NFL Player News

Van Lanen, a fifth-year NFL veteran, is having a career year in his fourth season with the Jaguars. The versatile blocker has played all over the offensive line this season, taking snaps at left tackle (300), left guard (72), right guard (46) and right tackle (133). His 75.9 PFF pass-blocking grade and 78.9 PFF run-blocking grade both lead the team. The deal includes $32.5 million in guarantees and keeps Van Lanen in Jacksonville through his age-30 season.

Conner has been on injured reserve all season while continuing to work his way back from the brutal foot/ankle injury he suffered last season. If he does return, Conner will join a fairly crowded backfield and would be nearly impossible to trust in fantasy as long as Jeremiyah Love and Tyler Allgeier are both healthy.

This news comes from head coach Mike LaFleur, who spoke with the media on Monday. After missing the last two games with a nagging ankle issue, Love’s return to the field in any capacity suggests he could have a chance to suit up in Week 8 against the Cowboys. Love’s ankle injury slowed his production through the first five weeks of the season, with the rookie saying at one point that he would “probably just hinder the team” if he had to play through it. Love’s status will be one to watch throughout the week, but even if he’s active, he’ll likely be forced to split touches with either Tyler Allgeier or Bam Knight, who has been solid in Love’s absence.

Golden has been dealing with the shoulder injury since last week, but the foot injury is a new one. While this is only an estimated injury report, the DNP is still mildly concerning for Golden, with the Packers playing on a short week. His status will be one to monitor in the coming days, but hopefully this is a minor issue. Golden played the entirety of the game in Week 7’s loss to the Lions and didn’t appear to be hampered by any nagging issues. We’ll see if he get upgraded to a limited participant on Tuesday.

Young was listed with the same knee injury last Friday but remained a full participant and was good to go in Week 7. Whatever issue he’s dealing with appears minor, especially if the team is still listing him as a full participant. At this point, there’s no reason to think he won’t be active for Week 8’s game against the Packers on Thursday night.

The Panthers won’t have their first official practice until Tuesday, but Coker would have been limited on Monday had the team been on the field. Coker caught one pass for nine yards in Week 7’s loss to the Buccaneers. His struggles came on a day when the entire Panthers offense was stymied for much of the day, so hopefully he’ll be in line to bounce back against the Packers on Thursday if he is active.

In a corresponding move, the Browns waived TE Carsen Ryan to make room for Gabriel, now the fourth quarterback on the team’s 53-man roster. Gabriel is buried on the depth chart behind Deshaun Watson and Shedeur Sanders, and would need a lot to break right for him to have a chance to play this season.

His 21-day practice window will open this week. Bech could, in theory, start eating into Jalen Nailor and Tre Tucker’s snap counts. The Raiders are probably pretty happy with how Tucker has played, though, and Nailor is more of a fit as an outside receiver than Bech is. The 2025 second-rounder is worth monitoring but not exactly someone you should be stashing ahead of his return.

Dickerson winds up activated after just two weeks of his 21-day window. The Eagles will insert him back into the starting lineup and hope the early struggles (37.6 PFF grade in 55 snaps) were mostly due to the injury.

Stowers probably won’t have a fantasy-relevant role right away this week, but with Dallas Goedert an impending free agent and the Eagles struggling, it wouldn’t be stunning if Goedert were traded away to open up snaps at tight end. Stowers has yet to hit redraft league relevance but it could eventually come. The Eagles also activated Grant Calcaterra (back) from injured reserve.

Rather than let any speculation linger, Kubiak was quick to shut down any idea of a switch at quarterback heading into Week 8’s game against the Jets. Kubiak said, “There is no controversy” at quarterback at this time, while also adding that “Fernando [Mendoza] is going to play football” at some point this season. Kubiak said the team does not have a timeline for when Mendoza could eventually make a start, and said Cousins continues to play well despite the team’s recent struggles. Cousins will be firmly on the streaming radar this week against a Jets team that just allowed 28 points to the Dolphins.