Cam Sims

NFL Practice Squad Updates: 9/4/23

Here are Monday’s practice squad transactions:

Arizona Cardinals

  • Signed: CB Quavian White

Baltimore Ravens

Indianapolis Colts

Jacksonville Jaguars

Las Vegas Raiders

New England Patriots

  • Signed: DL Jeremiah Pharms Jr.

New Orleans Saints

New York Giants

Philadelphia Eagles

Pittsburgh Steelers

San Francisco 49ers

Seattle Seahawks

The Giants are not certain to have Wan’Dale Robinson available in Week 1. The 2022 second-round pick just came off the team’s active/PUP list, a sign the team believes he can return at some point during the season’s first four weeks. Beasley did not make the Giants’ 53-man roster but resided as a possible P-squad elevation option as Robinson protection. This moves nixes that path, as Beasley cannot play until Week 5.

Morrow has gone from potential Eagles starting linebacker to a player who did not make the defending NFC champions’ active roster. But the team still has the former Raiders and Bears starter in its plans. Morrow, who had signed a one-year deal worth the league minimum this offseason, is now positioned as a depth piece who could be elevated ahead of Week 1. Teams can use two P-squad elevations each week, in addition to standard promotions — which require corresponding roster moves — ahead of the Saturday-afternoon deadline.

Better known as the player chosen with the second-round pick obtained for DeAndre Hopkins, Blacklock moved from Houston to Minnesota via trade in August 2022. But he did not make the Vikings’ 53-man roster this year. The fourth-year D-lineman will be a depth option for the Jaguars.

Raiders Reduce Roster To 53 Players

The Raiders cut down their roster to 53 players today. However, in the process, they were forced to move on from a handful of veterans:

Released:

Waived:

Placed on IR:

  • OT Dalton Wagner

The Raiders signed Jaquan Johnson early during free agency, and there was hope he’d provide some experienced depth to their secondary. Ultimately, the team decided to go in another direction, but that doesn’t mean the safety won’t quickly find another gig elsewhere. Johnson got into 60 games for the Bills over the past four years, including a 2022 campaign where he finished with a career-high 32 tackles and one interception.

On the other side of the ball, the organization moved on from some notable offensive weapons. Keelan Cole Sr. got into 14 games for the Raiders last season, collecting 10 receptions for 141 yards. Phillip Dorsett II joined Las Vegas this offseason after spending the 2022 campaign with the Texans, where he hauled in 20 catches. Damien Williams has close to 500 touches in the NFL, although he only got into one game for the lowly Falcons last season.

Raiders To Re-Sign WR Keelan Cole, Add WR Cam Sims

It took Keelan Cole a while before he landed a free agency deal in 2022, with the Raiders signing him more than a week after last year’s draft. The team is locking the veteran wide receiver down days into the new league year.

Cole will return to the Raiders on a one-year pact, Adam Schefter of ESPN.com tweets. The Raiders lost auxiliary wideout Mack Hollins to the Falcons on Sunday but will retain Cole, who played a regular role in Josh McDaniels‘ first season at the helm. The team will further add to the back end of its receiver room by signing Cam Sims as well, Ben Standig of The Athletic tweets.

[RELATED: Raiders To Sign WR Phillip Dorsett]

The Raiders have eight-figure-per-year commitments to four skill-position players — Davante Adams, Hunter Renfrow, Jakobi Meyers, Josh Jacobs — so it should be fairly clear where Cole will reside in Jimmy Garoppolo‘s aerial pecking order. The former Jaguars pass catcher is coming off a 10-reception, 141-yard season in the desert. He did add a touchdown — a disputed score against the Patriots that preceded Meyers’ infamous lateral attempt — last season, and Hollins’ departure figures to open up more opportunities.

But the Adams-Renfrow-Meyers setup will effectively cap — barring injury issues — what Cole, Sims and Dorsett will be able to produce in 2023. These additions will, however, create competition for the team’s backup receiver roles.

This will be Cole’s age-30 season. The Division III success story led the AFC championship game-bound Jaguars in receiving yards (748) in 2017, and he posted 642 yards and a career-high five touchdown catches with Jacksonville in 2020.

Cole did not see action on much of Las Vegas’ special teams plays last season, but Sims has been more active in that area recently. The 6-foot-5 ex-Washington contributor played 53% of the Commanders’ ST snaps in 2022. Sims has spent the entirety of his five-year career in Washington. Still struggling to find a higher-end complement to Terry McLaurin in 2020, Washington turned to Sims. The Alabama alum-turned-UDFA caught 32 passes for 477 yards that year and added a seven-catch, 104-yard outing against the Buccaneers in a closer-than-expected wild-card game.

Sims, 27, was not a big part of Washington’s passing game over the past two seasons; he caught eight passes for 89 yards in 2022. But he will follow ex-Commanders OC Scott Turner, who joined the Raiders as the team’s pass-game coordinator this offseason.

Minor NFL Transactions: 12/19/21

Given the recent surge of COVID-19 cases throughout the league, we expected to see more roster churning today than we typically would on a December Sunday. Here are today’s minor (and not so minor) moves. This page will, of course, be updated throughout the day:

Baltimore Ravens

Buffalo Bills

  • Placed on reserve/COVID-19 list: G Jon Feliciano
  • Promoted: OL Jacob Capra

Cleveland Browns

Philadelphia Eagles

Washington Football Team

WFT’s Jon Bostic Suffers Pec Injury

WFT linebacker Jon Bostic suffered a pec injury on Sunday (Twitter link via Ian Rapoport of NFL.com). He’ll undergo an MRI today to determine the severity, but Washington is bracing for bad news.

Bostic was ruled out in the fourth quarter, following early exits for tight end Logan Thomas (hamstring), wide receiver Cam Sims (hamstring), and guard Brandon Scherff (knee). They went on to beat the Falcons 34-30 in Atlanta, but it was a costly victory.

Bostic never lived up to his second-round draft status in Chicago and barely played in New England. But, when he resurfaced with the Colts in 2017 and the Steelers in 2018, he found his footing as a starter. His best work has come in D.C. Bostic has did not miss a game between 2019 and 2020, starting in all but one of his games. Last year, he finished out with 118 tackles — a new career best — plus three sacks, six tackles for loss, three passes defensed, and one interception.

Now at .500, the WFT will travel to New Orleans to take on the Saints in Week 5.

RFA/ERFA Tender Decisions: 3/10/21

The restricted free agent and exclusive rights free agent tender decision deadline is a little more than a week away. Some teams are already making their calls in advance of March 17. We’ll keep tabs on the latest here:

RFAs

Tendered:

Non-tendered: 

ERFAs

Tendered:

Washington Places Brandon Scherff On IR

The Washington Football Team has placed offensive lineman Brandon Scherff on injured reserve, per a club announcement. Scherff suffered an MCL sprain on Sunday against the Cardinals, which will keep him out of action for at least three weeks. In a related move, Washington promoted wide receiver Cam Sims from the practice squad. 

At minimum, Scherff will miss the next three games against the Browns, Ravens, and Rams. If he’s cleared in time, he’ll be eligible to return on Oct. 18 against the Giants at the Meadowlands.

Thanks to the franchise tag, Scherff is set to play out 2020 on a one-year, $15.03MM deal. The three-time Pro Bowler was the first guard to receive the franchise tag since 2011, and that’s largely due to the league’s arcane rules regarding offensive lineman. Per the collective bargaining agreement, guards and tackles are classified under the same “offensive lineman” banner. Those franchise tender salaries are calculated off of the average of the top five at any given position, and teams aren’t keen on paying tackle money to guards. At least, they haven’t historically been keen on that. Scherff is one of the better interior linemen in the league, and the cost of quality guards has risen dramatically.

Since entering the league as the No. 5 overall pick in the 2015 draft, Scherff has started in all 67 of his games. Unfortunately, he’s also missed a good chunk of time. Between 2018 and 2019, he was sidelined for 13 games. He’s one of the league’s very best interior protectors when he’s healthy, but the injury bug has unfortunately bitten him once again.

Minor NFL Transactions: 9/19/20

Here are Saturday’s minor moves. There are many, as teams take advantage of the rule change allowing 55-man rosters ahead of regular-season games. Teams can dress 48 players for games this season, up from 46.

Arizona Cardinals

Buffalo Bills

Carolina Panthers

Chicago Bears

Dallas Cowboys

Denver Broncos

Detroit Lions

Green Bay Packers

Houston Texans

Indianapolis Colts

Jacksonville Jaguars

Kansas City Chiefs

Los Angeles Chargers

Los Angeles Rams

Minnesota Vikings

New England Patriots

New York Giants

Philadelphia Eagles

San Francisco 49ers

Seattle Seahawks

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Tennessee Titans

Washington Football Team

Minor NFL Transactions: 9/12/20

Here are Saturday’s minor moves. Many of these roster decisions involve practice squad promotions. Under the new CBA, teams are permitted to promote two P-squad players without corresponding roster moves per week. Teams can carry 55 players on their rosters for game days and can have up to 48 active.

Arizona Cardinals

Baltimore Ravens

Chicago Bears

Cincinnati Bengals

Cleveland Browns

Detroit Lions

Green Bay Packers

Jacksonville Jaguars

  • Promoted: RB Nathan Cottrell, TE Ben Ellefson

Los Angeles Chargers

Miami Dolphins

  • Released from IR via injury settlement: DB Nate Brooks

Minnesota Vikings

New England Patriots

New Orleans Saints

New York Jets

Philadelphia Eagles

San Francisco 49ers

Seattle Seahawks

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Washington Football Team

Washington Signs CB Aaron Colvin To Practice Squad

Aaron Colvin opted against lingering in free agency ahead of the 2020 season. The veteran slot cornerback — a Washington cut Saturday — agreed to stay in the nation’s capital, joining Washington’s practice squad.

A four-year Jaguars cog, Colvin signed a lucrative deal to join the Texans in 2018. He spent a season as Houston’s slot cornerback, but after the Texans’ final-seconds loss to the Saints in Week 1 of 2019, the team made Colvin a scapegoat and accepted a dead-money hit to cut him.

Washington claimed Colvin on waivers and used him in six games. This season’s Washington squad, however, did not include the 28-year-old cornerback. He will work as an emergency player and as one of the team’s veteran P-squad staffers.

Former 49ers first-round guard Joshua Garnett, a late-offseason Washington addition, also opted to avoid another long-term free agency stay. He signed with the Washington practice squad. Given the injury trouble Washington has experienced on its offensive line in recent years, Garnett may end up seeing game action for the first time since 2018.

Here is Washington’s practice squad, as of Sunday afternoon: