Minor NFL Transactions: 10/2/17
Today’s minor moves..
Main Roster
Chicago Bears
- Promoted to active roster: WR Tre McBride
Seattle Seahawks
- Signed off Rams‘ practice squad: DE Quinton Jefferson
Practice Squad
Chicago Bears
- Signed: LB Jason Thompson
East Rumors: Cowboys, Elliott, Jets, Giants
Despite some optimism about a potential court ruling on Monday, the Ezekiel Elliott saga is ongoing. If things are still in limbo by the end of business Tuesday, we still don’t know whether or not the NFL will allow the Cowboys running back to play, as Tom Pelissero of NFL.com tweets. There will be no decision from the league on that matter until the judge makes his decision. The Cowboys are set to face the Packers on Sunday afternoon in Dallas.
Here’s more from the East divisions:
- Jets coach Todd Bowles says he hasn’t made a decision yet on wide receiver Jalin Marshall, who is eligible to return after serving a four-game suspension (Twitter link via ESPN.com’s Rich Cimini). There may not be a place for Marshall on the team at this time, so it is a situation to monitor. Already, the Jets have five receivers on the roster in Jeremy Kerley, Robby Anderson, Jermaine Kearse, ArDarius Stewart, and Chad Hansen with Kerley handling punts and Stewart on kickoff return duty.
- The x-rays came back negative on the ribs of Giants running back Paul Perkins and a source tells Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (Twitter link) that he likely just bruised them. Perkins’ pain tolerance for pain will now dictate whether he misses time.
- Bills head coach Sean McDermott says safety Colt Anderson will need surgery for his forearm (Twitter link via Joe Buscaglia of WKBW). Anderson has yet to see time on defense but is a regular on special teams. The injury will likely land him on IR.
Chargers’ Tuerk Not Yet Reinstated
Several players are slated to return to action this week after starting the year with four-game bans, but that won’t be the case for center Max Tuerk. The Chargers lineman has not yet been reinstated because he has yet to complete his obligations as outlined by the league’s policy on performance enhancing drugs, Howard Balzer of BalzerFootball.com tweets. 
Tuerk was hit with the suspension late in training camp. At the time, he blamed a tainted supplement for the positive test.
“This offseason, I made the mistake of taking over-the-counter supplements,” Tuerk said in a statement. “In doing so, I opened myself up to the possibility of consuming a tainted supplement – something that ultimately led to a positive test for a banned substance. I accept responsibility for my actions and understand the NFL’s policy is very clear on this matter. This is a very hard way to learn a lesson, and I will never make this mistake again.”
Tuerk, a product of nearby USC, missed his entire rookie season due to injury. It’s not clear when he’ll finally make his NFL debut.
The Bolts lost to the Eagles 26-24 on Sunday, bringing them down to 0-4. Next up is a road contest against the winless Giants in which someone’s 0 has to go.
Latest On Raiders QB Derek Carr
Raiders quarterback Derek Carr suffered a transverse process fracture in his back, coach Jack Del Rio told reporters on Monday afternoon. The team will have to see how he responds to treatment before getting an exact timetable for his recovery. Typically, Del Rio explained, this injury calls for a 2-6 week recovery period. 
Carr will almost certainly miss Sunday’s game against the Ravens and he should probably he considered doubtful for the following week against the Chargers as well. While he’s out, E.J. Manuel will be the team’s top signal caller with 24-year-old Connor Cook serving as his backup.
Last season, Carr completed 63.8% of his passes for 3,937 yards, 28 touchdowns, and six interceptions. He graded out as Pro Football Focus’ No. 6 QB last season, putting him ahead of Drew Brees, Kirk Cousins, Matthew Stafford, Dak Prescott, and several other major names. Only Tom Brady, Matt Ryan, Aaron Rodgers, Luck, and Russell Wilson finished with higher scores than Carr.
In June, the Raiders signed Carr a lucrative extension worth roughly $25MM/year.
Latest On Saints’ Kenny Vaccaro
The Saints have asked teams for a seventh-round pick that can convert to a sixth in exchange for safety Kenny Vaccaro, a source tells ESPN.com’s Mike Sando. Another executive opined that New Orleans would probably have to eat a portion of his contract to facilitate a deal. He’s still due the prorated portion of his $5.7MM salary for 2017. 
“This would be maybe a fourth-rounder if he were not on the final year of his deal, and a sixth-rounder because he is in the final year,” one league insider said. “Vaccaro is making too much money with too little production to get traded now. The Saints would have to eat salary.”
Vaccaro pushed for an extension this offseason, but the interest was not reciprocated by the Saints. Two weeks ago, we learned that the Saints have discussed a Vaccaro trade with a “handful of teams.” We now know that the Saints are not asking for much in return.
Vaccaro has technically started in all four games for the Saints, but he has been taken off the field for significant chunks of time, including the team’s Week 2 loss to the Pats. As of this writing, he is Pro Football Focus’ lowest-ranked safety among those with enough snaps to qualify.
The Saints have roughly four weeks until the Halloween trade deadline if they want to move the veteran.
Bills Shopped DT Adolphus Washington
The Bills had Adolphus Washington on the trade block during training camp, ESPN.com’s Mike Sando hears. The asking price was a fifth-round pick, but there were apparently no takers. 
Washington, a third-round choice under the Bills’ old regime in 2016, was acquitted of a weapons charge over the summer. The new management in Buffalo had at least some interest in moving on from the defensive tackle and one has to wonder if they could revisit that idea with the trade deadline coming up. Not everyone is convinced that the Bills would pull the trigger on a deal, however.
“I just think with [defensive tackle] Kyle Williams being so old, it could be hard to trade him,” one NFL executive told Sando. “Plus, they have a good thing going right now.”
However, the 3-1 Bills have shown a willingness to revamp their roster via trade. Nothing can be ruled out when talking about the team that shipped Sammy Watkins to the Rams and Ronald Darby to the Eagles on the very same day in August.
Washington started 11 games for Buffalo last season. This year, he’s appeared in three games – all off of the bench – with four total tackles.
Seahawks Place RB Chris Carson On IR
The Seahawks have officially placed Chris Carson on injured reserve. The move was expected after the running back suffered a broken leg in Sunday’s game. 
Carson was carter off the field in the fourth quarter and had an air cast applied to his left leg, an indication that the injury was serious. In theory, Carson will be eligible to return from IR after eight weeks on the sidelines, but his timetable for recovery is not yet clear. While he’s out, it’s expected that Thomas Rawls will be Seattle’s lead running back with Eddie Lacy, C.J. Prosise, and J.D. McKissic in support.
Carson seized the starting gig two games into his the season, leapfrogging both Rawls and Lacy. Prior to the injury, he was averaging a solid 4.2 yards per carry.
In other Seahawks news, left tackle Rees Odhiambo has been hospitalized with a bruised heart.
Bills Release WR Walt Powell
The Bills announced that they have release wide receiver Walt Powell. Powell was set to come back from suspension after serving a four-game ban to start the year. 
[RELATED: Bills’ Jordan Matthews To Have Thumb Surgery]
The release is not a great endorsement of Powell’s skill set, particularly since Jordan Matthews is dealing with a thumb injury that will keep him sidelined for at least one month. With Powell out of the picture, Buffalo may look to bump either Malachi Dupre or Brandon Reilly from the taxi squad to fill the void.
Powell first entered the league as a sixth round pick of the Cardinals in 2014. Since then, he has bounced around the league quite a bit including stints with the Jets, Raiders, and Bills (twice). Powell was hoping to bounce back in 2017 after last year’s campaign was cut short by a November ankle injury. He’ll have try and make that happen somewhere else, however.
Cardinals To Promote LB Scooby Wright
In the wake of Markus Golden‘s ACL tear, the Cardinals are calling up fellow edge rusher Scooby Wright from the practice squad, a source tells Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (on Twitter). In related moves, the Cardinals have signed guard/tackle Earl Watford, released guard/tackle Vinston Painter, and released wide receiver Aaron Dobson, linebacker Alani Fua, and defensive end Ed Stinson from IR. 
[RELATED: Markus Golden Done For Year]
Wright, 23, missed the Cardinals’ final cut in September but signed on with the practice squad the following day. Since then, he has been cycled through the NFL’s usual process for fringe players (promoted, cut, re-signed to practice squad, repeat). Through four weeks, he has dressed for three games.
Wright has yet to make a major impact at the NFL level, but he is well known in the area for his work at the University of Arizona. In 2014, Wright tallied an eye-popping 163 tackles, 29 tackles for loss, 14 sacks, and six forced fumbles. Unfortunately, he was slowed by injuries in 2015 and his draft stock suffered as a result. The Browns took him with one of the final picks in the draft, but he found his way to the Cardinals late last year.
Vikings RB Dalvin Cook Done For Season
It’s official – Dalvin Cook‘s season is over. Vikings coach Mike Zimmer confirmed to reporters on Monday that Cook will be shut down with a torn ACL. 
The Vikings feared the worst when Cook exited Sunday’s game against the Vikings. The rookie running back went down without contact mid-stride, so a fully torn ACL was the most likely culprit from the get-go.
Although Zimmer called this a fairly standard ACL injury, the fourth-year Vikings coach said there added there could be damage to Cook’s meniscus along with some cartilage damage, Chris Tomasson of the St. Paul Pioneer Press tweets.
Cook was averaging 4.7 yards per carry heading into Week 4 and had 10 catches for 82 yards through the air. The Vikings may not be able to replace his production, but they do have internal options to draw from. Latavius Murray, who was the presumptive starter when he signed a three-year, $15MM free agent deal with the Vikings in March, now figures to be the top tailback. The athletic Jerick McKinnon is also on the roster and Bronson Hill could be bumped up from the practice squad for depth.
At Florida State, Cook was the only player to rush for more than 4,000 yards in three ACC seasons in conference history. His future is still bright, but he’ll first have to traverse a long road to recovery between now and September 2018.