HEADLINES

Cameron Thomas

Browns Claim James Houston, Cam Thomas

November 27th, 2024 at 3:15pm CST by Sam Robinson

Less than a month after the Browns traded Za’Darius Smith to the Lions, the AFC North team will pick up a player Detroit discarded following that swap.

Waived Tuesday, James Houston is heading to Cleveland. The Browns submitted a successful waiver claim for the third-year edge rusher, NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport tweets. Houston is controllable through 2025 via restricted free agency.

Busy today on the wire, the Browns made another claim for a pass rusher. Cleveland added defensive end Cameron Thomas after Kansas City cut him (to make room for D.J. Humphries), cleveland.com’s Mary Kay Cabot adds. The Browns waived defensive end Elerson Smith to clear a roster spot for Thomas.

Neither Houston nor Thomas has produced much of consequence over the past two seasons. Houston has tallied one sack in that span; Thomas has not recorded any. This will be Thomas’ third team this year, as the Chiefs acquired the former third-round pick from the Cardinals in a trade just before the season. With Alex Wright on IR, this duo will join Ogbo Okoronkwo among the Browns’ pack of supplementary edge rushers.

Most notably on this action-packed afternoon for potential Myles Garrett sidekicks, Houston has a prolific stretch on his NFL resume. The former Lions sixth-round pick did not debut until Thanksgiving Day during his rookie year. From that week on, he racked up eight sacks to show considerable promise. Houston notched two sacks against the Bills and three against the Bears during that torrid run, but he has been unable to sustain it — or really anything close — in the time since.

Houston only saw action in two games last season, going down in Week 2 of last season and not returning to action until the NFC championship game. The Jackson State product suffered a broken fibula that blunted his momentum, and while he did play a rotational role in the NFC decider, he played only 116 snaps this season. Houston does have a sack this year, but he has only two QB hits. The Lions now have Smith in place of Aidan Hutchinson leading their pass rush, with Josh Paschal also back from a midseason absence. Despite Marcus Davenport also being down for the season due to injury, the Lions did not have room to keep Houston around.

The Chiefs had been without Charles Omenihu all season, but the veteran edge player is coming back from an ACL tear this week. Thomas, who also saw the defending champs trade for Josh Uche at the deadline, played all of six defensive snaps this season. The former Steve Keim third-round pick notched three sacks as a rookie but fell out of favor in Jonthan Gannon‘s scheme, being traded despite the Cardinals losing BJ Ojulari for the season in August. Thomas remains attached to his third-round rookie deal, however; that contract runs through 2025.

Minor NFL Transactions: 11/26/24

November 26th, 2024 at 8:11pm CST by Ben Levine

Today’s minor moves:

Houston Texans

Kansas City Chiefs

New England Patriots

New Orleans Saints

Seattle Seahawks

  • Claimed off waivers (from Chargers): S A.J. Finley
  • Waived: DT Myles Adams

The Patriots moved on from one of their OL starters today. Michael Jordan started all 11 games for New England this season, although that was mostly due to necessity. The veteran lineman ranks 73rd among 77 qualifying guards on Pro Football Focus’ positional rankings. A former fourth-round pick, Jordan also has starting experience with the Bengals and Panthers.

New England will be replacing Jordan with Lester Cotton, who has spent the past few seasons in Miami. The lineman started a career-high eight games for the Dolphins in 2023, but he basically split his 100ish snaps between offense and special teams in 2024. The former UDFA could have a chance at more OL opportunities with his new squad.

Cardinals Trade LB Cameron Thomas To Chiefs

August 26th, 2024 at 10:13pm CST by Ben Levine

With some extra depth at linebacker, the Cardinals are moving on from a former third-round pick. According to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, the Cardinals have traded linebacker Cameron Thomas to the Chiefs for a seventh-round selection.

While the Cardinals have tried to get creative with their usage of Thomas, he seemed destined to be buried on the edge depth chart in 2024. Zaven Collins and Dennis Gardeck are still expected to lead the positional grouping, and the team is also still rostering former sixth-round pick Victor Dimukeje, who outsnapped Thomas in 2023.

While fellow edge rusher BJ Ojulari will miss the entire 2024 campaign, Thomas was still facing an uphill battle toward playing time. The team added rookie Xavier Thomas in the fifth round, and the team is still hanging on to former bottom-of-the-depth-chart options like Jesse Luketa and Tyreke Smith. More moves are surely coming at outside linebacker, but today’s trade should provide some temporary relief in Arizona’s position room.

The Chiefs will be taking a chance on a player whose San Diego State performance made him a third-round pick in 2022. After finishing with three sacks as a rookie, the Cardinals were clearly counting on more from Thomas in 2023, with the OLB starting three of his 15 appearances. However, Thomas was shutout in the sacks category, and he finished with only 22 tackles while getting into about one third of his team’s defensive snaps.

The Chiefs will return a similar edge grouping in 2024, with George Karlaftis, Mike Danna, and 2023 first-round pick Felix Anudike-Uzomah leading the way. Charles Omenihu and BJ Thompson are currently on PUP and NFI, respectively, so there could be a chance for Thomas to soak up some snaps in the interim.