NFL Player News

Chase drew shadow coverage from arguably the top coverage corner in the league in Pat Surtain, which confined most of his work to the short-to-intermediate areas of the field to leverage Chase’s elite separation skills in close. That is, until Chase got behind the defense for a 38-yard reception on the team’s third possession of overtime, eventually leading to Tee Higgins’ third touchdown grab of the evening in walk off fashion. The win keeps the Bengals alive in the AFC playoff picture, now needing to beat the Steelers in Week 18 and to have the Chiefs beat the Broncos.

He’ll miss at least the next four games. Rankins has been listed as out with an illness for several weeks, he hasn’t practiced since Week 11. Hopefully whatever Rankins has isn’t as serious as that makes it sound, but his first year with the Bengals was brought to an abrupt halt thanks to the injury. He finishes the regular season with seven starts, one sack, and 10 solo tackles.

At last, our questions have been answered. Canales and the Panthers hope to “finish strong” against the Falcons in Week 18’s contest between two underperforming NFC South teams. Young threw for 203 yards and two scores in last week’s loss to the Buccaneers and has thrown for 771-6-3 while completing 60.3 percent of his passes in his last four games. Young still has a lot to prove as he prepares for the upcoming offseason. A strong finish against the Falcons will go a long way of boosting his confidence heading into 2025.

Waddle has missed the last two weeks since leaving Week 15’s loss against the Texans with a knee injury. He got in two limited sessions in practice last week. We’d probably want to see at least a full session here before trusting he’ll play. With Tyler Huntley looking more likely to be the starting quarterback on Sunday against the Jets, this may not exactly be a smash spot for Waddle.

His 21-day window opens today and he is apparently practicing ahead of Baltimore’s Week 18 game against the Browns. Kolar broke his arm in late November against the Chargers. The third-year tight end will get back into the Baltimore TE rotation with Mark Andrews and Isaiah Likely once activated.

The Commanders can improve their seeding in the NFC playoff race, as a win over the Cowboys would secure the No. 6 seed for them heading into the postseason. The Commanders already secured their spot in the playoffs with Sunday’s win over the Falcons, a higher seed could now ensure what they hope will be a more favorable matchup in the Wild Card round of the NFC playoffs.

Jackson further writes the Browns are “pretty much starting from scratch at quarterback in the spring.” Ian Rapoport linked the Browns to Aaron Rodgers and Kirk Cousins as “competition” in 2025. But perhaps Watson has not even earned the benefit of the doubt to be competition after three lost years in Cleveland and a long-term recovery from his torn Achilles. Complicating matters is that the Browns have a shot at the No. 1 pick and will likely pick No. 2 or No. 3 after their Week 18 game against the Ravens, one in which Baltimore needs to win to clinch the AFC North. Baltimore is favored by 18 points.

Garrett has publicly said that he wants to see what the Browns plan to do at quarterback and what the overall direction of the organization is before signing an extension. “Nobody wants to trade Garrett, but it’s hard to see a path toward a significant turnaround in the next 12 months. For at least the last three seasons, the organization’s overarching strategy has been to spend its way out of problems and then spend more when necessary. It’s all led to this,” writes Jackson. We are a little more optimistic on the idea that Garrett will stay with the Browns than Jackson is, but it wouldn’t be a surprise if he asked for a trade before the league’s new year in March.

He practiced in full for most of last week, but the decision to hold him out reportedly came down to conditioning. It’s almost impossible to understand what a Week 18 Olave looks like without also figuring out the health of Derek Carr and Alvin Kamara, but if Olave played with Spencer Rattler in Week 18 he’d probably not be worth using in fantasy leagues given how weak that offense has looked the last three weeks.

According to Rizzi, Carr was held out of Week 17 after they determined he wasn’t far enough in his recovery to play when they ran simulated game situations. Carr suffered a nasty hand injury in the Saints Week 14 win over the Giants and has been sidelined ever since. While the team continues to treat his situation as one he could play through, there’s little reason for the team to put him on the field given their 5-11 record and the fact Week 18’s game is little more than a formality at this point. If he can’t start, Spencer Rattler would most likely get the nod in the season finale. Rattler threw for 218-1-2 against the Raiders and won’t be on the fantasy radar for anyone still playing out the final week.

He had his helmet and remained on the sideline after leaving Week 17’s game against the Packers. It sure sounds like he’s likely to give it a go against the Lions on Sunday night. Jones has left several games this year with injuries and the team has been judicious about proactively holding him out, but this is the time where they’ll want to get everything they can out of him if he’s healthy.