Colts Trade Nate Hairston To Jets
The Colts have agreed to trade cornerback Nate Hairston to the Jets, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN.com (on Twitter). In exchange, the Jets will send a 2020 sixth-round pick to Indianapolis. 
The Jets had two sixth-round picks thanks to the Darron Lee trade, but the Colts will receive the lower of the two in the swap, Rich Cimini of ESPN.com tweets.
The Jets’ need for cornerback help has been well-documented and they’ve addressed that need somewhat by acquiring Harrison. He’s not a star player, but he does have eleven starts to his credit over the past two years. He’s also under contract through 2020, giving Gang Green an opportunity to keep him in the fold beyond this season.
Harrison, by all accounts, had a solid camp, but the Colts’ logjam at cornerback allowed them to deal from a surplus. They’ll pick up a late-round draft choice for the 25-year-old and the Jets will plug him into their depth chart as a versatile cornerback/safety option.
Minor NFL Transactions: 8/26/19
We’ll keep track of today’s minor moves here:
Buffalo Bills
- Claimed off waivers from Cardinals: LB/DE Jeff Holland
Cincinnati Bengals
- Signed: C Kirk Barron
Cleveland Browns
- Waived: CB Jhavonte Dean
Detroit Lions
- Signed: QB Luis Perez, RB Justin Stockton
- Waived: WR Deontez Alexander
Houston Texans
- Placed on IR: RB Lamar Miller, T David Steinmetz
Indianapolis Colts
- Signed: S Micah Abernathy, S Jacob Thieneman
- Waived: S Matthias Farley
Miami Dolphins
- Released: OL Will Holden
New England Patriots
- Waived: RB Robert Martin
New Orleans Saints
- Placed on IR: TE Garrett Griffin
New York Jets
- Signed: S Santos Ramirez
- Waived: CB Dee Delaney
San Francisco 49ers
- Signed: DB Jordan Holland
- Placed on IR: CB Tim Harris Jr.
Colts Considered Delaying Luck’s Decision
Before Andrew Luck officially retired from the NFL, the Colts considered a plan that would give the quarterback a chance to reverse course. There was a discussion in the Colts’ front office about placing Luck on injured reserve in order to postpone his final decision, ESPN.com’s Ed Werder tweets. 
[RELATED: More Fallout From Andrew Luck’s Retirement]
Of course, that’s not what transpired – although it wasn’t an easy call, Luck was firm in his decision to walk away from the game in his prime years. Plagued by an incomprehensible amount of rehab and physical pain, the former No. 1 overall pick is walking away from the NFL to focus on other interests.
From a football perspective, the Colts are in better shape than most other teams would be in this scenario. They are very are high on their new QB1, Jacoby Brissett, though they may need to find a new QB2 to backstop him. As of this writing, Swag Kelly stands to be Brissett’s backup, though he’ll first have to serve a two-game suspension.
More Fallout From Andrew Luck’s Retirement
Earlier this morning, we brought you all the fallout from Andrew Luck‘s shocking decision to retire. Not surprisingly given how big of an event it was, there’s now even more fallout to cover. One of the nuggets we heard earlier was how the Colts weren’t going to try to recoup any of the money from Luck’s contract that they could’ve under the CBA. If they had chosen to, they apparently wouldn’t have faced too much resistance.
Luck “was open to returning at least a portion of the money that had been paid to him,” a source told Charles Robinson of Yahoo Sports. Colts owner Jim Irsay ultimately declined, and let Luck keep a whopping $24.8MM that he could’ve gotten back. Robinson speculates that Irsay could’ve made the call as a gesture of “good will that keeps a door open should Luck ever recuperate physically and hope to return to the NFL.” That’s certainly a reasonable take considering Irsay not very subtly indicated he was hoping Luck would change his mind during his own press conference.
Here’s the latest on everything related to Luck:
- There’s been some slight confusion over the timeline of Luck’s decision, and Stephen Holder of The Athletic sought to clear the air (Twitter link). After speaking with sources, Holder writes that he is “now even more convinced in the timeline that Luck and Colts laid out last night. Luck was working toward a return and the Colts fully expected that return to happen.” There have been some rumblings that Luck was considering walking away further back, but Holder doesn’t believe that to be the case.
- If Luck does want to come back, it isn’t going to be in 2019. The Colts have officially placed him on the reserve/retired list, which means Luck would have to clear waivers to come back this season, according to Mike Garafolo of NFL Network (Twitter link). As Garafolo points out, that would never happen. Rumors will likely swirl for years to come about a potential Luck comeback, but the door seems to be slammed shut on 2019 at the very least.
- It was only a matter of time before someone brought this up. In an article from early this afternoon, Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com floats the possibility of Luck playing in the XFL. The reason this connection was always going to be made by somebody is that Luck’s father, Oliver Luck, is the commissioner of Vince McMahon’s upstart league. Florio himself acknowledges the idea is far-fetched, and it’s hard to imagine any scenario that it happens even though the ten-game season would be less taxing on his body. For starters, Luck would have to receive permission from the Colts to play in another league since he’s still under contract, and that seems extremely unlikely to say the least.
- Luck’s sudden retirement sent shockwaves around the league. To get a sense of what other organizations were feeling, Mike Sando of The Athletic talked to coaches and executives around the league about his decision. One exec compared Luck’s handling of the situation favorably to the way Brett Favre handled his multiple retirements. “Completely healthy, Favre makes the Packers wait, he’s down in Mississippi, he’s taking private jets and has trouble deciding, and finally they trade him,” the exec said. “Luck was straining through rehab and probably going to all the meetings. He had to face the cameras and get booed instead of keeping it quiet and making the decision after the season if he has to sit out. This is much more courageous. This is what defines him.”
Fallout From Andrew Luck’s Retirement
Andrew Luck‘s decision to step away from the game of football at the age of 29 will go down as one of the most surprising retirement decisions in the history of the league. But in his impromptu press conference last night, Luck kept using the word “exhausted,” as Zak Keefer of The Athletic observes. Luck’s latest health concern, a calf/ankle ailment, was just part of that exhaustion.
Keefer sums up Luck’s run of major injury woes over the past few years quite nicely. As Keefer writes, Luck “once played an entire quarter against the eventual Super Bowl champs with both a lacerated kidney and a partially torn abdomen muscle – and led the Colts to a win. He played half a season with torn cartilage in two ribs. There was an injured thumb, a bum ankle, at least one diagnosed concussion and the torn labrum in his throwing shoulder that nearly cost him his career at age 28.”
All of those issues forced Luck to move on to the next chapter of his life much sooner than he wanted. Anyone who watched his presser could see the anguish in his face, how his smile didn’t quite reach his eyes, and how painful it was for him to make this decision. But as Luck himself said, “[i]t’s been four years of this injury-pain cycle. And for me to move forward in my life the way I want to, it didn’t involve football.”
Here’s just some of the fallout from Luck’s stunning announcement:
- Adam Schefter of ESPN.com reports that Luck and the Colts have reached an agreement wherein the team will not attempt to recoup any money to which it would be entitled under the CBA. As Joel Corry of CBS Sports notes, the team could have recovered $24.8MM from the former No. 1 overall pick ($12.8MM of the $32MM signing bonus he was entitled to under his current contract, plus two $6MM March 2019 roster bonuses). If the Colts did seek repayment, any money they got back would have counted as a salary cap credit (Twitter links). Colts fans are already taking plenty of heat for booing Luck during the team’s preseason game last night — which Luck admitted was hurtful — and it would not have been a good look if the team were to try and seek repayment (especially in light of how the club mismanaged his early career, as Conor Orr of SI.com summarizes).
- The Colts are high on their new QB1, Jacoby Brissett, but as Stephen Holder of The Athletic says, the team needs a veteran signal-caller behind Brissett, and it’s likely that GM Chris Ballard is already working feverishly to make a move. Indianapolis has enough draft capital to swing a trade of some kind (Twitter links).
- Indianapolis may well remain competitive with Brissett at the helm, and Matt Miller of Bleacher Report says team brass does not believe the Colts will be drafting high enough in 2020 to land one of next year’s top QB prospects (Twitter link).
- Colts owner Jim Irsay sounds like a man who hopes that Luck will unretire at some point. Irsay said, “[y]ou know, I don’t rule it out. Because as quickly as this thing sort of descended on us, and as mysterious as it was coming upon us, it could leave the same way” (h/t Josh Alper of Pro Football Talk). It was clear that Luck had thought long and hard about his decision, so as shocking as his retirement is, it would be even more shocking if he were to return to the field as a player. But Irsay is not ready to give up hope.
- Irsay estimates that Luck left about $500MM on the table by retiring early given the ever-increasing QB salaries and the $64MM he was already due under the remaining three years of his current deal. As Mike Garafolo of the NFL Network tweets, that’s probably an accurate assessment. But if Luck is willing to walk away from that kind of cash, it seems as though he really is retired for good.
- Luck’s contract will toll, so if he were to reverse course and come back, Indianapolis would hold his rights for three more seasons, as Chris Mortensen of ESPN.com reminds us (via Twitter).
- We heard last night that the Colts had known for at least two weeks that Luck was seriously considering retirement, but Ballard says that Luck only began discussing the possibility with the team Monday (less then a week ago), as Albert Breer of SI.com tweets.
Andrew Luck Retiring From NFL
Truly shocking news, as Colts quarterback Andrew Luck is retiring from the NFL, a source told Adam Schefter of ESPN.com (Twitter link). Schefter reports there will be a press conference on Sunday to formally announce the news. He writes that Luck “is mentally worn down, and now checking out.”
To say this is stunning news would be a massive understatement. In a separate tweet, Schefter writes that Luck has already met with Colts owner Jim Irsay to tell him of his decision. Luck has been dealing with a mysterious calf/ankle injury, although it wasn’t thought to be serious. The latest reporting indicated that the Colts were still hoping Luck would be ready for Week 1.
Indianapolis had known for “at least two weeks” that Luck was seriously considering retirement, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network (Twitter link). While the news apparently didn’t completely catch the organization off-guard, it doesn’t make it all that much easier to swallow for them.
In one of the most unprecedented moves in recent league history, Luck will be hanging up his cleats at the age of 29. There will be endless discussion in the coming days about what caused him to step away, although injuries are obviously part of it. Luck was plagued with a shoulder injury that lingered for a couple of years and ended up costing him the entire 2017 season. The process was mentally exhausting and always shrouded in secrecy, but he eventually worked his way back onto the field for the start of last year.
He made a triumphant return to Indy, leading them to wins in nine of their last ten games to sneak into the playoffs. He helped the Colts topple the Texans in the first round of the playoffs before they fell to the Chiefs. The team has a lot of good young talent and made major strides under head coach Frank Reich last year.
They were expected to be a Super Bowl contender heading into 2019 and were one of the most buzzed about teams this offseason. Luck’s lower leg injury was starting to get concerning due to the limited information available, but obviously nobody ever saw this coming. With Luck stepping away, Jacoby Brissett will now take over as the team’s starter.
Brissett is widely regarded as one of the league’s best backups, so things could be worse for the Colts. The team has been expressing confidence in Brissett all offseason, which in hindsight might’ve been foreshadowing this news. After being acquired in a trade with the Patriots, Brissett started most of the 2017 season for Indy. He finished with 3,098 yards, 13 touchdowns and seven interceptions. He’s scheduled to be an unrestricted free agent after the season, making his situation all the more interesting.
Luck’s retirement is obviously a huge boost to the rest of the AFC South, and he was 11-0 in his career against the Titans. The Colts will still have a chance to be competitive given Reich’s coaching and Brissett’s competence, but it’s hard not to see this as removing them from the list of AFC contenders.
Even with Brissett in tow, the Colts will likely be in the market for a veteran quarterback now. Their only backups are Phillip Walker and Chad Kelly, and neither has ever attempted a regular season pass. Kelly is also suspended for the first two games of the season, so he won’t be able to backup Brissett until Week 3.
It’s anyone’s guess as to what Luck will do now in his post-playing career. Given his young age, there will surely be rumors of a comeback for as long as he stays retired. Luck was apparently on the field at the Colts’ preseason game when the news broke, casually chatting with teammates, according to a tweet from Stephen Holder of The Athletic.
Colts Waive RB D’Onta Foreman With Injury Settlement
D’Onta Foreman‘s time with the Colts is officially over. The team has waived the young running back from injured reserve with an injury settlement, according to Adam Caplan of Sirius XM NFL radio (Twitter link).
This is a departure from what we initially heard after Foreman went down with a torn biceps. The Colts placed him on injured reserve, but it was reported that they planned to stash him on IR with the hopes of bringing him back to compete for a role in 2020. It’s unclear whether Indy changed their mind, or if Foreman and his representatives were able to force his way out so that he could try and play for a new team this season.
Unfortunately, Foreman’s once promising career has been derailed by injuries. The Texans drafted him in the third round in 2017, and he showed a lot of potential as a rookie. A lot of people thought he would eventually take over for Lamar Miller as Houston’s starter, but then he tore his Achilles toward the end of the season.
He had complications while recovering from it, and ended up playing in only one game in 2018. The Texans threw in the towel on the Texas product earlier this offseason, and he was quickly swooped up by the Colts. Shortly after signing, he went down with his latest serious injury. Here’s to hoping that Foreman can get back to full health wherever he ends up next.
AFC South Notes: Texans, Robinson, Colts
Rumblings about the Texans attempting a last-ditch Jadeveon Clowney trade have cooled down, with the team unlikely to recoup too much value for the three-time Pro Bowler after the franchise tag extension deadline passed (and with Clowney being able to effectively block a trade by virtue of not signing his tender). The last report on Clowney’s return indicated he was expected to report back between the start of next week and the end of the preseason. Clowney also has a grievance rumored, seeking to be tagged as a defensive end ($17.1MM) instead of as an outside linebacker ($15.9MM). But the former No. 1 overall pick should be fighting to ensure the Texans cannot tag him again in 2020, Joel Corry of CBS Sports writes. However, with this prohibition clause having not occurred since 2008 (Albert Haynesworth with the Titans), Corry predicts the sixth-year Texans edge defender will fail on this front and end up being tagged again in 2020.
Here is the latest news from the AFC South, shifting to a player who will draw Clowney blocking assignments this season:
- Recently deemed iffy for Week 1, Cam Robinson appears a good bet to suit up against the Chiefs in two-plus weeks. The Jaguars‘ left tackle starter took snaps with the first unit in the team’s third preseason game, with Phillip Heilman of The Athletic tweeting Robinson joined the likely starting line of Andrew Norwell, Brandon Linder, Will Richardson and Jawaan Taylor on Thursday night. Robinson tore one of his ACLs in September of last year and spent the next several months rehabbing.
- D’Onta Foreman will not have a chance to exact any revenge on the Texans this season, with the now-Colts running back set to miss the season. But the Colts still have him in their plans. A torn biceps will shelve Foreman, Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle tweets, but the team will not opt for an injury settlement. The Colts plan to stash the former third-round pick on IR and have him learn their system in time for a hopeful 2020 debut in Indianapolis.
- While Matt Kalil was recently named the Texans‘ starting left tackle, Wilson adds that Roderick Johnson is “firmly” in the conversation to start against the Saints in Week 1. The Texans have held Kalil out of recent practices for conservation purposes, per Bill O’Brien. Kalil missed all of last season with a knee injury. Encouraging work in games and practices has allowed Johnson, a former Browns fifth-round pick and Texans waiver claim, to improve to the point of being a first-stringer. The Florida State product appears set to receive the first crack if Kalil cannot go, pointing to first-round rookie Tytus Howard staying at left guard.
- Titans running back David Fluellen underwent knee surgery recently, but Paul Kuharsky (of PaulKuharsky.com) notes the backup is expected to be ready by Week 1. Fluellen is expected to keep his job as Tennessee’s No. 3 back.
Minor NFL Transactions: 8/22/19
Here are Thursday’s minor moves:
Indianapolis Colts
- Signed: DT Johnny Robinson
- Waived: RB James Williams
New York Jets
- Signed: WR Quincy Adeboyejo
- Waived: WR J.J. Jones
Biggest Roster Weakness: AFC South
The 2019 regular season is right around the corner, but every NFL team still has at least one position on its roster that could use improvement. And there’s still plenty of time to address those areas of need! Free agents are readily available on the open market, while preseason trades provide another avenue of player procurement. 19 NFL trades were executed between August 1st and September 1st of 2018, and that number could increase this year.
Let’s take a look at the weakest positional group — and a potential solution — for each NFL club. Today we’ll examine the AFC South:
Houston Texans
- Weakness: Offensive line. The Texans made a number of notable additions to their offensive line during the offseason, but it’s unclear how much those reinforcements will actually help. New left tackle Matt Kalil is seemingly always injured or ineffective, while first- and second-round rookies Tytus Howard and Max Scharping both come from small schools and could take some time to develop. Houston’s offensive line was one of the NFL’s worst in 2018, ranking 27th in adjusted line yards and dead last in adjusted sack rate, per Football Outsiders.
- Solution: Sign Ryan Schraeder. Even if Kalil, Howard, and Scharping find success along the Texans’ front five, the club could still have a gaping hole at right tackle. Seantrel Henderson is going unchallenged on the right side, but he hasn’t played more than 47 offensive snaps since the 2015 season. The former seventh-round pick has never been all that productive even when he has been on the field, so Houston could look for a late upgrade. The Texans were reportedly interested in Schraeder in March, but it’s unclear if he ever actually met with the team’s staff. With 73 starts under his belt, Schraeder would bring experience to a Houston offensive line that desperately needs it.
Indianapolis Colts
- Weakness: Defensive line depth. This almost feels too nit-picky: the Colts have one of the best rosters in the NFL, so it’s difficult to pinpoint a weak area. Indianapolis has a number of interesting pieces along its defensive line, but veteran defensive end Jabaal Sheard could potentially miss regular season action.
- Solution: Trade for DeMarcus Walker. I don’t think the Colts should necessarily go out and sign a street free agent to take snaps away from their intriguing young defensive line prospects, but trading for Walker would represent a buy-low on an intriguing defender. Walker posted 16 sacks during his final season at Florida State and has flashed during his time with the Broncos, but he simply hasn’t been able to secure any real playing time (121 career defensive snaps). That’s probably not going to change any time soon in Denver, so the Colts could send a late-round pick in exchange for a player who could theoretically line up at outside linebacker, defensive end, or defensive tackle.
Jacksonville Jaguars
- Weakness: Inside linebacker to play opposite Myles Jack. Telvin Smith‘s unexpected retirement put the Jaguars in a bind at inside linebacker, and no recent developments have added clarity at the position. Third-round rookie Quincy Williams was expected to fill the void left by Smith’s absence, but he’s dealing with a torn meniscus and will miss the start of the regular season. Free agent addition Jake Ryan, meanwhile, suffered a July setback in his recovery from a torn ACL and hasn’t practiced since.
- Solution: Trade for Reggie Ragland. Ragland has already been traded once is career, going from Buffalo to Kansas City in 2017 in exchange for a fourth-round pick. Given that he has only one year remaining on his contract, the former second-round pick shouldn’t cost that much to acquire this time around. The Chiefs acquired fellow linebacker Darron Lee from the Jets this offseason to team with Anthony Hitchens and Damien Wilson, so Ragland could be expendable.
Tennessee Titans
- Weakness: Offensive line depth. The Titans have some question marks along their offensive line, and those questions begin at left tackle, where Dennis Kelly will start the first four games in place of the suspended Taylor Lewan. Jack Conklin is back at right tackle after suffering a torn ACL in 2018, but right guard is a battle between Kevin Pamphile and rookie Nate Davis. Pamphile is currently listed as the starter on Tennessee’s depth chart, but the veteran was well below-average in two seasons as a Buccaneers starter.
- Solution: See if Austin Corbett is (already) available. Browns general manager John Dorsey has been more than willing to get rid of players brought in by ex-GM Sashi Brown, but would he trade his own disappointing draft picks? It’s far too early to call Corbett, a 2018 second-rounder, a bust, but his career isn’t progressing as Cleveland had hoped. Expected to take over at right guard after Kevin Zeitler was dealt to the Giants, Corbett has struggled in training camp and the preseason, and journeyman Eric Kush now looks like the favorite to start. Corbett played tackle at Nevada before being shifted to guard in the pros, so he could potentially offer depth at both positions for the Titans.
More posts in this series: