Las Vegas Raiders News & Rumors

NFL Practice Squad Updates: 9/30/25

Today’s practice squad moves:

Arizona Cardinals

Baltimore Ravens

Cleveland Browns

Dallas Cowboys

Detroit Lions

Jacksonville Jaguars

Las Vegas Raiders

Los Angeles Chargers

Minnesota Vikings

New England Patriots

New York Jets

Philadelphia Eagles

  • Released: LB Lance Dixon

Seattle Seahawks

NFL Minor Transactions: 9/30/25

Today’s minor moves:

Carolina Panthers

Green Bay Packers

Houston Texans

Indianapolis Colts

Las Vegas Raiders

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Raiders To Place LT Kolton Miller On IR

Kolton Miller signed a second Raiders extension this offseason, locking in the Jon Gruden-era draftee for the long term under yet another new Las Vegas power structure. But the new regime will have a look at what a Miller-less offensive line looks like for a while.

The Raiders are placing Miller on IR, NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport reports. An MRI on Miller’s ankle revealed a high ankle sprain and a hairline fracture, per RapSheet. This move will park the Raiders tackle for at least four games, leading to big changes up front.

This will ensure Miller matches his career high in missed games. He missed four in 2023; otherwise, Miller has been a reliable piece on a Raiders O-line that continues to see turnover. The eighth-year blocker is signed to a three-year, $66MM extension — after angling for a new deal during the offseason.

Pete Carroll said Monday the Raiders would turn to Stone Forsythe, one of the new HC’s former Seahawks charges, if Miller missed time. The Raiders will go from a 111-start player to one whom the Giants waived upon moving their roster to 53 players last month. The Raiders quickly scooped up Forsythe for their 16-man practice squad and have used him as a backup in four games thus far.

Miller, 30, went down shortly before the Raiders’ game-winning field goal attempt against the Bears. He played 17 games last season, and the Raiders’ solutions when Miller went down in 2023 is no longer rostered. Both Justin Herron and Jermaine Eluemunor, each an ex-Patriot brought in during Josh McDaniels‘ short HC stint, started in place of Miller in 2023. Forsythe represents one option, with Carroll adding rookie Charles Grant could push for playing time. The third-round pick out of Division I-FCS, however, has been inactive all season.

The Raiders used two Day 2 picks on O-linemen last year — Jackson Powers-Johnson, DJ Glaze — and doubled down to start the Carroll-John SpytekTom Brady era by drafting Caleb Rogers and Grant at Nos. 98 and 99. Neither rookie blocker has been active this season. Grant comes from William & Mary, and the team gave him work at both tackle spots during his first NFL offseason. Glaze sits as the Raiders’ RT starter, while Rogers is another backup option.

This could certainly be a big loss for Vegas, as Miller is one of the NFL’s better tackles. Through four games, Pro Football Focus ranks the 6-foot-8 blocker fourth among all tackles. ESPN’s pass block win rate metric slots Miller ninth this season. PFF graded Miller as a top-15 tackle in each of the previous four seasons. A former Seahawks fourth-rounder, Forsythe has made 14 career starts. He logged 213 left tackle snaps in 2023, but all of his 2024 action came on the right side.

2025 Injured Reserve Return Tracker

The 2024 offseason brought a change in how teams could construct their 53-man rosters while retaining flexibility with injured players. Clubs were permitted to attach return designations to two players (in total) placed on IR or an NFI list before setting their initial rosters.

In prior years, anyone placed on IR before a team set its initial 53-man roster could not be activated in-season. All August 26 IR- or NFI-return designations, however, already count against teams’ regular-season limit of eight. Teams will be tasked with determining which players injured in-season will factor into activation puzzles as the year progresses.

All players designated for return on August 26 are eligible to be activated beginning in Week 5, though any player placed on IR after a team set its initial 53 has not been designated for return and therefore does not yet count toward a club’s eight-activation limit. Playoff teams will receive two additional injury activations at that point.

Here is how the 32 teams’ activation puzzles look for Week 5:

Arizona Cardinals

Designated for return (Aug. 26):

Eligible for activation:

Activations remaining: 6

Atlanta Falcons

Designated for return (Aug. 26):

Eligible for activation:

Activations remaining: 6

Baltimore Ravens

Designated for return (Aug. 26):

Activations remaining: 6

Buffalo Bills

Designated for return (Aug. 26):

Activations remaining: 6

Carolina Panthers

Designated for return (Aug. 26):

Activations remaining: 7

Chicago Bears

Designated for return (Aug. 26):

Eligible for activation:

Activations remaining: 6

Cincinnati Bengals

Designated for return (Aug. 26):

Activations remaining: 6

Cleveland Browns

Designated for return (Aug. 26):

Activations remaining: 7

Dallas Cowboys

Designated for return (Aug. 26):

Designated for return:

Eligible for activation:

Activations remaining: 6

Denver Broncos

Designated for return (Aug. 26):

Eligible for activation:

Activations remaining: 7

Detroit Lions

Eligible for activation:

Activations remaining: 8

Green Bay Packers

Designated for return (Aug. 26):

Activations remaining: 6

Houston Texans

Designated for return (Aug. 26):

Activations remaining: 7

Indianapolis Colts

Designated for return (Aug. 26):

Activations remaining: 7

Jacksonville Jaguars

Designated for return (Aug. 26):

Activations remaining: 7

Kansas City Chiefs

Designated for return (Aug. 26):

Activations remaining: 6

Las Vegas Raiders

Designated for return (Aug. 26):

Activations remaining: 7

Los Angeles Chargers

Designated for return (Aug. 26):

Activations remaining: 6

Los Angeles Rams

Activations remaining: 8

Miami Dolphins

Designated for return (Aug. 26):

Activations remaining: 6

Minnesota Vikings

Designated for return (Aug. 26):

Activations remaining: 6

New England Patriots

Designated for return (Aug. 26):

Activations remaining: 7

New Orleans Saints

Designated for return (Aug. 26):

Activations remaining: 6

New York Giants

Designated for return (Aug. 26):

Eligible for activation:

Activations remaining: 7

New York Jets

Designated for return (Aug. 26):

Activations remaining: 7

Philadelphia Eagles

Designated for return (Aug. 26):

Eligible for activation:

Activations remaining: 7

Pittsburgh Steelers

Designated for return (Aug. 26):

Eligible for activation:

Activations remaining: 7

San Francisco 49ers

Designated for return (Aug. 26):

Activations remaining: 7

Seattle Seahawks

Designated for return (Aug. 26):

Activations remaining: 7

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Activations remaining: 8

Tennessee Titans

Designated for return (Aug. 26):

Activations remaining: 7

Washington Commanders

Activations remaining: 8

Minor NFL Transactions: 9/27/25

Here are Saturday’s minor moves and standard gameday practice squad elevations:

Buffalo Bills

Carolina Panthers

Chicago Bears

Cleveland Browns

Dallas Cowboys

Detroit Lions

Green Bay Packers

Houston Texans

Indianapolis Colts

Jacksonville Jaguars

Kansas City Chiefs

Las Vegas Raiders

Los Angeles Chargers

Minnesota Vikings

New England Patriots

New Orleans Saints

Pittsburgh Steelers

San Francisco 49ers

Tennessee Titans

Washington Commanders

With Colts cornerback Kenny Moore presumed to potentially miss a few weeks, the recent signee, Hilton, will get his opportunity to supplement the team’s secondary. He may be able to earn an official spot on the 53-man roster with an impactful game. Similarly, Cropper may be able to get into his first NFL game since going undrafted in 2023 as he gets elevated to a receiving corps that will sorely miss CeeDee Lamb.

Morris is getting called up for the third time for Jacksonville. If the Jaguars intend for him to appear in another game after this week, they’ll need to sign him to the 53-man roster.

Geno Smith, Pete Carroll Discussed QB’s Seahawks Contract Frustration In 2024; Smith Expected Raiders Pursuit

After making a push for a Seahawks extension last year and not receiving it, Geno Smith admitted he felt out of place in Seattle. The three-year starter also played for a coaching staff that did not bring him in; that proved to be a significant factor regarding Smith’s 2024 approach and his long-term future in the Pacific Northwest.

Previously mentioned as having talked to Pete Carroll during his final Seahawks season, Smith discussed contract frustration with his former HC. This was an interesting strategy, seeing as Carroll held final roster say when Smith had signed his three-year, $75MM deal in 2023. But the communication between Smith and Carroll, whom the Seahawks had fired after the 2023 season, proved important.

I was frustrated with my situation there. I was severely underpaid and thinking, ‘I should be getting the market or something close to it,’” Smith said, via SI.com’s Albert Breer. “I had talks with John Schneider, and he had talks with the higher-ups, and it just wasn’t gonna happen. And it disappointed me so much, and I didn’t know who to reach out to or to talk to. So I reached out to coach [Carroll], and he was there for me.

Going into his third season as Seattle’s starter, Smith pushed for an offseason raise. With two years left on the deal agreed to during Carroll’s final year in charge, the Seahawks rebuffed their starting QB and kept him on the $25MM-per-year contract. Smith entered last season as the NFL’s 20th-highest-paid passer.

Smith’s age hurt his chances of landing a market-value deal, though frustration surfacing in 2024 made sense due to the contracts given out last year. Middling QBs Trevor Lawrence, Jordan Love and Tua Tagovailoa had each entered the $50MM-per-year club. All three more that doubled Smith in AAV. Smith’s Seahawks deal was also well south of the contracts Daniel Jones and Derek Carr were playing on at that point, and the Seattle pact morphed into a pay-as-you-go structure after 2023. But with the Seahawks controlling his rights through the 2025 season, he had little option but to play out the 2024 campaign on the lower-middle-class deal.

Carroll and Smith still texted throughout the season, Breer adds, and the QB saw the Super Bowl-winning HC’s Raiders arrival as a clear sign a reunion would commence. The Seahawks traded Smith to the Raiders for a third-round pick, with the team having offered him a deal in the ballpark of the three-year, $100.5MM proposal Sam Darnold later accepted. Schneider said the Smith negotiations did not last long, leading to the March trade pivot.

When Carroll signed here, I knew he would be coming for me, and it was a matter of time before that happened,” Smith said, via ESPN.com’s Ryan McFadden. “The other options [I had], I kind of took them off the table. I looked at their offers, and they were decent offers, but I wanted to be with coach Carroll.”

Smith joined the Raiders after their failed Matthew Stafford trade pursuit, and after minority owner Tom Brady was believed to be uninterested in Darnold as a free agent. Rather than give strong consideration to a Carroll-Russell Wilson reunion, the Raiders made the Smith trade days before free agency. A month later, the parties agreed on a two-year, $75MM extension.

This is a markup from Smith’s Seattle terms, though it comes after the cap spiked by nearly $55MM from 2023-25. Between Smith’s 2023 Seattle contract and his 2025 Vegas agreement, a host of QB deals transpired. As a result, Smith entered this season as the NFL’s 17th-highest-paid passer. The Raiders did move him past Darnold and Baker Mayfield among the league’s middle-class QB1 sector, and Smith received far more fully guaranteed ($58.5MM) than Darnold had from the Seahawks ($37.5MM). Though, Darnold can lock in an additional $17.5MM if on the Seahawks’ roster by mid-February.

Even if Smith (35 in October) is highly unlikely to land an upper-crust QB deal, he has completed a career revival after a nomadic period as a backup. The league thought so little of him in 2019 that the Seahawks cut him to reorganize their roster that August. Although Seattle re-signed Smith soon after to back up Wilson, the team rostered him for $870K in 2019.

Smith did not join the Seahawks initially until May 2019, admitting (via McFadden) he considered retirement after his Jets stay turned into backup gigs with the Giants and Chargers. Workout partners Antonio Brown and Thaddeus Lewis were among those to talk him out of that route. That became good advice, even as Smith settled for low-end deals ($1.19MM in 2020, $1.21MM in 2021) to back up Wilson in the years that followed. Smith’s breakout 2022 season came while he was attached to a one-year, $3.5MM deal — as he needed to beat out trade pickup Drew Lock to succeed Wilson.

The Raiders are 1-2 under Smith, and the extension gives the team flexibility to continue pursuing a younger upgrade again next year. The Smith-Carroll duo represents a high-profile Raiders stopgap solution.

I finally got my team,” Smith said, via McFadden. “I always felt like I was trying to replace Russell, and you can never replace all the great things that he did. So I never felt like Seattle was my team. Also, I didn’t feel like I fit the aesthetic of the Seattle organization. The Raiders just fit me.

Minor NFL Transactions: 9/20/25

Here are today’s minor moves and Week 3’s standard gameday practice squad elevations:

Arizona Cardinals

Carolina Panthers

Chicago Bears

Cleveland Browns

Green Bay Packers

Houston Texans

Jacksonville Jaguars

Kansas City Chiefs

Las Vegas Raiders

Los Angeles Chargers

Minnesota Vikings

New England Patriots

New Orleans Saints

New York Giants

New York Jets

Philadelphia Eagles

Pittsburgh Steelers

San Francisco 49ers

Seattle Seahawks

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

  • Elevated: T Tyler McLellan

Washington Commanders

There were some eyes on whether or not the Browns would add a kicker for the weekend after Andre Szmyt needed to undergo some MRI testing, but no such moves were made and Szmyt heads into the weekend without an injury designation. The team did report a workout with veteran kicker Matthew Wright, though, per Howard Balzer of CardsWire.

The 49ers will lose some additional offensive line depth as they place their intended swing tackle, Burford, on injured reserve. Additionally, with Martinez not getting signed to the active roster, it appears that injured starter Brock Purdy will not be active as an emergency option, as was rumored a bit yesterday. Purdy should be inactive as a result.

Herbig announced his retirement at the end of July after spending a good portion of the offseason with the Commanders. The 27-year-old was coming off a 2024 season in which he missed the entirety of the year with a shoulder injury. Washington’s release of Herbig from the reserve/retired list gives him an opportunity to sign with a new team as a free agent. There’s no guarantee that he’s headed anywhere specific, but he likely initiated the transaction in order to explore his options.

NFL Addresses Tom Brady Conflict-Of-Interest Matter; Teams Express Concern About Raiders Owner’s Dual Role

Rarely able to watch the Raiders play in-person due to a high-profile second job, Tom Brady did survey the team he partially owns Monday night in Las Vegas. ESPN cameras spotting the QB legend-turned-owner/broadcaster in the coaches’ booth has drawn expected scrutiny.

Brady watching the Raiders-Chargers matchup from the coaches’ booth would certainly not be cause for concern if he only served as a Raiders minority owner; being in Year 2 as FOX’s top color analyst has triggered pushback — to the point another NFL statement on the matter surfaced.

There are no policies that prohibit an owner from sitting in the coaches’ booth or wearing a headset during a game,” an NFL spokesman said in a statement (via CBS Sports’ Jonathan Jones). “Brady was sitting in the booth in his capacity as a limited partner.

… Tom continues to be prohibited from going to a team facility for practices or production meetings. He may attend production meetings remotely but may not attend in person at the team facility or hotel. He may also conduct an interview off site with a player like he did last year a couple times, including for the Super Bowl. Of course, as with any production meeting with broadcast teams, it’s up to the club, coach or players to determine what they say in those sessions.”

While the NFL’s Brady policy of sorts prohibits him from attending production meetings with coaches and players onsite, the league made a notable change this offseason by allowing him to attend them virtually. Last year, Brady could serve as FOX’s lead analyst but could not attend production meetings. The image of Brady in the coaches’ booth Monday reignited the uproar about this conflict of interest.

The league’s ownership contingent had continued to delay Brady’s Raiders stake from being approved. While Mark Davis‘ stake price was part of a stalling effort that lasted over a year, the eventual approval last fall came with stipulations regarding the 23-year QB veteran’s FOX gig.

Brady has not entered another team’s facility due to that part of his rule set remaining in place, but he has been given access to remote production meetings. Concerns about this part of the popular announcer/owner’s deal are still generating issues from other teams, according to the Washington Post’s Mark Maske, Tashan Reed and Ben Strauss. Though, a high-ranking team official told the Post the NFL has dismissed other clubs’ concerns about this “unfair” Brady arrangement.

Several owners were hesitant to approve Brady’s dual role, per the Post. That was effectively understood due to the length of time between Brady’s stake agreement (May 2023) and its unanimous approval (October 2024). Since, Brady has taken on a lead role in Raiders personnel.

Although Brady’s day-to-day Raiders role remains murky, Mark Davis had said he wanted him front and center for the team’s QB and HC searches. Brady input led to the Raiders firing GM Tom Telesco after one season (the one-and-done Vegas GM is now working at Sirius XM Radio), and the Spytek hire came after he and Brady both overlapped with the Buccaneers and as Michigan teammates decades ago. Brady also led the Raiders’ recruitment of Matthew Stafford during trade negotiations, and the former AFC East mainstay’s hesitation on Sam Darnold led Las Vegas to go another way at QB.

With Brady heavily involved in Raiders matters, his broadcast team will naturally be unlikely to receive many useful nuggets during pregame production meetings. Brady called the Commanders-Giants’ Week 1 matchup; the Raiders face Washington in Week 3. In Week 4, Brady will call the Cowboys-Bears game before seeing the Raiders face the Bears in Week 5.

While Ben Johnson — whom Brady used his FOX job to scout as a hopeful Raiders HC option last year — downplayed this conflict of interest, ESPN’s Peter Schrager said OC Chip Kelly told him he discusses film and the gameplan with Brady two or three times per week. Pete Carroll then denied Brady’s Kelly meetings occur that frequently, per Maske, Reed and Strauss. The NFL, per Sports Illustrated’s Conor Orr, also deleted a tweet about the Brady-Kelly conversations.

We have conversations. I talk to Tom, and Chip talks to Tom regularly,” Carroll said. “We have a tremendous asset, and we all get along well and respect each other. And so, we just talk about life and football and whatever comes. He has great insight, so we’re lucky to have him as an owner.

Teams are also leery with regards to future Raiders free agency pursuits, according to Jones, as pregame meetings could help the minority owner — though, perhaps not substantially — file information away for his team down the line. Information regarding teams’ values of certain players would stand to be another potential issue here. But this matter continues to be one the NFL is willing to live with in exchange for having Brady continue to play prominent roles.

NFL Minor Transactions: 9/15/25

Today’s minor moves:

Dallas Cowboys

Houston Texans

Las Vegas Raiders

Philadelphia Eagles

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Washington Commanders

As expected, Cowboys center Cooper Beebe landed on injured reserve today after suffering an ankle and foot injury during yesterday’s win over the Giants. The lineman suffered a lateral sprain in his ankle along with a bone fracture in his foot, an injury that’s expected to keep him sidelined for six to eight weeks. During an appearance on 105.3 The Fan, Cowboys EVP Stephen Jones expressed optimism that the injury timeline is “on the shorter end of that” (per Charean Williams of ProFootballTalk.com).

2025 Offseason In Review Series