Kyler Murray or Carson Wentz? Carson Wentz or Kyler Murray?
The answer could be neither.
This week’s apparent soft benching of Murray, who has a hamstring injury that possibly wouldn’t have kept him from playing if the Vikings had beaten the Lions on Sunday, gives Wentz a chance to beat the 6-1 Bills on Monday night. If he pulls it off, Wentz could keep the job for the remainder of the four-game gjallarhorn gauntlet that ends with trips to Wisconsin to play the Packers and Mexico to play the 49ers.
If Wentz fails, the Vikings may mobilize. Immediately.
The Vikings will have roughly 16 hours after Monday night’s game ends to close a deal with another team for a quarterback. On Monday, we made the case for a trade for Colts quarterback Daniel Jones. As the week has unfolded, a variey of indications have emerged that it’s a real possibility.
Jones, who surely is dismayed by the Colts’ decision to prematurely throw in the towel by trading away guard Quenton Nelson and defensive tackle DeForest Bucker, would likely welcome the chance to return to a team with which he spent a couple of months in 2024 — and to lead the effort to propel the neo-Purple People Eaters to the postseason.
The other possibility would be to try to bring Kirk Cousins home. That would be more difficult. At 4-4, the Raiders are on the fringes of contention. Win or lose on Sunday at San Francisco, why disrupt something that’s working? Cousins currently ranks third in passing yards with 2,124 and second in touchdown passes with 19. His passer rating of 101.4 is higher than Josh Allen’s.
Even if the Raiders would be inclined to move Cousins and ride with Fernando Mendoza, it would cost far less to get Jones than it would to get Cousins. Especially since the Colts may already be planning to cut Jones before a $4 million roster bonus comes due in March and $6.51 million of his $33.49 million salary becomes fully-guaranteed.
With a new G.M. coming next year, why wouldn’t the Colts want a clean slate? Doing so would wipe out $38 million in non-guaranteed cash for 2027. Trading Jones would result in getting value; cutting Jones would get them nothing.
It may all come down to Monday night. If Minnesota wins, chances are nothing happens. If Minnesota loses, Tuesday could become a very interesting day.
Colts Clips
The Colts ruled out cornerback Justin Walley (knee) and linebacker Akeem Davis-Gaither (knee) ahead of Sunday’s game against the Cowboys.
Walley injured his knee during the Week 7 game against the Vikings and has not practiced or played since. Davis-Gaither did not practice this week.
Rookie linebacker CJ Allen will wear the green dot, coach Shane Steichen said, with a rotation of other linebackers slotted next to Allen.
The Colts added safety AJ Haulcy (ankle) to the injury report Friday, and he is listed as questionable. He was limited in practice Friday.
Offensive tackle Jalen Travis (thumb/hamstring) is also questionable. Travis was a full participant in practice all week.
The Cowboys ruled out linebacker Malachi Lawrence (ankle) and wide receiver Kavontae Turpin (ribs). Defensive end Jonathan Bullard (calf), tight end Jake Ferguson (ankle), linebacker Marist Liufau (forearm), linebacker DeMarvion Overshown (hamstring, back), wide receiver George Pickens (hamstring), cornerback Joey Porter (ankle) and tight end Luke Schoonmaker (groin) are questionable.
Cowboys safety Caleb Downs is set to play against the Colts on Sunday.
Downs moved up to full practice on Friday and has no injury designation for Sunday, which means he’s cleared concussion protocol and will not be sidelined by an ankle injury. Safety P.J. Locke is also without a designation after his own trip through the protocol.
Wide receiver George Pickens (hamstring) remained limited in practice and is listed as questionable. Cornerback Joey Porter Jr. (ankle), tight end Luke Schoonmaker (groin), tight end Jake Ferguson (ankle), and linebacker DeMarvion Overshown (hamstring, back) are also listed as questionable, Defensive tackle Jonathan Bullard (calf) and linebacker Marist Liufau (forearm) are both listed as questionable to be activated from injured reserve.
Linebacker Malachi Lawrence (ankle) and wide receiver KaVontae Turpin (ribs) have both been ruled out.
The Cowboys downgraded cornerback Joey Porter Jr. to a limited participant in Thursday’s practice.
Porter, who has had an ankle injury since Week 6, was a full participant on Wednesday.
Porter played less than 50 percent of the defensive snaps in two of the three games he’s played since. He played 36 snaps in Week 6 against the Packers, 51 in Week 7 against the Eagles and 36 in Week 8 against the Cardinals.
The Cowboys added linebacker DeMarvion Overshown to the practice report with back and hamstring injuries. He was limited.
Defensive back Caleb Downs (concussion/ankle) and safety P.J. Locke III (concussion) returned to limited work after missing Wednesday.
Offensive tackle Broderick Jones (personal), outside linebacker Von Miller (rest) and linebacker Dee Winters (calf) were upgraded to full participants. Jones and Miller missed Wednesday’s session, and Winters was limited.
Tight end Jake Ferguson (ankle), outside linebacker Malachi Lawrence (ankle) and wide receiver KaVontae Turpin (ribs) did not practice a second consecutive day.
Wide receiver George Pickens (hamstring), tight end Luke Schoonmaker (groin) and left guard Tyler Smith (ankle) remained limited.
Colts running back Jonathan Taylor has spent the last two weeks fielding questions about whether he’ll remain with the team and that will come to an end by next Tuesday one way or another.
Taylor will either remain with the Colts through Tuesday’s 4 p.m. ET trade deadline or he’ll be dealt to a team that thinks he can help push them over the top this season. Until he’s dealt or the deadline passes, Taylor knows “you’re not going to avoid” the questions he faced one again on Thursday and he knows that he’ll be happy when they stop coming his way.
“No one wants uncertainty,” Taylor said Thursday, via Stephen Holder of ESPN.com. “Until the past couple weeks, it’s kind of been the same thing. But it won’t be until Tuesday where you’ll know exactly what’s going on, you’ll know exactly what the verdict is.”
Taylor played amid the rumors in last week’s loss to the Jaguars and the plan is for him to play against the Cowboys this week. He said he is working to keep his focus on that game because he doesn’t “want external factors creeping in and trying to alter your play,” but that will be a much easier task to accomplish once there’s certainty about where he’ll be after November 10.
As the trade deadline creeps closer, some think a high-profile team is lurking as to the biggest name that remains potentially available.
Chris Simms mentioned on Thursday’s PFT Live that some in league circles are wondering whether the 49ers could make a play for Colts running back Jonathan Taylor. (People around the league ask Simms those questions, because 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan is one of his best friends — and because they assume Simms knows what’s happening with the 49ers, even if he rarely if ever does.)
A Taylor-to-49ers trade would be jarring. It would be unexpected. As jarring and unexpected as the news that emerged on a Thursday night in October 2022, when word first broke of the 49ers’ trade with the Panthers for running back Christian McCaffrey.
A trade for Taylor would create obvious questions regarding McCaffrey. Taylor has $3.87 million remaining in base salary (after Week 9, it drops to $3.49 million). McCaffrey has a 2026 cap number of $10.861 million. While that’s low enough to keep the duo together for the rest of the season, things would change in 2027.
McCaffrey has a cap number of $26.4 million, with no guaranteed money in what will be the last year of his current deal. Taylor would count for more than $16 million in 2027, under his current contract.
Most likely, the 49ers would move on from McCaffrey after this season, if they trade for Taylor.
And, yes, it would be a stunner if the 49ers trade for Taylor. The exact same kind of stunner that it was when the 49ers traded for McCaffrey in 2022.
But that’s what teams do when they’re serious about going all in. The Bears are. The Seahawks are. The 49ers may be.
Every contender needs to ask itself that question as the trade deadline approaches. Are you content to wish in one hand and shit in the other and see which one fills up first? Or are you going to turn a wishlist into tangible action items aimed at potentially putting a Super Bowl ring on everyone’s finger?
The Cowboys’ injury report has 16 names, with five players sitting out Wednesday’s practice with injuries.
Defensive back Caleb Downs did not practice with a concussion and an ankle injury. He left Sunday’s game with a head injury.
Downs, a first-round rookie, has played 509 defensive snaps — 92 percent — and 45 on special teams. He has totaled 52 tackles, a sack, a pass defensed and two forced fumbles.
Tight end Jake Ferguson (ankle), offensive tackle Broderick Jones (personal), outside linebacker Malachi Lawrence (ankle), safety P.J. Locke (concussion), outside linebacker Von Miller (rest) and wide receiver KaVontae Turpin (ribs) did not practice.
Wide receiver George Pickens (hamstring), tight end Luke Schoonmaker (groin), left guard Tyler Smith (ankle) and linebacker Dee Winters (calf) were limited.
Defensive tackle Jonathan Bullard (calf), defensive tackle Kenny Clark (back), outside linebacker Marist Liufau (forearm), cornerback Joey Porter Jr. (ankle) and offensive tackle Drew Shelton (hamstring) were full participants.
At this point, running back Jonathan Taylor is on the Colts.
By this time next week, he may not be.
But Indianapolis is still planning to play Taylor in Sunday’s matchup against the Cowboys, head coach Shane Steichen told reporters in his Wednesday press conference.
Why?
“Yeah, I think there’s a lot of stuff out there right now,” Steichen said, via James Boyd of TheAthletic.com. “He’s on our football team, and he’s excited for this opportunity to go play. He wants to go win this game.”
Taylor has expressed a desire to stick with the Colts, while also acknowledging that he’s not necessarily in control of his future at the moment.
In eight games this season, Taylor has rushed for 610 yards with eight touchdowns and caught 21 passes for 202 yards.
We’ll see if a team makes a deal for Taylor before the deadline on Nov. 10.
The Colts took a break from working on trading away players ahead of next Tuesday’s deadline to assure that one member of the team will be sticking around for a while.
According to multiple reports, they have agreed to a two-year contract extension with defensive tackle Adetomiwa Adebawore. Per those reports, it is a $35 million deal with a $13 million signing bonus and includes $22.5 million through the 2027 season.
Adebawore was a 2023 fourth-round pick in Indianapolis and he matched his career high with four sacks through the first eight games of this season. He has 67 tackles, 10.5 sacks, 13 tackles for loss, and a fumble recovery over 51 career appearances.
With DeForest Buckner now on the 49ers, Adebawore is set for a bigger role on the Colts’ front and his new deal could prove to be a bargain if he builds on his strong start to the 2026 season.
The Cowboys had injury to go with the insult of Sunday’s 33-30 meltdown overtime loss to the Cardinals.
Coach Brian Schottenheimer said defensive back Caleb Downs and safety P.J. Locke are both in concussion protocol.
Downs, a first-round rookie, has played 509 defensive snaps — 92 percent — and 45 on special teams. He has totaled 52 tackles, a sack, a pass defensed and two forced fumbles.
Locke just returned from injured reserve, missing five games with a foot injury. He returned to practice Oct. 23.
Schottenheimer also said outside linebacker Malachi Lawrence has an ankle injury “that might be a little bit longer” to recover from. Lawrence, the team’s other first-round rookie, has played 226 defensive snaps and 40 in special teams.
He has totaled 13 tackles, a sack and two passes defensed.
