NFL Practice Squad Updates: 12/15/20

We’ll keep track of today’s practice squad moves here:

Carolina Panthers

Denver Broncos

Green Bay Packers

Indianapolis Colts

Los Angeles Rams

Minnesota Vikings

San Francisco 49ers

Seattle Seahawks

Tennessee Titans

Minor NFL Transactions: 12/14/20

We’ll keep track of the latest minor moves here:

Baltimore Ravens

Buffalo Bills

Cleveland Browns

Denver Broncos

Indianapolis Colts

Jacksonville Jaguars

Las Vegas Raiders

New York Giants

Philadelphia Eagles

Broncos’ Duke Dawson Done For Year

Broncos cornerback Duke Dawson has been diagnosed with a torn ACL (Twitter link via NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport). The Broncos will make it all official later today by placing the former Patriots second round pick on injured reserve.

[RELATED: Former Broncos DB Darian Stewart Retires]

Dawson was in the mix to become New England’s slot cornerback in 2018, but he was sidetracked by a hamstring injury that wiped out his would-be rookie year. Just prior to the 2019 opener, the Pats traded him to the Broncos in a swap of Day 3 picks.

Dawson made his first career start on Sunday, but it was short-lived. It’s unfortunate timing for Dawson, who was in line for opportunities after A.J. Bouye‘s suspension for performance-enhancing drugs. The Broncos will now be without Dawson the rest of the way, and without Bouye for the remainder of the season (plus the first two games of 2021).

The Broncos — sans Dawson — will wrap their year against the Bills, Chargers, and Raiders.

Minor NFL Transactions: 12/12/20

Here is Saturday’s usual barrage of minor moves:

Buffalo Bills

Carolina Panthers

Cincinnati Bengals

Dallas Cowboys

Denver Broncos

Detroit Lions

Green Bay Packers

Houston Texans

Indianapolis Colts

Jacksonville Jaguars

Kansas City Chiefs

Las Vegas Raiders

Los Angeles Chargers

Los Angeles Rams

  • Placed on reserve/COVID-19 list: LB Jachai Polite; Polite tested positive for the coronavirus, according to ESPN.com’s Field Yates (via Twitter)

Minnesota Vikings

New Orleans Saints

New York Giants

New York Jets

Philadelphia Eagles

San Francisco 49ers

Seattle Seahawks

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Tennessee Titans

Washington Football Team

Minor NFL Transactions: 12/11/20

Here are Friday’s minor moves:

Carolina Panthers

Dallas Cowboys

Denver Broncos

New York Giants

New York Jets

Pittsburgh Steelers

Tennessee Titans

Coaching Notes: Jets, Lewis, Bears, Daboll

The Adam GaseGregg Williams arranged marriage dissolved at the 11th hour, after the defensive coordinator’s bizarre final-seconds play call ended up keeping the Jets winless. To some degree, Gase had soured on the polarizing DC earlier this season. The second-year Gang Green head coach “fumed” after Williams’ indirect shot at the Jets’ offense, Rich Cimini of ESPN.com notes, adding that the soon-to-be-fired HC was upset Williams voiced frustration in that manner. In a split setup in which Gase ran the offense and Williams oversaw the defense, Cimini adds Gase would learn of Williams’ defensive lineup changes on Fridays before games on certain occasions. This regime’s issues may cause the Jets to re-evaluate how they pair coaches next year.

Here is the latest from the coaching circuit:

  • Josh Allen‘s rise could well push Bills OC Brian Daboll to a coaching job in 2021. The expectation around the league is that the third-year Bills coordinator will land an HC gig, Jeremy Fowler and Dan Graziano of ESPN.com note. Several jobs will be available, and the ESPN duo adds that the Chargers — given that Daboll and Bolts GM Tom Telesco went to high school together — may be the destination to monitor. While the Chargers have not fired Anthony Lynn, who is well-liked by Bolts players, the team is 3-9 after a 5-11 season. This would point to Lynn likely being ousted after his fourth season in Los Angeles.
  • Unlike the Texans, the Falcons and Lions will not be using a search firm as they look for new HCs, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets. Longtime front office exec Rich McKay will presumably lead Atlanta’s search, while team president Rod Wood remains in power in Detroit.
  • After two seasons out of the NFL, Marvin Lewis has resurfaced on coaching radars. The longtime Bengals HC’s name has continued to come up for possible 2021 gigs, NFL.com’s Daniel Jeremiah tweets. He is expected to land interviews, according to ESPN. Lewis interviewed for the Cowboys post that went to Mike McCarthy and was connected to the Washington job that went to Ron Rivera. The Vikings also sought him for a defensive role in 2019. Lewis, 62, currently serves as Arizona State’s co-defensive coordinator under Herm Edwards.
  • While Northwestern head coach Pat Fitzgerald would stand to be the Bearstop choice — were they to replace Matt Nagy — the prospect of the longtime Big Ten leader rising to the NFL is quiet, per Graziano and Fowler. After Northwestern’s 2018 season, Fitzgerald said he would not consider NFL jobs. But the pandemic may have made him more receptive to making the jump. The Bears figure to be the leading candidate, were Fitzgerald to express interest. And Bears minority owner Pat Ryan, also a Northwestern alum, is a big fan of the current Wildcats HC, per ESPN.
  • The Broncos will have their defensive coordinator back after his extensive bout with COVID-19, Mike Klis of 9News notes. Ed Donatell, 63, believed he was nearly recovered from the coronavirus, but on Day 9 of his battle with it, he experienced symptoms severe enough he needed to be hospitalized. The second-year Denver DC, who had never previously missed a game in his coaching career, missed six games. He will coach from the press box Sunday against the Panthers.

Minor NFL Transactions: 12/10/20

Here are Thursday’s minor moves:

Baltimore Ravens

Dallas Cowboys

Denver Broncos

Green Bay Packers

  • Activated from reserve/COVID-19 list: RB A.J. Dillon; Dillon had been on the Packers’ virus list since testing positive Nov. 2

Indianapolis Colts

Los Angeles Rams

  • Promoted: K Austin MacGinnis

Minnesota Vikings

New England Patriots

Pittsburgh Steelers

Darian Stewart Announces Retirement

Three months after Aqib Talib retired from the NFL, one of his teammates from the Broncos’ Super Bowl-winning secondary announced he will wrap his career.

Darian Stewart will call it quits after 10 seasons, indicating (via Instagram) he will not attempt to catch on with a team this year. While Stewart is best known for his time in Denver, the former UDFA played with four teams and logged 92 starts during his career.

After spending the first half of his career with the Rams and Ravens, Stewart landed with the Broncos in 2015 via two-year, $4.25MM deal. He became the final piece of Denver’s No-Fly Zone secondary, which led the team to first-place rankings in pass defense DVOA in 2015 and ’16.

Stewart intercepted a pass in his first game with the Broncos, sealing a Week 1 win, and intercepted Tom Brady in the Broncos’ AFC-clinching victory four months later. He also forced a fumble in Super Bowl 50, playing a key role for one of the modern NFL’s defining defenses — one that led the way in a two-score win over a 15-1 Panthers team.

The South Carolina alum was one of three Denver secondary starters to make the Pro Bowl in 2016, alongside All-Pros Talib and Chris Harris, and landed a $7MM-per-year extension with the Broncos that season. He outlasted No-Fly Zone mates Talib and T.J. Ward in Denver, working as a Broncos starter through the 2018 season. Stewart notched eight of his 11 career interceptions over his final three seasons in Denver.

Stewart, 32, finished his career with the Buccaneers, playing 13 games for last year’s Tampa Bay edition. He will finish with 463 career tackles, six forced fumbles and seven recovered.

Minor NFL Transactions: 12/9/20

Today’s minor moves:

Carolina Panthers

  • Signed: K Lirim Hajrullahu

Denver Broncos

Green Bay Packers

Miami Dolphins

New Orleans Saints

Philadelphia Eagles

Pittsburgh Steelers 

San Francisco 49ers

Washington Football Team

NFL Suspends Broncos’ A.J. Bouye

WEDNESDAY, 9:51am: Bouye has been officially suspended for six games, per a league announcement. He’ll miss the final four games of this season, plus the first two games of 2021. He’ll also lose out on $4.59MM in salary, taking a chunk out of the remainder of his five year, $67.5MM deal.

TUESDAY, 2:05pm: It looks like yet another high profile player is about to be suspended. Broncos cornerback A.J. Bouye is facing a PED suspension, Mike Klis of Denver 9 News tweets. Benjamin Allbright of KOA News Radio was first to report the news (Twitter link).

Interestingly, both reporters indicate that Bouye’s suspension is related to the ones the Texans’ Will Fuller and Bradley Robey were hit with last week. It sounds like the contention is that all three players were using the same doctor or trainer who gave them banned substances without their knowledge. It’s impossible to say what will happen with this bizarre situation, although Albright indicated that legal action is coming.

For now though, it’s a brutal blow to a Denver defense that just can’t catch a break. Already without big name players like Von Miller and Jurrell Casey, among many others, they also just placed top corner Bryce Callahan on injured reserve. With Bouye now hitting the shelf as well, they’ll be very thin at cornerback.

Bouye missed a little over a month with a shoulder injury he suffered in Week 1, but has started every game since returning. An undrafted free agent in 2013, Bouye quickly broke out with the Texans. That earned him a five-year, $67.5MM contract from the Jaguars during the 2017 offseason. He picked off six passes that year and was a second-team All-Pro, although his play declined a bit after that.

This past March Jacksonville shipped him to Denver as part of their rebuild in exchange for a fourth-round pick. The UCF product is under contract for 2021, although the Broncos can get out of it pretty easily if they want to. He turned 29 back in August.

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