Seahawks Waive OL Isaiah Battle
The Seahawks have waived offensive lineman Isaiah Battle, according to Bob Condotta of The Seattle Times (on Twitter). The move will make room on the 53-man roster for newly acquired tackle Duane Brown. 
The Seahawks acquired Battle in an early September trade with the Seahawks. Although Seattle reserved a 53-man roster spot for him at the time, he did not see live action in his seven weeks with the team.
Battle, a 6’7″ lineman out of Clemson, first entered the league as a fifth-round pick of the Rams in the 2015 supplemental draft. Coming out of college, Battle drew comparisons to Alabama product D.J. Fluker, a first-round pick in the 2013 draft. At the same time, teams were worried about his off-the-field issues.
He’ll try to put it all together for another NFL team. Because he is not a vested veteran, he will be subject to the waiver wire. If he is not claimed by one of the league’s 31 other teams in the next 24 hours, he will be a free agent. If that happens, he could be a candidate for the Seahawks’ practice squad.
Panthers Only Discussed Benjamin With Bills
The Bills and Panthers stunned everyone with a buzzer-beating deal to send Kelvin Benjamin up north. Here’s another surprise: the Panthers did not discuss a potential Benjamin deal with anyone besides Buffalo, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (Twitter link). 
One would imagine that multiple teams had interest in acquiring a young WR1 like Benjamin. Then again, the Panthers weren’t exactly shopping him hard in the days leading up to the deadline. Before Tuesday at 4pm/3pm CT, Benjamin’s name did not surface in any trade rumors.
The Panthers only negotiated with one team, but they came away with a pretty solid deal. They’ve now added third and seventh round picks to their stockpile for the 2018 draft, and that’s more than they would have received in compensation had they allowed Benjamin to walk as a free agent following the ’18 season. The previous regime led by Dave Gettleman was intent on extending Benjamin and keeping him for the long-term, but Marty Hurney‘s front office did not see a future for the former FSU star in Carolina.
Packers Tried To Sign Brian Hoyer
Brian Hoyer is back with the Patriots. But, before he put pen to paper with New England, the Packers made a run at him, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (on Twitter). 
Hoyer ultimately chose to sign a three-year deal with the Pats and his familiarity with their system presumably helped. Hoyer was with the Patriots from 2009-2011, so it won’t take long for him to get acquainted with their 2017 playbook.
Had he signed with the Packers, Hoyer presumably would have had an easier path to the field. It’s not clear if Hoyer would have displaced 24-year-old Brett Hundley as the starter, but it’s not hard to see a scenario in which Hundley would falter and give way to the veteran.
For now, Hundley will continue as the Packers’ sub for Aaron Rodgers in the wake of his broken collarbone. Joe Callahan, also 24, is the backup. In Hundley’s first start, the Packers lost 26-17 to the Saints.
Lions’ Taylor Decker Returns To Practice
Lions left tackle Taylor Decker will begin practicing on Wednesday, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (Twitter link) hears. It’s a big step forward for Decker, who began the season the PUP list. 
When Decker takes the practice field, it will trigger a three-week window for the Lions to activate him. If, for some reason, he is not activated within those 21 days, the Lions will be unable to use him for the remainder of the year.
Decker was said to have a four-to-six month timeline when he suffered his shoulder injury in June and he has progressed well in his recovery. The Lions are eager to get the 23-year-old back on the field, particularly given the way fill-in Greg Robinson has performed. Robinson currently ranks as the fourth-worst qualified tackle in the NFL, per Pro Football Focus. To make matters worse, both Robinson and reserve Emmett Cleary missed Sunday’s game with ankle injuries and their status is uncertain for Monday night against Green Bay.
As a rookie, Decker was rated as the 23rd-highest tackle out of 78 qualified players, per PFF.
Bills GM: We Will Not Release Anquan Boldin
Leading up to the deadline, Anquan Boldin expressed interest in returning to football for a team other than the Bills. Buffalo allowed him to seek a trade, but nothing came to fruition before Tuesday’s 4pm ET/3pm CT deadline. Now that the deadline has come and gone, GM Brandon Beane reiterated that the team will not grant him his release. 
“We made a commitment to Anquan, and he made a commitment to us back in [training] camp,” Beane told SiriusXM (transcript via ESPN.com’s Mike Rodak). “He left for the reasons he mentioned back in August. We invested in him — invested time and committed to him — and we wouldn’t want to just put him out on the market to see him go sign with the Patriots or the Dolphins or anybody that can get in our way or work against us.”
The Bills have surprised everyone by getting off to a 5-2 start and one would think that Boldin would be eager to play for a playoff contender. However, it sounds like Boldin is hoping to play closer to his family in Florida. Meanwhile, Beane is not expecting the 37-year-old to have a change of heart about suiting up for Buffalo.
Last year, Boldin had perfect attendance for the Lions in the regular season and hauled in 67 catches for 584 yards and eight touchdowns. He still has some football left in the tank, but it doesn’t sound like he’ll show his stuff in 2017.
Brock Osweiler To Start For Broncos
As expected, the Broncos are making a change under center. Brock Osweiler will take over for Trevor Siemian as the team’s new starting quarterback. 
“It’s my job to do what’s best for the football team,” Joseph said Tuesday. “… If you try to go the same way and it doesn’t get better, that’s on me. Again, we have players and coaches putting a lot of time and effort in to get ready for these football games and guys are playing hard. I think it’s fair to examine [the quarterback] position and all positions.”
This, of course, marks Osweiler’s second stint as the Broncos’ starting quarterback. In 2015, he was the No. 1 QB in place of the injured Peyton Manning. In that stretch, he threw for 1,589 yards, eight touchdowns, and three interceptions over six games. Manning took the reins later in the year and was the signal caller for the team’s Super Bowl 50 win, but Osweiler was able to parlay his success into a fat free agent contract with the Texans.
Things didn’t go as planned in Houston (and he never took a real snap in Cleveland), but things have worked out just fine for Osweiler. He has his old job back and, this time around, he has way more money in the bank account.
Mired in a three-game losing streak, Osweiler will look to get the Broncos back to .500 with a win over the red-hot Eagles on Sunday. If he looks sharp the rest of the way, Osweiler might be able to position himself as the team’s QB solution in 2018.
A.J. McCarron Fighting For Unrestricted Free Agent Status
Bengals quarterback A.J. McCarron found himself in the news this week when an oversight from the Browns prevented him from getting traded to Cleveland. But, he may have an opportunity to leave Cincinnati and join up with any team he chooses this spring. The NFLPA is fighting to change his status from restricted free agent to unrestricted free agent after the season, according to Dan Graziano of ESPN.com (Twitter link). 
[RELATED: Browns Botched A.J. McCarron Trade With Bengals]
Because he spent most of his rookie year on the non-football injury list, the Bengals say that he is an RFA. However, the union says that due to the nature and timing of the injury, he should not have been on the NFI list and should have four accrued seasons at the end of 2017 instead of only three.
If McCarron earns UFA status, he’ll be in for a much larger payday. The Bengals are already committed to Andy Dalton under center and it would be nearly impossible for them to commit top-20 QB money to McCarron, so he would almost certainly wind up somewhere else. Potentially, this could be Cleveland’s second chance to land the Alabama product, though McCarron might have some reservations about the Browns organization after Tuesday’s debacle.
Patriots To Sign QB Brian Hoyer
The Patriots have found their replacement for Jimmy Garoppolo in Brian Hoyer. The Pats met with Hoyer on Wednesday morning and inked him to a three-year deal, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN.com (on Twitter). 
Hoyer was not included in the Garoppolo trade, presumably because New England did not want to take on his two-year, $12MM deal. Hoyer is entitled to termination pay, so he’ll continue to collect on a good chunk of that deal while earning the minimum – or something close to it – in New England. Meanwhile, he goes from the 0-8 Niners to the defending champs.
Hoyer, 32, started six games for the Niners before getting benched in favor of C.J. Beathard. He threw four touchdowns against four interceptions and ranked near the bottom of just about every statistical category for quarterbacks.
He’s not a star, but the Patriots feel that he can be a capable backup in the event that Tom Brady suffers an injury. He also has familiarity with the team thanks to his time with the Pats from 2009-2011. Of course, they’ll also be keeping their fingers crossed extra tight for Brady’s health since they converted a much better safety net into a second-round pick.
Cardinals’ David Johnson Done For Year?
At one point in time, the Cardinals hoped to have David Johnson back on the field by Thanksgiving or Christmas. Now, it sounds like he’ll miss the whole holiday season. Coach Bruce Arians “doubts” that Johnson will return this year (Twitter link via Kent Somers of the Arizona Republic).
[RELATED: David Johnson Says He Has Yet To Start Rehab]
Johnson recently admitted that he was unsure of his recovery timetable, so Arians’ comments do not come as a total shock. The Cardinals do not want to rush one of the game’s most talented ball carriers back on the field, and it’s certainly not worth the gamble given the way the season has gone.
The Cardinals are currently 3-4 and without starting quarterback Carson Palmer, so their playoff chances are looking pretty remote. Football Outsiders gives Arizona just a 0.7% chance of reaching the postseason with Johnson on the shelf and Drew Stanton filling in for Palmer.
Johnson, 25, was arguably the league’s best offensive player in 2016 as he posted more than 2,100 yards from scrimmage and scored 20 total touchdowns. With Johnson sidelined, the Cardinals first turned to a committee of Kerwynn Williams, Andre Ellington, and Chris Johnson, but have since acquired veteran running back Adrian Peterson from the Saints.
Browns Botched A.J. McCarron Trade
The Browns almost landed quarterback A.J. McCarron from the Bengals before the trade deadline, ESPN.com’s Adam Schefter (on Twitter) reports. However, the two sides could not reach agreement before 4pm ET/3pm CT on Tuesday. 
The two sides actually agreed to a McCarron trade at 3:55 pm ET/2:55pm CT, a source involved tells Schefter (on Twitter). The Bengals approved the trade with the league office in time, but the Browns did not. After the fact, the Browns argued to the NFL that the trade should be allowed, a source tells Schefter (Twitter links). The league refused, even though the Browns’ notification of the deal arrived just moments too late.
The proposed deal had the Browns sending a second-round pick and a third-round pick to the Bengals for McCarron, according to Jim Owczarski of the Cincinnati Enquirer.
The near-trade could be a sneak peak into the Browns’ offseason plans. McCarron is headed for restricted free agency in the spring, so Cleveland could theoretically make another run at him. Then again, given the way that the Bengals have valued McCarron in trade talks over the last couple of years, he could still be extremely costly.
In April, the Bengals told teams that they wanted a first-round pick for McCarron. The belief was that the Bengals were not all that interested in trading the backup QB and were simply naming an out-of-range price rather than rejecting offers outright. One unknown club did offer up a second-round choice for him. In a poll, many PFR readers speculated that it was the Browns who made that pitch. We know now that Browns coach Hue Jackson pushed hard for a reunion with McCarron.
McCarron has limited NFL experience after years of playing behind Andy Dalton, but he showed potential down the stretch in 2015 when Dalton was injured. The Browns saw him as someone who could be an upgrade over their murky QB situation, but they did not offer enough to get a deal done at the deadline. Their stockpile of picks remain untouched, but they missed out on an opportunity to spark the offense in the second half. The Browns have also made it clear to second-round pick DeShone Kizer that he is not viewed as the answer under center.