Bradley McDougald

Minor NFL Transactions: 1/1/22

The first minor moves of 2022:

Arizona Cardinals

Atlanta Falcons

Baltimore Ravens

Buffalo Bills

Carolina Panthers

Cincinnati Bengals

Dallas Cowboys

Denver Broncos

Detroit Lions

Green Bay Packers

Houston Texas

Indianapolis Colts

Jacksonville Jaguars

Kansas City Chiefs

Las Vegas Raiders

Los Angeles Chargers

Los Angeles Rams

Miami Dolphins

Minnesota Vikings

New England Patriots

New Orleans Saints

New York Giants

New York Jets

Philadelphia Eagles

Pittsburgh Steelers

San Francisco 49ers

Seattle Seahawks

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Washington Football Team

NFL Practice Squad Updates: 12/31/21

Today’s taxi squad moves:

Denver Broncos

Indianapolis Colts

Jacksonville Jaguars

New Orleans Saints

  • Signed: C Cohl Cabral

Titans Release S Bradley McDougald

For the second time this month, the Titans are moving Bradley McDougald off their active roster. Tennessee released the veteran safety Tuesday, and it is not certain the team will bring him back this time.

McDougald started for the injured Amani Hooker in Week 2, playing 40 defensive snaps in the Titans’ overtime win over the Seahawks. Following that revenge game of sorts, the ex-Seattle starter is a free agent.

The Titans cut McDougald weeks ago but re-signed him to their practice squad before elevating him back to the active roster before Week 1. McDougald, 30, played 54% of Tennessee’s defensive snaps in Week 1, working as a backup. Despite Hooker residing on IR, McDougald is not presently in the picture with the 1-1 squad.

Included in last year’s Jamal Adams trade, McDougald has been a regular starter since 2015. He served as a primary Seahawks first-stringer from 2017-19 and spent last season as a Jets starter after being dealt to New York. An injury ended McDougald’s 2020 season midway through, however, and he spent months in free agency before the Titans added him.

Minor NFL Transactions: 9/13/21

Today’s minor moves:

Carolina Panthers

Dallas Cowboys

Las Vegas Raiders

New Orleans Saints

Philadelphia Eagles

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Tennessee Titans

Titans Promote K Michael Badgley, S Bradley McDougald; Sam Ficken Lands On IR

Like the Texans, the Titans will need their recently added practice squad kicker to contribute immediately. Tennessee placed Sam Ficken on IR on Saturday and promoted Michael Badgley.

The Titans signed Badgley to their practice squad Friday. The former Chargers specialist will suit up against the Cardinals in Week 1. Ficken will not be eligible to begin his season until Week 4. The Titans added their top kicker to their injury report Friday; a groin injury will sideline Ficken to start the year.

This move complicates the Titans’ kicker situation yet again. After a Ryan Succop injury led to a host of kickers suiting up for the Titans in 2019, leading to a historically bad 8-for-18 collective make rate, the Titans signed Stephen Gostkowski last year. The ex-Patriot made just 69% of his field goal tries. The Titans also added Randy Bullock, who worked out for the team Friday, to their practice squad. The Lions cut Bullock, a longtime Bengals kicker, last month.

Badgley kicked in 34 Chargers games over the past three years but could not beat out a younger competitor, Tristan Vizcaino, in training camp. The Texans promoted recent P-squad addition Joey Slye to their active roster Saturday as well, with Ka’imi Fairbairn also on IR with a groin ailment. Badgley auditioned for the Texans, but they went with Slye.

Additionally, the Titans promoted Bradley McDougald and MyCole Pruitt to their active roster. Tennessee signed McDougald earlier this summer but demoted the veteran safety to its P-squad earlier this week. Pruitt is back with the Titans after the 49ers released him on cutdown day.

Titans Release S Bradley McDougald

Bradley McDougald is back in free agency. Three weeks after signing the veteran safety, the Titans released him Tuesday. However, this essentially amounts to a demotion. The Titans are signing McDougald to their practice squad.

Since McDougald is a vested veteran, he does not have to pass through waivers to join Tennessee’s taxi squad. Salary guarantees may be a factor here. Teams can release vested vets now to avoid full-season guarantees, which take effect in Week 1, making it possible McDougald returns to the Titans’ active roster next week on a team-friendlier agreement.

The Titans signed McDougald to a one-year deal worth $1.1MM. That would have become guaranteed had McDougald been on Tennessee’s active roster in Week 1. The team has Dane Cruikshank and Matthias Farley in place as their backup safeties going into their season opener.

McDougald, 30, spent three seasons as a Seahawks starter before the team included him in 2020’s Jamal Adams trade. The Jets deployed McDougald as a starter during their 2-14 season but saw him go down midway through the year. The Jets let McDougald walk this year. The 49ers represented McDougald’s only non-Titans connection this offseason.

Tennessee also added offensive lineman Corey Levin and defensive back Chris Jones to its practice squad and dropped offensive lineman Derwin Gray from the 16-man unit.

Titans Sign S Bradley McDougald

While most teams were subtracting from their rosters today, the Titans were adding to theirs. The team signed three players today, including linebacker Nick Dzubnar (re-signed) and safeties Bradley McDougald and Clayton Geathers.

McDougald, a former undrafted free agent, started 70 games for the Buccaneers and Seahawks between 2015 and 2019. The veteran has seen time in 105 career games (82 starts), collecting 487 tackles, 10 interceptions, and 43 passes defended. He got into seven games for the Jets in 2020, finishing with 36 tackles, his lowest total since his rookie season. His 2020 campaign was cut short thanks to a shoulder injury.

Geathers had previously spent his entire career with the Colts, seeing time in 56 games. He started 22 games for Indy between 2018 and 2019, collecting 101 tackles and four passes defended. He sat out the 2020 campaign, and he found himself unsigned through most of this offseason.

Dzubnar spent the 2020 season in Tennessee, where he emerged as one of the team’s top special teams players, leading the Titans with 13 special teams tackles. He spent the first six years of his career with the Chargers, where he appeared in 65 games.

49ers Working Out Ha Ha Clinton-Dix, Bradley McDougald, Others

Ha Ha Clinton-Dix‘s visit schedule continued Tuesday. The former Pro Bowl safety made his way to San Francisco for a 49ers visit, joining a few others at the position at this audition.

The 49ers also worked out safeties Bradley McDougald, Andrew Sendejo and Clayton Geathers, according to ESPN.com’s Field Yates (on Twitter). Kyle Shanahan said starter Jaquiski Tartt is not expected to come off the team’s active/PUP list for a while, opening a door for a possible veteran addition.

Clinton-Dix’s 2021 itinerary has included trips to Indianapolis, Charlotte, Houston and Las Vegas. Clinton-Dix, 28, has not played since the 2019 season, when he played out a one-year contract with the Bears. The Cowboys signed the ex-first-round pick in 2020, but he did not make their 53-man roster.

The Seahawks used McDougald as a three-season starter but included him in last year’s Jamal Adams trade. With the Jets, McDougald started seven games before an injury shut him down. This Bay Area trek marks the first news involving the 30-year-old safety this year.

Like Clinton-Dix, Geathers did not play in 2020. The former Colts second-round pick has not been connected to a team in a while, despite being a 34-game starter in Indianapolis. The 29-year-old defender will need to catch on with a team at some point soon in order to stay on the NFL radar. Sendejo played the 2020 season in Cleveland, working as a full-time starter for a Browns team that lost Grant Delpit in training camp. Sendejo is an 11-year veteran who will turn 34 next month.

San Francisco is set to redeploy Tartt and Jimmie Ward as its starting safeties. Tartt, however, is battling a toe injury Shanahan confirmed is not rapidly improving. The veteran starter has been dealing with this toe problem since November of last year, which certainly presents a problem for the 49ers. They signed Tony Jefferson earlier this summer, but he is dealing with an injury as well. It would seem likely at least one of the veterans at Tuesday’s workout will be called upon to stick around.

Jets Notes: Darnold, 2017 Draft, Gase, Maye

Some rare good news for the Jets. NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport reports (via Twitter) that quarterback Sam Darnold‘s precautionary MRI of his right shoulder only showed a “reaggravation.” The 23-year-old will attempt to work through the injury and won’t be sidelined.

Darnold initially suffered the shoulder injury during the Jets’ Week 4 loss to the Broncos, and that forced Joe Flacco into the lineup for Week 5. Darnold returned under center for the past two games, but he’s only completed 56.6-percent of his passes for 253 yards and two interceptions. Prior to the injury, Darnold completed 59.42-percent of his passes for 792 yards, three scores, and four interceptions.

Darnold has missed eight games through his three NFL seasons. If he’s forced to miss more time, the team could either turn to Flacco, third-stringer James Morgan, or practice squad signal-caller Mike White.

Some more notes out of the Big Apple:

  • Prior to the Jets loss to the Chiefs yesterday, ESPN’s Rich Cimini gave the “inside story” of why the organization passed on future MVP and champion Patrick Mahomes during the 2017 draft. There were a variety of reasons that went into the decision: the Jets had already invested in Josh McCown as their bridge quarterback, there was still some optimism that Christian Hackenberg could work out, former GM Mike Maccagnan already had his eye on the 2018 quarterbacks class (including Darnold), and the organization was much more infatuated with their eventual pick, safety Jamal Adams. Still, prior to the draft, Mahomes thought he could end up in New York. “I definitely thought there was interest there,” Mahomes said. “Whenever you go on those visits, you know they’re pretty interested in doing their due diligence. I definitely thought there was interest there.”
  • While we’ve heard a similar sentiment throughout the past few weeks, Ralph Vacchiano of SNY reiterates that the Jets aren’t expected to fire head coach Adam Gase midseason. “They really don’t want to do it,” a source told Vacchiano. “They may have to, at some point. But they know a midseason coaching change doesn’t change their situation. I think they’re going to hold off as long as they can.” Vacchiano provided a variety of reasons why it makes sense for the Jets to hold on to Gase, including the fact that the head coach serves as a “lightning rod” while distracting from general manager Joe Douglas‘ shaky first season with the organization.
  • Safety Marcus Maye‘s rookie contract is set to come to an end, and Cimini believes he could be eyeing a contract that will pay him around $7MM per season. As a result, Cimini reports that rival teams believe the 27-year-old could be had as part of the team’s fire sale. The reporter had a similar sentiment about Bradley McDougald, although the impending free agent safety has since landed on IR.
  • In the same article, Cimini passes along an anecdote from 2018, when the Jets “boxed” out the QB-needy Bills by moving from No. 6 to No. 3 in a deal with the Colts. The move allowed the Jets to select Darnold, who was Buffalo’s top-rated QB. In fact, the Bills were so displeased with the deal, they refused to negotiate with Indy for the remainder of the draft. Buffalo ended up trading up from No. 11 to No. 7, and they proceeded to select Josh Allen.

Minor NFL Transactions: 10/31/20

Here is the league’s avalanche of Halloween minor moves:

Arizona Cardinals

Atlanta Falcons

Baltimore Ravens

Buffalo Bills

Chicago Bears

Cincinnati Bengals

Cleveland Browns

Denver Broncos

Detroit Lions

Green Bay Packers

Jacksonville Jaguars

Las Vegas Raiders

Los Angeles Chargers

Los Angeles Rams

Miami Dolphins

Minnesota Vikings

New England Patriots

New Orleans Saints

New York Jets

Philadelphia Eagles

Pittsburgh Steelers

San Francisco 49ers

Seattle Seahawks

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Tennessee Titans