NFL Practice Squad Updates: 11/28/16
Here are today’s practice squad moves.
Chicago Bears
- Signed: TE Justin Perillo (Twitter link via Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune)
Houston Texans
- Signed: DL Brandon Dunn
Pittsburgh Steelers
- Signed: RB Dreamius Smith
San Francisco 49ers
- Signed: RB Raheem Mostert
- Cut: RB Kelvin Taylor
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Browns Place John Greco On Injured Reserve
John Greco‘s season is over. The Browns announced that they are putting the offensive lineman on injured reserve with a foot injury. 
Greco injured his foot during the third quarter of Sunday’s loss to the Giants. The 31-year-old was spotted leaving the game with crutches and a protective boot, so today’s news doesn’t come as a huge surprise. Without Greco, the Browns are down yet another key offensive lineman. Cleveland is already without guard Joel Bitonio and center Austin Reiter and interior lineman Cameron Erving also missed significant time this year. Now at 0-12, the Browns’ bid to avoid a winless season just got even harder.
In a trying year, Greco has been a bright spot for the Browns. The right guard ranks as Pro Football Focus’ 19th ranked guard with roughly even grades for his run blocking and pass blocking. His overall grade puts him ahead of guys like Allen Barbre, Jack Mewhort, and Alex Boone.
The Browns are on their bye this week. Next up for Cleveland is a Dec. 11 date against the Bengals.
Jets Keep Ryan Fitzpatrick As Starting QB
Jets fans hoping for a quarterback change will have to keep on hoping. Today, coach Todd Bowles told reporters that Ryan Fitzpatrick will continue to start under center. When asked about the possibility of starting Bryce Petty or Christian Hackenberg, Bowles declined to give that any sort of timetable. 
“There’ll be a time and place for those guys to play. It just won’t be next week,” Bowles said (Twitter link via Ralph Vacchiano of SNY).
On Sunday, the Jets suffered a heartbreaking loss to the Patriots. Many things went wrong for the Jets late in that contest, but Fitzpatrick turned in a solid effort overall. Gang Green is obviously out of the playoff hunt, but the Jets are apparently still focused on being competitive this season. Many have called for the Jets to turn things over to Petty, but veterans are said to be adamant about Fitzpatrick remaining in the starting role. Bowles, according to one report, was worried that the team would quit on him if he installed the 26-year-old as the starter. Fitzpatrick has not looked as sharp as he did last year, but he is still said to be a much better option than Petty. Reportedly, Petty’s lack of polish makes Fitzpatrick look like the second coming of Johnny Unitas in practice.
The Jets could theoretically keep Fitzpatrick around next year, but it’s much more likely that they’ll instead cut him loose and absorb a $5MM cap charge. It’s understandable that the Jets do not want to quit on the 2016 season, but they’re potentially hurting themselves in 2017 and beyond by not evaluating their younger options.
Bears LB Danny Trevathan Done For Season
The Bears worst fears have been confirmed. Coach John Fox tells reporters that linebacker Danny Trevathan is done for the year with a knee injury. Specifically, it’s a ruptured patella tendon that will end Trevathan’s season early, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (on Twitter). The Bears will place Trevathan on IR, opening up a spot on the 53-man roster. 
This has been a trying season for the Bears, to say the least. After a rocky start to the year, quarterback Jay Cutler found himself on the sidelines for several weeks with a sprained thumb. Then, running back Jeremy Langford was put out of commission for multiple games thanks to an ankle injury. Then, as the losses continued to pile up, the Bears found out that wide receiver Alshon Jeffery and linebacker Jerrell Freeman were both slapped with four-game bans for PEDs. Now, Trevathan becomes the 15th member of the team to go on IR as the 2-9 Bears continue to struggle.
Trevathan, 26, was productive during his first season in Chicago. As of this writing, he is second on the team in tackles (61) and he also has a sack and four passes defended. Even more impressive, he did this while missing two of eleven possible games thanks to his September thumb surgery. The Bears still have the former Bronco under contract for another three years beyond 2016.
Lions Sign Logan Thomas To Practice Squad
Big changes today for former Virginia Tech quarterback Logan Thomas:
- He is now a member of the Lions’ practice squad.
- He is no longer a quarterback.
In their signing announcement, the Lions said that they are converting Thomas to tight end. The move comes as a bit of a surprise considering that Thomas is in his third professional season and has been exclusively marketing himself as a QB. With just two games and nine attempted passes on his resume, Thomas is apparently looking to shake things up.
Since being taken in the fourth round of the 2014 draft by the Cardinals, Thomas has bounced around the league a bit. Arizona cut him in September 2015, leading him to stints with the Dolphins and Giants. At 6’6″ and 248 pounds, Thomas may have more success as a pass-catcher.
The Lions had a vacancy on the ten-man practice squad, so they will not have to release anyone to accommodate Thomas. Here is the rundown of their p-squad, courtesy of Roster Resource:
- WR Jace Billingsley
- WR Corey Fuller
- WR T.J. Jones
- WR Jay Lee
- TE Logan Thomas
- G Brandon Thomas
- G/T Matt Rotheram
- ILB Brandon Chubb
- OLB Steve Longa
- CB Alex Carter
Titans Release Perrish Cox
The Titans announced that they have released cornerback Perrish Cox. Fellow corner Kalan Reed has been promoted from the practice squad to take his place. 
Cox joined the Titans on a three-year, $15MM deal prior to the 2015 season. It’s safe to say that he hasn’t lived up to expectations in the last season-and-a-half. This year, Cox’s coverage has slipped to the point where the Titans would rather get rid of him altogether than to relegate him to a smaller role.
Despite his struggles as of late, Cox does have three interceptions on the year and he’s not that far removed from a solid 2014 campaign. In that contract year with San Francisco, Cox intercepted five passes. Before signing with the Titans in March 2015, Cox visited the Redskins, Browns, and Ravens. It’s possible that those teams will be among the clubs looking at the 29-year-old in free agency.
Reed, who spent part of his childhood in Nashville, was Mr. Irrelevant in the 2016 draft. Today, he has broken out of irrelevancy with a bump up to the Titans’ varsity squad.
Colts QB Andrew Luck On Track To Return
Andrew Luck was forced to sit out Thursday night with a concussion, but it looks like he’ll be in uniform for the Colts on Monday. The quarterback was on the practice field today as Indianapolis prepares for Monday’s game against the Jets, as Stephen Holder of the Indianapolis Star tweets. It’s not immediately clear if Luck has completed the league’s concussion protocol yet, but he can’t be far off. 
Without Luck, the Colts were forced to turn to Scott Tolzien under center. Predictably, the offense wasn’t quite the same and the Colts succumbed to the Steelers who were powered by Antonio Brown‘s three touchdown performance.
If Luck is given the green light for this week, the Colts will likely bump Tolzien back to No. 2 and cut Stephen Morris. Throughout the year, the Colts have been using two QBs on the 53-man roster, so Morris figures to be on the chopping block. If Morris clears waivers, he could be re-signed to the practice squad, where he has spent most of the season.
Now at 5-6, the Colts are still in the divisional conversation as they sit behind the Titans (6-6) and the Texans (6-5). So far this year, Luck has completed 62.9% of his passes for 2,827 yards with 19 scores against eight interceptions.
Jets Notes: Bowles, Petty, Revis
Should Todd Bowles be fired after this season? Some fans are dissatisfied with the second-year coach, but Jets players believe that he should stay. “No, no coaching change,” cornerback Buster Skrine said (via Kimberley A. Martin of Newsday).
“Todd Bowles is a great coach . . . We need to finish. Coach can’t go out there and play the game. Obviously, he’s coaching us well enough to get us in situations to win. We just have to make plays at the end of the game.”
After a promising start on Sunday, the Jets collapsed against New England. Gang Green is now 3-8 with no hopes of making the playoffs and, understandably, there is speculation about Bowles’ job security. So far, owner Woody Johnson and GM Mike Maccagnan have stood by Bowles.
Here’s more out of the Meadowlands:
- At 3-8, it’s time for Jets to see what they have in Bryce Petty, Bob Glauber of Newsday opines. Yesterday, Bowles declined to discuss what he’ll do at quarterback. Glauber feels that even though Petty has not really wowed in his time on the field or in practice, the Jets have to evaluate the younger quarterback and figure out what he can provide going forward. Fitzpatrick looked good against the Pats, but he won’t be part of the team’s future plans. Petty is still only 25 and still has a chance to be the team’s QB of the future.
- Does Darrelle Revis want to be a part of the future in New York? “It’s [management’s] decision,” Revis said, dodging the question from a reporter (via Connor Hughes of NJ.com). “Everyone has their individual decision. That being said, every year there are different roster changes. You have to see. We’ll see how it goes.” Revis is set to have a cap hit of $15.333MM in 2017. If he doesn’t accept a pay cut, he’ll almost certainly be released. By cutting Revis before the second day of the new league year, they Jets will free $9MM, or more than that if he signs elsewhere. If Revis wants to stay with the Jets, that could require a move to safety after he has gotten picked apart all season long.
- Running back Matt Forte nearly wound up with the Patriots instead of the Jets.
NFL Progressing Towards D-League
NFL Europe closed up shop in 2007, leaving the NFL without an official developmental league. Nearly a decade later, we could be on the cusp of a new D-League being established. Troy Vincent, the NFL’s head of football operations, will make recommendations for a developmental league or in-season academy in early 2017, Jason La Canfora of CBSSports.com writes. Things are moving quickly and that could mean that we’ll see some action on the topic as soon as the spring meeting in May.
Step one for Vincent & Co. will be to meet with the Competition Committee, coaches and NFLPA after the season. The new league could be a great way for the league to cultivate young talent, new coaches, and even referees, but it’s not a given that the players’ union will be on board. The NFLPA has been “lukewarm, at best” to the notion of a spring league, La Canfora hears, and nothing will be launched without their approval. Sources tell La Canfora that Vincent will be pitching both in-season and out-of-season proposals, which could be helpful for getting all of the necessary parties on board.
“It is a concept that could check all of those boxes we often talk about — diversity, officiating, developing coaches, player development, experimenting with rules and technology,” Cowboys owner Stephen Jones said at the last spring meeting. “It’s something we have to start to seriously look at within the Competition Committee and then discuss with the NFLPA. We’ve reached a point where we really should be looking more at a developmental league, and I really expect that to begin here in the next year or so. We lost a lot of money on the NFL Europe, but there were a lot of things the league did well and for all of those reasons — coaches, officiating, players, quarterbacks in particular — it’s something we really do need to be looking at and studying. The time might be right to do it.”
Already, the project has support from several key league executives, some of whom have helped formulate plans for the league. Seahawks GM John Schneider and Colts GM Ryan Grigson have weighed in, along with former Giants coach Tom Coughlin. The league also has the support of Hall of Fame coach John Madden.
The NFL is younger than ever and it seems like an official developmental league would benefit everyone. However, it remains to be seen whether the NFLPA agrees.
NFC West Notes: Kaepernick, Bennett, Fisher
With 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick likely to opt out of his contract at season’s end, Jason Fitzgerald of OverTheCap.com will be surprised if he doesn’t get a “$7M chance to start somewhere” next year (Twitter link). The 29-year-old has been solid this season, throwing for 1,144 yards, seven touchdowns, and only two interceptions. He’s also collected 260 yards on the ground. Kaepernick accounted for 409 total yards (296 passing, 113 rushing) and three scores in the 49ers’ 31-24 loss to the Dolphins on Sunday.
More from the NFC West, whose four teams all lost Sunday:
- Seahawks defensive end Michael Bennett has lost more than $312K of his $1MM roster bonus as a result of missing five games, tweets CBS Sports’ Joel Corry. The veteran was inactive again today’s for the Seahawks’ game against his former team, Tampa Bay, and hasn’t played since Week 7. Bennett’s likely to return next week, head coach Pete Carroll said Sunday (Twitter link via Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times).
- The Rams are still declining to give an update on head coach Jeff Fisher‘s contractual status, Mike Florio of PFT writes. There has been buzz that the Rams have a deal in place with Fisher, but they are waiting until an opportune time to make it all official. Of course, after Sunday’s 49-21 loss to New Orleans, this isn’t exactly an opportune time. On the flip side, the Rams are seeing some flashes out of No. 1 overall pick Jared Goff, and that could help the overall reception to a new Fisher deal. During Fisher’s four-plus years at the helm, the Rams have gone just 31-43-1, and they haven’t won more than seven games in any individual season. It appears that trend will continue this year.
- Fisher made third-year offensive tackle Greg Robinson a healthy scratch for Sunday’s game. Robinson was the second overall pick in the 2014 draft and has started in 38 of 42 appearances, including 26 straight prior to Sunday, but he has nonetheless disappointed and could be on his way out of Los Angeles.