Minor NFL Transactions: 12/23/19
Today’s minor transactions:
Cincinnati Bengals
- Claimed off waivers from Titans: LB Sharif Finch
San Francisco 49ers
- Signed: DE Anthony Zettel
- Waived: DL Jeremiah Valoaga
Tennessee Titans
- Signed: WR/KR Darius Jennings
- Promoted from practice squad: WR Rashard Davis
- Waived: RB Dalyn Dawkins, LB Nigel Harris
Injury Updates: Ingram, Haskins, Murray
Here are the key injuries which we’ve seen some reporting on:
- The Ravens officially clinched the top seed in the AFC with their win over the Browns on Sunday, but Baltimore fans were left holding their breath when running back Mark Ingram went down with a calf injury. Head coach John Harbaugh told reporters after the game there’s no structural damage, but a source told Adam Schefter of ESPN.com that Ingram suffered a calf strain (Twitter link). Ingram was wearing a walking boot after a game, via a tweet from Josina Anderson of ESPN. Harbaugh was trying to sound optimistic, but calf strains can linger. Fortunately for Baltimore, he’ll have Week 17 and a first-round bye to rest.
- Dwayne Haskins has been getting a lot better recently, so it was unfortunate to see him go down with an ankle injury during the Redskins’ loss to the Giants. Interestingly, Haskins said after the game that he lobbied to return, but owner Dan Snyder personally told him not to go back in, per John Keim of ESPN.com. Normally it’d be unusual for an owner to be consulting directly with a player during a game, but this is the Redskins we’re talking about. Washington is in line for the second overall pick right now, and they could opt to be conservative and sit Haskins in Week 17.
- Speaking of rookie quarterbacks, Kyler Murray was also knocked out on Sunday with a hamstring injury. Head coach Kliff Kingsbury told reporters after the game he wasn’t sure if Murray would be able to play in Week 17 against the Rams. Murray had a large wrap on his hamstring and if it was bad enough to knock him out immediately he could be up against it to play next week. Brett Hundley, who finished off Arizona’s upset win over the Seahawks, would start next week if he isn’t ready.
- One last quarterback update, as Mason Rudolph was sidelined with a shoulder injury shortly after being reinserted for a benched Devlin Hodges. The Steelers’ quarterback situation is an absolute mess right now as they prepare for a must-win game against the Ravens. Hodges came back in for Rudolph, and resumed struggling. Rudolph provided an instant spark after relieving Hodges, so he’ll almost certainly start against Baltimore if he’s healthy. Rudolph was seen leaving the stadium with his arm in a sling, per Ray Fittipaldo of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Twitter link).
- The Titans can clinch a playoff berth with a Week 17 win over the Texans, and fortunately they’ll be getting a boost to their offense. Running back Derrick Henry was inactive for their loss to the Saints on Sunday, but he is expected to play against Houston, a source told Schefter (Twitter link). Henry has been dealing with a hamstring issue.
- The winner of the Week 17 game between the 49ers and Seahawks will determine who wins the NFC West and in turn hosts a playoff game, and both sides are banged up. San Francisco pass-rusher Dee Ford has missed most of the last month with a hamstring injury and he’s not expected to play against Seattle, a source told Matt Maiocco of NBC Sports. They gave up a second-round pick to land Ford this offseason, then signed him to a massive extension, and he’s been a bit of a disappointment. Fortunately for the 49ers, the Seahawks are dealing with even more significant health issues.
49ers Rumors: McKinnon, Thomas, Jones
The latest on the 49ers, from Matt Maiocco of NBC Sports:
- Running back Jerick McKinnon is highly unlikely to return at his scheduled $6.8MM rate, but the Niners would be willing to re-sign him on a cheaper deal, Maiocco hears. Raheem Mostert, Matt Breida, and Tevin Coleman all offer catching ability, but Jet, when healthy, is the most agile of the bunch. McKinnon joined the 49ers on a four-year, $30MM contract before the 2018 season, but has yet to take a snap for SF thanks to knee injuries. In 2017, his final year with the Vikes, McKinnon enjoyed career highs in receptions (51) and receiving yards (421).
- Maiocco does not expect the Niners to pick up Solomon Thomas‘ fifth-year option. It’s hard to argue – the former No. 3 overall pick would cost $15.3MM in 2021 via the option and he has been little more than a rotational player so far as a pro. To date, Thomas has just six sacks and no forced fumbles across three seasons.
- Nose tackle D.J. Jones suffered damage to the ligaments connecting the tibia and fibula, Maiocco hears. The injury left the Niners with no choice but to place Jones on season-ending IR, since he had no realistic chance of recuperating in time for the Super Bowl, if the Niners qualify.
NFC Notes: Gordon, Sherman, Cardinals, Packers
This week, embattled receiver Josh Gordon earned the fifth suspension of his career, as he was banned from the league for violating the league’s policies on performance-enhancing substances and substances of abuse. Naturally, some have questioned if the 28-year-old’s NFL career has come to an end.
Russell Wilson got to know Gordon during his brief stint in Seattle, and the Seahawks quarterback is confident that the receiver will see the field again.
“I got pretty close with Josh,” Wilson said (via Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com). “You’re going to miss him obviously as a player, but more importantly as a friend and as a guy you bonded with pretty quickly. We’ve been staying in touch and all that. I just pray for him. I really believe that prayer works. I really believe that relationships and friendships work in supporting no matter what we go through. We all have stuff. We all have things that we go through. I’m just praying for him and rooting for him. He’ll overcome. He’s going to overcome, and I really believe that. Hopefully, he’ll get another chance to play with us because he was fun to play with.”
Since joining the Seahawks in early November, Gordon caught just seven passes for 139 yards and zero touchdowns. It’s a far cry from his best work, including a 2014 season in which he had 87 receptions for 1,646 yards and nine touchdowns in 14 games with the Browns.
Let’s check out some more notes from around the NFC…
- Richard Sherman has added incentive to return to the field tonight for the 49ers matchup against the Rams. ESPN’s Adam Schefter tweets that the veteran cornerback can earn an extra $1MM if he plays 90-percent of his team’s stats this season. Sherman is currently sitting at 85.7-percent heading into tonight’s game. The veteran missed the 49ers’ Week 15 loss to the Falcons with a hamstring injury.
- Thanks to a six-game suspension for Patrick Peterson and an injury for Robert Alford, the Cardinals have been forced to play rookie cornerback Byron Murphy on the outside. Next season, the team is hoping Murphy can slide back to the position that the organization envisioned for him: slot corner. “We’d like to,” coach Kliff Kingsbury told Katherine Fitzgerald of AZCentral.com. “To me, it’s been tough, him having to play corner and play half the season going against their best wideouts, that’s a tall task for him. We drafted him to be that nickel-type body.”
- Packers rookie linebacker Greg Roberts returned to practice yesterday, tweets ESPN’s Rob Demovsky. The undrafted rookie had been on PUP all season as he recovered from core muscle surgery. Meanwhile, Jim Owczarski of the Journal Sentinel tweets that Packers safety Raven Greene was also seen working out earlier this week. The defensive back has been on injured reserve since Week 2, and he’s been out of his walking boot for several weeks.
Latest On 49ers DL Arik Armstead
Recent reports have indicated that the 49ers are unlikely to use the franchise tag on defensive lineman Arik Armstead this offseason, which could mean that Armstead will be playing for a different team in 2020. However, Nick Wagoner of ESPN.com says the Niners will make an effort to keep their former first-round pick in the fold.
Armstead, playing on the fifth-year option year of his rookie contract, has absolutely exploded in 2019. After posting modest sacks totals in each of his first four seasons — and after missing 18 games between the 2016-17 campaigns — Armstead has 10 sacks this year, and he has been equally adept at defending the run. While San Francisco’s offseason additions of Nick Bosa and Dee Ford certainly help divert the attention of opposing offenses, Armstead has absorbed plenty of double-teams of his own, and he is productive both on the interior of the line and on the edge.
Although the relatively quiet start to his career could dampen his earning potential to some degree, Armstead will certainly land a considerable raise from the $9MM he is taking home this year. The franchise tag would cost about $18MM, which is not feasible for a 49ers club that has a lot of major business to conduct this offseason, and if he does hit the open market, he could land a contract paying him at least $15MM per season.
As such, he may need to take a hometown discount if he wants to remain with the 49ers. After all, San Francisco is expected to prioritize extensions for DeForest Buckner and George Kittle over a new deal for Armstead, and the team is projected to be near the bottom of the league in terms of cap space.
But Armstead would be perfectly content to remain in the Bay Area. “I can’t even imagine myself playing anywhere else really,” Armstead said. “I’m a Northern California guy through and through, and to be a part of kind of the down times here and be a part of going through the adversity and then being part of this season, I wouldn’t change that for anything.”
NFC West Notes: Watson, Penny, 49ers
Current Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians, who enjoyed a strong run as the Cardinals‘ HC from 2013-17, nearly brought one of the league’s best quarterbacks to the desert prior to his final year in Arizona. Deshaun Watson was selected by the Texans with the No. 12 overall pick in the 2017 draft, and the Cardinals held the No. 13 overall pick that year. As Patrick D. Starr of SI.com writes, Arians was poised to nab Watson if he slipped one more spot.
It’s unclear whether the Cardinals tried to trade up to select Watson, but they ultimately took linebacker Haason Reddick with their choice. Of course, Arizona seems to have found its QB of the future in Kyler Murray. and who knows how things may have turned out if Watson ended up with the Cards, but it’s always fun to play the butterfly effect game when reports like this surface.
Now for more from the NFC West:
- Seahawks RB Rashaad Penny is undergoing ACL surgery Friday morning, as Adam Schefter of ESPN.com tweets. We recently heard that, in addition to an ACL tear, Penny may have sustained additional knee damage, but Schefter says the 2018 first-rounder is expected to be ready to go for the 2020 season.
- The 49ers have sustained a number of injuries lately, but they will have CB Richard Sherman back this week. Though recent reports indicated that Sherman may not be back until the playoffs, Matt Barrows of The Athletic says the three-time First Team All-Pro will play in San Francisco’s matchup against the Rams on Saturday night (Twitter link). The Niners, of course, are trying to get back into one of the NFC’s top two seeds after a bad loss to the Falcons on Sunday dropped them to the fifth seed.
- Speaking of Sherman, Field Yates of ESPN.com points out that the 31-year-old earned a league-high $1MM incentive by being named to this year’s Pro Bowl on the original ballot, and he also increased his 2020 base salary by $1MM (Twitter link). Sherman is currently under contract with the 49ers through the 2020 season.
- 49ers LB Kwon Alexander, who was ruled out for the season in November with a torn pec, does have a chance to return at some point in the postseason, as Jennifer Lee Chan of NBC Sports Bay Area writes. However, head coach Kyle Shanahan conceded that the odds of that happening are slim, and it seems much more likely that the team will have to wait until next year to see Alexander back in action.
Chiefs Claim Terrell Suggs
The Chiefs claimed former Cardinals linebacker Terrell Suggs off waivers on Tuesday. The news was first reported by Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (on Twitter).
Initially, it wasn’t clear whether Suggs would be willing to suit up for the Chiefs. After his release, he told people close to him that he would only play for the Ravens, but the opportunity to play for another Super Bowl ring made him reconsider. He will join KC and, in all likelihood, make his Chiefs debut on Sunday against the Bears.
The pickup gives the Chiefs some much needed edge rushing ammo in the wake of Alex Okafor‘s pectoral injury. To date, Suggs has with 5.5 sacks and four forced fumbles in 13 games this year.
Suggs was a popular man on the waiver wire. As Rapoport tweets, the Saints, 49ers, and Seahawks all put in a claim, which makes sense given that all of those teams are dealing with injuries to their own pass rushers. Rapoport says the Ravens may have signed Suggs if he had cleared waivers, but Baltimore did not put in a claim.
Suggs didn’t get the homecoming he wanted, but he fell into a choice situation. Rather than playing out the year for the 4-9-1 Cards, he has the opportunity to aid the 10-4 Chiefs in their quest for a championship.
Suggs was drafted No. 10 overall by the Ravens all the way back in 2003. He spent the next 16 seasons with the team and became a franchise icon, winning Super Bowl XLVII with them and making the Pro Bowl seven times. He remained reasonably productive with seven sacks in 2018, but the Ravens let him walk to Arizona in the spring.
The Chiefs will be responsible for the remainder of Suggs’ one-year, $7MM deal.
West Notes: Jacobs, Jordan, 49ers
The Raiders are not completely eliminated from playoff contention just yet, but it may be in the team’s best interests to shut down rookie RB Josh Jacobs for the final two games of the year. Jacobs, who has rushed for 1,150 yards on 4.8 yards-per-carry this year, has been battling a shoulder injury, and head coach Jon Gruden said that Jacobs had trouble getting his shoulder pads off yesterday (Twitter link via Jerry McDonald of the Bay Area News Group).
Per Gruden, Jacobs’ status for Oakland’s last two games is in doubt. The Raiders finish up their final season in the Bay Area with divisional contests against the Chargers and Broncos.
Let’s round up a few more West-related items, starting with another note from the Silver-and-Black:
- Dion Jordan, who signed with the Raiders in November after serving a 10-game suspension for a PED violation, has performed well in his first five games with his new team. Playing in a rotational role, the No. 3 overall pick of the 2013 draft has posted two sacks and has earned positive reviews from Gruden. Jordan will be a free agent at season’s end, and Gruden said the 29-year-old is playing his way into a new contract with the Raiders (Twitter link via McDonald).
- No surprise here, but Matt Maiocco of NBC Sports Bay Area does not believe the 49ers will use the franchise tag on Arik Armstead, which means that Armstead may be plying his trade elsewhere in 2020. Maiocco also believes that the team will cut running back Jerick McKinnon and wide receiver Marquise Goodwin during the offseason.
- Seahawks DB Quandre Diggs has been a boon to Seattle’s defense after being acquired in an October trade with the Lions, but Diggs sprained his ankle in the team’s win over the Panthers on Sunday and will likely miss next week’s matchup against the Cardinals, as Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets. It’s still too early to predict his status for Week 17, but given the potential magnitude of that bout with San Francisco, the Seahawks will want to make sure Diggs is as healthy as possible.
Terrell Suggs Only To Play For Ravens?
DEC. 15: At least one team other than the Ravens is poised to claim Suggs, as Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets. Rapoport confirms that Suggs is not certain to report if he is claimed by a club other than Baltimore, but again, teams may simply want to keep the future Hall-of-Famer from reuniting with the 12-2 Ravens. Rapoport speculates that the Titans, who employ Suggs’ former Baltimore defensive coordinator, Dean Pees, could be the interested team. Jason La Canfora of CBS sports says Tennessee is, in fact, interested in Suggs, along with the 49ers (Twitter link).
DEC. 14: An interesting showdown is setting up between pass-rusher Terrell Suggs and NFL teams. Suggs, released earlier this week, only wants to play for the Ravens and will “strongly consider” not reporting to other teams who claim him, sources told Adam Schefter of ESPN.com.
Suggs started his career with the team, and wants to return to Baltimore to finish it out. The only problem is that since the Ravens have the league’s best record they have the lowest priority waiver claim, so all 31 other teams will have to pass on him for him to get his wish. Suggs “has told some people that he is unlikely to report anywhere other than Baltimore,” Schefter writes. Suggs can be claimed at 4pm ET on Monday, so we’ll know his next destination in the next couple of days.
Even if a team knows that Suggs will retire rather than play for them, they might still be inclined to claim him just to block the Ravens from adding some help right before the playoffs. It would certainly make sense for a fellow contender to want to spoil Baltimore’s plans, and Suggs is only owed $350K for the rest of the season.
The longtime veteran was drafted tenth overall by the Ravens all the way back in 2003. He spent the next 16 seasons with the team and became a franchise icon, winning Super Bowl XLVII with them and making the Pro Bowl seven times. He remained reasonably productive with seven sacks last year, but the Ravens let him walk to Arizona. He inked a one-year, $7MM deal with the Cardinals, and ended up finishing with 5.5 sacks and four forced fumbles in 13 games with them.
49ers To Activate DE Kentavius Street
Suddenly riddled with injuries throughout their starting lineup, the 49ers will return a player from their injured list. Kyle Shanahan said defensive end Kentavius Street will return from IR to take D.J. Jones‘ roster spot, Matt Barrows of The Athletic tweets.
Street has yet to play an NFL down. The 2018 fourth-round pick missed all of his rookie season and has spent this one on IR. The 49ers have been patient with the North Carolina State alum but are set to finally see him in action.
An ankle injury ended Jones’ season. He joins Ronald Blair on San Francisco’s IR list. Street’s activation will help a 49ers team that also saw Dee Ford aggravate his hamstring injury. Ford has dealt with maladies throughout his 49ers tenure, and it’s not certain the former Pro Bowler will be back before the playoffs begin.
One of Bradley Chubb‘s sidekicks with the Wolfpack, Street fell to the fourth round because of an ACL tear he suffered before the draft. Street registered eight sacks and 15.5 tackles for loss in his final two college seasons. Although he showed flashes in the 49ers’ preseason slate this year, he was forced to undergo arthroscopic knee surgery in September. The surgery went well, and the team recently designated Street as a candidate to return from IR.