Eagles Release S Anthony Harris From Practice Squad
The Eagles and Anthony Harris are parting ways. Philadelphia released the veteran safety from its practice squad. While these moves often precede need-based reunions, Adam Schefter of ESPN.com tweets this is a mutual parting.
Harris seeks the opportunity to join another team’s active roster, per Schefter. Another team could have poached him off the Eagles’ practice squad, but that scenario would have limited Harris’ flexibility. Going into what would be his age-31 season, Harris is back on the market.
[RELATED: Offseason In Review, Philadelphia Eagles]
After the Vikings cuffed Harris with their franchise tag in 2020, a modest market for the veteran’s services formed the following year. Despite Harris having a six-interception season under his belt (2019), he only landed a one-year, $4MM offer from the Eagles last March. This year, Philly brought him back on a one-year, $2.5MM pact.
A former UDFA out of Virginia, Harris spent six seasons with the Vikings. He began a rise to becoming Harrison Smith‘s backend sidekick in 2018 and started 39 games with Minnesota from 2018-20. The Eagles used him as a full-timer last season, and Pro Football Focus — which had graded Harris as a top-three safety in 2018 and ’19 — assigned the seven-year veteran a middling grade (53rd among safeties) in his lone Eagles campaign.
This has been an interesting offseason for the Eagles at safety. They had re-signed Harris and added longtime 49ers safety Jaquiski Tartt, but after not being overly impressed with either’s performance during training camp, the team released both and made a trade for Saints nickel C.J. Gardner-Johnson. The latter is moving from the slot position to the back line with the Eagles. Marcus Epps had surpassed Harris as the top safety for the Eagles, and Harris’ former Vikings teammate will team with Gardner-Johnson as Philadelphia’s safety starters to open the year.
Panthers Add DL Henry Anderson, WR Preston Williams
After not making the Patriots’ 53-man roster, Henry Anderson landed another opportunity. The Panthers signed the veteran defensive lineman Monday.
An interior D-lineman who has spent time with the Colts, Jets and Patriots, Anderson has seven years’ experience. Much of that came as a starter. Anderson, 31, has started 43 games as a pro. He will join a Panthers defensive line that houses Derrick Brown and free agency addition Matthew Ioannidis as its top interior players.
The team also reached an agreement Monday to bring in former Dolphins wide receiver Preston Williams. While Anderson landed on Carolina’s active roster, Williams is joining the team’s practice squad. The Dolphins waived Williams last week.
Williams follows Laviska Shenault as new Panther receiver additions. The latter landed in Charlotte via trade from Jacksonville. A former UDFA who had begun to play a key role for the Dolphins as a rookie, Williams has battled injuries in years since. Miami adding the likes of Tyreek Hill and Cedrick Wilson Jr. this offseason, which came a year after the franchise traded up to No. 6 overall for Jaylen Waddle, led to Williams not making the cut.
Anderson spent three seasons with the Colts and Jets, respectively, and tallied a career-high seven sacks for Gang Green in 2018. The Stanford alum has otherwise been known more as a run defender. Sack stats did not continue for Anderson in New York, but he did combine for seven tackles for loss from 2019-20. The Patriots signed the 6-foot-6 defender to a two-year, $7MM deal in 2021. A pectoral injury sustained in October of last year ended his season, however.
Williams totaled 32 catches for 428 yards in eight 2019 games, but an ACL tear ended that run. A former Shenault teammate at Colorado State, Williams could not re-establish himself in Miami. A foot injury halted his 2020 season after eight games, and he only played in eight contests last year. The Dolphins shopped Williams this summer and received inquiries. But no trade came. The 6-5 pass catcher will look to work his way onto Carolina’s active roster soon.
Steelers To Sign S Andrew Adams
Two safeties the Steelers signed this offseason have landed on IR. The team waited until after setting its 53-man roster to move Damontae Kazee, as opposed to its shuttling of Karl Joseph to IR prior to that date. But the position became thinner this summer.
Pittsburgh is expected to address that soon. Andrew Adams is expected to sign with the team Monday, ProFootballNetwork.com’s Aaron Wilson tweets. It is a practice squad deal, according to ESPN.com’s Brooke Pryor (on Twitter).
The Giants had Adams in training camp this year but cut him ahead of their move down to 53. Adams, 29, is a six-year veteran who has played for the Giants (from 2016-17) and Buccaneers (2018-21).
The UConn alum worked as a backup for the Super Bowl-winning Bucs squad two years ago and made three starts for last year’s team. A former UDFA, Adams was a regular Bucs starter in 2019. He has seven career interceptions; four of those came with the 2018 Bucs.
Kazee is not expected to be out for the season — hence the short-term IR move. But he is down for at least four weeks. Adams would stand to supply some depth behind starters Minkah Fitzpatrick and Terrell Edmunds. Pittsburgh has Tre Norwood and special-teamer Miles Killebrew at the safety spot as well.
Former second-round pick Josh Jackson is also signing with Pittsburgh’s practice squad, per Pryor. The Packers draftee has bounced around the league since a 2021 trade moved him out of Green Bay. Jackson’s most recent stop came with the Cardinals, who cut him on their way down to the 53-man max. The Steelers also added linebacker Delontae Scott to their taxi squad.
Texans Release RB Marlon Mack From Practice Squad
Chris Conley‘s name keeps appearing in Texans transactions. The Texans released the veteran wide receiver Tuesday, re-signed him Thursday and cut him again Friday. On Monday, he is back with the team.
Houston added the veteran wide receiver to its practice squad on Labor Day, Aaron Wilson of ProFootballNetwork.com tweets. The Texans’ latest Conley-related move will send Marlon Mack back into free agency. The veteran running back is off Houston’s 16-man P-squad.
In paring their roster to the 53-man limit last week, the Texans included both Mack and Conley as cuts. Mack quickly signed with the team’s taxi squad. He came into Monday as the only running back on Houston’s P-squad. The team has fourth-round rookie Dameon Pierce, Rex Burkhead, Royce Freeman and Dare Ogunbowale on its active roster, however.
Mack, 26, signed with the Texans this offseason, coming to Houston for the same terms (one year, $2MM) he agreed to with Indianapolis in 2021. The Colts barely used Mack last season, with Jonathan Taylor fully taking over Indianapolis’ backfield. The Achilles tear the Colts’ former starter suffered in September 2020 began Taylor’s quick rise, and Mack has not been able to re-establish himself since.
It is certainly possible the Texans circle back to Mack — a former 1,100-yard rusher — for a practice squad spot in the future. But his Monday exit continues a downward trend for a player who had been a multiyear Colts starter.
This will be Conley’s second season with the Texans. The former Chiefs third-round pick spent the 2019 and ’20 seasons in Jacksonville before signing with Houston during Nick Caserio‘s first offseason as Texans GM. He caught 22 passes for 323 yards and two touchdowns in 2021.
Cowboys To Sign T Jason Peters
Days after Jason Peters‘ Cowboys visit, the parties agreed to terms. The 40-year-old left tackle will continue his career in Dallas, Michael Gehlken of the Dallas Morning News tweets.
The former Bears, Eagles and Bills blocker will aim to fill the void left by Tyron Smith‘s injury. This will be Peters’ 19th NFL season. The Cowboys came into Labor Day holding the fourth-most cap space in the league (just more than $14MM). Some of it will go to Peters, who stands to play an important role in helping the Cowboys defend their NFC East title. Peters grew up in northeast Texas, making this a homecoming of sorts to potentially cap off a Hall of Fame career.
Not much of Dallas’ cap space, it turns out, will be needed for the time being. The team is giving Peters a ramp-up period, with CBS Sports’ Josina Anderson adding (via Twitter) Monday’s deal is a practice squad agreement. Since the COVID-19 pandemic prompted the NFL to expand practice squads to 16 players, teams have increasingly used it as a way to add veterans ahead of promotions to the active roster. The Cowboys will be the latest team to take this route.
This transaction marks the third straight year in which Peters found a deal after waiting in free agency for months. He re-signed with the Eagles in July 2020 and joined the Bears in August of last year. The longtime Philly mainstay will now get to work on helping the Cowboys hold off an Eagles team that saw Smith’s injury strengthen its chances of winning the division.
This week’s vested veteran guarantee is a factor here as well. Vets’ salaries become guaranteed if on a 53-man roster this week, and Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.com notes the Cowboys had not planned to add a free agent tackle until Week 2 (Twitter link). It opens the door to an unusual scenario in which the Cowboys start a rookie at left tackle in Week 1 before promoting Peters to play there.
Smith’s avulsion fracture, which he sustained August 24, is expected to sideline him until at least December. The 12th-year tackle has undergone surgery. With it being possible the perennial Pro Bowler will miss the season, the Cowboys were left scrambling. They had been belatedly preparing first-round pick Tyler Smith to begin his run as Tyron’s blindside heir apparent early. Jerry Jones said last week it was “safe to say” the Tulsa-developed rookie would start at left tackle, via Jon Machota of The Athletic (on Twitter). Peters either gives the Cowboys high-profile insurance, or a scenario in which the first-rounder moves back to left guard once Peters is ready emerges.
Peters does not represent the safest of bets here; injuries have cropped up fairly frequently during the latter half of the acclaimed performer’s career. He missed eight games in 2020 and only played in seven during the Eagles’ Super Bowl LII-winning season. But he is coming off a 15-game season in Chicago. The Bears added Peters in the wake of Teven Jenkins‘ back injury, and the veteran produced what Pro Football Focus graded as a top-25 tackle season. While this did not draw too much attention, as the Bears struggled in 2021, it showed Peters remained a viable left tackle option for a contending team. Peters indicated this offseason he wanted to play an age-40 season, and the Cowboys’ need looks to have created that opportunity.
The Eagles had Peters tied to high-end contracts for most of his 12-year stay with the franchise, but the UDFA success story played last season on a one-year, $1.75MM deal. It will be interesting to see how much Cowboys wind up paying him, once this P-squad agreement translates to an active-roster promotion. Duane Brown signed a two-year, $20MM deal to be Mekhi Becton‘s emergency fill-in. Becton’s avulsion fracture is expected to sideline him for the season. Brown is also a decorated left tackle and is three years younger than Peters, but the latter is a nine-time Pro Bowler and two-time All-Pro.
As the Cowboys currently employ two All-Decade tackles and All-Decade guard Zack Martin, they have Terence Steele ready to take over for La’el Collins on the right side and Connor McGovern prepared to start at left guard. Peters (218 career starts) moving into Dallas’ lineup would likely bump McGovern down to a swing player.
If/when Peters moves up to Dallas’ 53-man roster and suits up for a game, he would join only three other tackles to play an age-40 season. Andrew Whitworth, who turned 40 late in his final season, joins only Ray Brown and Hall of Famer Jackie Slater in accomplishing this rare feat.
Browns To Sign TE Jesse James
The Browns have already made one major financial commitment at the tight end position, but they entered today lacking depth on the 53-man roster. They have added a veteran, signing Jesse James to a one-year deal (Twitter link via ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler). 
A fifth-round pick of the Steelers in 2015, James’ most productive years came in Pittsburgh. Between the 2017 and 2018 seasons, he totaled 73 catches, 795 yards and five touchdowns. That led him to the Lions in free agency, though his two seasons in the Motor City yielded little in the way of production. Only halfway through his four-year, $22.6MM contract, he was released.
The Penn State alum spent last season in Chicago. Despite starting nine of 14 games, however, he made just seven catches, as he took on a lesser offensive role and transitioned more into a blocker than a pass-catcher. Facing stiff competition for targets in the form of Cole Kmet, it came as little surprise that the Bears were uninterested in a reunion.
A return to the AFC North was in the cards, after James worked out for the Browns last week. He will help in the blocking department, allowing David Njoku to focus on his play as a pass-catcher. Expectations are higher than ever for the latter, after he signed a four-year, $56.75MM deal in May. The only other tight end on the 53-man roster prior to this signing was 2020 fourth-rounder Harrison Bryant.
James won’t see much in the way of targets behind Njoku and Bryant, but head coach Kevin Stefanski‘s affinity for multi-tight end sets could lead to an increase in playing time compared to last year.
Browns Sign OL Joe Haeg
The Browns are signing veteran offensive lineman Joe Haeg, as Mike Garafolo of the NFL Network tweets. Haeg was released by the division-rival Steelers at the end of August.
Pittsburgh signed Haeg in March 2021, and the North Dakota State product wound up seeing action in 12 games (two starts) last year. His 307 offensive snaps represented his highest total since 2018, and he spent a little time at all O-line positions except for center.
It appeared as if the Steelers would keep Haeg around as a depth piece in 2022, but the club recently acquired fellow OL Jesse Davis in a trade with the Vikings, and that transaction cost Haeg his roster spot. He became a popular free agent upon his release, and he lined up visits with multiple teams, including the OL-needy Raiders, before opting to sign with Cleveland.
Browns RT Jack Conklin is working his way back from a torn patellar tendon, and as Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com tweets, head coach Kevin Stefanski has not yet indicated whether Conklin will be ready to suit up for the team’s Week 1 matchup against the Panthers next Sunday. Chris Easterling of the Akron Beacon Journal adds that Chris Hubbard — who played in just one game in 2021 due to a triceps issue — has not practiced in more than a week, so the Browns are clearly in need of some RT insurance.
Haeg, 29, can provide that, and he can also play guard if necessary. A fifth-round pick of the Colts in 2016, Haeg started 29 games over his first two years in the league, lining up at both RG and RT. He earned solid PFF scores of 67.9 and 64.1 for his work during those two seasons, but his play slipped a bit in 2018, and an ankle injury limited him to just eight games that year. In 2019, the final year of his rookie contract, he was used almost exclusively as a special teamer.
He hooked on with the Bucs in 2020 and earned a Super Bowl ring, though he was on the field for just 127 offensive snaps.
Jaguars Re-Sign DL Adam Gotsis, Add DL Mario Edwards To P-Squad
The Jaguars released DL Adam Gotsis during final cutdowns, but the veteran defender will be returning to Duval. Per a team announcement, Jacksonville is re-signing Gotsis to its active roster.
Considering how thin the club is along its defensive line, retaining Gotsis is certainly a logical move to make. A second-round pick of the Broncos in 2016, the Georgia Tech product saw 25 starts over the 2017-18 campaigns. During that time, he averaged 39.5 tackles and 2.5 sacks per season while earning solid overall grades from Pro Football Focus.
Things began to go south in 2019, as Gotsis struggled to adjust to the scheme implemented by Vic Fangio, who had been hired as Denver’s head coach earlier that year. Gotsis was also battling knee trouble at the time, trouble that ultimately necessitated surgery. He has spent each of the past two seasons with the Jaguars, and it looks as if he is in line to have another significant role on the Jags’ defense after appearing in 52% of the team’s snaps in 2020 and 43% in 2021. He will operate behind starters Roy Robertson-Harris and Folorunso Fatukasi.
In addition to bringing Gotsis back into the fold, the Jags have supplemented their practice squad with some veteran D-line help. According to the same announcement, Mario Edwards — who was released by the Bears last week — has agreed to join Jacksonville’s taxi group. The former Raiders second-round pick had settled into a rotational role in the Windy City over the past two seasons, but he joins most of Chicago’s front-seven vets of recent years in being jettisoned by a new-look front office.
Edwards, 28, recorded six sacks during his two-year Bears tenure, logging 26% and 27% defensive snap rates during that span. However, he did miss time due to injury during this year’s training camp.
WR Jaylon Moore has also been added to the p-squad. Moore signed with the Ravens as a UDFA in 2020, and he spent each of the last two years on Baltimore’s practice squad. He obviously intrigued the team enough to stick around, but he never earned a look during a regular season contest. The Ravens waived him several weeks ago, and he was claimed by the Giants. Big Blue sent him to the waiver wire again, only to add him to the practice squad before waiving him a second time.
Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.com first reported that Edwards and the Jaguars had agreed to terms (Twitter link).
Jaguars Cut LB Ty Summers
Ty Summers‘ brief stint with the Jaguars has already come to an end. Jacksonville has cut the linebacker, according to Aaron Wilson of ProFootballNetwork.com (via Twitter).
Summers was waived by the Packers last week, but he was promptly claimed by the Jaguars thanks to their top spot in the waiver order. He was expected to provide some extra depth at the linebacker position, but Summers has mostly earned his worth on special teams.
However, since claiming Summers, the Jaguars also put in a claim for linebacker Caleb Johnson. The newer addition appears to be sticking around as a fifth inside linebacker behind first-round rookie Devin Lloyd, Foyesade Oluokun, third-round rookie Chad Muma, and Shaquille Quarterman.
Summers was a seventh-round pick by the Packers in 2019. After exclusively playing on special teams as a rookie, he saw a larger role in defense in 2020, finishing with 39 tackles in 16 games (one start). However, his defensive role was reduced again in 2021, and the 26-year-old finished the 2021 campaign with nine tackles in 14 games. Summers didn’t make it very far through waivers last time around, so there’s a chance he lands on another squad before the weekend is through.
Lions Rework OT Taylor Decker’s Contract
The Lions have opened up a chunk of cap space. Detroit converted $6MM of Taylor Decker’s base salary into a signing bonus, according to ESPN’s Field Yates (on Twitter). The move opened up $4.5MM in cap space.
The veteran offensive lineman now has a 2022 cap hit of $14.4MM. His 2023 cap hit has been increased to $19.35MM, and his 2024 cap hit jumped to $19.1MM. Decker also has a void year on his contract for the 2025 campaign.
Decker, a 2016 first-round pick, has spent his entire career in Detroit. He inked a five-year, $70.35MM extension with the Lions in 2020, locking him in through the 2024 season.
The 29-year-old was limited to only nine games in 2021 thanks to a finger injury that sidelined him for a few months. When he was on the field, he was still plenty productive, ranking 27th among 83 qualifying offensive tackles on Pro Football Focus’ ranking of the position. His pass-block grade ranked sixth at the position. Decker has never managed to crack PFF’s top-10 at the tackle position, but he’s consistently graded as an above-average starter throughout his career.