NFL Player News

Pelissero said Ventrone, widely seen as one of the NFL’s best special teams coaches, is not expected to stay on with new Cleveland head coach Todd Monken, who will presumably clean house and bring in his own coaches for 2026. The Rams in 2025 had what was by most measures the worst special teams unit while the Steelers were mostly middle of the pack in special teams metrics. Ventrone’s Browns allowed the seventh most yards per kickoff return and the fifth most yards per punt return in 2025.

Tyler Allgeier is a volume-based RB2 with Love sidelined this week. The Cardinals are smartly giving Love time off to heal his injured ankles. Beck will again serve as the Cardinals’ emergency third quarterback. Wingard (knee) and his direct backup Williams (concussion) are both out, but Budda Baker (groin) and EDGE Zaven Collins (hip) are active.

We’re not quite sure when this injury occurred, but Bateman was dealing with a shoulder injury throughout the week, but he was removed from the final injury report on Friday. Bateman’s day ends without a reception on one target.

Smith was on a pass rush rep, coming off the edge, when he got hit hard under the chin on a chip block by Chuba Hubbard. There was no helmet-to-helmet contact, but Smith went down hard and was immediately evaluated for a concussion. He was later ruled out for the remainder of the game.

The Jaguars did have a tight end touchdown, but unfortunately for fantasy managers it went to Nate Boerkircher on a ridiculous one-handed stab on a pop pass at the goal line. Strange has now gone for 23 targets in three games and appears to be crowding out Brian Thomas Jr. He’s a reasonable low-end TE1, albeit one on bye next week.

That’s three games with three or fewer targets and Thomas Jr. has put up back-to-back bagels in London, apparently distraught over the local cuisine. He absolutely does not have to be rostered in most fantasy leagues through Jacksonville’s Week 7 bye.

In London, where Travis Hunter’s best games live, Hunter both caught a touchdown and picked off C.J. Stroud (his first of the season), becoming the first player to do both in the same game since Brian Dawkins in 2002. Hunter did all this on just nine offensive snaps. The skill is there to do this on offense, but the Jaguars have really been defense-first with his snaps this year. Depending on the post-bye buzz, Hunter could be a reasonable pick-up in fantasy leagues ahead of Week 8’s games.

A lot of these incompletions were balls Washington got a hand on but couldn’t quite reel in as was breaking to the sideline. Washington displayed his speed and shiftiness on a 27-yard catch-and-run in the second quarter where he cut through both Texans linebackers for a big gain. He is a fantasy WR2 as the Jaguars enter their bye week. Washington is #onpace for a near-1,200 yard season with 14 touchdowns even after this dud.

Phillips came into this game questionable with a hamstring injury but was able to suit up. Unfortunately, he got hurt early in the first quarter and is unlikely to return. Considering he had the bye week to heal and is not 100 percent, it seems likely that the EDGE rusher will miss some time with the injury.

It’s his highest target total of the season and the first time Meyers has managed 10 targets since Week 14 of the 2025 season. No touchdown here, but Meyers is a fine real-life third receiver who has mostly been left to the FLEX life in Jacksonville. He enters the bye as someone who can be dropped in shallow leagues in a roster crunch, but also someone solidly in the top 50 wideouts in the league on a good offense.

He failed to catch his only target. Rodriguez was churning out success rate on the regular in the first half. The Jaguars curiously went away from him in the second half, as he played just 21-of-70 snaps and had only one carry after halftime. He’s not a must-hold through the bye week, but this game is the proof-of-concept that he can be an effective weapon for the Jaguars if they want to use him as a between-the-tackles pounder.