Banks was ruled out earlier in the week, leaving no surprises with the New York inactives for Monday Night Football against the Rams. While losing Banks is a significant loss for the secondary, the Rams will be without both Puka Nacua and Jordan Whittington.
Goedert avoided a serious injury, but the veteran tight end will still be sidelined for a few weeks. It’s a blow to an Eagles passing game that has struggled coming out of the gate, as Goedert has already tallied five receptions for 81 yards and two touchdowns in the first six quarters of football he has played this season. Veteran TE Johnny Mundt should be the favorite to replace Goedert going forward; he stepped in to play 49 snaps against the Titans. Mundt has 76 career receptions in 116 games and shouldn’t be viewed as an option to replace Goedert in fantasy leagues.
Njoku was unable to put any weight on his right leg and was carted from the field in Sunday’s loss to the Raiders. Njoku has caught six passes for 67 scoreless yards for the Chargers in his first two games with the team and led all tight ends on the roster with 25 routes run. He’ll have to miss at least the next four games now that he’s landed on IR, but we should have a better sense of his return timeline in the coming days.
We don’t yet know when Kolar could return, but he will have to miss at least the next four games now that he’s on injured reserve. Kolar was seeing a decent workload during the first two weeks of the season, as his 72 snaps led all Chargers tight ends, while his 24 routes run were only one fewer than David Njoku’s 25. With Njoku (fibula) also on injured reserve, Oronde Gadsden could be in line for a significant workload over the next several weeks.
Left guard Kayode Awosika (fibula), who has started each of the team’s first two games this season, will also miss some time, per Harbaugh. The Chargers already placed TEs Charlie Kolar (forearm) and David Njoku (fibula) on injured reserve, so it’s safe to assume Tomlinson and Awosika are looking at shorter absences given the team’s decision to leave them on the active roster at this time. Tomlinson has totaled eight tackles and a half sack in the two games he has appeared in, on 65 defensive snaps. Awosika was replaced by former first-round pick Trevor Penning, who will likely step in as the starting left guard until Awosika returns.
While he doesn’t expect Williams to practice this week, Johnson did not rule out the possibility of him playing next Monday night against the Eagles. Williams received positive news on the hamstring injury he suffered in Week 2’s loss to the Vikings, but the Bears’ QB1 is still at risk of missing at least one game after Johnson called him “week-to-week” earlier on Monday. It wouldn’t be surprising if Johnson delayed naming a starting QB as long as he can to give himself a “competitive advantage” heading into Week 3. Fantasy managers rostering Williams will want a contingency plan in place heading into the week and should consider sitting Williams if Johnson doesn’t commit to starting him before Sunday’s games kick off.
Jennings was targeted just once in Week 1. It could be argued that we’re not sure what his target count would look like in a normal Vikings game given how quickly Kyler Murray got hurt, but there’s never been a normal Vikings game anyway. Jennings is best monitored from the waiver wire.
He also said he will “be talking about options at running back.” The subtext here is that Jones can’t handle 23-carry workloads in his age-32 season. DeeJay Dallas and Demond Claiborne are their backups on the roster with Jordan Mason on injured reserve. Dallas was just signed earlier this month. Claiborne is “not yet ready to carry the load” per ESPN’s Kevin Seifert. We expect reporting to reveal the second main member of this committee at some point this week, and there’s a chance that said player is in the flex conversation against the Buccaneers in Week 3.
Penix will make his first start since Week 11 of last season, when he suffered a torn ACL against the Panthers. If he plays well enough, Penix will have a chance to secure the starting job for the remainder of the season, but he will have Tua Tagovailoa looming in the background once he is fully recovered from his oblique injury. Penix has struggled early in his career, throwing for 2,757-12-6 in 14 career games while completing just 59.6 percent of his passes. It seems unlikely that he will hold onto the job for the remaining 15 games of the season, but he’ll get the first legitimate crack at it after the Falcons were forced to start Cooper Rush for the first two weeks of the season. Penix shouldn’t be viewed as anything more than a low-end QB2 for fantasy purposes on Thursday night against the Packers.
X-rays came back negative last night but Pierce couldn’t put weight on it last night and left on crutches with a boot on. The fact that it was an aggravation is not promising. It sounds like Pierce could be looking at an extended absence. If true, Josh Downs will get some WR3 hype ahead of Week 3’s date against the Texans. If you were wondering why Laquon Treadwell was on the field deep in the game on Sunday night, Pierce’s injury is the reason.
So it sounds like this wasn’t just a ding and in fact has a chance to keep him out for the week. He left Week 2’s game in a walking boot after catching 2-of-3 targets for 19 yards. Jalen Tolbert could replace Douglas on the active roster in Week 3 for those of you in 75-team leagues.
So it’s just like every other week, then, folks. Evans left Week 2’s game against the 49ers but reportedly could have returned if it were close. Evans, 33, likely will miss practice time this week. It doesn’t sound like there’s a major reason to believe he’ll miss Week 3 with the injury based on how this has gone, but we’ll keep updating his practice status.
We’re not likely to hear much on the long-term status of Daniels this week — maybe something breaks by Thursday or Friday — but it is very clear he won’t be starting again in the short-term. Gathering a variety of medical opinions rather than relying on the team doctor is, more often than not, a predecessor to some sort of surgery. It would be hasty to say that’s where this is headed, but it wouldn’t be surprising if it wound up that way given how bad the injury looked on the field.
Head coach Dan Quinn confirmed Pelissero’s report shortly after it was announced. The 0-2 Commanders will host the Seahawks for their home opener with Mariota under center in what has become an all-too-familiar sight for Commanders fans. With Jayden Daniels (elbow) out for the foreseeable future, Mariota will likely make multiple starts in the coming weeks. The former No. 2 overall pick threw for 1,695 yards, 10 touchdowns, and seven interceptions in 11 games last season while leading the team to a 2-6 record in his eight starts. Mariota has proven to be a viable option in 2QB/Superflex leagues, but he should be avoided in this week’s tough matchup against the Seahawks.
Quinn didn’t disclose any specifics about Cross’ injury, but he did share that Cross was discharged from the hospital on Monday and is making his way back to the team. We’ll see if Cross is able to get on the practice field this week, but the Commanders could be looking at yet another key player being sidelined for Week 3’s game against a Seahawks team that is off to a 2-0 start.
Schefter clarifies this as a back injury after it was initially updated by the Packers as a neck injury. Neither of those designations are promising signs for him. Reed’s absence, should it continue into this week, would strengthen fantasy floors for Christian Watson, Matthew Golden, and Tucker Kraft. The Packers used a platoon of players to replace Reed, lead by Skyy Moore.
McCarthy said Pittman is making good progress in his recovery, but noted that this is not the same injury he sustained during training camp. Pittman did not practice leading up to last week’s game against the Patriots and will likely need to log a few limited sessions to have a chance to suit up this week. Germie Bernard ended up seeing eight targets in Pittman’s absence against the Pats, but Aaron Rodgers’ dink-and-dunk style of play makes any receiver in this offense hard to trust for fantasy purposes.
Bowers returned to the practice field last Friday and logged a limited session. The star tight end will likely have a chance to log multiple practices this week and should have a realistic shot at suiting up against the Saints. Kubiak said on Sunday that Bowers was “very close” to dressing on game day, and a Week 3 return has always felt like the unofficial deadline if his recovery goes well. Bowers’ status will be one to monitor throughout the week, but it sounds like he is trending in the right direction at the start of this week.
He’s out indefinitely and this will be a major blow for the Saints offense. There’s a chance he returns at some point later this season. He almost undoubtedly will end up on injured reserve in the next few days. Banks had a 73.5 PFF grade last year as one of the brighter rookie tackles of the class of 2025. Asim Richards would seem like the likely short-term replacement.
The 2-0 Vikings will hopefully get their first full look at Murray, who exited in Week 1 after just 11 snaps. Murray will face a Buccaneers defense that ranks 24th in points allowed through the first two weeks and has allowed the 11th-most passing yards and the 10th-highest net yards per pass attempt. Murray has a nice supporting cast to work with and brings plenty of rushing upside, but fantasy managers shouldn’t view him as anything more than a mid-QB2 until we see how he functions in his first full game or two with the team.
FOX Sports’ Megan Olivi reported on Sunday that the Seahawks “are aiming” to have Darnold play in Week 3 against the Commanders. It goes without saying that Darnold will need to get a few days of practice in if he hopes to suit up, making this a big week for the Seahawks’ QB1 as he looks to get back on the field. Darnold’s injury wasn’t as severe as the team initially feared when he exited in Week 1 against the Patriots, but with a game against the 0-2 Commanders on the horizon, it’s possible the team doesn’t look to rush him back to the field if he’s not close to 100 percent. His practice status will be worth monitoring throughout the week, but if he’s held out, Drew Lock will make at least one more start in what should be a plus matchup for fantasy managers.
That explains all the Ted Hurst from yesterday’s game. McMillan played just seven snaps and saw no targets. He enters Week 3 as a hard-to-trust FLEX even if he is healthy.
Stefanski said the team will “work through what that means for this week.” Time will tell whether or not that means Tagovailoa has a chance to play in Week 3 against the Packers on Thursday night, as the Falcons have a number of ways they can go at QB this week after another disastrous outing by Cooper Rush. Tagovailoa did not log a practice last week, but Michael Penix (knee) was a full participant. It would be fair to assume that Penix is closer to returning than Tua, but we’ll see where things stand when the team releases its estimated injury report later today.
He pointed to the ailment being a “technical term for somewhere up in your shoulder, but it’s intact.” It doesn’t sound like we should expect Price to miss major time, but it wouldn’t be surprising if he were limited or missed some practice days this week in the wake of an injury. Emanuel Wilson will be the backup plan and a worthy waiver claim after his 22-carry performance against the Cardinals last week.