Dolphins Trade Kiko Alonso To Saints
The Dolphins aren’t cutting linebacker Kiko Alonso after all. We heard yesterday that Miami was releasing Alonso, which suggested the club’s efforts to trade him had been fruitless. However, Tom Pelissero of the NFL Network reports that the Fins are trading Alonso to the Saints (Twitter link), and Nick Underhill of The Athletic tweets that New Orleans is sending back LB Vince Biegel.
For Alonso, this is good news from a competitive and financial standpoint. Since he was traded rather than released, he remains tied to his $6.48MM salary for 2019, for which the Saints are now on the hook. Plus, New Orleans is a legitimate Super Bowl contender, while Miami is in the middle of a complete teardown.
Alonso has started every game in which he has appeared for the Dolphins since joining the team in 2016, compiling 354 tackles and five interceptions over that time. However, despite the nice interception total, he generally struggles in coverage and is not especially well-regarded by advanced metrics.
He can be effective when deployed properly, and he will join a Saints defense that also includes A.J. Klein, Alex Anzalone, and Demario Davis. He will provide solid depth if nothing else, but given the salary the team is taking on, it seems that New Orleans plans to give him a significant role. Plus, Anzalone and Craig Robertson haven’t practiced in some time, and Klein missed practice all of last week, so the Saints needed a plug-and-play LB.
Biegel, who has just 14 career tackles to his name, was used as an edge rusher and as a linebacker in the preseason, as Mike Triplett of ESPN.com tweets. The Dolphins may have been intrigued by his versatility, but it’s not as though they had a ton of leverage to ask for a more established player or for draft picks. Biegel appeared primarily on special teams for the Saints in 2018, but he will have the opportunity to earn a larger role with the Fins.
Chiefs Sign LeSean McCoy
LeSean McCoy‘s stay on the open market didn’t last long. Released by the Bills yesterday, Shady immediately drew interest from four teams, and as Adam Schefter of ESPN.com reports, McCoy will sign with the Chiefs. Terez A. Paylor of Yahoo! Sports says it will be a one-year, $3MM pact with incentives that can increase the value to $4MM (Twitter link).
Paylor adds in a separate tweet that the Chargers offered McCoy a similar contract, but McCoy opted to head to Kansas City due to his familiarity with head coach Andy Reid and the club’s front office. McCoy spent the first four years of his career under Reid when both men were with the Eagles.
The Chiefs’ decision to sign McCoy suggests that they were not entirely comfortable with presumptive RB1 Damien Williams taking the lion’s share of the carries. McCoy and Williams — much to the chagrin of Williams fantasy owners — will likely share the load, with sixth-round rookie Darwin Thompson and second-year player Darrel Williams in support.
McCoy struggled in 2018, which turned out to be his final year in Buffalo, but the Bills’ O-line was a mess. The six-time Pro Bowler is definitely nearing the end of the road, but he did top 1,000 yards in each of his prior two seasons with the Bills, and with a dynamic offense around him and younger players to ease some of his burden, there is reason to believe that he can be productive for the Chiefs in 2019.
McCoy, 31, has 10,606 career rushing yards, good for 25th on the all-time list.
Redskins Get Down To 53
And here it is, the 32nd and final team’s roster cuts. Their most notable release was the previously announced cutting of former first-round pick Josh Doctson. Of the stuff that’s new, not much is shocking. A couple of years ago, 2017 fourth-round running back Samaje Perine was hyped up as a potential future starter. The Oklahoma product, who had 603 rushing yards as a rookie, was cut today.
Veteran receiver Brian Quick, who had 564 yards with the Rams in 2016, was let go as well. Washington also parted ways with cornerback Adonis Alexander, a Virginia Tech product who they drafted in the sixth round of the 2018 Supplemental Draft.
Here are the rest of the moves:
Waived:
- LB Andrew Ankrah
- DL Ryan Bee
- LB B.J. Blunt
- DL Jonathan Bonner
- WR Jehu Chesson
- DL Khairi Clark
- LB Marquis Flowers
- G Jerald Foster
- T Blake Hance
- CB Deion Harris
- TE J.P. Holtz
- LB Gary Johnson
- G Zac Kerin
- WR Darvin Kidsy Jr.
- CB Ashton Lampkin
- DL Austin Maloata
- QB Jalan McClendon
- S JoJo McIntosh
- TE Donald Parham Jr.
- T Timon Parris
- S Jeremy Reaves
- RB Craig Reynolds
- T Corey Robinson
- WR Cam Sims
- LB Marcus Smith II
- G Hugh Thornton
- CB D.J. White
- DL JoJo Wicker
- LB Darrell Williams
Waived/injured:
Chiefs Cutdown To 53
The Chiefs announced the following moves to get down to an initial 53-man roster. Probably the most surprising move was the release of veteran guard Jeff Allen. The Chiefs drafted Allen in the second-round back in 2012, and he started four games for them last year. He’s made 80 career appearances, with 66 starts.
Here are the rest of the cuts:
Waived/Released:
OL Dino Boyd
WR Jamal Custis
WR Rashard Davis
LB Raymond Davison
WR Jody Fortson
P Jack Fox
LB D’Juan Hines
TE Nick Keizer
QB Chase Litton
DE Rob McCray
CB Herb Miller
OL Pace Murphy
OL Jimmy Murray
OT Chidi Okeke
QB Kyle Shurmur
CB D’Montre Wade
DT Cavon Walker
Waived/injured:
WR Felton Davis
Placed on injured reserve:
Placed on non-football injury list:
Texans Trim Roster To 53
The Texans made a flurry of roster moves to get down to 53 players today. Among the notable names that were cut was former Browns cornerback Briean Boddy-Calhoun. Boddy-Calhoun started at least seven games for Cleveland in each of the past three seasons, but couldn’t crack Houston’s roster after signing a one-year deal back in March.
Receiver Chad Hansen, a fourth-round pick of the Jets in 2017, was also let go. He’s bounced around the league ever since New York cut bait after just one season. Houston also cut ties with reserve pass-rusher Joel Heath. An undrafted rookie in 2016, Heath started 15 games for the Texans across his first two years in the league.
Here are the rest of the players who failed to make the team:
Waived:
WR Floyd Allen
OLB Jesse Aniebonam
CB Derrick Baity Jr.
OLB Davin Bellamy
OLB Jamal Davis II
T Christian DiLauro
NT Javi Edwards
RB Karan Higdon Jr.
T Rick Leonard
WR Steven Mitchell Jr.
CB Jermaine Ponder
OLB Gimel President
G Malcolm Pridgeon
G Maurquice Shakir
WR Jester Weah
Placed on IR:
QB Joe Webb III
Broncos Trim Roster To 53
The Denver Broncos made a slew of moves today to get down to 53 players. Notably, the team will place rookie second-round quarterback Drew Lock on injured reserve, meaning he’ll have to miss at least the first eight games of the season as he recovers from his thumb injury. The team cut journeyman Kevin Hogan and UDFA Brett Rypien, leaving them without a quarterback behind Joe Flacco. GM John Elway has said they’ll sign a veteran to backup Flacco for now, and we’ve already heard they’re interested in Brian Hoyer.
There weren’t too many surprises that we didn’t already know of. Brendan Langley, a 2017 third-round pick, failed to make the team. He was drafted as a cornerback, but switched to receiver earlier this offseason after he didn’t pan out on defense.
Here’s the full list of other moves:
Waived:
FB George Aston
T Quinn Bailey
WR Trinity Benson
OL Jake Brendel
WR Fred Brown
LB Jamal Carter
WR Steven Dunbar Jr.
OLB Ahmad Gooden
RB Devontae Jackson
CB Trey Johnson
G/C Sam Jones
OL Tyler Jones
T John Leglue
DL Deyon Sizer
CB Linden Stephens
Cowboys Get Down To 53
The Cowboys have made their cuts to get down to 53 players. Nothing too surprising on this list, although there is at least one interesting takeaway. The Cowboys cut three running backs, leaving Alfred Morris and Tony Pollard as the only two currently with the team. That’s a strong indicator that the team is expecting Ezekiel Elliott back before Week 1.
Receiver Devin Smith also made the roster as their final receiver, which is a nice feel-good story. Drafted by the Jets 37th overall back in 2015, multiple ACL tears derailed his promising career. Smith has had brutal injury luck and hasn’t appeared in a game since 2016, so this is nice to see.
Waived:
OL Jake Campos
RB Jordan Chunn
WR Reggie Davis
WR Jalen Guyton
LB Nate Hall
OL Mitch Hyatt
TE Marcus Lucas
CB Donovan Olumba
LB Kyle Quiero
LS Drew Scott
DT Shakir Soto
DE Ricky Walker
RB Mike Weber
QB Mike White
DE Daniel Wise
Waived/InjuredL
Reserve/PUP:
WR Noah Brown
Reserve/Injured
DE Jalen Jelks
WR Jon’Vea Johnson
DT Daniel Ross
CB Chris Westry
Patriots Reach Roster Max
The Patriots announced the release of 27 players as a part of their efforts to get down to the 53-man limit. They also placed four players on injured reserve, one player on NFI, and another on PUP.
The previously reported release of wide receiver Demaryius Thomas understandably got the most attention, but there are some other notable names here, including wide receiver Braxton Berrios. Berrios, 24 in October, had a solid training camp and preseason, but could not find a place on the roster after Julian Edelman and Josh Gordon returned to action. It stands to reason that he could be a practice squad candidate if he clears waivers.
Here’s the rest:
Released:
TE Stephen Anderson
TE Andrew Beck
RB Nick Brossette
OL Cole Croston
WR Ryan Davis
OL James Ferentz
OL Tyler Gauthier
LB Terez Hall
DL Trent Harris
DB A.J. Howard
OL Martez Ivey
FB Jakob Johnson
DL Ufomba Kamalu
OL Cedrick Lang
LB Calvin Munson
DL David Parry
WR Damoun Patterson
LB Christian Sam
TE Eric Saubert
OL Dan Skipper
OL Tyree St. Louis,
DL Nick Thurman
DB Ken Webster
LB Scooby Wright III
Placed on IR:
OL Hjalte Froholdt
DB Malik Gant
DL Derek Rivers
In addition, New England also placed offensive lineman Yodny Cajuste on the NFI list and wide receiver Cameron Meredith on the PUP list.
Colts Reach Roster Max
The Colts reached the 53-man limit on Saturday by cutting a number of players, including running back Charcandrick West. West, who has been toggled on and off of the Chiefs’ roster in recent years, hooked on with the Colts less than two weeks ago. Despite the season-ending injury suffered by D’Onta Foreman, he wasn’t able to make the final cut.
Also among the cuts – J’Marcus Webb, one of the club’s Week 1 starting tackles in 2018. Webb’s season was mostly lost to injury, and he’ll have to hook on elsewhere for 2019.
Here’s the rest of the Colts’ moves:
Waived:
– S Micah Abernathy
– T Jackson Barton
– CB Jalen Collins
– WR Ashton Dulin
– G Jake Eldrenkam
– T Antonio Garcia
– DE Gerri Green
– DE Obum Gwacha
– K Cole Hedlund
– WR Krishawn Hogan
– CB Isaiah Langley
– WR Roger Lewis
– LB Skai Moore
– C Daniel Munyer
– DE Carroll Phillips
– DT Johnny Robinson
– DT Sterling Shippy
– G Nate Theaker
– S Jacob Thieneman
– WR Jordan Veasy
– QB Phillip Walker
– RB Aca’Cedric Ware
– RB Marquis Young
Waived/Injured:
– WR Penny Hart
– S Isaiah Johnson
– WR Marcus Johnson
– S Kai Nacu
– CB Shakial Taylor
– LB Ahmad Thomas
Released:
– TE Gabe Holmes
– DT Caraun Reid
– TE Ross Travis
Rams Reach Roster Max
The Rams reached the roster max of 53 with the following moves on Saturday:
Waived:
Dakota Allen, LB
Chandler Brewer, OT
Marquise Copeland, DT
Justin Davis, RB
Donte Deayon, DB
Landis Durham, DE
John Franklin, DE
Khadarel Hodge, WR
John Kelly, RB
Jeremiah Kolone, G
Steven Parker, DB
Kevin Paterson, DB
John Wolford, QB
Waived/Injured:
Alex Bachman, WR
Josh Carraway,LB
Dominique Hatfield, DB
Trevon Young, LB
Placed on IR:
Micah Kiser, LB