:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/18714485/175812877.0.jpg)
The Cincinnati Bengals announced earlier on Friday that no more moves will be made until Saturday, but enough went down to warrant an impression.
The league announced an eight-game suspension for DeQuin Evans, violating the league's policy on performance enhancing substances for a second time -- the first was in Sept. '11. In the grande scheme of things, this doesn't deal a significant blow to the team and may even help Evans in the long-term.
Evans was a long-shot to make the roster, but now his home remains in Cincinnati through the end of October when his suspension expires. This doesn't suggest an automatic promotion to the 53-man roster. In fact, the team could release Evans at any point, but enough injuries and oddities occur during a 16-game regular season that Cincinnati may find use for him. Since he's not getting paid during his eight-game suspension, the team can place Evans in their back pocket as a contingency. And if there's no need by week nine, they release him and our little blue globe continues spinning on it's off-centered axis.
The number of transactions required to get within the 53-man roster drops to 21.
The biggest blow came when reports surfaced that linebacker Emmanuel Lamur will be out for the entire season after suffering a shoulder injury against the Indianapolis Colts. Projected as one of the linebackers to make the 53-man roster and arguably the team's best coverage backer, Lamur's placement on Injured Reserve won't be official until the team announces the rest of their transactions on Saturday.
Figure that J.K. Schaffer will be the team's sixth linebacker on Saturday, but he could easily be released on Sunday if the team finds someone that's a better fit in free agency and/or the waiver wire. It's a precarious thing for Schaffer. But if the team finds a free agent linebacker that they like and release Schaffer, he's eligible to sign with the team's practice squad if no one submits a claim on him.
That being said, they have 20 transactions to go.