NFL Player News

Smith (6'6/262) is in an interesting place when it comes to the 2021 NFL Draft, as unlike many of the other top defensive ends he did not get to play this past fall. The NCAA moved the FCS season to the spring, which would have interfered with Smith’s draft preparations had he decided to play. While there are some question marks when it comes to his physical build and the competition that he played against, Smith brings some positives to the table as well. “Standing over 6-foot-6, he moves gracefully for his size on tape,” Hodgkinson wrote. “He doesn’t show off consistently elite explosiveness, but he still has exceptional get-off, lateral agility, and some degree of bend.” Smith doesn’t lack for upside, but he is projected by some draft analysts to be a Day 3 selection come April.

Mevis finishes the year 12-of-13 on field goals — missing one against the Seahawks in Week 16 — and hit all 39 of his regular season extra point attempts. He was perfect in the playoffs on five field goals and nine extra-point attempts. The 23-year-old was a find for the Rams and should enter the starting kicker conversation in most fantasy leagues that use kickers in 2026.

What Smith did do was lose his footing on a punt return, letting the ball bounce off his chest and arms and right to the Seahawks. It immediately led to a touchdown in what finished as a four-point loss. Kyren Williams replaced Smith afterwards. Smith battled Tutu Atwell for a roster spot all season and eventually won out because of his work on special teams. Welp. An exclusive rights free agent in 2026, Smith was mostly a shot-play weapon and doesn’t figure to have a real fantasy role next season.

From Weeks 1-12, the 2024 sixth-round pick was Los Angeles’ No. 3 receiver and played 52.4 percent of the Rams’ snaps. His fantasy relevancy peaked when the Rams headed to London without Puka Nacua and Whittington managed to reward managers with a 2/9 dud. Over the final five games of the season, dealing with a knee injury, he managed just 44 offensive snaps. Whittington isn’t a must-hold in dynasty leagues at this point, but it’s possible he was simply not himself while trying to play hurt. Either way, it’s hard to imagine much of a 2026 fantasy role for him here.

Mumpfield had an eight-target game in Davante Adams’ hamstring-related absence and certainly appears to be the main backup wideout on the outside after the Rams picked him in the seventh round of last year’s draft. He finished the year with a 10/92/1 line. There’s not an obvious fantasy vacuum for him to step into even if he managed to be the main third receiver in 2026 — especially given how successful three tight-end looks were for the Rams this year. Still, he’s an interesting dynasty bench stash after making good progress in his rookie year.

A free agent this offseason, the 33-year-old tight end certainly didn’t earn many targets for the Rams in 2025 despite 3TE looks being the norm. Some of that is Davante Adams and Puka Nacua, yes. Some of that is also just getting old. We’d bet on Higbee to get sniffs in free agency, but we’d be surprised if the lifelong Ram found a fantasy-favorable role in 2026.

It’s an unsatisfying end to a season that looked to be trending up over his last three games, with a hamstring injury sandwiched around games of four, four, and five targets heading into this one. Ferguson probably won’t garner much offseason hype given the fact that the Rams very easily fed Puka Nacua and Davante Adams this year, but he has a shot to take a major step forward. He’s best-drafted as a high-end TE2 given the Rams’ 3TE shenanigans and our lack of a proof of concept for a big fantasy game, but where there’s talent and a good offensive playcaller, fantasy points aren’t hard to foresee.

Allen went untargeted in the playoffs despite a strong snap share — he’s clearly the blocking tight end of the four-headed 3TE attack the Rams run. He enters the final year of his rookie contract in 2026 looking like a solid use of a roster spot for the Rams and someone fantasy managers should never, ever call on.

Parkinson’s touchdown run finally ran out of steam over the past two weeks, but he ends the year with 43/408/8 in the regular season and another score in the playoffs. He did drop a third-down pass in this one, but was otherwise what we’ve come to expect. It’s hard to imagine that the Rams will phase him out of the offense altogether in 2026, the final year of his contract, but teams will probably have better answers for Los Angeles’ 3TE sets with a year of tape to pick over and Terrance Ferguson will be a likely breakout candidate. It all adds up to Parkinson being more of a TE2 in 2026 offseason drafts.

If the last two playoff weeks made it seem like Adams was having trouble getting reacquainted with Matthew Stafford after a long hamstring-related layoff, this game certainly made it feel like the connection was back. Adams hauled in a dart that was just shy of the goal line, then cashed in with a red zone out. Adams led the league in receiving touchdowns despite not playing the last three weeks of the season, which both says something about how good the McVay passing offense was and how bad league-wide offense was in 2025. He’ll remain a likely WR2 in 2026 even entering his age-34 season. It certainly didn’t seem like he was losing anything physically this year.

Answering a taunting flag on Riq Woolen by immediately toasting him for a touchdown in the third quarter, Nacua continued his reign of terror against the Seahawks. It was, amazingly, his fifth game of the season and playoffs to go over 160 yards. He’ll enter next year as a surefire WR1 and almost undoubtedly one of the first three receivers off the board after his league-leading 129 catches for 1715 yards and 10 touchdowns. There is some fragility here in the sense that Matthew Stafford is (even more) old and Nacua takes a lot of punishment on the field, but it’s hard to bet against the No. 1 wideout in a Sean McVay offense not delivering the goods.