NFL Practice Squad Updates: 12/17/19
We’ll keep track of today’s practice squad moves here:
Denver Broncos
- Signed: S P.J. Locke, DL Jay-Tee Tiuli
Detroit Lions
- Signed: LB Christian Sam, DT Olive Sagapolu
Jacksonville Jaguars
- Signed: DE Dewayne Hendrix, RB Jeremy McNichols
New York Giants
- Signed: OT Nate Wozniak
New York Jets
- Signed: WR Keon Hatcher
Tennessee Titans
- Signed: CB Kareem Orr
Giants Place Evan Engram On IR
Evan Engram‘s season is officially over. The Giants are placing the talented young tight end on injured reserve with a couple of games left in the year, the team announced Tuesday.
To take his place on the active roster, they promoted receiver David Sills from the practice squad. Engram hadn’t played since a November 4th game against the Cowboys, but New York had been holding out hope for a late-season comeback. Engram is dealing with a foot sprain and got a second opinion on the injury about a month ago. He’ll finish his third season as a pro with 44 catches for 467 yards and three touchdowns across eight games.
A first-round pick out of Ole Miss back in 2017, the Giants will have to decide on his fifth-year option this offseason. Given his production when healthy, it seems like a no-brainer that they’ll pick it up. Engram missed five games due to injury last year, but has been one of the league’s better tight ends when available. As a rookie he had 722 yards and six touchdowns in 15 games, great numbers for a first-year tight end.
The Giants have obviously been having a disappointing season, with plenty of injuries on offense. The 23rd overall pick in 2017, Engram turned 25 in September. Sills is a rookie UDFA from West Virginia who originally signed with the Bills. After Buffalo waived him at final cuts, he latched on with New York’s practice squad.
Janoris Jenkins Expected To Join Playoff Contender
The Giants waived veteran CB Janoris Jenkins on Friday, and sources tell Adam Schefter of ESPN.com that Jenkins is expected to land with a playoff contender shortly and could be playing as soon as next weekend.
The machinations of that remain a little unclear. If a team were to claim Jenkins off waivers, it would be responsible for the roughly $1.2MM that Jenkins is still owed for 2019, and it would technically be obligated to pay him $11.25MM in 2020, but that amount is completely non-guaranteed.
As such, a club that makes a claim on Jenkins is not putting itself at too much financial risk, though teams may prefer to wait until he clears waivers and sign him as a free agent. But as Schefter writes, if Jenkins clears waivers on Monday, he would revert to the Giants’ injured reserve list since he is nursing a minor ankle injury. That means that New York would have to waive him off of IR — which the team would be expected to do — but then Jenkins would be on waivers again until Tuesday.
Regardless, it sounds like the 31-year-old will generate plenty of interest, with the Texans and Chiefs named as potential landing spots. Jenkins logged 84 tackles and matched a career-high of four interceptions through 13 games this year, and across four years with the G-Men, Jackrabbit came away with 12 INTs and one Pro Bowl nod (2016).
Eli Manning To Start In Week 15
- Giants fans eager for perhaps one final Eli Manning start at MetLife Stadium will be pleased Sunday. Daniel Jones will be given another week off due to his high ankle sprain, keeping Manning in the starting lineup for a Week 15 home tilt against the Dolphins. The 38-year-old quarterback threw two touchdown passes and did not turn the ball over on a rainy night against the Eagles, following an 11-game stretch featuring at least one Jones turnover. The Giants currently stand in the No. 2 overall draft slot, so Sunday’s game against the 3-10 Dolphins — with the 3-10 Redskins and 3-9-1 Lions and Cardinals looming — will be important for draft positioning.
- Cut from the Giants largely because of a non-apology apology for using the word “retard” in a tweet to a fan, Janoris Jenkins is on the waiver wire this weekend. During an interview with TMZ, the veteran cornerback was more contrite. “It’s always a learning moment, man. Everybody’s going to learn from different situations … move forward and learn,” Jenkins said. “You just admit to it. Admit that you did wrong, which I did.” This, of course, comes at a time when Jenkins would prefer a team claim the balance of his five-year, $62.5MM contract. The 31-year-old defender is due to carry a non-guaranteed $10.15MM base salary in 2020. Envisioning a team claiming that seems difficult at this point.
Giants Cut Janoris Jenkins
The Giants have released cornerback Janoris Jenkins. The move comes hours after Jenkins used the “r-word” and issued something of a non-apology apology. 
“This was an organizational decision,” coach Pat Shurmur said. “From ownership to management to our football operations, we felt it was in the best interests of the franchise and the player. Obviously, what happened this week, and the refusal to acknowledge the inappropriate and offensive language, was the determining factor.”
Rumors have swirled about Jenkins’ status with the team for some time now and his use of an offensive term proved to be the final straw. For his part, Jackrabbit has been frustrated by the constant talk coupled with a lack of communication from the front office about his future. Prior to the trade deadline this year, the Giants discussed deals for the veteran cornerback, but did not find a suitable deal.
Because the release comes after the trade deadline, Jenkins will be subject to the waiver wire, even though he is a vested veteran. Any team claiming Jenkins would be responsible for the prorated portion of his $10.15MM salary for 2019. He’s also due $11.25M in the last year of his deal in 2020, including a $1MM roster bonus in March, but it’s completely non-guaranteed. Playoff teams could give real consideration to Jenkins, if they’re willing to withstand the PR backlash.
Jenkins, 31, logged 84 tackles and matched a career-high of four interceptions through 13 games this year. Across four years with the G-Men, Jackrabbit came away with 12 INTs and one Pro Bowl nod (2016).
NFC East Notes: Shurmur, Vander Esch, Eagles
Giants head coach Pat Shurmur is clearly on the hot seat, and everything we have heard this year suggests that he could be fired at season’s end. And as Paul Schwartz of the New York Post writes, the sentiment for bringing Shurmur back for the 2020 season is dimming within the organization because there is simply no concrete reason to suggest that he should be retained. Previous reports indicated that Shurmur could keep his job simply for the sake of giving young QB Daniel Jones some continuity, but Schwartz says the cons of keeping Shurmur outweigh that potential pro.
Schwartz does not offer an update on Big Blue’s plans for GM Dave Gettleman, and the fact that the Giants have historically practiced patience with their GMs and knew that they were tasking Gettleman with a rebuilding job could mean that he is safe for 2020. But will the team trust him to hire another HC since the Shurmur hire has flopped, or will ownership just clean house and start afresh? All options are definitely on the table.
Let’s take a swing around the NFC East:
- Cowboys linebacker Leighton Vander Esch has not played since November 17 due to a neck injury, and while there has been some improvement, the 23-year-old is still not ready to practice, as Todd Archer of ESPN.com writes. The club is not ready to put Vander Esch on IR just yet, but it sounds like that could be a possibility.
- The Eagles may have lost WR Alshon Jeffery for the season, and as Bo Wulf and Zach Berman of The Athletic write, Nelson Agholor‘s status remains up in the air. Agholor sat out the team’s Monday night win with a knee injury, so Philly may need to make more than one WR roster move. Old friend Jordan Matthews just signed with the 49ers, so Berman believes it’s more likely that the team will promote one or two of their taxi squad wideouts than sign a free agent. Wulf, though, names a few players on other practice squads that the Eagles could poach.
- Speaking of Jeffery, Eliot Shorr-Parks of 94WIP.com says the Eagles have no choice but to release the veteran wideout if they cannot find a trade partner for him (which seems highly unlikely). Because the team guaranteed Jeffery’s 2020 salary earlier this year in order to create more cap room, cutting Jeffery will result in an enormous dead cap number of over $26MM in 2020. That seems like an impossible pill to swallow, even if the club were to designate him as a post-June 1 cut to spread out the dead cap money over two years, but Shorr-Parks believes the team will indeed cut Jeffery if he cannot be traded.
2020 NFL Draft Order As Of Week 15
With 14 full weeks of the NFL season in the books, the 2020 draft order is beginning to take shape. Here’s the rundown of where things would stand if the 2019 season ended today:
1. Bengals: 1-12
2. Giants: 2-11
3. Redskins: 3-10
4. Dolphins: 3-10
5. Lions: 3-9-1
6. Cardinals: 3-9-1
7. Jaguars: 4-9
8. Falcons: 4-9
9. Jets: 5-8
10. Chargers: 5-8
11. Broncos 5-8
12. Panthers 5-8
13. Eagles 6-7
14. Raiders 6-7
15. Colts 6-7
16. Buccaneers 6-7
17. Browns 6-7
18. Raiders (via Bears) 6-7
19. Titans 8-5
20. Jaguars (via Rams) 8-5
21. Cowboys 6-7
22. Dolphins (via Steelers) 8-5
23. Dolphins (via Texans) 8-5
24. Vikings 9-4
25. Bills 9-4
26. Chiefs 9-4
27. Packers 10-3
28. Seahawks 10-3
29. Patriots 10-3
30. Saints 10-3
31. Ravens 11-2
32. 49ers 11-2
NFC East Notes: Manning, Redskins, Cowboys
Giants QB Eli Manning said back in April that he wants to continue playing in 2020, and as Jordan Raanan of ESPN.com writes, the soon-to-be 39-year-old has not deviated from that stance. Manning, who was benched in favor of rookie Daniel Jones following New York’s Week 2 loss to Buffalo, is slated to start for the Giants on Monday night due to Jones’ ankle injury. And, as Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets, Jones’ injury could force him to miss 2-4 weeks, so Manning could end up finishing out the season for Big Blue.
Manning’s contract with the Giants expires at the end of the year, and he knows he will need to go elsewhere if he wants to continue playing. However, he doesn’t want to just collect a paycheck, he wants to start, and he wants to start for a team that has at least some chance of cracking the postseason. Given that the 2020 QB market could be unusually strong, Manning may have a tough time finding such an opportunity, though his odds of doing so would improve dramatically if he plays well down the stretch.
Now for more from the NFC East:
- The Redskins will be looking for a new HC this offseason, and Albert Breer of SI.com says several high-profile candidates have told Washington they will not go there if the structure of the organization does not change. It’s unclear exactly what that means, though head of football operations Bruce Allen would definitely scare away some candidates if he remains. Redskins owner Dan Snyder is considering parting ways with Allen, and he may have to do even more to attract the type of big-name coach that he is looking for.
- The Cowboys have real interest in Urban Meyer as their next head coach, and Jon Machota of The Athletic offers a list of candidates that Dallas should take a look at. Meyer is at the top of the list, and despite the fact that the Saints just gave Sean Payton a healthy extension, Machota expects Jerry Jones to “try anything possible” to bring Payton to Dallas. Machota also names the recently-fired Ron Rivera as a possibility, though Rivera will surely attract plenty of interest from other clubs in need of an HC.
- Redskins RB Derrius Guice is believed to have suffered an MCL sprain during Sunday’s loss to the Packers, and he may be done for the season.
- Giants DL Leonard Williams believes he should be paid “top-tier money,” and if he doesn’t get it from New York, he is prepared to test the open market in 2020.
Leonard Williams Prepared To Hit Free Agency
It sounds as though Giants DL Leonard Williams is prepared to hit free agency. As Darryl Slater of NJ.com writes, Williams said that if the Giants don’t offer him “top-tier money,” he is going to test the open market in 2020.
Williams’ feelings are certainly understandable. Big Blue is in the midst of a rebuild, and Williams — who was traded from the Jets to the Giants prior to this year’s trade deadline — is tired of losing. He has played in 11 games this year between the two clubs, and his team won just one of those games. Over the past three-plus seasons, Williams’ teams have gone 15-44, and he wants to play for a winner.
Of course, if the price is right, he may be willing to stomach a few more losses. “I know that I want to get a big contract, and I know that I am worth a lot,” Williams said. “If I don’t think [the Giants are] giving me what I think I’m worth, then obviously I think hitting free agency would make sense.”
Williams, whom the Jets selected with the No. 6 overall pick of the 2015 draft, concedes that his play does not merit Aaron Donald money, but he does not believe he is too far removed from Donald’s level. That suggests that he could be eyeing something like Grady Jarrett‘s recent four-year, $68MM ($38MM fully-guaranteed) deal with the Falcons.
The problem is that any of Williams’ potential suitors would need to believe that he can start converting his quarterback hits into more sacks before they pay him top dollar. He has 97 QB hits in his career, but he has just 17 sacks to show for it. He also has not made much of an impact in the running game, having recorded just one tackle for loss this season. Simply put, he looks like a solid starter who could become more if he is paired with a Pro Bowl-caliber talent on the defensive line.
When Giants GM Dave Gettleman swung the trade for Williams, it raised a few eyebrows given Williams’ status as a pending FA and New York’s status as a non-contender. Gettleman sent a third- and fifth-round draft choice to the Jets in the deal, picks that increase in value with each Giants loss. Plus, the fifth-rounder could become a fourth-rounder if Big Blue re-signs Williams. As Ryan Dunleavy of the New York Post observes, Gettleman has shown an ability to cut his losses rather than compound mistakes, so it will be interesting to see if he is willing to move on from Williams rather than bank on his upside and potentially pay him more than he is worth.
The Giants have exclusive negotiating rights with Williams until March 16.
Giants, P Riley Dixon Agree To Extension
The Giants have agreed to a three-year, $8.7MM extension with punter Riley Dixon, as Jordan Raanan of ESPN.com reports (Twitter links). Dixon has averaged 47 yards per punt in 2019 — sixth-best in the NFL and a career-high for Dixon — and he may be the most consistent player on New York’s roster this year.
The Broncos drafted Dixon in the seventh round of the 2016 draft, and he served as Denver’s punter from 2016-17 before New York acquired him for a conditional seventh-rounder in April 2018 (the Broncos had recently signed Marquette King, which made Dixon expendable). Other teams were interested in Dixon, who won the Giants’ punting job in 2018 and who was eligible for unrestricted free agency this offseason.
The $2.9MM average annual value on Dixon’s new deal doesn’t make him the highest-paid punter in the game, but it does put him in the top-five. His extension is one order of business for the Giants to scratch off their list in advance of what should be an intriguing offseason.