Brandon Thomas

NFL Practice Squad Updates: 10/3/17

Today’s practice squad moves:

Arizona Cardinals

Baltimore Ravens

Carolina Panthers

Cleveland Browns

Detroit Lions

Indianapolis Colts

Miami Dolphins

New York Jets

Philadelphia Eagles

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

  • Signed: TE/FB Alan Cross
  • Cut: RB Russell Hansbrough

Tennessee Titans

  • Signed: WR C.J. Board
  • Cut: CB Kenneth Durden

Washington Redskins

  • Signed: QB Joel Stave, OL Jerry Ugokwe
  • Released: QB Alek Torgersen

NFL Workout Updates: 9/18/17

Today’s workout update notes:

Buffalo Bills

Carolina Panthers

Cincinnati Bengals

Detroit Lions

Green Bay Packers

Houston Texans

Indianapolis Colts

Jacksonville Jaguars

New England Patriots

New Orleans Saints

Seattle Seahawks

NFL Workout Updates: 9/8/17

Today’s NFL workout updates, with all links going to veteran NFL reporter Howard Balzer’s Twitter unless otherwise noted:

Atlanta Falcons

Carolina Panthers

Detroit Lions

Green Bay Packers

Indianapolis Colts

Kansas City Chiefs

New England Patriots

New York Jets

Philadelphia Eagles

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Tennessee Titans

Sunday NFL Transactions: NFC North

Listed below are the Sunday roster moves for the four NFC North teams. Following the 53-man roster cutdown deadline yesterday, many teams will make slight tweaks to their rosters, claiming players off waivers or signing guys who clear waivers. Those transactions for the Bears, Lions, Packers, and Vikings are noted below.

Additionally, as of 12:00pm CT today, teams can begin constructing their 10-man practice squads. You can check out our glossary entry on practice squads to brush up on those changes, as well as all the other guidelines that govern the 10-man units, whose players practice with the team but aren’t eligible to suit up on Sundays.

Here are Sunday’s NFC North transactions, which will continue to be updated throughout the day:

Chicago Bears

Detroit Lions

Green Bay Packers

Minnesota Vikings

NFL Reserve/Futures Contracts: 1/9/17

Here are the latest reserve/futures contract signings from around the NFL. These deals will go into effect on the first day of the 2017 league year, with players joining their respective clubs’ offseason 90-man rosters.

Detroit Lions

Indianapolis Colts

Oakland Raiders

Philadelphia Eagles

Sunday NFL Transactions: NFC North

Listed below are the Sunday roster moves for the four NFC North teams. Following the 53-man roster cutdown deadline yesterday, many teams will make slight tweaks to their rosters, claiming players off waivers or signing guys who clear waivers. Those transactions for the Bears, Lions, Packers, and Vikings are noted below.

Additionally, as of 12:00pm CT today, teams can begin constructing their 10-man practice squads. You can check out our glossary entry on practice squads to brush up on those changes, as well as all the other guidelines that govern the 10-man units, whose players practice with the team but aren’t eligible to suit up on Sundays.

Here are Sunday’s NFC North transactions, which will continue to be updated throughout the day. All links go to Twitter unless otherwise noted:

Chicago Bears

Detroit Lions

Green Bay Packers

Minnesota Vikings

Lions Trim Roster To 53

The Lions have released offensive lineman Brandon Thomas, as Rand Getlin of NFL.com tweets. Thomas came to Detroit in the Jeremy Kerley trade earlier this weekBrandon Thomas (vertical)

Thomas, a former third-round pick, has never taken a snap in the NFL. He missed his entire rookie season in 2014 while recovering from a torn ACL suffered in college, and didn’t appear in a game during his sophomore campaign. Thomas wasn’t need in the Bay Area given that Anthony Davis has come out of retirement and shifted to guard and he apparently wasn’t wanted in Detroit either.

Thomas obviously wasn’t the Lions’ only victim of cut day. Cuts include:

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Lions, 49ers To Swap WR Jeremy Kerley, OL Brandon Thomas

The Lions are trading wide receiver Jeremy Kerley to the 49ers in exchange for offensive lineman Brandon Thomas, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN.com (Twitter link). The deal is pending physicals.Jeremy Kerley (Vertical)

Kerley, 27, agreed to a one-year deal with Detroit this offseason after spending the first five seasons of his career with the Jets. Largely written out of New York’s offense in 2015, Kerley posted the worst statistics of his career, hauling in only 16 passes for 152 yards, and was subsequently released.Still, Kerley has enjoyed some productive seasons in the past, most notably in 2012, when he hauled in 56 passes for 827 yards and a pair of touchdowns.

The Lions will absorb $90K in dead money as a result of the trade, meaning the Niners will only be responsible for Kerley’s minimum base salary. In San Francisco, Kerley will slot into a wide receiver corps that has little veteran experience behind Torrey Smith, as Quinton Patton, Bruce Ellington, DeAndre Smelter, and Aaron Burbridge are a few of the other options available to head coach Chip Kelly. Ellington, notably, has dealt with ankle and hamstring injuries in recent weeks, so Kerley could be insurance against a lengthy Ellington absence.

Thomas, meanwhile, is a former third-round pick, but has never taken a snap in the NFL. He missed his entire rookie season in 2014 while recovering from a torn ACL suffered in college, and didn’t appear in a game during his sophomore campaign. Thomas wasn’t need in the Bay Area given that Anthony Davis has come out of retirement and shifted to guard, so he’ll head to Detroit and act as depth behind starting interior lineman Larry Warford and Laken Tomlinson, though he can also moonlight at tackle.

Thomas, 25, is signed through the 2017 season. San Francisco will take on a roughly $250K in dead money as his prorated bonus accelerates onto its cap, while the Lions will be responsible for minimum salaries over the next two years.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

West Notes: McGahee, Hayne, 49ers, Raiders

The latest out of the West divisions…

  • Ex-Broncos running back Willis McGahee apparently hasn’t found an NFL team willing to take him on, because he’s trying his luck at a different sport altogether…rubgy. According to Adam Schefter of ESPN (Twitter link), McGahee will try out at the National Rugby Football League combine January 12 in Los Angeles. The 33-year-old played in the NFL just last season with the Browns, but was largely ineffective.
  • Improbably, we have more rugby-related news, as Aaron Wilson of the National Football Post reports that Australian rugby star Jarryd Hayne visited the Seahawks today; Wilson reported that the 26-year-old met with the division rival 49ers yesterday. We last heard in October that Hayne, who would likely play running back, could fit with Seattle.
  • 49ers rookies Brandon Thomas and Keith Reaser will both remain on the reserve/NFI list after their practice periods ended today, tweets Matt Maiocco of CSNBayArea.com. Thomas, a guard, was chosen in the third round of this year’s draft, while Reaser, a cornerback, was a fifth-round pick.
  • As both a current Raider and a Michigan alum, Charles Woodson has a unique perspective on Jim Harbaugh’s potential choice between Oakland and Ann Arbor. So what does Woodson think Harbaugh should do? “If the choice was out there, it would definitely be Michigan,” Woodson told NFL Network (link via CSNBayArea.com). “As a guy that played there, I think the fans would love it, I think it would be great for recruiting and all of that. Just to have a guy that’s proven, he’s won everywhere he’s been as a coach and I don’t think it would be any different if he went to Michigan. I would say ‘yeah.’ Go Blue.”

49ers Roster Moves, Martin Update

Eric Branch of the San Francisco Chronicle tweets that 49ers rookie center Marcus Martin is expected to miss eight weeks of the regular season with a kneecap injury.

Also, Cam Inman of the San Jose Mercury News writes that the 49ers have trimmed their roster to 75 players after making the following series of moves:

Waived

Released

Released off Injured Reserve

Reserve/PUP List

Reserve/Non-Football Injury (NFI) List

  • RB Marcus Lattimore
  • FB Trey Millard
  • CB Keith Reaser
  • G Brandon Thomas

The players on the PUP and NFI lists are eligible to return to practice after the first six weeks of the regular season or otherwise be placed on a season-ending reserve list. That means, of course, that Bowman and Lattimore will officially miss the first six weeks of the season.

As Matt Barrows of the Sacramento Bee tweets, all seven players that were waived are eligible to be placed on the team’s practice squad.