Minor Moves: Saturday
We’ll keep track of today’s minor moves here:
- Running back Cierre Wood, who signed with the Seahawks‘ practice squad earlier this week, was let go by the team today, according to Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times (via Twitter).
Earlier updates:
- With tight end Brandon Bostick ruled out for tomorrow’s game against the Eagles, the Packers have promoted Justin Perillo from their practice squad to the active roster, according to Tom Silverstein of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (via Twitter). To make room for the incoming tight end, the club has released offensive lineman Jamon Meredith.
- The Dolphins have placed cornerback Will Davis on injured reserve after he tore his ACL during Sunday’s game, the team announced on Twitter. Davis, a 2013 third-round pick, had been playing on slightly more than 20% of Miami’s defensive snaps. To fill his roster spot, the club has signed CB Jalil Brown, who spent training camp with the Dolphins.
AFC Mailbags: Tannehill, Landry, Forsett, Shorts
It’s Saturday, and that means a fresh batch of NFL mailbags from ESPN.com’s writers. Let’s start with some interesting notes out of the AFC…
- To James Walker’s knowledge, the Dolphins have not discussed a contract extension with quarterback Ryan Tannehill. The writer clarifies that it’s too early to know if Tannehill is actually the answer for the organization.
- Meanwhile, Walker doesn’t believe running back Knowshon Moreno will be back with the Dolphins next season.
- Among the group of upcoming Jets free agents, linebacker David Harris will be atop the team’s list of priorities, writes Rich Cimini. Reversely, the writer can’t envision Willie Colon or Kyle Wilson being back, and he also has a tough time seeing Geno Smith on the roster, especially if the front office is cleared out.
- Mike Wells believes the Colts’ use of LaRon Landry is an indication that he will not be back next season. The safety hasn’t cracked the starting lineup since returning from suspension.
- Jamison Hensley writes that it would be a great public relations move for the Ravens to bring back running back Justin Forsett next season.
- Adam Teicher believes Chiefs special-teams coordinator Dave Toub would make a good head coach.
- Cecil Shorts deserves an extension from the Jaguars, according to Michael DiRocco, but the value might not be what the receiver was originally seeking.
AFC East Notes: Will Davis, Marrone, Jets
Earlier today, we learned that Bills cornerback Leodis McKelvin suffered a fractured ankle during last night’s loss in Miami, but McKelvin wasn’t the only player to sustain a significant injury during the game. Here’s the latest out of the AFC East, including an update on a Dolphin whose 2014 season is over:
- As first reported by James Walker of ESPN.com (via Twitter), Dolphins cornerback Will Davis tore his ACL against the Bills, and will be sidelined for the rest of the season. Davis hadn’t seen the field much on defense in recent weeks, but the team will miss his contributions on special teams.
- Dolphins head coach Joe Philbin confirmed to reporters, including Adam Beasley of the Miami Herald (Twitter link), that Davis will be placed on injured reserve soon. However, the club isn’t overly concerned about its depth at cornerback and will evaluate over the weekend whether to add a corner to replace Davis or use the newly-available roster spot to bolster another position (Twitter link via Walker).
- As Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk details, Bills head coach Doug Marrone doesn’t feel as if he’s coaching for his job. Still, having taken over as the Bills’ owners earlier this season, Terry Pegula and Kim Pegula will likely be keeping a close eye on Marrone’s performance the rest of the way, with changes possible at year’s end.
- While it’s too early to call the Jets‘ 2014 draft a bust, the early returns on the 12 players selected by the team haven’t been great, writes Rich Cimini of ESPNNewYork.com.
AFC Notes: Dolphins, Hoyer, Broncos, Bills
The margin for error for Dolphins head coach Joe Philbin is “quickly approaching zero,” writes Adam Beasley of the Miami Herald. A loss this week to the Bills would make it extremely difficult for Miami to make the playoffs, and the next seven games could determine the fate of several of the club’s coaches and players.
Pointing out that a half-dozen of the Dolphins’ starters are eligible to hit the open market in March, Beasley suggests the team hasn’t made much of an effort to lock up any of these prospective free agents. One reason for that may be that there’s no guarantee the same front office and coaching staff will be in place by March. As Beasley rhetorically asks: “Why green-light a multiyear deal for Charles Clay if you’re not sure whoever’s coaching the Dolphins in 2015 wants Clay on their team?”
Here’s more on the Dolphins, as well as a few other AFC teams:
- Within the aforementioned piece, Beasley also writes that Philbin won’t necessarily lose his job if the Dolphins miss out on the playoffs. However, the team would probably have to finish with a winning record and show signs of trending upward.
- The Browns have an opportunity to get a deal done with quarterback Brian Hoyer in the wake of Carson Palmer‘s season-ending ACL injury, argues Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk. Florio suggests that Hoyer, who had a season-ending ACL injury of his own last year, may be more inclined to secure some guaranteed money after seeing what happened to Palmer, and speculates that perhaps something in the neighborhood of two years and $18MM (fully guaranteed) would work for both sides. That sort of contract may look modest, but I doubt Hoyer will get much more fully guaranteed money than that on a longer-term deal.
- Joel Corry of CBSSports.com touches upon the Browns‘ quarterback situation in his look at several contract predicaments teams will face this offseason. The Broncos‘ franchise tag decision and the Bills‘ defensive line issue are among the other dilemmas he addresses.
- Jets head coach Rex Ryan expects a strong second half from his team, and knows that without one, he’ll almost certainly be looking for work this winter. “I need every [win] I can get,” Ryan said, according to Danny Knobler of ESPNNewYork.com.
Workout Notes: Tuesday
We’ll keep track of today’s workouts and visits here..
- The Colts worked out notable kick returner Josh Cribbs, according to ESPN.com’s Field Yates (on Twitter). Cribbs is the NFL’s all-time co-leader in kickoff returns for touchdowns with eight.
- The Titans worked out former Packers first round pick Derek Sherrod, Yates tweets. The offensive tackle was cut by the Packers late last month.
- The Panthers also auditioned Sherrod and Kevin Greene, Aaron Wilson of the National Football Post tweets.
- Defensive tackle Fred Evans tried out for the Seahawks, according to Howard Balzer of USA Today (on Twitter).
- The Saints tried out safeties M.D. Jennings and Kenny Phillips, according to Balzer (on Twitter). Jamarca Sanford was signed earlier today, so Jennings and Phillips probably won’t be coming to New Orleans.
- The Saints also auditioned running backs Andre Brown, Tim Hightower, Mikel LeShoure, and Rutgers alum Brian Leonard, according to Yates (via Mike Triplett on Twitter).
- The Packers looked at defensive tackle Kenny Horsley, safety Kimario McFadden, and linebacker Chaz Sutton, Rob Demovsky of ESPN.com tweets.
- The Falcons are working out former Utah State center Tyler Larsen today, a league source tells Aaron Wilson of the National Football Post (on Twitter).
- The Dolphins worked out Jonte Green, Wilson tweets.
- The Seahawks worked out running backs Johri Fogerson, Stanley Havili, and Karl Williams, Wilson tweets.
- The Titans worked out tight end Dorin Dickerson today, Wilson tweets. The Titans removed him from the IR with an injury settlement in August.
Branden Albert Done For Season
12:25pm: Albert tore both his ACL and MCL, and has a projected recovery timetable of 9-12 months, according to James Walker of ESPN.com (Twitter link). In other words, there’s no guarantee he’ll be 100% by Week 1 in 2015.
MONDAY, 11:52am: Head coach Joe Philbin confirmed today that Albert will miss the rest of the season and will be placed on injured reserve, tweets Armando Salguero of the Miami Herald.
SUNDAY, 5:09pm: It is in fact a knee injury for Albert, tweets Florio.
5:05pm: There’s a somber mood in the Dolphins locker room this afternoon — not only did the club suffer a last-second loss to the Lions, but Miami left tackle Branden Albert told several players that he badly injured his knee and will miss the remainder of the season, writes Armando Salguero of the Miami Herald. A source confirms the news to Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk (Twitter link), who says it’s an ankle injury rather than a knee ailment. Regardless of the specifics, it’s a devastating blow to the Dolphins, who at 5-4 are tied for second place in the AFC East.
“It’s tough losing Branden,” said quarterback Ryan Tannehill. “I love the guy to death. He’s out there battling every day. He’s such a conistent guy, a solid guy in the offensive front. So losing him is tough.”
Albert, 30, signed a five-year, $47MM deal with the Dolphins prior to this season. He had spent the first six years of his career with the Chiefs after being selected in the first round of the 2008 draft. He’s started 83 games during his time in the league, and was enjoying an extremely productive season. Per Pro Football Focus’ advanced metrics (subscription required), Albert rated as the fourth-best tackle in the league, posting exceptional grades in the pass game. The Virginia product had added stability to an offensive line that had undergone a massive overhaul over the past year, dealt with the Richie Incognito bullying scandal in 2013, and missed star center Mike Pouncey for the early part of 2014.
Rookie Ja’Wuan James took over at left tackle for the duration of today’s contest, and he would seem to be the permanent replacement going forward. Nate Garner was inserted at right tackle, and Dallas Thomas is also an option at that position. As Salguero notes, Miami will probably look to add a player who can play both left and right tackle.
Dolphins To Promote LaMichael James
Running back LaMichael James will get back on an active roster for the first time since being cut by the 49ers in September, according to agent Jeff Sperbeck, who tweets that the Dolphins are promoting his client to their 53-man roster. Having previously been on Miami’s practice squad, James will take the roster spot vacated by tackle Branden Albert, who is headed to injured reserve with a season-ending knee injury.
James, 25, entered the league in 2012 as a second-round pick by the 49ers. Despite his draft pedigree, the Oregon product was never able to produce in San Francisco, and was virtually buried behind Frank Gore and Kendall Hunter on the team’s depth chart. James played in just 14 games during his first two seasons, contributing mostly on special teams — he racked up only 39 rush attempts and five receptions during that span. When he found himself behind Gore and rookie Carlos Hyde on the Niners’ depth chart this year, James requested and was granted his release.
By promoting James, the Dolphins will have four running backs on their active roster, with Lamar Miller, Daniel Thomas, and Damien Williams already on board. If the club doesn’t make any other changes to its 53-man roster this week, I’d expect to see an offensive lineman added to the practice squad to take James’ spot.
Teams With Most Salary On Injured Reserve
On Friday, we took a look at the league’s highest-paid players to land on season-ending injured reserve. As I explained in that post, teams have control over how they use their cap space, but have little control over players’ injuries, so if highly-paid players end up on injured reserve, clubs may have limited flexibility to adequately replace them.
The next logical step then is to examine which teams have been the hit the hardest overall by season-ending injuries this year. Of course, a player’s cap number doesn’t necessarily reflect his importance – many of the league’s best players are underpaid – but when clubs devote significant chunks of their cap room to certain players, having those guys go down with injuries can be hard to overcome.
Listed below are the 14 teams who currently have more than $10MM in player salaries on season-ending injured reserve. Players who received the designation to return when they were placed on IR aren’t taken into account here, since those players could still contribute this season. Additionally, players on practice squad IR lists aren’t included, and cap numbers rather than base salaries are considered when adding up a team’s total IR cap hit. Here’s the top 14:
- St. Louis Rams: $30,605,636 (seven players)
- New York Giants: $22,033,726 (12)
- Oakland Raiders: $21,844,733 (8)
- Washington: $15,984,975 (7)
- Tennessee Titans: $15,202,696 (7)
- Atlanta Falcons: $14,885,479 (7)
- Jacksonville Jaguars: $14,617,538 (10)
- Arizona Cardinals: $14,230,500 (4)
- Philadelphia Eagles: $12,858,000 (5)
- Miami Dolphins: $12,567,956 (8)
- Chicago Bears: $11,210,500 (4)
- Cleveland Browns: $11,147,375 (4)
- Dallas Cowboys: $11,121,121 (7)
- San Diego Chargers: $10,316,892 (7)
So is there any correlation between a team’s “dead money” on the injured reserve list and its record? On the whole, the 13 clubs on this list combine for a 52-65 record thus far, which isn’t great. However, it gets a whole lot worse when we separate the top half from the bottom half — the first seven teams on this list have combined for an incredibly dismal 14-44 record.
Would some of those teams have been cellar-dwellers even without injury problems? Most likely. It’s hard to imagine a team like the Raiders, for instance, as even a .500 squad if they’d stayed completely healthy. Still, a few of those clubs were expected to compete for playoff spots, and the fact that they’ve fallen well out of contention likely has at least something to do with how much of their cap space is currently being devoted to players who aren’t actually playing.
Information from Over The Cap was used in the creation of this post.
NFL Announces 2015 London Games
1:05pm: Per Albert Breer of the NFL Network (via Twitter), all six teams heading to London next year will have their bye weeks following their overseas games. The automatic bye for teams playing in London could be removed as soon as 2016, says Breer.
9:45am: The NFL has officially announced its three games scheduled to take place in London’s Wembley Stadium during the 2015 season. The Dolphins, Lions, and Jaguars will all be heading back to Europe after playing games there this season. Here’s the full schedule:
- Week 4 (October 4): Jets at Dolphins
- Week 7 (October 25): Bills at Jaguars
- Week 8 (November 1): Lions at Chiefs
The Daily Mail had previously reported that the league intended to increase the number of games in London next season from three to five, but it appears that’s not the case. Still, 2015’s lineup reflects the NFL’s desire to further experiment with the schedule and the stadium — games will be held in London on back-to-back weeks for the first time, and with three games bunched together in five weeks, the schedule will put Wembley Stadium’s playing surface to the test. The NFL’s international chief, Mark Waller, explained earlier this season why such changes were coming.
“I’m less focused on going from three (games) to four, four to five, five to six,” Waller said in September. “Can we do back-to-back games? Will the surface hold up? Can we start sending teams there without the bye attached? It’s not about the number anymore. … We’re at a place now where if we continue to do the job with the fans, the fan base will grow, and we’ll be able to have a team (in London). The questions now are logistical.”
While the NFL’s full schedule for 2015 has yet to be announced, it’s worth keeping an eye on whether any of the teams visiting London will do so without having their bye the following week, as Waller suggests.
Additionally, the Jets/Dolphins game in Week 4 represents the first time a divisional matchup has been held in London. The decision by Dolphins ownership to give up a divisional home game is already being panned by local media.
Minor Moves: Monday
As teams deal with Week 9 injuries and look ahead to Week 10, we can expect to see several clubs tweak the backs of their 53-man rosters and their practice squads. Here are Monday’s latest minor transactions:
- The Dolphins have placed safety Michael Thomas on injured reserve after he suffered a significant chest injury in Sunday’s game, according to Aaron Wilson of the Baltimore Sun (Twitter link). To take his place on the roster, Miami signed fellow S Jordan Kovacs off the Eagles’ practice squad, per Armando Salguero of the Miami Herald (via Twitter). The Fins will also add tight end Jake Stoneburner to its taxi squad, tweets Salguero.
- Two Buccaneers players, defensive end Da’Quan Bowers and fullback Jorvorskie Lane, have been reinstated from the suspended list, according to Howard Balzer (Twitter link).
- The Buccaneers have waived defensive tackle Matthew Masifilo, reports Caplan (on Twitter). The 2012 undrafted free agent played in one game this season for Tampa Bay.
- Because return man Trindon Holliday was waived/injured, and has now cleared waivers, he has reverted to the Buccaneers’ injured reserve list, according to Wilson (on Twitter).
- More Bucs news, as the club has made several changes to its practice squad. Tampa added linebacker Denicos Allen and tight end Ted Bolser to its taxi squad, while cutting fullback Lonnie Pryor and linebacker Mister Alexander, says Scott Smith of Buccaneers.com (via Twitter).
- To make room for Square (referenced below), the Chargers have cut safety Adrian Phillips, who was just signed on Saturday, per Wilson (Twitter link).
- The Bengals announced several changes to its practice squad, tweets Coley Harvey of ESPN.com. We learned earlier today that linebacker Khairi Fortt was lost to the Jaguars, but the team also cut tight end Kevin Greene. To replace them, Cincinnati signed tight end Jake Murphy and linebacker Justin Jackson.
- The Cardinals have re-signed defensive tackle Bruce Gaston, who was let go on Saturday, to their taxi squad, according to Darren Urban of AZCardinals.com (on Twitter).
- The Jets have made an addition to their PS, bringing in receiver Chris Owusu, per Brian Costello of the New York Post (Twitter link). Owusu caught 13 balls for the Buccaneers last season.
Earlier updates:
- Defensive end Damion Square, who was cut by the Chiefs on Saturday, has been claimed off waivers by the division-rival Chargers, according to Michael Gehlken of the San Diego Union-Tribune (via Twitter). San Diego doesn’t have an open roster spot, so the team will need to make a corresponding move for the transaction to become official.
- The Bills have filled their lone open roster spot by claiming safety Jerome Couplin off waivers from the Lions, per Mike Rodak of ESPN.com (via Twitter).
- The Lions have made a few changes to their practice squad, according to Tim Twentyman of DetroitLions.com, who tweets that the team has added tight end Jordan Thompson, cornerback Trevin Wade, and defensive tackle Roy Philon, releasing tight end Ifeanyi Momah.
- After working them out earlier, the Vikings have signed quarterback Pat Devlin and tight end Rashaun Allen to their taxi squad, according to Matt Vensel of the Minneapolis Star Tribune (via Twitter). To make space on the unit, the team moved quarterback Chandler Harnish to the practice squad IR list and cut tight end Ryan Otten.
- Fullback Michael Zordich has signed with the Saints‘ practice squad, according to his agency, Tier 1 Sports Management (Twitter link).
- The Buccaneers are set to sign tackle Matt Patchan to their practice squad, reports Adam Caplan of ESPN.com (via Twitter).