49ers Place TE Garrett Celek On IR
Garrett Celek‘s eighth 49ers season will end after five games. The 49ers placed the veteran on IR, doing so barely a month after activating him from their PUP list. They promoted tight end Daniel Helm from their practice squad to take Celek’s roster spot.
This keeps a brutal injury stretch going for San Francisco, which has seen Richard Sherman, Dee Ford, Weston Richburg, defensive tackle D.J. Jones and Marquise Goodwin go down in recent days.
A back injury will shelve Celek again. He missed the first half of the 49ers’ bounce-back season due to a back malady that required offseason surgery. The 49ers have George Kittle, Levine Toilolo, Ross Dwelley and now Helm as their active-roster tight ends.
Rostered for his blocking prowess, Celek played more than 20 snaps in just one of the five games for which he was active. He did not catch a pass. The 31-year-old tight end’s four-year contract expires at season’s end.
Sunday NFL Transactions: NFC West
Listed below are the Sunday roster moves for the four NFC West 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 Cardinals, Rams, Seahawks and 49ers are noted below.
Additionally, teams can begin constructing their 10-man practice squads today. 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 West transactions, which will continue to be updated throughout the day.
Arizona Cardinals
- Claimed:
- Signed:
- DE Cassius Marsh (story)
- Waived:
- RB T.J. Logan
- LB Pete Robertson
- LB Tanner Vallejo
- Signed to practice squad:
- QB Drew Anderson
- LB Dante Booker
- CB Nate Brooks
- TE Darrell Daniels
- LB Vontarrius Dora
- WR A.J. Richardson
- TE Caleb Wilson
Los Angeles Rams
- Signed to practice squad:
- LB Dakota Allen
- TE Kendall Blanton
- TE Chandler Brewer
- DT Marquise Copeland
- DB Donte Deayon
- DE Landis Durham
- RB John Kelly
- OL Jeremiah Kolone
- S Jake Gervase
- QB John Wolford
San Francisco 49ers
- Signed:
- DB Antone Exum
- Placed on IR:
- Signed to practice squad:
- LB Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles
- DT Kevin Givens
- S Marcell Harris
- TE Daniel Helm
- WR Malik Henry
- LB Elijah Lee
- G Ross Reynolds
- DE Jeremiah Valoaga
- RB Jeff Wilson
Seattle Seahawks
- Signed to practice squad:
- WR Jazz Ferguson
- WR Terry Wright
- TE Jacob Hollister
- CB Simeon Thomas
- G Jordan Roos
- T Elijah Nkansah
49ers Cut Joshua Garnett, Reach Max
The 49ers got down to the 53-man roster maximum by releasing 24 players in total on Saturday, including former first-round pick Joshua Garnett.
The Niners used the No. 28 pick to select Garnett in 2016, but they never saw much from him at the pro level. The Stanford product started in eleven of his 15 games as a rookie, but even then, his performance was underwhelming – Garnett racked up penalties and didn’t excel in run blocking or pass blocking. Garnett then missed all of 2017 after undergoing knee surgery and only saw action as a reserve in seven games last year. At a rate of $10.35MM, it made little sense to keep Garnett for 2020, especially since the option would have been guaranteed for injury.
This year, Garnett is said to be healthy, but that ensured little in terms of performance, so he’s out. The Niners will save $1.7MM against $1.2MM in dead money.
Jordan Matthews was said to have had a strong camp, but the 27-year-old wide receiver wasn’t able to stick in SF. He inked a one-year, $1.8MM deal with the Niners in March, but he’ll exit with just his $300K signing bonus in hand.
Aside from Garnett and Matthews, here’s the rest of the Niners’ cuts:
Released
DB Antone Exum Jr.
DL Kevin Givens
TE Daniel Helm
WR Malik Henry
LB Elijah Lee
LB David Mayo
OL Najee Toran
RB Jeff Wilson Jr.
Waived/Injured
OL Andrew Lauderdale
49ers Release TE Niles Paul
Niles Paul‘s stint with the 49ers didn’t last long. The veteran tight end is being released by San Francisco, a source told Field Yates of ESPN.com (Twitter link).
In a corresponding roster move, the team claimed tight end Daniel Helm off waivers from the Chargers. Paul had just been signed last week. The former Redskins and Jaguars tight end had a connection to head coach Kyle Shanahan from their time in Washington together, but the team clearly didn’t like what they saw from the Nebraska product during his brief time in camp.
Paul has spent eight years in the league, his first seven with the Redskins and then one in Jacksonville. By far his best season as a receiver came in 2014, when he had 39 catches for 507 yards. With Garrett Celek on the shelf, and looking likely to miss some regular season time, the 49ers have been looking for some tight end depth behind George Kittle.
Helm is the latest they’ll be taking a look at, a rookie undrafted free agent from Duke. He was never a huge receiving threat for the Blue Devils, gaining between 235 and 271 yards in each of his final three college seasons.
More Minor NFL Transactions: 8/1/19
We’ve already posted one round of minor transactions, but NFL clubs keep making moves:
Baltimore Ravens
- Waived: LB Matthew Thomas
Jacksonville Jaguars
- Claimed off waivers: TE Donnie Ernsberger
Los Angeles Chargers
- Waived: TE Daniel Helm
Minnesota Vikings
- Claimed off waivers: G Tyler Catalina
- Waived: G Tiano Pupungatoa
New Orleans Saints
- Signed: TE Jake Powell
- Waived: QB J.T. Barrett
Seattle Seahawks
- Signed: WR Nyqwan Murray
Tennessee Titans
- Signed: DL Chris Nelson, DE Jordan Williams
- Waived: DB Jonathan Crawford, LB Gimel President
Washington Redskins
- Signed: LB Garrett Sickels
- Waived: RB Elijah Wellman
Chargers Sign 19 UDFAs
As teams officially announce their undrafted free agent classes, we’ll be posting them. The Chargers are the second team to announce, following the Steelers. Los Angeles inked a massive group, bringing in 19 players:
- Chris Brown, G (USC)
- Eurndraus Bryant, DT (N.C. State)
- Blake Camper, OT (South Carolina)
- Josh Corcoran, LB (Northern Illinois)
- Jeremy Cox, RB (Old Dominion)
- Kemon Hall, CB (North Texas)
- Daniel Helm, TE (Duke)
- Reggie Howard, DT (Toledo)
- Bradford Lemmons, CB (Furman)
- Koda Martin, G (Syracuse)
- Jason Moore, WR (Findlay)
- Tyler Newsome, P (Notre Dame)
- Chris Peace, DE (Virginia)
- Rodney Randle, DB (Lamar)
- Matt Sokol, TE (Michigan State)
- Roderic Teamer, S (Tulane)
- Trevion Thompson, WR (Clemson)
- Tanner Volson, C (North Dakota State)
- Elijah Zeise, LB (Pittsburgh)
As the Chargers pointed out in their release, they’re annually one of the best teams at unearthing solid undrafted free agents. They’ve had an undrafted rookie make the team for 22 consecutive seasons, which is the longest streak in the NFL. In each of the last four seasons, they’ve had at least three undrafted rookies make the team.
One of their best undrafted finds in recent years, Tyrell Williams, just inked a huge four-year, $44MM deal with the Raiders. With their huge class this year, they opted for a lot of small school and FCS prospects. Tyler Newsome is an interesting signing since the Chargers had a terrible punting situation all of last year. They ended up releasing Drew Kaser in the middle of the year, and Newsome should have a good chance to make the team. Volson was the center for Easton Stick, who the Chargers just drafted in the fifth round, during their time at North Dakota State.