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Minor NFL Transactions: 9/21/22

September 21st, 2022 at 5:59pm CST by Ben Levine

Today’s minor transactions:

Carolina Panthers

Cleveland Browns

Houston Texans

Kansas City Chiefs

  • Signed off Rams practice squad: DE Benton Whitley

Los Angeles Rams

Pittsburgh Steelers

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Tennessee Titans

Kazee was suspended three games for violating the league’s policy on substances of abuse. After signing with the Steelers this offseason, he landed on injured reserve after the preseason. Per ESPN’s Brooke Pryor (on Twitter), Kazee will be allowed to serve his suspension while he’s on IR.

Hopkins was also suspended three games for violating the NFL’s policy on substances of abuse.

Titans Promote WR Josh Gordon

September 19th, 2022 at 5:55pm CST by Sam Robinson

Josh Gordon looks set to see action for a fifth NFL team. The Titans used one of their game-day elevations on the veteran wide receiver Monday, bumping him up to their 53-man roster ahead of their Week 2 Bills matchup.

The ex-Browns, Patriots, Seahawks and Chiefs pass catcher signed with the Titans’ practice squad shortly after his Chiefs release. Kansas City wanted to keep the former All-Pro target on its P-squad, but Gordon (via TitanInsider.com’s Terry McCormick) viewed Tennessee as a better opportunity.

The All-Pro version of Gordon is long gone. His run of suspensions saw to that. The 2013 first-team All-Pro is entering his age-31 season and is coming off a 2021 slate in which the Chiefs used him sparingly. But Gordon, who has seen substance-abuse suspensions define his career, made it through last season without incident. The talented pass catcher now looks to contribute with a Titans receiving corps still adjusting to post-A.J. Brown life.

Tennessee traded Brown after three seasons and used a first-round pick on Treylon Burks. The Arkansas product joins 2022 trade acquisition Robert Woods, fifth-round rookie Kyle Philips and Nick Westbrook-Ikhine as the Titans’ top receivers. Although Burks submitted an uneven offseason and was set to be eased into rookie-year work, he played well as a part-timer in Week 1. Playing 37% of the Titans’ offensive snaps, Burks caught three passes for 55 yards. Philips moved into a more regular role and caught six passes for 66 yards in his debut.

Gordon played 12 Chiefs games last season, catching five passes for 32 yards and a touchdown. The mercurial weapon did not play in 2020, with off-field struggles again intervening, but did contribute during much of the 2018 Patriots’ Super Bowl-winning season (720 receiving yards, three TDs in 11 games) and totaled 426 yards in 11 2019 contests — with the Patriots and Seahawks.

Chiefs LB Willie Gay Handed Four-Game Ban

September 19th, 2022 at 3:41pm CST by Sam Robinson

The Chiefs will be without one of their young linebacker starters for an extended stretch. Willie Gay received a four-game suspension Monday, Field Yates of ESPN.com tweets.

This ban is for a personal conduct policy violation, Tom Pelissero of NFL.com tweets. In January, Gay was arrested on a misdemeanor criminal damage charge in connection with an incident in which he was visiting his son’s house and, amid an argument with the child’s mother, damaged property in her home. Gay, 24, agreed to a pretrial diversion program in June.

Gay, who played 92% of the Chiefs’ defensive snaps in their win over the Chargers, has been a full-time starter for most of his career. This will mark another absence for the former second-round pick, however. Gay missed five games due to injury in 2021.

Gay and 2021 second-rounder Nick Bolton reside as the Chiefs’ top linebackers. The latter is Kansas City’s centerpiece player at the position, but Gay has made 21 career starts. He has 16 tackles (two for loss) and two passes defensed through two games this season. He will miss games against the Colts, Buccaneers, Raiders and Bills.

Pro Football Focus rated Gay as a top-25 linebacker last season, one that featured two interceptions. A significant usage gap exists between Bolton and Gay and the rest of Kansas City’s linebackers, though the team did use a third-round pick on rookie Leo Chenal. The Chiefs have used Chenal on 32 defensive plays this season. Darius Harris, a former UDFA who has bounced on and off the Chiefs’ practice squad during his career, has logged 18 defensive snaps thus far this year.

Restructure Details: Brockers, Butker, Clark

September 18th, 2022 at 12:39pm CST by Rory Parks

Here’s a roundup of a few recent contract restructures:

  • Michael Brockers, DT (Lions): Detroit converted $4MM of Brockers’ 2022 base salary into a signing bonus, which opened up $2MM of cap room, as Field Yates of ESPN.com tweets. Brockers signed a three-year, $24MM deal with the Lions in March 2021, and he appeared in 16 games (all starts) in his first year in the Motor City. However, he recorded just one sack and earned an abysmal 40.6 overall grade from Pro Football Focus.
  • Harrison Butker, K (Chiefs): Butker injured his ankle in Kansas City’s Week 1 win over the Cardinals and missed the club’s Week 2 victory over the Chargers as a result. According to Yates, Butker agreed to convert $2.19MM of his 2022 base salary into a signing bonus, thereby giving KC an additional $1.46MM of cap room (Twitter link). Butker is signed through 2024 and is the league’s 10th-highest-paid kicker by measure of AAV.
  • Chuck Clark, S (Ravens): There are no specifics on this one, though Jeff Zrebiec of The Athletic tweets that Baltimore gave Clark a bit of a raise this year and also added some incentives to his deal. The Ravens doled out a big-ticket free agent contract to safety Marcus Williams in March and selected Notre Dame safety Kyle Hamilton in the first round of the draft, and Clark subsequently requested a trade. However, it eventually became clear that Clark would continue to play a prominent role on the defense in 2022, and in the team’s Week 1 victory over the Jets, the Virginia Tech product played in all 84 defensive snaps and tallied eight tackles and a forced fumble while continuing to wear the green dot. He is under club control through 2023 and was slated to earn $1.25MM in base pay this year. Per Zrebiec, this transaction represents a show of appreciation for how Clark handled himself this offseason.
  • Desmond King, DB (Texans): The Texans have converted $911K of King’s 2022 salary into a signing bonus, thereby creating $455K of cap space (Twitter link via Yates). King re-signed with Houston this offseason after appearing in 16 games (12 starts) for the club in 2021 and posting 93 tackles to go along with three interceptions. His two-year contract is worth $7MM.

Chiefs DE Frank Clark Resolves Criminal Charges

September 18th, 2022 at 8:12am CST by Rory Parks

2021 was a difficult year for Chiefs DE Frank Clark from a legal perspective. In March 2021, the three-time Pro Bowler was arrested for possession of a concealed firearm, and in June 2021, he was arrested again when police officers conducted a traffic stop and noticed an Uzi in an open bag in Clark’s vehicle. Earlier this month, it was reported that Clark has resolved those charges.

Per the Associated Press, Clark pleaded no contest to two counts of misdemeanor possession of an assault weapon, and he was sentenced to one year of probation and 40 hours of community service. Charean Williams of Pro Football Talk writes that Clark will be due back in court on March 29, 2023 to prove that he has completed his sentence. Williams also notes that the judge required Clark to host four free youth football camps, which he has already done.

Now 29, Clark was rumored as a release candidate earlier this year given the hefty cap charges that he was due to carry over the 2022-23 seasons. Rather than release him, Kansas City ultimately decided to keep Clark in the fold via a new two-year deal worth $29MM (with incentives that could push that number to $36MM).

Over the first two games of the 2022 campaign, both Chiefs wins, Clark has appeared in 60% of the team’s defensive snaps. He has yet to record a sack and has posted three total tackles.

Under his present contract, Clark is due a $20.5MM base salary in 2023, and KC can release him to save $10MM against the cap while incurring a $9.075MM dead money charge. Given his declining sack totals over the past several years and his slow start to the current season, a release or another restructure presently looks like the most likely outcome next offseason.

As Williams observes, Clark could still face punishment under the league’s personal conduct policy for the gun charges.

Minor NFL Transactions: 9/15/22

September 15th, 2022 at 6:19pm CST by Ben Levine

Today’s minor NFL transactions:

Detroit Lions

Green Bay Packers

Kansas City Chiefs

Los Angeles Chargers

Chargers CB J.C. Jackson To Play Tonight

September 15th, 2022 at 5:51pm CST by Ben Levine

J.C. Jackson will make his Chargers debut tonight. James Palmer of NFL Network reports (on Twitter) that the cornerback will play tonight against the Chiefs.

Jackson was considered a game-time decision coming into Thursday. The offseason acquisition missed Week 1 while recovering from late-August ankle surgery. Palmer notes that the cornerback looked good during practice this week, and he’ll give it a go tonight against Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs.

The 26-year-old joined Los Angeles this offseason on a five-year, $82.5MM contract. He’s expected to slide in opposite former second-round pick Asante Samuel Jr. at cornerback. Michael Davis, who got into 100 percent of the Chargers’ defensive snaps in Week 1, will likely see a backup role with Jackson in the lineup.

Jackson spent the first four seasons of his career in New England, evolving from an undrafted rookie into a second-team All-Pro. The cornerback has 25 career interceptions in 62 career games, including 17 picks over the past two years. He also led the league with 23 passes defended in 2021.

Elsewhere on the injury front for Thursday Night Football, Chiefs offensive lineman Trey Smith will play tonight, according to Palmer (via Twitter). The lineman suffered an ankle injury during Kansas City’s Week 1 victory, leading to a questionable designation heading into tonight’s game. After being a limited participant in practice on Tuesday, he was a full participant on Wednesday.

AFC Injury Notes: Ravens, Watt, Bengals

September 14th, 2022 at 9:14pm CST by Ben Levine

J.K. Dobbins returned to practice today, with the running back hoping to make his long-awaited return to the field this Sunday. The Ravens running back admitted that his injury “wasn’t just a normal ACL,” with Dobbins explaining that he tore his ACL, LCL, hamstring, and meniscus at the end of the 2021 preseason (per ESPN’s Jamison Hensley on Twitter). It’s been just over a year since Dobbins suffered his injury.

“It would mean the world to me if I can go out there this Sunday and play well in front of a full house,” Dobbins said (via Hensley).

Fellow running back Gus Edwards also missed the entire 2021 season with a torn ACL, but thanks to his placement on PUP, he’ll have to sit out the first four games of the season. Still, Edwards took to Instagram to tell fans that he continues to progress in his recovery and eventual return to the field.

“For everybody wondering about my recovery I’m doing great and I’m very close,” Edwards wrote.

More injury notes from around the AFC…

  • The news keeps getting better for T.J. Watt and the Steelers. The star linebacker could recover from his partially torn pectoral muscle within five weeks, according to Aaron Wilson of ProFootballNetwork.com. There was initial fear that Watt had completely torn his pec, which would have ended his season. The news quickly got better; we learned yesterday that Watt wouldn’t need surgery and could be back within six weeks.
  • Bengals long snapper Clark Harris is expected to miss an extended amount of time after tearing his biceps, according to NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero (via Twitter). While Zac Taylor didn’t want to rule out the LS for the season, he did acknowledge that the 38-year-old will miss at least a few months (via ESPN’s Ben Baby on Twitter). Harris, a one-time Pro Bowler, has been with the organization since 2009. Cal Adomitis will get the first shot to replace Harris at long snapper.
  • J.C. Jackson has been listed as questionable for tomorrow’s game against the Chiefs, and Chargers head coach Brandon Staley said earlier this week that the cornerback has a “50-50” shot at playing (per NFL Network’s James Palmer on Twitter). Jackson previously suffered an ankle injury that forced him to miss the team’s Week 1 victory over the Raiders. After earning a second-team All-Pro nod with the Patriots in 2021, Jackson joined Los Angeles this offseason on a five-year, $82.5MM deal. Meanwhile, both Chargers wideout Keenan Allen (hamstring) and Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker (ankle) have been ruled out for Thursday’s showdown.
  • Mac Jones dealt with back spasms following the Patriots‘ Week 1 loss to the Dolphins, but the quarterback continues to improve, according to NFL Network’s Mike Giardi (on Twitter). A source told Giardi that the QB is “doing everything he needs to” in order to be on the field for this weekend’s matchup against the Steelers. Jones and the Patriots offense struggled during the season opener, with the second-year QB guiding New England to only one touchdown.

Minor NFL Transactions: 9/13/22

September 13th, 2022 at 9:01pm CST by Sam Robinson

Here are Tuesday’s minor moves:

Atlanta Falcons

Baltimore Ravens

Carolina Panthers

Cleveland Browns

Indianapolis Colts

Kansas City Chiefs

Los Angeles Chargers

Los Angeles Rams

New England Patriots

Philadelphia Eagles

San Francisco 49ers

Tennessee Titans

Hand suffered a torn quad in the Titans’ opener, according to Tom Pelissero of NFL.com (on Twitter). He is undergoing surgery and is expected to miss the rest of the season. A former fourth-round Lions draftee back in 2018, Hand has been with the Titans since last year. He played two defensive snaps Sunday.

Montgomery had battled a knee injury during the run-up to the regular season, but the veteran passing-down back played in the Patriots’ Week 1 contest. Montgomery caught three passes for 15 yards in New England’s loss. The Pats signed Humphrey, a former Saints wideout, midway through the offseason.

NFL Practice Squad Updates: 9/13/22

September 13th, 2022 at 6:17pm CST by Sam Robinson

Here are Tuesday’s practice squad additions and subtractions:

Arizona Cardinals

Atlanta Falcons

Chicago Bears

Cleveland Browns

Denver Broncos

Houston Texans

  • Signed: DB BoPete Keyes

Indianapolis Colts

Kansas City Chiefs

Las Vegas Raiders

Los Angeles Chargers

Los Angeles Rams

New Orleans Saints

  • Released: WR Dai’Jean Dixon

New York Jets

Pittsburgh Steelers

San Francisco 49ers

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Tennessee Titans

Washington Commanders

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