NFL Player News

He’ll learn from two of the best guards in football as a rookie. Stallings went to school at Ole Miss.

A shoulder injury knocked Dissly out of the lineup in Week 14 and cost him a pair of games. He returned for a quiet performance, catching two passes for 21 yards. He split the tight end targets with Stone Smartt and Tucker Fisk. No other tight end saw a look in the passing game this week, solidifying Dissly as the team’s primary pass-catching tight end heading into the playoffs. He will be a touchdown-or-bust fantasy option for LA’s Wild Card Round date with Houston.

Taylor’s second spot start of the season went a lot better than his first in Week 16. With his long run going for “just” 29 yards, the first 100-yard outing of Taylor’s career wasn’t about only one big run. He more than doubled his previous personal best of 53 yards rushing from Week 18 2021. Good stuff, but not the sort of thing that is going to be a career-maker for a soon-to-be 27-year-old at this point. “PTJ” is headed back to unrestricted free agency, where the 49ers should be light favorites to re-sign him.

Wentz unfortunately delivered an unforgettably frustrating performance as the Broncos shut out the Chiefs. The Broncos’ elite pass rush dominated from start to finish, pressuring Wentz on a Week 18-high 43.5 percent of dropbacks while tacking 5.0 NFL sacks onto their league-leading 60.0 NFL-sack total. Wentz does not appear capable of leading the Chiefs offense if Patrick Mahomes were to miss time. The Chiefs are on bye next week, having secured the AFC’s No. 1 playoff seed.

Haskins saw most of his work when the Chargers went into clock-killing mode. He ran eight times for 27 yards and a touchdown on LA’s final full drive. He was otherwise uninvolved in the game-plan and J.K. Dobbins saw the bulk of the touches. The good news for Haskins is that Kimani Vidal didn’t touch the ball on offense. If Gus Edwards remains out for the opening round of the playoffs, Haskins appears to have taken over as the team’s No. 2 back.

Fourth-round rookie Cowing doubled his previous season production in a game where the 49ers were missing Deebo Samuel and lost Jauan Jennings to a second quarter ejection. A month shy of his 24th birthday, Cowing doesn’t have the worst draft pedigree, but his age and size (5-foot-9) limit his upside even with the future of the receiver position uncertain in San Francisco via Deebo’s contract status and Brandon Aiyuk’s knee injury.

It was just his fourth catch as a Charger and his first touchdown with the team. Chark has played sparingly in LA even when healthy, but the loss of Josh Palmer put him in a more prominent role this week. Both he and Derius Davis saw some extra reps sans Palmer, who is dealing with a heel injury. If Palmer isn’t ready for the playoffs, Chark will have some single-game DFS appeal versus Houston.

Estime played well as a clock-killer in the second half but his most important play was on the Broncos’ first drive. On first-and-10 from the Chiefs’ 32-yard line, Estime helped set up Marvin Mims Jr.'s first touchdown, pulling off the play-action fake before contributing a road-grading block for Mims en route to the end zone. Estime is earning Sean Payton’s trust by doing the dirty work. He is a shaky RB4/5 against the Bills next week but Estime appears to be ending his rookie season on a high note.

Dobbins dominated the touches until the final full drive when he gave way to backup Hassan Haskins. Dobbins ran twice on this drive while Haskins carried the rock eight times, the last of which put him in the end zone. Before this drive, Dobbins had a 16-4 lead over his backup. Third-stringer Kimani Vidal did not touch the ball. Early lines have the Chargers as favorites over the Texans on the road, teeing Dobbins up for a strong fantasy day to open the playoffs.

Metcalf reeled in his fifth touchdown of the season, and his third of the past four games. After a red hot start to the 2024 campaign — he had more than 100 receiving yards in three of the first four games — Metcalf cooled off considerably while the Seahawks shifted away from a pass-first offense into more of a balanced approach. Second-year WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba took over as the team’s unquestioned No. 1 wideout in October and never looked back. It was a deeply inefficient season for Metcalf. He posted the second lowest yards per route run of his NFL career and scored just one touchdown over a nine-game stretch. Metcalf, 28, is signed through next season. He should be a decent WR2 option in fantasy leagues — with room for upside if he sees some well-earned TD regression.

Charbonnet once again operated as the Seahawks’ No. 1 back with Ken Walker sidelined. He was mostly bottled up by the Rams defense in what was a pass-heavy game plan for the Seahawks. Charbonnet ends the 2024 season with 569 rushing yards and eight rushing scores along with 42 catches on 54 targets and another touchdown. Charbonnet will finish in the top ten in running back catches on the season. He proved explosive as the team’s lead back, though his 4.2 yards per carry was slightly below his rookie year mark. Charbonnet will enter 2025 as the RB2 behind Walker, most likely.