The Broncos are signing running back Deuce Vaughn to their practice squad, according to multiple reports.
Vaughn was among the Cowboys’ final cuts, and he worked out for the Broncos last week.
Dallas drafted him in the sixth round in 2023, and he spent two seasons on the team’s roster. Vaughn appeared in 14 games, playing 113 offensive snaps and 51 on special teams and had 50 touches for 168 yards while in Dallas.
Coach Sean Payton had similar-sized Darren Sproles in New Orleans. Vaughn is 5 foot 6 ,176 pounds, and Sproles played at 5 foot 6, 190 pounds. Sproles had a 14-year NFL career, including playing for the Saints from 2011-13.
Vaughn ran for 42 yards in the Cowboys’ final preseason game.
Eventually, it’s going to be easier to list the NFL teams that aren’t building or trying to build new stadiums.
The Broncos officially have joined the stadium construction fray.
In a public letter posted on Tuesday, the Broncos identified Burnham Yard as the “preferred site” of a new stadium. The building will have a retractable roof, and the goal is to open it in 2031.
The carefully-written message says that the project will be privately funded and that there will be “no new taxes.” There presumably will be some form of public contribution to the overall vision for the new stadium and surrounding business activity.
Other teams currently building/renovating or trying to build/renovate new stadiums include the Bills, Browns, Bengals, Titans, Jaguars, Texans, Chiefs, Eagles, Commanders, and Bears.
Colts cornerback Charvarius Ward entered concussion protocol, coach Shane Steichen announced.
Ward displayed concussion-like symptoms Monday morning.
He played a team-high 44 defensive snaps in the Colts’ decisive victory over the Dolphins and made five tackles.
His Week 2 availability now is in doubt as he will have to clear all the steps of protocol to be cleared for Sunday’s game against the Broncos.
Complicating matters, cornerback Jaylon Jones left Sunday’s game after aggravating his hamstring. Steichen confirmed it is the same hamstring injury that Jones had in training camp.
Running back Jonathan Taylor is “good” after taking a hit to his neck area.
The Broncos came away with a Week 1 victory over the Titans on Sunday, but it wasn’t exactly easy.
Quarterback Bo Nix had an uneven performance, finishing the day 25-of-40 for 176 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions. He also lost a fumble.
“Well we won, that’s the first thing,” head coach Sean Payton said of Nix’s performance. “I thought he hung in there. He battled. Made some critical plays first in the second half, and so obviously he’ll be disappointed with the turnovers, but it was a gutsy performance. It is pretty usual Week 1, a lot of different looks maybe that you hadn’t seen normally or scouted normally for relative to their coverages.
“Overall, his job is to lead us to score. I thought he played really well in the second half, and we won the game.”
Nix told reporters that his attitude about his play is a little different now that he’s in his second season.
“I think I’m tougher on myself now because you know better. I’ve had some experience, and I’ve had what not to do,” Nix said. “Every year of my career, I’ve thrown a pick, probably. As much as I’m going to try in the future, I’m probably going to throw one every year. Just have to limit them, and hopefully I’ll stay at two for a while.”
We’ll see how Nix and the Broncos respond when they play the Colts on the road next week.
The Titans lost to the Broncos in Denver on Sunday afternoon, but they may have given themselves a better chance of winning the game if they had a firmer grasp of the rules governing what constitutes a catch.
Rookie wide receiver Elic Ayomanor went up to try for a pass from Cam Ward with the Titans trailing the Broncos 13-12 in the third quarter and was ruled to have come down out of bounds while making the grab. Replays showed that Ayomanor’s elbow appeared to land in the field of play before any part of his body hit out of bounds, which led to a question for head coach Brian Callahan about why he didn’t challenge the ruling by officials.
“Yeah, you gotta get a foot inbounds too,” Callahan said. “We didn’t have a clean look at whether his foot was down as well. An elbow doesn’t equal two feet so his foot would’ve had to come down as well. The call from upstairs was that it wasn’t worth challenging.”
The problem with Callahan’s answer is that the NFL rulebook doesn’t back up his claim. Per the rules, a pass is complete if a player secures the ball and “touches the ground inbounds with both feet or with any part of his body other than his hands.”
An elbow would qualify as another part of the body. That doesn’t mean that the Titans would have won a challenge or won the game, but the explanation from the coach was based only on what the league’s rules say and it was incorrect.
Callahan was not asked a followup to clarify his answer on Sunday. He’ll likely field one on Monday because it appears that he and his staff had a major lapse in the heat of the moment.
