NFL Player News

As expected, the Seahawks added Gaskin back to their practice squad after waiving him Tuesday. He saw three carries for six yards in Week 13 as the third back behind Kenneth Walker and Zach Charbonnet. With Cam Akers recently joining the active roster and ready to be active, Gaskin moves down to the practice squad.

Per NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo, the deal is worth “up to” $48 million. A chunk of that figure is presumably based on incentives. The contract includes $25 million guaranteed. Strange posted a minor breakout in 2024 with 411 yards on 40 grabs. He upped the ante in 2025 to 46 catches for 540 yards despite missing five games. Strange was heading into the final year of his rookie deal before this extension and the team spent multiple draft picks on tight ends, making it look like they were considering letting him walk next offseason. Instead, Nate Boerkircher and Tanner Koziol will primarily see the field for heavy offensive looks, something the team talked about after the draft. Strange will sit on the TE1/2 border in early fantasy drafts.

“That’s where [Jaguars coaches] believe he can take that next step,” Wolfe said, adding that Thomas has shown much better chemistry with Trevor Lawrence this offseason after the two seemed never to be on the same page in 2024 and 2025. A downfield role would be nothing new for Thomas, who last season averaged 14.3 air yards per target and led the Jaguars in air yards share when healthy. Thomas in 2026 could remain a high-variance weekly fantasy option whose stat line will rely on splash plays. That could make him frustrating for fantasy managers while Parker Washington and Jakobi Meyers are more consistent but lack the big play upside of BTJ. Lawrence in 2025 ranked 19th out of 33 qualifying QBs in downfield accuracy, in line with Cam Ward.

With Matthew Stafford likely to have another limited training camp as he manages a back issue for the second straight year, rookie No. 13 pick Ty Simpson and former fourth-round pick Stetson Bennett are battling for the backup role. Though the team wants Jimmy Garoppolo back, the vet is mulling retirement, leading to one of these two unproven arms to be thrust into the backup quarterback role. Atkins reports Bennett took reps first in Stafford’s two missed practices in minicamp but neither Bennett nor Simpson “were able to stand out ahead of the other.” The Rams consider the backup role a significant void “with Stafford’s need to take time off and with the risk from each time Stafford takes a hit”, according to Atkins. A season in which Stafford misses time due to injury already decreases the Rams’ contention odds and an unprepared Simpson or Bennett as QB2 would be costly. Both will have time for developmental reps in camp and Simpson is worth rostering in Dynasty fantasy football formats.

“Sometimes I am a little irritated with my situation,” Mims added. “But at the end of the day, I’m blessed to be where I am.” The Jaylen Waddle trade has effectively blocked Mims from much chance of offensive snaps as he enters the final year of his rookie contract. At the same time, he’s such an explosive punt returner that the Broncos probably still see him as a roster lock. It’s not fully over for those of you hanging on in dynasty leagues, but it certainly doesn’t look promising in the short-term for Mims to put up any offensive volume.

The Falcons had previously waffled a bit on potentially making Pitts available after “President Of Football” Matt Ryan took over, but must have liked what they saw in the early offseason. Pitts currently looks to be slated for the No. 2 receiver role in Atlanta behind Drake London and should be a fantasy-viable TE1 this year. (Words that have never come back to bite anyone.) Pitts settles for slightly below George Kittle’s $19.1 million per year and Trey McBride’s $19 million per year and will remain in Atlanta for the near future.

Bell has been working extensively with the second team in drills, putting him in the conversation for a roster spot. Bell was an almost complete non-factor in the passing game at Georgia, with just 185 targets in four years. But he did also get manufactured touches on the ground. This probably says more about how Tai Felton is developing than any sort of fantasy shakeup for Minnesota’s passing game, but Bell looks to be on the radar to make a charge for a roster spot.

Benson reportedly had a strong connection with Fernando Mendoza during OTAs and minicamp and was a “go-to” target during team drills. Given how little is settled on the Vegas depth chart at wideout, we should at least be open to the odds that Benson could snag a major role with a strong training camp. He enters the deep sleeper conversation heading into training camp.

Bond appears to be the second-team slot receiver and has made plays with that group. Given that Jaylin Noel is already trying to make a real run at playing time behind Nico Collins, Tank Dell and Jayden Higgins, Bond probably doesn’t have much of a shot of fantasy value in 2026. This does help his case for a roster spot in training camp, though.

Allen has played with Colts head coach Shane Steichen when Steichen was calling plays with the Chargers, so the pairing makes some sense there. Boyd seems to believe that Alec Pierce’s ankle-related absence may make the Colts try a play for a veteran wideout. It would be a weird fit between Allen and Josh Downs to have the offense revolve around two slot-majority wideouts if Pierce weren’t ready for the start of the regular season.

Sanders broke his ankle in Week 17 against the Seahawks, ending his season. It would seem that he’s on track to participate in training camp, and this report doesn’t really dwell on if he’ll be a possibility for the PUP list. In theory, Sanders could still emerge as the preferred pass-catching option at the position for the Panthers. In actuality, the 2024 fourth-rounder probably would have made more strides in either of the past two years if that was going to happen. He’s simply a TE3 hold in deep leagues at this point.