NFL Player News

The Athletic’s Matt Barrows reports the 49ers are planning to sign safety Tracy Walker after he worked out for them on Wednesday. Walker tore his Achilles in 2022, but returned to play 17 games for the Lions in 2023. Starting in six games last season, he defended two passes, forced one fumble, and recorded one sack. Walker totaled 79 games in six seasons with the Lions, starting 43 of them and defending 23 passes with three interceptions. The veteran now lands with the 49ers, who could use the depth with Talanoa Hufanga recovering from last season’s Week 11 ACL tear.

He was videoed 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.

The Saints have continued to dance around the situation by calling Carr “week to week” but this is no minor injury and it would legitimately be surprising if Carr played again in the 2024 season. Nick Underhill reported that Spencer Rattler will get another start this week after coming off the bench and handily outperforming (a low bar) Jake Haener in Week 15.

Reinforcements are coming in Detroit after a rash of defensive injuries. Pittman has just two starts since signing with the Lions as a UDFA in 2019. He had a total of 152 defensive snaps for the Lions from 2019-2023. Now he’ll return as a depth piece and likely special teamer.

Eric Wilson was relied on heavily as Walker left last weekend’s game with the Seahawks with the ankle injury after only 22 snaps. It sure sounds like Wilson will be in there again on Sunday. Walker has been a solid run defender this year though his 48.8 PFF coverage grade creates some dissonance in calling him a true stalwart at linebacker for the Packers.

He stopped short of saying that Brown “would” play. There’s probably not much upside to Brown playing if Carson Wentz is going to be at quarterback, outside of perhaps knocking off some rust. If Brown does play in Week 16, he will likely be brought along slowly and thus be nothing more than a touchdown-or-bust fantasy start for deeper leagues to consider.