NFL Player News

Shea has been dealing with an injured back. Gordon, the team’s primary kick returner, is also hurting. Krause was impressive in the preseason.

Hockenson suffered hip and leg injuries in practice Saturday, missing time until Wednesday. There was a moderate amount of concern given the tight end has an ACL tear on his record, but he returned to practice without further worry. With Jordan Addison facing a three-game suspension, Hockenson is in line to be the No. 2 Vikings pass-catcher heading into the season.

Waller came out of retirement to join the Dolphins earlier this offseason and is nearing his return to the field. McDaniel said joint practices are making the 32-year-old’s return tricky, but he should be a week away from practicing. Waller is currently on the PUP list and will compete for the Dolphins’ starting tight end spot after the team dealt Jonnu Smith this offseason.

Horn was involved in a car crash prior to practice Wednesday. Panthers head coach Dave Canales said he will need stitches on his left hand and will miss Friday’s preseason game against the Browns. Horn isn’t in line to miss any regular season time as of now.

Laine compares Egbuka favorably to Jalen McMillan, saying that McMillan took much more time to get acclimated and noting that Egbuka has stepped into Chris Godwin’s role as Tampa’s big slot receiver “nicely.” Still available well outside of the top 40 wideouts by most ADP counters, Egbuka should be rising as we get closer to the start of the season with the news that Godwin could miss time. He’s got a real chance to displace McMillan when the Bucs are at full health in their receiving corps as well.

Newton goes on to note that McMillan has “shown flashes of greatness that [Bryce] Young didn’t have available at receiver a year ago.” McMillan is going off the board outside of the top-30 wideouts in most ADP rankings, but has a chance to be a strong WR2 if he can truly become Carolina’s go-to receiver. Nothing we’ve seen so far would dissuade us from the idea that he can do that.

Thornton has been running with the first-team offense at times in training camp and Rashee Rice’s expected suspension could push Thornton into a bigger role early in the season. This is how new Justin Watsons are made, folks. The 24-year-old Thornton was the 50th overall pick in the draft four years ago and signed with the Chiefs after the Patriots released him in November.

Godwin hasn’t participated in practice yet, and him missing time early would be a big boost for Emeka Egbuka’s prospects to become a key player in the offense early. This is not a certain report, but this is certainly the way that the wind has been blowing of late. Godwin’s fantasy stock deserves a slight hit at this point, but when he comes back we aren’t expecting dire changes to the Tampa Bay passing attack.

“Everything’s not just one-sided. Za’Darius has expectations, the team has expectations. Sometimes it takes a while for those things to get on the same page, especially a guy that’s been in the league as long as he has. You know, I’m sure that — I’m not saying that he doesn’t want to be in training camp, but if he misses some time (it’s not the worst thing),” Holmes added. It sounds like Smith will probably sign closer to September, and that the Lions likely remain one of the main contenders for his services.

Sean Payton does this — intentionally putting his rookies low on the opening depth chart — every year, so don’t be too Mad Online about it. We still expect Harvey to serve as a co-RB1 with J.K. Dobbins in Week 1 based on practice reports from training camp. We expect to see a big dose of Harvey in the preseason.

Brown hasn’t practiced since suffering an ankle injury in late July. Reid added that “it doesn’t look like he’s going to have surgery, but we got to let it heal up and go.” Brown should be regarded as unlikely to participate in the preseason until we have a more optimistic update, but it doesn’t sound like his availability for the season is questionable yet.