Cardinals To Place WR Hakeem Butler On IR
The hand fracture Hakeem Butler suffered will end his rookie season early. Butler will be placed on the Cardinals’ IR list, Field Yates of ESPN.com tweets.
Butler will not be carried through to the Cardinals’ 53-man roster and will instead be placed on IR now. He will be out for the season. The fourth-round pick suffered an avulsion fracture recently and was expected to be out until at least October. His first season will now become a developmental year of sorts.
The Cardinals appeared to prepare for this by signing Michael Crabtree. They drafted two other receivers — Andy Isabella and KeeSean Johnson — and have Christian Kirk back to reprise his role as Larry Fitzgerald‘s top sidekick.
An Iowa State product, Butler broke out in 2018 with the Cyclones. He posted 1,318 yards and nine touchdown receptions. For a Cardinals team that has a 36-year-old wideout playing on a year-to-year basis, Butler still profiles as a key player in the long term.
Cardinals To Release Andre Branch
Andre Branch‘s Cardinals stay did not last too long. The team will release the veteran defensive end less than a month after signing him, Adam Schefter of ESPN.com tweets.
The Cardinals signed the former Jaguars and Dolphins edge player shortly after training camp began. After the Dolphins cut Branch earlier this offseason, the Cards were the only team to bring him in for a visit or workout. He combined for 10 sacks between the 2016-17 seasons but registered just 1.5 in 14 games last season.
This stands to be Branch’s age-30 season. The Cards added Terrell Suggs and Brooks Reed as Chandler Jones sidekick options. They also claimed Jeff Holland, who came to Denver as a UDFA during Vance Joseph‘s stay, with their No. 1 overall waiver priority.
Raiders Sign Corey Liuget, Place Doug Martin On IR
The Raiders have signed free agent defensive tackle Corey Liuget, the team announced. Oakland has also placed running back Doug Martin on IR, which contradicts reports that surfaced earlier today indicating that Martin was released.
Liuget has generated plenty of interest on the open market this offseason. He met with the Jaguars, Giants, Seahawks, and Cardinals before signing with Oakland, his former division rival.
Liuget spent the first eight years of his career with the Chargers after the Bolts made him the 18th-overall pick of the 2011 draft. Earlier in his career, Liuget made noise as a defensive end and managed 18 sacks for the Chargers between 2011-2014. His sack totals, predictably, plummeted when he was moved to the interior on a full-time basis, and his 2018 suspension for PEDs further diminished his stock. However, he should serve as a quality rotational piece for Oakland’s D-line.
As for Martin, Oakland may indeed end up releasing him with an injury settlement, as Scott Bair of NBC Sports Bay Area tweets. Tom Pelissero of the NFL Network says that Martin will be healthy soon and will be ready to play somewhere (Twitter link). The Raiders, meanwhile, will open the season with rookie Josh Jacobs as their No. 1 RB, with DeAndre Washington serving as Jacobs’ backup.
In addition to those moves, Oakland also signed UDFA linebacker Bryson Allen-Williams and waived long snapper Andrew DePaola.
Raiders Release Doug Martin
The Raiders have released veteran running back Doug Martin, as Tom Pelissero of the NFL Network reports (via Twitter). Martin was Oakland’s leading rusher in 2018, but the club selected Josh Jacobs in the first round of this year’s draft with the expectation that he would become the new No. 1 RB, and DeAndre Washington‘s excellent preseason earned him the top backup job behind Jacobs.
Martin, a former first-round pick of the Buccaneers, spent the first six years of his career with Tampa Bay before catching on with the Raiders in March 2018. In his lone season with the Silver-and-Black, Martin compiled 723 rushing yards on 172 carries — good for a respectable 4.2 YPC mark — and four touchdowns. It’s a far cry from his 2015 First Team All-Pro campaign, when he piled up 1,402 yards on the ground and 271 yards through the air, but he proved that he can still be a serviceable back.
Head coach Jon Gruden is fond of Martin, so this move may be about getting the 30-year-old back a chance to catch on with an RB-needy team as the preseason draws to a close. Indeed, the Texans are now very much in the market for an established rusher, and many pundits are already connecting Martin to Houston.
Oakland cleared $1.9MM of cap space with the move.
Packers To Cut S Josh Jones
The Packers will be cutting safety Josh Jones today, as Adam Schefter of ESPN.com reports (via Twitter). Jones skipped the club’s OTAs in the spring with the hope of forcing a trade, and his wish to get out of Green Bay has finally been granted.
The Packers selected Jones in the second round of the 2017 draft, and he has started 12 games over his first two years in the league. He seemed to take a step back during his sophomore season, finishing with 55 tackles, one sack, and two passes defensed in 13 games (five starts) in 2018. Pro Football Focus ended up ranking Jones 70th among 93 eligible safeties.
Green Bay invested heavily in the safety position this offseason, as the team inked former Bears safety Adrian Amos to a four-year, $36MM deal in free agency and later traded up in the first round to select Maryland safety Darnell Savage Jr.. As Rob Demovsky of ESPN.com writes, Amos and Savage are expected to serve as the Packers’ starting safeties in 2019, and former UDFA Raven Greene has worked ahead of Jones both at safety and at inside linebacker in sub-packages during training camp.
Demovsky also notes that Jones has not practiced in nearly two weeks because of an undisclosed illness, and he got kicked out of practice on July 31 for a hit and a fight during a non-tackling period. Plus, even though the Packers traded Ha Ha Clinton-Dix halfway though last season, Jones was not elevated into the starting lineup until rookie Kentrell Brice suffered an ankle injury in Week 10.
Clearly, Jones’ stock had plummeted in Green Bay, though he should catch on with another club fairly quickly given his youth and draft pedigree.
Minor NFL Transactions: 8/24/19
Today’s minor moves:
Green Bay Packers
- Released: RB Darrin Hall
Houston Texans
- Released from IR with injury settlement: CB Jermaine Kelly
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
- Signed: QB Vincent Testaverde
- Waived/Injured: OLB Kahzin Daniels
Colts Waive RB D’Onta Foreman With Injury Settlement
D’Onta Foreman‘s time with the Colts is officially over. The team has waived the young running back from injured reserve with an injury settlement, according to Adam Caplan of Sirius XM NFL radio (Twitter link).
This is a departure from what we initially heard after Foreman went down with a torn biceps. The Colts placed him on injured reserve, but it was reported that they planned to stash him on IR with the hopes of bringing him back to compete for a role in 2020. It’s unclear whether Indy changed their mind, or if Foreman and his representatives were able to force his way out so that he could try and play for a new team this season.
Unfortunately, Foreman’s once promising career has been derailed by injuries. The Texans drafted him in the third round in 2017, and he showed a lot of potential as a rookie. A lot of people thought he would eventually take over for Lamar Miller as Houston’s starter, but then he tore his Achilles toward the end of the season.
He had complications while recovering from it, and ended up playing in only one game in 2018. The Texans threw in the towel on the Texas product earlier this offseason, and he was quickly swooped up by the Colts. Shortly after signing, he went down with his latest serious injury. Here’s to hoping that Foreman can get back to full health wherever he ends up next.
Falcons To Sign K Blair Walsh
Another kicker shakeup may occur this preseason. With their incumbent kicker struggling, the Falcons will sign Blair Walsh, Vaughn McClure of ESPN.com reports (on Twitter). While Giorgio Tavecchio remains on the team, he is now set for a full-fledged competition.
The Falcons confirmed the move, which comes after Dan Quinn suggested the team would bring in competition for Tavecchio. The third-year kicker has struggled during the preseason, missing 4 of 8 attempts — including a 39-yarder — thus far this month.
A Georgia alum, Walsh worked out for the Jets and Bears this year. Both teams opted against adding the former Vikings kicker. Should Walsh beat out Tavecchio, he would face his former team in Week 1. Walsh did not play in 2018.
Walsh has not kicked since a disappointing 2017 season. The Seahawks moved on from him after he went 21-for-29 that season. Minnesota initially selected Walsh in the 2012 sixth round and used him as its kicker for five seasons. The 29-year-old specialist earned All-Pro acclaim as a rookie, going 10-for-10 from beyond 50 yards, but his miss inside of 30 yards cost the Vikings a wild-card win against the Seahawks in 2015. He has yet to fully rebound from that errant try.
The Falcons also signed defensive tackle Stefan Charles and tight end Thomas Duarte. To make room for this new trio, the team waived wide receivers Shawn Bane and Kahlil Lewis, along with offensive lineman Tommy Doles.
Minor NFL Transactions: 8/23/19
Ravens To Sign LB Paul Worrilow
The Ravens plan to sign veteran inside linebacker Paul Worrilow on Friday, a source tells ESPN.com’s Jamison Hensley. The deal will be finalized upon Worrilow’s passing of a physical. 
Worrilow, a former UDFA with the Falcons, wound up starting in Atlanta for three seasons. He was used as a depth player for the team’s 2016 NFC championship season and later hooked on with the Lions, where he started in eight games. He lost the 2018 season to injury, however, and the Eagles just recently cut him due to health concerns.
Worrilow, 29, can provide experienced depth at inside linebacker as ILBs Patrick Onwuasor, Chris Board and Kenny Young have just combined 29 starts. Worrilow, meanwhile, has started 52 games over five seasons.