NFL Player News

Brock Purduy injured his right elbow on Monday and will miss the final week of the season. Brandon Allen will back up Dobbs. Dobbs took over for Purdy on the final drive versus Detroit and looked good, throwing for 35 yards on four attempts while punching in a seven-yard rushing touchdown. He will be in the QB2 mix for the final week of the regular season.

A hip injury early in the year suppressed Strange’s numbers in what would have easily been a breakout season for the third-year tight end. He was placed on injured reserve and missed five games. Despite that, Strange’s 46 catches, 540 yards, and three touchdowns were all career-highs. He finished the year as a mid-range TE2 on a per-game basis. The Jags run four deep at receiver when everyone is healthy. Liam Coen dials up designed targets for his running backs a few times a week. That makes it hard for Strange to be a consistent target-earner, but he is a solid streaming option when bye weeks roll in. He will be stuck in the TE2 range in 2026 drafts.

Playing through an ankle injury of late, Kittle planted with extreme force in the second quarter and suffered what appeared to be a ruptured achilles’ tendon. We, obviously, are not doctors, but these have become sadly easy to spot. Even were the worst-case scenario somehow avoided, Kittle is obviously done for the day and almost certainly for any potential 49ers Super Bowl run. The question then quickly becomes if the 32-year-old can be ready by next Week 1. At this stage of the offseason, it is not terribly likely, even though achilles timelines have condensed in recent seasons. Jake Tonges is the next man up on Sunday and for however long San Francisco can stay alive.

The Jags elevated their seventh-round rookie to the No. 3 spot on the depth chart early in the year by trading Tank Bigsby to Philly. Allen only ran 23 times for 94 yards on the year, but he did carve out a role on passing downs. Liam Coen sent him out for 61 pass-blocking reps as a rookie. Travis Etienne only logged 21 more pass-pro reps than him. Etienne is a free agent, but fellow rookie Bhayshul Tuten would be next in line for carries if Etienne walks. Allen is worth a stash in dynasty leagues but won’t be on the redraft radar next year.

Tuten repeatedly gashed the Bills, but Liam Coen leaned on his passing game, so there wasn’t much work to go around in the backfield. As has been the case all year, he was comfortably behind Travis Etienne in the pecking order for touches. Tuten got frustratingly close to earning a larger role at multiple points as a rookie, but minor injuries or changes in the weekly game-plan prevented him from truly breaking out. He missed two games late in the year with a finger injury and was on the injury report several times early in the year. His rookie season came to a close with 83 carries for 307 yards and five touchdowns. Etienne is a free agent, meaning it’s possible that Tuten can earn significantly more work in his sophomore campaign. The Jags’ free agency plans will determine how excited fantasy managers can get about Tuten next season.

Unlike his team, Etienne got to end a rebound season on a high note with over 100 yards from scrimmage and a score. He finished the regular season with 260 carries for 1,107 yards and seven scores. Etienne also juiced the fantasy numbers with six touchdowns through the air. He was the focal point of first-year head Liam Coen’s ground game and a crucial piece of the passing attack. Etienne is an unrestricted free agent, but it wouldn’t surprise anyone if the Jags make it a point to keep him in town. The 2025 season was Jacksonville’s best by regular season wins since 1999. GM James Gladstone will likely do his best to keep the core players on offense around for years to come. Etienne will slot in as a low-end RB1 for fantasy purposes if he sticks with the Jags.

Half of Thomas Jr.'s receptions in this game and his touchdown came while Parker Washington, who led the team in all receiving categories, was on the sidelines for a concussion evaluation. Per usual, BTJ didn’t do much target-earning. That was one of his many issues in a frustrating 2025 season. Thomas Jr. went from 1,282 yards and 10 scores as a rookie to 707 yards and just two touchdowns, though he did add a rushing touchdown to the ledger. He also missed three games because of injuries, which was a constant concern. Even when Thomas Jr. was on the field, he seemed afraid of contact, often easing up on tough grabs, resulting in several drops and a poor contested catch rate. With Travis Hunter missing half of his rookie season, things could get even worse for BTJ next year. He finished 2025 as a fantasy WR4, even on a points-per-game basis. Fantasy managers will likely gamble on a rebound and take him as a high-risk WR3.

With Parker Washington erupting for over 100 yards plus a score and Brian Thomas Jr. getting a touchdown of his own, there simply wans’t room in the struggling Jags’ passing game for Meyers to do much. Acquired midseason by Jacksonville, Meyers was brought in to backfill Travis Hunter’s role as a short and intermediate target for Trevor Lawrence. Meyers caught at least four passes in all but one of his nine regular season games with the Jags. The only miss was in his Jacksonville debut. He ended the year with 75 catches for 835 yards and three scores. He posted slightly better per-game numbers during his regular season appearances with the Jags. Meyers is the stable option in the Jaguars’ receiver room, but he might also have the lowest ceiling heading into 2026. Fantasy managers will likely treat him as a WR4 in early drafts.

The same is reportedly true of the Falcons. Evero has been on something of a three-year journey in Carolina, overseeing a strong unit in 2023, a disastrous one in 2024, and respectable one in 2025. We would consider him a long shot for either opening, but he’s clearly a name getting around in league circles. He also interviewed for openings following 2023. Evero turned 45 earlier this month.

Washington had been pulling away as the Jags’ No. 1 receiver leading into the postseason. He may now carry that status into 2026 after more than doubling up the team’s No. 2 wideout by targets in this game. That was despite missing some time for a concussion evaluation. Including the postseason, Washington topped 100 yards in three of his final four games. He was barely involved in the offense early in the season, but injuries to several key players, namely Travis Hunter, elevated him to a starting role. Washington never looked back and finished the season with 847 yards and five touchdowns on 58 grabs. With Hunter, Brian Thomas Jr., and Jakobi Meyers all under contract for multiple years, it’s unclear how things will shake out for the receiver room in 2026. This will be one of the most debated situations for 2026 fantasy drafts.

Facing a stout Jacksonville run defense, the Bills chipped away at the Jags with check-downs and screens to Shakir. His 12 catches in this game are three more than his previous career-high. No one on the team other than Shakir logged more than five targets. All in, Shakir earned a 34 percent target share. With Josh Palmer on IR and Gabe Davis now banged up, expect to see plenty more of Shakir in the Divisional Round. He will be a strong play on full PPR sites.