NFL Player News

Although the injury is to Blanchard’s left (non-throwing) hand, it severely dents his roster chances. Coach Marc Trestman hinted the team will sign another quarterback. The Bears worked out JaMarcus Russell, Trent Edwards and Jordan Palmer earlier this summer. Considering Jay Cutler’s recent fragility, we’d guess the Bears would like to carry three quarterbacks.

Van Lanen has played all over the formation this year, filling in wherever needed. The team recently rewarded his versatility with a three-year extension. He has been starting at left tackle as of late. Walker Little will likely slide back to left tackle for this game.

Johnson suffered the ankle injury in the Bills’ final game of the regular season. He only practiced once this week before being listed as questionable. Ray Davis will see more work in his absence. James Cook could also be used more on passing plays, upping his fantasy value for Sunday’s DFS slate. Kicker Matt Prater is active.

Per Rapoport, Freeman recently had his contract adjusted by Notre Dame to stay with the team. He also posted on social media late last year that he would be returning to the Fighting Irish. Still, a massive raise and a chance to coach in the pros could lure him away from college football. We suspect multiple teams will reach out to him just to be sure, though all signs point to him staying in the college ranks for another year.

The Packers haven’t decided on Matt LaFleur’s future yet, but another early playoff exit has many speculating that they will move on from him in the coming days. As Schefter notes, Harbaugh is from the Midwest and his agent, Bryan Harlan, is the son of a former Packers president. It’s admittedly a tenuous link, but the dots are there for someone to connect. More importantly, the Packers would, in this scenario, be the only playoff team with a head coaching vacancy. Harbaugh wouldn’t need to spend any time rebuilding a defunct roster and could instead focus on getting Green Bay out of the Wild Card Round. They already have an answer at quarterback with Jordan Love and just spent big on defensive superstar Micah Parsons. We would expect Harbaugh to prefer Green Bay to any other landing spot if the team fires LaFleur.

The coaching pool isn’t as deep this year as it was in 2025 when Ben Johnson and Liam Coen were both on the market. That, in turn, has teams like the Browns digging deeper into the McVay tree. Scheelhaase joined LA last year as an assistant and passing game specialist. He was promoted to passing game coordinator ahead of the 2025 season. Matthew Stafford went on to post career numbers this year, leading the league with 4,707 passing yards and 46 touchdowns. Scheelhaase is an under-the-radar name to watch for Cleveland. He will likely be in consideration for offensive coordinator gigs around the league as well.

The second-round rookie didn’t see much action early in the year but took over as the team’s starting left tackle in Week 12. He has held down that job ever since. Pro Football Focus has him graded as a top-40 tackle this year. Theo Benedet took his spot in the lineup late in Saturday’s game. He will presumably start in the Divisional Round.

Edwards was carted to the locker room in the second quarter of Chicago’s stunning comeback victory over the Packers and did not return. He appeared in 10 games this year, logging 67 combined tackles, .5 sacks, and a pick-six. D’Marco Jackson took his spot in the lineup in the second half of Saturday’s game. Jackson has largely been a backup this year.

McManus missed two critical kicks; an extra-point that would have put the Packers up by 13 with two minutes left, and a field goal that would have extended the Green Bay lead to six. The 34-year-old made 24-of-30 field goals in 2025, but he went just 6-for-12 on kicks beyond 40 yards. He is signed through 2027, but there’s no guarantee that McManus will be back in Green Bay in 2026.

Musgrave wasn’t involved despite the Packers throwing 46 times in the loss, and the 2023 second-round pick finishes a disappointing campaign with another ineffective fantasy outing. He ended the year with just 24 catches for 252 yards, and even after Tucker Kraft went down with his ACL injury in Week 9, he didn’t he didn’t make an impact with zero touchdowns and just one game with over four catches. The 25-year-old is under contract for one more year, and there’s no reason to think he should be on radars when draft season begins.

Watson came very close to a second touchdown, but he fumbled into the end zone with the ball being recovered by Green Bay and placed on the one-yard line to set up another score. The product of North Dakota State didn’t have any success in the second half, and the Packers’ second-half collapse keeps the Bears from moving on. Watson’s season line of 35 catches for 611 yards with six touchdowns is more impressive when you consider he didn’t play until the end of October, and the wideout appeared to build up chemistry with Jordan Love towards the end of the campaign; even with a lot of mouths to feed in the Green Bay passing attack. He’s under contract for 2026, and he’ll begin the 2026 campaign in the low-end WR, high-end WR3 conversation.