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Wrapping Up a Wild NFL Holiday Weekend Part 1

Photo courtesy of the Indianapolis Colts

While NCAA Football was busy dominating the Labor Day Weekend, the NFL made some waves of its own with major cuts, trades and injury news as teams were forced to cut down their rosters from 90 to 53 players ahead of the opening week.

Here’s rundown of what we know as of Monday morning. Read it in between flipping burgers on the grill.

-Andrew Luck has been officially ruled out in the Indianapolis Colts‘ season opening game at the Los Angeles Rams. Worse than that, Colts general manager Chris Ballard told reporters that Luck has “no timetable for return.” That means he’ll probably miss Week Two as well and my money is on Week Three. Scott Tolzien will get the start. Tolzien has started three games in his NFL career and is 0-2-1. Last season he started one game for the Colts and completed 62.2 percent of his passes for 216 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions. I’d run down Luck’s stats, but don’t want to send Indianapolis fans off a cliff.

-Speaking of Tolzien and the Colts’ dumpster fire backup quarterback situation, over the weekend the team dealt former first round pick Phillip Dorsett to the New England Patriots in exchange for back up quarterback Jacoby Brissett. Brissett was a third round pick in 2016 and started two games for the Patriots, going 1-1. Brissett saw action in three games, completed 61.8 percent of his passes for 400 yards, no touchdowns, but no interceptions.

The trade gives Dorsett a chance to shake off the bust label, but does nothing to help the Patriots’ possession receiver problem. Dorsett, along with newly acquired Brandin Cooks and Chris Hogan are all deep threats and so is Malcolm Mitchell. The only possession guy is Danny Amendola who will see an expanded role with Julian Edelman lost for the year with an ACL tear. Dorsett started seven games last season and played in 15. He caught 33 passes for 528 yards and two touchdowns.

-The bad news for the Colts continued with the status of starting center Ryan Kelly. Indianapolis has him listed “week-to-week” and he’s already been ruled out of their Week One game against the Rams. Starting for Kelly, a former first round pick, will be rookie Deyshawn Bond. Which, if you’re paying attention, means a rookie center will be snapping the ball to Scott Tolzien. This is going to be a shitshow.

-Speaking of the Colts’ shitshow, cornerback Vontae Davis will be out a “few weeks” according to the team. Davis suffered a groin injury in Indianapolis’ third preseason game. Davis started 14 games last season and recorded 37 tackles, 10 passes defended and a pick.

-Buffalo Bills quarterback Tyrod Taylor remains in the concussion protocol, but he is practicing with the team. If Taylor can’t get out of it this week, he’ll miss Sunday’s season opener against the New York Jets, which suddenly makes that game very interesting, since top back up T.J. Yates also remains in the protocol. If neither of them can go, the Bills will roll with rookie Nathan Peterman out of Pitt. Last season Taylor started 15 games for Buffalo, going 7-8 as a starter and completing 61.7 percent of his passes for 3,203 yards, 17 touchdowns and six interceptions.

-Odell Beckham Jr.’s ankle is still bothering him and he’s been held out of practice so far this week. Head coach Ben McAdoo is pretending there’s a chance OBJ won’t play, but I don’t buy that at all. He’ll suit up for the New York Giants Sunday night. Last season Beckham Jr. caught 101 passes for 1,367 yards and 10 touchdowns.

-Linebacker Denzel Perryman will start the season on injured reserve for the Los Angeles Chargers. He tore up his ankle in the team’s first preseason game. Perryman started 11 games last season and played in 12, recording 71 tackles, two passes defended and an interception.

-Former Pro Bowl safety T.J. Ward wasn’t on the market long after getting cut by the Denver Broncos. Ward signed almost immediately with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with a one year, $5 million contract. Cutting Ward wasn’t a popular move for the Broncos’ defense and players like linebacker Brandon Marshall and Chris Harris Jr. haven’t been silent on their objections to the move.

https://twitter.com/TrevJSiemian/status/903335853182685184

Head coach Vance Joseph told ESPN he expected his defensive players to be upset.

“I would say so because he was obviously a valuable teammate to these guys,” Joseph said. “They won a lot of games together. It’s natural, it’s expected. It’s a close-knit locker room. I wasn’t surprised to see guys saying, ‘Hey, we’re going to miss T.J. We don’t want him to go.’ That’s natural and it should be that way in the locker room, and if it’s not that would be concerning.”

Considering the defense was and is the strength of the team, you’d think Joseph wouldn’t want to rock the boat. Instead, he turned it over and will go with Justin Simmons starting in Ward’s place.

Last season Ward started 14 games and recorded 87 tackles, one sack, three forced fumbles, two fumble recoveries, eight passes defended and an interception for the Broncos. Now Tampa Bay has that stat line to look forward to in their defensive backfield.

Justin Simmons was a third round pick in the 2016 NFL Draft. Last season he started three games and played in 13. He recorded 24 tackles, one sack, four passes defended and two interceptions.

-Cutting Ward wasn’t the only move the Broncos made over the weekend. After his release by the Cleveland Browns, Denver has welcomed back quarterback Brock Osweielr to the fold on a one year contract. The Broncos needed some depth at QB after back up Paxton Lynch hurt his shoulder. Osweiler will be the No. 2 behind Trevor Siemian for now, but don’t count on it staying that way. For as down as the NFL seems to be on Osweiler, Broncos GM John Elway still tried to sign him long term last year and re-signed him here.

-The Broncos announced that outside linebacker Shane Ray will open the season in injured reserve with the torn ligaments in his wrist he suffered at the start of camp. Last year Ray started eight games and played in all 16. He had 48 tackles, eight sacks, one forced fumble, two fumble recoveries and one defensive touchdown.

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Written by Adam Greene

Adam Greene is a writer and photographer based out of East Tennessee. His work has appeared on Cracked.com, in USA Today, the Associated Press, the Chicago Cubs Vineline Magazine, AskMen.com and many other publications.

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