Quarterback Marcus Mariota was limited in the Tennessee Titans’ last practice of the regular season on Friday and is listed as questionable for their regular-season finale on Sunday night against the Indianapolis Colts.
Mariota, who also was limited on Thursday, is suffering from neck and foot injuries he sustained in last week’s game against the Washington Redskins.
“About the same as it was yesterday,” Titans coach Mike Vrabel said on the team’s official website. “(He was) limited, and we gave him some stuff to do, and he did some stuff. So we’ll kind of just keep seeing where it goes, and figure out who gives us the best chance, and how he feels. We want to make sure he can go out there and do his job at a high level.”
Vrabel said the Titans will continue to evaluate Mariota on Saturday and Sunday before making the final call.
If Mariota cannot play, Blaine Gabbert would start for the Jaguars with Austin Davis as his backup.
The Titans (9-6) can clinch a playoff berth by beating the Colts (9-6), and would claim the AFC South title with a win and a loss by the Houston Texans to the Jacksonville Jaguars. Tennessee also has an outside chance of landing a first-round bye in the playoffs.
Tennessee listed linebacker Brian Orakpo (elbow) as out of the game.
–The Indianapolis Colts on Friday listed tight end Eric Ebron as questionable for Sunday night’s critical game against the Tennessee Titans, but coach Frank Reich said he is “optimistic” that Ebron will be cleared to play.
Ebron, recovering from a concussion and a knee injury, was a full participant in practice on Friday and the Colts believe will be cleared from the NFL’s concussion protocol by an independent neurologist on Saturday. He was limited in practice on Thursday.
The 6-foot-4, 235-pound Ebron, who was a first-round pick (No. 10 overall) of the Detroit Lions in 2014, has become one of quarterback Andrew Luck’s favorite targets. He has a career-high 62 receptions for 690 yards and a career-best 12 touchdowns. He also has a rushing score and his 13 touchdowns this year are one more than the total in his first four pro seasons with then Lions.
The Colts (9-6) will make the playoffs with a victory over the Titans (9-6), but a loss will send them into the offseason.
–The Los Angeles Rams announced Friday that they are holding running back Todd Gurley out of Sunday’s regular-season finale against the San Francisco 49ers because of left knee injury in hopes that he will be healthy for the playoffs.
Gurley also missed last week’s game against the Arizona Cardinals, but recently-signed C.J. Anderson stepped in and rushed for 167 yards on 20 carries. Gurley will finish the regular season with 1,831 yards from scrimmage, including 1,251 rushing, and 21 touchdowns.
“I wouldn’t say I’m concerned,” Rams coach Sean McVay said, indicating that he simply wants his star running back to be ready for the postseason. “Based on the information I’m getting, there isn’t any reason for us to press the panic button or think that he won’t be available (for the playoffs). But it is important for us to get him back to full speed.”
The Rams (12-3) have assured themselves of a playoff berth and need a win or tie against the 49ers (4-11), or loss or tie by the Chicago Bears (11-4) against the Minnesota Vikings (8-6), to wrap up a first-round bye.
— Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown missed practice again Friday because of knee soreness.
Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said Brown was undergoing tests after experiencing discomfort in the knee, putting his status in question for Sunday’s regular-season finale versus visiting Cincinnati.
Brown, who has amassed 104 receptions for 1,297 yards and an NFL-leading 15 touchdowns this season, has yet to practice this week. He was listed as out because of a coach’s decision on Wednesday before sitting out Thursday with knee soreness.
Last week, Brown finished with 14 receptions for 185 yards and two touchdowns in a 31-28 loss at New Orleans. That performance pushed him past 100 catches for the sixth consecutive season.
If Brown is unable to play, James Washington would likely get the start opposite JuJu Smith-Schuster while Eli Rogers will have an expanded role in the offense.
Pittsburgh needs to beat Cincinnati and hope for Baltimore to lose to Cleveland to earn a spot in the postseason.
Brown was named to the Pro Bowl team for the sixth consecutive season and has been selected as a first-team All-Pro in each of the previous four years.
In his ninth season since he was drafted in the sixth round of the 2010 NFL Draft, Brown has racked up seven 1,000-yard seasons. He has 837 catches for 11,207 yards and 74 receiving touchdowns in 130 games, including 103 starts.
— The Cincinnati Bengals placed three players on injured reserve Friday. Wide receiver Tyler Boyd, linebacker Jordan Evans and cornerback Dre Kirkpatrick will all be unavailable for the regular-season finale at the Pittsburgh Steelers after going on IR.
Boyd, who took over the No. 1 role at wide receiver after A.J. Green was injured earlier this season, finished with career highs across the board in his third NFL campaign. A second-round draft pick out of Pittsburgh in 2016, Boyd notched 76 receptions for 1,028 yards and seven touchdowns in 14 games. He had 76 catches and three TDs in his first two seasons combined.
Kirkpatrick, who injured a shoulder in last week’s game against Cleveland, had 41 tackles and nine passes defensed in his seventh season since Cincinnati drafted him in the first round in 2012. An ankle injury sidelined Jordan for the last three games of the season. The second-year linebacker registered 59 tackles, 1.5 sacks and one interception in 14 games.
In corresponding roster moves, Cincinnati promoted running back Quinton Flowers, offensive tackle Kent Perkins and wide receiver Hunter Sharp from the team’s practice squad.
–New York Giants wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. is officially done for the season. Giants coach Pat Shurmur announced Friday that Beckham was ruled out for Sunday’s regular-season finale against the visiting Dallas Cowboys.
It will mark the fourth consecutive game missed by Beckham with a quadriceps injury he sustained late last month. Despite the ailment, Beckham had his fourth 1,000-yard season, finishing with 77 receptions for 1,052 yards and six touchdowns in only 12 games.
Beckham was hurt in a 25-22 loss at Philadelphia on Nov. 25 but played the following week against the Chicago Bears, posting three catches for 35 yards and a touchdown in a 30-27 victory. Although he practiced the following week, Beckham reported discomfort in the quad and the Giants announced that he would not accompany the team to Washington in Week 14.
A first-round pick (No. 12 overall) in the 2014 NFL Draft, Beckham had at least 90 catches and 1,300 yards in each of his first three seasons with New York. He also had double-digit touchdowns in each of those seasons, including a career-best 13 in 2015.
–Jacksonville Jaguars running back Leonard Fournette on Friday was downgraded to doubtful for Sunday’s game against the Houston Texans because of foot and ankle injuries.
Fournette didn’t practice on Thursday, and if he misses the game against the Texans, it will be the seventh time he has been sidelined by an injury in his disappointing second pro season. In addition, Fournette was suspended for one game after he came off the sideline to join in a fight.
Fournette, the Jaguars’ first-round draft choice (fourth overall) last year out of LSU, apparently will finish season with 133 carries for 439 yards and five touchdowns, plus 22 receptions for 185 yards and a score.
Last year, Fournette helped the Jaguars reach the AFC Championship Game by making 268 carries for 1,040 yards and nine touchdowns, in addition to having 36 catches for 302 yards and a touchdown.
–New York Jets wide receiver Quincy Enunwa will sit out Sunday’s game at the New England Patriots, but he still ended the season on a high note.
The Jets announced Friday that they signed Enunwa to a contract extension. Although the team did not disclose terms of the deal, multiple media outlets reported Enunwa signed a four-year contract worth $36 million, including $20 million guaranteed.
“I knew when I got here that I wanted to be a Jet for a very long time,” Enunwa saidf. “Now, I’ll get my opportunity and it feels really good.”
Enunwa was limited to 11 games this season and Sunday’s matchup will mark the third straight game he has been sidelined because of an ankle injury. The 6-foot-2, 225-pound Enunwa had 38 receptions for 449 yards in his return to the roster after missing the entire 2017 season due to a neck injury.
–The Pittsburgh Steelers will have a new kicker for Sunday’s must-win regular-season finale. Erratic kicker Chris Boswell was placed on season-ending injured reserve, the Steelers announced Friday morning.
Pittsburgh replaced Boswell by signing Matt McCrane, who has spent time on the rosters of the Oakland Raiders and Arizona Cardinals this season.
The Steelers are on the outside of the AFC playoff picture and need to beat the visiting Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday and hope AFC North-leading Baltimore loses at home to the Cleveland Browns.
Boswell was not listed on this week’s injury report and the team did not disclose the nature of his ailment, but he has converted only 13 of 20 field goal attempts this season for a career low 65 percent success rate. He also was 43 of 48 on extra point tries, although he nailed both field goal attempts and both PATs in last week’s 31-28 loss at New Orleans.
–Buffalo Bills defensive tackle Kyle Williams will play the final game of his career Sunday against the Miami Dolphins. On Friday, the Bills announced that Williams planned to retire after Sunday’s game, ending a 13-year career spent entirely with the franchise.
“Kyle Williams truly is a class act,” Buffalo coach Sean McDermott said Friday, per the team’s official Twitter account. “He bleeds red, white and blue and I’m extremely proud of everything he’s accomplished.”
A five-time Pro Bowl selection, Williams explained the reasons for his decision in an open letter to the team’s fans, which he titled “Thank You.”
“There’s no perfect time to retire from a game, a franchise, and a city that mean so much to me and my family. But it’s time to hang up my cleats,” Williams wrote. “A singular word sticks out when I look back on my NFL career. Grateful. To have spent this much time with one team. To have had the opportunity to get to know this organization, this community, and more importantly, the people. To have raised my family here. To have made countless memories and friendships, on and off the field.”
–Detroit Lions coach Matt Patricia dismissed speculation that the team could be looking for a new quarterback next season. Reports out of Detroit suggested that the Lions could be in the market for a quarterback in the 2019 NFL Draft and were ready to move on from Matthew Stafford.
Not true, Patricia told reporters Friday morning. “Matthew Stafford is an unbelievable quarterback, and our quarterback,” said Patricia, who is 5-10 in his first season as a head coach. “I think the world of the guy.”
Stafford is having his worst statistical season since 2010, when injuries limited him to three games in his second year with the Lions. Barring a 489-yard game in Sunday’s regular-season finale at Green Bay, Stafford will have a streak of seven consecutive 4,000-yard seasons come to an end.
The No. 1 overall pick of Detroit in the 2009 NFL Draft, Stafford has thrown for 3,511 yards with 19 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. He has only three scoring passes in the past six games and needs one more to reach 20 TDs for the eighth season in a row.
–The Kansas City Chiefs signed running back Damien Williams to a contract extension, the team announced Friday. The team did not reveal terms of the deal for Williams, but the Kansas City Star reported that it was a two-year contract worth a maximum of $8.1 million.
Williams has filled a void in the backfield for the Chiefs since the club terminated the contract of running back Kareem Hunt on Nov. 30.
In his fifth season overall and first in Kansas City, Williams started the past two games after an injury to backup running back Spencer Ware.
Williams rushed for 49 yards and two touchdowns in a 29-28 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers on Dec. 13 and had 103 yards rushing on 13 carries in last week’s 38-31 setback in Seattle.
–The New Orleans Saints have clinched the top seed in the NFC for the playoffs, so Teddy Bridgewater will start at quarterback against the Carolina Panthers on Sunday to save Drew Brees for the playoffs, coach Sean Payton announced Friday. Brees told reporters earlier in the week that he expected Bridgewater to see plenty of playing time against the Panthers.
Bridgewater’s last start came for the Minnesota Vikings in the wild-card round of the playoffs after the 2015 season, and he drove the Vikings into position for a game-winning field goal try that Blair Walsh missed. The next summer, Bridgewater sustained a severe knee injury and missed the entire season before returning as a backup to Case Keenum in 2017.
Bridgewater made one relief appearance for the Vikings last season, then signed with the New York Jets as a free agent and landed in New Orleans in a trade before the start of this season.
In four games this season, he has thrown one pass, which fell incomplete, and last season with the Vikings he was zero for two with an interception.
–The Los Angeles Chargers brought tight end Antonio Gates back for his 16th pro season only because of an injury to Hunter Henry in May, but Gates sounds like he isn’t ready to retire yet.
Even though he played a secondary role this season with the Chargers (11-4), who are headed to the playoffs after Sunday’s regular-season finale against the Denver Broncos and he knows the end is near, Gates claims he’s not washed up.
“I try to evaluate myself,” the 38-year-old Gates said Friday. “I can still beat a linebacker, I feel like I can still play. The hard part is I set the bar at a certain level, but I’ve adjusted to my role and I just love my teammates, I love this staff. I’ve learned some new dances. I’m just having so much fun.”
Gates, whose 116 career touchdown catches are the most for a tight end in NFL history, said he is healthy despite his mileage. He has 28 receptions for 338 yards and two touchdowns this season.
