The Indianapolis Colts will take a look at the free-agent market for kickers amid the struggles of future Hall of Famer Adam Vinatieri, per Dan Graziano of ESPN.
Vinatieri missed his 11th kick of the season on an extra-point attempt in the embarrassing 16-12 loss against the Miami Dolphins in Week 10.
According to multiple sources, the Indianapolis Colts are planning to work out free-agent kickers today. As of Monday night, no decision had been made on the status of Adam Vinatieri, but the Colts want to get a look at what their options are in case they decide to make a change.
This shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. The Colts have said they will continue to evaluate the roster — even if it means a potential release of the points leader in NFL history.
Vinatieri has meant a lot to the Colts for 14 seasons, but his inconsistency on field goals and extra points is costing them games. With his 47th birthday coming next month, Vinatieri is the oldest player in the NFL. It is prudent that they at least know what’s available on the market.
This is a situation to monitor as the season progresses if the Colts wind up making a move.
The Redskins have the second-worst record in the NFL, and judging by the future schedule, it will be hard to come by a win from here on out.
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It’s been a strange year for the NFL, where an oddly extensive amount of teams are still in contention to make a deep playoff run, and arguably no team is a heavy favorite to win the Super Bowl. Despite all of that, there are still some teams who can’t be bothered with the playoff race.
For teams like the Washington Redskins, what matters each week is figuring out where they are in the projected 2020 NFL Draft Order, and after a wild Week 10 in which three of the heavy favorites for the first overall pick found paths to victory, things are looking up for Dan Snyder and his team.
As it stands now, the Redskins are projected to have the No. 2 overall pick in 2020, sitting with a 1-8 record headed into Week 11. Here is how the first 6 picks shake out, according to USA Today’s Draft Wire:
No. 1 | Cincinnati Bengals
No. 2 | Washington Redskins
No. 3 | New York Giants
No. 4 | Miami Dolphins
No. 5 | New York Jets
No. 6 | Atlanta Falcons
There are many directions that the Redskins could go in if they were to finish the season with such a coveted draft pick. Many mock drafts have had them slotted to take DE Chase Young out of Ohio State, a generational talent that would be too good to pass up on, though Washington doesn’t have a major need at that position. It has also been posited that they may draft WR Jerry Jeudy, a sure-handed deep-threat out of Alabama, or maybe even a top-rated QB, should things with Dwayne Haskins not pan out down the stretch of the season.
None of that is important now, though. What matters is that Washington keeps losing, and they continue to see their name high above those mock drafts as the season comes closer to an end.
The Panthers had a chance to take down one of the NFC’s top contenders on Sunday, but they came up just a little short after a fourth quarter rally.
As expected, the loss to the Packers hurt their position in Touchdown Wire’s power rankings. Last week, they came in at No. 7 on Doug Farrar’s list. This week, they’ve dropped down to No. 10. If you’re looking for a culprit, the run defense is the reason.
“Carolina is tied with Cincinnati in allowing a league-worst 5.2 yards per carry, and it’s never good to be tied with the NFL’s worst overall defense. . . The Panthers will try to fix this issue against the Falcons and their 3.8 yards-per-carry average next week. Long term, this is the kind of thing that could upend everything else as the Panthers try to contend for the postseason.”
Indeed.
Yesterday, coach Ron Rivera told reporters that there’s no magic fix for the team’s issues defending the runs. That may be true, but it doesn’t mean that Rivera is doing enough to help. Schematic changes may be needed to give his front seven more chances to make stops.
Browns worked out two former Eagles defenders, Destiny Vaeao and Tre Sullivan
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This week’s Browns free agent workouts were rushed a bit with the team hosting the Pittsburgh Steelers on Thursday night. Cleveland still managed to bring in a couple of former Philadelphia Eagles defenders to kick the tires on a possible signing.
Sullivan has spent most of his first two NFL seasons on the Eagles’ practice squad. He did not make the team out of the preseason and was drafted into the XFL, but is still trying to keep the NFL dream alive.
Vaeao played in all 16 games for the Eagles as a rookie when the team won the Super Bowl. He has battled injury issues since and was most recently with the Carolina Panthers.
Relive Jan Blachowicz’s brutal second-round knockout of Luke Rockhold at UFC 239.
[autotag]Jan Blachowicz[/autotag] has defeated a number of notable names in his career, but perhaps none bigger than former middleweight champion Luke Rockhold.
In July, Blachowicz brutally knocked out Rockhold in the second round of their UFC 239 clash in Las Vegas. The matchup was Rockhold’s debut at 205 pounds in the UFC.
In the final seconds of the opening round, Blachowicz nailed Rockhold with a big left hand. The shot staggered Rockhold, who fell to the ground. However, Rockhold was saved by the bell.
The buzzer wasn’t able to save Rockhold in the opening two minutes of the second round, however. Blachowicz landed another massive left hand and finished Rockhold with a big follow-up punch at 1:39 of round 2.
The victory was Blachowicz’s fourth in five fights and placed him back in the win column after suffering a loss to future-UFC title challenger Thiago Santos. The defeat was Rockhold’s third time being finished by strikes in four fights.
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Saturday night, Blachowicz (24-8 MMA, 7-5 UFC) will look to turn a win into a win streak when he takes on another light heavyweight newcomer Ronaldo Souza (26-7 MMA, 9-4 UFC) in the UFC on ESPN+ 22 main event.
UFC on ESPN+ 22 takes place Saturday at Ginásio do Ibirapuera in Sao Paulo. The card streams on ESPN+.
Check out Jan Blachowicz’s brutal knockout of Luke Rockhold at UFC 239 in the video above.
The Rams will likely thrust rookie Bobby Evans into the starting lineup at right tackle.
Sean McVay shared some bad news about the Rams’ offensive line on Monday, announcing that Brian Allen is out for the year and Rob Havenstein might miss a few weeks. It’s two more blows to an offensive line that’s been one of the worst in the NFL, if not the very worst.
As much as Allen and Havenstein have struggled this season, replacing isn’t something the Rams want to do. It’s forcing them to dig into their depth up front, which is already thin at the moment.
McVay explained how the Rams will handle the recent injuries and shift the offensive line, but there are still moves that could be made.
“We’re working through some of those things. I think you got a chance to evaluate some guys yesterday, just based on the way the nature of the game went,” McVay said. “I thought Austin Blythe did a nice job at center – he’ll step into that position. Austin Corbett did some really good things at that left guard spot. Then I thought – before he ended up having to transition out to the tackle spot – David Edwards did a nice job at right guard. As far as the tackle position – exactly how we fill that void from Rob – you could look at Bobby Evans, some other options. We’re working through those things right now as all that information just within the last few hours – we’re working through that.”
To summarize, this is how the offensive line could look in Week 11 with Havenstein and Allen out:
LT Andrew Whitworth
LG Austin Corbett
C Austin Blythe
RG David Edwards
RT Bobby Evans
McVay said he feels good about Edwards staying at guard instead of moving him outside to right tackle – a position he played throughout his college career. He’d also prefer not to “feel like you’re falling off at two spots” by having to slide in a replacement at right guard where the Rams are getting solid play from Edwards.
The Rams could also look to the pool of free agents that are available, though McVay didn’t specify any names. Waivers are another option, if a player gets waived by a team in the near future.
“There’s certainly some names,” McVay said. “There’s some potential guys that you look to put a claim in and maybe other teams end up getting on that guy first. Those are things that we’re working through in the meantime.”
Perhaps the Rams tried to claim guard Aaron Stinnie off waivers from the Titans. The Bucs won that claim, and maybe that’s what McVay is referring to by saying “maybe other teams end up getting on that guy first.”
No other linemen have been claimed in the past few weeks, so if McVay is indicating the Rams tried to claim someone, Stinnie would make sense.
At the very least, Los Angeles needs to add some depth up front in case another injury occurs. Right now, Jamil Demby and Coleman Shelton are the only remaining offensive linemen on the 53-man roster as backups, with Chandler Brewer and Jeremiah Kolone on the practice squad.
In this week’s stock report, we explore how a few players were still able to perform favorably which several are seeing people hit the “sell” button on them.
The Buffalo Bills 19-16 loss to the Cleveland Browns was a good old-fashioned soul-crushing ‘L’, as the performance of the defense seemed to be enough to help the team squeak out another victory.
Instead, the Bills gifted the Browns with a victory to help eradicate the weeks of struggles that Cleveland faced. The script was similar to every other game this year, as the defense kept the Bills afloat while the offense failed to find any sort of consistency. Add in a couple of missed field goals in a close game, and it’s a recipe for a tick in the loss column.
In this week’s stock report, we explore how a few players were still able to perform favorably which several are seeing people hit the “sell” button on them:
Stock up
Buffalo Bills cornerback Tre’Davious White. (AP Photo/David Richard)
Tre’Davious White
Tre’Davious White took on the task of tracking Odell Beckham throughout the afternoon, and cornerback won most of the battles, a week after doing the same against the Redskins’ stud rooke wideout Terry McLaurin.
Beckham caught five of his 12 targets for 57 yards. White had an impressive pass breakup in the end zone on a fade pass to Beckham during an early goal line stand which included White taking a penalty a few plays prior. One of two penalties White was flagged for. The third-year pro ended the day with four pass breakups. It put him on display as one of the top cornerbacks in the game.
Bills goal line defense
Oh my goodness. Buffalo’s defense seemed to be getting carved up once again, as Browns running back Nick Chubb was having his way weaving through the unit. Once Cleveland found its way into the shadow of the Bills goal line, Buffalo shut it down. On two drives in the first quarter, the Bills negated the Browns’ progress on 12 plays. Cleveland only came away with a field goal on those two drives, and were going to go for it on a second fourth down until a flag was thrown on them.
With a competent offense, these plays would have been game-altering drives. Instead, the defense’s effort was merely good enough to keep the Bills in striking distance throughout the afternoon.
Nevertheless, the Bills defense did something special in closing the door at the goal line.
Browns had eight chances to score from the goal line…
You’re waking up on Tuesday reading all that you can about the players that you should be picking up off the waiver wire as you prepare for Week 11 of fantasy football in 2019.
But it’s likely there aren’t as many things written about who you should be dropping to grab those players. That’s what this weekly column — keep ’em or dump ’em! — will hopefully answer for you: Some help in the debate over who you should keep or drop in order to improve your team.
You’re past the worst week of byes of the entire season. Congratulations! Now you just have eight more teams off in the next two weeks. Here are some names you might be debating keeping or dropping:
1. RB Frank Gore, Buffalo Bills
The volume has gone down somewhat, although he had five carries to Devin Singletary’s eight. It’s just that Singletary did so much more (5.3 ypc to Gore’s paltry 2.4). I think it’s safe to drop him.
VERDICT: Drop him
2. WR Robby Anderson, New York Jets
So much for all that hype against a soft schedule.
VERDICT: Drop him
3. RB Jaylen Samuels, Pittsburgh Steelers
James Conner may be back in Week 11, but there’s no way you can give up on a valuable handcuff who also catches passes.
VERDICT: Keep him
Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports
4. QB Baker Mayfield, Cleveland Browns
There’s an argument to be made about keeping him to play games against the Dolphins, Bengals and Cardinals. But are you going to trust him when your postseason might be on the line? Nope.
VERDICT: Drop him
5. RB Ty Montgomery, New York Jets
If you got him as Le’Veon Bell insurance, it’s safe to let him go.
VERDICT: Drop him
6. WR Sterling Shepard, New York Giants
It seems like Golden Tate and Darius Slayton are 1-2 on the depth chart, and it doesn’t seem like Shepard is coming back anytime soon. If you need the room, go ahead and let him go. But keep an eye on his status after the Giants’ Week 11 bye.
VERDICT: Drop him
7. RB Darrell Henderson, Los Angeles Rams
He had just four carries on Sunday and Malcolm Brown had five. But Todd Gurley had 12, so I’m holding on to him in case this is more of a trend.
VERDICT: Keep him
8. LeSean McCoy
A healthy scratch last week? Yes. But this is an actual case of NBA load management in the NFL. Per NFL.com, Andy Reid is attempting to keep him fresh down the stretch, so he still may be a factor.
Jets guard Brian Winters was playing with a torn shoulder throughout the season before re-disclocating it again.
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Jets guard Brian Winters was playing through more than a dislocated shoulder this season.
According to the Daily News’ Manish Mehta, Winters tore the entire front part of his shoulder during the preseason. However, Winters played through it by wearing a brace that gave it some extra protection.
Winters re-dislocated his shoulder on Sunday against the Giants and is more likely out for the rest of the season. He might need surgery to repair his shoulder, but that has yet to be determined at this point.
The 28-year-old is the second-longest tenured Jet on the roster behind Bilal Powell. But injuries have derailed his career, as he’s only been able to play in three full seasons in seven years.
Sunday could have been Winters’ final game in a Jets uniform. He has one year left on his four-year contract, but his $7 million base salary is non-guaranteed. He also has a $500,000 roster bonus, so the Jets can cut him and wouldn’t be hit with any dead money.
Winters has always been a tough-nosed football player since the day he arrived in New York. But his play on the field hasn’t been what the Jets expect from him. With that and his latest injury in mind, the Jets are going to be in the market for a new left guard come March.
The Rams have had the worst offensive line in football this year. You can blame the players, but blame falls on the guys that trusted them.
Things continue to get worse for the Rams’ struggling offensive line. After another horrifying performance against Pittsburgh on Sunday, the team has announced it’ll be without two starters up front for Week 11. Rob Havenstein has been ruled out for Sunday and could be out for a few weeks, while, starting center Brian Allen has is out for the remainder of the season.
For the first two years of Sean McVay’s tenure as head coach, the Rams rolled out a healthy and reliable offensive line. Not a single starter missed significant time as the offense rolled to back-to-back NFC West titles. The offensive line was the engine that kept the offense rolling.
In Year 3, the Rams have fielded the NFL’s worst offensive line, and the offense has struggled mightily as a result. They’ve gone from one of the most feared offensive units in the NFL to one of the league’s most exploitable and turnover-prone. The difference between McVay’s 2018 and 2019 offenses is night and day.
Injuries have devastated this offensive line. Still, they were bad before the injuries, and they’ll likely continue to be bad in the weeks ahead. The players deserve blame for their poor play. But the front office and the coaching staff deserve more of the blame for actually thinking this would work.
Stability and consistency were staples of the Rams offensive line in 2017 and 2018. Six players started meaningful games for the Rams in that stretch: Andrew Whitworth, Roger Saffold, John Sullivan, Rob Havenstein, and Jamon Brown, who was replaced by Austin Blythe in 2018. They weren’t a perfect unit, but it was rare that they’d be the reason the Rams lost a game, even with Sullivan’s slump in 2018. Jared Goff and Todd Gurley were comfortable playing behind that unit, which allowed Mcvay to unleash the offense he wanted to run.
The Rams chose to break up this unit. It wasn’t forced upon them, it was a choice. The decisions to move on from Sullivan and Saffold were financial ones. Sullivan wasn’t worth the money he was owed, but as far as we’re aware, the Rams made no attempt to bring him back on a cheaper deal. They simply declined his option for this season.
As for Saffold, it’s obvious that the Rams didn’t want to pay him the money he had coming to him. Saffold signed a four-year, $44 million deal with the Titans after eight seasons with the Rams. But Saffold’s contract has a cap number of just $6.375 million with an out after the 2020 season that wouldn’t result in a devastating cap hit. The Rams could have made this contract work if they thought he was worth it. They’re paying Clay Matthews similar money this season and had the cap space to give Tyler Higbee a four-year, $29 million contract extension. The Rams could have afforded to pay Roger Saffold, they just didn’t want to.
(Photo by John McCoy/Getty Images)
Still, walking away from Saffold wasn’t the worst decision. The bigger problem was how the team chose to replace Saffold and Sullivan. When the Rams didn’t add a single offensive lineman in free agency, many figured they’d choose to address the need with their first-round pick in the 2019 NFL Draft.
They didn’t. The Rams chose to trade out of the first round and move back 14 picks. Six of those 14 picks ended up being offensive lineman. The Rams still had a chance to take center Eric McCoy at 45. They decided to move back again and chose safety Taylor Rapp at 61. While Rapp has turned out to be a solid pick, McCoy is currently the starting center in New Orleans and has the second-highest PFF grade in the league at the position. The Rams did select two offensive linemen during the draft: Bobby Evans in the late-third round, and David Edwards in the late-fifth round.
The decision to move on from Saffold and Sullivan and not replace them in the offseason was due to the team’s trust in 2018 mid-round picks Joseph Noteboom and Brian Allen. Both the front office and the coaching staff must have agreed that Allen and Noteboom were good enough to replace Saffold and Sullivan despite no in-game evidence proving as much. Neither guy played any real meaningful snaps in 2018. Still, it sounded like McVay trusted them. That was enough to keep most fans optimistic about the pairing heading into 2019. Clearly, it wasn’t the right decision.
The team’s decision to add essentially no depth behind their new offensive line may have been an even worse decision. Drafting Evans and Edwards was the extent of the Rams adding offensive linemen this offseason. Since McVay doesn’t play his starters in the preseason, which included Allen and Noteboom this year, the backups got a chance to shine on the offensive line. They shined about as bright as a dull rock that had been buried under thousands of pounds of dirt for centuries. Jamil Demby, the team’s first lineman off the bench at every position, looked like he didn’t even belong in the NFL. It became clear quickly that the Rams would be in big trouble should a starter get injured.
It became just as clear that the Rams were already in big trouble early on in the season. Not only were Allen and Noteboom completely in over their heads, the right side of the line seemingly forgot how to play football, and father time continued to catch up with Whitworth. The Rams couldn’t have predicted that their three vets would regress like they did, but they should have known that their new additions would have failed to pick up the slack. They put all their eggs in the Allen and Noteboom basket. That basket was filled with holes, and now all we have to show for it is broken eggs.
In addition to Noteboom and Allen being exposed this year, the team’s lack of line depth came back to haunt them. Demby graded out as one of the worst offensive linemen in the NFL while filling in for Noteboom and went from starting to being a healthy scratch. Edwards has looked better than expected filling in at guard, but he’s not exactly setting the world on fire. With both Allen and Havenstein set to miss next week’s game against Chicago, the team will turn to Blythe at center and likely in-season acquisition Austin Corbett at left guard. Bobby Evans could take over at right tackle with Edwards remaining at right guard.
Goff and Gurley have been noticeably worse in 2019. McVay’s play-calling has been questionable at times. But the source of the offense’s regression starts and ends with the offensive line. They replaced veterans with un-proven youth, and the youth failed to prove anything. They’ve been bad, but maybe they weren’t that good to begin with? You can’t blame bad players for being bad. You have to blame the people who trusted them to be good.
The Rams dug themselves into this hole in the offseason. They’re going to need a pretty big shovel to dig themselves out of it. They’re not getting that shovel this season, and it might be tough to find a shovel big enough to dig themselves out of the hole this offseason. Snead and McVay have quite the task ahead of them when it comes to salvaging this offensive line.
