Saints decide to cut veteran wide receiver Marshall

The New Orleans Saints released veteran receiver Brandon Marshall, who had not been active on game day since signing one month ago.

Marshall’s release made room on the roster for tight end Erik Swoope, whom New Orleans has claimed off of waivers from Indianapolis.

The 34-year-old Marshall, who has eight 1,000-plus-yard seasons in his career, has now been cut by two teams this season. After missing much of 2017 with ankle and toe injuries, Marshall began this season with Seattle and was released after seven games.

Swoope began his career with the Colts in 2015. In 2016 he played in 16 games and made 15 catches for 297 yards and a touchdown. However, he spent all of 2017 on injured reserve because of a knee injury.

Wentz’s status up in air: Carson Wentz is sidelined with a back injury, but two people familiar with the situation tell The Associated Press the Eagles quarterback hasn’t been ruled out for Philadelphia’s game at the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday.

Both people spoke on condition of anonymity Wednesday because the team hasn’t made any definitive determination, pending further evaluation and testing.

“Carson has a little bit of back soreness, a little tightness, so we’re going to rest him today, continue to evaluate him and make sure he’s good,” Eagles coach Doug Pederson said. “Sometimes he just gets a little sore, a little tight. Just going to rest him today and evaluate him further.”

Flacco will sit: As he worked diligently for more than a month to return from a potentially dangerous hip injury, Joe Flacco watched the Baltimore Ravens flourish without him.

Now that he’s healthy, Flacco must adjust to a role he’s never experienced during his 11-year NFL career: backup quarterback.

Ravens coach John Harbaugh selected rookie Lamar Jackson as his starter, opting to play the hot hand rather than a former Super Bowl MVP who’s been starting since his inaugural season in 2008.

Draft in Las Vegas: The NFL draft is heading to Las Vegas for 2020.

The league announced at an owners meeting that the city where the Raiders will begin play in September 2020 will host the draft that April.

Numbers game

Gutekunst carried over the practice of not having a full 53 players if it wasn’t necessary. During a stretch of the season when the roster was healthy, the team carried 52 until the Thursday afternoon in Seattle when they activated Trevor Davis off injured reserve. Such decisions can provide some in-season salary-cap relief while also taking advantage of a healthy 46-man roster during practice.

Practice squad promotions

The Packers have promoted eight players off the practice squad, the lifeblood of an active roster throughout the season. But four of them were elsewhere at the start of training camp.

Releases

Gutekunst most notably released safety Jermaine Whitehead, but the safety is one of six players the team has cut since the start of the season.

Last season Thompson cut six players for a total of seven roster moves (he released defensive lineman Ricky JeanFrancois twice), and he released eight in 2016.

What does it mean?

The biggest difference one can draw from Gutekunst’s first 14 weeks of the season is that he has been more likely to move quickly to help the game-day, 46man roster, as opposed to shuffling players around the seven inactive spots.

Is this a precursor to how Gutekunst will look at future rosters going forward or is it an indication that even after cut downs, the 2018 Packers were always going to be a work in progress? Only time will tell. But it does offer up more clues as to how he will help the staff on a week-to-week, or month-to-month basis once the games begin.