NFL Player News

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.

Schefter noted that it also feels like there will be changes within the organization. He named GM Chris Ballard as a potential candidate before mentioning assistant GM Ed Dodds as a potential replacement. Steichen has failed to make much of the oft-injured Anthony Richardson, leading many to believe the team will move on from him after two losing seasons. That doesn’t appear to be the case. It’s possible the Colts go in a different direction at quarterback next year, giving Steichen a shot to show his worth sans Richardson. Either way, he is definitively on the hot seat heading into 2025.

Texas has made the College Football Playoff each of the last two years after hiring Sarkisian away from his job as Alabama offensive coordinator. Sarkisian has NFL OC experience as well, as he coached the Falcons in 2017 and 2018 after Kyle Shanahan was hired away by the 49ers. Sark’s offense has been up-and-down this year at times at Texas, but he’s lost a ton of NFL talent and Quinn Ewers has not exactly delivered him exemplary quarterback play. He’d be an interesting hire for a team looking to help build an offensive culture.

Gonzalez and Henry are both dealing with injuries and will miss the season’s final game. The Bills will be resting many of their top offensive playmakers, so the loss of Gonzalez shouldn’t be a huge issue on Sunday. One name not listed here is Joe Milton, who is active on Sunday and could see additional reps if the team wants to limit Drake Maye’s potential injury risk. A loss for the Patriots would secure them the top pick in the NFL draft, so there’s some thought that seeing what Milton looks like in game action could be of interest to them this weekend.

Schefter noted a shift in the organization over the past 30 or so days. Despite Mayo being Bill Belichick’s hand-picked successor and recently having buy-in from owner Robert Kraft, the Pats’ late-season collapse has turned the tides against Mayo. New England’s last win came in Week 10 against Chicago. Now the only thing they have to play for is the No. 1 overall pick, which they are currently in line to secure this weekend. With Drake Maye looking as good as promised and the first pick potentially in hand, starting over with a new head coach makes sense for the Pats as they look to find their footing in their post-Belichick, post-Brady era.

The Raiders’ lack of a viable starting quarterback, per Schefter, is not considered Pierce’s fault. Pierce, meanwhile, is confident he will return in 2025 for another season at the helm in Vegas. Pierce’s Raiders in 2024 have been solid on defense, allowing the eighth fewest yards and ranking 20th in yards per play allowed entering Week 18. They have been awful on offense, with only the Browns sporting a lower EPA per play than Vegas through Week 17. Schefter’s report suggested Pierce could get one more shot to turn things around in 2025.

Henry was questionable all week with a foot injury but his absence is a bit of a surprise. Henry will finish the year with 66 catches for 674 yards, both career-highs. He had just two touchdowns on the season, but was the Patriots leading receiver. He has two more years on his contract, but his base salary jumps up to $6.5 million next year, which could make for an interesting discussion in the offseason. Without Henry in the lineup today, there will be extra opportunities for seventh-rounder Jaheim Bell and Jack Westover to make an impression for 2025.

It is a low-impact inactives list for the Cowboys in Week 18. Dallas has been eliminated from playoff contention and will look to impact the Commanders’ playoff seeding with a win this week. Grier will serve as the emergency third quarterback, having just been signed to the active roster this past week.

26-year-old Homer went from competing for Bears’ passing-down work to missing the final three games of the season with a hamstring issue. Not the best way for a special teamer to head back to free agency, especially since Chicago is once again experiencing turnover with its brain trust.

The Giants are at “full strength” entering their season-finale against the Eagles and will face a plethora of Philly’s backups. Rookie Malik Nabers is sitting on 104 receptions for the season and is hoping to finish the year with the rookie receptions record that is currently held by Raiders tight end Brock Bowers (108), who will play later in the day. Outside of that, there is little for this team to play for in Week 18.

He looks likely to get a big workload with Tyjae Spears (concussion) out and has touchdown and yardage-based incentives that could lead the Titans to feed him the ball. Inactive for the Titans are S Amani Hooker, Spears, K Nick Folk, WR Jha’Quan Jackson, OLB Arden Key, RT Jaelyn Duncan, and WR Tyler Boyd. All of those players asides from Jackson was ruled out by injury on Friday.