The most consequential roster move in the NFL this week wasn't a trade. It was the Los Angeles Rams putting Kobie Turner on injured reserve and signing a kicker. Around the league the rest of the news is a mix of patch jobs, a first career start, a receiver coming back and an edge rusher explaining himself. The transactions are small. The implications aren't.
Los Angeles Rams: Darryl Peterson III comes up from the practice squad, Jalen Hunt goes onto it, Turner goes to IR, and Brandon McManus signs. Turner is the one that hurts. A defensive front rebuilt in late October is a front that gets run on, and the Rams made the middle of their defense thinner on the same day they promoted a practice-squad outside linebacker. Signing McManus reads less like luxury and more like an admission that the kicking job was never settled. My read: Los Angeles is now a team that has to win with coverage and scoring, because the interior of that defense is a patch.
The coverage part looks fine. PFN's Week 7 cornerback rankings put Trent McDuffie at No. 1, ahead of Isaiah Rodgers, Renardo Green, Nohl Williams and Josh Wallace. "Historic season" is the phrase that gets attached to a corner in October and quietly removed in December, but I'll defend this one. The Rams are patching the front, which throws more stress onto the back end, and McDuffie is the reason that stress hasn't become yardage. If he's still at No. 1 in December, the Rams' defense is genuinely better than the offseason suggested.
The New York Giants will start J.J. McCarthy at quarterback over Winston against the Houston Texans, and it's his first career start. Correct call. Also a confession. Handing the job to a first-timer in late October is a decision about next season that happens to get played this Sunday. What changes: the Giants get real snaps to evaluate instead of practice reps, with a lower floor and a much higher ceiling. What it costs: a veteran who now knows exactly where he stands. McCarthy should get a long leash regardless of the score, and the leash is the story.
Tank Dell says he won't fear being hit in his return against the Giants, and good. A receiver who addresses contact before his first game back has thought about it. The alternative is worse. Dell matters because the Texans get a vertical option back on the same weekend New York hands its offense to a first-time starter, which ought to mean extra possessions for Houston. The loser is whoever has been absorbing Dell's snaps. Those don't come back.
Broncos outside linebacker Jonathon Cooper called his arrest-related absence "No excuses," which is the right sentence and the easy part. The hard part is the football cost. Denver has been without an edge rusher it was counting on, and availability is the one skill a pass rusher can't develop on the practice field. My read: the discipline question, not the legal one, governs his next month, and I'd expect Denver to keep his workload modest until it's settled.
Xavier Worthy is thriving in an expanded role for the Kansas City Chiefs with the Seattle Seahawks next. That sentence means more for Seattle than for Kansas City. The Chiefs have spent the season figuring out who their receivers are, and Worthy answering it changes the offense from possession-by-committee to speed on the outside. Seattle is the test. A secondary that has had a week to plan for him is the first real measurement of whether the expanded role is a story or the plan. My verdict: the Turner move decides a January game for the Rams, the quarterback switch decides the Giants' April, and Worthy's role gets settled first, Sunday, against a Seahawks defense built to find out.