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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

Saints To Bring Back RB Latavius Murray

September 13th, 2022 at 3:57pm CST by Sam Robinson

Latavius Murray is back with the Saints. The former Alvin Kamara backup agreed to return to the team, via a practice squad agreement, on Tuesday.

The veteran running back spent the 2019 and 2020 seasons in New Orleans, working alongside Kamara for playoff-bound Saints squads. The Saints released Murray just before last season started, leading him to the Ravens. Murray, 32, did not spend training camp with a team this year.

Kamara is now battling a rib injury, and the Saints spent the offseason with their backup running back position on the radar. Despite being connected to veterans, most notably David Johnson, the team moved into the regular season with its incumbent backups. Mark Ingram, 3297, resides as Kamara’s top understudy. Dwayne Washington and Tony Jones are the other running backs on New Orleans’ active roster.

A former Raiders starter who has made a nice career out of backup/1-B running back duty in his post-Oakland years, Murray was productive for the Saints during his first stint. He totaled 1,293 rushing yards and nine touchdowns in two New Orleans seasons. The Saints missed Murray last year, with Kamara missing a handful of midseason games due to injury. With the Ravens, Murray amassed 501 rushing yards (4.2 per carry) and six touchdowns.

If Murray is bumped up to New Orleans’ active roster, the Saints will be the rare team to roster two 30-something backs. Murray, whom the Raiders chose in the 2014 sixth round, has made 69 career starts. Ingram has 97 starts on his resume. Kamara already entered the season as a candidate to miss time, due to a February assault charge, but it is unclear if a suspension will come in 2022 or 2023. Kamara’s injury issue has moved the Saints to make preparations.

NFL Practice Squad Updates: 9/12/22

September 12th, 2022 at 7:41pm CST by Ely Allen

Today’s practice squad moves from around the NFL:

Atlanta Falcons

Chicago Bears

Houston Texans

Jacksonville Jaguars

New Orleans Saints

New York Giants

Tennessee Titans

NFL Workouts: DT Corey Peters, CB Jimmy Moreland

September 11th, 2022 at 6:01pm CST by Ely Allen

Two teams looked at some veteran free agents in the week leading up to the season opener:

  • With top run-stopper Folorunso Fatukasi being limited in practice all week going into the first game of the season, the Jaguars decided to audition another defensive tackle in veteran Corey Peters on Thursday, according to ESPN’s Field Yates. Peters has spent all of his 11-year career with two teams after being drafted by the Falcons and spending the past six seasons with the Cardinals. When healthy, he’s been a strong starter and a reliable contributor for both squads. Unfortunately for Peters, Fatukasi ended up being just well enough to play against the Commanders in Jacksonville’s season opener, so Peters’ talents were not necessary.
  • The Saints went into Week 1 of the season with three healthy cornerbacks as last year’s impressive rookie, Paulson Adebo, remains out with an ankle injury suffered in practice and cornerback C.J. Gardner-Johnson was surprisingly traded a little under two weeks ago. In response, the team worked out veteran Jimmy Moreland on Thursday, according to Aaron Wilson of Pro Football Network. Moreland has spent time in Philadelphia, Houston, and Washington, where he started 10 games in his first two seasons. Ultimately, New Orleans passed on his services, deciding to depend on a combination of Marshon Lattimore, Bradley Roby, P.J. Williams, and Alontae Taylor on defense.

2022 Offseason In Review Series

September 10th, 2022 at 10:46pm CST by Sam Robinson

This season will feature 12 new Week 1 starting quarterbacks, though the Jets’ decision is the result of an injury rather than a roster move. High-profile wide receivers also changed teams, igniting one of the biggest market shifts a single position has seen. The Offseason In Review series is now complete. Here are the PFR staff’s looks at how the 32 NFL teams assembled their 2022 rosters.

AFC East

AFC North

AFC South

AFC West

NFC East

NFC North

NFC South

NFC West

Minor NFL Transactions: 9/10/22

September 10th, 2022 at 7:20pm CST by Adam La Rose

Today’s minor moves around the league, as teams prepare for the first Sunday slate of regular season games:

Arizona Cardinals

Atlanta Falcons

Baltimore Ravens

Carolina Panthers

Chicago Bears

Cleveland Browns

Dallas Cowboys

Detroit Lions

Green Bay Packers

Houston Texans

Indianapolis Colts

Kansas City Chiefs

Las Vegas Raiders

Los Angeles Chargers

Miami Dolphins

Minnesota Vikings

New England Patriots

New Orleans Saints

New York Giants

New York Jets

Philadelphia Eagles

San Francisco 49ers

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Tennessee Titans

The Cardinals’ moves come as a reaction to yesterday’s injury news. Baccellia’s roster spot was opened up in the short-term by the injury to Rondale Moore, but he won’t simply be a stop-gap. Arizona signed the 25-year-old to a two-year deal to remain on the main roster, per Aaron Wilson of Pro Football Network (Twitter link). A UDFA out of Washington, Baccellia has yet to make a regular season NFL appearance.

Likewise, the fact that Ford will miss at least the first four weeks of the season makes the re-acquisition of Garcia a logical one. The former fourth-rounder has plenty of guard experience, including his three seasons spent in Arizona. It was only in 2021 that he logged any starts, but he could provide veteran depth behind Justin Pugh at least until Ford is able to return.

Addison, 35, was one of several veteran signings the Texans made this offseason to add depth to their front seven. He had a productive season with the Bills last season, notching seven sacks despite not starting any games. In his absence, Harris and Pierre-Louis will provide depth in the edge rush department on Sunday, and likely the short-term future as well.

Quick reminder that standard game day practice squad promotions are a recent development from the new CBA and COVID-19 seasons. Essentially, each team is able to promote two players from the practice squad to the active roster for game days. The players will automatically revert back to the practice squad after the game, not needing to clear waivers before rejoining the developmental roster. A player can only be promoted three times per season. If a team would like to promote a player for a fourth game, they’ll need to go through the normal method of creating space on the 53-man roster to promote them and have them clear waivers before placing them back on the practice squad. That is the difference between “Signed to 53-man roster” from the practice squad and “Promoted from practice squad.”

Minor NFL Transactions: 9/8/22

September 8th, 2022 at 6:09pm CST by Ben Levine

Today’s minor moves:

Atlanta Falcons

Green Bay Packers

New Orleans Saints

Philadelphia Eagles

Seattle Seahawks

Saints, C Erik McCoy Agree To Extension

September 8th, 2022 at 4:03pm CST by Adam La Rose

The Saints have taken care of an important piece of business just before the beginning of the season. New Orleans has reached agreement with center Erik McCoy on a five-year extension worth up to $63.75MM (Twitter link via Mike Garafolo of NFL Network). 

Garafolo adds that the deal – which was confirmed by McCoy’s agents – also includes over $40MM in guaranteed money. The 2019 second-rounder had one season remaining on his rookie contract, so this new deal will keep him in New Orleans through 2028. His level of play since his arrival in the league made an extension such as this one a distinct possibility.

McCoy, 25, has been a full-time starter since his rookie season, when he earned a PFF grade of 78. He played a full schedule once again the following season, though his rating fell that year to 69.4. In 2021, the Texas A&M product took another step back in PFF’s eyes, ranking 23rd in the league amongst centers. McCoy also missed the first action of his career, being sidelined for five games due to a calf strain.

As Garafolo notes, this new deal will make McCoy the highest-earning center who has yet to be named a Pro Bowler. Overall, the $12.75MM yearly average of the contract will rank him fourth in the league amongst centers in terms of compensation, only slightly behind Jason Kelce, Frank Ragnow and Ryan Jensen.

McCoy has been able to maintain his spot in the middle of the Saints’ o-line despite the team drafting Cesar Ruiz in the first round of the 2020 draft. New Orleans’ investment in him points to McCoy remaining at the pivot, as the team begins life without Pro Bowl left tackle Terron Armstead. Even without the latter, the Saints should still have a strong unit up front on the right side in particular with McCoy, Ruiz and Ryan Ramczyk. 

It remains to be seen if this new deal will affect McCoy’s 2022 cap hit, which currently sits at $3.4MM. The Saints made a slew of moves this spring to reach cap compliance, but they entered today with less than $3MM to work with. Over the life of the contract, though, McCoy could prove to be worth the commitment as the Saints look to keep as many of their top young players on the books for the long term as possible.

Latest On Saints OL Trevor Penning

September 7th, 2022 at 8:25pm CST by Ben Levine

Trevor Penning and the Saints got some good news this week. The first-round offensive tackle could return from his foot injury by early November, according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport (on Twitter). Saints coach Dennis Allen also provided some optimism, telling reporters that there’s hope the first-round pick will be able to play at some point this season, per ESPN’s Mike Triplett (on Twitter).

Even if he’s not ready to play by early November, Rapoport estimates that Penning should be healthy enough to practice. Either way, it sounds like the lineman should be good to go for the stretch run of the season, something that didn’t seem likely when we first learned of the rookie’s foot injury.

Penning initially suffered what was thought to be a “bad case of turf toe” during New Orleans’ preseason finale, but it was later revealed that the lineman suffered a ligament tear in his injured foot. Considering the timing and severity of the injury (plus the organization’s investment in the lineman), there was some fear that Penning may have to miss his entire rookie campaign.

The Northern Iowa product was selected by the Saints with the 19th-overall pick in this year’s draft, and he was expected to replace the departed Terron Armstead in the starting lineup. The rookie made headlines during training camp when he got into fights with teammates for three consecutive days. James Hurst was expected to start at LT even before Penning suffered his injury, and when the rookie returns, there’s a chance he’ll have to settle into a backup role.

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