Vincent Taylor

Minor NFL Transactions: 8/7/22

We will keep track of today’s minor moves right here:

Atlanta Falcons

Buffalo Bills

Chicago Bears

Cincinnati Bengals

Green Bay Packers

Jacksonville Jaguars

New York Giants

Philadelphia Eagles

Washington Commanders

Saffold landed on the NFI list after injuring his ribs in a car accident. Getting their starting left guard back sooner rather than later is an important development for the Bills.

Colburn will take the place of Cottrell in the Jags’ RB room. The Wake Forest product played in four games for the USFL’s Philadelphia Stars this year, garnering 102 rushes for 457 yards (just under 4.5 YPC) and eight scores.

Cottrell has seen action in each of the past two years for Jacksonville, returning seven kicks in 2020 and handling one carry in 2021.

Wolf and Parker get preseason roster positions after successful workouts yesterday. The Commanders are looking for depth at both positions as they work towards a 53-man roster.

Falcons Notes: QB Camp Reps, RB, NT Competitions

For the first time since 2008, the Falcons will have a starting quarterback not named Matt Ryan when the upcoming season begins. The team added Marcus Mariota as a short-term solution at the position, then drafted Desmond Ridder as a long-term option to succeed him.

The former has starting experience dating back to his time with the Titans, and will look to establish himself as a No. 1 again after two years as a backup with the Raiders. The latter, meanwhile, had an historic career at Cincinnati, leading the Bearcats to the CFP playoffs in 2021. Their lack of a track record at the NFL level made the Falcons a candidate to add a camp arm, but the team is investing fully in their top two passers.

As detailed by D. Orlando Ledbetter of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, training camp reps will be split between Mariota and Ridder, with Feleipe Franks primarily focusing on his transition to TE. “When you look at it in terms of the quarterbacks for live periods of practice, there is not a lot [of] taxing amount of periods where the ball is being thrown,” said offensive coordinator Dave Ragone when speaking about a concentrated workload for the pair. With little expected of the team in 2022, dividing the reps only two ways is a sensible step for the Falcons as they search for a new franchise signal-caller.

Here are a few other notes from the Peach State, both from Ledbetter’s positional breakdowns:

  • The Falcons ranked 31st in the league in rushing last season, so their attempts at improving their ground game will be the subject of much attention this year. Cordarrelle Patterson is set to return, after he totalled a career-best 1,166 scrimmage yards in 2021. He will not enter camp as the undisputed No. 1 back, however; RBs coach Mike Pitre said that there will be a “wide open” competition involving the veteran Swiss Army knife, free agent signing Damien Williamsand younger options like rookie Tyler Allgeier and Avery Williamswho is converting from cornerback. Head coach Arthur Smith did add, however, that the Falcons will “continue to try to enhance ” Patterson’s overall role in the offense.
  • On the defensive side of the ball, nose tackle will be another positional battle to watch. Either Vincent Taylor 0r Anthony Rush will earn a starting spot alongside Grady Jarrett in the heart of the d-line. Eddie Goldman was the most experienced option for a first-team role until his unexpected retirement decision was confirmed earlier this week. Taylor and Rush have each bounced around to multiple teams in their careers, but will have an opportunity for significant snaps in their debut seasons with the Falcons, who ranked 27th against the run in 2021.

Falcons Sign DT Vincent Taylor

The Falcons have made a depth addition to their defensive line. The team announced on Tuesday that they are signing journeyman defensive tackle Vincent Taylor. 

The move comes one week after Taylor visited with Atlanta, so the signing comes as little surprise. The 28-year-old was originally a sixth-round pick of the Dolphins in 2017. He only lasted two seasons there, the second of which was cut short by a foot injury. In September 2019, he was cut by Miami.

That began a stretch of three seasons in which Taylor played for a new team each year. The most notable of those campaigns was in 2020 with the Browns. He played in a career-high 15 games, recording 12 tackles and a fumble recovery. That led him to Houston this past offseason, where he started only the second game of his NFL tenure in Week 1. An ankle injury suffered in that contest, however, ultimately ended his season.

Having only been available for 40 games in five seasons, the Oklahoma St. product will add experienced depth along the Falcons’ defensive line. He is likely to see a rotational role behind the likes of Grady Jarrett and Anthony Rush. The team has plenty of room for improvement on defense, having ranked 27th against the run and 26th overall last season. Taylor will look to help improve those statistics, and earn himself a multi-year stay in the process.

Minor NFL Transactions: 9/15/21

Today’s minor NFL transactions:

Atlanta Falcons

Baltimore Ravens

Denver Broncos

Houston Texans

Las Vegas Raiders

New Orleans Saints

New York Jets

Tennessee Titans

Injury Updates: Penny, Davenport, Taylor, Brown

Rashaad Penny has struggled to stay healthy during his brief NFL career, and the Seahawks running back suffered another injury on Sunday. Penny left the game early with a calf injury, and NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport tweets that the 25-year-old is expected to be “shut down for a few weeks” while he recovers. An IR stint could be a possibility for the running back.

Fortunately for the Seahawks, they’re rostering a handful of capable running backs behind Chris Carson, including DeeJay Dallas, Travis Homer and Alex Collins. Head coach Pete Carroll pointed to that depth when explaining why the team would be cautious during Penny’s recovery.

“He’s got a calf strain, so it’ll take us a bit to figure out what the return would be on that,” Carroll said (via the team’s website). “He ran really well when he ran the other night, so we’re going to miss him, it looks like this week, we won’t know. We’ll let you know how that goes. But Alex is ready to go, and both Homer and DeeJay, they’re ready to go too, so we’re in good shape. We had four running backs up this week, so we’re in pretty good shape at the position. Unfortunately, if it takes him a couple weeks, then we’ll figure out how to handle that.”

Penny, a 2018 first-round pick, appeared in only 13 games between the 2019 and 2020 seasons.

Some more injury notes from around the NFL:

  • Saints defensive end Marcus Davenport will be sidelined while he recovers from a pectoral strain, per Rapoport on Twitter. The pass rusher is expected to miss some time but “should be back sooner rather than later.” Following a disappointing 2020 campaign, Davenport was hoping for a bounce-back season in 2021. He was already on his way, as he compiled three tackles, one sack, two tackles for loss, and one QB hit before falling to his injury.
  • Texans defensive tackle Vincent Taylor suffered an ankle injury yesterday that will require surgery, according to Mark Berman of Fox26 in Houston (via Twitter). Taylor is expected to be sidelined for six weeks. Taylor signed a one-year contract with Houston this offseason, and he started Sunday’s game before suffering the injury. The 27-year-old got into a career-high 15 games for the Browns last season, finishing with 12 tackles.
  • Patriots offensive tackle Trent Brown exited yesterday’s loss with a calf injury, but the offensive lineman is now just considered day-to-day, according to Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com. Brown re-joined the Patriots this offseason after having spent the past two seasons with the Raiders.

Minor NFL Transactions: 3/15/21

Today’s “minor” moves:

Arizona Cardinals

Buffalo Bills

Carolina Panthers

Dallas Cowboys

Houston Texans

Jacksonville Jaguars

New England Patriots

New York Giants

Minnesota Vikings

Minor NFL Transactions: 9/6/20

Here are Sunday’s minor moves. The players who landed on injured reserve are eligible to come off teams’ respective lists after three weeks. For 2020, teams can also activate an unlimited number of IR players — as opposed to the two-man max of 2019.

Atlanta Falcons

  • Claimed (from Washington): T Timon Paris

Cincinnati Bengals

  • Claimed (from Dolphins): G Deion Calhoun
  • Signed: CB Torry McTyer

Cleveland Browns

Dallas Cowboys

Houston Texans

Indianapolis Colts

Las Vegas Raiders

Minnesota Vikings

New York Giants

Philadelphia Eagles

San Francisco 49ers

Seattle Seahawks

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Bills Release Andre Roberts, Trim Roster To 53

Here are the roster decisions the Bills made to move to the mandated 53-man regular-season limit.

Waived:

Released:

Reserve/Physically Unable to Perform:

The Bills signed Roberts to a two-year deal in 2019, doing so after he earned All-Pro recognition for his kick-return work on the 2018 Jets. Roberts has 10 years’ experience and two Pro Bowls on his resume. The second of those two Pro Bowl nods came last season with the Bills. Buffalo enters the season with its best chance to win the AFC East in maybe 20 years, so cutting an accomplished player is certainly surprising.

Foster made a splash as a rookie in 2018, but the Bills have overhauled their receiver group since. John Brown and Cole Beasley led the way last year, and the team traded for Stefon Diggs and drafted two wideouts — fourth-rounder Gabriel Davis and sixth-rounder Isaiah Hodgins — this year. Foster will nonetheless be an interest name on waivers.

Buffalo traded for Andre Smith earlier this week. The third-year linebacker could well be brought back on the team’s 16-player practice squad. Teams can begin assembling their P-squads Sunday.

Dolphins Cut Vincent Taylor

The Dolphins have released defensive tackle Vincent Taylor, per a team announcement. To take his place, the club signed fellow DT John Jenkins. Meanwhile, the Dolphins also inked long snapper Taybor Pepper, which seals the end of John Denney‘s storied run with the team.

[RELATED: Dolphins Cut John Denney]

Taylor only played in eight games last year as a reserve before a foot injury knocked him out for the second half of the season. But, when he was on the field, he was one of the Dolphins’ most effective interior defensive linemen. Taylor, who tallied 27 tackles and two sacks, will now look for work elsewhere.

The Dolphins cut Denney on Monday afternoon, but there was some speculation that he could be brought back after some roster juggling. That, apparently, won’t be the case. The 40-year-old is out in Miami and a player 15 years his junior is taking his place.