NFL Player News

Murphy (6'3/255) heads to Westwood from North Texas along with his twin-brother Grayson. Gabriel Murphy was a PFF Second-Team All-CUSA performer last season. He logged 52 tackles, 12.0 TFL, seven sacks, two forced fumbles, a fumble recovery, nine quarterback hurries and three pass breakups over 13 starts at the “Devil” position in UNT’s defense. UCLA is thrilled to have the Murphy brothers after losing starter Mitchell Agude to Miami and his backup Myles Jackson to Indiana earlier this offseason in the transfer portal.

This doesn’t come as much of a surprise. Sneed’s quad injury has been plaguing him for Weeks and officially landed him on injured reserve back on November 22nd. Between the injury and the Titans’ 3-11 record, there’s no reason to force Sneed back on the field even if the team did think he was well enough to play. Sneed is in the first year of a four-year contract extension he signed this offseason. He played in just five games in his first year with the Titans, totaling 23 tackles and two TFLs while earning a PFF coverage grade of 36.8 — a career-low. One of the league’s premiere corners will hope for better fortunes in his second year with the team next season.

According to Breer, Bateman will meet with the team on Saturday to decide whether or not he will play in Week 16’s game against the Steelers. We don’t know the specifics of his injury, but we do know that Bateman was spotted around the team facilities on Thursday wearing a boot. Bateman is considered questionable heading into Saturday. While his injury may not be as bad as initially thought, we wouldn’t rule out the possibility of him missing at least one game.

Brown has missed over a month with knee and fibula injuries. Cody Ford will stay at left tackle if Brown doesn’t play through the questionable tag.

Head coach Brian Callahan called Folk a game-time call. The veteran kicker has had a few spike weeks with the Titans but could miss Week 16 with an abdomen injury that is likely an extension of the groin issue he dealt with in previous games. The risk isn’t worth the reward for fantasy purposes. Brayden Narveson would take his place in the lineup if Folk sits.

Head coach Mike McDaniel described the hip issue as standard wear and tear after over three months of football. Offensive coordinator Frank Smith said the same after Thursday’s practice. Despite crashing and burning in Week 15, Tua and the Dolphins still have an outside chance to make the playoffs, though they need to win out and get some extra help. Tua will sit on the QB1/2 border for a must-win game versus the 49ers this week.

Winfield will miss his second-straight game with a knee injury he suffered in Week 14. This news shouldn’t come as much of a surprise after head coach Todd Bowles announced shortly after the injury that Winfield would miss “a couple of games.” Safety Kaevon Merriweather played in place of Winfield in last week’s win over the Chargers and should once again slot in as the starter this week.

Pierce suffered the brain injury in Indy’s Week 15 loss to the Broncos and remains in the league’s concussion protocol. Rookie Adonai Mitchell will take his place in the lineup for three-receiver looks. Mitchell hasn’t caught more than one pass in a game since Week 10. Even in an elevated role, he is buried in the WR6 ranks for Week 16.

It will be Njoku’s first practice since Week 14, though he did have a pregame workout before Week 15’s game to see if he could play. Sadly, Dorian Thompson-Robinson’s elevation to starting quarterback seems likely to cap the upside of the Browns passing game in a way that makes Njoku more of a touchdown-or-bust play at tight end. He should no longer be expected to be a sure-fire TE1 if he is able to play in Week 16 against the Bengals.

Ditto Joe Burrow. Higgins is being “managed” per Taylor, but he doesn’t have any concern about his workload in Week 16. Fire up Higgins in the WR2 as you normally would. Higgins seems likely to get this sort of treatment down the stretch. Higgins is also a potential shutdown candidate if the Bengals are officially eliminated from the playoffs.

Baltimore could have a tough time fielding enough receivers for this game without going to the practice squad as Rashod Bateman is questionable and Diontae Johnson was ruled out on Thursday. Baltimore’s practice squad wideouts are Malik Cunningham, Dayton Wade, Anthony Miller(!), and Keith Kirkwood.