Here are Friday’s minor moves:
Arizona Cardinals
Carolina Panthers
Chicago Bears
Tennessee Titans
Free agents
Veteran offensive lineman Ty Sambrailo may be walking away from football. The Titans placed the seventh-year tackle on their reserve/retired list Tuesday.
Sambrailo, 29, re-signed with the Titans this offseason. However, he will follow both Kevin Johnson and Abry Jones — both of whom 2021 free agency additions — in landing on the team’s retired list.
A former second-round pick, Sambrailo has been with the Titans since 2020. He filled in as a starter for the injured Taylor Lewan last season and started for the Titans in Week 2 of this year. The former Broncos and Falcons O-lineman has played in 71 career games, making 19 starts. Sambrailo suffered a knee injury that ended his 2020 season, however, and began Tennessee’s training camp on the PUP list.
The Titans gave Sambrailo a one-year, $1.9MM contract earlier this year. The Falcons gave him a three-year, $14.25MM deal but cut the Colorado State alum two years into it. Sambrailo was inactive for the Titans’ Week 5 game Sunday.
Tennessee also waived defensive lineman Woodrow Hamilton and signed offensive linemen Derwin Gray and Jimmy Murray to its practice squad Tuesday. Punter Brett Kern is also now on the Titans’ reserve/COVID-19 list. Kern tested positive, Tom Pelissero of NFL.com tweets.
The Titans are set to sign punter Johnny Townsend (Twitter link via NFL.com’s Mike Garafolo). This likely means that current punter Brett Kern will miss time as he recovers from a groin injury. 
At minimum, Townsend should see time against the Jets. A fifth-rounder in 2018, he spent his rookie year as the Raiders’ punter. The following year, he was leapfrogged by UDFA A.J. Cole. After leaving the Raiders with a 43.2 yards per kick average, he signed deals with the Giants and Chiefs, but did not play for either team. The Ravens did use him briefly last year though, trotting him out in the regular season finale.
The Titans were in a similar spot last year as Kern missed three games. It was a reminder of how critical a punter can be — fill-in Trevor Allen had a disastrous outing in a one-sided loss to the Colts. They’ll hope for better results this time around with Townsend.
The 2-1 Titans face the winless Jets this Sunday in New Jersey.
Here are Saturday’s minor moves:
Arizona Cardinals
Atlanta Falcons
Baltimore Ravens
Buffalo Bills
Carolina Panthers
Chicago Bears
Cincinnati Bengals
Cleveland Browns
Dallas Cowboys
Denver Broncos
Detroit Lions
Green Bay Packers
Houston Texans
Indianapolis Colts
Jacksonville Jaguars
Las Vegas Raiders
Los Angeles Chargers
Los Angeles Rams
Miami Dolphins
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
Tennessee Titans
Washington Football Team
Here are Tuesday’s minor moves:
Dallas Cowboys
Houston Texans
Indianapolis Colts
Las Vegas Raiders
Los Angeles Rams
Minnesota Vikings
New York Jets
San Francisco 49ers
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Tennessee Titans
Here are Saturday’s minor moves:
Arizona Cardinals
Atlanta Falcons
Cincinnati Bengals
Cleveland Browns
Green Bay Packers
Indianapolis Colts
Jacksonville Jaguars
Kansas City Chiefs
Los Angeles Chargers
Miami Dolphins
Minnesota Vikings
New England Patriots
New Orleans Saints
New York Giants
New York Jets
Philadelphia Eagles
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Tennessee Titans
As Brett Kern deals with a wrist injury, the Titans have turned to one of the top punters on the market. ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports (via Twitter) that Tennessee has signed Ryan Allen.
Allen made a name for himself by spending the first six seasons of his career with the Patriots, winning three Super Bowl rings. The Louisiana Tech product was a standout during Super Bowl LIII, with three of his five punts pinning the Rams inside the 20-yard line.
He inked a one-year extension with the Patriots the following offseason, but he ultimately lost his job to rookie Jake Bailey ahead of the 2019 campaign. Allen subsequently signed with the Falcons, and he proceeded to appear in eight games for them during the 2019 campaign. The 30-year-old was cut by Atlanta back in August, and he’s been sitting in free agency ever since.
In Tennessee, Allen will be reuniting with former Patriots kicker Stephen Gostkowski, although you’ve got to assume that Allen’s stay with the Titans will be short. After all, Kern is a three-time Pro Bowler, and while his wrist injury will sideline him this weekend against the Bears, he should probably be back before the season ends.
The Titans have reached a long-term extension with punter Brett Kern, the club announced today. It’s a four-year worth $12.55MM, tweets Ian Rapoport of NFL.com, who adds Kern will receive a $2.2MM signing bonus.
Kern had already been under contract for 2019, so his extension will keep him in Tennessee through the 2023 campaign. In terms of new money, Kern will now earn roughly $3.14MM per season, a slight bump over his previous annual average of $3MM. That annual salary will keep him at sixth place among punters in yearly pay.
Kern, 33, originally entered the NFL as an undrafted free agent in 2008, spending parts of two seasons in Denver before being claimed off waivers by the Titans in 2009. He’s now been in Tennessee for more than a decade, and posted his best performances in recent years, earning a second-team All-Pro nod in 2017 and Pro Bowl berths in both 2017 and 2018.
Last year, Kern ranked eighth in the league with a 41.7-yard net punting average and dropped 39 punts inside his opponents’ 20-yard line, good for second in the NFL. According to Football Outsiders’ special teams metrics, the Titans’ punt unit as a whole ranked roughly average, finishing 15th in point of field position added.
A few details on some noteworthy new contracts from around the NFL:
Brett Kern‘s been the Titans‘ punter in every season this decade, and the Titans made a move to ensure that happens in each subsequent year in the 2010s. The Titans and Kern agreed on a new five-year contract, according to a tweet from The Tennesseean’s Jim Wyatt.
The deal is reportedly worth $15MM, per ESPN’s Adam Caplan (Twitter link). That nearly triples the 29-year-old punter’s salary and puts him in the top 10 at the position on a per-year basis.
Kern began his career when he signed with the Broncos as an undrafted free agent out of Toledo in 2008, but Denver waived him in 2009, and the Titans claimed him soon after.
Kern’s 46.8 yards per punt ranked fifth in the league last season.