Minor NFL Transactions: 9/25/21
The weekly Saturday bunch of minor moves:
Atlanta Falcons
- Promoted: WR Juwan Green
Baltimore Ravens
- Promoted: LB Josh Bynes, DL Reginald McKenzie, CB Kevon Seymour, T Andre Smith
Chicago Bears
- Promoted: DL Margus Hunt
Cincinnati Bengals
- Promoted: S Sean Davis
Cleveland Browns
- Promoted: TE Jordan Franks
Detroit Lions
- Promoted: K Ryan Santoso
- Placed on IR: DE Kevin Strong
Indianapolis Colts
- Promoted: WR DeMichael Harris, QB Brett Hundley
Jacksonville Jaguars
- Promoted: WR Phillip Dorsett
Las Vegas Raiders
- Promoted: RB Trey Ragas
Los Angeles Chargers
- Promoted: OLB Emeke Egbule, DL Joe Gaziano
Los Angeles Rams
- Promoted: DB Tyler Hall, RB Buddy Howell
Minnesota Vikings
- Promoted: RB Ameer Abdullah, G Dakota Dozier, CB Parry Nickerson
- Waived: T Blake Brandel
New England Patriots
- Promoted: LB Jahlani Tavai
New York Giants
- Promoted: WR C.J. Board, C Jonotthan Harrison
- Placed on IR: LB Cam Brown
New York Jets
- Promoted: OL Isaiah Williams
San Francisco 49ers
- Placed on IR: DL Kevin Givens
Seattle Seahawks
- Promoted: DT Robert Nkemdiche, WR Cody Thompson
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
- Promoted: CB Rashard Robinson, TE Deon Yelder
Tennessee Titans
- Promoted: FB Tory Carter, DL Woodrow Hamilton
Raiders Elevate Ha Ha Clinton-Dix, Patrick Onwuasor
Ha Ha Clinton-Dix has moved closer to an opportunity to play in his first game since the 2019 season. The Raiders are elevating the veteran safety from their practice squad for Week 3.
Las Vegas signed Clinton-Dix to its practice squad last week, doing so after he failed to make San Francisco’s final 53. The 49ers cut Clinton-Dix less than three weeks after signing him this summer. He has not played since his one-season Bears tenure.
Although Clinton-Dix auditioned for several teams this year, the Raiders represented his first visit of 2021. The Cowboys signed the former Pro Bowler in 2020 but released him before the start of the regular season. Prior to these struggles landing a steady gig, Clinton-Dix did not miss a game from 2014-19. He worked as a starter throughout that stretch, making the Pro Bowl with the Packers in 2016 and ranking as an upper-echelon safety (per Pro Football Focus) with the Bears in ’19.
The Raiders are also adding yet another veteran linebacker to the mix. They elevated former Ravens first-stringer Patrick Onwuasor along with Clinton-Dix. Onwuasor landed on the Jets’ IR list twice last year but was a three-season Ravens starter from 2017-19. The Raiders auditioned Onwuasor in late August.
Onwuasor joins Denzel Perryman and K.J. Wright as new additions to the Vegas linebacking corps in the past month. The Raiders also have Cory Littleton and Nick Kwiatkoski, though Nicholas Morrow is on IR.
49ers Elevate RB Kerryon Johnson
The 49ers’ running back carousel keeps spinning. Kerryon Johnson will be the latest to move up to the team’s active roster, and he will replace JaMycal Hasty.
Signed to San Francisco’s practice squad last week, Johnson will rise to the 49ers’ 55-man gameday roster. Hasty suffered a high ankle sprain in the 49ers’ Week 2 win. He will join Raheem Mostert and Jeff Wilson as unavailable San Francisco backs, with the former out for the season and the latter on the PUP list.
With Hasty out for at least three games, the 49ers do not have a halfback on their active roster who was with them last season. Jerick McKinnon and Tevin Coleman are elsewhere. The 49ers also are not expected to have new starter Elijah Mitchell against the Packers. The sixth-round rookie is doubtful with a shoulder injury. Trey Sermon, however, has cleared concussion protocol and may be in line to start. The 49ers also claimed XFL alum Jacques Patrick off the Bengals’ practice squad. Johnson will join these two and Trenton Cannon on the team’s active roster.
A former second-round pick, Johnson has been part of a few transactions this year. The Lions waived him this offseason, and the Eagles added him with a waiver claim. An injury settlement led to Johnson’s Philadelphia exit.
Knee trouble has plagued the former Auburn standout. Johnson did average 5.4 yards per carry as a rookie with the Lions, totaling 854 scrimmage yards in just 10 games. While Johnson stayed healthy in 2020, the Lions had effectively moved on by signing Adrian Peterson and drafting D’Andre Swift in Round 2. The 49ers will give the fourth-year veteran another chance.
Raiders Move G Richie Incognito To IR
Richie Incognito‘s latest injury will move him to injured reserve for the second straight September. After missing the Raiders’ first two games with a calf injury, Incognito is heading to IR, Field Yates of ESPN.com tweets.
This designation will sideline the veteran guard for three more games. The Raiders had already ruled Incognito out for Week 3, after he missed another week of practice. Las Vegas used John Simpson and Jermaine Eluemunor as its starting guards in Week 2.
Incognito’s extended absence follows Denzelle Good‘s IR placement. Good, however, does not have a chance to return this season after suffering an ACL tear during the team’s opening-night victory. Good replaced Incognito after his early-season injury in 2020. Incognito suffered a foot injury that knocked him out for most of last season.
The Raiders made wholesale changes on their offensive line this offseason, and while they initially released Incognito, they kept the 38-year-old blocker around after bringing him back on a pay cut. Incognito was productive for the Raiders in 2019, helping the team deploy one of the league’s best rushing attacks. But the polarizing interior lineman has not been available much since.
Cardinals Release G Brian Winters
In finalizing their Week 3 roster, the Cardinals moved Brian Winters off the squad. They released the veteran guard Saturday.
Winters agreed to terms with the Cards this offseason, heading to the desert after a lengthy New York tenure. The Jets released Winters last year, leading him to the Bills on a one-year contract. Winters signed with the Cardinals on a one-year veteran-minimum deal.
A longtime Jets starter, Winters worked as a part-time starter with the Bills last year. In two Cardinals contests, however, he has not seen much action. Arizona has used Justin Pugh and 2020 draftee Josh Jones as its starting guards. Winters has totaled 16 offensive snaps in the Cards’ two games.
Winters, 30, could potentially stick around with the team on a practice squad agreement, with up to six vested veterans eligible for taxi squads. But he is back in free agency for the time being.
The Cardinals also promoted two offensive linemen — Sean Harlow and Koda Martin — from their practice squad. They cleared the other roster spot by placing offensive lineman Josh Miles on IR. Arizona elevated safety Chris Banjo and cornerback Antonio Hamilton to its active roster as well.
Dolphins To Place Tua Tagovailoa On IR
The Dolphins’ stretch without their starting quarterback will last at least three games. Tua Tagovailoa will land on IR, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (on Twitter).
With Brian Flores indicating earlier this week additional testing revealed Tagovailoa suffered multiple fractured ribs, this is not especially surprising. Offseason addition Jacoby Brissett will now have an extended opportunity, which has become familiar for the veteran backup.
Brissett was needed as a rookie in New England, with Tom Brady‘s Deflategate suspension and a subsequent Jimmy Garoppolo injury moving Brissett into the Patriots’ lineup early in 2016. Andrew Luck‘s troublesome shoulder injury thrust Brissett into a full-time starting role, after a late-summer trade, in 2017. After Luck’s return the following year sent Brissett back to the bench, the Indianapolis franchise QB’s sudden 2019 retirement brought on another year of full-time QB1 duty for the former third-round pick. Philip Rivers kept Brissett on the Colts’ bench throughout 2020, but he will now have three more games to use as a potential audition for a 2022 gig. Brissett, 28, signed a one-year, $5MM deal in March.
For Tagovailoa, this continues a less-than-ideal start to his NFL career. The former Alabama superstar became the Dolphins’ starting quarterback last season but saw Flores yank him for Ryan Fitzpatrick in multiple games. As Tagovailoa was believed to be progressing on multiple fronts this offseason, Deshaun Watson trade rumors persisted. They have not exactly died down. And this latest Tua setback may intensify rumblings the Dolphins will look to bring in the embattled Texans QB.
Tua will miss Dolphins games against the Raiders, Colts and Buccaneers. A Week 6 Jaguars matchup stands as the second-year passer’s next opportunity, though it is not certain he will be ready to return by then.
Eagles Activate TE Zach Ertz From COVID-19 List
Zach Ertz‘s stint on the Reserve/COVID-19 list won’t knock him out of Monday’s game. The Eagles activated their veteran tight end today, the team announced. The team had an open roster spot, so no corresponding move was necessary.
Ertz landed on the COVID list earlier this week, but there was hope that he’d be able to play Monday night against the Cowboys (pending the results of his vaccination status/test results).
The team somewhat prepared for a potential Ertz absence when they added tight end Richard Rodgers to their practice squad earlier this week. Earlier this week, head coach Nick Sirianni acknowledged that the offense has to remain flexible based on Ertz’s status.
“You have to have double-plans out there. And so, without getting too much into that, it’s just everything has to be double-planned,” Sirianni said (via Chris McPherson of the team’s website). “You have to back it up of what you want to have in. Do you want to be in 12-personnel, do you want to be in 11-personnel? And so you just have to back up everything. This is just something that we’ve had to do and the nature of the business in the NFL.”
Now, the team can move forward with their standard depth chart of Dallas Goedert, Ertz, and Jack Stoll.
The 30-year-old has officially been relegated to a secondary role behind Goedert this season. Through two games, he has just three catches for 40 yards. This comes after a down year of 36/335/1 in eleven games, coupled with an offseason standoff with the organization. The veteran has just one year to go on his five-year, $42.5MM deal, putting him in line for free agency this spring.
Buccaneers Rework OL Ali Marpet’s Contract
The Buccaneers have reworked Ali Marpet‘s contract. The team converted $5MM of the lineman’s contract into a guaranteed roster bonus. The move will open up about $4MM in cap space, according to ESPN’s Field Yates (via Twitter).
Specifically, the team added a pair of void years, and the offensive lineman’s cap charge will increase $1MM for each of the remaining “four” years on his contract. Marpet signed a five-year, $55.125MM extension (including more than $27MM guaranteed) with the Buccaneers in 2018 that (barring a legitimate extension) will last through the 2023 season.
The two sides did something similar in 2020. Marpet agreed to convert a portion of his salary into a signing bonus, opening up a similar $4MM chunk of cap space for the Buccaneers.
Marpet joined the organization as a second-round pick in 2015, and he’s spent his entire six-plus-year career in Tampa Bay. The lineman has started each of his 87 games since entering the NFL, including a Super Bowl-winning 2020 campaign where he started each of his 13 regular season games and all four of his postseason contests.
The 28-year-old has started each of the team’s two games this season, appearing in 100 percent of his team’s offensive snaps.
NFL Practice Squad Updates: 9/24/21
Here are Friday’s taxi squad moves:
Las Vegas Raiders
- Signed: LB Marquel Lee
- Released: T Devery Hamilton
Los Angeles Rams
- Signed: DB Jake Gervase
Minor NFL Transactions: 9/24/21
Here are Friday’s minor moves:
Dallas Cowboys
- Placed on reserve/COVID-19 list: DT Bradlee Anae
Minnesota Vikings
- Activated from reserve/COVID-19 list: CB Harrison Hand
Tennessee Titans
- Promoted: TE Tommy Hudson