Kendall: League likely to suspend James Pearce

This is a tall task for the shortest wide receiver to ever reach 1,000 yards in a single season. That said, Robinson and new Titans OC Brian Daboll spent the last four seasons together with the Giants, so Robinson is intimately familiar with the offensive scheme, and he added a vertical element to his route tree last year. Titans rookie WR Carnell Tate is his primary target competition and as Arvin notes, “Robinson should find favorable matchups working from the slot.” Robinson finished as the PPR WR14 last season, yet he is being drafted as a borderline WR4/5 in best ball. Even if Robinson ends up being Tate’s sidekick, this looks like a dip worth buying right now.

Arvin writes that Tony Pollard is expected to remain the lead back, but he thinks a committee approach could be in order, “with the additions of fifth-round pick Nicholas Singleton and the continued presence of Tyjae Spears.” On June 11th, Titans coach Robert Saleh referred to Pollard and Spears as “the bellcows of this football team,” and said Singleton will have to “compete his way” into the rotation. The Titans have had just three practices since Saleh’s remarks. As Arvin says, Pollard remains the top back in Tennessee. Spears is penciled in on passing downs and might get the chance to play a small role on early downs as well. Singleton’s role is murky. It would be reasonable for the Titans to limit a fifth-round rookie to special teams only. Perhaps this is a backfield to keep an eye on come training camp, though. If Singleton can earn even five or so touches per game, that is enough to slightly alter projections for Pollard and Spears.

This is difficult to believe and important to note because it could inflate Pierce’s ADP. Before digging into the numbers, keep in mind that Pierce is currently recovering from offseason ankle surgery and could return “late” in training camp. In the 2025 regular season, just six players earned 150-plus targets. Pierce earned targets at a 17.4 percent rate last year, trailing both WR Josh Downs (22.2 percent) and TE Tyler Warren (21.1 percent). Pierce is stuck working with the training staff, while Downs trains for the Z-receiver/slot receiver role, and Warren refines his route running after leading the team in targets as a rookie. Simply put, we strongly doubt Pierce’s odds of becoming a top-six NFL target earner. This vote of confidence is a positive for Pierce, but readers are advised against aggressively chasing Pierce’s ADP upward if it indeed begins to rise in the next week or two.

According to PFF, Downs has logged 1,561 slot snaps and 448 perimeter snaps over the course of his career. Per Colts coach Shane Steichen, the plan this offseason was to get Downs “some reps on the outside” in spring practices “and see where that goes.” Moore opines, “gone are the days of Downs being used as only a slot receiver.” It would be nice to have Steichen declare this with equal enthusiasm, but come training camp, we will find out for sure whether he is graduating from an overwhelmingly slot-based role. With nominal WR1 Alec Pierce (ankle) still sidelined, there is also a path for Downs to supplant him as the top player at the position. Downs has a real chance to beat his current WR4 ADP.

As a 2025 rookie, Egbuka went straight from a championship season at Ohio State to training for the NFL Scouting Combine. From there, he went right into spring workouts and was never really able to take time off. He admits to wearing down in his first season with the Bucs, but he was finally able to take time off earlier this year and now feels like he is “in very good condition, very good shape.” Egbuka picked up hip and hamstring injuries in September and October and went from being the PPR WR10 in Weeks 1-10 to the WR55 in Weeks 11-18. Former Bucs WR Mike Evans returned from injury in Week 15 and QB Baker Mayfield was reportedly playing through multiple injuries of his own. The confluence of events certainly did not help Egbuka, and we find his weariness explanation plausible enough. A big-time bounce-back season for the second-year wide receiver is possible.

Bowman suffered a torn Achilles in late November and is a potential PUP candidate. Darnay Holmes and second-rounder Avieon Terrell are candidates to fill the void if Bowman — who was having a marvelous rookie year before he got hurt — is unable to make it back before the start of the season.

Atlanta “appears to be waiting” on the league to decide how they want to punish Pearce. Cameron Sutton was suspended eight games in 2024 for a similar incident, which Kendall mentions and certainly could serve as a blueprint for how this plays out. Falcons coach Kevin Stefanski said they have not received any communication from the league on this subject. It certainly would be surprising if Pearce weren’t eventually suspended to some extent.

Per Warren, “the Raiders have a lot more confidence in their wide receiver group than those on the outside looking in,” and that should give Jalen Nailor and Tre Tucker a little bit more juice as late-round best ball picks. We’re having a really hard time forecasting where Diggs will land after his respectable 85/1,013/4 receiving line last year off a torn ACL. The Commanders seem to be waiting on Brandon Aiyuk, and only the Ravens and Chiefs have really been mentioned of late as a reasonable landing spot for the veteran wideout.

Zach Ertz was second on the team with 72 targets last year, but after that you have to slide all the way down to John Bates at 16 to find another tight end. Chig Okonkwo is certainly in the TE2 tier at the moment, but this would appear to give him a path to low-end TE1 upside. Keim does say it’s not only Okonkwo who will have a bigger role, and the role may shrink a bit if and when the Commanders finally bring in Brandon Aiyuk or another veteran WR2. Still, Okonkwo’s range of outcomes is much better than it was last year in Tennessee.

Jacory “Bill” Croskey-Merritt was noticeably bigger this spring, per Keim, and Dan Quinn said they’d told the back he needed to add bulk and be a bigger factor in the passing game. Keim doesn’t list a strong No. 2 runner on the depth chart, but we’d expect Rachaad White to have first crack at the No. 2 duties. Bill probably belongs in the RB3/RB4 tier for the moment.