“We believe those guys deserve to start, and we’re gonna start them,” was Hafley’s matter-of-fact Wednesday statement. His words come after the ‘Fins officially listed the third-round rookies as starters on Tuesday. His “pitch count” comments pertain to Bell’s summer stint on the NFI list as he completed his recovery from torn ACL suffered last season at Louisville. Starting a pair of Day 2 receivers in Week 1 is far from ideal for anybody, but no less so than trotting out Jalen Tolbert. The Dolphins are fully committed to their rebuild, and rookies like Bell, Douglas and Kevin Coleman are the biggest potential beneficiaries. Bell and Douglas belong on 12-team league watch lists, with Coleman worth a dynasty stash.
He said the same about Tee Higgins, who is dealing with a heel issue. Chase suffered a serious-looking knee injury late in camp, briefly giving Bengals fans and fantasy managers nightmares of him missing extended time. He was ultimately fine and should be good to go for Week 1, even if his participation in practice is limited. Per usual, Chase is in the WR1-overall mix versus the Bengals this week.
Higgins has been dealing with a heel contusion recently, but the issue never seemed serious. He has still been able to practice in a limited capacity over the past week. He may ultimately be limited on the team’s first injury report of the season, but there’s almost no chance Higgins misses Week 1 versus the Bucs. He will be a boom/bust WR2 barring a setback.
Wright was a UDFA this year. He signed with the Eagles, was cut, then joined the Browns. After Cleveland released him, Wright intended to rejoin LSU, becoming the first NFL player to return to college football. The SEC then passed a rule banning NFL players from returning. The NFL followed that up with a memo banning players who return to college football from signing in the NFL once again in the same year. As Schefter notes, Wright never officially signed with LSU, so he may be eligible to stay in the NFL after all. Wright is unfortunately caught in the middle of a legal nightmare brought on by the NCAA. It will likely prevent him from playing football anytime soon.
Rosenhaus gushed about Hill’s recovery and how he looks right now. He also mentioned that multiple teams asked him when Hill would be available to sign. We’ll take these with a few grains of salt, given Rosenhaus’s financial ties to his client. Hill is still working his way back from the catastrophic knee injury he suffered in Week 4 of the 2025 season. Fantasy managers can leave Hill on the waiver wire for now.
Egbuka was seen practicing Wednesday ahead of the Bucs’ season opener against the Bengals and Stroud said there were no signs of injury for the second-year receiver, who has battled a toe injury in recent weeks. Barring any sort of setback, Egbuka should be in all fantasy lineups this week against the Bengals in what could be a high-scoring back-and-forth affair with Joe Burrow and company.
After undergoing surgery on his injured thumb, Smith will miss at least the first four weeks of the regular season. An All-Pro left guard, Smith started all 16 games he appeared in last season and proved to be a critical part of the Dallas offensive line. Fourth-year guard T.J. Bass is expected to start for the Cowboys while Smith recovers.
It’s not that fantasy managers were eager to start Allen this week, but his absence would open up more routes and potential targets for Bhayshul Tuten and Chris Rodriguez, who are listed as co-starters on Jacksonville’s Week 1 depth chart. Both C-Rod and Tuten would be slightly better options if Allen is sidelined this weekend.
Mims gets a starting slot alongside Courtland Sutton and Jaylen Waddle for the Broncos’ season opener against Kansas City. It’s quite the stunner after Pat Bryant — listed as a second-team wideout — drew consistent praise from Denver coaches this offseason both as an intermediate and downfield pass catcher. Mims, who has bene used primarily as a gadget guy, was targeted on 20 percent of his routes last season and ended the year with 322 yards over 15 games. Bryant’s usage will be something to monitor in Week 1.
Dobbins will once again start the season as Denver’s presumed lead back, though he’s unlikely to see much pass-game involvement. That should belong (for now) to RJ Harvey, who’s listed as the team’s RB2. Harvey last year was targeted on a strong 27 percent of his pass routes and ended the season with 47 receptions for 365 yards and six receiving scores. Rookie RB Jonah Coleman will start the year as the Broncos’ RB3. He profiles as a sneaky stash option in 12 and 14-team formats.
Taylor reportedly functioned as the Jets’ top tight end throughout training camp with Kenyon Sadiq (hernia) sidelined. Taylor, whose blocking ability recently drew praise from head coach Aaron Glenn, worked with Geno Smith two or three times a week in the offseason, developing chemistry with the veteran journeyman. Last year Taylor saw a target on 20 percent of his routes and logged a lowly 1.11 yards per route run in the low-octane New York offense. He’ll be a sneaky deep league option in Week 1 against the Titans.
Monken has stressed explosive plays as an important part of the Cleveland offense headed into the 2026 regular season. “Obviously having explosive players helps that,” Monken said. “Being able to scheme it up against certain looks and then being able to execute because your protection has to hold up when you get those opportunities. I’m confident in Deshaun and our ability to push the ball down the field, otherwise we wouldn’t be starting him.” That confidence might be misplaced considering Watson completed just 1-of-6 attempts for 20 yards and an interception on downfield passes in the preseason and was among the league’s worst deep ball passers in 2024, when he threw downfield on a career-low 27 percent of his attempts. Once an elite deep ball thrower, Watson will look to regain form coming off two torn Achilles, entering his age-30 season. Perhaps rookie WR Denzel Boston will be a boon for Watson’s downfield game in 2026.
Collins tore his patellar tendon during the 49ers’ first Australia practice last night. It’s an unfortunate break for the 2025 second-round pick, set to start Week 1 for the 49ers defensive line against the Rams. Collins’ biggest play last season was forcing a goal-line Kyren Williams fumble in Week 5. He will instead need knee surgery and begin a journey back from injury for 2027. The 49ers will reach into their defensive tackle depth and may activate Kevin Givens or Sebastian Valdez from the practice squad for Week 1 in Australia against the Rams.
According to Garafolo, the Steelers made an offer to Porter but it is “not good enough” for a contract extension to be imminent. This seems to be the first offer Pittsburgh has made to the 26-year-old, so there are at least negotiations happening. With both Devon Witherspoon and Christian Gonzalez getting top-of-market deals done, all eyes are on Porter as last among the big cornerback extensions to get done. Garafolo adds the Steelers will not negotiate into the season past Week 1, so both sides have a few days to get a deal done before talks are tabled until the end of the season.
Kittle continues to work his way back from an Achilles tear in January and is seemingly on track to play Week 1. He practiced on Monday and gets in a limited practice again on Tuesday. Offensive coordinator Klay Kubiak was confident in Kittle’s availability this week, saying the 32-year-old looked good while the team practices in Australia. The entire 49ers offense practiced in some capacity Tuesday. Kittle’s chances of playing are trending upward; he’s a low-end TE1 if he plays against the Rams this week.
Garrett was a non-participant in practice Tuesday, but it looks to be a load management day with other Rams players listed as DNP due to rest and head coach Sean McVay saying Tuesday he expects Garrett to play Week 1. Though the team will be without Aaron Donald for opening day, the Rams are still expecting to have Garrett good to go against the 49ers.
Henderson did not practice at any point this week and should be considered questionable heading into Week 2’s games. Rhamondre Stevenson will get the bulk of the load against Seattle and should factor into the RB2 equation despite a tough matchup on paper. The Patriots also ruled out Ben Brown (knee), who did not travel with the team to Seattle.
He practiced in full on both Monday and Tuesday and seems set to go for the Wednesday opener. We’ll keep an eye on Barmore’s practice status going forward but the 27-year-old is definitely a candidate to get vet days this season.
The Buccaneers apparently reached out to Mayfield’s agent over the weekend; deadline do drive action after all. Mayfield is now under contract through his age-34 season. It’s not exactly a curious move for the Buccaneers — they didn’t have much of an avenue to find another quarterback given where they usually pick and rookie UDFA Jalon Daniels is their current backup. It is still a little surprising they let it twist in the wind as long as it did. Mayfield likely will be near the $50 million average annual value club once all the figures come in. (Some of this will be folded into the already-existing one-year contract.) He’ll be a reasonable superflex QB2 with a shot to rebound now that last year’s injuries are behind him.
He’s still “working himself into football shape,” per Rapoport and Adam Schefter. We think the Rams D/ST will manage with merely Myles Garrett and Trent McDuffie as major additions heading into Week 1’s showdown with the 49ers in Australia.
Heavily load-managed in the offseason, Garrett will enter his age-31 season fresh and ready to try to top last year’s 23-sack season in a new defense. We won’t be surprised if Garrett continues to be listed on the injury report going forward, but if he’s going to play through this there’s probably no need to be concerned about the report unless new concerns arise.
One of Seattle’s other projected starters on defense, Ty Okada, was ruled out with a hamstring injury. It would certainly be a boon to Rhamondre Stevenson’s value if Emmanwori can’t go on Wednesday. Emmanwori had surgery on his ankle in July and opened camp on the PUP list. He’s generally been regarded as more doubtful-than-questionable, but there’s a chance he’s able to go based on this listing.
Even if Horton does play, he’s unlikely to be more than the fourth receiver behind Rashid Shaheed, Cooper Kupp and all-world Jaxon Smith-Njigba. The second-year receiver looked great early in 2025 but has dealt with a ton of injuries ever since, leading the Seahawks to their midseason trade for Shaheed last year.
Fagnano completed 56-of-75 passes for 509 yards and three touchdowns in preseason action while taking just one sack. Last year’s major UDFA winner among the quarterbacks was Max Brosmer, so don’t go thinking Fagnano needs to be on your dynasty bench or anything, but him making the 53-man roster was interesting and this adds a little flavor as to why that was.
The 24-year-old former seventh-round pick — the other Jaylon Jones that plays cornerback — started 29 games in three years for the Colts. He’ll look for a fresh start after ending last year on injured reserve.