Today’s minor moves:
Buffalo Bills
- Waived: LB Jimmy Ciarlo
Cleveland Browns
- Signed to active roster: CB Tre Avery
Dallas Cowboys
- Waived: WR Jalen Cropper
New York Jets
- Waived: DL Leonard Taylor
Oluwafemi Oladejo‘s leg injury is going to cost him some games. According to Paul Kuharsky, the Titans linebacker is heading to injured reserve. Linebacker Ali Gaye has been signed to the active roster to take his teammate’s place.
Kuharsky adds some context, noting that the rookie suffered a fractured leg during Sunday’s loss. Fortunately, the injury won’t be a season ender, but it will still sideline the linebacker for at least the next month.
Oladejo was selected by the Titans in the second round of this year’s draft following a breakout 2024 campaign at UCLA. The rookie has mostly been deployed as an edge rusher in 2025, and he collected 13 tackles through his first six career games. Pro Football Focus hasn’t been particularly fond of his NFL performance so far, grading him 101st among 110 qualifying edge defenders.
Jihad Ward saw a season-high 51 defensive snaps this past weekend, and he’ll likely play opposite Dre’Mont Jones on the defensive line. The team is also rostering Arden Key, although the veteran missed Week 6 while nursing a quad injury. Sophomore Jaylen Harrell could be in line for more playing time, as well.
Gaye is another option, although the linebacker will likely have to work his way up the depth chart. The former UDFA got into 15 games for the Titans in 2024, finishing with eight tackles and one sack while getting into about 20 percent of his team’s defensive snaps.
After 10 seasons in the NFL, offensive tackle Charles Leno is hanging up his cleats. In an Instagram post that’s worth reading in full, Leno announced his retirement on Wednesday, exactly two years after he and his wife lost their daughter on Oct. 14, 2023.
Leno entered the NFL as a seventh-round pick from Boise State in 2014 and went on to enjoy a quality career. He spent his first seven seasons in Chicago, where he started in 94 of 102 regular-season appearances. Leno earned the lone Pro Bowl nod of his career with the Bears in 2018.
While Leno inked a four-year, $38MM extension with the Bears in 2017, he didn’t see the whole deal through. Chicago released Leno in a cap-shedding move in May 2021. That came after Leno started 93 consecutive games at left tackle with the team.
After his time with the Bears ended, Leno landed in Washington on a one-year, $5MM pact. The club was so impressed with Leno’s work during a 17-start 2021 campaign that it re-signed him to a three-year, $37.5MM deal. Leno notched another 17-start season in 2022, but a calf injury limited him to 13 games (all starts) in 2023. With Leno set to undergo hip surgery in 2024, the Commanders released him after a 47-start tenure. He didn’t catch on anywhere else after that.
Leno’s career will officially end with 149 regular-season games, 141 starts, and over $61MM in career earnings. He also received recognition for his off-field work, earning a Walter Payton Man of the Year nomination, among other accolades.
The Chargers are already known to be in the market for running back help in advance of the Nov. 4 trade deadline. They’re also making preliminary offensive tackle inquiries, Josina Anderson of The Exhibit reports.
Just weeks before the 2025 season began, the Chargers appeared to have an enviable situation at tackle with Rashawn Slater protecting quarterback Justin Herbert‘s blind side and 2024 fifth overall pick Joe Alt on the right. It turns out that the two standout blockers were unable to play together at all this year.
In signing Slater to a four-year, $114MM extension in July, the Chargers made the two-time Pro Bowler one of the highest-paid offensive linemen in NFL history. Under two weeks later, though, the Chargers lost Slater for 2025 when he suffered a torn patellar tendon during practice.
In the wake of Slater’s devastating injury, the Chargers moved Alt to the left side. However, Alt added to the Chargers’ injury woes when he left a Week 4 loss to the Giants with a high ankle sprain. Alt avoided an IR stint, but he has missed the Chargers’ last two games. The Bolts also went without another starting tackle, RT Trey Pipkins (knee), in their win over the Dolphins in Week 6.
There’s no word on whether Alt or Pipkins will play Sunday against the Colts in a matchup of AFC contenders. Austin Deculus and the just-signed Bobby Hart, making his first regular-season appearance since 2022, served as L.A.’s starting tackles last Sunday. Deculus and Hart could start again this week if Alt and Pipkins are unavailable.
Despite their injuries along the O-line and the absences of running backs Omarion Hampton (ankle) and Najee Harris (Achilles), the Chargers rushed for 140 yards against the Dolphins. Backup RB Kimani Vidal unexpectedly ran for 124 yards on 18 carries, while Herbert completed 29 of 38 passes for 264 yards and two touchdowns. The Dolphins only sacked him once.
While the Chargers’ offense is coming off a productive performance, it’s understandable that general manager Joe Hortiz doesn’t fully trust his healthy tackle options. There’s no word on which players Hortiz has targeted, but ESPN’s Adam Schefter names the Giants’ Evan Neal as a trade candidate leading up to the deadline. The problem is that Neal doesn’t look like a clear answer to the Chargers’ issues. After struggling at tackle during the first three seasons of his career, the former seventh overall pick has worked as a backup guard this year. Neal has yet to take a snap in 2025.
For a second straight week, the Broncos will move their starting left guard to IR. After placing Ben Powers on the injured list with a biceps injury, the Broncos are sliding Matt Peart off the 53-man roster.
A knee malady will send Peart to IR, according to 9News’ Mike Klis. They are moving veteran O-lineman Calvin Throckmorton to the 53-man roster from the practice squad in a corresponding move, Klis adds. Denver will also bump special-teamer J.T. Gray to the roster from the Ravens’ P-squad, with Klis adding tight end Garret Wallow is heading to IR.
Peart is believed to have suffered the injury on the third play of the Broncos’ London-based matchup against the Jets, per Klis. Peart struggled in the game, committing three penalties (including two holding infractions), but was playing hurt. An otherwise healthy Broncos O-line will need to make another adjustment at left guard.
Re-signed this offseason, Peart became the next man up for Powers — who had not missed a game during his Broncos tenure until the London trip. The team still has some options here, including Throckmorton. A former Saints spot starter, Throckmorton lined up with New Orleans’ first-stringers in 20 games from 2021-22. This included 14 starts during Sean Payton‘s 2021 New Orleans finale. Throckmorton, however, has played in only three games since joining the Broncos in 2024.
Denver uses former UDFA Alex Palczewski as its sixth O-lineman in jumbo packages, but he is a swingman as well. The team also has backup center Alex Forsyth, who lost the 2024 center competition to Luke Wattenberg, as an option now that Peart is out of the picture for at least four games. The Broncos hope Powers will be back before the regular season ends, but they will need to make another switch for the foreseeable future.
A former Giants third-round pick, Peart worked mostly as a backup during his New York rookie-deal stay. He has started at both guard and tackle in Denver, having re-signed on a two-year, $7MM deal. None of Peart’s 2026 money is guaranteed.
Although Gray comes via the Baltimore taxi squad, he played for Payton in New Orleans. Obtained as a 2018 UDFA, Gray soared to three All-Pro teams in seven years as a Saints special-teamer. This included four seasons with Payton at the helm. Technically a DB, Gray earned first-team All-Pro acclaim as a special-teamer in Payton’s final Saints season (2021). Gray and Throckmorton add more ex-Saints to Payton’s third Broncos roster, which includes tight ends Adam Trautman and Lucas Krull, fullback Adam Prentice, defensive linemen Malcolm Roach and Jordan Jackson and kicker Wil Lutz as ex-New Orleans presences on Denver’s 53.
After facing the Chiefs with a skeleton crew at cornerback — to the point increased base defensive looks were deemed necessary — the Lions are adding an experienced piece to help.
Kendall Fuller is joining the team on a practice squad deal. This is Fuller’s first chance since the Dolphins released him in February. A veteran with extensive outside and slot experience, Fuller had joined the Dolphins on a two-year, $15MM deal in 2024 but was the first domino to fall in what has been a Miami cornerback overhaul.
The Lions played the Chiefs with only Amik Robertson healthy among their top six corners. As could be expected, Detroit struggled to contain Kansas City’s aerial attack in a 30-17 loss. The Lions have D.J. Reed and Ennis Rakestraw on IR, while Terrion Arnold and Avonte Maddox remain on the active roster. Rock Ya-Sin, who had moved to safety this offseason but offered positional versatility based on his CB past, needed to be used as a full-timer Sunday night. Arnold is not believed to be out too long, but he might not be ready for Week 7.
Fuller, 30, joins the Lions after they had offered Michael Davis a spot on their practice squad last week. Davis joined the Saints’ active roster instead. After auditioning for the Colts last week, Fuller has that gig.
Considering Detroit’s depth problem at the position right now, Fuller could see game action soon. The Lions have an interesting Buccaneers matchup ahead, with Tampa Bay somehow even more depleted at receiver — down Chris Godwin, Jalen McMillan, Mike Evans and Emeka Egbuka — than Detroit is at corner. It is not certain Evans and Egbuka miss that game, but the other two are set to.
The Dolphins used Fuller as a full-timer last season, continuing his run as a regular starter during a career previously spent in Washington and Kansas City. Being part of the Alex Smith trade in 2018, Fuller started for the Super Bowl LIV-winning Chiefs in 2019 before returning to Washington on a four-year, $40MM deal. Fuller played out that contract and impressed during his 2023 platform year, though his Dolphins pact came in short of where most envisioned. We ranked Fuller 19th on our 2024 top 50 free agent list.
Last season, Fuller played 11 games. Two concussions sidelined the nine-year veteran, who also sustained a knee injury last year. Fuller was one of the top unsigned CBs, though, having logged 104 career starts. Pro Football Focus viewed Fuller as a mid-pack CB last season, ranking him 75th among regulars at the position. Before his quality Commanders contract year, the 5-foot-11 cover man nabbed two pick-sixes in 2022.
The Lions also waived safety Loren Strickland from their 53-man roster while signing offensive lineman Kingsley Eguakun and defensive lineman Chris Smith back to their P-squad.
After falling to 1-5 with a loss to the Chargers in Week 6, the Dolphins are looking like clear-cut sellers leading up to the Nov. 4 trade deadline. Pass rushers Bradley Chubb and Jaelan Phillips are among Dolphins who could wind up on the move. Opposing teams are eyeing both players, Adam Schefter of ESPN told the Pat McAfee Show on Monday.
Chubb recorded 11 sacks in 2023, his second year in the double digits, but he suffered a torn ACL, meniscus, and patellar tendon in the penultimate game of the regular season. While Chubb’s devastating knee injury cost him all of last season, the two-time Pro Bowler has returned this year to offer solid production for the floundering Dolphins.
The 29-year-old Chubb has played in all six games this season while logging a 69.5% snap share on defense. He leads the Dolphins with four sacks, though his performance hasn’t impressed Pro Football Focus (subscription required). PFF ranks Chubb 95th among 110 qualifying EDGE players. Despite that negative evaluation, teams in need of pass-rushing help are monitoring Chubb.
Acquired from Denver in a November 2022 blockbuster, Chubb may leave Miami in another deadline deal in the coming weeks. Chubb signed a hefty five-year extension worth $110MM shortly after the Dolphins landed him, locking him up through 2027, but they reworked that pact last March. As a result, Chubb – who’s on a $12.33MM cap hit this season – isn’t owed any guaranteed money beyond 2025. That should make it easier for the Dolphins to move him.
A former Miami Hurricane, Phillips has spent his entire career with the Dolphins since they used the 18th overall pick on him in 2021. While Phillips has been effective, multiple serious injuries have prevented him from realizing his full potential. An Achilles tear limited Phillips to eight games in 2023, while a partially torn ACL held him to four appearances last year.
Phillips has returned this season to rack up a significant amount of playing time. He has a 69.5% snap share over six games, but the 26-year-old has only notched one sack. Pro Football Focus ranks him 52nd among 110 EDGE qualifiers.
As a soon-to-be free agent, Phillips would be a pure rental for a deadline buyer. He’s playing 2025 on a fifth-year option worth $13.3MM. Our Ely Allen identified Phillips as a viable trade candidate earlier this month, noting teams like the 49ers, Commanders, Chiefs, and Eagles could be among his suitors.
With the Dolphins likely to miss the playoffs for the third year in a row, general manager Chris Grier and head coach Mike McDaniel are facing uncertain futures. There’s some question as to whether they’ll even survive the season. Those two remain in place, though, and unless something drastic happens in the next three weeks, Grier will be the one steering the ship at the deadline. He’ll have to decide whether to move Chubb, Phillips, or both defenders in the coming weeks.
Once again battered by injuries, the 49ers have still managed to reach 4-2 despite a spree of setbacks for the second straight season. Pro Bowlers Brock Purdy, George Kittle and Nick Bosa have missed time, and the Fred Warner loss deals a blow the team has not previously encountered.
On the team amid the 2020 and 2024 injury waves, Warner has missed one career game. The All-Pro linebacker has crafted a Hall of Fame-caliber resume during the 49ers’ Kyle Shanahan-era surge, but he will undergo surgery Wednesday and joins Bosa in being out for the season. The 49ers are eyeing trades on defense, but their offense is starting to look healthier (even if Jauan Jennings is playing through a significant rib injury).
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While Purdy’s status remains murky, Kittle is nearing a return. Shanahan does expect (via 49ers reporter Briana Jeannel) the All-Pro tight end will be designated for return from IR ahead of the Falcons matchup. This would allow the 49ers a ramp-up period, but Shanahan added (via NBC Sports Bay Area’s Matt Maiocco) the hope is Kittle returns for Week 7.
Although the 49ers’ injury trouble is again mounting, they are not in bad shape yet in terms of IR activations. The team has either seen key players suffer season-ending injuries (Bosa, Warner) or remain on the active roster in week-to-week setups (Purdy, Jennings, Ricky Pearsall). The 49ers did place starting guard Ben Bartch on IR, and he is eligible for activation this week. It is uncertain if Bartch will join Kittle in being designated for return.
Kittle went down with a hamstring injury in Week 1. The likely Hall of Fame-bound pass catcher suited up for 15 games last season and did not miss any time due to injury in 2023. Playing in at least 14 games in 2021 and ’22, Kittle has not missed this much time in a season since being part of the 49ers’ spate of maladies in 2020. He missed eight games that season, suffering a sprained knee and fractured foot during San Francisco’s 6-10 season.
With Pearsall on the active roster, the 49ers are moving closer to full strength after seeing both their top two receivers go down early this season. San Francisco’s true No. 1 receiver, however, remains on the reserve/PUP list. Brandon Aiyuk‘s timetable has been pushed back a bit. Week 6 was floated months ago as a loose return window, but that has come and gone. Shanahan has now mentioned Week 10 as an updated window (via Maiocco) but stopped short of providing a firm timetable.
Out since October 20, 2024 with an ACL tear, Aiyuk has been in rehab mode after the tear was not deemed clean. Joining Kittle in suffering an injury shortly after an offseason extension, Aiyuk has been unable to build on the second-team All-Pro season he produced in 2023. John Lynch said in late September the sixth-year veteran was “not close” returning, but Shanahan’s update does provide a semi-positive sign a reemergence near the midseason point is still in play.
Like the IR-return process, the 49ers would have a 21-day period to observe Aiyuk in practice before activating him. Given the length of Aiyuk’s rehab process, it would surprise if he suited up the week he was designated for return. It should be expected, based on this timeline, Aiyuk would be in the PUP-return window soon. But the 49ers will continue to make do with a ravaged receiver depth chart for the time being. Though, Kittle’s return will help the passing attack considerably while Aiyuk hits the recovery homestretch.
Expected to resign after the Titans fired Brian Callahan, offensive line coach Bill Callahan — Brian’s father — is indeed out in Tennessee. The Titans and the elder Callahan are going their separate ways, interim HC Mike McCoy announced Tuesday.
The Titans will split O-line coaching duties between Scott Fuchs and Matt Jones. Fuchs had been Bill Callahan’s assistant O-line coach, while Jones resides as an offensive assistant on the Titans’ staff. The Bill Callahan split was certainly anticipated given his son’s exit after just 23 games, and other teams are expected to pursue the well-regarded O-line coach.
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Although Mike McCoy has an extensive history calling plays and is now in a position to reinstall himself in that role, the veteran coach will keep quarterbacks coach Bo Hardegree as the play-caller, McCoy said (via Titans.com’s Jim Wyatt). Brian Callahan gave Hardegree — the Raiders’ interim OC in 2023 — the call sheet ahead of Week 4.
McCoy served as the Chargers’ play-caller during his four-year run in San Diego, landing that job after calling plays for an explosive 2012 Broncos attack (in Peyton Manning‘s first year with the team). McCoy was also at the controls when the Broncos pivoted to a more Tim Tebow-friendly offense midseason in 2011, but the experienced staffer will work as a CEO HC to start his interim Titans run.
Bill Callahan, 69, has been in coaching since 1978. While his highest-profile jobs have come as the head coach of the Raiders (2002-03) and Nebraska (2004-07), he has settled in as one of this era’s top offensive line coaches. Helming a top-tier O-line in Cleveland earlier this decade, Callahan also worked with the Cowboys when Tyron Smith, Travis Frederick and Zack Martin helped DeMarco Murray to the 2014 rushing title. He was on Jay Gruden‘s Washington staff from 2015-19, eventually taking over as interim HC when Gruden was fired early in te 2019 season.
The Titans reunited the Callahans, marking their first run as coaches on the same staff. It did not go well. A bizarre Cardinals collapse gave the Titans their only win this season, and the team ranks 31st in scoring and 32nd in yardage through six games. Pro Football Focus ranks Tennessee’s O-line — one housing three former first-round picks (Peter Skoronski, Kevin Zeitler, JC Latham) to go with high-priced free agents Dan Moore Jr. and Lloyd Cushenberry) — 26th in Bill Callahan’s second season. Fuchs, who joined the Titans last year after three seasons at Kansas, will join Jones — a Mike Vrabel holdover who previously spent four seasons as Tennessee-Martin’s O-line coach — in attempting to improve the unit.
McCoy did not mention other staff changes. The Titans plan to give their new interim HC “every opportunity,” per president of football ops Chad Brinker (via ESPN.com’s Turron Davenport) to stick as head coach. This has become an extraordinarily rare route for teams to take. Only the Raiders have made this move over the past seven years, and their decision to elevate Antonio Pierce to full-time HC backfired. Prior to Pierce’s ascent, Doug Marrone (Jaguars) was the most recent staffer to move from interim coach to the full-time leader. He did so in 2017.
McCoy, 53, went 27-37 as Chargers HC. The team made the playoffs in his 2013 debut, which featured a Philip Rivers Comeback Player of the Year season despite the QB not being injured previously, but did not return over his final three seasons. McCoy returned to Denver for an OC one-off (2017) and was a Cardinals OC one-and-done during Steve Wilks‘ short stint leading the way. After spending three years out of the NFL, McCoy resurfaced with the 2022 Jags under Doug Pederson. Brian Callahan hired him in March.
C.J. Gardner-Johnson is beginning to take a Diontae Johnson-like journey around the NFL, right down to joining and then leaving the Ravens. Baltimore is releasing the veteran safety from its practice squad.
This may be more of a fit-related transaction, however, with ESPN’s Adam Schefter indicating Gardner-Johnson’s agent viewed the team’s addition of Alohi Gilman as an impediment for his client. Gardner-Johnson’s agent said the well-traveled defender is looking for a “clearer path to play.”
The Ravens have struggled mightily on defense this season, but the team does have some safety options. Gilman joins All-Pro Kyle Hamilton and first-round pick Malaki Starks. While the rookie has struggled to open his debut season, the Ravens have plenty invested at safety between the fully guaranteed first-round contract and Hamilton’s market-shifting extension.
Gilman has also been a regular starter for years, and he played 83% of Baltimore’s defensive snaps in the team’s Week 6 matchup; this included a starting assignment less than a week after being acquired.
The Gilman-for-Odafe Oweh trade came on the same day the Ravens signed Gardner-Johnson to their practice squad. The latter transaction marked a bounce-back opportunity for Gardner-Johnson, who had been jettisoned by two teams since March. Like Johnson last year, Gardner-Johnson joined the Ravens after two teams moved on. Less than a year after the Ravens suspended the increasingly mercurial wideout and then waived him, they will wrap Gardner-Johnson’s tenure at a week.
Being traded from Philadelphia to Houston as part of a trade that sent Kenyon Green to the Eagles, Gardner-Johnson received his Texans walking papers three games into the season. The Texans used Gardner-Johnson as a three-game starter. Like Johnson in 2024, the trash-talking DB requested a trade out of his second stop of the year. The Texans instead cut him, as they did Johnson shortly after claiming him. Green is also gone from Philly, making the March swap a lose-lose trade. The former first-round guard is on the Ravens’ practice squad, representing an interesting fallout from the Eagles-Texans trade.
Gardner-Johnson, 27, has been traded twice and been part of four teams. The Saints dealt him to the Eagles in a contract year, and after some confusion about a return to Philly, CJGJ ended up in Detroit as a 2023 free agent. The Eagles re-signed the former fourth-round pick and deployed him as a starter, leading to a second six-interception season in three years as the team mounted a championship run. Gardner-Johnson is a 64-game starter; he will look for a path that allows him to add to that total.