Tyler Bray

Minor NFL Transactions: 3/20/19

Today’s minor moves:

Chicago Bears

Dallas Cowboys

Denver Broncos

  • Waived: WR Jimmy Williams

Green Bay Packers

Indianapolis Colts

Los Angeles Chargers

New York Giants

New York Jets

Bears Activate OG Kyle Long From IR

The Bears will be receiving a boost just in time for the playoffs. NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport reports (via Twitter) that the team will be activating offensive lineman Kyle Long off the injured reserve today. To make room on the roster, Chicago waived quarterback Tyler Bray (via ESPN’s Adam Schefter on Twitter).

Long suffered a foot injury during his team’s late-October victory over the Jets. The injury involved a tendon, and it wasn’t related to his broken ankle from 2016. His estimated time of recovery was six to eight weeks, and Long was healthy enough to be activated by the time he was eligible to return. Earlier this week, head coach Matt Nagy acknowledged that Long had completed an entire week of practice and would likely play most of the game this weekend.

‘‘Just talking to him throughout the week, I feel pretty good with him playing most of the game,’’ Nagy told Patrick Finley of the Chicago Sun Times. ‘‘But we’ve just got to kind of see if that’s where we’re at and if it is a pitch count. I think a lot of that, honestly, is going to be more so when you’re in the game: How’s he feeling?

‘‘If he’s feeling good, keep him going. If he’s not . . . maybe it’s just between all of us talking, ‘Hey, let’s just get him out.’ It’s good for him any way you look at it.’’

The 2013 first-round pick has battled through injuries over the past three years, missing a total of 22 games during that span. When he’s been in the lineup, Long has been among the top offensive guards in the entire league. Pro Football Focus only ranks him 28th among 79 eligible guards in 2018, but he was previously an annual inclusion in the top-five.

Current starting offensive guards Eric Kush and James Daniels have seen their way in and out of the starting lineup this season, and Long will surely replace one of them. Daniels, a second-round rookie, has graded out as the better lineman this season, per Pro Football Focus.

Bears To Promote QB Tyler Bray, Cut CB Marcus Cooper

Marcus Cooper‘s second Bears season did not feature much work. The veteran cornerback logged just three defensive snaps in 2018, and his time with Chicago may be ending.

The Bears, who are facing the prospect of being without Mitch Trubisky for their Thanksgiving Day game against the Lions, promoted quarterback Tyler Bray from their practice squad, Rich Campbell of the Chicago Tribune tweets.

Trubisky was sore this morning and didn’t have as much shoulder movement as he expected to, Adam Schefter of ESPN.com tweets, adding it’s likely Chase Daniel will start in Detroit. This would be Daniel’s first start with the Bears. He did see action in blowout wins over the Buccaneers and Bills, however. Trubisky is listed as doubtful, pointing to a Daniel start in a key game for the NFC North-leading Bears.

Chicago may well have the quarterback depth chart the Chiefs once did behind Alex Smith for a three-year stretch earlier this decade. Both Daniel and Bray were Kansas City backups during a few of Matt Nagy‘s seasons in Kansas City. Despite being a 2013 UDFA, Bray — a Tennessee product — has only thrown one pass in a game. He signed with the Bears this offseason.

Cooper re-signed with the Bears on a one-year, $1.5MM deal this year as well. He started in four games and played in 15 last season, making 30 tackles. The 28-year-old corner missed time this year with a hamstring injury but has been buried on Chicago’s depth chart. He will head to waivers.

NFL Practice Squad Updates: 9/3/18

We’ll keep track of today’s practice squad moves here:

Atlanta Falcons

Arizona Cardinals

Baltimore Ravens

  • Signed: DE Christian LaCouture

Chicago Bears

Signed:

Cleveland Browns

Signed:

Dallas Cowboys

Detroit Lions

Denver Broncos

Houston Texans

Indianapolis Colts

Signed:

Los Angeles Chargers

Minnesota Vikings

New England Patriots

New York Jets

Signed:

New York Giants

Oakland Raiders

San Francisco 49ers

  • Signed: OL Zack Golditch

Seattle Seahawks

Signed:

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Signed:

Tennessee Titans

Bears Trim Roster To 53

The Bears have reduced their roster to 53 players by making the following transactions:

Waived:

Released:

Placed on injured reserve:

Minor NFL Transactions: 3/16/18

Here are today’s minor moves:

Arizona Cardinals

Carolina Panthers

Chicago Bears

Jacksonville Jaguars

Minnesota Vikings

  • Re-signed: DT Dylan Bradley

Oakland Raiders

  • Signed: P Colby Wadman

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

AFC Notes: Raiders, Flacco, A. Mack, Bills, Titans

The Raiders need to find a running back to complement Latavius Murray, opines Scott Bair of CSNBayArea.com. Bair lists Chris Johnson, Tim Hightower, Matt Forte, James Starks and Ronnie Hillman as potential fits through free agency.

Earlier tonight, PFR’s Rory Parks previewed the Raiders’ offseason in depth and, like Bair, named RB as a position the club could address. Click here for the rest.

More from the AFC:

  • Reworking quarterback Joe Flacco‘s deal and cutting $9MM off his $28MM-plus cap hit for this year would go a long way toward helping the Ravens make improvements, Jamison Hensley of ESPN.com writes. As of Wednesday morning, the Ravens and Flacco haven’t discussed a restructuring.
  • The notion that Browns center Alex Mack has a clause in his contract preventing the team from placing the franchise or transition tag on him is untrue, according to Joel Corry of CBS Sports. Corry notes (via Twitter) that Mack does have a no-trade clause, though. The 30-year-old is expected to opt out of his current deal in the coming weeks and become a free agent.
  • A pair of escalators affecting the Bills‘ salary cap have been triggered, as Mike Rodak of ESPN.com tweets (Twitter links). Tyrod Taylor‘s cap number this season has increased from $1.3MM to $3.3MM based on an escalator and how his ’16 playtime incentive is treated. Bills center Eric Wood also hit an escalator that increases his 2016 cap number by $650K.
  • Out of their pending free agents, the Titans are prioritizing nose tackle Al Woods and tight end Craig Stevens, Terry McCormick of Cover32.com reports. Woods made a career-high nine starts last season. Stevens has been a Titan since 2008 and is discussing a new deal with the team, per McCormick.
  • Chiefs backup quarterback Chase Daniel is scheduled for free agency, but the club has too many other needs to worry about investing a decent chunk of money in a reserve signal caller, writes Adam Teicher of ESPN.com. Teicher believes it’s time for either Aaron Murray or Tyler Bray to step up and take over for Daniel as Alex Smith‘s top understudy. Although the two have been Chiefs for a combined seven years, neither has appeared in a regular-season game.
  • In a Monday roundup of Ravens news and notes, Jeff Zrebiec of the Baltimore Sun discusses the possibility of the team trading down from the No. 6 pick, and reexamines the likelihood of cornerback Kyle Arrington being released.

Sam Robinson contributed to this post.

PUP, NFI Players Soon Eligible To Practice

Week 6 of the NFL season will come to an end after Monday night’s game between the Giants and Eagles, and when teams begin preparing for Week 7, many clubs could be welcoming injured players back to practice. Six weeks into the NFL season, players who were placed on the physically unable to perform list or the non-football injury list prior to Week 1’s games will be eligible to return to the practice field.

Of course, just because those players are able to return to practice doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll be healthy enough to do so. Players on the PUP list have a five-week window to begin practicing. Once they return to practice, they have three weeks to be added to their respective teams’ active rosters. In other words, a player currently on the PUP list could return to the field for his team’s Week 7 game, or could return as late as for his team’s Week 15 contest.

The rules for NFI players are similar to those for PUP players. If a player on either reserve list doesn’t return to practice or game action in time, his 2015 season will officially be over.

Here are the players currently on the physically unable to perform (PUP) list who can begin practicing as soon as this Tuesday:

And here are the players currently on their teams’ non-football injury or illness lists, who are also eligible to begin practicing this Tuesday:

  • Arizona Cardinals: WR Damond Powell
  • Buffalo Bills: CB Leodis McKelvin
  • Cincinnati Bengals: T Cedric Ogbuehi
  • Cleveland Browns: DB Ifo Ekpre-Olomu, TE Randall Telfer, RB Glenn Winston
  • Dallas Cowboys: LB Mark Nzeocha
  • Houston Texans: T David Quessenberry
  • Kansas City Chiefs: QB Tyler Bray
  • San Francisco 49ers: WR DeAndre Smelter
  • Seattle Seahawks: DT Jesse Williams

In addition to monitoring players on the PUP and NFI lists, it’s worth keeping an eye on players who have been placed on the injured reserve list with the designation to return. Teams can use this IR-DTR spot on one player per season, placing him on the injured reserve list without necessarily ruling him out for the season. As we explained in an earlier post, players given this designation can begin practicing after six weeks and can return after eight weeks.

That means that a player who was placed on IR-DTR prior to Week 1 can begin practicing on Tuesday, though he won’t be eligible to return to game action until Week 9. A player who was placed on IR-DTR after Week 1 will have to wait until next Tuesday – October 27 – to return to practice, while other IR-DTR players will have to wait until November to practice.

Here’s the list of players currently on IR-DTR who can begin practicing as soon as Tuesday:

Chiefs Extend Tyler Bray Through 2017

Quarterback Tyler Bray underwent surgery on a torn ACL back in January, and will open the 2015 season on the Chiefs’ reserve/non-football injury list, but as GM John Dorsey said at February’s draft combine, Bray remains in the team’s plans. According to Field Yates of ESPN.com (Twitter links), Kansas City has signed Bray to a two-year extension, keeping him under team control through the 2017 season.

Bray, 23, tore his ACL playing basketball, which is why he landed on the NFI list, rather than injured reserve. When a player suffers a non-football injury, a team can elect to withhold his salary, but the Chiefs will pay Bray the full $510K he’s owed for 2015, as part of the extension agreement, according to Yates.

While the Chiefs made a concession on this year’s salary, they’ll get a good bargain on the two new years of Bray’s contract. Per Yates, those two years have a base value of just $1.925MM, with no guaranteed money.

The fact that Bray’s 2016 and 2017 seasons feature no guarantees means his roster spot in Kansas City is far from safe. But if the Chiefs like what they see from the former UDFA as he recovers from his ACL tear, the team could consider promoting him to the No. 2 role next season, with Chase Daniel‘s contract set to expire in March.

Chiefs Waive Junior Hemingway, Tavon Rooks

The Chiefs have waived Junior Hemingway and Tavon Rooks as a part of their effort to get down to a 75-man roster, Terez A. Paylor of the Kansas City Star tweets. KC also placed Justin March on IR and Tyler Bray on the NFI list.

Hemingway, a wide receiver, was selected by the Chiefs in the seventh round of the 2012 NFL Draft. Over the last two seasons, he has hauled in a combined 25 catches for 233 yards and two touchdowns. Rooks, a sixth-round pick in the 2012 draft, offers great size for the tackle position at 6’5″, 280 pounds.