The Giants will once again be without their best offensive player for their Week 6 matchup against the Bengals.
Head coach Brian Daboll said in his Friday press conference that Malik Nabers will be out for Sunday.
This will be the second missed game for Nabers after he suffered a concussion during the Week 4 Thursday night loss to the Cowboys. He has not practiced all week.
“We’re making progress,” Daboll said, via SNY. “But, again, that’s never anything you want to rush.”
Nabers has 35 receptions for 386 yards with three touchdowns so far this season after New York selected him at No. 6 overall in the spring.
The rest of the Giants’ injury report — including the status of running back Devin Singletary (groin) — will be released later on Friday.
Though Rashid Shaheed was added to the injury report this week and missed Wednesday’s practice with a hip issue, he’s expecting to play in Sunday’s game against the Buccaneers.
Shaheed was back on the field as a limited participant for Thursday’s session and said that he’ll be “all good” for Week 6.
“Just trying to take care of this hip,” Shaheed said, via Luke Johnson of nola.com. “By the time game time comes around, I’ll be alright,”
“Just playing it smart throughout the week so I’ll be able to play fast on Sunday.”
Shaheed leads the Saints with 338 yards and three receiving touchdowns on 19 catches. His touchdowns have come from 43, 59, and 70 yards this season.
His presence will be important on Sunday as rookie fifth-round pick Spencer Rattler makes his first start for injured quarterback Derek Carr.
In June, after the Associated Press clarified the criteria for Comeback Player of the Year, we pointed out that the clarification might frustrate gamblers.
Apparently, it will.
We used the example of Sam Darnold winning the starting job in Minnesota and playing well. Under the new guidelines, he’s not supposed to be considered.
At most sports books, however, he’s not only on the board. He’s one of the favorites.
“The spirit of the AP Comeback Player of the Year Award is to honor a player who has demonstrated resilience in the face of adversity by overcoming illness, physical injury or other circumstances that led him to miss playing time the previous season,” the AP told voters in June.
Rob Maaddi of the AP, who coordinates the awards process, posted this tweet on Friday morning: “Sam Darnold probably would’ve been a candidate for the Comeback Player of the Year award before the AP issued guidance to voters before the season. . . . If he keeps playing at this level, Darnold could end up with another award: Most Valuable Player.”
We’ve posed a variety of questions to the AP regarding the award. For example, will votes for Darnold be rejected? Will votes for other players be rejected? Will the AP make a list of ineligible players?
The problem with the new standard, as we explained in June, is that the phrase “other circumstances” provides voters with a lot of leeway. Darnold arguably has overcome “other circumstances” that caused him to be on the bench in 2023 with the 49ers. Those circumstances would be the fact that the Jets derailed his career, the same as they derailed the career of Geno Smith (the 2022 Comeback Player of the Year) — and maybe Zach Wilson.
The AP clearly intended to keep players like Darnold from being named Comeback Player of the Year. The sports books didn’t get the memo. Or they’ve ignored it, happily taking money from people who have been betting on players who won’t, and perhaps can’t, win the prize.
Plenty of questions still need to be answered. And anyone who bet on Darnold (or any other potentially ineligible player) should be very interested in what the AP, and the sports books, will have to say.
For now, it’s a mess. And it’s a mess too big for one tweet by Maaddi to fully clean up.
It doesn’t look like running back Rhamondre Stevenson is going to play this weekend, but the Patriots don’t expect to be without him for an extended period of time.
Stevenson has not practiced this week due to a foot injury and his status was one of the topics of conversation at head coach Jerod Mayo’s press conference on Friday. Mayo said the team does not view the injury as a long-term one.
Mayo also said that he has confidence in Antonio Gibson and JaMycal Hasty being able to handle running back duties. He also said that the team will “figure out who we’re going to elevate” from the practice squad, which offered a further hint that Stevenson is not going to be in the lineup against the Texans.
Kevin Harris and Terrell Jennings are the backs on the practice squad in New England.
Already without Jaquan Brisker for Sunday’s game against the Jaguars in London, it’s now likely the Bears won’t have another key member of their secondary.
Chicago has listed defensive back Tyrique Stevenson as doubtful with a calf injury.
Stevenson was added to the injury report on Thursday as a limited participant and he did not practice on Friday.
He has recorded five passes defensed with an interception in five games this year.
Brisker was previously ruled out with a concussion as he did not travel to London with the team.
Defensive lineman Zacch Pickens (groin) and defensive back Terell Smith (hip) have also been ruled out.
Offensive lineman Teven Jenkins (ankle) is questionable after he was limited on Friday. Defensive lineman Jacob Martin (toe) — who is returning from injured reserve — is questionable.
Defensive back Kyler Gordon (heel) has no game status and is set to play.
Ravens kicker Justin Tucker’s shaky start to the season generated conversation about whether one of the best players at his position in league history had lost his mojo, but Tucker and Ravens head coach John Harbaugh expressed confidence that a tweak to Tucker’s technique would iron things out.
Tucker didn’t get a chance to test that out in Week Four because the Ravens never tried a field goal in their win over the Bills and he wasn’t called on for the first 58 minutes of Week Five either, but the opportunity finally came. Tucker was called on to try a 56-yard field goal to tie the Bengals and he knocked it through, although he revealed on Thursday that it wasn’t a technique tweak that led to the make.
It was windy in Cincinnati and Tucker said the moment called for him to go “off pure vibes and just hammer the ball” rather than aim for a particular point between the uprights. It worked and Tucker made another field goal to win the game in overtime, but the kicker isn’t ready to say he feels he’s put his issues to bed once and for all.
“Yes and no. Very realistically, this is a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately business,” Tucker said, via the team’s website. “I’m just as eager and excited for my next opportunity as I ever have been.”
That opportunity could come against the Commanders this Sunday and continued accuracy will make it easier to feel that his slump is officially over.
After five games, the Raiders have made a quarterback switch, with Aidan O’Connell set to start against the Steelers on Sunday over Gardner Minshew.
While Minshew had put some positive plays on film, there were ultimately too many turnovers. Minshew has completed 70.7 percent of his passes so far this season for 1,014 yards with four touchdowns, five interceptions, and one lost fumble.
“I think Gardner did a lot of really good things. He really did,” offensive coordinator Luke Getsy said in his Thursday press conference. “I think the expectations of plays, he completely understood it. I think the grasp of the offense, he got it. His ability to function in and out of the huddle, all that stuff, I don’t think we saw any of that stuff show up at all.
“And then, like I said, I think it just comes down to, we got to make sure we take care of the football. In this game, especially in the NFL level, it’s usually determined by that. And then we just had a couple plays here and there that didn’t give us an opportunity to win. And so, as a whole, we just decided that we’re going to try another thing.”
Minshew and O’Connell competed throughout the offseason and training camp to be Las Vegas’ QB1, with Minshew’s experience ultimately winning out. But as head coach Antonio Pierce did earlier in the week, Getsy praised the way O’Connell handled things after the competition — noting how the young QB continued to make strides in the building and on the field at practice.
“I think the nice part about going through that competition part of it through the offseason, was that we all got to know each other pretty well,” Getsy said. “[I] think the competitiveness that he brings, the leadership that he brings and that he has brought even when he wasn’t the starter — he’s into the game plans, he’s been in all that stuff, so there’s a confidence and there’s a comfort in knowing we’re just going to pick up and roll with this guy. There’s no worry about any of that kind of stuff with Aidan.
“And I think Aidan has a lot of traits that you guys all saw last year, and we’re just going to build off of that and continue to grow. I think as much as anything, he’s a guy who hasn’t played a ton of ball, and he’s going to just keep getting better each and every day. And we’ve seen that over the last five or six weeks, even when he wasn’t the guy.”
O’Connell appeared in 11 games with 10 starts as a rookie last year, completing 62.1 percent of his passes for 2,218 yards with 12 touchdowns and seven interceptions. In two games of mop-up duty this season, he’s completed 19-of-32 throws for 176 yards with a touchdown and a pick.
After the 49ers took a 23-3 lead on the opening drive of the second half of Thursday night’s game against the Seahawks, the road team was set to kick off. With 10:07 left in the third quarter.
The 49ers didn’t kick the ball into or out of the end zone, however. Instead, the ball was put in play. Laviska Shenault, Jr. caught it at the Seattle three. And he went 97 yards for the score.
In the blink of an eye, the game changed. The score, with the extra point, moved to 23-10. The momentum swung, sharply. And the 49ers ultimattely had to sweat longer than they should have.
It’s possible Wright was supposed to put it in the end zone but didn’t hit it hard enough. (On some of his other kicks last night, Wright did put it in the end zone.)
Later in the game, after the 49ers turned a 29-24 lead into 36-24 with 1:17 left, the 49ers put the ball in play again. Dee Williams fielded the ball at the 12. The play ended with Wright making a tackle, and getting himself injured.
It was the second time this week that a San Francisco kicker was injured while making a tackle.
After the victory, coach Kyle Shanahan wasn’t asked whether he considered putting the ball into the end zone on either or both of those kicks. Those decisions, and their outcomes, become important data points for other coaches when deciding what to do about the dynamic kickoff.
Arguably, the 49ers should have banged the ball into the front row, in both of those situations. The first one ignited a comeback that could have become a loss. The second one got a kicker injured, for the second straight game.
Cowboys cornerback Jourdan Lewis has a reputation for getting under the skin of opposing receivers and he added to it in last Sunday’s win over the Steelers.
Steelers receiver George Pickens grabbed Lewis by the facemask and threw him to the ground at the end of the game, which is an emotional response that Lions wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown can understand. St. Brown said on his podcast this summer that Lewis was “talking crazy” during last December’s game between the teams and Lewis recalled that this week by saying “we’re going to see what’s real and what’s not” when the two teams meet again this Sunday.
On Thursday, St. Brown called Lewis a “good player” and said that any chatter is going to serve as motivation for him to come up with a big game.
“Yeah, typically don’t get too involved,” St. Brown said, via Rainer Sabin of the Detroit Free Press. “I might say something back a little, but for the most part, it fires me up, gets me going. So, I love it.”
St. Brown had six catches for 90 yards and a touchdown in last season’s loss to the Cowboys and a repeat of that production — along with a lack of reporting issues for eligible receivers — would be a boost to the Lions’ chances of a win in Week Six.
Bengals wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase said on Thursday that he thought last Sunday’s game against the Ravens “proved we can still play in this league,” but there was one significant issue with the team’s performance against the Ravens.
After putting up 38 points in regulation, the Bengals lost in overtime when they missed a field goal and gave up a long Derrick Henry run to set up Baltimore’s game-winning kick. The Bengals are now 1-4, which is their worst start since 2019, and the losses have come by a combined 15 points, which is part of the reason why hope that the team can still reach its goals still persists in Cincinnati.
Chase knows that there’s no more time to wait to start turning that hope into results.
“It’s gotta start right now,” Chase said at a press conference. “We all woulda thought it would’ve started last game just by we set the tone of coming out. We have to do that this game. This has to be the game we set the standard, right here, and leave it all on the table.”
Chase and the offense were dialed in against the Ravens, but the defense continued to struggle. Chase said the Bengals are used to the defense needing some time to find its groove and expressed confidence it will happen again, but there’s little doubt that Monday’s game against the Giants is a prime moment for the team to show that there’s still a reason to hold out hope for the rest of the season.