NFL Player News

Numerous reports continue to come in on Lamb’s ankle. In less than 24 hours, we have gone from Lamb saying he could “absolutely” play in Week 4 to the team now expecting him to miss 3-4 weeks, which always felt like the most likely outcome regardless of Lamb’s optimism. NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport later reported that the Cowboys don’t plan to place Lamb on injured reserve in case he can return inside the four games players on IR are required to miss, but it sounds like this is trending toward being a multi-week absence. George Pickens and Jake Ferguson stand to benefit the most from Lamb’s absence, with Pickens profiling as a WR2 and Ferguson a fringe TE1 in fantasy.

No real surprise after Mendoza’s mop-up appearance in Week 5. It doesn’t appear that he’s taken a major step towards unseating Cousins — who has played well — just yet. But it remains a reasonable bet to happen in the near future.

It wouldn’t be surprising if he missed some practice time this week. Marcus Mbow would get snaps in Week 6 if Eluemunor were not able to go.

Sirianni was asked about both Barkley and DeVonta Smith, who is also dealing with a hamstring injury. Sirianni didn’t commit to either player practicing this week, but we’ll see how things look on Wednesday when the Eagles release their first injury report. Philly suddenly finds itself in desperate need of help at running back after Tank Bigsby (core) was placed on IR last week and Will Shipley (foot) was diagnosed with a partial tear in his plantar fascia that’s expected to sideline him for several weeks. If Barkley is unable to play in Week 6, Dameon Pierce and Jaydon Blue would be next in line to lead the Eagles’ banged up backfield.

Smith hasn’t been seen on the practice field since Week 3 ended, so to say the practice week matters would perhaps be underselling it. Expect Smith to play if he practices at all, though, as the veteran often has suited up with little practice time in the past.

He had four catches on 12 targets and it felt worse than that. Wayne will likely resurface on the Texans practice squad upon clearing waivers.

Shanahan confirming this will be a multi-week absence isn’t surprising, but we still aren’t clear on just how much time he could miss. We’ll likely get a more specific timeline in the days ahead, but it sounds like we can safely assume Samuel will miss Week 6’s game against the Commanders and Week 7’s game against the Falcons. Jacob Cowing and Brandin Cooks could both be in line to see more work in the weeks ahead, with Cooks perhaps being the favorite to get the first crack at replacing Samuel. Cooks’ 11 routes run in the second half of Sunday’s game led all 49ers, including Mike Evans, and he found the end zone on a seven-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter to put the Niners ahead with just over 11 minutes left in regulation.

We weren’t exactly worried about Skowronek siphoning many targets away, but with him out of the pecking order entirely Germie Bernard should be a wheels-up WR3 for Week 6 now that both Skowronek and Roman Wilson have been ruled out.

While this is good news for Jackson, Minter also said he wasn’t sure if Jackson would be back on the practice field on Wednesday. It was reported earlier on Monday that there was “some hope” that Jackson would play in Week 6 after he was “closer than people realized” to playing in Week 5 against the Falcons. This is shaping up to be another week where we are forced to monitor Jackson’s practice status up until Friday, when the team releases its final injury report. The Ravens are 4-1 and set to face a 3-2 Browns team in a pivotal AFC North matchup. If Jackson is unable to start, Tyler Huntley would make his second start of the season.

So, probably, then. The hand hasn’t really been a contributing factor to New Orleans’ decline so much as the Saints offensive line has just been in the blender for two weeks against Atlanta and Minnesota’s fronts, but it sure looks like Shough is managing through something and we should probably break ties against him in the rankings.

Penix said after Sunday’s loss that he didn’t believe his injury would be long-term. He was replaced by Tua Tagovailoa in overtime because of his injury, but he also added that he likely would have gone back on the field had the Falcons received the ball to start the extra quarter. Instead, Penix said his pain worsened the longer he sat, which was why he ultimately didn’t go back in. Penix’s status will be one to monitor throughout the week. If he can’t start in Week 6, Tagovailoa would be in line to start his first game of the season.