NFL Player News

Griffin was set to make $4.1 million after struggling in 2011, but ESPN’s Josina Anderson reports the Vikes hope to re-sign him at a lower salary. Between the release of Griffin and guards Steve Hutchinson and Anthony Herrera, the Vikings have cleared roughly $13 million in cap space. Griffin was an asset against the run last season, but struggled in coverage and with penalties. His release speaks volumes about his play since the Vikings could be without CB Chris Cook in 2012 depending on the outcome of his domestic assault trial.

We don’t yet know when Kolar could return, but he will have to miss at least the next four games now that he’s on injured reserve. Kolar was seeing a decent workload during the first two weeks of the season, as his 72 snaps led all Chargers tight ends, while his 24 routes run were only one fewer than David Njoku’s 25. With Njoku (fibula) also on injured reserve, Oronde Gadsden could be in line for a significant workload over the next several weeks.

Njoku was unable to put any weight on his right leg and was carted from the field in Sunday’s loss to the Raiders. Njoku has caught six passes for 67 scoreless yards for the Chargers in his first two games with the team and led all tight ends on the roster with 25 routes run. He’ll have to miss at least the next four games now that he’s landed on IR, but we should have a better sense of his return timeline in the coming days.

Goedert avoided a serious injury, but the veteran tight end will still be sidelined for a few weeks. It’s a blow to an Eagles passing game that has struggled coming out of the gate, as Goedert has already tallied five receptions for 81 yards and two touchdowns in the first six quarters of football he has played this season. Veteran TE Johnny Mundt should be the favorite to replace Goedert going forward; he stepped in to play 49 snaps against the Titans. Mundt has 76 career receptions in 116 games and shouldn’t be viewed as an option to replace Goedert in fantasy leagues.

Flowers is one of multiple injured players who Minter said could play in Week 3. Flowers missed Week 2’s game against the Saints after reaggravating his hamstring injury in Week 1 against the Colts, but he was able to practice in a limited capacity to close out the week. We’ll see how he fares this week when the Ravens release their first injury report, but it sounds like the star receiver is trending in the right direction. In addition to Flowers, Minter also said DT Nnamdi Madubuike (neck) and LB Teddye Buchanan (knee) could also return agains the Cowboys.

So it’s just like every other week, then, folks. Evans left Week 2’s game against the 49ers but reportedly could have returned if it were close. Evans, 33, likely will miss practice time this week. It doesn’t sound like there’s a major reason to believe he’ll miss Week 3 with the injury based on how this has gone, but we’ll keep updating his practice status.

So it sounds like this wasn’t just a ding and in fact has a chance to keep him out for the week. He left Week 2’s game in a walking boot after catching 2-of-3 targets for 19 yards. Jalen Tolbert could replace Douglas on the active roster in Week 3 for those of you in 75-team leagues.

X-rays came back negative last night but Pierce couldn’t put weight on it last night and left on crutches with a boot on. The fact that it was an aggravation is not promising. It sounds like Pierce could be looking at an extended absence. If true, Josh Downs will get some WR3 hype ahead of Week 3’s date against the Texans. If you were wondering why Laquon Treadwell was on the field deep in the game on Sunday night, Pierce’s injury is the reason.

Penix will make his first start since Week 11 of last season, when he suffered a torn ACL against the Panthers. If he plays well enough, Penix will have a chance to secure the starting job for the remainder of the season, but he will have Tua Tagovailoa looming in the background once he is fully recovered from his oblique injury. Penix has struggled early in his career, throwing for 2,757-12-6 in 14 career games while completing just 59.6 percent of his passes. It seems unlikely that he will hold onto the job for the remaining 15 games of the season, but he’ll get the first legitimate crack at it after the Falcons were forced to start Cooper Rush for the first two weeks of the season. Penix shouldn’t be viewed as anything more than a low-end QB2 for fantasy purposes on Thursday night against the Packers.

He also said he will “be talking about options at running back.” The subtext here is that Jones can’t handle 23-carry workloads in his age-32 season. DeeJay Dallas and Demond Claiborne are their backups on the roster with Jordan Mason on injured reserve. Dallas was just signed earlier this month. Claiborne is “not yet ready to carry the load” per ESPN’s Kevin Seifert. We expect reporting to reveal the second main member of this committee at some point this week, and there’s a chance that said player is in the flex conversation against the Buccaneers in Week 3.

Jennings was targeted just once in Week 1. It could be argued that we’re not sure what his target count would look like in a normal Vikings game given how quickly Kyler Murray got hurt, but there’s never been a normal Vikings game anyway. Jennings is best monitored from the waiver wire.