AFC Notes: Steelers, Bryant, Patriots, Belichick, Jaguars, Albert
Steelers wide receiver Martavis Bryant says that he wants to be traded if he doesn’t get targeted more. It sounds like quarterback Ben Roethlisberger has gotten the message.
“Hopefully, it’s lots of touchdown passes,” Roethlisberger said (according to Joe Rutter of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review). “We need to get the ball to him, to everybody, we all need to score points. There are opportunities there. That’s why I told him to come talk to me. We’ve had opportunities with deep balls that were just missed whether it was me overthrowing him or it’s the Chicago game where he slows down a little bit or this last game where he doesn’t see the ball coming out of my hand. There are plays to be had. We just have to make them.”
However, Roethlisberger will have to wait a while before lobbing passes in Bryant’s direction. On Wednesday, the Steelers informed the wide receiver that he will not be active for Sunday’s game against Detroit. After that, the Steelers have their bye week, so Bryant’s next opportunity to play will not come until Sunday Nov. 12 against Indianapolis.
- The trade deadline is right around the corner and Patriots coach Bill Belichick says he’s not afraid to deal. “The thing about us, other teams in the league know that we’re open for business,” Belichick told WEEI. “We’re not afraid to make a trade. If they are interested in trading somebody, we are usually a team that gets called because people think and know we’re open on those discussions. If we’re not interested we will tell them we’re not interested. Again, there’s no book on that. Every situation is different. Every trade is different. Every exchange is different, so you just have to take them as they come and if the two sides can agree, great. Sometimes one side wants something and the other side is just not ready to get to the same point.” Teams have until Oct. 31 to make trades.
- Before he was released by the Jaguars, Branden Albert was asked to play guard since he was not going to win the left tackle job, Adam Caplan of SiriusXM tweets. When he declined, Albert was shown the door. Presumably, his contract demands and flip-flopping on retirement did not help his case.
- On Wednesday, the Chargers shipped wide receiver Dontrelle Inman to the Bears.
Latest On Steelers’ Martavis Bryant
Steelers wide receiver Martavis Bryant was told by team brass that he should expect to be inactive on Sunday (Twitter link via Ian Rapoport of NFL.com). This comes on the heels of word that Bryant was practicing with the scout team on Wednesday (Twitter link via ESPN.com’s Jeremy Fowler). 
When asked why he won’t be playing this weekend, Bryant told reporters (Twitter link) that it all stems from “social media.” Earlier this week, Bryant got into it with a fan on Instagram who asserted that teammate JuJu Smith-Schuster was the superior wide receiver.
“JuJu is no where near better than me, fool,” Bryant wrote. “All they need to do is give me what I want and y’all can have JuJu and whoever else.”
Of course, that social media spat came in the midst of Bryant’s very vocal dissatisfaction with his role in the offense. Bryant’s reps requested a trade earlier this month, but the Steelers say they will not part with him between now and the Halloween deadline.
For now, Bryant has been demoted in practice while Justin Hunter takes his reps.
Seahawks’ Dion Jordan Returns To Practice
The clock has started ticking on Dion Jordan. The Seahawks defensive end is returning to practice this week, the team announced. The team will now have three weeks to activate him to the 53-man roster. If they fail to do that, he will not be eligible to play again in 2017. 
Seattle added some reinforcements to the defensive line this week by signing veteran Dwight Freeney. In three weeks time, the Seahawks may or may not need Jordan’s services. It’s also not a given that he’ll be in football shape. Thanks to personal problems and injuries, Jordan has not played in a game since December 28, 2014.
The former No. 3 overall pick has just three career sacks to his name. The potential is still there for him to do something at the NFL level, but he’ll first have to get himself on the right track. The Seahawks, who took a very mild risk on him with a $615K non-guaranteed contract, are curious to see what he can offer.
Chargers Trade WR Dontrelle Inman To Bears
The Chargers have traded wide receiver Dontrelle Inman to the Bears, sources tell ESPN.com’s Adam Schefter (on Twitter). Los Angeles will receive a conditional seventh-round pick in the deal, based on Inman production this season. 
On Sunday against the Panthers, Mitch Trubisky completed just four passes out of seven attempts. The Bears have multiple issues to address on offense, and that includes a lack of receiving weapons. Enter Inman, a pass-catcher with experience who has not seen a ton of action so far in 2017.
Inman has been with the Bolts for the last four seasons following a post-college stint in the CFL. The 28-year-old had a breakout campaign in 2016, with career-highs in receptions (58), receiving yards (810), and touchdowns (four).
Despite that performance, he slipped in the Chargers’ pecking order this year thanks to the re-emergence of Keenan Allen and a lingering hamstring injury. Hamstring issue aside, there wasn’t a clear path for Inman’s usage to improve now that first-round pick Mike Williams is with the team. The Bolts saw this coming, which is why they first started shopping Inman over the summer.
Top receivers Kevin White and Cameron Meredith have both landed on IR with major injuries. Markus Wheaton, meanwhile, is out through at least Week 9 with a strained groin. Given the lack of options in Chicago, Inman could slot in as the Bears’ WR2 behind Kendall Wright and ahead of Josh Bellamy, Tre McBride, and Tanner Gentry.
Inman has extra incentive to produce as he approaches unrestricted free agency. In the interim, he’s playing on the one-year, $2.746MM deal he received as a restricted free agent tendered at the second-round level.
The trade deadline is on Oct. 31. We’ve been seeing more trades than ever in the NFL, so this could be an eventful week.
Saints Promote OL Cameron Tom
The Saints are promoting offensive lineman Cameron Tom to the 53-man roster, according to Nick Underhill of The Advocate (Twitter links). The move comes just days after the Saints gave Tom a practice squad pay bump equivalent to the NFL’s minimum salary. 
As it turns out, the Redskins were looking to sign Tom to their main roster. Unwilling to lose Tom, the Saints boosted his pay before moving to him to the 53-man roster today. The Saints had a spot open after parting ways with cornerback Sterling Moore on Wednesday morning.
Tom, 22, joined the Saints as a UDFA out of Southern Mississippi this offseason. The Saints will have to keep him on the 53-man roster if they want to keep him around – sneaking him through waivers to the practice squad no longer seems like an option.
Tom, who can play at guard as well as center, may help to fill in for guard Larry Warford. Warford is expected to miss several weeks with an abdominal injury.
Patriots To Place Harvey Langi On NFI List
The Patriots are placing Harvey Langi on the non-football injury list, according to Mark Daniels of The Providence Journal (on Twitter). The rookie linebacker was involved in a car accident earlier this month. 
Langi and his wife were said to have suffered “serious” injuries in the crash. The good news is that the injuries were not life-threatening. The bad news is that the injuries were bad enough to rule Langi out for the remainder of the 2017 season.
The BYU product went undrafted, but he was a hot commodity after the draft. The Patriots gave him an uncommonly high $100K base salary guarantee, in addition to a $15K signing bonus. The Pats think highly of him, so he should factor into their plans for 2018 if he returns to full health.
As a senior in college, Langi had 57 tackles, 2.0 sacks, and 5.0 sacks in 13 games. However, Langi’s junior season was arguably his best as he tallied 66 total tackles, 4.5 sacks, and 6.5 tackles for a loss in ten games. He appeared in just one game for the Patriots this year.
Lions Promote WR Jace Billingsley
The Lions have promoted wide receiver Jace Billingsley to the 53-man roster. To take his place on the practice squad, the team has added quarterback Brad Kaaya. 
Billingsley, 24, first joined the Lions as an undrafted free agent in 2016. A product of NAIA school Eastern Oregon, Billingsley spent the bulk of 2016 on the Lions’ practice squad and earned a promotion to the 53-man team later in the year. He did not dress for a game, however.
Kaaya, a sixth-round pick, was in the same Lions rookie class as Billingsley. In September, the Lions opted against keeping Kaaya around as a third-string project. They forged ahead with Matthew Stafford and Jake Rudock as their only QBs on the varsity squad and missed their chance to stash Kaaya on the p-squad when the Panthers claimed him. On Oct. 18, they claimed him off of waivers from the Panthers, but released him on Monday in order to make room for the return of Khyri Thornton.
It appears that Kaaya’s stock has cooled since the spring of 2016 when evaluators were drooling over his football IQ. His reps likely could not find a 53-man roster spot for him elsewhere, leading him to the Lions’ taxi squad.
Saints Cut CB Sterling Moore
The Saints are releasing cornerback Sterling Moore, a source tells Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (on Twitter). Moore, who has the ability to play other positions in the secondary, could quickly find work. 
Moore re-signed with New Orleans this spring on a one-year, $900K pact. He was the Saints’ best cornerback in 2016, though that’s not saying much. Pro Football Focus placed Moore as the No. 65 CB league-wide last year. He finished out with 56 total tackles and two interceptions over 13 games (12 starts).
This year, Moore has been slowed by a pectoral injury. He was not ruled out for this weekend’s game against the Bears, however, so that’s a sign that he’s at least in the realm of healthy.
As a vested veteran, Moore will not be subject to waivers. He is immediately free to sign with any team of his choosing.
Bucs Place Noah Spence On IR
Noah Spence‘s sophomore season appears to be over after six games. The defensive end is going on injured reserve with a shoulder injury, the team announced. To take his spot, the Bucs have officially signed Darryl Tapp. 
[RELATED: Buccaneers To Sign DE Darryl Tapp]
Spence has suffered a number of shoulder dislocations during his young NFL career. He had surgery on his torn labrum in the offseason and the latest aggravation to that injury will require him to go under the knife once again. Technically, Spence can return after two months on injured reserve, but that would leave only two games in the regular season. Labrum surgery can also take a while to recover from, so it sounds like we won’t see Spence on the field again until 2018.
Spence, 23, has nine tackles and one strip sack to his credit over six games (three starts). In his full season last year, he had 5.5 sacks, 22 tackles, and three forced fumbles. The advanced metrics at Pro Football Focus have him in the bottom 25 among qualified edge defenders, but the Bucs were using him a decent amount. Spence totaled 246 snaps in the team’s six games this year.
Myles Garrett Enters Concussion Protocol
The Browns announced that they have placed defensive end Myles Garrett in concussion protocol. This means he will not be on the field this Sunday when the Browns face the Vikings in England. And, if his issues linger, he could be looking at a multi-game absence. 
The Browns came up short against the Titans in an overtime loss last Sunday, bringing them down to 0-7. As they continue to seek their first win, they’ll have to do it without the services of their No. 1 overall pick. Getting that W against the Vikings won’t be easy – they’re 5-2 and riding a three-game winning streak.
Meanwhile, the Browns are making yet another quarterback change. On Wednesday morning, the team announced that DeShone Kizer will be under center in Week 8. Kizer started the year as the No. 1 QB, but ceded the job to Kevin Hogan during Week 5’s game against the Jets. He regained the job in Week 7, but he was given the hook in favor of Cody Kessler. This time, the Browns are hoping for better results.
Garrett missed the first few weeks of the season with a high ankle sprain. He has made up for lost time, however, compiling four sacks in his first three games. Garrett’s 109 snaps aren’t quite enough to qualify for ranking, but his 82.5 overall score on Pro Football Focus pegs him as a top-25 edge defender.