Kendal Vickers

NFL Practice Squad Updates: 9/2/21

Here are Thursday’s practice squad moves, with the list being updated throughout the day:

Baltimore Ravens

Buffalo Bills

Carolina Panthers

Chicago Bears

Cincinnati Bengals

Cleveland Browns

Denver Broncos

Detroit Lions

Green Bay Packers

  • Signed: LS Steven Wirtel
  • Cut: DT Willington Previlon

Jacksonville Jaguars

Las Vegas Raiders

Los Angeles Chargers

Los Angeles Rams

Miami Dolphins

Minnesota Vikings

New York Giants

New York Jets

Philadelphia Eagles

Seattle Seahawks

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Raiders Trim Roster To 53

Some of the Raiders’ cuts became known earlier Tuesday, with the team parting ways with Karl Joseph and John Brown. Here are the rest of the moves Las Vegas made to reach the 53-man roster limit:

Released:

Waived:

Several of these players will be invited to stick around on Las Vegas’ practice squad, with the NFL greenlighting a second year of 16-man taxi squads. The Raiders’ cutting Brown and Doss keeps Willie Snead and Zay Jones on their active roster. Johnson played a part-time role on the Raiders’ defense last season, while Carrier has been with the team for the past four years. The Raiders re-signed him in March. Wreh-Wilson was aiming to catch on for a ninth NFL season, and while the former Titans and Falcons cornerback may do so, the Raiders halted his effort to land on their initial 53-man roster.

Raiders Re-Sign DE Kendal Vickers

In an unsurprising move, the Raiders are committing to one of their notable exclusive rights free agents. The team announced this evening that they’ve re-signed defensive end Kendal Vickers. The lineman will earn $780K next season.

Vickers was a bit of a revelation for the Raiders in 2020. The former undrafted free agent out of Tennessee was unable to crack an active roster during his rookie campaign in 2018, and he pivoted to the Canadian Football League for the 2019 season. He signed a reserve/future contract with the Raiders towards the end of the 2019 campaign, and he ended up making the team at the end of the 2020 preseason.

At 25 years old, Vickers ended up making his NFL debut in Week 1. He missed a game due to a brief stint on the reserve/COVID-19 list, but he otherwise appeared in every game for the Raiders in 2020. He finished the campaign having compiled 10 tackles, three QB hits, and a pair of sacks, appearing in 29 percent of his team’s defensive snaps. As Josh Alper of ProFootballTalk.com implied, Vickers could be in line for a bigger role in 2021 considering the uncertain statuses of impending free agents Johnathan Hankins and Takk McKinley.

The Raiders will still have a decision to make on another exclusive rights free agent. Safety Dallin Leavitt is also an impending ERFA.

Seven Raiders Defenders To Come Off Reserve/COVID-19 List

While the Raiders practiced without several defenders this week, they are at least on track to have those players in uniform Sunday night against the Chiefs.

After continuing to test negative for COVID-19, seven Raider defenders will come off the team’s coronavirus list Saturday, Paul Gutierrez of ESPN.com tweets. Johnathan Abram, Johnathan Hankins, Arden Key, Maliek Collins, cornerback Isaiah Johnson and defensive lineman Kendal Vickers will be activated Saturday. David Irving is set to come off Las Vegas’ practice squad COVID-19 list, per Gutierrez.

The Raiders placed these seven players on their reserve/COVID list earlier this week, preventing each from practicing. They joined Lamarcus Joyner in that regard; the Raiders activated Joyner on Friday. This octet profiled as close contacts of Clelin Ferrell, who tested positive for the coronavirus earlier this week. Abram, Hankins, Key, Collins, Johnson and Vickers will be eligible to play against the Chiefs if their most recent COVID tests come back negative Sunday morning. Irving must be activated off the Raiders’ practice squad to suit up in Week 11.

Unlike Week 7’s Raiders-Buccaneers game — which was moved out of the Sunday-night window after Las Vegas’ first-string offensive line did not practice all week because of Trent Brown‘s positive COVID test — the NFL did not switch this week’s Raiders-Chiefs rematch out of the Sunday-night time slot.

Raiders To Place Several Defenders On Reserve/COVID-19 List

4:09pm: The following Raiders landed on the reserve/COVID-19 list: Johnathan Abram, Maliek Collins, Johnathan Hankins, Arden Key, cornerback Isaiah Johnson and defensive tackle Kendal Vickers. While this comes in under the rumored eight-starter number, five Raiders defensive first-stringers are currently sidelined — when Ferrell and Joyner are included.

3:06pm: The Raiders already prepared for a game without their first-string offensive line. They will face another difficult task ahead of their Week 11 rematch with the Chiefs.

At least eight members of the Raiders’ starting defense will land on their reserve/COVID-19 list, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (on Twitter). Some of Las Vegas’ non-starter contributors on defense will also surface on the COVID list soon.

These players qualify as high-risk close contacts, and while Rapoport and NFL.com’s Tom Pelissero note they are not ruled out of Sunday night’s game (Twitter link), this certainly will bring another challenge for a team accustomed to dealing with them on the coronavirus front.

This news comes after the Raiders placed Clelin Ferrell and Lamarcus Joyner on their coronavirus list. The former tested positive for COVID-19, Rapoport tweets. With two starters already on the list — and Ferrell set to miss the team’s Week 11 game — Wednesday’s news would cover almost every other starting defender. The latest slew of players set to appear on Vegas’ COVID list are indeed close Ferrell contacts, Vincent Bonsignore of the Las Vegas Review-Journal tweets.

Players who land on the virus list must isolate for five days. That timetable starts not at the point they land on the list but dates back to the individuals’ last contact with someone who contracted the virus. The Raiders are currently down right tackle Trent Brown due to COVID-19 and have lost a 2021 draft choice — and more than $1MM in total this season — because of failure to comply with the NFL’s COVID protocols.

Ahead of their Week 7 game against the Buccaneers, the Raiders practiced without Brown and the rest of their starting offensive line because of the group qualifying as high-risk close contacts of the mammoth tackle. The rest of the Raiders’ O-line returned to face the Bucs, which was moved from Sunday night to Sunday afternoon. With more Raiders out of practice because of the virus a month later, it would not be surprising if the NFL removes this game from the Sunday-night time slot as well to create flexibility in the event a postponement is necessary.

NFL Workout Updates: 9/27/18

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

Miami Dolphins

New Orleans Saints

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Steelers Cut QB Landry Jones, Others

The Steelers have reached the 53-man roster limit by cutting a number of players, including quarterback Landry Jones.

Jones, 29, hasn’t played much during his six-year NFL career, as he’s attempted just 169 passes in relief of Roethlisberger. In that span, Jones has been a middling option, completing 63.9% of his passes for 1,310 yards, eight touchdowns, and seven interceptions.

The Steelers also placed wide receiver Eli Rogers on the Reserve/PUP List, which will keep him off of the field for at least the first six weeks of the season.

Here’s the full rundown of the Steelers’ moves:

Released:

  • QB Landry Jones
  • S Nat Berhe

Waived:

In addition to those moves, the Steelers designated the following players waived/injured:

Steelers, 13 UDFAs Agree To Terms

The Steelers are now the second club to announce their crop of 2018 undrafted college free agents: