Tag: NFL waiver wire

Report: Browns put in a waiver claim on DE Takk McKinley

McKinley talked his way out of Atlanta and onto the waiver wire

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Takk McKinley is coming to the AFC North, but he will not be in Cleveland. It’s not for a lack of trying on the Browns part.

The Browns were one of four teams that placed a waiver claim on McKinley after the pass rusher was dumped by the Atlanta Falcons, according to NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport. McKinley joined the Cincinnati Bengals, who had the waiver wire priority over the other teams.

The waiver wire order is in the inverse order of the NFL standings. The 2-5-1 Bengals had the worst record of the teams making claims.

There was some speculation that the Browns had make inquiries with the Falcons about McKinley prior to the trade deadline. McKinley himself helped force his way out of Atlanta by posting on Twitter that the team should have accepted the trade offers he knew they got for his services. The 26th overall pick in 2017, McKinley posted 17.5 sacks in an increasingly diminished role with the Falcons.

Report: Colts claim DT Eli Ankou off waivers from the Browns

Ankou was waived when the Browns claimed DT Vincent Taylor after initially making the 53-man roster

Eli Ankou made the Cleveland Browns 53-man roster after the initial cutdowns on the back of a strong training camp. The Browns cut him on Sunday however, claiming Vincent Taylor at DT and exposing Ankou to waivers.

Despite the Browns keeping an open spot on the 16-man practice squad for Ankou, the plans to keep Ankou have been dashed. The Indianapolis Colts claimed Ankou off waivers on Monday, per Jake Trotter of ESPN. The move has yet to be officially announced on the NFL’s transaction log.

Ankou thrived in training camp at disrupting passing lanes and looked effective at plugging holes in the run game. The Canadian will now help bolster a Colts defense that just lost DT Sheldon Day to injured reserve.

Analysis: What are the Panthers getting with CB Rasul Douglas?

The Panthers made a splash on the waiver wire on Sunday, signing CB Rasul Douglas. Let’s take a look at what he can contribute in 2020.

The Panthers made a splash on the waiver wire early Sunday afternoon. Following a slew of roster cuts the previous day to trim their roster down to 53 players, Carolina was tied with the Giants for being the NFL’s most active team on waivers, signing three players from two different teams. The biggest name of the three was Rasul Douglas, the fourth-year cornerback from the Eagles.

Douglas (6-foot-2, 209 pounds) shone in his college football days at West Virginia. In his senior year, the flashy outside corner outdid all cornerbacks in that year’s class with eight interceptions, adding 10 pass breakups and 70 total tackles. Leading up to the draft, Douglas drew high praise for his reliable open-field tackling, off-ball coverage and run defense.

After Douglas was picked by Philadelphia in the third round of the 2017 NFL draft, he immediately found a rotational role with the team, playing in 14 games his rookie season and then all 16 through the next two seasons. Over these three years, Douglas totaled five interceptions, 25 pass breakups and 118 combined tackles.

Not all went well, however, as the third-year corner was on the wrong end of a handful of highlight plays by opposing receivers that drew plenty of brutal criticism on social media.

So, what does Douglas bring to the table?

Here’s a few clips, starting with a near perfect tackle on a short pass to Tyreek Hill.

Douglas showed some good coverage awareness on this interception of Cam Newton from 2017.

And here are a few more highlight plays, including a perfectly executed interception.

Douglas joins a thin defensive backfield in Carolina and thus has a chance to compete for a serious role in Phil Snow’s defense sooner rather than later. All it could take is a few mistakes from Eli Apple to get Douglas onto the field with the starters.

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Ex-Browns WR Damion Ratley claimed off waivers by the Giants

Ratley caught 25 passes in two years in Cleveland

The Damion Ratley book is officially closed in Cleveland. A day after the Browns waived the third-year wideout, Ratley was claimed off waivers by the New York Giants.

Ratley was the only Browns player cut this weekend who was claimed by another team. That means undrafted rookies like A.J. Green, Evan Brown and Bennie LeMay remain eligible for the Browns to bring back to the practice squad.

A sixth-round pick by the Browns in 2018, Ratley caught 25 passes for 344 yards and a touchdown in his two seasons in Cleveland. He lost his role to rookie Donovan Peoples-Jones. He joins former Browns first-rounder Corey Coleman in the Giants’ receiving corps.

Browns claim two defensive linemen off waivers

The corresponding roster moves are not yet known

The Cleveland Browns have two new additions to the 53-man roster. One day after the cutdown deadline, the Browns were awarded two players off waivers.

New to Cleveland are DE Joe Jackson and DT Vincent Taylor. The Browns successfully claimed the two off waivers with the 10th spot on the NFL’s waiver wire.

Jackson comes from Dallas, where he was a fifth-round pick in the 2019 NFL Draft out of Miami. He played sparingly as a rookie, recording five tackles in five games. He lost his roster spot to more seasoned additions by Dallas along the defensive front this year.

Taylor has 24 games of NFL experience in his three seasons. Initially a sixth-round pick out of Oklahoma State in the 2017 NFL Draft by the Miami Dolphins, Taylor spent last year in Buffalo. The Bills waived him on Saturday.

Taylor confirmed the news via Twitter,

The Browns have yet to reveal the corresponding roster moves.

NFL waiver wire order: Jets just outside the top-10

The NFL’s waiver wire order is the same as the original 2020 NFL Draft order.

The NFL’s waiver wire order is the same as the original 2020 NFL Draft order. That means 10 teams have priority over the Jets as the hundreds of players who were cut Saturday look for new homes.

The Cincinnati Bengals have the first crack at waiver claims, followed by the Washington Football Team and the Lions. While the NFL draft order changed due to some trades, the waiver wire order is in accordance with the pre-trade draft slots.

Here’s a look at the 10 teams ahead of the Jets, who are 11th in the order:

  1. Cincinnati Bengals
  2. Washington Football Team
  3. Detroit Lions
  4. New York Giants
  5. Miami Dolphins
  6. Los Angeles Chargers
  7. Carolina Panthers
  8. Arizona Cardinals
  9. Jacksonville Jaguars
  10. Cleveland Browns

If the Jets claim someone, he only becomes theirs if the 10 teams ahead of them pass on that player. New Yorks has needs at wide receiver, cornerback and pass-rusher, among other positions.

The waiver wire order will reset after Week 3 of the regular season, at which point it will be based on team records.

Lions in good position to make waiver claims this weekend

Detroit sits third in the waiver wire order

Hundreds of players are about to hit the NFL’s waiver wire. With the league’s 4 p.m. ET deadline on Saturday for rosters to be cut down to 53, every team is going to dump over 20 players, the Detroit Lions included.

Those players let go are subject to the waiver claim process, and that’s where Detroit’s poor 2019 finish turns into an asset for GM Bob Quinn and the Lions. Detroit holds the No. 3 spot on the waiver claim order, which leaves the team in a strong position to pick up players discarded from other teams at the roster deadline.

The waiver order is the same as the raw 2020 NFL Draft order. The Cincinnati Bengals are first, followed by the Washington Football Team and then the Lions. The draft order was altered by some traded picks, but the waiver claim order is based on the pre-trade draft positions.

The top 10 in the waiver order:

Cincinnati Bengals
Washington Football Team
Detroit Lions
New York Giants
Miami Dolphins
Los Angeles Chargers
Carolina Panthers
Arizona Cardinals
Jacksonville Jaguars
Cleveland Browns

That order remains in place until the conclusion of Week 3, when it’s readjusted based on records to that point.

If the Lions make a claim on a player, he will become theirs unless Cincinnati or Washington also claimed the same player. The order is the same for every player; if the Lions claim someone, it doesn’t reset the order for another player.

The team has been active and productive on the roster cutdown waiver wire in recent years under Quinn. Detroit landed starting DE Romeo Okwara and core special teams player Dee Virgin in the waiver claim process.

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NFL waiver wire resumes with Bengals sitting at No. 1

The NFL waiver wire could be a goldmine for the Bengals.

Don’t be surprised if the Cincinnati Bengals start making additions through the NFL’s waiver wire soon.

With the Super Bowl concluded — the day after the Kansas City Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes pulled off yet another comeback, this time over the San Francisco 49ers — the waiver wire resumes.

And thanks to obvious reasons, the Bengals sit atop the pecking order and will remain there through Week 3 of the regular season.

Meaning, the Bengals will have first dibs on any non-veteran player released by other teams. While free agency and the draft command most of the attention, this is where the Bengals could provide a serious boost to the quality of roster depth.

ESPN’s Field Yates explained:

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Bengals waiver claim Sharif Finch was notably popular before failed physical

The Bengals seemed to get a big steal with the pass rusher.

The Cincinnati Bengals seemed to make a quality roster add on the waiver wire early in the holiday week, adding former Tennessee Titans pass rusher Sharif Finch.

Then the Bengals quickly showed him the door with a failed physical designation.

Before the weird turn of events, it turns out the Bengals were hardly the only team interested in him, as ESPN’s Field Yates reported the Giants and Lions also put in claims.

The details behind the cut won’t come out and even stranger is Finch’s downward spiral after looking like a rising player who would serve in a big role for Tennessee before the season.

Cincinnati’s claim at least speaks to one area they’re looking at, to the point they stashed A.J. Green on injured reserve to make room. Pass rusher figures to be a big target this offseason.

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Report: Terrell Suggs trying to engineer homecoming with Ravens after waived by Cardinals

The Ravens hold the last waiver wire spot but Terrell Suggs is trying to force his way back on the roster after being cut by the Cardinals

With their season already over, the Arizona Cardinals are attempting to find out what their young talent can do. That left linebacker Terrell Suggs without a meaningful role on the roster late in the season. After some discussions, the Cardinals waived Suggs to let him find another home and potentially to return to his other home, the Baltimore Ravens.

However, with Suggs set to hit the waiver wire, it’s not really his decision to make. The other 30 teams in the league would have to not put in a claim on Suggs, letting him fall to the Ravens with the very last spot on the waiver wire. With plenty of playoff-bound teams in need of a savvy veteran outside linebacker capable of still generating pressure on the quarterback and setting the edge in the run game, Baltimore fans weren’t getting their hopes up.

But it seems like Suggs is trying to make a homecoming happen regardless. According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Suggs is strongly considering not reporting to any team other than the Ravens. While that doesn’t necessarily mean another team won’t still put a claim in on Suggs, it could dissuade another franchise from doing so.

Not only would a return to Baltimore be apropos in a season where they look destined for Super Bowl LIV — potentially sending him out on top — but the Ravens could really use an outside linebacker of Suggs’ reputation and caliber.

Defensive coordinator Don Martindale has done a spectacular job of generating pressure through unique and frequent blitzes, but Baltimore’s defense hasn’t won a lot of one-on-one matchups there. And with injuries piling on top of it already being a thin position group, Suggs would be a huge boost in the arm at the perfect time for the Ravens.

Over 13 games, Suggs has 5.5 sacks, four forced fumbles, a fumble recovery and 37 tackles. On Baltimore’s roster, Suggs would rank second in sacks, first in forced fumbles and eighth in combined tackles. With potentially a little rest in Week 17 and in the first round of the playoffs, the Ravens could effectively get a healthy starting outside linebacker who is relatively fresh. With the league’s most dynamic offense on the other side, that sounds deadly in the postseason.

We’ll know if Suggs’ plan worked by 4 p.m. ET on Monday when he’s eligble to be claimed on waivers.

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