NFL Player News

Hooker spent time with the Panthers this season, but spent two seasons with the Lions after they drafted him in the 2023 NFL Draft’s third round. Jets OC Tanner Engstrand served as the Lions’ passing game coordinator from 2023-2024. Adding Hooker to the team’s practice squad makes sense.

Flournoy drawing a limited designation to start the week is a surprisingly good sign. The second-year receiver was knocked from Week 16’s game against the Chargers and ruled out almost immediately after leaving the field. It’s too early to say if he’ll be good to go for Week 17 against the Commanders, but it looks like he’s on track to log a few practices before Thursday.

Williams played through the same neck injury in Week 16 and did not suffer any reported setbacks after the game. The decision to list him as limited is likely more due to load management at this point in the season. Unless the team reports differently, we would expect Williams to be good to go for Week 17’s game against the Commanders. He will be on the RB2 radar if active.

Head coach Jonathan Gannon confirmed on Monday that Williams would miss the remainder of the season. The former third-round pick suffered a torn Achilles in Week 16’s loss to the Falcons and will now spend the next several months rehabbing in hopes of returning sometime in 2026. Williams started all 10 games he appeared in this season for the Cardinals, totaling 46 tackles, five pass breakups, one interception, and one forced fumble.

Nolen winds up with only 169 defensive snaps in 2025 between a Week 1-8 calf injury, a Week 12-14 knee injury, and this latest cart-off against the Falcons in Week 16. He had a 74.1 PFF defensive grade, but obviously the Cardinals will be hoping for a little more availability going forward in the second year of Nolen’s rookie contract.

It’s an estimated report, but it’s a new listing. St. Brown played through the entire game with the injury, notably being called for a game-ending offensive pass interference penalty on the final play. Lions coach Dan Campbell said he’s “hopeful it’s just irritation from yesterday’s game.” This will be a developing situation to watch ahead of Week 17’s finals in most leagues. We’d tentatively expect St. Brown to play based on him finishing last week’s game and the Lions absolutely needing the game to stay alive in the playoff chase, but it is a short week.

Allen was injured late in the second quarter of Sunday’s win over the Browns, but never missed a play on offense. The injury didn’t appear too serious on Sunday, and McDermott’s designation of Allen as day-to-day suggests this is something he will have no trouble playing through. Barring an unexpected setback, we would expect Allen to be under center for Week 17 against the Eagles.

This ends his season. Lane left Saturday’s game with the injury on a punt return, further ruining the back of the Commanders’ emergency quarterback depth chart. The fourth-round rookie cracked 50 receiving yards once, but was usually an ancillary target when one of Deebo Samuel or Terry McLaurin was healthy. Sometimes we can see big leaps out of a player in their sophomore season, but nothing Lane has done so far has led us to believe he’s going to be more than a lower-roster receiver with special teams upside.

Not really breaking any news here to tell you that while Mariota playing is still in play, per Dan Quinn, he’s trending in the direction of not playing based on practice reports and common sense. Josh Johnson would be a rough superflex QB3 if he were to draw the Week 17 assignment.

Minshew received good news regarding his knee injury on Monday, but with just two weeks left in the regular season, it was apparent he would not be able to return in time to avoid the IR designation. The seventh-year signal-caller signed a one-year contract with the Chiefs this offseason but only appeared in two games. One of the better backups the league has to offer, Minshew should have no trouble finding a new home in 2026, given the current state of the quarterback landscape across the league.

Initially questionable, he did not actually come back to the game. We’ll see what gets said this week, but it looks like Kyle Williams absorbed most of his snaps. Williams could be a DFS flyer or low-level FLEX option in Week 17 against the Jets.