NFL Player News

The fourth-to-last pick of the draft, Johnson made 53 starts in the SEC, but is limited athletically despite exceptional strength (32 reps on the bench press). He’ll have to show versatility along the interior line to have any shot at earning a roster spot.

It was Westbrook-Ikhine’s second game in a row without a score, a fact that would not be all that noteworthy for most players. Westbrook-Ikhine, however, scored nine touchdowns despite being mostly uninvolved on offense for the first four weeks. Tennessee’s No. 2 wideout enters free agency for his age-28 season with a 32/497/9 seasonal receiving line. A Titans lifer who has been on the team since — we swear we’re not making this up — the days of Corey Davis, Westbrook-Ikhine may draw some interest in free agency despite the outlier feel of his season by virtue of his established big-play ability. It doesn’t hurt that he’s also still a good special teamer.

Lance got the call for his first start in 28 months after spending the season as the Cowboys’ No. 3 quarterback. He got off to a fast start, tossing a floater to Jalen Tolbert for 31 yards as his first completion. However, the Cowboys offense floundered the rest of the game, failing to finish many drives in an ultimate loss. Lance played four games in 2024, ending his fourth NFL season as a reserve quarterback with 266 passing yards, one interception, and no touchdowns. The Cowboys have decisions to make with their backup quarterback spot as both Lance and Cooper Rush are set to hit free agency. We have only seen one start from Lance in over two years, making it difficult for him to have any sort of fantasy relevancy moving forward.

Gibson ends his first season in New England with 538 rushing yards on 120 carries while adding 206 receiving yards on 23 receptions (29 targets). It was a bit disappointing that Gibson finished the season with 12 fewer targets in the passing game than Rhamondre Stevenson despite that seemingly being a weakness in Stevenson’s game. Gibson did average 4.48 yards per carry in his limited duties and has enough wiggle to make defenders miss in the open field; however, he’s now been on two mediocre football teams and has been unable to carve out a consistently fantasy-relevant role, which makes it hard to view him as anything more than a potential injury replacement for Stevenson in deeper fantasy formats.

The 2023 Comeback Player of the Year signed a one-year deal to play a similar role in Indy as he did with the Browns. Just like in Cleveland, Flacco was called upon when the starter, this time Anthony Richardson, went down with an injury. Flacco threw for 716 yards and seven scores with just one interception in his first two starts plus a mid-game takeover. The Colts went back to Richardson once healthy, but it didn’t last long. Flacco was reinstalled as the starter after just two more Richardson games. The gunslinger’s second stint under center didn’t go nearly as well. His propensity for turnovers was on full display as he coughed up four interceptions and lost two fumbles across two starts. Back to Richardson. In a final twist of fate, Richardson’s back tightened up on him late in the season and he missed the final two games. Flacco snuck in another three turnovers while scoring three times. There is no debate that Flacco still has the arm to play professional football. The bigger issue is his inability to keep the ball out of the defense’s hands. If the soon-to-be 40-year-old wants to keep playing football, there will be plenty of backup openings for him to do so in 2025.

He added two rushes for minus-3 yards. Ridley caught a 39-yard sideline bomb from the Tennessee 1 to dig the Titans out of negative field position and meet his contract incentive for 1,000 yards. The highly-paid 30-year-old wideout finished with a 64/1017/4 receiving line, one more yard than he had with the Jaguars in 2023. Ridley will almost certainly be back with the Titans in 2025 as his contract calls for a $28 million cap figure that is onerous to escape. It will be hard to see him as more than a volume WR3 if the Titans retain Brian Callahan this offseason given the state of the current class of college quarterbacks, but perhaps the Titans can find a way to unleash Ridley. Certainly there’s no way anyone would ever have typed “find a way to unleash Ridley” before, that’s absolutely the first time.

Playing in his first game since Week 13, the Eagles got Goedert involved early. Two of his four receptions came on the Eagles’ first drive, which ended on a touchdown pass to rookie Ainias Smith. Goedert looked good in his return, which was a limited one, as the Eagles opted to sideline him after just 13 snaps. Clearly healthy and ready to go, the Eagles will have Goedert and all of their top pass-catchers available in the NFC Wild Card round against the Packers.

Stevenson will end the season with 207 rushes for 801 yards and seven touchdowns, adding 33 catches on 41 targets for 168 yards and another touchdown through the air. The 26-year-old also lost six fumbles on the season which forced him into a timeshare with Antonio Gibson at times during the year. However, despite Gibson being the assumed “receiving back,” Stevenson had almost double the targets in the passing game which seems to confirm that New England doesn’t view him as just an early-down rusher. The 26-year-old could be in for a better season next year with Drake Maye under center from the start; however, the Patriots will need to make significant upgrades to their offensive line and their receiving game before we feel confident enough in Stevenson’s team context to elevate him from a matchup-dependent FLEX option.

Brissett will finish the season completing 95-of-161 passes for 826 yards on a 59 percent completion rate with two touchdowns and one interception while appearing in eight games. Brissett also took 18 sacks in the eight games he played. The 32-year-old lacks mobility at this stage in his career and didn’t seem capable of pushing the ball down the field much this season; however, he turned the ball over just twice in eight games, which is what New England wanted from him. Brissett’s intelligence makes him a game-manager type quarterback that coaches tend to love as a backup and that could help him find another job now that his contract with New England has expired. Yet, he lacks any fantasy upside, even if he were to land with a team where there was some potential for playing time.

Young cooked in this one, facing very little pressure and hitting pass catchers in stride throughout. It was only the fourth time this season Young has thrown multiple touchdowns, as Carolina coaches continue putting more trust in the second-year QB. Young connected with David Moore, Miles Sanders, and Tommy Tremble for his passing scores, and found pay dirt twice on red zone scrambles — an part of his game that has emerged over the past month. Young will end his second season with 15 touchdown passes over 11 starts, adding six scores on the ground. Young’s final five starts of the season were likely enough for the Panthers to commit to him as their 2025 starter. That was not at all guaranteed as recently as October, when head coach Dave Canales had no choice but to bench Young for Andy Dalton after a miserable start to the year. Young over the past month has shown he can be, at worst, a game manager with usable mobility.