Arizona, Buffalo starting to play catch up?
It’s beginning to look more and more like the NFL’s elite – which currently includes Green Bay, New England, Cincinnati, Denver, Atlanta and Carolina – may not be losing games any time soon, so some of the clubs in the group behind them are starting to make moves to try and play catch up.
The Arizona Cardinals have been almost as good at 4-1 this year, but one glaring weakness has been the Cards’ inability to pressure quarterbacks with just eight sacks in five games.
Tuesday, Arizona took steps to remedy that issue by signing 13-year veteran and former NFL sack leader Dwight Freeney, re- uniting him with Bruce Arians, who was his head coach in his final year in Indianapolis when Arians filled in on an interim basis for Chuck Pagano.
Freeney hasn’t notched double digit sacks since 2010 when he had 10. He also has struggled to stay healthy in two seasons in San Diego since leaving the Colts, but we’re told that Arians believes he can get some push out of Freeney by spotting him in as strictly a nickel pass rusher.
The Buffalo Bills killed two birds with one stone, signing backup quarterback Josh Johnson to be their third man up after it was reported that starter Tyrod Taylor has a sprained MCL.
The Bills drafted EJ Manuel to be their quarterback of the future just two-plus seasons ago and he will start in Taylor’s place should Taylor be unable to go, but one of the things Buffalo was checking on potential backup quarterbacks was if their passports were up to date.
The Bills will travel to London to take on the Jaguars next week after hosting Cincinnati this Sunday. The passport checking might signal Rex Ryan is preparing to go several weeks without Taylor.
The signing of Johnson also could create a problem for the Indianapolis Colts, who had signed Johnson at the beginning of the week after each of their last two games and released him after those games, keeping him on hand strictly as an emergency option due to the injury to Andrew Luck and illness of Matt Hasselbeck.
Johnson is now no longer available to Indianapolis should Luck’s shoulder not be healed or Hasselbeck’s bacterial infection flare up again, and the Bills and Colts are currently tied in the standings at 3-2.