49ers elevate RB Tevin Coleman, CB Janoris Jenkins for wild card game

The #49ers elevated a pair of veterans for Saturday’s wild card game, though only 1 is up for injury reasons.

The 49ers on Friday announced a pair of roster moves before their wild card game against the Seahawks on Saturday. A pair of veterans, running back Tevin Coleman and cornerback Janoris Jenkins, were elevated off the practice squad.

Coleman could conceivably be active if the coaching staff trusts him more than the rookie RBs Tyrion Davis-Price and Jordan Mason. However, given their lack of injuries and both rookies playing well down the stretch, Coleman could also be inactive and the 49ers brought him up so he could pocket a full game check.

Jenkins is the likely replacement for injured CB Ambry Thomas, who was ruled out with an ankle injury. The 49ers are lacking experience and depth at CB behind Charvarius Ward, so Jenkins gives them a player they can turn to in the event they need to bring in a corner off the bench. He played 31 defensive snaps in two games for the 49ers this year, including 14 in Seattle when he debuted in Week 15. Ward went down in that game and opened the door for Jenkins to play. Jenkins also saw action in the season finale when the 49ers pulled Ward from the game to preserve his health.

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Several former Saints players called up from 49ers practice squad before TNF

Former Saints players Willie Snead IV and Jackrabbit Jenkins are playing for San Francisco, while Tony Jones Jr. and Al Woods are suiting up for Seattle on Thursday night:

A couple of former New Orleans Saints players will be on the field for Thursday night’s game between the San Francisco 49ers and Seattle Seahawks. Or ghosts of Saints’ Christmases past: wide receiver Willie Snead IV and cornerback Janoris Jenkins were both on the 49ers practice squad, but they’ve each been elevated for this Week 15 game, the team announced.

Snead, 30, has appeared in two games for San Francisco this season, totaling 26 snaps on offense and 13 reps on special teams, though he has yet to catch a pass. His career hasn’t gone as hoped since leaving the Saints back in 2018; after averaging 3.6 receptions for 48.1 yards per game in New Orleans, Snead has managed just 2.3 receptions for 26.1 yards per game in stops with the Baltimore Ravens, Carolina Panthers, Las Vegas Raiders, and 49ers. He’ll have opportunities with Deebo Samuel out for several weeks with an injury.

Jenkins, 34, is set to make his 49ers debut on Thursday night. He started 13 games for the Tennessee Titans after leaving the Saints last season and bided his time until a spot for him opened up on a title contender’s roster, and now he’s looking to get into games for a Super Bowl dark horse. His exact role with San Francisco is to be determined, but we’ll see how “Jackrabbit” performs against one of the NFL’s better receiving corps.

But they won’t be the only former Saints players on the field Thursday night. Several of them are on the Seahawks’ roster, including running back Tony Jones Jr., wide receiver Easop Winston Jr., and defensive tackle Al Woods. Woods deserves a lot of credit for the career he’s had — a 35-year old native of Jennings, La who was drafted out of LSU by the Saints back in 2010, he was cut by New Orleans before he ever played a down for them. He’s gone on to start 76 of the 153 games he’s played in the NFL and earn more than $24.3 million in contracts with seven different teams. Seriously, good for him.

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49ers roster moves: DL Hassan Ridgeway to IR, CB Janoris Jenkins, WR Willie Snead IV elevated

The 49ers made a handful of roster moves ahead of their game vs. the Seahawks.

The 49ers on Thursday announced a few roster moves before their matchup against the Seattle Seahawks.

San Francisco placed defensive lineman Hassan Ridgeway on IR, and promoted DL Akeem Spence to the active roster to take his place. Cornerback Janoris Jenkins and wide receiver Willie Snead IV were both elevated for Thursday’s game.

Ridgeway suffered a pec injury against Miami in Week 13 and was expected to miss several weeks. Chances are his placement on IR will end his season since the 49ers’ final two IR return slots are expected to go to DL Javon Kinlaw and running back Elijah Mitchell.

Spence rejoined the 49ers’ practice squad shortly after he was released from the active roster ahead of the bye week. This will be his second stint on the active roster this season. He played in five games and recorded six tackles. Spence will give San Francisco some depth along the interior.

Jenkins will be making his debut for the 2022 season. The 10-year veteran started 13 games for the Titans last year and went unsigned this offseason. In 142 games with 138 starts, Jenkins has 27 interceptions and 124 pass breakups. His elevation could be an indication on the status of CB Ambry Thomas, who’s listed as questionable on the injury report.

Snead has been on the 49ers’ active roster two other times this season and saw action in two games. He didn’t record a stat in 26 offensive snaps. He’ll give some depth at WR with Deebo Samuel out, and he can play special teams as well.

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49ers add CB Janoris Jenkins to practice squad

The #49ers added veteran CB Janoris Jenkins to their practice squad.

The 49ers on Monday announced the addition of veteran cornerback Janoris Jenkins to their practice squad.

Jenkins, a 2012 second-round pick of the Rams, has played in 142 games with 138 starts in his career. He has 27 interceptions and 124 pass breakups.

Last season Jenkins started 13 of the 14 games he played for the Titans. Tennessee let him go in March of this year. They were the fourth team to employ Jenkins, who also spent time with the Rams, Giants and Saints.

The 49ers are likely hopeful they won’t have to turn to Jenkins, but they could use some in-house veteran depth in the secondary, and Jenkins was a starter for the No. 1 seed in the AFC just last season.

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Where Titans’ dead money ranks in NFL ahead of 2022 season

A look at where the Titans’ dead money figure ranks among the rest of the NFL.

Despite parting ways with several players as salary cap casualties this offseason, the Tennessee Titans rank near the middle of the pack of the National Football League in dead money retained.

As of right now, the Titans have approximately $9.5 million in dead cap, sitting as the tenth-lowest total among NFL teams, per Over the Cap.

However, Tennessee’s number will jump to approximately $14.3 million after June 1, when Julio Jones’ release becomes official. He will account for $4.8 million in dead cap, but $9.5 million in savings.

With Jones’ money added, the Titans have the 14th-lowest dead cap total in the NFL.

The veteran wide receiver, who spent an injury-plagued year in Nashville, will carry the highest dead money cap hit for the Titans in 2022. Here are the top five largest dead cap hits for Tennessee, via Over the Cap:

  • Julio Jones – $4.8 million
  • Janoris Jenkins – $3.2 million
  • Rodgers Saffold – $2.4 million
  • Jayon Brown – $1.3 million
  • Kendall Lamm – $850K

Going into OTAs, the Titans have -$1.29 million in effective cap space, per Over the Cap, which is defined as “the cap space a team will have after signing at least 51 players and its projected rookie class to its roster.”

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What is this ‘culture change’ we keep hearing about at Florida?

Pat Dooley talks with some big names about what exactly “culture change” entails.

On a list of cliches that are tired and worn out, there is this one: “There’s a new sheriff in town.”

With a new coach in any sport there is a change in the way everyone in any sport goes about their daily work because — and here comes another beauty — of “culture change.”

In some cases, it can be culture shock as coaches wean their rosters of the people who just don’t get it. Because in the end, while there is a template for how a college program should be run, there is no handbook. Every coach at every level in every sport has his fingerprints on his or her program that is part of the culture change.

“Culture change,” said CBS Sports’ Dennis Dodd, “is a mystery phrase to me. But it can be anything from running off players to just teaching kids the way the coaches want to approach it.”

And that’s the thing about culture change.

There’s no right way to do it.

There’s only YOUR WAY or the highway.

We’ve seen it in Gainesville over time and certainly currently with new coaches on football and basketball.

The biggest culture change happened when [autotag]Steve Spurrier[/autotag] took over on New Year’s Eve 1989 as the head football at Florida. He switched to the blue jerseys because the orange ones “looked like Clemson,” ripped up the artificial turf and set the new policy of no excuses.

“It was about attitude as much as anything,” he said. “We had to get the players to believe that they could beat Georgia, that playing Auburn and Georgia back-to-back wasn’t a problem. We had good players, really good players, when I got here and we just had to get the attitudes straightened out.”

Spurrier did that and had incredible success.

“For him to do that so quickly was incredible,” said [autotag]Chris Doering[/autotag] of the SEC Network and Sirius radio. “We inherited his personality.”

One thing that tends to happen when an athletic director is making a coaching change is that he wants something different. In the case of [autotag]Billy Napier[/autotag], Florida wanted a coach that was passionate about recruiting after the previous coach was not.

“Being around Billy, everything is so well thought out, nothing is left to chance,” Doering said. “It’s not just the recruiting part of it. It’s everything.

“The biggest thing is the ability to connect with players. And you have to be clear in what they want to create.”

Certainly, it is different when a coach leaves on his own. In the case of [autotag]Todd Golden[/autotag], he inherited a program that had been good but not great.

Florida basketball will look different under Golden than it did under [autotag]Mike White[/autotag] and in many ways “different” was what a program that had become stagnant needed — a jolt, if you will, built on a modern approach to the game.

It’s always been that way. When [autotag]Billy Donovan[/autotag] took over the basketball program, the biggest change in culture was to ramp up recruiting to a level we had never seen at Florida. At the same time, Donovan established early that players who did not but in were not going to play.

[autotag]Urban Meyer[/autotag] came into the Florida football program in 2005 and immediately went about establishing a culture change by banishing the players from the locker room and not allowing them to wear Gator gear until it was earned.

Meyer’s culture included the same attention to detail and enthusiasm for recruiting that Napier has, but Meyer did establish another culture that was dangerous — entitling his best players to have a different set of rules to live by.

What he left behind was a mess that [autotag]Will Muschamp[/autotag] had to clean up. That started when he threw [autotag]Janoris Jenkins[/autotag] off the team.

“You look at how the culture changed under Nick Saban at Alabama,” Dodd said. “Same with Sam Pittman at Arkansas. They got the players to buy in quickly and then it is established what the standard is.”

That goes for every sport that brings in a coach with a different set of expectations for his players.

You can change the culture, but not everyone will jump on board the bright and shiny new train. Napier himself is trying to weed out the problems of inheriting a roster of student-athletes that didn’t come to Florida to play for him.

Not everyone accepts culture change. That’s why the transfer portal in every sport is stacked with players who want a different culture and that’s where it gets tricky.

Any player who wants to come to Florida in any sport has to understand what that culture is and what is expected of them.

There are some new cultures in town. Gator fans are excited about the coaches who are implementing them.

Of course, they are both still undefeated as Gator coaches. How these new cultures work out is still a work in progress and — in the cases of both football and basketball — there is a long way to go to establish that culture.

Buckle up. It’s going to be interesting.

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Grading Titans’ moves from Day 2 of legal tampering period

A look at the three moves the Titans made on Tuesday, with a grade for each.

The Tennessee Titans made a trio of moves on Tuesday, the second day of the legal tampering period of free agency.

Tennessee started off the day by releasing veteran cornerback Janoris Jenkins, a move that was fully expected.

The team then went on to agree to terms with its second outside free agent in former Houston Texans defensive back, A.J. Moore. Finally, the Titans reportedly declined to tender fullback Khari Blasingame.

One pending free agent who was lost to another team was running back D’Onta Foreman, who agreed to terms with the Carolina Panthers. My thoughts on why the Titans didn’t re-sign him are here.

With Day 2 of the legal tampering period in the books, and the official start of free agency coming on March 16 at 4 p.m. ET, here’s a look at how we graded Tennessee’s moves from Tuesday.

Note: Follow along with our tracker for all of the Titans’ latest moves.

Caleb Farley’s time is now after Titans release Janoris Jenkins

The Titans have cleared the way for Caleb Farley to start in 2022, and they need him to answer the bell.

The Tennessee Titans decided to part ways with veteran cornerback Janoris Jenkins on Tuesday, which not only clears $6.9 million in cap space, but also paves the way for 2021 first-round pick, Caleb Farley, to start in 2022.

Tennessee signed Jenkins in free agency last offseason as a stopgap option at the cornerback position. He went on to start opposite Kristian Fulton, and Jenkins played well after a rough start to the season.

After signing Jenkins, the Titans went on to draft Farley with the hope that he would eventually take the starting role. However, Farley struggled out of the gates in 2021 and never came close to taking Jenkins’ job, and to make matters worse Farley’s season ended early due to a torn ACL.

Looking ahead to 2022, the Titans will be taking the training wheels off their former top selection and are counting on him to be ready for a bigger role, something they didn’t need from him in 2021 because of Jenkins.

“This will be a big offseason for him,” general manager Robinson said of Farley. “He’s working hard, rehabbing. He knows what he needs to do. It’s been told to him what he needs to do. And he’s a hard worker. Caleb is a great guy. But he needs to do everything that he can – in his power – to make sure that he’s healed, stable, in shape. 

“We’re going to be counting on him. We drafted the guy for a reason. I’d say he was a pretty highly regarded prospect. He was an easy guy to evaluate off of the film. Just watching the player move around, what he was capable of.”

While we think Farley has all the potential in the world, he does come with plenty of question marks, the first of which having to do with the fact that he hasn’t played a full season of football since 2019. He took off his last year at college because of COVID-19, and then had his rookie campaign cut short.

Injuries are also a concern. On top of multiple back surgeries, Farley is now coming off the second torn ACL of his career (he tore an ACL in college) and there’s no telling how he’ll be in his first season back from such an injury.

If history tells us anything (just look at Bud Dupree last season), there’s at least a chance he won’t be in top form right away. Adding to all that, Farley might be looking at an abbreviated offseason as he rehabs his knee injury, which could stunt his growth.

Knowing that, the Titans need to have an insurance policy in place just in case. Jenkins would have been ideal for that kind of role, but his $10.1 million 2022 salary was simply too expensive.

Regardless of what they do behind him, the Titans need Farley to be the player they envisioned he would be when they drafted him last year.

If not, Tennessee will have a big problem on its hands, as whatever bargain-basement veteran they bring in to back Farley up won’t give them the kind of reliable play Jenkins offered.

If Farley answers the bell in his second season like Fulton did, the Titans’ secondary will be set with three very good corners — Farley, Fulton, and Elijah Molden — for years to come.

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Tennessee Titans releasing cornerback Janoris Jenkins

The Titans are reportedly releasing cornerback Janoris Jenkins.

The Tennessee Titans are making the move everyone expected them to and are reportedly releasing cornerback Janoris Jenkins.

The news comes from ESPN’s Adam Schefter. Releasing the veteran saves the Titans about $6.9 million in cap space, but leaves them with a dead-cap hit of $3.2 million.

Jackrabbit signed a two-year, $15 million deal with the Titans last offseason to be a stopgap of sorts. After struggling to start the season, Jenkins played well down the stretch and was a solid addition overall.

However, with 2021 first-round pick Caleb Farley expected to become the starter opposite Kristian Fulton in 2022, Jenkins became expendable, and that’s especially true with the $10.1 million salary he would’ve been owed.

While Farley is expected take Jenkins’ spot this coming season, he still brings plenty of question marks after a shaky rookie season that saw him tear his ACL. The Titans must bring in a veteran insurance policy just in case.

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Predicting the fate of Titans’ roster cut candidates

A look at seven cut candidates for the Titans and what we predict will happen with each.

Every offseason the Tennessee Titans have tough decisions to make in regards to players under contract for the following season — and that’s especially true with the team hitting the offseason over the salary cap.

According to Over the Cap, the Titans are in the red by $7.8 million, which means Tennessee will have to make cuts and work out restructures with players in order to free up more money.

When looking at the players under contract for 2022, there are a handful who jump out at us as potential cut candidates based on their salary and how they performed in 2021.

One name you won’t see on our list that has been talked about a lot this offseason is quarterback Ryan Tannehill.

Cutting him simply isn’t feasible, as the veteran carries a dead cap hit of $57.4 million if cut before June 1, and $38.6 million if cut after June 1.

The only way Tennessee could logically unload that contract is via trade after June 1, in which case Tannehill would carry dead cap hits of $9.6 million the next two years, and $4.6 million in each of the two years following.

With that out of the way, here’s a look at the seven players who have been considered cut candidates at one point or another, and what we think will happen with each.