NFL Player News

Evans reportedly has a “low grade” hamstring issue, the latest in a long string of hamstring woes for the 32-year-old wideout. Evans would seem unlikely to land on injured reserve if the team believes he can come back for Week 7. ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler said the hamstring injury “is not considered as bad as last year’s” — which cost Evans three games — and that Evans “plans to work to get back as soon as possible, possibly beating the timeline.” With Evans sidelined, Emeka Egbuka should be an uptick in targets and air yards as the Bucs’ de facto WR1, and a top-12 weekly wideout. Sterling Shepard, who had four receptions for 80 yards last week against the Jets, would likely work as the team’s No. 2 wideout for the next few weeks. Shepard should be rostered in most 12-team leagues for the time being. Chris Godwin (ankle), meanwhile, could make his return to action while Evans is sidelined, further complicating Tampa’s target distribution and pass-catching pecking order.

Quinn then deftly declined to say if Daniels would play on Sunday. Never a good sign when the coach won’t even offer a comment on the plausibility of that happening on Monday. Marcus Mariota could be in for a smash streaming spot against a left-for-dead Giants defense in Week 15. We’re sure this is the first of many Daniels blurbs this week either way.

At a minimum, this is a season-ending injury for Ertz. At worst, it’s a career-ending injury for the 35-year-old tight end who has played 13 seasons and now suffered two devastating knee injuries in his career. Ertz re-upped with the Commanders on a one-year, $6.25 million deal this offseason after a bounce-back 2024 campaign in which he went for 66-654-7. Ertz continued to be a reliable safety blanket in the passing game for the 3-10 Commanders, posting a steady 5-504-4 line this season while going for 50-plus yards in three games. He’ll enter 2026 as a free agent, and may need to prove he’s fully healed in the offseason before signing a one-year contract with the Commanders or another team.

Taylor told reporters that Higgins — who was checked multiple times after a couple major hits on Sunday — reported symptoms after the game. Given the quick turnaround from his last concussion, it would be surprising if Higgins managed to play this week. It looks like Andrei Iosivas and Mitchell Tinsley, as well as Mike Gesicki, will be solidly on the 12-team radar for Week 15.

Always good to get that out of the way early. Hendrickson hasn’t played since October 26 and per Taylor will visit a specialist. We’d be surprised if we see Hendrickson again this season barring a miracle Bengals playoff run.

Hopkins has run nine or fewer routes in five games this season, and tied a season-low in Week 14’s loss to the Steelers when he ran a whole seven routes. It would seem that more snaps and routes would go a long way in getting Hopkins more involved with the offense, but we can’t be too sure. Hopkins hasn’t seen more than four targets in any game this season, and last topped 50 yards in Week 2. The Ravens have a Week 15 game against the Bengals on tap in what is effectively an elimination game. We’ll see if the Ravens actually get Hopkins more involved, or if this is another meaningless coach quote that falls by the wayside.

Being suspended for this week’s game was the last straw for Burton, who can have the final two years and change of his rookie deal claimed off waivers if any other team is amenable to it. We’d doubt that happens based on how prolonged the turmoil of his off-field habits remained a story in Cincinnati. (It has to be pretty bad to be a constant story in Cincinnati.) Burton ends his Bengals career with four catches for 107 yards on 14 targets, none of which happened this season as he fell behind Mitchell Tinsley.

We’d be surprised if London practiced today based on this quote, but the Falcons don’t need to release the injury report yet. With a Thursday game coming to lead off Week 15, London will get some star-level benefit of the doubt if he’s anywhere close, but the inability to even practice since suffering the injury leads us to believe he starts the week on the pessimistic side of questionable.

“From the sounds of it,” Indy Star’s Joel A. Erickson reports, “Richardson hasn’t been cleared to return yet.” It’s possible based on this update that Richardson could play later in the season for those of you looking to superflex stash a rushing quarterback. But there’s obviously no guarantee that he’ll return at this point.

Again. As in: For the third time this season. Woof. It would not be surprising if this was a season-ender for Ward. He did play 61 of 64 snaps against the Jaguars, so he apparently either played through symptoms or they developed after the game. It’s become a lost season for Ward, one of the Colts big-money signings this offseason.

According to NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo, Blu Kelly did not suffer any ligament damage, which is a good sign. The former fifth-round pick from the 2023 draft class played his way into a starting role for the Raiders this season and has totaled 40 tackles, three interceptions, and six pass breakups while making eight starts.