Jake Luton

NFL Practice Squad Updates: 12/20/23

Today’s practice squad updates:

Baltimore Ravens

Carolina Panthers

Detroit Lions

Kansas City Chiefs

Las Vegas Raiders

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

  • Activated from practice squad/injured reserve: T Silas Dzansi

NFL Practice Squad Updates: 12/5/23

Here are Tuesday’s practice squad moves:

Arizona Cardinals

Carolina Panthers

Detroit Lions

Houston Texans

  • Signed: WR Davion Davis
  • Placed on practice squad injured list: WR Jared Wayne

Kansas City Chiefs

Las Vegas Raiders

Los Angeles Chargers

Los Angeles Rams

New York Jets

Philadelphia Eagles

NFL Practice Squad Updates: 11/30/23

Today’s practice squad transactions:

Arizona Cardinals

Carolina Panthers

Houston Texans

Kansas City Chiefs

New England Patriots

  • Released: WR Mathew Sexton

New Orleans Saints

New York Giants

Philadelphia Eagles

NFL Practice Squad Updates: 10/25/23

Today’s practice squad transactions:

Arizona Cardinals

Atlanta Falcons

  • Signed: LB Donavan Mutin

Buffalo Bills

Carolina Panthers

Denver Broncos

Green Bay Packers

Las Vegas Raiders

Minnesota Vikings

New England Patriots

Philadelphia Eagles

Tennessee Titans

Minor NFL Transactions: 10/16/23

Here are Monday’s minor moves:

Dallas Cowboys

Los Angeles Chargers

New Orleans Saints

New York Giants

Washington Commanders

The Cowboys are bringing in some reinforcements after having to place linebacker Leighton Vander Esch on IR this week. The Chargers are bringing up Doss as a standard gameday elevation, as well, with Mike Williams, Simi Fehoko, and Jalen Guyton all out tonight.

Haener, the Saints’ rookie fourth-round passer, started his NFL career on a six-game suspension due to a violation of the league’s performance-enhancing substance policy. With Haener adding another arm to the bullpen, Luton became expendable but may find a spot on the team’s practice squad.

Saints Sign QB Jake Luton, Release WR Tre’Quan Smith From IR

The Saints are adding some much-needed depth at the quarterback position. According to ESPN’s Field Yates, New Orleans is signing quarterback Jake Luton off the Panthers practice squad.

[RELATED: Saints’ Derek Carr Suffers AC Joint Sprain]

Luton spent most of the 2022 campaign on the Saints’ practice squad, so he’s plenty familiar with Pete Carmichael’s system. Luton was waived by New Orleans back in May and caught on with the Panthers. He was among the team’s final cuts but eventually signed on with Carolina’s practice squad.

The former sixth-round pick has turned into a true journeyman despite being in the league for only three-plus seasons. Luton has spent time with the Jaguars (two stints), Seahawks, Dolphins, Saints, and Panthers. The quarterback’s resume consists of three starts with Jacksonville as a rookie. The Jaguars went 0-3 in those three contests, with Luton completing 54.5 percent of his passes for 624 yards, two touchdowns, and six interceptions.

While the Saints “dodged a bullet” when it came to Derek Carr‘s injury on Sunday, the quarterback is still expected to miss some time with a AC joint sprain. Carr has been deemed week-to-week, although he hasn’t officially been ruled out for Week 4. With rookie fourth-round pick Jake Haener still serving a suspension for failing a drug test, Jameis Winston was the only healthy QB on the Saints roster before today’s move.

The team wasn’t done making moves today. According to Nick Underhill of NewOrleans.Football, the Saints have released wide receiver Tre’Quan Smith from injured reserve. The former third-round pick was a productive member of New Orleans’ receivers room for five seasons, hauling in 131 receptions for 1,764 yards and 18 touchdowns. He also got into four playoff games, collecting another two scores.

Smith inked a two-year, $6MM extension with the Saints prior to the 2022 season, but with Chris Olave and Rashid Shaheed stealing snaps, Smith had one of the least productive seasons of his career, finishing with 19 catches for 278 yards. Smith landed on injured reserve after final cuts, meaning he only needed one more week before he could be activated. Ultimately, it sounds like the Saints didn’t see a future for him in New Orleans, and the receiver is now free to sign (and immediately play) elsewhere.

Minor NFL Transactions: 9/23/23

Here are the various practice squad elevations and other minor moves from around the league:

Arizona Cardinals

Atlanta Falcons

Baltimore Ravens

Carolina Panthers

Chicago Bears

Cleveland Browns

Dallas Cowboys

Denver Broncos

Detroit Lions

Green Bay Packers

Houston Texans

Indianapolis Colts

Jacksonville Jaguars

Kansas City Chiefs

Las Vegas Raiders

Los Angeles Chargers

Miami Dolphins

Minnesota Vikings

New Orleans Saints

New York Jets

  • Signed to active roster: LB Sam Eguaveon
  • Elevated: OL Chris Glaser

Pittsburgh Steelers

Seattle Seahawks

Tennessee Titans

Washington Commanders

Panthers Promote LB Deion Jones

With Shaq Thompson out of the mix after undergoing surgery to repair a fractured fibula, the Panthers will bring up one of the league’s most experienced linebackers. After joining Carolina’s practice squad, Deion Jones is now on the team’s 53-man roster.

A six-year Falcons starter, Jones wound up with the Browns via trade last year. He caught on with the Panthers this summer, and while he did not make the squad out of the preseason, the Thompson injury has changed the equation for Frank Reich‘s team. To fill Jones’ spot on the practice squad, the Panthers added quarterback Jake Luton. The former Jaguars QB went to camp with the Panthers as well.

The Panthers plugged Kamu Grugier-Hill into their lineup after Thompson was carted to the locker room Monday night. It will be interesting to see if Jones can carve out a steady role, given his experience. The former Atlanta standout and pick-six maven has made 88 starts; five of those came with the Browns last season.

Jones’ stock has undeniably dipped since he signed a big-ticket Falcons extension back in 2019, with The Athletic’s Joe Person noting the Panthers were not especially high on him during training camp (subscription required). The team then released Jones, 28, before circling back via a practice squad invite. Grugier-Hill, 29, has made 37 career starts; the Panthers are his sixth team. But the well-traveled vet fared well replacing Thompson on Monday night, recording a sack, a tackle for loss and six total stops in Carolina’s loss to New Orleans.

The team has made a number of changes at linebacker in recent years, though losing Thompson for a season will require the franchise’s biggest adjustment at the position since Luke Kuechly‘s early retirement. The Panthers still have hybrid player Frankie Luvu at the position. Their other two active-roster LBs — Chandler Wooten, Claudin Cherelus — do not bring much experience. The Panthers added Wooten (11 career games) off the Cardinals’ practice squad last year and claimed Cherelus (one career game) off waivers from the Jets last month.

Jones racked up 44 tackles, 2.5 sacks and an interception during 11 games in Cleveland, doing so after agreeing to remove the 2023 season from his Falcons-constructed contract. The move made Jones a free agent, and while interest came his way, no notable offers emerged. He signed a one-year, $1.17MM contract with the Panthers on July 31. The former Super Bowl starter has five 100-tackle seasons, racking up 46 tackles for loss and 11 sacks over the course of his career. Jones has also run back five of his 12 career INTs for scores; the five pick-sixes rank fourth all time among linebackers.

Panthers Cut QB Jake Luton, 10 Others

The Panthers have a few more days until they need to reduce their roster to 53 players, but the front office has already started the process. The team announced that they’ve waived the following 11 player:

While none of these cuts are particularly surprising, there are still some notable players in the bunch. As NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport tweets, the Panthers may be starting the process early and trying to tempt another squad to make a waiver claim, which would improve Carolina’s spot in the rankings.

Considering his position, Luton is one of the bigger names on the list. The quarterback hasn’t seen the field for a regular season game since he was winless in three starts with the Jaguars in 2020, but he’s still had backup gigs over the past few years, with the QB having also spent time with the Seahawks, Dolphins, and Saints. The former sixth-round pick joined the Panthers back in July.

Wright will surely find himself in the kicker rolodex once teams get hit with injuries. He was the Jaguars’ (mostly) full-time kicker in 2021, connecting on 87.5 percent of his field goal attempts and 86.7 percent of his extra point tries. He split the 2022 campaign between the Chiefs and Steelers, converting 15 of his 18 FGAs and all 15 of his XPAs.

Earlier today, head coach Frank Reich told reporters that the organization was going to have some difficult decisions to make before Tuesday’s roster deadline. As of today, the Panthers still have to cut 26 players.

“Literally every position has battles in place, not just for the roster, but you know, play time, who’s starting, how we’re looking at things,” Reich said (via the team’s website). “But the good news is they’re hard decisions, right? Because we feel good about the guys we have on our roster.”

Panthers Sign QB Jake Luton

The Panthers have added another arm to their revamped quarterbacks room. According to ESPN’s David Newton (via Twitter), the Panthers have signed Jake Luton.

[RELATED: Panthers Name Bryce Young Starting QB]

As Newton notes, the Panthers had been seeking another arm to help soak up some training camp and preseason snaps. Luton will presumably have a legitimate chance to make the roster or practice squad.

Luton was a sixth-round pick by the Jaguars in 2020, and he ended up starting three games as a rookie. Jacksonville was winless in those three contests, with Luton completing only 54.5 percent of his passes for 624 yards, two touchdowns, and six interceptions. The Oregon State product also scored a touchdown on the ground.

The Jaguars moved on from Luton at the end of the 2021 preseason, and he’s since spent time with the Seahawks, Dolphins, Jaguars (second stint), and Saints. The 27-year-old inked a futures contract with New Orleans back in January but was waived by the organization a few months later.

The Panthers used the first-overall pick on Bryce Young, and the organization has made it abundantly clear that the rookie will start at quarterback in 2023. The team also added veteran Andy Dalton via a two-year deal, so the top spots on the depth seem pretty set in stone. Luton could theoretically compete with Matt Corral for the QB3 spot, although the organization just used a third-round pick on the quarterback in last year’s draft. Corral missed his entire rookie season while recovering from a Lisfranc injury.