Titans To Release Kendall Lamm
The Titans are releasing offensive tackle Kendall Lamm, according to Aaron Wilson of Pro Football Network (Twitter link). Lamm had one more year to go on his contract, but the Titans opted for extra cap space instead.
[RELATED: Titans, Landry Agree On Extension]
Lamm joined the Titans on a two-year pact worth $8.5MM last spring. Up until that point, the undrafted free agent out of Appalachian State spent the first four seasons of his career with the Texans, followed by two years with the Browns. Lamm was limited to just four games during his first season in Cleveland, but he got into 15 games (one start) for the Browns in 2020, appearing on 116 offensive snaps and 68 special teams snaps.
His Titans run was spent mostly as a reserve with one start out of 12 appearances. All in all, the 29-year-old (30 in June) has 86 games on his resume and 28 starts.
NFL Reserve/Futures Contracts: 3/9/22
Here are today’s Reserve/Futures deals:
Los Angeles Rams
RFA/ERFA Tender Decisions: 3/9/22
The deadline for teams to extend tender offers to their restricted free agents and exclusive rights free agents looms next week. We’ll keep tabs on the latest here:
RFAs
Non-tendered:
- Cowboys: LB Luke Gifford
- Ravens: CB Chris Westry
- Titans: DE Derick Roberson
ERFAs
Tendered:
- Cardinals: RB Jonathan Ward, WR Antoine Wesley
- Lions: LS Scott Daly, P Jack Fox, CB Mark Gilbert, S JuJu Hughes, RB Godwin Igwebuike, WR Tom Kennedy, G Tommy Kraemer, OLB Jessie Lemonier, T Matt Nelson, K Riley Patterson, LB Anthony Pittman, CB Bobby Price, TE Brock Wright
- Raiders: TE Nick Bowers
- Ravens: C Trystan Colon-Castillo, QB Tyler Huntley, LS Nick Moore, S Geno Stone, LB Kristian Welch, RB Ty’Son Williams
Minor NFL Transactions: 3/9/22
We’ll keep track of today’s minor moves here:
Atlanta Falcons
- Released: OLB Duke Ejiofor
Carolina Panthers
- Re-signed: LB Julian Stanford
Jacksonville Jaguars
- Re-Signed: LB Tyrell Adams
Minnesota Vikings
- Re-signed: DT T.Y. McGill
New York Giants
- Signed: OT Matt Gono
New York Jets
- Re-Signed: OL Conor McDermott
San Francisco 49ers
- Re-signed: OL Jake Brendel
Tennessee Titans
- Re-Signed: WR Nick Westbrook-Ikhine, DT Teair Tart, QB Logan Woodside
Bills To Release G Jon Feliciano
Jon Feliciano‘s time with the Bills appears to be up. The veteran guard tweeted a goodbye message Wednesday, and Syracuse.com’s Matt Parrino tweets the Bills are releasing him.
Feliciano had battled injuries over the past two seasons in Buffalo but had largely worked as a starter. By the playoffs, however, the seven-year veteran operated as a backup. Feliciano’s release will create just more than $3MM in cap space for the Bills.
The Bills re-signed Feliciano in March of last year, keeping him off the free agent market with a three-year, $14.4MM deal. Feliciano, 30, will now hit the market. As a street free agent, he is now free to sign with any team.
An ex-Raiders fourth-round pick, Feliciano caught on with the Bills in 2019 — via a two-year deal worth $7.25MM — and started 16 games for the playoff-bound squad that season. The Bills re-signed him despite a 2020 season featuring seven missed games due to a torn pectoral muscle. In 2021, Feliciano dealt with a calf injury.
Buffalo used UDFA Ryan Bates ahead of Feliciano in its two postseason games, with rookie Spencer Brown moving into the starting lineup as well this past season. The AFC East champions also have starter Daryl Williams and former second-round tackle/guard Cody Ford under contract for 2022; Bates can be retained through an RFA tender.
Texans To Release CB Terrance Mitchell
Terrance Mitchell‘s stint with the Texans has already come to an end. The Texans informed the veteran cornerback that he will be released, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter (via Twitter).
The 29-year-old joined the Texans last offseason, inking a two-year, $7.5MM deal. He started 13 of his 14 games during his lone season in Houston, collecting 60 tackles, 10 passes defended, and one interception. He ended up seeing time in 69 percent of his team’s defensive snaps, and he garnered the second-most defensive snaps (796) on the squad.
Mitchell previously spent three seasons in Cleveland, starting 27 of his 39 games. He’s also had stints with the Bears, Cowboys, and Chiefs. The Oregon product was a seventh-round pick by the Cowboys in 2014.
The defensive back was set to have a $3.4MM cap hit in 2022. Thanks to an out in his contract, the Texans will only be left with $250K in dead cap following today’s move.
Cardinals Restructure LB Devon Kennard’s Contract
For the second time in five months, the Cardinals are re-working the contract of edge rusher Devon Kennard. The team and player have agreed to a reconfigured deal, per NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo (Twitter link). 
Kennard signed a three-year, $20MM deal with his hometown Cardinals in 2020, after he had spent four years with the Giants and two with the Lions. He’s been a rotational rusher in Arizona, playing 40% of defensive snaps in 2020, then 28% last season. The former fifth round pick has registered 43 tackles and three sacks over that span.
Kennard re-worked his deal this past November to create some breathing room for the Cardinals down the stretch. Now he has done so once more as a way of ensuring he stays in the desert, and to lower his scheduled cap hit of just over $9MM. The Cards are currently set to be essentially right at the cap ceiling.
The team’s top priority in the pass-rush department, of course, is retaining Chandler Jones. Owner Michael Bidwill has made it clear he wants the four-time Pro Bowler to sign a new deal instead of hitting free agency next week, where he would have a very lucrative market. With Kennard in place, though, an important member of the position group will be remaining for at least the short term, regardless of what else the team is able to do this offseason.
Ravens Release CB Tavon Young
Tavon Young battled back from three major injuries to play in all 17 Ravens games last season. The team is still moving on from its longtime slot cornerback.
The Ravens announced Young’s release Wednesday. This move will save them nearly $6MM. Young was a productive player in Baltimore, but the 2016 fourth-round pick ran into rampant injury trouble over the past several years.
Two knee maladies and a neck injury combined to sideline Young for 46 games over the 2017, ’19 and ’20 seasons. Young bounced back in 2018, playing 15 games and earning his Ravens extension — a three-year, $13.9MM pact. But a neck injury sustained during the 2019 offseason stalled that momentum. His 2020 knee injury led to a reworked contract.
Young, 27, played 51% of the Ravens’ defensive snaps in 2021. The Ravens endured a brutal injury season, one that saw corners Marcus Peters miss the entire year and Marlon Humphrey go down in December. This came after Baltimore traded rookie Shaun Wade to New England just before the season. Young broke up three passes, intercepted another and registered three sacks in 2021, giving him a bit of momentum after the run of injuries. But the various health setbacks stand to limit Young’s value on the market.
Cardinals Release LB Jordan Hicks
After three seasons as a Cardinals starter, Jordan Hicks is back in free agency. Arizona is releasing the veteran linebacker, Adam Schefter of ESPN.com tweets. The Cards have since announced the move.
This move comes a year after Hicks landed in trade rumors, once the Cardinals added Zaven Collins as a first-round pick. Arizona went back-to-back with off-ball linebackers in Round 1 from 2020-21, and it will be Collins and Isaiah Simmons leading the group going forward.
Hicks should garner interest as a street free agent. He is a vested veteran and can sign with a team at any point going forward. This release will give the seven-year vet a chance to catch on elsewhere before the free agent market opens March 16. While Hicks will turn 30 this offseason, he did well to change his career trajectory in three Arizona seasons.
The former injury-prone Eagle stayed healthy as a Cardinal, playing in every game with his second NFL franchise. While the Cardinals gave Hicks permission to seek a trade shortly after selecting Collins in last year’s first round, Hicks logged his usual snap rate in 2021. He played 97% of Arizona’s defensive snaps last season, that coming after working on 92% of the team’s defensive plays in 2020 and 100% in 2019. Collins will surely see more run in 2022, after participating on just 20% of Arizona’s defensive plays last season.
Last season, Hicks racked up 116 tackles and registered a career-high four sacks. He finished with 29 tackles for loss in three seasons in the desert. The Cardinals will save $6.5MM by cutting Hicks, who had one year remaining on his contract. This doubles as the end of an obscure era as well, one that featured two Jordan Hickses affiliated with professional Cardinal franchises. The other, a St. Louis reliever, remains with his team.
Colts To Trade Carson Wentz To Commanders
The Colts have agreed to trade Carson Wentz to the Washington Commanders (Twitter link via Adam Schefter of ESPN.com). In exchange, the Commanders will send their 2022 third-round pick and their 2023 third-round pick to the Colts. The ’23 third-rounder can also convert to a second-round choice if Wentz plays on 70% of Washington’s snaps in 2022. The deal will also see a swap of second-round picks with the Colts moving from No. 47 to No. 42. Schefter adds that the Commanders are also receiving the Colts’ 2022 seventh-round pick (Twitter link).
[RELATED: Details On Commanders’ Offer For Russell Wilson]
Colts GM Chris Ballard recently indicated that he was “still working through” the Wentz situation with head coach Frank Reich and owner Jim Irsay. Ultimately, following Tuesday’s Russell Wilson blockbuster, they’ve chosen to move their own starter and reshape the quarterback position. The Colts — who already had about $37MM in available cap room — have carved out even more space by trading Wentz.
“When we made the decision, after Philip [Rivers] retired and we made the decision to make a move on Carson, at the time of the decision we felt good about it and I still don’t regret the decision at the time,” Ballard said in January. “Sitting here today, just so y’all know, I won’t make a comment on who is going to be here next year and who is not going to be here next year. That’s not fair to any player.”
The QB was widely panned for his Week 18 performance against the Jaguars, the loss that cost the Colts a playoff berth. He also clashed with team brass throughout the year and even rankled Irsay. Still, despite all the issues, Wentz managed to finish the year with a 27-7 TD-INT ratio while placing ninth in league-wide QBR.
The Commanders were previously linked to Wilson and said to have interest in 49ers signal caller Jimmy Garoppolo. Ultimately, they didn’t want to wait on the Niners, choosing instead to pivot to Wentz. (The Colts, meanwhile, could consider Jimmy G as their next QB, as Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets.)
Wentz, 30 in December, may be a consolation prize, but he’s still a strong pickup Ron Rivera & Co. They’ll have Wentz under contract at a $22MM salary this year with a $6.294MM roster bonus. After that, they’ve got him for two more seasons. In 2023, he’s due $20MM in salary with a $6.176MM roster bonus. In 2024, that salary increases to $21MM with a $6.235MM bonus payout.
The Colts will now move on to their fifth starting quarterback in Ballard’s sixth year at the helm. So far, they’ve gone through Jacoby Brissett, Andrew Luck, Rivers, and Wentz — none of those players served as the primary starter in back-to-back seasons. Now, Wentz is out less than one year after his arrival in Indianapolis.
As noted by ESPN.com’s Field Yates (on Twitter), the Colts sent a 2021 third-round pick and a 2022 first-round choice to the Eagles for Wentz. The Colts now have one rocky year and significantly less draft capital to show for it. The Eagles, meanwhile, went on to parlay the third-rounder into a trade up for DeVonta Smith, and they’re still set to pick at No. 16 overall in April.