NFL Player News

The Niners have had success with small-school tackle-to-guard conversions, specifically LG Mike Iupati. Silatolu would fit San Francisco’s mentality on the offensive line as a brute mauler with deceptively impressive athleticism. He would likely compete for the starting job at right guard, replacing Adam Snyder.

Higbee is not a recommended waiver target with Cooper Kupp and Puka Nacua producing and commanding heavy target volumes, but it’s certainly not out of the realm of possibility that he can come back and be a low-end TE1 for the remainder of the season. He tore his ACL in January and spent almost the entire allotment of his 21-day window practicing with the team before being activated.

He said that it was a place he’d be excited about staying, telling reporters “I don’t know what the future holds but I definitely got a home in Houston, and I love those guys over there. They’re good people.” Diggs’ market is uncertain after the 31-year-old tore his ACL in Week 8. It’s possible he comes back to Houston on a short-term contract, but he might be a better fit in a different offense in 2025, one where he’s not quite so obviously the WR2 to Nico Collins.

With no playoffs on tap for the Panthers, it ends the rookie’s season. The 72nd overall pick in the draft had started to come on lately as a pass rusher, notching four straight PFF grades above 66 in the category before leaving Week 15’s game with the injury. The coverage linebacker will probably be in Carolina’s plans in the middle for 2025.

It’s a new listing. Fields did take a fairly decent hit against the Eagles in his one snap, one carry performance. Kyle Allen is the Steelers third quarterback should Fields miss Week 16’s game against the Ravens.

He was recorded working off to the side and doing some stutter-step drills, so perhaps there’s a chance that he’ll be able to turn this around ahead of Saturday’s game against the Ravens. Pickens has missed two games since suffering a hamstring strain in practice. Pittsburgh has thrown for 147 total yards and 107 total yards in two games without him.

The Steelers often give Watt a veteran day off at the start of the week, so it’s hard to read too much into this as far as it relates to his odds of suiting up on Saturday. A DNP on Wednesday would be much more telling for Watt’s status against the Ravens in Week 16.

Fowler doesn’t out-and-out say it will be Mason Rudolph, but uh, who else would it be? Zach Mettenberger? Rudolph will take over for Will Levis and lower the ceiling of the Titans passing attack while also bringing its floor up from rock bottom. Rudolph did force-feed Calvin Ridley in his tenure as starter earlier this year, giving the No. 1 wideout 32 targets in three starts. It would stand to reason that Ridley could be a fantasy beneficiary of the move.

The question is simply how big of a role there is behind Gibbs. Reynolds took 14 carries to Gibbs’ 26 in Week 8 of 2023 against the Raiders, and three carries to Gibbs’ 11 in Week 7 of 2023 against the Ravens. That was with a rookie Gibbs, though, and it’s possible the Lions are more interested in entrusting Gibbs with a large majority of the workload today. Ultimately we expect Reynolds and Vaki to command no more than a Cam Akers-ish closeout role with a snap here or there. It may not be enough for fantasy value in Week 16.

O’Connell didn’t practice all week and the team was still so desperate to get him active that they took him to the field for a pre-game workout on Monday. One week of exposure to in-game Desmond Ridder probably made Pierce pretty optimistic about O’Connell returning as soon as possible. We’d wait for positive practice reports before we started making O’Connell plans for superflex leagues, but it’s clear the Raiders want him back as soon as possible to finish out the season.

That makes twice in three days we have had to blurb a Jones saying that Micah Parsons was categorically unavailable. To which we say: Sure, Jan. The Cowboys by all means should hold on to Parsons, he’s a key piece of them pivoting back to a playoff team next offseason. But Jones has seem aghast with sticker shock on the prices that some of his best players have commanded as free agents, and Parsons may command the richest defensive contract of all-time heading into the fifth-year option of his rookie deal. He also may be coveted enough around the league to fetch more than just a single first-round pick. Since returning from a high-ankle sprain on November 10th, Parsons has 7.5 sacks in six games.