NFL Player News

The former first-round pick had big tools, but has been pushed from right tackle to left guard this year after the Saints drafted Kelvin Banks. Penning’s career-best PFF pass block grade in a season is 60.8, and his 50.4 PFF grade at guard this year in 358 snaps is on pace to be a career-worst figure. He’s a stopgap for a team that just lost Joe Alt for the season, and it’s unclear if they plan to try him at tackle or if they’ll leave him inside at this time.

He apparently picked up the injury during Thursday night’s riveting win over the Raiders, though he played through it at the time while the Broncos closed out the game. If Dobbins is an IR candidate, he’s definitely a candidate to sit this week, which should be a big boost for RJ Harvey and probably make Tyler Badie a FLEX consideration as well.

He was limited on Monday after tweaking his knee, but this is a good sign that Henderson will carry at least some of the load against the Jets on Thursday night. How the role splits appears to be truly up for grabs given the short week and the fact that Terrell Jennings and Rhamondre Stevenson could both be deemed questionable tomorrow.

Back-to-back limited sessions for Boutte are real progress after last week’s three straight DNPs. It remains to be seen if he’s healthy enough to go in this game, but the Jets are a sneaky pass funnel defense and Boutte would be a viable FLEX play if he suits up.

That’s back-to-back limited sessions for Stevenson, who was spotted working on the side in practice by Patriots beats today. With Terell Jennings (knee, limited) also in question for Thursday night, the Patriots ominously signed Jonathan Ward to their practice squad. It’s certainly not out of the realm of possibility that Stevenson plays on Thursday night, but we’d bet on a questionable tag at this point. The tea leaves of signing Ward leave us thinking one of these two dinged up backs won’t play.

It was the last day the Cowboys could conceivably activate him after designating him to return three weeks ago, so we don’t know if Overshown is actually game-ready yet. The Cowboys were on bye this past week, and Overshown was still picking up limited practices ahead of their Week 9 game against the Cardinals. Dallas also activated rookie CB Shavon Revel (knee) from the non-football injury list — he faces much the same uncertainty. Both of these players should be boosts for a beleaguered Cowboys back seven. When they’ll actually debut is a question we don’t have an answer for yet.

Williams is mainly a special teamer, so this carries little in the way of fantasy implications. Perhaps one of Tampa’s practice squad backs, Owen Wright or Michael Wiley, will be more involved with the offense — we doubt it.

The Asante Samuel tour of America ends early, as he had been threatening to keep it rolling in other towns later this week. Samuel had spinal-fusion surgery after heading to IR early in the 2024 season. A once-promising high second-round pick, he’s still only 26 years old. If he can play anything like his old form, the Steelers did well to roster him. The fact that he’s signed with the practice squad shows an NFL that is pretty skeptical he’ll return to it.

Hunter is going to be ready for full football activities in six months, so he should be fully ready for training camp. What to make of this rookie year? It was a year of waiting for something to launch. There were no touchdowns until (what would become) his final game of the season, where the Jaguars forced balls to him with aplomb in garbage time against the Rams. The target rate was there, and then it wasn’t, and then it was again. The two major elephants in the room for him this offseason will be what happens (or doesn’t) with Brian Thomas Jr., and whether or not he’ll continue to be a two-way player following the injury. We expect the status quo to rule this situation — mostly because of what the Jags invested in Hunter and Thomas — and for Hunter to roll into the 2026 season as WR3 in fantasy drafts.

Stefanski certainly couldn’t be blamed for wanting to exit Cleveland after another season spent coordinating a dead-on-arrival offense hamstrung by Deshaun Watson’s contract. Especially after he didn’t appear to be on Andrew Berry’s page about giving up Joe Flacco to the Bengals in a midseason trade. As we hit silly season, Stefanski’s status will be one of the more important dominoes to watch. Hughes also mentions as names to watch for the job: Packers DC Jeff Hafley, Rams OC Mike LaFleur, Eagles OC Kevin Patullo (??), Chiefs DC Steve Spagnuolo, Vikings DC Brian Flores, Former Raiders HC Antonio Pierce, and Texans DC Matt Burke.

Packers coach Matt LaFleur is on record saying that the injury “doesn’t sound promising.” Jenkins sounds like a candidate to spend some time on injured reserve. Sean Rhyan replaced Jenkins at center and figures to be the replacement in the short term.