Fantasy Football News

Green Bay Packers running back Chris Brooks has become a little more interesting with Josh Jacobs unavailable to open the season. The Packers are going with a committee for now, leaving Brooks in a three-man backfield with MarShawn Lloyd and Kaleb Johnson. Lloyd has the obvious big-play appeal, but Brooks brings something Green Bay already trusts. He has carved out work on passing downs because of his hands and pass protection, which gives him a chance to stick in the rotation even if he isn't getting many early-down carries. Brooks had only 27 rushes for 106 yards last season, though he also caught 13 passes for 91 yards. There isn't enough here to put him into a Week 1 lineup yet. He is rostered in just 3% of Yahoo leagues and makes the most sense as a stash in 14-team PPR formats. If the committee gives Brooks more passing-game work than expected, there could be something useful here.

Indianapolis Colts running back Seth McGowan is more of a bench swing than somebody fantasy managers should expect to use anytime soon. The seventh-round rookie made the 53-man roster after rushing for 725 yards and 12 touchdowns at Kentucky last season, and the Colts liked the physicality he showed throughout the preseason. There is still somebody in his way before Jonathan Taylor, though. Indianapolis currently lists DJ Giddens second on the depth chart and McGowan third, leaving the rookie without much of a standalone role heading into Week 1. The good news is that the Colts kept only three running backs on the active roster, so an injury could change things quickly. McGowan is rostered in just 1% of Yahoo leagues and sits in the 14-team range on the current waiver list. That's where he belongs for now. Deep benches can take the shot, but managers in standard leagues do not need to force it.

Detroit Lions running back Sione Vaki has a little more life as a deep-league stash with Isiah Pacheco on injured reserve. Dan Campbell said Vaki and Jacob Saylors will split the No. 2 role behind Jahmyr Gibbs against New Orleans, so there is no clean handcuff here. Still, Vaki has earned some trust. Campbell liked the progress he made as both a runner and pass catcher during camp and said he is comfortable using him when Gibbs needs a breather. The problem is we have barely seen Vaki on offense in the NFL. He has seven career carries for 18 yards and three catches for 37 yards, while Saylors is going to get work too. Vaki is rostered in only 1% of Yahoo leagues and sits in the 14-team PPR range on the current waiver list. That makes him more of a cheap bench swing than someone to start in Week 1.

New York Jets running back Isaiah Davis (knee) is taking part in RB drills at practice on Tuesday, according to Al Iannazzone of Newsday Sports. Davis missed the entire preseason because of his knee injury and is expected to open the 2026 campaign as the RB3 in New York behind Breece Hall (groin) and Braelon Allen if he is healthy enough to suit up for the Week 1 regular-season opener on Sunday against the Tennessee Titans. That role will not make Davis very appealing to fantasy managers in any league format to start the new season. The 24-year-old former fifth-round selection in the 2024 NFL Draft out of South Dakota State has averaged a healthy 5.6 yards per carry in his first two NFL seasons, but it has amounted to only 73 carries for 410 yards and two touchdowns on the ground in 33 games (zero starts). Davis has added 30 receptions for 261 yards and another score through the air. Davis needs Hall to miss time with an injury to become a waiver-wire target. We will have a better idea of Davis' Week 1 status once the Jets begin to release their official practice reports on Wednesday.

Pittsburgh Steelers tight end Pat Freiermuth is still easy to find on waiver wires, but Week 1 is not the spot to get cute. He caught 41 passes for 486 yards and four touchdowns on 54 targets last season, and while Jonnu Smith is gone, Pittsburgh added Michael Pittman Jr. to a group that already includes DK Metcalf and Roman Wilson. Freiermuth is still the starting tight end, so there is at least a path to more work than he saw in 2025. The matchup is the problem. Atlanta allowed the third-fewest fantasy points to tight ends last season, and the current Week 1 rankings have Freiermuth at TE25. He is rostered in only 6% of Yahoo leagues and is best viewed as a 14-team option for now. In a 10- or 12-team league, there are better tight ends to chase before Sunday.

Arizona Cardinals running back Tyler Allgeier has picked up some real short-term value heading into Week 1. Arizona's current depth chart lists him first at running back, ahead of rookie Jeremiyah Love, while James Conner will open the season on injured reserve. The ordering alone should not be treated like a permanent changing of the guard. The Cardinals said during the preseason not to make too much of Love being listed behind Allgeier, and Love was the No. 3 overall pick for a reason. The timing matters now, though. Love has not practiced since injuring his ankle on Aug. 13, although he was moving around during Monday's walk-through and head coach Mike LaFleur said he feels good about his chances of playing against the Chargers. Allgeier already has a 1,000-yard season on his r sum and scored a career-high eight rushing touchdowns last year. Even if Love is active Sunday, Allgeier looks much harder to dismiss as an early-season fantasy option.

The Arizona Cardinals have listed rookie first-round running back Jeremiyah Love (ankle) as the RB2 on their unofficial depth chart entering their Week 1 contest on Sunday against the Los Angeles Chargers, according to Bo Brack of PHNX Sports. The No. 3 overall pick in April from Notre Dame has clear three-down potential long-term in the NFL, but after suffering an ankle sprain early in the preseason, the Cardinals are going to ease Love into the regular season as the No. 2 behind Tyler Allgeier, who is in his first year in the desert. Trey Benson (knee) has already been ruled out for the season, and veteran James Conner (foot) will miss at least the first four games of the year due to a foot injury he suffered early in 2025. Love is trending in the right direction to be active this weekend against the Bolts, but he seems likely to cede most of the backfield work to Allgeier in his NFL debut if he is active, making him more of a low-end RB2/high-end RB3/flex choice for starting lineups on Sunday. Fantasy managers might have to be patient with Love early in his rookie season.

With Kansas City Chiefs left tackle Josh Simmons (back) unlikely to play in the Week 1 season opener next Monday night against the division-rival Denver Broncos, rookie Kahlil Benson is likely to start in his place as quarterback Patrick Mahomes' blind-side protector, according to Jesse Newell of The Athletic. Simmons, the team's first-rounder in 2025, has not practiced since Aug. 18. Benson is an undrafted rookie from Indiana who earned his way onto the 53-man roster after impressing the coaching staff during May's rookie minicamp. It is not the ideal situation for Mahomes and a Chiefs offense looking to bounce back in 2026 after missing the postseason last year, especially while going up against a vaunted Broncos defensive line that led the league in sacks a year ago. According to TruMedia, only two undrafted rookies have started the season opener at offensive tackle in their first seasons, with the last being Cleveland's Desmond Harrison in 2018. All 12 of Benson's starts last season at Indiana came at right tackle. Per Pro Football Focus, he didn't have a single snap at left tackle on offense in his four-year college career.

Baltimore Ravens wide receiver Devontez Walker (undisclosed) was the lone Ravens player not practicing on Tuesday due to an undisclosed issue, according to Jeff Zrebiec of The Athletic. Although Walker was not participating with the rest of the team, he was seen running on a side field. It is unclear what Walker is dealing with or if it is serious enough to keep him from suiting up this Sunday in the Week 1 season opener versus the Indianapolis Colts, but we should know more once the Ravens release their first official practice report of the 2026 season on Wednesday. The 25-year-old former fourth-rounder in 2024 from North Carolina is not on the fantasy football radar in most leagues and has just seven catches on 11 targets for 157 yards and four touchdowns in 21 games (three starts) in his first two years in the NFL. Walker will likely need an injury or two in front of him in Baltimore's receiver corps to become a waiver-wire pickup.

The New York Giants' unofficial depth chart has Darnell Mooney as the team's No. 2 wide receiver entering the year behind Malik Nabers (knee), according to ESPN's Jordan Raanan. Rookie Malachi Fields and veteran Odell Beckham Jr. are the backups to Nabers and Mooney after the Giants recently cut Darius Slayton from the 53-man roster. Mooney comes to the Big Apple in 2026 after a down year in his second season with the Atlanta Falcons, in which he caught 32 of 72 targets for 443 yards and only one touchdown in 15 starts. The year before, the 28-year-old former fifth-rounder from Tulane had a resurgent season, catching 64 passes for 992 yards and a career-high five touchdowns in 16 starts. After the season-ending injury to Calvin Austin III (knee) and the release of Slayton, Mooney could be a sneaky deep-league option off the waiver wire to begin the 2026 season. Right now, he is only rostered in 1% of Yahoo leagues. Mooney's best year came in 2021 with the Chicago Bears, when he posted an 81-1,055-4 line in 17 games played in his second year in the NFL.

On the New York Giants' unofficial depth chart going into their Week 1 showdown against the division-rival Dallas Cowboys on Sunday night, Cam Skattebo is listed as the top running back, with Tyrone Tracy Jr., Najee Harris, and Devin Singletary all listed as co-RB2s, according to ESPN's Jordan Raanan. Despite suffering a gruesome ankle dislocation early in his rookie campaign in 2025, Skattebo is fully recovered and ready to serve as New York's primary option in the backfield in Year 2 in new head coach John Harbaugh's offense. While the G-Men have plenty of depth behind him after adding Harris in training camp, it is possible that Skattebo handles 20-plus carries per game if he can remain healthy. The 24-year-old fourth-rounder from Arizona State had 101 carries for 410 yards and five touchdowns while adding 24 catches for 207 yards and another two TDs in eight games played last year before getting hurt. Fantasy managers should treat him as an RB2 in starting fantasy lineups with the regular-season opener quickly approaching.

The Houston Texans have "big plans" for new wide receiver Kayshon Boutte in the immediate future after acquiring him in a trade from the New England Patriots in exchange for safety Jaylen Reed and a 2028 seventh-round draft pick, according to Aaron Wilson of KPRC 2 Sports. The plan for Boutte is for the Texans to "utilize him immediately" in the Week 1 season opener versus the Buffalo Bills on Sunday. There is overlap for Boutte with the offensive scheme since coordinator Nick Caley is a former Patriots assistant whose playbook is similar to what Pats OC Josh McDaniels runs. "Kayshon is learning the playbook very well and we're throwing it all at him," head coach DeMeco Ryans said. "He's a smart guy. He's picked up on what we've asked him to do." Boutte has been working overtime since joining the Texans to build chemistry with quarterback C.J. Stroud. He will essentially be replacing Jayden Higgins (knee) as the WR2 in Houston after Higgins suffered a season-ending torn ACL in the preseason. With much more opportunity to become fantasy relevant than he ever had in New England, Boutte could become one of the more popular wideouts on the waiver wire early in the 2026 season. He is currently rostered in only 21% of Yahoo leagues.

The New York Jets have already acknowledged that they will likely be easing rookie first-round tight end Kenyon Sadiq (hernia) into the offense early on after he missed all of training camp and the preseason this summer following hernia surgery and a setback along the way. However, Sadiq is trending in the right direction to be active for Week 1 against the Tennessee Titans this Sunday, Sept. 13, after participating in positional drills on Tuesday, according to Brian Costello of The New York Post. The extremely athletic tight end from Oregon has tons of long-term upside, but the Jets do not need to rush him back in his first NFL campaign when they have second-year TE Mason Taylor capable of handling the pass-catching duties as Sadiq gets up to speed. Sadiq went undrafted in the majority of 12- and 14-team leagues this summer, but he is not a bad waiver-wire stash if you have room on your bench and want more depth at the position. If Sadiq is active in Week 1 on Sunday, fantasy managers should have him on their benches for his NFL debut.

Baltimore Ravens wide receiver Zay Flowers (lower body) was seen leading positional drills during the media accessible portion of Tuesday's practice, and beat reporter Jamison Hensley points out that he looks to be operating at full strength after missing two weeks of practice with a lower body ailment. Flowers caught a career-high 86 passes for 1,211 yards on his way to a WR7 finish in 2025, and he returns as a focal point of a Ravens offense looking to get more explosive under new offensive coordinator Declan Doyle. Having never topped five touchdowns in a season, it's possible he has yet to approach his true fantasy ceiling, making Flowers a legitimate WR1 candidate for the second year in a row and a potential value as RotoBaller's WR14.

Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes (knee) has led the team from Day 1 of training camp, reportedly looking as sharp as he has in years, and NFL Insider Ian Rapoport reports that he is on track to start Week 1 in a Monday Night divisional matchup with the Broncos. The two-time MVP tore his ACL in Week 15 of the 2025 season, but head coach Andy Reid told reporters on Tuesday that there is a "pretty good chance" he'll be under center to begin his tenth season. Mahomes was the fantasy QB2 at the time of his injury, having run for a career-high 422 yards and five rushing scores to that point, but with him less than nine months removed from knee surgery, there are lingering questions about how he'll be used in 2026, and he enters the season as RotoBaller's QB13.

Chicago Bears wide receiver Rome Odunze (leg) will not practice on Tuesday, and head coach Ben Johnson told reporters he is considered "day-to-day." Johnson clarified that the 2024 first-round pick did not aggravate the foot injury that he dealt with last season but is instead dealing with "something different," and the team remains hopeful he'll be able to suit up for a Week 1 matchup with the Panthers. Odunze led the Bears with 87 targets in 2025 despite missing five games, and following the departure of veteran DJ Moore, there is an expectation of a further consolidation of opportunities between Odunze and second-year pass-catchers Luther Burden III and Colston Loveland. Fantasy managers will now need to monitor Odunze's status when the team releases its first official practice report on Wednesday.

After rushing for 382 yards and three touchdowns on a 4.5-yard-per-carry average a year ago, Cincinnati Bengals running back Samaje Perine appears poised to enter his 10th season as the primary backup to Chase Brown. With little in-game information to go off of, proactive fantasy managers with the luxury of deep benches should be looking to churn through the backs of their rosters, targeting players whose waiver value would see the greatest jump as the result of a Week 1 injury ahead of them, and Perine fits that bill. 2025 sixth-round pick Tahj Brooks, who carried the ball 16 times for only 45 yards as a rookie, is the only other running back on the Bengals' 53-man roster, making Perine a potentially valuable handcuff to roster who can easily be moved on from as more obvious waiver candidates emerge after Week 1.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver Jalen McMillan (knee) is listed as a starting wideout for the team on their unofficial depth chart entering their Week 1 contest this Sunday versus the Cincinnati Bengals, according to Jenna Laine of ESPN. McMillan missed the entire preseason due to a knee injury, but he was back on the practice field on Monday and is trending in the right direction to play in the season opener this weekend in a favorable matchup against Cincy. At least to begin the 2026 campaign, McMillan will be in three-wide sets alongside Chris Godwin Jr. and Emeka Egbuka (toe), with Ted Hurst III checking in as the WR4. While McMillan rested during the summer, Hurst was turning heads and impressing the coaching staff, so McMillan will need to stay healthy and produce to hold off the impressive young pass-catcher. McMillan played in only four games in 2025 due to a serious neck injury he suffered in the preseason, but he caught 37 passes for 461 yards and eight touchdowns in 13 games as a rookie in 2024 after being selected in the third round of the 2024 NFL draft. The 24-year-old is only rostered in 15% of Yahoo leagues and is tough to recommend as a Week 1 starter in deeper leagues after he missed most of camp and the preseason.

Running back Rico Dowdle is listed as the No. 2 RB on the Pittsburgh Steelers' unofficial depth chart ahead of the team's Week 1 season opener against the Atlanta Falcons this Sunday, Sept. 13, according to PGH Steelers Now's Alan Saunders. Fantasy managers should not read too much into this, as Dowdle is fully expected to be head coach Mike McCarthy's preferred option out of the backfield on early downs in 2026, and if he stays healthy, the 28-year-old could have a path to a third straight 1,000-rushing season with his third different team in the last three years. Jaylen Warren is likely listed as the RB1 on the depth chart because he is the incumbent of Pittsburgh's backfield. Dowdle handled a career-high 236 carries for 1,076 yards and a career-high six rushing touchdowns in 17 regular-season games in 2025 with the Carolina Panthers, adding 39 receptions for 297 yards and an additional score through the air. As the Steelers' preferred early-down option, Dowdle will have more fantasy value in standard-scoring leagues as an RB3/flex going into the Week 1 tilt this Sunday against Atlanta.

Pittsburgh Steelers running back Jaylen Warren is listed as the team's RB1 on their unofficial depth chart heading into a Week 1 meeting against the Atlanta Falcons this Sunday, according to Alan Saunders of PGH Steelers Now. Newcomer Rico Dowdle is expected to be the leader on early downs in Pittsburgh's backfield, but Warren is the incumbent at the position. Fantasy managers should take the Steelers' latest depth chart with a grain of salt, as Dowdle should still have a sizeable role in his first year in the Steel City, with a path to a third straight 1,000-rushing season with his third team in the last three years if he can stay healthy. Warren, meanwhile, could be a sneaky low-end RB2/high-end RB3/flex in point-per-reception fantasy leagues as the Steelers' primary receiving back out of the backfield. The 27-year-old former undrafted free agent from Oklahoma State did have a career-high 61 receptions for 370 yards back in 2023 in his second year in the league, and he could be a staple in PPR leagues with quarterback Aaron Rodgers showing a high tendency for dump-offs and checkdowns in this offense. Last year, Warren had 40 receptions on 45 targets for 333 receiving yards and two touchdowns in 16 regular-season games, and that was with Kenny Gainwell catching a whopping 73 passes for 486 yards and three touchdowns as a receiver.