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AFC East Notes: Tua, Jets, Patriots, Miller

March 30th, 2024 at 12:49pm CST by Ben Levine

We previously heard that both the Dolphins and quarterback Tua Tagovailoa were hoping for speedy negotiations on an extension. However, it sounds like the two sides are temporarily pumping the brakes on a potential deal.

Daniel Oyefusi of The Miami Herald writes that while Tagovailoa’s next contract is the most “consequential matter” in Miami, it isn’t the most pressing. A source also made it clear that an agreement isn’t imminent and there’s “no rush” to finalize a deal.

When we last heard about the impending negotiations, there was a general sentiment that neither the Dolphins nor Tagovailoa wanted the extension talks to hang over training camp, much less the regular season. The two sides could simply be delaying talks until after free agency and the draft, which would still provide an ample amount of time to negotiate before practices start.

The former first-round pick is currently slated to play the 2024 season on a $23.17MM salary via the fifth-year option. Tua is coming off a career year where he set career highs in passing yards (4,624), touchdowns (29), and completion percentage (69.3). He also managed to get into all 17 games, a significant accomplishment after he missed 14 contests through his first three years in the NFL due to injuries and concussions.

More notes out of the AFC East…

  • The Jets recently added Mike Williams to their receivers room, but with the former Charger coming off a torn ACL, he won’t immediately be seen on the practice field. GM Joe Douglas told reporters that Williams will not be ready for the start of training camp, but there’s optimism that he’ll be good to go for Week 1 (per SNY’s Connor Hughes). Williams himself echoed that sentiment, telling ESPN’s Adam Schefter that it’s his goal to be ready for the regular season opener.
  • Two more Jets injury updates, both coming on the offensive line. After being limited to five games last season thanks to an Achilles injury, guard Alijah Vera-Tucker is expected to be ready for the start of the regular season, coach Robert Saleh told reporters (via team reporter Caroline Hendershot). Meanwhile, new addition (and old friend) Morgan Moses revealed that he played through most of last season with a torn pec, telling the team’s website that he’s looking forward “to having two arms this year.”
  • While the Patriots have been busy re-signing their own free agents, the new regime is making it clear that they’re not following the same formula as Bill Belichick. ESPN’s Mike Reiss points to the recent release of special teams ace Chris Board, “who was a Belichick favorite.” While the former head coach/chief decision maker used to invest in top-of-the-market deals for key ST players, Reiss notes that new head coach Jerod Mayo and de facto GM Eliot Wolf “appear less willing.” Reiss also points to defensive back Myles Bryant, who “lost a top advocate in Belichick.” After spending the past four seasons in New England, Bryant remains unsigned, and the Patriots are only willing to bring him back if his salary is reflective of a “depth player” vs. a “key cog.”
  • After Von Miller was arrested on a domestic violence charge, the NFL considered suspending the Bills linebacker. However, commissioner Roger Goodell told reporters (including ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler) that a suspension “was not appropriate based on the facts,” although the case remains under review by the NFL. Miller told reporters in December that the allegations were “100% false.”

WR Mike Williams To Sign With Jets

March 23rd, 2024 at 11:10am CST by Sam Robinson

MARCH 23: Williams’ deal will ultimately be listed as a one-year, $10MM pact with up to $5MM via incentives, according to Albert Breer of The MMQB. Coming off an ACL tear, Williams earned a $3.3MM signing bonus and will get $8.3MM in guaranteed money.

MARCH 19: Mike Williams‘ Tuesday New York trip will end his free agency tour. The former Chargers starter has agreed to join the Jets on a one-year deal worth up to $15MM, NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport reports.

The veteran wide receiver had booked meetings with the Panthers and Steelers, but after the Jets saw their Odell Beckham Jr. visit nixed, they will not let Williams leave the building without a contract. The team has been on the hunt for a big-name wide receiver since before last year’s trade deadline, and while more pieces may be coming, Williams represents a key part of the puzzle around WR1 Garrett Wilson.

Released by the Chargers just before the 2024 league year began, the 29-year-old receiver set up meetings with the Jets, Panthers and Steelers. His Charlotte and Pittsburgh trips were to follow this one. Williams has only played with Pro Bowl-caliber quarterbacks during his career. The former Philip Rivers and Justin Herbert target will not take a step back in quality — assuming another major injury does not occur, of course — with Aaron Rodgers set to target the former first-round pick next season.

Not dissimilar to 2022, the Jets had been connected to a slew of receiving options since they acquired Rodgers. Efforts to trade for Davante Adams, Tee Higgins and Mike Evans did not pan out, though the team was still exploring the trade market as of Sunday.

Its 2023 Beckham pursuit ended when the veteran wideout canceled his New York trip following a Baltimore agreement. Beckham remained on the Jets’ radar as of Tuesday afternoon, and while that may still be the case due to his relationship with Rodgers, Williams will give a team starved for a WR2-level target an option after its 2023 setup — largely hamstrung by QB issues following Rodgers’ Achilles tear — failed to deliver much of consequence.

The Chargers needed to trim more than $25MM from their payroll to move under the salary cap last week; Williams became the first domino to fall. The Bolts released the seven-year veteran months after his ACL tear. While the base value of Williams’ Jets deal is not known, he still generated a market despite finishing his past two seasons sidelined. A back fracture wrapped Williams’ 2022 season early, stripping Herbert of a key weapon ahead of a disastrous wild-card outing in Jacksonville.

While injuries have nagged Williams for most of his career, he has not been taken out of action too often. From 2018-21, Williams missed only three games in total. In 2022, a sprained ankle forced him out of action weeks before the back injury — sustained in a meaningless Week 18 game that became a lighting rod around Brandon Staley — ended his season. Williams suffered the ACL tear in Week 3, giving him more time to build up ahead of the 2024 season. The Jets will bet on the 6-foot-4 target, who has been one of this period’s best deep threats.

Chosen seventh overall in 2017, Williams has two 1,000-yard seasons on his resume. The Clemson alum led the NFL with 20.4 yards per catch in Rivers’ final Los Angeles season, and he reached a career-high 1,146 yards in 2021, helping Herbert become the AFC’s Pro Bowl starter. The Chargers did well to make Williams more than a long-range threat that year, with OC Joe Lombardi incorporating him more as a midrange weapon alongside Keenan Allen.

The Chargers had not ruled out re-signing Williams, but after seven years of the Williams-Allen tandem, the Bolts are moving on from both. They sent Allen to the Bears for a fourth-round pick last week. The Jets guaranteed Allen Lazard $22MM at signing, keeping the ex-Packer in the picture, but they traded Mecole Hardman — to wrap what turned out to be a messy tenure — and have Randall Cobb unsigned. While the Jets had Tyler Boyd on their radar, Williams represents a higher-ceiling prize at this rather crucial point on the team’s timeline.

WR Mike Williams Adds Pittsburgh To Visits

March 17th, 2024 at 9:06pm CST by Ely Allen

The Steelers have made plenty of headlines over the past week, and it doesn’t seem like they intend to stop any time soon. Pittsburgh has completely transformed their quarterbacks room, and now they have set their sights on their wide receiving corps. According to Adam Schefter of ESPN, former Chargers wide receiver Mike Williams will visit the Steelers this week.

Now, this doesn’t ensure that Williams will be the latest addition to this new-look Steelers team, necessarily. Williams already has visits in place with the Jets and Panthers, as well. The Jets are set to host the veteran wide receiver on Monday, while the Panthers’ visit will follow the next day. Unless any other suitors come out of the woodwork, it can be assumed that Pittsburgh will follow shortly after Williams is done in Carolina.

In Pittsburgh, Williams would be joining a wide receivers room that has already undergone some serious change. Former Steelers wide receiver Diontae Johnson will see Williams before Pittsburgh does after getting traded to the Panthers this week in exchange for cornerback Donte Jackson and a late-round pick swap. They replaced him by signing former Rams wide receiver Van Jefferson.

Jefferson showed promise during a sophomore season in Los Angeles in which he caught 50 balls for 802 yards and six touchdowns for the Super Bowl-winning Rams. Since then, an injury limited Jefferson’s 2022 season and a midseason trade to Atlanta handicapped him last year. Jefferson will pair up with third-year receivers George Pickens, who took over the WR1 duties in Pittsburgh last season, and Calvin Austin III atop the depth chart.

Adding Williams would be an extremely complimentary move to the room. It would allow Austin to continue developing without having too much put on his shoulders too soon, and it wouldn’t require too much from Jefferson, either, allowing him to blossom again in a WR3 role. At the same time, Pickens wouldn’t need to fret about losing all of his targets. He can look to Williams’ several years alongside Keenan Allen as proof of what a WR1 can do with Williams across from them.

In reporting the Steelers’ addition to Williams’ list of visits, Schefter also mentioned that, after clearing up some cap space and trading away Allen, the Chargers have expressed interest in bringing Williams back on a new deal. Without Allen and Willams, Justin Herbert‘s targets consist of Josh Palmer, Quentin Johnston, and Derius Davis, as well as new tight ends Will Dissly and Hayden Hurst.

Williams is certainly shopping himself around with three visits scheduled already and more potentially on the horizon if he doesn’t sign a deal. For now, he will peruse the options of catching passes from Bryce Young or Andy Dalton, Aaron Rodgers or Tyrod Taylor, and Russell Wilson or Justin Fields.

Panthers To Host Mike Williams, Michael Gallup; Jets To Meet With Ex-Chargers WR

March 16th, 2024 at 11:03pm CST by Ely Allen

Last year, the Panthers made a number of big moves in order to acquire receiving weapons for their rookie quarterback, Bryce Young, signing wide receivers Adam Thielen and DJ Chark and tight end Hayden Hurst before also drafting Ole Miss wide receiver Jonathan Mingo in the second round.

Carolina continues to strive to build around Young this offseason. After trading for Steelers veteran Diontae Johnson, the team is set to host two more wideouts to add to their corps.

Newly released wide receiver Michael Gallup didn’t have to wait long to hear from interested teams. He’ll head to Carolina this week for a free agent visit, per Ian Rapoport of NFL Network. The Cowboys cut ties with Gallup yesterday following his third straight season in which he failed to amass 500 receiving yards. Gallup showed promise over the first three years of his career.

After a rookie season in which he caught 33 balls for 507 yards and two touchdowns, he exploded onto the scene with double the receptions, 1,107 yards, and six touchdowns in a successful sophomore campaign. He followed that up with 843 yards and five touchdowns in the 2020 season before entering his current slump.

Last night, Mike Kaye of The Charlotte Observer informed us that the Panthers would also host former Chargers wide receiver Mike Williams for a visit next Tuesday. Los Angeles released Williams this week in order to clear $20MM of cap space as the team desperately tried to get within salary cap compliance. Williams is coming off a year in which he missed 14 games due to a torn ACL. He’s still 29 years old, though, and is only two years removed from a year in which he had career highs in receptions (76), receiving yards (1,146), and touchdowns (9).

Carolina isn’t the only scheduled visit for Williams. Per Sheena Quick of FOX Sports, the veteran wideout will visit the Jets the day before heading to Carolina.

New York has used the free agency period so far to completely rebuild their offensive line and secure a more reliable backup quarterback behind Aaron Rodgers. Now the team will need to focus on adding to a wide receiving corps that saw only Garrett Wilson surpass running back Breece Hall in receiving yards in 2023. The Jets did reportedly consider trading for Williams’ former teammate, Keenan Allen, but the veteran ultimately found himself in Chicago. Barring any other additions, Williams would be joining Wilson, Allen Lazard, and Xavier Gipson in New York.

In Carolina, Gallup and Williams both represent decent fits for a room with two experienced wideouts already in place. A top-three group of Thielen, Johnson, and Mingo seems like it’d be an adequate corps to roll into the 2024 season with, but adding Gallup or Williams doesn’t necessarily make it a crowded room. Williams is clearly the bigger get of the two and would challenge Thielen or Johnson for a WR1 or WR2 role, but he has plenty of experience sharing the spotlight during his several years with Allen in California. Gallup, too, has worked in crowded rooms before, and would fit more squarely as a WR3 or WR4, allowing Thielen and Johnson to comfortably take the lead.

The Panthers will have a chance to sell a fit to both receivers in the coming week. Despite a league-worst 2-15 record last year, Carolina has made it clear that their strategy from the last offseason hasn’t changed. They intend to build their offense around Young, and they’ll look to bring in Williams or Gallup to assist with that.

Chargers Release WR Mike Williams

March 13th, 2024 at 11:15pm CST by Sam Robinson

Needing to clear $27MM-plus off their cap to reach compliance by the 3pm CT today, the Chargers will part with one of their starting wide receivers. They are releasing Mike Williams, NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport reports.

Dangling Williams and their other three monster cap charges — Keenan Allen, Khalil Mack, Joey Bosa — in trades, the Chargers will clear $20MM by cutting Williams. The 2017 top-10 pick stands to become an interesting free agent, even coming off an ACL tear. The Bolts have since announced the move.

[RELATED: Latest On Chargers’ Trade Efforts]

Williams, 29, was set to carry a $32MM cap hit. The Bolts came into Wednesday with four of the NFL’s top 12 cap figures, with the above-referenced quartet all tied to numbers north of $32MM. It remains to be seen if one of the other high-profile Bolts will be jettisoned — via trade or release — but Williams is the first to go. While Rapoport adds that the Chargers would want to re-sign Williams, the high-end WR2 plans to test free agency.

One season remained on Williams’ three-year, $60MM deal. The then-Tom Teleseco-run Chargers gave Williams that contract just before free agency in 2022, and while the deal was finalized just before the Davante Adams and Tyreek Hill extensions changed the market, Williams battled injuries over the course of the pact. While Williams is coming off an ACL tear and going into his age-30 season, he has two 1,000-yard campaigns on his resume. The Clemson product has excelled as a deep threat and in the midrange, working as a key option during Justin Herbert‘s early years.

Williams cleared 1,000 yards in Philip Rivers‘ final Chargers season (2019, leading the NFL with 20.4 yards per catch) and then posted a career-high 1,146 yards to help Herbert become the 2021 Pro Bowl starter. Williams injuries wounded the Chargers over the past two years. Sustaining a back fracture during a meaningless Week 18 game in Denver, Williams could not suit up for the upcoming wild-card game in Jacksonville. The depleted Chargers’ offense struggled, and the Jaguars completed a 27-point comeback. The 6-foot-4 target also battled a high ankle sprain in 2022. Williams’ ACL tear three games into last season hurt the Bolts’ passing attack again, and ownership ousted the Telesco-Brandon Staley operation months later.

A number of teams still need receiver help. While this draft class will present yet another array of options, teams will be looking into the veteran now that he is a free agent. The WR-deficient Chiefs are quite familiar with Williams, and after missing on Darnell Mooney, would the defending champs dive in here? Williams will not command a $20MM-AAV deal coming off his knee injury, but seeing as teams to not make a habit of cutting two-time 1,000-yard receivers in their 20s, a few clubs figure to be interested in seeing what it will take to add the seven-year vet.

Patriots Inquire About Chargers’ Trade Candidates; Latest On Bolts’ Plans

March 13th, 2024 at 10:45am CST by Sam Robinson

The Chargers sit in their own space regarding cap room. As of Wednesday morning, only three teams are over the cap. But only the Bolts are more than $2MM over. Jim Harbaugh‘s team remains $25.2MM over the cap, and the deadline for cap compliance looms in less then five hours.

The team has not made a move involving the contracts of Joey Bosa, Keenan Allen, Mike Williams or Khalil Mack. These four pillars double as the Chargers’ top cap hits, with 2023 restructures creating big 2024 numbers. All four check in beyond the $32MM place, putting the Chargers in crunch time as they begin the Harbaugh era.

The team has until 3pm CT to move under the $255.4MM cap, creating one of the more interesting salary situations in years. As OverTheCap’s Jason Fitzgerald points out, the Bolts have four of the top 12 cap hits in the NFL.

Conversations about trades have taken place, and the Boston Herald’s Doug Kyed notes the Patriots have discussed at least some of these trade candidates with the Bolts. New England features needs at both receiver and edge defender, though the team has done some work on those fronts in free agency. Kendrick Bourne and Josh Uche are returning for the Pats, but neither player’s resume comes particularly close to any of the Bolts’ trade chips.

This Pats news comes as they are pursuing Calvin Ridley. The team has made an offer to the recent Jaguars 1,000-yard receiver. A Ridley pickup would seemingly move an Allen or Williams acquisition off the table. The Pats still have Matt Judon under contract, with Uche back as a sidekick — albeit one on the inconsistent side — for at least the 2024 season. If the Patriots were to acquire Bosa or Mack, the team would certainly not run out a Judon-Uche starting duo.

New England still holds more than $59MM in cap space, leaving the team capable of absorbing one of the Los Angeles contracts. The Bolts are widely expected to trade at least one of these contracts (possibly more) today, the Washington Post’s Mark Maske tweets. A trade or release transaction involving one of this foursome should be expected, ESPN’s Adam Schefter notes.

The Chargers’ cap situation will make teams less inclined to fork over major assets here, as the league knows the Bolts will have to cut a player or two if no trade can come to pass. That said, a team that does not like its chances of landing one of these players on the open market could be well served to make a trade, and the Bolts have been open to that for a bit now.

All four players are tied to deals at or north of $20MM per year. Allen, 31, has been with the Chargers since 2013. Bosa, 28, has spent eight seasons with the team. Both are among the top players at their respective positions. Mack, 33, qualifies for such a classification as well; he bounced back in a big way last season, totaling a career-high 17 sacks. Williams, 29, missed most of last season with an ACL tear. The former top-10 pick’s injury history will certainly limit his trade appeal. One season remains on Mack, Williams and Allen’s contracts; Bosa is signed through 2025.

Chargers Open To Trading OLBs Joey Bosa, Khalil Mack

March 10th, 2024 at 5:45pm CST by Ely Allen

MARCH 10: Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated confirms the Chargers have had “exploratory trade talks” concerning not only Bosa and Mack, but also both members of the Allen-Williams receiver tandem. Of those, Breer unsurprisingly notes Allen is the likeliest to stay, something which matches the veteran’s comments on his future. Still, a cost-shedding move of some kind could be coming soon on Los Angeles’ part.

MARCH 9: According to OverTheCap.com, the Chargers have the second-least amount of cap space in the NFL with only the Dolphins exceeding the salary cap by more than Los Angeles. They’re currently $21.14MM over the salary cap and are set to eat $27.31MM of dead money in 2024, also second-most in the NFL.

As a result, it appears the Chargers are exploring options to clear some cap space while potentially bringing in a bit of draft capital, as well. Dianna Russini of The Athletic reports that the team is currently “open to trade offers for many veteran players including Joey Bosa and Khalil Mack.”

Mack and Bosa currently make up the team’s largest two cap hits at $38.52MM and $36.61MM, respectively. Trading those two players alone, the team would be able to clear out $23.25MM (Mack) and $14.39MM (Bosa) of cap savings, though the team would be eating $15.27MM (Mack) and $22.22MM (Bosa) of dead money in the deals. The report from Russini also says “many veteran players,” though, and the next three biggest cap hits on the roster are veteran receivers Keenan Allen ($34.72MM) and Mike Williams ($32.46MM) and safety Derwin James ($19.86MM).

Would the Chargers really get rid of quarterback Justin Herbert‘s top two targets? Allen has been one of the league’s more consistent producers since 2017, as long as he stays on the field. Over that time, Allen has averaged around 75 yards per game and can usually deliver six to eight touchdowns. He’s missed 40 of a possible 179 career games, including 11 in the past two seasons, but despite four missed games in 2023, Allen averaged a career-high 95.6 yards per game and scored seven touchdowns at 31 years old.

Williams has also missed his fair share of games (27 of a possible 115), including 14 games missed with a torn ACL in 2023. When healthy, Williams has established himself as a strong WR2, twice surpassing 1,000 receiving yards and twice surpassing nine receiving touchdowns. Williams struggles to provide the same consistency as Allen but is still a strong contributor. If traded, Allen would provide $23.1MM of cap savings and result in $11.62MM of dead money, while a trade of Williams could provide $20MM of cap savings and result in $12.46MM of dead money.

James is yet another high-cost player who has struggled to stay on the field in his career. After appearing in every game as a rookie, James has missed 33 of a possible 83 games since. Despite leading the team in tackles this year, James had the worst NFL season of his career, according to Pro Football Focus (subscription required), grading out as the 71st best safety out of 95 graded players. Before this season, James hadn’t graded out worse than 12th. He showed decent pass rush and run defense in 2023, but graded out poorly in coverage. A James-trade would need to be a post-June 1 transaction. If traded pre-June 1, James would still cost the Chargers $1.46MM of cap space, while a post-June 1 designation would save the team $12.75MM of cap space.

Those players are all question marks, but Mack and Bosa have been blatantly named. Bosa started his career as one of the league’s most electric pass rushers with 23.0 sacks in his first two years, despite missing four games his rookie year. While he still threatens to put up double-digit sacks each year, he has to stay on the field in order to do so, and he has missed half the season three times in his career, including the most recent two seasons. If his physical shows the potential for a full return to form, he could fetch a high price in trade talks.

Los Angeles will try to sell high on Mack, who had a career year at 32 years old. Mack was a world-beater early in his career, racking up 40.5 sacks and a Defensive Player of the Year award with the Raiders. Though his production dipped a bit after getting traded to Chicago, Mack still made three straight Pro Bowls and two All-Pro teams as a Bear. Mack was traded once again to the Chargers in 2022, and after a decent first season in LA, Mack delivered a career-high 17.0 sacks in 2023, his first time delivering double-digit sacks since his first year in Chicago in 2018.

It’s unclear just how much Los Angeles is willing to part with this spring. Clearly, “many veteran players” have been advertised as available, including Mack and Bosa, but it’s hard to say just how many of those high-cap players will be shipped out. There are other ways to try and lower the players’ cap impacts, like restructures to current deals, but the easiest way may be to clear them off your books (for the most part) and get something in return. It will be interesting to see how much the Chargers are willing to give up in order to rebuild around Herbert.

AFC West Rumors: Ross, Broncos, Williams

October 26th, 2023 at 9:59pm CST by Ely Allen

While Chiefs wide receiver Justyn Ross is dealing with some pretty serious issues off the field, his inability to get onto the field before then never made much sense to people. Yet, according to Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated, it was his problems on the field that kept him from making more of an impact.

After an incredibly productive freshman and sophomore year at Clemson, injuries and a bit of a downgrade at quarterback would keep Ross from reaching those heights again for the remainder of his college career. Even after those late struggles kept him from being drafted, many believed that a transition to the NFL, coupled with the opportunity to work in an offense with Patrick Mahomes, would result in a return to greatness for the former top-100 recruit.

Ross would spend his rookie year on injured reserve following offseason foot surgery but would finally enter the 2023 season ready to make his NFL debut. Instead, what we’ve seen is a role receiver who plays mostly on special teams while occasionally rotating in on offense.

Breer’s report claims that there are legitimate football issues keeping him off the field. While Ross is a big body at receiver, he’s not very versatile, struggling to create separation with speed or route-running. In an offense that requires its weapons to contribute in several different ways, it becomes less surprising that Ross is only able to find the field in certain situations.

Here are a few other rumors coming out of the AFC West, starting with an update on one of the Chargers‘ top missing weapons:

  • Los Angeles has been tasked with running an effective offense without wide receiver Mike Williams following the veteran receiver’s season-ending ACL tear. While his status for this year is obviously not going to change, Williams underwent a successful surgery yesterday, according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport. This may not provide much solace to fans in 2023, but undergoing surgery at this point sets the expectation that Williams will be fully ready by training camp next year.
  • The Broncos made an alteration to their ownership shares earlier this month, according to Mike Klis of 9NEWS. With the team’s chief executive officer Greg Penner has been handling day-to-day operations since the Walton-Penner group purchased the organization, the Broncos’ controlling owner Rob Walton transferred a block of his shares to Penner, allowing Penner to take the mantle of controlling owner in addition to CEO. Penner’s four children will also receive an allotment of Walton’s shares in the exchange.
  • Denver cornerback K’Waun Williams suffered a setback from a preseason foot surgery that was reported this week to likely be season-ending. The setback required further surgery, which Williams underwent this past Monday, per Chris Tomasson of the Denver Gazette. The procedure on Williams’ left ankle reportedly went “very well” and will require a recovery period of approximately 12 weeks, allowing him to return in time for spring football practice.

Minor NFL Transactions: 9/26/23

September 26th, 2023 at 8:12pm CST by Ben Levine

Today’s minor moves:

Arizona Cardinals

Los Angeles Chargers

Minnesota Vikings

Seattle Seahawks

Tennessee Titans

The Chargers officially placed Mike Williams on injured reserve today, opening a roster spot. The front office didn’t take long filling his spot on the depth chart, snagging receiver Simi Fehoko from Pittsburgh’s practice squad. The former fifth-round pick spent the first two seasons of his career with the Cowboys, where he hauled in three catches in 10 games. The Stanford product also had a significant role on special teams during his time in Dallas.

Roy Lopez looked to be entrenched in Houston’s defense for the foreseeable future, with the former sixth-round pick starting 29 of his 33 appearances between 2021 and 2022. However, after collecting only 67 tackles and two sacks across those two seasons, he was waived/injured by the Texans at the end of the preseason. The defensive lineman caught on with Arizona’s practice squad late last week.

Chargers WR Mike Williams Suffers ACL Tear

September 25th, 2023 at 11:30am CST by Adam La Rose

11:30am: An MRI confirmed Williams has torn his ACL, per Rapoport. The news confirms he will be sidelined for the remainder of the campaign, though ESPN’s Adam Schefter notes Williams is expected to be available for the start of training camp in 2024. Given his importance to the Chargers’ offense, however, that point will come as little consolation as the team prepares to move forward without him.

8:47am: The Chargers picked up their first win of the season on Sunday, but their offense suffered a major blow in the process. Wideout Mike Williams left the contest with a knee injury, and it may cost him the remainder of the campaign.

An MRI is scheduled for Monday, but for now the team fears Williams’ knee injury could be season-ending, reports Ian Rapoport of NFL Network (video link). The 28-year-old went down in the third quarter of Los Angeles’ win over Minnesota, and he needed to be carted off the field. That led to concerns a lengthy absence could ensue, and that would certainly be the case if testing were to confirm the worst-case scenario.

Williams is no stranger to injury, having played a full season only once in his seven-year career. He has dealt with back ailments on a number of occasions, including a herniated disc in his rookie campaign and a fracture suffered in Week 18 of last season which kept him out of the Chargers’ wild-card loss. This latest injury is of a different variety, but it will nevertheless be a signficant one if it proves to shut Williams down for the remainder of 2023.

The Clemson alum is currently in the second season of his three-year, $60MM extension. That pact took the place of a potential 2022 franchise tag, and ensured the Chargers would have the tandem of Williams and Keenan Allen intact through 2024. Both wideouts are set to hit free agency at the end of next season, but an extension for either or both could be in order since they are each scheduled to count for more than $32MM against the cap next year.

Williams was off to a good start to the campaign, especially in yesterday’s contest. Allen, too, has had a highly productive first three weeks (posting 402 yards and a pair of touchdowns on a league-leading 32 receptions); the Chargers will need the latter to continue those performances if Williams does indeed miss the remainder of the campaign. 2021 third-rounder Josh Palmer – who enjoyed a career-year in 2022 with 72 catches and 769 yards – will take on a larger role in Williams’ absence.

The same will likely be true of rookie Quentin Johnston. One of four wideouts taken in a four-pick span in the first round of April’s draft, the TCU product entered the league with signficant expectations but plenty of competition for snaps and targets. If Williams is forced to miss signficant time, Johnston (who has played only 48 snaps to date) could find himself in a starter’s role. His ability to shoulder an increased workload could go a long way in keeping the Chargers’ passing offense intact through the remainder of the campaign.

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