Titans Waive DL Teair Tart
DECEMBER 16: The move is now official, per a team announcement. Tart will hit the waiver wire instead of seeing his RFA contract expire at the end of the season. It will be interesting to see how much interest is shown in him (either via teams putting in a claim or pursing him as a free agent). To fill Tart’s spot, Tennessee promoted wideout Mason Kinsey to the 53-man roster. The latter has played five games across his three seasons in the NFL, all with the Titans.
DECEMBER 15: Tension between the Titans and Teair Tart will result in an unceremonious exit. The veteran defensive lineman has been ruled out for Week 15 due to personal (rather than injury-related) reasons. 
Veteran Titans beat writer Paul Kuharsky first reported Tennessee was set to move on from Tart after “season-long issues reached a breaking point.” Indeed, ESPN’s Turron Davenport confirms Tart has played his last game with the franchise. The 26-year-old will now head to waivers in a move which creates no dead money charge.
Tart joined the Titans as a UDFA in 2020, and he played sparingly during his rookie season. Since then, however, he has established himself as a key member of Tennessee’s defensive line rotation. The 26-year-old logged a snap share of 47% in the 2021 and ’22 seasons. His level of play in the latter campaign earned him a second-round RFA tender, and signing it locked him into a $4.3MM salary.
After Tart set new career highs in several categories last year, expectations were high for a follow-up and a resultant boost in free agent value. As Kuharsky notes, however, the Florida International alum’s conditioning and effort level have been a sore spot during the campaign. With his contract status looming over his immediate future, Tart has racked up 21 tackles (including eight for a loss) along with one sack while seeing an identical snap share to the past two seasons. Those figures have resulted in a PFF grade of 57.6, a stark regression from his career-best evaluation in 2022.
While the Titans’ run defense suffered in the games Tart missed, his absence was not as impactful as expected given his previous performances. Between that fact, and the team’s status as presumed sellers ahead of the trade deadline, Tart was floated as a trade candidate. No takers emerged on that front, but interested parties can now add him by putting in a claim. If he passes through waivers, Tart will be a free agent.
Today’s news leaves Tennessee without both Tart and All-Pro Jeffery Simmons along the defensive interior; the latter is set to miss a second straight game due to injury. Kyle Peko, meanwhile, is out for the season. Especially given the decision to move on from Tart, yesterday’s additions of Quinton Bohanna and Keondre Coburn to provide healthy bodies along the D-line make sense.
While the latter two are set to make their Titans debuts this week, Tart will turn his attention to his next chapter. A rebound in terms of performance with his next team, should he latch onto an active roster to close out the year, will set him up for free agency for the first time in his career.
Jaguars Activate WR Jamal Agnew From IR
It looks like Jaguars wide receiver and return specialist Jamal Agnew only required a short practice window in order to return from injured reserve. Agnew was only designated to return from IR three days ago as he continued working to overcome rib and shoulder injuries that placed him there in the first place. In order to make room on the active roster for the newly activated Agnew, Jacksonville waived backup quarterback Nathan Rourke. 
Agnew had missed the four games required to come back from injured reserve when the Jaguars designated him to return. During his absence the team had turned to rookie sixth-round receiver Parker Washington to return punts and veteran backup running back D’Ernest Johnson to return kickoffs. Now, they’ll get back a return man who was a first-team All-Pro selection as a rookie in Detroit and a Pro Bowl returner in Jacksonville just last year. Agnew has also found a bit of a role in the passing offense since arriving in Duval, providing the Jaguars with another offensive weapon just in time for a tough matchup with the Ravens on Sunday night.
Rourke has spent his first season in the NFL going back and forth between the team’s active and practice squad rosters. He had been called up to back up C.J. Beathard in the off chance that Trevor Lawrence was unavailable to play after his high ankle sprain, but Rourke became expendable with Lawrence playing through the injury. Should he clear waivers, expect Rourke to find his way back to the practice squad in Jacksonville.
Speaking of the practice squad, the Jaguars took the opportunity to announce that practice squad tight end Josh Pederson would serve as the team’s standard game elevation for tomorrow’s matchup with the Ravens. Pederson has appeared in two games so far this season, making his NFL debut two weeks ago.
Chargers Fire Brandon Staley, Tom Telesco
Following the Raiders’ historic rout of the Chargers on Thursday night, the reeling team will drop the hammer early. The Bolts announced the firings of Brandon Staley and Tom Telesco on Friday morning.
The Chargers have since announced the promotion of Giff Smith and JoJo Wooden to respectively replace Staley and Telesco on an interim basis. The former has experience as a D-line coach dating back to 1999, and he has been in the organization since 2016. Over the past two seasons, though, he has worked as the team’s outside linebackers coach. This will be Smith’s first appointment as a head coach at the college or pro level.
Wooden, meanwhile, has been with the Chargers for the past decade. He has served with the title of player personnel director after working his way through the ranks in the Jets’ scouting department from 1997 to 2012. Like Smith, he will now oversee the conclusion of a highly disappointing campaign for the Bolts before potentially garnering consideration for the full-time role.
This is the first instance of the Chargers firing a head coach in-season since they axed Kevin Gilbride 25 years ago. But Staley has long been expected to be out, with the Bolts regressing in a season following a 27-point collapse in the wild-card round. Telesco spent 11 years as the Chargers’ GM. While much-hyped rosters formed under his watch, the team did not turn well-regarded transactions into sustained success.
Hired in 2021, Staley came over after one season as the Rams’ defensive coordinator. But the ascendant assistant could not establish success in this area with the Chargers. The Raiders dropping 63 on their rivals, 42 of those points coming in the first half, after the Vikings had held them scoreless in Week 15 prompted Bolts ownership to act early.
Telesco backed Staley following the Jaguars’ wild-card rally, which doubled as the third-biggest postseason deficit ever overcome, and the “what if?” involving Sean Payton is worth examining. The then-FOX analyst was linked to being interested in the Chargers job at multiple points last year. The move would have allowed Payton to stay in Los Angeles. But Telesco kept Staley, continuing a Chargers trend of keeping coaches beyond two seasons.
Staley is now the first Bolts HC to lose his job after less than four full seasons since the team fired Mike Riley following the 2001 campaign. Even Riley, who did not produce a winning season, lasted longer than Staley. But the alarming Week 15 performance opened the door to the Bolts needing to cut the cord now. As the team began to struggle this season, Chargers president John Spanos — a previous Staley advocate — began to distance himself from the embattled HC, Outkick.com’s Armando Salguero notes. The Spanoses will now begin to look for Staley’s replacement in an offseason that will remind of 2013, when the Bolts replaced both their HC and GM.
The Telesco news represents a bigger-picture development. The former Colts exec had hired Mike McCoy, Anthony Lynn and Staley during his run as GM. Telesco’s drafts brought difference-makers in Joey Bosa, Keenan Allen, Derwin James, Rashawn Slater and Justin Herbert. Telesco did well to leave no gaps between star quarterbacks, selecting Herbert sixth overall a month after Philip Rivers departed in free agency. Telesco, 51, also hammered out a through-2029 Herbert extension this offseason. The quarterback’s presence will make both the new Bolts vacancies attractive, but rampant underachievement has defined this team for much of the 21st century.
Even before the Raiders’ rout, Telesco was rumored to be on the chopping block. Dean Spanos will opt to not let Telesco hire a fourth HC. The three he hired combined for just three playoff appearances in 11 seasons. The Chargers, who had sustained success under Marty Schottenheimer and the early part of Norv Turner‘s ensuing HC run, have not ventured to back-to-back playoff brackets since the 2008-09 seasons. Despite Rivers playing his final seven Chargers seasons during Telesco’s tenure, the potential Hall of Famer only piloted the Bolts to two playoff brackets in that span. The Chargers won postseason games in 2013 and ’18 and were on track to eliminate the Jags last season, but success proved fleeting for squads that seemed to annually generate buzz.
After hiring offense-oriented coaches in 2013 and ’17, Telesco chose Staley’s defensive acumen to pair with Herbert in 2021. The Chargers managed to produce the AFC’s Pro Bowl starting quarterback and miss the playoffs. That had not happened in the AFC since the 1989 Bengals. Herbert put up dazzling numbers in 2021, but a Week 18 loss to the Raiders led to the budding superstar’s season wrapping early. A rib injury last September limited Herbert, and Staley fired OC Joe Lombardi following the playoff season. Two-year DC Renaldo Hill left to rejoin Vic Fangio in Miami this offseason.
Following a 2021 season that featured the Bolts ranking 29th in points allowed, Staley made a push for the team to equip him with better defensive personnel in 2022. The team traded for Khalil Mack and signed J.C. Jackson and Sebastian Joseph-Day. The Mack trade belatedly panned out, with the former Raiders and Bears standout rebounding for 15 sacks this season. The five-year, $82.5MM Jackson contract proved disastrous for the Chargers, who sent the underperforming cornerback back to the Patriots for next to nothing earlier this season.
The Chargers had made Jackson a healthy scratch in Week 3. Even after the round of defensive reinforcements, Staley’s 2022 defense ranked 20th; after last night’s Raider rampage, his third Charger defense ranks 29th. Last season’s Jacksonville catastrophe also featured the Bolts lining up without Mike Williams, who was injured in a meaningless Week 18 game against the Broncos. Staley and Telesco each defended the decision to leave starters in that contest deep into the second half, but the Chargers — who have struggled with receiver health over the past two seasons — suffered the consequences of Williams’ absence a week later. As the Chargers swooned in the wake of the playoff debacle, they lost Herbert to a season-ending finger injury.
Herbert’s status will naturally drive interest in this position, and some around the league are monitoring the Chargers as a Bill Belichick suitor. The Bolts would likely need to trade for the Patriots legend, and it would be interesting to see if this gains traction. A short-term Belichick-Herbert pairing would draw interest for a franchise that has struggled to establish itself in L.A., while such a move would also be a zag after Telesco made inexperienced coordinators — in Staley and Lynn — his HC choices. But we are still a ways away from the Belichick market taking shape.
Regardless of where the Chargers go from here, their next regime will be responsible for undoing some of the damage this era brought. The organization’s reputation for letdowns pushed “Chargering” into the NFL lexicon. In a division with Payton and Patrick Mahomes, the Bolts suddenly have more ground to make up despite striking gold with Herbert.
Adam La Rose contributed to this post.
Minor NFL Transactions: 12/15/23
Here are today’s minor transactions, including some practice squad callups for the Saturday games:
Arizona Cardinals
- Signed from Seahawks’ practice squad: OLB Tyreke Smith
Carolina Panthers
- Signed to active roster: DE Chris Wormley
- Placed on IR: G Justin McCray
Denver Broncos
- Signed to active roster: TE Lucas Krull
Indianapolis Colts
- Elevated: WR Ethan Fernea, RB Tyler Goodson
Minnesota Vikings
- Elevated: RB Myles Gaskin, WR Trishton Jackson
Pittsburgh Steelers
- Elevated: LB Kyron Johnson
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
- Signed to active roster: DT Deadrin Senat
Washington Commanders
- Activated from IR: G Saahdiq Charles
- Placed on IR: TE Curtis Hodges
Getting Charles back should provide a bit of a boost for a Commanders’ offensive line that has allowed quarterback Sam Howell to be sacked an NFL-leading 58 times. That being said, they led the league in that category when Charles was healthy, as well. Still, as Charles attempts to come back from the calf injury that sidelined him for six games, he’ll have to overcome second-year guard Chris Paul, who has been starting in his place since the injury. While Charles had been struggling in a contract year, his replacement has ranked as the fourth-worst guard in the NFL, according to Pro Football Focus (subscription required).
Wormley, Krull, and Senat all make their way up to the active roster for two reasons: first, injuries, and second, they’ve already appeared as standard gameday elevations off of the practice squad the maximum three times. In order to appear in any other games this year, all three needed to be signed to new contracts. If the players they are replacing come back from injury before the end of the season, any of them can be waived, re-signed to the practice squad, and elevated an additional three times.
NFL Practice Squad Updates: 12/15/23
Friday’s practice squad adjustments:
Indianapolis Colts
- Signed: G Arlington Hambright
- Placed on practice squad IR: DE Derek Rivers
Seattle Seahawks
- Signed: DE Hamilcar Rashed
Rivers finds his way to the practice squad injured reserve list, making room for Hambright to return after being released from the squad yesterday.
Rashed finally finds his way onto a roster in 2023 after failing to make the Buccaneers 53-man roster in August. He comes in as a replacement for outside linebacker Tyreke Smith, who was signed away from Seattle onto the Cardinals active roster today.
Buccaneers Waive RB Ke’Shawn Vaughn
Ke’Shawn Vaughn‘s time buried on Tampa Bay’s running back depth chart has come to an end. The Buccaneers announced on Friday that he has been placed on waivers. 
As a result of the move, Vaughn can now be claimed by any interested team. Failing that, he will become a free agent. Unless he stays in Tampa Bay via the practice squad after clearing waivers, today’s news marks an end to his time with the team after being drafted in the third round in 2020.
Since then, Vaughn has been unable to carve out a signficant role in the Bucs’ backfield. His total carries remained relatively consistent through his first three seasons (26, 36, 17), but his workload had stagnated again in 2023. The 26-year-old has recorded 24 rushes this season, having found himself a healthy scratch for the past two months. Tampa Bay will move on rather than seeing Vaughn’s rookie contract expire at the end of the season.
The Vanderbilt product could get a head start on finding a new home in the near future, although his market on waivers or as a free agent will no doubt be limited. Vaughn has totaled 384 yards and a pair of rushing touchdowns in his career, averaging 3.7 yards per carry. He has added 14 catches for 81 yards and an additional score in the passing game in his limited opportunities. Tampa Bay has struggled to run the ball in recent years in particular, but the team is prepared to move forward with its other options on the RB depth chart.
That includes 2022 third-rounder Rachaad White, who split time with Leonard Fournette last season. The latter was released this offseason, paving the way for the former to handle undisputed lead back duties. White comfortably leads the Bucs in rushing this season with 745 yards, adding 419 through the air. Veteran Chase Edmonds and undrafted rookie Sean Tucker are in place as complementary options, and their availability and performances during the year have made Vaughn expendable.
Sitting at 6-7, Tampa Bay is in a three-way tie atop the NFC South. The division could send a second team to the postseason depending on how the wild-card race shakes out, so the Buccaneers will be team to watch down the stretch. Vaughn will not play a role in the end to their season and any potential playoff action, though.
Panthers To Place Hayden Hurst On IR
Hayden Hurst‘s comments detailing the head injury he suffered last month pointed to a hopeful late-season return. The Panthers are, however, expected to exercise caution with their offseason tight end pickup.
Carolina is planning to place Hurst on IR, The Athletic’s Joe Person notes. With players stashed on IR required to miss four games, this move will end the veteran tight end’s season. Hurst has not played since suffering a concussion Nov. 9. The Panthers gave the former Ravens, Falcons and Bengals pass catcher a three-year, $21.75MM deal in March.
Hurst’s father shared recently that an independent neurologist diagnosed the veteran tight end with post-traumatic amnesia, and the former first-round pick confirmed the diagnosis. While Hurst said the post-traumatic amnesia assessment “sounds way worse,” he did add he could not remember anything up to four hours following that November game against the Bears.
The 30-year-old tight end had not stood out prior to suffering the scary injury, but no non-Adam Thielen presence in Carolina’s offense has fared particularly well during this woeful season. The Panthers made Hurst this offseason’s highest-paid tight end signee; he totaled 18 receptions for 184 yards and a touchdown in nine games. Hurst has never been a prolific receiving tight end. The Ravens found a better aerial option two rounds later in the 2018 draft, in Mark Andrews, leading to a 2020 trade. A year after acquiring Hurst, the Falcons drafted Kyle Pitts fourth overall.
Considering what happened in Chicago, Hurst having locked in $13MM guaranteed at signing proves pivotal. Although a new coaching staff will come in after Hurst signed to play in Frank Reich‘s offense, his $5.75MM 2024 base salary is guaranteed.
NFL Practice Squad Updates: 12/14/23
Here are Thursday’s practice squad transactions:
Indianapolis Colts
- Signed: WR D.J. Montgomery
- Released: G Arlington Hambright
Miami Dolphins
- Signed: DE Melvin Ingram (story)
- Released: OL Alama Uluave
Minor NFL Transactions: 12/14/23
Here are Thursday’s minor moves:
Denver Broncos
- Waived: OLB Ronnie Perkins
Las Vegas Raiders
- Elevated: OL Hroniss Grasu, FB Jakob Johnson
Los Angeles Chargers
- Elevated: TE Stephen Anderson, DL Christopher Hinton
The Broncos, who traded Randy Gregory and cut Frank Clark earlier this season, will be without starting outside linebacker Nik Bonitto in Week 15. The 2022 second-round pick sustained an ankle injury against the Chargers last week. Although Denver is shorthanded at the position, the team is cutting Perkins. A 2021 third-round Patriots pick, Perkins has seen action in five games for the Broncos this season. Thomas Incoom and hybrid player Drew Sanders represent the Broncos’ depth behind OLB regulars Baron Browning and Jonathon Cooper.
Titans Poach Two From Practice Squads, Place Two On IR
The Titans made two pairs of roster moves today, according to NFL beat writer Paul Kuharsky, placing cornerback Kristian Fulton and defensive tackle Kyle Peko on injured reserve and signing defensive tackles Quinton Bohanna and Keondre Coburn to fill their spots on the active roster. Bohanna was signed from the Lions‘ practice squad, Coburn from the Chiefs‘. 
The loss of Fulton is difficult, as he has been a starter for Tennessee at the position since his sophomore season. At the same time, though, Fulton has been a liability in the team’s secondary, taking a huge step back in play this year. According to Pro Football Focus (subscription required), Fulton settles in as the 112th-ranked cornerback out of 119 graded players. Absences on IR have become an annual occurrence for Fulton, who missed 10 games as a rookie in 2020, four games in 2021, and six games last year. He’s missed Monday’s win over the Dolphins and will now miss at least four more games in 2023.
Peko is unfortunately in a similar position as Fulton. He has served as a starter in Tennessee for most of the season, as well, but also grades out extremely poorly per PFF, ranking at 127th out of 131 interior defensive linemen.
At cornerback, the team will ask last year’s second-round pick Roger McCreary and undrafted rookie Eric Garror to step up in Fulton’s place. In Peko’s place, Tennessee could turn to Jaleel Johnson for more snaps, but new arrivals Bohanna and Coburn should get plenty of opportunities to step in and contribute.
Bohanna spent his first two years in Dallas, starting nine games in his sophomore season. After falling behind Johnathan Hankins and first-round rookie Mazi Smith on the depth chart, Bohanna was waived by the Cowboys and signed to the Lions’ practice squad. Detroit elevated him in three games this year, two of which he started, but couldn’t find a place for him on the active roster. The Titans, on the other hand, should give him an immediate chance to enter the rotation.
Coburn is a sixth-round rookie out of Texas. After initially making the 53-man roster in Kansas City, Coburn has bounced back and forth between the Chiefs’ and Broncos’ practice squads. His only game action has been a brief appearance in the Chiefs’ season-opening loss. In Tennessee, he’ll get a new chance to find his place on the depth chart and potentially contribute as a Titan.