NFL Player News

The former third-round pick is a talented, yet oft-injured player. He has missed multiple games in each of his first four seasons. Dean was unable to play until Week 7 this year after suffering a torn patellar tendon in the 2024 postseason. He later missed Weeks 17 and 18 with a hamstring injury. Through four regular seasons, Dean has totaled 166 tackles, eight sacks and one interception.

The seven-year veteran was released by the Giants prior to the start of the regular season, now landing on his feet in Indianapolis to presumably fill in for the injured Alec Pierce. Pierce recently re-injured the heel he had offseason surgery on and will miss an undetermined number of games. Slayton brings a similar, field-stretching archetype to a Colts team in desperate need of someone to elongate the middle of the field. It remains most likely that Josh Downs steps into the featured role through the air.

Pierce will most certainly be out for numerous games after appearing to re-injure the heel that he had offseason surgery on in Week 2. Rapoport’s wording seems to indicate that additional surgery has not yet been ruled out, but Pierce will attempt to rehab the issue in the interim. It’s a disaster of a scenario for a team that extended Pierce while allowing Michael Pittman to walk in the offseason. Josh Downs appears most likely to become the focal point of the offense through the air in Pierce’s absence after amassing seven catches on nine targets in the team’s overtime loss to the Chiefs. When, or if, Pierce returns to the active roster in 2026 remains to be seen.

Dart was the victim of a dreaded high-low tackle early in the first quarter and immediately grabbed for his left knee. He was able to gingerly walk to the sideline under his own power, but was in clear and visible pain. Jameis Winston entered the game after a three-and-out from the Rams before Dart walked, again under his own power, to the locker room for additional testing. The team deemed him questionable to return, although it would be truly shocking to see Dart return to the game based on the replay of the play in question. Dart completed 3-of-5 passes for 20 yards prior to departing.

Banks was ruled out earlier in the week, leaving no surprises with the New York inactives for Monday Night Football against the Rams. While losing Banks is a significant loss for the secondary, the Rams will be without both Puka Nacua and Jordan Whittington.

News about a new injury for Nacua didn’t surface until Friday, throwing fantasy managers into a late-week scramble to find a suitable replacement, further convoluted by him entering the weekend as a game-time decision. Those that held out in hopes he would be able to play against the Giants now find themselves with limited options. Nacua reportedly went through an abridged pre-game workout to determine his availability, ultimately failing to prove healthy enough to go. The Rams suddenly find themselves extremely thin at wide receiver with Jordan Whittington also inactive. Tutu Atwell, Konata Mumpfield, and Xavier Smith will fight for snaps behind Davante Adams, while there remains the ever-present possibility the Rams lean into heavy personnel alignments. Joining Nacua and Whittington as inactives are S Kam Kinchens, WR CJ Daniels, QB Ty Simpson, and OL Bill Murray.

The veteran tight end is reportedly healthy enough following ACL surgery to be brought in as a replacement for Dallas Goedert, the latter of whom is expected to miss multiple weeks with a sprained MCL. Ertz spent the first seven seasons of his professional career in Philadelphia before a three-year stint with the Cardinals and two more with the Commanders. The 12-year veteran turns 36 in November and profiles as a low-upside role player for as long as Goedert remains out, should he receive game-day call-ups from the practice squad.

Durant suffered a hamstring strain and Locke suffered a torn plantar fascia in the team’s Week 2 win over the Commanders. Both players are reportedly going to miss multiple weeks, while a stint on injured reserve is not yet being ruled out for either player. In what has become somewhat of a yearly tradition in Dallas, the secondary is suddenly extremely thin on healthy bodies after the team invested significant capital re-tooling the back end this offseason. Expect Markquese Bell and Shavon Revel to enter the starting lineup for the time being.

This comes a day after LaFleur said he did not believe Johnson suffered a serious injury in Sunday’s loss to the Seahawks. The loss of Johnson would be another blow to a secondary that is already short Garrett Williams (Achilles) and also lost Max Melton (toe) in Week 2. Johnson leads all Cardinals DBs with 111 snaps through the first two weeks, and he appeared on 722 snaps last season. We’ll likely get a clearer timeline for Johnson’s absence in the coming days.

Left guard Kayode Awosika (fibula), who has started each of the team’s first two games this season, will also miss some time, per Harbaugh. The Chargers already placed TEs Charlie Kolar (forearm) and David Njoku (fibula) on injured reserve, so it’s safe to assume Tomlinson and Awosika are looking at shorter absences given the team’s decision to leave them on the active roster at this time. Tomlinson has totaled eight tackles and a half sack in the two games he has appeared in, on 65 defensive snaps. Awosika was replaced by former first-round pick Trevor Penning, who will likely step in as the starting left guard until Awosika returns.

We don’t yet know when Kolar could return, but he will have to miss at least the next four games now that he’s on injured reserve. Kolar was seeing a decent workload during the first two weeks of the season, as his 72 snaps led all Chargers tight ends, while his 24 routes run were only one fewer than David Njoku’s 25. With Njoku (fibula) also on injured reserve, Oronde Gadsden could be in line for a significant workload over the next several weeks.