Today’s minor moves before Championship Sunday:
Cincinnati Bengals
Kansas City Chiefs
Los Angeles Rams
San Francisco 49ers
Today’s taxi squad moves:
Cincinnati Bengals
Kansas City Chiefs
Los Angeles Rams
The Divisional Round has come to end, and after each game was decided on the final play, the season has come to a bitter end for another four teams. That brings the total number of squads locked into their first round draft position to 28. Interestingly, the Rams and 49ers are still standing after they each parted ways with top draft picks this past offseason. San Francisco’s first choice is currently slated to be 61st overall, while the Rams aren’t projected to be on the board until the 101st pick. For Los Angeles in particular, the decision is certainly paying off so far.
For non-playoff teams, the draft order is determined by the inverted 2021 standings, plus a series of tiebreakers, starting with strength of schedule. For playoff teams, the order is determined by their postseason outcome and regular season record.
Here is the updated order after this weekend’s results:
* = Remaining playoff teams
The Giants are interviewing Bengals defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo for their vacant head coaching position today, per Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports (via Twitter). This appears to be the first time Anarumo has ever generated HC interest.
Anarumo, 55, began his coaching career as the RB coach at Wagner College in 1989, and he joined the NFL ranks over 20 years later, becoming the Dolphins’ defensive backs coach in 2012. He was briefly promoted to defensive coordinator partway through the 2015 season and resumed his role as DB coach for the 2016-17 campaigns under Adam Gase.
He served in that same capacity for the Giants in 2018 before being hired as the Bengals’ DC in 2019. When he took the job, Cincinnati was coming off a season in which it finished dead-last in total defense. In his first two years working under head coach Zac Taylor, the Bengals still fielded bottom-10 defenses, and Anarumo’s unit wasn’t much better in 2021 in terms of yards allowed. However, the defense did perform well this year when it mattered most, including last night’s divisional round win over the Titans, which featured three interceptions of Tennessee QB Ryan Tannehill.
Anarumo, a New York native, has ties to the organization that go beyond his one year as DB coach. He and Big Blue’s new GM, Joe Schoen, spent a few years together with the Dolphins, and while Schoen’s connections to other head coach candidates — namely, Bills OC Brian Daboll and DC Leslie Frazier — are more recent and probably more meaningful, the new top exec clearly sees something in Anarumo worth exploring.
Here’s an updated list of the Giants’ HC candidates:
Here are the COVID-19 updates of the last few days from around the league:
Cincinnati Bengals
Tennessee Titans
Today’s taxi squad moves:
Cincinnati Bengals
Kansas City Chiefs
The Bengals have received some very positive news on the injury front. Defensive end Trey Hendrickson has been cleared from concussion protocol, and will play on Saturday against the Titans (Twitter link via ESPN’s Ben Baby). 
Hendrickson, the team’s top pass rusher, suffered the injury during last week’s win over the Raiders – Cincinnati’s first postseason victory in over 30 years. He still made an impact, though, registering a sack and one forced fumble prior to leaving the game.
The 27-year-old was one of the biggest additions the team made in the offseason, signing a four-year, $60MM deal in March after a productive start to his career in New Orleans. So far, he has been worth every penny. In 16 games this year, Hendrickson recorded a team-high 14 sacks, along with 34 total tackles and three forced fumbles. In general, he has played a major role in the team’s defensive turnaround from previous years, which is one of the reasons they seemed poised to be AFC contenders for the foreseeable future.
Hendrickson will not doubt have a lot to do with the Bengals’ fortunes, good or bad, in the Divisional Round when they visit the AFC’s No. 1 seed.
Today’s minor moves:
Cincinnati Bengals
Green Bay Packers
Pittsburgh Steelers
Xavier Su’a-Filo began the season as a Bengals starting guard but spent most of the year on IR. A day after activating him from their injured list, the Bengals cut the veteran offensive lineman.
Though the Bengals could end up bringing Su’a-Filo back, perhaps via a practice squad agreement, the former second-round pick is off the roster after being signed in 2020 to start.
The former Texans second-round pick signed a two-year, $9MM deal with the Bengals. Injuries, however, have plagued the UCLA alum. Su’a-Filo missed the Bengals’ final 15 regular-season games due to a knee injury, one that also kept him out of the team’s wild-card game. In 2020, Su’a-Filo missed 10 games after opening the year as a starter. A career 41-game starter, the 31-year-old lineman has started seven games over the past two seasons in Cincy.
The Bengals have moved to 2020 sixth-round pick Hakeem Adeniji as their guard starter opposite Quinton Spain. Adeniji has started over second-round rookie Jackson Carman, who was given the first crack at replacing Su’a-Filo this season.
Today’s taxi squad moves:
Cincinnati Bengals
Kansas City Chiefs
Los Angeles Rams
San Francisco 49ers
Tampa Bay Buccaneers