make the team anyway, and even if his injury is serious, it’s unlikely to alter the Browns’ decision-making too much.
Seahawks Work Out LB Reuben Foster
The Seahawks will work out free agent linebacker Reuben Foster today, as Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets. Foster has not seen game action since the 2018 season.
A first-round pick of the 49ers back in 2017, Foster lived up to his billing in his first professional season, appearing in 10 games (all starts) and racking up 72 total tackles en route to a third-place finish in Defensive Rookie of the Year voting. Pro Football Focus was especially fond of his performance and assigned him a terrific 81.2 overall score, including high marks for his work as a run stopper and in coverage.
Things began to go south in 2018, however. Foster was arrested three times that year, and after the third arrest in November 2018 — which stemmed from a domestic violence charge — the 49ers waived him. Washington made the highly controversial decision to claim him off waivers, and he spent the remainder of the campaign on the commissioner’s exempt list.
In January 2019, Florida prosecutors dropped the November charge due to insufficient evidence, and Foster was reinstated several months later. It seemed the Alabama product would have a chance to reestablish himself as a frontline ‘backer in the nation’s capital, but in his first practice with Washington, Foster suffered a torn ACL, LCL, and MCL. He also dealt with nerve damage that left him without feeling in his toes for several months. He missed all of the 2019 season, and though he finally returned to the practice field in August 2020, it was clear that he was not anywhere close to his old self, and he spent all of 2020 on IR.
Foster took a few workouts last September and also auditioned for the Dolphins this April, but he remains on the open market. The Seahawks currently have 2020 first-rounder Jordyn Brooks penciled in as their middle linebacker without much proven depth behind him, so it can’t hurt to see if their former division rival still has anything to offer.
FA OL Tyrell Crosby On Final Season With Lions, NFL Future
Free agent offensive lineman Tyrell Crosby underwent spinal fusion surgery in December, and multiple doctors have advised him to walk away from football, as Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press writes. Crosby told the Free Press that he is not ready to call it quits just yet, and he also levied some serious allegations against the Lions organization.
Detroit selected Crosby in the fifth round of the 2018 draft, and he started seven games over his first two years in the league before becoming the club’s primary right tackle in 2020. Although he struggled as a run blocker that year, he earned an above-average 68.1 grade from Pro Football Focus for his efforts in pass protection, and his overall score of 64.2 was solid enough. In 2021, the final year of his rookie contract, it seemed Crosby would be in line for at least a swing tackle role, but he was off the roster before the regular season got underway.
The Oregon product skipped voluntary workouts last spring — he says that he only did so because he was homesick and wanted to remain with his family after the pandemic kept him away during the 2020 season — and when mandatory minicamp rolled around, then-OC Anthony Lynn suggested that he had missed OTAs because he was “scared to compete.” Crosby added that head coach Dan Campbell and GM Brad Holmes spoke with him privately and accused him of not caring about his teammates, the coaching staff, or the city of Detroit.
In the second week of training camp, Crosby sustained a mild hamstring injury that knocked him out for most of the preseason. During his rehab, he says that he complained of back pain to trainers and coaches, only to have those complaints dismissed. In late August, he returned to practice on a limited basis, but he suffered from unrelenting back spasms. He missed his weight room workout on his first day back at practice and was fined $5K as a result, even though he only missed the workout because he was getting treatment for his back.
Several days later, he complained about the back pain again, and assistant trainer Tom Colt asked if he could play a few snaps in that week’s preseason finale against the Colts. Crosby said he could, and he struggled through nine snaps in that contest. He was waived with an injury designation several days later, and at that time, Holmes sarcastically thanked him for playing through the injury.
Crosby subsequently cleared waivers and reverted to injured reserve after declining the Lions’ offer of a four-week injury settlement. Over the next few months, Crosby saw several doctors and attempted rehab with no success. That process also included a complication from a cortisone shot that caused a leak of spinal fluid and led to debilitating headaches. Detroit allegedly continued to downplay Crosby’s concerns, and after a spine specialist discovered that the discs in Crosby’s lower back had degenerated to the point that his back was collapsing on the left side, he underwent the fusion surgery.
That is not necessarily a career-ending procedure, though Crosby says he has struggled to get into playing shape. He has not lifted weights seriously in almost a year, and while he can do certain abdominal and body-weight workouts, it sounds as if he is a long way away from getting back on the field, if he is ever able to do so.
The Lions have declined to comment on Crosby’s accusations.
Falcons Name Marcus Mariota Starting QB
This will not qualify as particularly surprising news, but the Falcons have named Marcus Mariota their starting quarterback. On the first day of training camp earlier this week, quarterbacks coach Charles London confirmed that Mariota will serve as Atlanta’s QB1, while third-round rookie Desmond Ridder will begin his pro career as Mariota’s backup.
“Obviously, we’ve got a plan for each of them,” London said. “Marcus is the starter. That’s how we’re going into this thing” (via Josh Kendall of The Athletic (subscription required)).
Mariota, the No. 2 overall pick of the Titans in the 2015 draft, showed some promise during his five years in Tennessee, including a 2016 campaign in which he threw for 26 TDs against nine interceptions and rushed for 349 yards and a pair of scores. But Ryan Tannehill supplanted Mariota as the Titans’ starter midway through the 2019 season, and Mariota has spent the last two years with the Raiders as Derek Carr‘s backup.
During that time, he saw extended action in only one game, a Week 15 contest in 2020 in which he completed 17 of 28 passes for 226 yards, including a touchdown and an interception, and rushed nine times for 88 yards and a score. That performance was enough to generate trade interest the following offseason, but the structure of Mariota’s contract prevented a deal from being consummated. He ultimately remained with Las Vegas on a reworked pact, and he wound up throwing just two passes in 2021 (though he was occasionally brought in on special packages and rushed 13 times for 87 yards and a TD).
After trading franchise icon Matt Ryan to the Colts in March, the Falcons signed Mariota to a two-year, $18.75MM contract. Even after that signing, the club was said to be considering using its No. 8 overall pick on a collegiate passer, though Atlanta chose to wait until the third round to select a QB. Ridder completed just under 65% of his passes for 30 TDs and eight picks in 2021 — a season in which he took Cincinnati to the College Football Playoff — and has the chance to become the long-term answer for Atlanta under center.
He may be working with the second team as he acclimates to the NFL, but he will be getting plenty of reps. We heard last month that the Falcons would be deploying Feleipe Franks, the only other quarterback on the roster, in more of a hybrid role, and Kendall confirmed that Franks will practice as a tight end for most of camp.