NFL Player News

The Ravens are entering the offseason without much cap space, though some of that could be alleviated via an extension for Lamar Jackson as he’s currently carrying a $23 million cap hit. Villanueva will turn 34 in September and was not the spot starter the Ravens hoped they were getting. Tavon Young (currently on a $9.18 million cap hit), Ben Powers, and Miles Boykin are other Ravens players that Zrbiec could see becoming cap casualties, trade targets, or restructure candidates.

The Athletic’s Jeff Zrebiec notes that Madubuike “mostly takes part in the team stretch, does some light individual work with a coach or athletic trainer and then heads to another field for conditioning. He hasn’t done anything that involves significant contact, including striking the blocking sled.” It’s certainly possible that Madubuike takes into the regular season to be ready to play football again based on this update, even if it is good news that he’s going through a ramp up. Zrebiec mentions that Madubuike could be a candidate for an IR-return spot.

He wasn’t healthy for much of training camp and apparently wasn’t needed to help further teach the Matt Nagy offense to the Giants. Smith-Schuster is just veteran depth at this point of his career, he’ll try to catch on elsewhere before the season starts.

It was suggested by Sports Illustrated’s John Shipley that the Jaguars could be “tipping their hand” here, as he writes “it is clear the Jaguars believe they need to devote more practice time with Hunter before Week 1 at cornerback, which could be the biggest signal yet that the majority of his snaps against the Cleveland Browns on Sept. 13 will be at cornerback.” Hunter will likely still be involved in the offense — he has worked with the offense every day before this — but it is notable that there was a shift here. Hunter will likely be just a dart throw WR5/WR6 in most standard leagues this year.

He was noted as “coming up limping” and worked with a trainer on the sideline. It doesn’t seem like this is a major injury as he was noted as “working off to the side” by Chargers beat Fernando Ramirez, but we’ll keep an eye out for any further updates on Johnston’s status.

A real “call an ambulance, but not for me” situation here as it was reported that Noel would be out for a few weeks on Sunday. He’s likely only participating in practice in a reduced role based on that. At this point Noel is likely just a bench dart throw in most leagues despite playing objectively well last year.

He missed about a week with a knee injury. Thomas has big-time speed and feels likely to connect on a few deep shots this year with Ben Johnson calling the plays, but he’ll likely need injuries in front of him to obtain fantasy relevancy. Especially now that he’s missed a chunk of training camp.

He did walk off under his own power. Texans coach DeMeco Ryans had no updates after practice. We’ll continue to monitor this one, as Higgins was gaining steam as a fantasy sleeper this offseason.

He couldn’t put any weight on his leg and “smacked the cart when he sat on it.” This sounds like it has the potential to be a season-ender for the newly-signed center. The Chargers did just spend a second-round pick on Florida’s Jake Slaughter, but he’s been in competition for the left guard spot. If Biadasz is out for a significant period, it would make sense for them to divert Slaughter back to the position he played in college.

Benson seems like he’s in danger of losing his roster spot after the Jeremiyah Love pick and the Tyler Allgeier signing. He simply hasn’t been healthy. The 24-year-old former third-round pick will try to show the Cardinals something over the next two weeks to stay in the fold.

He missed about two weeks of camp. There’s still time for him to impress the coaches, but Black probably needs to leave a lasting impression over these next two weeks to make a dent in Jordan James’ RB2 status.