“It was like a walk in the park, it was like a sprained ankle,” Dobbins said of his recovery from a torn Achilles. “It was very easy, because I had the knee [injury] — the knee was pretty hard. The Achilles was, I would say, easy, just because that’s my mentality. It was pretty easy to me. I’ve had these injuries.” Excuse us for the skepticism. Dobbins, 25, will be nearly a year removed from his Achilles tear when the regular season starts, but running backs often take longer than a calendar year to get back to prior form after such a serious injury. Dobbins will compete for lead back duties with former Ravens teammate Gus Edwards and sixth round pick Kimani Vidal. There’s a chance Dobbins — who signed a one-year deal with LA this offseason — doesn’t make the final roster.

Jerry Jones’ favorite player reunites with the Cowboys after playing for the Patriots in 2023, functioning as New England’s lead back for the final month of the regular season. While Elliott’s yards per carry hit a career low (3.5) in 2023, his yards after contact per rush (2.54) remained respectable and in line with his career mark of 2.85. He’ll enter his ninth NFL season with a chance to lead the Dallas backfield, unless Rico Dowdle impresses coaches this summer after outplaying Tony Pollard last season. Elliott’s primary usage could come in the passing game.

The Vikings front office, in other words, did everything it could to move up and land Drake Maye. Instead, the stayed at pick 11 and took J.J. McCarthy. Minnesota’s aggressive offer undercuts the team’s insistence that McCarthy — who draft stock spiked in April — was their guy all along. “There were different points throughout the process where there were [offers],” said Elliott Wolf, New England’s director of scouting who has operated as the team’s de facto GM. “All along, we knew we were in a unique opportunity to get a quarterback that we liked.” The Patriots felt comfortable taking the somewhat unpolished Maye after offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt met with Maye and discussed the “outside zone scheme” he plans to run in New England. Maye’s questionable footwork, according to Fowler’s report, did not concern the Patriots.

The Jaguars, after signing Gabe Davis this offseason and drafting LSU WR Brian Thomas, part ways with Jones after two seasons. Jones was a central part of the team’s passing offense over those two years, catching 116 passes for 1,144 yards and seven touchdowns. Look for Jones — who had domestic battery charges against him dropped in March — to land with another wideout-needy team in the coming weeks. The Lions, for one, profile as a good fit.

Gallup made his rounds during the legal tampering period but ultimately went without a contract through the NFL Draft. That is, until the Raiders signed him to a one-year “prove it” deal Monday. Considering the Raiders are thin at the position behind Davante Adams and Jakobi Meyers, Gallup could push for starter’s snaps out of 11-personnel to start the season, assuming he can beat out Tre Tucker and Kristian Wilkerson. The one-year contract is worth up to $3 million.

With Kirk Cousins now in town, Pitts is looking at what may be his best season as a pro. After totaling 68-1,026-1 in his rookie season, Pitts has managed just 81 catches for 1,013 yards and five touchdowns over his last two years combined. While the production numbers are low, Pitts has fallen victim to poor target quality from the likes of Marcus Mariota, Desmond Ridder, and Taylor Heinicke over that span. That target quality is expected to improve with Cousins now in town, which could be setting Pitts him for a high-end TE1 campaign in 2024. Now under contract through the 2025 season, Pitts will earn just over $10.8 million in that final year of his deal.

With this extension, Kelce becomes the league’s highest-paid tight end and is now under contract through the 2027 season. This all but ensures that Kelce will retire as a Chief when he decides to hang it up, as he is now set to hit free agency after his age-37 season. Kelce took a slight step back in 2023, averaging 65.6 yards per game — his fewest since 2015, while also averaging a career-low 10.6 YPR. Despite this, he remained one of the league’s most productive tight ends, finishing the year with a line of 93-984-5 while being named to his ninth-straight Pro Bowl. The tight end position is one of the most demanding in the sport, but that hasn’t stopped some of the best in the game from playing at a high level into the twilight of their careers. Kelce has had a relatively clean bill of health over his first 11 years in the league and has a chance to be the latest to ride gracefully into the sunset over the final few years of his career.

Head coach Sean Payton and the Denver front office “fell in love” with Nix in the pre-draft evaluation process, Graziano said, and Nix’s ample college experience and processing abilities make him the odds-on favorite to start Week 1 for the Broncos. The No. 12 overall pick in the draft could be useful for fantasy purposes since he has some rushing ability and has proven to be a highly efficient passer. Look for Nix to throw plenty of screens and short-area passes in Payton’s offense, the same as he did at Oregon.

NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero and Ian Rapoport were first on the report, stating that the Cowboys and Elliott have agreed to terms on a deal pending a physical. The two sides parted ways last offseason as part of a cap-saving move that cleared $11 million for the Cowboys last offseason. Zeke would eventually land in New England, where he served as a lightly-used backup before turning into a PPR merchant Week 14 after Rhamondre Stevenson was sidelined with a high-ankle injury. Over the final five weeks of the season, Zeke rushed for 72-213-1, while adding another 27-159-2 through the air. He averaged a mere 3.5 YPC on the season, and at almost 29 years old, continues to look like a player who has hit the proverbial wall. Opportunities will be easy to come by in a Dallas backfield that currently features Rico Dowdle, Deuce Vaughn, and Royce Freeman, but Zeke shouldn’t be viewed as a permanent solution to this backfield’s problems. With that said, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Jerry Jones and Mike McCarthy stubbornly deploy him in a lead role early on.

The son of NFL Hall of Famer Jerry Rice, Brenden Rice (6’2/208) brings elite bloodlines to whatever team drafts him. After spending two years at Colorado, Rice transferred to USC ahead of the 2022 season and immediately set career highs in receptions (39), yards (611), and touchdowns (4). He would expand on that production in 2023 (45-791-12) but has been relatively average as far as efficiency is concerned. Rice brought a 60 percent contested catch rate into his final season but caught only three of his 12 contested targets in 2023. He’s a physical receiver who possesses good size, but Rice doesn’t profile as anything more than an adequate backup at this time.