NFL Player News

According to Smith-Schuster, he felt about “60 percent” healthy during this time last season. The veteran receiver was dealing with a knee injury that carried over from his 2022 season with the Chiefs and said he never reached a point of feeling 100 percent healthy. Now, that’s all changed. Speaking Monday at OTAs, Smith-Schuster said he feels like he is in full health, which is good news for the Patriots, who signed him to a three-year, $25 million contract last offseason. Smith-Schuster caught 29 passes for 260 yards and one touchdown in 11 games for the Patriots last season, looking like a fraction of the player he was in 2022 when he went for 78-933-3 with the Chiefs. If healthy, he should be the best receiver in New England’s underwhelming wide receiver room. With that said, it’s hard to imagine him having anything more than WR4 fantasy upside until we get a chance to see him on the field.

It’s not promising news for Sanders’ draft stock that the Steelers believe they have a chance at getting him at No. 21 overall. But he would be a good fit for Pittsburgh as they try to find a quarterback of the future to complement what they are hoping will be the quarterback of the present as negotiations with Aaron Rodgers continue to be drawn-out. The Steelers are clearly in the market for a quarterback in this draft no matter what happens with Rodgers.

Kendall, who covers a team that would seem to be very motivated to acquire Hendrickson in the Falcons, would be a good candidate to be sniffing around this information. Hendrickson has floated in quasi-limbo with his contract this offseason as the Bengals don’t appear to be willing to meet his demands. The asking price of a first-round pick seems unrealistic for a player entering his age-31 season, even one as good as Hendrickson was last year. The combination of those two things means we could be in for an extended impasse.

Rapoport acknowledged that things are “not great” between Cook and the Bills after general manager Brandon Beane said in late March that he didn’t foresee the two sides “getting something done anytime soon” on a contract extension for Cook, entering his fourth NFL season. Cook, who has back-to-back 1,000 yard rushing seasons and totaled 18 touchdowns in 2024, reportedly put his Buffalo home up for sale after Beane’s comments. Cook in a social media post requested $15 million per year in a new deal with Buffalo, a steep price for a solid-but-not-spectacular back. Cook’s contract disagreement will likely linger into the summer and could affect his training camp participation if progress is not made in the coming months. Ray Davis would be positioned to see extra run if Cook falls out of favor with the Bills.

The Cardinals reportedly visited with Samuel Jr. in March but did not come to terms on an agreement. Garafolo notes that last year’s shoulder/neck diagnosis is keeping him from being signed. The former second-round pick has had a “paused free agency,” and while Samuel Jr. has played well for the Chargers when healthy, it doesn’t sound like many NFL teams believe he is currently healthy after he missed the majority of 2024 with these issues.

Diggs underwent another surgery in January and is now further behind — we expect him to start on the PUP list and probably not play until October at the earliest. Ditto DeMarvion Overshown, as he was lumped into this answer by Jones. The Cowboys will make due with their former first-round reclamation projects on defense while two of their better defenders recover.

“Vidal played a season-high 35 offensive snaps against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 15,” Popper writes. “He gave up four pressures. His head was swimming trying to process coach Todd Bowles’ blitz packages. When Vidal was in position, he did not have the physicality to handle the Tampa linebackers.” That’s a pretty stark assessment of Vidal’s odds of being more than a change-of-pace back to Najee Harris going forward. Popper believes the Chargers should be looking to add at running back in the draft. None of this is to say that Vidal can’t take a step forward in 2025, but it doesn’t look like we should enter training camp expecting him to have a huge role in the LA offense even before we see if they add a back in the draft.

Popper speculates that the Chargers could take a receiver as high as 22nd overall, and believes Arizona wideout Tetairoa McMillan is a “fit” because of his size and contested-catch ability. Currently the Chargers have Ladd McConkey, Quentin Johnston, and Mike Williams as their starting three-wide set. Given how little Williams produced last year and how much Johnston has struggled throughout his first two seasons, addressing the position again makes plenty of sense. There could be enough competition in the room to keep a Chargers rookie wideout from immediately seeing major target and snap shares, however.

Duggan admits this is just connecting dots rather than firm reporting, but that the Giants giving Wilson’s contract a huge up-front signing bonus is not their “typical” structure on deals. In the same article, it is mentioned that Jameis Winston said that he could have “that starter-bridge opportunity in the future” with the Giants. We’re pretty sure nobody was actively believing in returning fantasy value out of the Giants quarterback room this year anyway, but in case you’re in a deep enough league where it matters, it sure sounds like Wilson could be shipped out at the trade deadline.

The Titans currently have the following players next to Calvin Ridley on the depth chart: Treylon Burks, Van Jefferson, James Proche II, Bryce Oliver, and Mason Kinsey. It’s a dire situation, and perhaps one that the Titans will address as soon as their top pick in the second round. As of now, Ridley profiles as the unquestioned No. 1 receiver. It’s possible that a rookie — as we blurbed earlier today with Kyle Williams — comes in and immediately takes a huge target share.

He mentions that the Giants and Browns could trade back into the first round to take Sanders as well, declaring it “the great question” of the NFL Draft in the first round. Draft scuttlebutt is always risky to fall into, but it does seem like the Browns and Giants aren’t selecting Sanders at No. 2 or No. 3 overall at this point. Sanders would certainly make sense for a Saints team that would probably like to move on from Derek Carr in the near future, and even if the Steelers get Aaron Rodgers, they would make sense as a team that needs a long-term solution at quarterback.