Tuesday NFL Roster Moves: Miller to Bears, Vaughn to Texans, Kendricks to Rams

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2026 — October is when NFL rosters stop being plans and start being triage. Tuesday’s transaction wire was a perfect snapshot of that reality: contenders patching depth with veterans who have been here before, struggling teams churning the bottom of the roster, and a Super Bowl champion receiver’s former teammate finding his way back to Chicago. Here is every move that mattered today, and why each team made it.

RamsEric Kendricks lands in Los Angeles

The headline move of the day belongs to the Los Angeles Rams, who signed linebacker Eric Kendricks to the practice squad, the team announced Tuesday, with ESPN’s Adam Schefter also reporting the deal. Kendricks, 34, is a former second-round pick of the Minnesota Vikings (2015) who earned first-team All-Pro honors in 2019 and spent eight seasons in Minnesota before stops with the Chargers in 2023, the Cowboys in 2024, and a late-season run with the 49ers in 2025. He has appeared in 158 regular-season and postseason games, and his recent résumé is what makes this more than a ceremonial signing: Kendricks played in three regular-season games for San Francisco late last season and then started both of the 49ers’ playoff games, racking up 19 tackles. That is a player who was trusted in January football five months ago, not a veteran collecting a check.

The Rams have never been shy about weaponizing the practice squad as a proving ground for veteran linebackers — and at 34, Kendricks brings the kind of pattern-recognition and communication that stabilizes a defense in the second half of the season. For a team with postseason ambitions, stashing a linebacker who started playoff games last winter is about as low-risk as roster management gets.

BearsScotty Miller comes back to Chicago

The Chicago Bears are re-signing wide receiver Scotty Miller to the practice squad, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported Tuesday. This one is a reunion, not an introduction: Miller, 29, spent camp with Chicago, opened the season on the Bears’ practice squad, and was released on September 24 — barely two weeks ago. The Bears have clearly decided they like having him in the building more than they liked the version of their depth chart that didn’t include him.

Miller’s story is a familiar one in this league. A former sixth-round pick of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2019, he carved out a seven-year career on speed and reliability: 99 catches for 1,216 yards and six touchdowns across 93 games, with stops in Tampa Bay (2019–22), Atlanta (2023), and Pittsburgh (2024–25). His career year came in 2020 — 33 catches, 501 yards, three touchdowns — a season that ended with a Super Bowl ring. That 2020 version of Miller was the classic field-stretcher, a 4.3-speed deep threat who forced safeties to stay honest. The Bears aren’t expecting 501 yards from their practice squad; they’re expecting a veteran who knows exactly where to line up, runs the scout team the way the starter needs it run, and can be elevated on a Sunday without a single wasted rep.

Chicago made three practice-squad moves in all, per the team’s announcement: in addition to Miller, the Bears signed defensive back Elijah Jones and released defensive back Deantre Prince from the unit.

TexansDeuce Vaughn gets another shot in Houston

The Houston Texans are signing running back Deuce Vaughn to the practice squad, Aaron Wilson reported. Vaughn, 24, remains one of the more interesting “what if” players of his draft class: a former sixth-round pick of the Dallas Cowboys in 2023 (212th overall) out of Kansas State, where he was a consensus All-American in 2022 and ran for 3,604 career yards — second in program history. At 5-foot-6, he was always going to have to prove he could survive between the tackles, and the NFL has made him prove it repeatedly: cut by Dallas in August 2025, stashed on Denver’s practice squad through last season, and released by Houston on August 29.

Now he’s back with the same Texans team that let him go five weeks ago, which tells you something about how he practiced and how thin the running-back room feels in October. Vaughn’s college résumé — the All-America season, the yards, the tape that made him a draft darling — hasn’t disappeared. Houston is betting that in its system, with its offensive line, the small back with the big highlight reel still has a pulse in this league. The Texans’ running-back depth is a legitimate concern, and a practice-squad flyer on a 24-year-old with Vaughn’s pedigree is exactly the kind of low-cost lottery ticket good front offices buy in bulk.

SeahawksRobert Henry Jr. jumps to the active roster

The boldest move of the day came from Seattle. The Seahawks signed running back Robert Henry Jr. to the active roster off the Commanders’ practice squad, Jordan Schultz reported. This wasn’t a stash — Henry is on the 53, and the Seahawks gave up a roster spot to get him, waiving a player to make room.

Henry, 24, was a first-team All-AAC selection in 2025 and went undrafted out of UTSA in the 2026 draft. His college production was about as complete as it gets for a Group of Five back: 35 games, 408 carries, 2,339 rushing yards, 27 touchdowns, plus 58 receptions for 428 yards over three seasons with the Roadrunners. Seattle clearly saw something in his preseason and early-season practice work in Washington that convinced the front office he belonged on Sundays now, not later. For an undrafted rookie to be poached straight onto someone else’s 53 in Week 5, the bet is that his pass-catching and between-the-tackles balance translate faster than his draft status suggested. Keep an eye on whether he’s active on game day — that will tell you exactly how serious the Seahawks are.

SteelersPittsburgh keeps reloading the defense

Nobody worked the transaction wire harder this week than the Pittsburgh Steelers. On Tuesday the team announced it had signed cornerback Terell Smith to the 53-man roster off the Commanders’ practice squad, per NFL Trade Rumors, and NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo reported the Steelers also signed edge defender K.J. Henry to the practice squad — his third stint with the team in the last year.

Smith, 27, is a reclamation project with a real ceiling. A fifth-round pick of the Bears in the 2023 draft out of Minnesota, he played 26 games with six starts over his first two seasons (68 tackles, 10 pass breakups, one interception) before tearing his patellar tendon in the 2025 preseason and missing the entire year. Chicago cut him in August; Washington stashed him on its practice squad on September 1. For Pittsburgh, poaching him onto the 53 is a bet that a 6-foot, 207-pound corner with starting experience and two years of cost control left is worth a roster spot right now — especially with the secondary depth being tested.

Henry, 27, keeps finding his way back to Pittsburgh. Originally a fifth-round pick of the Commanders in 2023 out of Clemson, he has bounced through Cincinnati, Dallas, Philadelphia — where he won a Super Bowl ring as a practice-squad member — Cleveland, and San Francisco, playing 15 career games with 2.5 sacks. The Steelers first signed him to their practice squad in October 2025, brought him back on a futures deal in January, cut him in June, and now they’re bringing him back again. That revolving door tells you the coaching staff trusts his preparation, even if the game-day math hasn’t worked out yet.

And the context matters: on Monday, Pittsburgh placed defensive tackle Derrick Harmon on injured reserve and signed cornerback Sean Murphy-Bunting off the Buccaneers’ practice squad to the 53-man roster, per 2822 News. That is three defensive additions in two days, two of them poached from other teams’ practice squads. It’s October, injury news is reshaping rosters across the league, and the Steelers are treating every practice squad in the NFL like a farm system.

Colts & BillsWatkins to Indy, Woods to Buffalo

The Indianapolis Colts signed wide receiver Quez Watkins to the practice squad and released cornerback Elijah Culp in a corresponding move. Watkins, 28, is a former sixth-round pick of the Eagles in the 2020 draft out of Southern Miss who put together four real seasons in Philadelphia — 98 catches, 1,249 yards, six touchdowns — before bouncing through Pittsburgh and Arizona. A 4.35-speed burner who once looked like a long-term piece of the Eagles’ receiving corps, he gives the Colts a proven vertical threat on the scout team and a plug-and-play elevation option if the injury bug hits the receiver room.

The Buffalo Bills signed cornerback A.J. Woods to the practice squad. Woods, 25, went undrafted out of Pittsburgh in 2024, signed with the Commanders as a rookie free agent, and has since logged practice-squad time with the Eagles and Broncos. His calling card is speed — he ran a 4.35-second 40 at Pitt’s pro day — and Buffalo, which has been managing its own injury list in the secondary, gets a fast, cheap developmental corner with special-teams upside.

TitansSix moves in Tennessee

The Tennessee Titans announced six practice squad moves on Tuesday, per the team’s official announcement, in the busiest single-team churn of the day. Added: offensive lineman Chandler Zavala, linebacker Chase Wilson, and defensive back Derrick Canteen. Waived: linebacker Owen Pappoe, defensive back Jalen McMurray, and offensive lineman Nick Broeker, as confirmed by ESPN’s Turron Davenport.

Zavala is the name with the most NFL résumé. The former Panthers fourth-round pick was waived by Carolina in August after starting 14 of his 34 game appearances over three seasons — a legitimate interior-line prospect who couldn’t quite lock down a starting job. For a Titans team that has been shuffling guards all season — Tennessee placed Fernando Carmona and Jackson Slater on injured reserve just last week and has cycled through options ever since — Zavala is a sensible lottery ticket. Canteen, a defensive back who came into the league as a 49ers undrafted free agent out of Georgia Southern, Virginia Tech, and Cincinnati, adds secondary depth. Pappoe, a former Cardinals linebacker, has now been waived by Tennessee twice in two weeks after bouncing between the practice squad and the active roster — the cruel math of life on the roster bubble in October.

BuccaneersTampa Bay fills the Murphy-Bunting hole

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers signed cornerback Brandon Johnson to the practice squad, per NFL Trade Rumors — and the timing tells the whole story. Johnson takes the practice-squad spot left open when Sean Murphy-Bunting departed for Pittsburgh’s active roster on Monday. It’s the other side of the poaching coin: when a contender comes for your depth, you backfill fast and keep the room whole. Tampa Bay gets a warm body with corner experience; Pittsburgh gets the player. That’s how October works.

The takeawayOctober is for the vets and the hungry

Step back and Tuesday’s wire has a clear shape. The contenders — the Rams, the Steelers, the Seahawks — spent the day adding players with either real January experience (Kendricks), real starting experience (Terell Smith), or real upside they couldn’t let sit on someone else’s scout team (Henry). The re-signings — Miller in Chicago, Vaughn in Houston — are teams betting on familiarity over the unknown. And the Titans are doing what 1-4 teams do in October: turning the bottom of the roster over and over, looking for anyone who sticks. Every one of these moves could be a footnote by Thanksgiving. But Kendricks starting playoff games five months ago, a rookie back jumping straight to a 53, and a Super Bowl-era deep threat back in Chicago — those are the ones worth remembering when the next round of injuries hits. See how the contender picture is shifting in this week’s NFL power rankings.