Packers Release Devin Funchess
The Packers have released Devin Funchess with an injury settlement, per the league’s transactions wire. Between this and last year’s opt-out, Funchess’ Packers run will end without having ever played a game for Green Bay. 
This was the expected move after the Packers placed Funchess on IR earlier this week. Funchess has not played since his 2019 stint with the Colts, which was really more like a cup of coffee. That season ended midway through the season opener thanks to a broken collarbone. Funchess earned $10MM in salary that year — this time, he’ll leave with a portion of his one-year, $1.2MM contract.
The Panthers selected Funchess in the second round of the 2015 draft, but he has yet to put it all together in the pros. He enjoyed the best year of his career in 2017, compiling 63 receptions for 840 yards and eight touchdowns. Still, it’s worth noting that it took him 111 targets to get those 63 grabs.
With Funchess out of the picture, the Packers will move forward with Davante Adams, Marquez Valdes-Scantling, Allen Lazard, and Randall Cobb as their top WRs.
Bills Cut Rico Gafford, Joey Ivie
The Bills have made a handful of moves in advance of Saturday night’s preseason tilt. The club activated wide receivers Cole Beasley and Gabriel Davis, plus defensive tackles Star Lotulelei and Vernon Butler from the Reserve/COVID-19 list. To make room, they’ve waived receiver Rico Gafford and defensive tackle Joey Ivie while placing DT Treyvon Hester on injured reserve. 
[RELATED: Bills Place G Forrest Lamp On IR]
The Bills claimed Gafford and Ivie just a few days ago. Before that, Gafford was on the Cardinals’ training camp roster and had spent three seasons with the Raiders. Gafford, a cornerback-turned-wide receiver out of Wyoming, has dressed for a total of eight games as a pro.
Ivie, meanwhile, came from the Colts. He’s also had stops with the Browns, Titans, Chiefs, Seahawks, Falcons, and Cowboys. Now, he could be on the verge of his eighth NFL team.
Hester, 29 in September, was pushing to support the Bills’ talented defensive line. To date, he’s got 41 career appearances for the Raiders, Eagles, and WFT. Unfortunately, his ailing back will keep him off the field for the time being.
Minor NFL Transactions: 8/27/21
We’ll keep track of today’s minor moves here:
Carolina Panthers
- Waived: S Brian Cole
Green Bay Packers
- Waived: QB Jake Dolegala
San Francisco 49ers
- Signed: OL Corbin Kaufusi
- Waived: S Kai Nacua
Cowboys Rework Ezekiel Elliott’s Deal
The Cowboys have converted $8.6MM of Ezekiel Elliott‘s $9.6M base salary into a signing bonus (Twitter link via Field Yates of ESPN.com). The move gives the Cowboys an extra $6.88M in cap space for the current year by spreading that obligation across future seasons. 
The restructuring leaves Dallas with an estimated $12MM in room for the current year. That’ll give them enough room to swing a substantial trade between now and the fall deadline. Or, if they don’t make a huge splash, they can roll some of those dollars to next year.
Elliott is signed through 2026 thanks to the six-year, $90MM re-up he signed a couple years back. The revision doesn’t change much on his end — Zeke remains tied for the second-highest average annual value in the league among running backs. Knotted with Alvin Kamara, Panthers star Christian McCaffrey is the only RB to rank higher.
The Cowboys are hoping that Elliott can get back to his old form in 2021. The three-time Pro Bowler finished 2020 with just 979 yards and a 4.0 yards per carry average.
Saints To Start Jameis Winston
The Saints will name Jameis Winston as their starting quarterback to open the year (Twitter link via NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport). Winston, hot off of a strong preseason performance, will lead the charge while Taysom Hill resumes his gadget/wild card role. 
Winston looked strong against the Jaguars on Monday, posting 123 yards and two touchdowns while completing nine of his ten throws. While he was interception-prone in Tampa (to put it politely), he was calm, cool, and accurate in the pocket. Hill, meanwhile, went 11-for-20 with 138 yards and a touchdown. Up until this point, Saints head coach Sean Payton kept a pretty tight lid on his plans.
“I’m not going to have weekly or daily updates,” Payton said just last week. “These guys are both working hard.”
Winston now has a prime opportunity to lead the post-Drew Brees Saints offense. He’ll also have a chance to cash in. His modest one-year, $5.5MM deal includes $7MM in incentives, so a strong year could more than double his earnings.
Winston, 27, attempted just eleven passes last year for the Saints. In his last season with the Bucs in 2019, he threw 33 touchdowns while also lobbing an incredible 30 interceptions. This time around, he’s hoping to fix that ratio.
Minor NFL Transactions: 8/26/21
We’ll keep track of today’s minor moves here:
Arizona Cardinals
- Placed on reserve/COVID-19 list: CB Robert Alford
Buffalo Bills
- Released from IR via injury settlement: G Forrest Lamp
Carolina Panthers
- Waived: K Dominik Eberle
Chicago Bears
- Waived: WR Javon Wims
Indianapolis Colts
- Placed on reserve/COVID-19 list: OT Eric Fisher, G Quenton Nelson
Seattle Seahawks
- Signed: TE Ian Bunting
Tennessee Titans
- Signed: DB Nate Brooks, RB Javian Hawkins, LB Cassh Maluia
- Placed on IR: DL Kyle Peko
Washington Football Team
- Re-signed: C Jon Toth
- Waived: TE Temarrick Hemingway
Ravens Trade Shaun Wade To Patriots
The Ravens have agreed to trade cornerback Shaun Wade to the Patriots for a seventh-round pick in 2022 and a fifth-round pick in 2023 (Twitter links via NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport and Jeff Zrebiec of The Athletic). The seventh-rounder is originally a Texans pick, per ESPN.com’s Jamison Hensley (on Twitter). The deal will free up space in the Ravens’ secondary while adding a once highly-touted prospect to the Pats’ unit. 
Wade was in the late first-round/early second-round conversation back in 2020. However, he chose to return to Ohio State for one more year. In hindsight, he probably regrets that decision. Wade had a rough season with the Buckeyes, including a disastrous performance in the national championship game. After DeVonta Smith went off for 12/215/3 at his expense, he tumbled all the way to the fifth-round of the 2021 draft.
It’s a low-risk move for the Patriots, who aren’t giving up much to acquire Wade and his modest contract. As the No. 160 overall pick, Wade is set to make less than $3.5MM over the next four years. This season, he’ll make just $660K in base salary with a $739K cap hit.
Wade will provide depth for the Patriots as they await word on Stephon Gilmore‘s status. He remains on the PUP list while also pushing for a better contract.
Giants Trade K Ryan Santoso To Panthers
The Giants have agreed to trade kicker Ryan Santoso to the Panthers (Twitter links via Tom Rock of Newsday and NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport). In return, the Giants will receive a conditional seventh-round pick — it’ll be conveyed if/when Santoso completes two games on Carolina’s roster.
Santoso was blocked by ex-Panther Graham Gano in New York. Even though he has yet to attempt a field goal or extra point in a regular season game, multiple clubs saw him as an NFL-caliber kicker. That includes the Panthers, who will put him up against Joey Slye.
Santoso signed with the Lions as a UDFA in 2018 and went on to spend time with the Titans and the CFL’s Montreal Alouettes. He appeared in three games for Tennessee in 2019 to serve as a kickoff specialist. He booted 17 kickoffs in that span with nine touchbacks.
Slye, who has operated as the Panthers placekicker for the last two years, missed his third kick of the preseason in last week’s loss to Baltimore. Now, the door is open for Santoso to win the job.
Ravens Shopping Shaun Wade, Jake Verity
The Ravens are discussing trades involving cornerback Shaun Wade and kicker Jake Verity (Twitter link via Jeff Zrebiec of The Athletic). Given the presence of Justin Tucker, Verity was facing long odds of making the team, so it’s not a shock to hear that he could be traded. Wade, on the other hand, is a 2021 fifth-round pick with promise, so it’s surprising to hear that he could be moved. 
The Ravens might not have much of a choice, given their logjam in the secondary. Wade, an Ohio State product, figures to generate a good amount of interest. He enjoyed three productive seasons with the Buckeyes, including a 2020 campaign where he compiled 34 tackles, two interceptions, and four passes defended. That earned him a long list of accolades, including the Tatum–Woodson Defensive Back of the Year award. He was also a consensus All-American and first-team All-Big Ten selection.
Had he turned pro in 2020, Wade might have been a first-round pick. However, his stock plummeted after he struggled in the national championship game. That’s when Alabama wideout DeVonta Smith went off for 12 catches, 215 yards, and three touchdowns in the first half. Combined with an underwhelming pro day, Wade was passed up by every team until the Ravens snagged him at No. 160 overall.
Verity, meanwhile, is in the midst of a solid preseason behind Tucker. There are at least a few teams who would prefer him to their current options, so the Ravens could turn the UDFA into a future draft choice.
This Date In Transactions History: NFL Suspends Marcell Dareus
Five years ago today, Bills defensive tackle Marcell Dareus was handed his second suspension for violating the NFL’s substance abuse policy. The ban ruled Dareus out for the first four games of the season and marked the beginning of the end of his time in Buffalo. 
Dareus reportedly tested positive for marijuana use, which probably wasn’t a deal-breaker in and of itself. It was, however, enough to void a portion of his guarantees. It also didn’t sit well with Bills management, considering that Dareus knew the consequences of a positive test.
Roughly one year prior, the Bills furnished Dareus with a six-year, $95.1MM contract. He showed that he was worth the money in his early years, recording 28.5 sacks from the interior. That included a stellar 2014 with ten sacks – enough to match defensive end Jerry Hughes. In 2015, they asked him to play nose tackle in Rex Ryan‘s 3-4 scheme – he did a decent job of stopping the run, but he garnered just two sacks. They hoped he could build off of that in 2016. Instead, Dareus failed to keep up with his conditioning during the suspension. Between the ban and injuries, he was limited to just eight games that year.
Ryan would go on to lose his job in December of 2016. The Bills tried to send Dareus elsewhere too, but they were unable to find any takers for his contract. Finally, just before the 2017 deadline, they shipped Dareus to the Jaguars for a 2018 Day 3 draft pick. It was an unceremonious end to what could have been a longstanding and productive career in Buffalo.
Even when reunited with old pal Doug Marrone, things just weren’t the same. The Jaguars declined the final year of Dareus’ deal before the start of 2020 and he hasn’t played in the NFL ever since. Dareus is still only 31, but it’s not clear if he’ll ever return to the game.