Tight end Tyler Higbee is set to make his 2024 debut.
Higbee does not have an injury designation for Sunday’s game against the Jets and is set to play. He is coming off a torn ACL and MCL suffered in last season’s playoff loss to Detroit.
Higbee was a full participant in practice on Wednesday and Friday. He missed Thursday, but he also is listed with an illness.
The Rams have a totally clean injury report for Week 16, as all players are expected to be available.
Cornerback Cobie Durant (chest), receiver Jordan Whittington (shoulder), tight end Davis Allen (shoulder), and receiver Demarcus Robinson (shoulder) were listed on the report this week.
When asked earlier this week about possibly adding receiver Odell Beckham Jr. to the roster, Rams coach Sean McVay said, “That’s something we’ve not talked about yet.”
And so, when McVay met with reporters on Wednesday, he was asked whether the discussion has occurred. The answer this time was more definitive.
“No, we haven’t talked about it,” McVay said. “I love Odell. It’s not something that I think is something that we’re looking at right now.”
Beckham spent part of 2021 with the Rams. Even though he arrived with a torn ACL, he played with it until the knee gave out during the first half of Super Bowl LVI. At the time he left, Beckham was having the kind of game that could have propelled him to Super Bowl MVP.
Beckham didn’t play at all in 2022. He spent 2023 with the Ravens. Last week, the Dolphins released him. On Monday, Beckham cleared waivers.
He reportedly has a short list of teams he’d play for. However, no reports linking him to any specific franchise have emerged.
That doesn’t mean it won’t happen. There’s value in taking the Daniel Jones approach — join a practice squad, stay involved, and wait to see if an injury with a contending team opens the door for a chance to play in the postseason.
Beckham can sign with any team, at any time. He could wait until the Super Bowl teams are known, and sign with one of them. Still, the absence of any indication that anyone is trying to sign him could be regarded as proof that it’s not going to happen.
If not, the question becomes whether there will be interest in 2025. There’s a chance that, nearly 11 years after entering the league as a first-round draft pick, the door is closed for all 32 teams.
With the Falcons benching quarterback Kirk Cousins for rookie Michael Penix, Jr., it’s highly likely that Cousins will be moving on in 2025.
So what are his best possible destinations?
We did a draft on Wednesday’s PFT Live, with three possibilities each. Plus one bonus team.
The real question is this. What do other teams think Cousins can do?
As one source put it, Cousins’s arm is currently dead. That’s believed to be a result of his inability to use his lower body to muster full power on his throws. It stands to reason that, after 14 games of compensating for protecting his surgically-repaired Achilles tendon, he’s out of gas.
Will he get it back for 2025?
If he refuses to waive his no-trade clause and forces the Falcons to release him, signing him for the league minimum (with the Falcons on the hook for the balance between that and $27.5 million) becomes a steal. Someone would surely give him a chance, at that price tag.
We’ll see how it plays out. With only three games left in the regular season and less than three months until the start of free agency, the answers are coming sooner than later.
With Kirk Cousins heading to the bench in Atlanta, it’s safe to say his time with the team is over. Unless Michael Penix Jr. suffers a serious injury down the stretch — or unless the Falcons can’t trade Cousins in the offseason and decide to keep him as the backup — he’ll be elsewhere in 2025.
As we pointed out many times after the Falcons shocked the football-following world and used the eighth overall pick not on a player who would help Cousins win but on his eventual replacement, the front-loaded deal gives them an easy out after one year. If, that is, he’s willing to waive his no-trade clause.
The Falcons will pay Cousins $62.5 million for 2024. Cousins has a fully-guaranteed salary of $27.5 million for 2025, with another $10 million that becomes fully guaranteed in 2026 on the fifth day of the 2025 league year. As veteran quarterbacks go, $27.5 million is less than the top of the current market, which hit $60 million with the Dak Prescott deal.
It’s also possible the Falcons would pay some of the money to facilitate a trade.
First, someone has to want to trade for Cousins. Based on his performance this year, that might not be a given. Father Time quite possibly did what he inevitably does to all players after Cousins threw four touchdown passes on November 3 against the Cowboys. In five games since, he has one touchdown pass and nine interceptions. His passer rating has fallen under 80 in each of those games.
Second, Cousins has to be willing to waive his no-trade clause. Maybe he’ll dig in his heels, happily taking $27.5 million to be Penix’s backup in 2025 and otherwise daring the Falcons to cut him.
A trade before June 1 would trigger a 2025 cap charge of $37.5 million. That’s still lower than his $40 million cap number for next year, and it saves $27.5 million in cash.
Cutting him with a post-June 1 designation would trigger a $40 million charge, but the Falcons would get credit for whatever he earns elsewhere, even if it’s only the league minimum.
Not many teams will be looking for a starter in the offseason. The current candidates are the Jets, Browns (if they can get him cheap), Steelers (if they don’t re-sign Russell Wilson or Justin Fields), Titans, Raiders, Giants, Saints, and perhaps the Seahawks.
Then there’s the 49ers. With Brock Purdy not ascending the way many had hoped, coach Kyle Shanahan might finally reunite with the player that Kyle and his father, Mike, drafted in 2012 as the insurance policy to Robert Griffin III.
Finally, don’t rule out the Rams. Cousins is still a younger option than Matthew Stafford, and coach Sean McVay (who like Shanahan worked with Cousins in Washington) has high regard for Cousins.
Rams head coach Sean McVay said last week that he expected tight end Tyler Higbee to make his 2024 debut against the Jets in Week 16 and the path is now clear for that to happen.
The Rams announced on Tuesday that Higbee has been activated from the physically unable to perform list. Higbee has spent the entire season on the PUP list while working his way back from the torn ACL and MCL he suffered in the 2023 postseason.
Higbee had 47 catches for 495 yards and two touchdowns last season. He’ll join Colby Parkinson, Davis Allen, and Hunter Long as the tight ends on the roster.
The Rams opened a roster spot for Higbee by placing linebacker Nick Hampton on injured reserve. Hampton had three tackles while seeing almost all of his time on special teams.
Beating the 49ers on Thursday night made the Rams 8-6 on the season after starting the year 1-4.
Then, once Seattle lost to Green Bay on Sunday night, Los Angeles moved into first place by virtue of the club’s current head-to-head tiebreaker over the Seahawks.
That means the Rams are now in the driver’s seat for the NFC West crown with three games to go.
“It doesn’t change anything that we’ve talked about for the last handful of weeks,” McVay said of being in first place during his Monday news conference. “Unless the season ended today, it’s all just temporary. We have to continue to be one day at a time, one moment at a time, and one game at a time, like what we’ve been.
“I think it’s a testament to the group to be able to handle some of the things that they’ve handled over the last few weeks, but all of it is not relevant unless we continue to do something about it. The only thing that we can do is have a great week of preparation against a very challenging opponent who we have tremendous respect for.”
The Rams will face the Jets on the road this weekend before ending the regular season at home against the Cardinals in Week 17 and the Seahawks in Week 18.
We’ll find out soon if any team has claimed wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. off of waivers, but it doesn’t sound like the Rams will be that club.
Beckham helped the Rams win Super Bowl LVI after signing with the team in November. He moved on after tearing his ACL in the win over the Bengals and got waived by the Dolphins last Friday, so the past history made for an obvious question for Rams head coach Sean McVay.
McVay said last week that he loves Beckham, but that bringing him back wasn’t a focus. On Monday, McVay said it still hasn’t been something the team has kicked around.
“That’s not something we’ve talked about yet,” McVay said, via Gary Klein of the Los Angeles Times.
If Beckham goes unclaimed on Monday, he will be free to sign with any team. He had nine catches in nine games for the Dolphins.
The 17th week of the 2024 season begins on a Wednesday, with a pair of Christmas games (Chiefs-Steelers, Ravens-Texans). That decision resulted in eight standalone games for the weekend. Given the clear separation between good and bad teams, there aren’t a ton of great choices for the other slots.
The league already has decided to leave Seahawks-Bears on Thursday night. The Bears have been eliminated from playoff contention; Seattle is battling for the NFC West crown.
On Saturday, three games from a group of five possibilities will be played on NFL Network. The options are Broncos-Bengals, Cardinals-Rams, Chargers-Patriots, Colts-Giants, and Falcons-Commanders. It’s our understanding that the three games will be selected for the Saturday shift on Tuesday.
Then comes Sunday night, where the Browns are due to host the Dolphins. The NFL quite possibly will decide to shift that game out, as well.
The week ends with a Monday night game between the Lions and 49ers.
Regardless of the amount of flexing done, it’s hard to find much sizzle in the Week 17 post-Christmas schedule, and it’s going to be virtually impossible for the NFL to fill all windows with consequential games. Packers-Vikings is the most compelling Sunday game, but it can’t be moved from Fox because the first match between the division rivals was televised by CBS.
That’s one of the basic risks of overloading standalone games. With eight in one weekend, they can’t all be winners, kid.
Of course, it won’t matter if millions watch. Chances are, they will.
One, it’s football. Two, it’s on TV. Three, there are many football games left to watch this year.
Green Bay’s win over Seattle clinched a playoff berth for Minnesota, but it also had some significant consequences for the playoff picture in the NFC West.
The Rams now lead the division with three weeks to go. At 8-6, Los Angeles has the same record as Seattle. But the Rams defeated the Seahawks in overtime earlier this season, giving them the current tiebreaker.
At this point, it appears to be a three-way race for the division between the Rams (8-6), Seahawks (8-6), and Cardinals (7-7). After losing on Thursday night, the 49ers (6-8) have only a slim shot at making the playoffs.
Los Angeles will play at the Jets before finishing the season at home against the Cardinals and Seahawks to end the year.
Seattle will play Minnesota at home in Week 16 before playing at Chicago and at L.A.
Arizona is at Carolina next Sunday, at Los Angeles in Week 17, and will finish at home against San Francisco.
Kyle Shanahan put the blame on the 49ers’ offense after Thursday night’s loss to the Rams.
“Not good enough,” Shanahan said of the offense. “We played good enough to win on defense and special teams but not good enough on offense.”
After the game, Shanahan said he’s thinking less about the playoffs and more about whether his players are going to show the character of a team that doesn’t quit when the season gets tough.
“They say mathematically we still have a chance. I’m not too concerned with that right now. Pretty disappointed with how we played,” Shanahan said. “We’re gonna get away for three days. I want to come back and play better football and challenge the character of our team.”
The 49ers have gone from preseason Super Bowl favorites to only a mathematical chance of making the playoffs 14 games into the season. It’s been a massive disappointment this year, and Shanahan knows the side of the ball he coaches deserves most of the blame.
