Fantasy Sports

Thursday’s worst kept secret is now (basically) official. FOX’s Jordan Schultz reports the Jags are “so impressed” with Coen the sides will now “collaborate on the team’s new GM as well.” If that seems insane, it was clear it would be the outcome after the Jags’ stunning Trent Baalke about-face and immediate resumption of talks with Coen. A wizard with Baker Mayfield in Tampa this season — though, let’s be real, Mayfield deserves a lot of the credit after getting back-to-back OCs head-coaching gigs — Coen is strangely no stranger to coaching intrigue, as he left the University of Kentucky for the Rams in 2022 only to return to UK in 2023. It was then off to Tampa where he picked up where Dave Canales left off, overseeing an even more explosive offense. Still only 39 years old, Coen fits the league’s current preferred mold of first-time head-coaching hires. Young, and an offensive play-caller. We’ll see about Coen’s leadership skills. The supposed skullduggery he engaged in with the Bucs this week is mildly concerning. Tasks 1, 2 and 3 for Coen in 2025 will be getting Trevor Lawrence’s career back on the right track.

Saleh was widely considered to be the favorite to get the Jaguars head coaching gig not long ago, but it appears that Liam Coen will be the one who gets that job now that Trent Baalke isn’t in the way. It’d be a return to San Francisco for Saleh, as he was the DC under Mike Shanahan from 2017-2020 before taking over for the Jets. Saleh has had plenty of success leading defenses, and assuming this happens, it should be an upgrade for the 49ers’ group.

The star rookie corner was knocked from last week’s divisional round matchup against the Rams but is well on his way to playing in the conference championship game against the Commanders. The Eagles defense will need all hands on deck if it hopes to slow Jayden Daniels, Terry McLaurin, and an offense that totaled four offensive touchdowns in last week’s win over the Lions. Barring an unexpected turn of events, it sounds like we can expect Mitchell to be on the field come Sunday. He’ll have a chance to log another full practice on Friday before the team releases its final injury report for the week.

Brown was limited on Wednesday but said he was feeling better. That appears to be the case, as the Eagles’ star receiver was upgraded to a full participant in Thursday’s practice and has a chance to be removed from the injury report entirely by Friday. The Eagles have been managing Brown’s injury for the last several weeks in hopes of having him at his best come game day. He’ll be ready to go for Sunday’s NFC Championship Game against the Commanders.

You can’t ask for much more than that. Just days after suffering a knee injury in the NFC Divisional Round against the Rams, Hurts went from being limited on Wednesday to a full participant on Thursday. His availability for the NFC Championship was never going to be in question, but how his knee will affect his mobility and ability to evade pressure will be something to watch.

This news comes after head coach Nick Sirianni said Goedert would practice today. Instead, Goedert has started the week with back-to-back DNPs, which casts some doubt over his availability for Sunday’s NFC Championship Game against the Commanders. While two straight absences is concerning, we can’t blame teams for wanting to exercise caution with any injured players. Tomorrow’s final injury report should offer better clarity on where his availability stands heading into the weekend.

Fiske suffered his knee injury in the Rams’ divisional round loss to the Eagles. According to Rams beat writer Stu Jackson, Fiske’s injury won’t impact his availability for the start of next season, which is great news for the 2024 rookie second-round rounder. Fiske totaled 8.5 sacks and 10 TFLs this season and will enter next year with high expectations following a strong rookie campaign.

According to Archer, Diggs had chondral tissue graft surgery, which is a surgery that involves removing damaged cartilage and replacing it with a tissue graft. Cowboys executive VP Stephen Jones said in December that he’s hopeful Diggs can return by the start of 2025 after it was announced he would be out for the season, but now, it sounds like his availability at the start of camp is officially in question. We’re months away from knowing how this could truly impact the upcoming season for Diggs, but it’s something to keep in mind as training camp draws closer this summer. There’s a good chance we’ll learn more on his recovery before then.

While the report is being called informal, Harris says, “the interest is legitimate enough to be reported.” It was reported earlier today that the Cowboys could hire offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer as its next head coach as early as Thursday, but this latest bit of news on Carroll comes hours after that report. Carroll was thought to have a chance to land the Bears’ head coaching gig before they went out and poached Ben Johnson from the Lions, and there have also been rumors that the Raiders are considering Carroll as their “backup option” after they also lost out on Johnson. Now, the Cowboys could emerge as the third team with serious interest in Carroll, although it sounds like this courting is in its earliest stages. Carroll would have a multitude of offensive weapons at his disposal should he wind up in Dallas, but will have his work cut out for him to fix a defense that ranked 31st in points allowed and 28th in yards allowed last season.

Ertz is dealing with a rib injury, but Wednesday’s DNP was to allow him to rest said injury — as was the case last week. The veteran tight end isn’t at risk of missing Sunday’s NFC Championship Game against the Eagles and will have some upside as a DFS value against his former team.