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Eagles Sign Josh McCown To Practice Squad

September 6th, 2020 at 3:39pm CST by Andrew Ortenberg

Well this is an unusual arrangement we didn’t see coming. The Eagles are signing veteran quarterback Josh McCown to their practice squad, Adam Schefter of ESPN.com tweets.

Thanks to a new COVID-19 exception veterans will be able to serve on practice squads, making this possible. As Schefter notes, he’ll easily be the oldest practice squad player in NFL history. Making the situation even more unique, McCown won’t even be reporting to the team. Instead McCown will continue to live in Texas, earn a $12K weekly salary, and serve as Philly’s emergency quarterback remotely.

McCown’s lovable journeyman career has taken him all over the football world, so it feels right for him to blaze this unheard of trail. We had heard back in January the Eagles were talking about adding him to the coaching staff, and this is the next best thing.

After originally announcing his retirement in June of last year, he signed with Philly last August after they had a couple of injuries. After serving as Carson Wentz‘s backup and not starting a game he was suddenly thrown into the spotlight when Wentz went down in the Eagles’ first round playoff game against Seattle.

McCown came into the game cold off the bench and nearly led them to a miracle victory, tearing his hamstring in the process and playing through the injury.

The Eagles have Nate Sudfeld and Jalen Hurts behind Wentz now, but in these uncertain times it can’t hurt to have too much insurance. McCown has turned into a fan favorite over the course of his career that started in 2002 with the Cardinals, and this is a nice feather in his cap.

Here is Philly’s full practice squad:

* = international player

Falcons To Carry Two QBs On Practice Squad

September 6th, 2020 at 3:30pm CST by Sam Robinson

The Falcons agreed to add 14 players to their practice squad Sunday. Teams can re-sign players they cut to P-squads if they clear waivers after Saturday’s cuts.

Atlanta will take the unusual step of carrying two P-squad quarterbacks. The team cut both Kyle Lauletta and Kurt Benkert on Saturday, but both landed on the Falcons’ taxi squad. Teams are allowed to carry 16 players — up from 10 in 2019 — on their squads.

Benkert, who was with Atlanta in 2019, and Lauletta — a recent Giants draftee who recently joined the Falcons — will play behind active-roster QBs Matt Ryan and Matt Schaub. Here is the Falcons’ full squad:

Cowboys To Sign Brandon Carr To Practice Squad

September 6th, 2020 at 3:15pm CST by Sam Robinson

Brandon Carr is coming back to the Cowboys. However, he will do so in an unusual way. The 12-year veteran agreed to join Dallas’ practice squad, Michael Gehlken of the Dallas Morning News tweets.

As recently as a few years ago, he would not have been eligible to do so. But the NFL has loosened the practice squad eligibility requirements, and in this COVID-19-altered landscape, more veterans are allowed on taxi squads. Carr will bring a preposterous 192 career starts to the Cowboys’ practice squad.

Carr, who started every game for Dallas from 2012-16, visited the Cowboys earlier this week. The Ravens made him a free agent by not picking up his 2020 option.

Teams are allowed to carry up to six veterans with unlimited experience onto their P-squads this year. Carr will obviously be the most experienced of Dallas’ practice squad players. Here are the rest of the players on that unit, as of Sunday afternoon:

Lions Set Initial Practice Squad

September 6th, 2020 at 2:58pm CST by Andrew Ortenberg

The Lions have announced their initial practice squad in a release, with Detroit adding 16 players to the unit:

Blough was an undrafted rookie from Purdue last year who ended up starting five games after injuries to Matthew Stafford and Jeff Driskel. The offseason addition of Chase Daniel made Blough expendable, but he’ll serve as the third quarterback.

Wiggins has been in the league since 2012, and he has extensive starting experience. He’s started 13 games for Detroit over the past two years, and will probably be the first guy getting called up if there are offensive line injuries. Williams carried the ball 49 times for Indy last year, but he’ll have a tough time getting any snaps now that the Lions have also added Adrian Peterson.

Bears Announce 16-Man Practice Squad

September 6th, 2020 at 2:36pm CST by Andrew Ortenberg

Teams are starting to announce their full expanded practice squads, and we’ll be bringing you recaps all day. Just in is the Chicago Bears, who announced a full slate of 16 players:

  • QB Tyler Bray
  • RB Artavis Pierce
  • WR Reggie Davis
  • S Stephen Denmark
  • WR Thomas Ives
  • WR Rodney Adams
  • TE Jesper Horsted
  • OL Sam Mustipher
  • OL Jamon Brown
  • OL Lachavious Simmons
  • OL Badara Traore
  • DT Abdullah Anderson
  • DE LaCale London
  • LB Rashad Smith
  • S Xavier Crawford
  • K Cairo Santos

Bray has bounced between the practice squad and active roster the past couple of years now, and will serve as the third quarterback behind Mitchell Trubisky and Nick Foles. Santos is a veteran kicker with a good amount of experience. Right after he was cut we heard the Bears might be planning on him kicking Week 1 against the Lions if Eddy Pineiro still isn’t ready to come back from his groin injury.

Everybody on this list was with the Bears for camp except Brown, who was cut by the Falcons last month. He signed a three-year $18.75MM deal last March, and started nine games for Atlanta last season.

Giants Cut WR Corey Coleman

September 6th, 2020 at 2:05pm CST by Andrew Ortenberg

Another former first-round pick is getting cut loose. The Giants gave receiver Corey Coleman the axe today to make room for some of their waiver claims, the team announced.

Coleman has had a tough time in the pros since the Browns drafted him 15th overall in 2016. Injuries and clashes with the coaching staff caused Coleman to fall out of favor in Cleveland, and he was dealt to Buffalo after just two seasons. The Bills quickly cut him, and after spending some time on New England’s practice squad he found a home in New York.

He spent the back half of 2018 as the Giants’ kick returner, and was looking to compete for a real receiving role in camp last year. Unfortunately he went down with a torn ACL and missed the entire 2019 campaign. He made the initial 53 this time around but that lasted only about a day.

Giants beat reporters were pretty surprised by this move, as Coleman had been expected to be the kick returner yet again. Still only 26 Coleman figures to be a prime candidate for the practice squad, but his draft status no longer carries too much weight and he’s running out of chances.

Cardinals Sign DE Angelo Blackson

September 6th, 2020 at 1:44pm CST by Andrew Ortenberg

The Cardinals are bolstering their defensive line. Arizona has added recently cut former Texans defensive end Angelo Blackson to its 53-man roster, Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle tweets.

Blackson signed a three-year $12MM extension with Houston in March of 2019, but couldn’t make it through that pact. Blackson started 15 games last year and played around 40 percent of the defensive snaps, but he wasn’t too productive as he finished with only 20 tackles and no sacks.

A fourth-round pick back in 2015, Blackson was originally drafted by the Titans and spent his first two years in Tennessee. He was then cut and spent time on the Patriots’ practice squad before finding a home in Houston. He took a pay cut a few weeks ago which dropped his salary from $4MM to $2.5MM, but even that wasn’t enough to save his roster spot.

Eagles Cut CB Cre’Von LeBlanc

September 6th, 2020 at 1:21pm CST by Andrew Ortenberg

The Eagles are making a bit of a surprise move. Philadelphia is releasing cornerback Cre’Von LeBlanc, the team announced on Twitter.

The cut leaves Philly with only four cornerbacks on the roster, including a banged up Avonte Maddox, so another move is coming. Eagles beat writer Eliot Shorr-Parks tweeted that he thinks the team is hoping to be able to re-siign LeBlanc after they place somebody else on injured reserve. The team claimed LeBlanc off waivers midway through the 2018 season, and he ended up starting four games for them that year.

He signed a one-year extension in September of last year, but ended up missing most of 2019 with a foot injury. Still the team thought highly enough of him to use one of their IR/designated for return spots on him, and he appeared in four games with one start.

The Eagles have been cleaning house in their secondary this week, already waiving former second-round pick Sidney Jones and former third-round pick Rasul Douglas. It looks like LeBlanc may be brought back, and we’ll keep you posted if he is.

Cowboys Claim WR Malik Turner

September 6th, 2020 at 1:05pm CST by Andrew Ortenberg

The Cowboys have added another pass-catcher, as Dallas claimed former Seahawks and Packers receiver Malik Turner off waivers Sunday morning.

A 2018 UDFA from Illinois, Turner spent most of his rookie season on Seattle’s practice squad. He played a decent-sized role on offense for them last year though, appearing in 15 games and making three starts. Overall he played around 22 percent of the offensive snaps while also playing a big role on special teams. He finished the year with 15 receptions for 245 yards and a touchdown, averaging a robust 16.3 yards per catch.

Seattle originally tendered him as an exclusive rights free agent, then pulled that tender. He waited until August to sign with the Packers, then was cut yesterday. The Cowboys have a great receiving trio of Amari Cooper, Michael Gallup, and CeeDee Lamb, but they don’t have much after that so it makes sense to pick up someone like Turner and see if he can develop behind them.

Panthers Claim CB Rasul Douglas, OT Trenton Scott, DE Shareef Miller

September 6th, 2020 at 12:42pm CST by Andrew Ortenberg

The Panthers were busy on Sunday morning, making three waiver claims, which tied them for the most of any team. Carolina added cornerback Rasul Douglas, offensive tackle Trenton Scott, and defensive end Shareef Miller. 

Douglas and Miller came from the Eagles, while Scott had been with the Chargers. As Joe Person of The Athletic pointed out in a tweet, the new regime in Carolina has connections to all three of them, which makes a lot of sense as teams are looking for familiarity above all else right now. New Panthers player personnel director Pat Stewart was with Philly the past couple of years, while new offensive line coach Pat Meyer was with the Chargers.

Douglas was drafted by the Eagles in the third-round back in 2017, and he started at least five games in each of the past three seasons. He was a cutdown victim yesterday as Philadelphia chose to purge and start completely fresh in their secondary. He’s had at least ten passes defended in two of three seasons, and had three interceptions in 2018.

Philly drafted Miller in the fourth-round out of Penn State last year, but he was a disappointment and only appeared in one game. Now he’ll get another crack on a rebuilding defense. Scott is a 2018 UDFA from Grambling State who was suddenly thrust into a prominent role with Los Angeles last year after Russell Okung went down with blood clots.

Scott ended up starting nine games protecting Philip Rivers‘ blindside, and played 78 percent of their offensive snaps overall. Now he’ll be reuniting with Meyer as well as Okung, who was dealt to Carolina earlier this offseason. He struggled mightily at times protecting Rivers, but is still only 26 and now has some nice starting experience.

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