NFL Player News

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.

The good news is that Allen worked with the starters in the slot. The bad news is that he worked well into the second half in the first preseason game while leading the team in targets. He’s clearly the highest-upside stash receiver of the group, but playing deep into the first preseason game isn’t a great sign for his chances of early playing time.

Johnson had 12 carries for 59 yards and three catches for 10 yards against the Rams. While we’ve seen a little camp buzz about Johnson, The Athletic’s Jesse Newell presents this as a step forward for Johnson who “has been running with the fourth-string offense most of training camp.” He’s still probably the best back to have rostered in the event of a Kenneth Walker injury, but this isn’t such an important role that the backup necessarily needs to be rostered in standard redraft leagues.

We’d normally skip right past this, but it’s a notable quote given the open competition for the starting quarterback job. It would seem to imply that Watson is in the lead. “It was so cool to watch him play. I get all of the frustration by fans, himself (with the past), but for him to come back and work like he did is an unbelievable credit to him,” Monken said. It sounds like Monken will continue the competition through the second week of the preseason, but there’s already a lean here.

We blurbed about Cooper playing deep into the preseason game on Friday — never a great sign — and this backs that up. Williams, an outstanding return man in his rookie season, enters the deep sleeper conversation at wideout.

Klubnik played two series with the starters in the first preseason game before giving way to Bailey Zappe and Brady Cook, going 5-of-7 for 56 yards. “He has some moxie to him,” Jets coach Aaron Glenn said. “He’s very confident, he’s confident in his arm, confident in his ability to elude and make plays with his feet. His ability to be able to come out and operate with the first group the way he did, I thought, was outstanding.” Given how Jets quarterbacking has gone over the past few years and Geno Smith’s age, Klubnik will likely find himself in a starting lineup at some point this season if he can stay healthy.

It “should be a few more weeks,” for McGovern, whose goal is to be ready for the start of the season. Lloyd Cushenberry would take over at center if McGovern can’t be ready for Week 1 against the Texans.

It doesn’t sound like Conner has a great chance of being available for Week 1, and if he’s not yet able to fully practice it’s certainly on the table for Conner to start the year on injured reserve or the reserve/PUP list. Conner took a paycut this offseason and is due $2.35 million guaranteed in 2026 after suffering a season-ending injury in Week 3 last year.

He tore his MCL against the Raiders on Thursday night in the team’s first preseason game. "(Chase) will be out for a good amount of time, if not the whole year,” Cardinals head coach Mike LaFleur said. “Sucks for him. Always think about the player first. Sucks for the Cardinals too, He’s a good player but more importantly you hate it for the player.” The second-round pick will rehab and get ready for a return in 2027.

It certainly looks like Gordon will hit reserve/PUP or injured reserve before the start of the season while he deals with this long-term calf injury. This makes both the Bears coach and GM telling you they’re frustrated with the situation.

It’s a game that The Athletic’s Dan Duggan says “strengthened his push for the No. 2 receiver job.” His touchdown pass was from Jaxson Dart, but he was one of several receivers getting first-team snaps. It’s hard to believe Fields will be relevant early in 12-team redraft leagues unless Malik Nabers suffers a setback, but he’s squarely on the fantasy radar after a big camp.