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Cowboys’ Marshawn Kneeland Avoids ACL Tear, Expected To Return This Season

October 9th, 2024 at 1:17pm CST by Sam Robinson

OCTOBER 9: As could be expected, Kneeland is landing on IR. The Cowboys officially moved the rookie defensive end to the injured list Wednesday, KPRC2’s Aaron Wilson tweets. Considering the timetable here, Kneeland being off Dallas’ 53-man roster makes sense. He and Lawrence’s timetables point to returns sometime in November.

OCTOBER 7: Managing to beat the Steelers despite missing their top four defensive ends, the Cowboys also received word the most recent of those injuries — to rookie Marshawn Kneeland — is not as severe as initial fears indicated.

Carted off early in Dallas’ Sunday-night win, Kneeland did not sustain an ACL tear. The second-round pick is expected to return later this season, NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport tweets. Kneeland will miss time, however, as he suffered a partially torn lateral meniscus. A surgery is on tap, but this damage will not re-route the promising player on the level an ACL tear would have.

Kneeland is not undergoing a full meniscus repair, Rapoport adds, as that would sideline the Western Michigan alum for the season’s remainder. Rather, this is a meniscus trim. An IR move may still be in the cards, but it would be of the IR-return variety.IR probably will be the course the Cowboys take, as ESPN.com’s Todd Archer notes this procedure will lead to a four- to six-week recovery timetable.

The Cowboys have DeMarcus Lawrence on IR, though he is expected back while Sam Williams is out for the season due to the ACL tear he sustained this summer. Micah Parsons is week to week with his high ankle sprain, creating significant issues for Mike Zimmer‘s unit.

Down Parsons and Lawrence for the Pittsburgh matchup, Dallas opted for a low-key reinforcement strategy. The team added K.J. Henry off the Bengals’ practice squad. Chauncey Golston started opposite Kneeland, while Tyrus Wheat and Carl Lawson played regularly following Kneeland’s injury. Parsons has not been ruled out for Week 6, but with Dallas’ bye coming in Week 7, the team opting for caution regarding its best player would make sense.

Expected to mix in behind Parsons, Lawrence and Williams, Kneeland came to Dallas after meeting with roughly half the NFL on “30” visits. Tallying low sack totals at Western Michigan (fewer than five in each of his four seasons at the MAC program), Kneeland nevertheless impressed on the pre-draft circuit. He tallied 26 tackles for loss from 2021-23 and became a more prominent Cowboys piece following Williams’ injury.

It will be interesting to see how the Cowboys go about replacing their latest injured D-end cog, but Kneeland and Lawrence’s return windows are comparable. A Lisfranc injury will sideline Lawrence between four and eight weeks. It is possible Parsons will have both his sidekicks back at some point in November. Absent a Parsons return in Week 6, the Cowboys will need to get by — absent a higher-profile acquisition — with a skeleton crew against the Lions.

Cowboys Open Practice Window For DaRon Bland

October 9th, 2024 at 12:33pm CST by Nikhil Mehta

The Cowboys have opened the 21-day practice window for All-Pro cornerback DaRon Bland, who started the regular season on injured reserve after a training camp foot fracture that required surgery, per ESPN’s Todd Archer.

Bland was designated to return when he was originally placed on injured reserve during final roster cuts, so the Cowboys still have seven return designations remaining for their injury-ravaged roster.

[RELATED: Injured Reserve Return Tracker]

Rookie Caelen Carson started the Cowboys’ first three games, but struggles against the Saints and the Ravens in back-to-back weeks led to his benching, with Andrew Booth and Amani Oruwariye starting in Week 4 and 5, respectively.

The Cowboys will be hoping Bland can make a sooner-than-expected return to the field opposite Trevon Diggs with their pass rush depleted with injuries to Micah Parsons, DeMarcus Lawrence and Marshawn Kneeland. At 3-2, Dallas sit second in the NFC East behind the Commanders with matchups against the Lions, 49ers, and Falcons in their next three games.

The Cowboys do have a Week 7 bye, so they will monitor Bland’s progress carefully to determine if he needs the extra time to get fully healthy. The sooner he can get back, the better for a Dallas defense that ranks 23rd in points allowed this season, though their primary weakness has been against the run. Still, Bland led the NFL with nine interceptions in 2023 – five of which he returned for touchdowns, an NFL record – and he would significantly shore up the Cowboys’ cornerback play after rotating through three backups to start the year.

Titans Bring Back QB Trevor Siemian

October 9th, 2024 at 12:15pm CST by Sam Robinson

As Will Levis grapples with an AC joint sprain, the Titans are turning to one of their former backups as an insurance option. Trevor Siemian is back with the team.

Siemian, the Broncos’ initial post-Peyton Manning starter, has become a journeyman in the years since his 2018 Denver exit. One of the former seventh-round pick’s career stops came in Tennessee, with the Titans rostering him as a Ryan Tannehill backup from 2019-20.

Initially adding Siemian during training camp in 2019, the Titans kept him around as a reserve behind Tannehill and Marcus Mariota. Siemian stayed in 2020, as Mariota left for Las Vegas, but ended that season with the Saints. Siemian, 32, has since bounced around in a career that has also overlapped with new Titans HC Brian Callahan. Siemian spent a few months of the 2023 offseason with the Bengals, who ended up cutting him after the preseason last year.

This is a practice squad agreement. The Titans, who traded Malik Willis months after signing Mason Rudolph, have two active-roster QBs: Levis and Rudolph. The latter would start if Levis’ shoulder injury keeps him out. Callahan has insisted Levis remains his starter, despite the second-year QB’s early-season struggles. If Levis is out, however, Siemian would stand to be a gameday elevation for Week 6.

Siemian has made 33 career starts. Three of those came for the Jets last season. The Jets had brought in Siemian on a practice squad deal shortly after Aaron Rodgers‘ Achilles tear. Gang Green took heat for not having a better backup plan than Zach Wilson, but after Wilson returned to action following the third and final benching of his Jets career, a concussion ended his season. Siemian stepped in and finished the year as the team’s starter. He completed just 56.2% of his passes, at only 4.7 yards per attempt, but went 2-1 as a starter.

The Saints also used Siemian as a four-game starter, back in 2021, while the Bears turned to him to close out the 2022 season (to seal the 2023 No. 1 overall pick they then traded). For his career, the Northwestern alum has been with seven teams. This marks his second reunion, as the Jets had also rostered Siemian earlier in his career.

Additionally, the Titans added signed tackle Leroy Watson from their practice squad. Watson, whom the Titans acquired from the Browns this offseason, played under Bill Callahan in Cleveland. Watson has not played this season, failing to make Tennessee’s 53-man roster in August, but TitanInsider.com’s Terry McCormick notes he could split reps with Nicholas Petit-Frere this week at right tackle. Petit-Frere won that post out of training camp and has started all four Titans games, but Pro Football Focus ranks him 59th among tackles this season.

NFL Places Patriots S Jabrill Peppers On Commissioner’s Exempt List

October 9th, 2024 at 10:11am CST by Sam Robinson

The NFL will use its commissioner’s exempt list to sideline Jabrill Peppers. After an arrest near Boston over the weekend, the veteran Patriots safety is officially on paid leave, ESPN.com’s Adam Schefter tweets.

Not only is Peppers barred from Patriots games, he is ineligible to practice while on the list. This marks the second usage of the commissioner’s exempt list this season, following Browns rookie defensive lineman Michael Hall.

Peppers was hit with charges of assault and battery, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, strangulation and the possession of a class B substance. He is accused of choking a woman and shoving her head against a wall outside his Braintree, Mass., apartment, the Boston Globe’s John Ellement, Christopher Price and Camilio Fonseca report. Identifying herself as Peppers’ on-and-off girlfriend, the woman said the DB “took off her clothing and put her outside” his apartment.

Peppers pleaded not guilty to each of the charges and was released on bail, according to the Globe. The arrest occurred shortly after Peppers’ 29th birthday. The unnamed woman said she Peppers were “being intimate when her phone rang,” angering the veteran defender. The woman then accused Peppers of pushing her out of his bedroom. This led to Peppers allegedly pushing the woman down a flight of carpeted stairs in a hallway, according to the Globe.

Peppers denies he choked or pushed the woman, telling police she “appeared to be drunk” and acted erratically, blaming this for her fall down the stairs. Police did not smell alcohol on her breath, per the Globe. The woman declined to be hospitalized, but paramedics provided her an icepack. Police observed scratches on her knees and indicated redness on the right side of her forehead, according to the Globe, which adds a police search of Peppers’ apartment produced a bag Peppers allegedly confirmed was cocaine. Peppers soon informed Patriots HC Jerod Mayo of the development.

The Patriots took the atypical step, for a home team, of downgrading Peppers from questionable to out the day before their Week 5 Dolphins matchup. While Peppers is out of the picture for the time being, he is tied to a recently signed extension (three years, $24MM). The 2025 guarantees on that contract ($2.5MM of the safety’s $4.5MM base salary) are at risk. A personal conduct policy suspension can still come out of this arrest, despite Peppers being placed on the exempt list. Hall was hit with a five-game ban upon his reinstatement.

Jags Designate Tyson Campbell For Return

October 9th, 2024 at 9:28am CST by Sam Robinson

The 1992 Chargers remain the only team to turn an 0-4 start into a playoff berth. With the NFL now at seven playoff teams per conference, that number should eventually balloon at some point in the not-so-distant future. The Jaguars came into the season with playoff aspirations, but they must climb out of this historically deep hole if they are to realize them.

Three of Jacksonville’s four losses have come by one score, and the team’s top cornerback did not finish any of those games. A piece of good news will come out of Duval County, however, as its team aims to stabilize its season. Tyson Campbell is on his way back from a hamstring injury; the Jaguars designated the veteran corner to return from IR on Wednesday.

[RELATED: Injured Reserve Return Tracker]

Campbell did play in most of the Jags’ Week 1 loss to the Dolphins but has missed the past four contests. That absence duration makes him eligible to be activated in Week 6. With the Jaguars beginning their two-week London swing, they will hope to have the recently extended defender back in uniform. Though, Doug Pederson said he is aiming for (via Underdog Fantasy’s James Palmer) a Week 7 Campbell return. The Jags face the Patriots in their second 2024 England tilt.

The Jags won both their London games last season, beating the Falcons and Bills. That team started 8-3; Pederson’s latest Jags outfit is far more desperate heading to England. The team’s losses to the Dolphins (albeit with Tua Tagovailoa in uniform) and Browns look worse now, though its narrow defeat in Houston showed the team is capable of pushing a higher-end opponent. The Jags then topped the Colts for the 11th straight year at home, potentially saving Pederson’s job. They will open their London slate against the Bears.

Although Trevor Lawrence and Josh Hines-Allen‘s deals came in much higher than Campbell’s offseason extension, the Jags’ third major 2024 re-up is the third-most lucrative pact in team history. The team showed tremendous faith in Campbell by agreeing to a four-year, $76.5MM deal.

The former third-round pick has enjoyed an up-and-down career, allowing eight touchdowns as the closest defender in coverage last season and six in 2022. The ’22 season, however, also featured Campbell yielding only a 78.0 passer rating and 54.2% completion rate. His 2023 numbers in those categories (128.5, 69.4) revealed some inconsistency, but the Jags still invested heavily in the Urban Meyer draftee. Campbell will attempt to justify this extension this season, though the Jags are committed to him for the long haul due to a rolling guarantee structure. Their defense, which ranks 30th in points allowed and 31st in yardage, needs all the help it can get.

NFL Practice Squad Updates: 10/8/24

October 8th, 2024 at 9:21pm CST by Adam La Rose

Tuesday’s taxi squad moves:

Atlanta Falcons

  • Signed: OL Matthew Cindric

Baltimore Ravens

Cincinnati Bengals

Cleveland Browns

Dallas Cowboys

Denver Broncos

Indianapolis Colts

New England Patriots

New York Jets

Seattle Seahawks

Washington Commanders

Fleming saw time with Denver across each of the past three seasons. The 32-year-old alternated between right and left tackle during that span, and he remained on the team’s radar given his workout in September. Now Fleming, a veteran of 117 games and 62 starts, will be an option to handle a depth role along the O-line once he is elevated to the Broncos’ active roster.

Minor NFL Transactions: 10/8/24

October 8th, 2024 at 7:49pm CST by Adam La Rose

Tuesday’s minor moves around the league:

Arizona Cardinals

Carolina Panthers

Cincinnati Bengals

Cleveland Browns

Dallas Cowboys

Denver Broncos

Detroit Lions

Houston Texans

Indianapolis Colts

Minnesota Vikings

New England Patriots

Tennessee Titans

Kirkland is out for the season due to a biceps tear, head coach Zac Taylor said on Monday. That injury resulted in the addition of Andrew Stueber off Atlanta’s practice squad, a move which became official today. Kirkland, a former UDFA, made a pair of appearances this season, seeing sparse usage on offense and special teams.

Panthers, Shaq Lawson Agree To Deal

October 8th, 2024 at 7:03pm CST by Adam La Rose

Still on the lookout for veteran help along the edge, the Panthers are set to make another addition. Shaq Lawson has a deal in place with Carolina, KPRC2’s Aaron Wilson reports. The move (a practice squad agreement) is now official, per a team announcement.

Wilson noted earlier today that Lawson visited the Panthers. The news of an agreement quickly coming together thus comes as little surprise, and it will add considerable experience to the team’s edge rush group. The 30-year-old is a veteran of 109 games, all of which came in the AFC East.

Lawson spent his first four seasons in Buffalo, with his most productive campaign coming in 2019 (6.5 sacks, 13 tackles for loss). That stretch was followed by single campaigns with the Dolphins and Jets before a return to the Bills. After handling a notable role in Miami and New York, the former first-rounder returned to Buffalo; he remained there for 2022 and ’23.

During his second Bills stint, Lawson made seven total starts and recorded 4.5 sacks. He did not have a strong market during the spring, however, resulting in several weeks of the regular season playing out until interest picked up. In the wake of Jaelan Phillips‘ season-ending knee injury, Lawson was among the veteran edge rushers who visited the Dolphins on a workout last week. That process did not yield an agreement, but he did not need to wait long to find another suitor.

Carolina traded away Brian Burns this offseason, one in which Yetur Gross-Matos departed in free agency. Preseason injuries to both D.J. Wonnum and Amare Barno left the team thin on healthy options along the edge, and a reunion with Marquis Haynes was recently worked out. After Jadeveon Clowney suffered a shoulder injury in Week 5, Lawson’s addition will provide another healthy depth option. It will be interesting to see how quickly he finds himself on the active roster.

Eagles Release LB Devin White

October 8th, 2024 at 3:33pm CST by Adam La Rose

Devin White‘s free agent spell with the Eagles has come to an abrupt end. The former first-round linebacker was released on Tuesday, per a team announcement.

White began his career in Tampa Bay as a highly impactful player from a statistical perspective. He lost his starting role late in the 2023 season, however, and as a result it came as little surprise when he departed on the open market. White took a one-year deal with the Eagles, but he has yet to make a regular season appearance. Now, the team will move on.

The former No. 5 pick was once attached to an asking price on a Bucs extension which would have made him one of the league’s highest-paid middle linebackers. By contrast, White took a one-year deal worth only $4MM to join Philadelphia’s efforts at finding a suitable setup at the position. With $3.5MM of that total being guaranteed, this move figures to create a dead money charge of just over $3MM. Jeff McLane of the Philadelphia Inquirer notes White worked out an agreement which could grant the team “potential savings,” however. Still, today’s news marks an unceremonious ending to this relationship.

White appeared to be on track to handle a starting workload during the summer, be instead he began the campaign in a backup capacity. Since the 26-year-old does not have extensive experience on special teams, he found himself a healthy scratch in Week 2 (after an ankle injury kept him out of the season opener). Rather than remaining out of the picture – barring injuries further up the depth chart – team and player have elected to part ways, Since this move has been made before the trade deadline, White will not be subject to waivers.

As such, the LSU product will be free to sign with any interested team in a bid to rebuild his market value. Interest figures to be limited given the way White’s career has gone recently, but he posted at least 124 tackles each year from 2020-22 and racked up 23 sacks during his Tampa Bay tenure. He could serve in a rotational capacity with a team seeking out linebacker depth, especially one which was planning on addressing the position via trade.

In the meantime, the Eagles will move forward with Zack Baun and Nakobe Dean – who beat out White for a first-team role during the lead-in to the season – as starters at the second level of their defense. It will be interesting to see if a depth addition is made with special teams contributions being targeted. Regardless of how that transpires, White will turn his attention to another fresh start.

Minor NFL Transactions: 10/7/24

October 7th, 2024 at 8:33pm CST by Adam La Rose

Here are the minor moves made around the NFL on Monday:

Arizona Cardinals

  • Received one-game roster exemption: WR Zay Jones

Atlanta Falcons

Cincinnati Bengals

Cleveland Browns

  • Received one-game roster exemption: DT Mike Hall

Green Bay Packers

Philadelphia Eagles

New Orleans Saints

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Both Jones and Hall were issued suspensions under the personal conduct policy leaving them sidelined for the first five weeks of the season. Their roster exemptions will allow them to make their debuts in Week 6, but after that point a corresponding move will be needed for them to be permanently activated to their respective 53-man rosters.

Lemieux served as New Orleans’ starting center in Week 4 after being promoted from the practice squad. He stepped into a first-team role in place of Erik McCoy, who is dealing with a groin injury. Losing Lemieux for at least the next four games will deal another blow to the Saints’ O-line. Connor McGovern was added to the mix recently, but Lucas Patrick has received the nod at center to begin the team’s Week 5 matchup.

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