Tag: 2023 preseason

Nets’ Cam Johnson and Dariq Whitehead sitting Monday vs. Lakers

Two players for the Brooklyn Nets, Cam Johnson and Dariq Whitehead, will not play in Monday’s preseason game against the Los Angeles Lakers.

The Brooklyn Nets have their first game of the 2023 preseason against the Los Angeles Lakers on Monday, but the Nets will not have the services of two players for the exhibition.

According to Evan Barnes of Newsday, Brooklyn head coach Jacque Vaughn said at Friday’s training camp practice that forward Cam Johnson and guard Dariq Whitehead will not play in Monday’s preseason game against the Lakers. Whitehead is still recovering from the foot surgery that he had this summer so it makes sense that he isn’t playing on Monday since Brooklyn does not want to rush him back.

Johnson sustained a mild strain of his left hamstring during an on-court workout last week, per the Nets’ “X” account on Monday. Brooklyn did include in the announcement that Johnson would miss the start of training camp and Johnson said during Media Day on Monday that he expects to play at some point in the preseason.

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Bears’ top 15 defensive players in preseason, per PFF

Here are the top Bears defensive players and what their PFF grades were through three preseason games.

The Chicago Bears were defeated by the Buffalo Bills, 24-21, on Saturday in their preseason finale.

With the preseason in the books, the Bears are in the midst of trimming their roster to 53 players. But looking back at the preseason, there were some standout performers for Chicago in their three exhibition games.

Pro Football Focus handed out player grades for those who took a snap in the preseason. Here are the top 15 Bears defensive players and what their grades were.

Bears’ top 15 offensive players in preseason, per PFF

Here are the top Bears offensive players and what their PFF grades were through three preseason games.

The Chicago Bears were defeated by the Buffalo Bills, 24-21, on Saturday in their preseason finale.

With the preseason in the books, the Bears are in the midst of trimming their roster to 53 players. But looking back at the preseason, there were some standout performers for Chicago in their three exhibition games.

Pro Football Focus handed out player grades for those who took a snap in the preseason. Here are the top 15 Bears offensive players and what their grades were.

39 players who are locks for the Bears’ 53-man roster

As the final cuts deadline looms this Tuesday, here’s our prediction for the Bears players who are considered roster locks.

The Chicago Bears wrapped their preseason with a 24-21 loss to the Buffalo Bills.

But now is when the real work begins for the Bears, who have to trim their roster from 87 to 53 players by 3 p.m. CT on Tuesday, which means there are going to be some tough cuts.

After looking at some of the players likely to get the axe before Tuesday’s deadline, here are the 39 players who should be locks for the Bears’ roster:

Bears roster cuts: Tracking the path to 53 players

With the roster deadline looming, we’re tracking the Bears’ cuts as they trim the roster to 53 players by Tuesday at 3 p.m. CT.

With the preseason in the books, the final round of roster cuts are upon us, where the Chicago Bears have to trim their roster from 87 to 53 players before 3 p.m. CT on Tuesday.

There are a handful of players who have made a case for a roster spot, but they won’t all make the cut. After forming the 53-man roster, Chicago will start putting together their practice squad, which should feature some of those names who just missed the cut.

With the Bears being first in waiver order, the initial 53-man roster won’t necessarily be the final roster heading into Chicago’s Week 1 game against the Green Bay Packers.

We’re tracking the Bears’ roster cuts as they happen before Tuesday’s deadline. Stay tuned to this page for updates.

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Report: Cowboys OL Josh Ball to miss 2 months

From @ToddBrock24f7: The former 4th-round draft pick shouldn’t need surgery, but the Cowboys will have to use a roster spot on him if he is to return in 2023.

The Cowboys have one more offensive line injury to factor into the difficult roster decisions facing them this week.

Third-year tackle Josh Ball suffered a soft tissue injury in his hip and groin area that will sideline him for about two months, per a report from Michael Gehlken of the Dallas Morning News. That prognosis comes after an MRI on Sunday, a day after the team’s 31-16 win over Las Vegas in their preseason finale.

Ball sustained what was first described as a hip injury on the Cowboys’ opening possession of Saturday’s contest and left the game later in the first quarter.

Ball is expected to avoid surgery, but that is both good and bad news. On the upside, the Marshall product could be eligible to return to action this season and provide backup for a Dallas line that has traditionally needed to rely heavily on its midseason depth.

But to do that, Ball would need to take up a spot on the team’s initial 53-man roster on Tuesday and then subsequently be moved to injured reserve. Placing Ball on IR now would force him to miss the entire 2023 campaign, but it would open up a roster spot for an immediate contributor.

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The 6-foot-8-inch former fourth-round draft pick missed his rookie year with an ankle injury and saw very limited action in 2022.

The Cowboys have already seen linemen Chuma Edoga and Matt Waletzko get dinged this preseason, though Waletzko was able to play Saturday versus the Raiders.

Dallas has 15 linemen currently on the squad. Their initial 53-man roster is due Tuesday.

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7 standout players in Bears’ 24-21 preseason loss to the Bills

The Bears wrapped the preseason with a loss to the Bills, but there were several standout players for Chicago.

The Chicago Bears’ preseason has finally come to close, and it certainly was an interesting stretch of exhibition games. The team was never able to match the same efficiency they produced in the opening game, and the Bears finished their final game with more questions than answers.

The offense was inconsistent, petering out on their first two drives before finally getting the offense into the red zone. Even then, quarterback Justin Fields took a hard hit and was pulled out of the game, leaving fans frustrated that he couldn’t see the drive through.

On the flip side, the defense got shredded by the elite talents of quarterback Josh Allen and receiver Stefon Diggs, leaving fans wondering whether to blame the defense’s preparedness or chalk it up to the Bills’ offensive greatness.

Despite how last night’s game went, fans are happy to be past the scrimmage-like games and are looking forward to meaningful football being played. Before that comes around, however, several Bears stood out in an attempt to avoid being on the cutting room floor when roster cut day comes around, and we’ll be covering every player here.

With that being said, let’s discuss the seven players who stood out in the Bears’ final preseason game.

Bears PFF grades: Best and worst performers from preseason loss vs. Bills

Here’s a look at how PFF graded the Bears offense and defense in their preseason finale vs. Bills.

The Chicago Bears were defeated by the Indianapolis Colts, 24-21. The Bears healthy starters, on offense and defense, saw limited action in the preseason finale.

Pro Football Focus has handed out player grades for those who took a snap in Chicago’s loss against Buffalo, and we broke them down by offense and defense, analyzing the three highest- and lowest-graded players on each side, as well as some other notable performers.

There were a few surprises — and then some not surprises — in terms of the highest- and lowest-graded players, both on offense and defense. Here’s a look:

6 takeaways from the Bears’ 24-21 preseason loss to the Bills

From a murky backup quarterback competition to Trevis Gipson’s trade request, here are our takeaways from Saturday’s Bears preseason loss.

Just as quickly as it started, the 2023 NFL preseason has come to a close for the Chicago Bears. They wrapped up their finale against the Buffalo Bills at Soldier Field but fell 24-21 to finish the preseason 1-2, their first losing record in August since 2019.

Saturday’s game had a bit more juice to it, however, as both teams played their starters on offense and defense to begin the game. Bears quarterback Justin Fields struggled out of the gate while Bills quarterback Josh Allen drove his team downfield on their first drive to put seven points on the board. Backup quarterback Kyle Allen also orchestrated multiple scoring drives on the Bears backup defense.

On offense, Bears backup quarterback Tyson Bagenet once again used his legs to find the endzone, and Cairo Santos netted a pair of field goals throughout the day. The Bears clawed their way back to keep things close thanks to a touchdown pass from P.J. Walker later in the game, but never held a lead the entire day.

With the preseason now in the books, it’s about time to turn our focus to the regular season, but there were still things to take away from the final dress rehearsal. Here are our takeaways from Saturday’s preseason loss.

‘He wanted redemption’: Will Grier’s final throw from preseason win may give Cowboys QB new NFL life

From @ToddBrock24f7: He’d played a great game and aced his 31-team tryout. But in the final moments of his Cowboys tenure, Grier wanted one more pass.

During the two-minute warning of Saturday night’s preseason finale versus Las Vegas, Will Grier stood on the AT&T Stadium sideline already having made the most of his swan song as a Cowboys quarterback.

He had thrown 34 passes on the evening and hit on 28 of them, an impressive completion percentage of over 82%. He’d tossed a pair of touchdowns and even rushed for two more, having contributed 50-plus yards on the ground to cap off what had been previously designated as an extended tryout for Grier as he hopes to now get a call from one of the other 31 teams in the league.

It was unquestionably Grier’s best performance since his college days at West Virginia and maybe even ranked up there with the day he set the national record by tossing 837 yards in a single game as a high school junior in Davidson, North Carolina. Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy would later call Grier’s leading of the Cowboys to a 31-16 win over the Raiders on Saturday the best preseason outing he’d seen from a quarterback in nearly a quarter-century.

All of that is to say the 28-year-old passer would have been excused if, facing a third-and-five from inside his own 30 with 120 seconds to go, he simply executed a victory formation a few times to close out his stay in Dallas on an unfailingly positive note.

But in talking with McCarthy and starting quarterback Dak Prescott, who was calling offensive plays for the first time, Grier instead made a last request.

“He asked for the same play that he had last week in Seattle,” McCarthy explained later in his postgame press conference. “He wanted redemption on it.”

Seven days earlier against the Seahawks, back when Grier was presumed to be a lock to be the Cowboys’ third quarterback for 2023, he attempted a deep ball down the left side to wide receiver Simi Fehoko on a critical third down. It was a play Grier had been running with good success in training camp, but under the lights at Lumen Field, he and Fehoko couldn’t connect.

The Cowboys punted and never got any closer on the scoreboard: another preseason loss. Fast-forward to the next Friday, and Grier was suddenly dead man walking in Dallas after the Cowboys traded for Trey Lance, the third overall draft pick of 2021.

McCarthy said he called Grier immediately after the deal went down. The writing was on the wall for Grier’s future as a Cowboy, but the coach had a simple message for the fifth-year veteran who hasn’t been on the field for a regular-season game since 2019.

“I just asked him to go out there and ‘play your ass off tonight,'” McCarthy said.

So with his Cowboys tenure in its final moments, seeing one last chance to make up for a previous missed opportunity, Grier pounced.

Wideout Tyron Billy-Johnson never even had to break stride to collect the rainbow throw from Grier for a 33-yard gain. It put Grier over 300 yards on the night. More important, it was one last confidence boost for the Cowboys gunslinger who will now ride off into the sunset in search of a new place to hang his hat.

“A statement throw,” McCarthy called it.

For Grier, the whole night was a statement, after a head-spinning couple of days.

“I was motivated,” Grier told reporters following the exhibition win. “It was tough; it was a weird situation. I think at the end of the day, I just rely on the fact that I know how to play football and I’m good at it. So I knew when the game started, I could just play football. That’s what I did.”

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The emotions hit Grier afterward, particularly upon the realization that he would be packing up his locker soon and saying goodbye to teammates.

“Bittersweet. Just close to a lot of these guys; that’s the hardest part,” he explained.

“It’s been tough, but I’ve been through tougher stuff. Got a lot of respect for this organization and the Jones family. I understand that it’s a business at the end of the day, and I respect that. And the hardest part on me is just leaving this place, to be honest. Just got really close with the team, and that’s the toughest part about what we do.”

And now Grier will- almost certainly, after Saturday’s very encouraging audition- have the opportunity to do it for another team.

That one last statement throw, made when he could have just as easily taken a knee, may have been exactly what somebody needed to see to give him the chance to resurrect his pro career.

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